//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Self Delusion 
// Story: Oskar Osäker: True Omnivore 
// by Legionary 
//------------------------------//

“Here you go Miss Gleaner.” A red earth pony said as she placed a number over Oskar’s Cutie Mark. “You’re all set for the Running of the Leaves!”

“Thank you.” Oskar said to the mare before walking off with her newly applied racing number, number sixty three.

Walking through the crowd Oskar took in the sight of her surroundings. All around her were the clear signs of fall. The grass was dry and brown, the tree leaves were varying shades of orange, red and brown and there was a nip in the air from the oncoming winter season.

‘So familiar yet so alien.’ Oskar thought with a sigh. ‘Yet another thing I don’t know if I'll get used to.’

The problem Oskar was having, was that it wasn't the first Fall she had experienced in Equestria. In fact, she has just gone through one a few months ago and watched the Running of the Leaves from the sidelines during that time before going through a rather mild Winter that lasted a month before needing to be cleaned up. Apparently Winter was not so much a season as more a grandiose form of pesticide here and at the very most, it could only be used up to four times a year. It made sense in retrospect, considering the ponies’ management over the weather.

‘And there’s another thing about this place that makes it strange.’ Oskar thought. ‘They consider letting nature take care of itself as unnatural and go through the efforts of handling weather and the changing seasons. Shoveling up the snow so it melts somewhere else, waking up animals from their hibernations, planting seeds for the next harvest and even leading birds back from their trip south.’

Oskar had decided to help out when “Winter Wrap Up” came around and had left early enough to get there and receive her green vest to help clean up the fields and plant the crops. She hadn’t brought Twilight along because she had actually expected the unicorn to have arrived before her with how eager she was for the event.

However there was one thing Oskar hadn’t expected to happen during that event… singing.

‘Ugh, I wince just thinking about that.’ The virus thought. She couldn’t help but groan aloud. ‘I mean what hell?! That was the most random out of the blue thing ever! One moment we’re all heading to our teams to get everything cleaned then suddenly Rainbow Dash of all people starts singing! At first I thought it was some big joke but then Pinkie joined- okay I kind of expected that party pony to do that kind of thing, who I didn’t expect to join was Rarity and Applejack. Then everyone else joined in and started singing about Winter Wrap Up. I actually didn’t move for the entire thing because I was so shocked. I mean who could expect the entire town to burst into song?!’

Suddenly from just above her left ear came a questioning trill. Oskar looked out of the corner of her eye to see a bright blue Parasprite wearing a small red and white scarf with  a matching woollen cap standing on the very tip of her ear and looking down at her worriedly.

“I’m fine, Navi.” Oskar reassured the little insect. “Just thinking about all the craziness during last Winter is all.”

“Navi” gave a little trill as she shuddered at the memory. Being an insect the parasprite hadn’t enjoyed Winter at all to say the least. Navi had needed to be so bundled up in so much custom made Winter gear that she could barely fly, not that the little bug wanted to fly in the cold, she was perfectly content to hide away in Oskar’s mane for extra warmth whenever said viral being went out during the Winter. Needless to say Navi wasn’t all that excited about the upcoming Winter either.

Oskar smiled at the parasprite perched on her ear and continued on her way, musing about how she had come to possess the little bug as a pet.

It had happened before Winter Wrap Up and the following fall, when the leaves were still green. Princess Celestia was supposed to be coming in for a casual visit that everyone had decided to turn into a celebration. Oskar had decided to help the Cakes and had been given the job of food critic along Pinkie Pie… actually her job was more along the lines of keeping Pinkie from eating all the food, which the virus had accomplished, save for one cake Pinkie had sneaked when she had been distracted. Later during that day Twilight had come in and was happy at how much food had been prepared. Then Fluttershy arrived.

The shy pegasus had come from the fields just outside Everfree and had brought along a parasprite plus two freshly birthed ones. Twilight had instantly taken to the little bugs for their cuteness but Pinkie had just stuck out her tongue in apparent disgust and left citing a need to get a trombone. Oskar however, having been to Everfree knew exactly what parasprites were and explained how the insects reproduced to the mares, as well as giving a demonstration via feeding one and waiting a few moments for it to cough up a new paraspite. It hadn’t taken long for an animal expert like Fluttershy and all around smart unicorn like Twilight to figure out how much of a problem the little bugs could become with their ravenous appetite, and rapid reproduction. Oskar had at first considered offering to simply smash the bugs but reconsidered when she realized Fluttershy and by extension Twilight wouldn’t take that all too well. So instead she offered to “limit their ability to have children” to which Twilight thought as a good logical alternative  to simply sending them back to Everfree. Fluttershy being  Fluttershy wasn’t all that enthusiastic about the idea at first because she thought it was horrible to not let the bugs have nice big families. That opinion lasted up until Oskar told her that the reason parasprites needed to have so many offspring was because almost everything in Everfree ate them, and their only natural advantage was the ability to outbreed everything and eat in vast quantities. The pegasus had been still rather reluctant but was willing to let Oskar work her “magic”. And so Oskar had gone about taking the four bugs to the back and giving them all a custom made virus that attacked their reproductive organs and crippled them. Oskar had understated just how “limited” the altered parasprites ability to have children would be, as they would be now limited to none at all. The viral being had then brought the little bugs back to the mares who immediately began fussing over the little things as they had obviously looked very sick after being given a virus that crippled their fertility. Fluttershy had taken two back with her and Twilight decided to keep one while giving the other one to Oskar, which happened to be the one that the Evolved had caused to be birthed. The Cadre Evolved had no idea why she had decided to accept the last parasprite from Twilight as she felt she wasn’t the type to keep pets but simply presumed the cuteness of the little guy had gotten to her as well. 

Ironically it was fixing the parasprites to be more owner friendly that eventually led to Oskar being the only one with a parasprite pet. It seemed that parasprites only needed little nutrients from what they ate to survive and the rest went to producing offspring. So with their reproduction permanently shut down the parasprites had excess nutrients that their bodies didn’t need. How did their bodies handle having waste? It handled it the way everyone else’s handled theirs, by getting rid of it.

Twilight was a logical and friendly pony but like everyone else she had a limit and that limit was crossed when her pet parasprite puked fecal matter all over her favorite books. Fluttershy had also managed to reach hers after several days of cleaning up near constant parasprite puke-poop. Oskar for her part simply cleaned up the puke with a tendril when no one was looking and decided to see how little her parasprite needed to eat in order for her to not puke up the excess. Twilight and Fluttershy had tearfully released their pet parasprites back into the Everfree. 

Oskar didn’t have it in her to tell them the parasprites would probably be eaten that very day.

‘I remember needing to talk Pinkie down from leading you out of town with her instruments.’ Oskar thought with a smile as she watched Navi flutter about her head. ‘That pony had been a bit confused why there wasn’t a swarm of parasprites overrunning the town.’

‘… I still don’t know why I keep you.’ The virus wondered as the little bug settled on her snout briefly to give her a happy smile before buzzing back into the air. ‘You’re just a little thing who won’t be much use to me overall. You can’t fight, your ability to carry things though impressive for something your size isn’t good enough to be useful to me and you’re too cute looking for anyone to take seriously. Yet I bothered to keep Pinkie from taking you away… why?’

‘… I guess it’ll be one of life’s mysteries.’ Oskar thought as she magically held up a noodle elbow for Navi who quickly darted over and ate the offered snack with a happy trill.

As she continued through the crowd Oskar happened to catch some movement up in the sky out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, the Evolved was able to spot an armored griffin with her advanced vision flying high up in the sky.

‘Been seeing more and more of those guys flying around during the last few months.’ The fake unicorn mused. ‘I know Celesitia placed some of her Royal Guard along the border of Everfree to keep the “Monster of Everfree” inside so are they mercenaries? …No I wouldn’t think so, griffin warriors are too proud to forsake their clans for that sort of work. A task force the Princess negotiated for then? Maybe… Oh well, it doesn’t matter anyways. I intend to stay out of Everfree until this blows over, I can always find somewhere else to train my more conspicuous abilities.’ Oskar nodded at that and sped up to a trot when she spotted a familiar shade of purple in the crowd.

“Hey Twilight.” Oskar greeted the other unicorn.

“Hello Emerald!” Twilight said and when Navi lighted down on her snout added. “Oh and hello to you too Navi you little cutie!”

Oskar shook her head in amusement as Navi gave a pleased trill and took off into the air again. Twilight regretted having to let go of her own parasprite since she thought the bugs were adorable. Plus, the Evolved had to put in extra effort into training Navi to only eat what she gave her as Twilight liked to sneak the little thing treats when she could, nowadays Navi brought the treats she got back with her in the hopes that Oskar would let her eat it.

“So you entered this Fall’s Running of the Leaves Twilight?” Oskar asked with a gesture to the violet unicorn’s racing number.

“Yes I did.” Twilight confirmed with a nod. “After watching last Fall’s Running I was interested in giving it a try. I can see that you thought the same.”

“Yeah, I decided I wanted to give this competition a try.” Oskar replied as they made their way to the starting line. “I remember you telling me you weren’t exactly the athletic sort, are you going to be alright?”

“I would think so, I read this book about racing.” Twilight answered. “And I learned that the best way to get a good finishing position is to pace yourself and sprint to finish when you’re in the final stretch!”

“Huh, think I’ll join you as you pace yourself.” Oskar responded as they arrived at the starting line. “Plus I think I’ll get a good look at the scenery, it looks like Fall will be extra nice this year.”

“That’s what I was thinking as well.” Twilight smiled as she lined up at the start.

“Twilight?!” Exclaimed a disbelieving voice. “What in tarnation are you doing up here?”

Oskar turned to see next to them was Rainbow Dash and Applejack. The virus vaguely recalled that the two were in some sort of competition against each other. Oskar didn’t really know though as she had been busy testing out her magic on anything and everything she could despite the fact that she was over dragged to watch one said competition.

“I’m racing!” The unicorn cheerfully replied.

“Ah ha ha ha ha ha! Good one Twilight!” Dash said with a laugh, giving Twilight a friendly shove.

“I’m not joking.” Twilight said with a slightly strained smile.

“What?!” Dash said incredulously. “You’re not an athlete you’re a… well… you’re an egghead.”

“I am not an egghead!” Twilight defended. “I’m well read.”

Dash proceeded to whisper something softly to Applejack that made the two of them crack up. Still laughing a little Applejack turned to Twilight.

“But have ya ever run a race?” The cowpony asked with a snicker.

“Well… no…” Twilight admitted. “But I do know a lot about the subject.”

“And you know this from?” Dash asked though she looked like she already knew the answer.

