Dusty trotted behind the counter and opened up the hidden trap door leading to the absurdly spacious cellar. "After you. This place has stellar acoustics."
"Sure." Dusty jumped down, pulling the door closed. "Now. Do you intend for these to be sung clean, in a growl, or somewhere in between?" He floated over a backup whiskey bottle and took a large swig.
"Alright. Let's just see how it sounds. Sometimes it must be sung aloud to really know how it should sound." After taking another swig, enough to get tipsy, he did something nopony would have exoected: He legitimately growled, for testing purposes, "You are a parasprite spreading disease! Your life is so sad, spreading lies of me! Nothing you say matters to us! Nothing you say matters to uuuus... Buck you!" He then nodded, speaking softly, "That should sound pretty good from Raven. What do you think? Less growl? More?"
Nightshade hesitated. "I'll... I'll try." Nightshade never considered her little hobby to be murder. Her victims were all the same type of pony. Bullies. Cowards. The kind of pony that gleefully destroyed the lives of others, and who were never held accountable. To destroy a pony like that was, in her mind, no different than swatting a stinging insect. As far as she was concerned, Equestria was better off without them.
"No." She flew right up to Nightshade and roughly poked her chest. "You're gonna. That pony in there is a dick, probably deserves an ass beating, but he doesn't deserve to die. That's not a call you can just make."
"I was actually trained in several modern vocal styles," Dusty said, his tail flicking like it was about to wag. "I just rarely, you know... do things with it. Unfortunately."
"Doesn't he? I've met his kind before. Narcissistic. Cruel. A scourge on society. If their existence causes so much suffering, is it not for the greater good that they die?!"
"But I did, Nighty. That's not even the important part. The important part is you did it." "Hmm..." Dusty shook his head. "I... I don't know."
(And... I've written myself into a corner.) "Yes. I did. He tried to hurt somepony I love, so I hurt him back. I did to his body what he's spent years doing to the hearts of his victims." Nightshade grinned slightly, a vicious smile that she wasn't consciously aware of. The fool had been so cocky when she'd walked into his office. She had asked him to do the right thing... to tell the truth... and he had laughed at her. He stopped laughing when he felt the blade. That was when the screaming started. She had taken her time, relishing the process of making him feel the pain he had caused so many others. The look in his eyes was intoxicating. Agony. Fear. Desperation. Disbelief. It was in these moments... when she held a pony's fate completely in her hooves... that she knew what it felt like to be a god.
"I won't go down for this. I'm better than that. I've been doing this since I was nine years old! I know how to..." She looked up and saw the look on Raven's face. "Don't look at me like that. Dammit! ... Fine. I won't do this again. I'll only take another pony's life if they're trying to kill me or somepony else. Is that what I'm supposed to say here?"
