//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Growing Ever Stronger // Story: Emerald Gleaner: Viral Unicorn // by Legionary //------------------------------// Oskar walked down a tunnel sloping downwards gently; it was the tunnel leading into the cavern capital city of the Enclave, her nation. Oskar was currently in her altered base form, created via combining the human genes of her original base form and splicing ‘Emerald’s’ genes into it. The result was a slender, pale skinned beautiful young woman with blazing pink hair and eyes like gleaming emeralds, wearing the clothes of her original base form, which were baggy on her now feminine frame. Though Oskar could have easily adjusted the clothing to fit her female form in a more befitting way, namely making the shirt and pants much more form fitting, she didn’t feel comfortable doing that and just kept the original size from her male base form. A deep pain throbbed in Oskar’s chest and the Evolved knew that no matter how much morphine she used, this particular pain would not fade away so easily. Her mind was in chaos, unable to think of a solution to what had just happened. Her true self, the very thing she had worked so hard to keep hidden, was now fully known to Twilight and there was no real way of knowing what the unicorn would do with it. Images of herself in her Emerald Gleaner form getting ambushed by the Elements of Harmony and the princesses plagued her mind, but just as numerous as those were images of Twilight awaiting her with a deeply pained and conflicted look upon her features. Her emotions were like a whirlwind gone mad and left her nigh impotent before the task of preparing for the consequences of her actions. Quite simply, Oskar had no clue what to do to save herself… or if she even should in the first place. An overpowering sense of guilt washed over Oskar and she found herself placing a hand against the wall to support herself. All the death, all the plotting, all the blood on her monstrous claws, all to save her own life… but was it actually worth saving? Oskar shook her head and continued forward down the tunnel, doing her best to shake off the emotions she felt. In all honesty, Oskar could answer that question right here and now; no, it was not worth saving. Did that mean Oskar would stop trying to protect herself? No. In spite of her own ever growing self-loathing and guilt for her own actions, Oskar would still lash out with lethal force in an instant to preserve herself in the face of justified retribution. It was a part of her nature, of what made her who she was and helped her to survive despite all the dangers she had faced in the past three years, and it wasn’t going to stop now despite her own feelings on the matter. “Hello boss,” a voice said as Oskar exited out of the end of the tunnel. Immediately the virus whipped about, her arm already shifted into a claw on pure instinct and ready to cut down the one who snuck up on her. “… Tense?” Belvedere asked with raised brows, staring down the gleaming blades inches from his muzzle. The Greyhound Alpha had apparently either been waiting for her or had just been loitering outside the tunnel exit, leaning against the cavern wall. Oskar had just been too caught up in her own thoughts and emotions to notice him as she passed. “Yes… yes I am,” Oskar answered with a sigh and immediately withdrew her claw as she shifted it back to normal. “Well it has been a hectic and confusing half hour or so,” Belvedere replied with a shrug. “The trees started going crazy along with all the animals in the Everfree, even the Timber Wolves. Everyone above ground ran back down here for refuge in case the forest was going to finally attack, but other than completely freaking out it did nothing.” “Well the only one that can answer that mystery in any shape or form is the Timber Spirit itself,” Oskar answered and furrowed her brows as she thought. “After all it seems to have some sort of connection with nature and this place in particular. It’s so tricky to get a hold of it when you want to talk to it though… it could be hours or weeks before it comes by of its own volition.” “Hmm…” Belvedere hummed a reply while looking up and down Oskar’s form. “A new variation of your base form? What is it for?” That caused Oskar to pause in her thoughts as she looked down at her own body. For the longest moment she stared down before she frowned. Then with a surge of black tendrils, Oskar was standing before Belvedere in his original base form. “Nothing, nothing at all,” Oskar answered a bit gruffly. “How are things in gun development?” “Going smoothly as far as I can tell,” Belvedere answered, smoothly adapting to the sudden change in topic. “They’ve figured out how to make those ‘bolt action rifles’ fire a bit faster and more cleanly, and they have also started developing one of those many guns you’ve described to them. They should be done, the first prototype of it, in a few days.” “Great work.” Oskar nodded before turning towards the stone city before him and started walking. “If I’m needed for something, just look for me in one of the various workshops. I’ll be working on something important to our future development.” “Sure thing boss,” Belvedere said after the virus. As Oskar walked, thoughts of various designs and plans for the future of his nation, of the Enclave, flew through his head. Oskar knew of one way to deal with his emotional turmoil that didn’t involve going into Ponyville and risking… something, and that was drowning himself in work. So that was what Oskar was going to do for foreseeable future; drown himself in so much work he couldn’t spare the time to feel distress over the current situation with Twilight. With that, Oskar continued on his way into the cavern city he had yet to name properly, destination set on one of many workshops. ALPHA Two days later found Oskar on the surface in a workshop built by the Diamond Dogs, something he had not ordered them to do. Which the Evolved considered good, since letting the former slaves that made up his newborn secret nation decide to do certain things without his order was beneficial for them. Besides, some Diamond Dogs did actually prefer to work on projects out under the sun, rather than continue working deep under the earth where noise was harsher thanks to the enclosed spaces. He had a pile of various machine parts set before him on a table. He had made the parts himself after some hours of careful planning and designing, both mental and on blue design paper. Carefully going over his plans, both in his mind and scrawled down on the blue paper in his hands, Oskar then nodded his head in satisfaction, content that everything should fit as was designed. He then leaned over the parts and brought up screws and pieces of soldering metal he gathered up himself. He then set to work, putting pieces together with screws and welding others via Nidhogg’s superheated fire breath sized down significantly. Oskar worked quickly and efficiently, far faster than any normal person could, and after ten minutes was already done putting together his project and was now waiting for it to cool done to be used. The object on the crafting table before him was a cylinder with some odd shapes protruding out one end and a piston connected to a wheel on the other. Nodding