Emerald Gleaner: Retired Monster

by Legionary

Chapter 3: Arrested Development

“Oh no, oh no, oh no...” Twilight repeated as she shook the cuffs around her wrists.

“Stay calm,” Emerald said softly. “Don't lose your head.”

The vehicle rumbled softly as Twilight and Emerald sat in its highly armoured vault. Despite her words, Emerald herself was more than a little worried about what was to come. It was very likely the two of them would be separated after arriving at wherever they were going to be taken. Emerald for her part didn't at all like the idea of Twilight being out of her sight in a Blackwatch facility, and with the way Twilight was taking being arrested she likely wouldn't take such an event very well either. However...

Emerald looked down at the highly advanced manacles with a glare as Twilight took deep breaths in an attempt to calm down. As long as these things were restricting her she couldn't do anything viral related.

'That's okay though, isn't it?' Emerald thought with a small shake of her head. 'I've got plenty of non-viral responses to the current situation no one knows about now, don't I?'

“You doing okay, Twilight?” Emerald asked her newly human girlfriend.

“A-about as good as I could be, I suppose,” Twilight muttered with a pout. “Considering my clean record has been permanently sullied for all time.”

“I think your record got a good bit of dirt and muck on it after you starting spending time with the wrong crowd,” Emerald said, motioning to herself as best as she could with her bound hands. “Especially when you started dating said wrong crowd.”

“Well...” Twilight's pout disappeared, replaced with a frown as she looked at Emerald sitting opposite her. “No matter how many times you describe it that way, I'm never going to feel the same.”

“...” Emerald smiled at Twilight. “Love you too.”

“U-uhhh...” Twilight blushed and looked away for a moment before returning Emerald's smile with her own.

“Well now that you feel better...” Emerald began and crossed her legs. “We've got a bit of an issue we need to plan for.”

“What?” Twilight asked with a frown.

“It's common to question people separately if there are multiple suspects brought in together,” Emerald stated. “This is likely what is going to happen to us when we arrive. We shall be separated and interrogated in rooms away from one another.”

“What are we going to do?!” Twilight exclaimed in worry, gritting her teeth.

“Stay calm, I have a plan,” Emerald said. “I can't use any viral abilities without setting this thing off, but what I can do is use magic. My idea is that I'll tattoo a rune behind your ear and mine as well and use that to stay in contact with you.”

“You think they won't search us and find them?” Twilight asked in concern. “And we would still need to talk in order to communicate with each other, or is your mind magic advanced enough for telepathic communication?”

“I've been getting it further and further along in the past year,” Emerald answered. “You'd be surprised at what I can do with it now, but no I can't do that just yet. What I can do is program the rune a bit, make it pick up your voice clearly at the quietest you can whisper. As for Blackwatch finding them, I doubt they discovered magic in the last three years. To them, the runes would be oddly placed tattoos.”

“I don't like the idea of being away from you around these people,” Twilight said and reached up with her cuffed hands to pull her ear and the hair around it. “I'd prefer it if we can stay together, but staying in contact is better than nothing.”

Emerald narrowed her eyes in concentration as she stared at the spot behind Twilight's ear. A runic circle began to appear, brightly glowing and crimson on the newly made human's flesh. After a moment, the crimson light faded and in its place was a runic circle glowing with soft blue colors. Even the average person would find a glowing tattoo more than a bit conspicuous, let alone Blackwatch, so Emerald continued along. A new circle appeared around the first and set into place, and the moment it settled the rune's light faded and its form became like that of recently painted tattoo; nothing clearly supernatural in nature. With that done, Emerald placed a rune much like the one she just formed on Twilight behind her ear as well.

“Testing. One, two, three,” Emerald whispered as quietly as she could.

“I can hear you!” Twilight said and pressed a hand against her newly acquired tattoo. “There isn't a danger of other people hearing too, is there?”

“No, the sound is projected directly into your skull, not out into the air around your ear,” Emerald explained.

“Well I guess it's just waiting until we arrive.” Twilight sighed with a frown.

“Not entirely,” Emerald said and leaned forward. “I think some coaching on how to handle an interrogation when you are the one being interrogated is in order.”

“Coaching?” Twilight asked. “Don't I just have to answer questions truthfully and cooperate?”

“Honesty and cooperation is key, yes, but there are other things,” Emerald said. “They are likely going to pressure you a little bit, ask you the same questions again and again, hoping to catch you slipping up if you are making something up. They may also attempt to pressure you into confessing into doing something you never did.”

“But that isn't right!” Twilight exclaimed. “Those who enforce the law shouldn't be attempting to prosecute the innocent!”

“They shouldn't, but it is what it is...” Emerald stated simply, causing Twilight to frown and look down at her cuffed hands. “That's why you need to keep your story straight and do not deviate from a single detail. Especially if they attempt to confuse you and change up your facts.”

“...What do I need to do?” Twilight asked in total seriousness.

“For one, we can't really mention Equestria,” Emerald stated. “Beyond you, me, Navi, Spike and Sunset, there is not another magical being in this entire world. Mentioning the fantastical nature or alluding to it would be unwise to say the least.”

“What’s our... cover story, then?” Twilight asked.

“So far we've let people assume that the place I've been ‘hiding out’ in is simply an isolated community that does without technology,” Emerald answered. “A true enough description of Ponyville. We'll let them keep this assumption and if they ask for a name we'll mention Ponyville, but not Equestria. Let them assume it is somewhere in the country.”

“What if they ask for where it is?” Twilight frowned

“... I've been turned into quite the boogeyman in the past three years.” Emerald hummed. “People have feared me for the idea that I could have appeared anywhere and unleashed incredible death and destruction and there would be no warning. We shall use that as a ready excuse for refusing to give out the location of Ponyville. That we are afraid that for the crime of harbouring someone so vilified as me, even unknowingly, Ponyville would pay the price that scores of people would no doubt be willing to inflict.”

“Alright... so don't mention anything magical at all, got it,” Twilight said. “Stick to the story no matter what... speaking of which, what is our story?”

“We'll use most of the truth,” Emerald replied. “We were tracking down someone from our home who had stolen an incredible valuable piece of jewellery and had followed her trail to the gang hideout. We had nothing at all to do with the dead gang members and found them like that before Blackwatch arrived mere minutes after.”

“Now...” Emerald continued. “We are going to be spending however long we have left before we reach our destination going over our story in detail. Ready for a pop quiz?”

“Always!” Twilight answered determinedly.

They didn't actually have much more time for the “pop quiz”. Ten minutes into Emerald drilling Twilight on her responses, they both felt the vehicle slow to a halt. Shortly after, the locks in the vault door clicked and whirred out of place and the massive armoured door swung open. Instantly the two were greeted by the sight of two of the Blackwatch super soldiers and the sound of an alarm going off.

“Alright come out of there.” One of them motioned at them before turning away and shouting. “And someone get that god damn thing turned off! Did no one tell them we were coming here?!”

Emerald and Twilight clambered out of the back of the truck as commanded, and as soon as they were outside Emerald quickly took stock of her surroundings.

Blackwatch had definitely changed up how their bases were arranged. Before, they seemed more aimed towards possible human enemies rather than infected ones. Now it truly looked like a reinforced fortification meant for something beyond human. The center of the base was dominated by a large bunker-like construction with firing slits on all sides and all levels, more than a few of which had full line of sight of each other in case they needed to fire on each other. Built into the walls were dozens of high calibre automated turrets, a good number of which had trained on her the moment she stepped out of the truck. Surrounding the base was a dozen little bunkers that, judging from the look of them, all could be raised or lowered into the ground as needed. Everywhere armour plating gleamed, but with her earth channelling senses Emerald could feel the presence of likely heavily reinforced concrete. Not only that, but Emerald could feel that this surface construction was simply the tip of the iceberg, with the rest of the base's main facilities underground.

'No perimeter walls,' Emerald thought as she and Twilight were lead towards the main entrenchment. 'Makes sense. Those walls were more useful for us as cover than any actual hindrance. Also means better line of sight on anyone coming at them openly. I haven't even seen their full security and I'm already having some trouble thinking of a good infiltration route.'

Eventually they arrived before the reinforced doors of the entrance. The two super soldiers were met by two others with a smaller, normal human soldier without a helmet, wearing a black cap instead.

“Captain Stirling, sir!” the Super Soldier standing beside Emerald gave a sharp salute. “Presenting the suspects being brought in for questioning, sir!”

“Yes, one Emerald Gleaner and Twilight Sparkle,” came the Captain's muffled reply and instantly all four super soldiers violently twitched. “Yes, yes, ha ha, the names are hilarious.”

Emerald blinked at the Captain. His accent was English in nature but his voice and facial features gave off vibes that made Emerald instantly think of an Imperial Officer.

“Yes, this is the way I speak, no I can not help it, attempting to speak in a different manner makes me sound ridiculous,” Captain Stirling spoke in disinterest before turning to the soldier beside him. “I don't need to be keyed into your radio frequency to know you’re talking shite again. So help me god I will figure out a way to bend you over my knee and beat your arse like the overgrown child you are.”

“Sir yes sir,” the super soldier stated with the smallest hint of amusement.

“Right, now if you two would stand just before the door?” The Captain waved behind him.

Emerald and Twilight did so, noticing that before the door was a large metal plate on the ground covered in yellow and black stripes. They were soon followed by the Captain and the four super soldiers. After a moment of silence, there there was a click.

“Uh, sir?” came a voice from a speaker. “Isn't there supposed to be a Cursor here? I've got three readings within human boundaries, not two.”

“Hmm...” The Captain hummed in thought. “She's just purposefully keeping herself light. Dangerous, but convenient for wooden floors. Let us in.”

With that the doors opened with a grinding of steel on steel. A long, plain gray hallway lit with fluorescent lights met Emerald’s sight and they began moving forward. As she was lead down the hall, Emerald used her earth channelling senses with every step, mapping more and more of the base each time.

Eventually they came to a hall lined with elevator doors, with one of the doors having a pair of normal soldiers standing guard. As predicted, they were to be separated. Twilight was lead to the soldiers while Emerald was lead away to another door. Twilight shot a wide eyed worried look to Emerald who gave a reassuring smile back.

“See you soon, Twilight,” the virus said with a smile.

“Y-you too...” Twilight replied nervously as they were lead away from each other.

Twilight twiddled her thumbs as she sat at a table awaiting her interrogator to arrive, now free of her cuffs. The room she was staying in wasn't nearly as intimidating as she had been expecting it to be. It was warmly lit with yellow lighting, the floor was covered in brown carpeting and while there was a somewhat flimsy metal table with chairs, it did also have a magazine rack. Considering this was another world's reading material, Twilight had been almost tempted to grab one to read but she was a tad too nervous to consider even reading.

“Same story over here too,” Emerald whispered through the rune communicator after Twilight shared this. “This room is pretty tame compared to interrogation rooms I've seen.”

