Chapter 13: Advice
Low rumbling echoed dully behind thick steel walls and the floor shook with the weight of immense footsteps.
Emerald was yet again working on the massive monsters she was creating. She had made quite a bit of progress now; they didn’t go berserk when the mental magic was used, however the result was dim and unimpressive. But that was okay. Emerald wanted to get the berserk problem fixed and now it was fixed. Now she just had to fix the potency.
Speaking of potency, Emerald had also included a large amount of Biogems within the body of the creature with special growths that extended from the various gems like roots and extended out of the creature like a bushy tail. Those would be useful to quickly recharge the gems using the ley line power network she now had up and running. She was relying on using ley lines to charge up the gems rather than the creature’s own magic circuits because the circuits weren’t potent enough to do so in a timely manner. Chances were it would take a week to a month to charge the many gem clusters she had grown inside the creature if she were to rely on the creature’s own magic.
Emerald reached out to the creature with her senses and briefly the image of a large room with thick steel walls met her. Smells and sounds assaulted other senses as she did this as well. Unlike before when she touched the mind of the massive monsters she was making, she did not kill it. This time she merely urged it to sleep, and it did so.
‘Along with getting my biological construction skills up to spec, this is also improving my viral control from afar,’ Emerald thought as she began to tweak and fine tune the monster’s genetic structure. ‘I can even see and experience things from the perspective of my creations now. Controlling them from afar is so easy now. Just what was it about Discord’s blood that caused such changes in me? That’s an answer that’s going to take a very long time to find, I think.’
‘Anyways…’ Emerald thought as she shook her head clear. ‘Let’s get back to work on this guy. At the rate I’m going at, he should be ready for field use in a few months… give or take fixing a few bugs.’
ALPHA
Missy walked along the surface, carefully cradling a firearm in one arm. Tavish was by her side and examining his much more clearly defined muscles. Off in the distance was a large group of raptors; some had black and red scales while a vast majority of them had a much wider variety. The raptors with the colorful scales were newborns and their elder siblings were having fun playing with them. Off to the far side was a buggy being put through its paces on a dirt track. It had a new engine that was better than the previous generation made by the engineer dogs who were quickly grasping the concepts of combustion engines.
“So what’cha got there, lass?” Tavish asked as he cheerfully flexed one of his small arms. He was amongst one of many, many other Warhounds that were now enjoying the benefits of the Orion serum. The little terrier found the idea of having nigh unbreakable bones and being almost tireless extremely fun and was already spending several hours straight altering his fighting style to fit his new abilities.
“This is a grenade launcher,” Missy answered as she held up the firearm. It wasn’t the repeating grenade launcher with multiple chambers to hold rounds, but one long chamber and a simple wooden stock. Its iron sights was also different from most firearms as its rounds didn’t fly in a mostly straight line and had to be lobbed.
“Grenades?”
“Oh yeah, you don’t know…” Missy hummed as she continued walking. “The other gunsmiths and I have been developing various weapons in tandem with each other. A grenade is a lot like a stick of dynamite, except designed to be used like a weapon. Its internal fuse is precisely timed and can’t be put out once started. This weapon here is designed to fire specially designed grenade rounds that explode on contact with the ground rather than wait for a fuse, though there is a version of round with a fuse as well.”
“A gun that shoots explosives?” Tavish said with eyes that shone with excitement. “Oh this I have to try!”
“Later,” Missy stated. “I’m going to test fire this gun a bit more at the range up here, then it’ll be ready for use… or at least to be used by dogs trained to use them.”
“Oh don’t be that way, lass!” Tavish objected. “You’re just going to fire off a few rounds, right? Can’t ya see it in your sweet little heart to let this old dog have a bit of fun?”
“…Darn it, Tavish.” Missy sighed before handing the grenade launcher to the smaller dog. “You can fire a few rounds, and then I have to do some tests with the other ammunition.”
“Bloody brilliant!” The little dog cheered and quickly took off towards the firing range, forcing Missy to pick up the pace to keep up with him.
They had also gained a tag along in the form of Stripe, who had spotted them and decided to follow them out of curiosity.
Soon the group of three arrived at the firing range and Tavish quickly started to set up. Missy was at his side to make sure he wasn’t going to break it, and Stripe lied down a short distance away to watch what was going on.
It was when Tavish aimed the grenade launcher down range like it was a normal gun that Missy realised she forgot to tell him it had a firing angle. By the time she opened her mouth to shout a warning, Tavish had already depressed the trigger and the explosive round left the barrel and rapidly dropped towards the ground.
BETA
Emerald was making the finishing tweaks from afar when she felt a great amount of alarm and worry come from one of her raptors on the surface. Concentrating, she felt the raptor to be Stripe and quickly decided to investigate what was going on.
She arrived near where she felt the alarm coming from with a crimson flash. She quickly took in her surroundings and found herself to be right by the firing range. Dogs were coming in from all around with looks of worry on their faces. Emerald looked towards the firing range and saw smoke just starting to dissipate from the prone bodies of Tavish and Missy on the ground. Stripe was right by their sides and was running around them in near panic.
Quickly running to the two dogs, the virus quickly examined them as she knelt by their sides. Both dogs were alive, thankfully, but both were bleeding badly and covered in deep cuts and had small pieces of shrapnel sticking out of their bodies. Tavish was worse off, as a piece of metal was jutting from his left eye.
“Hold still, the both of you,” Emerald stated as tendrils extended from her hands and quickly started to probe their wounds. Pieces of shrapnel were inside of their bodies as well. Tavish wasn’t too bad as he was wearing the dragon scale cuirass, but Missy was just wearing her new silken vest. While the silk was strong, it didn’t provide as much protection as a weave meant for armor. The young gunsmith had shrapnel within her chest cavity and was in mortal danger of bleeding out internally.
Thankfully Emerald was there to fix everything.
Missy whined in discomfort and Tavish muttered pained complaints, but otherwise the two remained still as Emerald’s tendrils delved into their wounds. The tendrils quickly removed the small pieces of metal from within their bodies and started to rapidly grow cells to place them in the damaged areas. Tavish was quickly healed up, but Missy needed some more work for her more grievous injuries.
“What happened?” Emerald questioned as she sealed up the last of Missy’s wounds.
“This idiot wanted to try out the new weapon we made,” Missy said, waving at both Tavish and the somewhat damaged grenade launcher on the ground. “And I, being the stupidly nice girl that I am, decided to let him fire off a few rounds without mentioning how it should be fired.”
“Ya got to admit, though. That was quite the explosion.” Tavish smiled a bit sheepishly as he sat up, seemingly ignoring the piece of metal still in his left eye.
“You don’t say,” Emerald said blandly before suddenly reaching out and ripping the piece of metal out of his torn eye.
“AUUUGH!” Tavish shouted and fell onto his back with one paw over his mutilated eye. “BLOODY TARTARUS!”
Emerald harshly smacked his paw away and rapidly rebuilt his eye before standing up and shaking her head in disapproval. She took in the Warhounds standing around them and Stripe staring at her with his big wondering eyes.
“The both of you could have very easily died,” Emerald stated towards Missy and Tavish as the two got off the ground before facing everyone around them. “From now on, no one is going to touch experimental weapons unless they have been specifically trained to handle them by the designers. This is the first and last time this sort of thing happens.”
