//------------------------------//
// Chapter 12: Overwatch 
// Story: Emerald Gleaner: Viral Unicorn 
// by Legionary 
//------------------------------//

Loud banging on steel plating filled the air along with roars of pure rage as Emerald sat crossed legged against a steel wall with a contemplative look on her face.

Emerald had created the rampaging monster in the massive steel cage just that day. The original creature that had been grown had been scrapped when its magical circuits proved to be as undeveloped as circuits in a still growing fetus. Emerald had figured that it had to do with the fact it was mindless and so had created something that was a bit more intelligent. That had done the trick, as the circuits were now as potent as a fully grown unicorn’s. So with establishing the link between magical potency and intelligence, Emerald began the balancing act of intelligence and the simple mindedness she needed to make the premise for the monster’s work. Of course this had the issue of making the monsters act on their own at times, especially when she experimented with the mental magics she had placed within them. This resulted in said monster going utterly berserk and being completely uncontrollable.

“Uhh… boss?” a dog said worriedly as the banging and roaring grew louder. “Are you going to do something about the big thing going crazy in there?”

“One moment. Just trying to figure out what caused the issue in the first place,” Emerald replied as she then reached out with her viral senses.

She hadn’t had the cause before to make use of her enhanced control over Blacklight that she had gained from consuming Discord’s genes. But now the ability was going to be useful, as she could reach out to the rampaging creature from a distance instead of having to touch it.

Emerald got several impressions from the rampaging creature; its intelligence wasn’t near enough to give true thoughts and perceptions. So all Emerald got was a collection of things driving it to rage put together in an incoherent mess. That was somewhat okay, as Emerald had a good idea as to what went wrong exactly. It was something to do with the mental magic Emerald had integrated into it. Perhaps the magic was having an effect upon the monster’s mind in a way that agitated it? In any case, she needed to fine tune the balance between intelligence and simple mindedness.

Emerald lifted her hand and reached out before clenched her hand into a fist.

In an instant, the roaring and banging ceased and there was a loud groan followed shortly by a loud rumble as the creature collapsed to the floor.

“And that’s that,” Emerald stated and got up to her feet. “I’ll recycle the body later today and make another creature, with a few things that will hopefully be improvements.”

“Right, boss,” the dog said with some relief at the rampaging monster being put down.

‘Right, it’s time to go see how far the dogs are getting with their first vehicle,’ Emerald thought and walked away from the massive steel cage.

With a quick teleport, Emerald ended up near a carved out cavern near the surface. Said cavern was carved out near the surface because the vehicles’ exhausts were quite an issue and made proper ventilation mandatory.

‘Bit of a big issue, really,’ Emerald thought as she entered through the large entrance to the cavern. ‘We are an underground nation and the fumes from the vehicles would build up overtime and would get caught. Not being able to vent fumes properly from the tunnel network is a big problem and needs to be fixed before we can use vehicular transport in any great means. Just using those cobbled together trains can be a big pain on the air quality.’

Past the entrance was a large dirt track lit up by large holes in the ceiling to the surface and the odd industrial light. The track had many different terrain types; one was made of uneven rocks, another was some fairly deep puddles, one involved several varying inclines and one final track involved driving at an angle to test center of gravity. Off to the side was a group of dogs swarming over a construction of metal that couldn’t be made out just yet.

Emerald approached the group, who soon noticed her approach and stepped away from the machine they were crowding.

It was a simple buggy like car with a bare steel skeleton and a seat in the middle of it. It had four large, simple tires that Emerald had given a little help in designing the surface of. And it had a basic four cylinder engine that was capable of cruising at fifty miles per hour without much strain sitting in the back.

Emerald stepped beside the machine and did some checks of her own. She made sure the dials seemed to be working along with the pedals and steering wheel. She walked around the buggy, checking it’s wheels and suspension. Then she walked around the back and checked the engine itself. After checking the oil, she turned towards the anxiously waiting dogs and nodded to them.

“Right, let’s get this test underway,” Emerald said and waved everyone over to the side as the test driver quickly jumped into his seat, excitement clear to see on his face.

Emerald and the others watched on as the dog buckled himself in and started up the engine. The small engine block roared to life with a bit of a sputter and thin gouts of gray smoke emitting from the tall mufflers. Immediately the dog drove off down the track with an audible whoop and quickly drove over the rocky part of the track.

The dogs who had helped to build the buggy muttered as the buggy’s suspension coils didn’t do a totally great job of making the rocks a smoother ride, not that the driver noticed. The tires did a great job keeping traction while moving through the water, understandable considering Emerald did a little more than hint and correct in development. The hilly portions of the track strained the engine and the buggy slowed down as it went up the inclines; understandable considering the engine wasn’t up to Emerald’s standards just yet. The final stretch of the track was the buggy driving at an angle to test it’s center of gravity and the vehicle aced that test, it’s wide axles, suspensions and long frame handling the angles with ease.

The dogs who were part of Emerald’s first engineering team cheered as the buggy came to a stop before them and the driver gave everyone a toothy smile. Emerald was smiling as well, happy and impressed with the progress the dogs were making with the information she was giving and teaching them.

‘From what Fenrir told me, the Diamond Dogs were naturals with tools and work that involved their paws,’ Emerald thought. ‘It’s highly likely that’s what is making them picking up on all these building and engineering stuff so quickly.’

Suddenly there was a crowing sound that seemed oddly curious. A moment later and several raptors dropped down from the openings in the ceiling. Most of the raptors started exploring their new surroundings except for one.

Stripe gave a delighted squeal as he caught sight of Emerald and charged at her. The virus for her part just shook her head and turned in the opposite direction from Stripe. After a few moments she felt Stripe’s mass impact the back of her body and his little arms wrap around her neck.

“Hi Stripe,” Emerald greeted the Blacklight Raptor with a grin. “Having fun?”

Stripe gave her an affectionate lick on her cheek in answer before letting go of her and curling up at her feet.

As Emerald leaned over to pet Stripe, she began thinking about future generations of raptors. She had already created a bunch of new pods and since she knew the process worked, it wouldn’t take nearly as long to grow more raptors- this time with a larger variety in skin color. Well over a hundred raptors were growing in a freshly expanded chamber and would take only two weeks to reach full maturity. Speaking of maturity…

“You’re getting bigger, Stripe,” she said to the purring raptor. “Soon you’ll be taller than me. You’ll certainly be giving most people a fright.”

Stripe got up to his feet again and tilted his head curiously at Emerald, his height now reaching just the bottom of her chin. Seeing the rather cute look he was giving her, Emerald smiled and quickly grew a ball made with a tough rubber like material before tossing it into the air.

Stripe gave a crow of excitement and leapt into the air and caught the ball in his jaws before falling to the floor with a thump. The raptor began to roll around on the ground and growl playfully as he bit and tore at the ball Emerald gave him. The virus watched this for a few moments with a smile before walking away.

She walked back over to the dogs that were examining the buggy.

“Ugh… this buggy is great and all, but the fumes are horrible.” One of the dogs waved a paw in front of their nose. “How are we going to handle the fumes down in the tunnels? We don’t exactly have roads through the Everfree to drive the buggies on.”

“I think I can solve that myself,” Emerald answered. “I’m fairly certain I can create a far more cleaner burning fuel for the buggies.”

“Okay… but I think from the stuff you taught us, that isn’t going to get rid of all of it, right?” a dog said while stretching her head.

“You’re right, it won’t.” Emerald smiled. “But it will get rid of most and I can get rid of the rest via some filters. Something easy to install as we go along in the tunnels. Leave it to me, I’ll handle the fume issues. In the meantime, you lot see about getting this engine faster. I want it to be able to cruise comfortably at seventy miles per hour before we use them en masse.”

“Right, boss!” the dogs collectively shouted.

‘A filter, right…’ Emerald thought as she started walking away. ‘I’ll definitely have to do something biological again. Hmm… I’ve heard of bacteria colonies that took toxic waste and created small grains of gold. Perhaps something along those lines, but… with algae or moss, a plant that tends to grow on rock anyways. I can have it so it takes in air impurities like fumes and carbon dioxide and other gasses, and outputs clean oxygen. Shouldn’t take too much work. A bit of fiddling with some plant genomes, adding a few select genes here and there and I’ll be done working the genetic formula out before I get back to growing a new creature out of that dead one.’

Emerald half absently made her way back into the Hub on foot, taking her time and working out some theoretical genomes in her head. When she passed a group of fully armoured, nervous looking Warhounds carrying their rifles, she almost missed it. When she did notice, she turned about in place and walked over to see what the issue was.

“Hope you all are practicing proper gun safety while looking so nervous,” Emerald said and managed to make more than a few dogs jump despite not sneaking. “Is there something wrong I should know about?”

“Just getting ready for the dragon migration, boss,” one of the Warhounds answered.

