The Monster of Manehattan

by DX-1118 C

Rating: teen
Tags: Slice of Life, Crossover, Dark, Alternate Universe, Sad
Length: 7979

Alex Mercer thought he was going to die. He was supposed to be erased like the millions he erased. Why is he a pony?

After being defeated at the hands of Heller, Alex is sent to Equestria. Will he go home? Will he make the same mistake twice?
Maybe…
Along the way, he meets an orphan in need of a happy ending.

This story was written for Trondason.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-09-02 20:59:49 UTC

Prologue

It was a beautiful day. Birds chirping, animals doing as they do...

It was pretty nice...

  In the loud and active city of Manehattan, the buildings were uncommonly high compared to the rest of the world. It was a 'normal' upper class city. Crime was not so bad, buildings were descent, homelessness dropped from 35% of the population to 10%. This was also one of the major economic hubs in the world.

Needless to say, this wasn't the worst place in the world...

  Down on the streets, a young filly was walking to an orphanage. She was small and cute. Large, wandering eyes on her head showed others she is adventurous. Most ponies on her normal route recognized her light blue coat and her light green mane. One of her eyes was hidden by her mane, as it swoops onto one side of her face. She was incredibly bored...

Bored and sad...

  Two months ago, a horrendous fire nearly crippled her older brother, and killed her parents.Nobody knew where it came from, or how it came to be. She was not alone for months, until one day her brother died in the hospital. She was released into Foal Protective Services, where she lived with the other orphans there. Nobody really pays her any attention, and the bullies there actually live with her. She had nowhere to hide. It didn't matter, though... As she always said, 'Things could be worse'.

Her name was Emerald.

  She continued walking, cutting corners to let the gang members past. They paid her no mind, though. She was too innocent to kill, too sweet to mug, and too young to do anything... interesting to.

  Still, she went around them. To an alleyway to be specific.This alleyway was a shortcut to her orphanage. Although she wanted to stay away from that place as much as possible, she needed to stay out of the city. Staying in too long was a death-wish, even for her. She would rather deal with bullies, than knives and magic.

  Halfway to the orphanage, she saw a mysterious light. Being a unicorn, she recognized magic anywhere. This was definitely 'it'. She hid from view, and waited for it to be over.

  While she waited, she watched. While she watched, she saw what was happening. The light was getting smaller. As the light condensed, it got brighter. Bright to the extent she wished she had sunglasses to keep watching. Seeing the unbearable light get brighter, she closed her eyes. The only thing on her mind was 'How in the hay does nopony see this!' At that thought, the light diminished. When she finally opened her eyes, what she saw was... interesting.

  A grown stallion, one with grey fur, a black and red striped mane and tail, and a jacket with a strange symbol on the back. He was lying on the ground, unconscious.

  "Hello!" she had been trying to wake him up for half an hour now. Any normal pony would have left a while ago, but this stallion was just too warm to be dead. Something was very... odd about this stranger. He appeared to not be breathing, and he refused to wake up. Deciding he was dead, she began to leave.

"(GASP)"

  Emerald turned around. She immediately recognized the gasp as a suffocating person's gasp, from those times she watched her brother. Looking at him, she saw a strange... liquid covering his body. He seemed to be convulsing but something seemed... off? She couldn't just place her hoof on it...

And then he got up...

  She wanted to let loose a sigh of relief, but this stranger seemed to make her feel... Fear. Fear like an external force was trying to push her, but it's lack of contact with the material plain limited it to subtle emotional projections. She was frozen in place as he stood up. He looked at her with a look on his face... Confusion? She couldn't understand it. It was as if something was behind her, something truly unnerving. It ceased when he looked at his own body.

  He began checking himself as if he had just died, came to life, and saw a odd thing. After thoroughly examining himself, he looked around with even more confusion on his face. Pulling on the hood on his back, he covered his eyes with a veil of darkness before Emerald could get a good look at them.

"Um... hello" she asked.

  The stallion looked up, seeming to see her for the first time ever. That was not true, of course. "What am I?" he asked. She looked at the stallion as if he was asking the dumbest question ever.

"Duh! You're a pony, an Earth Pony to be exact."

  "Where am I?" he asked. Once again, she gave him an incredulous look. He seemed to not know anything that he should know. Considering he literally appeared in front of her, she let it slide.

"Manehattan City, sir."

  The stallion opened his mouth to ask another question, but as he spoke those gang members from earlier showed up. One of them grabbed Emerald to take her out of the danger zone, as they usually did when she was too close to violence. For a gang, they really have child friendly rules... or maybe it was because her brother ran with them back in the day...

  They didn't care if she was watching, but she didn't have a pretty descent view about what was transpiring. One of them walked forward and began to ask questions.