“Books.” Twilight answered confidently. “I’ve read several on the subject.”

That was apparently the wrong answer as both Dash and Applejack burst into laughter.

“You have to admit you’re not really helping your case the way you’re presenting it.” Oskar stated with a smile. “The way you’re explaining this makes you seem rather naïve.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash readily agreed from her spot on the ground, having fallen over in her fit of laughter. “I mean what did you read? The “The Egghead’s Guide to Running”, did you have to stretch out your eye muscles?” At that Dash started rolling around in barely controlled giggling. “Get it? Eye muscles? Ha!”

Twilight was about to give a slightly indignant reply when Pinkie broke in from above.

“All right ponies, are you ready?” The party mare asked from her balloon.

Immediately all the ponies in the group got into ready stances to take off as fast as possible.

“Get set…” Spike said and a moment later a bell rang out, causing all the racers to burst forward in a stampede.

At first Oskar was at the head of the pack along with Twilight Applejack and Rainbow Dash, Navi trailing along in the air above her, but she saw Twilight willingly slow herself down to begin pacing herself for her racing strategy. So Oskar slowed down as well to keep the other unicorn company like she said she was going to. Before long both her and Twilight were moving at a fast trot and a short distance behind the main pack as they continued to charge ahead.

Leaves fell from the trees in droves all around the two unicorns and Oskar took this as an opportunity to continue her magical practices.

Focusing on a few falling leaves Oskar levitated them over her head as she continued at a fast trot beside Twilight. When the leaves were circling above her Oskar set to work, in a flash of light the leaves became eight random household objects floating above her, with yet another flash they changed into a different set.

Oskar tilted her head to the side before mashing the objects together and with another flash of light transformed them into a bowl full of oranges. At this Navi gave a thrilled trill and dived for the newly created bowl of fruits.

“No.” Oskar said firmly, making the little bug come to a stop before the bowl.

Navi glided down on the lip of the bowl and stared longingly at the fruits before turning to Oskar and pouting at her.

“I said no, Navi.” The virus stated. “You don’t want to end up puking again do you? And I already fed you before the race started.”

The blue parasprite shook her head in reply and sadly lifted off the levitating bowl. Oskar sighed at the sight of this.

“Tell you what Navi…” The Evolved began as she continued trotting forward. “You put a lot of effort into working off that noodle I fed you and I promise to give you a treat by the end of the race, deal?”

Navi trilled excitedly and began rapidly buzzing about overhead before flying up above the treetops.

“Don’t go too far!” Oskar shouted with a smile before turning to Twilight and noticing the unicorn smiling warmly at her. “What?”

“You take such good care of your pet parasprite Emerald.” Twilight said sadly as she trotted. “I wish I was more like you, then maybe I would still have mine too.”

“You don’t want to be more like me, Twilight.” Oskar replied decisively. “If you were more like me then you wouldn’t be Twilight. Besides you can’t really blame yourself too much, some animals have special needs that some ponies are just not prepared or ready to handle. I guess I was just more able to handle cleaning up puke poop than you… and I did have the luck of Navi not puking on my favorite stuff.”

“Maybe… and I would think being more like you would be a good thing.” Twilight said. “You’re strong, smart, confident and… well you’re beautiful too.”

“Okay now you’re overdoing it, I know you’re regretting letting your parasprite go but it was the best thing to do in the end.” Oskar responded with a grimace, feeling each word Twilight said like they were physical blows, as the traits that the unicorn said she had were all stolen… and the confidence was most definitely a mask. “And you make it sound like I’m some perfect being… but I’m not, I know I’m not, Twilight. I’ve had to go through so much to get where I am today…” Oskar paused and looked up into the sky, it was a mostly clear day and the only other thing in the sky was Pinkie’s hot air balloon. The virus could even catch bits of Pinkie’s commentary as the wind shifted, she was apparently talking about noses.

The Cadre Evolved looked back down towards the ground just in time to catch Applejack at the front of the pack suddenly trip on something and disappear beneath the mass of the racing pones. Oskar frowned worriedly as she wondered if the cowpony had been trampled but a moment later she reappeared and was no worse for wear as she got back up.

“Ah don’t believe it!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Hmm?” Oskar hummed a question as both she and Twilight came to a stop beside the mare.

“Rainbow Dash tripped me!” The cowpony said.

“She did not.” Twilight said in defense of her other friend.

“She did too!” Applejack insisted.

“She did not,” Twilight said again and pointed to a rock in the road as she added.  “And if you slowed down and looked where you're going, like me, you'd see that you tripped over a rock.”

“What? Oh, hayseeds!” The cowpony cursed as she caught sight of the rock before turning back to look at the distancing pack of racers. “Now I got a lot of ground to make up to catch Rainbow!”

“Just be careful!” Twilight shouted as Applejack took off.

“Am I missing something?” Oskar asked as she and Twilight went off on a run to make up ground. “Applejack seems a bit… I don’t know, aggressive maybe?”

“I forgot that you spent the entire iron pony competition practicing your magic.” Twilight replied.

“Well I know she’s in a competition with Dash but I didn’t think Applejack would be so far into it that she would be accusing Dash of cheating.” Oskar said with a shake of her head and magically unpeeled an orange from her floating bowl before beginning to eat.

“She and Dash are just caught up in the energy of competition is all.” Twilight answered. “I’m sure they will stop before it gets too bad.”

“Hmm.” Oskar hummed a reply as she placed separated pieces of oranges in her mouth. The virus proceeded to study her surroundings a bit more and took in the bare trees and the leaf covered ground. Memories surged up unbidden, memories of times before when she was an un-viral he, of dreading the months before winter arrived.

“I used to be afraid of fall…” Oskar said quietly as she trotted.

“… Why?” Twilight asked.”

Oskar was silent for a long moment, internally debating whether or not she should answer. “… Before when I was younger… when I was a powerless child who thought she was ready for all the world’s challenges, I experienced my first bitterly cold winter alone. I almost lost pieces of myself to the cold and almost died from hunger…” Oskar paused, lost in memories and deaf to her companion’s shocked gasp. “That first winter alone taught me to be afraid when the leaves changed colors, to pour all my energy and efforts into finding proper shelter and to find as much food as possible. Despite my efforts none of the winters ever approached any form of comfort… but I survived, and in the end that was all that mattered.”

“Why did you have to live that kind of life?” Twilight asked in a pained voice. “Couldn’t you have simply approached somepony, anypony and asked for help?”

“I-I-I…” Oskar began haltingly and swallowed before trying to speak again. “I wasn’t born here Twilight, I’m originally from out of Equestria.”

“From across the ocean?”

“You could probably walk across the world several times and still not be anywhere near my birth country.” Oskar replied.

“That does sound far away.”

“Yeah… I couldn’t ask for help, everypony else had problems, and taking in some orphan would only add to their troubles.” Oskar explained. “Trust me if any of the government shelters were… any good then I would have gone to them.”

“But what kind of pony would deny a child help? That just seems too cruel…” Twilight said softly.

“… There was a disaster.” Oskar answered after a moment. “Everypony needed help and there was just not enough help to go around… I guess I just slipped into the cracks.”

‘And I’m glad I managed to do that.’ Oskar thought. ‘Too many homeless and people who wouldn’t be missed disappeared from those standard issue tents and cots, disappeared into those labs to be used in some experiment or fed to a monster.’

“That disaster was what claimed your mother’s life wasn’t it?” Twilight asked hesitantly.

“Yeah…” Oskar responded with a tired sigh. “Yeah it was…”

“I’m sorry… we should talk about something else.” Twilight said apologetically.

The two unicorns became silent though as they caught up to the pack and reduced their speed a bit. Then as the pack in front of them ran off to the right at a fork the sound of laughter started to be heard over the thunder of hooves. When the racers galloped past the fork Rainbow Dash was revealed, laughing her head off and leaning on a sign. And when the rainbow maned pegasus noticed their approach she seemed to briefly panic before turning to the sign, fiddling with it before focusing back on them.

“Hello Dash.” Oskar greeted her. “I kind of expected you to be at the head of the pack instead of here.”

“Ha, I’ll definitely- what do you mean?” The pegasus proclaimed with a briefly wild eyed look before looking confused.

“Everypony passed you when you were laughing.” Twilight told her.

“Oh horseapples!” Dash exclaimed before sprinting down the road after the other racers.

“What do you think she was doing with that sign?” Oskar asked Twilight as they continued on by themselves.

“Sorry, I didn’t see.” Twilight replied with a shake of her head. “I was busy thinking.”

“Hmm.” With silence between the two reigned again. And as they continued on at keeping pace with the rest of the racers, Oskar continued to eat her transfigured oranges. Before long she was on her last but before she started eating the pieces, she paused and glanced at Twilight. Making a decision, Oskar transfigured the bowl, now full of orange peelings, into a leaf and levitated the orange to her friend.

“Here Twilight.” Oskar said to the surprised unicorn.

“Oh thank you Emerald!” Twilight replied with a bright smile and took a hold of the orange with her own magic.

“You did help me figure out how to work out that very spell Twilight.” Oskar responded with a shrug. “Just my way of saying thanks.”

“Well I should be the one thanking you Emerald.” Twilight said between slices of orange. “You gave me the inspiration to advance my own magical education and work out that spell long before I would have started practicing it.”

“It’s the oddest stuff that manages to make things click isn’t it?” Oskar asked with a grin. “All I did was fall over when I accidently changed the properties of those books to resemble super balls. Ohhh… those looked like it stung to get hit by…”

“Spike has thick scales, I’m sure he was fine… maybe annoyed with the massive mess the library was in, but fine.” Twilight replied with her own grin. “But yes it’s odd, but the results can’t be denied. It’s just like I told you just before I started teaching you, you only truly begin to understand what you are trying to learn when you try to teach it to somepony else, brainstorming the spell with you definitely sped the process up.”

“Think I can focus on magical education from now on?” Oskar asked.

“I don’t know Emerald… the Princess did say you would be able to easily get into university by the time I was done with you and I’m not confident you know that much just yet.” Twilight responded with a dubious glance at the other unicorn as she ate the last piece of orange.

“Just thought I’d ask…” Oskar said with an exaggerated sigh.

“Cheer up Emerald!” Twilight urged happily. “I know you’d rather be practicing magic full time but those other subjects are just as important or even more so in some cases. And besides, with the unbelievable speed you’ve been learning the subjects you might be all caught up and finished by next year at most!”

“Just more incentive to put more effort in I suppose.” Oskar said as she spied Pinkie’s balloon swooping down with Applejack hanging off a rope.

