Men And Monsters: The Silent Killer

Discord looked worse than normal. His skin was so pale, it would be easy to mistake him for a ghost from a low budget horror film. Drinking directly from a coffee pot that he held in his hand, standing with his back against the table and eyes barely open as he stared off into the distance. He hadn’t said a thing since Pinkamena came in, not even glancing at her.

Maybe it was because of how many times she had to come here, but seeing the metal table she’d been strapped too many times didn’t bother her nearly as much as it did before. Like the feeling she was forgetting something, but she knew exactly what it was.

“You look awful.”

It was hard to tell whether or not he was being sarcastic, often it’s the same with Discord. He proceeded to chug half of the pot, which would be disturbing if it was anyone else, since Pinkamena could tell by the steam that he recently brewed it.

“Probably better than you. When’s the last time you slept?”

“I woke up like an hour ago. Been trying to get back into segmented sleep, my body hates me for it, but it’ll be worth it eventually.”

His voice had completely lost its joyfulness, so bland it almost sounded forced. Pinkamena nearly asked what he’d been up to that put him in such a state, but with Discord, it would likely be better for her not to know.

“Any whom, about the whole Rainbow Crash situation.” he mumbled as he reached into his lab coat, pulling out a folder and tossing it towards her.

Deciding not to question how he knew Rainbow’s middle school nickname, she opened the folder. Inside lay a detailed police report with pictures of someone who looked identical to Rainbow; but a lot paler and clearly deceased. Along with a death certificate revealing that her name actually is Rainbow ‘Danger’ Dash.

“With things how they are, I actually had to fake two deaths. Skittlegirl being ‘officially’ missing actually works in our favor a bit. Most of The Syndicate genuinely believes they’re a guy because apparently girl vigilantes aren’t a thing, so the body will be a male. Then we’ll have a police station that’s on our payroll make an announcement a week after you ‘killed’ TSK and brought their body back, so they can’t possibly be the same person, hold a closed casket funeral for the double so no one notices it isn’t her, yada yada yada you get the drift.”

Pinkamena was listening to him as she looked through the file, the detail and professionalism of it so real she wouldn’t know it was fake if he hadn’t told her. “Wow, I don’t know what to say other than thanks. How much do I owe you?”

“Nothing, I don’t want money. I want a favor. I’m going to ask you to do something at a later point that you really aren’t going to like, you’re going to do it anyway.”

“So not much different from usual?” Pinkamena asked sardonically as she laid the folder on the metal table behind her.

“Yes, but you’re really not going to like this. Don’t think about it too much though, won’t be for a while. Maybe.”

The ominous way he said that felt very intentional. He reached into his other lab coat and pulled out a notepad and a pen, writing something on it without looking. Then Discord ripped it off and placed it on the edge of the table, pulling out the chair beside him and turning on the computer.

“Those are the coordinates for where you need to take Rainbow, type them into Google Maps or something. I had Juno leave a bag with everything she needs and enough money to get her by just about anywhere for a month, though she’ll still have to get a job at some point. It’s on the edge of some woods and where Juno will plant the body, which is recently beaten up enough to be believable that they died not too long ago. It’s a mile from a bus stop so you can send Rainbow to where she wants to go, bring the body back here and then I’ll have someone put the suit on them except for the helmet, then we’re done.”

“...really, that’s it?”

“That’s it.”

Pinkamena walked up to the table, read the coordinates, and put them into her phone before ripping the note and putting her phone in her pocket. Discord didn’t take his eyes off the screen a single time, clacking away on the keyboard like a mindless robot going through the motions.

“Discord, are you ok? You haven’t made a single quip or obscure reference.”

He stopped typing and straightened up, leaning his body back to where his head was facing the ceiling and arms were dangling to his sides lifelessly. It was more than a little concerning to see him like this.

“No. All my plans are going extremely well: I’m ahead of schedule, and I picked up a protégé who has a lot of potential and a desire to learn second only to my own. I literally couldn’t ask for things to go any better.”