  '(Sigh) Why do people always want to go after me? Do I just attract danger? Am I so powerful? Are other people just so foolish?' These thoughts went through Alex's mind as he was being rudely interrupted by a group of people. He was taken from these thoughts when a hoof connected with his face. 'That hurts significantly more than a fist...'

  "You will listen when we speak!" one of the equestrian creatures yelled. This one in particular was annoying. It was as if he had problems growing up. Upon looking at the faces on the gang of horses, Alex noticed the facial expressions, if not cartoonish, were at least displaying the looks humans get. By the faces, he could see murder, rape, sorrow, kindness, fury, and intolerance. 'Such an interesting group of faces...' Another hoof struck his face. "You will answer when I ask!" the same voice said. 'If he touches me one more time...'

Alex headbutt the creature.

  The horse staggered back, clenching it's nose with a hoof as if it would help stop the bleeding. It looked up in fury and decided to go on the offensive. A hoof was blocked this time by Alex's hoof. "Enough of this." Alex felt as if invisible fingers were on his new appendage, as he could feel himself gripping the stranger's hoof.  Experimenting, he squeezed harder with his invisible fingers to see what they could do. He could see the opponent's hoof being gripped by something, and heard bones crack. He ignored the screams and protests, as he was lost in 'science mode'.

  Alex pressed harder and heard the creaking and pops get louder and more frequent. He smirked, seeing how appropriate this invisible force would be, especially now that he had no fingers. At the point when the creaks stopped, he sighed with disappointment. "Oh well, I did a lot anyway..." Looking at his victim, he nearly passed out from the pain. "Weak..." Alex smashed his skull with a forehoof, spraying blood and brain through the air.

  Faster than he thought possible, tendrils thin as wires split from his hoof and grabbed every single drop of biomass. Pulling everything into his body, corpse and all. The experience was... new to his body, but not his subconscious. The lookers looked around horrified. Some were paralyzed by fear, one of them puked, and others were moved by fury. Alex was uninterested. The shock of death was nothing new to him, and the pain others felt were meaningless.

  One of them tried to run away as fast as possible, but was stopped by another. This one was muscular and radiated authority. While he was distracted, another one of them ran out of the alleyway as fast as he could.

  Two ponies in the group charged, one with a horn likely for impaling, and the other with wings... Okay? As they charged, they did a disorienting move which temporarily broke Alex's concentration. Dazed, they both struck. One with a strange substance coming from the horn, and the other with a powerful tackle. Alex hunched over, the new energy doing a number on his body. ""

  The pegasus and the unicorn landed behind him, and gloating. "Wow, I cant believe you actually killed Scorpio!" the unicorn said, "You're weak and you would fall for such a common attack!" The other one, too stupid to have his own line, simply said "YEAH!" annoyingly loud. They seemed as giddy as children in a candy store.

  Their glee was shattered when Alex got back up. If they were skeptical before, they were outright terrified by how he simply brushed aside their attack. They hesitated to attack again, and were completely unaware of the hoof that impaled itself through both of their necks. All that could be heard from them was a sickly gurgle and the swishing noises. It was a sickening noise, but Alex smiled in glee. A look of pure bliss was on his face, and he looked at the ground, his hood once again covering his eyes. "Oh... I love that..." He paused and looked around at the remaining ponies. "Sometimes, I just love to swish people around just... Make the experience last longer for the both of us..." He regained his posture and walked closer to the stallions. "Perhaps you should run..." He said to not them, but Emerald. She took the advice, and ran away.

  Alex walked closer to the two stallions and placed both hooves around their necks in the closest way to a bro hug a horse body could get. One of them squirmed. "You two don't seem that bad... It's best you forget what happened here, yes?" They both shook their heads. "Maybe nobody should know what happened to your friends?" The two stallions shook again. Little did they know that Alex had small tendrils inside of their body, displaying their thoughts to him. "I hate liars..." A cracking noise was heard, and he stood in the alleyway, utterly alone. He looked at his body and one thought came to mind...

"What the fuck..."

Things just happen.

It has been exactly five minutes of staring into empty space for Alex. He had no idea what was happening or what was going on. Of all the times he has been lost or confused...

This takes the cake.

He was standing atop one of the largest buildings in all of Manehattan. His mind possessed the largest what the fuckerey that he had ever experienced. He looked upon his body for the millionth time in the last two minutes. Whatever must have happened on top of the bank where he was supposed to have died, had decided to place him in a mirror, and strangely equine, copy of NYC.

Unfortunately for not having hands, this means he would be limited to not be able to multitask, because of the lack of fingers. At first, during the second or so before he was attacked by the rude gang wannabees, he thought he would be forced to grip things with both of his newly acquired appendages, but the eerily familiar telekinetic grip that his hooves seemed to have acquired upon his transformation just threw that notion out of a window. Perhaps typing with hooves would be just as effective as with fingers? Do computers even exist? That would require further looking into.

