A week has passed. Sunset and I remained in Manhattan for that long trying to find out what exactly to do. While we had some clues thanks to Moondancer, we still didn’t have a laid out plan to foil Celestia.

The situation in the city started to become suffocating. The military was everywhere, and the ponies started to get angry about it. Curfew was unmerciful, and anyone caught outside after it was severely punished. Everyone was on edge. Sunset is starting to doubt herself over the fact she cannot come up with a spell to actually track down a celestial beast. “A shame I let that one escape. I hope Blaze Sword gets some news soon, the waiting is killing me,” I thought while walking to the nearest grocery store to pick up some food for Sunset.

I went inside, got everything I needed, and went “home”. Not really a term I would use. We took an empty flat in a residential area of town, and thanks to Blaze we didn’t have to look for money for it. “I’m back!” I shouted into the silent flat.

“You got everything?” Sunset replied from her room, which was more of a lab than anything else.

“Yes.” I replied while putting everything in the fridge.

“Good, good.” She said still from behind the closed door of her own room.

I went over and entered without knocking, “Do you knock?” She asked, irritated.

“Overrated. Did you manage to find a way to locate them?” I asked.

“No,” she replied saddened, “They can’t be picked up by magic. All the books I have found say that the only being able to do so is Celestia, but you can see how that won’t help us at all.”

I thought about that, “Celestia won’t help at all, but what if we had more eyes around? I could create some spies to send around, but I’m not too sure I could keep them under control. What to do…”

“Hey Sunset,” I started.

“Yes?” she asked without looking at me.

“Do you perhaps have any information on changelings?” I asked her.

“Changelings? Never heard of them, what are they?” she asked, confused.

“Hm, interesting. Well, I’ll be back later. I have someone to find.” I hurried out of the flat and walked calmly to the forest, no need to be hasty after all. Chrysalis won’t go anywhere.

After an hour or so of wandering into the forest, I started to think about how to find them, I could use the smell in the air, or the pheromones even. If I had a changeling on hand I could have used it to gain access to their hive mind, if they had one. In the end, I went with simple heat vision and pheromone tracing. It wasn’t hard to find, they didn’t have any reason to hide such traces after all. I had many false signals of course, other animals were obviously present. Unfortunately, I hadn’t found any mystical blue glowing bears. “How hard can it be to find it? I found it completely at random for fuck’s sake, I could have killed it right there. But no, I had to let it go,” I thought with bitterness.

“No matter, they are near,” I muttered to myself. I sharpened my senses and followed the now much thinner trail of changelings’ smell. In a matter of minutes, I pinpointed the source of the smell. It was coming from a cave deep in the forest, cleverly hidden beneath layers of leaves. I proceeded with confidence, removing the leaves and walking inside.

Something hit me in the neck from my right. Unfortunately for the attacker, it didn’t even scratch my skin. I grabbed the dart and examined it. “Covered in neurotoxin. Dangerous stuff, but now who fired it?” I looked around for clues, but I couldn’t see anything other than rocks and moss. I paused to smell and find out if there was anything amiss, and there it was: an extremely thin trail leading to a boulder.

I walked to the boulder and, in a flash, grabbed it with a tentacle, wrapping it completely in my hold. “Why did you shoot me?” I asked the boulder. With a bright emerald light the boulder showed itself to be a changeling. Like the ponies it was humanoid in shape, but still had a black exoskeleton and both horns and wings. Its eyes were compound ones.

“You should be dead,” the changeling, likely male from the voice, said with a snarl.

“A simple neurotoxin such as that won’t be enough to kill me,” I replied evenly. “Now, bring me to Queen Chrysalis.”

“I-I will never betray the Queen.” He stammered with fear and determination.

“Listen buddy, I don’t want to make an enemy out of your queen, and killing you to find her will most likely do that. I don’t really need your help but with it we can make everything go faster,” I told him.

“Never.”

