Chapter 9: Man's Best Friend
“… So Pinkie Pie, of course, decided to be their babysitter,” Twilight stated. Her voice had an odd reverbing effect to it. “I don’t doubt her intentions, but I don’t think she knows just how much trouble two young foals can cause.”
Emerald lied on the ground; she hadn’t changed her position since she had fallen to the ground upon arriving in this sealed world. Yet strangely, Emerald had found her surroundings change at one point, from outside in the gardens to some room in the palace; apparently her statue in the outside world had been moved.
The virus smiled as she listened to Twilight recount another little adventure one of their friends had happened upon. She had been in this empty, thickly foggy place for a month now and when she had initially started her time here, she was utterly furious and hurt by Twilight’s actions. So when she started hearing Twilight voice speak to her from outside, she had shouted insults and hate to the heavens. However, it soon became apparent that while she could hear Twilight, Twilight could not hear her. So she was left to continue lying on the ground, crying bitter tears as she listened to Twilight cry and sob about how sorry she was and had never intended for her to be sealed. The first day of this, Emerald stayed coldly indifferent, but when the following week had nothing but Twilight cry and ask for forgiveness, Emerald couldn’t help but feel her initial anger for being sealed crumble away to nothing. In the face of Twilight’s heartfelt guilt and depression for several days, she ended up forgiving her, and then when it continued on for another half week Emerald, started hating herself for causing Twilight to feel this way, as backward as it seemed.
Thankfully, all things come to an end and the rest of the month, Twilight had appeared to feel better enough to not suddenly burst into tears most of the time. She came by almost every day to share with Emerald what had happened while she was gone. Most of the time it was mundane things like how sad and lazy Navi was, or what books she read all that day, but there was one or two exciting things that had happened in her absence.
“She managed to get the hang of it in the end, thankfully,” Twilight said with a sigh. “… I miss you so much Emerald, and so does everypony else. I’m thankful that Discord told us you can actually hear us so we can keep you company. I have to go now, but I’ll be back in three days to tell you what else happened, okay? See you, Emerald…”
Emerald could hear Twilight’s hooves on the hard floor as she walked away and soon she was alone in the gray silence of this place. Occasionally she’d hear one of the princesses talking, but she always felt a great sense of total apathy unless it was Twilight that was talking. Speaking of apathy, she seemed to have a lot of it as the time between conversations seemed to just fly right by. Emerald could have sworn she had only just been sealed about a day ago, and yet already a whole month had passed.
‘I wonder… could whole years pass in this place, and would I even notice it?’ Emerald thought, her expression a mask of dispassion. ‘I guess that would make sense as otherwise Discord would be rather crazy when he was finally freed after a thou-’
Suddenly Emerald’s eyes widened in realization and an image suddenly flashed across her mind. It was of Twilight, only much older. Coat wrinkled and mane gray like Granny Smith, she hobbled over to Emerald’s petrified form in the virus’ mental image. The old vision of Twilight’s imagined future came to a stop beside the statue and shared with it one final story and giving it a chaste kiss upon its stony cheek before curling up at its feet. After a few moments, the now elderly imagining of Twilight gave a sigh before passing on.
With a snarling hiss, Emerald picked herself up off the ground, smashing her hooves into the floor as she did so. She took stock of her surroundings like a wild animal surrounded by predators.
‘I will NOT be here that long!’ Emerald thought in defiance. ‘I will get out of here! I will be free!’
Emerald had no idea how to go about freeing herself, but this world represented that of the seal, right? It may have been a copy of Equestria, but it wasn’t her Equestria, so she felt no guilt at all when she exploded in a storm of tendrils and started tearing through the palace.
The palace wasn’t the only target of her destruction, either. Tendrils shot deep into the ground and high up through the floors of the palace before reaching out into the sky. The tendrils in the ground took advantage of the dragon genes and started consuming the very rock and dirt to make more viral material as the tendrils in the sky did the same, taking in air and moisture to grow ever larger and spread further.
As tendrils twisted and pierced the entirety of the palace and began to reach towards the empty city, the whole of Emerald’s being recoiled as if struck.
‘Gah!’ Horrific memories of Emerald’s past began to surge through her mind, including more than a few she had kept separated from her psyche for her own mental wellbeing. Obviously she was doing what she wasn’t supposed to, and the seal was reacting, attempting to make her stop. But that wasn’t going to work. The fact that the seal was reacting meant she was going in the right direction regarding breaking the seal and getting free.
‘Twilight… my friends… I’ll get back to all of you…’ Emerald thought and focused on her good memories she had in Equestria, muscling her way past the horrible memories raining down upon her like rain. ‘But honestly… if only the Elements actually did redeem me, things would be so much easier… and happier…’
ALPHA
Belvedere stood off to the side, observing along with some gunsmiths as a Warhound readied to use an experimental gun.
Wearing the mass production dragon scale armor, the dog went through the process of giving his gun the proper checks before firing it down the firing range. The gun itself was an overly large, blocky thing. Merely looking at it, one could tell its inner workings were perhaps more complicated than it ought to have been.
The dog then proceeded to raise the blocky rifle to his shoulder and sighted the targets downrange. With a squeeze of the trigger, a loud burst of gunfire erupted from the gun’s muzzle. With only half a second’s fire time, there was suddenly a loud cracking sound and the dog immediately held the gun away from him. After a few moments of nothing happening, he then proceeded to gingerly lay the gun on the floor.
“Least it didn’t explode in a shower of shrapnel this time!” Missy smiled with grin as her fellow gunsmiths walked over to take a look at the jammed gun. “Any day now and we’ll have our first automatics! Won’t the boss be proud of us!?”
“I’m sure she’ll find our progress very impressive,” Belvedere replied somewhat aloofly.
“What’s the matter?” Missy asked.
“Emerald hasn’t contacted us in a month,” Belvedere stated. “We don’t need our paws held, but this length of time without her checking in on us… it’s a bit troubling.”
“Maybe you just worry too much?” Missy suggested.
“Maybe you don’t worry enough?” Belvedere replied before turning away. “I’m going to go investigate this and make sure nothing is wrong. Good luck in fixing the issues in the gun.”
Leaving the firing range, Belvedere walked into the hallway lit by candles. One thing that had gotten Belvedere rather worried about Emerald’s disappearance was the fact she was the largest source of electricity. Thankfully they had some rather basic steam turbines set up and a mountain worth of coal to fuel them with. However, those steam turbines were never meant to power the whole of the Enclave. As a result, power was being diverted to vital areas while they built more of them to power the rest of the Hub.
‘She stays in Ponyville whenever she isn’t here,’ Belvedere thought as he stepped out into the streets of the Enclave. ‘Course she has other things to do besides living in Ponyville. It may be that she had to go somewhere for an extended amount of time and just couldn’t get a message to us… still, I’d like to think she would make sure we were prepared for her extended leave and knew of it. Well, if I can’t find her in Ponyville, I should be able to find Twilight Sparkle there.’
“Belvedere!” came a shout, and soon a Warhound ran into sight.
“What is it?” Belvedere said.
“Those pod things the boss made are acting up!” the dog shouted.
“Show me,” Belvedere commanded and took off at a run after the dog.
