Emerald Gleaner: Viral Unicorn

Chapters

Chapter 3: Making Friends
Chapter 4: The Mystery Revealed
Chapter 6: Shaky Start
Chapter 7: The Best Intentions
Chapter 8: Eternity Beckons
Chapter 9: Man's Best Friend
Chapter 10: Separation
Chapter 11: Future Nightmares
Chapter 12: Overwatch
Chapter 13: Advice
Chapter 14: Red Wedding
Epilogue: Revelations
Chapter 1: Growing Ever Stronger
Chapter 2: Apotheosis
Chapter 5: Unexpected Development
NEWS

Chapter 3: Making Friends

Emerald was in the tunnel leading down to the cavern city and was taking her time, thinking about what she had just done on a nearby cliff side. As she arrived down at the very bottom end of the tunnel, she noticed Belvedere waiting by the tunnel exit sitting on the floor.

“Hello Oskar,” Belvedere greeted. He was still wearing his armor sans his helmet, which was beside him on the floor. “Pony form huh? Been a while since I saw you look like that.”

“Hmm…” Emerald said and looked down at herself before reforming into her new base form, her female human form. “Call me Emerald, Belvedere.”

“Oh,” Belvedere said with a raised brow. “Okay Emerald. Is there a story behind your name change?”

“There is,” Emerald answered, and there was a bit of a pause as Belvedere waited to see if she was going to explain further.

“Well what’s next on the agenda then Boss?” Belvedere said when it became obvious she wasn’t going to explain.

“Well… first things first,” Emerald began, walking towards the city and Belvedere quickly got to his feet and started walking by her side. “We need to get back on track with the excavation. I’ll be right to assume that you had the exaction stopped when the attack started right?”

“Yes boss,” Belvedere said with a nod as the two of them entered the city streets.

“Well I want the dig started back up as soon as possible,” Emerald said. “I don’t want to keep the independent packs waiting too long for their proof.”

“Of course boss,” Belvedere said as he waved over an idle dog to have her pass along a message.

Emerald looked down a street when she heard a commotion and saw a bunch of Warhounds excitedly talking. One of the dogs happened to be the huge Diamond Dog, Padfoot, and he had Whisper Wind standing on his shoulder. Whisper Wind had this massive grin on her face as the various Warhounds surrounding her praised her for her help and happily retold her assists in the fight on the surface.

Emerald smiled at that, recalling when Whisper first arrived and was just a thief looking for loot. The Evolved became curious and wondered exactly why the thief didn’t just hide herself away down in the tunnels where it was safe, and had instead stayed out and helped the Warhounds fight.

The two kept moving down the street, Emerald thinking about her friendly little prisoner and Belvedere silently at her side awaiting more commands if there was any. As they moved, they walked past two Warhounds sitting on a bench; one was a smaller breed that was much like a dachshund and the other was a larger boxer Diamond Dog. The boxer was flexing muscles gained by harsh training while the other one was staring down at his little arms with some exasperation.

“It’s so hard to get any muscle for me,” the dachshund complained. “You practically started building muscle the day you started training.”

“It’s alright,” the boxer said to his little friend, patting his shoulder. “You’re a little dog. You’re never going to be as big as Padfoot, but you’ll be faster.”

“I know that,” the little Warhound said with a huff. “I’m not expecting to be a huge mass of muscle, but I’m struggling to get any sort of muscle tone here.”

“Can’t really do anything about that I’m afraid,” the Boxer said with a shake of his head. “The only thing you can do is just keep working at it.”

“I know…” the little dog said with a sigh.

Emerald frowned thoughtfully as she considered what she just heard. Normally the boxer would be right and there wouldn’t be much of anything you could do without drugs like steroids. However, Emerald was a sapient virus with centuries worth of memories in genetic engineering, courtesy of Gentek scientists. While she could make some drugs like steroids to assist her dogs in building muscle, she had a much better idea of going about it.

‘An interesting idea…’ Emerald thought. ‘Of course, I wouldn’t want to go on and try it out on the Warhounds without some proper testing. I’ll go out and collect some animals and inject them with a retrovirus that’ll suppress myostatin and observe what happens. While I’m at it, I might as well look at increasing bone density and stamina as well, make it a full package deal. If everything goes alright, I’ll use it on the Warhounds. Now what to call this project? Hmm… heh, Project: Orion.’

“Right, Belvedere,” Emerald began. “I’ll leave you to any work you might have. I’ll be on the surface studying some books and machinery.”

“Right, boss,” Belvedere said and walked away when Emerald disappeared in a pink flash.

ALPHA

The next day found Emerald sitting outside, watching the sun reach noon and with an oddly ignored book on her lap. Nearby resting her wings was Whisper Wind, eating from a wooden bowl full of diced vegetables.

“Time to take my medicine,” Whisper said as she started eating the diced vegetables.

“The suppressant for the virus isn’t in there.” Emerald stated, staring off into the calm blue sky.

“Wh-what?” Whisper said with some alarm. “Um… I am still going to get it later right? I mean, I have like only four more hours until the virus starts hurting me again!”

“No you don’t,” Emerald said with a shake of her head and looked intently at Whisper. “The last time I put something in your food, it wasn’t the suppressant; it was the cure.”

“You mean… I don’t have the virus anymore?” Whisper said with wide eyes. “I don’t have to worry about what would happen if I didn’t take my medicine for a whole day?”

“It appears to be that way,” Emerald said as she continued her intent look at Whisper. “Why did you help my dogs, Whisper? You could have just ran down to the city and stayed safe, and no one would have judged you for it, but you didn’t. You stayed up here and helped the Warhounds fight the Timber Wolves. Why?”

“Wh-what? W-well I…” Whisper began nervously, tapping her hooves together rather adorably as she tried to think of an answer. “Well I’ve never had any real excitement in my life and I only found some excitement when I stole my first thing and uhh… and I like excitement! I mean stealing things weren’t entirely… uh, well… what I REALLY mean to say is I like sneaking! AND excitement! And uh…”

“Whisper.” Emerald interrupted Whisper’s rambling; it was fairly clear to the virus that Whisper was trying to find her own reason for why she stayed on the surface, and frankly it wasn’t completely important for Emerald to know. “The fact is, you helped us at risk to your own well-being. So I’ve decided to go out on a limb and let you ‘off the leash’ so to speak. So how does it feel to be free of the virus and the constant threat of death hovering over you?”

Whisper blinked and looked away from Emerald and up at the clear blue sky. She imagined herself flying away from Equestria under the cover of night for a moment, though it was soon replaced by memories of armoured dogs happily praising her for her help and her being held aloft, her ears filled with the sound of cheering. The convict shook her head clear of thoughts and looked back at Emerald.

“It feels great… boss,” Whisper said with a smile, one that the virus gladly returned.

“I had taken this time to speak with you specifically,” Emerald said. “Is there anything at all I can do to make you feel more comfortable living here?”

“Well, could I get my own place up here?” Whisper asked hopefully. “I know the Diamond Dogs like being underground, but I prefer the sky being above me.”

“Easily done,” Emerald replied. “So… how about you get a position in the Warhounds huh? I don’t intend for you to be a frontline fighter though. No, far from it. You are obviously someone whose skills need to be utilised in a far more intelligent way than just tossing you at the enemy.”

“Hmm…” Whisper tilted her and stared at Emerald. “I don’t know… I mean I am kind of bored… and that fight was making my heart race wonderfully… SURE! Why not! I’ll give it a try. Giving it a try is the least I can do, right?”

“Yes, and if it doesn’t work out you can stop being a Warhound,” Emerald said with a shrug. “You lose nothing, but can gain so much if it works out.”

“At least I’ll get my wings back in shape,” Whisper said, fluttering said wings pointedly.

“I’ll handle your training schedule tomorrow,” Emerald said with a nod. “Rest and relax while you can. The training won’t break you, but you’ll definitely be pushed to your limits each and every time. I’ll be off to do some other business I’ve put off.”

“I hope I don’t regret this…” Whisper said as the virus disappeared in a flash.

Emerald reappeared in the tunnel leading to the excavation of Nidhogg’s skeleton… or rather she ended up a few feet above the tunnel she intended to appear in. With a put upon sigh, Emerald shifted into a mass of tendrils and quickly drilled down through the ceiling of the tunnel. Landing with a soft thump, Emerald quickly reformed in her base form.

The tunnel was larger than the last time she had been there, having been expanded by the Diamond Dogs to make room for Nidhogg’s large bones which were already being gathered in a pile off to the side.

“Hello boss!” shouted a large dog as he and several of his fellows carried a rib bone from the excavation.

Emerald nodded in greeting as she walked past the group as they maneuvered the bone into position. Approaching the mouth of the excavation entrance, Emerald quickly stepped to the side as several Diamond Pups run out of the cavern giggling, bones just small enough for their mouths in their tiny jaws.

“Hey you lot, get back here with those!” shouted a dog as he ran after them.

Emerald smiled at that and gave a double take at the dog chasing after the puppies.

‘Huh, Rover,’ Emerald thought before making her way into the cavern. ‘Been a while since I’ve talked with him. Wonder how he and his friends are doing? Maybe I’ll look for them and ask them myself one day.’

Most of the cavern Nidhogg had claimed as his was still completely buried in rock, along with his vast gem hordes, though only the area where the dragon had died and the needed space to remove the bones had been excavated. Standing on the very fringes of the digging dogs, Belvedere stood overseeing everything like a lordly hawk, his stance and current attire only added to the effect.

Thanks to his nature as a greyhound, Belvedere wasn’t as top heavy as most dogs. This meant he could stand on his hind legs far longer than most dogs and took advantage of this by standing upright and crossing his arms imperiously. Instead of the usual Diamond Dog vest or even his Warhound armor, Belvedere was actually wearing a faded dark blue long coat that reminded Emerald a lot of the one she wore for her Gray Fox form.

“Hello Belvedere,” Emerald said as she came to a stop beside the alpha.

“Emerald,” Belvedere greeted with a nod, eyes still focused on the digging dogs below.

“Nice coat,” Emerald said with a pointed smile. “Where did you get it if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I got it from that ruin over there,” Belvedere said, pointing a thumb over his shoulder at a carved stone column with a hole beside it. “This place used to be the capital city of the Diamond Dog Kingdom. With Nidhogg living here in its ruins, we’ve never been able to look through it and salvage until now.”

Taking a closer look at the coat Belvedere was wearing, Emerald saw that the only thing wrong with it was that it’s once deep blue dye was fading. A hundred years of neglect in a musty old cave with a dragon stomping around, occasionally letting off bursts of fire and a cave-in, yet that was the only thing wrong with it.

“Woven by one of the spider families out of their silk,” Belvedere said at Emerald’s curious stare. “With the material this coat is made of, it can function as armor; probably just as well as chainmail if not better.”

“Spider silk armor,” Emerald said with a thoughtful look.

‘Spider silk would make an excellent under armor for plating,’ Emerald thought as she watched the dogs dig out Nidhogg’s skull; apparently more than a few of them had taken to crudely writing insults on it. ‘One issue though. While I can make spider silk, I don’t know how to weave it… I don’t know how to make much of any clothes to tell the truth. Hmm…’

“Do you think we can re-establish contact with the spider families?” Emerald asked.

“It’s a possibility.” Belvedere frowned. “It’s been a hundred years though. It’s unlikely that anyone that remembers the trade between our races are still alive, which would mean we would have to establish a new trade contract, which is a task in itself.”

“Oh? Why is that?” Emerald asked.

“The spider families practically rivaled the old Diamond Dog Kingdom in isolationism,” Belvedere answered. “Unless you are invited inside, any one of the families would attack you the moment you stepped into their caves. And getting an invitation isn’t easy; I recall stories from the elders talking about some dogs waiting up to a week outside the spider caves just to be told they weren’t interested in talking.”

“Troublesome,” Emerald muttered.

“Indeed.”

As Emerald pondered the spider families, one of the dogs below suddenly tossed something black and shiny out of the hole he was digging. It landed a short distance away from Emerald and the virus walked over to look at it.

It appeared to be one of Nidhogg’s scales. It shone like polished jet and upon having a closer look at the dig, Emerald saw that the floor of it was covered in black scales of every size. Looking back down at the scale in her hand, Emerald gained a thoughtful look on her face.

“Got an idea, boss?” Belvedere asked.

“Yep,” Emerald replied and brandished the scale at the Alpha. “Got an idea for a useful shrub.”

BETA

“So…” Twilight began unenthusiastically with a sigh, Navi perched upon one of her ears. “What’s on the list, Spike?”

Twilight was in the guest bedroom that would be occupied by Sweetie Belle whenever she decided to stay with her sister. Scrolls and books were piled neatly nearby a desk that had been salvaged from the library; while there was certainly a lot of them, there wasn’t nearly as much as was expected of the unicorn. It was a fact that was causing Rarity and Spike some worry as it was unlike the book loving unicorn.

Navi trilled in worry from her spot on Twilight’s ear.

“You know what I’m thinking about Navi…” Twilight said softly, and the little bug snuggled against her cheek for a moment before darting into her mane.

“I don’t!” Spike exclaimed, waving his quill and roll of parchment in the air. “What’s wrong Twilight?”

“Spike… what’s on the list?” Twilight asked pointedly, looking away from the little dragon.

“Well…” Spike began with a troubled frown at Twilight avoiding his question. “First thing is quills, which we have, so check. Next is parchment, which I had just finished putting away after picking it up; check. Ink is up next and… Twilight, are you even paying attention?!”

“Hmm?” Twilight said, looking away from the window she was looking out morosely. “Oh don’t worry Spike, I’m paying attention. Just keep going.”

Spike was worried before, but now he was definitely concerned for Twilight. She found making checklists fun, but now she was just miserably going through the motions, treating it more like the chore everyone else thought it was. It was then that the baby dragon decided it was better that Twilight was feeling anything other than misery and started racking his mind for something to do just that. After a few moments, he recalled the fact that Twilight hadn’t sent a friendship report in a week. While he normally wouldn’t have given that fact a second thought, he knew that Twilight would flip her lid over such a thing.

“Friendship report!” Spike shouted.

“Huh?” Twilight said with some confusion and looked over her shoulder at him.

“You haven’t written a friendship report in a week!” Spike shouted, smiling perhaps a bit too eagerly. “You’re supposed to write one every week!”

That seemed to do the trick as Twilight widened her eyes and frowned worriedly. But after a moment, Spike grew less happy at his accomplishment as Twilight’s frown twitched between worry and apathy. It was getting to the point that she was even looking like she was forcing herself to become worried. After several moments, Twilight released a loud sigh and her expression become affixed in one of tired indifference.

“I’ll just wait until I have something about friendship to write to the Princess about, Spike,” Twilight said, causing Spike to gape at her and drop his quill and scroll, and even Navi popped her little head out to trill questioningly at Twilight. “I’m sure Celestia won’t mind if my friendship report is late… now that I think about it, I can’t exactly be expected to learn something new every week. Eventually the flow of new lessons in friendship is going to slow down.”

“Yeah… right,” Spike said, shaking his head clear and picking his dropped quill and parchment.

Twilight couldn’t help but think about what kind of friendship report she would give if she did write one to the princess.

‘Dear Princess Celestia

I learned that you should always remain loyal to your friends, even if they jeopardized the stability of an entire kingdom and murdered innocent ponies.

Your obviously delusional student,

Twilight Sparkle’

Twilight didn’t know whether to laugh in hysteria or helplessness. She was absolutely certain Princess Celestia did not have this in mind when she sent her here to learn the meaning of friendship. But she was here now and learning more about friendship then she thought she would, including aspects of friendship she didn’t realise could ever exist. She was a good pony and didn’t dream of ever breaking even the most minor of laws, yet she found herself keeping silent about Emerald’s horrible crimes, all for the sake of the bond between them…

Spike’s concern skyrocketed when he saw Twilight grow ever more miserable and he quickly swept his gaze over the list in his hands, looking for something that would engage Twilight in some way. He found something that might do the trick.

“You know about that picnic everyone is going have later today?” Spike said. “The cupcakes you ordered for it should be done by now. How about we go pick them up?”

“Sure, let’s go Spike,” Twilight said as she led the way.

The two plus one parasprite soon left Rarity’s boutique and made their way for Sugarcube Corner. As they moved through the town, they happened to pass what was once the ruins of Twilight’s library.

The shattered remains of the hollow tree Twilight had lived in was long gone, cleared up by workers. In its place was a mostly formless mass of timber, brick and scaffolding as construction workers set about building Twilight’s new library. The unicorn considered it too bad that they simply couldn’t rebuild her old home, as she had grown quite fond of it, but nothing could be done as her home had been grown and not actually built in the first place.

Passing what was to be their new home in the near future, the group continued on to their destination. Before long, they arrived.

“Just a moment!” Twilight heard Mrs. Cake shout from the back when she entered the bakery.

“Oh, hello Twilight dear!” Mrs. Cake said cheerfully as she appeared from the kitchen. “Are you here for your cupcakes?”

“Yes I am,” Twilight answered. “Are they ready?”

“Yes they are, one moment,” Mrs. Cake said and disappeared back into the kitchen briefly before coming back out with a white box. “Here you are, one dozen cupcakes plus one!”

“Plus one?” Twilight said.

“I had a spare,” the baker answered. “Do you mind if I ask if you’ve heard back from Emerald yet? It’s been such a long time since the dear has come by for her favorite donuts or to lend a hoof in the kitchen.”

Twilight seemed to tense up at the question for a brief moment before seeming to force herself to loosen up and levitated the box of cupcakes over.

“Did I say something wrong?” Mrs. Cake asked in concern.

“No you didn’t, it’s fine,” Twilight said a bit unconvincingly. “Emerald has… not contacted me yet from her… journey.”

“Oh… do you know when she’ll be back though?” Mrs. Cake asked.

“No,” Twilight stated, perhaps more gruffly then she intended to, and quickly turned about and left the bakery, leaving a near speechless Mrs. Cake in her wake.

“Wow Twilight… don’t you think you were a little rude back there?” Spike said as he quickly jogged after the agitated unicorn.

“…Twilight?” Spike asked when she didn’t answer.

The violet unicorn was currently thinking about Emerald again, her mind trying to come to terms with the unicorn that had made several dear friends amongst the people of Ponyville and someone that had killed hundreds of people, quite possibly their only crime either being in her way or being in the wrong place at the wrong time. For every memory of Emerald interacting with the others, Twilight imagined her ending a poor innocent’s life.

‘I… I can’t think like this!’ Twilight thought in distress. ‘I hav- I have to do…. I need to distract myself.’

“So uh, the next thing on the list is-” Spike began.

“We can finish the list some other time Spike,” Twilight interrupted. “I’m going back to Rarity’s to read a book.”

Again Spike dropped his quill and parchment and, had he the ability, his jaw no doubt would have joined the items on the ground. He simply stared as Twilight teleported in a flash of light and left him standing in the street.

Twilight sighed tiredly as she arrived back in the guest room of Rarity’s boutique. She placed the box of cupcakes on the bedside table and walked over to the stacks of books she had beside her desk. Searching through them, Twilight looked for something appropriate for light reading and soon picked out a book. Pulling out the weighty doorstopper of a book on magical theory, Twilight opened it on her desk and began to read.

However, as she did so, she couldn’t help but think about something Emerald told her about the world she had come from. Namely about the fact that the world she originated from lacked magic in any way barring the most simple of illusions that only needed a slight of hoof and knowing how to distract a crowd.

‘A people, a whole world without magic,’ Twilight thought with some wonder. ‘What kind of society does that create? Let’s see… for one they wouldn’t be able to control the environment as well as we could. Emerald mentioned that the only sapient species in the world were humans, and by the look of her she didn’t have wings, so just by that fact alone shipping items over long distances would be far more difficult. How did Earth Ponies manage before the three tribes joined together? Far slower than what they could do working with pegasi anyway. They can’t make crops grow with ease, and natural disasters like storms, floods and blizzards would have to simply be weathered until they passed. But wait… if they can’t control the environment because they don’t have magic, then what makes the sun and moon rise and set? Who takes care of the animals and wakes them up from hibernation? It can’t be humans. Without magic, there isn’t any clear way they could move celestial objects, and without it, it might be more trouble than it’s worth to care for the animals… oh my gosh… it’s like Everfree… a whole world is like the Everfree! An entire world is like the one place where if you aren’t careful the animals will kill you! Just what kind of effect does that have on a society that would form there?’

‘Competition,’ Twilight thought with certainty. ‘Humans are omnivores from what I understand, and so need to feed off both flora and fauna to survive. They need to both compete with herbivores for the plants they are able to eat and with carnivores for animals to prey on. That sets the bar though. Violence is the answer to the basest problem and creates a bad precedent for the future when another group of people grow large enough and encroach on their hunting grounds. Do they speak with the competitors for food and space? Negotiate to satisfy both parties? No, there is already an answer for competition; violence. Diplomacy is eventually invented, there is just no way, eventually you meet somepony who is better than you but it’s too late, the damage has been done and the spectre of violence overhangs over everything. Society grows bigger, space is claimed, tensions rise, base answer to competition brought up once again… in recorded history there has been a major conflict only a few times. I can only imagine just how many dozens more wars the humans have recorded in their history… well, that explains why Emerald has such a capacity for violence.’

“Err, Twilight?” the unicorn heard from behind her.

“You know the picnic is starting soon,” Spike said to her. “If we don’t leave soon, we’ll be late… unless you don’t want to go that is.”

“What? No, I want to go to the picnic,” Twilight said and turned away from her desk. “But I thought it wasn’t for a few hours yet?”

“You were standing there staring at that book for a long time Twilight,” Spike said. “It seemed like it was important from the way you looked, so I didn’t interrupt you.”

“What? Has that much time really… never mind, let’s get going Spike,” Twilight said and made way for the door while levitating the cupcake box along with her.

The two made good time, quickly reaching the outskirts of town where the picnic was going to be, arriving early enough that the others were just arriving and beginning to set down the cloth and the food.

“Twilight, darling!” Rarity waved over to her friend happily. “How are… Twilight, you look terrible. Whatever is the matter?”

“What? I do?” Twilight said, looking for a reflective surface of any kind.

“Rarity is right. You do look a bit stressed, Twilight,” Fluttershy said softly. “Is there something bothering you?”

“It’s… well it’s about… I can’t say, girls,” Twilight said sadly with a shake of her head, feeling like she’d rather tell the truth there and then.

“It’s about Emerald, isn’t it, Twilight?” Rarity asked, and the unicorn answered her question by looking away from her. “What happened between you two? The both of you were such good friends… did one of you say something you’re both coming to regret?”

“Rarity, please. I can’t… I don’t…” Twilight sighed tiredly before opening her box of cupcakes and bringing it up to take a bite. “Let’s not talk about it, okay?”

Everyone shared a look at that, deeply curious as to what caused such an obviously painful rift between Twilight and Emerald. But at the same time, they didn’t want to force Twilight to say anything she didn’t feel comfortable sharing, so…

“Alright darling,” Rarity said, feeling like was it against her better judgement to do so. “You don’t have to say anything more.”

“Thank you Rarity,” Twilight said with some relief. “I don’t mean to ruin the picnic. Let’s just eat and have fun, okay?”

And so they did; or they tried to at least. Thoughts of whatever could have happened between Emerald and Twilight dominated their thoughts.

GAMMA

Loose stones fell from the ceiling as Emerald lead a large group of Warhounds down a tunnel.

Nidhogg’s skeleton had been fully excavated after a full day of work and was now being pulled down a tunnel that had been freshly expanded by another group of Warhounds. Of course, Nidhogg being the massive dragon he was meant they couldn’t realistically bring along his entire skeleton. Just bringing his two fore claws, half a rib cage and his skull was already pushing it as it was, not to mention how hard it was to pull along the trailer carrying the skeleton on the rough tunnel floor.

Despite these issues, there weren’t any complaints from the Warhounds. They were used to being worked excessively hard with food that was barely enough. They weren’t going complain about pulling a heavy load when they were fit, well rested and, most importantly, well-fed. Not to mention the fact Emerald herself wasn’t just walking them along and was helping with the load as well.

“Just a bit further everyone!” Emerald shouted as she motioned towards the tunnel exit a hundred feet away. “We’re almost there, keep pulling!”

Knowing they were almost done seemed to invigorate the armored dogs and they pulled with greater energy, the trailer picking up speed noticeably. Before long, the trailer was pulled out into the open of the cavern that held the independent Diamond Dog village.

A fairly large crowd had gathered in the cavern, far more dogs than could reasonably live in the village behind them, the sound of their chatter filling the ears of Emerald and the Warhounds. With their arrival into the cavern with Nidhogg’s skeleton pulled along behind them, the sense of excitement grew.

The little Alpha with the Scottish accent approached them, his long dual headed club resting on his shoulder.

“Now that there is a right beastie if I ever saw one,” he commented and looked at Emerald. “Now where be the lad from before? Expected him to be here for this.”

“That was me,” Emerald said to the little Alpha’s obvious incredulity, and quickly shifted between her pony form and back to base form for proof. “You can expect me to be in this form more often than not though.”

“Right. Whatever floats your boat lassy,” the Alpha said with a dismissive wave and pointed towards the crowd. “We got some elders who were around when Nidhogg attacked. They should be able to tell if you’re telling the truth or not.”

“Provided they can actually tell if this belongs to him,” Emerald pointed out as her Warhounds pulled the trailer to a stop before the chattering crowd.

“Not exactly helping your own case there lass,” the Alpha said with a raised brow.

“It’s an issue I’m going to have to deal with nonetheless,” Emerald stated and watched as a group of fairly ancient looking Diamond Dogs stepped forward to examine the large skeleton.

At first, the old dogs were just whispering to each other in hushed tones and pointing at the partial skeleton of Nidhogg. However, the volume of their speech soon began to raise and anger seemed to seep into their voices. It didn’t seem to be anger directed at the skeleton, but rather each other. They appeared to be getting into a steadily fiery argument over whether or not this was Nidhogg’s skeleton.

“Look at the size of it!” one elder shouted in latin, waving a cane at the skeleton furiously. “It’s massive! It can’t be anyone but Nidhogg’s!”

“Oh, and when was the last time you saw a dragon’s skeleton?” Another elder scowled. “This might be just as big as all the others!”

“You’re one to talk, you egotistical equine!” the other snarled back, making the other gape before glaring back with pure loathing. “You’ve never seen a dragon other than Nidhogg before, if you could actually remember what he really looked like! I heard you were hiding in the dry room when the attack started!”

“WHAT?!”

While the dogs started to argue in earnest, another old dog started to slowly walk out of the crowd, his exact breed not entirely clear. He was even older looking than the others, judging from the way his skin clung to his head and neck. His body was likely skeletal if it wasn’t hidden from view by a sleeveless brown robe. Most of the top of his head was scar tissue, and the way the tissue seamlessly formed over his eyes made it clear he was blind. He had only one arm; the other was a stump that ended at his bicep, providing just enough of a limb to use a crutch.

Upon seeing the maimed old dog walk towards the skeleton, the crowd quietened from their amused muttering of watching the elders fight. The elders themselves stopped their arguing when they spotted the maimed old dog walk by them and watched him approach the skeleton silently.

“Who is that?” Emerald whispered to the little Alpha beside her.

“That’s just Old Fenrir,” the alpha said with a shrug. “He used to be somebody in the old kingdom. Didn’t really ask what sort of somebody though.”

The old dog reached the skeleton and began feeling along its surface with his only hand. He stumbled about as he seemed to be looking for something until he finally found it. When his paw moved over the gap of Nidhogg’s mouth the maimed dog paused in his movements and reached within. When his hand touched one of the teeth, he almost seemed to recoil before grasping the teeth firmly. After a moment, he let go of the tooth and backed away from the skull, hand feeling the stump where his other arm used to be as he did so.

“This is Nidhogg,” a surprisingly strong voice came from the maimed dog. “Without a certainty of a doubt.”

“See!” one elder shouted at her compatriot. “The Captain knows this is Nidhogg! And he’s blind!”

“Maybe so…” the other elder shouted back as more than half of the others began to agree. “But like you said, he’s blind.”

“YOU DOUBT HIM!?”

Another argument began to rage and the crowd seemed to join them as they didn’t know what to think. Emerald paid no attention to any of this. Her attention was focused purely on the old maimed dog. Said old dog seemed to ignore everything else and stare in the direction of Nidhogg’s skeleton despite the lack of eyes.

Without thinking, Emerald walked towards the old dog, utterly ignored by everyone in the cavern save for the little Alpha. As she closed in on him, the maimed dog seemed to somehow sense her approach and turned to face her, scarred over eye sockets seeming to stare into her eyes.

She came to a stop before the old maimed dog and kneeled down. Staring into his scarred over sockets for a few moments, Emerald slowly lifted both hands towards him and stopped just before touching him. Seeing him not react in any way, Emerald placed one hand over his stump and the other over his scarred eye sockets. Then she began to work.

While Emerald’s magical control was shot by taking in Draconequis DNA, her viral control had only skyrocketed. This meant that, unlike before when she reconstructed limbs for her dogs, she didn’t need ten minutes of steady work to do it right. No, now she only needed ten seconds.

Tendrils leapt out from her hands and into the scarred flesh. Localised painkillers were delivered and went into effect instantly. Viral biomass flowed in a black surge and quickly started replacing scarred flesh and taking on different shapes on a cellular level. Bones formed, muscles took shape, veins and capillaries were strung through the flesh, pale pink skin covered the bare muscle and was soon covered in gray fur, before finally a pair of intense icy blue eyes appeared as newly formed eyelids finished taking shape.

There were shouts of awe and amazement as Fenrir began to taking loud breaths, happiness from regained sight and arm beginning to overwhelm him. He took in the sight of both his arms for a few moments before beginning to scan over the cavern, trying to take in every single detail of everyone and everything until he suddenly stiffened and calmed.

Shooting a death glare the likes of which would have even given a Stare-ing Fluttershy pause, Fenrir threw away his crutch and approached Nidhogg’s skull. Coming to a stop before the skull, Fenrir suddenly drew in a loud nasally breath that made it quite obvious to everyone watching what he was about to do next.

Fenrir’s large loogie flew far and splattered loudly against the forehead bone of Nidhogg’s skull.

“That was for the kingdom,” Fenrir growled lowly before facing Emerald. “Thank you. I don’t know how just yet, but I shall return this favour.”

“Gift,” Emerald corrected with a shake of her head. “There is nothing to repay.”

“Even so,” Fenrir said, and turned to face a horde of excited dogs approaching him and examining his restored eyes and arm themselves.

“That was a kind and miraculous thing you did, lass.” Emerald looked over her shoulder to see the little Alpha standing behind her.

“Lass,” the Alpha began and took off his beret. “I and quite a few of me fellow Alphas couldn’t care less that you killed the old bat. But what you did here… I am willing to go out on a limb and trust you over that.”

“So you’ll hear what I have to say?” Emerald asked as she got up to her feet.

“I’ll even put in a good word for ya,” the little Alpha replied with a smile.

“Great.” Emerald smiled. “So what do I call you?”

“I’m Alpha Degroot of this charming little hamlet in the middle of nowhere,” the Alpha replied with a faux grandiose wave of his arm. “But you can call me Tavish, lass.”

“So when can I expect to meet all of you in a more formal sense, Tavish?” Emerald asked.

“Couple days, lass.” Tavish replied. “The others honestly thought nothing serious was going to happen for a long while yet, but you give me a good feeling and me good feelings ‘ave never done me wrong. So we’ll go see that fine little nation you got hidden away under the Everfree.”

“You know about that?” Emerald blinked.

“Aye. Your dogs may know a thing or two about tunneling and caving, but they be a shadow of what their ancestors were,” Tavish said with a wide toothy smile. “WE never forgot what our people learned over the centuries. We could dig circles around your best, hehehe.”

“Ah…” Emerald said with a scratch of her head. She hadn’t expected this. “Well since you already know the way, I don’t need to give you directions. I’ll just head back now and await your group’s arrival.”

“Nothing to be ashamed about lass!” Tavish shouted at her cheerfully as she walked away. “Nobody’s great at everything!”

“Well…” Emerald began at her sheepish looking Warhounds. “Looks like we are going to be learning a few things aren’t we?”

“Just another thing on the list, boss.”

“Yep.”

DELTA

About a week later found Emerald waving at a small group of distinguishing Alphas from the independent packs walking into the cavern city. Tavish lead the group as everyone took in their surroundings.

“Welcome to the Enclave!” Emerald greeted with a bit of a strained smile. This was her first formal diplomatic meeting and she felt she needed to dress appropriately, so she wore a knee length dark green skirt with black hose, a white dress shirt and dark green coat buttoned up… and she was regretting it. She felt rather uncomfortable wearing feminine clothes when it wasn’t absolutely necessary. Upon seeing the casual looking clothes the Alphas were wearing, she knew it wasn’t. The virus was just glad she didn’t go for the heels and makeup.

“Hello!” Tavish greeted with a wide grin. “Quite the get up you got there lass!”

“I’ve… never done this before,” Emerald said honestly with a groan. “I figured I was supposed to dress formally for it.”

“I for one am glad someone actually treats meetings like this seriously,” said one Alpha. She was a german shepherd looking breed and was wearing a dark brown sleeveless coat with light brown fleece lining; under that was a white vest with large buttons.

“No one has time for that, Fasha,” one beagle looking Alpha grumbled.

“You never have time for anything. It’s a miracle your lazy hide was recognised as an Alpha,” Fasha sniped.

“Let’s keep the infighting for later, huh?” Tavish said cheerfully before turning his attention back to Emerald. “What I want to see is what you did with those machines you stole from Equestria.”

“Just how much do you know about what I’ve done?” Emerald frowned.

“Oh, it wasn’t hard to figure out.” Tavish smiled slyly. “Especially when you know the only pack of Diamond Dogs with the numbers the Gray Fox commanded was Nidhogg’s lot. After I met you, I just put two and two together.”

“Oh… well would you like to see the machines?” Emerald said and couldn’t help but feel like some corporate tour guide.

“Lead the way lass,” Tavish said.

The group started moving through the city, the Alphas taking in the sights and sounds of the city Emerald helped to create. The dogs she lead were also looking at the Alphas following her in curiosity. The only times they had seen a dog from the independent packs was when they were caught wandering into Nidhogg’s territory, and those had never ended well for them. Now though, they didn’t have to worry about following the cruel dragon’s will.

“A bit crude looking,” Fasha commented as she took in the tall stone apartment buildings. “But they fulfill their purpose.”

“What few elders we have are trying to instill the skills of the old kingdom in the dogs,” Emerald replied. “But it’s slow going and the buildings we already have up take time to be replaced. Someday I intend to have much nicer homes for my dogs, but for now these will do.”

“Someday. Right,” Fasha said with some doubt.

At that, Emerald came to a stop and turned around. She was about to say something when she noticed several dogs had heard and didn’t like the implication of what Fasha had said and were advancing angrily on the group. Emerald halted them with a raised hand.

“I don’t have to prove anything to you,” Emerald stated calmly to Fasha. “But I’ve taken a people devastated by slavery and turned them around within a year. Most of us may not be on the level of intelligence of the people you are used to, but my people don’t shy away from hard work and are rapidly catching up. I’d like to see you accomplish anything close to what I’ve done in that time.”

For a long moment, Fasha simply stared evenly at Emerald, and then she smiled lightly at her.

“I can see a powerful will in those eyes of yours,” Fasha said with a pleased growl. “It’s always nice to meet a leader with a backbone.”

Emerald seemed to relax at that statement, her expression becoming less serious. Then Tavish poked his head between her and Fasha.

“We going to see some stolen machines or what?” Tavish asked.

“I’m talking with someone that actually deserves some respect, you moronic blockhead,” Fasha growled dangerously.

“Oh I’m shaking in me wee little booties!” Tavish said before gasping dramatically. “Oh wait! I ain’t wearing booties!”

“Let’s just get going you two,” the Alpha from before yawned.

“Yes, let’s,” Emerald agreed and turned about to continue leading the way.

Upon reaching the stairway heading down towards where the factory floor was located, the group paused for a moment. Emerald quickly got everyone wearing ear protection and some safety goggles before giving them a short safety lecture, then they continued; the last thing Emerald wanted was one of them getting pulled into a machine by their fur.

After making their way down a long staircase, Emerald lead them through a pair of double doors and the Alphas found themselves being thankful for the earmuffs; if it was this loud with them on, they could only imagine what it was like with them off.

The room was very long and its ceiling was very high. Electric lights lined the ceiling and long production lines with various mechanical arms stretched along the entire length of the room, deafening in their activity. Various Diamond Dogs darted the room, some with their fur cut short and all wearing hard hats, earmuffs, safety vests and safety goggles.

Emerald walked over to a panel on the wall and flipped some of the switches on it. The lights on the ceiling switched colors and turned yellow. The Diamond Dogs on the factory floor took in this change calmly and went about their work. However as time went on, more and more of the machines slowed to a stop and eventually all of them were turned off.

Emerald walked towards the stopped machines and motioned for the earmuffs on the Alphas’ ears. The Alphas took off their ear protection as they approached the production line Emerald was beside.

“Now this room is one of a few others, but this one is the largest one,” Emerald explained. “The others are focused on more mundane things like creating machine parts, but this one is focused on making weapon parts.”

“Weapons, huh?” Fasha said as she examined the metal pieces on the belt. They obviously weren’t finished just yet and looked kind of like the stock of a crossbow, only metal. But why in the world was the Enclave making so many crossbows? “Planning to go to war with someone?”

“I am not, no,” Emerald said firmly. “However, there will always be conflict. I’d rather have something and not need it than need it and not have it in this case.”

“A bit paranoid ain’t cha lass?” Tavish said as he picked up the partially built gun. “You make it sound like wars happen all the time. The last I recall, there hasn’t been one in a thousand years.”

“For me they are,” Emerald replied and got stares from everyone. She noticed the lazy Alpha was looking at her with seemingly sleepy eyes but she could see the intense concentration in those eyes as he pondered an interesting puzzle. “Either way, I don’t want to get complacent and end up getting blindsided by something simple preparation would have prevented.”

“Hmm…” the lazy Alpha hummed contemplatively. “You have industry, you have strong soldiers and from what I can tell you have a sure fire way of keeping everyone fed… the way I see it the only thing you could want is more bodies to get more work done.”

“So that’s what you want,” Tavish said thoughtfully as everyone continued to stare at her.

Emerald was currently reassessing what she thought was going to happen when she got in contact with the independent packs. Of course all of them weren’t going to flood back just because a new Diamond Dog nation had been formed. It had been a hundred years since the day the old kingdom was burned down by Nidhogg. Nearly the entire population of independent packs had to be made up of people who had grown up in their own little settlements. She now doubted she was ever going to get all of the independent packs to join her nation, with them having been used to being on their own plus the fact she was a stranger to them and most people were averse to being ruled by someone they did not know in some way.

What Emerald needed was something of value to give them to foster good will, as well as entice a people to giving living here a try. She then remembered an issue with food she had solved before it became a real problem. Diamond Dogs were carnivores; while they didn’t mind vegetables being mixed in with their meats, they still required a mostly meat diet. She imagined the biggest limiting factor on population growth for the old kingdom and the independent packs was the food supply, as meat needed a lot of work to collect in great numbers. Emerald, however, had circumvented most of the work needed by creating trees that grew meat and could subsist on the vilest of bio-matter.

“We only have a population of ten thousand. While fairly large for a criminal organization, it’s sadly small when it comes to a nation,” Emerald admitted. “Now I am not asking for whole packs to uproot themselves, or you to strong-arm dogs into coming here. What I want is for your people to consider us whenever they are thinking of settling down in someplace they can call their own.”

“Now you are right when you said our food supply is not a problem,” Emerald continued, gesturing at the lazy Alpha. “And I imagine that is an always present issue for your people. So, as a token of good will, I want to set up a weekly shipment of meat for the independent packs with no strings attached.”

“Free meat?” Tavish said, his mouth already salivating. “That there is a mighty enticing gift.”

“Just how much meat are we talking?” the lazy Alpha asked curiously. “Our combined population has never been counted, but I’m fairly certain we number at least half a million.”

“Given some reorganization of our food supply, I am absolutely certain none of your people will go hungry ever again,” Emerald said confidently.

The lazy Alpha’s eyes widened a little bit. He knew just how many tons of meat half a million mouths could eat a day. If he wasn’t before, he was definitely wondering how she was getting so much meat now.

“HA!” Tavish shouted with a delighted clap of his hands before rubbing them together eagerly. “This is a great deal! The least we can do is encourage some lads and lasses to go see if they would like to live here.”

“Stealing our people’s hearts and minds by feeding their stomachs?” Fasha stated with a sly smile. “An effective if costly tactic.”

“Not for me,” Emerald stated simply before motioned one of the workers over. “Go find Belvedere and tell him I’d like to talk to him about our food supply soon.”

“Yes boss,” the worker said before taking off.

“Now is there anything else you wanted to see?” Emerald asked.

“Don’t know about you lot, but I’m hungry!” Tavish said, and got agreeing nods from his fellow Alphas. “Let’s go have ourselves a taste of that meat we’ll be getting so much of.”

“Right this way,” Emerald said, motioning back to the doors they entered through. “We have a communal cafeteria that should be about ready to serve up food for everyone.”

“And after eating, I want to have another go at your soldiers!”

“Of course. I’m sure they want the same thing, Tavish.”

EPSILON

A week later found Emerald outside late in the afternoon, listening to a dog ramble off a progress report while she herself was studying some machines she had taken from Cloudsdale.

“The extensions to the meat tree chamber are finished,” Fido rumbled softly, reading off a small clipboard he was holding. “The final seeds are planted and should be finished growing by the end of the day. The messy work of expanding the sewage cavern beneath the chamber has already been finished and the beginnings of the sewage pipes you planned are being put in place.”

“Great. Any progress on the water lines?” Emerald asked as she stared down at the book in her lap.

“Those are being done along with the sewage lines currently,” Fido rumbled. “Great pains are being taken to not confuse the two.”

“Probably a good idea.” Emerald nodded with a small smile. “Anything else?”

“No boss,” Fido said.

“You may go then,” Emerald said and returned her attention to the large… urn like machine used to make the weather. However, after a moment, she returned her attention back to the book in her lap and starting writing in it.

At first the weather machines had been interesting to her, considering they produced Equestria’s weather. But after she had gained Flim and Flam’s skills, she had lost a lot of her interest. Now that she could understand the machines’ inner workings, she thought of them as simply advanced fog machines. And since she could understand them now, she decided she didn’t need them anymore, thinking that their presences weren’t exactly welcome by Sovereign considering the machines were one of the things ponies used to suppress the “cycle”. So she decided she was going to bring the machines back along with the books after she was done reading them, which she nearly was. No doubt the Princesses would appreciate them back, considering what had happened to Cloudsdale.

Finishing filling up both pages with writing, Emerald turned to the next page. The book she was writing was an autobiography; not of her life though. She was writing this book for a project she had been planning for a while, although at the moment she was a bit in doubt if the project was still viable considering the ambiguity around whether or not she was still welcome in Equestria.

And with that thought, all attempts to focus on work ended in futility for Emerald. No matter what, she just found herself thinking about Ponyville and all the times she had spent with her friends. The virus had no choice but to admit the truth to herself; she was homesick. This place had really changed her. She recalled a day when she hoped for an accident to claim the lives of one the Mane Six during one of their many adventures, and she remembered when she didn’t shy from murder when she knew she could get away with it. But now thoughts of hurting any of her friends were painful and nearly unthinkable, and she now considered Ponyville her home, when before she knew with certainty the only home she’d ever know was burnt to a cinder. And now she always sought a better way to accomplish her tasks that didn’t end in needless death. She could have easily solved any issues that could have erupted from letting the Flim Flam brothers go by simply killing them, but she didn’t.

Yes, she was a changed person; a monster with a heart instead of without.

‘Maybe… maybe a quick peek at the town couldn’t hurt?’ Emerald thought hesitantly. ‘Nothing too obvious, just a quick look around to see how everything is. I don’t even have to be in my base pony form.’

With a firm nod, Emerald got to her feet and walked back down into the cavern city. First chance she got, she informed a dog of her extended departure and went to her room to drop off her half-finished book. Once those two objectives were done, she teleported away to the fringes of Ponyville.

Emerald arrived in mid-air and upside down. After she spat out some dirt, she got up to her feet and examined Ponyville from afar. The disaster prone town was rather active for this time of night and it only took Emerald some examinations with her powerful eyesight to see why.

‘Costumes,’ Emerald thought. ‘That means it’s nightmare night. Well, things are certainly a bit busier than I’d thought they’d be. What to do? I could just go in as one of many different forms and be completely unnoticed… but it doesn’t feel right. This place is… it’s my home and I don’t want to be hiding in my home… but I might be wanted now.’

For the longest moment Emerald stayed in one spot, logically side warring with emotional. Eventually there was a winner.

‘Oh this is stupid as hell!’ Emerald thought as she began making her way towards the town as she was. ‘This is probably going to end badly the moment I set foot in this place… Damn it, if I’m doing this I might as well go the whole nine yards.’

With that, Emerald got in the holiday spirit and altered her form a bit and put on a costume that was sure to turn some heads. Then she continued on her way towards the town.

ZETA

Twilight Sparkle wasn’t exactly feeling the spirit of the holiday. Putting on her Starswirl the Bearded costume she had picked up months ago felt more like a chore than anything, and it was terrible because she was actually looking forward to this for a while. But now after everything that had happened between her and Emerald, and what had happened with Discord… she just wasn’t feeling up to being cheerful for the sake of the holiday.

So she really couldn’t bring herself to be anything other than slightly annoyed when everyone couldn’t tell who she had dressed up as, and rather than attempt to correct their error she had simply sighed and let them be on their way.

The night had gone on with her being a ‘party pooper’ as Spike had so eloquently put it, until she went with some children to go be told the story of Nightmare Moon by Zecora. That was when she saw a rider on a chariot pulled by bat winged armoured ponies fly out of the sky and towards town.

She and Spike had quickly ran back towards town and were treated with the sight of Luna making a dramatic show of her arrival, not realising she was scaring the ponies before her rather badly. Said ponies were all on the ground staring up fearfully at Princess Luna as the princess was about to speak. Suddenly, one of the ponies near the back heard a footstep near her and glanced back to look; she immediately regretting doing so.

Behind her was an armored monstrosity of a pony. It was wearing a helmet with an odd pointed visor that had two ‘ears’ that looked like bat wings poking up off the sides. It’s chest was covered by thick armor that had an embossed eye across the front. Both its mane and tail were blood red and it’s right foreleg had been mutated into a demonic claw with tiny bug like eyes dotted across it that glittered like gems. By far the most eye catching thing about the pony behind her however was the fleshy sword hovering in the air above her that had a large eye near the hilt.

After a moment of horrified staring at the sword, it blinked at her audibly.

“YAAAAAAAH!” the mare dressed as a doll screamed out and caught everyone’s attention. Once they had caught sight of the pony behind them, they too also screamed and leapt off the ground in fright. To Luna’s brief confusion, she found herself being used as an impromptu shield by a crowd of ponies.

“Help us Nightmare Moon!” shouted one pony.

“Save us Lady of the Night!” begged another.

Blinking her eyes at the ponies behind her for a moment, Luna wondered why they were calling her that before turning her attention to the armored pony. She narrowed her eyes as she took in the form of the pony. The alicorn began to think she and her sister had missed one of the more severely afflicted ponies when they were gathering them up when she noticed the pony’s cutie mark, a bucket full of emeralds.

Then the armored pony lifted it’s visor up.

“I suppose I went a little overboard with my costume?” Emerald said sheepishly.

“EMMY!!!” Pinkie Pie shouted happily as everyone released a relieved sigh.

“WHERE!?!” came the distant voice of Rainbow Dash.

“OVER HERE DASHIE!” Pinkie shouted before dashing towards Emerald, closely followed by Applejack and Twilight, though Twilight slowed to a walk about halfway to her.

“Oof,” Emerald grunted as Pinkie threw herself at her, wrapping her in a hug. “I guess you missed me, huh Pinkie Pie?”

“Jus’ where in the world have you been?!” Applejack shouted, trying really hard to sound angry, but she was just too happy to see her friend again. “We missed ya, sugarcube!”

“YEAH!” Rainbow Dash shouted her agreement as she dive bombed Emerald and gave her a hug of her own.

“I had… gone on a journey of self-discovery,” Emerald said after a moment, making Twilight twitch as she recognised the point when the virus started lying without actually lying. “And, well… honestly, I am stronger for it.”

“Stronger…” Twilight repeated with a raised brow as she came to a stop just before the group. “Yeah… I can certainly agree with that.”

“U-umm… h-hello Twilight…” Emerald stuttered, causing everyone to look at her in shock and nearly look around to see if Celestia was nearby and unintentionally terrifying the mare. “I hope you are doing well.”

“Well you know, doing fine,” Twilight stated with obviously forced civility. “Except for the fact my house blew up. Kind of homeless now and forced to freeload off Rarity.”

“Y-yeah I… I saw that,” Emerald said, recoiling like she had been struck.

Rainbow Dash and the others watched the exchange between Emerald and Twilight with appalled fascination; this was a far cry from the friendship the two shared. Dash then decided she wasn’t going to tolerate any more of this. Twilight sounded like she was blaming Emerald of all ponies for destroying her home for some unfathomable reason, when it was perfectly clear she wasn’t to blame.

“Now hold on one minute!” Rainbow shouted and imposed herself between the two unicorns. “I have no idea why you’re blaming Emerald for your house going up in smoke, but its wrong Twilight! Emerald, you don’t have to worry about a darn thing, okay? Miss rude egghead over here is having another home built for her, which I might add is being paid for by Princess Celestia herself!” Dash shouted that pointedly towards Twilight, who didn’t get any angrier or even show shame for her actions, merely turning her head away from Dash’s glare.

“Don’t be mad at her, Dash,” Emerald said firmly to Rainbow’s obvious surprise, making the unicorn sigh. “I appreciate you defending me, but Twilight has all the right in the world to act that way towards me.”

With that, the others could only look between Emerald and Twilight with confusion and concern.

“Jus’ what in the world happened between the two of ya?” Applejack asked.

“It’s complicated,” Twilight sighed.

A long awkward moment ensured in the following silence, one that was thankfully broken by Princess Luna who had been silently watching on at the sidelines.

“I’m terribly sorry to interrupt,” Luna began. “I wish to talk with young Emerald about a matter of great import to the two of us. Would anypony mind terribly if I borrow her presence for a few moments?”

“None at all Princess,” Twilight said calmly and began walking away. “In fact, I am done talking with her today.”

Luna stared after Twilight’s retreating form, eyes glittering with inquisitive intent before turning her attention to Emerald.

“Let us have some privacy shall we?” Luna stated, and extended a wing towards an empty section of street.

“Lead the way, Princess,” Emerald sighed, tearing her gaze away from Twilight.

The two left three deeply concerned ponies behind and came to a stop a fair distance away from everyone else.

“Have you given thought to my offer?” Luna asked with interest. This unicorn was to be her first student in over a thousand years, and she was rather hoping she’d accept.

“Yes I have Princess…” Emerald said. She had a lot of misgivings about the offer before; the risks involved with being so close to one so powerful for long periods of times, plus the expected difficulty of keeping certain actions and plots hidden from someone so old and obviously intelligent. But a lot of the risk was now null and void with her magical upgrade from Discord. Plus she was already risking everything being exposed with Twilight knowing everything at any given time of any day. Frankly, Emerald didn’t see how being around Luna for long periods of time could increase the risks any further than they already were. Suffice to say, she was already half off the cliff ledge; might as well dive off the rest of the way. Hopefully the potential benefits would outweigh everything.

“… And I’ve decided accept your offer,” Emerald stated.

“Honest and truly?” Luna asked excitedly, and when Emerald nodded she cheered. “Huzzah! The night has a student at last! OH… um I mean… ahem, thank you for accepting my offer of tutelage. I’m sure we’ll both come to enjoy this relationship greatly.”

“No problem, Princess!” Emerald said with a large grin, much to Luna’s embarrassment.

“Well, I’ll just let you go with your friends… I’ll just slither into this corner to die now.” Luna said a bit loudly before walking away and whispering to herself.

Emerald smiled brightly after the alicorn before turning back to three of her friends, then her smile turned a bit more forced, but stayed mostly genuine.

“So… I guess I’m going to need a place to crash at, seeing how the library is gone now,” Emerald said.

“Well… you could always stay with Rarity?” Dash offered. “She likes you. A lot. She’ll never say no to you, but…”

“Twilight’s staying with her,” Emerald said with a sigh. “So that’s out. Do you think Fluttershy will mind if I stay with her a while?”

“Can’ hardly imagine the filly saying no to ya sugarcube.” Applejack stated. “Though… she does still have that big- WHOA!”

There was a sudden flash of purple light amongst the four ponies, startling three of them and putting the last on guard. After the light faded, Navi was revealed floating in the air in confusion, wearing a tiny pair of Groucho glasses for a costume. She looked around for a second before she caught sight of Emerald.

“Hey there Navi, you miss me?” Emerald asked as her pet shot against her cheek and released trills of intense happiness and relief. “Aww, don’t cry Navi… Mama’s here.”

“Awwwwww, Navi missed you so much,” Pinkie gushed happily at the two. “Why did you ever leave her behind for?”

“… It seemed like the best thing to do for her at the time,” Emerald said honestly as her pet reclaimed her favorite spot atop one of her ears, happy tears in the corner of her eyes.

“One of these days ya gotta tells us what in the world happened the day you left,” Applejack said seriously, looking like she’d never take no as an answer.

“Someday…” Emerald agreed and turned around to head for Fluttershy’s. “But not today… see you girls later.

“Later Emerald,” Dash said with a wave.

“See ya soon sugarcube.”

“Bye Emmy! Happy to see you back!”

With that, Emerald and her returned pet walked through Ponyville, greeted by honestly happy ponies who had missed her presence, though they needed a moment to get over her costume. Eventually, she walked out of the Ponyville’s town limits and reached the Everfree border where Fluttershy’s cottage was.

The cottage appeared to be no different than she had last seen it, though it appeared Fluttershy would soon be finally getting around to improving her home rather than the animal homes surrounding it, judging by the look of the supplies of wood and various construction materials at the ready next to it.

Another thing that immediately caught Emerald’s attention was the sleeping green dragon off to the side. A large pile of gems served as his bed and a large sign was placed before him saying “NO CANDY HERE! GO AWAY! >:C” Emerald wondered if the dragon had actually made the little face on the sign himself or if someone added it as a joke.

Judging by the lack of bandages on his body, Emerald figured the dragon was well enough to fend for himself now but had settled in and decided to freeload.

‘Typical,’ Emerald thought with a sigh and walked towards Flutter’s cottage. ‘Useless massive lump, just like I thought.’

Emerald knocked on the door of Fluttershy’s home and after a moment the door slowly opened a tiny crack, the house’s occupant wary of nightmare night’s scary costumes. When Fluttershy herself finally got up the courage to look through the crack in her door, she almost fainted in fright until she actually recognised who was smiling sheepishly out of the open helmet.

“Emerald!” Fluttershy said happily, her fright gone in a flash. “I’m so happy to see you back from your road trip. I hope you saw many interesting and wonderful things.”

“I did see some interesting stuff.” Emerald nodded. “Listen Fluttershy, I just got back and Twilight’s house is kind of a mess… would it be too much to ask if I and Navi stay here a while?”

“Of course not Emerald!” Fluttershy said, opening her door wider and stepping to the side to let her friend in. “My home is your home for as long as you need it. By the way, are you still a model?”

“Yes I am,” Emerald answered as she stepped inside. “Why?”

“Well it’s been a long time since you’ve done any photo shoots,” Fluttershy said as she closed the door behind Emerald. “Or at least Photo Finish said it’s been a long time. Practically forever in fashion industry time as she says.”

“Yeah, it was kind of a bad idea to drop off the face of the planet like that,” Emerald admitted. “I’ll get in contact with her tomorrow. Right now I just want to settle in now that I am back.”

“Of course. Would you like some tea?” Fluttershy asked. “We can catch up over a few relaxing cups if you want.”

“That sounds nice.” Emerald smiled. “I’ll get… undressed while you prepare it.”

“It will only take a few minutes,” Fluttershy said before walking off to the kitchen.

With a surge of black tendrils, Emerald was back to her normal pony form and walked over to one of Fluttershy’s couches to settle in. She was back. She hadn’t expected to be back, and when she did she had expected ponies to run in fear of her after being told the terrible truth about her by Twilight. But no one had, and actually were glad she was finally back. Twilight hadn’t told anyone… unexpected.

With a return like this, the Evolved could only wonder what the future held for her.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: All done! A nice cool down chapter after all the action in the last one don’t you agree? Emerald making friends of all sorts here and setting the foundations of many future plots! Where will it all end? Hehe…

Chapter 4: The Mystery Revealed

It had been a hectic three days since Emerald had returned to Ponyville. The very day after Emerald had gotten back in contact with Photo Finish, the mare had been utterly determined to get Emerald back in the public eye before she was forgotten. Honestly, Emerald didn’t think she was in danger of that happening, but she wasn’t a fashion industry expect like Photo was. The next few days were filled with one photo shoot after another with the occasional fashion show thrown in. The only reason why Photo Finish didn’t take advantage of the fact Emerald supposedly only needed two hours of sleep was the fact that she herself needed her beauty sleep.

And even when Emerald had finally made it through the gauntlet Photo Finish had set up for her, she still wasn’t done working. She may have finished what Photo had planned for her, but she still had an obligation to New Paradigm that she was a few weeks behind; Over Look didn’t seem to be annoyed in the least, however. The CEO was rather amiable to Emerald being gone for a while and just started a new photo shoot when she got back in contact with them.

So here she was now, wearing a pair of blue overalls, a white hardhat and safety glasses while holding a wrench in one hoof. She was standing before a plain white background with the company’s name and logo on it, a triangle within a circle.

“Fantastic, wonderful form as always Emerald!” called out the stallion photographer as he snapped shots of Emerald. “Now on the next one, I want a bit more oomph.”

Emerald didn’t sigh outwardly; she just moved to a new pose and considered it a job well down. She never knew what the photographer, Snaps Deluxe, meant when he said stuff like that. It had confused her rather terribly when she started out with him, being used to Photo Finish’s style of simply shouting what she wanted from Emerald or even moving her into a pose herself when she wasn’t feeling very patient that day. But it didn’t take long for the Evolved to just settle for switching to a new pose and hoping for the best; it hadn’t failed so far.

“PERFECT!” Snaps shouted happily and started maneuvering himself rapidly around her to take shots from different angles.

Honestly, Emerald was getting rather bored of modeling, but knew that was because she was spending the past few days doing nothing but modeling. What she needed was something to liven things up a bit, make things more bearable and fun even. But the viral unicorn hadn’t an idea for just how to go about doing that just yet.

“Now, on to another position!” Snaps shouted, still moving so fast from new angles he might as well have been a unicorn using teleport, despite being an earth pony.

At hearing Snap’s command, Emerald suddenly had an idea for how to liven things up for her. It was such an amusing and fun sounding idea to her that she just couldn’t help the sly smile that appeared on visage.

“Oh, got an idea for something new?” Snaps asked at seeing Emerald’s smile. “Let’s have a look. It has to be good, coming from you!”

Emerald just gave a smile that was maybe a bit too cheerful, and quickly moved into a pose that was very obviously different from all the others she had taken in photo shoots. Snaps Deluxe, as well as the other ponies in the room, couldn’t help but pause in what they were doing and examine Emerald’s pose.

The fake unicorn was lying on her side. She was leaning on one foreleg but her eyes were hooded, practically smouldering with an emotion the ponies in the room had a really hard time trying to identify. Her mouth was open slightly, pearly white teeth barely visible between her parted lips, the hint of a tongue just peeking out. She held the prop, the wrench, towards her mouth.

“… That’s kind of a weird pose, don’t cha know?” the mare in charge of costumes commented.

“I agree.” Nodded another mare that was the lighting specialist.

“I think… IT’S FANTASTIC!” Snaps shouted and seemed to pick up speed as he moved from position to position. “It’s new, it’s unique, and I’ve never seen anything like it before! It gets me pumping and my blood flowing! Do you have any more idea for poses like this, Emerald?”

“Y-yep!” Emerald replied with a large smile, just barely able to keep herself from bursting into a fit of laughter at the innuendoes Snaps unknowingly made.

“Wonderful!” Snaps said and made a ‘go on’ motion with his hoof as he paused his frantic movements. “If all of them are just as good as this, then I might as well scrap all the pictures I took and use the ones I’ll be taking!”

Emerald felt her mood rise several notches more and quickly switched to a new pose that Snaps found just as good as the other one, if not better.

The photo shoot lasted for an hour more before Snaps Deluxe was finally done taking pictures. The suggestive and fairly erotic poses had done the trick for Emerald and made the work she had found to be incredibly dull, to be exciting and humorous. From what she experienced and had seen of pony society, the sorts of things like erotic posing had never been seen let alone done before, so she was free to pull a bit of a half prank, half inside joke on the whole of Equestria without anyone suspecting a thing. Although, the mares who had seen the poses had found them odd, but Snaps, who was a stallion, found them appealing. Emerald found that could have meant something, but at the same time it could have meant nothing. In the end, it was already done and the virus had important places to be.

The studio that had been used for the photo shoot had been located in Canterlot, which was done on Emerald’s request as Luna intended to start the virus’ lessons that very day.

As the viral unicorn existed out of the building the studio was housed in, she noticed a rather tense feeling in the air. Ponies were going about their daily lives, but there was guardedness to their actions and a visible unease. Emerald had teleported in, rather than arrive on foot, and had been all over Equestria for photo shoots and fashion shows, and thus hadn’t noticed this until now.

Emerald began walking down the street, discreetly throwing wondering glances about her surroundings.

‘Why in the world is everyone acting this way?’ Emerald thought as she walked. ‘The only thing I can think of for the reason to this is those “Afflicted Ponies” I’ve been hearing so much about… would they react that way to their own people though? Actually, it’s more than likely they would, considering what Zecora had to go through before she got to move into town. Heh, that reminds me of when she built her house and how it just utterly stood out in comparison to the local architecture. That certainly got people talking for a while.’

As Emerald lost herself in memory, two ponies appeared from around the corner, a mare and her daughter. The sight of the mother made ponies stare, obviously ignore her or whisper to each other quietly.

It wasn’t long before Emerald noticed the change in the crowd and looked up to see the mare for herself. For the most part she looked normal, however that ended when one looked at her head and wings. The mare had a near wild mane of hair that was somewhat tamed, and her eyes were slitted. Her wings could be mistaken for the normal feathery ones of a pegasus at a distance, but one glance at a modest range could spot them for what they were; wings made up of long scales instead of soft feathers.

The mare looked to be indifferent to the reactions she was getting as she led her nervous looking filly along. However, if one bothered to look, they could clearly see the mare was grinding her teeth, though Emerald’s powerful ears could pick up the sounds of blades scraping against each other instead of grinding teeth.

Glad she kept her studying of the mare discreet, Emerald continued on her way down the street which happened to be down the same one the mare was walking up. Instead of giving her a wide berth like the other ponies were doing, Emerald just walked up to and past the mare, giving her a polite nod in greeting as she did so. This action caused the mare to blink and smile a bit at Emerald, a smile that obviously would have shown off her teeth had the mare not suddenly pursed her lips together into a thin line to avoid exactly that.

Feeling pleased that she silently showed the mare not everyone was going to judge her on her appearance, Emerald continued on her way. Not noticing how the mare stopped in the middle of the street and stared after her, ears perking up and the pupils of her slitted eyes narrowing to thin lines as she couldn’t help her lips parting into a sharp toothed smile.

‘Hmm… nope, no sign of the virus at all,’ Emerald thought as she walked towards the palace, absently deciding to take a shortcut through a park as she did so. ‘Not that it was even possible for them to still have it when I specifically called for all active strains of Blacklight to stop. It looks like the changes the brief infection started stayed. I could reverse it with some care, but… it would take a lot of time and effort… they aren’t really suffering, are they? They have enhancements, and their increased aggression would mean they wouldn’t tolerate mistreatment for long, if at all. So really, I have plenty of time to work on reversing this, although I better keep an eye out for any of them that decide to give a life of crime a try with their newfound power.’

“Hey four eyes!” a mocking voice shouted.

‘Hmm, what’s this?’ Attention gained, Emerald wandered over to where she heard the voice coming from.

Slightly leaning out from behind a boulder that was cracked in half, the Evolved spied a scene between one lone filly and three other ones. It seemed like the typical case of one child being tormented by peers for some petty reason. However, the difference here was the fact the child being picked on was Afflicted. She was a young unicorn, with a white coat, dark red hair and blue eyes. She didn’t seem to have her cutie mark yet, and had the basic features of the other Afflicted, namely slitted eyes, a wild mane and no doubt her teeth were all very sharp. Her horn, however, was much like a dagger and Emerald had no doubt that the filly would face very little problems in trying to gore someone with it.

“Y-yes Picture Perfect?” the Afflicted filly asked nervously. “I-is there something you want?”

“Oh, nothing~” Picture replied with faux friendly grin. The two other fillies with her giggled viciously. “Just wondering what happened to your big soda bottle glasses, four eyes.”

“I… I don’t need them anymore,” ‘Four eyes’ answered with a frown, her timid demeanor rapidly fading away. “Would you please not call me tha-”

“Four eyes probably just lost them during the day of the red sky!” one of Picture’s cronies suggested. “Probably when she was running around like a frenzied chicken!”

Considering the fact that the young unicorn was Afflicted, Emerald doubted she had been running around in a panic, and had been on the ground crippled by pain. Really, the Evolved could see where this was going and was tempted to just walk out and break this up. However, the more Emerald looked at the young unicorn, the more obvious her changing mood became. Instead of nervous and looking like she’d rather find a rock to crawl under, the filly was looking more and more angry, her sad broken stature being replaced by one very much like an increasingly agitated predator. The virus decided to sit back and ‘watch the fireworks’ as it were, because it was becoming increasingly clear what was going to happen and she didn’t want to miss it.

“And what’s up with this mane!” Picture Perfect exclaimed, stepping in close and touching a lock of the unicorn’s mane. “And those weird eyes of yours! You really should get contacts, you know? Because really, you just stick out even worse than before now, and I bet you even have those horrible teeth too. Who’d want to become your friend now? Good thing you have me here to point out your flaws, right?”

“… They aren’t flaws,” Emerald heard the unicorn say very softly.

“What was that? They aren’t flaws?” Picture said. “Well of course they’re flaws! They look nothing like-”

“I SAID THEY AREN’T FLAWS!” the unicorn roared into Picture’s face and caused the other filly to recoil back to her cronies who were also flinching away.

“I-Ink Well?” Picture said with shock.

A snake like hiss came from Ink Well as she crouched down slightly, looking at her tormentors with her wide open slitted eyes, the pupils narrowed down to thin, dangerous lines. Then she released a small, dragon-like roar before lunging at the other fillies.

“AHHHHHHHH!” the three bullies screamed at they turned tail and ran.

Ink hadn’t leaped very far; she had only moved a foot forward. She was staring after the retreating forms of her tormentors and panting in exhilaration. She looked down at her hooves in wonderment and awe before giving a small squee of delight.

Emerald took this moment to step out into the open from behind the broken boulder and loudly clear her throat. The Afflicted filly looked at her with wide eyes before glancing back at the direction the other fillies ran in. Ink then got a sad, resigned look on her face and seemed to steel herself to be scolded.

“That must have been fun,” Emerald stated with a smile as she took a seat on the ground just before Ink, the young unicorn throwing her a look of utter surprise at what she heard.

“…Ye-yes it was,” Ink Well said a bit sheepishly before her confidence rose as no disapproval came from Emerald. “It felt so good to finally get back at those three after so long.”

“It’s always nice when karma pays back what it owes.” Emerald nodded. “I’m guessing you have a really good memory, right?”

“Well, yeah,” Ink Well answered. “Even before I… changed, I was always good at remembering things.”

“Then you remember what it was like to not be powerful like you are now, right?” Emerald asked solemnly and got a nod from Ink. “Never forget that. Always remember what it was like to be picked on and be powerless to stop it. Too many reach for positions of power to do good, only to lose sight of their goal once they are there.”

“Oh… what do you want me to do?” the young unicorn asked, looking at her like only she could answer her questions… which was rather odd.

‘Okay, I admit these changed ponies are a bit shocking to look at, but seriously,’ Emerald began. ‘She should have someone to talk to, like her parents or one good friend. Why am I, a perfect stranger, being looked at like that?’

“Be as you are,” Emerald stated simply. “Your body may be different, but you are still you when it comes down to it. Remember, never forget what it’s like to be powerless despite being strong now, and you’ll be fine.”

“Of course! Thank you!” Ink Well shouted with adoration in her voice that made Emerald feel something was definitely off. Suddenly, the little filly looked uncertain of herself. “But… why are you so okay with me? I mean… I look like a monster.”

“You are not a monster,” Emerald said firmly. “Trust me when I say this. Mere appearance is not enough to make one a monster. You could look as beautiful as one of the princesses, and still have a rotten core and not care for the rights of others.”

“You’ve met somepony like that?” Ink Well asked with wide eyes.

“Yes,” Emerald answered simply, images of herself and those of Alex Mercer’s Cadre elites flashing through her head. “No matter what happens, always remember, you are what you choose to be.”

“I will…” Ink well said, looking down at her hooves shyly. “I won’t use my power to bully others, and I won’t let Picture and her toadies get away with bullying others too.”

“Going to be a little hero, huh?” Emerald asked with a sly smile at Ink’s blush. “A hero. I wish I had… never mind, I’ve got someplace to be and I’m sure the same can be said of you.”

“Oh my gosh, my parents wanted me home right away!” Ink Well shouted with alarm, and was gone in a near instant as she galloped away.

Emerald smiled after the little filly before frowning and continuing on her way to the palace. She felt something was off about meeting the little filly, but didn’t know what exactly. Perhaps it was the way she just immediately trusted her? Or maybe the way she hung on every word she said? Of course that could have been just the filly being too trusting of strangers; Equestria just didn’t have dangers like that. Being bullied, scammed or just meeting a rude pony was the most danger the little filly could have faced out on her own in a city.

Finding herself before the gates of the Royal Palace, Emerald put the issue of the little filly out of her mind and focused on her first day as Luna’s student. She entered the gates and found herself in the large lobby. It was fairly untouched since the last she saw it during the gala, so the fight with Discord hadn’t damaged it, though a few windows were boarded up. Off to the side was a Royal Guard wearing dark purple armour and had a dark coat, yellow eyes and bat wings; Luna’s Night Guard.

“Greetings, Emerald Gleaner,” the guard said with a respectful nod. “Her highness requested that I await you and direct you to her the moment you arrived.”

“Lead the way. I’ll be right behind you,” Emerald stated.

“Right this way.”

As Emerald followed the guard, she studied his form. When she first glimpsed Luna’s guard, she had wondered about them for a time, pondering if Luna had truly altered her guard to fit her night motif or if it was an illusion of some kind. Honestly, being even this close, Emerald couldn’t tell if it was one or the other.

“Curious?” the guard asked suddenly, looking at her out of the corner of his eye with a smirk.

“Oh sorry, I didn’t mean to stare,” Emerald apologized. “I was just wondering how you look like that.”

“I don’t mind.” The guard smiled at her. “It’s better than the reactions we usually get, but that’s to be expected when we only come out at night.”

“So how do you look like that?” Emerald asked as they continued on their way to Luna. “Is it a physical change, or some sort of illusion?”

“It’s an illusion,” the guard replied and reached towards the gem embedded in his chestplate, pressing it. The change was instant. One moment he stood before Emerald, the next there was a flash and he changed into a sky blue pegasus with normal, feathery wings, a white mane and blue eyes.

“Huh, so the armor does it?” Emerald said as she looked down at his armor, namely the eye like gem on it.

“Yep, enchanted by Equestria’s finest!” The guard smiled before tapping the gem again and returning to his Night Guard look. “I don’t know the specifics, but you’ll likely learn about stuff like this and more under Princess Luna.”

“I don’t doubt it,” Emerald replied. “So what exactly does Princess Luna have all of you do during the night?”

“Well… truth be told, most ponies are asleep at night, so the princess has free reign to do as she pleases most of the time,” the guard said a little sheepishly. “She tends to take us along whenever she decides to go to the Everfree Forest and fight a few of the creatures there.”

“She goes to the Everfree?” Emerald asked, inwardly a little worried about this revelation.

“Yeah, and let me tell you we all get our fair share of bruises from those little adventures,” the guard said while laughing. His laughter turned a little nervous as he added, “You aren’t going to tell her about that, right? She finds them so much fun, and it would ruin it for her if we don’t find it just as “invigorating” as she does.”

“My lips are sealed,” Emerald replied with a smile, miming a zipping motion across her mouth.

“Thanks. Well, here we are,” the guard said as he stopped before a large pair of doors. “The princess is waiting in the study past these doors. Congratulations on becoming the princess’ student by the way; it’s a massive honor.”

“Thank you,” Emerald said before opening the doors and walking in.

The study looked fairly homey. One wall was almost completely made up of windows that let sunlight stream in, another wall was covered in bookcases and the middle of the room was occupied by several comfy looking couches and armchairs surrounding various tables. Luna sat in one couch, drinking from a cup of tea she was levitating. Off to the side, dusting the bookcases, was a maid.

“Emerald Gleaner, welcome to the Royal Palace,” Luna greeted with a happy smile. “I apologise for the state of it. It’s normally much more pleasant to look at.”

“It’s of no concern, your highness,” Emerald said as she approached the princess. She came to a stop before the alicorn to bow briefly before taking her seat on the chair opposite the godly ruler.

“Tea?” Luna offered a floating cup, which Emerald accepted. “I must say I’ve been anticipating this day for some time. The day I find a worthy pony of my own to teach and mold like my sister has done over the years.”

“Thank you for considering me as such a pony, your highness,” Emerald said in a respectful tone. “From what I’ve heard, it must have been a bit of a negative for me to be as old as I am. All of Princess Celestia’s previous students started out at a young age.”

“Nonsense, Emerald.” Luna waved dismissively. “One is never too old to learn. My sister and I know that lesson all too well, and… Umm, yes? Do you require something, servant?”

Emerald blinked when she felt someone close in on her and heard a drawn out sniff. She turned around to see the earth pony maid sigh as she took in the fake unicorn’s scent. She stared at Emerald for a moment, her ears perked up and the pupils of her slitted eyes narrowed down to thin lines.

“You smell wonderful~” The maid said with affection, smiling softly at Emerald.

“Uhh…” Emerald said, unable to think of a reply, and Luna appeared to be in the same boat as she just sat there and blinked at the scene before her.

“Oh… oh my!” the maid shouted in mortification as she suddenly realised what she just did. “I didn’t mean to do that! I’m sorry! I just… I… Ohhhhhh, please don’t fire me!”

“Calm yourself my dear,” Luna said gently. “Gather your thoughts and tell us what happened. I have a suspicion you are not at fault here.”

“Thank you so much your majesty!” the maid said gratefully before taking some deep breaths. “I honestly don’t know what happened. I was dusting the bookcases, and next I find myself drawn to this wonderful smell… the next thing I know, I find myself sniffing her… might I know your name please? I really didn’t mean to do that, honest!”

“I agree with the princess. I don’t think you at fault either,” Emerald said as she began to have suspicions as to what else had been altered in the Afflicted ponies. “Honestly, it sounds like you have some new instincts you don’t have much control over just yet.”

“Young Emerald’s words seem to ‘hit the nail on the head’ as it were,” Luna stated. “In all likelihood, this behavior was the result of some instinct instilled in you from your new body.”

“Is there anything I can do to make it up to you?” the maid asked, her expression quickly turning from morose to eager. “Something from the kitchens, perhaps? Maybe you’d like a fresh batch of tea brewed a certain way? Since you are the princess’ student, you’ll have a room here. Would you like me to set it up a certain way?”

“There is really no need to do anything for me,” Emerald replied. She was absolutely certain all of the Afflicted ponies knew, on an instinctive level, that she was the one who made them the way they were, and reacted accordingly. It was obvious that the brief viral infection made the ponies much more open to her and very receptive to her attention; it made the Evolved a bit uneasy at how she accidently modified the minds of who knows how many ponies.

“Really?” the maid said with a disappointed expression. “Isn’t there anything I can do for you?”

“Well… how about a sandwich?” Emerald asked, and the maid nodded eagerly. “You can put anything on it and I’ll like it.”

“Be right back!” the maid shouted before galloping off in a blur.

“Well you certainly have a way with the serving staff, Emerald,” Luna said with a smile. “She was supposed to be waiting on me.”

“It seems odd, doesn’t it?” Emerald stated. “Have the other changed servants acted like that?”

“Other than exploring what they can do now and having something of a temper, none of them have demonstrated such behavior before.” Luna hummed in thought. “This brings up an issue I need to solve, now that you are here.”

“What issue is that?”

“You have seen how each pony of each tribe has been changed, yes?” Luna asked, and Emerald nodded. “Well, there is one more group of Afflicted ponies. Their changes are more… severe. They are quite alarming to look at, and can’t be mistaken for a normal pony at a distance unlike the others. The reason I mention them is because they are all housed here in the palace. Since you are going to be living here for the next week, I wish to introduce you to them so you won’t be too alarmed in the future.”

“I’m fairly certain I’ve seen worse, your highness,” Emerald replied. “I’d rather think I can keep myself from making them feel bad by reacting in any way to their appearance.”

“I find myself believing that unlikely, young Emerald,” Luna stated and got up from her coach. “They are all strong ponies in spirit, and they wouldn’t blame you for reacting, I’m sure. Shall we be off then? I believe the unofficial leader of the group is still in a nearby living room.”

“Right behind you, your highness,” Emerald stated.

The two ponies went on their way. As they travelled, Emerald wondered just what the more affected of the ponies would look like. From what Luna said, it sounded like they could be barely recognised as vaguely looking like ponies. That brought up all sorts of disturbing pictures of her time in the NYZ and all the viral abominations that roamed the streets. Just how bad were these ponies going to look? If it was too horrible, Emerald was definitely going to kick up the task of reversing their conditions up a few notches on the to-do list.

“Prepare yourself, young Emerald,” Luna stated as she came to a stop before a door. “I did not exaggerate when I said those more severely changed were an alarming sight to behold.”

“I’m ready, your highness,” Emerald stated.

Luna nodded and knocked on the door.

“Razor Wing?” Luna called out, making Emerald go wide eyed and stare at her. “Are you in there?”

“I am present, your highness.” Emerald heard a voice she knew, with certainty, belonged to Razor Wing, a pegasus Royal Guard she accidently dated for a time.

“I am here with my student,” Luna stated, “and wish to expose her to how you and your fellows look in a controlled environment.”

‘Well this is certainly going to be awkward in the extreme,’ Emerald thought with a wince as Luna opened the door to Razor’s room and lead them inside.

Emerald saw Razor Wing standing before the foot of his bed. He had changed massively, to say the least. His white coat wasn’t white anymore, and was more of a dirty gray. Unnatural cracks in his coat revealed softly glowing orange bioluminescence, and while his eyes were slitted like the others, they also were orange and glowing. Instead of the long scales that replaced the feathers on the other changed pegasi, Razor’s wings were blade wings that were very much like Emerald’s own blade wings. His mane was wild and still the color blue, but a much darker shade. He also had a dagger like horn coming out of his forehead.

“Emerald…” Razor breathed, a smile of adoration quickly making its way onto his features as he approached Emerald.

“Razor Wing,” Emerald stated, not needing to fake her shock at his appearance, but had to hide her wince at the obvious happiness he felt at her remembering him.

‘Wow, this is…’ Emerald thought as she studied Razor’s form. ‘I’ve seen one of each of these infected ponies and each of them has been changed greatly by what happened. It… it kind of reminds me of that myth about the man eating horses. What were they called again?’

“Diomedes,” Emerald muttered.

“What was that?” Luna said.

“Oh…” Emerald shook herself out of her musing and faced the Princess. “I was just thinking about a legend all of these changed ponies reminded me of.”

“A legend?” Luna said. “Hmm… perhaps you could share it?”

“Oh,” Emerald said, looking at a loss briefly before glancing at Razor Wing, who also seemed to be curious. “Well okay, but… it may not be retold as it originally was though, just so you know.”

“Just do as best as you can young Emerald. I’ll hardly be irritated by a poor telling,” Luna reassured with a smile.

“This is the Legend of the Mares of Diomedes, or the Mares of Thrace,” Emerald began, rapidly thinking up of new content and altering the original tale about Hercules taming the man eating horses. “Diomedes was an extremely skilled trainer; people and ponies of all kinds sought him out. Among all those were four mares that would one day become his most famous trainees.”

“A question.” Luna interrupted. “Apologies but what is Thrace? Is it their country of origin?”

“I… it could have been, it may have just been the name of the village they came from.” Emerald answered with shrug before continuing. “There was Xanthos the ye-… the Strong, an earth pony, Podargos the Swift, a pegasus, Lampon the Shining, a unicorn and finally Deinos… whose title was originally ‘the Skilled.”

“I feel there is a story there,” Luna stated.

“Yes… Deinos was an earth pony, and at first was content with being what she was,” Emerald explained. “But as time went on, Deinos grew increasingly frustrated with how Podargos and Lampon could outdo her. Whether it was either out pacing her from the skies or simply replicating her feats with a simple spell, Deinos grew increasingly disquiet about being just an earth pony. Eventually, she left and sought a means to retain her supremacy amongst the four. Eventually she found it. A source of dark magic granted Deino’s wish for a way to overcome Lampon and Podargos by infusing itself with her.”

“I-infusing you say?” Luna frowned.

“Yes. With dark magic enhancing her, Deinos was capable of flight and magic, and was better at both than Lampon and Podargos were,” Emerald said, now reaching her stride in storytelling. “Deinos began terrorising the countryside in blind joy of her new abilities, an act that assured she would always be known as ‘Deinos the Terrible’. The other Mares of Diomedes had stayed and continued their training in Deinos’ absence, particularly Xanthos who was determined to prove to her fellow earth pony that their race was just as capable as the others. When they heard about Deinos’ rampage, they were the first to go out to face her.”

“When the three stood before the corrupted mare, Xanthos suddenly seemed to have second thoughts about deciding to face her,” Emerald continued. “She fled in fear of the mare that was once her sister in all but blood, and Deinos declared her to be “Xanthos the Yellow!” at the top of her lungs. Despite being abandoned by Xanthos, the other two stayed and fought Deinos; all their attempts would be futile. Whatever had fused itself with Deinos had truly granted the pony her wish and made her greater at flying and magic then Podargos and Lampon.”

“It sounds to be a rather bleak legend,” Luna commented.

“It’s not over yet. When all hope seemed to be lost, Xanthos returned,” Emerald said. “She was known far and wide for being strong, but she was smart as well. Having earlier feigned being afraid, Xanthos ran around and waited for the perfect moment to strike at Deinos, and she got in the form of Deinos gloating before the other mares, rendered helpless before her unnatural skills.”

“Xanthos leapt at Deinos and grappled with her until she dropped out of the sky,” Emerald continued. “While Deinos was at one time stronger and better than Xanthos, she had let her training go in her search for something to surpass Podargos and Lampon, actually giving Xanthos the advantage at close range. With Xanthos grappling with Deinos, the other two mares were able to assault her with near impunity. Within a minute, Deinos lie beaten on the ground and the darkness that had fused with her fled when she needed it most. With that victory, the Mares of Diomedes won their place in the halls of myth and legend.”

“What happened to Deinos?” Luna asked curiously.

“I… do not know that detail,” Emerald said. “It’s just as likely Deinos had been killed soon after the darkness left as it is that she lived and was punished for her crimes.”

“Oh…” Luna said with a troubled look. “And what of their trainer, Diomedes?”

“He… took Deinos’ fall as a failure on his part,” Emerald answered. “He became a recluse and would train no one else; the four mares would be his last and most famous trainees.”

“A most interesting legend, though truth be told I don’t favour the ambiguity around Deinos’ fate,” Luna stated honestly. “What brought the legend to mind?”

“The way there are four different kinds of ‘Afflicted’ ponies made me think of it,” Emerald stated. “Podaros for the pegasi, Xanthos for the earth ponies, Lampon for the unicorns and Deinos for the uh… for the others. Thracian ponies.”

“Hmm… I do like the name, actually. Much better and kinder than calling them Afflicted,” Luna stated before frowning. “Although the name of Deinos for ponies like Razor Wing…”

“I do not mind it your highness,” Razor stated. “I doubt any of the others will mind being named after a pony called Deinos the Terrible either. After all, aren’t we a terrible sight to behold?”

“Do you… feel angry about that? About what you were forcefully turned into?” Emerald asked.

“I was angry and I was also depressed,” Razor answered honestly and flared out one of his blade wings. “The last thing I wanted was to be turned into a monster that sent ponies running at the mere sight of me. But… after a while, I couldn’t help notice quite a few positives of what I became. I’ve only had to go to sleep once this week, for instance, and everything is just so… bright and vibrant. The smells, the sounds… it’s all just so hard to convey to somepony that doesn’t feel as we do. Being able to use magic like a unicorn was just the cherry on top.”

Emerald could understand exactly how Razor Wing felt; very likely even more since her sense were far more powerful. The only reason she didn’t marvel at how the world looked, sounded and felt with so many more senses was simply because she had grown used to them.

“We are still looking into reversing your conditions, Razor Wing,” Luna frowned. “I would advise you and the rest of the ‘Thrace’ against getting too used to their current bodies. It may take us a while, but my sister and I are determined to return you all to normal and have you reintegrated into society.”

“Of course, your highness,” Razor Wing said solemnly, but Emerald was fairly certain she briefly saw a look of agitation on the ‘Deinos’ before it was quashed.

“Not only have you proven yourself right, but you have even given them a better name.” Luna smiled at her student. “Come, it’s time we start our lessons. I hope you aren’t too disappointed when I say we are going to be spending this first week doing a lot of book work.”

“Of course not, your highness,” Emerald said as she followed the alicorn out of the room. She happened to look behind her and caught sight of Razor Wing looking longingly after her before seeing she caught him looking, then he quickly shut the doors of his room.

“Good, because I learned that you have a photographic memory from my sister,” Luna said as she walked forward. “I wish to take advantage of that to get as much of the text out of the way as possible before we spend your next week here going over the practicals.”

‘There is a chance that the Thrace don’t mind the fact they have been changed all that much anymore,’ Emerald thought, only half listening to Luna. ‘Judging from what I’ve seen of and heard from Razor Wing, anyway. He could be a minority in his feelings, for all I know. But they could be growing to like their new forms… maybe. For now, I’ll just sit back and observe the situation before doing anything. If it looks like the situation is going to degrade horribly, then I’ll interfere, but until then I’ll leave things be.’

With that, Emerald followed Luna to her first lesson as her student.

ALPHA

Emerald walked off the train, Navi standing on the tip of her ear. It had been a week since she had started her lessons with Luna, and like the alicorn said, it was spent doing only book work. However, during her entire stay Emerald found herself being lavished upon by the Thrace staff. Whenever she needed even the smallest thing, Emerald always soon found herself being set upon by Thrace serving staff, ready and willing to do anything to please her. It had actually made things a little tense as Luna had been growing increasingly curious to the reason why they were acting like that and to no one else. At the very least, she hadn’t seen Razor Wing other than the first day she arrived; come to think of it, Emerald hadn’t seen any of the other Deinos either, only catching a few glimpses of them occasionally, but she hadn’t exactly gone looking for them either.

“Happy to be home, Navi?” Emerald asked her pet and got an affirming trill in response. “Yeah, me too. Didn’t expect I’d be leaving here so quickly for so long after talking to Photo Finish. Hopefully we can just enjoy a little break now that we are home again.”

Emerald immediately left the station, reaching the streets of Ponyville. It was certainly a stark contrast in comparison to when she first arrived. When she first arrived, she got stares from all the stallions for her enhanced beauty. Now the very most she got was some friendly smiles and polite greetings. She was definitely fully integrated with the town now, and the people saw her as one of their own. It felt nice.

“Emerald!” The fake unicorn heard a shout and turned.

It was Bon Bon and Lyra trotting down the street at her.

Emerald gave a hopeful though strained smile as she recalled the situation between them a few months ago, the day she came back to Ponyville from the Gala. The two of them had had been pretty mad at her for breaking Time Turner’s heart and the discussion they had couldn’t exactly be called quiet. After explaining how she felt about the whole thing, Bon Bon could understand her reasons for why she had lead Time Turner along. Lyra however was much more difficult and needed some time to accept what had happened. Emerald hoped Lyra had cooled down by now, since she had left Ponyville for several months soon after.

“Hello girls,” Emerald greeted as the two closed in. “How is Time Turner? If I may ask…”

“He is doing fine, Emerald,” Bon Bon replied and Lyra scowled a little at the question. “But he is still rather sad about what happened between the two of you, though Rose Locks has been a great help in cheering him up. He often wonders what he did to ruin things so badly.”

“I really wish things hadn’t happened the way they did,” Emerald said honestly, averting her eyes from Bon Bon. “I wish I could have returned his feelings for me, but I couldn’t. It was better that things ended then and there. It would have been so much harder on the both of us had I waited until much later.”

“Just what about Time Turner made it so you couldn’t grow to love him?” Bon Bon asked. “I know it sometimes just doesn’t work, but he is a very kind stallion and soft hearted.

‘The fact he is a stallion for one,’ Emerald thought and steadfastly ignored the fact that reason felt more of an excuse than an actual reason.

“There just wasn’t a… spark between us,” Emerald answered. “I didn’t care for him beyond what a friend would care for another friend. I know it’s horrible he had to be hurt this way when I know his feelings were honest and true, but I just couldn’t return them. It would cheapen whatever we would have if he was the only one that had romantic feelings.”

“Things like this don’t develop instantly, Emerald,” Bon Bon said gently. “Sometimes the only thing that can help is time, but I am not going to bother you about this anymore. You’ve said why things happened the way they did, and that is enough for me.”

“…Do you think I’d be able to see Time Turner?” Emerald asked.

“I really don’t think you should,” Lyra said with a huff and mild glare. “He really isn’t over you or what you did just yet. Just stay away from him for now.”

“Oh… okay then,” Emerald replied softly as Bon Bon threw a disapproving look at her friend. “I think I’ll just be on my way now.”

“Okay Emerald, don’t be a stranger!” Bon Bon shouted after the virus.

Waving absently back at Bon Bon, Emerald went on her way. She walked down a random street and wondered about what to do. She could go back to Fluttershy’s house… but now that she thought about it, she hadn’t seen Rarity when she came back. Deciding that checking back with one of her best friends would be the thing to do, Emerald headed straight for Rarity’s boutique.

The virus soon found herself before the building and was about to head in when she remembered one little issue; Twilight was staying here. Emerald frowned and sent out a viral pulse and smiled faintly when the pulse came back from a direction the boutique wasn’t in. Seeing that Twilight wasn’t in at the moment, she walked forward and entered through the front door.

“Rarity!” Emerald called out.

“Emerald!” The virus heard a joyful shout and suddenly Rarity came running out of one of the doors.

“Emerald dear!” Rarity said happily as she wrapped the fake unicorn in a hug. “It’s been so long! How are you, darling?”

“I’m fine, Rarity,” Emerald replied with a warm smile. “I’ve traveled about, seen some things, met new ponies, and learned a few things about myself in the process, too.”

“Well I certainly hope it was worth worrying all of us,” Rarity said.

“I didn’t mean to… it just sort of happened,” Emerald replied uneasily.

“What exactly happened to make you leave?” Rarity asked.

“I… so anything happen in the past week and a half while I was gone?” Emerald asked.

“I bonded with my sister,” Rarity answered with a tilt of her head, knowing that Emerald was being evasive but at the same time not want to intrude. “And ended up getting myself quite dirty I must say! But it was more than worth a bit of- okay a lot of mud to bond with Sweetie Belle.”

“Sounds like an interesting story,” Emerald stated. “Want to share stories over some tea?”

“Sounds delightful, Emerald!” Rarity said with a smile before it faded somewhat. “Oh… and you shouldn’t have to worry about Twilight for a few hours.”

“Sounds good…” Emerald replied as she moved towards the kitchen.

BETA

Celestia brought up a hoof to her temple as she read over some reports.

Things had only gotten worse since the events of Discord’s escape from his sealing. Equestria was still recovering from a minor recession it was very much still in. The destruction the “Imp”, as Luna called him, caused not only undid all they had done to reverse it, but had actually sent them deeper into recession. The already strained weather industry was stretched beyond capacity with Cloudsdale’s destruction. It wasn’t the only place that produced the weather, but it was the biggest and covered a large area. And if Luna was right, the Imp wasn’t only just responsible for deepening the hole they were in.

“Have you managed to glean anything else of the dream you saw?” Celestia asked her sister as she worked.

“I’ve been working at it, sister,” Luna replied. “I’ve studied my memory of the dream as best as I can and can’t gleam much more than the Imp, Oskar, being a conflicted being and also the Gray Fox.”

“A masterful thief and possessing incredible power,” Celestia muttered. “The potential threat we face does not fill me with much confidence Luna. We needed the Elements to defeat Discord before, while he simply used brute force.”

“His power is great, but surely the Elements would overcome him as they have done every time they have been used against a threat,” Luna stated confidently. “We now have the Elements again after locating them in your student’s home. We are prepared should he decide to assault us.”

“Possibly…” Celestia said, looking unconvinced. From what she had seen of him, Oskar was a dangerously intelligent foe and didn’t half do anything when it came to threats… That reminded the alicorn. For some strange reason Oskar, had used very little restraint for Twilight, which was very-

“Princesses!” shouted a royal guard as she came running into the throne room.

“What is it?” Luna asked with a frown. “Has some other catastrophe decided to grace our kingdom?”

“No, princesses!” the guard said with a salute as she came to a stop before the throne. “Several stacks of books and weather machines had been arriving several minutes ago in the courtyard.”

“Books and weather machines,” Celestia repeated with surprise. “Show me.”

“Follow me, your highnesses,” the guard said dutifully and quickly lead the way.

Soon enough, the two alicorns found themselves standing before several stacks of books surrounded by weather machines. Royal Guard milled about as the Princesses closed in.

“We found this note atop one of the book stacks, your highness,” a guard stated and held said note towards Princess Celestia.

Celestia magically took hold of the note and looked at the front; it was addressed to both her and her sister. Celestia ripped open the note and unfolded the message within, holding it up for her sister to see as well.

Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,

Guess who! It’s me, good ole lucky Jack. It’s been a while since we’ve had any contact between each other, ey? I guess that’s because I only ever needed a few things from Equestria and after that… well, there just hasn’t been much in the way of interest. Anyway, I always keep my word, so here are the books I promised to return after I had borrowed them. I even decided to return the weather machines I stole! I know, I know. “Jack! Why did you steal them in the first place if you were just going to return them?! Also, I, Princess Luna, want to elope with you~ <3!” Well I figured there would be all sorts of nice stuff to learn from the things, them making the weather and all. But as soon as some knowledge from a few artificers I know were applied… well it turned out they really were nothing more than big fog machines, and my interest kind of bled out after that. A real shame, ey? Anyway, this ought to teach you two that good ole Jack is an honest and trustworthy sort, savvy?

Lovingly Yours (I mean Luna by the way. No offense to you, Princess Celestia),

Jack McCloud

“Well that was quite enlightening,” Celestia commented and couldn’t help the wide smile on her face when she saw her sister. Luna was red in the face and looked utterly furious. Her cheeks were puffed out as she glared down at the letter. “Now Luna, I really must advise you-”

“Dear sister, I swear on all that is good and decent if you are about to tease me…” Luna said dangerously.

“Now, now,” Celestia chided gently. “I just wish to tell you I need you right now and that you shouldn’t elope with your lover to distant lands for a while yet.”

“ARRRRGGGGHH!”

“Hehe.” Celestia giggled at her sister’s expense before regaining her composure. “In all seriousness, this is quite the boon. With half of the original weather machines returned to us, the financial strain is lessened greatly.”

“Hmm…” Luna hummed with a troubled look.

“Is something the matter, Luna?” Celestia asked.

“This letter… it clouds whether or not if Oskar was Jack,” Luna stated.

“It does?” Celestia looked at the letter. “Well, I suppose it does. From what you’ve described of his behavior, it’s rather hard to imagine Oskar acting this way.”

“Yes, but at the same time, he was a shape shifter,” Luna replied. “Acting as someone entirely different should be second nature to him. But still, it doesn’t entirely mean that he simply hired the services of the Gray Fox instead of being him.”

“Indeed,” Celestia agreed. “But either way, we have the books and the weather machines from Cloudsdale back, and this makes things easier for us. Let’s go get in contact with the pegasi from Cloudsdale and inform them of this.”

“Right.”

GAMMA

Emerald, in her human base form, was outside in the field above the cavern city which she had decided to dub the Hub, the reasoning being it was the center of their nation. She reached out towards a black shrub which had dragon scales in place of leaves.

Practice from making the meat trees had made the job of creating the dragon scale shrubs a relatively quick and painless process. It had taken a few days of work and testing, but in the end it was weeks faster than making the trees had been, and the results were plain to see. The scales of the shrub were razor sharp around the edge and were just as hard as Nidhogg’s had been in life. Of course, them being so hard meant Emerald was going to have to provide the armor makers with tools to make working with them less of a pain.

“Well, I consider this a rousing success,” Emerald said aloud as she took in the rows upon rows of dragon scale shrubs, many varying in size from small leaves to the size of ferns. Then she turned around and faced the group of dogs wearing chain mail sleeves and gloves. “You can get to work collecting the scales now, though remember to be extra careful around these plants despite the protection you are wearing.”

“Right, boss!” one of the dogs shouted before the group surged forward to set to work.

“A most interesting creation, virus,” Emerald heard Sovereign say and turned towards the Timber Wolf sitting on the sidelines. “It brings to mind ideas for more dangerous thorns to line the border of the forest with. Yes, bushes with sharp leaves that look no different from the other bushes… you have created something that is actually truly useful.”

“Well thanks for that. Always good to know I can actually succeed at something,” Emerald replied sarcastically. Sovereign’s idea for more dangerous plants were a bit off putting, but Emerald was just happy the spirit wasn’t being actively violent like before, and considered any progress to be good progress.

“You have your non-useless moments. I find myself being forced to admit that much,” Sovereign commented before taking his leave.

‘Asshole,’ Emerald thought with a shake of her head before turning to face the dogs working with the plants she made. ‘Well, making those wasn’t so hard. Perhaps I should make something more complicated? Make an actual creature with an animal’s intelligence… or should I go the extra mile and make something self-aware? In any case, this will tie into that big project I have planned out. The testing chambers have been carved out, though we still need to put steel plating on the walls, just in case and all that.’

Emerald turned away and saw Whisper Wind talking to Bluno, the shape of her stone cottage behind them half constructed and still being furnished. Whisper and the Husky Alpha seemed to be getting along fairly well.

‘Right, we have a better and lighter replacement for the steel armour we have,’ Emerald thought as she walked back towards the entrance of the city. ‘Now we just need a replacement for the underclothes and padding. Spider silk clothes sound like they can serve as a great replacement. Course I don’t know how to weave the stuff, and neither do any of my dogs even though I could make it. So I’ll have to get in contact with the Spider Families and set up a trade for their services. Hmm… maybe Tavish can help me with this? I’ll send word out to him and see what his response is.’

With that, Emerald descended down into the tunnels.

DELTA

Emerald sat off to the side and watched on as her friends let their pets play with each other.

Since she had a pet, she often took part in the weekly pet playdates everyone with a pet had. But things were a bit more strained with Twilight there, so Emerald decided to spend this playdate at a distance and just let Navi play with the others. Strangely, Fluttershy and Angel were late for some reason.

Emerald sent out a viral pulse out of idle curiosity to see where the two were, and was surprised when the pulse came back almost instantly. She turned in the direction of the pulse and saw Fluttershy with Angel on her head arriving and pushing along Discord who was in a wheelchair, some of his limbs in casts and covered in bandages.

The moment Discord came in view, everyone stopped what they were doing and glared at Discord silently, thought the pets continued to play with each other and enjoy themselves. Discord didn’t play them any mind and stared at Emerald in surprise, warning the virus instantly that Discord could identify her.

Emerald shot Discord a warning glare, telling him silently in no unclear terms that if he talked, he was going to regret it. The chaotic draconequis seemed to get the message as he schooled his features and looked away from her.

“Er, Sugercube?” Applejack began as she eyed Discord warily. “Is there a reason ya have that fella with ya?”

“I’ve been going to Canterlot to take care of him every few days,” Fluttershy answered as she began checking on Discord’s bandages and casts.

“My dear ponies, your hateful looks wound me!” Discord cried out dramatically. “Certainly you can see I am in no condition to cause a ruckus of any sort? And what is it that I have done to warrant such hate, hmm? Misplace a few baubles and taunt you, and nothing much else. Now, do I deserve such treatment? Hmm?”

“Well…” Applejack began, looking at her friends. Discord actually had a point. He hadn’t done much of anything villainous. He had appeared, taken the Elements, taunted them as he said, then the creature Oskar arrived and beat him into the ground. The only thing they really had against him was his past, and that was hard to work up any sort of negative feeling over since it was so long ago.

“We’re watching you, Discord!” Twilight shouted at him after a moment.

“Yeah! With both eyes!” Pinkie shouted as she suddenly darted in his face, pointing at her eyes with emphasis.

“Wonderful. Watch this,” Discord said, and suddenly he was gone, causing Pinkie to fall onto her face. He reappeared an instant later beside a guarded Emerald.

“Are you going to be alright sitting out in the open like this?” Fluttershy asked as she trotted over. “And please don’t take offense at their behavior. They are just protective is all.”

“Oh I’ll be fine, you darling little thing you!” Discord said as he waved her off. “I’ll just sit back here and have a little chitchat with your other friend. You go play with your pets and friends.”

“Okay… but I’ll be back soon to check up on you,” Fluttershy said before going to let Angel play.

“What do you want?” Emerald stated gruffly as she spotted Rainbow Dash arriving.

“Oh, what is the attitude for?” Discord said with an aghast look. “Surely you don’t believe I am a threat right now?”

“I do believe in facts,” Emerald answered as she spied Dash talking with the others and throwing Discord some looks. “And the fact is history recorded your deeds. It may be just words in a book to others, but I know better. You’re dangerous to keep around.”

“You wound me,” the draconequis said melodramatically as he brought up one arm he had in a sling against his forehead.

“You’re not actually hurt, aren’t you?” Emerald said as she narrowed her eyes at him.

“Oh, while I may not have lasting physical injuries, my spirit is bruised and broken, sadly,” Discord said with a shrug that would have had anyone that looked to be as injured as him wincing in pain.

“Hmph.”

“Well aren’t you the conversationalist,” Discord commented as he saw the Mane Six start up another singing routine. “Not going to join in the festivities?”

“I find all this random singing and dancing to be really annoying,” Emerald answered.

“That is too bad… and I put so much work into making the effect propagate,” Discord said sadly.

“YOU are the reason everyone bursts into random song and dance numbers?” Emerald stared at Discord.

“Oh yes!” Discord nodded happily before returning his attention to the free show before him. “It was so boring, as you can imagine; just everypony going about their business day in and day out. The only singing and dancing to be had was in theatres, and those were just dreadful! So I took some time out of my busy schedule and went to work on this magical effect that would cause those enchanted to sing and dance during appropriate events. And suddenly everything was so fun and interesting! Villains sang of their coming victory and heroes danced in triumph! It was so good I just had to work on a way to make the effect propagate itself without me needing to enchant every single newborn every few years, and it was worth it!”

“You are quite full of yourself, aren’t you?” Emerald stated with a deadpan look.

“Well I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t, now wouldn’t I?” Discord replied as if it was the most obvious thing in the world before suddenly asking. “How is it that you have not been enchanted with the effect? It’s on everything, and anypony to be born would have had the effect spread to them.”

“I guess your spell just missed a spot,” Emerald said with a shrug.

Discord wordlessly stared at Emerald out of the corner of his eyes. He was rather curious of the nature of the being beside him. There was a very small list of beings that could completely resist the spell he cast, but she didn’t seem to be a spirit.

‘To be this powerful would mean she would be very old,’ Discord mused. ‘But if she was that old, then she would be asleep, and still be sleeping, so she can’t have been born recently; her being powerful discards that idea instantly. So what is she?’

Discord used his magic to glance ever so slightly at the soul of the being next to him and had to force down the reflex to shield his eyes. It was like staring into the sun. She shined so brightly in his spirit sight. It was understandable, considering her immense power, but the sight of her soul made it very clear she was very young; she hadn’t even passed her first century yet! How was it that she was able to possess so much power at such a young age? Looking a bit deeper into the eye searing brightness revealed something strange; the very energies of her inner soul were in flux… like it was in conflict with itself. What could that possibly mean?

Discord turned his sight away from Emerald. As much as he wanted to study this puzzle further, he wasn’t lying when he said his spirit was injured and he really didn’t want to chance Emerald picking up on his spying with him being crippled as he was.

“I’m back!” Fluttershy said, managing to startle Discord out of his thoughts. “O-oh my, I didn’t mean to startle you! I just came back to check up on you and give your bandages a once over.”

“Again?” Discord said with a raised brow. “I’ve been sitting here this entire time. Surely you don’t believe me to be so moronic as to somehow injure myself further just by sitting in one spot?”

“I-I just was worried about you,” Fluttershy said, looking chastened. “You’re hurt so badly and I… never mind, I won’t bother you again. Sorry…”

“…Wait.” Discord sighed. “If you must examine me to make sure I haven’t somehow harmed myself just by sitting in one place, then you may.”

Fluttershy just smiled brightly and got to work, checking on all of Discord’s bandages and making sure his casts were on comfortably. Once that was done, she pulled out a pillow from somewhere and placed it behind him on his wheelchair. Giving him a comforting pat on his shoulder, Fluttershy went back over to the playing pets.

“Enjoying Fluttershy’s care?” Emerald asked, shooting Discord a look out of the corner of her eye.

“Of course not. She isn’t nearly exciting enough.” Discord scoffed and was quiet for a long moment. “However… I do admit she has her finer points.”

“Riiiight,” Emerald said with a sly smile.

EPSILON

“Gah!” Emerald shouted as a large clod of dirt suddenly smacked into her. “Stop that! You’re annoying me and messing up the scenery!”

The culprit merely gave a dangerous sounding rumble of a laugh.

Emerald was currently helping Fluttershy out around her property with some chores; or rather, she was trying to. Her dragon freeloader was making things much harder than it ought to have been by tearing out small chunks of landscape and tossing them at Emerald when she was most distracted, which he somehow had a perfect sense for. At first the chunks were tiny and perfectly ignorable but the dragon steadily increased the size of his ammunition as time went on and realised that Emerald was tougher then she looked; the last chunk of dirt could have easily knocked wind out of Big Mac.

“Okay, that’s it!” Emerald shouted as she caught a chunk with her magic before it hit her. “Promise or not, I’m going to punch a hole in that thick skull of yours!”

“EMERALD!” The virus heard a voice shout and made her stop the charge she was about to make. She turned around to see Twilight standing a short distance away and giving her a bland look as she stared.

“Oh my, please don’t fight!” Fluttershy shouted as she suddenly appeared out from her house, wearing overalls and a blue cap, only to see there was no incredible violence making a mess of the land many of her animals called home. “Oh, thank goodness! Hello Twilight!”

“Hi,” Twilight stated, not taking her eyes away from Emerald.

Despite the fact he was agitating the very being that could brutalise him easily just a moment ago, the dragon realised that this wasn’t something he wanted to get involved in, and retreated back to his bed of gems.

“Uhhh… hi Twilight,” Emerald greeted the unicorn who didn’t seem to acknowledge the greeting in the slightest. “Can… can I help you with something?”

“My house is finished being built,” Twilight said finally.

“Oh… that’s nice,” Emerald replied a bit uneasily.

“You are coming back with me,” Twilight stated. “I want you living with me again.”

“O-oh, well sure thing Twilight, but I figured you wouldn’t want me to-”

“Well you thought wrong,” Twilight interrupted gruffly. “Now come on, let’s go home.”

“Right, you’re the boss,” Emerald stated before turning back towards the house. “NAVI, COME HERE!”

Immediately, Navi appeared out from the door and was holding a half-eaten carrot for some reason. She blew a raspberry towards something within the house and quickly flew towards Emerald. The target of her taunt appeared in the doorway soon after; it was Angel, and he was furiously shaking his paw at Navi.

“Good girl. Make sure to save some of that for later, though,” Emerald muttered to Navi’s delight before looking at Fluttershy. “Sorry I couldn’t finish the chores! Be sure to get that lump over there to fix the holes he made!”

“I’ll be fine, Emerald!” Fluttershy shouted back and waved at Emerald.

The Evolved and her pet parasprite quickly made after Twilight who had started making her way back home already. Soon, she was beside the unicorn who didn’t seem to spare her even a glance.

“So why did you want me to come back to living with you?” Emerald asked curiously.

“Because sharing the same living space is the best way to keep an eye on you,” Twilight said bluntly, causing Emerald to make a downtrodden look. “Who knows what horrible things you’ve been up to since we used to live together?”

“I haven’t done anything…” Emerald protested lightly. “Not recently anyway. You know what I’ve done in the past and I want to stop doing those kind of things.”

“So it appears,” Twilight muttered and Emerald merely sighed. It wasn’t like she didn’t deserve to be treated like this, after all. So the virus bit her tongue and kept any protest she might have made to herself.

Twilight didn’t seem to have any more biting remarks and the trip passed in silence as Navi took to taking tiny nibbles of her pilfered carrot. Eventually, they arrived at Twilight’s new home.

This library was much more different than the last one. For one, it was made of red brick and mortar instead of a hollow living tree. It had two levels to it like Twilight’s last home did, and just as likely had a basement to house all the science equipment she would no doubt be replacing. However, one side of the building was odd in that it was mostly windows and curved in a smooth slope where some of the glass served as the ceiling as well, from what Emerald could spy through the winds the library was located in that section. When the two entered the new library, Emerald found the interior to be just as homey as the other houses of Ponyville were, though she did find herself missing the way everything looked like it was carved out of the tree in the old home.

“Hey guys!” Spike greeted as he appeared from a doorway, Owlicious appearing as well with a hoot as he swooped out of the doorway. “Nice digs, huh? Twilight, I just finished unpacking the last of the library books and shelving them.”

“Thank you, Spike,” Twilight replied. “You can go finish up the unpacking in the rest of the house. Emerald and I have some things to go over in the library.”

“Sure thing. Come on, Owlicious!” Spike said. “Let’s go set up your stuff.”

“Who!”

Emerald followed Twilight into the room Spike had just left. This Library was different than the last one. Other than obviously not being made of living wood, this library also didn’t have a spare bed, though Emerald guessed that wouldn’t last long with Twilight’s habits. This library also had two levels to it, though the second floor only consisted of a walkway beside the massive bookcase that made up one entire wall. With the way the glass wall and partially glass roof was situated, it gave the library the feeling of being a wide open space.

“Sit,” Twilight commanded as she pointed at a bare spot of floor that was soon occupied by a desk with a flash of purple light.

With a frown, Emerald did so and watched as Twilight conjured up another desk via transfiguring a small wooden figure. Twilight then placed the new desk against the front of Emerald’s and took a seat. Then the unicorn pulled out a scroll that was full of Equestrian writing.

“What’s going on?” Emerald asked in some confusion.

“You told me about your race and your world before,” Twilight replied, attention still fixed on her scroll. “And I’ve made a few educated guesses with a few other things you’ve told me, but what you’ve told me is obviously just a summary. I want to know a few things in detail. Here is the list I’ve made.”

Emerald took the list and looked it over. The evolved kept her expression from twisting into a frown as she read over the questions and the surprisingly close guesses Twilight made. Despite what she had experienced in her time on earth, Emerald did not hate humans. Being raised by someone as kind hearted and caring as Adela, Emerald had no choice but to know that humans weren’t all bad. No, humans on a whole weren’t a terrible and evil species. There was always the terrible few that made a lot of loud noise and gathered a lot of attention to themselves and basically made life more difficult, but, as mentioned, they were few and one shouldn’t define the many on the actions and decisions of one man. Most people just wanted to live their lives in peace and be left alone. They tended to get panicky when something that threatened their peaceful lives neared, but that was hardly a trait restricted to humans, as Emerald witnessed herself… though ponies definitely had far less potential for impulsive violence during times of stress and panic. In the end, humans couldn’t be defined as good or evil on a whole. The trick, however, was going to convey that fact to a member of a race that enjoyed peace for a thousand years without her immediately leaping for the evil label the moment she heard of just a few negative facts about humans. To that end, Emerald was going to withhold some details and give a minor whitewash to some facts.

“Well, for one,” Emerald began, pointing at the question about the frequency of war. “What the exact number is, is always different depending on the source. But as a whole, there has been roughly two hundred and fifty years of peace in the last four thousand years of recorded human history.”