The first thing on his agenda would be to wander around and look at everything.

The thing with his plan would be the fact that everything seemed so peaceful in general. Every instinct Alex had was to morph his arms into pulsing red and black claws and sink them into the nearest sapient being he could find just because he can. It was just so damn cute! In the past few months, he has barely used his powers, and instead he used various subordinated and his mighty infected army instead. Thinking back on it, it was probably his lack of exercise that had dulled his senses, and allowed him to be defeated so easily, but then his excess powers should have reversed the tides of the match. Some part of him wanted to be ended during the fight. Perhaps he let himself lose because he didn't want to live anymore? Thinking on that made him angry that Heller didn't completely erase him.

Whatever the reason, this new opportunity at life granted him a chance to just blend with the crowd and disappear from everyone's eyes. It seemed like the correct decision.

He then purposefully fell off of the building.

He extended his arms and legs like usual, but found his body unable to lighten and float along the wind. All he did was lessen the speeds from which he was falling, and probably make a smaller dent on whatever he was to land on. He didn't want any wandering eyes on him at the moment. He spun his body around so he would be falling from his back, and he then preformed an air dash moments before hitting the ground. He then did a flip and landed on all four hooves with a little thud.

Emerald had reached the orphanage.

She had galloped as fast as her normally sized legs could take her. She desperately wanted to tell somepony abut what she saw, but nopony would believe her. All the random ponies in the streets just dismissed her claims, but there were some who went to check things out. Ponies generally don't listen to foals for reasons, especially when those reasons aren't able to be seen.

Upon reaching the only place she could call a home, she was greeted with a familiar sight. There were three mares standing outside of the building, and one of them, a purple pegasus with a green mane, was huddled in a corner with bruises on her body. Situations like this were common, considering the entire orphanage was like a school where the teachers only let you live there instead of paying attention to when you get hurt. Everything you would see is just rules and regulations. As long as bits circulate, things would stay at this level of nice. Celestia forbid something bad ever happen.

Emerald took several tedious and fearfillled steps towards the scene. These two fillies have been royal pains since they showed up here, and they walk around like they own the place. Now, Emerald supposed they should learn their places. And learn their places they more than likely shall.

"Hey, you two!" Emerald mustered all of her courage to confront these bullies. What was their problem anyways? They had no right to treat others the way that they do! "Why don't you pick on somepony your own size!?!" They both turned around to face her. One of them was an earth pony filly named Milkshake, and the other was a pegasus named Cloud Catcher. Milkshake was cream colored with a light pink mane and tail, while Cloud was dark blue with a white mane and tail. Both of their eyes were pink for some odd reason. They aren't related, they just have the same eye colors. They both looked at emerald for a long amount of time before turning back around to do whatever it was they were doing to the filly in the corner... Who escaped in the second or so the bullies had turned around!

"Cripes, she got away!" Milkshake said in her way too high pitched voice. If she weren't a jerk, it would be cute. She began to look around as if expecting her victim to have chosen an easily accessible hiding place. She began pacing in circles in an irritated manner. "Hey you, blank flank! You don't know what you did!" She directed towards Emerald. Her friend looked over, the same anger in her eyes. "You'll pay for that!" She said. Cloud repeated what she said like some sort of echo.

"No, you wont be messing with fillies like that any more!" Emerald said as her horn began to glow a light green color. The familiar hum of energy was present in her horn, and static laced off of it. This was completely a show off spell, and does no damage other than making one's mane stand up. The bullies didn't know that, and assumed they had a death ray aimed at them. "Whoa, whoa!" Cloud Catcher yelled in surrender. "We were just messing around!" she exclaimed with a slight shiver in her voice. Milkshake was trembling in fear at the display. The two began to creep towards the entrance to the orphanage. "Don't worry, it wont happen again!" They were gone.

"Psst... Hey!" Emerald heard the voice as clear as day. It was probably the filly that was going to be beaten. Emerald looked around for a source but there was none. "Psst." The sound was louder and... Closer. Emerald couldn't see where it was coming from. "Behind you!" the voice shouted. She turned around and came face to face with magenta eyes, the eyes belonging to her only friend. "Hey Emerald!" Sunshine said. Sunshine is a pegasus that constantly gets picked on for being so happy all the time. Misery loves company and loathes happiness.

"Hey Sunshine,"  Emerald replied, "why were they messing with you again?" she asked. It seemed that every time Sunshine got into trouble with these kids, they were about to eat her up. Her sunny attitude and cheery voice seemed to make her a perfect candidate. She dreams of being on the weather control team, but if she keeps getting in situations like this, she might not be able to fly again! Not a good thing for a pegasus, and especially a mare.

