I believe I must introduce myself, I am Lobo, a black unicorn. Not as in "color" ~~I am black though with a white mane~~ I am blessed by the Grandfather with senses beyond the norm, and my job is to scout around the HQ.
As such, when the Soul Nexus sensed a pure pegasus we had to find them.
Ponies whose genetic code is purely of their tribe are something hard to come by these days, and by the Grandfather I will find that pony.
Something snapped me back into reality, a faint sound, like a filly crying.
" What was that?" asked private iron hoof, a young minotaur in his prime, to no one in particular.
" Yeah... is that crying?" questioned the griffon, I believe her name was Gilda, once a scout mercenary, now a servant of the Grandfather.
" Wait, let me just..." said Frod, my fellow black unicorn ~~his coat is also black, and his mane is white as well, I'm sensing a pattern here~~ as he lit up his horn with magic that absorbed the light around it.
He cast his spell and all my senses suddenly felt much sharper, I could hear the sound more clearly.
There was whimpering coming from somewhere in this area, a filly's, and judging by her pitch and volume, no older than a five or six-year-old.
" Gilda, try to find any trail that might lead to the crying, Iron hoof, Frod follow me," I ordered, Gilda flew off into the flora of the forest, leaving obvious rustling sounds for us to follow. And follow we did.
After a couple minutes of following the ever-present crying, we found it.
It was indeed a filly, although barely that, she was indeed five, maybe six. Her coat was a bright green, her mane a mish-mash of purple and green. Her face was round, soft, and "cute", however, I am not interested in filly so I will not comment further.
Frod went to follow some kind of trail while I, Gilda, and iron hoof closed in on the filly.
She was filthy, as expected, but what I did not expect was seeing her injured, to the extreme. Her coat was riddled with large cuts and gashes, her right forehoof was bent at an impossible angle and worst of all were her wings or lack thereof.
Thankfully pegasi have fantastic blood clotting, so she didn't bleed out.
" HEY! There's a pack of bugbears eating scraps, and two wings!" Yelled Frod from 20 feet away, only to gag and vomit.
" They're the filly's, I think," said Gilda as she flew up to the canopy to watch our surroundings.
I suppose that's the cause of her current state, she's maimed now, nothing we can do there. However, we can use her as another test subject.
I signaled for Iron hoof to get the filly, I'm far too scared for her.
He knelt in front of the pegasus, making sure that she noticed him. His face is a mask of fake kindness.
The pegasus raised her head, wincing with every movement, her eyes were glazed over with both tears and fear. But above all pain, sheer agony was all there was beyond her eyes, the so-called windows to the soul. She strained every muscle in her face to display the depths of despair she was trapped in, her throat tried to produce some coherent sound, but simply croaked uselessly.
Iron hoof's back trembled, my stomach dropped.
" What's your name, little filly?" asked Iron hoof, his voice reassuring and kind, something I couldn't replicate.
After multiple attempts and some coughing, she finally mustered up the strength to speak.
" Emerald..." her voice died after that, she wanted to say more but that's all there was, her voice was tired and it gave its last hoorah.
"Don't worry, Emerald, everything will be just fine, trust me," said Iron hoof, as he ~~somewhat forcefully~~ picked Emerald up and began chanting some sort of minotaur curse.
I realized it was a nursory rhyme when Emerald started snoring. I sighed through my nose, I really do need to stop catastrophizing everything.
" Well, Emerald A.K.A the pure subject is acquired, that's it I presume," said Iron hoof, back to his typical serene seriousness.
" You're a two-faced bastard, ya know?" quipped Gilda from the canopy, only to receive a glare from the minotaur, she tried to hide it with a huff, but she looked away from intimidation, not annoyance.
"AAAH AAAAH OH GRANDFATHER THEY'RE BITING MEEE!!" screamed Frod behind the dense flora of the Everfree, his pitch was that of an equestrian mare.
He teleported back to our group, only to realize the bugbears were still holding on to him.
He screamed.
"Bugbears ignore all magic but telekinesis, you idiot, and I'm the griffon," said Gilda as she laughed at Frod, he was a funny sight, running around like a headless chicken with four bugbear cubs biting away at his back.
