Oskar Osäker: True Omnivore

by Legionary

Chapter 13: Skyfall

Oskar sat cross legged on a stone work floor, his face fixed in an expression of pure concentration.

The Evolved was back in the Everfree Caverns and in one of the many rooms set aside for him and his various projects. His current project was the study of a Teleportation Interdictor that his dogs had managed to steal. He had two of them now actually, truly the Alphas went above and beyond in collecting the devices Oskar wanted.

The Interdiction box looked fairly plain and was purple in color with black around the edges. On the very top, embossed in brass, was the crest of the people that created the box, a shield that had a heraldry of books, armor, sparks, and a crown. Atop the shield were a pair of silhouettes of two rearing unicorns, and along the bottom was the group’s name.

‘Royal Guild of Magical Craftsponies.’ Oskar read as he brought a hand near the box, a forefinger alight with blood red magic.

Instantly the box became utterly covered with many crisscrossing lines intersecting many concentric circles. To the untrained eye it was a maddening mess of random glowing lines and shapes that gave no real indication of logical method, but Oskar had the luck of knowing the primer of Artificing thanks to Silver Light.

Narrowing his eyes in concentration, Oskar moved his hand over the surface of the box, scanning over it. Suddenly bringing his hand to a stop, Oskar slowly and with great care placed a finger on one of the concentric circles. Placing his finger on the inner circle, Oskar then moved his finger, the circle it was on following it. Enlarging the inner circle until it nearly touched the outer one, Oskar pulled his finger back and waited.

Suddenly there was a single click from the box and it unfolded like a flower. The process of the change from metal box to metal flower was hard to keep track of, but Oskar’s attention was attracted to the long prism-like gem. Beams of light leapt from the gem floating in mid-air and into the “petals”, sigils seemed to be created and sent flying from the prism and destroyed as they drifted away.

‘This must be the power matrix,’ Oskar thought as he leaned back and examined the gem.

Oskar reached forward with both hands now, both alit with magic. Carefully surrounding the prism with his fingers without touching it, the virus sent careful pulses of magic through them. The Prism glowed brightly and the sigils emitting from it stopped before the glow ended and the gem began to dull. Once the gem lost its brightness and began to descend towards the “flower”, Oskar then slowly took it in his grip.

Bringing the gem to him, he looked at it in his grip before looking at the device it had powered, said device was now dark and the air of magical energy it once held was quickly fading. Carefully replacing the gem it used to float back, he then reactivated it with another pulse of magic. The gem lit back up immediately and beams shot off it into the box, causing it to light up with the many runic markings as well. Oskar also noticed that several runes he hadn’t seen before appear briefly without the inner working of the unfolded device, flashing and flickering before fading from sight.

‘Perhaps they are runes specifically made to aid in the start-up sequence?’ Oskar hummed in thought as he reached forward and tapped a brightly glowing dot on one of the petals, causing the device to fold back up.

‘Well that was certainly an interesting exercise of knowledge,’ Oskar thought to himself as he studied the magical box before him intently. ‘Not much more I can do without experimenting, which I can’t really afford to do. The slightest change in ignorance could cause the Interdictor to simply stop working or fry its runic circuitry… may even explode if I mess up badly enough.’

‘Silver Light was never going to know more than the very basics of Artificing,’ Oskar thought as he brushed himself off and stood up. ‘It simply wasn’t in his temperament to learn this fine and finicky craft. He was more of an action loving pony and preferred a more direct form of magic. I’m going to need to find someone who knows this craft, as trying to figure things out myself, while possible, just isn’t practical time wise.’

‘Hmm… I don’t want to have to kill someone for this knowledge though, orchestrating a believable accident would be troublesome,’ the Evolved thought as he began to walk out of the room. ‘This side project of mine is starting to show a lot of promise. Some of the animals managed to retain a few of their higher brain functions. They are still basically retarded, but progress is progress…’

Oskar left the room, closing the door behind him with a click. He then wandered down a random hall as his mind wandered over issues and problems he had to deal with. Eventually, the sounds of muffled rhythmic booms met his ears as he walked. Before long, he found himself before a door where the booming noises were much louder, though still slightly muffled.

Opening the door, Oskar found himself in a firing range being used by a dozen Diamond Dogs. The dogs all wore ear plugs stolen from factories to protect their hearing. They didn’t fit perfectly well though, depending on the breed of Diamond Dog, but it was better than nothing. Each dog had his own stall and little table which had a small bucket on it. They all also had their own bolt action rifles and a few dozen bullets. At the far end of the firing range were wooden boards with red painted targets on them, very basic but it did the job.

As they fired, the dogs made sure to collect all the spent shells that had popped out of the chamber before placing it in the little bucket in their stall. When they had fired their allotted bullets, they flicked the safety switch on their rifles and picked up the bucket of spent shells, carrying it over to a large bin before dumping the bucket over into it.

Walking over to the bin, Oskar grimaced when he saw the growing pile of spent casings. He had a number of the smarter dogs now helping with manufacturing bullets, but the fact remained they were still going through tons of them just using them for practice. The virus could only imagine the sure strain on the supply chain if they actually got in some serious fighting with guns.

‘Thankfully ammunition will not be a problem forever,’ Oskar thought as he left the firing range. ‘The first assembly line is going to come online soon and its product shall be bullets. Then I can have more firing ranges carved out and everyone will get a chance to practice with the guns as much as they want. Then I can have the dogs making the bullets doing more productive things like helping their less skilled fellows pick up the engineering trade faster.’

Leaving the room and closing the door behind him, the loud muffled bangs of the guns going off became steadily quieter as he walked away. Oskar looked over his shoulder with a wince as a thought struck him.

‘Diamond Dogs have sensitive hearing,’ the virus pondered. ‘Even though I have the walls doubly thick in loud working environments, they can probably still hear it a good ways away. Hmm… perhaps a sound dampening charm? Easy enough, but the trick is keeping it powered for a decent length of time… how about I make use of my basic artificing skills then? I can’t do anything complicated, but setting up something to power a spell is easily within primer levels. Now I just need a good storage for magical power. A decent quality gem will do, we literally have a mountain of the stuff lying around in the tunnel network, though higher quality gems will hold much more power. Hmm…’

In his wanderings, Oskar happened by another door with noise emitting from it. This time the noise was not nearly as deafening and the door was marked as the ‘Workshop’. Deciding to enter on a whim, he opened the door and entered.

The workshop was massive in comparison to the firing range. It had to be considering all the hundreds of dogs working at tables, practicing metal working and putting together small basic machine parts. Some of the dogs were making basic machine parts like cogs and the like, but a few of the smarter ones were already in the process of making very, very basic circuit boards. However, for the most part, the dogs in the room were working on making guns.

Now the guns weren’t on the same level of the one that Oskar himself had made and demonstrated. At this point the dogs were still learning the basics of gunsmithing and the guns they were making could be described as crude breech loading muskets. They couldn’t hold a candle to Springfield Muskets, but the fact remained that as far as Oskar knew his Diamond Dogs were making the very first firearms in the world.

Another thing about the room was the light bulbs fastened to the ceiling. The conversion to electricity powered lighting was slow going right now, and only important places like the production facilities got them, but as soon as Oskar could get a few steam power plants up and running he would see to getting power to the rest of his people.

‘Heh, my people,’ Oskar thought with a chuckle. ‘How stately of me.’

Suddenly one of the Diamond Dogs working at a crafting table came running at him eagerly.

“Boss, boss!” The dog was a female golden retriever with her fur coat cut short and wearing an aqua green buttoned up vest. In her hands was a musket she had obviously finished working on. “Look what I made!”

The Diamond Dog then lifted up her rifle and aimed it at Oskar intentionally. The way she held the rifle was almost firing from the hip but high enough that she would have either gotten a bad bruise or a broken rib from the kick of the gun. Knowing that she didn’t mean to threaten him, Oskar examined the rifle she had made and was rather surprised to see that it looked extremely well done. It wasn’t near the quality that he would have managed, but impressive all the same.

“This is fantastic work, you should be proud… but there is one issue,” Oskar began, making the dog change her expression from beaming to almost pouting. “Nothing with the gun but with the way you are handling it. You must NEVER point a gun at anyone you don’t intend to shoot at, yes even if you know with absolute certainty that the gun isn’t loaded. Even then, you still mustn’t aim it at anyone. The best way to hold a gun is to always keep the muzzle pointing at the ground, that way even if it does go off by accident you won’t hurt anyone you didn’t intend to.”

“Oh… uh…” the dog began, fumbling a little with the rifle before adjusting its position to suit what Oskar had told her. “Thanks boss. I’ll make sure not to do that again, er… I’ll just go back to work now.”

Oskar just smiled as he watched the Diamond Dog dart back to her crafting table, satisfied that she was going to be rather talented, and that it appeared she had also picked up on the grammar lessons quickly as well.