A few minutes later, Belvedere found himself being lead into the large cavern containing the dozens upon dozens of fleshy pods. The sounds of muffled calls echoed through the cavern, clear in their feelings of loneliness and gloom.
“Hmm… sounds like the infant creatures miss their mother,” Belvedere stated. “I’ll be getting started on finding her right away. Until then, I want you gather some of the matrons and get them down here to sing them a few songs. Hopefully that’ll sooth these creatures until Emerald returns.”
“Right!” the dog said and took off at a run.
‘Right, let’s move tracking down Emerald or Twilight up the schedule a bit,’ Belvedere thought.
BETA
Twilight walked out of the palace gates and into the streets of Canterlot.
She had finished another talking session with Emerald’s statue and now had to head to her parent’s house in Canterlot. She was a bit worried about what would come of this. She hadn’t really heard from her family since her relationship with Emerald had gone public… which wasn’t at all different from before actually, but she had expected to get a letter expressing their reaction or something concerning her and Emerald, yet there was nothing. Maybe they just accepted as it happened or kept their reaction to themselves? Well, she would be finding out soon enough.
Walking through the streets of Canterlot, Twilight’s attention was caught by a stand that had magazines and newspapers. Glancing over the magazines of Fluer De Lis posing somewhat in the same fashion as Emerald, she took a look over the cover article. ‘EMERALD GLEANER, MISSING AGAIN?’ read the newspaper, and Twilight could only shake her head as she continued on her way. A ton of people had come to see her when Emerald had fallen out of the public eye for too long. Personally, she thought she deflected their questions of saying where Emerald was by telling them she wasn’t there.
Before long, Twilight found herself at her parent’s house.
“Hello!” Twilight called out as she entered. “Mom? Dad? I’m here!”
“Twilight!” Twilight Velvet called out as she rounded the corner and smiled at her daughter. “It’s been so long! Come here!”
“Hi mom.” Twilight smiled and closed the distance, giving Velvet a tight hug when she reached her.
“It’s nice you managed to make it, Twilight. Just go take a seat in the living room,” Velvet said. “I’ll go get your father in a moment.”
Twilight listened to her mother and went on her way to the living room. The room hadn’t changed much since the last time she had seen it, but there was one thing different about it.
“Oh, hello,” Twilight greeted the unicorn sitting on the living room couch. “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“No, we haven’t.” The unicorn smiled at her warmly. He was a red unicorn with a white mane and had a cutie mark of a grid with numbers and letters. “My name is Hex. Nice to finally meet you, Twilight Sparkle. Your parents told me a lot about you.”
“Oh? I can’t say they did the same for me.” Twilight blinked.
“Hey there sweetie,” Night Light said as he entered the living room with Velvet.
“Hi dad.” Twilight smiled and gave her father a tight hug as well. “It’s nice to see you again after so long.”
“Me too, Twilight.” Night Light replied. “I see you met Hex already. Hope you two are already getting along.”
“Oh… we only just introduced ourselves,” Twilight said while looking back at Hex. “… What’s going on?”
“Well…” Velvet began, sharing a look with her husband. “Your father and I heard about what’s been going on between you and Emerald.”
“… Going on?” Twilight said with some confusion. Unless one of her friends let out their rather significant secret, her parent shouldn’t have had any idea of what was going on.
“Yes, we heard about Emerald running off,” Velvet said in a tone that Twilight felt get under her skin. “And how you were left so badly with a broken heart you were… very sad about it for half a month.”
“We know something happened, Twilight,” Night Light began with an understanding smile. “And that Emerald left you. We decided to wait a while before giving you a helping hoof in romance.”
Twilight stood there in silence for a long moment before beginning to look back between Hex and her parents. They thought that Emerald had broken up with her, had just run off somewhere and left her broken hearted; that it was Emerald’s fault instead of hers. After a futile moment of trying to keep calm, despite her sudden spike of insulted anger, Twilight snapped.
“ I can’t BELIEVE you two!” Twilight shouted to everyone’s surprise.
“T-Twilight?” Velvet blinked in some alarm.
“You don’t know what happened! You don’t know the whole story!” Twilight shouted. “Emerald and I, the both of us had something special; something nopony else had! A-and… and… and I ru-ruined it! I b-betrayed her… the first pony I’ve ever been with and ever kissed and I h-hurt her…”
“Twilight… I didn’t know.” Velvet said as her daughter burst into tears. “Come here, sweetheart.”
Attempting to wipe away her tears, Twilight approached her parent and was pulled into an embrace. Off to the side, Hex awkwardly got up off the couch he was sitting on and made his way to the exit as the family had a moment.
“Right, I suppose I’m not welcome anymore so uh, I’ll just… yeah…” Hex muttered and quietly left the room.
GAMMA
The next morning found Twilight Sparkle a few miles outside of Ponyville. She had spent the night at her parents but didn’t get much sleep. Leaving a note for her parents, Twilight left Canterlot early in the morning and just made her way home to Ponyville on foot.
‘Nothing seems to be going well…’ Twilight sighed. ‘But I only have myself to blame, don’t I? Dear Celestia, Emerald, I hope you can see it in your heart to forgive me for what I did.’
As Twilight continued to walk along the road, there was a sudden rumble she felt beneath her hooves. She paused for a brief moment and looked down when there was an explosion of dirt and a pair of black arms rushed out to grab her. Before she could shout in shock, she was pulled down and she felt a falling sensation before finding herself standing in a cloud of dust. Completely disorientated by the sudden movement, she shook her head as the cloud dissipated.
“I apologise for the sudden ‘kidnapping’, but you realise we aren’t exactly popular around here,” a voice said that made Twilight feel like her heart was in her throat.
In front of her was Belvedere from the Enclave. He was flanked by two of Emerald’s Warhounds and one was even by her own side and brushing off a bit of dirt that had collected in her sudden movement. She dreaded coming to see Belvedere again and knew it was coming. After what had happened with Emerald, Twilight could only guess what Belvedere’s reaction to her being sealed would be… Though at the very least, Twilight didn’t tell the princesses about the Enclave, out of a desire to not further betray Emerald then she already did.
“H-hello Belvedere,” Twilight greeted in nervous anticipation of what he would surely ask.
“Greetings.” The Alpha nodded. “It’s been little over a month since we’ve last been in contact with Emerald. Perhaps I am being overly concerned, but I wish to know where she is.”
“E-Emerald is g-gone…” Twilight answered.
“Gone where?” Belvedere was now looking rather more severe than usual as he felt there was something wrong. “What has happened to her?”
“She was s-sealed by the Elements of Harmony…” Twilight answered.
“Sealed by the what? Wait…” Belvedere narrowed his eyes. “I’ve heard of them. They were the artifacts that sealed one of your princesses in the moon and the Spirit of Chaos in stone, right?”
“Yes…”
“What happened?” the dog demanded sternly.
“I… I tried to help her…” Twilight said ashamedly. “They were supposed to redeem her, b-but they sealed her away… I-I didn’t mean for that to happen. I was o-only trying to h-help.”
The Warhounds were now very tense and the dog that was helping her before was now stepping away from her with a soft growl. Belvedere, however, was completely quiet and his expression was blank as he stared down Twilight, which served to unnerve and frighten the unicorn as she expected clear anger.
After a moment of utter silence, Belvedere’s expression twisted into one of pure rage and he quickly grabbed the handle of his revolver.