in satisfaction, Oskar then turned around and walked over to two barrels in the corner of the shop. Quickly transfiguring some scrap metal into two cups, Oskar popped the lids of both barrels magically. He then dipped the two cups inside each barrel and both came up filled with the barrels’ content, one filled with a black liquid and the other clear and almost water like. Replacing the lids on the barrels, Oskar walked back to his freshly made machine and touched it to check its temperature. Feeling it was cool enough to be safely used, Oskar carefully poured the clear liquid into one of two canisters on the side of the engine and the black liquid into the other. With that, Oskar then took a step back and tapped the machine on one of its more pointed protrusions, his finger releasing a small bolt of electricity. The reaction was near instant, with a screech of metal that ended soon after the piston of the little machine started moving and turned the wheel it was attached to, causing Oskar to smile lightly. Staring down at his tiny combustion engine, Oskar couldn’t help but feel he could have made better despite just starting out, but quickly reminded himself that this engine wasn’t for his benefit, but for the dogs. It was a proof of concept to show the more crafty Dogs that engines along the lines of the small one before him was more than possible and had the potential to be just as great as even the most advanced, rare and prestigious magical ones Equestria possessed. Refining the crude oil and natural gas into its more refined and engine ready version was a bit of a hassle currently, but Oskar hoped to be able to make an organic analogue later on down the road. Thoughts of Equestria’s magical train engines made Oskar frown thoughtfully. While the trains didn’t run purely on magic and used a combination of heat and fire rubies to generate kinetic energy to move the train forward, it made the Evolved wonder if there was a version of such an engine that ran on pure magic power. While it would likely entail developing some form of recharging them easily and end up replacing the combustion engines when he just started trying to implicate them, they still would be incredibly better considering how much magic Oskar now had in his possession. It was then that there was a knock at the door. “Come in!” Oskar called out as he continued staring at his little engine. Entering into the workshop was a golden retriever Diamond Dog, specifically the one Oskar had corrected on gun safety when she had presented her personally made rifle to him dangerously. The Dog stared a moment at the little moving machine on the table before directing her attention on Oskar. “Hello boss!” she said cheerfully. “Me and the other gunsmiths have finished the new gun you told us about! We are about to demonstrate it now and want you there to see it!” “Hmm, sounds interesting,” Oskar commented, reaching over to the canister of the small engine holding the gas and cutting the fuel, making it grind to a halt soon after. “Any chance of you telling me just what gun was made?” “Nope!” she answered cheerfully with a sharp toothed smile. “Just have to come see for yourself.” “Alright, lead the way,” Oskar said. “Right this way, boss!” The two exited the workshop and walked out into the outdoors, the midday sun shining down on them from overhead. The tunnel entrance leading down to the cavern city and the mess of rail tracks before it was nearby. The two then made for a nearby treeline, specifically the one leading to the nearby ravine Oskar intended to one day use for a hydroelectric dam if his power needs ever reached that far. They soon arrived at said ravine, and beside it was a large cleared area that had a shooting range set up in it. Down floating serenely in the ravine was the repurposed air freighter Oskar had used to raid Cloudsdale, the Great Fox. At the shooting range was a large number of Diamond Dogs. Most were observers, but one was standing at the ready at the shooting range and fiddling with something he was holding. ‘Hmm… now that I am thinking about it, we are clearing quite a few areas for our own use,’ Oskar thought with a frown as he stared at the churned and packed down ground. ‘The Timber Spirit didn’t like it when the ponies started doing that at the fringes of his domain, so I doubt he would appreciate us doing it in the heart of it. Although unlike the ponies, we respect the cycle nature has for itself here and don’t intend to control it in any way, and have only cleared a few football fields worth of land; not all that much. Plus we have stopped hunting vast swathes of animals to feed ourselves and have started growing the wild vegetables for some variation in our diet. And he knows I am sympathetic to his situation, so he must be willing to tolerate a bit before becoming angry. Even so, we should keep from using too much surface space. We are a subterranean nation after all, so most if not all of our infrastructure will be underground.’ “Boss?” the golden retriever DD questioned. “Just thinking of something that might be a problem unless curtailed soon,” Oskar stated. “Let’s get on with this demonstration.” “Show the boss the new handgun,” one of the observers called out, and the dog doing the demonstration turned towards Oskar and presented his gun. It was a revolver, and a rather large one at that. It was understandable, considering how big the hands of the Diamond Dogs were, meaning a human sized revolver would have been awkward for them to use at the best of times. The entirety of the gun was bigger than a human one, but special consideration was made for the handle and trigger of gun. The strong arm and upper body strength of the Diamond Dogs meant they were more than fully capable of using what a human would consider a small cannon as a handgun with easily manageable recoil. The demonstrator then popped the magazine cylinder of the revolver and started placing in bullets into each hole. Once fully loaded, the Diamond Dog dramatically spun the cylinder before snapping the cylinder into place with a flick of his hand. Oskar couldn’t help his smile at that. The demonstrator then aimed down the shooting range, causing every dog in range not wearing ear protection to cover their ears in preparation. After aiming for a few seconds, the demonstrator let off all six rounds in slow careful shots, ensuring each one landed within the target on the thin plywood in the distance. There was a short round of applause as all the gunsmiths present celebrated the brand new gun design they made being used for the first time without any issues. “Fantastic work,” Oskar praised, adding his own light applause to everyone else’s. “You have all made immense progress, making improvements on the current bolt action design and making your first new gun design purely by your own decision to do so. At the rate you all are going, we should be able to mass produce full automatic weaponry roughly around the end of this year, and that will be very exciting alongside this other project I have going. Before I show it to any of you, I want to have all of my options checked out first though, so keep working at making better guns.” “Now, uhhh…” Oskar turned towards the golden retriever DD and frowned when he tried to recall a name. “My friends call me