“Fine, I tried.” I threw him away at a wall, knocking him unconscious. “Let’s see where this will bring us.” After some time I found what could be seen as the entrance of the hive itself. I entered, and was blown back by the sheer amount of smells, and sounds all around me. I had to tone down my sensibility to not get overwhelmed by it all.

I started to look around, the walls of the hive were made out of black chitin. They were changing every so often. Fortunately there were no guards around so I just walked deeper into it. The hive was confusing, and while I could have just smashed the walls to get through it I didn’t want to make an enemy of Chrysalis. After an hour or so of aimlessly walking around I finally encountered a pair of changelings. They were all similar to the one I found previously, but these ones were carrying a cocoon of some kind. Upon noticing me they froze. “May I know where I can find Queen Chrysalis?” I asked them.

“I-we-I mean.” One of them, a female started to say stammering a storm, I ignored her and looked at the other one.

“Can you?” I asked him bluntly.

“What if I don’t?” He asked in false bravery.

“I eat you.” I replied back.

He started to sweat, which was weird considering his skin. “I don’t believe you.” He said resolutely.

I morphed my head and torso so that I could open it like a giant maw stretching all the way, filling it with countless teeth and tongues. I then started to make my arms longer with three barbed claws at the end of each. All around my body eyes opened up, and looked at him, “Care to try me?” I told him with a ragged, deep and malicious voice.

The female fainted immediately, the male though didn't; instead he remained frozen in shock in front of me like a deer on the road. I went near him, almost touching him.

“Don’t kill me please!” He pleaded in tears.

“You know what to do then,” I told him, still in my nightmarish form.

“Yes, yes please don't kill me!”

I returned back to my original form, “Lead the way.” I told him with a bow.

“C-can I please take her in one of our rooms?” He said stammering a bit.

“Sure.” I told him and waited for him to bring her to a more comfortable surface. After that was done he took the lead and showed me the way. The hive was as intricate and complicated as before, but this time I could feel that wherever we were going there was purpose behind the drone’s steps. After what seems to be a couple of minutes we reached a set of stone doors. They were covered with pictures, and they were currently closed, and guarded by two more changelings.

“Halt! Who are you? How did you get here?” One of them asked.

“I asked around.” I replied, I ignored him and went for the door.

“Don’t you dare make a step forward intruder.” They both threatened, pointing their spears at me. I didn’t acknowledge them, and simply started to push the door. They sprung into action, trying to impale me with their weapons to no avail. Every thrust was met with a resounding sound of metal hitting stone, doing nothing to me. I easily opened the doors and revealed the insides of a throne room, it was as black as the rest of the hive, but had a sort of chandelier on the ceiling made out of a green bioluminescent substance.

“Who are you?” A voice demanded. It was female, and from what I remember should be the voice of Chrysalis herself. I looked around and saw her coming down from the ceiling and gracefully land on her throne. She was far taller than a drone, she was wearing a long emerald cape that showed off her body but kept it decent. She was extremely attractive and would swoon every male of every race with a kiss.

Unfortunately for her I wasn’t affected by her charm. “Queen Chrysalis, my name is Philip Mercer,” I started. “But you can call me Hunter.” The instant I said that I had to shield my body from a powerful slash of a sickly green scythe now in her hands.

Windy

The last week passed with no problem, my job was easy and with my body it was a breeze to bring letters around. I moved out from Daisy’s house three days after I got my job. In less than an hour I managed to bring all the letters they kept at the office, and that brought me a lot of bits to spend on my house. ‘Today is a good day,’ I thought. The sun was shining and the birds were happily chirping away. The foals were playing in the streets while the busy were around, working. The fact that I moved out from her house doesn’t mean I wasn’t in contact with her on a daily basis though. We usually hang around whenever I pass in front of her house for a letter, and with my speed I had no problem with using my time with her.

