“And this will be your new home, Ridge.”
Ridge, a sheep dog wearing a zipped up green gray coat and beige green pants that ended at his knees, took in his home. It was a somewhat small apartment; the bedroom was its own room at least while the kitchen, living room and dining room were mixed together. It was definitely smaller than his parent’s house, which he had moved out of a few days ago. He was the only one living here though, so the size wasn’t a problem. He was rather happy about the running water though; no more lugging buckets from the aquifer springs and the sewage system was definitely appreciated.
“Thanks for showing me to my ‘apartment’,” Ridge said to his guide.
“Not a problem,” the other dog waved off and left.
Ridge grabbed his bag containing his few pairs of clothing and went into the bedroom.
It was a simple enough setup. There was a bed that was about twin size, a dresser off to the side and a door leading to what he assumed was his bathroom. Ridge simply dropped his bag on his bed. He’d unpack later; for now he was hungry and from what he knew, those communal meals would start soon.
Ridge then left his room and walked down the hall to the atrium of the apartment complex he now lived in. He was on the higher floors, so he had to climb down to ground level.
Now the complex did have a stair case, but that was mostly meant for really old dogs and the very young.The rest of the dogs just climbed down via four specially designed walls. Each wall was located in a corner of the atrium and was about ten feet wide that stretched up from the ground floor to the very top.
Ridge grabbed hold of one and started dropping down, grabbing hold of the wall every few feet to slow his descent. He did this for several moments before jumping off the wall and landing on the ground floor with a thump. He then walked out of the complex’s front door.
Once outside, Ridge lifted fur out of his eye sight and looked around the streets to get an idea of where the dinner was being held. After a moment, he decided to just follow where everyone else seemed to be going.
‘A bit crude looking, but it gets the job done,’ Ridge thought as he took in the various stone buildings around him. Ridge was an independent dog from the packs in the depths and so was used to much more aesthetically pleasing buildings. The biggest reason for why he was here instead of setting up somewhere in his hometown was the free food. Ridge had grown up with rations. The only time he ever felt close to having over ate was when the pack got lucky and brought in a ton of meat. But those were rare in itself and hunting had to be carefully done or there wouldn’t be enough food for everyone before long. But ever since the Enclave had started sending shipments of meat to all the packs suddenly, everyone had more than enough meat to spare.
It was the feeling of having a full stomach for five days straight that eventually caused Ridge to make his final decision on where he wanted to go when he moved out. After all, it surely would have been better tasting to get the meat straight from the source, now wouldn’t it?
It was then that Ridge caught the scent that could only be beef stew with various vegetables thrown in for flavouring. Mouth-watering at the scent, the sheep dog picked up his pace.
Soon, he found himself in a large, wide open plaza filled with long tables and chairs. Over to the side were a long line of open windows that lead into the kitchen. Already a long line of dogs were forming, despite the number of windows that had cooks giving out food.
A little disheartened by the lines, Ridge simply huffed and took his spot. Thankfully the lines moved fast, as Ridge only had to wait ten minutes before he was at a kitchen window. There was only beef stew and either salt or pepper to put on it, but the portions were definitely generous thanks to the bowls. Making sure not to lose a single drop of his stew, Ridge got a seat at a fairly empty table, though it didn’t remain that way for long.
Before long, a massive stream of dogs had arrived and the table Ridge was at was soon as crowded as the rest. Not that he minded it, but he still didn’t know anyone here just yet.
“Hm, look at that lot over there,” one dog stated, pointing a thumb towards a table. “They’ve been eating tons of food for days now.”
Ridge looked over at the table in question and couldn’t help but have his attention drawn to one of the Diamond Dogs sitting at the table. He looked a lot like a wolf, and his fur was stark white. If he was lying in snow, Ridge was sure he wouldn’t be spotted. The next dog he noticed was very tall and had ton of muscle on him. He looked to be a rottweiler from what Ridge could see. The rest of the dogs sitting at the table shared two things in common. All had muscles that could be clearly defined, though not as massive as the rottweiler’s, and all of them had huge bowls of stew they were rapidly wolfing down.
“Wow, they all got muscles really fast,” commented one dog who let out a low impressed whistle. “Are they going to keep getting bigger?”
“I talked to one of them,” another dog said as he chowed down on his stew. “They said they’ll lose fat and build muscles just by moving around, but if they want to build really huge muscles then they’ll still need to put in effort. But right now? Getting in fighting shape is a breeze.”
There was a moment of silence as the other dogs digested what they heard along with their meals. In that silence, one dog took the opportunity to speak.
“I saw that pony with the boss again,” muttered one dog a bit sourly as he slowly ate his stew.
Immediately the mood at the table took a downturn. Several dogs shot the speaker a look while the rest looked a little uncomfortable.
“What? I am worried is all,” the dog muttered defensively. “What if this pony sells us out to Equestria and tells their princess about us? We don’t know anything about her at all.”
“The boss knows her, and the boss has obviously chosen her as a potential mate,” one dog answered. “Boss has never done us wrong, ever. Why should now be the time?”
“Hmph.”
