Winds of color, book 1: Digging up the past

Chapters

Chapter 1: Wake up
Chapter 2: Where am I?
Chapter 3: Prisoner or Slave?
Chapter 5: Plans and Petes Hobby
Chapter 6:of Rescue and Escape
Chapter 7: Retribution and Freedom
Chapter 8: Roads Less Traveled
Chapter 9: Wooden Wolves and Civilty
Chapter 10: Bugs and Royalty
Prologue, an faulty sleep.
Chapter 4: Introductions and Service

Chapter 1: Wake up

“Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free.”

― Jim Morrison

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In her mind was nothing but a blank endless void of darkness. A tranquill peace made by the abscence of anything. In this darkness however something stirred. Not something the thought realised, Somepony. Her own mind spoke to itself, Not somepony... me...

Slowly she became aware of herself again. Her Memory wasnt the best, she thought again as letters and numbers started to fill her blank darkened space of her mind forming patterns she began to recongise, Language? words? she realised before her bodies needs interupted her with a slow burn origiating somewhere inside her making her gasp in pain as light also began flooding into her pod painting her previously black world a dark blue as light struck her eyelids though the pod containing her. she noticed as well a strange lack of anything to do with her personal life, she could remember no family, activities, friends, or even enemies. Neither could she, remember anything that had happened.

Slowly she felt her bodily senses regain feeling from the Sleep that the pod had induced for an unknown time frame,sensation returned to her hooves first, then her fore and back legs. Her mind began to wither at the pain of dehydration began hitting her. an image of running water, rivers, and other such liquids came to her mind as the pod began to Speak in a voice of an Kind elderly sorts, "Hello and again welcome to the Veron Life Support and Rehabiltation Pod. VLaRP for short. you have been out for Three thousand two hundred and twenty nine years! That is three thousand two hundred and seven years longer than your intend five year stay, please exit and a Medical bot will be with you shortly. Please be aware that the serious side affects of overstay may include but not limited to... Bone loss, muscle loss, blindness, loss of hearing, and Amensia." Well she could hear and see, and nothing but her chest hurt but her mind had already deteminde it was lack of liquids rather then bone and muscle.

The strange voice of VLarp became quiet as the pod made a hissing sound, steam and gas being released as the pods case swung up and out releasing the confused pony within who promptly fell out landing on her face with a thump next to a deep hole that was dripping the same liquid she was seeing in her mind. She opened her eyes various shapes being recongised in words in her mind and she turned onto her back horn tip making a slight Cling as it hit a bit of metal left over from the Machines crushed arms. After a few minutes of laying there she finaly felt enough control of her own body to sit up and look around before speaking to herself her voice rough from being dry and without water, "H-hello? Anypony there?", Not to anyones surprise nothing awnsered back, then at last she noticed the stream of water coming out of the busted pipe.

Before she could think her body seemed to lurch on its own as she desperatly drank from the stream not minding the metalic taste it left in her mouth nor stopping Until she was forced to pull her head back for air, She burped, contented and her mind became clearer as the pain that was plaguing her chest and throat eased she began to wonder before she spoke aloud in her now hydrated throat sounding like a bell in tone, "Who Am I?"

Her mind drew no response so she thought the question instead, again nothing came up. She thought and thought not moving from her spot between the pod and the water spout but nothing came to mind until she saw her pods panal was still glowing, what drew her eyes however was the middle of its contents on the greenish blue screen was in black, Subject Name: Iridesence T. Wind.

"Iridesence T.... Wind?", She read aloud, "Thats... my name?" and her mind gave way, a flurry of knowledge assulted her, Her name was displayed in her mind in a rainbow of colors that seemed to change whenever it or her mind viewed it differntly and her Crystalized memory of her various skills general and technical returned. but oddly none of her personal memories came back leaving her with her understanding of only two spells, Neither of which she knew the name of in her knowledge as well as knowledge of her bodys needs and funtions as well as a language she knew, and one she didnt know until now, "Ancient Equestrian... why is my language labeled such in my head, and why is this new one labeled "Modern Equestrian".

Her mind urged her to try one, she was a curious as well, and she felt the urge begin to make itself more and more present in her mind, and completely willingly she began to test the first spell. Energy began to collect on her horn, being drawed from her body, as was par on most unicorns in present day Equestria, but instead of just collecting on her horn as most modern unicorn magic did it spread out dispersing into the area around her in particals of yellow as the air around her tinted slightly blue only visable to a very keen eye could catch. She focused on the horn and some of the barely visable particals went around its underside and lifted it up. making the chunk of metal float without any visable means. Interesting... she thought as her magic put it down and she formed a shape in her mind, her energy likewise dropped the piece of metal and formed the shape, an flat circle, composed entirely of the same light blue energy that had formed on her horn at the start of the spell. The circle dropped as she stopped maintaining the spell as a Rumbling sound filled the air, her Stomache was getting tired of waiting and made its demand for food present. Noting the need for food she stood up and went off in search of something to eat. Little did she know what actualy laid ahead.

Chapter 2: Where am I?

“Nature is a labyrinth in which the very haste you move with will make you lose your way.”

-Francis Bacon, Sr.

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Wandering through the moss and mushroom infested hallways of a building that could fall apart wasnt the best Idea Iridescene ever had. With the flickering lights and some broken entirely, it reminded her of a horror movie, whatever that was, and creeped her out. The paranoia wasnt helped by the announcement system occasionaly turning on announing a burst of loud static and a high pitched whistling sound occasionaly. The first few times made her jump, but she quickly got used to the strange sound that was being emitted every ten or so minutes as far as she could guess. Her search for food wasnt going so well, so far she had found an janitors closet and countless pods. while she hadnt looked into the various empty and broken down pods she passed after seeing Data Jack's pod holding his skeleton.

Eventually she came across a room with a worn stone sign reading faintly, "Cafeteria". beyond the doors she could hear the sounds of something moving. Iridescence let her curiosity get the better of caution and slid the door open a few inches to look inside. The cafeteria was a mess, broken down tables destroyed by age, robots cooking what looked to be dirt sandwhiches and moss with mushroom soup that instead of water being a componet of the soup, mud and some worms were added from a faucet that was broken at the top with the little things nest inside it. one part, presumably the Waiter, which was an eye mounted above and out of view of the kitchen looked at me and said in a monotone voice, "Would you like Celery and rose soup or a whole wheat tomato sandwich madam?"

"Um... you realise thats dirt, moss, and worms being used in the kitchen right?"

"Celery and rose soup and a tomato sandwich Madam."

"...If you would just look..."

"Soup it is! get something hot in your stomache."

a few seconds later an mechanical arm pulled an dish of the disgusting substance out and the eye noticed the problem immediatly before stating in a defeated tone, "oh." and the entire kitchen shut down realising that none of the food inside it was was safe to eat or drink.

Iridesence twitched an eye at the now unmoving bot and shut the door and trotted down another set of mossy decaying stairs all the way to ground level. The door was gone, no doubt decomposed into more of the moss and fungus on the floor as a result of age and decay. Slightly nervous she peered within, inside was a empty waiting room with a metal receptionists desk, on top of said desk was a layer of dust and a briefcase of stainless steel with another layer of dust, but the mold had yet to climb up the metal desk. A quick trot later and her hungry stomache complaining with a loud rumble again she opened the briefcase, inside was a bunch of preserved papers with numbers on them and then the prize she sought.

"Twinkies" the wrapped confectionary read, and she opened a wrapper, it still smelled fresh despite its probable actual age. She wasted no time Devouring the small treats that were inside the briefcase. While not enough to fill her up, it did however, she wiped her face of the frosting goatee that had devolped while she munched on the snack and licked it up before halting in mid lick.

Thunk...Thunk...Thunk... Each sound was getting louder and closer, she hid behind and under the desk as the steps grew louder before. Soon the glass and metal door leading to the outside creaked open and the muffled steps of somepony or something coming in was heard. a few seconds later another set of steps aproached the building and stepped in a voice complaining in a high nasally voice that complained, "This buildings covered in moss too. I hate moss, gets between my claws and takes weeks to brush it out of my fur."

A second voice, presumably the first set of thumps she had heard come in replied in a irritated tone, as though they had this conversation before , "For goodness sake, shut up! your as bad as that... 'pretty' pony we let go a week ago"

The first voice whined again even higher in pitch, "but Rover, what do you expect to find in these pony ruins? Theres little to no chance the precious gems will be here!"

She peeked around the corner of the desk barely, just in time to see a strange creature who stood on two legs, hitting himself in the face with a claw,both were s a strange dog like creature whos upper arms where large enough to touch the ground despite being in a bipedal standing position. Each wore a vest lined with gems and had a face of a dog, but it wasnt a species she was familar with. Both had brown coats but the smaller one who came up to the others chest and had a darker one who presumeably was the one who had spoke about the moss first. The dog that was face clawing himself spoke in the tone one would to someone who was a tad bit slow in learning, "we are here to collect old technology and sell it as new technology for precious gems, do I make myself clear to you now spot?" he finished his sentance by whacking spot in the back of the head with his large hand sending spot reeling into the desk, causing Iridesence to make a small instinctive squeal of fear in a low voice.

"Did you hear that?" came spot from the other side of the desk, "someone else is here."

"Yes, it sounded like a pony...", came the response from Rover.

The sound of loud sniffing filled the air and she dared not to move, not wanting to make another sound or do anything else to reveal her presence, she heard who she presumed to be spot climb onto the desk and the edge of his claws grab onto the edge of the desk. Close up she could tell the claws were disgusting and dirty probably never been washed once in his life. she gagged from the smell that was coming from them, her heart was beating fast adrenaline was pumping through her veins at this point and she was fighting the urge to bolt from under the desk towards the doorway beyond out of the reasoning that she knew not how fast these creatures could move; but if they were anything like the dogs her mind conjured up she knew she would never outrun an relentless chase through unknown territory by these two or escape their noses if they caught her scent.

A thud noise was then heard, spot letting go of the edge of the table as the noise repeated getting louder and near shaking the ground as the smell of yet another unwashed body filled the room, "Hey Boss, I found lots of Tech-y Things a block west of here! I even brought back some of it to proove it."

"What? no way," that was spots voice way too close for comfort with him on the desk and less than an inch of metal between her and him.

The sounds of a pair of gasps could be heard a few seconds later as the new arrival revealed whatever he was carrying, Iridesence fought her urge to look and lost peering over her eye uncomfterably close. There was a third dog, bigger than rover and spot combined, he wore a tattered vest like the other two but unlike rover or spot, his was devoid of gems but instead holding proudly out an device of stone circular with an opening through the center and a dial on the side and a lid near the top. Impatiently Spot waved towards himself and she barely had time to duck down as the other two dogs looked at their comrade who began in his still annoyed tone, "well hand it here then!"

The new arrivals voice spoke in a tone that was slightly grudging, "he promised me a treat!"

Rover laughed as a thunk was heard on the desk, presumably spot hitting the desk.

Rover started up his voice shakey from trying to contain his laughs, "so we did Fido, so we did." he continued digging into his own pockets Rover took out a gem and threw it directly into Fidos mouth.

Fido munched on the gem in a series of loud crunches that sent chills down Irids spine. If he can chew a solid gem with no problem...What about me...assuming they are omnivores or carnivores as well as... huh... what would one classify a rock as in the food groups? its neither a plant or a meat... her mind returned to the present and her body was stock still again as Fido commented to her surprise, "Is that a purple and brown fungus at the edge of the desk or am I just seeing funny?"

Her eyes widdenned as the click clack of muffled claws on ground came from three directions at once, her bodies dose of natural adrenaline had worn off and her nerves had been worn down pretty bad from the close encounters so far, so when three dog like faces suddenly apeared face to face and the reek of bad breathe hit her face her body and mind just gave out, her own fear causing her to faint in order to preserve her own mind. As she lost conciousness she heard the voice of their leader, Rover one last time, "A pony here? How very strange for one to be here... and a unicorn too..." and with that, she collasped inwardly back into her mind, full of new thoughts to explore while she recovered in the mercy of the Diamond Dogs.

Chapter 3: Prisoner or Slave?

“The securest place is a prison cell, but there is no liberty”

-Benjamin Franklin

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The Diamond Dogs had dragged her through a series of tunnels and passages that would of made even those who didnt like rocks "Ooo" and "ahh" for their view alone, and be completely lost if they didnt already know the trail back to the town in which they inhabitated. Not that the unconciouspony hog tied in the back of their cart would of minded; she was still out cold, her thoughts rearranging themselves and piecing a memory back togther for her to remember. The Dogs excitement grew at the prospect of being paid for capturing a unicorn as they rounded the bend to their stone made town made underground with a simple sign hanging at the entrance stating it was Boneclaw village. Various broken down ponies in manacles were walking along side their Diamond dog masters, their will long since broken by their cruel masters or by that of another dog, the same one Rover was planning on taking her to. The head slaver of ponies in the village, One eyed Pete.

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In Irids head she became witness to a scene that held her in enraptured. instead of the black void her mind usually gave her she was surrounded in dark blue runes that she couldnt read but felt familar somehow, similar to that of a childhood friend, she realised. A window formed from these runes a portal opening and curiously she stepped through into a memory that was for a time long ago, the scenery was the same buildings she had saw from the windows but the buildings were shining and sparkling new and clean. Instead of a roof of stone and rock, there was a sky of the lightest blue with a bright glowing sphere that hurt to look at. then the thoughts started.

Irid realised she had been here too long when she glanced down at her hooves to find the tips turned blue. The cliff she was standing on at the edge of town fled off to the left and right of her. Everything else was just scenery. An acid blue sky was crocheted with vapor trails. There were half a dozen sky shakers up there right now, which were blue and black hawk like constructions that edged the troposphere, edging 600 mph while their inhabitants grazed on plastic trays of biotechnology grown and produced vegtables and overcooked pastries. The air shimmered with energy. Blue tremors made the surface road uncertain.

She then headed east. This section of road between the towns of Choatica and King's cross had always been busy, as long as he had lived here, as long as he had been aware of the capital. The buildings that muscled against it were scorched with product; advertisements, tags, fliters, exhaust. Irid moved like something set free from a cage. Her lungs burned. what passed for fresh air uptop seemed much cleaner then anyting she had sampled below the stairs for the past five years, although she knew this was not the case. The pollution in the town below the cliffs called Goodhoove was oil based, natural; not this chemical cocktail that twinkled into the lungs for a lifetime.