“W-what?!” Twilight gasped, going pale. “I-I thought there were only a few dozen more counts of wars then our world, but… dear Celestia…”

Emerald winced. One question in and already she made a mistake. How to recoup this…

“Twilight, you have to consider some facts,” Emerald began somberly, mental gears working at breakneck pace. “Earth is not a world of compassion. It’s a world born of competition. Humans were part of one massive unofficial competition to determine just what species would arise to sentience first, and even when we won, when we grew smart enough to work with tools and begin our first tentative steps towards civilised society, the competition didn’t end. There were sub-breeds of humans that had also managed to reach sentience and we had to compete with them as well. Eventually via interbreeding, calamity or simply possessing a better biology, humans as they are known came to true dominance. And yes, even then the competition didn’t end.

“Societies formed and, like you noted here, they competed with other societies over resources, a lot of times very violently,” Emerald continued. “I know what you are about to say. Why couldn’t they just negotiate and cooperate with each other? Sometimes people just don’t want to make things work. Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to get through to someone, they would rather sit on everything they have than share even a small surplus via honest trade. That is when the leader has to fulfil his duty to his home, his family and his people and fight for what they need to live happily and prosper.”

Emerald knew she was whitewashing details. When it came to the game of kings and nations, a lot of times there were no good guys. There were no sympathetic reasons on either side, and both were equally guilty of being greedy jackasses. But she was damned if she was going to let her mother’s species be called irrevocably evil and judging by Twilight’s thoughtful expression she succeeded.

“Okay… I don’t like it, but I can understand it,” Twilight said with a frown, the unicorn looked down at her notes a moment before she suddenly seemed to realise something.

“Emerald, you aren’t running from this, this time,” Twilight said with total seriousness as she leaned over her desk and stared the virus in the eye. “What is… a prostitute?”

Emerald, who was expecting a much more dire question, face hoofed. Releasing a groan, Emerald looked back at Twilight and gave her a pleading look.

“Do I really have to explain that?” Emerald almost said in a tone that was almost whiny. “It’s kind of sad… and embarrassing.”

“Well I suppose I could put it off again… it’s just that Sweetie Belle and her friends have been asking Pinkie about what a prostitute was,” Twilight began, her voice shifting to a tone that was theatrically innocent and would have only fooled another pony. “And now they are thinking about trying for their prostitute cutie marks.”

There was a thud as Emerald’s face met the top of her desk. “Oh my god…”

“Who?”

“Never mind.” Emerald sighed as she rubbed her face and returned her attention to Twilight. “Fine. You want to know what a prostitute is? I’ll tell you. It’s a person who exchanges sexual favours for money.”

“Wha-wha-what?!” Twilight exclaimed with wide eyes, her face quickly growing as red as a cherry.

“You wanted to know,” Emerald said with a smug look as she took in Twilight’s obvious embarrassment.

“But… but… why would anypony… cheapen themselves like that?!” Twilight exclaimed, then quickly covered her mouth and shot a worried look at the door.

Taking the hint, Emerald carefully charged up a spell and focused her intent. Her control wasn’t restored just yet, but she could manage her old feats just fine if she took her time with it. With a bright flash of pink, the room was sound proofed and the doors tightly locked. Twilight gave her an odd look, having noticed the brightness of the spell and the long charge up time.

“I kind of had a bit of a power boost since Discord,” Emerald explained. “I’m still working on regaining my control. Now let’s get back on topic. That is to say, back to the Sex!”

“Don’t say it like that!” Twilight shouted as she covered up her crimson face.

“Heh heh,” Emerald laughed a little at Twilight’s expense, feeling no sympathy at all for her plight. “To answer your question before… well, the reason is different for a lot of people, but there are those that don’t mind having sex for money. The human race is quite… eager when it comes to bedroom antics. It probably has to do with the fact that one of our specie’s tactics was to outnumber our animal competitors and what better way to do that then to have lots and lots of sex?”

Emerald knew she was leaving out details, like how some girls just don’t have a choice when it came to selling themselves out. Sometimes they were forced into it. Sometimes it was the only way they could get any sort of income. There was a variable amount of reasons why someone would sell their body, and quite a few were unpleasant to think about.

“OKAY, I GET IT!” Twilight shouted, head on the desk and hooves covering her ears. “I WANTED TO KNOW, AND I PAID DEARLY FOR IT! I’M SORRY!”

“Geez Twilight, it’s just sex,” Emerald said with a crooked smile. “It’s not like I’m giving a play by play account of two people who are particularly long lasting and skilled in the bedroom.”

“I’m not listening!”

“Okay, okay, I’m done,” Emerald said soothingly. “What else did you want to ask?”

Twilight kept her position for a few moments before hazarding a glance at Emerald, as if afraid the fake unicorn was going to have graphic diagrams at the ready. Then she slowly sat back up in her seat and cleared her throat.

“W-well let’s see what else I have here,” Twilight began, steadfastly trying to force herself to pretend that the last few minutes never happened.

Emerald just smiled. Twilight’s attitude towards her was already better than what it was before. The virus allowed herself to hope that things might return to the way things were between the two of them.

Underneath the desks of the two unicorns, a miniature Discord lied back in a beach chair that defied gravity and stuck to the bottom of the desk. The draconequis sipped a tropical drink as he lied back in his casts and bandages, the glass of the cup disappearing as he sipped.

‘Well isn’t this just a delightful learning experience?’ Discord thought as he continued to listen to the conversation.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: So the mysterious fourth type of infected ponies are revealed and amongst them is Razor Wing! One of you guessed that one correctly so props to you. And now we also have an explanation for the singing and dancing: Discord did it! Not much of a surprise when you think about it really. Emerald is also back to living with Twilight, who now has a new library. This chapter was just full of stuff wasn’t it?

EN: Discord did it… sounds like a generic author fallback plan, but this time it actually works. It certainly explains the random bouts of singing and dancing. No matter which way you look at it, spontaneous song and dance numbers are anything but chaotic, even if they somehow coreograph perfectly with everyone involved.

Chapter 6: Shaky Start

Emerald stared down at the piece of parchment in her hooves, Navi napping in her mane.

She was in Twilight’s library and had recently received a letter from Over Look, the CEO of New Paradigm. He had sent her a message you could practically feel the excitement off of. The small publishing company she had convinced him to buy had gotten a “mysterious” package left on its doorstep. Upon opening the package, the workers found it contained the Gray Fox’s Autobiography. Over Look was rather excited about it, but was a little unsure if he should have it published. Obviously the book would be very successful, thanks to the Gray Fox being an infamous thief that was never caught, but at the same time Over Look didn’t feel entirely comfortable profiting off the misery the master thief had caused.

Emerald frowned as she hummed in thought. She was fairly rich as it was, but sales from the autobiography would only increase that wealth. She wanted Over Look to publish that book, yet didn’t want to push him too hard; she herself had a bit of a reputation to uphold after all.

Thinking for a brief time Emerald quickly penned a reply parchment.

Dear Over Look,

I understand your concerns over unethical profiteering, but this book would only help the economy with the sales. One of the biggest reasons a recession is so bad is because ponies want to save as much of their money as possible, and an economy needs money to flow to operate, let alone recover, properly. Ponies will want to know about this infamous figure and his past, see the inner workings of the criminal mastermind that thought up all those daring heists and escapes, enough that their desire to save their money will wane in the face of this. Yes, the Gray Fox brought pain and misery, and yes, it is a terrible thought to profit off it, but in the grand scheme of things this will end up being another wheel that helps the economy to roll forward again. I highly recommend that you go forward with plans to publish the book en masse.

Yours Sincerely,

Emerald Gleaner

Emerald sat back once she was done with her letter and gave it an appraising look. It seemed about right to her eye. Still, she wasn’t going to reply with it right away. Best to look it over several times over the day and make sure everything felt right before sending it via Spike.

Absently thinking about things she could change in the letter to possibly improve it, Emerald levitated over a spare piece of parchment and crunched it up into a ball before transmuting it. Ending up with a crimson apple in a flash, the virus instinctively buffed it on her white coat before taking a bite.

As she chewed, she found herself thinking about the golden apple tree grove back in Canterlot and how she had taken several seeds for her own use. Well, she had several seeds. They were planted now and growing slowly with golden saplings already poking through the dirt. Of course, being that they were trees they were going to need a long time to grow.

‘Mmmm… those apples tasted delicious,’ Emerald thought with a smile as she recalled the apple she ate. ‘I suppose it wouldn’t be uncalled for to give the trees a bit of a boost, hmm? They are going to take years and years to grow otherwise. I’m sure my dogs won’t mind them, and Whisper Wind will definitely love them.’

Suddenly, Emerald heard the door open and sounds of hooves upon a wooden floor. Turning around, she saw Twilight step into the library.

“Oh, uh… good morning s-sweetie,” Twilight said a tad nervously.

Emerald had to suppress a wince and just arched an eyebrow at Twilight instead. Sweet little pet names didn’t seem like something Twilight would give out, and felt rather forced when she said it.

“Uh, Twilight, you don’t have to give me a pet name. You know that, right?” Emerald stated. “I think the both of us are perfectly fine with just calling each other by name.”

“Bu-but my research states that ALL couples call each other by sickly sweet pet names!” Twilight defended.

“And does this research happen to be purely made up of romance novels?” Emerald asked with a knowing smile.

“Err… yes?” Twilight said with a sheepish look. Truthfully, she didn’t have anything else about the subject of dating and relationships to look up in her collection, a fact she had quickly set about solving. The books she had ordered just hadn’t arrived yet, and the unicorn decided to work with what she had.

“Trust you to look for the answer to life’s questions in a book,” Emerald said with a shake of her head.

“You CAN’T be saying it’s a bad thing to do?”

“It’s a good habit, I’ll give you that, Twilight,” Emerald answered as she rolled up her letter and put it away. “But not every answer can be found in a book.”

“Hmm…” Twilight hummed in thought but didn’t look that believing of Emerald’s statement.

“So… are you going to stay cooped up in this library for much longer, Twilight?” Emerald asked.

Ever since the day the two became a couple, Twilight had stayed inside her library and rarely ever stuck her head out the door. Clearly there was something wrong, and Emerald wasn’t going to let things be any longer.

“Well… it’s just that…” Twilight began with her nervousness clear to see. “I can’t help but be afraid of what everypony’s reaction to me- to us- will be. I try to think it won’t be that bad, but then I remember how everypony reacted to Zecora when she came into town… and now I can’t help but be afraid of being treated that way as well. And what are our friends’ reaction going to be?”

“Well going by Rarity’s reaction, I’d guess they’d be confused at first, but quickly support us once they see we need it,” Emerald stated as she walked over to stand beside Twilight and then gave her a hug.

She could understand Twilight’s concern really. Horror stories of teens coming out to their parents only to get disowned and kicked out, and people getting lynched and not being able to report it because the authorities would rather ignore them ran through her mind. Then she quickly shook her head clear. Those were just the worst case scenarios, and as far as she knew, they weren’t as often as they were a few decades ago back on earth. The fact that they were in Equestria meant that the reaction they would likely get would be much more tame.

“But what about everypony else?” Twilight asked in a soft voice.

“I can’t really speak for everypony else, Twilight,” Emerald answered. “We’re just going to have to go out and see for ourselves.”

“… Must we?”

“You can’t stay inside forever, Twilight,” Emerald stated gently. “Come on, the quicker we get out in the public eye, the faster everyone will get bored of the novelty of having a same sex couple living in town.”

“Right… you’re right,” Twilight said and inhaled deeply as she steeled herself. “…Let’s go out. I want to see what Fluttershy is up to.”

“Of course. Let’s go.”

ALPHA

“I just can’t believe something like that can happen!” Bon Bon exclaimed.

Bon Bon was with Emerald’s friends, namely Lyra, Rose Locks and Time Turner, at a table outside a diner. Clock Work had unnervingly never been heard from since the whole red beam and red skies event a while ago. They had heard about Emerald and Twilight’s shocking relationship about a day after they became a couple. Like everyone else in town, they were rather surprised about such a thing.

“She likes mares,” Time Turner murmured. “So that’s why it didn’t work out… I was just the wrong gender. Nothing I could have done about it at all.”

“Well… not really. I mean, I’ve heard about this spell for- gah!” Lyra began but was swiftly kicked beneath the table by Rose Locks who shot her a warning look.

“It is rather odd, isn’t it?” Rose Locks stated as she patted Time’s back comfortingly. “I’ve never even thought of such a thing being possible. Why would it be possible for two mares to fall for each other? It’s not like they can have children… though it isn’t like they can’t adopt, I suppose.”

“You know, you took it rather well,” Bon Bon stated. “I mean, we all got over it; Emerald is our friend. But you seemed to get over it in a few hours. We all needed over a day to get over it. I mean, it’s just so strange.”

“I… don’t know how to answer that,” Rose Locks with a frown. “I was shocked at it like all of you were, but I just… felt like I should accept her for how she was, like I had a responsibility to accept her.”

“Huh. Odd,” Bon Bon commented

“Hey look!” Lyra shouted and pointed towards the street.

Everyone turned and saw that Ponyville’s most talked about couple was walking down the street. The four weren’t the only ones to have noticed the two, and everyone else was staring and whispering as the two went on their way, something the two were only too aware of.

Emerald looked like she was trying her hardest to not look angry, and Twilight seemed to be very stressed out by all the attention. Eventually, she seemed to not be able to take it anymore and teleported away in a flash of magic.

At that event, Emerald seemed to snarl quietly and sent an incredibly impressive death glare at everyone she could see, causing them to recoil at the sight. Emerald continued to stare at everyone before her for a few moments before teleporting away as well, likely going after Twilight.

“Well… that could have gone better,” Bon Bon commented with a sympathetic look.

“Oh definitely!” Lyra agreed.

BETA

“Twilight!” Emerald shouted as soon as she arrived back at the library.

“I’m here, Emerald,” Twilight replied from her seat at a library table, looking depressed as she laid her head on the table surface. “I’m sorry for running like that. I just… panicked, I suppose. I guess I shouldn’t have done that. I mean they were just staring at us.”

“It’s alright,Twilight. Being stared at like that wasn’t exactly comfortable for me either… though I am kind of used to something like that…” Emerald replied. “Just don’t apologise for yourself. You are not at fault here.”

“How long is this kind of stuff going to last?” Twilight asked with a groan as she put her head face down on the table.

Emerald just walked over to Twilight and placed a hoof on her shoulder comfortingly. Inwardly, she was thinking of something she could do to make things better in some way. After some thinking, she decided what Twilight needed most was an activity to distract herself and maybe feel a sense of normalcy. With that in mind, she figured the best place to do that was to go to the Hub, the place where if she made a command, then people would jump to follow it.

“I have some things to do back in the Everfree,” Emerald said. “Would you like to tag along and see me work?”

“That sounds better than what I’m doing now,” Twilight replied and looked up at Emerald. “But what about your dogs? They know about us as well. Wouldn’t they stare too?”

“Maybe, but they are my dogs,” Emerald replied. “If I told them not to, they wouldn’t.”

“…Okay, let’s go.” Twilight said with a slight smile. “We didn’t finish my tour last time, didn’t we?”

“Right, get ready,” Emerald said and stepped in close to Twilight and quickly charged up a teleport.

A moment later and the two plus one sleeping parasprite arrived in the quickly growing underground city of the Enclave.

The dogs had long since grown used to Emerald’s suddenly arrivals, but this time they stared at her and the sounds of whispering began to grow in volume. Twilight quickly began to look stressed again at all the attention she was getting, while Emerald was feeling furious. After Twilight started to get so stressed out that she appeared to want to run away for people staring at her, she wasn’t in the mood to tolerate it from her own dogs.

Stepping forward, Emerald glared at everyone before her and inhaled for a shout. She felt her magic surge, reacting to her anger and rush up to her head and rest around her throat. Had she been in a calmer state of mind, this would have given her pause. As it was, she ignored it and shouted.

“AND WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT!!!” Emerald boomed deafeningly.

Dogs yelped in pain as the sound of Emerald’s voice echoed in the enclosed space for a moment before falling silent. The dogs in the local area weren’t the only ones who yelped as well. Practically everyone in the whole city had heard the shout from the startled shouts and yelps. Twilight had shouted as well. She may not have suffered as much, since her ears weren’t as sensitive as the Diamond Dogs’, but she happened to have been only a few feet away from Emerald when she shouted.

“AHHHH!” Twilight shouted with her hooves over her ears. “OH MY GOSH THAT WAS LOUD!”

Emerald’s mouth closed with a clack of her teeth as she looked at Twilight remorsefully, a look she quickly gave to her dogs. Taking a few breaths, Emerald dispelled the built up magic around her vocal chords. She then waited several moments for the rings the dogs likely had in their ears to die down before speaking again.

“All of you mind your business,” Emerald stated firmly. “Now.”

“Oh, ow…” Twilight moaned as she rubbed her ears as, all around her, dogs quickly scattered before Emerald.

“Are you okay?” Emerald asked with concern. “I am so sorry, Twilight. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone. My magic just suddenly surged and I…”

“I am fine, Emerald,” Twilight reassured with a small, somewhat forced smile. “But I didn’t mean for you to get mad at your dogs for me…”

“Just because you are in a relationship with another mare doesn’t mean people should stare at you like you are a freak of nature,” Emerald said with a scowl not directed at her. “There is nothing wrong with what we have. The sooner people realise that, the sooner they don’t have to deal with my anger.”

“Maybe we should go do whatever it was you needed to do?” Twilight suggested.

“I’m sorry, Twilight…” Emerald apologised. “I guess I shouldn’t be so quick to anger, right? It’s just… you are the best thing that ever happened to me. I don’t want to lose you because people made us being together too stressful for you.”

“I didn’t abandon you after learning the truth, Emerald. I am not going to abandon you because a bunch of ponies keep staring at us,” Twilight reassured the viral unicorn with a hug before smiling. “Besides, you’re used to being stared at, aren’t you? I figure I might as well see what it’s like.”

“Oh we both know what it’s like, uncomfortable,” Emerald replied with a smile at Twilight. “Right, on to business. Follow me.”

The two were off down the now deserted streets before they soon moved onto streets that weren’t as empty. The dogs did stare at the two, but soon lost interest and went about their way; it likely had something to do with Emerald’s deafening shout.

“Oi!” Came a shout, and soon Tavish came into view rubbing his ears. “What’s all the shouting about ‘ere!? Some o’ us have sensitive ears, you know!”

“Sorry about that, Tavish,” Emerald said. “I was just making sure everyone understood that I don’t want Twilight being stared at for the both of us being a couple.”

“Defending your own, that I can understand,” Tavish said as he continued to rub his ears. “Jus’ wish it weren’t so bloody loud!”

“You don’t seem all that surprised over it,” Emerald commented.”

“I marked ya for a weirdo the moment I laid eyes on ya!” Tavish said with a chuckle. “I ain’t gonna be surprised when you go and do odd things, lass.”

Suddenly, Emerald heard a small yawn and a buzzing trill come from between her ears.

“You are only now waking up Navi?” Emerald questioned with a frown. “What, did you stay up all night or something?”

Navi made an indignant trill as she made her way over to her spot atop Emerald’s ear.

“Well you certainly are lazy today,” Emerald stated then looked back at Tavish. “Anyway, can you round up a few Warhounds and get them to head to the new Orion building?”

“Oh. sure. But what for, though?” Tavish asked.

“I got something new that will make everyone tougher and stronger,” Emerald replied. “Just get a few Warhounds to come over and I’ll explain further.”

“Right, see ya later lass!” Tavish said as he began to run off.

“Who was he?” Twilight asked.

“That was Tavish Degroot,” Emerald answered. “He was an Alpha from one of the independent packs deeper in the tunnels, then he decided to join us. He is a really good fighter.”

With that, the two continued on their way and arrived at a stone building that looked fairly new and still had freshly cut stone blocks and bricks lying around it. They entered the building and found themselves in a large lobby filled with wooden furnishings and wall paneling. Along one wall was a row of taps over a countertop, and placed on top of the counter were holders where small vials were sitting. There was a red light over the taps, and underneath the light was the word ‘UNLOCKED’. Currently the light was off.

Emerald lead Twilight to a door off to the side and into the hall behind it. They followed the hall until they reached the massive room in the back. The room had a massive steel tank pressed against the wall, the same wall that had the taps on the other side. Emerald and Twilight walked up some metal stairs to a catwalk that was running along the rim of the tank. Once at the top, the contents of the tank were revealed to be water thanks to the open top.

Emerald walked over to the water’s edge and held her hoof over the surface of the water. After a moment, a pinkish liquid dropped from Emerald’s hoof and she stepped back. For a moment, nothing happened as the drop dissipated in the water, but soon the water’s color began to change. Bubbles began to rise to the surface and foam began to form as the water underwent a high speed chemical change.

After a minute of bubbling and foaming, the water finally began to calm down as it turned opaque and light pink. Emerald walked over to the water’s edge and dipped her hoof in the liquid, then brought it up to her mouth and licked it.

“Mm, fruit punch. Just like I intended.” The virus smiled.

“Really?” Twilight said and approached the liquid to take a taste for herself.

“Ah…” Emerald quickly stopped Twilight’s advance with a hoof. “It’s probably best you don’t take any of this stuff. It’s designed to induce changes in the body of the drinker.”

“Oh… are you going to get your dogs to drink it?” Twilight asked.

“Yep,” Emerald answered as she began walking back down the stairs with Twilight right behind her. “This stuff will make it so they can build up muscle faster, grow stronger bones and stay energised longer, all at the cost of needing to have larger meals.”

“Sounds like a pretty big change to their biology,” Twilight commented.

“Not really.” Emerald shook her head. “All I had to do was undo a few of the body’s natural limiters and suppress the generation of a few chemicals and I was good to go.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, the body naturally keeps itself from growing too strong or getting bones too thick,” Emerald answered. “Really, strong muscles and thick bones need a lot of energy to make and upkeep, and to get that energy you need to eat and drink. Now, instincts work on the basis that you are in a wild environment and not a modern one. For an animal, the next meal isn’t entirely guaranteed, but for you, you just have to walk down to the market when you want food. Your body doesn’t know this and assumes the next meal is never a promise and keeps the body from developing too much. With this natural system in place, you don’t have to eat a massive meal just to feel sated because you ended up getting a highly toned body just by moving around.”

“But your dogs don’t need that system in place anymore because you have a grove of meat trees giving them a constant supply of food,” Twilight stated.

“Yep, thus getting rid of an old, obsolete system.” Emerald nodded and then gave a little laugh. “Back on Earth, this kind of thing would likely get picketed by people who would complain about it being extremely unnatural.”

“What?” Twilight blinked. “Well yes, it’s unnatural because you are using artificial means to undo it, but why would anypony not want something like this? It would make staying in shape extremely easy.”

“Some people believe the body is already perfect and changing it in any way is stomping the sacredness of it, or some garbage along those lines.” Emerald shrugged. “Whatever. If people don’t want to be made better, then that is their choice, but it gets infuriating when they make that choice for everyone.”

The two soon arrived back in the lobby with Emerald locking the door behind them. It had been only a few minutes, but there was already over a dozen Warhounds in the room awaiting whatever it was Emerald was going to give them.

The viral unicorn turned towards the wall with the taps and her horn began to glow. She reached for the special locking mechanism within the wall and undid it. With that action, the red light suddenly turned on.

“One of you come over here,” Emerald called out as she walked over to stand next to the taps.

The biggest Warhound in the group stepped forward; it was Padfoot. Padfoot walked over to Emerald and looked at her wonderingly. Emerald quickly shifted into her human form, causing Navi to briefly lift off before settling atop her head, and reached over to the vials. She grabbed one and put it under the tap and opened it. The vial quickly filled up with the pink liquid and Emerald turned off the tap before holding it out to Padfoot.

“This will help you get even bigger, tougher and stronger, Padfoot,” Emerald said and stepped right next to Padfoot and placed her hand on his shoulder, viral tendrils piercing and numbing as they invaded his body. “All you have to do is drink this.”

“Right boss,” Padfoot said, not noticing the tendrils, as he took the vial from Emerald and downed it quickly.

Emerald carefully observed Padfoot on the cellular level, making sure the serum she designed wasn’t doing anything it wasn’t supposed to. The serum seemed to be working as it should though, suppressing chemicals, removing natural development limiters. Eventually, the final augment was put in place and Padfoot was not worse for wear.

“Tingly,” the large Rottweiler commented with a shake of his head.

“And it’s working as it should,” Emerald said with a pat on Padfoot’s back before turning towards the other dogs.

“What this serum does, exactly, is allow you to grow muscles easily, grow denser bones and not get tired very easily,” Emerald explained to the to the others. “And the cost for these improvement is practically meaningless. In order to fully enjoy these augmentations, you have to eat larger meals. Not exactly a bad thing, now isn’t it? Now, for the time being, only you lot will have these augments. I want to see how effectively they work on you before giving it to everyone else.”

Another dog entered the building, but he was neither a Warhound or one of her own dogs. It was the old dog that she had healed and restored his limbs, Fenrir.

“Hello there.” Emerald greeted. “I remember you from the event with Nidhogg’s skeleton. What brings you to the Enclave?”

“I have come seeking a way to repay my debt,” Fenrir stated. “At first, I thought the best way I can go about this is providing advice and offering my experience. But from what I’ve heard just now, there may be another way for me to repay my debt; a better way.”

“Your ‘serum’ allows dogs to get strong and tough easily,” Fenrir continued. “Surely that will allow an old dog like myself to retain some of my prime and help you more actively.”

“Well…” Emerald began as she walked over and began circling Fenrir. At first, the virus thought the dog’s advanced age would interfere with the augments taking hold properly, adding to the fact that his age might cause complications when bone and muscle began to develop in earnest. But Emerald then had an idea. It was a bit on the ambitious side, but it should work… in theory.

“Hmm, your age might get in the way of proper muscle and bone development,” Emerald stated and quickly interrupted when Fenrir was about to protest. “BUT… I may have an idea of how to keep that from being an issue. I can try something, but I want you to know it’s only theoretical and I’ve never done any tests to see if it would work in any fashion.”

“I am willing to bear the risks,” Fenrir said determinedly. “If it means that I am no longer this useless bag of bones and sagging hide, that I can regain my prime in some way, then I will take any risk. I would do anything to be strong again.”

‘I would do anything to be strong…’ Emerald mentally repeated with a frown, reminded of the time she first met Alex Mercer and was given the offer to be made an Evolved. ‘Well this will be different for him. Unlike Mercer, I don’t intend to take advantage of his desperation.’

“I will do everything in my power to make sure nothing goes wrong,” Emerald promised and got a nod from Fenrir. The virus then turned towards the Warhounds. “The rest of you take a drink from the fountains. Once you are done, there is a switch under the counter. It will lock the taps. DO NOT forget to get it before you leave, got it? Good.”

“Twilight, come here, we are going to teleport,” Emerald said as she gestured for the unicorn to come.

At the unicorn’s approach, Fenrir’s expression became distinctly disdainful, but quickly cleared up before Emerald could notice. Clearly this pony was someone close to Emerald, and Fenrir didn’t want to ruin his chances of being strong again by alienating her.

When Twilight and Fenrir came close, Emerald teleport the three of them away to a different location in the Hub. The three arrived an instant later in the lab Emerald constructed for herself. Emerald then walked over to one of her tables and quickly moved everything off it via magic. Once the table was clear, she quickly transfigured it into a comfortable operating table.

“Alright, just lay down on here and I’ll get to work,” Emerald said, patting the table top.

“What happens now?” Fenrir asked once he was laying on the soft table.

“Well, I am going to put you to sleep for the next part,” Emerald answered. “Otherwise this will be a distressing experience, even for you.”

“Alright… I am ready,” Fenrir said after taking a deep breath.

“Once you wake up, you’ll notice a world of difference,” Emerald stated and placed her hand on the old dog’s shoulder. Small tendrils pierced his hide and quickly released numbing chemicals, canceling out the pain before he even felt it. Once the tendrils reached a cluster of major arteries, they released chemical into the bloodstream. Within moments, Fenrir was sound asleep and would remain that way for twenty four hours unless Emerald reversed the condition.

Off to the side, Twilight watched on in open curiosity as Emerald set to work on the old dog, though to her it only looked like she was just placing her hands on him.

The virus had a lot of work ahead of her. This body was old and the cells were at half efficiency most of the time. She would have to completely “renovate” everything in order for the real work to commence, namely allowing future augmentation. Taking a sample of his genetic code, Emerald began making “rough” copies of what the old dog’s cells would have looked like in his prime. She let loose her virus on a controlled wave of destruction and let loose another wave of viruses following the first. The first wave simply destroyed the cells and left a nutrient paste behind in its place. The second wave quickly took in the paste and replaced the empty space with a new and young cell. The average body essentially builds itself a new body on a cellular level within a month; Emerald was doing the same thing, but instead of simply replacing the cells with copies of the current ones, she used younger versions.

Twilight gasped aloud as she saw visible changes take place. The skin on Fenrir’s body began to tighten and the visibly loose folds pulled back into the body. The old dog’s fur started changing color, but instead of growing darker the gray fur became lighter, only stopping once it was white as snow. As the dog de-aged before her eyes, his breed became discernable. Before, he was simply so old that exactly what kind of dog breed wasn’t exactly a certainty. Now it became increasingly clear he was a husky like Bluno, maybe even a wolf.

After a few moments, Emerald was nearly done with Fenrir’s body. She considered healing his mind as well, but decided not to because she didn’t entirely know how to preserve his memories in the cells. Although a brief study of Fenrir’s mind revealed it was just as sharp and strong as a younger dog’s, stating clearly that the old dog had been keeping his mind in shape in place of his body. After some more minor work, Emerald stepped back to observe the result of her labours.

Fenrir was definitely some sort of wolf Diamond Dog, and a tall one at that, maybe even tall enough to rival Padfoot in size. His fur being white as snow was definitely an attention grabber. Emerald had no doubts people would be able to spot him coming from just how stark white he was. Stepping in close, Emerald briefly injected a tendril into Fenrir and released an awakening chemical.

“Rrgh.” Fenrir groaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes. He opened his eyes and took in his arms and how much fuller they were. He was as surprised as Emerald expected him to be, but there was also an odd amount of confusion there as well.

“You made me young again, that much is obvious,” Fenrir said gruffly. “But why did you make my fur white?”

“Ah…” Emerald had made a mistake when making younger cells, since clearly white wasn’t Fenrir’s natural color. “Sorry, I can fix that if you want?”

“No, it’s not an issue,” Fenrir said as he got off the table, first steps a little shaky but quickly got better. “Gray was also a sad color anyways, never did like it. At least I don’t have to put up with the nickname anymore.”

“Great. The exit is just through that door and up the stairs, can’t miss it,” Emerald said with a gesture. “You should be able to find your way to the Orion building again easily enough. I’ll meet you there in a few minutes. I just have a few things to do here just yet.”

“Right and thank you… young Principem,” Fenrir said gratefully before moving towards the door.

Emerald watched him leave with a surprised look, reminded of the title the elders in the Enclave keep calling her by. Shaking her head, she then turned towards Twilight who was regarding her with wide, excited eyes.

“So what did you think?” Emerald asked with a smile.

“Oh my gosh, Emerald!” Twilight exclaimed. She knew Emerald could manipulate things on the cellular level, but she never knew just how far she could go with it. “You just made someone young again! There is a spell for that, but only the most powerful of unicorns are even capable of it! And if you can reverse age, then you can reverse terrible ailments as well, things that ponies would normally not be cured of or just have to live with. We have to go to the hospital in Canterlot right away!”

At first, Emerald was smiling at the praise she was receiving from Twilight. Until she started talking about healing other people. Then she was frowning.

“I can’t do that, Twilight,” Emerald replied.

“What?! Why not?” Twilight asked in confusion. “You said it yourself. You want to be a better person. Emerald, doing this, saving ponies, healing them of incurable diseases and even curing old age itself. That would do so much good and no matter what anyone would agree on that!”

“I can’t just walk into a hospital blasé as can be, healing ponies left and right!” Emerald argued. “For one, how would I even explain that? That I just on the spot without any research whatsoever invented a fix everything spell? Sure people would be grateful, but do you know just how suspicious that sounds?”

“Well… you have a reputation as a prodigy, right?” Twilight replied. “I’m sure ponies will be willing to accept that.”

“Okay MAYBE that flies, but what then?” Emerald asked with a frown. “I don’t own labs or research equipment or even have falsified documents that say I do. We can’t use the shiny new equipment in your basement either. As great as they are, they just aren’t on the same level the various magical laboratories use. Oh! And there is the fact I could get in trouble for using an untested medical spell without heavily documented and recorded testing, on top of everything else.”

“Emerald, I…” Twilight began and then sighed in resignation. “I was just trying to help you be a good person like you said you were trying to be… and this was such a great way to do that…”

Emerald’s frown immediately became sad and she felt a little ashamed of herself.

“Well… I really can’t just walk in and heal ponies, in the OPEN,” Emerald said after a moment. “But say we… save only those that wouldn’t be saved otherwise? Heal ponies that would have to put with complications their whole life. And do all this during the night. Would that be good?”

“Yeah, that would be great, Emerald.” Twilight smiled gratefully at the virus and gave her a hug. “It isn’t the healing everyone and reversing old age, but it’ll do.”

Inwardly, Emerald sighed and started thinking up plans and ways to organise “miracles” in various hospitals around Equestria.

GAMMA

Emerald stepped off the train onto the Canterlot train platform with a worried frown, Navi buzzing about her head.

She was returning to Canterlot for her week long study trip with Luna, but felt bad for leaving Twilight to deal with the attention back in Ponyville by herself. The Evolved had to remind herself that Twilight wasn’t completely alone and at least had Rarity on her side if not everyone else for some stupid reason.

Traveling through the station and to the streets of Canterlot, Emerald had to accept one fact: rumors really did travel at the speed of light. EVERYONE in Canterlot had apparently heard about her relationship with Twilight, considering all the staring and whispering that was going on. Deciding that she wasn’t going to put up with this sort of attention all the way to the palace, Emerald called Navi to her and quickly charged up a teleport and arrived in the palace lobby an instant later.

“GAH!” shouted a startled royal guard. “Oh, miss Gleaner! Good day to you!”

Emerald turned towards the guards in the lobby and saw that, like the ponies on the streets, they were staring as well. Unlike the ponies, however, they were quick to return to their guarding positions and blank expressions, though Emerald could see a deathly curious look in their collective eyes.

“Hello, I’m here to return to my studies,” Emerald said as her pet stuck her little face out of her mane.

“We were expecting you, miss,” the guard said and briefly looked her over. “No luggage?”

“I travel light,” Emerald answered simply.

“Very well. Follow me I shall lead you to the princess,” the guard said and turned about towards a hall.

Emerald took in her surroundings as she moved. The lobby wasn’t very close to the hall where the fight with Discord started, so it wasn’t nearly as damaged. It still was damaged, however, as the boarded up windows and a few cracks in the ceiling attested to.

They traveled down the halls, each of the windows either boarded over or heavily cracked, but still somehow in one piece. The signs of structural damage decreased as they got further away from the start of the battle, but remained constant in some form.

As they walked through an intersection, Emerald happened to glance down a hall and managed to see one of the Deinos. She was a mare with scale wings like the Podargos instead of blade wings like her own. She had a blood red coat with dirty blonde hair; her bioluminescence looked very much like some sort of terrible disease that caused throbbing, glowing rents in her flesh and crisscrossed her body like stripes, marring her cutie mark terribly and marking extremely hard to make it out. She also had a mouth so full of razor sharp teeth she couldn’t even close her mouth all the way and was baring them at the world in a perpetual grimace.

The Deinos was peacefully looking out a heavily cracked window when she seemed to sense Emerald staring at her and quickly snapped her head in Emerald’s direction. She and Emerald stared at each other for a moment as the guard continued forward, thinking Emerald was still following.

After a moment, Emerald began walking forward and approached the Deinos. The infected mare widened her eyes in surprise and her perpetual grimace twisted slightly into a smile. Emerald came to a stop before the Deinos and took in her form for a moment and was just about to speak when the mare beat her to it.

“You are Enerald, right?” the mare said with deep sniff. “I have never seen you,’ ut I’ve snelt your scent efore.”

“Yes, I am Emerald,” the virus replied. She wondered at the mare’s way of speaking, but could see the reason for it very clearly; her teeth kept her lips from touching and thus certain sounds were now beyond her. “You know, I’ve never seen Deinos other than Razor Wind my entire stay last time.”

“Razor Wing didn’t want us to ‘other you,” the Deinos said with another sniff. “I wondered the reason why he would say that, ‘ut now I fully understand. Now that I an closer, your scent is… cativating.”

“Oh…” Emerald was used to the infected ponies acting a certain way towards her, but the way this one was acting… it was off putting to say the least.

“I’ve heard rumors from the staff that you like nares?” the Deinos stated and started circling Emerald like a shark, her gaze making the viral unicorn all too aware of the fact she wasn’t wearing clothes. “Hnnn… a most curious and unheard of development. I wonder… will you seek ne out should it not work out with your… fillyfriend?”

“Uhhh…” Emerald began a little unsurely. “Maybe… no promises.”

“No pronises…” the mare accepted with a nod.

“Uh, can I get your name?” Emerald asked.

“I am Shar Skies,” Sharp answered before disappearing with a blinding teleport and bang.

Emerald stared at the spot where the Deinos was for a moment, not sure how to feel about the fact she got an offer to be her rebound girl.

“Miss Gleaner?” Emerald heard and turned around to see the guard she was following. “I see you’ve just met one of our resident Deinos. I hope she didn’t startle you or anything.”

“Umm… no, I am fine,” Emerald said with a shake of her head. “Let’s continue on our way to the princess.”

“Right this way, miss.”

There were no more delays after that, and Emerald was lead straight to the room Princess Luna was awaiting her in. After bidding the guard thanks and goodbye, Emerald walked through the double doors and into the study.

The lessons with Luna she had experience so far had been always serious at first, but then Luna’s excitement of finally having a student would bleed through and the lessons ended up feeling much more casual and friendly. However, Luna’s demeanor this time as she stood in the middle of the room was unquestionably imperious as she stared down at Emerald, her head held up in an almost imperially haughty manner.

‘Err… what’s with the look?’ Emerald thought in concern. ‘Is she disapproving of me and Twilight? I sure as hell hope not. Princess or not, I am not about to put up with it.’

“Young Emerald, I am most disappointed in you,” Luna stated, seemingly confirming Emerald’s concerns. “I expected more out of a student of mine than to place such vulgar looking pictures for all to see.”

“Umm, what exactly are you referring to?” Emerald asked in some confusion, not sure what Luna was talking about now.

“The pose in this picture, one among many,” Luna answered, presenting a magazine open to a page that had Emerald in a suggestive pose with a wrench.

“Oh…” Emerald was incredibly relieved. Had Luna been talking about her and Twilight, then she would have been forced to choose between the two; a choice that wasn’t at all hard in Emerald’s eyes. But now that she knew, she didn’t have to make that choice. She was happy. Happy enough to feel playful, even. “What exactly are you referring to in the picture, your highness?”

“Th-the pose!” Luna stated, blushing at the idea of explaining why exactly the pose was inappropriate. But Emerald’s face was the picture of childlike innocence as she stared up at her with wide eyes, making the Lunar Princess believe she was in the wrong to think Emerald knew what she was doing when she made that pose.

“Yes, but… what about the pose, exactly?” Emerald asked with faux curiosity.

“W-well… the way you are lying on your side for one…” Luna began hesitantly, hoping for any sign of realization in Emerald’s expression so that she didn’t have to explain her reasons further, but the visage of innocence remained firmly in place. “And umm… the way your eyes look, hooded as they are, imply a closeness like… like a… pony special to you and… the wrench implies you are about to… to… to… nevermind.”

“Oooookay?” Emerald said with over dramatized befuddlement.

“Well… I wish to ask you about something else before we began our practical lessons,” Luna said. “I wish to question you about your relationship with my sister’s student, one Twilight Sparkle.”

“Oh, alright then,” Emerald said with utmost seriousness. “What do you wish to know, your highness?”

“How is it that you find yourself attracted to another mare?” Luna asked in honest curiosity. “It is not possible for the two of you to have children, although I admit there are more than a few unions that don’t result in children. Still, the question remains. Why are you a ‘couple’ with Twilight Sparkle?”

“She… is a hero,” Emerald answered and smiled softly as she thought about Twilight. “I was a paranoid mess when I met her, always expecting the worst of everyone I met, always on guard for the pain of betrayal. But the day I met her changed me for the better… I was on a downward spiral for years and she stopped my descent. I never intended for our friendship to become something more… it just happened. But I do not regret it and would fight to preserve it.”

Luna smiled down at her student, but now wondered about he. She knew about Twilight and her friends’ theory of Emerald being a former gladiator slave. Emerald alluded to a highly troubled past and the gladiator idea did seem to fit, but it wasn’t entirely a certainty if it was the truth. But the princess wasn’t comfortable with the idea of pressing her student for the story of her past, being as she only just started teaching her two weeks ago.

“Well I think we’ve put off lessons for long enough,” Luna stated and quickly took on an easy going stance. “Today’s lesson is the manipulation of gravity. Now, every unicorn knows the levitation spell, but what you will learn will be much more…”

DELTA

‘The phoenix is an iconic creature,’ Emerald read. ‘It represents life and fire, and although it puts up the surprisingly realistic image of flesh and blood at times, it truly is a being of fire. Readers may recognise the creature in question, as her highness Princess Celestia possesses one as a pet. When this fire bird was discovered is not completely known and many, many myths, legends and folklore speak of their origins and all share one fact. They tell of the phoenix’s origins leading back to one being of unrestrained fire and life. A mighty phoenix said to be as bright as the sun itself.’

Emerald looked over on to the neighbouring page and saw a stylised picture of a massive phoenix spreading its wings out as it roosted atop a mountain.

‘Hmm…’ Emerald thought as she quickly looked over the other pages in the book. ‘Seems like the rest is a collection of all those various myths and legends about phoenixes. Knowing the way this world works, I bet each and every one of them is right in some way.’

Hearing someone walking past, Emerald glanced towards the open door of the study she was in and spotted Celestia walking by, Rarity following close behind. Instantly curious about why Rarity was in Canterlot, Emerald put her book down and quickly walked out of the study and nearly run into the bellhop carrying a massive load of luggage.

“Excuse me,” Emerald said as she moved past.

“No p-problem,” the overloaded bellhop groaned.

“Rarity!” Emerald called out as she neared the other unicorn.

“Emerald dear!” Rarity exclaimed happily and trotted over to Emerald and gave her a tight hug. “How are you doing? I hope ponies aren’t bothering you over Twilight.”

“I’m doing fine, Rarity. It’ll take more than a bit of staring to bother me,” Emerald answered. “I’m more worried about Twilight, though. How is she? Is she holding up well?”

“She is doing fine, darling,” Rarity reassured with a smile. “The others are supporting her and standing up for her, and the others in Ponyville are starting to accept what is going between the two of you. It’s just taking a bit of time.”

“It’ great to know that,” Emerald said.

“I have to admit, I myself needed a night’s sleep before wrapping my mind around the concept of two mares in a relationship,” Celestia admitted. “Might I ask how you and my student came to be together?”

“Well, really your highness, your student is just a wonderful mare,” Emerald answered with a small smile. “As I explained to Luna, when I met Twilight I was in such a bad downward spiral, I don’t like to think where I’d be right now if I hadn’t met here when I did. But now that we are together, I never want to lose her. I just…”

“Ohhhh… Emerald, if I was even the least bit doubtful of the two of you before, I definitely am not now.” Rarity sighed happily at Emerald’s honest outpouring of emotion. “She must mean the world to you.”

“Yes, she does,” Emerald replied a little shyly.

Celestia could only smile at Emerald’s words. She had a feeling that things would work out between her student and Emerald, despite what troubles may plague them. However, the princess couldn’t help but wonder at the meaning of some of Emerald’s words. She made it sound like meeting Twilight kept her from doing something terrible, but what could she have meant? Did she mean she was a hair’s breadth away from a life of crime? The thought of someone as skilled a fighter, who possessed such immense prodigal potential falling into a life of crime honestly made the princess’ mood take a sudden downturn. There was no doubt in her mind that had Emerald become a criminal, she would have been picked up by the Gray Fox at some point. The havoc the two would have unleashed upon Equestria would undoubtedly live on in infamy for generations. It could even have been a stained glass window worthy chapter in Equestria’s history.

Celestia shook her head clear of the distasteful thoughts. Emerald was most definitely not going to be a criminal now, that was for certain, and she never would be with Twilight at her side. With that, the princess returned her attention to the other two people in the hall; three if you counted the beleaguered bellhop.

“Her highness is letting me stay at the palace for a few days!” Rarity said excitedly to Emerald. “I plan to be going all over Canterlot and taking in the wondrous sights. Won’t you come along with me? It would be just the best treat to have you along, darling.”

“I’d love to Rarity, but I’m here studying under Princess Luna,” Emerald replied a bit sadly. “I’m kept a bit busy. I was just enjoying the little free time she lets me have. Though it’s not like her lessons are all work and no play. There is a lot of fun in the practical lessons and the princess isn’t above playful demonstrations.”

“Oh my, it sounds like you are enjoying being taught by Princess Luna,” Rarity said with a bright smile. “And to think you were hesitant on becoming her student!”

‘Enjoying having a student, my dear Luna?’ Celestia thought with a warm smile. ‘I do so enjoy it as well… I miss the hooves on lessons I’d have with Twilight now. She is making wonderful progress on her own lessons as well. It seems like I only have a decade or so left before she finishes her lessons with me and I am left without a student again… I really should spend more time with her; I just wish I wasn’t so busy all the time.’

“Uhh! UGH! GRRRAGH!”

Everyone turned at the sound of a massive crash and was met with the sight of the bellhop buried under Rarity’s vast amount of luggage.

“Ah… perhaps we should get my things to my room before speaking more?” Rarity asked a little sheepishly.

EPSILON

Emerald stared down at the letter in her hooves, Navi in her mane sleeping the day away in boredom as Emerald studied in her room.

Like she had said to Rarity a few days ago, she was very busy and couldn’t tag along with her on her trips. However, Twilight’s birthday was that very day and Emerald wasn’t going to miss it for the world, especially with all the work she put in for Twilight’s gift. But Twilight had sent her a letter stating that Rarity wasn’t going to be able to come back in time for the party because her cat was sick, so they were moving the party there.

On one hand, Emerald was glad she didn’t have to convince Luna to let her off for the whole day, even though she was fairly certain Luna would ago in no uncertain terms to letting her attend Twilight’s birthday. On the other hand, she was fairly certain Rarity hadn’t looked all that stressed out the last time she had seen her, which she would have been had her cat been sick enough to forgo travel. So what exactly was up with Rarity?

‘On second thought, I am rather paranoid, aren’t I?’ Emerald thought with a wry grin. ‘Opalescence likely has like a tiny cough or something and Rarity is blowing it way out of proportion. In either case, Twilight is moving the party here so I only have to take the afternoon off from my studies. It’s about time I get to wrapping my gift for Twilight.’

Emerald made her way over to the table at the side of her bed and opened the drawer. Inside was a big, thick book with a dark green velvet coat. Stamped over the front was a silver plate with the title engraved on it that read “Obscure Science”. It was a blank book that Emerald had bought and had proceeded to fill completely front to back with information; it even had illustrations she had drawn herself.

The virus had worked on it tirelessly every night for the past week, just filling page after page with scientific knowledge from her world that currently didn’t exist in Equestria. Emerald was nearly absolutely certain Twilight would love this gift, and that fact alone would be more than worth the effort she had put in to make the book.

‘Now just have to wrap it up for her!’ Emerald thought and quickly took out a roll plain pink wrapping paper along with white ribbon. Twenty minutes of struggling later and Emerald managed to get it looking like a commercial set piece present like she wanted.

‘Right, now just have to go see Luna and tell her about my plans for today. Then I just do my lessons until everything is set up tonight,’ Emerald thought.

Leaving the present on her bed, she left the room, locking the door behind her.

ZETA

It was later that day and the sun had gone down. Emerald had been informed by one of the Thracian maids that Twilight’s party had finished being set up in one of the ballrooms. She was now on her way to said party.

With Navi perched on one ear and the present being magically held to her side, the virus opened the large pair of double doors before her.

“Emerald!” the virus heard a happy shout.

“Hi Twilight.” Emerald smiled. The inside of the ballroom had been decorated for Twilight’s birthday party. There were streamers criss-crossing everywhere along with balloons; there was already a ton of confetti covering the floor, likely the cause being an overly excited Pinkie Pie. One table was covered in various cakes and cupcakes while another table had a small pile of gifts on it. Everyone was there as well, though Rarity seemed rather oddly overdressed and Twilight seemed to be wearing one of her gifts.

“So great you could make it!” Twilight said happily as she trotted over to Emerald in her simple yellow dress with a pink sash.

“I’d never miss it,” Emerald replied. “Luna’s not the type to make me miss this anyway. Also, here is my present to you.”

“Oh!” Twilight said and magically took the gift away from Emerald. “It looks like it might be a book. Thank you Emerald, I’m certain it will be a wonderful read.”

“It should!” Emerald stated with a grin. “I wrote it myself.”

“You wrote…” Twilight looked down at her gift with impatient excitement and quickly tore it open.

“You gave her a book you wrote yourself?” Dash stated questioningly before rolling her eyes with a smirk. “You can be such an egg head sometimes Emmy.”

“Oh my gosh, Emerald!” Twilight exclaimed as she started skimming through her new book. “You wrote all this and made all these illustrations just for me?”

“I certainly did.” Emerald smiled. “Took constant work nearly every night of the past week, but I finished it.”

“Thank you so much Emerald!” Twilight said happily. “It’s a wonderful gift!”

“Yeah, way to show us up,” Rainbow said with a playful jab of her elbow.

Suddenly Twilight grew extremely shy, and her face turned a little crimson before she started approaching Emerald. The Evolved watched her curiously as she came to a stop before her and had to crush down an amused smile when Twilight closed her eyes and started leaning in close.

Twilight’s face seemed to grow steadily redder as she inched closer towards Emerald and after a moment she finally kissed Emerald… on the cheek. Then she looked away bashfully and looked for all the world like a purple Fluttershy.

“Gee Twilight, it’s just a kiss on the cheek,” Emerald said with a smile. “You don’t have to get all worked up over it. It’s not like we were French kissing.”

“Umm… what’s ‘French kissing’”? Twilight asked a little hesitantly, remembering how she regretted finding out what a prostitute was.

“Well, it’s basically like a normal kiss,” Emerald began, full well knowing the next part was going to embarrass her. “Except we both open our mouths a little as we kiss and slip our tongues into each other’s mouth.”

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed, her face completely flush.

“Heh heh.” Emerald smiled at her so easily frazzled “fillyfriend” and suddenly noticed the others. They were now only a few feet away and were standing together; they were wide eyed with blushing faces and were staring almost expectedly, almost as if they were expecting Emerald to just suddenly give Twilight a very in-depth example of a french kiss. Emerald rolled her eyes at them.

“What? Are you all expecting a show or something?” Emerald asked.

“Yes,” Pinkie said.

“No!” the others quickly denied and shot the party mare a look.

“What?” Pinkie said in honest confusion.

Emerald just shook her head a little and turned her head back towards Twilight. She blinked when she saw that Twilight was standing a little closer and had her eyes closed as her mouth hung a little open, her face almost as red as a cherry.

“Twilight…” Emerald sighed and gave her a small pat on the nose with her hoof. “You don’t have to force yourself into stuff like this. Just one step after another. Slow and steady, but most importantly, as you are ready for them.”

“R-right, sorry… that was silly of me,” Twilight said in embarrassment.

“It’s alright, Twilight,” Emerald said as she stepped beside the other unicorn and gave her a comforting hug. “This is a learning experience for the both of us, okay?”

“Yes, you’re right, Emerald,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Great. Now, who’s up for some cake?” Emerald asked. “Because I certainly am!”

“Oh me, me, me!” Pinkie shouted as she hopped in place excitedly before darting over to the cake table. “I’ll start slicing pieces for everypony!”

The party proceeded fairly well after that, and Twilight quickly got over her earlier embarrassment as she opened the presents from the others. However, while everyone was having fun, Emerald noticed something strange. Rarity disappeared suddenly for a short while before slipping in from a side door of the ball room.

Wondering what exactly had gained Rarity’s attention outside, Emerald watched and waited until she left again before following right after her. She easily managed to keep from being noticed by both Rarity and the others and found where the other unicorn had been going. There was apparently a high class garden party happening right outside in the garden.

Quickly shifting her stance into one of total and complete confidence and pride, Emerald strode right into the heart of the party. Not a single noble gave her a second glance, though more than a few seemed to briefly look like they recalled her.

Rarity came to a stop and looked around the party, seemingly looking for someone. Emerald came to a stop right beside her as she was looking in the opposite direction.

“I take it that you are looking for someone?”

“Oh my goodness!” Rarity gasped and her eyes widened in alarm when she saw Emerald standing right beside her. “Emerald! I was just… taking a look see, and I…”

Rarity’s attempts to make an excuse died off as Emerald just stared her down. It was then that the nobles in the party started to notice and recognise her.

“Oh my, miss Gleaner, have you come to ‘crash’ our festivity?” a passing noble asked, not sounding the least offended by the idea. “Always room for celebrities, I always say!”

“Yes, please enjoy your time here,” the noble’s lady companion added with a polite smile before the two went on their way.

Emerald took stock of her surroundings. She had expected several nobles to immediately come swarm her to speak with her. The Evolved was a famed model and owned quite a bit of money making real estate after all. But other than a few of the nearest giving her some light greetings, they didn’t try. Some were even moving away with varying degrees of subtlety.

‘Likely has to do with my relationship with Twilight,’ Emerald thought with an internal frown. ‘It has a chance to stir up some controversy and they don’t want to be connected with bad press. Still, this isn’t as bad it could be on Earth. I hardly think the controversy a pony would stir up over me and Twilight would be in any way crippling anyway. I doubt I’d even get any hate over it; just honest confusion.’

About that time was when one of the nobles approached her and didn’t seem like he was just going to polite greet her and leave.

“Good evening, miss Gleaner,” he welcomed with a polite smile. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Fancy Pants, and I am most pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Oh, I am pleased to meet you as well,” Emerald replied. “Forgive me, shall I refer to you as Lord or Mister? I’ve meet nobles before, and they don’t seem to be very consistent on the matter.”

“You may call me Fancy Pants, miss Gleaner,” Fancy replied. “I must confess an admiration for you, my dear. A young up and coming unicorn rising above her troubles and lack of education is a most inspiring feat. I have no doubts you’ll be motivating generations both present and future with your achievements.”

“Thank you kindly Fancy Pants, but a good number of my accomplishments can be attributed to luck,” Emerald replied. “I’d likely only have finished catching up on my education right now if I hadn’t had the luck of meeting Photo Finish.”

“And modest as well!” Fancy smiled. “Knowing to restrain an ego is a most laudable ability and will get you far. In any case, allow me to explain the reason why I came to speak with you. You see, my wife Fleur is a fan of yours and happens to be a model as well.”

“Fleur… as in Fleur De Lis?” Emerald asked.

“The very same,” Fancy answered. “You see, she wishes to set up a dinner date of sorts with you and has been meaning to send you letter requesting it, though she has been a bit busy.”

“Hmm… Didn’t she start modeling for another company competing with New Paradigm?”

“Oh yes, she was inspired by you really, and decided to help boost the economy by getting a flagging company some positive attention,” Fancy Pants said. “I realise you are a majority shareholder in New Paradigm, so I do hope this isn’t an issue for you?”

“Of course not,” Emerald answered with a shake of her head. “The market is quite… open for growth right now, and competition is always good for the consumer, now isn’t it? And as for the dinner date, I’d be glad to attend, though I am quite a bit busy; studying with Princess Luna, modeling for New Paradigm and personal projects are keeping me quite engaged, I’m afraid.”

“Not an issue at all!” Fancy replied. “Fleur will exchange a few letters with you and set up an appropriate date. We’ll have dinner aboard the Cloud Nine. Of course, it goes without saying you may bring a date as well.”

“Oh… well I most certainly shall look forward to Fleur De Lis’ letter.” Emerald was a bit surprised. Fancy Pants definitely seemed like the sort of noble to always know what was going on and so would certainly know about her and Twilight. Maybe he was just a kind person despite the games a noble would have to play in order to advance in the world of business and politics, not that it was as cutthroat as it could have been, ponies being ponies after all.

“I look forward to it as well. Oh, and I apologise Rarity. I didn’t mean to ignore you for so long,” Fancy Pants said to the other unicorn.

“Oh umm… it’s not an issue at all!” Rarity replied, shooting a worried glance at Emerald. “I was just, umm…”

“Well I have somewhere else to be,” Emerald stated in the odd lull in the conversation. “If you excuse me, Fancy Pants, Rarity, I’ll be sure to tell Twilight where you are.”

Barely a few steps away and the virus was already being chased down by Rarity.

“Darling, wait!” Rarity shouted then quickly quieted down when she noticed the looks she was getting. “I was… ohhhh… I take it you know about Opal being sick, right? Well… I lied about that. You see, I had… enhanced the truth while speaking with some of these high class ponies and ended up being rather popular for it. I just… couldn’t bear to abandon that popularity when I had the opportunity to attend this party.”

“Even if it meant not attending your best friend’s birthday party?” Emerald asked quietly and Rarity looked away, knowing very well it looked rather bad. “This reminds me of the gala we all attended several months ago. Spike wanted to show you all around the place that had been his home for most of his life and you all snubbed him for your own desires. I went with him to be a good friend and ended up having a wonderful time while the rest of you ended up having a horrible night. I could have went off on my own too, but I saw the gala for what it was; a big networking event to make business deals and just a place to be seen in. I could have taken the opportunity to create business for my own company, but I didn’t. I decided to be a friend and went with Spike. Do you understand what I am getting at, Rarity?”

“I… I know Emerald…” Rarity said dejectedly. “Oh I must be a horrible friend…”

“If you were a horrible friend, you wouldn’t have supported me and Twilight so easily, Rarity,” Emerald assured. “You just made a mistake is all. Everypony does it.”

“Thank you darling,” Rarity smiled softly before turning around to face Fancy Pants who was staring after them curiously. “Good sir, I must apologise but I have to take my leave now. A rather important event has come up and I just CAN’T afford to miss it.”

“Oh it’s no trouble at all.” Fancy smiled. “It was good fun to have you here while you were able.”

“Thank you again, sir,” Rarity said before quickly following after Emerald.

The two went on their way back to Twilight’s party, but once they were out of earshot of the nobles, Rarity spoke up.

“Oh my reputation is just going to be torn to shreds once everypony knows I lied,” Rarity sighed.

“Rarity, I don’t even need to know what exactly you lied about to tell you that you will be fine,” Emerald replied. “Popularity is a fickle thing. Unless you come back here all the time and involve yourself in more of these public events, the nobility will soon forget about you. Even if somepony finds out about your lie a month from now, no one will care because it will be old news and you won’t be relevant anymore.”

“Well there’s that at least,” Rarity said with a deadpan look at the thought of being forgotten so easily.

Soon the two arrived at the side entrance they had taken to leave Twilight party and re-entered the ballroom.

“So what’s it like to kiss a filly?” Dash asked curiously as she hovered overhead.

“Uh…” Twilight didn’t really know how to answer the question because she had only ever kissed Emerald and hadn’t gotten close to a colt enough to be friends, let alone kiss. “S-soft?”

“Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy gasped like Twilight said something scandalous.

“R-really?” Dash asked with a red face.

“Uhh… yeah?” Twilight said bashfully. “… Emerald is, anyway.”

“Seems like everyone was too busy with girl talk to notice we were gone,” Emerald commented.

“Fantastic, let’s just slip right back in and enjoy the rest of the party,” Rarity said happily.

The two closed the doors behind them and rejoined Twilight’s birthday party.

ETA

Emerald stood in her human form and was taking in her surroundings.

She was in a massive chamber, big enough to easily hold a ten story building with quite a bit of space to spare. Large industrial lights lined the ceiling while the walls of the chamber were lined with thick steel plating. Higher up, a series of catwalks hung in the air from steel cables anchored to the ceiling. And this room was only one of four.

‘Several months of hard work.’ Emerald smiled. ‘And it all came out wonderfully. The steel testing cages are now finished and ready for the advanced stages of the project. When I eventually get there that is. Still need to get through a few stages before I can even get into the testing stage. But once it finally happens, it’ll be over a year’s worth of work coming to culmination.’

Emerald turned around and made for one of the heavily armored doors along the floor level.

‘Speaking of stages, I still need to make a decision on just what kind of creature I intend to make.’ Emerald frowned in thought. ‘I could try to make something self-aware… but should I? I mean, so far I’ve only created plants and a specially designed virus. Even the simplest of animals would be tons more complicated than that. Hmm… okay, let’s try a really clever dog with a lot of adaptability. I’ve never made something so complicated before, so the process might be a bit… buggy. But what else should it have? Well, it’s definitely going to be a shock creature like the brawlers were, but better. Unlike Mercer, I don’t intend to treat these guys like fodder to send into the grinder until they clog it. And I have the perfect idea for how to make them look and sound!’

With an eager smile, Emerald reached the armored door and walked through.

THETA

Twilight watched carefully as the sun finally set beyond the horizon and only the warm colors of dusk marked it’s departure. Once all signs of the sun were completely gone, she looked down at the list she was levitating.

The unicorn was outside, just down the street from her home. Her books on dating and romance arrived a few days ago and she spent all her free time studying those. It was this very day that she had realised it had been well over a week since she and Emerald became a couple, and yet the two of them hadn’t been on a date. According to her research, this was much too long and she had set about correcting that as soon as possible.

‘Let’s see…’ Twilight thought as she scanned her list. ‘Handsome bow tie, check. Picnic basket, check. Picnic blanket, check. Candles for romantic picnic, check. Salivating romantic dinner… err, sandwiches are good, right? Well, good thing I have her favorite donuts here too, so check. Make sure night is clear and comfortable, check. Scouted area before picnic, check. And finally a stylish hairdo…’

Twilight took out a small mirror and looked at herself. Around her neck was a red bowtie along with a white detached color. Her hairstyle was not different at all from how she arranged it any other day.

‘I think it’s pretty good,’ Twilight thought, striking up a few poses to display her mane from different angles. ‘Check! Right, let’s do this! I’m ready!’

Twilight quickly walked over to her front door, her picnic basket floating along behind her in the air, and knocked on the door. After a few moments, the door opened and Emerald looked out. She blinked in some confusion when she saw Twilight.

“Hey there Twilight,” Emerald greeted. “What’s with the bowtie and basket?”

“Emerald Gleaner, would you please go on a date with me?” Twilight recited from the script she memorised.

“Oh!” Emerald stated with a wide smile and small chuckle. “Sure Twilight. Wwhere are we going and what are we doing?”

“I know this beautiful spot on a nearby hill,” Twilight answered. “I think it would make for a wonderful romantic candle lit picnic.”

“I think that sounds great!” Emerald said with a wide smile. “Shall we go?”

The two then made their way towards the place where Twilight planned to have the picnic. Though Twilight was wondering if she was doing something wrong, because Emerald seemed more amused about the whole thing than eagerly excited like the books suggested she would be.

‘It’s not too big a difference, right?’ Twilight thought hopefully. ‘Amusement is just as good as excitement… I think. If it isn’t, hopefully the picnic can salvage a bad beginning.’

They soon arrived at the destination, a hill with a single oak tree sitting atop it and a crisp, clear night sky above. The moon was out as well, so even if Twilight somehow forgot the candles they could have easily done the picnic by moonlight.

‘Which is arguably a more romantic setting if my research is correct.’ Twilight hummed in thought. ‘But I already said I had candles for the picnic! Darn. Well, this can be just as good.’

Once they were on top of the hill, Twilight briefly agonised over having the picnic fully under the tree or away from it so they had the sky over them. Eventually, she decided that having the night sky over them as they ate and talked was better for the atmosphere. She then quickly set up the blanket and the candles before revealing what they would be eating.

“Sandwiches and donuts. Quite the feast,” Emerald said delightedly and eyed the donuts hungrily.

“Oh yes, uh… nothing but the best for you,” Twilight replied and dug around the basket a bit, almost panicking as she couldn’t find what she was looking for before finding it in the end.

Twilight quickly took her script out of the basket before Emerald could see and grabbed a sandwich for herself. Though she looked like she’d very much prefer having the donuts, Emerald grabbed a sandwich as well.

Twilight took her chance as Emerald bit into her sandwich and levitated the script she had just behind her head. She was suddenly rather glad she had candles, as it helped mask the glow of her magic behind Emerald. However, for all of Twilight’s careful planning and scripting, she forgot one little detail…

Emerald’s eyes darted up towards Twilight’s forehead before darting to the side and looking like she was about to turn around. Twilight panicked and quickly darted the page out of sight and ended the spell. Emerald looked behind her, and after a moment of looking, turned back around to face Twilight with an amused shrug.

Twilight started up her spell again as Emerald’s smile widened slightly and she began reading off her script.

“You look beautiful tonight, Emerald,” Twilight complimented.

“Why thank you!” Emerald said. “I put in about… no effort at all to look this good, heh.”

“Oh uh, right.” Twilight smiled and quickly moved on to another line. “I think the night brings out your eyes beautifully.”

“Oh I don’t know, Twilight.” Emerald said uncertainly. “I think the moonlight brings out your eyes better.”

“O-oh, thank you Emerald…” Twilight blushed, remembering how Emerald liked her eyes.

Twilight went through her script a bit, looking for an appropriate line when she found complimenting table manners. She was about to recite it when she saw what Emerald was doing now.

The virus had finished her sandwich and was now into the donuts. It was clear that she had already eaten a few as white icing was smeared a little around her lips, which she quickly started to lick off.

‘Right, something else then,’ Twilight thought.

The date continued on from there. Emerald munched away on donuts and the occasional sandwich while Twilight recited line after line of rather cheesy and predictable lines, more than a few sounding like tame pony pickup lines. Twilight for her part was rather worried she was doing something very wrong. Instead of becoming bashful and flustered by all the compliments she poured on, Emerald seemed to only stay amused and even laughed a few times. But at the same time, she hadn’t just left in disgust like the book said the “datee” would if she felt the date was going horribly. So on the fact that this was her first time going on a date with someone and it wasn’t ending horribly, she tentatively considered it going well.

Before long, Emerald had practically eaten everything Twilight had prepared and Twilight had nearly used up all her lines, and was now in danger of repeating herself which her research said was very bad. So she considered the date over and had gone about escorting Emerald back home like the books suggested.

‘Okay, remember, try not to sound like you REALLY want to know how well you performed,’ Twilight thought fretfully. ‘Try to be as casual as possible.’

“S-so uh, how did you like the date?” Twilight asked.

“I think it was great. I had a fun time all around.” Emerald smiled widely.

Twilight smiled happily and remembered there was one last thing to do just yet. She stepped a bit closer and started leaning in to kiss Emerald goodbye as the books instructed was appropriate for a successful date. She was stopped by Emerald’s hoof on her mouth.

“Twilight…” Emerald sighed but still had a small smile on her face. “You shouldn’t try to make our relationship work like we are some couple in a romance novel. What we have… well, there aren’t any pre-set rules for Equestria. We should just be ourselves and not do as some books say we should.”

“Besides…” Emerald continued as she pulled Twilight into a tight hug. “You being yourself is what made me fall for you.”

Twilight for her part was incredibly embarrassed for herself for how scripted and planned everything was, but was glad it all went over well with Emerald. She returned the other mare’s hug, happy and content with the world.

‘This must be how others feel when they find somepony special to them,’ Twilight thought as she basked in Emerald’s embrace. ‘It feels so nice and…’

Suddenly an image flashed through Twilight’s mind, an image of Emerald shrouded in shadows and twisted in darkness, claws dripping with blood. Innocent lives ended and those they loved mourning their loss. Then Emerald simply walking away without any punishment or consequence and living happily with her friends, enjoying life despite the lives taken.

“Is there something wrong, Twilight?” Emerald asked after she felt Twilight stiffen up.

“Oh… I just felt cold all of the sudden,” Twilight said honestly. She did feel cold, so very cold…

“Err, Twilight?” Emerald said questioningly as Twilight started walking away. “You do remember that you live here right?”

“Oh! Of course!” Twilight said in embarrassment before quickly walking back to her home, walking past a smiling Emerald who waited until she was inside before closing the door behind her.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: Okay, another chapter done! Progressing Hub development, creating connections with another little enclave, growing suspicions, a loved one feeling guilt for another’s actions. You can all tell this is building up to something grand can’t you? Heh, heh…

EN: I don’t trust how things went with the Deinos mare. Something just reeks of suspicion with that one. Call me paranoid if you will, but I reserve the right to say ‘I told you so’ if shit goes down with her. Until then, I’ll be waiting… biding my time… until the moment it all comes to light. Note that this is all conjecture on my part. Considering Legionary never tells me anything in advance… except for that one thing, but it wasn’t as major as this might be… or that one other thing that will be added later. Anyways, considering he never tells me too much about future plans, this is all guesswork mostly. Still calling suspicious activity on that mare though.

Chapter 7: The Best Intentions

“And this will be your new home, Ridge.”

Ridge, a sheep dog wearing a zipped up green gray coat and beige green pants that ended at his knees, took in his home. It was a somewhat small apartment; the bedroom was its own room at least while the kitchen, living room and dining room were mixed together. It was definitely smaller than his parent’s house, which he had moved out of a few days ago. He was the only one living here though, so the size wasn’t a problem. He was rather happy about the running water though; no more lugging buckets from the aquifer springs and the sewage system was definitely appreciated.

“Thanks for showing me to my ‘apartment’,” Ridge said to his guide.

“Not a problem,” the other dog waved off and left.

Ridge grabbed his bag containing his few pairs of clothing and went into the bedroom.

It was a simple enough setup. There was a bed that was about twin size, a dresser off to the side and a door leading to what he assumed was his bathroom. Ridge simply dropped his bag on his bed. He’d unpack later; for now he was hungry and from what he knew, those communal meals would start soon.

Ridge then left his room and walked down the hall to the atrium of the apartment complex he now lived in. He was on the higher floors, so he had to climb down to ground level.

Now the complex did have a stair case, but that was mostly meant for really old dogs and the very young.The rest of the dogs just climbed down via four specially designed walls. Each wall was located in a corner of the atrium and was about ten feet wide that stretched up from the ground floor to the very top.

Ridge grabbed hold of one and started dropping down, grabbing hold of the wall every few feet to slow his descent. He did this for several moments before jumping off the wall and landing on the ground floor with a thump. He then walked out of the complex’s front door.

Once outside, Ridge lifted fur out of his eye sight and looked around the streets to get an idea of where the dinner was being held. After a moment, he decided to just follow where everyone else seemed to be going.

‘A bit crude looking, but it gets the job done,’ Ridge thought as he took in the various stone buildings around him. Ridge was an independent dog from the packs in the depths and so was used to much more aesthetically pleasing buildings. The biggest reason for why he was here instead of setting up somewhere in his hometown was the free food. Ridge had grown up with rations. The only time he ever felt close to having over ate was when the pack got lucky and brought in a ton of meat. But those were rare in itself and hunting had to be carefully done or there wouldn’t be enough food for everyone before long. But ever since the Enclave had started sending shipments of meat to all the packs suddenly, everyone had more than enough meat to spare.

It was the feeling of having a full stomach for five days straight that eventually caused Ridge to make his final decision on where he wanted to go when he moved out. After all, it surely would have been better tasting to get the meat straight from the source, now wouldn’t it?

It was then that Ridge caught the scent that could only be beef stew with various vegetables thrown in for flavouring. Mouth-watering at the scent, the sheep dog picked up his pace.

Soon, he found himself in a large, wide open plaza filled with long tables and chairs. Over to the side were a long line of open windows that lead into the kitchen. Already a long line of dogs were forming, despite the number of windows that had cooks giving out food.

A little disheartened by the lines, Ridge simply huffed and took his spot. Thankfully the lines moved fast, as Ridge only had to wait ten minutes before he was at a kitchen window. There was only beef stew and either salt or pepper to put on it, but the portions were definitely generous thanks to the bowls. Making sure not to lose a single drop of his stew, Ridge got a seat at a fairly empty table, though it didn’t remain that way for long.

Before long, a massive stream of dogs had arrived and the table Ridge was at was soon as crowded as the rest. Not that he minded it, but he still didn’t know anyone here just yet.

“Hm, look at that lot over there,” one dog stated, pointing a thumb towards a table. “They’ve been eating tons of food for days now.”

Ridge looked over at the table in question and couldn’t help but have his attention drawn to one of the Diamond Dogs sitting at the table. He looked a lot like a wolf, and his fur was stark white. If he was lying in snow, Ridge was sure he wouldn’t be spotted. The next dog he noticed was very tall and had ton of muscle on him. He looked to be a rottweiler from what Ridge could see. The rest of the dogs sitting at the table shared two things in common. All had muscles that could be clearly defined, though not as massive as the rottweiler’s, and all of them had huge bowls of stew they were rapidly wolfing down.

“Wow, they all got muscles really fast,” commented one dog who let out a low impressed whistle. “Are they going to keep getting bigger?”

“I talked to one of them,” another dog said as he chowed down on his stew. “They said they’ll lose fat and build muscles just by moving around, but if they want to build really huge muscles then they’ll still need to put in effort. But right now? Getting in fighting shape is a breeze.”

There was a moment of silence as the other dogs digested what they heard along with their meals. In that silence, one dog took the opportunity to speak.

“I saw that pony with the boss again,” muttered one dog a bit sourly as he slowly ate his stew.

Immediately the mood at the table took a downturn. Several dogs shot the speaker a look while the rest looked a little uncomfortable.

“What? I am worried is all,” the dog muttered defensively. “What if this pony sells us out to Equestria and tells their princess about us? We don’t know anything about her at all.”

“The boss knows her, and the boss has obviously chosen her as a potential mate,” one dog answered. “Boss has never done us wrong, ever. Why should now be the time?”

“Hmph.”

Ridge felt intensely curious right now; his home town was in the deepest parts of the tunnels and didn’t talk about ponies much, other for saying they were surface walkers and how they looked.

“What is wrong with ponies?” Ridge broke in with his own question.

For a moment there was silence as the other dogs seemed to be reluctant to answer. Then the dog who had sounded suspicious of ponies spoke up.

“… How much do you know about ponies?” asked the dog.

“I know they live on the surface, come in three different kinds and have a powerful princess leading them,” Ridge answered.

“Do you know about Nidhogg?” the dog asked, and Ridge nodded. “Well their princess is responsible for him. She was responsible for keeping him locked up, but she failed and he not only broke out without her knowing but destroyed our nation. It’s the ponies’ fault we suffered for a hundred years. I don’t trust them.”

“Bah!” one dog said dismissively. “If boss is willing to trust a pony, then I am too. Besides, what about Whisper? You don’t trust her too?”

“Whisper is different,”the dog replied defensively and pointed off to the side. “She is the exception.”

Ridge looked in the direction the dog was pointing and saw a dark blue winged pony with a purple mane sitting beside another dog. The dog beside her was a cheerful looking fellow and happened to be a husky.

Suddenly, there was clamour as a voice rose in alarm. Everyone at Ridge’s table and everyone else in the plaza turned towards a group of startled dogs at one table. One of the dogs had a newspaper in his paws and was gesturing to one of the articles.

Everyone at Ridge’s table got up and walked over to the disturbance and Ridge decided to follow suit. They weren’t the only ones to get the same idea, but they still managed to get fairly close to the table.

“Hey! What’s going on?!” someone shouted.

“DRAGONS!” the dog holding the newspaper shouted and waved said paper in the air. “I snuck into a pony town and got this paper. It says a whole migration of dragons are going to be passing through Equestria!”

Ridge wasn’t terribly worried about the news; even if the dragons proved to be hostile, the Enclave was both underground and in the Everfree. The other dogs didn’t seem to realise this, however, and fear bred into them from Nidhogg made them all panicky at the thought of dragons, especially a lot of them.

“We have nothing to fear!” one dog shouted.

“Yeah, the boss will protect us!” another added.

“The ponies have their princess, but we have our boss!”

There was a loud cheer that went up at that, and Ridge could only look around in interest of what he was hearing.

‘Hmm… I wonder what “The Boss” is like?’ he thought to himself.

ALPHA

Emerald stood next to Princess Luna on her dark chariot being pulled through the clouds by her Night Guard. Eventually, they broke through the clouds to a grand sight.

Ever so slowly drifting through the ocean was a massive squid like creature, a Kraken. It was easily as big as a small island and its thick, rock-like skin was covered in grasses and various plants. Situated in the center of its mass that was above the water was a building at least five stories tall. In front of the body in a long row were flags of many colors and designs blowing in the ocean breeze.

Emerald stared in open awe of the huge creature as they swooped down towards it. Eventually they came into a landing in an area that also had a number of aerial transports. As soon as she stepped off the chariot, Emerald couldn’t help but experimentally tap her hoof on the ground. The grass made things softer, but the ground felt like really hard dirt rather than rock.

“Come along my student,” Luna stated as she started walking towards the building. “The first meeting is starting soon and I want you to witness it.”

“What is this place anyway?” Emerald asked.

“This is the headquarters of the League of Nations,” Lune explained. “It’s where all the nations in the known world send representatives or attend themselves to engage in politics on a much grander scale.”

“Why is it on this… I assume this is a Kraken?” Emerald said hesitantly.

“True neutral ground, plus the center of this particular ocean is the most central place of the member nations,” Luna replied. “Although we have to make sure the Kraken keeps drifting in this area, otherwise he just goes off to wherever the ocean takes him.”

“Sounds like a laid back fellow,” Emerald commented as they entered the front door of the building.

“He is very old. Most of the time he is simply napping,” Luna explained. “From what I’ve heard, it was remarkably easy to convince him to let us build on his back.”

Emerald looked around the interior. They were in the lobby of the building and all around them were various beings either here for the meeting or simply working at the building. Ponies, griffins, minotaurs, herons, the sure amount of different beings here represented how this building was the headquarters of intergovernmental organization.

“My sister has been having me attend League meetings in preparation for my eventual return to politics,” Luna stated as they walked. “I decided this experience would do some good for you as well.”

Emerald could agree with that statement. The idea of seeing what this world’s version of the United Nations was like would definitely be interesting.

Soon, Emerald and Luna arrived in a side chamber overlooking the main meeting area. The area where all the heads of state and representatives were sitting looked a lot like the meeting room in the UN did. After a little bit of searching, Emerald spotted Celestia down on ground floor at her assigned desk, listening serenely to the current speaker on the floor. For some reason, Emerald expected what she assumed was the Secretary General, to be a pony, but he wasn’t. The Secretary General was a zebra, an old one from his gray mane; although from the looks of him, the gray was likely the result of severe stress.

Emerald was interested at first… her interest quickly began to die off as people kept talking on and on, making mundane deals with other nations and basically uttering rhetoric.

Emerald was mere moments away from despairing at ever hearing something interesting when she spotted the griffin and minotaur representatives muttering to each other. Focusing on them, her powerful ears managed to pick out their words from the current speaker’s.

“First his country cuts all trade deals with everyone, and now they are banning immigration and tourism,” the griffin rep muttered. “And he still hasn’t given us a proper explanation for it.”

“Just what is the Prime Minister of Zebrica up to?” the minotaur muttered back. “Exports and tourism make up at least forty percent of his country’s income. And I remember whst the Secretary was like over a year ago. He wasn’t nearly this stressed.”

“Tch. It hurts everyone when the leader goes bad,” the griffin scoffed. “Suppose we just wait until he gets kicked out for incompetence by his parliament then?”

“Going to have to,” the minotaur agreed.

‘Well there was a bit of exciting info,’ Emerald thought and looked at the stressed looking Secretary General. ‘Well, not really. None of my business what some country somewhere does with itself, as long as it doesn’t bother me or my own.’

With that, Emerald settled in for the long wait full of trying her best to not let it show she was bored out of her mind. It was a lot harder than it looked.

BETA

Razor Wing sat beside a coffee table solving a puzzle with another Deinos. The study he was in had a little over a dozen Deinos lounging about in it. Most of the Deinos in the palace were either former palace staff or guards. They could have gone back to work while they waited for Celestia to “fix” them, but the Princess insisted they just rest and relax. And so they did, though boredom sometimes did set in.

Suddenly, the front doors to the room flung open and in stomped another Deinos. With a soft growl, he slammed the doors behind him, causing one of them to break off the top hinge and start to lean off the frame. At this, Razor Wing immediately rose up from his position beside the coffee table and approached the other Deinos.

“Is there something wrong?” Razor asked. “Why are you so angry?”

“I’m just… just a little irritated right now,” the clearly frustrated Deinos said. “I am not angry at anypony.”

“Yes you are, we are altered,” Razor stated. “We get angry much more easily. Tell me what it is and all of us can help you feel better.”

“Grrr… it’s just… it’s the princess!” the Deinos growled.

“What about the princess, Sparkle Shine?” one Deinos asked.

“I’ve just gotten back from her giving some of us an encouraging talk,” Sparkle stated lowly. “She kept talking about how she is searching hard for the cure to our conditions, like what we are now is some sort of disease or curse. I don’t know about curses, but I do know that diseases are not beneficial. Who here can correct me and say what we are now isn’t beneficial?!”

“I can’t go back to just being another servant in this palace, I can’t!” Sparkle shouted. “Not after having all this power, having magic, being able to fly. And after all that, just go back to being a plain old earth pony? Washing windows planes and cleaning table tops? I can’t, I won’t!”

“Ut you liked your jod, Sarkle,” Sharp Skies said. “There wasn’t a day you didn’t go to work snileing.”

“And I’m sure you loved just standing in front of a door all day every day, Shark,” Sparkle replied with a biting tone.

“What did you call ne?!” Sharp hissed and gave a dangerous growl which Sparkle quickly returned.

“Stop it,” Razor Wing stated, and when it looked like the two weren’t going to listen, he shot his blade wings between them. “Now.”

Shooting infuriated looks at each other, Sparkle and Sharp went to opposite ends of the room. And as they did so, Razor Wing couldn’t help but wonder if Sparkle wasn’t the only Deinos to have that opinion.

GAMMA

Emerald walked down a street in Ponyville. It was early in the morning and the virus was just returning from spending the entire night at the Enclave, working.

Yesterday had been Spike’s birthday. Everyone had given the little dragon something and so had Emerald. What the virus had given was a large pink diamond taken from Nidhogg’s hoard to replace the one he had given to Rarity. Spike had been incredibly happy with the treat and eaten it on the spot. Then he had left to go get one of his presents which Emerald knew was a cake baked with various minerals and gems. When Spike had left, Emerald had excused herself to go to another photo shoot for New Paradigm and then went to work in the Enclave. There was a lot of work she needed to get down to prepare for creating a new kind of creature.

By the time she had gotten back the next morning, she had only laid down the foundations for her work.

Emerald entered the library and closed the door behind her softly. She didn’t know exactly how early in the morning it was, only that it was early and by all chances only Applejack would have been up at this hour, so she didn’t want to wake up everyone.

Intentions of not waking anyone up went out the window when she heard a startled shout come from upstairs.

In an instant, Emerald teleported to Twilight’s bedroom and was met with no one around. Hearing voices from down the hall, she quickly teleported again, this time into Spike’s room. This time she was met with an odd sight.

In the corner of the simple bedroom was a massive pile or random objects. Twilight was near the door and holding some books out of reach via her magic and Spike… he was definitely different. He was taller now, and looked a little older.

“Uhh… what happened?” Emerald asked. “Twilight, did another one of your spells misfire?”

“NO! I just woke up and came in here and Spike was like this!” Twilight said in confused concern.

“What’s happening to me?!” Spike said in a deeper voice.

“Hmm…” Emerald pondered the situation. She had dragon memories now, taken from Nidhogg. Surely he knew something about what Spike was going through? However… why go through the trouble of sifting through memories when they had a fully grown dragon on hand? “I don’t know, but you know who might? That dragon that’s taken up residence on Fluttershy’s property.”

“Of course!” Twilight exclaimed. “I was thinking of taking him to a doctor, but an adult dragon that grew up around other dragons must know what is happening to Spike.”

“Right. Come close to me and I’ll bring us to Fluttershy’s cottage,” Emerald stated.

Everyone did as the Evolved commanded… well, Spike had to be dragged because he found a book extremely appealing, but they were soon on their way.

“Oh my goodness!” everyone heard when they arrived.

Fluttershy was awake, but apparently was fresh out of the shower as her mane was a little moist.

“S-Spike?” Fluttershy said with wide eyes. “What in Equestria happened to you?”

“We don’t know,” Emerald answered. “We came here to ask that freeloading lump of yours to see if he knew anything. Maybe he can prove his worth for once.”

“Emerald…” Fluttershy said with a shake of her head, her voice a little reproachful. “His name is Bulto.”

“Bulto?” Emerald said in surprise and couldn’t help the amused snort she let out.

“What’s funny?” Twilight asked.

“In one language I know, bulto means lump,” Emerald explained with a smile before shaking her head clear. “Anyway, we should go and question him. We have to see if he knows what is up with Spike.”

The group of three plus Fluttershy made their way out of the cottage. Bulto’s mass was unmistakable as he laid on his bed of gems they had made for him. As they neared, they saw that Bulto was teasing Angel with a clump of carrots, pulling them out of reach whenever Angel jumped for them. The dragon spotted the groups approach and Angel took advantage of the brief distraction, managing to snatch one carrot for himself and hopping away.

“Excuse me!” Fluttershy called out. “Bulto, can you help us please?”

Bulto only took a single glance at Spike before smirking.

“Ah, first greed growth,” he commented and seemed to get a faraway look in his eyes. “I remember when I got my first greed growth.”

“You know what’s wrong with Spike?” Twilight asked excitedly.

“Wrong? There is nothing wrong with the whelp,” Bulto replied, sounding a little insulted. “He’s just getting older, getting these first urges to hoard and desire for wealth.”

“Wait… Spike is going through puberty?” Emerald asked with a raised brow.

“Hmph, if you want to call it that,” Bulto scoffed.

“Is he stuck like this?” Twilight asked in worry.

“No, greed growth is unnatural growth and isn’t permanent,” Bulto replied. “Usually a dragon in greed growth can be spotted by their stubby wings, but…”

“So what do we do?” Emerald asked. “Just keep him from gather a bigger hoard? And you said ‘first greed growth’. Is Spike going to go through this several times?”

“That is one way to do it I guess. I calmed down after a few days of gathering,” Bulto answered. “And it depends on the dragon. He might go through this again, or he may not.”

“Well… sounds like we got our answer,” Emerald said and looked hesitant for a long moment. “And thank you Bulto… you were very helpful.”

“Whatever…” Bulto said and rolled over to face away from the group.

“Someone is going to have to be grounded for his own good for the next few days,” Twilight stated while looking at Spike.

“Awww!” Spike groused and crossed his arms.

“I’m sorry Spike, but it’s only until you return to your normal size,” Twilight said.

‘All’s well that ends well,’ Emerald thought.

DELTA

Emerald sat in a warm rock cavern.

She was back in the Enclave, back in the very cavern she had been working on after she had gone to Spike’s birthday party. This cavern was freshly carved with help from her dogs. And covering a vast majority of the walls and floors were orange, faintly translucent pods. They were large, each one easily bigger than the average human.

Currently, Emerald was sitting before one pod sitting in the middle of the room, a single tendril extending from her arm and into the pod.

‘Let’s see… making a plant or little virus was simple, but now things are complicated.’ Emerald frowned in thought. ‘It’s probably for the best I decided to go for a really smart dog rather than outright sentience, because it’s likely I would have gotten it wrong. Alright… where to start? That is the big question.”

The following hour mirrored Emerald’s first attempts to create a unique form for herself, as she tried again and again to create something only to decide she did it wrong and wipe the slate clean.

‘I’m doing something wrong… what am I doing wrong?’ Emerald rubbed her eyes with one hand in some frustration. ‘Wait… I’m trying to make something from scratch. I don’t have to do that. I’ve got tons of “examples” right here in my mind of how creatures work on a genetic level. So let’s try to make something based on those.’

Since she was aiming for a really smart dog, she based most of the brain off a dog’s. However, she intended this creature to be a shock creation. Having said that, she needed it to be able to potentially solve a problem it may encounter in its mission when she gave it one.

‘So make the problem solving area of the brain stronger and better able to handle issues.’ Emerald hummed in thought. ‘Increasing adaptability always sounds like a good option… now how to go about it?’

Emerald went about tweaking the brain of what would be her new creature; it was difficult, that was certain, because she hadn’t really done this before. Eventually she finished what she hoped was a brain that would be capable of what she intended. Now she just needed a body, and she knew just where to get the genes for that.

Bringing forth every example of bird DNA she had within her immense repertoire, Emerald began tweaking genes ever so slightly to get what she wanted. The virus smiled brightly and felt her excitement grow. This was actually pretty fun.

EPSILON

With a flash of pink light, Emerald and Twilight appeared on the mooring dock of the Cloud Nine.

The both of them were here via invitation from Fancy Pants to join him for a dinner date on the prestigious flying restaurant. They were also wearing their best clothes for the occasion, namely the dresses Rarity had made for them for the Gala.

There was no sign of Fancy Pants or Fleur De Lis though, so Emerald and Twilight decided to wait a bit. While they waited, Emerald also noticed that Twilight looked a bit stressed out and could easily guess the reason why.

“Relax, Twilight,” Emerald said soothingly. “This place gets high profile guests all the time and knows better than to make them uncomfortable.”

“Yeah… that’s true, isn’t it?” Twilight said and took a breath. “It’s just I can’t help but think of the time we both went for a walk and everypony started staring at us.”

“And that went away fairly quickly and life returned to normal... well, as about as normal as Ponyville gets anyway,” Emerald said. She was actually a bit surprised at how quick everyone seemed to just go with it.

‘Must be because of how much of a weirdness magnet the town is,’ Emerald mused. ‘Seriously, I doubt any other town puts up with even half as much crap as Ponyville does.’

“Yeah, I guess I just can’t help but be reminded of a bad experience,” Twilight said softly with a growing smile. “I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of fun dining in high class.”

“We definitely are, and look!” Emerald said gesturing off to the side. “There they are now.”

Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis were just getting off their personal carriage now and approaching the moor. Fancy was wearing a stately tuxedo while Fleur looked beautiful in a really frilly pink and white gown. The two nobles gave warm smiles as they approached, though Fleur’s looked much more excited.

“Ah, Emerald Gleaner!” Fancy Pants greeted. “And this must be your lovely date. I’m sorry to say I’ve not had the pleasure of properly meeting Princess Celestia’s student.”

“Thank you. I am Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight greeted with a small curtsy.

“And I am Fancy Pants,” the noble replied and got an impatient nudge from Fleur. “Ah, and I mustn’t forget my better half. Emerald Gleaner, Twilight Sparkle, this is Fleur De Lis.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Twilight said politely.

“The same,” Emerald added.

“It’s great to meet the both of you!” Fleur said excitedly. “And apologies to your date, but it’s doubly exciting to meet you, Emerald Gleaner.”

“Fancy has told me you’ve been meaning to have this meeting for a long time,” Emerald said.

“Oh yes!” Fleur nodded. “I’ve been in modeling for several years now and I’ve honestly never seen a pony rise up so fast as you.”

“Fluttershy is still pretty popular too.”

“Yes she is, but she only models every now and then. Just enough to stay in the spotlight,” Fleur replied. “While you, you invested smartly and quickly rose into high society. You came from a background of poverty and a lack of schooling of any kind, and look at you now! Princess Luna’s personal student and enough wealth to be set for life should you desire to retire here and now.”

“Well, thank you for the compliments,” Emerald said with a smile, actually feeling a little embarrassed at the praise.

“Ah, perhaps we should move this conversation inside the restaurant?” Fancy broke in. “It’s why we are here after all.”

“Oh my, of course!” Fleur said, putting her hoof to her mouth in embarrassment.

The group of four approached the front door of the restaurant and the door pony only gave them a single glance before quickly opening the door for them. The four were then quickly lead to a table that would no doubt have quite a view once the Cloud Nine was airborne.

Twilight looked around, nervous of her earlier fears being true. But just like Emerald had said, people came to this restaurant to have a quiet meal, not get swarmed by fans and paparazzi. Still, from her look around of this place, Twilight couldn’t help but feel every single person here was rich or famous, or both.

“So here is your complimentary bread and water,” the waitress said as she levitated the glasses and small tray on the table. “Thank you for coming to the Cloud Nine, here are your menus. I’ll be back shortly for your orders. Please enjoy yourselves and the captain will be lifting off momentarily.”

“So what are you getting?” Emerald asked Twilight as she scanned her own menu.

“Hmm, I don’t know. They all look so good to me,” Twilight answered and could already feel her stomach start to rumble from the descriptions of the various meals.

“Well I’ll be getting a deluxe salad. I’m in the mood for a little bit of everything,” Emerald stated. “And a baked potato as a side order sounds good.”

“Oh that sounds delicious!” Fleur said. “I’ll be having the same!”

“Today’s soup shall be my order,” Fancy added.

“And I will have a… zucchini chickpea burger,” Twilight said after a moment, though she wasn’t sure if it was a burger or a form of stew because of the picture.

“So back to what we were talking about,” Fleur said with a smile. “After hearing your rise to fame and fortune, I just had to meet you one day, and now I have! You’ve inspired me as well, you know?”

“I have?” Emerald asked.

“Oh yes!” Fleur nodded. “Fancy told you I had taken to modeling for another company to help them, right? Well that’s not the only thing I have done. I’ve studied your posing in the latest set of ads you were in. Personally, I found them quite odd, but the stallions seem to love them, and Fancy seemed so very energetic after I tested a few poses on him that I based on yours.”

“Energetic, huh?” Emerald asked with a grin.

“Oh yes, from what I heard he had a bounce in his step all day,” Fleur replied. “Anyway, after testing the poses on him I decided to use them in my next set of ads for the company.”

“Wow, I’m actually really interested in seeing how they turned out,” Emerald said with an amused smile.

“Well you along with everypony else will get to see in about week when the new ad campaign gets started,” Fleur said with a smile.

Sitting beside Emerald, Twilight could only shake her head at the two models talking shop. Inwardly, she also felt a little left out, even though she didn’t exactly have much to add to that discussion. Apparently Fancy Pants felt the same way, as he started speaking to her.

“I must compliment you on your dress my dear,” Fancy pants stated. “It is quite the number, and suits you well.”

“Why thank you,” Twilight replied. “My friend Rarity made it.”

“Rarity? From Ponyville?” Fancy asked and got a nod from Twilight. “What a coincidence. I met Rarity in Canterlot a while ago.”

“Wow, that is a coincidence!” Twilight said.

“Yes, she can spin quite the yarn,” Fancy said with a minute frown before smiling again. “And she definitely has the sense for fashion and the ability to create it from what I can see of your dress.”

“She definitely does.” Twilight smiled and looked down at her dress. “I am very fortunate to know her as a friend, in more ways than one.”

“Indeed,” Fancy said.

“Hello everyone!” the waitress greeted. “I see you are all enjoying yourselves. Are you all ready to order?”

“Oh, me and Emerald will be having deluxe salads with baked potato side orders,” Fleur answered.

“Today’s soup for me please.”

“And a zucchini chickpea burger for me please.”

“Alright, just enjoy the view over lovely Canterlot,” the waitress said, gesturing to the vista slowly moving by in the windows. “And I shall be back with your orders soon.”

“Excuse me miss,” Emerald said and levitated over a small bag. “Here, you yourself have a good day.”

“Oh my goodness!” The waitress gasped when she saw all the bits in the bag. “Thank you so much Miss Gleaner!”

“Not a problem.”

“I must say Miss Sparkle, I’m quite glad there are ponies like Emerald Gleaner in the world,” Fancy said with a smile as Emerald and Fleur got back to talking shop.

“Oh?”

“Yes, like Fleur has said, Emerald has done much to inspire ponies like her into good, not to mention how much of an inspiration she will be for the less fortunate,” Fancy said with a soft smile. “I’ve said it before, but there will be generations both present and future who will be inspired by her tale of success despite such meager beginnings.”

“Y-yes… it’s great, isn’t it?” Twilight forced a smile on her face.

Twilight couldn’t help but think that for all the good Emerald did in helping to revitalise the economy, she was the reason it was in such a state. She may inspire ponies to better themselves and improve their lives, but she still ended hundreds of lives, taken loved ones away. And there was no telling just how many people were homeless now because of Emerald’s actions.

“Is there something wrong?” Fancy asked as the waitress returned with their orders.

“Just… personal concerns,” Twilight answered and started to eat her meal.

ZETA

Emerald walked through the armory of the Enclave, Navi buzzing about her head.

The virus was here to attend a weapons demonstration her dogs had set up for her; they had developed a new gun and improved upon the design of another. The new armor was also finished being tweaked and was ready for use.

Emerald looked over the rifles the Warhounds used as she walked past. A good number of Warhounds were around the size of the bulldogs she had first seen of the various Diamond Dog subspecies, but there were a few species that were rather small. Those species had to use smaller guns and there were several available for them to use. These rifles were equal to their human equivalent, but the rifles and pistols for the larger dogs were extremely powerful; a lot like small cannons and anti-tank rifles.

Emerald stepped out of the armory and into the adjacent hall. She walked down that hall a bit before entering a door on her right. She came into a very long room; a practice range where the two guns were going to be demonstrated and the armor shown. Along with them were several dogs, one of whom was Missy.

Emerald saw the new gun and smiled. It was a gatling gun with a crank. It was set up on a carriage much like how gatling guns looked in the nineteenth century. A Warhound was holding the rifle with the improved design, though at first glance she couldn’t spot much of an improvement. And speaking of Warhounds…

The Warhound holding the rifle was wearing the new dragon scale armor with silk underclothes. Under the scales was a red silk tunic and leggings. Hopefully they would serve as a great lightweight replacement of chainmail. Over the silk clothes were various black scales sloped over each other. Larger, wider scales were used for areas that wouldn’t bend all that much, while smaller scales were used for joints and areas that bent. The helmet was much like the sallet design for the previous armor and consisted of one or two large scales and a ton of smaller ones over a steel framework.

“Well I am here now,” Emerald said. “What are you going to show me first?”

“Well first thing, boss, is the rifle.” Missy stepped forward and gestured to the weapon in the Warhound’s paws. “We’ve made another improvement thanks to some creative thinking and the things you’ve told us about. We’ll demonstrate now.”

The Warhound took that as his cue and approached the firing stalls. Just a few steps behind the stalls was a glowing dark blue line running around the floor and ceiling of the floor, and meeting at two runic set ups in the walls. The runes were sound dampeners and made the shooting much quieter, much like a firecracker, which was a plus considering how big a caliber the dog was going to fire.

Coming to a stop at a stall, the dog lined up a shot at a crude wooden monster and fired. The first shot blew off most of the monster’s head, another two shots blew off its claws, one more shot finished off the rest of its head and four rapid shots cut the monster in two at the waist. At the eighth shot there was a loud ‘ding!’ noise and a clip popped out of the top of the rifle. The Warhound switched on the safety before collecting the clip and standing at attention.

“You used what I told you about the M1 Garand to improve upon our rifles,” Emerald stated with a smile. “Nice to have semi-auto weapons now.”

“Yep!” Missy said with a smile and pointed to the gatling gun. “And this is our first… full auto? Rapid repeating? One or the other, but this is the first of what will be our rapid fire weapons.”

The Warhound placed his gun on the rack on the side and approached the gatling gun. Taking up position just behind the gun, the dog looked down the sights and placed his paw on the crank. Taking aim at another wooden monster the dog slowly but steadily started turning the crank.

The gatling gun started off slow but quickly started to build up as the dog cranked the gun faster and started tearing the target apart. The dog looked like he definitely wanted to crank the gun faster, but seemed to know that would just cause a jam in the weapon. Eventually the bullet clip ran down and the wooden monster was reduced to a pile of kindling.

“And that was everything. How did you like it, boss?” Missy asked.

“All very nice demonstrations.” Emerald nodded. “To tell the truth, we seem a bit behind on automatic developments, but our guns are fairly powerful and rapid firing now. Anyway, how is the armor?”

The Warhound wearing the armor stretched his limbs and shifted in position for a moment.

“Feels comfortable, boss,” he replied. “Much lighter and more comfortable than the last suit of armor.”

“Good, because that is what we are going to be outfitting everyone with from now on,” Emerald stated and turned back to Missy. “So how long until everyone can get the new rifles?”

“We should have enough rifles for everyone by the end of the week,” Missy answered.

“Good.”

ETA

Twilight was confused. From her point of view, she was floating just above the rooftops of Ponyville and yet she could see herself walking down the street with Emerald, looking rather happy. Since this didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, Twilight simply settled in to watch what was happening. Soon she saw herself come to a stop before a florist’s shop.

“Oh that smells wonderful!” Twilight heard herself say. “I wish I remembered to bring my bits.”

“Just one moment.” Emerald smiled at Twilight’s doppelganger. “I’ll be right back.”

Twilight saw Emerald walk inside the shop and briefly look over all the flowers. After several moments of browsing, she started collecting a bouquet of flowers and started to leave when she finished. Since she looked like she wasn’t going to pay, the shopkeeper was understandably miffed.

“Excuse me!” she shouted after Emerald “You have to pay for those, miss!”

Emerald simply rolled her eyes and looked back at the shopkeeper. With a flair of her horn, the shopkeeper’s head twisted to the side with a sickening crack and she collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.

Twilight’s hooves flew to her mouth as she gasped in horror at Emerald’s casual brutality. However, her doppelganger had a different reaction to Emerald.

“Are those for me?” Twilight heard herself say with a smile, blatantly ignoring the murder committed in front of her. “How sweet of you!”

“No problem at all Twilight.” Emerald smiled and the two went on their way.

“Mommy?” a small voice said and a young colt emerged from the back of the shop. “Mommy?! Mommy, wake up!”

Over Ponyville, Twilight felt herself overwhelmed with horror at her other self’s reaction and Emerald’s petty murder. She grew confused at everyone else’s reaction; the murder had been done in broad daylight but no one had reacted to Emerald. They reacted to the murder, yes; going to comfort the young colt and taking the body out of sight, but they didn’t spare Emerald a single look or try to punish her for what she did.

Emerald and Twilight continued on their way down the street, unbothered by anyone. Eventually they came to a bridge where a small family her been pulling a cart full of their possessions. The had suffered an accident and lost a wheel and ended up blocking the bridge. The stallion was busy trying to replace the wheel while his wife was standing a short distance away with her small baby on her back. No one seemed to mind the unintended road block and simply took the long way around. Twilight’s other self seemed like she was about to do the same, but Emerald stopped her.

With a burst of magic, Emerald sent the cart flying off the bridge to the family’s shock and horror, as they watched everything they owned go into the river. A moment later, Emerald sent them into the river as well.

“After you,” Emerald said to the other Twilight.

“Thank you!” Twilight said and started crossing the bridge. “You are being very sweet today, Emerald.”

“What can I say?” Emerald began and started crossing the bridge herself. “You bring out the best in me.”

A short distance down the river, the family was helped out of the river by nearby pedestrians. The mare started panicking and crying when her baby wasn’t responding to her…

Up in the air, Twilight felt tears start to run down her face at Emerald’s actions and her other self’s unashamed apathy at the brutality. Why was she acting that way? Why was no one doing anything about Emerald? She was just getting away with everything without being punished in the least.

Eventually the two came to a diner that was packed with ponies. The other Twilight looked like she wanted to get something to eat, but didn’t want to deal with the long wait. Again, Emerald took it upon herself to solve the issue and please Twilight. She stepped into the diner and, up in the air, Twilight braced herself for another bout of brutality.

She wasn’t disappointed; Emerald inhaled in a large breath and exhaled fire. The burst of fire wasn’t big enough to catch the building, but the same couldn’t be said for ponies and some nearby tables. Some ponies screamed in agony as their coat and mane caught fire. The rest panicked and moved to get out of the diner in any way possible. Some ran past Emerald out the door, but most simply broke the windows and jumped out of the diner. Eventually, the only ponies in the diner were those that worked there and a few that were too burnt to move or even live for much longer.

“Here you go!” Emerald said. “We’ll get service really quick now.”

“Thank you Emerald…” The other Twilight said and became really shy for a moment before giving Emerald a kiss on the cheek.

The two sat at a table and were soon served up a meal as they ate peacefully in the scorched interior of the diner. Soon doctors from the local clinic arrived and started trying to treat some of the heavily burned ponies. A few were stabilised, but most were just made comfortable before they died.

Up in the air, Twilight cried openly as she wondered why this was happening. What could possibly cause all this? Emerald didn’t do bad things just because she could; Twilight knew that as the truth… right?

Soon, the two in the diner were done eating and in the very least Emerald paid this time. They walked down a street and were soon walking out of the town. They kept walking until they reached a hill with a tree upon it. They sat down under the tree and took in the scenic view of Ponyville as the sun began to set.

Emerald seemed to get an idea and stepped away from Twilight for moment and inhaled.

Twilight could not help but the scream of horror as she witnessed Emerald let loose a beam of plasma into the homes of Ponyville. Emerald kept up the beam for several moments and swung it over the town several times before finally ending it. Then she walked back to Twilight and the both of them enjoyed the sunset with the burning town of Ponyville providing scenic lighting.

Twilight cried as the brutality of it all. What was the point of all this?

“Twilight Sparkle?” Twilight heard from just under her.

Looking down, she saw Princess Luna looking up at her with a deeply confused and disturbed look on her face.

“What in my sister’s sun is going on?” Luna asked.

‘Wh-what? What’s going- IT’S A DREAM!’ Twilight realised with so much shocked relief she woke up.

THETA

Twilight gasped as she shot up in her bed. She looked over at Emerald’s bed with wide eyes, but found she shouldn’t have bothered. As was the usual, Emerald wasn’t in her bed and had gone off to do her own things in the night.

Twilight groaned and fell back on her bed with a thump. She lied in bed, feeling wide awake in the face of all she had seen in her dream. Eventually, after several minutes of fruitless attempts to sleep, she decided to go back downstairs and warm up a cup of milk to drink.

Twilight became tense when she stepped downstairs and glanced into the library. Emerald wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so she must have been somewhere else.

‘Likely she’s back in the Enclave, hard at work,’ Twilight thought with a frown as she continued to the kitchen.

Walking into the kitchen, she opened the fridge door and took out a carton of milk. She then opened the cabinet and took out a glass for herself. After pouring a cup, she returned the carton to the fridge and then sat at the counter and stared at the cup of milk, slowly but steadily warming it up with her magic.

As she sat at the counter, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if there was some hidden meaning to the dream she just had. She thought about how Emerald got away with every horrible crime in the dream, and how her dream self utterly ignored it all in favour of the good times they were having. After several moments, Twilight realised what the meaning behind the dream was.

‘The “me” in the dream represents me and how I am now,’ Twilight thought with a sigh. ‘I’m ignoring Emerald’s horrible crimes and deeds in favour or our friendship, of our relationship. Hundreds dead, thousands suffering, ponies homeless, and all I care about is Emerald…’

‘Ohhh… what do I do?’ Twilight thought with a groan. ‘Betraying Emerald is bad, but ignoring all those horrible things is worse! And Princess Luna appeared at the end. If I have another nightmare like this, she might appear again and it might be a clearer picture for her to take in. Life would be so much less complicated if Emerald hadn’t been made to be such a horrible villain by that monster, Alex Mercer. If only… wait, villain… Luna was a villain, but she was redeemed by the Elements of Harmony and now everypony loves and trusts her.’

‘If I can get the Elements and then use them on Emerald, she’ll be redeemed like Luna and everything will be better!’ Twilight thought. ‘It worked for Princess Luna, it should work for Emerald. It WILL work!’

Twilight felt her worries fall away as she downed her cup of milk in one go. Her expression became one of assured determination. Putting the glass in the sink, she walked out of the kitchen and started walking back to her room.

‘Now I just need to get a hold of the Elements,’ Twilight thought. ‘I should do my best to avoid telling ponies about the truth behind Emerald. Who knows what they may decide to do with the information. I’ll tell my friends though… right before I use the Elements on Emerald. Once she is redeemed, everything will be good again. It’ll be like how everything was before I found out the truth… except we are fillyfriends.’

With flushed cheeks, Twilight ascended her stairs and slid back into bed, where she had a much more calm and soothing sleep.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: Alright this is slightly shorter then I’d hoped it would end up being; it’s the first chapter in a long time that’s below ten thousand at any rate. Anyway, now you all know the reason why this chapter is called ‘The Best Intentions’ and now I’m going to tell you the name of the next chapter, ‘Eternity Beckons’, it’s going to a fun chapter…

EN: http://www.dxpnet.com/th/jlip8xndbfpbpbc.png

That’s pretty much my face when I was reading that last bit… Twilight… you’re an idiot. *facepalm* You are going to seriously screw your relationship with Emerald here, and she will probably never trust you again. I’m done. All I needed to say. Until next chapter. Goodbye.

Chapter 8: Eternity Beckons

Emerald sat crossed legged in her human form on a stone floor.

She was back in the Enclave and in one of the many buildings. In the room with her were Whisper and Bluno, both sitting on cushions right in front of her. Emerald had both of her hands on their heads and was using her memory spell on them to learn from their memories. What she was seeking to learn was how to dig like a Diamond Dog and the basic lessons a pegasus learned in using their abilities. Although arguably her griffin memories could be better for this, Emerald just wanted to make sure she wasn’t missing crucial lessons when it came to pegasi flight.

“Bucking hay this is miserable…” Whisper muttered lowly with Bluno giving a huff of agreement.

Emerald frowned. She had improved upon her technique quite a bit, but she was still causing pain to the people she extracted memories from. At least she had also improved on the extraction speed so she didn’t take so long to get all the memories she wanted.

“And… done,” Emerald stated and removed her hands to the two’s audible relief. “You two were very helpful. Here is some instant relief.”

The virus then reached over and quickly jabbed her fore finger into the forehead of the two, injecting chemicals with the quick movement. After a moment, the two released a sigh as they felt their headaches fade away.

“So are we done with this whole ‘putting up with a splitting headache for an hour’ thing?” Whisper Wind asked a bit irritably. “Because I really hope we are done. It just ruins my mood for the whole day.”

“It really does,” Bluno agreed with a grin and got a good natured kick from Whisper in response.

“Yes, you are both done.” Emerald smiled. “You both can leave now. Thanks you again.”

“No problem, boss.” Bluno smiled and led Whisper out of the room. “We’re going to go explore the woods again.”

“Have fun,” Emerald said after the two before frowning thoughtfully as she considered the memories she had taken in. She loved how the dogs were able to almost move faster through the dirt than they were able to run and now she had that same ability and skill… hopefully. She had a patchwork idea of how weather forming was done, thanks to her vast knowledge and griffin memories, but having pegasi knowledge of how it was done would be very useful in ironing things out.

After a moment longer, Emerald walked out the door as well and, after moving through the halls of the building, she found herself out in the streets of the Enclave. They were busy as always, the stomping of a platoon of Warhounds only adding to the noise.

Emerald frowned as she took in the appearances of the Warhounds marching by in front of her. They were all wearing the new dragon scale armor and bearing the new rifles, their visage made threatening and fearsome by the black scales and dark red of the silk underclothes.

‘Never did like dark colors,’ Emerald thought as the dogs finished passing by. ‘So washed out and… unappealing. Never did like how the rest of the Evolved decided to be all dark and evil looking. It’s not very inconspicuous now is it? If Blackwatch wasn’t such a bunch of psychopathic morons, they’d be able to stop the more destructive ones as they blatantly approached, but the game was rigged from the start wasn’t it?’

‘Anyway,’ Emerald continued as she started going down the road. ‘The next generation of armour shall not be as dark; it will be bright and colorful. With the ideas I have in store for it, brightness and color shall not be a stealth problem anyway.’

Even now, when she had just recently created a new and more powerful form of armor for her forces, Emerald’s mind was already on the future, already thinking of ideas to create a new suit of armor that would be magnitudes better than the last. And that wasn’t her only idea as well; there were plenty other things that needed attention to be developed.

Emerald stopped in place and looked around, taking in the loud and busy street. She frowned in some annoyance.

‘Let’s go somewhere a bit more calming,’ Emerald thought before smiling. ‘Huh, nice to actually have that choice for once.’

With that, Emerald disappeared in a flash of red light. She reappeared an instant later in the ravine she had chosen as the place she would build a hydroelectric dam once she had the capabilities to do so. The sound of rushing water was calming to her ears and she happily sat down on a rock sticking out of the river, ignoring the splash of water against her as the water surged by and occasional gust of cool icy wind.

‘Okay, so the next generation of armor. What will it be?’ Emerald thought for a few moments, a loud splashing echoed behind her. ‘Hmm… thanks to Spike’s DNA, I can mess around with non-organic molecules now, so I reorder a metal into something extremely strong. I think… I can create carbon nanotubes. I know what the structure looks like, so if I can learn to create it I can eventually make something to automate the process. Course, carbon nanotube will be extremely strong and therefore I’m going to have to create the process to put it into armor shape myself.’