Taking another look around the large workshop, full of busy dogs working away at guns, parts and circuits, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of accomplishment. He had taught them to do this, had given them the opportunity to be more than slaves scratching at the earth for treats to sate their murderous tyrant. And now they were flourishing and proving that they were a people naturally inclined to working with their hands.

‘I did all of this just to have a power base with which to give nations a reason to think twice,’ Oskar thought. ‘And I have succeeded at that, but now even if I didn’t want that anymore, I don’t think I could bring myself to stop working to make them better. I remember what it was like working under Mercer. Sure I had power and the freedom to wander the NYZ, but the threat of death was always there. I could never relax, never slow down, the slightest mistake could have easily ended up with me dead and replaced by some random Black Watch grunt plucked off the street. It always seemed like he was harshest on me, the most suspicious and critical. Every conversation was almost like a duel to the death with every victory only winning me a short reprise until the next duel… In all likelihood it was probably me being incredibly paranoid of him and his intentions towards me, but considering what he did with the surviving members of the Cadre on that rooftop… it doesn’t matter anymore I suppose. What I am feeling is that I know what it was like to work for a cruel master and I can’t find it in myself to just stop here and not put in any more work on improving their lives.’

‘Anyway, I have somewhere to be today and I can’t be late… no matter how much I want to be,’ Oskar thought with a sigh before teleporting away. ‘At least there is only one factory left…’

“L-lift your head up please,” Fluttershy asked before pushing a massive pillow. “Thank you.”

The demure pegasus was on her grounds, which happened to be very different now. The chicken coops were much larger now, and the penned area for the chickens to range in was much larger as well. The trees were practically overwhelmed with bird houses and most of them had yet to be even filled as prospecting bird couples and bachelors constantly flew by. The river banks had been altered and the bridge made wider so that even more animals could burrow homes there. There was now a barn-like building set off to the side that had six small silos attached to the sides, each one filled with a different animal feed. Despite all these additions, Fluttershy’s own home was completely untouched, seemingly forgotten in the rush of construction and improvements. Despite the previous statement, the feed barn wasn’t actually completed just yet. The back wall and part of the roof needed to be finished, and to do exactly that was Emerald Gleaner.

“I-is the p-pillow soft enough?” Fluttershy asked her patient. “S-should I fluff it up some more?”

“No, it is fine.” A large heavily bandaged and bruised dragon huffed in some annoyance at being coddled by a much smaller creature.

“O-oh good…” Fluttershy said nervously. She wasn’t going to refuse to treat someone that needed her help, but she was still rather scared of dragons. She wished Emerald could help her here, but considering that she was responsible for the dragon’s condition she didn’t think that was very smart. She was much better off without the unicorn’s help, as she would have likely agitated the dragon something fierce. Even now, when she wasn’t in sight, she could tell the dragon was angered by her presence. “L-let’s just change these dirty b-bandages now…”

“Hmph, very well,” the dragon half growled and presented one of his arms to her. “To think this resulted out of some hatchling getting too familiar with my gem horde.”

“W-well they did think you were going to seriously hurt Spike,” Fluttershy defended softly as she replaced the large bandages.

“Hurt him?!” the dragon said incredulously. “It takes a bit more than some fire and minor gnawing with teeth to hurt a dragon, even for a little brat like Spike.”

“Yes, but don’t you think you were acting like a bully?” Fluttershy said, her slight stutter disappearing and her voice rising.

“Hardly.” The dragon huffed. “The whelp was stealing from my horde. I was the one in the right to teach him a lesson and what happens because of it? I get beaten to near death!”

“Well I am sorry but you are so much bigger than Spike!” Fluttershy said sternly. “You really should know much better than to breathe fire at him and try to chomp on him.”

“Exactly. To me it looked like something much worse was going to happen than some disciplinary action,” Emerald said from Fluttershy’s side, making the pegasus jump with fright. “Sorry, that was why I attacked so… eagerly. I sincerely thought Spike was in serious danger and helped him to the best of my ability.”

“But he WASN’T in any danger!” the Dragon said with a loud growl, turning onto his side to face her. “Even a dragon as young as him has a hide tough enough that most normal predators are better off hunting something else, and no matter the age, all dragons have a high heat tolerance! YOU NEARLY KILLED ME FOR NO REASON!”

“I told you my REASON!” Emerald shouted back defiantly. “I thought YOU were trying to kill him! I was just defending him!”

“Kill him?!” the dragon roared in disbelief. “I don’t know who or where you were raised, but I wouldn’t have killed the whelp just for stealing!”

“WHAT DID YOU IMPLY ABOUT MY MOTHER?!?” Emerald shouted at the dragon.

“O-o-o-oh my…” Fluttershy breathed, taking in the scene before her with wide eyes. Emerald Gleaner, a unicorn, practically muzzle to muzzle with a furious dragon and shouting in his face in anger, and he roaring back with equal rage. Normal ponies would have just run from a fully grown dragon on sight, but Emerald not only was not doing that, but getting in his face and not paying any heed to the fact he could just gobble her up in one bite.

Suddenly, the two stopped their screaming match and simply panted, glaring at each other with murder in their eyes. In this “quiet” moment, Fluttershy decided to offer her own opinion on the argument.

“Umm… maybe… maybe the both of you are responsible for your actions?” Fluttershy said quietly, her voice sounding so deafening in her own ears as Emerald and the dragon shot her incredulous looks. “B-because you know… both of your actions are kind of bad… and… umm… yeah…”

Emerald and the Dragon just shot Fluttershy dirty looks before returning their attentions to each other and resuming their shouting match. Said demure pegasus only sighed tiredly and went back to work on replacing the dragon’s dirty bandages as the two argued very loudly with each other.

This went on for quite a while, Emerald and the dragon furiously arguing with each other as Fluttershy strove to work around it to the best of her ability. She had nearly finished applying the bandages through great effort when she spied Pinkie Pie tiredly walking up to them with Gummy on her back, wearing her ridiculous dress that she had forced Rarity to make several months ago.

“Oh hello Pinkie,” Fluttershy greeted as she flew over to the pink pony. “How do you do? Did you need something maybe?”

Trudging up to Fluttershy, Pinkie drew in a deep breath before breaking out into a song that instantly ended the argument between Emerald and the dragon.

“This is your singing telegram…” Pinkie began slowly, sweat dripping down her brow. “I hope it finds you well~ You're invited to a party~… Cause we think you're really swell~ Gummy's turning one year old~ So help us celebrate~…” Pinkie briefly took a quick breather and sighed. “The cake will be delicious~ The festivities first-rate~ There will be games and dancing~ Bob for apples, cut a rug~ And when the party's over~ We'll gather 'round for a group hug~ No need to bring a gift~ Being there will be enough~.” Pinkie paused again and gulped in a lungful of air as she seemed to struggle to stand. “Birthdays mean having fun with friends~ Not getting lots of stuff~ It won't be the same without you~ So we hope that you say yes~ So, please, oh please R.S.V.P~ And come, and be our guest~!” With that Pinkie gasped and flopped onto the ground.

“Oh my! Pinkie are you alright?” Fluttershy asked with concern. “Do you need something?!”

“…Water,” Pinkie rasped out.

“Right away!” Fluttershy said and darted back to her house.

“A party huh?” Emerald stated. “Hmm… sure why not? Better than shouting at this useless massive lump all day.”

Said “useless massive lump” growled angrily before letting out a huff and turning onto his side facing away from everyone.

Navi trilled in delight as she drank from a tiny cup and nibbled a slice of cake on her equally tiny plate whilst wearing a party hat, not bothered at all by the fact that the punch bowl had been used as an impromptu pool by gummy a short moment ago. The same could be said of Oskar as she continued to pour glass after glass of punch for herself despite Rarity’s objections, and had already eaten one of the cake layers entirely by herself again despite Rarity’s objections, though those were more for worry of her figure than anything else.

“Having fun?” Oskar asked her pet as she sat at the table, her cheek resting on her hoof. Her pet trilled her delight again and Oskar simply smiled at her before downing yet another cup of punch.

Try as she might, the Evolved just couldn’t get herself to relax and enjoy Pinkie’s party. There was just so much stuff she found herself thinking of doing. Finishing up on the solution for the predicted food crises, not to mention the bullet production line, she really needed to get that up and running so her dogs could practice their marksmanship skills. But the food issue was honestly much more important, so she was going to solve it first before going on to the next problem.

“Emerald?” Oskar heard Twilight say and turned to face her.

Before her were the Mane Six, all of them looking at her with clear concern. Oskar winced at that, apparently she was a bit too obvious with her own problems.

“Is there something the matter dear?” Rarity asked, taking a seat beside the fake unicorn. “You’ve been fairly quiet and aloof since the party started.”