'I wish I had your experience in this,' Twilight thought as she looked out of the corner of her eyes at the mirrored window. 'I'm so out of my own environment it almost physically hurts. I always wondered if I could be as strong as you like to say I am Emerald, to face what you faced and yet remain the person that you fell in love with. You like to say you're weak but you're still here and alive, aren't you? Adapted to horror and in the end you were the sole survivor.'

'Maybe I'm as strong as you say I am...' Twilight looked up as the door opened. 'I can honestly say I never wanted to put it to the test...'

Through the door came a woman with shoulder length brown hair wearing a dark blue work sweater with a white dress shirt worn underneath with matching dress pants. She came in looking over some papers with a bemused expression before sighing and looking up at Twilight. She gave a smile at the former pony.

“Good evening, I'm Sophie Neveu,” the woman said as she walked over and joined Twilight at the table. “I'm an investigator on loan from Interpol to Blackwatch.”

“Uhh, hello, I'm Twilight,” Twilight said with a small half hearted wave.

To her credit, the woman didn't react to the name. She simply glanced over at her papers with a bit more consideration and lifted a few pages to quickly look over them again. Taking up a pen and notepad she had with her papers, she faced Twilight.

“Hello Twilight.” The agent smiled. “Now, you and your friend Emerald were found on the scene of a very serious crime. No one is saying you did anything. What I want to know is the events leading up to you ending up there.”

“W-well...” Twilight began nervously. “Emerald and I came here because someone named Sunset stole a very valuable piece of jewellery. Letting her go just wasn't an option and Emerald was quite capable of tracking her down quickly. So we followed her here to New York, to Manhattan specifically. Eventually after dealing with the Evolved on the island we moved to Brooklyn. We secured lodgings and headed out to track down Sunset. We eventually tracked her down to a shelter and found out she had been kidnapped. Emerald followed her trail to their base but when we got there the gang was d-dead and we were barely there for a minute before Blackwatch arrived and arrested us.”

“How did you enter the Quarantine Zone?” the agent asked with a frown.

“We flew...” Twilight answered quickly.

“Hmm...” the Agent hummed and gave no outward indication of what she thought of that answer.

“Stay calm,” Twilight heard Emerald whisper preemptively. “Just remember the story.”

'Just remember the story,' Twilight thought to herself with a deep breath which the agent noticed.

“Just keep calm, miss.” She smiled at Twilight. “I'm just asking a few questions about what you two experienced up to being brought in. If you are innocent then you have nothing to fear. In fact your testimonies would probably help us track down the actual criminals.”

“Right, it's just...” Twilight began, wringing her hands. “I've never been arrested before. I'm sure Emerald has experience with things like this but I've barely been in trouble with teachers before and I-”

“It alright, it's alright!” the agent said with a big toothy smile, interrupting Twilight as she began to babble. “Now... I have some notes here, you have two youths with you? Why did you bring them to this city?”

“Emerald... isn't very trusting of others and she considers herself more then capable of protecting and providing for all their needs,” Twilight answered carefully.

“Hmm...” the agent hummed again, nodding slowly. “Now you said you flew into the city? How exactly?”

“Well, Emerald can glide and she can also decrease how much she weighs so that taking others along is easier,” Twilight answered as was taught. “Our landing was a bit harder than we expected, but we made it safely and made our way from there.”

“Hmm...” The Agent nodded again and started looking through notes she had been taking with deep consideration.

Twilight took a breath and thought back over the interrogation so far. She honestly felt she was doing pretty well and was fairly certain she had kept her story straight so far. She knew to expect much more, though, and that deeper details would be pressed about her story further.

Sergeant Trager, formally Brigadier Trager of Blackwatch, watched over his soldiers as they bustled over the crime scene. The corpses of the gangsters were long gone but their chalk outlines remained along with the blood stains. No one could see his expression with his helmet on, but his stance and the air about him made it clear he was broiling with anger and frustration.

Trager was a gray haired veteran of Blackwatch. He hadn't been around back during the Hope, Idaho outbreak but he been there when the first few runners were released for trial hunts. He was also among one of the few remaining “original” members of Blackwatch that was now called the first generation, a term he readily agreed with. In his view the “Second Generation” was useful only as grunts and fodder and the third was completely antithesis to the founding goals of Blackwatch.

As he watched a few attached investigators go over the crime scene, his communicator began beeping. Surreptitiously he received the call as it was a personally encrypted line.

“Trager here,” he answered.

“Brigadier, sir, I've got the report you wanted on the latest germ case,” a voice answered.

“I fucking told you not to call me that outside of private,” Trager muttered angrily.

“U-uhh sorry Br-Sergeant Trager, sir!” the voice quickly replied.

“Get on with it, shithead,” Trager growled, irritation remounting. The voice at the other end of the line was what Trager considered a prime example of the Second Generation of Blackwatch soldiers. Stereotypical meatheads who had more violent urges than common sense and got themselves in enough trouble to be quietly shuffled into death row. Being one of the higher ups in command at the time meant Trager was part of the group that had agreed to take in such people, despite the fact they literally had no choice but to use these men to fill in the massive gaps in their frontline manpower; he still considered the decision a mark of shame on his record.

“Yes sir, sorry sir!” the grunt said quickly. “Apparently the tranny, germ girl didn't kill that gang. It and the other girl was tracking down some girl who stole some expensive jewellery and tracked her to the dead bodies.”

“One of Mercer's pets taken in because it was looking for some stolen rocks,” Trager scoffed. “It's like bringing in Al Capone for slashing tires. Clearly something else is going on here.”

“You think Heller might take the chance to get it out of the picture, sir?” The Blackwatch informant asked.

“Hmph.” Trager considered the thought for upwards of half a moment before casting it aside. “Our Commander isn't so practical to do so. He doesn't give a shit for some rent-a-hoods getting butchered in the ass end of nowhere, and honestly, neither do I. But it would have been a convenient excuse to get rid of some choice loose ends... anything else?”

“Not really, sir,” came the answer. “There was some questioning about exactly where it had been hiding out. Some place called Ponyville of all fucking things, but no actual address.”

“Probably some Amish community in the ass end of nowhere, anyway,” Trager said dismissively. “Keep listening for anything interesting and inform me as soon as you are alone.”

“Yes sir!” the informant replied and cut his transmission.

Trager sighed as he returned to his assigned duties. After being high ranked in Blackwatch for so long, he was unused to handling such grunt work. Even now, three years after Blackwatch had been mutilated and warped by the nations of the world as their sole means of control over the “Cursors”, he still hadn't gotten used to it and missed his time as a commander dearly. Still though, even though in public he only had the authority of a Sergeant, it was a completely different story behind closed doors in certain circles of Blackwatch.

While the veterans of the True Blackwatch only numbered eighty after the two purges Alex Mercer had conducted on the organization, they still had many cats’ paws in the form of the second generation. They even had a few soldiers in their pocket from what they considered the failed Third Generation, sympathizers and soldiers who saw the viral abominations as too dangerous to be allowed to exist uncontrolled. And there was no way to truly control any of the Evolved. Anyone with a brain and some passing knowledge on the Evolved would know the rules created by the UN to manage the Evolved were about as effective as attempting to use the paper they were printed on to assault one.

'Too many fucking bleeding hearts trying to humanize a bunch of monsters,' Trager thought irritably. 'Leave that bullshit to Disney. No one but us knows just what these things are capable of. Everyone else just reads some papers and thinks they're fully qualified to make a decision about them. They've never seen a completely uninfected man turn into a fucking zombie in ten seconds flat, don't know that every single one of those things could release a city wide infection. Too busy arguing about “equal rights” and “emancipation”, going against the proper response of killing every single one of the fucking things.'

“You there!” Trager shouted towards one of the grunts.

“Sir?” The grunt snapped into a salute.

“Contact logistics. Tell them I'm calling the Soap Protocol,” Trager commanded.

“Sir yes sir!” The grunt saluted and walked away with a hand pressed to the side of his hand.

Trager allowed a small smile. While he would have loved to have Oskar vanished, he honestly couldn't do that on someone so highly exposed, at least not without some preparation beforehand. The things he could have learned from Alex Mercer's sole surviving enforcer could have been rather rewarding, but the fact that Oskar was the sole survivor was a mark of his potential threat. Trager had all the hate in the world for the Cursors but he also had respect for their power.

As it was, he allowed himself the small pettiness of getting in the way of Oskar's desires.

'Talking casually is good,' Emerald thought as she listened in on Twilight. 'As long as things are going smoothly with her, I'm willing to play possum.'

What was happening with Twilight was just one of many things Emerald was dividing her attention on. Aside from her own interrogation at the moment, she was also using her earth channelling to map as much of the building as possible. While her ability to “see” via feeling out the vibrations of the world was fairly advanced, it wasn't exactly like a real time, camera-like feed. In fact, it was more of a stop motion animation, with the quality of the stop motion determined utterly by how many vibrations there was at any given location. So far, while she identified quite a few mundane things there was more than a few interesting pieces of machinery she couldn't entirely identify even with all of her stolen engineering knowledge.

'Going to need to grab someone to mind read them,' Emerald thought as she returned more of her attention on her interrogator who was currently looking over his notes. 'Can't really play it as a smash and grab, though. This is Blackwatch after all. Going to need to do something... arcane.'

“Hmm...” The interrogator hummed. He was a french Interpol agent on loan and had been nothing but completely professional, which Emerald appreciated. “Well, I believe I have asked everything I could. Thank you for your cooperation. We'll be needing to go over a few things, but the way things are looking it seems like you'll be released soon.”

“That's good to hear.” Emerald smiled, her manacles clanking slightly on the table as she shifted in her seat.

“Someone will be back for you soon,” the interrogator said as he got up from his seat and exited out the door.

Emerald leaned back in her seat. She got the feeling throughout the entire interrogation that the man really wanted to ask her different questions. She figured what he wanted to ask was about her time with Mercer since that was the one big thing that everyone was worked up about.

'It's not like they don't have a ready source of everything Mercer related,' Emerald thought with a slight shrug. 'They could always ask Heller about him, but I guess there is a big appeal to asking the person that was actually there for it.'

“Twilight, you okay over there?” Emerald whispered after turning the transmitting function of her communicator. “Drum your fingers on the table for yes.”

“Watching” from afar, Emerald watched Twilight tap her fingers on the table briefly while still talking with her own interrogator.

“Good, just making sure,” Emerald said. “From the sounds of things we might expect to be let go very soon without an issue. I know you probably are worried about Sunset and the Element of Magic, but I think we should call it a night and head back to the others. Even with the protections I gave them I still don't like the idea of staying away from Spike and Navi for too long.”

Before Emerald could continue to attempt a silent conversation with Twilight, she felt two people approaching, one of which gave off potent vibrations no doubt due to being rather heavy.