The surrounding Warhounds nodded gravely as Missy got up off the ground and quickly grabbed the damaged weapon had been intending to test. After a quick inspection, she found the weapon was too damaged to carry on with the test as the barrel was slightly bent from shrapnel impact.
“Great, now I have to hammer this darn thing back into shape,” the golden retriever muttered in frustration.
“Agggh…” Tavish moaned from phantom pains in his eye. “I’m sorry, lass…”
“It’s my fault too…” Missy replied as she started on her way back. “Shouldn’t have let an explosion crazy idiot have a go at this…”
“Idiot?! OI!” Tavish shouted as he quickly made his way after the taller dog.
Emerald sighed as Stripe walked over and nudged her hand with his snout, obviously wanting to be petted. Emerald acquiesced to the raptor’s desire and started petting him on the head, much to his vocal delight. He was rather tall now and easily matched her in height, meaning he’d be fully grown soon. As her raptor purred, Emerald considered what just happened. Along with there obviously being a need for some more rules and regulations regarding weaponry, she obviously needed to work on her augments some more. What she had currently worked perfectly and none of the Warhounds had voiced any complaints regarding the augments, but she needed to add more onto it.
‘Time I started work on some more invasive augments,’ Emerald thought. ‘Let’s see… something to harden the epidermis for one… perhaps some spider DNA to create a layer of naturally woven silk between the layer of skin and the muscles? It would do a lot against cutting weapons and high velocity weapons like bullets, especially if I use bark spider silk which is like ten times as strong as Kevlar. Well, I am most certainly going to ask if there is a bark spider family around. Hmm… isn’t Flan still around here somewhere? Anyway, along with a layer of spider silk, I’ll also include basic package of enhanced senses. Nothing too incredible. I want to see how far I can enhance their senses without needing to see about upgrading their brains to match. Their hearing and sense of smell is already pretty great, but I can upgrade both a few notches along with upgrading their sight a whole lot. Finally, I’ll have to see about upgrading their strength. Right now a Diamond Dog can reach and sustain natural peak physical condition without too much work. The trick here is to increase their strength more without increasing the size of their muscles. Hmm… okay, I can likely manage this by optimizing the shape of the muscles on the cellular level. Compact things down and fit even more muscle into a relatively small area. Of course the downside of this is greater food intake, but that isn’t so much of a problem… though I may need to put emphasis on the need for more cooks in the communal kitchens soon.’
“Virus.”
“Hmm?” Emerald turned and looked to see Sovereign in his timber wolf form.
“I have finished work on the Golden Apple trees you have brought into my forest,” Sovereign stated. “I wish to show you the fruits of my labour.”
“You’re done?” Emerald said as she left Stripe’s side. “To be honest, I expected you to be much faster than this.”
“I do not do my work quickly, for it requires great care.” Sovereign scoffed as he turned about and began leading her away. “Especially with something like this.”
Emerald wondered what he meant by that but kept her peace. She strode by Sovereign’s side as Stripe made after her and kept up pace with her as well. Soon the group of three arrived at the place where Emerald had planted the golden apple tree saplings.
Indeed, the saplings were saplings no more. Now they were fully grown trees that towered over everything save other trees. Sovereign had obviously changed a lot about the trees just by looking at them. When Emerald had seen the golden apple trees in Canterlot, they appeared metallic instead of natural trees. This was no longer the case with these trees. The golden luster was still there, but now it was… natural; a part of the bark and leaves instead of making the tree look like it had been coated in gold. Another thing about the tree was that its canopy seemed larger, more expansive, and its roots seemed to dig deeper and spread out wider. The golden apples of the tree shared in the fact that it no longer appeared to be coated in gold but seemed a bit fuller. As Emerald took in the apples, she noticed one final thing: the fact that there were acorns among the tree branches. This made little sense to the Evolved, as the apples served as the trees source of reproduction thanks to the seeds held within their cores.
“So care to explain what sort of changes you made to the trees?” Emerald asked.
“The alterations I had made on the trees were nearly entirely to help fulfil the niches of other creatures,” Sovereign began. “The bark is highly durable and will protect the tree from species that tend to strip bark from trees. I’ve redesigned the canopy to serve as a home for multiple species of bird as most species prefer a specific part of the canopy. I’ve made some alterations to the roots as well to compensate for species that prefer to burrow under trees and gnaw on tree roots.”
“What about the apples and the acorns?” Emerald asked as she gestured to said objects. “The presence of one kind of makes the other redundant.”
“…I’ve changed the apples as well,” Sovereigns said after a moment. “The cores of them no longer possess seeds.”
“Really?” Emerald stated with a raised brow. “Doesn’t exactly sound like a beneficial adaptation.”
“I agree,” Sovereign replied before looking at Emerald with a steady stare. “The trade-off for the lack of seeds is that the apples become juicier and appetizing. All this benefits are those that would prey on the tree. I would normally never consider such an adaption…”
“I know this went against your nature, Sovereign,” Emerald stated with a smile. “But I and my dogs are very thankful for this.”
“I do not care for what your hounds think.” Sovereign scoffed and started walking away before stopping briefly. “Just so you are aware, I’ve taken the liberty of taking seeds to spread these trees throughout the forest.”
“I do not mind, Sovereign,” Emerald replied. “You can go right ahead and start planting.”
“I am not asking, I am telling you what I am doing,” Sovereign stated before walking away.
Emerald simply shook her head as the forest spirit took his leave. Taking one last admiring look at the trees he worked hard on, Emerald turned and walked away as well. As she took the long way back down into the Hub, she noticed a column of Warhounds out on a job in formation. They most definitely didn’t need the running to make any improvements to their physical fitness, as most of the Warhounds were now either at or very close to peak physical condition. The problem here was the fact that the Warhounds were gaining peak physical condition so easily. They didn’t have the lessons learned from hard work and long tiring hours of physical exertion. There was a right way of moving and running and there was a wrong way. People naturally learn these ways working on improving themselves over countless hours. The Warhounds didn’t need countless hours to become physically fit, which meant they were missing out on hard earned and worthwhile lessons. So the Evolved had set about solving that issue in the simplest way possible. Since the Warhounds were all extremely fit, she just upped the difficulty of their training to the level only seen in entry courses of elite special forces.
‘That lot there is probably on their cool down jog,’ Emerald thought as the Warhounds jogged past. ‘The training I’ve got them on now can last up to several hours at a time. It’s not like some of them can’t handle it either. They all have the muscle and stamina for it now thanks to the augments. Though I bet nearly all of them will be bingeing at the communal kitchen as soon as they are done for the day.’
Thoughts of the now very physically fit dogs brought up memories of concerns some of the Warhounds voiced. Some were male, but a good number were female, and all had been asking if they would become grossly over muscled thanks to Emerald’s augments. It took an assembly or two where she had to explain how muscle development worked, but Emerald figured she had managed to get through to everyone. Getting muscles so large that they actually started to get in the way of your own movement took a LOT of work and even then it wasn’t exactly possible to reach without drug enhancement. What the augment did was allow them to reach peak physical condition incredibly fast and with ease. It didn’t exactly allow one to push beyond natural muscle growth with any great ease.
‘Anyway, better head back to work,’ Emerald thought as a bright pink glow surrounded her. ‘Got to work out those bugs so I can get into the testing phase.’
With that, the Evolved disappeared in a flash of magic.
GAMMA
Twilight hummed in thought as she awaited Pinkie to come out of the Cakes’ bakery with their contest entry. As she waited, her thoughts drifted to past events, namely one that was fairly recent.
