//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11: Equestria's Bane 
// Story: Oskar Osäker: True Omnivore 
// by Legionary 
//------------------------------//

It is currently night in the forest of Everfree though in the caverns beneath, where the Diamond Dogs now dwell, you couldn’t tell.

In these caverns, the homes of the Diamond Dogs stretched higher, some almost halfway to the ceiling. In a far secluded corner of the cavern was a small cell guarded by a Diamond Dog sleeping atop a stool. Whisper Wind was wide awake in the cell though, having feigned sleep for a good few hours. She was now carefully sticking her fore leg through the bars of the cell door and trying to gently unhitch the keys from the guard’s vest. Spending several minutes carefully prodding the keys, she finally managed it and noiselessly brought the keys to her.

‘Finally!’ Whisper thought as she carefully opened the door and began scanning her surroundings. ‘Let’s find something to make a fake body on that cruddy hay bale bed of mine.’

After some searching, Whisper found some extra old ratty blankets and hay near her prison cell and brought them over. Going back in her cell, she then put the blankets and hay under the blanket, manipulating the bulge until it believably looked like she was sleeping under it.

With that, the convict walked back out her cell, closed the door and relocked it. Then she gently replaced the keys on the sleeping guard’s vest before slinking off into the darkened alleys of the Diamond Dog town, lit only by the infrequent lantern.

‘Time to get out of this crazy place.’ Whisper Wind thought as she snuck through the empty streets and alleys. ‘Just wanted to score some sweet gems and make some bits, not get involved in this crazy army building and dethroning conspiracy.’

Whisper had a lot of time to herself to think in the time she was forced to spend in her little cell, and had come up with a theory on who Emerald really was. So far her theory was that Emerald was actually an alicorn princess just like Celestia and Luna, only born in a different place. And that she was now here in Equestria with a spell hiding her wings to gather an army and dethrone Celestia and Luna.

‘Wonder if I’ll get anything if I tell the Princesses about this.’ Whisper thought as she arrived before the wide main street of the town. ‘A decrease in sentence if not a bit of a reward, and a pardon would be nice for revealing a plot against the kingdom.’

‘Let’s not go down there again.’ Whisper thought as she spied the entrance tunnel to the cavern at the end of the street with a wood ramp leading up to it. ‘Too many dogs to sneak by. I hope there is another way out of here, I only have until morning before they figure out that isn’t me in the cell.’

With that, Whisper Wind continued on her way, sticking to small thin streets and cramped alleys when she could, as they tended to be deserted. It didn’t mean she didn’t have a few close calls though, sometimes a Diamond Dog would happen to still be awake and glance out their little window onto the street, or one would happen to be assigned a night shift and be walking about the streets going about their work. But her talent was not insignificant. Despite her colors, she still managed to blend into the dark and even when a dog managed to see her out of the corner of their eyes they questioned if they really did. Eventually her half random wanderings got her to a clear section of the cavern.

Along the floor were many sets of railway tracks with a few leading into a tunnel that seemed to be angled upwards to the surface. There were many little train cars on the rails scattered here and there, though the most eye-catching of these was a fairly large train car that was basically a long cage and this flatbed a bit far off that was covered in animals that appeared to be asleep.

Whisper Wind stiffened and quickly darted out of sight when she saw several Diamond Dogs appear out of a tunnel entrance carrying the large mass of a limp Manticore. She carefully peeked out from behind the wall as they moved towards the flatbed covered in sleeping animals. Upon reaching the flatbed, the dogs then hoisted the Manticore over their heads and then unceremoniously threw the body on the flatbed with a loud thud.

“Careful!” shouted one dog, apparently having wanted to be more gentle with the slumbering beast. “Don’t want wake up. Was pain just catching, don’t to deal with fighting!”

“Nah, don’t need to be careful,” replied another dog who then purposefully poked a paw in the beast’s belly. “See? Is not waking ever again so no worry.”

“Why is that?” Asked the first dog. “Is given sleeping drink?”

“Nah, boss needed for something, an experiment I think.” Replied the other dog, scratching his head. “Anyways, is not waking up because is brain dead. Boss says to just chop em up for stew for all the packs when he done with em.”

“We do that now?”

“Nah, boss needs us to take cage back up to surface.” The other dog said and began walking off, motioning for the others to follow. “Hunting packs coming back with more animals so cage needs be ready. We go get train engine warmed up for pulling now then we come back and pull cage.”

Coming out of her hiding spot, Whisper Wind couldn’t help the shudder that ran down her spine at the thought of being rendered brain dead and then turned into stew. What the dogs said also confused her a little, back when she first arrived and was caught she heard the dogs refer to Emerald as the boss, yet when they talked about their boss just now they had used a ‘he’ instead of a ‘she’.

‘Maybe they are talking about the Gray Fox?’ Whisper mused. ‘Wouldn’t think such a dangerous pony like Emerald would tolerate somepony else being called boss as well. Anyway, let’s see if I can hitch a ride in that cage before those dogs come back.’

Walking over to the cage train carefully, Whisper peeked in and saw many, many old blankets and rugs covering the bottom of the cage, likely to provide the animals some sort of comfort before they were rendered brain dead and chopped up for some communal stew. Opening the cage gate, she closed it behind her and began moving around the blankets. She worked quickly, trying to create a bit of a lump that would hide her form yet wouldn’t be so conspicuous should the dogs return. Eventually she was satisfied enough with how she formed the blankets and rags, and carefully crawled under to await the return of the dogs with bated breath.

After half an hour of nervous waiting, Whisper heard the dogs approach with the recognizable noise of a train chugging which also had a metal clanging accompanying it. She managed to catch sight of the “train engine” the dogs were using to move around heavy loads on the rails through a small gap between the blankets.

It could be charitably called a train engine but it seemed more like a large repurposed furnace bolted onto a wagon whose wheels were replaced with metal ones. It also had an equally scavenged looking cart full of coal being pulled behind it. Overall it looked very patchwork and crude, and rather pathetic when compared to what Equestria had on its own railway network.

The engine made its way slowly across the rails as it had to give a dog enough time to run ahead of it and switch tracks for it until it was finally backed into the cage car Whisper was hiding in. The Dogs didn’t spare the cage another glance and simply quickly hooked it up to the engine before moving forwards again.

After a few moments of forward motion, Whisper suddenly felt her orientation change slightly as the engine started pulling the cage up the grade of the tunnel. The train started to chug louder and slower as it strained slightly to pull the load. Several minutes later Whisper felt the wind blow through a few gaps in the blankets and peeked out a bit.

She spied a small clearing that was apparently made that way via some dogs ripping trees out of the ground and pounding the soil till it was compact. Off in the distance she could make out some light from the woods and shouting at the edge of her hearing, almost drowned out by the loud chugging and clanging of the engine.

Eventually the train slowed down and began making some turns, moving forwards and backwards a few times before it finally stopped and Whisper heard the sound of the car being unhitched. She waited a few more minutes for the train to pull away and go back into the depths of the tunnel, then she finally crawled out from under the blankets, carefully scanning her surroundings as she did so.

There actually were some Diamond Dogs here in the clearing but they were some distance away and facing a campfire with some roasting meat over it, likely destroying their night vision from facing a bright light in the process. Seeing that, Whisper Wind got out of the cage car and moved quickly across the clearing towards the light she saw in the woods, staying close to the ground and hoping for the best.

The convict managed to reach the tree line with no problems a few moments later. She began making her way to the light and shouting she was hearing, curiosity raised irresistibly. She paused briefly when she got close enough to recognise the voice as belonging to Emerald but continued forward, staying even closer to the ground and moving slowly. Eventually she found herself lying beside a brush and peeking through a small gap to spy on what was going on.

“Come on! Faster than before!” Emerald shouted, pacing along the side of a course that dozens of dogs were running through. “Climb that wall! Swing those bars! Crawl through that mud! We are not stopping until you are all ready to fall over!”

‘She IS building an army!’ Whisper thought wide eyed as she took in what was very obviously a training course. ‘Holy hay… is there going to be a war? Crud, crud, crud, never mind the reward, the last thing that should happen is a war! I really have to get back as quickly as possible! Goddess condemn this clamp around my wings!’

Slowly crawling away from the view, she began sneaking through the underbrush, very much aware that Emerald was observant enough to spot her despite her talent with sneaking. After several heart pounding moments of hearing Emerald’s voice slowly growing more distant Whisper grew confident enough to rise off the ground and move faster. She moved quickly through the brush until she reached a small clearing, big enough that she could get a view of the distant horizon for landmarks like mountains.

‘Alright… good thing the moon is out or this would be a lot harder.’ Whisper thought and started scanning around her, but soon started frowning. ‘The hay… what mountain is that?! There aren’t any forested mountains near the Everfree! Crud! I knew the Everfree was weird but I still followed those dogs here! Goddess condemn it to Tartarus anyway! How in the world am I going to get out of here now?!’

