//------------------------------//
// Chapter 10: Separation 
// Story: Emerald Gleaner: Viral Unicorn 
// by Legionary 
//------------------------------//

There was the sound of sizzling in the air as vegetables cooked in a frying pan.

Emerald was humming a little song as she cooked breakfast for everyone. In her mane, Navi was nested happily, the two having made a really happy reunion that morning. Having finished the vegetables, she focused her attention on the pancakes and beans. On the counter was a small bowl of gems, a side dish made especially for Spike. Speaking of said baby dragon…

“…Spike.” Emerald sighed tiredly and threw a glance over her shoulder.

The little dragon was just outside the door and looking into the kitchen with a mixture of nervousness and some fear.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me, you know,” Emerald stated as she continued cooking. “So you can stop hiding. Besides, breakfast is almost ready.”

Spike gulped audibly as he hesitantly walked into the kitchen and took a seat at the table. He nervously sat at the table and shot looks at Emerald as she continued to cook. He knew what Emerald was, having been told the truth about her soon after she was sealed in stone. And now he couldn’t help but feel afraid. Here was someone who was more powerful than the princesses, more powerful than Discord, even more powerful than the ELEMENTS OF HARMONY themselves! Those facts alone probably would have made him feel more awe than fear if it weren’t for the fact that Emerald had admitted to killing people. If she wanted to hurt him, there was literally nothing he could do to stop her as the Elements were proven to be only capable of slowing her for a time.

“Spike, just relax,” Emerald urged as she finished up the pancakes and beans. “Think of it this way. If I wanted to hurt you, I had countless chances to do so in the past.”

“W-well… in the past I didn’t know the truth about you…” Spike stated nervously.

‘Spike… how in the world do I make you relax around me?’ Emerald thought as she placed food in three separate plates for everyone. ‘…Damn, I don’t have a clue of how to do this.’

Emerald sighed as she levitated the plates to the table. Spike fidgeted nervously in his chair as his plate was placed before him with the gem side dish for him to enjoy as well. She watched Spike half-heartedly poke at his food at the edge of his vision for a few moments before deciding on a course of action.

“Spike, I know there is probably nothing I can do to make you feel better about me,” Emerald began, causing Spike to actually acquire a look of guilt on his face. “So how about I use my money to buy you the biggest and tastiest gems you want? I’ll even get a few juicy ones from my own gem horde.”

“Really?” Spike stated quite eagerly. “I mean… well that sounds nice… I mean it’s obviously a bribe and all but…”

“Buuuut?” Emerald said with a raised brow.

“Umm… it sounds good though,” Spike offered with a bit of a smile before digging into his breakfast with much more energy than before.

‘It’s probably not much, but it’s something,’ Emerald thought as the sound of hooves on a wooden floor announced Twilight’s approach.

“Good morning everypony!” Twilight announced as she entered the kitchen with a smile. Taking a seat at the table, she took in her hot breakfast. “Did you make this, Emerald? Thank you! It looks delicious!”

“Well someone is certainly chipper this morning,” Emerald stated as Twilight leaned over and gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek, not bothering to keep up the pony vernacular among people in the know. “Have a good sleep?”

“I did!” Twilight smiled and began eating her meal. “I just felt so well rested when I woke up this morning. And… I think I know why.”

“Ah, I think I see too,” Emerald stated with a sly smile as she started eating her own meal. “I suppose we’re now at the sleeping in the same bed part of our relationship.”

“I-I suppose so,” Twilight replied with flushed cheeks.

“Well pleasant things aside,” Emerald began after swallowing a spoonful of beans. “Today is going to be a stressful day.”

“…Yes it is,” Twilight agreed quietly.

Emerald had spent the whole day doing things in the Enclave, learning what Belvedere had been up to and making sure issues she could handle on the spot were dealt with, and while she had been doing that Twilight had informed the others that Emerald was now free. The reactions were mixed to say the least. The only one that looked outwardly happy at the news was Pinkie Pie, who cheered at the news. Everyone just frowned and was quiet for a long moment. Pinkie wanted to see Emerald right away, but the others… they wanted a bit of time before meeting Emerald on their own terms and went on their way from there.

“Do you think anyone besides you will still be my friend?” Emerald said almost casually, causing Spike to get an uncomfortable look on his face and Twilight to shoot her a worried one.

“I… I’m sure you are just being cynical,” Twilight tried.

“We’ll see, won’t we?” Emerald said and quickly finished off the rest of her breakfast. “I’ll wait for you by the door.”

“Actually, I don’t feel that hungry,” Twilight said and left her plate half uneaten. “Spike, could you clean up for us please?”

“Alright, sure thing, Twilight,” Spike said as he continued to eat his breakfast. “I’ll see you two later.”

Emerald and Twilight were soon outside and making their way.

“So who should we see first?” Emerald asked.

“Well…” Twilight began when a bush suddenly rushed up to her and held out a note taped to a stick. “Huh?”

Twilight stared at the letter attached to the stick for a moment before taking it. The moment she did, the bush suddenly took off down the street, four pink hooves faintly seen just beneath it. Twilight stared after the bush in confusion for a moment before looking back down at the letter and seeing it was addressed to Emerald.

“Pinkie Pie, huh?” Emerald stated as she took the letter and quickly tore it open and read the letter inside. “You are invited to a “You’re a Good Pony!” party at the barn in Sweet Apple Acres… Well at least it looks like Pinkie Pie is fine with me. From the look of things, I’ll be finding out how Applejack feels about everything before long.”

“See? I told you everything will be alright,” Twilight said with a small smile as she walked alongside Emerald.

“Well Pinkie is Pinkie. This doesn’t mean I can expect everyone else to be on my side,” Emerald replied with a sigh.

“Emerald, you are being rather insistent on how the girls are going to leave you,” Twilight said with a frown. “Don’t you think you should have a little faith in them?”

“It’s not about having faith. It’s about realising the reality of the situation,” Emerald replied bluntly.

Twilight sighed at that and realised she wasn’t going to be changing Emerald’s opinion on what was going to happen any time soon. The trip to Sweet Apple Acres passed in silence, and before long the two were before the barn. They opened up the big door to the sound of noisemakers and kazoos going off and confetti blasting into the air.

“Welcome to your party!” Pinkie Pie cheered happily with a somber looking Applejack beside her and wearing a party hat. Over them was a large colorful banner saying ‘YOU’RE A NICE PONY!’ Pinkie Pie then rapidly bounded towards Emerald and leapt at her, wrapping her in a hug that would have toppled a normal person.