She was about to issue Twilight a question about this when she felt something lightly impact the top of her head. Her ears were soon filled with the sound of panting and wheezing from whatever had landed on her head.

“Oh it’s Navi!” Twilight exclaimed. “She looks so tired, I think she deserves that treat you promised.”

“If you say so Twilight.” Oskar said in a faux doubtful voice. “I can’t really see her atop my head so for all I know she’s just acting and you’re playing along.”

Oskar only chuckled when she heard Navi trilling out loud denials from atop her head. “I’m only teasing you Navi, I know you were up there flying your wings off. You deserve a treat from one of the stalls when we reach the finish line. Why don’t you just snuggle in till we get there?”

Navi didn’t reply, she just wiggled in place until she was properly buried in Oskar’s mane and proceeded to take a catnap. Consequently this act left the very top of the parasprite’s head visible and made it look like Oskar was wearing a really tiny red and white woolen hat on her head.

“What?” Oskar asked when Twilight squeaked out a giggle.

“Nothing!” Twilight said as she tried to hold in further laughter.

“Looks like the final stretch is right there.” Oskar stated, still unaware of her comical appearance.

“Okay, ready to sprint Emerald?” Twilight asked her fellow unicorn.

“I was made rea- huh?” Oskar started but stopped when she saw Rainbow Dash and Applejack ride a rock shelf down a hillside.

“Umm, girls?” Twilight said to them as they passed. “I know I'm not an athlete, but shouldn't the Running of the Leaves actually involve running?”

“Those two will be lucky to get in the top five with the way they keep distracting each other.” Oskar said with a smile before turning serious. “Alright ready? GO!”

With that the two unicorns sprinted with all they had… well actually one sprinted with all they had, the other was still holding back quite a bit even though she was practically already on top of the racers.

“AHHHHH!”

“Ohmigosh!”

“Dear Celestia!”

“Dear me, you’re fast Emerald!”

“Sorry!” Oskar shouted back at the group of racers who couldn’t help but move out of her way, though that last voice was rather familiar. The virus turned her head back to face forward but noticed that Twilight was taking advantage of the disruption Oskar’s one mare stampede had created to take second place.

A few moments later Oskar was skidding to a stop as she ran over the finish line to a thunderous cheer. The Evolved sighed as she took a look back to see Twilight cross over the finish line a few moments later with Bon Bon right on her heels in a close third.

‘So that’s whose voice that was.’ Oskar mused though her thoughts quickly wandered off. ‘I did intend to run fast enough to get first but not that fast. Good thing everyone seems to be more impressed than suspicious. What happened though? Hmm… I think I’ve improved my base speed from eating all those big, strong creatures in Everfree. The last time I tested my speed was in the burned out ruins of Manhattan, I just managed to max out at 214 mph after clearing out a section of Times Square.’

‘Anyway, I guess I’ll need to do some speed testing when I get the chance.’ The Cadre Evolved thought as she walked over to Twilight and Bon Bon.

“Well I got first and you got second, not bad for first timers huh?” Oskar asked Twilight and got a smile from the panting unicorn. “What about you Bon Bon? This is your first race too?”

“Yes actually, although I jog every morning to keep trim.” The earth pony mare responded as the three of them plus two others were approached by Mayor Mare for medals. “I decided to test how fit I am by running this race, I would think I’m pretty fit!”

“I declare the Running of the Leaves a…” Here Mayor Mare paused as she wanted to say the event was a success but it was very clear that more than a few trees still had leaves.”… A partial success.”

“Is it just me or do we only ever manage to partly complete stuff?” Oskar asked the other racers quietly.

Twilight gave her friend a reproving look but Bon Bon and the other two top five racers couldn’t help but snicker at the remark.

“By the way, Twilight this is Bon Bon. She is a mare I met in Ponyville when you were out battling dragons. Bon Bon I think you already know who Twilight is.” Oskar said as she introduced the two.

Twilight was about to greet the mare when Pinkie’s voice sounded from overhead.

“It's Applejack, it's Rainbow Dash, it's Applejack, it's Rainbow Dash!” Pinkie shouted over her bullhorn.

Oskar turned her head just in time to see Applejack and Rainbow Dash roll over the finish line in a tangled up tumble.

“I won!” Dash exclaimed happily when she stood up.

“No!” Applejack denied with a glare. “Ah won!”

“I won!” Dash insisted angrily.

“You tied!” Spike broke in form above.

“Tied!” Both mare said incredulously.

“For first?” Applejack asked.

“For last!” Pinkie Pie answered.

“Last?!” The cowpony shouted disbelievingly.

“Then… who won?!” Dash asked with a shocked expression.

Oskar shook her head at the two mares before turning to Bon Bon and Twilight. “Come on, let's go see them. Twilight you go first, I want them to see you with a big shiny medal.”

Twilight did so with a smile and roll of her eyes and Bon Bon came along as asked, though she was looking as though like she felt like a fifth wheel.

“YOU?!” Applejack and Rainbow Dash said simultaneously at the sight of Twilight with a medal.

“Oh no, but I did get second.” Twilight replied pleasantly though she couldn’t help but smile at the two mare’s utterly dumbstruck expressions. “Which is rather good considering that I've never run a race before.”

“I’m the one that won first.” Oskar stated happily with Bon Bon standing just beside her with a nervous smile.

“What?” Applejack said, looking between the two of them. “How’s that even possible?”

“Yeah, you two ran so slow!” Dash exclaimed. “I mean, the both of you were way at the back during the entire race!”

“We paced ourselves!” Twilight answered, happy to be sharing a bit of book knowledge. “Just like my book said. Then at the end, when all the other ponies were worn out, we sprinted to the finish. I explained it to Emerald before the race started and she decided to do the same.”

“Emerald I could believe… but Twilight of all ponies beating us?” Dash stated with an incredulous shake of her head.

“Well with all your horsing around it was quite easy.” Twilight stated pointedly with a smile.

“You’re right, Twilight.” Applejack said shamefully. “Our behavior was jus’ terrible.”

“We weren't very good sports.” Dash admitted ruefully.

Suddenly a voice broke in that made Oskar stiffen and inhale sharply.

“Sounds to me like an important lesson was learned.” Princess Celestia stated.

“Princess Celestia?!” Both Applejack and Rainbow Dash exclaimed

Ponies gasped and bowed as their ruler unexpectedly announced her arrival. The ponies around Oskar quickly turned to face the alicorn before giving a quick bow. Oskar herself stayed standing for a moment as she watched the Goddess of the Sun approach before she caught herself and bowed as well.

Celestia frowned upon spotting the expression on Oskar’s face before she had bowed, saddened and disappointed by the fact the unicorn was still frightened of her.

“Wha… what are you doing here?” Applejack asked.

“Fall is one of my favorite season,” The Princess explained with a serene smile. “So I came to celebrate the Running of the Leaves.

“A'm sorry ya had to see us being such poor sports, Princess.” The cowpony said as both she and Dash bowed their heads shamefully.

“That's all right, Applejack.” Celestia assured. “Anypony can get swept up in the excitement of competition.”

“It's important to remember that friendship is always more important than competition.” Twilight told the two.

“Exactly, Twilight.” Celestia told her student before turning back to Applejack and dash. “Now, unfortunately, because the two of you were busy tricking each other instead of shaking down leaves, many of the lovely trees of Equestria are still covered.” She finished with a wave of her wing, gesturing to said trees.

“Why, Princess, I bet we can knock those leaves down for you lickety-split.” Applejack said confidently before smiling at Rainbow Dash. “Whaddya say, friend? Wanna go for another run?”

“I'd love to stretch my legs.” Dash answered before the two of them bolted back down the race track.

With the two mares gone Celestia then turned her attention on Oskar, who couldn’t help but openly wince at the attention.

Now it wasn’t that Oskar still thought Celestia was some kind of tyrant, prone to punish any perceived or made up insult. She was very aware that Celestia was a very benevolent ruler and seemed the type to tolerate quite a bit before being provoked. However Oskar was also very aware that Celestia was a goddess and could potentially obliterate her in an instant with her power. It was simply instinctive for Oskar to fear those more powerful than her from all the time she spent as Alex Mercer's elite soldier. It was even worse since the virus considered Celestia a future enemy and so felt out of her depth and vulnerable whenever the Princess tried being friendly with her.

“You still fear me Emerald?” Celestia asked the viral being sadly.

“I-please forgive me for my d-disrespectful behavior Princess.” Oskar said nervously before bowing in hopes of appeasing the unhappy ruler.

Celestia only looked more upset. “It’s… it’s quite alright Emerald.”

“Well Twilight, I shall leave you with your friends then.” Celestia said to her student as “Emerald’s” reaction to her was attracting quite a bit of staring and muttering. So unwilling to ruin Twilight’s time by causing even more of a scene, Celestia turned about and walked away.

It was quiet for a long moment before a shocked Bon Bon broke it.

“Emerald… I didn’t know you were afraid of Princess Celestia.” The gossipy mare said. “Why in the wide world of Equestria are you afraid of her?”

“She… when she first met her she thought the Princess would be disgusted by her status as a homeless travel pony.” Twilight explained when Oskar didn’t answer. “I suppose you still haven’t shaken off your fear of the Princess, have you Emerald?”

Oskar sighed and shook her head.

“Bon Bon?” She said.

“Yes Emerald?”

“Is your friend Lyra here?” Oskar asked.

“Yes… I would think she’d be in the crowd somewhere.” Bon Bon answered as she took a look at the ponies around her. “Why?”

“I would like to introduce her to Twilight too.” Oskar replied with a convincing smile on her face.

“Oh… well okay I’ll be back in a few minutes, you’ll stay here right?” Bon Bon asked and walked away when Oskar nodded.

When Bon Bon when far enough away Twilight spoke up.

“Emerald?”

“Yes?”

“The way you react to the Princess… it has something to do with the way you were orphaned doesn’t it?” Twilight asked softly.

Oskar sighed and remained silent for a long moment before replying. “Among the many survival lessons I learned when I was by myself, one is that when you are in the shadow of giants, you shouldn’t bring attention to yourself, unless you want to be stepped on.”

“And Twilight… I’m not really in the mood to answer any more questions about my life from before I met you.” Oskar said as she gazed into the sky. “I just want to focus on the here and now, to introduce you to some ponies I met and feed this little black hole on my head.”

“I understand Emerald.” Twilight replied and gave the viral being a reassuring hug. “But if you ever need somepony to talk to I’ll always be there, alright?”

“I hear you Twilight… and thanks.” Oskar responded.

With that the two waited for a few moments longer before Bon Bon and Lyra arrived and the group of four proceeded to enjoy the post-Running of the Leaves activities.