After some panicked turning in place for several moments, Whisper Wind gave a shaky sigh and slumped her shoulders. She straightened out after a few moments and just started walking forward.

‘I know that the Everfree ends at some point,’ Whisper thought. ‘I’ll either get out somewhere near Ponyville, Saddle Lake, Rumbling Rock Ridge, Dodge Junction, Appleloosa or the Ghastly Gorge. As long as I walk straight ahead I’ll get out eventually.’

The convict began the long trek through the Everfree, knowing that she would get out eventually. The hours passed as she made her way through the menacing trees of the Everfree, each of which seemed to cast shadows just the right shape to create a snarling face upon their bark. At one point she had reached a large ravine with several bridges strung over it, but quickly distanced herself from it, due to the fact Diamond Dogs were swarming the bridges and walls of the ravine. However this act made her lose her sense of direction and before long she wasn’t even sure if she was moving in a straight line.

‘Where am I?!’ Whisper thought, gritting her teeth in growing despair. ‘Am I going in circles? Did I manage to circle around without knowing? The only thing I can do is keep moving…’

Whisper Wind soon found herself in a scenic clearing with one side of it against a cliff wall and several sticks and logs scattered around it. Looking to the sky and trying to remember which direction Luna made the moon move, Whisper suddenly froze. At the edge of her hearing she could hear the rustling of leaves as something moved through the brush. Thinking that some Everfree monster was bearing down on her, Whisper looked all around her, desperate for a close hiding spot. Seeing the cliff Whisper made out a crevice and ran towards it, hoping it was deep enough for her to squeeze into.

Just managing to squeeze into the opening, Whisper saw to her relief that the crevice continued into a space that was just big enough for her to stand upright in. Reaching the space, she then turned around and lied down on the ground before crawling forward so she could have a better view outside the crevice, but didn’t get too close to the opening.

The rustling grew louder and louder and before long Whisper saw an utterly massive shape appear through the brush that made her freeze in terror. It was a huge lion, at least ten feet tall at the shoulder lazily sounding within a thick brush before continuing forward. Suddenly there was a loud thud followed by loud cursing.

“Clumsy oaf!” Whisper heard a cultured voice curse. “Must you go under every low tree?!”

The massive lion huffed and continued forward, revealing the rest of his terrifying form. Upon the very middle of the lion’s back was a massive black furred goat head, just as big as the lion’s own head. The lion’s body seemed to be equally composed of black goat fur and the lion’s own coat with its hind legs looking like a goat’s. Then the tail made its appearance and Whisper Wind had to cover her mouth to keep herself from screaming. It was a massive snake with a thick body and head only just a bit smaller than the goat’s. The snake loomed over the goat head and made little hissing sounds that sounded suspiciously like laughter as green smog drifted from its mouth.

“Must you mock me with your range of movement?” The goat asked in irritation. “And why are we here at all? Home is that way!”

The lion rumbled lowly and began sniffing the air.

“You smell something?!” The goat stated incredulously. “You just ate you insatiable glutton! I want to go home!”

The lion huffed with a roll of its eyes before turning away from the clearing and heading back into the brush.

“And avoid the branches this tim- GAAH!” The goat began before shouting as a loud thud sounded followed by hissing laughter.

Whisper waited for several moments before suddenly gasping for breath and panting, not realizing that she had been holding her breath when the lion made its full appearance. Holding a hoof against her chest and feeling her pounding heart, Whisper decided to spend the night in the safety of the crevice. Crawling backwards until she was back in the space, Whisper then curled up before moving and shifting around until she was as comfortable as she could get. After an hour, Whisper had finally calmed down to the point where she could fall asleep which she then did.

The convict didn’t know how long she had slept exactly but the entrance of the crevice had apparently been facing the rising sun, which had woken her. She wished she hadn’t been awoken though as she felt a great ache in her chest that seemed to grow as she got up and squeezed out of the crevice.

She had only taken a few steps into the middle of the field when the pain grew too great and she fell to the ground. Curled up in an agonized ball and clutching at her chest, Whisper released a small, pained sob.

‘Ow… why am I in so much pain?!’ Whisper thought in pain stricken panic. ‘Dear goddess it hurts… I wanna go home…’

“You don’t look well,” said a voice that made Whisper want to give a despairing cry at the unfairness of it all.

Looking up, she saw Emerald Gleaner sitting a mere foot away from her, with Diamond Dog guards completely surrounding her. The “Secret Alicorn” was looking down at Whisper in fascination, rather than any sort of anger at the mare for escaping, a notepad floating in the air beside her with a pen scribbling away.

“Everything seems to be happening as it should, no unintended side effects so far…” Emerald muttered and hummed in thought as she stared down at Whisper with piercing eyes.

“You…” Whisper Wind gasped in both pain and realization. “What did you do to me… oh goddess.”

“Well, long story short I gave you a disease.” Emerald replied. “I spiked your food with it about twenty four hours ago, which happens to be its dormancy period, after which the victim starts suffering symptoms. Intense pain as the disease begins ravaging the organs and causing internal bleeding, needless to say it isn’t going to be long before your condition becomes fatal.”

“But fortunately there is a means of stopping this…” Emerald stated just as Whisper was about to break into tears from Emerald appearing to condemn her to a slow agonizing death. “It isn’t a cure though, it’s more of a depressant for the disease. Basically it causes it to go back into dormancy and gives you another twenty four hours of freedom from its attack on your body.”

A vial containing a clear blue liquid floated over to Whisper Wind and she wordlessly grasped it and quickly uncorked it. Quickly pouring the contents of the vial down her throat Whisper couldn’t help but sigh in relief from the almost instantaneous end to the pain.

“Know that I am the only one that can make the depressant,” Emerald said, regaining the convict’s attention. “So if you escape again I will not bother tracking you down and will just leave you for dead, which you will be after twenty four hours… if the local wildlife doesn’t get you first anyways. Do you understand me?”

“I… understand.” Whisper said sitting upright, her eyes downcast.

‘Is this really going to be the rest of my life?’ Whisper thought, tears rolling down her face. ‘Kept in a small cage underground with a hay bale as a bed, given gruel for food… never able to fly again…’

“No, there is no need for that.” Emerald said in response to Whisper’s visual despair. “If you behave I’ll let you have some privileges, like being outside your cell for instance. And if you stay well behaved I’ll even have that clamp of yours removed and give you the chance to fly again. Of course, even then I’ll be making sure you won’t just fly off.”

“Alright. All of you take her back to her cell.” Emerald commanded the dogs.

“Right boss, comere pony.” Said one of the dogs.

Whisper Wind didn’t bother to give the smallest form of resistance and let the dogs lead her away from the clearing.

‘Well there is one problem taken care of indefinitely.’ Oskar thought as she watched all the dogs lead Whisper away. ‘She’ll not be acting up I think and even if she tries to break out again the only way she’ll survive long is if she steals some of the depressant. No chance of that happening since I only make them when she needs them… though I’ll need a secure area for the dogs to keep extras, I may end up doing something that needs my constant attention and not be able to make a long range teleport… I’ve never noticed how peaceful this place is.’

Oskar couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her face when she took in her surroundings of the Everfree forest. The place was considered unnatural by all and dangerous as can be. Even the Diamond Dogs didn’t like being in it all that much, though the constant exposure helped, but the Evolved didn’t feel disturbed by it. She actually relaxed here, at peace… home.

‘… Infestation…’

“Who’s there!” Oskar shouted, scanning her surroundings.

‘… Sickness…’

Oskar narrowed her eyes as she took in her surroundings, trying to find her observer. She then sent out a viral pulse in an attempt to find him, but when she did the pulse went out and almost instantly came back. Not knowing how to take this and having heard nothing from her unseen observer, Oskar decided to teleport away.

Several moments after the fake unicorn disappeared with a pink flash, the sticks and logs on the ground started dragging and rolling away, eventually disappearing into the brush.



ALPHA



“Are you sure you don’t want to come along?” Twilight asked. “You did say you wanted to come along on our adventures.”

“I’m sure, I have a meeting today with a few important ponies plus I’d hardly call a tree delivery an adventure,” Oskar replied, little Navi perched on her ear wearing a little bowler and red scarf.

Oskar was currently at Ponyville’s train station with the Mane Six. Applejack was taking one of her apple trees to Appleloosa after some relative of hers asked for one. The others decided to tag along and see the colonial town living on the fringe of Equestrian territory and had asked the virus if she wanted to come as well. But Oskar did have something she couldn’t miss, like the aforementioned meeting with some ponies, and she considered that a bit more important than delivering a tree to some fringe town.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Twilight admitted with a nod. “Well when something exciting comes up we’ll have the time of our lives.”

“Yeah we will.” Oskar smiled and held up her hoof which Twilight pressed her own against.

“Good luck on your meeting Emerald,” Twilight said before turning around and going on the train.

