CHAPTER SIX
When I was a foal, I heard stories about Hydras, Cerberi, Sea Serpents, Dragons, and Manticores. These stories always scared me, I'd stay up all night because I'd hear a noise outside and I just knew it was some kind of terrible monster coming to eat me. But I grew up, and the stories stopped frightening me. I knew the stories of dragons eating entire villages and Hydras swallowing up wagons full of school-ponies were just that; stories.
But the longer I live, and the more I see, I've come to realize something. The scariest monsters you'll ever find aren't in some deep, dark cave, or at the bottom of the ocean. They're ponies, ones you might not give a second thought to. These ponies, they can't be changed. They can't be fixed. They're sick, and they need to be put down. I don't kill ponies. I kill monsters.
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The mismatched group of cyborg ponies enter the city limits of Fillydelphia, the brick buildings gradually increasing in size as they venture deeper into the town. The marble dome of city hall shines in the distance as they traverse one of the numerous roads crisscrossing the city.
They were in the disguises Bruiser had packed, Angel had a simple yet pretty pink dress on that successfully hid her wings. Onyx found it a little odd, seeing her in something so... proper. Still though, she filled it out rather nicely. Not that he'd ever admit that aloud.
Meanwhile, he was stuck with the eyepatch. Again with the fucking eyepatch. It had been nearly 30 minutes, and Bruiser had yet to stop with the pirate jokes. And if he wasn't poking fun at the patch, the black stockings Onyx was wearing to hide his metal legs gave Bruiser plenty to work with. Hiding the metal spike coming from his skull was surprisingly easy, he simply wrapped it in black sports tape. From a distance, he looked just like a normal unicorn, although the horn was around six inches too long.
The wise-cracking stallion had gotten off easy, only requiring a light brown bomber jacket to obscure the metal bands circling his abdomen and stretching down his back. He seemed fully aware of this too, as he insisted on wearing a smug grin on his face the entire time. Onyx was tempted to smack him, but he was fairly sure the huge pony could buck him into next week.
The come to a large billboard hung from one of the multi-story brownstones.
"SATURDAY ONLY! HEART THROB IN CONCERT!
TICKETS ON SALE NOW! HURRY!"
They study the face on the sign, a young unicorn with a pale yellow coat and a golden mane swept forwards was making a pouty-face, doing his best to look... actually, they didn't have any idea what he was trying to do. If he was going for the "desperately in need of a hoof to the face" look, he was having tremendous success.
"So, that's Heart Throb, huh?" Onyx says, looking into the baby blue eyes on the poster. "Just looks like your typical annoying pre-teen pop star."
"Looks can be deceiving" Angel says. He supposed that was true, looking at the doe-eyed mare in the pink dress he wouldn't have suspected just four days ago she had sliced a unicorn into five different pieces.
"Well I for one won't be sorry when he's gone. Radio's in love with the little bastard, they never play anything else. I remember when they played good stuff like DJ-PON3, y'know, real music" Bruiser says, glaring at the billboard.
"You do realize that if he gets murdered, they're gonna be running marathons of him 24/7, right?" Onyx says.
The blue stallion blinks. "...Aw shit. Can we not do this?"
"We have our orders" Angel says, beginning to walk down the street. "We're supposed to set up shop at the Horseshoe Inn."
"Well then why are you going that way? You take 63rd Street you'll get there quicker" Onyx replies.
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They toss their bags into the corner of the room. It was a small, simple two-bed suite. Nothing special, but it was clean and well furnished. Compared to the compound, it might as well have been Celestia's personal bedroom.
"Alright, I'm going to have a look around the concert stage before the crowd arrives" the cream-colored mare says, turning to exit the room. "I'll be back shortly."
The door swings closed, leaving Bruiser and Onyx alone. The black stallion wastes no time in hastily removing the eyepatch. "Ugh, hate that damn thing. Zero depth perception."
"But you look so good wearing it" the stallion sarcastically quips.
"I've got a metal spear welded to my head, watch it."
Bruiser laughs a deep rumbling chuckle as he walks over to the window and looks out. "You really do take after Blackout. He's threatened to skewer me at least a dozen times."
Onyx failed to see the humor in that comparison. "I'm nothing like him" he coldly says.