“Hi Pinkie,” Emerald greeted and couldn’t help the small smile that crept onto her face. Her smile turned into a frown after Pinkie didn’t let go of her after several moments. “Uh… you going to let go anytime soon?”

“Nope!” Pinkie answered cheerfully. “Gonna make up for two months absence!”

“Ah,” Emerald said with a deadpan look and simply resigned to her situation. “Well then…”

Twilight smiled at the two and approached Applejack who was now frowning at the sight of them. The cowpony was staring steadily at Emerald with an unreadable look on her face, making Twilight more than a little uncomfortable.

“Uh, hello Applejack,” Twilight said in greeting. “How are you?”

“Fine,” Applejack answered stiffly before approaching Emerald who was still being tightly hugged by Pinkie.

“Hey there sugarcube,” Applejack said to Pinkie. “Mind if I speak to Emerald for a minute?”

“Okie dokie!” Pinkie Pie replied cheerfully. “I’ll get the rest of my hugs later Emmy!”

“Joy,” Emerald stated flatly with an amused smile.

“Emerald,” Applejack greeted flatly as she stood a bit close to the virus.

“Hello Applejack,” Emerald greeted with an equally flat voice.

“So… was everything we went through jus’ a lie?” Applejack asked with a steely stare. “Was everything just an act?”

“You know I could say that I never actually lied, but you don’t care about technicalities,” Emerald replied with a sigh. “Honestly? It was… at first. But later on as I spent more and more time around all of you, I just… the lie became a reality.”

“Huh…” Applejack stated simply with another unreadable look. “Well I thank ya kindly for the honesty. When yer done in the barn, I want ya to leave.”

And with that, Applejack pulled off her party hat and made for the barn exit. Emerald stared after her with a sad look, but in the end she had expected this exact reaction. She felt she should just leave things be after what Applejack just said, but she also felt she needed to know with absolute certainty that this was the end.

“What does this mean, Applejack?” Emerald called after the cowpony. “Is this the end? Is there anything at all between us?”

Applejack stood just outside the barn for several moments before calling back over her shoulder.

“We’re still friends. We jus’… we’re jus’ a mite bit distant right now,” Applejack answered before leaving.

“…” Emerald stared at the exit of the barn for a long moment with a frown before sighing. “One down…”

“Emmy, AJ didn’t say you both weren’t friends anymore!” Pinkie cried out. “She just needs a bit of time is all, and everything will be okay again!”

“She didn’t need to say we weren’t,” Emerald simply replied. “Not when we could just stay in distant limbo for the rest of her life.”

“Emerald…” Twilight said with a shake of her head.

“I’m sorry Pinkie, but I’m not really in the mood to party right now,” Emerald apologised. “I just want to see if anyone else will still be my friend or if it will be just you and Twilight.”

“Oh…” Pinkie said unhappily. “Well, okay…”

“Well, Rainbow Dash should be the closest,” Twilight said. “She told me she’ll be waiting for you to see her yesterday.”

“Then lead the way, Twilight,” Emerald said before turning towards Pinkie. “You can tag along too if you want, Pinkie.”

“Sure thing, Emmy,” Pinkie Pie replied and wrapped Emerald in a much shorter hug than before. “You need all the friends you can get today.”

“Thanks, Pinkie.” Emerald smiled. “For what it’s worth, I would have understood if you shared the same feelings as Applejack.”

“But I didn’t, Emmy,” Pinkie replied as she followed the virus out of the barn. “I like making ponies smile, and abandoning you would make you so sad! I can’t bear the thought of me doing that to you!”

“You are too kind, Pinkie. You really are.” Emerald smiled softly at her friend as she followed Twilight.

Pinkie just gave Emerald a wide, toothy smile as they continued on. Before long, they arrived in a grassy field just outside Ponyville. Hanging just ten feet off the ground was a cloud, and sitting on it was Rainbow Dash. Using her powerful sight, Emerald could see Rainbow Dash glaring at their approach, or more specifically, glaring at her. As they closed in, Dash turned her back on them and sat facing away. The group of three came to a stop and Emerald stepped forward to be a bit closer to the cloud Dash was sitting on. For a long moment there was just silence, and then…

“You killed her,” Dash stated bluntly.

Emerald needed only a moment’s thought to think of who Dash was referring to. Gilda, Dash’s once best friend, the very same griffin she had murdered for almost entirely petty reasons over a year ago. That friendship may have been ended, but Emerald knew that Dash would have still felt justifiably furious over the fact that she had killed Gilda.

“I did,” Emerald stated.

“Why?!” Dash asked angrily, whipping around to glare furiously at Emerald.

Emerald thought quickly at that moment, trying to find a solution to this- to find something to say that would placate Dash and make her still her friend. After a moment, she realised there was nothing she could do but tell the truth and not alter in any form for once.

“Because I’m a selfish monster,” Emerald answered bluntly with a resigned sigh. “I did it because I’m paranoid and saw an innocent life as a fair trade for a sense of security. I’ve ended and ruined hundreds of lives and look at me now, living with someone I love in a house paid for by the Princess, a famous and celebrated beauty with enough wealth to retire here and now if I desired. I deserve none of it and yet I still have it… life is unfair.”

“You’re darned right it is!” Dash shouted angrily and breathed noisily through her nose as she glared down at Emerald.

“Do you want to hurt me?” Emerald asked curiously, making Dash blink in surprise. “I don’t blame you if you want to. I won’t even stop you if you decide to do it. I’ll even make it so you can actually hurt me and that I’ll feel it.”

Rainbow Dash glared down with wide eyes at Emerald, her lips baring her teeth which were grinding against each other audibly. Then, she took in a deep breath and closed her eyes. She seemed to calm down after doing this and opened her eyes again to glare down at Emerald.

“I’m going to go see my friend Lightning,” Rainbow Dash stated. “I’ll be in Cloudsdale for a while. Don’t wait up.”

With that, the pegasus burst into the air and flew towards Cloudsdale. Down below, Emerald stared up at Dash’s retreating form, once more sad but expecting this exact thing to happen and wasn’t surprised even loyal Dash wanted nothing to do with her.

“Two down…” Emerald muttered hollowly.

Twilight and Pinkie shared a worried look; this wasn’t exactly going too well. The unicorn began thinking of who they could see next that would be likely be more open to Emerald seeing them to reconnect. Twilight decided that Fluttershy would likely be a good choice, her being known for her kindness and understanding.

“How about we see Fluttershy next?” Twilight suggested. “She’s been all alone in the fashion industry by herself for two months, and would likely love to see you again.”

“One could always hope,” Emerald simply stated and began making her way towards Fluttershy’s cottage with Twilight and Pinkie in tow.