ALPHA



“There’s another one.” Oskar stated aloud, staring up into the sky where the form of a distant flying griffin could be seen, Navi stood on her left ear wearing a little dark blue beret.

“Where?” Twilight asked as she glanced herself and was barely able to make out the distant dot as a griffin. “You have very good eyes Emerald.”

“What’s a griffin doing here?” Applejack wondered, shading her eyes with a hoof as she struggled to make out the distant being.

“I’ve been seeing them flying around for a few months now.” Oskar replied, her powerful eyes making out the griffin’s brown cloak and green tunic worn underneath. “They always stay just out of sight or far enough away that most ponies wouldn’t even notice them.”

“Maybe Princess Celestia asked the Principalities for aid to guard against the Monster of Everfree?” Twilight mused. “And they sent some griffins to help patrol the border?”

“I’m thinking that too.” Oskar stated with a nod.

“Well whatever they’re doing, they’re minding their own business.” Applejack said simply before continuing on her way. “Ah think we should return the favour.”

“Right.” Twilight agreed and walked after the cowpony, her saddlebags rattling with the movement.

“So what are you going to be wearing for the Gala Emerald?” Twilight asked the virus. “I’m wearing the dress Rarity gave me when we first met, I just need her to mend it a bit.”

“I literally don’t have anything to wear.” Oskar answered. “I’m going to commission a dress from Rarity with some of the allowance you give me.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Twilight said with a smile as they arrived at Rarity’s boutique.

The three entered into the studio where Rarity would normally be, either working on designs or attending to customers. The glamorous unicorn was not present however.

“She must be in the back.” Twilight stated and headed for one of the side doors. “Come on.”

Oskar followed Twilight and Applejack as they opened the door and entered a hall, the two ponies proceeding to randomly open doors in the search for Rarity. The Evolved stood back a bit with a small frown, wondering if just barging into Rarity’s home was really something they ought to be doing. A moment later Applejack waved the others over, having apparently found the door with Rarity behind it. She knocked loudly and briefly before throwing it open.

“Howdy Rarity!” Applejack shouted as she entered with Twilight close behind.

“Shhh!” Twilight shushed Applejack as she caught sight of Rarity currently busy. “Can’t you see Rarity’s trying to concentrate?”

Oskar entered into what appeared to be Rarity’s private design studio slash bedroom, said unicorn currently hard at work on a partially put together dress. She briefly took note of the others’ arrival into the room but quickly refocused on her work as they took up positions just behind her. Navi took off and buzzed over to Opalescence who was napping on a desk. The little insect lit down just before the snooty feline and gave out an inquisitive trill, waking her briefly. Opal just took one look at the bug in front of her before promptly yawning and returning to sleep. Navi gave an annoyed warble before buzzing about and landing on Opal’s little upright ponytail, giving a louder trill to the impressively unresponsive cat.

‘Opal never seems to like anyone…’ Oskar thought with amusement before adding. ‘She better not try to eat Navi though… I’d be liable to return the favour.’

“What do ya think she’s makin?” Applejack asked in what could be charitably called a stage whisper.

“Looks like a dress.” Twilight answered in the same sort of whisper.

“Well that makes sense,” The cowpony replied with a sly smile. “This being a dressmaker’s shop an all.”

Oskar raised a brow at the two mares, did they really think they were being quiet? She could easily tell that Rarity was quickly becoming annoyed with the two, a fact Rarity herself quickly proved when she growled softly before looking back with a fabricated smile.

“Is there something I can help you with?” Rarity asked with well hidden irritation.

“Oh, so very sorry to trouble you Rarity but I need a quick favour…” Twilight said apologetically before reaching into her saddlebags with her mouth.

‘Pony mouths are so strange at times.’ Oskar mused as Twilight pulled out her dress. ‘You’d think since ponies can manipulate things with their hooves that normally would be impossible without hands, they wouldn’t need to learn how to use their mouths that way. Yet they do it anyway… why?’

“Could you please fix a button for me?” Twilight asked after laying down the dress on a desk. “It’s my dress for the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“Oh no, no, no!” Rarity Gasped at the sight of the outfit. “You can’t wear this… egh, old thing!”

“You need a glamorous new outfit for the gala!” The unicorn declared. “And I’ll make it for you. No problem at all! It would be my pleasure!” She finished with an excited nod.

“That’s really sweet of you to offer Rarity…” Twilight began with a smile. “But I can’t let you do that, it would be so much work… this dress is fine.”

“Twilight Sparkle, I insist on making you a new dress.” Rarity simply replied.

“But-”

“Not another word!” Rarity interrupted, waving her hoof in the other unicorn’s face. “I won’t take no for an answer.”

With that Rarity turned her attention to Applejack and gave a disapproving look over to the cowpony. Looking like she already knew the answer the unicorn asked a question.

“Let me guess Applejack, you don’t want a new dress either.” Rarity said with a raised brow and a frown.

“Gown?” Applejack stated incredulously. “Shoot, ah was just gonna wear my old work duds.”

“You can’t possibly be serious Applejack!” Rarity gasped. “You absolutely must wear formal attire!”

Applejack tapped her lip thoughtfully for a brief moment before answering. “Nah!”

“What if I just spruce up your uh…duds for you a little bit?” Rarity offered.

“Umm… Okay sure why not since you’re offering an all.” Applejack said before adding with a frown. “Just don’t make them too… frou frouey.”

“Deal!” Rarity agreed before finally turning to Oskar. “And what about you Emerald? Do you want a new dress as well?”

“I was here for just that reason actually.” Oskar answered as she stepped closer. “I don’t own any clothing whatsoever and the Gala is obviously a formal event. So I came here to commission something from you.”

“Commission?!” The other unicorn exclaimed. “Emerald darling, I'll not accept payment of any kind for this! You’re a dear friend to me… and besides, it’s an utter travesty that a mare such as yourself has nothing to wear!”

“Free?” Oskar stated with a smile. “Well you definitely won’t be seeing me complaining, thanks a lot Rarity!”

“Not a problem at all Emerald!” Rarity replied smiling.

“LOOK OUT BELOW!” Came Rainbow Dash’s voice from above.

Oskar looked up and immediately stepped back to avoid Rainbow as she crashed through the roof. She watched with surprised eyes as said pegasus bounced off the floor and flew back into a group of dummies wearing clothes. What was even more surprising was how Rainbow Dash seemed to easily recover from the crash, standing up with a bucket on her head and some clothes hanging off of her.

“Heh, sorry about that.” The pegasus apologized as she adjusted the bucket on her head.  “New trick, didn’t quite work. And those griffins clogging the airways didn’t help.”

“You noticed them too?” Oskar asked. “I’ve been catching glances of them flying way up in the sky for several months now.”

“They always fly out of sight when a pegasus tries to go see them too.” Dash replied.

“Idea!” Rarity suddenly broke in excitedly. “I'll give you an outfit for the Gala too Rainbow Dash!”

“Outfit for the what now?” Dash asked confusedly.

“I’ll make it for you and you and all of you!” The unicorn continued, pointing at Dash then Twilight before hopping with a just realized thought. “Oh! And of course Pinkie and Fluttershy too! Oh and when I’m done we could hold our very own fashion show!” She exclaimed excitedly.

“That’s a great idea!” Twilight complimented before adding. “If you’re sure you can handle it.”

“Oh it will be a little bit of work but it will be a wonderful boost for my business.” Rarity simply replied. “Plus, fun!”

“Oh I love fun things!” Dash said enthusiastically.

“Er… sure, why not, I’m game.” Oskar said with some hesitation before shrugging it off.

“Then it’s settled.” Rarity stated as she already set to work measuring and cutting bolts of cloth. “We’ll hold a fashion show, starring us!”

Everyone cheered as Oskar simply smiled.

‘Being in a fashion show would give me a lot of exposure wouldn’t it?’ The Evolved thought. ‘This wouldn’t exactly be a good thing for my obscurity… then again Twilight is the student of Princess Celestia and I’m being tutored by her, I’m fairly certain I’m not that unknown. I guess there’s no helping it in the long run, I’m doomed to be a known face one way or the other. Besides… this sounds like it could be fun or at the least interesting.’

As Rarity approached the fake unicorn to take her measurements she nodded inwardly. She might as well have fun with the situation.



BETA



“Just follow me and close your eyes when we get inside the boutique!” Rarity said excitedly as she led her friends to her home. “Oh I know you’ll just love them!”

‘Rarity works fast, seems like it was just yesterday she was taking measurements… actually she was.’ Oskar thought before smiling sheepishly to herself.

It seemed that the glamorous unicorn was only too happy and excited to make her friends dresses, as after taking measurements the day before she was already done and asking them to come see in the afternoon of the next day. Not to say the effort she put in didn’t have an effect on her, as her normally perfectly combed and conditioned mane was looking a bit frazzled. There was little problem though, Rarity had not started let alone finished “Emerald’s” dress.

“I’m truly sorry for the delay Emerald.” Rarity said apologetically as they approached her shop. “This normally does not happen to me but I’m simply stuck as to what sort of style would suit a mare like you.”

“Don’t worry Rarity, the fashion show would only be held when you’re done.” Oskar reassured the unicorn. “And the Gala is months away anyway, you have plenty of time to think up something for me.”

“Even so… I again apologize for the wait.” Rarity replied, throwing the viral being a warm smile that she couldn’t help but return.

“Okay now close your eyes!” Rarity said as they entered her boutique. “I’ll lead you to your dresses, they’re just in one of the back rooms.”

Everyone did as asked and closed their eyes save for Oskar who didn’t see a reason to as her dress wasn’t even started yet. The Evolved was actually interested to see the fruits of Rarity’s labour. She wasn’t exactly interested in fashion in any major way but more than a few memories gave her insights into it and… well, she just wanted to believe that  Rarity would do a good job in designing stunning original dresses … for some unfathomable reason that wasn’t clear to her.

“That’s it, keep them closed!” Rarity said with a smile as she led her friends into the room containing the dresses. “Don’t look!”

The moment Oskar herself entered the room she couldn’t help but come to a stop when she saw the dresses Rarity worked so hard to make.

“Wow…” The Evolved exclaimed softly to herself. She really couldn’t help it, even without the insight of several fashion minded memories her untrained eyes would have easily declared the outfits before her as beautiful. And upon taking a more focused look she was even more impressed.

Each dress was designed specifically for the wearer’s personality and their likes in mind.

Twilight’s dress was star spangled and light blue and had this star shaped hair clip in the dummy’s head. It certainly called to the unicorn’s magical talent and the dress made Oskar think of a flowing wizards robe yet was distinctly feminine.