'Oh here we go,' Emerald thought with a sigh as she sat up.

The door opened and in walked James Heller along with a young woman wearing a dark blue skirt suit. Initially, Emerald’s full attention was on Heller but the woman soon caught her attention and Emerald's eyes widened at who it was. Looking all the world like a secretary was Dana Mercer standing beside James Heller.

Other than the fact she was his human sister, the only real thing Emerald had known about Dana was the fact she wasn't on his side and that she was explicitly off limits. Considering the fact she had never left the Red Zone the day it was formed and had been doing everything she could to dig up intel on Mercer's operations, it was clear that Dana was a woman who wasn't afraid to get involved in things that normally made the average person vanish in the night. The fact she was still here in the NYZ and apparently elbow deep in the mix of things was no real surprise.

“Well I did tell you to make sure to only kill people no one cares about,” James said as he came to a stop before the table, his arms crossed. “You did that at least. Didn't expect you to make it a date.”

“I didn't kill those people,” Emerald replied with a frown.

Heller raised a brow incredulously but Dana, who had been looking guardedly at Emerald, chose this moment to speak up.

“If you bothered to read the report they handed us,” Dana began, holding up a clipboard. “You would have seen that the evidence is pointing to Emerald and Twilight arriving at the scene nearly an hour after the mass murder was committed.”

“Eh, end result is the same damn thing,” James Heller waved off. “Dead douchebags.”

Dana sighed but the sound of a cell phone ringing filled the air. Tucking her clipboard under an arm, Dana quickly fished out her cell phone and answered with a ‘hello’. After listening to the speaker for a moment, she held her arm out to Heller.

“It's you know who,” Dana said with a smile as she waved the cell at Heller.

“That time again?” Heller asked with smile and quickly grabbed the phone before turning away and walking towards a wall. “Hey there baby girl. Had a good day?”

“So...” Dana began as she took Heller's spot before the table. “You were one of Alex's huh?”

“Sure was,” Emerald nodded.

“You're... not who I expected,” Dana said. “All the things James told me about you. Alex's silent killer who could get any job done without being spotted. The one Evolved among the Cadre who was the most pragmatic and subtle... and thus the most dangerous.”

“Sounds spot on so far,” Emerald stated simply. “In what way did I prove your expectations wrong?”

“The fact you apparently settled down and found love for one,” Dana said and pulled the chair out to sit at the table. “The fact you aren't some dark, rude bastard for another.”

“I think the proper term would be rude bitch considering... you know,” Emerald replied, gesturing to herself as best as she could.

“Thanks for the correction,” Dana chuckled. “Seriously though, coming out of that without being a complete psychopath? That's pretty impressive.”

“... It didn't happen overnight.” Emerald sighed. “When I first arrived in what I at first considered simply a temporary hideout, I was completely at ease with the idea of murdering people for convenience's sake. I guess the fact I don't murder for no reason or enjoyment was pretty decent of me. And... well, I've had proof of the fact I could have so easily gone the other way rather than getting better thrown in my face... so everyone's fears were not unfounded.”

“Didn't happen in the end, though,” Dana stated simply. “I think no matter how isolated the place you went to was, I'd think the world would have noticed if you became Alex Mercer.”

“... Yeah... I think what would happen would be quite noticeable if that happened, wouldn't it?” Emerald said with a sigh and slouched a little in her seat.

“Hmm... kinda cliche, but...” Dana began. “It was her, wasn't it? She was the reason why you didn't become horrible.”

“Hit the nail on the head.” Emerald met Dana with a ready, genuine smile. “She means the world to me. Amazing what a little bit of love can do for a person, huh?”

“Yeah...” Dana said softly, a glazed look to her eyes saying her mind was elsewhere.

“So, working for Blackwatch, huh?” Emerald asked, shaking Dana out of her musing. “Probably not something you expected or even wanted to happen considering everything that happened because of them.”

“You bet your ass,” Dana said firmly. “Blackwatch was every paranoid conspiracy theorist’s worst fears about the government come to life. Like hell I was ever going to be a part of it. But... before all this, I was going to NYU to be a journalist. I only had been writing for a few tabloids at the time but I was going in for the big stuff. I was going to investigate government and corporate corruption. I ended up getting into the thick of it several years earlier than I expected... and it turned out a whole hell of lot more dangerous than I expected, but... it was like a child's dream of adventure come to life, I guess. I wasn't going to try to back out once I was in.”

“So even though I had more than a few reservations,” Dana continued. “When Heller called me about the offer the UN gave him about being given command of a reorganized Blackwatch, I couldn't exactly leave it all to him. So I became his secretary and unofficial second in command.”

“I bet the ability to keep a far closer eye on things factored into the decision to help out,” Emerald stated.

“On my own I was only ever an annoyance for a group like Blackwatch.” Dana nodded. “I always needed some muscle in order to really make an impact. James always has my back but now I don't need to constantly rely on him to make my information matter. With Blackwatch as a ready example, the world is much more inclined to worry about what their governments are accountable for. Here I can help keep anyone from getting the un-accountability and total authority that Blackwatch had.”

“Of course along with all that power comes exposure and the eyes of the world,” Emerald said.

“I'll admit that's a bit of a downside.” Dana nodded. “But you can't be a journalist if you are afraid of attention and becoming a part of the story.”

“You two done with your little girl talk?” Heller asked gruffly as he stepped back over to the table.

“Someone's in a bad mood,” Dana said with a knowing smirk. “Let me guess, Amaya finally told you about her boyfriend?”

“Grrr...” Heller growled in reply, making Dana laugh. He turned away from her to face Emerald. “We got everything we wanted from you. You and your girlfriend can get the hell out.”

On cue, the door opened and in walked two soldiers in full gear. One came to a stop beside Emerald with shock baton at rest and another reached for her manacles.

“Wait... what the hell?!” came the exclamation from the one handling her manacles. “These are already off!”

Instantly suspicious, accusatory stares turned to Emerald.

“Woah there!” Emerald said, her own confusion on the matter clear on her face, and attempted to spread her hands in a placating manner before realizing there was no point. “I never even knew these things existed before a few hours ago. I wouldn't even know what to do with them to make them turn off like that.”

“She's got a point,” Dana said to Heller. “I guess someone could say she was actually keeping tabs on things all the way from wherever she was hiding out and figured out something from there... but why use it and then do nothing with it? Why do nothing and even wait until she got ‘caught’? She's been nothing but cooperative the entire time.”

“Peh... whatever, useless piece of shit,” Heller said dismissively though there was clearly a glint of suspicion still in his eyes. “Take those off of her and then have it looked over, see what went wrong with it.”

“Yes sir.” One of the soldiers nodded and quickly bent over and undid Emerald's apparently deactivated manacles

'And it was almost all ruined by faulty equipment.' Emerald groused internally as the soldier carried away the manacles. 'Typical... well we're on our way out. Provided nothing stupid happens on the way, we should be fine.'

Thanks to her innocence and cooperation, Emerald was allowed to be without restraints in the base, though that hardly meant she wasn't on the verge of being frog marched out the front door. Heller, Dana and one other soldier accompanied Emerald onto the large, spacious elevator. A few minutes later she was walking out the elevator and coming out of an elevator next to her was Twilight, also being escorted by two soldiers.

Emerald couldn't help her reaction. She immediately darted over to Twilight and pulled her tight into hug before giving her a kiss. As Twilight gave a surprised squeak, one of the soldiers escorting Twilight gave a disgusted scoff that quickly turned into a grunt from the other soldier elbowing him.

“Oh come on. You were questioned about a crime, not being asked why we shouldn't kill the both of you,” Heller stated gruffly as he crossed his arms.

“Oh I don't know about that,” Dana said with an amused grin. “Considering Blackwatch's old reputation, I'd be pretty willing to kiss the first pair of lips I'd see the moment I come out of a base alive.”

“Whatever,” Heller waved off. “Come on you two, get moving.”

Restricting herself to just holding one of Twilight's hands while said new human blushed crimson, Emerald continued along the hall. Before long they were out the main doors of the base and being lead out of the defensive perimeter.

“Alright, you might not have killed them but remember what I said earlier,” Heller stated firmly. “Keep the killing to people no one cares about and we're gold.”

“Yes sir,” Emerald said lightly and continued to lead Twilight away.

“...Wow, I was expecting something to go wrong every moment,” Twilight said. “I honestly thought I was going to expect you teleporting us out of there and going on the run from the law.”

“That would have been a worst case scenario,” Emerald said, her mind drifting over to considering what the wider world reaction to such an event might be. “I'm glad that simple cooperation got us out of there.”

“Do you know where we are?” Twilight asked in some nervousness as she took in the empty streets, lit here and there by street lights.

“No, but it wouldn't take much to get my bearings,” Emerald said and knelt down onto a knee. “Get on my back, we'll start roof hopping.”

Twilight did so, wrapping her arms around Emerald's neck and her legs around her hips. Emerald wrapped her arms around Twilight's legs to help keep her in place. With barely a muttered warning, Emerald then leapt into the air.

“Ohmigosh, ohmigosh, ohmigosh!” Twilight shouted rapidly as they soared into the air. There was a moment where the momentum died off and they seemed to hover. Twilight almost released her hold on Emerald’s neck to spread her arms out when they suddenly plummeted. Twilight let out a scream and tightened her arms as tight as she could when their downward momentum rapidly died off as they approached the roof of an apartment.

“Sorry about that,” Emerald said as they lighted down onto the roof with barely a sound. “I needed to get my bearings. I know where to go so I won't need to jump as high.”

“No, it's... it's okay.” Twilight shook her head. “I guess since I have wings now I really ought to get used to things like this.”

“Well if it helps you stop crashing, then by all means,” Emerald said with a smile and bent down to jump.

“Well I’ve neVERFLOWNBEFORE!!” Twilight said, her voice rising into another shout as Emerald leapt.

“Maybe I should take you flying to get you used to heights and the like,” Emerald muttered as she landed with soft thump on the next roof and leapt again. “At least we don't have to deal with your wings here and now. Sleeping beside you wasn't easy with the things smacking me in the face every few minutes.”

“SORRY,” Twilight said with wide eyes as she tried to calm down.

With Emerald practically flying over several blocks with each bound, the two of them managed to get back to the hotel in a little over ten minutes of travel. They landed on the roof and just as the owner promised, the door was unlocked. Paying it back, Emerald made sure to lock it with a tendril after entering. A minute later, Emerald was casting stand down spells for her runic protections and opening the door with her key.

Inside they were met with the sight of Spike lying on his stomach staring at a game board in intense concentration. Opposite of him, sitting cross legged with a wide, toothy grin was Navi. The two of them turned towards Emerald and Twilight as they entered and Navi's smile somehow became ever brighter.

“MAMA! PAPA!” Navi squealed and ran at Emerald with arms wide open.