"Hey, you know me! Nopony could ever keep me down like that!" She would never lose her golden spirit. "But I was just trying to make those girls happy though..." Emerald just doesn't understand that filly some times. Why she would go to ponies that would hurt her and try to make them feel better was beyond logic. They always acted like this, and their parents gave them over to the orphanage for that reason. Those girls were just little monsters. "They always seem so bitter." Bitter was a fitting taste for them.

"I told you a thousand times that you should avoid them!" Emerald scolded her. Sunshine was always somepony that should be reprimanded or else she would do something she regrets, and would get hurt. Maybe thats why Emerald loves her so much.

"So Emmy, whats up. I saw your face when you walked over and you seemed off. You were thinking about something, weren't you? Was it a colt!? Was it those stallions that walk around with those weapons and stuff!?" One of the many things Emerald loves about Sunshine, was her ability to make her happy no matter what happens. She's just one of the best ponies to ever be called a friend.

"No, it wasn't. I don't know exactly what I saw, but it was dangerous and very magical." Emerald responded. "What I do know was that whatever it was, it killed several ponies and didn't even flinch! I think it might have" Emerald shivered at the thought, "ate them!" Thinking about it now made Emerald want to throw up. The bodies have to have gone somewhere, but most of them disappeared, and their blood was sucked out of the air! The answer was obvious, that thing was a monster of some kind!

But it didn't seem like a monster. When it appeared, it seemed to be a stallion. In fact, it did talk and look like a stallion, although it wears weird and dark clothes. Do monsters wear clothes? The only monster that wears clothes was Slendermane, and that was a legend. But the stallion wore dark clothes, just like the stories. "Lets get an adult!" Sunshine said.

"Okay!" Emerald chimed. As we all know, adults never listen to fillies. Emerald seemed to forgot what the random strangers on the street said those same claims were falsified.

Zarrus and Mercer's Plan

“I have no idea what I’m doing!”

Emerald and Sunshine giggled as they walked through Smith street. It was one of the emptier streets, even though it was one of the nicest that Emerald normally walks through. She always wonders why nopony likes to walk through this place, but being alone on such a nice street was nice.

Sunshine was currently leading Emerald to a friend's house. As they left the orphanage, Sunshine thought it would be better to just look for this monster on her own. Emerald remembered the looks the adults gave her, so she opted to keep Sunshine’s plan.

Although Sunshine’s coat colors didn’t resemble her name, her parents named her because she was to bring their small life some happiness. Unfortunately for this happy tale, it stopped when the family was unable to support itself. As she turned five, the her parents were forced to set her up for adoption. Given her personality, it was a mystery as to why she has no family trying to adopt her, but some mysteries cannot be solved by just thinking about them.

As Sunshine led Emerald to the end of the block, Emerald noticed two things. One, this street was creepy as heck, and two, just why were the two here? To her knowledge, nopony lives on this street at all. “Yo, where are you, Zarrus?”

After she said these words, a squawking noise was heard. Emerald looked up, expecting a bird or something to fly out from behind a bush that was hidden somewhere just outside of her view. Instead of what she thought, a full grown gryffin came flew over from one of the buildings. He landed right next to Sunshine, grabbed her mane, and rubbed her head. “Hey, Sunshine. Long time, no see, huh.” He said. Sunshine giggled and nuzzled his chest tufts. “Yeah, big bro.” She replied.

Emerald smiled at this display, although it brought back some painful memories of her brother. She almost felt a tear fall down her cheek, but she was unsure if those were hurt tears or joy tears. “And who is this?” Zarrus asked, looking at Emerald. Emerald looked at him for a moment before responding. He had mostly white feathers, and his legs were chicken yellow. Unlike most gryffins, he had no band around his forepaws. His eagle eyes were yellow. “Hello? Anyone there?” He asked.

“Oh, sorry.” Emerald blushed. No amount of difference between species could make her overlook how attractive he was. Even the most cloud headed filly could recognize that. As a flier, strong wings and a wild attitude made you attractive to the females, but the same could be said for other races/species. It was indescribable, but as long as you were like that attitude, and had wings, you were attractive.

Or that was just Emerald not having another male role model in her life. They're all dead.

“Her names Emerald, Z. She’s my best friend!” The ever enthusiastic pegasus filly said, nuzzling her ‘brother’ a bit. Zarrus patted her head and walked over to Emerald. Sunshine clung to him the whole four-foot journey. It could easily be described as a pilgrimage. He stopped a little bit away from Emerald, removes Sunshine from his person, and placed her next to Emerald. “So what brings ya little fillies over to these parts, aside from a visit, I mean.” Zarrus asked.