I couldn't help my chuckle.
Just as I began to enjoy the sight, Frod seemed to remember he was a unicorn and simply grabbed the bugbears with his telekinesis.
" I hate you, you stupid mindless monsters" hisses Frod, rage clear in his eyes, he proceeded to throw the bugbears high above the canopy.
I sighed disappointedly, my squad was one of the best, yes, but they were so weird and childish.
" Okay, no more games, Frod take us back to HQ" as I said that, we were all enveloped with his aura and with a sharp whip-like sound, were popped out of existence.
And reappeared inside the familiar white walls of our home, the I.T. wing, to be exact.
" Iron hoof, get the filly scanned for DNA and try to find a match in the Equestrian database, after that put her in extreme healing procedures," as I ordered, Iron hoof nodded and went to complete his task. I looked at the other two " Gilda, notify mission tracking of our success. Frod, go get checked at the nurse's office,"
" If that's what you say," said Gilda.
"Not even the hospital proper?" Complained Frod, I gave him my best deadpan expression, he simply whined and went along.
I myself went to the cafeteria to get a bite, anything really. I sighed once again, the next week or so was going to be exhausting, the filly wasn't gonna last long and bucking Tartarus it takes forever to find other test subjects.
A week and a half later, I was once again back at the cafeteria after capturing yet another subject, a diamond dog, the bastard mauled Frod before we got to him.
That kid really needs to focus more on his combat training, magic isn't everything.
As I brutally devoured the watermelon I was supplied, Iron hoof passed me a report, before I could wonder why he didn't tell me the jist of it. I noticed he was checking his coat and uniform for imperfections, all while staring at a certain minotaur nurse who was walking Frod into the cafeteria.
Can't blame a young lad for trying, even against impossible odds.
I lifted the report up to my eyes with my telekinesis and quickly skimmed through it.
A filly with no family, no friends, or previous school record? It was too good to be true, and at first, it seemed so, she was covered in bite and scratch marks, many deep gashes that reached into minor blood vessels and a broken hoof. What worried me most was the fact that her wings that weren't cut off, they were torn off and brought the socket with them.
The experts at E.H.P managed to stabilize her quickly enough, patched the filly up, and replenished her blood with pegasi samples, at some point they discovered she had received brain damage and a good chunk of skin and bone was torn off her forehead, just deep enough to leave her brain exposed, nothing that time and a little bath in the healing tank couldn't fix.
T'was good enough, the scientists didn't think she'd last more than a few days like usual with ponies that damaged, but she endured. Like a champ might I add, by the grace of the Grandfather, she was alive after the first liquid-magicae transfusion! it was looking good, we hadn't had such a breakthrough since Tempest Shadow, and unlike her, we weren't going to let some ambitious Yeti take her away.
Her similarity to the warrior -now captain of the Equestrian royal guard- didn't go unnoted, her body's durability and healing capabilities were that of an earth pony, but her bone structure and graceful complexion were a carbon copy of the greatest of pegasi. It was unnerving and fascinating in equal measures.
Suffice it to say, they conducted many experiments, most of which were invasive. Yet she endured all of them and at one point we realized she regenerated her wings out of nowhere, I spat some of my watermelon at that.
As I cleaned the little mess, I caught glimpses of the nurse covering her mouth as Iron hoof knelt in front of her and Frod struggled to stay on his hooves while cheering Iron on.
As I went back to the report, I stopped skimming over, the filly regenerating was a rare symptom of the liquid-magicae. partial alocornification, this however, went from a happy coincidence to a one-in-a-trillion opportunity, the scientists risked another transfusion to see if she'd survive or die.
She survived. I could feel my eyes dry as they widened.
She was the vessel that would carry His essence and finally revive the Grandfather. She was our first and last hope to truly bring back the Grandfather.
I had to see her. I sprinted past the gathering crowd around the spasming body of Iron hoof, ran alongside the crying nurse, and bee-lined straight for Emerald's containment cell. This was going to be the best moment of my life until the Grandfather was returned.
That is. Until I activated the monitoring window to see Emerald and found her busting a hole into the wall of her white containment cell with a beam of magic that shot from a sphere of raw magical power.