A few days ago, Scootaloo, Sweetie Belle and Applebloom had become reporters for their school paper. Initially things had gone normal enough, but after a short while the three fillies started sticking their noses into other people’s business and reported personal secrets in the paper. Things went downhill for the thee when they started reporting hearsay and rumors about Emerald and her apparent rift between her and half of her closest friends. Emerald had gotten angry enough with a reporter sticking his nose into her personal business to lay him flat with a punch; needless to say, she had been a bit on the furious side when she saw the news article. Twilight had decided to tag along when Emerald stormed out of the house. She knew she wouldn’t hurt the young girls like she had hurt that reporter, but Emerald could be rather scary when she wanted to be. Twilight just wanted to make sure she didn’t overdo it. Thankfully, Emerald’s anger had simmered down by the time she reached the building the papers were printed out of. Having calmed down, Emerald had seemed to have decided to confront the three fillies in a more private setting instead of in front of their friends and had basically drug them away to do just that. Though she was calm now, Emerald had made sure to make her anger known to the three fillies and it was clear the young mares had seen it from the way they avoided Emerald’s stare. It was a long and hard talk for the three fillies as Emerald told them how disappointed in them she was for invading her and her friends’ right to privacy. Eventually, after making doubly sure the three fillies knew what they did was wrong, Twilight and Emerald went home. The next day a special issue was printed with apologies from the young fillies.
Twilight shook her head clear as Big Mac exited the bakery with the massive cake on his back. Both cakes were obviously nervous for the pristine condition of their contest entry and the others quickly moved to protect the cake from accidents.
Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew over and quickly attached two ropes to the platter the cake was sitting on and readied to pull them in case the cake started to lean dangerously off of Big Mac. Twilight added to the protection by creating a protective bubble of magic around the cake. Rarity and Applejack helped by falling in step behind Big Mac while holding a life net… not that it would have saved the cake if it had fallen on it.
“Really?” Emerald sighed, getting everyone attention. “You do realise that there is a much easier way of going about this right?”
Emerald then took the opportunity to demonstrate her point by grasping the cake magically and cloaking the cake in a “skin tight” barrier. The cake lifted smoothly off of Big Mac’s back, though Emerald frowned in some surprise by the sheer weight of the cake. Mr. Cake seemed to be on the verge of fainting at the sight of his cake floating in mid-air, though Mrs. Cake seemed to be only a little better.
“My magical control was refined by lessons from Princess Luna and I have the magical strength to beat up a dragon,” Emerald said reassuringly. “Your cake is perfectly fine.”
Mrs. Cake seemed to take her words to heart as Big Mac voiced his thanks for taking the weight, but Mr. Cake only seemed to be on the edge of a panic attack every time the cake so much as shifted slightly.
“Oh wow, Emmy!” Pinkie exclaimed as she gave the virus a tight hug. “This is so much easier! Let’s run to the train now!”
Taking her own words to heart, Pinkie galloped down the straight road to the train station. Emerald shrugged and followed suit, the cake following closely behind as she galloped after Pinkie. Mr. Cake was chasing after her, practically chewing his hoof off in worry for his cake.
Soon the group arrived at the train station and quickly realised an issue, namely the fact that the cake was too big for the door into the train.
“Just leave it to me,” Emerald said and walked inside the train car to take some quick measurements of the interior. Then she teleported the cake inside the car and it arrived safely atop a small table with a flash of pink. “There we go.”
“Practicing teleporting objects from a distance really comes in handy, doesn’t it?” Twilight stated as she walked inside the car with the others. “I wish I was as good at teleporting as you, Emerald.”
“You’ll get there eventually, Twilight.” Emerald replied. “It’s less a matter of skill and more a matter of power. It’s a very power intensive spell after all. Practicing it a lot helps, though.”
“Thanks for the help, Emerald!” Pinkie said and then turned to everyone else. “And thanks to all of you, too! Even though we didn’t need so many helping hooves in the end, it was still nice to have you all offering to help!”
“Ah’m just glad the cake didn’t go splat,” Applejack stated as she stared at said cake with undisguised desire. “Mm mmm! That there cake looks down right scrumptious!”
When Applejack reached out with a hoof to have a sample of the cake, Pinkie quickly reached out and smacked the hoof away.
“Well, the tastiest treat of all is sure to be the Cakes' Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness,” Pinkie said good naturedly as Applejack backed away from the cake. “All that rich creamy goodness of the marzipan, combined with the tart tanginess of the mascarpone, blended perfectly with the smooth, silky sweetness of the meringue. That's why I call the Marzipan Mascarpone Meringue Madness the ‘MMMM’.”
“MMMM!” the others said together as they stared at the cake, causing Emerald to snort in amusement, though she too admitted the cake looked delicious.
“Exactly!” Pinkie said excitedly “It's the most delicious delectable delightful de-lovely cake in Equestria, and it's sure to win first prize!”
“Zis is not so!” Emerald turned to see a gray and white griffin with a chef hat and long moustache standing at the car door. “For I, Gustave le Grande, do challenge your crude cake to a duel of delectable delicacies against my exceptionally Exquisite Éclairs! They will undoubtedly strike down all ze competition, winning first prize and crowning me le champion.”
The griffin left Emerald staring a little bit as he at one point even provided dramatic lighting for his éclairs. But what struck her was his accent. It sounded distinctly different from what she knew of griffins that had a sort of Nordic feeling to them. But the Evolved supposed Gustave was just from a different country than most griffins.
“Not a chance, le Grand,” said a stallion that Emerald immediately recognised as Donut Joe, having met him last year at the Gala.
“Donut Joe!” Twilight exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing in Ponyville?”
“Picking up the final all-important ingredient for my contest entry, Donutopia!” Donut Joe answered as he put some sprinkles on a complicated setup of donuts. “And with these super-sprinkles, my donuts are going to dunk all the other lousy desserts, steal first prize, and make my donut shop famous forever! Ah ha ha ha!”
“Nice evil laugh there, Joe,” Emerald commented.
“Oh hey there, Emerald!” Donut Joe greeted cheerfully and took something out of a pocket. “Here, have a donut. It’s your favorite.”
“Thanks!” Emerald smiled as she quickly ate the offered treat.
“Oh, Joe...” laughed a voice. Emerald turned to see a chocolate moose standing in the doorway. “Your dippy donuts could never out-rival me.”
“Hello,” Pinkie greeted as she quickly went over to the chocolate moose. “What's your name?”
“I am Mulia Mild,” said Mulia as she stepped from behind the moose, revealing herself to be a mule. “Behold, my Chocolate Mousse Moose. It will trample all your treats, be given first prize, and make me the greatest chef in Equestria.”
The other three bakers in the room took those to be fighting words and quickly started arguing about which of their contest entries were going to win the national dessert competition. Emerald lost interest in the argument as she wandered over to a window, memories of another national competition floating to the surface.
‘My mother managed to go to America thanks to a baking competition,’ Emerald thought. ‘She was such a good baker. As much as I know about baking now, I was still learning everything she knew about it… I wish we had more time together… I know I have no right wishing for something like that, but I do. I miss her and miss the peaceful life all those years ago. I miss when the most I had to worry about was some jerk in school messing with me and talking to the pretty girl who came to the bakery every other day…’
Emerald let out a drawn out gloomy sigh as bright happy memories of the past flew through her mind. By the time she was shaken out of these thoughts, the train was already moving and Pinkie was ranting about something.