The tiny screws on her sunglasses were weak; she had to keep pressing her hoof to the frame to ensure they did not fall off. Midwinter, the sun like a torch fueled by a overcharged battery was strong enough to cause whiteout and tears. She must see; she must not be caught napping. The city of King's cross had healed, much better than she ever imagined it might. Everything seemed sealed, glossy, like scar tissue. The rich had risen once again. Stuctured gossamer, the new form of transport among those without horns or wings, was sailed between buildings hollowd at their summits to recieve it. Ground level was becoming ghettoized, a grid of poverty being redrawn in tar and carbon monoxide and soot.

Where is everypony? Irid thought. The hovering machines that others rode were grounded, and there wasnt a pony in sight besides the ones flying far overhead who were already distant dots on the horizon. As the city grew taller , the light went with it turning from a natural yellow to the artifical blues and the reflected greys of manufactured bulbs and flowing magic; the Depths were gloomy all the time now, lit up only by ochre stabs of headlights or some reflected glory beaming down from the heavens. Though she was tempted to stop and stare, Irid kept moving, remembering she had a pony to meet.

Despite her years away, and the changes that had occurred, she still loved her city. There was enough old face left behind to offer reassurane, comfort even. Occasionally she had happened upon ghosts and broken down golems. Bends in the road that she had swept down in her Earth rumbler shape with her comrade and brother, Data Jack. The long ground digging worm was a favorite of his. and lacking a horn himself from being a pegasus he had asked her frequently to turn him into one for short periods of time. This was the same pegasus she was supposed to meet in town.

Zones that pricked at her with meaning until she realised that she was standing where a park used to be, where she had read a holo-mag, or eaten a sandwich in the sunshine, or met somepony for a chat and ice-cream. The idea of food found a mate in her gut; she was suddenly ravenous. She hurried along a street wishing for some old vegtable kebab shops to still be around, but there was nothing butglass and resin and high grade steel. There were no doors. No neon. No pony Buzz. There was no way in.

Her mind Wandered on through the labrinth of steel while her captors brought her body inside of a Stone gate to its owner within.

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The Alpha Groomer, One Eye Pete, sniffed again. Once more pitched to fresh irritation. To watch the diamond dog in front of him twitch his mussed vest to rights and shamble his way down towards the exit, who would know him as a master handler of ponies, and perhaps best in this realm? As appearances went, Bloodclaw cared for nothing else beyond equine bloodlines and foaling. Bloodclaw's creased face and placid, brown eyes held no spark of intellect, no curiosity, as he stepped from the stone gate to pass the trio of dogs and their wagon as the later went in. Pete crossed his wide tunneler's arms and held his stance with nothing of tension as he sized up the dogs he was being approached by.

Pete's red eye however held a look of cunning and intellect. Something that could not be taught, and was considered valuable. As such he had been taught and educated by the previous Alpha Groomer, though ponies would call him a Slaver, he didnt care. His vest was lined with Diamonds with a color that had a single Onyx heart ruby that showed he had a mate. His finely groomed fur and overwhealming personaility in his tone of voice had led many a dog to stutters and submissiveness such was the case with Rover and his group he noted as the small groups spokesdog began, "Master Pete, we have brought you a Unicorn to sell should you be interested."

He simply stared at them, to their discomfort Rover began to ramble on, "we found her deep down in the old pony ruins while we were searching for artifacts, we thought you could use another lifter or magic user to work at your mines."

He grunted and waved them closer; the larger blue dog, Fido he recalled, Took the black coated purple maned with yellow highlighted unicorn that was unconcious out of the back of the cart and gracelessly dropped her on the ground in front of him. The impact made him internaly wince for the unicorn. It could not feel good to be dropped a few feet onto ones face onto a stone floor. Yet slept on the unicorn did. he reached down and lifted the ponies face to his own, going down on one knee to get a better look he noted the lack of spiral stripe on the unicorns horn, something he hadnt seen before. Hmm this is one who hasnt evolved into having the spiral for better control of refined magic. Never thought to see this subspecies. , he looked up to the hopefull looks of the three dogs before him.

He stood up and counted out a bag of eighteen rubies, his standard payment for a unicorn, and dropped them into Rovers waiting paw, "good mare. Enjoy your payment, make sure to come again with any more ponies you capture."

Rover and his gang bowed to the groom with a chorus of thanks which he dismissed with a claw. "Now get going, the markets dont sell themselves you know," he gave Rover and Fido a good push and used his foot to push spot on. To which the trio of dogs left taking their cart with them.

Pete picked up the unicorn and brought her into his "workshop" as he liked to call it. Inside were tools of different sorts used to make restraints and shackles for unicorns, pegasi, and earth pony alike. He put down the unicorn and untied her, her hooves falling to her sides a red mark on the side of her legs where the rope had rubbed and burned slightly from hours of rough carrying no doubt. Pete slipped on his goggles, an device that was also implimented with several differnt settings of magnification that he used to examine Irids horn, taking notes with one claw on the table next to her gouging out the stone with a sharpened claw writing down notes while he spoke aloud, "Horn is 8 inches and 3 milimeters long, staight, not curved. No sign of grooves or spiral pattern on horn, while similar to a changeling, changeling horns are curved or disfigured messes." He ficked the horn causing a light tap sound before continuing on, "Horn is not hollow, attached firmly to skull. Not fake. From the build this horn is probably from the same generation of ponies three thousand to four thousand years ago where Unicorns had larger scale less refined versions of magic, as well as when pegasi had larger wings meant for Endurance over speed... Mathmatics involved into teaching this unicorn new spells would be more time consuming then worth..." He stopped speaking and taking notes long enough to turn Irid onto her side rather then her back and look over the horn from another angle adjusting the zoom settings on his goggles as he looked closer."also no cutiemark, Blank flank."

"Pony would need a three quarters inch brace at a seven point five four degree slant at halfway mark to negate modern unicorn day magic taught today preventing the horn aura from completeing and also preventing loss of energy on attempts," Pete moved onto the legs of the pony noting its muscle build, "Pony shows signs of recent strain but build is that of a warrior or explorer rather then that of a house mare," he noted the state of her chest giving it a prod with a claw feeling the muscle between the skin and the bone.

"Signs of malnourishment and starvation that was refcently alievated by very low in mineral food and water... Muscle build of body reaffirms prior assessment, Its a mare all right." He chuckled moving away from the desk long enough to pick out a white painted metal brace that looked similarly to a ring mixed with a clamp. He inserted it over the horn of the unconcious unicorn and slid it with practiced ease to the halfway mark before tightening it a few good turns making the ring squeeze the horn moderatly tightly to lock it in place and then take the key out to prevent anyone from releasing it, "magic halter applied, next off four size eight point seven shackles for the legs." He doubled checked his measurements before taking a set of shackles from his wall and putting them on the pony, once again locking them with their keys onto the unconcious pony and putting the keys on his keychain.

The last thing he did before taking her out was put a sign with a serial number on her neck with the lettering: U-119. and take her out of his workshop to a cage that was shared by an diamond dog in a straight jacket and an terrified looking earth pony filly and throw her in, locking the cage behind her.

Chapter 5: Plans and Petes Hobby

“I meant," said Ipslore bitterly, "what is there in this world that truly makes living worthwhile?"

Death thought about it.

CATS, he said eventually. CATS ARE NICE.”

― Terry Pratchett, Sourcery

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A Few hours earlier...

Another day in the training field, Pete thought to himself. There was always another day, just like the last. He would march past the same three classes of diamond dogs with the same three grumpy instructors who were all teaching a method of fighting that was just too cliché for his tastes. Seriously, he rolled his eyes, weapon training and claw to hoof combat Is fine and all. But when the only tactics they teach for squad engagements are either overwhelming numbers in a straight forward suicidal charge or to simply eject the occupants trying to enter sealing themselves in at the same time by using dirt.

He absentmindedly saluted as he passed an officer dog, noted by his Vest’s adornment of onyx gems that were arranged in the formation of the thirty first infantry. He began to mutter to himself about the lack of actual weapons being issued to his dogs, “They want us to train in spears and sword use… yet they have yet to actually issue… them.” Personally he blamed the distance between his own territory and the capital.

In relations the capital of their race was currently under the badlands, where he and his pack had built under Smokey Mountain in hopes of finding more gems to fund his own retirement. Instead they had found more and more “Strange pony Ruins” as they progressed deeper. While this irked him to no extent, it did have a value as other nations would buy these strange artifacts for their own museums and research. While tensions with the Equestrian Co-Rulers, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, were high (mainly in part of the inhumane treatment of other races as slaves and test subjects); even they were avid collectors of the junk they found. Albeit, he thought to himself, through lots of other merchants to lose the source of where it had originally came from.

Though it wasn’t military or economic matters that mattered to Pete, The building he was so waiting for was being cleaned up by his many servants. Until then he wouldn’t be able to partake in his true desire, announcing it to the world quietly as slowly his mutterings turned into hums and then into a song of a nursery rhyme he had made from a medical fiction novel he had read almost having him force himself not to scream it,

“We do what we must because we can.

For the good of all of us,

Except the ones who are dead.

But there's no sense crying over every mistake.

You just keep on trying till you run out of time,

And when the science gets done,

And you had some great fun.”

He resumed humming for a short while, his mind drawing a blank over a few lines before rejoining in a hushed tone.

“Go ahead and leave me.

I think I prefer to stay in here.

Testing away and smiling to my own mirror.

How they are so easy,

To trick… Steal, and lie…

The simplest enchantment stops them.

From seeing the truth!

Where I make Corpses,

They only see dung and muck and filfth.

Iron smell replaced by skunk…

And a bottle of ooze,

I’m going to come for you-”

Luckily for the air molecules, and the few dogs close enough to hear it, he was forced to halt as he drew close to the Slaves Cages. No point scaring them all to death and un-cooperation, He considered. If they knew they were really cleaning up remains of my experiments in my lab or how roughly treated each other are there is no telling what kind of havoc would be reeked before we quieted all of it down. A Guard nodded to One-eye Pete and spoke with a formal tone, “Good dig General.”

Not giving a care in the world for formalities he simply waved a claw at him in a shooing motion when the guard started to follow him, “Good dig. Sure, whatever. Back to your post before we get the whips.”

He headed into his home, the servants, an title for slaves that have proven themselves completely loyal, had finished cleaning his room. Grinning Like a pup he threw himself onto his bed making himself bounce and land on the other side, his claws digging into a patch of carpet that he only knew was loose, and completing the landing by flipping back onto his hind legs holding the dark blue carpet patch above his head. He looked down upon his hidden chest full of different toys he would be using this incoming night of “Divine research”. He had been planning this night for a while now.

A blue male filly of unicorn origins with red hair had been captured as well as an acid green earth pony filly of female gender with a bright yellow mane. The Timber wolf he had been collecting the sap of was at its ripest point this night, and by Celestias beard he had completed all his tasks beforehand weeks ago to ready up for this night. He was going to test what was considered taboo among most nations, nothing new for him to be doing such a thing but this time he was interested he checked his notes above his bedrooms desk, it read quite clearly to him.

Experiment #487: Chimera project

U+E+TS= ?

Unicorn + Earth pony + Timber wolf seed = ?

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Current time...

Flameclaw, keeper of the keys, leaned against his fence post and watched as the last ponies were guided back to their cages. A Pretty land, this... though he would be happier if it weren't ruled by slavers and mad scientists who swaggered wherever they went, treating even other dogs as slaves or cattle.... or worse...

He sighed. So long as they didn't get foolish or arrogant enough to face the ponies of canterlot Claw to hoof or offend some ruler sorely enough to all be struck down on the spot, there was no way he could see that these ponies would ever be free of these dogs. Flameclaw frowned, sighed again, and turned back for his candle. It was fast growing dark now with the day ending with dogs and ponies alike estinguishing their light sources and the guards would need their light for duty. He reached up, with the ease of long habit standing clear of the dripping wax and lit the street lamp next to his fence post. As he drew the candle down and blew it out, he saw her coming wearily up the track from the showering area up past his fence post. Irids mane was flat and long for once with both it and her fur slim and drenched even then there was slight colorations of blood on her hooves. He had been checking on her before and had left her in the showers after she was done cleaning up an week old experiment of One-eye Pete's.

Flameclaw snorted and looked unamused, "escape drowning did you lass?"

There was no response from the unicorn to this sarcastic question, Flameclaw noticed this and looked curiously towards her, "Something the matter?"

she didnt reply through words but Flameclaw had long since learned how the opposite gender reacted from his miserable life with his wife. she was showing a relucantcy to talk by biting her lower lip slightly just as his wife had did when she had told him a few minutes later she was pregnant....with another's pups.

the silence continued for a solid minute that seemed like hours and finally Irid spoke up, and flameclaw realised that the unicorn had seen through the lies pete had put on Everybody as she gestured to the labatory that he had watched her clean, holding his own stomache as she had passed by with load after load of rotting blood and flesh. "Why?"

His response was one he couldnt fully understand himself and he would probably be court martialed or worse if any of his superiors had said it, but he said it anyway, a feeling of personal shame for his race's actions settling in as well as this abuse of power that he followed, "Because the... Alpha...wanted to, I suppose..." He quietly and gently lead the mare back to her cage. holding back his own breathe as much as possiable as the remains of several other ponies were still stuffed into a corner of the room, the mares face paled but made no attempt to resist going in knowing that it would be futile to attack the guards herself probably. A unicorn who couldnt use her horn was as useless as a pegasus who couldnt use his wings, he considered. With a moment of pity he looked upon the poor girl, she is distraught and shocked... he thought. But when he counted the occupants only two were present, Irid and the diamond dog who was snoozing in a corner. Subject E-101, also known as Twig, was gone. though five minutes ago when he last checked on them he was there... Then he remembered it was friday. His eye twitched, Not another experiment... Screw this im going to get drunk on some hard cider tonight if that damn bucker is now experimenting on fillies as well as mares and stallions.

He slammed the cage door shut and locked it leaving without another word not noticing that during the time he was walking away his keyring had opened quietly and a quarter of the keys including bob's were floating quietly back towards Bob the cage. The diamond dog stomped indiginty towards the nearest bar with the full intention of getting wasted tonight. Duty or no duty.

=========================================

Irid grabbed hold of the keys with her hooves and looked around hurriedly, nopony had saw her take them, she sighed in relief despite the feeling of guilt of stealing such a thing. The shock had long since worn off since she had cleaned the blood and gutts of varietys off creatures off of herself, but looking around she did notice one thing missing, "umm... Baney? Wheres Twig?"

Chapter 6:of Rescue and Escape

“That's the funny thing about trying to escape. You never really can. Maybe temporarily, but not completely.”