‘Okay, so hardness is good, but I don’t want an armor that is JUST tougher,’ Emerald continued. ‘I want the next armor to be better in many ways, so how to do that? Well I know my magic now, and those lessons with Luna have only just helped me to regain my magical control so I should do something with that. Yeah, that’s a great idea. I’ll practice my runes and create several effects I’ll want to imbue the armor with. Of course the real trick then will be creating an automated process to carve the runes into the armor and power up said runes.’

‘Which brings me to our magical battery situation.’ Emerald hummed in thought. ‘The storm sapphire has been incredibly useful so far and has a massive internal battery to store excess magic to turn into electricity. But as we have increased our power usage, the sapphire has drained faster. Right now I need to recharge the gem weekly, otherwise the power runs out. So a better means of storing magic for power, and maybe some form of generating magical energy for use as power. Various gemstones can be used as a magical battery, but they have their limits and those are much lower compared to the storm sapphire’s. Hmm… I’ll have to do something like the nanotubes; improve upon the crystals by optimizing their molecular makeup. Unfortunately this one will be a purely from scratch project. There is very little that can help me here to head in the right direction on the first try. Oh well, that’s what the scientific method is for.’

‘And finally, vehicles,’ Emerald continued. ‘After showing them my proof of concept, the dogs have been making leaps and bounds on their first combustion engine, which will then lead into their first vehicle. My hints are helping, but it won’t exactly be a powerhouse. Still good for a first model ever, though.’

Quite suddenly, Emerald heard a loud splash behind her. She wouldn’t have even noticed it since she was surrounded by rushing water, but it had been followed by a quiet ‘Oops…’

Keeping herself completely and utterly still, Emerald made herself look like she didn’t notice a thing. After a moment, she then abruptly whipped around.

“EPP!” There was a squeak of shock followed by a splash of water.

Emerald was frozen for a moment, blinking her eyes as she considered what she had just seen. The thing had reacted quickly, and had Emerald been a normal person, she wouldn’t have been sure what she had seen. But she wasn’t, and was able to see every single details and recall it with perfect clarity.

What had been half perched on another rock in the water behind her was a pony that was completely made up of rushing water. The ‘mare’ had a mane of foaming water and parts of her had been covered in crustaceous armor plating. She wasn’t sure what the lower half of it looked like, since it was half submerged when she saw it.

‘What the hell was that?’ Emerald thought. ‘Some sort of Sea Pony or something?’

Emerald stood up on her rock and stared into the water. Quite predictably, she didn’t find the creature. She frowned and wondered for a few moments before sending out a viral pulse. Just like when she tried hunting a cockatrice, the pulse never came back. Emerald pondered this for a minute before thinking of a possible solution.

‘Sovereign is a spirit whose physical form is made of plant matter,’ Emerald thought. ‘This being I just saw was like him, only made of water. Though it did have those odd spots covered in a lobster like shell. I should go find him and question him on this. If anyone would know anything about the stuff in this forest, it’s the person that embodies it.’

Emerald sent another viral pulse, this time centered on Sovereign. The pulse came back very quickly from a bit above her and downstream of the ravine.

Emerald teleported into the sky and quickly formed her bladewings. Below her, the Everfree in the midst of fall stretched out in an explosion of warm colors. She hovered in place for a moment before locating Sovereign. He was in a timber wolf form and was looking over the area she had some dogs working in prep for the dam. She then teleported down to the ground behind him and walked over to stand beside him.

“What do you intend to do with the ravine?” Sovereign asked.

“I’m hoping you’ll allow me to build a hydroelectric dam to help power the city in the cavern below,” Emerald answered. “I am aware of all the effects and environmental changes a dam can bring to the local biomes though, so I’m waiting for your go ahead before getting started on anything.”

Sovereign was quiet for a long moment as he studied the dogs working on the ravine walls below him, carving chunks off of the cliff walls in preparation of construction. The forest spirit turned his head, staring off into the distance upstream before looking downstream.

“Hmm… I suppose the forest could use another lake in it,” Sovereign stated finally.

“Thank you, Sovereign. I won’t abuse your trust in me,” Emerald replied.

“I know.”

“Sovereign, I was down in the ravine just a moment ago and spotted a strange creature,” Emerald stated. “It was made of water and had shellfish like patches on it. It reminded me a lot of you, actually. You are a spirit whose physical form is made up of his element. Do you know what it was?”

“What you saw is quite simply, a water spirit,” Sovereign answered. “Or Hippocampi as they were once called.”

“Why did you never tell me that other spirits lived in the Everfree?” Emerald asked.

“You never asked,” Sovereign answered simply.

“Really…” Emerald shot the forest spirit an annoyed look. “And are there other spirits residing in the Everfree?”

“Yes,” Sovereign briefly answered before leaping down into the ravine.

Emerald watched Sovereign land on a rock before leaping from rock to rock a little ways upstream. The spirit then came to a stop upon one rock and soon a familiar being poked it’s head out of the water, the “Hippocampi”.

The virus observed the two seeming to talk for a time before turning away and walking back towards the entrance to the Hub.

‘I should get more work done on the creature embryos,’ Emerald thought. ‘I have that Iron Pony competition Applejack and Rainbow Dash invited me to. Seems they finally want to see just how athletic I am in comparison to them… this may or may not end well.’

As she descended down into the tunnels, snowflakes began to fall from the sky. Nature created snowflakes, a rare creation in this world.

ALPHA

A simplistic intelligence focused on the muffled noises it could hear barely managed to hear with its half developed ears. It pondered the noises with great curiosity, trying to put a name to the noise with its incredibly limited knowledge. It eventually did manage to put a name to the sounds just as they ended; footsteps. And that was when a familiar and very welcomed presence made itself known.

‘Mommy!’ the creature childishly exclaimed within its mind. Its frail, half formed body squirmed within the liquid it was suspended in as it tried to move towards the warm presence.

Creator, maker, designer, architect, mother. These words were amongst the first the creature learned to comprehend when it started its awareness some time ago. But those weren’t the only words it learned. Friend, ally, enemy, protect, VIP, flank, charge, hunt, search and destroy, love, play. These words it had also learned in its time in this warm and dark place. It had also learned concepts as well. It was a little hard, but it was as if it wasn’t capable of not comprehending what was being sent into its mind.

But now that “mommy” was here, the new lessons were starting and the creature could feel them flowing into his mind right now.

Family, Diamond Dog, pony, pegasus, earth pony, unicorn, Thrace, Podargos, Xanthos, Lampon, Deinos, Alicorn, Princesses. All these words flowed into the creature’s mind. And a new concept, one that seemed really important if the sense of urgency was right; adaptation. Learn to change to meet the challenge, problem solve, sly planning.

The flow of new lessons from “mommy” started to slow and the creature started to ponder anew when it felt a new sensation start to make itself known. The creature didn’t know what it was, but there was a feeling of… multiple? Was that the right word? But now the feeling only grew stronger, and then it heard new sounds.

Noises much different than the “footsteps”. There was a word to them, he learned before, but what was it? Calls? Yes, it could heard others calling out. Their voices were faint and muffled, but he could hear them.

The creature was confused about the other beings and the feelings they caused. After a moment, the creature abruptly realised it could… feel through it? It could feel the
others through this odd sensation, and when it did it was shocked by the new feeling. They were familiar, so very familiar to him… there was a word for this, he had just learned it!

‘Family… brothers… sisters… big family… love you mommy…’

BETA

Emerald, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were lined up at a line in the frozen dirt. The three were wearing some winter gear. Applejack had a scarf on. Dash had a scarf and a pair of earmuffs. Emerald had a scarf as well, but also had a Stetson like Applejack’s, only white.

Before the three was an obstacle course, the last event of the iron pony competition the three were having. It had loads of obstacles, a rope wall, a series of tilted and horizontal wooden poles which you had to climb through, a series of rope swings, balancing on a thin wooden pole while sandbags swung about you. The obstacle course had a little bit of everything.

Over to the side of the course were Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom, their audience of three.

“Ready?” Applebloom shouted as she hoisted a small flag. “Set… GO!”

And with that, the three took off from the starting line. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both pulled ahead of Emerald, neck and neck with each other as they rapidly approached the first obstacle, the rope wall.

“Come on Applejack!” Applebloom cheered. “You can do it!”

“Go Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo hopped in place, wearing a rainbow colored wig along with a matching little pennant.

“Go faster Emmy!” Sweetie Belle shouted. “They’re pulling ahead of you!”

Emerald only smiled at the last cheer. She had won a third of all of the events the three of them had competed in. It would have been a total breeze for her to have won every single event, but then Emerald would have felt very guilty about it. It was better that she gave the illusion that they were equal to her in athletic ability than to utterly outclass them. One thing she noticed though, was that Rainbow had not taken flight once during any of the events, which was an improvement from the last competition based on what she heard about it.

The virus kept up a few steps behind the two as they raced through the course as fast as they could and was fine with not winning this one. It was when the three of them had reached the balancing obstacle with the swinging sand bags that she was called out for her actions.

“Come on sugarcube!” Applejack shouted as she ducked under one bag. “Stop holdin’ back so darn much! We can take it!”

“Yeah!” Rainbow added as she darted past several closely packed bags. “We’re big girls! We can take some extra challenge!”

‘Hey, you asked for it.’ Emerald smirked mercilessly and decided to stop holding back… but only a little bit.

Immediately, Emerald quickly gained on the two competitive mares and passed them just as they finished the obstacle. The two looked surprised for a moment before grinning, competitive natures stirred up as the two quickly put their all into beating Emerald.

Though she had severely limited her physical abilities in this contest, Emerald still had quite a few substantial passive advantages going for her. Her own weight was meaningless to her. Despite the fact she weighed several tons, she was utterly tireless and could literally run forever and a day if she wanted. And finally, she had perfect balance so any sudden loss of footing wouldn’t be through any fault of her own. All these meant that the obstacles before her might as well not have existed, but despite this Applejack and Rainbow Dash managed to keep pace and even managed to get neck and neck with her. However, as was stated, Emerald was tireless; the other two most definitely were not.

They kept up though through sheer competitive spirit and stubbornness, but as they moved through the final obstacles they were obviously looking out of it. Emerald could hear the two panting as the three of them exited out of several large pipes which they had to crawl through. Despite their obvious exhaustion, the two seemed to gain a second wind as they came in view of the final stretch before the finish line. They caught up with Emerald and remained neck and neck with her for a few moments, but Emerald’s untiring nature won out in the end and the two began to lag back and slow just as the finish line approached.

Emerald crossed the line and came to a skidding stop to the gleeful cheering of Sweetie Belle.

“I knew you could do it Emmy!” Sweetie shouted, leaping at Emerald and hugging her around the neck.

“Heh heh, thanks for believing in me Sweetie.” Emerald smiled down at the little filly.

“Gah…” Rainbow panted, practically face down in the frozen dirt. Beside her, Applejack was barely any better with being on her back and uncaring of the icy chill she felt. “Okay… tha… that’s just not fair. You’re not even winded… you definitely won…”

“Well… it wasn’t that much of a win; you guys were kind of at a disadvantage,” Emerald replied truthfully.

“That there is horsefeathers, sugarcube,” Applejack retorted lightly. “Ya being the more fit and stronger mare of us three isn’t cheatin’.”

“What she said!” Dash added eagerly. “Don’t get yourself down, Emmy. Just because you had a reason to get super fit doesn’t mean it’s unfair to others.”

“If you two say so,” Emerald said with a small smile.

“Well… she may be all that on the ground, but you are the best flyer in all of Equestria, Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo said as she walked over to her personal hero. “She can’t hope to match you there!”

“Oh yeah, nopony better than this mare at flying!” Dash smiled confidently. “Even if you did have wings, Emerald, I doubt you’d be able to match me in the sky.”

“Oh really?” Emerald asked with an amused grin. “You know there is a self-levitation spell for advanced magic users. Maybe I could get around to learning that and we can see for ourselves if that is true?”

“Oh? Little miss perfect thinks she can outperform me with just a little magic trick, huh?” Dash said, competitive spirit riled up once more. “Bring it on! I swear on Celestia’s sun, you’ll never be faster than me!”

‘And you’ve already lost that bet, Dash…’ Emerald thought and suddenly felt a little bad as she considered one word Dash had said. ‘Little miss perfect… was that just a friendly taunt or is she venting how she really feels about my various demonstrated skills? I really should put a more of a cap on those demonstrations…’

“Well you appear to have quite the advantage there,” Emerald stated. “This was a fun little competition, wasn’t it?”

“Oh yes it was,” Dash replied and started stretching out her limbs. “It made for a good workout and racing prep too!”

“You have a race later?” Emerald asked.

“Yep!” Dash answered. “Later this week! Lots of ponies from all around going to compete. Figure I’d go take a look, you know… maybe get another medal for my collection.”

“I’m sure you’ll have it in the bag, Dash,” Emerald replied.

“Definitely.” Dash nodded confidently. “Whelp I better go, I only got time off work for this morning. I have to unwind and stretch out my muscles before a long day at work. Lots of ponies depending on that weather to be better late than never!”

“That filly has been putting in so much hard work,” Applejack stated admirably. “So many ponies relying on her to try to get the weather back on schedule an’ she jus’ acts like it’s nothing. Course the reason why she has to put in so many hours is bad.”

“Yeah…” Emerald frowned.

“Uhh… ya going to help Pinkie with her confection stand for the race?” Applejack asked, quickly changing the topic.

“I didn’t know Pinkie was going to set up a stand for the race,” Emerald replied before taking off her white Stetson. “Oh, here’s your hat back.”

“Nah, ya’ll keep it.” The cow pony shook her head. “Consider it a gift from me to you, sugarcube.”

“Thank you, Applejack.” Emerald smiled and replaced her hat atop her head.

“How’s Navi?” Applejack asked. “Haven’t seen the little critter for a while.”

“Navi is an insect. She doesn’t really like the cold at all,” Emerald answered. “She’s been rather lazy lately and stays snug under the covers of her little bed.”

“Being inside all warm and cosy like under the covers sounds mighty enticing to me too,” Applejack replied. “But farm work doesn’t stop, even in this weather. Speaking of which, got to go check up on the animals now. Make sure all the critters are warm and got their food .”

“I’ve got things to do, too. Got to be at a photo shoot with Fluttershy in about an hour,” Emerald said. “I might as well be there early and keep her nerves from getting frayed.”

“Filly never did like attention all that much. Remarkable she’s stayin’ in that business long as she has,” Applejack said before tipping her hat at the virus. “Anyway, ah’ll be seeing ya later, sugarcube. Applebloom, ya gonna be helping me check up on animals?”

“See you, Applejack.” Emerald waved goodbye briefly before teleporting away.

GAMMA

Emerald arrived with a flash of light. She was now in the backstage area of a fashion show that Photo Finish had booked for both her and Fluttershy. Said demure pegasus was sitting in a comfy seat and being attended to by Photo’s army of makeup artists.

“Hey everypony!” Emerald greeted.

“Hello Emerald!” Fluttershy replied, her voice muffled amongst a chorus of greetings from the makeup artists. “I’m so glad to see you here!”

“Still get jittery at these fashion shows?” Emerald asked as she walked over and took a makeup chair of her own.

“Oh yes. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this,” Fluttershy answered. “I found it really difficult to do this alone during that time when you went on that trip of self-discovery, but Rarity really helped me to stay strong.”

“That’s nice to hear,” Emerald replied as she was attended to by only one pony.

“Don’t get me wrong. It’s so nice that your coat is so clean and clear, and your mane is so obedient,” the makeup artist said as she worked. “But it really leaves me with pretty much no work at all to do. You really are a one of a kind pony, Emerald.”

“You must really enjoy your work if you are complaining about a lack of it.” Emerald smiled at the stylist.

“We all do!” The stylist smiled and the others all nodded their agreement. “Photo Finish is a bit of a diva and a demanding boss, but who isn’t in this business? Well… save for you and Fluttershy that is, and that is a wonderful change of pace in itself.”

Emerald was having more curls being added to her mane when the door burst open and in walked two mares. The first one was an earth pony and had a pink coat with a purple mane and wore a baby blue scarf around her neck, while the other was a light blue unicorn with a pink mane and seemed to be busy trying to keep aloft dozens of things with her magic. She seemed rather stressed out and frazzled.

“Ugh, you haven’t gotten them in any of my dresses yet?” the pink mare scoffed in some disgust. “And I soo wanted to see what my dresses would look like being worn. Quill here just did up some last minute stitching last night and I want to make sure she didn’t mess up any of my hard work.”

“We’re sorry, miss. We’ll have the models ready as soon as possible,” one of the stylists apologised, not bothering to point out that Emerald only just arrived and that the fashion show was still about an hour or so from starting.

“Whatever. Quill!” the mare shouted suddenly and startled her assistant who nearly dropped everything she was carrying. “Don’t drop anything! I need some coffee, go get me some.”

“Uh, er r-right!” Quill stammered and seemed to wonder if she should put stuff down before deciding to bring everything with her before quickly leaving the room.

Emerald watched the fashion designer in her mirror discreetly. She was humming a little and seemed to be studying both her and Fluttershy, who seemed to dislike the bossy designer from the frown on her face if Emerald was judging her right.

The designer then passed Fluttershy over and walked over to Emerald. She came to a stop just beside Emerald and gave her a friendly grin.

“Look at you! Like, oh my goddess, they haven’t even applied the makeup to you and you already look ready for the catwalk,” she said.

“I get that a lot, thank you.” Emerald faked a smile easily. She could see rather easily that the mare wanted something and was just being friendly to butter her up and make her more open to what she wanted.

“I’ve seen your, well everypony has seen your work, but I like them,” the mare continued. “Your recent ads that company you work with are a hit with everypony and I was wondering… do you take exclusives?”

“Depends on what you mean, but I am always open to making more money,” Emerald replied. “Can I get your name?”

“I’m Suri Polomare,” ‘Suri’ said. “I’m an up and coming designer in Manehattan. I managed to hit it big with a recent fashion line, so I’m sure you’ll be hearing a lot about me in the future. More so if we can make a deal.”

“Hmm… so you want me to exclusively model your fashion lines for a time?” Emerald stated with faux interest.

“Definitely. I may be small now, but when I said I hit it big, I mean I hit it big,” Suri explained. “And if you could model my lines, then that’ll be just great. I get more coverage from a big name model and you get a cushy job with excellent pay. What do you say?”

“I always have an interest in making money,” Emerald said truthfully, but also didn’t promise anything. “I have an agent. Her name is Photo Finish. Negotiate a deal with her and we’ll be good to go.”

“Oh… Photo Finish, huh?” Suri said, losing a lot of her friendly expression before it was firmly back in place. “Sure! I’ll get in touch with her. We’ll have coffee together and hammer out a deal! See you later, Emerald. Hopefully you’ll be working for me next time we meet.”

“Hopefully,” Emerald said after her lightly.

The makeup room was quiet for a long moment until Suri had gone and was certainly far from the door.

“Yeah, she isn’t going to get anywhere with Photo Finish,” Emerald stated confidently. “Those smarmy types aren’t fun to be around, or trustworthy.”

“I heard she actually had gotten in a few fights with some other fashion designers,” Emerald’s stylist stage whispered. “They accused her of copying their styles and quickly redoing her dresses right before shows.”

“And she seems really mean. That poor assistant of hers…” Fluttershy said sadly before her face lit up with sudden realisation. “Oh! Emerald, did Rarity talk to you about that spa treatment she scheduled for the both of you?”

“No, I did not hear from her about that,” Emerald said. “Didn’t even know she wanted to do that with me. Huh, never had a spa treatment before. Guess this will be a treat and an experience.”

“Oh I’m certain you’ll just love it, Emerald.” Fluttershy smiled. “I always feel so relaxed and refreshed after going to those weekly visits me and Rarity have.”

“Well I’m not going to say no, so we’ll see just how well it goes,” Emerald replied.

DELTA

“Emerald darling!” Rarity greeted happily, placing the magazine she had been reading back down on the coffee table.

“Hello Rarity,” Emerald greeted back as she closed the spa door behind her. “I’m here for our scheduled treatment.”

“And I’m so glad you could make it, dear,” Rarity said and got up from the lobby couch, picking up a package as she did so. “I know how busy you can be after all.”

“I try to make time for my friends, Rarity,” Emerald replied. “What’s that you have there?”

“This is for you, Emerald,” Rarity said and levitated the package over to Emerald.

Emerald took hold of the package and studied it for a moment before tearing it open with her magic. Inside was a lush white bath robe with green lining. Near the bottom was a pair of letters embroidered in green thread, ‘EG’.

“You got me this?” Emerald smiled widely. “Planning on having this being a much more common thing huh?”

“Oh I know they have plenty of spare bathrobes in the back here, but I just had to get you something that was yours.” Rarity smiled warmly. “Shall we put our personalised robes on and start on our spa visit?”

“Sure thing.” Emerald smiled and followed the other unicorn into the back.

A few moments later found both Emerald and Rarity in the steam room of the spa. Normally this sort of thing would be great for their pores, but for Emerald it was fairly redundant. Anything that decided to settle into her skin pores was basically committing suicide. But for the sake of spending time with one of her best friends, she simply settled in and enjoyed the atmosphere…. eventually, she even found herself relaxing and feeling the tension seep out of her.

“Ahhhh, I always enjoy these trips to the spa.” Rarity sighed as one of the twin masseuses poured water onto the hot coals. “Normally having these trips more than once a week would be just dreadfully extravagant, but I wanted just the two of us here.”

“Maybe I’ll start tagging along with those weekly spa visits with you and Fluttershy?” Emerald suggested.

“Oh that just sounds delightful.” Rarity smiled happily.

Soon their time in the steam room was done and the two were now lying down to get massages. Emerald was actually looking forward to this one. Not because she was going to enjoy getting the massage, but because she was going to enjoy the look on masseuse’s face when she tried to give her one.

The twin masseuses attended to Rarity first, quickly covering her face with a mud mask and her eyes with zucchini slices. Then they placed several cushions under her before finally getting to work. One of the twins got a file and started to work on Rarity’s horn. Emerald smirked at that. If they were going to give the two of them “horn manicures” before the massage, then they were going to be in for two surprises instead of one.

The other twin gave her a studying look before giving her some dabs with the face crème rather than the full on mask that was given to Rarity. Then she brought out a file and approached Emerald before placing it on the tip of her horn and began to work.

The twin filed away at Emerald’s horn for a few moments before pulling away to see her progress and blinked when she didn’t see the slightest change in the horn. She looked at the surface of her file for a moment and saw no white filing dust from Emerald’s horn. She then gave a slight shrug before going back to work, horns were always a little different, some were hard, some were brittle, some were even a little bendy.

She went to work on Emerald’s horn, putting more force down on the file and pulled back again to see her work. She gaped a little when yet again she didn’t make even the slightest progress on the horn. The masseuse frowned determinedly and went back to work with greater fervour.

Her sister stopped her filing when she heard the grinding noise of her sister’s file reach an alarming speed and din. She looked over and gaped at the sight of her twin gritting her teeth and grinding away at Emerald’s horn with enough speed to hurt a normal unicorn. Rarity, seeming to notice something was wrong, lifted up one of the zucchinis covering her eyes and frowned in concern at the sight that met her eye.

After several moments of grinding away as hard as she could, the masseuse stopped again and took a step back to study her progress. She gaped with utter shock at the unmarked horn that met her gaze. She looked down at her file, only to see that the file had been grinded down to a smooth surface. She looked back at Emerald’s face to see her with a sly grin.

“What can I say?” Emerald said with a small shrug. “I’ve got a hard horn.”

“That would have been nice to know before,” the masseuse stated before shaking her head and heading over to the nearest trash can to throw away the now useless file.

“Please don’t tease Aloe, Emerald dear,” Rarity said.

“Heh, I’ll try,” Emerald replied.

A few moments later and both masseuses had moved on to the massage portion of their treatment. This time Rarity had gotten someone else to work on her; a yellow coated and blond earth pony who was rapidly hitting her back. Instead of Aloe working on Emerald, it was her sister whose name Emerald had yet to learn.

The masseuse walked up to Emerald’s side and reared up before placing her hooves around her shoulders. She was just beginning to knead the virus’ muscles when she stopped and frowned. She had given massages to muscular ponies before, and while their muscles were tough, they were usually still easy to work with when they were relaxed. Emerald’s muscles, though, just had no give whatsoever and felt hard as rock.

“Excuse me miss, can you relax your muscles?” she asked Emerald. “I’m really having a lot of difficulty working on you when you’re all tensed up like this.”

“I am relaxed,” Emerald replied to the masseuses’ surprise. “But let me see if I can unwind out a bit more for you.”

Emerald then made a show of taking several deep calming breaths before decreasing the density in the outer layers of her body. It would be enough for the masseuse to work with, but still have that “tough muscle” she was known for.

After giving an experimental kneading of Emerald’s shoulders, the mare found that it was much easier to work now.

“Thank you miss, sorry for the trouble,” she stated as she set to work. “To be a mare with your figure and still have all this well-developed muscles? You are a fluke of nature. I doubt there will be anypony like you again for a very long time.”

“Thank you,” Emerald replied with a sly smile.

“E-Emerald a-always has b-been very f-fit,” Rarity stuttered through the fast and hard work of her own masseuse.

Soon the massage ended and the two were being led to the area where they would be having a “cleansing mud bath”. At this point, normally the twins would be getting Emerald prepped for the dip briefly before getting Rarity covered up in her own quite time consuming preparations that involved a lot of seaweed. However, the glamorous unicorn had other ideas.

“I don’t mean this in any way as an insult, but why don’t you let me handle Emerald?” Rarity asked as the twins were about to style Emerald’s mane into a bun for the mud bath.

“What for, Rarity?” Emerald asked.

“I wanted to work on your wonderful mane again.” Rarity smiled. “And it’s nearly been a year since I did it last time.”

“Oh yeah,” Emerald said and was immediately reminded of the sleep over. “I’m fine with it if you two are.”

“The favorite customer is always right!” Aloe stated with a smile her sister eagerly matched.

“Wonderful!” Rarity said and happily walked over and sat herself down just behind Emerald, quickly levitating over two combs and a hair tie. “It’s been far too long since you and I have partaken in a little bit of girl talk.”

“Heh heh, what do you want to talk about?” Emerald smiled, shooting Rarity an amused look out of the corner of her eye.

“Why, Twilight of course!” Rarity said as the twins decided to give the two a few minutes to themselves and leave. “How is she? Have the two of you been getting along well? Do you feel your relationship has deepened since you two became a couple?”

“Twilight hasn’t been in a relationship before. That fact is very clear,” Emerald replied. “She puts in so much effort to make our dates perfect when she is the one taking me out, she ends up getting in her own way and tripping over her efforts. But I find it adorable myself. I just correct her and help her when she makes mistakes. It seems to be working since she stopped trying to make everything like they are in the books.”

“That’s wonderful, Emerald,” Rarity replied as she leisurely brushed Emerald’s mane. “But… now I am curious, it sounds like you’ve been in a relationship before.”

“…I have.”

“Would it be a tale you are willing to share?”

“…Alright,” Emerald said after a moment. “Her name was Sophie. She was another unlucky person in Mercer’s ‘employ’. We were both depressed, desperate people who wanted an outlet to distract them from our miserable lot in life.”

Rarity smiled warmly at Emerald, though she couldn’t see it. She found the idea of two people seeking a peace in each other that their lives lacked to be rather touching. She found herself wondering what had happened to end such a relationship.

“I… had lost my virginity to her and vice versa,” Emerald then admitted.

Suddenly, Rarity didn’t find it so touching. Really, pre-marital relations weren’t exactly appropriate… but at the same time she could hardly expect the two to have sought out someone to marry them in the conditions they were in. However, Rarity realised one thing and had to ask a question.

“Err… Emerald dear… weren’t you a small filly when all that happened?” Rarity asked in some discomfort.

“Huh? No, I was never that young, what made you think that?” Emerald replied easily, an easy truth to state as Emerald had always kept the “truths” she stated ambiguous enough for easy expansion.

‘Hmph, you could have corrected the obvious implication though.’ Rarity huffed before asking another more personal question.

“What had happened between the two of you?” Rarity asked.

“Mercer happened,” Emerald stated a bit hollowly.

Rarity waited for Emerald to explain further, but after a moment she realised that no explanation was forth coming. Rarity felt that some deep seated trauma was involved here, and instinctively reached out to Emerald with her forelegs and wrapped her up in a tight hug.

“I’m sorry, Emerald,” Rarity said soothingly. “I keep forgetting what a truly horrid life you lived before coming to Equestria. The past is really painful for you, and I shouldn’t be bringing it up so thoughtlessly.”

“It’s okay, Rarity,” Emerald replied and relaxed in her grasp. “You don’t mean anything by it and now that I have lived in Equestria for this long, the past has started to become less painful.”

“That’s nice to hear.” Rarity smiled and finished up styling Emerald’s mane into a bun for her mud bath. “Alright, all done. You just hop in ahead of me and I’ll be right there.”

“See you in a bit, Rarity,” Emerald said as she walked into the mud bathing room.

“Girls? Aloe, Lotus, I’m ready for my seaweed wrappings now!”

EPSILON

“Right this way Emmy!” Pinkie shouted as she hopped ahead of the virus. “We’re almost there!”

Emerald was outside and pulling along a cart full of pastries that was spelled to keep warm by said fake unicorn. They were just arriving at the viewing area of the race Rainbow Dash was going to be in. There were patches of snow everywhere now,- but not as much as there should have been, a consequence of Equestria’s damaged weather production.

Soon the two arrived to the side of the bleachers set up for the audience and began setting up their stand. They got their first customer just as they were finishing.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash greeted as she lighted down on the ground before the two. “I’ll have the donut with the most icing!”

“Sure thing, Dashie!” Pinkie said and opened up the plastic covers over the pastries.

“Hey there Rainbow,” Emerald greeted back. “How do you think you are going to do?”

“I’m pretty sure I’m going to win.” Rainbow Dash smirked as she handed Pinkie a few bits. “I mean. not to be insulting all the other racers’ skills, but I am pretty awesome, and these guys aren’t exactly national championship material.”

“Never know,” Emerald began. “One of them may just surprise you.”

Almost as if on signal, another racer chose that moment to arrive and landed on the ground with an audible boom from her landing too hard. She had a turquoise coat and a mane that was orange and blond and had eyes that were orange. However, instead of a pegasus, she was actually a Thracian; a podargos. She shared the same physical changes as most other podargos, slitted eyes, a wild mane but had blade wings instead of long scales replacing each feather.

“U-uhh, s-sorry!” the Thracian mare shouted nervously at all the people who were startled by her appearance. “Hav-haven’t got landing softly down just yet… d-did I arrive on t-time though?”

Instead of answering her, most ponies, audience and racers alike, took to shying away from her, Intimidated by her appearance and her somewhat violent arrival. At that, the mare got a downtrodden and somewhat miserable look on her face.

Upon seeing this, Emerald frowned before walking away from the pastry stand and towards the Thracian.

“Hey there!” Emerald greeted with a smile. “You aren’t late. In fact, you are right on time. The race should be starting soon, in about ten minutes or so.”

“Oh! Thank you!” the mare said with a sharp toothed smile. “I’m Lightning Dust! It’s nice to meet a pony who isn’t turned off by my appearance. Can I have your name?”

“I’m Emerald Gleaner, and I’ll never have a problem with anypony like you,” Emerald said, keeping a frown from appearing on her face. “Being what you are can’t be that bad, can it?”

“W-well… not really?” Lightning stated with some uncertainty. “Some ponies… some ponies are just idiots, really… anyway, it’s nice to see that a famous pony like you is so open minded, but I have to get going. I want to make sure I’m early.”

The Thracian mare then took off with a soft blast of air from her powerful wings and up towards the clouds. As she quickly arrived at the starting line of the race atop a cloud, Rainbow Dash walked over.

“Huh, I wanted to see how good those podargy guys were,” Dash commented. “Now’s my chance. I’ll get to see just how fast those changes made her.”

“Glad to see you are excited,” Emerald stated. “Also it’s podargos.”

“Meh,” Dash waved off before shooting off into the air as well.

Emerald stared after Dash for a moment before turning around. The sight of a large line of ponies starting to form at Pinkie’s stand met her eyes and she quickly trotted over to help out.

Back up in the sky, Rainbow Dash landed on the cloud the starting and finish line was located on. Lightning Dust was already over to the side and awaiting the signal to go. From the looks of things, the other racers didn’t want to be next to her and were already claiming spots to avoid just that. Wondering just what their problem was, Rainbow Dash walked over to take a spot next to Lightning Dust. She gave a friendly smile which Dust happily returned.

Before long, everyone was lined up at the starting line and waiting for the race to start. Another pegasus soon arrived on the cloud, wearing a black and white striped shirt and holding a checkered flag. He walked over to the side of the lined up racers and held the flag above his head.

“Ready?” he called out and everyone got into stance.

It was at this moment that Dash noticed a change come over Lightning Dust. Suddenly, she no longer seemed nervous and a bit unsure of herself. Now she had a cocky grin on her face and had an air of total confidence in herself. Rainbow Dash had a feeling this race was going to be a bit more exciting for her then she thought it would be.

“Set… GO!”

With a wave of the flag, the racers burst into the sky. Dash was quickly at the lead of them, but so was Lightning Dust. The two mares were quickly leaving even the fastest of the racers behind and heading for the first checkpoint, which was a cloud with red flag on it.

Giving Dust a look, Rainbow Dash put some more effort in and started pulling ahead. Lightning Dust gave a wide, excited sharp toothed grin before catching up with Dash and then passing her. By the time the two of them blew past the first checkpoint, it was Rainbow Dash that had to play catch up to Lightning.

The two racers just continued to move faster and faster, and all the while Dash was having the time of her life. This was a challenging race and if Lightning kept accelerating, she soon wouldn’t be able to catch up anymore, a fact she didn’t mind at all. Looking over at who she now considered her rival, she blinked a little at the sight that met her eyes.

Lightning Dust was flying through the air and excited as could be, but she also had something going on with her wings. It seemed like with every flap of her bladed wings there would be a small shower of sparks that would fly off. Dash then just shook it from her mind. She tended to leave behind a rainbow colored streak whenever she was going fast. Maybe that was just what happened with her?

The other racers were only just passing the first checkpoint by the time Dash and Dust had not only passed the halfway checkpoint but were already closing in on the last checkpoint before the finish line.

Dash at this point felt like her wings were on fire, but felt exhilarated as well, even as Lightning Dust continued to pull ahead of her. She tried to pour on even more energy to try to at least be head to head with Lightning Dust, but she had been going full out pretty much the entire race and then some. She just couldn’t get herself to go any faster, despite how much she wanted.

Several moments later found Lightning Dust skidding to a stop atop the cloud with the finish line and whooping in delight at her win. Dash arrived about ten seconds later and landed on the cloud and began panting, struggling to catch her breath. She wasn’t mad about losing. She had come to this race expecting it all to be easy and just some laid back fun to relax from the long hours of work. The fact that she found a pony that was not only challenging for her but capable of beating her only made this race more fun and exciting. She went to approach the mare who was still celebrating her own win, but while she did this, she didn’t notice something going on with the crowd.

The crowd down below wasn’t exactly putting their all into cheering for Lightning Dust’s win. In fact, they only seemed to be just cheering enough to not be considered rude. Dust noticed this fact rather quickly and her happy, confident grin quickly faded and the shy nervousness she displayed before returned.

“Hey there!” Dash greeted excited, still breathing a little hard from the exertion she put into the race. “That was a great race! Nice to see another top racer here.”

“Th-thanks.” Dust smiled back at Dash.

At that moment was when all the other racers started arriving with heated looks on their faces. They were muttering not at all quietly as well and Dash could hear them as they came down for a landing.

“Pfft, course she won. She has that unnatural advantage of hers,” one racer muttered.

“Not even Rainbow Dash could win and she managed to do a Sonic Rainboom for that Young Flyers competition,” another added.

“It’s not fair. How are supposed to compete with something like that?”

“I… I shouldn’t have come,” Lightning Dust stated and quickly flared out her blade wings before shooting into the sky in a burst of wind.

“Hey, what about your medal!” Rainbow Dash shouted, pointing at the pony wearing the black and white shirt.

But Lightning either didn’t hear or ignored her. She kept on flying and was soon a dot in the sky.

“Oh you guys are a bunch of sore losers,” Dash stated loudly before darting to over to the pony holding the medal and grabbing it. She then shot into the sky as fast as she could, though it wasn’t very fast as she was fresh off a rather tiring race.

Thankfully, it seemed that Lightning didn’t go too far at full speed and before long Dash could see her gliding along at a leisurely pace. Taking advantage of this, Dash managed to work up enough energy to catch up to the Thracian quickly.

“Hey there!” Dash shouted as she flew into place beside Dust, surprising her greatly. “I wanna congratulate you on winning again. Also, here’s your medal. You really deserve it.”

Lightning Dust stared at the gold medal Rainbow Dash was holding out to her with wide eyes for several moments. She then smiled gratefully and took the medal from the other mare.

“Th-thanks. This means a lot to me.” Lightning smiled.

“No problem!” Dash smiled and alighted on a nearby cloud as she was rather tired. “So uhh, how are you feeling about those guys down there?”

“…I’ve had that treatment before,” Lightning replied as she followed Rainbow Dash down onto the cloud. “I mean it’s great and all, being this strong, having all these new senses that open up so many new things in life. But it’s also kind of bad that ponies don’t like Thracians all that much. We scare them, and we look really weird compared to them. But you know what? I think that’s their problem, not mine. Just because I look different doesn’t mean I’m all that different from them on a personal level, yet they all act like I’m some sort of dangerous stranger. Well I LIKE what I am! I may not have asked for it, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it now, and I’m not going to be changing myself just to make them feel better…”

Rainbow Dash stayed silent and only sat as Lightning Dust seemed to take the opportunity to vent her feelings on her change.

“Thanks… I-I kind of needed to say that to somepony that wasn’t another Thracian,” Lightning Dust stated after going quiet for a moment.

“No problem,” Dash replied with a grin. “Us top fliers got to stick together.”

“Yeah…” Lightning Dust smiled. “Your name is Rainbow Dash and you stay in Cloudsdale, right?”

“Yep, and Ponyville,” Dash answered.

“Right, I think I’ll… be visiting every now and then.” Dust smiled warmly before flaring her wings and darting into the sky. “See ya!”

“See ya later, Lightning!” Rainbow Dash waved after the Thracian mare.

ZETA

Twilight sat bent over a desk in her bedroom as she wrote a highly complex diagram on a piece of parchment.

It was the dead of night and Twilight was busy putting the finishing touches on her master plot to retrieve the elements from their secure vault. She had been working on this plot for a while now. Being the princess’ student had its advantages, namely being allowed to know a number of details about certain places. But even knowing what protections were on the vault didn’t mean the means of getting around them were easy. Even for someone as intelligent as her, the sheer prospect of trying to undo them was nearly intimidating enough to for her to give up. But Twilight was doing this for a reason. She wasn’t going to abandon what she felt was Emerald’s only means of escaping dire punishment unscathed.

‘Augh… my head…’ Twilight thought as she laid her head on the desk. ‘But at the very least all the effort paid off. I’ve got my master plan here all worked out and ready to set into motion. There are just two issues I need to solve before I can start my plan in the first place.’

‘I need to get Emerald near the palace as I don’t believe it will be long before the missing elements will be noticed,’ Twilight thought with a concerned frown. ‘I also need to convince my friends to go along with my plan in the first place… which is much trickier, I’m afraid…’

Twilight let out a groan before leaving her desk and going to her bed. Emerald’s empty bed sat practically unused since the day she had it brought in.

‘Don’t know why I brought a spare bed in the first place,’ Twilight thought as she slid under the covers. ‘I knew that Emerald didn’t sleep much, if ever, when they started bringing in furniture. I guess I just wanted her to have the option, even if she didn’t use it. Anyway, thankfully I already sort of have a solution to both of my problems.’

‘Princess Celestia has requested that me and my friends do the Hearth Warming Eve play in Canterlot,’ Twilight thought as she rolled over and stared out her window at the shining moon in the night sky. ‘We were planning on bringing Emerald along anyway, so now I can just ask her out on a date to… say the palace gardens? Having the backstage all to ourselves means I can convince the girls while I’m there… actually, it’s probably best if I leave that for the last possible minute. That way there is much less chances of them accidentally letting the secret out. Even if they do afterwards, it won’t make any difference as Emerald will be redeemed.’

After some staring out the window, Twilight managed to catch a glimpse of her own reflection upon the glass. She looked horrible with her hair sticking out everywhere. Her eyes appeared to be somewhat bloodshot as well.

‘… Alright, hopefully a good night’s sleep will solve the appearance issue,’ Twilight thought. ‘If not, then hopefully I can use a spell to fix it maybe? Anyway, it’s pretty late and tomorrow will be very eventful. Need to be at one hundred percent.’

With that, Twilight closed her eyes and settled in, so assured that her plan would work and that everything would turn out alright in the end. She didn’t have any bad dreams in the slightest.

ETA

Emerald made her way past the crowded seats of the theater to her own seat.

It was the day of the Hearth Warming Eve play and she had been in the back with the girls for a bit before it started. She herself could have been in the play as well, but honestly there were no more parts to fill. She could have taken over as narrator, but Spike seemed rather excited to be involved in something like this and she didn’t want to take that away from the little guy.

“Oh my gosh!” Emerald heard a loud whisper. “It’s you!”

Emerald turned her head to the side just as she took her seat. Just behind her was Ink Well, the little filly Lampon. She seemed to be with her parents who seemed aghast that their little girl was bothering someone like her. Maybe they were aware of who she was and thought she wouldn’t want anything to do with someone like Ink Well?

“Oh hey there,” Emerald greeted with a smile. “It’s been a few months since I’ve seen you. How have you been? Been acting like a little hero like you said you’d be?”

“Uh huh!” Ink Well nodded happily. “I made sure Picture and her toadies don’t bother anypony else while I’m around! I almost got in trouble though when they told their parents about me, but all the ponies I helped out took my side and no one believed them after that.”

“Sounds like a happy ending for everypony,” Emerald remarked with a smile just as the lights began to dim. “Well it looks like the play is about to start. All my friends are actors in here… they are kind of first timers though, so if they are terrible try to go easy on them.”

“No problem!” Ink whispered with a sharp toothed grin.

Emerald turned around and faced the stage. Telling Ink Well about this being her friend’s first time acting made her think about why they actually got the part in the first place. Twilight did say that doing this was a great honour; surely there were veteran acting troupes that could do this with certainty of not messing up? Because no matter how eager everyone was to do this, the simple fact was, this was all their first time acting and they could just be utterly terrible at it. So why had Princess Celestia done it, then?

‘Guess it will be just one of those things,’ Emerald thought, throwing a glance at the royal box behind her. ‘I do hope they manage to do a good enough job, though. Would be kind of bad if they got booed off stage.’

Suddenly the curtain on the stage opened and a light shined down. Spike appeared, wearing a courtier outfit and walked in front of a fireplace on the stage.

“Once upon a time, long before the peaceful rule of Celestia,” Spike began in a faux British accent. “And before ponies discovered our beautiful land of Equestria, ponies did not know harmony. It was a strange and dark time. A time when ponies were torn apart... by hatred!”

All the ponies in the crowd gasped in shock at the proclamation, causing Emerald to smirk and roll her eyes. The idea wasn’t something new to her.

“I know. Can you believe it?” Spike said, breaking character for a moment before continuing. “During this frightful age, each of the three tribes, the pegasi, the unicorns, and the earth ponies, cared not for what befell the other tribes, but only for their own welfare. In those troubled times, as now, the pegasi were the stewards of the weather. But they demanded something in return. Food that could only be grown by the earth ponies.”

As Spike narrated, the scenery on stage started to change and other ponies appeared. There were some pegasi wearing togas, some unicorns wearing fairly dirty medieval clothing and earth ponies looking a bit dirtier with their equally medieval but ragged clothing.

“The unicorns demanded the same, in return for magically bringing forth day and night,” Spike narrated. “And so, mistrust between the tribes festered, until one fateful day, it came to a boil. And what prompted the ponies to clash? 'Twas a mysterious blizzard that overtook the land, and toppled the tribes' precarious peace.”

What followed next was some honestly impressive scenery design and special effects work, likely done by unicorns. The scenes on the stage did really look like a land caught in the grasp of a brutal blizzard and the actors in these supporting roles did a pretty great job in showing three conflicted peoples. Emerald was rather interested in the next scene though, as from what she had read of the script, this would be the one where the girls were introduced.

To her utter surprise, they were doing okay for first timers, though Pinkie did let a bit of herself leak into her character a bit. She was sitting back and enjoying the rather enjoyable performance when she spotted a royal guard coming down her aisle. She was one of Luna’s Night Guard, judging by the bat wings, the yellow eyes and dark coat.

“Miss Gleaner?” the guard whispered to her.

“Yes?”

“Princess Luna in the Royal Box has requested that you come up and sit with her,” the guard stated.

Emerald blinked and looked back at the Royal Box and saw that Luna really was up there. The Moon Princess saw that her student was looking up at her and waved down at her with a happy smile.

“Oh, sure thing,” Emerald replied to the guard. “I’ll head up right now.”

“Right this way, Miss Gleaner,” the guard stated.

Emerald left her seat and followed the guard, soon making her way up some stairs and finding herself before a door guarded by four Royal Guards, two being Celestia’s in their bright golden armor and the other two being Luna’s in their enchanted armor and altered appearance.

“The Royal Box is right here, Miss Gleaner,” the guard guiding her stated. “The princess are just behind the door. You may enter.”

“Thank you,” Emerald said before entering the Royal Box.

Inside, she saw a lavish seating area. There were a few tables along with a handful of seats, likely for the guests the princesses would like to accompany them. Said princesses were watching the play while seated, Princess Luna simply sitting solemnly and watching the play while her sister sipped form some sort of drink with a crazy straw.

“Hello my dear student!” Luna greeted with a smile. “Come, sit beside me.”

Emerald did as the Princess requested and walked over to take a seat beside her.

“So, how are you enjoying the play?” Luna inquired. “Your lover and her friends appear to be doing wonderfully for first time actors.”

“Hehehe, I think we are still at fillyfriend level, but yes, I am rather pleasantly surprised they are doing so well for their first performance,” Emerald replied with a smile as she looked down at the play in progress.

“Hmm… likely another difference in language…” Luna mused for a moment. “Ahem, I’ve actually had some ulterior motives for bringing you up here.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, you see your fillyfriend had a rather disturbing nightmare a short while ago,” Luna replied. “I had managed to spot it and went to investigate. When I went in, I saw a terrible image of Ponyville in flames and the both of you sitting together on a hill. I do not know what the two of you were doing and before I could investigate I had spotted Twilight floating overhead. I had gone to her to comfort her in such a disturbing dream, but I think my presence may have shocked her awake.”

“Wow, that… sounds rather distressing,” Emerald muttered. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

“I do not know, but you know now.” Luna replied. “I advise you go see her on this matter as soon as you can, and my sister agrees with me on this.”

“I will,” Emerald said and shot a smile at Celestia who gave a serene one back. She decided knowing the reason why Celestia had asked for the girls to be acting in this play wasn’t important. Because of her relationship with Twilight, she was entrusting Emerald in handling the problem she seemed to be suffering with. She was willing to throw her a bone and trust her back on her decision regarding the play.

For Emerald, the play coming to an end couldn’t come soon enough. It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy it, or that it was terrible; the girls were honestly putting on a grand show. But after what had Luna told her about Twilight, she was now a little worried about her and wanted to go see her. She couldn’t exactly do that while she was on stage, so she had to wait until it was over.

After what felt like an eternity of fidgeting in her seat and being shot amused looks by both princesses, the play came to a close with everyone giving a bow to a cheering audience. As soon as the curtains dropped, Emerald quickly got out of her seat and rapidly made her way to the backstage where everyone else was.

She arrived to the sight of Twilight talking to the others while they were nodding their heads but had somewhat confused and curious frowns.

“Twilight,” Emerald called out as she entered the room. “Are you alright?”

“Yes I am, Emerald,” Twilight responded with a smile. “I admit to feeling some jitters, but once I got into the swing of things it was all very fun.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Emerald replied. “I’ve just come back from the Royal Box and Princess Luna told me about this horrible dream you had a while back. Are you feeling alright?”

For a moment, Twilight got this wide eyed and alarmed look on her face before she looked down at the floor and hid her expression behind her bangs. After a moment, she looked back up at Emerald with a look of determination.

“I did have a really bad dream a while back,” Twilight began. “But I haven’t had another since, because I set out to confront my fears. Emerald, this is kind of coming out of nowhere, but I want to take out on a date in the palace gardens. I have a wonderful surprise that will make the both of us so happy.”

“Oh… sure!” Emerald blinked for a moment before smiling. She wondered why Twilight looked so determined all of the sudden, but she probably set out to get to first base or something. She didn’t see any harm in it, and this would only allow her an opportunity to get Twilight to open up about why she had such a terrible dream.

“Great, let’s go right now,” Twilight said with a small smile before turning back to the others. “I’ll see you girls later.”

“Oh uh… sure?” Rainbow Dash replied with a bit of a wave.

Emerald wondered at the odd inflection on the word, but shook it out of her mind. Right now, her main concern was Twilight and this sudden date she was bringing her on. She wondered what the surprise she had in store for her was, but knowing Twilight it probably was going to be something adorable.

THETA

Twilight felt her heart pounding as she led Emerald into the garden covered in thin sheets of snow. It was night and there was a definite nip in the air from the snow. She herself was wearing a woolen cap with a pompom on the top, along with a matching scarf. Emerald, being Emerald, didn’t need any of that and was comfortable as she was.

“Alright, here we are,” Twilight stated as she struggled to keep the nervous tension out of her voice. “C-can you wait here? I need to get the surprise…”

“Sure thing, Twilight,” Emerald said with a smile and stepped beside Twilight and gave her a tight hug. “Just relax, Twilight. I’m sure whatever it is you have in store for me, I’ll love it.”

“Y-yeah…” Twilight said and felt a sharp pain in her chest. “Just wait here. I’ll be right back.”

“See you soon.”

With Emerald taking a seat in the snow and watching the moon, Twilight made her way to the palace interior as quickly as she could without running. Once she was inside and out of sight, she teleported away to a chamber to the side of the main hall.

“Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy exclaimed at Twilight sudden arrival.

“Alright sugarcube, we came here like you asked,” Applejack stated with a frown. “Even timed it so we snuck in without anypony spotting us. Now tell us why in tarnation we snuck into the palace?!”

“Yeah! This is really sketchy, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said with a bit of worry. “I mean, I trust you and all, enough to do this obviously, but I really want to know why we did this.”

“T-this is going to be REALLY hard to believe but listen to me…” Twilight began and could feel her own tension rise even further. “Emerald… is the Monster of Everfree…”

For the longest moment there was silence, utter silence, as everyone remained still, their expressions frozen to what it was before they heard Twilight’s statement.

“…WHAT!” Rarity said in the most insulted voice Twilight had ever heard come from her. She could barely believe the look that Rarity was shooting her, and had the feeling that if she didn’t explain herself further she’d be down one friend for a while. “Twilight, we’ve all seen the Monster and I don’t know if you noticed, but Emerald looks nothing like it. Furthermore, Emerald is most certainly NOT a killer.”

“Uh yeah… Twilight, are ya feelin alright?” Applejack stated and came closer to place the front of her hoof against Twilight’s forehead. “Yer not feeling sick or anything?”

“Oh my, illnesses that cause delusions are ever so terrible,” Fluttershy added worriedly. “We should-”

“NO!” Twilight shouted as loud as she dared. “I am not sick! I am not delusional! You have to believe me! Please!”

“Twilight, imagine how it looks from our prospective,” Rarity replied stiffly. “Here you come out of the blue, ask us to sneak into the palace without a single word of explanation for why and then accuse Emerald, your own fillyfriend I may add, of being a horrific monster that has caused the deaths of hundreds.”

“Remember during that time we fought the monster?” Twilight said almost desperately. “I almost fell off a cliff? When it caught me, it said something to me. It said ‘All brains and no brawn, eh Twilight’. Rarity, Applejack you have to remember that Emerald said the exact same thing to me during our sleep over!”

“A coincidence,” Rarity said with total confidence, Applejack nodded in agreement but now she wasn’t looking so sure. “If that’s all you have…”

“No… later on I told you I was going on a walk?” Twilight said. “Well I went for a walk into the Everfree to prove my suspicions were right, and I came into contact with Emerald again in an entirely different form. She is a shape shifter. That is why she can look like a monstrous creature and still be a model.”

“Wait…” Dash broke in. “You mean you’ve known for like half a year that Emerald was the monster-”

“Supposedly,” Rarity insisted.

“Yeah, supposedly the monster,” Rainbow Dash corrected herself in some annoyance. “And you didn’t tell anypony?”

“It’s haunted me to this day and driven me to this…” Twilight confessed with tears starting to appear in her eyes. “Please… Emerald is our friend… she means so much to us, doesn’t she? The Elements of Harmony redeemed Princess Luna and now everypony loves and trusts her despite her past. They can do the same for Emerald; redeem her of her horrible crimes, so when she is finally found out by the princesses, they won’t try to take her away.”

“P-p-please!” Twilight begged her friends with a sob. “If you can’t believe my story, then in the very least trust me! I just want to make sure Emerald won’t be taken away from us… please!”

With barely a moment’s hesitation, Rainbow Dash quickly stepped beside her friend and gave her a comforting hug.

“It’s alright Twi…” Dash muttered. “Your story may be kind of out there, but I’ve always got your back.”

“Whelp… I consider ya an honorary Apple,” Applejack stated. “And family sticks together…”

“It’s alright, Twilight. Please stop crying,” Fluttershy soothed as she gave the unicorn a hug as well. “I trust you too.”

Rarity frowned. She felt sympathy for Twilight, but she was still accusing Emerald of being a horrible monster. She turned towards Pinkie to judge her reaction and was surprised when she saw that the normally cheerful and silly pony was as serious as could be. There was not a single hint of humor in that solemn expression she now had.

“I don’t know about this…” Pinkie said, sharing a look with Rarity.

“I’m very hesitant…” Rarity stated. “But… if you four really are going to do this, then I… I suppose I should tag along to make sure nothing horrible happens.”

‘And lessen the fallout when this all inevitably fails horribly,’ Rarity thought.

Pinkie Pie shot another look at Rarity and, after a moment, nodded in understanding.

“Great!” Twilight exclaimed and wiped the tears from her eyes. “Follow me; I’ll lead you all to the vault where the Elements are.”

Twilight lead her friends down the darkened halls of the palace, feeling the need to be quick as the longer she took, the more likely Emerald would come looking for her. Before long, the group was before the vault door.

“What’s the plan, Twi?” Applejack asked.

“The protections for the Elements of Harmony are very numerous,” Twilight began. “I have a twenty point plan to undo all the protections, along with a spell in place in case I trigger the-”

Suddenly a bright light shined from behind the door of the vault, intense enough to blind the Mane Six. After several long moments, the brightness died down and all was silent for a moment, then with a groan the vault of the door pulled apart. Inside was a small box sitting upon a pedestal. With a sharp crack, the lid of the box broke open as the Elements of Harmony rose into the air, each one glowing softly. After a moment, the Elements shot towards their bearers. The necklace Elements quickly snapped around the necks of the Mane Six while the tiara darted onto Twilight’s head.

The girls were quiet for a moment.

“This… this is a sign!” Twilight exclaimed with a smile. “The Elements are on my side! They know what I’m trying to do!”

“Have to agree with you now, sugarcube,” Applejack stated as she looked down at her own Element. “Course you know what this means about Emerald…”

“We’ll handle the reality of her actions later,” Twilight stated determinedly. “Let’s redeem her right now.”

“I don’t know, girls…” Rarity stated as she frowned down at her Element. “This seems a bit suspicious…”

“Come on Rarity!” Twilight said as she already began to trot away. “The Elements of Harmony are a force for good! They wouldn’t do anything terrible to Emerald.”

Rarity grit her teeth in worry and uncertainty and shared a look with an equally uncertain looking Pinkie Pie. Twilight was right, wasn’t she? The Elements are a force for good…

Twilight lead the girls down the hall towards the gardens. Soon, they arrived at the door outside to them. Twilight waited briefly for everyone to line up with her before heading out into the cold of the winter night.

The violet unicorn could feel and hear her heart pounding away in her chest as she came within view of Emerald sitting patiently in the garden, staring up at the moon. She and her friends approached her, the sounds of their hooves crunching the thin sheets of snow as they walked.

Emerald turned at the sound of their approach with a smile on her face, clearly expecting Twilight alone. Her smile faded from her face as she saw the others and looked confused before noticing the Elements of Harmony.

As Emerald got a look of total and utter disbelief, Twilight felt something, like a terrible sense of haste and urgency emit from the tiara about her head. Suddenly she was wrenched into the air by the power flowing into the Element. This was so surprising and different from when she first used the Element on Nightmare Moon that she couldn’t help but give a shout of surprise, something the others mirrored as well.

Just as Emerald was starting to back away from the six, the Elements’ glow intensified greatly and several beams of light left them before shooting towards Emerald. There was a great thunderclap as the beams of multicolored light impacted Emerald and the others were blinded and fell to the frozen ground.

Sounds of grinding and crumbling stone met the ears of the Mane Six as the light faded.

Meeting their eyes was Emerald… now unable to move and weakly struggling with her legs of stone. The virus gave painful gasps as she seemed to struggle for breath, new patches of stone appearing on her body and starting to spread.

“T-T-Twilight… w-why…” Emerald managed to get out before her mouth turned to stone. As the stone started its final push to claim her body a single tear managed to leave her eye before she was totally encased in stone, her face frozen in an expression of pain and betrayal.

There was a long silent moment as the others stared on in utter shock, taking in the results of their actions.

“N-no…” Twilight said quietly shaking her head. “NO! THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN!”

The unicorn shot back up onto her hooves and reached up for her Element. She took hold of the tiara and tossed it away, partially burying it into a small snow drift a short distance away.

“SHE WASN’T EVIL!” Twilight screamed after the element. “YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO REDEEM HER! NOT SEAL HER AWAY!”

“Emerald, I’m sorry!” Twilight cried out as she run over to the statue and wrapping her forelegs around it. “I’m so sorry Emerald! It wasn’t s-supposed to g-go this way… I’m s-so s-sorry… please come back… please...”

“Twilight Sparkle…” Twilight heard and turned her head to see Luna and Celestia standing a short distance away. Luna started in horror of the petrified form of her student while Celestia looked on in confusion and disbelief of the scene before her.

“What happened here?” Celestia asked aloud.

Twilight had no answers for her; she clung to Emerald’s petrified form and cried guilty tears.

From a second story window, Discord stared at the scene below with a curious expression, a hand cupping his chin as he pondered everything he witnessed.

IOTA

Emerald took in her surroundings.

It looked like she was in the gardens but there was no snow, and for as far as she could see there was a thick mist clouding everything. The mist was so thick she couldn’t see beyond thirty feet and beside here was a ghostly form of herself, likely a representation of her petrified body.

After considering her circumstances, Emerald got a determined look on her face. She had gotten through great torments before and had refused to give up despite the many opportunities. She would survive this, she would escape, she would… she would… she…

With groan of despair, Emerald toppled over onto her side with a thump before curling up in a ball. She cried and sobbed bitter tears of betrayal as she couldn’t help thinking of all the happy times she shared with Twilight. And in the end, the one thing she always feared would have happened had come to pass.

For a long moment, only Emerald’s cries echoed in this gray empty mirror of Equestria … then the voices began…

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: And thus Emerald is sealed, I guess one can compare this to a loyal dog that is violent to strangers following its master into a clinic where it will be euthanized and does so with a wag of its tail. And by that I mean Emerald has herself to blame here, as it was her trust in Twilight that allowed the plan to work in the end. I bet you all felt a great sense of dread as Emerald’s fate closed in with every step, and then it was over… see you next time.

EN: ...I’m leaving before the lynch mob gets here. To all of you reading this, I had nothing to do with this decision. It was all Legionary. I only made it look neater. Lynch Legionary, not me.

Chapter 9: Man's Best Friend

“… So Pinkie Pie, of course, decided to be their babysitter,” Twilight stated. Her voice had an odd reverbing effect to it. “I don’t doubt her intentions, but I don’t think she knows just how much trouble two young foals can cause.”

Emerald lied on the ground; she hadn’t changed her position since she had fallen to the ground upon arriving in this sealed world. Yet strangely, Emerald had found her surroundings change at one point, from outside in the gardens to some room in the palace; apparently her statue in the outside world had been moved.

The virus smiled as she listened to Twilight recount another little adventure one of their friends had happened upon. She had been in this empty, thickly foggy place for a month now and when she had initially started her time here, she was utterly furious and hurt by Twilight’s actions. So when she started hearing Twilight voice speak to her from outside, she had shouted insults and hate to the heavens. However, it soon became apparent that while she could hear Twilight, Twilight could not hear her. So she was left to continue lying on the ground, crying bitter tears as she listened to Twilight cry and sob about how sorry she was and had never intended for her to be sealed. The first day of this, Emerald stayed coldly indifferent, but when the following week had nothing but Twilight cry and ask for forgiveness, Emerald couldn’t help but feel her initial anger for being sealed crumble away to nothing. In the face of Twilight’s heartfelt guilt and depression for several days, she ended up forgiving her, and then when it continued on for another half week Emerald, started hating herself for causing Twilight to feel this way, as backward as it seemed.

Thankfully, all things come to an end and the rest of the month, Twilight had appeared to feel better enough to not suddenly burst into tears most of the time. She came by almost every day to share with Emerald what had happened while she was gone. Most of the time it was mundane things like how sad and lazy Navi was, or what books she read all that day, but there was one or two exciting things that had happened in her absence.

“She managed to get the hang of it in the end, thankfully,” Twilight said with a sigh. “… I miss you so much Emerald, and so does everypony else. I’m thankful that Discord told us you can actually hear us so we can keep you company. I have to go now, but I’ll be back in three days to tell you what else happened, okay? See you, Emerald…”

Emerald could hear Twilight’s hooves on the hard floor as she walked away and soon she was alone in the gray silence of this place. Occasionally she’d hear one of the princesses talking, but she always felt a great sense of total apathy unless it was Twilight that was talking. Speaking of apathy, she seemed to have a lot of it as the time between conversations seemed to just fly right by. Emerald could have sworn she had only just been sealed about a day ago, and yet already a whole month had passed.

‘I wonder… could whole years pass in this place, and would I even notice it?’ Emerald thought, her expression a mask of dispassion. ‘I guess that would make sense as otherwise Discord would be rather crazy when he was finally freed after a thou-’

Suddenly Emerald’s eyes widened in realization and an image suddenly flashed across her mind. It was of Twilight, only much older. Coat wrinkled and mane gray like Granny Smith, she hobbled over to Emerald’s petrified form in the virus’ mental image. The old vision of Twilight’s imagined future came to a stop beside the statue and shared with it one final story and giving it a chaste kiss upon its stony cheek before curling up at its feet. After a few moments, the now elderly imagining of Twilight gave a sigh before passing on.

With a snarling hiss, Emerald picked herself up off the ground, smashing her hooves into the floor as she did so. She took stock of her surroundings like a wild animal surrounded by predators.

‘I will NOT be here that long!’ Emerald thought in defiance. ‘I will get out of here! I will be free!’

Emerald had no idea how to go about freeing herself, but this world represented that of the seal, right? It may have been a copy of Equestria, but it wasn’t her Equestria, so she felt no guilt at all when she exploded in a storm of tendrils and started tearing through the palace.

The palace wasn’t the only target of her destruction, either. Tendrils shot deep into the ground and high up through the floors of the palace before reaching out into the sky. The tendrils in the ground took advantage of the dragon genes and started consuming the very rock and dirt to make more viral material as the tendrils in the sky did the same, taking in air and moisture to grow ever larger and spread further.

As tendrils twisted and pierced the entirety of the palace and began to reach towards the empty city, the whole of Emerald’s being recoiled as if struck.

‘Gah!’ Horrific memories of Emerald’s past began to surge through her mind, including more than a few she had kept separated from her psyche for her own mental wellbeing. Obviously she was doing what she wasn’t supposed to, and the seal was reacting, attempting to make her stop. But that wasn’t going to work. The fact that the seal was reacting meant she was going in the right direction regarding breaking the seal and getting free.

‘Twilight… my friends… I’ll get back to all of you…’ Emerald thought and focused on her good memories she had in Equestria, muscling her way past the horrible memories raining down upon her like rain. ‘But honestly… if only the Elements actually did redeem me, things would be so much easier… and happier…’

ALPHA

Belvedere stood off to the side, observing along with some gunsmiths as a Warhound readied to use an experimental gun.

Wearing the mass production dragon scale armor, the dog went through the process of giving his gun the proper checks before firing it down the firing range. The gun itself was an overly large, blocky thing. Merely looking at it, one could tell its inner workings were perhaps more complicated than it ought to have been.

The dog then proceeded to raise the blocky rifle to his shoulder and sighted the targets downrange. With a squeeze of the trigger, a loud burst of gunfire erupted from the gun’s muzzle. With only half a second’s fire time, there was suddenly a loud cracking sound and the dog immediately held the gun away from him. After a few moments of nothing happening, he then proceeded to gingerly lay the gun on the floor.

“Least it didn’t explode in a shower of shrapnel this time!” Missy smiled with grin as her fellow gunsmiths walked over to take a look at the jammed gun. “Any day now and we’ll have our first automatics! Won’t the boss be proud of us!?”

“I’m sure she’ll find our progress very impressive,” Belvedere replied somewhat aloofly.

“What’s the matter?” Missy asked.

“Emerald hasn’t contacted us in a month,” Belvedere stated. “We don’t need our paws held, but this length of time without her checking in on us… it’s a bit troubling.”

“Maybe you just worry too much?” Missy suggested.

“Maybe you don’t worry enough?” Belvedere replied before turning away. “I’m going to go investigate this and make sure nothing is wrong. Good luck in fixing the issues in the gun.”

Leaving the firing range, Belvedere walked into the hallway lit by candles. One thing that had gotten Belvedere rather worried about Emerald’s disappearance was the fact she was the largest source of electricity. Thankfully they had some rather basic steam turbines set up and a mountain worth of coal to fuel them with. However, those steam turbines were never meant to power the whole of the Enclave. As a result, power was being diverted to vital areas while they built more of them to power the rest of the Hub.

‘She stays in Ponyville whenever she isn’t here,’ Belvedere thought as he stepped out into the streets of the Enclave. ‘Course she has other things to do besides living in Ponyville. It may be that she had to go somewhere for an extended amount of time and just couldn’t get a message to us… still, I’d like to think she would make sure we were prepared for her extended leave and knew of it. Well, if I can’t find her in Ponyville, I should be able to find Twilight Sparkle there.’

“Belvedere!” came a shout, and soon a Warhound ran into sight.

“What is it?” Belvedere said.

“Those pod things the boss made are acting up!” the dog shouted.

“Show me,” Belvedere commanded and took off at a run after the dog.

A few minutes later, Belvedere found himself being lead into the large cavern containing the dozens upon dozens of fleshy pods. The sounds of muffled calls echoed through the cavern, clear in their feelings of loneliness and gloom.

“Hmm… sounds like the infant creatures miss their mother,” Belvedere stated. “I’ll be getting started on finding her right away. Until then, I want you gather some of the matrons and get them down here to sing them a few songs. Hopefully that’ll sooth these creatures until Emerald returns.”

“Right!” the dog said and took off at a run.

‘Right, let’s move tracking down Emerald or Twilight up the schedule a bit,’ Belvedere thought.

BETA

Twilight walked out of the palace gates and into the streets of Canterlot.

She had finished another talking session with Emerald’s statue and now had to head to her parent’s house in Canterlot. She was a bit worried about what would come of this. She hadn’t really heard from her family since her relationship with Emerald had gone public… which wasn’t at all different from before actually, but she had expected to get a letter expressing their reaction or something concerning her and Emerald, yet there was nothing. Maybe they just accepted as it happened or kept their reaction to themselves? Well, she would be finding out soon enough.

Walking through the streets of Canterlot, Twilight’s attention was caught by a stand that had magazines and newspapers. Glancing over the magazines of Fluer De Lis posing somewhat in the same fashion as Emerald, she took a look over the cover article. ‘EMERALD GLEANER, MISSING AGAIN?’ read the newspaper, and Twilight could only shake her head as she continued on her way. A ton of people had come to see her when Emerald had fallen out of the public eye for too long. Personally, she thought she deflected their questions of saying where Emerald was by telling them she wasn’t there.

Before long, Twilight found herself at her parent’s house.

“Hello!” Twilight called out as she entered. “Mom? Dad? I’m here!”

“Twilight!” Twilight Velvet called out as she rounded the corner and smiled at her daughter. “It’s been so long! Come here!”

“Hi mom.” Twilight smiled and closed the distance, giving Velvet a tight hug when she reached her.

“It’s nice you managed to make it, Twilight. Just go take a seat in the living room,” Velvet said. “I’ll go get your father in a moment.”

Twilight listened to her mother and went on her way to the living room. The room hadn’t changed much since the last time she had seen it, but there was one thing different about it.

“Oh, hello,” Twilight greeted the unicorn sitting on the living room couch. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”

“No, we haven’t.” The unicorn smiled at her warmly. He was a red unicorn with a white mane and had a cutie mark of a grid with numbers and letters. “My name is Hex. Nice to finally meet you, Twilight Sparkle. Your parents told me a lot about you.”

“Oh? I can’t say they did the same for me.” Twilight blinked.

“Hey there sweetie,” Night Light said as he entered the living room with Velvet.

“Hi dad.” Twilight smiled and gave her father a tight hug as well. “It’s nice to see you again after so long.”

“Me too, Twilight.” Night Light replied. “I see you met Hex already. Hope you two are already getting along.”

“Oh… we only just introduced ourselves,” Twilight said while looking back at Hex. “… What’s going on?”

“Well…” Velvet began, sharing a look with her husband. “Your father and I heard about what’s been going on between you and Emerald.”

“… Going on?” Twilight said with some confusion. Unless one of her friends let out their rather significant secret, her parent shouldn’t have had any idea of what was going on.

“Yes, we heard about Emerald running off,” Velvet said in a tone that Twilight felt get under her skin. “And how you were left so badly with a broken heart you were… very sad about it for half a month.”

“We know something happened, Twilight,” Night Light began with an understanding smile. “And that Emerald left you. We decided to wait a while before giving you a helping hoof in romance.”

Twilight stood there in silence for a long moment before beginning to look back between Hex and her parents. They thought that Emerald had broken up with her, had just run off somewhere and left her broken hearted; that it was Emerald’s fault instead of hers. After a futile moment of trying to keep calm, despite her sudden spike of insulted anger, Twilight snapped.

“ I can’t BELIEVE you two!” Twilight shouted to everyone’s surprise.

“T-Twilight?” Velvet blinked in some alarm.

“You don’t know what happened! You don’t know the whole story!” Twilight shouted. “Emerald and I, the both of us had something special; something nopony else had! A-and… and… and I ru-ruined it! I b-betrayed her… the first pony I’ve ever been with and ever kissed and I h-hurt her…”

“Twilight… I didn’t know.” Velvet said as her daughter burst into tears. “Come here, sweetheart.”

Attempting to wipe away her tears, Twilight approached her parent and was pulled into an embrace. Off to the side, Hex awkwardly got up off the couch he was sitting on and made his way to the exit as the family had a moment.

“Right, I suppose I’m not welcome anymore so uh, I’ll just… yeah…” Hex muttered and quietly left the room.

GAMMA

The next morning found Twilight Sparkle a few miles outside of Ponyville. She had spent the night at her parents but didn’t get much sleep. Leaving a note for her parents, Twilight left Canterlot early in the morning and just made her way home to Ponyville on foot.

‘Nothing seems to be going well…’ Twilight sighed. ‘But I only have myself to blame, don’t I? Dear Celestia, Emerald, I hope you can see it in your heart to forgive me for what I did.’

As Twilight continued to walk along the road, there was a sudden rumble she felt beneath her hooves. She paused for a brief moment and looked down when there was an explosion of dirt and a pair of black arms rushed out to grab her. Before she could shout in shock, she was pulled down and she felt a falling sensation before finding herself standing in a cloud of dust. Completely disorientated by the sudden movement, she shook her head as the cloud dissipated.

“I apologise for the sudden ‘kidnapping’, but you realise we aren’t exactly popular around here,” a voice said that made Twilight feel like her heart was in her throat.

In front of her was Belvedere from the Enclave. He was flanked by two of Emerald’s Warhounds and one was even by her own side and brushing off a bit of dirt that had collected in her sudden movement. She dreaded coming to see Belvedere again and knew it was coming. After what had happened with Emerald, Twilight could only guess what Belvedere’s reaction to her being sealed would be… Though at the very least, Twilight didn’t tell the princesses about the Enclave, out of a desire to not further betray Emerald then she already did.

“H-hello Belvedere,” Twilight greeted in nervous anticipation of what he would surely ask.

“Greetings.” The Alpha nodded. “It’s been little over a month since we’ve last been in contact with Emerald. Perhaps I am being overly concerned, but I wish to know where she is.”

“E-Emerald is g-gone…” Twilight answered.

“Gone where?” Belvedere was now looking rather more severe than usual as he felt there was something wrong. “What has happened to her?”

“She was s-sealed by the Elements of Harmony…” Twilight answered.

“Sealed by the what? Wait…” Belvedere narrowed his eyes. “I’ve heard of them. They were the artifacts that sealed one of your princesses in the moon and the Spirit of Chaos in stone, right?”

“Yes…”

“What happened?” the dog demanded sternly.

“I… I tried to help her…” Twilight said ashamedly. “They were supposed to redeem her, b-but they sealed her away… I-I didn’t mean for that to happen. I was o-only trying to h-help.”

The Warhounds were now very tense and the dog that was helping her before was now stepping away from her with a soft growl. Belvedere, however, was completely quiet and his expression was blank as he stared down Twilight, which served to unnerve and frighten the unicorn as she expected clear anger.

After a moment of utter silence, Belvedere’s expression twisted into one of pure rage and he quickly grabbed the handle of his revolver.

“AHHHH!” Twilight screamed out in pain as the massive hunk of metal that was Belvedere’s revolver impacted with her face. She immediately crumbled to the ground, hooves to her nose as blood started to flow and stained her face along with the ground. She looked up at the Diamond Dog that struck her through tearing eyes from her position on the floor.

Belvedere still had that look of utter fury on his face, but it quickly cleared and he took a long breath, the paw holding the revolver gripping almost painfully tight. The Alpha then regained his iconic look as he appeared to relax, a concerned frown.

“It goes without saying…” Belvedere began, his voice nearly betraying his attempt to look calm by showing his anger. “That you are no longer welcome in the Enclave.”

Twilight just mutely nodded at the dog from her spot on floor, still clutching her heavily bleeding nose.

“Good… get out of my sight,” Belvedere stated and the unicorn nodded again, soon disappearing in a flash.

“My cousin was right!” one of the Warhounds growled. “That pony was untrustworthy! She betrayed us! We should have taken her prisoner instead of letting her go!”

“She would have been missed,” Belvedere stated as he crossed his arms and stared at the floor in thought. “She is a very public figure in Ponyville, being Celestia’s personal student.”

“What’s to stop her from telling that princess of theirs about us?” another Warhound asked. “What’s to say she hasn’t said anything already?”

“Herself,” Belvedere stated. “She was the picture of guilt. Considering that we haven’t seen any guard activity around the Everfree beyond the average, I think it may be safe to say she hasn’t said anything.”

“What do we do now?” the last Warhound asked.

“Boss sprung me from Alcoltraz,” the first Warhound stated with a proud thump of his chest. “I say we return the favour and spring her too!”

“We must do it smartly,” Belvedere stated, agreeing immediately. “I don’t think they’ll be holding someone like Emerald in Alcoltraz. Considering where Discord was kept after they sealed him, they might be holding her in the palace as well. That means we’ll have the princesses to deal with. Two goddesses and our own answer to them is now imprisoned. We must use what she taught us if we wish to succeed.”

“Speed,” a Warhound stated.

“Fight unfairly.” Another cracked his knuckles.

“Brutality.” The final one gripped his rifle tightly.

“We return to the Enclave immediately,” Belvedere ordered. “There is much to do and plan if want to succeed, and I don’t think we are going to get second shot if we fail.”

With a bark of acknowledgement, the Warhounds broke into a run into the tunnels with Belvedere a few steps behind.

DELTA

“Good day, Princess Celestia!” a unicorn in a lab coat greeted elatedly.

“Hello, apologies for not taking the time to check up on your team’s progress earlier,” Celestia replied. “But my duties have left me very busy.”

Princess Celestia was at a medical lab in Canterlot. A team of Equestria’s top scientists had been gathered together to work on a project directed towards the Thracians and their biology, the study of which would hopefully lead to a cure to their “condition”. They’d been at it for several months now, and Celestia was dearly hoping they may have made some form of breakthrough in that brief amount of time.

“It’s no trouble at all, your highness!” The pony smiled excitedly. “I’m absolutely ecstatic you are here now, though! There are so many wondrous discoveries we’ve made since we’ve started studying the biology of the Thracian ponies. And if you’ll just follow me, I’ll show you what we have documented so far.”

“Very well. Lead the way,” Celestia replied.

“Right this way, your majesty. I’ll even be able to show you some of our other specimens,” The scientist stated excitedly, and Celestia wondered what he had meant by specimens.

Soon the two were walking down a sterile hall, which had large windows to show the inner courtyard of the medical lab. Celestia blinked at the scene in the park that was the courtyard of the labs. Sitting right in the center of the park was this massive tree. It had bark like a normal tree, but it’s branches were definitely something else. Large club like limbs, instead of long slender ones, stuck out of the trunk. They had branches as well, but they stuck out of the clubs a lot like spikes.

“I’ve never seen such a tree before,” Celestia remarked as she studied the tree. “Where did you find it?”

“This tree is but one of a few other specimens that have appeared since the day of the black dust,” the scientist answered. “And it is no simple tree. Watch.”

The scientist’s horn started glowing and a box construct formed in the park. It then slowly moved through the air and towards the tree. As soon as the box got within a certain distance, the tree came to life with movement. One of its large club like limbs was reared back and quickly brought down upon the magical construct with a loud boom and an impact that Celestia felt.

“That is quite dangerous,” Celestia stated with a frown. “I hope nopony has been hurt by such trees.”

“None so far, your highness,” the scientist reassured.

“How did you ever retrieve such a tree?” Celestia questioned.

“It appears to be sentient to a currently unknown degree,” the unicorn responded. “A little filly loved to climb around that very tree before it was transformed, and it remembered that. When we dug it up for transport, she had to be there every step of the way to keep it from lashing out at us. It also isn’t the only thing we have that was altered. If you’ll just direct your attention over there your majesty.”

Celestia looked over to the side of the courtyard and what met her eyes was a huge wolf like creature that appeared to be napping on the ground. It had a mouth full of sharp teeth and its fur was very wild and bristly looking. The princess thought that this creature was fearsome and wondered why it wasn’t kept in a kennel of some sort, when another pony approached it.

Immediately, the large wolf like creature shot to its paws. But instead of snarling at the approaching pony like Celestia expected, it started panting and wagging its tail. The pony lifted up a large tub of what appeared to be dog food and was immediately bowled over by the happy wolf, which starting licking the somewhat struggling pony affectionately.

“He’s a nice boy,” the scientist remarked. “He doesn’t know his size and strength all too well, but still a nice dog. We’ve decided to call these a ‘Whomping Willow’ and ‘Warg’ respectively. We have a few other examples of altered specimens, but let’s focus on the reason you are here.”

The two continued on down the hall and soon found themselves in a large lab filled with medical equipment, vials and other scientists. One wall had a large chalk board covering it. The board had a rough drawing of what must have been a Thracian’s biology, along with arrows pointing to several points of the picture, and leading back to observations written down.

“Foresight, could you bring that folder I had set aside earlier?” the scientist called out to one of his fellows.

“Right away, Script.” The mare nodded before walking off to the other side of the room.

“Now what you see here is what we understand of Thracian biology as of today,” Script stated as he gestured to the chalkboard. “From our studies of- and samples taken from- a volunteer, we’ve learned much about them. First of all, their bones are not made of calcium; they are made out of some other material that is far harder than normal bone, quite possibly reaching the strength of some metals. Their musculature is far denser and, like the bone, is tougher as well, though not as strong as the bone. Their eyes are incredibly complex and can see on a wide number of spectrums, and their inner ear is also very advanced, practically making getting dizzy impossible. They also appear to have some sort of adaptive regeneration. We had to bring in another volunteer after a while, as the incisions we made would progressively heal faster and faster as time went on. There was some talk of testing that ability, but understandably none of us were willing to go that far to learn that particular fact. Other than those, you already know the rest; sharp teeth, wild manes, slitted eyes, rather short tempers.”

Foresight then returned with the folder Script requested and handed it to him.

“Thank you, Foresight. Now, onwards to our observations of each particular ‘sub-specie’ of Thracian ponies,” Script continued. “Lampon are easily spotted by their iconic dagger like horns, but those very horns are also made of an entirely different material than normal horns. From what we’ve discovered, the horns allow greater flow of magic and better focus, further boosting a Lampon’s already impressive magic. Podargos can have one of two types of wings; scaly or blades. The wings, like a Lampon’s horn, appear to boost a Podargos’ flying skills. However, there also appears to be a potency discrepancy between those with scaly and bladed wings. The few individuals with bladed wings are noticeably faster and skilled in the air than their already incredibly fast scaled winged fellows… plus those wings can very much double as weapons and they are sharp, let me tell you… Ahem, carrying on to our final study, we have the Xanthos. The Earth Pony variant of Thracian is very straight forward, being just incredibly strong and tough, though we have come across reports of Xanthos having gained a sort of sixth sense for plants and animals, able to induce faster growth or tame respectively.”

“And what about the Deinos?” Celestia questioned. “Have you not learned any more from them?”

“Quite simply, Princess… we have not,” Script said with a sigh. “We’ve only been able to make some basic observations. The Deinos for some reason are all rather reluctant- sometimes even hostile- to our requests for a volunteer. Considering they all possess rather incredible power and have an even shorter temper then the other Thracians, we are rather hesitant to urge them further.”

“For what possible reason could they react in such a way?” Celestia frowned. “Perhaps it is time I have spoken with the Deinos personally.”

“It couldn’t hurt… you that is,” Script stated with a smirk. “We here at the labs are all rather squishy compared to the Thracians.”

“Jokes aside, I highly doubt they would get violent, my dear Script,” Celestia stated. “May I ask about the folder you are holding?”

“This folder is for you, actually,” Script answered and held out the folder to Celestia. “It is a version of everything we have learned through our studies, put in much simpler terms.”

“Ah, thank you,” Celestia replied and took the folder. “Now, what is the progress on the cure for the Thracians.”

“We’ve been learning so much from the Thracians, your highness, half of which is about our own limits, I’m afraid,” Script answered. “We simply do not understand enough about genetics, and that fact is thrown in our face practically every time we try to advance towards that goal. We’ve studied their cells a lot, and they appear to vastly differ from a pony’s cell, to the point that some of my colleagues have started to call them an entirely different species from ponies now. But without seeing just how true that is, and how much has changed, we simply cannot reverse it safely.”

“That… is quite disheartening news to hear.” Celestia frowned. “How long do you believe before the science of genetics will be developed enough that you’ll start seeing progress towards your team’s goal?”

“Honestly? It could be decades, your highness,” Script replied. “There’s no real concrete time frame when it comes to technological development. A pony may discover a breakthrough, or a team may just slog through problems via the scientific method in a lengthy period of time.”

“Decades? That’s… horrible to hear.” Celestia sighed sadly. “I was hoping to help my ponies in a much more timely manner… it’s such a long time for the Thracians to wait.”

“I know, but nothing more can be done, your highness,” Script replied with a sympathetic frown.

“Yes, you are right. Thank you for the update in what your team currently knows, Script,” Celestia said. “I shall be looking through this folder in the near future. I shall be off now. I still have many duties to attend to.”

EPSILON

Belvedere stared down at the table before him, covered in plans, blueprints and notes. Also at the table was Tavish, Bluno and Fenrir.

“Aye, the little lass did a fine job,” Tavish Degroot commented as he studied the various papers. “Stole the blueprints for the palace, snuck into the palace and stole the guard schedule and, with a little help from some mane and coat dye and some paint, she even openly questioned a few guards.”

Belvedere nodded in agreement with Tavish’s assessment. Whisper Wind had done a ton of work in a short amount of time and deserved commendation for it. Honestly, he was a bit worried she may feel some sort of loyalty to the ponies, but she only understandably hesitated a bit before doing as she was asked. No doubt the pony got plenty of the rush and excitement she desired from infiltrating both the City Hall and the Royal Guard HQ.

“My friend does good work, doesn’t she?” Bluno asked with a grin before looking down at the blueprints. “The palace doesn’t look reinforced like Alcoltraz was against undermining… the part that actually sits on a stone ledge, anyway. We’re going to have to plan out a breaching route once we discover the boss’ location, cause we can’t really do anything with open air.”

“Definitely. Where they put Emerald will either ease our breach or make it exceedingly difficult,” Belvedere stated. “I’m hoping beyond hope she’ll be in some sort of vault or cell carved into the mountain, but I am expecting the room to probably be at the top of one of the spires furthest from the mountain.”

“Aw, now that ain’t so much of a problem then, lad,” Tavish said with a big, toothy smile. “We got plenty o’ explosives and I expect the lass to be made of sterner stuff than that tower; enough to survive a several hundred foot fall, anyways.”

“And we just scoop her out of the ruins and go!” Bluno added with a smile of his own.

“I was making an example,” Belvedere stated with utter seriousness. “She could be anywhere in the palace and another factor we must keep in mind at all costs: we do not have Emerald with us. Obvious, I know, but this means we can NOT go toe to toe with the princesses and expect to succeed. This must be planned out carefully; I fully expect to get one real chance at it, and only one chance. We must not fail. We owe Emerald total success and nothing less.”

That sobered up Tavish and the always jovial Bluno quickly, as a silence followed and dominated the room as Fenrir leaned over the table and studied the papers intently.

“Hmm… has this Whisper Wind manage to get any hint of where our young Principem is being held?” Fenrir questioned as he loomed in the Warhound armor he seemed to always wear.

“Whisper hasn’t found any hint of it.” Bluno shook his head. “But she did find out the staff is hiring and says she plans on infiltrating the palace further through this.”

“I’m beginning to understand why that mare was caught despite her natural talent,” Belvedere muttered. “Skill can’t always account for sheer audacity.”

“She can do it,” Bluno stated confidently.

“We can only hope for the best,” Belvedere merely replied.

“I have an idea for finding leads on Emerald’s whereabouts and whether she is even being held in the palace,” Fenrir said. “Looking at this schedule, I can see that a few guards are going on vacation time. If we kidnap a few of them for questioning, it will be a much longer period of time before anyone at the palace starts to get suspicious.”

“I can agree with this plan,” Belvedere stated before frowning even more than usual. “It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to go back to kidnapping ponies, but our paws have been forced. We’ll have Whisper scout out a few during the day and have our best scouts observe them in the night. We’ll take the ones that interact socially the least. That’ll give us an even larger time frame. We’ll also do what Emerald did for those two unicorns we captured. We’ll make sure they never see our faces or truly know where they are being held.”

“Before we go making grand plans all willy nilly, maybe we ought to figure out a way to handle our biggest obstacle first; those goddesses of theirs. I’ve fought plenty o’ things in my time, but I think a bit more than a clunk over the head with me staff is required here.”

“I have another plan for that as well,” Fenrir answered as he crossed his arms. “We take more hostages, not just ponies we need for information; just run of the mill ponies straight off the street and from all walks of life. We hold them over the heads of the princesses and force them to cede to our demands.”

“A risky plan, but… it seems to be the one with greatest chance of success,” Belvedere stated.

“Bloody ruthless is what it is!” Tavish said with a bark before smirking. “I like it! We can even use those guards we’ll kidnap to find out any habits or big events the princesses have or are going to attend. That way, we can plan around, maybe even avoid them altogether.”

“Right,” Belvedere agreed. “Hmm… I think I have something as well to make the hostage plan potentially more successful, but it’s going to require literally several tons of dynamite.”

“Ah ha! Explosives!” Tavish said gleefully. “Let’s hear this little idea of yours, lad! I’m itching to find out!”

“Well first of all, we are going to stockpile as many explosives as possible,” Belvedere began. “Then we are…”

ZETA

Time Turner sighed into his drink of crème soda. He was outside a diner with his circle of friends that now included Rose Locks.

The earth pony hadn’t completely gotten over Emerald, and it was showing. It was hard to not understand why, either. He was unlucky when it came to love, and Emerald was the closest that he had ever come with a mare; so much so that he had begun to wonder if it would become something more all those months ago at that fateful night of the gala.

Bon Bon and Lyra were sitting opposite their long-time friend and looking worried, as was the usual when he got like this. Rose Lock, however, wasn’t trying to comfort Time Turner like before. Now she just started to look annoyed.

It had been several months now, and Time Turner was still mooning over Emerald. The mare couldn’t help but feel a spike of anger and jealously for that fact. So much so that it overrode her desire to comfort the stallion.

“I wonder where she is this time?” Time Turner wondered aloud. “Probably having a grand time on some vacation somewhere…”

“Okay, enough is enough, mister!” Rose shouted and grabbed Time by his collar. “You’ve been moping and sighing about her for long enough! There are plenty of other mares in the world, you know!”

“I’ve tried… loads of times…” Time muttered. “I never get very far. A second or third date if I’m lucky. The dozens I’ve had with Emerald were by far the most dates I’ve had with any single mare.”

“Well maybe you just need to find the right mare,” Rose replied. “Like, oh, I don’t know, me?”

“Wh-what?” Time said with wide eyes. “Bu-but why would-”

“No buts!” Rose said imperiously. “You are going to take me on a date later, it’ll be at a nice restaurant and you are going to treat me very well like the gentlecolt I know you are.”

Time Turner just blinked as he sat in his seat, staring listlessly at Rose. After a moment, the mare gave a huff and left the table before walking down the street with her head held high in the air.

“Uh-uhhh…” Time Turner began as he looked back and forth from the departing Rose and his other friends who were also staring with wide eyes. “D-do you think I should go after her or- actually, I’ll just go right now, yeah…”

At that, Time Turner took off at a quick trot after Rose Locks, intent to catch up to her. Bon Bon and Lyra continued to stare after the two for a moment longer before shooting each other delighted grins and bursting into laughter.

“Called it!” Lyra shouted triumphantly.

“Yes you did, Lyra.” Bon Bon smiled at her friend. “You actually managed to ‘call it’ for once.”

Lyra was proceeding to do a little happy dance in her seat when a voice sounded from above them.

“U-uh h-hey guys,” a familiar voice said nervously.

Bon Bon and Lyra looked up and gasped at what met their sight. It was Clockwork, but he was changed. Like many other ponies, he had been altered by the black dust and made into a Thracian. His coat… it seemed darker, but it wasn’t. It looked like it had gained a grayish tinge, but his mane was definitely darker, turned such a darker shade of brown it was hard to tell if it wasn’t really just black now. His eyes were slitted, but they were an icy, piercing shade of blue and rimmed with black. Whether it was the result of a lack of sleep or of his change couldn’t be certain. And like most podargos, his wings were scaly.

“H-hi. Been a while, huh?” Clock Work said nervously.

“Darn right it’s been a while!” Lyra shouted to a visible flinch from Clock Work. “Where the hay have you been, Clock Work? We’ve been worried and wondering about you!”

“You… you were?” Clock said in surprise and lighted down on the ground before them. “I was fine… I was just worried you’d react badly when you saw that I was… well, this.”

“Pfft. Clock, stop being a stupid colt and sit down. We’ve got awesome news to share with you!” Lyra said with a massive grin.

“Really? What is it?” Clock asked as he took a seat, he didn’t find the fact Lyra was brushing aside his concerns over his appearance so brashly to be insulting. He actually liked the fact that it seemed to matter so little to her.

“It’s about Timer Turner and Rose Locks.” Bon Bon smiled as she leaned in to stage whisper. “They’re a couple now!”

“So Time finally got over Emerald enough to notice Rose mooning over him, huh?” Clock Work stated with a chuckle.

“Oh no, she had to take matters into her own hooves.” Bon Bon smiled. “Wouldn’t call what she was doing mooning, but she wasn’t exactly subtle with the amount of attention and comfort she was offering him.”

“Honestly, I can’t blame the guy for how long he was stuck on Emerald,” Clock said. “I was there for a number of the fashion shows she was modeling in. Let me tell you, she is a sight to behold no matter what she is wearing when she is coming down the catwalk. She never let her status go to her head either; she liked to talk with the backstage staff and the makeup artists a lot.”

“Did you have a thing for her too?” Lyra asked.

“Sort of,” Clock answered with wave of his hoof. “Emerald is a beautiful mare. Couldn’t help but have a crush on her. But it was only recently that we managed to start getting to know each other and become friends. I can definitely say I am firmly on the friend side of the spectrum.”

“So how are you doing, Clock Work?” Bon Bon asked with some concern and worry. “Has your change affected your life beyond the expected?”

“Well it’s lucky I don’t work in front of the stage, and only behind or under it,” Clock Work said with a good humored smile. “The industry I work in is all about vanity, and my looks aren’t exactly appealing to its tastes.”

“Well I think you look pretty awesome!” Lyra said and walked over to study Clock’s appearance. “And those teeth.How sharp are they? Can you bite metal stuff?”

“I found out that fact by accident!” Clock Work said with a smile before baring his teeth so Lyra could look closely at the mouth full of razor sharp canines. “I was drinking a bit of soda and I was still getting used to my new senses. Something startled me, I don’t know what, but I ended up literally eating a chunk of the can when I bit down in surprise.”

“Oh, were you okay?” Bon Bon asked as Lyra marveled at the Thracian’s teeth with sparkling eyes.

“Oh yeah, I swallowed the metal, but I never had an upset stomach from it, surprisingly,” Clock answered.

“Hey, what about these sweet looking wings?” Lyra questioned.

“Ah! I wouldn’t poke at the edges if I were you!” Clock warned as the mare appeared, about to do exactly that. “They aren’t blade wings, but they still have an edge!”

“Sweet~”

Bon Bon just shook her head as she watched Lyra and Clock Work interact. Looking up towards the sky, she found herself wondering about the one friend she hadn’t seen in over a month.

‘I wonder where you are, Emerald?’ Bon Bon thought. ‘Even last time, you weren’t gone this long. I hope nothing has gone wrong.’

ETA

Pinkie Pie stared up almost listlessly from her position on the park bench.

Anyone who even had passing acquaintanceship of Pinkie would know that seeing her this way would be a big warning sign. And that very thing had happened before, but Pinkie just wanted time to think and ponder serious stuff. After all, it’s not all the time that you find out that your bestest best friend is a killer, now is it?

‘Killing is horrible…’ Pinkie Pie thought as she watched the cloud drift by in the sky. ‘It’s an unforgivable crime and whoever does it doesn’t deserve a party ever again. But… Emmy isn’t a bad pony. She’s just… troubled. Gosh, is that what I’m going to call it? Troubled? She killed hundreds, not just back home, but here as well. How am I supposed to take that? How is anypony supposed to take the fact that their friend is a killer?’

Pinkie watched as an orange and yellow streak trailing lightning flashed through the sky, closely followed by a rainbow colored one. She had never done this kind of serious thinking before, but then again she had never really encountered something like this; someone close to her basically being a villain? But then again, her being a villain wasn’t her fault. It was all Mercer’s fault. It was Mercer that preyed on Emerald when she was desperate and gave her a horribly cruel decision. It was because of him that Emerald went through so many horrible things and had to get used to it.

‘Oh Emmy, you are such a strong pony,’ Pinkie thought with a sigh as she watched the two streaks dance far above her. ‘Twilight says you don’t think so, but you are. I don’t know how many ponies could go through what you did and push on for survival despite the horror of it all.’

Pinkie Pie then wondered if she could have pulled through what Emerald did? Could she look in the face of evil and deny it for the prospect of homelessness and starvation? Was she strong enough to go through what Emerald did and not only survive, but grow stronger in darker ways to ensure she continued to survive?

‘I-I don’t know… but I know I definitely wouldn’t be the same pony I was before it,’ Pinkie thought with a shudder. A dark vision of herself flashed through her mind, glaring and blood splattered, curly mane now long and straight and bright pink colors dulled. ‘Oh gosh, Emerald. How horrible it must be for you. I know you are a good pony deep down and these horrible acts you committed must be eating away at you. I hope you don’t have too much of a grudge against us, too. I know Twilight and the rest of us betrayed your trust with what we did… there is really nothing that can be said to excuse what we did, isn’t there? Only the hope that the Elements would work and that they would redeem you and free you of guilt. But they didn’t. They did to you what they did to Discord and Princess Luna… what is up with that, anyway? Discord ain’t so bad once he’s been around Fluttershy for a while, and Luna had this thing possessing her. Why didn’t they just help them? Peace and love. Isn’t that what harmony is all about?’

‘I don’t know about magic stuff…’ Pinkie Pie huffed in annoyance. ‘But the princesses know a lot of magic stuff and even they don’t even know how the Elements work. They don’t really seem that nice anymore…’

‘Emmy…’ Pinkie thought as there was a dull boom and the rainbow streak raced ahead of the orange and red one. ‘You were putting a lot of effort into becoming a better person. When you come back, I’ll be right there by your side to help you out. That’s a Pinkie Promise.’

THETA

It had been a solid month since the day Belvedere found out about Emerald’s sealing, and much had been done.

The vacationing guards had been kidnapped as planned, and much had been learned from questioning the lot of them. Celestia was going to be entertaining a few foreign politicians in a few days, and from the guards knew, she was going to be taking them into one of the forbidden areas to show them something. Whisper Wind was now a maid working at the palace and knew a number of forbidden areas Emerald may be held in. There was a chance, however small, that Celestia was going to show the foreigners Emerald’s holding area, and if that was the case, he wanted Whisper in position to tail her.

As for their tunneling beneath Canterlot, their set up of a tunnel network was made intensely easier via the existence of a crystal strewn series of caverns beneath the capital. Thanks to these caverns, the deployed Warhounds were able to get their tunneling done in record time and set about preparing a number of possible breaching entrances into the palace.

“Is this the rest of it?” Belvedere asked, now wearing his black dragon scale armor.

“Yes it is,” Fenrir replied as he motioned to the bright red barrels of TNT. “We just need to get these in position as well, and all the explosives are set.”

“Good,” Belvedere stated as some dogs walked over to pick up the TNT barrels. “Let’s get started on some basic planning for the breach. I think I should go along with the breaching team and the team should be made up of Warhounds that Emerald had augmented.”

“Hmph. If this goes wrong, we could be robbed of two leaders instead of just one you realise?” Fenrir stated and crossed his arms.

“I know, but as acting leader of the Enclave, I should be the one to issue the demands to Celestia’s face,” Belvedere stated.

“It’s stupid and risky is what it is, lad!” Tavish hollered as he strolled over in his own suit of dragon scale armor. “Better to leave the grunt work to us and have you at the back like a proper commander.”

“But I’m not a commander, now am I?” Belvedere simply stated. “I am acting leader.”

“HA! You make a fine alpha, lad!” Tavish said with a wide toothy smile. “Success or failure, I’ll be making sure you make it back, lad. No pack should be without at least one competent alpha.”

“Hmph. I suppose I don’t count as competent?” Fenrir commented with a huff. “You never seemed to be listening when you were told to respect your elders, Tavish.”

“Bah, the both of us know how to do one thing and one thing only!” Tavish stated and waved his war staff pointedly. “The lad here knows how to run a nation and that takes a bit more skill than waving a weapon at something till it gives up.”

“Point,” Fenrir admitted after a moment.

There was one thing that had Belvedere worried, though. From what they knew from the kidnapped guards, Emerald had been spotted going into the palace but not coming out. They could have moved her to some other location and their whole assumption of Celestia deciding to keep Emerald nearby could be a whole waste of time, with quite possibly dear costs.

‘No, Emerald is famous and since there hasn’t been some massive announcement about who she really is, then Celestia wants to play this close to her chest,’ Belvedere thought intently. ‘She wouldn’t want to chance her statue being revealed while in transit to some other location. She may be able to simply wave it off as a normal statue, but I doubt Emerald was in a normal statue appropriate pose when she was sealed.’

Belvedere looked up towards the ceiling and towards the city above with a grave stare.

‘You helped me- helped us- become something so much more. You helped regain our old glories and go on to surpass them,’ Belvedere thought seriously. ‘I will help you now that you need it most.’

IOTA

In the two months she had spent in this prison of hers, Emerald had spent the first doing nothing and the latter changing the world.

Some people talked about how the Red Zone would look like a whole different planet in a few months. Emerald had managed it in a month. Canterlot and the mountain had been subsumed completely in viral matter, which had spread far beyond. Massive tendril stalks stretched out into the sky, absorbing air moisture and air as they grew by the countless thousands and far beyond the clouds. More tendrils spread out below, consuming and transforming miles and miles of earth into viral matter, to the point that the whole of Equestria was now all viral matter, building and all.

Emerald didn’t know if she was actually doing anything, but she didn’t know what else to do and just continued on with single-minded determination. It wasn’t exactly easy. Turning the false Equestria into a viral hell scape was a horrifyingly easy task, but while she was working, she was assaulted by horrible memories the entire time. It was a struggle at times to continue to fight onwards; if she had eyes, she would be crying a constant stream of tears and sometimes she felt a near overpowering urge just to give in and curl up on the ground. But she metaphorically clawed and crawled for life, clinging to the happy memories she had experienced in Equestria.

‘I-I-I don’t blame them for b-betraying me…’ Emerald thought. ‘I’m a selfish killer, a thief, a destroyer of lives. Why do I deserve a happy ending while my victims and their families pay the price? But they haven’t abandoned me, despite the truth. I hear them sometimes along with Twilight’s many visits and I just finished saying I am selfish… a monster always struggles for life and I guess I’m audacious for wanting more than to simply live. I know I don’t deserve that happiness, but I am going to go ahead and reach for it anyway.’

Emerald’s tendrils consuming the landscape were now reaching beyond all of this false Equestria’s borders. Deep below, tendrils reached beyond the crust and started to dig into the molten mass of the mantle. Tendrils reached the coast and dived into the ocean and released countless billions of viral matter into the sea, rapidly converting water into more viral matter. The massive tendril stalks reaching into the sky were now being covered with frost as they started to reach into the upper most reaches of the atmosphere before space. Suddenly, all attempts to reach beyond Equestria, below, above and beyond stopped.

Emerald frowned internally. She felt some sort of barrier blocking her attempts to expand further. The more she forced against this barrier, however, Emerald found it did have give to it, ever so slight though it was. Taking this as sign that she actually was making great progress in freeing herself, she redoubled her efforts, the elation she felt seemed to tear through the horrible memories assaulting her and rendered them nigh useless.

“Foul, murderous creature!” a voice suddenly boomed and startled Emerald into inaction briefly. “Alien contamination and destroyer of the grand path! You must stay here, where you will cause no further damage to the path! Struggle no more, if the sentiments of those you consider friends mean anything you will remain!”

Emerald paused at this. It was true that this world was obviously not meant for her, and for the first time since arriving here she wondered what would have happened if she had never come. A near instant later, she shook the thought out of her mind and went back to work on the barrier. What ifs and maybes didn’t matter, especially in a time and place like this. Freedom was obviously in reach and she would be damned if she didn’t take it.

A million mouths opened upon the continental mass that was now Emerald and her voice sprung from them all at once.

“Fuck off, I’m leaving.”

There was a deafening scream of indignant rage as Emerald went back to work. If the virus had been paying attention, she would have noticed the assault of horrific memories had redoubled, but she hadn’t. Why would she have?

After all, freedom was within reach.

KAPPA

Belvedere took in a deep breath to calm himself from the sense of rising excitement. He was in the caverns under Canterlot, having taken to staying and sleeping there until they failed or succeeded in their plot. As of right now, he was sitting against a wall while wearing his armor.

Today would be a day of action; he could feel it. He had acted on this feeling and several squads of Warhounds were in place to begin rapidly kidnapping ponies for use as bargaining chips. More squads were at the ready with TNT plungers and scouts were in position to relay orders and messages as quickly as possible throughout the tunnels and even Canterlot.

And now it was a matter of simply waiting for updates from Whisper Wind. The former thief had managed to infiltrate a few of the forbidden areas of the palace. One was a dusty library with a sleepy librarian and another simply had a mirror in it. There were a few other rooms that were forbidden, but Belvedere was hoping that Whisper Wind tailing the princess as she lead some politicians to one forbidden area would give them the breakthrough they were hoping for.

“Oy lad!” Tavish shouted as he suddenly appeared from one tunnel. “It’s time!”

Belvedere was on his feet in an instant and quickly running after Tavish as the dog quickly ran back the way he came. Soon, Belvedere arrived in a room were all the augmented dogs were awaiting in their gear and guns.

“Alright, tell me what’s happened,” Belvedere stated as he gave a look over his own gear one last time.

“The little lass managed to overhear something that the politicians said,” Tavish responded. “Apparently they are here to see ‘The Monster’ that Celestia told them about.”

“The monster, huh?” Belvedere stated with a frown. One of Emerald’s forms was known as the Monster of Everfree. “That’s as far as confirmation straight from the source as we’ll ever get, I believe.”

“Whisper’s been following them and from what she can see, they are heading straight for a vault carved inside the mountain,” Tavish said with a grin.

“Well isn’t that unfortunate,” Belvedere said with a rare grin of his own. “It’s time! Tell everyone to get ready and to start collecting as many hostages as possible!”

“Right boss!” some Warhounds barked and quickly took off at a sprint to spread the news.

“Let’s get ourselves in position to breach this vault,” Belvedere stated grimly. “It’s about time I’ve had a few words with this goddess of theirs.”

“Right behind you, Belvedere,” Fenrir stated as the greyhound took the lead.

As Belvedere ran down several tunnels to get into position in one of the many tunnels, he pondered the situation. He was about to break into the domain of a goddess and not only make demands of her, but use threats of force and hostages to make her give in. This was definitely a far cry from over a year ago when he was a borderline starved alpha leading a small group of dogs on mining expeditions and slave raids. But that very fact made him more determined than ever to force Celestia into returning Emerald to them. She changed their lives and helped them without them asking her of it. It was time they did the same.

Arriving in the tunnel next to the palace, Belvedere and his Warhounds moved along it until they reached the approximate position next to the vault. The Warhounds set to work quickly. Merely setting an ear against the wall, they could tell no one was in the room and so they quickly excavated around the vault. Once done, they then waited until Celestia arrived; they didn’t have long to wait.

Belvedere heard the sound of talking and footsteps upon a hard floor through the wall that had an ear pressed against. He turned towards the Warhounds around him and simply nodded his head.

All the augmented Warhounds were now very strong thanks to Emerald’s augmentations. Because of that, all of them just had to raise their arms above their heads and bring them down once to shatter the walls of the vault.

Belvedere leapt forward the moment an opening was made, quickly followed by the Warhounds. Their breaching placed them at quite a height and this room seemed to be rather tall. Belvedere fell ten feet and rolled upon impacting the ground, coming to a stand before a wide eyed Princess Celestia as the other Warhound just dropped down onto the floor with a soft bang.

To Celestia’s perspective, she was talking to two people when the walls near the ceiling suddenly exploded out and a storm of armored Diamond Dogs seemed to teleport into the room, all of them appearing rather muscular with a slender one now practically right in her face.

Belvedere took in his surroundings quickly as he grasped his revolver for a sense of security in the face of the task before him. The room was large, square and fairly plain in stark contrast to the grandiose hall that lead into the large barred door and the room. The two politicians that Celestia had been talking to were griffins. One was fairly large, easily a full head above Celestia and had a grey coat of fur along with black feathers on his head and wings. The feathers on his head appeared a bit on the unkempt side with how wild they appeared. He wore a dark blue braided doublet made of fine materials and had a polished gray steel crown upon his head that seemed to double as a sort of helmet. Said crown also had a gem that Belvedere knew was a storm sapphire from the way the lightning danced within upon its front. The other griffin was far smaller than the first, more pony sized, and had a light brown coat along with darker brown feathers. He wore a light blue and white hooded robe, streaked decoratively with lightning and bore a claw made of lightning upon its back. Though the larger griffin only looked guarded, the little one was very shocked looking and stared with wide eyes at the scene before through the tiny pair of spectacles sitting upon his beak.

Belvedere looked over his shoulder and saw Emerald’s statue sitting in the middle of the room, her expression frozen in one of pain and betrayal. The very sight of the look on her face made Belvedere’s paw tighten around his revolver.

Quickly getting a hold of himself, the greyhound focused his attention on the task at hand. Before he began speaking, however, he noticed that Celestia was eyeing the Warhound’s weapons with wide eyes; she knew what they were.

“Princess Celestia,” Belvedere began. “I am Belvedere. I am an Alpha of the Diamond Dogs. I am here to demand Emerald Gleaner’s release.”

“I’m afraid I cannot comply with your demands,” Celestia replied.

“I knew that would be your response. Know that we are now holding many dozens of ponies hostage and have placed TNT throughout your city,” Belvedere said grimly. “Again, we demand that you release Emerald Gleaner. And make no mistake. If you try to resist or apprehend us here and now, it will make no difference with the hostages we possess and bombs we have planted.”

“Please, you don’t understand,” Celestia began, eyes wide with worry. “I cannot free Emerald. I’ve tried to do so! I simply can’t do it.”

“A likely story,” Belvedere stated and took a step closer as the large griffin shot Celestia a sharp look. “I do not believe you.”

Celestia was about to retort when she noticed the large griffin began to move his wings slightly in preparation for a Storm Wing attack.

“Please don’t do anything,” Celestia said to him quickly. “Let me handle this.”

Having his preparation to attack revealed brought a scowl out of the griffin, and several dogs focused their large rifles on him. Fenrir in particular stepped forward.

“Don’t try anything,” he warned.

“And you think a cannon as puny as that can do anything more than sting me?” the griffin challenged with a scoff.

“This is no cannon,” Fenrir simply stated and kept his rifle aligned with the griffin’s head.

Down the hall, a familiar person peered quietly around the corner and spied the situation in the vault with a frown; it was Discord. Ponies being held hostage and bombs planted all over Canterlot? That sounded rather… distressing. For those who had to worry about them anyway.

Just before Discord was about to lean back out of sight, he suddenly stopped. The image of Fluttershy smiling and offering a cup of tea flashed through his mind. Discord tapped his finger on the wall for a few moments and hummed with thought. Then, with a sigh, the Draconequis leaned back around the corner and raised a hand, ready to snap his fingers.

Back in the vault, the situation only seemed to grow ever tenser, with Belvedere beginning to feel angry at Celestia denying his demand and Celestia growing increasingly worried at Belvedere’s insistence. Suddenly, there was a loud crack that made everyone turn towards the source of the noise.

It was Emerald’s statue, which now had a large crack running along the side of it. There was more cracking noises as marks began to spider web throughout Emerald’s statue. There was a long, silent moment as everyone stared at the cracking statue when there was a loud explosion and blinding flash of light.

When the light faded and everyone turned to look back at Emerald’s statue, they saw the virus standing there, free of her seal. For the first time ever, she actually looked tired. She was panting, her mane and coat looked ragged and her eyelids were drooping. After a few moments of panting, she fixed Belvedere with a tired stare.

“… I heard what you said before, Belvedere,” Emerald stated tiredly. “Stand down, release your hostages and dismantle the explosives. Pack up and return to base.”

“Are you sure?” Belvedere questioned, throwing a glance towards Celestia. “She did seal you before…”

“It won’t happen again, will it?” Emerald said, first to Belvedere, then to Celestia with a steady stare.

“No, dear Emerald, it won’t.” Celestia shook her head.

Getting the feeling that Emerald wouldn’t appreciate her orders being questioned more, Belvedere simply nodded and gestured to the other dogs who began climbing back up the walls and into the holes. He made his way as well, but came to a stop beside Emerald.

“If you need us…” he began.

“I know where to find you,” Emerald reassured. “Be sure to close up the holes when you leave.”

With that, Belvedere made his leave and the breaches in the wall closed with a rumble soon after.

Emerald approached Celestia and looked at the griffins to her side and just behind her. Taking their appearance in for a few moments, Emerald looked back to Celestia.

“Who are they?” she questioned.

“I am the Grand Prince of the Griffin Principalities,” the Grand Prince answered for Celestia. “And you… you killed many of my people.”

“I did,” Emerald simply stated and moved to stand in front of him. “And as you just saw, I also broke free of the Elements of Harmony’s sealing through my own power. What do you intend to do?”

The tall griffin simply stared and was silent for a long moment. He was subtle and had a good poker face, but Emerald could see the look in his eyes; he was thinking intently. What did he know? How much did he know? Emerald didn’t know, but she was going to assume he knew exactly what kind of power he was dealing with.

“Celestia… I shall hold true to my side of the bargain,” the Grand Prince simply stated to the utter shock of his griffin companion. “Come, we are leaving.”

The other griffin stared in disbelief at his liege’s decision before quickly moving after him. When they passed the vault door, however, the smaller griffin paused and shot Emerald an unreadable look before continuing after the Grand Prince.