Pinkamena shuddered at the idea of Discord having a student that he’s teaching to be like him, but held her tongue and waited for him to continue. Only for a pregnant and awkward silence to follow.

“...And?”

“There’s no ‘and’, which is the problem.” Discord sighed and opened his eyes, moving forward so sluggish it was like some invisible force was weighing down on him. “I keep expecting something to go wrong, a minor setback or obstacle or anything. The unexpected isn’t around every corner even though I think it is, and I’m just...not used to my meticulous plans not getting rammed by some sleep-deprived truck driver who’s had too many burgers, y’know?”

His voice somehow lowered even more along with his head, chin resting on the space key and a dreary expression as his eyes were more lifeless than normal. Pinkamena was at a loss for words, more surprised that Discord was being honest than the fact that he has secret plans he’s been doing in the background.

“So, random example aside, you’re worried about something going wrong even though it hasn’t? That’s irrational, but I guess I don’t have any room to judge.”

“Yeah, you really don’t.” Discord said as he raised his head, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. “The longer things go flawlessly the more I think whatever will go wrong is going to be really, really bad and I’ll have no way to deal with it. Making a bunch of contingencies that don’t end up getting used makes even geniuses like me feel stupid.”

He grabbed the coffeepot and chugged the rest of it with no effort, reaching with his free hand and typing something on the keyboard.

Pinkamena frowned at how almost ambivalent his voice was becoming the more he spoke, like he either was hating talking the more he was doing it or just didn’t want to talk to her. It’s not that she didn’t understand the feeling, but she couldn’t shake the thought that there was more to it than that.

“I’ll leave you alone then. I’m sure Rainbow doesn’t enjoy being in that cell any more than I enjoyed putting her there.”

She made it to the door when she heard him put the now empty coffeepot back on the table and clearing his throat. “Before that, you remember that time I called you and told you I’d be too busy and that Melvin would patch you up for a while? I mean it this time.”

He pressed the coffee pot against the wall until a small compartment opened up that fit it perfectly. Discord pressed his finger against the wall at random points, his scowl deepening more with each one until his finger hit a button on the wall and coffee began pouring into the pot. Grunting and pulling out a marker to circle it.

“He’s awkward, but he knows what he’s doing. Melvin more than likely sacrificed a social life in college to study out of crippling fear he’ll fail, but he’s by far one of the smartest people I know when it comes to human biology and anatomy. The reason I never considered him as my protégé is his lack of interest or knowledge of anything else. Oh, and please don’t call my emergency number unless it's something really important this time. I mean that this time too.”

He stood there motionless as he watched the pot fill up, hands in his pockets and eyes glazed over like he’d just turned off his brain. Pinkamena waited with a raised eyebrow, somewhat expecting him to say something else. After half a minute, she gave up with a reluctant sigh, opening the door and about to leave.

“Discord?”

He responded with an affirmative grunt, not even taking his eyes off the coffeepot. Or blinking.

“Please don’t die.”

_____

Getting to the location Discord gave her felt like it took longer than it actually did. Rainbow was reluctant about being knocked out again, but eventually agreed to it when Pinkamena pulled out a syringe full of propofol she’d picked up on the way there. Usually a drug only meant to be used for surgeries by trained professionals, but thanks to The Whispers, she could do it with confidence.

Pinkamena would never let herself be grateful to them, however they did come with ever useful benefits.

After injecting it and waiting for it to take effect, Pinkamena put a bag over her head and carried her over her shoulder. It wasn’t surprising that she didn’t get so much as a sideways glimpse considering it’s The Syndicate, so getting her to one of the access holds was easy.

Despite how easy getting there was, an ugly feeling of apprehension filled her entire body. There were a handful of things it could be, none of which she wanted to think about. Pinkamena did her best to shut off her mind and just go on autopilot, the way her stomach clenched and hair on the back of her neck stood up reminders that made it difficult.

The gas station he mentioned wasn’t very far from a nearby access point. It also was one of the days that got dark quickly; Half-past five and already dark enough for the streetlights to be on. The temperature had dropped too, cold enough to see her breath but not to snow if it rained. Which, judging from the distinct aroma of petrichor in the air, would be soon.