Ridge felt intensely curious right now; his home town was in the deepest parts of the tunnels and didn’t talk about ponies much, other for saying they were surface walkers and how they looked.
“What is wrong with ponies?” Ridge broke in with his own question.
For a moment there was silence as the other dogs seemed to be reluctant to answer. Then the dog who had sounded suspicious of ponies spoke up.
“… How much do you know about ponies?” asked the dog.
“I know they live on the surface, come in three different kinds and have a powerful princess leading them,” Ridge answered.
“Do you know about Nidhogg?” the dog asked, and Ridge nodded. “Well their princess is responsible for him. She was responsible for keeping him locked up, but she failed and he not only broke out without her knowing but destroyed our nation. It’s the ponies’ fault we suffered for a hundred years. I don’t trust them.”
“Bah!” one dog said dismissively. “If boss is willing to trust a pony, then I am too. Besides, what about Whisper? You don’t trust her too?”
“Whisper is different,”the dog replied defensively and pointed off to the side. “She is the exception.”
Ridge looked in the direction the dog was pointing and saw a dark blue winged pony with a purple mane sitting beside another dog. The dog beside her was a cheerful looking fellow and happened to be a husky.
Suddenly, there was clamour as a voice rose in alarm. Everyone at Ridge’s table and everyone else in the plaza turned towards a group of startled dogs at one table. One of the dogs had a newspaper in his paws and was gesturing to one of the articles.
Everyone at Ridge’s table got up and walked over to the disturbance and Ridge decided to follow suit. They weren’t the only ones to get the same idea, but they still managed to get fairly close to the table.
“Hey! What’s going on?!” someone shouted.
“DRAGONS!” the dog holding the newspaper shouted and waved said paper in the air. “I snuck into a pony town and got this paper. It says a whole migration of dragons are going to be passing through Equestria!”
Ridge wasn’t terribly worried about the news; even if the dragons proved to be hostile, the Enclave was both underground and in the Everfree. The other dogs didn’t seem to realise this, however, and fear bred into them from Nidhogg made them all panicky at the thought of dragons, especially a lot of them.
“We have nothing to fear!” one dog shouted.
“Yeah, the boss will protect us!” another added.
“The ponies have their princess, but we have our boss!”
There was a loud cheer that went up at that, and Ridge could only look around in interest of what he was hearing.
‘Hmm… I wonder what “The Boss” is like?’ he thought to himself.
ALPHA
Emerald stood next to Princess Luna on her dark chariot being pulled through the clouds by her Night Guard. Eventually, they broke through the clouds to a grand sight.
Ever so slowly drifting through the ocean was a massive squid like creature, a Kraken. It was easily as big as a small island and its thick, rock-like skin was covered in grasses and various plants. Situated in the center of its mass that was above the water was a building at least five stories tall. In front of the body in a long row were flags of many colors and designs blowing in the ocean breeze.
Emerald stared in open awe of the huge creature as they swooped down towards it. Eventually they came into a landing in an area that also had a number of aerial transports. As soon as she stepped off the chariot, Emerald couldn’t help but experimentally tap her hoof on the ground. The grass made things softer, but the ground felt like really hard dirt rather than rock.
“Come along my student,” Luna stated as she started walking towards the building. “The first meeting is starting soon and I want you to witness it.”
“What is this place anyway?” Emerald asked.
“This is the headquarters of the League of Nations,” Lune explained. “It’s where all the nations in the known world send representatives or attend themselves to engage in politics on a much grander scale.”
“Why is it on this… I assume this is a Kraken?” Emerald said hesitantly.
“True neutral ground, plus the center of this particular ocean is the most central place of the member nations,” Luna replied. “Although we have to make sure the Kraken keeps drifting in this area, otherwise he just goes off to wherever the ocean takes him.”
“Sounds like a laid back fellow,” Emerald commented as they entered the front door of the building.
“He is very old. Most of the time he is simply napping,” Luna explained. “From what I’ve heard, it was remarkably easy to convince him to let us build on his back.”
Emerald looked around the interior. They were in the lobby of the building and all around them were various beings either here for the meeting or simply working at the building. Ponies, griffins, minotaurs, herons, the sure amount of different beings here represented how this building was the headquarters of intergovernmental organization.
“My sister has been having me attend League meetings in preparation for my eventual return to politics,” Luna stated as they walked. “I decided this experience would do some good for you as well.”
Emerald could agree with that statement. The idea of seeing what this world’s version of the United Nations was like would definitely be interesting.
Soon, Emerald and Luna arrived in a side chamber overlooking the main meeting area. The area where all the heads of state and representatives were sitting looked a lot like the meeting room in the UN did. After a little bit of searching, Emerald spotted Celestia down on ground floor at her assigned desk, listening serenely to the current speaker on the floor. For some reason, Emerald expected what she assumed was the Secretary General, to be a pony, but he wasn’t. The Secretary General was a zebra, an old one from his gray mane; although from the looks of him, the gray was likely the result of severe stress.
Emerald was interested at first… her interest quickly began to die off as people kept talking on and on, making mundane deals with other nations and basically uttering rhetoric.