“Really?” Emerald said with a raised brow. “You mean the dragon migration that will be far above ground and never flies through Everfree, right?”

“Better safe than sorry, boss,” the Warhound replied and clutched at his long rifle.

“Hmm… carry on,” Emerald simply stated and walked away.

‘I really don’t see a point to worrying about the dragons so much,’ Emerald thought as she walked through the Hub and noticed that the group of nervous Warhounds wasn’t alone in their thoughts. Many dogs walked and moved about with an air of tension. ‘Like I said, the dragon migration never flies over Everfree and it also doesn’t have a history of attacking places it travels through. Even if they did, it’s not like they would really know there is a city beneath Everfree.’

‘Anyway,’ Emerald continued. ‘I think I have a rough idea of how an air cleaning moss would work; just a few more bugs to work out. Also, I really should go check out the runic ink works I have being set up.’

Emerald was about to change direction and do just that when a memory struck her. It was of Twilight complaining of her working all the time. And it was true; she worked most of the time and only stayed in bed with Twilight long enough for her to fall asleep before slipping away, working the night away before coming back in the morning to have breakfast with everyone.

‘I really ought to get this done…’ Emerald thought with a frown before sighing. ‘Well, it isn’t too terribly important, I guess. Let’s just take the day off.’

With that, Emerald teleported back home to Ponyville


ALPHA


“It’s so nice to just be spending time together!” Twilight said happily as they walked down the street. “You’ve been working so much lately, Emerald.”

“Well you know, got a lot of ponies and things to manage,” Emerald answered with Navi in her mane, snoozing the day away. “Takes time and effort.”

“I know, Emerald, but there is more to life than work, you know.” Twilight smiled softly as she stepped a bit closer to Emerald as they walked.

“Well… it’s not like I’m going to pass on anytime soon,” Emerald answered. “I just want to keep busy is all.”

Suddenly the conversation ended at that, as Twilight suddenly realised the fact that Emerald was biologically immortal. People always hurried about and concerned themselves with the passing of time simply because they had a limited amount. That was not the case for Emerald. She literally had all the time in the world and only sought to work not make something of herself in the short amount of time she was alive, but simply to keep herself busy as there would be no natural end for her; just ceaseless existence.

“Is there something wrong, Twilight?” Emerald asked.

“…Nothing, Emerald.” Twilight shook her head, the reality of her own mortality and Emerald’s immortality could wait. “Just thinking about life. Come on! I think your other friends are this way!”

“…” Emerald stood in silence for a moment as she watched Twilight trot away before shrugging and trotting after her.

After a short while of trotting, the two unicorns came within view of the diner Emerald’s other friends frequented. All of them save Clock Work were there, and Emerald couldn’t help but grin at the unique sight that met her eyes.

Bon Bon sat at the table and looked distracted as she stared off into the distance. Lyra was sitting at the table snickering at the two ponies opposite her. Time Turner and Rose Locks were sitting so close as to be sharing the same seat. The earth pony doctor looked both embarrassed and happy while Rose Locks simply looked smugly satisfied.

“Hey everypony!” Emerald greeted as she and Twilight took a seat at the table. “Having fun?”

“They are,” Lyra answered with a snicker.

“I heard that one of the ponies in this group was a Thracian?” Twilight said as she looked around. “I’ve been really curious about meeting one.”

“Oh, that’s Clock Work,” Lyra replied. “He looks awesome!”

“Care to tell me more?” Twilight asked in interest.

Emerald smiled at seeing Twilight getting along with her other friends and looked towards Bon Bon who was still looking rather distracted with worry. Emerald wondered if she should ask her what was wrong for a moment before deciding it wouldn’t be harmful to ask.

“Is there something wrong, Bon Bon?” Emerald asked.

“Huh? Oh…” Bon Bon said distractedly before realising what Emerald asked. “I’m just… worried about my family is all…”

“You can talk to me about it if you want,” Emerald said. “I’m good at keeping secrets.”

“Well…” Bon Bon frowned and bit her lip anxiously. “O-okay, it’s about my family. They’ve run into a bit of a rough patch and are having a hard time. We… they had an idea for how to get through it and I… don’t really agree with it, but I understand the necessity. If we don’t do something drastic, we’ll have to go without food.”

“You know…” Emerald said and looked around to make sure no one was paying attention to their conversation. Lyra and Twilight were involved in their own conversation and Rose Locks and Time Turner were more interested in each other. “I’m rather rich. Perhaps I can buy your family enough food to get them through their rough spot?”

“That nice of you to offer, Emerald,” Bon Bon said with a wan smile. “But my family isn’t very… accepting of help from those outside the family. They wouldn’t accept your help.”

“Well, if anything about that changes, then you know where to find me, Bon Bon,” Emerald stated. “And I’ll keep this a secret, don’t worry.”

“Thank you Emerald,” Bon Bon said gratefully but with a guilty looking expression. “I’d really rather not that word get out my family’s situation is desperate.”

“No problem, Bon Bon,” Emerald said. Far be it from her to stick her nose in another family’s business.

“Oh hey!” Lyra shouted suddenly. “Everypony stocked up on fire resistant enchants for your homes? Tomorrow is the day of the migration you know.”

“Lyra, statistically speaking, you have nothing to fear from the migration,” Time Turner stated, which Twilight nodded in agreement. “No major incidents involving the migration have ever been reported when they passed through Equestria.”

“Doesn’t mean it can’t happen TT!” Lyra retorted.

“Leave her be, Time Turner,” Emerald stated. “She’s just hoping to get a picture of a dragon breathing fire on her house.”

“It’ll be an AWESOME scrapbook picture!” Lyra said with a wide, toothy smile, causing everyone to smile and laugh.


BETA


Emerald sat in the freshly dug trench, wearing a camo helmet and protective coat.

Twilight had insisted she come along for this, and frankly, Emerald was actually interested in seeing the dragon migration. However, her presence had made a very clear divide in the trench. On one half of the trench stood Emerald, Rarity, Pinkie and Twilight. In the other half was Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Lightning Dust who was apparently invited by Dash. Fluttershy wasn’t there as, while she was fine with dragons she knew, she was still terrified of the ones she didn’t. Everyone was wearing some sort of camo gear save for Rarity who decided to wear something glamorous and also stuck out like a sore thumb. Not that Emerald actually expected the camouflage to actually do anything, as they were in a trench right out in the open.

“So uhh…” Dust began. “There a reason why we are in two groups? I mean, if it’s to avoid bunching us all together…”

“No, nothing like that,” Rainbow Dash said to her friend. “It’s just… complicated. Don’t you worry about that. Just keep an eye on the sky.”

“Oookay?” Dust said with furrowed brows.

“Ahoy maties!” Pinkie suddenly called out. “Dragons ho!”

In the distance, the dragon migration could be seen and was rapidly closing in. There were gasps of awe and interest as the sheer size of the flight of dragons became increasingly clear. Emerald herself was just looking up and taking in the different looking dragons.

“Pfft, pretty lame move,” Emerald heard Dash comment about one of the dragons. “Is that all they got?”

Apparently one dragon heard the comment as Emerald spotted one swooping towards them. Everyone ducked down and Dust pulled Dash down into cover at the last moment as flames flew towards them.

“Th-thanks, Dust,” Dash said nervously as she patted out the small flame on her hat.

“If it weren’t for the fact that those flames would have just stung at the very most, I’d do something about that dragon,” Emerald stated as she eyed the dragon who blew flames at Rainbow Dash dangerously.

“Dragons can control the heat of their flames?” Twilight said curiously. “I figured there was something more to them considering what Spike can do with his flames.

“It’s magical fire,” Emerald replied. “If a dragon bothered to learn how, they could breathe flames that would just warm you up instead of burn you. I’m guessing there’s a lot dragons can use their flames for, but my source wasn’t exactly a peaceful dragon, so it’s hard to say.”

“I wonder what sorts of things Spike will learn to do as he gets older?” Twilight wondered aloud. “Honestly, Spike learned that ability to send things with his fire by accident when we were young.”

“Perhaps I’ll learn more myself one day,” Emerald replied.

Anything else the two might have talked about was interrupted by the sound of Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Dash’s laughter. Emerald turned to see an embarrassed looking Spike standing amongst the girls and wearing a frilly pink apron. Over to the side, Lightning Dust looked very much like she felt like the fifth wheel and seemed conflicted between going back to dragon watching and joining in on the conversation.

“What's wrong with wearing an apron?” Spike asked defensively with flushed cheeks. “You won't be laughing when you spill blueberries all over your scales- feathers. That's one tough stain!”

“One tough stain against one lame dragon,” Rainbow Dash laughed.

“You leave him alone, Rainbow Dash!” Rarity said in defense of the little baby dragon. “Spike's style is unique. He doesn't have to look like other dragons!”

“Or act like them,” Twilight said, though she looked a little lost from just entering the conversation.

“My little Spikey-wikey is perfect the way he is!” Rarity added adoringly.