The previous experiences with Applejack and Rainbow Dash seemed to have soured any prospect of conversation during the trip to Fluttershy’s. So the group of three traveled in utter silence, causing the trip itself to feel far longer than it actually was. Eventually the sight of Fluttershy’s cottage came into view. It hadn’t changed much in the past two months Emerald had been absent, but the surrounding landscape had some other structures added on, obviously to accommodate even more animals than before. And just outside the cottage was Bulto, who was leaning down to look through one of the windows of the cottage for some reason.

“Any reason why you are peeking into Fluttershy’s house?” Emerald asked as she got close, managing to startle the dragon.

“Oh, it’s you,” Bulto stated dully before leaning back down to glance into cottage once more. “That little pony is acting rather oddly.”

“Worried about her, are you?” Emerald stated with a smirk.

“What! Of course not!” Bulto protested and began making his way back to his bed of gems. “There is nothing that could happen to her that would ever concern me!”

The dragon’s protests were rather unconvincing from the way he kept shooting looks at the cottage as he made his way to his bed of gems. Emerald didn’t really care to give him much more thought though, and walked over to the cottage and knocked on the door. She had expected Fluttershy to answer the door to call for them to come in, but instead…

“You may enter!” Discord’s voice called from within.

Not all that surprised that Discord was in Fluttershy’s house, Emerald entered with Twilight and Pinkie just behind her. What met her sight was Discord sitting in Fluttershy’s living room while sitting in what was obviously an armchair he conjured up, sipping on a cup of tea with Fluttershy wearing the protective gear she had attempted to wear for an adventure concerning a sleeping dragon hiding behind him.

Emerald shared a look with the others but had a feeling about why Fluttershy was hiding behind Discord. She took a few steps forward.

“Fluttershy?” Emerald said hesitantly.

“Eek!” Fluttershy squeaked in alarm and ducked behind Discord’s armchair. Apparently since finding out the truth about Emerald, she had gone back to being terrified of her.

“Fluttershy is rather scared of you right now,” Discord explained casually.

For Fluttershy it was hard not to be afraid of Emerald again. She was having much of the same problem Spike was having. Emerald was just so powerful and beyond even the person she was hiding behind and she had proved she was more than willing to use that power to hurt people. The fact that Emerald considered her, her friend wasn’t enough of a reassurance that she wouldn’t hurt her as she couldn’t help but think about what Twilight had said Emerald had almost done to her when they first met.

“F-Fluttershy?” Emerald said again and began to step closer when a stop sign popped out of the ground.

“I know I don’t stand much of a chance in the face of your barbarity,” Discord began as he continued to sip his tea. “But I will still do everything in my power to protect her from you.”

“Oh…” Emerald felt like she had been stabbed in the chest with a dagger of ice at that statement. She found herself frozen in place, unsure of what to say or do. Finally after what felt like an uncomfortably long time, she found the words she needed to say.

“I’m sorry, Fluttershy. I’ll leave you alone now,” Emerald said and quickly ran out the door, her powerful hearing allowing her to catch Fluttershy’s sigh of relief.

The virus stopped running when she couldn’t see the cottage anymore and came to a stop with a shuddering sigh. She had been expecting to lose friends, but even with the expectations it was still rather hard on her.

“Emerald?” Twilight said softly as she caught back up to the virus with Pinkie in tow. “Are you okay?”

“…Three down,” Emerald simply said in reply.

There was a long moment of silence at that, until Pinkie Pie broke it.

“There’s only Rarity left,” Pinkie said, all cheer- forced or otherwise- drained out of her voice.

“Might as well get this over with…” Emerald said, utterly resigned to losing all but two of her closest friends before noon.

Once again, the walk passed in silence as they made their way to Rarity’s boutique. Once they arrived, Emerald took a look inside the boutique via its large front windows and saw Rarity calmly drinking tea on her large plush couch.

“Do you want us to go in with you?” Twilight asked in concern.

“No.” Emerald shook her head. “I should do this by myself.”

With that, the virus knocked on the door and awaited Rarity’s call before letting herself in. Once inside, she slowly approached Rarity, feeling rather unsure of herself at this moment.

“Well come on,” Rarity stated as she continued to sit serenely. “Come over and sit beside me, dear.”

“…Okay,” Emerald said and quickly made her way over to the couch.

“Here is your cup, darling. You look terrible,” Rarity said as she levitated a fresh cup of tea over. “It really doesn’t suit you.”

“Thank you, Rarity,” Emerald said, offering a small smile while also wondering if this would be the last time she would be sharing a moment like this Rarity.

“I’ve always wondered why I felt the way I did concerning you, Emerald,” Rarity stated. “These motherly feelings for a mare who is older than me.” 

“Ah… I suppose that must have confused you quite a bit,” Emerald replied uncomfortably.

“Oh, it did. I felt so supportive, protective and proud of you and I never could figure out why,” Rarity said, finally giving Emerald a smile. “But now I do. It’s because you are my child.”

“Well… technically yes, but in a really exotic manner,” Emerald replied.

“Does it honestly matter?” Rarity asked with a shrug. “It does not change the way I feel about you, dear.”

“It should.” Emerald frowned. “Rarity, I’m a monster. I-”

“You hush up right this instant,” Rarity said sternly before pulling the virus into a hug. “You are not a monster. You are a pony who has gone through incredibly strenuous situations and came out in one piece, but not unscathed. You couldn’t help but be changed by what you experienced and when you came here you were just utterly terrified of being discovered. You just reacted the only way those two years of cruelty taught you to react.”

“…I just want to be a good person again, Rarity.” Emerald sighed and leaned into the hug. “Not a murderer.”

At that statement, Rarity only held Emerald tighter and the virus was content to be held for a minute.

“So…” Emerald finally said. “Do you want me to start calling you ‘Mommy’ now?”

“Oh that is not necessary, darling.” Rarity chuckled in amusement. “I do realise the reality of our situation, but I still want to be there for you.”

“Well at least I still have half of my closest friends left,” Emerald stated, causing Rarity to look out the window and see Twilight and Pinkie peering in.

“I take it that Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy didn’t take your return as well as I and the others?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah. Pinkie says they just need a bit of time to come around, but I’m not holding my breath,” Emerald replied. “I got out of bed fully expecting Twilight to really be the only one that was interested in having anything more to do with me.”

“Perhaps a bit of faith is simply in order, my dear Emerald,” Rarity stated, only for the other unicorn to shake her head.

“I don’t think we’ll be seeing much of each other anymore,” Emerald said. “Beyond them wanting to hang out with you and the others, anyway. I’m just happy I still have some of you left.”