Missy, boss!” ‘Missy’ told him happily. “Right, Missy can you go find Belvedere for me?” Oskar asked. “Tell him I need to talk to him about something important. I’ll be back at the workshop you found me in.” “Right away boss!” Missy said and took off at a sprint. Oskar stared after the eager Diamond Dog for a moment before beginning to walk back to the workshop he left his little engine in. ‘Now… with a little bit of work I can make organic analogues to gas and oil with my own biomass, even automate such a process by creating something along the lines of the meat trees,’ Oskar thought. ‘But the only thing I have in large quantities is magic, and incredible amounts of magic can be stored in high quality gems. A couple gems that can fit in your pocket can easily outpace having a few jerry cans worth of fuel stored on board a vehicle… I think. All I have to go on is my very admittedly limited knowledge of runic circuitry to compare to what I know of combustion engines. For all I know, a purely magical engine could provide substantially less kinetic energy for movement than a combustion engine, or even an electrical one. I could track down someone who knows a lot in runes to make an educated comparison, and I really should. The problem, however, is that most people who are rune specialist tend to be well known in their social circles, making taking one a rather bothersome affair… speaking of which, I suppose I could sort of lure one away for a while. My pony form is rather attractive and I could use that to my advantage, seduce one and draw him away on some ‘vacation’ where I can… you know what? This is a horrible idea and I feel horrible for having even thought of it in the first place.’ ‘I still need to figure out what to do though…’ Oskar frowned as he tried to think up a solution. ‘What to do, what to do… I suppose I can delve into Silver Light’s memories again, see if he can recall anything about any graduates out of the Artificer Academy or Artificers in general, but it feels like I drained his memories dry of all useful information. Still, best to make sure.’ With that, Oskar plunged into the depths of Silver’s stolen memories. The Evolved went through countless memories that had even the slightest hint of something about runic circuitry and Artificer ponies. It was a drawn out, tedious affair and was proving to be more and more fruitless with every memory. He was about to call it quits when he managed to happen upon something interesting. Something about a pair of brothers who had dropped out of the Academy,  despite their incredible potential for so much more, and ended up going into an utterly disappointing field of work. ‘Well, Silver Light still manages to remain useful even after this long,’ Oskar thought in surprise as he reached the shop. “Oskar?” Oskar heard from some distance behind him. Turning around, he saw Belvedere fast approaching with Missy a short distance behind him. “You asked for me boss?” Belvedere said as he came to a stop in front of Oskar. “Yes, I need you and some of your best trackers to hunt down two unicorn salesponies for me,” Oskar said. “Alright, we’ll get right on it Boss,” Belvedere said. “Do you have anything like names or other details to help find them?” “I’ve got their names. Flim and Flam,” Oskar answered. BETA Four days later, Oskar was still awaiting news of success from Belvedere’s hunting packs and kept himself busy while he waited. Currently he was outside again, sitting cross-legged in the grass under the afternoon sun; some of his blueprints were hovering in the air before him as he studied them intently. One was of a small train engine with an exposed control cabin and the other appeared to be a much more useful looking engine. Whisper Wind was present as well, lying on her back a short distance away and staring up at the clouds with a gloomy expression on her face and letting out a sigh every few moments. Beside her was a half empty bowl of diced up vegetables that had been dipped in her daily medicine. “Lucky thing…” Whisper muttered as she watched a small bird dart through the air, her voice quiet enough that Oskar would have missed it had his hearing not been so powerful. Oskar frowned as he shot Whisper a look out of the corner of his eyes. Her gloominess was easily ignored, but it was still irritating to have her saying every few seconds while he was busy working. A thoughtful look flashed across Oskar’s face for a moment before he gave a shrug and snapped his fingers. Whisper gasped as her wing clamp suddenly clicked and popped open, leaving her wings exposed to the air for the first time in months. She turned her wide eyes to Oskar and just stared at him for a moment. “Just stay in sight,” Oskar said, barely sparing her a glance. “THANK YOU!” Whisper shouted joyfully and leapt at him, wrapping her forelegs around him in a hug before giving him a large kiss on the cheek. She then immediately bolted into the air with a deafening cheer. Oskar looked after Whisper with a small smile as she darted through the air madly before returning his attention to his blueprints. The Evolved altered his plans and expanded on them as time went by, fixing what he saw as errors and making improvements he could make. It was a short ten minutes later when Whisper Wind came fluttering down onto the ground next to him, panting in exhaustion. “Ahhh… my wings aren’t so good anymore…” Whisper panted in disappointment, but still had a large smile on her face. “It’s been months since I’ve used them, so they’re weak.” “Figured that would be the case,” Oskar stated somewhat absently as he erased a part of his blueprints and quickly drew something else in its place. “Give it a few weeks and you should be able to work your flying stamina back up.” “Oh, well thanks for your concern,” Whisper replied sarcastically to her jailor before edging herself next to him. “What in Equestria are you drawing anyway? That one looks like some sort of weird train engine and the other… what is that?” “What I am making is a better steam engine than the ramshackle ones we currently have,” Oskar answered as he studied the blueprints intently. “The other is going to be a bigger and more useful engine.” “What? What kind of engine?” Whisper asked in utter boredom as she rolled over onto her back and stared up at Oskar. “Steam?” “No, something else,” Oskar answered with a sly smile. Anything that might have been said between jailor and prisoner was  interrupted by the sudden arrival of a geared up Warhound. “Boss! Hunter teams are back!” she shouted as she neared the two. “Great,” Oskar stated as he rolled the plans up and placed them under an arm and stood. “I assume Belvedere is waiting for me in the command center, right?” “Yeah boss,” the Warhound answered. “Right, you,” Oskar began, pointing at Whisper Wind. “You can stay up here and exercise your wings. I don’t need to remind you not to try to run away, right?” “Yeah yeah, whatever,” Whisper said with a dismissive wave of her hoof. “Just go see what your dogs are up to.” Oskar wordlessly teleported at that and arrived in the command center down in the cavern city. Belvedere was standing over a table with a map on it, marking out some places with pins and tying string between them. “Hello boss,” Belvedere said, glancing at him briefly before returning his