Emerald was mere moments away from despairing at ever hearing something interesting when she spotted the griffin and minotaur representatives muttering to each other. Focusing on them, her powerful ears managed to pick out their words from the current speaker’s.
“First his country cuts all trade deals with everyone, and now they are banning immigration and tourism,” the griffin rep muttered. “And he still hasn’t given us a proper explanation for it.”
“Just what is the Prime Minister of Zebrica up to?” the minotaur muttered back. “Exports and tourism make up at least forty percent of his country’s income. And I remember whst the Secretary was like over a year ago. He wasn’t nearly this stressed.”
“Tch. It hurts everyone when the leader goes bad,” the griffin scoffed. “Suppose we just wait until he gets kicked out for incompetence by his parliament then?”
“Going to have to,” the minotaur agreed.
‘Well there was a bit of exciting info,’ Emerald thought and looked at the stressed looking Secretary General. ‘Well, not really. None of my business what some country somewhere does with itself, as long as it doesn’t bother me or my own.’
With that, Emerald settled in for the long wait full of trying her best to not let it show she was bored out of her mind. It was a lot harder than it looked.
BETA
Razor Wing sat beside a coffee table solving a puzzle with another Deinos. The study he was in had a little over a dozen Deinos lounging about in it. Most of the Deinos in the palace were either former palace staff or guards. They could have gone back to work while they waited for Celestia to “fix” them, but the Princess insisted they just rest and relax. And so they did, though boredom sometimes did set in.
Suddenly, the front doors to the room flung open and in stomped another Deinos. With a soft growl, he slammed the doors behind him, causing one of them to break off the top hinge and start to lean off the frame. At this, Razor Wing immediately rose up from his position beside the coffee table and approached the other Deinos.
“Is there something wrong?” Razor asked. “Why are you so angry?”
“I’m just… just a little irritated right now,” the clearly frustrated Deinos said. “I am not angry at anypony.”
“Yes you are, we are altered,” Razor stated. “We get angry much more easily. Tell me what it is and all of us can help you feel better.”
“Grrr… it’s just… it’s the princess!” the Deinos growled.
“What about the princess, Sparkle Shine?” one Deinos asked.
“I’ve just gotten back from her giving some of us an encouraging talk,” Sparkle stated lowly. “She kept talking about how she is searching hard for the cure to our conditions, like what we are now is some sort of disease or curse. I don’t know about curses, but I do know that diseases are not beneficial. Who here can correct me and say what we are now isn’t beneficial?!”
“I can’t go back to just being another servant in this palace, I can’t!” Sparkle shouted. “Not after having all this power, having magic, being able to fly. And after all that, just go back to being a plain old earth pony? Washing windows planes and cleaning table tops? I can’t, I won’t!”
“Ut you liked your jod, Sarkle,” Sharp Skies said. “There wasn’t a day you didn’t go to work snileing.”
“And I’m sure you loved just standing in front of a door all day every day, Shark,” Sparkle replied with a biting tone.
“What did you call ne?!” Sharp hissed and gave a dangerous growl which Sparkle quickly returned.
“Stop it,” Razor Wing stated, and when it looked like the two weren’t going to listen, he shot his blade wings between them. “Now.”
Shooting infuriated looks at each other, Sparkle and Sharp went to opposite ends of the room. And as they did so, Razor Wing couldn’t help but wonder if Sparkle wasn’t the only Deinos to have that opinion.
GAMMA
Emerald walked down a street in Ponyville. It was early in the morning and the virus was just returning from spending the entire night at the Enclave, working.
Yesterday had been Spike’s birthday. Everyone had given the little dragon something and so had Emerald. What the virus had given was a large pink diamond taken from Nidhogg’s hoard to replace the one he had given to Rarity. Spike had been incredibly happy with the treat and eaten it on the spot. Then he had left to go get one of his presents which Emerald knew was a cake baked with various minerals and gems. When Spike had left, Emerald had excused herself to go to another photo shoot for New Paradigm and then went to work in the Enclave. There was a lot of work she needed to get down to prepare for creating a new kind of creature.
By the time she had gotten back the next morning, she had only laid down the foundations for her work.
Emerald entered the library and closed the door behind her softly. She didn’t know exactly how early in the morning it was, only that it was early and by all chances only Applejack would have been up at this hour, so she didn’t want to wake up everyone.
Intentions of not waking anyone up went out the window when she heard a startled shout come from upstairs.
In an instant, Emerald teleported to Twilight’s bedroom and was met with no one around. Hearing voices from down the hall, she quickly teleported again, this time into Spike’s room. This time she was met with an odd sight.
In the corner of the simple bedroom was a massive pile or random objects. Twilight was near the door and holding some books out of reach via her magic and Spike… he was definitely different. He was taller now, and looked a little older.
“Uhh… what happened?” Emerald asked. “Twilight, did another one of your spells misfire?”
“NO! I just woke up and came in here and Spike was like this!” Twilight said in confused concern.
“What’s happening to me?!” Spike said in a deeper voice.
“Hmm…” Emerald pondered the situation. She had dragon memories now, taken from Nidhogg. Surely he knew something about what Spike was going through? However… why go through the trouble of sifting through memories when they had a fully grown dragon on hand? “I don’t know, but you know who might? That dragon that’s taken up residence on Fluttershy’s property.”