Rarity shook her head at Emerald. It was obvious that the shape shifter wasn’t going to believe the others really might just need a bit of time to come around, and honestly Rarity herself wondered if that would be the case as well. But in the end, Rarity decided to have faith that the friendship the seven of them shared was strong enough to come through this okay.

Suddenly, the unicorn remembered that Emerald’s “other mother” was Rose Locks and was about to ask about her when the door burst open and Pinkie Pie came charging in. In an instant, the pink pony crossed the distance across the room and the wrapped the two in one of her bone breaking hugs.

“OH GOSH I’M SO HAPPY YOU TWO ARE STILL FRIENDS!” Pinkie cheered happily. “IT’S NOT JUST ME AND TWILIGHT! YAY!”

“Yeah, I’m glad too, Pinkie.” Emerald smiled at her friend. “You might want to loosen your grip of Rarity a bit though. She appears to be having a bit of trouble breathing.”

“Oops!” Pinkie said and quickly let go of the two with an apologetic grin.

“N-nice to s-see you too, darling,” Rarity said as she rubbed her chest to sooth a small ache.

“I want to thank all three of you for staying by my side despite knowing the truth,” Emerald said to everyone in the room. “You didn’t have to and you had all the right in the world to just abandon me when I was in that stone prison.”

“We couldn’t exactly do that, Emmy…” Pinkie Pie said remorsefully, a tone the others agreed with. “We’re the reasons you were sealed in the first place.”

“Let’s not focus on the past too much. I kind of had it coming anyways, and it wasn’t nearly as bad as I feared it would be in the first place,” Emerald replied. “Anyway, I’m glad that you and Pinkie are still my friends, Rarity. Now I really should be getting back to the library. There are a ton of letters I have to send out now that I am back.”

“Alrighty, Emmy!” Pinkie said and bounded onto Rarity’s couch. “You go ahead and do that. I have to stay here with Rarity and talk about a few things with her.”

“I’ll see you two later.” Emerald smiled. “Are you staying too, Twilight?”

“No, I’ll go home with you,” Twilight said and followed the virus out the door.

“So who are you going to be messaging first?” Twilight asked once they were outside.

“The first pony I’m going to message is Princess Luna,” Emerald answered. “I need to know where we are concerning our teacher student relationship. Then I need to message both Over Look and Photo Finish. I doubt things will be any different with Look, but Photo might be getting tired of me dropping off the face of Equestria every few months.”

“I received a letter from Over Look a while ago,” Twilight said. “He mentioned the biography you advised him to publish is going into print soon.”

“Ah, that’s good,” Emerald replied. “Honestly, I forgot all about that book I sent him. I was so busy with other things that it is just slipped my mind.”

“Whose biography is it?” Twilight asked.

“Well…” Emerald took a moment to take in her surroundings as they made their way home, making sure no one was too close. “It’s the Gray Fox’s biography. Obviously it’s purely fictional and I took a lot of liberties concerning what may have been considered realistic. The book honestly reads more like an action novel than a biography.”

“Don’t you think that maybe you’re profiting a bit off a bad situation you made?” Twilight asked quietly.

“Oh I definitely am,” Emerald admitted with a nod. “However, in order for an economy to recover, it requires that ponies spend money, which they aren’t exactly eager to do in this economy. The outlets that will sell these books will be making money as well from this.”

“Well I don’t really know much about economics, so I’m just going to trust you on this,” Twilight said.

Soon the two arrived at the library. They entered and were about to go looking for Spike when they passed the open door to the library section of the building.

“Greetings young Emerald,” They heard Luna’s voice call out from the library.

Coming to a sudden stop, the two turned and saw Luna sitting serenely at one of the tables in the library.

“I would like a few words with you, Emerald, about your future lessons,” Luna stated. “Would you be able to spare the time now?”

“Ah, I did not expect you, your highness,” Emerald said as she walked into the library. “I was actually about to send you a message to question you about this exact thing.”

“I’ll just leave you two be,” Twilight said and closed the door behind Emerald.

“You appear rather calm, my student,” Luna observed. “I was expecting you to be stressed still, not enjoying your time out of the seal lounging and relaxing.”

“Today has been a rather stressful day so far,” Emerald admitted. “I guess I’m just emotionally drained right now.”

“It’s good then, that I intend for you to take time off to get your life back in order before returning to your lessons with me,” Luna said.

“Really?” Emerald said with wide eyes. “You still intend to teach me? Even after everything that has happened?”

“Everything that has happened has only convinced me you need more guidance,” Luna answered. “And that your lessons should cover a much wider array of subjects.”

“Oh… what kind of subjects exactly?” Emerald asked.

“Diplomacy and psychology to name a few,” Luna answered. “From what I’ve heard from Celestia, you still lead those Diamond Dogs and a leader should be properly educated in the matters of state and the public.”

“I’ll gladly learn these subjects as well, Princess,” Emerald said. Inwardly she felt that Luna had another reason for wanting to teach Emerald these subjects, likely as a means to try to help Emerald and give her a “firmer” sense of right and wrong. Emerald wasn’t sure if she needed these lessons or not. She already knew what she did was wrong, but she felt they needed to be done anyway. Perhaps she really did need a firmer sense of right and wrong? In any case, she was just glad Luna wasn’t going to try to make her get therapy or something.

“Well, I shall take my leave now,” Luna stated and began to leave. “I shall see you in two weeks, my young student. Be well.”

“See you, Princess Luna,” Emerald said.

A moment later it was just Emerald and the snoozing Navi in the library, leaving the virus to her thoughts. Today was definitely a trying day, and there were some significant losses, but at the same time she now knew at least half of her friends were willing to stay by her side. While she didn’t blame the others for their decision, it didn’t stop it from hurting so much. Now that everything was said and done, Emerald wanted to go get her letters out and let people know she was back from wherever they thought she was. Photo Finish was likely going to be rather irritated at her.

With that, Emerald went to go find Spike.


ALPHA


The creature stirred excitedly as he awaited his mommy’s return. Today was to be the day he was going to get out and move around- to see, to touch, to feel- for the very first time. It could barely put up with the wait and it could tell that it’s brothers and sisters felt much of the same.

Suddenly, the sound it waited all day to hear appeared in the distance; the sound of footsteps. The excitement it felt increased immensely as the footsteps came to a stop before it.

“Hey guys!” Mommy greeted. “Today is the big day! You all get to get out and move around now. Now you aren’t all done growing up just yet, but at this point I’d rather you spend the rest of your growth moving around. Alright, let’s begin.”

The creature could feel a tingling come over its body and suddenly it could feel it’s body with much greater clarity. It moved its limbs around in the darkness of its pod and felt its feet press against the floor for the first time. There was the sensation of things attached to the outside of its body being ripped away, like pieces of rope or string being pulled off.