“Ugh, maybe you want to tone that down a bit,” Emerald said with a frown. “You sound like you are talking about a cute pet.”

“And I’m definitely no pet!” Spike said, throwing Emerald a grateful look. “I’m Spike the Dragon.”

“Oh, I didn’t mean for it to sound that way,” Rarity said reassuringly. “But while you are a dragon, you certainly don’t act like those ones up there.”

“I don’t?” Spike asked with a frown.

“Not even close!” Pinkie said cheerfully.

“But why would you want that?” Applejack added.

“Yes. You've got something those dreadfully fierce dragons can only dream of,” Rarity said in agreement with Applejack.

“What’s that?” Spike asked.

“The cutest widdle chubby cheeks!” Rarity cooed and reached over to press her hooves into Spike’s cheeks. “Ooooo!”

Emerald sighed and just chalked up the behavior to the usual response to things people found cute. Despite getting attention from his crus,h Spike obviously was at odds with the nature of said attention.

“Cute?!” Spike shouted incredulously. “Dragons aren't supposed to be cute! Right?”

“Oh, sweetie, you are turning the most delightful shade of red,” Rarity commented with a sly, teasing smile. “It is most becoming.”

Apparently Spike now decided that he didn’t really like the kind of attention Rarity was giving him and now looked a little angry.

“Rrrgh!” Spike shouted in frustration and quickly clambered out of the trench and began quickly walking away.

“Oh, isn't he adorable when he waddles off in anger?” Rarity commented loudly with a delighted look, causing Emerald to sigh and Spike to overhear.

“Waddle?!” Spike shouted. “Rrrrrggggh!”

“So uhhh…” Lightning began a little hesitantly. “Are we still dragon watching? What exactly are we doing now?”

“Dragon watching apparently.” Emerald sighed and waved at the group watching Spike “waddle” away.


GAMMA


Later that night found Emerald wide awake in bed with an amused smile beside Twilight who was tossing and turning.

The reason that Twilight couldn’t get to sleep was because Spike was muttering to himself rather loudly in his room. No matter how much the violet unicorn tried, she was still stuck wide awake listening to Spike mutter and mumble to himself in his room.

“Gosh darn it all!” Twilight exclaimed with a sigh. “I can’t sleep like this.”

“Want to go see what’s wrong with him?” Emerald asked as she sat up in bed.

“Might as well,” Twilight said and threw the covers off. “I’m feeling wide awake now.”

The two unicorns got out of bed and quickly made their way over to Spike’s room. Soon they entered Spike’s room and saw the baby dragon wide awake in his bed, staring up at the ceiling of his room and muttering to himself.

“What am I?” Spike asked himself. “Where am I from? Who am I supposed to be?”

“Spike, you were given to me as an egg,” Twilight answered to the best of her ability. “I don't know who found you or where they found you.”

“Seriously? That's all you know?” Spike asked despondently.

“I’m sorry, Spike,” Twilight said apologetically.

“That doesn't tell me anything about who I am! I need answers!” Spike said with tears beginning to build in the corner of his eyes. “I feel like I'm... I'm looking at a complete stranger when I look in a mirror.”

“Oh, Spike,” Twilight said sadly before her expression brightened a little. “Why don't we do some late-night research? See what we can find out.”

“Really?” Spike said with a hopeful expression. “You'd do that?”

“Of course!” Twilight replied with a smile. “I'm sure we can find something.”

“Well…” Emerald said. “I do actually possess the memories of a decently old dragon. Instead of studying, you could ask me instead.”

“It’s Nidhogg, isn’t it?” Spike asked with a shudder. “Thanks, but no thanks. I’d rather get to know dragons from a non-evil source.”

“Ah, well in that case,” Emerald said as she looked out Spike’s bedroom window. “Twilight, how about you let me do the research on dragons? It is rather late, and I’ve got a strong feeling that this will take a while. Besides, I don’t sleep, remember?”

“That does sound like a good idea. Thank you, Emerald,” Twilight said with a yawn. “I’ll see the both of you in the morning. Try not to stay up too late, Spike.”

“Come on, Emerald!” Spike shouted as he shot out of bed and darted out his bedroom door. “To the library!”

‘It’s too bad Bulto went into hiding while the migration is on,’ Emerald thought. ‘Something about not wanting the other dragons to see him staying with ponies… I’m certain Spike would have accepted what he knew about dragons.’

The following hours were full of Emerald looking through most the library’s collection of books. Emerald searched through every book that could have possibly mentioned dragons. Her first guess would have been the many bestiary volumes, but she had read through all of those a while ago. The most those books mentioned about dragon was them preying on some of the species described within the volumes. Eventually the confidence Spike initially had dwindled away until he was left crying softly in the corner of the room.

“Spike,” Emerald said softly and placed down the book she had been through. She walked over to Spike and conjured a spare piece of paper into a handkerchief for the young dragon. “I’m sorry, but we looked through everything. Seems like ponies know barely anything beyond dragons being big and scary.”

“I wonder if other dragons cry?” Spike mumbled and began to wipe his tears away.

Just then, the sound of the door opening attracted Emerald’s attention as she saw Twilight enter the library, looking rather refreshed from a good night’s sleep.

“Hey!” Twilight greeted in a chipper mood until she noticed the state Spike was in. “Oh… you didn’t find anything at all?”

Spike’s crying seemed to increase slightly and Emerald simply waved to the tall stacks of books. The fragments of Twilight’s chipper mood left her and she walked over to stand beside Spike and began rubbing his back soothingly.

“Hello!” came a shout from the other room along with the sound of the front door opening.

Emerald turned to see Rarity and Rainbow Dash soon appear in the doorway. Rarity stepped into the library without hesitation, but Dash paused at seeing Emerald in the room. Eventually she decided to come into the room as well, but seemed a bit unhappy about it.

“Good morning, everypony~” Rarity smiled.

“Hey,” Dash offered a bit weakly and averted her eyes away from Emerald before muttering something.

“What Dash just asked was if anypony would like to join us for breakfast?” Rarity clarified for Dash and gave said mare a reproving look.

“I think I should sit this one out,” Emerald stated simply. “I wouldn’t want anyone to lose their appetite from my presence.”

“Emerald, you are ALWAYS welcome!” Rarity reassured while shooting Dash a dirty look, who just muttered something in response.

“Count me out,” Spike said with sudden confidence as he stood up and wiped away the last remnants of his tears away. “I’ve got to get an early start!”

“An early start?” Rarity repeated in some confusion.

“Yes! I'm going on a quest of self-discovery!” Spike said while quickly making for the kitchen. “I need to learn what it means to be a dragon! And the only way I'm gonna do that is to join the dragon migration!”

“WHAT!?” Twilight, Rarity and Rainbow Dash shouted together whilst Emerald frowned in thought as she considered the baby dragon.

“Spike, that's nonsense talk!” Dash said as she flew over beside the kitchen door. “I know that you're a dragon, but those dragons mean business! They're big, and tough, and scary...”

“And I'm small, and meek... and I like to wear aprons,” Spike stated as he returned from the kitchen with an armful of food and things he’d need for a trip. “See? This is exactly why I need to spend time with them.”

“All I'm saying is that you could get hurt,” Dash said worriedly.

“Darling, this time I really do have to agree with Rainbow Dash,” Rarity added as she placed a hoof atop Spike’s head. “I don't want those big, ugly, nasty dragons to hurt one little scale on your cutesy-wutesy head!”

“I'm sorry, but I've made up my mind,” Spike said as he continued to pack his things into a small bag

“Oh, uh, quick, do something!” Rarity suddenly begged Rainbow Dash dramatically. “Stop him before it's too late!”

By this time Spike was finished packing his things into a small bag tied to the end of a stick and was now walking out of the room. Listening to Rarity, Dash flew over and quickly grabbed the bag Spike was carrying and tried to pull it out of his grip.

“Hey!” Spike shouted as he struggled against Dash. “Give it back!”

Emerald rolled her eyes and was about to put an end to the situation when Twilight suddenly darted forward and did just that.

“Hold it!” Twilight shouted as she grabbed hold of the bag with her magic and pulled it away from Dash and Spike. She then levitated it over to Spike who was looking at her with some shock and relief.

“Really?” Spike said, barely able to believe what Twilight was allowing him to do.

“Don't tell me you think he should go?” Dash said incredulously.

“Yes, Spike. I couldn't answer your questions.” Twilight then waved over to Emerald. “Emerald’s studying couldn’t find anything. I understand why you want to look elsewhere. I truly believe you need to go on this quest. And we have no right to stop you.”

Emerald narrowed her eyes; she knew Twilight was up to something.

‘She is just going to follow him, isn’t she?’ Emerald thought and stayed silent as she watched events unfold. Before long, Emerald’s thought was proven right as she overheard the three mares talk about following Spike as they watched him leave. ‘Well… this would actually give Spike a VERY clear idea of what dragons are like. And knowing Spike, he would eventually end up disliking them over it; he was just raised up too differently. But I have a better idea for following Spike.’