During those days when I wasn’t at work we also did some experiments with my powers, we used all the dumbells in the gym to see how strong I was, but not even all of them was enough. Next we tried with my tendril problem, it took a while but now I can safely touch other ponies without morphing my arm.

Interestingly enough I could eat wood, this was discovered when a pack of timberwolves attacked us while we were on the outskirts of town. The pack lunged at Daisy completely avoiding me like I was some kind of dangerous animal. In a quick burst of speed I grabbed one, and threw it at another one smashing both of them. Then I took the last one and crushed his skull with a kick, from my hoof then multiple tendrils came out and devoured the wolf.

That really scared Daisy but she was more scared about the attack then my abilities. Weirdly enough I’m starting to feel some light nausea in the morning. ‘I’ll talk about this with Daisy,’ I thought to myself. I took my beret, and put it firmly on my head. Then I opened the door, and went to work. The day passed easily enough, after my shift I went to Daisy for that question.

I went to her door and knocked on it. “Daisy?” I called. Moments later the door opened and a smiling Daisy welcomed me in.

“Windy, come in.” She happily said. She sat down at the table, and started munching on a banana, she offered one to me. “Want one?”

“Sure,” I said. I sat down and devoured the banana with my hand.

“Uh, right,” She said. Then nibbled her banana some more.

“So, I had a question,” I started. “Every day, I wake up, and I have nausea, do you think I’m sick?” I asked her.

“You? Well I mean maybe?” She said thoughtfully. “I’m not a doctor of course, I would tell you to go to one, but I understand why you can’t. I have nothing really, if it gets worse come back here, and we will think of something ok?” She said.

“Seems good,” I told her with a nod. “So did you hear of this new teacher at school?” I started.

“Cheerilee? Oh yeah she…”

Phil

I grabbed her scythe with my right arm, and tried to pry it from her hands. Instead of fighting me over that, she used her wings, and propelled herself alongside the scythe. Now that she was behind me, she kicked me on the back of my head as hard as she could. Unfortunately for her that wasn’t enough, I stumbled a bit, but recovered immediately. I grabbed her still outstretched hoof, and then proceeded to slam her on the ground hard enough to crack the floor. I was ready to smack her again but she twisted her leg, and pried my hand open. “Apparently I wasn’t keeping her tight enough. Won’t happen again.”

“I know what you are…,” She said with venom dripping from her mouth. She balanced the majority of her weight on her good leg, limping a bit with the other. Her wings were in shambles, and showed cracks with blood oozing from it.

“Then you know you can’t win. I don’t want to hurt you Chrysalis, I’m not here for Celestia.” I tried to tell her.

“Liar!” She shouted, blasting me with her horn. I reacted quickly, and put a shield in front of me. Blocking the barrage of magical missiles, I slowly inched towards her until I was close enough. Then I slammed the shield in her face, and restrained her with my tendrils.

“Listen to me, I’m not here for her,” I told her again. But to no avail she continued to fidget, trying desperately to get free. “Stop struggling, you can’t win. But I’m also not here to hurt you,” I told her. I then put her back on the ground freeing her.

“I don't know what your game is, Hunter. But know that I won’t be fooled,” She told me with gritted teeth.

“No games, no deceptions. I need your help to find some celestial creatures and I don’t want to kill you for it,” I explained.

“Why would you want those?” She asked, now curious.

“To kill Celestia,” I told her.

She remained silent for a bit, she then moved back to her throne, and sat on it. Her face a visage of tiredness. “Do you have any idea how ridiculous that idea sounds like?” She asked.

“Sure, but I have to,” I told her back.

“Fine, you can have the information, but we never talked. If you fail I don’t want my hive to be hunted down,” She said in defeat.

“You won’t regret it,” I told her. “So where are they?” I waited patiently for her to reply.

“It depends, which ones do you want to meet?” She finally said.

“Explain, how many are there?” I asked.

