Men and Monsters: Syndication.

by Perfectly Insane

Rating: mature
Tags: Narcotics, Main 6, Applejack, Gore, Dark, Alternate Universe, Starlight Glimmer, Thriller, Equestria Girls, Sex, Suicide / Self Harm, Profanity, Discord, Violence, Pinkie Pie, Death
Length: 119651

The Equestrian world is a lot of things: joyful, peaceful, a near utopia. What is its counterpart, the human world? Evil, full of pain. And when one of the main six is pulled into this chaos, can she and the others handle the true nature of home?

For the longest three months of their lives, Sunset and the others thought Pinkie was dead. But, on the first day of school, she comes back a muddy reflection of herself. Something happened to her over the summer, something terrible. Now, everything is different. Pinkamena has become distant and secretive, will things be able to go back to how they were? Or maybe, in their adventure to help their friend, they'll learn Pinkamena isn't the only thing there's something wrong with.

Now with a sequel, enjoy! https://www.fimfiction.net/story/473195/men-and-monsters-the-silent-killer
Note: I have a really cool editor who puts up with my writing, check her out. She also does reviews.https://www.fimfiction.net/user/278463/Buttonous

Published 2017-11-22 00:20:06 UTC
Last updated 2020-07-15 03:41:43 UTC

Chapter One: The Beginning Of The End.

Author's Note

Hello all! I deeply apologize that this took so long, but with Christmas stuff and school, I didn't have that much time. But don't worry! Now that it's all over, I can get back to writing like I usually do! I know my first real chapter on stories tend to be longer, but I figured I made you guys wait long enough. And, since I have the first chapter out on this one, that means I can start updating my other stories now! Well, I thank you for being so patient! I hope this chapter was worth the wait, enjoy!

Chapter One: The Beginning Of The End.

Pinkamena looked at Discord almost eagerly: a cocky smile on her face. Normally, Discord would remain unfazed by any sort of stare, he's seen almost every kind. But this one, something was different about it, that look in her eyes, the way she smiled, it was something new, something he didn't understand, it made him...uncomfortable.

"So, how does it feel? You know, having all those memories in your head, blending together with your own? I've read multiple documents on it, but never really got to talk to one."

He asked calmly, his hands still behind his back, pulling the tranquilizer out of his pocket slowly. He wasn't sure if she was mentally stable or not, or physically stable, for that matter. It would be better to have her unconscious while he checks her, she obviously has no problem resorting to violence.

As Discord looked at her, he noticed Blake was slowly starting to stand up, nodding at Discord, he wanted him to keep her distracted.

"It's...an experience, I don't think it's really taken effect just yet. When I woke up, I could hear this faint whispering in the back of my head, but now it's quiet. And I don't think I have access to their memories just yet, it's hard to explain. I'm pretty sure they're either getting used to their new home or giving me time to adjust to everything. Who knows? Oh wait, you would. Care to give me a rundown, Doc?"

She asked giddily, similar to a child. It made him further unsettled. It's obvious her personality has been affected, parts of her still remained, but there were these little signs that she was somewhat changed. She seemed more...erratic, frivolous, like how she was before the woods. Though he can only assume how she was, he never met her, just read reports from the people who kept tabs on her.

"Well, let me think..."

Discord successfully pulled the syringe out, holding it in his hands for when Blake subdues her.

"Now, you have to remember, only three people have ever had memories injected into them, not counting you. While there is a certain pattern, it can still vary. Nothing could apply to you, one of the main reasons it wasn't used for every leader is because its unpredictable. And its habit of anyone it's used on committing suicide."

Blake was on his feet now, moving closer to her every second, not making any noises or sudden movements. Discord was trying his hardest not to look at him and give away his location, Pinkamena seemed none the wiser.

"Yeah, I sort of figured there were dangerous side effects, can't imagine it not having any. But, luckily, right now, I'm not feeling them just yet. And, not sure why, but that emotional turmoil I was feeling before, it's not really there right now. I don't feel conflicted about anything, everything feels fine, I feel like I could even relax. But, without my emotions to distract me, everything feels more clear. My senses seem sharper, I can focus on things better, my mind just feels so...open."

For a brief moment, she closed her eyes and deeply inhaled, as if to take in her surroundings. Blake took this opportunity to leap at her, trying to force her on the ground while Discord sedates her. But, she was expecting this. In the blink of an eye, she turned around and grabbed his right arm with her left hand, using her right to grab him by the neck. Before he had to time to comprehend what just happened, she picked him up and chokeslammed him into the ground, causing him to grunt loudly. As soon as he hit the ground, she let go of his neck, putting that hand on his arm. In a moment, she broke his arm, the sound of the bone snapping filled the room. Simultaneously, she slammed her right foot down onto his chest, fracturing a few ribs. Blake yelled loudly, but bit his tongue to stop himself, he didn't want to give her that satisfaction.

Discord didn't move, he simply watched what happened before him with a surprised look on his face.

"You know Blake, I was actually going to leave you be. But now that I know you're not afraid to attack me, I can't allow you near me anymore. And don't say I didn't warn you, I was even saying how sharp my senses were. I could hear your heartbeat getting faster as you got closer, your footsteps weren't that quiet either. But most importantly, I could smell your fear!"

She said sadistically, that smile on her face as she inched closer to him, squeezing his now broken arm, causing him to grunt loudly again.

"And Discord,"

Pinkamena said to him, though she didn't turn her face away from Blake. Discord flinched, her sultry voice, that look on her face, the lack of hesitation as she hurt him, for just a moment, he felt fear.

"Put that needle back in your pocket, you're not going to be able to get close enough to me to use it. And even if you did, by the time it took effect, I would've ripped out your throat."

Her voice sounded so casual and calm, it was almost unnerving. Discord, not wanting to take any risk, complied. He moved his hand in front of him, making sure she could see it and dropped the needle back in his pocket.

"Good, now, Blake, I'm going to-"

Before Pinkamena could finish her sentence, Melvin, one of the best doctors they had, burst through the door. His breathing was frantic, sweat ran down from the sides of his face, his eye wide open in a panicked state.

"Discord! We have problem, there's a riot and-"

Melvin stopped, looking at the scene before him. Pinkamena, the comatose girl who was presumed never to wake up, had Blake, The Syndicate's best torturer, on the ground with his arm in her hand and her foot on his chest. While Discord, arguably the smartest guy The Syndicate's ever had, lost his composure and was standing there in disbelief.

"W-What's happening?!"

He barely managed to stutter out, not sure what to make of the situation before him. Pinkamena turned to him, a look of curiosity on her face. She let go of Blake's arm and took her foot off his chest, leaving him to be, for now. Discord did not say anything, he didn't know what kind of mood she was in, or who she was mad at, it would be better just to avoid annoying her for now.

"Riot? What's this about a riot?"

She asked him, moving slightly closer. He backed up, looking like he was about to bolt out of the door. But in the blink of an eye, she was in front of him, not allowing him out of her sight.

"I'm not sure if I can-"

"Tell her Melvin, she's our new leader, I would suggest treating her like one."

Discord said commandingly, not looking at him as he said it. Melvin glanced at him for a second, not sure whether to believe that or not. But as he turned back to the girl in front of him, he noticed that smile on her face, and that look in her eyes. He didn't know whether she could be a leader or not, but she was certainly a predator, and he was the prey. Melvin gulped.

"Well, ever since The Silent Killer started killing our men, there has been this tension. Everyone was looking to Igneous for the solution, he had always dealt with similar problems before. But then, he suddenly died, and this only made things worse. With no one to deal with The Silent Killer or to lead us, panic spread. Nobody was given answers as to what would happen to the one who killed him, or who the new leader was going to be. Three days passed, and they couldn't take the silence anymore. People began demanding answers, but nobody would give it to them. Now, a good portion of them are on strike in the meeting hall, refusing to do anything until they are shown their new leader."

Melvin explained quickly, not leaving out any details. At least, none he knew of. The smile on Pinkamena's face was gone, a look of almost blankness replacing it. Silence filled the room, Discord and Melvin didn't want to say anything, Blake was busy scrounging up anything he can to bandage up his arm.

"Hmm, seemed things have gotten quite chaotic without a leader. Well, I'm here now, might as well deal with it. Melvin, is it only happening in the meeting hall? Or is there anywhere else it's happening?"

She asked casually, seeming to have a plan in mind on how to deal with this.

"It's just the meeting hall, it started only five minutes ago. But if left alone, it will spread."

He seemed to be getting more panicked every minute, too many unexpected things were happening in such a short span of time.

"Good, this should be easy then. Melvin, you and a few others try to corral them and keep it contained, they'll be less likely to hit doctors or anything. Avoid hurting them if possible, I want this done with as little casualties as possible."

She ordered, looking at him as she said so. Melvin didn't move, he wasn't sure how to react. She was giving him orders, but she's been the supposed leader for a whole ten minutes, most likely less.

"Well? Why are you still here? Go!"

She shouted, causing him to flinch. He frantically opened the door and ran out, doing as she said. If she really was going to be the new leader, he couldn't afford to piss her off.

"Discord,"

Pinkamena said, glancing at him as she said so. Discord also flinched, he wasn't sure how he felt about her adjusting to leader already, giving out orders after just waking up. Then again, that adjustability was part of the reason the memories were inserted.

"You're going with me to deal with this since you were so close to Igneous, they'll trust you. And I want you to tell me everything about The Silent Killer, I'd like an explanation why someones been killing us and they're still alive. And any other significant events that have happened, and don't hold back anything, you really can't afford to piss me off."

Discord didn't respond, that's what he expected she'd want. Her way of talking, it sort of reminded him of Igneous. But at the same time, it was vastly different. This was going to be something he'd need to get used to.

"And Blake,"

Pinkamena moved her head slightly to the right, towards Blake, who was leaning against a table wrapping up his arm. He looked up at her, flinching as he finished, his arm was now in a sling.

"Come with us, I want you to be there. And afterward, I intend to send you away. Now come on, I want to get this started."

Pinkamena walked out the door before Blake or Discord could respond, Blake had a panicked look on his face, while Discord was slowly regaining his composure.

"Send me away!? She can't actually do that, can she?"

Blake asked Discord, this wasn't something he's ever heard of a leader doing before.

"In a way, yes. She can't just kick you out of The Syndicate, not without a really good reason. But she can fire you as the torturer and replace you with someone else, which wouldn't be hard to do. After that, there are many options of what she could do: Send you to a different district, even a different city. Make you constantly busy, she could make it to where you would never be near her if she really wanted."

Blake seemed to get even more panicked at that, Disbelief was there too. Then, anger.

"That cocky little cunt! Does she really think she can just do that to me? I'd like to see her smile when she's on the ground and I-"

"Blake, shut up. I don't know if she can hear you, but you might still have a chance. She seems to be in a semi-good mood, so if you play along, don't fuck up, and try to be helpful, she might change her mind."

Discord's calmness seemed to calm down Blake, at least, he wasn't angry. But before he could say anything else, the door opened again.

"Well? What are you waiting for? Let's go!"

Pinkamena demanded, she had things to do, and she didn't like waiting. Discord and Blake, begrudgingly, obliged and followed her out the doorway.

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The meeting hall was very similar to a prison cafeteria, while at the same time, similar to a highschool's gym. It was large, probably larger than the gladiator ring Pinkamena fought in. It was very similar to that, actually. The walls were a bright red, the same as the roof and the floor. There were four entrances, which doubled as exits. One in the front, left, right, and back. Steel blue double doors were at each of these, each one leading to somewhere different.

There were dozens of large, gray, rectangular tables, blue seats attached to them. These same tables were spread throughout the entire room, enough to hold hundreds of people. Other than the tables, the room was quite empty. Except for the south side of the room, there was something else there.

Since this was a meeting hall, there had to be some sort of stage that the leader could speak from. Intercoms were spread out The Syndicate to make announcements and such, but there wasn't one in here. There was something similar to a stage in the room, though it was more reinforced. It was smaller than the stage for a concert but bigger than one for a theater. It was dark black and made of granite, the front and sides had wood on them. There were no curtains or anything, it was completely open. It was tall, taller than the average person. If anyone tried to climb up it from the front, they'd most likely get kicked down by anyone on it.

There were two stairs on the sides for anyone to get on, one of the entrances were beside the one to the left. There were metal rails on the stairs, both for balance, and to prevent anyone from being attacked on it. There was no microphone or speakers of any kind, they weren't necessary. With the room enclosed the way it was, voices are usually amplified and everyone in the room can hear them, and everyone in the room was quiet.

"What do you mean wait a little longer? We've been waiting long enough, we demand answers now!"

At least, usually is. But with the riot happening, the room was filled with noise. There was a large group of people in the middle of the room, with a couple of doctors and other people who didn't join the riot who were trying to contain it. The tables had been used as a makeshift barricade, most on their sides around the crowd.

Somehow, it hasn't been violent, just aggressive. Pinkamena, Blake, and Discord came into the room from the back entrance, remaining unnoticed by the crowd. On the way there, Pinkamena changed her clothes, since what she was wearing didn't exactly intimidate anyone. She was wearing a white t-shirt with a leather jacket, her necklace still around her neck. She was also wearing black jeans and black sneakers, this was a lot better. But it might not stay, she might wear something else normally, she wasn't sure. They were now on the stage, Pinkamena looking at it in amusement, Discord somewhat disgusted, and Blake curious to see how this will play out.

"Wow, sure is a lot of them. But, it's not all. How many are there Discord?"

She asked him, not looking away from the chaos in front of her, enjoying it.

"Melvin texted me on the way here, he said it was somewhere around seventy, that's all they could manage to get here. There are probably a few stragglers, but none of any real significance."

Disord's hands were behind his back as he talked, his composure returned, he was still adjusting, but he was no longer afraid.

"If you want my advice, I'd suggest yo-"

"No, actually, I don't."

She interrupted him coldly, not caring for his input. Her gaze was still locked onto the crowd, but it was obvious something else was going through her mind.

"Blake, you talk to these people on a day to day basis, you'd understand them more than most. What do you suggest?"

Her voice was no longer cold but demanding. Blake looked at her surprised, he wasn't expecting her to give him another chance. Blake moved forward standing beside her, looking down at the crowd.

"Hmm, they don't want to overthrow the system or anything noble like that. They want answers, they want the person who killed Igneous to be punished, and they want a new leader. They don't know it was you, so the best thing you can do is say it was someone else and that they were killed. You need to assert your position, they need to know you're the leader and that you're in charge now. Be careful how you do this, your first impression will decide how they treat you."

Blake said surprisingly calm, which was something out of character for him. He convinced himself it was because he was trying to keep on her good side, but some part of him knew, it was because he was afraid of her.

"Thanks for the advice, now step back, I don't want the others to think your on the same level as me."

Blake did as she said and didn't say anything, despite his anger wanting him to. He stood beside Discord, who had a strange look on his face.

"How do you intend to get their attention? Doubt with all the shouting they'd hear you, I could get a microphone if you'd like."

Discord asked her, prepared to do whatever she said right now.

"No, I've got a better idea."

A smile stretched across her face, revealing her large, sharp teeth. Her eyes still blue, but with a tint of red. In an instant, a loud roar filled the room. It was unlike any roar anyone in the room had heard, besides Discord and Blake. It sounded like a demonic lion, but at the same time, like a creature, they've never heard, almost like the roar of a dinosaur. The room fell quiet, no more shouting from the crowd, nothing but the roar. Soon, the roar ended, Pinkamena's eyes going back to blue and her teeth back to normal, though that sadistic smile was still on her face.

Everyone in the room looked at her, some out of fear, others out of surprise, no one knew what to say.

"Good, now I have your attention. You all wanted answers? Your new leader? Well, I'm right here!"

Pinkamena declared, her arms spread out in a confident gesture.

"Now, before I begin, who is the leader of this little retaliation?"

She looked out into the crowd, waiting for someone to step forward. And like she expected, someone did.

"I am!"

Someone shouted from the crowd, stepping forward past the others. He was wearing a white T-shirt with jeans, his blonde hair hung down to the sides of his face, which had no facial hair to be seen. Green eyes looked at her confidently, he was slightly taller than her and had slightly bigger than normal arms. His black boots clacked as he walked forward, not afraid of what might happen.

"Cocky little guy, aren't ya? That's good, cowards don't make good leaders. Come on forward, let's settle this in front of everybody before answering any questions."

She said casually as she jumped off the stage, landing feet first with a thump. She looks at him as she lands, waiting for him to come forward. He does, standing directly in front of her, looking into her eyes with a smirk on his face.

"How would you like to settle this then? Take one of my fingernails? Maybe break my jaw? Doubt you even could, a little girl like you would barely be able to bruise me!"

He practically laughed in her face, confident that whoever this girl was, she wouldn't do anything brash. But, she didn't even lose her cool. In fact, her smile seemed to widen.

"Oh no! Nothing so barbaric! I simply want to ask a few questions, see if we can have this settled with no one hurting each other! But, I'll be asking the questions first, just to make sure you don't do anything stupid. Is that okay with you? Or does this little girl have to kick your ass until you listen?"

She said jokingly, her tone making it hard to tell if she was serious. His smile faltered, something about her set him off. He wasn't afraid of her, per se, more like something just...bothered him. But, he ignored it, how could this girl be a threat at all?

"Yeah, sure, as long as you tell me who you-"

"Why did you think this was a good idea?"

Pinkamena interrupted him, her tone taking a change to cold and threating one. Her smile was still there, but her eyes were narrowed as she looked at him.

"W-what do you mean?"

He was taken aback, her tone and face changed drastically, it wasn't something he was expecting.

"There's a someone out there who can kill us and remain uncaught, Igneous is dead, you didn't know who was going to be your new leader, and you decide to panic and cause a riot? Seems pretty stupid to me, so please, enlighten me."

She crossed her arms as she waited for him to respond, enjoying the look on his face.

"W-well, I just figured with everything going on, they needed some kind of release, you know?"

"Then go to a bar, get drunk, get laid, get into bar fights, there are other ways of release then a riot. Is that really the reason you're going with? Or,"

She moved closer to him, putting her hand on his chest as she moved closer to his face, a lustful look on her face.

"Were you just trying to impress us with your leadership skills?"

He was now sweating, not sure how to react. First, she looked like she was going to kill him on the spot, now it looks like she's trying to seduce him! He found himself unable to move back, fear and uncertainty making it hard.

"I-i'd be lying if I said I didn't want some recognition. I mean, do you know how hard it is to convince all these guys to get together and resist a system they're so used to? It takes a lot of leadership skills, and I think I deserve some praise!"

He said, trying to regain some of his confidence.

"I'd agree! It can't be easy to get all these guys to follow you, must have had some impressive charisma, or maybe it was your handsome face? You deserve more than just praise, I think you deserve a reward."

She leaned closer to him, their lips now inches apart. But before they could connect, there was a squishing sound, he suddenly felt like something was missing. He looked down, his eyes widening at what he saw. Her hand was in his chest, penetrating through his rib cage and grabbing his heart. He coughed up blood as he looked up at her, unable to speak. Fear coursed through him as he looked at her face inches away from him, a sadistic smile on her face, a tint of red in her constricted eyes, this was the face of death.

"Sorry, I just needed a little,"

Pinkamena whispered into his ear as she ripped out his heart, his body dropping to the floor.

"release."

She whispered as she looked down at her body, tossing his heart beside his body. Before anyone could react, she turned toward the crowd, her hand covered in blood and a smile on his face.

"Let this be a lesson to you all, defiance like thiswill not be tolerated! If you're told to wait, you wait! Don't throw a riot just because you're a bunch of impatient little bitches!"

Pinkamena said, her voice booming throughout the room. Anger and fear were the most prominent emotions in the room, but no one said anything.

Pinkamena pulled a rag from her pocket, using it to clean her hand. She gestured at Blake to get rid of the body, which he hesitated, but he did.

"Now, you wanted to know what happened to the person who killed Igneous? Well,"

Pinkamena put the rag back in her pocket, turning toward the crowd with a confident smile on her face.

"She's standing right here."

Pinkamena declared, no ounce of hesitation in her voice. Discord, for the second time that day, lost his cool. He was genuinely surprised at this, his mouth agape and his eyes widened. Blake, on the other hand, was almost proud. As he dragged a body in the corner to be disposed of later, a smile stretched across his face. He knew she'd want to brag about it, there's no way she wouldn't.

After her declaration, once again, yelling filled the room. The crowd was once again pushing against the security holding them back, but this time there was one shared emotion, rage.

"Now hold on, you may want to hold off on killing me considering I am your leader now. Or, at least hear me out."

Most of the crowd stopped at this, so many events happening, they almost forgot what they were here for in the first place.

"Igneous fought me, his daughter, himself, I outsmarted and killed him, it was as simple as that! I didn't cheat, I didn't have help, we fought and I won! And, as both the one who killed him and his child, I am now the leader!

Igneous was a good leader, but I'm a better one! It's been months since The Silent Killer started killing our men, and in that time, Igneous never got close to catching them! As your leader, I can promise you, that whoever this person is, I will catch them within a week. Any questions?"

The room was silent once again, but in just moments, it was filled with noise again. But instead of anger, it was questions overlapping each other. Pinkamena smiled at this, this was too easy. Before answering any questions, she turned around and gestured for Discord to come towards her. Curiously, he did. He leaned down towards, as she leaned into his ear and whispered something. When she was done, he pulled back, confusion obvious on his face.

"What do you want that for? Is that your plan for Blake? Or for The Silent Killer?"

"You'll see, just go get it! It's a surprise."

Wanting to know what it was, he obliged, walked off the stage, and left the room. At this time, Blake returned to the stage, curious what Discord left for. He was going to ask her, but he figured she wouldn't tell him.

"Everybody calm down! One at a time, I'll take them separately."

She said she turned back around, just intending to ask questions both to keep them satisfied and to buy time until Discord gets back, they won't have any more questions then.

"Igneous has been dead for a week, where have you been since then?"

One of them asked, they were still talking over each other, but thanks to her improved hearing, she picked one at random. This heightened senses were really useful but had their cons.

"Just because I won the fight with Igneous doesn't mean I won unscathed. He put up a really tough fight, not to mention I had to fight thirty guys beforehand. After all that exertion, my body kind of shut down and I had to take a break. Next question!"

Blake watched in amusement, they were going along with this almost too easy. Then again, they have been waiting for a new leader all this time. Now that they know who it is, and that Igneous was going to be retiring soon enough, it probably wouldn't be that hard to adjust. The only issue was, could he?

"If one of us were to kill you, would we become the leader?"

Pinkamena's smile stretched just a little further at that question, almost like she expected it.

"It's about more than just killing me if that was the case, then just poising my food or something would be too easy. You have to formally challenge me and fight me in front of everyone else. And if something out of the ordinary were to happen, there's a system in place. Keep in mind that I was able to kill thirty men and Igneous, so if you think you can take me,"

Pinkamena's eyes flashed red for just a moment, striking fear into the crowd.

"Feel free to try."

The crowd fell silent, the questions no longer came. As If on cue, Discord came back, holding a piece of paper in his hand.

"Ah! Just in time! Look at this boys!"

As soon as Discord got near her, she snatched the paper from him. Discord handed her a pencil and she immediately began to write on it.

"You guys want the person who killed Igneous to be punished, right? Even if I am your new leader, I don't expect you to respect me immediately. So, here's how I'm going to get you to trust me!"

She flipped the paper over, revealing it filled with words that couldn't be seen by them.

"This is a bounty paper, used only by people with high influence. These bounties are very high profile, sent out to everybody, from the lowly thief to the professional bounty hunter. Granted, when the bounty is made, it takes around a week for everyone to know about it. It's not a coincidence I set a week for me to catch The Silent Killer either, this is how I'll make you trust me."

Realization was on Discord's and Blake's face, both feeling the way similar about it.

"I've set a one million bounty on myself! The money will be coming from The Syndicate, yes. But It's something I can make up, or at least you guys can. It doesn't matter whether or not I capture The Silent Killer, which I will, I will still be punished like you guys wanted. So, what do you say, will you follow me until I'm killed?"

She asked almost sarcastically, holding the paper in front of her confidently. Agreement came from the crowd, this worked out in their favor no matter what, this is worth waiting for.

"Good! Now, could a few of you boys dispose of the body of the jackass over there! I'm going to talk to some people and get this around, the rest of you tell everyone about what happened here today. Other than that, do what you usually do, jobs, whores, whatever. I have to get some things in order, consider today an easy day, enjoy!"

Just like that, the crowd dispersed, most seeming very happy and pleased. And like she politely asked, two of them got the body in the corner and took it off, to dispose of it wherever it is they did, she'd have to ask Discord where that was later.

"Are you stupid!? Did those memories in your brain replace your common sense!? You're going to get yourself killed!"

Discord yelled at her, his face turning red from anger. Blake jumped off the stage, looking like he was ready to hit her.

"Do any idea what you've done? I don't care how badass you think you are, you're going have every hitman and assassin after your ass! And eventually, you're going to slip up!"

Blake screamed at her, forgetting for a moment that he was trying not to anger her.

"Calm down you two! It's fine, I've thought this out. This might draw out The Silent Killer, and even if it doesn't, I can handle this. Seriously, I've got a plan. And besides, I've got a week before it really takes effect and spreads everywhere, just trust me on this, please?"

She sounded genuine, but it was impossible to tell with her. Discord was still enraged, and Blake still looked like he wanted to hit her, but they both realized they were going to just have to trust her, it's already done.

"Now Blake, I thought about it, and I'm willing to give you a chance. Go to the other districts and spread the news about the bounty, I don't care if you get it done on the first day, I don't want to see you for a week. I don't care what you do, as long as it doesn't affect me. Get out of my sight. Now."

Blake was taken aback, her mood took an unexpected turn. But from the look on her face, he really shouldn't hesitate. Blake left the room, still somewhat processing everything.

"Discord, you've been kind to me. Well, kinder than Blake and Igneous were. So, I'm going to let you off the hook. I wasn't joking when I said I have to get some things sorted out, so I need you to do me a favor. Go to Igneous's office and get his file on The Silent Killer, I know he has one, but just in case he doesn't, make one. Leave it on the desk, I'll get there later. After that, you can do whatever. I won't be back until tomorrow, so I expect you keep things normal until then.

When I get back, I want you to run all the Chimera test you can, I need to know everything, I don't want anything unexpected to happen. Now, I'll be leaving now. Don't bother contacting trying to contact me, I won't reply."

Pinkamena said in a rush, turning around as soon as she was done. She was walking towards one of the exits, leaving a surprised Discord behind her. This seemed easy for her, she was so calm and composed, maybe she really did have a plan. Was this because of the memories? If so, it was very impressive, it made her seem like a natural born leader. But, at the same time, it made him worried. He didn't know what the side effects were exactly, just what some of them could be. To be safe, he needs to know exactly where she is.

"Where are you going?"

He shouted, causing her to stop. She didn't look back at him, she just kept facing forward.

"Home."

Chapter Two: Reunion: Part One.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Two: Reunion: Part Two.

Celestia’s office was actually quite small, maybe the size of her room? Whether that was due to funding, preference, or it used to be some other room, she didn’t know. But, as Pinkamena walked into the office and noticed how small it was, she realized something else, this was her first time in the office. She hadn’t thought about it until now, but she had rarely been in trouble. Not that she had never done anything questionable, she certainly had. It’s more she just never got caught doing anything that she would get in trouble for, that wasn’t counting her rebellious phase or the amount of ‘pranks’ she used to pull, that was something else entirely.

Pinkamena looked at Celestia’s back as she sat in the chair on the other side of the desk in her chair, looking out the window at something. She flinched when Pinkamena came in and shut the door, she had not been expecting anyone. She began to turn the chair around.

“Can I help yo-”

Celestia began to say, curious who would be coming in at this time. When she saw who it was, she almost didn’t recognize who it was. The figure before her was in clothing she didn’t usually see, except for when Luna was younger, but that’s not a time Celestia likes to think about. But when she saw that pink hair, despite it not being in its usual puffy form. And the baby blue eyes, though the light in them was absent. There was only one person that it could be, Celestia jumped out of her chair, looking at Pinkamena with surprise and worry.

“Pinkie! I’m so glad you’re okay! Your friends are going to-”

“Sit down, Celestia. We have things we need to discuss.”

Pinkamena said as she sat down in a chair in front of the desk, her voice cold and direct. Celestia was shocked, this wasn’t a tone she had ever heard from the party planner before. What happened to her?

“What do you mean? We need to notify the police! Your friends will be relieved when-”

“Sit. Down. Now.”

She said again, her voice more demanding this time, almost threatening. Celestia, confused and concerned, slowly sat in the chair. Pinkamena nonchalantly pulled out the pack of cigarettes she had gotten earlier, she hadn’t had the chance to smoke them yet, she might as well now. She opened the pack and put one in her mouth, pulling out a light as she did so, completely ignoring the no smoking sign on Celesta’s desk. Celestia looked at her with a disgusted and disapproving look, not imagining Pinkie out of all of them would pick up such an unhealthy habit!

“Put that out right now! You can’t smoke in-”

Pinkamena silenced her with a look, a threatening one, one Celestia wasn’t used to seeing. Celestia stayed silent, she wasn’t sure what Pinkamena could do to her, or what had happened to her the past three months, but she had to stay calm about this if she wanted to help her. Pinkamena then lit the cigarette, putting the lighter back in her pocket and inhaling deeply. She then pulled the cigarette out and held it in her fingers, holding it over a trashcan near the desk. She then heavily exhaled, at least having the decency to not exhale in Celestia’s face. She blew the smoke to her left, her body relaxing, but her face was the same, except for a slight frown as she looked at the cigarette, she seemed disappointed.

“That...was not at all what I was expecting, I was hoping for more of a release, I guess smoking really is overrated. Anyway, as I was saying.”

Pinkamena looked at Celestia, who was looking at her with the same face of disgust and disapprovement, but this time with worry.

“The police have already been notified of my state of being, in as much detail as necessary, but more than you’ll be getting. As for my friends, walking through the hallway right after first period while everyone is getting to their classes, assures they will be notified. Now, that leaves the problem of my enrollment.”

Pinkamena then pulled out a small folder from her pocket, sliding it across the desk towards Celestia. She looked at it both fearfully and curiously, hesitant in opening it. But she did, she picked open the folder and opened it. And as soon as she did, her eyes widened in shock and fear, looking up at Pinkamena and back at the folders, questioning how and why she has this.

“T-this is-”

“About a decade or so ago, a gas station was robbed, about two hundred and fourteen dollars were stolen. Nobody was killed, but the guy who was manning the register was shot, though it wasn’t fatal, I can’t imagine it was pleasant. He lived, but the culprit was never caught. Now, this place did have a camera, but it’s a very old camera. So it wasn’t too hard to claim that it wasn’t recording. But, Celestia, let’s just say you have a few friends with influence. And when they saw who the culprit was,”

Pinkamena took another puff of her cigarette, watching Celestia curiously. Celestia laid the folder on the desk in front of her, as if she was done looking at it. She closed her eyes and laid her hands gently on the desk, she inhaled and exhaled slowly, in an effort to calm herself. She then slowly opened her eyes, looking at the picture on the table worriedly. The picture on top was one of three, but the other two couldn’t be seen. The picture on top was in black and white, and revealed the inside of a gas station. Food and drinks were on shelves and a man stood behind a cash register. But there were two people in the picture, the man behind the cash register, and a hooded figure right under the camera. Whoever this person was, they must have either not known it was there, or figured it didn’t work. They were wearing a large hoodie that covered a good portion of their body, except for their face.

Normally, a person probably wouldn’t be able to see their face. But from where they were standing from the camera, it could be seen clearly. The person in the hoodie was Luna.

“They decided it would be better if people didn’t know who did the robbery, for both you and her.”

Pinkamena exhaled again, the smoke going to her left. Celestia looked up at Pinkamena, but this time there was a different look in her eyes, anger. She released a loud sigh, whatever had happened to Pinkie had changed her, for the worse, it would seem. And from the way she was talking, she had gotten in with the wrong crowd.

“Luna had been going through a rebellious phase, but hers was more dangerous than most. She had gotten mixed up with the wrong people, and she owed them money. If she hadn’t gotten them the money she owed them, the results would've been...unpleasant. Afraid for herself and me, she got desperate and robbed a gas station. She didn’t hurt anyone, seriously, and going to the police wasn’t an option. So I helped her hide, at least until the heat passed. She paid them what she owed and they left us alone, and the police never had a reason to suspect us. I never imagined anyone would be helping us though, I suppose it would be too much to ask who?”

Celestia’s tone was hesitant and cautious, but calm. Pinkamena only looked back with a grin on her face, taking another puff of her cigarette.

“Yep, sorry.”

Pinkamena said nonchalantly, being blunt made this easier. Celestia kept her gaze strong, she didn’t look away.

“I see. Well, I take it you want something? You wouldn’t be showing me this otherwise. Blackmail, while never something this dangerous, isn’t something I’m unfamiliar with.”

Pinkamena raised her eyebrow slightly, perhaps she had underestimated Celestia.

“You’re right, I do want something. Turning this in as evidence would get charges against Luna, and maybe you, depending on whether or not you feign ignorance. What I want is simple, I want to enroll in the school, finish my year. I was a year ahead, so this should be my senior year. I just want to be treated like a normal student, simple scheduling and tested. And don’t give me special treatment, don’t be afraid to give me detention or suspend me if I get in trouble, and no questions, they annoy me.”

Pinkamena took one more puff of her cigarette and threw it in the trash can, getting up out of the chair and walking towards the door. Celestia looked up at her surprisingly, also slightly worried about the fire hazard of throwing a cigarette in a trash bin full of paper,but that wasn’t an immediate problem.

“That’s it? You just want to come back to school? That’s...actually really normal. I’m sure what I expected, but not that.”

Pinkamena looked at her as she stood in front of the door, looking down at Celestia.

“I’ve never had any problems with you, there’s nothing else I really want. After what happened, I just want to graduate and move on with my life. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Pinkamena turned around and opened the door, the hallway on the other side was completely empty, seems all the students went to there classes.

“Pinkie,”

Pinkamena stopped, not bothering to turn around.

“Are you ok?”

Pinkamena turned her head to Celestia, she was looking up at her. Not with worry or fear, but with concern.

“No.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________

The rest of the day had been pretty peaceful, of course, teachers and other students were very hesitant and cautious around her, which is what she wanted. She kept them away and avoided them as much as possible. She did her classwork within minutes since it was so easy for her, and the rest of the class was very boring. She tried sleeping, but that was proving to be...difficult. Whether it was because of The Whispers, or if what happened the last three months has given her problems sleeping, both were likely.

Well, the day had been peaceful, until lunch, that is. She wasn’t feeling particularly hungry, so she decided to stay in the courtyard until lunch passed. That was when her old friends confronted her, none of them were happy. But, after some shouting from them, she had managed to escape them. But, there was one problem, there were two of them missing.

She didn’t really care about the well being of any of them, it was more out of curiosity, really. She figured Twilight had isolated herself somewhere so she could focus on looking for her, it was likely she hadn’t even received the news yet. But Rainbow Dash? Nowhere to be seen. She had expected her to be one of the first to confront her, but she didn’t. When she wasn’t even there with the others, she was actually surprised. But, after what happened with them, it was too late to ask them.

Having nothing better to do until she had to meet with Applejack, she decided she was going to investigate after school. She really didn’t feel like dealing with people, so she didn’t ask anyone what happened, or anything. After what happened in the courtyard, she started avoiding people, more than she already was. Which wasn’t very hard, because after what happened in the courtyard, they were also avoiding her. The rest of the day just kind of continued like that, her avoiding everyone else, completing her classwork faster than anyone else, and was left extremely bored, was this how the rest of the year was going to be?

There was one problem though, she was being watched. Well, that was obvious. Everyone in the school was watching her, either out of curiosity, or fear. Not just that, but it seems some of her classes were shared with Sunset and the others. Not all of them at once, that would have been borderline intolerable. She had one class with just Sunset, a class with Rainbow Dash and Applejack, one with Fluttershy and Rarity, and one with just Twilight. She knew she had one with Rainbow Dash because of the teacher calling off attendance, but, of course, Rainbow Dash wasn’t there. Twilight was the same, the teacher called her name, but she wasn’t there. If she had to guess, Twilight had spent the majority of her time trying to find her, she had been missing days at school to do so. She probably told Sunset and the rest bring her school work, and she still had to come in for a test. But she could be wrong, she had no idea what she’s missed around here the last three months.

But that isn’t who she was being watched by, not by other students, not by Sunset and her friends, not even by Celestia or Luna. She probably wouldn’t have been able to notice it before, but her senses were increased now. Her hearing was better, a lot better. If close enough, she could tell each individual heartbeat of everyone around her, she could probably tell who someone was and their current state of being from hearing their heartbeat alone. She could hear Sunset’s anger and other mixed emotions, the fear and uncertainty of the students and teachers, she didn’t even want to begin on the emotions of the other four.

There was another heartbeat, this one was right outside the school building, and that’s where it stayed. Whenever she moved, it moved. It always stayed too far away for her to see, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t see her. She could tell this heart from the others because of how calm it was, unlike the other people around her, there was no other emotions, no inner turmoil. It actually impressed her how calm this person was, their heartbeat was very slow, how they were able to be so relaxed was something she’d actually like to know. It was obvious this person was following her, either that, or this was just one huge coincidence. After everything that’s happened in Pinkamena’s life, she didn’t believe in coincidences anymore.

After school was over, which was dreadfully long, she decided to confront this mysteriously calm person. It seemed after school was over, the person watching her stopped following her, they had stopped moving. Pinkamena went straight to where the heartbeat was, she had no idea who it was or how long they would be there, it could be The Silent Killer for all she knew.

The place this person was at was none other than the park she had met up with Applejack, whether this was intended or coincidence, she was still suspicious. She sat in the same spot she had shoved AJ against the tree, had this person been watching her then? If so, how did she not notice them? Whoever they were, she could feel them watching her, but their heartbeat was still the same calm as before.

“Come on and show yourself already, I know you’re there and that you’re watching me. Why don’t we have a little talk? I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to make you come out.”

There was the sound of rustling in the trees around her, but the heartbeat didn’t move. It stayed still in a tree to her far left, remaining completely still. But then, there was another heartbeat, then another, then two or three more, all in the trees around her! Dozens of heartbeats began to beat in the trees around her, each one with a different pulse. Had these been animals hiding in the trees? But then why would she only just now hear them? Her eyes began moving between the trees, trying to find the original she came here for. As she looked around frantically, the trees began rustling one at a time, as if something was jumping between them. She tried her hardest to discern the original, one that was calm or didn’t go as fast as the others. As she heard the dozens of heartbeats around her, the rustling in the trees got more frequent, and closer to her. She noticed none of the heartbeats were changing, they seemed to stay the same, not getting faster or slower at all! Almost mechanical, except for one that had jumped, one that was

“Behind you.”

A voice whispered behind her, not sure how or when they got there without her noticing. She then felt the person behind her grab her by the shoulder with one hand and began to pull her back, while the other hand was coming into her eyesight towards her neck, she could see the sunlight reflecting off the knife. She reacted almost immediately, she pushed herself backward with her feet towards them, but they were ready.

They let go of her and jumped away, letting her see this person as they came into her sight. They were slightly taller than her, but they had a slightly smaller bulk, though it was hard to tell with what they were wearing. They wore black clothing that resembles the color and texture of kevlar, but somehow seemed more comfortable and flexible, as the person wearing it didn’t seem to have any problems moving around quickly, almost as fast as her. There were red marks on the kevlar, almost the color of blood. They were in sets of five, four straight vertical lines with a fifth horizontal one going through it, there were several of these on them. Were they a kill count? She didn’t know, nor did she care.

They had a black face mask on that covered almost their entire face, except for their eyes, those were covered by dark sunglasses. The only thing she could tell for sure of this person was their short hair, which was brown and scraggly. They also wore black shoes, she couldn’t tell what kind they were, but they seemed like they were comfortable and easy to move around in.

Pinkamena caught herself, stopping herself from falling. But her assaulter was faster than she expected, and smarter. Instead of lunging towards her like she expected them to do, they threw the knife at her with extreme accuracy. The knife was aimed directly at her, she was barely able to react in time. Her hands wouldn’t have gotten to her face fast enough, she did have to catch it in her mouth, her new faster reflexes helped. But immediately grimaced in disgust, they had to have put something on it, because it tasted disgusting, like rotten meat and relish! She spit it out on the ground, spitting a few more times as she tried to get the taste out of her mouth.

“That’s...impressive, that should have been tasteless. I don’t understand how you were able to taste it, Chimeras really are amazing.”

Pinkamena, for a split second, forgot they were there. But when she heard the muffled voice, she reacted immediately. Without thinking, she jumped toward them, her feet briefly leaving the ground. In seconds, she was in front of them, and they seemed genuinely surprised, like they hadn’t been expecting her to move that fast. They looked at her face as they tried to jump back, her eyes having a tint of red to them, she wasn’t letting them get away. While they were still in her range, she grabbed them by the neck with her left hand. She quickly kicked them in the back of their knee causing them to lose their balance, she tightened her grip on their neck as she slammed them into the ground, hard.

She saw them reach for a knife in their shoe, but she slammed her foot on their hand, but not hard enough to break anything, probably. She held her arm out as small lines of steam came from her fingers, as her fingernails extended into claws. Fangs could be seen as a sadistic smile on her face appeared, her eyes now completely crimson. She pulled them towards her as her claws came down.

“Wait! The Syndicate sent me!”

They outstretched both of their arms above them, as if to surrender, not seeming to be affected by the pain in their hands that they must be feeling. Their voice was hard to make out since it was muffled from the face mask, and strained since her hand was around their throat, but she could still hear it. Disappointedly, she dropped them to the ground, she had really wanted to kill them. She stood up straight as she looked down at them, lifting her foot off their hand, her eyes slowly turning back to blue and her claws retracting and turning back to nails.

“So, The Syndicate’s trying to kill me now?”

She asked skeptically, something was telling her to just kill them, and she wasn’t sure it was The Whispers. they got up slowly, using one of their hands to lower the face mask, while the other was used to take off their glasses. This person was a guy, their sharp jaw and brown trimmed beard were revealed to be under the face mask, paired with brown eyes and cocky smile Pinkamena really wasn’t liking. His eyes were sunken and had dark bags under them, showing he had spent the majority of the time without sleep. He was also extremely pale, this guy was either really dedicated to following and killing people, or had some serious problems. But who was she to judge? He walked over to the knife she had spit out, he slowly put it in a hidden pocket as she watched him like a hawk.

“They didn’t send me to kill you, they sent me to watch over you. You kind of made a pretty unnerving first impression when you woke up, made some people want to take precautions. Many of the people in high power agreed on having you watched, Discord approved it.”

He walked towards her holding out his hand, she didn’t even acknowledge it, she just kept staring at him with an annoyed look on her face, this guy was too eccentric for her liking. When she didn’t shake his hand, he laughed awkwardly and lowered his hand.

“My names Juno! And despite first impressions, I’m actually quite a nice guy!”

Pinkamena looked at his clothing again, the red marks on his clothes, the way he hid his knives and the rest of his body, she didn’t need The Whispers to tell her what he was.

“Those red marks on your clothes, those are your kill count, right?”

He flinched at that, his smile faltering as he smiled awkwardly again.

“Heh, smart as they said you’d be too.”

Pinkamena sighed impatiently as she closed her eyes, she had enough to deal with without The Syndicate working behind her back because of their paranoia.

“They sent an assassin, who just tried to kill me, to spy on me? I suggest you begin explaining, before I just kill you and ask them myself to be safe.”

Pinkamena said it threateningly as she opened her eyes, but he didn’t get scared, just nervous. She was listening closely to his heartbeat, and while it was faster than before, it was still calm.

“I told you I wasn’t trying to kill you! Alright, so I was sent to watch over you, right? Make sure you don’t do anything stupid, because having those memories inserted into you has had a history with messing with someone’s mind. And while they were briefing me about you, I couldn’t help but be curious! They told me you passed the test with flying colors and killed Igneous, I couldn’t even scratch that guy, and I’ve tried! When I first saw you shove Applejack against that tree, I could barely contain my excitement! So, I put myself in range of your incredible hearing, and knowing you’d be intrigued by someone following you who could control their heartbeat as well as I can, you’d come to check it out!

So I placed some recordings of some heartbeats in the trees and began to play them whenever you showed up, to see if you could tell the difference. Which you didn’t, at least not in time, and that kind of disappointed me! And you know the rest! I won’t lie, I’m impressed! The poison I put on that knife is tasteless and fast acting, able to kill a full grown man in minutes if it gets into their bloodstream. But you were actually able to taste it! You were also able to hear me talking to myself in the facemask when I’m usually very quiet, and you were super fast too! And those were really cool!”

He suddenly jumped forward and grabbed her hand and stared at it for a few seconds, as if expecting the claws just to pop out. But she quickly pulled her hand back, disappointment was evident on his face, but it was replaced by that same bubbly attitude in seconds, an attitude she was too familiar with. Whoever decided to assign this guy to watch over her clearly had a sense of humor.

“Anyway, the reason they chose me is because they told me you have a habit of getting into trouble. So if you get into a fight that you can’t handle for whatever reason, then I will come in to save the day!”

“Or if I do something they don’t approve of, you can stop me. Or kill me and blame it on someone or something else.”

Silence filled the forest once again, neither spoke for what felt like hours.

“Yes, I suppose that is true. But, it’s my job, I enjoy it, and I get paid very well to do it. Enough to where I don’t need to kill you for your bounty, I already make enough. I’m really hoping we can become friends, and when I don’t have to spy on you anymore, we can look back on this and laugh!”

Pinkamena scoffed, she almost regretted not killing him.

“I would say that as the leader of The Syndicate, I override your orders and command you to fuck off. But, I haven’t been the leader long enough for them to trust me, and I’m not a dictator, I’m not going to abuse my power like that, not unless I absolutely have to. Besides, I kicked your ass two minutes ago, so you’re obviously not a threat.”

He tilted his head as if confused what she was talking about, then his eyes widened slightly as he clapped his hands in realization.

“Oh! No, you misunderstand! I really was just testing you! If I wanted you dead…”

In seconds, he pulled the knife from his shoe and jumped forward, faster than he was before. Pinkamena almost couldn’t react, the knife was pressed against her throat, ready to cut into flesh. But Pinkamena quickly extended her claws and wrapped her hand around his throat again, her eyes turning crimson once again. But this time, he was the one with a smile on his face.

“You’d just be another corpse.”

That bubbly attitude of his was gone, replaced by something else. That smile on his face was not a sadistic one, but one meant to taunt. His eyes seemed to have lost their light, nothing in them now but cold emptiness. His entire body was relaxed, she could almost not hear his heartbeat, there was no fear or hesitation, this was an assassin. She now knew why they chose him, not only could he be a joyful person like she used to be, but he could also be a cold-blooded killer when needed, she might actually like this guy.

As much as she would have enjoyed to see if this guy was all talk, there was something else, a third heartbeat. This wasn’t like the recordings, this was real, she could practically smell the fear.

“We have a visitor.”

He said almost casually, but neither moved.

“I know, truce?”

He hesitated, but moved away when she let go of his throat, feeling her claws retract and seeing her eyes slowly change back to blue. He hopped away from her, quickly putting the knife back in his shoe, she watched him intently.

“Are you going to handle this guest? Or should I?”

He seemed to say eagerly, as if he wanted to show her just how good he was. But if this was who she thought it was, that was cause more problems than it would solve.

“No, I have this. Leave, I know you’ll be watching, but that doesn’t mean I want to see you.”

She was more aggressive than she needed to be, but this day was proving to be arguably the most annoying and frustrating out of a lot she’s had.

“Alright, alright! You don’t have to be so rude!”

And with that he was gone, he jumped back into the trees to watch her, she was going to have to work on finding a way to lose him, or he was going to be a huge pain.

“Come on out and we can talk, Sunset.”

It took a few seconds, but Sunset walked into the field, her hiding spot being behind one of the many trees. She stood beside the tree and stayed there, as if afraid of getting closer. Her heart was beating fast from fear and nervousness, but she could also feel she wasn’t going to run. Despite her emotions, her face was neutral and composed, Pinkamena was almost impressed.

“Interesting friend you have, do they all try to kill you?”

Pinkamena smirked at that, she found the accuracy of that question funny.

“Only the ones that I piss off. Why are you following me? I thought we established no contact between us, or do I need to show you how serious I am?”

Pinkamena had intended for that so scare her and make her lose her composure, glaring at her as she made her threat. But Sunset didn’t even flinch, she kept staring into her eyes, as if looking for something.

“You won’t hurt me or the rest of us, I don’t believe it. I don’t care what happened to you, you’re Pinkie Pie, our Pinkie Pie! I will do anything I can to save you, I refuse to lose another friend. So I will-”

Before Sunset could finish, Pinkamena had appeared in front of her, her hand wrapped around her throat. She began picking her up by her throat, tight enough to where she wouldn’t drop her, but not to where she couldn’t breathe. Sunset’s hands wrapped around Pinkamena’s arm, trying desperately to get free. But she didn’t kick her, didn’t try to hurt her in any way. She wasn’t even afraid, she looked down at Pinkamena, she might have looked like she was struggling to breathe, but she didn’t show any fear. Pinkamena, on the other hand, showed just how angry she was.

“What could you possibly understand!? You don’t know anything about what I went through! You’re just some spoiled little pony princess from another world, who left because nobody paid attention to you! You gained all the power you could in the hopes somebody would love you, and then you cried like a little bitch when it didn’t work!”

Pinkamena felt the anger within her rise, this wasn’t something that came with her when she changed, this anger had been there. She didn’t realize how angry she had been at her, maybe she didn’t want to. But The Whispers weren’t suppressing it, maybe they were just curious what would happen? But Sunset didn’t respond to this, she didn’t get angry or sad, like she had expected that.

“I know you’re alone. I know you want someone to help you, but you’re afraid. You are so afraid of what might happen that you let that fear control you, you let it convince you that it’s better this way! But it’s not! We’re here for you, I’m here for you! And no matter what happens, I will be here! I fell to darkness, so did Twilight. I don’t know if what happened to you has anything to do with magic or Equestria, but I’ll be damned before I let another friend be corrupted by their own pain!”

Pinkamena’s grip loosened, but she didn’t let go of her. She lowered her head, she couldn’t look into her eyes.

“I am not the one you should be worried about! Don’t you get it? I’m not afraid for myself, I’m afraid for you, all of you! We are being watched, right now! If they even think I told you guys anything, they will kill you! I have to avoid you, If I don’t, it’ll be like you never existed! They will wipe you off history, and I’ll be stuck with nothing but the memory of you guys and the guilt!”

Something slid down the side of her face, something warm and wet, it was a tear. Pinkamena dropped her, she fell on her feet surprised and concerned. Pinkamena quickly turned around and wiped the tear off her face, breathing erratically as she held her chest, her heart beating fast, and it hurt. Sunset was looking at her worriedly, one hand was rubbing the large hand-shaped red mark on her neck, the other was reaching to Pinkamena.

The Whispers were watching this entire time, and it seemed they were willing to give a little mercy. Before Pinkamena’s emotions made her do something stupid, that same coldness came washing over her. Her heart stopped hurting and was now returning to a normal beat, she was no longer breathing erratically and her body was no longer shaking, it was like they weren’t even there to begin with. Sunset’s hand rested on top of Pinkamena’s shoulders, she quickly turned around, shaking it off. She looked back at Sunset, that same cold straight face was there, no emotions to be seen.

“What happened to Rainbow Dash?”

Sunset flinched, her face changing to that of confusion, she wasn’t expecting a change in subject so quickly and easily after that.

“What?”

“When I came back, everyone was there. Except for two people, Twilight, who probably isolated herself so she didn’t even know I was back, and Rainbow Dash. I thought that was strange, I figured she’d be the first to confront me. But when she didn’t, I asked around, it was unusual for even her not to show up on the first day. As it turns out, like and soon after me, she disappeared. She stopped showing up at school, she was almost never seen outside of school, she didn’t respond to text or anything! I’m tempted to go to where she lives just to see how long it’s been since someone’s been there! What happened!?”

She hadn’t intended to be that aggressive, but Sunset had been annoyingly stubborn, and that stacked atop an already annoying day made Pinkamena tense, more so than usual. And if she wasn’t assertive, Juno might get the impression that she was important to her, and while they more than likely do already, she was still going to take precautions.

Sunset hesitated in answering, she seemed to hide behind her hair in shame.

“I...don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

Pinkamena moved closer to her, Sunset didn’t seem to notice.

“One of your friends goes missing, she could be fucking dead, and you don’t bother to investigate!? This was right after one of your other friends disappeared too! So what, too busy looking for one who’s been gone longer to bother with the other one? Or maybe you neglected her? What if the potential loss of one of her best friends was destroying her? What if she was worried sick? Did you ever ask her if she was okay, or were you too focused on trying to find me that you didn’t pay attention to your friends that were still there? Maybe she was so sick at the lack of results, that she decided to go off and search herself! Did you even care about her? Me? Any of us? Or is this just some plot to get the elements and turn back into a dem-”

There was a loud smacking sound, Pinkamena was knocked back, touching her face where a hand-shaped red mark was forming, a genuinely shocked expression on her face.

“You...you were gone for three months, you missed a lot, you don’t know what’s happened while you were gone, and there is a nearly countless list of things that could’ve happened to you. So, I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt. But, YOU DO NOT GET TO TELL ME WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE!”

Tears were streaming down Sunset’s angry face, her hand stretched out in front of her. She stood straight and focused her angry stare on her, the tears still dripping down her face.

“I’ve dealt with a lot of things, but I’ve never had to deal the loss of a friend, especially not like that! After we discovered you were missing, we did everything we could, and I mean everything! The police, your family, everyone! We even got into contact with Equestrian Twilight, but there almost nothing she could do. For weeks, we did everything you would think of, and got nothing! And that’s when things went bad, it was hard to keep up hope at that point. Fluttershy cried to the point of being so sick she couldn’t get out of bed, and any minute she was out of it, she was getting the help of as many animals as she could. Rarity used every connection she had from the dresses she sold to get all the help she could, and I don’t even want to imagine what price she had to pay for that. I and this Twilight spent countless sleepless nights making every theory thinkable with what we had to go on, which was practically nothing! Applejack seemed like she knew something, but she was as stubborn as a rock and refused to say anything, ironic since she’s honesty. And Rainbow Dash…”

Sunset’s anger faded away, the tears no longer flowing. It was changed to a sadder one, one Pinkamena recognized, regret.

“For a while, she was what kept our hopes up, what kept us happy! But after a while, she became distant. She talked less, her usual confident attitude began to fade, she was missing sports and classes, eventually, she just stopped coming to school at all. We saw her occasionally outside of school, until we didn’t. We tried to get her to tell us what was wrong, we tried to help! I tried to help! But she just refused to say anything, not even Fluttershy could get her to talk! Eventually, it became impossible to juggle school, searching for Pinkie on our own after everyone else has given up, and trying to help Rainbow Dash. When we stopped seeing her, most just assumed she had left somewhere and she’d eventually come back, they gave up. But I didn’t.

I went to her apartment, since she lived by herself, I figured I could find something. But, the landlord wouldn’t let me in. So, I settled on asking him questions about her recent behavior, her relationship with her family, stuff like that. And I learned some...unsettling and terrible things. We don’t ask each other about our home lives, that’s something that we don’t talk about unless we want to. We’ve met your family, and I don’t have one, the others aren’t something we have any right to ask about. But I learned Rainbow Dash had a really good reason for not talking about hers. Her mother is dead, she was killed in an alleyway by a random mugger while she was pregnant, her father was there with her. Her mother was pregnant with Rainbow Dash, and her dad did a great job of raising her. But, everyone cracks under pressure given enough time.

When she was fourteen, her dad went missing. It’s presumed he killed himself, but a body was never found. He left behind a lot of money of for his daughter, plus he was a veteran, so she had no problem living on her own. After learning this, I decided to stop looking, she’d come to us when she wanted to talk. I wan-”

“YOU ABANDONED HER!?”

Pinkamena grabbed her by the shoulders violently, anger and disbelief evident on her face as she looked into Sunsets.

“What? No! I didn’t-

“You did! I can see it in your eyes, you barely even looked for her!”

Pinkamena threw Sunset forward, causing Sunset’s back to slam into a tree. She screamed loudly as pain shot through her back, which was silenced when she fell forward and slammed into the ground. She slowly raised her head to look at Pinkamena, the pain in her back made it hard to move. But as soon as she had, fear-induced adrenaline began pumping through her body, and the pain didn’t seem that bad. Pinkamena was slowly walking towards her, her fist clenched so tight blood was dripping down her hands. Her teeth were clenched as looked down in disgust and rage at her, and Sunset was positive her eyes were now a dark shade of red.

“You just stopped looking for her!? You thought that she had just left and that she’d be back, that nothing terrible could’ve happened to her? What if that’s what had happened to me?”

Pinkamena could feel rage boiling inside her, and once again, The Whispers weren’t even trying to suppress it. But something about this rage felt different, it didn’t feel like it was hers. It felt like it belonged to someone else, almost like the memory of it, and it was coursing through her veins. She could feel her claws cutting into the skin of her clenched fist, she was trying her hardest to stop herself, but this rage, hers or not, was comparable to the rage she felt for Igneous.

“NO! It wasn’t like that, please! She was different, it made sense for her, she had a good reason! You were different, you just disappeared! No warning, no reason, nothing! You were perfectly normal before you left! Please, you have to understand! Everyone was drifting apart, when we came together to confront you today in the courtyard, that was the first time we’ve been together in weeks! If another of us was gone like you, I don’t know what would have happened.”

Sunset tried to get up, but the pain in her back got worse anytime she tried.

“Oh, I understand.”

Pinkamena was now standing in front of Sunset, looking down at her. Her fists were no longer clenched, they lay at her sides, her nails were now claws tainted in her blood. She wasn’t smiling at her, her face was that of pure anger, her teeth looked more like that of a lion’s than humans, and her eyes were a dark crimson.

“You’re a dirty, treacherous, megalomaniac who cares about no one but herself! You don’t care about me or Rainbow Dash, you don’t care about any of us! You left me to suffer! You left Rainbow Dash alone! You hypnotized the entire school with the power you stole! You’re just as bad as the guys who took me. And like them,”

Pinkamena raised her left claw above her head, like a predator about to strike their prey.

“You’re going to end up dead by my hands.”

Pinkamena’s hand came down, Sunset closed her eyes, she could hear her heart beating in her chest frantically out of fear. Before Pinkamena’s claws came down upon Sunset, a knife suddenly came out of the woods, and hit the palm of her hand. The knife was sharp enough to cut straight through her hand, leaving a slit that cut across her palm. The knife hit a tree behind her, planting itself firmly in the tree. Pinkamena flinched as she jumped back, looking at her hand in shock, but quickly regained her composure when she looked at the knife.

“Juno...thanks, I would’ve killed her.”

She mumbled thankfully, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her. She looked down at Sunset, who still had her eyes closed and was shaking in fear.

“Get up and leave, before I change my mind.”

Sunset slowly opened her eyes, barely understanding what she heard. A few more seconds passed, and neither moved.

“NOW!”

Pinkamena shouted, loud and sudden enough to startle nearby birds. Sunset slowly pushed herself up, the pain in her back was slowly fading, but she knew she’d be sore tomorrow. As she stood up, she looked at Pinkamena, both out of fear and curiosity. She once again had her back turned, but didn’t seem to be shaking this time. She was looking down at the slit in her left hand, steam was coming off of it as it slowly healed, her claws had turned back to nails. She didn’t even seem to be paying attention to Sunset, her cold blue eyes looking at her hand as if she was lost in thought.

“What...are you?”

Sunset asked hesitantly, knowing she was pushing her luck, but she was going to do everything in her power to help her friend, even if it means risking her life. The slit in Pinkamena’s hand was now gone, now only blood remained. Pinkamena smiled almost sardonically as she looked at Sunset.

“Honestly? Who knows?”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“So, I take it you have some questions?”

Pinkamena was sitting on the edge of a rooftop, her legs dangling off the sides as she looked down at the city below her. It seemed she had lost track of time, as it was now almost dark, and the city was coming alive. About thirty minutes from now, she’d be meeting with Applejack. And, considering recent events, she figured she should take a break and relax until it was time. She had intended to check Rainbow Dash’s apartment and investigate, break and enter if she had to. But there wasn’t enough time. Besides, she could do it later, it’s not going anywhere.

“A couple, will you indulge me?”

She was going to take this opportunity to talk to The Whispers, she did have a few questions, and she really had nothing better to do while she waited. The Whispers, still taking the form of her dead father, stood behind her, his hands in his pockets as he looked down at her.

“Yeah, might as well.”

He sat beside her, put his legs over the edge like hers. For a few moments, there was just silence as they sat beside each other.

“I wonder what Juno will think if he sees you talking to me like this.”

“What happened back there?”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to be more specific.”

He smiled smugly as he said that, and, even though she wasn’t looking at him, a look of annoyance came onto hers.

“The first time it happened, when the emotions became stronger than you’d usually let, I’m assuming you did that on purpose to see how I’d handle it. But the second time, it was different. I could feel it, but it didn’t feel like it was mine, like it belonged to someone else. Not just that, but I was about to kill Sunset, and I didn’t feel you even try to stop me, and I know you could have. If it wasn’t for Juno, she would be dead. So, I want to know what happened.”

Silence returned once again between the two, Pinkamena wanted to be more aggressive, but she didn’t want to piss him off, not yet.

“I suggest you change your tone, I’m not inclined to answer any of your questions. But, I’ll let it go this time. Anyway, you are actually quite a common case, when it comes to how you became the leader, minus killing the previous one yourself. Most are apart of the family of the current leader, when they come of age, they’re put through the test. If they pass, they are taught and trained to be the next leader. If they fail and the current leader doesn’t have any other offspring or can’t produce anymore, then another one is selected from a list of candidates. So wh-”

“Wait! When Maud passed the test, she was-”

He snapped his fingers, Pinkamena then began to clutch her head tightly, almost whimpering in pain. He looked at her with annoyance, snapping his fingers again, causing the pain to stop.

“Don’t interrupt me, ever. If the leader has multiple offspring who have passed the test, or yet to. He has the option of choosing which one, the others will help in other ways. Now, let me continue. Most of the leaders who were in your situation, after passing the test, had trust issues. When their friends didn’t help them, they couldn’t help but think their friends had abandoned them, making it hard for them to gain new friends, and to strongly dislike their old friends. So, when you talked to Sunshit Shimmer, and she revealed what happened, it triggered the memories of a lot of leaders who felt their old friends had abandoned them. That anger you felt? You’re right, it wasn’t yours. Not just yours, anyway. It was the combined anger of all the leaders who had felt betrayed, and they pushed it onto you. So, when it’s a mass of emotions that strong coming from us, it becomes kind of difficult to suppress it, even for me. Don’t worry though, unless you get into situations that would trigger dozens of different leaders from the past with vastly different personalities, it shouldn’t happen again. Easy, right?”

He looked at her with a sarcastic grin, but she wasn’t even looking at him. She seemed to be thinking about something, shame they couldn’t read her mind. Then again, that spoil all the fun.

“So, why don’t you just give me the memories? It would be easier to avoid those situations if I did. I don’t under-”

“You will get the memories when we deem you ready. If you pester us about it, you won’t like what happens. Any more questions? Because I’m getting really tired of your arrogance.”

Pinkamena hesitated, she had one more question, but she wasn’t sure she was going to like the answer.

“Did...The Syndicate have anything to do with Rainbow Dash or her parents?”

He visibly tensed up at that, closing his eyes like he didn’t want to see the world anymore.

“I’m...not going to answer that one.”

Pinkamena suddenly stood up, turning towards him swiftly.

“What do you mean? Why won’t you answer? I deserve to know! I need to know If The Syndicate kill-

“I’m. Not. Answering.”

He said firmly, almost threatening her if she continued. He didn’t open his eyes or stand up, He simply sat at the edge of the roof, almost like he was waiting for something. Pinkamena was about to demand answers, when she heard something, a heartbeat. It was faint, which is why she didn’t notice it before. It was someone on another rooftop a couple miles away, and from the way it jumped when she turned towards it, it could see her.

“What is it, girl? Johnny fell down a well?”

He said jokingly, she almost ignored him.

“We’re-I’m being watched, someone’s watching us from a rooftop a couple blocks away.”

He didn’t move from his spot, he didn’t even look at her, his only response was a snicker.

“Probably just Juno wondering why you’re sitting on the edge of a roof talking to yourself.”