“Darn, maybe I'll get to break my losing streak next time,” Spike commented with a sideways grin as he started packing up the game.

Twilight smiled warmly at the sight of a wide eyed Emerald looking down at Navi who was hugging her legs. Suddenly, her smile disappeared as she recalled what else Navi had said.

“Wait, Papa?!” Twilight exclaimed in confusion. “We're both girls! Who's Papa?”

“You Papa!” Navi smiled brightly at Twilight who gaped at her in response.

“But-but-but I'm a girl!” Twilight exclaimed, placing her hands against her chest and unintentionally emphasizing her breasts. “Can't I be Mama instead?”

“Hmm... nope!” Navi hummed thoughtfully before saying cheerfully, “Papa!”

“But-” Twilight began.

“No, Mama is Mama, Papa is Papa,” Navi insisted, beginning to look upset before Emerald picked her up and held her close.

“Don't worry too much about it, Navi,” Emerald told the little girl. “Your father just gets hung up on the little details a lot.”

“Father?! But I'm a girl!” Twilight protested again.

“See?” Emerald pointed, making Navi giggle. “Like for instance, getting so hung up she never noticed a young child referred to us as her parents.”

“But...” Twilight started to protest again before the meaning of Emerald's words struck her. She froze in place and her mouth hung open as the idea of being parent at such a young age seemed to short circuit her.

“Papa making funny faces!” Navi giggled happily.

“She sure is,” Emerald commented and walked over to Spike who was putting the board game away. “So how was she?”

“She learns really, really fast,” Spike replied scratching his head sheepishly. “I won the first game by a mile, the second was really close, the third she was noticeably ahead of me and by the fourth we practically traded places. Been on a losing streak ever since.”

“Quick learner, huh?” Emerald said, looking down at Navi. “Guess you take after me, huh?”

“Hehehe!” Navi laughed as Emerald twiddled her fingers just over her nose.

“I'm... I'm a parent now?” Twilight said softly as she finally snapped out of her stupor.

“Yeah.” Emerald nodded and walked over before holding out Navi. “And your daughter would probably love it if her Papa properly said hello to her.”

Face still frozen in one of complete bemusement Twilight mindlessly took Navi into her arms. The little girl smiled happily before wrapping her arms around Twilight's neck and giving her a hug. Twilight's expression remained frozen for a moment before slowly shifting into a soft smile and returning Navi's hug.

“Well... it's far sooner than I thought it would happen, but... this isn't terrible,” Twilight said, smiling at Emerald.

“No it isn't,” Emerald agreed and looked out the window. “And speaking of time, it's getting a bit late. Let's start settling in for bed, shall we?”

“Yeah, I was wondering when you guys were going to get back,” Spike said and hopped onto his bunk. “What happened? I guess you didn't find Sunset?”

“No, we didn't.” Emerald shook her head with a sigh. “We got pretty close, but... we ran into some issues with the local law enforcement and had to answer some questions.”

“That's too bad,” Spike said and lied back on his bed.

“We'll continue the search tomorrow,” Twilight said firmly as she placed Navi back down and got a nod from Emerald.

“So...” Emerald said, looking Twilight up and down as she walked over. “While you can go to sleep in your clothes, it is uh... noticeably more comfortable not to.”

“Humans sleep naked?” Twilight asked and started unbuttoning her shirt.

“Uh, some do,” Emerald answered and shifted her form's clothes so that she was wearing a baggy t-shirt with boxers that ended halfway down her thighs. “Most either sleep in their underwear or go to sleep wearing clothes specially made for sleeping in.”

“Underwear?” Spike said and pulled his pants down to reveal a pair of green boxers with purples stripes. “This?”

“Yes, it's basically the last possible layer of clothes you are wearing,” Emerald said. On her bunk, Navi threw off her dress since everyone seemed to be doing so, revealing a small, sleeveless white shirt and white underwear.

“So is this fine?” Twilight asked and Emerald turned to look. She paused for a moment, taking in the sight of Twilight standing there wearing only a pair of purple panties and a purple bra.

“That's... perfect,” Emerald said and quickly scooted under the covers and moved to the far side of the bed. She lifted the blankets up off the empty half of the bed and patted it.

“It's been quite the day,” Twilight said as she sat and laid down on the bed, sliding over nearer to Emerald as said virus covered her with the blanket. “And there is still tomorrow we have to be prepared for.”

“Yeah,” Emerald agreed and wrapped an arm around Twilight. “I'm not going to be here all night, I'll be up and doing some things to try to make tomorrow a whole lot smoother than today has been.”

“Okay, Emerald,” Twilight said with a content sigh as she snuggled into the virus' side. “Can you turn off the lights?”

“Sure,” Emerald said and waved a hand, telekinetically flicking the switch from her bed. “Good night, everyone.”

“Good night,” Spike said with a yawn.

“Night night!” Navi replied.

With that, Emerald lay back in her bed and simply stared at the ceiling. Minutes passed and before long a half an hour had passed and Emerald was still in bed, holding a now sleeping Twilight. She continued listening to the slow, steady beat of her heart for another minute more before sighing.

'I really ought to get going,' Emerald thought. 'We need resources and it's better to use this time for it rather then when everyone is awake. I-huh?'

Feeling movement by the base of her bed, Emerald looked down to see Navi clambering up into it as quietly as she could. When Navi saw that Emerald was still awake, she paused. Emerald paused in thought as well. The bed was already pretty cramped already...

“Come on... get in here,” Emerald said softly, lifting the blanket at her empty side up.

Navi scrambled quietly over before settling under the covers. The little girl wiggled in place for a moment before snuggling into Emerald's side with a happy little sigh.

'Yeah, after this I don't think I could ever go back to treating you like you are just my pet,' Emerald thought as she stroked Navi's hair briefly before wrapping an arm around her as well. 'I don't know why I didn't see this coming when I infected you with the Blacklight virus. Of course you would grown beyond your parasprite origins with the body you had. I'm with Twilight on this. I didn't expect this kind of thing to ever happen to me but the idea of a child isn't at all unappealing.'

Another half an hour passed with Emerald simply holding two people who loved and cared for her unconditionally. All good things come to an end, however, and Emerald couldn't justify wasting any more time no matter how much she wished to.

'Right. Off to work, then,' Emerald thought as she closed her eyes and called upon her magic.

A second later the sound of Emerald's soft snores joined the others that filled the room.

Johnathan Dewy apparently was a very laid back fellow who took many thing in as they came. He took the fact his wife's normally light brown hair was neon green in stride as well as the fact the black and white tile floor behaved more like water. Indeed, the only thing that was even slightly bothering him was the fact he couldn't find his daughter, though he could hear her voice.

“Pass the ham and ice cream, please!” he heard his daughter say.

“Here you go, honey,” he said, holding a plate out to his daughter who took it, all without seeing her or knowing where she actually was.

The table Johnathan was sitting at wasn't only occupied by his bright haired wife and missing present daughter; there were many other people there as well, as he seemed to be having a family get together. He took the fact there seemed to be something a bit off with each person in stride as well, like the fact his seven foot tall, three hundred pound uncle was somehow able to sit comfortably on a stool with a seat so small it practically ended in a point.

Suddenly Johnathan gave a fully body twitch as an alien feeling that was like a combination of nausea, vertigo and lightheadedness assailed him. He felt that something was wrong, something was here that shouldn't have been here. The feeling seemed to not be restricted to him either as his family seemed to have a similar response.

“Uh oh...” they said as one and got off their seats in perfect synch with each other. In a goose step like fashion they each left the room through separate door.

Johnathan looked around himself in a panicked fashion, trying his hardest to find the source of the wrongness. He snapped around when he heard a thoughtful hum to find no one there. He turned again in panic at the sounds of something running at him only to see nothing. He turned sharply at the sound of something wooden snapping to be met with a broken chair atop the table and words burned into the table top.

LOOK THIS WAY they read.

Suddenly a hand gripped the back of his head and his face met the table top with a bang. He struggled and twisted to no avail. He began to feel like that of something sharp being driven into his skull, a feeling that went on and on and he screamed.

Johnathan Dewy's eyes snapped open and he quickly threw himself to the side... landing with a painful bang on the hard concrete floor. He groaned and looked up to see the small apartment he had been given when he arrived to work for Blackwatch.

'Just a nightmare,' John thought as he stumbled onto his feet. 'Jesus Christ what a nightmare... what time is it?'

Glancing over at the digital clock by his bedside, he saw it was only half past one in the morning. With a groan, he decided to use the bathroom before heading back to bed.

Far away in a place impossible for human beings to reach sat a rather familiar being.

'Well that was interesting,' Emerald thought as she sat crossed legged in a foggy realm. 'Either dream walking is so utterly alien to humans they can't help but notice it or I need to work on my technique.'

Earth's dream realm was much like Equestria's in appearance save for the fact that the dream bubbles were much more varied in appearance. Back in Equestria, pony dreams normally came in calm little bubbles with the odd stormy one for nightmares. She recalled Luna describing one of Emerald's night terrors as an angry red bubble arcing with red lightning. There were more than a few like that here among a few other unique ones. One of which was an oily looking one that had black wisps covering its surface. Emerald had been initially curious of its contents but a few unfortunate glimpses past the wisps gave her more than an eyeful of what that dream had been about.

'What does the black represent anyway?' Emerald thought. 'Evilness? Corruption? Impurity? It could be all three for all I know. Might even just be a really disturbing dream that makes you wish you forgot it like most dreams. I don't know, but in any case...'

'My test to see if my memory stealing capabilities can work in dreams passed with flying colors,' Emerald thought as she stood back up. 'I didn't really learn much, but it did point me in the right direction. Given some effort and some luck I should find some engineers who work for Blackwatch in the next few hours.'

Emerald stretched out her arms and closed her eyes. The dream bubbles around her whirled into movement, orbiting her rapidly, some moving closer and others moving further away. Eventually they settled again and the virus walked towards the nearest one.

'Whether or not I find the pertinent information, I need to wake up in a few hours so I can get to work on getting us money,' Emerald thought. 'I can't just magic up copies of any bill I come across, the serial numbers would give it away the moment someone thinks to check. Hmm...'

Twilight awoke with a yawn and to the sound of laughter. Sitting up, she rubbed the sleep out of her eyes and looked beside her. As expected, Emerald was gone. Looking over to the rest of the room she was met with the sight of Navi and Spike in their underwear playing a board game. Morning light filled the room with its warm glow as she leaned over to take a closer look. It was a complicated looking game with many plastic toys that connected to one another. Judging by the way Navi had her arms in the air and Spike had his face in the floor, the little girl was winning.

“Morning everyone,” Twilight said through another yawn.

“Mornin...” Spike muttered through the carpet.

“Heeeeey~” Navi said happily and hopped over, quickly wrapping up one of Twilight's hands in both of hers.

“Hey there little cutie.” Twilight smiled. “Having fun?”