“It shouldn’t take me too long,” Rarity said to Twilight. “I can throw together a costume very-”

“I have a better idea,” Emerald interrupted. “How about you three stay home while I go and watch over Spike?”

“Darling, you couldn’t possibly do that by yourself!” Rarity shouted. “Those dragons are dangerous and…”

“I’m me,” Emerald said as Rarity remembered just who she was talking to. “And what better thing to protect Spike from big dangerous monster than an even more dangerous monster that likes the little guy?”

Twilight and Rarity immediately frowned disapprovingly at what Emerald called herself, and Dash just averted her eyes while nodding slowly.

“Look, whatever costume you make is going to only ever be skin deep,” Emerald stated. “I’m a shape shifter and my forms are practically the real thing down to the genetic level. I can look after Spike while hiding in plain sight.”

“Well… okay, I have to admit that somepony who can beat Discord in a fight probably doesn’t have to worry about dragons too much,” Twilight admitted and Rarity slowly nodded. “Are you going to be a baby dragon like Spike?”

“Something like that.” Emerald smiled and then teleported with a pink flash of light.

In the silence that followed, Rainbow Dash spoke up.

“So are we still going after Spike?”

“Dash, dear, I know you and Emerald have… a conflict, but I have faith in her to keep our darling little Spike safe,” Rarity said sternly to the other mare.

“You both already know my position on this,” Twilight stated with a bit of a sheepish smile.

“…Fine.” Dash sighed in irritation. “You both want to go have that breakfast now?”


DELTA


Several hours later found Spike some distance away from Ponyville and following the long line of dragons flying into the distance. Suddenly a shadow was cast over him and he looked up to see a purple and green mass fly towards him.

Spike threw himself to the ground as a massive gust of wind blew up a small dust cloud. After a few moments of coughing, he slowly stood back up as the dust cloud settled back down. He was frozen in place once he saw what was standing over him.

It was a large, dark green and purple female dragon lying down on the ground before him, resting on her crossed arms. She was massive; compared to Bulto, she was clearly a bit bigger than him and had scales that glistened like gemstones in the sunlight. And now that she was staring down at him, Spike had only one thing to say to that.

“Ack!” Spike raised his hands over his head. “Don’t hurt me!”

“Calm down, Spike,” said the dragon with a VERY familiar voice.

“Wha…” Spike blinked up at the dragon before him in incomprehension for a moment before recalling a fact about one of the people in his life. “Emerald, is that you?”

“The one and only,” Emerald replied.

“Well it’s nice to see you and all, and I guess Twilight and the others sent you to babysit me…” Spike said as she picked his dropped bag back up. “But I don’t need anypony to protect and baby me.”

“Oh Spike, I am most definitely not going to baby you,” Emerald said with a dismissive wave of one of her massive clawed hands. “If the other dragons hurt you in any major way, I can just heal you up after all.”

Emerald kept to herself that she would most definitely be paying back the dragon that dared touch him in spades.

“Oh… you don’t think the other dragons would really be that violent, do you?” Spike said a bit unsurely but still not put off from his “quest”.

“I was exaggerating a bit,” Emerald said. “Things get rough, but it’s just dragon rough housing really.”

“I can accept that.” Spike said with a nod. “Guy stuff and all.”

“Well…” Emerald said with images of Applejack running through her mind, and how she enjoyed to roughhouse as well. “Do you want to go the slow way, or do you want me to give you a lift? If you want, I can drop you off outside the nesting area so you don’t look like a ‘sissy’ from being dropped off by your Big Sister.”

“Ah… c-could you give me a lift?” Spike asked sheepishly. “And drop me off outside the nesting grounds?”

“Sure thing, Spike.” Emerald smiled and gently picked him up in one of her massive hands before lifting off into the air.

Without a second thought, Emerald drifted towards the long line of flying dragons, knowing from Nidhogg’s memories of the Dragon Flight that they were rather open towards random dragons joining them. That very thing tended to happen more often than not.

Being the big dragon that she was, she didn’t even need to bite or nip at anyone in order to get a good spot as several made room for her out of respect for her clear strength. For a few moments there were just the sounds of many wing beats and the roaring of dragons until her flight neighbour spoke up.

“So…” began a dragon with yellow scales and red underbelly. “Is he yours?”

“Spike?” Emerald said and slightly lifted the hand holding said baby dragon, getting a nod from her neighbour. “Nah, he’s my baby brother.”

“Oh, you don’t say?” The other dragon said with a grin. “I’m Scatha, you?”

For the briefest moment, Emerald debated giving him her actual name or a fake one before deciding a massive dragon who happened to be named Emerald couldn’t be connected to a pony. “I’m Emerald.”

“I can see why,” Scatha replied with a wry grin, which caused Spike to groan in embarrassment at hearing someone try to chat up Twilight’s girlfriend. “This your first time in the Flight? Don’t recall ever seeing a dragon like you here before.”

“Neither I or Spike were born in the Dragon Flight,” Emerald answered. “He wanted to see it and I figured I might as well give the little guy a lift.”

“Ha, you’re a lot nicer than my big sister was.” Scatha laughed. “She mocked me until the day my wings were strong enough to fly. The last thing I could ask her was a lift; even if she did, I doubt she wouldn’t drop me.”

“I guess that just comes from the two of us being raised differently.” Emerald shrugged as she felt Spike shift and move in her hand at Scatha and her words.

“Ah, so what are you going to do when we arrive?” Scatha asked.

“Mostly just sit around and relax,” Emerald answered. “Keep an eye on this little guy and make sure he doesn’t get another dragon a hundred times his size mad at him.”

“HA! That reminds me of when I was young. Sister was remarkably protective of her gem hoard and I was too stupid to leave well enough be,” Scatha said.

“Really, tell me more…” Emerald said, half in actual interest and half just looking for something to pass the time.


EPSILON


A few hours later filled with Scatha chatting with Emerald and Spike being uncomfortable with him obviously chatting her up, the nesting grounds finally came in sight. They were simply a large collection of magma vents that were still a bit active with decently sized crater walls.

Emerald flew forward a bit more before diving down suddenly towards the ground. Once she was close enough to the ground, she dropped Spike gently on the ground.

“Like I said, I’ll be watching you but at the same time I won’t be smothering you with protection either,” Emerald said as she hovered above him briefly. “If you get a bruise from roughhousing with other young dragons, you are on your own. However, if another dragon more my size decides to bother you, I’ll step in, in an instant.”

“Thanks for doing this, Emerald,” Spike said gratefully, glad he could count on her if he was in deep trouble but could mostly do what he wanted.

“Have fun, Spike. Hope you learn everything you hope to,” Emerald said before taking to the skies with a few powerful beats of her wings.

She flew above the still active magma vents for a few moments before spotting Scatha down on the crater ridges. She swooped down and lighted down on the ground next to him.

“What were you doing?” Scatha asked.

“Dropping off Spike. He doesn’t want to be embarrassed by having his sister carry him in here,” Emerald answered.

“You’re far too nice for a dragon,” Scatha said amusedly with a shake of his head.

“Hn, don’t worry, I know how to bite,” Emerald answered with a vicious looking toothy grin.

“Hey I’m not asking for a demonstration now,” Scatha said, claw raised placatingly. He may have been at ease with Emerald, but she was still clearly bigger and stronger then him. “I’m just commenting on you being nicer than most dragons.”

Suddenly a crimson dragon next to them rose up a little before letting loose a stream of hot flames. Emerald looked to see what he was breathing flames at to see that the dragon had been breathing fire at Spike. At this, Emerald’s hackles rose instantly. She stood up and quickly inhaled before letting loose flames of her own. The dragon who had breathed fire at Spike was chuckling at what he did when he was almost sent sliding down into the crater by a powerful burst of fire impacting him.

“HEY!” He turned towards Emerald and his look of anger quickly faded at the sight of the dragon that was clearly bigger than him.

“That was my little brother you decided you to bother,” Emerald said lowly.

“Hmph…” The red dragon bowed his head briefly at her before looking away and muttering under his breath.

“Pretty protective of him, aren’t you?” Scatha commented.

“When it comes to dragons more my size,” Emerald replied. “I’ll gladly let him mess around with other young dragons and get bruises from rough housing.”

“I definitely wish I had you for an older sister,” Scatha said with a shake of his head.

Emerald snorted a little as she watched Spike descend the side of the crater and approach a group of teenage looking dragon who were messing around and roughhousing.

“So where were you hatched anyway?” Scatha asked.

“I was born somewhere REALLY far away from here,” Emerald answered. “I don’t even know how to get back there if I wanted to.”

“I can tell you talk to non-dragons more often than not,” Scatha stated.