The blue pony turns around. "Whoa, sorry."
"It's fine, it's just... I dunno." Onyx plops down on one of the beds. It was much more plush than his cot, which felt like it had a mattress made of concrete. He rubs the bridge of his muzzle and sighs. "You ever wonder what the hell you're doing?"
"All the time" he replies. "I actually don't think I've ever gone into a situation knowing exactly what I was getting myself into."
The deep blue stallion looks back out the window to the streets below. Ponies were walking, carrying out their business. "I didn't know what I was signing up for when I started. But I'm here now, don't have anything else to my name so I stuck with it."
Onyx sits up on the bed. "So... what'd you leave behind?"
Bruiser chuckles. "Nothing worth mentioning. Had a wife, cute little mare. She used to do this thing, where she'd get on top of me upside down and..." the pony clears his throat. "Anyway, she left me for an accountant. An accountant, can you believe that? She chose some wormy little number-cruncher over these muscles" he says, holding up his bulging foreleg and flexing.
"Why, what happened?" the black pony asks.
"Eh, she kept going on and on about her feelings or some crap. How I never listened to her, how I never opened up to her, how I hated her stupid cat, there was some more in there but I wasn't really paying attention."
Onyx nodded thoughtfully.
"Just a bachelor in a go-nowhere job in a ratty apartment, I'm not gonna pretend like I made a huge sacrifice by giving that up. Hell, at least at the compound I don't have to pay rent. I ain't like you and Angel, I didn't have to say goodbye to everything I loved. Didn't have anything worth loving to start with."
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They navigate the mob of screaming ponies, sidestepping and shuffling around the hundreds of excitable young mares. They looked like they had just gotten their cutie marks, and they were everywhere. Onyx and Bruiser were possibly the only stallions in attendance.
"Well at least we blend right in" Bruiser says, standing twice as tall as most of the young ponies in the audience.
The stage was set up in the middle of an expansive field, the sun was beginning to set and the crowd was filing in. They follow Angel, who was blazing a trail through the sea of school fillies. "Right over here, there's a spot out of view from the stage" she says, pointing to a large scaffolding covered in Heart Throb banners. Another just like it sat on the opposite end of the stage, lights strung across from them. "You can line up a shot from there, nopony will see you."
"Alright then" Onyx replies. "When do I take the shot?"
"Get in position, we'll signal you when."
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Onyx hunkers down on the scaffolding beneath him. Bruiser didn't specify what the "signal" would be, only that he would recognize it. Angel would be providing air support, should the situation degrade to the point they require it. The multicolored lights swung across the stage, speakers pumped bass-heavy music as the crowd was awash in chatter.
Suddenly, the lights cut out. The crowd screams a shrill cry as a single spotlight illuminates a lone unicorn standing in the center of the stage. He slowly walks towards the edge of the stage, music starting up. Onyx closes his natural eye and the crosshairs fade into view.
However, something strange was going on. He saw a shimmering aura surrounding the unicorn. Various numbers and readings scrolled past, the implant giving him vast amounts of information he had no clue what to do with.
The unicorn starts singing. "Giiirl, I know you're the one for meee... Baby can't you seee..."
"Oh sweet mercy, this is awful" he whispers to himself. He prayed the signal would come quick, any more of this and he'd stab his eardrums. It couldn't be any more painful than the abuse they were taking now.
The crowd was going absolutely nuts, the young fillies were screaming at the top of their lungs, some were in tears. Onyx watches as the aura grows around the unicorn, it spreads out into the crowd. Suddenly, he realized what he was seeing was magic. He was witnessing the spreading of the spell.
Without warning, the lights cut out leaving the stage pitch black. Onyx guessed that was the signal, his implant sees through the darkness and he lines up a shot. He focuses hard, a blue glow burns from his metal horn. A bolt of energy streaks through the dark and explodes in a blinding flash. To his amazement, Heart Throb leaps out of the way, dodging the attack.
The unicorn's own horn glows a soft gold, sending a beam of raw magic energy into the scaffolding's base. The structure lurches under Onyx's hooves, he feels it start to tilt dangerously. He leaps as it topples backwards, metal hooves cracking the wood stage under him as he lands with a loud clank.