“Did I do the party badly Emmy?” Pinkie Pie asked sadly.

“No, not at all!” Oskar quickly assured Pinkie. “It’s just that… well I was thinking about work…”

“Oh,” Rarity said a little unhappily, the others looking a bit upset as well.

“Look I’m sorry, I know we’ve already talked about this,” Oskar said. “That I should be taking more time off for both myself and all of you, but I just can’t help it. I have so much important work to do. It just bothers me so much to leave it undone and try to have fun instead.”

“Is making money really so important to you?” Twilight asked, causing an almost smothering silence to fill the room.

“It… my work is…” Oskar tried before sighing, then her expression became much more steely. “What I do is very important to the people I work for, it does so much for them to get my projects finished. So much more than you can believe.”

“Well…” Rarity began, trying to end the following silence, but was unable to. Suddenly Pinkie bounded forward and wrapped Oskar in a tight hug.

“Emmy you silly filly!” Pinkie admonished playfully. “If your job is getting in the way of fun then go get it done! Don’t cha worry about a thing! Just go get your work done as fast as possible so it doesn’t get in the way of partying with your friends!”

“Thank you so much Pinkie.” Oskar smiled and returned the tight hug with one of her own. “I’ll get my work done as fast as possible so we can have fun more often. Navi come here.”

With that, Oskar teleported away, intent on doing what she had promised to Pinkie Pie, both so it wouldn’t get in the way of being with the others, and so that her projects can start helping her dogs as soon as possible.

Navi took flight as soon as Oskar arrived in the Everfree caverns, the Evolved reorienting herself to her surroundings as dogs shouted in surprise at the sudden arrival.

“Hiya boss!” one dog greeted cheerfully as he trudged by pulling a cart filled with gems.

“Hello,” Oskar greeted back before sharply pointing at a dog that didn’t seem to be doing anything. “You! I want at least three Alphas and a small crew of dogs to meet me in the cultivation chambers, on the double!”

“Yes boss!” the dogs shouted before quickly bounding off to do as told.

“Come here Navi,” Oskar commanded of her pet again before teleporting.

Oskar arrived in a large bare chamber with a dirt floor and large industrial lights hanging from the ceiling. Darted here and there were palm tree like plants, except they looked burnt to a cinder and had excessively long leaves drooping down their sides.

Stepping towards one of the “trees”, Oskar took a seat and waited for the Diamond Dogs she had requested to arrive. She didn’t have to wait long, as about fifteen minutes later a large group entered the chamber.

“Everyone over here!” Oskar called, waving the dogs over with a hoof. “I’ve got something important to show all of you!”

As the dogs made their way Oskar placed her hoof against a tree and extended a tendril into it.

‘Now all of the plants are connected via roots, so they should all get this at once… more or less,’ Oskar thought as she brought up some genetic material and prepared to inject it into the plant. ‘Now if I did all the work exactly right, they should all do as they were designed to and not, you know, turn into monsters and kill everyone. Yeah, hopefully I won’t be finding out what the heads behind Gentek felt like when their creations went crazy… here goes.’

Oskar injected the activation gene and it was like flipping a switch. One second the trees looked burnt and dead, the next their leaves had practically leapt up and orange bioluminescent lights began shining brightly along the “trunks” of the viral trees.

From the very bottom of the leaves, shapes began to rapidly form. Large basketball sized fruits of varying colors, pink, red, yellow and blue rapidly took shape under the leaves of the many trees.

Magically taking a hold of a pink fruit, Oskar pulled it down to her before briefly presenting it to her dogs who eyed it curiously. Oskar then formed a short claw and began carving into the fruit, causing a red juice to squirt out of the fruit as she did so.

Having carved out a small square of the fruit, whose innards looked incredibly meat-like, the virus brought it to her mouth and exhaled. Red flames flowed over the piece of fruit, rapidly cooking it before presenting to a dog nearest her.

“Here. Try it and tell me how it tastes,” Oskar said. “It may taste a bit off because I cooked it so quickly but it should still taste like it’s supposed to.”

Barely hesitating a moment, the dog took the floating piece of fruit and put it in his mouth. He started chewing slowly with a deeply thoughtful expression on his face before finally swallowing.

“Well?”

“Tastes like pork… though off like you said boss,” the dog replied.

“The red ones should taste like beef, the yellow ones should taste like chicken, and the blues ones should taste like fish,” Oskar stated, waving to the trees around her. “With this, we no longer have to hunt and gather food for everyone. The “meat trees” will provide everything we will ever need. Though we will need some other things for dietary supplements, these will do just fine by themselves.”

“There is another benefit to these trees as well. Anyone notice the large pipe outside the room?” Oskar asked. “That leads to a chamber filled with water beneath this one. The trees’ roots extend down into that chamber and into the water, though they are fully capable of going without and relying on regenerative abilities to grow fruit for a time. The trees can absorb outside nutrients as well. This means we also have a multipurpose garbage dump for all organic materials, and I do mean all organic materials. Once we have the sewage system plotted out it would be all dumped in the chamber beneath this one.”

“That not going to taint food?” an Alpha asked. “Or make it taste bad?”

“No, it all gets broken down and purified by the trees to be used as raw materials for its fruits.” Oskar answered simply.

“Good,” the Alpha stated with a nod, the other dogs sharing the same sentiment. Surprisingly, it seemed their only worry about growing food from sewage water was whether or not the food could be safely eaten afterwards.

“Okay, now I want the hunting teams to slow down on their hunting trips,” Oskar commanded. “We don’t need all the meat anymore, but I still need animals for testing so we can do with far less.”

“No problem boss,” an Alpha stated.

“Great, now I want you all to start harvesting the fruits from the trees,” Oskar ordered. “I’ll leave exactly how and the best way to go about it up to all of you, as I need to go work on a different project.”

“Right away boss,” one of the Alphas said before turning to a subordinate dog. “You go get hunt leaders, need to tell them about orders.”

Oskar nodded in satisfaction then teleported once more, intent on getting at least most of the bullet production line online today.

“… And done,” Oskar said as she finished the final question on her exam, Navi napping in her mane out of sheer boredom.

It was the next day, bright and early at Twilight’s library. The previous day Oskar had managed to get two major projects done. First was the food issue with the meat trees, and next was the ammunition problem. She personally hadn’t finished the bullet production line, but what she had done was finish up all the complicated parts, leaving the more simple parts to put together for the Diamond Dogs as she left for home. She couldn’t help but feel some concern that the dogs would manage to break something, but she forced herself to have faith in their skills. Currently, after everyone had fully woken up and eaten breakfast, Twilight had set out her final exam for her mundane studies, and if she finished on a high enough grade on this, she wouldn’t have to do any more mundane studies ever again and focus solely on magical education. Considering she had perfect recall, she was more than confident of getting full marks.

“Already?” Twilight asked excitedly as she darted over. “Wow! That’s a whole hour and a half earlier than the average!”

“I am anything but average,” Oskar said with a shrug as Twilight collected her exam.

“Modest are we?” Twilight commented with a smile, getting a chuckle from Oskar. “But I agree with you fully. Within just one year you have managed to learn the entire high school curriculum! I had expected to be doing this for a few years yet and look at you now, already nearly graduated!”

“I kind of wish I got a graduation ceremony like everyone else…” Oskar said lightly. “You know, even though I think of those things as frivolous and a waste of time… I guess what I am saying is it would be nice to have one.”

“Oh…” Twilight said now looking rather thoughtful. “So… do you want to help plan out Pinkie’s surprise party? Or are you busy again?”

“Not this time Twilight,” Oskar said with an apologetic smile. “What do you need me to do?”

“Fantastic Emerald!” Twilight shouted happily with a quick clop of her hooves. “The party will be this afternoon and it will be a ton of fun. It’ll also be great that you will actually be able to enjoy it now. I’m going to sneak over to the Cakes today and get Pinkie her cake. After that I’ll be moving the cake through a chain of couriers made up of our friends to the Apple Family’s barn where the party will be held. While we are doing that, you can go directly to the party’s location and start setting things up.”

“Sounds like a plan, I’ll go there right now,” Oskar said as she stood up. “But doesn’t Pinkie know that today is her birthday? Wouldn’t she be expecting something?”

“Not at all!” Twilight said cheerfully. “Pinkie has been so focused on celebrating every other pony’s birthday that she hasn’t noticed hers coming up at all!”

“Huh, ironic I suppose,” Oskar said. “I guess I’ll be-”

Suddenly there was a knock at the door.

“Oh, I wonder who that could be?” Twilight asked aloud and went to the door. Opening it she was greeted with the sight of Pinkie Pie hopping excitedly in place.

“Oh! Hi Pinkie-”

“It’s soon!” Pinkie interrupted happily.

“Pardon me?” Twilight questioned.