Emerald was about to answer when a shadow flew over them. She looked up to see a massive shape coming down from the sky and lighting down on the crater ridge with them. It was another dragon, only one that was VERY big, easily a bit bigger than Nidhogg, though was clearly much older as well. This made Emerald briefly wonder if Nidhogg had been approaching the maximum height for a dragon to reach or if there was something else that was going on with him.

“Elder!” Scatha shouted. “How may we help you?”

“I’m just here to have a word with your lovely friend here, young Scatha,” the Elder said with a kindly smile. “Would you mind coming with me, my dear?”

“I’m not in trouble, am I?” Emerald said before motioning to Spike down below with the other young dragons. “I also would like to keep an eye on my little brother.”

“You are not in trouble,” the Elder said reassuringly before smiling. “It’s rather endearing to see another dragon be so protective of a young hatchling. I can accommodate your desire to keep an eye on your little brother; we’ll just be on the opposite side of this crater.”

“Alright. See you, Scatha,” Emerald said to the smaller dragon.

“See ya, Emerald.” Scatha waved after her as she took to the air.

After flying for a few moments, she arrived at the spot with the elderly dragon. The dragon then found a spot to rest on and raised his head to the sky before roaring out. After a few moments, there were some answering roars. After a few more moments, two other equally large dragons appeared in the sky and flew towards the spot Emerald and the other elder were. Before long, they too were lighting down on spots to lie down on.

“Alright, well I am here now,” Emerald said and gave another look down into the crater to make sure Spike was still doing alright.

“We know you are not a dragon,” said the elder that had collected Emerald, causing her to go tense.

“Is that so?” Emerald said simply and prepared herself to fight if it came to pass. “So what happens now.”

“That depends on your intentions for coming here.” Said one elder dragon calmly.

“Like I said, I’m here to watch over and protect Spike as he gets to know his kind,” Emerald said, giving an outward look of relaxing but inwardly was as tense as tightly coiled steel and ready to leap into a fight. “I never lied about that, and that was all I intended to do.”

“Hmm… can you point out this ‘Spike’ to us?” one elder asked, and in response, Emerald somewhat hesitantly pointed towards the baby dragon in the crater before.

“That is him?” said the elder that had collected her in surprise. “His appearance and lack of wings… it reminds me of someone else…”

Suddenly down below, Spike released a loud belch of green flame and released a scroll. Almost as soon as the scroll appeared, one of the other young dragons reached out to snatch it. The moment she saw that, Emerald raised a hand and snapped her massive fingers. With a small flash of magic, the scroll disappeared from below and reappeared in the middle of Emerald’s hand, where it proceeded to almost roll off.

“If you intend to remain inconspicuous, then I suggest you be careful in the use of magic such as that,” commented one elder wryly as Emerald briefly struggled to hold the tiny scroll. “It’s rare for dragons to bother with other forms of magic beyond their flames until they reach a ripe old age. Then they aren’t so plagued with stupidity.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” Emerald replied as she looked down at Spike and the young dragons that were looking around in confusion. “How did you know I was not actually a dragon?”

“We can feel you,” said one elder. “We do not know just what you are, but you are clearly not a dragon… Tell me, do you know a dragon by the name of Nidhogg?”

“I did meet him once, why?” Emerald asked.

“You resemble him a little,” the elder answered before smiling a little. “Save for the fact you still have your lips.”

“Ah, well just so you know the last I’ve heard of him, he was dead,” Emerald said.

“Really?” the elder dragon replied in surprise, which his fellows mirrored. “How did that happen? The last we had heard of him, he had been placed in a pony prison for causing trouble.”

“He had actually escaped,” Emerald explained. “He dug into an underground nation and wreaked havoc. His actions caused the deaths of half a million people and he enslaved the few that remained behind.”

Emerald’s words caused several reactions in the elders before her. They all collectively winced and one groaned and face palmed in exasperation. Another just looked incredibly sad, and the last had a somber looking face as he released a sigh.

“It’s events like this that make people distrust the Dragon Flight passing through their nations,” groaned an elder.

“I’m surprised you care about the opinions of the nations you flew through,” Emerald commented. “You are dragons after all. There are few people that can stand up to an adult dragon.”

“I admit that fully grown dragons are a powerhouse compared to most races, but we have issues working together in groups,” one elder stated.

As this was said, suddenly there was the sound of roaring and crunching of rock. The group turned to see two dragons rolling on the ground as they wrestled with each other. From the looks the two had on their faces, this particular fight was much more than simple rough housing.

One of the elder dragons growled softly and stood up on his hind legs. He inhaled briefly before releasing a powerful burst of flame towards the two dragons. The two still fighting dragons were hit with the flame and were sent sprawling across the floor from the sheer power of the fiery attack. The two dragons quickly got to their feet and faced the elder dragon who hit them with the flame and bowed their heads respectfully towards him. Then they walked away from each other, though with biting remarks as they did so.

“As you just saw, young dragons have problems working with each other,” said the elder that had sent the reprimanding flames. “The other races don’t really share this problem as you likely know. Just keeping the Dragon Flight together with a decent number of adult dragons in it is a struggle enough; I have no doubts we would fall apart into chaos if we fell into conflict.”

“Are you the oldest dragons here?” Emerald asked as she looked back down to keep an eye on Spike. He seemed to just be lounging and relaxing with the other young dragons right now.

“There are several other elders here as well,” came the reply. “All of them keeping watch and keeping the peace amongst the young dragons, though we three actually are among the oldest dragons in the world, barring some hermits that are sure to be holed up around the world.”

“Though Eldest is definitely the oldest,” added one to the irritation of his fellows.

“Well of course Eldest of all dragons is older!” replied one elder in irritation.

“Who is Eldest?” Emerald asked.

“He is the oldest dragon in existence,” came the answer. “He’s been around since longer than anyone can remember and some say he is the first true dragon as well.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” one elder said with a shrug. “No one has bothered to clarify by asking him. Understandable since he is so hard to reach. And before you ask, he is deep beneath the earth, somewhere beneath these very grounds in a massive cavern. So deep that only the strongest of dragons could possibly hope to endure the pressures of the earth pressing down on them as they tunneled and swam down to him.”

“Then there is the fact you have to hold your breath,” added another elder. “Suffocation and drowning in magma is a real danger.”

“Hmm…” Emerald hummed in thought as she turned to see Spike again. He was still relaxing, but the other young dragons began talking and soon they were taking flight, one of which picked up Spike as well and flew off.

“Excuse me, but I have to go,” Emerald said as she began flapping her wings. “I promised to keep an eye on Spike and he is leaving the nesting grounds with those young dragons.”

“It is no problem,” an elder waved off. “I only wish the other dragons took care of their young as well as you do.”

With that, Emerald took to the air and quickly flew out of the craters. She intended to stay out of sight while keeping an eye on Spike, and she couldn’t do that easily in the form she was in. So she intended to get out of sight and shift into her pony form before going after Spike and the young dragons. Once that was done, she would keep an eye on the group and make sure Spike was kept safe.


ZETA


Several hours had passed. Apparently the young dragons were up to something that needed to be done at night, so after flying for a bit they passed the time by walking the rest of the way. Emerald was near the group, hidden away in the bushes and at the ready to come to Spike’s aid if he needed it at a moment’s notice.

Currently nothing seemed to be going on save for the group chatting with each other and walking, but besides Spike, they were all teenagers. No telling what they were about to get up to.

A few moments later, what the teenage dragons were up to was starting to become clear as they stopped in a hidden spot some distance from a nesting Phoenix couple.

“Alright, Spike,” the tall, red teenage dragon. “ Since you're our rookie dragon, you get to lure the parents away from the nest.”

“Heh... Lucky me,” Spike said nervously.

“Well, go on then!” The red dragon urged him impatiently out into the open.

“Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Phoenix! I was hoping I could have a word with you? Um,” Spike said as he nervously approached the nesting pair. “I'd, um, like to ask you some questions, actually...”

“We haven't got all day, Spike!” Emerald heard the lead dragon whisper harshly.

The baby dragon was briefly at a loss of what to do when he seemed to steel himself and bent over to pick up a rock off the ground.

“Hey, you bird brains! Come and get me!” Spike shouted as he threw the rock.

The rock’s flight was true and it landed squarely atop one the phoenix’s head, instantly angering it and its mate. Both phoenixes took to the air and flew at Spike who shouted and immediately took off running. After Spike led the phoenixes some distance away, the teenage dragons immediately ran to the tree the phoenixes were nesting in.

Emerald kept an eye on Spike; she wasn’t worried about him too much. Phoenixes were pretty much the worst kind of creature that could fight a dragon. Their claws were sharp, but a dragon’s scales were tough. Spike was young and would likely end up getting some pretty bad scratches, but Emerald was fine with that; live and learn after all. The fire was a non-issue. Dragons could bathe in magma without any issues whatsoever and often treated it like it was just going for a swim. Emerald was fairly certain that a phoenix’s fire, while very hot, wasn’t exactly approaching levels hotter than magma. Suddenly Emerald’s attention was drawn by the sound of chirping and screeching.