― Jennifer L. Armentrout, Onyx

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Half an hour ago

Baney rolled over again, the toxic green filly that kept bugging her about everything had yet again foiled her attempted nap. "Commmeeee onnnnnnnnnnn!" Twig whined for the hundreth thousandth time, "I want to play a game baney! what about twenty questions?"

Baney wished she could cover her ears from this incessant filly. For the tenth time that minute she said yet again, "No."

Twig kept the headache inducing slightly too high pitched octaves up, "but Bannnnneeeeeeyyyyyy, you promised to play yesterday, and that day you had promised the day before for yesterday too!"

Baney resisted the urge to headbutt Twig, seeing as it was that or kicking Twig as a method of attack. but resisted, she didnt need to get yet another restraint because she made a filly unconcious with brute force. That and she didnt actualy mind Twig, she actualy preferred the company... Except when it came to the whining that came with it. Seeing as this disagreement was just going to go on untill the filly got what she wanted, Baney finally relented. With a grunt baney finally agreed to one game of twenty questions. Twig cheered, a small victory that made baney do what she wanted, and it only took six hours this time, a new record! Twig excitedly shouted, "Got it!" and stared at baney waiting for her to guess.

Baney took one look at the eccentric green filly next to her and gave Twig a deep stare. After a few seconds Baney said, "It's Irid isnt it?"

The Green fillies face contorted into shock, she stammered out, "Y-yes... How did you know that?!"

Baney chuckled at the fillies wide eyes and slightly dropped jaw, "well you've been rather excited since meeting another cell mate who was a pony too. that and youve been bouncing around like a Bunny rabbit on an energy drink since she left."

Twig looked at baney strangely, "whats a bunny?"

Baney just stared back at Twig, "Seriously?"

"What?"

"You seriously don't know what a bunny is?"

"wouldn't of asked if I did!", Responded Twig with a slight amount of heat behind her voice becoming slightly defensive.

Baney would of face-clawed if she could of, lacking the ability to use her arms in the magical restraitnts and hard steel around her form she head butted the cage causing a nice dent in the bars instead, "A bunny is a small creature that has two long ears, a bushy tail, and hops around on its hind legs really fast," a rather mischievous thought entered baneys head, "They hop around and look cute enough, but their real goal is to when you let your guard down, knock you out and gobble you up in a big tasty filly and carrot stew. If a bunny offers you a morsel of food, don't take it, it is rigged beforehand to hold certain toxins to knock a pony out long enough to get eaten."

The fillies face paled and she quivered, "They don't have bunnies down here do they?"

Baney raised an eyebrow surprised that the filly believed her, "No, they mainly hang out above ground in forests and hide away in nooks, craneys and holes a few feet deep at most."

Twigs quivering slowly calmed down and she asked in a more steady voice, "is... there a way to beat em?"

"Who the hay do you think I am? Chopped celery? I could beat one in my sleep. I'll make sure no big bad bunny wabbit gets the wittle Twig. besides your a stick twig, not enough meat on your bones to make yourself an bunnies meal," Baney teased.

Surprisingly to Baney she felt the small fillies body impact against her and hug her, "Thanks Baney..."

Baney shifted uncomfterably, "Ya, ya kid. Get off."

A few minutes later One-Eye Pete arrived, He unlocked the door and pointed at Twig, "You. We need to have a talk. Follow me and keep quiet. Baney noticed another filly behind Pete, a bright blue bustle of untidy fur and Cropped white mane in the shape of a mohawk. Male for sure, Baney thought with an annoyed look at the fillies apearance, and a serious lack of a fashion sense... Mohawks are so twenty years ago.

Twig's excitement and energy was gone just from hearing their captors voice, her mane seemed to deflate slightly and she did as pete ordered. Pete shut the cage door and walked them off away, baney laid back down and she heard a faint voice as Twig was leaving, "Goodbye Baney..." Baney snorted, and fell asleep only to be annoyed a few minutes later by being poked with a hoof announcing the arrival of Iridesence and her question, "Where's Twig?"

=========================================

Baney tried to ignore the pony and sleep but at this point it was five motions too late and was stuck awake. She growled instead, "Don't know, One-Eye just took her and a male filly a few minutes ago. I think he's freeing them like he does once a week to my knowledge."

She rolled over noticing Irid's pale shocked face and the keys dangling from her hooves, "whats wrong, and why do you have the jailors keys?"

Irid deadpanned, "you mean you don't see the dead bodies piled up on one side of the room?! Pete is not releasing ponies Hes experimenting on them!

Baney chuckled, "Irid, thats poop. you make it every day after eating and drinking."

"No, It is not!" Irid paused and stared at her, listen close your eyes for a few seconds and if you open them again and still see.... Waste... I wont argue, okay?"

"alright, just to humor you," Baney closed her eyes and felt something clear up as Irid applied her magic and said quite simply, "Magic hides and reveals all."

Baney opened her eyes. The ground and walls were stained with red now, Dead ponies were piled up in unnatural posistions where the waste used to be. with shocked she looked down and noticed that her favorite toothpick was actualy part of a dead unicorns horn. Her eyes widdened further, she could see every little thing, the refuse she had seen Irid takng out of the room Pete had walked in was actualy dead bodies, every single piece. With that Baney's own face grew dark and a look of enragement grew. Her jaw locked and a rather loud growl escaped her throat. Irid shied slightly away from her stepping over some poor mares detached leg in the process. Baney's eyes seem to light in fire on the inside and steam slowly started to escape her ears, She was angry now, and Pete was the unwitting soul who she was

angry at, "Open that door. Before i break it down myself."

Irid complied, the door swinging fully open with a loud shriek as if Bob the cage was angry too. Elsewhere a guard would hear it and come, but it was a few minutes before anybody would arrive. Baney stood up, "Pete carries the key to my jacket. but I will make do, Operation Rescue Misson begin. Irid, follow me." The angry baney stomped off Cracks being visable on the stone floor making Irid's eyes go wide and she timidly followed the enraged dog.

=========================================

Baneys first victim wasn't even aware she was there untill it was too late, The guard was whistling to himself, standing guard at the entry way to the cages while the patrols at the other entry way to the cages headed towards the source of the noise. he held his iron sword in his claw, a sign of being a commander of the rag tag army and a personal guard of the higher ups. mainly Pete and a retired dog known as Dog Ma who was Pete's mother. He barely had time to register a face of a muzzled fellow dog hitting him in the face with her own before his world exploded in pain and he blacked out, unconcious. Several weeks of medical attention later and he would find himself to have no memory of anything or anyone left, and be forced to retake Pup-school to relearn everything from mathmatics to language and history all over again.

=========================================

Baney's muzzle fell off after she insisted that irid cut it off. by now Irid had freed her own horn of its restraint by using her magic to fill the keyhole on the brace and her own shackles and give everything a quick turn similar to how the keyholes on the prison door worked to free herself. Now irid lifted the sword up invisably and Baney chuckled, "No aura? gotta teach me that sometime, anyway tie that sword to the end of my pigtails."

At Irids strange look her way she sighed, "Trust me alright?"

Irid nodded and did as Baney requested tying the simple sword by hilt and pommel to baneys hair, Surprisingly enough baney grinned, "lets go."

With that they ran towards the Divine Lab of Pete's. Beside the occasional guard, to which baney spun around laughing maniacly and having the blade twist with her hair launching it in a killing stroke decapitating the guards instantly with no remorse. Though sometimes they got their arm and stomache instead leaving the guard to Gurgle in pain as blood flooded his lungs and he cleched desperately to keep his vital organs inside himself to no avail. Irid herself gathered the weapons as they ran by in the end holding three more metal blades and six stone ones in her Magics grip.

Baney had also donned a metal helmet that was slightly too big at some point stealing it from a beheaded guard as it's helmet landed on her head after parting with the still falling head.

They arrived at the door, Baney stopped and knocked, and spoke with a hushed tone to Irid, "its rude to barge in on ponies." The awnsering voice of Pete's was, "Busy! come back tommarrow," apparently unaware of the slaughter of guards outside.

"Then again." Baney said, "he dosent count as a Living being anymore. Much less a pony or dog." So she placed a foot on the door and pressed.

The first thing to break was the doors hinges, the door itself collasped inward and was launched, landing on a unfortunate wooden stand that was also crushed, Coincidently that stand was also holding all of Pete's Surgical equipment that he was not using. "Who the hay", was Pete's voice as his head jerked up from what he was doing, dissecting the dead blue filly of its vital organs, a heart and its reproductive systems were already on the table next to it, and Twig's body was seen unconcious on the floor not far away next to a bucket of what looked like Thick yellowish white Sap.

Baney let out a roar at the shocked diamond dog who was quickly suddenly surrounded by levitating blades that Irid had stolen, sealing off all routes of escape but between Baney and Him. He felt a small Tug on his belt and his eyes widden as his personal key to baneys lock floated off of his belt. the thing was bigger than a trio of apples lined up togther and he made a desperate reach for it trying to stop it floating away only to be met with a slash on his outstretched palm. He pulled back nursing the new wound and staring between the two like a cornered animal.

"Don't!" was his yell as Irid simply stuck the key into the backpack sized lock on baneys back and unlocked it, the large lock leaving a considerable dent in the floor after demolishing the wood in its way, the heavy Reinforced chains fell off baney's straight jacket and her arms went from a forced self hugging posistion to a straight down hanging motion. each claw was still covered giving her arms a tear drop shaped apearance, and the palms of it were now visable, a black Paw print covering the undersides. and Baney let out a grin that spoke purely evil intentions for the dog in front of her.

her voice was full of renewed vigor and shivers as well as panic filled One-eye pete, "Payback Time."

Chapter 7: Retribution and Freedom

Happiness is not a reward - it is a consequence. Suffering is not a punishment - it is a result.

-Robert Green Ingersoll

=========================================

One-eye Pete was terrified, He was outnumbered, out armed, and easily outclassed in this situation. His strength counted for naught when an even stronger enraged diamond dog as well as a unicorn without a power restraint was against him. He could even see the carnage just past the door of many of his guard’s unconscious, dying, or a combination of both. The blood from the sword Baney had finally untied from her hair was both dented and covered in blood from its exertions, and now she had her claws free! Baney was also looking at him with an evil grin and his eyes flickered around the room looking for some way to escape this situation desperately.

What did he have in the room, a dead filly? No, useless. His scalpel couldn’t hope to compete with a sword. Let alone the dozen or so floating around him. While he was the strongest member of his pack it had took the entire pack to capture her the last time when she was sleeping! His only hope would have to lie in using something as a shield. He looked down… at the filly he so recently knocked unconscious and the gears of his thoughts churned an idea.

Baney approached and as she did he kicked the filly up into his left claw and pressed with a scalpel to the surface of Twigs neck, “Any closer and the filly dies!”

Irid’s face paled but Baney took only a moment to stop and consider, “What then?” was Baney’s sarcastic tone of voice, “if you kill the filly you’ll no longer have a shield, which means I can beat on you all day Doc.

Pete was speechless. His surefire rushed and only plan left had just crumbled. His jaw dropped slightly and he didn’t move until a gloved fist impacted on his face knocking him out cold. The dozen or so swords in the air fell down as Irid rushed to make sure Twig was alright. Pete was sporting a massive red welt where the fist had impacted… on his entire face… Baney’s one punch had cracked the wall he had hit and there were signs that Pete’s nose was broken and jaw shattered from it. Twig however was perfectly fine. Though there was the faint smell of an chemical, probably the same one to have knocked her out in the first place.

Baney reached down and grabbed hold of the scalpel, “Go on without me, down the tunnel on the back exit, and take Twig too. I’ll catch up in a few minutes.”

“Are you sure? There might be more guards around…”

“Nothing I can’t handle, get going I’m going to extract something from the Mare here.”

“Um…Baney… That is a male…”

“Not for long!” on that cheery note Baney pushed a shocked looking Irid out the door, dropped Twig onto her back and shut the door behind her locking it with one of the swords jamming it. She turned back to her new victim strapping him to the table and slapping him until he woke up.

(WARNING: Those who dislike torture and a bit of messed up scalpel uses as well as some vulgarity (in descriptions) that couldn’t possibly work for long, please skip to the next section marker i.e. the thing below this sentence.)

=========================================

Pete groaned, slowly waking up as a survival instinct of repeated pain. It hurt to even think about his face at this point, instead he focused on his mind and forced his eyes open. There was a scalpel a few inches from his face. He let out a muffled whimper of a scream due to his shattered jaw bones and Baney spoke up renewing his fear as he struggled futilely in his bonds as did his many test subjects before had done. He already knew that attempting to force his shackles he had used to restrain test subjects was futile, but he had to try anyway. Baney laughed, as if amused from his attempt like he had did before when the positions were reversed and the test subject some pony else. His eyes widened visibly only to flinch shut as the scalpel came close to his face.

Baney began in a tone darker then he had ever heard her say anything before, the walls seemed to shiver. Shadow and light alike seemed to move away from the jacketed grey diamond dog who’s hair and shoulders were stained with recent blood, “So you like experiments eh doc? Well here’s a new one for you. What do you get when you Mix a dead Filly with a full grown Diamond Dog ?”

Pete’s eyes seem to widen to the point of where an observer would think they would fall out easily, she can’t be serious, right? Please don’t tell me she is serious. Somebody help!

Baney slowly brought the scalpel down from his eye carving a thin line through the skin, enough to induce pain but not deep enough to draw blood, down the path Pete felt his clothes get cut and when she stopped just above his hip she reached and tore a chunk of the vest he wore away revealing his left torso as the remainder of the vest on that side fell flat next to his arm. Baney then brought the scalpel back up and slowly cut A deep line around his waist mark. Just above his sheath. Baney grinned as Pete withered beneath his own scalpel, “unlike somebodies, pony and dog alike, I prefer to stoop to an enemy’s level. Baney brought the scalpel down till it was just past his seed production glands then harshly cut a half circle completing it. Baney put the scalpel down done with the first part of it.

Pete was screaming to himself in agony from the few cuts alone, the sound only being turned into a whining moan from the bound dog. Baney reached over and pulled out from his kit of used medical supplies a set of rather… sharp… Tweezers, She used it to grab a corner of the newly cut flesh and Peel. Pete literally shouted in pain as muscle and skin separated from his hip as his hips contents were revealed. She nailed the flap to his sheath with a pair of pins and grabbed the scalpel again with her spare claw. She snipped twice, severing Pete’s bladder from his body and lifted it out replacing it with a surgical tube, he would be peeing constantly now. She cut the Vas deferens effectively neutering his balls. Pete let out a particularly girly shriek as Baney performed all of this. Baney then grinned manically, “What’s wrong doc, I thought you enjoyed medical experiments.

