The Parasite

The incident with the muggers seemed like a stroke of bad luck. Sunset walked around for a while without encountering anyone else with criminal intentions. Other pedestrians were few, and often moved quickly to their destinations. She stayed away from where she was attacked before, not wanting to be singled out as a suspect if the bodies were found. Which there was no doubt they would be soon, she hadn’t exactly hidden them.

Still, even as she casually strolled down roads she had been warned to avoid, lingered outside shady businesses, no one else touched her.

Well this is boring, Carnage remarked.

Shockingly, most humans are actually decent people. I’ll keep looking around for anyone up to no good, but I doubt the same thing will happen to us again in the same day. Canterlot is a very safe city.

Apparently. Though hey, that young lady walking toward us looks quite distressed.

Oh? Sunset focused on their surroundings again. She was walking toward another young woman who looked to be college-aged, with green eyes and long red hair. She was carrying a few grocery bags and looked quite harried. And then Sunset noticed the car cruising right next to her, someone leaning out and yelling at her.

She was clearly trying to ignore the catcalling, but the guy was quickly growing agitated with her lack of response, and even the driver was shouting, apparently amused by the whole thing.

Sunset’s blood immediately boiled. She’s heard about this sort of thing happening but never expected to see it for herself. It was such a vile lack of respect for others.

Sunset jogged ahead and greeted the woman, and got between her and the road, walking next to her.

“Oh hey, who’s your cute friend?” the heckler called. “Why don’t you two hop in, we’ll give you a ride!”

“They won’t go away,” the woman complained to Sunset.

“Don’t worry. I’ll deal with them.” Sunset turned and shouted, “Fuck off!”

That seemed to briefly surprise the two, but then they just laughed and the driver said, “Love me a girl that’s fiery.”

“Come on, don’t be a bitch!” the passenger said.

Sunset reached through the window and grabbed him by the throat, forcing his friend to slam the brakes. In a rough growl, Sunset repeated, “Fuck. Off. If the next words out of your mouth aren’t an apology I’ll break your neck.”

“Haha, come on dude,” the driver laughed, only to realize his friend was actually choking and turning red, both hands desperately pulling at Sunset’s but unable to make her let go. “Oh shit, hey, let go of him!”

Sunset squeezed harder and the other gagged, switching tactics to punching her in the face. She didn’t flinch, immediately disregarding the brief pain, as Carnage repaired the damage near instantly.

“Okay, sorry!” the driver yelled. “Just let him go!”

Sunset loosened her grip, looking at the passenger. “Do not ever harass people like that again. Now when I let go, you’re going to apologize, and you and your friend are going to drive away.”

He nodded, eyes bugging out slightly. A few blood vessels seemed to have burst in them. Sunset released him and he wheezed for breath, rubbing his throat and hoarsely saying, “Sorry, we were just having fun, we didn’t-”

Sunset drew back her fist and he quickly continued, “Won’t happen again!” He turned and hit his friend’s arm. “Dude, go, get me away from her!”

The driver hit the gas and the car pulled away.

Sunset flexed her arm and sighed, then turned to the woman. “You alright?”

“Y-yeah, they were just following me for a while and kept trying to get me to take a ride from them, I was so scared they were going to stop and kidnap me…”

“I’m sorry you had to deal with that. Where are you heading? I can walk with you.”

“I live in an apartment just up here. But I think I’ll be okay, you don’t have to come with me.”

“I don’t have anything going on. It’s really no problem, I want to come with you.”

“Well… okay. Thank you.” The other smiled gratefully, offering her hand. “I’m Zinnia.”

Sunset shook her hand. “Sunset Shimmer. Nice to meet you.”

They walked together, Sunset making up an excuse about weightlifting to explain why she was so strong, and Zinnia commenting that maybe she should get some weights. Also pepper spray.

“Might need a taser around here,” Sunset commented.

Zinnia laughed. “Yeah, things are usually okay around this time of day, but sometimes there are jerks like those guys who were following me. Plus there’s this one woman over near the convenience store I go to who always looks like she wants to pick a fight. I think she’s in a gang or something. I don’t know, I just try not to look her in the eyes.”

“Really? That's crazy.”

“Yeah. But she doesn’t really seem interested in me most of the time. I think she tries to target tough-looking people, and I’m uh.” Zinnia gestured to herself. “Not.”

“I think you’re plenty tough, you didn’t give those assholes back there any attention and that takes a lot of strength.”

“I wish I was brave enough to yell at them though. I was just scared what might happen.”

“That’s understandable. You put your safety first. That’s brave, to me. But hopefully they don’t bother you again. Or anyone else.”

“Yeah.” Zinnia pointed to an apartment building half a block away. “Oh, here’s where I live. Well um, thanks again for the help. That was really awesome of you.”