“You said we should have another party soon, and it’s soon!” Pinkie replied, finally stopping her hopping to lean forward and present her basket, which held a bunch of letters, to Twilight. “Here’s your invitation!”

“You are invited to Gummy’s after birthday party,” Twilight read out from the letter. “This afternoon at three o’clock.”

“All of our bestest friends are invited and there’s going to be dancing and games and cake and ice cream and PUNCH!” Pinkie said in hyperactive enthusiasm.

“This afternoon?” Twilight stated, concern filling her voice as Pinkie nodded. “As in… this afternoon, this afternoon?”

“Yes indeedy!” Pinkie answered happily.

“Oh… gosh, I wish I could make it… but I’ve gotten behind in my studies!” Twilight said and flashed Pinkie a massive, clearly forced smile. Her horn was alight with magic as she levitated books by the dozens off their shelves and into a massive collection of towering stacks. “I’ve really got to hit the books!”

“I understand, your studies come first,” Pinkie said with a smile, not doubting Twilight in the slightest. “But don’t worry. We’ll be sure to save you some cake! Right Emmy!?”

Blinking at being addressed, Oskar cleared her face of the amused expression it held and just smiled apologetically at Pinkie. “I’m very sorry Pinkie. As much as I would love to go to your party, I’ve already promised to help out Twilight all day today.”

“Oh no, It’s not a problem at all!” Pinkie replied with a shake of her head. “At least you aren’t busy with work now, and it’s only helping out another friend that’s keeping you busy! Well, see you girls later!”

With that, Pinkie bounded out of the door but quickly called back from the middle of the street. “And you girls really shouldn’t hit the books! You should really just read them!”

“I’ll keep that in mind!” Twilight answered back with a slightly bemused look on her face before closing the door.

“You suck at lying,” Oskar stated as she walked over to the other unicorn.

“Well not everypony can be good at everything like you Emerald,” Twilight simply replied.

“I’m not good at lying. I never needed to be,” Oskar answered. “I only tell the truth… as it suits the context.”

“Oh really?” Twilight said, looking deeply interested. “Can you show me what you mean?”

“Perhaps some other time,” Oskar said with a shrug. “I’ll be heading to the barn now and setting stuff up. See you and the girls there.”

With that, Oskar teleported away to Apple Acres.

Oskar then spent the next few hours helping to set up the party. At first she was by herself, but the first one to arrive and help was Applejack, who had to lie rather unconvincingly to Pinkie Pie that she couldn’t make it to her party as well. Oskar had just remained quiet in the barn so as to not attract Pinkie’s attention. The rest of the girls began streaming in afterwards, next was Twilight, then Rarity, then Fluttershy, and finally Rainbow Dash. Though Dash had the issue of an angry Pinkie Pie chasing right after her right to the barn. What had followed was something that Oskar had just barely kept herself from bursting into laughter over. Applejack struggling to keep Pinkie out of the barn and everyone in the barn faking construction noises in an attempt to fool Pinkie into believing the paper thin lie the cowpony had made up. Oskar had been rolling around on the floor the entire time, hooves fastened to her face as she struggled to keep silent.

It was about an hour or so after that, that everyone considered the party ready for its guest of honour and sent Dash out to collect her. Now they sat in the dimly lit barn awaiting Dash and Pinkie’s arrival.

“So what is your work like that you have to be working so hard all the time?” Twilight asked. “I figured you would be just walking up and down aisles and posing for pictures.”

“Well I have to do that too,” Oskar said. “But I have to also help out with other things like those advertisements I had offered to do for free for New Paradigm, standing up for them on the accusations of corruption and criminal ties…”

“Oh my! I remember reading about something like that, but the paper only said that the company was being investigated!” Rarity exclaimed. “I never realised somepony had accused them of having ties to criminal elements! I wager they were accused of employing the Gray Fox, I take it?”

“Yeah,” Oskar answered. “I’m not surprised they were, to be honest. The Gray Fox did steal and smash up everypony’s factories but theirs. What else were the authorities supposed to think? What I am surprised about is the fact they decided to keep quiet about why they were investigating the company. I figured their intentions would be plastered over all the papers.”

“Well… it’s likely they just didn’t want to ruin the company’s reputation if they were wrong,” Twilight stated before asking with concern. “They were wrong… right?”

“Oh yes,” the virus answered with a nod. “Whatever the Gray Fox’s reasons were for not attacking company property, they were his own and not New Paradigm’s.”

“It is rather curious though,” Rarity began with a thoughtful hum. “Whatever could be the reason for him to avoid the company’s properties?”

“I couldn’t tell you,” Oskar said with a shrug.

‘Because I don’t want to.’

“Everypony shush!” Twilight whispered. “They’re coming!”

Everyone went silent and still as the sound of grunting and something being dragged along on the ground outside became progressively louder. Oskar raised her brows at that.

‘What, did she knock Pinkie out and drag her back?’ Oskar thought sarcastically.

“We’re… here…” a slightly out of breath Dash said and opened the barn door.

Oskar blinked at the sight of Pinkie Pie as everyone shouted ‘surprise’. The mare looked… darker somehow, and her mane had lost its iconic curls, becoming very straight. Even more shocking was her expression, Pinkie’s normal nigh unbeatable cheer was instead replaced with a furious scowl and looked like she was on the verge of growling.

“I really thought she would be more excited…” Fluttershy half whispered to the others.

“Excited?! EXCITED!?!” Pinkie shouted incredulously. “Why would I be excited for my own farewell party!?”

‘Wow… Pinkie actually has a chip on her shoulder,’ Oskar inwardly commented as she witnessed Pinkie’s temper. ‘I guess it’s true what they say about people who laugh and smile the most in life.’

“Farewell party?” Twilight asked in confusion.

“YES!” Pinkie said angrily, becoming very animated as she continued. “You don’t like me anymore so you decided to kick me out of the group and throw a great big party to celebrate! A farewell Pinkie Pie party!”

“Why in the world would you think we didn’t like you anymore sugarcube?” Applejack asked gently after walking over to Pinkie.

“Why?!?” Pinkie ground out, first at Applejack then at everyone else in the room, surprising Oskar when she was included in being yelled at. “Because you have been LYING to me and avoiding me all day! THAT’S WHY!”

“I wasn’t lying to you,” Oskar said, immediately catching Pinkie’s attention. “Or avoiding you, I told you the truth when I said I was going to be busy all day helping Twilight. I just didn’t specify what I was busy doing.”

“Well… yeah I guess,” Pinkie huffed as she averted her eyes away from Oskar.

“Oh, so that’s what you meant when you talked about telling the truth based on the context!” Twilight exclaimed in comprehension.

“Err… not really. This was more not mentioning certain things,” Oskar replied, looking rather troubled.

“Well that interesting thing aside, we just wanted your party to be a surprise!” Dash said, sarcasm bleeding into her voice when she referred to what Oskar and Twilight were talking about.

“We’ve been planning this part for such a long time!” Rarity began her explanation. “We had to make excuses for why we couldn’t attend Gummy’s party so that we could get everything ready for yours!”

“If this is a farewell party, why would the cake I picked up from Sugarcube Corner say, ‘Happy Birthday Pinkie Pie’?” Twilight added.

Pinkie stewed in silence for several long moments after that, taking in her surroundings carefully, the party balloons, the decorations, the birthday cake. The change was near instant. One moment she was a darker shade of pink and her hair flat as a board, the next she was back to her old self.

“Because it’s my birthday! Oh how could I have forgotten my own birthday?” Pinkie exclaimed and somehow reached out her forelegs far out enough to pull everyone into a hug, including a very surprised virus, and dropped them a moment later. “And you liked me so much you decided to throw me a surprise party!”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to tell you darling!” Rarity said.

“How in the world did she… never mind,” Oskar muttered before picking herself up, mentally filing what Pinkie did under magical unknowns.

“You girls are the best friends ever!” Pinkie exclaimed before looking very ashamed. “… How could I have ever doubted you?”

It’s okay Pinkie Pie,” Twilight reassured the pink pony. “It could have happen to any of us.”

The others closed in as well, speaking their reassurances as well.

“I’m just glad I haven’t been replaced by a bucket of turnips,” Rainbow Dash stated in relief to which Pinkie grimaced in mortification.

“Huh?” Twilight looked between her and Pinkie in confusion.

“You don’t want to know.” Dash said confidently.

“I do. What was that about a bucket of turnips?” Oskar asked with a sly smile at Pinkie whose face was quickly turning bright red in embarrassment.

“Alright girls, enough of this gabbing!” Applejack said and moved a needle onto a record player, filling the barn with music. “Let’s party!”

Immediately, Twilight Pinkie and Rarity started dancing together to the sound of the music. Oskar simply rolled her eyes with a smile before quickly joining them, a now fully awake Navi darting through the air with delight.