Fluttershy’s dress had a definite earthy feel to it with it looking like it was made with still living plants. Vines and lily pads for the shoes, flowers lining near the base of the dress with two butterflies serving as a brooch and hair pin. The pegaus’ passion for nature was very clear in the outfit.

Rainbow Dash’s outfit made Oskar think of the Olympics. It had brass shoes with brass laurel leaves serving as a sort of headband and false decorative grapes on a pearl necklace, the large voluminous dress definitely called out to Dash’s home of Cloudsdale and her distinctive hair color.

Applejack’s dress suited her for its basic and practical design which was only such when compared to the other dresses. Rarity really had taken Applejack’s old “work duds” and dressed them up a bit as the strong materials were very clear, but she had also managed to make it look like something the cowpony could wear for a formal event like the Gala yet put it on the next day for farm work.

Finally Pinkie Pie’s dress was very pink and frilly. It also looked like some very decorative baker’s uniform which ultimately fit the pony in question, it had quite a bit of embroidery depicting quite a few sweets around the waist of the dress, also very fitting. Overall it was very obvious what that dress set out to say and that fit Pinkie as well.

Oskar smiled as Rarity talked, having already told her friends to open their eyes and started going into detail about the dress.  For the Evolved the best part about the whole thing was how Opal of all people was rubbing against the dresses and giving off pleased purrs.

‘You know something is done right when the little miss grumpy cat likes it.’ Oskar thought with a small laugh and smiled as she turned to see the expressions on the other mares’ faces. ‘They’re probably ecstatic, these dresses are absolutely… umm…’

Oskar’s thoughts ground to a halt as she caught sight of the five mares. She had been expecting them to be smiling and happy at how well the dresses had turned out. Instead the five were giving the dresses gaping almost disappointed looks as Rarity continued to go on about how each dress fit them so well.

‘They… don’t like them?’ Oskar thought incredulously. ‘How can they not like them?! I mean look at them! They’re beautiful! I’m going to… wait, calm down… maybe they just feel that these dresses are just not their style? And besides, their dislike of something Rarity obviously put so much work into would be to my advantage. No one likes having their hard work being spat on, even less so when the ones doing the spitting are close friends.’

By this time Rarity had begun to notice the dresses weren’t having the effect she had expected on her friends, making her smiling become more nervous with every passing second. It was made worse by her friends’ rather forced compliments.

“It’s… nice…” Fluttershy said glumly.

“But what’s the matter? Don’t you like them?” Rarity asked with a worried frown.

“They’re very nice!” Twilight reassured with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

“An we’re plum grateful cause ya worked so hard em!” Applejack added with a matching smile.

“Mine’s just not as cool as I was imagining.” Dash stated honestly, getting dual glares from Twilight and Applejack for it. The pegasus looked between the two mares giving her looks before stating with a shrug. “She asked.”

“… I guess what we’re all saying is… they’re just not what we had in mind.” Twilight said nervously.

The hurt radiating from Rarity’s expression was practically palpable to Oskar and for a brief moment she wanted to speak up on the unicorn’s behalf. The Cadre Evolved quickly and ruthlessly crushed that urge down and resolved to simply sit back and watch the scene unfold.

And that’s what Oskar did… albeit with more reluctance than she was comfortable with.

Rarity appeared to quickly get over and shrug off her friend's negative reaction to the dresses made for them. It was quite clear to the Evolved however that the unicorn’s newfound enthusiasm for making entirely new dresses with her friends' input on every step was just a show. Indeed the unicorn’s smile was becoming ever more clearly false as the others thanked her for deciding to make new dresses.

Following the others out, Oskar looked back into the room before closing the door behind her. She saw Rarity's ever more strained smile disappear to reveal her dejected expression and with her powerful hearing Oskar was able to make out the unicorn despairingly ask herself what she has gotten into.

The fake pony felt something clench in her chest and for a brief confused moment thought she had somehow pulled a muscle. Shaking herself of the confusion Oskar realized she was feeling sympathetic for the unicorn. Sighing audibly, the Evolved simply continued on her way and reminded herself that this is what she wanted. This could be a good way for a division to appear amongst the Bearers of the Elements and ultimately that was a good thing.

… No matter how wrong it made her feel.



GAMMA



It was now the next day, late into the afternoon. Oskar was back at Rarity’s boutique waiting for said unicorn to attend to her as she was currently busy attending to the other mares… between randomly bursting into bouts singing.

‘This crap again?’ Oskar sighed aloud. ‘… kinda impressive though, most people need special equipment to get their voice to sound that way. I wonder why the others haven’t noticed Rarity’s feelings on the situation by now? The lyrics she’s singing aren’t exactly subtle. Also… WHERE THE HELL IS THAT CHORUS COMING FROM?!’ The false unicorn glared as she looked this way and that for the origin of the “chorus”, Navi was on her ear, wearing the designer glasses and beret combo from yesterday and humming a tune.

After another bout of singing Rarity finally walked over to Oskar, who was looking rather irritated as she twitched her ears, she thought she could just make out guitar strings on the edge of her hearing yet wasn’t able to decide if she was actually hearing anything.

“… How would you like your dress to look Emerald?” Rarity asked tiredly, looking even more frazzled then she did the day before, her mane even seemed to have dulled in color.

“I’m fine with whatever you think is good for me.” Oskar answered absently as she swivelled her ears this way and that, trying to clearly make out the noise on the edge of her hearing.

“Really?” The unicorn replied in surprise.

Putting off trying to find the noise, Oskar gave the unicorn her full attention.

“Yes Rarity.” Oskar said with a nod. “I tru- I trust… you… I trust you to know what’s better for me. You’re the fashion expert after all.”

“Really.” Rarity repeated, this time in incredulity.

“I’m… I’m sorry, Rarity.” The Evolved said uncomfortably. “I really do trust you to know what’s best. It’s just that I… I haven’t told anypony I trusted them in a long time. In fact I think this is the first time in years I actually said that to anypony.”

The incredulity in Rarity’s expression immediately faded away, replaced with a touched smile. She stepped closer to Oskar and wrapped her forelegs around the virus’ neck in a tight hug. After a moment she left and backed up before speaking.

“Thank you darling, thank you so much.” Rarity stated happily as her mane somehow regained some of its former luster. “This will be so much easier without you nitpicking details and leaving total creative freedom to me.”

“Like I said, you’re the expert.” Oskar replied with a shrug before asking. “Did you get past your creative block yet?”

“As a matter of fact I have!” The unicorn declared. “I got the idea just before going to bed yesterday. You see there was this fantasy book sitting on my bedside table and… well I want it to be a surprise actually. I was going to show it to you but since you’re placing your trust in me I’m going to keep it for myself until it’s finished.”

“Well if you need me for anything I’ll be in your kitchen.” Oskar said before turning around to head for the door.

“Yes, just make yourself at home!” Rarity called after the virus. “I’ll call for you if I need to take your measurements again.”

“No problem Rarity.” The Evolved replied as she left the room for the kitchen with an eager little bug bouncing on her ear. “Nothing for you Navi! I already fed you this morning!”

Navi then became a sad parasprite.



DELTA



It was several hours later, late into the afternoon by the time Rarity had finished making the dresses… and singing. And what a sight they were…

‘Dear god they’re ugly…’ Oskar thought, barely able to keep herself from laughing out loud at the dresses, an effort made even more difficult when Navi stuck out her tongue in revulsion and Opalescence started hissing at the dresses. ‘And they actually think these look good?’

The Evolved looked over to the other mares and indeed, they looked absolutely ecstatic over their dresses. Shaking her head Oskar looked back at the dresses.

Fluttershy’s dress appeared to be some floral patterned blanket rather than something you’d wear. The collar was made up of large mismatching feathers and her hat was a false bird’s nest full of eggs with some flowers sticking out. Her shoes also seemed to be made of fresh moss too. Overall Oskar thought the dress looked something an old really out of touch woman would wear.

Rainbow Dash’s dress looked like some sort of cosplay costume for some fantasy game rather than an actual dress. All the metal only worked to make it seem like she was wearing gaudy ornamental armor rather than an outfit meant for a formal event.

Applejack’s formal dress wasn’t anywhere near formal. It appeared the mare in question had forgotten that she wasn’t supposed to be out in the fields doing hard work and getting dirty when she had Rarity make the dress. Indeed the dress was very obviously practical wear for hard work rather than formal attire. So not actually very ugly when considering what she would normally be wearing the outfit for but when considering what she was going to be wearing it for… it was hideous.

Twilight’s dress only showed just how out of touch with the world she was at times. Her constellation accurate dress would probably be admired… if she was attending some sort of astronomy based comic-con. It was quite a laughable piece of work otherwise.

And finally Pinkie’s dress, it was actually not that bad if Oskar could be honest with herself… not that bad if the mare intended to go to the Gala to be the entertainment that is. The Evolved actually considered telling Pinkie to keep the dress for whenever she had a party and wanted to look like a proper clown while making people laugh.

Barely able to keep herself from snorting aloud, Oskar turned her attention to the sixth dummy that was covered by a white cloth. Rarity had actually finished the virus’ dress first despite starting work on it last. The fact Oskar fully trusted Rarity’s expertise and let her have full creative freedom probably helped speed things up a lot, the other’s constant nitpicking was probably responsible for forcing Rarity to start over at least six times on each individual dress. Oskar had also been in the kitchen emptying the fridge when Rarity had finished the dress and decided to make its appearance a surprise.

“Well… let’s reveal the masterpiece shall we?” Rarity stated as she stepped beside the covered dress, her nervousness returning tenfold as she wondered what “Emerald’s” reaction would be.

“You know what I think?” Dash muttered, leaning close to Oskar. “You should have told her what you wanted.”

“Hush.” Oskar stated, raising a hoof.

“Fine, be that way.” Dash replied with a shrug. “Don’t be surprised at how uncool it’s going to be though.”

‘Cool… right.’ Oskar thought sardonically as she glanced over to Dash’s suit of armor.

“Here goes…” Rarity said as she hesitantly began to pull off the cloth.

Suddenly the door opened.

“You are never going to believe this!” Spike panted from the open door. “Have you heard of Hoity Toity?”

“The bigwig fashion hotshot in Canterlot?” Twilight asked.

“Uh huh! He heard about your fashion show!” The baby dragon said to Rarity. “Well… maybe I happened to have mentioned it to him…”

“He’s coming here, from Canterlot!” Spike continued. “To see your work Rarity!”

“Whoa nelly!” Applejack exclaimed before looking at the unicorn in question. “You could sell a ton of dresses to this guy! Your business will be booming!”