Pete wanted to die, he wanted this pain and misery to end. This was the pain he had been inflicting on others?! Baney continued her ministrations severing reproductive organs and placing them off to one side. When she was done she cut off his sheath and sew the edges of his skin and muscles back to their proper places and sewed his previously inhabited hole shut. Making pete officially non-gendered. Another idea struck Baney, “I know what we can do with these,” Pete whimpered,” Shut it or ill make you literally eat your own balls. Baney picked up a bone saw from Pete’s kit. Pete’s eyes shut tight suspecting a further pain but were surprised when he felt nothing but heard sawing of flesh and bone. He opened an eye to see Baney holding the dead filly’s hind leg. She grinned at him and he realized what she was going to do, but was powerless to stop as she sawed off his arm, blood spewing in a geyser.

Baney cruelly but swiftly stitched the dead fillies arm to the stump upside down and stitching it together so solidly that there was nothing but a black line of stitches around where they were connected. She wrapped up the wounds while Pete let out an internal scream again, almost passed out at this point. Baney stepped back looking at her own handiwork and snorted, “Hmmm one last thing.” Baney reached for Pete’s favorite scalpel that was more of a short dagger in appearance and plunged it into Pete’s eye deep enough to blind and walked out without another word making One-eye Pete now No-eye Pete. Pete collapsed on his table unconscious from pain and Baney chuckled darkly adding a second one to his rectum. After her ministrations to the unfortunate doctor she considered that there was no way he was going to survive for long with what she had done, and she wasn’t sorry at all.

=========================================

Irid almost felt bad for the dog, until she passed yet another pile of dead bodies, then she felt no remorse for whatever it was that Baney was going to do. She had to focus on what mattered. Twig mattered, she knew. Getting out also mattered but first she had to get past all these guards that were likely in her way. A job easier said than done when armed with four swords in levitation around her, all metal, and an unconscious Twig on her back who stirred from time to time but was still knocked out from the weird chemical that Pete had used on the small filly. She wished she still knew that Earth Rumbler transformation spell from her memory but it wasn’t the time to test out strange theories that made no sense to her amnesia’s faulty mathematics for doing such a spell. Instead she did the next best thing when encountering a guard.

“Stabby! Stabby!”, she chanted the well versed line as she repeatedly assassinated guards with blades from above clearing a path while making sure not to deal a fatal wound she aimed for blows to incapacitate or knock unconscious. Unlike Baney, she wasn’t conferrable will killing others, even dogs who had simply obeyed their pack leader.

Another guard got in the way and he was struck down, at this point Irid was starting to hum a song as she cut swaths out of the guards and an alarm started to go off. She didn’t know what prompted her to start singing or where the accompanying music had started from.

Fortune or choice deemed as soldiers brave dogs,

who from some mother's knee went fast into war.

Devotion to orders meant duly imposing

battle rules no body had heard of before.

She cut down four dogs at once, each with a blade in their gut and collected their spears hurling them into four more before recollecting her recently acquired blades. The dogs formed a defensive formation in front of her and she presented arms and charged singing another verse.

Bright self esteem was taught first as a need,

Still wet behind ears they donned uniform pride,

Honour reigned high but became much misused

as one youth on another keeled over, and died.

Irid slashed the sword of another guards away and stabbed in a mechanical fashion gradually more blades becoming part of her own personal storm. On her back Twig slowly stirred once more unnoticed by Irid, her thoughts purely on the dogs facing her.

How many sweetheats and mothers regretted,

Ever sending their stallions and mares,

Captured for slavery by cruelty and dogs who rutted,

How they will answer my stare.

Gradually the dogs gave way fleeing this way and that; she noticed the amount of stuff she was carrying. A storm of righteous rage had made her horn collect every weapon of the thirty fallen dogs and she dropped all but the original four. The effort would have been too much otherwise. It was only then she noticed Twig twitching, and that she was now outside of the town and in the tunnel that Baney had specified. A loud Bang went off and Baney appeared high in the air with a guard evident that she had gotten into trouble before she came and used the guard as a impromptu Ski board to impact with the ground without hurting herself and brutally hurting the guard she had grabbed in the first place. Irid’s eye twitched at the amount of blood on Baney, her entire body was covered crimson.

“What happened?” Irid asked both amazed and revolted at the sight of so much blood on one person who wasn’t their own.

“went through a regiment of slavers who were running away, tore them to shreds.Rather bloody, ready for the next step?”

Irid’s eye twitched, “Okay… now what?” Baney pointed towards the tunnel, deeper in and she noticed it was extremely uphill, “What else? We go up and out.” And they began their walk up to freedom. Gee was it good to be free.

Chapter 8: Roads Less Traveled

"I took the road less traveled by, and that has made all the difference."

Robert Frost

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Flameclaw had heard the commotion outside of the tavern; he had also seen all the other guards, drunk or not, exit the tavern to look for the source of trouble. To be quite frank of the matter he just didn’t care anymore in his current state. Lucky for him this is what prevented him from getting slaughtered by the escapees in their flight. The Diamond dog mulled over how bad his race had become over his thirteenth mug of strong cider. Unless all the higher ups in line to the alpha suddenly dropped dead , he didn’t see a way to get these slaves their freedom and his society upright.

His thoughts continued on after another mug, completely oblivious in his thoughts to the commotion outside. Later on he would be awoken from his drunken sleep with a nasty hangover to find out that every other guard below and above him was hospitalized and that he was their only leader left. His efforts would reform this town’s society and let free many a pony until there were no slaves left in the diamond dog settlement. Though mysteriously while a majority of the guard was found One-eye Pete had vanished over the course of the night as well as several of the alphas personal diamonds, With nothing else that could possibly go wrong Flameclaw was a wonderful alpha indeed for the distraught society of dogs.

=========================================

Irid and Baney stopped running to rest at last. It had been four hours since they had escaped that cursed settlement of slave owners and Twig had regained conciousness after the first two hours.

Chatting animatedly, though her legs were still numb but by the time they had stopped they were a good long way away from the town they had so recently escaped. The trio stopped, Irid was gasping for breath from both running and carrying the small filly, she was a lot heavier then she looked. Then she found out soon why after she had collapsed on the ground and twitched a few times legs sore.

Twig hopped off and grinned sheepishly and pulled an apple out from behind her giving it to Irid. Irid’s eye twitched at the impossibility of such a thing. Even Baney seemed curious, “Where did you pull that from Twig?”

“It’s a secret~” was Twigs cheerful demeanor.

“What else do you have secretly stored?” was both Irid and Baney’s disbelieving voices.

Twig pulled out a chest with the name PETE’s Stash no touching and a backpack full of apples from behind her. Irid couldn’t resist a face-hoof, so she had been carrying a chest and a backpack full of food as well as a chest? No wonder Twig was heavy. Though the magic behind both and how twig had got both between the span of going from the cell to Pete’s lab dumbfounded her. She would regret her curiosity of asking, “How exactly did you get all of this?”

Twig took a deep breath in before starting a long winded excited and quick explanation that would just leave the askers more confused then before the question was asked,

“well you see when Pete took me out of the show we happened to pass by a barrel of apples so I was like, Oooo what’s that! And he was like ‘None of your business. And when some pony tells me that in a despairingly tone of course I looked, when he wasn’t looking I stole its contents and hid them away in my secret storage spot and then we passed by his room in a blur it was fun. I got to play tag with some guards even though they Suuuuucccccckkkk at catching me, eventually though they surrounded me again though several were sleeping somehow. It was rather silly, who sleeps in a pile in the middle of a training feel with dented helmets? Anyway by then Pete lead me through a second route since the first route was detoured from unconscious doggies and I noticed a chest behind a painting like some secret Vault! It wasn’t nailed into the wall though so I couldn’t dig it out like those thief books or daring do though. That was disappointing. So instead to teach him a lesson I took it also and he never noticed. He Isn’t the most alert dog ever, Then he gave the filly he was carrying in his arm a Cloth and told him to sniff it, he obliged and soon fell asleep! Seriously it must of smelt good I thought, so I smelled it. It wasn’t that good but then my body got sleepy, last thing I Knew I was falling asleep in the Loo of all places. I mean awkkkkkwarrddddd!”

Irid had become confused at the rapidly said story and Baney’s jaw had dropped after the word ‘Oooo’ in complete non-understanding. Irid was first to recover, “What?”

Twig sighed, calming down and gave them the short version, “Stole it from Pete on the way to the loo of all places.” Comprehension dawned on both the older Unicorn and the Diamond dog, Twig finally face-hoofed continuing her domination of the chat while they rested, “you guys need to pay more attention…”

There was a pause as both unicorn and dog simply stared at Twig, then Irid began as if the conversation had never happened, “so Baney, How far are we before we get out?” Twig looked disgruntled.

Baney shrugged, “half days walk, quarter day sprint, or if you knew a strong teleport spell, anywhere in the world, instantly.” Twig looked dissapointed with them ignoring her well thought out explaination.

“And how do you know the way out?” was Irid’s reply. Twig pulled out a pear from the apple barrel and threw it away with a look of disgust the small thing bouncing down the tunnel they had just came up from, pulling an apple out and eating it instead tentatively.

“I lived here before you know,” Baney deadpanned.

“oh.” Irid looked sheepishly in response at Baney, “sorry.”

Baney waved the apology away with her still covered claw and took an apple as well to munch on it the entire thing, core and all, disappearing into her mouth in one chomp. Twig opened Pete’s chest and suddenly bit signs replaced her pupils, this didn’t go unnoticed by Baney, “what did you find Twig?”

Twig didn’t respond so Baney looked too and a similar Icon appeared on her eyes, Irid rolled her eyes and had a look to, “Rocks?”

“Not just any rocks…” Twig said in an awed tone of voice.

“Diamonds,” was Baney’s in a similar tone.

Irid looked at the two friends and back at the gems, “I don’t get it. They are just shiny see through rocks that can burn in fire. No useful purpose whatsoever besides to look pretty.”

Both of them glared at Irid, Twig spoke with a defensive tone, “Rocks aren’t worth a fortune of bits! Diamonds are!” Baney also stated her remark at the same time, “Diamonds tastiest of all gems. Rocks are not.”

Irid deadpanned, “What is a bit?”

Both of her friends looked at her like she had brain damage or some mental disease, “She is kidding right?” that was Baney pointing at Irid with her dirtied straight jacketed arm.

Twig replied also looking at her with disbelief, “I don’t think so Baney…”

Irid sighed, "Look, I recently woke up from some strange bed called a VLARP with no memory what so ever, I only know my old name and that apparently my native tounge is called 'Old Equestrian' Now and that i had somehow learned 'New Equestrian', She proceeded to rant off in her own language leaving both Baney and Twig confused to what she was saying for a while. But Irid had already put her point across.

They both looked at each other and started pulling Irid along up the path, Twig putting away the chest and apple barrel in the process, and explaining everything they knew to her in short animated bursts, though Twig and Baney contradicted each other constantly. Twig summing up the good and fun, and Baney describing the few bad experiences she had done in some place called ‘Las Pegasus’. Before they knew it she was up to date and in the middle of asking twig about the government officials and the Rulers of Equestria when they noticed a light up ahead.

"Brace yourselves!" Twig cheered.

"Equestria coming up." Was Baney, in sync with Twig's antics.

First there was blinding light, as all of their light starved eyes were blinded by the sun momentarily, the bright orb seemed to grin at their displeasure in secret. As their eyes adjusted they figured out that they were just outside a Pretty ordinary looking entrance of a cave, the rocks roughly hewn, and less than thirty feet away the forest began again, already thick of trees bushes and shrubs. What caught their attention however was the pack of wooden wolves who had turned to stare at their sudden arrival into their clearing. Twig jumped onto Irid's back, hiding behind her ruffled unkept mane clinging onto her for dear life, barely daring to peek an eye out to watch, It would of been adoreable in another situation but these wolves of wood didnt look freindly, and to her shock the wood began to move.

"odd," baney started, "Timber wolves usually don't wander this far out." She stared at Irid and Twig, "Any of you ask for bad luck by doing something that caused as such?" A wolf of wood growled somehow, despite lacking lungs. Both ponies shook their heads no. Baney grinned and cracked her knuckles, "okay then, lets see how much fun these wolves can give me."

so far, Irid thought as Baney began smashing wooden wolves, This world is full of strange things. what fun...

Chapter 9: Wooden Wolves and Civilty

Why should a horror film be just a horror film? To me, The Company of Wolves is a fairy tale; it's got all those elements plus a lot more. And we know that fairy tales aren't innocent any more.

-Neil Jordan

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“Die and stay dead you wooden buckers!” Baney shouted as she smashed the Timber Wolves yet again, it was starting to show that even Baney could get tired after a long amount of smashing wooden wolves only to be infuriated as they reformed again and again. It didn’t help that there was a slowly growing amount of them either. With a cry of pure unadulterated rage Baney smashed them yet again, “AND STAY DOWN!”

They glowed yet again and Irid sighed, Even Twig had grown out of being afraid instead eating popcorn she had mysteriously pulled out of nowhere complete with a bag of white and red stripes. The sound of said bag dropping when the wooden parts, instead of forming the pack again recollected, uprooting several trees to join in the process they turned into a giant timber wolf bigger than the buildings she had saw in her memory. Baney backed up a step to look at the suddenly giant dog.

“...”

“…”

The giant Timber wolf growled in a low menacing tone. There was a poof of smoke in the shape of the trio of friends as Baney with Irid both started running like no tomorrow all exertions from the day so far forgotten as the Giant timber wolf chased them, Twig, still hanging on for dear life on Irid’s back. While the Timber wolf was huge, they quickly lost it in the maze of wood and bushes, the large wolf despite being stronger combined, had difficulty moving through the trees at that time It had the disadvantage of being large enough to be spotted from a mile away though it also made its size unable to go through the tightly woven trees that it called home without destroying them in the process. Eventually it would grow bored and snap at a bird only to choke to death on said bird and defeat itself, but for now it was time to run as fast as they could.

It was a solid ten minutes before they arrived on the edge of the forest. The trees had thinned out rather fast as they approached the edge and upon leaving the final line of trees. Irid fell over gasping for air with Twig rolling off of her back laughing her tiny flank off at what had just happened. Baney simply sat down, not winded at all and checked her Straightjacket for any holes. She was rather fond of the jacket and it was the closest thing to a “Vest” she ever had. No noticeable damage beside the occasional splinter from where she smashed the wooden dogs hard enough to break their planks.