“AHHHH!” Twilight screamed out in pain as the massive hunk of metal that was Belvedere’s revolver impacted with her face. She immediately crumbled to the ground, hooves to her nose as blood started to flow and stained her face along with the ground. She looked up at the Diamond Dog that struck her through tearing eyes from her position on the floor.
Belvedere still had that look of utter fury on his face, but it quickly cleared and he took a long breath, the paw holding the revolver gripping almost painfully tight. The Alpha then regained his iconic look as he appeared to relax, a concerned frown.
“It goes without saying…” Belvedere began, his voice nearly betraying his attempt to look calm by showing his anger. “That you are no longer welcome in the Enclave.”
Twilight just mutely nodded at the dog from her spot on floor, still clutching her heavily bleeding nose.
“Good… get out of my sight,” Belvedere stated and the unicorn nodded again, soon disappearing in a flash.
“My cousin was right!” one of the Warhounds growled. “That pony was untrustworthy! She betrayed us! We should have taken her prisoner instead of letting her go!”
“She would have been missed,” Belvedere stated as he crossed his arms and stared at the floor in thought. “She is a very public figure in Ponyville, being Celestia’s personal student.”
“What’s to stop her from telling that princess of theirs about us?” another Warhound asked. “What’s to say she hasn’t said anything already?”
“Herself,” Belvedere stated. “She was the picture of guilt. Considering that we haven’t seen any guard activity around the Everfree beyond the average, I think it may be safe to say she hasn’t said anything.”
“What do we do now?” the last Warhound asked.
“Boss sprung me from Alcoltraz,” the first Warhound stated with a proud thump of his chest. “I say we return the favour and spring her too!”
“We must do it smartly,” Belvedere stated, agreeing immediately. “I don’t think they’ll be holding someone like Emerald in Alcoltraz. Considering where Discord was kept after they sealed him, they might be holding her in the palace as well. That means we’ll have the princesses to deal with. Two goddesses and our own answer to them is now imprisoned. We must use what she taught us if we wish to succeed.”
“Speed,” a Warhound stated.
“Fight unfairly.” Another cracked his knuckles.
“Brutality.” The final one gripped his rifle tightly.
“We return to the Enclave immediately,” Belvedere ordered. “There is much to do and plan if want to succeed, and I don’t think we are going to get second shot if we fail.”
With a bark of acknowledgement, the Warhounds broke into a run into the tunnels with Belvedere a few steps behind.
DELTA
“Good day, Princess Celestia!” a unicorn in a lab coat greeted elatedly.
“Hello, apologies for not taking the time to check up on your team’s progress earlier,” Celestia replied. “But my duties have left me very busy.”
Princess Celestia was at a medical lab in Canterlot. A team of Equestria’s top scientists had been gathered together to work on a project directed towards the Thracians and their biology, the study of which would hopefully lead to a cure to their “condition”. They’d been at it for several months now, and Celestia was dearly hoping they may have made some form of breakthrough in that brief amount of time.
“It’s no trouble at all, your highness!” The pony smiled excitedly. “I’m absolutely ecstatic you are here now, though! There are so many wondrous discoveries we’ve made since we’ve started studying the biology of the Thracian ponies. And if you’ll just follow me, I’ll show you what we have documented so far.”
“Very well. Lead the way,” Celestia replied.
“Right this way, your majesty. I’ll even be able to show you some of our other specimens,” The scientist stated excitedly, and Celestia wondered what he had meant by specimens.
Soon the two were walking down a sterile hall, which had large windows to show the inner courtyard of the medical lab. Celestia blinked at the scene in the park that was the courtyard of the labs. Sitting right in the center of the park was this massive tree. It had bark like a normal tree, but it’s branches were definitely something else. Large club like limbs, instead of long slender ones, stuck out of the trunk. They had branches as well, but they stuck out of the clubs a lot like spikes.
“I’ve never seen such a tree before,” Celestia remarked as she studied the tree. “Where did you find it?”
“This tree is but one of a few other specimens that have appeared since the day of the black dust,” the scientist answered. “And it is no simple tree. Watch.”
The scientist’s horn started glowing and a box construct formed in the park. It then slowly moved through the air and towards the tree. As soon as the box got within a certain distance, the tree came to life with movement. One of its large club like limbs was reared back and quickly brought down upon the magical construct with a loud boom and an impact that Celestia felt.
“That is quite dangerous,” Celestia stated with a frown. “I hope nopony has been hurt by such trees.”
“None so far, your highness,” the scientist reassured.
“How did you ever retrieve such a tree?” Celestia questioned.
“It appears to be sentient to a currently unknown degree,” the unicorn responded. “A little filly loved to climb around that very tree before it was transformed, and it remembered that. When we dug it up for transport, she had to be there every step of the way to keep it from lashing out at us. It also isn’t the only thing we have that was altered. If you’ll just direct your attention over there your majesty.”
Celestia looked over to the side of the courtyard and what met her eyes was a huge wolf like creature that appeared to be napping on the ground. It had a mouth full of sharp teeth and its fur was very wild and bristly looking. The princess thought that this creature was fearsome and wondered why it wasn’t kept in a kennel of some sort, when another pony approached it.
Immediately, the large wolf like creature shot to its paws. But instead of snarling at the approaching pony like Celestia expected, it started panting and wagging its tail. The pony lifted up a large tub of what appeared to be dog food and was immediately bowled over by the happy wolf, which starting licking the somewhat struggling pony affectionately.
“He’s a nice boy,” the scientist remarked. “He doesn’t know his size and strength all too well, but still a nice dog. We’ve decided to call these a ‘Whomping Willow’ and ‘Warg’ respectively. We have a few other examples of altered specimens, but let’s focus on the reason you are here.”
The two continued on down the hall and soon found themselves in a large lab filled with medical equipment, vials and other scientists. One wall had a large chalk board covering it. The board had a rough drawing of what must have been a Thracian’s biology, along with arrows pointing to several points of the picture, and leading back to observations written down.
“Foresight, could you bring that folder I had set aside earlier?” the scientist called out to one of his fellows.
“Right away, Script.” The mare nodded before walking off to the other side of the room.
“Now what you see here is what we understand of Thracian biology as of today,” Script stated as he gestured to the chalkboard. “From our studies of- and samples taken from- a volunteer, we’ve learned much about them. First of all, their bones are not made of calcium; they are made out of some other material that is far harder than normal bone, quite possibly reaching the strength of some metals. Their musculature is far denser and, like the bone, is tougher as well, though not as strong as the bone. Their eyes are incredibly complex and can see on a wide number of spectrums, and their inner ear is also very advanced, practically making getting dizzy impossible. They also appear to have some sort of adaptive regeneration. We had to bring in another volunteer after a while, as the incisions we made would progressively heal faster and faster as time went on. There was some talk of testing that ability, but understandably none of us were willing to go that far to learn that particular fact. Other than those, you already know the rest; sharp teeth, wild manes, slitted eyes, rather short tempers.”
Foresight then returned with the folder Script requested and handed it to him.