“Yeah Emmy!” Pinkie cheered. “Shake those hooves!”

Oskar just laughed and continued to dance with her friends, feeling herself truly unwind as she did so. And so the party continued well into the evening with everyone enjoying themselves. Oskar never did find out what Dash had meant about a bucket of turnips.

The moon shone overhead as Oskar and a small group of Diamond Dogs stared out at the glimmering city of Baltimare. The virus was in his Gray Fox form again and had gone out to gain something he wanted ever since hearing about it some time ago in a restaurant, an airship. Specifically an air freighter, the very one he was spying with his powerful eyes.

It sat in the water of the harbour, moored to one of the many docks of the city. It was a plain wood, large and long ship, meant solely for moving cargo, it had little to no decoration on it. The balloon that was responsible for giving the ship flight was massive and made out of a plain white tough canvas with its stitching visible even from this far away. It wasn’t much to look at, but for what Oskar intended to use it for it was perfectly fine.

“Why don’t we have our guns?” Padfoot asked.

“We don’t have many of them mate,” Oskar explained. “And we don’t want to be tipping our hands to the powers that be savvy?”

“Oh, alright boss,” the big dog accepted.

“Now then, let’s just give us a bit of cover shall we?” Oskar asked aloud and reached out with his hands, the claws on the very ends of his fingers glowing with magic. The water rippled as the virus worked his influence on it, working to kick up a fog.

Now Oskar didn’t have any pegasi memories, nor practiced a pegasus’ influence on clouds much if at all, having been only interested in learning how to fly. But Oskar did have memories gained from various Griffin Rangers. They tended to use cloud cover or kicking up a fog to help keep hidden from their prey. It wasn’t pegasi knowledge, but the theory should still be sound.

Working Griffin knowledge, pegasi magic and a bit of unicorn together, Oskar slowly but surely conjured up a sizable fog from the bay. When he had a large enough cloud he magically gave it a shove, sending it streaming forth over the harbour and Baltimare.

“Now, everyone ready?” Oskar asked as soon as he was finished. “I’m porting us to that big ship there in the water in a moment.”

“Ready boss,” Bluno said after a moment.

“Right… three, two, one.” On one, Oskar and the group of Diamond Dogs disappeared in a flash, reappearing in the far distance upon the ship.

“Now… uhhh…” Oskar rubbed his head as he took in his surroundings, seemingly at a loss. None of the people he had consumed knew anything much about airships. Silver Light only ever rode on passenger ships and was in a compartment every time, having not been interested in the slightest in how such ships worked. “Just… just take positions by those railings and keep a sharp look out for guards. I’ll just… be over here working on getting the ship moving.”

The dogs looked at each other and shrugged before going to take lookout positions by the railings. Bluno walked over to the helm where Oskar was fiddling with the wheel of the ship and tentatively experimenting with some levers.

“You alright boss?” Bluno asked. “You do know how to work this thing don’ cha?”

“It’s just a different sort of ship mate,” Oskar replied as he pulled another lever. “How hard can it be?”

Suddenly the shape of something falling from the balloon could be seen in the thick fog, followed soon by a splash as it hit the water. Oskar and Bluno stared in that direction for a short moment in silence.

“Right… not touching that lever again,” Oskar muttered. “Just… just give me a few moments alright? I’ll figure out how to work this thing.”

“Right boss,” Bluno simply said as he scratched his head.

“Pony guards!” the two heard a dog say. “Everyone get down!”

Oskar and Bluno quickly dropped to the floor before crawling over to the edge of the ship facing the docks. Peering through the thick fog, they could see a pair of guards on patrol, one was a unicorn judging by the light emitting from his head, the other an earth pony.

“What’s with the fog?!” they could hear one guard complain. “This weather was supposed to be scheduled for next Friday!”

“I say the weather controllers are lazy,” the other said. Female from the sound of the voice. “They’re always late. First was being two hours late with the rain last month, then last week they delayed the scheduled overcast skies well into the next day! Citing ‘administration issues’… right.”

“If you can’t trust the weather ponies to be on time, who can you trust?” the other guard complained again as the two walked past the air freighter and were seen walking down an alley.

Everyone waited several moments after the patrol disappeared from sight before standing back up. Oskar quickly strode back over to the ship’s helm and resumed figuring out the controls.

“Right, let’s try and get out of here before another patrol comes by shall we?” Oskar asked aloud as he pushed another lever.

This time the ship suddenly lurched, making some of the dogs fall over as the ship rose into the air. Oskar blinked and pulled the lever back a bit. The ship slowed its ascent, and upon pulling back even more it stopped and even started floating back down into the water with a soft splash. Having figured out the lever for raising and lowering the ship, Oskar worked double-time to find the one that made it go forward, he would figure out the rest later, he just needed to get out. Pulling another lever caused the ship to lurch again, only forward this time with the sound of something slapping against the water. Pulling it all the way and making the ship pick up speed and start to move as fast as it could, Oskar reached for the altitude lever.

“Here we go lads!” Oskar said, pushing the lever full forward and making the ship rise out of the water quickly as it continued forward. The virus spun the wheel, turning the ship inland and using his magic to pull the fog into the air with him to give him some much needed cover. However, Oskar had misjudged the rate at which the ship gained altitude.

“Bugger!” Oskar muttered as he heard several loud crashes, guessing the belly of the ship had bashed into some warehouse. The fog was working against him as well, making it so he was unable to see obstructions until he was already on top of them, case in point being a tall chimney that he saw suddenly appear in the fog and be bashed into pieces by the bow.

“Boss!” Bluno shouted in concern.

“No need for concern mate!” Oskar called back. “We’re still flying and in one piece aren’t we?”

From the look of his face, Oskar could tell Bluno was not very comforted by that statement. Baltimare wasn’t a city of skyscrapers like Manehattan though, and the air freighter was soon out of danger after a few more close calls. Oskar kept the fog on him for a bit more before letting go, judging from how fast they were rising that the clouds would soon be serving as their cover instead.

“See? What did I tell you lot,” Oskar said as the air freighter flew into a cloud. “Nothing to worry about.”

“Sure thing boss.”

Oskar only smirked at Bluno before looking at the stars and turning the ship.

‘Second star to the right and on till morning,’ Oskar thought with a bright smile as he set course for the Everfree.

“Clock Work will be arriving soon,” Emerald said. “I’m certain you’ll love meeting him!”

“I’m rather interested in this pony you want us to meet,” Bon Bon said. “You have been rather excited about introducing him to us.”

Emerald Gleaner had gathered her group of friends together to meet with someone she often worked with. A work friend from what the others had been told, and all had been very interested in meeting ‘Clock Work’ as they had never seen Emerald this eager about something. Time Turner was the same in this matter, though he was just honestly interested in meeting the young stallion that Emerald was excited about, his pony innocence not making him suspicious in the least.

“So what is Clock Work like?” Rose Locks asked.

“Well he is very good with machines,” Emerald began. “He is a bit young but he already has a good head on his shoulders, which he needs if he wants to keep working in the fashion industry, what with there being so many divas that can take offense to any random thing.”

“He sounds like a fascinating individual,” Time Turner said as he adjusted the tie he decided to wear for the occasion. “I would very much like to speak with him over profession, mostly the parts involving machinery.”

“Oh come here you,” Rose said a little gruffly as she pulled Time Turner closer and began fixing his tie for him. “It’s a miracle you can get your ties looking well at all with how you fiddle with them.”

“Lyra has often told me I shouldn’t wear them if I can’t keep them on straight,” Time Turner said sheepishly.

“I am not surprised,” Rose remarked with a smirk before finishing fixing Time’s tie. “There, now DON’T touch it!”

“Right sorry,” Time Turner said ruefully as he lowered a hoof that had already begun rising to his neck.

“Heh, good thing Rose is here now to look after you huh TT?” Lyra asked as she nudged the earth pony playfully. “Honestly, I couldn’t make heads or tails of those things and made little knots whenever I tried to fix one of his ties up. You’d think Bon Bon would know, but nope! She gets all OCD about the details and never manages to do it right.”

“A tie is supposed to look a certain way,” Bon Bon huffed defensively as she tried to preserve her dignity.

“And you just can’t settle for good enough, huh little miss pretty puff?” Lyra teased her friend, causing said friend to roll her eyes.

“There he is!” Everyone heard Emerald say and turned to look where she was pointing.

They all saw a brown coated pegasus flying from the direction of Cloudsdale and didn’t think much more of it. But as he got closer, they started to make up more and more details. The way his mane was styled, the look of his face. Then suddenly, he landed on the ground before them and all everyone could do was stare at him, Emerald looking like she might burst into laughter at any moment.

“Err… hi everypony… is there something wro-” Clock Work began hesitantly as he took in the stares when he noticed Time Turner.