“See ya Emmy!” Pinkie shouted over the whistle and slow chug of the pulling away train, waving a white handkerchief at the virus.

“Bye!”

“See you later Darling!”

“See all of you soon!” Oskar shouted back, waving her hoof in the air with Navi trilling excitedly and hopping on the tip of the virus’ ear.

Watching the train speed off into the distance for a few moments longer, Oskar then charged up a teleport and arrived back at the library a second later.

‘Let’s see… that company CEO should be arriving within an hour or so.’ Oskar thought. ‘That leaves me with some time to waste waiting for him. Well let’s be productive shall we? I think I’ll spend that time stress testing my teleporting. Right, let's see how many teleports I can do before he arrives.’

“Go over on that desk, Navi.” Oskar told her pet. “I’m going to be practicing my teleporting for a bit.”

Trilling a reply, Navi did as told and buzzed over to a desk and sat down to watch Oskar practice her magic.

It began a little slowly as Oskar did the magical equivalent of warm-ups. Then the teleports sped up from one every few seconds to one every second, and as she pushed her skill to its upper limit, it grew to one every half-second. This hectic pace of blinding flashing magical lights kept up for a full ten minutes before quite abruptly her speed started dying off.

Oskar slowed down to one teleport every few seconds and kept up that pace for another ten minutes before she stopped completely. The virus took deep breaths as she took a seat at the desk Navi was happily and hyperactively bouncing on.

‘Right let’s settle down a bit, he’ll be here in a few minutes and I’d want to look presentable.’ Oskar thought, having tracked the business pony via a viral pulse. ‘Equestria or not, a business deal can be made or broken if you aren’t presentable for it.’

The drain of the rapid fire teleportation session was rather great and the Evolved didn’t have much chance of recovering all of the spent energy in a few minutes. She didn’t need to though, Oskar only needed to recover enough so that her chest wasn’t slightly heaving from the impromptu workout and that was more than manageable. Eventually her appointment arrived.

“Coming!” Oskar shouted and teleported to the door.

“Ah, good day to you Miss Gleaner,” greeted a rather young and fresh faced Earth Pony. He had a bluish gray coat and a brown mane, and wore a dark blue dress coat with tie and dress shirt. At his side was a unicorn with thick coke bottle glasses, a mint green coat, a white mane, and wore a dark brown suit. “It’s very nice to finally meet you!”

“And it’s nice to meet you as well, Mr. Look.” Oskar smiled before stepping aside and motioning them in. “Come in, come in. Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea?”

“Some coffee will do very nicely, thank you,” Look said.

“Green tea for me,” The unicorn stated with an adjustment of his glasses.

“Okay, the living room is the first door on your left,” Oskar replied cheerfully. “Make yourselves at home and I’ll bring you your drinks.”

Guessing that simply teleporting to the kitchen and back to the living room would be breaking some form of etiquette, Oskar simply walked there. Upon arriving, she quickly boiled some water with her fire breath and mixing in the coffee grounds and tea leaves. Giving a quick taste to each to make sure neither was off, she then walked back to the living room, cups levitating along behind her.

When she arrived, she saw that Navi had taken it upon herself to meet the new ponies in her home, now sitting upon Look’s upheld hoof. Trilling happily, the little bug then took flight upon seeing Oskar and buzzed around her head before diving into her mane, burying herself in for a moment before sticking her face out with a little cheerful smile.

“What an adorable little creature!” Look stated. “What is it?”

“Navi is a Parasprite,” Oskar replied, walking over to the couches where the two were sitting. “I wouldn’t advise getting one as a pet without being ready for the responsibilities though. Parasprites reproduce by eating food and even when that ability has been taken away their appetite doesn’t fade, which means they end up throwing up… waste, a lot. So teaching them some restraint after taking away the reproduction problem is the first thing you have to do, and you can’t really stop there.”

“Sounds like she is a lot of work,” The unicorn remarked.

“She can be troublesome at times… though I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Oskar replied, eliciting a happy trill from Navi. “Well gentlecolts, shall we move onto business?”

“Of course,” Look said, taking a drink of his coffee. “Now Miss Gleaner, I am glad- no, thrilled that you are willing to invest in our business, but I am also wondering why a pony such as yourself would be interested in this sort of industry? I’d think a model would want to be associated with more glamorous businesses.”

“I like to think of myself as a forward thinking mare,” Oskar said as she took her own seat on an opposite couch. “I can see a lot of potential in mass production, though the traditionalists don’t. I know all the criticisms of the industry: it’s taking away jobs, the most effective means of powering it requires dirtying the air, producing the machines is an expensive process that requires materials that are also environmentally unfriendly. But I also know that for all its negatives this industry has immense promise of growth. The traditionalists like to ramble on about how Equestria doesn’t rely on the machine industry but the statistics show that a loss of but a few factories is affecting the economy. This trend implies for all the bluster about the evils of “Dirty Industry” ponies still go to them for cheap inexpensive goods versus the pricey hoof made equivalent. What I’m saying is that I know what I am getting into, Mr. Look.”

“Ah, call me Over Look, Miss Gleaner.” The business pony smiled. “Might I say that is a very progressive attitude you have.”

“You may call me Emerald then, and thank you,” Oskar replied with a smile.

“I am actually surprised you would still want to do business with us since you do know about those robberies,” Over Look said honestly. “That fact alone is scaring off investors and skilled workers. Thank Celestia my factory in Manehattan wasn’t hit.”

“Investment in the first place is a bit of a risky business,” Oskar replied casually. “And I’m more than willing to gamble on your company, Over Look.”

“And I’m extraordinarily grateful Emerald!” Over Look said excitedly as he took out some papers and began looking over them. “With you backing us, we should be able to drum up more business simply from being associated with you.”

‘He is rather new at this isn’t he?’ Oskar thought. ‘He just gave me a lot of negotiating leverage right there.’

“Indeed. Now let’s look at some numbers shall we?” Oskar asked.

“Here are the current market prices for our company’s shares,” the unicorn said, levitating over a piece of paper. “Shall I explain the stock market for you?”

“No thanks, I am well aware of how this works,” the virus replied before examining the paper.

‘Hmm… according to this I could own about forty five percent of the company… if I’m willing to spend everything I’ve earned.’ Oskar thought frowning internally. ‘Not bad actually. That’s fairly cheap for a company like this. Still… I would like to have some savings, plus being a minority shareholder isn’t all that great. Hmm… I’ve got an idea. He wants to be associated with me? Fine. But I shall get maximum benefit out of it.’

“Well I’ve decided to buy about forty percent of your shares.” Oskar said, floating the paper back.

“That’s fantastic!” Over Look replied.

“But I would like to have more, at least eleven percent more,” the Evolved added. “I have a business proposition you may be very interested in Over Look.”

“Really? Go on, I’m very intrigued in what you have to say,” Over Look stated and leaned forwards a little eagerly.

“In exchange for at least eleven more shares I would be very willing to pose in your company’s advertisements,” Oskar stated. “Free of charge.”

“Deal!” Over Look said immediately just before the unicorn was about to speak up. “This is a massive advantage Emerald thank you! With your name and face on our ads, we’ll be sure to grow!”

“Ahem, of course this does mean you are now the majority shareholder and effectively own the company,” the unicorn said to Oskar while shooting a disapproving look over his glasses at Over Look.

“Ah… I forgot about that.” Over Look stated, looking a little worried as he realized he just handed over the reins of his company on impulse.

“Nothing to worry about gentlecolts, it’ll be business as usual,” Oskar stated. “I just wanted to make sure that I gain a profit on a daily basis with our business deal as well. And don’t worry, I don’t expect some massive pay roll for being majority shareholder. Anyway, when shall I come in for photo shoots?”

“Well… we need to set up a few things first. Rent a studio, hire a photographer…” the unicorn began.

The next hour and a half was filled with business conversation and talk of the many photo shoots Oskar would be posing for. Though Oskar was setting up something that would hopefully pay off big should things work out the way she planned, it was still rather stale, as a snoozing Navi attested. Eventually the meeting came to an end, and though Over Look was rather disappointed in losing total control of his company via impulsive decision, he was still rather happy with the potential financial outlook of the future.

“I shall be seeing you in a week Emerald,” Over Look stated as he and his aide walked out the door. “I look forward to the projected increase in contracts when we get those ads out into the public.”

“I look forward to a bright, industrious, and most of all profitable future,” Oskar replied. “Something we both agree on I believe.”

“Indeed, until then.”

With that, the two ponies left and Oskar gave a small satisfied smile.

‘That went well,’ The Evolved thought. ‘Ponies aren’t too used to others outright trying to take advantage of them. Here I was expecting to only be able to buy a fraction of the shares and have to network with the other shareholders so I could manipulate them to get what I want. Now that I don’t have to, everything will go a bit faster and easier. Now… what to do? I guess I could rest up a bit more and start practicing my teleporting again…’

It was then that Oskar happened to look out the window and see several ponies walking by. It was her other friends, Lyra, Bon Bon, Time Turner and Rose Locks out on a walk somewhere, or maybe just walking around town. Oskar barely spared a moment to ponder before she decided to head out and see if she could join them.