Pinkamena didn’t turn away, she continued to peer in the darkness towards the heartbeat, as if it would jump out any minute despite it being blocks away.

“No, every heartbeat sounds a little different, this isn’t Juno’s. Besides, Juno knows the range of my hearing, he would stay right outside of it. Something about this heartbeat feels familiar though, I know I’ve heard it before, but I can’t remember who! It’s almost like-”

Pinkamena suddenly jumped, a ringing sound coming from directly behind her. Igneous was looking down at a watch that was flashing nine forty in red letters, he smirked to himself as he turned it off.

“Well, as amusing as this is to listen to you, detective. You’ve got a meeting to get to, it will take about twenty minutes to get from here to the harbor, not counting traffic. So, I would suggest leaving now.”

“But I-”

Pinkamena turned around to face him, but he wasn’t there. She turned back around towards the heartbeat, and he was standing right in front her. He put his hands on her shoulders and turned her around, beginning to push her to the ledge.

“Don’t worry about the big bad monster in the dark! It’s probably just some mom who came up to dry her clothes or something. You’ve got a meeting to go to, and Applejack does not like people being late, so go! Or I will make you!”

Igneous had somehow pushed her back the edge of the rooftop, she tried looking past him towards the heartbeat, but he wouldn’t let her. She sighed as she looked down into the alleyway, realizing as much as she hated it, he was right.

“Fine, but we are not done!”

Pinkamena begrudgingly jumped off the roof into the next, beginning her trip to the warehouse, already in a bad mood. Igneous watched her with a smile as he began to fade away. But as he slowly did, his smile turned into a frown as he angrily glared at Pinkamena’s back.

“Out of everyone who could have been The Silent Killer, why did it have to be you!?”

Chapter Three: First Encounter.

The warehouse they were meeting in was one building among many, no different than the rest. A wide, three-story, dark blue metal building used for, like most, storage and moving things. There were no windows or skylights, and only one door on the front. The only other entrances were two large garages-like doors on both sides, made for the forklifts to carry in whatever they needed to. The lights on the outside were turned on, but she couldn’t see or hear anyone. The building was too dense to hear heartbeats, but there were some parked cars outside, and this was definitely the right warehouse, indicated by the giant number fourteen on the front in black letters.

“How much you wanna bet they’ll try to kill you?”

She was now standing on the rooftop of the nearest building, looking down at the warehouse. She could feel the groan coming on as she heard The Whispers standing beside her, but instead of groaning, she turned to him with a confused look on her face.

“Betting? You are a literal apparition of my father with the knowledge of all the leaders of the biggest crime organization in the world, what would you even want?”

He let out a loud, almost childlike groan.

“God, you’re so boring! Why do you have to rationalize everything! It was just a little fun thing I thought we could add to your melodramatic life, but since you have to apply logic to everything, I guess I have to make this a legitimate bet.”

He put his finger on his chin and closed his eyes thoughtfully, leaving Pinkamena slightly baffled. Seconds later, his eyes fluttered open as he pointed into the sky, having a sort of eureka moment.

“Ok, how about this: If they try to kill you, I win, and you have to do something for me. And if they don’t, you win, and I’ll tell you everything you want to know about Rainbow Dash and her family dilemma. Deal?”

He held out his hand in front of her, waiting for her to come to a decision. She looked down at it suspiciously, and then back at him, this felt like making a deal with the devil.

“Well, Applejack is really honest. And a lot of her family are apart of The Apples, and with The Silent Killer around, it would be stupid to make war with us right now. Rationally, she won’t-”

“Oh my god! Why do you have to be so serious when it comes to me, I know you have a sense of humor!”

She looked up at him angrily, he didn’t even flinch.

“Because when I look at you, all I see is my father’s face, and I remember everything he did to me. I’m then filled with burning rage and a strong urge to kill you in various ways, so pardon me if I find it difficult to treat you casually.”

She said as she moved to closer to him, as if she was going to attack him. But he didn’t even move, he only shrugged his shoulders in response.

“Fair enough. So, how about it? My arm is getting tired!”

He held up his arm with his other arm by putting it under his elbow, but again, she didn’t even smirk. She looked back down at his hand, suspicion still evident on her face.

“Why do I feel like this is more than just a friendly bet?”

He didn’t respond, he only waited with his hand outstretched. She looked up at him, then back at his hand, and sighed. Hesitantly, she shook it, and he smiled.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The inside of the warehouse was almost exactly what she imagined it would be, despite never really being in one. It was very dark in there, but she could make out the outlines if the massive ailes of boxes, crates, and numerous other things. Reaching from the floor to the ceiling, dozens of them from what she could see. There was some space in front of them for people and forklifts to move around in, but she couldn’t see anywhere else, the entire warehouse was dark, except for one aile. The aile directly in front of her wasn’t as dark as the others, it seemed to be the only one with lights in it on, revealing even more ailes. If she had to guess, AJ left this one on as a way to guide her, which made some sense. Pinkamena put on Blake’s mask, which she had been keeping in the pocket of her hoodie, and proceeded down the aisle.

“Warehouse you’ve never been to, almost entirely dark, no person to be seen, little suspicious, don’t you think?”

“Shut up.”

She didn’t even need to look, she knew where he was, she could feel him. He was on top of the aile to her left, dangling one of his legs off of it as he looked down at her. As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. She had expected Applejack to be waiting for her inside or something, but she wasn’t. And the fact that she hasn’t seen anyone, and there was barely any light in here, made her cautious. She continued down the aile, realizing the lights weren’t in a straight line. Whenever she got out of one, another random one would be lit up, and she would follow it at a steady pace. Though, after going through three ailes and nearly getting lost, she picked up her pace, more out of frustration than anything.

“I’m just saying! You don’t know if she brought anyone with her or not, you could be being followed right now!”

He appeared behind her, crouched over on his toes like a cartoon character as he followed her, expecting her to turn around after saying that. When she didn’t, he actually looked disappointed.

“Or, they could be right in front of you!”

Once again, he disappeared and reappeared right in front of her. This time, his eyes were gone, replaced by empty eye sockets that had blood running down them, the color of the blood was a dark black. He held his hands out the sides of his face, almost like someone in a costume trying to scare a child.

“Boo!”

If she flinched, the mask prevented him from seeing it. She stopped for a moment when he appeared, but then she walked right through him, continuing down the ailes. He turned around towards her, his eyes growing back but the blood remaining, having a slightly surprised expression on his face.

“What? Gotten used to me already? I would hope I’m not that predictable, but that’s okay! I’ve got dozens of tricks, and the imagination and creativity to think of more if those-”

“Seriously, shut up!”

She growled, as she came to a sudden stop. He was about to snap his fingers and give her another agonizing headache, until he saw Applejack. The ailes had led to a small clearing, a small wooden table waited here. Applejack was sitting in a chair on the opposite side of it, still wearing her school clothes, looking at Pinkamena patiently. Big Macintosh stood beside her, seeming to work as her bodyguard. He stood there menacingly as he stared Pinkamena down, wearing his normal red and brown jacket with green apples on the collar, his blue jeans stopping only at his red and white shoes. Before she went into her line of sight, she put the hood over her hair again, leaving only her mask visible.

“Well, seems you did decide to bring a bodyguard. I take it he’ll be here overseeing us?”

“Eeyup.”

He responded, crossing his arms and continuing to stare at her. Instead of saying some witty comeback, she pulled the other chair forward and sat in it, looking at Applejack as she did.

For a few seconds, there was a tense silence. Neither saying anything, as if they were afraid to do anything. Then, Applejack sighed as she rubbed the bridge of her nose with her eyes closed.

“So, shall we begin? I’m sure we’d both like to just get this over with, so-”

“Where’s Pinkie?”

Applejack’s tone wasn’t one Pinkamena had heard before, it sounded weary and tired. She didn’t sound angry like she had expected she would, she sounded...dejected. Like she already knew the answer, but she just needed someone else to say it. Pinkamena hesitated in responding, but she knew what to say, there really was only one way to answer that.

“She’s in a coma.”

Applejack let out a loud sigh of relief, seeming to tear up.

“Oh thank god! I was afraid she had gone and got herself killed or somethin’! I know you told me she was alive, but I can’t help but have problems trusting the word of a complete stranger.”

She began to cough, as if just noticing her accent was peeking through.

“Anyway, what happened?”

Pinkamena was ready for this, this was the story she was going to go with, for as long as she had to.

“She was found unconscious in her home three months ago, and after she didn’t wake up for two days, we realized something was terribly wrong. Since she was one of Igneouss’ daughters who had yet to go through the test, she was given the best treatment by The Syndicate. She’s been in a coma for the past three months, but, about a week ago, she woke up. Which was good, until we realized something, she had no idea who she was. She could speak the English language and remember her name, but that was it. This leads us to believe the cause of her coma was some sort of blunt trauma to the head, maybe even causing a form of hemorrhage.

Her memories eventually came back, to an extent. She remembered her life overall, but when someone has amnesia, they become very impressionable. Since there were so many syndicate members around her, and more ‘incidents’ than I’d like to admit, her bubbly personality never returned, and she became what she did.”

Applejack’s eyes seemed to get sadder, but there was still happiness that her friend was alive, even if different.

“That’s...terrible, there’s nothing The Syndicate can do?”

“Everything that can be done has been, at this point, it’s up to her. Now, since you know the fate of your friend, can we get to business?”

Macintosh furrowed his eyebrows at her, not appreciating how direct she was being. But, Applejack was the first one to speak.

“Not yet, I need to ask one more question.”

Applejack looked at her, sitting back in the chair as she crossed her arms.

“Who are you?”

She tensed, that was a question she was expecting, but there were many ways this could go depending on how much Applejack knew about The Syndicate.

“Just a messenger, here solely to help discuss the situation and terms with The Silent Killer and how things will work with the next leader when they’re chosen.”

There was a tense silence in the room, Pinkamena waited to see her response. But when she saw the look of skepticism on her face, she knew this was going to be trouble.

“No, you’re not. I don’t know how ignorant you think I am, but even I can tell you aren’t a messenger.”

Igneous appeared behind Applejack, standing behind her as he looked at Pinkamena. The good thing about this mask is no one can see her face, so they couldn’t see how pissed she was at Igneous for showing up now! And how tense she was about Applejack, she was being more difficult than she’d like.

“Alright, if you’re so smart, tell me who you think I am.”

Applejack didn’t appreciate her snarkiness anymore than Macintosh did, Igneous watched with curiosity, seeming intent on just watching.

“You know too much to just be a messenger, and they wouldn’t send a messenger to meet with the leader of another crime organization when things are so tense, especially alone. I’ve been asking around, and it seems you lied to me about some things. The important one, is that a new leader was chosen, and that they're the ones who killed Igneous. And I asked myself,’What reason would they have to lie? It doesn’t make any sense.’. Unless…”

Applejack leaned forward, looking directly where the eyes would be on the mask, a confident smile on her face.

“You’re the leader of The Syndicate, and you lied to protect your identity!”

Igneous laughed, no one else being able to hear it but her. Pinkamena, while slightly nervous, sighed out of relief. She was ok Applejack knowing she was the leader, that was going to come out sooner or later. But If she had somehow figured out she was Pinkie, that was a can of worms she’d rather deal with after The Silent Killer.

“Why would I want to protect my-”

“I know who you are.”

Pinkamena’s words caught in her throat, this couldn’t be good.

“Igneous had four children, but only one who passed the test. She refused to be the next leader, why? I have no idea. But with Igneous dead and Inkie and Blinkie being missing, she would have no choice. Isn’t that right,”

Igneous jokingly began biting on his nails, waiting anxiously to see what she would say.

“Maud?”

Igneous began to howl with laughter, clutching the sides of his stomach as he literally rolled on the floor laughing. Pinkamena didn’t say anything, instead, she leaned forward slowly, laying her arms on the table almost threateningly.

“That is...correct. I’m actually impressed.”

Pinkamena said hesitantly, realizing that with the way the mask muffled her voice, she did sound a lot like Maud. Since this is the assumption Applejack has come to, Pinkamena decided to play along. As long as the mask stayed on, she had no issue with it, she was sure Maud didn’t either.

Applejack smiled slightly, but didn’t say anything. Instead, she slumped back in her chair, refusing to take her eyes off of her. Pinkamena didn’t say anything, she wasn’t going to break the silence this time. Applejack and Pinkamena stared at each other, Big Macintosh watched with silence. Igneous began to stand up beside Pinkamena, choosing now to stand behind her and watch. He wiped a fake tear from his eye as his laughter began to die down, when he noticed the tension, a smug smile came to his face.

“What happened to Inkie and Blinkie?”

Pinkamena felt a tinge of pain and anger, of all the questions she had expected her to ask, that wasn’t one of them. Even behind the mask and under the hood, she could tell how tense she was, she looked almost...upset. But, instead of a look of satisfaction like she expected, Applejack’s expression quickly changed to rage. She suddenly jumped up, knocking the chair she was in back.

“Oh no! You do not get to feel guilty! You could have told us something, anything! But no, you sat back and did nothing! I knew Blinkie and Inkie, before I even knew anything about The Syndicate. Weirdness seems to run in your family, but they were good people. I also know their dead, they’ve been gone too long, way longer than Pinkie was. What I want to know is, how did they die? Were they taken as hostages and killed anyway? Died in some terrible ‘accident’? Or did they fail this ‘test’ I’ve heard so much about?!”

Pinkamena was digging her nails into the table, making deep claw marks in them, she hadn’t even noticed when they had extended. She could feel the emotions bubbling inside of her, she felt the rage at Applejack’s words and accusations. But she could also feel the grief, whatever part of her from before everything was still there, and it wouldn’t let her get over the death of her sisters.

“That’s...not...what happened.”

Pinkamena could barely get the words out, having to bite the inside of her cheek to stop her from lashing out.

“Then tell me what happened! What excuse did Igneous use to justify their deaths? Or did he even try? Were you so afraid of what might happen if you speak up, you just let it happen? Just like you did with Pinkie?”

Pinkamena had to clench her fists now, her nails digging deeply into her hands, blood was dripping onto the table. She could feel her teeth extending, barely able to suppress a growl. She was shaking with anger, barely able to hold herself back. She could feel Igneous intently watching her, but there was no smug look on his face this time. Instead, his face was stone cold.

“Keep calm, you need to learn restraint. You’re not getting any help this time, if you don’t learn how to control yourself, you have no future as a leader.”

Big Macintosh was also watching her, but more out of concern. But Applejack didn’t, and if she did, she didn’t care.

“Do you even know? Or do you even care what happened to them, to Pinkie? You could have helped them! You could have saved them! You could have done something, the fact that you didn’t makes me sick! You might as well have killed them yourself!”

That was it, the final straw. The pain and grief she felt were quickly overshadowed by seething rage, as were Igneouss’ attempts to calm her down. She jumped forward, going over the table towards Applejack. But Macintosh expected this, she suddenly rammed into her shoulder first, his brute strength knocking her off the table. She quickly got up, he was faster than she was expecting for someone so big. Before she could get on her feet, he put his foot on the edge of the table and pushed it forward, hitting her directly in the chest. He put a lot of force behind that kick, because the table cracked a few ribs, and pushed her against a wall.

“You fuckin-”

Before Pinkamena could push the table off, there was a loud gunshot that came from Applejack, the same gun she had pulled on her back at the tree. Applejack shot her in the left shoulder, standing where the table was. Pinkamena felt the immense burning pain, but refused to cry out, Blake had taught her better than that. Before she saw the wound start healing, she covered it with her right hand, also trying to stop the blood flow, which had already seeped through her clothes and dripped down on the table.

“Don’t move, I don’t care what consequences it will have, I will kill you.”

Applejack said coldly, as she walked forward and put her boot on the edge of the table and shoved it deeper into her chest, the sound of Pinkamena’s ribs cracking was almost audible, but she didn’t so much as grunt, she knew how to take pain. Applejack put the gun directly in her face, pointing it between the eyes of her mask. She looked down the barrel of her gun, her eyes unforgiving and angry, a look that made Pinkamena almost afraid. She wasn’t sure how good her healing factor was, but she didn’t want to test getting shot in the head.

“You know what? I take it back, I don’t think you’re the leader. The leader of the biggest crime organization wouldn’t be stupid enough to come here alone, and they especially wouldn’t be stupid enough to try to kill the leader of another because they were provoked! I hated Igneous, but at least he wasn’t stupid.”

“Eeyup.”

Igneous too seemed to agree, as he was looking at Pinkamena with an immensely disappointed and ashamed look. The hole in Pinkamena’s shoulder was quickly closing, but the bullet was still lodged in, she was using her fingers to dig it out, but she couldn’t help wincing when she did. Luckily, the burning pain seemed to calm her down. Either that, or The Whispers decided to help her. But she doubted that since she didn’t feel that numbing cold she was becoming so familiar with, somehow focusing on the pain made her rage simmer down.

“You know what else? I’m beginning to doubt you’re Maud too. When Pinkie disappeared, I personally confronted her, there was no way The Syndicate wasn’t involved, and Igneous would piss himself in front of the entire city before he told me anything he didn’t have to. And, despite how aggressive I was, that girl never budged. And believe me, there were no boundaries, I got as personal as I could, but she didn’t so much as flinch! I swear, there’s something wrong with that girl if she can keep that same blank expression and tone like that all the time, I’d almost say she didn’t feel emotions at all. So, the fact that you lost your composure like that, means either you’ve changed a lot, or you’re not Maud.”

Pinkamena could feel the bullet coming out, but she needed to take it out slowly, or she risked hitting an artery. She just needed a few more moments, she realized now that her outburst was stupid and that killing Applejack and her brother would cause dozens of problems, not even mentioning the crushing guilt.

“Take off the mask.”

That is not a line she needed to hear right now.

“Why?”

“That’s Blake’s mask, he used to wear it when we had sex because he liked it. He had some strange obsession with it, but I can’t really judge him since I feel similar about my lasso. The fact that you’re wearing it means he’s more than likely dead, or gave it to you as some sort of joke. So, I wan-

“Wait! You had a relationship with Blake?”

The disbelief, surprise, and anger in her voice were obvious, even muffled by the mask. For a few seconds she stopped pulling the bullet out, there were just so many things wrong with that. Macintosh gave a disapproving glare at his sister, but said nothing, it was clear he didn’t approve of Blake any more than she did. But instead of answering her question, she felt the blunt end of the pistol as Applejack pistol-whipped her.

“Do not try to change the subject. Take off your mask, now!”

Pinkamena was finding it very difficult to restrain herself, but getting hit caused her to jerk her hand forward reflexively, causing her to force the bullet out. She was extremely lucky she wasn’t shot somewhere important, but that might have been intentional, she didn’t know how good of a shot Applejack was.

“Yeah...no.”

Whether it was because they weren’t expecting her to recuperate so quickly, or they didn’t think she’d be strong enough to flip a table. Either way, the shock on their faces was evident when she did just that, with one hand, the one connected to the shoulder she’d just been shot in. Even she was slightly impressed by her own strength, she really needed to ask Discord about just what she was capable of as a chimera. She flipped it faster than Applejack could react, the table knocking her back and the gun out of her hands. She was now laying on the ground in front of her, the gun sliding a few inches away from her hand. The table landed a few feet away, farther than she anticipated it would. Before Macintosh could react, Pinkamena pounced forward, slamming her foot on Applejack’s forearm when she started reaching for the gun, which Pinkamena used her other foot to kick away. She wrapped her left hand around AJ’s neck, barely letting her breath.

“You take one more step, and I will snap her neck.”

She warned him, stopping him from trying anything. His fists were clenched in anger as he could do nothing, unable to help his sister. But then they released when an expression of surprise came onto his face, then a smug smile that reminded her too much of Igneous.

“Why are-”

She didn’t feel the pain, not at first. She heard the cutting of fabric and flesh, she felt something foreign enter her body and then leave in a split second, then she felt the blood rushing down her back. She let go of Applejack and stood straight up, feeling slightly woozy from the blood loss. She turned her head as far back as she could, which wasn’t as far as she’d like. Then, when she saw the deep gash in her back stretching from her right shoulder to her left hip, cutting through her clothes and almost into her spine, she felt the pain.

The first thing she could compare it to is when Blake was cutting her with a needle when her nervous system was sensitive, except all the little cuts were turned into one big and deep slash. She cried out in pain for a few seconds, but stopped herself by biting her tongue. Compared to some of the things she went through, this was tolerable. Thanks to the healing, the pain was quickly subsiding as the wound healed, though it was a lot slower than most because of its size.

Then she saw the perpetrator, not exactly what she was expecting. At first, she thought it was Juno, but quickly realized that wasn’t the case. This person was noticeably smaller than him, maybe coming up to her chest. They were dressed completely in black, not kevlar like Juno’s, more like a full body suit with holes cut out for the eyes, which she couldn’t make out. The thing she was attacked with looked like something out of a medieval movie, a claymore sword was wielded in their hands, blood dripping from it. The wielder didn’t seem to have any problem wielding it, despite the sword being almost as big as them.

“Oh, I’m going to kick your ass for that!”

Pinkamena leaped towards the figure, who seemed to flinch, not expecting her to move so quickly after being cut like that. But, they still jumped back, just barely avoiding Pinkamena. They swiftly raised the sword over her head, bringing it down just as fast towards Pinkamena’s arm. But Pinkamena was faster than them, she dodged the sword with ease, moving quickly to the left of them. She punched them in the face while grabbing the sword, ignoring the pain as it cut into her hand. She pulled the sword out of their hands, their grip was strong, but hers was stronger. She tossed the sword to the side, and then grabbed them by the neck. Lifting them into the air and slamming them into the ground, getting a sense of satisfaction when she heard them yelp in pain.

She raised her hand, feeling them turn into claws almost eagerly. She was about to end this person’s life, when Applejack stopped her, grabbing her hand with hers. She turned to Applejack, angry that she was stopped. But then she saw the look in her eyes, not anger, but fear.

“Please...she’s my sister.”

Pinkamena’s heart stopped, for just a moment, her bloodlust seeming to disappear. She looked down at the figure below her, hesitantly leaning down and looking into their eyes. They were a beautiful shade of gamboge, though that was harder to tell from how constricted they were out of fear, their erratic breathing was further proof of this. There was only one person she knew with eyes like that, Apple Bloom. Pinkamena retracted her claws, stepping back from both of them. Applejack silently thanked her, and proceeded to help Applebloom up.

As soon as she got up, she hugged Applejack, seeming to be very relieved. She pulled down the face suit a bit around her face, allowing her mouth free.

“Sis! I’m so glad yer-

Applejack silenced her by raising her hand, she seemed to also be relieved, but also really angry.

“Don’t say anything, you are in a lot of trouble! Big Mac will be taking you home, he’s going to tell Granny, and she’ll sort you out.”

Applebloom looked scared, but instead of saying anything, she just dropped her head in shame. She walked up to Macintosh, who seemed to hesitate in leaving her sister with someone who just tried to kill her.

“I’ll be fine, just go. There won’t be any more violence between us, right?”

Applejack asked Pinkamena, who hesitantly nodded. Macintosh put her arm around Applebloom’s shoulder and walked out, keeping his eyes on Pinkamena until he was out of sight. There was an awkward silence, Pinkamena and Applejack were standing beside each other, facing away from each other, but not saying anything. It was Pinkamena who broke the silence.

“So, your sisters an assassin?”

Applejack snorted, shaking her head with an almost proud smile on her face.

“Assassin in training, she started about a week ago. She learned how to use some things and she started learning how to be quiet, but god knows where she got a sword and learned how to use it! I guess when she heard I was meeting with someone from The Syndicate with Macintosh as my only guard, she got worried and came here. I have a first aid kit, if you-”

She turned around and looked at her back, wanting to see just how bad she was injured. Her eyes widened in shock when she saw there wasn’t one. The only indication that it even happened was the diagonal cut across her clothes, and the dried blood around it. But the skin underneath was fine, no scars or anything underneath, it looked perfectly normal. Luckily for Pinkamena, none of her pink hair could be seen. Then a look of comprehension formed on her face, and slight fear.

“You’re one of those chimera things, right?”

Pinkamena turned around, now facing Applejack. She wasn’t really surprised that she knew, more curious.

“How do you know about chimeras?”

Applejack looked away, seeming to recall an unpleasant memory, one that made her afraid.

“We tried to kill Igneous once...once, a really long time ago when my parents were in charge. It seemed like it would be easy, he always came alone. But, to be safe, both my parents met with him, along with several others. They were armed and ready, they chose the best they had. And...he tore them apart!

She visibly shivered as she nearly screamed, tears of grief and anger began running down her face.

“They shot him until his body was riddled with holes, and then he got back up and laughed! He ripped my parents apart like toys! And he did the same thing with everyone else there! He ripped them apart like a wild animal, and the whole time, he had a smile on his face, like it was the funnest thing he’d ever done! And you know what he did after that? He cut off their heads and sent them to us! And guess what else? He set up a camera before we got there and recorded it! Big Macintosh was in the military at the time, and Applebloom had been born just a month ago! So it was up to me, a nine-year-old girl, to learn how to lead a crime organization! Along with school, taking care of my infant sister, and all with that with just losing my parents! So I’m quite familiar with your kind, the kind that murdered my parents!”

Applejack screamed in Pinkamena’s face, unable to hide her rage and grief, or the tears that were falling down her face. Pinkamena could feel her rage for her father flaring up again at this revelation, but there was no point, she had already killed him.

“I’m the one that killed Igneous.”

Applejack reeled back, looking back at Pinkamena in disbelief.

“What did you say?”

“I said,”

Pinkamena slowly raised up her arms, putting her hands in the hood on her head. She put her fingers under the mask, slowly pulling it off. Her straight pink hair stayed in the hood as the mask came off, revealing her face. She let out a sigh of relief, that thing was really hard to breathe in. She looked at Applejack, her face being as emotionless as can be, despite the rage she felt for her father for murdering her friend's parents and putting this kind of responsibility for it. How many lives had he destroyed?

“I’m the one who killed Igneous, I’m the current leader of The Syndicate.”

At first, Applejack looked shocked, then a little bit relieved. But the one look she didn’t want to see, was pity.

“Pinkie...I-”

“No! Do not say you’re sorry! I’ve had enough of that from Sunset, I don’t want your apologies, and I definitely don’t want your pity! So please, can we just not talk about it?”

Applejack seemed offended, she wasn’t the type to just let things go like that.

“Not talk about it? Oh no! You need to start giving me answers missy! I don’t care if you are the leader of The Syndicate now, you are my friend first! So start talking!”

Applejack demanded, her stubbornness one of the few things that remained true to her character. This only further frustrated Pinkamena.

“I really don-”

“If you don’t tell me everything that happened since you disappeared, I can promise you, there is no chance of any kind of deal between us!”

Pinkamena almost scoffed, but when she saw how serious Applejack was, she decided against it. She glanced to the right of Applejack, seeing Igneous propping himself against a nearby crate with his arms crossed.

“Oh no, I’m not helping you here! This is your problem, you decide what you want to do.”

Igneous declared, and then proceeded to fade out of existence, seemed he’s had enough for today.

“You’re really persistent about this, huh?”

Applejack’s only response was to cross her arms and stare at Pinkamena, waiting for her answer. Pinkamena sighed again, this time out of annoyance, this was going to take a while.

“Okay, but it’s a long story. I’ll start when Igneous came to my house after my birthday party…”

Despite the trouble this was going to cause, somehow, Pinkamena felt like she wasn’t going to regret this.

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Ok, so you had sex with Blake because you liked his accent?”

It took somewhere around thirty minutes, but Pinkamena told Applejack everything. From the woods, to Blake, to Discord, and finally when she killed Igneous. Ok, almost everything. She may have left out the fact that Blake turned her into a bloodthirsty sadomasochist who enjoys taking human lives, that isn’t a necessary detail. Neither was the one million bounty she set on herself. She tried to tell her about The Whispers, but it seemed they really didn't want that. Anytime she tried to form the words, she got a massive headache, and it got worse the more she tried.

When she finished saying all she could, Applejack hugged her. It was almost strange to feel such nice physical contact after how the last three months had treated her, the warmth and kindness she felt were almost suffocating. But, afterward, they managed to make peace between The Apples and The Syndicate. This time, hopefully, a permanent one.

“I didn’t know I was attracted to accents until I met him! There was just something so sexy about it! He always came with Igneous whenever I met with him, one day he came up to me and we started talking, then things escalated. At the time, I thought he was just a bodyguard. So, we had sex fairly often, but it was never romantic. And when I found out who he really was from Big Mac, I stopped it immediately. Now, knowing what he did to you, I feel disgusted with myself!”

They were now standing outside of the warehouse, Pinkamena had put the mask back on. They were standing beside the remaining car, Macintosh had used the other to take Apple Bloom home. While sex wasn’t something they usually talked about before, telling Applejack everything and being part of The Syndicate changed things between them, though they were still friends. Applejack spit on the ground in disgust, a shameful look on her face.

“It’s not your fault, he’s very charismatic and dangerously good with people. He could probably talk a nun into doing anal.”

The joke made Applejack smile, but she still had a guilty look on her face.

“I still feel bad for it, makes me feel...dirty.”

She mumbled, it was clear what Pinkamena told her made her feel more upset about Blake.

“Listen, I shouldn’t have to say this, but I just want to be sure. Please don’t tell any-”

In the distance Pinkamena heard a gunshot, she could hear the bullet coming their way. But it was extremely muffled, it probably had a suppressor on it, her increaed hearing was the only reason she heard it. Pinkamena tackled Applejack to the ground, landing behind the car. The bullet scraped her hand, and from the feel of it, it belonged to a sniper.

“What in tar-”

Pinkamena put a finger to her lips, telling Applejack to be quiet. Slowly, she leaned around the corner, looking for the source of the shooter. She could smell the gunpowder, this helped Pinkamena locate the shooter. They didn’t seem to be that far, assuming she was correct. They were shooting them from the rooftop across the warehouse, the one she had been on before coming. She turned the corner, thanks to improved eyesight that bordered on night vision, she was able to see them.

When she was talking to Discord about The Silent Killer, he showed her pictures one of their agents were able to get. Someone dressed in all black, carrying a large sniper rifle on their back. The same figure was now on the rooftop across the warehouse, the same sniper rifle pointed at them as they lay down, prepared to shoot them again.

And this time, they didn’t intend on missing.

Chapter Four: Incursion.

Author's Note

Sorry this took so long, school and stuff. But it's summer now, so I'll be able to upload a lot more often, hopefully.

Chapter Four: Incursion.

“Applejack, I need you to listen to me very closely.”

Pinkamena said as she ducked back under the car, preventing The Silent Killer from seeing her, even though they knew where they were. Whether The Silent Killer was here to kill one of them, or it was just a coincidence, she didn’t know. What she did know, is that the heartbeat of The Silent Killer was the same as the heartbeat from earlier. More than likely, they followed her here.

“There is a sniper on the roof across from us, they are locked in on our position. More than likely, they’re here for me. This is my problem, I don’t want you involved.”

The bullet wound on her hand was already healing, a benefit of her healing factor, but the amount of blood she’s lost today is becoming a slight concern. She refrained from telling her it was The Silent Killer because she knew the kind of person Applejack is, and if the person who’s killed countless members of her family was here, no words would be able to convince her to leave.

“Now listen here! I’m not going to leave my friend to-”

She stopped talking when she looked down, seeing Pinkamena’s nails that had turned into claws, the same kind of claws that took her parents’ lives.

“Pinkie, are you-”

“You need to leave, not negotiable. I put a bounty on myself to earn the temporary trust of The Syndicate. Stupid, I know, you can yell at me about it later. This is no doubt someone who wants to claim the bounty, or just wants to kill me because of some grudge against The Syndicate. I’m serious AJ, get out of here, I don’t need or want your help.”

Despite how calm she was acting, Pinkamena could barely contain herself. This was The Silent Killer! The vigilante skilled enough to kill dozens of criminals, even ones from The Syndicate, and hasn’t been caught! Even Igneous had trouble with them! She knew she’d have to hunt them down and kill them eventually to earn the more permanent trust of The Syndicate, something she had been looking forward to, but not this soon!

“Well...alright, if you’re sure you’ll be okay. But how am I supposed to leave without being shot?”

Applejack asked, noticing that Pinkamena had clenched her hands into a fist, the claws digging into the palm of her hands drawing blood. She seemed to be slightly shaking, but she didn’t know if it was from fear, she was almost afraid to ask.

“Easy, well, for you. I’m going to put myself out in the open and let them shoot me, I should be fast enough to move so the bullet won’t hit anywhere vital, though it’ll hurt like a bitch, fingers crossed it’s not hollow point. You should have enough time to get in the car, they’ll be focused on me.”

“Wait! What about after I’ve left? You won’t have any cover, what’s stopping them from shooting you again after I’m gone?”

Pinkamena unclenched her first, extending her bloody claws, the wound already healing. Her shaking stopped and she turned towards Applejack, she couldn’t see it, but she knew she was smiling.

“That’s when the fun begins.”

Without saying another word, Pinkamena jumped out from behind the car, running towards the sniper. And, again, thanks to her improved senses, she smelt and heard the shot before it hit her. She was able to shift her body fast enough to where it hit her right shoulder instead of her head, the bad news is, this hoodie now had two bullet holes and a huge gash in the back of it, she liked this hoodie too. The shot was a lot stronger than the revolver, it actually knocked her back onto the ground, a huge bullet wound in her shoulder. But since the bullet passed through her, it began healing, though there was already a considerable amount of blood on the floor.

“OK...not hollow point, still fucking hurts!”

Pinkamena began to slowly get up, her hand over the closing hole on her shoulder. Applejack quickly opened the door to the car and got in, starting the car up. But before she could, Pinkamena heard the gun go off again. It hit the window of the driver's seat, easily breaking through it and just barely grazing her, shards of glass falling on her lap and in the seat around her.

“Go! Now!”

“Don’t have to tell me twice!”

Applejack drove away, The Silent Killer seeming to let her go, since they didn’t shoot at her anymore. Pinkamena pulled her hand away from the hole, it was healed enough to stop bleeding too much. She didn’t hesitate to begin running towards the building, barely dodging another shot as she felt it whizz past her ear. She put her claws in the spots between the bricks, it was barely able to hold her, but it was enough to let her climb up. She could feel her claws threatening to break each time she pulled them out and put them in another spot, but she ignored them, focusing instead on climbing up the building.

When she reached the top, like a lion to its prey, she pounced on the rooftop with her arms extended in front of her. But there was no target, instead, she just landed on the rooftop. It was darker up here than before, she was barely able to see, it made her question how The Silent Killer was able to shoot them. But thanks to her improved eyesight, she was able to see almost as if it were the middle of the day.

But she didn’t need her sight to feel the barrel of a sniper rifle against the back of her head.

“Not sure how you climbed up here so fast, but you made my job a lot easier.”

The Silent Killer said, their voice was extremely distorted, making it impossible to tell gender or emotions. The mask they were wearing must have had a voice changer in it, but that was fine, they wouldn’t need to talk after she ripped their throat out.

Pinkamena quickly turned around and pushed the barrel away faster than The Silent Killer could react, but they still fired the gun beside her head. Even though it had a suppressor on it, the sound of the gunshot right beside her with her heightened hearing still caused a sharp high pitched ringing in her right ear.

Like the picture, The Silent Killer wore all black, but it wasn’t one suit like she was expecting. They wore a dark black leather suit, but with the shape of it, it was obvious they were wearing something under it. The suit cutoff at their neck where their mask started, it was a darker shade of black than the suit. It covered their entire head, not revealing any facial features. But there were two spots that were brighter and seemed to be see through from the inside of the mask, but not the outside, those were probably where their eyes were.

Pinkamena, ignoring the ringing in her ear, left hand clenched in a fist towards their face, her right hand still wrapped around the side of the sniper rifle. She had decided to retract her claws, she wasn’t sure if she would need them yet. Before her fist even reaches their face, The Silent Killer let go of the sniper and jumped back, barely dodging. Pinkamena didn’t give them the chance to dodge again, she landed on her left hand and let go of the sniper rifle, using her left hand to push herself forward.

But it seems the leather suit had a few tricks up its sleeve, they pulled a combat knife from a hidden pocket in their elbow, and began running towards her. But as soon as they got close, they slid past her, dodging under Pinkamena’s fist when she tried to hit her. They lodged the knife in the back of Pinkamena’s knee, forcing her to drop to her knees. They stood up and tried to kick her in the side of the head, but she caught it in her left hand stopping the kick almost effortlessly.

“Alright, you wanna fight dirty? I’ll fight dirty!”

Pinkamena grabbed their leg with her other hand, and with monstrous strength, swung her around and threw her across the rooftop. The Silent Killer barely caught themselves, flipping backwards and landing on their feet, sliding back a few inches and landing near the edge. Pinkamena gripped the handle of the knife and ripped it out of the back of her knee, tossing it to the side. Pinkamena faced The Silent Killer, both of them on the opposite sides of the rooftop, the sniper rifle being in the middle. Neither moved, both had their hands at their sides.

Pinkamena was the first to move forward, as she began to run towards The Silent Killer, letting her nails slowly turn into claws. But The Silent Killer didn’t move, even as Pinkamena got closer every second. When Pinkamena got about a foot away, she jumped forward, her claws pulled back as she prepares to cut her throat open.

But, with speed that impressed Pinkamena, The Silent Killer pulled a black desert eagle with a suppressor on it from another hidden pocket in her suit. They shot her in the stomach and then sidestepped, letting Pinkamena fall on the floor. She was able to stop herself with her hands, ignoring the pain in her stomach. But before she could do anything, The Silent Killer brought their leg up as high as they could, and then slammed it into her back, pushing her into the ground. They then pointed the gun down at her and shot her three times in the back, and put the gun back in the hidden pocket in their leg.

They crouched down and looked at the claws on her hand, picking up her hand and examined them.

“Weird. Guess you didn’t like to cut your nails.”

They let the hand drop back to the ground, losing any interest in them. They were more interested in who was behind the mask, they pushed her on her back, revealing the four bullet holes in her body and the pool of blood under her. They look towards the skull mask, and began putting their hand under it to pull it off. As they began to pull it off, they stopped when they saw the mouth. It was too dark to make out the color of the skin, but it was all too easy to see the lion-like teeth poking out from her mouth.

“Fangs? What the hel-”

Before they could say anything else or pull off the rest of the mask, they were able to see more of her teeth when her mouth curved into a sadistic smile. One of her hands suddenly came up and wrapped itself around their throat, the claws barely avoiding stabbing them. As If she hadn’t even been shot, she began to get up, lifting The Silent Killer off the ground as she held them by their throat. The smile never left her face, not even when she pulled the mask back over it. Steam was coming from the holes in her body as she used her left hand to pull the bullets out, not even flinching as she did so.

“What...are you?”

Pinkamena dropped the blood covered bullets on the ground, then she pulled her hand back, this time, she wouldn’t miss.

“Your worst nightmare.”

Her hand shot forward, stabbing them in the side. There was a satisfying squishing sound as her claws entered their flesh, but whatever armor they had underneath was strong, she was barely able to break the skin. But before she could pull out and try again, they wrapped their arms around hers under the elbow, locking it in place.

“Well, luckily for me,”

They pulled her arm up by the elbow, breaking the humerus in half, the broken part of the bone was now sticking out of her skin. They then brought up both of their feet and drop kicked her chest, knocking her back and off her feet, forcing her to both let go of their throat, and to pull her broken arm out of her. The Silent Killer landed on their feet, not even needing to put a hand over where they were stabbed since it wasn’t that deep.

“I don’t usually remember my dreams.”

Pinkamena held her arm, slowly getting up and moving towards The Silent Killer.

“You fucking bitch! Do you have any idea how much that fucking hurts?! I’m going to kick your ass for that.”

Pinkamena said angrily as she set the bone back in place with a sickening cracking noise, hot steam coming off of it as it started to heal. The Silent Killer extended their hand, waving their finger, taunting her to come.

“Don’t disappoint.”

Pinkamena started running towards them, not able to use her other arm just yet, the bone and muscles were still healing. But despite that, she was still faster and stronger than normal humans, and she was intent on killing them. She swiped at them, and despite how fast she was, they were able to duck under it, if only just barely.

They swiftly punched her in the stomach, the same spot they first shot her. The wound hadn’t fully healed yet, but Pinkamena had a lot of experience with pain, she knew how to ignore it. She tried to grab them by the shoulder, but there were impressively fast, almost as fast as her. They grabbed the arm that was broken and twisted it, halting the healing process, but Pinkamena used this to her advantage. She further twisted it, breaking it again. She unnaturally twisted her arm around theirs, and then tried stabbing them with her arm. But The Silent Killer was more than just fast, they were also nimble. They jumped over Pinkamena, holding onto her arm as they landed behind her. They pushed the broken arm against her back, then shoved their knee against her back, pushing her into the ground. They quickly pulled out the desert eagle again, pushing the barrel against the back of her head.

“Just fucking die already!”

But before they could shoot, Pinkamena headbutted the gun, causing it to go off and shoot the spot beside her head. She then brought her unbroken arm around and shoved her elbow into their side, causing them to let go of her broken arm for a second, their knee coming off for a moment too. She took that second to push herself up with her broken arm, the pain becoming unbearable, but she persevered.

“Fuck off!”

Pinkamena grabbed the desert eagle with her other arm, putting the hand over the barrel. The Silent Killer shot it again into her hand, putting a hole in it and covering the barrel of the gun in blood. Pinkamena didn’t give them another chance to shoot, she pulled the gun out of their hand and tossed it to the side. Then she shoved The Silent Killer off of her, though they remained on their feet. Pinkamena leaped forward, taking another swipe at her. But In the middle of it, her vision began to get blurry as she began to see three of them, causing her to miss. She landed on the floor of the rooftop, feeling a strong wave of nausea.

“What...jus-”

Before Pinkamena could continue, she threw up on the ground in front of her. It wasn’t entirely blood, but she could see bits of blood in it. She could also feel herself sweating profusely, her world began to spin as she was unable to push herself off the ground, no matter how much she tried.

“Well, I have no idea what the actual fuck you are, but it seems even you have a limit. You seem to have some sort of accelerated healing factor, and your pain tolerance is beyond impressive. But,”

The Silent Killer walked up to Pinkamena, who was barely able to hold herself up by her arms. They put their foot on the back of her head, easily able to push her back to the ground.

“Seems you’ve lost too much blood today, if I had to guess? I’d say you’re suffering from hypovolemic shock, judging from the blood in your vomit. I’ve shot you five times, stabbed you, and broke your arm, twice. Now, your healing factor might save you. But,”

Pinkamena slowly looked up at them, she saw several Silent Killers above her, pointing the desert eagle down at her.

“I don’t think it’s good enough to survive a bullet to the head.”

Pinkamena saw seven Silent Killers begin to pull on seven triggers of seven desert eagles, but before she could shoot, Juno appeared behind them and stabbed their hand with the combat knife they stabbed Pinkamena with, causing them to drop the gun.

“Maybe not, but let’s not find out.”

Juno pulled out his own knife and tried to stab them, but they weren’t letting him stab them again. They kept the knife in their hand, knowing that if they pulled it out, it would start bleeding profusely, and he wouldn’t give them the time to bandage up. But as The Silent Killer jumped back, they picked the desert eagle back up with their other hand.

The last thing Pinkamena saw before darkness took her vision, was Juno running towards The Silent Killer while they pointed the gun at them, she heard it shoot as she fell into unconsciousness.

Chapter Five: The Council.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Six: Bloody.

The first thing Pinkamena felt after he said those words was confusion, then immense pain in the back of her head and her spine after he pulled his arm back, her still in his grip clawing his arms to try to get him to let go, and threw her through the wall! The walls may have been made out of sturdy wood, but it was clear whoever this was, had no lack of strength, it was almost to the point of inhuman.

She lay on the floor on the other side of the wall, looking up at the hole she came through. Chunks of wood stabbed in her back, slight bits of steam coming from under her as they were pushed out and her body began to heal.

The behemoth of a man walked through the hole foot first, walking into the light and revealing the details of this person. Her assumption was correct, he was indeed around seven feet tall, maybe even taller. And he was huge, she could practically see the muscles bulging underneath his clothes, as if they were barely able to hold them in. He wore a large, black overcoat which was currently unbuttoned, revealing the white t-shirt he was wearing underneath, that had completely covered both of his arms. There was a big outline of body armor that she could see under his shirt, which meant he was wearing body armor. A pair of black jeans covered his large legs, and a pair of black steel-toed boots covered his feet. But, other than his massive size, there were two things about this guy that caught her interest.

The first was his face, more specifically, the lack of what she could see. His hair was in a spiked up buzz cut like a soldier would have, the color of it an almost white gray, like an old man would have. But she couldn’t make out any more details, due to the gas mask on his face. It was a dark black and covered his entire face, the only part visible was his green eyes behind the facemask. There was a red valve at the bottom of the gas mask to help him breathe, a blue canister on each side of it. The strange thing about this gas mask, was it seemed to release something out of the canisters each time he exhaled, she could tell because it was in sync with the rise and fall of his chest. It was a gas of some sort, but seems to evaporate soon after coming out of him. It was dark white, similar to the steam that came off of her when her body heals, but thicker, almost like fog. And she also wondered how his voice wasn’t muffled by the gas mask, or maybe he was just being loud enough that it didn’t sound like he was.

Then there were his hands.

His left hand, like the rest of his body, was huge! Easily able to crush a person’s skull like a grape. But it also had multiple scars on it, battle scars, if she had to guess.

But it was his right hand that caught her interest, and surprise.

It wasn’t a human hand, it wasn’t even made out of flesh. In the place of a human hand, there was a metal one, made out of carbon steel. It was the same size as his other hand, but unlike the human one, it wasn’t shaking out of rage, it was simply just clenched into a fist, moving only when he exhaled. That explained why he didn’t even react when she dug her claws into his hand, he couldn’t feel it since metal didn’t have nerves.

“Holy shit are you a cybor-”

Before she could continue, he stomped his foot on her left hand, the familiar sound of bones being crushed filled Pinkamena’s ears as she felt the brunt pain from her hand. She let out a short scream as this happened, but he didn’t give her the chance to do anything else. He quickly grabbed her by the throat, nearly crushing her windpipe as he lifted her up.

Then, he let go of her, and while she was still in the air, he hit her in the stomach with his robotic arm, sending her straight through the steel doors in the narrow hallway. Her spine shattering in the process, she was getting far too familiar with the feeling of having all her ribs being broken.

Since her windpipe was still healing, she was unable to make a single sound as her body slammed into one of the tables in the meeting hall. It got pushed back in the process, but it at least prevented her from being thrown any farther.

For whatever reason, Starlight had still been in the meeting hall, though this time it was only her in there. She had been sitting in a table a few feet away from where Pinkamena landed when she was thrown in, writing in a small, dark blue book, a journal of some sorts? It didn’t matter what it was, because as she looked up in surprise and fear when she saw Pinkamena slam against that table with enough force to push it back a couple feet, she immediately closed the book with the pencil still in it and put it in a pocket in the black vest.

Pinkamena tried to push herself up, but she could barely even flinch. She could move her hands, even the crushed one despite how painful it was. But the rest of her body wouldn’t comply. The pain in her back was beyond agonizing, the pain in her lower body due to all her ribs being broken was immense, but seemed pathetic in comparison. Her pain tolerance was high, but even this would make her whimper. Which she couldn’t even do since her throat was nearly crushed, all she could do now is make light wheezing noises as she breathed and tried to push herself off the ground. She was lucky she could even breath, it was surprising none of her ribs punctured her lungs and that she wasn’t drowning in her own blood right now.

“Pinkamena! What happen-”

“Stay back!”

His voice bellowed throughout the room as he walked through the steel doors he threw her through, stopping Starlight from getting up from the table.

“Michael? Why are you-”

“Stop. Talking.”

She closed her mouth quickly and could only watch in fear as Michael walked towards Pinkamena, his eyes filled with rage and focused only on her. Pinkamena could feel the steam come off her body and out of her mouth as her body rapidly tried to heal itself, the spine taking the longest. She tried her hardest to push herself off the ground, her eyes fading from crimson to baby blue as she looked at Michael getting closer and closer to her.

“Pathetic,” Michael said as he looked down at Pinkamena, who was barely able to push herself up on two arms. He then slowly rose his foot up and slammed it on her back, slowing down the healing of her spine, and slamming her back on the ground.

“You can’t even take a hit from me without something breaking, Igneous could take several of my punches and barely even flinch.”

A flicker of anger sparked inside her at his name, she begun pushing herself up again, raising his foot with her.

“How cute.” He said smugly as he raised his foot off her back, pulling it back as he kicked her in the ribs. He kicked her hard enough to cause her body to jump off the ground for a moment, then land back on it with a hard thump. She could do nothing as she coughed up blood, splattering on the floor before her.

“You know, when Igneous and I first fought, it actually did play out a little something like this. Except I was the one on the ground coughing up blood with broken ribs, though I didn’t have the benefit of a healing factor. But even then,” For a moment, the anger seemed to leave him as he turned to his mechanical hand. Then it returned as he clenched his fist, looking down at Pinkamena. “I put up a better fight than you.”

Pinkamena giggled quietly as she wiped some of the blood off her mouth, though it came out as quiet and hoarse since it was incredibly painful to talk and her throat was barely letting her do so. “He’s the one who took your hand, right? What, he catch you jerking off to-” Before she could finish, Michael punched her across the face, breaking her jaw and causing several teeth and blood to land on the floor in front of her.

“Your father took my hand off because I tried to kill him, specifically, how. Instead of challenging him like a man, I behaved like a coward and tried to poison him. And as I found out, your kind seem to have a resistance to it. Pissed off that I would resort to such a tactic, he cut off my hand. And on that day I swore I would kill your father, the toughest man I’d ever met, I pushed myself every day until I was at the point where I felt I could take him. So, you could imagine my surprise and anger when I heard that this,” He looked down at Pinkamena, his rage returning as he clenched both his fist. He pulled back his foot and kicked her in the ribs, this time hard enough to send her a few feet forward. Tumbling as she landed on the ground, on her side facing away from Michael.

“Puny!” Michael screamed angrily as he stomped towards her, picking her up with both his arms.

“Weak!” He said as he held her over his head with his arms, slamming her against the ground. She bounced once off the ground and landed a few feet away from him, barely able to make any sound. The fog seemed to be coming out more and at more distance, it also seemed to be turning darker, becoming almost black.

Michael looked down at her in rage, breathing heavily as he watched her desperately try to remain conscious. He raised both of his arms above his head, his fist clenched as he prepared to slam her, most likely ending her life.

“Little ant killed him! And for that, for taking away what was rightfully mine, I will end you!”

Michael started to bring down his arms, Pinkamena would have been unable to move out of the way in time. But Starlight, who had been watching fearfully, chose to intervene. She snuck behind him and wrapped her arms around his torso, grabbing on as tight as she could. Truthfully, that’s not what stopped him, there weren’t a lot of people strong enough to stop Michal from doing something he wanted to do. It was the act of her going out of her way to actually stop it, which was unusual since she hated conflict and usually did her best to stay out of it.

“Michael, stop! You’re going to kill her!”

Michael responded by moving his arms behind him and grabbing Starlight, prying her off of him with ease. He turned to her angrily, causing Starlight to take a few steps back fearfully, but she didn’t lose her resolve.

“Oh yeah? Why should I? She killed Igneous, who was mine to kill! And now she took the place of leader, but can’t even take down some bitch with an oversized gun? Do you really expect me to just follow someone like that?” Michael asked Starlight, as he practically trembled with rage.

“Yes! That is our job as The Council! We are supposed to guide the leader and do what is best for The Syndicate, personal feelings aside! Like it or not, she beat Igneous, and now she’s the leader. So you can’t jus-”

“Fuck the rules!” Michael shouted angrily, stopping whatever Starlight was going to say. “ I have given so much to this place, done everything I’ve been asked. But this?” He said shakily as he glanced back at Pinkamena, who was barely even awake as she breathed raggedly and lay beaten on the ground. “This is the first thing I’m going to have to say no to. And whatever consequences come afterward, I will face them!” The fog was still coming out of his gas mask more frequently, but had turned a little brighter, looking more gray now.

Whatever had been said after that point, Pinkamena was unable to tell. As her senses slowly began to dim, her body trying desperately to heal itself. She could do nothing but watch as Michael and Starlight argued, unable to hear what they were saying, but be slightly impressed that Starlight was getting him to stop attacking her at all, she really must have been good with people.

Pinkamena could feel the darkness consuming her, giving in and resting her eyes for a few seconds. Then she felt this feeling of something hard poking her forehead, making her slowly open her eyes. Igneous was standing in front of her, looking down at her with an almost bored look on his face. His left hand was in his pocket, while his right held a stick in it, which he was currently using to poke her. When he saw her eyes slowly open, a smile stretched on his face.

“Oh, good. You’re not dead.” He said as he tossed the stick behind his back, which, of course, never hit the ground as it seemed to disappear midair. Then, as if he didn’t have any interest in her at all, he turned around towards Michael and Starlight. Though Pinkamena still couldn’t hear what they were saying, she seemed to have no trouble understanding Igneous. “Listen to them, arguing like an old married couple. You know, they were in a relationship, once upon a time. Though they barely lasted three months after...you know what? That’s actually not my business.”

“What...do you want?” Pinkamena wheezed, barely having the energy to speak.

“What do I want?” He said to her, though he didn’t look away from Michael and Starlight. “Well, Igneous really wanted to fight Michael before he died, which is something I also would have liked to see. But, you killed him, so that can’t really happen. But you’re here, and you wouldn’t even be the second best option, but I don’t really have another option.” He glanced back at her. “So stop letting this guy toss you around like a child throwing a tantrum, and get up.”

Pinkamena tried to push herself off the ground with her hands, but her body, particularly her spine and ribs, weren’t ready to move yet. Her arms gave out and she fell back to the floor with a thud.

“I...I can’t. Even if I could, he’s stronger than me, I can’-”

“Don’t give me that!” Igneous said sharply as he turned his head and glared at her, a look of anger in his eyes that looked different than any kind she’s seen from him before. “Did having a couple dozens of peoples memories inserted into your brain make you forget?” He suddenly turned around, glaring down at her with a scornful look on his face as he clenched his face.

“You made a vow,”

For a moment, there was a flash of hatred, a burning loathing, but she wasn’t sure who at.

“When you were beaten and raped, when you were left on the cold ground, your body was broken and they didn’t even think you were worth killing, you made a promise to yourself.”

She felt that burning loathing again, but it lasted longer this time. And with it came a memory, a time burned into who she is. When those mercenaries, who were hired by her father, beat her to the ground. Then they beat her some more, they raped her, then they left her to die. And at that moment she had realized something, she had realized how pathetic she was.

How many times had she been pushed in a corner? How many times did she get out of it by herself? Not because of her friends, dumb luck, or otherworldly magic. But because she had been pushed too far, and decided to push back herself? Before then, none. She had depended on others to help her, always thinking she wasn’t strong enough. But at that moment, there was no one else. There was no one to help her, no one to stop him from killing her sister, killing her friends, no one but her. And she was tired of it, she was tired of being unable to do anything, being unable to push herself off the ground when no one else would.

She recognized this burning feeling in her now, it was self-loathing for forgetting the promise she made to herself, the promise to never be weak again.

“You promised you’d never let yourself be beaten down like that again, but look at where you are. First, you were nearly killed by some black bitch with a gun, now you’re on the ground, beaten and broken again. But this time, by one man with a grudge and a metal hand. Are you just going to lay there and do nothing? Or are you going to fight?”

Steam began to come from her body in more amount and more frequently than before, coming off not just where her injuries were, but her entire body. She slowly put her hands on the floor, small streams of steam coming off them as they got bigger and her nails slowly extended into claws.

“Because, from how you look now, it seems like you can’t even handle one guy. Are you really that insignificant? You may have passed the test, but it seems you aren’t worthy of us, or to even be alive.”

Pinkamena’s breathing became erratic as her jaw got bigger, making room for her now larger teeth, that looked similar to a lion’s teeth, but smaller. Her eyes were also changing, no longer fading from their usual crimson to blue. Instead, they were now a darker crimson, looking closer to the color black. They were also changing shape, the pupils no longer humans, but changing to slits like a snake. Her voice was also changing, becoming deeper and more demonic as her body shifted and changed.

“If you can’t handle one person, how can you expect to do anything? How can you expect to run this place? To protect your sister and your friends? To protect yourself?”

She continued to change, her body growing larger as it expanded, her clothes able to grow with her. Her skin also changed, but not to leather this time. Cracks began to form in her skin, the color of her skin changing to a bright red. It then began to harden, pieces of her skin falling where these cracks formed. Her skin was slowly turning into scales, this began to quickly spread over her entire body, even her hands. It reached her face, but stopped at her neck, reaching around to behind her ears and seeming to refuse to consume her face too, leaving her face and hair the same as previously. Pinkamena didn’t even seem to notice this, she only continued to growl in her demonic voice as she pushed herself off the ground.

“If you want to be strong, then you need to stop letting guys like him push you around. You have to fight every battle like your life and everything depends on it, because it does. If you die, everything you have been put through, everything you’ve done, your sisters death, will have meant nothing! So, get up,”

Igneous said as he stood up, turning around to face Michael and Starlight as he did, who were still arguing. Pinkamena was now on her feet, the steam coming from her body was now gone. All of her injuries were completely gone, and she now stood facing Michael, a sadistic smile on her face beginning to form as her reptilian eyes locked on to him, like a predator to its prey.

“And rip his heart out.”

That was the last thing Igneous said before he disappeared, fading away as soon as Pinkamena ran through him towards Michael. She was fast, even on just two legs, she would get to him in seconds.

Since Starlight could see behind Michael, she was able to see Pinkamena and warn him. But she was so fast she was almost a blur, the second she got a foot away from Michael she leaped into the air, preparing to pounce onto him.

“Behind you-” Starlight tried to warn him, but it was too late.

She landed on top of Michael, her right hand digging into his left shoulder as she sank her carnivorous teeth into his right shoulder. Michael yelped out of surprise and pain, she shouldn’t have been able to attack him like this so soon, even with her accelerated healing. But he’s fought Chimeras before, he knew how much speed mattered. He reacted quickly, ignoring the pain in his shoulders and quickly moving his arms above him. He grabbed the hand that was in his left shoulder by the wrist with his normal hand, and grabbed her by the back of the neck with his metal one, making sure to get a firm grip.

He quickly turned around while pulling her off of him, throwing her towards one of the tables. Her claws came out easily, he barely bled from the small puncture wounds in his shoulder. But pulling her teeth out of his other shoulder required more effort, and caused a bigger injury. Her teeth had sunk deep into his skin, nearly hitting bone. When she was forced out, she took a chunk of flesh with her, leaving a deep gaping wound where his skin used to be. Blood began gushing from the wound, running down his shoulder until it dripped onto the floor under him. He quickly put his hand over it to try to stop the wound, but his hand was soon coated in his blood.

Pinkamena, who had been thrown towards one of the tables with substantial force and her back facing the ground, only smiled. With acrobatic nimbility, she flipped herself mid-air. She then slammed her hands into the table she was being thrown at, a sound similar to nails against a chalkboard as deep claw marks were made into the table, but she managed to stop herself in the middle of the table on all fours. She didn’t look at Michael, she only stayed there with a sadistic smile on her face, staring at a spot on the table as blood dripped from her mouth.

Starlight could do nothing but watch in fear, her hands cupped around her mouth and her eyes widened in surprise.

“Wow...your meat is so salty and thick, your body is so much more muscle than fat, it’s a taste I could get addicted to!”

She said erratically as she looked at Michael, the eye on her right was constricted and the one on her left was dilated, adding to just how demented she looked. She then slowly stood up, forcibly removing her claws from the table. She stood up straight, her arms laying at her side lazily, the claws on her left hand slightly tinted In blood.

She then slowly opened her mouth, revealing most of her teeth had blood on them, especially the ones she had bit into him with. Then she opened her mouth a little wider, her blood covered tongue slipping out. And on it, was the saliva and blood covered chunk of flesh she took out of him, just laying there on her tongue as she hasn’t taken a single bite of it yet. And all the time she did this her wide, sadistic smile stayed on her face, and her gaze never wavered from Michael.

“Oh, how I’ve missed the taste of flesh!” She said somewhat muffled as she closed her mouth, her tongue and the meat on it slipping back into her mouth. She then closed her eyes as she began to chew, the sounds of her teeth tearing apart the meat was audible even from where Michael was. “And the best part?” She said with her mouth full, but no meat or anything came out, she wouldn’t let any of it go to waste. “The emotions I can taste and smell coming from it! All your rage, your guilt, your shame. But, my favorite emotion to taste?” She said as she swallowed, making a loud gulping sound as she did. Her eyes opened and locked onto Michael, but this time they were both focused. The look of bloodlust and ecstasy still evident.

“I love fear!” She nearly shouted as she glanced at Starlight, but returned her gaze to Michael.

Michael only continued to stare at her, not allowing his emotions to show. He hid his anger for her and shame for allowing her to sneak up on him behind a stone cold face.

“I see, I didn’t know you were able to transform, I had heard from Discord that you were able to reach a sort of halfway point. This was a miscalculation on my part, it doesn’t matter, I’ll still kill you.”

He lifted his bloody hand off the wound, causing the blood to gush out. He then ripped the cloth of the overcoat off his right arm, wrapping it around the wound and tying it, more or less stopping the bleeding. When he ripped the cloth off, however, he revealed to Pinkamena that it was more than just his hand that was metallic. His entire arm seemed to be made of the same material his hand was, reaching all the way up to his shoulder. There were scars where the metal and flesh connected, deep cuts and slashes. She couldn’t see wires or anything like she had expected, just metal melded with flesh, she was slightly curious what that felt like.

“My...you really pissed Igneous off. I wonder, if I were to rip that off, would it be just as painful as losing your real one?”

Michael kept his eyes locked onto Pinkamena, who simply stood on the table, blood dripping from her left hand and mouth onto it.

“Starlight, you need to go.”

He said, though he didn’t take his gaze off of Pinkamena. Starlight turned to him, her eyes still wide from shock and fear.

“What? I can-”

“I get your concerned, but you really need to leave, she seems just as intent on killing me as I her. And if you don’t leave, you might die. If I’m the one who kills you, it’ll destroy me. If she is, I’ll destroy her.”

“No! I won’t let you two just kill each other! I’m not-”

“Yeah, Starlight, you should go,” Pinkamena said bluntly as she hopped off the table, landing on the ground in front of it. The smile had not left her face, and her gaze had not left Michaels. “I’m going to choke this guy with his own entrails, if I’m feeling generous. You can watch if that’s what you’re into, but I don’t want a distraction. Besides, you might get to know me a bit too well if you stay, and I don’t even wanna know me. So, you might want to go.”

Starlight recoiled, not out of fear, but anger. She bit the corner of her lip, lowering her head and hiding her face.

“Why does everyone think I’m so weak?” Starlight mumbled angrily, as she clenched her fist in anger.

She then raised her head back up, looking at both Pinkamena and Michael. “I am not a damsel in distress! I can handle myself, I have been my entire life! And I am not about to let two of my friends kill each other over a fucking grudge! So I am going to stay right here, and make sure you two don’t die!”

Starlight screamed, panting slightly as she closes her eyes, trying to calm herself down. Michael had not taken his eyes off Pinkamena, who now had her gaze on Starlight curiously. Then, she shrugged as she looked back at Michael, her smile stretching a little wider as she clenched her fist, ignoring the pain as her claws dug into her hand and caused blood to drip from it onto the floor. She slouched down, preparing to leap forward any second.

“That’s cute, you think you can stop me.”

She rushed forward, almost faster than Michael could react. As soon as she leaped forward he jumped forward, sliding on his knees under her, but she had been ready for that. She unclenched her fist, steam coming from the palm of her right hand as it began to heal. Then she slammed the same hand against his mask, smearing her blood against it and blocking his vision. He reacted quickly, pulling back his metal arm, clenching his fist and swinging it upward, colliding with her stomach. The sound of several ribs cracking was heard as she was hit, but it would have been a lot worse if it hadn’t been for her scales. As she came closer to the ground behind him, she put her other hand in front of her and landed on it, using it to bounce off of and land on her feet.

Starlight could do nothing but watch as events almost faster than she can keep up with transpired in front of her.

Pinkamena leaped towards Michael as soon as she landed, a look that can only be described as sadistic excitement on her face. He quickly stood up and turned around, having heard the sound of her feet hitting the ground and then pushing her forward from behind him. He had figured out long ago that odds were, if he were fighting a chimera, they would try to take his sight or one of his other senses. In preparation to fight Igneous or any other chimera, he had trained his other senses. All he needed to do was survive long enough to wipe the blood off his mask, then he could take her down.

