My home is my castle.
It’s where I’m in control.
It’s my place of refuge from the world.
And most importantly, it’s a place where I hide all my dark deeds from prying eyes.
“Wow! This is where you live?”
And now I have to share it with a bouncy orange filly who just couldn’t keep her filthy hooves off of anything. I was already starting to regret this decision as I watched her paw through my life, picking it apart piece by piece.
“Is this you when you were a kid?” Scootaloo asked as she held up a picture of my high school graduation. I guess she managed to pick me out because I was the only one not smiling.
“Yeah, that’s me alright,” I said with a small smile, trying my best to look like I was reminiscing. I’ve meant to throw this thing away.
In truth, I hated high school. The mere concept of highschool struck me as something a sadist would come up with. I mean really, who else would group socially awkward, hormone raging teenagers in an enclosed environment and expect them to get along?
I still wonder how I managed to graduate without killing most of my classmates.
“Ewww... What’s that smell?” Scootaloo asked suddenly, her hooves held over her nose. “It stinks!”
Looking around quickly, I tried to make sense of what she meant. My home was spotless. Clean. It didn’t stink.
“What smell? I can’t-”
My eyes fluttered as the mystery smell Scootaloo was complaining about finally hit my sensitive nose and sent me reeling, gasping for fresh air.
I did my best not to gag as I looked around my castle desperately. “Oh, sweet sisters above... Where is that coming from?” I asked myself with increasing worry.
Pointing her nose around my home, Scootaloo sniffed the air before jumping back and gagging. “Ew, ew, ew! It’s coming from the basement!” she cried out in disgust.
The hair along my back stood on edge. Something that smelt like decay was coming from my basement.
My sanctuary.
“Are you sure?” I asked as I took a whiff in the same direction.
Scootaloo nodded through teary eyes. “Yeah... What is it?” she asked as she held her nose tighter, the smell starting to really get her.
Ohh, I knew exactly what the smell was. I was unfortunate enough to have smelt that same odor after my second and third kill, having not yet to learn the proper body disposal procedures I’ve come to know today.
“Oh no...” I said rather glumly. “This is all my fault...”
Scootaloo looked up to me with a nervous frown on her face.“What? What’s wrong? What happened?”
I shook my head as I ran my hooves through my mane, acting like I was genuinely feeling guilt. "I was trying to fix my septic system a few days ago and I thought I had it. I guess a pipe broke or something and it’s leaking..."
Scootaloo nodded slowly as I explained. "Ohhh...” She blinked a few times before she finally wrapped her head around what I was getting. “Ohhh! That’s so gross!”
Walking over to my closet, I opened it up and started to rummage through it. “Scootaloo, do you mind going outside and playing for a bit?” I asked her as I pulled out what I affectionately called my ‘clean suit.’
I love my clean suit. I got it during my time training for biological clean up training while in New Colt City. I loved it because it protected me from all the nasty things I came into contact with regularly. That and it’s machine washable.
“What is that?” she asked as I slipped my back hooves into my clean suit.
I glanced over to her as I grabbed the zipper. “It’s so that I don’t get dirty while I’m down there.”
Scootaloo cocked her head to the side as she watched me slip into it. “Ohh... You really like being clean, don’t you?”
“Well, cleanliness is next to godliness,” I said with a little chuckle as I pulled the hood up. “If you do go outside, please stay in the backyard and don’t talk to any strangers.”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes as I lectured here. “Alright, alright... Geez, you sound like my-” She stops short and tears up a bit before looking around. “Umm... W...Where’s the bathroom?”
“It’s through the kitchen, down the hall, and to the right... Are you okay?” I asked as she slunk away. Her wildly swinging mood was starting to worry me. After all, it couldn’t be healthy, physically or mentally.
“Yeah... I just... I just think I need to cry a bit more...” she said as fresh tears streamed down her face.
