Thunderclap gazed down at Twilight with mild amusement, moving along to trimming her hooves. “Tell me, are you comfortable? If I knew you were coming I'd have put down a pillow for them to throw you on.”
The others snickered and Twilight scowled. “I don't know what kind of operation you're running here, but you need to let me go, now.”
“I'd love to, but there's just one small problem. See, you interfered with one of my friends. He was working, on my orders, to collect a debt we were owed. So by threatening him, you threatened me.”
“He threatened that shopkeeper first,” Twilight replied. “I can't just stand idly by while another pony is in trouble. So I ran him off. I didn't know he was with your... group. I'm sorry.”
“You're sorry. Ah, well, that fixes everything, doesn't it?” Thunderclap asked.
Twilight glanced around uncomfortably at the others. “Um, yes?” she said hopefully.
Thunderclap gestured to someone, and one of Twilight's wings was stretched out and sharp pain radiated from the wrist. She cried out, instinctively trying to yank it away, only to find it immobile. She looked back and saw that it was pinned to the floor with a dagger. Her breath caught, mind struggling to process the sight.
“Guess again,” Thunderclap replied.
That bitch! Let's kill her! Venom screamed.
Wait, hold on, let me talk to her for just a while longer!
Ugh, okay but she's going to die slowly and painfully once I get a hold of her!
Twilight looked back up at the mare, taking a steadying breath. Venom helpfully blocked her from feeling the pain of the blade, but she was still aware of it there, sticking straight through her wing. “Okay, it doesn't fix things. So what should I do to apologize?”
“Now that's more like it. Listen up, Sparkles. You need to stay out of our way. I don't care if you're a princess, I wouldn't even care if you were Celestia. No one messes with my gang. Those who do rarely live to brag about it. If you were anyone else, I'd slit your throat without hesitation and string your carcass up in the street as a warning. But since you're a princess, well, I guess I can let you live. But I'm going to make sure you never forget how much you fucked up.”
“Surely we can settle this without violence,” Twilight said.
Thunderclap pointed, and Twilight's other wing was stabbed to the floor. She winced, Venom's influence the only thing keeping her from screaming. “I don't think we can. We didn't get to be the roughest, most feared gang in Fillydelphia by being nonviolent. When we have a problem with someone, we get rid of them. You're no different.”
“What do you think this'll accomplish?” Twilight demanded. “You hurt me, and I'll bring the wrath of every alicorn of Equestria on you. We can easily wipe out your pathetic gang.”
“No you won't. Because when we're done with you, you may be alive, but I'll guarantee you'll never speak of this. We're going to break you, Sparkles. Break you into so many pieces you'll beg for death, and we won't give it. And when you go crawling back home you'll be so shattered you'll never want to talk about this to anyone. Besides... your fellow princesses won't know where to find us if we never let you find out where we are.” Thunderclap stood, walking out from around the table and motioning for the gangsters to back away. They did, all except for two large stallions that kept Twilight pinned.
Thunderclap tilted her head as she examined her, before commenting, “Maybe I'll even cut off your tongue and gouge your eyes out before letting you go.” Then she stomped down hard on Twilight's face, making her cry out. “With that magic-nullifying ring around your horn, you're completely powerless. How pathetic, that even a mighty alicorn can be so easily overpowered by us regular ponies.” She shoved Twilight's face into the floor, rubbing it harshly into the wood until fur was torn out and her skin was raw and bleeding. Then she backed away and sat down, watching her closely. “Alright, I think I've said enough. Why don't the rest of y'all take care of her for me.”
“You really don't want to do that,” Twilight warned as she was slowly surrounded. Venom once again kept her from feeling any pain, and despite the blood trickling down her face, she lifted her head and stared them down with a smug smile.
They paused, glancing at their leader, who barked, “She can't use her magic and she's tied up! Fuck her up!”
Gaining confidence, they came closer, smirking and twirling their knives, looking her over like a piece of meat.
“No, you really don't want to do that,” Twilight repeated, narrowing her eyes and focusing all her magic into her horn. It glowed vividly, and she felt the ring around it start to crack. The others stopped again.
“Ma'am, what if she breaks the ring?” one of them asked.