“Thank you, Foresight. Now, onwards to our observations of each particular ‘sub-specie’ of Thracian ponies,” Script continued. “Lampon are easily spotted by their iconic dagger like horns, but those very horns are also made of an entirely different material than normal horns. From what we’ve discovered, the horns allow greater flow of magic and better focus, further boosting a Lampon’s already impressive magic. Podargos can have one of two types of wings; scaly or blades. The wings, like a Lampon’s horn, appear to boost a Podargos’ flying skills. However, there also appears to be a potency discrepancy between those with scaly and bladed wings. The few individuals with bladed wings are noticeably faster and skilled in the air than their already incredibly fast scaled winged fellows… plus those wings can very much double as weapons and they are sharp, let me tell you… Ahem, carrying on to our final study, we have the Xanthos. The Earth Pony variant of Thracian is very straight forward, being just incredibly strong and tough, though we have come across reports of Xanthos having gained a sort of sixth sense for plants and animals, able to induce faster growth or tame respectively.”
“And what about the Deinos?” Celestia questioned. “Have you not learned any more from them?”
“Quite simply, Princess… we have not,” Script said with a sigh. “We’ve only been able to make some basic observations. The Deinos for some reason are all rather reluctant- sometimes even hostile- to our requests for a volunteer. Considering they all possess rather incredible power and have an even shorter temper then the other Thracians, we are rather hesitant to urge them further.”
“For what possible reason could they react in such a way?” Celestia frowned. “Perhaps it is time I have spoken with the Deinos personally.”
“It couldn’t hurt… you that is,” Script stated with a smirk. “We here at the labs are all rather squishy compared to the Thracians.”
“Jokes aside, I highly doubt they would get violent, my dear Script,” Celestia stated. “May I ask about the folder you are holding?”
“This folder is for you, actually,” Script answered and held out the folder to Celestia. “It is a version of everything we have learned through our studies, put in much simpler terms.”
“Ah, thank you,” Celestia replied and took the folder. “Now, what is the progress on the cure for the Thracians.”
“We’ve been learning so much from the Thracians, your highness, half of which is about our own limits, I’m afraid,” Script answered. “We simply do not understand enough about genetics, and that fact is thrown in our face practically every time we try to advance towards that goal. We’ve studied their cells a lot, and they appear to vastly differ from a pony’s cell, to the point that some of my colleagues have started to call them an entirely different species from ponies now. But without seeing just how true that is, and how much has changed, we simply cannot reverse it safely.”
“That… is quite disheartening news to hear.” Celestia frowned. “How long do you believe before the science of genetics will be developed enough that you’ll start seeing progress towards your team’s goal?”
“Honestly? It could be decades, your highness,” Script replied. “There’s no real concrete time frame when it comes to technological development. A pony may discover a breakthrough, or a team may just slog through problems via the scientific method in a lengthy period of time.”
“Decades? That’s… horrible to hear.” Celestia sighed sadly. “I was hoping to help my ponies in a much more timely manner… it’s such a long time for the Thracians to wait.”
“I know, but nothing more can be done, your highness,” Script replied with a sympathetic frown.
“Yes, you are right. Thank you for the update in what your team currently knows, Script,” Celestia said. “I shall be looking through this folder in the near future. I shall be off now. I still have many duties to attend to.”
EPSILON
Belvedere stared down at the table before him, covered in plans, blueprints and notes. Also at the table was Tavish, Bluno and Fenrir.
“Aye, the little lass did a fine job,” Tavish Degroot commented as he studied the various papers. “Stole the blueprints for the palace, snuck into the palace and stole the guard schedule and, with a little help from some mane and coat dye and some paint, she even openly questioned a few guards.”
Belvedere nodded in agreement with Tavish’s assessment. Whisper Wind had done a ton of work in a short amount of time and deserved commendation for it. Honestly, he was a bit worried she may feel some sort of loyalty to the ponies, but she only understandably hesitated a bit before doing as she was asked. No doubt the pony got plenty of the rush and excitement she desired from infiltrating both the City Hall and the Royal Guard HQ.
“My friend does good work, doesn’t she?” Bluno asked with a grin before looking down at the blueprints. “The palace doesn’t look reinforced like Alcoltraz was against undermining… the part that actually sits on a stone ledge, anyway. We’re going to have to plan out a breaching route once we discover the boss’ location, cause we can’t really do anything with open air.”
“Definitely. Where they put Emerald will either ease our breach or make it exceedingly difficult,” Belvedere stated. “I’m hoping beyond hope she’ll be in some sort of vault or cell carved into the mountain, but I am expecting the room to probably be at the top of one of the spires furthest from the mountain.”
“Aw, now that ain’t so much of a problem then, lad,” Tavish said with a big, toothy smile. “We got plenty o’ explosives and I expect the lass to be made of sterner stuff than that tower; enough to survive a several hundred foot fall, anyways.”
“And we just scoop her out of the ruins and go!” Bluno added with a smile of his own.
“I was making an example,” Belvedere stated with utter seriousness. “She could be anywhere in the palace and another factor we must keep in mind at all costs: we do not have Emerald with us. Obvious, I know, but this means we can NOT go toe to toe with the princesses and expect to succeed. This must be planned out carefully; I fully expect to get one real chance at it, and only one chance. We must not fail. We owe Emerald total success and nothing less.”
That sobered up Tavish and the always jovial Bluno quickly, as a silence followed and dominated the room as Fenrir leaned over the table and studied the papers intently.
“Hmm… has this Whisper Wind manage to get any hint of where our young Principem is being held?” Fenrir questioned as he loomed in the Warhound armor he seemed to always wear.
“Whisper hasn’t found any hint of it.” Bluno shook his head. “But she did find out the staff is hiring and says she plans on infiltrating the palace further through this.”
“I’m beginning to understand why that mare was caught despite her natural talent,” Belvedere muttered. “Skill can’t always account for sheer audacity.”
“She can do it,” Bluno stated confidently.
“We can only hope for the best,” Belvedere merely replied.
“I have an idea for finding leads on Emerald’s whereabouts and whether she is even being held in the palace,” Fenrir said. “Looking at this schedule, I can see that a few guards are going on vacation time. If we kidnap a few of them for questioning, it will be a much longer period of time before anyone at the palace starts to get suspicious.”
“I can agree with this plan,” Belvedere stated before frowning even more than usual. “It leaves a bad taste in my mouth to go back to kidnapping ponies, but our paws have been forced. We’ll have Whisper scout out a few during the day and have our best scouts observe them in the night. We’ll take the ones that interact socially the least. That’ll give us an even larger time frame. We’ll also do what Emerald did for those two unicorns we captured. We’ll make sure they never see our faces or truly know where they are being held.”
“Before we go making grand plans all willy nilly, maybe we ought to figure out a way to handle our biggest obstacle first; those goddesses of theirs. I’ve fought plenty o’ things in my time, but I think a bit more than a clunk over the head with me staff is required here.”
“I have another plan for that as well,” Fenrir answered as he crossed his arms. “We take more hostages, not just ponies we need for information; just run of the mill ponies straight off the street and from all walks of life. We hold them over the heads of the princesses and force them to cede to our demands.”
“A risky plan, but… it seems to be the one with greatest chance of success,” Belvedere stated.
“Bloody ruthless is what it is!” Tavish said with a bark before smirking. “I like it! We can even use those guards we’ll kidnap to find out any habits or big events the princesses have or are going to attend. That way, we can plan around, maybe even avoid them altogether.”