“…One of them is going to sabotage the Cakes' cake tonight! You have to help me stand guard!” Pinkie Pie half shouted.
“Pinkie... you're overreacting,” Twilight stated and Emerald agreed with the sentiment.
“Yeah, those chefs aren't going to do your cake any harm,” Applejack agreed.
“But they are!” Pinkie protested. “I just know it!”
“Fine!” Dash replied in some irritation. “If you want to stand guard, go for it. We're going to bed.”
Pinkie leapt up onto the table the cake and started to stare at everything with suspicion as the others and muttered aloud to herself.
“I'll show them,” the party mare promised to the cake. “I'll stay up all night and protect you. Nothing and nopony will stop me from keeping you safe!”
“Emerald are you coming?” Twilight said as she poked her head out of the hallway.
“Well…” As much as Emerald wanted to go to sleep tonight curled up with Twilight, she was pretty much the only person in the entire kingdom that didn’t need sleep. “Probably not.”
With that, Emerald walked over to Pinkie.
“Pinkie, why don’t you go find yourself a compartment?” Emerald asked the mare still up on the table with the cake, standing protectively. “I’m the only one here that doesn’t need to sleep at all. I can stay up all night guarding the cake without feeling any fatigue whatsoever.”
“I don’t know…” Pinkie Pie said. “I really ought to help out. Protecting this cake from insidious sabotage plots is part of my responsibility!”
“And getting me to stay up all night watching over it is a fantastic way of fulfilling that responsibility,” Emerald stated. “Ain’t anyone stronger than me in the kingdom. You can trust me to keep it safe, Pinkie.”
“Well… okay, Emmy!” Pinkie said brightly. “Now you gotta protect the cake from the other bakers! I just know they’ll try to sabotage the Cakes’ contest entry because it’s the best one EVER!”
“No problem, Pinkie.” Emerald smiled. “You just go pick out a compartment for yourself now, and leave the guarding to me.”
“Remember what I said, Emmy!” Pinkie said while walking backwards from Emerald. “Protect the cake from the other bakers!”
“Sure, sure.” Emerald smiled and then laughed a little when Pinkie turned around to find that she hadn’t lined herself up correctly and smashed her face into the wall beside the door.
“Well… I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, Emerald,” Twilight said.
“Have a good sleep Twilight,” Emerald said after her girlfriend. “I’ll be here if you need me.”
When Twilight had left and Pinkie had picked herself off the floor, Emerald took a spare table and chair and placed it in front of the cake she was to guard. She then took a seat and conjured up a deck of playing cards for herself. Now settled in for a long night, Emerald began playing solitaire to pass the time.
DELTA
It was a little after midnight when Emerald’s hearing began picking up noise from the passenger cars that wasn’t the sounds of sleeping bodies shifting position. At first Emerald figured it was someone simply going to the washroom, but changed her opinion when the sounds of hoofsteps neared her instead of going away. After a few moments, Emerald heard the doors between her car and the passenger car open, silent to normal ears but the hinges screeched to hers. Emerald then heard more hoofsteps moving away from the car a bit and the rustling of wing feathers. Briefly Emerald considered the three occupants of the train that had wings and quickly came to a conclusion to which of the three was just outside the car.
Emerald kept her attention rapt sharply to sounds she was hearing, but kept up the show of playing solitaire. When she heard the unfurling of wings and the sudden rush of the wind through feathers, the Evolved reached out with her magic and grabbed hold.
“GAH!” Emerald heard a startled shout from just in front of her. Looking up, the sight of Rainbow Dash cloaked in a pink aura of magic met her eyes.
“Hello Rainbow Dash,” Emerald stated softly as she finished winning another game of solitaire and quickly reset the game, the cards whirling through the air like an angry swarm of bees briefly before slapping back down onto the table top. “To be honest, I didn’t expect anything to happen tonight. I most certainly didn’t expect you to be the one to sabotage the Cakes’ contest entry, either.”
“I’m NOT sabotaging anything!” Dash protested in anger. “I just wanted a little bite. It’s not like it would have hurt anypony…”
“I know how these baking competitions work, Dash,” Emerald replied simply as she started placing down some cards. “The slightest mistake is enough to cost whole points. You taking a ‘bite’ would likely cost so many points the cake would be in last place, maybe even disqualified.”
“OKAY! I get it!” Rainbow Dash said with crossed forelegs. “Sheesh… just let me down and I’ll head back to my room.”
“Have a good sleep, Dash,” Emerald stated as she complied.
“Whatever…” Dash replied and walked away. The pegasus threw a desiring look at the large cake, but kept her word. When Dash exited the car, she briefly paused in the area separating the two cars and looked to the side. After a moment, she grinned and spoke, “Hey Fluttershy.”
“Meep,” came a small squeak.
“I heard you a while I was talking to Dash, Fluttershy,” Emerald stated aloud as she won yet another game. “Depending on your intentions, you might as well come in or go back to bed.”
There was a bit of a moment as Rainbow left for her room before Fluttershy stepped into view.
“I take it you are here for the cake, too?” Emerald asked as she reset the game. “Cause I am going to tell you now you aren’t going to have a single lick until after the competition.”
“Well… I-I do admit that was p-partly the reason I decided to come,” Fluttershy said, causing Emerald to stop playing her card game and give Fluttershy her full attention.
“Really?” Emerald asked curiously. “And what reason is that?”
“I-I want to talk to you, Emerald,” Fluttershy said as she came to a stop beside Emerald’s table. “It’s b-been quite a while since we’ve talked, hasn’t it?”
“There is a good reason for that, Fluttershy,” Emerald replied and quickly moved all the cards on her table into a neat stack before placing it back in its deck pack.
“Yes… I know,” Fluttershy said sadly, thinking about the last time they had talked and the words she had said to Emerald. “I’m so very sorry for what I said to you, Emerald.”
“You don’t need to apologise, Fluttershy,” Emerald said. “Everything you said to me was true. I’m a violent, monstrous killer. I can fool myself into thinking I can imitate a normal life all I want, but it isn’t going to change what I am or what I have done.”
“It doesn’t make what I said any less hurtful, Emerald,” Fluttershy replied. “I… I can never truly understand the pain you had to bear, the sheer lengths you had to go through to survive to this day.”
“I’ve… I’ve had to do a lot of terrible things to just earn the right to survive each day,” Emerald murmured. “It wasn’t a simple matter of just saying the right things and acting the right way, I had to prove I could do them as well. Each and every day I had to commit some sort of terrible evil to save my own cowardly skin… I wish I hadn’t done those things. I wish I was as strong as you and the others are, and wasn’t such a coward.”
“Oh Emerald…” Fluttershy said softly and closed in on the virus before giving her a tight hug. “You are strong; so very strong. I don’t know anypony who could have gone through one day of what you had to go through for those two horrible years. But you did. You went through it all and here you are, alive and well.”
“Killing is easy, Fluttershy,” Emerald said bluntly, causing the pegasus to flinch noticeably. “The first time is the hardest… most of the time, desperation for food and shelter can numb so much. Every other time, though… you just keep going and going until those hammer blows upon your heart just… stop.”
Fluttershy just kept quiet and held Emerald tighter; the glistening of tears could just be seen forming.