“We’re going to hunt down a monster!” Emerald and Sunshine shouted. They both felt like yelling ‘YAY!’ at the end of that, but dismissed it. Zarrus chuckled at their enthusiasm, remembering the times when he hunted down ‘monsters’ in his youth, but only found shady characters that were nice people. The enthusiasm was still there, and he knew that they wouldn’t let up until they caught their own ‘monster’. It was still best to tag along, because there were those who aren't so nice in the world. Growing up in the Gryffin Territory had proven that to him, multiple times.

“Well, I’m going to go with you, keep an eye on you too.” Zarrus sighed. He severely hoped they weren’t going to turn this into a cutie mark expedition. Pony fillies, or females in general, had the tendency to start huge things, especially when they wanted something. That, and Zarrus never really understood the concept of Cutie marks. They were just magic tattoos that only served a purpose of giving males the reason to stare at female plots, under the guise of ‘figuring your talent out’. As much as he would like to say he was exempt from such practices, he couldn’t. The temptation is too much at times.

It was times like that, he wished he was a dragon, or pants were more comfortable.

Clearing his thoughts before he could expose himself in front of two fillies, he asked a different question on his mind. “So… Whos that monster?”

Sunshine looked at Emerald, who shuffled a bit. Emerald stood still for a moment, thinking about this. Most monsters stories told of a monster who disguised himself as a member of society, and ate ponies. This one just appeared out of thin air, and didn’t really seem all that violent. Then again, bodies don't just disappear. “I don’t really know. I met him in a dark alley, and he asked me a few questions.” She held a hoof to her face in contemplation.

“What?” Zarrus was suddenly on guard. He? Dark alley? Of course she thought he was a monster, the guy was a creep! ‘Wait, don’t just jump to conclusions.’’ he thought to himself, remembering a gryffin he singled a town against while thinking he was after some fillies. The guy was literally a candy salesman, and had the gryffin equivalent of a cutie mark. A business card. Still, this ‘monster’ that Sunshine’s friend speaks of was still worth checking out. Pedo or not.

“Yeah, he just appeared there, and he was very confused. Some of the Rising Stars came over and tried to mug him. I ran away, but those guys weren't so lucky.” she pondered for a moment, but her mind stayed set. “I came back later, and nothing.” she took a breath. “There were at least ten ponies there, and he just took them all on.”

Zarrus thought for a moment. “We should call the city guard. File a kidnapping charge.” Theres no way a lone guy can take on ten and come out unscathed, especially the multi racial gang including unicorns, like the Rising Stars. Those guys knew how to fight, and nothing short of another group could stand up to them. Either this guy was kidnapped, or there really was a monster, or a creature of great skill, running amok.

--- (Insert Black-light’s newly signature Line Break here)---

Alex was currently walking through the streets, now accustomed to his new body. It didn’t take much practice, considering consumption was the best way to learn anything. He realized that wearing a hood, or clothes, within this society would raise a few eyebrows, but ponies, like humans, would not bat an eye at uncommon things. Sure, they will whisper and gossip (unlike humans), but that was no trouble to Alex.

He had gained quite a bit of knowledge from the consumed. He knew the ins and outs of the lower parts of the cities, the money system, and there was a particularly threatening force in play here.

Magic.

From what he gathered, the key indications of magic was to look at the horn of a unicorn. If it is encompassed in an unstable looking spectral energy, it could be doing pretty much anything with it. Although that would be an interesting thing to experiment with, it was probably out of his reach. He had consumed a few unicorns, and should have gotten magic, let alone a horn, once he consumed the first one. Also, the wings of a pegasus pony should also be available to him. But they weren’t. He could form the appendages, if he wished, but they wouldn't work at all. They were nothing but non-functioning deadweight at that point, so he just discarded them.

Alex was stuck with the next best thing, adapting to overcome the odds.

There were also other things. For one, while this city looked like Manhattan, the rest of the world was differen . The skyscrapers were mere projects the rich had devised to better manage buildings. The rest of the world looked to be from a much earlier time. The majority of it looked like it was from the renaissance, or earlier points in time. Then again, these were only the memories of a few ponies, and the rest of the world could look to be from other times. If a twenty first century city could built, surrounded on all sides by the past, maybe there were other cities.

Again, that would be interesting to see.

Alex already had a plan for the rest of his immortal life. See the world, blend in with society, and disappear from the eyes of everyone. It would be relatively simple, if the world weren’t so interesting.

It was cute. Far too cute. The world was much brighter than his own, and the air was purer. The lifeforms didn’t feel much better than the humans he had grown to loathe, but there were barely any wars being waged for mundane reasons. No genocides performed out of mere spite. Only petty conflict, mostly between individuals.