It reached out with its forelimbs in the direction of mommy’s voice and felt a barrier. It pushed against the barrier and felt the tips of its clawed hands sink into the barrier. It sunk it’s fingers into the barriers and pushed and pulled at it. Suddenly, there was a burst of light as the world outside the pod was revealed as the contents of the pod spilled out.

The creature blinked it’s eyes as they took light for the first time. A near instant later, the image cleared and it could see clearly into the world beyond. The first thing that met it’s sight was another being staring curiously at it, a being that could only be its mommy.
‘MOMMY!’ the creature thought with joy and leapt forward.


BETA


“Gah!” Emerald let out as she was tackled to the ground. She immediately felt a wetness on her face as the being that tackled her licked her affectionately. “Hey! Happy to see me, huh?”

Emerald laughed a little as she struggled briefly with the being atop her that licked and cooed happily. Eventually she managed to get it back up off her and she got back up onto her feet. Once she was on her feet again, she took in the being before her, who was half bouncing on its vicious looking pterodactyl feet as it looked all over the place.

Its feet had sharp claws, but one claw was noticeably larger than the others and had dark red scaly skin with back stripes. It’s hands were three fingered and talon-like with razor sharp claws. It had a long tail that ended with a brush like collection of sharp spines at the end of the tail. It’s head was mostly mouth with a long snout and full of incredibly sharp teeth and had softly glowing yellow slitted eyes. Other than the color and the spines at the end of the tail, it looked exactly like the Velociraptors from the movie Jurassic Park, which was good because Emerald had intended for them to look like that.

The raptor in front of her also only reached up to her chest. Like she said, there was still some growing left to do before the “adult” stage was reached.

There was many more tearing sounds as the rest of the Blacklight Raptors tore free of their pods and took in their surroundings excitedly. As they looked around, they all caught sight of each other and crowed excitedly, but their excitement only grew when they spotted her. Crowing in delight, they all immediately darted over to her and started swarming her.

“Hey there everyone!” Emerald greeted as the raptors pressed up against her and let out little chirps and squeals. “Excited about being able to move around? Well there is more to the world than this little room, so follow me and don’t wander off.”

Emerald pushed her way through raptors crowding around her. There was about two dozen of them. She could have made more and ended up with several hundred if she wanted on the first go, but she wanted to make sure she was doing this right and there were no faults in making them. If the Raptors showed they had no problems as they continued to grow and move about, she would start making more of them. This also meant she was one step closer to making a leap of progress on her major project she started a year ago. She just needed to make sure her creature growing skills weren’t flawed and needed to work on the “shell” a bit, and she could start in earnest. Likely, there would be a finished project sometime next year. But that line of thinking was for later. Right now she needed to focus on her raptors.

Emerald walked up the stairs leading into the chambers with the now burst pods. She looked over her shoulders to look see what the raptors made of the stairs. 

They appeared to be doing rather well, considering they only started walking a few minutes ago. They were a little wobbly as they ascended the steps one by one, but other than that, no one stumbled, which was a good sign that the information “uploading” she did while they were incubating in the pods was working as intended.

Once Emerald reached the top of the stairs, she waited until everyone was mostly up before leading them down a few halls. Eventually, they exited out a pair of double doors and into the streets of the Hub.

Naturally, there were dogs going about their business and they noticed when Emerald exited a building with a group of creatures they had never seen before right behind her.

“Alright, remember what I said,” Emerald began as she looked around to make sure no one was freaking out or anything. “Stay close and no going off. I’ll be letting you explore later on, but for now, just keep following me.”

The raptors obediently did as they were told and followed Emerald as she lead them through the streets of the Hub. They were obviously itching to go running off to see everything around them, though; a few times, one of them looked like they were going to bolt, but stayed in the group.

“Oy!” Emerald heard a shout and turned to see Tavish strolling over with his war staff over a shoulder.

“Hello Tavish,” Emerald greeted. “Is there something I can help you with?”

“Never seen those beasties before,” Tavish stated and came to a stop before the group. “These the critters you were growing in that big room with all the pods?”

“Yes they are,” Emerald said and gave a wave over the group of excited creatures. “I call them Blacklight Raptors. They are basically young teenagers at this point, though.”

“Ah, still growing up, huh?” Tavish said. “Looking forward to seeing what they can do, lass.”

“I am just taking them outside to make sure they can use the abilities I’ve given them properly,” Emerald replied. “You can tag along and see what they are currently capable of.”

“Sounds good to me,” Tavish said and stood beside the group. One raptor got curious of his tail and sniffed at it. “Oy! No nipping me tail!”

“Don’t worry. They know better than to nibble on things,” Emerald said before frowning. “They should anyway.”

“Not exactly reassuring, lass.”

The group continued on their way, attracting the attention of many dogs going about their own business. The raptors were still a bit intimidating, despite their excited airs, and caused many dogs to keep their distance. Before long, Emerald was leading the group up the tunnel to the surface, the excited crowing of the raptors growing louder as they spotted the daylight at the exit ahead of them.

The excited crowing grew in volume as the raptors saw the wide open world that greeted them and in their excitement they weren’t able to remember Emerald’s command to stay close. They began running around, letting out hisses, squeals and crows of excitement as they explored.

Emerald shook her head with a smile. She didn’t blame them. They were young, not even an hour old yet. She was content to let them have a little fun and mess around.

“Hehehe, bunch of little munchkins, aren’t they?” Tavish asked with an amused chuckle. “Not exactly the fearsome creatures you said they were going to be, lass.”

“Like I said, they aren’t fully grown yet,” Emerald replied. “I don’t mind them being childish. They’re not even an hour old at this point. I don’t expect them to change much, considering the mindset and intelligence I had in mind when I designed them, but they should settle down when they grow accustomed to the world.”

Emerald watched the raptors explore and play with each other, rough housing a little bit with each other or just rolling about on the grass. One raptor was even staring down at a puddle of water, apparently affixed by its own appearance. Emerald looked over the group of raptors until she managed to make out the raptor that had tackled her, able to do so thanks to the fact the raptor in question had a large, distinctive black stripe across the eyes.

“You there!” Emerald shouted and pointed, immediately catching many raptors’ attentions. “Come here.”

The raptor in question did so and quickly darted over with an excited bounce in its step.

“First things first,” Emerald began when the raptor came to a stop before her. “Let’s see if you can recall and use your tail spines like I taught and intended.”

Pointing him in the direction where no one was in the general direction, Emerald called up a wall made of scarlet magic.