With that, the virus walked out the door, Navi still snoozing in her mane.



BETA



“There it is lads,” Oskar said in his Gray Fox persona, “Las Pegasus. This is where we’ll be looting next.”

It was noon, about two days later. Oskar had taken a group of Diamond Dog Alphas to scout out the next city on their list, doing so from the summit of the mountain with the Applewood sign. Twilight and the others hadn’t returned from their apple tree delivery just yet, and while Oskar was beginning to feel worried about it, she trusted her to be able to get through whatever situation she had gotten into just fine.

“Shiny,” Bluno commented as he used a stolen telescope to spy the city below. Las Pegasus was basically a far more tamer version of Las Vegas. There was singing, dancing, partying from dusk till dawn, but the lack of sure debauchery made the place just seem really lively. It had a massive array of lit up signs as well, though most of them were off during the day. The one thing that really helped differentiate Las Pegasus from Las Vegas though was the many city blocks made of clouds floating overhead, the pegasi housing and entertainment. “I think I find industrial area.”

“I think I found, mate,” Oskar corrected absently and spied the city with his own powerful eyes. “And yes that there is the industrial quarter. Notice all the Royal Guard wandering around? Slight chance we may have angered the power that be methinks.”

“The ponies are keeping close watch on factories.” Belvedere stated as he did his own spying with a telescope. “They will catch us stealing even faster than last time and boys aren’t ready for heavy fighting yet.”

“Right you are mate,” Oskar replied as he scanned over the city. “What we need is a distraction…”

The virus searched the city for anything that could be of use in creating a distraction, but also made note of several factories, particularly those belonging to the company he pretty much owned, ‘New Paradigm’.

“See the factories with the triangle within a circle symbols on em?” Oskar asked. “Those are factories we are ignoring. In fact, just had an idea, not only are we going to be stealing from some factories, we are going to just bust into some, purely to break stuff.”

“Mentioned you own a pony business now…” Belvedere stated in thought. “Getting rid of competition?”

“Real good head on your shoulders mate,” Oskar complimented as he narrowed his eyes at something that caught his attention. “Wait a tic, notice all those posters everywhere? Those look like sports advertisements. From what I can see… it appears we have our distraction lads!”

“What’s the plan boss?” Bluno asked.

“I’ll tell all of you about it when we get back, savvy?” Oskar said, moving away from the ledge. “Let’s head back into the tunnel. I’ll teleport us the rest of the way.”

With that, the group followed their viral leader into the tunnel. A flash emitted from within the hole a few moments later, the angle keeping it from being spotted by the ponies who lived in the city below.



GAMMA



“Yay! Almost home!” Pinkie cheered, bouncing on her seat whilst wearing her saloon girl outfit, which she had refused to take off for some reason.

Twilight smiled at her friend’s antics as she watched Ponyville become closer with every moment. It had been a rather exciting few days. What had at first purely been an apple tree delivery turned into a rescue mission, then a negotiation of grievances, and finally an all-out battle between the local Buffalo and the settler ponies. Thankfully it all ended up getting resolved fairly well when the Buffalo Chief had unintentionally taken a bite out of some apple pie and decided to share the land, which Pinkie had been a bit annoyed about as that was what she had suggested, though in a form that no one seemed to take seriously. They had also ended up staying a few extra days afterwards to help fix up the town as well as move around apple trees off the ancestral Buffalo running grounds.

The violet unicorn smiled brightly when she saw the train platform approach. Sitting on it, waiting patiently, was Emerald and her pet Navi happily buzzing in the air. Spike had sent a letter ahead of them, telling Emerald they would be in today and also informing the unicorn of everything that happened during what was supposed to be a simple apple tree delivery.

Wheels screeching from the brakes, the train slowed to a stop into the train station. The Mane Six got up and off immediately. Having only expected a short trip, they had little in the way of luggage.

“Hey there Emmy!” Pinkie greeted as she cheerfully bounced onto the platform. “We’re home! Didja miss us?!”

“Why are you dressed like a wild west prostitute?” Emerald asked with a raised brow as she took in Pinkie’s outfit.

“A wild what? What in tarnation is a prostitute?” Applejack asked.

“I’m rather confused as well. I’ve never heard that word before,” Twilight stated with a tilt of her head. “What is it and what does it mean Emerald?”

Suddenly the unicorn in question appeared incredibly embarrassed. “Umm… uh what does prostitute mean? Oh uhhhh…. Crud.”

“It means ‘crud’? Quite an odd alternative word if I do say so myself,” Rarity commented.

“No, that’s not what it means…. It means, ummm…” Emerald began rubbing the back of her head and looking to be at a total loss of what to do.

“What’s wrong Emerald? Aren’t you going to tell us what the word means?” Twilight asked.

“I’m… going to be at the library if anypony needs me,” Emerald replied and teleported a second later.

“Well something’s mighty off about that,” Applejack commented before shaking her head. “Whelp Ah’m off to the farm, gotta check in with family and catch up on chores.”

“I’m going to go see if my building materials have arrived yet before checking up on Angel and the animals,” Fluttershy said as well and walked off. “Hopefully I won’t be too delayed by fanponies…”

“I’ve likely got a backlog of orders to work through, best be off to handle that,” Rarity added. “Have a good day darlings!”

“I wanna show off my prostitute clothes to the cakes and everypony else!” Pinkie said, adopting Emerald’s strange name for her outfit with nary an afterthought before darting off to do just what she said.

“Meh… that comfy cloud up there has my name up on it,” Rainbow Dash said with a shrug. “Time to catch up on my afternoon naps, see ya Twi!”

Seeing that all her friends were off to handle their own business, Twilight decided to emulate Emerald a bit and teleported directly home. Arriving in the library with a purple flash, Twilight took stock of her surroundings and saw that Emerald wasn’t there. However there were a lot of flashing lights coming from the kitchen accompanied by the sound of clanging pots and pans.

Thinking that her friend was busy baking again, something Twilight was loath to interrupt for love of delicious pastries, the studious unicorn decided to take it upon herself to study and find the meaning of Emerald’s word.

Walking over to a bookcase, Twilight scanned over the books before pulling out the largest and most complete dictionary in her collection. Taking a seat at a desk she then opened the massive dictionary before her and flipped to the ‘P’ section. She had expected to find it right away as she was carefully moving through each word but soon found herself in the next section without finding it.

‘Prost, prostate, prosthesis, prosthetics but no prostitute.’ Twilight thought in irritation. ‘Where in the world is it? Do I just keep overlooking it? It doesn’t seem like that much of an inconspicuous word… maybe this one just doesn’t have ‘prostitute’ in it? Okay let’s check the others then.’

Curiosity raised and nothing much better to do, Twilight set about trying to find the word prostitute in other dictionary publications, thinking it was just a really obscure word. She was about through with her second dictionary when a rather irritated Spike suddenly walked into the room.

“Uhhh Twilight?” The baby dragon began crossly. “I think you kind of forgot about me when you teleported from the train station.”

“Oh no, I’m really sorry Spike,” Twilight said somewhat absently, most of her attention on the book before her. “You wouldn’t happen to know what prostitute means do you?”

“No I don’t,” Spike said with a facepalm. “… I’m just going to go to the living room.”

“Sure thing Spike,” Twilight said as she opened up her next dictionary. “Would you kindly get me those other dictionaries? Spike? Oh… where did he go?”

It was about an hour later that Twilight finally gave up with a huff after finally searching through all the ‘P’ sections of her dictionaries.

‘Honestly it was a bit of a long shot now that I think about it…’ Twilight thought to herself. ‘Emerald is from a foreign land so the word could very well be part of a different language. It could very well even be slang in that language. Of course it could very well be some new word that started circulating around the town and Emerald just found herself embarrassed from unintentionally using it.’

It was here that Emerald finally came out of the kitchen and, despite her own formidable beauty, she looked terrible. Covered in patches of flowers and splotches of various cooking ingredients, Emerald Gleaner looked the part of a mischievous child that managed to get into the pantry to play.

“Wow Emerald… did you have an accident?” Twilight asked with some concern, mostly for what the other unicorn was making though.

“Nope! I was practicing my magic,” Emerald replied cheerfully.

“I thought you had good telekinetic control?” Twilight asked, getting up from her seat and approaching the other mare. “How did you make such a big mess of yourself?”

“I wasn’t using telekinesis though,” Emerald replied, “I was teleporting ingredients around instead… I’m not very good at it, honestly.”

“That sounds very challenging… and fascinating.” Twilight said in interest. “You’re really working at getting very good at teleporting aren’t you?”