“No problem, I couldn’t stand by and do nothing.” Sunset stayed with her until they got to the door. “You gonna be okay?”

“Yeah. There’s cameras in here, I’m just gonna go right up to my apartment.”

“Alright. You take care of yourself.” Sunset opened the door for her.

“I will. You too.” Zinnia stepped inside. Then she hesitated and looked back at Sunset. “So um. Sorry if this is weird, but would you maybe… want to hang out sometime? Sorry, you’re just really cool and I just moved here so I’m trying to make friends…”

“Sure!” Sunset took out her phone, opening the address book. “What’s your number? I’ll add you and shoot you a text later.”

Zinnia immediately brightened. She told her the number and Sunset added it, and she also agreed to have her picture taken so Sunset could add it to the caller ID. Once that was done, they said goodbye and parted ways.

Went out to kill bad guys, made a friend instead, Carnage commented.

That’s just how things work sometimes. She’s new to Canterlot, she could really use a friend. Sunset began writing a text so Zinnia would have her number.

You think she would have befriended you if you had bitten that guy’s head off?

Probably not. She probably would have made a run for it. While calling the police.

Even though you would have done it to protect her? How odd.

Yeah, uh, as much as people hate catcallers I think we would agree that eating someone for doing it is a bit overkill.

Overkill? You still threatened to break his neck!

Threatened. Didn’t actually do it. It was to make him leave, and he did. Problem solved, and it’ll hopefully keep them from doing it again. Not everything has to be solved with murder.

But that’s the fun way to do things!

Sunset rolled her eyes and sent the text. It was brief, just saying who she was and letting Zinnia know that she was a college student, but she would still like to hang out on the weekends or weekday afternoons if she didn’t have assignments to do.

Zinnia answered back, Sounds good! :D

Sunset pocketed her phone. She slid her headphones on, and debated whether she wanted to try and find the convenience store Zinnia went to or just let it go.

Maybe that woman she mentioned is a gang member. Maybe we could check it out.

I don’t want to go on a hunch. Maybe she’s just some mean alcoholic or something who likes to pick fights in public, it’s not unheard of.

Maybe. But maybe not. You do want to clean things up, right?

I don’t even know where the store’s at. I think I’m gonna let this one go. We should probably go back anyway. Sunset found herself at the intersection of the street she was nearly mugged on. Looking one way, she saw a small crowd of people and police cars. She decided to go to the next block over.

Ah, our victims have been found. What an exciting weekend for the news, eh?

You could call it that. Sunset made her way back to the campus. She had gone a good several blocks away, and the sky had grown cloudier. There will definitely be rain tomorrow.

As she walked down the street, she heard sirens from the next road over, and realized an ambulance must have also arrived at the scene. She kinda felt bad for the people who had to clean up that mess. It had to be traumatizing, finding two decapitated bodies with no heads in sight and with gaping wounds revealing empty abdomens. The rough tears of their necks and stomachs serving as evidence that it was no clean cut, but the work of big, sharp teeth severing sinew, organs, and spinal columns like it was nothing. She could only imagine what the police report was going to say.

Found: Two headless, gutless buffoons no one will miss. Status: Dead. Evidence: None. Case dismissed.

Sunset couldn’t help but laugh. I think it’s a little more complicated than that and they will absolutely look for evidence.

Yes but they’ll find nothing of use. The event will be a mystery. Just like we like it.

Surely we’ll leave behind evidence at times, right? A hair, or fingerprints, or uh. Your DNA, maybe?

I don’t know how often hair or skin falls off your body, but I keep my cells under control. I don’t plan to leave behind any part of my body. But if I become careless and do leave parts of me behind, well. No human forensics team would even know what to make of my genetics. It’s like nothing on this planet. As for yours. You have a clean slate, yes? Never been arrested? Your DNA shouldn’t be on record anywhere, nor your fingerprints.

Yeah, about that… I got fingerprinted when I got my student ID. Just a precaution, apparently.

...Ah. Well. Do you regularly need to get your fingerprint scanned for things?

No but they’ll probably check it when I renew my ID next year.

Then I guess my idea to simply rearrange your fingerprints is out of the question.

Do what now?

I’ll just ensure your prints don’t get left around. Should be easy enough. Simply stopping oil production from the pores of your fingers should take care of that.

Whoa, uh, I don’t want to be walking around with dry fingers. Don’t worry about it, I doubt a conviction can happen on a fingerprint alone. We’ll just make sure we’re suited up in the future so we don’t have to worry about it, okay?

Agreed.