“Of course!” Twilight exclaimed. “I was thinking of taking him to a doctor, but an adult dragon that grew up around other dragons must know what is happening to Spike.”
“Right. Come close to me and I’ll bring us to Fluttershy’s cottage,” Emerald stated.
Everyone did as the Evolved commanded… well, Spike had to be dragged because he found a book extremely appealing, but they were soon on their way.
“Oh my goodness!” everyone heard when they arrived.
Fluttershy was awake, but apparently was fresh out of the shower as her mane was a little moist.
“S-Spike?” Fluttershy said with wide eyes. “What in Equestria happened to you?”
“We don’t know,” Emerald answered. “We came here to ask that freeloading lump of yours to see if he knew anything. Maybe he can prove his worth for once.”
“Emerald…” Fluttershy said with a shake of her head, her voice a little reproachful. “His name is Bulto.”
“Bulto?” Emerald said in surprise and couldn’t help the amused snort she let out.
“What’s funny?” Twilight asked.
“In one language I know, bulto means lump,” Emerald explained with a smile before shaking her head clear. “Anyway, we should go and question him. We have to see if he knows what is up with Spike.”
The group of three plus Fluttershy made their way out of the cottage. Bulto’s mass was unmistakable as he laid on his bed of gems they had made for him. As they neared, they saw that Bulto was teasing Angel with a clump of carrots, pulling them out of reach whenever Angel jumped for them. The dragon spotted the groups approach and Angel took advantage of the brief distraction, managing to snatch one carrot for himself and hopping away.
“Excuse me!” Fluttershy called out. “Bulto, can you help us please?”
Bulto only took a single glance at Spike before smirking.
“Ah, first greed growth,” he commented and seemed to get a faraway look in his eyes. “I remember when I got my first greed growth.”
“You know what’s wrong with Spike?” Twilight asked excitedly.
“Wrong? There is nothing wrong with the whelp,” Bulto replied, sounding a little insulted. “He’s just getting older, getting these first urges to hoard and desire for wealth.”
“Wait… Spike is going through puberty?” Emerald asked with a raised brow.
“Hmph, if you want to call it that,” Bulto scoffed.
“Is he stuck like this?” Twilight asked in worry.
“No, greed growth is unnatural growth and isn’t permanent,” Bulto replied. “Usually a dragon in greed growth can be spotted by their stubby wings, but…”
“So what do we do?” Emerald asked. “Just keep him from gather a bigger hoard? And you said ‘first greed growth’. Is Spike going to go through this several times?”
“That is one way to do it I guess. I calmed down after a few days of gathering,” Bulto answered. “And it depends on the dragon. He might go through this again, or he may not.”
“Well… sounds like we got our answer,” Emerald said and looked hesitant for a long moment. “And thank you Bulto… you were very helpful.”
“Whatever…” Bulto said and rolled over to face away from the group.
“Someone is going to have to be grounded for his own good for the next few days,” Twilight stated while looking at Spike.
“Awww!” Spike groused and crossed his arms.
“I’m sorry Spike, but it’s only until you return to your normal size,” Twilight said.
‘All’s well that ends well,’ Emerald thought.
DELTA
Emerald sat in a warm rock cavern.
She was back in the Enclave, back in the very cavern she had been working on after she had gone to Spike’s birthday party. This cavern was freshly carved with help from her dogs. And covering a vast majority of the walls and floors were orange, faintly translucent pods. They were large, each one easily bigger than the average human.
Currently, Emerald was sitting before one pod sitting in the middle of the room, a single tendril extending from her arm and into the pod.
‘Let’s see… making a plant or little virus was simple, but now things are complicated.’ Emerald frowned in thought. ‘It’s probably for the best I decided to go for a really smart dog rather than outright sentience, because it’s likely I would have gotten it wrong. Alright… where to start? That is the big question.”
The following hour mirrored Emerald’s first attempts to create a unique form for herself, as she tried again and again to create something only to decide she did it wrong and wipe the slate clean.
‘I’m doing something wrong… what am I doing wrong?’ Emerald rubbed her eyes with one hand in some frustration. ‘Wait… I’m trying to make something from scratch. I don’t have to do that. I’ve got tons of “examples” right here in my mind of how creatures work on a genetic level. So let’s try to make something based on those.’
Since she was aiming for a really smart dog, she based most of the brain off a dog’s. However, she intended this creature to be a shock creation. Having said that, she needed it to be able to potentially solve a problem it may encounter in its mission when she gave it one.
‘So make the problem solving area of the brain stronger and better able to handle issues.’ Emerald hummed in thought. ‘Increasing adaptability always sounds like a good option… now how to go about it?’
Emerald went about tweaking the brain of what would be her new creature; it was difficult, that was certain, because she hadn’t really done this before. Eventually she finished what she hoped was a brain that would be capable of what she intended. Now she just needed a body, and she knew just where to get the genes for that.
Bringing forth every example of bird DNA she had within her immense repertoire, Emerald began tweaking genes ever so slightly to get what she wanted. The virus smiled brightly and felt her excitement grow. This was actually pretty fun.