Why didn't I sense the magic surge she was having? Was the massive concentration of magicae that flowed into her horn once it grew the reason why she had a magic surge? Why, why, and why. None of my questions would be answered until I got a hold of Emerald and put her into a better cell, or even stasis if the umbra blood wasn't used up.
Without further ado, I teleported into the cell, just far enough to not be disintegrated by the magic-fueled alicorn, and I immediately set to work activating the counter-spell runes and the magic-draining inscriptions. I had to squint my eyes, it was hard accessing the ambient mana near a literal demi-god having a magic surge, but I managed it.
With a loud buzz and a harsh tug at my wellspring, the runes and inscriptions around us light up in red and black.
The spherical blob of magic surrounding Emerald was drained, all the chaotic magic released was sent back to the Chaos lord's dominion, and I was left amidst a blackened and destroyed room. I took my sweet time recovering, my head ached slightly and my horn was numb and hot at the same time. I hated magical exhaustion.
After a couple of minutes, I finally got up, feeling my horn thrumming with excess heat, smoke was still abundant in the cell, but slowly filtering through the minotaur-sized hole in the wall, hopefully, I didn't shock the filly into wellspring arrest, wouldn't want our only alicorn dying.
" Hey there, sorry if I scared you, I just didn't want your beautiful mane getting burned" I cooed with as much softness as I muster, hoping the child didn't wise up just yet. There was a moan, raspy and pained, then some coughing, and then... bucking hell, she's running away.
I sprinted for the sound of tiny hoof steps, Emerald was obviously headed for the hole in the wall. Given her recent and frankly cunning decision, I think she somehow focused her surge onto the wall. Once I reached the hole I jumped into and through it, catching a flash of green and purple tail, and gave chase. I recognized the winding pathways of flora that made up the Everfree forest, although it was known for its proximity to Ponyville, it was actually far bigger than just that, spanning the whole central part of the west coast.
It's unnatural rivers sucking all the water from the southern Hymalian mountains and pushing out snow storms onto the north, why did that matter?
We were close to the biggest river in this forest which had created a canyon that separated our base of operations from the rest of Equestria, and just happened to connect to Ponyville if one were to go straight east from the canyon.
I couldn't let the filly wander about
Emerald was heading towards the canyon, purposefully or not, but she was just so goddam fast! As if four fillies were combined into one and all given a shot of adrenaline, I continued chasing her for who knows how much time, jumping over fallen logs or ducking under overgrown vines, until we reached a clearing near the canyon.
I was hoping she'd trip and fall before we got here or that she'd steer away in another direction, but then again, the chance of becoming an alicorn from liquid-magicae transfusion is one in a trillion. So I shouldn't be surprised by her luck.
I sighed angrily.
" Now, now you don't want to get hurt, do you? Just come back to me and I can get you back to safety. " I said loud enough for her to hear, but just soft enough to not appear intimidating ~~it didn't work~~, I could only see her tail and
hind hooves but I knew she heard me.
Slowly turning towards me, I could make out some of her features, this was my first time seeing her eyes... beautiful... I hope I don't have to hurt her.
Emerald took a few steps towards me, but she suddenly froze, tears rolling down her cheeks and her hooves shaking like they suddenly turned into jelly. She closed her eyes and tried to turn tail, that little shit.
" DON'T YOU DARE!" by sheer instinct I shot a blast straight at her right wing, hoping to burn it and paralyze the filly from the pain, I must admit, that blast was stronger than I wanted it to be.
Too late to regret it, though.
There was a buzzing sound, a boom, and a snap all at the same time.
I watched as Emerald fell on her side, her expression one of confusion, and shock, that's good enough.
There was a powerful crack of thunder, and it began to rain, almost as if the world was punishing me for my acts. I sighed deeply as I realized that I didn't care.
When she began screaming and spasming like she was having a stroke, I had to crush the sudden humor I found in the way she spasmed.
I couldn't help but sigh again, by the Grandfather, I'm losing my mind.
aaaaaaAAAAAHHH
Something hit me.
Author's Note
That's all I got, see ya next time.