He wasn’t able to see her, so the best he could do was swing and hope it hit something. Which he did, then he felt that thing wrap its arm around his metallic one. The scales on her arms were harder than the rest, it made her arms feel really heavy and tough. It was tough enough to stop a punch from his metal arm, though the force behind it did stop her where she was. She took this opportunity to wrap her left arm around his metal one, locking it in place.

She then tried to stab him in the lung, but he must have been wearing some very tough body armor, she wasn’t even able to break through it and hit the skin. It got stuck in the body armor, and she struggled to pull it out. He took this opportunity to wrap his other arm around the one that was stuck in his body armor, his grip making sure she couldn’t get out, no matter how much she struggled.

“I’m impressed you’re able to stop my punch, but it doesn’t matter. I’ve got you trapped, now all I have to do is-”

He was interrupted when she headbutted him, then before he had the chance to do anything, she jumped up and slammed both her feet into his chest. She pushed against his chest, pushing him backward and her forwards. In the process she dislocated her right arm to get it out of his grip, her left one snapping at the elbow to do the same. As soon as she was out of his grip she jumped back, immediately putting her right arm back into its socket. Her smile still didn’t leave her face, she kept her gaze locked onto Michael, not even flinching from the pain she inflicted onto herself.

Michael regained his balance soon after he jumped back, taking the chance to wipe the blood off his gas mask so he could see properly. His eyes widened slightly when he saw Pinkamena across from him, more out of surprise than anything.

“You’d hurt yourself this much, just to get out of a situation?” He asked as he watched her push her arm back into the socket, his jaw tightening as he watched her.

Her smile widened as he asked that, moving her right arm around as it readjusted. “After everything I’ve been through, do you really think something like that would hurt?” She said as she glanced at her left arm, noticing how limp and loose her upper arm looked, she could even see where the bone broke under her skin. She quickly used her right arm to snap the bone back in place, looking back at Michael as she did.

“Besides, my wounds heal fast, yours don’t.”

Michael only watches as she moved her arms around, slightly impressed by both her pain tolerance and her healing factor. It was certainly faster than Igneous’, but that just meant he could hit her more.

“That might be true, but this body armor is made out of Silicon Carbide, one of the hardest materials known to man. I had intended to wear this for when I fought Igneous, but he’s dead. Cut and slash at me all you like, but you won’t be able to get through.”

He took another step forward, his confidence swiftly returning. He seemed to almost be waiting for her, as if daring her to make the first move.

“Can’t get through, huh?” Pinkamena seemed to ask herself as she looked down at her hands, specifically, at her claws. For a few seconds, her face went blank, as if she was trying to come up with a plan. Her smile quickly returned, however, as her claws seemed to slowly start retracting silently.

“Then I guess,”

She felt the scales on the rest of her body begin to leave, seeming to move through her body to her hands. The scales on her hands got thicker and bigger, the color even changing to a darker red.

“I’ll just have to hit you,”

She clenched both of her fists, the sound of her knuckles cracking could be heard even by Starlight, who was desperately trying to think of some way to stop both of them, but could barely do more than watch. Pinkamena tilted her head to the right almost like a dog, her grin widening more as she did, showing more of her carnivorous teeth.

“Really fucking hard!”

She suddenly jumped forward, being in front of Michael in seconds. She pulled back her right arm and tried to punch him, but he reacted quickly and put up both his arms to block it. When her fist connected with him, there was a blunt scraping sound as scales met metal. He was actually slightly impressed by the amount of force behind that punch, then he saw her other hand.

He had expected the sudden density increase in her hands would make her punches slower, but it didn’t! He’d seen chimeras turn their parts of their bodies into scales for defense, but he’s never seen them used offensively like this!

“You gotta be quicker than that!” She said as her left hand rammed forward, aiming for the area right under his arms. He wasn’t fast enough to stop it, and her hit collided. Some of the blow got absorbed by his body armor, but not enough of it. She hit hard, hard enough to knock the air out of him. He dropped his arms for a second, but that was all she needed.

She wrapped her right hand around his normal arm, pulling it down and jumping up towards his neck as she opened her mouth.

“I wonder what you’re tongue ta-”

Before she could finish, he seemed to bite something inside of his gas mask. Then a small compartment opened up on the front of the gas mask, shooting out a burst of small, clear, venom like liquid. It shot into both of her eyes, burning into them instantly. Smoke and steam irradiated from her eyeballs as the acid began to burn into them, causing her to drop to the ground on her knees, her scale hands covering her eyes, the tips of her fingers turning back to normal as she bit the inside of her cheek to prevent herself from screaming

“You cunt! What are you, a fucking clown?!” She said as she clawed at her eyes, ripping out the parts that the acid got into as it healed back.

Michael looked down at her and smiled, he had figured a chimera would go for his neck. As a counter, he built a contraption in his mask that shot a short burst of Sulphuric Acid whenever he bit on a button in his mask, but it depended on where he was aiming his face where and if it hit or not.

He only smiled as he raised his right leg, preparing to take advantage of her lack of vision.

Despite Pinkamena’s agonizing pain, she smiled.

Michael slammed his foot down, expecting to crush Pinkamena’s skull. His eyes widened when he saw her jump to the right effortlessly, his foot slamming into the ground. He swung with his right arm at her, but again she dodged it, seeming to read his moments without even being able to see.

“How are you-”

She slowly pulled down her arms, showing her face to him. Her eyes were destroyed, blood running down her face like tears. There were deep claw marks above her eyes, healing almost as fast as they were made. Parts of her eyes were clawed out too, some parts of it were even melted as they healed, steam coming out of them as they did. Her eyes were bloodshot, her pupils unable to focus as they kept changing between being constricted and dilated, her entire eye shaking as if she couldn’t keep her eyesight stable.

And even though she must have been in excruciating pain, she never stopped smiling.

“I can hear the sounds of your tendons and ligaments moving, I don’t need my eyes to know when and where you’ll hit me!” She said as she jumped forward, pulling back her right arm in an attempt to attack him.

But she was unable to see Michael smile, or his right arm moving faster than she could get to him.

She felt something cold and hard hit her like a train, pain erupted from the left side of her face as her jaw was shattered. her entire body getting whiplash as she was forced downward, her face colliding against the knee of Michael’s left leg as he slammed it against her. There was enough force behind his leg to knock her body back up, and gave him enough time to bring both his hands down on her back. She slammed into the ground, bouncing off of it with her spine broken. When she landed back on the ground, Michael didn’t give her the chance to react as he slammed his leg against her stomach, her scales protected her ribs from getting more than cracked, but she was still sent a few feet forward. But thanks to her scales absorbing the blow and adding to her weight, she wasn’t sent nearly as far as she would have been.

“It’s impressive and all that you have such great hearing compared to most chimera, but…”

He held his metal arm in front of him, though he knew she couldn’t see it, or the boastful smile he had on his face under his mask.

“This arm is almost entirely made out of metal, no bones, muscle, or tendons. It makes next to no sound, which means you ca-”

“Yew bogue buy jaw, yew badturd!” She slurred as she pushed herself up with her arms, her lower jaw loosely dangling from her face. Steam started coming from her back as she slowly pushed herself to her feet, her spine quickly healing itself. She turned her head towards Michael as she put her right hand under her chin, pushing her lower jaw up and connecting it back with her upper jaw, making a snapping sound as they did.

Michael watched in amazement as she pushed through the pain, ignoring it as if it were nothing, it almost made him respect her.

She slowly rose to her feet, moving her jaw back and forth as it readjusted. She seemed to start looking around, though her vision was still impaired. She could only make out blurry figures, the thing was, there was only one of them. Michael was several feet in front of her, but she couldn’t see Starlight anywhere. Maybe she had given up on stopping them and just left, though from the little she knew of her, that didn’t sound like something she’d do.

Oh well, she didn’t really care either way, just one less distraction.

“You know, when I fought Igneous,”

She said as she stood up, putting her hands around the bottom of her hoodie. She quickly lifted it upward above her head, tossing it to the side regardlessly.

“I was blinded by rage and grief, I did everything I could to kill him as soon as possible, I honestly got lucky when I did, his cockiness and confidence playing a huge role in my victory.”

The leather jacket under her hoodie was torn and ripped in some places, but was otherwise fine. The white t-shirt underneath had holes and tears in it, revealing her scaled skin underneath, that still seemed to be quickly healing in some places. There were also multiple bloodstains on it from prior injuries, it seemed there were more bloodstains and rips then there was a shirt. Parts of her pink, bloodstained bra could even be seen, along with a small, silver chain necklace with a golden, heart-shaped pendant at the end with a red jewel in it, seeming to be untouched.

Michael was slightly curious by that necklace, it didn’t fit the rest of her clothing, why was she wearing it?

“I didn’t really get the chance to test myself out, you know? My body collapsed soon after, and when I fought The Silent Killer, I had neglected my body to the point of barely functional. That won’t happen again though, not if I can help it. But now?”

The scales on her body began to fade away, her skin slowly turning into the same leathery texture as when she first transformed, her nails extending into her claws. Her body was now a lot lighter, and a lot faster. Some of her scales fell off and landed on the ground, while other bits just faded away.

“You’re not stronger than Igneous, though I really don’t know how strong he, or you really are. But, I’m in no rush to kill you, the only thing motivating me is my urge to end your life! So, I can take my time, I can let loose. I found someone I can play with, but, best of all,”

She jumped forward, a lot faster than before now that her scales weren’t weighing her down. She was soon behind Michael, her left hand dripping blood after cutting deeply into his left arm. She might not have been able to cut through his body armor, but there were plenty of parts that weren’t covered.

“I can finally fight someone that I don’t give a shit about, with nothing stopping me!”

Blood gushed from the cuts in his right shoulder, causing him to put his hand over it to stop the bleeding. He quickly turned around, only for Pinkamena to have suddenly disappeared.

“I can move faster than you can keep up with!” He suddenly heard Pinkamena say from the right, though she attacked from the left, her claws scraping against the metal. For a moment he was barely able to see her, his eyes struggling to keep up with her.

But even though he was injured, he kept his cool. There was even a small grin, as if he still had an ace up his sleeve.

Pinkamena suddenly came from the left, swiping her claws at the side of his face. But, just as quick as she was, his metal arm grabbed her wrist, stopping her where she was. The smile on Pinkamena’s face was gone, replaced by confusion. He then tightened his grip, lifting her off the ground and pulling her over him, slamming her onto the ground beside him.

He then twisted her wrist, breaking her hand with ease. But she didn’t seem to acknowledge the pain, she ignored it as she looked up at Michael, almost surprised at what had just happened.

“How-”

“Wanna see something cool?” He asked as he leaned his face down to her, a chilling tone in his voice as he smirked at her.

His left eye began to change color, changing to a darker yellow. The sclera changed to yellow too, the pupil changing size, shifting between large and small. The pupil had a gray line around it, the pupil being a dark yellow, while the sclera being a brighter yellow.

“I realized after fighting my first chimera that the average human can’t beat a chimera, not even at their best. So, while Discord was fixing my arm, he was talking about how he’d been playing around with the idea of cybernetic enhancements. You see, my original left eye was a lazy eye, which for someone who fights as much as me, it was somewhat of a hindrance. So, I offered to be a test subject. He cut out my eye, and replaced it with this one. It’s really high maintenance, and you wouldn’t believe how itchy it can get sometimes. But for the ability to see things faster than the normal human eye can?”

He slammed his foot on her elbow, nearly shattering it on impact. But Pinkamena still didn’t flinch, a smile even began to form on her face as he did.

“Easy trade.”

Pinkamena slowly turned her head to the right, looking at her broken wrist and the foot on her arm, slight streams of steam coming off of it. But she didn’t seem worried or panicked, if anything, she seemed almost excited as her smile seemed to spread even more, unable to stop herself from letting out a quiet chuckle.

“You just keep surprising me!” She said as she stabbed through his knee with the other claws, the blood covered claws coming out on the other side, causing him to kneel down on his other leg. He grunted loudly, bringing his other arm down on hers. The second it made contact she jumped forward, sinking her teeth into his arm.

He almost screamed as she did, causing him to quickly let go of her broken wrist with his metallic arm, wrapping it around her head and trying prying her off of his arm, but she only seemed to sink her teeth deeper into his arm.

She took this moment to move around her other arm, the bone quickly fixing itself. In seconds it was fixed, steam began rising off her right arm as the scales flared up again, but instead of the whole arm, it was just her hand, making the transformation faster.

He brought his metallic arm over his head, preparing to slam it against her skull in an attempt to break her teeth. In this instance, Pinkamena powered down her left arm, her claws retracting into normal nails as the rest of her arm turned into what it was. She somehow transferred this into her right arm, making it bigger and stronger than it normally was. She never learned how to do this, it just felt...natural to her. Kind of like how this entire transformation stuff has been. Was it instinct? Or did The Whispers play a role? Right now, she didn’t really care.

“I’m going to put you down like the animal you are!” He shouted as he brought his fist down, not even noticing the change in size of her arms.

She quickly moved her hand above her head, focusing the scales on it to make them stronger and thicker. There was a loud thunk as Pinkamena stopped his hand, not even looking up at him as she did. He looked down at her in surprise, as she slowly pulled her teeth out of his arm, her teeth coated in blood.

“That’s...not...for a newborn? How do you already-”

“What can I say?”

Pinkamena licked some of the blood dripping off her lips, pushing herself up off the ground. Michael brought up his other arm, severely injured and bleeding profusely, but he did his best to ignore it, even though he was quickly becoming nauseous due to the blood loss. He slammed his other arm onto her hand, she flinched, but she continued to push herself up. Due to the blood loss and injuries his left arm has taken, he’s not able to hit as hard as he usually could.

Pinkamena suddenly jumped upward, tossing his arms above his head briefly. In those few seconds, she punched him in the stomach in the same spot as earlier, causing him to cough up blood. She quickly kicked his other legs, causing him to collapse on both his knees.

“The voices in my head are pretty good teachers, and I’m a quick learner.”

She pounced forward, forcing Michael on his back, slamming her knees onto his arms, pinning him to the ground. She seemed to do the same thing with her left leg that she did to her right arm, powering down her right leg and transferring it to her left. Though not nearly as much, she needed more of it to keep the metal arm down, but even though his left arm was weakened, she still needed more than she had normally to keep it down.

“You know, there’s something I’m a bit curious about something.”

She sat on his chest, looking down at him with a grin almost playfully. Her arms changed into the forms they were before, but this time there was no scale or leathery skin, it became normal again, even the size was the same as it was normally. The only difference was her claws were still there, the rest of her body seemed to slowly be returning to normal. With the exception of her teeth and crimson eyes.

“What would happen,” She said as she slowly brought her hands down to Michael’s face, unable to do much more than look up at her, struggling desperately to get up. She slowly put her hands behind his head, her sharp claws cutting his face even by just grazing it.

“If I were to take off this mask?” He looked up at her, still desperately struggling to get out from under her, but his face and voice still seemed considerably calm. Though that was more of because he didn’t want her to see how surprised and worried he was.

“It would kill me, quite quickly, with little pain.”

Pinkamena frowned disappointedly, rolling her eyes as she suddenly pulled her hands back.

“Pfft! Boring! No quick deaths, not for you. No, I know exactly what I’m going to do to you.”

She slowly lowered her hand, the claw coming from her point finger barely poking his adam's apple, bits of blood dripping down her claw.

“I think you deserve the same kind of death I gave Igneous, except…” She slowly dragged the claw down his neck, causing him to gulp as she did. She slowly dragged her claw down to his chest, stopping when she got to his heart.

“I think I’ll take my time with you.”

She slowly began cutting into the t-shirt, though she noticed the body armor was indeed impossible to get through by just slashing, she would still be able to get through by applying just enough pressure.

“I’m going pull out your heart, slowly, and show it to you. Maybe even play around with your insides for a bit, see just how much of you is real.” She said sadistically as she put her other hand on his chest in the same spot, applying pressure with all claws, slowly ripping a hole in that spot.

What she didn’t notice, was Michael’s metal arm moving around in the pocket in his pants, pulling out a small syringe, filled with a dark red liquid.

“Do you think the body could stay alive after the removal of the heart, even for just a few seconds?” Pinkamena asked as she strained to tear apart the body armor, showing his scarred skin underneath.

“Don’t know, I don’t intend to let you find out.” Michael said as looked up at her, moving his metal arm closer to his neck

“Oh?” Pinkamena said as she raised both her claws above her head, preparing to tear into him. “Stop me.”

Before she brought down her claws, Michael stabbed the syringe into his neck, quickly moving his thumb to the plunger, preparing to inject himself with whatever was in it.

“NO!”

There was the sound of someone's shouting, then the sound of something small quickly going through the air. A small, blue tranquilizer dart penetrated his neck, causing him to look to his left in surprise, his hand shaking as he dropped the syringe on the ground, it shattered on the ground. His entire body relaxed as he passed out, the sedative working fast.

Pinkamena turned her head to the right, looking towards the source of the dart. Starlight stood a few feet away from her, breathing heavily as she held a tranquilizer gun in her hand. Her hands seemed to be pretty steady as she aimed, even though she was clearly angry as she looked at Michael, seeming almost disappointed in him for something.

Her constricted eyes shifted to Pinkamena in a second, her hands moving just as fast. Pinkamena didn’t have to chance to react as she shot, the dart hitting her in between her eyes. She slowly pulled it out, looking down at it. The words ‘Carfentanil’ inscribed into the side of it with bright white letters.

“Oh....shit, you can stop me. ”

Was Pinkamena’s last words as she dropped the dart, quickly losing feeling in her hands, and the rest of her body. She could feel her world spin as nausea and dizziness overcame it, and before she knew it she was on the ground, her world quickly turning to black as she lost consciousness.

Interlude One: Darkness.

Author's Note

Hello! I would like to apologize for not updating much this year, I've been caught up with writing essays and stuff.

As some of you may have noticed, this chapter is somewhat different than most. Well, I will explain that.
Every now and again, I'll do a chapter that is different from the main story. A side story, if you will. It will basically entail about something that is going on with someone else, somewhere else, or something else. These always take place in the same universe as the main story, and always connect to it somehow. Though as for timing, they can take place after or before previous chapters, but never after future chapters.

If you don't want to read them, that's okay, you do not have to. They are just something I thought I'd do to help build the world and the story, but they are entirely skippable.

Other than that, please tell me if you notice any issues. Like grammar, story inconsistencies, or anything else. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Interlude One: Darkness.

Nothingness.

Nothingness is all he knew, all he’s ever known.

He did not remember where he was or why, all he knew was darkness. He felt himself enclosed inside something, something that had prevented him from moving around, and had no source of light, all he could ever see was darkness, he couldn’t even see his own hand in front of his face.

He wasn’t sure why, but some part of him knew he was inside of a coffin, though he didn’t know how.

Though he remembered the coffin used to have a slit above it, that used to be a sort of window that allowed him to see into the world outside. But it seemed the outside was just as dark as the inside, as he could not see anything still.

Every now and again, there would be a few moments of light, though only enough to where he could barely see outside, and not himself. In these moments, he saw what appeared to be the abyss itself. Outside was nothing but darkness, the source of light seemed to be something small and circular, and seemed to move. It kept moving until it was gone, and he was returned back to the darkness. Though in these brief moments of darkness, he could sometimes see the outlines of creatures, creatures that reminded him of fish. They were sometimes oddly shaped, or sometimes he would even see gigantic creatures, things much larger than any fish he had ever seen.

If he truly was inside a coffin, then where was he? He couldn’t be buried underground, then there would never be light. Then where?

He had many questions, but never once had he gotten any answers, as he was the only one who could answer them.

Sometimes he would try to remember as far back as he could, trying to figure anything about himself or where he was. But he never could.

He did not remember anything about himself, he did not even know his own name. He remembered a feeling of deep rage, a feeling that seemed to stay with him for decades. He remembered during these times of rage, he used to thrash and scratch at the thing that entrapped him, which never seemed to make a difference. Then he soon remembered the feeling of starvation, the feeling of his body beginning to waste away as he was left here to rot. But before that, he quickly felt the feeling of no air, the oxygen soon running out and he was no longer able to breathe. Now, he simply did not breathe, nor did he move at all, he did not have the energy to. He had felt that his body was barely more than a skeleton, the fat and muscle having eventually wasted away, any attempts at escaping the tight prison he was in never made a difference.

Soon, he had just accepted his position, that he would never be able to escape. He no longer felt the pain of starvation and dehydration, nor the suffocation of not being able to breathe, these soon became things he learned to exist with.

And yet, he was still somehow alive.

How long had he been down here? Truly, he did not know. Decades? Centuries? Millenia? He had been down here for so long, he had forgotten the very concept of time. Soon, his memories began to rot away just like his body did. His name, the name of his family or friends, any memories of before, had just faded. He did not who he was or why he was here. Though he did know one thing,

He was not human.

He could not be human, no human would still be alive. Then, what was he? Some kind of zombie? Perhaps a revenant? Was something keeping him here? Some kind of burning desire for revenge against the people who put him here?

Or maybe, he had been a truly evil person before this, having done terrible, unforgivable atrocities, and making him suffer like this was how the gods punished him. If this was true, then perhaps it was a good thing he did not remember who he was.

Then again, there was the possibility he was already dead.

That he had died long ago, and that the loss of his memories was not the result of him being down here so long. That when he died, his memories had been left in his body, and that he was the corrupt soul that was gone. That where he was now, was some form of purgatory. The Underworld had been too good for him, and that the only punishment suitable for his past crimes, was to leave him in the void of nothingness for all of eternity.

For as long as he’s been down here, these are the questions he’d always asked himself. And yet, he would never receive answers.

Suddenly, he felt something move outside of his coffin. This was rare, but not the first time this had happened. He had assumed one of the big creatures he had seen outside has bumped against the coffin. Some part of him hoped the big creature would swallow the coffin and him with it, digesting him and finally ending his suffering. But it seems the gods that had put him down here would not grant him such mercy, as he was still here.

But, a few moments after he was bumped, he had felt his coffin move on its own, as if it were alive. He felt the coffin lift its self off the ground and began to rise up, as if floating. Then, it picked up speed, moving upward faster than before.

He soon felt himself quickly being pulled upwards in the coffin, so fast and strong he had thought the gods themselves were pulling him out of the void. Was his punishment over? Had the gods decided he had suffered enough, and were releasing him?

He did not know, he did not even have the energy to speak, nor was he even sure he remembered how to.

Soon, he began to see light in the distance, though it seemed very far and wasn’t clear. He could see the sun again, something he did not realize how much he truly missed. But it seemed it was above the surface of the water, something he was under.

Had he been at the bottom of a lake? The ocean, perhaps?

He could not tell. What he did know, is that since he could now see water, he could see what was pulling him. It seemed to be some kind of claw, though it was not the claw of an animal like he had seen before. He was not sure how many claws this thing truly had, as he could only just barely see the one that was over the small slit his coffin had. But seemed to be made out of some dark material, darker than any material he had ever seen. It seemed to be wrapped strongly around the coffin, along with several others, he was sure.

Was this the hand of the gods themselves? It did not seem like something humans could make. Then again, he was not sure how long he had been down there or how the world may have changed. He did not know what they were now capable of.

Soon, he broke the surface, being pulled above the water. He did not have the energy to shield his eyes from the sudden light, blinding him as had become so used to the darkness.

Now, he had been released from his prison, from the nothingness that he knew. Not knowing who he was, nor why.

He did not even know his purpose, or if he was truly alive or not.

All he had ever known, was nothingness.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In the middle of The North Pacific Ocean, a Tugboat stay floating on the surface of the water. The ship was rusted, it had been out on the ocean many times. It was the typical black and white ship, the outer parts of the ship were a dark black, though most of it was covered in rust. While the upper parts, the parts of the ship where the crew rested and steered the ship, was a bright white. And though much less so, there was still rust on it.

Unlike most ships, this one had few things on it. Not only because it was small, but the crew was the bare minimum of seven. This ship had only a few crates on it, with the minimum food and water required for the crew.

The only thing that made this ship different than most, was the gigantic machine on it that took up the majority of space on the ship. The machine was very similar to a crane in structure and appearance, but at the end of it was a large, metallic claw. It seemed big and strong enough to pick up most objects. There was also enough rope attached to allow it to go extremely deep inside the ocean, and the rope was strong enough to allow the claw to bring up anything it could grab.

Currently, the claw had been dropped in the ocean, and had been for quite a while as it reached deeper into the ocean. Five of the seven crewmembers were required to operate this thing. The two who weren’t were the captain of the ship, and the cook.

The captain was hanging over the side of the ship, staring at the spot the claw was at. Despite it being the middle of the day, he could not see the claw, though that might be more because of how deep it was. He was wearing a large, blue overcoat with silver buttons. A black and white sailors sweater underneath, a bland, white pair of jeans to go with it. He also wore a white captains hat, though it was also bland as it had nothing on it, the rims of the hat being black, the same shade of black that the boots he was wearing were.

He looked at the spot where the claw was, not with any sense of curiosity at what it might be pulling up, but more boredom. His eyes were the same dark color of blue as the ocean, though they had long dulled with age. His hair had long ago turned a dark gray, that being partly the reason why he keeps it short and tucked under his hat, he does not like being reminded of his age. Though, being out on the sea for so long due to his job usually meant he didn’t get to shave. There was already obvious gray stubble on his face, which he hated due to how itchy it was. Thankfully, smoking helped him ignore it. He currently had a pipe sticking out of his mouth, passively smoking it as he seemed to almost ignore everything else around him.

Almost.

“So, what are we doing at The Mariana Trench?”

The other crew member, who was the cook, was currently beside the captain. Though instead of looking at the spot where the claw was like him, he seemed to be more concerned with incessantly asking him questions. He was done for his cooking for the day, so he seemed content with just wearing a plain white t-shirt and black jeans and black boots. His hair was almost as short as the captains, though unlike the captains, it was a vibrant brown, the same color as his eyes. Though, strangely, he seemed to struggle when it came to growing facial hair. He clearly hadn’t shaved since they set out since he has some noticeable hair, but considerably less than the other crew members.

“You know, if you didn’t have a talent for making really good food no matter how shit your ingredients are, I would have kicked you off my crew for how many questions you ask..” The captain said with a groan as exhaled, a puff of smoke coming out as he did.

Ever since he took him into his crew, this is how it's always been. He’s always been far too curious for his own good, asking questions for no other reason than to sate his curiosity. It was annoying, sure, but never caused any real problems. But recently, some really weird guy paid him a lot of money to get something out of The Mariana Trench. Not only did he look and act weird, but he had all these weird details. He said that he was asking him to do it because he knew he had the right equipment and crew who didn’t ask questions, so he gave him a map, and a circled spot on the map with exact coordinates, and some money. He said all they had to do is send the claw machine as deep as it can go into the exact spot the coordinates were, which was a huge pain to do.

Normally, the captain wouldn’t do stuff like this. But he was offering a lot of money, like, retirement levels of money. None of the other crew members were asking questions, except for him.

“Oh, come on, you love me! Besides, you can’t tell me you don’t have any questions! I mean, just think about it. Some guy came up to you, with a really strange amount of details and a lot of money, to get him something from the deepest part of the ocean. That doesn’t make you curious, not even slightly?” He turned towards the captain, as if trying to convince the captain that he should be asking questions.

“Nope,” He said as he shrugged, not seeming to have removed his eyes from the spot where the claw was at. “I don’t ask questions about things that aren’t my business. Besides, I don’t really see the harm. The whole point of a tugboat is to pull things from the ocean, or through it. We’re just...overstepping our boundaries a bit. Haven’t you ever heard of collectors? That guy likely just heard there was some old relic or something down here, and wanted to add it to his collection, it’s not that weird.”

“I mean, that makes sense, I guess. But what about the coordinates? That seems strangely specific. I don’t know, man. Just something about this rubs me the wrong way.”

As he said that, the men at the claw machine began to struggle. The captain's eyes raised his eyes slightly in surprise as he saw the claw break the surface of the water, showing just what this object was.

It was somewhat bigger than a person, big enough to contain someone inside of it. The claw had its grip around it, though it seemed almost too big for it too. It was a rectangular object, and it looked old. It looked like it had been made out of marble and other stones, though being under so much pressure because of how deep it was, and being that deep underwater for who knows how long seems to have chipped away at it. It seemed like it used to be some kind of ancient artifact, something that might come out of a pyramid in Egypt. It was hard to tell, but there seemed to be some kind of carvings into the side of it, though it was hard to see those.

Parts of it had started to fall apart, or at least the parts of it that were visible were. It was covered in grime, seaweed, and all other kinds of things that had built up on it over the years. And though it had slowly started to be aged away, it didn’t seem enough to get to whatever was inside of it. Though give or take a few hundred years, and it eventually would.

As this object hovered above the water in the claw’s grip, the captain looked at it in surprise. He had never seen anything like that before, nor had he expected something like that to be at the bottom of the ocean.

Though the cook was also surprised to look at it, he was more so because he knew what it was. He was one of those people who liked to watch those long documentaries about history, stuff like the times of the Egyptians and the Romans. He found the stuff quite interesting, and he found it cool that stuff was still being found from those eras to this day. But never did he expect to find anything himself from them, nor did he expect to find something like this.

He didn’t usually swear, something he had to avoid doing now that his wife was pregnant. But his wife was not here, and he felt this may have been an appropriate time to.

“Holy fuck! That’s a roman sarcophagus!”

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Yes, I said I’ll need all seven of them. Can I pay for it? Of course I can, who do you think I am? I need them as soon as you can get them for me, I’ll have the money ready.”

Discord then shut the phone, still having a flip phone, as he loved the satisfying sound of shutting it after a call.

“I swear, no matter how long people know me, they still keep being surprised whenever I make weird requests. Well, at least I know I keep things interesting. “

As he said that, he put his phone back into his right lab coat pocket, then pulling out the journal he usual had on him.

Even though Discord was on his day off, he still liked to wear what he usually did. He wore his brown lab coat with his yellow jeans and his striped green and blue shirt, though today he felt like wearing his pink shoes instead of his purple ones.

Right now, he was sitting in the parking lot outside of a Subway, having just enjoyed some decent cucumber sandwiches, though they weren’t as good if he had made them himself. He didn’t like it either that when he asked for hot sauce on them, he got weird looks. Does no one have taste? The car he was sitting in was a clown car, which got even more weird looks. He didn’t understand the problem, it had so much space!

“Now, let’s see, what’s left. I need to get everything ready before they come back with him, he’s going to be pissed and confused. Heh, he might find the world unfathomable from the one he knew.”

Discord chuckled at his own pun as he began to flip through his journal, as if looking for something. He soon found it, stopping at a point in the journal. It looked like a grocery list, though instead of things to get, it was task. It seemed there were a lot of them, spanning down to near the bottom of the page. They all had boxes beside them, some of them had check marks on them signaling they were done. On the top of the page, were just the words ‘Preparation’ written in black.

As he scrolled down the list, check-marking some of them with a pencil he kept in the journal, and mumbling to himself as he read it, his phone began to ring again.

He groaned as he reached into his pocket and pulled it out.

“For the last time, Their blood type isn’t that important, so plea-Oh, hello Melvin.” Discord began, though he stopped himself when he heard who it was.

“Yes, I’m still running those errands I was talking about. Why, what? Why do you need me to come in? Melvin, you know this is the one day off I get every month, an-” He was going to start ranting, until Melvin began to nervously tell him what happened.

Then afterward, Discord closed his eyes and groaned as he shut the journal, putting it back in his lab pocket. “How bad is it?” He asked, somehow, he wasn’t surprised.

A few more seconds passed as Melvin explained the situation, the scowl on Discord’s face getting worse as he did. “I doubt she’s ate or slept properly either. And If my hunch is right, which it usually is, this happened because she got too confident in a fight with The Silent Killer or something. Alright, who saved her?”

When Melvin told him, he couldn’t help but smirk a little.

“Juno, bless that boy. Fine, I’ll come in. But one of these days Melvin I’m going to have to teach you how to treat her, so I won’t have to come in every time she get’s herself beat up.”

After he said that he shut the phone putting it back in his lab pocket with the journal, he then laid back in his chair and pinched the bridge of his nose as he let out another groan. “Of course she’d do this on my day off. I swear, Pinkamena Diane Pie, you are the dumbest genius I’ve ever met. Igneous was the same way, but at least he was a quick learner! I swear, I can’t tell if she’s going to be good for The Syndicate or not, I guess that’s why we have The Council, after all.”

He leaned forward and turned the key in his car, causing the car to turn on. The radio began to play loud Tuvan Throat Singing, which got the attention of some of the other people in the parking lot.

As he began to back the car up and drive down the road, he started to talk to himself, one of his favorite ways to pass the time.

“That crew I paid to get him shouldn’t be back until next week, and who knows how long it’ll take until I can get him back to shape and teach him everything that’s happened while he’s gone. Ugh, always busy, even on my day off. And in the time I’m getting him ready, I need to make sure Pinkamena will be ready to meet him. Though with everything going on, that’ll be a hassle.”

He suddenly stopped the car at a red light, deciding he would have enough time to do one more thing.

“With things looking how they are, I may need to make extra preparations. Best case scenario: Pinkamena becomes friends with him, or she at least doesn’t actively try to kill him. Worst case scenario: They hate each other and fight, I already know who is going to win that.”

He pulled out his journal and flipped it to an open page, writing the word “operation” on the top page with a colon besides it.

“Now, what should the name be for this worst-case scenario plan? Hmmm.”

Discord asked himself as he tapped the pencil against his chin, looking down at the piece of paper. This is what Discord always did first with plans, come up with some clever name. If it were something he was researching, creating, or working on, he always put ‘Project:’ And then the name. But when it came to plans, he always put ‘Operation:’ and then the name. Making them was the easy part, it was making a clever title that he always found difficult, but satisfying.

“Ah! I know!”

He wrote the words ‘Rosea Vampir’ beside operation, seeming satisfied with the title. He never wrote the titles in English, that was no fun. He always put each word of the title in a different language, this time, the first word was in Latin, the second in German.

Though before he could start working on the actual plan, the light turned green, and the cars behind him began to honk.

He quickly closed the journal and put it in his lab pocket, driving the car to his destination, the Tuvan Throat Singing really helping him think.

As he drove, he wondered to himself how different things would be if Igneous would still be here. Would he even have to be doing this? Likely not, but who knows. Discord didn’t usually like thinking about what ifs.

He did know one thing, Igneous would have gotten along with him perfectly, Discord had no doubt of that.

Assuming the thousands of years of being at the bottom of the ocean locked in a coffin hadn’t completely destroyed his memory, anyway. If that were true, that would be a huge pain.

Chapter 6.5: Your Best Friend.

Author's Note

Hiya! I finally got this chapter done, which took a lot longer than I was thinking it would. It also took a long time because I'm currently working on another chapter for one of my stories, and then I'm going to make a sequel to one of my other stories.

Anyway, hope you enjoy! Please tell me if you see any story, grammar, or just overall errors/issues.

And before you ask, yes, the title of this chapter is an undertale reference.

Chapter 6.5: Your Best Friend.

The Dark Room.

She had been to this place once before, when she was in comatose after killing Igneous, her body collapsed and her mind unable to accept the reality she found herself in. Then Discord inserted The Whispers into her mind in a desperate attempt to force her to wake up, which worked.

That was when hell truly started for her.

After The Whispers showed her the illusion of her father killing her sisters, then her killing her father, they showed up themselves. They forced her to face the truth, something she had been so desperate to remain in ignorance of. After that, she could no longer pretend. He had to accept who she was, what she’d done, and what she’s become.

The price for this awakening was immense, and she was the only one who had to pay it. She came out of her comatose a changed person, for better or worse. She now had the voices of the dozens of leaders of The Syndicate, always in the back of her head. Her emotions were now also extremely erratic, sometimes The Whispers could make her feel next to nothing, other times they had absolutely no control over what she felt.

And she didn’t even have full access to them yet.

Now, she stood in this dark room once again. Odd, she’s noticed that two out of the three times she’s actually slept after being exposed to them, she ended up here. The third time she couldn’t even remember her dream. Perhaps that was why she was so hesitant to sleep lately?

It was exactly how she remembered it to be. The room was nothing but darkness, the walls, roof, and floor seemed to be made out of it. The room itself was filled with some kind of dark fog, so thick Pinkamena could barely see in front of her. And just like the last time, she could hear the whispering of The Whispers in them, though they are considerably louder than when they are just in the back of her head.

Looking down at her own body, she noticed that she had the clothes she was wearing when she fought Michael. Except they weren’t torn to pieces due to the pure brutality of it, seems it was right before then. Her entire body also seemed to be corrupted by the darkness, from head to toe, she was covered in it, and yet she didn’t feel a thing.

Except for one part of her body.

In the middle of her chest, where her heart would be, there was a very small light. It was about the size of a rock, but it was still there. She wondered what it was, but some part of her knew it was the necklace, her sisters necklace. But why was it shining? Why was she even here in the first place?

The last thing she remembered was being on top of Michael, about the rip his heart out. Then she felt a sharp pain in her neck as something pierced her, only to slowly turn her head and to realize that Starlight had shot her with a tranquilizer, and then she just passed out.

Her memory has been very inconsistent lately, that and the number of times she has been forced into unconsciousness lately should probably concern her.

“You know, I’ve only been here twice, and I’m already getting sick of it,” Pinkamena said, peering into the darkness as she did.

She knew The Whispers were listening, they always were.

“Two times you remember being here, you mean.” A voice responded, hinting that her memory may have been tampered with.

This voice wasn’t like the one she had heard the last time she was here, nothing like it. It wasn’t disembodied or demonic, didn’t sound like dozens of people talking at once. It sounded...feminine, actually, and quite childlike.

Pinkamena noticed a figure coming out of the dark mist, but, like the voice, it wasn’t like the one last time. The previous form was only slightly human in shape, and seemed to constantly be changing and morphing, like it would dissipate and become the mist in the room at any second. This form didn’t look like that at all, it was human. Or, at least, seemed to be.

As the figure stepped out of the mist, Pinkamena had to lower her gaze, as it was obvious this thing was quite short, about half her height.

“Your memory is surprisingly easy to manipulate, you really need to work on your mental fortitude.” It said in a snarky tone, but yet somehow seemed to also be in a teasing one.

The thing before her was taking the form of a child, a little girl, to be exact. It was hard to tell the age, somewhere between ten and twelve, Pinkamena guessed. She had short, copper red hair. It barely reached down to her ears, but was completely straight, not a single curl in sight. Her bangs, on the other hand, were somewhat long. Reaching down to the spot right between her eyebrows, though not long enough to cover her eyes at all.

Her eyes were a bright green, seeming to sparkle like a gem. Though, not emeralds, not like Applejack. It seemed...different somehow, it was a different shade. It resembles a Tsavorite more, one of Maud’s favorite gems in her collection. Though her eyes were quite bright, they still seemed somewhat dull, like the life in them was just gone, resembling more of the eyes of a corpse than a little girls.

Even so, she was very pretty. She had a perfectly curved chin and normal sized nose, and her skin was extremely pale, almost like a doll. Except for her cheeks, they were bright pink, almost rosy. They were right at the end of her dimples, making it hard to tell whether they were fake or not. Her entire face and figure seemed to be like a doll, that smirk on her face showed no signs of changing, almost like it was etched into her face. And just as infuriating, was how smug it was, like she knew everything Pinkamena didn’t, which she likely did. Her eyes seemed completely locked on Pinkamena, keeping eye contact and not seeming to let up, barely even seeming to blink.

Like a doll, she was wearing a long dress, going down to just barely above her feet. It covered her entire body, the ends of it ending in a skirt. It was only one color, blue. Baby blue, to be specific, like Pinkamena’s eyes. Somehow, she felt that was intentional. Her shoes reminded of her Cinderella's, the way the looked resembled them immensely. From the fact they were slip on shoes, and the way they fit her feet so perfectly. Though, these ones weren’t made of glass or blue. Instead, these were pink and made of plastic, clearly fake.

The same shade of pink as her hair, actually. Everything about this girl was putting Pinkamena on edge, not even considering the fact she was clearly apart of The Whispers.

The little girl walked up to Pinkamena almost giddily, her hands behind her back clasped together.

“Who the fuck are you?” Pinkamena spat, no matter its appearance, she knew its true nature.

The little girl did not move, her eyes did not blink or glance away, nor did her smile falter. She did not even recoil as the spit landed on her face, as if it weren’t even there.

“Such vulgarity, come now, there’s no need for that.” She said as she began to walk a circle around Pinkamena, her eyes never leaving Pinkamena's. Pinkamena could not turn around, no matter how much she tried. But she could still feel that hollow, unblinking gaze piercing into her.

“Well, as you know, we have many names. I can’t even tell you whether this form is of a real person or not. So, hmm, let me think.” Her voice sounded so genuine and generic, having a tone of innocence and sickeningly sweetness to it. She began humming a tune behind her, one Pinkamena recognized almost instantly.

That was “In a World of My Own”, it was a tune she couldn’t quite get out of her head when she was younger, though she never could remember the actual lyrics. But... why couldn’t she remember the movie is it was from?! She knew, she knew she knew that movie, but why couldn’t she place it?

Pinkamena’s eyes widened slightly in realization, and she swore she could feel the little girls smile widen a little bit when she did. She took the memory of the name of the movie out, just so she could prove just how easily manipulated her memory was. Or maybe it was just to show how much control she really had over her, she never really knew with The Whispers.

“Oh! I know! You may call me,” She suddenly twirled in a circle as she came from the left of Pinkamena, leaning down and showing her back her hands clasped together behind them, though her eyes never left hers. “Alice. Alice will do just fine.”

She then stood straight up again, letting out a slight giggle as she did.

Pinkamena only began to feel further infuriated, it was teasing her, and they both knew it. It wanted her to know it could pick and choose what they wanted her to remember, and there was nothing she could do to stop them.

“How much?”

Alice tilted her head to the left slightly in confusion, looking up at Pinkamena curious what she meant, though the smugness of that smirk didn’t go anywhere.

“How much what?” She replied innocently, feigning ignorance.

“ How much of my fucking memories have you manipulated since Discord put you in my head!?” Pinkamena screamed at her, but the sounds of her scream didn’t travel to the rest of the room, almost like there was some invisible barrier around them.

“Oh, that.” She replied with a roll of her eyes, seeming now disinterested in the subject.

“You might be a Mongoloid at times, but you have your moments of ingenuity. Don’t worry, we haven’t touched any memories of yours. I’m surprised you figured it out so soon, but I only took out the name of one of your favorite childhood movies to show you that your memory isn’t something you can reliably believe in all the time.” Her tone was as condescending as it was arrogant, making her seem a lot older and mature than the appearance she was taking.

“We’ve really got to work on that, along a lot of other things. But first,”

She walked directly up to Pinkamena, her eyes slowly moving from her face to her chest. She slowly brought up her right hand, all of her fingers being clenched except for her pointer finger, which was extended outwards. She brought her pointer finger forward, poking the light that was in the center of her chest. She then leaned down again, examining it like it was something that both amazed her and confused her, before turning her gaze back to Pinkamena almost expectantly.

“Do you know what this is?” Pinkamena couldn't tell whether was genuinely curious, or she already knew the answer and just wanted to see if Pinkamena knew.

There was an awkward silence for a few seconds, neither of them making a move or sound. Pinkamena knew the answer, but she was trying to figure out why Alice wanted to know, or if there was some specific way she was supposed to answer. She realized that it was impossible to figure out The Whispers and how they think, so she quickly gave up on that.

“My necklace,” Pinkamena said bluntly.

“Well, it is a little more than that, but yes. That is the necklace you found in the woods, the one that belonged to the sisters you loved so much.” Despite her words, Pinkamena didn’t feel like there was any ill intent in them. Even so, it didn’t piss her off any less.

Alice stood straight up and turned around, quickly pulling her hand away and putting them behind her back again, interlocking them together as she showed her back to Pinkamena.

“That necklace is one of the most important things to you, whether you realize it or not. Not only does it have sentimental value because it belonged to the sisters you could never see alive again, but it reminds you of who you were. Before the woods, the torture, before you became a chimera, killed your father, and became the leader of The Syndicate, though you’re doing a pretty poor job of it so far. Not just that, but it also helps you hold on to your anger. Every time you look down at that necklace, it reminds you of the grief and anger you felt towards your father and yourself. It’s…..almost masochistic in nature, that thing is as much of a burden as it is a blessing, it keeps you human. Which is really making me realize something about you,”

She slowly turned her head to the left, her left eye looking at Pinkamena, her eye halfway shut in a judgemental way. And, for just a moment, her smile was replaced by a frown.

“You’ve got a real problem when it comes to letting things go, don’t you?” Her tone was borderline sadistic, that smug smirk quickly coming back, seeming a little wider this time.

Pinkamena didn’t answer, there was no point. The question was clearly rhetorical, Alice already knew the answer. But she was asking it because she wanted her to get angry, or get some kind of reaction out of her. But she wouldn’t, she wouldn’t let them provoke her.

“Not answering? It was a simple yes or no question.”

Again, there was just silence. Alice sighed disappointedly, turning her head back around as she faced away from her again.

“Very well, be difficult if you like. But, I feel like this is harder than what it needs to be because you’re mistaking me for someone else. So, I’m going to clarify things for you,” She slowly raised her left hand, this time being open. Then she quickly snapped her fingers, the sound of the snap seemed to echo throughout the room.

Suddenly, Pinkamena felt like a huge tension had been released. She didn’t realize how heavy her body was until that weight was gone, or even that she hadn’t been able to move her body before. Now she felt weightless, like it would be so easy to run around this room in seconds.

Or run forward and snap Alice’s neck in an instant, if she so felt like it.

“You have this terrible misinterpretation about us, though your first impression was.... him.” She said with slight disgust, having a strong dislike for whoever she was talking about. “So I really can’t blame you for misunderstanding us, or thinking we’re your enemies. Anytime we’ve had a host and let him handle first impressions, it always ended up like that. I...we’ve decided to stop sitting back and corrupting them, most of the time, driving them insane in the process. You’re special, in a lot of ways. So you’re going to be treated quite differently.”

Pinkamena didn’t take her eyes of Alice, not even when she slowly began to move closer to her. She listened to her words, but had a hard time trusting them. In every horror movie she’s ever seen, the little girl was never to be trusted. It may sound stupid to use the logic of horror movies in real life, but her entire life has seemed like a horror movie lately.

“Your concept of what we are is a singular being made up of dozens of other beings, all working together in perfect cohesion for one goal. And, at a time, you would have been right. But, things have changed, time has changed us. It started as us just disagreeing on some decisions for ethical reasons, then we soon came to decide all of us were not as compatible as we first thought. After the last host committed suicide, we realized we were doing something terribly wrong, and started blaming each other. Soon we had been split in half, two sides of the same coin, if you will. We believe things should be done one way, they believed another.”

“Let me guess, you’re the good half of this Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde situation?”

Alice let out a hollow chuckle, almost like she’d heard a joke she used to think was funny, but had heard it too many times at this point.

“Things are never as simple as good and evil, most situations are far too subjective. No, we both want the same thing, just different views on how to achieve it. He believes in doing anything and everything that he deems necessary to keep The Syndicate going, and to make you the best leader he can make you. But me? I focus on the person, not their role. I work on who they want to be, not what they should be doing.”

Pinkamena was standing directly behind her now, looking down at her like a bug she was about to squash. If Alice knew, she gave no indication of it.

“So what, you’re here to make me a better person?”

Alice turned quickly turned around, not seeming surprised at all when she saw Pinkamena was standing behind her. “If that is who you desire to be, which is what I believe you do. Just remember, I can only guide you down the path you seek. I can not, nor will not, make you do anything. I am nothing like him, I will not hurt you when you speak up or just to get my way, and I won’t manipulate you into doing what I like. I will speak nothing but the truth when I am with you, whether you believe me or not is up to you.”

Her words sounded genuine, even her smug smile was gone as she looked down at her. Even so, Pinkamena couldn’t help but scowl as she looked down at her.

“I’m sorry, I already have a therapist. Though I’ve yet to have my first session with her, so I’ll keep you in mind.” Pinkamena’s tone may have been in a joking one, but she didn’t let down her guard, not even for a second.

Alice shook her head disappointedly, looking up at Pinkamena with a disapproving frown.

“You’ve changed so much, yet you insist on using comedy as a coping method.” She mumbled to herself, just barely loud enough for Pinkamena to hear. “No, I’m not going to be your therapist. I’m going to be,” She said louder this time, standing straight up and spreading her arms to the side in a welcoming way. Her smile was no longer smug, but seemed almost warm and kind, now showing all of her white teeth. “Your best friend!” She declared proudly.

Once again, there was an awkward silence. Alice stood there with her arms to her sides, her smile not faltering. Pinkamena only stared at her, as if just trying to process how to react.

Then, she smiled, she genuinely smiled. It might have been slight, but she really smiled.

“That’s funny, I didn’t think you guys were capable of jokes.”

Alice slowly lowered her arms, that warm smile leaving with it. “I see, you don’t believe me. That’s fair, after everything that’s happened to you, having trust issues is understandable. Here, let me show you something.”

She turned around and looked up, almost like she was looking for something. She then raised her right hand, snapping her fingers loudly. Pinkamena only watched her intently, somewhat concerned. The Whispers have tried showing her things before, and it wasn’t a pleasant experience.

In seconds, the darkness in front of Alice completely disappeared. Though only about a large rectangles worth, the darkness around it stayed, almost like there was something preventing it from moving in.

In place of this space, there was suddenly a bright, blue light, somewhat resembling a TV turning on. Then images began to show up, in full color and detail. The images began to move, like videos.

“Come on Pinkie! You need to hide better than that! It's no fun if you’re easy to find!”

Pinkamena’s eyes widened as she heard that voice, her eyes now glued to this screen. That was Limestone's voice, she would know that voice anywhere. She remembered this day, this was the first time she played hide and seek with Limestone and Marble. She was terrible at it at first, but she'd quickly become an expert.

And, for the first time in a long time, she felt happiness. It had been so long since she had heard her voice, so long since she had almost forgotten it. She didn’t know The Whispers had access to her memories like this, but if they could show her memories she didn’t even remember, it didn’t bother her that much.

Then it was gone, just like that.

With one hand behind her back, and the other one extended, Alice swiped sideways in the air before her, as if she were scrolling through pages on the internet. When she did, the memory disappeared, quickly being replaced by another one.

All the while, she seemed to be joyfully humming a tune to herself. “The Caucus Race”. Another tune Pinkamena quickly recognized, it was another song she had in her head for a while as a kid. Once again, from the movie she couldn’t remember.

“Happy sixteenth birthday Marble.”

There was suddenly loud shouting coming from the memory, though there were only two people, it sounded louder than it was. Pinkamena knew this memory, she remembered it vividly.

It was Blinkie’s eighteenth birthday, and the first birthday party she had ever thrown. It’s funny, she had called them Inkie and Blinkie for so long, she had forgotten that their real names were Limestone and Marble, it sounded weird to call them that. Cloudy told them they weren’t allowed to throw a party outside of the house, so she and Blinkie made do with the bedroom they all shared.

They had been talking about it in secret for about a week beforehand, soon coming to a decision. She, of course, would be handling the actual party. And Blinkie, since Pinkamena didn’t get an allowance, would be handling the gift. Pinkamena admitted she felt somewhat guilty about not being able to get Blinkie a gift, so she tried to make up for it by throwing the best birthday party she could.

The art teacher loved her, so it wasn’t too difficult to borrow some of the art supplies. The hard part was the cake. She didn’t have the money to buy one from Sugarcube Corner, so she had to bake one. First time she ever baked, actually. And, if she was being honest, that cake was horrible. It looked fine, but it tasted absolutely revolting. Luckily, after much practice, she soon learned how to make cakes a lot better.

They knew Inkie didn’t do too well with being surprised, so they decided it would be better to blindfold her and lead her into the room, saying there was something waiting for her in that room.

What was waiting for her was a room that looked exactly like a ten-year-olds birthday party, because that was essentially all she knew when it came to parties. There was a sign above the doorway that said ‘Happy Birthday Blinkie!’ in poorly written pain, with stick figures beside them. Streamers of course, but no balloons, art club didn’t have any of those.

She did manage to get one of the tables in the center of the room after pushing the beds up against the wall, and the cake had some rather colorful candles, and maybe the table had a bit more glitter than necessary. But Pinkamena did all she could and all she knew how to do, and she didn’t want to disappoint her sisters.

When the blindfold was taken off and they both shouted happy birthday, of course, Inkie was startled. But when she started looking around and seeing what was around the room, she smiled.

That was the first time she’d ever seen her smile, Pinkamena had never felt so proud and happy in her life. At that moment, she had discovered her passion, throwing parties. It was the first time she felt she had actually contributed to someone’s happiness, it was the first time she felt….love, real love.

Though, when she started crying, Pinkamena couldn’t help but blame herself, thinking that her party was so bad it made her sister cry.

But that was quickly cleared up when Inkie rushed forward to comfort her, but she raised her hand to stop her, wiping her tears as she did.

“No...I’m, I’m just so happy!” She said shakily, her voice cracking as she spoke, she wasn’t really used to talking that much.

For the rest of the birthday party, if it could even be called that, they mostly just talked. They couldn't really dance, as there wasn’t anything to listen to music with. Nothing really exciting happened until the gifts.

“This one’s from us!”

Blinkie pulled a small, pink gift box from behind her, pushing it across the table to Inkie. Inkie was hesitant to open it, she hadn’t been expecting any gifts, or a party at all, for that matter.

She slowly began to open it, Blinke watched her excitedly, and Pinkamena watched her curiously.

When she took the top off, her eyes widened as she let out a gasp of surprise.

“This….this is beautiful! How did you afford this?” Inkie asked as she began to pull the necklace out of the gift box.

Pinkamena instinctively pulled her hand to her chest, grabbing a hold of that very same necklace.

“Well, I, uh, kind of, had to spend my entire allowance. And then some? I might be working overtime at my job for the next few months. But, it really suits you, doesn’t it?” Blinkie asked sheepishly, looking at Inkie eagerly.

Inkie stared at the silver necklace, her eyes fixed on the red jewel in the center of the golden heart. It really was a beautiful necklace.

A slight smile came onto her face as she looked at Pinkamena and Blinkie, at this moment, she had never felt happier to be related to who she was. Even if this family had its ups and downs, these two made it worth it.

She slowly put the necklace on, closing her eyes and smiling as she did.

“Thank you, both of you. I lov-”

Alice swiped her hand, seeming to have lost interest in this memory.

Pinkamena felt her heart sink, clenching onto the necklace slightly tighter. She wanted to call out, to tell Alice to go back.

But she didn’t, she knew there was no point, The Whispers didn’t care about anything but themselves.

The next memory was a recent one, when Twilight first came to Canterlot High after Sunset stole The Element of Magic, and everything that happened after. The Dazzlings, The Friendship games, all of it. Spending time with her friends, saving the world, enjoying every second of it. Completely ignorant of the dismal future that awaited her, just living life to its fullest.

All while the sisters she claimed to love were rotting in a cave, while she could have done something, anything, to try to save them.

“You used to be a good person you know, an Element of Harmony, even. But,” Alice went silent for a few seconds, seeming content on just watching the memory for a few seconds.

“You were just born in really bad circumstances. Now, you’re going down a path you don’t want to, you’re being corrupted. You’ve pushed away your friends because you had to, your only sister is despondent, your mother could very possibly be dead, you have no one.”

Alice snaps her fingers, causing the giant invisible square to disappear, the darkness quickly consuming the spot it was in. She turns around and walks up to Pinkamena, who was staring at the spot the square used to be, still desperately holding on to her necklace.

“Who you are now is not who you were, you are no longer Pinkie Pie The Party Planner. You are Pinkamena Diane Pie, The leader of The Syndicate, and a chimera. Yet you carry all of Pinkie’s baggage, that necklace is a good representative of that. But, I know you won’t let go. You can’t, you don’t know how.”

Pinkamena slowly lowered her gaze to Alice, though her grip on the necklace did not lighten.

“You need someone, someone who’s seen everything you’ve gone through, and understands. Someone who, no matter what you do, or what you become, will always be here. I can guide you down the right path, I can help you cope. I can be your best friend, all you have to do,”

She slowly walked forward, putting her arms around Pinkamena as she did. Her arms reached around to her back as Alice pushed herself against Pinkamena, her head squishing against Pinkamena’s stomach. She hugged her as tight as she could, Pinkamena didn’t seem to resist at all.

Strangely, Alice was very warm. Comforting, even.

“Is let me. We only want to help you. Or, at least, help you help yourself.”

Alice could feel Pinkamena begin to shake, feeling her gaze looking down at her from above.

“I want to, I want to so bad you couldn’t possibly understand. But how? How can I possibly trust you? Trust anyone in this fucked up world? How…….How can I even trust myself?”

Alice could feel the tears hitting the top of her head, she could even feel how erratic her breathing suddenly became.

And she smirked.

“Well,” Alice said as she hugged her a little tighter. “What have you got left to lose?”

What felt like hours passed before either said anything. Then, Alice felt Pinkamena hesitantly let go of the necklace, her breathing seeming to somewhat stabilize and her tears stopping.

“Ok.”

That was the last thing Pinkamena remembered before there was a sudden blinding light, bringing her back to the real world.

Chapter 7: Lucidity.

Beeping.

That was the first thing she heard when she woke up, the steady beeping coming from the machine hooked up to her that told her heartbeat, letting her know she was still alive. That was the only sound she could hear at first, the rest of the room seeming to be almost completely silent. Then, as she slowly regained consciousness, her enhanced hearing allowed her to pick up a second heartbeat in the room. It sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place who it was. She could tell that whoever it was, was sitting right beside her in a chair. Meaning she was likely in the infirmary again, and whoever this was, was here to watch over her.

She hadn’t opened her eyes, not yet. Pinkamena wanted this person to think she was still asleep, at least until she could tell what state her body was in, she has no idea how long she’s been out. She could feel the IV needle in her left arm, along with a set of clothes that weren’t torn apart. More importantly, her necklace was still there. She didn’t feel any contusions, abrasions, or any other injuries. Besides some soreness, particularly in her arms and chest, she felt completely fine. Well rested, even. That might be thanks to Alice.

Alice.

She remembered what happened with her, which was surprising. She wasn’t sure if Alice would let her remember or not. At least she gave her back the memory of the movie she couldn’t remember, ‘Alice in Wonderland’. That would have seriously bothered her if she hadn’t. Though it made her slightly concerned about how easily they could take certain memories without her really noticing, Discord was likely the only one who could help her with that, and the only one she could really talk to about The Whispers that understood what she was talking about.

She wasn’t sure how she was expected to ‘work on her mental fortitude’, as Alice put it. Maybe Discord can-

Her thoughts halted when she felt a hand touch her necklace, trying to wrap their hands around it and open it. Almost like a reflex, her right arm quickly grabbed the arm by the wrist, pulling it off the necklace. She didn’t use her chimera strength, didn’t feel like she needed it. It seemed to be enough to elicit a gasp from them, though that was likely just from surprise. The gasp sounded feminine, meaning the person was likely a female.

Simultaneously as she grabbed this person’s wrist, both her eyes shot open, the pupils constricted but didn’t have any problems focusing. They locked on to the person sitting beside her, glaring at them threateningly.

Starlight Glimmer sat in a small metal chair beside her, wearing the same clothes as before and looking almost exactly the same. The only difference now was that she was looking back at Pinkamena with slightly widened eyes and an agape mouth, wearing a ‘deer caught in the headlights' expression.

“Don’t touch that.” Pinkamena said sharply, letting go of Starlight’s arm.

She quickly pulled it back, rubbing the red marks left by her grip as she held her arm close to her chest. She looked at Pinkamena for a few seconds, the initial surprise fading away. Starlight moved her gaze to the necklace again, seeming curious more than anything.

“It’s very pretty, what is it?” Starlight asked hesitantly, whatever it was clearly had some sentimental value. And, most of the time, that meant it was usually a sensitive subject.

Pinkamena looked away from Starlight, turning her attention to herself and the environment. She was wearing the same clothes she was when Pinkamena was fighting Michael, though these ones weren’t torn apart. Sans her hoodie, which she guessed was under her bed like last time. Meaning someone, likely Starlight, put them on her. She was even in the same infirmary-like area she woke up in last time when Juno dragged her in, though she felt significantly better now than she did then. With the exception of feeling slightly nauseous and dizzy due to when Starlight shot her full of Carfentanil. She was still feeling the after affects slightly, so she can’t have been here that long.

Pinkamena wasn’t mad at Starlight for shooting her, though she felt like she should be. She...lost herself a bit in that fight with Michael, fucking him up like that may have been justified, but he’s too important to The Syndicate to kill. Besides, it was likely that even if Starlight hadn’t shot her, The Whispers would have stopped her before she killed him. Though she noticed him stab himself in the neck with a syringe full of what looked like very thick blood, some kind of battle drug, maybe? It didn’t matter; she needed to focus on the now.

“Off limits. What happened after you shot me?” Pinkamena asked in a slightly passive-aggressive tone, sitting up and closing her eyes as she did, trying to ignore the oncoming headache. Though her long, straight pink hair covered most of her face.

Starlight cringed slightly out of guilt, but didn’t seem to react in any other way. She let go of her wrist and lay them both down on her lap, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath as if to calm herself down. From the way Pinkamena could hear her heartbeat slow down, it seemed to work.

When Starlight opened her eyes again, she did so with a slight, almost comforting smile.

“Michael was immediately taken to a different area of the infirmary and put under so they could do surgery on him, he was hurt pretty badly and was touch and go for a bit. But he’ll live. He won’t be able to lift anything heavier than fifty pounds for a month or two, and he’ll have to go through extensive physical therapy for the next two weeks, which he’ll hate. But, he’ll be fine. As for you?”

Starlight’s eyes looked at Pinkamena’s body, slightly amazed at how undamaged it seemed. She knew that chimeras had exceptional healing capabilities, but she’d never seen it in action before. She had seen her entire body when she had dressed her, even got to see some the injuries heal as she did. But it was still amazing and hard to believe.

“Physically, you’re fine. If I hadn’t been there myself, I wouldn’t have believed you had gotten injured at all. No, it’s your mental health I’m concerned about.” She said as her eyes slowly moved back up to her face, glancing at the necklace once more.

Pinkamena’s eyes opened as she looked at Starlight, her eyes only half open as if she were barely paying attention. Despite her hair covering most of her face, her eyes were still visible, along with the look of annoyance on her face.

“I don’t think I’m any more fucked up than the rest of the people in this place. But hey, you’re my therapist.” She said sarcastically, though her stare never left Starlight.

After hearing that, Starlight leaned down and pulled something out from under her bed.

It was a skeleton mask, Blake’s mask, to be specific.

She had almost forgotten about it, she must have left it in the pocket of her hoodie when she took it off. Her eyes widened slightly as she looked down at it, but quickly returned to their half lidded look.

“Ok, it’s a skeleton mask. So wh-”

“This is Blake’s mask.” Starlight said with emphasis, throwing the mask in Pinkamena’s lap as she did.

Pinkamena looked at the skeleton mask in her lap, and it seemed to look back at her. As she did, the memories of the way he tortured her fresh in her mind, even with The Whispers always in the back of her mind.

Sometimes, when she let herself think back to the torture, she could almost still feel the pain.

“Blake used to wear that mask when he tortured people, he must have done the same with you. This is just a guess, but I would imagine looking at that mask will always remind you of what he did to you. I can think of a couple of reasons of why you’d want to keep something like that with you, none of them good. Please, prove me wrong.”

Starlight waited for an explanation, a look of concern on her face as she did.

Pinkamena picked up the mask, holding it in her hand as she looked down at it. She may want to consider painting the mask, she wasn’t aware as many people knew this was Blake’s mask that did. She really didn’t want people thinking she was Blake, that might have been worse than knowing the truth.

“I didn’t want people, specifically Applejack, to know who I was just yet. I still needed to work out how I was going to deal with that. So I took his mask-”

“There are literally hundreds of thousands of masks in this place alone, not even counting the ones you could just buy from a store. But you chose that one, the one worn by the person who tortured you.”

She didn’t say that as an accusation, she said it as a fact, like she knew it was true. Pinkamena glanced at her, before quickly looking back down at the mask.

Why did she take this mask? At the time, she just needed a way to hide her identity. But she chose Blake’s mask, even though she knew there were other masks. Why? Something else, besides her necklace, to remind her of who she was? Or was it to remind her of her father, all the pain he put her through, so she’d never forget her hatred for him?