“She won't be able to break it if you hurt her badly enough!” Thunderclap yelled. “Now get to it, I wanna see those pretty eyes in a vase on my desk!”
Twilight was kicked over onto her side, and she screamed as one of her wings was dislodged from the floor, the knife slipping and cutting a wider gash into her wing arm. Okay, she's played victim long enough.
She snapped the ropes on her hind legs apart and slammed her back hooves into the closest attacker, so hard he was thrown straight up and hit the ceiling. She twisted out of the way, and he hit the ground with a sick thud and passed out. She overcharged her magic to the point that it was painful, but it broke the ring, allowing her to shoot out a wave of magic that threw them all back.
Panting, she pulled the knives out of her wings and threw them, putting them right through the skulls of the stallions who had held her down earlier. They collapsed, and she picked herself up. She felt a pang of regret, but at least it had killed them instantly. She surveyed the rest of the room.
Thunderclap had been thrown through the table, and she clutched her shoulder as she got up. She stared at Twilight. “You're stronger than I thought. But no matter. There's still only one of you, and dozens of us.” She slammed her hoof into a button on the wall, and an alarm started blaring.
Twilight reeled back, clutching her ears as Venom screamed in pain in her mind. Black tendrils shot out of them, and they pulled themselves up toward the roof, finding and smashing the speaker until the noise stopped.
What was that about? Twilight asked.
High-pitched noises like that are... very painful for me.
Really? Huh, that would have been helpful to know.
Before Venom could reply, there were shouts from down below, and several blades were sunk deep into Twilight's hind legs and used to pull her down. She shouted, but with Venom's power flowing through her, it was more out of anger than pain.
“That's it, I warned you.” They dropped to the floor, and Venom took over. They grew in size, all the blades being ejected from their body, and several tendrils erupted from them, seizing everyone in the room and disarming them. By snapping their forelegs and horns off.
Cries and screams of agony filled the room, and Venom grinned savagely. They brought all the gangsters together, their tendrils binding them tightly, and Venom opened their mouth wide, letting them see their glinting teeth and hungry tongue.
“What the fuck are you?!” Thunderclap shouted, finally showing fear.
“We are Venom.” Venom brought her close, reveling in the horror and regret in her eyes. “And you are one tasty-looking snack.” Then they snapped their jaws over her head, tearing it from her shoulders with an easy twisting motion. The others began screaming and begging for release, promising to go straight, they would never hurt anyone again just so long as they were spared.
“Pathetic!” Venom roared once they had swallowed. “You're only begging for mercy because you've been caught! You know what you've been doing in this gang is monstrous but you stayed anyway, and many of you...” They jabbed tendrils into the others' heads, soaking in their memories. “Many of you enjoyed it! You're all filth and you deserve to die! You had your chance to leave but you didn't, and now you will pay the price!” They pulled the tendrils out and began tearing through heads and bodies, swallowing all the juicy bits and drinking the blood, grinning with a manic glee the entire time.
More gang members poured into the room, but they froze upon seeing the carnage Venom was leaving. A few of the braver ones charged forward, but they were quickly slain and consumed as well, causing the rest to lose their nerve and run.
We can't let them get away, Twilight said, mind almost gone in an unfamiliar yet intoxicating haze of bloodlust.
Right you are, Princess. Then let's get them. Venom charged after them. Their hooves grew claws as they ran, and they used them for traction, pouring on the speed as they chased down the gangsters. They vaguely realized they seemed to be in an old apartment building, but it seemed to have been completely taken over by the Gutbusters. The wallpaper hung from the walls in tatters, and cigarette butts and beer bottles littered the halls.
Venom used their magic to slam the front door shut and deadbolt it, then seized the remaining gangsters and pulled them all back toward them. Then they tackled them, tearing their throats out with their jaws while driving their claws deep into their stomachs.
It wasn't even a fight, it was simply a massacre. All the knives glanced harmlessly off Venom's skin, and the few that had managed to get guns found that the bullets bounced off as well.
Venom tore them all apart in minutes, and then piled up the bodies, before laying across them and tearing chunks of meat off. Every so often a stray gang member would make their way toward the door to escape, and Venom would pick them off too and add them to the pile.
But finally, no one else approached them and Twilight pulled her mind away from Venom's, staring in horror at what they were doing. She had thought she was mentally prepared to kill bad guys, but she hadn't expected to brutally attack and rip apart dozens of ponies like this.