“Suddenly it just doesn’t matter who is in front of you,” Emerald continued numbly. “It could be a crazed murderer… or a scared child who was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. It just didn’t matter… maybe if I was brave, I wouldn’t have been forced to do all of that…”
“But then… if I had been brave, I would have been dead, wouldn’t I?” Emerald said with a bitter smile.
“It’s okay, Emerald,” Fluttershy said. “You’ve been through things nopony should have had to experience, but you are here and you are trying to be a better pony despite it all.”
“Maybe…” Emerald said sadly. “Some days I just really feel like I’m just fooling myself, though.”
Just outside the car door stood Rarity with a sad expression on her face, fetlock against her mouth as she listened to Emerald speak. It really wasn’t easy dealing with Emerald’s issues when she bluntly shoved them in your face. The raw horror of what the shape shifter had been forced to do was enough to get to even Rarity sometimes. But even so, she was happy that Fluttershy was willing to make up with Emerald and be friends again.
With that last thought, Rarity quietly walked away and returned to her compartment.
EPSILON
The next day, the train arrived at the station in Canterlot, having spent the previous day and night making stops at various towns picking up other bakers and their contest entries. Everyone was now offloading their contest entries to move them to the judging area. Other than a brief moment where Emerald had to help get the Cakes’ entry out of the car because it was simply too big for the door, it all went rather smoothly.
“Good job, Emmy!” Pinkie Pie said with a leaping hug at the virus. “Your job is over! Now it’s my turn to make sure the cake makes it to the competition safe and sound.”
“I’m sure you of all ponies won’t try to eat it like you tried to eat the Princess’s desserts during the royal visit,” Emerald stated.
“Absotively posilutely!” Pinkie smiled and let Emerald go.
“Excuse me, Miss Gleaner?” Emerald heard a voice say and turned to see a royal guard standing just behind her.
“Hello, can I help you?” Emerald replied.
“Yes, I was sent by Princess Celestia,” the guard said solemnly. “She hopes she isn’t interrupting anything terribly important, but she requires your presence for a very important matter.”
“Oh…” Emerald said and shot a look at her friends. “Just how important is it?”
“The princess has told me it’s imperative that you are present for it,” the guard stated.
“Uhhh… very well,” Emerald said with a sigh before turning to the others. “Sorry girls, but I have to go. The princess needs me.”
“Oh it’s no problem, Emerald,” Twilight replied with a smile. “If the princess needs you, it’s got to be really important.”
“We’ll save you some cake, Emmy!” Pinkie shouted.
“Thanks girls,” Emerald said with a grateful smile before turning back to the guard. “Just where is Princess Celestia right now?”
“She is awaiting you in the palace lobby, Miss Gleaner,” the Guard answered.
“Thank you. I shall teleport there right this instant,” Emerald stated and did just that.
Arriving an instant later in the palace with a flash, Emerald took a quick look around to get her bearings. Princess Celestia was not three feet away from her point of arrival.
“Hello there my dear Emerald,” Celestia greeted the virus with a warm smile. “It is so good that you could come.”
“You said it was imperative that I be here, Princess,” Emerald said. “If you say it’s really important, it’s best I don’t miss it.”
“Yes, it is quite important, and I shall explain it to you in a much more private setting,” Celestia said and stepped in closer. “Just give me a moment and I shall teleport the both of us to our next destination.”
With a flash of white, Emerald was teleported again. In an instant, she found herself in entirely different surroundings and quickly got her bearings again. As she took in her surroundings, she quickly figured out the reason Celestia needed to see her.
The room she was in was obviously some large medical closet in the Canterlot Hospital. All around her were shelves holding clean scrubs and cabinets full of medical drugs and chemicals. The fact that she was in a hospital told Emerald all she needed to know.
“So I take it there are some Thracians here for the cure, right?” Emerald stated.
“Yes, there are about four of them in the next room,” Celestia replied. “I’ve had to cast one of my stronger sleeping spells to put them under.”
“Yeah, I figured they’d be tough,” Emerald replied as, in a moment, her form shifted. She turned into one of the many ponies she had sampled DNA from and quickly altered the form by shifting doctor scrubs over it. “Right, let’s go get this over with.”
“Right this way, Emerald,” Celestia stated and lead the virus out the door.
Celestia had been right when she had said the Thracians were in the next room. Just a short trip across the hall and the two had arrived to the room containing the four Thracians. Two were Podargos, one was a Lampon, and the last one was a Xanthos.
Wordlessly, Emerald walked over to the first of the four sleeping Thracians and set to work. She placed a hoof atop the head of the Thracians and was about to start working to reverse the transformation when a thought struck her. Why not see why exactly the Thracians wanted to be changed? Keeping her expression as one of concentration, Emerald started reading the mind of the Thracian with the mind magic she developed.
She delved into the mind of the Xanthos sleeping before her and searched for memories that would answer her questions. It didn’t take long at all to get a picture of what lead the Thracian to this moment where he gave up all the power and abilities his new body offered him.
Loneliness.
It was as simple as that. The Thracian whose mind she was reading simply didn’t have anyone back home; he was alone after being changed. His new and frightening appearance drove off all but the closest family and even they had trouble coming to terms with how he looked at times. The reason he didn’t have any other Thracians to seek companionship with was because he lived on the very edge of the area the viral spores rained down on. The fact he was infected at all was a stroke of luck and nothing more.
Ponies were sensitive and social creatures. Even Fluttershy, as introverted as she was, had surrounded herself with many little animals she loved to interact with. It didn’t surprise Emerald at all that the Thracian before her had taken loneliness very badly, enough to push him to abandon all the strengths and gifts his new form gave him.
Pulling away from the mind of the Xanthos, Emerald set to work on reversing his condition. It was a very long process and required pretty much all of her concentration. It was wasn’t easy work at all, and Emerald had been stumped at one point when it came to replacing cells with non-altered ones as most had been touched in some way. Eventually she settled for simply recreating the original body based on memories and how the infected stallion looked. Technically it wouldn’t be his old body, but a brand new one based on the new genes she was putting together. But what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him… hopefully. Eventually Emerald reached the point she was dreading a bit; the brain. The body was simple enough once she solved an issue or two, but the brain had all the memories of the stallion’s life. As much as she knew about brains and mind magic, Emerald simply didn’t know how to change the brain without risking varying levels of memory loss. Thankfully, with some tentative probing, Emerald found the only areas to be changed were the ones intended to handle the enhanced senses. Hopefully the only memory loss would be of their time as Thracians. Time would tell…
After finishing up, Emerald stood back to examine her work with a critical eye. Everything appeared to look right and the Thracian now looked to be just a normal earth pony. Nodding, Emerald turned towards the other Thracians and set to work on them.
The case for the first Thracian was the same for the rest, as Emerald quickly found. Each one of them were infected on the very edges of the area the viral spores rained down on. And each one found themselves feeling incredibly lonely when their appearance drove a majority of their friends away. And so they each were driven to this.
Emerald found that little discovery unpleasant, but in the very least she was almost completely certain that those four would only be among the few. Ponies tend to instinctively gather together to form a sort of “herd”. The same thing happened with the many Thracians. Their appearance may have been off putting to other ponies, but other Thracians were the same as them and in that similarity they were more than willing to form their own private little circles. Likely though, there would still be a handful more Thracians that wanted to be reverted back to their old forms. Emerald just figured they wouldn’t number a whole lot.
“Thank you for this,” Celestia said as Emerald walked over.