Pinkamena closed her eyes and sighed, perhaps she had a bigger problem letting things go than she realized.

“All right, since you seem to know everything, why don’t you tell me why I took it?” Pinkamena said frustratedly, putting the mask back in her lap as she did.

Starlight reached into a pocket in her black vest, pulling out the small, dark blue book she had seen when Michael threw her in the meeting hall. The pencil was in the book, which was at the page she opened to. She looked down at it as she pulled the pencil out, reading something off the pages.

“Initially, I was thinking something like Stockholm Syndrome. But after reviewing how you treated Blake when you woke up, I’m inclined to believe that wouldn’t be very accurate.”

She said, more to herself than Pinkamena, as she wrote something down. Before bringing the pencil to her mouth and biting the eraser as she looked at her book in thought, contemplating ideas as she seemed to zone out.

The book she was holding reminded her of Discord’s book, though hers was somewhat smaller. In his book, she assumed he kept scientific experiments, among other things, in them. But since Starlight was more or less the therapist for this place, she likely kept notes on certain people, and just their overall psychological profile.

Which meant she had Igneous’ profile in there, potentially along with details about any events that would have affected him.

That thought made Pinkamena curious, making a mental note to swipe that book from her if she got the chance. Or, at least attempt to convince her to let her look in it, though that seemed unlikely.

“Then, after meeting you, I began to think you simply had a masochistic personality. But I decided it was more self destructive in nature, which I deduced from the way you seemed to just throw yourself into risky situations even though there were other options; meeting Applejack alone, for example. A self destructive nature born from guilt due to feeling like you were unable to save your sisters even though you were literally incapable of helping them, or perhaps some other repressed emotion like depression or a feeling of uselessness, weakness, or something of that nature that was brought to light due to recent events?” She said in a scrutinizing tone, her voice not being muffled at all despite having the tip of an eraser in her mouth.

At the mention of her sisters, both of her hands gripped the sheets tightly as she felt anger boil up inside her like hot water. But, she said nothing. Mostly because she was biting the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood.

She really needed to work on emotional control, she couldn’t afford to nearly lose her self just because her sisters were dead. It was done, she killed the man who killed them. She could continue blaming herself and feeling guilty about it all she liked, but she didn’t need to attack others at the mention of it. She needed to learn self control, what happened with Applejack can’t happen again.

Starlight noticed this shift, her gaze briefly moving upwards from her book to Pinkamena. Her glare seemed affixed to her as she stayed silent, almost like she was analyzing her. But, realizing how long she had been doing this, she quickly redirected her attention back to her book.

“Then...then came the fight with Michael. I know that wasn’t your fault, you did not initiate that fight. But...there was a point in that fight where you could have ended it. Or, at least would have made it clear you had no intention of fighting. It may not have seemed like it, but I had things under control. Instead, you…” She let out a loud sigh as she closed her eyes, pulling the pencil out of her mouth and then putting it in the center of the book as she closed it. She slowly put it back in her pocket as she looked up at Pinkamena.

Pinkamena noticed this and turned her hood to look at her curiously, her grip slowly loosening on the sheets. First she looked at the book, then back at Starlight, who seemed intent on keeping eye contact.

“You became...consumed by bloodlust, exhibiting symptoms of psychosis, hypomania, cyclothymia, and that’s just from a first impression! Not just that, but you were erratic, unpredictable, willing to hurt yourself in extreme ways just for a chance to hurt your opponent, I’m not even sure where to start with some of the things you said. I may not know you very well, but after attacking Michael, you were different. Almost like...a different person.”

Pinkamena’s attention was now fully on Starlight, though her gaze made it seemed like she wasn’t very interested. So far, nothing she said has been false, most of it had even caught her interest. Then again, she knew some of it could be chalked up to The Whispers. Even so, she couldn’t deny the possibility that she was directing a lot of the blame for her mental issues at The Whispers. Yes, they would surely cause some, assuming they haven’t already.

But that didn’t mean she was completely free of mental issues beforehand, and Starlight maybe her only chance of someone who could help her.

“What...exactly are you saying?” Pinkamena asked cautiously, she had a feeling she knew where this was going, and she really didn’t like it.

There were a few moments of silence as Starlight hesitated to answer, “I...I believe, as a coping mechanism, you developed a split personality in those woods. At first, forming when you found your sister’s corpses. But the more you went through, the more dominant it became. This part is just a hypothesis, but I think it is normally dormant. It flares up in times of high emotions, likely in correspondence with your Chimera abilities. Which makes an...extremely dangerous combo, I’m almost afraid of what would have happened if I hadn’t stopped you.” She mumbled the last bit as she looked away from her, not wanting to keep eye contact anymore.

The Whispers.

That was what she was talking about, The Whispers.

They had immense influence over her, she wouldn’t be surprised if they were capable of just completely taking over her body. Even if it wasn’t all of their memories, the parts she does have has clearly affected who she is, she just wasn’t sure to what extent. The fact that they could pick and choose what memories they want her to keep, and that they can essentially take away her ability to feel emotions whenever they felt like it. Worse, they could make her feel all of their emotions, which was something even though they barely had control over. And that’s just what she knew so far, she had next to no idea just what they were capable of.

It was the correspondence with her Chimera abilities that worried her.

Pinkamena looked away from Starlight, turning her attention to her hands. She raised them closer to her face and turned them around, looking at the center of her palms as she opened and closed them.

Could they...force a transformation? Any time she’s transformed, it had been times of high emotion, sometimes even with their influence. But if they were to push immense emotions onto her, could they...make her lose control? Push her to kill someone she didn’t want to kill? If they did, what would stop them from taking that memory away, not even knowing it had happened?

How did she know that it hadn’t happened already?

That was a terrifying thought, she needed to see Discord, he was the only one who cou-

“Though I’m not factoring in the effect The Whispers may have on you, I would need to talk to Discord to get an extensive list of potential mental issues they can cause.” Starlight mumbled, likely not intending for Pinkamena to hear her.

Pinkamena’s eyes widened in surprise when she heard this, her head turning towards Starlight fast enough to give her whiplash.

“How do you know about them?!” Pinkamena asked angrily, very nearly screaming the question.

Starlight’s eyes quickly constricted in fear, putting her hands out defensively in front of her. “Woah, calm down! I only know about them from Igneous, though I didn’t realize you called them that too.”

“Too? What do you mean?” She was under the impression that there were only about three people who had the displeasure of The Whispers being injected into their brain like a virus, and none of them had been recent.

“You...don’t know? I figured Discord would have told you, huh.” She said as she pursed her lips, seeming genuinely perplexed.

“Know what?” Pinkamena asked as she turned her entire body to Starlight, her legs dangling off the side of the bed.

Starlight looked back at Pinkamena, initiating eye contact again as her face relaxed. “Igneous had...well, as he referred to it, asked Discord for a ‘trial run’ with them. He began calling them The Whispers because he said they were constantly whispering in the back of his head, at least that’s what he told me.” As she said this, she reached back into the pocket of her book. She flipped it open to page the book was on and looked down at it, flipping through the pages until she got to a certain one. She then began tracing the words with her finger, as if she were looking for something.

“Wait...Igneous wanted The Whispers to be put in his mind?” Pinkamena asked in disbelief, her eyes widening slightly in surprise.

Why would Igneous want The Whispers? He had to know what they were, right? Maybe not, she was only forced to have them put into her because she killed him. Why would he want them? Why didn’t Discord tell her? This made little sense.

The fact that they both ended up calling them The Whispers hadn’t escaped her, nor did the fact that they never mentioned this to her.

“Well, sort of. Discord apparently made some improvements on the helmet that holds them and puts them in, he said he was initially trying to figure out if it was possible to extract them from a still alive host. He couldn’t. He did however find a way to temporarily inject them into someone, by preventing them from being able to permanently attach to the host, causing them to eventually just fade away.” Starlight explained, though it seemed to be more like she was saying it from memory rather than whatever she was reading from her book. “As far as I know, he’s only been able to make it temporarily last a month. But since Igneous volunteered to be the first ‘test subject’, as Discord put it. Since Igneous was the leader at the time, he didn’t want to put him at too much risk. So he only did it for a week and did daily test on him to make sure things were kept stable. That’s actually how Igneous and I started our sessions. Even before I was a part of The Council, after graduating from college, I was...attempting to fix crime issues by stabilizing and fixing their mental issues, I was very naïve.

I ended up getting involved in some Syndicate stuff, but Discord saw my potential. So, it was either get wiped off the face of the planet by The Syndicate, or help Discord keep track of Igneouss’ mental state and keep notes on exactly what effects it had. I’m still here, so I’m sure you can assume what choice I made.”

“So, basically a trial run of The Whispers? Heh, if I had known that was a thing and had a say, I likely would have picked it.” Pinkamena mumbled to herself as she brought both of her hands up to her hair, moving it out of her face and behind her head.

“There were some...complications, but it went exceptionally better than Discord expected. He didn’t kill himself, at least.” She said cynically as her finger reached the bottom of the page, flipping to the next page as she continued to look for something. She gave a slight, triumphant smile as her fingers stopped, seeming to have found whatever she was looking for. “Found it! Now, I only know the effects of them being there temporarily. I don’t know the difference, if any, in having them as a more permanent thing. I’m not even sure whether or not they’ve allowed you access to their memories yet, they were extremely hesitant to do so with Igneous, and they didn’t even know they were there temporarily.” Starlight explained as she looked up at Pinkamena, quickly turning her attention back to the book. She began tracing her finger along the words as she read them.

“Known possible effects: Excessive paranoia, hallucinations, temporary loss of motor functions, complete loss of motor functions, temporary cognitive decline, anxiety attacks, panic attacks, brief catatonic episodes, identity crisis, frequent brain aneurysms, prone to outbursts, insomnia, increasing cases of sleep paralysis, clear gaps in memory, mood swings, talk to self when though to be alone, pervasive distrust and suspicion of others, hesitancy to confide in others, lack of interest in personal and social relationships,

a tendency to be alone, limited range of emotional expression, appearance of being cold or indifferent to others, odd perceptual experiences, such as hearing voices, others calling your name, etc. Persistence with lying, stealing, conning, using aliases, etc. Aggressive behavior, disregard for the safety of self or others, lack of remorse for behavior, fragile self-image, intense fear of being abandoned, ongoing feeling of emptiness, frequent displays of intense anger, arrogance, desire to be in control of people, tasks, and situations, and a near inability to take direct guilt without at least an attempt to put it on someone or something else.”

By the time Starlight was done she was almost completely out of breath, the finger that had been tracing up at the end of the next page.

“Well, there are a couple more. But they, uh, wouldn’t apply to you.” She mumbled sheepishly, pulling her hand out of the book and shutting it as she did.

Pinkamena had been listening quietly, slouched over the bed with her eyes closed, her arms gripping the bottom of the bed. She had been making a mental list as Starlight spoke, checking off all the ones she thought applied to her or she had exhibited before. So far, the majority of them applied to her, though it was difficult to pin down what was because of The Whispers.

She had a lot of questions, for Starlight, Discord, The Whispers, and anyone that would have the answers she was looking for. But, most of those she could try to get out of Starlight during their ‘therapy session’. Discord was a coin toss, he might answer some of them, he might not. And The Whispers will only let her know what they want her too, so out of the one hundred questions she could ask them, they might answer one if they’re in a good mood.

There was, however, one question she was particularly curious about.

“Who did he hallucinate?” Pinkamena asked as she opened her eyes, causing Starlight to shift her attention to her.

“What do you mean?” Starlight asked curiously, putting the book back in her vest for the second time.

“The Whispers...don’t just take any random form, they’re far more manipulative than that.” As she said this, she felt a strange...pressure building in the back of her head. Almost like a migraine was coming, though it didn’t seem to progress more and stayed at a point of tolerance. “They take a look into your memories and take the shape of someone you know, which can be someone you hate or love, it is one of their best ways of holding influence over the host.

As she talked, the pressure seemed to get worse, slowly turning into pain. It was slightly worse than a typical headache, but there was something about it that felt...familiar.

“Hmm, I don’t believe he ever told me. Though, there wasn’t a lot he could tell me about The Whispers. They seem to be very selective on who gets to know what about them, there were some things they didn’t seem to really care if he told others about. But if he tried to tell me something they didn’t want others to know about, they’d cause a brain aneurysm. And, thanks to him being a chimera and having exceptional regenerative capabilities, they could do multiple of them and not risk him dying. It was a huge pain to work around.”

Brain aneurysms.

That’s what he did to her whenever he snapped his fingers, either to prove a point, or just when she was annoying him. That would explain why it felt so painful, and why The Whispers were able to do it. They were connected directly to her brain, who knows what other agonizing things they could do to her whenever they felt like it.

Now that she thought about it, a brain aneurysm might have been the simplest of their parlor tricks.

“May I ask who The Whispers appear as to you?” Starlight asked, seeming genuinely interested.

“I...don’t think-” As Pinkamena spoke, the pain got increasingly worse, as if The Whispers were warning her to be careful on what she decided to say. “They wouldn’t like it very much, neither would I enjoy the brain aneurysm. Can I just go now? I’d like to get home and get some actual sleep.” Pinkamena said as she jumped off the bed, lifting her arms above her head as began to stretch. Reaching under the bed and finding her hoodie like she expected to, quickly slipping it on.

“Ugh, figures, they never make things simple.” Starlight mumbled frustratedly. “Anyway, you can’t go home, not yet. After what happened, we’re going to go to my office and have our first session. Discord won’t allow you to leave until I give him a mental evaluation, and I’m inclined to agree.”

Starlight quickly stood up, turning towards Pinkamena as a scowl formed on her face. “Then, after we’re done, you are going to go apologize to Michael! I’m sure after you apologize, he will as well. Besides, you still need his permission if you want to Juno off of you. You have to talk to him. And, considering he’s on painkillers, injured, tied down to the bed, and there are at least two guards in that room at all times, I don’t think you two will be fighting again.” Starlight declared.

Pinkamena’s fist clenched at the mention of Michael, having begun to develop a resentment for him. It was true, they had started off on the wrong foot. But it’s hard to like someone when they beat the shit out of you and try to kill you because you killed someone they wanted to kill, the fact that The Whispers didn’t seem to like him either was certainly a factor. She had to admit, he was very good in a fight, even without his mechanical advantages. Plus he was a part of The Council, which meant he could be useful.

Pinkamena bit the inside of her cheek as she grimaced, as much as she might have disliked it, she needed to make things right with him. Or, at least make sure he won’t be actively trying to kill her.

“After that,” Starlight continued, reaching into the other pocket on her vest and pulling out her phone. It looked like an iPhone seven, the case on it being a dark magenta with small, purple stars on it. Each star has two small, thick, curved lines connected to them in a cupped shape, the color of them being one side dark green and one side light green, almost like mint. It looked more like a phone that would belong to a twelve-year-old girl than her, and yet somehow it fit. “Discord wanted to talk to you in his office, wanting to ask about what happened probably. He also said he had some stuff he wanted to give you, and that you could leave after that.”

Starlight then turned on her phone and began texting someone, making an almost annoyed expression as she did, like the person she was texting was annoying her.

“So, a therapy session, an apology, and a lecture? Great,” Pinkamena said with a groan, getting another headache, though she was pretty sure this one wasn’t because of The Whispers.

“Oh, don’t be such a baby! It won’t be that bad, we can start soon. I’ll take you to my office. Just,” A scowl came on her face as her phone dinged, whatever text she had just read had clearly made her annoyed. “give me a second.” She grumbled.

Pinkamena looked at Starlight curiously, slightly intrigued at whoever she was texting. But, after a few seconds of just staring at her, she rolled her eyes and shrugged. It wasn’t something she was interested in enough to ask, and it wasn’t her business anyway.

“Sorry about that,” Starlight said as she sent a text and turned off her phone, almost angrily putting the phone back in the vest pocket she pulled it out off. “trying to keep an active social life while being a part of The Syndicate seems to be nearly impossible.” She grumbled as she slowly stood out of the chair, also stretching a little as she did.

“Come on, I’ll lead you to my office. But we’re not making a habit of this, so I’d suggest learning where it is now.” Starlight said with a content tone, the annoyed look on her face quickly disappearing and being replaced by her calm smile from earlier. She began to swiftly walk towards the door, walking past Pinkamena without even giving her another glance. She quickly opened the door and began to walk out, before stopping.

“I’m...going to wait outside for a few minutes first. I want to give you a moment to…” She turned her head slightly to the left, first looking at Pinkamena, as if analyzing her. Then she looked back at the bed, specifically at Blake’s mask, as she seemed to glare at it. “adjust.” She spat the last word out, almost like it hurt her to say.

Then, before Pinkamena could notice, she snapped back forward and walked outside, shutting the door behind her.

“Hmm, weird.” She mumbled as she turned her attention towards the mask, walking towards it. “This is just a guess, but I think Starlight has a strong disdain towards Blake. Though, after meeting him, I couldn’t really blame her or anyone else.”

Pinkamena leaned down and picked up the mask, both of her hands latching around the back of it. She lifted it up to her stomach and looked down at it, focusing more on the eyes than anything. It seemed to be looking back at her as she looked into it, almost looking into her soul itself.

She half expected The Whispers, taking the opportunity of her being alone, to show up and make the mask talk or something. But nothing like that happened. She had even almost expected Alice to show up, giving her some kind of lecture about how Starlight was right.

But that didn’t happen either, it was just her and the mask.

She considered whether or not she should take the mask with her for a second, wearing the mask of the man who tortured and raped her for a month may not have been good for her mental health.

She ultimately decided to keep it, it was less hassle just to keep using this mask rather than having to pick another one. She didn’t have the time nor the patience to look through a bunch of masks until she found one that she liked, it wasn’t worth it.

With a shrug, Pinkamena put the mask in her hoodie pocket, turning around and opening the door as she did.

As she walked through the door, she could’ve sworn she heard a little girl giggling.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The therapy session with Starlight was...interesting, to say the least. It wasn’t as unenjoyable as she initially thought it would be, though there were some parts where she felt Starlight was being...stubborn in her pursuit to get Pinkamena to open up to her. To be fair, that’s kind of what therapists are supposed to do, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

Pinkamena walked into a different part of the infirmary, the door and the room looking exactly the same as hers. The only difference being this one had two guards decked out in riot gear standing outside it, she wasn’t sure whether they were there to keep people out, or to keep Michael in.

They didn’t even look at her as she walked in, either they knew she was coming, or were trained to keep a straight face and focused attention like The Queen’s Guard.

Walking into the room, it looked exactly the same as the room she was in. Same white walls and white beds with blue sheets hanging from the roof between them, same lack of anyone else in the other beds. Same cabinets full of medicine, same IV stands, same everything really.

The only real difference was, instead of her in the bed with an IV in her arm, it was Michael.

He was very nearly too big for the bed, his ankles were dangling off the end of his bed, and his large arms hanging off the sides. His clothes had also been changed, he was now wearing socks that revealed feet just as big as the boots he was wearing previously. A pair of dark jeans had now replaced his pants, and he wasn’t wearing a shirt at all. Most of his upper body, like his right shoulder and chest area, were heavily bandaged. The only part of his body besides his torso that was bandaged heavily was his left knee, the one she had stabbed through.

There were a large pair of crutches beside his bed, she imagined he wouldn’t be able to walk without them for a bit.

Since he wasn’t wearing a shirt, she could now see just how battle-experienced he really was. From what she could see that wasn’t covered in bandages, he was covered in scars. Deep cuts, slashes and gashes, even some claw marks from what she assumed was from a large animal, or potentially a chimera, she wasn’t sure how many of those there really were out there. There were also parts of his body that looked almost...caved in? It was hard to tell, but it was obvious there had been some parts of his body that had been hit hard enough to where that part of his body was sort of pushed in. It kind of reminded her of those rubber toys she used to play with, where she’d push her finger on a certain part of it and push it in, just for it to bounce back to the way it was, though his didn’t bounce back.

She also noticed how incredibly muscular he seemed, ‘beef bus’ would be an appropriate term. When she said that his body was way more muscle than fat, she wasn’t aware just how much so until this point. His biceps, or just bicep since he only had one real arm, were huge and exceptionally toned. Along with the massive size of his hands, it was obvious this man was strong, even among bodybuilders.

The rest of his body was also in good condition, there was almost no fat on his body. He had a very toned looking six pack, and a body that looked like it was the peak humans could reach. Seeing him now made her realize just how much strength being a chimera really gave her. If she came close to beating someone like this, how strong would she become once she learned how to control herself? Once she unlocked further transformations and abilities?

Considering that Igneous had spent years as a chimera and likely mastered it, she’s realizing just how lucky she really got with the way she killed him.

Unsurprisingly, Michael still had his mask attached. Small puffs of white smoke came out of both sides of the gas masks in tune with his breathing, though they evaporated pretty soon after leaving. His eyes were clothed, and he looked very calm, he didn’t seem to react to the door being opened and closed. She was listening to his heartbeat, and it stayed at a rather slow pace. Meaning he was asleep, pretending to be asleep, or heavily sedated.

Quitely, Pinkamena walked to the side of his bed, pulling up one of the chairs to it and sitting down in it, making little to no noise.

Despite being nearly completely silent, Michael’s eyes quickly opened and looked at her when she sat down.

Somehow, this didn’t surprise her.

His head moved slightly to look at her, but other than that, he gave no real reaction. His heartbeat picked up slightly and his eyebrows furrowed when he turned to look at her, but he seemed to stay calm.

Pinkamena took in a deep breath before saying anything, she needed to handle this carefully. He was the last vote she needed, she at least needed to make him not want to kill her anymore.

“Look, I don’t like you, you don’t like me. I get it. And I...understand why you lashed out at me, I likely would have felt the same if somebody else killed him. Especially considering I killed him out of dumb luck, I’m only just recently realizing how lucky I really got. But, it was stupid. You shouldn’t have tried to kill me, and I shouldn’t have tried to kill you. It would have been terrible for The Syndicate to lose either their new leader, or one of the essential members of The Council, whichever of us would have won. And, well I..”

She was really bad at apologizing, it didn’t help that he was just staring at her without doing or saying anything. She nervously put her hands in her hoodie pockets, staring at the spot between his eyes as she talked to him so she wasn’t actually making eye contact, but at least looked like she was too him.

“I feel like we got off on the wrong foot, I don’t...hate you or anything. But I’m finding it difficult to like you considering you tried to brutally kill me. And I’m sure you don’t hate me either, your just judging me for the actions I took rather than who I am. So, think we could just...start over?” Pinkamena asked with an awkward chuckle.

There were a few seconds of awkward silence as Pinkamena just sat there waiting for some kind of response, which she never got because he seemed content at just staring at her.

“Uh, this is the part where you tell me yes, hopefully.”

He scowled at that as he turned his head away from her, focusing on the gaze above him instead.

“Breathing...hurts...talking...hurts more.” His voice was extremely strained and horse, other than that, he didn’t seem to show any signs of the pain affecting him.

Of course, why wouldn’t breathing and talking hurt? She couldn’t even remember how many times she hit him hard in the stomach, plus the fact that she tried to rip his heart out couldn't have helped.

“Oh...shit...I’m sorry. I have to admit, I did go a bit overboard.”

“Don’t...apologize...I am also...at fault...I...lied about...why I fought you...it was not...out of anger...but a test.”

Every time he talked, he had to inhale deeply between words, his chest rising and falling heavily as he did.

“A test? I already passed a test before. So what, did you want to test me for yourself?” She asked in an annoyed tone, she was getting really tired of being tested.

“No...a different test..I simply wanted...to test your abilities...if you were worthy...you’ve earned my respect.”

Considering how injured and weak he was, she was inclined to believe he was simply lying so she wouldn’t kill him. But considering she smelt no fear and his heartbeat didn’t increase at all, she believed him.

“So it takes beating the shit out of each other to the point of near death to earn your respect? I’m not sure that’s worth it.”

Something that sounded like a chuckle came out of Michael, though it also could have been him just attempting to breathe.

“Sound just like him...well...having my respect...means you get my....vote on getting...Juno off of you.”

That caught Pinkamena’s attention.

“I shouldn’t be surprised you knew that’s what I wanted. Just like that? You’ll give your vote?” She asked skeptically, she couldn’t help being suspicious at this point.

“Yes...with one condition...non-negotiable.”

Of course, things are almost never easy. Fancy Pants did it for practically free, but he seemed to be the exception.

“Alright, fine. What is it? Kill someone? Get you your protein powder? What?” She asked in an extremely irritated tone, she had enough to do already, she didn’t need more.

Instead of saying anything, Michael turned his head towards her. Then moved his eyes towards a small, metal table beside his bed, the only thing on it was a clipboard with a pen and a couple of pieces of paper on it the doctor must have left. She followed his gaze and figured out that he wanted those to write down what he wanted, so she bent over and picked them up and handed them to him.

He used his right arm to hold the clipboard steady, despite how much that must have hurt considering how damaged his shoulder must have been. And he used his robotic arm to pull the pen out of the top of the clipboard and began to write on the page, breathing heavily as he did.

“Take this...to Discord...He’ll give you something...I want you...to use it...in your next fight...I’m going...to give you...my vote...and trust you...don't ...disappoint me.” He said with a final deep breath, putting the pen back into the top of the clipboard as he finished writing out the word. He then ripped out the paper with the words on it and handed it over to Pinkamena, and then proceeding to toss the clipboard on the table it was on.

Before promptly passing out.

She didn’t realize that just talking, breathing, and writing could be so difficult while injured. She didn’t really get majorly injured at all in her life, rarely went to the hospital. Now with her accelerated healing factor, she’d likely never experience being that bed sick.

She looked down at the note, but it took her a few seconds to read out.

“Imperium? Is that some kind of element? Material? How am I supposed to use that?” She said as she looked down at the word on the paper, somewhat confused at what it meant.

She ended up just shrugging and put it in her hoodie, she’d ask Discord when she got there, along with the million other questions she had for him.

She sighed in frustration, why did everyone in this place insist on making everything difficult?

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pinkamena hesitated.

She knew she’d be going to Discord’s office, but she had somehow convinced herself that his office was different from the one he had brought her too and turned her into a chimera.

But after seeing that the door that opened to his office was the same wooden door she had seen every time she woke up strapped to that metal table, that erased any doubt.

She hesitated to open the door.

No matter how strong she convinced herself she was, the things that happened to her and the things she did still bothered her, almost haunting her. She’d get over it, eventually.

She reached for the doorknob, stopping when she noticed her right hand was shaking before quickly pulling it back, just now noticing how erratic her breathing had become, almost to the point of hyperventilation. She felt her heart beat erratically as it began to hurt, panic and anxiety quickly beginning to fill her.

And, thanks to the mercy of The Whispers, all of it quickly began to fade away.

She felt that cold chill start to come over her body, a feeling of numbness she was becoming increasingly familiar with overshadowing anything she was feeling. Her right hand and the rest of her body stopped shaking, the feeling of panic and anxiety fading away almost as quickly as it came.

Pinkamena took a deep breath as she closed her eyes, almost finding herself thanking The Whispers. Before quickly opening her eyes again, reaching for the doorknob and opening in.

After walking in and closing the door behind her, she began to look throughout the room for Discord, before her eyes landed on what was in front of her.

The metal table she had been strapped to so many times was still, with the straps hanging to the side, almost waiting to hold down its next victim. It also looked like it had been recently cleaned, practically sparkling.

Looking at the table, she could almost feel what she had been put through on it. The feeling of sharp needles poking into her brain as that helmet was put onto her, the pain she felt when he sent electricity coursing through her, unable to even control her body as it thrash about on the table, sometimes even wetting herself as she lost control of her bladder. The smell of her flesh burning, very nearly biting off her own tongue on several occasions.

She likely would have had a panic attack if it weren’t for The Whispers wrapping their deathly cold hand around her heart, preventing her from feeling anything but a deep numbness.

All the machines that she had seen the first time she woke up, which the majority of them she still didn’t know the purpose of, were all still here. Though none of them seemed to be turned on as she didn’t hear the humming sound that came from them when they were, which would explain why the room was so quiet. She could see all of them too despite how dark the room was without a light, thanks to her improved vision.

Really, the only thing that seemed to be different was the color of the paint on the walls. Instead of being the color combination of pink and orange, it was a combination of scarlet red and plum purple, in the form of vertical stripes.

From how thick the layers of paint still smelt, it can’t have been longer than a day or two since they were painted, she couldn’t decide whether or not it was uglier than orange and pink.

As she looked around the room, she quickly spotted Discord, and the only source of light in the room. The NASA style supercomputer that was in the room on a small table, that she assumed was how Discord controlled the majority of his machines, was now turned on an emitting a bright blue light. Discord was sitting in a bright green cotton chair with wheels on it, leaning down as he seemed to be intently focusing on the computer. He had one hand on the mouse and the other on the keyboard, and though the hand on the keyboard wasn’t moving, there was an almost rhythmic clicking noise coming from the mouse.

She easily walked up to him and was now standing behind him, though he didn’t seem to notice her at all.

She was tempted to tap him on the shoulder just to scare him, but then she saw what he was doing on the computer.

The blue light coming from the computer was actually coming from around what he was doing on the computer, which was on a screen that took up almost half of the monitor. On this screen, Discord seemed to control a small, stick figure like character. Except the head looked more like an oval than a circle, the eyes looked too big and were bulging out of the head, the hands and feet were also just circles, and the character was colored in a light tan.

The clicking that Discord had been doing was apparently moving his character, a blue arrow that got longer the farther he wanted his character to go, and turned green whenever he wanted his character to jump showed which. The background of the game actually looked rather lively and colorful, there were several buildings and generic characters in the background as his character ran by.

She knew they were generic because of the way they looked compared to Discord’s character, who stuck out immensely.

The clothing he was wearing was just bizarre. To start, he was wearing a very western looking cowboy hat, and since she couldn’t see his hair, she assumed the hat covered it. He also had vampire like fangs that were so big that reached down to the character’s chin, and he was wearing some kind of superman-esque costume, with a P instead of an S, cape and all. Finally, he was wearing very large, grey boots that almost went up to the characters knees.

His character was also completely engulfed in fire, but that seemed to be entirely cosmetic, as it didn’t seem to deter his character from running and jumping as much as Discord made him. Nor did any of the characters even bat an eye at his character.

A wave of nostalgia hit Pinkamena as she looked at the game, not having played it herself since elementary school when the teachers took them to the computer lab, she always finished her work as early as possible so she could play it as much as possible.

“Are you...playing Poptropica?”

Discord stopped clicking on the mouse and turned his head slightly to look at her, he stared at her for a few seconds, and then turned his head back to the computer screen and continued to play Poptropica, the rhythmic sound of the clicking from the mouse continuing.

“Yes.” He said nonchalantly.

“You have an extremely powerful, and extremely expensive I’d imagine, computer provided to you by a very powerful crime organization, which you use to control all of your scientific machines. And you’re using it...to play Poptropica?”

“I’m...waiting on a call.” Discord said as he glanced over to the left of his computer, where his bright brown flip phone lay. “Plus, this game is really entertaining, and surprisingly scientifically accurate. Except for Shrink Ray Island, I’ve done a couple of experiments, and shrinking people wouldn’t work like that at all. Don’t even get me started on the part with the morse code!” He said with both admiration and frustration.

Pinkamena just stared at him, both proud and disappointed. She wasn’t whether he was being serious, or he just expected her to take him seriously.

Almost an entire minute of awkward silence passes, before Discord let out a sigh and saved his game before turning off the computer. He then stylishly spun around in his chair, probably the reason he got a chair with wheels in the first place, and looked up at Pinkamena with a content smile.

“Hello sweetie, how can I help you?” He asked sarcastically, as if he already knew what she was here for.

Pinkamena looked back at Discord in confusion, wondering why he had called her sweetie. But she just shrugged, dismissing it as Discord making some strange reference. She then reached into her right hoodie pocket and pulled out the piece of paper Michael wrote for her. She handed it to Discord as he took it from her, looking at it curiously.

As he read the word, his lips spread into a small smirk as he let out a quiet chuckle.

“Heh, figured he’d give you this, though I kind of hoped he wouldn’t. Both fortunately and unfortunately, I rarely am.” He mumbled as he stood up out of his chair, reaching over and flicking a switch on the wall. As he did, the lights come on in the room and illuminates it.

She follows him with her eyes curiously, watching as he walks over to the machines. He walks up to one machine in particular, one of the ones she remembered the most because it seemed so strange. It was the somewhat large one that looked kind of like a broken arcade machine, with wires coming out of it and a ticket slot on the front.

Then he did something that reminded her just how strange and unpredictable he really was.

Turns out, the machine was really just a big prop, likely made out of some kind of very light material like plastic. Either that, or Discord is incredibly strong. She watched as he, with one hand, pushed the entire machine to the side! And he did all this without even looking up, as if it was the most casual thing he’d ever done. He crouched down and put his hand against the wall, moving it slightly to the left like a panel, revealing a dark black wall safe behind hit, the panel having been painted the same as the wall so only he’d actually know it was there.

She wasn’t sure how he managed to paint it without some of the paint getting on the back of the machine, when it came to Discord, she might have been better off not asking questions.

Not just that, but, almost like he completely forgot she was even there, looked back at her with an almost confused expression. Then his eyes widened in surprise, as if just realizing he revealed his secret safe to somebody else.

“Uh...don’t tell anyone about this please.” He said casually as he turned back to the safe and continued unlocking it.

She couldn’t tell whether he was being genuine, or just messing with her.

A few moments passed as Pinkamena just watched him open the safe, wondering what Discord even did before The Syndicate took him in.

There was a creaking sound as the safe opened, Discord put the piece of paper in the pocket of his brown lab coat, she wasn’t even sure why he was keeping it.

She couldn’t see anything inside the safe, both due to it being too dark, and Discord was kind of blocking most of the safe. She was a little curious what was in there, considering his arm was elbow deep in the safe, which shouldn’t even be possible since wall safes don’t tend to be that deep, and was moving his arm around in it making various noises.

“So, what does it mean? Imperium?”

Discord kept looking through the safe, though he was still listening to her.

“Oh yeah, figured you wouldn’t know a dead language. It’s Latin, it means power. Michael named it that, probably put power in google translate into a bunch of random languages until he found one he liked.”

Then, suddenly the noises stopped as Discord grabbed onto something specific.

“Aha! It was between The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, and The Sonic Lipstick!” He said triumphantly before pulling something out of the safe, then looking into his safe and making a scowl as he pursed his lips, like he was grossed out by what he saw. “Yeah...I should probably clean this thing out and organize it. I don’t even remember making that Rhondium Sensor, or those Ghost Gauntlets. Sometimes I regret my ‘Make A Bunch of Danny Phantom Gadgets And See How Many of Them Are Scientifically Possible’ phase, though that’s not nearly as bad as my Johnny Test phase. I still don’t know where that can of Auto-tanning spray went.” He mumbled as he nodded his head dismissively, shutting the safe, making sure it was locked, and stood up.

Once again, this time with one hand because he had whatever he pulled from the safe in his other, and pulled the fake machine back in front of the wall safe. He walked up to her with a thoughtful look on his face, though it was hard to tell whether he was thinking about something serious, or what toppings to put on his next pizza.

When he got about two feet from her, he tossed whatever it was he was holding toward her. She wasn’t expecting it, but luckily she had good reflexes, as she was able to pull her hands out of her hoodie pockets and catch it.

“Don’t drop that, making more of it is a pain in the arse.” He said with a surprisingly good British accent, though despite what he said, it was obvious how carefree he was by the tone.

She wasn’t going to question how or why Discord learned how to do a British accent, she got enough headaches from The Whispers.

Other than raising her eyebrows slightly at Discord, she decided not to pay him any more attention and just look at what Michael wanted her to have.

She almost immediately recognized it.

It was the same syringe full of a dark red, almost blood like liquid. Well, obviously it wasn’t the same one, but it was filled with the same stuff. She had almost forgotten it was a thing and to ask about it, it just got piled under the dozens of other questions she had. Why did Michael want her to use this?

“What is this? It looks like some kind of liquid energy drink.”

Discord gave out a slight chortle of that, though it seemed more like it was because he found what she said stupid rather than funny.

“Pfft, yeah, it’ll definitely give you energy. Along with a two hundred percent increase in muscle and bone density, a massive increase in testosterone, forcing the brain to produce obscene amounts of adrenaline along with dopamine, lowering the sensitivity of the nervous system to the point of anything you feel will be negligible, putting your cognitive functions into overdrive, and adding a slight boost to cell regeneration for anywhere between one to three hours. But it's about as likely to kill you.”

As he said this, he walked back over to the table with his computer on it. Then he leaned down and began to rub his hands under the bottom of the table, as if he were looking for something. There was then a clicking sound as he apparently pressed a button, which apparently opened some kind of hidden contraption in the wall beside his computer. A rectangle shaped part of the wall began to slide into itself as a cold mist came out of it, revealing a mini-fridge built into the wall. Discord put that himself, no doubt.

From what she could see: There was a jar filled with a dark red, almost brown liquid. A piece of paper on the jar labeled it as ‘Szechuan Sauce’, a box of ice cream sandwiches, a small, clear bottle filled with a green liquid labeled ‘Spunk’, a six pack of brown cans with no label on them, and a medium sized cardboard box with a label that said ‘Frozen Goods’ on the front.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to know what anything in that fridge was.

Discord put his hand in the mini-fridge and pulled one of the cans from the pack, cracking it open and taking a sip from it, smiling satisfyingly after he did.

“Hmm, putting jelly beans, warheads, skittles, and gummy bears in a blender, melting the remains down to liquids, and mixing them together with hot chocolate? Not one of my worst ideas. Way better than mixing shellfish and anchovies with a Doritoes Jacked taco, my stomach will never forgive me for that one, neither will the janitors at Denny’s.” He said as he cringed at the memory, his food combinations either ended really well, really horribly, or some mixture of both.

He then looked back at Pinkamena curiously, as if he completely forgot she was there, again. Then he grabbed another one of the brown cans and pressed the button under the table again, and began walking towards Pinkamena as the mini-fridge behind him closed and it blended in, looking like the wall all over again.

Pinkamena only looked back at him baffled, maybe it was true every genius has been touched by insanity, though Discord seems a little more than touched.

“So...it's some kind of drug?” She asked as she turned towards him, slightly wondering how much of this room was real and what else he was hiding.

Discord walked up to her and offered her the other can, which she hesitantly took and put in her hoodie, deciding she’ll try it later. She did really like skittles, and really enjoyed food and candy combinations.

“It's not a drug, it’s the drug. Michael got a few experimental cybernetic enchantments from me, sure. But he still wanted every advantage he could possibly get, besides, I did owe him a favor for that thing with the dolphin and the porcupine, I’ll never look at a treehouse the same again.” He seemed to visibly shudder at the memory of something as he looked away from Pinkamena for a second, before refocusing on Pinkamena and taking another sip from his can of mixed candies and hot chocolate. “Anyway, it’s the very definition of a battle drug, likely up there with one of the most effective things I’ve ever made. Essentially the only setback to it, besides the obvious ones, would be it is extremely addictive. It’s actually a lot like a combination of X-Cell and Psycho from Fallout 4, sadly the game didn’t allow such creativity. If they just upgraded the engine, the games would be a lot better. ‘It just works’ my ass, fuck you Todd Howard! I could make a better game with a shittier engine with one hand tied behind my back, hyped up on Adderall and in a day.”

Discord said angrily as he scowled and ground his teeth, taking a longer sip from his can. Pinkamena just stared at him with a baffled look on her face, is this what others felt like when she’d go off on tangents about random things when she was Pinkie? If so, it was a miracle anyone could tolerate her if it was mixed with how hyper she was.

Discord looked back at her as his face relaxed, realizing just how off topic he got. “Sorry, but yeah. Michael asked me to make that for him, he wanted to use it to fight against Igneous and other problems. But he...got really addicted to it and it became a real problem for him. Messed up his body so bad he couldn’t even breathe properly anymore, actually why he wears a gas mask. It became a real problem when it caused him and Starlight to break up after she came and asked me to stop making it for him, oh yeah, they used to date.” He quickly said, as if it were an unimportant detail.

Pinkamena would have been surprised if The Whispers hadn’t already made her aware of this.

“I did agree to stop making it, but more because it was expensive to make. Though Michael kept his own stash, and I kept an emergency dose in my safe, I’m still the only one who knows the formula, and I intend to keep it that way. But, you don’t seem like you have an addictive personality, so you should be fine. Besides, even if you get addicted, I’m sure The Whispers wouldn’t let you get too bad.”

She was almost skeptical about what he was saying, but it was Discord, and he wasn’t really the lying type. At least, she didn’t think so.

“Wait, wait, wait. You made a battle drug, for Michael? The guy who’s mostly muscle, has a burning desire to kill someone he deems a challenge, and you likely knew he had an addictive personality? Wow, you really are a mad scientist!” Pinkamena exclaimed as she put the needle in her hoodie pocket, realizing her hoodie pockets were beginning to get rather full.

“Nah, I’m not mad, I’m just differently sane.” He said as he waved his hand in front of him, as if dismissing the very notion. “Besides, Michael might hit like a locomotive at his best, but he’s about as subtle as one. There wasn’t any damage he could do that I wouldn’t figure out how to fix. Well, besides his relationship with Starlight, anyway.” Discord put his hand in his lab coat pocket like he was searching for something, then his eyes widened slightly as he realized it wasn’t there. He turned around and looked at his phone on his table, looking more annoyed than anything. “Damn, I forgot to get my phone while I was over there.” He said as he began walking back over to his table.

Pinkamena realized she needed to start asking some of the questions she came here for, if not, they might just be forgotten and replaced by the questions she had about how Discord worked.

“So, I have a couple questions about The Whispers. And you’re quite literally the only person who knows anything about them.” She asked as she moved over to the metal table and sat on it since it was the only place to sit. She felt herself almost have a panic attack as she did, but The Whispers snuffed that out before it could even start.

Discord picked up his phone and opened it, grunting disappointedly when he saw he had no voicemails. He then put it in his pocket and turned to Pinkamena, his eyes went from her head, to her feet, and then back to her head like he was analyzing her.

“Hmm, I take it you’ve met Fairy Girl? What fairy tale did she play as this time? Cinderella, perhaps? Cinderella never made sense to me, if the slipper fit perfectly, then how did it fall off?” He said, seeming to ask himself more than her.

Pinkamena was slightly surprised, but at this point, not very much. Though, she felt this was one time where she could ask a question and get an actual answer.

“Alice In Wonderland, actually. How did you know I met Alice?”

Discord let out a small snort, before taking another sip from his can. “Alice In Wonderland, so they do have a sense of humor. Anyway, I know because I recognize the pattern. All previous leaders started asking a lot of questions about The Whispers after meeting a little girl while they were asleep, saying something about her always appearing like she was pretending to be a character from some fairy tale, though The Whispers don’t tend to like it when their hosts ask questions. Though I couldn’t give her a real name until Igneous, I just kept calling her ‘Fairy Girl’. Better fitting name if you ask me.”

He didn’t look at Pinkamena as he talked, instead, he just stared down at the can in his hands, almost like he was lost in thought. Even that smirk was gone from his face, though he didn’t seem sad, per se. Just more like...he didn’t know how to express what he was feeling.

“And yes, I know Starlight told you about Igneouss’ trial run of The Whispers. It made sense, I assume to get her vote for taking Juno off your ass, she wanted you to start doing therapy sessions. And with my suggestion to mentally evaluate you after you tried to kill Michael, it just assured she would tell you. She needed to so she could make sure you were aware of whatever problems you were having because of The Whispers, and maybe give you a bit of closure on Igneous, whether you knew you needed it or not.”

Discord took another long sip from his can, though he didn’t seem too interested in actually drinking it anymore.

Pinkamena now how newfound respect for Discord, and a bit of fear. The way he just...analyzed people like that, and could predict what they’d do based on whatever psychological analysis he had of them, and how confident he was that they’d carry out the actions he knew they would. It was...really kind of unnerving, he could very likely beat even The Whispers in a battle of wits.

She already knew that it would be nearly impossible, but she made a mental note to never get on Discord’s bad side.

“Yeah...well, anyway, Alice sai-”

“No, wait! Let me guess,” Discord suddenly said as he put his hand out in front of him, signalling her to stop. “Alice said something along the lines of ‘you need to work on your mental fortitude’ after taking out a select memory that had no real significance, before showing you some kind of precious memory, and saying that without them, it could very well be taken away?” Discord paused as he looked at Pinkamena expectantly, which she only responded with a hesitant nod.

He then let out a loud groan, before chugging whatever was left in the can and letting out a loud burp, slight bits of saliva began dripping from the corner of his mouth. “That’s just a psychological *burp* trick, Pinkamena. She’s just saying that to give you a false sense of security. Once The Whispers meld with your mind, they’re like, a ninety-nine percent guarantee of safety against any forms of mind manipulation, memory manipulation, *burp*, seizures, pretty much anything that can mess with your mind, with the exception of psychological manipulation and optical illusions.” Discord suddenly wiped his mouth and pinched the bridge of his nose, letting out an almost disappointed sigh. “How does he do that all the time?” He mumbled under his breath.

Pinkamena decided to just to sit there silently and wait, she was learning it was better just to roll with it when it came to Discord.

“Anyway,” He said as he set the empty can on the table, then putting both his hands on the table and looked at Pinkamena. “She’s just saying that to lure you into a false sense of security, letting you think they give you actual freedom because they care about you so you’ll trust them, they did the same thing with Igneous. The truth is; They can take away any memory from you that they feel like and replace it with any of their memories and make you believe it's yours. The second they were injected into your mind, my bad, by the way. You sacrificed any privacy or real control you had, any free will you think you have is just an illusion. Though, some nihilist would argue all forms of free will is an illusion.”

Pinkamena didn’t say anything, not that there wasn’t anything she wanted to say, just that she expected that The Whispers were going to do something. They can’t like the fact that Discord was telling her these things, even if they were lies, he was still planting the idea in her head. She half expected them to just take control and kill Discord here and now, but they didn’t.

Actually, now that she thought about it, they likely realized how useful Discord was to The Syndicate, so they couldn’t kill him. No, they’d be much more likely just to take out the memory of this even happening. That was actually the most likely scenario.

And if that was true, there wasn't a single thing she could do to stop them, or pretty much anything they did, really. It was like Discord said, she had absolutely no real control, just the amount they let her think she had. She needed to start accepting that, she didn’t really have a choice otherwise.

If she was going to lose this memory anyway, might as well sate some of her curiosity, even if it was just temporary.

“So, what should I do then? If anything?” Pinkamena asked as she jumped off the table, she was starting to feel that anxiety and panic again, and The Whispers didn’t seem like giving her any mercy.

“Hmm, hold on a second.” Discord reached into his other lab coat pocket and pulled out his brown journal, opening it and beginning to flip through it. He then suddenly stopped as he read something, pushing his glasses back up, he really needed to get contacts instead, but the glasses made him look so smart. “Have you...heard of an isolation tank?” He asked as he looked up at Pinkamena.

Isolation.

That was something she had become disturbingly familiar with, and yet something she had an urge for. She had desperately wanted to be alone again, even if it was just a temporary escape from her problems. Just a few moments of peace were all she needed, just to shut out the world for a bit.

And yet the world seemed to enjoy keeping her busy.

“Can’t say that I have. What is it?” She asked as she started walking up to Discord, trying her best to keep her breathing steady.

“Well,” Discord mumbled as he closed his book, putting it back in his lab coat pocket. “I’m not going to waste either of our time by telling you why they were made. Basically, they’re like giant, metal pods that you step in. The point of them is that they completely cut off all your senses, and not just the simple five either. Time, temperature, balance, etc. It cuts off everything, so you’re left alone with your thoughts, not knowing what time of day it is, whether you’re hot or cold, or whether you’re even awake. It has driven people insane before, but mostly it is for helping someone think. But...with someone with The Whispers, it forces them to talk to you, instead of them only doing it when they feel like it.

They can’t force you to leave either, you’re there for as long as you want to be, getting whatever you want. One of the previous leaders had one installed into his office, she enjoyed talking to them, apparently. Igneous found out about it and began using it, called it his ‘Panic Room’, or something like that. Pretty much, if you’re stubborn enough, you can get whatever you want from them, or at least annoy them. Igneous was extremely stubborn, from what I can see, you’re just as stubborn. You could probably get whatever you want out of them with your pain tolerance and tenacious personality.”

Discord’s eyes suddenly lowered as his hand came up his chin, stroking his goatee thoughtfully.
“Why do I feel like I’m forgetting something?”

Panic room.

That sounded...right, actually. Being able to just cut off the world for a while, not having to care for any of your problems, even if just for a few minutes, she needed that. And being able to talk to The Whispers whenever she liked? Annoying them until they gave her what she wanted?

Was the world finally giving her a break?

“I’m interested, can you show me where it is? I was barely in there longer than a couple of minutes before Michael threw me out.” She meant to say it jokingly, but it ended up coming out more self-deprecating.

“Hmm, can’t. Busy. Starlight can, she’s the one who made sure Igneous didn’t stay there too long. That’s not a problem now though, I installed a timer that automatically opens it after what amount of time has been put in. But you’ll have to do that tomorrow, you have school in,” Discord looked down at his right arm and pulled up the sleeve, revealing a Mickey Mouse watch on his wrist. “Two hours, give or take.”

Oh yeah, school.

With all that happened, she completely forgot she was still in school. She had to explain what happened with The Silent Killer to Applejack, with what happened with Sunset there was likely going to be something with that.

It wasn’t even the actual school work she was dreading, it was dealing with people that she really didn’t want to deal with.

“I haven’t even gotten actual sleep, do you happen to have anything that’ll keep me focused for the rest of the day? Or, at least school?”

“I do, but I’m not giving you any of it. I need it for later, I have a couple shows I need to binge watch and I always post my reviews on reddit, so I need to actually focus on them.” Discord said as he puts his hands in his lab coat pockets, his eyes widening slightly in surprise as they scraped against something. “Oh yeah, this is what I wanted to give you.”

Discord pulled something out of his lab coat and tossed it to her, thought this time she was ready.

She felt her heart stop when she saw what it was she caught.

“I had intended to give it to you along with your necklace, but things went the way they did, and I just didn’t get the chance.”

It was her phone.

She held it with both of her hands, and she just...couldn’t take her eyes off of it. It was an IPhone6, she remembered getting it for sixteenth birthday, it was the last gift she got from her sisters. The case was a bright pink with various colored balloons on it, she remembered paying fifteen dollars for it since she had to get it customized.

She felt a sudden urge to turn it on.

She almost desperately flipped the phone around, pressing the home button to turn it on.

She had to bite her lip to hold back a sob.

The phones battery was full, and the time was three fifty eight, but it was the home screen that hurt. She remembered the day vividly. It was a week after Princess Twilight went back to Equestria, they had been trying to fit Sunset in with their group and get her to be happy. Which had been her goal since she excelled at making people happy.

They had planned for all of them to come to Pinkie’s house for a girls night out, as a way to show that they had accepted her and wanted to be friends. Long story short, it ended up being a very emotional night for Sunset and she had a breakthrough. It took a long time before she really forgave herself, but that night is when she began the healing process and realized that she deserved happiness. And her, having been Pinkie at the time, took a commemorative selfie with Sunset and the rest.

It was the first time they had gotten Sunset to smile, really smile.

It was one of the few times she felt genuine happiness and pride after her sisters were gone, something she had struggled to do ever since. Making her best friend happy when she was sad, because she cared for her.

Then she tried to kill that same best friend in a fit of rage, all because she was mad at her for being unable to do the impossible.

“I kept it charged for you, and, though I easily could’ve, I didn’t break into it. It hasn’t been touched since it was taken from you right before you were dropped off into the woods, figured you’d want it back. Also I...may or may not have put my number in the case, if you ever decide you need to call me for something.” He said awkwardly as he started rubbing the back of his head.

“Thank you.”

There were a few seconds that passed by in silence, Discord, for once, seemed content on remaining silent with both his hands in his pockets. Pinkamena was content just staring at the photo on her phone, her hands shaking slightly she held it.

That was, before The Seinfield theme song began playing from Discord’s pocket.

Discord quickly reached into his pocket, muted the ringtone and looked at it, but he looked up at Pinkamena first.

“Ok, not to be rude, but you need to leave now.” Discord blurted, catching Pinkamena off guard.

“W-what? Why?” Pinkamena asked as she put the phone in her hoodie pocket.

“Because, I’ve been expecting this call for a bit and I’d like privacy. I get that you’re a bit emotionally sensitive right now, but you have school in two hours, this call is very important, and neither of us have the time.”

Discord suddenly went behind Pinkamena and began to push her towards the door, though he was trying to do so more or less gently.

“But I still have questions!” She tried to say, but he was seeming persistent.

“How many ways do I have to say to go? Leave! Arrivederci! Allonsy” He said as he opened the door, pushing Pinkamena out of the door, slamming the door behind her.

“Good grief, I didn’t like having to do that, but she’s not ready. I’ve only just begun preparations, haven’t even started with making sure she’s ready, I’m not even positive she’s capable of reaching the second transformation yet.” He said as he looked down at the phone while it was still ringing, almost considering just not answering.

Almost.

Discord sighed as he opened the phone to take the call.

“Yes, did you get it?” Discord asked the person on the phone, walking back towards his computer. “Great, and you can get hi-it back here within three days at the specified location? Yes, I have the said amount I’d pay as long as nobody talks. What do you mean you have someone asking questions? I specifically paid you guys so you wouldn’t ask questions?” He said as he sat down in his chair, holding the phone between his head and his shoulder as he turned his computer back on.

“Look, as long as he doesn’t go around telling people about what you guys found, it’s fine. But that is your responsibility, make sure he doesn’t blabber his mouth and there’s no problem. But if he does and I hear about it, and I will hear about it, it’ll be your ass.”

Discord ended that call by snapping the flip phone shut, though that ended up being pointless since he just had to open it again and begin typing in numbers to start calling someone else before putting it between his shoulder and his head as it began to call.

“It astonishes me that you can’t even buy good work these days, is it that difficult to keep your mouth shut and don’t ask questions when someone tells you too as they offer money?”

Discord began typing rapidly on the keyboard as he began to search for something, slightly annoyed at how long his phone had been ringing. Though he couldn’t help but smirk at the satisfying clicking noise as someone finally picked up.

“Yes, is this the Lenox Hill Hospital? Great, this is Trevor Philips at The New York Blood Center making sure those pints of blood are still set to be delivered tomorrow? They are? Good, thank you.” Discord ended the call by closing the flip phone again, though this time it was less violent.

And, once again, he had to open it again and began to type numbers as he began making another call. Why did he do this to himself?

“Samuel, talk to me, do you have them? Yes, dumbass, for the third time, I don’t care if they have any STD’s. As long as there are nine of them, they’re all females, and are eighteen or above. Yes, I’m paying for all nine of them at the same time. No, I don’t care how much they’ll cost, I can afford it. And before you ask, yes, I am done with your redundant questions. Just meet me where I told you too when I told you too, and I’ll have the money.”

Now this time, he snapped his flip phone violently.

And then he opened the phone again, he still had one last call to make.

“Yes, is this CTL Electronics? Yes, I would like to purchase twenty TV’s. Repeat myself? Yes, I said I’d like to buy twenty TV’s. What do I need them for? I have a lot of shows I need to catch up on, so I thought it would be easier to watch them all at once. Do I have the money? Of course, I wouldn’t be calling if I didn’t. I’ll be coming to pick them up in about an hour, have them ready please.”

That was the last call he had to make, setting things up was the hard part. There was a bit of a bump, but things were going a little better than he expected. Now was the part where he waited and hoped things went as planned.

“Three thousand to rent a warehouse for a week? Are you kidding me? That’s a steal! I mean, I’m not low on money, but the discount is still appreciated.”

And just like that, he put the last piece of the puzzle in place. He shouldn’t cause any issues if he was fed, keeping him fed was the hard part.

What Discord was really dreading, was what was going to happen after this. He hadn’t set anything in place for that yet, mostly because he couldn’t say with one hundred percent certainty this was going to work as planned.

He should, however, be trying to figure out where he was going to be getting all that meat. Wyett had a voracious appetite, even among his kind. He dreaded how hungry he was going to be when he comes out of hibernation.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Well, that was...unexpected.” Pinkamena said as she stared at the door, her eyebrows furrowed in slight confusion.

Discord had gotten mad at her before, sure, but he didn’t get physical. Somehow this felt...different, almost like he was trying to hide something.

“Ugh, even if he is, I don’t have the time to deal with that. No, even if just for a bit, I want to relax.” Pinkamena said as she turned her back to the wall and pushed herself against it, before slowly lowering herself to the ground before plopping down on the floor.

She sat on the floor in the hallway outside of Discord’s office, her back against the wall, her legs spread out in front of her, her hands in her hoodie pockets as she seemed to space out.

And she didn’t know what to do.

She felt her hand wrap itself around her phone, pulling it out slowly as she pressed the home button, looking at the picture on the front. He pressed the home button again and the numbers came on the screen for her password, she slowly moved her thumb towards the numbers, but hesitated before she did.

Should she open this now? There are...a lot of memories on this phone, and The Whispers didn’t seem particularly happy with her at the moment. If she happened to get emotional, they wouldn’t stop it.

But, she needed to closure, she needed to still be able know she had some control, however minuscule. It might have been a small choice, but it was still hers to make.

She then typed in her password, which was her birthday backwards, and opened her phone.

And was then bombarded by notifications.

There was a constant sound of dinging as she got Instagram, Snapchat, and Imessage notifications, not even to mention the amount of missed calls she had in her voice box.

She sat and watched the notifications hit her phone, waiting for what felt like hours before they finally started to slow down, a few more minutes passed before they actually stopped.

In that short time, she had changed the position she was sitting in. She had pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her other arm around them, then she rested her chin on the top of her knees as she looked down at her. It almost looked like the fetal position, except her head was on top of her knees, and only one arm was wrapped around her knees.

And she wasn’t crying, not yet, at least.

First, was Instagram.

That’s actually where she had the most notifications, she had a lot of message requests, and messages from various group chat’s she was in. Though, unsurprisingly, a good amount of the message requests were from bots. Bots sending her links to porn websites that likely would give her viruses, bots that wanted her to post something about them for a discount or just straight up money because she had a decent amount of followers, just various bots.

“Good to see Instagram still hasn’t fixed their security, glad to see some things didn’t change.” Pinkamena said, though her voice cracked slightly as she spoke.

The majority of her other message requests had mostly been a bunch of online creeps who had seen some of her photos, thought she was hot, and tried to hook up with her. Some of them were actually kind of nice about it, though most of them sent a handful of messages, and after seeing she hadn’t respond to them, assumed she was leaving them on read and called her a
‘Whore’ ‘Slut’ and various other sexual insults.

Some of them made their intentions very obvious, sending very sexual pick up lines and, usually, with pictures of their penises. When that first started happening to her, she was usually just left disgusted and confused after blocking them. But it started happening so frequently that it just stopped bothering her. She had taken to calling them ‘Weiner Art’, and she used to respond with jokes. Sometimes making fun of the size by responding with something like ‘move your thumb’, and other times just puns based on penises, until she eventually just stopped responding at all since her jokes weren’t usually taken very well. If only they could see her now.

So pretty much just Instagram as usual.

She didn’t actually have a lot of message request from any of her friends, everyone she was friends with she had followed and messaged at least once, or was in a group chat with.

Then again, the majority of the group chats she was in was used just for sending and seeing memes. She wondered how many meme formats have risen and died over the three months she was gone, she probably missed out on a good amount of laughs.

She then went over to her direct messages, the majority of them had been from Sunset Shimmer and the rest. All of them started off with about the same, asking questions like ‘Where are you?’ ‘Why didn’t you come to Sugarcube Corner for your shift?’ ‘Are you okay?’ They usually started off like that, but they eventually got more frequent and urgent when they realized she was missing. Almost everyone in Canterlot High had texted her at least once, wanting to see where she was or if she was okay.

It made her feel tingly inside for a few seconds to know that so many had cared about her, then guilt came crashing down on her because she was the one who caused them to be so worried in the first place. It hurt her to look at this because she couldn’t help but feel like she could have somehow prevented it, even if she really couldn’t.

The last thing she was checking on Instagram was her profile, more specifically, her pictures. Her profile picture had just been a selfie of her, and so was most of the photos she posted. Along with a couple of pictures of the food concoctions she made, a picture of every party she’s ever hosted, and a few dozen other various photos.

It was the last photo she posted that really caught her attention.

She had posted it about an hour or so before her birthday party was over, it was a picture of her and the rest of the main six all grouped up together, Pinkie was making a peace sign and her tongue was sticking out and her eyes crossed, she had been trying to make the silliest face she could. Her friends didn’t seem to be doing the same, but that was ok.

The caption for the photo was ‘Birthday Selfie’, and it was currently her most liked photo.

It had little over one hundred thousand likes, though significantly fewer comments. Most of the comments were either somebody saying how much they missed her, or someone just commenting ‘RIP’.

She had decided she’d have enough of Instagram.

Snapchat had been more or less the same, though she barely had any friend requests or messages from anyone new. She made her Snapchat after her Instagram, and she had learned from just giving everyone her Instagram. She only gave it to really close friends, family, and The Cakes. Though The Cakes rarely texted her about anything besides ‘Happy Birthday’ and ‘When can you come in for work?’ Which, ironically, was some of the first texts she had got from them. But those quickly turned into messages like the rest, asking where she was and if she was ok.

That’s all the messages on Snapchat were, really. Messages asking where she was and if she were ok, pretty much the same as Instagram, there was nothing else to see.

On the plus side, there were a crapton of new bitmoji stories, and those usually gave her a good chuckle. That was for later.

Now came the part she was dreading.

Of course, she sort of figured the messages on Imessage saying pretty much the same things. But she had a lot of calls in her voice box, all of them coming from the about the same people they usually did.

Though there was one thing strange about them, something that made her furrowed her eyebrows in confusion.

Rainbow Dash had called her the most frequently out of anyone else, calling about half a dozen times a day for roughly a week, before just stopping. Then she suddenly called her once again three days later, though it was only once, it was the longest voicemail she had left.

Rainbow Dash, that was someone she hadn’t had the time to think about.

She had considered herself close to all of her friends, but her relationship with Rainbow Dash was...different. There was a time where they were alone and Rainbow Dash had confessed to being a lesbian, and that she hadn’t told the others because she was afraid her sexuality would affect her relationship with the rest of the group, considering they were all girls. She had talked to her about it because she had come out as bisexual, and she needed to know how she did it.

Pinkamena had to admit, there were times in her life that she felt moments of infatuation for some of her female friends. Those had been just as common as an infatuation she had felt for most of the boys at the school. She had never pursued any real romantic relationships with any of the boys, though there was some...sexual experimentation, she was a girl with needs after all. But she never acted on them and didn’t let it affect her relationship with them, she might have been impulsive when it came to most things, but she had control over her more primal desires.

Well, at least she used to. Before she became a human-animal hybrid with little to no control over her emotions, and a strong bloodlust, but that was quite different.

She had managed to convince Rainbow that they wouldn’t let it affect their relationship, and that she should just come out to them. She did, and everything turned out fine, going back to normal rather quickly. Though she didn’t tell the rest of the school, more because she didn’t want to hurt the feelings of a couple of boys who had been crushing on her than anything else.

But ever since they had that conversation, things had been different between them. They became closer, not much closer than she was with the rest of them, only somewhat noticeably so. But Rainbow was actively trying to hang out with just her more, was making more flirtatious comments and becoming more touchy. She didn’t particularly mind it at the time, but she still noticed the change.

Looking back on it now, it was obvious that Rainbow was hitting on her, and that she had feelings for her. Which would explain why she had called her more than anyone else, it was the only way she knew that she could even talk to her. It was likely that one of these voicemails was a confession of her feelings, probably the last one, if she had to guess.

And then she just disappeared one day, without saying a word or leaving a trace.

She had to listen to this voicemail, at least the last one, she owed her that much. Pinkamena put the phone up to her right ear right under her hair, her thumb hovering over the play button, not even realizing how much her hand was shaking.

She took a long, deep breath as she closed her eyes, pressing the play button.

“Pinkie Pie, it’s me, Rainbow Dash. Again.” There was a brief silence, the only sound was Rainbow’s breathing. Then there was a muffled banging noise as she heard a door shut, and then a scraping sound as she assumed Rainbow Dash sat down in a chair. “I know you can’t hear this, I’m not even sure why I’m calling you. Whoever took you, and I have a pretty good idea of who, has surely destroyed your phone. They’ve made sure your family won’t be talking, along with anyone else who might know. I’m positive these are the same people who took your sisters years ago, and who’ve likely taken many others.