attention to the map of Equestria on the table. “We found your two unicorns.” “Great,” Oskar said as he approached the table himself. “The hunters tracked the two down via word of mouth for a while,” Belvedere said, pointing at each marked spot with pins connecting to other pins via the string tied around each. “Following stories about two unicorns with a sense of drama and showponyship, sometimes getting run out of town when they oversold their product just a bit too much. Eventually they were tracked down to the outskirts of this town down south of the Everfree near the frontier border of Equestria. They’ve been staying here for the past few months. The younger brother, Flim, goes into town every week to pick up metal parts they’ve ordered and brings them to a rundown warehouse outside town. From what we have seen, they appear to be putting together a machine of some sort inside, but we’ve never been able to get close enough to find for sure, and there is always at least one brother in the warehouse itself so we have never been able to explore it.” “Thank your hunters for me Belvedere,” Oskar said with a nod. “I’ll handle the rest from here.” “Alright,” Belvedere said and began to walk away but paused after a few steps. “What do you intend to do with these unicorns?” “I intend to kidnap them by myself and ‘acquire’ their services,” Oskar answered truthfully “And why do you want to do it alone?” Belvedere asked. “As powerful and skilled as you are, having backup is always a good idea.” “It’s because of the promise,” Oskar replied. “I promised to make all of you more than just thieves and slavers. I have fulfilled that promise and it wouldn’t do to go back on it by having you help me kidnap two people.” “Well I would agree, except for one fact.” Belvedere stated, walking back to the table. “You have fulfilled your promise and no longer have to abide by it. This is your nation and you are our leader, and as our leader we would want to help you accomplish your goals, especially when your goals always work towards bettering our people as a whole. Even as small and few in number as we are, I’m not even sure if the original Diamond Dog nation can compare to what you have made. Long story short, we want to help our Boss no matter what he intends to do.” “Well… honestly I don’t know how to feel about this … only, thank you Belvedere,” Oskar said with a smile and a nod. “Now come here, this should be a simple smash and grab.” “What’s the plan, boss?” Belvedere asked and leaned in close. GAMMA Flim hummed one of the many tunes he and his brother made to help sell merchandise, making his way through a lightly wooded area with tall sundried grass. In tow behind him was a trailer full of scrap metal and various parts he had managed to haggle down for cheap. Although the parts were still expensive because of the mere fact they had to be ordered in and were taking up a large chunk of the funds, they saved up selling merchandise in various towns. Money was not an issue currently, however. He and his brother were still going to live rather comfortably in the following months despite the drain. Plus, once he and his brother were done putting everything together, they had no doubts at all that the machine would be paying for itself in no time, giving them that minimum effort, high payout job they always wanted. They already had a good idea of where to go to demonstrate the quality of their work. Sweet Apple Acres, home of the best apple cider in the whole kingdom. If their product could compete with that, they could compete with anyone. Despite his musings, Flim was able to spot movement out of the corner of his eyes. Off in the trees and in some of the thicker patches of grass, dark shapes had briefly been seen by the unicorn. Flim paused for a moment and frowned in consternation for a moment, his head whipped around when he had managed to glimpse more movement, but not quick enough to actually see anything. His anxious frown turned angry when a thought occurred to him. Could it have been possible one of the ponies in town had found out about what he and brother had been secretly construction within the cover of the old warehouse they had bought, and were trying to spy on them in order to make a cheap knockoff for their own profit? Flim became very guarded and glared out at his surroundings before picking up the pace. He and his brother knew enough about business that, in all likelihood, their machine would only bring them a few years of easy money, and then other technological minded ponies would be appearing on the market with their own cheaply made copies. They were both fine with it, but they preferred that period of easy profit to be as long as possible. Before long, the rusted and slightly ramshackle warehouse Flim and his brother were staying in appeared through the foliage and the unicorn took off at a run towards it. Stopping before the door, Flim quickly brought up a hoof and started hammering on the door. “Brother! Brother come on, open the door!” Flim called out as he continued banging on the door. Before long the door opened and a confused, though worried, Flam opened it and Flim quickly darted in, rapidly unhitching the trailer and running back to the door and slamming the door closed. Inside the place was fairly dirty. Scrap metal and near unidentifiable machine parts littered the place. Along one wall, lit up by magical lanterns, was a wall covered in many dirty blueprints. Off in the corner were a pair of sleeping bags and sitting right in the middle of the warehouse was a large half built machine. It had a train’s scoop on the front and a pair of wagon wheels along with a smaller metal pair of wheels near the back. Drab gray metal plating covered some of the intricate machinery within, but most of it was exposed. Near the machine were buckets of red and black paint, obviously the colors the brothers intended to paint their machine in. Sitting in an orderly pile nearby was also a red couch with large tubes and pipes leaning against it. “Flim! Brother of mine, what is the matter?” Flam asked with increased worry. “I dare say I was followed Flam!” Flim answered in a harsh whisper as he opened the steel door slightly to peek out. “What? Why would anypony follow you Flim?” Flam asked in confusion, but soon narrowed his eyes. “Unless…” “YES!” Flim shouted as he abruptly turned around and ran towards the half built machine, stopping before it. “Somepony plans to steal the idea for our machine! Our monopoly would only last a year if we are lucky! All of our hard work for an easy life would go down the drains, Flam!” “You’re right brother of mine!” Flame replied as he shot suspicious glances to his surroundings. “We have to very careful now! From now on, only one of us can be asleep here in the warehouse and one of us has to be in here at all times. We must protect our designs from being stolen and copied!” “Sound strategy, Flam!” Flim began and then pondered the problem they faced deeply. “Now we-” Suddenly the ground underneath the two unicorns shook and rumbled ominously. Flam barely had time to react to the ground giving way under Flim and steel clad arms reaching up to pull him down when the same happened to him. He felt himself falling and was caught by something hard. He felt paws and claws on his coat and