The Parasite

When Sunset woke up, Carnage immediately sensed that she was still tired. Not physically, of course; he had seen to that. But she was mentally fatigued, and he attributed it to the nightmares she had the previous night. He could have stopped them, but he saw no reason to. Her fears and regrets were of no concern to him.

Good morning, he greeted her through their mental bond.

Out loud, she gave a weary groan and said, “Yeah, good morning.” She pushed herself up, and spent a few moments rubbing the sleep from her eyes before fully climbing out of bed.

Carnage expected her to continue complaining about what happened yesterday, but she didn’t. Her thoughts instead focused on grabbing something for breakfast. He was fine with that.

Sunset was on autopilot for the next few minutes as she poured a bowl of cereal and got a cup of coffee from the Keurig. It was only when she had sat down at her laptop that she finally began waking up fully. She took a bite of cereal as she opened her usual group chat.

Immediately she saw her friends discussing the news, and Twi, seeing she was online, pinged her and asked, Did you see this?

Sunset moved the cereal aside and typed, No, I just woke up. What is it? Though just looking at the link gave her a sinking feeling. She knew what it was.

Several people began typing. And then they were all describing the news report. A prison break-in right in their city. A monstrous creature rampaging through it. It was like nothing anyone has ever seen. The death toll was in the dozens and there were many injured.

Carnage purred with satisfaction. Sunset opened the link, and while waiting for it to load, typed in the chat, That sounds awful. And that it was so close to us…

They agreed that it was scary. Rainbow commented that she was thinking of buying a gun.

The SWAT team’s guns couldn’t even hurt the beast, Rarity admonished her. What could you possibly buy to defend yourself?

I don’t know. A tank? I’ll find something!

Sunset turned her attention to the news article. She scanned it, first wanting to see if there were any leads. She sighed with relief upon seeing none, and went back to read more thoroughly. It listed the time of the break-in and then described the sequence of events. The man in the gatehouse had contributed to the story. Apparently his wrists were sprained but he was mostly unharmed, though has felt woozy since waking up. But he explained everything he saw and how he was attacked.

Various employees of the prison had offered their perspectives as well, and there were photos taken from security footage. Nothing graphic, but Sunset still felt sick upon seeing a shot of them with a wide grin on their face, blood dripping from their teeth. It almost blended in with the color of their skin, but it was just visible enough to make one shudder to behold.

Carnage extended his head out of Sunset’s side, commenting, “We did good.”

Sunset shot him a glare. “No, we didn’t. Look at the mess we caused. I don’t want to do anything like that again.”

“Sure you don’t. You absolutely haven’t thought about who you can eliminate with our power.”

She shoveled some cereal into her mouth instead of replying, but Carnage still heard her thoughts on the matter and decided to address them.

“I know you’ve thought about it. About how the world can be made better if certain people were gone. You and many people think about it. But you can actually do something now. Corrupt CEOs. Greedy politicians who do nothing for their voters. Religious fanatics. Terrorists. Gang leaders. Remorseless criminals of all types. Together, we can destroy them. You want to do it. You want to make this world better. Clean up some of the garbage, hm?” Carnage began slipping a tendril around her shoulders, slowly forming it into an arm and hand, knowing she would find that more comfortable. She briefly tensed against it, then relaxed. Though she stared straight ahead at her laptop screen, he knew she was listening. She had stopped eating. “You and I. Let’s do something great. Let's be heroes.” This was the way to get to her. Appeal to her sense of justice. Plant in her head the idea of killing some to save many more. It will get him fed and make her feel like they were in agreement on something, keeping her from suspecting him. And once he was ready to put his plan into motion, he would be too powerful to stop.

After several moments, Sunset sighed. She reached to where he was holding her shoulder, briefly touching his hand. Her fingers twitched; she had expected it to still be a tendril. She swallowed and looked at his face, meeting his cold opal eyes. It was hard to deny his logic. He seemed to sincerely want her to do what no one else dared to. But was it really justified? What gave her the right to be judge, jury, and executioner?

“Nothing gives you the right,” Carnage stated. “But you can still give it to yourself. Who would stop you? You saw what we can do. Nothing can stop us.”

Sunset took a deep breath and looked away. She finished her cereal while mulling it over, then took the bowl over to the sink and dropped it in. She returned to her desk and sank into the chair, looking up at the ceiling. Finally, she said, “Okay. You need food. I'm not gonna let you starve. But we can’t just behave like a wild animal. What happened last night was really messed up. They’re going to be looking for us now. We’ll have to be careful going out looking like we did before.”

