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I quietly stared down at the little section of the room from the barely lit doorway. My eyes were closed and I was biting my lower lip hard enough to bleed, I tried not to cry...

But I don't think I succeeded.

"God... fucking damn it." I cursed as I wiped my eyes with a sleeve. After taking a moment to pull myself together I quietly asked a question I knew no one would be able to answer, "Why? She never deserved this. She was just a god damned filly."

I still did not understand why I felt so protective of her. I never liked kids back on Earth, so why is this any different? Is it because she's an adorable little pony? Do I secretly wish to someday become a father and was pinning that wish fulfillment on Color? I decided to not dwell too much on it right now, I can always try and figure out why at a later date.

After forcing myself to look at the filly for a few minutes in a silent prayer to whatever religion ruled this place I simply couldn't bear to look over there any longer. So I frowned, walked over to her cold body, and closed her eyes with my fingers. I turned on my feet and walked over to the window that faced the city street. I put a hand on the window sill and I stared out into the hellish looking city, seeing all the destruction, the chaos, the occasional fire from what was likely some forgotten stove. I finally and truly realized just what my presence here has done. No matter how inadvertently, and no matter how much I didn't want any of this to happen. No matter that that damn creepy salesman sent me here in the first place. I needed to end this farce as quickly as it started, and I needed to do it now.

There was no truth for me to seek here in the city, no running around trying to find answers for what happened to me, what caused me to change into a living weapon. I knew that already. There was only one thing I needed to do here... I need to skip straight to the boss fight and I will eat the damn monster that has done this. I will destroy every bit of the virus in this unfortunate city. I will avenge Color by killing the beast responsible for the loss of her young life. Then... I think I'll do a bit of soul searching throughout Equestria. Meet the citizens firsthand and see what really goes on in this world.

But first things first, revenge. My frown turned into a sneer, and then a snarl when I thought about the Supreme Hunter. My only focus now was finding him, my anger boiled, my grip on the window sill shattered it into thousands of tiny pieces, the virus within me writhed and wiggled frantically, and then suddenly something like a ping sounded out in my head. I was suddenly broken out of my rage, I put a hand to my head in confusion, and furrowed my brow as the odd ping happened once again. For some reason, somehow... I knew where the Supreme Hunter was now.

Then it hit me. I had viral sonar, just like James Heller. I had somehow forced a mutation in the virus when my anger at the Supreme Hunter reached an all time high, or at least that's my best guess at any rate. I grinned maliciously, finding the Supreme Hunter will be a breeze now. Thanks to my newfound hunting sense, it seems that he is heading to...

Oh... No, this will not end well. Not at all.

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My newfound wings were a huge convenience for me. I can see why Rainbow Dash enjoys flying so much.

But I can't marvel at this liberating freedom right now, I needed to get to the survivor's camp as fast as possible. My wings lifted up and charged with biomass, then shot back down. I was sent flying at breakneck speeds, all the while pinging away with my new sense for the ugly bastard's constant location. I barely even noticed the building or two I crashed into with that flap and thanks to my speed I landed on top of a roof just opposite of the barrier, well within a minute or two at most.

He was already inside the protection dome, I knew that much. But he hasn't done anything yet from what I can see and hear. He must have had a specific target if he wasn't going around infecting or consuming ponies right now. I racked my brain for any targets he would want in there and it finally clicked. He wanted the Princesses!

I could not let that happen. Not only would he get a god awful power boost from it, he would even gain the knowledge of how to move the sun and moon. He had no business knowing that, far too dangerous knowledge for the likes of him. I narrowed my eyes in his direction.

"Besides... Nothing should ever happen to Luna. She is best princess after all." I muttered.

I dropped down from the top of the building, landing with a crash between it and another building. I was completely out of sight from the barrier's guard ponies. Remembering that I consumed a guard pony back at the museum I quickly shifted my biomass into him. But I wasn't the uniform white or dark grey, seems that there really is an enchantment on their armor. Grumbling to myself I switched the aqua fur coat for a dark grey one, and made sure the tail was a white and light blue like the other unicorn pony guards and added the horn on top.