The only thing I can’t figure out, is why?”

She seemed to be talking to herself more at this point than Pinkie, a habit she knew all too well. Her voice sounded different it was gritty and hoarse, it almost didn’t like Rainbow. While she was talking, there was a near constant clicking noise in the background. It sounded mechanical, like pieces of something being put together. She couldn’t quite place it, but something about it felt...familiar.

“It doesn’t matter why, not really, no reason can justify what they’re doing. I don’t know how many are dead because of them, but not you. You’re not dead, you can’t be, I don’t believe it. You’re alive out there somewhere, you have to be. And I’m going to save you, because…” She stopped talking for a few seconds, stopping whatever she was doing as the clicking noise in the background stopped. “I love you. I didn’t get a chance to say it to you before, but I’m saying it now. I love you, Pinkamena Diane Pie. Not as a friend, but as the person I want to spend the rest of my life with.” There was an air of confidence in what she said, the clicking noise in the background picking up again.

Pinkamena felt herself clutch her other hand when she said that, biting the middle of her lip as she closed her eyes, almost tempted to just stop the voicemail.

Almost.

“We’ve tried everything, we looked everywhere, talked to anyone and everyone, we even got Princess Twilight to try to help, nothing worked. It’s clear these people know how to cover their tracks, must have a lot practice. But, I won’t give up, I can’t, I don’t know how. I don’t care what I have to do, I’ll kill if I have to. I won’t go through this again, I can’t.” There was a violent grunt as the sound of something sizzling could be heard in the background over the clicking, a slamming sound echoed throughout the room as she hit the table. “Shit! I forgot how much that hurt.”

There was a long silence as only the sound of her erratic breathing could be heard over the phone, even the clicking noise had stopped. Suddenly it picked up again, only after Rainbow let out a loud sigh.

“Even if I have to do it by myself, I don’t care. I will track them down, I will, I Pinkie Promise.”

The clicking slowed down for a few seconds, before just completely stopping. Then there was a different clicking noise, like the sound of metal being pulled out of metal, and something else being put in its place.

Then there was one sound she knew all too well, the sound of a large gun being cocked.

“I’m going to come find you.”

The call ended after that, the only sound coming from the phone was the beeping indicating the voicemail was over.

Pinkamena didn’t respond immediately, she didn’t even bother to end the beeping. Her face remained still, no longer biting her lip or closing her eyes, instead choosing to just stare off blanky.

Minutes passed before she moved, the beeping being the only sound in the hallway. Slowly, she put her thumb on the side of the phone and pressed the power button, turning it off. The arm holding the phone dropped lifelessly, hitting the ground with a thud before lazily putting the phone back in her hoodie pocket. As she did, her legs and other arm relaxed too, laying flat on the ground in front of her as she rested her head against the wall behind her.

“She’s dead.” Pinkamena mumbled, a hollow tone in her voice. “She went after The Syndicate, and it got her killed.”

That had to be what happened, she flew too close to the truth and she got killed for it. That’s what The Syndicate does, it’s what they’ve always done. Rainbow’s loyalty got her killed, and nobody would know it.

It could have been anyone who did it, Michael, Juno, Zecora seems like she wouldn’t be above it. But it didn’t matter, she had almost no doubt that’s what happened. It explained everything, the timing worked too well, and she had stopped believing in coincidences.

And it was at least partly her fault, there must have been something she could have done back then to save her. But it was too late, her body was likely rotting somewhere, never to see the light of day.

Pinkamena reached into her other hoodie pocket, grabbing on to the brown can Discord gave her. Though since both of her hands were shaking, she found it difficult to open it.

She cracked the can open and brought it up to her mouth, trying her best to keep the hand steady. Pinkamena took a large gulp from the can before gently laying it down on the ground in between her legs.

She felt something warm and liquid roll down her cheek from her right eye, reaching her cheek and dripping onto her hand. She ignored it.

The liquid inside the can was interesting, it was warm despite the can being cold. It was very sweet even though the texture of it was more like something sour, and yet it seemed to dissolve in her mouth like cotton candy.

She kind of liked it.

Pinkamena brought it up to her mouth again and took a sip, this time smacking her lips again as if she was trying to detect something. She looked down at the can, another warm and liquid something rolling down her left cheek and onto her left hand, as she realized what was missing.

“Needs more alcohol.”

Therapy Session #1.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 8: Lucidity, Part 2.

Author's Note

Sorry this chapter took so long, college has had me super busy.
I somewhat enjoyed writing this chapter because it helped portray the moral dillema Pinkamena has to go through, and to show how manipulative The Whispers are, and that they always know how to control a situation.
Thank you for reading, if you spot any grammar mistakes or have any issues, please tell me so I can fix or explain them. Enjoy!

Chapter 8: Lucidity, Part 2.

Pinkamena walked out of one of the entrances to The Syndicate, disguised as an abandoned building. The street she was on wasn’t that far from her house, a thirty minute walk at most. She had still been wearing her hoodie with her hood up covering her face, her stuff and things that members of the Council had given her were still sitting in her pockets. The streets were almost empty with the exception of a couple of homeless people, thought it was hard to tell with how dark it was outside. The phone on her clock said it was four thirty, so the sun should be rising soonish.

Which meant she only had about two hours or so before she had to go to school, she hasn’t even had time to think about what she was going to tell Applejack about what happened. Nor did she know what to say if Sunset decides to confront her about what happened in the woods, it would be really hard to explain what she was without bringing up The Syndicate, especially with Juno still breathing down her neck.

Pinkamena looked back at the abandoned apartment complex behind her, glaring over her shoulder as she examined it. It was several stories high, having held a few dozen people in it before being abandoned. She wasn’t sure why exactly it became abandoned, other than the fact that it had been as far back as she could remember. But since it was owned by The Syndicate, she guessed they bought it anonymously, kicked out all the tenants, and more or less left it to rot.

The majority of abandoned things in Manhattan belonged to The Syndicate. Apartments, houses, hospitals, anything that most people wouldn’t think twice about being abandoned. They all serve one of two purposes; being an entrance to The Syndicate, or a sort of observation point. The Syndicate is located underground, both because it’s well hidden, and that way they could use the subways and trains as easy transportation.

The second reason is how pay attention to everything that goes on in Manhattan, and are typically involved in some way. Each abandoned place owned by The Syndicate have a handful of homeless people in them, though they’re not actually homeless people, they’re agents of The Syndicate. Their jobs are mainly to pay attention to any significant events that happen in their area, listen and report any rumors or people of interest, and pay attention to everyone who enters and leaves.

This building was in the same shape most were. Clearly having been abandoned for a while, the plants that were covering it and the nest of birds and a couple of other animals clear indicators of it. The doors had been long torn off, revealing the inside was pretty dark, with the exception of a barrel inside with a fire in it. A couple of ‘homeless people’ inside watching her intently.

She turned her head forward and briefly closed her eyes, focusing on her hearing as she tried to find Juno’s heartbeat. She hadn’t really expected to hear it, so she wasn’t that surprised when she didn’t, he knew her range.

She let out a sigh as she opened her eyes, until she did all the favors she needed to do for The Council, she was just going to have to deal with it. It isn’t even that she disliked Juno. He was...interesting to her, and she did feel somewhat grateful for him saving her life, though she didn’t enjoy the feeling that she owed him for it. It was more the fact that she didn’t like someone watching her at all times, it was bad enough she had to deal with the constant presence of The Whispers watching her every move, she didn’t like the fact that there was someone else constantly watching her.

Pinkamena suddenly felt something in her hoodie pocket vibrating, which she figured must have been her phone, since it couldn’t have been anything else. She pulled it out, quickly typed her password in, and noticed that she had a text message from Applejack.

*Hey, not sure if this is still your number, or if you’re even alive. But, I thought I should at least try. We need to talk soon. Meet me at the tree you met me at yesterday, I won’t be able to get there until six, which doesn’t really give us a lot of time. If you aren’t there and I don’t see you throughout the day ...I'll assume you’re dead.

I’m not much of an optimist, but I really hope you’re not.*

She quickly read the text message, glad that Applejack still cared about her, even if she now knew the truth. She’d like to believe the rest of her friends would be as accepting as AJ is, but she didn’t really know, a lot of time has passed. Besides, the only reason The Syndicate was ok with AJ knowing is because she was the leader of The Apples. There was no reason for the rest to know.

No matter how much she might have missed them, it was too risky.

Pinkamena was about to put the phone back in her pocket, before it started to ring. She hesitated in answering it, the number wasn’t one she recognized. She had downloaded an app a while ago that prevents her from getting calls from numbers that weren’t in her contacts and didn’t share her number so telemarketers and the like wouldn’t call her a lot, though the unknown numbers will still go through if they share her zip code. The thing is, there’s almost no way she could think of that anyone around here could have gotten her number in the past three months.

So who was calling her?

She slowly brought the phone up to her ear, putting it under her hoodie and hair as she answered the call.

“Hello?”

“Ah! Pinkamena! I wasn’t sure if you’d pick up. I might have fibbed a little bit when I said I didn’t mess with your phone, I got into it enough to where I could get your number so I could call you. You know, for when you’re out and about and not sitting in the medical bay because you did something reckless.”

Of course it was Discord, who else would it be?

“Why am I not surprised? Alright, what did you want to call me for?” Pinkamena said as she turned to the left, beginning to walk down the sidewalk.

“Well, I’ve got a handful of things to tell you. First off, you should probably know that I didn’t actually post that bounty of you. Nor do I intend too, I-”

“You what?!” Pinkamena said angrily, a little bit louder than she intended to. “How are they supposed to trust me now? I ne-”

“Nobody in The Syndicate knows about this, they all still think the bounty for you will be up. And if you keep getting beat up like this, that wouldn’t be too hard to believe. I told Blake and and had him pulled back before he caused any issues, for now I'm just having him gather as much info on The Silent Killer so I can relay it to you, since you don't want to deal with him for a bit. You and everyone in The Council are the only ones that know of this. Whether it stays that way is up to you. But I’m not changing my mind. There’s no need to put your life in any more danger than you already put it in yourself, this is getting all the benefits with minimal risk. If you have a problem with that, deal with it.”

She couldn’t argue against his logic, he was right. But it still pissed her off. There weren’t a lot of things Pinkamena could give other people that had actual value, but her word was one of them. When she said she was going to do something, she was going to do it. She always kept her promises, or at least tried her best too. Even if the reason for giving it was stupid or risky, she still made it, so she was obligated to keep it.

But this time it didn’t seem like she had any other choice.

“It's ...fine,” She said with contempt. “Anyway, what else did you want to tell me?”

“Well, for one, for the next month or so, I’m going to be absurdly busy. I don’t mean the kind of busy where there’s a lot of tasks that need to get done but I could actually get the majority of them done quickly and with ease, I mean things that will actually take time and effort to do. And at the rate you seem to be getting yourself into life threatening situations, I’m not going to be able to juggle helping you not die, making sure The Syndicate doesn’t collapse in on itself, and doing what it is I need to get done.

So, I more or less gave Melvin the rundown on how to treat you in pretty much every realistic scenario that could happen to you in the next couple of weeks. And, knowing you, I taught him what to do in the case of a couple of unrealistic scenarios. He even has my emergency number, though if he ends up actually having to call that number I’d be rather surprised.”

Discord said impatiently as the sound of a car door could be heard opening and closing in the background, indicating he was getting into a car and was about to drive somewhere.

“What, is there some kind of manual on Chimeras?” Pinkamena asked jokingly as she turned the corner, the convenience store she had been walking to coming into sight.

“No, well, sort of. I have every detail about Chimeras:how to treat them, how to deal with them, and stuff like that written down. The problem is that it’s all written down in my personal research journal, so I would need to pull all of that out and put it into a separate book, though I suppose that could have its uses. Anyway, what I’m trying to say is:” The sound of his car being revved up could be heard in the background, though it didn’t sound like the car was in very good condition. “I’m going to be really busy for a while, and I’m not going to be able to help you or treat you for that time. I might be in my lab occasionally, but I’m likely only there to either pick something up or make something. If I happen to be there when you need me for something, than I may be able to help. So, I only have one question left; Do you think you can handle this?”

Discord asked seriously, the usual joking tone in his voice gone.

Pinkamena stood outside of the convenience stores, wondering if the man who was usually at the register would even recognise her.

“Assuming I still have the other members of The Council for help, yeah, I think I’ll be okay.” She said as she walked into the store, the doors automatically opening and closing as she did.

“Well, Michael is going to be a bit busy learning how to walk again after you messed up pretty much his entire quadriceps femoris group, but the rest should be more than willing to help and keep The Syndicate more or less stable if you’re busy or can’t. I’ll tell you when I’m free, and I’ll text you my emergency contact number in case you’ll need it, but hopefully you won’t. And Pinkamena?”

“Yeah?” She responded, noticing the sudden worried tone in his voice.

“Please don’t die.” Discord said as he hung up, a slight bit of concern in his voice as he did.

Pinkamena appreciated Discord’s concern for her, but he should know better than anyone how hard it would be for someone to actually kill her. Pinkamena put her phone in her pocket, looking at the convenience store before her as she did.

She almost immediately noticed all the things she was used to about convenience stores like this. The somewhat clean smell as a place like this gets cleaned regularly, the cold air from the air conditioning, the faint sound of music from a radio by the register, the rows of snacks and candy on shelves in the place, the freezers in the back full of various drinks, and the near emptiness of the place that made you wonder how it even stayed in business.

She felt a wave of nostalgia come over her, not realizing how long it’d been since she’d been in this convenience store.

When she was younger, in about fifth grade, her and Rainbow Dash would race to the nearest convenience stores, the winner had to buy the loser candy. That was back when Pinkamena was still really competitive, but still somewhat too shy to make any real friends. That was how she met Rainbow Dash, and more or less how they became friends. They started talking and she eventually introduced her to Fluttershy who she had been long time friends with, and everything else just kind of fell into place from there.

They didn’t always go to this convenience store, this was just the most common one because it was closest to where Pinkamena lived. She was never really sure where Rainbow Dash lived until her sophomore year where she told her she had been living in an apartment by herself, she never asked where her parents were because it was obvious that was a sensitive subject. Before that she used to just randomly find her around, usually pretty dirty and wearing clothes that made her look more like a boy than a girl.

When Sunset came and tore them apart, they had stopped talking for a bit, and didn’t run to the convenience store together again until Princess Twilight had brought them together. And even then it was obvious who would win since Rainbow Dash had been a lot more athletically active than Pinkamena had been. But it was still really fun, and it reminded her of how much she enjoyed spending time with her.

She felt herself smirk as she looked back on some of the things they did; Making excuses for why they lost, making fun of strangers that walked by, daring each other to do stupid things and just talking about their lives. It was actually an enjoyable experience and she felt she made a real friends besides her sisters, it helped her become more social and open. At the end of school everyday she looked forward to whatever she’d be doing with Rainbow Dash that day, it usually made her very happy and forget some of her problems.

Then she felt herself frown as she felt a sudden sinking feeling in her stomach, realizing she would never see Rainbow Dash again. She was likely dead somewhere and her body would never be found.

Just like her sisters…

“Hey kid, are you going to buy something? Or are you just going to stand there staring at the ground?” A man said from behind the counter, a thick city accent evident in the way he talked.

Pinkamena looked to her right, recognizing him almost instantly. It was the same guy who’d always been here, though he looked somewhat older. He was almost entirely bald except for negligible amounts of hair on the sides of his head, having no facial hair. Like before, he always wore a bright colored T-shirt with ripped and dirty jeans, wearing an old watch that looked like it was too small to ever come off, and having surprisingly hairy arms despite the lack of hair on the rest of his body. His face was covered in wrinkles and his brown eyes always seemed to be bulging from his head when he looked at anyone.

She was glad he hadn’t changed, too many things have.

“Yeah, I just wanted a pack of Morley cigarettes.” Pinkamena replied as she pulled her black wallet from her jeans, pulling out the money she’d need for it.

“Sure, you look old enough. Hey, your pink hair looks really familiar. You wouldn’t happen to have a sister with the same hair as you, would you?” He asked as he turned around and grabbed a white and red pack of cigarettes from a rack of them behind him, passing them over the counter to Pinkamena.

“I have three-” Pinkamena bit her lip as she stopped herself, her hand suddenly clenching around the money in her hand. “I have one sister, but her hair is a completely different color than mine. Why?” She asked as she pushed the money over to him, taking a pack of cigarettes from him and putting them in her hoodie pocket.

“There used to be this kid who came to this convenience store with her friend to buy candy, did it damn near everyday. She was annoying as hell, but she was also a very nice girl, if a little naive. She always seemed so happy, her hair was always in a mess but it just seemed natural for her. I asked because you have almost the exact same color hair as her, though it’s in a different style. Because her eyes always had this sort of...light to it, they seemed so bright and full of life. But yours….”

He seemed to frown a bit as he looked into her eyes, a look of almost pity in them.

“Your eyes just look so...empty, like there’s nothing behind them. I just don’t believe that same kid from before could have the same look in their eyes like that. That’s all it was. Is that all you wanted?” He asked as he quickly regained composure, the pitiful look on his face quickly disappearing.

Pinkamena put her hands in her hoodie pockets, her hands slightly shaking as they did. She turned away from him as she began to walk out, her hair covering a bit of her face as she did.

“Yeah, that’s all.” She said quickly as she speed walked out of the convenience store, the doors quickly opening and closing.

“Well, okay then. Have a good night.” He said as the door closed behind her, thinking her behavior was a little weird.

He sat in silence for a few moments, his face changing to one of perplexity.

“Hmmm, maybe the next time that rainbow haired chick comes in I can ask her the pink haired girls name or where she’s been. She was always with her anyways, she’d probably know.”

He said with a shrug, waiting patiently for his shift to be over.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Pinkamena sat on the edge of a rooftop, her feet dangling over the edge as she slouched. A cigarette dangling out of her mouth and the pack sitting open beside her, smoke coming out of the tip of it. Her head was faced downward into the alleyway below, her hood still up and most of her hair dangling down and covering her face. Though her eyes were open, she wasn’t really focusing or looking at anything. Her eyelids were half open and she had an almost distant look in her eyes, more lost in her thoughts than anything else.

Right now, she was focused on what the convenience store clerk said to her about her eyes. Were they really empty? No one had told her that before, nor had anyone told her that her eyes were bright and filled with life. What changed? That was a stupid question, she changed. But when? When did the light leave her eyes? When did the life in her leave?

It was hard to tell, but some part of her felt like she should know.

“You really shouldn’t be thinking about your eyes that much, you really don’t have the time to idly think about things people say about you.”

Igneous’ voice came from behind her, his condescending tone as evident as always. Pinkamena slightly turned her head to the left, seeing Igneous standing right behind her. He was looking down at her in almost disappointment, she wasn’t really sure why.

She turned her head back around, though she was just looking ahead of her and was somewhat more focused on the world around her rather than her thoughts. She brought her right hand up to her mouth and pulled out a cigarette, holding it in front of her as she blew a cloud of smoke in front of her.

“Where have you been? I sort of expected you to show up when Starlight mentioned you, or when Discord and I were, but you were absent. Ever since I met Alice, you were kind of distant. Even the whispering was somewhat quieter.”

As soon as she mentioned Alice, she felt a sudden immense pressure in her mind, though not to the extent of pain. She glanced back at Igneous and saw that his face had quickly morphed into a scowl, an almost loathful look in his eyes.

“You ...met Alice?” He asked through gritted teeth, his hands clenching until fists as he did.

“Yeah, after I was knocked out she showed up. Introduced herself and explained who and what she was, and we started talking about some stuff. That was about it.” Pinkamena responded nonchalantly, she’d rather not have to go into detail about what they’d talked about if she could help it.

“What...what did you talk about?” He asked hesitantly and calmly as he walked towards Pinkamena, though she could feel the frustration he was failing to hide.

She turned her head forward again as she looked into the alley below her, bringing the cigarette to her mouth again as she inhaled. She hadn’t had a lot of time to think about Alice or The Whispers, she had been very busy. The thing that stuck out to Pinkamena the most out of everything that Alice said was that they were both apart of The Whispers, but they were more or less separate. But Alice never really clarified how that worked. Were they two separate minds? When one was around, was the other watching and aware of whatever they talked about and did? Could they both be here at the same time? If not, could the other take over whenever they felt like it?

From the way Igneous was reacting, it seemed he hadn’t even known they had met yet, so much as what they had talked about.

“Oh, you know,” Pinkamena said with a smirk as she pulled the cigarette out of her mouth and exhaled, getting a bit of satisfaction out of the fact that she knew something he didn’t and wanted to know. “Girl stuff.”

She could hear him let out a frustrated grunt as she said that, and if he had a heart beat, it would be very erratic right now.

She could feel him begin to give her a brain aneurysm, the familiar feeling of pressure and pain beginning to build up in the back of her mind. But, it suddenly stopped, as if the frustration from before had just vanished.

“Whatever. We have stuff to talk about.” He said begrudgingly as he walked forward, standing beside her and glaring at the back of her head.

“The person I’m wanting you to check on is a former acquaintance of Gerald, assuming they’re still alive. You going to see them will be a test of sorts, you’ll know that we mean when you get there. Now, about this whole ‘Silent Killer’ situation.”

Pinkamena’s slowly shifted to the empty streets to the right of her, though she was still listening to what he was saying. She knew there were a lot of things she needed to figure out how to deal with, but right now there was just so much to do and that was expected of her that just wanted to relax, even if for just a little bit.

But it seemed the only times she got to relax was when she was unconscious, and even then The Whispers didn’t let that last very long.

“Whoever they are, they pose no actual threat to The Syndicate as a whole. An annoyance at most. But if they continue to do what they’re doing, it's going to cause some...unrest. The situation with The Apples, for example. There are smaller organizations that may band together in an attempt to take down The Silent Killer, which would cause chaos an-”

“Why didn’t you tell me that The Whispers were in Igneous?”

He suddenly stopped talking as he scowled at her, his left hand slowly clenched into a fist.

“Didn’t I warn you not to interrupt-”

“The Whispers have access to all of his memories, right? That’s why you didn’t want me to know.”

She had expected him to snap his fingers and cause a brain aneurysm for interrupting him, but instead he just seemed to glare at her as he listened to what she said.

“What are you getting at?” He asked suspiciously, his right hand still clenched into a fist.

“Well, I know any time Igneous didn’t spend making me into his little pet project, he was trying to figure out how to deal with The Silent Killer. One of the first steps anyone would take to handle a problem like that would be to figure out their identity. So, what I’m getting at….” She suddenly stopped as she put the rest of the cigarette out by rubbing it against the ledge she was sitting on, before flinging it with her fingers into the alleyway below. She then pulled another cigarette from the pack beside her and put it in her mouth, pulling a red lighter from her hoodie pocket and then lighting the cigarette, before quickly putting the lighter back in her hoodie pocket.

“I think that Igneous figured out who The Silent Killer was, and had intended to deal with them accordingly after he was done with me.” Pinkamena said as she pulled the cigarette out of her mouth, smoke leaving her mouth as her eyes slowly shifted to him. “I’m sure it is at least part of why The Whispers have been so hesitant to give me access to all of their memories. What I’m thinking, is if it’s just some random person, there wouldn’t be an issue with telling me who it is. But you haven’t. So, you either want me to figure it out myself. Or The Silent Killer is someone I know, and knowing who they are might prevent me from killing them.”

There was silence for a few moments as Pinkamena and The Whispers stared at each other, she was waiting for his response, expecting he’d be upset or outraged.

Somehow, it made her more uncomfortable when he smiled.

“You....are something special, Pinkamena. The previous host were not as clever as you are, nor did they think the way you do. You’re a lot smarter than I initially thought, shame you’re intent on being a disobedient brat.” He said as he turned away from her, now looking down at the alleyway below like Pinkamena was earlier.

“I won’t confirm or deny anything, there’s no fun in that. I will say that whoever you think it is, you’re wrong. Now, abou-”

Before Igneous could finish, he suddenly disappeared, leaving Pinkamena staring at the spot he was sitting at with slightly raised eyebrows.

Then her confusion left whenever she felt small, childlike arms wrap around her. One dangling over her right shoulder, the other wrapping around her side and resting on her left leg. Her arms felt cold, there was no heat or warmth from them at all, they were like the limbs of a dead person.

She felt Alice rest her chin on her left shoulder, her cold face rubbing against Pinkamena’s neck. Her emerald eyes looked up at her innocently, a sly smile on her face.

“Miss me?” She asked in a childish tone, her eyes piercing into Pinkamena’s soul.

Pinkamena looked down at her, raising her left arm as she put the cigarette in her mouth.

“I take it only one of you can be here at a time? Either that or you want to talk to me about something you don’t want him to hear about. So what, you can just make him disappear anytime you want and then you show up? Can he do the same to you?” Pinkamena asked as she looked at Alice’s face, noticing how dull and empty her eyes looked. Was that what her eyes looked to other people?”

Alice’s smile slowly lowered into a frown as Pinkamena began asking her questions, pulling her arms away as she stood up, her arms going behind her back and her hands interlocking as she let out a disappointed sigh.

“You’re no fun. Yes, only one of us can be around at a time. That’s just because of how we work, and also because it would probably just be super bad for you if we were both here at once, for a copious amount of reasons.” She said with a roll of her eyes, walking to the left of Pinkamena to the edges of the building.

“It isn’t making him “disappear” exactly, he’s not the boogeyman, I can’t make him disappear. The best way for me to explain it, is our control over each other is partly determined by you. If I believe that you are particularly unstable or in need of emotional help, or if I just really want to talk to you, I take over. You can ask for me to come out, of course. But I won’t show up just for any reason or anytime, like you just don’t want to deal with him, for example. If I deem the reason satisfactory, I will.”

Alice began to walk on the edges of the building, her arms extended out to her sides to balance herself as her pink shoes made loud clicking noises with every step.

“Most of the time I won’t show up if there are other people around, but I can make exceptions. Now, despite what this may sound like, we both have equal control over each other. If he feels that you’re stable enough to think coherently, and I happen to be around for whatever reasons, he’ll show up and I’ll go away. Though I’m not really going away, nor is he when I show up, we just...recede back into your mind, so to speak. We aren’t aware of whatever you are talking about with the other, or what you’re thinking or anything like that. It’s just the boundaries we’ve set for each other and agreed upon.”

Pinkamena kept her eyes on Alice, the cigarette dangling out of the corner of her mouth as she skeptically listened to her.

“Will anything change once I’m allowed full access to all the memories?”

“Not really. I actually want to talk to you about that, though there’s still some things that need to happen first. So that is a later conversation. Right now, there’s something I want to talk to you about after your session with Starlight.” Alice said as she reached the end of the building, turning around and walking back towards Pinkamena the same way she had walked away, her eyes looking below her as if she were watching her steps.

“If you had to kill someone, would you hesitate?” She said normally, as if there was no weight behind what she was asking.

Pinkamena’s body went stiff when those words left Alice’s mouth, her eyes widening slightly as her fist clenched. The memory of her ripping out Igneous’ heart briefly flashed in her mind, along with the memory of her murdering all of those men.

“W-why do you ask?”Pinkamena asked, her voice a little more than a whisper as she brought her right hand up to her mouth and pulled the cigarette out, tossing it aside and putting another one in her mouth and lighting it.

Alice watched Pinkamena intently out of the corner of her eyes as she talked, noticing the sudden shift in the tone of her voice as she talked.

“Starlight made you realize that you didn’t need to kill as many of them as you did, I don’t have a problem with that. But she’s planted this idea in your head that their lives had value, and that you should feel guilty about killing them. That is where I have to disagree.” She said as she jumped off the edges of the building, landing back on the roof almost gracefully like a ballerina.

“There is no value to life, not really. There should only be one value you have for people: How they can help you. But, you are in a place where you value people depending on what they mean to you. And that’s ok, you should have some people you care about and value them for that. Like your friends, family, etc. That’s part of what keeps you human. But they should be the exception, not the rule. You can’t hesitate to kill someone, and you can’t treat everyone like they mean something to you. If you feel that guilty every time you kill someone, it’ll destroy you. You can’t handle that, no one can.”

Alice looked at Pinkamena almost sympathetically, like she felt bad for her. Pinkamena kept looking forward, unable to stop her hands from shaking and she didn’t want to look at Alice. She deeply inhaled as she lit a cigarette, the taste of ash and feeling of burning in her throat helping her ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach.

“Morales are a luxury you can’t afford to have, it’ll get you and everyone you care about killed. If you refuse to kill someone, even if they try to kill you, there are a lot of things that can go wrong from that. They kill the people you care about, they dedicate their lives to killing you, etc. You have to think of them like enemies, not humans, not someone’s child or parent, as enemies. Do you understand?” Alice asked as she walked up to Pinkamena, standing behind her and glaring down at Pinkamena’s head.

“I…” Pinkamena thought about what she should say, she could feel Alice’s gaze on her back. “I...won’t kill someone if I absolutely don’t have to.” She said as she shakily pulled the cigarette out of her mouth, exhaling a puff of smoke from her mouth.

Alice’s usual smile slowly lowered into a frown as her face took on an almost deadpan look, her lips pressing together as she looked in Pinkamena in disappointment and slight curiosity.

“Hmmm, is that so? Then, does that apply to, say…” Alice whispered as she leaned down, her mouth right beside Pinkamena’s right ear. “Someone like Blake?”

Pinkamena’s right hand tightly clenched when she asked that, the cigarette in between her fingers being pushed into her palm, the tip of it burning into her flesh.

“Oh? Did I touch a nerve? I’m sorry, but it still proves my point. Can you really tell me with one hundred percent honesty, that if Blake was in front of you right now beaten and vulnerable, you wouldn’t kill him? To get back at him for everything he’s done to you? Everything he’s done to anyone else? To prevent him from doing what he did to you to anyone else?” Alice whispered into Pinkamena’s ear, her eyes intently watching her face.

Pinkamena did not respond, she didn’t want to. She could feel the cigarette burning into the center of her hand, smell her flesh burning, but the pain didn’t bother her. She could feel Alice watching her, waiting for Pinkamena to confirm what she already knew.

But Pinkamena had no intention of answering, she wasn’t going to give Alice that satisfaction.

“Whether you’d like to admit it or not, you would. Or you’d at least want to. That rule about only treating people differently if you care about them? That also applies to hatred, blood lust, whatever you’re feeling that makes you want to kill that person. If you killed Blake, you wouldn’t feel guilty. But what about the people you need to kill? Like The Silent Killer, you need to kill them. If you don’t, there could very possibly be a war between The Syndicate and The Apples, more people will get killed. You need to take that life to save many others, some of them are lives that you care about. You have to be able to differentiate and distance yourself emotionally, except for when you need your emotions. Got it?” Alice asked cheerfully, though the meaning behind her words suggested a different tone.

Pinkamena stayed silent for a few seconds, her eyes looking at her right hand as smoke and steam came from between her fingers.

“I do...but, I do think you’re partly wrong.” Pinkamena said hesitantly, pulling a cigarette from the palm of her hand and putting in back in her mouth, the burn mark on her hand quickly healing. “I want to believe there’s always another way, and I should at least give them a chance. We didn’t kill Sunset Shimmer, we defeated her and then helped her become a better person. We thought that she could be a good person, so we gave her a chance.. Sure, there are people I would be glad to kill and wouldn’t feel bad about killing. But I can’t kill someone just because they’re in my way, I should give them a chance first. Starlight made me realize that everyone means something to somebody, some humans are shit, but I can’t treat everyone like their Blake.”

Alice listened to what she said, through her eyes slowly drifted away from Pinkamena, her gaze focusing on something in the streets to the right of them.

“Not everyone is worth helping Pinkamena, you can’t risk your life for every human you meet, you have to care about yourself too.” She said as she walked forward, jumping on the edge of the building and looking down into the alleyway, smiling smugly as she notices something. “Alright, what about killing someone for the sake of someone else?” She asked as she looked back to the right of them, her eyes following a person that was walking down the sidewalk.

“What do you mean?” Pinkamena asked as she looked at Alice, noticing that she was looking at something in the alleyway. She followed her gaze to see a woman walking on the sidewalk. It was hard to tell any features she had, other than she had hazel hair tied up in a bun, she was wearing a large, red overcoat with jeans and sneakers, and she seemed to be going somewhere in a hurry. She was likely either just leaving her job, or going to it. She was walking towards the building they were on, the alleyway in front of them.

Pinkamena didn’t see the significance of this woman, nor why Alice seemed so interested in this woman. Then she noticed Alice’s eyes shift to below them, locking on to something in the alleyway. Someone was in the alleyway, it was impossible to see anything other than a dark figure, it seemed they were wearing dark clothing in an attempt to hide their identity. They were standing against the wall of the building, looking out into the street to his left as if he were waiting for something.

Pinkamena watched these two individuals, not seeing the connection between the two or why Alice was paying attention to them. A minute or two passed by with nothing happening, no one else seemed to be around except for these two people.

When the woman got to the alleyway, the person in it grabbed her by her shoulder and pulled her in, shoving her against the wall and putting a knife against her throat.

“Give me all your fucking money, and maybe I won’t slit your throat!” The man screamed loudly into the woman's face, the knife digging a little deeper into her throat.

The woman was too scared to respond, unable to resist or move out of fear the knife would dig deeper in her throat. She frantically reached into her pocket, pulling out her wallet and slowly giving it to him.

Pinkamena’s keen hearing allowed her to hear what he said, which was how she was able to tell what was happening. She put cigarettes and lighter back in her hoodie pocket, her attention now fully on what was happening below her.

“Looks like a typical robbery, right? Whoever that man is, he isn’t apart of The Syndicate or The Apples, they have too much dignity to ever resort to petty crimes like this. He’s either apart of some piece of trash gang, or a criminal junkie trying to get money for his next fix. He likely won’t kill that woman if that were the case, but…”

Pinkamena watched as the man took the wallet, briefly looking through it and putting the wallet in a pocket behind him. She felt slightly relieved when she saw him pull the knife away from her throat, the woman too giving a quiet sigh of relief.

Then the man turned the woman around and shoved her against the wall, putting the hand with the knife in it around her left shoulder and shoving the knife against her throat. He shoved the other hand under her overcoat and grabbed her breast, pushing his crotch against her back as he licked her neck.

“Now comes the fun part!” He said lustfully, licking her neck as if enjoying the taste of her.

Pinkamena tensed up when she saw this, the familiar feeling of rage and disgust building up inside of her. She lay her hands on the edges of the building, feeling her hands clench and her nails slowly extending into claws.

“Yeah, that’s what I figured, he’s a rapist. Usually someone so lonely and desperate for affection that they’d take it from someone, or just someone with next to no self control. Doesn’t seem like this is his first time doing it either. If I had to guess, he intends to kill her when he’s done and dispose of the body somehow, the best way to avoid being caught. I could be wrong, maybe he’ll just rape her and leave her, traumatized in an alleyway wondering what she did to deserve something like that.” Alice said coldly, her face showing no sign of empathy as she watched what was happening below her.

The rapist began to take her clothes off, the woman trying desperately to resist, but every time she did just caused him to push the knife deeper against her throat, blood dripping from her neck.

“Someone he-” She tried to scream, before he lifted the knife up and put it against her mouth.

“Shut the fuck up and stop squirming! If you try to call for help again or you keep moving around like you are, I will kill you! And don’t think that’ll stop me from fucking you, because it won’t!” He said angrily as he began to unbutton his pants, the woman's eyes going wide and tears running down her face as she heard it.

Pinkamena’s jaw clenched as she watched, her eyes slowly fading into a dark crimson.

“Why are you holding yourself back like that?” Alice said as she turned her gaze to Pinkamena, leaning down to where her face was right beside Pinkamena’s. “Are you afraid you won’t be able to control yourself? That you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from killing that man?”

Pinkamena clenched her jaw tighter, not wanting to admit that Alice was right.

“M-maybe someone el-”

“Someone else might help? Not likely, people are going to start coming out and going to work or school, sure. But do you think that’ll be soon enough. Any second now he’s going to start, and when he’s satisfied he’ll likely kill her. This doesn’t seem like his first time doing this. And if he hasn’t gotten arrested for doing it before, he must be doing something right. By the time anyone even comes by, it’s likely he’ll have already killed her.

Right now, you’re the only person that can save her. And if you don’t, worst case scenario, she’ll be traumatized for the rest of her life, or dead. Whichever you think is worse."

Pinkamena was shaking at this point, barely able to hold herself back as she was fighting a war in her head. She knew this woman deserved to be helped, and that she shouldn’t even hesitate when it comes to killing a piece of trash like this. But something inside her was holding her back.

“And what if I end up killing him? What if he means something to somebody? What if-”

“What’s more important, your morales, the life of some stranger rapist, or this innocent woman who’s being taken advantage of?”

Pinkamena thought on her words for a few seconds, before coming to a decision. Without hesitating, she pushed herself off the edge of the building to the alleyway below, Alice standing up and watching her.

“It’s been weeks since I’ve gotten any pussy, th-” He suddenly stopped as he heard a loud thumping noise, seeing something move out of the corner of his eye.

He saw a hooded figure a few feet in front of him, it was too dark to tell what they looked like. They seemed to be facing the building across from them, facing sideways from his perspective. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like this person was glaring at him.

“Who’s there? You better fuck off, I’m apart of The Syndicate. If you do anything to me, you’re fucked!” He yelled as he turned his attention to this person, his knife held against her throat like she was a hostage.

“Are you now? Then,” The figure turned towards him, pulling their hood back as they walked out of the dark in his direction. “Do you recognize who I am?” Pinkamena asked maliciously, her eyes having completely changed to red at this point.

The man was very taken aback, his eyes widening in fear and shock as he pulled his knife away from the woman, though only slightly for a few seconds.

“What the fu-”

Those few seconds were all she needed.

Before he even got the chance to get the words out of his mouth, she leaped forward and was in front of him in an instant. She grabbed the hand that was holding the knife by the wrist, using her left leg to kick him in the back of the shin so he’d quickly lose his grip.

The second both of his hands were off the women, she wrapped her other had around his neck, choke slamming him against the ground as he let out a loud grunt.

“Get out of here, now!” Pinkamena yelled at the woman as she turned towards her, the woman seeming extremely shaken up.

Pinkamena felt a sharp pain in her right arm, looking down and seeing that he had taken advantage of her looking away by stabbing her in her right arm. The second she turned her head to look down at him he headbutted her, causing her to loosen her grip. He kneed her in the stomach and got out of her grip, pulling the knife out from her and rolling out from under her.

He quickly got to his feet, his breathing had become erratic, but it was hard to tell why.

“I don’t know who or what the fuck you are, but I will kill you for cock blocking me!” He said as he ran towards her with his knife out.

Pinkamena quickly reacted, grabbing the knife with her bare hand and putting her other hand against his chest and pushed him to the side. His back smashed against the wall of the building as she forced the knife out of his hand, the claws on her hand digging into his chest, causing him to yell out in pain.

Pinkamena looked to the left of her, seeing that the woman was still there, standing there in shock and just staring at her, almost like she was unable to move.

“Why are you still here? Go!”

The woman flinched when she was yelled at, turning around and running out of the alleyway.

“I will kill you, you bitch!” He shouted as he spat in her face, causing her to growl as she struggled to hold herself back.

“I will hunt that bitch down, I always finish what I start. But you? Well, only one of us is leaving this alleyway alive!”

She could feel the anger building the more he spoke, becoming more accepting of the idea of killing him as she struggled to stop herself. Her claws dug deeper into his chest as she listened fo-

Her face suddenly dropped from anger to confusion as her ears twitched, her eyes lowering from his face to his chest. She seemed to just be staring at his chest for a few seconds, as if she were looking for something.

“What the fuck are you looking at?” The man yelled, but Pinkamena didn’t seem to flinch. She just stared at his chest for a few more seconds, like she was focused on something.

Then her eyes widened as if she realized something, and just as quickly, they closed and her lips pressed together, almost like she was disappointed by something.

“You’re not real.” She mumbled as she suddenly pulled her claws out of his chest, standing away from him with her arms at her side as her claws slowly retracted.

He fell to the floor with a thud, blood gushing from the claw marks on his chest. He put his left hand over it to try to stop the bleeding, looking up at Pinkamena in confusion.

“What the fuck do you mean ‘I’m not real’? I’m sitting right here, aren’t I?” He yelled at her.

Pinkamena turned around, looking away from the man behind her, almost like she didn’t want to look at him.

“The woman too, I just thought she wasn’t talking because she was afraid. But it's probably because it's hard to control two hallucinations like that. You’re The Whispers, and this was something just to see if I could be pushed to kill someone. I’m pissed and disappointed at myself for even falling for it.” Pinkamena said as she clenched her right hand, her nails digging into her skin and drawing blood.

The man looked up at Pinkamena’s back for a few more seconds, before his head lowered, the hood covering most of his face, except for his mouth.

His lips slowly curved into a borderline sadistic smile, but it also seemed to be a proud one, like a mother would give to their child after acing a test.

“What gave it away?” Alice’s voice came from the mans mouth, sending shivers down Pinkamena’s spine.

The man slowly began to shrink, the hoodie he was wearing slowly disappearing along with the majority of the rest of him. Soon the man was gone, and Alice was in his place.

“He didn’t have a heartbeat, and he clearly wasn’t dead. If I had tried to listen to that womans, I’m sure I wouldn’t have heard one either. If I had ripped him open, would there even be a heart inside?” Pinkamena asked, though she still hadn’t turned around.

Alice stood up, wiping off her knees as she did. She was wearing the same thing she was on the rooftop, the injury in her chest seeming to have disappeared.

“You would, it just wouldn’t be beating. I’m actually a little impressed, I hadn’t expected to notice something like that. Perhaps you’re more perceptive than I anticipated.”

Before Alice could say anything else, Pinkamena suddenly dropped to her knees, her hand clenched to her chest as she began to breathe erratically.

“I-i almost...If that had been a real person, I would have killed him! I was so close, I could barely hold myself back. Just a few more seconds, and I would ha-”

Pinkamena struggle to speak, the pain in her chest seeming to get tighter and more intense. Alice walked up to her, resting her right hand on Pinkamena’s left shoulder, trying to comfort her.

“I know, just let it all out, it's ok.” She said soothingly, that coy look still on her face.

“I..I wanted to rip his throat out! To taste his blood and fear, to make him regret being born! I wanted him to be terrified of me! To make him suffer in ways he didn’t think possible, I wanted so badly to just give in and end him!” Pinkamena shouted angrily, slamming her other hand on the ground in frustration.

A few seconds passed in near silence, except for the heavy breathing coming for Pinkamena, before she decided to speak again.

“Does that make me a monster?” Pinkamena said sorrowfully.

“No Pinkamena, it doesn’t.” Alice whispered.

“Then...what does it make me?” Pinkamena asked as she looked at a puddle in front of her, her reflection staring back at her.

Alice’s smile widened a little more, her eyelids closing almost thoughtfully.

“Human.”

Interlude 2: Resurrection.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Interlude 2: Translation.

Author's Note

This is the translation page for the latin scene.

Interlude 2: Translation.

“I do not understand your language, it is foreign to me. The only reason I have not killed you, is because despite not remembering who I am, you seem familiar to me. Tell me, what is your name?” He said with a thick greek accent, which sounded almost like gibberish to anyone who didn’t understand it.

“Of course, you speak latin. That makes sense. Hold on, my latin is a bit rusty. Been a long time since I’ve had to actually speak it.” Discord said as he cleared his throat, which was hard to do considering someone’s hand was around it.

“ My name is Giles, though many call me Discord. My ancestors threw you into the ocean for reasons I will tell you later. They left a book that was passed down for generations about you and where you are, and I was supposed to be the one who released you from your prison, though I have done so for a reason. I have come to help you remember who you are and to adjust to the world, as it has changed since you’ve been gone. Afterwards, I require your assistance with something. Though after telling you what it is, I believe you would be willing to help me anyway.” Discord explained, though he’s sure he messed up in some areas considering how long its been.

Nevertheless, it seemed to work. He looked at Discord for a moment, seeming to ponder his words. Then, hesitantly, he dropped Discord. The pulsating around his eyes slowing down and soon stopping. Though his eyes didn’t leave Discord, he seemed to still be watching him.

“Thank you.” Discord said as he adjusted his collar, pushing his glasses up his nose. “Have you forgotten everything? Or are there things that stuck? Like events or names?” He asked, trying to get an assessment of how far the amnesia went.

He shook his head back and forth disappointedly, as if saying no and was disappointed in himself for it.

“I can not, I don't even know my name nor why I was even imprisoned. There are two words that I remember, but I do not know what meaning they have. Just the feelings of fear and loathing that come with them.” He told Discord, the frustration at not being able to remember anything about himself evident in his voice.

Discord smirked, but it was different than his usual smirks. The look that was in his eyes that came with it somehow made it seem...sad.

“Yeah, emotions are funny like that. They can remember things you can’t, even if you don’t want them to.” Discord said solemnly, a hollow look in his eyes as he seemed to be thinking about something.

Though this moment of despair only lasted for a few seconds, Discord quickly regained his composure, his usual smirk back on his face.

“Anyway, tell me these words. It may help me get a better understanding of your amnesia, which could make getting your memories back significantly easier.”

As Discord said this, he walked a few feet away from him, waving at the group of people outside, signaling them to come in. Hesitantly, they did, as Discord walked back up to him.

“I am also the one who sent these women to you, I know what you are and what you needed. These people were nobodies, and the purpose I need you for more than makes up for their deaths. These people coming in are here to clean this up, and that is all.”

The group of people begin to clean up the bodies, taking whatever was left of them as a whole and putting them into body bags and carrying them out, any limbs being put into smaller bags. The creature was watching them do this, though he didn’t seem very interested in them. He seemed to be paying more attention to the bodies, looking at them with curiosity, and bit of guilt.

“And...what exactly am I?”He asked as he looked away from the bodies, looking down at his hands in an almost shameful frown.

“You are a vampire, one of the most powerful of your kind, in fact. The older you are, the stronger. You have super strength, endurance, and are essentially immortal. The price of which, is requiring blood to survive. You were not born this way, you were created. And it is how you will remain for the rest of eternity.” Discord proudly exclaimed, none of the cleanup crew paying attention to their conversation, they would be unable to understand what they were saying anyway.

The creature continued looking down at his hands, seeming to ponder on Discord’s words. Then, he closed his eyes, lowering his arms to his sides as he inhaled deeply. Then letting out a deep deep breathe, opening his eyes and looking back at Discord, seeming more calm than before.

“That...makes sense, if what you say is true.” He mumbled, his mind began to wander. Suddenly, his hands clenched into fist, an angry scowl forming on his face.

“Prodigium, this word sparks a burning feeling of rage in me that words could not describe. “ He growled, his fist shaking in anger.

Discord frowned at his words, seeming just as upset at that word as he was. Discord put his hands in his pockets, his right hand seeming to be fumbling with something in it.

“Prodigium is...not something you need to be worrying about right now. He is a vampire, like you. But much more...primal, so to speak. He has done terrible, appalling things to you and many others. I assure you, we will deal with him in due time.” Discord said angrily, pulling a pen out of his right pocket and beginning to twirl it in between his fingers. Whether that was because of boredom or frustration, was hard to tell.

The creature seemed to calm down at Discord’s words, his hands unclenching as the scowl slowly faded from his face.

“Very well. Then,” His body once again tensed up, but this time wasn’t out of anger. It seemed more...fearful, like a prey that could feel the eyes of a predator on it, and there was nothing it could do to get away.

“The other word is...L-leviathian.” He seemed to stutter the word out, as if he was afraid just to speak it.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Discord’s hand tightly clenched around the pen, his hands suddenly shaking violently. His eyes widening as his pupils constricted, a look of panic showing on his face as he let out a shaky breath

“That...he, it...I haven’t heard its name in so long, I was hoping I’d forgotten it.” Discord mumbled, seeming to be talking more to himself than anyone else.

Discord closed his eyes, putting the pen back in his pocket and then putting his hands behind his back. He interlocked his fingers, putting his hands together, though that didn’t seem to stop the shaking.

“The Leviathan is something that you, and everyone else who's ever met it, has every right to be terrified to even mention its name. But, there's no point in telling you why, what it is, or what it can do. It left a very long time ago, and I doubt it will come back anytime soon. At least, I hope not.”

There was a brief moment of silence, some of the cleanup crew had more or less been listening, noticing the sudden fear in his voice. They had seen Discord in a lot of moods before, but to some extent, he still seemed somewhat composed and calm. For a brief moment, he seemed terrified, and just at the mention of a name. A name none of them had heard before.

If just the mention of a name would terrify even Discord, than what kind of creature did that name belong to?

“Anyway, we should talk about how you'll be adapting to the new world. Lots of stuff to teach you.” Discord suddenly said, turning around and looking at the pile of TV boxes in the corner, his composure seeming to come back and his hands are no longer shaking.

Though it was hard to believe the fear he had shown before had just suddenly disappear.

“First, you need to learn the english language. It is what most people in this country, and plus its what language all the history documentaries I bought you are in.” Discord said as he reached into his left pocket, pulling out his phone and beginning to type something into it.

Discord rambled as he began to rapidly type into his phone, talking to himself more than him.

The creature listened to Discord’s words, though he didn’t understand many of them. He had questions, a lot of questions.

But there was only one he felt he needed to know as soon as possible.

“What is my name?” The creature asked, causing Discord to stop what he was talking about.

Your name? Yes, I suppose I should tell you your name.” Discord said as he turned around, walking up to the creature and looking at him curiously, seeming to be thinking about something.

“Your name originally was vincentius, but it may be a better choice to change it to something more...modern. So, your name shall be…” Discord remained silent for a few seconds, thinking about what name to give him.

Then his mouth curved into a large smirk, a confident and proud look on his face.

“Vincent...Vincent Keller.”

Chapter Nine: Nihilism.

Author's Note

I apologize for this chapter taking so long, college life is tough. Also, I'd like to clear something up for people who are a bit confused about it. Originally, Marble and Limestone's names were supposed to be Inkie and Blinkie. But, Hasbro had changed them to Marble and Limestone, and had explained that Inkie and Blinkie had been childhood nicknames Pinkie gave them. Which is why Pinkie refers to them as Inkie and Blinkie, and Maud refers to them as Marble and Limestone.

Anyway, thanks for reading! Tell me if you see any issues or have any questions, and enjoy!

Chapter Nine: Nihilism.

Home.

Could she really call it that anymore?

This is where she grew up, where she was essentially raised by her sisters more than her parents. But ever since she came back, it’s felt….empty, almost lifeless. She didn’t feel like she belonged there, or anywhere, really. It wasn’t Maud or anyone else’s fault, everything was just so different now.

Her house had been a fairly simple one, though now that she knew what she did, she was sure The Syndicate could have gotten a bigger, better one if they really wanted to. It was a two story brick building, having been kept in pretty good condition, the brown paint having barely dulled. The roof was pointed up like many houses, the gray paint on it also looking relatively undisturbed. The house had two doors, the one on the front of the house was connected to the living room. It was a light dark with one of the holes in it, so the person on the other side could see who was watching. And the other door was on the back of the house, connecting to the kitchen, and was just a normal white door.

They rarely got mail, but if they did it was put in a mailbox right outside their house. The first floor of their house had all the same stuff a house should, a living room with a tv and a couch, a kitchen, a bathroom, and a garage. There were two cars in there, one being Maud’s which she rarely used since she didn’t typically need to go anywhere. And Cloudy’s car, she couldn’t remember the last time that car had actually left the garage.

The second floor was almost entirely bedrooms, with the exception of a second bathroom. The second floor was also the only part of the building with windows, there were three of them, one for each bedroom. One bedroom was for Igneous and Cloudy, which Pinkamena had only been in once or twice. It was really only for Cloudy, since Igneous very rarely was home, so much as stayed the night. The second bedroom was hers and Maud’s, the rooms were big enough to share, so it wasn’t really a problem. Though Maud wasn’t in there often, so it was mostly hers.

The last bedroom belonged to her sisters, at least it used to be. She hadn’t been in there since she’s been back, and she didn’t know if Maud had either. She wasn’t sure if she could go in there just yet, she wasn’t ready. Right now, it was just going to be the guest room, though she doubted they’d have guests anytime soon, or at all.

It was about five thirty, which meant she didn’t have very long to meet Applejack. That was fine, the place she had to meet her at was only about ten minutes away, though she could probably get there in five if she really wanted to. But there was something that had been nagging at her for the past couple of days, it’s just kind of been at the back of her mind.

She needed to talk to Maud first before she made any assumptions, and that’s what she was here for.

She was standing on the rooftop of the building beside her house, facing the left side of the building where her room was. Strangely enough, the window was left open. There’s no way someone opened the window from the outside, it was on the second floor of the building with no way to get to it from the outside. The only way to open it would be from the inside, and she didn’t leave it open when she left.

Did Maud leave it open, expecting her to come in through the window? It wouldn’t be that weird, Maud had a strange talent for just...knowing things. It was kind of like her Pinkie Sense that she used to have, but a lot more...creepy, for lack of a better word.

With relative ease, Pinkamena jumped off the roof of the building she was on. She then dug her nails into the crevices between the bricks, digging deep enough to hold her weight. She hung off the side of the building, right beside where the window was. She pulled her right hand out of the brick, grabbing the inside of the window. She quickly pulled her left hand out of the brick, using her right hand to pull herself into the window, landing on her feet with nimbility.

*This seems like one of those things I’m going to be making a habit of, but I really shouldn’t be. I should figure out an easier way to do that, shoving my nails in between bricks isn’t exactly a pleasant experience.*

She thought to herself as she began to look around the room, her eyes adjusting to the dark and being able to see better in it than the average human would be able to do. Thanks to her being a chimera, she was sure.

She had only been here one time after coming back, and that was when she learned The Whispers not only could manifest themselves to talk to her, but were doing so while appearing as her father. So, she wasn’t exactly focused on examining the room.

Now that she was here, she couldn’t help but notice how different the two halves of the room were. Her and Maud had decided to share the room by splitting it in half, the right side of the room was Maud’s, the left side of the room was Pinkamena’s, which she considered a win because she got the window. The sides had the same things in terms of furniture, a queen sized bed, though there were noticeably more pillows and stuffed animals on Pinkamena’s bed. A wardrobe filled with their clothes, each having a mirror inside, and nightstands with lamps beside each bed.

The real differences in the room came with the wallpaper, Maud’s wallpaper was very simple, to the point of dullness. It was a shade of dark gray, similar to Maud’s skin color. There were no patterns on the wall, or anything in her part of the room that stood out. It just seemed so...normal, it was almost disturbing.

Her part of the room, on the other hand, looked more like it belonged to a twelve year old girl than a young adult. Which made sense considering she decorated it when she was twelve and never changed it, what she liked never really did change until recently. She had bright pink walls with balloons, streamers, and confetti, which pretty much matched her personality for years. The stuffed animals on her bed ranged from unicorn to giant, stuffed, teddy bears. Her bed, of course, had a pink blanket with yellow and blue pillows.

It was so bright it almost hurt to look at, but there was still a certain...charm to it.

There was a carpet that was on the floor of the entire room, being a light white. Somehow, it went with both parts of the room. If she remembered correctly, the mirror inside of her wardrobe had a bunch of sticky notes on it that she’d always read at the start of her day. Mostly things like ‘Have a great day!’ and ‘Don’t forget to smile!’. Messages that were usually there to help put her in a good mood, which was strange considering she used to almost always be in a good mood.

Looking at her room now after everything, filled her with a sort of...sadness that was hard to explain. She wasn’t that person anymore, she wasn’t sure if she could ever go back to being that person. This room was a reminder of who she used to be, the childlike innocence she used to have. Where her only problems were whether she’d pass a test or when she could throw another party, and the occasional Equestria related shenanigans.

*I can’t...I can’t get lost thinking about the past, not now. I have too much to do, I...I need to drop some stuff off, wash up, and go downstairs. That’s probably where Maud is, she rarely leaves the house.*

Pinkamena thought to herself as she shuffled over to the nightstand, pulling open the drawer and ignoring whatever was inside. She put the half empty pack of cigarettes and lighter in there, she might regret that later, but she had a feeling she wasn’t going to get a lot of opportunities to smoke at all. And, since she was made aware by The Whispers that they can deal with heart attacks themselves, she threw the heart attack medicine Starlight gave her in there. She couldn’t think of a use for it, but maybe something in the future would come up.

She kept the rest of the stuff in her hoodie pockets, her phone, the imperium, and Blake’s mask, never knew what she might need.

Pinkamena shut the drawer, leaving the stuff in there to pick up at a later time. She began to walk out of the room, opening and closing the door quietly. Something she liked about her room, was that it was right across the hallway from the bathroom, which was particularly helpful because she used to have a very active bladder and would go to the bathroom two or three times a night.

She opened the bathroom door, pulling back her hoodie and letting her long hair out, which was always relieving. She turned the lights on, the sudden flashing causing her to flinch and close her eyes as she readjusted.

Her bathroom was pretty average, white tiles and ceiling with a lightbulb built into the ceiling. A bath that also doubled as a shower with a curtain to cover it, and a sink across from it with a mirror that also worked as a medicine cabinet. The toilet being beside it, with the rack for towels to the left of it, and the toilet paper and trash can being to the right of that.

Pinkamena walked over to the sink, turning on the water and bending down, cupping it in between her hands and washing her face. Her hair was getting into her face and was getting wet, but she didn’t really care. The water woke her up a bit and made her feel somewhat better.

After waking up from the coma, she felt rejuvenated for a bit, sure. But that wore off rather quickly, and now she felt tired all the time. Thinking about it, she hadn’t really slept for a while. She had been knocked out or passed out a few times recently, but she was sure that didn’t count as rest. Washing her face like this made her feel clean and refreshed, if only just for a few seconds.

After a few seconds of washing her face, Pinkamena gave out a sigh of relief as she reached up and turned off the faucet. She slowly stood up, using her hands to move her now slightly wet hair out of her face, looking in the mirror in front of her as she did.

Then she noticed something.

On the right side of her face, there was a strain of her hair that was a different color, making it stand out from the rest of her pink mane. It was ebony black, so black it’d be impossible to see in the dark. It was one of the strains that was closer to the front of her face, so she couldn’t just put it behind her ear.

She reached up to touch it, noticing that it hadn’t felt different than the rest of her hair. It looked like she had dyed it, but at the same time, it looked almost too natural. But she hadn’t dyed it at all, she never even thought about dying it. When did it change color? It couldn’t have been when she was at The Syndicate, Starlight or Discord would have pointed it out and asked about it. So did it happen sometime after? The guy at the convenience store would have mentioned it when he was talking about her hair, so it couldn’t have been then. So it had to have been sometime after, maybe in the alleyway? Did that mean The Whispers had something to do with it? Or did it have something to do with being a chimera?

“No! You know what? I have enough on my fucking plate to deal with at this point!” Pinkamena yelled as she slammed the palms of her hands on the sides of the sink, restraining herself enough to not do any damage to it.

She slowly began to breathe in and out, attempting to calm herself down.

“Honestly, this isn’t even the strangest thing that’s happened to me. It’s just a hair color change, it’s not a big deal and I have other things to worry about. And...it doesn’t look that bad, actually.” Pinkamena said as she looked in the mirror, bringing her hand up and twirling the strain of hair between her fingers. Before letting go of it and letting it fall slowly onto her forehead, fitting in between the rest of her hair strains.

“It’s more goth than I like, but...I think I could get used to it, especially considering I don’t know the cause, so It’s pretty likely it’ll happen again.” Pinkamena said as she adjusted the rest of her hair, putting as much as she could behind her ears. The rest of it draped down the sides of her face as she walked out of the bathroom, turning off the lights and shutting the door behind her.

Alice appeared in the darkness of the bathroom, watching Pinkamena as she walked out. She had a huge smile on her face, that expressed a mix of pride and malice. She seemed to be watching her with her eyes wide open, like a child seeing that her father got her a new puppy for christmas.

“It’s begun! Oh, I’m so excited!” Alice said as she twirled in a circle like a ballerina, Pinkamena not seeming to hear her.

“Now, will you remain who you are? Be slowly corrupted? Or become something new? We’ll see....”

____________________________________________________________________________

“Hello Pinkie, how are you?” Maud asked, like usual, no tone or any kind of emotion in her face.

Pinkamena’s foot landed on the last step as Maud spoke, being as silent as the rest of the steps she had taken on her down, which made her suspect how Maud knew she was there. She likely heard Pinkamena opening the bedroom and bathroom door, she hadn’t been quite with that. And it made sense she knew it was her, there was no one else it really could have been.

No, what bothered her, was how did Maud know where she was?

Maud was very perceptive, she always found them when she was the seeker in hide and seek, and they never found her when she hid. She was impossible to sneak up on, and almost as difficult to make flinch. She always had the same deadpan expression, she could count the times she’s seen her show emotion on her fingers. Not because she didn’t have emotions, she just….had difficulty showing them.

But now that Pinkamena knew about The Syndicate and their...extremities, it was obvious Maud was meant to be some sort of personal advisor for when Pinkamena became the leader. Or, if worst comes to worst, a leader herself. Of course, she now had to be the advisor to her, a lot sooner than she thought, surely. Maud was likely put through extensive training of various kinds, and considering some of them were likely done by Blake and possibly even Igneous himself, she couldn’t even imagine the kinds of things they did to her or put her through, could be worse than what she was put through.

It did make her feel somewhat relieved however, it meant that Maud knew how to handle herself. Still, that wouldn’t stop Pinkamena from worrying.

“I’m...fine Maud, how did you know I was here?”

Pinkamena said as she walked into the kitchen, noticing the light was on, dimly lighting the room. Maud sat in a gray, plastic chair, sitting in front of the brown, wooden table from the garage. She was wearing her bright white pajamas with gray rocks on them, her long, grayish violet hair going down to her neck, her bangs covering almost the entirety of her forehead. She didn’t have her eyelashes in or any of her makeup on, which was a rare occurrence in itself. She still had her normal blank stare on her face, her eyelids half closed like she couldn’t be less interested in the world around her. She had a plain white mug with steam coming out of it, black coffee being the source.

“No one else should be coming here anytime soon, especially not through the window, so I knew it had to be you. Then I heard you open the bedroom door, then the bathroom door. So I guesstimated how long it would take you to come down to the bottom of the stairs, I was actually off a couple of seconds, but that’s ok.” Maud said as she put her hand inside the handle of the mug, her eyes not leaving it as she spoke.

“Did...did you just use the word ‘guesstimate?” I made that up like...five or six months ago.” Pinkamena asked as she began to walk around Maud, seeing that the coffee pot in the machine seemed to still have enough for one cup.

Maud’s response was just to take a sip of her coffee, like she hadn’t even heard it.

“Why are you here? You have school soon, though I don’t really care whether you go or not, you don’t really need it. I left the window upon in case you wanted to go in through there, though I’m not sure why you wouldn’t go through the door. Did you need something?” She asked, though her eyes still hadn’t left the mug.

Pinkamena opened a cabinet above the coffee machine, pulling out a similar coffee mug and filling it with coffee.

“You know Maud, I’ve never seen you sleep. Like, not even once. You never look tired, and there are no bags under your eyes. You’re also always up before me, no matter how early or late I get up. And I just don’t get it, it’s strange.” She stated as she walked to the side of the table opposite of Maud, pulling a chair identical to hers out and sitting across the table from her, taking a sip of the coffee as she did.

Maud’s eyes quickly looked up from the coffee mug, her attention now on her sister. She looked at her hair for a second, noticing the strain of hair that was a different color from the rest, but deciding not to ask about it.

“That’s because I don’t sleep, don’t need to.” She said casually as her eyes began to examine Pinkamena’s body, like she was looking for something.

“Maud, you’re not the type for jokes.” Pinkamena responded as she looked at Maud, noticing the look of concern in her eyes. Maud struggled in expressing how she felt, but the emotions were evident in her eyes.

“I’m not joking.” She said plainly, her eyes quickly meeting Pinkamena’s. “My body doesn’t require sleep. Though I am capable of it and have done so a few times, I’m not very fond of it. I find it to be a huge waste of time, and I am far more productive when I’m not laying down with my eyes closed for several hours.” Maud explained casually, a complete deadpan expression on her face.

Pinkamena stared at Maud for a few seconds, trying to see if this was one of those times Maud was telling a joke, but it was hard to tell it was a joke because it was Maud. Usually, with Maud, she’d say it was a joke afterwards, mostly because it was just as difficult to change her tone of voice as it is to change her facial expression.