The two stallions stood frozen and staring at each other with wide eyes. After an incredibly long, awkward moment of the two ponies staring silently at each other, and Emerald giggling softly in the background, the two raised a hoof in greeting.

“… Hi,” They both said at the same time.

“Er…”

“Um…”

“Hehehe, Clock Work this is Time Turner, Time Turner this is Clock Work,” Emerald said, stifling her laughter long enough to introduce the two.

“How are we… how are you…” The two stallions said in sync.

“I have no idea why the two of you look so identical, down to the cutie mark,” Emerald said. “Good thing he has a different voice and wings, otherwise we might have some trouble telling the two of you apart.”

“Indeed,” Time Turner stated and Clock Work could only agree with him with a nod.

The two ponies took each other in. They really did look like each other. Brown coat, brown mane, blue eyes, and the same cutie mark. Really, if it weren’t for the fact Clock Work had wings and had a young sounding voice, you really wouldn’t have been able to tell the two apart.

“Heh heh, come on everypony,” Emerald said gleefully. “I have a full day for us and Clock Work can’t stay here all day! It’ll be fun, I promise!”

With that, the group shook themselves out of their shock at finding a pony looking exactly like Time Turner and followed after Emerald. Though as they did so they couldn’t help but throw looks back at Clock Work. The same could be said for the citizens of Ponyville, some of them even approached the group and asked about Time Turner’s ‘fraternal twin’. Thankfully the day would prove to be fairly fun like Emerald had promised.

Whisper Wind sighed as she walked about the streets of the small underground city her Diamond Dog captors had made. At first she had found watching the dogs work and train and basically go about their business interesting enough to spend her time watching, but there was only so long you can watch someone beat on each other or just plain work before that got dull. And for Whisper Wind, it had grown very dull for a while now.

Whisper came to a stop and rubbed against the side of a building, managing to shift her wing clamp just enough to scratch an itch that was driving her crazy despite previous attempts. Then she took stock of her surroundings again with a deeply bored look and saw the same thing, dogs going about their business. There was just nothing to do in the underground city. The dogs were more than happy to keep busy most of the day since they actually had the choice to do so of their own free will, something the convict found perplexing.

‘Why would anypony in their right minds work when everything you would work for is being given to you?’ Whisper thought bemusedly. ‘There’s literally no reason at all to get up from bed and do work around here, Emerald gives everything for free. Food, water, and homes too I guess. And what do they decide to do when they no longer have to work for a living? They work anyways. They’re all crazy, just like that too pretty psycho leader of theirs.’

Really, Whisper would have settled for playing with the Diamond Puppies running around, but they didn’t even have toys or a ball. Apparently they were so used to using their imaginations to making up their own fun they just didn’t think of asking for toys when the resources from them were actually available. Whisper had actually been rather troubled by this. Kids should always be having fun being kids and playing with toys and just plain enjoying their young lives. But they seemed fine and happy… so in the end Whisper decided to not think much more of it.

As she moved along the streets she had to glance down one that led to the rail yard and the large tunnel leading to the surface.

‘I’m sick and tired of seeing nothing but gray stone day in and day out,’ Whisper thought as she walked towards the large tunnel entrance. ‘I’ve been good this entire time, I deserve to see the sun and sky again for just a little while shouldn’t I?’

Indeed, Whisper hadn’t even given much thought to leaving. The few times she had the memory of the overwhelming agony she felt from the disease she had been infected with would fill her mind. It was something that didn’t leave her or dull over time in her mind, she had never been in that much pain before. Sure when she had been caught by the Royal guard they had roughed her up a bit, and a rare few times she had been caught by her targets they would give her a bit of a thrashing. It never resulted in more than a bruise or two though, and she toughed it out. But that… the sure agony and feeling of helplessly lying on the ground before the very pony that nearly killed her… well suffice to say, Whisper didn’t want to feel that again.

Whisper noticed that there were a few guards around the tunnel entrance but didn’t slow in her advance, confident that she could at least be allowed a few minutes of sunshine in the very least.

“What cha’ want pony?” one of the guards asked, a Husky Diamond Dog.

“I wanna go outside!” Whisper said. “I’ve been down here for some long I've almost forgotten what the sun looks like! I don’t understand how you Diamond Dogs can stand it.”

“Err… boss never said anything about you being allowed outside yet,” the guard said, looking at his fellow who could only shrug at him. “Boss said you’d be allowed eventually though…”

“Come on!” Whisper pressed. “I haven’t done anything in the least bit bad since that first escape attempt! Can’t I at least go outside for a little while?”

“I… don’t know…” the guard said uncertainly.

“Pleeeeeeese?” the convict insisted, making her best puppy eyed look. “You can even go out with me and watch me to make sure I don’t do anything.”

“… Not too long,” the dog finally said, and Whisper cheered before running past him into the tunnel. “Whoa! Slow down a bit!”

Before long, Whisper found herself galloping out into the sunlight for the first time in ages, the guard close behind her. She luxuriated in the feeling of being outdoors after so long, to feel the sun on her coat and to feel the wind blowing through her mane. Suddenly, she noticed a strange bipedal creature standing some distance away.

“What is that?” Whisper asked the guard, and the being she was referring to stiffened and turned towards her.

It looked something like an ape, except it lacked a coat of fur and was exposing its pale skin. It also wore clothes, a white hoodie with a light blue shirt worn under it. It had mostly white footwear covering its feet and wearing a pair of tan colored trousers with many pockets on it. It also wore this odd looking hat on its head which covered the only patch of platinum blond fur she could see and shadowed its pale blue eyes.

It walked towards her and the Diamond Dog guard and came to a stop before the two of them, crossing its arms.

“And why exactly is she outside when I haven’t given permission for her to be out?” the being said, the sound of his voice identifying him as male.

“O-oh, uhhh… sorry boss!” the guard said very nervously, and the being only sighed.

“Boss?!” Whisper exclaimed. “Why in the world do you dogs have so many leaders! First it’s Emerald, then it’s the Gray Fox, and now whoever the heck this is!”

The being only tilted his head at her with a very thoughtful look on his face for a long moment, and suddenly he nodded.

“That’s because there is only one boss,” the being said, and to Whisper’s shock he suddenly changed form with a surge of writhing… black and Emerald stood before her.

“Are… are you a changeling?” Whisper asked after a moment of silence.

“No, though I can shape shift like they can, and that is all I will tell you,” Emerald said.

“Oh… okay,” Whisper said simply, and took another look of her surroundings and noticed a massive airship moored to the ground some distance behind her. It was close enough that she could spot the ship’s name on the back, ‘The Great Fox’ and it seemed to be in the middle of being modified, dogs darting about as they tried to fasten a long wooden beam to the side of the ship. “And where did you get that? What are you going to do with it?”

Emerald just tilted her head at her again. “Do you really want to know that?”

“… No,” Whisper said after a moment, a feeling of utter helplessness overcoming her. “I really don’t… what are you up to up here?”

“I was thinking about trying out some things with my wings.” Emerald explained flaring said wings which had appeared when Whisper looked away. “Because, you know, it looks like a nice day and I’d like to go for a nice flight.

“That’s… you’re cruel…” Whisper murmured, taking the statement very harshly. Being a pegasus and unable to fly when the clear blue beautiful sky was above her was tormenting enough. Her captor taunting her with her own freedom of flight? That was just extremely cruel in her mind.

“…” Emerald looked at Whisper for a long moment before turning her head away from her and walking a short distance away. “You can come up to the surface when you want to now, BUT you must always have guards in the vicinity.”

“Thanks I guess,” Whisper muttered.

“Listen here,” Emerald said firmly, looking back at Whisper with hard eyes. “You snuck into our tunnels, it was your choice to come down here with the intention of stealing from us, no one forced or influenced you into doing it. Playing up the pitiful, woe is me act isn’t going to get you far thief, so stop whining.”

“I’m not whining…” Whisper protested lightly, though she looked a bit chastened as well.

“Whatever…” Emerald muttered and stretched out her wings a bit in preparation. “If the idea of me flying is so painful, then don’t watch.”

With that, Emerald lifted off into the air. The apparent shape shifter didn’t lift off too high though, ten feet above the ground at the very least. Emerald hovered in mid-air with a thoughtful expression on her face for several moments before another surge of black appeared over her wings. Suddenly, instead of pearly white feathers she had gray metal blades replacing them. Emerald had instantly started losing altitude but with a look of deep concentration on her face Emerald had another black surge go over her wings. Her descent stopped and before long she started rising in the air again. After a few moments of this, Emerald stopped flapping her “blade wings” and dropped down onto the ground with a soft thump.

Looking at her blade wings thoughtfully, Emerald fanned out one and swiped at the ground. The wing glided through the dirt like it wasn’t there, leaving a deep rift in the ground.