Sure, these conflicts were one of the reasons that he had decided to destroy his own world, and create a better one, but these things were similar to what his world was going to look like. He envisioned a world where the majority of the people were walking, disfigured abominations or giant, hulking monsters. The top of this world would be him, and his evolved. As much as he would try to deny it, there was a huge caste system on his dream world.

And the infected?

They would tear each other apart. They were mindless creatures, and even he knew that deep down. He somehow knew they would be violent and uncontrollable, and the hive mind was dangerous to most users. Greene hadn’t had enough of her mind to use the virus in ways that he could, because the REDLIGHT hive mind had deteriorated her mind. She had more personality than a normal infected, but she was still MOTHER, not Elizabeth Greene. As much as he hated Greene, some part of him wondered what she could have truly done if she had her original mind. She was the most powerful runner recorded, and she could literally pull new strains of the virus from her ass. Alex, however, would have a harder time to do so than she. His own virus was made from one part of hers, and he only has the DNA that Greene was making at the time. He was sure that there were different strands of REDLIGHT out there, but he wasn't sure if they were the same virus.

And Pariah?

Sometimes, Alex wondered what was wrong with that kid. Or at least, what he was planning. Who requests to stay in a cage, with scientists poking and messing with him all day? That guy was stranger than his mother.

Then again, they were both her children.

And one of them suffered her fate.

“Well, that was… Something to think about.” Alex mused to himself, as he kept walking. The streets were crowded, but there were other ways of getting around. Sure, he was in a high society place, and high society is supposedly made up of unicorns, but there were a few pegasi flying. They seemed so… Coordinated. Like their lives have a routine, and they just didn’t know about it yet.

‘Wow. When did I become such a philosopher?’

Alex knew the answer to his question of course, but asking really helped his mind not drift to darker things. He supposed growing up in only violence would make violence a necessary thread in his life. It didn’t really matter to him, since the old urges of killing could easily be suppressed. Not like in the old days, when killing was the only answer. Alex would have chuckled, thinking about how things would be if he had came here at any earlier time.

---Somewhere in another world---

Alex had been sitting in the room, knowing full well the impending conversation would be awkward. As he prepared to tell a censored version of his life story to a voice in his head that somehow got there without being consumed, then the ponified Virus sneezed. “I didn’t know I could do that…”

‘Gazuntite’ the voice said.

“Thanks, I guess…”

---AAAAAAAAAAAAAND WE’RE BACK!---

Yep, almost chuckle worthy.

Alex stopped walking, for he had reached his destination. He looked at the dome-shaped building, and smirked. “Perfect.”

Pone Station

Not convinced at all.

Zarrus

“So… Where we goin?” Zarrus asked. Given the puzzled looks of the two fillies, Zarrus guessed they had no plan whatsoever. They just shuffled uncomfortably. “Do you have an idea as to where this ‘monster’ is?” Again, there was just awkward shuffling. Zarrus sighed. Did they come to him so he could make the plan for them? He’s an adult! He supervises plans!

“So you came out here, told me about catching a ‘dangerous monster’, knows exactly what he looks like, to a point, but just don’t know where he is, what he’s capable of, or how to catch him?” he summarized. Emerald and Sunshine looked at each other, blinked, and looked back at Zarrus.

“Actually, I have an idea!” Sunshine yelled. Her positive attitude never ceased to lift Zarrus’s spirit straight to the heavens. She now had the attention of both Emerald and Zarrus, and she quivered under the gazes. Zarrus chuckled at this/ No matter how outgoing she seems, Sunshine is extremely shy. Ironic, considering how loud she was. “Um.. I was just hoping we could fly around and look for him.” she blushed and looked down, sheepish as ever.

“I can’t fly, Sunshine.” Emerald said. The only flaw in her plan, but it was an easy fix. What kind of griffin would Zarrus be if he couldn't hold a single filly?

“I got that, I can carry you.” he said. No way she could be that heavy, anyway. She turned away from him, and mumbled a barely audible “Okay.”

“That settles it! We can look for the monster from the air!” Sunshine bought her hoof up, and pumped it. “Perhaps we can get our cutie marks?” she thought about it for a moment. “Nah, not in this business.” Sunshine, Emerald, and Zarrus shared a laugh at this thought. “But still, lets begin the hunt.” With those words, Sunshine took off into the air. Zarrus followed, grabbing Emerald in his talons as gently as possible.

Mercer

Mercer had just walked inside of Pone Station. It was not exactly what he had expected it to be. The familiar arches and sun glass riifs adjourned the ceiling, and there was train tracks across the way, but the familiarity stopped there. Aside from the lack of humans, there were several things not fitting the picture.