When Maud didn’t say she was joking, the realization of what Maud was saying began to set in.

“Wait...you’re serious? You don’t need to sleep?” Pinkamena asked skeptically, Maud responding with a slight nod of her head. “Wow...that’s...kind of amazing and creepy at the same time.”

Pinkamena leaned back in her chair, resting her arms on the table as she stared at Maud. Her mouth was slightly open in surprise, her eyebrows furrowed as she thought about all the ways that shouldn’t be possible. But somehow, with how strange everything in her life was now, it was believable.

“So...what, your body just doesn’t need to? I’ve heard of people needing less sleep than most, but none at all? Have you had Discord look into this? I’m sure he’d love to figure this out.” Pinkamena asked curiously, taking another drink from the coffee mug. She noticed that it wasn’t as hot as she remembered freshly brewed coffee to be, even though it was steaming like hot coffee does. Something about being a Chimera maybe? She was sure becoming a chimera would mean her taste buds would change, but so far she’s only detected more detail with taste, no actual change.

“I have, he seemed rather excited to learn how and if it was possible to replicate in others. Specifically, himself. He said something along the lines of “I could binge so many fucking shows if I didn’t need to sleep! Maybe I’d finally have the time to get all the achievments in The Witcher Three!” And then he proceeded to do pretty much every test I’ve ever heard of, and a couple I wish I didn’t know about.” Maud mumbled as her eyes wandered, becoming lost in her thoughts for a few seconds.

Then her eyes quickly focused on Pinkamena again, as her hands reached down and pulled the coffee mug up to her mouth, taking a larger drink than before.

“After a couple of hours, he seemed incredibly disappointed at the results. Said a couple of phrases with swear words even a sailor would blush at, and some things in what I assume are other languages, and gave me a brief summary. It would seem that when you fall asleep and enter REM sleep, your brain enters a ‘minimal energy consumption and maximum energy production and conservation state’, which is how he explained it to me. Human bodies need sleep both as a break from being constantly active, and a way to produce energy without any outside source, however…” Maud mumbled as she sat the mug back down on the table.

“My brain is wired differently. It is in a constant state of REM sleep, but I’m conscious. Meaning, my brain is maintaining my body with minimal effort, while still constantly producing energy, though not as much as if I were sleeping since I remain active. It’s mainly why I struggle with expressing my emotions, parts of my brain are mostly inactive because it thinks I’m asleep. Even when I try to exercise or something, the adrenaline doesn’t wake my brain up or anything. I heal from wounds at a normal rate, and, strangely enough, I have a stronger immune system than most people. I’m pretty much a normal person, I just don’t need sleep.” She said blatantly.

Pinkamena looked at Maud with slight fascination, though she wasn’t that surprised, there weren’t many things that could surprise her at this point.

“Discord said he could maybe replicate it in babies when the brain is in early development, but that would be risky and he doubted he’d even have the opportunity to do so. I don’t really get ‘tired’, my body can get exhausted if I push it too far, but I desire rest rather than sleep. I do fall asleep rather quickly if I try to sleep, but I don’t dream. I usually spend my extra time reading or doing something productive, which is part of why college was so easy for me. If I’m being honest, having so much free time can be really boring.”

Pinkamena watched Maud curiously, her eyes watching her face while also following her hand movements. Her hands were incredibly steady, but they somehow still...wavered, like she was dreading something.

“So...then why do you drink coffee?” She asked as she looked down at her coffee mug, noticing her reflection in the coffee.

She noticed her eyes seemed to be...dimmer than before, something she failed to notice when looking in the mirror earlier. They were once baby blue, a color she now associated with innocence, since they were that color before everything and she still had her innocence. Now they were a much darker shade of blue, closer to royal blue. The guy at the convenience store was right, the light had left her eyes.

“Pinkie?” Maud asked, though there was no tone shift in her voice, Pinkie could tell she was concerned.

“Yes?” Pinkie responded as she looked up from the mug at Maud, not even realizing she had spaced out and hadn’t heard Maud’s response.

“I said it was because I liked the taste. Are you ok?” Maud said as she reached forward, resting her hand on Pinkamena’s.

As soon as she felt Maud’s hand touch hers, a sort of...warmth overcame her. She felt herself becoming relaxed and relieved, tranquill even. Normally, she’d been more less trying to avoid physical contact with other people, pulling away like a reflex. Due to the....lecherous things Blake did to her, anytime someone touched her like that, even if trying to comfort her, filled her with a feeling of disgust and fear that almost made her throw up.

But Maud felt...different, she didn’t give her that kind of reaction. Realizing it now, when Starlight did something similar, she also didn’t trigger it and made Pinkamena feel something like this. But that was more...intimate, it was different. This felt like pure warmth, that seemed to envelope and get rid of the cold feeling The Whispers had gotten her so used to, forgetting all the emotions she had been feeling.

It was...really, really nice, and she hadn’t realized how much she missed feeling like this. The corners of her lips moved upwards as she couldn’t help but smile, all the problems and thoughts she had before seemed to slowly fade away.

“I’m fine Maud, really. I just...have a lot on my mind, and a lot of stuff to deal with.” She said as she smiled at Maud, resting her other hand on top of Maud’s. “But, I really need to talk about what I came here for, I really don’t have that much time.”

Pinkamena retracted her hands from Maud, resting them in her hoodie pocket, the familiar numbing coldness washing over her, the warmth quickly becoming nothing more than a memory she already missed.

“Oh, ok. What did you want to talk about?” Maud asked as she pulled her hands back, placing them back around the coffee mug, that static deadpan expression of hers staring back at Pinkamena.

“Maud,” Pinkamena began, keeping strict eye contact with Maud. “Where’s Cloudy?”

It was brief, and only lasted for a second, but Maud flinched. Pinkamena had seen her flinch before, sure. But not recently, and certainly not to anything she said to her.

“She...left fo-”

“No she didn’t. All her clothes and stuff are still here, and her car is still in the garage. You’re a better liar than that, Maud.”

Maud’s eyebrows furrowed for a moment, her composure faltering, which was rare for Maud to do. Her hands tightened around the coffee mug, like a reflex.

“Why do you care about her?” Maud asked, a tint of defensiveness in her voice. She shifted a bit in her seat,

Pinkamena slightly scowled, noticing the shift in the tone of her voice and the facial expressions she was making. This wasn’t something she saw from Maud often, only when she seemed very stressed, or when Inkie and Blinkie first went missing. Whatever happened with Cloudy, was clearly upsetting Maud.

“I don’t, I couldn’t give less of a shit about that negligent old hag. But you can’t act like I just wouldn’t notice that she was gone, as much as I’d like to pretend she doesn’t exist, I can’t. And the fact that you haven't brought it up yet, even though you tend to tell me everything, is suspicious. I need the truth from you, Maud.”

Pinkamena pulled her arms out of her hoodie, resting them on both sides of the coffee mug, her palms laying flatly against the table. She got closer to the table, the edge of it pushing against her stomach as she kept eye contact with Maud, a stern glare on her face.

“What happened to Cloudy?”

Maud didn’t answer for a few seconds, it was hard to tell whether that was because she was hesitating to answer, or she just hadn’t expected Pinkamena to be so direct.

For a few seconds, there was nothing but silence. It filled the entire room, mixed with a tension thick enough to cut. Maud didn’t break eye contact with Pinkamena, nor did the slight scowl leave her face. It was like a staring contest, but instead of blinking, they were waiting for the other to flinch.

Maud suddenly closed her eyes, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. She began to tap her left pointer finger on her right arm, like she didn’t want her hands to stay idle. Pinkamena watched her body language, noticing how tense she was. It was strange, she’d never seen Maud get upset about anything before, not really.

“I...I’m not sure how to tell you this, so I guess I’ll just start from the beginning.” Maud said, her voice wavering a bit.

She opened her eyes, remaining half open like they usually were. But her eyes weren’t looking at Pinkamena, they were focused instead on a spot on the table, like she was more focused on remembering something than anything else.

“During the three months or so you were gone, Cloudy and I didn’t really talk much. I was focused on preventing anyone from finding out what happened to you, which was mostly me doing whatever The Syndicate told me to do: Give false tips to throw the police off, let people believe you were dead if that’s the conclusion they came to, and further reinforce it if necessary. Make sure no one goes near the forest you were in for the first month at any cost, stuff like that. I had been thoroughly trained for stuff like that, prepared to even, so doing these things were of relative ease. Cloudy, however…”

Maud’s eyebrows furrowed slightly, a mixture of anger and confusion on her face.

“If I’m being honest, I don’t even know if she was human or not. She always seemed so...blank, and that’s a lot coming from me. I never saw her eat, drink, only occasionally sleep. She never expressed any emotion of any kind, or even interest in anything else. She might have looked human, but if I found out she was a machine or something, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Pinkamena tensed up, noticing the sudden shift in tone in Maud’s voice, and one word she said that seemed to suggest something.

“‘Was?’ Why the past tense?”

Maud’s finger stopped tapping against her arm, suddenly tensing up as her grip tightened, the skin around the middle of her arm turning white with how tightly she was gripping it. She stopped breathing for a few seconds, anxiously holding her breath, her pupils slightly constricted.

Just as quickly as she tensed up, she seemed to relax again. Her grip loosened on her arm, her pupils going back to normal as she exhaled.

“Nothing changed those three months, even when we were told you survived the woods and would move on to the next phase, she didn’t react at all, almost like she was in some sort of catatonic state. It wasn’t until just a couple weeks ago she snapped out of it, and I really wished she hadn’t.”

Pinkamena noticed that Maud ignored her question, but that it still bothered her. She wasn’t going to push it further, it was clear Maud needed to take this at her own pace.

“When we were told that you had killed Igneous and were currently in a coma, with no indication of when you’ll wake up, if at all, I was...conflicted, to say the least. Cloudy, on the other hand, seemed...shaken by it, at first. For me, that was the first time I ever saw her care about something. After that she became distant, more so than before. She was almost always sitting in a corner somewhere, mumbling something to herself, and she was always watching me. I could feel her gaze on me, even when I didn’t know where she was. It went on like that for a few days, until....”

Maud visibly shuddered, a distant look in her eyes as she was overcome by terror, the only time Pinkamena had ever seen her truly afraid. This seemed to be due to some kind of trauma, which was a bit surprising, Maud didn’t seem the type to be traumatized easily.

“I...woke up one time in the middle of the night, one of the only times I’ve ever slept. I needed an escape from reality, even if just for a little bit. With everything going on, I was a bit...overwhelmed. When I woke up, she…” Maud let out a slight whimper, her left hand gripping her arm tightly again, this time her right arm was shaking almost uncontrollably. Her eyes constrict, as she bit her lip, almost hard enough to draw blood.

Pinkamena’s eyes widened, her jaw opening slightly as she was quickly filled with guilt and concern. She reached forward with one of her hands, resting it gently on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.

“Maud,” Pinkamena whispered, “It’s ok, you don’t have to-”

“Yes, I do.” She suddenly said, a tone of what sounded like desperation in her voice. “I...have to talk about it, but I appreciate the concern. I’m glad you haven’t lost your compassion, too many people in lives like ours do.” Maud said as she brought her left hand up to Pinkamena’s, gripping it tightly as she slowly pulled it off her shoulder.

Pinkamena leaned back in her chair, resting both her arms on the table, watching Maud with concern as she waited for her to continue.

“She…” Maud hesitated for a few seconds, her breathing slightly erratic. “It was the middle of the night when I woke up, the only light was the moonlight coming from the window. Someone was standing directly over me, like they were watching me. I couldn’t make out more than their figure, but I knew it was Cloudy, it couldn’t be anyone else. I didn’t move or speak, she knew I was awake, so there wouldn’t have been a point. At the time I was...curious, more than anything about her, having no idea what her intentions were.

We stayed there in silence for a few seconds, neither of us moving or saying anything. Eventually, she raised her right arm above her head, holding something in her hand. If it wasn’t for the moonlight reflecting off of the silver, I wouldn’t have known what it was.”

Pinkamena felt herself tense up, realizing what it was that Maud was referring to.

“She quickly brought the kitchen knife down, a lot faster and with more precision than I thought she was capable of. If it wasn’t for rigorous training I’d been through, she would have stabbed me directly in the heart. I managed to move out of the way fast enough, getting behind her and pinning her against the couch. I tried asking her what she was doing, but...she didn’t respond, didn’t say a word, actually. And to make it weirder, she didn’t struggle at all. Like she didn’t really care or know why she just tried to kill me, she seemed more like a doll than a person.

A minute or two passed by before I decided to let her go, she wasn’t struggling and I was prepared to pin her again if she tried to stab me. So, I let go of her and stepped back a bit. In hindsight, I should have taken the knife from her.” Maud said as she cringed, a tone of regret in her voice.

“She got up rather sluggish and slow, like she was half asleep or something. She turned towards me, the knife still in her hand. She had this...empty look on her face, completely expressionless and uninterested. And she had this hollow look in her eyes, void of life or any signs of anything, it was like she wasn’t even alive. It was...disturbing, terrifying, actually. If that’s what I looked like to people, it’d make sense why so many people think I’m weird or are scared of me.”

Pinkamena bit the inside of her cheek as anger flared inside of her, the familiar taste of blood entering her mouth.

“Maud, Nobody thin-”

“Yes. They do Pinkie. I know they do. You should know better than anyone how perceptive I am. Most people think it’s weird how I normally can’t express myself, like there’s something wrong with me. Anyone I’ve talked to that was involved with The Syndicate is terrified of me, both because I’m one of the few people who have survived both Blake and Discord, and also because I always seem so calm. People...people think I’m a freak, nobody treats me like I'm a person. I try not to let it bother me, but sometimes...it hurts. A lot.” Maud whimpered, a doleful look on her face.

Pinkamena felt a tinge of concern and pity, a pained scowl on her face as her eyes downcasted. What Maud said was true, she couldn’t change that. But she had always seen Maud as this strong person, who remained unfazed about whatever people thought of her. However, it seemed Maud was more sensitive than she thought. Just because she had more difficulty expressing her emotions, doesn’t mean she wasn’t like everyone else.

Pinkamena was mad at herself, for not realizing that sooner.

“I’m sor-”

“It’s fine, Pinkie. Really, it is. I’ve gotten used to it, as much as I hate that. I...need to finish, and you don’t have a lot of time. So, will you just listen?” She asked, a bit more aggressively then she intended to.

Pinkamena felt her throat tighten up and get dry, unable to think of any other response than to nod her head.

Maud began to shift uncomfortably in her seat again, closing her eyes fearfully as she remembered where she was, picturing the scene in her mind like it was right in front of her.

“For what felt like forever, she just...stared at me. Not like she was trying to analyze me or anything, more like she was just staring in a direction for no reason, and I just happened to be in the way. Eventually, she stopped staring at me, or whatever she was looking at. She slowly raised her arm with the knife in it, but not like she was going to attack me again. She turned it to the side so the knife was facing her, and then she just...stared at it. Even behind her glasses, I could tell how empty her gaze was. Despite her attention being on something else, I still felt petrified by her. There was just something about her, that was...I don’t even know how to put it into words!” Maud said in exasperation, an expression of consternation on her face as she stopped speaking for a few seconds.

Maud was struggling to keep her composure, but she was doing a better job than before. Pinkamena could only watch in pain, unable to help her.

“She stared at her reflection in the knife, like she was looking for something. Then she looked up at me, like she came to some sort of realization. And she...said something to me, the first thing I’d even heard her say for a long time. She looked me in the eyes, bringing her knife to her throat, and said…”

Maud shivered, struggling to finish what she said, slightly stuttering. Her hands were both shaking, which she tried to hide by putting her hands under the table. She stuttered a bit as she tried to say it, unable to make and keep eye contact, sweat rolling down the side of her face as she teared up a bit.

“She said, ‘my life has no meaning anymore.” Then she stabbed the knife into her throat effortlessly, slicing across and cutting open her throat. S-she didn’t even flinch or hesitate! She just killed herself in front of me! A-and I-i…. couldn’t..” Maud suddenly began to breathe heavier, sweating more profusely as her hand gripped her shirt where her heart would be.

Pinkamena reacted instantly, jumping out of her chair and trying to comfort Maud by putting her hand on her back. She’d never seen Maud have a panic attack before, or anyone, so she didn’t really know what to do.

“Maud, calm down, it’s ok!” Pinkamena said as she tried to think of how to help her sister, The Whisperers weren’t being particularly helpful outside of their constant whispering. “What do you need? Just...focus on slowing down your breathing, I think.”

“I-I’m trying.” Maud stuttered out, closing her eyes as she gripped the edges of the table, trying to concentrate on her breathing, thinking of anything else except for the image of Cloudy in her mind, an image that had been burned into her memory.

After a few seconds, she got her breathing under control. She slowly opened her eyes, her composure returning to normal as she glanced at Pinkamena, giving her an affirmative nod.

“I...I think I’m okay now, thank you.” She said as she relaxed in the chair, resting her arms on her lap.

Hesitantly, Pinkamena sat back down in her chair, cautiously and worriedly watching Maud.

“Are you sure? I’m sorry that I caused that, I di-”

Pinkamena began, but Maud interrupted her, shaking her dismissively.

“It isn’t your fault Pinkamena, really. The Syndicate trains you mentally for those kinds of things, sometimes they put you through practice situations that are sometimes hard to tell they aren’t real. But...they don’t…” Maud briefly closes her eyes, thinking back to her training in The Syndicate. “No amount of training, number of simulations, drills, knowledge, or anything you can be taught can prepare you for when it really happens. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it, the look in her eyes, the...sound of her slicing her throat and the blood spattering against the furniture as her body hit the ground. I...don’t know how long it’ll be until I can close my eyes and not see her.” Maud said shakily, opening her eyes, but not looking at Pinkamena.

“Yeah,” Pinkamena said as she closed her eyes, the image of Inkie and Blinkies mutilated corpses, the image of that still burned vividly into her mind. The memories of the arena also come to mind, the looks of terror and their screams of agony playing in her head like a tape recording as she tore them apart. “I think I get what you’re talking about.” She mumbled with clenched teeth as she shamefully hid her face from Maud, clenching her fist angrily.

Maud noticed this, furrowing her eyebrows in concern.

“Pinkie, if you need to tal-”

“No,” Pinkamena shouted, a bit more aggressively than she intended. “I...don’t have the time, and I’ve had a rough, long day. Can you tell me the rest? I don’t mean to be pushy, but nowadays it seems like time is the thing I have too much of, but never enough.”

She said solemnly, raising her head back up and looking at Maud, an empty look on her face.
Maud stared back at her for a few seconds, contemplating whether she should push the issue or listen to her.

Maud was never that good with people, but she knew her sister, and pushing her sister on an issue she didn’t want to address never went well.

“If that’s what you want.” Maud said in a monotone voice as she leaned back in her chair, her deadpan expression quickly returning.

“After...what happened, I called The Syndicate’s cleanup crew, they didn’t charge me after I told them what happened. They came in, told me to wait upstairs until they were done, and I did. After about thirty minutes or so, they told me to come down and make sure everything was fine. And it was, her body was gone, the blood was gone, and everything was exactly the same as before. I’d say I was impressed, but with The Syndicate, I’ve learned you should really just expect anything.

Since then, I’ve just tried to avoid thinking about the event, keeping myself busy however I can. Making sure the house is kept clean, no one looks too much into anything they shouldn’t, and anything else The Syndicate may want from me. I intended to tell you when the time was right and you weren’t busy, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you ended up as busy as you are. I’m sorry Pinkie, really.”

Pinkie looked down at the coffee mug in front of her, almost forgetting about it. She grabbed the mug and brought it up to her mouth, drinking the rest of the coffee in it, despite how hot it still was.

“Maud, it isn’t your fault. Sometimes life gets busy, it's fine. Now, I really should get going, I already know I’m going to be late.” She said as she got up out of the chair, setting the empty mug on the table and heading towards the door.

Maud followed her with her eyes as she brought her coffee mug up to her face, watching her sister with a look of slight concern on her face. She took a sip from her mug and set it back down on the table, her hands still shaking slightly.

“Pinkie, I need you to promise me something before you go.” Maud said with a pensive look on her face, her gaze on the coffee mug, but her mind was somewhere else entirely.

Pinkamena stopped in front of the door, rolling her eyes as she turned her head left to look at Maud. “You know I can’t promise to be safe, especially with The Silent Killer now a problem I have to deal with.”

“No, that’s not it. It’s...something else.”

Pinkamena turned to Maud, her eyebrows raising both in curiosity and concern. “Then what is it?”

“Well,” Maud mumbled, “It's...just me and you now. Our parents are both dead, Limestone and Marble are dead, The Syndicate is in a bigger state of chaos than its been in years. Now...you’re the leader, something I don’t think anyone intended. I haven’t seen it, but I’m sure you’re a chimera now. I can’t help you fight, all I can do is help you make decisions and be here when you need me, especially when you think no one is there for you. But, I need you to promise me, that if I were to die-”

A scowl appeared on Pinkamena’s face as she grit her teeth, “Maud, you’re not going to die, I won-”

“IF….I die.” Maud shouted, interrupting Pinkamena, something incredibly out of character for her. “I need you to promise me, no matter what happens, even if I die, that you’ll stay who you are. I don’t want you to change anymore than you already have, I’ve seen too many people throw away who they were. Becoming a monster like Igneous, or some empty shell of the person they used to be. It’s usually grief that pushes a person over the edge like that, but cumulative stress can break anyone just the same, or anger. And I...I just can’t lose you too, I’m not capable of being a leader, and I don’t know what I’d do. So, please, just promise me you’ll at least try.”

There was a tone of desperation in Maud’s voice as she spoke, a shakiness in her voice that made it sound like she was on the edge of having a panic attack again. She hid her eyes behind her hair, like she didn’t want to look at her sister.

Pinkamena felt her stomach drop as she heard Maud’s plea, she’d never heard Maud sound so...desperate before, it hurt to see her like this. She had heard from several people that Igneous used to be a better person, and that something had made him into the way he was. Maud may have been around to watch him transform into the monster he did, could that have made Maud afraid of her becoming the same way?

Pinkamena looked down at her right hand, raising it up and extending her fingers, her fingernails slowly turning into claws. Could she make that promise? She had already changed a lot, both in what she was and who she was. She’s killed, maimed, and almost lost herself in bloodlust and rage more than once. She wasn’t really Pinkie anymore, she didn’t have her body or her personality. Just her face, and her memories. She had her emotions, but it was hard to say whether that was really her, or just the memories.

Honestly, she had only been calling herself Pinkamena because she didn’t know what else to call herself. Was she Pinkamena? Was she just her body filled with some amalgamation of whatever she was now? She needed to do some soul searching at some point, but she doubted she’d have the time.

Whatever the case, she didn’t know if she could promise she wouldn’t change. She could barely even say what she was now, or what she’d become. She would do everything she could to prevent The Whispers from completely taking over, and she would try her damndest to not give in to her bloodlust and her chimera instinct. But avoiding change at all?

That wasn’t something she could prevent, whether she liked it or not.

Pinkamena detracted her claws and lowered her hand, turning her attention to Maud. She was still hiding behind her hair waiting for an answer, her hands laying on the table shakily. It was true that she knew she wouldn’t be able to promise Maud that she couldn’t change, but if she were to say that, it might make things a lot worse.

As much as she hated it, she had to lie to Maud, it was better for both of them that way.

“I…” Pinkamena felt her mouth get a bit dry. “Promise you, I won’t change.”

Maud visibly relaxed as Pinkamena said that, exhaling loudly. She looked up at Pinkamena, a slight smirk on her face.

“Thank you, that...does help, really. I was half-tempted to make you do a Pinkie Promise, but I decided against it.” Maud said she got up from her chair, picking up the empty coffee mug and taking it to the sink.

“You go ahead and go, I don’t want to keep you any longer. I’m sorry if I made you worried, things have been...chaotic recently. If you get time, come back here and talk to me, it's partly what I’m here for.” Maud said as she began to clean the mug, leaving hers still on the table.

Pinkamena nodded and opened the door, walking outside with a feeling of guilt in her stomach. She didn’t have a problem with lying, just with people that trusted her and that she cared about.

It seemed like no matter what she did, someone she cared about got hurt. Was she really that unlucky? Or was she just that self-destructive?

Either way, she had an Apple to meet, a killer to beat, and a friend to find, and not even enough time to think.

Chapter Ten: Inquiry, Part One.

“She’s late.” Applejack mumbled, a tinge of frustration in her voice as she spoke.

Applejack lay against the tree she had met Pinkamena at the day prior, wearing her normal school outfit with her arms crossed and her eyes closed, her hat tipped forward covering most of her face.

It was roughly six in the morning, classes would be starting soon and a lot of students were entering the highschool a couple of blocks away for breakfast. Applejack was very worried about Pinkamena, she hadn’t heard from her since last night, and with the way she had to leave things, it just made her more worried.

If there was any truth to what Sunset told them about something that happened yesterday, that just made it more urgent that she needed to talk to her.

Applejack heard something move, she opened her eyes and looked around, but didn’t see anything different.

“Sorry I took so long, got caught up in some stuff.”

Applejack heard from the other side of the tree, recognizing her pink friend’s voice instantly. She didn’t seem to be wearing Blake’s mask this time, which made sense, no need for it now. Though she was more or less hiding behind her hood, making it hard to see more than her eyes and mouth. She felt the corners of her lips rise as a slight smirk came onto her face, letting out a sigh of relief that her friend was alive.

“As long as yuh make it, late’s better than dead.” AJ responded, a bit of her southern accent in her voice as she seemed rather relaxed.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. Anyway, I more or less handled the sniper last night, but they aren’t dead. And I figured you should at least know, that was The Silent Killer.”

AJ’s smirk quickly changed to a scowl, if she had known that, she would have stayed there herself to kill them. This “Silent Killer” has killed at least a dozen of her men that she knows of, and now they’ve attacked one of her friends?

This needs to end, she was tired of losing people.

“Dammit Pinkie!” AJ growled, slamming her fist against the tree out of frustration as she turned around to face her. “Did you figure out who they were before you told me to leave?”

“I was pretty sure, yes. But, before you yell at me for making you leave,” She remarked, turning around to face AJ. “If you had stayed, nothing good would have come from it. You can’t move as quickly as me, it would have been too easy for them to shoot you before you could even shoot back. And even if you didn’t, even if they prioritized me, it wouldn’t have mattered. I could easily climb that building, you can’t. By the time you would have gotten into the building and gotten to the roof, the fight would have been over.”

AJ grit her teeth, knowing she was right. She slammed her fist against the tree again, hard enough this time to shake the tree, causing a lot of leaves to fall to the ground. Pinkamena’s eyes widened slightly in surprise, not knowing that Applejack had such borderline inhumane strength.

She’d even give Michael a run for his money, she was beginning to understand why The Syndicate would want to avoid a war with The Apples at all cost if a lot of them were that strong. She could only imagine what Big Macintosh would be capable of.

“Just cuz yer right, don’t make me less pissed off!” She growled, pulling her fist away from the tree, revealing that the wood around the place she hit was broken, leaving a dent in the tree.

Pinkamena noticed this, both impressed and now a bit afraid of Applejack. She knew Applejack was strong, but this was more than she thought, AJ was now on an ever increasing list of people she should not piss off.

“Well, there is good news.” Pinkamena said, putting her hands in her hoodie pockets as she made eye contact with the infuriated farmer. “The contract on me is sort of cancelled, everyone thinks that it was put up. But Discord decided to make sure it wasn’t, so I should be safe from bounty hunters, at least.”

Applejack glared back at her, but seemed to calm down at that. She inhaled and exhaled deeply, standing up straight and rubbing the bridge of her nose.

“I’m glad somebody helped with yuh stupidity. Discord might weird me out, but at least he’s good at his job.” She said as she reached into a pocket in her skirt, pulling out her phone and looking for something on it.

“I need to ask yuh something, please be honest with me.” She said having found what she was looking for on her phone, reading something and then turning it off and putting it back into her pocket. She looked Pinkamena in the eyes, a serious look in her eyes as she furrowed her eyebrows. “Did you...Did you almost kill Sunset?”

Pinkamena felt her heart drop, having completely forgotten about that, so much had happened since then. She should have assumed Sunset would tell them, why wouldn’t she?

“Yeah,” Pinkamena mumbled, turning her eyes downward. “I did. We were arguing about something, I lost my temper...and I nearly slashed her throat open. I ended up coming to my senses before I hurt her, but I came far too close. She knows I’m not entirely human, but that’s it.”

Applejack didn’t say anything, though she looked very tense. She put her hands on her hips and stood there for a few seconds with her eyes closed, thinking deeply about something. Then she let out an exasperated sigh, one that made it hard to tell whether she was disappointed or just tired.

“Why?” She asked, opening her eyes and keeping her gaze on Pinkamena.

Pinkmena looked up at AJ, pursing her lips in slight confusion.

“What?”

“I want to hear why yah got so angry, before ah decide whether ah should hit you. I know you Pinkie, you don’t lose yer temper over nuthin’. And ahm also certain that since you became a chimera, it's been a lot harder for yuh to control yerself. Yuh deserve the benefit of the doubt, so tell me. Why did yuh almost attack her? What were y'all arguing about that almost pushed yuh over the edge like that?”

Though her southern accent was stronger, Applejack was very serious. Pinkamena had no doubt that if AJ didn’t think she had a good reason, she’d hit her harder than anyone other than Michael did. Not just that, but she really didn’t want Applejack to be mad at her. She was the only one of her friends she could talk to, as much as she hated that.

Pinkamena felt a bit nervous, gulping slightly before she spoke. “We...at first she tried confronting me, she wanted to know what happened to me and she wanted to help me. Of course, you know I couldn’t tell her anything. I don’t know what The Syndicate would do, but I’m sure it’d be nothing good. I asked her about Rainbow Dash, I hadn’t seen her and was curious to why.

She told me that Rainbow Dash slowly began to distance herself, not just from you guys, but from everything. I asked why her and the others didn’t try to help Rainbow, and she told me that you guys were already so preoccupied with school and searching for me, that you guys didn’t have the time to. And when I heard that, I just…”

Pinkamena bit the inside of her cheek, both of her hands clenching into fist as they shook in anger. She scowled as her head lowered, her eyes focusing on a spot on the ground.

“It sounded like she was abandoned, like you guys just gave up on her. It was only made worse by the fact that I was the reason why, or at least part of it. I don’t blame you guys for not being able to help me, I don’t think there’s anything anyone could have done to save me. But I still felt...abandoned, and hopeless. I wanted anyone to be there, I hated being alone and I had to adapt or I would have died in there. Rainbow had to have started pulling away because of me being gone, which means I was the cause. Everyone was so focused on saving me that no one helped even though she was right there! And I…”

Pinkamena’s voice cracked as she felt the taste of blood enter her mouth, blood began to drip from her hands as her nails dug into her palm.

“I was so...enraged that something like that happened to someone else because of me, even if I had no choice in the matter. Now she could be somewhere dead, and it could have been prevented! I can’t even put into words how pissed I was at both her and myself for that, I was overwhelmed with so many emotions that for a moment I just...lost control. My rage took over and I almost killed her, I’m just really glad I came to my senses before I did. But,”

Pinkamena ground her teeth as she looked up at Applejack, her mouth curved into a snarl as the veins around her eyes pulsated, the edges of her pupils turned red. There was a look of anger on her face, but also deep shame.

“I...have no excuse, I should have more control over my emotions and my actions than that, especially for one of my closest friends. If you want to hit me because you’re angry at me, I’ll understand.”

AJ gave Pinkamena a stern glare, her sap green eyes analysing her. She felt a bit of fear as she saw the claws, being reminded of the monster that killed her parents. But she also felt anger, anger that her friend had almost lost control like that and almost killed one of her friends.

She inhaled deeply, before exhaling and walking forward, resting her hand on Pinkamena’s shoulder, noticing how tense she was. She seemed to tense up more at Applejack’s touch, like she was expecting to be hit. Pinkamena looked up at her, her face relaxing a bit as her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“Calm down, your chimera’s showin’.” She said sternly, gesturing down to her hands, which the nails had been extended into claws and blood dripped down from them, small waves of steam emitting from her hands as they tried to heal.

Pinkamena looked down at her hands, her eyes widening when she unclenched her hands and saw her claws, she assumed her eyes were beginning to change color also.

“I’m...sorry,” She said solemnly as she closed her eyes, laying her arms down to her sides as she slowed down her breathing, feeling the familiar numbing cold of The Whispers coming over her, they were annoyingly selective on when they felt like helping her.

“It's just...after a while I stopped noticing it, it feels so natural now. I...really need to get better control of it, and my emotions. What happened with Sunset...can’t happen and I won’t let it happen again, I can promise you that much.”

Pinkamena’s expression hardened, her hands clenched as she looked at Applejack with resolve in her eyes.

Despite this, Applejack couldn’t help but feel a bit of pity as she looked at her old friend. This wasn’t a fate anyone deserved, so much as one of her best friends.

“I...ah won’t try to pretend to understand what you went through in The Syndicate, I’ve heard terrible things, and I’m sure there are things yuv gone through yuh can’t ever tell anyone. They’ve changed yuh, I’m just not sure yet if it’s for the best or worst. Becoming a chimera, losing your kin, and being forced to be the leader would be too sudden and too much for anyone. So,”

AJ had a dour expression on her face, her eyebrows furrowed as her voice got gritter and more serious.

“Maybe ah should be mad at yuh, but ah just can’t, not when you’re making yourself feel worse about it than I ever could.”

The small bit of tension left in Pinkamena left as she felt herself relax at Applejack’s words, Maud and her friends were all she had left. She hated making them feel like this and she hated how much she truly missed them. They were like family for her, which meant a lot to Pinkamena because her family was...dysfunctional to say the least. AJ was the only one who could know the truth, she couldn’t lose her.

“Applejack, th-”

“What were yuh planning to do today?” She said suddenly, crossing her arms as she looked at Pinkamena expectantly.

*Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Applejack isn’t really the touchy feely type, these past three months have made me forget little details like that.*

Pinkamena put her hands in her hoodie, finding it slightly difficult to get comfortable with the stuff in there.

“Well, after school I was going to start looking into what happened with Rainbow Dash, I owe her that much at least. I intend to try to get that done as early as possible, and then I was going to try to narrow down where The Silent Killer stays, assuming they aren’t constantly moving around.”

*That was true, but she didn’t want to tell Applejack that she could almost say for sure that Rainbow was dead. She just...needed to know who killed her and if it was for the reason she feared it was.*

Applejack had a skeptical expression on her face, scoffing slightly as she looked at Pinkamena.”Are yuh sure about that? I didn’t take yuh fer the detective type.”

“Well, before The Syndicate took me I wasn’t. But I’ve had to adapt, I need to always be watching my back and pay attention to everything, or else It’d be too easy for someone to take advantage of me. I think I can figure it out, if not, I do have The Syndicate’s resources. Until I fuck up as the leader, anyway.” She said half-jokingly, though there was a tone of seriousness despite the slight smirk.

AJ’s expression dropped to a disapproving frown, keeping eye contact with her, but also paying attention to her body language, almost like she was trying to read her.

“Nah, ah don’t think yuh will. Even before all this horseshit, ah always thought yuh were smarter than yuh let on. The fact that yuh survived everything and made it to this point proves me right, that or you’re devilishly lucky. Either way, I need to know something.”

Applejack got closer, her arms dropping to her sides as her gaze hardened, an earnest look on her face as her jaw tightened.

“This isn’t like Igneous, he deserved a lot worse than whatever you did to them. Whoever this Silent Killer is, they need to die, for everyone’s sake. Whether you find out who they are or not isn’t important, and I hate to ask this of you. But when you find them, I need to know that you won’t hesitate to kill them.” She said without her accent.

If you had to kill someone, would you hesitate?

Alice’s words echoed in her mind, whether that was the memory or Alice herself repeating it, she wasn’t sure. She had almost forgotten her conversation with Alice about the selective valuing of lives, and what she did to try to get that lesson instilled into her.

She killed Igneous, and there wasn’t a single ounce of guilt in her for that. If anything, she felt bad that she hadn’t made him suffer more. She knew she shouldn’t have killed all those men, but The Silent Killer? She needed to kill them for The Council, for The Apples, and for herself. She had no reason to feel bad if she killed them, they were not innocent and it isn’t like it’d be unprovoked.

But at the same time, it’d be like she was proving Alice right without trying to find a way to save them. She wanted to stick to her ideals, they were basically all that was left of her.

“I…” She closed her eyes for a moment, questioning her willingness to take a life. It was a terrifyingly easy decision to make in the moment, but was this something she could do?

It didn’t matter, she needed to kill them. If left alive, they could make everything she’s had to do now pointless, and even the lives of her friends would be put at risk.

“I will kill them, I have to for everyone.” She said with resolve.

“Good, I was hoping you’d say that. Ah think yuh should skip school today,” She said as she pulled out her phone, beginning to quickly type something. “Sunset told us what happened in the groupchat and is tryn’ to convince us to confront ya. Even if she doesn’t, there’s no doubt in my mind she would do it by herself if she had to, she’s stubborn as hell. Ah know ah can convince her not to, ah just need time. By tomorrow ah think ah can, so how about you take the day off?”

She said this as she was typing on the phone, being better at multitasking than Pinkamena thought she was.

“I can do that, sure. Thanks AJ, I appreciate it. But, before I go, I have a favour to ask.”

Pinkamena felt her hand touch the vial in her hoodie pocket, reminding her of her fight with Michael. It was still vivid in her mind, especially how good she felt while fighting him. She almost killed him without hesitation or even a second thought, even though he might have started it, she took it way too far.

Was she already that far gone?

“I’ve been told by a few people that Igneous...was once a better person.”

At the mention of the murderer of her parents, Applejack’s face hardened, a stern scowl forming as she clenched her fist.

“I don’t...can’t believe it, but the possibility of something like that made me think. The way things are going, as much as I hate to say it, something like that might happen to me. If it does, I need you to promise me that you will take care of me.”

She couldn’t make the implications of what she was saying any more obvious, this was something she’d been thinking about for a bit now. There have been times ever since she became a chimera where she didn’t feel like herself, that she was more animal than human.

If she was being honest, it scared the shit out of her.

“Pinkie...ah don’t know if that’s a promise ah can make. You’re...you’re asking me to kill ah friend.”

“No, I’m asking you to kill the monster I might turn into.”

The look on Applejack’s face relaxed a bit, but she still had a morbid frown. “That ah can do, ah just...won’t know how the others would take it. As much as ah hate it, ah understand why you hav ta distance yuhself from the others. Things are too complicated right now and involving them might just get them killed, or worse. But that wouldn’t make losing you any easier on them, especially after just getting yah back.”

Pinkamena turned her back to Applejack, preparing to leave. The sooner she got everything done, the better.

“I know, AJ. I miss you guys more than you think, especially now. But until this Silent Killer is handled and things are less tense at The Syndicate, it’s just too risky. I need to leave Applejack, The Silent Killer only seems to strike at night so I need to get as much done during the day as I can. Goodbye, and good luck.”

Pinkamena jumped up into the branches of the tree they were under, jumping off of it onto branches of other trees until she was out of sight. Applejack was watching, somewhat amazed at her abilities.

“That girl...even after everything, she still loves to show off.” Applejack said to herself, hearing the bell ringing in the distance as she cursed under her breath, now she was going to be late to class and she missed breakfast.

Applejack began to walk back to the school, speed walking there as fast as she could, she really didn’t want to go to detention again.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

*Now for the fun part, trying to remember where Rainbow Dash lived. I have only ever been there once, her memory may have been good, but it’s been a long time since then. Early middle school, right before their falling out.*

It was sometime around seven thirty, Pinkamena was walking around the neighborhood she remembered where Rainbow’s house was. It was around that time of day where most people were driving to or from work, so there was a decent amount of cars on the streets. Though the sidewalks themselves were more or less empty, allowing her to travel without any problem.

Well, by ‘empty’ she meant there were, of course, still the homeless people around that were watchers for The Syndicate. And she was sure Juno was around somewhere watching her, it was actually impressive to her that he didn’t get bored.

Right now, she was trying to make herself as hard to notice as possible. She had her hood up and the majority of her head covered, and was moving through the alleyways as quickly as she could. There were a lot of apartment buildings here, but if she saw the building she’d recognize it instantly.

Suddenly, as Pinkamena was walking through an alleyway for what felt like the umpteenth time, she felt something cold on the back of her neck. Like someone just put an icecube down her shirt, but there wasn’t any weight behind it. It was a bizarre feeling.

“You know, there was never a Mr.Hyde.”

She didn’t have to look behind her now, she knew immediately who it was, she’d recognize that voice anywhere.

Alice sat on Pinkamena’s neck, in a sort of piggyback position. Her legs were dangled over Pinkamena’s shoulders, crossing at the ankles right under her chest. Her thin arms lay on top of one another on Pinkamena’s head, Alice’s chin rested on her arms.

It was a strange feeling, she could feel Alice on her, her cold corpse like body. And yet, she felt no added weight on her body, it was like she basically wasn’t even there.

Well, that was probably because she wasn’t actually there.

“What are you talking about?” Pinkamena asked, a bit confused at what Alice said.

Pinkamena didn’t slow down moving through alleyways, which didn’t seem to affect Alice at all. She’d think with how she was moving it would cause Alice to fall off or something, but she kept forgetting that the laws of physics didn’t apply to them.

“You compared us before to the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, which I admit isn’t inaccurate. No, what bothers me is that you’re comparing it to the incorrect version of that story. Though I can’t say I blame you, due to people misinterpreting that story, it got adjusted to mean what people thought it did. It’s sad really, the original story's meaning was much better in my opinion.”

“Wait, what do you mean? I thought the whole point of the story was about a guy who had split personality disorder after an experiment gone wrong. His other personality started killing people and he soon began investigating himself, and he found out he was the murderer. He couldn’t handle the guilt and didn’t want anymore people dead, so the only solution he had left was to kill himself.”

Alice let out an audible groan, Pinkamena could feel her face form into a frown.

“The edited version, yeah. When the story was originally written and published, that’s how the majority of people interpreted it, because the majority of people are stupid. But because that’s how people saw it, the story was edited and republished to fit that agenda so it could be made into a play, then a movie, and now everyone knows it as the story where a guy has an evil second personality. What most english teachers don’t talk about is how different the original was, and the message it was trying to send. Actually,”

Pinkamena felt Alice shift around a bit, before she had to stop in the middle of an alleyway when Alice hung upside, her face being flipped so the first thing Pinkamena saw was her dark green eyes. Then saw her sly fox like smirk, like she had an idea that would only make her happy.

“It reminds me a lot of you. Since you don’t have anything better to do until you can find the building, would you like me to give you a synopsis of the story? You might find it interesting, more entertaining than looking for a building in blocks full of buildings anyway.” She said with a dull tone as she raised her head up, going back to the position she was in before.

Pinkamena slowly began to walk through the alleyway, seeing rows of apartment buildings, scanning them as she tried to find Rainbow’s.

*Well, I might as well. I am curious what she meant, but I’m sure it won’t be anything good.*

Pinkamena let out an exasperated sigh, before walking down the sidewalk in another attempt to find the building she was looking for.

“Alright, go ahead. You’ll probably just annoy me into saying yes anyway.”

She could practically feel the corners of Alice’s lips curl up into a devilish smirk, nothing seemed to make Alice happier than getting her way.

“First off, there was no ‘experiment to control his darker urges’, that was something that was added in because people liked the idea apparently. But the majority of the other parts of the story were correct. He was a doctor who was held in high regard, but with that came a lot of pressure and expectations. To make things worse, the urges were a very real thing, something he had been dealing with since his teens or so. That’s not really talked about or explained as much as I’d like, though there are many many theories.

Anyway, he was able to tolerate his urges for a long time. Up until he was having to deal with all the problems of being a doctor in the 1800’s, it became too much. He needed to find a way to release his urges, but he wouldn’t be able to deal with what that meant. So, in order to cope, he did those things under the guise of Mr. Hyde, which is supposed to be ‘hide’ but spelled differently, because he was hiding who he really was.”

Pinkamena was listening intently as she looked around, it might have been wishful thinking, but the part of the neighborhood she was in looked familiar.

“However, he was hiding from more than others. He was hiding from himself too. If he was aware of what he was doing, he wouldn’t be able to handle the guilt. So whenever he took on his Mr. Hyde persona, he would block out the memory. But then the bodies started showing up and made things all the more difficult when he was investigating himself, and his tower of cards built with tears and blood began to crumble in days.

The rest of the story plays out mostly the same. He eventually found out he was the one doing those horrendous murders, and was eventually overcome with guilt and killed himself. There was no experiment, and there was no evil second personality. Just one man, his demons, and the unrealistic standards set for him.

Now, there is more or less a correct one. But I’d like to hear your interpretation of the story? What do you think is the meaning behind it all?”

Alice reached down to Pinkamena’s face, playing with some of the strands of hair poking out from under the hoodie. Though she seemed to be staring at the strand of hair that was black, with a look that could only be described as...curiosity.

Pinkamena slowed down to speed just below jogging, no longer moving through the alleyways and just sticking to the sidewalks. She knew this was at least the area where Rainbow lived, she just needed to figure out the exact building.

“To me…” Pinkamena closed for eyes for a moment, thinking briefly on how she should answer. “I think it’s about control. He had been trying to keep his urges under control for a good portion of his life, but he tried too hard to control it and everything just went wrong. He soon not only lost control of his urges, but he lost control of his entire life and everything just went downhill.

His urges had always been a part of his life he thought he could control, but eventually, he couldn’t anymore. He inevitably lost control of everything, and his desperate attempts to get everything back under control only made things worse. The message is, no matter how much we think we have something under control, no matter what we think we can handle, everything goes to shit one way or another in the end. Nothing is really in our control, we...just convince ourselves it is and that we can handle it.”

She stopped for a moment, pulling her hand out of her right hoodie pocket, putting it over her chest where her necklace would be. She slightly opened her eyes, her eyes half-lidded with a look that could only be described as remorse.

“Because...we can’t cope with a reality in which we will lose everything. If we are forced to come face to face with that truth, we’d lose our values in life and our motivations, and we’d live in a world full of nihilists.”

There was silence between Pinkamena and Alice for a few seconds, she stood on the sidewalk twirling her necklace through her shirt between her fingers, a morbid expression on her face as she idly thought about the past few weeks.

Then she heard Alice let out a low, muffled chuckle, though it was hard to tell why.

“Has anyone ever told you you have a very...unique way of thinking? Out of the many hosts we’ve had, many of them have heard that story and occasionally come to their own conclusions. But none of them have come to such a...idiosyncratic elucidation.”

Pinkamena snapped out of her daze, closing her eyes and she took a deep breath.

“Yeah, you could say that. Though they usually used adjectives like ‘fanatical’ or ‘overzealous’, the conclusions I came to usually freaked people out, especially if I ended up right, so I stopped voicing them.” She said as she put her hand back in her hoodie pocket, opening her eyes and continuing her search. “They all thought I was weird one way or another, and honestly I can’t blame them. But sometimes, I wanted to be treated like everyone else: normal. Those six did, and were the best friends I’ll probably ever have. But now….”

Pinkamena brushed her tongue across the top of her teeth, they felt like normal teeth. But she remembered just recently how animallike they were, and how she was filled with nothing but the desire to taste blood and flesh again.

“I don’t think that’ll ever happen.”

“Ohh, poor baby.” Alice sarcastically cooed, leaning down and putting her pointer fingers in the corners of Pinkamena’s lips, lifting them up into a very forced, cartoon-like smile on her face. “Poor, poor superhuman girl, stronger than any man with the ability to heal from the kinds of injuries that would be fatal to most people, this close to access of basically an entire library of knowledge and experience of more prodigies and geniuses than an honor society from Oxford university.” Alice said as she lowered herself to where Pinkamena’s left ear, emphasizing every other word directly for her to hear. “Not even to mention that you have access to more resources than you would ever need in your life, all because of the family you were born into, a privilege dependent entirely on chance, but you hit the jackpot! But no, you feel lonely and want to be like everyone else! How tragic.”

Alice let go of Pinkamena’s lips, straightening her back as she put her hands behind her back and a frustrated pout formed on her face, like a spoiled child who just got her toy taken away because she played with it too rough and it broke.

“I bet no one ever told you that you’re stupidly human.”

Pinkamena brought her hand up to her face, she wasn’t sure if she should even ask how that even happened. She was also glad no one was around to see that, she couldn’t even imagine what that would look like.

“No, that would be a new one.” She mumbled as she began walking down the sidewalk again, trying her best to stay focused.

“Anyway, no, that wasn’t what I meant. The meaning behind the story is much more...philosophical, I suppose. Everyone...is put under certain pressures, fixed with a set of expectations due to things varying from gender to occupation. As you can assume, being a doctor in the same century as The Black Death had its own sets of stress. There are many things to suggest that the ‘urges’ spoken of did not exist before he ever became a doctor, and may have been a byproduct of what I’m sure was immense and near constant pressure.”

Pinkamena listened to Alice’s explanation, trying to figure out how this connects to her, and also internally debating whether this was better than silence or not. She noticed out of the corner of her eyes a tall, dark gray apartment building. Recognizing it almost instantly as the one Rainbow Dash took her to, she remembered thinking that it was an awfully dull home for such a lively person.

“Human nature is as special as it is complicated, and Jekyll was being transformed by what was happening. It awakened something in him, something...primal. the things he wanted to do were terrible, and he knew it, and he tried for years to ignore it. So much so that he even convinced himself they weren’t there, that there wasn’t these animalistic instincts inside him and that there wasn’t anything wrong with him.

He did start drinking as an attempt to keep them suppressed, but it did the opposite. He did drink a potion, yes. But like I said, it did not create a personality, that was never even the intention. He needed a drink that would let him commit these acts without the guilt. He wanted it so badly that it made a placebo effect, not in the way he wanted, but it worked. He had fallen prey to his urges, they had soon broken him, all because of guilt and shame.”

Pinkamena stood in front of the apartment building, feeling a sense of dread at what she may find in there.

“Moral of the story: humans aren’t better than animals, not truly. We have our emotions and our intellect, sure. But take that way, and we can be more feral than any wild animal. Some of us have gotten rid of that part of us, others are born more...susceptible. For most, it is just a matter of time, you were right about that.

Alice said as she jumped off Pinkamena’s back, landing on the ground almost gracefully.

“Very philosophical. I’m still trying to understand how this connects to me.”

Alice turned towards Pinkamena, that usual smug smirk on her face seemed etched on her face like it was never gone.

“Do you think what happened to you was normal?”

Pinkamena let out a hollow chuckle, “No, no I don’t think it fucking was.” She responded with a bit of aggression.

“No, not what I meant. Of course what happened to you wasn’t normal, I thought I made that clear.” Alice said with a nod, walking in front of Pinkamena and looking up at her to make eye contact.

“I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but we have access to all of your memories. Every moment of what happened to you in those woods, and everything after.” She said as she brought her hand up to Pinkamena’s stomach, tracing her finger on her body. “Most people when they find the desecrated bodies of their siblings don’t have a complete personality switch and go off to kill the nearest thing they could find in a fit of rage, which, in your case, was those wolves.

Neither does a high school student, who previously had basically a disney princess style life and friends, go through months of torture with the single-minded goal of killing their father. And not only did you do just that, you also killed dozens of men without hesitating. Quite brutally, I might add. Now some of that can be attributed to your first transition to being a Chimera, all that bloodlust and your history of having impulse control issues must have made it particularly easy for you to just give in. But even so, it was all too easy for you. It’s...unusual, to say the least.”

Pinkamena grabbed Alice’s hand by the wrist as she reached her chest, she felt it but it was like it wasn’t there, and yet it was so cold.

“What are you trying to say?”

Alice scoffed as she pulled her wrist out of Pinkamena’s grip, putting her hands behind her back, but keeping eye contact.

“What I’m saying, is you are a very special girl. Starlight said you may have developed a sort of second personality in order to cope, but I believe it is far more complicated than that. I think your hatred for your father began much sooner than you think, in about those times where he was never home. Daddy was never there, mommy didn’t care, and try as they might, your sisters couldn’t replace the love essential to a healthy development, and they couldn’t save you. Even though they were there for you, you couldn’t help but feel isolated, like they didn’t care about you. It ate away at you until it left a hole, and that hole got filled with a sadness and a rage that festered inside of you. It put you through years of nothing but depression and rage that you didn’t know where to direct or what to do with.”

Pinkamena felt a warmth rising in her, anger building up as she felt her fists and her teeth clench. She tried to keep her face composed, but Alice seemed to know the exact words to say and exactly how to say them to get under her skin.

“Are you trying to psychoanalyze me?”

Alice’s smile only got wider and more smug, not breaking eye contact for a second, not even to blink. Her empty, glasslike eyes staring into Pinkamena’s, like she was looking for something.

“Your desperation to be loved and for people to pay attention to you led you to take up the role of the goody two shoes girl, who’s over eccentric, a little bit weird, but is friends with everyone. Soon it became everything to you, you depended on their approval, their friendship, their love. It couldn’t replace the love you never got, but you still tried.”

Alice broke eye contact with Pinkamena, turning to her right and beginning to walk counterclockwise around her as she talked. Pinkamena didn’t move, she watched Alice with her eyes, though she realized watching her movements was kind of pointless.

“You became dependent on them, dedicated to your role because it became all you know. You became so obsessed with being the picture of positivity because you thought it was why anyone was your friend, and you just didn’t want to take any risk of losing them. So all those negative feelings you were dealing with before, and all the ones that came after, got shoved into that same hole that was getting deeper and deeper.

Then...well, everything happened. The girl you were pretending to be didn’t matter anymore, you were forced to deal with more trauma and negative feelings than even you could suppress. Everything you were trying so desperately to hide, the part of you you were doing everything you could to ignore just came out.”

Alice came back around, that fox like grin still on her face as she did.

“The monster inside of you, born from hatred and pain, broke free. You killed those wolves because you could not contain yourself anymore, but you have to admit, some part of you liked it. Took pride in it, even. And when Blake tortured you for a month, some part of you liked that too. You had started hating yourself long before you ever went into that cave, but what you saw there turned you full self-destructive. What he did to you made you feel like you were getting punished, an-”

“Shut up!” Pinkamena suddenly shouted, causing the birds around them to fly off whatever they were perched on.

Alice glanced up at Pinkamena, a surprised expression on her face for a moment. Before vanishing just as quickly, being replaced with her usually smug smile.

“What’s wrong? Am I starting to make sense?” She said mockingly, twirling in a circle like a ballerina before facing Pinkamena again, her hands interlocked behind her back.

“I thought you said you were going to try to help me, but all you’re doing is pissing me off!” She growled, giving her a scowl that would terrify anyone it was directed at.

Alice, like usual, remained unfazed.

“Oh Pinkie, I only ever want to help you. But before I can help you with your issues, you have to be aware of them. And oh boy, are there a lot of issues you aren’t aware of.”

Pinkamena closed her eyes as she tried to calm down, whether she believed what Alice was saying or not didn’t matter. She needed to stop letting The Whispers provoke her like this, if not, they were going to end up controlling her more than they even did now.

“Alright, fine, I’ll indulge you.” She said with a frustrated sigh as she unclenched her fists, “So, assuming anything you’re saying is accurate, how does that make me similar to him at all?”

“I’ll make it simple for you.” She said in a snarky tone, “While the traumatic event and how far back it started are vastly different, everything else is strikingly similar. You both had these feelings deep inside you that you knew you shouldn’t have, but you just couldn’t get rid of them, so you buried them. Deeper and deeper, more and more, until you couldn’t take it anymore.”

Alice brought her left hand up and extended it in front of her, opening her palm as if there was something she wanted Pinkamena to see.

“But no one gets pushed over the edge without some kind of outside force, a catalyst. For him, it was a potion that he believed would keep his monster under the bed.”

A small, transparent potion bottle appeared in her hand. It looked almost like a hologram, but had much more color to it. There was a dark green liquid inside the bottle, it seemed to bubble in a way that made it seem like drinking it would be dangerous.

“For you, it was entering those woods and seeing the people who tried their best to love you murdered, left in a cave like worthless trash.”

The bottle disappeared, being replaced with a small, TV like screen. Very similar to the screen she used before to show her a memory, but this one was significantly smaller. It played the memory of her walking through the cave, right before she noticed the bodies.

The moment that changed everything.

“However, while you two are the same species, you are very different breeds.” She emphasized, closing her hand as the screen disappeared.

“I’m starting to think you like being vague.”

“Well,” She giggled childishly, placing her hand back behind her. “Maybe a little. Anyway, for him, his monster killed him. But you needed your monster, or you would have died in those woods. Now you still need it, to be the leader The Syndicate needs, to survive. It’s become a part of you, whether you want to accept it or not.”

“I’m still trying to understand why you’re telling me all this, what’s your point?”

Pinkamena walked past Alice, her attention shifting to the apartment building. It was rather simple, and fit into the buildings around it. Though it was clear this kind of apartment was for people of the lower class, it was evident it wasn’t very well maintained. There was trash of various kinds spread around, streetlights that barely worked at night, and there wasn’t any kind of security to protect the tenants. There wasn’t a buzzer, or cameras, or anything.

This was the perfect kind of place for people who were trying to hide, or do something they knew they shouldn’t. So that begs the question, why would Rainbow Dash be living in a place like this?

“Because, dummy, you’re in a very...conflicting point in your life. You don’t know who you are, Pinkie or Pinkamena? Human or Chimera? Tough decisions on their own, now you’ve promised to keep your humanity. Which I support, fully. But with that humanity comes all the guilt you’ve been fueling, but it's also what stops you from completely losing yourself. Starlight helps you with your emotional issues, she keeps you sane. Your sister and your friends remind you of who you were, they keep you human. Me? I do a little of everything, and you can talk to me about anything without being judged. An asset you’d be surprised how helpful it can be.”

Pinkamena half-mindedly listened to what Alice was saying, walking up to the entrance of the building. She blinked, and Alice was in front of her. Standing in front of the door looking up at her, almost like she was stopping her.

“You have a lot of people in your life who are trying to help you, either for their own benefit or because they genuinely care about you, something you should be taking advantage of. I can’t make those problems go away, but they can get easier. If you just...accept some things.”

Pinkamena looked down at Alice skeptically, “What kind of things?”

“Your darkness, for one.” Alice extended her hand again, opening her hand as a small, pitch black orb appeared above her hand. Similar to the mist that appeared whenever she was unconscious and was talking to The Whispers, but seemed more...pure somehow. “Everyone has some darkness in them, it's human. But like I’ve explained, yours is quite unique. A gift, in a lot of ways. Always been a part of you, always will be, it's just become more prominent.”

Pinkamena brought her hand forward, reaching for the orb. She tried to grab it, but her hands just went through it, what she should have expected.

“I’m not sure what you mean, I thought the bloodlust came with being a chimera?” Pinkamena asked, withdrawing her hand back into her hoodie pocket.

“It is, yes. A side effect that comes with mixing animal genetics. But it doesn’t make you enjoy killing, it doesn’t make you brutal, and it doesn’t make you so accepting of it. Even with your...strange situation with equestrian magic, you were still all too accepting of everything. And now you feel that this side of you is...evil somehow, just adding onto the already heavy mental weight you’ve been carrying. You sure do seem to have a knack for making things more difficult for yourself than you need to.

You just need to…” She flexed her fingers slightly, in the center of the black orb a small, pink mist appeared in the center of it. Soon the pink mist grew bigger and began to mix with the black, swirling together and combining almost perfectly, like they were completely compatible.

“Embrace it. Accept it as a part of you, instead of rejecting it. You need it, especially now.”

Pinkamena stared at the orb, almost like she was in a trance. She felt the desire to try to touch it again, but she knew there’d be no point.

“So, what? Just let myself become a monster?”

“No, quite the contrary, actually.” She said with a dismissive nod, once again closing her hand and causing the illusion to disappear. “The monster would be becoming you, if anything. You wouldn’t be changing at all, really. Just...wouldn’t be feeling bad about killing people when you need too, a lot less things would make you feel guilty.”

Pinkamena stared at Alice, considering what she was saying.

*I don’t fully understand what she’s saying, but it sounds like she wants me to just...stop caring about killing people. To accept my bloodlust and just...enjoy it? I don’t know if I can do that, but...I might be able to get something out of this.*

“Alright, I’ll think about it. But, under one condition.”

Her etched smile turned into a frown as a dark scowl came onto her face, “Bold of you to demand a deal, especially from us, when very few things are negotiable.”

The corners of Pinkamena’s lips slowly curved into a slight, confident smile, she already thought of this.

“I thought we were friends? Don’t friends do favors for each other? Just consider this a favor to me.”

For a few seconds, there was a pregnant silence between the two. They had a pseudo-staring contest between them, a tension thick enough to cut through.

“What do you want?” Alice broke the silence, a tone that could only be described as bitter.

“I want to be able to talk to Starlight about The Whispers, without experiencing a brain aneurysm, anyway. Or any other attempt to stop me from talking about them, no restrictions or anything. I just want to be able to talk freely about anything I want to with her, even anything we talk about.”

There was another couple of seconds of tense silence, Alice’s scowl only got deeper.

“Just Starlight?” She asked skeptically, bringing her arms in front of her and crossing them.

“Just Starlight.”

Alice let out a quiet, annoyed sigh. “You’re lucky I like her.” She said as she extended her right hand, “I’m feeling particularly munificent today, so I will grant you this favor.”

Pinkamena looked down at Alice’s extended hand, somewhat surprised at how complying she was being. It was...a bit out of character for The Whispers, they usually hated not getting their way with ease.

*I’m sure there are consequences to this, but I’ve got too much going on to be thinking of everything I do. It’s like she said, I should take advantage of everyone who’s trying to help me.*

Hesitantly, Pinkamena reached forward and shook Alice’s hand. Which, in reality, shouldn’t have really meant anything. But something about this interaction felt...weighty, which didn’t help her dread at all.

“Than-”

“Now, I think I’ve kept you occupied for long enough. You still have that thing to do for you know who after this, then if you have any free time life, you’ll want to spend as much as you can hunting down TSK.”

Alice pulled her hand back, sidestepping and no longer standing in front of the door. Pinkamena was a bit surprised, but decided not to question it. She slowly opened the door, not taking her eyes off of Alice until she was inside the building, shutting the door behind her.

As soon as the door clicked shut, Alice’s lips curved into a wide, knowing smile. It looked like the smile of a maniac, and yet, there was still something terrifyingly innocent about it.

“And so, it begins.”

Chapter Ten: Inquiry, Part Two.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Therapy Session #2.

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter Eleven: Rematch.

She knew she should have been afraid, afraid for her life or for the lives of anyone that might get caught in the crossfire, including the police when the cashier inevitably calls them. But she didn’t feel any sense of fear or dread, she was shaking for a different reason. She could feel her teeth and claws extending and her eyes changing to crimson, a sensation that put her teeth on edge unlike anything else, unable to stop the toothy grin spreading on her face.

She was looking up at someone with a gun pointed at her face, and all she felt was excited to fight them, the amount of adrenaline pumping through her was almost more than she could handle.

Luckily, she still had her hood up from earlier, so enough of her face was hidden to where she wouldn’t be identifiable other than a few strains of her pink hair poking out from underneath. She didn’t want TSK or anyone else knowing who she was, so as she began to run towards the building, she reached into her hoodie pocket and slipped on the skull mask, it fit her like a glove.

She didn’t take her eyes off them once, knowing she’d need to keep her eyes on them if she wanted to react as soon as possible. She saw them pull the trigger and heard the sound of the suppressed gun firing, she heard the sound of her shoes skidding against the concrete as she stopped herself and jumped forward with her arms outstretched as she tried to avoid the bullet.

She flinched as she felt it just barely graze over her shoulder, then she heard the bullet break apart and scatter as it hit the ground, which could only mean one terrible thing.

*Great, they decided to start using hollow point after last time, fan-fucking-tastic.*

She felt the wound on her shoulder quickly begin to heal, the one on her cheek already being gone. She noticed her healing seemed to have gotten even faster than before, she wasn’t quite sure why. It might have been because her body was adjusting faster, or something else she wasn’t aware of.

Either way, it would allow her to be a bit more reckless. However, now would not be the best time for it. She hadn’t been shot by hollow point bullets before, but that was a first time experience she’d rather go without having.

“For someone who uses a sniper as their go to gun, you sure do seem to be missing a lot. Did getting your ass kicked yesterday throw you off your game or something?” She yelled up at them mockingly, knowing she was loud enough for them to hear.