“That was awesome!” Twig finally managed to let out after several minutes of laughing.

Baney grinned, “Eeyup.”

“how… In the hay… was that awesome…” Was Irid’s response to the friends childish grins and comments, “That thing almost ATE us.”

Baney deadpanned suddenly, “but it didn’t.” then ruined it with a grin again, “Thus what made it fun rather than not fun!”

Irid face-hoofed with a groan, "Where are we anyway..."

Twig replied in a merry tone, "These woods arent creepy, and that we just came from Smokey mountain so my guess is that we are at the edge of the White Tail woods now. South of here is Las Pegasus and Applewood, and north of smokey mountain is the unicorn range!"

Irid looked at Twig and then looked at Baney with a look of confusion, Baney sighed, "Towns south, Place we came from north, tall mountain range north east."

Irid's face cleared as she understood, and Twig figured out why,"oh right you don't know what we name our towns. Hehe sorry."

Baney turned to Irid and crossed her arms in much the similar fashion she had been locked up in not so long ago to inquire curiously, "Where to?"

Twig and Irid both replied at the same time, "To a town of course."

And off they went at a slower pace for once, glad this time not to be forced to run away from something or someone. Only Baney felt the stare of a set of ocean blue eyes that was watching them from afar.

=========================================

Elsewhere Pete would stumble, his vision was gone for a while before he had implanted an eye from one of his fallen brethern back onto himself. He groaned in pain again as he exited the ancient technology known as a elevator to the old equestrians. That cursed unicorn and that diamond dog friend of hers had ruined everything. His warriors were all dead or hospitialized, he had to perform emergancy surgery on himself after escaping his own bonds to get the right biological parts into himself, and he was still on heavy doses of nerve suppressent yet it was still agonizing pain. His leadership had dissolved overnight as his only rival, flameclaw had taken over and freed the slaves who didnt escape and revealed his plans to diamond dog and pony alike. Now he was Probably wanted dead by his own pack!

He sighed, adjusting his bag the third time that minute. He had to get away and all he had left was a few clawfulls of diamonds from the treasury he had looted in haste as money, he would be forced to travel to Vanhoover as his elevator had let him out on the opposite side of Smokey mountain for more supplies and to purchase and settle down on the edge of the forest between the two. Soon a few dogs would disapear and the final biological parts he needed would be cultivated, but he would still be Biologicaly crippeled on one arm from lack of nerve cells left to connect to. Baneys Ministrations had left a lot to be desired...

Again he cursed them, he hoped they got killed and eaten by an ursa major or starved to death, he swore he would find a way to take revenge on those specific individuals however he could. But for now he had to make sure he himself would live.

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It took two days to reach the river seperating the two towns from White-tail woods on foot. Now it was the third day, and they were stumped on how to traverse its dangerous looking rapids. They had seen a log thicker than all of them combined side to side get smashed to splinters by one of the sharp rocks that adorned this treacherous water. They weren't exactly keen on becoming the rock's next victim. Irid had wanted to look elsewhere for a bridge across, Baney had wanted to try swimming across but was disuaded after Twig pointed out that there was no way she herself could make that. and Twig thought it would be wisest to build a minature Dam like the beavers do until Irid pointed out that these waters were way too strong and that they lacked a cutting tool besides Baney's brute force.

Eventually after a long round of arguing they went upriver in search for the bridge. The bridge only a few miles away down river was very lonely that day.

=========================================

Pete collasped onto his new bed, It had taken half the day just to purchase the mangey old hut he lived in, He had to debate with three overly paranoid stuck up officals just to aquire the right to buy a house, and a further three more officals just to purchase a low income house by the edge of the woods. He had enough to get by and already had a diamond dog locked in his basement, he would replace his missing organs in his hips tonight and right now it was just time to rest. He formulated plans and actions but most of them would only work of he actualy had them at his hut. So instead he formulated ways to improve his homes self defenses and messed with some of the old-equestrian artifacts he had taken with him.

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It had been surprisingly easy to Aquire housing in Applewood city. Twig had merely annoyed the officals into giving her what she wanted at a price of a single diamond, aquiring a few acres of land as well as a rather well kept hut and using a second diamond to fully pay it off as well as the rent for the next several Baney had settled down in the basement claiming it as her own while Twig had claimed the upstairs bedroom, which left Irid with the ground level bedroom. in the same hallway that lead to the stairs to all three of the floors as well as the ground floor bathroom, kitchen, and living room. The house itself was built into the side of a tree and while it's front living room had been designed to imitate a Zebras hut, the rest of the house was designed after the crystal ponies supposed architecture before they had vanished entirely.

Baney had already set her room up in the basement into a disorganized circle with her bed in the middle and various hunks of wood off onto one wall that she was carving with an sharp blade for decorations. Twig in contrast had made her room very neat with the exceptions of rapidly drawn pictures of various subjects, often repeating different pictures of the three of them. Irid's room was still in construction for her, already she had made several trips to town for large fluffy pillows to adorn her room, having split the treasure between them evenly after purchasing the house as well as the next several months taxes and upon discovering the pillow had taken half a dozen extremely burdened trips to the town and back to make the ultimate pillow bed that took up half her room.

The other half was decorated with a bookshelf full of books that was there when they moved in, an theater concession stand the previous owner had left in there before moving away as well as a few rugs and a music box. Irid had made a final trip for a pair of chests to store possessions in that were now next to the door, one was holding the few swords as well as Irids black cloth band she wore around her neck. The other was holding a dress for formal occasions that Irid had bought at twigs insistance.

Once they were comfterably moved in, they each took the time to check the others rooms. Twig and Irid both claimed that Baney's was a complete mess while Baney retorted that Irid's had way too many pillows for a room. Twig fell over laughing at the sight of all the pillows and Irid simply hid in embarressment in a pillow fort. Both Baney and Irid were surprisingly nice to Twig though commenting on her hoofdrawn pictures, while not particularly good, they claimed it would do an museum proud. Much to Twig's delight.

It was later that night they discovered that somehow no one knew how to cook.

Chapter 10: Bugs and Royalty

"I just love to impersonate people, and I impersonate people because I find them fascinating."

-Tracey Ullman

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It had been three days since they moved into their current residence. Their attempts at cooking had grown so bad that Irid and Twig had ran to the local library for a cook book and then the hardware store to get some supplies to beat down the Slowly crawling goop that Baney had created from bread and jam, it had hissed at them and attempted to escape into the kitchen sink. Twig had no such luck either, she set cereal on fire by pouring milk on it somehow and Irid made a cupcake so bad it left Baney retching for a night. As it turned out the cookbook saved them from further destruction of ingredients and kitchenware. Now they sat satisfied with making toast that wasn't on fire and drinking cups of coffee (Juice in Twig's case, both Baney and Irid agreed that Twig didn't need an energy boost with how she was) and going over what to do next.

Baney stirred her extra strong black coffee' contents around once more before taking a drink and addressing the fellow table fellows, "So what do we do about this whole slavery thing going on back where we came from?"

Irid opened her mouth but Twig beat her to it with a completely ridiculous idea that both of them could tell was going to form first thing she opened her mouth, "I say we teleport them out with a pop and collapse the caves down onto them with a Big bang of explosives making it go KABOOM!" she threw her glass into the air and imitated an explosion with her hooves falling backwards out of her seat somehow managing to catch the glass of orange juice with the flat of her hoof without spilling a single drop.

Irid responded somewhat quietly, "First... I don’t know a spell to mass teleport, teleport, or teleport things I can’t see... Secondly we don’t have explosives..." Twig made a little "oh" sound and put her free hoof to her chin in serious thought, before Twig could submit another unrealistic plan Irid continued, "Would there happen to be a court or law of government that could be alerted to this?"

Baney thought a moment before replying, with a slight tingle of something between caution and sarcasm in her tone, "You could always tell a princess about it, though they are pretty busy usually, I hear that you need a prearranged meeting just to access the night court, which is far less busy then the day court by the way. Last time I was there I heard a noble complaining he had waited a month just to talk to Princess Luna and her night court."

Twig perked up in a singsong voice adding to Baney's statements, "or you could just mention it in a social activity that the two partake in, I heard that Princess Celestia often partakes in the cake eating contests in Canterlot!"

"O-oh... So one would have to prearrange a meeting... huh..."

"Yep." were both their replies.

"H-how would one arrange a meeting?"

Baney stared at her, "By Storm claw’s beard, you actually want to do this huh?"

Irid was confused, "Why wouldn't I?"

Baney looked away as if ashamed, "no reason...didn’t think you’d want to after hearing that it takes a while to be heard by this 'great nation' that every pony, griffon, dragon, and even dog is going on about. If you visited a major city you'd see it is just like any other major city. They always have a tourist center, slums, a local gang or two. Heck I even met a tamed hydra in a town over at badlands once."

"Well... Guess I'll figure something out..."

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A few days ago

A Bright pink pony with a slightly darker pink mane was mass producing wedding party invites for her best purple unicorn friend's big brother’s wedding, she had already produced enough to burry a small town in invitations, and while she knew a majority of ponies would be unable to attend from the cost of the train or missing a day of work, she felt it was important to mail everypony at least thirty invitations each . The overly obsessive party pony wanted to make sure everypony had spares in case it got lost in the mail service, who was officially calling her the 'mail mare bane' from the massive loads of letters she would send out daily. The look of the stallions face when he saw the huge bags of mail sent into his office was priceless however, his neat little hat falling off his head and his jaw hitting the ground in disbelief at how much mail just came out of Canterlot's own castle.

present time

This mail would be separated into seven different train cars and dropped off throughout Ponyville where each mail mares or stallions in question would make several dozen trips Just to deliver all of it. It was also the unlucky fate of a stallion called Green Lunge that would force him to fly at top speed to deliver part of his heavy mail load to the cottage several miles away from the town's next closest house. He would land tiredly and place the thick stack of invites and spam mail into the mail box before having to redo the trip again just to get back with his two hundred pound saddlebags. Green Lunge hated his job and whoever sent all these letters with a passion he had decided. It was an odd turn of fate when a lightning bolt leapt all the way from Cloudsdale and struck him incinerating his load that finally made him quit. Leaving the majority of Applewood sadly uninvited and unaware of the wedding that was going to take place within a week at most.

=========================================

Ditzy Doo was bouncing atop the soft fluffy clouds like she always did when she had nothing to do. She had made a dozen or so batches of cupcakes. She had also talked with her doctor friend for hours on end about various things that were lurking in space and time. Even at one point she had tried to help her little sister Dinky Doo with her homework... though she somehow managed to use an superior mathematical equation to turn two plus two into a transmutation circle to summon a muffin, scavenging what was left of her assignment Dinky had declined further help with her homework, leaving her older sister with nothing better to do then jump on fluffy storm clouds. Like always she ignored when one of the clouds had suddenly erupted a bolt of lightning that went off at an unnatural angle from her landing on the cloud sending it off into the horizon to the south west. It was highly unlikely that it was going to strike anypony, she thought. Blissfully unaware of the misfortunate Green Lunge who was struck several hundred miles away.

Storm clouds it seemed, had held a grudge against the Pegasus race.

=========================================

The sound of lightning striking signaled Baney to go outside, seeing the mailbox that looked to somehow seem to be turning blue from how much was shoved into its throat, Baney relieved the mailbox of its contents with an rough yank. She threw several pieces of junk mail into a fireplace before tossing Irid the rest of the stack of identical looking letters, "Your turn to read it."

Irid sighed and opened a letter with her magic forming a small knife to cut it open; a trick she had learned after an rather dangerous attempt at cooking that ended up several knives lodged in the cieling. She took the almost eye flinchingly fancy paper out of its holder and read aloud to both her friends, "Dear Equestrian Citizen, you are formally invited to attend the union between Captain Shining armor and Princess Mi Amore Cadenza in the Canterlot Throne room." she listed off a few facts such as the date and rehearsals that was supposed to go on... If she left now or tomorrow she would be able to make it in time for the rehearsal. Oddly both Baney and Twig urged her to go but didn’t want to go themselves. Baney claimed that she wasn't exactly 'popular' in Canterlot and Twig said that she was going to keep an eye on Baney (Baney smothered a laugh at the notion discreetly at this).

Though before she knew it they had packed her saddlebags including her formal attire and casual gear as well as a few days of food as well as strapped on a pair of her swords between the saddle bag and her within easy reach of her magic. She also took note that Twig had shoved a decent amount of Irid's own bits into her bag. She trotted to the train station taking Baney's advice and not using her magic and also keeping her cloak donned on as not to disturb any ponies with her strange magic. Other ponies she had noticed had wielded even rudimentary magic differently, instead carelessly wasting the natural flow of world magic around them away on basic spells that seemed rather primitive and wasteful. After boarding the train, getting her own entire section of the train car she was in, part in due to how rare it was for a pony to leave Applewood these days, and that no one else seemed to have wanted to go (though no pony was actually aware of the wedding due to prior events with a misfortunate mail stallion and lightning). It was going to be a long four day trip.

=========================================

Three days before arrival of Irid's train to canterlot

Quietly the changeling had waited. Her name was Aranea , though her current blue Pegasus disguse was known as Silent mangrove. It had taken her months to infiltrate Canterlot's elite circles. Even longer to replace Luna's most trusted Maid and servant. She was the personal child of Chrysalis; unlike the countless drones born from brood mothers back in the hive. She had followed her sister’s rather ambitious plan from the start. All the way to its now near completed finish. The Canterlot wedding was going to be the greatest day of the changeling race, where they would finally capture a large scale amount of their food source, emotion, and the means to produce it. With that the changeling race would go from a pest to a Major power among nations and all would fall in due time to their hive. Many of Luna's night guard had already been replaced or recruited and it was just icing on the cake at this point.

One thought however lingered in her subconscious, what could possibly go wrong?

=========================================

Two days before the arrival of Irid's train to Canterlot.

Pete threw yet another broken artifact against the wall; "USELESS!" he shouted for the thousandth time that night, "It’s all useless!" He kicked over a subatomic processor and threw a molecular sterilizer into the wall freeing its ancient contents as it shattered with a bang. He was infuriated that there wasn't one weapon he could use out of the entire pile of artifacts he had nicked from his previous dwellings. Lastly Pete threw a container, locked by well-worn magic and disguised to look like an average piece of technology, into a wall breaking it open spilling its dark red liquid contents.

Pete stopped momentarily; the sound of liquids splashing onto the ground had instantly halted his rage as caution overtook him. A liquid? He had been throwing solid objects... Where did this come from? He quickly grabbed a jar and scooped the dull red liquid into it, careful not to get any on himself and cleaned up the mess he made in his basement lab. Something new to study, and it wouldn’t do to study it in a room of broken technology... wait broken...