EPSILON
With a flash of pink light, Emerald and Twilight appeared on the mooring dock of the Cloud Nine.
The both of them were here via invitation from Fancy Pants to join him for a dinner date on the prestigious flying restaurant. They were also wearing their best clothes for the occasion, namely the dresses Rarity had made for them for the Gala.
There was no sign of Fancy Pants or Fleur De Lis though, so Emerald and Twilight decided to wait a bit. While they waited, Emerald also noticed that Twilight looked a bit stressed out and could easily guess the reason why.
“Relax, Twilight,” Emerald said soothingly. “This place gets high profile guests all the time and knows better than to make them uncomfortable.”
“Yeah… that’s true, isn’t it?” Twilight said and took a breath. “It’s just I can’t help but think of the time we both went for a walk and everypony started staring at us.”
“And that went away fairly quickly and life returned to normal... well, as about as normal as Ponyville gets anyway,” Emerald said. She was actually a bit surprised at how quick everyone seemed to just go with it.
‘Must be because of how much of a weirdness magnet the town is,’ Emerald mused. ‘Seriously, I doubt any other town puts up with even half as much crap as Ponyville does.’
“Yeah, I guess I just can’t help but be reminded of a bad experience,” Twilight said softly with a growing smile. “I’m sure we’re going to have a lot of fun dining in high class.”
“We definitely are, and look!” Emerald said gesturing off to the side. “There they are now.”
Fancy Pants and Fleur De Lis were just getting off their personal carriage now and approaching the moor. Fancy was wearing a stately tuxedo while Fleur looked beautiful in a really frilly pink and white gown. The two nobles gave warm smiles as they approached, though Fleur’s looked much more excited.
“Ah, Emerald Gleaner!” Fancy Pants greeted. “And this must be your lovely date. I’m sorry to say I’ve not had the pleasure of properly meeting Princess Celestia’s student.”
“Thank you. I am Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight greeted with a small curtsy.
“And I am Fancy Pants,” the noble replied and got an impatient nudge from Fleur. “Ah, and I mustn’t forget my better half. Emerald Gleaner, Twilight Sparkle, this is Fleur De Lis.”
“It’s nice to meet you,” Twilight said politely.
“The same,” Emerald added.
“It’s great to meet the both of you!” Fleur said excitedly. “And apologies to your date, but it’s doubly exciting to meet you, Emerald Gleaner.”
“Fancy has told me you’ve been meaning to have this meeting for a long time,” Emerald said.
“Oh yes!” Fleur nodded. “I’ve been in modeling for several years now and I’ve honestly never seen a pony rise up so fast as you.”
“Fluttershy is still pretty popular too.”
“Yes she is, but she only models every now and then. Just enough to stay in the spotlight,” Fleur replied. “While you, you invested smartly and quickly rose into high society. You came from a background of poverty and a lack of schooling of any kind, and look at you now! Princess Luna’s personal student and enough wealth to be set for life should you desire to retire here and now.”
“Well, thank you for the compliments,” Emerald said with a smile, actually feeling a little embarrassed at the praise.
“Ah, perhaps we should move this conversation inside the restaurant?” Fancy broke in. “It’s why we are here after all.”
“Oh my, of course!” Fleur said, putting her hoof to her mouth in embarrassment.
The group of four approached the front door of the restaurant and the door pony only gave them a single glance before quickly opening the door for them. The four were then quickly lead to a table that would no doubt have quite a view once the Cloud Nine was airborne.
Twilight looked around, nervous of her earlier fears being true. But just like Emerald had said, people came to this restaurant to have a quiet meal, not get swarmed by fans and paparazzi. Still, from her look around of this place, Twilight couldn’t help but feel every single person here was rich or famous, or both.
“So here is your complimentary bread and water,” the waitress said as she levitated the glasses and small tray on the table. “Thank you for coming to the Cloud Nine, here are your menus. I’ll be back shortly for your orders. Please enjoy yourselves and the captain will be lifting off momentarily.”
“So what are you getting?” Emerald asked Twilight as she scanned her own menu.
“Hmm, I don’t know. They all look so good to me,” Twilight answered and could already feel her stomach start to rumble from the descriptions of the various meals.
“Well I’ll be getting a deluxe salad. I’m in the mood for a little bit of everything,” Emerald stated. “And a baked potato as a side order sounds good.”
“Oh that sounds delicious!” Fleur said. “I’ll be having the same!”
“Today’s soup shall be my order,” Fancy added.
“And I will have a… zucchini chickpea burger,” Twilight said after a moment, though she wasn’t sure if it was a burger or a form of stew because of the picture.
“So back to what we were talking about,” Fleur said with a smile. “After hearing your rise to fame and fortune, I just had to meet you one day, and now I have! You’ve inspired me as well, you know?”
“I have?” Emerald asked.
“Oh yes!” Fleur nodded. “Fancy told you I had taken to modeling for another company to help them, right? Well that’s not the only thing I have done. I’ve studied your posing in the latest set of ads you were in. Personally, I found them quite odd, but the stallions seem to love them, and Fancy seemed so very energetic after I tested a few poses on him that I based on yours.”