Over at the tree, the lead dragon was struggling with a bunch of phoenix chicks as they scrambled all over him and constantly escaped his grasping claws. The phoenix couple also noticed this and quickly abandoned their chase of Spike to protect their chicks. They moved fast, and though the teenage dragons were in the middle of chasing down the chicks, one of the adult Phoenixes moved ahead of them and suddenly released a blinding flash of light, so bright that only Emerald was able to see through unfazed. While the teenage dragons blundered about, Spike stumbled across an egg with a fire pattern; a phoenix egg.

Spike was carrying the large egg with a look of worry and guilt on his face when the teenage dragon recovered and approached him, a look of delight cross the red dragon’s features as he saw what Spike was holding.

“Hey! You stole an egg?” the young red dragon asked with a smile.

“Uh…” Spike said, completely unsure with the situation.

“Well, I guess the raid wasn't a total waste after all,” the red dragon said with a sharp toothed smirk as the other two dragons cheered on Spike’s achievement. “Nice going, Spike.”

“Well, what are you waiting for, Spike? Smash it!” said the bulky brown dragon eagerly.

“Smash the egg?” Spike said with wide eyes.

“Yeah!” The brown dragon nodded.

“Yeah, throw it on the ground as hard as you can!” the thin purple dragon of the ground added, his eyes hidden from sight by semi long bangs of blond hair.

Emerald narrowed her eyes as the teenage dragons began urging on Spike with repeated shouts of ‘Smash it’. The little baby raised the egg above his head and looked to be ready to bring it down on the ground as hard as he could. Spike also seemed to be darting his eyes about and sweating nervously, either looking for Emerald so she could interfere or making sure she wasn’t around to see what he was about to do. Emerald wasn’t about to make it easy on him, she wasn’t about to let him smash the egg and was ready to teleport it to safety at a moment’s notice but she also wanted to see what he would do. A test of character really, to see what the little dragon would compromise first; his own pony upbringing of right and wrong or the desire to know what it means to be a dragon and having dragon friends.

“No!” And with that shout, Spike made his decision as he held the egg more protectively. “It's just a defenseless egg, like I was! And I'm not gonna let you hurt it!”

“What did you say?” the red dragon said in shock, a look which the others matched.

“I said no.” Spike said firmly.

“No one says no to me,” the red dragon said with an angry growl.

With a blinding flash and extremely loud crack, Emerald suddenly appeared in the space between Spike and the red dragon. The three dragons back off in surprise at this sudden action while Emerald simply blankly stared them down.

“E-Emerald!” Spike exclaimed with wide eyes. “P-please don’t hurt them!”

“You should close your eyes, Spike,” Emerald said in a tone that brooked no argument and Spike could only let out a small whimper as he covered up his eyes and shielded the egg.

“H-HA! A pony coming to your rescue, Spike? How lame,” the red dragon said with a confident smile that seemed a little forced. He may have been young, but there was something off about the white unicorn before him; something that felt dangerous and like maybe he should just cut his losses and run while he could.

“So I heard you aren’t afraid of ponies, huh?” Emerald stated blandly, eyes half lidded seemingly in boredom. Emerald suddenly reared up on her hind legs and briefly closed her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, they were empty of eyes and full of needle like teeth, looking exactly like two tiny sets of mouths. Her jaw distended and stretched out as frightening needle like teeth suddenly filled her mouth.

The three dragons in front of the virus were shocked into stillness at the sight of her, but she wasn’t done just yet. There was a horrible squelching sound as her abdomen suddenly stretched upwards and expanded out before a long red line appeared down the middle of her chest. With a pop, her chest opened up and revealed a stomach churning sight. Her ribcage had stretched out and extended, but was more like a second pair of teeth now. Her internal organs were still there, but they appeared withered and roughly shoved to the sides of the “chest mouth” and the rotted intestines seemed on the verge of spilling over the corner of the mouth. Deeper within was yet another mouth that was slightly open but held only darkness within and the glittering of hungry eyes. Emerald’s arms hung limply at her sides as if they no longer possessed bones and her head also sat limply atop her shoulders. From behind rapidly emerged a large pair of wings that had only one layer of extremely long and wide feathers, each with multiple strange bulges running down the middle of them. An instant later, the horrific truth of the bulges revealed themselves to be many large bloodshot eyes that glared balefully at the dragons before them.

There was a single moment of horrified silence as the three young dragons stared at the monstrosity of nature before them.

Then it was interrupted by a ear piercing, reverberating shriek of agony released by the grotesque mockery of a pony.

“AHHHHHHHHHH!” the brown and purple dragon screamed in utter horror and began running as fast as they could, forgetting they could fly.

The red dragon, however, just stood in place, staring with wide eyes at Emerald for a moment before he rocked back and forth briefly and fell on his back with a thump.

As soon as the other two dragons were out of sight, Emerald reversed the changes she had gone through in a few seconds. Then she stared down at the red dragon with a frown. The virus’ hearing was powerful enough to hear a whisper echoed off a distant mountain and fine enough to pick up on the sound of muscles moving. What she couldn’t hear right now was the sound of a heart beating from the young dragon before her.

Emerald walked over to the young dragon’s side and placed her fetlock against the side of his neck to confirm something she could easily do by looking at his unfocused eyes.

‘Dead,’ Emerald thought with frown. ‘Must have given him a heart attack… oh well.’

Emerald simply shrugged and placed her hoof against his chest. An instant later, the dragon’s eyes closed as he breathed in suddenly.

‘There we go.’ Emerald nodded. ‘Bit of adrenalin and some other chemicals and he is alright. Won’t wake up until we are long gone, either.’

“C-can I open my eyes now?” Spike asked nervously from his spot on the ground with the egg.

“Yes you can, Spike,” Emerald answered and turned to face Spike.

“W-what’s wrong with him?” Spike asked Emerald anxiously as he caught sight of the formerly dead dragon on the ground.

“He’s just asleep right now,” Emerald answered. “I think my horror form was too much for him.”

“So… he fainted?” Spike said with a growing smile.

Emerald just shrugged as she took a few steps closer to the baby dragon.

“Spike, I want you to know I’m proud of you for not giving in and breaking that egg,” Emerald stated with a small smile. “I know you don’t think much of me anymore, but I just want you to know that.”

“Oh, uhhh…” Spike began with an embarrassed look before he then started closing in on Emerald. “I know that stuff is pretty messed up right now, but… well I know you’re really trying to be better than you were, Emerald. Maybe it would be easier for you if I trusted you a bit more?”

With that, Spike placed the egg on the ground gingerly and then reached up to wrap his arms around Emerald’s neck and gave a tight hug. The virus smiled at this and returned the hug with a fore leg.

“So how about we track down those phoenixes before heading home, huh?” Emerald asked Spike. “I’m sure they’ll be overjoyed to see that egg again.”

“Sure! Let’s get to it!” Spike said and quickly collected the egg before climbing up on Emerald’s back. Emerald then quickly grew a pair of white wings and took to the sky. After making a quick sonar pulse, she started picking up the speed to catch up on the phoenix family.


ETA


The next day found Emerald back in the Enclave and looking down at a few rifles with some sky blue lightly glowing lines on them.

Last night she had managed to locate the Phoenix family relatively quickly thanks to her viral sonar and flying capabilities. Needless to say, they were rather unhappy to see Spike, but were more than grateful enough to accept his apologies for what he did once he returned their unhatched egg to them. They then teleported back home to be greeted by a somewhat worried Twilight. Overall the whole trip had been a successful learning experience for Spike.

Currently she was in one of the firing ranges in the Enclave. While she had been away, the dogs had continued their work and, using some spray paint guns, were able to quickly paint hundreds of rifles. They had also had faceted in the gems needed as the batteries into the sides of the weapons. Eight long, thin gem shards the size of the average human finger now lined the sides of the rifles. They would be able to power the sound dampening enchant for roughly a month. Of course, the final step was charging said gems and the while the ley line power cables along with several sub stations had been finished, Emerald had yet to finish the charging stations the dogs would be able to plug their rifles and future magic powered gear into. But like all things, her doing stuff herself was only a stopgap until improvements could be made.

Picking up one large rifle, the virus was forced to change up her hands and arms a little as this rifle was most definitely built with a Diamond Dog’s physiology in mind. She then walked over to the range and loaded up a large magazine of equally big bullets before sighting down range and flicking off the safety.

The gun fired and tore through the thick sheet of steel used for a target and impacted into the thick rock walls behind the target. The noise that filled the air was not like that of a loud rifle, but of a rapid firing air gun. Once Emerald emptied the ammo mag in her rifle, she took out the empty mag and brought the rifle back to the table with the other rifles.