Oh, dear Celestia, I... we totally went crazy back there.
I suppose you could call it that. But admit it, that was the most satisfying thing we've ever done. We just took down an entire gang, by ourselves. Or at least, if this wasn't all of them... we took down their leader and decimated their forces. They won't be able to carry on, they will collapse, and Fillydelphia will be just a little bit safer. Plus... this is probably one of the most delicious meals I've had since getting here. Venom broke a skull open and chowed down on the brain.
Twilight shuddered. Yes, but... look at what we did to them! Oh, I'm... I'm gonna be sick.
Don't you dare!
Twilight retched, and Venom covered their mouth firmly with a layer of slime, growling. Bile rose in their throat, but with some struggling, they were able to swallow it and keep their food down.
They gulped, and Twilight said, Okay, I think I'm okay. Can we just... leave now, please?
Venom nodded, and they turned, breaking the front door down and heading out. They did a quick loop around the building, but all other exits had been blocked off except for a single fire escape. They flew up to it, noting that the ladder was down. A few ponies had escaped out this way.
“No matter,” they muttered. “After what we did to the rest of their gang, they're probably running right to turn themselves in.”
They started to fly away, then paused, and went down to street level to check the building's address. Then they walked over to the nearest payphone and dialed the emergency number.
They waited while it rung, and when the operator asked them what their emergency was, Venom said, “Please send someone out to 23896 Willow Street. We're right next to it and some sort of massacre seems to have happened, there are dead bodies everywhere.”
“Yes, sir. We're sending a squad out now, but can you give me any more information? Are there any survivors? Is the perpetrator still nearby?”
“No, no, it's just the bodies. Any survivors made sure they got far away from us. You really should hurry, I think you'll find the victims to be very interesting.” Venom hung up the phone before the operator could say anything more, opening their wings and flying to a building across from the apartment, setting down on the roof. Venom's skin sank back under Twilight's coat, and she gave herself a small shake once she had full control back, looking herself over. They had no injuries, just like when they had fought out of the Life Aura Center. Even the gaping holes through her wings had closed up and there was no pain at all.
All that meat allowed me to heal everything those bastards did to you, Venom said. You're welcome.
Thank you. I still feel bad about doing that to them though...
Why? We saw their memories. They were monsters. They've hurt countless ponies. They've tortured, raped, killed. They deserved what we did.
Twilight sighed but nodded. This was what she had set out to do, after all. She knew it wasn't going to be clean. But thanks to her and Venom, Fillydelphia will be just a little safer. Perhaps their actions would even scare other gangs into disbanding as well.
And if they don't, we'll kill them too.
Right, but we'll need to be much more careful than that... We were seen coming here, and while I doubt we'll be suspected this time, we don't want these sorts of deaths to become a pattern.
I suppose you're right. We'll work on it.
Twilight knelt down, resting her forelegs across the ledge and watching the street below, waiting for the police to arrive. She wanted to make sure this was all cleaned up.
It took several minutes, but finally several armed officers trotted up, a few of them pulling armored wagons. But they wouldn't be finding anyone to arrest today.
They announced their presence, and while a couple went to check out the phone booth, the rest went into the building. Twilight's ears perked forward, and soon she heard cries of alarm. Several ponies hurried back out, one finding his way to the side of the building and throwing up, and a few of the others got on their radios to call for paramedics.
Paramedics? We didn't leave anyone alive, Venom said.
Yes, but it's protocol. They need medical professionals to determine causes of death. And possibly to collect the bodies, but with the mess we made they'll probably need a dedicated biohazard team out here.
Venom snickered. Indeed.
They waited around for a while, watching as the area was roped off and more emergency responders showed up. It quickly became a huge ordeal, as the cops recognized the victims as Gutbusters and identified the body of Thunderclap, which they could only do via her cutie mark, as her head was gone and so far has not been located.
Twilight uncomfortably rubbed her stomach and decided she's seen enough. She crept over to the other side of the roof and flew down, hurrying through alleyways until she was back in a much more well-lit part of the city, and she could find a bench to collapse on, sighing.
Want me to take us home?