“Energetic, huh?” Emerald asked with a grin.
“Oh yes, from what I heard he had a bounce in his step all day,” Fleur replied. “Anyway, after testing the poses on him I decided to use them in my next set of ads for the company.”
“Wow, I’m actually really interested in seeing how they turned out,” Emerald said with an amused smile.
“Well you along with everypony else will get to see in about week when the new ad campaign gets started,” Fleur said with a smile.
Sitting beside Emerald, Twilight could only shake her head at the two models talking shop. Inwardly, she also felt a little left out, even though she didn’t exactly have much to add to that discussion. Apparently Fancy Pants felt the same way, as he started speaking to her.
“I must compliment you on your dress my dear,” Fancy pants stated. “It is quite the number, and suits you well.”
“Why thank you,” Twilight replied. “My friend Rarity made it.”
“Rarity? From Ponyville?” Fancy asked and got a nod from Twilight. “What a coincidence. I met Rarity in Canterlot a while ago.”
“Wow, that is a coincidence!” Twilight said.
“Yes, she can spin quite the yarn,” Fancy said with a minute frown before smiling again. “And she definitely has the sense for fashion and the ability to create it from what I can see of your dress.”
“She definitely does.” Twilight smiled and looked down at her dress. “I am very fortunate to know her as a friend, in more ways than one.”
“Indeed,” Fancy said.
“Hello everyone!” the waitress greeted. “I see you are all enjoying yourselves. Are you all ready to order?”
“Oh, me and Emerald will be having deluxe salads with baked potato side orders,” Fleur answered.
“Today’s soup for me please.”
“And a zucchini chickpea burger for me please.”
“Alright, just enjoy the view over lovely Canterlot,” the waitress said, gesturing to the vista slowly moving by in the windows. “And I shall be back with your orders soon.”
“Excuse me miss,” Emerald said and levitated over a small bag. “Here, you yourself have a good day.”
“Oh my goodness!” The waitress gasped when she saw all the bits in the bag. “Thank you so much Miss Gleaner!”
“Not a problem.”
“I must say Miss Sparkle, I’m quite glad there are ponies like Emerald Gleaner in the world,” Fancy said with a smile as Emerald and Fleur got back to talking shop.
“Oh?”
“Yes, like Fleur has said, Emerald has done much to inspire ponies like her into good, not to mention how much of an inspiration she will be for the less fortunate,” Fancy said with a soft smile. “I’ve said it before, but there will be generations both present and future who will be inspired by her tale of success despite such meager beginnings.”
“Y-yes… it’s great, isn’t it?” Twilight forced a smile on her face.
Twilight couldn’t help but think that for all the good Emerald did in helping to revitalise the economy, she was the reason it was in such a state. She may inspire ponies to better themselves and improve their lives, but she still ended hundreds of lives, taken loved ones away. And there was no telling just how many people were homeless now because of Emerald’s actions.
“Is there something wrong?” Fancy asked as the waitress returned with their orders.
“Just… personal concerns,” Twilight answered and started to eat her meal.
ZETA
Emerald walked through the armory of the Enclave, Navi buzzing about her head.
The virus was here to attend a weapons demonstration her dogs had set up for her; they had developed a new gun and improved upon the design of another. The new armor was also finished being tweaked and was ready for use.
Emerald looked over the rifles the Warhounds used as she walked past. A good number of Warhounds were around the size of the bulldogs she had first seen of the various Diamond Dog subspecies, but there were a few species that were rather small. Those species had to use smaller guns and there were several available for them to use. These rifles were equal to their human equivalent, but the rifles and pistols for the larger dogs were extremely powerful; a lot like small cannons and anti-tank rifles.
Emerald stepped out of the armory and into the adjacent hall. She walked down that hall a bit before entering a door on her right. She came into a very long room; a practice range where the two guns were going to be demonstrated and the armor shown. Along with them were several dogs, one of whom was Missy.
Emerald saw the new gun and smiled. It was a gatling gun with a crank. It was set up on a carriage much like how gatling guns looked in the nineteenth century. A Warhound was holding the rifle with the improved design, though at first glance she couldn’t spot much of an improvement. And speaking of Warhounds…
The Warhound holding the rifle was wearing the new dragon scale armor with silk underclothes. Under the scales was a red silk tunic and leggings. Hopefully they would serve as a great lightweight replacement of chainmail. Over the silk clothes were various black scales sloped over each other. Larger, wider scales were used for areas that wouldn’t bend all that much, while smaller scales were used for joints and areas that bent. The helmet was much like the sallet design for the previous armor and consisted of one or two large scales and a ton of smaller ones over a steel framework.
“Well I am here now,” Emerald said. “What are you going to show me first?”
“Well first thing, boss, is the rifle.” Missy stepped forward and gestured to the weapon in the Warhound’s paws. “We’ve made another improvement thanks to some creative thinking and the things you’ve told us about. We’ll demonstrate now.”
The Warhound took that as his cue and approached the firing stalls. Just a few steps behind the stalls was a glowing dark blue line running around the floor and ceiling of the floor, and meeting at two runic set ups in the walls. The runes were sound dampeners and made the shooting much quieter, much like a firecracker, which was a plus considering how big a caliber the dog was going to fire.