“Then I wouldn’t recommend going in the bathroom right now if there’s something wrong with the septic. If that’s all you wanna do... Just cry... then why don’t you go up to your room?”
I was of course, referring to my guest room. Not that I had too many guests.
Well, except... You know.
“M...My room?” Scootaloo asked sheepishly. “I got a room here?”
I gave her a little nod as I pointed to the stairs. “Yes, it’s upstairs, next to my room. It’s a little plain, but we can get your things as soon as the police are done investigating.”
“Okay then... I’ll leave you to work on the uhh... septic...” Scootaloo said with a grimace as she wiped away her tears.
With a final nod, I grabbed hold of the basement door and looked up to her. “You might wanna get upstairs now, before I-”
Scootaloo scrambled up the stairs. “Yeah! Good idea!” she called out.
I listened for the guest's door to open before taking a deep breath and plunging into the dark depths of my basement. The smell was overpowering... It just didn’t smell like death; it felt like it.
Like I was being enveloped in a fog that was strangling the life out of me.
Gagging aloud, I practically jumped through the doorway and slammed the door behind me. I wanted to get this done and over with.
“Oh, goddess...” I found myself moaning out as I thundered down the stairs, looking around through teary eyes for what was making my castle reek of death.
It was then I honed in on the trash bag containing my latest kill, whom I neglected to bury the night before. Walking towards the bag, the smell became even worse.
Okay, maybe I can just bury him and use my sprays to get rid of the smell. I thought as I grabbed the bag, only to stop short as I felt the contents shift around.
The closest analogy I had to how it felt was as if you threw a bowl of soup into a shopping bag.
“...Liquid? Pony liquid? There’s no way...”
I didn’t know what to make of it. I would have been fascinated by the whole thing if it didn’t utterly terrify me.
“There’s no way...”
In all my years, I’ve never heard of a pony decaying like that. I couldn’t believe it. Part of me wanted to open the bag right there and look inside, just to find out if it really did happen, but the more sensible part of me knew what I had to do.
Picking up the bag carefully, I started to drag it over to the open grave I had all prepared for him last night but was too lazy to bury him in. Something I was now kicking myself for.
“Careful, careful, careful...” I chanted under my breath like some sort of prayer as I lowered the bag slowly, knowing one slip up could send a wave of fluid that wouldn’t come out of my coat for months.
I let out a sigh of relief as I finally felt the bag touch bottom and jumped back as I let go. “Tumbler, I must say, you have been more trouble than you were worth...” I grumbled under my breath as I grabbed my shovel. With a heavy sigh, I gathered up the first shovel full of dirt and tossed it unceremoniously into the grave as I pondered just what could cause a body that was in — almost — perfect condition to turn into soup.
Well, it wasn’t anything you did... You used the same cleaner chemicals; you followed the same rituals... What changed?
It wasn’t until I was halfway through burying Tumbler that something struck. Something so terrifying that it made my knees go weak and my mouth go dry.
Bacteria... Virus... Parasite. Any number of rare, infectious diseases could have done this. And I got his blood on me. I slept with his blood on me.
Picking up the pace, I started to move shovelful after shovelful of dirt into the grave, filling it as fast as I could.
You could be infected... You can have whatever he had. Whatever turned his body into soup is swimming around in you right now.
I couldn’t take it anymore. With the last bit of dirt in the grave, I threw my shovel to the ground and bolted for the emergency shower as I peeled back my clean suit. Reaching up, I looked into the showerhead as I pulled the lever.
I never thought I would ever need this thing. I’m glad I put it in now.
Letting out a sigh of relief, I let the hot water flow over me and wash away some of my troubles. It did little to quell my fears, but it was nice to pretend it did something.
“Keep it together, Daymos... Just keep it together... You’re going to be... going to be...”
Who are you kidding? You know you’re not going to be fine... Can’t you feel it? Your whole body is host to-
Slamming my hoof against the stone wall of the basement, I took a deep breath and focused myself. “You’re fine... Now just stop... You got work to do.”