“Uh huh!” Navi smiled.

“Ugh, I feel a little gross,” Twilight said after running a hand through her hair. “I'm going to go take a shower.”

“Have a good one,” Spike waved off. “I'll see about this new losing streak I've got.”

Twilight walked into the bathroom. It was definitely much nicer looking after Emerald got through with it, but it was still quite cramped. After spending a few minutes fumbling with her bra, she got into the shower and started to fumble with the knobs briefly before getting the water flowing and at a comfortable temperature.

'Emerald said she was going to do some things to make today easier for us,' Twilight thought as the water poured down. 'Is she getting us some more money? I'm pretty sure we burned through most of the amount we acquired from those thugs that attacked us. I'm kind of hoping we find someplace much more comfortable for all of us to stay in as well. It's kind of not the priority right now, I know, but if we can make our time here as comfortable as possible then we should try for it.'

Twilight heard the front door open, followed by a happy exclamation from Navi. Obviously Emerald was back from whatever errands she had to run during the night. Twilight quickly finished up in the shower - she almost forgot to put her underwear back on after she had quickly dried herself off - and went for the door.

“Hey there,” Emerald greeted Twilight with smile as she left the washroom. “Looking good there.”

“Really?” Twilight asked and looked down at the bra and panties she was only wearing. “I'm not exactly wearing much.”

Emerald's response to that was a sly smile that suddenly made Twilight's cheeks flush. Feeling a slight chill from the breeze of an open window, she decided to put her other clothes back on.

“So how was your night?” Twilight asked as she began redressing and Spike went into the washroom to clean up as well.

“Very productive,” Emerald replied with a smile and dug in a pocket to pull out a thick clip of money. “I went on a trip around the world and started selling random bits and pieces I conjured up to everyone that would let me make a sale on the spot. We've got more then enough money to make the next few days very comfortable. Had to make several separate trips to banks along the coast to exchange everything into local currency but it all works out. I also did some dream walking to do some data mining.”

“And?” Twilight asked as she buttoned up her white shirt and started to do her vest and tie next. “Did you find anything on Sunset.”

“I was focusing on Blackwatch,” Emerald answered as she walked over and helped Twilight out with the tie. “You know, in case they actually caught her and have her hidden away in some hole in the ground or... well I found out a lot about Blackwatch in general and so far it looks like they don't have her.”

“What do we do next, then?” Twilight asked as she buttoned up her vest.

“Well first we check out of this place and find somewhere much more spacious and comfortable,” Emerald replied. “Then I grab some things to make our stay more comfortable. Not to mention getting food for everyone as well as a few other luxuries.”

“Should we really be spending money on luxuries here?” Twilight asked.

“Don't see why not.” Emerald shrugged. “We got the money to spare and it's not like it takes any real effort for me to get more.”

“Well as long as it doesn't cause us any problems,” Twilight said and looked down to see Navi happily standing beside Emerald in her underwear, simply content to stand beside her “Mama” and look up at her. “Navi, as soon as Spike is done, you should...”

Twilight frowned as she took in some key details about Navi. Though she recently woke up she didn't have bed head. In fact, her hair was looking as picture perfect as it did yesterday. Considering she intimately knew one other person who enjoyed this condition as well, Twilight felt rather suspicious. She knelt down and motioned to Navi with a beckoning gesture.

“Navi come here,” Twilight said and Navi did so. Once she was in front of Twilight, Twilight placed her hands on the little girl's shoulders. “Navi, don't breath until I tell you, okay?”

“Kay.” Navi nodded and simply stopped breathing. As the moments passed, she started rocking back and forth on her heels until Twilight was done with her. After the first minute passed with Navi looking as comfortable as ever, Twilight looked up at Emerald with narrowed eyes.

“Emerald... what did you do?” Twilight said slowly.

“Uhh...” Emerald flushed and looked a little embarrassed. “I turned Navi into an Evolved like me.”

“Why?” Twilight pressed.

“She was... she was dying of old age,” Emerald said and Twilight gasped. “I didn't want to let her go after having her for all those years. So I turned her into what I am and she was fine.”

“Well that's fine. Yes Navi, you can breath again,” Twilight said and added when Navi poked her. “I wouldn't want to lose Owliscious either, but when in the world did this happen? And why didn't you tell me?”

“It happened after the Wedding,” Emerald answered, and seeing Twilight getting angry she quickly added, “It was the same day you came back from Canterlot and we had that argument.”

“Oh...” Twilight frowned.

“Yeah, I didn't really feel like telling you much of anything right just then.” Emerald shrugged a bit helplessly. “And afterwards... I just never really occurred to me to do so. It was an easy thing to ignore in the favour of more important things when she was just a little parasprite.”

“It's alright, Emerald. I forgive you,” Twilight said. Looking down, she saw Navi's upset look and quickly added with a hug, “I could never be mad at you, Navi. Besides, it isn't your fault either.”

“Love you, Papa,” Navi said, returning Twilight's hug and also making her twitch.

“So what I miss?” Spike asked, coming out of the bathroom drying his short hair with a towel. “Everyone have a moment and I missed it?”

“Pretty much.” Emerald nodded. “So more of the usual, really.”

“Alright, so we heading out now?” Spike asked as he chucked the towel aside and started redressing as well.

“Yeah. Navi, go put your clothes back on,” Emerald said. “We'll head out as soon as everyone is all set to go.”

Just then there was a ringing noise and Emerald dug around in a pocket and pulled out a mass of wires and circuits. Twilight stared in open curiosity of what Emerald was holding as said virus stared down at her ramshackle looking device.

“What is that?” Twilight asked as Emerald started tapping her finger on the device.

“It's an iPhone,” Emerald replied. “I took it off some guy that tried to mug me when I was out and about last night. He actually had the sense to get it cut off pretty quickly after I took it but I was already making adjustments to it. Normally you need a paid contract with a phone company for one of these to work properly. However with the adjustments I've made I not only do not have to worry about a contract but battery power isn't an issue, either.”

“I do not understand a lot of that, but,” Twilight said. “You've basically got a communication device now, right?”

“It's a bit more than just a communicator,” Emerald said, shaking her new phone in emphasis. “But that is the gist of it. I'll explain more on the way to our apartment.”

“Apartment?” Twilight blinked. “When did that happen?”

“Just now,” Emerald answered, pointing at her phone. “I sent a message requesting a place with the offer of a substantial safety deposit upon accepting our moving in. Once we move in I need to head out again and do some shopping for us but I shouldn't need to get too much. The place is already fully furnished, after all.”

“That sounds expensive...” Twilight murmured, though honestly she had no clue just how much. She had stayed at the palace without spending a penny and the library in Ponyville was given to her, so she had no point of reference when it came to housing prices.

“Provided we... catch Sunset,” Emerald began with a bit of a pause. “We won't have to worry about money for the rest of our stay here.”

“Then let's not waste anymore time!” Twilight said firmly.

“Sure.” Emerald nodded and looked to the others. “Everybody ready?”

“Yep.”

“Yes, Mama.”

“Let's get going, then,” Emerald said and opened the door for the others.

When they passed her out into the hall, Emerald turned her attention to the room, namely the runic protections she had placed on it. It wouldn't do for someone to get a room here and to find out it was nigh impossible to get into it after all. After rapidly tearing down the protections, she turned her attentions to the altered room itself. She was about to return it to how it was before but she recalled the owner, namely how she helped them and left the roof entrance open for them and didn't judge Emerald for being a “Cursor”. So with a considering hum, Emerald decided to leave the room be and closed the door behind her.

“Well that's done.” Emerald said, twirling a set of keys at the head of everyone as they left the landlord's apartment, said landlord likely still staring at the stack of money he likely had be partly expecting to be a lie. “Let's head up, shall we?”

“I was expecting a long, drawn out interview process,” Twilight commented as she closed the door behind her.

“Money is the all-purpose oil for all of society's annoyances,” Emerald replied.

Twilight just sighed at that.

Unlike the hotel, the elevator was working in this building. They were on the fourth floor within a minute and were walking down the hallway. Either the people here were rather trusting of one another or they had some bad habits as more than a few doors were ajar or fully open. One door wide open revealed a living room with a young man sitting on a couch and playing a game on his television.

“Ohhhhh~” Navi gasped in interest and strained against Emerald grip on her hand.

“Come on now.” Emerald said, pulling her back close with a sharp tug. “Don't go wandering into other peoples’ homes, especially ones you don't know.”

“Okay!”

Emerald lead the group to their apartment door and opened it after unlocking it with the key. Inside they were met with a fairly decent sized apartment, clearly meant for small families. The living room, the kitchen and the dining room were one big room and there was a short hallway with three doors.

“It's a bit small,” Twilight commented as she looked around, thinking about her home back in Ponyville. “But it's good for how long we are staying here.”

“Right...” Emerald nodded and looked over the apartment with her own eyes. The appliances were decent, but hardly top of the line. Many of the metal appliances looked old and had some rust spots forming. Even with the three years she had been gone the TV looked obsolete to Emerald. Heading down the hallway, Emerald decided to investigate the other rooms. One was a bathroom that was much bigger than the one they had before and even had a tub. Both of the other rooms were bedrooms with attached closets. One was a bit bigger than the other and was clearly supposed to be the master bedroom, considering it also had a queen size and the other held a twin. They also held some basic furniture just like the rest of the apartment did, however none of them were anything to be impressed by.

'Well...' Emerald thought and cracked her fingers. 'Let's do some renovating, shall we?'

Just like before, Emerald upgraded their living space to make it more comfortable. She gave the master bedroom a bit of a facelift and added several amenities for Twilight's sake. She gave what was going to be Spike and Navi's room some improvements; a box of toys, a shelf of books, turned the bed into a bunk and included several board games since Navi clearly enjoyed it. The bathroom was fairly decent already and all she did for that was some cleaning and restocking. The kitchen she replaced the appliances with many shinier, stainless steel versions and the dining table with a glass one, also replacing the rather rigid wooden chairs with comfy, modern looking ones. The living half of the main room got a facelift as well; the couch, paintings and arm chair that wouldn't look out of place at the home of an elderly couple were replaced with much more modern looking versions. Emerald spent several minutes on the TV, creating a replica of the latest flat screen from 2012 she had been aware of with matching remote. The room came with a satellite receiver and Emerald decided not to touch that just yet.

“Right,” Emerald began as she turned the TV on and handed the remote to Twilight. “I need to actually be seen running chores for us and for it to take some time, otherwise people living here will get suspicious. I'll be going grocery shopping as well as buying a few choice things for us. Shouldn't take more than two hours at most. I'll be back by noon.”

“I know you don't need me to tell you of all people this, but,” Twilight began and gave Emerald a hug. “Stay safe.”

“I will,” Emerald replied. “I'll make sure to armour up the front door a bit before I leave. This place looks safe enough so I'll save the heavy fortification for later.”