Coming to a stop at a stall, the dog lined up a shot at a crude wooden monster and fired. The first shot blew off most of the monster’s head, another two shots blew off its claws, one more shot finished off the rest of its head and four rapid shots cut the monster in two at the waist. At the eighth shot there was a loud ‘ding!’ noise and a clip popped out of the top of the rifle. The Warhound switched on the safety before collecting the clip and standing at attention.
“You used what I told you about the M1 Garand to improve upon our rifles,” Emerald stated with a smile. “Nice to have semi-auto weapons now.”
“Yep!” Missy said with a smile and pointed to the gatling gun. “And this is our first… full auto? Rapid repeating? One or the other, but this is the first of what will be our rapid fire weapons.”
The Warhound placed his gun on the rack on the side and approached the gatling gun. Taking up position just behind the gun, the dog looked down the sights and placed his paw on the crank. Taking aim at another wooden monster the dog slowly but steadily started turning the crank.
The gatling gun started off slow but quickly started to build up as the dog cranked the gun faster and started tearing the target apart. The dog looked like he definitely wanted to crank the gun faster, but seemed to know that would just cause a jam in the weapon. Eventually the bullet clip ran down and the wooden monster was reduced to a pile of kindling.
“And that was everything. How did you like it, boss?” Missy asked.
“All very nice demonstrations.” Emerald nodded. “To tell the truth, we seem a bit behind on automatic developments, but our guns are fairly powerful and rapid firing now. Anyway, how is the armor?”
The Warhound wearing the armor stretched his limbs and shifted in position for a moment.
“Feels comfortable, boss,” he replied. “Much lighter and more comfortable than the last suit of armor.”
“Good, because that is what we are going to be outfitting everyone with from now on,” Emerald stated and turned back to Missy. “So how long until everyone can get the new rifles?”
“We should have enough rifles for everyone by the end of the week,” Missy answered.
“Good.”
ETA
Twilight was confused. From her point of view, she was floating just above the rooftops of Ponyville and yet she could see herself walking down the street with Emerald, looking rather happy. Since this didn’t feel uncomfortable at all, Twilight simply settled in to watch what was happening. Soon she saw herself come to a stop before a florist’s shop.
“Oh that smells wonderful!” Twilight heard herself say. “I wish I remembered to bring my bits.”
“Just one moment.” Emerald smiled at Twilight’s doppelganger. “I’ll be right back.”
Twilight saw Emerald walk inside the shop and briefly look over all the flowers. After several moments of browsing, she started collecting a bouquet of flowers and started to leave when she finished. Since she looked like she wasn’t going to pay, the shopkeeper was understandably miffed.
“Excuse me!” she shouted after Emerald “You have to pay for those, miss!”
Emerald simply rolled her eyes and looked back at the shopkeeper. With a flair of her horn, the shopkeeper’s head twisted to the side with a sickening crack and she collapsed to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
Twilight’s hooves flew to her mouth as she gasped in horror at Emerald’s casual brutality. However, her doppelganger had a different reaction to Emerald.
“Are those for me?” Twilight heard herself say with a smile, blatantly ignoring the murder committed in front of her. “How sweet of you!”
“No problem at all Twilight.” Emerald smiled and the two went on their way.
“Mommy?” a small voice said and a young colt emerged from the back of the shop. “Mommy?! Mommy, wake up!”
Over Ponyville, Twilight felt herself overwhelmed with horror at her other self’s reaction and Emerald’s petty murder. She grew confused at everyone else’s reaction; the murder had been done in broad daylight but no one had reacted to Emerald. They reacted to the murder, yes; going to comfort the young colt and taking the body out of sight, but they didn’t spare Emerald a single look or try to punish her for what she did.
Emerald and Twilight continued on their way down the street, unbothered by anyone. Eventually they came to a bridge where a small family her been pulling a cart full of their possessions. The had suffered an accident and lost a wheel and ended up blocking the bridge. The stallion was busy trying to replace the wheel while his wife was standing a short distance away with her small baby on her back. No one seemed to mind the unintended road block and simply took the long way around. Twilight’s other self seemed like she was about to do the same, but Emerald stopped her.
With a burst of magic, Emerald sent the cart flying off the bridge to the family’s shock and horror, as they watched everything they owned go into the river. A moment later, Emerald sent them into the river as well.
“After you,” Emerald said to the other Twilight.
“Thank you!” Twilight said and started crossing the bridge. “You are being very sweet today, Emerald.”
“What can I say?” Emerald began and started crossing the bridge herself. “You bring out the best in me.”
A short distance down the river, the family was helped out of the river by nearby pedestrians. The mare started panicking and crying when her baby wasn’t responding to her…
Up in the air, Twilight felt tears start to run down her face at Emerald’s actions and her other self’s unashamed apathy at the brutality. Why was she acting that way? Why was no one doing anything about Emerald? She was just getting away with everything without being punished in the least.