Oskar frowned as she took in the expression on Rarity’s face as the others proceeded to pour accolades on her. Her smile was very obviously fake and the borderline panic in her eyes was clear to anyone that bothered to look. The Evolved looked up when she heard a worried trill emit from just above her ear.

“I’m fine, Navi.” Oskar reassured the insect who was somehow able to sense her distress. “It’s just… well I’m fine, don’t you worry.”

Navi seemed to be unconvinced however as she hopped down from Oskar’s ear onto the top of her head. Burying herself into the Evolved’s mane Navi began to release soft soothing little buzzing noises, causing a small smile to slowly appear on Oskar’s face.

“We better get ready!” Twilight declared loudly, breaking into Oskar’s little moment with her pet. “Hoity Toity will be here tomorrow night. Good thing I’ve already prepared a construction schedule for the fashion show.”

With that the other mares and Spike began to leave, the violet unicorn being the last out the door.

“Are you coming Emerald?” Twilight asked as she stuck her head in the doorway.

“You and the girls go on ahead.” Oskar replied absently. “I’ve… got something to do first.”

“Okay, just head for the park later, that’s where we’ll be setting up.” Twilight said before closing the door.

“Rarity?” Oskar said hesitantly as she approached the unicorn. “Are you okay?”

“… No…” Rarity said in a choked whisper, not even bothering to hide her distress anymore.

“Look, I'm sure everything will be alright.” Oskar said in hollow reassurance. “I mean they like their dresses right? Maybe… maybe Hoity Toity will like them too?”

“Yes… yes I’m sure everything will be alright.” Rarity said with a nod as she tried to force herself to believe Oskar. “My friends like their dresses and Hoity To- Hoit- Ho-”

“AHHHH!” Rarity cried out in despair, suddenly throwing her forelegs around Oskar’s neck and crying into her shoulder. “I’m going to be RUINED! I’ll lose my business! I’ll be forced to beg on the streets for bits! I’ll never be able to show my face again! I’ll- I’ll- I’ll- AHHHHH!”

Oskar for her part awkwardly rubbed her hoof on Rarity’s head in a soothing gesture as said unicorn went into hysterics. For a long moment the virus was filled with a near overpowering desire to immediately walk out the door and catch the others so she could talk to them. And once more Oskar quickly shoved the desire down, metaphorically burying it as deeply as she could.

‘This is what I wanted…’ The Cadre Evolved thought as she continued to try to comfort Rarity. ‘No matter what… I must do this.’

But no matter what she told herself the sure sense of wrongness never faded.



EPSILON



The Evolved was now in the dressing room of the backstage located just before the catwalk and she was currently staring into a mirror. It was one of those mirrors you usually see backstage that was completely lined with light bulbs. On the little table top before her was a vast array of hair care products and many kinds of makeup. Navi was currently using a large powder puff applicator as bed to nap on. Her current outfit was a pair of black thick rimmed glasses with a gray fedora and a black designer scarf. 

Oskar looked away from her mirror to see Twilight and the others all at mirrors like her own and being attended to by Rarity, who was doing everything in her power to make sure they were as presentable as possible with makeup and hair products. A near insurmountable task considering the horrible dresses the others were wearing.

It seemed the others still thought the world of their dresses as they were all excited to be solemn faced models and strut out onto the catwalk to show off, Rarity knew it would happen if the others went out and was deeply dreading it as her ever more flaying nerves displayed.

Oskar simply sighed and turned back to her mirror. Her only memories of pony life were those from Steven, Gilda and Silver Light, the first two weren’t ponies and the last one was a male so she couldn’t make herself useful and fix herself up with the products on the table top before her. Out of the corner of her eye the virus spied the concealed form of the dummy wearing her dress. Yesterday wasn’t the best time to get to see it so she still didn’t know what it looked like, only that Rarity got the inspiration for the look from the cover art of a fantasy book.

Finally the ever more frazzled looking Rarity walked over to Oskar after doing all she could for the others.

“Well… it’s the moment we’ve been waiting for…” Rarity said tiredly as walked up to the covered dummy. “I… I hope it’s to your taste, Emerald.”

“Taste only matters if it’s good.” Oskar simply replied. “What I think hardly matters if I don’t have a good sense of what is tacky and what isn’t. Like I said, I trust you to know what works best for me, Rarity.”

“If you say so… here goes.” Rarity said uncertainly before reaching to the cloth on the dummy. Pausing a long moment, the unicorn then pulled it off in one quick movement. She quickly turned her attention back to Oskar, almost desperately searching for approval in the other unicorn’s expression.

“Wow…” Oskar hardly needed to fake her reaction to the outfit before her.

The color dark red dominated the entire outfit. The skirt was made with velvet, like most of the dress, and was covered in subtle rose patterns with pure white lace lining the bottom. The bodice had a high collar that was also lined with lace but seemed to be reinforced with something firm that gave the illusion of it being some sort of fashionable cuirass. On the head was a silver engraved circlet that had a large emerald socketed in the center with matching pairs of silvery shoes. Overall it looked like something a noble girl would wear to court yet rely on should she end up in a fight.

“Wow…” Oskar simply repeated as she circled the dress, examining as much of it as she could. “This… this is for me?!”

“You like it?” Rarity said with a wide hopeful smile.

“I absolutely adore it!” Oskar stated as she reached out to feel the material with her hoof. “You said you got the idea for the dress design from the cover of a fantasy book right?”

“Yes.” Rarity answered. “It was a book about a young princess who is being tutored to one day rule the nation when her parents retire. She finds the lessons to be utterly boring and longs for adventure… well long story short she eventually gets her wish but in all her travels she would never wear anything other than clothes that would clearly show her station as a noble, even when it came to armor.”

“That is where I got the idea for your dress.” The glamorous unicorn continued. “I needed something strong yet obviously feminine for you to wear, what better than a dress that looks like it could be worn to court and relied upon in a fight? I also added in a few subtle touches, to allude to your fragile sensitive side…”

“My fragile sensitive side?” Oskar questioned with a raised brow.

“Well yes…” Rarity said a little sheepishly. “I don’t really know how to clearly explain but… when I look you in the eye I can see this uncertainty there… almost like, like no matter where you step, whether it be the hardest wood or the most solid rock, you are unsure of your footing.”

“Oh really?” Oskar said with a slightly surprised expression.

Oskar was confused, not with Rarity but with herself. She should be finding the fact that Rarity had such deep insight into her alarming, yet the most she was feeling was annoyance tempered with an odd warm sensation. It was… almost like she was fine with Rarity capable of reading her like that. Did that mean she really did trust Rarity? And not just in matters of fashion?

“Just don’t go around telling everypony that.” Oskar said jokingly with a mock serious expression. “I have a reputation to uphold you know!”

“My lips are sealed.” Rarity smiled happily as she mimed a zipping motion across her mouth.

“Well as much as I would like to stand around and admire my work all night we do have a schedule to keep.” The unicorn continued, nodding at the dress. “Shall I assist you in putting on the dress?”

“Err… yes please…” Oskar said sheepishly, as she barely knew where to start.

Barely three minutes later and Oskar was in her dress and Rarity was giving one final look over to make sure it was fitting properly. The Evolved had no idea how she had done it and made it look so easy, but she was sure that if she had tried to put it on alone she would still be fumbling with the skirt.

“There we go, all fastened and buckled in!” Rarity declared as she took a step back to properly examine Oskar. “Oh my now that is a wonderful look for you so regal!”

“So I wear it well?” The virus asked with a smile.

“Oh yes, most definitely darling! But… I just wish that…” The unicorn began happily before suddenly turning morose and looking towards where the others were still getting ready. “… Perhaps a bit more makeup is in order.”

Then she left, leaving Oskar alone in her dress.

The Evolved sighed as she spied the unicorn trying her best to make her friends presentable for a crowd and judging gaze of a fashion critic. She turned back to her mirror and took in her reflection.

‘Wow… Rarity was right, this definitely gives me a regal look, it’s so comfy too.’ Oskar thought as she took up a pose and mimed an imperious expression. ‘Heh look at me, admiring how I look in a dress. A few years ago I would have found wearing one mortifying beyond belief but now… it just goes to show what you’re willing to get used to when your life is on the line, it helps that I have a few female memories of enjoying wearing nice dresses too. Do I have a gender identity anymore? Every other Evolved had one… but I was willing to wear different forms for long periods of time and I often took in memories to make my acting perfect. Oh well… as a virus I’m genderless… as a virus I’m not considered a living thing either...’

“Emerald it’s nearly time!” Rarity called out as the Evolved sighed gloomily. “Could you come over here please?”

Putting on a “happy mask” Oskar turned around and headed towards Rarity, who was standing by the dressing room door that the others had already gone through. Halfway there she came to a stop and glanced back at the tabletop where Navi was still napping. After a moment she shrugged and let the parasprite sleep and continued on. As the virus approached she noticed that whatever sense of calm Rarity had gained from her positive reaction towards the dress had completely disappeared, now replaced by great uncertainty and nervousness.

“Are you okay, Rarity?” Oskar asked in concern, unknowingly dropping her “mask”.

“Me?! Why I’m fine! Everything is fine! It’s all going to be alright!” Rarity said in a strained voice, forcing out a giggle at the end that was probably meant to be reassuring rather than disturbing.

“I… okay if you say so, Rarity.” Oskar said, at first wanting to object but had quickly forced it down and continued on through the door.

The Evolved entered the backstage of the catwalk, the sight of the other mares taking up poses just before the curtain meeting her eyes, Opal was also there and was making disgusted expression at the five. It was also rather dark and as a consequence the others couldn’t really make out any great details save that “Emerald” had arrived and was wearing some sort of dress, Oskar however had night vision better than any owl and was perfectly fine.

Rarity walked over to the curtain and stuck her head out just as Opal walked over and did the same. Suddenly Oskar heard an annoyed stream of trilling emit from just above her.

Looking up the virus made out Navi hovering just above her with an angry pout on her face.

“Sorry Navi.” Oskar said softly to the little insect. “Didn’t mean to forget you, you just looked so comfortable sleeping there.”

Giving an annoyed little buzzing sound Navi made to nest in Oskar’s mane again only to be surrounded by a magical pink aura.

“I don’t think Rarity would want me to bring you along on the catwalk Navi.” The Evolved stated apologetically as Navi puffed up her checks angrily and flew off into the dark towards the curtain.

Finally Rarity stepped away from the curtain, looking worse for wear for some reason and began walking towards Oskar. The sound of music began to play as she came to a stop before the fake unicorn.