With that, Emerald spent five minutes placing runic protections around the front before finally leaving. Twilight turned to the TV remote Emerald had given her. She then began to look over the remote, very carefully reading each and every button.

“Navi and I will go take a look at our room,” Spike said as Navi bolted ahead of him to their room. “See what Emerald did with it.”

“Okay Spike.” Twilight nodded as she walked over to the couch and sat on it. “I'll be here figuring this device out.”

After spending the next minute looking over the buttons and testing a few out to see exactly what each did, Twilight began to properly channel surf with some effort. Most of the channels didn't mean much to her and one outright frightened here with a low groaning sound and pair of wide, open staring eyes peering at her. Eventually after quickly flipping through a dozen channels from the scary one she came to a stop on a channel marked “Fox News”. Interested in getting to know a bit more about Emerald's world, she decided to stay put.

“-tensions in the Middle East reached a critical point earlier this morning as the resurgent Taliban  grows their influence from their centre of power in Afghanistan,” an older looking man said solemnly as he stared into the camera. “Allegations of responsibility for assassinations of various political officials outspoken of their opposition to the terrorist group are widespread. Experts are predicting a new onset of conflict in the region and another hike to gas prices.”

“You know, it's horrible. We had this group on a run only a few years ago,” said a young blonde woman who was sitting beside the man. “I have nothing but sympathies for the people who have to actually live there, but I can't imagine this shocking turn around. How did it get like this?”

“I'll tell you why. It's because America isn't there holding the leash,” the man replied confidently. “It's because three years ago a little something called “Blackgate” happened and all the vultures in the world saw their chance to try to take the big dog's place at the top. Now we are seeing the consequences of it and now with everyone having had a go at taking care of themselves they want America to come back and take care of them.”

“Even so, there are some people in this great country of ours who think we got what we deserved,” the woman replied, sounding like she didn't think much of said people.

“Those same people are as likely to sympathize with a slug as they are to nations that aren't their rightful own,” the man said and looked off to the side for a moment. “My apologies to viewers at home, this is a very hotly debated topic here at Fox and we've gone a bit off track.”

Twilight frowned. Something about this news reporter made her not like him all that much. She didn't exactly know if there even was other news channels to watch, however, so she decided to stay here for now.

“Sociologist expert Daniel Jackson was interviewed by one of our reporters earlier in the week,” the news anchor stated in a much calmer voice. “He was given the tough questions that's been on everyone's mind for the past three years. Should we really allow the Cursors more rights? And should we even allow their continued existence? Are they government property? Here's what he had to say on these subjects.”

Twilight's frown only deepened on hearing these words as the scene on the TV changed to a well furnished room with two heavily stuffed leather chairs and two men sitting in them.

“Thank you for agreeing to our request for an interview so quickly, Dr. Jackson,” said what must have been the reporter, a handsome looking man wearing an expensive looking suit.

“Uh, yes of c-course,” Dr Jackson nodded, adjusting his glasses. He was a young looking man with circular glasses and short brown hair, and wearing a suit as well. “I've only been out of university for a year. I couldn't help but leap at this opportunity.”

“This is a great opportunity for us as well, Dr. Jackson,” the reporter smiled. “Now Dr. Jackson, in the short time you've been out of university you've managed to become one of the better known experts regarding the Cursors and their place in modern society.”

“Well, expert is a bit far, but I guess I am the most publicly known due to my willingness for public speaking regarding this...” Jackson stated and gathered his thoughts. “I mean I've only written a single paper on the Cursors' abilities and how in day to day society-”

“Of course, of course, sorry interrupt Doctor, but,” the reporter broke in. “We only have so much time here for questions.”

“Uh... sorry.”

“It's no problem, Doctor,” the reporter said and brought up some notes. “Now the first question. People feel the Cursors are too strong, too dangerous to be allowed outside the NYZ and honestly I too agree with them on the sentiment. Even the weakest of them is supposed to be able to tear apart a tank with their bare hands.”

“Fear is a common response, especially for things we can't entirely control,” Jackson answered.

“And what do you mean by that, doctor?” the reporter asked. “The Cursors are all kept within one area. Other than the infamous Heir himself, none have ever been outside the quarantine walls.”

“Yes I've looked at the paperwork of all the rules the UN put in place to regulate the Cursors, as well as seen the defences myself,” Dr. Jackson replied with an adjustment of his glasses. “Now I'm no military strategist, but neither am I an unintelligent man. From what I understand of their physical capabilities, the Cursors don't need air as dearly as we humans do. The rules put in place by the UN appear to be there only to make it appear either that they are doing something or the situation is under control. Because just from reading up on some of their abilities it's clear the established rules are so flimsy they might as well not exist. And while the walls are quite clearly heavily guarded, there is nothing really stopping the Cursors from uhh... from pulling a Pirates of the Caribbean basically and walking out via the floor of the bay. I doubt the ships we keep out there are enough to stop all of them if they decided to leave via that route.”

“So what you are saying is that...” the reporter began. “Is that the Cursors are uncontrollable and nothing would stop them should they wish to leave the quarantine?”

“Well basically... but the thing is, is that they are people as well and as people they want to be accep-”

“Now on to the next question, Doctor.” the reporter continued. “This is a widely and hotly debated one even three years later. Should the Cursors be allowed to exist?”

“...Now to begin to explain this, I must go to a controversial topic,” Dr. Jackson began. “Genocide. The purpose of it is to eradicate a specific population and its culture. Failing that, then by fear of death and violence driving them from the country and far from their influence. When one looks at history of genocide and its end result, the truth is that it unfortunately works.”

“Genocide works?” the reporter said, wide eyed.

“Yes...” Dr. Jackson sighed. “Compare populations of pre-WWII of the Jewish in Germany to modern numbers. Modern Jewish populations roughly number two hundred and fifty thousand, only half that of pre-war populations in the nineteen thirties. You'll find the same immensely decreased numbers of targeted populations everywhere a genocide has happened.”

“Very informative,” the reporter commented. “But how does this tie into the original question.”

“Because how genocide succeeds would likely meet failure when it comes to the Cursors,” Jackson answered. “They are a population group unlike anything this Earth has likely ever seen in its billions of years of existence. Incredibly strong, more durable than most man made metals, faster than anything alive, more senses packed into them then any life form on the planet, genetic immortality. And though this is a bit of a guess on my part, they likely can asexually reproduce, that is... make babies with only one parent. And... they can take any shape they so wish.”

“Long story short,” Jackson continued in the silence that followed. “Genocide on the Cursors would almost certainly fail because it would only ever take one individual to repopulate.”

“So what you are saying is,” the reporter began. “That if we let them out they could become an unstoppable wave?”

“W-well... in the worst case scenario-Look, this comes back to what I was trying to say before. They as a people are tryi-”

“Final question,” the reporter broke in quickly. “There was a law passed a while ago. I don't have the details but basically it goes like this: Any lifeform created by a group or individual is owned by said group or individual, thereby allowing the copyright of life forms. Do you, Doctor Daniel Jackson, believe that the Cursors are property of the United States Government? They were, after all, created by the Blacklight virus, a viral bioweapons created by the government and thus should rightfully fall under this law of ownership.”

“...” Jackson stared for a moment, now more than a bit suspicious about the intent of the interview. “I do believe that would be, uhh... slavery, and that we had a rather big war about it little over a century ago.”

“Of course, of course.” The reporter smiled. “I do believe we are done here, Doctor. Thank you for coming.”

The reporter then leaned over and reached out his hand for a handshake. Dr. Jackson paused and the video abruptly cut there and switched back to the news room.

“There you have it, ladies and gentlemen,” the male news anchor stated solemnly. “From the mouth of an expert to your ears. We here at Fox certainly can’t tell you what to think but there is all the information you need for an opinion right there. Now, switching gears here. Aspiring Presidential candidate Donald Trump voiced his goals towards becoming the Republican Nominee for President earlier this week. We had a team at the rally to record what he had to say. Roll the footage.”

Twilight frowned at that, still unsure how to take what she had been watching and listening to. She was of the opinion that the interviewer could have handled the interview better. Suddenly the channel changed and Twilight was met with a cartoon pink skinned girl in a pink parka holding some kind of strange gun-like weapon.

“Then I'll use my Ball Blam Burglerber!” the girl proclaimed.

“Huh?” Twilight blinked and looked down to see the remote she was holding was gone. She turned to look for it when she was met with Emerald leaning over the back of the couch and holding the remote. An expression of calm as she simply watched the cartoon for a moment before turning to Twilight.

“Watching Fox News, huh?” Emerald stated as she placed the remote on the coffee table. “I would take everything they say with a pinch of salt, they tend to lean towards sensationalism. If you want some nice news reporting you might want to watch the Daily Show instead, but that's just me... I always did like the splash of humour Jon Stewart added to everything.”

“Oh...” Twilight said and faced towards the screen, watching the pink girl riding an odd looking rainbow coloured unicorn with a really long body. “So everyone in this country isn't all like that.”

“Don't let the shouting of people who like to get all the attention colour your view of others,” Emerald stated, standing up right and crossing her arms. “Experience has taught me that the average person doesn't really care for the grand schemes that politicians and their like get up to. They just want their peaceful way of life to go on. This fact is known to those same politicians and they will often phrase things in ways that make it seem like it will be a massive threat to the average person.”

“So don't let them use my fear against me, is that it?” Twilight asked as she continued to watch the cartoon.

“Basically,” Emerald replied and moved over to place both her hands on Twilight's shoulders. “I know this world is strange and very frightening in many ways to you. There is darkness, there will always be darkness, but that is not all there is.”

“You are being very strangely positive, Emerald,” Twilight commented, looking over her shoulder at the virus. “I'm not complaining, but it's very surprising.”

“I guess it's because back home I'd often make up threats hiding in the shadows to satisfy my own paranoia.” Emerald sighed. “I don't need to make up anything here. I don't need to lie to myself about the existence of a threat. It's all very true here. I'm back in my element.”

“You're not really reassuring me with that kind of talk, Emerald.”

“Just remember that there is always good in spite of evil.” Emerald squeezed Twilight's shoulders. “Enough good men and woman went down swinging in futility against my claws to prove that fact to me.”

“...” Twilight stayed silent. She had the crimes of Emerald's past reminded to her enough times that this time didn't have the impact it usually did. It did remind her that Emerald, despite her immense strength, did not have much self respect and that guilt plagued her heavily.

“I'll be cooking us some brunch,” Emerald said in the silence, releasing Twilight's shoulders. “I'll tell you when it's done. I'll just be right behind you after all.”

'Is it really just making up threats in the dark for the sake of your own paranoia, though?' Twilight thought as Emerald left. 'How many threats have assaulted Equestria, and how many were put down quickly and ruthlessly because you were constantly preparing for the next big hidden enemy around the corner? Every year since I've moved to Ponyville there's been a massive threat against the Kingdom. First was Nightmare Moon, then there was Discord, then the Changelings, then Sombra and then there was your evil alternate self. So many threats and getting more potent and dangerous with every year. After all this, could anyone really hold it against you to keep preparing?'