The audience is filled with panicked shouting as Onyx fires another blast, Heart Throb vanishes in a flash of light. the bolt of destruction passes through the space he previously occupied a split-second earlier. "What the?" He feels a sharp, burning pain sink into his back. It felt like someone had stabbed him with a red-hot knife. He falls to the ground, seeing the young unicorn standing behind him. A single spotlight had come back on, shining on the two ponies.
"You got some balls, attacking me in the middle of a show" he says, an undeniable cockiness in his voice. "But you're outclassed."
Onyx focuses, another blue bolt cracks across air. The natural unicorn teleports out of the way again, the blast slams into the rear of the stage in flash. Yet another burning wave of pain overtakes him, smoke rising from the singed wound on his flank. He collapses to his knees, teeth clenched tightly. Anytime you wanted to bring in that air support, Angel.
Heart Throb envelopes him in a golden glow, and lifts him into the air. Onyx struggles, but can't break free from the spell. He slams the black pony into the stage floor, again and again. The levitation spell fades, the black pseudo-unicorn lies in the crater in the wood. "Ok Angel. Now would be good."
Apparently, she had decided the same, as she came speeding in like a missile. Heart Throb teleports out of the way yet again, her wing carving a deep scar in the wood that would have severed his head had he been a moment slower. She lands next to the downed pony. "Get up Onyx."
He rises to his hooves with a painful groan. The young blonde unicorn sees them and laughs. "What, what is this? Seriously? You guys with the circus or something?"
Angel speeds towards him, wings spread wide. Heart Throb fires a magic blast that strikes her dead center before ducking under the attack. She lands behind him, seemingly unaffected. She slowly turns around, a lustful look in her eyes.
Onyx stares in confusion. "...huh?"
The mare struts over to the unicorn, hips swinging seductively. "Hello there" she says, rubbing a hoof along his chin.
"What the hell's going on?!" the black pony shouts.
"A specialty of mine. Attraction magic, got ahold of a couple scrolls written by Princess Cadance herself awhile ago" he says smugly, Angel Fire rubbing his chest. "Works wonders on young mares."
Bruiser runs onstage, his heavy hoofsteps pounding out on the hardwood. He sees Angel fawning over the unicorn and his eyes shoot wide. "What the hell got into her? She hit estrus all of a sudden?"
"It's a spell. Bastard's been hitting every school-age filly in the audience with it too" Onyx snarls. Bruiser looks out, noticing the massive crowd staring with blank eyes, seemingly in a trance.
Heart Throb claps mockingly. "Bra-vo, aren't you a clever one. So what if I did? Who's to say I don't deserve a little affection now and then? he says with a sly grin as Angel nuzzles against him and nibbles his ear.
Onyx's eyes narrow as a blast from his horn shoots across the stage and strikes Heart Throb in the horn. He lets out a painful howl as a harsh glow emanates from his body. The light fades, revealing a middle-aged unicorn with a stringy comb-over. He looks at himself in a panic.
"Took me a minute to figure it out, what that was around you was a transformation spell. You're not a teenage colt, you're a sick twisted pervert. That body's the perfect tool to get the attention of little fillies, isn't it?"
"This guy's gotta be at least 40 years old" Bruiser says with disgust.
"What they don't know won't hurt them" the unicorn says, the words coming from his mouth like grease. "The spell works flawlessly. They never suspect a thing. They get one-on-one time with their idol..." he smiles sickeningly. "They'll do anything I tell them."
"You sick son of a bitch..." Onyx spits.
Bruiser cracks a foreleg. "I'm gonna enjoy splattering your brains across the floor."
"Well why don't you come and try?"
The blue stallion charges him with more speed than Onyx expected from the huge pony. He readies a powerful blow as a magical beam strikes him. The cobalt stallion stands there, in a daze. He shakes his head and his eyes fall on the unicorn. "Well..." he says, voice an octave lower. "Hi there."
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!" Onyx yells.
Bruiser joins Angel Fire at Heart Throb's side. "My magic's widely versatile, don't be so surprised. Just relax, you'll enjoy it" he says, horn glowing. The beam shoots through the air, Onyx fires his horn at the same time. The blue energy bolt rips directly through the golden beam and destroys the unicorn's horn. The spell disappears.