Sunset thought back to when the man had grabbed her and wondered if she had left behind any other evidence. He had been barehanded as he grappled with her, grabbing her arms and wrists. No doubt he had her skin under his fingernails. But that was okay. Even if they found her DNA, they wouldn’t be able to match it to her without apprehending her and checking. She just wouldn’t be caught. They could build as big a profile as they wanted on her but if she didn’t let them connect it to her name and face, she was untouchable.

I should mention, Carnage said. If it seems they are closing in on us. I may not be the most skilled hacker on Riot’s team. But I can absolutely get into a human computer system and erase the evidence. We can physically access facilities and take the evidence as well. We will not be captured.

Yeah. They’ve got nothing! Everything will be fine.

That’s right. Don’t you forget it.

Sunset stopped worrying about leaving evidence. She instead began thinking of their hit list. There were a couple within the county, but she didn’t want to do too much in this area after the prison fiasco and now the death of the muggers. No, she had targets in other parts of the state and all across the country. She even had plans for people in other countries, but that would take longer to coordinate. For now, she focused on the ones she could get to easily. She could get one person every week. Probably on the weekends. Maybe mix things up sometimes with weekday attacks when she could. Couldn’t let them figure out a set schedule.

She and Carnage discussed who they should go after next week. There were plenty of choices, but finally they settled on a corrupt businessman on the other side of the state who has been in the national news multiple times for his horrible employment practices and the mass pollution caused by his company.

Was he the worst of the worst? Not at all. But he would be an easy yet highly visible first victim. Sunset was very passionate about green energy and protecting the environment. And when she saw factories billowing pollutants into the air, dumping their waste into the ocean or wilderness, refusing to implement green policies because it was “tedious” or “expensive”, it made her see red.

She could admit she probably took environmentalism way too seriously. There were bigger fish to fry. Worse people to get rid of. But after growing up in Equestria, where ponies lived in harmony with their natural world, it was just especially grating for her to see humans indulge in such carelessness toward their planet. So she was going to make an example out of a few businesses and see if she could encourage them to change their ways.

Your priorities are odd. But food is food! Pursue whatever agendas you want!

I know, this is just really important to me-

You don’t have to justify it to me. Just tell me who you want to kill and we will kill them. No questions asked.

Okay then. We’re going after Mr. Whistle.

Noted.

The CEO in question owned a huge chemical manufacturing facility. Sunset had no problem with the products themselves, they were all widely used and beneficial to a number of industries. What she had a problem with was the sheer amount of loopholes the CEO exploited to avoid following waste management regulations. The countless people who worked in and around the facility who have become sick from exposure to toxic fumes. There was even conjecture that many employees who should be wearing respirators were not provided them, the company’s industrial hygienists insisting that air sampling has shown the chemical concentrations were below the occupational exposure limits and thus respirators were unneeded.

Sunset had heard that OSHA was going to be investigating. But then, Mr. Whistle has been warned and even fined before. And still the unethical practices continued. Employees complaining of eye and lung pain and no access to respirators. The huge amounts of smoke filling the air day and night. The disposing of chemical byproducts through the usual commercial means, but without labeling said byproducts as hazardous and causing untold harm to the trash collectors who had to move all of it. One such collector had to seek medical care after a bag split open in his hands, its contents so acidic it soaked through his work gloves and burned his hands. The company had done a big show of apologizing and settled out of court for the damages. And proceeded to hire a different trash service. Because of course they didn’t have the money to change their practices, but they could absolutely keep paying fines and legal fees to prevent being shut down.

It was all disgusting. No more. She was going to confront Mr. Whistle and the company was going to have a major reform. One way or another.

Why hasn’t your government done anything about such blatant violations?

Because the company has the money to pay off who it needs to. Because every time a bill gets proposed that could force the company into following stricter regulations, it gets lobbied against and fails to pass. Because profits and convenience are apparently more important than lives.

Well aren’t you passionate about this. I can’t say I fully understand. Or care. But I will gladly eat the businessman. Is he big? I hope he has lots of meat on his bones. Mm.

He’s a portly-looking guy, yeah.

Yum.

Next weekend. We’ll go on Saturday. He’ll be at his office. We’ll take him down.

And you’re absolutely sure you want to make our second big attack an environmentalist thing?

Gotta start somewhere. After him we can deal with some famous politician who got away with rape or the leader of a big gang or something.

Whatever you say.

They had arrived back at the campus over the course of their conversation. Sunset headed up to her room and laid on the couch, using her phone to look up the latest news on Mr. Whistle and his company. He was still getting in trouble it seemed. And still he refused to take basic steps that would immediately improve the livelihoods of his employees. So be it.

She set the phone aside and gazed at the ceiling. Maybe she was overreacting. But this was something she was willing to fight for in pursuit of her better world, and with Carnage, she was going to do it.