“Well that is quite interesting,” Emerald muttered.

“I’m not even surprised anymore,” Whisper said as she took in Emerald’s wings. “I’m just going to accept whatever happens next as my new reality.”

“Boss!” a Diamond Dog shouted in alarm. “Log wolf!”

“Log wolf?” Whisper stated questionably and looked over to see a circle of Diamond Dogs surrounding a large wolf made of moss covered logs. “Oh… log wolf.”

“Hmm… he’s really beginning to seek me out now isn’t he?” Emerald stated as she walked towards the “log wolf”.

“Yeah boss, never seen them wooden wolves showing up near us,” a dog replied as he followed after her.

“What?” Whisper said, taking off after Emerald as well. “What’s going on? What’s with the weird thing made of wood over there?”

Emerald however just ignored her and continued on her way to where the Diamond Dogs had the wooden wolf surrounded. Not feeling it in her to get upset over being ignored, Whisper stayed silent and continued to follow along.

“So… we meet again,” Emerald said once she had stepped within the circle of Diamond Dog guards. “This time more on my terms… somewhat.”

Whisper looked at the massive wolf expectantly. Since Emerald had talked to it so readily, she expected it to talk as well. However…

“Is that so?” Emerald said and Whisper blinked owlishly at her. “It seems like you consider this place yours and would see us as invaders.”

Whisper looked rapidly between the two, half convinced she had somehow missed the wooden wolf’s response.

“Huh, I think I get what you are saying,” Emerald replied to something the wolf had apparently said. “Still, this seems like a step up from the randomly sneaking up on me in the forest you used to do… Hmm, would you be able to explain that? No? Oh… okay now you are beginning to sound like you did last time… so you are getting tired again? That’s what you told me before you left, remember? Ah, you don’t… you do? So it’s easier to recall things now?”

Whisper was completely and utterly confused from listening to a seemingly one sided conversation. Thankfully she didn’t seem to be the only one, as the guards also seemed confused but didn’t let that get in the way of their jobs.

Suddenly it seemed like the conversation ended as the wooden wolf turned around and made for the forest. The guards attempted to block it off but Oskar just waved them off, letting the large magical being slink into the underbrush.

“Well… that was an interesting conversation,” Emerald said lightly. “He seems more coherent, didn’t fall to pieces either this time too.”

“What in the world was that?” Whisper asked. “The only one I heard talking at all was you.”

“So… would you like to stay on the surface for a few hours?” Emerald asked Whisper, ignoring the convict’s question.

“Well yeah,” Whisper said, trying to push down the irritation she felt.

“In that case, boop,” Emerald said and placed her hoof against Whisper’s nose. The convict immediately recoiled from the touch and reached up to touch her nose when she saw a glow coming from the tip before it faded.

“The hay was that!?” Whisper shouted.

“Oh, just a little something I wanted to test out,” Emerald said lightly. “It should let me keep track of you from afar and allow me to teleport directly to you… as well as one or two other things I don’t care to mention.”

“And what is that supposed to-” Whisper began but Emerald teleported away before she could finish. “mean… well at least I can stay outside…”

Luna wandered the darkened halls of the palace at night.

Ever since the last reported sighting of the Gray Fox in Vanhoover, Princess Luna had made it her personal mission alongside Shining Armor to spot any new pattern at all to track him down. However it proved to not be easy in the slightest. For the Gray Fox had apparently dropped off the face of Equestria after the Vanhoover raid. There was not one confirmed sighting of the infamous thief or a reported burglary suiting his style. It didn’t help at all that a massive amount of criminals roamed the kingdom still, and many of them had started to try to emulate the incredibly skilled thief, cluttering the reports further with false alarms. There was one crime though that had caught Luna’s attention…

‘The stealing of the Paragon moored in Baltimare,’ Luna thought. ‘It doesn’t fit in with the kind of things the Gray Fox has previously set his gaze on but… it’s the only thing I have to go on. The sudden mist the local weather ponies had not planned on, the fact that nopony had seen or heard a single thing… well beyond the sound of a few buildings breaking that is. But still, an air freighter doesn’t seem to fit in with the Gray Fox’s established patterns, though granted we only have one pattern to go on.’

Luna found herself walking past a balcony and decided to go out to enjoy the brisk night air. Now outside, she absently started stargazing, enjoying her own ground works.

‘Honestly, I don’t know what else to do,’ Luna thought with some irritation. ‘One would think that someone as boastful and arrogant as the Gray Fox would be quick to follow through on his success. Yet the most Shining Armor has to deal with has been copycats trying to make their own names and failing because they lack the sheer intelligence the Fox has. Shame… so talented, so clever and yet he decides to use it in the lowest of ways. When he is caught, I would like to meet him and get to know him. T’would be an experience to speak with one such as him. Plus I may be of help reforming him for greater things, returning from the darkness of one’s heart is one thing I do know…’

Luna continued to gaze into her night sky when she noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. Turning, she saw a ship flying towards Cloudsdale, it was an air freighter and though she couldn’t really make it out, she thought she could make out some shapes against the hull. Luna wouldn’t have given the sight much thought then and there. After all, it wasn’t unheard of for ships to drop off supplies to the city in the clouds, even at this time of night. But Luna had been reading reports in great detail and therefore knew exactly what type of Air Freighter had been stolen from the docks of Baltimare. Of course, the type of Air Freighter stolen was far from rare, and it could very well just be a normal ship bringing in a shipment.

‘… It could not hurt to simply check, could it not?’ Luna thought, and flared her wings out to take flight. ‘Yes, a surprise late night inspection as it were. And if there is nothing wrong, then I have simply wasted a trip.’

Princess Luna, Alicorn of the Moon, took flight and soared towards Cloudsdale.

“I didn’t know we had a shipment,” a female guard said as she approached the Air Freighter slowing to a stop beside the weather factory.

“Neither did I chief,” responded a guard, one of many following behind her. “Wonder what’s up? Huh… ‘The Great Fox’. That’s an odd name for a freighter.”

The air freighter had slowed to a stop and was now lowered to level its deck with the clouds as the night watchmen gathered below. Suddenly, someone leapt from the deck of the ship and landed down on the clouds before the guards.

“The-the Gray Fox!” the female guard and apparent leader shouted in shock. “Walking on a cloud?! How?!?”

Oskar however was not alone, and dozens of dogs followed after him from the deck of the Great Fox, landing on the clouds as well and quickly moving to surround the pegasi. Oskar then absently flourished his staff as he studied the guards before him.

“Hello there. Like your little boss there said, I’m the Gray Fox,” Oskar said with a smug smile. “And I’m just here to take a look at all those fancy little machines of yours.”

“WHAT?! NO! We need them to make the weather!” the female guard shouted in dismay but made no move against Oskar.

“Now now, no need for that,” Oskar said, wagging a clawed finger at her. “I’m just going to take a… few. Padfoot! Tie 'em up!”

Oskar strode forward to the weather factory as Padfoot did as ordered and began tying the guards up.

“You all know what to do lads,” Oskar stated as he strolled forward at a leisurely pace. “Spread out and collect any stragglers. Make sure to check every nook and cranny now, we’ve got plenty of time before any real help is sent, but I’d prefer if we didn’t have to worry, savvy?”

The Diamond Dogs surged forth, a great many following after Oskar, but small groups split off to go hunt down the remaining guards. Those that had already been caught were being carried along into the factory proper.

Throwing the front doors of the weather factory open, Oskar and his entourage of Diamond Dogs and captive guards marched onto the factory floor. Splayed out before him were the many cloud making machines he had recalled from slightly drug addled memories.

“Right, you lot know what to do,” Oskar said, waving his dogs forward.

“Right boss!” many dogs shouted as they charged forth.

“Lads maybe you could a tad bit quieter?” Oskar stated.

“Help!” A voice shouted.

Suddenly a pegasus guard flew into the factory from one of the windows. Before anyone could react though, another dog leapt from outside through the very window the guard had flown through. He managed to land on the pegasus in mid air and the two struggled for a brief moment before there was a loud snapping sound and the guard fell to the floor with an agonised scream. Moments later, in walked the other Diamond Dog groups with a handful of tied up pegasi.

“Got them all boss,” the dog that had tackled the pegasi said, and then he bent over and picked up the softly crying pony from the floor.

“Good work mate, now we just wait to get this stuff disassembled and lug it back to the ship,” Oskar said, motioning to the dogs hard at work.

“B-b-boss!” one dog cried out, sounding very distressed.

Oskar turned and froze, his Gray Fox persona dropping instantly at the sight before him.

Standing in the doors of the weather factory was Princess Luna herself. She stared at the Diamond Dogs and Oskar, her lips curling into a pleased smile when she saw the utterly shocked and fearful look Oskar had on his face.