Letting go of the lever for the shower, I made my way to the chemical cupboard and opened it up.
I learned from my past mistakes. With the dead right underneath my hooves, I had to be prepared. And boy, was I ever prepared.
Not many people know that lemon juice is the best thing to get rid of the smell of decomposition. It’s a trade secret of crime scene cleanup teams in New Colt City. They still haven’t figured out how it works, but the juice does something, that’s for sure.
Grabbing my bottle of lemon juice, I squeezed the handle and started spraying everywhere in the basement, misting every nook and cranny before turning it on myself.
Besides a bit of stinging from getting it in my eye, it was rather pleasant.
With a sigh of relief and bottle in hoof, I ascended the stairs again, breathing a bit easier as I opened the door.
With a few more spritz of the bottle, I started to wonder if Scootaloo smelled of decomposition, and if she did, how I’d get her to let me spray her down.
Biting my lower lip, I cycled through excuse after excuse, looking for some sort of lie until I finally got an idea. I wouldn’t have to lie. I just had to be a little devious.
Making my way to the bathroom, I unscrewed the top of the bottle of lemon juice spray bottle and threw back the shower curtain. “There you are...”
What better to make sure we were all clean than to add a little something special to the shampoo?
Opening the top to my vanilla-scented shampoo, I wondered if Scootaloo would notice that it smelled of lemons. With the rest of it in, I closed the cap and shook it hard.
“D-Daymos?” Scootaloo called from the top of the stairs.
Quickly putting the bottle back, I flushed the toilet before walking out of the bathroom, just in time to catch her coming down the stairs.
“Hey, it smells better now,” she said as she sniffed at the air. “It’s fixed?”
“Yeah, one of the pipes was loose. All I had to do was tighten it and clean up a bit.” Glancing over at the clock, I clicked my teeth before looking over at Scootaloo. “Are you hungry?”
She nodded quickly. “Yeah. What’s for lunch?”
"How about we go to Peppy’s Pizzeria? I’m in the mood for pizza tonight.”
Scootalo’s eyes lit up and a huge smile grew across her face. “Really?!? Ohh wow! Thank you so much!”
I’ve never seen anyone react that way when it came to food. Well, except for this chubby kid in high school, but that was for a different reason.
“Geez, if all it takes to make you happy is eating out, we might as well go out every night,” I said with a little tease. “Why don’t you go take a shower and we’ll leave as soon as you’re ready.”
No sooner than the words were out of my mouth, Scootaloo was bounding towards the bathroom and slamming the door behind her.
With a heavy sigh, I lumbered into the living room and sat myself down on the couch. I wanted to pat myself on the back for such a clever idea and how easy it was to get Scootaloo to go with it, but I couldn’t relax.
I was too busy holding my wrist against my forehead and focusing heavily on my breathing. I wasn’t wheezing, I wasn’t running a fever, I didn’t feel nauseous, and I didn’t have an ache or pain to speak of. But still felt like I was sick, somehow, someway.
I had to be sure. I wasn’t going to take the risk that I was carrying some sort of deadly disease, but I couldn’t just put myself in quarantine. And I just couldn’t talk to a doctor about...
“Wait a minute...”
Getting to my hooves, I ran over to my bookshelf and started pulling out book after book before finally getting the book I wanted. Hematological Pathophysiology by Doctor Stable. It was a gift and I never thought I’d use the book, but I was so glad I didn’t get rid of it.
Nothing screamed out at me when I first read it about any diseases the liquified ponies, but it wouldn’t hurt to keep my eyes open while looked for what really interested me.
“No, not A... B. Hepatitis B... There we go. ‘Hepatitis B can be transmitted through the blood of an infected pony through broken skin or mucous membrane...”
It would have to do. I didn’t want the attention and I wasn’t looking forward to the questions, but if I was going to get tested and put my mind at ease, I needed a cover.
Putting the book back, I wandered over to the couch and fell back onto it.