Yes, please. She felt exhausted, and thankfully let herself drift off while Venom took control of their body and had them stand up, heading for the train station. She was somewhat aware of everything, but mostly just hovered in a state somewhere between awake and asleep, thoughts off in a cloud.
They seemed to be back in Ponyville within minutes, and Venom took them home. Once he had laid them down in Twilight's bed, he spoke. Are you alright?
Sure, she replied.
I only ask because you seem to have, well. Mentally shut down, is the best way I can describe it. I'm feeling very little from you.
I'm just trying to adjust to the reality of what we just did. If I let myself feel too much, I might start crying.
Then cry if it will help. You shouldn't try to turn off your emotions. I can sense you trying to block off your memories of what we did. But that won't change that we did it. You should be proud of what we accomplished. Yes, we. You wanted to do that just as much as I did, remember?
Twilight sighed and shifted to get more comfortable, laying on her side. Then she reached out a hoof and tapped the pillow next to hers. Understanding, Venom manifested a body so he could lay across from her, gazing at her with clear concern. He was so alien and strange, but Twilight felt safe with him next to her.
“I know we did the right thing,” she said, deciding this deserved to be said out loud. “But it's still so hard, knowing I took so many lives. I'm a murderer. I can't help but think I could have changed some of those ponies. Made them better. I've helped change countless other lives, why I couldn't I do the same with them?” She closed her eyes, tears finally streaming down her cheeks. “Starlight was right. I was too quick to judge, too quick to decide they all deserved death.”
Warm hands grasped her face, and she opened her eyes, startled to see that Venom had leaned in closer. He gently wiped the tears away, and said, “Maybe you could have changed them. But then, maybe they wouldn't have listened. Maybe they were just bad. Rotten to the core. Like...” She could feel him combing through her mind for an appropriate comparison, then said, “Like diseased branches on a tree. And what do you do when the branches can't be saved?” He came even closer, mouth inches from Twilight's. “You prune them.”
Twilight swallowed and pulled away, rolling onto her other side. “Maybe. But ponies aren't branches on a tree. Maybe some of them were beyond redemption, but I doubt all of them were.”
“Then think of it this way. They knew exactly who you were. Princess of Friendship. An alicorn, a being with godlike power that could have destroyed them even without me being there. They had to have known of your feats. You tried to talk things out. They refused. They refused, and they were going to do awful, unspeakable things to you just because you chased off one of their buddies. Who you didn't even know was with their gang. You acted in self-defense. Tell me, do your 'almost anypony can be redeemed' beliefs apply to those who are actively trying to mutilate you?”
Twilight's ears laid back. “No,” she said firmly. “They don't. I fought back to save myself.”
“Exactly. We fought back. And we won. And we ensured no other pony will ever suffer at their hooves.” Venom crept up behind her, wrapping his arms around her barrel. She almost pulled away, but he was so warm and comforting, and she let herself lean back against him. His body seemed to melt around hers, enveloping her. “We did the right thing.”
Twilight looked over her shoulder. His large opal eyes met hers, and after a moment, she pressed their foreheads together. “Right. I guess so. I still kinda regret it though.”
“Of course you do. You're a pony, and your kind simply detests violence. Well, most of you do, anyway. We saw today that there are exceptions. In fact, I'd wager that there are more exceptions than you like to admit.”
“We promote a culture of love and understanding, but yes, there are definitely those who want nothing to do with that, who are cruel and manipulative and will do anything to get what they want.”
“Yes. But we know how to deal with those sorts, don't we?” Venom continued wrapping around her.
“We do.” She closed her eyes, sinking into his embrace. He felt almost liquid as he covered her head and pulled it to his chest, but he wasn't smothering at all. He felt like the world's greatest weighted blanket. Despite everything they ate giving them plenty of energy, she wanted nothing more than to fall asleep like this.
“Then sleep, Princess. I've got you.”
So she went to sleep, comfortable in her symbiote's embrace.
Damn that was brutal.
Nice
Beautiful. Sometimes to save, you must purge. If you have to remove the damaged body part in order to save the body, purge it. In this case, nessecery evil. Perfect evil and righteous. Sometimes I think humanity needs this to survive.
9319922
Good to know someone gets it. In fact I can think of many examples of people that should be “purged” as one would say
9319971
yet some of them, purging would make them even more of a headache...if enough follow their ways or admire them, then after the purge they become martyrs...and those r notoriously difficult to make shut up...