“I want you to fling your spines at the target,” Emerald said. “I don’t expect you to hit the target, but I want to see if you are able to fling them in that direction.”

The raptor nodded in understanding and stared at the target a moment before making a few little spins in place, whipping its tail experimentally as it did so. After a few moments of turning in place, it stopped for a moment before it suddenly turned and whipped its tail towards the walls. Several spines went flying off the raptor’s tail and went flying at incredible speeds. The spines hit the wall and sunk in half way with only one of the spines managing to hit the very outer circles of the target.

“Great!” Emerald congratulated the raptor and gave it a pat on the head. “You managed to hit the target on your first try! That’s very good! Now I want to try something else.”

With that, Emerald dismissed the magical wall she called up. She fell down onto a knee and placed a hand just behind the raptor’s neck.

“Now think back on how to breathe,” Emerald advised the raptor and it immediately knew what she was talking about and closed its eyes in thought. “Remember the feelings of the rush of energy and burst of power. And when it feels like it wants to explode, let it loose.”

The raptor took a deep breath and reared back a bit as it did so. A bright yellow glow appeared in the chest of the raptor after a few moments before the raptor exhaled. With a sudden explosion of flame, fire flowed forth from the raptor’s mouth and reached as far as five metres before losing momentum and settling to the ground.

After the raptor stopped letting out fire, Emerald used her magic to smother the flames on the ground. She then patted the back of the first raptor to be born with an approving smile.

“Fantastic work!” Emerald smiled encouragingly. “You can do all the things I wanted you to do. You can go play now; I’m just going to test the rest of the others.”

The raptor gave a happy crow before licking Emerald affectionately and bounding off to play. The virus let out a little laugh as she got up to her feet, rubbing the slobber off her face. Tavish then walked over with a deeply curious look on his face.

“Those are some rather dangerous abilities these beasties have,” Tavish stated. “I’ve a feeling they aren’t the only ones. Am I right?”

“Yep,” Emerald nodded. “Along with the spine shooting and the fire breathing, I’ve given them an incredibly hard hide, superior strength, sharp eyesight and hearing, heightened sense of smell, beyond razor sharp claws and teeth and, finally, regeneration abilities should they be hurt.”

“Well that is certainly impressive,” Tavish commented with an impressed whistle.

“Putting down these raptors will be a task,” Emerald said. “But keeping them down will be a task in itself.”

“Have to say, lass… feeling a little obsolete with these beasties running around,” Tavish said.

“Don’t worry, the Warhounds are still very much relevant,” Emerald replied. “The raptors are designed with a shock and terror roll in mind. They are meant to strike extremely hard and fast at where an enemy is most vulnerable, cause havoc and chaos before retreating back into the shadows to re-maneuver and strike again. Though they are capable of serving frontline rolls alongside Warhounds should it be needed.”

“Hmm…” Tavish hummed in thought. “That reminds me. Are you going to give the rest of us those fancy “augments” you made?”

“Interested?” Emerald asked with a smile.

“The hardest part of being a fighter is keeping in fighting shape, lass,” Tavish replied. “Those augments of yours take the hard work out of conditioning yourself. Any soldier or warrior in their right mind would see the use in that.”

“Well since the others have been living with their augments with little to no problems, I am going to give it to the rest of the dogs,” Emerald answered. “I’m not going to stop at just those three augments, either; those are just the most basic and simplest. I have ideas for much more powerful augments. I just want to make sure I can implement them without any issues.”

With that, Emerald walked forward and called out.

“Okay, come over here guys!” Emerald shouted.

The raptors darted over eagerly, though the raptor that was staring down at a puddle was still seemingly enthralled with its reflection. However, it came running at the second call. A few moments after the raptor left the puddle, a head in the shape of a pony, with flesh of rushing water and a mane of foaming water, came out of the puddle and peeked at the raptors gathered around Emerald curiously.


GAMMA


A week later found Emerald sitting in her surface workshop again with a plate of steel before her.

Things between her and the others were still… distant. Even Pinkie Pie was beginning to feel like the others wouldn’t be coming around any time soon, if ever. Speaking of said mare, Pinkie apparently had ended up bothering some donkey that lived in town in an attempt to get him to smile and be his friend. Luckily it had ended well… apparently; Emerald didn’t know more much more than that. What had also happened over the past week was Emerald re-establishing contact with Over Look and Photo Finish. Over was fine with Emerald disappearing for a while, as expected, and just wanted her to pop in so they could have some new ads out. Photo Finish was surprisingly fine with her being gone as well, though it was purely because her sudden disappearance had actually made her a little more popular as rumors ran rampant on what had happened and where she went. Photo still wanted her to come in for a ton of fashion shows, and Fluttershy was doing far better than Emerald had expected she would in the time she had been alone. It probably helped that she had Discord and the draconequis was always waiting for her backstage with a fresh brew of calming tea.

Currently, Emerald was trying out several runes and experimenting with them, trying to find a good combination that would serve as great reinforcement for armor augmentation. She was also absently trying to figure out how to automate the process of carving runes into armor, powering them and charging them back up.

It didn’t take long at all to figure out that her dogs wouldn’t be able to make these things themselves, and she would have to make some kind of biomachine. Emerald already had an idea of what kind of thing to make; some multi-tendril creature with a hard shell to cover the fleshy parts. The real trick to this was supplying the magical power needed for the runes and charging them when they became drained. Emerald, of course, could just power up several gems herself to do just this, but she’d rather have something to automate the process for her, as doing that herself would take more time out of her hands. She had two ideas for that. One would make her self-sufficient and the other would have her rely on a potentially outside resource that could be a bit finicky at times. For the first thing, she needed to figure out how to make things generate magic on their own. For the second thing, she needed to tap into a ley line.

Now, Emerald had little understanding of how magic was generated, so making something that could generate it would either take a long time, or be hit and miss. So the obvious answer would be to tap into a ley line. Ley lines, however, had issues of their own. Ley lines were understood to be channels of concentrated ambient magic between two points. They were considered both an air current and a fast, flowing river. Like an air current, a ley line could change direction suddenly and without much- if any- warning at all. But unlike an air current, and more like a river, diverting a ley line took a lot of resources and planning to do successfully. In fact, diverting and even creating ley lines took so much time, energy and effort that most people often stuck to natural ones. Now, fortunately, Everfree being what it was basically guaranteed that there would be many ley lines to choose from, which was good considering their unpredictable nature and made having backups easier.