“Right,” Belvedere agreed. “Hmm… I think I have something as well to make the hostage plan potentially more successful, but it’s going to require literally several tons of dynamite.”
“Ah ha! Explosives!” Tavish said gleefully. “Let’s hear this little idea of yours, lad! I’m itching to find out!”
“Well first of all, we are going to stockpile as many explosives as possible,” Belvedere began. “Then we are…”
ZETA
Time Turner sighed into his drink of crème soda. He was outside a diner with his circle of friends that now included Rose Locks.
The earth pony hadn’t completely gotten over Emerald, and it was showing. It was hard to not understand why, either. He was unlucky when it came to love, and Emerald was the closest that he had ever come with a mare; so much so that he had begun to wonder if it would become something more all those months ago at that fateful night of the gala.
Bon Bon and Lyra were sitting opposite their long-time friend and looking worried, as was the usual when he got like this. Rose Lock, however, wasn’t trying to comfort Time Turner like before. Now she just started to look annoyed.
It had been several months now, and Time Turner was still mooning over Emerald. The mare couldn’t help but feel a spike of anger and jealously for that fact. So much so that it overrode her desire to comfort the stallion.
“I wonder where she is this time?” Time Turner wondered aloud. “Probably having a grand time on some vacation somewhere…”
“Okay, enough is enough, mister!” Rose shouted and grabbed Time by his collar. “You’ve been moping and sighing about her for long enough! There are plenty of other mares in the world, you know!”
“I’ve tried… loads of times…” Time muttered. “I never get very far. A second or third date if I’m lucky. The dozens I’ve had with Emerald were by far the most dates I’ve had with any single mare.”
“Well maybe you just need to find the right mare,” Rose replied. “Like, oh, I don’t know, me?”
“Wh-what?” Time said with wide eyes. “Bu-but why would-”
“No buts!” Rose said imperiously. “You are going to take me on a date later, it’ll be at a nice restaurant and you are going to treat me very well like the gentlecolt I know you are.”
Time Turner just blinked as he sat in his seat, staring listlessly at Rose. After a moment, the mare gave a huff and left the table before walking down the street with her head held high in the air.
“Uh-uhhh…” Time Turner began as he looked back and forth from the departing Rose and his other friends who were also staring with wide eyes. “D-do you think I should go after her or- actually, I’ll just go right now, yeah…”
At that, Time Turner took off at a quick trot after Rose Locks, intent to catch up to her. Bon Bon and Lyra continued to stare after the two for a moment longer before shooting each other delighted grins and bursting into laughter.
“Called it!” Lyra shouted triumphantly.
“Yes you did, Lyra.” Bon Bon smiled at her friend. “You actually managed to ‘call it’ for once.”
Lyra was proceeding to do a little happy dance in her seat when a voice sounded from above them.
“U-uh h-hey guys,” a familiar voice said nervously.
Bon Bon and Lyra looked up and gasped at what met their sight. It was Clockwork, but he was changed. Like many other ponies, he had been altered by the black dust and made into a Thracian. His coat… it seemed darker, but it wasn’t. It looked like it had gained a grayish tinge, but his mane was definitely darker, turned such a darker shade of brown it was hard to tell if it wasn’t really just black now. His eyes were slitted, but they were an icy, piercing shade of blue and rimmed with black. Whether it was the result of a lack of sleep or of his change couldn’t be certain. And like most podargos, his wings were scaly.
“H-hi. Been a while, huh?” Clock Work said nervously.
“Darn right it’s been a while!” Lyra shouted to a visible flinch from Clock Work. “Where the hay have you been, Clock Work? We’ve been worried and wondering about you!”
“You… you were?” Clock said in surprise and lighted down on the ground before them. “I was fine… I was just worried you’d react badly when you saw that I was… well, this.”
“Pfft. Clock, stop being a stupid colt and sit down. We’ve got awesome news to share with you!” Lyra said with a massive grin.
“Really? What is it?” Clock asked as he took a seat, he didn’t find the fact Lyra was brushing aside his concerns over his appearance so brashly to be insulting. He actually liked the fact that it seemed to matter so little to her.
“It’s about Timer Turner and Rose Locks.” Bon Bon smiled as she leaned in to stage whisper. “They’re a couple now!”
“So Time finally got over Emerald enough to notice Rose mooning over him, huh?” Clock Work stated with a chuckle.
“Oh no, she had to take matters into her own hooves.” Bon Bon smiled. “Wouldn’t call what she was doing mooning, but she wasn’t exactly subtle with the amount of attention and comfort she was offering him.”
“Honestly, I can’t blame the guy for how long he was stuck on Emerald,” Clock said. “I was there for a number of the fashion shows she was modeling in. Let me tell you, she is a sight to behold no matter what she is wearing when she is coming down the catwalk. She never let her status go to her head either; she liked to talk with the backstage staff and the makeup artists a lot.”
“Did you have a thing for her too?” Lyra asked.
“Sort of,” Clock answered with wave of his hoof. “Emerald is a beautiful mare. Couldn’t help but have a crush on her. But it was only recently that we managed to start getting to know each other and become friends. I can definitely say I am firmly on the friend side of the spectrum.”
“So how are you doing, Clock Work?” Bon Bon asked with some concern and worry. “Has your change affected your life beyond the expected?”
“Well it’s lucky I don’t work in front of the stage, and only behind or under it,” Clock Work said with a good humored smile. “The industry I work in is all about vanity, and my looks aren’t exactly appealing to its tastes.”
“Well I think you look pretty awesome!” Lyra said and walked over to study Clock’s appearance. “And those teeth.How sharp are they? Can you bite metal stuff?”
“I found out that fact by accident!” Clock Work said with a smile before baring his teeth so Lyra could look closely at the mouth full of razor sharp canines. “I was drinking a bit of soda and I was still getting used to my new senses. Something startled me, I don’t know what, but I ended up literally eating a chunk of the can when I bit down in surprise.”
“Oh, were you okay?” Bon Bon asked as Lyra marveled at the Thracian’s teeth with sparkling eyes.
“Oh yeah, I swallowed the metal, but I never had an upset stomach from it, surprisingly,” Clock answered.
“Hey, what about these sweet looking wings?” Lyra questioned.
“Ah! I wouldn’t poke at the edges if I were you!” Clock warned as the mare appeared, about to do exactly that. “They aren’t blade wings, but they still have an edge!”
“Sweet~”
Bon Bon just shook her head as she watched Lyra and Clock Work interact. Looking up towards the sky, she found herself wondering about the one friend she hadn’t seen in over a month.
‘I wonder where you are, Emerald?’ Bon Bon thought. ‘Even last time, you weren’t gone this long. I hope nothing has gone wrong.’
ETA
Pinkie Pie stared up almost listlessly from her position on the park bench.
Anyone who even had passing acquaintanceship of Pinkie would know that seeing her this way would be a big warning sign. And that very thing had happened before, but Pinkie just wanted time to think and ponder serious stuff. After all, it’s not all the time that you find out that your bestest best friend is a killer, now is it?
‘Killing is horrible…’ Pinkie Pie thought as she watched the cloud drift by in the sky. ‘It’s an unforgivable crime and whoever does it doesn’t deserve a party ever again. But… Emmy isn’t a bad pony. She’s just… troubled. Gosh, is that what I’m going to call it? Troubled? She killed hundreds, not just back home, but here as well. How am I supposed to take that? How is anypony supposed to take the fact that their friend is a killer?’