“If there is anything more to say, let’s take it back to the storage closet we arrived in,” Emerald replied, keeping her identity secret at the forefront of her mind.
“Once again, I must thank you for your effort in this,” Celestia stated as the two of them returned to the storage closet. “I know this must have taken a lot of work and concentration from you.
“It wasn’t that bad,” Emerald merely stated. “It took a bit of work, but it wasn’t too bad.”
“Yes… I must ask if you are sure there is nothing I can do to help you, Emerald?” Celestia asked with a frown. “Anything to help you and your dogs at all?”
“Princess…” Emerald said with a bit of a tired sigh. “I’m fairly certain letting bygones be bygones concerning the whole looting your nation’s wealth is more than help enough.”
“Objects can be replaced, Emerald,” Celestia said solemnly. “Lives cannot, and half a million Diamond Dogs died because Nidhogg escaped into their nation. Nidhogg was my responsibility and I failed to keep him locked away where he couldn’t hurt innocents.”
Emerald sighed, but she couldn’t understand the guilt Celestia was feeling right now. The deaths were a complete accident on her part. No one had ever escaped Tartarus before, so there wasn’t any precedent for her to worry about such a thing. But then Emerald supposed Celestia felt that she should have thought of such a thing. Well, if the alicorn was so willing to offer help, then Emerald was willing to accept it.
“Well, if you are offering…” Emerald began. “There may be a moment in the future where the Enclave may be forced to reveal ourselves to the world. When that times comes, could you do everything you can to make our transition onto the global stage as smooth as possible?”
“Of course my dear Emerald.” Emerald smiled. “I would not abandon you in such a trying time. I know the difficulties of learning the ways of worldly politics without a teacher and do not wish it upon you since I can help.”
“Thank you, Princess,” Emerald said with a nod. “…Well, if there is nothing else, I should be getting back. The national dessert competition might be still going on. At the very least I don’t want to miss all that cake.”
“No, there is nothing else, Emerald.” Celestia smiled. “You may leave. Go have fun, and tell my student I said hello.”
“Of course,” Emerald replied and disappeared with a pink flash of light.
ZETA
Twilight was walking down the hall of the palace later that day. The competition was over now, and though it was closer than Pinkie thought it would be, the Cakes’ contest entry did manage to win by a single half point. Their train back to Ponyville wouldn’t leave for another two hours, so while the others were passing time in Canterlot, she wanted to visit a special someone she hadn’t seen in many years.
Arriving at the door she was told about, Twilight knocked and waited in barely restrained excitement. A few moments later there was the muffled call of ‘Coming!’ before the door opened. In the doorway stood Princess Cadence, the Alicorn of Love.
“Cadence!” Twilight shouted in glee.
“Twilight!” Cadence returned with equal excitement.
Twilight started hopping in place and it only took Cadence a brief moment to realise what she was doing.
“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake!” Candence and Twilight said together as the two did their special little ‘handshake’. “Clap your hooves and do a little shake!”
“Oh Cadence, it’s been years!” Twilight said happily as she gave her old babysitter a tight hug.
“I missed you too, Twilight,” Cadence said with a bright smile as she returned the hug.
“Do you have time to talk?” Twilight asked after a moment.
“I always have time for you, Twilight,” Cadence said with a smile and stepped aside to let Twilight in. “Just make yourself at home and I’ll make some tea for us to drink.”
Twilight did just that and entered Cadence’s room. As expected of a personal room in the palace, it was a large space with plenty of room. Considering Cadence was expected to live her for years and years, it was made up of more than one room, though the main room consisted of the living room, dining room and kitchen, with a simple divider to mark the kitchen away from the other two rooms. Along with the highly furnished nature of any room in the Royal Palace, Cadence had also obviously taken the liberty of decorating it herself. There was a bit of a heart shape décor going on, but wasn’t as much as Twilight was expecting of Cadence. Seemed the Love Alicorn preferred glass a bit more considering the glass top dining table, coffee table and other glass fixtures and figurines dotting the room.
Twilight took a seat on the lush velvet couch in the living room and enjoyed the feel of the material and how she sunk into the couch a little. After waiting a few minutes, she heard Cadence come in from the kitchen with a levitating tea set just behind her.
“So how have you been in the last few years?” Twilight asked as she poured herself a cup of black tea.
“I’ve been very well, Twilight,” Cadence replied as she took a sip of her own tea. “I’ve been busy doing a lot of personal study here in the palace. The princesses think I might be ready for some serious responsibility soon.”
“That’s fantastic news,” Twilight said. “I’m happy for you.”
“Thank you.” Cadence smiled. “What about you? What have you been up to these last few years?”
“Well at first all I was doing was being cooped up in the royal library,” Twilight said with shrug. “I’m pretty sure you already know about that already. The princess sent me to Ponyville to get out and socialize. At first I didn’t really appreciate the value of this very much. I thought my studies were so much more important. But soon I experienced how important friendship can be, and how strong it can make you, especially after I met another friend at a later point…”
“Friend you say?” Cadence said with a sly, knowing smile and grinned when Twilight blushed. “Oh yes, I’ve heard about it. I believe everypony has heard about you and Emerald Gleaner at least once. Well go on, we can talk about her later.”
“Actually…” Twilight began with a bit of an embarrassed look . “The main reason I wanted to come see you was to talk about her and me.”
“Oh my!” Candence exclaimed with a wide smile. “You want love advice! Tell me everything, Twilight!”
“W-well…” Twilight began. “When we first met, we were just friends… actually no, she came to me as a traveling pony that lived on a day by day basis. We bonded a little over books and when I saw that she was just going to sleep out in the open, I offered my home to her. The next day she went on a short trip that, long story short, had very thoroughly convinced me and a lot of other ponies she had died…”
“It must have been a bit of an awkward moment when she came back,” Cadence commented.
“It was,” Twilight agreed with a nod. “But I was also so happy that my newest friend was alive and well. After hearing about her condition as lacking education, I was made her tutor by Princess Celestia since we were already good friends. Time went on and our friendship grew stronger… I also learned many things about Emerald as time went on. I learned she suffered so much in her life, that she was an orphan, was once a slave made to fight for the enjoyment of others and managed to fight for her freedom…”
“Oh my gosh…” Cadence said and placed her hoof over her mouth. “That’s so terrible.”
“It is.” Twilight nodded, also rather glad Emerald taught her how to speak the truth while keeping secrets hidden. “There was some pretty big ups and downs along the way, but our friendship only grew stronger from the setbacks and eventually, and quite out of the blue, she kissed me.”
“It’s so weird to hear about a mare kissing another mare,” Cadence commented with a curious look
“I get that a lot,” Twilight replied with a smile. “We started dating soon after that, and… well, it was unlike anything I read about. I wasn’t swept off my hooves in a whirlwind of romance, being captivated by one perfectly romantic date after another. I didn’t even feel any real romantic feelings for Emerald until a while after we started dating. We just… did things together and occasionally we would put aside some special time together with just the two of us. But… in the end, it wasn’t much of a change from what we had as friends. Well… other than the kissing and uhh, sharing a bed together…”
“Sharing a bed hmm?” Cadence said with a warm smile. “When did you start that? It’s ever so wonderful to have a special somepony to cuddle up to when you go to sleep.”
“W-we didn’t start sleeping in the same bed for a few months…” Twilight replied and then got a really sad smile on her face that surprised Cadence. “We only started about two months after I had… after I had betrayed her trust and hurt her so badly.”