A loud frustrated yell would be heard from Pete's neighbors a few second later as he realised he had a lot of work to do that night.

=========================================

One day before arrival to Canterlot.

The intercom announced yet again on the train how long it will be until their next destination. Irid waved down a trolly when it came by to get snacks, and was getting tired of watching the hills and forests role by. After two days of just watching the window with a small break every now and then for daily needs like food and sleep. A majority of her trip had passed by in silence, with the occasional song bursting through the intercoms. Once again she found herself dozing off into another dream of memories.

This time she was in a worn down old building, A red Pegasus with a blue mane and yellow highlights was looking away from her at something outside the window, in his hooves was a strange contraption her mind registered as a trigger. What it was supposed to activate however eluded her. The strange Pegasus started counting down and Irid found her view drifting towards the window he was looking through. Outside was a literal stampede of heavily armed ponies heading right for the two of them. The Pegasus grinned darkly once a slight twinge of unease filling her mind as metal objects bounced off the magical shield she herself had been subconsciously keeping form of.

The Pegasus lifted up the timer and shouted as he brought his other hoof down onto it with a slam that would make a Minotaur wince, "Time for you guys to get jacked. DATA JA-" He was cut off as a resounding boom of expertly placed explosives went off along the cities several floors and walls even some under the floor.

Effects on the guards were instant. They easily went from a fearsome army of lethal force of their hated tyrant king to a crowd of panicking clowns as several premade spells stripped them of their armor in the most unconventional methods of spell work that she and the insane Pegasus had previously created. The entire small army was wiped out in mere seconds as the entire ceiling over them fell out in an expertly shaped square and crushed them flat like a giant stone and metal sandwich. The chunk of metal and stone that had fallen down could of easily of fit a pair of Ursa Majors on its face. and it was as wide as one too. Vaguely Irid's memory showed her and the Pegasus having of set up the giant rig months beforehand but still she expected the plan to have failed like a majority of his plans usually did. The Pegasus turned to her and asked, "How was that for a rebellion fight? One whacky chase through the city getting all of these royal buckers into one place and bam dead!" he laughed lowering his head a slight margin. Irid let her shield drop seeing no more point for it and hugged the crazy Pegasus in relief.

With unobstructed sight of the window, Irid saw a final guard pony round the bend and take aim. Her voice stuck in her throat, a warning would be too late. So she pushed him away instead getting shot instead. The pain was dull, almost like falling asleep. The sound of loud bangs she could hear as if through water and her eyes shut as her weariness grasped her...

Irid jolted awake with a shock and a quiet scream that wouldn’t disturb anypony. She quickly searched herself in frenzy for where the bullet hit before sighing in relief as her consciousness registered that what happened was just a dream. She quietly went to the trains nearest bathroom only a few cars down and rinsed her face to clear her mind and wake herself up. Her mind was split into two currently. The rational part had already devoted the restored memory into long term memory and was analyzing the shield spell that she had used before for future reference. The other side however... was asking and answering its own questions at rapid pace and as she registered the massive amount of ponies who had died for apparently no reason that was told of, she felt the urge to vomit.

Luckily there was a toilet next to the sink.

=========================================

The night passed by in a haze and Irid found her-self daydreaming about how to meet this "Princess Luna" or "Nightmare Moon" as some of the ponies had referred to the younger of the two co-rulers. She wasn't able to inquire why they called her that, she thought it would be considered common knowledge among the populace so she didn't bother asking, what they said about this "Nightmare Moon" quietly to themselves already formed the opinion of her. Based on the rumors, this Princess Luna would be twice her height, have big scary fangs, found it a hobby to induce nightmares into ponies’ dreams and kidnapped naughty foals in the night to gobble them up. Not exactly the kind of thing she thought would be accepted here. Well she would keep her opinion neutral until she actually met this "fearsome beast" as other ponies sometimes called Luna's dark side.

The all so familiar and annoying intercom bleeped its three depressed tones to signify an announcement and it quite calming announced, "Everypony saddle up, we will be arriving in Canterlot in ten minutes. Make sure you have packed everything. Unwelcomed invaders will be purged shortly as we pass through the barrier and please wait for the conductors to open your doors. Welcome to Canterlot and have a nice stay"

She looked outside at the ponies proceeding to their cabins before she noticed the pink wall that phased through the train wall. To her eyes she could see it scanning through everypony whereas an average earth pony or Pegasus would not. She paused as the bubble ignored her entirely as it passed through her and a startled yelp of a Pegasus behind her suddenly vanishing as the barrier passed through him made her question where the noise was. Meanwhile that Pegasus would be knocked out cold outside the train accidently reverting to his changeling form. There a small squad of guards would grab that changeling and drag him to a prison cell for interrogation.

Upon arrival Irid was amazed at the sheer amount of guards that were everywhere. Everywhere she went there was at least three guards for every civilian she could see in sight. This was rather tight security for a wedding. Maybe this nation she had arrived in wasn't quite as peaceful as she was told. Quietly she looked up towards Canterlot castle and began as close to a beeline path towards it she could, often ending up in a dead end or other and forced to retrace her steps. The atmosphere around town seemed tense; while they were friendly it seemed that even the littlest scare or surprise would have sent the entire town's civilian populace running away screaming in terror. Irid was really glad to be wearing her hooded cloak now. None of the unicorns she saw around here had a horn quite like hers, while some were sharp and some were blunt; others even longer and shorter than the norm. She had yet to see one horn that wasn't spiraled however.

Instead of taking the path up, she climbed up the steep slope oblivious to its existence until she had reached the first outcrop, or the actual road... She sighed resting and noting that sometimes the best route, wasn't one straight there. Though this route was certainly one less traveled. After shaking the dirt free she looked up towards the slowly lowering sun. Still she couldn't believe that the giant ball of fire in the sky was raised by Princess Celestia. Compared to Luna's night sky the sun was a painful thing to stare upon. The careless expense of magic to force such a giant object to move must be truly horrifying as well as impressive. Pondering the magical implications of such a feat she simply walked into the castle. No guards stopped her for she wore the invitation like a necklace; No one questioned why she was there as she moved unconsciously with a pose of reason and grace.

She stopped after a few minutes of self-pondering realizing that she was completely lost... "Who the hay made castle's this big?!"

=========================================

Princess Luna tossed aside her current story, as entertaining as it is, one could only listen to the personal journal of an old equestrian rebel for so long. She sighed, maybe it was time to visit her "Game fort" located deep within the castle walls far enough away that only her lunar guards as well as Celestia and her knew about its location. Her Game Fort was a huge theater of a room with a massive projector and a one way skylight that would portray average shingles on one side and see through glass on the other. She had the room vented regularly at colder temperatures as she liked a slight chill unlike her sisters, a sauna in heat had often resulted in Celestia’s book room though no pony was quite sure how it got that hot.

She quietly hummed as she trotted down her way towards the back of the castle; her maid had followed her like always. Luna knew she was being followed by her but was too amused with her maid’s antics to care about any diabolical plots that might be actually conspiring. She giggled as her guards stared directly at her stalker and she closed the door to her Game Fort. She had a Daring Do game disk with her name on it.

=========================================

The inside of the mountain that connected the castle to the mountain and kept it stable there was huge. While it was full of bats and other smaller friendly critters and devoid of the larger ones, it was rather dark and only the lunar guards really called it home. It was a mixture of the dark coat that Irid had and her cloak that lead them to believe nothing was amiss and dismiss her as another bat pony. They never knew how wrong they were.

Irid had no idea how the hay she ended up on the roof, It had been three hours since she entered the Canterlot castle and now there wasn't even guards anywhere. She could see a stone ceiling above her where the castle merged with the mountain and a deeper in source of light. Where there was light, there was a way out. Hurriedly she ran across the rooftop towards the light. As Irid drew closer she became aware of a tapping sound that sounded more like glass than that of the shingles that were used with the rest of the rooftops. She attempted to stop moving but the glass was slick from oil recently applied to clean it and she slid dangerously towards the edge. She let out a scream this time at a louder volume as she was barely able to catch herself with her fore hooves dangling on the edge though her grip was quickly failing on the glass like surface.

Luna pressed a button and made the game pause. Something wasn't right, she had heard several tapping and a skid and her character wasn't the reason for it. Daring Do was alone in her game, not a pony in sight on the tutorial. Her head snapped up looking at the ceiling when she heard the scream, and her eyes widened with shock as she saw a bundle of grey and black dangling from the edge of her skylight. Her mouth gapped open as the pony began to fall and she took a second to recover and capture the falling pony in a a bubble of her aura. Luna hoof opened the window with an annoyed glance at the flailing figure in her magic. She stepped outside to bring the hooded pony down to her and took her inside before dropping said pony unceremoniously onto the ground.

Unfortunately for Irid the sudden fall and dump onto the ground had gotten her cloak tangled up around her legs, it took her half a minute to get herself untangled before she could gaze upon the one who saved her. Her thought processes took in the horn noting as a unicorn, but then noticed the wings which meant she had been saved from an untimely demise by a princess. The dark blue coat marked her as Princess Luna then. She stood up and bowed to the princess who dismissed it silently with a hoof. Princess Luna wasn't as tall as she expected, closer to an adult stallions size rather than that of her elder sisters supposedly. She wasn't as terrifying as the locals had said...

Princess Luna waited for the pony to explain, when the mare had failed to respond she sighed and started the conversation with a weary sigh, "Who are you, and why were you on the roof?"

Luna watched as the strange pony before her opened and shut their mouth before stammering out, "I-I’m Irid... I got lost...in search of y-you... your h-highness..." Out of habit Luna responded quickly, "Just Luna."

Luna became curious, it was rare for ponies to seek her out of their own free will, but social wants came first in Luna's book, "Come closer and uncover yourself child, Your Princess of the night wants to know whom to which she speaks looks like."

Irid sighed, there was no avoiding this she knew, and well a princess wouldn't over react right? Right? Slowly she stepped forward taking her hood off and nodding her head down with eyes shut, "Princess... I have something to tell you about the diamond dogs of Smokey Mountain..." Luna had ignored her, Little to Irid's knowledge, Luna was staring at her horn. There was no way, absolutely no bucking way... An old equestrian?!

Luna was speechless. Irid waited for Luna to respond but at the blank wide eyed stare she was receiving she waved a hoof in front of her face, "Princess? Hello? You there?" Luna snapped out of it.

"You.... Equestrian, Old? Horn? What... no way... Is it fake or real?"

"No Idea what you’re talking about... And my horn is very real Ms. Luna..."

"Prove it."

Irid sighed and the aura flowed to her horn and dispersed her energy, Luna’s face went from mild disbelief to one of shock as various objects in the room started floating around the two. Quietly Irid placed the stuff back where it came from before getting knocked over by an excited Luna, "An actual old equestrian! Where did you come from, how does your magic come from! What mathematical difference’s does your magic needs to compensate?! why don't you have a cutie mark?"

Irid looked at the Luna that was on top of her holding her down with a confused expression on her face. Luna laughed sheepishly and backed off allowing Irid back up onto her hooves, "Oh, uh... Sorry... I'm a rather… Large... Collector of old equestrian artifacts..."

"Ah...I see...” Irid had said slowly, not wanting to get her comfort zone invaded by this strange overly friendly alicorn.

"So..." Luna started awkwardly, "You have something you wanted to tell me...?"

Irid's confidence bolstered and with a look of fire in her eyes she stomped a hoof, "I wish to tell you about an issue with the diamond dogs of Smokey Mountains... They have been enslaving ponies." With that she began to tell the princess of the night her story from when she waked up to her escape...

=========================================

Aranea was growing bored, watching the guards of Luna's "Game Fort" could only entertain herself for so long. Like all the guards they stood in their trained "Super Guard Mode" not moving a muscle not even blinking and as still as statues. Everypony had at one point or another had attempted to get a guard to break this mode and so far only philomania, Celestias pet phoenix, had succeeded. Though there were rumors that Celestia herself could easily break it in her quarters, whatever that meant. Aranea trotted off to check on the other changelings who had infiltrated the castle and to report in on her older sister who was currently disguised as Princess Mi Amore Cadenza. Upon arrival she went into what she called her meek mode.

Chrysalis honestly was one of those certain kinds of changelings who you'd hate to live with. Totally power hungry and complete with a superiority complex and a drive for absolute power. Some would defend her hives actions saying that they needed more love to survive, but that was a complete and utter lie. Their hive never had problems in the past; it was just Chrysalis and her lust for more power that made her and her sister drive towards this hair brained invasion plan. To be frank, she was impressed even half of her plans and tactics worked, so far there had only been two mistakes, one was the attempted assassination of Princess cadence which lead her into Canterlot and the other being the changeling arriving by train.

She was struck across the cheek as her elder sister regained her attention again, she had completely forgotten about what was going on around her and she whimpered a tone begging mercy. Chrysalis spared her a withering glare and ordered her to resume her post. She left, glad to be free of her horrid sister’s presence. She trotted away and decided to take a nap in Luna's quarters like her disguised maid usually did when waiting for the old technology crazed princess of the night. Though she wasn't allowed to move anything which limited her work to bringing Luna her breakfast and lunch and making sure her mane was properly combed and clean. Pretty boring, she also hanged around the night court but besides that it was all snoozes and bore for her. Not enough excitement to get her through the day, she had already read everything in the Canterlot library twice with all the free time she had.

Maybe it was time she tried some of that cloud cake Celestia favored so much.

=========================================

Today seemed unreal to Irid, in the same day she had went through Canterlot castle, almost died a death by falling, got saved by the princess of the night and had told her gruesome and uncensored story about Pete and his slaves that he had made only a few days train ride from here. Luna had gone from Shock to rage to sadness and then back to rage and then finally settling down for a gloomy anger that befit more of a demeanor meant for a revenge stricken overlord of evil. Irid almost felt sorry for the entire Diamond Dog race at that point but then the vengeful goddess being portrayed composition broke and the expression went to miserable; as if someone had kicked a puppy right next to her and she couldn't do a thing about it.

Irid knew she had to do something to comfort this emotionally distraught mare. Despite her instinct and rational memory yelling at her not to, she stood up from her sitting position and moved to the princess to give her a hug, "Don't worry Luna... I know we can work out how to stop it somehow..."

Luna hiccuped, a result from internal struggle at trying too hard to remain self-composed, her voice was quiet enough to make a house fly sound louder, "How could any...t-thing... enslave another sentient race to its bidding and then perform such gruesome... h-horrid... e-experiments and call it d-divine research..."

