//------------------------------// // Silver Eyes // Story: Shadow Changeling // by Reaps //------------------------------// "I'm not insane, am I? No, no, I don't think I am. Am I a sociopath? A psychopath? Maybe, maybe. I don't think so, but then how many psychopaths and sociopaths think they are what they are? Actually, probably a number of them. Maybe I should see somepony, a professional? No, no, that's just asking for trouble. No, I believe I'll simply have to wait until the day I get caught. Oh, well who's to say I even will? Hmm, oh! How rude of me, it appears you're waking up. Aren't you? Can you see anything dear?" An earth pony slowly came to only to find himself held to a wall by metal braces. True to his first instincts, he tried in vain to get free, only to find his fears to be fact as the braces refused to even budge. He looked around a rather large, empty room, one that seemed decently lit and too tall to be sensible. He looked for the voice that had seemed to wake him, and he soon found the owner of it: what appeared at first to be a deep green unicorn with a dark blue, messy mane and a fedora sitting atop his head, just behind his horn. "That's rather queer, you're definitely much less vocal than the others. I can respect that much, but you never answered me, and that is quite rude, sir." The unicorn looked up, and the eyes that met the stallion's on the wall were unsettling to say the least. This unicorn had dull grey eyes, ones that reflected only a hint of emotion, that seemed to be accustomed to hiding anything. "Wh-who are you?" the earth pony stammered out. The stallion blinked and removed his hat, perking his ears forward and holding a gloved hand to one ear. "Care to try again? I don't believe I heard you correctly." The red stallion on the wall took another deep breath, his memories having slowly returned to him, telling him to simply stay calm and things would be okay. "Uh, I, I asked who you are." The unicorn blinked a few more times before sliding the fedora back on and over his horn, which seemed to vanish under the hat as though it weren't there, something that even a novice could manage with a basic enchantment. The stallion nodded to himself. "Well, that's certainly not what I expected. In fact, I believe it's been..." he stops and looks up as he counts on his fingers, making small motions in the air, "one year, eight months, two weeks, and fourteen days since I've heard that question off the streets. What number were they?" He paused for a moment as he put his hand to his chin. "Yes, I believe it was a mare, a pink pegasus. She was number thirty-nine, if I remember correctly. Even then, she was the first in some time herself. Yes, I believe the far more common question I end up hearing is: What are you? A detail I guess I shouldn't really care about, as I answer the same in either case." The unicorn then stopped, staring off for a brief moment before groaning and rubbing his temples. "Stay on track. No time for tangents here. Now, he was nice enough to speak, so just answer the poor thing." He took a few breaths before turning back with a warm smile. "My apologies. I don't mean to rant like that. I just get off track sometimes. Especially with the fives and tens. Then again, when I get them down here, I can finally relax again. I can enjoy myself once more. No more worries about getting caught before I finish a set, you know? That's why you're here after all, you finish my ninth set. Number forty-five. After you, honestly, I could, and probably should stop. A complete set once more, and no reason to start another. I suppose that's a major flaw I have. If I start something, I have to finish it and make it look pretty. You'll be a five, so you'll make the set finished and pretty. Nine is a lovely number as well, truly it is. Squares are lovely little things. Cubes too. I believe this room was my nine meter cube. Either that or my ten meter cube, or was this one my eleven?" "No matter, I'm off on a tangent again. Back to your question, though: I don't really have a name. Well, I suppose I do, but I think that who and what I've come to be is more suitable." He cleared his throat before removing his hat with more than a bit of theatricality. "I, good stallion, am Décés a la carne! Je m'appelle Death incarnate, in the flesh!" With that, the unicorn let out a throaty laugh, one not maniacal, but almost jubilant. "Oh, I never get tired of that bit. Whoo!" After wiping a tear from his eye, the unicorn looked to the earth pony on the wall who simply seemed somewhat taken back by the spectacle. "Oh, come now. You won't be leaving her alive, so you may as well live up what time you have before I have my fun. I mean, goodness! Here you've let me be so rude as to delay answering your question for, what? Five, ten minutes, perhaps? Oh, but