For one, there were pictures of a mare, which his stolen memories confirmed to be the princess, and she was all over the place. That, and there were ponies in armor around a few corners. They didn’t particularly look threatening, but those horns could still be dangerous. Magic is largely an unknown variable here. That unicorn with the thugs didn’t know much at all about how it worked, always slacking off in class. Scum. He should be a bit weary, for while it is unlikely they have anything that can hurt him too much, there is always the chance.

Alex walked around some more, and noticed that the place seemed to also function as a mail service. He never really understood why a building as large as Penn Station only functioned as a transportation hub, and the ponies apparently thought the same thing. Things around here moved smoothly and efficiently, and it was as if watching something slide across a smooth surface.

This wasn’t the place to waste time, as Alex had things to do.

He scanned the creatures, both pony and griffin, walking around. From the memories he stole from the thugs, he got a pretty small picture of things, but there was one griffin in here who had the information he needed.

He was also a face nobody would mind not seeing ever again.

The griffin’s name was Cirra. She was a murdering scumbag who tried to unite the Man-Manehattan gangs under one name. Harmony, she called it. It was supposed to be a way that the rival gangs could practice their business without impeding with each other. That also meant a slightly more organized crime system. Alex knew from experience that organized crime quickly escalates into a very reliable information circulation ring. Those were unacceptable. You never know when eyes are on you, and that goes double with the presence of magic.

Alex continued to look through the crowd for a griffin that matched the description. None appeared, so he moved through the crowds to try to pick any potential target with the skill that can only come from years of practice. Still, this yielded no results.

He concentrated for a moment, waiting for any indication that the sonar had found a target. It usually takes a moment or two, before he gets an answer. He waited for five seconds, the longest time it took for a return ‘ping’, and decided to walk around once the sound didn’t return. “Damn, she isn’t here.” he said to himself.

It was okay, at least. He wanted information, and a good way to get it was pretty far away, or dead. Still, he wasn’t deterred in the slightest. There was a plentiful mass of creatures to consume. He just had to be careful who he goes after. Still unsure about their capabilities, at least. Sighing, Alex looked over to one of the guards that stood around the edge of the station. One of them shared a slight glance with him, and they both looked away at the exact same time.

Alex turned around, and followed a green unicorn stallion out of the station. He was trotting happily, like he just accomplished something big. The stallion was humming a merry tune, moving forwards with his eyes closed. Mercer wondered how he was able to weave through the upcoming crowd with so much ease. The stallion wasn’t going to stop any time soon by the look of things, so Mercer just followed from a distance while sending ‘pings’ every once a while.

Top Notch

Top was just walking through the streets, humming happily, skipping, eyes closed, all of that. He had a really good day. Not only did the unicorn join one of the gangs that would allow he, and his family to walk around the streets unharassed, he also got into contact with his wife! She also had a good day, and the rest of this day was to be good.

He was happily trotting through the streets, humming like a little filly who found out her long-standing crush returned the feelings. He definitely sounded like a stallion should! Yep!

He had been trotting about, walking into various stores and vendor stands, buying anything he probably needed to buy. Dough, wheat, sugar, carrots, tofu, water, and a hat. These things were essentials when you come back from a long trip, and buying these just made Top feel better. It was inexplainable! Like the time that stallion with the duck came and had a good time all around the city. Ah, that was the day.

Anyway, Top was just walking, happily, minding his own business, but suddenly the unicorn felt something behind him. He swiftly looked behind him, and didn’t see anything out of normal, so he continued on his way, but warily.

He noticed, that every once in a while, he felt like somepony was watching him, but he found the same thing once he turned around. Living in Manehattan, the large groups he had become accustomed to had held many dangerous ponies and griffins and such, hiding among the masses. Luckily for Top, living in this city made him learn to overcome these things. The most reliable way would be to separate from the group, and ambush his pursuer. See how they like it.

Top Notch put his hat on, and stripped away from his sidewalk crowd.Sunshine

Flying is fun.

As a pegasus, being high in the sky is like second nature. A true home away from home. Being in the air made Sunshine as happy as can be, and it reminded her of the old days with her family. The fun times, as well as the bad times. She never really understood why her parents left her like they did, and now she doesn't think of them as much anymore, because she has a new family.

Meeting Zarrus had been one of the brightest moments since before she was given up, and she hoped her time spent with him would be as fruititious as any relationship. She loved him like family, and he returned the feelings. Sunshine sincerely hoped for the day he adopts her would come soon.

She was flying as high as she could, which happened to be as high as Zarrus would let her fly, trying to locate a grey earth pony with radiates fear. Even thinking about this monster made her feel all fuzzy on the inside. In truth, monsters always fascinated Sunshine, ever since Zarrus showed up and read her those books. It has been her dream since then to see a monster with her own eyes.