‘Well, I’ll consider these rifles ready for field use.’ Emerald smiled. ‘Course the rifles won’t be that quiet out in the field. It’s just a result of the stacking effect of sound dampeners on the rifles and in this shooting range. Right, we should be more than good on the front line rifle front. We should start developing some other stuff… maybe a sniper rifle? One with powerful sound dampening enchants to make it silent… or probably not. Our tactics bring us pretty close to the enemy. I’ll save making a sniper rifle for later. Something more for crowd control… an explosive perhaps? Something to mention to the others anyway, I’ve got some other things to do right now.’

Emerald then teleported back into her workshop on the surface where she immediately started towards one of her work tables. Scattered over the top of the table were many, many gems of different shapes, types and colors. All were for the project of finding out what made gems hold magic and what defined how much they could hold. She had been making a good bit of progress considering she had no clear idea of where to begin.

‘The crystalline structure plays an important part in magical storage,’ Emerald thought as she picked up a flawless diamond and studied it with a critical eye. ‘The quality of this structure determines how much magic a single gem can hold. Size does play a part as well, but not nearly as much as the gem quality. Right now this diamond seems to be the best naturally occurring quality,’

Emerald then carefully and slowly consumed the gem in her hand. She wasn’t gaining anything truly special from the gemstone other than raw materials to make more viral biomass from. However, she was still doing something important, namely studying the structure of the gem as she slowly consumed it. Once the gem was gone, she began to concentrate intensely as she began forming biomass into a shape; a familiar and highly dense shape. Before long, an orange diamond was in her hand and in its iconic shape. Experimentally filling the biogem with magic, the virus was happy to find that it was able to hold the same amount of magic as the diamond she based it on.

‘And there we have it,’ Emerald thought with a smile. ‘Being able to reproduce gems of this quality will be very useful as they tend to be a bit uncommon. Now I just have to figure out how to improve the crystalline structure.’

Emerald placed the biogem down on the table and rapidly produced more gems like it until ten others sat on the table. She smiled down at them until she seemed to get distracted and frown about something.

‘Ten days from now will mark my second year being in this world,’ Emerald thought, and found herself unsure of what to feel about that fact. ‘I’ve got to say I’ve done a lot in the time I’ve been here. Gained magic and friends, freed a race from slavery, faced down a powerful spirit and now I’m strong enough to face down beings recognised as gods without much issue. For all the things I’ve done, I kind of wish I could sleep every now and then without fear of night terrors… wait, Luna knows how to manipulate dreams. Perhaps I could ask her for a favour? I mean, I am her student and we do get along really well… I… I guess it wouldn’t hurt to ask, would it?’

Emerald bit her lip in indecision for several moments before nodding and deciding she would make a request of Princess Luna during her next lessons. The worst her alicorn mentor could do was say no after all.


THETA


Princess Luna considered her student as she went through a series of transfiguration exercises. Emerald was doing well in the exercise, which consisted of transforming a large ball of wood into various other materials whilst keeping the original mass. The trick to the lesson was also doing it very quickly.

However, what the princess was thinking about was how distracted Emerald seemed to be. She wasn’t letting whatever was bothering her affect her lessons, which Luna approved of. But at the same time, something was bothering her.

“You may stop for a moment, my young student,” Luna stated as Emerald turned a ball of clay into a small ball of gold. “I wish to ask you about something.”

“What is it, Princess?” Emerald said as she lowered the ball of gold.

“You seem distracted, dear Emerald.” Luna said. “I wish to question why this is so?”

“Well… you see, Princess Luna,” Emerald began a bit nervously. “It’s uhh… it’ll be my birthday in a few days and I’m wondering if you wouldn’t mind if I could ask a favour?”

“A favour, hmm?” Luna stated with a small smile. “What is thy request, my dearest student?”

“…I can’t sleep,” Emerald said softly. “I get horrible nightmares- night terrors. I just wanted to know if you could help.”

“Of course, my dear Emerald,” Luna replied with a sad smile. She knew exactly how terrible Emerald’s nightmares could be, having seen two of them herself. “You need only have asked.”

“Thank you, Princess Luna,” Emerald said and looked away in some embarrassment when she added. “I was kind of worried that asking this would be overstepping some boundaries.”

Luna frowned at this. What she truly wanted was what Celestia and Twilight had; a close, almost familial like relationship. Granted, developing such a relationship with Emerald of all ponies would be very hard as, unlike Celestia, her student was fully grown and had gone through traumatic experiences. However, she felt that this fact only made it more important that she be there for her student, and helping her with her horrific dreams was just the thing.

“Of course not, Emerald,” Luna said reassuringly. “I’d be happy to help you, and I’d like to think we are close enough for you to not worry about any potential boundaries.”

“I’ll remember that for next time… Luna.” Emerald smiled and got a warm one in turn from the Princess. “Should we continue my exercises?”

“Yes, we shall.” Luna nodded.

Emerald was about to continue her exercises when a knock came briefly at the door. After a moment, the door opened and in walked Celestia.

“Greetings, dear sister,” Luna said with a nod to Celestia. “Is there something you need of us?”

“Oh no, I am just here to tell Emerald that I’ve thought up a system of curing Thracians along with keeping her identity secret,” Celestia explained.

“What did you plan out?” Emerald asked.

“What is going to happen basically is that Thracians come and await their treatment,” Celestia began. “No matter the time they come in, the wait period coincides with when you are in Canterlot and when you are available from your lessons with Luna. After which we simply take advantage of the fact that you are a shape shifter and turn into a nurse that is simply there to help. Then you go in and handle the Thracians’ cure the best way you see fit.”

“Well it sounds good to me, but…” Emerald said with a frown. “I kind of hope nothing bad happens.”

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked with some worry.

“All the Thracians have been changed rather dramatically,” Emerald explained. “For most, the change isn’t too dramatic, but on the genetic level it is. In order to make use of these changes properly, the brain would have definitely been rewired to do so. Reversing the changes in the Thracians could result in memory loss with varying degrees of severity.”

“… Should we cancel the cure announcement?” Celestia questioned with a frown.

“I don’t think so,” Emerald answered. “I am rather certain the only memories that will be afflicted will be the ones they gained during their time as Thracians. And you can just state the potential side effects to warn people before they make this choice.”

“…I rather wish this was safer, but I suppose this is for the best,” Celestia replied with a sigh. “I shall continue with the announcement and make preparations for any Thracians that come in for the cure. Excuse me, you and Luna may continue your lessons.”

“See you, my sister,” Luna said after Celestia and turned to Emerald. “Now, let us continue.”

With that, Emerald levitated the ball of gold again and started transfiguring it into several different types of materials, this time with much greater speed.


IOTA


Emerald took the party hat off her head as she entered into the bedroom with Twilight just behind her, Navi slumbering in her mane, tired out from eating her miniscule fill of cake.

It had been a rather enjoyable birthday party to be honest. Rarity and Pinkie Pie were there, along with all her other friends Bon Bon, Lyra, Rose Locks, Time Turner and Clock Work. Twilight had been really fascinated by Clock Work and had spent much of the party asking him questions about his condition. One thing that had surprised Emerald a lot, however, was the fact that Fluttershy had been there. Granted she didn’t talk to her, but from the looks of things, she had wanted to approach Emerald. The virus had been unsure if the right action would have been to approach her, herself, or to let Fluttershy do that. In the end, she decided to leave Fluttershy be. Though whenever the pegasus had caught her eye, she always made sure to give her a welcoming smile. Emerald hoped that this meant that she and Fluttershy would still be friends again… someday.

Right now, however, the virus was feeling rather nervous. The reason why being that this was the first night, she told Luna, that she was going to sleep in nearly a year. She actually did trust Luna to help her with her dreams, but she still felt really nervous about going through with the whole thing.

“Is there something wrong, Emerald?” Twilight asked as she noticed Emerald hesitate.

“It’s… I’m going to try to sleep tonight,” Emerald answered as she placed Navi into her bed.

“Emerald, are you sure you should do that?” Twilight said in worry. “I know you’ve not gotten a good night’s sleep in several years, but there is a very good reason for that.”

“I had asked Princess Luna about that,” Emerald said as she slipped into bed beside Twilight. “She promised me that she would help me with my sleeping problems. And… well, I trust her, but I just feel so uncertain about going through with this.”

“Oh, Emerald,” Twilight said as she pulled the other mare into a hug. “I think you should have faith in Princess Luna. She has immense experience with dreams, and if anypony can fix your nightmare problems, it’ll be her.”

“I know that, Twilight,” Emerald replied as she leaned into the embrace. “It’s… just hard for me.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’ll lay here and just hold you as you sleep,” Twilight said softly as she held Emerald tighter.

“That does make me feel better,” Emerald said softly as she leaned her head against Twilight’s chest.

After a moment of just savouring being with Twilight, Emerald just decided to get things over and put herself to sleep. Twilight for her part kept to her word and held on to Emerald’s now sleeping form tightly. When the virus started gritting her teeth audibly, Twilight started stroking her mane and muttering soothing words to her sleeping form.