“There were thirteen of them, now only four are alive. The Ursa Major and minor, Gemini and Libra. All of the others got slaughtered during the battle between Celestia and Luna over a thousand years ago,” She told me. “The Ursas both reside in the Everfree most of the time. Gemini fled to the griffon lands, while Libra remains alone in the Temple of the Stars.”

“What is that Temple?” I inquired.

“The Temple is an ancient building created by Luna to house her creations. It is in ruins, and the only inhabitant is Libra herself. We know for a fact that she is still there. Gemini is basically lost to us. The griffin lands are too far away to have reliable information, and the Ursa are not too hard to find. Just look for massive caves, and you will most likely find them.”

“Wait, one friend told me that there are still thirteen of them around,” I replied skeptically to her.

“Are they a pony?” She asked. I nodded, “Then it is no surprise, Celestia removed all historical archives about the Celestial Beasts. The ponies still believe they are all alive, unfortunately for them that is false,” She said.

“I see,” I started. “Thank you Chrysalis, if there is anything I can help you with…”

“Leave my hive alone, I don’t need the help of one of Celestia’s mad creations,” She said with disgust in her voice.

“Farewell then.” And with that I took off. I exited the hive undisturbed, and walked back to Manehattan. The journey was quick, and uneventful. It was late in the night when I finally arrived at the flat. With a very disappointed Sunset glaring at me.

“Where were you?” She asked.

“I was busy retrieving some information from the changelings.” I replied leaning on a wall.

“The changelings? Are you crazy!? They could have kidnapped you, and harvested your love!” She all but shouted. I cocked an eyebrow up.

“Really?” I asked dumbfounded. “Are you really ranting about how I, the same guy who fought off the Ursa Minor could be captured by a bunch of bugs?” I deadpanned.

“Well…” She said looking down with a bit of a blush. “If you word it like that…”

I sighed, “I’m grateful for the worry but it wasn’t necessary,” I told her somewhat softly. “But that aside we have new info. First of all the thirteen astral creatures? Almost all dead, the only ones alive are Gemini, Libra and the Ursas,” I told her. She gasped lightly at that and retrieved a book from her room.

“But here it says…” She started but I interrupted her immediately.

“I know, but the books were all written by Celestia’s regime. We can’t trust them too much. On the other hand we can’t trust the changelings either, but we don’t have too much of a choice. In any case once I consume the Ursas I will know the truth.” I told her.

“What do you mean?” She asked, curious.

“Are you sure you want to know? Knowing this information may make you look at me with fear,” I warned her.

“How? You can already kill me at any time and I’m not afraid of that,” She told me with a shrug.

“When I consume a sentient creature I also gain access to their memories. All of them. If I really wanted to I could eat a pony, recreate his or her body, and put the memories back. Modified to suit my needs thus creating a servant for me. Or I can just be that person for as long as I want,” I told her. As expected she looked at me like a deer at an approaching car. She backed off against the opposite wall from me but I didn’t move.

“B-but how?” She asked.

“I am…” I hesitated a bit. “I am not even alive by the term itself. I’m a virus all the way through. I’m a mess of RNA stuck together that achieved sentience. I’m technically a bioform so powerful that my introduction in the biosphere would make all existing bioform go extinct. I’m what you would call a nightmare or a monster. The only thing that doesn’t let me lash out killing everything is because I know it is not the way to go. I saw where that route goes anyway,” I told her. She remained silent for a while. So did I.

After five long minutes she finally spoke up. “So what you are saying is that you could very well kill everyone on this planet, just like that?” She asked.

“Yes, if I really wanted to I could make it quick even. Maybe a matter of months.” I told her.

“But you won’t. Right?”

“No. I’m not a monster. I may be called that but I won’t be the end of the world. I’m here to prevent just that in fact,” I told her with absolute determination.

“I-I believe you, but…” She trailed off.