“Fair enough. I only got carried away yesterday because I was hungry. Won't happen again. And we can hunt outside of Canterlot. Avoid the fuzz.”

Sunset nodded. “Right. And we need to make sure that no matter what, no matter how hungry you get… we never attack anyone who doesn’t deserve it. Only the worst kinds of people deserve to die. Even then, I don’t think anyone truly deserves that kind of fate… but we can still pick off the worst. Make small improvements to the world, hopefully.”

“Of course. We’ll only eat the worst. You’re very wise.”

Sunset looked through the news article one more time and closed it, going back to the chat. Wow, super messed up, she sent.

They agreed, and asked if she knew what the monster was. She quickly said she didn’t, and asked why she would.

I have a theory that it could have come from Equestria, Twi wrote. Since nothing like that exists in our world.

That you know of, Rainbow pointed out.

Sunset groaned. She definitely couldn’t let them know about Carnage now. She wrote, I’ve never seen anything like that in Equestria. Well, minotaurs are big and strong like that. But that definitely was no minotaur.

They were disappointed but accepted it, and continued discussing the event. Fluttershy suggested it was an alien. Applejack called that silly. With a nervous chuckle she was glad they couldn’t hear, Sunset agreed that it was kinda silly but not the weirdest thing they’ve dealt with.

Eventually the chat moved on, several of her friends getting into a meme war on a different channel, and she participated, wanting to distract herself.

Carnage was a quiet presence the whole time, choosing not to go back under her skin and instead just watching her interact with her friends. He did that a lot, she’s noticed. Just watched. But apparently symbiotes liked learning about their hosts. She just wished she could learn more about him in return.

“What do you want to know?” he asked.

Right, the mind-reading. Which, speaking of that… “So, hey. How come you can hear all my thoughts, but I can’t hear most of yours?”

He was quiet just long enough for her to think he wasn’t going to answer, but then he said, “I’m experienced in bonding with hosts and my kind is naturally good at filtering which thoughts and emotions cross our mental barrier. Meanwhile, most host species do not get practice in being mentally linked before meeting a symbiote. So they tend to shout every feeling they have at us. You must learn to keep your thoughts private. Put them in a box, or behind a wall… everyone has their own metaphors to help them do it.”

Sunset wasn’t sure how to do that, but she closed her eyes and began taking deep breaths as she focused inward. Ever since bonding with Carnage, she has been able to feel his presence in her mind. It was hard to describe, not quite tangible yet solid. Like a persistent song that just wouldn’t go away, except there were no lyrics or notes to this presence. Just a mass of confidence that she instinctively knew was a sharp, sapient mind. One that could talk to her in thought alone, share memories and knowledge with her, yet was its own entity that could also close itself off to her.

With her eyes closed, it was almost like she could see him as a distant yet recognizable red aura.

She shifted her focus. She imagined her own mind as being surrounded by a fence, with a gate open to allow contact with Carnage’s mind. She felt his amusement at the analogy, but he didn’t speak. She closed the gate and mentally retreated, his aura seeming to fade. Can you hear me? she whispered in thought, nearly silent.

There was no response. He was still paying attention to her, but he didn’t seem to hear her thought just now. She tried again, wanting to get a feel for this private thinking. Carnage. Did I do it? Can you hear me?

She nearly jumped when he replied, but not with what she expected. Well, I think you’ve figured it out. It was as if he was yelling to her over a wall. Muffled, but audible. I can feel your delight but don’t hear your thoughts themselves. Good job. Maybe one day you’ll learn to do that with your emotions too.

Sunset opened her eyes, letting her breathing go back to normal. She gave Carnage a sheepish smile. “Yeah, maybe.”

He wasn’t going to tell her that he could break through her mental defenses with little effort if he wanted. Let her have her false sense of security. He was still going to appreciate not hearing every single one of her thoughts.

“Anything else you wish to know about me?” he asked.

“So, what’s your home planet like?”