then the longer I go on, the longer you live, right? As long as I'm standing here, carrying on, I'm not skinning you alive, or pricking off your hooves, or yanking out your teeth one at a time, or carefully pulling out one of your eyes as not to sever it, only to turn it about and let you see every little thing I do to you, right? Of course I am! I'm no multi-tasker, I can't enjoy rending your flesh and bones and have my mind focused on my speeches at the same time." The restrained earth pony simply gave a small, slow nod. This, of course, made the eccentric unicorn raise an eyebrow. "I'm not sure I understand. You awoke suddenly in a location you've never seen, restrained against a wall, with a mad pony in front of you that has openly admitted that they fully intend to ensure you die this day. You have no way to escape, and no hope of seeing Celestia's sun even one more time in what is left of your life, and yet you're as calm as can be. Sure, you're obviously affected, it shows in your eyes, which by the way, isn't very impressive. You shouldn't let them say anything you don't want them to." He tilted his head side to side for a moment before looking back to the captured stallion. "Then again, I guess it's no real surprise you're not good at that. It's not like you're some kind of serial killer or something, after all. No, you're just a, well, it's not important what you are, really, because nopony will ever see you again, living or not. Your corpse will never be found." The unicorn looked down, striking a rather typical thinking pose after putting his fedora back on. After a moment he looked back to his captive. "Why aren't you screaming and calling for help, actually? Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining, I'm just curious. You're the only pony I've ever had here that has legitimately stayed so quiet that I've had to reel myself in from my own tangents. The others hardly let me get a word in edgewise before I've already carved their legs up and pierced their tongues." To the unicorn's pleasant surprise, the last part of his sentence earned him a curious glance from the earth pony. With a grin the green stallion continued. "Oh, curious, are we? Something a bit odd about my tactics, I take it? Well, to answer what I believe to be your question: Yes. I sometimes like to pierce, and even tattoo my victims. I told you, I make art, beautiful art. Nopony that dies here simply becomes a carved heap of a corpse in the Everfree or something, no. I create art from the ponies I drag down here. I turn them into my personal canvas. After all, they've nothing to lose in my endeavors. I mean, why worry about your boss firing you over an inappropriate piercing or a visible tattoo when you're about to die?" He gave an exasperated groan. "Regardless, you would be surprised how many victims object as though they truly believe I'm going to let them leave, as though they've actually a life left to live somewhere in this world." A glance at the red stallion told the unicorn enough. He frowned and sighed. "Now I think you're just being rude. I mean, seriously. You aren't saying a word. I understand you may be upset, of course. That's fine. I get that. What is not okay, though, is you suddenly being so quiet. You should be losing your mind here. You realize I'm going to kill you, don't you?" The earth pony gulped and nodded, but otherwise kept silent. The unicorn cocked his head for a moment. He gave a slow nod before clearing his throat. "Well then, I suppose that since you'll be allowing me to simply chatter on, I may as well have something to call you. What's your name again?" "Stinger. It's Stinger," sounded off the still visibly shaken earth pony. The unicorn smiled brightly at this and gave a dramatic bow as he removed his hat. "Well good day, sir Stinger. I'm glad to call you my guest. I am equally as glad to be the last stallion you see in this world. I'll accept this proudly." The unicorn then stood, placing the hand holding his hat over his heart. "I eagerly accept such an honor, sir!" Stinger simply stared at the stallion as though he were insane as a silence filled the cavernous room. After a moment, the unicorn cleared his throat and gave an awkward chuckle. He stood straight and adorned his hat once more. "Well, not one for theatrics, I guess, are you? I suppose being in your position might permit such a reaction, hmm?" Another moment of silence filled the room before he sighed and continued. "Look, I'm sorry that you're here, honestly, I am. You seem like a nice stallion. If I'd known you were so decent, I wouldn't have selected you. Well, unfortunately, you're here now, and letting you go would only create problems for me, you see?" Stinger sighed and looked around as the unicorn started his way back from fixing a cup of tea. Said unicorn took