Pinkie watched as an orange and yellow streak trailing lightning flashed through the sky, closely followed by a rainbow colored one. She had never done this kind of serious thinking before, but then again she had never really encountered something like this; someone close to her basically being a villain? But then again, her being a villain wasn’t her fault. It was all Mercer’s fault. It was Mercer that preyed on Emerald when she was desperate and gave her a horribly cruel decision. It was because of him that Emerald went through so many horrible things and had to get used to it.
‘Oh Emmy, you are such a strong pony,’ Pinkie thought with a sigh as she watched the two streaks dance far above her. ‘Twilight says you don’t think so, but you are. I don’t know how many ponies could go through what you did and push on for survival despite the horror of it all.’
Pinkie Pie then wondered if she could have pulled through what Emerald did? Could she look in the face of evil and deny it for the prospect of homelessness and starvation? Was she strong enough to go through what Emerald did and not only survive, but grow stronger in darker ways to ensure she continued to survive?
‘I-I don’t know… but I know I definitely wouldn’t be the same pony I was before it,’ Pinkie thought with a shudder. A dark vision of herself flashed through her mind, glaring and blood splattered, curly mane now long and straight and bright pink colors dulled. ‘Oh gosh, Emerald. How horrible it must be for you. I know you are a good pony deep down and these horrible acts you committed must be eating away at you. I hope you don’t have too much of a grudge against us, too. I know Twilight and the rest of us betrayed your trust with what we did… there is really nothing that can be said to excuse what we did, isn’t there? Only the hope that the Elements would work and that they would redeem you and free you of guilt. But they didn’t. They did to you what they did to Discord and Princess Luna… what is up with that, anyway? Discord ain’t so bad once he’s been around Fluttershy for a while, and Luna had this thing possessing her. Why didn’t they just help them? Peace and love. Isn’t that what harmony is all about?’
‘I don’t know about magic stuff…’ Pinkie Pie huffed in annoyance. ‘But the princesses know a lot of magic stuff and even they don’t even know how the Elements work. They don’t really seem that nice anymore…’
‘Emmy…’ Pinkie thought as there was a dull boom and the rainbow streak raced ahead of the orange and red one. ‘You were putting a lot of effort into becoming a better person. When you come back, I’ll be right there by your side to help you out. That’s a Pinkie Promise.’
THETA
It had been a solid month since the day Belvedere found out about Emerald’s sealing, and much had been done.
The vacationing guards had been kidnapped as planned, and much had been learned from questioning the lot of them. Celestia was going to be entertaining a few foreign politicians in a few days, and from the guards knew, she was going to be taking them into one of the forbidden areas to show them something. Whisper Wind was now a maid working at the palace and knew a number of forbidden areas Emerald may be held in. There was a chance, however small, that Celestia was going to show the foreigners Emerald’s holding area, and if that was the case, he wanted Whisper in position to tail her.
As for their tunneling beneath Canterlot, their set up of a tunnel network was made intensely easier via the existence of a crystal strewn series of caverns beneath the capital. Thanks to these caverns, the deployed Warhounds were able to get their tunneling done in record time and set about preparing a number of possible breaching entrances into the palace.
“Is this the rest of it?” Belvedere asked, now wearing his black dragon scale armor.
“Yes it is,” Fenrir replied as he motioned to the bright red barrels of TNT. “We just need to get these in position as well, and all the explosives are set.”
“Good,” Belvedere stated as some dogs walked over to pick up the TNT barrels. “Let’s get started on some basic planning for the breach. I think I should go along with the breaching team and the team should be made up of Warhounds that Emerald had augmented.”
“Hmph. If this goes wrong, we could be robbed of two leaders instead of just one you realise?” Fenrir stated and crossed his arms.
“I know, but as acting leader of the Enclave, I should be the one to issue the demands to Celestia’s face,” Belvedere stated.
“It’s stupid and risky is what it is, lad!” Tavish hollered as he strolled over in his own suit of dragon scale armor. “Better to leave the grunt work to us and have you at the back like a proper commander.”
“But I’m not a commander, now am I?” Belvedere simply stated. “I am acting leader.”
“HA! You make a fine alpha, lad!” Tavish said with a wide toothy smile. “Success or failure, I’ll be making sure you make it back, lad. No pack should be without at least one competent alpha.”
“Hmph. I suppose I don’t count as competent?” Fenrir commented with a huff. “You never seemed to be listening when you were told to respect your elders, Tavish.”
“Bah, the both of us know how to do one thing and one thing only!” Tavish stated and waved his war staff pointedly. “The lad here knows how to run a nation and that takes a bit more skill than waving a weapon at something till it gives up.”
“Point,” Fenrir admitted after a moment.
There was one thing that had Belvedere worried, though. From what they knew from the kidnapped guards, Emerald had been spotted going into the palace but not coming out. They could have moved her to some other location and their whole assumption of Celestia deciding to keep Emerald nearby could be a whole waste of time, with quite possibly dear costs.
‘No, Emerald is famous and since there hasn’t been some massive announcement about who she really is, then Celestia wants to play this close to her chest,’ Belvedere thought intently. ‘She wouldn’t want to chance her statue being revealed while in transit to some other location. She may be able to simply wave it off as a normal statue, but I doubt Emerald was in a normal statue appropriate pose when she was sealed.’
Belvedere looked up towards the ceiling and towards the city above with a grave stare.
‘You helped me- helped us- become something so much more. You helped regain our old glories and go on to surpass them,’ Belvedere thought seriously. ‘I will help you now that you need it most.’
IOTA
In the two months she had spent in this prison of hers, Emerald had spent the first doing nothing and the latter changing the world.
Some people talked about how the Red Zone would look like a whole different planet in a few months. Emerald had managed it in a month. Canterlot and the mountain had been subsumed completely in viral matter, which had spread far beyond. Massive tendril stalks stretched out into the sky, absorbing air moisture and air as they grew by the countless thousands and far beyond the clouds. More tendrils spread out below, consuming and transforming miles and miles of earth into viral matter, to the point that the whole of Equestria was now all viral matter, building and all.
Emerald didn’t know if she was actually doing anything, but she didn’t know what else to do and just continued on with single-minded determination. It wasn’t exactly easy. Turning the false Equestria into a viral hell scape was a horrifyingly easy task, but while she was working, she was assaulted by horrible memories the entire time. It was a struggle at times to continue to fight onwards; if she had eyes, she would be crying a constant stream of tears and sometimes she felt a near overpowering urge just to give in and curl up on the ground. But she metaphorically clawed and crawled for life, clinging to the happy memories she had experienced in Equestria.
‘I-I-I don’t blame them for b-betraying me…’ Emerald thought. ‘I’m a selfish killer, a thief, a destroyer of lives. Why do I deserve a happy ending while my victims and their families pay the price? But they haven’t abandoned me, despite the truth. I hear them sometimes along with Twilight’s many visits and I just finished saying I am selfish… a monster always struggles for life and I guess I’m audacious for wanting more than to simply live. I know I don’t deserve that happiness, but I am going to go ahead and reach for it anyway.’