There were two other things that Emerald needed to tackle; creating a better storage crystal and a better material for the future generation of her armor. The material she already had some ideas of how to make; again, they would have to be made with some sort of biomachine to automate it and she would need to troubleshoot the process a bit. The storage crystals on the other hand were a bit more complicated. In order to create better crystals, she needed to understand what made the crystals store magic in the first place. So far she knew with certainty it definitely involved the crystalline structure and the size as well. So what she needed to do was to study gem stones of varying quality to figure out what made some gems better than others. According to what she knew from rune crafting, a gem’s purity and lack of imperfections would determine how much magic it can hold. So once she knew what made a gem a better magical battery, she could potentially make gems that were far better than naturally occurring ones. If she could figure out how to make gems herself that is…

‘So much to think about…’ Emerald thought with a frown as she continued to draw out runes. ‘I need to focus. Just think about the things I can handle right now, like this rune carving. Let’s see… heat is energy. If I could just figure out a rune to turn that energy into magic, it would make fire and dragons much less of a threat. If I’m thinking along those lines, I would need some barrier runes around the areas in the armor open air. Kinetic force is also energy, and if I can create a rune to harness that, I can basically ensure that the armor is impervious to most forms of damage, while also powering itself from said damage.’

‘So I should focus on the kinetics rune,’ Emerald continued. ‘That way, most forms of harm would be taken off the table, at least as long as the runes have power. Hmm… there are a few runes that involve impact or touch; I should study them a bit. I should be able to figure out something out of that.’

Emerald kept working on the kinetic rune for a few hours until there was a knock at her door.

“You may come in!” Emerald called as she erased an equation that didn’t add up.

“Boss, Alpha Degroot is back from his trip to the other packs,” a Warhound said to Emerald. “He’s down at the main entrance to the city.”

“Thank you for telling me,” Emerald replied and placed down her quill. “I’ll head there right now.”

With a flash of scarlet light, Emerald teleported to the tunnel entrance into the city. The view that met her eyes were of many, many Diamond Dogs coming out of the tunnel and Tavish over to the side looking rather pleased with himself. As she walked over to Tavish, Emerald noticed something about the Diamond Dogs coming into the city; most of the adult females looked to be in various stages of pregnancy.

“Hello Tavish,” Emerald greeted and stood beside the small terrier. “This your doing?”

“Mostly yours, lass,” Tavish answered. “Village I came across was a little lacking in young dogs. Turns out most of them went to your city. Had a little talk with the local Alpha and convinced him that just packing up and moving here was better than staying.”

“Ah,” Emerald said and continued to stare curiously at the many child bearing dogs in the group.

“Curious at all the mums to be, ey?” Tavish stated. “Biggest reason we don’t have many children is because getting meat can be a little hard at times. The Old Kingdom had this special system in place with all these hunting rules. Made it efficient and brought in tons of food. So what happens when we get all the meat we want? Population boom.”

“I bet most of the packs are a lot like this right now,” Emerald said.

“Some couples aren’t allowed to have pups,” Tavish said a bit quietly before getting a bright smile. “The day the news came that you sending as much meat as anyone could eat must have been the happiest day of some dogs’ lives.”

“Never realised how much good I did with that action,” Emerald stated. “It was just the easiest way of getting the packs to trust and like me.”

“You’re doing a lot of good, lass. Never forget that,” Tavish said and reached up to pat Emerald’s shoulder.

“…Tavish, I have something for you and some dogs to get to work on,” Emerald said suddenly.

“Aye, what is it?”

“I need some dogs to locate some ley lines,” Emerald said and quickly added. “Don’t worry if you or they don’t understand what that is. I’ll be giving you some special tools I can quickly whip up. What I need from you and them is to locate as many as you can find, but try keep in mind the ones with the greatest potency.”

“Alright, you get me some gadgets and I’ll head out with some boys to find these ley lines of yours.” Tavish nodded.

“Good, I’ll head back now and start making them,” Emerald said and disappeared in a flash of scarlet, reappearing in her workshop on the surface.

Emerald proceeded to rummage through a few drawers and bins, taking out magical parts and hardware to make some bare bones ley line detectors. As she began her work, Emerald thought about Tavish and the teams he would be leading and sending out. They likely would be busy all of today and tomorrow finding the lines that were connected to the Everfree.

‘Speaking of tomorrow,’ Emerald thought absently as she soldered some parts together. ‘Isn’t Ponyville being visited by someone tomorrow? Iron Will, I think. Some sort of motivational speaker. He is also a minotaur. Maybe I should go see him? Greet him while secretly taking a sample of DNA… no, it’s not important. Minotaur genes might be interesting to look at, but it’s not hugely important that I gather as much genes as possible.’

With that, Emerald focused on her work.


DELTA


The next day, Emerald was sitting in the park with Twilight, doing nothing in particular.

Doing nothing was actually the point of the outing, to Emerald’s aggravation. She understood that Twilight thought she was working too much and that she should spend time with her. In fact, Emerald would have been perfectly fine with spending time with Twilight, but the unicorn wanted them to just sit and do nothing at all and enjoy the peace and quiet. It may have been the fact that Emerald had to be working toward her mission goals at all times while under Mercer’s command, but sitting and doing had the tendency to make her feel nervous and twitchy more often than not. However, for Twilight’s sake, she was putting forth an effort… to do nothing.

“Is it really that hard to just sit here with me?” Twilight asked with a strained smile.

“I’m sorry, Twilight,” Emerald apologised. “I’m just used to doing stuff at all times… my fellow employees were punished rather severely if we didn’t give our assignments our full attention. Sometimes that one mistake was all it took to be… fired.”

“Emerald, you’re not there anymore and you never will be,” Twilight said and nuzzled Emerald reassuringly. “No one here is going to fire you for taking time to yourself and not literally working day and night.”

“Maybe…” Emerald sighed and leaned against Twilight.

It was about this time that a group of three ponies started approaching in the distance. Emerald’s sight allowed her to see them clearly the moment they appeared. It was Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. The odd thing about the group was that Fluttershy had an uncharacteristically mean spirited smirk on her face as she walked towards her and Twilight, while Rarity and Pinkie looked rather worried.

“Well, well, well…” Fluttershy began mockingly. “If it isn’t the big, mean monster!”

Twilight gasped at that and Emerald was left blinking her eyes in surprise at Fluttershy’s tone. Normally she’d be far too timid to even think of doing something like this. Worriedly, she looked around and made sure there was no one around to hear what Fluttershy just said. Fortunately, she was lucky in that they appeared to be the only people nearby.

“Aww, are you afraid of being found out?” Fluttershy smirked. “Don’t worry, I’ll be extra careful. Just for you.”

“Is there… did something happen to her?” Emerald questioned the others.

“I just learned to stand up for myself. To stand up to you,” Fluttershy answered for the others.

“Oh you have, have you?” Emerald said calmly. “I admit that is a good thing.”