heard his brothers muffled cries when they were suddenly ended. He found out the reason why when he felt a harsh blow to the back of his head. “Good work Padfoot,” Flam heard a voice say as his mind whirled into darkness. “Bring them to the cell, the rest of you get up there and start…” Flam heard no more as he lost consciousness. DELTA Rarity sighed contently as she finally finished her morning ritual and did one last look over of herself in the mirror. It had been over a week since Twilight, Spike and Owlicious had moved in and honestly, Rarity had expected things to be much more different than they turned out to be. She was expecting needing to do things a bit differently with sharing her personal space with two friends and another pet, but other than giving Spike some of her spare gems as food and buying feed for Owliscious, not much else changed. She had expected stacks of books and scrolls to start piling up a few days after Twilight moved in, if not the moment she did, but that never happened. There was a book on a table and a scroll here and there, but nowhere in the sheer quantities Rarity expected. Quite frankly, Rarity was growing very concerned for her fellow unicorn. Incidentally, this brought up thoughts of another fellow unicorn she had grown to consider very near and dear in the year she had known her. Emerald hadn’t contacted anyone ever since she took that timely road trip over a week ago, and while Rarity knew she shouldn’t worry for the mare, as she was more than capable of taking care of herself, she just couldn’t help it. Some part of her always got worked up whenever Emerald was involved, whether it was worrying over her figure, her health, her safety or just bring proud of her. Rarity just couldn’t help but feel this way about her and she just couldn’t figure out why. Truth be told, Rarity didn’t mind acting this way towards Emerald and neither did said mare, so the unicorn wasn’t in any great hurry at all to curb such behavior. ‘Well, now that I think about it, Twilight’s worrying behavior coincides with Emerald going on that trip,’ Rarity thought as she left her bedroom. ‘Did something happen between them? Is that the reason Emerald went on a road trip without warning? It doesn’t seem like her to run away from her problem though… and Spike would have told me if something did happen. I really shouldn’t try to make up stories should I? But what could have done this, make Twilight act this way and make Emerald leave without so much as a by your leave?’ The glamorous unicorn walked as she pondered the riddle before her and soon found herself in her studio where she made the dresses. Off to the side, Twilight was sitting on Rarity’s large, lavish couch and reading a newspaper, looking rather upset as she did so. ‘Oh my, what ever could be the issue?’ Rarity thought and walked over, coming to a stop beside Twilight and leaning over to read the section Twilight was looking at. THE POST-GRAY FOX WORLD Equestria continues to struggle through the minor recession that plagues it’s citizenry, caused single hoofedly by the infamous King of Thieves, The Gray Fox. While everypony continues to hold their breath in wait for the next and just as society damaging theft, we here at the News Nag have gotten word from sources within the Royal Guard itself that the Gray Fox’s thefts ended with one last break in at the palace library. Yes, our readers would be surprised to know that there was another theft after the Gray Fox’s near destabilising raid on Cloudsdale. According to our sources and research, the chaos from the masses of escaped prisoners still on the loose, the weather shortage, the closing of several major goods suppliers to thousands of ponies losing their jobs, has caused our fellows in the news to overlook this somewhat low key crime. During a press conference, Princess Celestia answered several questions on how she and her royal sister will work towards reversing Equestria’s economic turmoil. The answer was to further government spending. Public works are to be started in earnest, providing jobs and wages for those who lost them. On the subject of the Gray Fox, the Princess answered that the Gray Fox has not made any further appearances since his last theft, and it is too soon to say there is a possibility that the King of Thieves will trouble Equestria no more. Captain Shining Armor of the Royal Guard answered the next question himself, on the subject of chasing down the Gray Fox down the Diamond Dog tunnels like they had before when rescuing slaves, stating that chasing down the Gray Fox was different then rescuing slaves. For one, the Gray Fox has appeared to have withdrawn all the packs under his command to their unknown base of operations. Second ,the fact is the tunnels are the Diamond Dogs’ home and they know them intimately, making any large incursion into them a massive slog. Third and final is the fact the Gray Fox has personally trained the slaving thugs into a competent military force, making their numbers far more serious than before. All in all, Equestria needs to recover from its current troubles before even contemplating chasing down the Gray Fox and making him pay for his crimes. Rarity glanced over at Twilight who continued to read the newspaper in front of her, her face a mask of guilt and depression. Rarity wondered why at first, glancing between the violet unicorn and the newspaper several times before getting an idea. “Twilight, darling?” Rarity asked. “Huh wha?!” Twilight jumped in surprise, seemingly being so focused on the newspaper she didn’t notice Rarity arrive. “Oh hello Rarity, how can I help you?” “Darling, you shouldn’t blame yourself,” Rarity said. “Wha-what?” Twilight said, her eyes widening. “You don’t know if you could have been any help with the Gray Fox,” Rarity stated, oddly making Twilight immediately calm down. “We’ve never had any experience with hunting down master criminals. Sure we have been in a few fights, but the Gray Fox has been in so much more. It’s more likely we would have gotten in the way than contribute anything meaningful to the task.” “Oh… yes definitely!” Twilight said with a wide forced smile. “HA HA HA! Yeah, we couldn’t have been able to do anything at all, much better to just stay here and mind our business, yep!” “As long as you realise that darling.” Rarity smiled softly. “Have you heard anything from Emerald yet? I know I shouldn’t, but I worry about her.” “Umm… no, I haven’t…” Twilight started. “You… you shouldn’t worry though, because I am absolutely certain only the very worst of things could give Emerald pause. She did go into Everfree by herself and came out safe and sound, right?” “Yes she did.” Rarity nodded with a frown before smiling lightly. “And she isn’t going to be going anywhere dangerous this time, surely. She’s likely just going on a short trip around Equestria out of nostalgia for her days as a travel pony.” “Ye-yes… probably,” Twilight said with a strained smile and turned her attentions back to her newspaper. “Well… I’ll leave you be Twilight,” Rarity said and began to leave. “Try not to fret too much about events in the paper, alright? Things will get better, just you wait.” “Right…” Twilight replied softly and turned the page to read the rest of the article. A number of quotes from victims of the recession