Emerald’s tendrils consuming the landscape were now reaching beyond all of this false Equestria’s borders. Deep below, tendrils reached beyond the crust and started to dig into the molten mass of the mantle. Tendrils reached the coast and dived into the ocean and released countless billions of viral matter into the sea, rapidly converting water into more viral matter. The massive tendril stalks reaching into the sky were now being covered with frost as they started to reach into the upper most reaches of the atmosphere before space. Suddenly, all attempts to reach beyond Equestria, below, above and beyond stopped.
Emerald frowned internally. She felt some sort of barrier blocking her attempts to expand further. The more she forced against this barrier, however, Emerald found it did have give to it, ever so slight though it was. Taking this as sign that she actually was making great progress in freeing herself, she redoubled her efforts, the elation she felt seemed to tear through the horrible memories assaulting her and rendered them nigh useless.
“Foul, murderous creature!” a voice suddenly boomed and startled Emerald into inaction briefly. “Alien contamination and destroyer of the grand path! You must stay here, where you will cause no further damage to the path! Struggle no more, if the sentiments of those you consider friends mean anything you will remain!”
Emerald paused at this. It was true that this world was obviously not meant for her, and for the first time since arriving here she wondered what would have happened if she had never come. A near instant later, she shook the thought out of her mind and went back to work on the barrier. What ifs and maybes didn’t matter, especially in a time and place like this. Freedom was obviously in reach and she would be damned if she didn’t take it.
A million mouths opened upon the continental mass that was now Emerald and her voice sprung from them all at once.
“Fuck off, I’m leaving.”
There was a deafening scream of indignant rage as Emerald went back to work. If the virus had been paying attention, she would have noticed the assault of horrific memories had redoubled, but she hadn’t. Why would she have?
After all, freedom was within reach.
KAPPA
Belvedere took in a deep breath to calm himself from the sense of rising excitement. He was in the caverns under Canterlot, having taken to staying and sleeping there until they failed or succeeded in their plot. As of right now, he was sitting against a wall while wearing his armor.
Today would be a day of action; he could feel it. He had acted on this feeling and several squads of Warhounds were in place to begin rapidly kidnapping ponies for use as bargaining chips. More squads were at the ready with TNT plungers and scouts were in position to relay orders and messages as quickly as possible throughout the tunnels and even Canterlot.
And now it was a matter of simply waiting for updates from Whisper Wind. The former thief had managed to infiltrate a few of the forbidden areas of the palace. One was a dusty library with a sleepy librarian and another simply had a mirror in it. There were a few other rooms that were forbidden, but Belvedere was hoping that Whisper Wind tailing the princess as she lead some politicians to one forbidden area would give them the breakthrough they were hoping for.
“Oy lad!” Tavish shouted as he suddenly appeared from one tunnel. “It’s time!”
Belvedere was on his feet in an instant and quickly running after Tavish as the dog quickly ran back the way he came. Soon, Belvedere arrived in a room were all the augmented dogs were awaiting in their gear and guns.
“Alright, tell me what’s happened,” Belvedere stated as he gave a look over his own gear one last time.
“The little lass managed to overhear something that the politicians said,” Tavish responded. “Apparently they are here to see ‘The Monster’ that Celestia told them about.”
“The monster, huh?” Belvedere stated with a frown. One of Emerald’s forms was known as the Monster of Everfree. “That’s as far as confirmation straight from the source as we’ll ever get, I believe.”
“Whisper’s been following them and from what she can see, they are heading straight for a vault carved inside the mountain,” Tavish said with a grin.
“Well isn’t that unfortunate,” Belvedere said with a rare grin of his own. “It’s time! Tell everyone to get ready and to start collecting as many hostages as possible!”
“Right boss!” some Warhounds barked and quickly took off at a sprint to spread the news.
“Let’s get ourselves in position to breach this vault,” Belvedere stated grimly. “It’s about time I’ve had a few words with this goddess of theirs.”
“Right behind you, Belvedere,” Fenrir stated as the greyhound took the lead.
As Belvedere ran down several tunnels to get into position in one of the many tunnels, he pondered the situation. He was about to break into the domain of a goddess and not only make demands of her, but use threats of force and hostages to make her give in. This was definitely a far cry from over a year ago when he was a borderline starved alpha leading a small group of dogs on mining expeditions and slave raids. But that very fact made him more determined than ever to force Celestia into returning Emerald to them. She changed their lives and helped them without them asking her of it. It was time they did the same.
Arriving in the tunnel next to the palace, Belvedere and his Warhounds moved along it until they reached the approximate position next to the vault. The Warhounds set to work quickly. Merely setting an ear against the wall, they could tell no one was in the room and so they quickly excavated around the vault. Once done, they then waited until Celestia arrived; they didn’t have long to wait.
Belvedere heard the sound of talking and footsteps upon a hard floor through the wall that had an ear pressed against. He turned towards the Warhounds around him and simply nodded his head.
All the augmented Warhounds were now very strong thanks to Emerald’s augmentations. Because of that, all of them just had to raise their arms above their heads and bring them down once to shatter the walls of the vault.
Belvedere leapt forward the moment an opening was made, quickly followed by the Warhounds. Their breaching placed them at quite a height and this room seemed to be rather tall. Belvedere fell ten feet and rolled upon impacting the ground, coming to a stand before a wide eyed Princess Celestia as the other Warhound just dropped down onto the floor with a soft bang.
To Celestia’s perspective, she was talking to two people when the walls near the ceiling suddenly exploded out and a storm of armored Diamond Dogs seemed to teleport into the room, all of them appearing rather muscular with a slender one now practically right in her face.
Belvedere took in his surroundings quickly as he grasped his revolver for a sense of security in the face of the task before him. The room was large, square and fairly plain in stark contrast to the grandiose hall that lead into the large barred door and the room. The two politicians that Celestia had been talking to were griffins. One was fairly large, easily a full head above Celestia and had a grey coat of fur along with black feathers on his head and wings. The feathers on his head appeared a bit on the unkempt side with how wild they appeared. He wore a dark blue braided doublet made of fine materials and had a polished gray steel crown upon his head that seemed to double as a sort of helmet. Said crown also had a gem that Belvedere knew was a storm sapphire from the way the lightning danced within upon its front. The other griffin was far smaller than the first, more pony sized, and had a light brown coat along with darker brown feathers. He wore a light blue and white hooded robe, streaked decoratively with lightning and bore a claw made of lightning upon its back. Though the larger griffin only looked guarded, the little one was very shocked looking and stared with wide eyes at the scene before through the tiny pair of spectacles sitting upon his beak.
Belvedere looked over his shoulder and saw Emerald’s statue sitting in the middle of the room, her expression frozen in one of pain and betrayal. The very sight of the look on her face made Belvedere’s paw tighten around his revolver.
Quickly getting a hold of himself, the greyhound focused his attention on the task at hand. Before he began speaking, however, he noticed that Celestia was eyeing the Warhound’s weapons with wide eyes; she knew what they were.
“Princess Celestia,” Belvedere began. “I am Belvedere. I am an Alpha of the Diamond Dogs. I am here to demand Emerald Gleaner’s release.”
“I’m afraid I cannot comply with your demands,” Celestia replied.