"I don't know princess... I don't know... I'm just glad I could make somepony listen to it. I have to say, your nothing like the rumors call you out to be, what exactly is all this by the way?"

Irid had simply hoped to distract the princess from the subject that she had plagued her with, the results she got however, were not what she expected. "This room is my Game Fort..." Luna began to talk, her hiccup stopping as she began her short speech on the one thing she had proudly decorated and collected herself, "It is a utopia of video games and snack foods galore! With a screen large enough to make every detail extremely refined, enough upgrades to make any hard core gamer jealous and enough sound that if it was fully on you would hear a pin needle as loud as a bell from across an entire map. Its surround sound to!"

She stopped taking in a deep breath and before Irid could respond she continued on, "I have collected every decent game ever made and several games before they are due to come out! There is a conjoining room full of different merchandise to decorate a room whenever I have an itch to do an entire series of an game and occasionally invite other hard core gamers to do some co-op with me."

Irid timidly asked, "What is a video game exactly?"

"Surely you jest!"

"No memories remember?"

A mischievous glint entered Luna’s eyes as she stared at the potential recruit before her, "Well time to form some memories then my little pony. I think we have enough spare time for a round or a hundred of several different genres before night is due to fall."

Irid knew she wasn't going to go anywhere soon now that Luna had her mind set, she sincerely hoped that whatever these "video games" were, that they were pleasant and entertaining... Though Irid didn't expect the entertainment that was modern entertainment, and the sugary snack foods that were going to turn her from a virgin gamer to a hardcore one within the space of a few hours of gameplay.

=========================================

Celestia really wished she wasn't dealing with this right now a day before the actual wedding. Everything had been going according to plan right up until the final practice before the actual event, then her ever faithful student Twilight Sparkle had barged in and ruined it denouncing her nephew cadence as a fake and threatening the same said bride into tears forcing her to run away sobbing. She had retreated to her study and was devouring a large piece of cloud cake, she had been more careful to conceal herself when she ate the cake, since somepony had embarrassed her eating under stress in the newspaper.

Again she devoured another piece of cake pondering what to do about her student, it would not be the first time Twilight had jumped to conclusions but something in her heart nagged at her that twilight was right. Luna had exempted herself from the wedding proceedings claiming she was "Too Busy" to attend, though she bet it was because Luna had a game to play with her online friends and that the last few times cadence had talked to her they clashed in verbal sparring that ended up with celestia having to cast a set of gag spells on both and ground both of them like a mother would two spoiled children. Celestia thought that the change in cadence's demeanor was from pre-marriage jitters and that she was stressing out about the near assassination a few weeks back.

She ran out of cake so she looked for the other option at her disposal that she used less frequently in order to not arouse curious interests in places they did not belong. The princess of the sun trotted off to her sauna of a bookroom and opened the secret passage within the room down into her version of the "Game Fort" that she simply dubbed, "Book Fort". It was a large circular room made out of books to the point that the only thing that wasn’t a book was a large fluffy pillow and a chandelier that provided light to read. Celestia chose a half a dozen of the newest books and twice as many of the ones she was still in progress of reading, opened them all up, and began to read all of them at once. She really wanted a distraction for her time to think over a punishment for her students harsh actions. Her book room was ironically close to Luna's game fort and she was slightly curious when she heard what sounded like metal clashing on metal followed by a dim roar of a timber wolf from the opposite wall. Luna must be playing another hack and slash, seriously her sister needed to get out more often and make more friends.

=========================================

Irid cleverly maneuvered her Pegasus archer onto a roof top and rained arrow fire down on Luna's unicorn pyromaniac. Luna's own character responded by ducking from one piece of cover to the next and throwing a Molotov cocktail over onto the house onto the rooftop Irid was staying on, Irid's character tried to flee but was crippled instead on the wing as the thing went off exploding and dealing massive damage to her character’s health. Luna's in contrast was out of mana and only medium amount hurt. Even so far, Forced to the ground and running out of arrows Irid's character swapped to a short sword while Luna’s carried a large metal rod called a quarter staff into combat. A duel of grand proportions began to take place as the two dished it out in the overly large screen before their characters were interrupted by a random occurrence of a low leveled timber wolf snapping them out of it. The poor thing didn't stand a chance against the two, Luna's character smashed it into the air and Irid's made it stay in the air with rapid fire arrow fire long enough for Luna's character to pull out a grenade and toss it up with the poor timber wolf and make it explode. Both of their players pressed pause the game and fell over laughing at their own antics.

"That... Was.... Awesome!" giggled Irid breathlessly.

"Welcome to my world and genre of role-play." was Luna's response

"Wait.... There are other genres?"

"Yep," Luna pulled out the current game disk and exchanged it for a futuristic first person shooter called Quake, "Next off is the genre called first pony shooters" The game loaded and the gaming session began yet again, Luna felt that a lot of ponies weren't going to get a visit from the princess of the night tonight in their dreams with how preoccupied she was going to be, she sent a message to her sister in a minute with a hastily scrawled excuse to avoid her night court duty. Both had made a friend in the other it would seem and Luna was going to enjoy every second of introducing video games into this new friend of hers.

=========================================

The day of the wedding was tomorrow. Not that Pete cared, this liquid he had found was intriguing. it moved as if alive and occasionally made a faint hissing noise. When he had poured a drop of the strange substance on a contained bunny, it had mutated and he was forced to kill the thing with a makeshift flamethrower from hairspray and a lighter. He contemplated drinking it but resisted on his own reasoning that he would instead carry the strange liquid in its jar and only drink it as a last resort. Pete found himself now going towards a local old pony ruin again in hope of finding another artifact in its depths. He needed parts he knew, parts to construct the weapon he was attempting to produce. One weapon that would make him powerful over the various types of ponies including the unicorns and alicorns who were the primary magic users, as well as his design hopefully being stronger than his figurative bane, Baney.

=========================================

It was five in the morning before Luna noticed that her game companion had passed out from exhaustion. Luna had taken a momentary break earlier to raise the moon and now it was time for her to lower it. Giggling lightly, Irid had fell asleep in an awkward un-lady like position, asleep with a controller on her face and upside-down with her rump above her touching a wall. This companion she had found was truly an interesting mare to play with, Luna had the rare opportunity to plan with somepony who was graceful in defeat and in victory for once rather than a raging troll like most of her enemies online. Luna, who was champion of a majority of genre had maintained her title though she had found that an army style game she was almost outmatched by calm thinking. It was a combination of Desperate luck, and Irid's lack of foreknowledge of how every unit worked that had saved Luna's small empire and reversed the steamroller effect Irid's vast army had taken onto doing to each base Luna had. Otherwise, Luna had dominated this newly game crazed mare.

Her giggles ceased and she nudged Irid onto a more proper posistion before tossing a soft blanket over her. Effectively taking care of and unknowingly hiding the mare in its comfort. Lightly luna trotted away to get some breakfast for the two of them. She could have a guard bring it, but she wanted the exercise after a long night of siting and playing games. Luna quietly left the unconscious pony to her sleep as she closed the door behind her. Her guards had been taking shifts it seemed, one was asleep and the other was still at attention, she saluted the still awake guard and proceeded off to the castle kitchens alone. Unaware that her guard was in the middle of being replaced by changelings at rapid pace.

Elsewhere deep in the dungeons of Canterlot Luna's night guard and Celestia's royal guard was slowly being replaced with changelings left and right, nearly all of the castles personal guards were gone and replaced as well as its servants. The wedding was about to start and with it, the grand plan of takeover was about to come to a conclusion. Celestia could sense something was wrong but not what exactly it was; the wedding was only hours away and everything had going according to plan though there had been a small hiccup with Twilight Sparkle along the way. Her friends had assumed she had left back for ponyville though they were not sure she was their friends anymore. Though the real truth couldn't be farther from this rather well hid lie.

The wedding was due to commence in less than five hours, a fact noticed by the small stream of arriving guests and family who were coming to witness such a momentous event of an alicorn becoming a wife to the captain of the royal guard, Shining armor, who was also the older brother of the current bearer of the same element of magic who had interrupted and ruined the last practice of the wedding. The changelings had started their plan, when Luna came back to her gaming room, sipping a milkshake she had bribed a chef for, as well as a pair of trays full of breakfast, she found her entire regiment of the Lunar guard around her room and occupying the several nearby hallways and rooms. Luna had assumed that her older sister was just being overly paranoid thinking somepony might of attempted to attack her on the wedding day so to humor her Luna let them stay where they were.

She unlocked and opened then walked into her trusty Game Fort and looked around, Irid was still undisturbed covered in the blanket Luna had put on her. Luna wondered what Irid was dreaming about, as princess of the night it was part of her job to end nightmares ponies may be having and provide a solution, but she could tell from the lack of movement that Irid wasn't having a nightmare or even an unpleasant one at that. Luna was curious but withheld on the belief that one should only intrude on another’s dreams in moments of closest intimacy or to destroy a nightmare that the pony was having. So instead Luna ate breakfast peacefully while waiting for Irid to wake up on her own clock, quietly Luna's TV clicked on and she muted the volume putting it on captions as she flipped through the channels.

Everywhere she turned, even on the kid shows and the comedy channels was talk about the incoming wedding that was taking place today, and Luna rolled her eyes at it. All this bustle and hassle over her niece's wedding. Idly, Luna flipped the channels back to HDMI two and turned on her computer which connected to the screen and started to play Trees vs. Zomponies on the large screen. Quietly she was cheering as her trees held back wave after wave of undead ponies and laughing at the badly spelled notes the last one seemed to drop every few levels. She was well into it by the time the wedding started.

=========================================

The order to begin the invasion had begun when the marriage had been interrupted by the true princess cadence and her friend Twilight sparkle, while the queen of the changelings had her way with Princess Celestia and the elements of harmony. Aranea was trotting towards Princess Luna's room to confront her, one thousand of Luna’s guard was removed and replaced with changelings, five being Luna’s generals who were on vacation to parts unspecified, and the last being princess Luna herself. As she passed, every changeling present began to revert themselves back into their normal bug like forms and converge upon the door that lead to Luna's Game Fort. Aranea knocked once and entered still disguised quietly leaving the door almost shut behind her, "Oh, Hello, whatcha need?" was Luna's response to her favored maid.

"Just one thing, my so dear princess Luna," was Aranea's response, tone full of acid and malice.

"And what’s that?" Luna said a slightly amused look to her face that Aranea had hated so much.

"You to surrender or die." she deadpanned.

"What?"

Aranea was consumed in green flames as she broke free of her disguise and shape shifted back to her full form glory and stature of a changeling princess, her mane was a swamp bluish green like her older sisters but better kempt. Her holes on her hooves were in the shape of x's rather than circles and she stomped. Hundreds of changelings bust through the doors and windows covering the room in changelings. Luna raised an eyebrow in slight surprise, "Well that escalated quickly."

"Any last words?"

"Besides how cliché that comment is? well..." Luna finished her sentence by slamming a button on her keyboard and stood up, the game almost completed pausing and flipping through a few files on her computer for the proper sound file and activating it. A loud rave beat started to play and Luna stood up several hoof made copies of various video game weapons floating up in her grasp around her. Aranea twitched an eye at the sight of seemingly random assortment of untraditional swords around the princess, "what are you guys waiting for?" Luna taunted, "Let’s dance!"

=========================================

Irid came awake at the combination of sounds of loud rave music, a changeling standing unknowingly on her, and the sound of magical explosions and metal on chitin. She gasped and with a magical force threw the changeling off her into a crowd of his brethren knocking ten or so out at once. Luna was standing on a pile of knocked out, or dead, changelings, the conflict coming to a halt as the changelings started to refuse to suicide on the battle crazed alicorn. their leader, recognizable from the different height and stature, yelled, "you would do war against an regiment of changelings by yourself?" Irid hopped up the hill pulling her two swords out with magic.

Luna grinned and replied, "No, we will beat a regiment with TWO ponies."

Aranea shouted back, "You will war with us then? Give up and we promise a quick painless death!"

Luna replied quite calmly causing several of the changeling to visibly shiver, "This is not war, this is pest control!"

Then the fight resumed, Irid and Luna were flank to flank blades whirling and slashing, occasionally Irid would grab an changeling in her field and use him as an impromptu club against his comrades before discarding him to grab another. Luna in contrast was a whirling cloud of death with her replica swords that were every bit as sharp and real as an adamantine metal sword was. Luna weld in her mouth a buster blade that was bigger than she was with consummate ease whacking changelings into others with it as if it was a giant baseball bat. It was only time before they overwhelmed them with sheer numbers however. Eventually Aranea called for a halt again as only a quarter of her forces remained and Luna had dropped the broadsword tired of wielding the large hunk of metal. it had only been eight minutes, she realized. Aranea stepped forward, "I will take care of them myself then you idiots." she opened her mouth to give an evil monologue before partaking in combat like her older sister had instructed.

Irid launched a sword into Aranea's front leg. Aranea fell over, crippled by the sword sticking in her leg. She hissed in pain then in shock as a large pink wall erupted into the room and launched her and all o he changelings out of the castle scattering them far and wide.

Wearily Princess Luna scanned the room before cracking open a large smile, "Well done Irid, wasn't that fun?"

Irid stared at Luna like she lost her mind and her own in the process, "That was fun? Seriously? Weren’t we just attacked by an army of bug ponies!"

Luna chuckled, "They are called Changelings, they think they are so secretive and clever disguising themselves or love, but really I can spot one a mile off from their dreams alone. I guess i get the right of telling Tia that I told her so."

"What?"

"Hm maybe I should attend the after party and ask Tia what I missed haha. But first, to clean up." Irid looked at all the mess an army of changelings had caused to the room, Luna's magic was slowly repairing the various systems and electronics that were smashed to pieces and the various gel like goop that had shattered out of each changeling killed was being tossed outside. Irid felt there was still going to be a lot of cleaning before Luna and Irid would drop by and check on "Tia"... in the meantime she would help Luna clean up her prized Game Fort.

Prologue, an faulty sleep.

It was just another day for the worn down behemoth of stone and metal that ran the laboratories of its installment. The ground under its large swaying ceiling mounted body that was tear drop in shape with eight large arms was overgrown in fungus and other various unimportant plant lives that thrived in the deep underground cave of what used to be a town. It stopped scanning another pod that its makers had created with the task of storing living equines for long periods of time. The automaton simply known as "The Machine" by its creators checked yet again in its three thousandth, two hundred and eighty fourth year of service continued to do what it was assigned to. Maintain the life support pods Until deemed otherwise. It moved on to the next pod and scanned its contents by extending a narrow tube that came out of one of its eight arms Claws into an port of the pod under a hoof scanner that was broken.