“Yeah, if you see Spike tell him not to worry about cleaning the kitchen okay? I’ll handle it,” Emerald said.

“Sure… by the way Emerald,” Twilight said as the unicorn turned to go back into the kitchen. “I tried finding that word you said in one of my dictionaries but I couldn’t manage it. Is it a word from a different language? Foreign slang perhaps?”

“Uhh… well it can be considered foreign and slang I suppose.” Emerald admitted in embarrassment.

“Won’t you tell me what it means?”

“Nope!” Emerald said with a definite shake of her head. “I can’t believe I let it slip out in the first place.”

“Hey Sweetie Belle! Do you like my prostitute’s outfit?” The two unicorns heard Pinkie Pie shout from outside.

“Oh yes it’s so pretty! Can I be a prostitute too?”

“Sure!” Pinkie answered cheerfully. “Let’s go see your sister! We’ll ask her if she can make you an outfit too!”

“Yay!”

Emerald became stiff as a board and her eyes widened for a few moments before looking at Twilight.

“Gotta go,” The mare said before quickly teleporting away.

Twilight blinked at her friend’s sudden departure, still curious about what the word meant and disappointed she did not find out.



DELTA



“Greetings and welcome fine ponies of Las Pegasus!” a voice boomed loudly. “It’s a fine day, not a cloud in the sky, not too windy, not too cold, not too hot. Perfect soccer weather if you ask me!”

It was the day of the big sports tournament in Las Pegasus, and being the fun loving city it was meant to be, the stadium was utterly packed with ponies, some even having to just sit out on the floor, though they didn’t mind it at all. The stadium itself was a thing of modern technology. Being in a society  that had full control of the weather meant that the organizers just had to look up the weather schedule to determine when  the best time was to have the game. However, Las Pegasus wasn’t the type of city to just wait for a good sunny day for some fun. After all, if it was a rainy day then one just moved the party inside and applied that logic to a specially built sports stadium. Not that they couldn’t just negotiate with the local weather teams or plan around the weather, the mentality of fun loving Las Pegasus meant that organizers often had to make sure events happened as quickly as possible no matter the weather.

With a retractable ceiling for those bad weather days and a team of earth ponies on hand to rapidly replace turf, any game could be played and spectated in any weather.

“Today’s game has Las Pegasus’ very own Party Animals versus the Canterlot Colonials!” the announcer pony said, a pegasus with a headset, sunglasses and a black suit floating around on a cloud. “With the home advantage can our Party Animal- GAAAH!”

As the announcer floated near the seats a shape suddenly leapt out and towards him, tackling him off the cloud and to the ground below. Ponies screamed and shouted in alarm at this but whatever had tackled the announcer spun something long above its head and managed to slow its fall. Landing fairly softly on the ground, it simply reached down and took the announcer's headset and walked towards the middle of the field. And that is when the spectating crowds got a good look at it.

Fumbling a little with a headset specially designed for a pony, the Gray Fox managed to put it on before tapping on the microphone, both gaining the attention of what few ponies that weren’t looking and quieting them.

“Hello friends!” the Gray Fox greeted with a jaunty wave of his hand. “I am the infamous king of thieves himself, the Gray Fox… how are all of ya!?”

Shocked whispers and buzzes of conversation met this proclamation, but not everyone reacted that way. On the sidelines of the playing field were many reporters who had been sent to cover the game, they weren’t exactly the best of their paper’s reporters, being the new guy sent to report on mundane things. However that didn’t mean they weren't willing to take any opportunity to improve on their lot in life, and who they saw standing in the very middle of the field was an opportunity to do just that.

Reporters galloped onto the field, those that were unicorns simply teleported right next to the infamous criminal. Despite being few in number those unicorns still managed to drown themselves out with rapid fire questions as notepads and quills levitated in the air, ready to record anything he said. The deafening flow of questions only grew worse as the other reporters arrived and several photographers began taking shots like crazy of the vulpine criminal. The Gray Fox seemed content to simply let them be for a few moments, smiling toothily at the reporters around him before he raised both hands and somehow quieted the lot of them. Then he raised a pointed finger and scanned over the small crowd of reporters for a moment.

“And… you, the bonny lass,” The Gray Fox said, pointing to a pegasus mare.

“Oh ahem… Gray Fox how did you become the leader of the Diamond Dogs?” the slightly blushing mare asked.

“Ah now there is a proper action packed tale,” the Gray Fox said, still wearing the headset and therefore allowing everyone in the stadium to hear him as well. “Well it all began several months ago when I decided to get me a crew…”



EPSILON



Shining Armor was on patrol alongside his own Royal Guards around a factory. Since he had a lot more resources to work with now, he was capable of covering pretty much all the factories, ensuring those that weren’t were watched and would get reinforcements quickly if raided. He was definitely more confident of countering the Gray Fox this time, but was much more wary. The Fox had proven himself to be both dangerous and crafty in the past, and Armor was well aware he may have something planned.

But so far the guarding of the factories seemed more a test of patience than of mettle. It had been quite some time since the raids on the factories in Manehattan and Shining Armor had expected the Gray Fox to have done something by now.

“Captain Armor! Captain Armor!” Shining heard someone shout and turned to see a pegasus guard diving out of the sky.

‘Now is the time!’ Armor thought, tensing up as the pegasus landed before him.

“Is it the Gray fox? Has he attacked another factory?!” Armor asked.

“It is the Gray Fox sir, but other than one announcer he hasn’t assaulted anyone or anything,” the pegasus answered.

“What?” Armor said incredulously. “Where is he, what is he doing?”

“He is in the Las Pegasus stadium sir,” the guard replied. “So far he has only stolen a headset from the announcer and is now answering questions the press has for him.”

“What is his game…?” Armor muttered in thought. “Send messages to all Royal Guard units. We shall group together before attempting to apprehend him. The Gray Fox wouldn’t appear out in the open like this if he didn’t have some sort of plan.”

“Right sir!” The pegasus guard said with a smart salute before flying off to fulfill his orders.

It didn’t take Armor’s group long to reach his designated location a short distance from the stadium, but he was the first, and in the Captain of the Guard’s mind the others weren’t fast enough. It was incredibly frustrating for him to be this close to the Gray Fox, to actually hear his voice talking over the speakers of the stadium, yet simply sit and wait for others to arrive. He knew this was needed though, the only things the Diamond Dogs had going for them in a head on brawl was numbers, their digging ability and the fighting skill of the Gray Fox himself. If this was a trap of some sort then the dogs would have surprise alongside their numbers, and while they were terrible fighters, they were excellent ambushers.

Finally after what seemed like far too long to Armor, the other Royal Guard detachments began arriving. Waiting ever so impatiently as their quarry basked in the attention of the media, Armor finally ordered the charge when their combined force reached five hundred.

Unicorns teleported directly onto the playing field and pegasi flew up and through the roof, while the earth ponies appeared in the stands and galloped down onto the field. 

“… and they made me their boss,” Armor heard the Gray Fox finish before turning to look at him with a smug smile. “Why hello there Mr. Armor! Fancy meeting you here… did you want my autograph mate? Amazing how famous I’ve become, maybe I ought to make some t-shirts with my face on them, savvy?”

“Gray Fox, you are surrounded!” Armor shouted. “Surrender peacefully and no harm will come to you!”

“Actually Captain Armor I am the one to have you surrounded…” the Gray Fox said and the guards took his claim utterly seriously, looking all around them and preparing for the Diamond Dogs to burst out of the ground until the Fox pointed towards the ceiling with his staff. “At least from this side.”

The gems on the staff suddenly glowed brightly and explosions resounded loudly within the stadium. Armor stared upwards at the retractable ceiling as the crowd started screaming in panic. There were several large scorch marks from black powder going off, but nothing near enough to threaten the building’s integrity. The fact that the explosions did nothing didn’t mean anything, they still sent a very clear message.

‘He has far more powerful explosives than black powder at his disposal.’ Armor though as he grit his teeth in anxiety. ‘If he wanted to he could basically bring the ceiling down on all of us. We are now all his hostages… he got me again… BUCKING TARTARUS!’

“Now don’t be alarmed!” The Gray Fox said to the panicking masses of ponies around him, the reporters having taken off the moment they realized that the Fox was actually quite dangerous. “While I DO have the entire place rigged to blow up to Celestia’s Sun, I am not holding you captive. None of you innocent bystanders anyway. No, I am more concerned about the Royal Guards not going anywhere, ey? So all of you can take right off but if any of you guards try to do the same, kaboom.”

Again, Armor and the Royal Guards took this claim seriously. Even though they knew the Gray Fox was standing in the middle of the field, and therefore in the center of the explosions, they also suspected he had a way to not be harmed by his own explosions, likely to do with how different his staff looked again.