And now, the opportunity was nigh, and she shouldn’t waste it. This ‘monster’ Emerald speaks of was clearly magic, and clearly dangerous. Tingling with excitement, the borderline filly flapped her wings harder, and scanned the streets with a vicious resolve. ‘It should not be hard to find him’ Sunshine thought ‘Not many ponies wear dark jackets on these days’. Behind her, Emerald and Zarrus were flying together, also looking down. “Sunshine, come back!” Emerald shouted, an act that almost went unnoticed due to the wind in Sunshine’s ears.

Almost.

She shifted into a glide and allowed Zarrus and Emerald to catch up. Once they did, Sunshine stopped completely, and started to hover around Zarrus. “What? We gotta catch a monster!” she whined, while Emerald shook her head. “How are we supposed to find this monster, if you are moving so fast that you can’t see anypony?” Emerald asked.

“I don’t know!” she exasperated and threw her forehooves in the air. “I’m just excited, okay?” she asked, then sniffed. “Smells like… Roasted carrots.” Sunshine flipped, and dived towards the ground, in pursuit of her snacks.

She slowed down once she could clearly see pony faces, flipped to the side, rolled out of the way of some birds, and landed perfectly. A pony across the way saw this, and pulled out a poster that had the number ten on it. With a huge grin on her face, she trotted up to the stand, and got in line, directly after the next stallion. An exchange of bits later, she was ready to pick up her carrot. ‘Oh, this is gonna be the best carrot ever!’

She paid her bits, grabbed the carrot, thanked the mare behind the stand, and turned around. She began to walk a bit away from the crowd, as Sunshine doesn’t like crowds that much, despite living in the city of crowds. With her carrot in tow, and out of the way of crowds, she began to move it to her mouth slowly, ready to bite into it with all of her skills harnessed from years of eating carrots. Her mouth watered from anticipation, and she prepared to take that one. Crucial. Bite.

And then somepony bumped into her. ‘Noooooooo!’ she screamed inwardly, as the carrot fell from her hoof. She tried to catch it, but her thoughts were faster than her hooves could ever hope to be. The carrot hit the ground soundlessly, and she screamed again, as loud as her imaginative voice would let her. She looked over to whoever bumped over into her, and she heard Emerald yell down to her. “Sunshine, look out! It’s him!”

Sunshine looked over to her right, and saw the grey stallion with the jacket turning around to face her. Blue eyes met green, and she resisted the urge to scream and fly as high as she could.

Emerald

Emerald looked at a petrified Sunshine, and sighed.

Sure, she was worried about her best friend's safety, but the real sigh was directed to the petrification. Emerald should have guessed she would be the one to freeze under pressure or fear, despite being the most rambunctious of all her friends. It was kind of typical, if you think about it. Not pretty, but just typical.

The ‘monster’ simply looked up at Zarrus and Emerald with curiosity, and almost caused Emerald to squirm out of Zarrus’ grip. This stallion had weird vibes that Emerald was faintly picking up. Vibes that makes her feel afraid. It was like an emotion spell was always active on him, and it didn’t feel right. “Zarrus, grab Sunshine and fly up as high as you can.” she whispered. Zarrus nodded, and moved to get Sunshine. Instead of taking off, he placed Emerald next to Sunshine, and walked over to the hooded stallion. Emerald wanted to yell at him to come back, but her solid friend was still pretty shaken up. “Sunshine, you alright?”

“Y-yeah.” she shivered. “Just really afraid. Dont really know why…” she trailed off.

Emerald looked over to Zarrus walking over to the stallion, and Sunshine whispered “Is that coming from him?” Emerald nodded, generally unsure if that was true or not. “Like the Slenderpony stories?” Emerald shrugged at that one.

Zarrus could be seen speaking from this distance, and Emerald hoped that he wouldn’t point in their direction. The unmoving stallion just glanced over at them, then returned his gaze towards Zarrus. Zarrus then gestured over at the two fillies with his paw, and laughed a little bit. The supposed monster’s face stayed indifferent the entire time, but he reluctantly nodded at the unheard question. Zarrus began to walk over, but the ‘stallion’ stayed behind for a moment, then looked around in search of something. He seemed to curse under his breath and followed Zarrus.

Emerald shot Zarrus a glare, but it withered once she saw the irritated ‘monster’ behind him, and she shivered in fear. Another wave of the foreign fear washed over her, and mixed with her preexisting fear. “H-hello.” she shuddered at the look she got. Two crystal orbs void of a soul, the eyes of the stranger seemed to be.

“You shouldn’t chase after dangerous things.” he said. “I dont want a child getting hurt over something like that.” was all he said before he left.

“See?” Zarrus asked. “All of that fear was for nothing.” he said.

Emerald wasn’t so sure about that, but let it slide for now.

The Slaughterhouse

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Intermission: Captured

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Haitus

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