I’ll call Doctor Stable tomorrow and tell him I pricked myself on an old syringe kit I was restoring. I’ll tell him I’m afraid I might get tetanus or something worse since the needles looked so dirty... I-
My train of thought was interrupted when I heard Scootaloo yell from the bathroom.
“Daymos!” she called out. “I’m almost done!”
“Make sure to comb your mane,” I yelled back as I pressed my hooves against my chest, half expecting to feel it slip through.
As much as I wanted to put it at the back of my mind, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Can a disease really cause a pony’s body to turn to liquid in the span of a night? Even after death?
As ridiculous as it sounded, I have seen stranger things.
“Okay, I’m ready!” Scootaloo happily declared, her mane looking absolutely frazzled, parted in every which direction.
I blinked a few times in confusion as I got up and looked her over. “Did... Did you even try to comb it properly?”
Scootaloo’s smile faltered as she looked up to, her cheeks turning bright red. “I... I actually don’t know how to comb my mane right... My mom usually does it for me...” she said bashfully as she looked down at the ground.
“Follow me...” I said with a little sigh. “I’ll help you.”
“R-Really? I mean, I wanted to ask for help earlier, but I was... Well, embarrassed. I just don’t know how to make it look right,” Scootaloo said as she followed me in. Brush in hoof, I motioned her in front of the mirror.
“It’s really easy as long as you’re looking at yourself while you do it...” I told her as I started to run the brush through her hair. “I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around this. You don’t know how to brush your mane and you’re how old?”
“I was just never shown how okay?!?” Scootaloo suddenly screamed. “My mom, she... She slept all day. The only time I ever saw her was before I went to school and she’d... she’d...”
Again, she started breaking down, sobbing aloud.
There’s no way I’m going to comb her mane every day.
“Alright then, I’ll show you.”
Taking her hoof into mine, I placed the brush into hers and guided her hoof, going through the motions to make her mane look nice, clean, and tidy.
Slowly, her tears dried up as she watched herself in the mirror. Letting go of her hoof, she managed a little smile.
“T-That’s all I gotta do? Just... like that?” she asked uneasily. She started to do it all by herself. “It still doesn’t look right... What else do I need to do?”
As I opened my mouth to explain, a knock at the door got my attention.
“You still have to part it on the side. Do you know what I mean by parting?” I asked her as I slowly started to slip out of the bathroom.
Scootaloo nodded slowly. “Umm...Yeah. I think so.”
“Good. I’ll be right back.”
Trotting up to the door, I looked through the peephole to see a purple unicorn standing there.
“Hello?” she called out as she knocked on the door again.
Taking a deep breath, I put on my best smile and opened the door. “Good afternoon Twilight. How may I help you?”
“Oh! I’m just here to pick up that candlestick I dropped off a few days ago. You told me to stop by and pick it up tomorrow, but I was in the neighborhood,” she said with a chuckle as she takes a little step forward. “May I come in?”
I blinked a few times, wracking my brain until it finally hit me. “Oh! Yes! The sterling silver one! I almost forgot. Don’t worry; it’s done. Just... uh...”
I wanted to turn her away and leave her standing on the doorstep, but I just couldn’t find the words, much less say them.
It didn’t help that by the time I finally got the words out, she had already let herself in.
“Just follow me into the back room.”
What is it about today and all these ponies into my castle?
With a deep breath, I led Twilight tentatively into the living room, bracing myself for some sort of comment on a gut-wrenching smell.
But it never came.
Into the kitchen and right into my ‘legitimate’ workshop, I walked over to the desk and held out the sterling silver candlestick with care.
“It was a rather simple job, actually. I just used a dollop of that cleaner you gave me and rubbed it on with a cloth. After that, it was just a quick soak in some warm water, a quick dry, and I was done.”
Twilight smiled from ear to ear and let out a giddy squeal as a purple aura surrounded the candlestick, levitating it in front of her face. “Ohh, wow! It looks exactly like the day I got it! Thank you so much, Daymos. You have no idea how much this means.”