“What happened?” Cadence asked with concern.
“She… she was having trouble living with her past,” Twilight answered. “I had thought to help. I brought in our closest friends to help. But… it had gone so very wrong and we were… there was a very hard barrier between us afterwards… I’m so lucky she forgave me for it. I could have lost her forever because of my actions, but I didn’t…”
“I take it you didn’t talk to her about it before you went through with your plan?” Cadence asked and shook her head when she received only silence. “Oh Twilight…”
“I learned a lot from that experience,” Twilight said softly. “Communication is key in any healthy relationship. If I had only talked to her about what I had intended to do… so much would be different.”
“You can’t let the past rule you, Twilight,” Cadence said soothingly. “You made a mistake and you were able to salvage your relationship and learn from your mistake. Some ponies don’t have that luck.”
“I know,” Twilight said with a sigh before turning to Cadence. “That’s why I’m here. I want to make sure we are doing alright and if there is anything I should change. If anypony knows anything about love, it’s you.”
“Alright,” Cadence said with a serious look and placed her tea on the tabletop before giving Twilight her full attention. “I’ll ask you a few questions and you have to answer me with total honesty.”
“A-alright,” Twilight said with some nervousness.
“First, do you do things together?” Cadence asked. “Do you have long engaging talks with each other?”
“Well… we do have our own things to do,” Twilight said nervously, tapping the tips of her front hooves together. “But we do like to do things together and with our friends. We have long talks about our studies as well, and about the sciences. We have fun together a lot…”
“Second, when you have arguments, what do you typically argue about?” Cadence asked. “Is it about things like what kind of groceries you need, money for certain luxuries or how the house is kept clean?”
“Umm… when we argue, we don’t argue about stuff like that,” Twilight said softly. “It’s always been about serious stuff like… like how she has so much opportunity to help others but she doesn’t take it and is content to just help herself and let other ponies’ problems solve themselves on their own. She has a big ‘us VS them’ mindset when it comes to ponies she doesn’t know and would rather help her own than strangers. That is what we tend to argue about, though most of the time we just debate the issue.”
“I would like to talk to you about that at some length in the future. It bears some discussion,” Cadence commented.“Now, third, are you both there for each other during times of trial?”
“Yes,” Twilight answered without the slightest hesitation, memories of herself comforting a sleeping Emerald while she had night terrors and how Emerald would always be ready to leap to her aid when she needed it during times of great need and danger.
“Hm…” Cadence said simply and stared at Twilight with a blank expression for the longest moment, so long that Twilight was beginning to feel a bit worried until she smiled. “The two of you are doing perfectly fine.”
“Really?” Twilight said with a happy smile.
“Yes, you two are working well together,” Candence said. “A relationship isn’t all about romantic dates and kisses that sweep you off your hooves. There is a lot of mundane things that could either make or break a relationship. You and Emerald are handling those mundane things very well. I advise you to just keep doing what you are doing. But remember this: a proper relationship is two ponies working together; never against each other.”
“I’ll remember, Cadence,” Twilight replied. “You can count on me.”
“Good!” Cadence smiled. “Now how long are you staying? Do we get to spend the rest of the day together?”
“I’m afraid not,” Twilight said as she looked at the clock. “I have to be at the train station in an hour. I probably should leave right now to make sure I don’t miss my train.”
“That’s too bad.” Cadence pouted a little before smiling again. “That’s alright. I’m fairly certain we’ll see each other very soon.”
“Oh?” Twilight said questioningly.
“You’ll be getting two very special letters soon,” Cadence replied. “Then you’ll get to see what I mean.”
“Now I’m curious and excited,” Twilight said and got off the couch. “I’ll wait until I get these letters then. I’ll see you later, Cadence!”
“You too, Twilight!” Cadence said as she opened the door for Twilight and let her out. “Have a nice trip back to Ponyville! I can’t wait to see Emerald for myself when we next meet!”
“I’ll remember to bring her along next time!”
With that, Cadence closed the door with a smile. Giving a delighted smile at enjoying a visit from a cherished friend, she grabbed the tea set and brought it to the kitchen to clean them. A few minutes later, she had to go to the door again when she heard knocking.
“Oh! Princess Celestia!” Candence said and quickly had to step aside when two delivery ponies pushed into the room with a large crate. “What’s going on?”
“Just some gifts for you, dear,” Celestia said with a smirk that had Cadence giving the princess a double take briefly.
“Gifts?” Cadence repeated and looked at the crate. “You didn’t have to get me anything, Celestia.”
“Nonsense, my dear,” Celestia said and then added in a urging tone. “Why don’t you take a look?”
“Alright…” Cadence said and walked over to the crate and used her magic to open the top before peering inside. What met her eyes was four insectoid black creatures with greenish blue eyes and fangs glaring up at her.
“Wha-” Cadence got out before the four changelings leapt out of the crate at her and she tumbled to the ground with them on her. She quickly looked up at Celestia with a cry of help on her lips when she saw the cruel smirk on the princess’s face and how her eyes flashed green.
-TBC-
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Calling it now. The Changeling Queen does not survive the beating that Emerald gives her.
"Chocolate Mousse Moose"
....i just had cake and now i'm hungry again....
i hope your happy...
and that ending..... i wonder what would happen if Emerald Nommed one of the bad changelings? would her shapeshifting powers get upgraded?
could she learn to control the flames? since they dont seem to hurt...could she make some sort of biological torch?
anyway, keep up the good work as always
Shapeshifter vs Shapeshifter. One is born with the ability and feeds off love, while the other is the definition of 'badass' and is a hyper-lethal, super-intelligent, super-durable virus.
Let the asskicking begin!!
(As soon as the next chapter is out XD)
I can't wait for the next chapter!
Oh, and I want to see what happens when Emmy noms a ling.
This chapter was a tad dull, but I understand that it was to set up the next chapter, so I am satisfied with it, although I wish I didn't have to wait as long as I did for it.
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
The whole next chapter is devoted to the wedding? Those poor, poor little changelings... but I feel the most sorry for whatever poor ponies are scheduled to clean the palace after the wedding. Hope they get overtime.
On a serious note, I'm really curious to see how you will handle the changelings. Based on the themes of this story, and the mention of how ponies seem to naturally segregate anything that 'looks scary' I'm guessing the changelings will be played in a more sympathetic light, where it was more desperation that brought on this invasion feasco rather than it chissy being power hungry- making it all the more poignant when Emerald rides right onto the worlds stage on a wave of green blood.
'Dawww, Sovereign never said he(?) didn't care what Emerald thinks!
i seriously can't wait for the wedding incident. Emerald's gonna fuck up everypony.
Although I feel the changelings came way too soon after Twilight left, I have been looking forward to them. I can't wait to read how you handle the changelings!
That is probably the weirdest way to capture someone I have ever seen. Props for originality though.
I reeally want to see the warhounds fighting the changelings and Emerald beating Chrysalis.
And Tavish DeGroot with a grenade launcher? I see what you did there
Also, Thrid Book? Oh god thank you. For a moment I thought the next chapter was really going to be the very last one
Third book confirmed, huzzah!
(I might have missed an earlier announcement but this confirms it for me, so whatevs)
Emerald needs to eat Chrysalis in front of all the changelings.
Gore you say?
I CAN'T WAIT!