‘When you have a choice between a fight you can’t win and not fighting that fight at all…’ Emerald thought as she stared after the griffins. ‘You bite down your pride and don’t fight.’

“Emerald?” Celestia said as she stepped beside the virus.

“Why do they know anything about me?” Emerald asked neutrally.

“… Ever since that… event in the Everfree with the Griffin Prince and his knights, trade relations between Equestria and the Principality has deteriorated,” Celestia stated with a sigh. “Trade prices increased and Equestria in the state it’s in can’t afford the prosperous trade it used to enjoy with the Principality. In exchange for showing him the Monster that slayed his griffins, the Grand Prince promised better trade rates, and his secrecy.”

“… I don’t blame you for that,” Emerald said quietly, though inwardly she did feel some bitterness over being exposed like that. “After all, I am the reason why Equestria is in the state it is.”

“I had to do what was best for all my ponies, Emerald,” Celestia stated softly.

“And I am not a pony,” Emerald said with a nod.

“Emerald, what you are doesn’t matter in the least,” Celestia said in gentle rebuke.

“Even if I’m a murderer?” Emerald said hollowly, looking at the Princess out of the corner of her eye.

“Emerald…” Celestia sighed and shook her head; she didn’t how to respond to that. “You appear rather tired. There is a sitting room nearby.”

“…I am tired.” Emerald nodded and followed after Celestia when began to lead the way. “…Princess?”

“Yes?” Celestia said as the two of them left the vault.

“Could you get Twilight to come here?” Emerald asked. “I would like to see her very much.”

“Of course, Emerald,” Celestia said and pointed towards a pair of double doors. “This is the sitting room. Take a seat inside and I’ll go send the letter. I’ll be with you in a moment.”

Emerald opened the doors as Celestia walked off to find some parchment and an open window. The sitting room was simply a carpeted chamber of the palace filled with armchairs, couches and love seats. One wall was lined with windows that stretched to the ceiling and allowed the afternoon sun to shine in.

Emerald simply flopped into the first piece of furniture she could reach, a love seat with its back to the door. She stayed on the couch with her eyes closed, stuck in a limbo between being awake and wanting to drift away, but knowing what would happen if she did. After several long minutes, she heard someone walk into the room.

“Emerald?” Celestia said quietly. “Are you asleep?”

“You know I don’t sleep,” Emerald stated and opened her eyes.

“I also know that you do sleep, sometimes,” Celestia replied as she took a seat on an opposing armchair.

“And get horrific nightmares whenever I do,” Emerald said bluntly.

“From what my sister tells me, you typically get nightmares when they are trying to tell you something,” Celestia stated gently.

“I know what my nightmares are telling me,” Emerald scowled angrily. “I don’t need to get tormented every time I sleep to get the message.”

Celestia remained quiet and let Emerald’s anger sieve for a few moments.

“I suppose there is something you want to talk about?” Emerald said after a few moments.

“Do you have any plans for the future?” Celestia asked.

“I… don’t,” Emerald answered. “My plan was to become the strongest around here, so that I wouldn’t be threatened by anything… now that I’ve mostly accomplished that, I’m kind of aimless. I suppose my plan is just to take things as they come, one day at a time.”

“Hmm… what of your past?” Celestia asked. “May I ask how you feel about the time you spent in Mercer’s ‘employ’?”

“Guilty,” Emerald said with a sigh. “I’ve always felt guilty and probably always will for the things I’ve done in order to survive. But at the same time, I did those things because I did them to survive. As terrible as all my actions were in the past, I’d still do them again if it meant survival.”

“Does that mean if you were given the choice again, you would choose to kill the griffins?” Celestia asked curiously.

“…Oh,” Emerald said with a deeply unhappy frown. “That is one thing I would change… God damn it all! Why was I so weak? Why couldn’t I have-”

“It’s easy for one to assume acts of heroism would come easily in times of stress and burden,” Celestia said. “That one would rise to the challenge and face evil head on with courage. It never occurs to one that they may not be the knight in shining armor and may be driven to selfish acts.”

“It doesn’t excuse what I did, and a pony would not have done what I did in the first place,” Emerald stated and faced Celestia. “And you know it.”

“Perhaps, but like you have said, you aren’t a pony and it would hardly be fair to expect you to work by our social standards and norms,” Celestia said gently. “None of us were born on a world without compassion like yours.”

“There is compassion, though,” Emerald protested.

“From the people, and I am glad you can still see that,” Celestia smiled. “The world itself could hardly care.”

“Just because my life sucks doesn’t mean everyone else’s does as well,” Emerald said softly. “For everything that’s happened, I only have myself to blame. When I arrived in this world, I could have just settled down and lived a peaceful and mundane life. Did I do that? No. I let my fear of those stronger than me drive me to acts of brutality. Twilight told you that I nearly killed her when I first met her, right?”

“That she did,” Celestia replied with no emotion.

“Yeah, not my proudest moment.” Emerald smiled remorsefully. “It took me reminding myself that Mercer, who I saw die, was dead to keep me from ultimately following through with it. It’s all thanks to her. If it was just me, I don’t know what depths I could have continued to fall to, but she stopped me from falling further. She helped me get back up and see a reason to be happy again. They all helped me to be happy again. And most of the time, I was hoping one of them would suffer a horrible accident so I didn’t have to be bothered with getting rid of them myself. Oh god… I never wanted to be this way… I just wanted to be a baker when I grew up.”

Celestia was silent, simply letting Emerald vent and confess. Suddenly, there was a short knock at the door. Knowing who it would be, Celestia called for them to come in.

“You may enter!” the princess said.

“Princess Celestia?” Twilight said as she opened the door and closed it behind her. “I got your letter. What did you wish to see me about?”

“Come over here, my dear Twilight,” Celestia beckoned with a smile as Twilight couldn’t see Emerald due to the couch’s positioning. “I believe you’ll like what I have here to show you.”

“Oh… what is it, princess?” Twilight asked as she came closer and stepped in front of the couch Emerald was lying in.

“Hey there, Twilight,” Emerald greeted with a tired smile. “Happy Hearts and Hooves Day…”

“Oh my gosh… Emerald!” Twilight exclaimed in shock with wide eyes.

A long moment of silence followed as Twilight simply stood in place and stared at Emerald, looking like she was on the verge of crying. After a few moments of appearing to fight it, she finally let tears start to flow.

“E-Emerald, I’m s-so sor-” Twilight began.

“Shhh… it’s alright, Twilight,” Emerald said and magically pulled Twilight onto the couch with her. “I heard everything you said to me while I was sealed. Nothing more needs to be said.”

“…Please?” Twilight simply said as she lied against Emerald.

After a moment, Emerald nodded.

“I’m so sorry, Emerald,” Twilight apologised. “I never intended for this to happen. All I wanted to do was to help you and make it so we didn’t have anything to worry about. I just wanted to help. I never meant to seal you away for so long…”

Emerald held onto Twilight as she apologised for her actions. While this was happening, Celestia decided it was best to give the two some privacy and left the room. This continued on for a minute longer before Twilight finished her apologising and she just enjoyed having Emerald back. After a while, Emerald felt like she was actually beginning to drift off when she heard a voice.

“Hey there, boss,” said what must have been Whisper Wind in disguise. She was wearing a maid’s uniform, but her coat was yellow and her mane was varying shades of dark blue; likely her cutie mark had been altered as well with paint. “Sorry to disturb you and all, but there’s some stuff going on back home that kinda needs you to look at it.”

“What’s going on?” Emerald asked as she continued to hold Twilight.

“You know those pods you made?” Whisper said. “They’ve started crying a while back and we had to get some of the old nannies to sing to them every day. We think they miss you.”

“Right, I’ll handle it right now. Twilight, I’m sorry but I have to go,” Emerald said and gave the unicorn a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you later back home at the library, okay?”

Twilight nodded and Emerald disappeared in a flash of light. Then it was just Twilight lying on the loveseat Emerald had vacated, and Whisper Wind leaning over the back of it. The former thief’s expression grew unfriendly the moment Emerald disappeared and Twilight knew the reason why.

“You are so bucking lucky you still have her. You know that, right?” Whisper Wind scowled. “You stabbed her in the back with the excuse of trying to help her. You sure as hay don’t deserve her.”

“…I know,” Twilight said, averting her eyes away from Whisper.

“Guess this means you get to come back to the Enclave again, I suppose,” Whisper said unhappily. “Don’t expect anyone to give you a warm welcoming.”

“I know… I’m sorry…”

Whisper shook her head with a scoff and turned away and left out the door, closing it with a bang behind her.

Twilight continued to lie on the loveseat and curled up with an unhappy sigh.

LAMBDA

‘So lonely… where is mommy?’ the creature thought unhappily.

It had been so long since mommy had last visited them. There were others who sang songs that made him and his brothers and sisters feel better, but they weren’t mommy. They were nice and said comforting things, but their presence didn’t give the rush of warmth and happiness that mommy’s presence did.

Suddenly, the creature could hear the sound of footsteps and wondered what songs it would hear today.

“Hey there, heard you guys missed me?” a familiar voice said.

‘Mommy!’ the creature thought and let out a happy call, hearing its brothers and sisters let happy croons of their own.

“It’s okay, I’m here now,” Mommy said comfortingly. “You guys are getting bigger. Won’t be long before you get to get out of those pods and walk around. Figure I ought to stay in here for a while. You know, to make it up to everyone for being gone so long. I heard they were singing to you, too. Maybe I should do that as well? Let’s see… what would be a good song? Alright, I have one. I’ll just conjure an instrument here, alright… There’s a monster that lives underneath your bed~”

There were calls of happiness and excitement following that announcement but the creature didn’t really care about that too much in this moment. Mommy was back and that was the only thing that mattered.

“There’s a creature a lurks behind the door~” Emerald continued to sing. “Though I’ve checked there fifteen times~ When I leave, he then arrives every night~”

By the time Emerald arrived back at the library, it was already midnight. Comforting her creatures took a good few hours. On top of that was finding out what Belvedere had been up to in her absence. She didn’t hold any of it against him, and found his loyalty touching, but it was still all a rather large mess that Emerald had to figure out how to fix. When it started to get late, she decided she left Twilight alone long enough and made her way home via teleport.

Entering the library, Emerald wasn’t surprised in the least to find it dark and quiet. In all likelihood, everyone was now asleep. Making her way up the stairs, Emerald walked into Twilight’s bedroom to find her fast asleep like she thought. Over on her bedside table was Navi, also fast asleep in her tiny little bed and wearing her little green sleeping cap.

The virus turned to walk down into the library to read the night away when a voice stopped her.

“Emerald?” Twilight said and turned over to face the virus. “Welcome home… could you sleep with me?”

Emerald blinked and stood frozen in spot for a moment before quickly shaking it off.

‘She’s a pony, remember?’ Emerald reminded herself. ‘She’s asking you to sleep beside her, not have sex with her.’

“Sure, Twilight.” Emerald smiled softly and walked over. “Move over a little.”

Emerald slipped under the covers after Twilight moved over for her and the unicorn then curled up next to Emerald. The virus smiled and wrapped an arm around her, and before long she could hear Twilight’s breath and heartbeat slow as she fell asleep.

‘Must have been waiting for me,’ Emerald thought with a small smile before frowning. ‘Everyone knows now; the girls, Princesses Luna and Celestia. What do I do? How I do I handle this? Are they still going to treat me like a friend or are things going to be different between us? How is Luna going to react? Am I still going to be her student?’

Emerald didn’t know the answers to any of these questions. And wondering just what tomorrow had to bring had her worried all night.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: Alright that took a while but this chapter needed to be done correctly the first time considering how important things in this are, and hopefully I managed to do them all right. Even more character interaction and development next chapter, along with the creatures’ physical forms finally being revealed! I bit you are all excited about that last one.

EN: When I was given a little… “sneak peek” you could say, by Legionary a few days ago, about what was happening, I had one simple response. He told me that things with Time Turner were being resolved. My answer was, “Screw Time Turner. I care about Emerald.” And you know what? I bet a lot of you could probably say the same thing. Now that’s not to say that fixing Time Turner up with Rose Locks is a bad thing in any way. Heck, I wholeheartedly approve of it. Just like I wholeheartedly approve of Lyra and Clock Work getting together. My shipping senses are going off the charts here and I am just loving it. xD Anyways, great way to pull this chapter off without it seeming like Emerald busted out so quickly, yet still making it so that we didn’t have to wait as long to see her back in action. Truthfully, this kind of seems like a good ending. However, I’m pretty sure it isn’t… unless I’m being lied to. But I digress. Good to see Emerald back in action, and can’t wait to see how all of this affects everybody else who was or wasn’t mentioned in this chapter. Until that time, however, peace out and enjoy the chapter.

Chapter 10: Separation

There was the sound of sizzling in the air as vegetables cooked in a frying pan.

Emerald was humming a little song as she cooked breakfast for everyone. In her mane, Navi was nested happily, the two having made a really happy reunion that morning. Having finished the vegetables, she focused her attention on the pancakes and beans. On the counter was a small bowl of gems, a side dish made especially for Spike. Speaking of said baby dragon…

“…Spike.” Emerald sighed tiredly and threw a glance over her shoulder.

The little dragon was just outside the door and looking into the kitchen with a mixture of nervousness and some fear.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, you know,” Emerald stated as she continued cooking. “So you can stop hiding. Besides, breakfast is almost ready.”

Spike gulped audibly as he hesitantly walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. He nervously sat at the table and shot looks at Emerald as she continued to cook. He knew what Emerald was, having been told the truth about her soon after she was sealed in stone. And now he couldn’t help but feel afraid. Here was someone who was more powerful than the princesses, more powerful than Discord, even more powerful than the ELEMENTS OF HARMONY themselves! Those facts alone probably would have made him feel more awe than fear if it weren’t for the fact that Emerald had admitted to killing people. If she wanted to hurt him, there was literally nothing he could do to stop her as the Elements were proven to be only capable of slowing her for a time.

“Spike, just relax,” Emerald urged as she finished up the pancakes and beans. “Think of it this way. If I wanted to hurt you, I had countless chances to do so in the past.”

“W-well… in the past I didn’t know the truth about you…” Spike stated nervously.

‘Spike… how in the world do I make you relax around me?’ Emerald thought as she placed food in three separate plates for everyone. ‘…Damn, I don’t have a clue of how to do this.’

Emerald sighed as she levitated the plates to the table. Spike fidgeted nervously in his chair as his plate was placed before him with the gem side dish for him to enjoy as well. She watched Spike half-heartedly poke at his food at the edge of his vision for a few moments before deciding on a course of action.

“Spike, I know there is probably nothing I can do to make you feel better about me,” Emerald began, causing Spike to actually acquire a look of guilt on his face. “So how about I use my money to buy you the biggest and tastiest gems you want? I’ll even get a few juicy ones from my own gem horde.”

“Really?” Spike stated quite eagerly. “I mean… well that sounds nice… I mean it’s obviously a bribe and all but…”

“Buuuut?” Emerald said with a raised brow.

“Umm… it sounds good though,” Spike offered with a bit of a smile before digging into his breakfast with much more energy than before.

‘It’s probably not much, but it’s something,’ Emerald thought as the sound of hooves on a wooden floor announced Twilight’s approach.

“Good morning everypony!” Twilight announced as she entered the kitchen with a smile. Taking a seat at the table, she took in her hot breakfast. “Did you make this, Emerald? Thank you! It looks delicious!”

“Well someone is certainly chipper this morning,” Emerald stated as Twilight leaned over and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek, not bothering to keep up the pony vernacular among people in the know. “Have a good sleep?”

“I did!” Twilight smiled and began eating her meal. “I just felt so well rested when I woke up this morning. And… I think I know why.”

“Ah, I think I see too,” Emerald stated with a sly smile as she started eating her own meal. “I suppose we’re now at the sleeping in the same bed part of our relationship.”

“I-I suppose so,” Twilight replied with flushed cheeks.

“Well pleasant things aside,” Emerald began after swallowing a spoonful of beans. “Today is going to be a stressful day.”

“…Yes it is,” Twilight agreed quietly.

Emerald had spent the whole day doing things in the Enclave, learning what Belvedere had been up to and making sure issues she could handle on the spot were dealt with, and while she had been doing that Twilight had informed the others that Emerald was now free. The reactions were mixed to say the least. The only one that looked outwardly happy at the news was Pinkie Pie, who cheered at the news. Everyone just frowned and was quiet for a long moment. Pinkie wanted to see Emerald right away, but the others… they wanted a bit of time before meeting Emerald on their own terms and went on their way from there.

“Do you think anyone besides you will still be my friend?” Emerald said almost casually, causing Spike to get an uncomfortable look on his face and Twilight to shoot her a worried one.

“I… I’m sure you are just being cynical,” Twilight tried.

“We’ll see, won’t we?” Emerald said and quickly finished off the rest of her breakfast. “I’ll wait for you by the door.”

“Actually, I don’t feel that hungry,” Twilight said and left her plate half uneaten. “Spike, could you clean up for us please?”

“Alright, sure thing, Twilight,” Spike said as he continued to eat his breakfast. “I’ll see you two later.”

Emerald and Twilight were soon outside and making their way.

“So who should we see first?” Emerald asked.

“Well…” Twilight began when a bush suddenly rushed up to her and held out a note taped to a stick. “Huh?”

Twilight stared at the letter attached to the stick for a moment before taking it. The moment she did, the bush suddenly took off down the street, four pink hooves faintly seen just beneath it. Twilight stared after the bush in confusion for a moment before looking back down at the letter and seeing it was addressed to Emerald.

“Pinkie Pie, huh?” Emerald stated as she took the letter and quickly tore it open and read the letter inside. “You are invited to a “You’re a Good Pony!” party at the barn in Sweet Apple Acres… Well at least it looks like Pinkie Pie is fine with me. From the look of things, I’ll be finding out how Applejack feels about everything before long.”

“See? I told you everything will be alright,” Twilight said with a small smile as she walked alongside Emerald.

“Well Pinkie is Pinkie. This doesn’t mean I can expect everyone else to be on my side,” Emerald replied with a sigh.

“Emerald, you are being rather insistent on how the girls are going to leave you,” Twilight said with a frown. “Don’t you think you should have a little faith in them?”

“It’s not about having faith. It’s about realising the reality of the situation,” Emerald replied bluntly.

Twilight sighed at that and realised she wasn’t going to be changing Emerald’s opinion on what was going to happen any time soon. The trip to Sweet Apple Acres passed in silence, and before long the two were before the barn. They opened up the big door to the sound of noisemakers and kazoos going off and confetti blasting into the air.

“Welcome to your party!” Pinkie Pie cheered happily with a somber looking Applejack beside her and wearing a party hat. Over them was a large colorful banner saying ‘YOU’RE A NICE PONY!’ Pinkie Pie then rapidly bounded towards Emerald and leapt at her, wrapping her in a hug that would have toppled a normal person.

“Hi Pinkie,” Emerald greeted and couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto her face. Her smile turned into a frown after Pinkie didn’t let go of her after several moments. “Uh… you going to let go anytime soon?”

“Nope!” Pinkie answered cheerfully. “Gonna make up for two months absence!”

“Ah,” Emerald said with a deadpan look and simply resigned to her situation. “Well then…”

Twilight smiled at the two and approached Applejack who was now frowning at the sight of them. The cowpony was staring steadily at Emerald with an unreadable look on her face, making Twilight more than a little uncomfortable.

“Uh, hello Applejack,” Twilight said in greeting. “How are you?”

“Fine,” Applejack answered stiffly before approaching Emerald who was still being tightly hugged by Pinkie.

“Hey there sugarcube,” Applejack said to Pinkie. “Mind if I speak to Emerald for a minute?”

“Okie dokie!” Pinkie Pie replied cheerfully. “I’ll get the rest of my hugs later Emmy!”

“Joy,” Emerald stated flatly with an amused smile.

“Emerald,” Applejack greeted flatly as she stood a bit close to the virus.

“Hello Applejack,” Emerald greeted with an equally flat voice.

“So… was everything we went through jus’ a lie?” Applejack asked with a steely stare. “Was everything just an act?”

“You know I could say that I never actually lied, but you don’t care about technicalities,” Emerald replied with a sigh. “Honestly? It was… at first. But later on as I spent more and more time around all of you, I just… the lie became a reality.”

“Huh…” Applejack stated simply with another unreadable look. “Well I thank ya kindly for the honesty. When yer done in the barn, I want ya to leave.”

And with that, Applejack pulled off her party hat and made for the barn exit. Emerald stared after her with a sad look, but in the end she had expected this exact reaction. She felt she should just leave things be after what Applejack just said, but she also felt she needed to know with absolute certainty that this was the end.

“What does this mean, Applejack?” Emerald called after the cowpony. “Is this the end? Is there anything at all between us?”

Applejack stood just outside the barn for several moments before calling back over her shoulder.

“We’re still friends. We jus’… we’re jus’ a mite bit distant right now,” Applejack answered before leaving.

“…” Emerald stared at the exit of the barn for a long moment with a frown before sighing. “One down…”

“Emmy, AJ didn’t say you both weren’t friends anymore!” Pinkie cried out. “She just needs a bit of time is all, and everything will be okay again!”

“She didn’t need to say we weren’t,” Emerald simply replied. “Not when we could just stay in distant limbo for the rest of her life.”

“Emerald…” Twilight said with a shake of her head.

“I’m sorry Pinkie, but I’m not really in the mood to party right now,” Emerald apologised. “I just want to see if anyone else will still be my friend or if it will be just you and Twilight.”

“Oh…” Pinkie said unhappily. “Well, okay…”

“Well, Rainbow Dash should be the closest,” Twilight said. “She told me she’ll be waiting for you to see her yesterday.”

“Then lead the way, Twilight,” Emerald said before turning towards Pinkie. “You can tag along too if you want, Pinkie.”

“Sure thing, Emmy,” Pinkie Pie replied and wrapped Emerald in a much shorter hug than before. “You need all the friends you can get today.”

“Thanks, Pinkie.” Emerald smiled. “For what it’s worth, I would have understood if you shared the same feelings as Applejack.”

“But I didn’t, Emmy,” Pinkie replied as she followed the virus out of the barn. “I like making ponies smile, and abandoning you would make you so sad! I can’t bear the thought of me doing that to you!”

“You are too kind, Pinkie. You really are.” Emerald smiled softly at her friend as she followed Twilight.

Pinkie just gave Emerald a wide, toothy smile as they continued on. Before long, they arrived in a grassy field just outside Ponyville. Hanging just ten feet off the ground was a cloud, and sitting on it was Rainbow Dash. Using her powerful sight, Emerald could see Rainbow Dash glaring at their approach, or more specifically, glaring at her. As they closed in, Dash turned her back on them and sat facing away. The group of three came to a stop and Emerald stepped forward to be a bit closer to the cloud Dash was sitting on. For a long moment there was just silence, and then…

“You killed her,” Dash stated bluntly.

Emerald needed only a moment’s thought to think of who Dash was referring to. Gilda, Dash’s once best friend, the very same griffin she had murdered for almost entirely petty reasons over a year ago. That friendship may have been ended, but Emerald knew that Dash would have still felt justifiably furious over the fact that she had killed Gilda.

“I did,” Emerald stated.

“Why?!” Dash asked angrily, whipping around to glare furiously at Emerald.

Emerald thought quickly at that moment, trying to find a solution to this- to find something to say that would placate Dash and make her still her friend. After a moment, she realised there was nothing she could do but tell the truth and not alter in any form for once.

“Because I’m a selfish monster,” Emerald answered bluntly with a resigned sigh. “I did it because I’m paranoid and saw an innocent life as a fair trade for a sense of security. I’ve ended and ruined hundreds of lives and look at me now, living with someone I love in a house paid for by the Princess, a famous and celebrated beauty with enough wealth to retire here and now if I desired. I deserve none of it and yet I still have it… life is unfair.”

“You’re darned right it is!” Dash shouted angrily and breathed noisily through her nose as she glared down at Emerald.

“Do you want to hurt me?” Emerald asked curiously, making Dash blink in surprise. “I don’t blame you if you want to. I won’t even stop you if you decide to do it. I’ll even make it so you can actually hurt me and that I’ll feel it.”

Rainbow Dash glared down with wide eyes at Emerald, her lips baring her teeth which were grinding against each other audibly. Then, she took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She seemed to calm down after doing this and opened her eyes again to glare down at Emerald.

“I’m going to go see my friend Lightning,” Rainbow Dash stated. “I’ll be in Cloudsdale for a while. Don’t wait up.”

With that, the pegasus burst into the air and flew towards Cloudsdale. Down below, Emerald stared up at Dash’s retreating form, once more sad but expecting this exact thing to happen and wasn’t surprised even loyal Dash wanted nothing to do with her.

“Two down…” Emerald muttered hollowly.

Twilight and Pinkie shared a worried look; this wasn’t exactly going too well. The unicorn began thinking of who they could see next that would be likely be more open to Emerald seeing them to reconnect. Twilight decided that Fluttershy would likely be a good choice, her being known for her kindness and understanding.

“How about we see Fluttershy next?” Twilight suggested. “She’s been all alone in the fashion industry by herself for two months, and would likely love to see you again.”

“One could always hope,” Emerald simply stated and began making her way towards Fluttershy’s cottage with Twilight and Pinkie in tow.

The previous experiences with Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to have soured any prospect of conversation during the trip to Fluttershy’s. So the group of three traveled in utter silence, causing the trip itself to feel far longer than it actually was. Eventually the sight of Fluttershy’s cottage came into view. It hadn’t changed much in the past two months Emerald had been absent, but the surrounding landscape had some other structures added on, obviously to accommodate even more animals than before. And just outside the cottage was Bulto, who was leaning down to look through one of the windows of the cottage for some reason.

“Any reason why you are peeking into Fluttershy’s house?” Emerald asked as she got close, managing to startle the dragon.

“Oh, it’s you,” Bulto stated dully before leaning back down to glance into cottage once more. “That little pony is acting rather oddly.”

“Worried about her, are you?” Emerald stated with a smirk.

“What! Of course not!” Bulto protested and began making his way back to his bed of gems. “There is nothing that could happen to her that would ever concern me!”

The dragon’s protests were rather unconvincing from the way he kept shooting looks at the cottage as he made his way to his bed of gems. Emerald didn’t really care to give him much more thought though, and walked over to the cottage and knocked on the door. She had expected Fluttershy to answer the door to call for them to come in, but instead…

“You may enter!” Discord’s voice called from within.

Not all that surprised that Discord was in Fluttershy’s house, Emerald entered with Twilight and Pinkie just behind her. What met her sight was Discord sitting in Fluttershy’s living room while sitting in what was obviously an armchair he conjured up, sipping on a cup of tea with Fluttershy wearing the protective gear she had attempted to wear for an adventure concerning a sleeping dragon hiding behind him.

Emerald shared a look with the others but had a feeling about why Fluttershy was hiding behind Discord. She took a few steps forward.

“Fluttershy?” Emerald said hesitantly.

“Eek!” Fluttershy squeaked in alarm and ducked behind Discord’s armchair. Apparently since finding out the truth about Emerald, she had gone back to being terrified of her.

“Fluttershy is rather scared of you right now,” Discord explained casually.

For Fluttershy it was hard not to be afraid of Emerald again. She was having much of the same problem Spike was having. Emerald was just so powerful and beyond even the person she was hiding behind and she had proved she was more than willing to use that power to hurt people. The fact that Emerald considered her, her friend wasn’t enough of a reassurance that she wouldn’t hurt her as she couldn’t help but think about what Twilight had said Emerald had almost done to her when they first met.

“F-Fluttershy?” Emerald said again and began to step closer when a stop sign popped out of the ground.

“I know I don’t stand much of a chance in the face of your barbarity,” Discord began as he continued to sip his tea. “But I will still do everything in my power to protect her from you.”

“Oh…” Emerald felt like she had been stabbed in the chest with a dagger of ice at that statement. She found herself frozen in place, unsure of what to say or do. Finally after what felt like an uncomfortably long time, she found the words she needed to say.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I’ll leave you alone now,” Emerald said and quickly ran out the door, her powerful hearing allowing her to catch Fluttershy’s sigh of relief.

The virus stopped running when she couldn’t see the cottage anymore and came to a stop with a shuddering sigh. She had been expecting to lose friends, but even with the expectations it was still rather hard on her.

“Emerald?” Twilight said softly as she caught back up to the virus with Pinkie in tow. “Are you okay?”

“…Three down,” Emerald simply said in reply.

There was a long moment of silence at that, until Pinkie Pie broke it.

“There’s only Rarity left,” Pinkie said, all cheer- forced or otherwise- drained out of her voice.

“Might as well get this over with…” Emerald said, utterly resigned to losing all but two of her closest friends before noon.

Once again, the walk passed in silence as they made their way to Rarity’s boutique. Once they arrived, Emerald took a look inside the boutique via its large front windows and saw Rarity calmly drinking tea on her large plush couch.

“Do you want us to go in with you?” Twilight asked in concern.

“No.” Emerald shook her head. “I should do this by myself.”

With that, the virus knocked on the door and awaited Rarity’s call before letting herself in. Once inside, she slowly approached Rarity, feeling rather unsure of herself at this moment.

“Well come on,” Rarity stated as she continued to sit serenely. “Come over and sit beside me, dear.”

“…Okay,” Emerald said and quickly made her way over to the couch.

“Here is your cup, darling. You look terrible,” Rarity said as she levitated a fresh cup of tea over. “It really doesn’t suit you.”

“Thank you, Rarity,” Emerald said, offering a small smile while also wondering if this would be the last time she would be sharing a moment like this Rarity.

“I’ve always wondered why I felt the way I did concerning you, Emerald,” Rarity stated. “These motherly feelings for a mare who is older than me.”

“Ah… I suppose that must have confused you quite a bit,” Emerald replied uncomfortably.

“Oh, it did. I felt so supportive, protective and proud of you and I never could figure out why,” Rarity said, finally giving Emerald a smile. “But now I do. It’s because you are my child.”

“Well… technically yes, but in a really exotic manner,” Emerald replied.

“Does it honestly matter?” Rarity asked with a shrug. “It does not change the way I feel about you, dear.”

“It should.” Emerald frowned. “Rarity, I’m a monster. I-”

“You hush up right this instant,” Rarity said sternly before pulling the virus into a hug. “You are not a monster. You are a pony who has gone through incredibly strenuous situations and came out in one piece, but not unscathed. You couldn’t help but be changed by what you experienced and when you came here you were just utterly terrified of being discovered. You just reacted the only way those two years of cruelty taught you to react.”

“…I just want to be a good person again, Rarity.” Emerald sighed and leaned into the hug. “Not a murderer.”

At that statement, Rarity only held Emerald tighter and the virus was content to be held for a minute.

“So…” Emerald finally said. “Do you want me to start calling you ‘Mommy’ now?”

“Oh that is not necessary, darling.” Rarity chuckled in amusement. “I do realise the reality of our situation, but I still want to be there for you.”

“Well at least I still have half of my closest friends left,” Emerald stated, causing Rarity to look out the window and see Twilight and Pinkie peering in.

“I take it that Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn’t take your return as well as I and the others?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah. Pinkie says they just need a bit of time to come around, but I’m not holding my breath,” Emerald replied. “I got out of bed fully expecting Twilight to really be the only one that was interested in having anything more to do with me.”

“Perhaps a bit of faith is simply in order, my dear Emerald,” Rarity stated, only for the other unicorn to shake her head.

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of each other anymore,” Emerald said. “Beyond them wanting to hang out with you and the others, anyway. I’m just happy I still have some of you left.”

Rarity shook her head at Emerald. It was obvious that the shape shifter wasn’t going to believe the others really might just need a bit of time to come around, and honestly Rarity herself wondered if that would be the case as well. But in the end, Rarity decided to have faith that the friendship the seven of them shared was strong enough to come through this okay.

Suddenly, the unicorn remembered that Emerald’s “other mother” was Rose Locks and was about to ask about her when the door burst open and Pinkie Pie came charging in. In an instant, the pink pony crossed the distance across the room and the wrapped the two in one of her bone breaking hugs.

“OH GOSH I’M SO HAPPY YOU TWO ARE STILL FRIENDS!” Pinkie cheered happily. “IT’S NOT JUST ME AND TWILIGHT! YAY!”

“Yeah, I’m glad too, Pinkie.” Emerald smiled at her friend. “You might want to loosen your grip of Rarity a bit though. She appears to be having a bit of trouble breathing.”

“Oops!” Pinkie said and quickly let go of the two with an apologetic grin.

“N-nice to s-see you too, darling,” Rarity said as she rubbed her chest to sooth a small ache.

“I want to thank all three of you for staying by my side despite knowing the truth,” Emerald said to everyone in the room. “You didn’t have to and you had all the right in the world to just abandon me when I was in that stone prison.”

“We couldn’t exactly do that, Emmy…” Pinkie Pie said remorsefully, a tone the others agreed with. “We’re the reasons you were sealed in the first place.”

“Let’s not focus on the past too much. I kind of had it coming anyways, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared it would be in the first place,” Emerald replied. “Anyway, I’m glad that you and Pinkie are still my friends, Rarity. Now I really should be getting back to the library. There are a ton of letters I have to send out now that I am back.”

“Alrighty, Emmy!” Pinkie said and bounded onto Rarity’s couch. “You go ahead and do that. I have to stay here with Rarity and talk about a few things with her.”

“I’ll see you two later.” Emerald smiled. “Are you staying too, Twilight?”

“No, I’ll go home with you,” Twilight said and followed the virus out the door.

“So who are you going to be messaging first?” Twilight asked once they were outside.

“The first pony I’m going to message is Princess Luna,” Emerald answered. “I need to know where we are concerning our teacher student relationship. Then I need to message both Over Look and Photo Finish. I doubt things will be any different with Look, but Photo might be getting tired of me dropping off the face of Equestria every few months.”

“I received a letter from Over Look a while ago,” Twilight said. “He mentioned the biography you advised him to publish is going into print soon.”

“Ah, that’s good,” Emerald replied. “Honestly, I forgot all about that book I sent him. I was so busy with other things that it is just slipped my mind.”

“Whose biography is it?” Twilight asked.

“Well…” Emerald took a moment to take in her surroundings as they made their way home, making sure no one was too close. “It’s the Gray Fox’s biography. Obviously it’s purely fictional and I took a lot of liberties concerning what may have been considered realistic. The book honestly reads more like an action novel than a biography.”

“Don’t you think that maybe you’re profiting a bit off a bad situation you made?” Twilight asked quietly.

“Oh I definitely am,” Emerald admitted with a nod. “However, in order for an economy to recover, it requires that ponies spend money, which they aren’t exactly eager to do in this economy. The outlets that will sell these books will be making money as well from this.”

“Well I don’t really know much about economics, so I’m just going to trust you on this,” Twilight said.

Soon the two arrived at the library. They entered and were about to go looking for Spike when they passed the open door to the library section of the building.

“Greetings young Emerald,” They heard Luna’s voice call out from the library.

Coming to a sudden stop, the two turned and saw Luna sitting serenely at one of the tables in the library.

“I would like a few words with you, Emerald, about your future lessons,” Luna stated. “Would you be able to spare the time now?”

“Ah, I did not expect you, your highness,” Emerald said as she walked into the library. “I was actually about to send you a message to question you about this exact thing.”

“I’ll just leave you two be,” Twilight said and closed the door behind Emerald.

“You appear rather calm, my student,” Luna observed. “I was expecting you to be stressed still, not enjoying your time out of the seal lounging and relaxing.”

“Today has been a rather stressful day so far,” Emerald admitted. “I guess I’m just emotionally drained right now.”

“It’s good then, that I intend for you to take time off to get your life back in order before returning to your lessons with me,” Luna said.

“Really?” Emerald said with wide eyes. “You still intend to teach me? Even after everything that has happened?”

“Everything that has happened has only convinced me you need more guidance,” Luna answered. “And that your lessons should cover a much wider array of subjects.”

“Oh… what kind of subjects exactly?” Emerald asked.

“Diplomacy and psychology to name a few,” Luna answered. “From what I’ve heard from Celestia, you still lead those Diamond Dogs and a leader should be properly educated in the matters of state and the public.”

“I’ll gladly learn these subjects as well, Princess,” Emerald said. Inwardly she felt that Luna had another reason for wanting to teach Emerald these subjects, likely as a means to try to help Emerald and give her a “firmer” sense of right and wrong. Emerald wasn’t sure if she needed these lessons or not. She already knew what she did was wrong, but she felt they needed to be done anyway. Perhaps she really did need a firmer sense of right and wrong? In any case, she was just glad Luna wasn’t going to try to make her get therapy or something.

“Well, I shall take my leave now,” Luna stated and began to leave. “I shall see you in two weeks, my young student. Be well.”

“See you, Princess Luna,” Emerald said.

A moment later it was just Emerald and the snoozing Navi in the library, leaving the virus to her thoughts. Today was definitely a trying day, and there were some significant losses, but at the same time she now knew at least half of her friends were willing to stay by her side. While she didn’t blame the others for their decision, it didn’t stop it from hurting so much. Now that everything was said and done, Emerald wanted to go get her letters out and let people know she was back from wherever they thought she was. Photo Finish was likely going to be rather irritated at her.

With that, Emerald went to go find Spike.

ALPHA

The creature stirred excitedly as he awaited his mommy’s return. Today was to be the day he was going to get out and move around- to see, to touch, to feel- for the very first time. It could barely put up with the wait and it could tell that it’s brothers and sisters felt much of the same.

Suddenly, the sound it waited all day to hear appeared in the distance; the sound of footsteps. The excitement it felt increased immensely as the footsteps came to a stop before it.

“Hey guys!” Mommy greeted. “Today is the big day! You all get to get out and move around now. Now you aren’t all done growing up just yet, but at this point I’d rather you spend the rest of your growth moving around. Alright, let’s begin.”

The creature could feel a tingling come over its body and suddenly it could feel it’s body with much greater clarity. It moved its limbs around in the darkness of its pod and felt its feet press against the floor for the first time. There was the sensation of things attached to the outside of its body being ripped away, like pieces of rope or string being pulled off.

It reached out with its forelimbs in the direction of mommy’s voice and felt a barrier. It pushed against the barrier and felt the tips of its clawed hands sink into the barrier. It sunk it’s fingers into the barriers and pushed and pulled at it. Suddenly, there was a burst of light as the world outside the pod was revealed as the contents of the pod spilled out.

The creature blinked it’s eyes as they took light for the first time. A near instant later, the image cleared and it could see clearly into the world beyond. The first thing that met it’s sight was another being staring curiously at it, a being that could only be its mommy.

‘MOMMY!’ the creature thought with joy and leapt forward.

BETA

“Gah!” Emerald let out as she was tackled to the ground. She immediately felt a wetness on her face as the being that tackled her licked her affectionately. “Hey! Happy to see me, huh?”

Emerald laughed a little as she struggled briefly with the being atop her that licked and cooed happily. Eventually she managed to get it back up off her and she got back up onto her feet. Once she was on her feet again, she took in the being before her, who was half bouncing on its vicious looking pterodactyl feet as it looked all over the place.

Its feet had sharp claws, but one claw was noticeably larger than the others and had dark red scaly skin with back stripes. It’s hands were three fingered and talon-like with razor sharp claws. It had a long tail that ended with a brush like collection of sharp spines at the end of the tail. It’s head was mostly mouth with a long snout and full of incredibly sharp teeth and had softly glowing yellow slitted eyes. Other than the color and the spines at the end of the tail, it looked exactly like the Velociraptors from the movie Jurassic Park, which was good because Emerald had intended for them to look like that.

The raptor in front of her also only reached up to her chest. Like she said, there was still some growing left to do before the “adult” stage was reached.

There was many more tearing sounds as the rest of the Blacklight Raptors tore free of their pods and took in their surroundings excitedly. As they looked around, they all caught sight of each other and crowed excitedly, but their excitement only grew when they spotted her. Crowing in delight, they all immediately darted over to her and started swarming her.

“Hey there everyone!” Emerald greeted as the raptors pressed up against her and let out little chirps and squeals. “Excited about being able to move around? Well there is more to the world than this little room, so follow me and don’t wander off.”

Emerald pushed her way through raptors crowding around her. There was about two dozen of them. She could have made more and ended up with several hundred if she wanted on the first go, but she wanted to make sure she was doing this right and there were no faults in making them. If the Raptors showed they had no problems as they continued to grow and move about, she would start making more of them. This also meant she was one step closer to making a leap of progress on her major project she started a year ago. She just needed to make sure her creature growing skills weren’t flawed and needed to work on the “shell” a bit, and she could start in earnest. Likely, there would be a finished project sometime next year. But that line of thinking was for later. Right now she needed to focus on her raptors.

Emerald walked up the stairs leading into the chambers with the now burst pods. She looked over her shoulders to look see what the raptors made of the stairs.

They appeared to be doing rather well, considering they only started walking a few minutes ago. They were a little wobbly as they ascended the steps one by one, but other than that, no one stumbled, which was a good sign that the information “uploading” she did while they were incubating in the pods was working as intended.

Once Emerald reached the top of the stairs, she waited until everyone was mostly up before leading them down a few halls. Eventually, they exited out a pair of double doors and into the streets of the Hub.

Naturally, there were dogs going about their business and they noticed when Emerald exited a building with a group of creatures they had never seen before right behind her.

“Alright, remember what I said,” Emerald began as she looked around to make sure no one was freaking out or anything. “Stay close and no going off. I’ll be letting you explore later on, but for now, just keep following me.”

The raptors obediently did as they were told and followed Emerald as she lead them through the streets of the Hub. They were obviously itching to go running off to see everything around them, though; a few times, one of them looked like they were going to bolt, but stayed in the group.

“Oy!” Emerald heard a shout and turned to see Tavish strolling over with his war staff over a shoulder.

“Hello Tavish,” Emerald greeted. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Never seen those beasties before,” Tavish stated and came to a stop before the group. “These the critters you were growing in that big room with all the pods?”

“Yes they are,” Emerald said and gave a wave over the group of excited creatures. “I call them Blacklight Raptors. They are basically young teenagers at this point, though.”

“Ah, still growing up, huh?” Tavish said. “Looking forward to seeing what they can do, lass.”

“I am just taking them outside to make sure they can use the abilities I’ve given them properly,” Emerald replied. “You can tag along and see what they are currently capable of.”

“Sounds good to me,” Tavish said and stood beside the group. One raptor got curious of his tail and sniffed at it. “Oy! No nipping me tail!”

“Don’t worry. They know better than to nibble on things,” Emerald said before frowning. “They should anyway.”

“Not exactly reassuring, lass.”

The group continued on their way, attracting the attention of many dogs going about their own business. The raptors were still a bit intimidating, despite their excited airs, and caused many dogs to keep their distance. Before long, Emerald was leading the group up the tunnel to the surface, the excited crowing of the raptors growing louder as they spotted the daylight at the exit ahead of them.

The excited crowing grew in volume as the raptors saw the wide open world that greeted them and in their excitement they weren’t able to remember Emerald’s command to stay close. They began running around, letting out hisses, squeals and crows of excitement as they explored.

Emerald shook her head with a smile. She didn’t blame them. They were young, not even an hour old yet. She was content to let them have a little fun and mess around.

“Hehehe, bunch of little munchkins, aren’t they?” Tavish asked with an amused chuckle. “Not exactly the fearsome creatures you said they were going to be, lass.”

“Like I said, they aren’t fully grown yet,” Emerald replied. “I don’t mind them being childish. They’re not even an hour old at this point. I don’t expect them to change much, considering the mindset and intelligence I had in mind when I designed them, but they should settle down when they grow accustomed to the world.”

Emerald watched the raptors explore and play with each other, rough housing a little bit with each other or just rolling about on the grass. One raptor was even staring down at a puddle of water, apparently affixed by its own appearance. Emerald looked over the group of raptors until she managed to make out the raptor that had tackled her, able to do so thanks to the fact the raptor in question had a large, distinctive black stripe across the eyes.

“You there!” Emerald shouted and pointed, immediately catching many raptors’ attentions. “Come here.”

The raptor in question did so and quickly darted over with an excited bounce in its step.

“First things first,” Emerald began when the raptor came to a stop before her. “Let’s see if you can recall and use your tail spines like I taught and intended.”

Pointing him in the direction where no one was in the general direction, Emerald called up a wall made of scarlet magic.

“I want you to fling your spines at the target,” Emerald said. “I don’t expect you to hit the target, but I want to see if you are able to fling them in that direction.”

The raptor nodded in understanding and stared at the target a moment before making a few little spins in place, whipping its tail experimentally as it did so. After a few moments of turning in place, it stopped for a moment before it suddenly turned and whipped its tail towards the walls. Several spines went flying off the raptor’s tail and went flying at incredible speeds. The spines hit the wall and sunk in half way with only one of the spines managing to hit the very outer circles of the target.

“Great!” Emerald congratulated the raptor and gave it a pat on the head. “You managed to hit the target on your first try! That’s very good! Now I want to try something else.”

With that, Emerald dismissed the magical wall she called up. She fell down onto a knee and placed a hand just behind the raptor’s neck.

“Now think back on how to breathe,” Emerald advised the raptor and it immediately knew what she was talking about and closed its eyes in thought. “Remember the feelings of the rush of energy and burst of power. And when it feels like it wants to explode, let it loose.”

The raptor took a deep breath and reared back a bit as it did so. A bright yellow glow appeared in the chest of the raptor after a few moments before the raptor exhaled. With a sudden explosion of flame, fire flowed forth from the raptor’s mouth and reached as far as five metres before losing momentum and settling to the ground.

After the raptor stopped letting out fire, Emerald used her magic to smother the flames on the ground. She then patted the back of the first raptor to be born with an approving smile.

“Fantastic work!” Emerald smiled encouragingly. “You can do all the things I wanted you to do. You can go play now; I’m just going to test the rest of the others.”

The raptor gave a happy crow before licking Emerald affectionately and bounding off to play. The virus let out a little laugh as she got up to her feet, rubbing the slobber off her face. Tavish then walked over with a deeply curious look on his face.

“Those are some rather dangerous abilities these beasties have,” Tavish stated. “I’ve a feeling they aren’t the only ones. Am I right?”

“Yep,” Emerald nodded. “Along with the spine shooting and the fire breathing, I’ve given them an incredibly hard hide, superior strength, sharp eyesight and hearing, heightened sense of smell, beyond razor sharp claws and teeth and, finally, regeneration abilities should they be hurt.”

“Well that is certainly impressive,” Tavish commented with an impressed whistle.

“Putting down these raptors will be a task,” Emerald said. “But keeping them down will be a task in itself.”

“Have to say, lass… feeling a little obsolete with these beasties running around,” Tavish said.

“Don’t worry, the Warhounds are still very much relevant,” Emerald replied. “The raptors are designed with a shock and terror roll in mind. They are meant to strike extremely hard and fast at where an enemy is most vulnerable, cause havoc and chaos before retreating back into the shadows to re-maneuver and strike again. Though they are capable of serving frontline rolls alongside Warhounds should it be needed.”

“Hmm…” Tavish hummed in thought. “That reminds me. Are you going to give the rest of us those fancy “augments” you made?”

“Interested?” Emerald asked with a smile.

“The hardest part of being a fighter is keeping in fighting shape, lass,” Tavish replied. “Those augments of yours take the hard work out of conditioning yourself. Any soldier or warrior in their right mind would see the use in that.”

“Well since the others have been living with their augments with little to no problems, I am going to give it to the rest of the dogs,” Emerald answered. “I’m not going to stop at just those three augments, either; those are just the most basic and simplest. I have ideas for much more powerful augments. I just want to make sure I can implement them without any issues.”

With that, Emerald walked forward and called out.

“Okay, come over here guys!” Emerald shouted.

The raptors darted over eagerly, though the raptor that was staring down at a puddle was still seemingly enthralled with its reflection. However, it came running at the second call. A few moments after the raptor left the puddle, a head in the shape of a pony, with flesh of rushing water and a mane of foaming water, came out of the puddle and peeked at the raptors gathered around Emerald curiously.

GAMMA

A week later found Emerald sitting in her surface workshop again with a plate of steel before her.

Things between her and the others were still… distant. Even Pinkie Pie was beginning to feel like the others wouldn’t be coming around any time soon, if ever. Speaking of said mare, Pinkie apparently had ended up bothering some donkey that lived in town in an attempt to get him to smile and be his friend. Luckily it had ended well… apparently; Emerald didn’t know more much more than that. What had also happened over the past week was Emerald re-establishing contact with Over Look and Photo Finish. Over was fine with Emerald disappearing for a while, as expected, and just wanted her to pop in so they could have some new ads out. Photo Finish was surprisingly fine with her being gone as well, though it was purely because her sudden disappearance had actually made her a little more popular as rumors ran rampant on what had happened and where she went. Photo still wanted her to come in for a ton of fashion shows, and Fluttershy was doing far better than Emerald had expected she would in the time she had been alone. It probably helped that she had Discord and the draconequis was always waiting for her backstage with a fresh brew of calming tea.

Currently, Emerald was trying out several runes and experimenting with them, trying to find a good combination that would serve as great reinforcement for armor augmentation. She was also absently trying to figure out how to automate the process of carving runes into armor, powering them and charging them back up.

It didn’t take long at all to figure out that her dogs wouldn’t be able to make these things themselves, and she would have to make some kind of biomachine. Emerald already had an idea of what kind of thing to make; some multi-tendril creature with a hard shell to cover the fleshy parts. The real trick to this was supplying the magical power needed for the runes and charging them when they became drained. Emerald, of course, could just power up several gems herself to do just this, but she’d rather have something to automate the process for her, as doing that herself would take more time out of her hands. She had two ideas for that. One would make her self-sufficient and the other would have her rely on a potentially outside resource that could be a bit finicky at times. For the first thing, she needed to figure out how to make things generate magic on their own. For the second thing, she needed to tap into a ley line.

Now, Emerald had little understanding of how magic was generated, so making something that could generate it would either take a long time, or be hit and miss. So the obvious answer would be to tap into a ley line. Ley lines, however, had issues of their own. Ley lines were understood to be channels of concentrated ambient magic between two points. They were considered both an air current and a fast, flowing river. Like an air current, a ley line could change direction suddenly and without much- if any- warning at all. But unlike an air current, and more like a river, diverting a ley line took a lot of resources and planning to do successfully. In fact, diverting and even creating ley lines took so much time, energy and effort that most people often stuck to natural ones. Now, fortunately, Everfree being what it was basically guaranteed that there would be many ley lines to choose from, which was good considering their unpredictable nature and made having backups easier.

There were two other things that Emerald needed to tackle; creating a better storage crystal and a better material for the future generation of her armor. The material she already had some ideas of how to make; again, they would have to be made with some sort of biomachine to automate it and she would need to troubleshoot the process a bit. The storage crystals on the other hand were a bit more complicated. In order to create better crystals, she needed to understand what made the crystals store magic in the first place. So far she knew with certainty it definitely involved the crystalline structure and the size as well. So what she needed to do was to study gem stones of varying quality to figure out what made some gems better than others. According to what she knew from rune crafting, a gem’s purity and lack of imperfections would determine how much magic it can hold. So once she knew what made a gem a better magical battery, she could potentially make gems that were far better than naturally occurring ones. If she could figure out how to make gems herself that is…

‘So much to think about…’ Emerald thought with a frown as she continued to draw out runes. ‘I need to focus. Just think about the things I can handle right now, like this rune carving. Let’s see… heat is energy. If I could just figure out a rune to turn that energy into magic, it would make fire and dragons much less of a threat. If I’m thinking along those lines, I would need some barrier runes around the areas in the armor open air. Kinetic force is also energy, and if I can create a rune to harness that, I can basically ensure that the armor is impervious to most forms of damage, while also powering itself from said damage.’

‘So I should focus on the kinetics rune,’ Emerald continued. ‘That way, most forms of harm would be taken off the table, at least as long as the runes have power. Hmm… there are a few runes that involve impact or touch; I should study them a bit. I should be able to figure out something out of that.’

Emerald kept working on the kinetic rune for a few hours until there was a knock at her door.

“You may come in!” Emerald called as she erased an equation that didn’t add up.

“Boss, Alpha Degroot is back from his trip to the other packs,” a Warhound said to Emerald. “He’s down at the main entrance to the city.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Emerald replied and placed down her quill. “I’ll head there right now.”

With a flash of scarlet light, Emerald teleported to the tunnel entrance into the city. The view that met her eyes were of many, many Diamond Dogs coming out of the tunnel and Tavish over to the side looking rather pleased with himself. As she walked over to Tavish, Emerald noticed something about the Diamond Dogs coming into the city; most of the adult females looked to be in various stages of pregnancy.

“Hello Tavish,” Emerald greeted and stood beside the small terrier. “This your doing?”

“Mostly yours, lass,” Tavish answered. “Village I came across was a little lacking in young dogs. Turns out most of them went to your city. Had a little talk with the local Alpha and convinced him that just packing up and moving here was better than staying.”

“Ah,” Emerald said and continued to stare curiously at the many child bearing dogs in the group.

“Curious at all the mums to be, ey?” Tavish stated. “Biggest reason we don’t have many children is because getting meat can be a little hard at times. The Old Kingdom had this special system in place with all these hunting rules. Made it efficient and brought in tons of food. So what happens when we get all the meat we want? Population boom.”

“I bet most of the packs are a lot like this right now,” Emerald said.

“Some couples aren’t allowed to have pups,” Tavish said a bit quietly before getting a bright smile. “The day the news came that you sending as much meat as anyone could eat must have been the happiest day of some dogs’ lives.”

“Never realised how much good I did with that action,” Emerald stated. “It was just the easiest way of getting the packs to trust and like me.”

“You’re doing a lot of good, lass. Never forget that,” Tavish said and reached up to pat Emerald’s shoulder.

“…Tavish, I have something for you and some dogs to get to work on,” Emerald said suddenly.

“Aye, what is it?”

“I need some dogs to locate some ley lines,” Emerald said and quickly added. “Don’t worry if you or they don’t understand what that is. I’ll be giving you some special tools I can quickly whip up. What I need from you and them is to locate as many as you can find, but try keep in mind the ones with the greatest potency.”

“Alright, you get me some gadgets and I’ll head out with some boys to find these ley lines of yours.” Tavish nodded.

“Good, I’ll head back now and start making them,” Emerald said and disappeared in a flash of scarlet, reappearing in her workshop on the surface.

Emerald proceeded to rummage through a few drawers and bins, taking out magical parts and hardware to make some bare bones ley line detectors. As she began her work, Emerald thought about Tavish and the teams he would be leading and sending out. They likely would be busy all of today and tomorrow finding the lines that were connected to the Everfree.

‘Speaking of tomorrow,’ Emerald thought absently as she soldered some parts together. ‘Isn’t Ponyville being visited by someone tomorrow? Iron Will, I think. Some sort of motivational speaker. He is also a minotaur. Maybe I should go see him? Greet him while secretly taking a sample of DNA… no, it’s not important. Minotaur genes might be interesting to look at, but it’s not hugely important that I gather as much genes as possible.’

With that, Emerald focused on her work.

DELTA

The next day, Emerald was sitting in the park with Twilight, doing nothing in particular.

Doing nothing was actually the point of the outing, to Emerald’s aggravation. She understood that Twilight thought she was working too much and that she should spend time with her. In fact, Emerald would have been perfectly fine with spending time with Twilight, but the unicorn wanted them to just sit and do nothing at all and enjoy the peace and quiet. It may have been the fact that Emerald had to be working toward her mission goals at all times while under Mercer’s command, but sitting and doing had the tendency to make her feel nervous and twitchy more often than not. However, for Twilight’s sake, she was putting forth an effort… to do nothing.

“Is it really that hard to just sit here with me?” Twilight asked with a strained smile.

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Emerald apologised. “I’m just used to doing stuff at all times… my fellow employees were punished rather severely if we didn’t give our assignments our full attention. Sometimes that one mistake was all it took to be… fired.”

“Emerald, you’re not there anymore and you never will be,” Twilight said and nuzzled Emerald reassuringly. “No one here is going to fire you for taking time to yourself and not literally working day and night.”

“Maybe…” Emerald sighed and leaned against Twilight.

It was about this time that a group of three ponies started approaching in the distance. Emerald’s sight allowed her to see them clearly the moment they appeared. It was Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. The odd thing about the group was that Fluttershy had an uncharacteristically mean spirited smirk on her face as she walked towards her and Twilight, while Rarity and Pinkie looked rather worried.

“Well, well, well…” Fluttershy began mockingly. “If it isn’t the big, mean monster!”

Twilight gasped at that and Emerald was left blinking her eyes in surprise at Fluttershy’s tone. Normally she’d be far too timid to even think of doing something like this. Worriedly, she looked around and made sure there was no one around to hear what Fluttershy just said. Fortunately, she was lucky in that they appeared to be the only people nearby.

“Aww, are you afraid of being found out?” Fluttershy smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll be extra careful. Just for you.”

“Is there… did something happen to her?” Emerald questioned the others.

“I just learned to stand up for myself. To stand up to you,” Fluttershy answered for the others.

“Oh you have, have you?” Emerald said calmly. “I admit that is a good thing.”

“It is! And it also lets me say what’s on everypony’s mind,” Fluttershy stated.

“Really, go on then,” Emerald said in honest curiosity.

“Hmph, t-then I will!” Fluttershy said, a little off kilter from apparently not getting the response she was expecting from Emerald. “You’re just a terrible pony who doesn’t care about anypony that isn’t important to you! You just take advantage of others for your own gain, using your own willingness and experience with brutality to your advantage over others! Well I’m not scared of you anymore!”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie were gritting their teeth in worry for what Emerald’s reaction could be to this. They weren’t the only ones, as Twilight was staring wide eyed at Emerald.

“You know what?” Emerald began with utter calm. “You are absolutely right. I am a terrible person and I do use my knowledge and skills as an advantage over others. And my time in that seal made me think… what would Equestria be like if I had just died instead of being here? Would it be a happier place? Despite everything, I really think so at times, that Equestria would be happier and better off if I was dead.”

“O-oh w-well…” Fluttershy began as some of her old self began to leak back. “Well maybe not that f-far…”

“Oh don’t try to convince me otherwise,” Emerald scoffed. “All I’ve done since coming here is kill and kill again, spreading pain and misery while enjoying the good life here in Ponyville. What fairness is there in that? That I, a brutal murderer, should live in wealth and happiness while my victims are simply mourned and unavenged? I do honestly believe that if I had died instead of coming here, you all would be better off.”

“Emerald,” Twilight gasped with a horrified look.

“Don’t look at me like that, Twilight,” Emerald said shamefacedly. “I’m not going to go out and seek my end just because. A monster always struggles for life, and I am no different. It’s about time I just get used to that.”

“Now are you done?” Emerald said to Fluttershy.

“U-uhhh… y-yes I… yes I am,” Fluttershy said, now back to her old, nervous self.

“Good. Come on, Twilight,” Emerald stated and began walking back to the library. “Let’s go home and get to work on that monthly schedule you’ve been meaning to get to.”

“R-right Emerald,” Twilight said and gave the others a look as she began trotting after the virus.

Fluttershy fell into a sitting position and lowered her face until it was hidden behind her long bangs. Rarity and Pinkie approached the pegasus until they were by her side.

“Fluttershy?” Rarity began. “Are you okay?”

“I-I d-didn’t mean for her to f-feel that way…” Fluttershy said softly.

“I’ve a feeling she has always felt that way, darling,” Rarity sighed.

EPSILON

The next day, Emerald was spending time with her raptors on the surface, observing them while waiting for word to get back to her from Tavish and his group.

The reason why she was observing them was to make sure their neural programming was working as intended. If everything wasn’t working just right, they may fall into stereotypical AI problems, like mental loops. That wasn’t the only thing she was looking out for, though. She intended them to be shock troops and some aggression was necessary for that, however they shouldn’t be aggressive at all amongst friends, so she was looking out for that. She was also occasionally giving them little puzzles and tasks to test their problem solving ability. So far they seemed to be doing alright.

“Boss?” a Warhound called out as he approached.

“Yes?” Emerald said as she stroked the head of the first born raptor lying on her lap, whom she had taken to calling Stripe for the mark across his eyes.

“Alpha Degroot and his boys have been doing like you asked,” the dog began. “They’ve been finding a lot of those ley line things you wanted. But the Alpha says he ran into something… weird and wants your take on it.”

“Where is he?” Emerald asked and gently pushed Stripe off her lap.

“You know those old ruins near the edge of the Everfree?” the dog said. “Tavish says to teleport just in the front path of it and you should find him real quick.”

“Right,” Emerald said and did just that.

Arriving on the path leading right up to the old royal palace, she began looking around to find Tavish and was about to send out a pulse when she heard a shout.

“Down hear lass!” came Tavish’s voice and she looked down to see the Alpha and a small pack of dogs down in this small canyon over to the side of the palace. With a short leap, she flew forward and landed before the group.

“So what did you find, Tavish?” Emerald said.

“Well lass, I’ve been using this gadget you gave me and found a few ley lines,” Tavish said and brought out said gadget, which looked to be a dowsing rod with some exposed circuitry attached to the middle with a meter and little speaker, which would make sounds upon detecting a ley line. Currently, this one appeared to be off. “And well… just take a look.”

Tavish turned the device back on and immediately rapid beeping noises filled the air and the needle in the meter leapt to the far side. Emerald looked down at the meter and saw that the needle was straining against the very end of it, implying that the potency of the ley line was beyond its scale.

“Hmm… and what is this weird thing you found?” Emerald asked curiously.

“Follow me, lass,” Tavish replied as he and his pack of dogs lead her to a cave which seemed to have something brightly glowing within.

Before long, Emerald found herself before this crystalline tree. It had five branches that each ended in bulbs with noticeable indents in them and had this star shaped formation in the center of it.

“…So when you found this ley line, it lead you to this… tree, right?” Emerald stated.

“Yep, if it ain’t the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen since you,” Tavish said and got a snort from Emerald.

‘What the hell is this thing?’ Emerald thought. ‘It’s under the palace, so it’s impossible that Celestia and Luna don’t know about it. And the ley line… this tree obviously has something to do with that.’

Emerald looked over her shoulder at the sound of something scraping against the rooks and saw a timber wolf walk into the cave. She looked back to the tree to continue studying it as Sovereign walked over and sat down beside her.

“I see you’ve discovered the tree as well,” the forest spirit commented.

“Do you know what it is?” Emerald asked.

“I may have at one point… but now I do not,” Sovereign answered. “But I feel that this tree is very, very old. It may have been here since before the first sapling of Everfree sprouted.”

“Hmm…” Emerald stared at the tree intensely at that and began thinking. “Tavish?”

“Yes, lass?”

“I want this tree watched,” Emerald stated. “We are going to claim the old palace above us and put it back into order, but we’ll be remaking it into a fortress.”

“Right, lass,” Tavish said and sent a dog to head back to the Enclave to get an expedition together.

“I shall assist you in this endeavor, virus,” Sovereign said.

“Really?” Emerald gave the spirit a look. “Thank you.”

“I find myself distrusting this repulsive excuse of a tree,” Sovereign stated. “But I feel that attempting active action against it is a… poor decision.”

Emerald nodded and turned around to go scout the old palace properly since she had not done so the last time she was here. At the mouth of the cave, she stopped and turned back to look at the tree again. She stared at the star shaped formation at the heart of the tree for a few moments before finally leaving.

In the cave, Sovereign remained by himself, glaring at the crystalline tree with a sense of distrust and betrayal, but not knowing the reason why.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: Alrighty! Done the tenth chapter at last, I’ve got to admit though that the second last scene feels like it could have been improved in some way… anyway. I’m really looking forward to the next chapter, have something I’ve been planning to do since pretty much the last book.

Chapter 11: Future Nightmares

Twilight lied in her bed, wide awake and staring at the other mare sharing the bed with her.

‘She said she loved me…’ Twilight thought as she stared at her viral fillyfriend who was apparently asleep beside her. ‘I knew there would be affection between the two of us, but for it now to be actual love…’

Twilight was thinking about the confrontation between Emerald and her friends a while ago, where Emerald had mentioned to Rainbow Dash she was staying with someone she loved. It had got Twilight thinking… what did she find attractive about Emerald? Did she find Emerald attractive?

Gently lifting the blanket away from Emerald, Twilight took in her form. Almost immediately Twilight started noticing a ton of things about her fillyfriend’s body, mostly because this was the first time she actually looked. Emerald’s body lacked no physical flaws- not even the smallest ones- and the muscle only added rather than detracted from her feminine appearance. Her alabaster coat was such a clean white that even snow seemed a bit dull in comparison. Her mane was a bright pink; it was striking and could catch the eyes of anyone who gave the slightest glance in its direction. The unicorn felt her cheeks warm up for some reason as she took in Emerald’s form and started looking at her face, bright emerald green eyes staring at-

“Hello there~” Emerald drawled with a smirk as Twilight suddenly noticed that she was wide awake as well with a start. “Enjoying the show I hope?”

“Ah! E-Emerald! I didn’t know you were awake!” Twilight said, her cheeks flushed with embarrassment. “Umm, I-I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to stare at you.”

“Oh Twilight, you know I don’t sleep,” Emerald said with a teasing smile. “And I’m your girlfriend. You can look all you want! You can even cop a feel if you want to.”

“C-cop a f-feel?” Twilight repeated with wide eyes and felt her cheeks heat up even more. “Umm… m-maybe some other time, I-I’m going to go have a shower now.”

With that Twilight leapt out of bed and quickly trotted into her bathroom, the sound of Emerald giggling drifting after her as she closed the door. For some reason, instead of making the shower comfortably hot as she’d normally do, she made it more than a little cold. Twilight didn’t know why she decided to do that, but it felt appropriate for some reason.

When Twilight came out of her uncomfortably cold shower, she saw the bed made and Emerald gone. Moving to go about her daily schedule, Twilight got the list Emerald helped her write out of a drawer. Walking downstairs, she went into her library to begin her studying.

When the unicorn arrived, she heard the clanging of pots and pans as Emerald likely helped Spike cook breakfast. Picking out some studying materials, a few books, an ink well and some quills, she went to one of the desks before settling in. Mentally thanking Emerald for helping her with her monthly schedule, she began her study session.

About ten minutes or so into the study session, Twilight was forced to stop. She felt like something was going to happen… or was supposed to happen. The unicorn didn’t know how to describe the feeling she was experiencing; it was an emotion of pure expectation and then… nothing.

When Emerald walked into the library with a plate of breakfast for Twilight, she noticed the frown Twilight had on her face.

“Trying to figure something out?” Emerald asked as she placed the plate on a clear spot on the desk Twilight was using.

“Well… yes,” Twilight said with a confused look before shaking her head clear. “Going to work?”

“Yes I am,” Emerald answered with a smile. “Got a ton of stuff to do today and want to get started on a lot more stuff before I have to leave for Canterlot later in the week.”

“Well remember what I used to tell you. Don’t spend all your time working,” Twilight said as she got up and walked over to Emerald’s side and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek. “But otherwise, have a good day, Emerald.”

“Thank you, Twilight,” Emerald said with a happy smile before disappearing in a flash of pink light.

Twilight couldn’t help the happy smile on her face from the domestic feelings stirred up by the act of kissing Emerald goodbye before she went to work. She returned to her desk, the previous feelings of expectation forgotten. Her day would prove to be very mundane with the closest point to excitement being when Pinkie came in to tell her about the big dog that had wandered into town.

ALPHA

Emerald was walking down a dusty old hall while reading a book she had found in old library of the palace ruins. Suddenly, she heard an echo of a startled shout.

She looked up just in time to see a wall slide to the side and reveal a chute. A moment later, a large black diamond dog in Warhound armor shot out of the slide and skidded across the floor before bashing into the wall. It was Padfoot.

“Enjoying the traps, Padfoot?” Emerald asked the dog.

“No, boss,” the big dog replied as got up from the floor, looking even larger than before thanks to his augments.

There was more shouting coming from the now exposed slide, this time of whoops of excitement rather than surprise. After a moment, Tavish came sliding down on his feet. When the slide ended, he leaped up into the air with a flip before landing on his feet.

“Woo hahaha!” the little diamond dog laughed. “Ahhh, now this reminds me of the time I went treasure hunting. All these booby trapped ruins need is a pony in an odd looking helmet and this will be a complete experience!”

“Well have fun with them while you can,” Emerald said to Tavish. “They’re getting in the way of restoring this place, so we’ll be disassembling them where we can.”

“Ahhh that is too bad, lass,” Tavish said with disappointment. “So what are you reading there?”

“This is a journal I found in the library,” Emerald answered and started walking again. “It’s been giving me some very enlightening facts about this area, plus a few other little tidbits. Speaking of this place, how long do you think before this place is all fixed up?”

“Well I ain’t an engineer, lass,” Tavish replied as he fell into step behind Emerald. “I don’t exactly know how much work this place is going to need. This place ain’t exactly a fortress either, so some remodeling is gonna have to be done, too. A good many of the new dogs we’ve been getting to the city have been stoneworkers, not to mention all the extra paws we’ve got to handle the work… if I were to make guess, I’d say this place would need a month’s solid work before we got it looking like a proper fort, lass.”

“Hmm… I wonder what Sovereign will add to this place?” Emerald said aloud in thought. “He did mention that he would aid us in securing this old ruin.”

“Wouldn’t know what that bag of logs will get up to, lass,” Tavish replied. “Probably something to do with trees and plants.”

“Something to ask him,” Emerald said. “Not that he gives straight answers.”

Focusing her thoughts on the contents of the journal she was still reading, Emerald frowned as she considered what she learned.

‘Some of the early sections focus on the tree in the canyon below,’ Emerald thought. ‘Or “The Tree of Harmony” as she calls it. It’s apparently the source of the Elements of Harmony. I knew something major was up with that tree. Glad I’m making moves to watch it. Maybe I should have a checkpoint down there with guards? Hmm… maybe not. It’s been a thousand years; if something was going to happen to it, then it would have happened by now… really don’t want to mess with or get near that thing. Keeping a distant eye on it should be good enough. Well this journal definitely saves me questioning Luna about the strange crystal tree beneath the old palace ruins, as well as explaining why I want to know. I wonder what planted that tree? Ah well, it doesn’t matter. As long as it doesn’t do anything un-tree like I won’t bother with it.’

“Well I’ll leave you and the other dogs to it.” Emerald said as she closed her book and placed it inside her hoodie. “I can trust you all to renovate this place without me holding your paws.”

“It’s no problem, lass,” Tavish replied. “Not much to it. We just sit on this place and clean it up before fixing it up.”

“If you need me, I’ll be back in the Hub doing some things,” Emerald replied and disappeared in a flash of scarlet light.

BETA

Some time later, Emerald was holding a clipboard and standing beside Sovereign, who was sitting beside her as one of his timber wolves.

The two were outside and before them was a tall field of grass that easily reached up to Emerald’s neck. The grass field had been grown by Sovereign at Emerald’s request as the virus wanted to test something that required long grass.

Emerald began scanning the around the area for a good “test dummy” and before long she found one in the form of Whisper Wind.

“Whisper!” Emerald called out to the passing pegasus. “Could you come here please?”

Whisper had been coming out of the forest and had apparently been foraging some wild vegetables from the look of the basket she was holding in her mouth. The pegasus looked in Emerald’s direction and nodded before placing her basket down. She quickly took to the air and was about to fly higher when Emerald called to her.

“You can fly but stay reasonably close to the ground!” Emerald shouted whilst hiding a smile.

Whisper paused in midair a moment and looked a bit suspicious of what was going on. She went through with Emerald’s request though, and stayed at least ten feet off the ground. She flew through the air above the grass and seemed very uneasy about it. She was about to try to calm herself when she heard a rustle in the grass and looked down just in time to a mouth full of teeth flying towards her.

Whisper gave a loud squeak of fright as the Raptor tackled her out of the air with an intimidating roar and the both of them fell into the grass with a thump. There was the sound of grass rustling, and before long Stripe appeared out of the tall grass, his tail wagging and Whisper Wind safely held in his mouth by her midsection thanks to his retractable teeth. Whisper looked confused for a moment until she realised what was going on, then she had a deadpan look on her face.

“Not cool, boss,” Whisper said to Emerald. “Not cool at all.”

“Oh, other than scaring ten years off your life, you’re fine.” Emerald smirked at her. “You can drop her on the ground now, Stripe.”

Stripe did as he was told and gently placed Whisper on her hooves. When her body left his mouth, only then did he extend back his teeth back out of his gums. As soon as she left the Raptor’s mouth, Whisper shot Stripe a dirty look before beginning to walk away. In response to the look Whisper gave him, Stripe leaped forward and wrapped Whisper in a hug with his arms. He nuzzled and licked a somewhat struggling Whisper Wind.

“Okay, okay!” Whisper said and couldn’t help the small smile on her face. “I’m not angry at you! You’re a good boy, Stripe.”

Stripe gave a purring growl as Whisper petted his head before letting her go. Whisper wiped a bit of Raptor slobber off her face before taking to the air and going back to her vegetables, this time flying much higher above the tall grass.

“Thank you for helping me with the grass, Sovereign,” Emerald said as she gave Stripe a pat on the head when he curled up at her feet.

“If you had done so, you would have made it unappealing to look at,” Sovereign replied. “Like make it black and red.”

“I don’t actually like those colors, you ass,” Emerald replied with a roll of her eyes.

“The appearance of your soldiers states otherwise, virus,” Sovereign stated.

“Whatever.” Emerald shook her head and focused her attention on her clipboard.

“Is there nothing else you require to be grown?” the forest spirit asked.

“Well…” Emerald was about to say no when she spotted the saplings of the golden apple trees. She had intended to grow those fully herself, but it just kept slipping her mind with all these other projects she had going on. “There are those saplings over there that I’ve been meaning to make fully grown.”

“Hmm?” The spirit turned his head and looked over to the saplings. “Ah yes, the trees crudely mated together with gold. I shall do better…”

Emerald wondered what the spirit meant by that as she watched him walk towards the saplings in the distance. Then she just shook her head and left him to it.

On Emerald’s clipboard was a list of various tasks she had been testing her Raptors on. It was all meant to test them mentally, as this was the first time she made a complicated creature that was meant to be independent when needed. She had been giving them various puzzles and little scenarios, and so far they had been performing admirably with no mental deficiencies so far. This was very important that she know they have no mental problems because she intended to make more Raptors then just two dozen. In fact, the next batch of Raptors would be in the hundreds, and since she knew the process of growing Raptors worked, they would be grown within a few weeks instead of several months. They would also come in a much wider variety of colors.

‘If Naruto can be stealthy in orange, a Raptor can do it as well,’ Emerald thought with an amused grin before flipping the page to a different one. This page was actually the picture she had drawn that was apparently of a unicorn wearing armor that covered the entirety of their body. ‘And since things with the raptors are going so well, that means I can make major headway on my biggest project. Although I can make the body now, I still need to several things that I’m not sure how to make work with certainty just yet. Going to be a lot of trial and error in the future. I’m going to have to use myself as the test pilot until I’m sure the Diamond Dogs won’t get their brains fried when they try to use it themselves.’

Emerald looked up at the sky and saw the position of the sun. Now was about the time that the gunsmiths would be making the final firing tests on their latest iteration of their automatic rifle they have been developing. They had based much of the work off the notes on the AK-47 Emerald had given them, but had made adjustments due to the size of the ammunition the rifle would be firing and the physiology of the dogs themselves. The result was a large, boxy assault rifle designed to handle the strain of rapidly firing bullets capable of punching holes in thick sheets of steel. Though initially the gun itself had been too complicated and had ended up getting jammed a lot due to inner workings getting in the way.

‘Not the case anymore, though,’ Emerald thought as she gently nudged Stripe away from her legs. ‘Let’s go see how this final lab test of the gun goes.’

In a flash of scarlet light, Emerald teleported away and ended up in a hallway which connected to a long line of firing ranges. The reason she hadn’t teleported directly into one of the ranges was so she didn’t accidentally startle someone using them.

Entering one of the doors, she came to a firing range. Inside were a number of gunsmiths that included Missy. At the range, holding the prototype gun, was a Warhound. Emerald nodded at the smiths as she took up a spot beside them and proceeded to watch the Warhound.

Once Emerald had arrived, the Warhound walked over to a table at the side and took one of the ammo magazines off of it, firmly sticking the magazine into the slot on the bottom of the large, boxy rifle before returning to his spot at the range. Flicking the safety off, the dog sighted a target down the range that was a thick sheet of steel.

Emerald frowned as the dog fired off quick bursts; not at the gun’s shooting or the way he was handling it, but at the volume of the gun itself. Even with the sounding dampening runes at the range itself, the gun’s volume was approaching “normal” levels for a firearm. Considering the sensitivity of Diamond Dog ears, Emerald was going to have to get to work on her mass enchantment project much sooner than she thought.

Once the target was nothing more than pieces of shredded metal on the ground, the Warhound flicked the safety switch on his rifle back on. He turned back towards the table and placed the rifle on it along with a now removed ammo clip.

“Seems like the rifle is ready for field use,” Emerald commented.

“Yep!” Missy replied as her fellow smiths nodded in agreement. “Even did a whole bunch of stress tests like putting it in water, mud, sand, having it get run over by a loaded cart. The rifle is about as tough as the AK-47 you told us about. Has the same range effectiveness too, but that isn’t a problem considering our tactics and where we tend to fight.”

“I agree, though I did see one issue,” Emerald said. “The gun is rather loud; guns are loud enough as it is, but even with the sound dampeners in this room it was getting near to what I would consider normal volume for a gunshot. Considering a Diamond Dog’s hearing sensitivity, this will definitely hurt them to use their own weapons. Thankfully, I already have a solution for this. I just need a bit of time to get it all built up and ready.”

“What do you have in mind?” Missy asked.

“Magic. A lot of magic,” Emerald answered. “Mostly concerning the ley line… hmm, right start getting these rifles built. I’ll start working on mass enchantment right away to solve the noise issues.”

“Right, boss!” Missy and the other dogs said.

‘Hmm… going to need a lot of gems for this. Tons of chemicals as well,’ Emerald thought as the smiths set off. ‘I can handle the chemicals easily enough, and I’ve got a ton of gems. I suppose I can handle grinding them up into dust as well. Guess I’ll wait until I’m finished with the gems and chemicals before getting on making the power lines. Plus I’m going to need to make the machines that can handle all this magical stuff on their own… ugh, so many projects that need to be done. Right, if I focus on the magic issues, I can get it all down today if I focus... going to need a massive container for the chemicals.’

As Emerald continued to think of things she was going to need, she teleported back up to the surface to find that Sovereign was still there and now sitting before the saplings. Said saplings were now noticeably taller.

‘That reminds me,’ Emerald thought, the saplings making her think of where she had got them. ‘The two week vacation Luna gave me is going to run out soon; I’ll have to head back to Canterlot for more lessons. I wonder what it’ll be like now that Luna and Celestia know about me?’

Dismissing that thought for now, Emerald turned towards her workshop and started walking towards it.

GAMMA

“Greetings, my young student,” Luna greeted Emerald as said virus walked into the main lobby of the palace.

“Hello Princess Luna,” Emerald returned her teacher’s greeting. “I’m glad we get to continue my lessons. I rather enjoy learning under you.”

“And I enjoy teaching you, my dear student.” Luna smiled affectionately at Emerald. “But we can’t go into lessons just now.”

“Oh?” Emerald tilted her head curiously. “Why is that?”

“My sister wishes to speak with you first on a matter of great importance,” Luna answered. “We must see her first, and then we shall begin our lessons together once more.”

“Alright, princess.” Emerald nodded. “Lead the way. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Right this way, my young student,” Luna said.

Emerald followed the Princess as she lead the way, and before long she found herself entering an empty ballroom with Celestia awaiting within.

“Greetings, Emerald Gleaner,” Celestia said at Emerald and Luna’s approach. “I’ve been waiting for you, and I wish to talk about a very important matter.”

“What do you want to talk about, your majesty?” Emerald asked.

“The Thracian ponies,” Celestia stated, and Emerald immediately knew what she wanted. “They’ve stayed altered for many months now, ever since your fateful battle with Discord.”

“Just so you know, I never intended that to happen,” Emerald quickly said. “I wasn’t even in the right state of mind during that entire fight.”

“I do not blame you Emerald, but I do wish your help to undo their conditions,” Celestia replied. “It’s been far too long since they have been ponies.”

“I do not mind doing that in the least,” Emerald began. “But are you sure the Thracians want to be cured? I’ve met this young filly who became really confident and stood up not only for herself, but others after changing. Razor Wing didn’t like the changes at first, but he grew to really enjoy the benefits of his new form. Now I’m not saying the cure shouldn’t be offered. I’m just saying that it’s likely that more than a few Thracians have grown to accept and enjoy their new forms despite how other ponies react to them.”

Celestia wanted to dismiss the idea that her ponies could give up on the forms they were born with but stopped herself. Was it really that unthinkable that they could enjoy their new forms? They were all stronger now because of what happened, and every Thracian she had seen seemed to be enjoying their abilities. The Deinos certainly enjoyed being able to fly and use magic, especially those that had originally been an earth pony.

“… Perhaps you are right, my dear Emerald,” Celestia said after a few moments of thought. “I shall send out word that the cure is there for those who want them.”

“Great.” Emerald smiled and quickly added, “Also, you should make sure none of the Thracians are being pressured into this and that they truly want to be turned back.”

“I doubt that such a thing would happen, but I shall make sure that any Thracians that apply for the cure are carefully interviewed.” Celestia nodded. “I’m certain you wish the truth about yourself to be hidden here as well? Well, I shall talk to you again when I’ve thought of a way to handle this. In any case, I’ll not be holding your attention a moment longer, Emerald. You and Luna go enjoy your lessons together now.”

“Thank you, Princess Celestia.” Emerald bowed respectfully to the alicorn before turning to her teacher. “Where to next, Luna?”

“Right this way, my young student,” Luna said and began walking. “I wish to begin your lessons in diplomacy in a nearby library.”

Emerald followed the princess and soon found herself in the library Luna had mentioned. As she walked into the library, a book sitting on a coffee table caught her attention. Looking down, she found it was a copy of the autobiography of the Gray Fox. Over Look had made the rather appropriate decision of making the cover picture of the book be of the Gray Fox looking like a swashbuckling pirate, swinging on ship rigging and holding a cutlass over his head with a roguish smile on his face.

“Heh,” Emerald laughed a little as she took in the title, A Rouge’s Tale: The Thief, The Legend, The Gray Fox. She flipped through it briefly to find a bookmark on pretty much the last page. Looking up at Luna to see a slightly embarrassed expression on her face, Emerald guessed that the book belonged to her.

“Interesting reading I take it?” Emerald smiled.

“… I admit it is rather action filled for an autobiography,” Luna admitted as she took the book from Emerald and studied it for a moment. “Obviously it is all fictional.”

“Yeah,” Emerald nodded. “I based the book on a number of sources from my world.”

“Is the Gray Fox’s personality based on fictional characters as well?” Luna asked.

“His personality is based on one character mostly,” Emerald answered. “But I based his appearance on several characters.”

“My dear Emerald…” Luna began and looked rather conflicted about what she was going to ask next. “Is it at all possible that you could take on the form of the Gray Fox?”

In answer, Emerald turned around to make sure the library door was shut tight before instantly taking on the form of her now infamous persona, the Gray Fox or Jack McCloud as he was more personally known by some people.

“Hope you ain’t meaning to be giving me a love tap, love,” Emerald said in Jack’s voice and accent. “It might be a tad painful for my person.”

“Keeping up the personality is not a requirement, Emerald,” Luna said with a bit of annoyance and stepped in close to examine Emerald’s form.

“No problem.” Emerald shrugged.

“So why a fox?” Luna asked as she continued her examinations.

“Foxes are known to be very crafty,” Emerald answered. “And they are a lupine, like the Diamond dogs. So it fit better for someone like that to be leading them instead of something that wasn’t doglike in the least. Plus it is fairly far away from what my base form looked like.”

“Why a coat in this condition?” Luna asked, pointing at the faded color and slightly torn look of the coat Emerald now wore. “You have the ability to give yourself one of the grandest quality, yet you choose this look?”

“I think the faded torn look adds more character to Jack then a normal, lavish one,” Emerald answered. “Sure, a successful thief like Jack could have easily acquired a coat in much better condition than this one, but the fact he doesn’t should imply something deeper about him and make people wonder.”

“Really, you believe this is such?” Luna stated with an amused smile. “To be honest, I just found myself insulted by being beaten by such a ratty looking figure.”

“Philistine,” Emerald said in a faux insulted tone before smiling at her teacher. “Anything else you want to know?”

“Why fight with a staff?” Luna asked. “Surely there are more effective weapons you can use?”

“Yes… they tend to have a lot less non-lethal options, you understand…” Emerald stated. “I am very strong, but have a lot of muscle control; I can very easily break horns and bones and know where to strike so that all injuries can be fully recovered from. Plus it fit in with one of the characters I used to base Jack’s body on.”

“Well my curiosity is certainly satisfied.” Luna nodded. “You may change back now, and we shall begin the lessons on diplomacy I have planned for you.”

“I just remembered,” Emerald stated as she changed back in an instant to her pony form. “Doesn’t your sister still have you learning about politics before you can get back into the field of diplomacy yourself?”

“Well… yes, you are right.” Luna nodded. “I wish to share with you all that I have learned in my time of preparation, though, and feel you yourself can benefit greatly from it.”

“It’s nothing to worry about, your highness,” Emerald replied. “Twilight herself was still learning stuff when she was teaching me. The both of us will learn a lot from each other, I’m sure.”

“As always, I have looked forward to this, my dear student.” Luna smiled affectionately. “Now let us begin. One should always do their best to start from a position of equality if you seek a fair relations with trust in each other, but there are times when a position of power is called for…”

DELTA

A few days later found Emerald walking down a hallway in the palace, a book hovering in the air just behind her. She had just finished another one of Luna’s lessons and was about to head to her room for some free time to herself when she heard the crash of breaking glass.

“Darn it!” came a shout.

Emerald stopped in place and wondered about it, deciding if she should go satisfy her curiosity or not. She eventually did, and walked towards the direction of the shout. She entered through a pair of double doors to see an angry looking Deinos standing before a broken vase.

The Deinos was dark yellow and had spirals of glowing bioluminescence running up his legs. His wings weren’t blades, but both his mane and tail had thin, dark red tendril like growths that stood out in stark contrast against his navy blue hair. Each tendril also had a series of small spikes coming out of them. The Deinos’ visible cutie mark was of a glass plane that shined brightly with a sparkle gleam.

“Is there a problem here?” Emerald asked as she stepped into the room.

“Gah!” The Deinos started at her arrival, apparently surprised by her before returning his attention to the vase on the ground. “No… just trying to learn how to use my magic better, but I just keep breaking everything that isn’t hard.”

“…” Emerald frowned in thought as she considered a sudden idea for a few moments. “I take it that you and the other Deinos have the same problem? Perhaps I could… perhaps I could help you all develop the magical control you need?”

“Would you?” the Deinos said with a sudden sharp toothed smile and happy eagerness. “That would be great! I’ve never had magic before, and it’s just taking so long for me to learn the ins and outs of it.”

“What’s your name?” Emerald asked as she stepped closer. “Mine is Emerald Gleaner.”

“I’m Sparkle Shine,” the Deinos said with another eager smile. “I’m so glad I finally found somepony willing to teach me. Could you maybe help the others too? We weren’t all unicorns, and the ones that were aren’t exactly the best teachers.”

“I can give it a shot,” Emerald answered. “I’ve never really taught others before, so I can’t really promise if I’m good or not, but I can try.”

“Thanks!” Sparkle said and quickly started walking. “The others are right this way. Follow me!”

Later on, Luna would be moving through the palace herself, mentally thinking up teaching plans for her student, when she heard said student’s voice, sounding like she was directing others. Now curious, she moved to investigate. Peeking through a pair of doors, what met her sight was that of Emerald standing before a fairly large crowd of Deinos as she talked to them about magic, and even helped a few when they tried to cast a levitation spell.

‘I’ve always wondered why the Thracians would hang on her every word when she talked with them,’ Luna thought. ‘Well now I know. She is the reason they are the way they are, and they somehow seem to recognise her as such without doing so consciously. If it wasn’t for the fact that the way they treat her disturbs her a little, I’d think Emerald did it on purpose, but it’s clearly not the case. Emerald is the last person that would willingly take another’s freedom, especially after everything she went through with Alex Mercer.’

Luna continued to watch her student teach and help the Deinos learn magic for a while longer. It was clear the Deinos could have spotted her too, if it wasn’t for the fact that all of their attention seemed to be focused entirely on Emerald.

Finally, the Princess of the Night went about her way and left Emerald to continue helping the Deinos with their magic problems.

EPSILON

A few days later found Emerald back in the Enclave and in one of the massive steel chambers that would be housing the experiments and prototypes of her biggest project to date. Currently there was a pod in it that looked a lot like the ones that had birthed the Raptors, except for the fact it was well over seventy feet in height.

The being inside was the first version of the creatures she intended to create. Now, the body was entirely fine and would be grown fast since she knew that process worked. However, what she knew was going to cause a lot of problems was the experimental mental magic she had woven into the creature within the pod, not to mention the other experimental stuff like having it be created with a magical circuit of sorts. She wasn’t even truly sure how she managed that part, nor whether or not the magical circuits would grow properly. She had managed to pull off a dragon’s magic fire for the Raptors, and had been rather worried it wouldn’t work right for them, but rigorous training and testing had proven they could use the magic they held within, as well as get stronger with it as well. The odd thing, however, was that she used Nidhogg’s dragon genes for them and not Spike’s, yet none of the Raptors were able to use plasma instead of fire so far. That made Emerald wonder what was happening and made her wish she understood more than she did on magic, because for the most part she was blundering around blindly in the hopes of success.

Focusing her thoughts back on the massive being that was in the pod, Emerald figured this was all one big experiment to figure out the nature of magic. She figured with its size it would have an utterly massive pool of magic to draw from. But for all she knew, it could have the potency of a filly just going into magic school. The virus definitely knew there was going to be a number of failed version of the creature she was going to make- ones that would have to be terminated and built back up from a different design theory- both because of the experimental full circuit magic system and the neural magic she had included in it. That was ultimately fine, because the creature she was making was nothing more than a beast, more akin to the animals of Earth then the ones in Equestria, running on base instinct alone. It possessed no true mind of its own and in that mindlessness did it’s strength lie… hopefully. Once again, the experimental nature of the whole project came to mind.

‘Hmm… I think I can make this work even if the magic circuits remain as undeveloped as a young unicorn’s,’ Emerald thought as the images of gemstones ran through her mind. ‘Say I place many gems on the inside of the body, enough to hold an immense amount of magical power, then this project will be more than worth it. And when I finally figure out what it is about a crystalline structure that holds magic, I can improve upon it; create special gems that hold far more magic than natural ones ever can on their own. Then these monsters of mine will hold even more power than before with normal gems. Speaking of gems…’

Emerald teleported away from the insides of the massive steel cage and into another room. This room held many massive containers that were much like the one used to hold the Orion program’s super soldier serum. These ones were being filled with chemicals by dogs wearing special protective suits, the chemicals mixed together to create a mixture that looked a lot like sky blue paint. Then the final and most important part of the process started. Several dogs wheeled forward a cart on a catwalk over the chemical vat, and once they reached the edge, carefully tipped the contents of the cart into the vat. Pouring into the vat was a load of finely ground down gems that sparkled in the air before sinking into the chemical vat.

“How many carts so far?” Emerald asked one of the dogs wearing a sort of hazmat like suit.

“Counting this, one? Ten, boss,” came the dog’s muffled answer through her mask.

“Good, that should be it,” Emerald stated and leapt up onto the edge of the container.

The evolved reached out with her magic and began stirring the liquid mixture before her, reaching within it and causing opposing currents at the bottom, middle and top of the vat so that it mixed quickly. What was before her would be a special chemical formula that would harden into a form of highly flexible plastic. The ground up gemstones included in the mixture was so that the plastic was magically conductive.

Emerald got the idea from how ponies mass produced enchanted products when they needed to. Ponies would create this ink mixture and pour ground up gemstones into it like she was doing with this chemical vat. Then they would enchant the mixture with the spell they wanted it to hold before painting it onto objects and sticking a gem powered up with magic to power the enchanted ink. This process was much quicker than having a single artificer draw up runes and work out all the circuitry. The drawback, however, was that the enchanted paint was less potent than runes drawn up by an artificer. Emerald, however, didn’t really need to worry about the lack of potency; she needed this mixture purely to make power cables that would carry magical power from the various ley lines and to the Hub. She would be using the ponies’ concept of the magical ink to create sound dampening enchantments for the new generation of rifles. They only needed to be so strong after all, and would serve as a good stop gap for now.

Since she only needed the mixture to carry power, she left it blank of enchantment.

“Alright, remember what I taught you and begin pouring this stuff into the molds,” Emerald called out to the dogs. “Once you are done,
cover this stuff up, otherwise it’ll harden and we’ll have to skim the hardened layer off.”

“Right, boss!” came a collective shout from the dogs before they set to work.

‘Right. With this, we’ll be able to supply constant power to the Storm Sapphire,’ Emerald thought as she began walking out of the room. ‘Just have to get the power lines all set up, get the power junctions up, the sub stations built and the charging station for when the rifles are all enchanted. Speaking of which, the magic ink will be ready later today. I think we have a few spray cans in stock. We can use those to apply them to the rifles. I’ll have to charge up the gems myself, but it’s just for now; that process will be automated as well.’

As Emerald left the building, a shape suddenly dropped down into her face and startled her. On instinct, she shifted her left arm into a claw and was about to swipe when she managed to stop herself. She paused, arm about to slice into what startled her, and took in what was in her face.

“Cool!” the spider said excitedly as she stared at the claw that was an instant away from cutting her into ribbons. It was a little black widow, just smaller than a pony; it wore a white and red frilly dress and had a white and red bonnet on her head with short blond hair poking out. On her abdomen was an image of a stylised explosion.

“Hello…” Emerald greeted and returned her arm to normal. “I take it you are a spider from Lady Black’s family?”

“Yeah!” The spider nodded cheerfully. “I’m Flandre! My friends call me Flan! Everything looks so cool and different here!”

“Really?” Emerald as she walked around Flandre, who dropped down onto the ground and quickly started walking after Emerald.

“Oh yes!” Flandre said excitedly as she kept looking at her surroundings. “For some reason, my sister didn’t want me to leave our home. I’ve never been outside our cave once! Everything looks so different! Something about people not appreciating me or something…”

“Hmm… your sister wouldn’t happen to be Remilia Black, would she?” Emerald hazarded a guess.

“Yes she is!” Flandre said. “How did you know?”

“An educated guess,” Emerald answered simply. “I suggest you be careful of going to see anyone other than Diamond Dogs.”

“Aww… Remi told me that, too,” Flandre said as she started making little circles in the dirt with one of her foremost legs. “Why can’t I go see what ponies are like? They are all over the world, and yet I’ve never got to see one, ever.”

“Hmm… we have a pony here. You can meet her if you wish,” Emerald stated to the little spider’s great joy. “BUT you can only go see her when she comes to see you,okay?”

“Kay!” Flandre said cheerfully. “So… what’s your name?”

“I’m Emerald Gleaner. You can call me Emmy if you wish,” Emerald said to the young spider.

“Okay, Emmy!” Flandre said as she quickly ran ahead so that Emerald could see her face when she looked up at her. “So whatcha up to?”

“Planning, waiting for things to happen,” Emerald answered as she spotted a pair of dogs pushing a cart of ore along. Normally, this would not garner more than a passing glance at the most, but the dogs were going out of the way to avoid being too close to the cart they were pushing. With her sight, she was able to see the fine details of the ore in the cart and saw how it was black and had a bubble like texture over the surface. Now very curious of the dogs and the ore they were hauling away, Emerald approached them.

“Hello there, you seem to be literally keeping those rocks at arm’s reach,” Emerald commented as she approached, beginning to feel an odd tingling sensation in the parts of her body that was facing the rocks. “What seems to be the problem?”

“These are toxic rocks, boss,” one of the dogs answered. “We found a vein of it while digging for ores. We’re just getting rid of the rocks we dug up before we realised.”

“Toxic rocks, you say?” Emerald stated and began to have suspicions of the ore in the cart before her.

“Yeah, we used to dig up the stuff a long time ago and try to find something to do with it like any other ore,” explained one of the two. “But then dogs who spent a long time around the rocks would start to get really sick, start getting really thin and lose patches of fur. So we just dump the rocks now. We’re just taking this to the dumping site right now.”

“You don’t say…” Emerald said, all thoughts of telling Whisper about Flandre now gone in favour of curiosity and suspicions of the ore before her. “Wait for me at the exit to the city; I’ll accompany you to the dumping site once I’ve gathered something for the trip.”

With that, Emerald teleported into her workshop on the surface. Working quickly, she gathered a few electronic scraps and transfigured the other components she would need to make the device she wanted.

‘Simple enough to make. Can do without taking too long., Emerald thought as she levitated many pieces onto the table before her while also using magic to create yet more. ‘A speaker for the scanner noise, some circuitry, a power source, a glass tube, some noble gasses to place inside said tube, a structure to place all the parts around it and some wires to hold it altogether… there, short and sweet, all done.’

The device Emerald now held in her hand wasn’t pretty to look at with all its exposed circuitry and wires, but it served its purpose and she didn’t exactly need an aesthetically pleasing plastic shell. She’d bother with that when she intended to mass produce or sell it to people.

‘Right, let’s just turn it on briefly and make sure it works right,’ Emerald thought and did just that, getting a faint steady static like sound from the small speaker. ‘Right, detecting the background levels like it should. Hopefully it’ll spike in the presence of greater amounts like it should as well.’

Emerald then teleported away from the workshop once she had finished the device she needed and arrived at the exit to the Hub. She noticed the dogs were off to the side and sitting some distance away from what she felt was a cart full of pitchblende. Emerald also noticed that Flandre wasn’t around anymore.

“Where did that little spider go?” Emerald asked the two dogs.

“She got bored and went to play with a bunch of pups that came running by,” one of the two dogs answered as they got up off the floor and went over to the cart. “Did you want her to tag along or something, boss?”

“No, she should be fine with just running around here until I get back,” Emerald replied and waited for the two dogs to grab their cart. “Right, let’s be on our way to the dumping site.”

“Right this way, boss,” the dog began as he and his fellow pushed the cart. “It’s a bit of a walk, but isn’t as bad as it could have been.”

The dog had been right. Two hours of walking passed as the group of three walked through the tunnels. At first, the path they were on was fairly well traveled and they tended to pass by traveling dogs on their way to and from the Enclave territories, but eventually they ended up in much smaller tunnels that seemed to not get much traffic.

Finally, the three reached the end of a long tunnel that was covered with the etched on symbols of dog skulls, likely meaning danger or sickness. At the tunnels end was a large cavern with the very center of it being dominated by a deep sinkhole. The blinding darkness gave the look of it being bottomless, but in an instant Emerald’s eyes adapted and could see the bottom nearly a hundred feet down, which was partly filled by a large pile of “toxic ore” the dogs mined.

The two dogs with her went about their business and took the cart to the very edge of the pit before tipping it and dumping the contents into the depths.

“Thank you for leading me here,” Emerald said to the two. “Head back to the Hub, I have some business here yet.”

With that, Emerald leapt down into the pit. She reached out with a now claw-shifted arm and it bit deep into the wall. Her descent was rapidly slowed until eventually she let go of the wall and landed with a soft thump. The tingling feeling was much stronger now, and this time she felt it pop up randomly throughout her entire form before fading briefly. Emerald took out the device she made and pointed it at the large pile of rocks before her as she turned it on.

Instantly, the iconic noise of a Geiger counter detecting radioactivity filled the air.

‘Well ain’t that a thing…’ Emerald hummed in thought as she stared as the large pile of pitchblende before her.

ZETA

Tirek growled in annoyance as he felt his legs buckle and strain at just the effort of walking up stairs.

The now former prisoner had managed to make his escape, though he didn’t know how long had it been since then; likely over a week at the very least. He had managed it thanks to the fact his jail cell was close to the surface and right next to the entrance, thus when he spotted the sole guard of Tartarus wander off, he took his chance. His atrophied body made the task of simply walking out the front door of the prison almost insurmountable. He had even almost given up when he crawled what felt like miles and had only managed to make it down the slope leading away from his cell. But through sheer force of will and contempt for his traitorous brother- a lot of contempt- he managed to crawl out of the prison and into the wilderness.

After an exhausting day of crawling away from the prison, he had simply passed out as the sun set. When he had awoken the next day, he had continued to crawl despite how his muscles seemed to scream at him in agony at the effort. Another day’s worth of crawling had managed to deliver him to what he considered to be his salvation; an abandoned farm house. The first thing Tirek had done was crawl over to the aged water pump in the overgrown lawn in front of the house and with all his pitiful might, he forced the pump’s lever down once and sent a surge of pink water into his face. He was forced to pump it several times before he eventually got water that would be considered drinkable without causing him to go ill. He also managed to feed his painfully empty stomach via the wild vegetables growing in the abandoned fields of the farm. After that, Tirek made his way into the dusty old farmhouse and simply collapsed on the welcome mat once he had a roof over his head.

Once Tirek had shelter, along with a somewhat dependable means of feeding and satisfying his thirst, he spent his entire time training his body back up. To his everlasting humiliation, Tirek found that the act of simply moving about the house and collecting food and drink was more than enough of a workout. Once he was strong enough to stumble up stairs, Tirek proceeded to gather up as much cloth in the dusty old house as possible to make his bed in one of the rooms upstairs; upstairs because it would help to strengthen his body more. He wasn’t going to be sleeping in the bed in this place as the mattress was likely moldy and mite ridden. That, and the former inhabitant of the farmhouse had apparently passed away peacefully on that very bed if the bones were any indication.

Currently, Tirek was now just walking upstairs to crawl into the nest of cloths he made for himself, still rather annoyed at the fact he couldn’t walk without his legs shaking just yet. Eventually he reached the second floor, much to his silent relief, and moved into the closet where he had made his bed. The closet was filled with shelves that held various products that were no doubt far past their expiration date and smelt of dust. But then so did the whole house. As the being from the land of monsters began to settle into his ragged bed, he went still as noises from the floor below reached his ears.

Tirek stayed still for several long moments as he listened to judge whether or not he heard anything. When another noise rustled from below, he considered whether or not he should investigate or remain hidden, as chances were this could be ponies looking for him.

After warring with himself briefly, Tirek decided to investigate what was making the noises below. Wrapping the cloak made from some black sheets around himself, Tirek silently left the closet and moved back downstairs. He saw a light coming from the kitchen and approached with his ears straining for any noise at all.

Tirek peered around the corner and saw a lantern sitting on the table in the middle of the kitchen. He looked around the kitchen and continued to strain his ears for noise, but could not locate anyone. Tirek slowly entered the kitchen and approached table with the lantern and began to notice several things about it. It was a very stylised looking lantern, and should not have been sitting on the table the way it was due to its hexagonal prism shape with a pointed bottom, black iron served as the skeletal structure of the lantern and each side had skulls in varying positions which cast ghastly shadows. The top had a simple metal cap with a ring to hold the lantern.

As he came to a stop beside the table, Tirek couldn’t help but feel he was being stared at and was looking at the point the feeling was originating from. After a moment of indecision he reached out with a hand to grasp the lantern’s handle.

Suddenly, there was a presence that seemed to cover him like a lead blanket and felt like it was attempting to choke the life out of him. Tirek, for a brief moment, thought that a spell was being cast on him when he realised in horror that it wasn’t a spell at all; it was simply an aura of supreme overwhelming power.

There was an explosion and wooden shards went flying through the air along with Tirek, his frail body crashing against the aged fridge before falling to the floor. Tirek felt his consciousness on the brink of fading, both from the impact and the suffocating almighty presence that weighed on him still. But he managed to claw his way firmly back into the realm of consciousness.

“Tis a pathetic creature,” boomed a voice. “Must we waste time on it?”

Tirek turned towards the voice and felt his eyes widen. Standing in a large opening blown in the side of the house was a being that could quite possibly have been taller than the two story house if it hadn’t been crouching down staring at him like he was an insect. It was bipedal and seemed very draconic besides a few birdlike features. Its feet were large eagle like talons that quickly faded into powerful legs with a thin coating of gray down. It had a long, powerful tail along with an equally powerful looking red and blue scaled torso which had an odd shape on the chest area that looked faintly like there was another face there. Its arms were powerful looking and started with blueish purple smooth skin before fading into skin like such on the feet of an eagle, it’s hands were like a bird’s in texture but in shape they were ape like and each finger ended in curving talons. A pair of wings were folded on its back and seemed more than capable of supporting the draconic being’s heavily muscled form. Its head was odd to Tirek’s eyes. It had red scaled skin along with pointed ears and two sets of curving horns upon its head, its eyes were red and glowed brightly and it’s facial features reminded him somewhat of an ape, but didn’t fit entirely right.

The aura of power that seemed to wish to crush the life out of him came from this being.

“It does have its uses despite its apparent frailty,” came a voice that seemed more the sound of the wind on a dark night. “Though I do admit its current condition does much to dissuade otherwise. A mere shrub could oust this creature as it is.”

The lantern on the still remarkably untouched table lifted into the air and what held it faded into visible sight as it floated over to the other being’s left shoulder. It’s entire body was cloaked from sight with a tattered black robe and it appeared to have no legs from the way it’s lower half blew in an unseen wind. The robe’s sleeves ended halfway on its arms, the edges frayed and torn. The ghostly beings arms were kept from sight by an almost excessive amount of bandages, some of which dangled freely and flittered in some unseen breeze. It’s head was twice covered, once by a large black hood and second by black cloths that wrapped around its head and face, leaving only a small gap for the eyes and exposing a bit of sickly green skin. Said eyes were as yellow as topaz but had a light to them like a raging fire.

“Hn… why aught we waste time at all?” the larger being asked, turning to its ghostly companion. “The Goddess of All Flame is weak, lacking her might and easily slain by the either of us. Tis an easier task than the path you have set before us is it not?”

“Why did you wait for those chosen slaves of the ring to come to you?” the shade answered with another question. “Your prison was no longer such and it would have been a simple task for you to leave and seek them out.”

The draconic being nodded in understanding after a moment,

Tirek gasped and struggled on the floor; this aura was just too much. He had a feeling that even if he had all the magic of all Equestria, he still would not have stood a chance to even stand, let alone fight. After a moment, he brought forth his strength to speak.

“Wha… w-who are y-you…”

Finally the shade turned its gleaming yellow eyes to him and Tirek instantly regretted speaking and attracting its attention, as those eyes seemed to stab into his very soul.

“I…” the shade whispered as it brought it’s lantern up which was quickly glowing with a blinding light. “I am a Curse upon the courageous!”

Celestia gasped as she shot up in her bed, having awakened from the extremely vivid dream. It was so intense and clear that the Goddess of the Sun could not mistake it as anything other than a vision, an omen of something to come… but what?

“Sister!” Luna shouted as she charged into Celestia’s bedroom. “I have witnessed your dream!”

“Luna, I… I do not know what this means…” Celestia said as she stared down at her blanket. “But… nothing good can come of this.”

“Tirek escaped Tartarus,” Luna stated. “For all the good it did him afterwards… how could he have escaped?”

“It must have been when the Cerberus ran away briefly,” Celestia shook her head. “I knew the prison should have been investigated in case some took the chance to leave. We shall do it right now. Tirek may have escaped and potentially met his fate, but we must make sure no others did as well.”

With that, Celestia threw off her covers and moved to jump out of her bed when she knocked a hoof against one of her bedside tables. The hit didn’t hurt her in the least, but what it did do was dislodge a scroll that had been stuck between it and the bed.

Briefly curious if this was a message that had arrived while she slept, Celestia unrolled it and began to read. After only a few moment of reading, the princess let out a frustrated groan before dropping onto her side on the bed and letting the message fall onto the bed.

Wondering what could have caused such a reaction in her sister, Luna walked over and levitated the scroll to read for herself. The message was from Twilight and appeared to recount a brief history of the Diamond Dogs and how they used to have a prosperous kingdom. That is, until a prisoner of Tartarus broke free a hundred years ago and laid waste to the kingdom and took it for himself, scattering the survivors to the five winds and enslaving those who stayed.

“A hundred years, Luna…” Celestia said from her position on the bed. “A hundred years Nidhogg had been absent from his cell and we did not notice. A hundred years of pain and suffering for a whole people… what’s worse is I had set aside this very message for later. Had I read it, I would have improved the guard of the prison… Tirek would not have escaped but I had forgotten instead.”

“Sister, you are not perfect. Nopony is,” Luna replied as she placed the message down. “And even if you had improved the security, I have a feeling those two beings would not have been dissuaded from simply taking Tirek from the prison. As for Nidhogg, what’s done is done. The best we can do is learn from this and move on.”

“Luna, you know I don’t have the luxury of not being perfect,” Celestia stated and wiped away some tears that had managed to build up in the corners of her eyes. “All the death and destruction Nidhogg caused should have never have happened. I had locked him away. It was my responsibility to ensure he stayed that way. Knowing this, I do not know why Emerald did not request reparations for the dogs. She is more than well within her right to do so… come, my sister, we have work to do. I do not believe that either of us is going to be getting much sleep.”

Luna stared sadly as she watched her sister rapidly put on her royal regalia and walk out. In some ways, she was glad she did not have all the responsibilities her sister did because of the time she was away from the kingdom. In others, she knew the extra work always did strain on her and the fact she, as her sister, wasn’t bearing the burden equally weighed on her conscious.

Shaking her head clear of that thought, Luna quickly followed after Celestia.

ETA

A passenger ship eased into port as the morning sun began its approach on noon. Soon the ship’s docking procedures were finished and its passengers began to disembark.

“Ah, it’s been quite some years since I’ve set foot back in Van Hoover,” sighed a heron wearing a white haori with light blue trimming along with a white conical hat made of a hard material, which shone lightly in the sunlight. Upon the front of the hat and the back of the haori were kanji that translated into the word ‘wind’. “I believe you know when exactly the last time was, do you not, my young apprentice?”

“Course I do, Master Gyatso,” a fairly young pegasus mare stated a bit gruffly. “That was when you picked me up.”

The young pegasus had a light blue coat and silvery mane and tail that ended in short spirals, along with green eyes. She had a cutie mark of a sword with a tornado surrounding the blade. She also had two swords herself, both of them different types of katana. One was attached to a special strap that kept it secured to the middle of her back and had a sheath that was wide at the bottom to allow easy drawing; the handle was also very long and seemed specially made for her to grip with her mouth. The other blade was smaller, easily half the length of the other blade and had a much shorter handle and happened to be strapped to the side of her back left leg, an odd positioning that made one wonder how she drew and used the weapon with any ease.

“Indeed!” Gyatso smiled happily at the thought. “Ah, you were quite little filly back then. Hmm, perhaps we should visit your village? I’m sure everyone misses your greatly.”

“Aren’t we on a mission, master?” The mare frowned. “Shouldn’t we focus on that? Besides, I’ve been sending them letters.”

“Correction, my dear Swift. I am on a mission!” Gyatso corrected cheerfully. “And I say we should take the time to enjoy the sights and sounds! Smell the flowers so to speak… oh dear…”

Swift came to a stop and looked to see what had attracted her master’s attention. They had been walking along a large wall as they made their way through the dock. On said wall was two fairly large advertising posters. One had a unicorn mare with a white coat, light pink and white mane and light purple eyes; this mare was wearing an open reflective vest and was on her back. She was smiling brightly at the camera as she held a large novelty screwdriver that was lying on top of her. The other picture was also of a unicorn mare who also had a white coat but had a mane of a much more intense pink color, and her eyes were of a green that was richer than Swift’s own. This unicorn was lying on her stomach with her legs sprawled behind her and was wearing green coveralls and a pair of safety glasses. She was also resting her head atop her hooves which were perched up by her elbows. She seemed to be biting her lip for some reason and her eyes were hooded as they smoulder with… something, though Swift didn’t know what. Overall, Swift thought the poses the two mares were doing in the ads were weird and… made her feel rather confused as her cheeks flushed.

“O-oh my… I feel so full of energy all of the sudden,” the heron stated as he looked between the two ads.

“Really?” Swift said with as she took in the two ads again. “It’s just two pictures of two mares making really weird poses… actually it’s kind of confusing me… I guess they actually do look a little nice...”

“Well it’s most certainly having an effect on me as well and I can’t quite deny I enjoy it!” Gyatso said energetically before he finally started moving. “Ah, now I feel ready for the journey ahead.”

The continued on their way down the streets of Vanhoover. Swift made to turn to the left so they could head to the local train station and buy a ticket when Gyatso continued along on a different street. Swift felt a sense of dread build in her as she saw this.

“Master Gyatso, the train station is this way!” Swift said in hopes that he was just slightly lost.

“Swift Gale, how can one enjoy the sights and sounds when it’s all blurring past?” Gyatso shouted back cheerfully. “We continue on foot!”

“On foot…” Swift Gale repeated with a look at her wings and Gyatso’s own pair before sighing loudly in defeat.