With that disguise complete I quickly trotted out of the alleyway, making sure to keep my face completely serious like the others. Normally I wouldn't be able to keep a face like that without busting out laughing but for some reason it is so much easier now. Maybe the past few days killed my sense of humor, I hope not. It's all I really have left of my previous self.

I approached the gate, well calling it a gate was a bit of a stretch really. It was basically a hole in-between two roughly made walls. The walls themselves were piled up concrete and building parts. Fused together, likely with magic, and standing at least two stories tall. Pretty impressive honestly considering it was made with junk and rubble.

I got to the surrounding magical barrier, right in front of the little hole. The guards gave me a scrutinizing look before their horns glowed and a hole in the barrier large enough for me to walk through opened up. This was way too easy. For all they know I could be infected, heh, and could potentially spread the virus. And they just let me in?

This had to be a trick. But I couldn't prove it and I didn't want to make a scene, so with my paranoia on high alert I strolled through the hole. Not breaking stride and not breaking my stoic mask. Even if I was metaphorically sweating on the inside. The guards didn't even make a passing glance at me, either they were really good actors or they really did not know that I was not who they thought I was.

I hope becoming Alex Mercer didn't increase my paranoia levels.

Anyway, I needed to intercept the Supreme hunter before he gets in the presence of the sisters. I pinged the sonar once more and turned right, passing many different refugee tents and various stalls that passed food, water, and other supplies around. Various guards patrolled the streets of the improvised refugee camp, occasionally one of the unicorns would fire a beam of magic into he surrounding dome. Probably donating some of his magic to keep it stable.

I continued to look left and right as I walked down the street, not paying attention to what was in front of me. I felt the tiniest bump against myself and heard a squeak of surprise. I looked down in front of myself and saw the last filly I'd expect to see. It was Babseed full in the flesh in front of me.

"Oh... uh, sorry citizen." I said, she might not have been my favorite crusader but damn it she's still pretty fucking adorable up close. Babseed shyly nodded, a guard pony is probably intimidating to a filly. She gathered herself up and galloped off to join some other foals in play. My eyes turned orange for a brief second and I sighed in relief when her fleeing form did not show signs of infection.

Perhaps she has plot armor or maybe she is just a lucky filly. I shrugged it off and decided to end this much more quickly and galloped back in the direction of the Supreme Hunter, I did not care if I raised a few eyebrows on the way. Stealth was not really my main concern once I was inside the dome, it was just beneficial to a degree.

I had to force myself from pulling out a full on sprint though, I'd probably kill anyone that I'd accidentally bumped into if I did that. While I might not care about taking lives now doing so would dampen any talks with Celestia and Luna. Funny enough, they don't seem to want their citizens to die, imagine that. Thankfully ponies seemed to part ways in front of me as I ran by, I probably look like I'm in a hurry and delivering something important. Perhaps I should disguise as a guard more often, it's helpful.

The Supreme Hunter was only a hundred feet in front of me, and he was nearing the building the two royal sisters were currently caged up inside of. My gallop became a little faster, I highly doubted they would be able to see past his disguise if they couldn't see past Chrysalis's. I finally spotted the building ahead, the ping in my head rebounded off of the guard pony quickly trotting into the building.

I growled in frustration and slammed my back legs into the ground. I left a large indentation in the ground and shot forward like an artillery shell. The door was closed by now and my heavy body blew them open, shards of wood went flying everywhere. Every single pony in the room, even the sisters, were speechless. I sent a ping out and it locked onto one of the guards in the back.

I leapt in his direction but was caught in a golden glow. Then Celestia spoke, "My little pony. What seems to be the problem? We were in the middle of a very important meeting."

And true they were. Celestia, her sister, and many guards that seemed like they were of higher rank were all sitting around a circular table. A map of Manehatten was lying on top of the table, red X's and O's and various other scribbles were all over the paper. My head snapped in her direction and I pointed at the guard in the back, where he and a few other normal pony guards were stationed, probably for security.