Eventually the two came to a diner that was packed with ponies. The other Twilight looked like she wanted to get something to eat, but didn’t want to deal with the long wait. Again, Emerald took it upon herself to solve the issue and please Twilight. She stepped into the diner and, up in the air, Twilight braced herself for another bout of brutality.
She wasn’t disappointed; Emerald inhaled in a large breath and exhaled fire. The burst of fire wasn’t big enough to catch the building, but the same couldn’t be said for ponies and some nearby tables. Some ponies screamed in agony as their coat and mane caught fire. The rest panicked and moved to get out of the diner in any way possible. Some ran past Emerald out the door, but most simply broke the windows and jumped out of the diner. Eventually, the only ponies in the diner were those that worked there and a few that were too burnt to move or even live for much longer.
“Here you go!” Emerald said. “We’ll get service really quick now.”
“Thank you Emerald…” The other Twilight said and became really shy for a moment before giving Emerald a kiss on the cheek.
The two sat at a table and were soon served up a meal as they ate peacefully in the scorched interior of the diner. Soon doctors from the local clinic arrived and started trying to treat some of the heavily burned ponies. A few were stabilised, but most were just made comfortable before they died.
Up in the air, Twilight cried openly as she wondered why this was happening. What could possibly cause all this? Emerald didn’t do bad things just because she could; Twilight knew that as the truth… right?
Soon, the two in the diner were done eating and in the very least Emerald paid this time. They walked down a street and were soon walking out of the town. They kept walking until they reached a hill with a tree upon it. They sat down under the tree and took in the scenic view of Ponyville as the sun began to set.
Emerald seemed to get an idea and stepped away from Twilight for moment and inhaled.
Twilight could not help but the scream of horror as she witnessed Emerald let loose a beam of plasma into the homes of Ponyville. Emerald kept up the beam for several moments and swung it over the town several times before finally ending it. Then she walked back to Twilight and the both of them enjoyed the sunset with the burning town of Ponyville providing scenic lighting.
Twilight cried as the brutality of it all. What was the point of all this?
“Twilight Sparkle?” Twilight heard from just under her.
Looking down, she saw Princess Luna looking up at her with a deeply confused and disturbed look on her face.
“What in my sister’s sun is going on?” Luna asked.
‘Wh-what? What’s going- IT’S A DREAM!’ Twilight realised with so much shocked relief she woke up.
THETA
Twilight gasped as she shot up in her bed. She looked over at Emerald’s bed with wide eyes, but found she shouldn’t have bothered. As was the usual, Emerald wasn’t in her bed and had gone off to do her own things in the night.
Twilight groaned and fell back on her bed with a thump. She lied in bed, feeling wide awake in the face of all she had seen in her dream. Eventually, after several minutes of fruitless attempts to sleep, she decided to go back downstairs and warm up a cup of milk to drink.
Twilight became tense when she stepped downstairs and glanced into the library. Emerald wasn’t anywhere to be seen, so she must have been somewhere else.
‘Likely she’s back in the Enclave, hard at work,’ Twilight thought with a frown as she continued to the kitchen.
Walking into the kitchen, she opened the fridge door and took out a carton of milk. She then opened the cabinet and took out a glass for herself. After pouring a cup, she returned the carton to the fridge and then sat at the counter and stared at the cup of milk, slowly but steadily warming it up with her magic.
As she sat at the counter, Twilight couldn’t help but wonder if there was some hidden meaning to the dream she just had. She thought about how Emerald got away with every horrible crime in the dream, and how her dream self utterly ignored it all in favour of the good times they were having. After several moments, Twilight realised what the meaning behind the dream was.
‘The “me” in the dream represents me and how I am now,’ Twilight thought with a sigh. ‘I’m ignoring Emerald’s horrible crimes and deeds in favour or our friendship, of our relationship. Hundreds dead, thousands suffering, ponies homeless, and all I care about is Emerald…’
‘Ohhh… what do I do?’ Twilight thought with a groan. ‘Betraying Emerald is bad, but ignoring all those horrible things is worse! And Princess Luna appeared at the end. If I have another nightmare like this, she might appear again and it might be a clearer picture for her to take in. Life would be so much less complicated if Emerald hadn’t been made to be such a horrible villain by that monster, Alex Mercer. If only… wait, villain… Luna was a villain, but she was redeemed by the Elements of Harmony and now everypony loves and trusts her.’
‘If I can get the Elements and then use them on Emerald, she’ll be redeemed like Luna and everything will be better!’ Twilight thought. ‘It worked for Princess Luna, it should work for Emerald. It WILL work!’
Twilight felt her worries fall away as she downed her cup of milk in one go. Her expression became one of assured determination. Putting the glass in the sink, she walked out of the kitchen and started walking back to her room.
‘Now I just need to get a hold of the Elements,’ Twilight thought. ‘I should do my best to avoid telling ponies about the truth behind Emerald. Who knows what they may decide to do with the information. I’ll tell my friends though… right before I use the Elements on Emerald. Once she is redeemed, everything will be good again. It’ll be like how everything was before I found out the truth… except we are fillyfriends.’
With flushed cheeks, Twilight ascended her stairs and slid back into bed, where she had a much more calm and soothing sleep.
-TBC-