covered the page and Twilight picked one at random. “The factory I worked at couldn’t cover the costs for replacing everything and stay in business. Me, my wife and everypony else who worked there were laid off. My wife and I had just started our family and got our home a few years ago. We had a bit saved up from our job at the factory, but it just wasn’t enough for anything more than a few months of bills and rent. We cut costs by going to the park for grass instead of getting better food from the grocery store. It still would have been bad with the current job market though. Lucky for us, our landlord was generous enough to waive a couple of our rent payments… can’t say the same for any of any of the others that used to work at the factory. Sometimes I pass by a few of them on the street trying to get by- Twilight couldn’t bear to read anything more after that and put the newspaper down as a single tear ran down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away and looked around to make sure no one saw it before lying down on her side, guilt ridden expression clear to the world. Thoughts rushed through the unicorn’s head about all the ponies that are suffering because of the Gray Fox’s actions… because of Emerald. At the same time she remembered all the times she spent with Emerald, the happy times, the sad times and the angry ones. ‘Why do things have to be so complicated?’ Twilight thought in dismay, memories of Nightmare Moon in her mind and how she was very clearly a villain that needed to be stopped. ‘She isn’t a villain, she’s my friend… but she did so much ev-bad things… I came here to learn what having friends is like, but what do you do when your friend is a bad pony?’ ‘…you make it sound like I’m some perfect being… but I’m not. I know I’m not, Twilight. I’ve had to go through so much to get where I am today…’ memories whispered. ‘…Yeah… a monster… that describes me…’ ‘Dear Celestia, what do I do?!’ Twilight despaired. ‘Do I tell everpony and betray my friend, or keep the secret and betray everypony else?! Ohhhhh, what do I do…’ Looking around the room, Twilight saw the pile of parchment she would use to send messages via Spike’s fire. For the longest moment, Twilight had the urge to get up and walk over to them, then with a shake of her head she turned over on the couch. EPSILON Oskar sat on a stone bench down in the cavern city, reading one of the books he had stolen from Princess Celestia, specifically one about runic circuitry. Belvedere sat beside him reading off reports in crude writing off a notepad. “So how goes interrogating the unicorns?” Belvedere asked. “It is going smoothly, though a bit slowly,” Oskar replied. “As long as things continue as they are, there won’t be any problems in eventually releasing the two when their usefulness runs out. By the way… you remember what I said about wanting to get the independent clans to live here in the Enclave as well a while ago? I think it’s time we started working towards doing that. Do you know where a few of them could be found?” “Nidhogg never really bothered with them,” Belvedere answered with a frown. “He was content with the slaves he had, so we know where most if not all of them are. The problem, however, is convincing them that this isn’t some trick to bring them to heel under Nidhogg.” “Hmm… leave that to me,” Oskar said with a frown as he continued reading his book. “I’m sure I can figure out something that will make them to give us a chance to prove ourselves. Get some Warhounds together; we’re going on a road trip to one of these packs.” “Right boss,” Belvedere replied as he got off his seat and left to do as commanded. ‘What to do, what to do…’ Oskar thought as he read his book. ‘Never really had to use diplomacy before… I either stole or used force for what I needed. And unless I want to turn out to be just as bad as Nidhogg, I’m going to have go with diplomacy… well, this certainly is going to be a learning experience one way or the other.’ ZETA Several hours later found a small company of Warhounds marching along a tunnel, far from the ones they mined gems from. It was the first time anyone had traveled this far in the deep tunnels for a long time and it showed via the dust lacking the pounded down look from constant use. The fact this tunnel lead back to Nidhogg’s former lands may have had something to do with its lack of use. Soon the company found itself arriving at an opening leading out into a wide open cavern. They didn’t know what to expect really. Being Diamond Dogs, they spotted the various sentry holes in the wall along the tunnel they took and knew that the independent dogs knew they were coming. However upon walking out into the open of the cavern nothing happened. Off at the far end of the cavern was a collection of stone and metal homes that looked noticeably better than the ones that were being built back in the Enclave. “RRRRRAAAAAAAGH!” A loud bellow came from above and the collective Warhounds only had enough time to look up and see a white streak fall down towards them from a hole in the ceiling. “If you were huntin trouble lads, ya found it!” came a shout with a noticeable Scottish accent as the white shape landed amongst the Warhounds and was quickly followed by the sounds of yelping and metal banging. The Warhounds not being attacked had a hard time telling just what was attacking them but from the fact they couldn’t see it over the heads of their fellows, and the fact that dogs started to drop as soon as it arrived, they could tell it was small and dangerous. “How’s that feel, ya blockhead!” came a shout from within the melee following a loud, painful clang. “Ohhhhh that smarts doesn’t it?!” Just then, the fight seemed to end with a startled shout. The Warhounds pulled back from where the combat had been happening and revealed several warhounds on the ground groaning in pain, and a small white terrier Diamond Dog floating in mid-air surrounded by a crimson aura, a fairly large iron staff that ended in two spiked balls was clasped firmly in one of his paws. He wore a red beret like cap on his head and unlike the Diamond Dogs when they were slaves, he wore more clothing than a simple vest. On his arms was a pair of hard leather bracers that had fingerless gloves. He wore a long sleeved green and red coat that was buttoned up to his neck and hung down to his knees, while over the coat he wore a heavily engraved iron cuirass buckled in place. “Well… that was certainly a show,” Oskar stated, hand aloft and glowing crimson, as he made his and Belvedere’s presence known. “I assume you are one of the Alphas in charge of this place, right?” “I ain’t telling ya nothing ya lizard loving girl!” the diminutive Diamond Dog spat an insult at Oskar. “Let me go and I’ll show ya how much your fancy magic matters when I club ya in the head ya wee little-” Suddenly the Diamond Dogs snout was surrounded by a crimson aura and forced closed, leaving him mumbling no doubt heinous insults and threats though his magical gag. Oskar approached the floating Diamond Dog, hand still aloft and glowing crimson. “I would like to inform you that Nidhogg is dead and that the enslaved Diamond Dogs he possessed have been freed,” Oskar stated calmly before releasing his magic on the little dog’s snout. “Oh and ya expect me to suddenly