Nice to see some moral ambiguity. A chat with Starlight talking this out would be nice.
9319995
Venom: then you kill the people who see them as martyrs, done
Twilight:
9319844
Like this story too I see.
9320037
Eeyup.
9320081
tbh it was actually just one of the best words to use but the coincidence is definitely amusing :'D
This chapter was oh so satisfying. Is it strange that I heard this theme during the massacre? For some reason, I thought it was strangely fitting.
While the moment between Twilight and Venom was very nice and touching, it's a little awkward to know that Twilight was gazing into Venom's blank eyes and never-changing sinister smile. I mean, really imagine it. And am I the only one who thinks that Twilight is slowly being corrupted by Venom? I mean, he IS Venom after all.
Awesomely gruesome. Xd
I'd like to see them catch a bad guy but find out he wasint so bad after all, like to see how they would react to that.
9320148
That is absolutely horrifying
9320178
First of all, I hate Neo-Nazis, but to suggest that they should be purged (by which i assume you mean kill, if not i apologize for the misunderstanding) is wrong. You may disagree with them but to suggest that they should be killed is horrible.
Basically, I dont think killing people is ever a good thing, and should be avoided if at all possible.
9320178
simply put, ur entire presumption is illogical. many hate Trump, this is true, but those who share his views and policies (yes, there r people who actually love everything Trump has done or said hes going to do) would make him a martyr if he was assassinated, a paragon to the kind of thinking that has perpetrated in the USA and other regions of the world for hundreds of years. theres also the problem that martyrs inspire others to take up their cause, take out a leader, a new one will rise to replace them. might take a while, but itll happen, always does, always has, always will. then theres the problem of identifying all those who u want to eliminate while keeping innocents out of it, not always easy, in fact its downright impossible.
logically speaking, mass purging would make problems worse, not better. look at the horror that was the holocaust, that was a mass purge as well, and it drove the world into war, ten of thousands died, many of them innocent civilians. would u tread the same ground as the Nazis? as any dictator who engaged in the act of genocide?
Yes! A new chapter! I have been waiting for 4 days
9320178
9320195
1st. Thinking that there is something redeemable about nazis is what allowed the holocaust to progress as far as seeing them kill millions.
2nd. Nazis worship Satan through their words and actions.
3rd. Anyone who attempts to downplay their evil is aiding in that evil.
Evil only wins when people standby and do nothing.
Some evil is not worth attempting to understand for in the attempt you become corrupted by that evil. Nazism is one such evil.
9320267
Sorry was attempting to support your view over Idiots. Wasn't sure if you were using the religious argument or not. I see Satans followers as more of a faction of humanity in that most don't realize that they have chosen the path of evil and rationalize what they are doing as for the greater good.
>MFW reading this chapter:
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/908/005/a01.gif
When did atheism start being known as satanism? I think you just gave me the original definition of an atheist. When did it get tagged to satanism instead.
I'm 50 next year.
Like always, a masterpiece of design.
9320267
Satanists aren't devil worshippers actually, they chose the name specifically to anger Christians. They don't believe in god and as a result the devil. Satanism is really about personal response ability and mocking the Christians with their iconograpy. Devil Worship is an interpretation of Christianity.
9320148
F**k you for bringing up politics, yes trump fits into the politics category. Anyway, why does everyone hate trump? He gets thing done, maybe not in the most effective way but he still gets it done.
9320333
Just stop.
Well done, gory in a descriptive enough manner to be satisfying, yet not so descriptive to throw the plot of and temporarily hold the moniker of 'gorefic'.
It's natural for Twilight to not want to kill yet understand sometimes it is the only option. It should be lamented, avoided when ever possible, bit also acknowledged as not entirely avoidable. "With great power comes great responsibility"and responsibility often includes being the one to have to make morally grey decisions so others don't have too.
9320333
First of all, I never mentioned anything abut race, secondly, your in favor of mass genocide, you would be no better than Hitler himself, the one your preaching against.
Third, you are using the fallacy; Ad Hominem, congrats on coming up with a way to make yourself look and sound stupid.