'Honestly, I think I should join you. I could do with learning a few more aggressive spells,' Twilight thought as the pink cartoon girl battled a strange heart creature. 'Other than that, I... I feel like I am beginning to think you are being too hard on yourself... is that a bad thing? Is it because I love you that I feel this way? I wish I could ask Cadance or the Princess for advice, but all I have is my own feelings to guide me now...'

Twilight let her mind drift aimlessly and watched the cartoon. It was honestly pretty good and entertaining and apparently was on again as soon as it was over. Before long, twenty minutes had passed and Emerald's calls to her knocked her out of her binge watching. Almost reluctantly, she tore herself away form the TV and that was when she actually noticed the wonderful smell in the air.

“Mmmmm!” Twilight let out a moan. “Something smells good!”

“Finally noticed, did you?” Emerald called out from the kitchen a dozen feet away. “You became a real couch potato over there.”

Twilight turned around to see Emerald setting two plates down at the table. Spike and Navi were already there with plates of their own. Twilight walked over to the dining table as Emerald started to quickly and magically clean the dishes and place them back in the cupboards. By the time the former unicorn sat down at the table, Emerald was already done and moving to do the same.

Twilight looked down at the brunch Emerald prepared. There were pieces of what was clearly potatoes, some toast to the side, a glass of orange juice. However that was were her recognition of what was on the plate ended. There was these long, thin brown strips that seemed a little greasy looking along with a bigger, thicker brown slab, then there was these small, yellowish-white puffy things.

“What's this?” Twilight asked.

“Steak and eggs brunch,” Emerald answered. “Specifically, homemade hash browns, orange juice, toast, bacon, steak and scrambled eggs... Navi, don't eat with your hands. Use your cutlery.”

“Mmmmmm~” Navi moaned, chewing on the steak in one hand and bacon in the other.

“This is pretty great,” Spike said, wrapping a piece of bacon around a fork and eating each piece whole.

“Eggs?” Twilight frowned as she poked at said eggs on her plate with a fork. “And what exactly is the steak and bacon?”

“Meat,” Emerald replied simply.

“M-meat?!” Twilight exclaimed as Navi worked out her knife and fork and started tearing into her steak with gusto. “I can't eat this, Emerald! I”m a-”

“Human,” Emerald stated, pointedly magicking up a mirror in the air before Twilight's face for a moment before eating a mouthful of eggs. “Which is an omnivore, not an herbivore. You could try eating leaves and grasses, I'll be waiting for you in to bathroom when your stomach inevitably disagrees with your choice.”

“Is this really my only choice?” Twilight pouted down as she forked a piece of bacon.

“There is such a thing as a vegan diet,” Emerald answered as she ate a piece of steak. “I could buy vegetables that will provide you with the needed nutrients you would primarily get from meat. However... I just finished spending pretty much every dollar we had on getting us a better place to sleep, as well as stocking up enough food to last us till the day we are supposed to leave, not to mention buying a few other miscellaneous things. I can get you these things but I would also need to get more money for it. Just please give it a try, Twilight.”

“Oh... okay Emerald, I'm sorry for making this such an issue,” Twilight said before taking a breath and putting the bacon in her mouth. She waited several moments before finally chewing it and swallowing.

“And?” Emerald asked after biting her toast.

“...It's good,” Twilight said but still had a frown on her face as well as a guilty look.

“You're imagining the animals on Applejack's farm right now, aren't you?” Emerald asked knowingly and got a nod. “Don't. The animals on Earth are nowhere near like those in Equestria. The vast majority of them are ruled by their instincts on a day to day basis. The only real thing they care about is the fact they are alive and fed by the time the sun falls, rinse and repeat.”

“Oh.” Twilight blinked. That honestly did make her feel much better about eating the meat. No longer feeling any guilt about eating beings that one could have had a conversation with and be good friends with, she started digging in. It honestly was pretty good.

“Done!” Navi said happily.

“Navi, what have I told you about eating so fast?”

“Sorry Mama...”

Twilight smiled, feeling warm and happy emotions bubble up in her chest.

'Decided to go the extra mile, huh?' Emerald thought as she looked down at the gang hideout from a nearby rooftop.

Emerald had left the apartment ten minutes ago. Before she had done so, she had done two things. First she had introduced Spike and Navi to a Nintendo Wii U and left it to the two of them to get it hooked up and running. Next she armoured up the front door with some runes, just something to immediately alert her and keep the door standing in the face of breaching explosives. Then after leaving she made straight for the gang hideout she had tracked Sunset to yesterday.

'So much chemicals in the air,' Emerald thought with sniff. 'I bet even normal humans can smell this from a good distance away. Certainly annihilated any scent trails. What to do... should I really even bother?'

Emerald sat down on the roof ledge and rested her head on her hands. There were so many hints and evidence pointing towards the idea that before yesterday Sunset Shimmer had never set foot on Earth before. She found herself rather hollow at the idea of being stuck on Earth after making a home for herself on Equestria, after making friends and being responsible for the well being of all those in the Enclave only to be stuck on Earth?

'Back in my element?' Emerald thought mockingly of her past words. 'What a load of bullshit. I don't want to be here, I want to go home and leave everything behind. I don't want to have to deal with this shit but I'm going to have to... jeez, look at me. I used to be able to stand on two feet just fine despite the fact everyone wanted me dead... no, I was never fine, was I? It took having loved ones and friends to realize how sick I was. I don't want to go back to this, everyone hating me and enemies no matter where I look... I... I...'

Emerald shook her head and stood back up. Deciding she needed to distract herself, she decided to move forward and just keep moving until something happened. After only a minute she left the deserted area of Brooklyn and was hopping over streets with people in them. The car population hadn't really recovered all that well after the two viral disasters, and the recession that followed soon after meant that people jaywalked freely without much issue.

“MONSTER!” Emerald heard shouted after her as she leapt across one street. It slid off her current state of near total apathy like a drop of water on steel. She just kept going. Landing on the edge of one building, her attention drawn to some angry shouting. She turned to see two young teenage boys trying to fend off an older man who was trying to pull off the backpack of the slightly older boy. Without really thinking about it, Emerald transfigured a blade in her hand and let it fly.

The man let loose a scream as the blade sunk into the back of his knee with a thump. He collapsed to the ground holding his leg, panting in agony. The two boys stared for a moment before looking in the direction the blade came from and saw Emerald perched on the ledge. The virus watched as they simply took off running, leaving the man on the ground who was cursing and slowly crawling away.

Emerald looked down towards the man for a moment, she probably could send another knife flying, this one with a much more lethal destination and no one would know or care. Deciding that probably giving a man likely permanent damage to his knee for petty thievery was heavy handed enough without adding death into the mix, she left him to whatever fate awaited him and continued forward.

Emerald continued roof hopping without stopping, occasionally getting a shouted insult following her but paying just as much attention as the first. She came to a stop briefly when she ran out of roofs to hop and was left facing the bay. She turned and started hopping in a different direction. Eventually her ears caught the sounds of people fighting and she immediately turned for it.

Within a minute Emerald was sitting on the ledge of a building overlooking a wide open back alley. There was two people fighting in the alley below but it wasn't a real fight, it was more of a spar. One was a beautiful, curvy woman wearing a short black skirt with suspenders, a small, tight sleeveless white shirt, a pair of red boots and padded red gloves along with a pair of hard elbow pads. Her hair was long and dark brown, easily reaching down to her tailbone and held together with dark red binding. The other was a massive mountain of a man that was almost grotesquely muscled and somewhat out of proportion considering how small his head looked. He had a hair styled in a crew cut and was wearing a pair of black pants and a white muscle shirt with black boots. Along his bare arms were many surgical scars. The sight of these made Emerald certain that if his back and stomach were visible, there would be clear distortions from subdermal armour plating. This man was clearly an off duty super soldier.

Emerald watched the two fight. The woman was small and agile and made use of inhumanly acrobatic flips and jumps to maneuver around her opponent. The Super Soldier was clearly fast as well but not as agile as his smaller opponent was. Whenever she leapt too close when dodging a blow he would instantly punish it with a crushing chop of his hand. Not that the woman wasn't strong as well. Whenever she managed to find an opening she'd deliver a punch that would send the soldier skidding back several feet.

'Well at least she is aware that a miniskirt is hardly the most appropriate thing for a fight.' Emerald thought as the woman give a high kick, revealing a pair of biking shorts under her skirt instead of panties.

“Oh!” the woman exclaimed as she suddenly caught sight of Emerald sitting on a roof ledge, holding a hand up to her sparring mate she raised her other one in a wave. “Hello over there!”

Emerald hopped off the ledge and landed onto the concrete with a loud thump and walked over to the two sparring mates.

“You’re him, aren't you? You're Oskar?” The woman asked with an eager smile before gasping and putting a hand to her mouth. “Oh sorry, I meant to say her, not him.”

“That's alright,” Emerald said. “And yes, I used to go by Oskar before. My name is Emerald now.”

“Hi, my name's Trisha.” The woman smiled brightly and held out a hand. “I wasn't around when it all started. I joined up soon after. I've been hoping to meet you one of these days.”

“Really?” Emerald arched a brow as she grasped Trisha's hand. “I didn't think anyone would be looking forward to me ever showing up.”

“Well... yeah, that's kinda true actually,” Trisha replied, tapping a forefinger against her temple.

“Are we done for today, Trish?” The super soldier asked with a Russian accent.

“Uh yeah I think so, Artyom,” Trisha said. “Aren't you going to introduce...”

Artyom started briskly walking away and Trisha sighed at the obvious show of ignoring Emerald.

“Uhh... normally he's a pretty friendly guy.” Trisha said with a sheepish laugh.

“Hn, not really insulted.” Emerald crossed her arms and shook her head. “I'm just glad I don't have a shoot on sight order on me. Course it might be the wider world just hasn't heard of me reappearing just yet.”

“You have to have hope, Emerald!” Trisha said confidently, her hands clenched tightly before her. “Three years you were out there in the world, everyone was afraid you were just waiting for the best moment to strike, to let loose some more viral hell on the world. But you didn't! All those years with no one watching your every move and you didn't hurt anyone! It has to count for something, doesn't it? They'll give you a chance, I know it!”

“You're pretty optimistic, aren't you,” Emerald stated.

“Someone has to be,” Trisha said with a huff. “Sure there are plenty of assholes in the world but that's no excuse to let them get you down and be an asshole too! Besides, people can always surprise you and show they can be good. I mean you did, didn't you?”

“True enough, so...” Emerald said. “Tifa Lockhart, right?”

“Heh, yup.” Trisha smiled and brought up crimson clad hands. “My “Cloud” didn't turn out to be a slim anime pretty boy, though.”