notice and decided to look his room over himself, smirking as he noticed something in the general direction of Stinger's stare. "Oh, you like that one? Yes, she was a rather rude one, really, oh, but her body was simply divine by the time I was finished. I daresay, if I were a necrophiliac, I would have the most amazing harem you could find. Here, let me bring her over." "Uh, no, no, that's not really nece-" Stinger was cut off as a silhouette off away in the room lit up in a dull grey aura of magic. He blinked and missed the object teleporting into the light. Upon the vision becoming more clear, he froze, though with his situation it was hardly visible. There, before him, was a light blue unicorn, her horn apparently recently polished and well-kept, her eyes missing, and her body covered in piercings. She had a corset pierced on her; as well as genital and nipple piercings, though the actual parts pierced were concealed by fur, though the rings and chains connecting the three piercings were easily visible; both ears sported ten bars that spanned from one side to the other and covered the front of her ears, both of which her held up by a taught chain between the bars on either side of her head; the bridge of her muzzle was pierced cleanly over from start to end; her lower lip had two rings on it, with the upper sporting two similar rings that rested on either side of the lower rings; her breasts themselves, as he now noticed, seemed to have piercings as well, the chains running through the piercings seeming to create cups above the corset. Her arms and legs posed something Stinger had never seen on a pony before, a magical tattoo that showed easily through the mare's fur, the fiery orange color contrasting well in the intricate patterns and designs that covered her limbs. Stinger finally noticed a slight gleam from her neck, where enough shadow was cast to hide what was there. The other stallion smirked and easily manipulated the corpse to tilt the head up, revealing a blood red ring, like a collar, tattooed around her neck, meeting at a ringed piercing where the center of her collar bone and her neck met, effectively making a very permanent kind of slave collar. The unicorn pulled a cigarette from his pocket. His horn lit up briefly as he lifted the filter to his lips, a small flame emanating from his free palm. He used the flame to light the cigarette before fading it and taking a short drag. After pausing a moment and turning away from his “guest”, he exhaled the puff of smoke and sighed. “You know, Stinger, I’ve been doing a lot of talking here lately. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m kinda glad I did. I mean, I really feel like it helped to talk out a few things. I was the only one that knew my siblings were killed, and that’s because I did it. I’d love to say none of the things I’ve done haunt me, I’d love to tell you I’ve always been a completely cold, heartless killer, but alas, I was not. No, I’m still kind of getting over them.” He took another, slightly longer drag before sighing and expelling the smoke, once more, away from Stinger. “It’s one of the reasons I smoke, you know? Well, one of the reasons I still do. Nasty, nasty habit, swore I’d kicked it some time ago, but it sure as fuck helps you think your nerves aren’t so frayed.” With one more drag, the unicorn raised an eyebrow before breathing out the smoke. “You know, I think I need to say a few last things to you. For one, you better feel pretty fucking special. I’m going to kill you, but I’m so empathetic over your comfort in your last minutes that I’m even assuming you don’t smoke for the time so you aren’t forced to breathe something you don’t want to.” He paused. “Wait, do you smoke?” Stinger simply shook his head. “Probably for the best. On to my second piece, though. I must say that you have been extremely cooperative, especially considering, well, you know, the whole thing with me about to kill you and whatnot.” “Speaking of which, I think I’ll go ahead and get to that. Doubtless you’re starting to cramp up. I didn’t exactly design that thing for comfort, after all.” With that, the unicorn walked to a table and retrieved what looked like a survival knife before walking to Stinger. “Now, since you’ve been such a good sport, I’ll make this quick for you, in fact, I’ll even give you a chance for, oh, what do they call it? Last words? Yes, yes, I think so. Well, go ahead.” Stinger hesitated for a moment, though only a moment, before he smirked, quickly earning a quizzical glare from his captor. “It’s about damn time you guys got here.” The unicorn barely had time to react, let alone respond, before the door a few meters behind him was ripped from its hinges. It only took him moments to figure out what had happened, and an instant later he had turned and lunged for Stinger.