Ponies ran away and quickly emptied the stands, but the Royal Guard stayed in face of the threat they faced. A long silent moment passed then, filled only with the Gray Fox’s soft humming heard via the headset he still wore. The guards waited, thinking that the Gray Fox was going to issue a command or demand something but nothing happened. The Fox just stood there leaning on his staff, wearing his now iconic long coat and cuirass. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting and the Fox continuing to softly hum over the speakers Armor stepped forward and came to a stop before the criminal.

“Yeah, you need something Captain Armor?” The Gray Fox said.

“Who are you?” Armor asked. “Why did you come to Equestria?”

“Who am I? Well if you really want then you can call me Jack McCloud mate.” The Gray Fox smiled. “As for why I am here… well I don’t even know the how let alone the why mate.”

“You don’t know how you got here?”

“Yep, but I decided not to let it bother me,” Jack said with a shrug and flick of his ear. “I’m here, I have many opportunities, I’m making lots of friends, I’ll bother with the why and how when I’m done being all I can be.”

“You being yourself is costing ponies their livelihoods!” Armor said with a scowl.

“Well that is a right shame innit?” Jack said and pulled up a coat sleeve to glance at a non-existent watch. “Well it’s time I made my daring escape wouldn’t you say?”

With that, the Gray Fox raised his staff to the ceiling and both gems glowed brightly. Explosions rang throughout the stadium roof, and this time they weren’t overgrown firecrackers, but the powerful untraceable explosive made by the Gray Fox himself.

Shining Armor turned his attention to the falling pieces of roof, ready to cast his shielding spell at a moment’s notice to save any guards from the debris. But the more he looked the more Armor realized that the explosions that went off were over areas that had few or didn’t have guards at all, the few that were in harm's way were more than able to jump out of it. Armor turned to where the Gray Fox was and saw that he had taken the advantage of the panic his explosives caused to run past guards and into the halls of the stadium.

“Quickly! Regroup and after him!” Armor commanded his scattered Royal Guard.

Armor and the unicorn guards quickly teleported outside the stadium and the pegasi flew out via the ceiling and kept watch overhead as the earth ponies galloped into the halls, intent on trying to find the Gray Fox in them. For a long moment, Shining Armor thought that the Gray Fox was already out into the city when the criminal himself came flying out a window on the third story.

Spinning his staff over his head, the Gray Fox somehow slowed his descent enough to impact the ground without hurting himself, then he quickly burst forward in a display of speed that was still surprising to Shining Armor. Shaking his head clear, Armor made after the Fox and his Royal Guard followed suit.

Turning a corner, Armor saw that they were now on a large street with many flashing signs and one animatronic one of a stallion kicking his forelegs. The Gray Fox was running along the street when one of the ponies decided to try to help the guards and attempted to tackle the fox. Fearing the worst, Armor was surprised when the Fox just tripped up the earth pony and leapt up to one of the many signs darting the sides of the buildings. As he bounded along the signs, a few pegasi made to dive at him when he jumped and swung from the animatronic sign. The sudden weight seemed to cause the inner workings of the sign to malfunction and make the kicking forelegs drop suddenly. The pegasi guards did not see this coming and ended up flying headfirst into it. The Fox’s luck didn’t hold up however and one of the next signs he bounded to couldn’t support his weight and broke, spilling him to the ground where he rolled back to his feet and quickly darted down an alley.

Several earth pony guards managed to reach the alley before Armor and were about to run down it when the Gray Fox came running back out and bowled them over.

“Whoops, dead end!” Jack said as he sprinted with his odd, off-balanced run.

The Fox’s short little trip down the dead end alley didn’t do him any favors as it allowed many Royal Guards to catch up and more to run ahead in an attempt to cut off the Gray Fox. As it was, Jack now had Royal Guards right on his heels and even more ahead of him to deal with. Whether or not he was concerned with the guards closing in around him, he definitely didn’t show it.

Another corner was turned to see a line of earth ponies covering the entire width of the street with gaps between their numbers being far too small for even the Gray Fox to slip. Undaunted, their vulpine quarry charged ahead.

“Halt!” Shouted one of the earth pony guards, but prepared anyway to face the Fox in combat.

Now only a few feet from the line of ponies, Jack struck out with his staff, not at the guards but at the ground. End of the staff stabbing into the street, the Gray Fox pole vaulted over the ponies and hit the ground running. To their credit, the earth ponies only paused for the briefest of moments before galloping off after the Fox.

Down another street with bystanders scattering out of the way, a pegasus made to dive at Jack, only for the criminal to jump up into the air at the last second and bring his staff down, sending the pegasus crashing into the pavement. Hitting the ground running yet again, the Gray Fox continued his mad sprint towards an intersection.

Suddenly, a cart appeared at the intersection. It was large, carrying a tank containing some liquid and needed at least six earth ponies to pull it along at a comfortable pace along the street. As everyone neared, a label on the side of the tank could be seen, a white stencil of a bowl of fruit. The Gray Fox leapt forward, now holding his staff like a spear and buried the slight point it had on the ends into the tank, causing a pinkish red liquid to start spurting out. Jack clambered over the tank and was somehow able to drag his staff along the metal and cause a massive rent in the side of the tank, spilling forth gallons and gallons of juice. More than a few Royal Guards were taken by surprise by this action, and were briefly swept away while the rest slowed to a stop. Armor and the unicorns teleported ahead while the pegasi flew overhead.

As he continued on his gallop after the Gray Fox, Armor briefly thought of simply surrounding him with unicorn guards via teleporting but quickly discarded the idea. Unicorns were trained for melee just like the others but they weren’t as good at it as the earth ponies and most of the time stuck to long range support. The Gray Fox was an incredible fighter and Armor was loath to have more unicorns with shattered horns. Horn sympathy aside, there was also no telling just what the Fox was capable of with that new staff of his.

Suddenly, the captain saw his chance to corner Jack, a three way street with one of the roads leading to a place he had taken Candance to for a date.

“Quickly! To that street!” Armor shouted, and after a few moments he and several other unicorns teleported ahead of the Gray Fox. With a crowd of unicorns in front of him, pegasi over him, and earth ponies closing in behind him, the Fox chose the only street free of foes.

Knowing full well what lay ahead, Armor allowed himself a moment’s hope, but quickly squashed it. Now wary of the craftiness of his foe, he would only allow himself celebration when he was in chains before the Princesses.

A massive swarm of Royal Guards behind him, the Gray Fox continued his way forward until he was forced to stop, the reason being a cliff. Leaning over the protective wall and seeing the water crashing on the rocks below Jack simply let out a soft hum before turning to face his pursuers. All of them had been exerted by the merry chase he had led them on, and even the earth ponies couldn’t help but pant.

Shining Armor stepped to the front and breathed deeply a few times and was about to speak when Jack pulled back a sleeve to glance at a non-existent watch.

“That ought to be enough time for the lads to work.” The Gray Fox said before turning to Shining Armor. “You ponies have been getting fat on peace and prosperity a mighty bit too long methinks. I’ve barely hit my stride, you're all already out of breath.”

“It doesn’t matter Gray Fox, you are cornered.” Armor said before narrowing his eyes. “And what did you mean by ‘Time for the lads to work’?”

“Why don’t you go see for yourself Mr. Armor?” Jack simply replied and spun his staff grandly in the air, making all the guards tense up. “Now you see me, now you don’t.”

With clang Jack brought his staff down onto the pavement and disappeared with a flash of icy blue light.

‘Of course he can teleport.’ Armor groused. ‘I am going to get as many interdictors as possible shipped to Vanhoover… what did he mean’ look for yourself’? Did he… we spent all that time held hostage in the stadium doing nothing…’

“Quick! Back to the factories!” Shining Armor barked.

Despite being worn out from the chase, the guards made good time to the buildings they were supposed to have been protecting, but it did all of them no good.

Shining Armor looked over the wrecks covering the factory floor. Once highly modern and expensive machines of commerce and production, now nothing more than twisted scrap metal to be melted down.

“How are the other factories?” Armor asked as a pegasi guard suddenly flew in.

“Bad, sir,” the newly arrived guard answered. “Most factories just had their machines smashed to pieces while some have had them stolen instead.”

“Have some at least been untouched?” Armor asked, feeling depression beginning to set in.

“Yes sir there are,” the guard replied. “There are several factories completely untouched by the Diamond Dogs.”

“Hmm… the Diamond Dogs have numbers… there was plenty of time for those just smashing machines to hit those as well…” Shining Armor pondered. “The Gray Fox suddenly starting to smash up factories he can’t raid in time… if it wasn’t for the fact the Fox said he wasn’t interested in money I’d think… perhaps he is lying? He is a criminal, really anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt…”

“What do we do now sir?” the guard asked.

“We pack up and reinforce Vanhoover,” Armor stated determinedly. “That is the last industrialized city in Equestria so it’s likely his last predictable target. I’ll need to make a report to the Princesses and request for some Teleportation Interdictors, in order to counter the Gray Fox’s own teleportation capability, though it’ll keep us from teleporting as well.”