“Huh?” Emerald blinked before realizing. “You mean Artyom?”

“He think he's so subtle,” Trisha said with a giggle. “But he isn't. My big Russian teddy bear who wants to be the stoic, handsome lady killer who gets the girl.”

“What is he, exactly?” Emerald asked. “In the first outbreak we had D-Codes, in the second we had Orions. The first outbreak killed all the D-Codes and it was the same case for the second, and it also saw the destruction of all their means of making more Orions. Did they reinvent the D-Codes?”

“Yeah, they did,” Trisha nodded. “Apparently they managed to retrace their steps in the D-Codes and made E-Codes. They are supposed to be a bit stronger and faster than the D-Codes along with some unmentioned other improvements... so what exactly are you getting up to around here? Almost none of us tried to help you when you needed it back on the island.”

“I managed well enough,” Emerald waved off. “I've got an apartment already.”

“Wow, you're good!” Trisha blinked. “Did you use any financial aid?”

“Financial aid?” Emerald asked.

“Yeah we get a set living income from the UN, adjusted for local prices,” Trisha said. “Mostly because people realized most of us likely wouldn't be able to get jobs. So to keep us off the streets and using our powers for ‘evil’ they give us all a livable income.”

“And all it takes is being capable of killing thousands of people by yourself,” Emerald remarked snidely.

“Hmph, I guess you managed on your own, huh?” Trisha huffed and crossed her arms, facing a little away from Emerald.

“Yeah, although I might go get some of that money as well.” Emerald said with a shrug. “It's there, might as well take advantage. Anyway, I have to get going.”

“Don't be a stranger!” Trisha said as Emerald started walking away. “I'm usually around one of the parks around here!”

Emerald leapt onto the roof of a nearby building and started moving. When she was a few blocks away from where she had run into Trisha she came to a stop, now at a loss of what to do.

'I suppose I could see if I can find Sunset's scent trail again,' Emerald thought. 'See if I can find whatever dark basement she had been chained up in or a ditch her corpse had been tossed into. Well... I have the rest of the day to do that and I really want to investigate the viral sensors Blackwatch has. I have all the technical data in my head but I want to see a sensor first hand.'

Decision made, Emerald looked around herself to make sure no one was watching and teleported with a subdued flash of pink. An instant later she arrived at her destination and took a look around.

The moon was airless and silent due to lack of atmosphere. In those respects, quite a bit different from the Equestrian moon which a normal person could survive on with little protection. Looking over to the side, Emerald saw the base left behind by the moon lander. Nearby was the flag and plaque they had left behind, said flag turned pure white due to radiation exposure.

Emerald was about to sit down and set to work but a certain desire got in the way. She proceeded to hop towards the moon lander's base and came to a stop before its leg. She went down onto one knee and reached out with a hand. With a flash of light a metal plate appeared in her grip and she set it down leaning against the shining leg of the lander. Standing back up, she studied her work.

'A bit childish, but I couldn't help it,' Emerald smirked before hopping a short distance away.

Emerald sat down and set to work. Pieces of metal flashed into existence in the air before her, followed shortly by various pieces of circuitry. Soon the air was filled with hundreds of parts of various sizes, from screws to circuit boards. Pieces rapidly flew together and started connecting, plugs pushed into place and metal plates were securely screwed together. Before long she had a roughly bar stool sized piece of machinery that had clear glass on one end.

Grabbing a power chord floating in the vacuum, Emerald channelled a recently learned magic and provided power to the newly created device.

Emerald needed to have the sensor active and working for her to personally examine because despite the stolen memories she couldn't help but doubt the info. After all, the information crudely matched several design ideas of a practice that was literally a world away. But now that she had it before her and actively working, she couldn't doubt the truth any longer.

Blackwatch's new viral sensors worked via artificially recreating the viral pulse and constantly filling the air with it. The jamming process had a much wider range than the sensing part did. However now that she had something other than herself using the pulse right in front of her she also couldn't deny a fact about it.

The viral pulse was magical in nature.

Belvedere sat at a desk doing some paperwork.

He often did stuff like this. Of course it was a bit more complicated before the Enclave actually had paperwork to fill out which required him constantly running everywhere and checking on everything. Emerald had a very hands off approach when it came to her dogs. As long as what she wanted was ultimately followed through with, she almost entirely let them do as they pleased. However Belvedere preferred to keep a much closer eye on the day to day happenings of the Enclave and had reports on everything sent to him every few hours. It was a good flow of work for him but he still had quite a bit of free time he was disgruntled by. He preferred to keep busy at all times, an old habit of his time as a slave. If you weren't working towards the gem quota or stealing food for the others you were wasting time and harming everyone. And the last thing the Greyhound Alpha wanted was to harm his charges through some controllable fault of his own.

Currently he had run through all the news reports on activity in the Enclave; they were still very busy. While no new major projects were being put through due to Emerald's absence, she more than made sure there was a backlog to go through. One of which was making sure the “reparations” were paid for completely.

The whole reparation situation irritated Belvedere quite a bit. For the first time in a long time the Dogs had surplus of everything and others of course wanted what the former slaves had. If it was his decision he would have just ignored the Griffin demands. There would have been plenty of people willing to take his side due to the offer of meat fruit. Ultimately it wasn't his decision, however, and it was already long made. He wasn't going to waste time complaining, though feeling irritated by it he was more than willing to.

Thankfully Emerald had managed to do a bit of political work of her own and managed to have the vast majority of the reparations paid for by other people. The only real issue was all the iron and refined steel certain Principalities were demanding.

'The Storm Claws are certainly asking for a lot of steel,' Belvedere thought as he looked over a shipping manifest for the last reparation transports heading out. 'Far more than can practically be used... hmm, whatever could they be planning?'

Belvedere got up from his seat at his desk and walked over to a large window. The view overlooked the new expansion to the Enclave. Brand new buildings were raising up everywhere, all of them looked finely built due to the skills of immigrant dogs and training of present dogs finally paying off. To Belvedere it was a glorious sign of further growth and prosperity his people hadn't seen since the Old Kingdom.

'Whatever it is...' Belvedere thought, laying a paw on the revolver at his waist. 'They better keep it over there where it belongs.'

Many miles away from Belvedere's new office in the Enclave, Bon Bon and Lyra were making their way through the city streets of Canterlot. They were in the city because Bon Bon had been called by the Council of Advisors that had attended Queen Chrysalis. It had been the first time in years since Bon Bon had anything to do with the leading authority of the changelings beyond simply sending love back through the feed, so the former infiltrator had little idea of what to expect.

“I'm sure they are going to reward you or something,” Lyra said in an attempt to comfort her friend. “You've always sent back more love than was expected, didn't you?”

“I did thanks to you,” Bon Bon replied, nuzzling her best friend briefly. “I hope Trixie is doing well by herself.”

“Probably eating all of our snacks,” Lyra muttered as they continued along, some ponies pausing to stare at Bon Bon's appearance.

“Should make sure to get back fast then,” Bon Bon said softly. “Last thing a show pony like her wants is to get chubby, I'll see about getting her out of the house and joining me on my runs.”

Eventually they arrived to a district set aside for the changelings. It wasn't a rundown area by any means, but all the sad looking changelings were certainly taking the visual appeal down. They then came to a large, three story office building that likely served as the seat for the Advisory Council. Inside were some stocky looking changelings at guard in the lobby; likely the few survivors of the changeling army sent to invade Canterlot.

“Infiltrator Bon Bon?” one of the guards asked.

“Yes, that's me,” Bon Bon nodded. “I believe the Council commanded me to see them.”

“They are awaiting you in the meeting room down the hall,” the guard said and pointed  hoof. “Your friend has to stay here.”

“See you in a bit, Lyra,” Bon Bon said to her friend. “I shouldn't be long.”

“I'm sure everything will be fine!” Lyra smiled toothily at her friend.

Bon Bon nodded. She wasn't at all worried about what the Council may want with her. She just preferred to answer any commands sent to her as soon as possible. Lyra was simply misinterpreting Bon Bon's quick response for urgency. Before long, Bon Bon found herself entering the meeting room and standing before the Council.

The room was warmly lit and the Council numbered five, all sitting at fold out chairs facing the door Bon Bon entered. They were all very old and elderly, having been retained from the Queen before Chrysalis and were never replaced. They certainly all looked like they wished they had been replaced as each had a look of weariness to them.

“Infiltrator Bon Bon,” a councilmen said, the silk-like material that was his hair was so full of holes he was practically bald. “It's been years since we saw you last.”

“I have come as commanded.” Bon Bon bowed. “What does the Council wish of me.”

“We have called you to inform you of an important decision regarding our hive,” spoke a female council member, her hair set up in a prim bun but had a few loose strands hanging down the front of her face. “It's been several months since the death of the Queen and we've spent the time mourning her passing. But the future of our hive requires that we have a Queen. YOU are among several potentials for Queen.”

“Me?!” Bon Bon said incredulously before catching herself. “Apologies for speaking out, good Council members, but I'm just an infiltrator. I don't believe I've done much of anything for such an honour.”

“Your years of quiet service and exceptional shipments of love speaks for you,” a councilman replied. “But other than that, the fact you are known to be a friend of Emerald Gleaner for another. We are hoping to court her for a business arrangement regarding the remaining changelings of Canterlot.”

“Is that fine?” asked another council member with a raised brow.

“O-of course!” Bon Bon quickly bowed again. “Whatever the Council wishes, I shall do my duty.”

“If you are chosen, it will be our duty to follow your commands,” the female councilwoman said pointedly. “You may leave now. You, like the rest of our people, shall be informed of the ultimate decision soon.”

Bon Bon bowed again and backed out of the room. Before long she and Lyra were walking out of the office building's front door with the latter badgering her about what happened.

“Come on!” Lyra complained. “I want to know! Tell me!”

“I'm sorry, Lyra. I was just gathering my thoughts,” Bon Bon said with a bit of a strained smile. “The Council is considering me as a potential choice for becoming the next Queen of the Changelings.”

“You're going to be Royalty!?” Lyra gasped. “Bon Bon, that's awesome!”

“Maybe,” Bon Bon replied with a frown. “The biggest consideration they have for choosing me is the fact I'm Emerald's friend.”

“...” Lyra went silent at the mention of Emerald, knowing what the shapeshifter had taken from Bon Bon. “So they want you as Queen because they want to do some business or something with Emerald? Well... do you think you'd be alright with something like that?”

“Lyra, you know I don't have it in me to hate someone,” Bon Bon replied with a sigh. “I was very angry with her but I couldn't keep it up for long. Nothing is concrete about me becoming the next Queen, but whatever happens, I will do my duty.”

“Now... if we hurry, we can get back in time to start making supper.” Bon Bon smiled at her friend. “Race you to the train station?”

“... Sure.” Lyra smiled.