“Come along, my young apprentice!” Gyatso shouted again. “I do believe there is a local restaurant with heron delicacies nearby!”

“Coming, Master Gyatso…”

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: What was the name of that one chapter in book one? Ah yes, Prepare for Unforeseen Consequences. Hehehe… oh if only you all knew what the future had in store…

EN: And now Tirek is dead, and the Season 4 ending shall not come to pass… or is he? Looks like trouble’s afoot and new adversaries have shown themselves. Who knows how this will affect the canon we all know by now? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Swift Gale is my OC, and I’d like to thank legionary for including her in the story, especially with what he has hinted at that may or may not happen in the future. Looking forward to more chapters after this, and I hope you all are as well. But until next time, peace out.

Chapter 12: Overwatch

Loud banging on steel plating filled the air along with roars of pure rage as Emerald sat crossed legged against a steel wall with a contemplative look on her face.

Emerald had created the rampaging monster in the massive steel cage just that day. The original creature that had been grown had been scrapped when its magical circuits proved to be as undeveloped as circuits in a still growing fetus. Emerald had figured that it had to do with the fact it was mindless and so had created something that was a bit more intelligent. That had done the trick, as the circuits were now as potent as a fully grown unicorn’s. So with establishing the link between magical potency and intelligence, Emerald began the balancing act of intelligence and the simple mindedness she needed to make the premise for the monster’s work. Of course this had the issue of making the monsters act on their own at times, especially when she experimented with the mental magics she had placed within them. This resulted in said monster going utterly berserk and being completely uncontrollable.

“Uhh… boss?” a dog said worriedly as the banging and roaring grew louder. “Are you going to do something about the big thing going crazy in there?”

“One moment. Just trying to figure out what caused the issue in the first place,” Emerald replied as she then reached out with her viral senses.

She hadn’t had the cause before to make use of her enhanced control over Blacklight that she had gained from consuming Discord’s genes. But now the ability was going to be useful, as she could reach out to the rampaging creature from a distance instead of having to touch it.

Emerald got several impressions from the rampaging creature; its intelligence wasn’t near enough to give true thoughts and perceptions. So all Emerald got was a collection of things driving it to rage put together in an incoherent mess. That was somewhat okay, as Emerald had a good idea as to what went wrong exactly. It was something to do with the mental magic Emerald had integrated into it. Perhaps the magic was having an effect upon the monster’s mind in a way that agitated it? In any case, she needed to fine tune the balance between intelligence and simple mindedness.

Emerald lifted her hand and reached out before clenched her hand into a fist.

In an instant, the roaring and banging ceased and there was a loud groan followed shortly by a loud rumble as the creature collapsed to the floor.

“And that’s that,” Emerald stated and got up to her feet. “I’ll recycle the body later today and make another creature, with a few things that will hopefully be improvements.”

“Right, boss,” the dog said with some relief at the rampaging monster being put down.

‘Right, it’s time to go see how far the dogs are getting with their first vehicle,’ Emerald thought and walked away from the massive steel cage.

With a quick teleport, Emerald ended up near a carved out cavern near the surface. Said cavern was carved out near the surface because the vehicles’ exhausts were quite an issue and made proper ventilation mandatory.

‘Bit of a big issue, really,’ Emerald thought as she entered through the large entrance to the cavern. ‘We are an underground nation and the fumes from the vehicles would build up overtime and would get caught. Not being able to vent fumes properly from the tunnel network is a big problem and needs to be fixed before we can use vehicular transport in any great means. Just using those cobbled together trains can be a big pain on the air quality.’

Past the entrance was a large dirt track lit up by large holes in the ceiling to the surface and the odd industrial light. The track had many different terrain types; one was made of uneven rocks, another was some fairly deep puddles, one involved several varying inclines and one final track involved driving at an angle to test center of gravity. Off to the side was a group of dogs swarming over a construction of metal that couldn’t be made out just yet.

Emerald approached the group, who soon noticed her approach and stepped away from the machine they were crowding.

It was a simple buggy like car with a bare steel skeleton and a seat in the middle of it. It had four large, simple tires that Emerald had given a little help in designing the surface of. And it had a basic four cylinder engine that was capable of cruising at fifty miles per hour without much strain sitting in the back.

Emerald stepped beside the machine and did some checks of her own. She made sure the dials seemed to be working along with the pedals and steering wheel. She walked around the buggy, checking it’s wheels and suspension. Then she walked around the back and checked the engine itself. After checking the oil, she turned towards the anxiously waiting dogs and nodded to them.

“Right, let’s get this test underway,” Emerald said and waved everyone over to the side as the test driver quickly jumped into his seat, excitement clear to see on his face.

Emerald and the others watched on as the dog buckled himself in and started up the engine. The small engine block roared to life with a bit of a sputter and thin gouts of gray smoke emitting from the tall mufflers. Immediately the dog drove off down the track with an audible whoop and quickly drove over the rocky part of the track.

The dogs who had helped to build the buggy muttered as the buggy’s suspension coils didn’t do a totally great job of making the rocks a smoother ride, not that the driver noticed. The tires did a great job keeping traction while moving through the water, understandable considering Emerald did a little more than hint and correct in development. The hilly portions of the track strained the engine and the buggy slowed down as it went up the inclines; understandable considering the engine wasn’t up to Emerald’s standards just yet. The final stretch of the track was the buggy driving at an angle to test it’s center of gravity and the vehicle aced that test, it’s wide axles, suspensions and long frame handling the angles with ease.

The dogs who were part of Emerald’s first engineering team cheered as the buggy came to a stop before them and the driver gave everyone a toothy smile. Emerald was smiling as well, happy and impressed with the progress the dogs were making with the information she was giving and teaching them.

‘From what Fenrir told me, the Diamond Dogs were naturals with tools and work that involved their paws,’ Emerald thought. ‘It’s highly likely that’s what is making them picking up on all these building and engineering stuff so quickly.’

Suddenly there was a crowing sound that seemed oddly curious. A moment later and several raptors dropped down from the openings in the ceiling. Most of the raptors started exploring their new surroundings except for one.

Stripe gave a delighted squeal as he caught sight of Emerald and charged at her. The virus for her part just shook her head and turned in the opposite direction from Stripe. After a few moments she felt Stripe’s mass impact the back of her body and his little arms wrap around her neck.

“Hi Stripe,” Emerald greeted the Blacklight Raptor with a grin. “Having fun?”

Stripe gave her an affectionate lick on her cheek in answer before letting go of her and curling up at her feet.

As Emerald leaned over to pet Stripe, she began thinking about future generations of raptors. She had already created a bunch of new pods and since she knew the process worked, it wouldn’t take nearly as long to grow more raptors- this time with a larger variety in skin color. Well over a hundred raptors were growing in a freshly expanded chamber and would take only two weeks to reach full maturity. Speaking of maturity…

“You’re getting bigger, Stripe,” she said to the purring raptor. “Soon you’ll be taller than me. You’ll certainly be giving most people a fright.”

Stripe got up to his feet again and tilted his head curiously at Emerald, his height now reaching just the bottom of her chin. Seeing the rather cute look he was giving her, Emerald smiled and quickly grew a ball made with a tough rubber like material before tossing it into the air.

Stripe gave a crow of excitement and leapt into the air and caught the ball in his jaws before falling to the floor with a thump. The raptor began to roll around on the ground and growl playfully as he bit and tore at the ball Emerald gave him. The virus watched this for a few moments with a smile before walking away.

She walked back over to the dogs that were examining the buggy.

“Ugh… this buggy is great and all, but the fumes are horrible.” One of the dogs waved a paw in front of their nose. “How are we going to handle the fumes down in the tunnels? We don’t exactly have roads through the Everfree to drive the buggies on.”

“I think I can solve that myself,” Emerald answered. “I’m fairly certain I can create a far more cleaner burning fuel for the buggies.”

“Okay… but I think from the stuff you taught us, that isn’t going to get rid of all of it, right?” a dog said while stretching her head.

“You’re right, it won’t.” Emerald smiled. “But it will get rid of most and I can get rid of the rest via some filters. Something easy to install as we go along in the tunnels. Leave it to me, I’ll handle the fume issues. In the meantime, you lot see about getting this engine faster. I want it to be able to cruise comfortably at seventy miles per hour before we use them en masse.”

“Right, boss!” the dogs collectively shouted.

‘A filter, right…’ Emerald thought as she started walking away. ‘I’ll definitely have to do something biological again. Hmm… I’ve heard of bacteria colonies that took toxic waste and created small grains of gold. Perhaps something along those lines, but… with algae or moss, a plant that tends to grow on rock anyways. I can have it so it takes in air impurities like fumes and carbon dioxide and other gasses, and outputs clean oxygen. Shouldn’t take too much work. A bit of fiddling with some plant genomes, adding a few select genes here and there and I’ll be done working the genetic formula out before I get back to growing a new creature out of that dead one.’

Emerald half absently made her way back into the Hub on foot, taking her time and working out some theoretical genomes in her head. When she passed a group of fully armoured, nervous looking Warhounds carrying their rifles, she almost missed it. When she did notice, she turned about in place and walked over to see what the issue was.

“Hope you all are practicing proper gun safety while looking so nervous,” Emerald said and managed to make more than a few dogs jump despite not sneaking. “Is there something wrong I should know about?”

“Just getting ready for the dragon migration, boss,” one of the Warhounds answered.

“Really?” Emerald said with a raised brow. “You mean the dragon migration that will be far above ground and never flies through Everfree, right?”

“Better safe than sorry, boss,” the Warhound replied and clutched at his long rifle.

“Hmm… carry on,” Emerald simply stated and walked away.

‘I really don’t see a point to worrying about the dragons so much,’ Emerald thought as she walked through the Hub and noticed that the group of nervous Warhounds wasn’t alone in their thoughts. Many dogs walked and moved about with an air of tension. ‘Like I said, the dragon migration never flies over Everfree and it also doesn’t have a history of attacking places it travels through. Even if they did, it’s not like they would really know there is a city beneath Everfree.’

‘Anyway,’ Emerald continued. ‘I think I have a rough idea of how an air cleaning moss would work; just a few more bugs to work out. Also, I really should go check out the runic ink works I have being set up.’

Emerald was about to change direction and do just that when a memory struck her. It was of Twilight complaining of her working all the time. And it was true; she worked most of the time and only stayed in bed with Twilight long enough for her to fall asleep before slipping away, working the night away before coming back in the morning to have breakfast with everyone.

‘I really ought to get this done…’ Emerald thought with a frown before sighing. ‘Well, it isn’t too terribly important, I guess. Let’s just take the day off.’

With that, Emerald teleported back home to Ponyville

ALPHA

“It’s so nice to just be spending time together!” Twilight said happily as they walked down the street. “You’ve been working so much lately, Emerald.”

“Well you know, got a lot of ponies and things to manage,” Emerald answered with Navi in her mane, snoozing the day away. “Takes time and effort.”

“I know, Emerald, but there is more to life than work, you know.” Twilight smiled softly as she stepped a bit closer to Emerald as they walked.

“Well… it’s not like I’m going to pass on anytime soon,” Emerald answered. “I just want to keep busy is all.”

Suddenly the conversation ended at that, as Twilight suddenly realised the fact that Emerald was biologically immortal. People always hurried about and concerned themselves with the passing of time simply because they had a limited amount. That was not the case for Emerald. She literally had all the time in the world and only sought to work not make something of herself in the short amount of time she was alive, but simply to keep herself busy as there would be no natural end for her; just ceaseless existence.

“Is there something wrong, Twilight?” Emerald asked.

“…Nothing, Emerald.” Twilight shook her head, the reality of her own mortality and Emerald’s immortality could wait. “Just thinking about life. Come on! I think your other friends are this way!”

“…” Emerald stood in silence for a moment as she watched Twilight trot away before shrugging and trotting after her.

After a short while of trotting, the two unicorns came within view of the diner Emerald’s other friends frequented. All of them save Clock Work were there, and Emerald couldn’t help but grin at the unique sight that met her eyes.

Bon Bon sat at the table and looked distracted as she stared off into the distance. Lyra was sitting at the table snickering at the two ponies opposite her. Time Turner and Rose Locks were sitting so close as to be sharing the same seat. The earth pony doctor looked both embarrassed and happy while Rose Locks simply looked smugly satisfied.

“Hey everypony!” Emerald greeted as she and Twilight took a seat at the table. “Having fun?”

“They are,” Lyra answered with a snicker.

“I heard that one of the ponies in this group was a Thracian?” Twilight said as she looked around. “I’ve been really curious about meeting one.”

“Oh, that’s Clock Work,” Lyra replied. “He looks awesome!”

“Care to tell me more?” Twilight asked in interest.

Emerald smiled at seeing Twilight getting along with her other friends and looked towards Bon Bon who was still looking rather distracted with worry. Emerald wondered if she should ask her what was wrong for a moment before deciding it wouldn’t be harmful to ask.

“Is there something wrong, Bon Bon?” Emerald asked.

“Huh? Oh…” Bon Bon said distractedly before realising what Emerald asked. “I’m just… worried about my family is all…”

“You can talk to me about it if you want,” Emerald said. “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“Well…” Bon Bon frowned and bit her lip anxiously. “O-okay, it’s about my family. They’ve run into a bit of a rough patch and are having a hard time. We… they had an idea for how to get through it and I… don’t really agree with it, but I understand the necessity. If we don’t do something drastic, we’ll have to go without food.”

“You know…” Emerald said and looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to their conversation. Lyra and Twilight were involved in their own conversation and Rose Locks and Time Turner were more interested in each other. “I’m rather rich. Perhaps I can buy your family enough food to get them through their rough spot?”

“That nice of you to offer, Emerald,” Bon Bon said with a wan smile. “But my family isn’t very… accepting of help from those outside the family. They wouldn’t accept your help.”

“Well, if anything about that changes, then you know where to find me, Bon Bon,” Emerald stated. “And I’ll keep this a secret, don’t worry.”

“Thank you Emerald,” Bon Bon said gratefully but with a guilty looking expression. “I’d really rather not that word get out my family’s situation is desperate.”

“No problem, Bon Bon,” Emerald said. Far be it from her to stick her nose in another family’s business.

“Oh hey!” Lyra shouted suddenly. “Everypony stocked up on fire resistant enchants for your homes? Tomorrow is the day of the migration you know.”

“Lyra, statistically speaking, you have nothing to fear from the migration,” Time Turner stated, which Twilight nodded in agreement. “No major incidents involving the migration have ever been reported when they passed through Equestria.”

“Doesn’t mean it can’t happen TT!” Lyra retorted.

“Leave her be, Time Turner,” Emerald stated. “She’s just hoping to get a picture of a dragon breathing fire on her house.”

“It’ll be an AWESOME scrapbook picture!” Lyra said with a wide, toothy smile, causing everyone to smile and laugh.

BETA

Emerald sat in the freshly dug trench, wearing a camo helmet and protective coat.

Twilight had insisted she come along for this, and frankly, Emerald was actually interested in seeing the dragon migration. However, her presence had made a very clear divide in the trench. On one half of the trench stood Emerald, Rarity, Pinkie and Twilight. In the other half was Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Lightning Dust who was apparently invited by Dash. Fluttershy wasn’t there as, while she was fine with dragons she knew, she was still terrified of the ones she didn’t. Everyone was wearing some sort of camo gear save for Rarity who decided to wear something glamorous and also stuck out like a sore thumb. Not that Emerald actually expected the camouflage to actually do anything, as they were in a trench right out in the open.

“So uhh…” Dust began. “There a reason why we are in two groups? I mean, if it’s to avoid bunching us all together…”

“No, nothing like that,” Rainbow Dash said to her friend. “It’s just… complicated. Don’t you worry about that. Just keep an eye on the sky.”

“Oookay?” Dust said with furrowed brows.

“Ahoy maties!” Pinkie suddenly called out. “Dragons ho!”

In the distance, the dragon migration could be seen and was rapidly closing in. There were gasps of awe and interest as the sheer size of the flight of dragons became increasingly clear. Emerald herself was just looking up and taking in the different looking dragons.

“Pfft, pretty lame move,” Emerald heard Dash comment about one of the dragons. “Is that all they got?”

Apparently one dragon heard the comment as Emerald spotted one swooping towards them. Everyone ducked down and Dust pulled Dash down into cover at the last moment as flames flew towards them.

“Th-thanks, Dust,” Dash said nervously as she patted out the small flame on her hat.

“If it weren’t for the fact that those flames would have just stung at the very most, I’d do something about that dragon,” Emerald stated as she eyed the dragon who blew flames at Rainbow Dash dangerously.

“Dragons can control the heat of their flames?” Twilight said curiously. “I figured there was something more to them considering what Spike can do with his flames.

“It’s magical fire,” Emerald replied. “If a dragon bothered to learn how, they could breathe flames that would just warm you up instead of burn you. I’m guessing there’s a lot dragons can use their flames for, but my source wasn’t exactly a peaceful dragon, so it’s hard to say.”

“I wonder what sorts of things Spike will learn to do as he gets older?” Twilight wondered aloud. “Honestly, Spike learned that ability to send things with his fire by accident when we were young.”

“Perhaps I’ll learn more myself one day,” Emerald replied.

Anything else the two might have talked about was interrupted by the sound of Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Dash’s laughter. Emerald turned to see an embarrassed looking Spike standing amongst the girls and wearing a frilly pink apron. Over to the side, Lightning Dust looked very much like she felt like the fifth wheel and seemed conflicted between going back to dragon watching and joining in on the conversation.

“What's wrong with wearing an apron?” Spike asked defensively with flushed cheeks. “You won't be laughing when you spill blueberries all over your scales- feathers. That's one tough stain!”

“One tough stain against one lame dragon,” Rainbow Dash laughed.

“You leave him alone, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said in defense of the little baby dragon. “Spike's style is unique. He doesn't have to look like other dragons!”

“Or act like them,” Twilight said, though she looked a little lost from just entering the conversation.

“My little Spikey-wikey is perfect the way he is!” Rarity added adoringly.

“Ugh, maybe you want to tone that down a bit,” Emerald said with a frown. “You sound like you are talking about a cute pet.”

“And I’m definitely no pet!” Spike said, throwing Emerald a grateful look. “I’m Spike the Dragon.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean for it to sound that way,” Rarity said reassuringly. “But while you are a dragon, you certainly don’t act like those ones up there.”

“I don’t?” Spike asked with a frown.

“Not even close!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“But why would you want that?” Applejack added.

“Yes. You've got something those dreadfully fierce dragons can only dream of,” Rarity said in agreement with Applejack.

“What’s that?” Spike asked.

“The cutest widdle chubby cheeks!” Rarity cooed and reached over to press her hooves into Spike’s cheeks. “Ooooo!”

Emerald sighed and just chalked up the behavior to the usual response to things people found cute. Despite getting attention from his crus,h Spike obviously was at odds with the nature of said attention.

“Cute?!” Spike shouted incredulously. “Dragons aren't supposed to be cute! Right?”

“Oh, sweetie, you are turning the most delightful shade of red,” Rarity commented with a sly, teasing smile. “It is most becoming.”

Apparently Spike now decided that he didn’t really like the kind of attention Rarity was giving him and now looked a little angry.

“Rrrgh!” Spike shouted in frustration and quickly clambered out of the trench and began quickly walking away.

“Oh, isn't he adorable when he waddles off in anger?” Rarity commented loudly with a delighted look, causing Emerald to sigh and Spike to overhear.

“Waddle?!” Spike shouted. “Rrrrrggggh!”

“So uhhh…” Lightning began a little hesitantly. “Are we still dragon watching? What exactly are we doing now?”

“Dragon watching apparently.” Emerald sighed and waved at the group watching Spike “waddle” away.

GAMMA

Later that night found Emerald wide awake in bed with an amused smile beside Twilight who was tossing and turning.

The reason that Twilight couldn’t get to sleep was because Spike was muttering to himself rather loudly in his room. No matter how much the violet unicorn tried, she was still stuck wide awake listening to Spike mutter and mumble to himself in his room.

“Gosh darn it all!” Twilight exclaimed with a sigh. “I can’t sleep like this.”

“Want to go see what’s wrong with him?” Emerald asked as she sat up in bed.

“Might as well,” Twilight said and threw the covers off. “I’m feeling wide awake now.”

The two unicorns got out of bed and quickly made their way over to Spike’s room. Soon they entered Spike’s room and saw the baby dragon wide awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling of his room and muttering to himself.

“What am I?” Spike asked himself. “Where am I from? Who am I supposed to be?”

“Spike, you were given to me as an egg,” Twilight answered to the best of her ability. “I don't know who found you or where they found you.”

“Seriously? That's all you know?” Spike asked despondently.

“I’m sorry, Spike,” Twilight said apologetically.

“That doesn't tell me anything about who I am! I need answers!” Spike said with tears beginning to build in the corner of his eyes. “I feel like I'm... I'm looking at a complete stranger when I look in a mirror.”

“Oh, Spike,” Twilight said sadly before her expression brightened a little. “Why don't we do some late-night research? See what we can find out.”

“Really?” Spike said with a hopeful expression. “You'd do that?”

“Of course!” Twilight replied with a smile. “I'm sure we can find something.”

“Well…” Emerald said. “I do actually possess the memories of a decently old dragon. Instead of studying, you could ask me instead.”

“It’s Nidhogg, isn’t it?” Spike asked with a shudder. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather get to know dragons from a non-evil source.”

“Ah, well in that case,” Emerald said as she looked out Spike’s bedroom window. “Twilight, how about you let me do the research on dragons? It is rather late, and I’ve got a strong feeling that this will take a while. Besides, I don’t sleep, remember?”

“That does sound like a good idea. Thank you, Emerald,” Twilight said with a yawn. “I’ll see the both of you in the morning. Try not to stay up too late, Spike.”

“Come on, Emerald!” Spike shouted as he shot out of bed and darted out his bedroom door. “To the library!”

‘It’s too bad Bulto went into hiding while the migration is on,’ Emerald thought. ‘Something about not wanting the other dragons to see him staying with ponies… I’m certain Spike would have accepted what he knew about dragons.’

The following hours were full of Emerald looking through most the library’s collection of books. Emerald searched through every book that could have possibly mentioned dragons. Her first guess would have been the many bestiary volumes, but she had read through all of those a while ago. The most those books mentioned about dragon was them preying on some of the species described within the volumes. Eventually the confidence Spike initially had dwindled away until he was left crying softly in the corner of the room.

“Spike,” Emerald said softly and placed down the book she had been through. She walked over to Spike and conjured a spare piece of paper into a handkerchief for the young dragon. “I’m sorry, but we looked through everything. Seems like ponies know barely anything beyond dragons being big and scary.”

“I wonder if other dragons cry?” Spike mumbled and began to wipe his tears away.

Just then, the sound of the door opening attracted Emerald’s attention as she saw Twilight enter the library, looking rather refreshed from a good night’s sleep.

“Hey!” Twilight greeted in a chipper mood until she noticed the state Spike was in. “Oh… you didn’t find anything at all?”

Spike’s crying seemed to increase slightly and Emerald simply waved to the tall stacks of books. The fragments of Twilight’s chipper mood left her and she walked over to stand beside Spike and began rubbing his back soothingly.

“Hello!” came a shout from the other room along with the sound of the front door opening.

Emerald turned to see Rarity and Rainbow Dash soon appear in the doorway. Rarity stepped into the library without hesitation, but Dash paused at seeing Emerald in the room. Eventually she decided to come into the room as well, but seemed a bit unhappy about it.

“Good morning, everypony~” Rarity smiled.

“Hey,” Dash offered a bit weakly and averted her eyes away from Emerald before muttering something.

“What Dash just asked was if anypony would like to join us for breakfast?” Rarity clarified for Dash and gave said mare a reproving look.

“I think I should sit this one out,” Emerald stated simply. “I wouldn’t want anyone to lose their appetite from my presence.”

“Emerald, you are ALWAYS welcome!” Rarity reassured while shooting Dash a dirty look, who just muttered something in response.

“Count me out,” Spike said with sudden confidence as he stood up and wiped away the last remnants of his tears away. “I’ve got to get an early start!”

“An early start?” Rarity repeated in some confusion.

“Yes! I'm going on a quest of self-discovery!” Spike said while quickly making for the kitchen. “I need to learn what it means to be a dragon! And the only way I'm gonna do that is to join the dragon migration!”

“WHAT!?” Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash shouted together whilst Emerald frowned in thought as she considered the baby dragon.

“Spike, that's nonsense talk!” Dash said as she flew over beside the kitchen door. “I know that you're a dragon, but those dragons mean business! They're big, and tough, and scary...”

“And I'm small, and meek... and I like to wear aprons,” Spike stated as he returned from the kitchen with an armful of food and things he’d need for a trip. “See? This is exactly why I need to spend time with them.”

“All I'm saying is that you could get hurt,” Dash said worriedly.

“Darling, this time I really do have to agree with Rainbow Dash,” Rarity added as she placed a hoof atop Spike’s head. “I don't want those big, ugly, nasty dragons to hurt one little scale on your cutesy-wutesy head!”

“I'm sorry, but I've made up my mind,” Spike said as he continued to pack his things into a small bag

“Oh, uh, quick, do something!” Rarity suddenly begged Rainbow Dash dramatically. “Stop him before it's too late!”

By this time Spike was finished packing his things into a small bag tied to the end of a stick and was now walking out of the room. Listening to Rarity, Dash flew over and quickly grabbed the bag Spike was carrying and tried to pull it out of his grip.

“Hey!” Spike shouted as he struggled against Dash. “Give it back!”

Emerald rolled her eyes and was about to put an end to the situation when Twilight suddenly darted forward and did just that.

“Hold it!” Twilight shouted as she grabbed hold of the bag with her magic and pulled it away from Dash and Spike. She then levitated it over to Spike who was looking at her with some shock and relief.

“Really?” Spike said, barely able to believe what Twilight was allowing him to do.

“Don't tell me you think he should go?” Dash said incredulously.

“Yes, Spike. I couldn't answer your questions.” Twilight then waved over to Emerald. “Emerald’s studying couldn’t find anything. I understand why you want to look elsewhere. I truly believe you need to go on this quest. And we have no right to stop you.”

Emerald narrowed her eyes; she knew Twilight was up to something.

‘She is just going to follow him, isn’t she?’ Emerald thought and stayed silent as she watched events unfold. Before long, Emerald’s thought was proven right as she overheard the three mares talk about following Spike as they watched him leave. ‘Well… this would actually give Spike a VERY clear idea of what dragons are like. And knowing Spike, he would eventually end up disliking them over it; he was just raised up too differently. But I have a better idea for following Spike.’

“It shouldn’t take me too long,” Rarity said to Twilight. “I can throw together a costume very-”

“I have a better idea,” Emerald interrupted. “How about you three stay home while I go and watch over Spike?”

“Darling, you couldn’t possibly do that by yourself!” Rarity shouted. “Those dragons are dangerous and…”

“I’m me,” Emerald said as Rarity remembered just who she was talking to. “And what better thing to protect Spike from big dangerous monster than an even more dangerous monster that likes the little guy?”

Twilight and Rarity immediately frowned disapprovingly at what Emerald called herself, and Dash just averted her eyes while nodding slowly.

“Look, whatever costume you make is going to only ever be skin deep,” Emerald stated. “I’m a shape shifter and my forms are practically the real thing down to the genetic level. I can look after Spike while hiding in plain sight.”

“Well… okay, I have to admit that somepony who can beat Discord in a fight probably doesn’t have to worry about dragons too much,” Twilight admitted and Rarity slowly nodded. “Are you going to be a baby dragon like Spike?”

“Something like that.” Emerald smiled and then teleported with a pink flash of light.

In the silence that followed, Rainbow Dash spoke up.

“So are we still going after Spike?”

“Dash, dear, I know you and Emerald have… a conflict, but I have faith in her to keep our darling little Spike safe,” Rarity said sternly to the other mare.

“You both already know my position on this,” Twilight stated with a bit of a sheepish smile.

“…Fine.” Dash sighed in irritation. “You both want to go have that breakfast now?”

DELTA

Several hours later found Spike some distance away from Ponyville and following the long line of dragons flying into the distance. Suddenly a shadow was cast over him and he looked up to see a purple and green mass fly towards him.

Spike threw himself to the ground as a massive gust of wind blew up a small dust cloud. After a few moments of coughing, he slowly stood back up as the dust cloud settled back down. He was frozen in place once he saw what was standing over him.

It was a large, dark green and purple female dragon lying down on the ground before him, resting on her crossed arms. She was massive; compared to Bulto, she was clearly a bit bigger than him and had scales that glistened like gemstones in the sunlight. And now that she was staring down at him, Spike had only one thing to say to that.

“Ack!” Spike raised his hands over his head. “Don’t hurt me!”

“Calm down, Spike,” said the dragon with a VERY familiar voice.

“Wha…” Spike blinked up at the dragon before him in incomprehension for a moment before recalling a fact about one of the people in his life. “Emerald, is that you?”

“The one and only,” Emerald replied.

“Well it’s nice to see you and all, and I guess Twilight and the others sent you to babysit me…” Spike said as she picked his dropped bag back up. “But I don’t need anypony to protect and baby me.”

“Oh Spike, I am most definitely not going to baby you,” Emerald said with a dismissive wave of one of her massive clawed hands. “If the other dragons hurt you in any major way, I can just heal you up after all.”

Emerald kept to herself that she would most definitely be paying back the dragon that dared touch him in spades.

“Oh… you don’t think the other dragons would really be that violent, do you?” Spike said a bit unsurely but still not put off from his “quest”.

“I was exaggerating a bit,” Emerald said. “Things get rough, but it’s just dragon rough housing really.”

“I can accept that.” Spike said with a nod. “Guy stuff and all.”

“Well…” Emerald said with images of Applejack running through her mind, and how she enjoyed to roughhouse as well. “Do you want to go the slow way, or do you want me to give you a lift? If you want, I can drop you off outside the nesting area so you don’t look like a ‘sissy’ from being dropped off by your Big Sister.”

“Ah… c-could you give me a lift?” Spike asked sheepishly. “And drop me off outside the nesting grounds?”

“Sure thing, Spike.” Emerald smiled and gently picked him up in one of her massive hands before lifting off into the air.

Without a second thought, Emerald drifted towards the long line of flying dragons, knowing from Nidhogg’s memories of the Dragon Flight that they were rather open towards random dragons joining them. That very thing tended to happen more often than not.

Being the big dragon that she was, she didn’t even need to bite or nip at anyone in order to get a good spot as several made room for her out of respect for her clear strength. For a few moments there were just the sounds of many wing beats and the roaring of dragons until her flight neighbour spoke up.

“So…” began a dragon with yellow scales and red underbelly. “Is he yours?”

“Spike?” Emerald said and slightly lifted the hand holding said baby dragon, getting a nod from her neighbour. “Nah, he’s my baby brother.”

“Oh, you don’t say?” The other dragon said with a grin. “I’m Scatha, you?”

For the briefest moment, Emerald debated giving him her actual name or a fake one before deciding a massive dragon who happened to be named Emerald couldn’t be connected to a pony. “I’m Emerald.”

“I can see why,” Scatha replied with a wry grin, which caused Spike to groan in embarrassment at hearing someone try to chat up Twilight’s girlfriend. “This your first time in the Flight? Don’t recall ever seeing a dragon like you here before.”

“Neither I or Spike were born in the Dragon Flight,” Emerald answered. “He wanted to see it and I figured I might as well give the little guy a lift.”

“Ha, you’re a lot nicer than my big sister was.” Scatha laughed. “She mocked me until the day my wings were strong enough to fly. The last thing I could ask her was a lift; even if she did, I doubt she wouldn’t drop me.”

“I guess that just comes from the two of us being raised differently.” Emerald shrugged as she felt Spike shift and move in her hand at Scatha and her words.

“Ah, so what are you going to do when we arrive?” Scatha asked.

“Mostly just sit around and relax,” Emerald answered. “Keep an eye on this little guy and make sure he doesn’t get another dragon a hundred times his size mad at him.”

“HA! That reminds me of when I was young. Sister was remarkably protective of her gem hoard and I was too stupid to leave well enough be,” Scatha said.

“Really, tell me more…” Emerald said, half in actual interest and half just looking for something to pass the time.

EPSILON

A few hours later filled with Scatha chatting with Emerald and Spike being uncomfortable with him obviously chatting her up, the nesting grounds finally came in sight. They were simply a large collection of magma vents that were still a bit active with decently sized crater walls.

Emerald flew forward a bit more before diving down suddenly towards the ground. Once she was close enough to the ground, she dropped Spike gently on the ground.

“Like I said, I’ll be watching you but at the same time I won’t be smothering you with protection either,” Emerald said as she hovered above him briefly. “If you get a bruise from roughhousing with other young dragons, you are on your own. However, if another dragon more my size decides to bother you, I’ll step in, in an instant.”

“Thanks for doing this, Emerald,” Spike said gratefully, glad he could count on her if he was in deep trouble but could mostly do what he wanted.

“Have fun, Spike. Hope you learn everything you hope to,” Emerald said before taking to the skies with a few powerful beats of her wings.

She flew above the still active magma vents for a few moments before spotting Scatha down on the crater ridges. She swooped down and lighted down on the ground next to him.

“What were you doing?” Scatha asked.

“Dropping off Spike. He doesn’t want to be embarrassed by having his sister carry him in here,” Emerald answered.

“You’re far too nice for a dragon,” Scatha said amusedly with a shake of his head.

“Hn, don’t worry, I know how to bite,” Emerald answered with a vicious looking toothy grin.

“Hey I’m not asking for a demonstration now,” Scatha said, claw raised placatingly. He may have been at ease with Emerald, but she was still clearly bigger and stronger then him. “I’m just commenting on you being nicer than most dragons.”

Suddenly a crimson dragon next to them rose up a little before letting loose a stream of hot flames. Emerald looked to see what he was breathing flames at to see that the dragon had been breathing fire at Spike. At this, Emerald’s hackles rose instantly. She stood up and quickly inhaled before letting loose flames of her own. The dragon who had breathed fire at Spike was chuckling at what he did when he was almost sent sliding down into the crater by a powerful burst of fire impacting him.

“HEY!” He turned towards Emerald and his look of anger quickly faded at the sight of the dragon that was clearly bigger than him.

“That was my little brother you decided you to bother,” Emerald said lowly.

“Hmph…” The red dragon bowed his head briefly at her before looking away and muttering under his breath.

“Pretty protective of him, aren’t you?” Scatha commented.

“When it comes to dragons more my size,” Emerald replied. “I’ll gladly let him mess around with other young dragons and get bruises from rough housing.”

“I definitely wish I had you for an older sister,” Scatha said with a shake of his head.

Emerald snorted a little as she watched Spike descend the side of the crater and approach a group of teenage looking dragon who were messing around and roughhousing.

“So where were you hatched anyway?” Scatha asked.

“I was born somewhere REALLY far away from here,” Emerald answered. “I don’t even know how to get back there if I wanted to.”

“I can tell you talk to non-dragons more often than not,” Scatha stated.

Emerald was about to answer when a shadow flew over them. She looked up to see a massive shape coming down from the sky and lighting down on the crater ridge with them. It was another dragon, only one that was VERY big, easily a bit bigger than Nidhogg, though was clearly much older as well. This made Emerald briefly wonder if Nidhogg had been approaching the maximum height for a dragon to reach or if there was something else that was going on with him.

“Elder!” Scatha shouted. “How may we help you?”

“I’m just here to have a word with your lovely friend here, young Scatha,” the Elder said with a kindly smile. “Would you mind coming with me, my dear?”

“I’m not in trouble, am I?” Emerald said before motioning to Spike down below with the other young dragons. “I also would like to keep an eye on my little brother.”

“You are not in trouble,” the Elder said reassuringly before smiling. “It’s rather endearing to see another dragon be so protective of a young hatchling. I can accommodate your desire to keep an eye on your little brother; we’ll just be on the opposite side of this crater.”

“Alright. See you, Scatha,” Emerald said to the smaller dragon.

“See ya, Emerald.” Scatha waved after her as she took to the air.

After flying for a few moments, she arrived at the spot with the elderly dragon. The dragon then found a spot to rest on and raised his head to the sky before roaring out. After a few moments, there were some answering roars. After a few more moments, two other equally large dragons appeared in the sky and flew towards the spot Emerald and the other elder were. Before long, they too were lighting down on spots to lie down on.

“Alright, well I am here now,” Emerald said and gave another look down into the crater to make sure Spike was still doing alright.

“We know you are not a dragon,” said the elder that had collected Emerald, causing her to go tense.

“Is that so?” Emerald said simply and prepared herself to fight if it came to pass. “So what happens now.”

“That depends on your intentions for coming here.” Said one elder dragon calmly.

“Like I said, I’m here to watch over and protect Spike as he gets to know his kind,” Emerald said, giving an outward look of relaxing but inwardly was as tense as tightly coiled steel and ready to leap into a fight. “I never lied about that, and that was all I intended to do.”

“Hmm… can you point out this ‘Spike’ to us?” one elder asked, and in response, Emerald somewhat hesitantly pointed towards the baby dragon in the crater before.

“That is him?” said the elder that had collected her in surprise. “His appearance and lack of wings… it reminds me of someone else…”

Suddenly down below, Spike released a loud belch of green flame and released a scroll. Almost as soon as the scroll appeared, one of the other young dragons reached out to snatch it. The moment she saw that, Emerald raised a hand and snapped her massive fingers. With a small flash of magic, the scroll disappeared from below and reappeared in the middle of Emerald’s hand, where it proceeded to almost roll off.

“If you intend to remain inconspicuous, then I suggest you be careful in the use of magic such as that,” commented one elder wryly as Emerald briefly struggled to hold the tiny scroll. “It’s rare for dragons to bother with other forms of magic beyond their flames until they reach a ripe old age. Then they aren’t so plagued with stupidity.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Emerald replied as she looked down at Spike and the young dragons that were looking around in confusion. “How did you know I was not actually a dragon?”

“We can feel you,” said one elder. “We do not know just what you are, but you are clearly not a dragon… Tell me, do you know a dragon by the name of Nidhogg?”

“I did meet him once, why?” Emerald asked.

“You resemble him a little,” the elder answered before smiling a little. “Save for the fact you still have your lips.”

“Ah, well just so you know the last I’ve heard of him, he was dead,” Emerald said.

“Really?” the elder dragon replied in surprise, which his fellows mirrored. “How did that happen? The last we had heard of him, he had been placed in a pony prison for causing trouble.”

“He had actually escaped,” Emerald explained. “He dug into an underground nation and wreaked havoc. His actions caused the deaths of half a million people and he enslaved the few that remained behind.”

Emerald’s words caused several reactions in the elders before her. They all collectively winced and one groaned and face palmed in exasperation. Another just looked incredibly sad, and the last had a somber looking face as he released a sigh.

“It’s events like this that make people distrust the Dragon Flight passing through their nations,” groaned an elder.

“I’m surprised you care about the opinions of the nations you flew through,” Emerald commented. “You are dragons after all. There are few people that can stand up to an adult dragon.”

“I admit that fully grown dragons are a powerhouse compared to most races, but we have issues working together in groups,” one elder stated.

As this was said, suddenly there was the sound of roaring and crunching of rock. The group turned to see two dragons rolling on the ground as they wrestled with each other. From the looks the two had on their faces, this particular fight was much more than simple rough housing.

One of the elder dragons growled softly and stood up on his hind legs. He inhaled briefly before releasing a powerful burst of flame towards the two dragons. The two still fighting dragons were hit with the flame and were sent sprawling across the floor from the sheer power of the fiery attack. The two dragons quickly got to their feet and faced the elder dragon who hit them with the flame and bowed their heads respectfully towards him. Then they walked away from each other, though with biting remarks as they did so.

“As you just saw, young dragons have problems working with each other,” said the elder that had sent the reprimanding flames. “The other races don’t really share this problem as you likely know. Just keeping the Dragon Flight together with a decent number of adult dragons in it is a struggle enough; I have no doubts we would fall apart into chaos if we fell into conflict.”

“Are you the oldest dragons here?” Emerald asked as she looked back down to keep an eye on Spike. He seemed to just be lounging and relaxing with the other young dragons right now.

“There are several other elders here as well,” came the reply. “All of them keeping watch and keeping the peace amongst the young dragons, though we three actually are among the oldest dragons in the world, barring some hermits that are sure to be holed up around the world.”

“Though Eldest is definitely the oldest,” added one to the irritation of his fellows.

“Well of course Eldest of all dragons is older!” replied one elder in irritation.

“Who is Eldest?” Emerald asked.

“He is the oldest dragon in existence,” came the answer. “He’s been around since longer than anyone can remember and some say he is the first true dragon as well.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” one elder said with a shrug. “No one has bothered to clarify by asking him. Understandable since he is so hard to reach. And before you ask, he is deep beneath the earth, somewhere beneath these very grounds in a massive cavern. So deep that only the strongest of dragons could possibly hope to endure the pressures of the earth pressing down on them as they tunneled and swam down to him.”

“Then there is the fact you have to hold your breath,” added another elder. “Suffocation and drowning in magma is a real danger.”

“Hmm…” Emerald hummed in thought as she turned to see Spike again. He was still relaxing, but the other young dragons began talking and soon they were taking flight, one of which picked up Spike as well and flew off.

“Excuse me, but I have to go,” Emerald said as she began flapping her wings. “I promised to keep an eye on Spike and he is leaving the nesting grounds with those young dragons.”

“It is no problem,” an elder waved off. “I only wish the other dragons took care of their young as well as you do.”

With that, Emerald took to the air and quickly flew out of the craters. She intended to stay out of sight while keeping an eye on Spike, and she couldn’t do that easily in the form she was in. So she intended to get out of sight and shift into her pony form before going after Spike and the young dragons. Once that was done, she would keep an eye on the group and make sure Spike was kept safe.

ZETA

Several hours had passed. Apparently the young dragons were up to something that needed to be done at night, so after flying for a bit they passed the time by walking the rest of the way. Emerald was near the group, hidden away in the bushes and at the ready to come to Spike’s aid if he needed it at a moment’s notice.

Currently nothing seemed to be going on save for the group chatting with each other and walking, but besides Spike, they were all teenagers. No telling what they were about to get up to.

A few moments later, what the teenage dragons were up to was starting to become clear as they stopped in a hidden spot some distance from a nesting Phoenix couple.

“Alright, Spike,” the tall, red teenage dragon. “ Since you're our rookie dragon, you get to lure the parents away from the nest.”

“Heh... Lucky me,” Spike said nervously.

“Well, go on then!” The red dragon urged him impatiently out into the open.

“Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Phoenix! I was hoping I could have a word with you? Um,” Spike said as he nervously approached the nesting pair. “I'd, um, like to ask you some questions, actually...”

“We haven't got all day, Spike!” Emerald heard the lead dragon whisper harshly.

The baby dragon was briefly at a loss of what to do when he seemed to steel himself and bent over to pick up a rock off the ground.

“Hey, you bird brains! Come and get me!” Spike shouted as he threw the rock.

The rock’s flight was true and it landed squarely atop one the phoenix’s head, instantly angering it and its mate. Both phoenixes took to the air and flew at Spike who shouted and immediately took off running. After Spike led the phoenixes some distance away, the teenage dragons immediately ran to the tree the phoenixes were nesting in.

Emerald kept an eye on Spike; she wasn’t worried about him too much. Phoenixes were pretty much the worst kind of creature that could fight a dragon. Their claws were sharp, but a dragon’s scales were tough. Spike was young and would likely end up getting some pretty bad scratches, but Emerald was fine with that; live and learn after all. The fire was a non-issue. Dragons could bathe in magma without any issues whatsoever and often treated it like it was just going for a swim. Emerald was fairly certain that a phoenix’s fire, while very hot, wasn’t exactly approaching levels hotter than magma. Suddenly Emerald’s attention was drawn by the sound of chirping and screeching.

Over at the tree, the lead dragon was struggling with a bunch of phoenix chicks as they scrambled all over him and constantly escaped his grasping claws. The phoenix couple also noticed this and quickly abandoned their chase of Spike to protect their chicks. They moved fast, and though the teenage dragons were in the middle of chasing down the chicks, one of the adult Phoenixes moved ahead of them and suddenly released a blinding flash of light, so bright that only Emerald was able to see through unfazed. While the teenage dragons blundered about, Spike stumbled across an egg with a fire pattern; a phoenix egg.

Spike was carrying the large egg with a look of worry and guilt on his face when the teenage dragon recovered and approached him, a look of delight cross the red dragon’s features as he saw what Spike was holding.

“Hey! You stole an egg?” the young red dragon asked with a smile.

“Uh…” Spike said, completely unsure with the situation.

“Well, I guess the raid wasn't a total waste after all,” the red dragon said with a sharp toothed smirk as the other two dragons cheered on Spike’s achievement. “Nice going, Spike.”

“Well, what are you waiting for, Spike? Smash it!” said the bulky brown dragon eagerly.

“Smash the egg?” Spike said with wide eyes.

“Yeah!” The brown dragon nodded.

“Yeah, throw it on the ground as hard as you can!” the thin purple dragon of the ground added, his eyes hidden from sight by semi long bangs of blond hair.

Emerald narrowed her eyes as the teenage dragons began urging on Spike with repeated shouts of ‘Smash it’. The little baby raised the egg above his head and looked to be ready to bring it down on the ground as hard as he could. Spike also seemed to be darting his eyes about and sweating nervously, either looking for Emerald so she could interfere or making sure she wasn’t around to see what he was about to do. Emerald wasn’t about to make it easy on him, she wasn’t about to let him smash the egg and was ready to teleport it to safety at a moment’s notice but she also wanted to see what he would do. A test of character really, to see what the little dragon would compromise first; his own pony upbringing of right and wrong or the desire to know what it means to be a dragon and having dragon friends.

“No!” And with that shout, Spike made his decision as he held the egg more protectively. “It's just a defenseless egg, like I was! And I'm not gonna let you hurt it!”

“What did you say?” the red dragon said in shock, a look which the others matched.

“I said no.” Spike said firmly.

“No one says no to me,” the red dragon said with an angry growl.

With a blinding flash and extremely loud crack, Emerald suddenly appeared in the space between Spike and the red dragon. The three dragons back off in surprise at this sudden action while Emerald simply blankly stared them down.

“E-Emerald!” Spike exclaimed with wide eyes. “P-please don’t hurt them!”

“You should close your eyes, Spike,” Emerald said in a tone that brooked no argument and Spike could only let out a small whimper as he covered up his eyes and shielded the egg.

“H-HA! A pony coming to your rescue, Spike? How lame,” the red dragon said with a confident smile that seemed a little forced. He may have been young, but there was something off about the white unicorn before him; something that felt dangerous and like maybe he should just cut his losses and run while he could.

“So I heard you aren’t afraid of ponies, huh?” Emerald stated blandly, eyes half lidded seemingly in boredom. Emerald suddenly reared up on her hind legs and briefly closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, they were empty of eyes and full of needle like teeth, looking exactly like two tiny sets of mouths. Her jaw distended and stretched out as frightening needle like teeth suddenly filled her mouth.

The three dragons in front of the virus were shocked into stillness at the sight of her, but she wasn’t done just yet. There was a horrible squelching sound as her abdomen suddenly stretched upwards and expanded out before a long red line appeared down the middle of her chest. With a pop, her chest opened up and revealed a stomach churning sight. Her ribcage had stretched out and extended, but was more like a second pair of teeth now. Her internal organs were still there, but they appeared withered and roughly shoved to the sides of the “chest mouth” and the rotted intestines seemed on the verge of spilling over the corner of the mouth. Deeper within was yet another mouth that was slightly open but held only darkness within and the glittering of hungry eyes. Emerald’s arms hung limply at her sides as if they no longer possessed bones and her head also sat limply atop her shoulders. From behind rapidly emerged a large pair of wings that had only one layer of extremely long and wide feathers, each with multiple strange bulges running down the middle of them. An instant later, the horrific truth of the bulges revealed themselves to be many large bloodshot eyes that glared balefully at the dragons before them.

There was a single moment of horrified silence as the three young dragons stared at the monstrosity of nature before them.

Then it was interrupted by a ear piercing, reverberating shriek of agony released by the grotesque mockery of a pony.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!” the brown and purple dragon screamed in utter horror and began running as fast as they could, forgetting they could fly.

The red dragon, however, just stood in place, staring with wide eyes at Emerald for a moment before he rocked back and forth briefly and fell on his back with a thump.

As soon as the other two dragons were out of sight, Emerald reversed the changes she had gone through in a few seconds. Then she stared down at the red dragon with a frown. The virus’ hearing was powerful enough to hear a whisper echoed off a distant mountain and fine enough to pick up on the sound of muscles moving. What she couldn’t hear right now was the sound of a heart beating from the young dragon before her.

Emerald walked over to the young dragon’s side and placed her fetlock against the side of his neck to confirm something she could easily do by looking at his unfocused eyes.

‘Dead,’ Emerald thought with frown. ‘Must have given him a heart attack… oh well.’

Emerald simply shrugged and placed her hoof against his chest. An instant later, the dragon’s eyes closed as he breathed in suddenly.

‘There we go.’ Emerald nodded. ‘Bit of adrenalin and some other chemicals and he is alright. Won’t wake up until we are long gone, either.’

“C-can I open my eyes now?” Spike asked nervously from his spot on the ground with the egg.

“Yes you can, Spike,” Emerald answered and turned to face Spike.

“W-what’s wrong with him?” Spike asked Emerald anxiously as he caught sight of the formerly dead dragon on the ground.

“He’s just asleep right now,” Emerald answered. “I think my horror form was too much for him.”

“So… he fainted?” Spike said with a growing smile.

Emerald just shrugged as she took a few steps closer to the baby dragon.

“Spike, I want you to know I’m proud of you for not giving in and breaking that egg,” Emerald stated with a small smile. “I know you don’t think much of me anymore, but I just want you to know that.”

“Oh, uhhh…” Spike began with an embarrassed look before he then started closing in on Emerald. “I know that stuff is pretty messed up right now, but… well I know you’re really trying to be better than you were, Emerald. Maybe it would be easier for you if I trusted you a bit more?”

With that, Spike placed the egg on the ground gingerly and then reached up to wrap his arms around Emerald’s neck and gave a tight hug. The virus smiled at this and returned the hug with a fore leg.

“So how about we track down those phoenixes before heading home, huh?” Emerald asked Spike. “I’m sure they’ll be overjoyed to see that egg again.”

“Sure! Let’s get to it!” Spike said and quickly collected the egg before climbing up on Emerald’s back. Emerald then quickly grew a pair of white wings and took to the sky. After making a quick sonar pulse, she started picking up the speed to catch up on the phoenix family.

ETA

The next day found Emerald back in the Enclave and looking down at a few rifles with some sky blue lightly glowing lines on them.

Last night she had managed to locate the Phoenix family relatively quickly thanks to her viral sonar and flying capabilities. Needless to say, they were rather unhappy to see Spike, but were more than grateful enough to accept his apologies for what he did once he returned their unhatched egg to them. They then teleported back home to be greeted by a somewhat worried Twilight. Overall the whole trip had been a successful learning experience for Spike.

Currently she was in one of the firing ranges in the Enclave. While she had been away, the dogs had continued their work and, using some spray paint guns, were able to quickly paint hundreds of rifles. They had also had faceted in the gems needed as the batteries into the sides of the weapons. Eight long, thin gem shards the size of the average human finger now lined the sides of the rifles. They would be able to power the sound dampening enchant for roughly a month. Of course, the final step was charging said gems and the while the ley line power cables along with several sub stations had been finished, Emerald had yet to finish the charging stations the dogs would be able to plug their rifles and future magic powered gear into. But like all things, her doing stuff herself was only a stopgap until improvements could be made.

Picking up one large rifle, the virus was forced to change up her hands and arms a little as this rifle was most definitely built with a Diamond Dog’s physiology in mind. She then walked over to the range and loaded up a large magazine of equally big bullets before sighting down range and flicking off the safety.

The gun fired and tore through the thick sheet of steel used for a target and impacted into the thick rock walls behind the target. The noise that filled the air was not like that of a loud rifle, but of a rapid firing air gun. Once Emerald emptied the ammo mag in her rifle, she took out the empty mag and brought the rifle back to the table with the other rifles.

‘Well, I’ll consider these rifles ready for field use.’ Emerald smiled. ‘Course the rifles won’t be that quiet out in the field. It’s just a result of the stacking effect of sound dampeners on the rifles and in this shooting range. Right, we should be more than good on the front line rifle front. We should start developing some other stuff… maybe a sniper rifle? One with powerful sound dampening enchants to make it silent… or probably not. Our tactics bring us pretty close to the enemy. I’ll save making a sniper rifle for later. Something more for crowd control… an explosive perhaps? Something to mention to the others anyway, I’ve got some other things to do right now.’

Emerald then teleported back into her workshop on the surface where she immediately started towards one of her work tables. Scattered over the top of the table were many, many gems of different shapes, types and colors. All were for the project of finding out what made gems hold magic and what defined how much they could hold. She had been making a good bit of progress considering she had no clear idea of where to begin.

‘The crystalline structure plays an important part in magical storage,’ Emerald thought as she picked up a flawless diamond and studied it with a critical eye. ‘The quality of this structure determines how much magic a single gem can hold. Size does play a part as well, but not nearly as much as the gem quality. Right now this diamond seems to be the best naturally occurring quality,’

Emerald then carefully and slowly consumed the gem in her hand. She wasn’t gaining anything truly special from the gemstone other than raw materials to make more viral biomass from. However, she was still doing something important, namely studying the structure of the gem as she slowly consumed it. Once the gem was gone, she began to concentrate intensely as she began forming biomass into a shape; a familiar and highly dense shape. Before long, an orange diamond was in her hand and in its iconic shape. Experimentally filling the biogem with magic, the virus was happy to find that it was able to hold the same amount of magic as the diamond she based it on.

‘And there we have it,’ Emerald thought with a smile. ‘Being able to reproduce gems of this quality will be very useful as they tend to be a bit uncommon. Now I just have to figure out how to improve the crystalline structure.’

Emerald placed the biogem down on the table and rapidly produced more gems like it until ten others sat on the table. She smiled down at them until she seemed to get distracted and frown about something.

‘Ten days from now will mark my second year being in this world,’ Emerald thought, and found herself unsure of what to feel about that fact. ‘I’ve got to say I’ve done a lot in the time I’ve been here. Gained magic and friends, freed a race from slavery, faced down a powerful spirit and now I’m strong enough to face down beings recognised as gods without much issue. For all the things I’ve done, I kind of wish I could sleep every now and then without fear of night terrors… wait, Luna knows how to manipulate dreams. Perhaps I could ask her for a favour? I mean, I am her student and we do get along really well… I… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask, would it?’

Emerald bit her lip in indecision for several moments before nodding and deciding she would make a request of Princess Luna during her next lessons. The worst her alicorn mentor could do was say no after all.

THETA

Princess Luna considered her student as she went through a series of transfiguration exercises. Emerald was doing well in the exercise, which consisted of transforming a large ball of wood into various other materials whilst keeping the original mass. The trick to the lesson was also doing it very quickly.

However, what the princess was thinking about was how distracted Emerald seemed to be. She wasn’t letting whatever was bothering her affect her lessons, which Luna approved of. But at the same time, something was bothering her.

“You may stop for a moment, my young student,” Luna stated as Emerald turned a ball of clay into a small ball of gold. “I wish to ask you about something.”

“What is it, Princess?” Emerald said as she lowered the ball of gold.

“You seem distracted, dear Emerald.” Luna said. “I wish to question why this is so?”

“Well… you see, Princess Luna,” Emerald began a bit nervously. “It’s uhh… it’ll be my birthday in a few days and I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind if I could ask a favour?”

“A favour, hmm?” Luna stated with a small smile. “What is thy request, my dearest student?”

“…I can’t sleep,” Emerald said softly. “I get horrible nightmares- night terrors. I just wanted to know if you could help.”

“Of course, my dear Emerald,” Luna replied with a sad smile. She knew exactly how terrible Emerald’s nightmares could be, having seen two of them herself. “You need only have asked.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna,” Emerald said and looked away in some embarrassment when she added. “I was kind of worried that asking this would be overstepping some boundaries.”

Luna frowned at this. What she truly wanted was what Celestia and Twilight had; a close, almost familial like relationship. Granted, developing such a relationship with Emerald of all ponies would be very hard as, unlike Celestia, her student was fully grown and had gone through traumatic experiences. However, she felt that this fact only made it more important that she be there for her student, and helping her with her horrific dreams was just the thing.

“Of course not, Emerald,” Luna said reassuringly. “I’d be happy to help you, and I’d like to think we are close enough for you to not worry about any potential boundaries.”

“I’ll remember that for next time… Luna.” Emerald smiled and got a warm one in turn from the Princess. “Should we continue my exercises?”

“Yes, we shall.” Luna nodded.

Emerald was about to continue her exercises when a knock came briefly at the door. After a moment, the door opened and in walked Celestia.

“Greetings, dear sister,” Luna said with a nod to Celestia. “Is there something you need of us?”

“Oh no, I am just here to tell Emerald that I’ve thought up a system of curing Thracians along with keeping her identity secret,” Celestia explained.

“What did you plan out?” Emerald asked.

“What is going to happen basically is that Thracians come and await their treatment,” Celestia began. “No matter the time they come in, the wait period coincides with when you are in Canterlot and when you are available from your lessons with Luna. After which we simply take advantage of the fact that you are a shape shifter and turn into a nurse that is simply there to help. Then you go in and handle the Thracians’ cure the best way you see fit.”

“Well it sounds good to me, but…” Emerald said with a frown. “I kind of hope nothing bad happens.”

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked with some worry.

“All the Thracians have been changed rather dramatically,” Emerald explained. “For most, the change isn’t too dramatic, but on the genetic level it is. In order to make use of these changes properly, the brain would have definitely been rewired to do so. Reversing the changes in the Thracians could result in memory loss with varying degrees of severity.”

“… Should we cancel the cure announcement?” Celestia questioned with a frown.

“I don’t think so,” Emerald answered. “I am rather certain the only memories that will be afflicted will be the ones they gained during their time as Thracians. And you can just state the potential side effects to warn people before they make this choice.”

“…I rather wish this was safer, but I suppose this is for the best,” Celestia replied with a sigh. “I shall continue with the announcement and make preparations for any Thracians that come in for the cure. Excuse me, you and Luna may continue your lessons.”

“See you, my sister,” Luna said after Celestia and turned to Emerald. “Now, let us continue.”

With that, Emerald levitated the ball of gold again and started transfiguring it into several different types of materials, this time with much greater speed.

IOTA

Emerald took the party hat off her head as she entered into the bedroom with Twilight just behind her, Navi slumbering in her mane, tired out from eating her miniscule fill of cake.

It had been a rather enjoyable birthday party to be honest. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were there, along with all her other friends Bon Bon, Lyra, Rose Locks, Time Turner and Clock Work. Twilight had been really fascinated by Clock Work and had spent much of the party asking him questions about his condition. One thing that had surprised Emerald a lot, however, was the fact that Fluttershy had been there. Granted she didn’t talk to her, but from the looks of things, she had wanted to approach Emerald. The virus had been unsure if the right action would have been to approach her, herself, or to let Fluttershy do that. In the end, she decided to leave Fluttershy be. Though whenever the pegasus had caught her eye, she always made sure to give her a welcoming smile. Emerald hoped that this meant that she and Fluttershy would still be friends again… someday.

Right now, however, the virus was feeling rather nervous. The reason why being that this was the first night, she told Luna, that she was going to sleep in nearly a year. She actually did trust Luna to help her with her dreams, but she still felt really nervous about going through with the whole thing.

“Is there something wrong, Emerald?” Twilight asked as she noticed Emerald hesitate.

“It’s… I’m going to try to sleep tonight,” Emerald answered as she placed Navi into her bed.

“Emerald, are you sure you should do that?” Twilight said in worry. “I know you’ve not gotten a good night’s sleep in several years, but there is a very good reason for that.”

“I had asked Princess Luna about that,” Emerald said as she slipped into bed beside Twilight. “She promised me that she would help me with my sleeping problems. And… well, I trust her, but I just feel so uncertain about going through with this.”

“Oh, Emerald,” Twilight said as she pulled the other mare into a hug. “I think you should have faith in Princess Luna. She has immense experience with dreams, and if anypony can fix your nightmare problems, it’ll be her.”

“I know that, Twilight,” Emerald replied as she leaned into the embrace. “It’s… just hard for me.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll lay here and just hold you as you sleep,” Twilight said softly as she held Emerald tighter.

“That does make me feel better,” Emerald said softly as she leaned her head against Twilight’s chest.

After a moment of just savouring being with Twilight, Emerald just decided to get things over and put herself to sleep. Twilight for her part kept to her word and held on to Emerald’s now sleeping form tightly. When the virus started gritting her teeth audibly, Twilight started stroking her mane and muttering soothing words to her sleeping form.

KAPPA

Emerald found herself back on the half burnt hill again with the tree on it, standing beneath its burning and flourishing canopy. Pristine grasslands, Ponyville and Canterlot to her left with blackened scorched ground and ruined, infected Manhattan to her right. However, unlike before, instead of being a younger male version of herself, she was in her female human form.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound from the branches over her. She looked up just in time to see a shape drop from above to the ground before her. Standing just in front of her was Alex Mercer, looking highly unimpressed with her.

“You always were a weakling,” Mercer taunted as he stepped close. “Could never just stand up to anyone. You always had to have the advantage as well as an ace up your sleeve before you’d even dream of fighting. But even in a dream you could never hope to beat me, could you?”

Emerald was frozen in silent terror as Alex Mercer reached forward and wrapped his hands around her throat. The virus seemed completely unwilling to defend herself when a thought, or rather several images, flew through her mind. Images of her fight with Discord and how she utterly dominated that fight with him. More images followed, this time of her simply demanding Celestia and Luna’s surrender and them giving it without a fight in recognition of her power.

“Could Alex Mercer do any of that?” a barely there whisper asked her.

“…N-no,” Emerald stuttered out and began slowly reaching up with her hands.

“What was that?” Mercer growled as she wrapped her hands around his wrists.

“Y-y-you aren’t s-stronger than me…” Emerald said with wide eyes. “You just can’t be… YOU CAN’T!”

“Grah!” Mercer snarled in anger as Emerald slowly pulled his hands away from her throat and began struggling with his grasp. “You were such a good follower before coming here, always accepting orders without the slightest complaint. This is her fault. That little purple unicorn. You should have just killed her like I taught you too. Maybe I should help you relearn some old lessons? How about I treat you to lunch.”

Emerald felt herself fill with both terror and rage at Mercer’s implication. The memory of the pregnant woman she was forced to eat ran through her mind along with feelings of despair and self-hatred. Right now she was on the knife’s edge between falling into despair at the avatar of all her fears before her or falling into rage at the words and threats it dared to utter.

Far above the scene, sitting calmly on a cloud, Princess Luna observed the proceedings with a thoughtful frown. Then, with a look of deliberation, she raised a hoof and then made a pushing motion with it.

Rage. So much rage and righteous fury suddenly filled Emerald and then tore through the fear that had been paralysing her. She let go of Mercer’s arms and instead grabbed the front of his clothes with one hand while cocking back her other. With a clash of such strength it seemed to send a visible ripple through the air, she sent her former master through the air with one punch.

Mercer was quick to roll onto his feet as he impacted the ground. He gave an infuriated snarl at Emerald finally fighting back and charged at her. His feet tore up the landscape as he closed in on her at incredible speeds.

For a moment, Emerald seemed like she was going to brace for his attack, but then a look of realization crossed her features.

Just as Mercer was within ten feet of the other Evolved, he was suddenly lifted into the air, surrounded by an aura of crimson light. He wrenched about the air harshly for a moment before suddenly smashing into the ground powerfully and rapidly several times. Then he was back in the air again and the magic surrounding his form seemed to focus on his chest and all of the limbs connecting to his torso.

Mercer gave a shout of rage as Emerald attempted to simply crush him and pinch off all his limbs, along with his head. After a moment’s struggle with a grip he could not fight against, he suddenly created a massive tendril and shot it at Emerald, hitting her, ending her concentration and sending her flying.

Emerald landed a short distance away and quickly jumped back to her feet. The sight that met her eyes was of Alex Mercer with an army of brawlers and infected standing just behind him. The visage of her former master twisted between total confidence for his chances and hate for her.

Emerald was only frozen for a moment until she remembered that she had an army of her own. The instant she thought this, she looked behind her to see a massive force of dragon scale wearing Warhounds, holding the new, fully automatic and extremely powerful rifles. Dotted amongst their number were raptors of many colors and all fully grown, standing at a height that left them all slightly taller than her.

For a brief moment there was silence.

“LET’S DO IT!” came a shout from a voice that sounded distinctly like Tavish’s.

Instantly there was chaos, blood and death. The massive bullets of the Warhounds tore the twisted infected humans apart with so much ease, it was like using a dart against a water balloon full of red food coloring. The brawlers were a different matter. Being Alex Mercer’s answer to tanks and other mechanized support, they were able to the weather the deadly barrage of bullets… somewhat. Most lost limbs and simply collapsed to the ground as the bullets utterly tore through their hardened flesh during their charge. The rest managed to reach the ranks of the Warhounds, but whereas with Marines where they could simply tear apart whole platoons with wild swipes, the Warhounds had their own answer to the brawlers.

Raptors leapt from their positions amongst the Warhounds, growling and snarling as they tackled the brawlers that meant to do the Warhounds harm. Brawler and Raptor roared as they bit, slashed and tore at each other with animalistic brutality. However, the brawlers were meant to be expandable shock troops, used to clog the meat grinder of the American army; Raptors were not. Brawler claws found no purchase in the Raptor’s scales and it was the same story with their teeth. The Raptor’s own teeth and claws sliced deeply and sliced with insulting ease into the brawlers. The brawlers fought like the mindless machines of slaughter they were, and thus were killed quickly by Emerald’s cunningly brutal beasts of war.

At seeing his army getting easily torn apart by Emerald’s own, Mercer gave a shout of rage and moved to charge at Emerald. In answer to this, Emerald rapidly inhaled and a bright blue glow shined through her chest. An instant, later Mercer was sent tumbling to the floor, his upper torso incinerated along with a many viral creatures that were behind him.

Emerald then quickly ran at Mercer’s rapidly regenerating body and grabbed him by his feet. She then started spinning in place and by the time she was about to release him, he was done regenerating and the two of were practically a blur.

“GO! HOME!” Emerald shouted as she let go of Mercer and sent him flying towards the infested ruins of Manhattan.

The entire way, Emerald could hear his furious cursing and shouts as he arced across the sky before finally impacting a skyscraper within the city, somehow causing it to crumble atop of him afterwards.

Emerald suddenly found herself panting and the false heart in her chest beating rapidly and loudly. All around her, the dream world began to change. Both warring armies immediately faded from the landscape. The fires on the scorched side of the world went out and patches of grass started to poke out from beneath the blackened soil. Off in the distance, the ruins of Manhattan seemed to age rapidly, tall buildings crumbling as plant life began to grow and spread over everything in sight. Eventually, new life covered everything. The only signs of the dream world’s past condition was the burnt bark on the tree, empty patches of ash strewn soil and the eroding ruins of Manhattan in the distance, overgrown with plants.

Emerald by now had simply fallen onto her back and was struggling to get her panting under control, realising she was in the midst of having a panic attack. After several long moments, she finally did manage to steady her breathing and her false heart. Suddenly, Twilight’s face popped into view.

“Hey there sleepy head!” Twilight said cheerfully to Emerald. “The picnic’s all set and ready! Don’t you want to have some food with us?”

In some confusion, Emerald turned on her side to see the rest of the Mane Six sitting on a red and white checkered cloth with a picnic basket.

“Come on, Emerald!” Dash shouted eagerly. “They aren’t starting without ya, and I’m starving.”

“Ya mind joining us, sugarcube?” Applejack added. “Ah have granny’s apple pie with me!”

“I-If you don’t mind, that is…” Fluttershy said.

“…Sure thing!” Emerald said, and stumbled a bit when she suddenly realised she was now in her pony form. “I’ll be right on over!”

Luna peeked out from behind the half burnt tree and smiled as she watched Emerald start to enjoy the dream of her just being with her friends. She then looked over the formerly completely burnt areas of the dream world and the decayed overgrown ruins in the distance. This was a sign that things were not well just yet, but it was also a sign of healing.

Feeling that her job was done, Luna began walking away when she heard a shout.

“Luna, do you want to join us?” the princess heard Emerald call out.

She turned around to see the virus waving her over and the others adding their own desires for her to join them.

‘Well…’ Luna thought for a moment before smiling. ‘I am sure just one night off and enjoying time with my student won’t do any harm.’

“Very well, I shall join your party!” Luna shouted a reply and quickly made her way over, much to the delight of everyone there.

LAMBDA

Twilight was just beginning to think that maybe urging Emerald into going to sleep was a bad idea when, slowly but surely, the sound of Emerald’s teeth grinding together faded and her features, formerly twisted into a grimace, began to relax. To the unicorn’s relief and happiness, she saw Emerald even begin to smile as she relaxed.

“…Twilight,” the slumbering virus murmured with a small smile.

“I told you everything would be fine,” Twilight whispered to Emerald’s sleeping form and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then she herself snuggled in close beside Emerald before going to sleep herself.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: Right that took a while but at least this chapter is decently long. Guess what guys? Only two more chapters left then this story is finished! Are you excited?

EN: You’re all lucky this chapter was edited as quickly as it was. My laptop fan (At least I’m assuming it’s the fan) decided to go haywire, and the noise it makes is such a god awful ear piercer. But I knew if I let the chapter go unedited, I probably wouldn’t get back to it. So yeah, here you all are. Nice, polished chapter all shiny and ready for you to read. Hope you liked it. Remember to rate, comment, review, etc. You get the drill. Now it’s late, I’m tired, and I’m going to bed. See you all next chapter.

Chapter 13: Advice

Low rumbling echoed dully behind thick steel walls and the floor shook with the weight of immense footsteps.

Emerald was yet again working on the massive monsters she was creating. She had made quite a bit of progress now; they didn’t go berserk when the mental magic was used, however the result was dim and unimpressive. But that was okay. Emerald wanted to get the berserk problem fixed and now it was fixed. Now she just had to fix the potency.

Speaking of potency, Emerald had also included a large amount of Biogems within the body of the creature with special growths that extended from the various gems like roots and extended out of the creature like a bushy tail. Those would be useful to quickly recharge the gems using the ley line power network she now had up and running. She was relying on using ley lines to charge up the gems rather than the creature’s own magic circuits because the circuits weren’t potent enough to do so in a timely manner. Chances were it would take a week to a month to charge the many gem clusters she had grown inside the creature if she were to rely on the creature’s own magic.

Emerald reached out to the creature with her senses and briefly the image of a large room with thick steel walls met her. Smells and sounds assaulted other senses as she did this as well. Unlike before when she touched the mind of the massive monsters she was making, she did not kill it. This time she merely urged it to sleep, and it did so.

‘Along with getting my biological construction skills up to spec, this is also improving my viral control from afar,’ Emerald thought as she began to tweak and fine tune the monster’s genetic structure. ‘I can even see and experience things from the perspective of my creations now. Controlling them from afar is so easy now. Just what was it about Discord’s blood that caused such changes in me? That’s an answer that’s going to take a very long time to find, I think.’

‘Anyways…’ Emerald thought as she shook her head clear. ‘Let’s get back to work on this guy. At the rate I’m going at, he should be ready for field use in a few months… give or take fixing a few bugs.’

ALPHA

Missy walked along the surface, carefully cradling a firearm in one arm. Tavish was by her side and examining his much more clearly defined muscles. Off in the distance was a large group of raptors; some had black and red scales while a vast majority of them had a much wider variety. The raptors with the colorful scales were newborns and their elder siblings were having fun playing with them. Off to the far side was a buggy being put through its paces on a dirt track. It had a new engine that was better than the previous generation made by the engineer dogs who were quickly grasping the concepts of combustion engines.

“So what’cha got there, lass?” Tavish asked as he cheerfully flexed one of his small arms. He was amongst one of many, many other Warhounds that were now enjoying the benefits of the Orion serum. The little terrier found the idea of having nigh unbreakable bones and being almost tireless extremely fun and was already spending several hours straight altering his fighting style to fit his new abilities.

“This is a grenade launcher,” Missy answered as she held up the firearm. It wasn’t the repeating grenade launcher with multiple chambers to hold rounds, but one long chamber and a simple wooden stock. Its iron sights was also different from most firearms as its rounds didn’t fly in a mostly straight line and had to be lobbed.

“Grenades?”

“Oh yeah, you don’t know…” Missy hummed as she continued walking. “The other gunsmiths and I have been developing various weapons in tandem with each other. A grenade is a lot like a stick of dynamite, except designed to be used like a weapon. Its internal fuse is precisely timed and can’t be put out once started. This weapon here is designed to fire specially designed grenade rounds that explode on contact with the ground rather than wait for a fuse, though there is a version of round with a fuse as well.”

“A gun that shoots explosives?” Tavish said with eyes that shone with excitement. “Oh this I have to try!”

“Later,” Missy stated. “I’m going to test fire this gun a bit more at the range up here, then it’ll be ready for use… or at least to be used by dogs trained to use them.”

“Oh don’t be that way, lass!” Tavish objected. “You’re just going to fire off a few rounds, right? Can’t ya see it in your sweet little heart to let this old dog have a bit of fun?”

“…Darn it, Tavish.” Missy sighed before handing the grenade launcher to the smaller dog. “You can fire a few rounds, and then I have to do some tests with the other ammunition.”

“Bloody brilliant!” The little dog cheered and quickly took off towards the firing range, forcing Missy to pick up the pace to keep up with him.

They had also gained a tag along in the form of Stripe, who had spotted them and decided to follow them out of curiosity.

Soon the group of three arrived at the firing range and Tavish quickly started to set up. Missy was at his side to make sure he wasn’t going to break it, and Stripe lied down a short distance away to watch what was going on.

It was when Tavish aimed the grenade launcher down range like it was a normal gun that Missy realised she forgot to tell him it had a firing angle. By the time she opened her mouth to shout a warning, Tavish had already depressed the trigger and the explosive round left the barrel and rapidly dropped towards the ground.

BETA

Emerald was making the finishing tweaks from afar when she felt a great amount of alarm and worry come from one of her raptors on the surface. Concentrating, she felt the raptor to be Stripe and quickly decided to investigate what was going on.

She arrived near where she felt the alarm coming from with a crimson flash. She quickly took in her surroundings and found herself to be right by the firing range. Dogs were coming in from all around with looks of worry on their faces. Emerald looked towards the firing range and saw smoke just starting to dissipate from the prone bodies of Tavish and Missy on the ground. Stripe was right by their sides and was running around them in near panic.

Quickly running to the two dogs, the virus quickly examined them as she knelt by their sides. Both dogs were alive, thankfully, but both were bleeding badly and covered in deep cuts and had small pieces of shrapnel sticking out of their bodies. Tavish was worse off, as a piece of metal was jutting from his left eye.

“Hold still, the both of you,” Emerald stated as tendrils extended from her hands and quickly started to probe their wounds. Pieces of shrapnel were inside of their bodies as well. Tavish wasn’t too bad as he was wearing the dragon scale cuirass, but Missy was just wearing her new silken vest. While the silk was strong, it didn’t provide as much protection as a weave meant for armor. The young gunsmith had shrapnel within her chest cavity and was in mortal danger of bleeding out internally.

Thankfully Emerald was there to fix everything.

Missy whined in discomfort and Tavish muttered pained complaints, but otherwise the two remained still as Emerald’s tendrils delved into their wounds. The tendrils quickly removed the small pieces of metal from within their bodies and started to rapidly grow cells to place them in the damaged areas. Tavish was quickly healed up, but Missy needed some more work for her more grievous injuries.

“What happened?” Emerald questioned as she sealed up the last of Missy’s wounds.

“This idiot wanted to try out the new weapon we made,” Missy said, waving at both Tavish and the somewhat damaged grenade launcher on the ground. “And I, being the stupidly nice girl that I am, decided to let him fire off a few rounds without mentioning how it should be fired.”

“Ya got to admit, though. That was quite the explosion.” Tavish smiled a bit sheepishly as he sat up, seemingly ignoring the piece of metal still in his left eye.

“You don’t say,” Emerald said blandly before suddenly reaching out and ripping the piece of metal out of his torn eye.

“AUUUGH!” Tavish shouted and fell onto his back with one paw over his mutilated eye. “BLOODY TARTARUS!”

Emerald harshly smacked his paw away and rapidly rebuilt his eye before standing up and shaking her head in disapproval. She took in the Warhounds standing around them and Stripe staring at her with his big wondering eyes.

“The both of you could have very easily died,” Emerald stated towards Missy and Tavish as the two got off the ground before facing everyone around them. “From now on, no one is going to touch experimental weapons unless they have been specifically trained to handle them by the designers. This is the first and last time this sort of thing happens.”

The surrounding Warhounds nodded gravely as Missy got up off the ground and quickly grabbed the damaged weapon had been intending to test. After a quick inspection, she found the weapon was too damaged to carry on with the test as the barrel was slightly bent from shrapnel impact.

“Great, now I have to hammer this darn thing back into shape,” the golden retriever muttered in frustration.

“Agggh…” Tavish moaned from phantom pains in his eye. “I’m sorry, lass…”

“It’s my fault too…” Missy replied as she started on her way back. “Shouldn’t have let an explosion crazy idiot have a go at this…”

“Idiot?! OI!” Tavish shouted as he quickly made his way after the taller dog.

Emerald sighed as Stripe walked over and nudged her hand with his snout, obviously wanting to be petted. Emerald acquiesced to the raptor’s desire and started petting him on the head, much to his vocal delight. He was rather tall now and easily matched her in height, meaning he’d be fully grown soon. As her raptor purred, Emerald considered what just happened. Along with there obviously being a need for some more rules and regulations regarding weaponry, she obviously needed to work on her augments some more. What she had currently worked perfectly and none of the Warhounds had voiced any complaints regarding the augments, but she needed to add more onto it.

‘Time I started work on some more invasive augments,’ Emerald thought. ‘Let’s see… something to harden the epidermis for one… perhaps some spider DNA to create a layer of naturally woven silk between the layer of skin and the muscles? It would do a lot against cutting weapons and high velocity weapons like bullets, especially if I use bark spider silk which is like ten times as strong as Kevlar. Well, I am most certainly going to ask if there is a bark spider family around. Hmm… isn’t Flan still around here somewhere? Anyway, along with a layer of spider silk, I’ll also include basic package of enhanced senses. Nothing too incredible. I want to see how far I can enhance their senses without needing to see about upgrading their brains to match. Their hearing and sense of smell is already pretty great, but I can upgrade both a few notches along with upgrading their sight a whole lot. Finally, I’ll have to see about upgrading their strength. Right now a Diamond Dog can reach and sustain natural peak physical condition without too much work. The trick here is to increase their strength more without increasing the size of their muscles. Hmm… okay, I can likely manage this by optimizing the shape of the muscles on the cellular level. Compact things down and fit even more muscle into a relatively small area. Of course the downside of this is greater food intake, but that isn’t so much of a problem… though I may need to put emphasis on the need for more cooks in the communal kitchens soon.’

“Virus.”

“Hmm?” Emerald turned and looked to see Sovereign in his timber wolf form.

“I have finished work on the Golden Apple trees you have brought into my forest,” Sovereign stated. “I wish to show you the fruits of my labour.”

“You’re done?” Emerald said as she left Stripe’s side. “To be honest, I expected you to be much faster than this.”

“I do not do my work quickly, for it requires great care.” Sovereign scoffed as he turned about and began leading her away. “Especially with something like this.”

Emerald wondered what he meant by that but kept her peace. She strode by Sovereign’s side as Stripe made after her and kept up pace with her as well. Soon the group of three arrived at the place where Emerald had planted the golden apple tree saplings.

Indeed, the saplings were saplings no more. Now they were fully grown trees that towered over everything save other trees. Sovereign had obviously changed a lot about the trees just by looking at them. When Emerald had seen the golden apple trees in Canterlot, they appeared metallic instead of natural trees. This was no longer the case with these trees. The golden luster was still there, but now it was… natural; a part of the bark and leaves instead of making the tree look like it had been coated in gold. Another thing about the tree was that its canopy seemed larger, more expansive, and its roots seemed to dig deeper and spread out wider. The golden apples of the tree shared in the fact that it no longer appeared to be coated in gold but seemed a bit fuller. As Emerald took in the apples, she noticed one final thing: the fact that there were acorns among the tree branches. This made little sense to the Evolved, as the apples served as the trees source of reproduction thanks to the seeds held within their cores.

“So care to explain what sort of changes you made to the trees?” Emerald asked.

“The alterations I had made on the trees were nearly entirely to help fulfil the niches of other creatures,” Sovereign began. “The bark is highly durable and will protect the tree from species that tend to strip bark from trees. I’ve redesigned the canopy to serve as a home for multiple species of bird as most species prefer a specific part of the canopy. I’ve made some alterations to the roots as well to compensate for species that prefer to burrow under trees and gnaw on tree roots.”

“What about the apples and the acorns?” Emerald asked as she gestured to said objects. “The presence of one kind of makes the other redundant.”

“…I’ve changed the apples as well,” Sovereigns said after a moment. “The cores of them no longer possess seeds.”

“Really?” Emerald stated with a raised brow. “Doesn’t exactly sound like a beneficial adaptation.”

“I agree,” Sovereign replied before looking at Emerald with a steady stare. “The trade-off for the lack of seeds is that the apples become juicier and appetizing. All this benefits are those that would prey on the tree. I would normally never consider such an adaption…”

“I know this went against your nature, Sovereign,” Emerald stated with a smile. “But I and my dogs are very thankful for this.”

“I do not care for what your hounds think.” Sovereign scoffed and started walking away before stopping briefly. “Just so you are aware, I’ve taken the liberty of taking seeds to spread these trees throughout the forest.”

“I do not mind, Sovereign,” Emerald replied. “You can go right ahead and start planting.”

“I am not asking, I am telling you what I am doing,” Sovereign stated before walking away.

Emerald simply shook her head as the forest spirit took his leave. Taking one last admiring look at the trees he worked hard on, Emerald turned and walked away as well. As she took the long way back down into the Hub, she noticed a column of Warhounds out on a job in formation. They most definitely didn’t need the running to make any improvements to their physical fitness, as most of the Warhounds were now either at or very close to peak physical condition. The problem here was the fact that the Warhounds were gaining peak physical condition so easily. They didn’t have the lessons learned from hard work and long tiring hours of physical exertion. There was a right way of moving and running and there was a wrong way. People naturally learn these ways working on improving themselves over countless hours. The Warhounds didn’t need countless hours to become physically fit, which meant they were missing out on hard earned and worthwhile lessons. So the Evolved had set about solving that issue in the simplest way possible. Since the Warhounds were all extremely fit, she just upped the difficulty of their training to the level only seen in entry courses of elite special forces.

‘That lot there is probably on their cool down jog,’ Emerald thought as the Warhounds jogged past. ‘The training I’ve got them on now can last up to several hours at a time. It’s not like some of them can’t handle it either. They all have the muscle and stamina for it now thanks to the augments. Though I bet nearly all of them will be bingeing at the communal kitchen as soon as they are done for the day.’

Thoughts of the now very physically fit dogs brought up memories of concerns some of the Warhounds voiced. Some were male, but a good number were female, and all had been asking if they would become grossly over muscled thanks to Emerald’s augments. It took an assembly or two where she had to explain how muscle development worked, but Emerald figured she had managed to get through to everyone. Getting muscles so large that they actually started to get in the way of your own movement took a LOT of work and even then it wasn’t exactly possible to reach without drug enhancement. What the augment did was allow them to reach peak physical condition incredibly fast and with ease. It didn’t exactly allow one to push beyond natural muscle growth with any great ease.

‘Anyway, better head back to work,’ Emerald thought as a bright pink glow surrounded her. ‘Got to work out those bugs so I can get into the testing phase.’

With that, the Evolved disappeared in a flash of magic.

GAMMA

Twilight hummed in thought as she awaited Pinkie to come out of the Cakes’ bakery with their contest entry. As she waited, her thoughts drifted to past events, namely one that was fairly recent.

A few days ago, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom had become reporters for their school paper. Initially things had gone normal enough, but after a short while the three fillies started sticking their noses into other people’s business and reported personal secrets in the paper. Things went downhill for the thee when they started reporting hearsay and rumors about Emerald and her apparent rift between her and half of her closest friends. Emerald had gotten angry enough with a reporter sticking his nose into her personal business to lay him flat with a punch; needless to say, she had been a bit on the furious side when she saw the news article. Twilight had decided to tag along when Emerald stormed out of the house. She knew she wouldn’t hurt the young girls like she had hurt that reporter, but Emerald could be rather scary when she wanted to be. Twilight just wanted to make sure she didn’t overdo it. Thankfully, Emerald’s anger had simmered down by the time she reached the building the papers were printed out of. Having calmed down, Emerald had seemed to have decided to confront the three fillies in a more private setting instead of in front of their friends and had basically drug them away to do just that. Though she was calm now, Emerald had made sure to make her anger known to the three fillies and it was clear the young mares had seen it from the way they avoided Emerald’s stare. It was a long and hard talk for the three fillies as Emerald told them how disappointed in them she was for invading her and her friends’ right to privacy. Eventually, after making doubly sure the three fillies knew what they did was wrong, Twilight and Emerald went home. The next day a special issue was printed with apologies from the young fillies.

Twilight shook her head clear as Big Mac exited the bakery with the massive cake on his back. Both cakes were obviously nervous for the pristine condition of their contest entry and the others quickly moved to protect the cake from accidents.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew over and quickly attached two ropes to the platter the cake was sitting on and readied to pull them in case the cake started to lean dangerously off of Big Mac. Twilight added to the protection by creating a protective bubble of magic around the cake. Rarity and Applejack helped by falling in step behind Big Mac while holding a life net… not that it would have saved the cake if it had fallen on it.

“Really?” Emerald sighed, getting everyone attention. “You do realise that there is a much easier way of going about this right?”

Emerald then took the opportunity to demonstrate her point by grasping the cake magically and cloaking the cake in a “skin tight” barrier. The cake lifted smoothly off of Big Mac’s back, though Emerald frowned in some surprise by the sheer weight of the cake. Mr. Cake seemed to be on the verge of fainting at the sight of his cake floating in mid-air, though Mrs. Cake seemed to be only a little better.

“My magical control was refined by lessons from Princess Luna and I have the magical strength to beat up a dragon,” Emerald said reassuringly. “Your cake is perfectly fine.”

Mrs. Cake seemed to take her words to heart as Big Mac voiced his thanks for taking the weight, but Mr. Cake only seemed to be on the edge of a panic attack every time the cake so much as shifted slightly.

“Oh wow, Emmy!” Pinkie exclaimed as she gave the virus a tight hug. “This is so much easier! Let’s run to the train now!”

Taking her own words to heart, Pinkie galloped down the straight road to the train station. Emerald shrugged and followed suit, the cake following closely behind as she galloped after Pinkie. Mr. Cake was chasing after her, practically chewing his hoof off in worry for his cake.

Soon the group arrived at the train station and quickly realised an issue, namely the fact that the cake was too big for the door into the train.

“Just leave it to me,” Emerald said and walked inside the train car to take some quick measurements of the interior. Then she teleported the cake inside the car and it arrived safely atop a small table with a flash of pink. “There we go.”

“Practicing teleporting objects from a distance really comes in handy, doesn’t it?” Twilight stated as she walked inside the car with the others. “I wish I was as good at teleporting as you, Emerald.”

“You’ll get there eventually, Twilight.” Emerald replied. “It’s less a matter of skill and more a matter of power. It’s a very power intensive spell after all. Practicing it a lot helps, though.”

“Thanks for the help, Emerald!” Pinkie said and then turned to everyone else. “And thanks to all of you, too! Even though we didn’t need so many helping hooves in the end, it was still nice to have you all offering to help!”

“Ah’m just glad the cake didn’t go splat,” Applejack stated as she stared at said cake with undisguised desire. “Mm mmm! That there cake looks down right scrumptious!”

When Applejack reached out with a hoof to have a sample of the cake, Pinkie quickly reached out and smacked the hoof away.

“Well, the tastiest treat of all is sure to be the Cakes' Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness,” Pinkie said good naturedly as Applejack backed away from the cake. “All that rich creamy goodness of the marzipan, combined with the tart tanginess of the mascarpone, blended perfectly with the smooth, silky sweetness of the meringue. That's why I call the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness the ‘MMMM’.”

“MMMM!” the others said together as they stared at the cake, causing Emerald to snort in amusement, though she too admitted the cake looked delicious.

“Exactly!” Pinkie said excitedly “It's the most delicious delectable delightful de-lovely cake in Equestria, and it's sure to win first prize!”

“Zis is not so!” Emerald turned to see a gray and white griffin with a chef hat and long moustache standing at the car door. “For I, Gustave le Grande, do challenge your crude cake to a duel of delectable delicacies against my exceptionally Exquisite Éclairs! They will undoubtedly strike down all ze competition, winning first prize and crowning me le champion.”

The griffin left Emerald staring a little bit as he at one point even provided dramatic lighting for his éclairs. But what struck her was his accent. It sounded distinctly different from what she knew of griffins that had a sort of Nordic feeling to them. But the Evolved supposed Gustave was just from a different country than most griffins.

“Not a chance, le Grand,” said a stallion that Emerald immediately recognised as Donut Joe, having met him last year at the Gala.

“Donut Joe!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing in Ponyville?”

“Picking up the final all-important ingredient for my contest entry, Donutopia!” Donut Joe answered as he put some sprinkles on a complicated setup of donuts. “And with these super-sprinkles, my donuts are going to dunk all the other lousy desserts, steal first prize, and make my donut shop famous forever! Ah ha ha ha!”

“Nice evil laugh there, Joe,” Emerald commented.

“Oh hey there, Emerald!” Donut Joe greeted cheerfully and took something out of a pocket. “Here, have a donut. It’s your favorite.”

“Thanks!” Emerald smiled as she quickly ate the offered treat.

“Oh, Joe...” laughed a voice. Emerald turned to see a chocolate moose standing in the doorway. “Your dippy donuts could never out-rival me.”

“Hello,” Pinkie greeted as she quickly went over to the chocolate moose. “What's your name?”

“I am Mulia Mild,” said Mulia as she stepped from behind the moose, revealing herself to be a mule. “Behold, my Chocolate Mousse Moose. It will trample all your treats, be given first prize, and make me the greatest chef in Equestria.”

The other three bakers in the room took those to be fighting words and quickly started arguing about which of their contest entries were going to win the national dessert competition. Emerald lost interest in the argument as she wandered over to a window, memories of another national competition floating to the surface.

‘My mother managed to go to America thanks to a baking competition,’ Emerald thought. ‘She was such a good baker. As much as I know about baking now, I was still learning everything she knew about it… I wish we had more time together… I know I have no right wishing for something like that, but I do. I miss her and miss the peaceful life all those years ago. I miss when the most I had to worry about was some jerk in school messing with me and talking to the pretty girl who came to the bakery every other day…’

Emerald let out a drawn out gloomy sigh as bright happy memories of the past flew through her mind. By the time she was shaken out of these thoughts, the train was already moving and Pinkie was ranting about something.

“…One of them is going to sabotage the Cakes' cake tonight! You have to help me stand guard!” Pinkie Pie half shouted.

“Pinkie... you're overreacting,” Twilight stated and Emerald agreed with the sentiment.

“Yeah, those chefs aren't going to do your cake any harm,” Applejack agreed.

“But they are!” Pinkie protested. “I just know it!”

“Fine!” Dash replied in some irritation. “If you want to stand guard, go for it. We're going to bed.”

Pinkie leapt up onto the table the cake and started to stare at everything with suspicion as the others and muttered aloud to herself.

“I'll show them,” the party mare promised to the cake. “I'll stay up all night and protect you. Nothing and nopony will stop me from keeping you safe!”

“Emerald are you coming?” Twilight said as she poked her head out of the hallway.

“Well…” As much as Emerald wanted to go to sleep tonight curled up with Twilight, she was pretty much the only person in the entire kingdom that didn’t need sleep. “Probably not.”

With that, Emerald walked over to Pinkie.

“Pinkie, why don’t you go find yourself a compartment?” Emerald asked the mare still up on the table with the cake, standing protectively. “I’m the only one here that doesn’t need to sleep at all. I can stay up all night guarding the cake without feeling any fatigue whatsoever.”

“I don’t know…” Pinkie Pie said. “I really ought to help out. Protecting this cake from insidious sabotage plots is part of my responsibility!”

“And getting me to stay up all night watching over it is a fantastic way of fulfilling that responsibility,” Emerald stated. “Ain’t anyone stronger than me in the kingdom. You can trust me to keep it safe, Pinkie.”

“Well… okay, Emmy!” Pinkie said brightly. “Now you gotta protect the cake from the other bakers! I just know they’ll try to sabotage the Cakes’ contest entry because it’s the best one EVER!”

“No problem, Pinkie.” Emerald smiled. “You just go pick out a compartment for yourself now, and leave the guarding to me.”

“Remember what I said, Emmy!” Pinkie said while walking backwards from Emerald. “Protect the cake from the other bakers!”

“Sure, sure.” Emerald smiled and then laughed a little when Pinkie turned around to find that she hadn’t lined herself up correctly and smashed her face into the wall beside the door.

“Well… I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, Emerald,” Twilight said.

“Have a good sleep Twilight,” Emerald said after her girlfriend. “I’ll be here if you need me.”

When Twilight had left and Pinkie had picked herself off the floor, Emerald took a spare table and chair and placed it in front of the cake she was to guard. She then took a seat and conjured up a deck of playing cards for herself. Now settled in for a long night, Emerald began playing solitaire to pass the time.

DELTA

It was a little after midnight when Emerald’s hearing began picking up noise from the passenger cars that wasn’t the sounds of sleeping bodies shifting position. At first Emerald figured it was someone simply going to the washroom, but changed her opinion when the sounds of hoofsteps neared her instead of going away. After a few moments, Emerald heard the doors between her car and the passenger car open, silent to normal ears but the hinges screeched to hers. Emerald then heard more hoofsteps moving away from the car a bit and the rustling of wing feathers. Briefly Emerald considered the three occupants of the train that had wings and quickly came to a conclusion to which of the three was just outside the car.

Emerald kept her attention rapt sharply to sounds she was hearing, but kept up the show of playing solitaire. When she heard the unfurling of wings and the sudden rush of the wind through feathers, the Evolved reached out with her magic and grabbed hold.

“GAH!” Emerald heard a startled shout from just in front of her. Looking up, the sight of Rainbow Dash cloaked in a pink aura of magic met her eyes.

“Hello Rainbow Dash,” Emerald stated softly as she finished winning another game of solitaire and quickly reset the game, the cards whirling through the air like an angry swarm of bees briefly before slapping back down onto the table top. “To be honest, I didn’t expect anything to happen tonight. I most certainly didn’t expect you to be the one to sabotage the Cakes’ contest entry, either.”

“I’m NOT sabotaging anything!” Dash protested in anger. “I just wanted a little bite. It’s not like it would have hurt anypony…”

“I know how these baking competitions work, Dash,” Emerald replied simply as she started placing down some cards. “The slightest mistake is enough to cost whole points. You taking a ‘bite’ would likely cost so many points the cake would be in last place, maybe even disqualified.”

“OKAY! I get it!” Rainbow Dash said with crossed forelegs. “Sheesh… just let me down and I’ll head back to my room.”

“Have a good sleep, Dash,” Emerald stated as she complied.

“Whatever…” Dash replied and walked away. The pegasus threw a desiring look at the large cake, but kept her word. When Dash exited the car, she briefly paused in the area separating the two cars and looked to the side. After a moment, she grinned and spoke, “Hey Fluttershy.”

“Meep,” came a small squeak.

“I heard you a while I was talking to Dash, Fluttershy,” Emerald stated aloud as she won yet another game. “Depending on your intentions, you might as well come in or go back to bed.”

There was a bit of a moment as Rainbow left for her room before Fluttershy stepped into view.

“I take it you are here for the cake, too?” Emerald asked as she reset the game. “Cause I am going to tell you now you aren’t going to have a single lick until after the competition.”

“Well… I-I do admit that was p-partly the reason I decided to come,” Fluttershy said, causing Emerald to stop playing her card game and give Fluttershy her full attention.

“Really?” Emerald asked curiously. “And what reason is that?”

“I-I want to talk to you, Emerald,” Fluttershy said as she came to a stop beside Emerald’s table. “It’s b-been quite a while since we’ve talked, hasn’t it?”

“There is a good reason for that, Fluttershy,” Emerald replied and quickly moved all the cards on her table into a neat stack before placing it back in its deck pack.

“Yes… I know,” Fluttershy said sadly, thinking about the last time they had talked and the words she had said to Emerald. “I’m so very sorry for what I said to you, Emerald.”

“You don’t need to apologise, Fluttershy,” Emerald said. “Everything you said to me was true. I’m a violent, monstrous killer. I can fool myself into thinking I can imitate a normal life all I want, but it isn’t going to change what I am or what I have done.”

“It doesn’t make what I said any less hurtful, Emerald,” Fluttershy replied. “I… I can never truly understand the pain you had to bear, the sheer lengths you had to go through to survive to this day.”

“I’ve… I’ve had to do a lot of terrible things to just earn the right to survive each day,” Emerald murmured. “It wasn’t a simple matter of just saying the right things and acting the right way, I had to prove I could do them as well. Each and every day I had to commit some sort of terrible evil to save my own cowardly skin… I wish I hadn’t done those things. I wish I was as strong as you and the others are, and wasn’t such a coward.”

“Oh Emerald…” Fluttershy said softly and closed in on the virus before giving her a tight hug. “You are strong; so very strong. I don’t know anypony who could have gone through one day of what you had to go through for those two horrible years. But you did. You went through it all and here you are, alive and well.”

“Killing is easy, Fluttershy,” Emerald said bluntly, causing the pegasus to flinch noticeably. “The first time is the hardest… most of the time, desperation for food and shelter can numb so much. Every other time, though… you just keep going and going until those hammer blows upon your heart just… stop.”

Fluttershy just kept quiet and held Emerald tighter; the glistening of tears could just be seen forming.

“Suddenly it just doesn’t matter who is in front of you,” Emerald continued numbly. “It could be a crazed murderer… or a scared child who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It just didn’t matter… maybe if I was brave, I wouldn’t have been forced to do all of that…”

“But then… if I had been brave, I would have been dead, wouldn’t I?” Emerald said with a bitter smile.

“It’s okay, Emerald,” Fluttershy said. “You’ve been through things nopony should have had to experience, but you are here and you are trying to be a better pony despite it all.”

“Maybe…” Emerald said sadly. “Some days I just really feel like I’m just fooling myself, though.”

Just outside the car door stood Rarity with a sad expression on her face, fetlock against her mouth as she listened to Emerald speak. It really wasn’t easy dealing with Emerald’s issues when she bluntly shoved them in your face. The raw horror of what the shape shifter had been forced to do was enough to get to even Rarity sometimes. But even so, she was happy that Fluttershy was willing to make up with Emerald and be friends again.

With that last thought, Rarity quietly walked away and returned to her compartment.

EPSILON

The next day, the train arrived at the station in Canterlot, having spent the previous day and night making stops at various towns picking up other bakers and their contest entries. Everyone was now offloading their contest entries to move them to the judging area. Other than a brief moment where Emerald had to help get the Cakes’ entry out of the car because it was simply too big for the door, it all went rather smoothly.

“Good job, Emmy!” Pinkie Pie said with a leaping hug at the virus. “Your job is over! Now it’s my turn to make sure the cake makes it to the competition safe and sound.”

“I’m sure you of all ponies won’t try to eat it like you tried to eat the Princess’s desserts during the royal visit,” Emerald stated.

“Absotively posilutely!” Pinkie smiled and let Emerald go.

“Excuse me, Miss Gleaner?” Emerald heard a voice say and turned to see a royal guard standing just behind her.

“Hello, can I help you?” Emerald replied.

“Yes, I was sent by Princess Celestia,” the guard said solemnly. “She hopes she isn’t interrupting anything terribly important, but she requires your presence for a very important matter.”

“Oh…” Emerald said and shot a look at her friends. “Just how important is it?”

“The princess has told me it’s imperative that you are present for it,” the guard stated.

“Uhhh… very well,” Emerald said with a sigh before turning to the others. “Sorry girls, but I have to go. The princess needs me.”

“Oh it’s no problem, Emerald,” Twilight replied with a smile. “If the princess needs you, it’s got to be really important.”

“We’ll save you some cake, Emmy!” Pinkie shouted.

“Thanks girls,” Emerald said with a grateful smile before turning back to the guard. “Just where is Princess Celestia right now?”

“She is awaiting you in the palace lobby, Miss Gleaner,” the Guard answered.

“Thank you. I shall teleport there right this instant,” Emerald stated and did just that.

Arriving an instant later in the palace with a flash, Emerald took a quick look around to get her bearings. Princess Celestia was not three feet away from her point of arrival.

“Hello there my dear Emerald,” Celestia greeted the virus with a warm smile. “It is so good that you could come.”

“You said it was imperative that I be here, Princess,” Emerald said. “If you say it’s really important, it’s best I don’t miss it.”

“Yes, it is quite important, and I shall explain it to you in a much more private setting,” Celestia said and stepped in closer. “Just give me a moment and I shall teleport the both of us to our next destination.”

With a flash of white, Emerald was teleported again. In an instant, she found herself in entirely different surroundings and quickly got her bearings again. As she took in her surroundings, she quickly figured out the reason Celestia needed to see her.

The room she was in was obviously some large medical closet in the Canterlot Hospital. All around her were shelves holding clean scrubs and cabinets full of medical drugs and chemicals. The fact that she was in a hospital told Emerald all she needed to know.

“So I take it there are some Thracians here for the cure, right?” Emerald stated.

“Yes, there are about four of them in the next room,” Celestia replied. “I’ve had to cast one of my stronger sleeping spells to put them under.”

“Yeah, I figured they’d be tough,” Emerald replied as, in a moment, her form shifted. She turned into one of the many ponies she had sampled DNA from and quickly altered the form by shifting doctor scrubs over it. “Right, let’s go get this over with.”

“Right this way, Emerald,” Celestia stated and lead the virus out the door.

Celestia had been right when she had said the Thracians were in the next room. Just a short trip across the hall and the two had arrived to the room containing the four Thracians. Two were Podargos, one was a Lampon, and the last one was a Xanthos.

Wordlessly, Emerald walked over to the first of the four sleeping Thracians and set to work. She placed a hoof atop the head of the Thracians and was about to start working to reverse the transformation when a thought struck her. Why not see why exactly the Thracians wanted to be changed? Keeping her expression as one of concentration, Emerald started reading the mind of the Thracian with the mind magic she developed.

She delved into the mind of the Xanthos sleeping before her and searched for memories that would answer her questions. It didn’t take long at all to get a picture of what lead the Thracian to this moment where he gave up all the power and abilities his new body offered him.

Loneliness.

It was as simple as that. The Thracian whose mind she was reading simply didn’t have anyone back home; he was alone after being changed. His new and frightening appearance drove off all but the closest family and even they had trouble coming to terms with how he looked at times. The reason he didn’t have any other Thracians to seek companionship with was because he lived on the very edge of the area the viral spores rained down on. The fact he was infected at all was a stroke of luck and nothing more.

Ponies were sensitive and social creatures. Even Fluttershy, as introverted as she was, had surrounded herself with many little animals she loved to interact with. It didn’t surprise Emerald at all that the Thracian before her had taken loneliness very badly, enough to push him to abandon all the strengths and gifts his new form gave him.

Pulling away from the mind of the Xanthos, Emerald set to work on reversing his condition. It was a very long process and required pretty much all of her concentration. It was wasn’t easy work at all, and Emerald had been stumped at one point when it came to replacing cells with non-altered ones as most had been touched in some way. Eventually she settled for simply recreating the original body based on memories and how the infected stallion looked. Technically it wouldn’t be his old body, but a brand new one based on the new genes she was putting together. But what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him… hopefully. Eventually Emerald reached the point she was dreading a bit; the brain. The body was simple enough once she solved an issue or two, but the brain had all the memories of the stallion’s life. As much as she knew about brains and mind magic, Emerald simply didn’t know how to change the brain without risking varying levels of memory loss. Thankfully, with some tentative probing, Emerald found the only areas to be changed were the ones intended to handle the enhanced senses. Hopefully the only memory loss would be of their time as Thracians. Time would tell…

After finishing up, Emerald stood back to examine her work with a critical eye. Everything appeared to look right and the Thracian now looked to be just a normal earth pony. Nodding, Emerald turned towards the other Thracians and set to work on them.

The case for the first Thracian was the same for the rest, as Emerald quickly found. Each one of them were infected on the very edges of the area the viral spores rained down on. And each one found themselves feeling incredibly lonely when their appearance drove a majority of their friends away. And so they each were driven to this.

Emerald found that little discovery unpleasant, but in the very least she was almost completely certain that those four would only be among the few. Ponies tend to instinctively gather together to form a sort of “herd”. The same thing happened with the many Thracians. Their appearance may have been off putting to other ponies, but other Thracians were the same as them and in that similarity they were more than willing to form their own private little circles. Likely though, there would still be a handful more Thracians that wanted to be reverted back to their old forms. Emerald just figured they wouldn’t number a whole lot.

“Thank you for this,” Celestia said as Emerald walked over.

“If there is anything more to say, let’s take it back to the storage closet we arrived in,” Emerald replied, keeping her identity secret at the forefront of her mind.

“Once again, I must thank you for your effort in this,” Celestia stated as the two of them returned to the storage closet. “I know this must have taken a lot of work and concentration from you.

“It wasn’t that bad,” Emerald merely stated. “It took a bit of work, but it wasn’t too bad.”

“Yes… I must ask if you are sure there is nothing I can do to help you, Emerald?” Celestia asked with a frown. “Anything to help you and your dogs at all?”

“Princess…” Emerald said with a bit of a tired sigh. “I’m fairly certain letting bygones be bygones concerning the whole looting your nation’s wealth is more than help enough.”

“Objects can be replaced, Emerald,” Celestia said solemnly. “Lives cannot, and half a million Diamond Dogs died because Nidhogg escaped into their nation. Nidhogg was my responsibility and I failed to keep him locked away where he couldn’t hurt innocents.”

Emerald sighed, but she couldn’t understand the guilt Celestia was feeling right now. The deaths were a complete accident on her part. No one had ever escaped Tartarus before, so there wasn’t any precedent for her to worry about such a thing. But then Emerald supposed Celestia felt that she should have thought of such a thing. Well, if the alicorn was so willing to offer help, then Emerald was willing to accept it.

“Well, if you are offering…” Emerald began. “There may be a moment in the future where the Enclave may be forced to reveal ourselves to the world. When that times comes, could you do everything you can to make our transition onto the global stage as smooth as possible?”

“Of course my dear Emerald.” Emerald smiled. “I would not abandon you in such a trying time. I know the difficulties of learning the ways of worldly politics without a teacher and do not wish it upon you since I can help.”

“Thank you, Princess,” Emerald said with a nod. “…Well, if there is nothing else, I should be getting back. The national dessert competition might be still going on. At the very least I don’t want to miss all that cake.”

“No, there is nothing else, Emerald.” Celestia smiled. “You may leave. Go have fun, and tell my student I said hello.”

“Of course,” Emerald replied and disappeared with a pink flash of light.

ZETA

Twilight was walking down the hall of the palace later that day. The competition was over now, and though it was closer than Pinkie thought it would be, the Cakes’ contest entry did manage to win by a single half point. Their train back to Ponyville wouldn’t leave for another two hours, so while the others were passing time in Canterlot, she wanted to visit a special someone she hadn’t seen in many years.

Arriving at the door she was told about, Twilight knocked and waited in barely restrained excitement. A few moments later there was the muffled call of ‘Coming!’ before the door opened. In the doorway stood Princess Cadence, the Alicorn of Love.

“Cadence!” Twilight shouted in glee.

“Twilight!” Cadence returned with equal excitement.

Twilight started hopping in place and it only took Cadence a brief moment to realise what she was doing.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!” Candence and Twilight said together as the two did their special little ‘handshake’. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

“Oh Cadence, it’s been years!” Twilight said happily as she gave her old babysitter a tight hug.

“I missed you too, Twilight,” Cadence said with a bright smile as she returned the hug.

“Do you have time to talk?” Twilight asked after a moment.

“I always have time for you, Twilight,” Cadence said with a smile and stepped aside to let Twilight in. “Just make yourself at home and I’ll make some tea for us to drink.”

Twilight did just that and entered Cadence’s room. As expected of a personal room in the palace, it was a large space with plenty of room. Considering Cadence was expected to live her for years and years, it was made up of more than one room, though the main room consisted of the living room, dining room and kitchen, with a simple divider to mark the kitchen away from the other two rooms. Along with the highly furnished nature of any room in the Royal Palace, Cadence had also obviously taken the liberty of decorating it herself. There was a bit of a heart shape décor going on, but wasn’t as much as Twilight was expecting of Cadence. Seemed the Love Alicorn preferred glass a bit more considering the glass top dining table, coffee table and other glass fixtures and figurines dotting the room.

Twilight took a seat on the lush velvet couch in the living room and enjoyed the feel of the material and how she sunk into the couch a little. After waiting a few minutes, she heard Cadence come in from the kitchen with a levitating tea set just behind her.

“So how have you been in the last few years?” Twilight asked as she poured herself a cup of black tea.

“I’ve been very well, Twilight,” Cadence replied as she took a sip of her own tea. “I’ve been busy doing a lot of personal study here in the palace. The princesses think I might be ready for some serious responsibility soon.”

“That’s fantastic news,” Twilight said. “I’m happy for you.”

“Thank you.” Cadence smiled. “What about you? What have you been up to these last few years?”

“Well at first all I was doing was being cooped up in the royal library,” Twilight said with shrug. “I’m pretty sure you already know about that already. The princess sent me to Ponyville to get out and socialize. At first I didn’t really appreciate the value of this very much. I thought my studies were so much more important. But soon I experienced how important friendship can be, and how strong it can make you, especially after I met another friend at a later point…”

“Friend you say?” Cadence said with a sly, knowing smile and grinned when Twilight blushed. “Oh yes, I’ve heard about it. I believe everypony has heard about you and Emerald Gleaner at least once. Well go on, we can talk about her later.”

“Actually…” Twilight began with a bit of an embarrassed look . “The main reason I wanted to come see you was to talk about her and me.”

“Oh my!” Candence exclaimed with a wide smile. “You want love advice! Tell me everything, Twilight!”

“W-well…” Twilight began. “When we first met, we were just friends… actually no, she came to me as a traveling pony that lived on a day by day basis. We bonded a little over books and when I saw that she was just going to sleep out in the open, I offered my home to her. The next day she went on a short trip that, long story short, had very thoroughly convinced me and a lot of other ponies she had died…”

“It must have been a bit of an awkward moment when she came back,” Cadence commented.

“It was,” Twilight agreed with a nod. “But I was also so happy that my newest friend was alive and well. After hearing about her condition as lacking education, I was made her tutor by Princess Celestia since we were already good friends. Time went on and our friendship grew stronger… I also learned many things about Emerald as time went on. I learned she suffered so much in her life, that she was an orphan, was once a slave made to fight for the enjoyment of others and managed to fight for her freedom…”

“Oh my gosh…” Cadence said and placed her hoof over her mouth. “That’s so terrible.”

“It is.” Twilight nodded, also rather glad Emerald taught her how to speak the truth while keeping secrets hidden. “There was some pretty big ups and downs along the way, but our friendship only grew stronger from the setbacks and eventually, and quite out of the blue, she kissed me.”

“It’s so weird to hear about a mare kissing another mare,” Cadence commented with a curious look

“I get that a lot,” Twilight replied with a smile. “We started dating soon after that, and… well, it was unlike anything I read about. I wasn’t swept off my hooves in a whirlwind of romance, being captivated by one perfectly romantic date after another. I didn’t even feel any real romantic feelings for Emerald until a while after we started dating. We just… did things together and occasionally we would put aside some special time together with just the two of us. But… in the end, it wasn’t much of a change from what we had as friends. Well… other than the kissing and uhh, sharing a bed together…”

“Sharing a bed hmm?” Cadence said with a warm smile. “When did you start that? It’s ever so wonderful to have a special somepony to cuddle up to when you go to sleep.”

“W-we didn’t start sleeping in the same bed for a few months…” Twilight replied and then got a really sad smile on her face that surprised Cadence. “We only started about two months after I had… after I had betrayed her trust and hurt her so badly.”

“What happened?” Cadence asked with concern.

“She… she was having trouble living with her past,” Twilight answered. “I had thought to help. I brought in our closest friends to help. But… it had gone so very wrong and we were… there was a very hard barrier between us afterwards… I’m so lucky she forgave me for it. I could have lost her forever because of my actions, but I didn’t…”

“I take it you didn’t talk to her about it before you went through with your plan?” Cadence asked and shook her head when she received only silence. “Oh Twilight…”

“I learned a lot from that experience,” Twilight said softly. “Communication is key in any healthy relationship. If I had only talked to her about what I had intended to do… so much would be different.”