Armor sighed as he took in the sight of his failure to stop the Gray fox yet again.

“…Right let’s go.”



ZETA



Oskar sat at a park table in Ponyville, simply doodling random shapes and figures as she thought about her latest additions to the pieces of machinery in the cavern beneath the Everfree.

They would be useful for making plastics and other synthetic materials that required unsustainable resources to make. Though now she needed to survey for oil, and pumps and pipes to transport it back to the cavern. Thankfully she didn’t need to worry about drilling for it as the Diamond Dogs could dig through anything and to anywhere with enough time and effort.

“Uh, hi,” Oskar heard a voice say unsurely.

Looking up, Oskar saw that it was “Time Turner with Wings” standing a short distance away and smiling a tad nervously. Feeling her face flush in embarrassment at her past behavior, she couldn’t help but return the nervous smile with her own. Thinking about it in-depth, the virus recalled that she had seen him a few times after that fateful outdoor photo shoot, but they both were always busy to properly greet each other with Emerald doing contract work and whatever it was “Time Turner with Wings” was doing behind the scenes.

“Err, hello!” Oskar greeted. “It’s been a long time since that first photo shoot and… even longer since Cloudsdale.”

“Yeah,” the pegasus couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory of Oskar when she had been doped. “I’m Clock Work.”

“I’m Emerald Gleaner, not that you didn’t already know that,” Oskar said, sheepishly rubbing the back of her head. “You want to take a seat?”

“Sure!” Clock Work said and plopped himself down on the opposite seat. “So… what was that whole thing about anyway? The way you were acting in Cloudsdale I mean.”

“Oh… you see I was in some pain,” Oskar began. “You probably know this but I was a travel pony, I’ve seen and experienced many things. One of the things I know to do is this little technique to stop myself from feeling pain but it ends up making me… loopy.”

“That’s an understatement!” Clock said with a toothy smile.

Oskar returned the smile as she pondered the pony before her. It was extremely odd that he looked like Time Turner right down to the cutie mark, but from the sound of his voice the virus could tell he was younger than the pony doctor. Taking his name into account, Oskar guessed the pegasus specialized in machines instead of having an affinity for the science of time.

“So what is it that you do for Photo Finish?” Oskar asked. “Well besides carrying her, but she conscripts the nearest pony on hoof for that.”

“I work on the special effects,” Clock answered. “At the time I was prepping some smoke machines and spotlights  when she just pointed at me and demanded that I carry her along on a platform. Technically I didn’t have to do that if I didn’t want to━ I’m a contractor after all━ but considering who she was, I really didn’t want to get blacklisted by the fashion industry, so I bit my lip and did as I was told.”

“Photo Finish can be such a diva,” Oskar said with a roll of her eyes. “Plus she speaks in third person, though it isn’t as bad as some others I have heard.”

“You hate ponies speaking in third person?” Clock Work said in some surprise. “That’s a new one.”

“Please don’t tell me you were expecting me to match my ‘Know your Mare’ profile?” Oskar said, slightly annoyed. The virus had expected quite a few hare-brained articles about her in tabloid magazines considering how serious a stance she had taken on her and Fluttershy’s right to privacy, and had actually thought that she would find them amusing. Turns out there was a bit of a difference between reading “facts” about someone else and reading “facts” about herself. Some of them painted her as some sort of saint utterly incapable of being inelegant. others depicted her as secretly being some weepy girl that just collapsed behind closed doors. Then there was that whole situation that came up a while after she had punched that reporter. He had just tried to enter the library and she reacted to it. Apparently she was such a media darling that people were more willing to imagine some crime that the reporter did to deserve being punched, than that she was just being a bit too protective about her privacy. So of course the reporter was on the verge of being crucified in a figurative sense when she had stepped in, at Twilight’s insistence, and explained what had actually happened and publicly apologized to the reporter for it. Her popularity had taken a bit of a hit after that, but Photo just waved it off saying that there was no such thing as bad publicity. Sure enough, she was back to being whitewashed as a family friendly role model after only one round of slightly negative magazine articles.

“Well… heh, sorry but it was all I had to go on,” Clock admitted with a sheepish look. “Not smart for a pony who works in the fashion industry, huh?”

“Well you seem to have your head screwed on right when it counts,” Oskar stated with a shrug, smiling all the while.

“Emerald!” The virus heard someone shout.

Turning away from Clock Work, Oskar saw Sweetie Belle along with her friends come changing up, the little filly hopping over to her excitedly with an unbeatable smile.

“Oh hello Sweetie Belle,” Oskar greeted. “Can I help you three?”

“Okay… right next to Rainbow Dash I’m actually looking forward to this story.”  Scootaloo said as she plopped herself down on the ground in front of Oskar.

“Ah can’t wait to hear about all the action!” Applebloom added and sat herself down next to Scootaloo and looked up at Oskar expectedly.

“Uh, what’s going on?” The Evolved asked the younger unicorn.

“We want to know how you got your cutie mark Emerald!” Sweetie said and crawled up onto the bench with Oskar, scooting over until she was leaning into the virus.

“My cutie mark? Umm…” Oskar began, a little at a loss yet still smiling at the little filly. In the same way Rarity could be considered her mother, Sweetie Belle could be considered her aunt. While Rarity expressed her familial attitude towards her via motherliness Sweetie Belle expressed hers by being an utter cuddle bug.

“Yeah! How did you get it?!” Scootaloo asked. “Was it taking back jewels from a bunch of thieves? Braving their clever traps and sharp-eyed guards before fighting your way out and returning them to the owner? The crown jewel of her collection being a tiara carved out of emeralds?”

“Uh…”

“Or did ya get it from finding a treasure?” Applebloom said. “Going into a spooky booby trapped ol’ ruin for this carved emerald… thingy an’ getting back out in an exciting boulder chase!?”

Everyone, including a rather amused looking Clock Work turned to look at Sweetie Belle. The little filly’s eyes widened from being put on the spot and she began thinking intently for a few moments before taking a deep breath.

“… I can’t think of anything…” Sweetie said after a moment, looking rather disappointed with herself.

“Well…” Oskar began, a bit amused about their little ideas of how she may have gotten her cutie mark, considering that is “Emerald” had actually done those so she wouldn’t be poor, the fact they were young and didn’t really understand the idea of being poor probably had something to do with it. “To tell the truth… I just… looked down one day and… it was there.”

There was a long moment of silence as everyone just stared at her, completely unsure if she was being serious or not.

“… Really?!” Scootaloo exclaimed finally. “You just looked down and it was there? What kind of story is that?! Even Fluttershy’s story was better than that!”

“An what does that even say about getting a cutie mark?” Applebloom said, scratching her head. “We jus’ do whatever till it shows up one day?”

“That wasn’t a good story Emerald.” Sweetie said with a shake of her head.

“Emerald… are you totally serious about how you got your cutie mark?” Clock Work asked.

“Er, yeah?”

“That’s… incredibly weird.” The pegasus said. “When a pony gets their cutie mark it’s a moment of total clarity and realization, the moment when you truly realize what you are good at and would be happy doing for the rest of your life. But you… you just looked down one day and saw your cutie mark was there.”

“Not only that!” Sweetie Belle added. “Emerald actually hates the idea of going around digging for gems!”

“So not only did you get your cutie mark with pretty much no explanation you got one for something you hate doing?” Clock said incredulously, shooting her a weird look that the fillies mimicked.

“What? No pony said I was ever a normal pony,” Oskar said defensively. “I’ll be the first to admit I’m probably going to be one of the strangest ponies you’ll ever meet.”

“Okay this is boring!” Scootaloo said, having lost interest long since finding out Emerald didn’t have an exciting story. “Let’s go find Rainbow Dash now!”

“Wait for me!” Sweetie Belle shouted and leapt off the bench after her friends who had started running off. “See you later Emerald!”

“Nice kids,” Clock commented with a smile before looking up at the sky. “Well I have to go now or I’ll be late. It was nice finally meeting you Emerald.”

“The same, Clock Work,” Oskar replied as the pegasus lifted off into the air. “Maybe we can meet up for lunch sometime, after all we’re basically co-workers. And whenever you come back to Ponyville I’ll introduce you to the rest of my friends.”

“Sounds like fun!” Clock Work called back. “See ya later Emerald!”

“See you!” The virus said waving.

‘Well that was nice,’ Oskar thought as she directed her attention back to the little piece of paper on the table. ‘I made myself look weird again but oh well, it’s not like I don’t already have a ton of outrageous stories made up about me all the time. Anyway, what was I thinking about again? Oh right, the machines and materials. Well, getting oil for plastic shouldn’t be too hard, there are probably countless gallons of untapped oil wells all over the place, what with Equestria’s traditionalist attitude towards industry. It’s just a matter of digging around and finding one. Just a bit of time and patience is all that is needed here really.’ Suddenly a thought occurred to the virus that she should be doing more than doodling random shapes on the paper. ‘Getting some interesting ideas for that little side project of mine as well… purely theoretical right now though, but I if it works out…’ 

Leaning back, the virus then admired the rough sketch she had created. It looked like a unicorn was wearing some sort of weird full body plated armor that even covered the horn and shaped it into a razor edge.