Heart Throb collapses to the floor, clutching at the burnt stump, all that remained of his horn. The middle-aged pony was bellowing a blood-curdling scream at the top of his lungs. "That had to be incredibly painful. I understand all of a unicorn's nerve endings connect at the horn" Onyx says, walking over.
The yellow pony looks up at him, fear in his eyes. "You took advantage of little girls. You've done things I don't even want to know about. You deserve far, far worse than what's coming to you" he says, words dripping with hate.
He lowers his silver horn, a blue aura burning on the surface. "I hope this hurts." He fires a blast, the unicorn explodes in a shower of gore and entrails. A huge red splatter on the floor is all that's left of the unicorn. Onyx wipes his face, he had been splashed with the internal fluids by being in close proximity.
Onyx looks out at the crowd, who were staring in shocked silence, having just come out of the spell. They had time to witness the black unicorn murder a pony however. A few were weeping, some vomited. He looks around, Bruiser and Angel motion for him offstage. He quickly gallops away as the crowd erupts in shrieks and yells.
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Back in the hotel room, Angel sat on the bed. "Teen music sensation Heart Throb was brutally slaughtered earlier tonight at a concert in Fillydelphia, eyewitness reports indicate a black unicorn, a cream pegasus, and a blue earth pony were responsible. The public is advised to be highly cautious, as these ponies are highly dangerous. More details as we-" she turns the radio off.
Bruiser said he was going to circle the town a few times, just to make sure they weren't being followed. Angel Fire and Onyx were left alone in the room, he promptly went to the shower to wash away the blood and bile staining him.
The water pounds against Onyx's face, the shower head raining down on him. He had scrubbed himself over at least three times, but still felt filthy. He stands under the downpour, the water running down his horn. Onyx sighs and turns the knobs with a squeak, the shower cutting out.
He steps out and dries himself off. The mirror was fogged over, he wipes a spot clean and stares at himself. The unblinking red robotic eye looks back at him. Onyx furiously punches the mirror with his metal hoof, shattering the glass into a hundred pieces.
Angel watches as he exits the bathroom. "Everything alright?"
Onyx slowly walks over and sits down on the other bed. "...How are you supposed to feel after you kill somepony?"
"Well, that's difficult to say. Everypony handles it differently" she says, her voice softer than usual.
"Is it... is it wrong that I don't feel bad about it? I'm glad he's dead. I know that was the mission, but after what he said, I wanted to kill him. I just..." he searched for the right words. "I dunno what I expected. I thought I'd... I'd feel bad about what I'd done. But I don't. Does..." Onyx looks over at her. "Does that make me a bad pony?" Maybe Bruiser was right. Maybe he did have more in common with Blackout than he cared to admit.
Angel Fire gets off her bed and sits down next to him. "I've seen lots of ponies that had a dark side. Ones that had been hiding a murderous rage all these years, ones with the capacity for unspeakable acts." She places a hoof on his own. "Trust me, you aren't one of them."
"...thanks" he replies. The two stare into each other's eyes for a long silent moment, neither saying a word. Angel runs her hoof through his still-damp mane and leans in close, a light blush on her cheeks. She pushes her lips onto his, Onyx returns the kiss.
She pushes him down onto the bed, straddling him as their tongues explore each other's mouth. Onyx could feel his mechanical heart increasing in speed and hear Angel's breathing become faster and more labored. She runs a hoof down his chest and torso, feeling the taught lean muscle under his midnight-black coat before continuing further down.
"Alright I'm back, didn't see anypony but I made a couple moreWHAT THE HELL?! Mother of Celestia, I leave you two alone for twenty minutes, you're already playing 'hide-the-sausage'! Gah, I'll be downstairs getting a separate room" Bruiser says, exiting the door he just entered.
They look at the doorway before turning their attention back to one another. "Should we, I dunno, go get him or something?" Onyx asks the mare sitting up on his chest.
"Don't worry about him. I've walked in on him doing far worse, trust me."
She picks up where she left off, Onyx let out a little yell. "Easy! You're gonna break it if you keep that up!" he says, rising off his back. Angel Fire pushes him back down.
"Just relax. You're not going anwhere."
Well, there were worse ways to spend an evening.