Once she got to the outskirts, Pinkamena let Rainbow rest against a tree, pulling out a cigarette and smoking it before the rain picked up. She was barely able to put it in her mouth with how violently her hands trembled, the burning smoke as she inhaled slightly loosening the tightness in her chest.

We can numb you if you’d like. This is the last step, and we’d prefer to prevent any dangerous variables. You can sulk afterwards.

She’d gotten so used to The Whispers talking without warning that she didn’t even flinch when Alice spoke, some part of her had grown to expect them at any given moment. She exhaled and pressed the end of the cigarette against the top of her hand, the sharp and searing sensation helping her focus.

“No thanks, I can handle it. You’re going to keep up the end of things, right? Go into sleep mode or whatever?”

It is more like we’re omitting the moments you want us to. You asked us to ‘turn ourselves off’ when you say goodbye to Rainbow, but we’ve thought about it and are extremely hesitant to agree. We haven’t been reading your thoughts because we need you to trust us, but we can’t help but be suspicious that you’re going to say something...dangerous.

“Not dangerous, just something you won’t like. Besides, do you really think Rainbow has it in her to kill me, even if she wanted to? Strangers, sure, but she did all that for me. I don’t think there’s anything that could push her to that.” Pinkamena said that as crassly as possible, trying to convince herself just as much as them.

...We’ll be benevolent and heed your request, however we-

“You’re not being ‘benevolent’, you’re being manipulative.” Pinkamena paused as she deeply inhaled. “You want me to think that you care about what I want and how I feel, but you don’t. At first, I thought maybe we could be friends. I was desperate, and you prayed on it just like you pray on everyone else you’ve ever infected like the parasite you are. You give a little leeway, try to make me think you aren’t so bad and gaslight me into trusting you. It’s. Not. Happening.”

She put the cigarette back in her mouth as she stood up; the smoke filling her lungs preferable than living in fear of them. “I’ve realized you’re stuck with me as much as I'm stuck with you. You’re just a puppeteer that cuts the strings of your marionette when you tire of it, and I’m the next dummy. It’s something that I’ve accepted. What I can’t fucking stand is you pretending to be something you aren’t when we both know how two faced you are. You want to force me into doing whatever you think is best for The Syndicate? Fine. Just don’t paint it as being anything else.”

As she huffed as much of the cigarette as she could and put it out, Pinkamena braced herself for an intense brain aneurysm, but it never came. The Whispers remained eerily silent, the only sign of them even still being there was the background chatter that she’d learned to tune out.

You have until your vigilante friend is out of sight after you’ve given them the bag.

All at once, the amalgamation of dozens of voices in her head went silent. Similar to when she injected Imperium into herself, but minus the surge of energy that came with it. She let herself relax now that the only sounds were from the creatures of the night.

“Who...are you talking to?” Rainbow asked as she got to her feet.

“Ghosts. How are you feeling?”

She gave her a confused look and then shrugged, mumbling ‘Pinkie being Pinkie’ under her breath. “Weird. No headache, so that’s good. But like...super alert, y’know? I can feel my heartbeat and I’m not groggy at all, is that normal?”

“Yeah, propofol is unique among anesthetics for its aftereffects on the peripheral nervous system. Efficient but risky, comes with the same problem as using too much of any sleep medicine.”

“You sound like Twilight. When did you learn so much about that stuff?”

“I know a lot of things about a lot of stuff now. Are you ready to go? We’re about…” Pinkamena checked her phone. “A minute away from the cords. Juno probably buried them a foot or two in the ground or something.”

“I’m good to go. Is Juno that guy that pulled my foot out of your ass the first time we fought?”

“I recall that I was firmly placing my foot somewhere between your colon and liver before I threw up. But, yeah, that’s him.”

They casually talked about the fights they’d gotten in on the short walk, joking about them as if they hadn’t come dangerously close to murdering each other. It almost felt good to have a conversation about something morbid that had become a commonality in her life, if it hadn’t been something she hated.