“You can’t let the past rule you, Twilight,” Cadence said soothingly. “You made a mistake and you were able to salvage your relationship and learn from your mistake. Some ponies don’t have that luck.”

“I know,” Twilight said with a sigh before turning to Cadence. “That’s why I’m here. I want to make sure we are doing alright and if there is anything I should change. If anypony knows anything about love, it’s you.”

“Alright,” Cadence said with a serious look and placed her tea on the tabletop before giving Twilight her full attention. “I’ll ask you a few questions and you have to answer me with total honesty.”

“A-alright,” Twilight said with some nervousness.

“First, do you do things together?” Cadence asked. “Do you have long engaging talks with each other?”

“Well… we do have our own things to do,” Twilight said nervously, tapping the tips of her front hooves together. “But we do like to do things together and with our friends. We have long talks about our studies as well, and about the sciences. We have fun together a lot…”

“Second, when you have arguments, what do you typically argue about?” Cadence asked. “Is it about things like what kind of groceries you need, money for certain luxuries or how the house is kept clean?”

“Umm… when we argue, we don’t argue about stuff like that,” Twilight said softly. “It’s always been about serious stuff like… like how she has so much opportunity to help others but she doesn’t take it and is content to just help herself and let other ponies’ problems solve themselves on their own. She has a big ‘us VS them’ mindset when it comes to ponies she doesn’t know and would rather help her own than strangers. That is what we tend to argue about, though most of the time we just debate the issue.”

“I would like to talk to you about that at some length in the future. It bears some discussion,” Cadence commented.“Now, third, are you both there for each other during times of trial?”

“Yes,” Twilight answered without the slightest hesitation, memories of herself comforting a sleeping Emerald while she had night terrors and how Emerald would always be ready to leap to her aid when she needed it during times of great need and danger.

“Hm…” Cadence said simply and stared at Twilight with a blank expression for the longest moment, so long that Twilight was beginning to feel a bit worried until she smiled. “The two of you are doing perfectly fine.”

“Really?” Twilight said with a happy smile.

“Yes, you two are working well together,” Candence said. “A relationship isn’t all about romantic dates and kisses that sweep you off your hooves. There is a lot of mundane things that could either make or break a relationship. You and Emerald are handling those mundane things very well. I advise you to just keep doing what you are doing. But remember this: a proper relationship is two ponies working together; never against each other.”

“I’ll remember, Cadence,” Twilight replied. “You can count on me.”

“Good!” Cadence smiled. “Now how long are you staying? Do we get to spend the rest of the day together?”

“I’m afraid not,” Twilight said as she looked at the clock. “I have to be at the train station in an hour. I probably should leave right now to make sure I don’t miss my train.”

“That’s too bad.” Cadence pouted a little before smiling again. “That’s alright. I’m fairly certain we’ll see each other very soon.”

“Oh?” Twilight said questioningly.

“You’ll be getting two very special letters soon,” Cadence replied. “Then you’ll get to see what I mean.”

“Now I’m curious and excited,” Twilight said and got off the couch. “I’ll wait until I get these letters then. I’ll see you later, Cadence!”

“You too, Twilight!” Cadence said as she opened the door for Twilight and let her out. “Have a nice trip back to Ponyville! I can’t wait to see Emerald for myself when we next meet!”

“I’ll remember to bring her along next time!”

With that, Cadence closed the door with a smile. Giving a delighted smile at enjoying a visit from a cherished friend, she grabbed the tea set and brought it to the kitchen to clean them. A few minutes later, she had to go to the door again when she heard knocking.

“Oh! Princess Celestia!” Candence said and quickly had to step aside when two delivery ponies pushed into the room with a large crate. “What’s going on?”

“Just some gifts for you, dear,” Celestia said with a smirk that had Cadence giving the princess a double take briefly.

“Gifts?” Cadence repeated and looked at the crate. “You didn’t have to get me anything, Celestia.”

“Nonsense, my dear,” Celestia said and then added in a urging tone. “Why don’t you take a look?”

“Alright…” Cadence said and walked over to the crate and used her magic to open the top before peering inside. What met her eyes was four insectoid black creatures with greenish blue eyes and fangs glaring up at her.

“Wha-” Cadence got out before the four changelings leapt out of the crate at her and she tumbled to the ground with them on her. She quickly looked up at Celestia with a cry of help on her lips when she saw the cruel smirk on the princess’s face and how her eyes flashed green.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: One more chapter left! Then the story is finished until I start the third book! Are you all excited for the big finale? It’s a doozy and changes a lot. Heh heh, it’s time to make this story worth that gore tag…

EN: The editor regrets to inform you that nothing of substantial importance could be dredged up by the time this was written. So all you are left with is this message saying that there is no message… a message saying there is no message. Wrap your heads around that. Oh, and Emerald’s gonna be kicking some changeling ass next chapter. Bring your torches, pitchforks and an apron for the stains if you have one, and join her in the fun.

Chapter 14: Red Wedding

“We took out pretty much all of the statues and decorations,” a Diamond Dog said as he waved to the walls around him. “We also dismantled the traps like you asked and fixed them up or expanded them to be actual passages.”

“And how was the fortification work?” Emerald asked as she looked about and examined her surroundings. “There is a difference between a palace and a fortress after all.”

Emerald was back at the palace in the Everfree forest, or rather the fortress. After several months of work, the palace was transformed from a crumbling overgrown ruin to a formidable fortress… that was still overgrown but now purposefully so.

“Here, let me show you,” the dog said and waved for Emerald to follow. Soon the two were walking up a stone staircase onto the newly constructed outer curtain of the palace. The crenulations stretched out over the open space in front of the walls a bit; this was done so small holes could be placed every few steps. Normally these holes would be rather big so one could throw large rocks down onto people below, but here they were designed so grenades could be dropped. Every few crenulations, though, the block was designed oddly and sat much lower. The purpose behind these lower blocks was so that large weapons could be emplaced upon the walls. The towers were already strengthened to hold large cannons that would fire explosive rounds; these emplacements would be where guns even larger than the ones the Warhounds were given would be placed. Of course neither the large cannons or the super heavy machine guns were ready for deployment just yet, hence why both areas were currently empty.

Those weren’t the only things helping to fortify and protect the fortress, however. As was mentioned, the fortress was purposefully overgrown. This was done by Sovereign. Along the base and creeping towards the top of the walls were many thick vines and roots, all with sharp barbs to dissuade assaulters from climbing them and were strong enough to provide a not inconsiderable amount of protections to the walls themselves. And hanging from the sides of walls and towers like gargoyles were timberwolves, just waiting for an enemy to attack the fortress so they could drop down and do their deadly work. This wasn’t the only things Sovereign had done either, as the vines and roots extended deep under the fortress, blocking not only attempts to dig under the walls but collapse tunnels as well, not to mention the many hundreds of timberwolves emplaced throughout the interior of the castle like the very statues that had been removed.

“You’ve all done some wonderful work here,” Emerald smiled as she leaned over the wall.

“Thanks boss!” The diamond Dog smiled toothily. “That forest spirit did a lot of good work too.”

“Yes he did, didn’t he?” Emerald asked as she stared down one of the murder holes to look at the tough vines creeping up the walls.

“Virus,” Emerald heard from above her and looked up. One of the Timber Wolves attached to the sides of the towers was looking down at her, normally closed eyes wide open and glowing green. “As you can see, I’ve fulfilled my promise… however, I find my means lacking.”

“Oh?” Emerald said and took a seat upon one of the crenulations. “What do you mean by that?”

“Your dogs have different weapons and are trained to handle many different roles,” Sovereign began. “And now you have begun to create creatures to fulfill yet more roles. I have only myself and the timberwolves I have created. I do not wish for stagnation.”

“Okay, how about you start with just the basics, first,” Emerald replied. “Perhaps something that can serve as both a heavy hitter and to absorb a massive amount of punishment, something to serve as ambush troops, something to sneak up on the enemy and suddenly assault them or set traps for them. Your timberwolves are good as basic frontline troops, but along with them perhaps you should think of something to use as ranged support?”

“Hmm…” Sovereign hummed in thought. “You are giving me many ideas. Perhaps… a large bear to serve as the “heavy hitter”… I know many spiders that seek out their prey along with those that await them with traps. As for range… that will require some thought, but I have ideas…”

“Glad to help, Sovereign.” Emerald smiled as the proxy the forest spirit used went back to sleep.

“So now where do we go next?” Emerald asked as she turned towards the dog who was waiting patiently.

The Dog was about to answer when a stream of glittering smoke rushed towards Emerald out of the sky and quickly the form of a scroll manifested in front of her. Reaching out, Emerald grabbed the scroll before it fell and quickly unwound it.

Emerald hummed in thought as she read the contents of the letter. Twilight, Emerald and the other girls were invited to Shining Armor’s wedding, both to attend and help plan it out so they were leaving soon to help with the preparations at Canterlot early. However the part of the letter that conveyed this information was only a small part. Twilight had filled the other three quarters of the letter with her own personal grievances over not being made aware of the events in Armor’s life.

‘Bit of a two way street here,’ Emerald thought as she read through the tirade Twilight had wrote. ‘Out of all the many, many letters to Canterlot I recall Twilight sending, I don’t think any of them were addressed to Shining Armor. He probably would have put more effort into keeping her in the loop if she did the same. Well… I don’t have the full story here, so I’m not going to judge either side.’

Emerald frowned in some discomfort as the thought of attending Shining Armor’s wedding unsettled her. This was Twilight’s family and she no doubt caused him quite a bit of emotional turmoil by outsmarting him at pretty much every turn when she was acting as the Gray Fox. Needless to say attending the celebration of what is supposed to be his best and happiest day seemed wrong in her mind. But Twilight would be so disappointed if she chose not to come…

‘Well, I guess I should just suck it up and attend,’ Emerald thought with a nod and turned towards the distant sight of Canterlot, under protective magical shield that glittered in the sun. ‘I wonder if the upcoming wedding is the reason for the shield over Canterlot? Well, I can’t blame Armor for going to such lengths considering all the losses he suffered at my own hands.’

“I’ll be looking over the rest of the fortress later,” Emerald said to the still patiently waiting Diamond Dog. “I’ve got some other business to attend to just now.”

“Of course, boss.” The dog nodded and a moment later Emerald disappeared with a flash of crimson, teleporting directly home to the library.

ALPHA

Sometime later found Emerald on a train to Canterlot. Twilight, Spike and their friends were on the train with them and all of them were rather excited about the wedding.

“A sonic rainboom? At a wedding?!” Rainbow Dash shouted excitedly. “Can you say ‘best wedding ever’?!”

“Best wedding ever!” Pinkie shouted cheerfully.

“So you all get to help with the big fancy wedding, but I'm the one who gets to host the bachelor party!” Spike said, but had a confused expression on his face. “I have just one question. What's a bachelor party?”

The girls laughed at that and Emerald couldn’t help but start laughing either, as she imagined Spike going around looking for a stripper to hire for Armor. Though that wouldn’t be the case considering how Equestria was like, it was still a funny thought.

“Why the long face, sugarcube?” Emerald heard Applejack say, and saw that she was over by Twilight, who was looking a little miserable where she had purposefully sat away from everyone.

“I'm just thinking about Shining Armor,” Twilight replied with frustration in her voice. “Ever since I moved to Ponyville, we've been seeing each other less and less. And now that he's starting a new family with this ‘Princess Mi Amore Ca-whatshername’, we'll probably never see each other.”

“I’ve met Mi Amore Cadenza a few times in the palace, Twilight,” Emerald said as she got up from her seat and walked over. “Honestly, I think you would like her. I mean, I don’t exactly know her since we only met a few times, but she is a very kind and open minded sort and doesn’t at all mind interacting with people from all walks of life. She also prefers to be called by her informal name though. Cadence I think it was.”

“WAIT!” Twilight said with wide eyes and shot over to Emerald, stopping with her face mere inches from Emerald’s. “Her name is Cadence?! Does she have a light pink coat, purple, pink and yellow mane and a crystal heart cutie mark?!”

“Yes, that sounds exactly like her…” Emerald said after blinking in surprise from Twilight’s sudden change in mood. “I guess you actually know her?”

“She’s my foalsitter!” Twilight shouted excitedly and started hopping all over the car like a hyperactive little filly. “My big brother is going to marry my favorite foalsitter! We’re going to be sisters!”

Everyone turned and smiled at Twilight who was now looking so happy and enthusiastic about the wedding. Suddenly, a magical barrier appeared and passed through the car; they were arriving at Canterlot. Two things happened when the barrier passed through the car. When it passed through Twilight she was looking away from the barrier at the time and didn’t see it coming, causing her to get startled and fall flat on her face when she hopped. When the barrier passed over Emerald, there was a brief lightshow of sparks and the train seemed to slow slightly for that instant, then the barrier was passed and the train continued on its way with Emerald looking briefly dazed before shaking it off.

“You okay there, Twilight?” Emerald asked the other unicorn on the ground.

“You should be asking yourself that, dear!” Rarity stated worried and trotted over to give Emerald a careful look over before looking her straight in the eye. “That was quite the sight, Emerald. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Emerald replied honestly. “I think the barrier just didn’t know what to do with me for a moment there.”

“If ya say so...” Applejack muttered as she looked out the window and saw the fast approaching train station. “Ah jus hope that little light show didn’t raise an alarm or anything.”

Emerald walked over to the window beside Applejack and blinked at the sight that greeted her as the train screeched to a stop. There was Royal Guard ponies everywhere; all over the train platform, on the walls, on the balconies of buildings and on the roofs as well. Emerald certainly could give Shining Armor props for going all out for this; in all likelihood, Emerald would have gone the same lengths in Armor’s place.

The group of eight disembarked the train, but Twilight was extremely excited about what she had just learned and so she had immediately ran ahead of everyone. The guards at the checkpoint barely had any time to say hello before Twilight ran past their checkpoint.

“Ehhh… I’m kind of a fifth wheel here,” Emerald stated as she looked at the others. “Hope you guys don’t mind, but I think Twilight is expecting to introduce me to her family. Well… part of it, anyway.”

“Oh darling, getting to know the future relatives is mandatory!” Rarity said with a cheeky grin and the others easily matched it. Even Dash gave a tiny smile. “Go on, dear. I wager your job is just as important as ours in certain views.”

“Thanks. I’ll be sure to help out with your girls’ tasks whenever I have some free time to myself,” Emerald said and quickly got to catching up to Twilight.

“Have a good time, Emmy!” Pinkie shouted after the virus.

“Miss Gleaner,” the guards greeted as she passed their checkpoint.

A few minutes of tracking later found Emerald following Twilight’s trail to the palace. The checkpoint at the palace gates were a bit more complicated here, in that Emerald needed to promise to be good before passing the checkpoint. When she had passed the gates, she saw Twilight standing in front of Shining Armor, scolding him but ruining the effect with the smile on her face.

“…Still, how could you not tell me about something as big as your wedding?” Emerald heard as she closed in. “And to Cadence of all ponies! I would have been so happy and excited for the both of you if you had kept me in the loop!”

“Aww, who ruined the surprise?” Armor asked, though there was a hint of relief in his expression.

“That would be me,” Emerald answered as she took up a spot beside Twilight. “I kind of ruined it when I mentioned ‘Mi Amore Cadenza’s’ casual name to her.”

“And you must be the mare the capital was buzzing about,” Armor greeted with a smile, though Emerald noted there was tiredness to it. “I am Shining Armor, little Twiley’s big brother.”

“I’m Emerald Gleaner, Twilight’s fillyfriend,” Emerald replied politely as she took in Armor’s visage and body language. The first thing that leapt out at Emerald was the tension in his body, then was how stressed out and tired he looked. Really, now that she got a good look at Armor, Emerald was surprised that he wasn’t asleep on his hooves. She supposed that could be chalked up to sheer dedication and strength of will.

“I’m so glad to finally meet the mare that stole Twiley’s heart.” Armor smiled at her before turning towards Twilight with a teasing smile. “I guess Cadence and I will be attending another wedding sometime in the near future, huh?”

“Oh my g-gosh…” Twilight said wide-eyed with a crimson blush. “I-it’s a bit soon to be talking abou-”

“Oh I’ll be sure to pop the question sometime soon.” Emerald smiled and got a shocked look from Twilight. “It’s definitely going to be hard deciding who the best stallion is going to be. Normally it would be the father’s job, but you are so close to Twilight, soo…”

“I’m sure dad and I will figure something out,” Armor replied with a grin as Twilight’s face turned utterly crimson.

“Course technically I am a bride as well,” Emerald said with a thoughtful hum. “I suppose I can always ask Rarity if she will be the one walking me down the aisle as well.”

“Okay, let’s stop before Twiley faints from all the blood rushing to her head.” Armor laughed and Emerald had to join in when she caught a look of just how crimson Twilight was right now. Now looking rejuvenated, like the talk had done a lot to help him, Armor continued. “How about I show you two somepony special?”

“Are we going to see Cadence?” Twilight asked excitedly.

“No point in trying to keep the secret now,” Armor merely replied with a smile as he started walking away.

“Come on, Emerald.” Twilight smiled at the virus. “When I met Cadence last week, she told me she really wanted to meet you.”

“You met Cadence recently?” Armor looked back at his little sister with a raised brow. “Huh, she didn’t tell me for some reason.”

“From what you told me, it sounds like you were really busy,” Twilight stated. “Maybe she just never had the time to tell you?”

“So… there are a lot of guards about,” Emerald commented. “Are you upping the security for your wedding?”

“I would have done so anyway, but most of the reason has to do with a threat being made to Canterlot,” Armor answered as he led the two through the palace.

“A threat to Canterlot, huh?” Emerald said. “I suppose since the uhh… last threat you’d want to make absolutely certain nothing happens.”

“Yes… yes I do,” Armor answered solemnly as Twilight shot her a look. “Ever since the Gray Fox rampaged all across Equestria, I’ve been putting the Royal Guard through their paces. Obviously if the combat skills that a thief can impart on his fellow criminals is enough to outdo us, we needed improvement.”

“I’m sure under your leadership the Royal Guard has improved immensely, Captain Armor,” Emerald said assuredly, inwardly feeling guilt for her past actions.

“…Didn’t help against the Fox,” Armor said softly. “Hopefully I’ll manage to protect the capital of Equestria, the Headquarters of the Royal Guard from harm, unlike most of the other cities.”

That right there killed any future conversation and the rest of the walk passed in silence. The entire time Emerald felt her guilt broil in her heart. She couldn’t help but think about how the suffering of one person only really affected her because he was family to Twilight, whilst thousands of strangers had been harmed by her and yet she felt nothing for them.

Eventually the three came out onto a bridge leading to another spire of the palace and just as they were crossing, Cadence made her appearance. Twilight made an excited squeal and immediately bounded for the taller mare.

“Cadence, I can’t believe you and Shining Armor are getting married!” Twilight said happily before she started hopping in for a moment before dancing. “Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake! Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”

Emerald couldn’t help the little laugh she let out at seeing Twilight do a silly little dance, but her laughter quickly died out at seeing the expression on Cadence’s face. Cadence was staring with confused look on her face and arched eyebrow. Eventually Twilight noticed Cadence not looking at all happy of the dance she was doing and stopped with a confused look on her face.

“What are you doing?” Cadence asked like she was expecting a stupid answer.

“Cadence?” Twilight said with a troubled look. “Is there something the matter?”

“Whatever,” Cadence scoffed in impatient annoyance and brushed past Twilight.

For a brief moment, Twilight looked incredibly hurt and angry. She was about to act when she quickly took a brief moment and calmed herself. Whatever was going on was obviously something personal bothering Cadence. Why else would she be acting this way? Emerald had a long list of problems under her belt she solved simply by talking things out with people. Twilight decided it was time to show she could do the same.

“Cadence,” Twilight said and quickly caught up to the other mare before she got more than a few steps away and halted her by standing in front of her. “Cadance, stop.”

“Get out of my way,” Cadence said angrily and was about to brush past Twilight again.

“No, Cadence,” Twilight said firmly and the other mare got a furiously incredulous look on her face. “Cadance, despite all the years we dropped out of contact, I feel we are still so close; so close we are practically already sisters! If there is anything bothering you at all, you know you can talk to me, right? You can trust me, especially after that heart to heart we had last week.”

Emerald looked on to the scene before her with a frown. She didn’t exactly know Cadance very well since she had only met the mare a few times in the palace, but she felt she had a good enough gauge of the mare’s personality to know that she was acting off right now. The virus narrowed her eyes when she saw Cadence’s eyes widen in alarm when she heard Twilight mention seeing her last week. She was quick to cover up that expression, but it was too late. Emerald’s suspicious nature was riled up now and she was giving the mare all her attention.

The evolved focused all of her senses on Cadence, and at first she noticed nothing physically odd about the mare. She didn’t carry the faint smell of dyes, her eyes appeared to be naturally purple, nothing at all physically said that this was someone in disguise as Cadance. However, the more she looked, the more Emerald felt … off. Something about Cadence was setting Emerald on edge now that she was looking closely. Something about her caused her to feel like that her personal space was being grossly violated and the virus found herself having to force down a growl to her own surprise.

“O-oh, uh!” Cadence began a bit uncertainly. “I’m uh, I’m sorry Twilight. I’m just a bit… stressed is all. It’s not easy planning a wedding, and this is a very big wedding. Excuse my behavior, I’m just having some trouble coping with it all.”

“It’s alright, Cadance.” Twilight smiled. “I understand completely! That’s why my friends and I are here, after all. We are going to help you get everything all set up and take most of the load off your shoulders!”

“Oh, that’s… fantastic to know, Twilight,” Cadence said with a slightly forced smile.

“I've gotta get back to my station, but, Cadance?” Armor said with a worried frown and stepped in close to his fiancé. “We are in this together; you should have told me you were stressed out.”

“Ah…” Cadence sighed as Armor gave her a comforting hug and got a look like she had been re-energized. “I’m sorry, dear, I just didn’t want to worry you. We both have a lot of responsibilities to handle right now, after all.”

“Well if you need me, you know where to find me,” Armor said with an affectionate smile before taking his leave.

Once Shining Armor was gone, there was a long quiet moment as everyone stood in place, trying to think of something to say or do while the awkward silence deepened. Eventually, it was Twilight who ended the silence.

“Cadence, this is Emerald Gleaner, my fillyfriend,” Twilight said as she walked over to stand beside Emerald. “You said you wanted to meet her when we talked, remember?”

“Ah… y-yes, thanks for reminding me,” Cadance said and stepped closer to Emerald before reaching out to her with a hoof. “Greetings, I am Mi Amore-”

This time Emerald couldn’t stop the snarl that leapt out of her throat and the way she felt her hackles rise at Cadence reaching out to her. Something about the now startled mare before her just utterly rubbed her the wrong way and Emerald couldn’t help but react at Cadence reaching to her with a hoof.

“Emerald!” Twilight shouted in shock before quickly grabbing said virus and pulling her away quickly. “I’m so sorry Cadence, just give us a minute alone.”

The two quickly left the bridge Cadence was on and entered past a door before Twilight stopped and rounded on Emerald with an angry look on her face.

“Emerald, what in Equestria has gotten into you?!” Twilight asked angrily. “I try to introduce you to my most favorite foal sitter in the world and you snarl at her like a… like a vicious animal!”

“I… I honestly don’t know…” Emerald said to Twilight’s confusion. “Twilight, I’ve met Cadence before, and I’ve never had this reaction to her at all. When she tried to ignore you and you said those things to her, I had got this suspicion that she wasn’t actually Cadence and tried to spot the signs. Though she appears to actually be her, but… well all I’ve got this is really bad feeling about her now… I don’t know, maybe it’s just me being paranoid and suspicious. Maybe I should just go for a quick walk to calm down?”

“… Maybe,” Twilight said with a thoughtful hum as she shot a look over her shoulder at the door. “Hmm… okay, you can go take a walk like you said and I’ll stay with Cadence. When you come back and if the feeling about her hasn’t left, then… well, I trust you Emerald and I kind of feel like there might be something off with her as well. We’ll investigate this together.”

“Thanks, Twilight,” Emerald said and nuzzled Twilight briefly before walking away. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

“See you soon, Emerald,” Twilight said back before returning to Cadence.

As Emerald wandered the halls of the palace, she began to think of a specific location she could go to. After some thinking, she decided to see if Luna was up and about. Granted it may be a long shot considering the alicorn’s sleeping schedule tended to vary widely, doubly so thanks to the lessons she gave to Emerald which tended to be during the day.

As she made her way towards Luna’s room, Emerald passed by a group of gossiping maids as they cleaned some windows.

“You hear about the Deinos?” one maid whispered to another, more focused on talking than cleaning as she buffed one spot over and over.

“Heard about the other Thracians. What about the Deinos?” the other maid replied.

“They’ve holed themselves up in a different part of the palace,” the first maid whispered back. “For some reason, something about the wedding is really agitating all of them.”

“Maybe it’s something about all the strange ponies running around?” one maid said with a shrug. “They don’t exactly have calm temperaments. I saw one whack her hoof and broke a table and she started cursing like no tomorrow.”

Emerald shook her head as the two maids giggled and rounded the corner. She continued on her way through a few halls and up a few stairways before arriving at Luna’s bedroom. Emerald knocked softly and waited a moment before opening the princess’s bedroom door a bit. The sight that greeted her was the curtains pulled over all the windows and balcony door and Luna sleeping soundly in her bed with her sleeping mask on.

‘Well, Luna is sleeping,’ Emerald thought as she softly closed the door. ‘Now what to do? Hmm… guess I’ll just go wander around for a bit.’

And so Emerald did. However, the point of her wandering was to calm down, but the agitated feeling just stayed with her, broiling beneath the surface and sometimes growing stronger every now and then, oddly coinciding with passing some maids or wedding guests. Emerald knew her viral instincts just didn’t get randomly riled up for no reason, and was beginning to think there was something to her suspicions when a maid brushed past her.

The maid had appeared suddenly from around the corner and while Emerald saw her quick enough to not bump directly into her it wasn’t fast enough to avoid touching. As soon as the maid touched her, the feeling of agitation suddenly exploded and the virus felt dirty and her personal space utterly violated.

Instantly, Emerald rounded on the maid with a loud snarl, feeling her teeth elongate into sharp canines while the pupils of her eyes became slitted. A normal pony would have screamed and maybe even fainted from the suddenness of Emerald’s animalistic snarl. The maid didn’t react like a pony would have, however.

The maid faced Emerald with a death glare, her own eyes flashing green as she gave a snake like hiss at Emerald, revealing a set of fangs as she did so. A moment later, the maid turned tail and ran away, leaving Emerald to stand and stare.

‘… Okay, I am definitely not imagining things!’ Emerald thought furiously and considered chasing after the maid before dismissing the thought. ‘No, I need to get to Twilight. I’ve been getting these feelings from Cadence as well, and Twilight is with her. I swear if that thing does anything to her, I’ll eat her FACE!’

Emerald sent out a viral pulse and as soon as it came back she bolted in its direction. After a single minute of running, Emerald found herself just outside the room her pulses would come from. She peered through the open doors to find Twilight fine, to her stark relief. Twilight was sitting with “Cadence” and trying to make small talk with her. “Cadence,” however, didn’t appear to be faring well in the small talk department and was appearing to stress out with it, which was another big red flag considering the impression Emerald had gotten of her; Cadence was the sort to socialise easily.

Deciding to test something, Emerald sent out a pulse with the target being Cadance. She had expected the pulse to just pass over the Cadence before her, because she was thinking of her as an imposter, but the pulse did come back from her. That had Emerald reassessing her thoughts and ideas when a second return pulse came back from somewhere below her. That made Emerald go stock still and she sent half a dozen viral pulses. Each time the pulses came back twice, one from “Cadence” in the room in front of her and another from somewhere below her.

In Emerald’s mind, that said all she needed to know of her suspicions and she quickly formulated a plan of action be acting on it.

“Twilight!” Emerald called out from the doorway, catching both mares’ attention. “Can I talk to you for a minute? I had forgotten to pack some hygienic necessities.”

Cadence got a uncomfortable look on her face before looking away from Emerald. Twilight, however, looked briefly confused. Emerald didn’t need anything like that. Excusing herself from a secretly very relieved Cadence, Twilight walked over to see Emerald.

Stepping a bit further into the hallway and making sure no one was around to eavesdrop, Emerald began talking.

“Twilight, I think there is something going on here,” Emerald whispered. “I keep getting these instinctive moments of aggression towards some people I pass and I think Cadance is an imposter.”

“How do you think that?” Twilight asked seriously as she gave her own look around for eavesdroppers.

“As long as I do a sort of mental lock on, on someone I can track them with my viral sonar within a certain distance,” Emerald explained. “But when I did that with Cadence, something happened that’s never happened before. I got a pulse back from her, but I also got another pulse from somewhere below me.”

“Below?” Twilight repeated as she looked down.

“My dogs know the underground areas of Canterlot,” Emerald explained. “They found tons of natural caverns filled with crystals beneath it. Whoever this Cadence is, I believe she is using some sort of magic to pose as her and is keeping the real Cadence hidden away down there.”

Twilight was quiet for a moment as her expression became a mask of severity.

“Emerald, go save her,” Twilight said to the virus.

“I intend to, Twilight.” Emerald nodded.

“Okay, while you are doing that I’ll stay here and keep an eye on this imposter,” Twilight said and stepped in close to Emerald. After a moment’s hesitation, she quickly closed the gap and gave Emerald a full kiss on the lips for a long moment before backing away. “Please stay safe.”

“Me? You’re the one with a soft, fleshy body.” Emerald smiled warmly, feeling like there was a small brightly shining star where her heart was supposed to be. “I’ll be fine. You be careful about watching her. No telling what she might decide to do.”

“I’ll take the same care I do on my usual adventures,” Twilight replied before Emerald teleported away, directly into the caverns and tunnels beneath the city. The unicorn then took a deep breath before quickly returning to the room Cadence was still waiting in, intent to keep the imposter within view as much as possible.

BETA

Emerald was currently a long tendril drilling through the rock and crystal that made up the caverns beneath Canterlot.

Thanks to the Diamond Dog digging skills she had learned a while ago, the speed at which she was moving through the dirt was astounding. She was practically rocketing through the solid stone and would likely reach the second target of the viral pulse any minute.

One other thing Emerald was noticing as she was traveling, however, was that there was a magical field that was steadily growing stronger as she went deeper into the caverns. The virus figured this field had something to do with the concentration of crystals and felt a lot like the magical fields the teleportation interdictors projected.

Eventually she neared the origin point of the return pulse and Emerald dropped into a crystal filled tunnel before reforming in her pony form. Straining her senses slightly, Emerald was able to catch the sound of soft breathing and calm heartbeats. Emerald rounded the corner and the sight that met her eyes was that of a Cadence sleeping on the cavern floor, her mane and coat very ragged looking from spending quite a bit of time without bathing and personal care.

Utterly silent, the virus made her approach on Cadance’s sleeping form. After she came to a stop next to her, Emerald quickly shook Cadence awake while magically muting her. Cadance shot up immediately from the shaking and looked around briefly before locking her eyes on Emerald; strangely, the look in her eyes was both suspicious and hopeful.

“Emerald, is that really you?” Cadance asked as soon as Emerald lowered the muting spell.

“Yes it is, Cadence,” Emerald answered softly, curious of the reply and wondering if Cadance knew what sort of person had imprisoned and impersonated her. “Come here. We can talk later. Right now, let’s just get you out of here.”

“I’ve tried to find my way out, but this place is a labyrinth,” Cadence told Emerald. “And the crystals kept me from just teleporting out as well.”

“I figured that would be the case…” Emerald muttered and hummed in thought as she channeled her magic and began testing the anti-teleportation fields that surrounded her. Unlike a field projected by an interdictor, this one wasn’t as refined and was very crude. Emerald could very well just break through the field with sheer brute magical force, though it may put them a bit off course.

“Right, I’m pretty sure I can brute force our way out,” Emerald stated and wrapped a leg around Cadence. “Alright, hold on. We’ll be sent off course a little bit.”

Cadance gave Emerald a questioning look, seemingly wondering if she could actually manage to call up the massive amount of magic required. After a moment, she made herself as close as physically possible to Emerald and prepared herself for a rough arrival.

Emerald’s horn started glowing brightly, the concentrated brightness of her magical aura intensified and eventually looked like a blow torch. Then with a loud crack that echoed throughout the caverns beneath the city, Emerald and Cadence disappeared.

An instant later, the both of them appeared in the sky over Ponyville. Emerald had intended to be in the sky, as it was safer considering their point of arrival would be deviated. Emerald and Cadence barely started to fall when Emerald teleported the both of them to the library back below them. The both of them arrived safely on the floor of the library, but the sudden teleports had been a bit much for Cadance.

“Oof…” Cadance grunted as she landed on her side, but after a quick glance of her surroundings she soon gained a wide, thankful smile. “Oh thank goodness. Out of that cave.”

“I kind of want to get right into finding out everything you know,” Emerald began as she took in Cadance’s unwashed ragged form. “But I think we can spare time for a quick shower for you to get yourself comfortable.”

“Oh thank you, Emerald!” Cadence said gratefully and gave the virus a brief hug. “I promise not to take too long. What I have to tell you is very important.”

“Right, I’ll show you to the shower,” Emerald said and began leading Cadence to the master bedroom’s shower.

GAMMA

“Do you remember when you were trying to figure out how to get Armor to like you?” Twilight asked. “We spent SOO much time making plans and putting together graphs to figure out how to get you and Armor together. Remember that night when you two finally got together? I heard the look on that other stallion’s face was funny.”

“Oh it… certainly was!” Cadance said with a nervous smile. “It’s… just too bad only Armor and I saw it!”

“…” Twilight tilted her head at Cadence strangely and immediately the other mare felt she had made a mistake. “Well… it was a long while ago; I suppose you can’t be expected to remember everything perfectly.”

“Eh heh…” Cadence said with a forced smile, inwardly wishing something would happen to interrupt things before she messed up more.

“Excuse me?” a voice said.

Cadance and Twilight turned to see a butler standing at the doorway with a somewhat worried look on his face.

“Princess Cadenza, there are some issues regarding the wedding I need to inform you about,” the butler said.

“Oh! Of course!” Cadence said and almost leapt out of her seat at the first opportunity to leave the conversation with Twilight. “I’ll be right back, Twilight. You… you just stay right there.”

Cadence then quickly left for the butler’s side and the two walked out of Twilight’s sight. Cadance gave a relieved sigh as she left the room and followed the butler into a room across from the one she left.

“I take it your highness is finding interaction difficult?” the butler asked respectfully.

“It… this is much harder than I thought it would be, yes.” Cadence sighed in irritation. “I suppose it was too much to believe I could effectively do this sort of work with just some on the spot training.”

“Your highness is very talented… but talent can only go so far,” the butler said. “Your ladyship should also be aware that the wedding guest staying at our expense has decided to leave suddenly. She was gone by the time we noticed and didn’t have a chance to dissuade her. One of the maids may have also had a faux pas with one of the other guests and damaged relations rather badly.

“…” Cadence was quiet for a long moment at hearing that before sighing and getting a steely look in her eyes. “These are very troubling events, but the wedding plans must go on. However, in light of them we must advance the wedding plans.”

“Of course, your highness.”

“Have a maid give Princess Luna the gift we intended for her at a later time,” Cadence stated with a hardened gaze. “I doubt she’ll be awake at this hour, so it’ll be simple enough to have a maid light the special incense for her. Then simply spread the word amongst the others that the wedding plans have been advanced several days.”

“Right away, your highness,” the butler said and quickly left.

Just outside the room in the hall was Twilight, who was frowning in thought as she eavesdropped on the conversation in the room. Nothing terribly suspicious had been said in her opinion, though that point where Cadance had said she was having trouble interacting with people seemed a bit off. Cadence was such a sociable person and rarely had trouble talking to people.

Hearing the sound of approaching hoof steps, Twilight quickly retreated away back into the other room as quietly as possible. She had just managed to sit back down on her seat when Cadence rounded the corner and entered the room.

“So what was the matter?” Twilight asked Cadence as she approached. “It’s not something that would keep the wedding from happening, or delay it, is it?”

Cadence didn’t say a word and kept approaching Twilight until she stood just before the unicorn and stared down at her. Twilight was really beginning to feel disturbed by this and was wondering why Cadence was staring at her like this when said mare’s eyes flashed green and she dived at her.

DELTA

“Most of the time I was just sitting there alone in the caverns,” Cadence said to Emerald, her mane still slightly moist. “But I managed to catch a few things. The ones who captured me are changelings, and it was their queen who took on my form. They intend to invade Canterlot. Why they needed to infiltrate my wedding to do so, I don’t know why.”

“Maybe they are taking advantage of the sudden surge of ponies coming into the city to see the wedding?” Emerald thought aloud, but she was also confused.

Emerald knew of changelings from Nidhogg’s memories. The dragon didn’t really know much of the magical shapeshifters, but he knew enough that Emerald could tell that an all-out invasion did not fit the changeling MO. Changelings used infiltrators to collect a large amount of love, which they sent back to the hive for the other changelings. Using violence was VERY counterproductive to collecting love; it wasn’t like people were going to get affectionate with each other during an invasion of all things. So what was going on?

Emerald’s thoughts were interrupted when people outside the house started shouting in panic. The virus and Cadence quickly ran outside to see what was going on. They were briefly confused as they found nothing, but saw that everyone was pointing towards Canterlot.

What met their gaze was the sight of a shielded Canterlot being swarmed by a horde of black dots. Emerald’s eyes were better than everyone there, and she was able to make out the little black specs in the distance as changelings.

A moment later and the barrier protecting Canterlot collapsed and the massive swarm of changelings descended upon the city.

‘Twilight!’ Emerald thought in alarm and was just about to charge right into the thick of it with a teleport when she stopped herself. ‘No, no! I can’t! I’m just one person; no matter how powerful I am, I can’t be everywhere at once! Who knows what the changelings will get up to while I’m busy running all over the place fighting everyone?! I… I need an army… I have an army… should I take that irrevocable step? Of course I will. For Twilight’s sake, I’ll gladly expose myself.’

“Emerald, wait!” Cadance shouted when she saw Emerald start walking forward. “I know you are worried about everypony but you are just one unicorn. You may have strong magic but they have a whole army! There is precious little one pony can do in this situation. You need to stop and thi-”

“You don’t know me,” Emerald interrupted with deadly seriousness before suddenly teleporting away with a pink flash.

An instant later, Emerald arrived in the main entry area to the Hub. Quickly getting her bearings, Emerald rounded on some Warhounds standing guard at the main entrance tunnel.

“YOU LOT THERE!” Emerald shouted, causing the Warhounds to start at the tone of her voice. “SPREAD THE WORD! I WANT ALL THE WARHOUNDS GATHERED HERE AND PREPARED TO HEAD INTO COMBAT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE! GET THE RAPTORS AS WELL!”

“Yes boss!” the Warhounds said with wide eyes at realising that they were going to go into combat before taking off at a sprint.

Emerald proceeded to start pacing and waiting impatiently for Warhounds to get ready for combat and come to her. After several minutes, she started to hear excited talking and shouting coming from the city as more dogs got news of an upcoming fight. After a few long moments, Emerald saw a crowd of Alphas running towards her with Belvedere and Fenrir at its head.

“Emerald, what is going on?” Belvedere said as he got close. “Are we about to be attacked?”

“The changelings are invading,” Emerald answered. “They are attacking Canterlot right now and I need everyone prepped for an actual battle.”

At first the Dogs were ready to leap at Emerald’s word and go out to start organizing their forces. Then they heard Emerald clarify where the invasion was happening and their enthusiasm declined rapidly. Two thirds of the alphas immediately looked unhappy about Emerald wanting to deploy them to help out the ponies. However, about half of the discontent Alphas shrugged this off and were about to join the Alphas that were already moving when Belvedere spoke up.

“No,” Belvedere stated and stopped an Alpha that had started moving.

“…” Emerald stopped her pacing after a moment and then looked at Belvedere with a frown, actually wondering if she misheard. “Can you repeat that?”

“I said no,” Belvedere stated, crossing his arms and staring down Emerald. “I don’t think our own should be risked just for some ponies. Especially a group that has hurt us seriously twice before, once when they allowed Nidhogg to escape and destroy our nation and again when they betrayed us and locked you away for two months.”

Emerald just stared at Belvedere with an unreadable look in her eye. Outwardly she appeared calm, but inwardly she was furious. There wasn’t time to be wasting on this. The virus forced herself to calm down before she couldn’t hide it. What she needed to do was convince Belvedere that ultimately this was the best course of action for the Enclave to take, especially when it came to how people viewed their nation. The first impression of coming to the aid of a neighbour rather then one day being outed as a highly militarized isolationist power being obviously preferable, it was not lost on Emerald she was at fault for that very fact.

“Look…” Emerald began. “I know the ponies haven’t exactly done much to ingratiate themselves to us but that doesn’t change the fact that one day we will be exposed to the wider world outside this forest. Don’t you think it would be so much better for all of us if they saw us at our best? Coming to the aid of a neighbour rather than them one day seeing us as a bunch of people hiding in the woods with immensely powerful weapons? Just what kind of message would the latter present to everyone? That we would rather prefer the company of the most dangerous forest in the world and aim our guns at everyone beyond it? I know it was my idea to set up a home here, my idea to make all these weapons but we can give them a better idea of what sort of people we can be through our actions than where we live.”

“…” Belvedere stared at his feet for a long moment, deep in thought as he considered Emerald’s words, then he looked back up with a determined expression. “I said no.”

“…I tried.” Emerald sighed with a shake of her head as she shifted into her human form. “I tried to talk things out and be reasonable. Oh well...”

Then the virus suddenly teleported and she was right in front of Belvedere. The greyhound didn’t have time to react to the teleport, let alone Emerald’s hand grabbing him by his throat. He was hoisted above Emerald’s head for a brief moment before she slammed him into the rock floor. Emerald then brought her foot up over his chest and brought it down.

There was a loud thud from Emerald’s foot impacting Belvedere’s chest that caused all the dogs surrounding the two to wince and flinch away. Belvedere himself couldn’t help but let out a pained whine as Emerald’s foot pressed down on his chest. He could tell the only reason his ribs weren’t in shattered pieces was because of the augments he had received, but even then his ribs felt like they were being pushed to the very edge of breaking.

“You all listen to me and you listen good!” Emerald growled out at everyone. “Who was it that crippled an entire pack of Diamond Dogs? It was me! Who was it that killed and ate Nidhogg?! It was me! Who was it that freed you all from slavery and offered to let any who wanted to leave, go? It was ME! Who brought you all up from living in SCRAP HOVELS AND EATING PET FOOD! IT WAS ME! WHO MADE YOU INTO THE STRONGEST AND MOST DEADLIeST FIGHTING FORCE THAT THIS WORLD HAS EVER SEEN?! IT. WAS. ME!!!”

“I’ve treated you all very nicely,” Emerald stated after breathing heavily for a moment, glaring at all the dogs around her. “I’ve given you all free food, water and homes. I ask nicely for willing cooperation rather than demand them. I’ve allowed you all to question my actions when you felt the need. I’ve kept to my own business when it came to what you all did in your free time, as long as it didn’t get in the way of what I wanted. I allowed it all. But… despite all of that, there is one thing you all should have kept in mind but have forgotten… THIS is a Dictatorship! What I say GOES! AND I SAY WE GO TO WAR! Now… is there anyone here who wishes to voice their critique of my decisions?”

For a long moment there was silence. Then Fenrir stepped forward and bowed at his waist before Emerald.

“I hear your commands, Princeps, and it will be my honour to carry them out,” Fenrir stated respectfully. “At your word I shall lead our soldiers into battle.”

After that, every other Alpha surrounding Emerald copied Fenrir’s actions and bowed to Emerald and softly repeated his words.

“You heard what I wanted,” Emerald stated bluntly. “Now get to work.”

“Of course, my lady. Right away,” Fenrir replied solemnly before he and the other Alphas quickly ran off to fulfil Emerald’s commands.

After everyone had gone a decent distance away from her, Emerald looked down towards Belvedere who was still under her foot, squirming somewhat from the pain the pressure was causing him. Emerald took her foot off of the Alpha and roughly pulled him to his feet before giving him a sharp shove away from her. Before he could say anything, Emerald spoke up.

“We will talk later,” Emerald stated as she stared him down. “Go do your damn job.”

“I… I will… Princeps…” Belvedere stated with a bow of his head and an unreadable expression on his face before quickly moving away with a limp.

Emerald stared after him for a minute before turning away and facing the main tunnel entrance of the Enclave. Did she do the right thing? Should she have tried again to convince Belvedere when her first attempt to talk things out didn’t succeed? She didn’t know and frankly it no longer mattered, what was done was done. As always, she would have to deal with the consequences sooner or later. Right now though, the only thing Emerald’s mind was concerned with was the invasion in Canterlot and the hope that everyone was holding out.

EPSILON

Ponies were running in panic everywhere as the changelings utterly swarmed every street of Canterlot. The Royal Guard, still sore and humiliated from their fights with the Gray Fox, had redoubled on their training and combat readiness. It was thanks to this that there was still pockets of Royal Guard resistance in the city. That and the fact that Canterlot’s more volatile residents had leapt in the fray to help the Royal Guard in the fighting.

“Raaagh!” Roared a Xanthos as he snarled, bit and kicked at any changeling that got too close, ignoring the fact that green ichor dripped down his chin from the horrid bites his razor sharp teeth inflicted on the changelings.

All around him the battle to defend Canterlot’s city centre raged. Royal Guard and Thracians ran from one street to another to either reinforce battle lines or retake ones that had broken. On the streets, Royal Guard coordinated Xanthos and Lampon Thracians ponies to the fullest effect of their power. Xanthos were always on the front where their brute strength and durability would be their most effective. Lampon held back behind the lines to support the front lines with their magic in the best way they could while also providing support to the battle in the air.

Just like the fighting on the ground, the battle in the air was chaotic; possibly even more so than the ground fighting. Royal Guard pegasi did everything in their power to try to form the Podargos Thracians into something resembling a coherent formation that wouldn’t fall apart with just a few prods. Their work was cut out for them, as the Podargos were mostly civilians and even those who had been Royal Guard were having great difficulties keeping their aggressiveness in check. Still, the changelings’ advantage of numbers seemed to melt into uselessness in the face of Thracian power and natural viciousness.

Suddenly a cold chill seemed to settle over the entire battlefield and the changelings seemed to completely stop their assault on one side and retreat. Knowing that something dangerous was coming, the local Guard commander directed most of the reserved and resting squads to the areas suddenly relieved of changeling assault; this was precisely the wrong thing to do.

A pair of changelings walked down one of the streets emptied of changeling attackers. At their approach, a frost seemed to cover everything and just looking in their direction caused a sense of horrible despair. Unlike the other changelings, these ones were black and orange. Their eyes were a solid, inky black, they lacked the “holes” normal changelings had in their bodies and didn’t have gossamer wings. Instead, these two changelings had busy orange manes, bat like wings with faintly orange membranes and possessed skeletal bodies.

When these two changelings neared the lines of Guard ponies and Thracians arrayed against the very line seemed to break and run. Shouts and screams of horror and despair filled the air as normal ponies couldn’t seem to stand even being near these strange changelings. And while the Thracians seemed to be holding out better, they still appeared to be on the verge of running from the way they shook and stared at the strange changelings.

“Hold your ground!” came a desperate shout from a Royal Guard, but it was no good. His shout had been drowned out in the chaos of breaking battle lines and the continuous fighting.

ZETA

A changeling fell to the ground screaming in pain and grabbing at the horrible gash at its side. Razor Wing just snarled and kicked the wounded Changeling at its retreating fellows.

The very moment the sounds of fighting and panic started to sound throughout the palace, the Deinos immediately leapt into action and started claiming areas of the palace. They had managed to secure a few rooms for the palace stuff to hide away in, protected from the fighting when they started encountering changeling forces. Skirmishes over hallways, battles for ballrooms and dining chambers kept popping up like wild fires all over the palace. The worst part of this was the fact there was only little over three hundred Deinos and who knows how many thousands of changelings. There was literally only so many Deinos that could be spread across the palace before their battle lines thinned too much. There was a silver lining to this, however. Simply the fact that all the Deinos were incredibly powerful by pony standards, and thus just one of them was often enough to handle a large amount of changelings. Still though, the Deinos were forced to constantly shift around their forces to cover gaps and reinforce weak spots when the changelings attempted a push.

Hearing a low, lion like growl, Razor turned to his side and saw Sharp Skies standing over a still Changeling, her many teeth stained green and dripping with ichor. Razor found himself not as troubled with the sight as he thought he should have been and looked over his shoulder.

“Where in the world is Princess Luna!” Razor Wing shouted over his shoulder. “I sent that scout to her ten minutes ago!”

Suddenly there was the sound of shattering glass and another Deinos swooped down to land before Razor Wing.

“I just got back from her room!” the scout said. “Those big bugs are everywhere!”

“Never mind that! Where’s the princess?” Razor stated. “Was she not there when you went to get her?”

“She was there alright, and so were several maids who barricaded the doors and windows.” The Deinos scouted answered. “Luna’s in some deep sleep and nothing done to her even disturbs her slightly.”

Razor let out a growl of frustration as he considered what little he knew of the current situation. The information was a jumble of random bits and pieces from the palace staff they rescued from the changelings, since the Deinos had stayed away from the wedding areas of the palace due to a sense of agitation they had started feeling. They knew the changelings had just suddenly appeared and overran the general area Celestia and Cadence had been in before spreading over the rest of the palace. It was a simple matter to figure out that the wedding had been heavily infiltrated by changelings. What wasn’t a simple matter was figuring out how deeply the infiltration had run before the invasion started.

But that kind of thinking was for later. Right now, Razor Wing and the other Deinos were more concerned about retaking the palace. Then they’d think about regrouping with the Royal Guard and working to retake the rest of the city from the Changeling invasion.

“Here they come again!” one of the Deinos shouted.

Razor Wing looked down the hallway to see just eight changelings charging towards them. Normally it would be groups of twenty or thirty, but something about how these changelings looked immediately put Razor Wing and the fourteen other Deinos with him on edge.

The eight strange Changelings came to a stop a dozen feet away from the line of agitated battle ready Deinos. There was a moment of silence filled only with the echoes of distant fighting when suddenly a biting chill filled the air. Razor and the other Deinos felt suddenly filled with despair and hopelessness… for a brief moment, and then they shook it off. The Deinos who were civilians looked a little worse for wear, but otherwise they were perfectly able and willing to fight.

This seemed to startle and caused the strange changelings to hesitate for a moment before they silently charged forward.

Razor Wing met the charge of one of the changelings with a roar and swipe of his blade wings. The changeling grunted in pain from the cut, but despite the sharpness of the blades it was only a shallow one that healed shockingly fast before the changeling charged into Razor.

Razor Wing grappled briefly with the changeling and felt like it was rather even when it came to strength, but an instant later and suddenly it was as if the Changeling was twice as strong and Razor was sent hurtling into a wall. Despite hitting the wall hard enough to cause it to crack, Razor Wing landed on his hooves and sent a crude beam of magic that impacted a wall of orange flames the changeling he was fighting put up. An instant later, Sharp Skies tackled the changeling and started to maul it.

Razor quickly took stock of the fighting with the other changelings and Deinos and found that, despite their own numbers advantage, the changelings were able to meet them head on. It seemed that whatever ability it was that allowed the changelings to boost their own physical abilities let them more than match the Deinos in a two on one fight.

A moment later and Sharp Skies was sent flying into the ceiling by the changeling she had been mauling. Said changeling had gushing neck wounds, but they were already sealing up and it was quickly getting back to being fully healed and ready for more fighting.

Razor Wing took this chance to teleport into the air over the changeling and body slam him. The Deinos Royal Guard wrapped one leg around the changeling’s head in a neck lock while his wings stabbed into his sides, trying to inflict crippling injuries on an opponent that was quickly growing stronger than him and healing much faster as well.

‘Darn it all, can’t even call up some more of us from other areas of the palace,’ Razor thought in frustration as he wrestled with his opponent. ‘ Too much fighting, too many changelings trying to sneak past us to ambush us from behind. We need reinforcements!’

Finally, Razor Wing was bucked off and landed on his hooves, allowing him to meet the changeling’s follow up charge head on. Razor Wing gritted his teeth as he saw that Sharp Skies had to go help another Deinos which left him as the sole one with a one on one fight.

‘I won’t lose to you! I won’t, I WON’T!’ Razor thought as the changeling started to overpower him and a burning sensation started rise up in his chest.

An instant later, Razor roared out and a torrent of flames leapt from his open maw and into the face of the changeling he was grappling.

There was a loud screech of pain as the changeling recoiled from Razor, its face now alight with flames. Razor Wing kept up his advantage and sent a blast of magic at the changeling and sent it flying through the air.

The Deinos was about to press his advantage further when a loud shout sounded behind him and Razor turned to see a large group of normal changelings charging at them.

‘Great, now we have to deal with the normal changelings as well as these powerful ones...’ Razor Wing thought angrily. ‘This isn’t going well AT ALL. Could definitely use a little help!’

With that, Razor Wing meet the charge of changelings alone, hoping that the other Deinos would be able to handle all eight of the powerful changelings well enough without him.

ETA

Emerald paced with an air of great impatience and a scowl.

Currently the Warhounds gathered in the front of the Hub numbered roughly one thousand and one hundred; almost the entirety of the current field ready Warhounds. All three hundred of the Raptors were here as well, all of them ready and eager to go and fulfil the purpose they were ultimately created for. There was an area filled with open crates holding guns, ammunition and grenades where many dogs were loading up to their maximum. Tavish was there as well and looked rather annoyed to be forced to listen to Missy tell him again how to properly use the Grenade Launcher he was holding. Despite the fact the little dog now had proper training, Missy felt he wasn’t going to use his weapon properly. There was just one more group of just around one hundred Warhounds left to gather for the battle and the entire force would head out to Canterlot’s aid.

Emerald turned as she heard the roar and approach of several buggies. Driving down through the streets of the hub was a small force of ten buggies. Each was modeled after designs of the DPV buggy Emerald had shown them, and was altered to fit a Diamond Dog’s physiology. Unlike the DPVs from earth, the Warhound versions didn’t have any mounted weapons on them currently, as those were still in the testing stage.

“So I’m guessing these vehicles are up to my specifications now?” Emerald asked as she approached one of the drivers.

“Well… sorta, boss,” the driver answered, scratching the back of his head. “The engines can go seventy miles per hour pretty easily; it’s just that… well they can start chugging a big sometimes when they have to maintain that speed. These engines are still in the experimental phase, but under seventy they work perfectly fine, boss!”

“Hmm…” Emerald gave a hard stare at the buggy’s engine block. “Well it’s not like we are going to be facing a force that has any mechanization at all. Load up some Warhounds and a ton of ammo.”

“Right, boss!” the driver said with a salute and started shouting for passengers and ammo.

By the time the buggies were all loaded up, the wait time was about to reach half an hour and Emerald’s temper was about to go critical when the final group of Warhounds finally arrived. The group quickly passed through the other companies and squads to the ammunition area and rapidly loaded themselves up before falling into place as well.

“ALRIGHT!” Emerald shouted and quieted any and all chatter in the room. “It’s time to move out! Everyone prepare yourselves for teleport!”

Emerald then focused on her magic and started to fill the air with it, quickly encapsulating every Warhound, buggy and Raptor in it. After nearly a minute of charging up and calculating to ensure no one would go off course, and their destination was big enough for all of them, Emerald unleashed her magic.

There was a blinding flash of pink light and a moment where Emerald was able to both see the Hub and the cavern under Canterlot she intended to arrive in, then it was gone.

‘Okay… was actually able to perceive the transition between locations there…’ Emerald thought with a shake of her head to get rid of a dizziness she felt. Looking up, Emerald saw that the dogs and raptors felt the same way and were shaking off some brief dizziness. ‘Glad to know I am powerful enough to pull off something like this without feeling excessively drained or anything along those lines.’

“Alright, everyone form up into your units!” Emerald shouted out and watched as everyone quickly got into squads of ten. “We don’t have time to make up any complicated plans, but I feel that nothing complicated is needed here. Above us is the city of Canterlot which is currently being invaded by an army of changelings. Without a single doubt I can say we are outnumbered here. But what we aren’t is outmatched and outgunned. All of you have excellent training and the best weapons in the known world. I have total confidence in each and every one of you to beat the changelings. Remember your training and your war gear. Good luck. I’ll leave this next part in the capable hands of your Alphas.”

With that, the Alphas in command of the entire force briefly got together and organized their initial push into the city. They decided to divide their forces into twelve groups of one hundred with twenty five raptors accompanying each. Once they had established “beachheads” in the city, they would spread out into platoons and squads, clearing out the city street by street, with the buggies being used to scout ahead in unclear areas.

With that, the entire Warhound force rapidly reorganized and started rapidly moving up the tunnels to the surface.

THETA

A Xanthos mare stood protectively in front of her young filly as changelings closed in from all around. The sounds of her growling and snarling could now be easily heard over the much faded sounds of fighting. It seems the changelings were now on the path to victory and were now just pacifying a few pockets of resistance that were left.

Suddenly there was a loud rumbling and the ground beneath everyone seemed to shake. The middle of the street abruptly exploded outwards, stunning everyone nearby by the unexpectedness of it all. A shape appeared in the following dust as a low roar could be discerned over the sound of crumbling rock.

The sight that met everyone’s eye confused them into stillness. It was as if someone stripped down a carriage to its skeleton and replaced it’s axles with something wider and replaced the wooden wheels with something made of metal and some rubber. The “carriage” also had no discernable means of moving itself and yet it had, most likely done through magic. There were three heavily armored passengers in the “carriage”. One was holding onto a smaller wheel obviously meant to direct the odd machine, and two others were holding strange looking things that looked a little like crossbows, if only from the way the armored beings held them.

Any more study of the new arrivals was interrupted by a loud bang and flash of light from one of the passenger’s odd looking crossbows and suddenly one of the changelings’ head evaporated in a green mist before he fell over.

There was a long moment of shocked silence from both the changelings in the street and the beings in the carriage. One of them was even staring at their “crossbow” in disbelief. The death of that one changeling was just so… abrupt.

Suddenly there was another sound, a “floomp” and a cylindrical object came flying out of the clearing dust cloud and soared into the crowd of changelings.

There was instant chaos as an explosion range out from within the changelings and ended up killing most of them. Most were lucky, falling to the ground injured with horrible lacerations or simply instantly dead from shrapnel. Some were horribly unlucky and were torn apart by the storm of metal sent out by the explosion, sending limbs and blood flying.

Out of the hole in the street came the little Alpha, Tavish Degroot. Wearing his black dragon scale armor and his grenade launcher leaning against his shoulder, he surveyed the destruction that had been wrought within a few moments.

The changelings were running, morale broken by terrifying weapons used against them. Their numbers were continuing to fall. Changelings fell with chunks of their bodies simply evaporating as massive bullets tore through them to kill yet more changelings in their path or wreck streets and walls. The two gunner dogs continued to fire their rifles until the now vastly diminished force of changelings disappeared around a corner.

Walking from the hole in the road and followed by a hundred of his fellow Warhounds, Tavish walked past the buggy, idly noticing the eyes of the gunners looked glazed over and both clutched at their rifles tightly. He then approached the Thracian mother and raised a paw placatingly when she growled at him, her young child curled up into a ball with her eyes tightly closed and hooves against her ears.

“Now now, lass. I or any of me lads don’t mean any harm,” Tavish said as soothingly as he could.

“Like I’d believe that!” the Xanthos snarled, hackles raised like a wild animal an instant before pouncing.

“Whatever, lass.” Tavish shrugged, to the mare’s surprise. He honestly had better things to do. “Alright you lot, get into your squads! Start your sweeps of the outlying streets! And remember we’re fighting shape shifters! I don’t wanna hear about you injuring any ponies, got that?! Good! Now get your rears in gear!”

The Thracian mare watched as a hundred dogs formed up into groups of ten and she got really tense when a group of Raptors exited the hole in the road but quickly broke up into groups of five before leaping onto roofs and disappearing from sight.

Before long, Tavish found himself leading a squad of ten through the streets of nearly conquered Canterlot, though it was fairly clear right now considering that Tavish stayed back to make sure the mare didn’t try anything. However, it was most certainly not quiet as the sounds of the Warhounds’ gunfire could be heard along with the squealing roars and crowing of Raptors, not to mention the screams. Soon the need for caution became clear as Tavish’s squad starting moving down a street that had clearly not been secured or explored yet.

However, the increased tension seemed to be the only thing the squad was getting out of this experience, along with catching glimpses of scared ponies through closed curtains of their homes.

‘Well this is a bit of a letdown…’ Tavish thought as he walked up to a corner. ‘But then I ain’t exactly too disappointed I don’t get to use this bloody thing again, nasty piece of wo-’

Just as Tavish began to round the corner, immediately a large group of forty changelings or so appeared from around that very corner. They were close, extremely so. Tavish himself was only a foot or so away from one changeling.

The changelings froze from the sudden appearance of the diamond dogs, but Tavish reacted, although he reacted a bit too strongly in his own honest opinion. The little Alpha swung down his grenade launcher and quickly fired off a grenade.

‘Ohhhh, that wasn’t too smart…’ Tavish thought the instant he pulled the trigger, sending a grenade flying inches past the cheek of the changeling in front of him and hitting the one just behind that one. There was an instant explosion and Tavish fell onto his back as he felt several impacts on his armor and a sudden harsh one in his face.

‘Don’t tell me I lost me eye again!’ Tavish thought as he quickly shook his head clear of dizziness. Unfortunately for Tavish, he found that he had indeed lost his left eye again from the way everything looked a tad flat. ‘Bloody- grrrr, this is going to sting once the adrenaline wears off.’

Quickly sitting up, Tavish drew his side arm revolver and quickly sighted some dazed changelings. Because he was a smaller dog, he didn’t have a large caliber revolver, but his still packed a punch and most changelings he fired at fell from solid torso hits.

The Warhounds with Tavish had been a bit stunned as well by the sudden appearance of enemies as well as the explosion, but their training had kicked in and they all immediately swung up their rifles and fired off short bursts.

What should have been a small skirmish instead turned into a massacre. The forty changelings had instantly lost a quarter of their number from Tavish’s grenade alone. Now with the Warhounds firing their powerful rifles, the rest of their numbers both figuratively and literally evaporated into the air. Massive bullets tore apart unprotected changeling flesh like they were water balloons filled with green food coloring.

A few seconds later and the firing stopped, leaving only the Warhounds and Tavish standing. There was simply no time for either side to show or ask for mercy, or even for cowardice. In just ten seconds, over thirty changelings were dead with the rest moaning and bleeding out on the ground.

For a moment, the Diamond Dogs were left just staring at the results of their training and weapons, some openly gaping in horror. Tavish was an old dog, however, and had seen a few terrible things in his time. Sometimes he would hit someone a bit too hard during one of his adventures or see the results of an unlucky adventurer not spotting a tomb’s trap in time. Either way, the little dog took the scene better than the others did.

“… Alright lads, let’s keep moving,” Tavish said as he reached up to gingerly prod his damaged eye through his visor. “Fight ain’t over yet.”

If nothing else, the dogs fell back on their training and did as they were told, moving forward down the street, eyesight firmly locked straight ahead to avoid the gruesome sight they were walking through. Tavish’s prodding by now had confirmed that the dog didn’t have anything large enough to actually grab hold of to pull out this time, clearly some small bits of metal had torn into his eye, which was now beginning to ache horribly.

‘Well this is going to be a right bloody pain until I get boss lady to fix this,’ Tavish groused silently and did his best to ignore his now aching, ruined eye, when a series of despairing howls pierced the sounds of gunfire and roaring raptors.

“Came from that way! Come on, double time it!” Tavish pointed and started sprinting, his Warhounds a few steps behind him.

Tavish and his dogs made quick time sprinting down a street towards the location of the howling, which picked up every now and then. He was joined by three other squads as he made his way down the streets.

Finally, Tavish and about thirty worried and somewhat shell shocked looking Warhounds arrived on the scene where they heard the howling coming from. Warhounds lay unmoving on the street before the group of newly arrived diamond dogs.

Tavish quickly darted over to one fallen Warhound and breathed a soft sigh of relief when he found the dog to be still alive, just unconscious. Assuming that this was hopefully the case for the other dogs on the ground, Tavish stood back up and surveyed the street to look for threats. There was nothing to be seen, however; just an empty street full of unconscious dogs with barely any spent shells on the ground. This only made Tavish feel far more tense than if a threat could be seen.

Suddenly a feeling of despair and emptiness washed over Tavish and he fell over onto his hands and knees with a gasp. He wasn’t the only one either, as the other dogs began falling over as well. Looking up, Tavish could see several changeling like creatures standing on the rooftops. Through sheer strength of will, Tavish began to force himself to stand back up when several shots rang out and suddenly the feeling of despair was gone.

Up above, the changelings stumbled as massive wounds opened up in their sides. One even had most of their face destroyed in an instant and tumbled off the roof and onto the street, though clearly still alive and quickly beginning to get back onto its feet.

Tavish looked to see Fenrir standing down the street with his powerful rifle held up against his shoulder and sighting the changelings. With the feeling of despair gone, the dogs with Tavish slowly got back onto their feet and even the dogs lying still on the ground started to stir.

Without the oppressing feeling, Tavish quickly got back onto his own feet and quickly brought up his grenade launcher. With a strangely satisfying ‘floomp’, the grenade left the barrel of his gun and went flying in an expertly aimed arc just behind the changeling on the roof. The changeling went flying along with a few blown off small chunks of its own body, landing a short distance from its fellow on the ground who was nearly completely healed up from previous horrid injuries.

The other changeling’s injuries weren’t as bad as its fellow and its wounds healed and closed rapidly. Tavish and Fenrir were about fire again in an attempt to put down the Changeling when suddenly a storm of long spines went flying through the air towards the Changelings.

Just behind the Warhounds on the roofs were a group of five raptors. After sending a storm of tail spines at the changelings, the raptors made a powerful leap off the roofs and towards the changelings. The changelings on the ground were in no way prepared for the sudden leap from the raptors thanks to the many spines piercing their bodies deeply and impaling them fully in some areas.

One raptor landed in the street while the four others double teamed each changeling, smashing into them from the momentum of their leaps. There were high pitched shouts of pain as the raptors started to bite and tear into the changelings with their teeth and claws. Suddenly there were two bursts of orange flames from under the raptors and the changelings were gone.

The four raptors were confused for a moment while the idle fifth stuck it’s nose high into the air and started sniffing. After a moment, it loudly crowed and leapt up onto the rooftops were it was soon followed by the others before slinking out of sight.

“Right… come on lad, breath,” Tavish said as he quickly focused his attention on the dogs under his command.

“Up you go, pup,” Fenrir stated as he hoisted another dog onto his feet. “The lady pushed you through much worse in training. You’re tougher than this and you know it.”

The two Alphas’ work at helping the Warhounds recover from the horrible effects of the strange changelings were halted when suddenly a loud explosion filled the air. Everyone turned to see the palace in the far distance with a thick column of smoke coming from a newly made hole in it.

IOTA

A changeling panted as it sprinted through several alleyways, terrified tears streaming down its cheeks.

It had been part of a large group of about fifty or so Changelings. Their group was just patrolling down a street, making sure there was no resistance or to go assist any of their own that was caught up in any fighting, when suddenly everything and everyone was thrown into chaos once more when strange explosion like sounds and the horrible roars of predators filled the air. The group was wondering what in the world was happening when ten monsters leapt into their number from above. One changeling had been knocked clear due to one of the raptors ramming into him, but the rest of the group was not so lucky. Their combat skills and magic were as nothing before the ten reptile like monsters amongst them. With tooth, claw and even fire, the monsters utterly and mercilessly slaughtered the changelings; but that wasn’t the worst part. No, the worst part came afterwards.

The sole surviving changeling had watched on in horrified silence from the safety of a dark alley as the monsters continued to rip and tear at the dead changelings on the ground. Then they had started eating, using their fires to char and heat up some of the fresh meat they were eating. The changeling had been on the verge of retching and vomiting at this, but was glad he hadn’t, for he had been certain the slightest noises would have alerted the monsters. It was only after fear for his own life broke through the horrified shock that the changeling had slinked away into the shadows as quietly as possible.

Currently he had managed to put several blocks between him and the scene of the gut churning carnage, but now he had gotten a sudden feeling of dread, like someone was following him, someone dangerous. It was the presence of this feeling that caused the changeling to quickly abandon whatever subtlety he had and move at a full out sprint. However, even now with his side feeling like it was about to rip open and his heart pounding in his ears the feeling persisted.

Feeling like he had no choice, the changeling quickly shifted into an earth pony stallion and ran for the nearest home.

“Hello!? Is anypony in there!” The Changeling shouted desperately. “Please I need help! They’re going to get me!”

For a heart stopping moment it seemed like he would have to try at another house as there seemed to be no one in this one or they were staying quiet. But then the almost silent sounds of hoof steps reached his ears and after a moment the door opened.

“Quickly, get in here!” an older looking stallion whispered urgently.

The changeling in disguise did just that and quickly ducked into the house, the stallion quickly closing the door behind him. He followed the stallion into the next room, which was the living room; it was dark from all the windows being covered up and several ponies hiding in the middle. There were too many ponies here for them all to be a member of the family here, clearly the family living here were more than willing to help their fellow ponies.

The changeling took up a spot amongst the many ponies and tried to make himself as small as possible as the father of the house carefully peaked through the blinds completely covering the windows.

For a moment everything seemed fine until the father suddenly got a wide eyed look on his face and quickly backed away from the window and joined the group of silent and scared ponies. The Changeling felt like his worst fear were coming true in that moment as he believed that the monsters had followed him. He began to pray silently that the closed door would be enough of a deterrent to the creatures.

After what seemed like an eternally long moment of silence, there was a sound at the door. The father of the family suddenly cursed under his breath and the reason he did so was revealed in a moment. The sound of the door opening not with a crash and snapping of wood but with the sound of the door handle turning echoed down ominously to the hiding ponies and sole changeling.

Everyone was frozen into terrified silence as they heard soft growls and the clicking of claws on wooden floors approach them. In a timeless moment, the monster revealed itself as it stepped from around the corner. The children in the group could no longer keep their silence and began to cry openly, some loudly. The adults were possibly just as terrified as their children and were in no state to try to quiet them. The changeling for his part tried to make himself as small and nondescript as possible to avoid discovery, his heart thundering in his ears as liquid terror seemed to fill his veins.

The large reptilian monster approached the group of ponies slowly, it’s movements cautious as it narrowed it’s terrible slitted eyes at the group, its head moving this way and that as it sniffed the air loudly. For the longest moment it appeared to come closer, when it seemed to snort and turned around on the spot to leave. The changeling breathed a sigh of relief when the monster suddenly whipped around and leapt at the group of ponies with a roar.

The ponies screamed at this sudden action, the changeling even more so when the monster’s jaws closed down around his midsection and lifted him into the air. With the wounds being inflicted upon him the changeling wasn’t capable of keeping up his form and his true form revealed itself in a flash of green flames. The surroundings blurred in the changeling’s vision and suddenly he was sent flying through the air and out the door.

Sides bleeding heavily from deep puncture wounds, the changeling tried to quickly get back up onto his feet to run away when he heard a squeal. Turning his head, he was met with the sight of four of the monsters bearing down at him.

His scream of terror was cut short into a gurgle as a pair of jaws closed around his throat.

The “monster” also known as Stripe the Raptor walked out of the pony home, making sure to close the door behind him politely. A loud snap met his ears, signaling the death of their prey. It would not do for it to be still alive when they fed on it after all.

Already his brothers and sisters were dressing it and cutting out portions for each of them. One had already sliced the belly open and taken out most of the organs, mostly the digestive system and the urinary tract along with the spleen. They knew they were capable of eating those organs without issue thanks to their own powerful digestive system but they just didn’t taste all that well. So one raptor went about taking these organs and burning them to ash while the others finished cutting up the body.

Within a few moments, one sister was gnawing on the four legs and one small chunk of muscle given to her while the others preferred the meatier portions, namely the thighs and shoulders. Stripe himself had managed to grab the tongue for himself and enjoyed eating that part quite a lot. But other than Stripe taking the tongue and the others stripping the flesh off the skull, said part was being saved for last, where they would pop the skull and enjoy slices of the brain for themselves.

‘I wonder how mom is doing?’ Stripe thought to himself as the sounds of bones breaking filled the air, his sister already done with gnawing off the strips of leg muscles and flesh and now going after the marrow. ‘I hope she is doing alright. She is strong. Much stronger then I will ever be. But I still hope she is well. Hmm…’

Stripe took in his surroundings a bit as he swallowed down a chunk of thigh muscle. Down the street a bit was a large building with many stone columns and steps leading up to several doors. Straining his eyes a bit Stripe was able to identify the building from the sign.

‘Library?’ Stripe thought curiously as he absently ate the last of his meat. ‘Big building. Must be a lot of books inside… Could I go inside and read some later?’

The rest of the raptors were now just finishing up the main course of their impromptu picnic and were now moving onto the “dessert”. One raptor Stripe identified as a little brother with yellow and red scales had the skull in one claw and was holding it out to him with an eager look on his face. Stripe had developed a trick to popping skulls that left the brain almost intact every time and few other raptors had learned the trick themselves.

Giving an amused purr, Stripe was about to take the skull to pop it when an enraged roar filled the air. Immediately the other raptors turned to see two strange looking Changelings standing some distance away from them down the street and glaring at them. Stripe and the other raptors were briefly confused by these changelings, as while they did smell like changelings, there was also something about the scent that was deeply familiar to them.

Suddenly the air temperature dropped incredibly fast, fast enough that frost started appearing on the stone buildings in the area. Inside their homes, the pony residents cried out as an oppressing sense of despair and hopelessness set in. For the raptors, however, all they noticed was that it suddenly got cold and that there was tingling at the edge of their senses.

Stripe crowed and quickly got his fellow raptors’ attention. With several subtle body movements and gestures of his clawed hands, Stripe conveyed a body plan the other four agreed to with a nod of their heads. Two raptors immediately left the group and ran to opposite sides of the street before leaping up onto the roofs and slinking out of sight. The other two raptors charged ahead with Stripe not two steps behind them. Seeing that the raptors weren’t being troubled by whatever magical effect they were casting on the area, the two changelings braced for their charge when the two raptors came to a sudden stop. Suddenly a massive storm of flames erupted from the mouths of the two raptors and swept over the changelings.

Stripe narrowed his eyes as he took in the Changelings within the cloud of flames. While they were obviously being hurt by the flames from the sounds of things, the flames weren’t causing as much damage as you’d expect. Stripe also noticed something strange, that some of the flames looked like they were being absorbed into the bodies of the strange looking Changelings.

Up from above came two raptors leaping from the roofs. They let loose loud roars as they dropped rapidly towards the flaming forms, all their claws stretched out to cut and tear. The stream of flames stopped as the raptors impacted the two Changelings and sent them rolling from the force of their weight and velocity.

One of the raptors who had been breathing flames charged ahead, bashing into the front of one changeling while it was focused on the fact it had a viral dinosaur on its back trying to rip open its stomach. The other raptor, however, hesitated a second too long, and by the time it charged into the changeling it had managed to deliver a solid buck into the raptor on its back. After sending the raptor on its back flying off, it had enough time to prepare for the charge of the other raptor to give it a well-timed punch into the side of its head. The hit made the raptor stumble onto its side beside the changeling, which took the opportunity to give it a solid buck as well. The hits did next to nothing thanks to both the raptors’ powerful physiology and natural armor, but it did give the changeling breathing room.

Stripe decided it was time to engage the Changeling himself and charged. The shape shifter was prepared to give Stripe the same response it had given the last raptor that had charged it when Stripe leapt into the air and did a front flip. Using the momentum of the flip Stripe sent a small storm of spines flying at the changeling, causing it to become impaled in several areas but still very much alive. Stripe then angled his descent so that he stomped down onto the changeling with both of his clawed feet, driving the pained shape shifter into the ground with a loud thud.

A loud snap echoed from where the other two raptors were still fighting the second changeling, seemingly signaling its death with the breaking of its neck. However the moment the two raptors relaxed a bit and pulled away from the seemingly dead changeling, there was a sudden burst of orange flame and the body was gone from the ground. With Stripe, he had the changeling’s head in his mouth and was practising his skull popping technique on it when the changeling vanished in a flash of orange flames as well.

Looking down at the ground where only the blood stained spines he had sent at the changeling lay, Stripe tilted his head and shared a look with his fellow raptors. They then raised their noses to the air to track down the scent of their new prey when suddenly a loud explosion echoed through the air.

All five raptors turned to see smoke rising from a hole in the palace.

KAPPA

Razor Wing could feel his body begin to tire.

Razor and the other Deinos has been fighting near constantly since the eight strange changelings arrived. One of the Deinos always had to leave the fighting with the powerful changelings to beat back a swarm of more weak changelings coming to reinforce the other stronger ones, leaving the others vulnerable to the incredibly strong changelings. The Deinos were very strong and fast, and didn’t tire easily at all, but this was definitely beginning to push them to their limits.

At one point the sounds of distant explosions and bestial roars began to sound in the distance outside, but frankly Razor didn’t have the time to pay it any attention. Those sounds did happen to coincide with the sudden slowing of changeling reinforcements, though.

As if by fate, a large group of changelings appeared around the corner and charged down the hall to help in the fighting. Razor Wing was about to call out for Sharp Skies to go fight them herself when suddenly the group of newly arrived changelings were sent flying by a powerful gust of wind coming from behind them.

“Weddings are times of celebration and happiness,” said a heron that was walking down the hallway the changelings had been running from, a light blue pegasus mare with a silver mane beside him. He was wearing a white haori with a conical hat that had some kanji on the front. “Normally guests such as yourself are thrown out for their rudeness to the host, but since the guard are otherwise engaged, might I trouble you all to walk yourselves out?”

“I don’t think they are going to do that, Master Gyatso,” said the young pegasus beside him before drawing the katana that was strapped to her back.

“It’s always good to try, Swift Gale,” the heron stated before going into a stance as the various changelings started getting back up and looking angrily at the two of them. “It actually worked a few times.”

With that, the horde of normal changelings charged the two. Despite being outnumbered greatly, it quickly became clear that the two were in no danger of losing to the changelings. Gyatso’s movements flowed smoothly and fluidly. No matter where the attack came from, the heron always managed to move around the attack and his counters were powerful as well. Changelings were sent flying by the simplest gestures and flaps of his wings. Swift’s form clearly wasn’t nearly as refined as Gyatso’s, but she still held her own in this fight, having a sharp blade at the ready also made her a much more intimidating target compared to Gyatso and her skill with said blade was nothing to laugh at. Despite having a bladed weapon, Swift proved very capable of takedowns that didn’t require her to mortally wound her opponents. Not to say there weren’t changelings that didn’t get cut, but the mare was more than capable of diverting attackers into a spot where she would send powerful gusts of wind from her wings at them.

Meanwhile, the battle between the Deinos and the strong changelings continued to rage with the Deinos definitely worse for wear. The strong changelings just seemed tireless while the Deinos were eventually tiring out, and while the Deinos had powerful healing abilities, they weren’t nearly as powerful as the one the changelings seemingly had. This resulted in slowly wearing down Deinos with ever increasing number of wounds and injuries that took time and energy to heal. However the strong changelings were taking note that their reinforcements were being rapidly incapacitated. Wordlessly, three of the strong changelings pulled back from the fight with the Deinos and moved to engage the two attacking the normal changelings.

The three changelings stopped a short distance away from the two fighters as they finished off the normal changelings, leaving them incapacitated on the ground. Suddenly the air seemed to drop in temperature rapidly, causing breath to fog and frost to cover the stone surfaces and unbroken windows. The changelings on the ground moaned and whimpered in discomfit but the effect was different for Gyatso and Swift Gale. Gyatso didn’t seem fazed at all and just gave the three changelings a steely look. Swift Gale, however, was looking worse for wear. An anxious sweat quickly started to form on her brow and she began breathing heavily.

“Remember your meditation training, Swift,” Gyatso advised.

“I’m trying…” Swift muttered as she forced herself to take calming breaths and after a moment she was looking better, but she still was sweating anxiously.

Seeing that their opening move wasn’t very effective, the three changelings charged, one at Swift and two at Gyatso. Gyatso for an opening move sent an experimental blast of wind at one of the two changelings that was now charging at him, only for said changeling to simply power through the gust of wind that would have sent a normal changeling flying. In face of their obvious strength, Gyatso resolved to make sure they never landed a hit. With that, the heron leaped over the charge of the first changeling before smoothly ducking under the hoof strike of the second one.

Swift Gale was clearly not having as easy a time handling her singular changeling as her master was at handling two of them. A cold sweat continued to drip down her face as she used quick flaps of her wings to suddenly dart to the side and avoid the powerful strikes of the changeling, opening himself up to an attack in the process. Swift’s blade slashes were blindingly quick, though a tad jerky, and cut into the changeling. Said creature seemed to ignore the shallow gashes in its side and attempted to retaliate. Swift proved just as capable as her Master at dodging though, and managed to easily flip over the back of the changeling, even delivering a few more slashes as she did so. Yet again, however, the changeling ignored the wounds that seemed to rapidly heal over. Swift narrowed her eyes and glanced back at her rear leg where her smaller sword was strapped before tightening her mouth’s grip on her sword.

Razor Wing and the Deinos were definitely appreciating the lack of three of the powerful Changelings and the tide was slowly but surely turning to their favour. However, Razor was very much aware that things could rapidly go back to the slow battle of attrition it was before if the two new fighters were defeated. It was also clear that two said fighters were holding back, likely believing their opponents were not too physically greater than the normal Changelings. With that, Razor set about proving that wasn’t so.

Opening himself up to a blow, Razor Wing gritted his teeth as he endured a brutal blow to his side from the Changeling he was fighting. He then closed on the changeling and grappled with it briefly before bringing up both of his razor sharp wings and driving them as deep into the Changeling as possible.

Gyatso and Swift Gale were clearly stunned by the brutal action Razor had just done, though not enough to open themselves up to an attack as well. The areas Razor had driven his wings into held the lungs along with the heart and major arteries. A normal person would be dead in seconds if not instantly. The changeling, however, proved it wasn’t normal in the least and pushed Razor off of it with enough strength to send him stumbling back. Its massive mortal wounds closed rapidly, though it was also choking and coughing loudly as the horrid injuries to its lungs were fixed.

“Ahhh… you all are quite stronger than your kin, aren’t you?” Gyatso stated aloud in sudden comprehension to his two enemies. “That means I can stop holding back without worrying about hurting you… too badly, that is.”

In response, the two changelings hissed and quickly moved into position to charge at Gyatso in a pincer movement. They charged at the same time, but Gyatso was ready for the both of them. The heron rapidly snapped into a stance, making a pulling motion with one wing while doing a pushing motion with his other wing. The result was that the Changeling coming at him from the front suddenly picked up an immense amount of speed and drifted off course as swirling winds became visible around him. Charging past Gyatso, he ran into the wall so hard and fast his head bashed through it with a deafening crack before his body went limp. Gyatso hadn’t forgotten about the other changeling. and the instant he had handled the first he leaped into the air with a backflip as the other changeling ran past under him. As he approached the ground, Gyatso formed a large sphere of twirling winds between his wings, sending it flying at the changeling as soon as he landed. Said changeling quickly skidded to a halt to turn around and face Gyatso again only to be face to face with a sphere of spiraling winds.

The sphere of swirling winds impacted the changeling like a massive cannonball and sent him flying through the wall and out into the open air. The force of the momentum carried the changeling over the city for quite the distance before it finally dipped down and hit the roof of a house, echoing with a crack so loud it was even audible from the palace before it slid off and fell onto the street, unmoving.

Swift Gale for her part was working to handle her own changeling, and seemed to be mostly dodging in order to maneuver him into a favourable position. Finally, she leapt into the air and a storm of gale-force winds formed into being around her wings and she started flying in a circle. A small tornado rapidly formed as Swift went faster and faster until she became a light blue blur. The changeling on the ground wasn’t sure how to counter this or what to expect from this sudden development and merely held its position firmly.

Suddenly, Swift Gale flew into the heart of the cyclone she created and flew to the top before suddenly diving bombing towards the very point at the bottom. Before she hit the floor, she made an incredibly sharp ninety degree turn towards the changeling, the winds of the cyclone now wrapped around and dragging the rest of the small tornado after her. The changeling didn’t have any time at all to react to this and Swift impacted him like a light blue missile. An instant later, the changeling crashed into the wall and started sinking in as Swift Gale pressed against him, the cyclone wrapped around her acting like a drill. The instant the winds faded away, Swift flipped away from her foe back onto the ground where she glared dangerously at it for a moment.

The only response to this was said changeling very slowly dropping out of the crater in the wall it had been embedded into and dropping onto the ground, very unconscious.

With three of the eight changelings downed, the fight with the Deinos was ultimately decided. Gyatso and his apprentice briefly caught their breath before going to assist the fighting Deinos, but the infected ponies were already finishing up. The loss of three changelings freed up five of the Deinos and those five quickly ganged up on one of the changelings as the others kept the other changelings stuck in the fighting so they couldn’t try to run or reorganise. Within a minute, two changelings had been completely overwhelmed and knocked out cold, leaving only three of the original eight changelings still standing.

Seeing that they had completely lost the momentum of the battle, the changelings still standing teleported away. One of the ones lying on the ground managed to follow suit before the Deinos quickly started casting spells to keep the others from escaping.

Taking stock of his surroundings to make sure the long fight truly had ended, Razor Wing turned towards the two fighters who had come to their assistance. He was about to voice his appreciation for their help when a loud explosion echoed throughout the halls and seemed to shake the walls of the palace to their foundations.

LAMBDA

Despite her own feelings on the matter, Emerald hadn’t charged into the palace the moment she left her dogs. No, she had teleported to one of the many balconies and taken stock of the situation from her vantage point as best as she could. With her incredibly powerful senses, this was much more successful than it had any right to be.

Observing the changelings and their response to the unexpected, namely her own forces coming to reinforce Canterlot, confirmed Emerald’s earlier thoughts on open conflict not being the changeling’s strong suit. She expected confusion and panic as an enemy force suddenly appeared to turn the tide against them. Only an extremely well trained force who have been tempered in many battles would have stayed totally calm and organized during something like this. But the Changelings had pretty much nearly fallen apart like a quickly cobbled together militia. The ponies had been bad as well, though that could be attributed to a millennia of peace; they still were better than the changelings had been.

This only made Emerald to doubly wonder why in the world the changelings were doing something like this. They clearly had even less experience in major conflicts than the ponies did. Their main strength here was the surprise and overwhelming numbers. Emerald was sure that had it not been for the increased training the Royal Guard had and the help they were getting from the Thracians, the changelings would have overwhelmed and taken Canterlot by now.

‘So what is the driving reason for this?’ Emerald frowned in thought. ‘Greed? Desperation? Bah, it doesn’t matter; I’ll investigate the reasons later. They’ve made their decisions and dug their hole. Now I’m going to bury them in it.’

With that, Emerald made her decision. Using her viral sense, she was able to locate every one of her friends in one of the larger rooms. Upon further study, she found that Shining Armor and Celestia were in this room as well. Hoping this meant they had holed themselves up somewhere instead of being captured, Emerald didn’t teleport directly to them. Instead she teleported to a lobby some rooms away from them.

Her arrival was signaled with a bright flash of crimson and a deafening crack. There was a large group of changelings in this room, several of which were carrying stretchers bearing their wounded. Everyone in the room had frozen and stared at her. There was one changeling that had been right next to her upon her arrival. He was staring up at her stupidly with wide eyes.

Emerald answered his stares with a backhand, snapping his neck instantly. This instantly caused a reaction as changelings shouted in shock and charged at her while the ones bearing the wounded immediately took off, running for safety.

Hoping to keep the collateral damage to the palace low, Emerald shifted her hands into claws instead of hammerfists. This action caused a good number of changelings to stop short and stare at her horribly sharp claws. Too bad they were a bit too close now to even consider running away.

Emerald burst forward and was amongst them in an instant, quickly becoming a swirling dervish of green ichor and gore. Before when she had fought and been outnumbered, her opponents had at least been able to land some blows on her, such as they were. But now, after absorbing so many new strains of DNA and experimenting with the body enhancing nature of Earth Pony magic, Emerald was just too fast for normal people to keep up. It didn’t matter how many of them charged her at once. To the changelings, it seemed like she just moved and more of them fell to the ground either dead or screaming and missing limbs.

This was more than enough for changelings to handle, and those still alive turned tail to run. Immediately, a crimson magical aura surrounded the doors in the room and slammed them closed, literally sealing their fates.

Standing in the center of the room surrounded by floor, stained green by ichor and gore, Emerald concentrated on the changelings surrounding her before lifting them up into the air via her magic. She then brought them around to line them up before her. The virus them shifted her left claw into a long blade and simply held it out before bringing the long line of changelings flying forward.

Screams of horror immediately rang out and were cut short. A moment later, Emerald was making her way out of the room and towards her friends, a pile of freshly bisected Changelings behind her in the center of the room.

The rooms she had traveled through soon replicated the one she had arrived in as they always had more than a few changelings in them. This actually got Emerald quite worried about her friends if there were so many Changelings near the place they were holed up in. Hoping that Celestia was doing well in protecting the others and keeping the changelings away, the virus picked up the pace.

Emerald soon arrived to the room that had her friends, Shining Armor and Celestia within. Immediately she knew something was wrong because two changelings were standing guard outside the doors. Sparing enough time to crush the two guards against the walls with her magic, Emerald leapt forwards and crashed through the doors.

Rolling to a quick stop Emerald took stock of her surroundings. This room, the place the main event of the wedding was going to be held, over by the altar was Shining Armor, looking utterly out of it with his walleyed green eyes. Beside him was what she knew to be the Changeling Queen Chrysalis from some glancing over of some consumed changelings memories, staring at her in surprise. On the floor before them was Celestia and some changelings who were in the middle of using their magic to from some kind of cocoon around her. Over to the side were her friends, tied up and their mouths taped over… except for Twilight.

Emerald narrowed her eyes as she stared at Twilight, said unicorn swaying side to side slowly, her expression dull and her eyes glazed over and green. A simple glance over at Shining Armor told her all she needed to know about what had happened to Twilight. Rage broiling in her chest, she locked her gaze on Chrysalis.

“I am going to eat your face,” Emerald stated with a growl before waving her hand at the changelings around Celestia and sent them spinning out the windows.

Chrysalis gave a startled scream as Emerald leapt at her, turning into her Draconequis form mid-leap. She still had her wits about her though, and managed to teleport away in a burst of green flames as Emerald crashed head first into the walls behind her; not that it slowed her down in any way.

Smashing apart the walls her head had sunken into, Emerald whipped around to face Chrysalis again who looking rather worried as she pondered her potential course of action regarding the massive shapeshifting monster before her.

Emerald leapt again, and this time Chrysalis actually managed to catch her midair with magic of her own. The virus stayed in the air, held aloft by green flames, when she whipped her hand forward, an incredibly bright ball of magic held in it.

Once again Chrysalis managed to teleport away at the last moment as a beam of magic drilled through the air her head had been a moment ago and easily pierced through the thick stone walls of the palace. Chrysalis managing to dodge and avoid her attacks seemed to drive Emerald even more over the edge then seeing Twilight in the condition she was in did. It didn’t help that for whatever reason, changelings seemed to agitate her really badly, sending her into a death spiral of fury and rage.

Chrysalis for her part was managing to stay calm, though the quick dodging teleports were a drain on her. She did another teleport to the point furthest away from Emerald in the room and quickly blasted the same beam of magic that had beaten Celestia.

The beam hit Emerald squarely in the head as she charged at her. The result, however, was the beam sparking furiously against the virus’ now scaly hide and the force of it making Emerald slow slightly. In response to the beam hitting her, Emerald reared up and breathed in deeply to unleash a blast of fire. Seeing this Chrysalis dodged with a teleport again. However Emerald expected this and kept the flames in her chest before turning towards Chrysalis’ new position. However when she noticed where Chrysalis was now standing, she stopped herself from letting the flames loose and instead let it flow out harmlessly of her mouth and nostrils.

Chrysalis was both relieved and confused at this until she noticed who was behind her; the tied up or otherwise incapacitated Mane Six. Seeing the monster facing her refuse to attack out of fear for the others presented the changeling queen with a possible way to potentially win here. However, what idea she had was immediately ruined when the Mane Six, Celestia and Armor disappeared in a flash of crimson.

Eyes wide in panic, Chrysalis turned towards Emerald to see her surrounded by a bright crimson aura. Chrysalis could have teleported again to dodge the oncoming attack but she was honestly drained by the rapid successive teleports. Instead, she resolved to form a green barrier around herself, drawing upon the immense well of energy that was the love Shining armor felt for his wife to enhance it further. An instant later, there was a massive explosion and Chrysalis felt herself go spinning through the air. When she managed to get her bearings, she realised she was in the air above Canterlot and was rapidly approaching the streets. The Queen flapped her wings desperately and created another barrier to protect her against the impact when she hit the ground.

The world went spinning again and Chrysalis felt intense pain suddenly shoot up one of her legs. After what felt like an eternity, the world stopped spinning long enough for her to get back onto her hooves. Any attempt to put any weight on her back left leg caused her intense pain however, and she limped onto three of her still good but aching legs.

She found herself in a four way street and could hear sounds of battle and the roars of monsters filling the air. Suddenly a group of changelings ran down the street in front of her when one of them tripped and fell. Chrysalis recognised him as one of the officers commanding her army from the armor he was wearing.

“M-my Queen?” the changeling officer said before looking down the street he was running down when a low roaring noise grew louder and louder.

A moment later and one of the War buggies came speeding down the street chasing after changelings. It did not slow down or even attempt to avoid the changeling down on the ground. There was a crunch and tearing of flesh as the buggy ran over the changeling and its head was taken off by one of the wheels hitting it in the neck.

Chrysalis stared down in horrified silence at the head that had rolled to a stop at her hooves when a loud crash sounded behind her. Turning around, she saw Emerald had landed behind her and was now glaring down at her. Chrysalis panicked and tried to get away when she found she couldn’t. Her back leg was broken so she couldn’t run. Shielding herself from damage of the virus’ attack and protection against the fall had drained her magical reserves and the love she harvested. She was helpless. Chrysalis shook and closed her eyes as Emerald suddenly dived at her, maw of gleaming teeth open to rip and tear.

Emerald’s jaws closed around Chrysalis’s head and tore it off with a gush of green ichor. She then balled her claws into fists before smashing them into the body several times with angry snarling, ending with a stomp that shook every building on the entire street before lifting her head up to the sky and releasing a deafening roar.

Celestia’s dreams were of magic and swirling greens before she finally awoke with a groan. She yawned and stretched out some aching limbs, absently wondering why she had fallen asleep on a couch instead of her bed when the events following her sudden entry into her sister’s realm caught up with her.

Cobwebs instantly shaken from her mind at the memory of the changeling invasion, Celestia looked around herself and frowned in some confusion. She was in one of the living rooms in the palace. Twilight and her friends were there as well, though Twilight looked out of it as she rubbed her temples and kept her eyes tightly closed.

“Princess Celestia, you’re awake!” Rarity exclaimed and rushed to her side, followed by the others save for Twilight who seemed to be stuck in her own little world as she slowly recovered from the changeling magic.

“What happened? What is going on?” Celestia asked with a worried frown at her student. “Are we being held hostage by the changelings?”

“No, the changelings are… no longer capable of such actionsc” Rarity stated diplomatically as the others collectively winced.

“Please explain that,” Celestia stated seriously.

“Emerald arrived with an army of diamond dogs bearing powerful weapons and armor and accompanied by fearsome lizards as well,” Rarity answered while looking a bit uncomfortable. “They are… taking after Emerald in how to handle a foe.”

“You can tell by how green the streets are…” Dash muttered snidely.

“I have to go find her immediately!” Celestia said with wide eyes. “This horrible violence must stop!”

“It’s already over, I’m afraid,” Rarity replied softly. “Emerald and her forces have taken the surviving changelings prisoner and are currently holding them in the city center.”

“I have to go see her right now,” Celestia said as she got off her couch. “But first, my dear Twilight, are you well?”

“…Your Highness?” Twilight stated after a long moment and cracked open an eye at her. “I’m… I’m okay. I just need time to recover is all…”

“I’ll be back to check up on you later, Twilight. First, I must see to Emerald,” Celestia said and began walking away. Twilight didn’t say anything and went back to rubbing her temples.

Celestia could have teleported to the city center directly, but felt she needed to see to the condition of the city and her ponies first and chose to walk there. She managed to come to the horrid sights of Emerald’s deadly path through the palace which was being cleaned up by Thracians, as they were able to stomach the gory sights with disturbing ease. It wasn’t that much better once she had reached the city streets. Green blood stains seemed to cover every street she walked on along with strange, long black marks. There were rather large holes as well in the streets and walls of the buildings, though Celestia couldn’t tell what could have made them like the long black marks that appeared occasionally. The worst part, however, was that sometimes she’d come across Thracians and some Royal guards collecting green stained bones in piles before putting them in garbage bags. Wondering just what sort of horrific weapons or magic that Emerald possessed that let her forces strip flesh from bone with such nauseating ease, the princess doubled her pace to the city center.

Once she started to close on the city center, Celestia started to see the diamond dogs Rarity mentioned. They were all wearing black armor that seemed to be made up of black scales and carrying large, boxy weapons that matched the descriptions of guns. Seeing them gave the princess pause and made her wonder if she should ask to pass through the area they were guarding to see Emerald when she dismissed the thought. They were in her kingdom and in her city. Though they helped, they likely traumatised a good many of her people with the help they gave. The last thing Celestia was going to do was to ask them if she could go somewhere within her own city. So she continued walking forward and none of the dogs even gave her much attention let alone tried to stop her.

As Celestia walked deeper into the city center, she began to notice some things about the diamond dogs here. Most were standing on guard and at attention, but even then they looked like their thoughts were elsewhere. Other dogs were huddled against walls, clutching tightly at the rifles in their paws with haunted looks in their eyes.

The princess continued on her way through the streets, practically ignored by all the diamond dogs standings about. Eventually she reached the city center where Emerald, the “lizards” she had and the changelings were located. The lizards were tall; easily taller than her, let alone a normal pony, but they were also all up on the roofs of the surrounding buildings, giving Celestia the impression of roosting birds instead of large, carnivorous lizards. The changelings were in the very center of the area, guarded by diamond dogs, those lizards and most of all, Emerald.

The alicorn was given some pause as she spotted the bipedal being standing before the changelings, but was quick to recognise who it was. Celestia had never seen Emerald in her female human form before, but it had some resemblance to her male human form thanks to the clothes she was wearing. Her somewhat curly pink hair, green eyes and pale skin were more than enough to call up mental pictures of the famed unicorn model that secretly did questionable poses in fashion magazines. It was then that the princess noticed the number of changelings being held here.

Celestia looked utterly aghast at the fact that out of all the many thousands of Changelings that had assaulted Canterlot, there were only several hundred huddled together in the middle of the street. There were also twelve other changelings that looked distinctly different from their fellows who were huddled together somewhat apart from the other Changelings and throwing looks at Emerald.

Speaking of the powerful shape shifter, she was looking rather… tense. She was pacing back forth before the group of captured changelings and giving them a death glare and basically looking completely unpleasant and unapproachable. This obviously wasn’t doing wonders for the captured changelings’ mood as they knew she held their fate in her hands and had quite clearly proven she was more than willing to kill them. Though, oddly, Celestia also noticed that Emerald’s expression would soften somewhat when she looked at the odd changelings.

“Emerald Gleaner,” Celestia began as she closed on the virus. “This cannot be all that is left of the many changelings that attacked Canterlot, can it?”

“It is,” Emerald said with an approving nod that had Celestia gaping at her. “My dogs did good work; they were outnumbered at least ten to one and still managed to get almost all of them.”

“Good work?” Celestia repeated incredulously. “Emerald, there were thousands of changelings at the start this invasion and now there are only a few hundred left.”

“And your point is?” Emerald said and looked at Celestia with an arched brow.

“I thought the point was very clear, Emerald,” Celestia said with a disappointed frown. “How could you have done this, Emerald?”

“Very easily,” Emerald replied and crossed her arms as she faced the princess. “I’m getting the feeling you aren’t very happy for me coming to your kingdom’s aid when it was being invaded by an army.”

“I… Emerald, I wish you to know I am so very glad that you decided to help us when we needed it,” Celestia said with a sigh. “But you still killed so many to do it.”

“I don’t get the point you are trying to make. They were the enemy.” Emerald shrugged and went back to staring at the changelings, though this time she looked like her mind was elsewhere.

Celestia stared at Emerald, wondering how she could think this way while before showing so much regret and pain for killing people. The alicorn began to ponder this mystery a bit more deeply; perhaps it had something to do with the circumstances? Emerald felt horrible for all those deaths before because they were just people who were in the wrong place at the wrong time and she had only herself to blame for them. But here the “victims” were a people who had chosen to invade Canterlot; to be an enemy. It was no longer a conflict of someone who should know better and some random innocent. It was a conflict of two people who knew full well what they were getting into. Though Celestia herself knew there should have been much more to it than “These people choose to be an enemy, therefore I feel nothing for them” but for Emerald that was apparently all she needed.

“We are going to have to go deal with the rest of the changelings in their homes.” Emerald stated absently as she continued to look thoughtful about something. “I’ll leave some dogs here to watch this lot and organise the rest into an assault force.”

“Emerald, I feel like retribution shouldn’t be our first course of action,”Celestia stated. “We should open a dialogue with their leadership at the very least.”

“I doubt any of the remaining Changeling leadership would want anything like that,” Emerald replied. “Besides, if nothing directly is done to handle the changeling situation, they’ll all be scattered or dead within the year. Likely most of them will be the latter.”

“What?”

Beneath the wastes of the Badlands lay the home of the changelings; massive caverns filled with softly glowing massive mushrooms and homes carved into the walls. Changelings were going about their business, but looked quite different from the ones who had left for Canterlot.

The changelings who had been sent to Canterlot for the invasion looked healthy and strong. These changelings looked thin and sickly, and some even had their ribcages visible through their skin. Another difference was that these Changelings had “hair” like Chrysalis with a wide array of styling; it wasn’t that the soldiers were born of some sort of hairless warrior cast. It was simply that the soldier changelings had to shave themselves bald as part of tradition and initiation.

Currently the mood in the hive was rather strained and worried. No word had been heard from the changelings sent to Canterlot yet. Along with that, the spiritual connection that all changelings felt to their queen that they called ‘The Feed’ had suddenly been cut at one point. This only happened during the transition period between queens or if the current queen were to suddenly die. Naturally, their connection to The Feed suddenly being cut had nearly sent the hive into chaos over worry of what had happened at Canterlot. It took all the crowd speaking skills the changeling Elders possessed to calm everyone, and even then the entire hive was walking on the knife edge of a panic induced riot.

The Elders were all convening in Chrysalis’s personal hive spire over whether some of the still strong youths should be sent out to see what was going on when it happened. The entire cavern the changelings called their home since time immemorial started to shake, and a low rumble echoed throughout the air.

Changelings paused in their places as they looked up and wondered what was going on when several sections of cavern walls suddenly collapsed. For a moment there was some panic as dust began to billow out from the areas of the collapse when hundreds of diamond dogs clad in black dragonscale armor stomped out of the dust cloud, followed by tall, vicious looking lizards.

Immediately, changelings panicked and ran for cover and safety, but the dogs clad in black went about their work in silent professionalism, collecting up changelings and forcing them into a central area where a ring of the tall lizards stood guard. Of course, changelings tried to fight back, but their sickly and weak looking appearances spoke novels of their ability to fight back effectively against a highly trained force. What little resistance that was present was practically ignored as dogs continued their work.

Amongst many more diamond dogs and raptors entering the Changeling Caverns was Emerald and Princess Celestia, the latter of whom looked guilty to be a part of this, and shocked at what she saw being guarded by the raptors.

“So few… why are there so few?” Celestia muttered.

“There had been a draft prior to the invasion,” Emerald replied. “All the young changelings had been gathered up, given a large ration of love to feed off of and prepared themselves physically for the invasion. Those too young or too old or simply too weakened by hunger and illness were left home.”

Celestia got a pained expression on her face as she neared the area the changelings were being held in. Now being close enough to see the condition of the many changelings, she was instantly able to understand and even sympathise with the departed Queen of the Changelings. If it was her own ponies that had been suffering and starving, she knew that she would have gone to any length to save them.

“Hmm… it will take a bit before the dogs are done gathering up the changelings,” Emerald stated as she watched the guarded group of changelings grow steadily larger. “There are several thousand of them, after all.”

“I thought they numbered so much more…” Celestia said softly. “But they are so few… how close have we come to pushing them to extinction?”

“It was me who killed a majority of their population if you recall,” Emerald replied bluntly. “And you don’t have to worry about the species. The Hive of Equestria may be in danger, but the hives of other nations are quietly thriving.”

“I refuse to not take responsibility for something that happened upon my lands, Emerald,” Celestia told the virus firmly. “I became a part of this the moment I decided to not only sanction, but attend your expedition… I, however, will state that I do not like in the least how you are going about this.”

“They could have chosen to reveal themselves,” Emerald replied apathetically. “They could have appealed to you for help, to help save them from starvation. But they didn’t. Instead, they chose for the route that promised conflict. They dug their own hole; I just kicked them in it.”

“Emerald, we most certainly are going to have a very serious discussion once we are alone,” Celestia stated with an expression that almost looked angry.

“Fine,” Emerald huffed before stepped forward towards the changelings. Currently the stream of changelings being herded into the holding area was slowing greatly and the virus considered now to be a good time to speak to them. What few that won’t hear her can be told by the others.

“Greetings!” Emerald shouted to the large crowd before her. “I believe that you all know of the invasion of Canterlot. You can all safely assume that it has failed in its purpose. And though you’ve probably all already figured this out from the sudden loss of The Feed, Queen Chrysalis is also dead.”

The reaction to this was instantaneous. Shouts of horror and grief mixed with roars of anger and disbelief. Emerald could tell from the mood of the people in front of her that had they collectively been healthier they would have attempted to lynch her despite the many highly trained people and dangerous creatures surrounding them.

“Emerald, just what is it you intend to do with them?” Celestia asked quietly as she quickly stepped beside the virus.

“Me? I don’t really intend to do anything with them,” Emerald replied. “They invaded your lands and threatened your people. I came to your aid, but in the end I know it’s up to you how we handle this.”

“I… we shall help them,” Celestia answered. “Enemy people or not, I refuse to stand by and let thousands starve to death.”

“Of course you wouldn’t,” Emerald stated and refocused her attention on the crowd of changelings. “We are going to relocate you to a different location, one outside the very city you tried to invade! Now I’d rather just take off as quickly as possible but I get the feeling that action wouldn’t be appreciated so what I’m going to do is to allow you to collect some of your things before we leave. Remember, this is for your own good!” Understandably a vast majority of the Changelings just gave hateful looks at Emerald for this and angry low muttering soon filled the cavern. “Of course if you wish to stay and slowly starve to death, then I’m all for leaving people behind to their most pleasant fates!”

That got people moving as, while they most certainly hated Emerald for what she was doing, they also didn’t believe for a second she wouldn’t do what she just said. As they moved in long lines to their various homes, Emerald watched carefully for attempts to assault diamond dogs or raptors that stood guard at various positions to herd changelings back into position.

“Emerald, we really need to talk about your horrid behaviour at a later point,” Celestia stated seriously. “I am honestly appalled at seeing this side of you.”

“There is nothing that needs to be talked about,” Emerald stated dismissively. “I did the right thing; I saw an enemy attacking so I went and destroyed that enemy.”

“You and your forces were far the superior of those of the changelings and you know it!” Celestia snapped. “You could have advocated non-lethal methods to the conflict, but you didn’t! What you did was little better than murder!”

“Fine,” Emerald drawled. “I murdered those changelings. War is basically government sanctioned mass murder anyway, and it doesn’t change the fact they were the enemy.”

Celestia actually growled in frustration at Emerald’s behavior. It was quickly proving to be a futile effort to try and convince Emerald that what she did was wrong. But the Princess of the Sun wasn’t giving up just yet. This just proved she needed some time to prepare for this discussion instead of trying to do it on the spot.

With that in mind, Celestia walked off to see if any of the changelings would like her help. She wasn’t a doctor by any means, but she knew more than her fair share of medical magic and the clearly sickly changelings needed any medical aid they could get. She just hoped they would let her help.

Sometime later found Emerald and Celestia back at Canterlot, sitting in a conference room with a still rather sleepy looking Princess Luna. Both Emerald and Celestia were informing Luna of what had happened while she had been out, though Celestia more than often interjected angrily on Emerald’s words with her own opinion on the matter.

The matter of the changelings had been somewhat handled once Emerald and Celestia had returned to the capital. They were all now housed in a large camp outside the city. Considering they were members of a hostile race, the camp they were staying at could easily be called an internment camp. But honestly, the only reason the camp resembled an internment camp in anyway was because of the guards Emerald had insisted be posted around the camp.

‘I wonder how my dogs are doing?’ Emerald thought as she decided to let Celestia handle informing Luna of current events. ‘I noticed quite a few of them being reclusive and not doing their jobs. This place is just too innocent sometimes… I’m going to need to get something going here. Maybe-’

Suddenly Emerald find herself being shook roughly, a yellow magical aura now around her. Releasing a small burst of magic to disrupt the magical hold on her Emerald looked up to see Celestia glaring at her.

“Emerald!” Celestia said angrily. “Pay attention this instant!”

“What!” Emerald shouted. Luna, for her part, fought down a yawn as she stared in surprise at Celestia.

“You pay attention to me when I am speaking to you!” Celestia said firmly. “Especially for something this serious!”

“You’ve already told me this several times already,” Emerald pointed out with a huff. “It’s pretty much impossible for me to forget anything. Telling me the same thing over and over again isn’t going to make me more informed than I already am.”

“I wouldn’t be repeating myself this much if it weren’t for the fact that for some reason the fact that what you did was wrong isn’t sinking into your head,” Celestia replied with a small, angry frown. “You not only killed most of the changelings that were part of the invasion, but brought an army along with you to do it faster.”

“That’s because I didn’t do anything wrong,” Emerald insisted. “I saw an enemy attacking my home, attacking the people I care about. Would you have preferred I have done nothing?”

At hearing Emerald’s reasons for why she did what she did, Luna gave a small smile at the virus. Even Celestia’s expression softened a little. There was a long moment of silence following that, though some of the tension had drained in light of Emerald’s personal reasons the air was still very tense.

“Emerald…” Celestia finally began with a sigh. “I am very happy that you and your people helped us when we needed it. What I am questioning is the sheer lengths you went to do so, namely killing most of the changelings and unleashing reptilian beasts upon them to not only kill them but eat the bodies of the dead as well.”

“Alright, fine…” Emerald said as she leaned back into her seat and palmed her face. “I’m sorry. This is the first time my forces have been in a fight with another flesh and blood foe. I don’t doubt they ended up going a bit far due to panic during combat. As for the Raptors… well honestly I should have seen that coming and made sure they knew the difference between hunting and fighting.”

Celestia frowned. She was a veteran when it came to politics and negotiation. She could easily see that while Emerald had apologised, she didn’t mean it. It was troubling to see how unapologetic the virus was about the people she killed, but considering her background it was understandable.

“Perhaps we should return to the topic of the changelings?” Luna suggested. “While we have the short term planned out, we have yet to cover what to do with them in the long term.”

“I wish for peaceful coexistence,” Celestia replied, secretly happy to be talking about something else for now. “The changelings are in danger of succumbing to starvation and we need to figure a way to ensure they may remain properly fed.”

“Yes, but I wonder why that is so?” Luna said curiously. “In all my years, the changelings have never had a problem with gathering love to feed off of. Granted I only know a little from the precious few changelings I was able to meet and speak with. But I do know that while there were food shortages once or twice, they were never pushed so far as to come into the open and attack someone.”

“I can answer that,” Emerald replied. “In the last few decades, love collection had reached record highs for several years straight. Even when collection was at its lowest, changelings were able to enjoy their equivalent of lavish meals. The previous changeling queen decided that this was a sign of future trends and spawned a large number of new changelings. Had the changelings remained at their previous average of spawning, then what happened next could have possibly have been not as devastating.”

“About four years ago, the previous changeling queen had decided her time had come,” Emerald continued. “And passed on the position of Queen to a promising young changeling in her cabinet of advisors; a changeling named Chrysalis. Now, the event that ultimately set in motion the plans for the invasion had to do with this system called The Feed, a spiritual connection primarily with the queen that all changelings have and is what is used to distribute love amongst the populace. Infiltrator changelings are able to store up a large amount of excess love and send it to the queen via The Feed which is then distributed to the rest. Now about two years or so ago, something happened to the infiltrators in Equestria that damaged their connection to The Feed and made it impossible for them to send love in any great amount. Love stores were great, but would only last so long and training enough new Infiltrators to replace all the crippled ones AND feed the many thousands of changelings back in the Hive would take far too long.”