‘If everything works out just right with the Storm Sapphire, setting up a production facility and my own research, then the future will be very interesting.’



ETA



Oskar walked into a freshly carved out room in the Everfree caverns. He was in his base form and being held in his hands was the now dull and lifeless Storm Sapphire.

The room was fairly bare, with just stone walls, floor and ceiling. But large cables stolen from various factories were lined into the room via large holes cut in the walls. In the center of this room was a solid gold pedestal, sitting on roughly cut mats of rubber, with a three pronged claw at the very top, near the bottom of another cable painted bright yellow and lined into a hole cut into the floor. Along the sides of the pedestal were also many, many little spikes that seemed inexplicable in their purpose.

Walking over to the pedestal, Oskar then placed the magical gem upon it and stepped a short distance away. Then he raised a hand and pointed it at the gem, red and black flames arising from his fingernails. The gem suddenly leapt to life as it greedily drained the magic that encapsulated it, the lightning bolt within its very core leaping and dancing with life as it glowed ever brighter. Stopping his flow of magic, Oskar then approached the pedestal.

He crouched down next to the yellow cable next to the pedestal and picked it up. Shooting it a thoughtful look, Oskar then reached over and plugged the cable into the pedestal via the spikes that were actually outlets. The reaction was almost instant.

The Storm Sapphire glowed brightly before its light immediately started to die down. The hum it was emitting faded to nothingness and the lightning bolt that surged and danced within its core was once again frozen into stillness.

‘Well grounding the gem causes it to immediately discharge itself.’ The Evolved hummed in thought. ‘This might have been a problem if we didn’t have transformers rigged up to control the flow of energy, we might end up with overloaded machines. Right, now let’s set this up again…’

Unplugging the grounding cable, Oskar then took a few steps back and fed magic back into the gem, recharging it rapidly. Once that was done, he then walked over to one of the cables coming from the wall and plugged it into the pedestal. Observing the cable plugged into the pedestal for a few moments, Oskar then reached into a pocket before pulling out an object.

It was a mass of spliced together circuits, exposed gold wiring somewhat in the shape of a remote, if one didn’t have a plastic covering and was more prone to give you a lethal shock the moment you touched it. Near the top was also a red needle and a piece of plastic with numbers etched into it.

Bringing the device down and pressing the red needle against the cable, Oskar watched as the piece of plastic rotated and began fluctuating between numbers, showing the general amount of energy in the cable as well as telling him that there was power actually running through it.

Putting the device away with a small satisfied smile, Oskar then teleported in a red flash. Arriving in a new massive room, the virus looked around to see it bustling with activity.

Diamond Dogs were everywhere, as well as pieces of machinery and machines in one piece. They didn’t need all the machines they had stolen, but the extra ones would be very useful in making even better machines. Doing this would give him a bit of a head start regarding producing more advanced machines, he still planned on teaching the dogs advanced skills, but while they seemed to have an affinity for tools and machines, they still needed time to learn and practice.

Oskar approached one of the set up machines, a metal lathe that had a few Diamond Dogs surrounding it, making sure they had bolted everything right.

“Power ready boss?” one of the dogs asked at his approach.

“Yes, and from what I can tell it’s not an insignificant amount,” Oskar replied as he picked up a large plug from the lathe. “So all of you won’t be too reliant on me. The gem still needs magic in order to produce electricity, but it has a fairly high capacity from what I can tell. So we won’t have to worry about our power usage, especially this early on with our current level of development. But eventually we are going to be using power for more than just production, and we are going to need to rely on more than one magic gem, but that’s something to worry about later. Let’s see if this will work…”

Walking over to the wall roughly installed with power outlets, Oskar took the cable in his hand and plugged it in. Pausing for a few moments to observe the cable, the outlet and the machines, and seeing none of them suddenly explode or anything, the virus decided everything was going well.

Teleporting back next to the lathe, Oskar paused before pressing the button. All around him were Diamond Dogs looking at him, their basic knowledge of mechanics letting them know that this was a make it or break it moment. Oskar then pressed the button.

The lathe struggled and seemed to die a few times before suddenly chugging to life, it was also fairly loud in the enclosed underground space. After a few moments of letting it run, Oskar then turned it off. Turning around, Oskar saw that the Diamond Dogs were covering their ears.

“That was a bit loud,” Oskar stated. “But it works!”

The dogs cheered to that, their own shouts just as deafening as the machine was.

“Now, we are going to need to make some ear protection if we are going to be running and operating these all the time,” Oskar said, and started waving the dogs near him. “We are still some time away from using these daily but we are getting close, so I’m going to have to teach all of you machine safety and what to do when something is going wrong, but your co-worker doesn’t notice because he can’t hear anything. But before we get into that, a different but very important rule…”

“From this point on, if any naturally long haired dogs want to work in or around heavy equipment you are going to need to shear your hair short.” Oskar stated to a few groans. “It’s for your own good. The last thing anyone needs is to see someone get killed because his fur got caught in a machine or had a chunk of his flesh ripped off for the same reason, alright?”

Many Diamond Dogs winced at the thought of that happening, the short haired breeds looking relieved they didn’t have to worry about that, and the long haired ones looking resigned.

“Good, now onto the rules.” Oskar began, raising his voice so the dogs could hear him clearly. “These protective rules are essential to staying safe, where I come from we call it OSHA compliance…”



THETA



Celestia sighed as she looked over a letter.

“Is it as bad as it seems, sister?” Luna asked.

The two royal sisters were in a study in the palace, Celestia’s horn glowing with magic as she slowly lowered the sun past the horizon.

“Once again, the Gray Fox has proven to be a masterful thief and leader of brigands,” Celestia said tiredly. “Using himself as bait, he lured Shining Armor and his contingent of Royal Guards away from the factories they were protecting and let his Diamond Dogs wreak havoc on the factories.”

Coming over to her sister, Luna leaned over and began reading the letter herself.

“So the Gray Fox’s name is Jack McCloud?” Luna stated. “Truly a name that will live on in infamy even if he is caught and brought to justice. The Captain suggests an interesting theory on why the Fox started destroying equipment out of the blue.”

“Yes, though I sincerely hope it is merely a theory,” Celestia said with a troubled frown. “The thought that one of my ponies could fall to such levels, to hire an unscrupulous being such as the Gray Fox just to get ahead in profits, troubles me dearly.”

“It is still a valid theory sister, and those in positions of wealth and power tend to lose touch with some values in the pursuit of even greater social stature,” Luna said a tad grimly.

Celestia sighed and leaned against her sister. “It was not your fault Luna, the Nightmare preyed upon your doubts. You would have never tried to create an eternal night had you not been influenced so.”

“Yes sister…” Luna merely said, averting her eyes guiltily before shaking her head and returning to the letter. “It seems the Gray Fox has been getting improvements to his staff, Captain Armor noted several instances of new uses, like the Fox using it to slow his fall, remotely trigger explosives and now teleport.”

“I wonder if it is a freeform teleport or one locked onto a specific location,” Celestia said in thought.

“It would take a far greater amount of power and control for freeform teleportation, even if it is handled by a magical object,” Luna stated. “The Gray Fox would get more uses out of a fixed teleport, Captain Armor is smart to simply go with the thief capable of freeform teleportation and reacting accordingly though.”

“Yes I shall be sending him the interdictors he requires,” Celestia stated. “There is only one city with untouched industry now. This means the Gray Fox now has to deal with the full attention of the Royal Guards.”

“He has done his damage already I fear,” Luna stated. “Prices are rising even higher, investors are being scared off from the Gray Fox raiding production facilities and crippling their growth as a result. Whether or not we catch him, I fear Equestria will face a minor recession, the kingdom’s GDP will fare even worse if he manages to succeed in Vanhoover.”

“He must be caught then,” Celestia said firmly. “These factory raids are the only predictable pattern we have and we’ll only lose it the moment he succeeds in Vanhoover, meaning we’ll have to wait for him to steal again to figure out a new pattern. I fear for my ponies' livelihoods should this come to pass.”

“This part about the Gray Fox admitting he doesn’t know how he arrived in Equestria disturbs me,” Luna said. “A master thief brought into the Kingdom through means even he doesn’t understand? This rabbit hole’s depth is proving to be quite abyssal indeed.”

“I agree with you Luna,” Celestia said with a frown as she watched the sun finally dip beneath the horizon. “But for now all we can do is sit and wait. Hopefully Shining Armor will be able to overcome the Gray Fox’s intellect.”

“I hope so as well sister.”



-TBC-