“It is! And it also lets me say what’s on everypony’s mind,” Fluttershy stated.

“Really, go on then,” Emerald said in honest curiosity.

“Hmph, t-then I will!” Fluttershy said, a little off kilter from apparently not getting the response she was expecting from Emerald. “You’re just a terrible pony who doesn’t care about anypony that isn’t important to you! You just take advantage of others for your own gain, using your own willingness and experience with brutality to your advantage over others! Well I’m not scared of you anymore!”

Rarity and Pinkie Pie were gritting their teeth in worry for what Emerald’s reaction could be to this. They weren’t the only ones, as Twilight was staring wide eyed at Emerald.

“You know what?” Emerald began with utter calm. “You are absolutely right. I am a terrible person and I do use my knowledge and skills as an advantage over others. And my time in that seal made me think… what would Equestria be like if I had just died instead of being here? Would it be a happier place? Despite everything, I really think so at times, that Equestria would be happier and better off if I was dead.”

“O-oh w-well…” Fluttershy began as some of her old self began to leak back. “Well maybe not that f-far…”

“Oh don’t try to convince me otherwise,” Emerald scoffed. “All I’ve done since coming here is kill and kill again, spreading pain and misery while enjoying the good life here in Ponyville. What fairness is there in that? That I, a brutal murderer, should live in wealth and happiness while my victims are simply mourned and unavenged? I do honestly believe that if I had died instead of coming here, you all would be better off.”

“Emerald,” Twilight gasped with a horrified look.

“Don’t look at me like that, Twilight,” Emerald said shamefacedly. “I’m not going to go out and seek my end just because. A monster always struggles for life, and I am no different. It’s about time I just get used to that.”

“Now are you done?” Emerald said to Fluttershy.

“U-uhhh… y-yes I… yes I am,” Fluttershy said, now back to her old, nervous self.

“Good. Come on, Twilight,” Emerald stated and began walking back to the library. “Let’s go home and get to work on that monthly schedule you’ve been meaning to get to.”

“R-right Emerald,” Twilight said and gave the others a look as she began trotting after the virus.

Fluttershy fell into a sitting position and lowered her face until it was hidden behind her long bangs. Rarity and Pinkie approached the pegasus until they were by her side.

“Fluttershy?” Rarity began. “Are you okay?”

“I-I d-didn’t mean for her to f-feel that way…” Fluttershy said softly.

“I’ve a feeling she has always felt that way, darling,” Rarity sighed.


EPSILON


The next day, Emerald was spending time with her raptors on the surface, observing them while waiting for word to get back to her from Tavish and his group.

The reason why she was observing them was to make sure their neural programming was working as intended. If everything wasn’t working just right, they may fall into stereotypical AI problems, like mental loops. That wasn’t the only thing she was looking out for, though. She intended them to be shock troops and some aggression was necessary for that, however they shouldn’t be aggressive at all amongst friends, so she was looking out for that. She was also occasionally giving them little puzzles and tasks to test their problem solving ability. So far they seemed to be doing alright.

“Boss?” a Warhound called out as he approached.

“Yes?” Emerald said as she stroked the head of the first born raptor lying on her lap, whom she had taken to calling Stripe for the mark across his eyes.

“Alpha Degroot and his boys have been doing like you asked,” the dog began. “They’ve been finding a lot of those ley line things you wanted. But the Alpha says he ran into something… weird and wants your take on it.”

“Where is he?” Emerald asked and gently pushed Stripe off her lap.

“You know those old ruins near the edge of the Everfree?” the dog said. “Tavish says to teleport just in the front path of it and you should find him real quick.”

“Right,” Emerald said and did just that.

Arriving on the path leading right up to the old royal palace, she began looking around to find Tavish and was about to send out a pulse when she heard a shout.

“Down hear lass!” came Tavish’s voice and she looked down to see the Alpha and a small pack of dogs down in this small canyon over to the side of the palace. With a short leap, she flew forward and landed before the group.

“So what did you find, Tavish?” Emerald said.

“Well lass, I’ve been using this gadget you gave me and found a few ley lines,” Tavish said and brought out said gadget, which looked to be a dowsing rod with some exposed circuitry attached to the middle with a meter and little speaker, which would make sounds upon detecting a ley line. Currently, this one appeared to be off. “And well… just take a look.”

Tavish turned the device back on and immediately rapid beeping noises filled the air and the needle in the meter leapt to the far side. Emerald looked down at the meter and saw that the needle was straining against the very end of it, implying that the potency of the ley line was beyond its scale.

“Hmm… and what is this weird thing you found?” Emerald asked curiously.

“Follow me, lass,” Tavish replied as he and his pack of dogs lead her to a cave which seemed to have something brightly glowing within.

Before long, Emerald found herself before this crystalline tree. It had five branches that each ended in bulbs with noticeable indents in them and had this star shaped formation in the center of it.

“…So when you found this ley line, it lead you to this… tree, right?” Emerald stated.

“Yep, if it ain’t the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen since you,” Tavish said and got a snort from Emerald.

‘What the hell is this thing?’ Emerald thought. ‘It’s under the palace, so it’s impossible that Celestia and Luna don’t know about it. And the ley line… this tree obviously has something to do with that.’

Emerald looked over her shoulder at the sound of something scraping against the rooks and saw a timber wolf walk into the cave. She looked back to the tree to continue studying it as Sovereign walked over and sat down beside her.

“I see you’ve discovered the tree as well,” the forest spirit commented.

“Do you know what it is?” Emerald asked.

“I may have at one point… but now I do not,” Sovereign answered. “But I feel that this tree is very, very old. It may have been here since before the first sapling of Everfree sprouted.”

“Hmm…” Emerald stared at the tree intensely at that and began thinking. “Tavish?”

“Yes, lass?”

“I want this tree watched,” Emerald stated. “We are going to claim the old palace above us and put it back into order, but we’ll be remaking it into a fortress.”

“Right, lass,” Tavish said and sent a dog to head back to the Enclave to get an expedition together.

“I shall assist you in this endeavor, virus,” Sovereign said.

“Really?” Emerald gave the spirit a look. “Thank you.”

“I find myself distrusting this repulsive excuse of a tree,” Sovereign stated. “But I feel that attempting active action against it is a… poor decision.”

Emerald nodded and turned around to go scout the old palace properly since she had not done so the last time she was here. At the mouth of the cave, she stopped and turned back to look at the tree again. She stared at the star shaped formation at the heart of the tree for a few moments before finally leaving.

In the cave, Sovereign remained by himself, glaring at the crystalline tree with a sense of distrust and betrayal, but not knowing the reason why.


-TBC-