///Analyzing Data///

Subject serial number: 198E201U938P

Subject name: Data jack

Subject Rank: Head Engineer

Subject class: Earth pony

Subject status: Deceased

The construct withdrew its cord limb deactivating the chamber of the deceased unicorn faintly seen within; no longer seeing a purpose for the machine to waste what little energy was left running in the miserable ruins. The pony inside had looked to have been struggling to escape its broken Stasis pod, not that the machine cared, the Pegasus known as data jack was just another statistic to it. It moved on its rotating disk clinging into the ceiling moving past other broken pods already marked by its previous visits when it spotted something out of the corner of its micro-optic systems. Another pod, but this one was still on, and there wasn’t a track leading towards it. It halted, turning its bulky center piece that was hanging from the rotary gyros to fix its position and stare at the pod reevaluating how to reach it. It started moving towards it unaware of the missing track which dislodged it onto its eight central arms, half of which snapped with a loud series of twangs and screeching metal, the arms not meant for the load they suddenly found themselves bearing.

The machine paused again; the pod was only a few meters away. And it was unable to get any closer without its Rotary disk to propel it how would it move? Its own answer came when an minor subscript in its core brought up the data of an Spider crawling. The Machines central processors pulled up a blueprint of it and crossed out four legs on its own data, the four that were broken detached, not much more then dead weight to its logical thinking pattern. it then began to drag itself and push itself along the floor with its remaining limbs. With the floor slowly cracking beneath it The Machine finaly inserted is cord into the pods Interface. Noting that the purple maned pony within still had a near black coat covering flesh rather than the last several occupants various states of decomposition, stating to it that either the subject within was alive or recently deceased.

///Analyzing Data///

Subject serial number:197E1010U330P

Subject name: Iridescence T. Wind

Subject Rank: DATA EXPUNGED

Subject class: Unicorn

Subject status: Alive, 75% healthy 25% dehydrated.

Requesting Release for pod restock.

The Machine spoke once with a degraded vocal unit that made it sound more of a growl of static then its standard brand gentle-stallion voice of many a year ago, "Release Accepted". Then it fell through the stone floor of bricks that were not able to support its half ton frame, disappearing into the floors below breaking each one until reaching ground level, completely destroyed and shattered into unrecognizable chunks of metal and stone. The pod began to hum.

The surrounding environment prepared itself for the equines release, Rusty cooking machines began preparing Spoiled food and overgrown Fungus, the few remaining service bots accidently committing suicide like gerbils as they ran off the edge of the newly formed pit at an edge of the stasis pod. And the broken water hose cracked from age connecting to the pod began flowing fresh water channeled in from the surface. beginning at brown and green as plants and dirt was flushed through the pipe and then clearing as a hose of compressed water broke the cracked pipe and hosed quietly onto the brick floor slowly streaming into the hole The Machine made. Falling past countess floors each with an unknown amount of pods deactivated to the floors below.

Chapter 4: Introductions and Service

"Disobedience is the true foundation of liberty. The obedient must be slaves."

-Henry David Thoreau

=========================================

The cage was, in itself, damp and dark. There was a slowly building stinking pile in a corner of the stone floor that was the cage; its bars were made into an iron grid with three sides reinforced by more of the solid stone as well. Whoever had built it clearly hadn’t wanted for its occupants to get out. Signs of wear and tear here and there suggested others had got out before but the previous ways to escape, mainly seen in a few bent bars and what looked like concrete on one of the walls where a hole had probably been dug, had been repaired but not completely erased. Even the floor and ceiling were covered in a sheet of slowly rusting metal under the hay that was provided more for sanitary purposes than anything else. It was this cage, simply named Bob by the occupants; that now housed the Earth pony filly, a Diamond dog, and the currently unconscious unicorn.

Once again the filly poked the unicorn, Irid, quietly with a hoof; unaware of if the unicorn was alive and asleep, dead, or knocked out. An hour earlier when One-eye Pete was approaching she had hid behind the other resident of the cage in terror despite both the filly and Pete knowing that such an action would be futile for her still hiding after Pete had unlocked and open the door to put down the strange unicorn inside and relock the door on the way out. It had taken a long time for the filly to poke her head out to look at the new occupant and even longer to approach. Now for five minutes straight the filly had been poking her seeing if she was okay. With no response coming back the filly rolled the unicorn onto her back and decided to go stand on her and start stomping, doing no significant damage but gradually forcing the unicorn awake with the feeling of the heavy weight of a filly crushing the air out of her lungs and delivering accidental cheap shots to her stomach. Like countless others before her she let out a low groan.

The filly let out a self-satisfied giggle and jumped off delivering one last breathe taking movement in the process before standing off to the side of her staring directly down into her face with a smile, Intending fully to greet the new cell mate. What would happen, however, would leave both parties involved in pain and awkward first impressions.

=========================================

Of course Irid’s mind took the rough treatment of her body and turned the feelings into a nightmare, what was a memory and a dream quickly losing purpose as the poking and prodding was felt and interpreted into feelings. The maze of steel and blue runes was slowly closing in on her, no matter how fast Irid ran in her nightmare of a dream continued. A constant jab of pressure was appearing and vanishing in her side making her think it was not a dream for dreams her mind recalled couldn’t make you feel pain. But again the pressure hit her side and she nearly fell over from it this time as she rounded a corner. She looked back; behind her a pair of Earth-Shakers was chasing her. But unlike the spell she remembered these ones had maws full of spinning blade like teeth and gullets. They were also made of natural looking flesh rather than the magic runes and black material of contained energy. How she hadn’t noticed them before was beyond her but one let out a mind numbing shriek of a hunter. Their equivalent for a wolf packs howl she realized. The thought had barely reached through her thoughts when she was tackled by one of the beasts erupting from underneath her.

The breathe from her lungs were crushed out as the impact sent her into the ceiling with the thing and she started to fall only to be hit by another’s tail a few seconds later sending her into a desperate gasp for air. As suddenly as they appeared they were gone, presumably back underground before an series of rocks were thrown impacting on her chest in a counter clockwise pattern making her wince again as she fled. A feeling of fear rising up in her chest as her now unseen assailants was bombarding her with the large hoof sized rocks. She did what her bodily instincts told her to, she ran, as fast as she could her mind plagued with worry and the primal fear that prey often get when they know they are being hunted by something much larger than them. She ran and ran more rocks bouncing off her chest until she was face to face with a large gap between the streets where an Flier would descend to the underground. Nowhere left to go Irid turned around right into the face of death herself and she tripped backwards screaming and falling into the pit…

=========================================

Irid's eyes came open with a look of shock on her face. Only to stare into a dark red eye surrounded by a light green coat and a shock of a messy yellow mane that she promptly impacted into as she sat up and fell down as two faces collided and recoiled in pain. Irid clutching her face between her hooves in a fetal position, and the filly now on her back from the force of the impact on her back flailing her back legs while similarly clutching her face between her hooves as well as making a repeating of the word “Ow” that would be calmed down a few minutes later as the pain receded. The filly, surprisingly enough, was the first to recover. When Irid opened her eyes again, she found the filly’s face hovering over hers, smiling down.

“Oh, so sorry!” the filly exclaimed. “Please forgive me. It was not my intention to frighten you.”

Quietly Irid nodded, and the filly continued backing away so that their faces wouldn’t collide again if Irid stood up as the filly declared with a tone of pride, “Anyway I’m glad I was able to wake you up. I am Twig Light by the way; you can just call me Twig.”

“Irid…”

“Excuse me?”

“It’s…my name…”

A look of understanding formed on Twigs face quickly replaced as Twig grinned while exclaiming in her pleasant voice, “Well nice to meet you Irid. Welcome to the Cell fifty one, also known as Bob by those who stay in it.”

“Why is it called Bob?”

“Don’t know, Ask her” replied Twig merrily and she skipped past Irid towards the only other occupant in the cell.

In the corner of the room lying on her side was a Diamond dog of dark grey fur who had long Night black hair that was long enough to pass her waist, she was as tall as Fido but what was strange was, instead of shackles or chains she was wearing a straitjacket covered in large apple thick chain links binding her arms to her side. On her back was a backpack sized pad lock that also served as reinforcement for the muzzle she wore on her face; probably to keep her from biting others. Irid’s face paled slightly at the sight of yet another of the “strange creatures” let alone being locked in with one.

The Diamond dog looked her over in exchange with a slight hint of a sultry look in return, “Like what you see?” to which Irid took the meaning, blushed, and looked hurriedly away.

She laughed at Irid’s embarrassment, “Relax pony, you’re not my type. I am Wolfs Bane, daughter of the lord of silence by the way. Friends call me Baney.”

“Nice… to meet you… too… I am Iridescence T. Wind… nicknamed Irid for short…” was her reply back, blush slowly fading and still avoiding eye contact.

It was a long while before the awkward silence that had devolped was broken. Bane from lack of caring to speak to the pony, and Irid was just fidgeting awkwardly in place not quite sure what to do at this point. Twig was looking between the two with a look of interest that slowly faded to boredom then to that of sleep as nothing continued to happen with the two to engage her interest. Irid felt as though hours have flown by before a dirty grey pegasus who wore an iron around their bodies keeping their wings clamped to their sides and a sign that read P-19 came and pointed at her, "U-119. your with me for today. Master Pete has decided that your to learn your chores for the duration of your... Residence... here."

The pegasus unlocked the door and waited, Irid stood up recongising the name U-119 as the same one on her sign and she stood up and uncertainly followed the pony out of the cage to which it was relocked immediately after. The pegasus turned to leave towards a stone building and Irid felt herself dragged magically by the shackles on her hooves with the pegasus. Before she knew it she was inside the rough abode. The floors were filled with dirt and brown waste that smelled suspiciously of dung and urine, and somehow even the walls and a few spots of the cieling had the brown spots. In the middle of it all was a table with the largest pile of what looked like Petrified and hardened Dung that was larger then the rest.

The pegasus stopped and turned to Irid a slight look of distaste on his face before speaking in a slightly disgusted tone, "All you have to do is clean the Bathroom, Living room, and the Masters Denn. You needn't worry yourself about the other rooms in the house, I and the other sevants take care of those. A guard will routinely check on you every few minutes, any slacking off on your part will see you punished by Paddling on the first offense, and Lashings of slowly increasing amounts on the next offenses. Any questions?" Irid opened her mouth to speak but was interupted as the pegasus began again, "No? good. Mop and bucket in the door next to the one you came in, Water outside near the well, Manure pile outside to the left. I am also assuming you know where the floor is. Yes you do it by hoof, no unicorn magic unless your a Personal servant to the Master, even then you shouldnt be able to cast any spells with the brace the master put on your horn. When your done put the cleaning supplies away and report back to me for inspections. I will be outside by the time you finsh this... Mess. Simply Consult the daily guard who shows up when your done with all that."

With that the pegasus trotted out with a look of worrying distaste on his face, Slamming the door shut behind him and leaving Irid alone to clean up the mess of Dried dung and urine. Irid forced herself to breathe as a waft of the disgusting scent hit her nose, "friendly sorts... wasnt he..." she spoke to herself and partialy to a dirty sign that read "livE nO eviL" which was slightly comforting as well as another sign that read a bit less sensical, "eniviD si hcraeseR ruO"

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A third of the way through, her mop, had broken from how thick and hard a lot of the dung was so she was forced to use a rather well kept shovel to hack and break it up. The dung was almost like stone a few inches in. what looked to be a simple task at first had now proven to her to be hours of back straining work, She tired quickly but became used to picking up speed as a guard poked his head in every few minutes to watch her work before leaving her back on her own. It was now, hours later that all that was left was the finally cleaned table. Her nose had started to bug her for a while though about the smell, it was rancid, sure; but the smell was slightly off her mind told her again and again but then again. she didnt recall what it was supposed to smell like for these Dog like creatures. As she finally began cleaning up the last portion of the room, under the big central table she noticed that while the top of the table had been dirty to the point where it was stained brown on the top and sides the bottom was still a grey metal, the only waste on it was what seemed to be a message of letters arranged in a mess of badly written words with a short handed scrawl of what was written in a scrawl completed with an arrow pointing from right to left.

.lla slaever dna sedih cigam, eil a si ecalp sihT

The message made her pause with wonder and thought, It was the same type of writing style as the sign that was on the wall. The writing was almost like a puzzle, Irid thought. She dipped a tip of her already dirty hoof into the bucket for some of the sludge and wrote as the arrow had depicted backwards while reading aloud to herself, "This... place is a lie...."

She smiled to herself, "well so far so good..." then redipped her hoof into the bucket to refresh it and continued, "Magic hides and reveals all." Curiously she read it to herself once more and double checked remembering it. Something about that line had made her mind suddenly curious about trying the restraint on her horn. Theoreticly, she supposed, that The clamp halfway up her horn wouldnt actualy halt her magic, since it formed along the base and outward. Another, recently formed part of her mind awnsered internaly, But Master said we werent supposed to use magic.

One little spell couldnt hurt right? her curiosity spoke, afterall nopony is here and the guard isnt due for another few minutes...

No means no. the currently clouded part of her mind awnsered back.

Oh come on! somethings fishy here! Irid's curiosity spoke out with a note of plea.

wait... am I... Aruging with myself? Thats it im doing it. Irid closed her eyes and focused.

Magic began to flow from Irids tired hooves and mind and up into her horn breifly flowing up the horn before splitting off into the air halfway, the air was tinted less than normal due to being cut off before full Dispersion but slowly it began to tint to her normal magical energy as more splashed off the brace into the air. With the feeling of magic running through her head and out of her horn Irids mind, previously clouded unbeknownst to her and probably the untold countless others who had doned the shackles pete had made; began to clear rapidly, the voice that had been rejecting and ordering her to obey the master faded as well as the smell of grim and dung fading. Instead a new smell filled her nose, the smell of Dried blood and rotting flesh filled her nose and Irid was forced to open her eyes.

The brown in the room had faded, in its place there was a dark red tint of blood stains along the walls and floors. Where flies had previously been landing on dung were now landing on small remains of rotting flesh and bones. her eyes widdened. The tables words were now reversed, hers was backwards and the blood scrawled words repeating the message she had just written down with the arrow facing instead of right to left now facing the other way. the proper way to read. She looked at the blood covered signs a feeling of revulsion slowly creeping up her stomache. Instead of the words she had saw previously she read aloud quietly to herself in shock, "Live On Evil... Our Research Is Divine".