“Alright Emerald it’s almost time, I need you to get in place with the rest of them!” Rarity told her in a desperate whisper.

Oskar was about to do as told when an idea occurred to her, obviously she was Rarity’s only hope of salvaging anything out of this. After all her dress was the only one that was designed by her and the rest was just plain awful. If Hoity Toity saw only the ones her friends made her make then his no doubt scathing criticism would pretty much be the death knell of any dreams Rarity had in the fashion industry. If that happened no doubt a great deal of tension would be created between Rarity and her friends, possibly enough to end their friendship altogether, something that would ultimately cripple the Elements of Harmony and render them inert without unified bearers. 

The course of action was clear to Oskar…

“Rarity I… I c-can’t go out there!” The Evolved protested weakly, turmoil playing across her features.

So why was it so hard?

“But why not?!” Rarity whispered shrilly, throwing a glance at her other friends, worried that they would hear. She need not have bothered though as the five of them were all excited and focused on their walk out onto the catwalk.

“R-rarity… Look at them!” Oskar said, pointing at the other mares with a slightly shaking hoof. “I c-can’t go there with them! I’ll… I’ll be a laughing stock if I do…”

Rarity turned her head towards the others, her mouth opening as she was about to beg and plead with Oskar, anything to try to make the other unicorn go out onto the catwalk so she could at least save her livelihood. The words never left her lips though as she took in the sight of the five mares wearing their ridiculous dresses. After a moment Rarity turned her head away and looked down at the floor with the most downtrodden expression in the world. She looked back up to give the virus a heartbreakingly sad smile.

“It’s okay Emerald… you don’t have to go out there…” Rarity said. She would have very much wanted to just cajole “Emerald” into doing it anyway but it just wasn’t in her nature. And judging by the way the normally confident unicorn’s voice was quavering, Emerald was not only completely against it but she was panicking at it. In the end Rarity just didn’t want another pony to suffer in any way for her. “I… I thank you though for letting me at least design a dress that best suited you… I fear it may be my last however…”

At that moment Oskar felt very much like an ice cold dagger was being buried into her heart and made to speak again when the curtains lifted.

“Oh no…” Rarity whimpered, burying her face in her hooves.

As the lights shined on the five mares the excited whispers from the crowd died almost immediately, replaced instead by silence and a few utterly shocked gasps.

Twilight and the others took their cue and walked forward onto the catwalk, doing a wonderful first time on the job as models by keeping a serious expression on their faces. Too bad it was ruined by what they were wearing.

Oskar stepped forward and looked out. Nearly everyone in the audience was absolutely dumbfounded and gaping at what Twilight and her friends were wearing, the few that weren’t were the ones just barely keeping in their snickers. But one face attracted her attention, Hoity Toity. He was easy to spot since he took a seat right in front of the catwalk, which made seeing the expression on his face all too easy. The famous fashion critic had his face scrunched up, like he suddenly found a pile of very smelly trash in front of his face.

Oskar at this point felt something snap in her and she suddenly came to a decision.

“I can’t do this anymore!” Oskar said loudly and, to the shock of Rarity, angrily stormed out onto the catwalk.

The disaster out on the catwalk was just getting to the point that the five mares were just beginning to think something was wrong when Oskar suddenly appeared. The entire crowd, which was mere moments away from bursting into laughter, suddenly kept their silence at the sight of the fake unicorn.

Oskar underestimated just how regal her dress made her look. Despite most of the ponies knowing what she looked like they still mistook her in that moment for some foreign noble beauty, a very angry one. Indeed a good many had quickly come to the conclusion that the sure ugliness of the dresses on the catwalk had insulted a visiting royal, and that said royal was about to do something about it.

The effect of Oskar’s angry approach was not just limited to the ponies in the crowd either, the mare on stage also could only stare wide eyed at their friend. They had seen the dress before, sure, but they had never seen it while it was worn. All five of them were shocked at how well the dress’ style fitted “Emerald”, able to see very clearly how the dress accentuated her “natural” beauty yet made pains to show that there was a great strength there as well.

As the virus marched down the catwalk three things came to mind, the three things that she was angry about in orders of magnitude. She was angry at Rarity for being so stupidly selfless that she wouldn’t protest her friends practically spitting on her hard work and end the fashion show before it ruined her career. She was even angrier at the five mares that were supposed to be Rarity’s friends yet had the gall to criticize a gift and jeopardize her livelihood, though unknowingly as the case may be. And finally Oskar was most angry at herself. Angry for not speaking up for Rarity when she needed it, angry for sitting by as she was being taken advantage of, angry for trying to take advantage of her as well, so very angry for having the gall to pretend to be her friend while hoping she was ruined by what would happen to her.

The Evolved came to a stop before the five, the air silent save for the sound of Oskar’s breathing as she flared her nostrils.

“I can’t believe you five!” Oskar began.

‘… I can’t believe myself…’

“You’re all supposed to be her friends!”

‘… I was supposed to be her friend too… I was the only one she trusted to talk to about this, I was her shoulder to cry on… and I still wanted to stab her in the back…’

“Instead you all took advantage of her and her kindness!” Oskar shouted.

‘… I’ve been doing that from day one…’

“W-what are ya talking about?” Applejack asked.

“Those horrible dresses you all forced her to make!” The virus answered and when she saw Dash about to vehemently protest she quickly interrupted. “But by all means, if you don’t trust my words then look at them!” She finished, pointing at the awkward looking crowd around them.

“Do they honestly look like they think what you are wearing is beautiful?!” Oskar asked and continued when she didn’t get an answer from the increasingly shamefaced looking mares. “None of you know a thing about fashion! NONE! And don’t you of all ponies speak up Fluttershy!” The Evolved snapped when the pegasus was about to add something. “Chain and cross stitches are just a fraction of a whole! You are not a fashion expert Just because you know a lot about thread work! I can’t believe any of you thought you knew better than Rarity about fashion of all things!”

Once again silence settled into the air, this time filled only with the sound of Oskar’s panting. The Evolved suddenly felt rather tired, the energy in her draining away by the moment. Suddenly the silence was broken by the sound of a pair of hooves clopping. Oskar blinked and forced down the feeling of encroaching exhaustion as she looked for the source.

It was Hoity Toity, applauding the prompt to drama he had just witnessed.

“Good show my dear, good show.” The fashion critic stated as he got up from the pillow he sat on. “I couldn’t put it better myself.”

The gray stallion strutted around the catwalk, ponies making way for him as he moved past them, to come to a stop at a portion of the catwalk nearest the Evolved.

“And may I ask the name of the vision of beauty before me?” Hoity asked charmingly.

“Uh… I… my name is Emerald Gleaner.” Oskar said, taken aback. “I’m one of Rarity’s models… I also happen to be the only one wearing one of her designs, the other dresses being… commissioned to look the way they are.”

“Hmmm, indeed.” Hoity merely replied as he pulled down his shades to give Oskar an appreciative look over.

After a long moment, of which Oskar found to be very awkward, Hoity Toity reached within his vest and pulled out a card. He briefly scribbled something on it with a pen before holding it out to Oskar.

“Tell you what my dear…” Hoity began as the Evolved magically took a hold of his card. “If Rarity’s other designs are as magnificent as the specimen before me I’ll gladly head over sometime and personally examine them, I also sincerely hope you’ll be modeling them.”

“Don’t be a stranger my dear, ciao!” And with that Hoity Toity made his exit, missing the heated glares being shot at him from the pony who had given him his seat.

Oskar stared off at the retreating form of Hoity Toity for a moment before looking down at the card he had given her. It appeared to be a simple business card which had Hoity’s name and his title as a popular fashion critic. The only thing off about it was the fact the address was crossed off and a different one was written on, which happened to be underlined… three times.

The Cadre Evolved blushed in embarrassment, even as obvious as she was to male attraction Oskar could clearly see that Hoity Toity was attracted to her.

Once again silence reigned but this time there really was not sound in the air. After a moment Oskar put the card away and turned towards the others. Suddenly, the oncoming exhaustion she had forced herself to ignore was upon her and the Evolved was quick to realize that it wasn’t physical exhaustion, no it was emotional.

“I-I’m… I’m an idiot.” Oskar stated, her face displaying the turmoil she had just gone through for all to see before she quickly turned around and walked away.

“Emerald wait!” Oskar heard a voice call her but she ignored it and continued forward, a profound numbness filling her core.

“Emerald I-” Rarity began as the virus re-entered the backstage.

“Later.” Oskar stated dully as she strode forward, ignoring even the sound of worried trilling just above her ear.

A few minutes later Oskar was outside alone in the park save for Navi, sitting on a bench and looking at the moon while still wearing her dress.

“I’m fine, Navi.” Oskar replied after getting a questioning trill from the insect.

Navi buzzed angrily.

“Yeah… you’re right, I’m not fine.” The Evolved admitted immediately, causing her pet to bury itself into her mane and trill comfortingly.

‘What was the plan again?’ Oskar asked herself sardonically. ‘Oh yes, cause a split between Rarity and her friends. You caused a split alright… but instead of Rarity it was you.’

‘I probably caused irreparable damage between me and the others.’ Oskar thought with a sigh. ‘The plan for all this was to weaken them so they wouldn’t be a threat to me, so that I wouldn’t have to one day face the Elements of Harmony. And what happened instead? I decide to risk my own success to help one of them, why? It doesn’t matter anymore… months of work… all wasted.’

“Emerald?” Twilight said softly.

‘Huh?’

Oskar turned her head to see Twilight and the other five of the Mane Six gathered a short distance away, Twilight and her friends also seemed to have taken their dresses off. And contrary to her beliefs not one of them looked angry with her.

“G-girls…” Oskar began wide-eyed. “I apologize for what I did back there, I had no right to-”

“It’s okay Emerald.” Twilight interrupted gently. “You were right and had all the right in the world to say those words. We were wrong to be so critical of Rarity’s gifts and get her to make us entirely new ones.”

“R-really?” Oskar said disbelievingly and got nods from all of them. “Umm… Rarity I don’t know if they told you this but Hoity Toity will come over at another time to personally examine the dresses you originally designed.”

“You don’t have to worry Emerald darling.” Rarity replied with a smile. “Twilight told me that, it’s merely an hour’s worth of thread work and I’ll be finished with those dresses.”

“Rarity…” Oskar said softly. “I’d like to apologize to you.”

“What?” The unicorn asked in confusion.

“I… I saw what was happening and I just decided to sit back and not say anything.” The virus said contritely. “I could have spoken up and said something, could have stopped this all from happening. Instead I kept quiet and your business as well as your reputation as a talented dress maker was nearly ruined.”