I gave her a bashful smile and a shrug. “Hey, it’s the least I can do. I mean, you do keep me supplied with all that cleaner.”
That was our arrangement, after all. She didn’t have much money but sure knew how to cook up chemicals. I use her special ‘all-purpose cleaner’ for pretty much everything.
“Oh, that reminds me...” she said as she tucked her candlestick away. “How does the new formula work? I’ve been toying around with a different mixture and trying to make it a little stronger while remaining soft on hooves.”
“Yeah it’s-”
That’s when it all hit me and everything made perfect sense.
* * *
With the last piece of Tumbler in the extra strength garbage bag, I leaned forward and stretched myself out and made my back make snap and pop, a lot like the sound packing peanuts make underhoof.
“Okay... Blood was drained. Neatly cut into sections. All that’s left is a little of my special cleaner and he’s ready for burial...”
Walking over to my chemical cabinet, I flung it open and pulled out my favorite gallon jug of all-purpose cleaner chemical and unceremoniously popped the top off and poured about half of the stuff into the garbage bag.
“That'll keep you from stinking up the place...”
* * *
“You made it stronger?” I asked rather flatly. “Well, that explains it...”
Twilight gave me a curious look. “Explains what?”
“I... I kind of got a chemical burn a couple of days ago from it. I didn’t think it was the cleaner since it never did that before.”
“Ohh darn it...” she cursed under her breath. “I’m so sorry, Daymos. I was just trying to help out. I didn’t mean to give you something that’d hurt you.”
“It’s okay, Twilight. Just... Can you please go back to the old formula?” I asked with a small smile.
Twilight smiled back. “Of course I can. I’ll make some tonight and drop it off...Scootaloo?”
Looking back, I saw Scootaloo standing there, peeking her head out from behind the bathroom door.
“H-Hey Twilight...” she said nervously.
Leaning in, Twilight whispered under her breath. “What’s Scootaloo doing here?”
I ignored her question for the moment and turned to Scootaloo and gave her a little smile.
“Scootaloo, can you go upstairs into my room and fetch my wallet? It’s on the nightstand. Twilight and I need to talk for a moment.”
“Sure thing, Daymos,” she said before bounding off and up the stairs.
Turning to back to Twilight, I let out a heavy sigh. “It’s a long story... But first, I have to ask... Did you read the paper today? More specifically, the front page?”
Twilight gave me a small nod as I led her out of my house. “Yeah, about the mare that killed herself today? But what’s that have to do with-”
Before I can even say it, her eyes go wide and she makes the connection herself. “Wait a minute... Scootaloo is... was?”
All I could do is let out another sigh and nod. “Yeah.”
“But why are you taking care of her?” she asked in confusion. “Doesn’t she-”
“Twilight, I’m about to take a hurt little filly out for pizza and maybe to play a few arcade games as well. Can I make a long story short, so I don’t keep her waiting?”
She slowly closed her mouth and looked to me patiently.
“I knew her mother. I saw she committed suicide, but there was no mention of Scootaloo. I didn’t know what to do or who to talk to, so I went looking for her and found her. She doesn’t have any family in town and the police asked if I could watch her. I said yes.”
Twilight opens her mouth to ask a question, but before she can, Scootaloo comes running out of my house. “I got your wallet, Daymos! I hope you don’t mind, but I also counted it.”
Bending down a bit, I took my wallet from her and gave it a little shake. “Oh? And how much money do we have?”
“Sixty Seven bits,” Scootaloo said with a proud smile.
“Perfect. We can get a large pizza and play every game in the arcade if we want to.”
I turned back to Twilight as I slipped my wallet over my neck. “I’ll talk to you later, okay? I can explain it all then.”
Twilight let out a sigh and shrugged. “Alright then, I’ll see you later, I guess. You promise to tell me everything, though?”
“I promise.”