Like she predicted, the bag was buried in front of a tree at the coordinates where the ground was recently dug up. The bag itself was a red duffle with a sticky note on top; A winky face drawn on it and the words ‘her death made more cents than her life.’

She winced at reading it and crumpled it up. “Here. It’s got all you need and you can go anywhere, but you’ll need to get a job at some point. I’m pretty sure you basically graduated from high school too, so congrats.”

“Huh, alright. What about TSK? And Fluttershy? I don’t like keeping them in the dark like that.” she asked as she opened the bag, revealing more money than either of them had seen in their life. Her eyes widened as she pulled out a stack, running a finger over the bills.

“You don’t have to worry about that. They...already think you’re dead, it’s not changing much for them. I promise I’ve got everything handled.”

Rainbow pursed her lips as she placed the money back in the bag, pulling out various things and putting them back as she looked for something. “Hey, where’s Scootaloo’s stuff? I assume you’re having some goon either bring her here or drop her off back at that gas station. Is she going to have her own backpack or something?”

Pinkamena’s body shook as she tensed up, tightly clutching her fist and clenching her jaws. Her breathing so erratic she was on the edge of hyperventilating; Heart beating so rapidly and hard it was painful and near impossible to ignore.

“She...Scootaloo can’t make it.”

Rainbow paused as she closed and lowered the bag, her glare fixed on Pinkamena. “Why not?”

Her stern, unwavering tone terrified Pinkamena to her core. She could feel her lips get dry and breathe hitch as words failed her, even her throat felt tighter. Her instincts screamed at her to play it off. Not knowing how Rainbow would respond scared her in ways worse than her various encounters with death.

However, the heavy guilt constantly sat inside her like a tumor, cured only by confessing the worst thing she’s ever done. It would be so easy to make up some excuse, to let Rainbow leave without knowing the truth.

“Because she’s…” As tempting as it is, she couldn’t do it. The pit of regret would get deeper every passing day, it would drive her insane, and she wouldn’t be able to live with herself. Pinkamena sharply inhaled and clutched her necklace, dropping her head as her hair covered most of her face. “Scootaloo’s dead. I-I killed her.”

The silence in the forest was so deafening it was like the creatures of the night were an audience watching them, going dramatically silent at the revelation. Pinkamena herself couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, couldn’t even tell if her own heart was beating. Focusing solely on Rainbow.

“That’s…” her mouth stretched into a forced smile as she nervously chuckled. “A really bad joke, Pinkie. Not the time either.”

Rainbow tried to play it off, maybe because she didn’t want to believe it. Pinkamena was afraid of this, deeply hoping she wouldn’t have to convince her. Saying it at all left a sour taste in her mouth that she couldn’t stand.

The storm picked up; a flash of light followed a boom of thunder that briefly illuminated their surroundings.

“It’s not a joke, I really…” she let go of the necklace, staring into her palm. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, the events of that night playing like a movie in her mind. “I lost control and the only thing on mind was...killing you, so I came to your apartment and Scootaloo was-”

The energy left her as she collapsed to her knees, the strength slowly ebbing from her body. Her hair was starting to get wet and stick to her face, the icy rain almost not registering.

“She was in the alleyway, and I thought she was you. It was dark and I-I pounced on h-her and...before I knew it her-” Pinkamena’s voice cracked as she forced her eyes open, gripping the wrist of her right hand with her colorless left one. “Her heart was in my hand! I-I watched the life leave her as she held onto my arm and ask me why I-”

In one swift movement, Rainbow rushed forward and slammed her fist into Pinkamena’s jaw. She found herself gazing up at the sky, sprawled on the ground with a dull and throbbing pain from her dislocated jaw.

Rainbow got on top of her chest, her knees keeping Pinkamena’s arms pinned down and face covered by her chromatic hair. For a moment, she was almost as still as a statue, aside from the rise and fall of her chest with each heavy breath.