believe that loud of trash do ya?” The dog snorted disbelievingly. “I guess it is a little hard to believe such a huge dragon like Nidhogg could be dead,” Oskar said as an intense blue glow started to shine through his chest. “So I’ll just show you something interesting.” With that Oskar looked off towards a distant part of the cavern and inhaled sharply. A few seconds later, he exhaled. There was a sharp whine that tore at everyone’s ears as a blinding blue light erupted from the virus’ mouth and formed a long beam. The beam impacted the far wall near instantly and sliced into it deeply. A few long, nigh unbearable moments later and the beam finally ended, letting everyone see the large glowing spot in the wall that was spilling an alarming amount of molten rock out of it; thankfully it didn’t seem nearly enough to threaten the far off Diamond Dog village. “Tell me,” Oskar began, wiping his mouth clean of burning plasma. “Do you think someone like Nidhogg would tolerate the presence of someone who is not only capable of breathing plasma like him, but is resistant to it as well?” “… The tales say much about the old bat,” the little dog said after a moment. “But aye, he don’t seem the sort… let me down laddie.” Oskar did just that and softly lowered the diminutive Diamond Dog onto the ground. He then briefly brushed himself off before leaning on his war staff and staring up at Oskar. “So… is the old scaly buzzard really dead?” the little dog asked, hope bleeding into his voice. “I promise he really is,” Oskar said and after a moment added. “Talk is cheap though, I can have his bones dug up and brought here as proof.” “Aye you do that laddie,” the dog said, pointing a finger at Oskar. “I’ll have some elders here from the other packs that can identify Nidhogg even in death. Once we have the proof, we’ll listen to what ya have to say, alright?” “Sounds like a plan,” Oskar said and went about helping his injured Warhounds back onto their feet. “What is this, like the third time you were laid out by something barely a third of your size?” “Ugh, the first time didn’t count boss and you know it.” Padfoot groaned as he stood back up and stretched out a stitch in his back. “They ain’t half bad,” the short dog half complimented as he made his way back to the village in the distance. “My compliments to their trainer laddie!” “Well that was interesting,” Belvedere commented as he walked over to Oskar. “So are we heading back?” “Yeah, get a large group together and start digging up the cavern Nidhogg was living in. Hold still.” Oskar said as he injected several dogs with healing accelerants and painkillers via a tendril. “Once we do that, we’ll head back here with it… considering the size of the bones and how big the tunnels are, we may need to do some quick expansion along the way.” “Not a problem, boss,” Belvedere stated. “We are Diamond Dogs after all.” “Great. Alright, everyone ready?” Oskar asked, looking all around him. “I’m going to be teleporting all of us back. In three… three, two, one!” With that the entire company of Diamond Dogs, along with Oskar and Belvedere, disappeared in a flash. ETA Flam sighed as he stared up at the plain gray ceiling above him. He and his brother were in a fairly large but barren stone room, a corner with a small hole as a toilet, a simple wooden table with two chairs and two somewhat soft beds. The two had been there for who knows how long, as they had not seen the sun since they were captured. In fact, they had not even seen what their captors looked like or even heard from them, as they slipped their food through a thin slot near the bottom of the solid looking steel door of their prison. Both Flim and Flam were quite disheveled looking after spending several days without washing up or changing the few articles of clothing they wore. Spending so long in the same space with little to nothing to do all day was grating on the brothers’ nerves and sanity as well. They tended to explode on each other rather easily and were getting twitchy from the lack of space to really stretch their legs. At the very least the food or drinks weren’t bland though. They always got a large mix of fruits and vegetables as well as various juices for them to consume. One thing the brothers absolutely dreaded about their imprisonment however was the visits. Every day the lights in their room would flicker off and their door would open. Normally the brothers would take the chance to use their magic to escape, but after the first attempt and the following retaliation they didn’t risk it again. When the door opened, someone or something entered their room in the darkness and would lay something atop their heads. Intense agonizing headaches would soon follow. The worst part about these visits was the fact they could last for hours at times, and that was a long time for someone to be suffering intense pain. The odd thing about these torturous visits though was that during them the brothers couldn’t help but think about their time in the academy and all they learned while experimenting with their knowledge in the field. Currently the two unicorns were lying in bed and dreading every moment of silence. The reason being that it had been a long time since their last visit and the next one was likely going to happen any minute now. Sure enough, there was a click as the lights went off and a quiet metallic shriek from their prison door opening in the darkness. The two brothers groaned and braced themselves for the oncoming pain, wondering just how long they were going to suffer this time. The two waited for the feeling of something soft being placed atop their heads. They waited, and waited, and waited, and… Flam yawned as he woke up to the sounds of birds singing and wind blowing through the grass. The unicorn snapped his eyes open when he grasped the sounds he just heard and bolted upright. All around him were small groves of trees and wide open grass fields with flowers dotting them. Birds and bugs darted through the air, either singing their songs or buzzing. Flam stared at his surroundings almost uncomprehendingly when he heard a groan from beside him. When he turned to see his brother waking up was when Flam finally noticed the pounding in his head and the foul taste in his mouth. “What is this?” Flim asked as Flam groaned in pain and started spitting in an attempt to rid himself of the foul taste. “Is this a dream?” “Last I heard, dreams don’t hurt or taste bad,” Flam commented and noticed something else about their surroundings, namely a large brown sack next to them. Getting up on somewhat wobbly legs, Flam approached the bag cautiously. Upon closer inspection the lumpy sack had a small note attached close to its mouth. Plucking the note off the bag, Flam saw nothing to see who it was addressed to and opened it. Flim and Flam In the bag is compensation for your service, added to your fee is compensation for all hardship, emotional and otherwise during your stay with us, as well as payment for all lost hardware. Regards T.E. Blinking at the note, the brothers looked at each other briefly before looking at the bag. Flim approached it and quickly undid the rope around it’s mouth. Inside was a vast collection of bits and rare small gems that glimmered in the daylight sun. Just by looking at the bounty of riches