Oh Yeah! Canterlot Wedding coming up! It'll be like Texas Chainsaw Massacre!!!!
In Canterlot!
For Changelings!
Also:
"But… it had gone so very wrong and we were… there was a very hard barrier between us afterwards…"
So hard you could say it was, *takes off sunglasses*, like STONE! OH YEAH!
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Anyway, very nice chapter. It's always a pleasure when you release an update.
My only recommendation is that you pull back on Emerald solving the Mane 6's issues, it's what pulled them together!
It's just that Emerald starting to look a pony version of All-Soap's Miraculous Dye Remover.
This message was brought to you by the All-soap's Company, the miraculous, mystical tonic that removes stains, cures rotfoot and tastes great! It's got what plants crave! Warning: Do Not Drink.
Nooo! why gore and changelings always go together why?
oh well even if Emerald don't do much there are lots of Thracians hidden in plain sight
they could be the ones putting most of the gory gore, poor janitors they can't take a break.
also we learned that Miss Cherilee was nowhere to be fund during the Gabbygums incident
and that we should realize sooner that Pinkie is over protective of cake!
mysteries still unsolved:
were was Rarity on nightmare night?
who are Crackle's parents?
can Emerald get high by smoking some sombra!?
only one way to find out!
Uh-oh
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Chrysalis...
images5.fanpop.com/image/photos/30500000/Queen-Chrysalis-mlp-fim-queen-chrysalis-30583505-629-344.png
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for your utterly defeat and destruction
In b4 emerald eats the queen, gains their hive mind under her control, and brings the changelings to live in the enclave while simultaneously exposing said enclave to equestria/the world. (Or possibly near the enclave anyway).
Also, new changeling character/s that become her friends and possibly try to start repairing their relationship with the ponies. Maybe by living in ponyville.
Spike also falls off his chair enough times to make him suspect that the chairs are against him.
Place yer bets!
Awesome Chapter!
Also, I'm honestly expecting this:
But with Emerald in the place of Superman and the Queen in the place of Darkseid!
Oh, and Emerald’s gonna be kicking some changeling ass next chapter. Bring your torches, pitchforks and an apron for the stains if you have one, and join her in the fun.
*grabs light saber* oh hell yeah its about time FOR THE SWARM
also i am basicly a changling sith
"WHAT CAN YOU PONIES DO AGAINST AN ARMY OF SHAPE-SHIFTERS?! BWA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!" ~Chrysalis probably.
"Send in our own. Emerald sweetie could you come here?" ~ Twilight no doubt.
"I better get double cake for this." ~ Disgruntled virus.
5628629
Nah, more like ant vs boot.
Curse you for setting up a cliffhanger in such a way that we know what happens next but we don't and it just, just good job sir, have a 'stache
Diamond Dog named Tavish with a Scottish accent.
A grenade launcher
Tavish DeGroot, I think I found your counterpart in this equine dimension.
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Chrysalis is going to get her ass KICKED.
Between the Thracians and Emerald, this will be the shortest version of the invasion ever...
Emerald better not kill Chrysalis, or she will meet my Mutalist army. Blacklight is nothing compared to the Technocyte Virus. Afterall, could Blacklight make cold metal one with living flesh?
5628134
Tree x Virus OTP.
5629010 probably could if she were to try.
5629010 Probably. Would be a tad complicated (understatement for anyone who isn't a genius like Emerald), but I don't see why it would be undo-able.
And I am unfamiliar with the Technocyte Virus, perhaps you could brief me on what's so incredible about being metal? It's tougher than flesh, yeah, but ain't tougher than a good carbon weave.
brilliant chapter
5629010
Probably, yeah. Carbon, a metal when solid, is usually what determines the hardness of our skin. Emerald could easily manipulate that.
5629301 Correction, Carbon is not a metal, but can be made to act like one.
Ah, I was wondering what you were doing adding cadence in this early. Poor Chrissy has no idea what she's about to direct her way. Introducing, DD Commandoes and their attack raptors!. Poor changelings. I don't know about you, but I always think of them as feeding off emotions the same way plants feed off of sunlight. I know it's more fun for them to be evil, so the heroes have something to rip apart with reckless abandon, but I just don't see it XD. Actually, I can see you assimilating some changelings into Emeralds Enclave, maybe find an alternate energy source for them, depending on what your head-canon on their biology is.
That being said, I know each author is the God of their universe, so I shall wait (semi[not really])patiently for the next chapter.
5628890 Dude, that's been obvious since I first saw his full name. It's demo's full name. Tavish Degroot. It's why there's a level in TF2 called Degroot Keep. All Legionary is doing at the moment is making it moar obvious. Speaking of which, We need a Solomen D Nier, with a rocket launcher(yes, I'm a fan of waking nightmares). They will make many beautiful explosions together.
I don't think Chrysalis's mind control will work on a being made up of literally thousands of minds.
At least Twilight was able to get some good advice before Cadance was replaced. That's something.
here
minor misspelling
great chapter cannot wait for the last and then next book
I wonder if any channeling where turned into tharcains ,also if chrysails dies does emerald become queen
I hope the Queen survives this encounter.
I have a thing for changelings.
That queen in particular.
But I imagine I will be disappointed, cause this is Emerald we are talking about.
5628514 To be honest, this outcome would be the best in my opinion.
Someone else has likely mentioned it before, but I find myself both anticipating and dreading when the totally-not-Evas wind up getting used. For Canterlot's sake, hopefully Emerald won't find a reason to use them during the wedding.
I have a feeling I'm not gonna like the next chappy
I have one thing to say about the wedding: Emmy, Fuck em up!
5629010 um yeah? She has metal claws, swords, and whip on call. And magic. And hammerfirst, muscle mass, Dragon armor, spider silk chain mail, the entire everfree as an ally an army of supersoldiers with guns galore an unlimited amount of food. Fire breathing, spine shooting super dinosaurs on her side. What do you have agian? And don't say a hulk she's probably got those too, somewhere.
5630021 I think you fail to mention that she also can fight other virus at their level,
and metal thanks to dragon DNA is now part of the menu.
5629003 Actually, now I am curious what will happen when the changelings come into contact with the Thracians.
Also the fact the Twilight has seen Candence recently is a real changer to the premise of the wedding arc.
Emerald with stand by her and probably be able to sense that "Candence" isn't a pony. Some may not like her but everyone takes her seriously.
They would not so easily blow off what she says. Also, Twilight is less likely to be as immature as she is in the show about this due to all she has been through related to Emerald. She will probably be doing what she can to hold Emerald from the slaughter.
5630178 True... but I'm sure we're all looking forwards to the EPIC plot-kicking that's coming.
I get the feeling that the Thracians are about to show their mettle, amongst other things...
5628304
That would probably make Emerald the defacto new queen. And I figure after eating one or two changelings, Emerald will be able to create a new fruit tree that will feed changelings.
5629754
Chrysalis should survive, and become highly infatuated with Emerald. That would lead to much amusement.
5629257
I said nothing about the Technocyte Virus making beings metal, but it can infest and control mechanical objects. She would need time, a resource she wouldn't have if she kills Chrysalis.
5630021
What do I have? A planet controlled by the Technocyte, billions of soldiers, millennia old Orokin Derelicts, immortality, a beast that is feared by the Corpus, Grineer, and the Lotus, and the ability to create more with hive ships in only a few hours. Emerald has what, a few hundred thousand Diamond Dogs?