She began to violently beat her, each punch followed by an effortful grunt. The blunt pain was tolerable to Pinkamena, likely more painful to Rainbow than her after the first few. The hits were too frequent for anything to heal, but she couldn’t do much damage at all. It almost hurt Pinkamena that she was doing this at all, if it wasn’t for the fact that she felt it's what she deserved.

By the time she stopped, the rain had come down harder, pouring down on both of them and washing the blood off of Pinkamena’s face. Rainbow leaned her head back towards the sky, breathing even heavier than before with mouth open and her arms hanging lifelessly at her sides.

“Scootaloo...didn’t have a family, and didn’t know what she wanted to do in life. She didn’t have anyone to take care of her, didn’t have a lot of friends, and got bullied a lot. But…” Her voice became more bleak as she spoke, her mouth tightly biting her lower lip as the rest of her face remained hidden. “She was a good kid. Scoots looked up to me a lot as a role model because I didn’t have much either, I took her in because she reminded me of myself before my dad fucked me up. I...I loved her like a sister.”

She let out an open sob as she lowered her head, revealing her cerise eyes, usually filled with brimming passion, were now hollow with absolute anguish and tears almost indistinguishable from the rain.

“I wanted to be better than my dad, I wanted to be there for her. Fucking shit I turned into my dad! I was there less and less, and I left her alone! And I…” she raises her blood covered hands, her mouth opening and closing as she struggles to form words. “I wanted to save her, I wanted to save you! You made school fun, you made life fun! I spent so much time trying to find you that I neglected her, and I’m supposed to be Loyalty?”

Her void chuckling rapidly devolved into crying as she covered her face, Pinkamena unable to bring herself to do anything more than lay beneath her. Her bruises were almost healed, and watching what her actions had done to her friend hurt more than any of the punches did.

“And for what? For whatever you turned into? You’re barely even human anymore!” Rainbow’s hands dropped as her eyebrows furrowed, borderline screaming. “You tried to kill me, you killed Scootaloo! I don’t even want to know how many people you’ve killed. I loved Pinkie, but you aren’t her! She died whenever you disappeared three months ago, and you’re just her ghost. You wear her face, her body, her voice, her memories, but you’re not her.”

Pinkamena’s heart dropped to her stomach, unable to think as Rainbow’s words echoed in her mind. The rain became warm compared to the chill that encompassed her body, but a very different kind than The Whispers gave her.

“You told me this because you want me to kill you, right? It would have been easy to lie, but you couldn’t live with it, huh? Not even whoever the fuck you’ve become can live with something like that.”

She didn’t respond, her body went completely rigid as she stared back into Rainbow’s eyes.

“Well, fucking say something!” Rainbow shouted as she picked Pinkamena up by the collar, their faces inches apart. “Tell me I’m wrong, apologize, say something you fucking monster!”

“...There’s nothing...I can say.”

Rainbow stared into her eyes for a moment, like she was searching for something. Then she scoffed as she released her grip, letting Pinkamena fall to the ground. “I get it now. You’re just a shadow in an empty shell.”

She got to her feet and picked up the bag. “You don’t deserve to get off that easily. No, I’m going to leave for a bit. What you deserve is to suffer, you have to live with what you did. I’ll be back to finish off whatever walking piece of shit is left of you, if you haven’t offed yourself by then. I owe Pinkie that much, at least.”

The thud of her footsteps getting farther was the only thing Pinkamena could focus on, some part of her desperately hoping she would turn around and finish her off. When she left, all the other sounds became louder like she’d increased the volume on a TV. She didn’t know what to do or say, coherent thoughts failing her.

Blood covered her face, clothes getting wetter by the minute and sticking to her body, but she couldn’t move, couldn’t even blink. Some part of her wanted to cry, but there were no more tears to shed. Nor did she have the resolve to kill herself, as much as she wanted to at that moment.

“Happy now?”

Alice appeared without a sound, standing over Pinkamena with her body leaning down identically as she did before. This time sans the unnaturally wide grin, or any expression at all. She almost looked bored.

“...I’d give everything to feel nothing again.”

Her lips pressed together and then frowned, straightening her body and clasping her hands together.

“We’ll see about that.”