The half moon hung over the sky transfixed between the stars. On the ground, Epenex, a very peculiar pony was making his way through the dark streets- hiding in the cover of darkness. It was not that he wanted to be seen, it was more about having the feeling of privacy. Epenex valued his privacy and kept a lot to himself. Epenex did not know where he was going as he had nowhere to go, it's not easy being homeless, he thought to himself. The pony found himself in front of a bakery when he heard a voice. "They are better off dead" whispered the voice. He looked around but saw nothing but the glow of a few street lamps. The voice creeped back into his head again, "Kill them". Epenex nervously kneaded the ground. "Who?" Epenex anxiously blurted aloud. The voice did not respond.
Epenex woke early the next morning, which was unusual for him, he usually woke up after noon. He noted his early waking was due to sleeping where the open sunlight could pierce him, causing his eyes to be strained. With a tired stagger he went off to the market to see if he could obtain some food. An apple was 3 bits, overpriced, he thought- he only had 2 bits. Epenex walked up to a brown unicorn with deep blue eyes and a dark gray mane. She reluctantly gave him a bit. Epenex himself had a dark gray mane and was fond of the color. He liked everything about his looks, his bright green eyes, his blood red fur, his little fangs (which drew most ponies to not trust him, he noticed), and his cutie mark- an inverted pentagram with a circle drawn around it. He didn't know what it meant, he felt he was bad at everything in life. He had the cutie mark since he could remember, while other fillies searched for their special talent it seemed as Epenex had already found his, whatever it was. Epenex trotted up to the apple stand and bought a crisp red apple. He no longer had any money and would spend the rest of the day begging. Most ponies just told him to get a job- and he had tried that, twice. The work was always too much for him and he started feeling depressed by the time he quit. Maybe the depression was from knowing he was going to quit, or maybe it was caused by the stress of the job. Probably both and more, he assumed. He was always feeling depressed.
Two days had passed since he last heard the voice telling him to kill. Since then he had heard more, and he could not tell if they were real or not. He had been told when he was young that he was something called schizophrenic, which was supposed to explain why he heard things when no one was around. His strategy was to try to talk to the voice telepathically- if it responded it was most likely 'fake' (Epenex hated thinking the voices weren't real, as they seemed real enough to him). He was sure others could read his mind and just chose not to respond to try to trick him and cover up the fact that they were reading his mind. He tried to trust the doctors that no one was reading his mind, but he knew that doctors lied. It was then, at around nightfall, when he heard the same voice again. "Separate their flesh from bone and sever their limbs" the voice called out. This made Epenex uneasy, and he started to hum the tune of a song he couldn't quite remember. This didn't help as the voice nearly screamed at him in a great bellowing tone "You will kill or I will hurt you greatly!", causing Epenex to lose his step and trip. As he picked himself up he looked and saw a pony gawking at him, he just realized that he was breathing heavily and stampering the word "stop" over and over. He quickly ceased his lips and ran off far away from the pony.
Voices leapt around in Epenex's head, and he tried hard to concentrate on something, anything. Nothing worked, the voices would not stop. He only knew of one way to make the racket freeze- he had to kill. It was the only way, he didn't want to be hurt by whomever was yelling. He eyed the streets for a target, and unsurly landed his eyes on a small filly that was walking alone in the dark. Epenex slowly creeped towards the filly and soon found himself running after her. The filly turned around to meet his eyes and he saw how beautiful she was. She had a white coat, blue eyes, and tan hair. She had yet to receive a cutie mark. With a million thoughts racing through his head Epenex landed a blow on the fillies head. She let out a deafening scream, and in a panic Epenex wrapped his hoofs around her neck and squeezed as hard as he could. The filly kicked and tried to let out screams but Epenex continued to hold on until the filly fell down limp. He continued to stand there until another pony came around the corner, let out a shriek and ran off yelling for help. Epenex just stood paralyzed, and looked back into the fillies eyes. A tear formed and he dropped the lifeless body. His gaze was fixed on the body and he wondered what he had done.
The next morning Epenex awoke in a cell. He tried to recall how he had arrived at the location but all he could remember was the deep blue eyes of the filly he had choked. He sat on concrete looking down when a voice caught his attention. "You have yet to reach your full potential, you must keep killing".
"Who's there!" Epenex cried out, eyes wide with fear. Just then a guard appeared and looked judgingly down at the whimpering pony in the cell. "Hungry?" the guard sternly asked. Epenex did not hear the guard, he was too busy sobbing. The guard stood looking at the unusual pony and wondered how somepony could just kill a young filly. He seems remorseful, the guard thought as he trotted off shaking his head. Epenex held back a tear and looked up, he was sure somepony else had just been there, but there was no sight of anypony now. Epenex looked down at the cuts on his wrist and slowly counted them. One, two, three, he paused- the voices had all gone away now and he felt at peace, besides the nagging thought that he might have gotten himself in trouble. Four, five, six, seven. Seven visible slits on his wrist. He noted how there had been many more over the years- hundreds.
Epenex had not ate in three days, so when the guard handed him a sandwich through a slot in the cell bars he had graciously accepted it. "Knew you were hungry" the guard muttered as Epenex scarfed down the sandwich in nearly a blink of an eye. Epenex was feeling a bit nervous, he did not understand why he was locked up. He looked up at the guard and asked "Why am I here?", the words barely came out as his throat was dry. The guard shot a mean look but his expression turned to puzzlement. "What do you mean?" the guard asked. "W-what did I do wrong?" Epenex stamperd. The guard stared at him for a long time before finally turning around and marching off. Epenex sat bewildered. He knew he had done something wrong, but that was only because he was threatened. It wasn't fair, he shouldn't be locked up for being threatened into doing something he didn't want to do in the first place, Epenex thought. Just then he heard a voice shriek, "Kill the guard!".
"No!", he retorted loudly, "I can't kill him!", he started pacing and trying to take deep breaths- he heard taking deep breaths was supposed to help. The voice crept in and slowly stated "then I'll just have to kill you!", and Epenex shrieked. "Help!" he started yelling at the top of his lungs. "Help!", he continued, as the guard rushed in he suddenly stopped and gave Epenex a nasty look. "What's the matter?"
"They're trying to kill me!"
"Who?" Epenex stopped pacing and thought. Who exactly was trying to kill him? "I didn't see their face" he replied shaking.