“Yeah, only now did I realise what was at stake.” Twilight stated with a wince that was mirrored by the others. “Rarity can you ever forgive us?”

“It’s alright dears.” Rarity said, giving all the mares a warm smile. “It all worked out in the end did it not?”

“Mighty generous of ya Rarity.” Applejack said. “Ah thank ya kindly.”

“Still…” Oskar muttered. “It was all rather close… I should have said something.”

“Emerald…” Twilight began as she took a seat next to the other unicorn on the bench. “You shouldn’t have felt you needed to speak up in the first place. You do not need to feel that you are at fault.” Twilight finished by giving Oskar a hug.

Slowly the Evolved’s sad frown curved upwards into a small smile as she looked at Twilight and to the rest of the Mane Six. Suddenly she remembered something.

“Hey Applejack.”

“Yes, sugarcube?”

“That uh… dress you made Rarity make?” Oskar began. “While it’s not at all good for something like the Grand Galloping Gala it’s still made of some very strong materials, it’ll probably make some pretty good work clothes… I would get rid of that hat though, your Stetson fits you far better than that thing.”

“Eh heh… sure thing Emerald.” The cowpony replied sheepishly.

“Pinkie Pie I would suggest you keep your dress too.” The virus said to the party pony.

“Oh really, why?” Pinkie asked. “Thought you said it was ugly?”

“It is very ugly.” Oskar stated with a nod. “But only for its intended task. I personally think it’ll work better as a clown outfit to wear when you’re entertaining ponies at parties.”

Everyone laughed at that, it wasn’t that the statement was very funny, it was just out of pure happiness at a serious moment being passed. Oskar looked around her at the laughing mares and one pink one sticking her tongue out with a small smile. The Evolved seemed to bask in the laughter around before finally joining in with her own laughter, her genuine laughter.



ZETA



Oskar skipped down an empty street in Ponyville. It looked fairly normal save that if you looked you would easily see little clouds of dust being kicked up and rather loud thuds from her steps. When the Evolved got to the end of the street she stopped and looked back the way she came and gave an approving smile.

‘Getting lighter!’ Oskar thought happily. ‘I can only imagine how far I would be able to glide now. Too bad I can’t experiment with all that security surrounding Everfree.’

It had been a few days since the fiasco that was the fashion show. Rarity had, with help from Fluttershy, quickly finished up the dresses she had originally designed in time for Hoity Toity to see them the very next day. Once again the six ponies wore their dresses but this time their sole one stallion audience was utterly thrilled with the outfits, even more so when Oskar came out with her own regal attire.

It was now noon and Oskar had decided to take a walk and think about things.

‘But… I don’t really need to experiment do I?’ The Evolved asked herself.  ‘The whole reason for getting stronger, for gaining more and more power was so I would be ready to face any and all threats to me. But I risked all that preparation and efforts to manipulate things to my advantage for Rarity, do I know why?’ The virus thought intently for several long moments before nodding when she came to a single conclusion. ‘I have grown to like and trust her that is why. I started my plans with the intention to do her harm, but in the end I ended up liking her so much that the very idea of hurting her is painful… it’s been so long since I’ve had an actual friend.’

‘And what about Twilight?’ Oskar mused curiously as she made way down a random street. ‘Do I care about her too? Do I consider her a friend too? Yes… I think I do. I must admit it to myself at least, all the recent times I hoped for Twilight to be okay when she did something dangerous has been more and more for something other than selfish reasons.’

‘Yes… I think I’ll put my plans on indefinite hold for now.’ Oskar thought with a small unsure smile. ‘But I’ll still work towards getting stronger, Ponyville is fairly safe but there are still rather powerful creatures wandering around. And as long as I lay low and do nothing conspicuous those guards around Everfree have no chance of finding me.’

As Oskar crossed a street intersection she spotted a crowd of ponies out of the corner of her eye. curiosity peaked the Blacklight being walked towards the crowd.

As the Evolved made her way into the crowd to the front Oskar noticed that everyone seemed to be surrounding the mouth of an alleyway. When she arrived at the front of the crowd, Oskar came to an interesting sight.

It was a griffin. A griffin wearing a hooded green cloak and had chestnut brown feathers specked with yellow spots, his down like fur seemed to be an orange brown.

The hooded griffin was very pointedly ignoring the gawking and pointing ponies near him to focus all his attention on a spot on the ground near a wall. He scratched at the ground, bringing up bits of dirt to study and smell.

Suddenly Oskar remembered that the very spot the griffin was studying happened to be one of the few she used to change into an animal form before making for Everfree. The Evolved fought to keep her expression that of curious staring like the others around her as her survival instincts flared up in alarm.

Carefully Oskar mimed growing bored and wandering away but inwardly she was feeling rather troubled.

‘Okay calm down.’ The virus told herself. ‘That might not mean anything, the spot that griffin is looking at could just be a coincidence… okay I’m not convincing anyone, let alone myself. What the hell is he doing there?! Is he tracking me? Do his superiors know about me? Do they have a plan and are just setting the perimeters? I know nothing… but he knows… I NEED to know what he knows!’

With that the Evolved made way for a quiet spot as quickly yet as discreetly as possible.

A few short minutes later and Oskar was in his default form on the border of Everfree, he currently didn’t need to worry about any Royal Guard patrols as the next border patrol was half an hour away at the very least.

Going to the Everfree border was a bit of a gamble on Oskar’s part. There was no way he could know if the griffin in town was going to go to Everfree or even be close enough to the ground for him to catch. However Oskar also had considered a few things he knew about the griffins here in Equestria. Most of the sightings Oskar had of the griffins was over Everfree, so that meant they had to have a base of operations either very near or in Everfree. Which meant that if the griffin in town flew somewhere else Oskar would only need to wait for him to come back, and in the event that the griffin was too high for Oskar to catch that meant the Evolved would simply need to follow him to his base.

A few more minutes and Oskar spotted the griffin flying away into the air above the town and immediately fly towards Everfree, and unless he suddenly decided to gain altitude he would definitely be in reach of the Evolved.

As the cloaked griffin approached Oskar shifted an arm into a whipfist and focused on him. As he flew into grabbing distance Oskar sent out a viral sonar which caused the griffin to lash yellow to the virus’ eyes and ultimately seal his fate.

The bucket hatted Evolved quickly tensed up his whipfist before shooting off the harpoon. The harpoon crossed the distance between Oskar and the griffin in a fraction of a second. The hooded griffin was able to release a short shout before the harpoon pierced through his chest, his heart, and out through his spine.

Oskar quickly reeled his harpoon in and smashed the body into himself, quickly absorbing it. Grasping his head Oskar closed his eyes and began taking in the memories.

A name briefly flashed through his mind, Morgoth Dak. Oskar quickly ignored that and began searching for recent memories. Images and sounds flashed through the Evolved’s mind, patrol routes, orders, reports, discussions of tracking techniques, gathering evidence, a vague idea of what they were tracking.

Several long moments followed, the air filled with Oskar’s light muttering. Finally his eyes opened, revealing his panic before his expression cleared and his gaze became totally neutral.

‘I’m being tracked.’ The Evolved’s thought. ‘This griffin, this Prince Bergren has come to hunt down his daughter. But after his hunters followed her trail to the cave she was in he changed his mission from that of recovery to vengeance. They only have guesses but those “Rangers” of his are almost scarily competent, they’ve been able to figure out I’m some sort of shape shifter and that I somehow consume those I hunt in order to become them. They’ve been managing to shrink their search areas by looking for my deep footprints, my own weight betrayed me. By now they’ve ascertained that I’m in Ponyville from the fresh tracks they find there. The only reason they haven’t tracked me to Twilight’s library is because they’re trying to keep a low profile from the ponies and the hoof prints get quickly worn away on the roads. But they are going to abandon that plan soon enough, they’ll soon bring in ponies to not only question but inform them of the danger. Using these questioning sessions they’ll build a profile of ponies that live in Ponyville and display suspicious behavior, they’ll also ask about ponies who’ve moved in, in the last few months. There are only two people that have moved to Ponyville in that time, me and Zecora. I have to act NOW.’

Quickly shifting into the form of a rabbit, Oskar bounded towards the center of the griffin operations.

‘I need to see their basecamp for myself before I plan anything.’ The Evolved thought. ‘I’d rather now depend on second hand information.’



ETA



‘Let’s see here…’ Oskar pondered as he peeked out of a bush in his rabbit form. ‘ The area is divided into nine sectors, Sentries with overlapping fields of vision, tight patrol patterns all in shouting distance of one other one at all times, strategically placed lanterns, at least three air patrols over each sector, the cave HQ in the central sector is protected by a small wooden heavily manned castle that takes advantage of the fact the entire garrison can fly, The forest around the castle has also been cleared away to about twenty metres, four squads of griffins are constantly patrolling that perimeter and they are always in view of the castle as well as another squad, the sky over the central sector is also fairly crowded with air units… this should be easy enough.’ With that Oskar ducked deeper into the bush and slowly made his way back to Ponyville. ‘The memories from that griffin I consumed say Prince Bergren brought with him about two hundred and eighty Anvil Knights as well as twenty of his clan’s finest Rangers, seems fairly accurate from what I’ve seen. Should I delve deeper into Gilda’s and Morgoth’s memories? Hmm… no, I’m fairly certain I’ve gotten everything I need. Right, I'll just head back to Twilight’s home and form a plan of attack on this base, it’ll be just like old times.’

As the Evolved reached the perimeter of the outer sectors he suddenly seethed in anger from something he realized.

‘This is entirely my fault…’ Oskar seethed. ‘I should have been taking tabs of those units guarding Everfree, gathering intel! Instead I was busy with town festivals and participating in games! I would have known about this situation long before it became a problem! I… I fooled myself into thinking that I of all people could actually settle down, to live in peace. Well no more! After this is over I’ll get my magic squared away and I’ll immediately get to work on my fourth objective. But now I need to focus…’

‘It’ll not take a group as professional as them long to be put into high alert from a missing Ranger.’ The virus. ‘I NEED to attack tomorrow night. There will be definite consequences to killing a high ranking foreign noble and his entire company of elite soldiers but the consequences for letting him be will be far higher for me. Right, let's head home, busy day tomorrow.’

With that Oskar picked up speed a little to head home to work out his battle plan, for the next day would seal the fates of many.



TBC



AN: This chapter makes me nervous! ^_^” A few things feel iffy to me and I can’t help but feel I may have rushed it near the end. Oh well I can only hope that you guys like it! I also managed to make this chapter longer than the last and I definitely thought I wouldn’t be able to.