“What in the world could have crippled the infiltrators?” Luna wondered before turning to her sisters. “Have there been any experimental uses of magical rituals or the like in the last few years, sister?”

“There have, but nothing that I can imagine would affect changelings hidden all over Equestria like this,” Celestia answered.

“The changelings had no idea what happened, either,” Emerald stated. “But I’ve been comparing dates in my memories and I’ve noticed something rather interesting.”

“What?”

“The day the infiltrators were suddenly crippled was the same day the Elements of Harmony were used for the first time in a thousand years,” Emerald replied.

At that surprising answer, a heavy silence hung over the room. Luna looked troubled while Celestia frowned down at the table. Conflicting thoughts filled her head about the Elements of Harmony, known as the most powerful force for good in the entire world.

Emerald, back in her pony form, was walking down a street in Ponyville.

Several hours had been spent talking and hashing out the fine details of having the changelings under Equestrian authority. It would take more than just a few hours of planning to solve the problems and issues with the situation hammered out, but the main things were being handled now. Namely, the changelings were being provided the same rights and protection as any other citizen of Equestria. They would also be allowed to travel the streets of Canterlot freely to gather the love they needed to survive. Of course, this was what was supposed to happen in theory. Chances were the grudges of ponies and even those of the changelings would make trying to implement this plan successfully, difficult. Another aspect was making the changelings’ presence clear even in other forms. It basically became law that the changelings had to wear a special armband to announce their status as a changeling. Initially the idea was to have the armband be bearing a symbol of a yellow star, but Emerald immediately shot that idea down in favour of a pink heart. The last thing Emerald wanted was to be reminded of the Nazis every time she saw a changeling with a yellow star.

As she walked down a street, Emerald started hearing hushed panicked sounding whispering. She was able to identify the voices as belonging to Bon Bon and Lyra. Wondering what was wrong that they sounded so apprehensive, Emerald rounded the corner to see the two sitting at a table together in front of an open air bistro. Bon Bon looked like she was on the verge of having a panic attack and Lyra was attempting to calm her down. However, after a moment’s study of Bon Bon, Emerald narrowed her eyes. Thanks to consuming various changelings, she now knew how to spot them. And just by looking at her, Emerald was able to tell that Bon Bon was a changeling.

Teleporting next to the changeling that was disguised as her friend, Emerald wrapped her up in a magical field and flung her against the wall with an audible and painful sounding thud.

“Drop your disguise!” Emerald snarled as she brought her face close to Bon Bon’s.

“E-E-Emerald?” Bon Bon said with wide scared eyes. “Wh-what are yo-”

“And tell me where the real Bon Bon is!” the virus demanded.

“Emerald, what the hay do you think you’re doing!?” Lyra exclaimed in anger and quickly ran over to the virus’ side as a crowd of ponies started to form. Noticing this, Lyra lowered her voice and tried to whisper her objections to Emerald. “Emerald quiet down a bit and let her-”

“I said drop your disguise and tell me where the real Bon Bon is,” Emerald growled as she ignored Lyra.

“B-but I am Bon B-ACK!” Bon Bon began but choked when the pressure around her throat and chest increased greatly.

“I will NOT take no for an answer!” Emerald shouted as the crowd behind grew ever larger in size. “DROP YOUR DISGUISE NOW!”

Bon Bon’s terrified eyes stared at Emerald for a moment and then at the crowd behind her before she closed them and let out a sob. With a flash of green flames the magical disguise was dropped and revealed the true form beneath. Surprisingly, other than for the gossamer wings, the black skin, the holes in the body and other characteristics common to changelings, Bon Bon looked a lot like her pony disguise; her hair was even styled in the same fashion. Strangely, Emerald couldn’t help but feel like she just forced a young woman to strip naked in public after watching Bon Bon drop her disguise.

“EMERALD!” Lyra screamed in fury and struck the virus on her head only to recoil and let out a short scream of pain, feeling very much like she had punched a solid steel wall with all her might. “S-she r-really is Bon Bon, you idiot!”

As Emerald turned and stared at Lyra in surprise, Bon Bon began to hyperventilate as she looked all around her. The air filled with whispers and muttering as ponies stared at Bon Bon with shocked and hateful eyes, knowing very well what her race was and what they had tried to do so very recently. Seeing that her friend was beginning to have a breakdown, Lyra darted to her side immediately and whispered soothingly to her and gave her a tight hug as she continued to glare at Emerald.

“I knew she was a Changeling practically from the start, Emerald,” Lyra muttered furiously. “Bon Bon didn’t need or deserve being outed like this you insensitive-”

“Then you must know that Bon Bon’s people just tried to invade Canterlot, don’t you?” Emerald interrupted, having had to deal with Celestia’s anger concerning her actions. She wasn’t in the mood to tolerate anything more like it from those she considered friends. But upon seeing Lyra’s guilty look, Emerald pushed on with anger. “You knew, didn’t you? Before it even started, I mean. You knew that another race was going to invade Canterlot, the capital of your Home Country and you said nothing.”

Lyra just looked away from Emerald and continued to rub Bon Bon’s back soothingly as the revealed changeling stared up at Emerald.

“What… what happened to the queen and the others?” Bon Bon asked quietly. “I’ve heard things and The Feed, I can’t…”

“The Changeling Queen Chrysalis and a vast majority of her invasion force were killed during the invasion,” Emerald said bluntly.

There were shocked gasps coming from the crowd behind Emerald as they heard this confirmation of what they had thought was wild rumors. Bon Bon for her part just gaped with a disbelieving expression on her face as tears started to well up in her eyes.

“N-no it… it can’t be… it can’t… no, no, no...” Bon Bon began in short lived denial as she started to cry. “It’s not fair! It’s not fair! W-we were just hungry! We just wanted to not starve! IT’S NOT FAIR!”

Ponies in the crowd stared awkwardly as Bon Bon started to bawl her eyes out in horrified grief before they started to go on their way. Emerald for her part felt her heart lurch as she realised some implications of the fact all changelings are spawned from one person. Namely that she just told Bon Bon her mother and many of her brothers and sisters were killed horribly.

“I… I suppose this doesn’t mean much, but…” Emerald began as Bon Bon continued to cry. “Princess Celestia has realised your people’s plight and is doing everything in her power to help them.”

“R-really?” Bon Bon asked, her voice tinged with hope.

“Yes. Look, I know this probably doesn’t mean much, Bon Bon, but… I do understand what you are going through right now.” Silence. “I’ll… I’ll see you later, Bon Bon.”

With that, Emerald turned away and made her way home. For the longest time she couldn’t help but think about Bon Bon’s situation as she walked.

‘Maybe… maybe I really was wrong about the way I went about this?’ Emerald thought for a moment before shaking her head. ‘Then what the hell else I was supposed to do?! Wag my finger disapprovingly at them and ask them to leave? Hmph, whatever…’

Putting that out of her mind, Emerald thought about the other thing she and Celestia had talked about back in Canterlot, namely introducing her to the League of Nations. She really no longer had any choice about it; she had gone out with her own personal army and walked into Canterlot openly in her human form. The time for hiding was over. Now it was time to face the world openly. Celestia would do the preparations for her introduction, while she would have a month to herself to plan and prepare herself for facing the known nations of the entire world. No pressure, and besides, Emerald had been expecting to do this eventually. Also, another issue that had been covered was the fact that Emerald would be openly known as a leader of another nation. This meant she had to cut ties to the Equestrian business world. The Evolved had considered this fine as well. She was frankly rich enough and knew someone she could pass on her holdings to and would use and grow it wisely just as she had done.

Finally, the Evolved arrived at her home, the library. Entering the front door, she was quickly greeted by Spike.

“Emerald!” Spike said as he ran to her. “You’re back! Uh, Twilight isn’t going to be home today. She decided to stay at Canterlot to rest and recover from her ordeal.”

“No problem. I hope she’s doing well,” Emerald replied. “I wish I could have spent a bit more time at her side than I had, but I was busy with the princesses.”

“She understands…” Spike said and scratched the back of his head as he glanced over his shoulder. “Also, you got visitors here to see you.”

“I do?” Emerald frowned. “Who?”

“I don’t know.” Spike shrugged. “There is this heron guy and this pegasus with him. They’ve been waiting a few hours to see you. They’re in the living room.”

“All right, I’ll go see them,” Emerald said.

Emerald walked over to the room’s doorway and looked inside. Sitting at the couch was the heron Spike had mentioned, and the pegasus. The heron was peacefully sipping from a cup of tea held aloft by a tiny sphere of swirling air while the pegasus was leaning on one of the couch arms in obvious boredom as she stared out a window.

“Hello?” Emerald said as she walked into the room. “You wanted to see me?”

“Ah, Emerald Gleaner. I am Gyatso, a Master of the Order of Elemental Channelers, and this is my apprentice, Swift Gale,” the heron said with a friendly smile while said apprentice seemed to blush and get shy after looking at her. “It’s a pleasure to finally meet you! Please sit with us. There are things of great importance I wish to speak with you about.”

“Okay,” Emerald said as she took seat at an armchair. “So what did you want to talk to me about?”

“You see, young miss, I was sent here by the Grand Masters of my order to do an investigation,” Gyatso explained. “What was I investigating? Well you see, earlier this year the Grand Masters detected a massive burst of spiritual energies in Equestria.”

“Oh…” Emerald said simply. She also noticed that Swift was now staring at her out of the corner of her eye and her flushed cheeks hadn’t faded in intensity. “I take it you know full well who had caused the blast of energy, don’t you?”

“I do indeed!” Gyatso smiled. “Initially the Grand Masters had been worried about the return of a mythical Spirit of Disorder that had once plagued our lands ages ago. Imagine my surprise when the traces of energies that had remained in the air could be traced back to you.”

“This isn’t going to be a problem I hope?” Emerald asked. Outwardly she was still calm, but inwardly she was tense as a tightly coiled spring.

“Oh no, not a problem at all my dear,” Gyatso reassured. “I’ve gotten in contact with the Grand Masters and they want to see you.”

That gave Emerald pause. She had just revealed herself to the world at large and already people wanted to meet with her. Frankly though, she already had a lot on her plate with having to deal with what the future would throw at her now that she was known.

“Can this wait?” Emerald asked. “I’ve really got a lot of other things to do. I can’t just up and go right now.”

“Of course, young miss,” Gyatso nodded. “The Grand Masters are patient; they are willing to wait until an appropriate time to meet with you. In fact, they may get in touch with you again when you go present yourself to the League of Nations.”

“I take it Celestia told you about that, huh?” Emerald stated.

“Yes she did. I would offer my advice, but I feel that you have the situation in hand,” Gyatso said. “Also I can’t help but voice my desire to face you in a friendly spar to see but a glimpse of what you are capable of. Now, I realise that now is not the time, as you’ve no doubt had a busy day, but should you decide to humor me, my apprentice and I shall be staying at the Royal Palace in Canterlot.”

“REALLY!?” Swift Gale suddenly broke in excitedly. “We get to stay somewhere nice and luxurious for once!? YES, OH MY GOSH YES!”

“Ah, my young Swift,” Gyatso said with a shake of his head as he got up. “One day you may find the raw nature far more ideal than the cities and towns.”

“Sure I will, Master,” Swift said with a smirk.

“Now my apprentice and I shall take our leave, Emerald Gleaner,” Gyatso said. “I look forward to your response to my request.”

“Y-yeah I’m looking forward to having a go at you too, ya know…” Swift Gale said to Emerald when she suddenly got shy again. “Uhh… anyway, see ya later!”

Emerald stared at the two as they left the room curiously. She supposed this would be the Heron Republic’s official response to her, unless the Channelers were acting independently here. It was possible, all things considered. Speaking of the Channelers, she didn’t really know much about them, only that they were capable of manipulating the elements and were considered highly spiritual. That, and they basically accepted anyone into their order. Emerald was fairly certain she had heard of one or two dragons even becoming masters in their order.

Shaking her head clear, Emerald decided to head up into her room to rest her mind and take in the day’s events. It would also do to calmly plan out the future because presenting herself to the League was a big step concerning her place in this world.

As she arrived in her and Twilight’s room, she noticed that Navi was sleeping in her little bed on the bedside table. Emerald had quite honestly forgotten all about the little bug since this morning when she kept going back to bed despite her trying to rouse her. Seeing that she was still sleeping despite having a whole night’s rest on top of sleeping the whole day, got Emerald rather worried for the pet she had grown to love and adore.

“Navi, you really ought to get up now. You’ve probably spent all day in bed, haven’t you?” Emerald said as she walked over to her pet. “Navi? Navi, wake up. Navi?!”

Emerald gritted her teeth in worry as she couldn’t get Navi to wake up. But just as she was about to reach down and shake Navi as hard as she dared, the little bug released a tiny trill and slightly cracked open both her eyes at Emerald.

“Navi, what’s wrong? Why are you sleeping so much?” Emerald said as she began to recall all the many times Navi spent sleeping or napping over the past few months.

The only answer she got from the little bug was a tired yawn as she began to slowly drift back into sleep. This caused Emerald’s worry to explode into high gear and she reached down to gently touch her pet’s side. Small tendrils extended out of her hoof and into Navi, releasing pain killers as they also took samples of the little bug for Emerald to analyse. It only took a moment for Emerald to realise what was bothering Navi. She was dying of old age.

A parasprite lived a short life doing nothing but eating and spawning more of its kind. Hell, they were considered lucky if they lived long enough to make more parasprites before they got eaten, due to their only natural defense being out populating the predators. With that, it was lucky Navi lived as long as she did and didn’t have a horrendously short life span like some bugs had. With that fact in mind, Emerald wondered if she should let nature take its course and let Navi live out her natural life span.

Almost instantly, Emerald tossed the thought aside and began her work. Stressed out from having to deal with the changeling threat to her home, Celestia’s behaviour afterwards and exposing one of her friend’s deepest secrets, Emerald didn’t think about how she had reversed Fenrir’s old age by slowly replacing the cells bit by bit. Instead, she thought of the moments following her own awakening after being infected with Blacklight, how strong, healthy and tireless she felt.

Navi’s eyes shot wide open as she gasped in pain briefly before a storm of black tendrils exploded out of her skin and surrounded her form for an instant, then they disappeared and she was left lying in her bed, looking exactly like the day she had been born, breathing softly and slowly.

Emerald let loose a long tired sigh as she dropped her forehead onto the table top next to Navi.

‘When is this day going to be over?’ Emerald moaned in frustration before dragging herself onto the bed with a sigh. ‘Things are only going to get busier from here on…’

-FIN-

Author's Note

AN: Book two complete! I am SO happy! Now I just have to finish up a short epilogue and this story is done, for now that is. I really hope this chapter delivers and is what everyone hoped it will be, it certainly took me forever to write it. I’ll start writing Book Three in the near future but right now I believe I deserve a nice break to rest and recharge.

EN: Damn right it was a good ending. Such action. Much carnage. Many deaths. Awesome. And I’m really glad I managed to get all the editing in and still have a little bit of time left before work. Anyways, said work is slowly coming up soon. I’ll leave this as it is for now. But y’all better be grateful I managed to push my way through this despite the limited timeframe I had.

Epilogue: Revelations

Samus Aran, otherwise known as Sammy to people who didn't care to learn her proper name, blinked her eyes before reaching up and rubbing them. She had just spent a whole year watching someone else live their life. Every happy, sad and private moment she had just witnessed and she only felt like she had just finished watching a lengthy movie. Clearly something had been done to her to allow her do this. She hadn't once felt the need to eat or drink let alone gotten up to ask where the refresher was to relieve herself.

Sammy stopped rubbing her eyes and looked down at her lap. Carina was still there and still eating from her bucket of ever filling gummy bears, but at the very least she had slowed down a little to watch the life and times of Emerald Gleaner. Turning to her side, Orion was still there but now was sans a bucket of his own as he lounged back on his luxurious couch. Samus didn't know how or why, but she had the distinct feeling that he had gotten up a few times to attend to some other matters.

She was about to question him further when Carina started fidgeting a lot on her lap. Looking back, she saw Carina had decided to massively and disgustingly gorge herself on the gummy bears. Tossing whole handfuls into her mouth and swallowing them whole, an act that would have had normal children choking to death the moment they tried. Samus didn't bother to try and hide the disgusted scowl at the sight.

"Carina, stop eating like a damn pig!" the bounty hunter growled and grabbed both of Carina's arms.

"But why!?!" Carina whined and struggled a little against her babysitter's grip. She could have easily used her abilities to break free of the grip on her and force Samus to not do that again, but for some reason she didn't.

"Because you are being completely disgusting, eating the way you are!" Samus said as she let go of Carina to take away the bucket she had been eating from. The young Astral Lady stared with wide, watery eyes and a trembling, pouting lip as she watched Samus do this, again only putting up a token resistance as the bounty hunter put it out of reach behind the couch.

"Stop that," Samus commanded when tears started to flow down Carina's cheeks and frowned when she began to cry softly. Sighing in irritation, the bounty hunter pinched the bridge of her nose for a moment as she considered what to distract Carina with. After a moment, she tentatively got an idea.

"Why don't you read something instead?" Samus asked.

"Read?" Carina asked in confusion, the tears instantly gone. "Read what?"

"Uhh..." Glad that she had managed to distract the child, Samus began thinking of a book for her to read when one popped into existence on the armrest. Quickly grabbing it, the bounty hunter read the title before presenting it to Carina.

"This, Heritage of Horror," Samus said, but frowned when she considered what she said. "Wait a second I-"

Too late, the book vanished from her grasp and reappeared in Carina's hands. The little Astral girl proceeded to turn the book this way and that as she examined it from every angle before opening the book upside down to a random page. Giving the contents a look over, Carina then turned the book right side up before reading from the first page.

Still wondering if the book she had given Carina was appropriate for her, the former bounty hunter none the less gave an approving nod at her charge. Samus then frowned as she wondered if she would get in trouble for being harsh with an Astral Lord. Taking a look around, however, proved that no one really cared what was going on in her little spot, more concerned with the large crystal ball before them. Orion was the sole exception, and was looking at her out of the corner of his eyes with an amused grin.

'You do not have to worry about others, Samus Aran,' she heard in her head, proving that Orion actually was capable of using her proper name. 'You were brought here to be Carina's babysitter, after all. How she is to be cared for is up to you unless her mother says otherwise. And of that you have no worry. She trusts my word after all, and is enjoying her free time far too much to think of taking Carina's care back into her own hands.'

'YOU were the one who told her to a get a babysitter?' Samus frowned both at the revelation and how Orion seemed to want to keep this talk private. 'And you suggested ME of all people... why?'

'I did not suggest you specifically,' Orion answered. 'You just happened to be at the top of a rather extended list of people I gave to her. I suppose she either figured you were the best choice... or more likely she trusted all my suggestions to be good and simply grabbed the one at the top of the list.'

'...But why me? Why a mortal being and not one of your own?' the former bounty hunter asked, not sure whether to be feeling furious or confused. 'I have no clear idea of how your powers work. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to get another Astral Lord to watch over Carina instead of me?'

'Ah, now that is the question, isn't it?' Orion hummed in amusement. 'Why you and not someone who can properly teach Carina? Why, the answer is sitting on your lap. Look at her.'

Samus did and stiffened at the sight she saw. Carina was on her lap, and therefore she was practically in her face. This made the fact she now had a dozen protruding,- bulbous eyes coming out of her skull, and the fact her mouth was a writhing mass of tumorous tentacles rather... unappealing. After a moment, Carina giggled and her face returned to normal with a bright smile. She learned against Samus' chest and snuggled in close before returning her attention back to her book.

Samus turned back to Orion with a most displeased expression on her face.

'As amusing as that was, that was not what I meant,' Orion communicated. 'Carina's mother would not have grown disgusted with her daughter's behavior and likely would have just let her continue eating for decades on end. Not you. You saw her manners as what they were, disgusting. You made her stop, then you gave her something else to amuse herself with; something to occupy her mind. It is sad to say, but with this one action short of giving birth to her yourself, you have been more of a mother to Carina than her actual one. There is nothing bad to say of the Lady in question. However, she is just... more of a friend to little Carina than an actual mother. A child needs friends, but above that a responsible mother is more important.'

'That's what this is about?' Samus frowned. 'You wanted Carina to have guidance?'

'Yes and no,' Orion replied, and for once the easy going smile dropped from his face, replaced by a frown instead. 'It is good that Carina will be given the guidance she needs to be a good person, but what is more important is that more children have the same.'

'I'm not the only one, aren't I?' Samus asked. 'There are more people like me, normal mortal people taken from their worlds to be babysitters and nannies for your children... is it really that important that you need to do this? And are local parents so lacking in... maturity that they can't be trusted to do it themselves?'

'Oh, we have been around for countless eons. We do well enough on our own,' Orion answered. 'But most likely they perpetuate this endless circle by teaching their habits to the next generation as it were. And while that isn't so bad in comparison to what lies beyond our borders, it can be so much MORE... I am going to tell you a short tale, my dear...'

In one instant, Samus found herself no longer in the large room with the many couches and massive crystal ball. She now found herself sitting in the emptiness of space surrounded by stars and nebulas, sitting on an armchair facing Orion who was sitting in his own.

"Countless eons ago, in a universe long since since dead and had rebirthed dozens of times, there existed a stellar Empire," Orion began, their surroundings changing at his words. Seemingly showing a universe undergoing many heated deaths and violent rebirths in reverse before slowing and rushing inwards to show a pristine world of greens and blues. "This Empire cherished knowledge, but was pragmatic in the true ways of their world. Through power of technology and magic interwoven together, they rose to meet many challenges. No matter what they faced, be it mortal, divine or inward sedition, they met these challenges and overcame them, becoming stronger with each victory."

"Eventually they came to control the whole of their world and rose to the stars to make them their own as well," Orion continued, the surroundings changing and displaying what his words described. "They would meet yet more rivals, more of those who would challenge their right to exist amongst the stars. But like the challenges upon their world, they met each fearlessly and grew stronger yet with each victory. Eventually sedition would strike them again and one of their own betrayed them to work with the enemy. This traitor would have given their enemies soldiers capable of meeting them as equals and maybe even crush their onward expansion and ever growing power. So putting all their strength and will towards ending this traitor, they tracked him and his allies down, but not before they succeeded in actually creating these soldiers."

"The traitor knew his people were coming and took his few creations aboard a ship. They were not perfected just yet, but that did not matter; they would be fixed later when they were safe to work once more. However, the traitor underestimated just how close his people were and they were upon him before he and his protectors could react."

All around Samus and Orion, a battle in space silently raged. One side numbered nearly ten thousand ships, but they were still outnumbered by the other, at nearly twenty to one. Samus correctly guessed that the Empire wanted no chance of defeat. Suddenly, what could only be the flagship of the traitor was cored by a powerful beam that nearly blinded Samus. For a long moment the battle seemed to suddenly pause and halt, before a massive rip in reality instantly formed where the flagship had been.

"Aboard the ship of the traitor was a special device used to tear apart the fabric of reality," Orion explained. "This was how the traitor left the Empire and was how he had intended to escape it when they hunted him. Unfortunately for him, when his ship was gutted it also damaged the device as it was charging, prematurely tearing open a rip in reality that tore apart nearly every ship that was pulled into it."

The rip in reality did as Orion described and tore apart or disintegrated any ship that so much as grazed it as they fought to escape its pull. One ship was almost successful at doing just that. To Samus' eyes, it looked like a freighter or large troop carrier with massive engines. This ship had no weapons and even if it had, its cargo was too valuable to risk in a fight so it had been fleeing the moment the fight started. This fact seemed to be what saved it.

Orion had said nearly every ship was destroyed by the rip, and it was true. By the time the freighter was pulled back towards the rip, the rest of its protective fleet had been annihilated, but the rip was also beginning to close. Running out of the energies that opened it in the first place, the portal grew smaller and briefly stabilized as it swallowed the freighter and collapsed in on itself.

"The Empire was victorious yet again and no doubt they would go on to greatness, but this story was never truly about them," Orion stated. "No, our story follows that freighter."

Energies of incomprehensible colors churned around the ship as it spun and twisted in ways that should have shattered it like a dry twig, no doubt however to the ship's great fortune the laws of physics were different in this place. Suddenly the ship was back in reality, but it wasn't in the right place, attested to by the fact the ship was not only in atmosphere, but on a planet, and by the fact the front half of the ship was now fused with a mountain in some jungle. Years seemed to pass then as plant life soon rapidly over grew the ship and the elements caused its hull to ever so slowly rust, when the proper passage of time reasserted itself. A large chunk of ship hull suddenly blew open and out came human looking children in the thousands. They wandered about the area around the decayed ship, no doubt wondering what to do when a massive dragon like beast burst out of the foliage. For a moment, it seemed like the children were about to be slaughtered when the beast was torn to pieces by spikes suddenly shooting out of the ground, shards of ice sent flying at supersonic speeds and bits of metal from the ship itself. The children then fell upon the body with glee, savaging it more but growing sad when they realised it was dead.

"These children were the soldiers that had been intended to fight the Empire," Orion continued with a nostalgic yet oddly sad grin. "They would name themselves after their attempts to pronounce what remained of the designation upon the ship, Gor'ens. They were imperfect because they were not fully grown and their biological programming was not finished just yet, merely giving them the NEED to fight to enjoy fighting and to fall into a coma if they did not satiate this need. Their population was one long, constant explosion and their programming meant the society they would make would completely revolve around war and nothing else. Not drink, not sex, not food, not valuables; just pure war. They enjoyed it with a glee not often seen outside of small children."

At that, Samus suddenly had a mental image of a small, cheerful Carina smiling up at her, giving her a hint of what this tale may be leading up to.

"Within two millennia the Gor'ens now spanned their world, though their numbers had yet to reach a billion; a fact only constant infighting kept from being realised," Orion said, an image of a beautiful green and blue jewel that was the Gor'ens' homeworld. "Within another two, their people were billions strong and was already spreading across their solar system. For they were made both strong and intelligent, their all consuming desire for conflict being their only limiting factor. However, this desire for war went into high gear when they finally come into first contact with another race and the wider galaxy as a whole."

"Upon meeting another race, it was as if a switch had been thrown in the Gor'ens' brains," Orion stated. All around them were images of Gor'ens stopping what they were doing no matter what it was to look up the news. "In that moment, all infighting had stopped completely and the Gor'ens turned their attentions to the race they had just met. For that race, it was a routine first contact, and an equally gone bad first contact when the Gor'ens attacked. At first they were simply a nuisance, attacking ships many times their betters, but feared on the ground. Though soon they caught up and became dangerous, and they didn't stop there. They became known as a great evil. The barbarian hordes at the gates in the age of spaceships and stellar empires."

"In the following ten thousand years, the Gor'ens washed across the galaxy, their shapes darkened the skies of a million worlds," Orion stated solemnly as images of war and death flashed all around them. "At the end of those ten thousand years, alien races who took their first steps into the wider galaxy, expecting an enlightened society, are greeted with death and fire."

"In the following one hundred thousand years, they initially tore each other apart again in their newly conquered galaxy, before turning their sights outward," Orion continued as images of countless fleets, each at least a billion strong in ships alone flashed by, all aimed at an unsuspecting universe. "At the end of those hundred thousand years, the Gor'ens occupied several hundred galaxies, their grand empire built on a foundation of innocent slaughter and the ashes of cultures far more deserving."

"In the following five hundred thousand years, the Gor'ens expanded ever faster." Orion sighed. "Their armies and fleets filling faster than they could spend them on the defenses of knowing and unknowing enemies alike, their strength only growing greater as they developed ever more deadly implements of war. A hundred conquered galaxies became a thousand, then a hundred thousand, then a million. By the end of that five hundred thousand years, they conquered their billionth galaxy and were not slowing in the slightest."

"In the next million years, the Gor'ens grew ever more exponentially." Orion waved to the images of fleets so vast they clouded the skies of every world in a galaxy and armies so huge they trampled entire planets flat. "By the end of that million years they conquered over a hundred billion galaxies, and for the first time since their war upon the universe for no reason save it was fun they looked all around them... and saw no one left to fight, no possible lands left to hold new enemies. The entirety of the universe was theirs to do with as they wished and no other sapient species that traveled the stars lived. And what did they do? They started fighting the one people left standing... themselves."

"Whole galaxies died in the turmoil that followed," Orion said softly with a hint of trepidation in his voice as images flashed by, showing ships as massive as stars flying through planets and exchanging fire with ships that matched themselves in size or incredibly huge swarms of 'little ones'. For ONE. BILLION. YEARS. One billion years this state continued, a state of war and death unending. And what happened at the end of this billion years of slaughter? An accident. By this time their weapons grew so powerful that they started to tear apart the fabric of reality. Eventually one observant Gor'en decided to investigate this effect, if only to potentially develop ever more potent weapons. What he discovered would bring the Gor'ens literally unlimited enemies. The entirety of the multiverse was revealed to them and once more the whole of the Gor'en race instantly ceased their interwarring and quickly reorganized to mobilize against all unlimited existence. This could be counted as fortunate on their part, as while their wars were immensely destructive, they were still out growing their death rates. They were beginning to drive their universe to an early heat death thanks to their numbers and the vastness of their weapons. Most would say this would have been preferred to what would happen next.”

“Once they had expanded outside of their home universe, there was no stopping them... initially," Orion said somberly, the images flashed by showing victory after victory, before suddenly it was all replaced by Gor'ens dying by the trillions. "The Gor'ens met their fateful foes, local ascendants and gods who were banded together to protect their local territories against the destruction of interdimensional warlords. Now they faced a new threat that had arisen within their midst. They were reality warpers and gods incarnate, but the Gor'ens had been waging war for over a billion years. Their weapons technology was nothing to scoff at as a few overconfident ascendants soon learned; a lethal lesson for others to take to heart."

"God and Gor'en died in the war that followed, for every one god they killed, untold numbers of their own died in the effort," Orion stated with a resigned sigh. "But the Gor'en’s desire to wage war and become ever better at it continued. For the Gor'ens, the war against gods was not nearly as fun as it could be. It was far too one sided with only one of theirs that died for every quadrillion or so of the Gor'ens. So the Gor'ens sought a means to even the playing field for the first time since they arrived upon that planet ages ago. They looked towards sciences and ideas they barely touched upon; they sought ascension."

"With their collective resources focused on this goal, the war against the gods raged for a century; a bloody century that left every universe the Gor'ens ever touched deeply scarred from their warring," Orion said and clenched his jaw muscles in agitation. "The Gor'ens sought ascension without enlightenment. For most races, this would be doomed to failure. But not them... so great was their determination and will to even the playing field against the gods, they eventually succeeded."

"When it happened, it did not happen slowly. It happened all at once," Orion explained as images showed Gor'ens awash with bright energies across all the universes they fought in. "In one moment, the gods were fighting a war of deadly attrition against a people that, while dangerous, would be but ash and dust in the wind with a wave of their hands. The next moment they were fighting a freshly ascended people who could warp reality just as easily as they could. The newly ascended race did not know their new powers, but it ultimately did not matter. Instead of quadrillions dying for every one god, it was only a hundred. The gods died drowning in a sea of enemies and the multiverse was left at the mercy of the new ascended. Ascended who renamed themselves after the appearance of universes in the emptiness of the multiverse, the Lords of the Stars... Astral Lords."

"...So that's how your people came to be," Samus commented as she took in the images of the heroic last stand of the gods against the newly created Astral Lords. "So what happened next? Did all of you fall to infighting again?"

"If only that were the case," Orion replied with a mirthless smile and shake of his head. "No, my newly ascended ancestors only ever fought each other when there was no other possible foe. And that most certainly was not the case with the infinity that was this bubble of the multiverse they now found themselves masters of."

"So we fell upon the multiverse with a childlike glee," Orion continued, images now showing unbelievable slaughter and war, so much so Samus found herself feeling numb to it all. Unable to truly wrap her mind around the scale of the fighting, images flashed by, most of them alien to her, but two brief ones were very recognizable. It was of her; two alternate universe versions of her. One was her ship being completely surrounded and blown up while another was of her on the wrong end of a horribly one sided fight. "For a thousand years, the plague of unmerciful slaughter and devastation that was the Astral Lords unchained and unbound by mortality and the laws of physics ravaged the multiverse. Precious few could slow our rampage. Fewer still had any clear idea of what was going on before it was already over. But as whole clusters of galaxies and universes died, something began to slowly happen. We were growing bored of the one thing we were born to enjoy most."

"You may recall that we were an engineered people who were biologically programmed to enjoy war," Orion said with a true, genuine smile. "However, we were biological creatures no longer. The moment we ascended was the moment we no longer experienced a NEED for war, though we still did it because it was part of who we were as a people."

"And so it was, the years past and more new generations were born knowing of war as the great game but had no real need for it," Orion continued a little happily. "At the end of a thousand years, the Astral Lords who still practiced war as the great game had fallen into an insignificant fraction of our whole. Our people were now looking for something to fill the hole our programming left. Some interacted with our charges, our dustling subjects, named so for they are but stardust to the stars we lord over. Some simply traveled about, looking at interesting sights. And some simply decided to watch the dustlings as they laughed, lived, fought and loved. It was this last group that drew the most of us."

"So here we are an eternity later!" Orion said grandly with a gesture to his surroundings, images flashed by of the Astral Lords as they are now, reality warpers who dressed in victorian styles and lived in palaces as big as planets and watched the children of the star dust as they lived their brief lives. "We are certainly better than what we once were, but I wouldn't exactly call what we are now a state we should be happy with. We are a people who ascended without enlightenment. Our powers were won through conquest and violence at the cost of countless lives. Many would likely damn their own people if they had done but a fraction of the destruction mine did, but they are still my people. Enough death and destruction has been done. It's time for more subtle measures. It's time for people like you, Samus Aran."

Samus leaned forward and clasped her hand over her closed fist in front of her face, thinking intently of everything she had heard. Suddenly her days as adopted daughter of the Chozo and renowned bounty hunter seemed like a lifetime ago as her mind wrapped around the facts she was facing and the implications she surmised. After a long moment, she leaned back in her armchair with a sigh.

"Okay... I can see why I was kidnapped and forced into babysitting, now. I can even see the importance of it," Samus stated as she crossed her legs and inwardly wished for a drink, a wish Orion granted an instant later. "You want people with a different outlook on life, those with different values and lifestyles so they can imbue those same life values in Astral children. For while the Astral Lords can take care of and raise their own, their own views and lifestyles are inappropriate for children, let alone these new, better Astral Lords you want. So you want "dustlings" like me to care for you children and raise them ourselves, whole generations of Astral Lords raised with ideals imbued into them by us to become a more restrained and moral breed of Astral."

"Exactly!" Orion smiled. "Astrals like me are rather... rare. I wish that weren't so, that we weren't an ascended race of... of... almighty idiots. But we are what we are. An engineered race made for war so we ascended in ignorance rather than in enlightenment as most ascended do. But now… now is the chance to work towards self improvement in earnest rather than let the natural social evolution take place, something that is rather impractical considering the model was thought up with a society whose members are killed off by old age every once in a while."

"That reminds me..." Samus said with a thoughtful look. "You mentioned how the Infinite Kingdom rules only this "bubble" of the multiverse, and that certain actions are taken so that neighboring bubbles are made into a sort of buffer state to shield the Kingdom's realms from outside aggression. Who exactly does that or ensures that Lords don't wander out into multiverse at large and cause havoc?"

"They are the Astral Knights," Orion answered and the surrounding images shifted, now showing a collection of Astral Lords whose demeanor was shockingly solemn in comparison to the Lords Samus met so far. They wore the standard victorian style clothing but had a cuirass of simple iron over it and a rapier strapped to their sides, seemingly the only things to mark these people as Astral Knights rather than simple Lords. "They are our protectors from those who would assault us... and they also serve as judge, jury and, when the situation calls for it, executioner of Astral Lords who go too far."

Samus Aran merely raised an eyebrow, a simple act that showed her incredulous thoughts regarding the Knights' effectiveness as a police force.

"I know, it doesn't seem like they are doing a good job considering what a good number of Lords get up to, doesn't it?" Orion stated with an agreeing nod. "However you must realize that even we can't be everywhere and the Knights make up a tiny fraction of our total population. There is simply only so much they can do and so they must focus on the worst cases. Otherwise they'd be tied up in, comparatively, minor crimes."

"Are you one of them?" Samus asked.

"No I am not," Orion replied. "They say I've come a long way, but I'm not quite there yet."

"Considering the vastness of your population, I'm likely hardly the first to get roped into this," Samus stated. "Or that the people like me taking care of Astral Children are in any little number."

"Of course!" Orion laughed. "One can hardly cause a social revolution one at a time. There are trillions of people like you taking care and raising our children. And that's just counting my rather meager contributions to the cause. There are many more like minded Lords who have thrown in their lot with the social revolution and made their own efforts to make us better in a whole."

"So now that I'm in the know... what's next?" the former bounty hunter asked.

"Now...?" Orion began. "Now you get back to raising your charge and enjoying the show."

"Of course," Samus said and blinked as she instantly found herself back in the large viewing room with the many couches and massive crystal ball. Orion was sitting back in his seat like nothing happened, sly smirk upon his features. None of the other Lords had moved as well and the scene in the crystal ball hadn't moved past the point she had last seen it in. Carina, however...

"Where did all those books come from?" Samus asked with a raised brow at her charge.

"You and Orion were taking an instant too long," Carina answered absently as she turned a page. She was no longer on Samus' lap and was lying on her belly on the couch, her legs kicking in the air behind her as she read the book before her and had a rather large stack of apparently read books on the floor. "So I read other stuff while you two were doing things."

"So you got bored waiting for an instant in time to pass by?" Samus stated with furrowed brows before sighing. "I suppose if I'm going to put in the effort, I ought to teach you proper patience."

"AWWW, BUT THAT'S BORING!" Carina whined.

In his seat, Orion smiled subtly at Carina and her babysitter before turning his head briefly to look out the still open door Carina and Samus had entered through.

Walking by the door at that very moment was a very familiarblonde haired, blue eyed and fair skinned woman, wearing victorian clothes but far too prideful to be wearing anything feminine and so was wearing the more masculine version tailored to her frame. Two Astral children on the cusp of being teenagers were at her sides and holding her hands, a brother and sister who were gabbering away contentedly to their caretaker, who had a smile though ever so slight it was.

'Trillions of people just like you, indeed,' Orion thought, laughing inwardly. 'Perhaps I should have mixed up the lists I gave out to everyone just a bit? Ah well, variety may be the spice of life but the devil you know and all that. I'm sure the metaphor does something clever there. Now back to business.'

With that, Orion got ready for the next part of the tale unfolding before him. Season three of that cartoon series was up next, but at the rate Emerald's presence was beginning to charge up major aspects of the world, the Astral Lord figured it would be soon time to "forget canon" as it were.

'How exhilarating.' Orion smiled in anticipation. 'I could easily look ahead but that would be cheating. Plus it would ruin the surprise, and that is the last thing I want to do. Such an interesting little Dustling, Emerald is... well, on with the show.'

<><>

Author's Note

AN: Ugh... this took forever to write on a phone. Soooo glad I'm done and I'll soon be buying a laptop to get back to writing at full speed in a few weeks. So yeah, just wait a bit longer guys! Book 3 is a coming!

EN: You know, through the entire explanation of the Gor’ens, I was getting a massive Ing feeling about this. Am I the only one? Maybe? Idk. I kinda wanna know what you readers have to say about that. Though now that I think of it, it probably doesn’t help that it’s Samus being talked to about it. Makes me wonder which games are canon in this story or not. But I digress. I’m rambling. Editing was a bit delayed on my part due to Heavensward coming out for Final Fantasy XIV, and a good chunk of my time has been pulled into that. Well… that and this damn Bloodborne trophy hunt. Stupid Souls game and one shot boss bs. But ANYWAY. Enough of my rambling. Too much space taken up for a note. Have fun out there, all. And until next time, I’ll be waiting ever so impatiently for Book 3 to start up. See you all there.

Chapter 1: Growing Ever Stronger

Oskar walked down a tunnel sloping downwards gently; it was the tunnel leading into the cavern capital city of the Enclave, her nation.

Oskar was currently in her altered base form, created via combining the human genes of her original base form and splicing ‘Emerald’s’ genes into it. The result was a slender, pale skinned beautiful young woman with blazing pink hair and eyes like gleaming emeralds, wearing the clothes of her original base form, which were baggy on her now feminine frame. Though Oskar could have easily adjusted the clothing to fit her female form in a more befitting way, namely making the shirt and pants much more form fitting, she didn’t feel comfortable doing that and just kept the original size from her male base form.

A deep pain throbbed in Oskar’s chest and the Evolved knew that no matter how much morphine she used, this particular pain would not fade away so easily. Her mind was in chaos, unable to think of a solution to what had just happened. Her true self, the very thing she had worked so hard to keep hidden, was now fully known to Twilight and there was no real way of knowing what the unicorn would do with it.

Images of herself in her Emerald Gleaner form getting ambushed by the Elements of Harmony and the princesses plagued her mind, but just as numerous as those were images of Twilight awaiting her with a deeply pained and conflicted look upon her features. Her emotions were like a whirlwind gone mad and left her nigh impotent before the task of preparing for the consequences of her actions.

Quite simply, Oskar had no clue what to do to save herself… or if she even should in the first place. An overpowering sense of guilt washed over Oskar and she found herself placing a hand against the wall to support herself. All the death, all the plotting, all the blood on her monstrous claws, all to save her own life… but was it actually worth saving?

Oskar shook her head and continued forward down the tunnel, doing her best to shake off the emotions she felt. In all honesty, Oskar could answer that question right here and now; no, it was not worth saving. Did that mean Oskar would stop trying to protect herself? No. In spite of her own ever growing self-loathing and guilt for her own actions, Oskar would still lash out with lethal force in an instant to preserve herself in the face of justified retribution. It was a part of her nature, of what made her who she was and helped her to survive despite all the dangers she had faced in the past three years, and it wasn’t going to stop now despite her own feelings on the matter.

“Hello boss,” a voice said as Oskar exited out of the end of the tunnel.

Immediately the virus whipped about, her arm already shifted into a claw on pure instinct and ready to cut down the one who snuck up on her.

“… Tense?” Belvedere asked with raised brows, staring down the gleaming blades inches from his muzzle.

The Greyhound Alpha had apparently either been waiting for her or had just been loitering outside the tunnel exit, leaning against the cavern wall. Oskar had just been too caught up in her own thoughts and emotions to notice him as she passed.

“Yes… yes I am,” Oskar answered with a sigh and immediately withdrew her claw as she shifted it back to normal.

“Well it has been a hectic and confusing half hour or so,” Belvedere replied with a shrug. “The trees started going crazy along with all the animals in the Everfree, even the Timber Wolves. Everyone above ground ran back down here for refuge in case the forest was going to finally attack, but other than completely freaking out it did nothing.”

“Well the only one that can answer that mystery in any shape or form is the Timber Spirit itself,” Oskar answered and furrowed her brows as she thought. “After all it seems to have some sort of connection with nature and this place in particular. It’s so tricky to get a hold of it when you want to talk to it though… it could be hours or weeks before it comes by of its own volition.”

“Hmm…” Belvedere hummed a reply while looking up and down Oskar’s form. “A new variation of your base form? What is it for?”

That caused Oskar to pause in her thoughts as she looked down at her own body. For the longest moment she stared down before she frowned. Then with a surge of black tendrils, Oskar was standing before Belvedere in his original base form.

“Nothing, nothing at all,” Oskar answered a bit gruffly. “How are things in gun development?”

“Going smoothly as far as I can tell,” Belvedere answered, smoothly adapting to the sudden change in topic. “They’ve figured out how to make those ‘bolt action rifles’ fire a bit faster and more cleanly, and they have also started developing one of those many guns you’ve described to them. They should be done, the first prototype of it, in a few days.”

“Great work.” Oskar nodded before turning towards the stone city before him and started walking. “If I’m needed for something, just look for me in one of the various workshops. I’ll be working on something important to our future development.”

“Sure thing boss,” Belvedere said after the virus.

As Oskar walked, thoughts of various designs and plans for the future of his nation, of the Enclave, flew through his head. Oskar knew of one way to deal with his emotional turmoil that didn’t involve going into Ponyville and risking… something, and that was drowning himself in work. So that was what Oskar was going to do for foreseeable future; drown himself in so much work he couldn’t spare the time to feel distress over the current situation with Twilight.

With that, Oskar continued on his way into the cavern city he had yet to name properly, destination set on one of many workshops.

ALPHA

Two days later found Oskar on the surface in a workshop built by the Diamond Dogs, something he had not ordered them to do. Which the Evolved considered good, since letting the former slaves that made up his newborn secret nation decide to do certain things without his order was beneficial for them. Besides, some Diamond Dogs did actually prefer to work on projects out under the sun, rather than continue working deep under the earth where noise was harsher thanks to the enclosed spaces.

He had a pile of various machine parts set before him on a table. He had made the parts himself after some hours of careful planning and designing, both mental and on blue design paper.

Carefully going over his plans, both in his mind and scrawled down on the blue paper in his hands, Oskar then nodded his head in satisfaction, content that everything should fit as was designed. He then leaned over the parts and brought up screws and pieces of soldering metal he gathered up himself. He then set to work, putting pieces together with screws and welding others via Nidhogg’s superheated fire breath sized down significantly.

Oskar worked quickly and efficiently, far faster than any normal person could, and after ten minutes was already done putting together his project and was now waiting for it to cool done to be used. The object on the crafting table before him was a cylinder with some odd shapes protruding out one end and a piston connected to a wheel on the other.

Nodding in satisfaction, Oskar then turned around and walked over to two barrels in the corner of the shop. Quickly transfiguring some scrap metal into two cups, Oskar popped the lids of both barrels magically. He then dipped the two cups inside each barrel and both came up filled with the barrels’ content, one filled with a black liquid and the other clear and almost water like.

Replacing the lids on the barrels, Oskar walked back to his freshly made machine and touched it to check its temperature. Feeling it was cool enough to be safely used, Oskar carefully poured the clear liquid into one of two canisters on the side of the engine and the black liquid into the other.

With that, Oskar then took a step back and tapped the machine on one of its more pointed protrusions, his finger releasing a small bolt of electricity.

The reaction was near instant, with a screech of metal that ended soon after the piston of the little machine started moving and turned the wheel it was attached to, causing Oskar to smile lightly.

Staring down at his tiny combustion engine, Oskar couldn’t help but feel he could have made better despite just starting out, but quickly reminded himself that this engine wasn’t for his benefit, but for the dogs. It was a proof of concept to show the more crafty Dogs that engines along the lines of the small one before him was more than possible and had the potential to be just as great as even the most advanced, rare and prestigious magical ones Equestria possessed. Refining the crude oil and natural gas into its more refined and engine ready version was a bit of a hassle currently, but Oskar hoped to be able to make an organic analogue later on down the road.

Thoughts of Equestria’s magical train engines made Oskar frown thoughtfully. While the trains didn’t run purely on magic and used a combination of heat and fire rubies to generate kinetic energy to move the train forward, it made the Evolved wonder if there was a version of such an engine that ran on pure magic power. While it would likely entail developing some form of recharging them easily and end up replacing the combustion engines when he just started trying to implicate them, they still would be incredibly better considering how much magic Oskar now had in his possession.

It was then that there was a knock at the door.

“Come in!” Oskar called out as he continued staring at his little engine.

Entering into the workshop was a golden retriever Diamond Dog, specifically the one Oskar had corrected on gun safety when she had presented her personally made rifle to him dangerously. The Dog stared a moment at the little moving machine on the table before directing her attention on Oskar.

“Hello boss!” she said cheerfully. “Me and the other gunsmiths have finished the new gun you told us about! We are about to demonstrate it now and want you there to see it!”

“Hmm, sounds interesting,” Oskar commented, reaching over to the canister of the small engine holding the gas and cutting the fuel, making it grind to a halt soon after. “Any chance of you telling me just what gun was made?”

“Nope!” she answered cheerfully with a sharp toothed smile. “Just have to come see for yourself.”

“Alright, lead the way,” Oskar said.

“Right this way, boss!”

The two exited the workshop and walked out into the outdoors, the midday sun shining down on them from overhead. The tunnel entrance leading down to the cavern city and the mess of rail tracks before it was nearby.

The two then made for a nearby treeline, specifically the one leading to the nearby ravine Oskar intended to one day use for a hydroelectric dam if his power needs ever reached that far. They soon arrived at said ravine, and beside it was a large cleared area that had a shooting range set up in it. Down floating serenely in the ravine was the repurposed air freighter Oskar had used to raid Cloudsdale, the Great Fox.

At the shooting range was a large number of Diamond Dogs. Most were observers, but one was standing at the ready at the shooting range and fiddling with something he was holding.

‘Hmm… now that I am thinking about it, we are clearing quite a few areas for our own use,’ Oskar thought with a frown as he stared at the churned and packed down ground. ‘The Timber Spirit didn’t like it when the ponies started doing that at the fringes of his domain, so I doubt he would appreciate us doing it in the heart of it. Although unlike the ponies, we respect the cycle nature has for itself here and don’t intend to control it in any way, and have only cleared a few football fields worth of land; not all that much. Plus we have stopped hunting vast swathes of animals to feed ourselves and have started growing the wild vegetables for some variation in our diet. And he knows I am sympathetic to his situation, so he must be willing to tolerate a bit before becoming angry. Even so, we should keep from using too much surface space. We are a subterranean nation after all, so most if not all of our infrastructure will be underground.’

“Boss?” the golden retriever DD questioned.

“Just thinking of something that might be a problem unless curtailed soon,” Oskar stated. “Let’s get on with this demonstration.”

“Show the boss the new handgun,” one of the observers called out, and the dog doing the demonstration turned towards Oskar and presented his gun.

It was a revolver, and a rather large one at that. It was understandable, considering how big the hands of the Diamond Dogs were, meaning a human sized revolver would have been awkward for them to use at the best of times. The entirety of the gun was bigger than a human one, but special consideration was made for the handle and trigger of gun. The strong arm and upper body strength of the Diamond Dogs meant they were more than fully capable of using what a human would consider a small cannon as a handgun with easily manageable recoil.

The demonstrator then popped the magazine cylinder of the revolver and started placing in bullets into each hole. Once fully loaded, the Diamond Dog dramatically spun the cylinder before snapping the cylinder into place with a flick of his hand. Oskar couldn’t help his smile at that. The demonstrator then aimed down the shooting range, causing every dog in range not wearing ear protection to cover their ears in preparation.

After aiming for a few seconds, the demonstrator let off all six rounds in slow careful shots, ensuring each one landed within the target on the thin plywood in the distance.

There was a short round of applause as all the gunsmiths present celebrated the brand new gun design they made being used for the first time without any issues.

“Fantastic work,” Oskar praised, adding his own light applause to everyone else’s. “You have all made immense progress, making improvements on the current bolt action design and making your first new gun design purely by your own decision to do so. At the rate you all are going, we should be able to mass produce full automatic weaponry roughly around the end of this year, and that will be very exciting alongside this other project I have going. Before I show it to any of you, I want to have all of my options checked out first though, so keep working at making better guns.”

“Now, uhhh…” Oskar turned towards the golden retriever DD and frowned when he tried to recall a name.

“My friends call me Missy, boss!” ‘Missy’ told him happily.

“Right, Missy can you go find Belvedere for me?” Oskar asked. “Tell him I need to talk to him about something important. I’ll be back at the workshop you found me in.”

“Right away boss!” Missy said and took off at a sprint.

Oskar stared after the eager Diamond Dog for a moment before beginning to walk back to the workshop he left his little engine in.

‘Now… with a little bit of work I can make organic analogues to gas and oil with my own biomass, even automate such a process by creating something along the lines of the meat trees,’ Oskar thought. ‘But the only thing I have in large quantities is magic, and incredible amounts of magic can be stored in high quality gems. A couple gems that can fit in your pocket can easily outpace having a few jerry cans worth of fuel stored on board a vehicle… I think. All I have to go on is my very admittedly limited knowledge of runic circuitry to compare to what I know of combustion engines. For all I know, a purely magical engine could provide substantially less kinetic energy for movement than a combustion engine, or even an electrical one. I could track down someone who knows a lot in runes to make an educated comparison, and I really should. The problem, however, is that most people who are rune specialist tend to be well known in their social circles, making taking one a rather bothersome affair… speaking of which, I suppose I could sort of lure one away for a while. My pony form is rather attractive and I could use that to my advantage, seduce one and draw him away on some ‘vacation’ where I can… you know what? This is a horrible idea and I feel horrible for having even thought of it in the first place.’

‘I still need to figure out what to do though…’ Oskar frowned as he tried to think up a solution. ‘What to do, what to do… I suppose I can delve into Silver Light’s memories again, see if he can recall anything about any graduates out of the Artificer Academy or Artificers in general, but it feels like I drained his memories dry of all useful information. Still, best to make sure.’

With that, Oskar plunged into the depths of Silver’s stolen memories. The Evolved went through countless memories that had even the slightest hint of something about runic circuitry and Artificer ponies. It was a drawn out, tedious affair and was proving to be more and more fruitless with every memory. He was about to call it quits when he managed to happen upon something interesting. Something about a pair of brothers who had dropped out of the Academy, despite their incredible potential for so much more, and ended up going into an utterly disappointing field of work.

‘Well, Silver Light still manages to remain useful even after this long,’ Oskar thought in surprise as he reached the shop.

“Oskar?” Oskar heard from some distance behind him.

Turning around, he saw Belvedere fast approaching with Missy a short distance behind him.

“You asked for me boss?” Belvedere said as he came to a stop in front of Oskar.

“Yes, I need you and some of your best trackers to hunt down two unicorn salesponies for me,” Oskar said.

“Alright, we’ll get right on it Boss,” Belvedere said. “Do you have anything like names or other details to help find them?”

“I’ve got their names. Flim and Flam,” Oskar answered.

BETA

Four days later, Oskar was still awaiting news of success from Belvedere’s hunting packs and kept himself busy while he waited. Currently he was outside again, sitting cross-legged in the grass under the afternoon sun; some of his blueprints were hovering in the air before him as he studied them intently. One was of a small train engine with an exposed control cabin and the other appeared to be a much more useful looking engine.

Whisper Wind was present as well, lying on her back a short distance away and staring up at the clouds with a gloomy expression on her face and letting out a sigh every few moments. Beside her was a half empty bowl of diced up vegetables that had been dipped in her daily medicine.

“Lucky thing…” Whisper muttered as she watched a small bird dart through the air, her voice quiet enough that Oskar would have missed it had his hearing not been so powerful.

Oskar frowned as he shot Whisper a look out of the corner of his eyes. Her gloominess was easily ignored, but it was still irritating to have her saying every few seconds while he was busy working. A thoughtful look flashed across Oskar’s face for a moment before he gave a shrug and snapped his fingers.

Whisper gasped as her wing clamp suddenly clicked and popped open, leaving her wings exposed to the air for the first time in months. She turned her wide eyes to Oskar and just stared at him for a moment.

“Just stay in sight,” Oskar said, barely sparing her a glance.

“THANK YOU!” Whisper shouted joyfully and leapt at him, wrapping her forelegs around him in a hug before giving him a large kiss on the cheek. She then immediately bolted into the air with a deafening cheer.

Oskar looked after Whisper with a small smile as she darted through the air madly before returning his attention to his blueprints. The Evolved altered his plans and expanded on them as time went by, fixing what he saw as errors and making improvements he could make. It was a short ten minutes later when Whisper Wind came fluttering down onto the ground next to him, panting in exhaustion.

“Ahhh… my wings aren’t so good anymore…” Whisper panted in disappointment, but still had a large smile on her face. “It’s been months since I’ve used them, so they’re weak.”

“Figured that would be the case,” Oskar stated somewhat absently as he erased a part of his blueprints and quickly drew something else in its place. “Give it a few weeks and you should be able to work your flying stamina back up.”

“Oh, well thanks for your concern,” Whisper replied sarcastically to her jailor before edging herself next to him. “What in Equestria are you drawing anyway? That one looks like some sort of weird train engine and the other… what is that?”

“What I am making is a better steam engine than the ramshackle ones we currently have,” Oskar answered as he studied the blueprints intently. “The other is going to be a bigger and more useful engine.”

“What? What kind of engine?” Whisper asked in utter boredom as she rolled over onto her back and stared up at Oskar. “Steam?”

“No, something else,” Oskar answered with a sly smile.

Anything that might have been said between jailor and prisoner was interrupted by the sudden arrival of a geared up Warhound.

“Boss! Hunter teams are back!” she shouted as she neared the two.

“Great,” Oskar stated as he rolled the plans up and placed them under an arm and stood. “I assume Belvedere is waiting for me in the command center, right?”

“Yeah boss,” the Warhound answered.

“Right, you,” Oskar began, pointing at Whisper Wind. “You can stay up here and exercise your wings. I don’t need to remind you not to try to run away, right?”

“Yeah yeah, whatever,” Whisper said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Just go see what your dogs are up to.”

Oskar wordlessly teleported at that and arrived in the command center down in the cavern city. Belvedere was standing over a table with a map on it, marking out some places with pins and tying string between them.

“Hello boss,” Belvedere said, glancing at him briefly before returning his attention to the map of Equestria on the table. “We found your two unicorns.”

“Great,” Oskar said as he approached the table himself.

“The hunters tracked the two down via word of mouth for a while,” Belvedere said, pointing at each marked spot with pins connecting to other pins via the string tied around each. “Following stories about two unicorns with a sense of drama and showponyship, sometimes getting run out of town when they oversold their product just a bit too much. Eventually they were tracked down to the outskirts of this town down south of the Everfree near the frontier border of Equestria. They’ve been staying here for the past few months. The younger brother, Flim, goes into town every week to pick up metal parts they’ve ordered and brings them to a rundown warehouse outside town. From what we have seen, they appear to be putting together a machine of some sort inside, but we’ve never been able to get close enough to find for sure, and there is always at least one brother in the warehouse itself so we have never been able to explore it.”

“Thank your hunters for me Belvedere,” Oskar said with a nod. “I’ll handle the rest from here.”

“Alright,” Belvedere said and began to walk away but paused after a few steps. “What do you intend to do with these unicorns?”

“I intend to kidnap them by myself and ‘acquire’ their services,” Oskar answered truthfully

“And why do you want to do it alone?” Belvedere asked. “As powerful and skilled as you are, having backup is always a good idea.”

“It’s because of the promise,” Oskar replied. “I promised to make all of you more than just thieves and slavers. I have fulfilled that promise and it wouldn’t do to go back on it by having you help me kidnap two people.”

“Well I would agree, except for one fact.” Belvedere stated, walking back to the table. “You have fulfilled your promise and no longer have to abide by it. This is your nation and you are our leader, and as our leader we would want to help you accomplish your goals, especially when your goals always work towards bettering our people as a whole. Even as small and few in number as we are, I’m not even sure if the original Diamond Dog nation can compare to what you have made. Long story short, we want to help our Boss no matter what he intends to do.”

“Well… honestly I don’t know how to feel about this … only, thank you Belvedere,” Oskar said with a smile and a nod. “Now come here, this should be a simple smash and grab.”

“What’s the plan, boss?” Belvedere asked and leaned in close.

GAMMA

Flim hummed one of the many tunes he and his brother made to help sell merchandise, making his way through a lightly wooded area with tall sundried grass. In tow behind him was a trailer full of scrap metal and various parts he had managed to haggle down for cheap. Although the parts were still expensive because of the mere fact they had to be ordered in and were taking up a large chunk of the funds, they saved up selling merchandise in various towns.

Money was not an issue currently, however. He and his brother were still going to live rather comfortably in the following months despite the drain. Plus, once he and his brother were done putting everything together, they had no doubts at all that the machine would be paying for itself in no time, giving them that minimum effort, high payout job they always wanted. They already had a good idea of where to go to demonstrate the quality of their work. Sweet Apple Acres, home of the best apple cider in the whole kingdom. If their product could compete with that, they could compete with anyone.

Despite his musings, Flim was able to spot movement out of the corner of his eyes. Off in the trees and in some of the thicker patches of grass, dark shapes had briefly been seen by the unicorn. Flim paused for a moment and frowned in consternation for a moment, his head whipped around when he had managed to glimpse more movement, but not quick enough to actually see anything. His anxious frown turned angry when a thought occurred to him. Could it have been possible one of the ponies in town had found out about what he and brother had been secretly construction within the cover of the old warehouse they had bought, and were trying to spy on them in order to make a cheap knockoff for their own profit?

Flim became very guarded and glared out at his surroundings before picking up the pace. He and his brother knew enough about business that, in all likelihood, their machine would only bring them a few years of easy money, and then other technological minded ponies would be appearing on the market with their own cheaply made copies. They were both fine with it, but they preferred that period of easy profit to be as long as possible.

Before long, the rusted and slightly ramshackle warehouse Flim and his brother were staying in appeared through the foliage and the unicorn took off at a run towards it. Stopping before the door, Flim quickly brought up a hoof and started hammering on the door.

“Brother! Brother come on, open the door!” Flim called out as he continued banging on the door.

Before long the door opened and a confused, though worried, Flam opened it and Flim quickly darted in, rapidly unhitching the trailer and running back to the door and slamming the door closed.

Inside the place was fairly dirty. Scrap metal and near unidentifiable machine parts littered the place. Along one wall, lit up by magical lanterns, was a wall covered in many dirty blueprints. Off in the corner were a pair of sleeping bags and sitting right in the middle of the warehouse was a large half built machine. It had a train’s scoop on the front and a pair of wagon wheels along with a smaller metal pair of wheels near the back. Drab gray metal plating covered some of the intricate machinery within, but most of it was exposed. Near the machine were buckets of red and black paint, obviously the colors the brothers intended to paint their machine in. Sitting in an orderly pile nearby was also a red couch with large tubes and pipes leaning against it.

“Flim! Brother of mine, what is the matter?” Flam asked with increased worry.

“I dare say I was followed Flam!” Flim answered in a harsh whisper as he opened the steel door slightly to peek out.

“What? Why would anypony follow you Flim?” Flam asked in confusion, but soon narrowed his eyes. “Unless…”

“YES!” Flim shouted as he abruptly turned around and ran towards the half built machine, stopping before it. “Somepony plans to steal the idea for our machine! Our monopoly would only last a year if we are lucky! All of our hard work for an easy life would go down the drains, Flam!”

“You’re right brother of mine!” Flame replied as he shot suspicious glances to his surroundings. “We have to very careful now! From now on, only one of us can be asleep here in the warehouse and one of us has to be in here at all times. We must protect our designs from being stolen and copied!”

“Sound strategy, Flam!” Flim began and then pondered the problem they faced deeply. “Now we-”

Suddenly the ground underneath the two unicorns shook and rumbled ominously.

Flam barely had time to react to the ground giving way under Flim and steel clad arms reaching up to pull him down when the same happened to him. He felt himself falling and was caught by something hard. He felt paws and claws on his coat and heard his brothers muffled cries when they were suddenly ended. He found out the reason why when he felt a harsh blow to the back of his head.

“Good work Padfoot,” Flam heard a voice say as his mind whirled into darkness. “Bring them to the cell, the rest of you get up there and start…”

Flam heard no more as he lost consciousness.

DELTA

Rarity sighed contently as she finally finished her morning ritual and did one last look over of herself in the mirror.

It had been over a week since Twilight, Spike and Owlicious had moved in and honestly, Rarity had expected things to be much more different than they turned out to be. She was expecting needing to do things a bit differently with sharing her personal space with two friends and another pet, but other than giving Spike some of her spare gems as food and buying feed for Owliscious, not much else changed. She had expected stacks of books and scrolls to start piling up a few days after Twilight moved in, if not the moment she did, but that never happened. There was a book on a table and a scroll here and there, but nowhere in the sheer quantities Rarity expected. Quite frankly, Rarity was growing very concerned for her fellow unicorn.

Incidentally, this brought up thoughts of another fellow unicorn she had grown to consider very near and dear in the year she had known her. Emerald hadn’t contacted anyone ever since she took that timely road trip over a week ago, and while Rarity knew she shouldn’t worry for the mare, as she was more than capable of taking care of herself, she just couldn’t help it. Some part of her always got worked up whenever Emerald was involved, whether it was worrying over her figure, her health, her safety or just bring proud of her. Rarity just couldn’t help but feel this way about her and she just couldn’t figure out why. Truth be told, Rarity didn’t mind acting this way towards Emerald and neither did said mare, so the unicorn wasn’t in any great hurry at all to curb such behavior.

‘Well, now that I think about it, Twilight’s worrying behavior coincides with Emerald going on that trip,’ Rarity thought as she left her bedroom. ‘Did something happen between them? Is that the reason Emerald went on a road trip without warning? It doesn’t seem like her to run away from her problem though… and Spike would have told me if something did happen. I really shouldn’t try to make up stories should I? But what could have done this, make Twilight act this way and make Emerald leave without so much as a by your leave?’

The glamorous unicorn walked as she pondered the riddle before her and soon found herself in her studio where she made the dresses. Off to the side, Twilight was sitting on Rarity’s large, lavish couch and reading a newspaper, looking rather upset as she did so.

‘Oh my, what ever could be the issue?’ Rarity thought and walked over, coming to a stop beside Twilight and leaning over to read the section Twilight was looking at.

THE POST-GRAY FOX WORLD

Equestria continues to struggle through the minor recession that plagues it’s citizenry, caused single hoofedly by the infamous King of Thieves, The Gray Fox. While everypony continues to hold their breath in wait for the next and just as society damaging theft, we here at the News Nag have gotten word from sources within the Royal Guard itself that the Gray Fox’s thefts ended with one last break in at the palace library. Yes, our readers would be surprised to know that there was another theft after the Gray Fox’s near destabilising raid on Cloudsdale. According to our sources and research, the chaos from the masses of escaped prisoners still on the loose, the weather shortage, the closing of several major goods suppliers to thousands of ponies losing their jobs, has caused our fellows in the news to overlook this somewhat low key crime.

During a press conference, Princess Celestia answered several questions on how she and her royal sister will work towards reversing Equestria’s economic turmoil. The answer was to further government spending. Public works are to be started in earnest, providing jobs and wages for those who lost them. On the subject of the Gray Fox, the Princess answered that the Gray Fox has not made any further appearances since his last theft, and it is too soon to say there is a possibility that the King of Thieves will trouble Equestria no more. Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard answered the next question himself, on the subject of chasing down the Gray Fox down the Diamond Dog tunnels like they had before when rescuing slaves, stating that chasing down the Gray Fox was different then rescuing slaves. For one, the Gray Fox has appeared to have withdrawn all the packs under his command to their unknown base of operations. Second ,the fact is the tunnels are the Diamond Dogs’ home and they know them intimately, making any large incursion into them a massive slog. Third and final is the fact the Gray Fox has personally trained the slaving thugs into a competent military force, making their numbers far more serious than before. All in all, Equestria needs to recover from its current troubles before even contemplating chasing down the Gray Fox and making him pay for his crimes.

Rarity glanced over at Twilight who continued to read the newspaper in front of her, her face a mask of guilt and depression. Rarity wondered why at first, glancing between the violet unicorn and the newspaper several times before getting an idea.

“Twilight, darling?” Rarity asked.

“Huh wha?!” Twilight jumped in surprise, seemingly being so focused on the newspaper she didn’t notice Rarity arrive. “Oh hello Rarity, how can I help you?”

“Darling, you shouldn’t blame yourself,” Rarity said.

“Wha-what?” Twilight said, her eyes widening.

“You don’t know if you could have been any help with the Gray Fox,” Rarity stated, oddly making Twilight immediately calm down. “We’ve never had any experience with hunting down master criminals. Sure we have been in a few fights, but the Gray Fox has been in so much more. It’s more likely we would have gotten in the way than contribute anything meaningful to the task.”

“Oh… yes definitely!” Twilight said with a wide forced smile. “HA HA HA! Yeah, we couldn’t have been able to do anything at all, much better to just stay here and mind our business, yep!”

“As long as you realise that darling.” Rarity smiled softly. “Have you heard anything from Emerald yet? I know I shouldn’t, but I worry about her.”

“Umm… no, I haven’t…” Twilight started. “You… you shouldn’t worry though, because I am absolutely certain only the very worst of things could give Emerald pause. She did go into Everfree by herself and came out safe and sound, right?”

“Yes she did.” Rarity nodded with a frown before smiling lightly. “And she isn’t going to be going anywhere dangerous this time, surely. She’s likely just going on a short trip around Equestria out of nostalgia for her days as a travel pony.”

“Ye-yes… probably,” Twilight said with a strained smile and turned her attentions back to her newspaper.

“Well… I’ll leave you be Twilight,” Rarity said and began to leave. “Try not to fret too much about events in the paper, alright? Things will get better, just you wait.”

“Right…” Twilight replied softly and turned the page to read the rest of the article. A number of quotes from victims of the recession covered the page and Twilight picked one at random.

“The factory I worked at couldn’t cover the costs for replacing everything and stay in business. Me, my wife and everypony else who worked there were laid off. My wife and I had just started our family and got our home a few years ago. We had a bit saved up from our job at the factory, but it just wasn’t enough for anything more than a few months of bills and rent. We cut costs by going to the park for grass instead of getting better food from the grocery store. It still would have been bad with the current job market though. Lucky for us, our landlord was generous enough to waive a couple of our rent payments… can’t say the same for any of any of the others that used to work at the factory. Sometimes I pass by a few of them on the street trying to get by-

Twilight couldn’t bear to read anything more after that and put the newspaper down as a single tear ran down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and looked around to make sure no one saw it before lying down on her side, guilt ridden expression clear to the world.

Thoughts rushed through the unicorn’s head about all the ponies that are suffering because of the Gray Fox’s actions… because of Emerald. At the same time she remembered all the times she spent with Emerald, the happy times, the sad times and the angry ones.

‘Why do things have to be so complicated?’ Twilight thought in dismay, memories of Nightmare Moon in her mind and how she was very clearly a villain that needed to be stopped. ‘She isn’t a villain, she’s my friend… but she did so much ev-bad things… I came here to learn what having friends is like, but what do you do when your friend is a bad pony?’

‘…you make it sound like I’m some perfect being… but I’m not. I know I’m not, Twilight. I’ve had to go through so much to get where I am today…’ memories whispered. ‘…Yeah… a monster… that describes me…’

‘Dear Celestia, what do I do?!’ Twilight despaired. ‘Do I tell everpony and betray my friend, or keep the secret and betray everypony else?! Ohhhhh, what do I do…’

Looking around the room, Twilight saw the pile of parchment she would use to send messages via Spike’s fire. For the longest moment, Twilight had the urge to get up and walk over to them, then with a shake of her head she turned over on the couch.

EPSILON

Oskar sat on a stone bench down in the cavern city, reading one of the books he had stolen from Princess Celestia, specifically one about runic circuitry. Belvedere sat beside him reading off reports in crude writing off a notepad.

“So how goes interrogating the unicorns?” Belvedere asked.

“It is going smoothly, though a bit slowly,” Oskar replied. “As long as things continue as they are, there won’t be any problems in eventually releasing the two when their usefulness runs out. By the way… you remember what I said about wanting to get the independent clans to live here in the Enclave as well a while ago? I think it’s time we started working towards doing that. Do you know where a few of them could be found?”

“Nidhogg never really bothered with them,” Belvedere answered with a frown. “He was content with the slaves he had, so we know where most if not all of them are. The problem, however, is convincing them that this isn’t some trick to bring them to heel under Nidhogg.”

“Hmm… leave that to me,” Oskar said with a frown as he continued reading his book. “I’m sure I can figure out something that will make them to give us a chance to prove ourselves. Get some Warhounds together; we’re going on a road trip to one of these packs.”

“Right boss,” Belvedere replied as he got off his seat and left to do as commanded.

‘What to do, what to do…’ Oskar thought as he read his book. ‘Never really had to use diplomacy before… I either stole or used force for what I needed. And unless I want to turn out to be just as bad as Nidhogg, I’m going to have go with diplomacy… well, this certainly is going to be a learning experience one way or the other.’

ZETA

Several hours later found a small company of Warhounds marching along a tunnel, far from the ones they mined gems from. It was the first time anyone had traveled this far in the deep tunnels for a long time and it showed via the dust lacking the pounded down look from constant use. The fact this tunnel lead back to Nidhogg’s former lands may have had something to do with its lack of use.

Soon the company found itself arriving at an opening leading out into a wide open cavern. They didn’t know what to expect really. Being Diamond Dogs, they spotted the various sentry holes in the wall along the tunnel they took and knew that the independent dogs knew they were coming. However upon walking out into the open of the cavern nothing happened. Off at the far end of the cavern was a collection of stone and metal homes that looked noticeably better than the ones that were being built back in the Enclave.

“RRRRRAAAAAAAGH!” A loud bellow came from above and the collective Warhounds only had enough time to look up and see a white streak fall down towards them from a hole in the ceiling.

“If you were huntin trouble lads, ya found it!” came a shout with a noticeable Scottish accent as the white shape landed amongst the Warhounds and was quickly followed by the sounds of yelping and metal banging.

The Warhounds not being attacked had a hard time telling just what was attacking them but from the fact they couldn’t see it over the heads of their fellows, and the fact that dogs started to drop as soon as it arrived, they could tell it was small and dangerous.

“How’s that feel, ya blockhead!” came a shout from within the melee following a loud, painful clang. “Ohhhhh that smarts doesn’t it?!”

Just then, the fight seemed to end with a startled shout. The Warhounds pulled back from where the combat had been happening and revealed several warhounds on the ground groaning in pain, and a small white terrier Diamond Dog floating in mid-air surrounded by a crimson aura, a fairly large iron staff that ended in two spiked balls was clasped firmly in one of his paws. He wore a red beret like cap on his head and unlike the Diamond Dogs when they were slaves, he wore more clothing than a simple vest. On his arms was a pair of hard leather bracers that had fingerless gloves. He wore a long sleeved green and red coat that was buttoned up to his neck and hung down to his knees, while over the coat he wore a heavily engraved iron cuirass buckled in place.

“Well… that was certainly a show,” Oskar stated, hand aloft and glowing crimson, as he made his and Belvedere’s presence known. “I assume you are one of the Alphas in charge of this place, right?”

“I ain’t telling ya nothing ya lizard loving girl!” the diminutive Diamond Dog spat an insult at Oskar. “Let me go and I’ll show ya how much your fancy magic matters when I club ya in the head ya wee little-”

Suddenly the Diamond Dogs snout was surrounded by a crimson aura and forced closed, leaving him mumbling no doubt heinous insults and threats though his magical gag. Oskar approached the floating Diamond Dog, hand still aloft and glowing crimson.

“I would like to inform you that Nidhogg is dead and that the enslaved Diamond Dogs he possessed have been freed,” Oskar stated calmly before releasing his magic on the little dog’s snout.

“Oh and ya expect me to suddenly believe that loud of trash do ya?” The dog snorted disbelievingly.

“I guess it is a little hard to believe such a huge dragon like Nidhogg could be dead,” Oskar said as an intense blue glow started to shine through his chest. “So I’ll just show you something interesting.”

With that Oskar looked off towards a distant part of the cavern and inhaled sharply. A few seconds later, he exhaled. There was a sharp whine that tore at everyone’s ears as a blinding blue light erupted from the virus’ mouth and formed a long beam. The beam impacted the far wall near instantly and sliced into it deeply. A few long, nigh unbearable moments later and the beam finally ended, letting everyone see the large glowing spot in the wall that was spilling an alarming amount of molten rock out of it; thankfully it didn’t seem nearly enough to threaten the far off Diamond Dog village.

“Tell me,” Oskar began, wiping his mouth clean of burning plasma. “Do you think someone like Nidhogg would tolerate the presence of someone who is not only capable of breathing plasma like him, but is resistant to it as well?”

“… The tales say much about the old bat,” the little dog said after a moment. “But aye, he don’t seem the sort… let me down laddie.”

Oskar did just that and softly lowered the diminutive Diamond Dog onto the ground. He then briefly brushed himself off before leaning on his war staff and staring up at Oskar.

“So… is the old scaly buzzard really dead?” the little dog asked, hope bleeding into his voice.

“I promise he really is,” Oskar said and after a moment added. “Talk is cheap though, I can have his bones dug up and brought here as proof.”

“Aye you do that laddie,” the dog said, pointing a finger at Oskar. “I’ll have some elders here from the other packs that can identify Nidhogg even in death. Once we have the proof, we’ll listen to what ya have to say, alright?”

“Sounds like a plan,” Oskar said and went about helping his injured Warhounds back onto their feet. “What is this, like the third time you were laid out by something barely a third of your size?”

“Ugh, the first time didn’t count boss and you know it.” Padfoot groaned as he stood back up and stretched out a stitch in his back.

“They ain’t half bad,” the short dog half complimented as he made his way back to the village in the distance. “My compliments to their trainer laddie!”

“Well that was interesting,” Belvedere commented as he walked over to Oskar. “So are we heading back?”

“Yeah, get a large group together and start digging up the cavern Nidhogg was living in. Hold still.” Oskar said as he injected several dogs with healing accelerants and painkillers via a tendril. “Once we do that, we’ll head back here with it… considering the size of the bones and how big the tunnels are, we may need to do some quick expansion along the way.”

“Not a problem, boss,” Belvedere stated. “We are Diamond Dogs after all.”

“Great. Alright, everyone ready?” Oskar asked, looking all around him. “I’m going to be teleporting all of us back. In three… three, two, one!”

With that the entire company of Diamond Dogs, along with Oskar and Belvedere, disappeared in a flash.

ETA

Flam sighed as he stared up at the plain gray ceiling above him. He and his brother were in a fairly large but barren stone room, a corner with a small hole as a toilet, a simple wooden table with two chairs and two somewhat soft beds. The two had been there for who knows how long, as they had not seen the sun since they were captured. In fact, they had not even seen what their captors looked like or even heard from them, as they slipped their food through a thin slot near the bottom of the solid looking steel door of their prison.

Both Flim and Flam were quite disheveled looking after spending several days without washing up or changing the few articles of clothing they wore. Spending so long in the same space with little to nothing to do all day was grating on the brothers’ nerves and sanity as well. They tended to explode on each other rather easily and were getting twitchy from the lack of space to really stretch their legs. At the very least the food or drinks weren’t bland though. They always got a large mix of fruits and vegetables as well as various juices for them to consume.

One thing the brothers absolutely dreaded about their imprisonment however was the visits. Every day the lights in their room would flicker off and their door would open. Normally the brothers would take the chance to use their magic to escape, but after the first attempt and the following retaliation they didn’t risk it again. When the door opened, someone or something entered their room in the darkness and would lay something atop their heads. Intense agonizing headaches would soon follow. The worst part about these visits was the fact they could last for hours at times, and that was a long time for someone to be suffering intense pain. The odd thing about these torturous visits though was that during them the brothers couldn’t help but think about their time in the academy and all they learned while experimenting with their knowledge in the field.

Currently the two unicorns were lying in bed and dreading every moment of silence. The reason being that it had been a long time since their last visit and the next one was likely going to happen any minute now.

Sure enough, there was a click as the lights went off and a quiet metallic shriek from their prison door opening in the darkness. The two brothers groaned and braced themselves for the oncoming pain, wondering just how long they were going to suffer this time.

The two waited for the feeling of something soft being placed atop their heads. They waited, and waited, and waited, and…

Flam yawned as he woke up to the sounds of birds singing and wind blowing through the grass. The unicorn snapped his eyes open when he grasped the sounds he just heard and bolted upright.

All around him were small groves of trees and wide open grass fields with flowers dotting them. Birds and bugs darted through the air, either singing their songs or buzzing. Flam stared at his surroundings almost uncomprehendingly when he heard a groan from beside him. When he turned to see his brother waking up was when Flam finally noticed the pounding in his head and the foul taste in his mouth.

“What is this?” Flim asked as Flam groaned in pain and started spitting in an attempt to rid himself of the foul taste. “Is this a dream?”

“Last I heard, dreams don’t hurt or taste bad,” Flam commented and noticed something else about their surroundings, namely a large brown sack next to them.

Getting up on somewhat wobbly legs, Flam approached the bag cautiously. Upon closer inspection the lumpy sack had a small note attached close to its mouth. Plucking the note off the bag, Flam saw nothing to see who it was addressed to and opened it.

Flim and Flam

In the bag is compensation for your service, added to your fee is compensation for all hardship, emotional and otherwise during your stay with us, as well as payment for all lost hardware.

Regards

T.E.

Blinking at the note, the brothers looked at each other briefly before looking at the bag. Flim approached it and quickly undid the rope around it’s mouth. Inside was a vast collection of bits and rare small gems that glimmered in the daylight sun. Just by looking at the bounty of riches the brothers could tell it was more than enough to cover for all the money they spent making their cider machine three times over.

“Flam?”

“Yes brother of mine?”

“Do you want to just go back to being traveling salesponies?” Flim asked lightly. “It seems like being inventing entrepreneurs is rather hazardous for one’s health.”

“A more marvelous idea I haven’t heard!” Flam replied. “Now… how to get this money to the nearest town? It’s rather heavy.”

“Hmm…”

THETA

Oskar thumbed through a book as he oversaw a large excavation along with several other Diamond Dog Alphas, which he was glad for as his mind was elsewhere currently.

The Evolved was thinking of his incredible success with experimental magic a day ago. He had spent the last few months carefully building up his skill with the new magic he created from knowledge of pony neurology. It was too grand of an achievement in Oskar’s eyes. He was fairly certain the ponies could have eventually created what he just invented. However, they would have been humane about it, which Oskar wasn’t, and it advanced the development of the spell incredibly. In fact, the Evolved didn’t want to think about the sure numbers of animals he had effectively killed via rendering them brain dead with his experiments.

Eventually after months of lethal experimentation on animals, Oskar had declared his memory absorption spell safe enough for use on vital personnel. The spell was still slow going compared to simply eating people though, and required him to use for hours at a time for any significant amount of information. But overall, Oskar still considered it a better alternative than killing people for their knowledge and skill. Sure it was slow now, but given time and practice, he bet he could upgrade it significantly.

So after spending well over a week taking memory after memory from the Flim Flam Brothers, Oskar had managed to attain the skill and knowledge he wanted. Afterwards, he knocked out the two unicorns with some gas and dropped them off along with a large sack of money in a distant location. Oskar was still taking a risk though. The two knew that their kidnappers had ambushed them from beneath the ground and that had Diamond Dog ambush tactics written all over it, which would no doubt notify the Princesses that the Diamond Dogs and by extension the “Gray Fox” were up to something. And speaking of the princesses, Oskar was getting pretty close to reading through all the books he had stolen from their library. Soon he would make good on his promise to return their books to them.

“Oskar?” the virus heard Belvedere say.

“Hmm?” Oskar said looking at the Greyhound Alpha.

“The digging teams have managed to reach Nidhogg’s corpse and have set up support struts,” Belvedere said, waving at the large tunnel made into the collapsed treasure chamber. “It’s a bit slow going though. The rocks and boulders are all still fairly loose and we are going to need more time before we can bring out the bones safely.”

“It’s no problem,” Oskar said, snapping his book closed. “We don’t want to lose anyone so take as much time as you need to ensure everything is safe.”

“Already done boss,” Belvedere said. “Do you really think we can get the independent packs to join us?”

“Frankly, it’s a bit of an unlikely result,” Oskar replied with a sigh. “Diplomatic negotiation is not one of my many skills. I can make a cold hearted business deal that can make a literal knife to the back preferable, but diplomacy? Well it’s certainly going to be touch and go… honestly I am just going to go for pure honesty and hope for the best.”

“There is a chance… that any packs that don’t join us will inform Equestria of us,” Belvedere said with a concerned frown. “And if Equestria manages to find out about us, they will wonder how we are able to make such equipment. They may connect the dots regarding the Gray Fox and his Diamond Dog followers.”

“I know it’s a risk,” Oskar said with a frown of his own. “But I don’t feel right buttering these people up in such a way they think we have a paradise waiting for them. I am simply going to present what I have as is and hope for the best. We have a nation and lack the numbers, they have numbers and lack a nation. We both have things the other wants; hopefully they’ll see that at least.”

“Hmm…” Belvedere’s frown stayed firmly in place as he brought up a paw and tapped his chin.

“BOSS! BOSS!” came an alarmed shout down a tunnel.

Oskar turned in time to see a female mastiff Warhound come charging down the tunnel towards him.

“Yes, what is it?” Oskar asked as the Warhound came to a stop before him.

“I don’t know, boss!” the Warhound said with a confused shake of her head. “We were scouting the forest edge when a ton of weird stuff started to happen! Animals were changing shape, fruits were growing to huge sizes, clouds turned pink and chocolate milk started raining from the sky!”

“… Right, I have to investigate this myself,” Oskar said, teleporting his book back to the room he stored them in. “Hold still. I need to know exactly where you were and this will sting a bit.”

Oskar placed a hand atop the Warhounds head and called upon the spell he invented. The Warhound inhaled sharply as her head ached and the memory of the location she had left was copied from her mind. Needing only just one instant of the memory, Oskar ended his spell, causing a surprised look to appear on the Warhound’s face when it only stung for a second.

“I’ll be back,” Oskar said to Belvedere before teleporting.

Oskar arrived on the border of the Everfree just past the outskirts of Ponyville. Not only were there some Warhounds there, who had been rather startled by Oskar’s sudden appearance, but a timber wolf was there as well.

Ignoring the Warhounds and the timber wolf, Oskar looked out towards Ponyville and the world outside the Everfree. The Warhound hadn’t been exaggerating when she had told him of what she had seen. Animals had indeed been twisted into something else, the clouds looked like cotton candy and were raining chocolate milk down on the world, and off in the distance Oskar could see the apple trees strain under the weight of their now massive fruit.

“When did this start happening?” Oskar asked the nearest dog.

“Half an hour ago, boss,” the armored dog answered. “It’s been steadily picking up since.”

Oskar was about to ask more when he became aware of snarling noises. Turning to the right, he saw the timber wolf shake with barely withheld fury.

“WRONG, ALL WRONG, UNNATURAL!!!” the Spirit possessing the Timber Wolf raged. “NOT PART OF THE CYCLE! HIS DOING! HIS DOING!!!”

“Who?” Oskar asked. “Who did this?”

Suddenly the timber wolf paused in its ranting and looked incredibly confused.

“What am I talking about? WHO am I talking about?” the spirit said more to himself then to Oskar. “Can’t remember? Won’t remember? Why, why, why…”

“Right, he’s not being too helpful.” Oskar commented and turned his attention to the chaotic world before him. He narrowed his eyes and looked upon Canterlot in the distance. “If anyone should even have the slightest idea of what is happening, it’s the princesses. Wait here and keep observing the situation. I’m going to go spy on the capital.”

“Right boss!” the Warhounds said with collective salute.

With that, Oskar teleported in a crimson flash and made his way to Canterlot.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: And the long awaited sequel to OOTO has arrived! And Discord next chapter! So much action is awaiting everyone, I bet you can barely handle the wait >:3

EN: Wow… that’s all I can say. Took a bit to come out, but dang if it didn’t deliver with even more than I ever expected. And Discord. Oh boy, next chapter is going to be a treat. Hope you’re all excited about the new turn of events, and I hope you’re all thoroughly enjoying the sequel that Legionary has taken his time in masterfully creating. Kudos to him. ~NightmareKnight

Chapter 2: Apotheosis

Oskar kneeled upon a ledge on the side of Mount Canterlot; below him was the capital of Equestria and the palace of the Royal Sisters.

The virus was using his powerful eyesight to spy upon the interior of the palace through the windows, but truth be told he could figure out what was happening just by looking at said windows. He could see a serpentine figure moving through the stained glass windows of the palace, interacting with the figures in the windows and talking with people in the hall itself, who Oskar couldn’t recognize as the angle didn’t allow him to see. The Evolved was pretty sure of the identity of the dragon like creature moving through the glass. If his nigh perfect photographic memory could be trusted, then the being in the window was Discord.

Discord, a draconequis possessing so much magical power he usurped the throne of Equestria a millennia ago. And now he was back from his stone prison somehow, and very likely both out for revenge and his old position of power.

Oskar stood up from his kneeling position with a nod of his head.

‘Discord huh?’ the Evolved thought. ‘Well there isn’t really anything I could do here is there? Discord won without a fight the first time and it appears he is going to do it again. The last time he lost was purely thanks to the Elements of Harmony and I’m sure everyone could pull off that victory again couldn’t they?’

Oskar brushed himself off of any little bits of dirt that stuck to him and was about to turn away when he paused and looked back at the palace.

‘I mean, sure I have a lot of power thanks to taking Luna’s DNA, and someone else with that kind of power would be incredibly helpful in this situation...’ Oskar rambled internally. ‘I would have likely gotten more powerful if I had been able to take Celestia’s DNA instead, BUT those two alicorns didn’t seem to put up any sort of fight until they had the Elements to face Discord with in the past. What does that mean of the power I have now? Very likely that despite how powerful I am now, Discord is SOO much more powerful and that I would be just as helpless as those two are. Yeah, its better I don’t get involved and let them do their work… plus it’s much less dangerous for me.’

With that, Oskar turned away from the ledge and walked away until he was out of sight. For several long moments there was silence until suddenly there was the sound of rapid thudding on rock.

“GOD DAMN IT ALL!!!” Oskar shouted in frustration with himself as he sprinted off the rock ledge. He then quickly formed his blade wings and magically caught the wind.

Oskar spread his wings and angled himself for one of the stained glass windows of the palace before he made himself as streamlined as possible. He dove towards the palace, picking up more and more speed as he went, the window seeming to rush up to him.

ALPHA

“Stop stalling, Discord!” Celestia shouted. “What have you done with the Elements of Harmony?”

“Oh, so boring, Celestia, really?” Discord laughed from his position in the stained glass window. “Fine, I'll tell you, but I'll only tell you my way.”

“Truly a thousand years were not enough to inoculate myself against your antics,” Luna drawled in annoyance.

“Ahem, now if I may?” Discord said with a delighted smile as he moved between windows. “To retrieve your missing Elements, just make sense of this change of events. Twists and turns are my master plan. Then find the Elements back where you… huh?”

A shadow was suddenly cast over the window Discord was in. He stopped reciting his riddle and turned around in the window to see what was casting it.

To the incredible surprise of both the princesses and the Mane Six, something came bursting through the window Discord was in. The act of the window being shattered seemed to force Discord into his physical form and he was sent flying, a white and silver shape attached to his neck. Discord came crashing into the floor with the white shape attached to him.

Everyone gasped as they took in the thing, or rather the person, that was attached to Discord, who only Luna could recognise. He may have had wings with blades instead of feathers, but he was no different than from what she had seen of him during his dream. The being she had classified as Impius Mutante, Oskar, was here, and he was assaulting Discord.

“GAH!” Discord shouted as he shot up onto his feet. “What is it?! Get it off! GET IT OFF!”

Discord ran around in circles in a pain induced panic as he flailed his arms about and shouted. Oskar had one arm firmly around one of Discords horns and his other arm was shifted into a claw which he was using with great prejudice upon the Draconequis’ face.

For several long and awkward moments, the Royal Sisters and the Mane Six stood by and watched as Discord ran around in circles, acting as if he was having a rabid cat clawing at his face instead of a monstrous shape shifting creature. Finally, the Draconequis seemed to remember he had his own magic and teleported, leaving Oskar to fall to the ground as his prey disappeared out from under him.

“My face!” Discord shouted from a short distance away, holding up a hand mirror to his visage. “Look what you have done to my face!”

Scratches covered Discord’s face, and not disfiguring gashes. In fact, they could barely even be called scratches and looked to be more like paper cuts. But for the Draconequis, the fact he was hurt at all stuck with him. For countless years, the chaotic being had roamed the world doing as he willed and being subject to no one’s rules, and nothing they did could ever hope to make him suffer for it. But now… now someone did manage to hurt him and Discord couldn’t help but think about the pain of the claws slicing at his face.

For Oskar, the fact he did so little damage was almost enough for his own despair to make him surrender and beg for mercy. Claws sharps enough to slice apart gems like they were overripe fruit, and what did they manage do on Discord? Give him paper cuts…

‘I-I-I’m not strong enough!’ Oskar thought as he stared at Discord with wide eyes. ‘NO ONE IS STRONG ENOUGH! HOW ARE YOU SUPPOSED TO BEAT THAT! Where the hell are the Elements of Harmony and why don’t those six have them!?! Wait, he can’t be that stupid. He wouldn’t just attack without dealing with the one thing capable of defeating him… I should have run when I had the chance, I-I should have…’

Oskar bowed his head in hopelessness when he noticed a curious gleam on one of his claws. Blood… Discord’s blood.

Oskar looked between the tiny droplets of crimson blood on his claws and the chaotic being they came from. The virus wasn’t stupid. He recalled the last time he had a major power boost; he lost his sanity and lost control over the vast pool of memories within his mind. No doubt the results would be the same in consuming the blood of such an immensely powerful being. But…

‘No matter what happened last time… I didn’t hurt you…’ Oskar thought as he glanced at Twilight. ‘Any of you. I had even saved you despite my own mind being fragmented by all the memories. I must be careful… the last time I had gained so much power the library was destroyed, this one will be much bigger. No matter what… IT ALL HAS TO GO UP!’

“Look what you did to my beautiful face you mons- huh?” Discord began in anger, turning towards the one that had assaulted him and grew confused at what he saw, a sentiment the other people in the room could share.

Oskar grasped at his shifted arm and bared his teeth in pain. Black tendrils covered the edges of the claws, surging and pulsating.

Oskar fell to his knees as something strange happened to his arm. Veins rapidly appeared, glowing with crimson light as they moved up his arm from his claws. The arm went into spasms as the veins moved onto the shoulder and massive blisters appeared, growing in size rapidly and bursting with a crimson flash when they grew too big. Oskar raised his afflicted arm and punched the floor.

With that strike, two things happened. The sheer force behind the strike cracked the floor and seemed to make the entire palace shake, and Oskar’s arm half exploded in a spray of gore and half vaporised in a flash of light. Almost the instant Oskar lost his arm, he gained a new one. It was massive and was obviously too big for him, grossly muscled and covered in black scales that sheened red in the light. The new arm ended in a massive hand that ended in three long, thick talon-like fingers.

As the glowing veins reached the core of his body, they suddenly started spreading like mad. Blisters appeared alongside the incandescent veins and after bursting they would be rapidly replaced by thick, large scales.

Oskar growled as half his body seemed to start vaporizing in bursts of crimson light. He brought his reformed arm back up and brought it down again, cracking the floor further and even making an indent. A rage seemed to strike Oskar and he brought his mutated fist against the floor again and again, shaking the palace and creating a larger indent. Then, with one final earth shaking strike, Oskar punched the floor with all his might and ended up creating a large crater in the floor.

The Evolved dry heaved with every breath as he fell onto his hands and knees, his own body still undergoing immense changes on the genetic level.

“E-Oskar?” Twilight said cautiously.

Oskar then looked up towards the ceiling. His eyes were orbs of crimson light and his mouth was open in a silent scream. With a sudden blinding flash of light, no one could see anything.

BETA

The ponies of Canterlot tried to continue going about their daily lives despite the chocolate milk rain and cotton candy clouds. However it became next to impossible when a massive beam of crimson light exploded out of the roof of the palace, even more so when every unicorn in Canterlot gasped and fell to the ground unconscious.

Earth ponies and pegasi shuddered as they felt a presence close in around them, a presence that felt like blind confused rage and fear. It pressed down on them like a weight.

The sky above turned red, and there was a blast of energy that dispersed every cloud in its wake. Cloudsdale, city or not, was made of clouds and fared no better. Shapes rained down from its dispersing remains; whether they were pegasi currently incapable of flight or the various devices they had up there, no one could tell.

The beam of crimson light continued to soar into the sky. From Vanhoover to Manehattan, ponies could see its ominous glow from practically every point of Equestria. Down in the Everfree, the Diamond Dogs watched on from their place on the forest border, the Timber Spirit beside them.

“Something strange is happening…” the spirit said as the trees around them shook and groaned. “The forest grows restless… and potent.”

Warhounds yelped in surprise as the bark of one tree broke off, and it became increasingly obviously it was because the tree rapidly outgrew it. Around their feet, wildflowers and plants sprouted from the forest floor in a thick carpet.

“New life is growing.” In the distance, the roar of an undefinable beast resounded. “And appearing… something else stirs. A great many minds awaken, weary beyond reckoning and yet… they feel familiar…”

The Timber Spirit’s words went unheard as the Warhounds were more concerned with their changing surroundings and wondering what ever could be happening in Canterlot.

GAMMA

Twilight didn’t know what was happening. The blinding light before them made it impossible for them to see what was happening, though she could still see Rarity beside her, unconscious on the ground. Twilight herself felt like she was on the verge of joining her friend, the strange presence about them was crushing in its intensity and the unicorn had a suspicion it was her own not insignificant magic that allowed her to keep consciousness.

Finally the light along with the presence began to die down, and before long she was able to see. A moment later she wished she hadn’t.

Oskar had changed incredibly. He was now taller than Discord by at least two heads and was twice as big through sheer muscle mass. His body was covered in black scales that sheened red in the light and along his sides, patches of bioluminescence glowed brightly. His tail was long and seemed to be made of tightly entwined smaller tails. His legs and arms were both powerfully built, his legs ending in bear paw like appendages with long claws and arms in three fingered large talons. Along his back was a line of silvery spikes extending from his spine. His blade wings had remained, but was now larger and each “feather” had gained a jagged edge that would rip and tear flesh agonizingly. Three orange slitted eyes sat in each of his eye sockets and he had a thick mane of spines shooting backwards from off the back of his head. His mouth was beak like in its shape.

For a long moment, everyone stood in silence. For the ponies, it was a silence born of terror. For Oskar, it was a silence born of madness and torment. And for Discord, it was a silence born of shocked confusion.

“Er…” Discord began, looking between the ponies and Oskar. “Did I miss something in those thousand years? Don’t tell you got a new arch-nemesis Celestia?”

The multiple eyes in Oskar’s skull stopped their spinning as he struggled with his fragmented mind. Even as insane as he currently was, Oskar still had his basic instincts drilled into him from his harsh, short stint as Mercer’s Evolved. Discord was a threat, even as agonized screams howled at him from all around, as the surroundings swirled and twisted from a myriad of memories, he could still focus his mind enough to deal with a threat.

Oskar leapt at Discord with talon hands outstretched, his mouth opening into four segments and revealing a mouth utterly filled with gleaming teeth releasing a shrill scream of a roar.

“YIIII!” Discord shouted, not reacting nearly fast enough to save himself as Oskar impacted with him and sent the both of them flying through a wall and out into the open air.

Discord and Oskar flew through the air, their velocity enough that not even the thick wall protecting ponies from the sheer ledge into the valley below stopped them. Tearing through the wall and taking masonry with them, the two continued on their flight until they landed in the rolling grasslands below Canterlot, their impact sending up large dirt clods and creating a long ditch through the earth.

“GAH!” Discord shouted as Oskar snarled and opened his mouth into its four separate mandibles and descended to consume his head. The Draconequis brought up a fist and punched him in the side of the head. Though his punch may as well have been a flimsy smack for all the good it did, that wasn’t the point. He was using the physical contact to work his power on the clearly insane creature trying to maul him, to forcefully twist it’s mind and make it stop attacking him.

Oskar seemed to freeze and his many eyes spun madly before they stilled and went dull. Discord sighed in relief, thinking his magic had done it’s work.

DELTA

“INFECTED CREATURES ARE LOOSE! I REPEAT! INFECTED CREATURES ARE-AHH SHIT!”

“You are my sunshine~ my only sunshine~ you make me happy~ When skies are… w-who are you? Please just take what you want and leave my daught-”

“Oskar, you are to frame this protestor group for sabotage. The target is Blackwatch’s personal clinic. They’ll be out for blood after this, a perfect distraction.”

Memories swirled in Oskar’s mind. The last moments of those he had killed played on endlessly through his mind, leaving it near helpless in his lack of coherence; however the last moments of those he had killed wasn’t the only things of importance in Oskar’s mind.

“This is so fantastic Emerald! I have so much to teach you! Don’t you think this is such a great opportunity for the both of us?” a memory of a happy time whispered.

“Here is the plan. Lieutenant Jacob here is going to cut the power to the cells and Oskar is going to make sure that Blackwatch personell in positions that let them stop the break won’t be an issue. Doctor Deidre will play interception with the Blackwatch CO. If all goes to plan, the creatures will wreak havoc and cause immense damage to the base. Of course the creatures will also likely break out into the streets, the resulting slaughter…” A memory of a mission briefing echoed in Oskar’s mind before oddly falling silent.

“We care Emerald, don’ cha mistake that,” another pleasant memory whispered. “Specially me. Grew up with a big ole family but ya didn’t even get ta have your parents for long.”

“Well if it isn’t Mercer’s favorite little bloodhound? Why do you always get the nice missions? Hunting down and tearing apart people all the time, feeling their flesh part like putty between your fingers and their scre-” another dark memory began before suddenly cutting out.

“I know we don’t exactly get along. Even now, you’re so tense from being near me,” a motherly voice said. “And I understand why you dislike me. After a lifetime of only living on the bare minimum and coming face to face with a pony such as I… well, long story short Emerald, I’d rather we be friends; dear friends.”

“HEY! Asshole! You in the stupid hat! Yeah I’m talking to…”

“Emerald…” The voice of a near and dear friend. “You shouldn’t have felt you needed to speak up in the first place. You do not need to feel that you are at fault.”

“Oskar, another mission. You are…”

“Fluttershy…” the voice of Oskar’s female side whispered. “I… I would never hurt you. You are… you are my f-friend. The last thing… the very last thing I want to do is to hurt you, I’d do a-anything to avoid it.”

“It’s time to…”

“I would like you to know that both I and all the Alphas deeply appreciate all you have done for us.” The voice of a stern and proud Diamond Dog. “You promised you would make us more than slavers and thieves, and you have fulfilled that promise. You’ve built a nation for us, made us strong, made us independent and given us a future to look forward to. Such is our gratitude and loyalty, there is nothing any of us wouldn’t do if you ordered us to do it Oskar.”

“Kill the…”

“I know what you are doing and going through…” Rainbow Dash said quietly with a flushed face. “Putting on a strong face for everypony’s sake but on the inside… you’re breaking, and you wish somepony was there to help keep you together… and well… what I’m getting at is if you ever need somepony to be that pony, or to talk to somepony that understands what it’s like… well you know where to find me.”

Though his mind was still in chaos, it was as if things became so much clearer and straightforward. There was a threat to the others, to his… friends. That threat was incredibly and terrifyingly powerful, far beyond the ability of his friends to defend themselves against. But not him. No, now he was the powerful one; he was the one capable of standing against the cruel and tyrannical. No longer was his head going to be bowed in silent terror, now that he had the strength to stand defiant. Now he would fight in the sun instead of the shadows.

EPSILON

Discord’s eyes widened and he shouted in alarm as Oskar’s eyes were suddenly alight with fury and he redoubled his efforts to eat the chaotic being.

At the last moment, Discord remembered that he had magic and quickly teleported before he lost his head to Oskar’s maw. The transformed Evolved ended up getting a mouthful of dirt and grass but didn’t let his prey’s sudden disappearance disorient him. Instinctively he sent out a viral pulse and it came back incredibly fast.

Discord was hoping for a quick breather in the air and ended up having to teleport away again when Oskar was practically already in his face.

This time, Oskar didn’t fly after Discord as he teleported further away into the air. He knew how to play this game and wasn’t going to let Discord keep the advantage.

Discord looked around wildly when he saw Oskar disappear in a flash and only noticed there was a shadow being cast over him when it was too late. There was a painful crack as Discord felt a powerful blow and he was sent spinning through the air. He managed to gain control of his spinning after a few moments, only to see Oskar flying towards him at incredible speeds.

Panicking, Discord twisted reality between him and Oskar into a huge mass of cotton candy. Oskar was moving too fast and the appearance of the floating candy was too sudden that he ended up flying straight into it. However, cotton candy was still cotton candy, and while Oskar was slowed enough to briefly stop him he was already almost out of it on the other side.

Seeing a chance, Discord started altering the makeup of the candy, making it stronger and madeit so that it was pulling taut around Oskar. Oskar roared and twisted. His claws were sharp and his strength was incredible, and he likely would have still managed to break out at any second when he suddenly stilled and let the candy cover him.

There was a long quiet moment with the mass of cotton candy pulsating and shrinking down when there was a bright blue glow coming from the center of it.

“AUUUUUGH! HOT!” Discord shouted, having barely managed to avoid the beam of blue plasma that exploded out of the cotton candy, but his tail was not so lucky. “WATER! WATER!”

The ball of cotton candy was nearly fully aflame, one side completely vaporised from the sure heat. There was a crimson flash from within and Discord found himself using pure magic to keep himself from getting mauled.

“K-k-kill… KILLLLLL YOOOOOU…” Oskar gurgled out, using pure force of muscle to steadily break through the magical barrier between him and Discord. “B-butcher you… GUT yooooou… EAT YOU!!!”

“Now I am a lover of tricks, not a fighter!” Discord shouted a tad nervously. “Can’t we talk about this!?”

Currently, the chaotic being really wished he was a fighter, as he was just completely out of his element right now. He had no idea how to even handle this fight. Never before had Discord ever faced someone who could actually hurt him. For all his creative tricks and pranks, he had no idea how to apply them in a truly serious fight. In the end, his opponent only had brute strength while he had skill… unfortunately it was the wrong kind of skill.

Seemingly in answer to Discord’s words, Oskar reared back his head and bashed it against the magical barrier, smashing it. The crazed Evolved opened his jaws to snap them around Discord’s head but the Dragoniquis managed to back himself away, saving himself from most of the potential harm.

“ARRGH!” the Draconequis shouted as one of Oskar’s teeth tore open a massive gash along his cheek.

ZETA

The presence that had seemingly made all the unicorns faint had gone, or at least faded enough that the unicorns managed to regain consciousness quickly. Most thought they were still sleeping when they saw the blood red sky above them.

However there was another aspect of the sky everyone noticed.

Drifting down sedately from the crimson sky was black dust. Everyone wondered at what could have caused this, drawing conclusions between the crimson sky and the beam of light that had exploded out from the roof of the palace, but nothing specific.

A pegasus mother and her earth pony filly watched as the black dust drifted near them. They stared at it in open curiosity, and when it drifted down to head level she sniffed, wondering what the odor would be like if it had one. The effect was near instant.

The mother started coughing and hacking the moment she inhaled the dust through her nose, an action that everyone else in the streets was forced to mimic.

“Mommy!” the little filly shouted in alarm as her mother fell to the ground and just couldn’t stop coughing. Mere moments later, the filly had collapsed to her side as well, practically coughing up a lung. Beside her, her mother continued her pained coughing fit, spittle flecked with blood leaving her mouth with every cough now.

The black dust continued to drift down serenely.

ETA

Discord couldn’t deny it anymore, he was definitely panicking. He wasn’t stupid in the slightest and was sure, given time, he could learn how to truly fight effectively with his powers, but Oskar wasn’t allowing him that time.

The crazed Evolved had been doggedly chasing him ever since the fight began with a tireless tenacity that was terrible to behold. The absolute most amount of time Discord had to himself since the start of the fight was ten seconds, and that was when he had briefly trapped him in the cotton candy. Since then, Oskar barely allowed him three before he was on him.

Discord’s lack of experience in fights where both sides were on equal standing was costing him his wellbeing as well. Blood dripped down the Draconequis’ chest from three ugly claw marks from when Oskar had gotten closer than usual and managed to rake him there, purple bruises marked Discord’s mismatched hide from powerful punches and one of his eyes was close to being closed shut by swelling.

Barely dodging another charge by his deadly foe, Discord called upon his magic again to directly restrain Oskar and give himself a breather.

Just like before, Oskar started to use pure physical force to steadily break through Discord’s shimmering barrier, his multi sectioned mouth and six eyes made for a unappealing sight to stare at. Once again Oskar started to rear his head back to bash the barrier, and Discord readied himself for the lightning fast assault that followed. However instead of a loud crack of his barrier falling, there was just a soft tinkling sound, much like that of glass shards falling on a hard floor.

Discord gasped as he felt something wrap around his neck. He looked down to see that Oskar had made use of his tail instead of his head, plunging it’s razor sharp tip through the shield and up to wrap around his neck. Looking back up, Discord saw Oskar either make a truly vicious sneer or a bestial snarl.

Oskar started spinning rapidly and Discord soon disappeared in a blur of the Evolved’s tail as it spun faster and faster vertical to the ground. Once he had reached a certain speed, Oskar let go of the chaotic being and sent him crashing near instantly into the ground before, creating a loud boom and explosion of dirt and grass as Discord hit the grasslands.

Discord was still shaking his head clear and the dust cloud hadn’t even settled when Oskar smashed down into his stomach. Discord wheezed out agonizingly and then gagged when Oskar grabbed him by his throat and picked him up. The Evolved snarled briefly in his face, sending spittle flying before taking hold of his tail with his other hand and started swinging him into the ground.

The soft dirt might as well have been solid stone as far as Discord was concerned. Each time he was smashed into the ground, it felt like hammers were being smashed into the whole of his body before he was roughly wrenched up into the air and smashed down again. After what felt like an eternity to Discord, but was actually only a handful of swings to Oskar, he was finally thrown into the ground. He stayed there for a moment, finding himself playing dead, mostly because he felt half way there, before he unwillingly released a pained groan.

Oskar towered over him and released a disdainful sniff before picking him up by his tail again. He then spun him in the air briefly before tossing him straight up. After that, Oskar teleported way up into the air and brought both his fists over his head. When Discord reached him, Oskar brought both his fists down in a flash, spiking him back towards the royal palace.

Several seconds later, Discord crashed into the floor of the very hall he had been taunting the princesses and the Mane Six in, half buried into the broken stone.

Celestia and the others were still there, and Rarity had also regained consciousness; ever since the fight had left the palace, they had only ever caught glimpses of it from afar. They really had no choice but to watch as Discord had been interrupted before he could give them their riddle to the Elements of Harmony’s location.

The alicorn of the sun could not help the sense of awe she felt upon seeing Discord half buried in the rubble of the floor. Here was a foe that had rendered all of them helpless without a fight, a foe she and her sisters had not even tried to fight without the aid of the Elements of Harmony; here he lay beaten to a pulp and half dead from his injuries. And seeing that brought up a sudden sense of despair. Here was their undefeatable enemy utterly lain low by another being, a being that by her sister’s account and his actions was quite villainous. And now here she was, without the Elements of Harmony and a new threat very clearly greater than Discord.

“Sister… what do we do?” Luna said gravely, having come to the same realizations.

“I do not know Luna…” Celestia answered. “The Elements are missing, what can we do?”

“Run,” Luna stated simply. “Fight another day.”

“I agree,” Celestia said with a nod. “We’ll-”

With a loud crack of stone Oskar landed in the hall from the massive hole in the roof, made from his sudden burst of magic. The two princesses quickly backed away from the virus, flaring their wings as they stood protectively in front of the Mane Six. Oskar, however, only had eyes for one person.

Reaching into the rubble, Oskar pulled up Discord’s beaten and battered unconscious form. Snarling briefly, Oskar brought the Chaotic being close to his face before opening his mouth as wide as possible. Discord was then brought headfirst towards Oskar’s mouth when he was interrupted.

“STOP!” Twilight shouted, running out from behind the princesses and coming to a stop just before the monstrosity before her.

With her shout, Oskar did indeed stop and he turned one of his many eyes towards Twilight. For a long tense moment, the two simply looked at each other, Twilight calmly and sternly looking up at Oskar and the viral being looking down at her, mouth agape and Discord inches from being eaten headfirst.

“You don’t have to do this,” Twilight began evenly. “Look at him. He isn’t going to be hurting anypony any time soon. Please don’t kill him.”

The silence continued for a moment longer as Oskar stared, but then something happened, the cloud of madness seem to lift from his eyes and his grip around Discord’s neck slacked. Discord slipped from Oskar’s grip and fell to the floor with a thud. Oskar turned to face Twilight and silence reigned for the longest moment as he stared at her and everyone else.

Oskar suddenly narrowed his eyes at Celestia and Luna and raised his foot before stomping it on the floor.

Tendrils burst out from the floor under the Mane Six so fast that by the time they shouted in alarm they were already caught. Rainbow Dash’s wings were completely wrapped up along with her legs. Rarity’s legs were lightly bound with most of the attention on her horn with several tendrils wrapped around it that would constrict painfully should she use her magic. Fluttershy’s wings were wrapped up as well, but several large tendrils wrapped around her head and completely blinded her. Applejack was just tied up in general but Pinkie Pie was utterly cocooned in tendrils, leaving only two small air holes of the pony to breathe out of. In stark contrast to everyone else, however, Twilight just had a few tendrils wrapped around her waist and that held her aloft. Nothing at all was keeping her from using magic, though the death glare she was shooting at Oskar could be considered a deadly weapon all on its own.

“Surrender,” Oskar said to the two princesses, his blade wings fully flared out.

Celestia and Luna glared defiantly at Oskar. He was more powerful than them, that much was clear, but they weren’t about to cower before him. Still, they recognised just how bad the situation was; all of the Mane Six were restrained, the Elements of Harmony were missing and the being before them was strong enough to not only fight Discord, but win. In the end, the only choice for them to take was clear.