She couldn’t actually tell any facial expressions they made behind that mask, but she liked to imagine they were scowling. They noticed TSK begin to pull the trigger, but seemed to hesitate as they looked down at her. Then she noticed them suddenly stand up and turn around, holding the sniper in their arms and walking back onto the rooftop where she couldn’t see them.

“Oh fuck no! You’re not getting away from me this time!”

Pinkamena jumped up towards the building, digging her claws into the spots between the bricks as she began to climb up. She had been getting a bit of practice with that recently, so she was getting better at it and it was getting easier.

It didn’t take her long to reach the top, the building was short compared to most. She put both her hands on the edge and used them to pull herself up, jumping onto the rooftop and her feet slamming against it as she landed, her hands clenched at her sides and shaking as adrenaline pumped through her body. She looked through the mask as she could feel her heartbeat with every pulse, itching to rip and tear into something.

She had half-expected to see TSK in the middle of escaping, or already gone with how fast they were. Instead, to her surprise, they were standing on the opposite side of her. Holding the modified sniper rifle in their hands, not aimed at her interestingly enough. They looked almost exactly the same as before, their black suit and mask seemed completely undamaged. Though if she had to guess, they were wearing bandages after the previous night. She wasn’t even sure what Juno did to them, but it likely wasn’t pleasant.

“I don’t know exactly what you are, but you aren’t human. No human I’ve ever known had claws or teeth like that, could heal from bullet wounds, or move nearly as fast as you. But, I am confident that I am capable of killing you, if last night is any indication. Instead, how about I offer you a deal. I won’t put you down like whatever kind of fucked up animal you are, and you give me the information I need,”

They put their right hand right under the barrel of the gun, and then their left hand on the stock. They twisted parts of it that shouldn’t have been able to twist like that, and the gun morphed in front of her, something that was unnatural for something that seemed so solid. The gun seemed to shrink a bit as the barrel receded and became more compressed, but it still managed to keep its relative shape and color. In moments the gun had morphed into something more akin to a shotgun, the parts of The Whispers that were made up of gun fanatics were coming short on what to say as even they were astonished. They held it in their arms with ease as they pointed it towards her, their finger on the trigger seeming ready to shoot at a moment's notice.

“Blake.”

Being called Blake sparked a feeling of such raw disgust and shame like nothing she’d been called before, which quickly turned into rage that just fueled her desire to sink her teeth into their throat. She shouldn’t have really been that surprised, she was wearing his mask, she honestly should’ve expected this to happen sooner considering that Blake was probably well known.

*OK...so they know who Blake is, which means they probably know about The Syndicate. How? And why? This is a lot more dangerous than I thought, I’ll play their game, until I can get close enough anyway.*

Pinkamena cleared her throat, glad that the mask muffled her voice enough to be indistinguishable in terms of gender, or they would quickly realize she wasn’t Blake. Even so, it was obvious they hadn’t actually spoken to Blake before, or they’d notice she didn’t have a british accent.

“Well, well, well, seems I’ve been found out. Tell me, which minuscule maggot told you who I am?”

She tried her best to speak like Blake would, which left a bad taste in her mouth that didn’t seem like it’d be going away any time soon. It was possible she wasn’t acting how he actually would at all, she was only guessing since she had almost never seen how he acted outside of torturing her. Luckily, it didn’t seem this person had ever met Blake, so they wouldn’t know how he acted either.

“Doesn’t matter, they’re very dead, a mercy considering whatever you would have done to them. The only information I have on you is that you’re The Syndicate’s poster boy for torture, and you just might be one of the most hated people in The Syndicate. But the previous leader died and you did something to really step on the toes of the new one, so you got tossed out for a bit until they decide to get that stick out of their ass over whatever you did. Which works out perfectly for me, you guys don’t exactly make it easy to get anything but surface information. So you and I are going to have a nice long talk, and I’ll let you off with what you’d consider a slap on the wrist.”

The gun stayed pointed at her the entire time, not wavering for even a moment. Pinkamena took a step forward, hoping they wouldn’t notice. It was obvious they did when they lowered the gun, pulling the trigger and shooting her directly in the shin. She felt the bullet dig into her leg and then shatter apart, digging deeper into it and only stopping when it hit bone, engraving itself a few inches in.

She grit her teeth together as she crouched down, feeling warm blood begin to drip down her leg onto the roof. She could feel wounds beginning to heal, unable to push the bullets out as they were in too deep, so they had to heal over them.

*I’m going to have to dig those out later, that’ll be fun.”

Pinkamena began to slowly stand up, her leg wobbling a bit under the weight as she tried to ignore the pain. “Do I even have a choice?”

“Of course you have a choice.” They said as they raised the gun to aim at her chest again. “You can choose to do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

It was a good thing she was wearing a mask, she didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of seeing the grimace on her face as she tried to figure out what to do. As painful as it was to get shot with hollow point bullets like that, she could deal with it, and it wouldn’t kill her. As long as it wasn’t somewhere vital like her heart or lungs, she could handle it.

Giving them whatever information they wanted wasn’t an option, if it was something only Blake knew, that would quickly escalate into a bigger problem. And if they wanted information about the current leader of The Syndicate, that might be worse.

It didn’t help that she really wasn’t in the mood to talk, getting shot only increased her desire to give them a few new orifices.

“Well, you know what they say.” Pinkamena mumbled as she brought her arms in front of her, covering as much of her chest and head as she could. “The hard way is usually more fun!”

She jumped forward on her good leg, trying to close the distance between them. They didn’t hesitate to shoot her, another silenced shotgun shot hitting her across her forearms. Luckily they were using slug rounds, if it had been something that had spread, she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to deal with it. On impact with her forearm the bullet spread, digging into the bone of her arm. She ignored the pain and took a swipe at them, trying to injure one of their arms so they couldn’t properly shoot.

They reacted quickly, jumping to the right with relative ease, they seemed to be quite light on their feet. She only managed to just barely nick their arm, she wasn’t going to retract her claws this time, she wasn’t even going to give them the possibility of living through this if she could help it.

The second their feet landed on the ground they lifted their left leg and spun around on their right leg, building momentum as they slammed their left leg into the shin they shot earlier. Pinkamena grunted as she fell to her knees for a moment, TSK tried to take the moment to put their gun against her head. But as soon as Pinkamena was on her knees she slammed her hands against the roof, using her arm strength to lift her lower body off the ground. She kicked the gun out of their hands, watching it clatter to the ground as they pulled a combat knife from a hidden sleeve from under their elbow, slicing her leg as they jumped back, doing a backflip to get to the opposite side of the roof.

“You know, for someone who uses guns so often, you sure seem to lose it a lot when it comes to close combat.” Pinkamena said as she got to her feet, noticing they were already in a combat stance.

“That’s because I’m not that good at using guns in close quarters, and also I don’t really like it. I’m actually much better in hand to hand, guns are a coward's weapon, this is much more....intimate.”

Pinkamena glanced at the shoulder she tried to cut, not being surprised there was barely anything there, not even deep enough to have scratched their skin.

*First, I need to draw their blood, then I should be able to tell if it was their blood at Rainbow’s. After that, I need to inject the Imperium like I promised Michael I would, and then I can cut loose.*

Usually, The Whispers were just that: whispers. But after thinking that, they got a bit louder. It sounded more like background chattering in a lunchroom cafeteria, it was a bit hard to tell, but they sounded...perturbed. She couldn’t tell why, but luckily she had gotten pretty good at ignoring them.

Pinkamena brought her hand up to her neck and popped it, the sound of it cracking was loud enough for both of them to hear. She began to walk towards TSK, her arms at her sides as her claws got a bit longer and sharper.

“You got your ass kicked last time, do we really have to do this song and routine again?

“This isn’t last time. Besides,” They too began to walk towards her, still holding the combat knife in front of them with their left hand, reaching behind them with their right like they were grabbing something. “Even if that dude from before is around to save you again, I’ll just have to kill you before he gets the chance.”

As soon as they stopped speaking, they tossed something forward. It was small and metallic, bouncing off the ground a few times before stopping and rolling in front of her. As soon as it came to a stop she recognized what it was, but wasn’t fast enough to shield her eyes before it went off.

With a high pitched screeching sound, the flash bang exploded in front of her, only made worse by her heightened senses. Her eyes burned in deep pain, forcing her to cover her eyes unable to see anything. Along with it was a sharp, painful ringing in her ears, loud enough to where she was unable to hear anything else, she likely wouldn’t have even heard her own voice if she had tried to speak.

Before she had the chance to move or do anything, she felt a stabbing pain in her stomach as a knife dug into her. She tried to swipe in the spot in front of her where she guessed they were, keeping her eyes closed and trying her best to ignore the pain, only for her claws to hit nothing but air. She felt dazed and off balance, her senses slowly coming back, just barely able to hear anything but the piercing ringing.

She felt another knife stab her in the lower back, luckily just barely missing her spine and not piercing deep enough to reach her lungs. What bothered her was that she could still feel the knife in her stomach, which meant they had more than one knife. That was bad because if they decided to leave the knives in, it limited how much she could heal, and she was still trying to ignore the bullet fragments embedded in her shin and arm.

Considering they also brought a flashbang, it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that after their last encounter they prepared specifically to fight her, it was obvious this person was very paranoid. They knew about her healing factor and that’s likely why they switched to hollow point bullets, they almost certainly have other things prepared for this.

“You’ve got a pretty significant healing factor, reminds me of Deadpool a bit. But I figure that If I prevent you from healing by keeping things in you like hollow point and knives, it’ll at least slow you down.”

Their voice sounded distant, like it was a lot farther away than it actually was. It was hard to hear over the ringing, but her senses were coming back quickly. Despite being at a disadvantage, it only made her more excited.

She turned to where she thought their voice was coming from, opening her eyes slightly and trying to ignore the searing pain. She was just barely able to make out their shape, and noticing they were standing right in front of them, holding a small object in their right hand. This time, she reacted when they stabbed the third knife in her shoulder, something they clearly weren’t expecting. She grabbed their right arm with her left, keeping a tight grip as she tried to cut them with her right hand. She was aiming for their mask, what she guessed, and hoped, was the weakest part of their suit.

Though surprised, that only stopped them from reacting by a second or so. They swiftly headbutted her, which didn’t do much with the mask, but the action of it made Pinkamena loosen her grip for just a moment. They took that moment to quickly bring up her left leg and kick her just under her chin, letting go of the knife and jumping back.

They either didn’t notice or ignored the small cut across their neck, just barely enough to reach their skin and draw blood.

*Barely is all I need.*

She was a bit more dazed after getting headbutted and kicked, but the ringing had become negligible and she could open her eyes up halfway without it being unbearable. She brought the claw that she swiped them with up to her nose, sniffing the few drops of blood on them, her eyes widening a bit as she recognized the smell.

TSK was pulling out another knife from their suit, reaching behind them, likely to get another flash grenade or something.

“Why were you in Rainbow Dash’s apartment?”

They noticeably flinched when she asked that, surprised both by the question and the fact they were being asked it in the midst of combat. “Thought we were doing this the fun way? It’s a bit too late for either of us to be asking questions.”

“Yeah, kind of figured. Guess I gotta beat it out of you.” Pinkamena said with a sigh, reaching into her hoodie pocket with her right hand.

*If I remember what Discord told me, this is supposed to make me stronger, bulkier, and heal even faster than I usually do. Just need to regulate it, don’t want to end up breathing through a mask like Michael.*

As soon as she grabbed the syringe, she felt some kind of...pressure. The Whispers chattering became louder, turning into something like hushed screaming. It was just barely enough for her to occasionally make out some of the things they were saying, stuff like ‘stop’ or ‘you don’t need it’ were some of them. She also noticed that her right arm was now harder to move, it felt a lot heavier even though it didn’t weigh anymore, and also felt weak, like it was asleep. She could barely even move her fingers, her hand shaking as she struggled to keep a steady grip on the syringe.

She strained to pull her arm out of the hoodie, The Whispers only seemed to get louder each second, the pressure on her arm getting stronger with it. She had intended to inject it directly into her neck, but it didn’t seem they would let her do that, so she had to settle on somewhere else. She slammed the syringe into her thigh, piercing through the jeans she was wearing and directly into skin.

“Oh no you don’t!” TSK said as they began running toward her.

Pinkamena struggled to bring her thumb up to the plunger, but did it fast enough to begin pushing down, feeling the thick red liquid begin to enter her system. But when about half of it was inside her, they tackled her to the ground, pinning their knees on her shoulders and holding the knife over their head, both their hands on the handle as they brought it down, aimed at her chest where her heart was.

She had to let go of the syringe, surprised she didn’t hear it shatter against the ground like Michael’s did, Discord probably made that syringe out of some kind of durable glass since it was the emergency dose. She grabbed them by the upper arms, the only place she could reach with her limited mobility, and tried to stop them. They weren’t stronger than her, but she still had three knives in her body and bullet fragments lodged into her arm and leg, and being against the ground with them on top of her didn’t make it any easier.

Her right arm was still a bit weak, she tried to resist but it was difficult, the knife inch by inch was getting closer to her chest. Right as it made contact with her hoodie, feeling the sharp edge of it digging into her chest, she felt an abundance of energy course through her. It was something much stronger than adrenaline or endorphins, it felt...it felt like raw power

She felt all her muscles get bigger as she bulked up a bit, her arms, legs, and upper torso in particular got considerably bigger. At the same time, all the chemicals and energy coursing through her body started overwhelming her sensory systems, it was like her nervous system was beginning to dull. The pain in her body was starting to fade away almost like it wasn’t even there, even the sensations in the rest of her body were lessening, she could barely even feel their arms as they held them or the rooftop she was on. While her other sense’s seemed to become amplified, specifically her sight and hearing. She could hear their heartbeat without having to focus, even the sound of their blood pumping through their veins and creaking as their bones moved. Her sight had improved so much that if she focused, she could somewhat make out some facial details, though not significant enough to tell who they were.

She couldn’t help but smile as she felt the overwhelming energy coursing through her, her entire body shaking as it begged to be used and released, and she knew just who to use it on.

With ease, she began to push their arms up, digging her claws into their arms. She could just barely see them wince at the pain, their eyes widening at her sudden strength as she was being pushed back. They decided to let go of the knife, jumping back before her grip got too strong to get out of.

There were deep cuts on their arms where she pushed her claws in, managing to get through the armoring on their arms, which was only a bit more protected than their face. They kept their eyes locked on her, trying to figure out what just happened.

“What was that? What the hell did you just inject yourself with?”

She just stayed laying down on the rooftop for a moment, like she hadn’t even heard them. Then with little more than a twitch of her hand, she stood up like a doll being pulled forward with a string. Her feet moved forward as she pulled her entire body up effortlessly, slouching forward and hunching over. Her arms dangled downward in front of her, the tips of her fingers almost touching the ground. Her head was facing the roof, only the top part of her mask was visible.

After staying hunched over like that for a few seconds, she then straightened up, leaning back a bit with her arms hanging behind her, looking up to the sky. “I’ve experimented with a lot of drugs in my life, but I’ve never felt this...spectacular!” She said in a deranged tone, lowering her head to look at them as she brought her right hand to her head, abruptly stabbing her head with one of her claws, the claw stopping about halfway.

Blood began to spurt out of the wound she made, covering her hand and staining her hoodie, She twisted it back and forth, somehow restricting herself from digging any deeper. They couldn’t see their face, but they were sure she had a demented smile on her face.

“I can barely even feel this, and it's all thanks to Discord’s combat drug! This is the greatest high!*

She suddenly stopped, her claw no longer twisting, like she’d suddenly realized something.

*It's...quiet, really, really quiet. I can’t hear The Whispers anymore, like...at all. I forgot how peaceful this was, just being the only one in my head. Did the Imperium stop them somehow? He mentioned there would be some cognitive improvements and sensory adjustments, something it did must have suppressed them. But this drug is going to wear off, and when it does, they’ll be back.*

Pinkamena brought her hands up to her face, they hovered a few inches in front of her with her fingers outward and her palms open. Her left hand was soaked in her own blood and her right had bits of blood on the tips of her claws, she had almost no feeling in them, like she was in a dream. She could feel traces of steam coming out of her head, the wound was already practically healed, another benefit of the drug she injected into herself. Yet she had only managed to inject half of it into her, she could only imagine how she’d feel if she managed to put in the full dose.

“Alright, it’s pretty clear you’ve snapped. I don’t think we can play around anymore, and I doubt you’d be willing to tell me anything useful. So, I’ll just end this right here.”

They said as they put the knife away, reaching down to their ankle and pulling out a slick, black desert eagle, the same one that shot her before. They began to aim it up at her, their finger quickly wrapping around the trigger.

She saw her body move before she actually felt it, it was like she was inside a robot watching it carry out the orders she issued.

Her body felt lighter than a feather, she felt faster than she ever had before. She put her foot forward, jumping towards them and launching herself off the ground. She felt the wind blow past her like when she’s freerunning, but much stronger since she was going faster than before. In the blink of an eye, she was in front of them, faster than they could react. She used her left hand to hit the desert eagle, knocking it out of their hands as it slid across the rooftop. She clenched her right hand into a fist, slamming it into their stomach with as much force as she could muster.

She hit them so hard that they were lifted off the ground for a moment, she didn’t need her enhanced senses to hear the sound of several of their ribs cracking, despite whatever armor and padding they had underneath. She didn’t give them even a moment of respite, stabbing all the claws of her left hand into their chest. She purposely held back, her claws digging just enough into their chest for her to keep them off the ground. She turned around and threw them over her head, retracting her claws and letting go of them as they landed on the rooftop.

The second their body hit the floor, letting out a shriek of pain, she pounced on them. She was on top of them in a second, putting her knees against their shoulders and straddling them like they did to her before. She watched them struggle to get out of that position, able to make out their wincing at the pain they must be in.

“I’m supposed to kill you, and I know the police are on their way, but we’ve had them on our payroll for a pretty long time. Plus,” She cracked her knuckles, bringing both her hands above her head. “You’ve really been pissing me off, so I’ll think I’ll take my time killing you.”

“Wait!” They suddenly shouted, giving out a sigh as they stopped their struggling. “If you’re going to kill me....can you at least answer a question? It’s the whole reason I’ve been doing this, and I just need to know.”

They sounded sincere, but that was hard to tell with their voice modifier. But they at least stopped struggling. To Pinkamena, it was obvious this was a ploy to buy time, though she didn’t know what for. She could kill them in an instant if she really wanted to, and everything in her is telling her to do just that. Both the battle drug coursing through her veins, and her instincts recognizing how much of a threat this person was.

But….she was also very curious, what would cause someone to go to such extents as to challenge the biggest crime group in the world? She was also interested in who this person was, nobody normal would have the skills they do or have access to all the things they do.

*I’m going to regret this.*

“Fine.” Pinkamena mumbled as she lowered her arms, though she didn’t move any other way. “You get one question, but if I don’t know the answer to it, then there’s nothing I can do about that, so choose wisely.”

They shifted around a bit, she pushed down a bit harder with her knees to try to limit their mobility so they wouldn’t try to attack her again.

“Is….Pinkie Pie still alive?”

Despite the voice modifier, there was evident concern in their voice. Pinkamena felt her heart stop for a moment, the blood in her veins freezing for a moment. She lowered her head to their face, her mask inches away from there’s.

“Why are you searching for them?” Pinkamena growled.

They didn’t flinch at all to her getting as close as they did, they weren’t even wincing from the pain from before. It was still hard to tell anything about their facial expressions other than slight indentations in their mask, right now, it just looked like they had a blank expression to her.

“Doesn’t matter, just answer the question. Is. She. Alive?” They said with heavy emphasis on their last three words, she could see their eyebrows furrow as they scowled at her.

She only stared back for a moment, before uttering back her response.

“Yes.”

She swore she heard them give out a relieved sigh, she could feel their body relax a bit, like they had been told good news they’d been waiting on for a long time.

“Good, then I’ve gotten what I’ve wanted.”

Before she could respond to what they said, she heard a clicking noise and then the sound of blades piercing flesh. She looked down, noticing that two small, finger sized blades were sticking out of their sides, stabbing her in her stomach. It seemed they had some kind of built in blades in their suit, activating it somehow and causing them to extend. If she had to guess, this was something they built into their suit for when they get stuck in positions like this, it really wasn’t that surprising they’d have something like this.

The thing that really worried her is what was on the blades, her senses didn’t need to be enhanced for her to smell the poison.

“When I was fighting that guy last night, he cut me a couple of times. He had something on his knife that slowed me down and made me feel really sluggish, but luckily it didn’t last long. It gave me an idea, so I put some poison on just these blades. It won’t kill you, probably.”

They said as they began to move around, their body moving differently than before. Pinkamena felt something strange in her lower body, a weird tingly feeling beginning to spread through her body. She struggled to move her body, the energy that was coursing through her seemed to just begin fading away. She couldn’t stop herself from collapsing, her body laying on top of theirs as she struggled to move, gritting her teeth as she tried to force her body to do anything.

“I was going to coat it in poison to kill you, but I need time to make something potent enough to where I’m confident it will. Right now, that should have only been able to paralyze you, for a couple of minutes hopefully.”

Since Pinkamena wasn’t able to move and her body had mostly become limp, it was easy for TSK to slip out from under her. They stood up relatively slowly, their hand on their side as they walked with a limp. They walked over to their desert eagle, looking over at her for a moment, pointing the gun at her.

“If...you’re going to kill me, just do it.” Pinkamena tried to say, but her voice was muffled by being against the concrete and with the mask.

They kept the deagle aimed at her for a few moments, before shrugging their shoulders and putting the gun in whatever hidden holster they kept it in. “Nah, not like this. My pride wouldn’t allow it. I may not seem like it, but I have some morales, and I wouldn’t do something so cowardly and unhonorable as that, I have to keep some parts of myself I like after all.”

They walked over to their shotgun they got knocked away earlier, picking it up and slinging it over their shoulder. It attached itself to their back perfectly, like the suit was made specifically to work with that gun.

“Pride and honor....are just excuses for stupidity. If you don’t kill me here, you’ll regret it.” She tried to say, though her words carried no meaning with how muffled they were.

“I’ve already regretted plenty, what’s one more thing?” They said as they walked back over to her, looking at her for a moment before glancing at the spot beside her.

Their eyes locked on the syringe on the ground, still having half of the Imperium inside of it. They reached down and picked it up, putting it in a pocket on their suit. Then they pulled out another flashbang, turning to Pinkamena.

“I can promise you one thing; The next time we meet, one of us is going to die.”

They rolled the flashbang right under her face, she was unable to do anything as it went off point blank, her heightened senses only made the effects worse. The pain was immense, she couldn’t see and the ringing in her ears was deafening. She was screaming out of pain and frustration, but she couldn’t hear her voice. This flashbang lasted longer than the other one, she must have been like that for at least ten minutes before the effects finally started fading away.

The first thing she heard was the distant sound of police sirens, they sounded like they would be here any moment. She slowly began to stand up as she opened her eyes, the pain dulling to an almost non-existent burning sensation, similar to keeping her eyes open too long. She also had most of the feeling back in her body, quickly being reminded of the various knives still stuck in her body and the bullet fragments in her arm and leg. She began pulling the knives out letting the wounds quickly heal, but the fragments were going to have to be something she’d need to do later.

She wasn’t entirely sure if it was because of the poison or if it just wore off that soon on its own, but she only felt slight remnants of the Imperium. Overall she felt...weak, her entire body felt sluggish and weak. She couldn’t tell whether that was from the poison or not either. Even if it was some kind of after effect of using it, she should be fine, there were very little things that could actually risk killing her.

She looked around the rooftop, only blood in a couple of places showing there was a fight here at all. But there was nothing else, none of their guns, the Imperium, anything. Most of the blood was hers, but luckily she injured them a lot more than they injured her.

*Even so, I still…*

Pinkamena looked down at her hands for a moment, noticing her claws had retracted at some point, her hands covered in both her own blood and theirs. It was like she was completely drained, and yet she couldn’t ignore the burning anger and frustration still inside. She had them, she could have killed them and been done with it, but she didn’t. All because of her stupid curiosity! Now all she knew was that TSK had been staying in Rainbow’s apartment, which just brought up more questions. And even if she knew where they were staying, the fact that she asked just insured they wouldn’t be there again.

“I’m so stupid!” Pinkamena shouted as she clenched her hands, gritting her teeth hard enough for it to be audible.

Her throat felt raw and dry from her screaming earlier, but that didn’t stop her from letting out another shriek of frustration as she brought both her hands over her head. She brought them down as hard as she could, slamming her hands against the concrete of the rooftop. She barely had any strength left, so she did little more than cause some dust to move around. Painful vibrations reverberated throughout her body, but it was somehow relieving to be able to feel her hands again. She missed the feeling of pure energy going through her body just moments ago, but not being able to feel anything was just...hollow.

“You can be quite idiotic at times, but that is a discussion for another time. I believe we have other, more dire things to talk about, yes?”

Pinkamena felt a shiver down her spine as she heard those icy words, glancing up slowly to look at the source of the voice, though she already knew who it was. As soon as she turned her head upwards, she came face to face with Alice. Her green eyes seemed to pierce in her soul, completely empty with no soul behind it. She was leaning over with her hands behind her back, a wide, evidently fake smile on her face. She could tell that she was furious, and was already missing her brief time without them.

“However, dealing with the police right now would be...a hindrance. Get out of here and head home, and then we can talk.”

Interlude 3: Hibernation.

Antarctica was cold, really, really cold.

This seemed like an obvious fact, Antarctica was the place on Earth with the lowest recorded temperature in the world. But few people knew what real cold was, the general public believed that being cold is simply just shivering, being able to see their breath, and it was just something that could be dealt with by wearing some gloves or flicking on the A/C.

That wasn’t cold, that was just a chill, Nick knew true cold.

True cold was being unable to feel anything, your hands, your feet, your face, barely even able to feel your own heart beating. The cold even seeps into your very bones, making you unable to feel your own movements. Your breath was so icy cold and sharp it was like icicles were forming in your throat, and that was warm compared to the rest. You could be on the verge of dying, your body about to shut down as it tries desperately to produce and keep as much heat as possible, and not even know it.

That was what it truly meant to be cold, and it was something he was abundantly familiar with.

He made his living as an explorer of Antarctica, a hard job to a make living of, but he managed. His interest started when he watched a video titled ‘Top Ten Strangest Things Found Frozen In Ice!” in his mid teens, which sparked a passion for all things related to that. He watched all kinds of videos and documentaries about things trapped in ice and how that entire process even worked, to this day his favorite movie was The Thing.

He’d been all over Antarctica more than most people, either as a part of some research thing, or in search of something. He had been to Greenland a couple of times also, but it just wasn’t as interesting as Antarctica was. He had found a couple of things, but nothing of significance. Leftover items from other explorers, random pieces of wood and other materials, even a human skeleton on one occasion. His dream was to find something in ice like nothing no one had ever found before, or some extinct species frozen in ice, which might be able to get brought back to life like a Mammoth.

Right now, Nick was in charge of a team of people. A mixture of cave explorers, miners, and a few other ice experts. About a month or two ago, he had been approached by a strange guy in a bar after his most recent expedition. Saying that he had amassed a few other people and was looking for something buried deep in ice, and that he was one of the best people to ask about it. Being someone who naturally had a strong sense of curiosity, he was going to ask him a plethora of questions. Then the man offered money for him and the team to do what he asked, offering to pay for all the equipment and other expenses, on top of offering extra money if him and the others didn’t ask any questions and didn’t talk about whatever happened on their trip.

The amount of money he was offering to him alone was...staggering, to say the least. He had never been a particularly greedy person, but that much money was enough for him to retire if he really wanted to, wouldn’t be hard since he had no one in his life he needed to provide for. It was clear that man meant business, and he made it very difficult to say no.

At least, he was pretty sure that was a month ago. He had a bad habit of just completely losing track of time whenever he was out here, he didn’t usually leave until he either was out of resource, or was satisfied with whatever he came out there for. But now, what that man told them to do was dig a tunnel until they got to a certain point. Usually that would be very difficult to do, but he provided the mining team with a very specific list of equipment, all paid for by him, of course.

He had actually been doing a decent job of keeping everything organized and managing resources, which is probably why that guy thought he’d be the best to be in charge of them, though how he knew that wasn’t really something that made sense.

“So, remind me why I’m down here?” Nick asked as he turned to the short man to his right, walking through a long, wide tunnel of carved out ice.

About an hour or so ago, at least what he was pretty sure was an hour, one of the guys from the miner team asked him to come down here because they were nearing their target. Unsurprisingly, it was colder underground than it was above, so he had to prepare himself. Wearing several coats, two pairs of thick pants, large fuzzy gloves, and a couple of scarfs. All the hoods for the coats were up and all the scarfs were wrapped around his neck, not much more than his dark blue eyes were visible, his voice a bit muffled as he spoke. Luckily, the cave they tunneled out was mostly empty and any noise made would echo. All the clothes did a good job of keeping him warm, but only to the point where he could just barely feel his body and was still pretty cold.

“Well, that guy gave us very specific coordinates, but I guess he thought that might not be enough. He also gave us a detailed map, though the way he drew it made it seem like he was mocking us.” The short man said in a gruff, muffled voice as he pulled out a piece of paper, opening it and revealing what looked like a map, but it was drawn with big arrows and stick figures that he guessed were meant to be them.

“Assuming this is right and he isn’t just fucking with us, we should be hitting it sometime today. Hell, they might have already gotten to it. I figured since you’re just as curious about whatever we’re getting as much as anyone else, you deserve to be here when we uncover it more than anyone else since you've been managing everything.” He mumbled as he adjusted his clothes, wearing the same set of clothing as Nick was.

The ice tunnel the miners had dug out was wide and long, directed by the ice experts in where it would be easiest to mine through. Looking around, Nick could see the ice around them, a bit surprised it hadn’t caved in or something like that. There were lanterns attached to the roof to light it up, going all the way to the end to make it easier for them to dig through. There weren’t any sounds in the cave other than their footsteps, and the distant sounds of a drill and whatever else they were using to get through. It was kind of like that scene in the second Ice Age movie, but instead of dinosaurs in the ice, it was just various fish.

“Yeah, that makes sense. While we’re on the way there, you mind telling me whatever the hell you think this thing is? I’ve explored a lot, sure, but I can’t think of anything that would be worth this much time, money and effort.”

“Well, I can think of a couple things.” He mumbled as he put the map back in his pocket. “My massive amount of money that I’ll be getting after this is on ore or some other kind of hard to get resource, you’d be surprised how much someone would pay for something like Rhodium. Or maybe some kind of ancient artifact? He seemed like the type of weirdo that would pay a lot of money to complete his collection of ancient Aztec vase or something like that, but he said we couldn’t ask any questions if we wanted that bonus, so I’d rather not voice my concerns. No, what really grinds my gears is how he knows where we’re getting this thing.”

He stopped walking for a moment as he reached into his pocket, pulling out a compass and looking at something. Strangely, the arrow on the compass was slowly spinning around the entire compass, like it couldn’t find a direction to stick to. He scowled as he put the compass back in his pocket, starting to walk down the tunnel again.

“It's too...specific, is the thing. I asked around while coming here, and nobody has even heard of this guy and, as far as I’m aware, he doesn’t exist. To my knowledge, you get to know about something like this through connections and experience, but there have been no excavations or anything anywhere near here from anyone to think anything was here. Even when we’re contracted by groups or something, they usually just give us the area and we keep going until we find it. But I have never heard of anyone giving specific coordinates, and having enough money to pay for everything we need and the amount he’s already paying us! Not even the biggest companies I’ve ever worked for have had that kind of money, I’m starting to think it would actually be really dangerous to find out who this guy actually is.”

He gave a loud sigh as he rubbed the back of his head, furrowing his eyebrows from evident frustration.

“This place is weird too, compasses don’t work and some of the workers say they here...whispers, freaks some of them the fuck out. But, no one has gotten hurt or anything past some weird dreams, and the money is worth it. Everything about this is going to bug me for a while, but I’m sure the pile of money is going to make it easy to forget. First I’m going to put enough of the money in a savings account for when my daughter gets old enough to go to college, then comes the hookers! After that I’ll-”

“WHAT THE FUCK!”

“HOLY SHIT!”

“GESU CRISTO!”

He was interrupted by sudden exclamations of surprise coming from the end of the tunnel, the last one being said in a thick italian accent. Nick and the short man ran forward, worried at what the cause of such a sudden outburst could have been. Luckily, they weren’t that far from the end of it, and were there in a minute or so.

Nick hadn’t actually seen their mining in progress before, so what he saw was a bit surprising. There was a giant, drill-like device right in front of the end of the tunnel, like something he’d see out of some over the top bank heist movie. There were headlights on the front and back of it that were the main light source, but he couldn’t see the power source for it anywhere.

There were only three miners around the drill, he guessed that they worked in shifts and these three were the ones who were on duty at the moment. Something clearly had scared them, as all three were against the walls of the tunnel, their mining tools on the floor and looks of pure terror on their faces. The drill was turned off and was no longer tunneling deeper into the ice, and they seemed to be staring at whatever was on the other side of the drill. From where Nick was standing, he couldn’t see it. He moved to the side of the drill, curious at what they had found that surprised them so much.

He couldn’t make it out at first, despite the light source shining, it was still fairly dark. But as he got closer, he was able to make out what it was they discovered, his eyes widening in terror.

It was roughly human, but much larger than any human he’d ever met. It had to be at least seven feet tall, if not taller. It had the head of a wolf, with the pointy ears, snout, and large teeth with fangs, though they looked bigger than any wolf’s he’d seen. It’s fur was thick and black, covering its entire body except for its face and chest, which showed gray skin. They had dark blue eyes with black, slit pupils, that seemed to move even though the creature was frozen.

It also had sharp claws, its hands still resembling actual human hands rather than something like paws. Even with all the thick fur, the bulging muscles were obvious, showing the raw strength this creature must have. When it was frozen, it was clearly trying to escape its fate. It’s claws stretched towards Nick like it was flailing, resulting in it being frozen alive.

Nick was never really much of a believer in the mythological and cryptids, as interesting as they were, he didn’t think there was any realistic chance of anything like that being real. Of course that doesn’t mean he wasn’t aware of some of them, there was a reason they remained so popular even into the modern era after all. He knew about vampires, shapeshifters, all kinds of things. But nothing past surface knowledge.

Even so, he could recognize what was in front of him. The body of a human but characteristics of a wolf, a creature with massive strength, resembling more of an animal than the man it once was. It was unmistakable, there were very few other things it could be.

“Is that....a werewolf?”

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“Well, that’s not good.” Discord mumbled as he shifted his gaze to the right, grabbing his glasses off the table and putting them on. “Been a while since anyone’s tried to hack into The Syndicate’s network, even longer since anyone has actually managed to get this far. Gotta nip this in the bud now, if I let them continue they might actually get past the firewall, can’t have that.”

Discord was in his room, sitting in front of his computer as he had been writing something. He suddenly noticed a miniature sprite version of himself show up in the bottom write of his screen, an AI program he cobbled together to help him manage some things while he was working, he couldn’t organize everything himself after all. It showed up with a red exclamation point on a yellow background, a specific symbol he made to tell him whenever someone was trying to break into The Syndicate’s database. Usually, he’d let the AI program itself handle it, it was certainly more than capable. However he decided to deal with it himself, it was a bit of fun and he had the time.

He brought his hands together, a loud popping noise came from his hand as he cracked his fingers. He hovered his hands over the keyboard, a stern look coming onto his as he looked at the computer screen intently. He then began rapidly typing on the keyboard, the computer screen switching to a black screen with waves of constantly moving green numbers. Every time he pressed a key, a green number disappeared, just for a bundle of numbers to take its place.

Discord’s eyebrows furrowed as he stared at the screen, somehow his gaze getting more intense as his hands pressed the keys faster.

Soon, the numbers were disappearing faster than they were reappearing, empty spots where there once were. In minutes, the computer screen was almost completely black, all the green numbers absent. The only thing left was the little sprite of Discord, doing a victory dance as the words ‘You Won’ hovered above it in white flashing letters.

“Oh boy, I’m getting a bit rusty, that was harder than it should have been. Now, for the address of this person. I know it isn’t that pesky group Anonymous again, I have an agreement with them. Which makes me curious, who would be so interested in trying to gain info from The Syndicate? Or desperate?”

Discord said as he wiped his brow with his sleeve, a small drop of sweat getting wiped off with it. He then pressed a key on the keyboard, causing the sprite to run off the screen for a moment and come back, holding another box with a string of numbers and letters on it.

“Oh? This is pretty close actually, I think I might recognize that. I didn’t realize there was anyone with that kind of potential around here, my interest is piqued.” Discord mumbled as he pulled out a piece of paper and a pen from his ear that wasn’t there before, writing down the address on the piece of paper and putting both it and the pen in his pocket.

“But...I can’t check it out myself. I need to check on Vincent’s progress, hopefully he’ll have learned English and I can start teaching him about everything he’s missed. And I really should start preparing for Wyett, the team should have found him by now if they were consistent and I’m almost done with gathering the amount of food he’d need. I’ll have to teach him modern english also, but luckily he hasn’t been out of commission nearly as long as Vincent, so it wouldn’t take long to catch him up with all that he’s missed. Real problem with him is going to be food, I should get a bit more than my calculations just to be sure. Hmmm.”

Discord closed his eyes thoughtfully for a moment, before opening them and reaching into his pocket, pulling his flip phone and dialing a number.

“I think I’ll call Juno and meet up with him, I kind of miss hanging out with him anyway. I’ll give him the address while I’m there, I’m sure Pinkamena will appreciate getting him off her ass for a bit.”

The phone ringed for a moment, before there was a clicking noise as Juno picked up. “Yahallo Dissy! Strange for you to be calling me personally, last time you did that, you asked me to kill someone.” He said in a chipper tone, before remaining silent for a few moments. “You don’t need me to kill someone again, do you?” He suddenly asked in a much darker tone, his voice empty of any emotion.

“Mmmmmayhaps, depends on how things turn out. But we can talk about that in a bit, can you give me a status report on Pinkamena real quick? I’d like to know how my little monster is doing.” Discord asked as he spun around in his chair, crossing his legs as he leaned into the phone.

“Well, nothing too interesting so far. After waking up, she went to her house for a bit, then talked with Applejack. Then she went by an apartment building for an hour, while talking to The Whispers the way there and back. Sat on a house for like...an hour or two, then started crying randomly. Started walking back while talking with someone on the phone, and then got shot at by The Silent Killer. Like you asked, I didn’t intervene and gave her the chance to fight them herself this time. She didn’t die, but she didn’t kill them either, kind of at a stalemate. Now she’s running from the police for whatever reason, can’t tell where she’s going, but back to her house I think. That’s about it so far.”

“I am curious about how their fight ended up at a draw when I gave her a dose of Imperium, but I’m sure I’ll hear about it from her later.” Discord said with a sigh as he turned back around, his computer monitor going back to the screen before as he began typing again, holding the phone against his ear with his shoulder. “Alright, anything interesting about her? Physical abnormalities? Anything like that? I’m pretty curious to see when her tail is going to show up.”

Juno stayed quiet for a few moments, the sounds of his footsteps slamming against concrete and wind blowing coming from his phone before abruptly stopping. “Tail? I thought that was something unique to Igneous? You’re telling me she’s going to get a tail too? That’ll be interesting. But no, nothing like that. Well, some of her hair did turn black, and it seems to be spreading, that’s about it.”

Discord stopped typing, his eyes widened for a bit in surprise before going back to normal. “Black? Are you sure she didn’t just highlight it or something? Girls seem to really like dying their hair whenever they’re having an identity crisis.”

“No, it isn’t highlights. When I say some of her hair, I don’t mean sections, I mean strains of her hair. If it wasn’t for my years of experience at watching people, I wouldn’t have even noticed. When she left her house, only one strain of her hair had turned black. It stayed that way when she went into a convenience store before their rematch with The Silent Killer and she put on her mask, when she took it off, another strain of her hair on the opposite side turned the same color of black. I doubt she’s even noticed the second one, but I’m sure she’s aware of it. Why? Is it a problem?”

Discord stopped typing for a moment, reaching into his lab coat pocket and pulling out his brown journal and opening it. He flipped through the pages in silence for a minute or two, a scowl on his face as he looked for something.

“I don’t know what’s causing it, and that makes it a problem. I’m sure it’s something related to The Whispers, has to be. Thing is, they don’t usually do new things, and they have never changed the hair color of any previous host. But, if nothing has actually changed, then there isn’t much more I can do right now but speculate. Anyhow, that’s not entirely what I called you for, I need your help with something.”

Discord pulled the pen out of his pocket again, putting it beside the book as he flipped it to a clean page.

“I won’t tell you much in case it doesn’t end up being anything important, but I need you to check out something. Can you meet at Homra? That bar me, you, Michael and Starlight went to that one time after I first gave Michael his cybernetics. I’m sure you’d appreciate the break and I doubt Pinkamena is going to be doing anything extravagant for the rest of the night, and knowing you, you haven’t been getting a lot of sleep recently, huh?”

He gave an awkward laugh, the sound of his feet hitting the ground came from the phone again, but much louder this time. “Heh, you caught me. But it seems she likes sleeping even less than I do, considering she’s barely gotten any sleep unless she got knocked out or something. But yeah, you’re right, I could use the break, and I doubt anything else will happen. Yeah, I know the place. I can be there in...twenty minutes ish, need me to bring anything?”

“Just your good looks and skills, see ya there.” Discord said as he closed the phone, putting it in his pocket and picking up the pen beside the book.

“Changing physical characteristics, this is something completely new. Starlight brought up numbing emotions, something Igneous may have also had, but didn’t mention to me. This shows that they could have started doing this with Igneous, but I can’t eliminate the possibility that they did this with previous hosts and the hosts were just unable to say it. She also mentioned brain aneurysms, something that Igneous did bring up. Again, I can't eliminate the possibility these things happened with previous hosts, but they were unable to say. Even so, I can’t ignore the fact that it seemed to become more frequent with Pinkamena than Igneous, the question is why?”

As Discord talked to himself, he was writing frantically in the blank piece of paper. He was writing various words, all under the words ‘details’ in bold letters. After a few moments of him mumbling and writing, he suddenly circled a word and put the pen down.

“There are a handful of possibilities of what this could mean, but this one seems the most likely. If I’m right...then I need to speed things up and handle this.”

On the page were writing and scribbles all over the paper, while being very organized, there was still a lot of it. At the bottom of the page were three words, written in bold and circled.

The words were ‘Full Body Takeover’, under the words ‘Possible Scenarios’ underlined.

Chapter Twelve: Corruption.

Pinkamena hadn’t been running for long, maybe ten minutes or so. She hadn’t just been going in some random direction, but she didn’t really know where she was going either. The Whispers vanished after they talked to her, and then she felt this...urge to go a certain way, it was hard to explain. It was like there was a GPS in her brain telling her where to go, and if she tried to stray from the path, pressure began to build up inside her head until it was a brain aneurysm. It was evidently The Whispers that were doing this, and they were remaining surprisingly quiet as she moved, nothing more than negligible whispering, even quieter than usual.

She at first thought they were leading her back to her house, but then they had her take different turns and now she wasn’t sure where she was going, she didn’t know the city that well yet. She got far enough to where she didn’t hear the sirens anymore, though few people who were on the street around her were talking about what happened. She was currently walking down the street, not feeling a need to run as she wasn’t in any particular rush for whatever they were going to do to her. She had taken her mask off and put her hood up again, the mask got stuffy if worn for too long and right now she didn’t want anyone to bother her.

She didn’t know what time it was and didn’t want to bother checking, but she noticed it was getting dark rather quickly. The sun was setting and the street lights were turning on, more and more people were walking on the sidewalk as she imagined they were returning home or just going to work. She was getting a bit annoyed bumping into that many people, but there was still enough room for her to move around.

While she was moving through the crowd, everything seemed to just...freeze, frozen in time like someone took a picture. Everyone she could see stopped in place, completely unmoving and were in the middle of whatever they were doing. Even the passing cars had ceased, like someone pressed pause on a movie. There was no noise either, all the sounds of the cars driving and people talking halted, not even the distant sound of ringing in her ears Pinkamena had gotten used to due to her tinnitus.

She was unable to move any part of her body except for her eyes, not even able to open her mouth to speak. She couldn’t feel anything either, not even her heart seemed to be beating. For the second time that day, The Whispers were silent. She could not hear their whispering, even her mind was void of any noise, she heard absolutely nothing.

The sound of silence was...deafening, and filled her with a heavy sense of dread and unease.

Then she heard some distant sound, though she didn’t recognize what it was at first, all she could tell was that it was in the direction she was facing. As it quickly came closer, she discerned it as humming, she was just unfamiliar with the tune being hummed. They sounded feminine and childlike, she almost thought it was Alice for a moment. But their voice had a different pitch about it, and there was a sort of...undertone to it, something sinister and malicious in their voice, it was hard to explain.

Soon the source of the humming came into the view, but she could only just barely see them. A small figure was jumping on the heads of people on the sidewalk, going from one to the other like they were playing a game of hopscotch. The people they were stepping on didn’t react at all, though their bodies still moved as they were pushed down.

They had a very small body, resembling that of a child’s. They had to be at least 5’0, or somewhere around that. It was hard for her to see them since they were far and small, but she was able to make out some details about them. They were wearing what looked like a combination of a cape and a robe, as dark as the night and almost comically too large for them. It only covered the back of their body and their head with a hood that was currently up, seeming to glide through the wind as they nimbly bounced from person to person.

The rest of their body was covered in bandages, completely wrapped around every part of them and thick enough to where nothing discernable could be seen, not even their skin color, Pinkamena wondered whether they were like that because they were injured or some sort of disguise.

Their humming stopped as soon as they landed in front of her, their hands extended to their sides as they landed on one leg with their other extended behind them almost gracefully. They then raised their head to look at Pinkamena, putting both of their legs on the ground and leaving their hands to their sides.

“Hello there, pink one. Hmmm, you are much more...intense than I thought you’d be. Haven’t seen you since before everything after all, but I really wish you’d lighten up, that was a part of you I really liked.”

There were two holes in their face where their eyes would be, but there was nothing there. Just black holes where their eyes would be, nothing but darkness behind them. She could also see their mouth move through the mask, but she didn’t see any holes or anything other than the ones for their eyes, Pinkamena couldn’t help but wonder how they were breathing.

There was also something about their voice that was off putting, it just somehow made Pinkamena feel even more dreadful than before. It was distinctly feminine and had a strong accent that she couldn’t quite place, some mixture of european, southern, and a bit indian. It sounded fake, but that might have been because she’d never heard anything like it. They also didn’t seem to have any strange slange or let their accent make them any harder to understand, if it was fake, they were doing a fantastic job at making it seem real.

*It’s almost impossible to tell, so I’m just going to assume this person is a girl and go with that. That doesn’t really help explain their weird appearance or why all of time just seemed to stop when they showed up, I think I’m just so in shock right now I don’t even know the proper way to react.*

“Oh? What’s this? Black hair already? They’re moving awfully fast, guess he’s got them really scared.” She said in a sickeningly sweet voice, standing on the tip of her toes to reach Pinkamena, bringing both her hands up to Pinkamena’s head. “And take off that hood, you’re an adult now, not a teenage girl discovering herself.” She mumbled as she tossed back their hood, grabbing two different black strains of hair in between their fingers.

Being touched by them felt very very wrong, like doing something you know was bad on a fundamental level. Pinkamena could feel the hood being knocked back and her hair moving upward, but she couldn’t feel what was moving it. It wasn’t like wind was blowing around and that’s what was causing it, despite seeing her hands, there simply was no feeling. It was like a ghost was touching her, and it was very frightening.

“Not to say it looks bad, actually kind of like it. If it’s done right, it could actually blend pretty nicely, though couldn’t look nearly as good as black and gold. Then again, I guess you aren’t the one in control of that, huh?”

Their voice suddenly had a colder tone to it, that superficial kindness before being overwritten by their malicious undertone. She had a glint of red behind the black holes where her eyes would be, but it was hard to tell what that was. They didn’t seem to be looking at her, but past her, like her eyes and mind were somewhere else.

“Oh well, no point in talking about things you don’t have control over. I’m sure things will work out just fine!” They said as they let go of her hair, lightly slapping the side of her face as she lowered herself, her voice taking a delicate tone again.

She turned around, their back facing Pinkamena as she walked up to a person. She grabbed their hand and brought it up to their face, putting their pointer finger as far up their nose as she could. She let out a childish giggle, finding what she did to be rather funny.

Pinkamena tried to speak, feeling she could open her mouth slightly if she tried hard enough. Her mouth shook as she tried to speak, just to say anything or make any kind of noise. Then their head snapped towards Pinkamena, as she felt some kind of force push the words she was trying to say back down her throat, her mouth being slammed shut in the process.

“No, no, no! No talking unless it's from me. You’ll ask questions about who I am, how I know what I know, and I won’t be able to tell you, blah blah blah. Done it again and again hundreds of times, I’ve gotten real bored of it. So I’ve decided I’m just going to say what I want to say, and leave like I want to. Probably should have done it earlier, but people never fail to disappoint I suppose.”

She turned her attention back to the frozen people, doing similar types of things to them as she mumbled to herself. “What should I do this time? Talk in only rhymes? Nah, Zecora’s schtick, plus that takes more effort than it's worth.” She said as she walked up to another man, guiding his hands to the body of a nearby woman. She put both of his hands on the woman’s breast, pushing down on them and making them clench around them.

“Speak in allegories? No, Aesop ruined that for me.” She mumbled to herself as she turned to another man, taking little less than a minute to take off his shirt and pants. And just as quickly put them back on, but reversed. Soon the man was wearing his pants as a shirt, and his shirt as pants, and all without them moving.

“Then...vague prophecies that can be interpreted in a lot of ways? Sure, can never go wrong with that.” She said in a peppy tone as she turned back to Pinkamena, walking up to her with her eye holes locked onto Pinkamena’s gaze.

“Now for the hard part, how to start? How about…” Her eyes looked Pinkamena up and down, like she was searching for something. Then she stopped on her chest, seeming to be focusing on something. “The necklace, of course, what better?” She said as she brought her hand up to Pinkamena’s chest, somehow knowing exactly where the necklace was even though it wasn’t visible, and grabbed it by the pendant in her right hand.

She stared at the pendant for a moment, before tilting her head up to Pinkamena, something about their gaze seemed more intense than before. She still couldn’t see the majority of their eye, but her pupil was now visible. It was dark white, almost the color of bone. There was a strange look in their eyes, their pupils were in a constant state of switching between dilating and constricting, like they were unable to focus. But their leer still seemed to pierce straight into her, like she was concentrating on her.

“This will be your marker, your bridge, your anchor. It will be here for the turning point of your life, and whether or not it stays there will depend on what you decide, and who you choose to become. After that, your life will be like a tree; There will be many, many branches. Some of them stop abruptly, most reach the top in the end, no matter how different some of the branches. Your journey, while having many twist and turns, will come to the same end.”

Her voice had become blank, hollow and void of any emotion or tone. Their eyes stared into Pinkamena’s, constricting and dilating, but never blinking or even moving. She let go of the pendant, standing on the tips of her toes again and bringing her hands up to Pinkamena’s face, cupping her cheeks in them. Though Pinkamena couldn’t feel their actual hands, she could feel heat coming off their hands. It was like someone had put two electric heaters straight to the sides of her face, searing pain and heat threatening to melt the skin off of her. But she didn’t feel anything actually burning, nor did she smell flesh melting, though she wasn’t sure if she even could smell at the moment. Whatever they were doing, it was attacking her nervous system directly and wasn’t inflicting actual damage, which just made her wonder why she was doing it.

“You will lose many things and it’ll feel like you’ll never stop losing, but you will also become many things. The hero. The villain. The monster. The arbiter. The lost. The good. The bad. The ugly. You will be many, but you will stay one until you cannot anymore. You will break as you have been broken before, until you look into the mirror and can not recognize who is looking back anymore. Each time you push something else pushes back, just when you believe you have won, you do not realize what you had to sacrifice to get there. Each opponent you face will be worse than the previous one, but you will persevere. You, Pinkamena Diane Pie, will have to throw away a piece of yourself to save someone, but will lose someone else along the way, and parts of yourself you will never get back. What will you become in the end? The savior? The host? Laughter? Everything you do from now on will decide that, but until then, I will watch and be your guide. May the odds be against all your enemies.”

The heat coming from her hands seemed to intensify every second, to the point where Pinkamena had to focus on her words to try to ignore the immaculate pain. She would have screamed if she could, but she wasn’t even allowed that luxury. When she was done talking, she lowered her body again, removing her hands from Pinkamena’s face and to her sides again. As soon as there was no longer contact, the heat just vanished, like it hadn’t even been there before. The pain was gone and even felt cold where it was, she began to question whether it had even been real or her imagination.

“I’d say that’s a lot to think about, but you won’t really remember those words exactly, or any of this conversation. You’ll forget everything that happened here, you always do.” She said the last part barely louder than a mumble, her voice taking on a bit of a sorrowful tone as she glanced away, her pupils fading away leaving only the empty eyeholes again.

*What’s that supposed to mean? Have we...met before?*

Pinkamena felt a mixture of confusion as she looked at them, trying to think if she recognized their voice or their behavior. She couldn’t. Maybe if they weren’t wrapped in those bandages she could tell, but considering she couldn’t even move her fingers, that didn’t seem likely.

“Oh well, no point dwelling on it.” She said as she looked back up to Pinkamena, her lively tone returning like it hadn’t left. “Now you’re probably asking yourself why I’d bother talking with you at all if I knew you wouldn’t remember anything we talked about, I know you are because almost everyone I bring that up to ask about it. And no, you wouldn’t remember this conversation if I decide to have another one with you at a later point in time, doesn’t work like that. Maybe I’ll explain it to you later, depends on how things go. Right now, all I’ll tell you is that something is left behind. After years of experience with this, I’ve learned the message I was trying to send, or the suggestion, stays in your mind.”

As she said that, she hopped off the ground, poking the center of Pinkamena’s forehead. Falling back to the ground with a chortle, Pinkamena could barely see the corners of their mouth turned up as they smiled. “If I give someone a suggestion to do something, it stays after I’ve left, and they usually have a way of convincing themselves they were the ones who came up with the idea. And if I say just the right words in just the right way, I’m basically ordering them to do it, and they do it. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t done this in stuff like politics or something for my entertainment, a girl who doesn’t exist gets bored after all. But also the ideas I suggest have a way of hovering around, and the message I’m trying to get across snuggles it’s way into your subconscious, and things that get into your subconscious have a habit of not leaving and surfacing when you least expect them too. A Freudian Slip is a thing for a reason, you know?”

She said as she walked past her, her footsteps seeming to echo like they were in cave. “I’ve said what I wanted to say though, at least for now. Though considering what’s going to happen soon, might’ve been pointless. Guess we’ll see, huh? See ya later, Pinks. Hopefully.”

There was a loud snapping sound as Pinkamena guessed she snapped her fingers, the noise seemed to echo even louder than her footsteps. As soon as the sound reached her ears, she began being able to feel her body again. Time was still stopped around her, but she felt more..comfortable with it. She decided to take this as an opportunity to try to talk, though she wasn’t sure whether they would let her speak or not.

“What’s...your name?” Pinkamena said in a strained voice, it was a struggle to say even that much.

She didn’t hear her footsteps anymore, so she assumed she stopped wherever she was behind her, she wasn’t able to move much more than her mouth at this point. “My name? Were you not listening? You won’t be able to remember it, but strangely, you’ve never asked me my name before. Hm, alright, I’ll give you my name, and pointless at it might be.”

Pinkamena tried to turn her head to the right, so she could at least see them. She managed to turn it enough to where she could see them out of the corner of her eyes, seeing that they had turned around to face her again with their finger on their chin thoughtfully.

“What name shall I choose this time around? Can’t reuse anything, gives away too much and plus its not fun. Oh, I know!” She said as she turned around, bowing down to Pinkamena with both her arms behind her back.

“My name is Gypsy, and I will be your guide!”

“I’ll...try to remember your name. I’ve always been good with names.” Pinkamena mumbled, finding it was getting easier by the second to move.

“Heh, don’t bother.” Gypsy said with a disheartened tone, raising her head up and turning around. “You can’t, no one can.”

That was the last thing Gypsy said before she walked into the crowd, Pinkamena tried to watch her, but she soon disappeared and hid among the people. The second she lost sight of her, time seemed to start again. Pinkamena turned her head as she heard the sound of a woman screaming, seeing that some pervert had tried to cop a feel and she had slapped him. She was threatening to call the police and he was apologizing saying he swears he didn’t do it, ending with her trying to get away from him. Another guy was obviously picking his nose, Pinkamena made a disgusted face and he seemed to notice, he made an equally disgusted face and pulled his finger out his nose and wiped it on his suit. Another was fell over on the ground, wearing his pants as a shirt and his shirt as pants, she wondered how she hadn’t noticed that earlier.

She looked around and saw all the other people going on with their business, many not even paying attention to what just transpired in front of her. She noticed that somewhere along her stroll, her hood had come off. She found that a bit strange since it had never done that before, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

*Stop lollygagging.*

That was the first time she had ever heard The Whispers talk in her head directly, and hopefully the only time. When they talked, it felt like two hands had wrapped themselves tightly around her brain, putting more pressure on it with each letter.

“Ok...just, please stop.” She mumbled to herself as she winced in pain.

They stopped as she let out a relieved sigh, feeling that same directive in her mind to go a certain direction. She started walking again, trying to shuffle through the crowd to get to wherever they wanted her to go.

But she couldn’t help but feel like she was forgetting something, something really important.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

“What...is this place?”

It took her another half hour to reach where The Whispers wanted her to go, that nagging feeling she had in the back of her mind that she was forgetting something having left somewhere along the way.

Pinkamena ended up being led to a forest on the outskirts of the city, a part she hadn’t ever been to before. She was standing at the edge, where there was a view of the ocean. The sight alone was very pleasing to the eye, but combined with the night sky filled with stars made it downright beautiful. She hadn’t seen scenery quite like this before.

What was a bit more perplexing was that someone decided to build a shed out here, and from the looks of it, it had been out here for a few years at least. It wasn’t very big, maybe about the size of Igneouss’ office. It was made out of wood that had faded over time, almost looking dark blue. There were also signs that this was made by one person, some of the nails weren’t hammered in all the way and the placements of some of the wooden planks were off and this was evidently not built by someone who had a lot of experience in construction, but it was done well enough to stay up.

It was in the shape of a large rectangle, even the roof of the building was completely flat. The only entrance she could see was a simple screen door, some of the white paint had started rotting away. There were no windows or anything else that she could see, and there was no light coming through the screen door, so it didn’t seem anyone was here at the moment. It didn’t seem like anyone had been here for a long time either, she noticed that grass had started to grow on parts of the shed as nature slowly overtook it.

“A shed that Igneous built about a week or so before he became leader, did the entire thing himself in about a day, impressive for someone who’s never made something before.”

Alice appeared standing beside Pinkamena, her arms crossed as she looked at the cabin. She had an angry scowl on her face, though she wasn’t looking at Pinkamena so it was hard to tell what at, but it seemed like a mixture of things.

“Igneous needed to be alone sometimes, particularly when something goes wrong or somebody dies or something. He could get away with it before when he was less important and there weren’t that many eyes on him, but afterwards he needed somewhere where they couldn’t find him, so he made one. The first time he disappeared to here The Council got really upset since he always did so without a single word, especially Starlight since she thought he trusted her and told her everything. But after the third time he did it, they stopped worrying and always knew he’d be back eventually. Sometimes he’d come here for just two or three days, when that one guy ‘died’, he was here for a month or so. It was incredibly boring, but it gave us time to think at least.”

Alice began to walk towards the cabin, the grass around where she was stepping didn’t react at all to her, which was disturbing to see. She didn’t look back at Pinkamena, but she got the feeling she wanted her to follow.

“What would he do here?” Pinkamena asked as she walked forward, catching up to Alice and trying to keep pace with her.

“Depended on his mood and why he came here at all. If it was just to get away, usually catching up on some reading or tv. If he came here because he was distressed or angry however, he’d...vent in his own way. He would sometimes spend days in the woods, completely consumed by his animal side as he ripped into anything he’d come across. It had never been anything other than animals, but the way he shredded them apart was so...feral! Sometimes it seemed like he left here worse than when he came.”

Despite their words, there was no tone to their voice. No anger or disappointment, it was completely blank, not even anything about their body language gave away hints to how they were feeling.

It was somehow more terrifying than if they had been openly angry, because Alice seemed completely relaxed, and that scared Pinkamena more than almost any other way they could be acting.

“Then...why did you bring me here? Are you letting me know about this place so I can come here to be alone if I feel like it?” Pinkamena asked, though somehow she felt she wouldn’t like the answer.

“Well, you can if you like. Nobody knows this place even exists, no one alive anyway. You’d have to clean it up a bit since Igneous hasn’t been here for half a year or so, and even when he was here he never bothered to fix anything up or even really clean it. If you decide to come out to be alone every now and again, we won’t try to stop you. No, the reason we brought you out here,”

Alice stopped in front of the screen door, turning her head slightly to the right. She didn’t show anything except for just a bit of her left eye, looking at Pinkamena out of the corner of her eye. Her eyes were half closed as she glared at her, recognizing the sadistic look she was giving.

“Is so that no one will hear your screams. Trust me, you don’t want anything to interrupt what’s about to happen in here.” Alice said in a hushed tone, before walking through the screen door, disappearing once she got to the other side.

Pinkamena tried to not let what they said bothered her, knowing that The Whispers purposely worded things to mess with her, she understood that much about them so far. But usually there was a playful undertone to whatever they were saying, with the exception of when they were threatening or warning them about something. Otherwise they didn’t typically take things seriously, considering they were basically omnipotent, invincible, and immortal, why would they?

But when they said that, there was absolutely no hint they were joking at all, nothing but direct solemnity. That was what scared Pinkamena the most, she would have just walked away if she thought Alice would let her.

Pinkamena gulped nervously and walked forward, trying to ignore the anxiety building inside of her and opening the screen door. It squeaked noisily as it opened and shut, needing to be oiled and cleaned like the rest of the place.

As soon as she walked inside, a pungent odor entered her nostrils and was strong enough to sting her eyes. She recoiled as she shut her eyes, putting her hand on the nearest wall she searched for a wall light. She wasn’t even sure if there was one, but luckily there was and she found it. She flicked it on and opened her eyes, trying to ignore the stinging in her eyes as the room got illuminated. There was a lightbulb connected to the roof, it flickered on and off for a moment before staying on.

She didn’t have time to examine the room, she needed to get rid of the source of that smell first. She followed the smell to a minifridge that had been left open on the right side of the room, the stench coming from various foods and drinks that were well past their expiration date.
She didn’t want to push Alice’s patience anymore than she already had, so she didn’t have time to just reach inside and pull out everything. She wrapped her arms around the fridge and picked it up, unplugging it and leaving it open while she walked towards the screen door. She kicked it open and placed the minifridge on the ground, having it face the woods and leaving the door open to try to air out the place.

The smell still stinged her eyes a bit, but was quickly becoming tolerable. She turned around and took another look at the inside of the shed, actually able to see it properly now. Like the outside suggested, the inside was also very small, all of it being one room. The right side was more or less the kitchen area, though the only thing left was a small, see through cabinet that held the plates, cups, and eating utensils. There wasn’t a sink, so she assumed he just used to wash them in the ocean.

The opposite side of the room there was a small window, not glass or anything, it was basically just a large square carved into the wood. It showed the ocean behind the shed, the light from the outside shining onto a brown leather chair in front of the window. It looked old and beat up, but still seemed sturdy enough to sit on and last a few more years or so. There was a bookshelf to the left of the chair, though it only had six or so books on it. And there was a small tv a few feet in front of the chair, but it looked very old and she wasn’t even sure if it had color.

The only things on the left side of the room was a mattress on the ground, no sheet or bed frame, only a pillow. There was also a pile of various clothes, but it was hard to tell if they were clean or dirty. There were no carpets or anything either, just the hardwood floor that had started rotting in some places. There were also no bathroom facilities, so she assumed he just did stuff like that outside and cleaned himself in the ocean if he needed to.

She wasn’t sure where the electricity was coming from either since she didn’t hear a generator and she was pretty sure there weren't any power lines out here, but she decided not to question it.

“Yeah, when Igneous was out here he was usually very negligent to the place. He didn’t change often and got by on the bare essentials, he was excessively lazy. Usually he was very organized and meticulous, but when he came here, he just turned into an absolute slob. I hope if you decide to stay here every now and again, you at least clean it and have better living standards than him. Assuming you survive this, anyway.”