"That one! That guard in the back is no pony! He's one of those monsters out in the city!" I shouted. "I saw him change shape and enter the camp!"

I tried my best to make my little act believable. Celestia's head quickly shot in his direction and he did not hesitate to act now that his cover was blown. His form exploded with fleshy colored tentacles and killed the honor guard around him before he leapt at Celestia.

She was shocked and couldn't form a proper defense, before I could do anything a heavy bolt of magic knocked the Supreme Hunter back. I knew it didn't do anything though, he had to have incorporated the magic resistance in himself at some point. The magic hold on me dispersed and I too leapt into the fray.

"Wait! No my little-" She cut herself off when, in a mass of red tentacles, I changed back into my base form and swung my blade down at the Supreme Hunter. He rolled on his back to dodge the blade and, in a show of acrobats that did not suite a four legged creature, he twisted himself off of the ground and leapt backwards onto his clawed hooves.

"Alex?! What is going on?" Celestia asked.

I didn't turn to her, I needed to keep my eyes on the bastard in front of me. "Sorry, no time right now." I said apologetically. "Right now I need to fight that guy and you two need to get away from here, he wants to consume you for your magic and spells."

"Then let him try. I will not simply back down and let somepony else do all the work, I am a Princess of Equestria." Luna stepped up boldly to stand next to me, head held high.

"Princess please, magic won't do you any good here. This needs to be a purely physical fight, one you'll be at an extreme disadvantage in, and if he gets a hold of you even once you'll be dead. If that happens... he will win. Please, let me do this."

Luna seemed to hesitate and was about to protest when Celestia interrupted. "Sister, let him take care of it. He is right, you're magic did nothing to it when you struck it at point blank range. Once we make sure the camp is truly safe we can possibly join him in battle if it is still going on by the time we get there."

I didn't wait to hear Luna's response. I charged the Supreme Hunter, while he charged back at me. The Princesses and the few remaining guards scrambled out of the building. I could hear the shouts and orders of the Princesses once they got outside. My blade clashed against his blade, a blade formed from an extra limb that grew from his back like a wing. We pushed against each other, I was glad he grew to just below my height as it made it less awkward to fight.

We disengaged and skidded back a few feet and I glared at the Supreme Hunter.

"You realize that in the end, I will win don't you?"

His voice was annoying me. "Shut up." I growled. "You gloat too much."

I ran at him and swiped with my blade. His blade arm swished at mine and deflected the attack. My left arm formed a claw and I pressed my attack. I gave a downward slash but he jumped back, his blade arm flashing for my neck. I ducked under the strike and lashed out with my claw, lightly scratching the surface of his blade arm.

He didn't like that and a new arm formed on the other side of his body. The two blades slashed at me from two different directions, "Shit." I cursed as I did a matrix styled dodge, the two blades barely missed my nose by a bee's cock.

I righted myself and slashed with a claw, that attack left him open. One of his arms was diced by my claw's blades and he screamed in rage. He backpedaled and snarled at me, his teeth bared.

"You just won't give up will you?" He questioned as he tried to glare a hole in me.

I couldn't help a satisfied smirk, "Hell no. Now be a good little infected and let me consume you."

"It is I, who will consume you." With that he tensed himself and leapt through the building, destroying most of the wall before taking off in a random direction.

I growled in annoyance, "Come back here you coward! You can't run from me!" I shot out the hole he made, casually grabbing a chunk of the destroyed wall and chucking it at him as hard as I could. The wall piece flew but just barely missed his head. Dissatisfied I charged a jump and rocketed in the direction the Supreme hunter was headed.

Author's Note

I'll post the chapters up until the Manehatten storyline is complete, then a crossover chapter to get Alex into the multiverse, and then the wait begins for new chapters once again. I really need to work on this story more, my Vinyl story is up to 30k words and this is sitting under 20k right now.

Good news is that I'm writing this story again.