“How can you be sure that your thoughts are your own?” She hesitantly nodded. I sighed. “Other than my word there is nothing that I can offer you as evidence. You will have to trust me on this. I haven’t modified any of your memories. I will never do it,” I told her.

“I guess that’s the best I can hope for,” She sighed. “So what do we do now?”

“You remain here, and continue your studies. I go into the Everfree, and kill a bear,” I told her easily enough. I was ready to depart when we heard the radio crackle.

“-an you hear me? I repeat can you hear me?” The voice of Blaze called from it. Sunset took the radio and answered back.

“We can hear you Sword, what’s going on?”

“An emergency draft. One of the Elements of Harmony disappeared from Olympus, and now the entire nation is on high alert. Celestia wants as many soldiers as possible, and ordered me to start a city wide raid to draft as many ponies as possible. Get out of the apartment before my troops come there too. Make it appear like that it was sacked, leave no clues behind.” He told us

“What about the civilians?” Sunset asked.

“They won’t be civilians anymore. I can try to put as few as possible on the draft but there is not much that I can do here without compromising my position.”

“I understand, do what you must. We are getting out of here.” I told him taking, the radio from Sunset’s hands. “We will relocate to the Everfree.”

“In the Everfree? How can you live there?” He asked.

“I have my ways, we will talk later. Over,” I told him, turning the radio off.

“Where should I stay in the Everfree?” Sunset demanded. “Did you forget that I almost died there?”

“I know very well. This is why you will live with the changelings,” I told her.

“What? No!” She shouted.

“It’s either that or live in the wilderness. Which one do you prefer?” I told her with a hard stare.

“I-”

“I know you don’t like changelings, and that you are scared by them. But believe me, this is the best decision right now. This city will become too hot for us to remain here,” I told her, trying to use her own analytical mind against her.

“Yeah. You are right, damn,” She said. “Ok fine, but how can I be sure they won’t just put me in a cocoon?”

“I’ll make sure of that, don’t worry,” I told her. She nodded and went for the door.

“Can you destroy this place? I don’t know if I can destroy books in good conscience,” She said, closing the door behind her.

I shrugged, and used my tendrils to make as much destruction in the room as possible. I put holes in the wall. Ripping books, and smashing furniture. When I was happy with my handiwork I went out too. Together we then exited the city before the patrols could close it completely. We ventured into the dark with me guiding Sunset’s steps. In less than an hour we got out of the city, and into the wilderness.

I guided her through the dark, and damp forest being as watchful as possible for any predator. It was an hour later that we reached the hive’s entrance. Once again I entered it like I owned the place. This time though I didn’t need any scared drone to guide me through it for the throne room.

I pushed open the throne room’s door making them groan with the force behind it. clearly they were never opened to their fullest much. “You?” Chrysalis asked with anger. “How dare you come back?”

“Peace Chrysalis, I’m here because I need your help, hear me out, please,” I told her. she allowed it with a nod. “Ok, so she is Sunset Shimmer, maybe you heard of her.” Another nod. “Manehattan is under lockdown, and all civilians are being drafted. I need you to keep her here for the time being so that she may stay safe. I can’t bring her with me hunting the Beasts.”

“You ask much of me, what if I say no?” She replied, challenged even.

I narrowed my eyes threateningly. “I’ll be very upset.” I told her with cold murder intent in my voice.

She remained silent for a bit looking in my eyes, then she sighed. “Fine, she can remain. But I don’t want to hear of any incidents with her here,” She said.

“There will be none, right?” I told Sunset.

“Yeah, keep your drones away from me, and we will get along just fine,” She replied coldly.

Chrysalis chuckled, “Very well. You can go now Hunter, we will take good care of her,” She said to me.

“Not so fast, first I need to do something.” I stretched my arm, and opened my hand. ‘Here I go, I hoped to have more time before this but I’ll make do.’ I pushed my cells outwards and started to create, first, a body that’s easy enough. Then, abilities, a bit of everything but most of all medical capabilities. And in the end. Now for a mind, a thinking breathing mind, am I really going to create a conscious?’ I asked myself, it was a big step. One that every normal human would have had to pass years thinking about it. I didn’t have years.