Wow little draco, you get attacked by someone who knows what they are doing, and you hide behind animosity/deleting your comments.
Hehe, coward.
9320242
Matter of perspective, I mean the only reason ww2 even happened was because of the world screwing Germany over in the first place. Especially since Germany didn't even start the war. This lead to Germany wanting to follow Hitler and his crazy ideas. Btw did you know it took a little over ninety years for Germany to pay off their debt?
90 years!?!?!, for a country who didn't even start the war, they were dragged into it. Keep in mind the massive inflation of their currency and no economy to pay it, no wonder they listened to Hitler.
9320386
They listened to Hitler because he put forth convenient scapegoats for all their problems. He convinced them that they had no responsibility for their actions and deserved what others had worked hard for. His main catch phase ; Make Germany Great Again!
Yes, the US did vote in someone who plagerized all of Hitler's early speeches.
9320395
orange man bad, orange man like mustache man or noseless bald bad magic man. who cares about how our country's politics are designed so no single man holds too much power, we are totes reliving the rise of nazi germany in the good ol us of a. I can't wait to be like my grandfather and fight the fascists and be remembered and praised for having fought for something!
Oof edgy comments. Thank god I have a box of bandaids. Some commenters downright got the tisms. If its not someone who need psychological buffing for all that edge, its one of those with a definition of "nazi" thats broader than the grand canyon.
That was bloody.
I'm afraid Twilight will have a difficult conversation with Starlight once she sees the newspaper.
Thunderclap could have said :
"It was your plan to be captured?"
"Of course!"
"And what is the next part of this mischievous plan?"
"Kill everyone. *transforms* No survivor!"
I will just say these words from Gandalf.
"There is a lot of bad people who'd deserve death, and a lot of good people who'd deserve to live. Can you give them their life back?
Then don't be so hasty in sentencing people to death."
It may be a good thing what they want, but their cuddle phylosophie goes just a tad to far for me sometimes, at least how I imaged it if they talk about their culture of love and everything.
I might be in the mood for a chapter of your Tempest story again, but I would ask you to only write for what is interessting to you at the moment. I don't want a rushed chapter.
On another side or even on this side I sometimes hear the "I didn't wanted to make your guys wait so long, so here is my crappy chapter" speech.
I just mean they feel the need to hurry and something more interessting that could have happened doesn't take place because of that.
Nice job with this chapter, but I hope this is just a moment she needs to develop a mind where she can do this easier in the future.
9320207
It maybe makes sense, but I don't always feel the need to include a reaction like this into a story. It doesn't always have to reach the same level.
9320325
I don't like him either, that is all what I want to say to that.
9320353
I agree with that I think.
In this chase letting some gangbangers live (That was the word right?), would be rather risky as much as their seems to love their crime and violence.
I image them playing nice and letting them go and then either a newly grown group starts to take revenge or is doing some other bad stuff to provoke her. I image at least, that they do not stop.
9320370
Oh come one try not to provoke people. I don't know what he said, but it doesn't help much.
9320564
You misunderstand, starlight almost destroyed the universe. In my eyes cosmic crimes cannot be forgiven and should be punished by death. Think of the countless innocent lives starlight would be killing on different planets if her plan came to pass? And given the presents of the map in alternate timelines you could argue it’s a weak point in space time, that could lead to addictional space-time destabilizations if tampered with “which most certainly will) that could lead to universeal annihilation. My point: starlight never deserved a second chance and DONT FUCK WITH TIME TRAVEL!
All sunset wanted to do is take over Equestria with zombies. One person with a couple hundred zombies vs all of Equestria. Even with out twilight and her friends I doubt they would even stand a chance. And even if they did win and sunset did take over Equestria that’s still a tiny fraction of a wet spec of dust in an ocean of darkness. At least she didnt endanger the entire universe.
Me reading this comment section
derpicdn.net/img/view/2012/12/18/185973.png
9320737
This is a cartoon for little girls, hold your tiny horses bro.
9320777
You should try "Annihilation"'s comments section from Jest.
9320395
I am sorry but your "facts" are wrong, I have done 10 research papers on the subject, so I will use my superior knowledge to contradict you.
9320632
Well I am not provoking anything, I am putting out facts, just because you don't agree doesn't mean you have to downvote, I am a brutally honest person. And that's that.