the brothers could tell it was more than enough to cover for all the money they spent making their cider machine three times over. “Flam?” “Yes brother of mine?” “Do you want to just go back to being traveling salesponies?” Flim asked lightly. “It seems like being inventing entrepreneurs is rather hazardous for one’s health.” “A more marvelous idea I haven’t heard!” Flam replied. “Now… how to get this money to the nearest town? It’s rather heavy.” “Hmm…” THETA Oskar thumbed through a book as he oversaw a large excavation along with several other Diamond Dog Alphas, which he was glad for as his mind was elsewhere currently. The Evolved was thinking of his incredible success with experimental magic a day ago. He had spent the last few months carefully building up his skill with the new magic he created from knowledge of pony neurology. It was too grand of an achievement in Oskar’s eyes. He was fairly certain the ponies could have eventually created what he just invented. However, they would have been humane about it, which Oskar wasn’t, and it advanced the development of the spell incredibly. In fact, the Evolved didn’t want to think about the sure numbers of animals he had effectively killed via rendering them brain dead with his experiments. Eventually after months of lethal experimentation on animals, Oskar had declared his memory absorption spell safe enough for use on vital personnel. The spell was still slow going compared to simply eating people though, and required him to use for hours at a time for any significant amount of information. But overall, Oskar still considered it a better alternative than killing people for their knowledge and skill. Sure it was slow now, but given time and practice, he bet he could upgrade it significantly. So after spending well over a week taking memory after memory from the Flim Flam Brothers, Oskar had managed to attain the skill and knowledge he wanted. Afterwards, he knocked out the two unicorns with some gas and dropped them off along with a large sack of money in a distant location. Oskar was still taking a risk though. The two knew that their kidnappers had ambushed them from beneath the ground and that had Diamond Dog ambush tactics written all over it, which would no doubt notify the Princesses that the Diamond Dogs and by extension the “Gray Fox” were up to something. And speaking of the princesses, Oskar was getting pretty close to reading through all the books he had stolen from their library. Soon he would make good on his promise to return their books to them. “Oskar?” the virus heard Belvedere say. “Hmm?” Oskar said looking at the Greyhound Alpha. “The digging teams have managed to reach Nidhogg’s corpse and have set up support struts,” Belvedere said, waving at the large tunnel made into the collapsed treasure chamber. “It’s a bit slow going though. The rocks and boulders are all still fairly loose and we are going to need more time before we can bring out the bones safely.” “It’s no problem,” Oskar said, snapping his book closed. “We don’t want to lose anyone so take as much time as you need to ensure everything is safe.” “Already done boss,” Belvedere said. “Do you really think we can get the independent packs to join us?” “Frankly, it’s a bit of an unlikely result,” Oskar replied with a sigh. “Diplomatic negotiation is not one of my many skills. I can make a cold hearted business deal that can make a literal knife to the back preferable, but diplomacy? Well it’s certainly going to be touch and go… honestly I am just going to go for pure honesty and hope for the best.” “There is a chance… that any packs that don’t join us will inform Equestria of us,” Belvedere said with a concerned frown. “And if Equestria manages to find out about us, they will wonder how we are able to make such equipment. They may connect the dots regarding the Gray Fox and his Diamond Dog followers.” “I know it’s a risk,” Oskar said with a frown of his own. “But I don’t feel right buttering these people up in such a way they think we have a paradise waiting for them. I am simply going to present what I have as is and hope for the best. We have a nation and lack the numbers, they have numbers and lack a nation. We both have things the other wants; hopefully they’ll see that at least.” “Hmm…” Belvedere’s frown stayed firmly in place as he brought up a paw and tapped his chin. “BOSS! BOSS!” came an alarmed shout down a tunnel. Oskar turned in time to see a female mastiff Warhound come charging down the tunnel towards him. “Yes, what is it?” Oskar asked as the Warhound came to a stop before him. “I don’t know, boss!” the Warhound said with a confused shake of her head. “We were scouting the forest edge when a ton of weird stuff started to happen! Animals were changing shape, fruits were growing to huge sizes, clouds turned pink and chocolate milk started raining from the sky!” “… Right, I have to investigate this myself,” Oskar said, teleporting his book back to the room he stored them in. “Hold still. I need to know exactly where you were and this will sting a bit.” Oskar placed a hand atop the Warhounds head and called upon the spell he invented. The Warhound inhaled sharply as her head ached and the memory of the location she had left was copied from her mind. Needing only just one instant of the memory, Oskar ended his spell, causing a surprised look to appear on the Warhound’s face when it only stung for a second. “I’ll be back,” Oskar said to Belvedere before teleporting. Oskar arrived on the border of the Everfree just past the outskirts of Ponyville. Not only were there some Warhounds there, who had been rather startled by Oskar’s sudden appearance, but a timber wolf was there as well. Ignoring the Warhounds and the timber wolf, Oskar looked out towards Ponyville and the world outside the Everfree. The Warhound hadn’t been exaggerating when she had told him of what she had seen. Animals had indeed been twisted into something else, the clouds looked like cotton candy and were raining chocolate milk down on the world, and off in the distance Oskar could see the apple trees strain under the weight of their now massive fruit. “When did this start happening?” Oskar asked the nearest dog. “Half an hour ago, boss,” the armored dog answered. “It’s been steadily picking up since.” Oskar was about to ask more when he became aware of snarling noises. Turning to the right, he saw the timber wolf shake with barely withheld fury. “WRONG, ALL WRONG, UNNATURAL!!!” the Spirit possessing the Timber Wolf raged. “NOT PART OF THE CYCLE! HIS DOING! HIS DOING!!!” “Who?” Oskar asked. “Who did this?” Suddenly the timber wolf paused in its ranting and looked incredibly confused. “What am I talking about? WHO am I talking about?” the spirit said more to himself then to Oskar. “Can’t remember? Won’t remember? Why, why, why…” “Right, he’s not being too helpful.” Oskar commented and turned his attention to the chaotic world before him. He narrowed his eyes and looked upon Canterlot in the distance. “If anyone should even have the slightest idea of what is happening, it’s the princesses. Wait here and keep observing the situation. I’m going to go spy on the capital.” “Right boss!” the Warhounds said with collective salute. With that, Oskar teleported in a crimson flash and made his way to Canterlot. -TBC-