I transferred some of my memories into it, I put medical knowledge, combat, info about the changelings, and the world around us. Then I put inside a burning sense of duty to protect Sunset from anyone who would wish her harm. And finally to my greatest shame, a kill switch, I couldn’t trust a newly formed creation of mine to be perfect, if anything went wrong I had a means to terminate it before it got out of hand.

I looked at my now blinking creation, it was a boy more than anything, barely taller than Sunset with red fiery hair and a tan, it had blue crystalline eyes and by my hand, it had a simple leather jacket very similar to the one Sunset had in the mirror. It also had a pair of black jeans and finally a blue shirt, on said shirt there was a symbol, it was the stigma of Alex Mercer.

And while the symbol once held a completely different meaning now it can be used for our own battle. I finished and put my hand back from his shoulder to my side. “Greetings.” I told him.

“I…” He said moving his mouth around getting a feel for it. “Hello.” He finally said with a deep grave voice, one that really destroyed the image of him as a boy.

“Do you want to choose a name for yourself?” I asked.

He nodded. “Primis, my name shall be Primis, creator,” He said. Stumbling a bit at the word.

“A fine name, the first, fitting.” I put a hand back on his shoulder, “I have to go now. Your priority, you already know. Protect her from anything that would do her harm. Good luck,” I told him. He nodded, and went to stand behind her.

“What the hell happened!?” Sunset demanded.

“I made him. I created a bodyguard for you. He will keep you company, and defend you from any harm.” I told her as a matter of fact. “He is trained in medicine and combat. He will be able to act as your guard on a 24/7 basis seven days a week.”

“You can’t just create a new living creature from nothing!” She roared.

“But I did,” I told her. I saw her seething with anger at what must have been to her eyes a crime against nature itself. “You can know more about him whenever you want, but he will answer only questions he wants to answer. He is not a slave after all,” I told her. Then I looked at Chrysalis, “With this done I can now leave. Farewell Chrysalis, and don’t worry he won’t kill anyone unless you force his hand,” I told her.

“I’ll be back as soon as possible, goodbye for now.” I walked out of the hive and started to run around looking for the Ursa. ‘I will find it soon enough, a giant constellation bear can’t hide very well now can it?’

Celestia

I teleported to the cave, the Ursa was already there waiting for me. “Why hello little cub,” I told the minor. Who growled at me in defiance. “You will not growl at me beast!” I shouted, firing a ray of pure heat into his paw carving a hole through it. the Ursa whimpered in pain but otherwise remained silent.

“That’s better.” I told it. “Now, your task is easy. When he arrives you will use this.” I showed it the bottle that I held in my hand. ‘And then you’ll die.’

“Don’t disappoint me.” I warned it, and left the cave leaving the bottle behind. I arrived right onto Olympus. I proceeded through the controls, and arrived where the Elements were held. they were still there, or at least the remaining four were.

The thought of Hunter stealing my element threatened to bring me back into a rage enough to melt the entire room. But I had to hold my cool, I couldn’t start going around blowing holes everywhere. A scroll appeared in front of me and I quickly scanned it over.

Seems like Moondancer did her work with absolute perfection, I wrote down my orders to extract her from Manehattan, and to be escorted to the palace. “Seems like I got myself a nice, juicy new pawn. Soon, this world shall be...Perfection…”

Author's Note

Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, yeah I'm not dead, I hit a huuuuge roadblock a couple of months ago and from there all went downhill with the covid etc... so this is my newest chapter for stagnation I hope you'll like it my friends! As always if you liked it put a like and a comment to let me know, stay tuned for next chapter see ya!

Also shout out to Schattendrache a good friend of mine and his new story, A birthday alone check it out my dudes see ya!

edited by: Classy Fox