“Hm.” He conjured up images of it in their mindscape, inviting her to take it all in. “Vast. And my people are many. What can I say about Klyntar that couldn’t be said about Earth or Equus? There are many different environments. There are jungles. Rocky plains. We have plants and animals. Though there is not near as much biodiversity there. We influenced the evolution of most of the life. We live in symbiosis with the planet. But it is becoming crowded. Resources are scarce. Many of us left to find new planets to colonize. Some of us… such as Riot’s team, were more aggressive in our attempts to find a suitable world.”

Sunset frowned as she saw flashes of his memories. She saw him and his crew partaking in battles on many different alien worlds. She felt his insatiable drive to dominate. “But your team has pretty much met their goal. They’re all living happily back in Equestria. So… no need to fight anymore. And if more symbiotes want to go there, I’m sure they’ll be welcomed.”

“I’m sure they will be. But this urge for power is still in my blood, as much as it’s in yours. We can still be great.” He didn’t tell her he still desired conquest. She’ll figure it out for herself soon enough.

“You really care about strength, huh?”

“It’s everything to us.”

“Hm.” She looked at his memories a while longer, and he was glad that she seemed desensitized to the eyes-on view of him killing countless foes. Perhaps it was like a movie to her, like something not quite real. Or maybe she was just accepting of his past, as hers wasn’t very clean either. He could relate to her in that regard. Then she said, “You’ve always worked for Riot, haven’t you?”

“I was born into his team. He needed more forces. One of his best spawned me, and I pushed myself to be even stronger than them. And I succeeded. Riot saw me as his most promising troop. His demise was very unfortunate.”

“Yeah, he was like a mentor to you, huh? Must have been hard. But I’m sure Twilight wouldn’t have done it if she thought there was a better way.”

“Hmph.”

Sunset could feel his disdain. She decided to change subject, focusing back on her computer. “I should probably work on some homework.”

“Do as you wish.” Carnage retreated to his own thoughts, and Sunset focused on her work. She didn’t have too much to do, luckily, but she liked getting it out of the way early so she could enjoy the rest of her weekend.

It only took about an hour for her to finish everything, and once she closed the final tab she was referencing, she glanced over at Carnage. “So. Now what?”

He considered. Then he said, “We could begin working on a hit list.”

“Seriously? I'm still trying to get used to the idea of becoming some kind of vigilante antihero and you're already suggesting we make a hit list?”

“Why wait? Yesterday's meal isn't going to keep me sated for long.”

“Ugh, fine.” Sunset opened a word document on her computer, paused, and then closed it. She opened a notebook to a blank page, and again reconsidered and put the book away. “I don't want to make a physical list.”

“Good instincts. It could incriminate you. Luckily I can keep a list of whoever you decide to take down. We have excellent memories.”

“Alright then. Well, the first few people who come to mind are kinda inaccessible...” Sunset briefly thought through various leaders of different countries, before pushing those aside. It was fun to imagine certain presidents, ministers, and so on dying, but that would likely only cause bigger problems and she could admit she didn't know enough about politics to truly justify causing such an international upset.

“Bah, who cares about upsetting the sheep. Trust your gut! If you think things would improve with certain leaders dead, let's do it! None of them are inaccessible! We can tear through any security! You know we can!”

Sunset shook her head. “No. I'd rather not. We should start small. Maybe um, keep researching local criminals? But of course we would need to branch out, if too much happens here then this city will get pretty heavily investigated...”

Growing bored, Carnage looked over at the computer and moved Sunset's hands, bringing up a search engine and typing. It took Sunset a few moments to even notice the movement, and when she did, she just sighed and let him continue rather than try to stop him.

“I take it you have your own ideas?”

“Yes. We definitely need to branch out beyond Canterlot. This place has a fairly low crime rate anyway. Although there does seem to be some gang activity. Ah, we could clean up the city before we change sights. What do you say?”

“Well...” Sunset read through the news article he had found. The gang was apparently small but troublesome, responsible for a number of violent muggings and even a few deaths. Some members of it have been arrested, but more were certainly hanging around. “Yeah. Yeah, that seems like an easy target. People like that really don't deserve to live.”

Carnage smiled. Already he was getting her used to the idea of killing those who she deemed below her. In his mind, the gang was righteous, using their power to get what they wanted from the weak. But he knew Sunset would have few regrets about killing them. “Right. They don't. So, onto the list?”

“Add them to the list.”

“Excellent.” Carnage began prodding her into finding more and more targets, and with each person or group she deemed “bad” enough, his satisfaction with her progress grew. It was time for a new dominant power to take over this city, and soon enough, the world.