Oskar for his part was frozen in indecision as two desires warred within him. The moment he saw Luna, he immediately wished to teleport away, to be far away and never look back… but he also knew he couldn’t leave his dogs behind, just abandon them to the Princess to save his own hide. After a long moment, Oskar steeled his expression and knew what he had to do.

Oskar teleported, not from Cloudsdale and his dogs but to just in front of Princess Luna and raised his staff to strike.

There was a loud ‘clunk’ as the end of Oskar’s staff met the cheek of Luna’s face solidly. However, Luna just turned her head with the strike and glared darkly at Oskar after being hit.

“Right… just as tough as I’d figured you’d be,” Oskar stated before taking a deep breath and teleporting again, this time behind Luna and outside the factory. “Catch me if you can, Princess!”

“HAVE AT THEE GRAY FOX!” Luna boomed and charged after Oskar. “IS FIGHTING A PONY YOUR OWN SIZE TOO FRIGHTENING!?”

“… What we do now?” A dog asked after Oskar and Luna left.

“We work,” Padfoot rumbled. “Boss is giving us time. We need to finish quickly and go help him as fast as possible.”

“GAH!” Oskar shouted as he rolled out of the way of a beam of purple magic blasting past. He was keeping ahead of Luna and found himself having to run faster as Luna kept gaining on him. His intention was to just run until his dogs were done, but that was quickly proving to be impractical, he was going to have to fight. But he had an issue concerning the fact he couldn’t fight with his full strength if he wanted to still seem like a mere skilled thief. So he had to be a bit clever to get through this alright. Thankfully this situation was serious enough that Oskar didn’t need to worry about masking his emotions. If it weren’t for the fact he didn’t have a heart, he knew it would be pounding deafeningly in his ears.

Leaping over a gap in the clouds, Oskar found himself in a town square and turned to face Luna, said princess landing down a short distance away, looking at him with a guarded expression. Under one tattered sleeve, he formed a hollow dart and quickly filled it with sedative. Oskar then whipped his arm out, sending the dart forward.

“Arrgh!” Luna shouted in surprise as the dart hit her in the shoulder. “I’ll not fall to mere tricks, Gray Fox!”

“I didn’t think you would,” Oskar stated simply and prepared his staff. Luna was showing no effects of the sedatives, showing she was either immune to them or he was going to need to use a lot more.

Luna charged forward and lashed out with her hooves. Oskar moved his staff to block the blows and gritted his teeth from the sheer force behind them. Deciding he shouldn’t be able to block such powerful hits directly, Oskar shifted tactics to deflecting strikes and dodging them.

Deflecting a powerful hoof strike from Luna to the side, Oskar took the opportunity to quickly grow another dart and stabbed it into her side. Luna growled at this and Oskar only had time to see her horn alight with magic before he was sent flying and in pain.

Quickly righting himself in mid-air, Oskar landed on his feet. Rubbing at his shoulder where he had been hit with some sort of high impact spell, Oskar quickly got back into a combat ready stance.

“I do not intend to gravely harm you, but it surprises me that you absorbed such a hit without a broken limb,” Luna commented, magically pulling out the dart in her side.

“For a Princess you are surprisingly good at taking a hit,” Oskar said, flourishing his staff pointedly.

“Quite,” Luna said simply and teleported.

Oskar rolled forward to avoid being clocked in the head with a hoof and lashed out with his staff as he rolled. His staff hit the back of Luna’s hind leg solidly, and though it wasn’t enough to cause any lasting damage, it was enough for her leg to buckle, sending her to the ground. Oskar almost lost his grip on his staff when Luna sent another beam of violet light at him and he blocked it with his staff.

The Evolved teleported and the beam continued on into the distance. Oskar stood beside a quickly rising Luna and brought his staff down again. Luna saw it coming this time though, and she blocked the strike with a hoof before quickly casting another impact spell, once again sending Oskar flying.

Landing on his feet again, Oskar saw that Luna had taken flight and was now above the battlefield by about half a dozen feet. An idea appeared in the virus’ head and Oskar reacted immediately.

Oskar tossed his staff at Luna and the Princess caught it before it could stick her. Luna wasn’t simply a pony in the slightest, quickly realising that Oskar was using the same tactic he had used on a unicorn in Alcoltraz, and prepared to counter it. However instead of Oskar leaping at her via the levitating staff, Luna was instead met with several poisoned darts flying at her.

Luna twisted in mid-air and avoided half of them, but the other half, three of them, hit her left wing with resounding thuds. The Moon Princess gritted her teeth as she felt a tingling feeling spread over her wing, quickly followed by a numbing sensation.

Oskar charged forward as he saw Luna forced to land on the ground, intent on taking advantage of the opportunity. He once again lashed out with his staff but Luna proved she wasn’t slowed in the slightest by her wing rendered numb and useless. She blocked his strike with her hoof and lashed out with her other, striking Oskar solidly in the face. Taking advantage of the brief opening her strike gave her, Luna sent out another beam of magic, not taking the time at all to charge it up, striking at him as fast as possible.

Oskar couldn’t help the shout that left his throat as he was blasted in the back and sent flying again. The Evolved rolled as he hit the ground but quickly got to his feet again and faced Luna.

“… Surrender,” Luna said with hard eyes, though she herself looked rather ragged from the fight, her mane a mess and sweat beginning to mat some areas of her coat. “If I had wished I could have broken you with that hit, you have given me a superb fight for a mere mortal, but in the end you stand no chance.”

“Pardon me your highness, but I’m still feeling a might bit defiant,” Oskar said as he brandished his staff. “And let me just add that you have taken enough sedative to put down a bull elephant. You may want to lay off the cake, your highness.”

“Hmph, the nerve… Why?” Luna asked, making Oskar blink. “Tell me this before we once more battle. Why did you release the ponies your Diamond Dogs had enslaved.”

“There isn’t much to it, highness. People aren’t things to own,” Oskar answered and glanced to the side before taking up a much more relaxed stance. “As much as I want to continue this, it appears my ride has arrived.”

Luna glanced to where Oskar had looked and saw only some cloud buildings with shocked Cloudsdale residents staring out the window. Suddenly bursting through those very buildings made of clouds was the very top of a large canvas balloon rising through the cloud ground.

Oskar leapt forward onto the balloon just as it began lowering out of the clouds. Luna charged after him, intending to leap down into the balloon with him when yet more darts flew at her. This time she wasn’t so lucky in dodging and several impacted her in the chest and shoulder, one even hitting her quite dangerously in the neck.

Hissing in pain, Luna pulled all the darts out magically, but they had already done their damage. The fatigue she felt from the fight she had just been in and previous hits with the poisoned darts were now having an effect, allowing the darts she had just been hit with to have an immediate effect on her.

Tiredly dropping down onto the edge of the clouds, Luna was forced to watch as Oskar clambered down the side of the air freighter balloon and onto the ship proper. Once he was on the ship, the long wooden poles fastened to the sides swung out, revealing that they had sails on them which unfurled once the poles were fully extended. With the sails, the ship gained considerable speed and before long it began fading into the distance.

‘Beaten by a thief…’ Luna thought bitterly. ‘At least Captain Armor had the excuse of being a normal unicorn. What shall I ever tell Celestia how I failed…’

Oskar stood atop a hastily constructed podium in his human base form. He was back in the Everfree Caverns, and before him was its entire population. If he looked hard enough, he was sure he could have spotted Whisper Wind somewhere in the crowd.

“Remember when I said we weren’t going to be stealing from Equestria forever,” Oskar said to the quiet crowd. “Well I wasn’t lying, and today is that day. We no longer have to steal from Equestria, today we are truly autonomous! Today I announce that we are a nation. We are the Enclave!”

At that, dogs began cheering. No longer would they have to commit actions that marked their people as slavers and thieves, now they had a future that they would have a hand in forging.

“And what is a nation without an army?” Oskar questioned. “Even Equestria, peace loving and righteous, has an army. So must we! From the very Diamond Dogs I have trained, I announce the formation of the Warhounds! They shall serve as our sword and shield, protecting you, our people, from harm, and striking out preemptively at those who would seek to destroy us!”

The cheering and howling became deafening as it reverberated off the walls of the cavern city.

“Though we are done with stealing from Equestria, there is still much to do!” Oskar shouted, managing to be heard above the raucous shouting. “We still have great works to finish, the city needs to be expanded, to be made ready for the independent Diamond Dog packs to join us. Great machines need to be built, guns to be made, bullets to be produced! And with you at my side, all these tasks shall be finished and we will only grow stronger from them! But not today. Today we are a nation... today we celebrate!”

The cheers to that were both deafening and very eager.

I still kind of suck when I write action scenes... :/ Nightmare Knight decided to take his sweet time but it's done now

CREDITS

Ideas and Story Development: Gekko and Trondason

Grammar Edits: Nightmare Knight