KAPPA


Emerald found herself back on the half burnt hill again with the tree on it, standing beneath its burning and flourishing canopy. Pristine grasslands, Ponyville and Canterlot to her left with blackened scorched ground and ruined, infected Manhattan to her right. However, unlike before, instead of being a younger male version of herself, she was in her female human form.

Suddenly, there was a rustling sound from the branches over her. She looked up just in time to see a shape drop from above to the ground before her. Standing just in front of her was Alex Mercer, looking highly unimpressed with her.

“You always were a weakling,” Mercer taunted as he stepped close. “Could never just stand up to anyone. You always had to have the advantage as well as an ace up your sleeve before you’d even dream of fighting. But even in a dream you could never hope to beat me, could you?”

Emerald was frozen in silent terror as Alex Mercer reached forward and wrapped his hands around her throat. The virus seemed completely unwilling to defend herself when a thought, or rather several images, flew through her mind. Images of her fight with Discord and how she utterly dominated that fight with him. More images followed, this time of her simply demanding Celestia and Luna’s surrender and them giving it without a fight in recognition of her power.

“Could Alex Mercer do any of that?” a barely there whisper asked her.

“…N-no,” Emerald stuttered out and began slowly reaching up with her hands.

“What was that?” Mercer growled as she wrapped her hands around his wrists.

“Y-y-you aren’t s-stronger than me…” Emerald said with wide eyes. “You just can’t be… YOU CAN’T!”

“Grah!” Mercer snarled in anger as Emerald slowly pulled his hands away from her throat and began struggling with his grasp. “You were such a good follower before coming here, always accepting orders without the slightest complaint. This is her fault. That little purple unicorn. You should have just killed her like I taught you too. Maybe I should help you relearn some old lessons? How about I treat you to lunch.”

Emerald felt herself fill with both terror and rage at Mercer’s implication. The memory of the pregnant woman she was forced to eat ran through her mind along with feelings of despair and self-hatred. Right now she was on the knife’s edge between falling into despair at the avatar of all her fears before her or falling into rage at the words and threats it dared to utter.

Far above the scene, sitting calmly on a cloud, Princess Luna observed the proceedings with a thoughtful frown. Then, with a look of deliberation, she raised a hoof and then made a pushing motion with it.

Rage. So much rage and righteous fury suddenly filled Emerald and then tore through the fear that had been paralysing her. She let go of Mercer’s arms and instead grabbed the front of his clothes with one hand while cocking back her other. With a clash of such strength it seemed to send a visible ripple through the air, she sent her former master through the air with one punch.

Mercer was quick to roll onto his feet as he impacted the ground. He gave an infuriated snarl at Emerald finally fighting back and charged at her. His feet tore up the landscape as he closed in on her at incredible speeds.

For a moment, Emerald seemed like she was going to brace for his attack, but then a look of realization crossed her features. 

Just as Mercer was within ten feet of the other Evolved, he was suddenly lifted into the air, surrounded by an aura of crimson light. He wrenched about the air harshly for a moment before suddenly smashing into the ground powerfully and rapidly several times. Then he was back in the air again and the magic surrounding his form seemed to focus on his chest and all of the limbs connecting to his torso.

Mercer gave a shout of rage as Emerald attempted to simply crush him and pinch off all his limbs, along with his head. After a moment’s struggle with a grip he could not fight against, he suddenly created a massive tendril and shot it at Emerald, hitting her, ending her concentration and sending her flying.

Emerald landed a short distance away and quickly jumped back to her feet. The sight that met her eyes was of Alex Mercer with an army of brawlers and infected standing just behind him. The visage of her former master twisted between total confidence for his chances and hate for her.

Emerald was only frozen for a moment until she remembered that she had an army of her own. The instant she thought this, she looked behind her to see a massive force of dragon scale wearing Warhounds, holding the new, fully automatic and extremely powerful rifles. Dotted amongst their number were raptors of many colors and all fully grown, standing at a height that left them all slightly taller than her.

For a brief moment there was silence.

“LET’S DO IT!” came a shout from a voice that sounded distinctly like Tavish’s.

Instantly there was chaos, blood and death. The massive bullets of the Warhounds tore the twisted infected humans apart with so much ease, it was like using a dart against a water balloon full of red food coloring. The brawlers were a different matter. Being Alex Mercer’s answer to tanks and other mechanized support, they were able to the weather the deadly barrage of bullets… somewhat. Most lost limbs and simply collapsed to the ground as the bullets utterly tore through their hardened flesh during their charge. The rest managed to reach the ranks of the Warhounds, but whereas with Marines where they could simply tear apart whole platoons with wild swipes, the Warhounds had their own answer to the brawlers.

Raptors leapt from their positions amongst the Warhounds, growling and snarling as they tackled the brawlers that meant to do the Warhounds harm. Brawler and Raptor roared as they bit, slashed and tore at each other with animalistic brutality. However, the brawlers were meant to be expandable shock troops, used to clog the meat grinder of the American army; Raptors were not. Brawler claws found no purchase in the Raptor’s scales and it was the same story with their teeth. The Raptor’s own teeth and claws sliced deeply and sliced with insulting ease into the brawlers. The brawlers fought like the mindless machines of slaughter they were, and thus were killed quickly by Emerald’s cunningly brutal beasts of war.

At seeing his army getting easily torn apart by Emerald’s own, Mercer gave a shout of rage and moved to charge at Emerald. In answer to this, Emerald rapidly inhaled and a bright blue glow shined through her chest. An instant, later Mercer was sent tumbling to the floor, his upper torso incinerated along with a many viral creatures that were behind him.

Emerald then quickly ran at Mercer’s rapidly regenerating body and grabbed him by his feet. She then started spinning in place and by the time she was about to release him, he was done regenerating and the two of were practically a blur.

“GO! HOME!” Emerald shouted as she let go of Mercer and sent him flying towards the infested ruins of Manhattan.

The entire way, Emerald could hear his furious cursing and shouts as he arced across the sky before finally impacting a skyscraper within the city, somehow causing it to crumble atop of him afterwards.

Emerald suddenly found herself panting and the false heart in her chest beating rapidly and loudly. All around her, the dream world began to change. Both warring armies immediately faded from the landscape. The fires on the scorched side of the world went out and patches of grass started to poke out from beneath the blackened soil. Off in the distance, the ruins of Manhattan seemed to age rapidly, tall buildings crumbling as plant life began to grow and spread over everything in sight. Eventually, new life covered everything. The only signs of the dream world’s past condition was the burnt bark on the tree, empty patches of ash strewn soil and the eroding ruins of Manhattan in the distance, overgrown with plants.

Emerald by now had simply fallen onto her back and was struggling to get her panting under control, realising she was in the midst of having a panic attack. After several long moments, she finally did manage to steady her breathing and her false heart. Suddenly, Twilight’s face popped into view.

“Hey there sleepy head!” Twilight said cheerfully to Emerald. “The picnic’s all set and ready! Don’t you want to have some food with us?”

In some confusion, Emerald turned on her side to see the rest of the Mane Six sitting on a red and white checkered cloth with a picnic basket.

“Come on, Emerald!” Dash shouted eagerly. “They aren’t starting without ya, and I’m starving.”

“Ya mind joining us, sugarcube?” Applejack added. “Ah have granny’s apple pie with me!”

“I-If you don’t mind, that is…” Fluttershy said.

“…Sure thing!” Emerald said, and stumbled a bit when she suddenly realised she was now in her pony form. “I’ll be right on over!”

Luna peeked out from behind the half burnt tree and smiled as she watched Emerald start to enjoy the dream of her just being with her friends. She then looked over the formerly completely burnt areas of the dream world and the decayed overgrown ruins in the distance. This was a sign that things were not well just yet, but it was also a sign of healing.

Feeling that her job was done, Luna began walking away when she heard a shout.

“Luna, do you want to join us?” the princess heard Emerald call out.

She turned around to see the virus waving her over and the others adding their own desires for her to join them.

‘Well…’ Luna thought for a moment before smiling. ‘I am sure just one night off and enjoying time with my student won’t do any harm.’

“Very well, I shall join your party!” Luna shouted a reply and quickly made her way over, much to the delight of everyone there.


LAMBDA


Twilight was just beginning to think that maybe urging Emerald into going to sleep was a bad idea when, slowly but surely, the sound of Emerald’s teeth grinding together faded and her features, formerly twisted into a grimace, began to relax. To the unicorn’s relief and happiness, she saw Emerald even begin to smile as she relaxed.

“…Twilight,” the slumbering virus murmured with a small smile.

“I told you everything would be fine,” Twilight whispered to Emerald’s sleeping form and gave her a kiss on the cheek. Then she herself snuggled in close beside Emerald before going to sleep herself.


-TBC-