“Very well…” Celestia began, relaxing her stance but never stopping her glare. “We surrender, just do not hurt anypony.”

With a gesture of his hand, tendrils erupted from the ground and completely covered both of the princesses, leaving them in a cocooned state very much like Pinkie Pie. Oskar then paused for a moment before taking in the Mane Six restrained along with the princesses and turning back to look at Discord’s unconscious form. It was hard to tell, but Oskar seemed to look confused and uncertain.

“I won?” Oskar muttered as he kept looking between the princesses and Discord. “I won… it doesn’t feel like…”

“Yes, you’ve won,” Twilight practically spat at him. “Completely and totally.”

Oskar stared at Twilight for a long moment, his gaze locked on hers. Then he turned around and the tendrils retreated from everyone, letting them drop to the floor in confusion. Why had he done that? The Evolved walked over to one of the windows and spied the landscape. The sky was blood red, black dust rained down and ponies on the streets were writhing on the ground.

Making a decision, Oskar raised a hand and reached out.

THETA

The little filly’s lungs were on fire and she could barely stop her coughing long enough to breath comfortably. Beside her, her mother seemed to be far worse off.

Each feather of her wings appeared to have fused their bristles together and looked like a bunch of long scales. Her mane had become much wilder looking and the pupils of her eyes had become slitted. Her teeth had fallen out and were now replaced by canines. She thrashed and was spasming on the ground, snarling with flecks of foam appearing around her lips.

“M-m-mommy…” the filly said in a frightened voice between coughing.

Her mother wasn’t the only one that appeared to be suffering and undergoing intense changes. All over Canterlot, ponies were rendered helpless by the black dust they had breathed. Most were just on the ground with painful coughing fits, but others had started undergoing extreme changes to their body.

Suddenly, there was a blast of light from the palace and a wave of white light passed over everything and everyone. A clear blue sky and a relief from the pain and further change was left in its wake. All signs of the black dust that had rained down from the sky were gone, and the ponies that had collapsed to the ground in coughing fits were already feeling well enough to stand back up. However, there were an unfortunate few.

“Mommy?” the little filly asked with growing alarm and starting shaking her mother’s shoulder. “Mommy!”

“I’m… I’m okay honey…” her mother said softly, her sharp teeth glinting from between her lips and her eyes fluttering open and revealing her slitted eyes.

“M-mommy…” the little filly said and almost recoiled from the sight of her changed mother before she came closer and held her tight.

IOTA

Everyone looked at Oskar, who was currently staring at his hand after undoing the effect his increase in power had on the land. After a moment, he turned his gaze towards the ponies. Luna walked towards him and looked like she was going to say something.

Oskar then disappeared in an excessively bright flash of crimson light.

Silence reigned in that moment. Nothing went as how everyone expected things to go. Discord was gloating and taunting them with his supremacy when a foe they had not expected at all came to their aid. Then, after defeating that foe and having them at his mercy, he just let them go and left. Everyone was a tad confused of how to take it, though Twilight actually was just standing there staring at the spot where Oskar had stood with a frown.

Seeing this made Celestia think back to a minute ago when everyone was bound in black tendrils. Everyone had been securely restrained and yet Twilight was barely given any thought. It couldn’t have been that Oskar didn’t consider her a threat as he had taken no chances with everyone else. So why hadn’t he restrained Twilight like everyone else? Why had he purposefully decided to take such a massive risk? Perhaps it was because-

“Oh my gosh!” Fluttershy shouted in alarm, gaining everyone’s attention.

The pegasus was standing beside the terribly injured Discord. Everyone had been so confused over what had just happened with Oskar that they had completely forgotten about the shape shifter’s victim.

“Please, somepony get me some bandages!” Fluttershy shouted in alarm. She was good, but there was only so much anyone could do without the proper equipment.

Celestia and Luna looked at each other as Fluttershy’s friends leapt into action. Injured as he may be, Discord was still a powerful threat and the best course of action would be to seal him away as soon as they found the Elements of Harmony. Then again, Discord was very injured and it seemed cruel to just seal him away with his injuries and the possibility his prison would preserve the wounds he had sustained.

“Caution is the better part of valour, sister,” Luna said softly as she viewed Fluttershy tending to Discord’s wounds as best as she could. “T’would be a sound move to seal him as soon as the elements are found.”

“Perhaps…” Celestia said with a troubled frown that soon turned thoughtful. “But there is a chance, a small chance, that this event gives us a grand opportunity.”

“Oh?”

“Yes,” Celestia said as she took in Fluttershy caring for Discord. “A very grand opportunity.”

KAPPA

“GURK!” Oskar stifled a grunt as crimson magical lightning surged along his form for a moment.

He had assumed his base form and returned to the cavern city of his nation. However, once the adrenaline born out of his brief bout of insanity and combat, he started to notice something; his magic was too intense and he could feel so much more.

“Boss, are you okay?” a Diamond Dog asked worriedly.

“I’m f-fine,” Oskar stuttered as another bolt surged and made him stumble slightly.

“Ahh!” the dog shouted in shock from the sight. “Boss, are you sure?!”

“I-I don’t need h-help!” Oskar said angrily before forcing himself to calm down. “Just leave me alone for a bit…”

“Alright boss…”

Oskar sat down on a stone bench and placed his head in his hands, twitching involuntarily whenever another surge of magic blasted through him.

‘Is this Discord’s power?’ Oskar thought briefly before shaking his head. ‘No, it can’t be. It doesn’t feel chaotic. I don’t know what I was expecting, but this feeling is something else entirely. I can feel every viral creation I ever created and could feel the viral spores that had rained down from the skies. I was never able to control viral life forms from a distance all that well. Making them stumble in a general direction was the most I was ever able to do, but after Discord… it was like I was standing beside them and giving my commands directly.’

‘So what did consuming that blood do?’ Oskar thought and looked down at his hand. ‘I didn’t get what Discord had so… what, did it just amplify what was there? It certainly feels like it. I have so much magic flowing through my circuits now… more than I can control reliably anymore. God damn, and here I was beginning to enjoy that universal compatibility the alicorn upgrade gave to my circuits. Well, no point in complaining. I might as well as add control training back to my work list.’

‘Oh… can’t forget.’ Oskar groaned inwardly. ‘Objective Five: Claim the top of the Food Chain, complete. Operation status? Total success… not that I am feeling very happy about it.’

“VIRUS!” The Timber Spirit’s voice echoed within the cavern and startled both the dogs and Oskar.

“Huh?” Oskar said, wondering what ever could be happening now.

“I have been thinking on your words for a long time now,” the spirit’s deep voice boomed. “And after watching you claim victory over one who spits upon the cycle with contemptuous ease, I have decided to act as well.”

“Act?” Oskar asked and recalled the last major conversation they shared and suddenly grew worried. “What do you intend to do?”

“I shall teach them to not only beware these forests but fear it in totality!” the spirit boomed. “I shall wipe one of the more troublesome towns off the map! Then they shall know the cycle is not to be trifled with!”

“What?!” Oskar shouted, leaping to his feet. “Hold on a minute! It’s one thing to not want to be victimised or enslaved, but it’s an entirely other thing to kill just to teach others a lesson!”

Oskar then waited for a reply from the spirit, but the moments passed…

“Hello…?” Oskar said with wide eyes. “God damn it!”

The Evolved immediately started pacing, occasionally twitching from a sudden surge of magic. He began thinking intently of which town the spirit could be attacking and his first thought was Ponyville. Half panicking, the virus teleported to the outskirts outside the town, however Oskar had ended up arriving a bit off target.

With a small explosion of dirt Oskar tore out of the ground he had accidentally buried himself in. Looking at Ponyville with a longing expression for a brief moment, Oskar then turned towards the forest border. He waited several moments, but worry made him impatient and he ran at the trees.

‘He’s not here. Why isn’t he here?!’ Oskar thought as he made use of his sonar, his hearing and his sight to catch any sign of the spirit’s assault. ‘Okay, this just means that he hadn’t meant Ponyville. But what town could he have meant? I have no clue, no choice but to take flight and spot the attack from the sky.’

With that, Oskar grew his blade wings and intended to quickly reach the cloud level and start looking. However, Oskar ending up missing his mark by a bit.

‘AHH SHIT!’ Oskar thought as he shot past the clouds and started to see stars appear when he stopped his intensely fast ascent. He then tried to make a minor correction and lower down to cloud level but ended up doing the same thing in the opposite direction.

Nothing more than a blur to the average observer, Oskar ended up impacting the ground like a small meteor, sending up a shower of dirt and causing the earth to shake.

‘Come on!’ Oskar thought angrily with himself. ‘Get control of yourself! I can’t keep making this mistake over and over again when that spirit could be attacking a town right at this moment!’

Deeply unhappy scowl plastered across his expression, Oskar quickly got out of the crater he made and once more took flight. Again he ended up flying higher than intended but at least he wasn’t too much higher than the clouds.

Sense of urgency growing with every moment, Oskar made his way, mental list of all the towns that bordered Everfree at the forefront of his mind.

LAMDA

The ponies of Trottingham were a simple people whose main export was high quality lumber gathered from sustainable logging. For the most part, the ponies here grew vast groves of trees for their lumber but occasionally a lumberjack would get bold enough to take a few from Everfree. Normally the ponies went out of their way to avoid the dreaded forest, but as time went on and more ponies took trees without reprisal, ponies started to fear the forest less. The ponies had thought that as long as they took only from the outskirts and didn’t venture into the forest everything would be fine. This belief made them the Spirit’s target.

It began with a loud howl echoing from the forest, spooking the already tense ponies that had just gone through the sky going red. Then the trees started to shake and the ground rumbled with the impact of a great many paws. And out from the forest, their eyes glowing bright green, came a vast horde of Timber Wolves.

Ponies panicked in the streets as the snarling and howling wave of animated wood approached. Their size made their speed quick and most of the ponies were still on the streets by the time the first wolves started to reach them. One of the leading wolves leapt for a group a ponies, jaws wide open, when a blur shot down from the sky and crashed down on top of the timber wolf, sending logs and dirt flying.

This one action cause both sides to pause in what they were doing. Timber wolves stopped their charge to peer through the dust cloud at what had struck down one of their number, and the ponies stopped to see what had saved them.

Out of the crater and the dispersing dust cloud was Oskar, blade wings upon his back and unhappy frown firmly plastered across his expression. The timber wolves seemed to grow intensely confused at Oskar’s presence, while the ponies became unnerved by the look of the strange creature’s wings and how their edges seemed to be so sharp they hurt the eyes to look at them.

“I know I am the last person you expected to be standing against you but I want you to stop,” Oskar said as he threw up his hands in a placating manner. “I know why you are doing this but it doesn’t justify it. Don’t make me fight you, because I will.”

Oskar had obviously failed at talking down the spirit because the hordes of timber wolves before him seemed to become utterly enraged. With a collective howl they charged again, this time not at the ponies, but at Oskar.

“HAVE IT YOUR WAY!” Oskar shouted as he kicked one wolf, sending it’s log body scattering into the air.

The ponies took this change of targets as their chance to get to safety, and they didn’t waste that chance, quickly bolting down the street for shelter.

‘Right, these wolves aren’t exactly the most durable things around,’ Oskar thought as he scattered one wolf with a punch and disrupted dozens more when he magically picked up half a dozen wolves and sent them flying at their fellows. ‘Maybe to the average person around here they would be more of a danger, but not to me. I doubt their wooden teeth could ever hope to pierce my hide. His anger has blinded him to the bigger picture too. I can’t be everywhere, so if he truly wanted to destroy the town he could still do a ton of damage just by sending wolves all over instead of focusing on me. So really it all comes down to me taking down the wolves faster and more efficiently. Fire breath is out. I could end up igniting a house or two plus it would likely enrage him more. Hammerfists might be a good idea, but if I’m not careful with the strength of my blows I may end up damaging the homes, the same might as well be said of my whipfist. So what does that leave me? Blade, claws, bare fists and my magic. Yeah, I’ve got tons of ways to go about handling this, let’s do it!’

Oskar didn’t trust his running ability at its full power just yet; he had a hard enough time getting place to place with it let alone using it in combat. So the virus focused on his magic and fell back on his hands and feet whenever a timber wolf got close. Just like how his flying ability was now unreliable, so was his other magical abilities. When he tried to levitate a wolf sometimes that would be the result, other times he ended up crushing the wolf into splinters or accidently sent it flying off into the sky. They were both acceptable results for combat, but if he intended to use his magic for more mundane tasks he would have to be very careful.

The street was soon covered in the scattered logs of disrupted timber wolves. As fast as they were streaming out of the forest, Oskar was simply destroying their numbers faster. Eventually the Evolved had gotten his stride and was now making his way down the street, utterly ripping apart timber wolves before they could even get close with just telekinetic skill alone.

Suddenly the timber wolves not only stopped their advance but fell to pieces where they stood, leaving Oskar to stare in bemusement at the scattered logs.

Seeing that the timber wolves had been defeated, ponies began to cautiously leave their homes. Seeing the one who came to their rescue made them want to approach him and give him their thanks but his intimidating looking wings made them keep their distance. Finally one pony did finally approach him.

“Excuse me?” Oskar heard and felt something nudge his leg. Looking down, he saw a young earth pony filly looking up at him.

“Thank you for saving us and our homes.,” she said a little shyly.

“Oh… no problem…” Oskar said, caught off guard by the praise. “Just… just tell everyone to not bother the forest anymore.”

“Okay!” She nodded.

With that, Oskar’s thoughts returned to the issue of what had happened to make the spirit stop. Did he just see that he was having no effect? It was then that something that the little filly said that got him to thinking.

‘Hmm… home…’ Oskar thought and then his eyes widened in realization and he teleported away, leaving a confused crowd of ponies behind.

The Evolved found himself a hundred feet above his intended destination, but didn’t mind; the height gave him a good observation spot for what was happening below.

The spirit had apparently decided that if Oskar was going to side with the ponies then it was going to attack his people that lived in the forest. In the cleared field below, the entire force of Warhounds were battling a seemingly endless wave of timber wolves pouring out of the treeline. Despite the timber wolves being so much larger than them, the Warhounds were actually doing very well. Their well-designed armour made the wooden teeth and claws of the timber wolves ineffective, though by the looks of several wounded dogs the spirit was quickly learning to aim for the joints of the armor.

The bigger dogs were using large clubs and hammers to disrupt the large wooden wolves while the smaller ones were resorting to hit and run tactics to give their bigger and stronger fellows an opening. Interestingly, Whisper Wind was also there helping out, dive bombing as many timber wolves as she could get away with and giving the Warhounds an opening.

Oskar dropped out of the sky, shifting his arms into hammerfists and shot himself towards the largest concentration of timber wolves coming out of the forest. A near instant later, he landed with an explosion of dirt that was larger than the previous ones followed by a small forest of spikes spearing out of the ground.

Oskar’s eventful entry into the fight caught the attention of most of the timber wolves, a very much welcome development for the beleaguered Warhounds as the wolves charged at Oskar. Seeing that there was nothing here that could keep him from letting loose, Oskar did just that.

The Evolved’s hammerfists made earth shuddering blows with every strike and destroyed most timber wolves that even got close, let alone those that were hit by the fists. He was about to provide yet more assistance to his Diamond Dogs via sending many wolves flying when louds boom resounded throughout the field.

Oskar turned to see Belvedere wearing his Warhound armor, carrying what looked like a small cannon and followed by a small group of other Warhounds, all carrying the cannon like gun. Each Warhound had a pack on their back that held large canisters that were apparently the magazines for the guns. Due to their size, the packs didn’t hold too many canisters shots but there was a wagon being pulled along behind the group filled with canisters.

Upon reloading their guns, the small group faced a small wave of charging timber wolves and let loose, utterly devastating the wolves and nearly turning them into splinters in one deafening barrage of gunfire. Without sparing a single moment, the dogs then snapped down the barrel of their guns and dropped the empty canister down on the ground. They then grabbed a fresh canister out of their packs and pushed it into the gun chamber before snapping the barrel back up. The next wave of timber wolves were just as lucky as the first.

Concentrating on a large number of the timber wolves, Oskar intended to send them flying into the sky. For the most part that happened, but a great many timber wolves were also crushed into mulch as they flew. Once he did that, Oskar ran forward and came to a stop beside Belvedere.

“Is everyone alright?” Oskar asked before giving the gun the alpha held a studying look. “Nice shotgun by the way.”

“Everyone is fine, Oskar. The attack started just a short while ago and we’ve managed to hold them back with only a few wounded so far,” Belvedere stated before briefly brandishing the gun. “We were making these in secret. Wanted to surprise you. But then these things attacked and our bolt action rifles weren’t terribly useful, so we took these out for a test drive. They seem to be working well… haven’t exploded in my hands yet.”

“Okay, we are definitely going to be talking later; I don’t like the implications of that statement,” Oskar said before turning towards the treeline. “Right now we still have a fight to win.”

“Hmm… actually it looks like they have stopped coming,” Belvedere said, the field all around them covered with scattered logs and a few skirmishes between the still active wolves and the Warhounds. “Did the spirit run out of logs or something?”

“I doubt it…” Oskar said with narrowed eyes, staring at the treeline. “Something else is coming. I guess that easily.”

Oskar was proven right when a distant rumble resounded and off in the distance a large flock of birds suddenly took off. A shape began to appear through the canopy of the trees. At first it looked like the trees were rising up into the air, but it soon became apparent something had risen up from under them as the trees fell off. The shape just continued to raise up higher and higher into the air, until it was easily the size of a skyscraper, then it started walking towards the field.

The normally stoic Belvedere was wide eyed and gaping at the massive thing moving towards them and the Warhounds in the field were near panicking. Oskar, however, kept his cool and stood his ground as dogs backed away from the approaching titan. It may have been a few times bigger than a goliath, but he knew bigger didn’t always mean better.

Oskar studied the titanic being as it closed distance. It had six legs that made the earth tremble as it walked. Near what the virus had assumed was its head were several brightly glowing green spots that seemed to be eyes. The entirety of its body seemed to be made of a vast collection of tightly coiled together roots of various sizes, from impossibly huge to small and spindly. The overall shape of the body reminded Oskar of a squid or a cuttlefish… or now that Oskar thought about it really reminded him of-

“YOU!!” the spirit boomed in it’s incredibly deep voice. “YOU BETRAYED ME!!!”

Oskar stood his ground as the titanic being towered over him and brought its head down near to him, not flinching in the face of the obvious intimidation tactic.

“YOU SPOKE OF YOUR OWN STRUGGLES OF ENSURING YOUR OWN FREEDOM!” the spirit raged. “I THOUGHT YOU AND I HAD A SHARED DESIRE AND NEED FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THAT WHICH IS SACRED TO US! YET WHEN I GO OUT TO ENSURE I AM NO LONGER THREATENED BY ENCROACHMENT YOU SIDE WITH THOSE THAT WOULD CHAIN ME! WHY!!!”

“Because I can not only understand and sympathise with where you are coming from,” Oskar began. “I can’t allow you to kill innocent people for committing a crime they had no idea in the slightest they were doing.”

“YOU HYPOCRITE!!” the spirit raged. “DO YOU BELIEVE I AM UNAWARE OF WHAT YOU HAVE BEEN DOING IN EQUESTRIA? OR THAT I HAVE SUDDENLY FORGOTTEN THE MURDERS YOU TOLD ME OF?!? AND WHAT OF THE PETTY THEFTS YOU HAVE BEEN COMMITTING? DOES THAT NOT MATTER WHEN IT IS YOU COMMITTING THESE ACTIONS?!?”

“I am not going to defend what I have done,” Oskar said solemnly. “I know I have done terrible and unforgivable things just to save my own hide. But I am not going to do those things anymore; I am not the person I was when I first arrived here. And while I have done terrible things, that does not mean I do not have a responsibility to stop mass murder when I have the opportunity to do so. Thus I cannot allow you to wreak havoc and destroy all you wish in Equestria just to spread a message.”

“I am not your servant!” the spirit boomed angrily, though much less than before. “I am the Everfree! I am unchained and unbound eternally! I will be forever free and none shall take it from me. Not ponies, and especially not YOU!”

“I never intended for that, ever,” Oskar said with his hands raised placatingly. “I just don’t see the need for you to go to such extreme lengths. The ponies still fear the Everfree. Just freshen up that fear in a way that doesn’t lead to anyone dying. It should be a simple enough task. I am not your enemy, I am your… your friend, and I do not want to see you go down the path I did. You’ll live to regret it… so very much.”

There was a long tense moment following what Oskar had said, and for a brief moment it looked like the massive being blinked at Oskar confoundedly. Then it rose up and seemed to take a much less tense stance as it took a few steps back.

“… Do not think I listen to you because of your newfound power.” The spirit scoffed as it looked down at Oskar, giving the Evolved the feeling that had it had the appendage, it would be looking down its nose at him. “You, a being of flesh and virus, attempt to reach out to the goodness of my soul, but you fumble in obvious ineptitude, barely capable of comprehending the idea of friendship.”

“Wow, so much gratitude for me actually trying to reach out to you,” Oskar said sarcastically and crossed his arms. “Are you going to tell that I can’t hope to even grasp the nature of your existence now Sovereign?”

“…What?” the spirit said after a moment.

“Oh it’s just that… the way you look and the sound of your voice… it really reminds me of someone by that name,” Oskar said with shrug.

The spirit didn’t appear to be listening though.

“Sovereign… yes, this name resonates with me,” he said with a pleased tone. “SOVEREIGN, for this forest is my domain, my kingdom! I command all that exist within it! I am Sovereign of the Everfree!”

“… You massive egotistical bastard,” Oskar deadpanned. “And you don’t command either me or the Diamond Dogs!”

“A triviality.” ‘Sovereign said dismissively before beginning to stomp away. “This conversation is over. Try not cause yet more chaos to that nation you love so much.”

“Yeah, how about you stop trampling your own trees you fat ass!” Oskar shouted after him, looking angry for a few moments before giving a small smile.

“Boss?”

Oskar turned around to see Belvedere and a large group of Warhounds gathered behind him. They were standing near Oskar and still looked nervous from Sovereign’s presence, though he was leaving now.

“There is nothing more to worry about, Belvedere,” Oskar said, throwing Sovereign a glance over his shoulder before giving Belvedere his full attention. “How is everyone?”

“We only have wounded, Oskar,” Belvedere answered, now fully calm. “Their armor did their job well, and everyone is going to make a full recovery.”

“Great, I’ll just give the healing process a little boost like last time…” Oskar said before sighing.

“Is something wrong, Oskar?” Belvedere asked.

“No, I’m just… today has just been a long day…” Oskar said with another sigh before squaring his shoulders. “Right, let’s get to healing those dogs shall we?”

Celestia sighed tiredly.

She and her sister were in their palace, which was now missing a good portion of its roof. Ponies were running amok in a half panic, and even the Royal Guard were no better. Even now, hours after the whole battle between Discord and the Imp known as Oskar, things were still disorderly.

Cloudsdale was obliterated, though miraculously no one was hurt. The weather making machines, however, had been utterly destroyed and would set back the already ailing economy of Equestria. While the city of clouds was the not the sole place the weather was made, it was still the major supplier and source of weather, meaning that in the near future the other purely pegasi towns and cities were going to be put under a lot of stress to even keep up a fraction of the old national production. No matter what was currently done, a weather shortage was inevitable.

Then there was the aftermath of the black dust that had rained down from the sky. Nearly every pony in Canterlot and several neighbouring towns had been tormented and briefly crippled by it, but for some ponies it had not ended. Some ponies had been afflicted terribly; wild manes, bestial eyes, unnatural canines and a new aggressive attitude was the common descriptor of the afflicted. For unicorns, their horns had become almost blade like and their magic had increased massively, all of them rating at ten with a few even going a point higher. Pegasi had their feathers turned into long scale like appendages; their flying ability had not suffered however, and in fact it only seemed to have grown even greater. Earth ponies were the less obviously afflicted than the others; they had grown extremely strong, reaching the very height of recorded earth pony development and a few reaching even further than that. As terrible as their conditions were, there were still ponies that were even worse off. They were very clearly turned into something that only had the shape of a pony but were no longer of ponies; at least the others could be mistaken for normal at a distance, but these ponies had no chance of that. One look at their forms would convince any and all that they were another creature entirely. Thankfully, these poor ponies had all been members of staff in the palace or royal guard, and thus Celestia was able to sequester their entire number within her palace where she could do everything in her power to reverse their current condition.

Finally, they still didn’t know what to do with Discord. The chaotic being was still unconscious, but had been moved to one of the more softer beds in the palace. Doctors and nurses had been brought in from the nearby hospital down in the city, but the medical staff had been rather nervous of Discord. The only pony attending to the Draconequis without any care for who or what he was, was Fluttershy. She worked tirelessly alongside nervous doctors, even correcting the professionals when they weren’t doing their jobs right in treating Discord. Truly the young mare deserved to bear the Element of Kindness with a heart she gladly bared to all when it was needed. Of course that didn’t change the fact they still needed to find the Elements of Harmony to protect themselves should Discord decide to take advantage of their compassion.

“Today is a very stressful day,” Celestia said wearily. “And there are going to be so many more days like this in both the near and distant future.”

“Indeed sister,” Luna agreed. “Plans for revitalization of the economy have been set back by Cloudsdale’s untimely destruction by quite a bit I’m afraid. Not to mention the cost of repairing the palace.”

“The palace can wait,” Celestia said with a frown. “We just need to cover the roof and board up a few windows; the main priority is the kingdom.”

“Very well,” Luna said with a nod. “This does mean that rain will be troublesome and winter will be a much more bitter affair, not to mention how poorly it will look on us when dignitaries from other kingdoms arrive.”

“We can deal with it,” Celestia said firmly. “How are the pegasi of Cloudsdale?”

“Well, a lucky few will be able to return home by the end of the day,” Luna answered as she brought up a scroll. “The rest are going to have to be housed for a time here in the capital until their skyward homes are rebuilt. Rebuilding the weather factory will take longer still of course.”

“Hmm…” Celestia hummed. “And the… afflicted?”

“Other than unsettling their fellows with their changed appearance, they appear to be doing fine,” Luna replied before a frown appeared for a moment. “It’s the more severely changed that are housed within the palace that we have to worry about. They are powerful in quite a few ways and are even more aggressive than the others. For now, they are very willing to be hidden away within these walls until something can be done for them, but how long until their aggressive nature changes that?”

“They are former palace staff and royal guard,” Celestia stated confidently. “I’m sure they of all ponies will keep themselves in check and not hurt anypony.”

“Even so…” Luna said unsurely with a frown.

“Your highnesses!” a pegasus royal guard shouted, flying in from the fairly nonexistent roof.

“Yes, what is the issue?” Luna asked the guard.

“News from Trottingham!” the guard said with a sharp salute. “It was attacked by timber wolves from the Everfree Forest!”

“No!” Celestia half shouted. “How many ponies were hurt?!”

“None ma’am,” the guard answered to the combined confusion of the royal sisters. “The town was saved by a strange bipedal creature with threatening wings made of blades.”

“Really?” Luna arched a brow. “Was this creature wearing clothes and had bare pale skin except for a patch hidden under his hat?”

“Uhhh… that sounds like the description, your highness,” the guard said after a moment.

Luna and Celestia shared a look. For what possible reason could the forest have for attacking Trottingham, and what reason could Oskar have for protecting it? It didn’t make much if any sense to the sisters, which fit in with what happened earlier today. Oskar had them at his mercy and let them all go without a word. He now had the power to face the one being they could only ever face with the Element of Harmony… and he sounded so unsure of himself afterwards as if he had no idea what to do now. Surely he had some sort of plan, but by the sound of it he had been totally surprised he had won. Why?

It was a question only Oskar himself could answer, was what the sisters decided.

Oskar sighed as he rubbed his head, stressed out from the day’s events as he walked through the streets of the cavern city.

The Evolved had spent the last few hours healing up the injured Warhounds that had been in combat with Sovereign’s timber wolves. It had turned out to be an extremely time consuming and difficult task, with him no longer possessing the fine control he once had before Discord. He hadn’t made their condition worse, but making sure that very thing didn’t happen required intense concentration. Combined with everything else that happened, it just weighed heavily on Oskar, exhausting him in a way that was purely emotional and mental.

Now that he was certain no more tasks needed to be done, or any other catastrophes were about to drop on his head like an angry god, he could take a bit of time to himself. And from how he felt, the Evolved had no choice but to recognise that he needed this time. So his destination was a room that he hadn’t even seen but was meant for him.

Arriving at the “city hall,” the place where he held his demonstrations or meetings with the Alphas, Oskar entered. He then moved through the halls and went up a few staircases. Eventually he found himself before a set of obviously stolen, but nice oaken double doors. Nailed into the wall just above the doors was a board that had the words ‘Boss’ Room’ carved into it.

Opening the doors, Oskar found himself in what must have been the nicest room in the city. The stone floor was covered with many fur pelts that weren’t just placed haphazardly. The large bed was obviously put together with immense care and only the best wood was used. No doubt the same could be said of the bedding and the furs that served as the blankets. A dresser with a sheet of highly polished steel was over to the side, obviously intended for him to store and try out any outfits he had; Oskar doubted it would see much use. On the opposite end of the room was a sitting area with a fireplace; no doubt the fireplace needed quite a bit of work considering how far deep below ground the room was. In one corner of the room was a door which likely led to a bathroom of some sort, and Oskar doubted this would see much use as well.

Closing the doors behind him, Oskar approached the bed and sat on it. He was emotionally and mentally exhausted, and drowning himself in work the past few weeks had not seemed to improve his current situation. As it was, he decided a couple hours of doing nothing would be good for him.

The Evolved lied down on the bed and sighed as his head sunk in the soft pillows. He wasn’t physically tired, just mentally and emotionally so. He didn’t intend to sleep. He just intended to lie there for a long while, at least until he felt better. Sleep was the last thing on his mind…

Luna exhaled softly as the familiar sight of the dream realm appeared around her, the various bubbles of sleeping ponies drifted about and more than a few of them were obviously nightmares as their ugly oily black surface attested. It had been a long day helping her sister slog through everything that needed to be done to calm down the populace and she had been looking forward to overseeing a few dreams. However, it seemed that her work would be cut out for her here, just as it was awake.

Just as she was about to settle into her nightly work in earnest, Luna spotted a familiar sight. It was a nightmare bubble like the others, but unlike the others it had tendrils of red lighting about it, lashing out at everything that neared it. Within the bubble was the sight of a hill that was half lush and half scorched.

Seeing that she once again had the opportunity to enter the dreams of Oskar after so many months, Luna practically leapt at the bubble.

The dream world Luna found herself in wasn’t as violent to look at as had the first had been, but the meaning behind it was currently lost on her. Off to the left in the distance was a city upon an island, its tall skyscrapers were all aflame and the sky above it was crimson. Off to the right was Canterlot before during a bright sunny day; the idyllic little town of Ponyville could be spotted in the image as well.

Between these two vistas was a grass covered hill with a tree sitting on the very top of it. One half of the hill and tree was lush and had flowers blooming and butterflies flew about in the air. The other half was utterly scorched, the grass was black and patches of ground had small crackling fires that sent sparks into the air. The tree on this half was burnt as well and was missing all of its leaves, fires darted its charred branches seeming to burn in slow motion.

Sitting at the very base of the tree was Oskar, looking as he did the day his mother had died. He looked utterly miserable as he hugged his legs close to himself and clutched his hat in one hand.

Luna approached the top of the hill slowly, so as to not startle Oskar. She merely wanted to talk to creature she called an Imp and nothing else. But as she neared Oskar she began to hear a conversation.

“… Remember how she screamed at you after finding out what you had done?” Luna heard a familiar voice ask. “Your little playmate wasn’t going to play anymore. Or how about that whore you framed for murder? You couldn’t help yourself and just had to know what kind of person you condemned to death at Blackwatch’s merciful hands. Poor little Mary Anne only wanted enough to bribe her way out of the hell hole that was the NYZ… well she certainly wasn’t in the NYZ anymore afterwards now wasn’t she?”

Luna looked towards the direction of the voice and found its origin sitting on one of the branches in the tree. The alicorn searched her memory briefly and had managed to recall who the being was, Dr. Mercer, the Imp that apparently commanded Oskar.

“And despite all this gold material, the best parts truly come afterwards, you know after you and those pathetic excuses for Evolved betrayed me,” Mercer said bitingly, making Oskar let out something that sounded like a whimper. “Murdering that sea serpent, the old guard, a young griffin, her father and all of his loyal servants. Stealing valuable machinery from a nation and causing a recession, leading to thousands suffering just for your sake. The best part of all this, you can’t blame me for it Oskar. You KNOW you could have just made yourself a new form and settled down here and lived a peaceful and happy life amongst locals. But you didn’t, and you only have yourself to blame. Your friends will one day find out what you are. And do you want to know what is going to happen? Not friendship, that is for certain. They are going to take those Elements of theirs and lock you up like the monster you are. That is what you’ll be in their eyes, just a monster. But at least you’ll always be my monster, right Oskar?”

“Now you hold there one moment you fiend!” Luna interrupted and stomped over. Oskar for his part only gave her a miserable glance before turning his gaze back down. “No pony is beyond redemption, no pony at all! However… the hardest part of redemption is not gaining the forgiveness of others but forgiving yourself. Trying to live with the consequences of one’s own actions is not something that all can shoulder alone. Having good people with you, helping you live and grow despite the terrible burden of justified guilt. You have obviously found those that you find dear do you not? Is it not clear that being with them makes everything so much brighter?”

Mercer seemed to glare at Luna a moment as Oskar slowly looked up at her with wide eyes. Then the Doctor suddenly had this truly vicious looking grin on his expression.

“Your mother would have been extremely disappointed in what you became Oskar,” Mercer said sadistically and seemed to grow intensely satisfied when he saw Oskar cover his ears and close his eyes tightly. “She would have HATED you! She would have wished you were dead! She would have wished she abor-”

“ENOUGH OF YOUR POISON, VILE CREATURE!!!” Luna boomed in anger, her eyes alit and horn glowing brightly. “BEGONE FROM THIS DREAM!”

A light leapt from Luna’s horn and struck at Mercer. The vicious Evolved recoiled for brief moment as he was enshrouded by the light and suddenly he was no more.

Luna looked down at Oskar who was now staring up at her with wide eyes, silently mouthing words.

“D-dream… dream… this is a dream,” Oskar said with horrified realization. “Y-you-your actually here…”

“Yes, and it’s time we are properly acquainted Oskar,” Luna said with a nod. “I am Princess L-”

“No, no, no, no, no, NO!” Oskar shouted as he grasped his head. “Wake up! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!”

Suddenly the flames seemed to come alive and swept over the lush half of the hill. The tree was burnt to a charred husk and the grass blackened and died. The flames continued off in the distance, consuming both Ponville and Canterlot, leaving burning ruins in its wake.

With that, a completely aghast Luna was propelled from a collapsing dream as the dreamer awakened.

OMICRON

Oskar inhaled sharply as his eyes shot open, and then he closed them with a groan before sitting up in his bed. The virus grasped the sides of his head as he started to take deep calming breaths.

‘… I deserved that for falling asleep,’ Oskar thought emotionlessly. ‘I knew Luna could go into the dreams of others. She had written down that fact herself on those papers she had in her room. Yet I got careless and fell asleep anyway… idiot.’

Along with Luna being in his dream, Oskar’s couldn’t help but think about the other occupant of that dream. Alex Mercer and the words he had said, saying how his mother would have hated him and would have regretted ever giving birth to him. And the worst part about it? Oskar found himself agreeing with Mercer.

‘Yeah, I’m a terrible person. A monster,’ Oskar thought in misery. ‘She would have completely hated what I have become, so far from the kind and handsome man she predicted I’d turn into…’

Oskar sat for several long moments in bed, basking in his own misery for what he was. Finally, his expression grew serious.

‘Well… I can’t reverse what happened but I can go return what was hers.’ With that thought, Oskar teleported.

It was night, fast approaching the dawn of a new day and Oskar was near a cliff ledge chiseling marks into a stone with great care.

He had arrived here a few hours ago and had set to work on his goal. First he gathered up two large stones. He could have conjured them up, but it felt more appropriate to do it this way. Then he started carving each into a specific shape with painstaking care and slowness. Once he was done shaping the two stones, he started carving English letters into the surface of each one. Oskar had finished his task several minutes before the sunrise and stood back to study each stone.

Two gravestones sat before Oskar, the one on the left had the words ‘Oskar Osäker, Proud Son’ on it and the right had ‘Adela Osäker, Cherished Mother’. Oskar studied both grave stones for a long moment before picking each one up and sinking it part way into the ground. Once both stones were secured into the ground, Oskar kneeled before Adela’s gravestone.

‘I promise to never use his name or his form again. I don’t deserve to be your son,’ Oskar thought, feeling very much like he was dead inside. ‘Your son would have gone on to date that pretty girl you kept teasing him about, he would have opened his own bakery and started his own family, he would have made you proud… but I became this horrible monstrous thing! I’m s-sorry, so very sorry for using his name and form for as long as I did; neither he nor you deserved that… I will not ask for forgiveness, for I don’t deserve it, and even were you alive I know you rightfully wouldn’t give it. I know I deserve to die, but monsters always struggle for life and I am no different…’

With that, the Evolved rose to his feet and turned to face the cliff edge and the horizon of the rising sun. Just before the sun rose beyond the horizon, Oskar Osäker closed his eyes.

And Emerald Gleaner opened them to see the light of a new day.

The viral unicorn faced the rising sun for a few moments before looking back at the two gravestones, one of a loving mother and the other of a son who should have died the moment his mother did.

‘I’m so very sorry…’ Emerald thought with teary eyes at Adela’s grave.

Then with a sigh, Emerald started to walk away from the graves, leaving them sitting there by the Cliffside and always facing a rising sun.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: And there we have it, a chapter full of action and consequences that will remain with the story for a very long time. And we have Emerald laying her old identity to rest and taking on the one she created as a disguise here in Equestria. An uncertain future awaits our unlikely hero, there will be struggles for her to face that just being strong will not be enough to solve. Make no mistake, Emerald’s newfound power has only caused more trouble than you can ever believe, things have been put in motion that cannot be stopped, they can only be dealt with as they arise. The biggest question now is… will she survive it? You’ll have to wait for the future chapters to find out.

EN: Be glad that Legionary isn’t a troll. The ending of this chapter would fit so perfectly that he could literally just say, “Surprise, end of story. All has happened, questions have been answered with many more popping up, and you will never know the answer to them because this story is over!” For me, it leaves me kind of confused. It feels so much like the ending to a story, and in a way it is, but this is only the beginning of this one. Still, a lot of action at the start and winding throughout the chapter, all leading up to this massive cliffhanger that’s left me, and I’m pretty sure some of you as well, wondering what will happen next with Emerald Gleaner. From the looks of it, Oskar is dead. And from what I know of Legionary, which mind you is very little, I doubt he’s going to be making a comeback. But that’s just my opinion, so don’t hold that against me, ye of photographic memory.

Chapter 5: Unexpected Development

Twilight awoke with a yawn.

Like her old house, her bedroom in this one was on the second floor, but unlike it the second bed wasn’t something that was transfigured out of something she had lying around. Her room also was definitely not carved out space in a still living tree either, and that one fact made her miss her old home every time she looked around her new one. And speaking of looking around…

Twilight narrowed her eyes as she glared at the empty bed opposite hers, reminded of the fact Emerald didn’t need a full eight hours of sleep and thus had six hours where she was completely unattended. Of course, Twilight knew she shouldn’t blame Emerald for that ability, considering the “night terrors” she got, but she still felt angry for letting someone as potentially dangerous as Emerald go unwatched where she could have a relapse to her old, murderous ways.

So Twilight literally leapt out of bed and flew through her morning ritual of showering, drying herself off, brushing her mane and brushing her teeth before rushing downstairs.

As Twilight reached the bottom of the stairs, she found herself feeling incredibly relieved when she heard Emerald and Spike’s voices coming from the kitchen. She opened the door to see Emerald finishing some dishes while Spike was enjoying a few fresh blueberry muffins placed in the center of the kitchen table.

“Hi Twilight!” Emerald greeted with a warm smile. “I decided to make you some muffins. I hope you enjoy them. I put a lot of effort into making sure they were made just right.”

“Really…” Twilight replied as she walked over to the table and stared suspiciously at muffins on it. “You haven’t put any… special ingredients in it, have you?”

Knowing instantly that she was referring to the time she drugged some muffins she made one time, Emerald got a saddened expression on her face and sighed miserably. She then turned towards the kitchen sink and got the muffin pan out of it before quickly drying it.

“…I’ll make another batch, Twilight,” Emerald replied softly. “You can watch and make sure I make it just so…”

Spike gaped openly at Twilight for what appeared to be her picking on Emerald for no good reason. Then he shook himself out of it and glared at Twilight.

“Geez Twilight!” Spike exclaimed. “Emerald goes out of her way to make you something nice and you-”

“Spike, leave her alone,” Emerald said as she turned the stove back on and started gathering baking ingredients.

“What?!” Spike shouted in befuddlement at Emerald. “Why? She’s picking on you for no reason at all!”

“She has her reasons,” Emerald defended lightly as she got the last of her baking ingredients together. “So leave her be.”

“If you say so, Emerald,” Spike said, but sent a glare Twilight’s way.

Twilight for her part immediately felt guilty for her actions after she saw how Emerald took it. She looked at Spike where he continued to eat a few muffins at a sedate pace and how he didn’t seem sleepy in the slightest.

“Emerald, wait,” Twilight said just as Emerald was about to begin stirring up a new bowl of batter. “I’m sorry, you don’t have to make up a new batch. I’m sure your muffins are just as good if not better than any other time you made muffins.”

“Well why don’t you try some if you think so,” Spike said quickly, walking over to her and holding a muffin out to her.

“Uhh…” For the briefest moment, Twilight hesitated, the suspicion of the pastry being drugged flashing through her mind before she forcefully dispelled it. She magically took the muffin and started to quickly eat before finding herself slowing down so she could savor the taste.

“I told you I put a lot of work into it.” Emerald smiled at Twilight’s delighted expression.

“Well, yes… you did,” Twilight said with an apologetic look. “Umm… How about we continue our discussion from yesterday? We covered about half of the stuff I wanted to know, now I want to cover the other half.”

“Sure thing, just give me a moment to put stuff away,” Emerald said as she magically moved everything back into the cupboards. Once that was done, she walked after Twilight who was leading the way back to the library.

Once the two were inside, they once again took up their positions at the desks against each other and Emerald cast she same spells she did the day before.

“Well what do you want to cover today, Twilight?” Emerald asked.

“I want to know more about you,” Twilight said. “Not about your past, you already told me about that. I want to know how your biology works.”

“You want to know the details about Blacklight, or as Luna calls it ‘Impius Mutante’,” Emerald stated. “Hmm… not too sure about the name, but it’s something that doesn’t remind me of Blackwatch so I may start using it more, anyway.”

“What Blacklight, or Impius, is, is an intensely advanced virus,” Emerald began. “Normally, a virus simply invades the body and subverts the cells to reproduce more of its kind. It may create symptoms from either eating something it shouldn’t or the body attempting to fight it, but in the end it simply wants to multiply and spread. Now Blacklight takes a massive step forward. While a normal virus just takes control of a cell to reproduce, Blacklight is capable of using cells for more than that. In its most base form, Blacklight is just a supervirus that rapidly infects and kills quickly, but its true potential comes out when Blacklight manages to completely and utterly overtake the body. When a virus gets to the brain, it’s very bad, but when Blacklight gets there in sufficient numbers and doesn’t have to worry about an immune response, it basically evolves.”

“What happens next is the virus basically learns how to replicate how brain cells are used and integrate it into itself,” Emerald continued with Twilight’s attention completely riveted to her. “Along with that, the virus is able to absorb the very memories of the being it consumed and becomes self-aware. It’s able to think and can start organizing its very form into a means in which to defend itself and survive with greater ease.”

“Wait,” Twilight interrupted. “The virus consumes the brain cells and gain memories from that, right? And you are the way you are now from being infected. Doesn’t that mean… that “you” died and the you sitting in front of me is… well, a virus who thinks she was once human?”

Emerald sighed. “I know this may be a sticking point for you Twilight, but I am here and I am alive. I may just be a virus who thinks she was the child of a human woman named Adela, or I could actually be that person. I honestly don’t care to give the matter much thought, if any at all.”

“Oh…” Twilight said with a frown. “I just figured this was something… never mind, let’s continue.”

“Well… once Blacklight is self-aware, it can consciously choose what form it can arrange itself into.” Emerald explained and demonstrated by briefly shifting her foreleg into a human arm. “It can also choose what traits it can take from the cells it absorbs. Blacklight can take in the memories of other beings besides the one it consumed to gain self-awareness in the first place, which means that as long as Blacklight consumes the brains of its prey, it can gain a lifetime’s knowledge in an instant.”

“Oh… well you must know a lot then,” Twilight said a little uneasily, far too aware of just how Emerald would have gained such knowledge.

“I have several master’s degrees in various fields as well as a ton of knowledge from a bunch of minors people took,” Emerald answered.

And just like that, Twilight’s uneasiness was gone, instead replaced by annoyance and awe.

“Several masters’ degrees?” Twilight exclaimed. “I can’t even… how many years it would take just for one person to have one, let alone several. Wait… you picked up magic during your lessons awfully quickly…”

“Remember what I said?” Emerald said softly, turning her face away from Twilight in shame. “I had known what a master had known, I just didn’t have the control I needed thanks to my magical circuits not interacting well.”

“What happened with your… circuits?” Twilight asked eager to change the subject.

“It turns out having all three pony magics in your body without being an alicorn has some side effects,” Emerald answered. “My magic just got in its own way when it was being used. It took me a while to learn the control needed to use magic normally. It had its benefits though, like being able to fly; I like that one… a lot.”

“… Do you ever regret not being human anymore?” Twilight asked Emerald. “Being some sort of sapient virus instead of the species you were born as?”

“I regret what happened after I became what I am,” Emerald replied. “But I do not regret being a virus; there are just too many benefits to it. I can see and hear so much! I can hear your muscles move; I can see so many spectrums of light. Not to mention how strong and tough I am, and things that would kill anyone else would just annoy me. I heal incredibly fast and now I have magic; powerful magic.”

“… Yeah, I can see why you like being a virus now,” Twilight stated.

“Heh… is there anything else you wanted to know?” Emerald asked.

“Well… I am now interested in knowing just what kind of fields you have a master’s degrees in,” Twilight answered.

“Sure thing,” Emerald said.

‘This is… nice,’ Twilight thought as Emerald began describing all the various fields she knew. ‘Maybe… maybe I should ease up on her… a little anyway.’

ALPHA

‘Let’s see…’ Emerald thought as she leaned in close to a cage. ‘Test subject number four, AKA Martin the Warrior is showing no signs of… let’s call it a catastrophic meltdown, shall we?’

Emerald was back in the Hub. She had been holding tests on augmenting non-viral life forms with various improvements to their physiology. The first three test subjects in this project… well, subjects three and two certainly had a much kinder death than one had. So far, however, subject four, whom she had given a rather hopeful name, was looking more and more like a success.

In the cage on the stone table before Emerald was a small brown house mouse, a common breed that one would find scurrying about in any home. However, this particular mouse was unique in that its normally near non-existent muscles bulged out noticeably under its fur. Currently, the mouse was running in a wheel and it had been running for several hours near constantly, only pausing to go take a few gulps of water before running more.

‘Right, looking good so far,’ Emerald thought tentatively, then she tapped on the top of the cage and got the mouse’s attention. ‘Let’s try the “stress” test before going into the observation period for a while more.’

Emerald opened the cage door and reached inside. Having learned from previous experiences, Martin knew better than to try to make a break for it and obediently hopped onto her palm.

Martin in hand, Emerald walked over to another table that had a small metal box with a button sitting on it. Emerald placed Martin on the red spot placed a certain distance away from the small metal box and stepped back.

Martin’s whiskers twitched as he sniffed the air and wondered what exactly was going to happen when Emerald magically pressed the button on the box. The top of the box snapped open and out of the opening came a small mallet; the mallet arced through the air before smashing down atop of Martin and quickly recoiling back into the box. With that, Emerald stared intently down at Martin.

Martin for his part was lying flat on his stomach and shaking his head, wondering what in the world had just happened.

‘Bone density augmentation test successful,’ Emerald thought as she picked up the still dizzy Martin. ‘Stamina increase augment proves to be working just fine. Some stress testing may be called for to see its exact limits though, and the myostatin depressant augment is obviously working as it should.’

Emerald brought Martin to another cage, this time one that was much bigger than the one that had the wheel in it. This cage had a large network of tubes for him to run through, a little pool for him to swim in, several toys to entertain himself with and, most importantly, a large wheel of cheese, specially made by Emerald to be fresh for months. And the little guy needed all the food, considering his myostatin augment caused his muscles to bulk up easier and thus needed a lot of fuel.

With a squeak of delight, Martin leaped from Emerald’s hand as soon as she opened the cage door. The buff little mouse bee lined for the wheel of cheese and started to dig in with gusto.

‘Enjoy little fella, I plan to test a number of future augments on you, so you may not last long,’ Emerald thought grimly before turning to leave.

Before Emerald could open the door, it opened itself. Missy appeared and blinked upon seeing Emerald right before her.

“Oh! Hello boss!” the golden retriever greeted.

“Hello Missy,” Emerald said and noticed the Diamond Dog had taken to wearing a vest with many pockets, filled with many tools and small parts while a pair of goggles sat atop her head.

“The little Alpha from the other packs is here,” Missy said. “He is waiting by the entrance and has a big bag with him.”

“Fantastic, thanks for telling me,” Emerald said, wondering why Tavish had a bag with him. “I’ll go see him now.”

After a short charge up time, Emerald teleported to the main entrance of the city. Dogs were running about all over the streets and a baggage train full of trade meats to send out to everyone. Emerald also noticed a small group of Diamond Dogs wearing clothes that weren’t the basic vest that a vast majority of her dogs wore, marking them as foreign dogs deciding to see her city.

Emerald smiled at that and looked around her and quickly found Tavish sitting on a bench with a shoulder strap bag and his war staff.

“Never can get enough of this place ya know, lass?” Tavish stated with a smile. “It brings up all the many stories the elders would tell of the old kingdom. Those were just words though; this is an actual city with more than a couple hundred of our people living in it. Seeing this and remembering those tales brings the words to life in my mind and for the briefest moment… I can see just what we were like in our prime.”

“Hello Tavish, glad to see you were able to come,” Emerald greeted with a polite smile and waved at his bag. “And what is that for, if I may ask?”

“I’m moving in, lass!” Tavish replied enthusiastically.

“Really?” Emerald said with an arched eyebrow. “What about that village you were leading?”

“Bah!” Tavish said with a dismissive wave of his paw. “That sleepy lot don’t need an ole hound like me to hold their paws. Sides lass, your lot is more exciting and less likely to cry after taking a tap on their head.”

“Well I’m glad to have you here, Tavish,” Emerald said and held out her hand to him and the likely dog firmly shook it. “I’m certain the Warhounds will be glad to have you here to literally beat some sense into their heads.”

“HA! Sounds like a good bit o’ fun,” Tavish said before placing his bag under the bench. “Anyway, you called me for a reason lass, though I would have come along anyway, so what is it?”

“Well, I want to get some nice underclothes for newer, better sets of armor we’ll be making in the future,” Emerald began. “And from one of my Alphas, I’ve heard about the Spider Families.”

“And you want some of them nice silky shirts, ey?” Tavish said and got a nod from Emerald. “Well you are in luck! I was one o’ the go to dogs for setting up meetings with the Spiders and can get cha a meeting with one of the better ones right away.”

“I heard it can take up to a week just for the spiders to even speak with you though,” Emerald stated.

“Well… there is a reason for that lass; a reason that’ll seem quite funny and obvious when we get there,” Tavish replied. “We can go see one of the families right now if you be wanting it.”

“I have nothing but time, Tavish,” Emerald replied. “If you are up to it, so am I.”

“Great!” Tavish said and picked up his bag and war staff. “I’ll just drop this stuff off with one of your boys on our way out.”

“So what family are we going to see?” Emerald asked as she started walking alongside him.

“They’re the Black Family.”

“Let me guess… they are made up of Black Widows?”

“Heh, hit the nail on the head lass.”

BETA

A normally several hour long trip was greatly lessened when Tavish mentioned a few areas Emerald knew and thus was able to teleport them. Before long, the two found themselves before a large cave entrance that was rather well hidden by trees and thickly overgrown underbrush.

“So what is this trick of yours?” Emerald asked.

“We knock of course!” Tavish smiled before walking over to the rock wall next to the entrance. “Now the wee little thing should be… where is the bleedin little thi- oh, here it is.”

Emerald walked over and looked over his shoulder. Almost invisible to the naked eye was a small thread of spider silk attached to the rock and leading back into the darkness of the cave.

“Don’t know why this took us so long to figure this out,” Tavish stated as he twanged the thread.

“I heard the Old Kingdom was very isolationistic,” Emerald said. “Maybe they just didn’t care to learn more about the spiders.”

“Maybe. Anyway, it should only take a minute now instead of a few days,” Tavish stated as he took a seat against the rock wall. “I’ll introduce ya to the guard and you’ll be on your way to see the big one.”

“You won’t be accompanying me?” Emerald asked.

“Nope, this would be considered your business,” Tavish explained. “It be considered rude to have uh… ‘extraneous advisors’.”

“Alright. Even if this goes really south, I should still be fine,” Emerald stated as she leaned against the rock wall.

“They won’t attack ya even at their worst, lass,” Tavish replied. “If you are let in, then you are a guest. They consider it a bit rude to attack guests. They’ll only attack if ya attack first and you got no plans o’ that.”

“Sounds perfectly reasonable,” Emerald said with a nod.

“Alpha, Tavish Degroot,” a voice suddenly said.

Emerald looked to see a black widow spider standing at the entrance of the cave. It was black and easily the size of a pony; it had four almost entirely black eyes with small red pupils. It was also wearing clothes. A dark purple bowler cap sat on its head and it wore a dark purple great coat with sleeves for four of its eight limbs, both were made of silken cloth. Oddly enough, instead of a few reds spots on its back, it had a crimson picture of a paint brush and palette.

“Hello!” Tavish greeted cheerfully.

“And what is your reason for visiting us this time?” the spider asked. “Surely the terms of the agreement were more than fair.”

“You’re all a bunch of the stingiest people on the face of the planet and you know it. Course they don’t think its fair,” Tavish said bluntly, and although Emerald wasn’t sure, the spider might have been smiling slightly. “But I ain’t here for that. This is Emerald Gleaner, leader of a recently found city of Diamond Dogs called the Enclave. She wants to open trade relations with your family.”

“Hmm…” The spider looked up and down Emerald’s form for a moment. “I shall bring this matter to the Lady Black. Await my return.”

“And now we wait a couple of minutes,” Tavish said. “Lot better than waiting a week for a reply, ey?”

“Definitely,” Emerald agreed. “So how do the other packs feel about my people?”

“A good many definitely like you for the free meat, and you can expect a steady stream of dogs from now on,” Tavish replied. “But… there are those who don’t like the fact you want to steal away our youth now that we can afford to support a larger population. Funnily enough they don’ seem to realise they can only afford that thanks to your meat.”

“You can’t please everyone,” Emerald shrugged. “Considering your fighting skills, you would be interested in joining up with the Warhounds, right?”

“Oh definitely lass.”

“I’d like to hear the story of how you got so good at fighting,” Emerald said.

“It’s not one specific tale, lass. I’m an old dog and been through and seen a lot. Sides…” Tavish said and pointed at the cave entrance where the spider from before was standing. “You might have more important things to talk about.”

“The Lady Black shall meet with you, Emerald Gleaner,” the spider said. “Please follow me and I shall lead you to her.”

“I’ll be back, Tavish,” Emerald said and approached the cave.

“And I’ll be here nappin,” Tavish said as he settled in and pulled his beret over his eyes.

Rolling her eyes, Emerald followed the spider into the cave. At first she only saw a long deserted web strewn tunnel, but soon she came into a massive cavern with structures made of webbing hanging in midair and from the ceiling. It was utterly dark, but it meant little to her powerful eyes. The spiders all wore silken clothes dyed various colors and had clothing styles that reminded Emerald a lot of clothes from the turn of the nineteenth century. Strangely, they also had hair and another thing she noticed was that they all had different markings on the top of their abdomens. The virus turned towards her guide to ask a question.

“No, we did not copy the ponies,” the spider suddenly said with audible annoyance. “The tradition of marking ourselves with symbols that one considers pleasing is one that started long before ponies arrived in these lands, and is not magical in any way.”

“I was merely going to ask if they were like the marks ponies have,” Emerald replied diplomatically. “I wasn’t going to ask or imply in any way if you copied it from ponies.”

“Well it isn’t and it wasn’t,” the spider stated and continued on the path.

Seeing her guide wasn’t exactly in a good mood anymore, Emerald decided not to try to speak until she met their lady. The other spiders in the cavern didn’t really pay her much attention. The few times they did, they only looked her over a moment before returning to their business, though a few prissy looking large spiders in intricate frilly dresses shot her a look that was likely displeasure. After a few moments of contemplation, Emerald figured the reason why she got the looks was because of her clothes; her baggy boys’ clothes didn’t exactly compliment her slim, feminine figure.

Before long, she found that they were approaching a particularly large web structure that was close to the floor. It was rather hard to tell just how big it was with the other web structures and various columns of webbing that served as roads, but it seemed to be as big as a mansion.

There was a ramp of webbing leading up into the structure. There was a pathway of wooden floor boards atop the webbing to keep non-spiders from sticking to the path. As Emerald walked along the path, her guide came to a stop beside the massive gaping entrance of the structure.

“The Lady Black waits within,” he said and waved one leg towards the entrance.

“Right, thank you,” Emerald said with a nod before stepping inside

Once inside, Emerald saw nothing but a wide open space with webbing walls on all sides, with the wooden path leading to the middle of the room. There was no sign of any spider, but since she was dealing with a spider, she looked in the worst place to find a large spider; above her.

“Well poo, everyone else only sees me when I drop down in front of them,” said the incredibly huge black widow that must have been as big as a dragon before she descended down onto the floor. “The looks on their faces are like the juiciest treats that can’t help but brighten your day.”

The massive black widow was wearing a red and purple blouse with an equally colored bonnet. She had long white hair that was styled into a curly coiffure and the mark on her abdomen was a winking smiley face that had a pair of horns on it.

Emerald’s first impulse was drop down onto a knee and pay respects to the spider, but remembered she was known to be a leader of a nation to her, and would be expected to act a certain way. So instead of dropping down onto a knee she bowed her head to the spider for a moment.

“Greetings, Lady Black,” Emerald said respectfully. “I am Emerald Gleaner of the Enclave.”

“I am Remilia Black of the Family Black,” Remilia replied in a clearly morose tone. “And I must say, I’ve certainly never met a creature like you before.”

“This species is referred to as a human, Lady Black,” Emerald answered and paused as she considered something else for a moment. “…But I am not exactly human. I am a shape shifter.”

Emerald proved her claim by briefly shifting into her pony form before returning to her human form. She wasn’t exactly sure what reaction she was expecting, and she couldn’t read an insect’s facial expressions with any great skill, but Remilia seemed to look a bit sad.

“A shape shifter, hmm?” Remilia sighed. “That must be nice, to be able to change your appearance and look pleasing to all eyes; to be able to fulfill any standards and be recognised as a beauty as all.”

Emerald wondered why Remilia decided to talk about this instead of getting down to business, but didn’t interrupt, believing being someone for her to briefly vent on would only improve negotiations.

“You likely didn’t know this, but in the eyes of my people I am an incredible beauty,” Remilia continued. “Many years when I was younger, smaller, more naïve but no less beautiful, I had decided to go on an ill-fated journey to explore the world. Imagine my shock, my hurt, my outrage when instead of being recognised rightly as the beauty I was, the ponies of the first town I visited declared me a hideous monster. Rather than put up with what would likely be a repeat performance at every other town I’d come to, I decided to return home, ending my trip early…”

“I can see what the problem is,” Emerald stated in the following silence. “Amongst humans, my form would be considered beautiful. But to you, I must be an ugly, misshapen creature. Only two eyes, no mandibles, body proportions are all wrong, my skin has the wrong texture and I have half as many as the proper number of limbs which both end in odd appendages.”

“Well… I do like your hair, though,” Remilia replied, agreeing with her without stating so. “It’s such an eye catching shade of pink and looks as smooth as my own silk… that horrid hat does it no favours though.”

“Well, on to business I suppose,” Remilia said, and did what was likely the spider equivalent of squaring her shoulders. “The family would be open to trade with your little nation… if you would handle one little issue for us?”

“I’m listening?” Emerald said, inwardly wary of what she may hear.

“There is a cave troll blocking one of the tunnels leading to a portion of our home, you see,” Ramilia began. “I would like you to persuade him to leave our home and to check up on the area he blocked to make sure nothing else dangerous decided to move in, in our absence, and to clear it out if there are dangerous creatures there.”

Though it sounded a bit like adventurer work and not something you’d ask another nation’s leader to do in exchange for a business deal, Emerald was willing to do this.

“Very well, I agree to this,” Emerald said with a nod. “I’ll get started right now. Where is the tunnel in question?”

“I shall have one of my own guide you,” Remilia said, and another black widow rapidly descended from the ceiling. This one had short silvery hair and had a symbol of crossed knives on its back and appeared to be a maid from the way its clothes looked. “She’ll lead you to the tunnel.”

“Greetings Emerald Gleaner, I am a servant of the Lady Black,” the maid said respectfully, giving a bow while pressing her front most legs together in front of her. “Please follow me; the task the Lady has assigned is not too far away from here.”

Emerald wordlessly walked back down the wooden path she took into the web manor and followed after the maid once she was back on stone ground. The virus soon found herself being led to a tunnel entrance being guarded by dozens of spiders, some of which were very large.

“I’m guessing the cave troll is rather dangerous?” Emerald questioned as she walked past the guards.

“Well… yes, but we are a bit more worried about what may have taken up residence in the other parts of the cave,” the maid said before coming to a stop. “I shall await your safe return. Please do not endanger yourself needlessly for our sake.”

“There is no danger of that,” Emerald stated and continued on her way.

For a short while, Emerald saw nothing but a winding tunnel lined with spider webs but eventually the sound of something smacking against a hard surface met her ears. After turning around a corner, Emerald came to the sight the cave troll tossing a fairly large rock up into the air and catching it. It was a gray skinned and fairly burley looking creature with something that was either fur or moss growing around its shoulders, around its waist was a crudely made loin cloth. Overall, the way the creature looked reminded Emerald a lot of how cavemen were depicted in newspaper comics.

“Ahem,” Emerald cleared her throat, deciding to at least give peace a chance before resorting to violence. “Hello, I am-”

“PRETTY PINK THING!” the troll boomed happily, briefly clapping his hands in delight.

“Err yeah…” Emerald nodded and hoped the creature just had a poor grasp of the language. “I want-”

“PET PINK THING!” it boomed and stomped over to Emerald, reaching out towards her with a massive hand.

Emerald easily side stepped the troll’s grasping hand. Either it meant to pet her or keep her as a pet. She was rather against it either way.

“No touchy!” Emerald shouted and leaped up into the air. The cave troll boggled at Emerald with his disproportionately small eyes for a brief moment before she lashed out with a fairly ‘light’ punch.

“AUUUUUUUUGGGGGH!” The troll bellowed in pain and began to let out a few sobs. “MEAN PINK THING HURT BILL!”

‘…Did he say his name was Bill?’ Emerald thought with wide eyed surprise as the troll stomped away in tears. ‘Wow, I’ve been here so long hearing normal names like Bill is odd instead of names like Ink Well and Time Turner. Heh, anyway let’s get on to business.’

Emerald followed after the troll at a sedate pace, both to make sure he cleared out of the cave and to make sure no dangerous animals had moved in during the spiders’ absence. However, when she turned the next corner, instead of seeing a crying troll retreating into an abandoned spider cave, she saw said troll being held be a much larger troll that was wearing a shirt, and there were at least six other trolls in the chamber.

‘What the?’ Emerald blinked at the sight before her. ‘Either the other trolls came in later and Remilia didn’t know about them… or more likely she just left some details out. Wow, I just fell for my own tactic… I feel stupid and oddly amused.’

“STUPID PINK THING HURT LIL’ BILL!” the largest troll in the bunch growled as he stomped forward. “TED SQUASH STUPID PINK THING!”

‘Guess there is no point trying to talk through this,’ Emerald thought as she hopped out of the way as Ted brought his foot down on where she stood. ‘Let’s give them a reason to shut up and listen.’

Emerald jumped back a few dozen feet away from the furious troll and shifted her right arm into a hammerfist. Ted stopped in one place to stare dumbly at Emerald’s shifted limb as it rapidly grew in size and weight before the virus charged forward. The lumbering troll barely had time to react to Emerald’s changed limb, let alone her blinding charge at him, before she had already reached him and leaped at him, hammerfist cocked back to deliver a powerful blow.

“GRRRAAAAGH!” Ted roared in pain and surprise as he was sent flying through the air, tearing through a web structure before crashing into a cave wall, causing it to partially collapse on top of him.

Emerald looked around and saw that the other trolls had grown incensed over this display of violence and were likely about to charge at her, so she decided to show them how bad an idea doing that was. The Evolved’s chest started glowing bright blue before she suddenly let loose a beam of plasma at Ted’s dazed body.

If the sight of a little creature punching their biggest and strongest across the room wasn’t going to make the trolls hesitate, it making a blinding beam of plasma that was hotter than magma and killing one of their own with it certainly did.

Emerald ended her beam and wiped away a glowing globule of plasma from her mouth. The beam was around ten thousand degrees, hot as the surface of the sun in certain ‘cooler’ places, so in the very least Ted didn’t feel anything as a hole was burned through his chest, as the temperature would be too great for the nerves to process.

“Listen to me!” Emerald shouted at the now visibly scared trolls. “The spiders sent me to clear you lot out, because you all decided to take their homes from them. Now, I don’t want to kill ALL of you, so I am giving you all a chance to leave on your own accord. So what is it going to be? You either leave this cave or you leave this mortal coil.”

“W-WHAT ACCORD MEAN?”

“MORTAL COIL IS SPRINGY THING?”

Emerald felt her eye twitch. “GET LOST BEFORE I DECIDE TO KILL YOU ALL!”

The trolls understood that message much more clearly and quickly took flight, their ponderous footsteps shaking the cavern as they ran.

“AND DON’T COME BACK!” Emerald shouted at them.

After staring at the retreating forms of the cave trolls for a bit, Emerald directed her attention to the body of the one she killed. She made her way over to it and climbed up to its head before placing a hand on it. A single tendril from the palm of her hand drilled through the skull and into the brain before rapidly consuming it.

‘Even if the deal goes south, at least I’ll get something out of this,’ Emerald thought. ‘Don’t know what I can do with this, but it’s still something.’

Just then, Emerald heard a chittering sound as something stepped on a stone surface, with her powerful hearing. Closing her eyes, she concentrated and was soon teleported to just beside the source of the noise.

“Eep!” A rather small black widow squeaked at Emerald’s sudden appearance. She was wearing a maid outfit, but was too small and didn’t have the same hairstyle as the other maid to be her.

“So… were you here to check up on me?” Emerald asked. “Or was Lady Remilia aware that I was going into a much more complicated situation then she described, and had you to simply watch me flail away at the problem?”

“T-the Lady isn’t cruel!” the maid shouted, growing incensed for a moment before wilting as she quickly recalled Emerald’s violent display. “Err… s-she is… she just expected you to do something different than what you actually did.”

“Hmm…” Emerald considered that. She was incredibly powerful, and most people weren’t, so their first response to dealing with large cave trolls would likely not be the violent path she took. “I can certainly see why. You may report back to Lady Remilia. I shall be right behind you.”

“Right!” the maid shouted and quickly ran away as Emerald walked back at a leisurely pace.

The virus figured she might as well give Remilia time to think up an excuse for what she did… although the longer she thought about it, the more she thought the maid may have been right. Doing anything that involved violence against a pack of cave trolls wasn’t something a normal person would do. So in all likelihood, Remilia expected her to talk things out or try something devious instead of what she did instead; violence and death.

‘Didn’t I finish telling Twilight a while ago that I was trying to stop doing this kind of crap?’ Emerald thought, sighing at her hypocrisy. ‘Well… I did say I was trying; occasionally there are a few hiccups. Still, I should be trying harder… oh well, I didn’t kill all of them at least, only one of them and I certainly would have just killed them all before I changed for the better.’

Emerald soon arrived back at the entrance to the tunnel where the maid that led her to it was still waiting. If the other maid told about what happened, she didn’t react, and simply led her back to Remilia's web manor.

“And our triumphed hero returns,” Remilia stated casually as Emerald came to a stop before her. “That was certainly a unique way of handling the cave trolls.”

“I hope you don’t mind my methods,” Emerald said calmly. “I did get all the cave trolls out and reclaimed the cavern. By the way, would I be so bold as to ask why you didn’t inform me of the other trolls in the cavern?”

“My intent was to test you,” Remilia smoothly. “I didn’t actually expect you to manage the task I set before you. I was merely going to observe how much effort you put into accomplishing the task and that would determine how fairly negotiations for trade would go on my part.”

“Hmm…” Emerald thought the whole quest to determine worthiness shtick was very RPG’y but wasn’t going to comment on it. “I hope I passed, considering you are sharing that fact with me. I also respectfully ask you don’t do that again. Withholding crucial information I mean. Depending on certain details, I would be willing to help on many things.”

“It is quite a pleasant experience to meet a fellow leader who has a sense of humbleness in her,” Remilia stated cheerfully. “Shall we get down to business?”

Emerald smiled.

About an hour later found Emerald leaving the spider cave. The first ten minutes of negotiations were spent in agreeing on what would be a fair trade for the spiders’ services. The spiders were carnivores like Diamond Dogs were, and that fact tended to have a limiting factor on how big their population could grow. So Emerald offering them a steady supply of fresh meat was a very tempting offer that Remilia couldn’t resist, even more so as the massive spider always wanted to hold a feast like the ones she always heard about. The rest of the negotiations were about setting up transportations routes for the goods. Ramilia was also sending the Enclave a representative they could talk to about any changes in the clothes they wanted.

Emerald looked to see that it was now approaching sundown from the warm colors of the sky. Tavish hadn’t moved from his spot and was snoring softly as he continued to nap peacefully. The virus stepped next to the little dog before crouching down and shaking his shoulder. Tavish snorted in his sleep before yawning and pushing his beret back up.

“Hello lass…” Tavish muttered as he got up and stretched up his limbs. “So, did everything go well? I don’ see any guards, so you didn’t’ get kicked out.”

“Everything went perfectly well,” Emerald replied. “I set up a trade agreement with them, offered them a steady supply of meat in exchange for goods and services. I probably wouldn’t have gotten even half as good a reaction from her if I offered precious metals.”

“Meat is hard to come by, lass,” Tavish replied. “Everyone has to ration everything carefully or everyone will just end up going without and starve. It’s that fact that makes me wonder just how you are able to get so much of it.”

“Well since you’re a part of the Enclave now, I can show you.” Emerald smiled as she began walking. “We’ll do that once we get back, then afterwards we’ll find you a nice apartment to set you up in.”

“Sounds good to me, lass.”

GAMMA

Emerald couldn’t help the annoyance she felt as she walked down the street with Twilight barely two steps behind her. The two were going down to a celebration being held in Rainbow Dash’s honour as the mare had saved the lives of a few ponies in the last few days. However, that was not what Emerald was annoyed about.

Ever since she came back from the Enclave after doing some work for it, Twilight had remained by her side nearly every moment she was awake. It was a bit of a downturn from before she left for the Enclave as it looked like Twilight had decided to cut her a break, but now it appeared that the day or so she had been out of sight was all it took for Twilight’s uncertainty about her to come flooding back. The unicorn was apparently afraid Emerald would have some sort of relapse to her “old days” and start killing ponies, which Emerald found ridiculous. Even when she killed people when it was the easier way, she had always done so for “good” reasons. Dealing out death because of pettiness was what Mercer’s pet psychopaths did… an arguably bad reason considering she was once a part of said group. Still, having a tiny kill count in comparison to the other Cadre Evolved was a point of pride for her. So honestly, she couldn’t help but be annoyed with Twilight despite knowing she deserved to be treated this way.

“Twilight, you know…” Emerald began slowly as she came to a stop. “Maybe you could… lay off a bit… please? I understand your reasons completely to be treating me this way, but I could use even just a small break from it…”

“Now Emerald I am just looking out for your moral well-being,” Twilight defended and quickly took a look around to make sure the street was appropriately empty. “…As well as the physical well-beings of the ponies around you.”

“I…” Emerald couldn’t help but feel hurt and angry at what Twilight had said. She wasn’t a rabid dog liable to rip the face off the first child she saw. “Just… just WHAT is it going to take to convince you I am TRYING to be a good person, Twilight?! You think I wanted to be the way I was, to be paranoid of everyone and everything? No, I wasn’t. I became that way out of necessity and stayed that way out of habit. And now that I know I don’t have to be that way, I won’t. I honestly want to be a better person, and I’m not going to suddenly go bad out of nowhere.”

Twilight stared at Emerald with wide eyes for a moment before opening her mouth to speak, and then she closed it. After a few moments of Twilight looking contemplative, Emerald figured she wasn’t going to reply and continued on her way to the celebration, the other unicorn still following but not nearly as close as before.

They soon arrived at the location the celebration was being held and were welcomed by the sight of Rainbow Dash eagerly soaking up all the attention everyone was giving her.

Emerald frowned at that. Rainbow’s ego had been growing in leaps and bounds with every person she saved. Now that wasn’t entirely a bad thing; one should celebrate their accomplishments and feel good about themselves for it. But Dash was saving people, and while her ego was good before, now it appeared she preferred the attention for saving lives rather than appreciate the fact she was saving lives.

“And then I zoomed into the well,” Emerald heard Dash say as she and Twilight entered. “I knew it would be dark and dangerous, but I didn't let that stop me. Danger's my middle name. Rainbow 'Danger' Dash. Thinking back on it, I acted pretty awesomely heroic that day.”

“… That day,” Spike repeated as he wrote something on a notepad while wearing a reporting outfit for some reason.

“Awesomely heroic that day and awesomely arrogant ever since,” Applejack commented under her breath just loud enough for Twilight, Pinkie and Emerald to hear.

Emerald threw the others a look as Twilight and Pinkie agreed with Applejack. Was it really terrible that Dash was celebrating her accomplishments? The virus didn’t think so, but what she did agree with was the fact that Dash was taking it a little far.

“Hey, Applejack,” Dash said as she darted over to the cowpony. “How'd you like to be immortalized as my friend?”

“Immorta-what?” Applejack said in confusion before Dash suddenly wrapped a foreleg around her and a photographer quickly snapped a picture.

As Dash stroked her own ego some more, Twilight walked over to investigate what exactly Spike was doing. She leaned over his shoulder and took a look at what he was writing in his notepad. She raised an eyebrow at what she saw.

“Are you taking notes?” she asked the baby dragon.

“Yup!” Spike answered cheerfully. “I've been hoof-picked by Rainbow Dash herself to write her autobiography!”

“Umm…” Twilight began with a frown. “Autobiographies are supposed to be written by the pony they are about.

“Maybe for your normal, run-of-the-mill ponies,” Dash broke in and walked over to the two. “But I'm far too busy saving lives to stop and write”

Okay NOW Emerald was fairly certain Dash was taking things a tad too far. As crises prone Ponyville seemed to be at the best of times, it certainly wasn’t THAT bad. She couldn’t have been constantly busy saving lives like she claimed; even if she was, it would make her current act of taking time to celebrate how great she was instead of focusing on saving more lives incredibly selfish and heartless.

“That's why I hired Spike as my ghost writer!” Rainbow said as she gave the little dragon a pat on the head.

“Spike’s a ghost!” Pinkie yelped and ran out of the building in a flash.

‘Good ole Pinkie,’ Emerald thought as she smiled after the mare.

“...Anyway,” Dash continued. “Spike here writes down everything I say. Don't you, Spike?”

“Don't... you... Spike,” Spike repeated as he dutifully copied down Dash’s words. “Got it!”

“This way, I can stay focused on performing those acts of bravery that nopony else has the guts to perform,” Dash explained. “Yep, it takes guts. But it also takes brains… and sometimes a big lunch and a nap. Being a hero is surely not for everypony, but I'm up to the challenge!”

Dash then went about posing in pictures with all the little kids in her fan club. The others gave each other looks, completely unimpressed with Dash’s behavior. Emerald for her part shook her head and decided to approach Rainbow Dash and talk to her about how she was acting.

“Hey Emerald!” Rainbow Dash greeted. “Want the honour of having your picture taken with me?”

“Okay, one,” Emerald began with a good natured smirk. “I am the famous model here.”

The virus struck a glamorous pose and the photographers immediately took the opportunity to get free pictures of her posing. The flashing of cameras went on steadily for several moments before Emerald stopped her posing and threw a pointed look at Dash.

“Oh, trying to steal my thunder, huh?” Dash said with a challenging but excited grin.

“You can keep the thunder, I prefer the lightning,” Emerald said with exaggerated pompousness for a moment before bursting into laughter that Dash immediately joined in on.

“Listen, do you think we can talk?” Emerald said and quickly threw Spike a glance. “Alone?”

“Sure!” Dash answered cheerfully. “We celebs have to stick together after all! We’ll just walk over here and you can just lay whatever you want to say on me.”

“Great.”

Emerald and Dash walked away from the crowds and into the next room to get some privacy. Once they were alone, Emerald took one last look around to make sure no reporters were trying to snoop before beginning to speak.

“Listen, Dash,” Emerald began. “I want to talk to you about what is going on with you and all these ponies here.”

“Isn’t it great?” Dash said excitedly. “All these ponies getting together to celebrate how awesome I am? Heh, maybe I’ll as famous as you are before long!”

“Yeah, celebrating your own accomplishments is great, isn’t it?” Emerald said with a smile. “It’s nice to feel good about yourself and to have others tell you that you are a great pony.”

“Oh yeah!” Dash agreed. “I can see how it’s like for you to be famous!”

“Maybe, but what I want to know is this,” Emerald began with a serious look that made Dash calm down. “What is more important? Saving lives, or being seen as a hero?”

“Saving lives of course!” Dash replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “Anypony who thinks differently has a few screws loose.”

“Dash… you have been acting like saving lives isn’t as important as being treated like a hero,” Emerald stated solemnly.

“What?! No I haven’t! I…” Dash’s denials ended in the face of Emerald’s steady stare at her.

“Look Dash, I’m not saying you are a bad pony for celebrating your accomplishments,” Emerald said as Dash averted her gaze away from her. “Anypony who saves the life of another deserves to be treated like a hero and you saved like half a dozen ponies in the past three days, not to mention your previous actions regarding Nightmare Moon. You deserve to be treated like a hero and deserve to enjoy being congratulated for your accomplishments. But you started going a little bit too far. You started treating the fact you were being treated like a hero as more important than the actions that got you that treatment in the first place.”

“…Yeah, I did go a bit far didn’t I?” Dash said after a moment, looking back at Emerald with a sheepish expression.

“Only a little bit, Dash,” Emerald said soothingly. “Like I said, there is nothing wrong with celebrating your accomplishments, but you should keep in mind why you were being celebrated; saving lives is an incredibly important responsibility, after all.”

“I will, Emmy,” Dash said with a smile and gave the virus a good natured punch in the shoulder. “Thanks for talking some sense into me.”

“What are friends for?” Emerald said before the two returned to the celebration.

“Rainbow Dash!”Scootaloo shouted excitedly and darted forward, her Rainbow wig nearly flying off. “Can I get another autograph?”

“Sure thing squirt and…” Dash said then trailed off as she looked at Scoots’ wings thoughtfully. “How about something better? How bout I give you a ride to the sky?”

“REALLY?!” Scoots squealed with delight as she gave her idol a starry eyed look.

“Yep!” Dash nodded and took flight and grabbed Scootaloo off the ground. “You guys hang tight! I’ll be back with some cake!”

“Yay!” all of Dash’s young fans cheered happily.

“Wow, now that’s a turnaround if ah ever saw one,” Applejack commented. “What did ya say to her sugercube?”

“I just reminded her how important saving lives is,” Emerald replied. “And that it’s not something that should be cheapened by doing it for popularity.”

“So you just talked to her?” Rarity said. “That… is admittedly a much better answer to Dash’s behavior then what we were planning…”

“Really?” Emerald asked. “Just what exactly did you have in mind to solve Dash’s behavior?”

“Oh, well…” Rarity began, feeling rather awkward.

Though she had a hand in crafting the idea of curtailing Dash’s behavior, Twilight wasn’t feeling embarrassed for being beaten to the punch by something easier and better. Instead, Twilight was staring at Emerald with a contemplating look.

DELTA

Princess Celestia took a sip of her tea as she looked down at her newspaper.

She was relaxing in one of the studies of her palace; it was a calming day so far. The return of the stolen weather machines had taken some of the edge off of the economic strain. She had also tentatively announced that the Gray Fox wasn’t going to be a threat to Equestria’s economy; this had the intended effect of causing business stocks to start rising back up at a steady pace, but held the risk of having the economy crash badly if Jack decided to start stealing again.

From the way the articles in the first few pages read, people were beginning to become rather hopeful of the near future. Celestia was very encouraging of such behavior. She was also proud to say that her public works programs were also doing much to improve the situation. Giving jobless ponies work allowed them more financial freedoms and they spent it on more things than just the necessities; this was key to getting the economy moving again.

Turning a few more pages, Celestia came across an article that featured her sister’s new student, Emerald Gleaner. The article was talking about Emerald’s new style of poses and how popular the ads that featured them were becoming. Taking a look at the picture above the article Celestia saw Emerald wearing some working gear and lying on her side, she had her eyes hooded and was holding a wrench towards her mouth sort of like it was a microphone, strangely she also had her tongue sticking out from between her lips a little.

Celestia just found the pose odd and wondered how it became popular. She was about to flip to the next page but something stopped her. She found herself staring at the picture of Emerald; something about it struck her as exceedingly odd and almost reminded her of something. After several moments of studying the picture, Celestia’s eyes widened and her cheeks flushed as she suddenly realised what exactly the pose reminded her of.

‘Oh my goodness gracious…’ Celestia thought in shock a she raised a hoof to her mouth. ‘To make such a suggestive picture for all to see… the audacity of it all…’

Then Celestia’s shock melted away, instead replaced by amusement. She giggled out loud as she studied the picture more. Suddenly she frowned again.

‘Hmm… does anypony even realise what this picture looks like?’ Celestia thought curiously. ‘Does even Emerald? Actually, I have the strongest feeling that Emerald does know what her pose looks like.’

Just then the doors to the study burst open and Luna came charging in wearing a sleep robe with shocked and embarrassed look on her face.

“Sister, have you seen the material in today’s paper!?” Luna shouted. “Tis most shocking and appalling!”

“And what exactly are you referring to, Luna?” Celestia asked, carefully schooling her features into one of innocent curiosity.

Luna looked down at Celestia’s paper and saw she was on the very page she was referring to. She pointed at the picture with a hoof.

“That picture sister!” Luna shouted as her cheeks flushed. “For my own student to act in such an… an… inappropriate manner! And it’s in the paper for all to see!”

“Why sister, I haven’t the slightest clue what has roused you so,” Celestia said with convincing innocence, though on the inside she was laughing. “I for one don’t see what is wrong about the picture.”

“W-what, can you not see how inappropriate the picture is?!” Luna asked incredulously with rising embarrassment.

“I do not, Luna.” Celestia answered with a shake of her head. “I shall even call another pony for a second opinion. Excuse me!”

“Your Highness?” One of the guards outside the room leaned in.

“Could you come here a moment?” Celestia asked. “I need you to look at something.”

“Of course, Princess!” the guard answered and quickly moved over to her. “What do you need me to look at?”

“This picture, what do you think of it?” Celestia said.

“Hmm…” The guard leaned over the newspaper and took in the picture. “I think it’s a nice picture of a very beautiful mare… who is posing rather strangely. Although, that is oddly appealing to me… hmm…”

“There we go, sister,” Celestia stated with a smile. “You may go now, and please close the door as you leave.”

“Of course your highness.”

As the guard left the study, Luna looked completely mortified with herself, thinking since she apparently was the only one who saw a problem with the picture was because she was dirty minded. After a moment of this, Celestia laughed, deciding to take mercy on her poor younger sister.

“You are not the only one to see the suggestiveness of the picture, Luna,” Celestia said giggling.

“Oh thank goodness!” Luna said, not even mad she was tricked; just happy someone else thought the way she did. “I am just thankful all our subjects are so young and innocent, otherwise they would know for sure what the picture is implying. I for one am going to confront Emerald on this matter and make her stop this completely inappropriate posing.”

‘Hmm… it might be too late for that.’ Celestia thought, thinking about how Emerald was a famous model and the common pony tended to mimic the famous. ‘In all likelihood, her ‘style’ of poses will catch on simply because of her fame. Hehehe, I think I should get a subscription to a fashion magazine or two. This sounds like it’ll be a good laugh.”

EPSILON

‘Right time to head out again,’ Emerald thought as he started for the door of the library. ‘The testing phase of the augments is over so I have to start applying them to the dogs. Hopefully Twilight won’t go off the deep end while I’m gone and think I’ve gone evil just because she wasn’t watching me.’

“Emerald?” the virus heard Twilight call and turned to see here standing at the door to the library.

“Err… yes Twilight?” Emerald said a little uneasy at the thought of what Twilight’s reaction may be to her leaving unannounced.

“Where are you going?” Twilight asked.

“I am…” Emerald began hesitantly but reminded herself to not hold anymore secrets from Twilight. “Going to go check up on my dogs as well as a few other things.”

“… Can I come with you?”

Emerald blinked at the question, having not expected it. Her first impulse was to think of a reason why she couldn’t bring Twilight along. However, she soon decided that wasn’t right and decided that if Twilight wanted to see what she was up to, then she wasn’t going to deny her.

“If that is what you want, Twilight, then sure,” Emerald answered.

“It is,” Twilight said with a serious nod. “I want to see what you get up to when you disappear for hours at a time and all night.”

“Come here then. I’ll just teleport the both of us from here,” Emerald said and the other unicorn came in close. “Stay close now, I need a bit of a charge up time.”

Twilight stepped in close to Emerald and, after a few moments and an increasingly bright glow from the fake unicorn, the teleport finally went off. In an instant, Twilight found herself in a completely unfamiliar environment.

All around here were Diamond Dogs, but not as she knew them. The Diamond Dogs she knew were bulldogs and wore some armor on their heads and around their chests. These dogs were in far greater variety when it came to different breeds, and while most wore the simple vest she seen before, others wore more complicated outfits. It was clearly obvious she was in a cave as well, as the ceiling and the darkness attested and that didn’t surprise her, what did was the apartment complex like stone buildings around her.

“What is this place?” Twilight asked with a little wonder as she turned her head this way and that in an attempt to take everything in.

Emerald was about to answer when someone else did it for her.

“This is the Hub,” Belvedere answered as he approached the two. “The center of our nation within a nation, the Enclave.”

“Seems like you are always nearby when I arrive via teleport, Belvedere,” Emerald stated curiously.

“I thought you were doing that on purpose?” Belvedere said with an arched brow. “You weren’t?”

“Your speech…” Twilight said as she stared at the tall greyhound. “I thought all Diamond Dogs talked in broken equestrian.”

“That was a result of the dragon’s slavery. We once had a language all our own,” Belvedere explained. “In fact we still do, but those of us enslaved by the dragon have lost much of their heritage.”

“What exactly happened?” Twilight asked. “Emerald said she uh, slayed the dragon that had enslaved your people, but didn’t explain how it all began in the first place.”

“The dragon was named Nidhogg,” Belvedere said and noticed when Twilight’s eyes widened in realization. “Yes, the very same Nidhogg that was supposed to be held in the legendary pony prison, Tartarus. He had escaped via digging his way out, but ended up in our tunnels. From the tales of our elders, we knew we had a prosperous city state a million strong. But that all changed when the dragon attacked. Ironically, the panic from dogs fleeing killed more than Nidhogg’s flames ever did. The starvation that followed the scattering of our people into the far reaches of the tunnels killed more still.”

“Nidhogg ruled the people who stayed in the smoking ruins of their nation with an iron fist,” Belvedere continued. “He incited great terror into our people and through that terror kept us enchained to him, despite us having near constant chances to run away. He had us gather gems for him to gorge himself on and when we started encountering ponies in our frenzied digging he ordered that we enslaved them and force them to work in the mines.”

“This bleak existence continued for a hundred years,” Belvedere stated gravely before allowing a small smile to grace his stoic face. “And then Emerald came.”

“She told me about her… meeting with your people,” Twilight stated and threw the virus a look. “I didn’t think it would be a very nice thing to reminisce about.”

“It is when you think about the results,” Belvedere stated. “She came and took control of us from Nidhogg, admittedly violently and forcefully with the first of us, and then she took care of Nidhogg himself. The great dragon that had terrorised us and had us paralysed by fear in his grasp for a century was then slain in what was no doubt a great battle.”

“It was mostly me taunting him like a moron then running all over the place in panic once he started breathing plasma,” Emerald said with modest honesty. “Most of the credit goes to Navi for distracting him and allowing me to get in a mortal blow to his back.”

“Ha, the unsung hero of the Diamond Dogs, Navi the Parasprite,” Belvedere said with a short bark of laughter. “I’ll be sure to spread this legend.”

“You have not only my consent but my encouragement,” Emerald said with a smile.

Twilight looked between the two of them, feeling there was a bond between them that spoke of deep seated trust.

“So what happened next?” she asked after a moment.

“After Emerald took over, our situation improved with each and every day,” Belvedere said and looked to be recalling said days fondly. “Once she took over, she had all the spread out packs gathered together and released all the slave ponies we had. She ended our gem gathering and soon we were eating much better than before, thanks to dedicated efforts to gather food. Then she had us collect all of our imprisoned brethren and moved to a new home, to a place that no one would dare look for us in; the Everfree.”

Twilight blinked her eyes and took in her surroundings again, but wasn’t too surprised the Enclave was located in the Everfree. After all, Emerald was likely the most powerful and dangerous thing alive in this place. Anything that would threaten the dogs would definitely have to deal with her.

“We soon got permanent homes and our situation only improved from there,” Belvedere continued. “Eventually we… obtained tools and learned how to work them and created even better forges and improved our metal working. But the absolute best improvement we’ve experienced was no longer needing to ration our food.”

“We are carnivores, we need meat to survive,” the Alpha stated. “Gaining meat from an arguably ethical source was always the hard part of feeding ourselves. Emerald, however, fixed that for us and gave us an incredibly large supply of meat that we can easily share with other carnivores and have more than enough to spare for ourselves.”

“How did you do that, Emerald?” Twilight asked curiously.

“I created meat trees,” Emerald answered without hesitation. “They have a regeneration ability and can digest any kind of biological matter through their roots if it’s in a mostly liquid state. From this they grow meat fruit at an incredible pace.”

“Wow!” Twilight exclaimed. “I knew you could alter your form on a cellular level, but I never knew you could do that for others things.”

“I didn’t just alter something to create the meat trees,” Emerald replied. “I created them from scratch.”

“Who is this pony you have brought here anyway?” Belvedere asked. “Another pony recruit?”

“No.” Emerald shook her head. “A closely trusted friend. I’m just showing her around.”

“Ah.” Belvedere stared at Twilight for a long moment before nodding at Emerald. “I’ll leave you to your business then. I’ve got my own to finish.”

“What’s this about a pony recruit?” Twilight asked.

“I have a pony here who decided to join me after a long stay with us,” Emerald answered.

“How did she come to stay with you?”

“She didn’t have much of a choice in the matter,” Emerald replied. “She was a convict that had snuck into our midst with the intent of stealing from us and ended up seeing something I had really wished she hadn’t. So I kept her prisoner for several months, rewarding good behavior with increased freedoms but kept her from just running via a biological restraint.”

“And she just decided to join you one day?” Twilight said with a frown. “Why? Can you even trust a pony like that?”

“Even she doesn’t really know why she wanted to join us, but I have my ideas,” Emerald said. “And I can’t really judge her on her past considering my own, so… I decided to go on a limb and try trusting someone for a change… I haven’t come to regret it… so far, anyway.”

“That must have been really hard for you,” Twilight stated, coming close and placing a hoof on Emerald’s shoulder, recalling a time when Emerald even saying she trusted someone to make a nice dress for her was hard for her.

“What can I say; you brought out the best in me,” Emerald smiled softly at Twilight who blushed a little. “Do you want to meet her?”

“Sure,” Twilight said with a nod. If she was going to give someone like Emerald a chance to be a better person, it would behoove her to do the same for a simple criminal.

The two made their way through the underground city. The entire time, Twilight kept looking this way and that at all the various sights and sounds of Diamond Dogs living happily. The violet unicorn was determined to give Celestia a letter about the disappearance of one of the prisoners in Tartarus; she just needed to figure out a way word it carefully so Celestia went to go check up on the prison herself without suspecting anything… and the thought she was going to withhold information and even try to manipulate the princess into doing something immediately made Twilight’s mood take a downturn.

‘W-well… how else am I supposed to get her to do it?’ Twilight thought miserably. ‘If I just tell her why I know, then I’ll be revealing Emerald… wait, half-truths and lying without lying, how would Emerald do it? She would say she… met a dog and learned the story from him, which is exactly what happened with me! And… I recall in the newspaper that Emerald’s alter ego the Gray Fox talked about dealing with the Diamond Dog’s previous leader and how he overthrew him. Yes, I can do this!’

Twilight’s mood rose back up as quickly as it fell. She wasn’t lying to her beloved’s princess’ face anymore; she was just not mentioning certain things, and in her mind that made up all the difference in the world.

“Looking like you’re having a mood whiplash back there,” Emerald commented. “Are you okay?”

“I was just thinking of a problem I was going to have,” Twilight answered a bit cheerfully. “And I figured out the answer to it.”

“Oh? That’s good.”

“So why aren’t we simply teleporting to our destination?” Twilight asked.

“I figured you wanted to get a better look at what I had going on here,” Emerald answered. “So walking would be a better way of doing that.”

The two arrived in the rail yards just in time for one small train trailing a cargo cart to arrive and offload some empty ammo crates before loading up on some full ones. Emerald brought Twilight over to the train and the two were soon catching a ride.

“So what are in these?” Twilight asked over the sound of the engines, motioning at the green boxes.

“Ammunition,” Emerald answered.

“And that is?”

“Bullets, which is…” Emerald began. “Think of them as really advanced arrows!”

“Why do you need so much?” Twilight asked, recalling the several empty crates the train off loaded.

“This is Everfree,” Emerald answered. “Most animals learn that our area is dangerous and that they shouldn’t try hunting here, but some don’t so we need to keep a guard up. Plus we need ranged practice with the weapons.”

“Ah,” Twilight said and wondered what sort of advanced bow let loose these “bullets”. Since Emerald was giving her an unrestricted tour, she would be getting to see what exactly her friend was talking about soon enough.

The train soon arrived on the surface and chugged to a stop near a ramp where several dogs were awaiting them. As they arrived and the dogs started unloading the ammo crates, Twilight noticed in the distance some sort of enclosed farmland that held rows upon rows of black bush like plants. She couldn’t see details from this distance, but from the way the plants glistened and how black they looked, they gave her a feeling that they were unnatural. The fact several dogs were wearing thick protective clothing and chainmail as they harvested the leaves of the plants made her certain of that, and that Emerald had a cause in it.

“What are those?” Twilight asked, pointing at the plants in the distance.

“Dragon scale shrubs,” Emerald answered. “Another creation of mine. They grow the same hard scales Nidhogg had in life and we gather them up to create an incredibly tough armor… well, in the future anyway. I think they are still testing various armor designs around here… anyway, Whisper Wind’s home is just this way.”

Emerald motioned to a stone and wooden cottage in the distance and the two made their way over to it. Part way there another voice broke in, but this time it startled Twilight rather badly.

“Greetings virus.”

“GAH!” Twilight jumped at the unnaturally deep voice and quickly darted to just behind Emerald when she saw the source.

“Hello Sovereign,” Emerald greeted a Timber Wolf with a nod.

“I have come to praise you for your ceasing of cutting down trees for room,” Sovereign said and Emerald easily predicted what was coming next as an insult. “You have yet again proven you can be something other than a completely destructive simpleton.”

“So when it’s you being giant and tearing out of the ground, ruining it in the process, and stomping on trees its fine,” Emerald stated with a raised brow. “But when I do that for constructive reasons I am a destructive simpleton?”

“Yes,” The spirit said without a moment’s hesitation.

“Figures.”

“E-Emerald what is this?” Twilight asked.

“This is my friend Soverign, the sovereign of the Everfree,” Emerald said with a grin. “Real creative huh?”

“If I recall correctly, you were the one to give me the name,” Sovereign commented with all the smugness in the world.

“Shh! No one asked you!” Emerald said with a harshness that could have been easily mistaken for real.

“And I require no one’s permission to speak,” Sovereign replied. “If I feel that the stupidity that surrounds me requires comment, then I shall comment.”

Twilight looked between the two bickering “friends” with wide eyes. This was nothing like she learned friends were supposed to act with each other. If anything, the two seemed like two people that didn’t like each other but were forced to meet with each other often. She and her friends never insulted each other… well okay, they did sometimes, but only when they were angry with each other. It was never a part of how they treated and acted with each other. So how could these two be friends?

“Friends? Really?” Twilight said incredulously. “But you two insult each other and don’t really seem to like each other!”

“Yeah, and?” Emerald said with a questioning look, a look that Sovereign seemed to be giving her as well. “I may poke a little fun at the big bag of roots, but I would still help him if he asked for it.”

“It is the same with I as well,” Sovereign admitted without the slightest hesitation. “… Although in all likelihood, I’d be helping this peon here get out of a problem she caused in the first place.”

“Oh now I’m a peon instead of a simpleton?” Emerald said with a raised brow. “Better than being what you are at least.”

“And what exactly is that supposed to imply?”

Twilight stared at the two with some curiosity. This wasn’t anything like the friendship she learned about in her time in Ponyville, but spending time with Emerald now seemed to be teaching a lot of strange and new things. The idea that a pony could do good things and be a good friend yet still commit such incredibly vile acts was an alien idea that Twilight was forced to acknowledge. Along with that was the idea of telling a truth in such a way that no one needed to lie but still manage to conceal a truth. Twilight found herself wondering just what other strange concept she would be learning from Emerald and whether or not it was a good thing.

“Hmph, I’ve said what I have come to say,” Sovereign said as he turned to leave. “I shall be taking my leave now.”

“You just don’t like losing!” Emerald shouted after him.

“Hmph, preposterous!” Sovereign stated and marched off into the forest.

“Well… shall we get going?” Emerald said with a wide smile at Twilight, seemingly cheerful after speaking with her unorthodox friend. “Still have to introduce you to Whisper Wind.”

“Sure, let’s go,” Twilight said, though she was a little distracted, busy thinking about all she had seen so far and learned from the lean Diamond Dog, Belvedere.

The cottage wasn’t too far away, and in a minute or two they found themselves at door and knocking. Soon the door opened and the former convict peeked out and opened it all the way when she saw who was standing there, from within the home came the smell of freshly cooked stir-fry, though very likely to be without the meat.

“Hello there, boss!” Whisper greeted with a smile.

“Hey boss!” Emerald heard a familiar voice call from within.

“Bluno?” Emerald called questioningly. “What are you doing here?”

The Diamond Dog husky made his own appearance by leaning into view.

“Just having some lunch with a friend, boss. Speaking of which,” the husky Diamond Dog said cheerfully. “Who’s that pony there? Friend of yours?”

“Yes, this is Twilight Sparkle,” Emerald introduced. “Twilight, this mare is Whisper Wind and this cheerful fellow here is Bluno, an alpha of my dogs.”

“A pleasure to meet the both of you,” Twilight said politely.

“Hello!”

“Twilight Sparkle…” Whisper said with a thoughtful look. “Isn’t she Princess Celestia’s student?”

“Yes she is,” Emerald nodded.

“Jeez, you really get around don’t you?” Whisper asked and Emerald had to hold in a snort of amusement. “Diamond Dogs, spiders, celebrities and now this.”

“What can I say?” Emerald shrugged. “It all just happened and built up over time. Anyway, how is your training going, Whisper?”

“Going great!” Whisper stated excitedly. “And it’s all so exciting and scary to be taking those trips into the forest, even knowing there is a bunch of Warhounds nearby ready to help you at a moment’s notice.”

“Hmm… you really like excitement, don’t you?” Emerald said, now all but certain of what Whisper found appealing about being in the Warhounds. “Why not become a guard before instead of a thief?”

“Ew no!” Whisper said and scrunched up her face in brief disgust. “Do you know most of the time guards spend their time standing in one place and watching the world go by? No fun at all! Now stealing stuff was exciting and it used my talent. There was no telling if I would mess up at any one time and have to go on the run, maybe getting away or maybe getting caught. All very risky… of course, I did get caught eventually; it was how I ended up in Alcoltraz in the first place. And then I tried to steal from your dogs and you ending up catching me; wasn’t very pleasant at first, admittedly, but I don’t regret ending up here ultimately.”

“It’s nice to know that, Whisper,” Emerald replied.

Twilight stared at Emerald. After everything she had seen and heard, she decided that Emerald really was trying to be a better person. Why would she waste time and resources on helping her dogs when she could have spent it on herself? Why give the thief a chance when she could have locked her up and thrown away the key? There were definitely some rough spots, what with her stealing from Equestria and causing a great amount of harm, but when taken account to her past, it could have easily been much worse. Yes, Emerald definitely was making an honest and true effort to be a good person… and she wasn’t making it easier for her to do so by being so hard on her.

“Emerald, I’m sorry,” Twilight said.

“Huh? What for?” Emerald asked.

“For being so mean to you, Emerald,” Twilight said miserably. “You really are trying to be a good person; you’ve freed slaves from tyranny and given them a home and all the food they could ever want. With your power, you could do anything you want and nopony would be able to stop you but you’re not letting it get to you. I’m not making it any easier for you to be a good person by constantly judging you and distrusting you. Emerald, you are one of my most dear friends and I completely trust you.”

“Twilight… thank you so much,” Emerald said joyfully. The one person she shared with how she really was, all her darkness and all her attempts to grow beyond it, and she was still her friend. The virus felt a warmth bloom in her chest and felt herself go on autopilot for what happened next.

“Emer-MMMPH?!?” Twilight began questioningly but was stopped by Emerald’s lips meeting hers.

Bluno’s eyes boggled at the scene before him and Whisper Wind’s jaw practically fell to the floor as her face turned crimson. Not only that, but several nearby dogs that were going about their own business spotted what happened and gawked at it.

Emerald herself was in bliss for a moment when her eyes snapped open once she realised what she just did. She pulled away from Twilight with wide, panicked eyes and was met by the unicorn staring at her with an open mouth and utterly cherry red face. She turned in place and saw all the people staring at her in shock.

“Em-Emerald… wh-what?” Twilight tried but seemed to not be able to get her thoughts in order.

“Twilight I-I…” Emerald began but couldn’t think of anything to say.

In rising panic, the Evolved quickly built up a teleport and left. Despite her sudden departure, everyone still stared for a long moment at the spot she stood on as Twilight lifted a hoof up to touch her mouth.

ZETA

“Let’s see… feelings are hopeful with the return of the weather machines,” Rarity quoted from a newspaper. “Populace of Cloudsdale starting to feel at home again despite immense losses of personal effects. Well that is wonderful. It’s about time things started to look up again.”

Rarity was at home and enjoying some tea while reading a newspaper over a bit of lunch. Today was another day like any other and there didn’t seem to be any catastrophe threatening Ponyville lately… thankfully. The last few days were just filled with one disaster after another. Construction yard accidents, a dam breaking, runaway carts. It was just a total and utter miracle that Rarity and her friends always happened to be nearby to help.

As the glamorous unicorn was about to take a sip of her tea, there was a sudden intense pink flash and Emerald appeared in mid-air and landed on her hooves with a thud.

“Oh my!” Rarity gasped. “Emerald dear, what a pleasant surprise. Did you come to visit?”

“Umm… sorta,” Emerald said with a guilty look on her face that immediately had Rarity worried. “Uhh, can I stay with you for… a while?”

“Oh dear… what happened between the two of you now?” Rarity sighed, rightly thinking Emerald did something to make things complicated again between her and Twilight. “Of course you can stay as long as you like darling. As far as I’m concerned, my home is your home.”

“… I kissed her,” Emerald said softly.

“Err, what?” Rarity asked.

“I kissed Twilight,” the other unicorn said more clearly.

“Well it was an accident, dear. I don’t see why she would take it so badly,” Rarity said in annoyance with Twilight.

“It wasn’t an accident,” Emerald said, more to herself then Rarity. “I did it on purpose.”

“…” Rarity just stared at Emerald with a confused expression, like she just heard the most absurd thing in the world. “You kissed her… on purpose. Emerald… I don’t know how to tell you this, but Twilight is a mare. Did you… get spelled or some such and now she looks like a stallion to you?”

“No, Rarity,” Emerald said seriously. “I didn’t kiss her because of some trick or mistake, I did it because… I wanted to.”

“But you are a mare!” Rarity exclaimed. “She is a mare! I… I don’t understand this Emerald. How are you attracted to another mare?”

“… Do you think there is something wrong with me because of this?” Emerald asked with a level stare.

“Emerald I… no I don’t, there is nothing wrong with love after all.” Rarity sighed. “But… I’ve just never heard of this before! A mare attracted to another mare? It’s the most bizarre thing to my ears.”

“Rarity, if you have a big problem with this I can-”

“No Emerald, please don’t leave,” Rarity quickly interrupted. “I’m sorry… I really should be more supportive instead of questioning why, shouldn’t I?”

“If it helps, where I come from it isn’t unheard of at all for people of the same sex to date,” Emerald stated. “I’m not entirely sure if it would be called common, but it happens and I suppose I would be one of them considering…”

“Oh dear, Emerald…” Rarity said as she walked over and gave Emerald a hug, having suddenly realised that Twilight must have reacted badly if Emerald ran to her again. “Just stay as long as you want dear. If Twilight comes by, don’t worry about speaking to her, I’ll handle it.”

“Thank you Rarity…” Emerald said as she briefly took comfort in the embrace. “I’ll just be in the guest room… I need time to think.”

“Of course, darling,” Rarity replied and let go. “I’ll get a fresh batch of tea ready and bring you some.”

“Thank you,” Emerald said and walked away.

Before long, the virus found herself lying on the guest room bed and thinking to herself.

‘Why did I do that?’ Emerald thought sadly. ‘My best and truest friend and I ruined it all… why did I kiss her? Why am I even attracted to her in the first place? They aren’t ugly in the least and look like horses the same way humans look like apes but ponies are cute to my eyes, not sexy or anything along those lines. But Twilight… I am attracted to her, admittedly not in a sexual way but… neither would I be adverse to partaking in such actions with her… if she asked… extremely unlikely.’

“Uhh… Emerald darling!” Rarity called out. “Could you come here a moment?”

Wondering what Rarity wanted, Emerald left the guest room and soon arrived in the main room. She entered the room to see Rarity standing beside the front door with a still utterly crimson Twilight standing in the doorway. Emerald felt very much like she was having one of those ‘Deer in headlights’ moments.

Rarity looked between Emerald and Twilight for a long moment before sighing and walking away.

“If anypony needs me, I shall be in the kitchen,” she said before walking away but stopped for a moment before looking at Emerald. “If you need me for any reason at all, just call.”

Emerald didn’t give any outward sign she heard and just continued to stare at Twilight, who seemed to prefer to stare at everything but her. Eventually, she gulped and forced herself to look at Emerald, and somehow her blush deepened.

“T-T-Twilight I am SO sor-”

“Why did you kiss me Emerald?” Twilight asked seriously.

“I…” Emerald gulped as she found herself at an utter loss for a specific reason why she kissed Twilight, so many reasons flashed through her mind, but nothing specific. Then the Evolved suddenly realised she didn’t have A reason, she had many.

“Because you know me like no one else in this world does…” Emerald began. “Because you are incredibly smart. You are wonderful person who isn’t afraid to admit when she is wrong. No matter how serious the problem, you are one of, if not the first, ponies to step up to the challenge. And despite everything that said you should have revealed me and come after me… you gave me a chance. I owe you so much Twilight… if I hadn’t met you… I don’t even want to think what kind of person I would have become… you are the reason I am the way I am now.”

Twilight seemed to grow even more embarrassed with every bit of praise she heard come from Emerald and no longer could look at her.

“And… I think your eyes are pretty too,” Emerald said with an obvious attempt to melt the tension.

Twilight giggled at the last compliment.

“R-really?” Twilight said, looking at Emerald out of the corner of her eye. “The only physical thing you like about me is my eyes?”

“Well… I figured if I said what else I liked about you, we’d be here all day.” Emerald’s answer got another embarrassed look out of Twilight.

“Th-this is so strange Emerald…” Twilight said softly. “And here I was wondering what other strange things I’d experience from you… but… Princess Celestia did send me here to learn new things, now didn’t she?”

“Wh-what…do you mean?” Emerald said, eyes widening in hope.

“Well uh… yeah…” Twilight simply said with a small shy smile at Emerald.

Suddenly the violet unicorn found herself being wrapped up in a hug by Emerald who had the widest smile she ever seen on her. Twilight found herself panic stricken for a moment, wondering what she was supposed to do. She had read many books after all, but none of them were on the subject of romance. So, tentatively, she just returned the hug and figured she did the right choice when Emerald snuggled in a bit closer.

Twilight was just thinking about all the books she would be reading and ordering to make sure she knew enough on the subject of romance when she realised something.

“Oh my gosh…” Twilight gasped, making Emerald crack open an eye at her. “We just started our relationship and we already live in the same house and sleep in the same bedroom! What is everypony going to say about me, about us!?”

“Twilight, you are overreacting,” Emerald said with a knowing smile. “They won’t be commenting on that fact for a while. The fact that we are two mares in an unheard of relationship is going to be attention grabbing to them.”

“Oh… right…” Twilight said and after a long moment asked, “I’m supposed to feel happy, aren’t I? Why do I feel… scared?”

“Things are so much more complicated now,” Emerald sighed. “There is no telling what the future holds… but at least I have someone to face it with now. I’m tired of being alone.”

“You were never alone, Emerald,” Twilight said in gentle reproach. “You had everypony else too; your friends.”

“You know what I mean, Twilight,” Emerald said with a small laugh.

“Oh… right, me as in me… sorry.”

“Never change, Twilight.”

ETA

Princess Celestia was about to settle into bed when two scrolls suddenly appeared over her and dropped down onto her large bed.

‘What’s this?’ Celestia wondered and looked closely. ‘This one is marked Friendship Report. Ah, Twilight must have learned something new. Well, some reading before bed will be fine. Let’s see what my student has learned today.’

Giving a wondering glance as to the contents of the other message, the Princess simply put it on her bedside table before crawling under the blanket. Then she magically unrolled the scroll and started reading.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I learned that friendship doesn’t always come in forms you recognize. Sometimes those with the closest bonds can have the most unusual friendship; I learned this lesson from two others who spent most of their conversation insulting each other, yet both admitted to being willing to leap to the other’s defense at a moment’s notice. I also learned that sometimes friendship can grow into something more, into something greater, as I learned this very day when one my friends became very special to me. I just never thought I’d ever find myself in a relationship with another mare, or for that mare to be your sister’s student.

Your Loyal Student,

Twilight Sparkle

As Celestia read over the letter her smile grew as she read about the new lesson Twilight learned about friendship, the two friends she met must certainly be a sight to behold. Then her smile became as bright as her own sun when she started reading about her dear student finding someone special. However, the smile quickly died down and faded to a blank expression with wide staring eyes as she finished reading.

The Princess of the Sun lowered the scroll onto her bed and blinked her eyes slowly for a few moments before looking at the other message. Then she shook her head and simply lied down on her bed.

‘Well… she certainly learned something new, didn’t she?’ Celestia thought. ‘Hmm… I believe I shall save seriously pondering this development for tomorrow. Yes, that sounds like the proper decision, let’s just sleep on this.’

With that, Celestia magically blew out all the lights in her room.

-TBC-

Author's Note

AN: And there is the reason for the chapter’s name. Did you know when planning this story out way back when, my first idea for a pairing was Pinkie Pie? Hell I even had a few ideas of how Emerald and Time Turner would work out if it was given a chance.

EN: Well holy crap. I had been given a slight teaser about the ship, but I had no idea that this was how it would turn out. *cracks a wine bottle against the hull of the ship* Christened! Let the ship sail forth! Heh, anyways, awesome chapter once more. I know we’re always waiting on the edges of our seats for what happens next, so see you all in the next chapter.

NEWS

The first chapter of the third book is completed and submitted. Just have to wait for it to be approved