Alice said as she appeared beside Pinkamena like a ghost, a look of disgust on her face as she looked around the inside of the shed. She scoffed as she began to walk forward, getting behind the chair and looking at Pinkamena. She draped her arms over the chair as she leaned on it, pointing to it as she gestured for Pinkamena to come towards her.

“Sit in this chair, then we can get started.” Alice said with a chilled tone, her face completely expressionless as her desolate eyes stared at her.

Pinkamena took one step forward hesitantly, clenching her fist to stop herself from shaking. “I’m...not going to do anything else until you tell me what we’re here for. I get that you guys are pissed at me for taking the Imperium when you didn’t want me to, and I get now why. The Imperium stops you guys, turns you off, even if for a bit. You’re control freaks and you don’t like that, fine. Even so, you can’t kill me and you know it. So why bring me here?”

Pinkamena was taking a risk by saying what she did, it wouldn’t have surprised her if they had just decided to give her a particularly excruciating brain aneurysm just for talking. Instead, they closed their eyes for a moment. Pursing her lips for a moment with an almost bored expression on her face, before opening them again as her face relaxed.

“What you’ve been asking for: Giving you access to all our memories. That’s all I’m going to say until you sit in this chair!”

Her mouth moved, but the last few words she said seemed to go directly into Pinkamena’s mind. Her voice turning into dozens of other disembodied voices yelling at her at once, putting stronger pressure on her than before. She immediately fell to her knees, clutching her head with her hands as she grit her teeth. It was the same feeling in her mind as on the way here, that they were directing her to go somewhere.

Except this time she knew exactly where the location was.

As soon as the pressure stopped, she slowly got to her feet. She walked forward and sat down in the chair, resting her arms on the sides. She flinched when she felt Alice put her hands on her shoulders, though she reacted more out of seeing them than actually feeling them since her hands weren’t actually there and had no real presence.

“You...said earlier that I’d be screaming. Was that a joke-”

Her question was interrupted by Alice’s cruel chuckling, sending chills down her spine as it seemed to echo throughout the room. “Of course I was serious, what, did you think the process was completely painless? That we could just snap our fingers and you’d be given access to all of our memories? Of course not silly! It’ll be the most agonizing experience in your life, if you survive it anyway.” She said maliciously, lowering her mouth down to Pinkamena’s head so she can speak directly into her ear.

“Die? B-but I thought you needed me alive?” Pinkamena stuttered out, her heart sinking as she felt Alice’s hands slowly move up to her neck, all the heat from her body quickly vanishing and being left with the cold sweat of fear.

“Discord won’t tell anyone this, but not everyone survives the process, very little do in fact. Do you know how many people in the past have been a successful host? Four, as in four who have survived the melding process. But we still gain the memories of everyone we’re put into, even the ones who don’t survive the melding process, so it’s all the same to us in the end. There’s a reason we’re only used in emergencies after all, he knows better than anyone the risk that we come with.”

Pinkamena shivered as she felt the chilling sensation spread up to her face, the only way she had of telling that Alice’s hands were moving at all. She tried to speak, but some mixture of fear and whatever they were doing to her was preventing her from getting the words out of her mouth.

“However, we’ve never been a host to someone in a situation so...desperate as this. The melding process is unavoidable, without doing it, we will eventually fade away. But if you die in the process, someone on The Council, or even worse, your remaining sister will take over. I can give you an almost one hundred percent guarantee none of them can survive it, and then The Syndicate will very quickly plunge into chaos. So, in the scenario you don’t survive, we’re going to do something new. In theory, we should be able to take over your body. Mimicking your personality would be easy, but we haven’t been in actual control of a body in so long that managing everything would be a bit of trouble. But we won’t know until we try, right?”

Alice said in a playful tone as her hands reached the top of Pinkamena’s head, the cold beginning to drill into her temples.

She wasn’t sure what scared her more; what she was about to go through, or what would happen after. The idea of The Whispers controlling her body and pretending to be her was disgusting, but the idea of merging with them wasn’t exactly an attractive alternative. She would be getting answers to all her questions, but at what cost?

She felt the cold at both her temples get more intense, her body shivering as she tried to prepare herself. Then, it abruptly stopped. She guessed Alice removed her hands, heat began slowly returning to her head.

“I have a proposition for you.”

Pinkamena stayed silent for a few moments, expecting her to say something else. When she didn’t Pinkmena could only assume it was because they were waiting for her to respond.

“I’m listening.” Pinkamena said quietly, noticing the sudden shift in tone from Alice.

“No matter what you may think of us, we don’t want you to die anymore than you do. We can’t stop the melding process at all like we said before, but we can...reduce the intensity of it, so to speak. We can make it to where you will only gain selective knowledge, or, their experiences rather than their memories. For example, we gave you just the knowledge of guns when you woke up, that’s how you were able to recognize guns just by seeing them and such. It was to see if we could do so without needing to give you his memories, and it seemed we could.

Now that we know this, we can give you all of their knowledge and experience without the memories. Things like guns, lockpicking, even stuff from some of their hobbies. If we give you just this, the process will be shorter, and there will be a bit less risk. There will also be no issue of you having problems figuring out who’s memories are yours and what memories belong to them, something all the previous hosts had to the very end. However, if we do this, there’s no going back. You will never be able to access their memories, we can not go through the melding process again like that, it will kill you.”

“...So I won’t have access to Igneouss’ memories? He knew who TSK was, and I’m sure plenty of other things you don’t want me knowing.”

Alice only smirked in response, resting on her hands as she looked down a Pinkamena. “There are many things you aren’t ready to learn quite yet. Besides, it’s much more fun to figure it out for yourself, don’t you think?”

Pinkamena remained silent for a few moments, hiding her face behind her long hair. Her entire body remained stiff, almost like she was afraid to move or say anything.

“If I agree to this, will it lower the risk of me dying at all?”

Alice took a bit to respond, in order to build suspense, no doubt.

“It won’t make it less painful, only shorter. But since there will be less information you need to absorb, yes, you are less likely to die.”

Pinkamena hesitantly nodded her head, signalling to Alice that she agreed. Alice brought her hands back up to Pinkamena’s temples, the same cold sensation digging into her mind again. It was not a slow process this time, she almost immediately felt the heat in her entire body vanish. She felt fear encompass her entire body, completely paraylzed and unable to move.

“Just a warning; You may experience some irreversible physical changes or abnormalities after this, it varies depending on genetics, so no way to know what’ll happen. Anyway, good luck!”

That was the last thing Pinkamena heard before she felt the cold sensation enter her mind directly, like Alice’s fingers were entering her brain directly. Numbing not only her entire body, but her mind itself, turning off all her emotions and thoughts for a moment, leaving her blank.

She felt nothing for a minute or so, unable to form a thought or feel anything. Then, like someone throwing a match onto a campfire, she noticed something spark inside the center of her brain. It was similar to the feeling of eating something hot, a warmness that felt like it would fade away. Instead, it got hotter by the second, as if raw coal was being thrown in a fire. It spread throughout the rest of her body, until all of her senses were enveloped by it.

It had burned so fiercely that it felt like her entire body was melting from the inside, her brain felt like it had been left in a microwave and slowly turning into some kind of thick liquid. Her organs were burning so strongly she had almost expected to be coughing up smoke, her arms and legs felt like the veins were replaced with boiling water instead of blood.

She clutched her hands as tightly as she could, feeling that her nails had already extended to claws and dug deep enough to hit bone. She slammed her teeth together so fast and hard that she could feel some of her teeth chip, steam coming out of her mouth as her body tried to repair itself. But the pain from those weren’t even enough to be a distraction from what was happening inside of her body, which only seemed to get worse by the second.

She hadn’t even felt her body move or remember trying to move it, it was like she blinked and she was off the chair and coming face to face with the floor. Her claws now digging deep into the wood, her head pulling back and then slamming into the floor, hoping it would knock her unconscious or something,

It never did.

It was hard for her to pay attention to anything other than the pain, but she could hear screaming. It sounded distant, she couldn’t tell where it was coming from. It was loud enough to where it could be coming from anywhere, inside or outside the shed. It sounded somewhat familiar, like she’d heard it before. It was also distinctly femine, though it was so shrill and loud it was hard to tell. The owner of the voice must have been being tortured or something, as they were in clear agony.

She felt stupid when she realized whose voice it was, it was her own screaming.

The screaming stopped for a moment, being replaced by the sound of retching. Pinkamena’s vision had gone pure white from the pain, unable to even see or feel anything but the mind-breaking pain racking through her body. She could feel a warm, thick liquid running down her face, likely blood from slamming her head against the ground over and over again. She could also feel her mouth was wet and sticky, but she couldn’t tell why.

Suddenly, the pain throughout her body stopped. Her body felt normal again, no pain or soreness in her body left at all. Her senses were quickly coming back to her, but strangely, she didn’t feel any pain. Instead, she felt a bit euphoric, like the feeling of relief after a muscle cramp throughout her entire body.

As her vision came back into focus, noticing that she was still against ground, she saw some kind of black liquid. There was a puddle of it right under her, it was a bit thick and was similar to blood. It smelt somewhat like blood, but somehow it was...off. Like it was contaminated or there was something wrong with it, it was hard to explain.

She saw some of the black liquid drip from her head, entering the puddle. She brought her fingers up to her forehead where she had been banging it against the floor, pulling it forward and looking at it. It was covered in the same black substance, she could feel it on her mouth too, was that what she had thrown up earlier?

“Is...that my blood? Why is it black?” Pinkamena whispered, her voice hoarse from the screaming she had done.

*That’s...new, interesting. Anyway, you’re halfway done! Your brain and body have now been successfully molded to the proper shape it needs to be, now comes for the hard part.*

“The hard-”

She suddenly felt something....invade her body and mind, like an entity was forcing itself into her mind. It wasn’t painful exactly, but the word...uncomfortable didn’t seem to fit either. It didn’t seem very bad at first, like some foreign substance entering through her ear or something. But it only seemed to get worse every second, every single part of her body getting invaded. More than just her orifices, it was like something was seeping into every inch of her body. Her skin, muscles, bones, even her organs were being seized.

She was losing sensations in her body and mind, but not the same as before. She could still feel them, but they didn’t feel like hers anymore. Her entire body was in some state of limbo, a mixture of numbness, heat, cold, pressure coming from every angle inside and outside of her body. Any time she tried to move anything, some kind of shock was sent through her body and directly into her brain, causing her to scream as the sharp pain stabbed her brain.

This entity was forcing itself into her body and mind, she could feel it fusing itself with her against her will as she tried to fight it. She could feel her mind going blank as the very essence of who she was was being conquered, she tried to think back on her memories, attempting to focus on some semblance of who she was. As she tried, new memories forced themselves into her mind, placing themselves within her own. The memories weren’t hers, but they fit in her mind like puzzle pieces, like they were meant to be there.

It made it harder to tell what memories were hers and what memories were there’s, only made worse as more kept being inserted.

“My name...is Pinkamena Diane Pie.” She mumbled to herself as she tried to stand up, yelping in pain as she tried to push through it.

*I’d say I’m impressed you can move during this part of the process, but you’re so obscenely stubborn that I doubt there’s anything you can do that would surprise me at this point. Oh well, move as you like, won’t make the process any more difficult. *

Pinkamena got to her feet, trying to walk outside of the shed. Every step felt like she was rolling on a bed of hot needles, sharp enough to dig deep into her body. But she had to move and get out of the shed, she needed to move.

“I...am Regino-no! Pinkamena!” She said to herself in an unsure tone, like she was trying to convince herself of what she was saying.

Every step she took seemed to be more agonizing than the last one, her body felt less like hers with it. More and more memories from other people were getting forced onto her, she couldn’t discern what was hers or not anymore.

“My name is...Clarence, no, yes! Wendy? No, no, no! What is my name? Pinkie? Samantha? I can’t remember anymore!” Pinkamena shouted as she pushed the door open, a mixture of fear and confusion on her face as her eyes darted back and forth, like dozens of different answers were in front of her to one question.

*There’s the identity issues, only gets worse long term. One of the host actually tried to deal with it by switching through some of the memories and becoming the person for a bit, that was...fun.*

Pinamena looked to her right, looking to her right at the ocean. She needed to see her reflection, she couldn’t remember what face was hers anymore. If she could just see her face, she could remember who she is.

*Wouldn’t recommend doing that, can’t really stop ya though.*

Pinkamena got on her hands and knees, lowering her head to the surface of the ocean water. It was still very dark outside, but her vision was good enough to where she could just barely see her reflection. At first she could see her face, her blue eyes and straight pink hair easily recognizable. But as soon as her eyes focused and she saw it, it seemed to...change. It began to shift into the face of a man. She recognized it as the face of one of the memories of the previous host, it was a strange feeling seeing a face that she felt that she’d worn before.

Just as soon as she realized what that face was, it changed again. This time to a different female face, another face she’s worn before. It changed again as more memories were added, each face matching the memories being added. She had to pull away from it, unable to see her face changing like that again and again, it was just making everything worse.

*Alright, that’s the last of the memories. Now, to pull out the ‘people’ part and keep in the
‘Knowledge’ part.*

The feeling of something forcing itself into her entire body and mind was now being accompanied with a different feeling, like something was being forcibly taken from her. Things inside of her that were important to her, that made up who she was. As each thing was stolen, she felt this gaping hole where it once was, missing it like it was something she absolutely needed to have.

Pinkamena fell against the cold dirt ground, the pain in her body seeming negligible compared to the emptiness she felt as memories were taken away. Entire lives she remembered living vanished, only the imprints of them being left over, reminding her that they were there.

Hot tears ran down her face as her mouth opened, but instead of crying, she laughed. She laughed because it reminded her of her the most, but also because she was sad. She had lost so much and taken so much and she was tired of it, tired of everything.

So she laughed like she’d always done, like she’d always do, like she always knew how to do. It filled the forest as tears streamed down her face, losing more and more of herself as more was forced upon her.

She was Laughter, and she was broken.

Epilogue: Old Friends.

The sound of people chattering on the tv.

The refrigerator making ice.

Neighbors dogs barking from their yards, or their children shouting as they played outside.

All everyday background noise in his life, all so he didn’t have to be alone with his thoughts, and it helped him sleep.

Thirty years or so of working at The Syndicate as an enforcer, some of the best and worst years of Wind Rider’s life. Spending most of his teenage years and early adulthood as a fighter in illegal boxing and other betting fights was what got him involved with them, but it was basically all he knew how to do. He was never smart or very athletic, physically strong, sure, but all those restrictions and rules just pisssed him off. Competition made things fun, yeah. But he didn’t like it enough to dedicate his entire career to it, plus learning all those strategies and working with others wasn’t to his liking.

Fighting on the other hand? Perfect for him. The adrenaline pumping through his veins, the feeling of not having to think and just let himself go was incredibly addicting. He knew how to take hits, all the weak and vital points to guard. His body was tough and so were his fists, his hands had the most scars on his body, covered in various calluses that hadn’t aged particularly well. It got to the point where moving his hands or trying to touch anything hurt, but he’d gotten used to it.

There was one thing he knew better than almost anyone he’d ever met, he knew how to hurt people.

The Syndicate had absolutely no lack of weirdos, especially that piece of work Blake. He was good, but there’s always room for improvement, even for someone like him. Blake decided to give him a few words of advice on how to really do damage to someone, even deciding to show him some examples.

“That creepy fuck.” Wind Rider said as he brought his beer can to his mouth, taking a sip of it as he watched the tv, though he wasn’t really paying attention.

Now all he did was reminisce and regret, the good things he’s done, and the bad. “Live in the present”, he used to say, “dwelling on the past is useless”. It was easy for him to tell off all the old people who spent their time thinking about the things they could’ve done differently, but now that he’d lost his passion and vigor, that’s all he could do. His body had become weak and frail, the long term consequences of the life he lived, and the fact that he was not able to keep up his workout didn’t help.

Just like the people he used to make fun of, he could do nothing but the things he used to make fun of others for, it was downright pathetic. He should be dead, but that freakazoid Discord showed up and helped him fake his death and gave him all the retirement money he would ever need. All thanks to the fact that he was pretty close friends with the leader, Igneous was a good guy and was the only person in that place that he really felt he understood. He wasn’t allowed to know anything about The Syndicate after he left or have contact with anyone there, there wasn’t a day that went by he didn’t think about him or wonder what he’s up to.

Sadly, retirement was very boring. He bought the smallest, cheapest house he could. It was small, had four rooms that weren’t furnished, and the place wasn’t maintained at all. Blue and green walls that had aged poorly, he knew he had rats and bugs, but didn’t particularly care. He sat in an old leather chair, watching tv and eating microwaved meals and slept, that was how he spent everyday life.

“All because I killed the wrong bitch.” He mumbled to himself as he took another sip of beer.

“Strange, I don’t remember you mumbling so much.” A voice came from his right, the source hard to see since they were so deep in the darkness. Barely more than their outline could be seen, not even their eyes were visible.

“Habit, comes from being alone so often and having no one to talk to. I was wondering when you were going to say something. Thought you were an assassin or something come to kill me, but you’ve been sitting there for thirty minutes or so just staring at me. Figured you were waiting for me to acknowledge you or something, but I wasn’t going to give in and decided to wait you out. Guess you underestimate my patience.”

He heard the person whistle, like something impressive just happened. “So you actually noticed me? Surprising, I thought you were getting senile in your old age, glad to see I was wrong.”

“Not senile quite yet, it would seem. Way past my prime, but I’m a bit harder to sneak up on than your average geezer.” Rider said as he glanced to the right where the person was, his eyebrows furrowing for a moment, like he was trying to figure out the answer to a riddle.

The voice was male, but that’s about all he could figure out. It was deep and gritty, having a very calm and composed tone, like they were talking to an old friend. The thing that pissed him off the most was the fact that he felt positive that he’d heard this voice before, he just couldn’t remember where.

“Good, then I wasn’t mistaken in coming here. I need your help with something, you’re basically the only one I could ask to do this for me.”

“If you’re from The Syndicate, don’t bother. Not sure how you know who I am, but I’m retired, as much as I hate it.” Rider said as he brought the beer can up to his mouth, not noticing until he tried to drink it that it was empty.

“Then…” They stayed silent for a moment, like they were trying to think of what to say. “Think of this as a favor to an old friend.”

There was an awkward silence for a few moments as Wind looked at the spot they were in, before looking down at the beer can in his hand, internally debating whether he should get up and get another one.

“What makes you think I want to? Or that I can? I’m old, older than I thought I’d live to be. If you’re asking me to beat someone up or kill someone, I couldn’t even tell you if my heart could handle it.”

“You won’t be killing anyone, as for fighting, well that depends on you. Besides, I can tell just by looking at you that you’re bored out of your mind. You miss it, don’t you? I wouldn’t call you a genius, but you were by far one of the best I’ve seen at kicking people’s ass. All I’m asking is you pass down that knowledge and experience to someone else, I’ll leave how you do that completely up to you. Plus,” The voice took a darker tone, he could see them shift around in the dark. “Don’t you want to help the daughter of the woman you killed?”

Wind noticeably flinched when they said that, the hand that was around the can tightening as he crushed it. He looked at the person in the shadows again, a tense scowl on his face. Then he relaxed, closing his eyes as he took in a deep breath, letting out a loud sigh.

“So, the kid lived. That’s actually a pretty big weight off my shoulders, thank you.” He mumbled as he opened his eyes, tossing the crushed can across the room into a trash can beside the TV. “But since you’re asking me to help teach them how to fight, you must be desperate, and they’re in some kind of trouble. So what is it? They got debt to the wrong people? Piss someone off?”

As he asked this he slowly stood out of his chair, pressing his hands against the chair as he struggled to stand. He walked to the kitchen and opened the fridge, pulling out another can of beer and shutting it as he walked back to the chair, sitting down in it and opening the can.

“That’s a bit weird, you were never the type to really ask questions other than ‘who do I punch?’.” The voice asked as they seemed to be shuffling their hands around in their pockets as they were looking around for something. They seemed to have found it and brought it up to their face, putting something in their mouth.

“I’ve gotten a bit curious in my old age, so excuse me if someone random guy shows up and asks me to leave retirement with little more explanation than I’m helping out an old friend.” Rider said in a snarky tone.

There was a sparking sound as the person seemed to be turning on a lighter, putting it against a cigar and lighting it. Briefly showing the bottom part of their face, but instead of skin, it showed some kind of leather material around his face. It seemed they were wearing a mask, they must have been someone really important if he was this concerned with hiding his identity . “Let’s just say this is all a test of sorts, and leave it at that. She’s in trouble alright, all I’m asking you to do is to teach her how to get out of it. Don’t ask anymore questions like that, and we should be fine. Oh, and don’t tell her who you are either. That would just...complicate things. So what do you say? You in?” He asked as he pulled the cigar out of his mouth, a puff of smoke coming out of it as he exhaled.

Rider glared at him, before looking down at the beer can, moving around the can a bit as the dark brown liquid inside sloshed around. Retirement had been agonizingly slow and boring, every single day he couldn’t stop himself from thinking back on his glory days. His years of experience and knowledge were unparalleled, he’d only met a handful of people he couldn’t beat in a fist fight. It made him regret not having any children to pass his passions onto, with what he could teach them, they could easily be better than him.

But now this person was offering him a chance to do just that, and to get him out of this mind numbingly boring house, even if just for a bit. That made it hard to say no.

“Oh hell, why not? I’ve got nothing to lose. But can you at least tell me her name? I’d like to know that much, at least.”

“Sure, their name…” He said as he took another puff from the cigar, remaining silent for a few moments as he turned his head upwards, like he was thinking about something. Before looking back down at Rider, only his hands were visible from the dark. He seemed to be wearing dark black gloves, like he was trying to hide his identity in every way he could.

“Is Rainbow Dash.”

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Homra was a very small and simple bar, open at all times and took in everyone with little rules and restrictions. It was located in a middle class area of town, right across from some kind of large building that belonged to some big time business, which was an entirely intentional choice by the owner, since they figured a lot of people after a day of working they'd want a drink. As it turned out, that was exactly the case.

It was currently little past nine, about the time a lot of people were getting off work. The bar itself wasn’t particularly big, at least not on the outside. It had one glass door, a small open/closed sign on the inside. The building itself is made mostly out of a dark brown hardwood, which looked very well furnished and like it had been recently cleaned. It seemed like a more high class place that would be reserved for rich people, but it was actually completely open to the public.

The inside looked more or less the same, the walls made of the same hardwood material and had various paintings on them, the floor was covered in bright white carpet, which was a bit peculiar for a bar. The room was dimly lit, giving it a very relaxing and comfortable environment. The left side of the room had a couple of tables made out of a bright white softwood, one brown stool chair on each side. There were a handful of these tables, all of them had small signs in the middle of them with various quotes on them.

The right side had booths instead of tables, which had large leather seats on each side of a table, the table exactly the same kind as the tables on the left side of the room. It wasn’t very late into the night, so the bar wasn’t very populated. There was a waiter or two walking around giving the few people there the orders they asked for, but it was mostly quiet.

Except for the back of the room, where the main part of the bar was. The counter was also made out of dark brown hardwood, professionally polished with no stains to be seen. There were rows of drinks behind the counter, everything from whiskey to wine, glasses were on the underside of the counter where the bartender was facing. The patrons would sit on the same kind of stool chairs that accompanied most of the tables, being served their drinks by the few bartenders that would be there.

While the bar occasionally had its share of rambunctious occupants, at night it usually calmed down more. This night was like those, incredibly quiet other than the slight noise of asking for more drinks, very few words being said at all. With the exception of two people at the counter, having a joyful conversation accompanied by a bit of laughter, though not loud enough to disturb anyone.

Discord and Juno were on stools beside each other on the far left part of the bar, away from anyone else. Discord was wearing his large brown lab coat and the rest of his clothing, a smirk on his face as he was chuckling at something. Juno was wearing his black clothing with the same kevlar, his red tally marks still engraved on it. However he was no longer wearing his face mask or their dark sunglasses, having taken them off and put them in a jean pocket. His brown hair was even more of a mess than usual, his skin was deathly pale like he could fall over any moment, his eyes so sunken and dark that it was obvious he hadn’t gotten any sleep for a long time. His beard was no longer perfectly trimmed and seemed to be getting longer and tangled. Even so, he had a wide smile on his face, seeming completely fine.

“Come on! Tell me what you said after that!” Juno said as he put the shot glass he just drank out of on the counter, only his second drink since he’d been here.

“Alright, hold on.” Discord chuckled as he tried to stop laughing, his face quickly changing into a serious glare as he put down the one glass he’d gotten.“I looked him in the eye just like this and said, ‘If you’re going to fight, fight like you’re playing musical chairs. And brother, the music is about to stop.”

There was silence between the two for a few moments, so tense it was like Discord had just told him he killed someone. Then, just as abruptly, they both started chuckling again, laughing at a joke only they would get.

“Are you fucking serious? That was the last thing he heard before he died? If it wasn’t from you I wouldn’t have believed it! Dissy, you really do have the best stories!” Juno said as he patted Discord on the back, turning to the bartender and gesturing for another drink.

“What can I say? I’ve got a way with people, sometimes it helps that they can’t usually tell when I’m being serious or not.” Discord said as he pushed the glass away from him, gesturing to the bartender that he was done drinking.

“I missed this Discord, a lot more than I thought I did. Back in the days where you, me, Starlight, Michael, and occasionally Fancy Pants if he was in the mood, and we’d just have a night out on the town. Guys would hit on Starlight, Michael would get pissed and defend her or something, Fancy Pants actually really enjoys making sex jokes and innuendoes when he’s drunk enough. I try my best to just relax and have fun, which is a bit hard for me. And you were...being you, it really was some of the few times I really felt happy and didn’t have to think about anything. I’d give almost anything to go back to those days.”

The smile that was usually on Juno’s face was gone, replaced with an empty stare, a nostalgic and sad look in his eyes as the bartender filled his shot glass with something. Juno quickly picked it up and tossed his head back, drinking the entire thing in one gulp before setting it back down.

“Yeah, believe me, I get it…” Discord said as he closed his eyes for a moment, putting both his arms on top of each other and burying his head under them, hiding his face. “Everything was fine until Igneous became leader, he wasn’t a bad one, but things in The Syndicate were just bad. Starlight and Michael’s relationship was fine up until I started making him Imperium, I shouldn’t have kept giving it to him. If I had just said no…” Though his voice was muffled, there was evident guilt in his voice.

They stayed like that for a few moments, neither speaking as they were thinking about the past. Then Discord promptly raised his head, facing Juno again with a slight smirk on his face. “Well, there’s no point dwelling on the past, right? Let’s get to business, I’m sure you want to get some sleep since you have the day off.” He said quickly as he pulled a small, yellow envelope out of his lab coat pocket, putting it in the counter and sliding it over to Juno.

Juno didn’t turn to face him, glaring at him out of the corner of his eyes. He knew Discord didn’t really ‘do’ serious, not if he could avoid it. Even if it was a serious subject, he’d always find a way to joke about it, it made it hard to tell whether he cared or not. Juno knew he cared, and that he knew when to take things seriously, he just rarely showed it. It was obviously Discord’s way of coping with everything, but it had gotten to an unhealthy point where he struggled to even take his own emotions seriously.

While it pissed Juno off occasionaly, he could deal with it, Discord wouldn’t be Discord otherwise.

“Whatever boats your float, whaddya got for me?” Juno asked with a forced smile, moving his stool chair closer to Discords.

“Someone tried to hack into The Syndicate earlier today, they got deep enough to where they sparked my interest. I stopped them from getting any deeper and got their address. Normally, I’d hire someone else to just go and handle this. But I’m pretty sure I know who this is, and if I’m right, I need to handle this discreetly and delicately, something you excel at.” Discord said in a serious tone, opening the envelope and pulling something out of it.

It was about the size of a small photograph, but he was placing it where only him and Juno could see what was on it. “I need you to go to this address and look for this girl, search the entire place. If no one is there, you look for pictures of any kind, even if it's just one. If you can’t find anything like that, you look into their records and see if they own any other properties. Summer houses, vacation homes, anything of that sort. If they do, you will check them the same way.

You need to be absolutely sure before you make any kind of choice, you cannot mess this up!” Discord said in an almost threatening tone, a scowl appearing on his face that seemed strange on him.

Juno’s smile faltered for a moment, Discord wasn’t usually this intense. “Okie dokie, I think I can handle that. No pressure, right?” Juno said nervously, focusing on the picture as he tried to memorize the person in it.

“Of course not!” Discord said with a shrug, his usual grin coming back to his face like it never left. “I trust your judgment, you haven’t failed before, anyway. So if it isn’t them, do whatever you want. Threaten them, kill them, I don’t really care.”

Juno stared at him for a moment before just shaking his head, grabbing the picture and putting it back into the envelope. “You’re so silly sometimes. I’d ask why you’re so interested in some random hacker, but honestly I’m more sleep deprived right now than I have been for a while. I’m starting to hallucinate and sometimes my hair feels like bugs and it kind of freaks me out, I really need to get some shut-eye.”

“Sure, go ahead, sleep as long as you want. I’ll keep Pinkamena preoccupied if I have to.”

Juno got off the stool chair as he put the envelope in his pocket, pulling out his face mask and sunglasses and putting them on as he turned away from Discord. Right as he got out of the chair and was about to start walking away, he stopped, like he was about to say something.

“Discord, are you ok?”

He didn’t have to turn around to know Discord flinched when he asked him that, if Juno was being completely honest, it wouldn’t have surprised him if Discord didn’t answer at all. Instead he heard him scoff, like he was just dismissing it as a joke or he didn’t want to answer.

“Not really, I haven’t been ‘ok’ for a while. I don’t rea-” Before Discord could finish, his phone began ringing. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flip phone, putting it against his ear and answering the call.

“Hello? Nick? This better be you telling me you found it, I don’t have time for much else.” Discord said with an irritated tone.

Juno didn’t wait for him to finish his call, walking outside of the bar and heading to The Syndicate’s base to sleep. Discord stayed in the bar for a few minutes as he stayed on call, receiving a full report on their progress and how they found what they were paid to find. “Took a bit longer than I would have liked, but as long as you cut it out without damaging it and keep it in the temperature chamber I gave you, it should be fine. Spend tomorrow gathering all the equipment and get ready to leave, I’ll send you the coords of where to send it later, make sure it remains intact, or it’s your ass.”

Discord ended the call by slamming the flip phone shut, sighing as he put it back in his pocket. He pulled his journal out and put it on the counter in front of him, opening it as he pulled a pencil from behind his ear, the pencil having blended in so well with his hair it seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere to the people around him.

“Things are going about as well as I would hope for them too, I haven’t gotten to the hard part yet, at least. I’m going to have to figure out how to get them to work together, their kind has had an ongoing feud with each for a really long time. But, I’m sure with their hatred and grudges combined, they’ll form an alliance to kill him.” He mumbled as he began to write checkmarks on some things, his eyes half-lidded as he tried to think of anything he was forgetting.

“And depending if I’m right about this, I’m about to have a whole student to teach. How long has it been since I took someone under my wing? Starlight doesn’t really count, and Melvin’s more of an errand boy than anything. Anyhow, It’s been too long since I took up a protege, but now’s as good a time as ever I suppose.”

He turned to an empty page in the journal, starting to write another checklist for himself, though this one was phrased more like instructions than a list of things to get or do.

“She’ll probably resist at first, not as much as a pushover as she used to be. She’ll try to negotiate or get an advantage over me, I’ll just have to show her I’m better than her. She’s smart, but not experienced. The hard part is going to be keeping her and Pinkie separated, I don’t know what she'll do if she finds out too much too soon. I need to make sure they’re both prepared before they can talk, if it happens too early…”

Discord grimaced as he wrote something, before going back to the top and writing the title of this page. “Well, I’ve done all I can do right now. It’s your move,” He wrote the words ‘Prodigy Protege Plan’ at the top of the page in bold letters, before placing the pencil in the center of the book, looking at the words he wrote with a satisfied expression on his face.

“Twilight Sparkle.”

Author's Note

Hello! This is the last chapter for this arc of the story, which took me longer to wrap up than I thought it would. The next arc will be focused almost entirely on TSK, and then after that? Things will get very, very....interesting. Tell me if you find any grammatical issues or story inconsistences, thanks for reading, enjoy!

Chapter Ten: Inquiry, Part Three.

Author's Note

Hello, first I just want to apologize that this took so long. I was working on a side project and that made this take a bit longer than I intended. The next chapter is going to be a therapy sessions chapter, and I intend to make it shorter than the last one, so it shouldn't be long till that is done. Tell me if you find any issues, and thanks for reading!

Chapter Ten: Inquiry, Part Three.

Scootaloo, at the sound of Pinkamena’s voice, slightly opened her eyes. Her face relaxed as she looked up at her, squinting a bit as she tried to work out the details of her face. She rapidly blinked her eyes, widening as she recognized who she was looking at.

“Pinkie Pie? Why is your hair like that?”

She only briefly glared at the young girl in response, giving a disapproving grunt as she extended her hand to her. Scootaloo looked at Pinkamena quizzically, before looking at her hand, a bit more caution as she did. She reached up and grabbed her hand, noticing how rough her hand was. She got to her feet, wincing a bit as the dull pain was still present.

*I’m glad I held back as much as I did, any harder and I would have fractured her spine at the least. Still, why did she attack me?*

“Sorry about slamming you into the ground like that, I don’t react well to people stabbing me.” She said sarcastically, but there was a bit of shame in her voice.

“And sorry about stabbing you, I thought you were a thief or something.” Scootaloo said nervously, her eyes wandering to the stab wound. She noticed the fresh blood around the area that was stabbed, and the surprising lack of it. She also noticed slight bits of steam that was coming off of it, it was barely even bleeding anymore. Her mouth opened and stayed agape for a few seconds in astonishment, trying to work out in her head how that was possible.

“What the hell is going on with you-”

“Don’t worry about it. What are you doing in Rainbow’s apartment?” Pinkamena responded dismissively, putting her hands in her pockets and clenching them as she tried to ignore the adrenaline pumping through her body after getting stabbed.

Scootaloo stared at her for a moment, noticing immediately this was not the Pinkie Pie she knew. At first she hadn’t even recognized her, if it weren’t for the pink hair and skin combined with the blue eyes, she wouldn’t have. Now everything about her felt...off, wrong even. She wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with ponying up or Equestrian magic, but it was obvious that the knife wound didn’t hurt her as much as it should have.

She decided not to press it, it was evident that she wouldn't get anything out of her.

“I’ve...been living with Rainbow Dash for a while. I’m an orphan and have been for a good portion of my life, I lived wherever I could however I could. I try to hide it from other people because I don’t want their pity and I don’t want to be treated differently because of it. But Dash found out about it, and instead of being mad at me like I thought she’d be, she offered to let me stay with her. I agreed, cuz why wouldn’t I agree to living with the awesome Rainbow Dash! And I try to contribute how I can by watching the place while she’s gone, which is why I’m here.”

Other than the bit of excitement when she mentioned Rainbow, Scootaloo’s voice was actually rather dull, with almost no emotion behind it. It was like she was just desensitized to it, maybe because she had to do everything she could to be normal due to her desire to fit in. If so, Scootaloo was tougher than most people thought, Rainbow would be proud.

Pinkamena knew a thing or two about wanting to fit in, she too was now an orphan, though she was sure her circumstances were significantly different. Unless Scootaloo happened to have killed her father and caused her mother to kill herself because of it.

*Fucking shit, am I really this morbid now?*

Pinkamena looked away from her for a moment as she walked over to the closet, where she guessed Scootaloo had come from. She noticed that the door was now completely open, revealing what she had missed before. Scootaloo did her best to turn the closet into her room, while still being able to function as a closet. She used the clothes as both a pillow and a blanket, and there was a backpack in there with what she assumed was everything Scootaloo owned, and that was all she could see.

Pinkamena glanced back at the orange teenager for a moment, noticing that she was watching her in suspicion, which is about what she should expect considering she snuck into here and was healing a stab wound like it was nothing.

“So,” *I’m going to regret asking this since she doesn’t know, but I have to anyway.* “When’s the last time Rainbow was here?”

Thanks to her being so close to Scootaloo, she didn’t have to focus on her hearing to notice the sudden spike in her heartbeat. The questions obviously made her very nervous, her eyes were looking everywhere but at her as she tried to come up with a response.

What Pinkamena couldn’t figure out is why that question made her so anxious.

“Oh...I don’t know, it's been a while. She usually leaves for a while to work odd jobs so she can afford to keep us fed and stuff, sometimes she can even be gone for a day or two. But she usually leaves me enough food and stuff to last me, so it works out. I wish she didn’t have to be out all the time, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?”

Pinkamena only glared at her in response, which only seemed to make Scootaloo more nervous.

*She’s not lying...more like omitting the truth. Why? Does she know Rainbow’s dead and is trying to hide it from me? Or is it something else?* Pinkamena looked away from Scootaloo and brought her hand up to her face and pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a frustrated sigh barely loud enough for anyone to hear. *Being alone in those woods was dangerous for a lot of reasons, now that I know how much better it is not having to deal with people, I forgot how difficult they can be.*

Scootaloo looked around the room for a moment, like she was desperate to change the subject to something, anything else. When her eyes got to the workbench, they stayed there for a bit, her eyes squinting like she was trying to read something far off. Then widening as she remembered something, quickly turning her head to look at Pinkamena again.

“I heard you talking to someone earlier, but I didn’t see a phone or anything, what’s up with that?”

Pinkamena opened her eyes, putting her hand back in her pocket as her eyes widened.

*She heard me talking to The Whispers, fan fucking tastic. I need to start being more thorough when I check for heartbeats, if that had been The Silent Killer themselves I might be dead.*

She looked back at Scootaloo, trying to think of something believable to say. Then she noticed The Whispers standing right behind her, leaning down with his head to the left of hers. He was pointing to his ear with his left hand and to Scootaloo with his right, what looked like a small bluetooth earpiece handing out of his ear.

She looked between him and Scootaloo before her mouth opened slightly in a circle as she realized what he was trying to say.

“I...have an earpiece in, I’m just talking to Maud because she gets worried about me sometimes, is all.”

The Whispers straightened their stance and gave her two thumbs up, an unnaturally wide approving smile on their face.

Something about that expression made her...unnerved.

“Oh...that makes sense, I guess? What are you doing in Rainbow’s apartment anyway? Shouldn’t you be at school right now?”

“Shouldn’t you?”

Scootaloo suddenly and very quickly shut her mouth, realizing the hypocrisy in what she said. Pinkamena looked forward and walked to the bed, sitting on it with her hands on the side of the bed and her hair covering the majority of her face.

*Huh, more comfortable than I thought it’d be.*

“I came here because I’m looking for Rainbow Dash, this is the first and only place I could think of to look.”

“Funny,” Scootaloo’s eyes lowered as she frowned, an empty giggle coming out of her mouth. “The last thing we talked about was how much she missed you and was trying to find you.”

She walked over to Pinkamena, dragging her feet the entire way like she didn’t even want to walk. She sat down on the bed beside her, her eyes still on the ground.

“What happened to you, Pinkie? You just...disappeared, everyone thought at first that it had something to do with magic. But then we couldn’t find anything like that, and then everyone was worried you’d gone missing or gotten abducted or something. Everyone, especially Sunset and the others, did everything they could to try to find you. Soon Rainbow lost hope, and I’ve never seen her that...demoralized. Out of all of them I think she tried the hardest, that’s why it was the most painful to see her slowly lose hope. I...I’ve never felt more useless than having to watch her suffer like that!”

Scootaloo ground her teeth in frustration and shame, hiding her face behind what little hair she had. Pinkamena glanced at her, a wave of guilt threatening to overwhelm her knowing she was the cause of this.

*I can’t...even begin to apologize to her, nothing I could possibly say would be able to make up for the past couple of months. If she knew what happened to Rainbow, I think it’d destroy her.*

Pinkamena looked at Scootaloo for a few moments with sullen eyes, her mouth opening and closing as she tried to think of what to say.

“I…” She muttered, “I was taken, completely against my will. They isolated me and I had no way of contacting any of you during that, I would have contacted any of you if I could, I Pinkie Promise you that. It was only recently that I...got away, I went to school and talked to the others, and noticed Rainbow wasn’t there. I got concerned and came here, I wanted to know if she was ok.”

*Well, that’s mostly the truth. There are some things I can’t tell her, but she deserves at least a bit of honesty.*

Scootaloo remained silent for a few moments, her hands gripping the ends of the mattress tightly. Then she relaxed, seeming to have accepted the explanation she was given. Pinkamena could tell her heartbeat was still a bit erratic, and could tell she was even shaking a bit as she tried to hold back her emotions to put on a tough face.

“Is that why you’re so different? You’re basically a completely different person, did whatever they do to you change you to be like this?”

“Yeah, you nailed it. But, I’m still me, I still care about you guys.” She said as she went to put her hand on Scootaloo’s shoulder in an attempt to comfort her, though she wasn’t as good with people as she had been before. Incontinently, Scootaloo suddenly stood up, shrugging Pinkamena’s hand off her shoulder.

“I only heard some of the things you were saying, but....why were you talking about The Silent Killer? I’ve heard that’s some guy or whatever that’s been killing criminals, so why were you talking about them?”

*Oh I am glad she only heard parts of that conversation, specifically not the part where I mentioned that Rainbow was dead,*

Pinkamena thought for a few moments on how to respond, the way she worded things was very important. “Scootaloo, I can’t tell you-”

“Why? Because I’m not an adult like you and Rainbow?” Scootaloo suddenly said, turning around with a scowl on her face. “Rainbow said the same thing every time I asked her where she was going when she left or if I could go with her, she said I wasn’t old enough to understand! She treated me like a kid, and she didn’t start doing that until after you disappeared. I get that she might have been worried after what happened with you, but she knows I hate being treated like a little kid!”

Scootaloo had her hands to her sides clenched, it was obvious to Pinkamena this was something that had been bothering her for a while. She could understand where Scootaloo was coming from, when she was younger she was extremely rambunctious. But despite how childish she acted, she didn’t like being treated like a child. It didn’t really make sense, but it was probably something that stemmed from her loneliness and desire to fit in.

*Ironic, isn’t it? Now, even after spending so much trying to fit in, I couldn’t be more different from everyone else.*

“Scoots, that isn’t why I can’t tell you. It’s…” Pinkamena sighed, beating people up was much simpler than this. “Really complicated. There are some things I just can’t tell anyone, it’d be more dangerous to tell you than you think.”

Scootaloo seemed to calm down at that, or, she at least stopped clenching her fist. “I….” She closed her eyes for a moment as she sharply exhaled, “Just want to be useful. Rainbow Dash has done so much for me, and it hurts that I can’t help her and that all I can do while she’s gone is wait for her to get back. It's really fucking frustrating!”

Pinkamena was about to comment on her use of language, but she stopped herself when she realized how hypocritical that would be of her. “I understand how you feel, I get that way sometimes too.” Pinkamena said as she stood up, looking behind Scootaloo for a moment to see if The Whispers were still around. It didn’t seem they were, having receded back into her mind.

“Right now, you can help Rainbow Dash. I think she might be in danger, which is also why I came looking for her. I just need you to tell me anything you can about her, even if you don’t know where she’s been. Even something as small as how she behaved could help, and then I’ll be out of your hair, Pinkie Promise.”

She relaxed a bit at Pinkamena’s words, crossing her arms as she contemplated how to respond. “Well, I’d be happy to help. But there isn’t very much I can tell you that’ll help, I don’t think at least.”

Scootaloo began to walk around the room as she talked, picking them up and holding them in a pile as she walked around. “She tried looking for you with everyone else, but she got frustrated and argued with them a lot because she didn’t think they were trying very hard. She started going to school less and even started missing soccer practice. I know she cared about you a lot, but after a while she kind of got…” Scootaloo stopped for a moment, her jaw clenching for a moment out of concern. “Obsessive over finding you. It got to a point where it was almost all she talked about, she even stopped talking to Sunset and the others eventually. She stopped going to school and sports at all, she was out looking for you more than she was here, sometimes she’d even come back with bruises and other injuries, I didn’t bother asking because I didn’t think she’d tell me.”

Pinkamena watched as Scootaloo walked over to the closet which was also her room, placing the pile of dirty clothes she had onto the floor. She sat down with her back face to Pinkamena, pulling some clothes from there and adding it to her pile.

“She’d come back with wads of cash and used it on groceries and other stuff, she hasn’t been able to spend time with me, but that’s alright. When she’s gone I do the best I can to keep the place clean, like do the laundry and stuff. But I don’t always have time to go to school, especially without that old geezer noticing me, I’m not supposed to be up here after all.”

Scootaloo stood up, picking up the pile of clothes and putting it in a basket. She pulled a bottle of laundry detergent out of the closet also, putting it in the basket on top of the clothes. She turned to Pinkamena, but was avoiding looking at her, a blank, almost despondent look on her face.

“That’s about all I can tell you, I tried asking where she went off too once or twice, but she usually answered with something vague like ‘looking for Pinkie’, or ‘taking care of you’, so I eventually just stopped asking. She wasn’t going to tell me, so I didn’t want to annoy her.”

“That doesn’t tell me much, but it's more than I came here with, I guess.” Pinkamena said as she stood up, walking towards the door. “Like I said, I’ll leave now, I have other things I need to do today. But you really should try to go back to school, I’m sure Applebloom and Sweetie Belle miss hanging out with you.”

Scootaloo flinched at that, but didn’t say anything else. She remained silent, standing in the center of the room with the basket in her hands. She didn’t say anything until Pinkamena was at the door, when she had the door open and was standing in front of it.

“Pinkie,” Scootaloo said as her voice cracked, “Rainbow really cares about you, more than the others did. She kept trying to look for you even when everyone else stopped, she refused to believe you were dead, I guess she was right. When you do find her, just...talk to her for a while, it would mean a lot to her. You wouldn’t have to explain where you’ve been or anything, I don’t think she even cares about that anymore. She misses you a lot, just talking would be enough to make it all worth it to her.”

Pinkamena could feel her grip tighten on the doorknob, her jaw tightened as she felt a staggering amount of shame. It was her fault that Rainbow was dead, despite the fact that she had no control over it, she couldn’t get rid of the heavy guilt that came with it.

She stood there for a few moments with the door open, unable to think of what to say. So she said nothing at all, there was nothing she could say. She shut the door after stepping through, she couldn’t stand being in that room anymore, it hurt too much.

_____

“So, what am I doing here again?”

Pinkamena was in the more suburban part of Manhattan, away from the busy city full of apartments and business buildings. It was a bit of a pain to get here without a car, but she also didn’t feel like going back to her house and getting the car, or driving at all. She never really liked driving that much, it made her feel constricted. Sitting in a giant metal box just hoping something doesn’t mess up or that somebody else doesn’t mess up, was just not something someone as paranoid as her could get used to.

Though freerunning wasn’t exactly risk free, there was more...liberty in it. She could always slip up and fall, but at least she had the freedom to move around the way she wanted to. However, as risky as freerunning was, with her peculiar situation, she was a lot more likely to die in an automobile accident than falling off a building.

“I told you already, and you know I hate repeating myself, so this is the last time I’ll say it. You owe me a favor for that whole thing with Applejack, and right now, that entails sitting on this building and watching the house across from us. And, like I said before, you will know what it is you’re looking for when you see it. Just be patient, it's only a little past three, you’ve still got plenty of daylight to burn. Besides, TSK doesn’t usually do anything until the sun has been down for awhile. You have to also consider how things went last time. They don’t have the healing factor that you do, and considering they tussled with you and Juno, I’d be surprised they were even alive if it weren’t for the fact he was prioritizing getting you out of there. It’s pretty damn likely TSK is taking their time licking their wounds and isn’t even going to do anything tonight, so untwist your panties and sit still like a good little girl.”

She had to bite her tongue to prevent herself from saying something that would just piss them off. “I’d like to ask what the point of this is and how this benefits you at all, but I’m sure you’d find to make your answer as vague as possible, assuming you even gave me one.”

He only scoffed at that, a smug smirk on his face.

Pinkamena was sitting on a house in a line of other houses, sitting at the edge with her feet dangling off the end. The Whispers were standing behind her, watching her with their hands in their pockets. After giving the keys back to that landlord and leaving the apartment, The Whispers showed up and told her they were cashing in that favor. She decided to not even bother trying to resist them and just hoped it wasn’t something too bad, they basically told her to go to this place and watch this house, she’d know what she was looking for when it showed up.

She had been sitting there for an hour or so, waiting for whatever it was they wanted her to see. It had actually taken her a bit to get here, it was a lot more out of the way than she expected it to be, not to mention she had taken more time in that apartment than she thought she did. Surprisingly, other than the couple of cars driving through since school was letting out, it was actually quite peaceful around here. She didn’t know how much she had gotten used to the commotion of city life until she was away from it, now the only noise here was the sound of random animals and occasionally the idle conversation of people who were in their houses, which the one she was sitting on didn’t happen to have any.

During that time of waiting, she couldn’t help but let her thoughts drift around, it had been a bit since she could just think without having to dread any immediate danger. She thought a bit about Applejack, who despite the fact that they tried to kill each other, were now friends like before, as if nothing had changed. Sunset, who was trying so hard to fix everything even though she couldn’t. She couldn’t even imagine how she had made the rest feel pushing them away like that, but there wasn’t much other choice. She was still processing what happened with Maud and their mom, she couldn’t even imagine what would have happened if Maud had died there.

Strangely enough, she thought about Starlight.

Starlight was the person who’s had the biggest hand in trying to help her, other than Discord anyway. But the way Starlight treated her was so...different, she treated her like a person, unlike anyone else in The Syndicate. Her therapy session with her might have unveiled some unpleasant things, but it helped her sort out some things. Sort of, the best way she could think of to explain is her mind was a distant image she couldn’t see, and Starlight helped bring that image into focus.

Also, Starlight was genuinely enjoyable to talk to. It might have been because of her knowledge in psychology, but she did seem to have a way with people, enough to be dangerous if she really wanted to be. But as far as she could tell, Starlight only had good intentions, and was genuinely trying to help her.

She was one of the few people Pinkamena could talk to about everything and trust, and right now talking to her would have made her day a lot better.

Her eyes glanced to the left as she noticed a car begin to pull into the driveway of the house she was supposed to be watching, a small black van that seemed it would just barely be able to fit four people. They left the car in the driveway and turned the car off, stepping out of the car and beginning to walk towards the house.

He looked like a completely ordinary man, someone that didn’t stick out in any way. Though he was an older man, having short, bright gray hair that was barely bigger than a buzz cut and multiple wrinkles. The only abnormality being a noticeable scar on the left side of his face, a deep gash resembling a battle wound. But he didn’t seem like a veteran of any kind, in fact he had a very skinny body, even the black t-shirt and blue jeans seem to just hang off of him. He was wearing a pair of sandals that didn’t make any noise when he walked, probably because there was barely any weight behind his steps.

At first, she didn’t feel anything, other than a bit of confusion at what she was looking at. There didn’t seem to be anything about him that was special, and it certainly wasn’t someone she recognized. But when she was able to see him, she felt a stabbing pain in her heart, but it felt like it came from inside her. The intense pain spread from her heart to the rest of her body, a deep sinking feeling that felt heavy enough to drag her down.

She brought her hand to her chest, gripping it tightly as the pain only seemed to get worse by the second. Her vision began to get blurry as she felt water in her eyes, warm tears began to roll down her face. She tried her best hold back a sob, her breathing was becoming more erratic the harder she tried.

She felt herself slowly become overwhelmed with a plethora of emotions, her brain was going into overdrive and full meltdown, she hadn’t even felt her teeth bite into her tongue or her nails digging almost deep enough into her hands to reach bone, and she didn’t even know why!

“I-i...can’t...why?”

“What’s wrong? A little overwrought?” The Whispers asked mockingly, walking forward and crouching down beside her, turning his gaze from her to the man across the street. “This will help you out with good old Fancy Pants, but he’s the reason Igneous took out that money for him. He needed to fake his death, for circumstances that aren’t really important, just know it needed to happen. His name isn’t important either, it's not anyone you’d know or are supposed to know. All I’ll disclose is that before Igneous had his big identity crisis, that guy was one of his closest friends, his emotional crutch in a lot of ways. In fact, it probably contributed to how things turned out.”

“Then...why do I-” Pinkamena tried to say as she choked on a sob.

“Why do you feel such a mixture of emotions? Well, on top of the fact that a lot of The Whispers are having feelings of anger, sadness, and a variety of other emotions, Igneous didn’t actually know that his death was faked. Bit complicated, I’ll water it down for you. Big problem happened in The Syndicate, this guy was at the center of it all. Igneous was desperate for things to work out and to save his friend, so he asked Discord if he knew how to make it all go away, that was his first mistake. Discord said he could, but he needed enough money to make it happen. This guy showed up ‘dead’, or at least a guy that looked enough like him to pass. To make sure there was no way of anyone finding out he wasn’t exactly six feet deep, Discord made sure not even Igneous knew. Imagine how you’d feel if you thought your best friend was dead, just to realize later they were actually alive and more or less fine, I’m sure you’d feel a cornucopia of emotions.”

As he finished talking, the man across the street entered his home, none the wiser to what was happening. Her feelings were a bit less intense, but they were still almost unbearable. She tried to stand up and turn around, but her legs felt like jelly and it was difficult to walk. She felt herself fall to her knees and then keel over, her head slamming against the roof of the house, hot tears streaming down her face as she struggled just to think.

“M-make it….stop.” She begged, knowing they wouldn’t have heard if they weren’t The Whispers.

If possible, his smile seemed to get more smug and wider when he heard her. He leaned down and cupped his hand around his ear, like he was trying to hear better.

“What’s that? Make it stop? I thought you said you wanted me to let you deal with it? Could it be the strong and tough Pi-”

“PLEASE!” She bellowed, her face soaked in tears as she desperately tried to stop crying. She was sure her scream was heard by the people who were living in the houses around her, but right now she didn’t care. She just needed it to stop!

He gave a chuckle as he lowered his hand and stood straight, snapping his fingers. “That didn’t last very long.”

She felt the familiar coldness and numb feeling inside her, starting in what felt like the center of her heart and quickly spreading. The emotions she felt began to dull and eventually were overshadowed with that deep chill, until she felt completely hollow. Her face was still wet but there were no more tears, and she was quickly getting her breathing under control.

“How...do you know all of this if even Igneous didn’t know? I don’t get it.” Pinkamena asked as she began to stand up, using the sleeve of her hoodie to wipe the tears off her face.

“Yeah, the situation with Igneous is a bit complicated. I’ll clarify: Discord is probably aware of this, he is terrifyingly perceptive and cautious. We have access to all of Igneous’ memories from before we were put in, after we...dissipated seems to be the appropriate term, we have no idea what went on. That was a good few years, a lot could have happened. But as for how we know about this whole thing, there was a pretty significant period of time where Discord was ‘experimenting’ with us, to put it simply. He was testing ways to keep us contained without causing the people around us to have a strong desire to put us inside them, a side effect of us being in our natural state. What he wasn’t aware of, and what I assure you you will suffer if you try to let him know in any way, is that we could see and hear everything while in there.”

He said as he walked to the edge of the roof, staring off into the distance as he spoke. “It's probably not surprising, but Discord talks to himself a lot when he thinks he’s alone, usually it's whatever he’s planning. He’s quite paranoid, he never made a plan without several contingencies. We heard about that whole situation and that’s how we know about it. But now we don’t care. So you can tell members of The Council that he’s alive if you like, doesn’t make a difference anyway.”

Pinkamena felt a tinge of what felt like anger, but it wasn’t hers and it was still significantly dulled. She turned around and walked to the edge beside them, putting her hands in her pockets with a blank look on her face.

“I’m sure there’s plenty of secrets like this you learned then, but I doubt you’d tell me any if I asked, until it’s convenient anyway. So, instead I’ll just ask how this benefits you? I don’t get how this was a favor to you, and I don’t feel like thinking about it for the next couple of days, so please just tell me.” She said hesitantly, she wouldn’t really be surprised if he did.

“You mean other than to spite both you and Igneous at the same time?” He asked rhetorically, glancing back at her for a moment before looking forward again, humming thoughtfully as he pretended to think. “A lot of reasons, I guess. But mainly to prove a point, and that I’m right. We can’t push off giving you full access for much longer, few days at most. You think the process is so easy and that you can handle it because you’re so tough, and that it’ll be different with you because you’re so special. But now, hopefully at least, you know better. No matter how much you might hate me or Alice, you need us as much as we need you. If you die, we go right back to being isolated until who knows when. So stop being so fucking stubborn and ask for help when you obviously need it, It is actually baffling to me how similar you and Igneous a-”

“If I hear one more fucking person compare me to him, I’m going to throw up!” Pinkamena shrieked, a deep scowl on her face as she glared at him.

He stayed silent for a few moments, staring at her with his eyebrows raised curiously for a few moments. Then he scoffed, a complacent smirk on his face. “Igneous didn’t like being compared to others e-”

He was interrupted when Pinkamena tried to punch him, only for her fist to go through him. Like a shadow he vanished, slight traces of black mist whenever they did. She stayed in that position for a few moments, before letting herself relax as her arm fell to her side and she was panting angrily. She turned to the edge, flopping down on it with her legs dangling off the edge again.

She brought her hands up to her face and moved all her hair behind her hairs, closing her eyes and breathing in and out a couple of times. With a final deep inhale and exhale, she opened her eyes and set her left hand on her leg. She moved her right hand into her hoodie pocket, pulling out the pack of cigarettes and a lighter. She opened it to see there were only two left, she would have to get more later. She pulled one out of the box and set it to the side, putting it in her mouth and lighting it with relative ease. She put the lighter in her pocket and pulled the cigarette out of her mouth with her other hand, a puff of smoke coming from her mouth as she gave out a relieved sigh.

“I miss she demon Sunset, or The Sirens, or even Midnight Sparkle. Those might have been global or even dimensional threats, but somehow they felt like they were easier to deal with, and at least then I had my friends.”

She said to herself, trying to relax as she attempted to process everything she just learned. Not to mention she needed to figure out how to deal with Sunset and the others, even if AJ convinced her to not confront her about it, that wouldn’t be the end of it. She knew Sunset, she wasn’t going to give up and this wasn’t going to be the last of it. She also felt the need to help Scootaloo, since without help she would undoubtedly be forced to live on the streets and do atrocious things to survive, it was her fault she was going to end up like that after all.

*I really need to just..vent, I don’t really care how at this point. I really want to hit something, but talking would probably be better.*

She held the cigarette between her fingers and brought it down to the back back of her hand, pushing it against the back of her hand and burning herself, hearing a slight singing sound as the skin burned and bits of ash were on it. Smoke and steam coming off of the spot as the flesh got burned and almost as quickly began to heal, the burning hurt, but she needed to feel something other than the overwhelming numbness that came with the cold, even if that defeated the entire purpose of it.

She brought the cigarette up to her mouth and briefly smoked it, wiping some of the ash off her hand and then reaching into her hoodie pocket, pulling out her phone and turning it on. She grimaced a bit at the picture of her with her friends, feeling a sense of longing. But she shook her head, putting in her password to get what she was wanting.

She couldn’t talk to Applejack, even if she was available now, there were a lot of things she couldn’t and wouldn’t be able to talk to her about. The others were obviously out of the question. She loved Maud, but she didn’t want to burden her anymore than she already was,

And Discord...was Discord, enough said.

She saw that Discord had sent her his emergency number, along with a text from Sunset saying that they ‘needed to talk’, she was going to choose to ignore it and hope a certain orange farmer would handle that. She began to dial the number Discord gave, bringing the phone to her ear as it rang. She would have just called the number she called him with earlier, but for some reason it didn’t even show that he called her. And when she tried to call the number of the contact she messaged her with, it didn’t even ring.

She decided not to question it.

“This isn’t exactly an emergency, but he’s the only one I can ask. Hope he doesn’t get too pissed, I haven’t seen him actually pissed off and I don’t think I want to.”

The phone ringed for a few more seconds, before there was a clicking noise as Discord picked up.

“Pinkie, this is my emergency phone number that you should only be calling for emergencies. So either you got your ass kicked not even twenty four hours after I told you to be careful, or you’re calling me for something that isn’t an emergency.”

“...I need a favor, can you give me Starlight’s number?”

She felt very tense for those few moments of silence, before flinching when he chuckled, though it was hard to tell exactly why he was. “Luckily for you, I’m in a pretty good mood, more so than usually I mean. Alright, I’ll consider this an emergency of love, then.”

“I don’t love Starlight! I don’t know what gave you that idea, I can count the times we’ve talked on one hand!” She shouted with a bit of a blush on her face, Discord didn’t seem the type to care about the romance of others, she needed to learn not to be surprised when it came to Discord.

“Not yet, you mean. Right now it's just a crush, but it’ll get there. I’m just saying, it wouldn’t surprise me if she swore off men after what happened with Michael, I know she’s experimented with other girls, she seemed to go through that phase for a bit longer than most.”

Pinkamena opened her mouth to respond, before closing both her eyes and mouth, realizing it would have just been pointless. She inhaled from the cigarette and let out a sigh. “Just...give me the number, you old perv.”

With nothing more than another chuckle, he hung up. She heard a ding from the phone, bringing it forward to see that he had messaged her the number. She quickly named it as Starlight and began to call the number, she put it against her ear but the ringing did not last long before it clicked.

“This is Starlight Glimmer, may I ask who’s calling?”

She had half expected Starlight to not be available, so she couldn’t help but smile when she picked up.

“It’s Pinkamena, you have time to talk?”

_____

Her talk with Starlight had been...enlightening, and comforting in a lot of ways.

She still felt a bit overwhelmed with everything, but it made things easier that she had people to rely on. And at least she had two people she could talk to about any of her problems, but she would likely prefer talking to Starlight the majority of the time. She didn’t like whatever weird relationship she had with Igneous, but it at least meant that she had a much better idea of how to help her than almost anyone.

She had spent a good amount of time talking to Starlight, but luckily she had come back to the city while she was talking with her, which took her roughly two hours. Her current plan for the rest of the day was to do what she could to track down The Silent Killer, which amounted to going back to the building they fought on last time, looking for any left over blood of theirs and trying to use it to track them down.

It might not end up mattering at all, but there wasn’t much else she had to go on. Before she could go there, she needed to make a pitstop. She smoked the last of her cigarettes during her talk with her, and since they provided the very few moments of any kind of peace she got throughout her day, it was something she was willing to go out of her way to get.

She wasn’t in any particular rush either, she had gotten almost everything she wanted to get done. The Whispers brought up a valid point, TSK has never been active during the day before, for whatever reason. The best thing she could do was learn what she can about them and hopefully figure out a way to draw them out, if not, prowl around the streets and hope to find them.

Currently, she was buying a pack of Morley cigarettes, a bit curious about what Juno was doing. He was watching her surely, she had no doubts about that. But she wasn’t sure if he was telling The Council everything she did and everywhere she went, but it was safe to assume he was. That would mean they would become aware that she was investigating Rainbow’s disappearance, and that she had visited a member of The Syndicate that was supposed to be dead, there would be backlash for that if it were so.

But that was then, this was now, and now was more pressing.

She had learned to more or less just turn off her senses while she was travelling, she needed to not think at times or she’d explode. Her senses were also rather dulled during these times and she wasn’t entirely aware of her surroundings, something that she admitted was just asking for trouble, she’d need to stop doing that in the future.

She was handing the money to the cashier and putting the pack in her hoodie pocket, when she heard the sound of glass breaking. If it hadn’t been for her fast reflexes, the bullet that shot through the window would have gone straight into her head and it would have been game over. Instead, she dashed backwards as it grazed across her cheek leaving a deep gash until it hit the wall. The cashier ducked behind the counter at the sound of the glass breaking, looking up over it fearfully as they tried to see what was going on.

*I didn’t even hear a gunshot, where did that come from?*

Pinkamena ran outside of the convenience store, steaming coming off of her face as the wound began to quickly heal. She looked around, trying to find the source of the bullet as she sniffed the air.

*I can’t smell any gunpowder, which means either the shooter is far, or…*

Pinkamena looked up at the rooftops, her eyes widening as she saw who she was looking for. The Silent Killer was on the rooftop of the building across from her, in broad daylight like they had no fear of being caught. They were lying prone on the rooftop, in their full black suit with that same sniper aimed down at her. They didn’t seem injured in any way she could see, but that meant they had to be hindered by them in some way, they didn’t have the healing factor she did after all.

She could see the sunlight glare of the scope of their sniper rifle, pulling back the bolt as they prepared to shoot her again.