“I knew that would be your response. Know that we are now holding many dozens of ponies hostage and have placed TNT throughout your city,” Belvedere said grimly. “Again, we demand that you release Emerald Gleaner. And make no mistake. If you try to resist or apprehend us here and now, it will make no difference with the hostages we possess and bombs we have planted.”
“Please, you don’t understand,” Celestia began, eyes wide with worry. “I cannot free Emerald. I’ve tried to do so! I simply can’t do it.”
“A likely story,” Belvedere stated and took a step closer as the large griffin shot Celestia a sharp look. “I do not believe you.”
Celestia was about to retort when she noticed the large griffin began to move his wings slightly in preparation for a Storm Wing attack.
“Please don’t do anything,” Celestia said to him quickly. “Let me handle this.”
Having his preparation to attack revealed brought a scowl out of the griffin, and several dogs focused their large rifles on him. Fenrir in particular stepped forward.
“Don’t try anything,” he warned.
“And you think a cannon as puny as that can do anything more than sting me?” the griffin challenged with a scoff.
“This is no cannon,” Fenrir simply stated and kept his rifle aligned with the griffin’s head.
Down the hall, a familiar person peered quietly around the corner and spied the situation in the vault with a frown; it was Discord. Ponies being held hostage and bombs planted all over Canterlot? That sounded rather… distressing. For those who had to worry about them anyway.
Just before Discord was about to lean back out of sight, he suddenly stopped. The image of Fluttershy smiling and offering a cup of tea flashed through his mind. Discord tapped his finger on the wall for a few moments and hummed with thought. Then, with a sigh, the Draconequis leaned back around the corner and raised a hand, ready to snap his fingers.
Back in the vault, the situation only seemed to grow ever tenser, with Belvedere beginning to feel angry at Celestia denying his demand and Celestia growing increasingly worried at Belvedere’s insistence. Suddenly, there was a loud crack that made everyone turn towards the source of the noise.
It was Emerald’s statue, which now had a large crack running along the side of it. There was more cracking noises as marks began to spider web throughout Emerald’s statue. There was a long, silent moment as everyone stared at the cracking statue when there was a loud explosion and blinding flash of light.
When the light faded and everyone turned to look back at Emerald’s statue, they saw the virus standing there, free of her seal. For the first time ever, she actually looked tired. She was panting, her mane and coat looked ragged and her eyelids were drooping. After a few moments of panting, she fixed Belvedere with a tired stare.
“… I heard what you said before, Belvedere,” Emerald stated tiredly. “Stand down, release your hostages and dismantle the explosives. Pack up and return to base.”
“Are you sure?” Belvedere questioned, throwing a glance towards Celestia. “She did seal you before…”
“It won’t happen again, will it?” Emerald said, first to Belvedere, then to Celestia with a steady stare.
“No, dear Emerald, it won’t.” Celestia shook her head.
Getting the feeling that Emerald wouldn’t appreciate her orders being questioned more, Belvedere simply nodded and gestured to the other dogs who began climbing back up the walls and into the holes. He made his way as well, but came to a stop beside Emerald.
“If you need us…” he began.
“I know where to find you,” Emerald reassured. “Be sure to close up the holes when you leave.”
With that, Belvedere made his leave and the breaches in the wall closed with a rumble soon after.
Emerald approached Celestia and looked at the griffins to her side and just behind her. Taking their appearance in for a few moments, Emerald looked back to Celestia.
“Who are they?” she questioned.
“I am the Grand Prince of the Griffin Principalities,” the Grand Prince answered for Celestia. “And you… you killed many of my people.”
“I did,” Emerald simply stated and moved to stand in front of him. “And as you just saw, I also broke free of the Elements of Harmony’s sealing through my own power. What do you intend to do?”
The tall griffin simply stared and was silent for a long moment. He was subtle and had a good poker face, but Emerald could see the look in his eyes; he was thinking intently. What did he know? How much did he know? Emerald didn’t know, but she was going to assume he knew exactly what kind of power he was dealing with.
“Celestia… I shall hold true to my side of the bargain,” the Grand Prince simply stated to the utter shock of his griffin companion. “Come, we are leaving.”
The other griffin stared in disbelief at his liege’s decision before quickly moving after him. When they passed the vault door, however, the smaller griffin paused and shot Emerald an unreadable look before continuing after the Grand Prince.
‘When you have a choice between a fight you can’t win and not fighting that fight at all…’ Emerald thought as she stared after the griffins. ‘You bite down your pride and don’t fight.’
“Emerald?” Celestia said as she stepped beside the virus.
“Why do they know anything about me?” Emerald asked neutrally.
“… Ever since that… event in the Everfree with the Griffin Prince and his knights, trade relations between Equestria and the Principality has deteriorated,” Celestia stated with a sigh. “Trade prices increased and Equestria in the state it’s in can’t afford the prosperous trade it used to enjoy with the Principality. In exchange for showing him the Monster that slayed his griffins, the Grand Prince promised better trade rates, and his secrecy.”
“… I don’t blame you for that,” Emerald said quietly, though inwardly she did feel some bitterness over being exposed like that. “After all, I am the reason why Equestria is in the state it is.”
“I had to do what was best for all my ponies, Emerald,” Celestia stated softly.
“And I am not a pony,” Emerald said with a nod.
“Emerald, what you are doesn’t matter in the least,” Celestia said in gentle rebuke.
“Even if I’m a murderer?” Emerald said hollowly, looking at the Princess out of the corner of her eye.
“Emerald…” Celestia sighed and shook her head; she didn’t how to respond to that. “You appear rather tired. There is a sitting room nearby.”
“…I am tired.” Emerald nodded and followed after Celestia when began to lead the way. “…Princess?”
“Yes?” Celestia said as the two of them left the vault.
“Could you get Twilight to come here?” Emerald asked. “I would like to see her very much.”
“Of course, Emerald,” Celestia said and pointed towards a pair of double doors. “This is the sitting room. Take a seat inside and I’ll go send the letter. I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Emerald opened the doors as Celestia walked off to find some parchment and an open window. The sitting room was simply a carpeted chamber of the palace filled with armchairs, couches and love seats. One wall was lined with windows that stretched to the ceiling and allowed the afternoon sun to shine in.
Emerald simply flopped into the first piece of furniture she could reach, a love seat with its back to the door. She stayed on the couch with her eyes closed, stuck in a limbo between being awake and wanting to drift away, but knowing what would happen if she did. After several long minutes, she heard someone walk into the room.
“Emerald?” Celestia said quietly. “Are you asleep?”
“You know I don’t sleep,” Emerald stated and opened her eyes.
“I also know that you do sleep, sometimes,” Celestia replied as she took a seat on an opposing armchair.
“And get horrific nightmares whenever I do,” Emerald said bluntly.
“From what my sister tells me, you typically get nightmares when they are trying to tell you something,” Celestia stated gently.
“I know what my nightmares are telling me,” Emerald scowled angrily. “I don’t need to get tormented every time I sleep to get the message.”
Celestia remained quiet and let Emerald’s anger sieve for a few moments.
“I suppose there is something you want to talk about?” Emerald said after a few moments.
“Do you have any plans for the future?” Celestia asked.
“I… don’t,” Emerald answered. “My plan was to become the strongest around here, so that I wouldn’t be threatened by anything… now that I’ve mostly accomplished that, I’m kind of aimless. I suppose my plan is just to take things as they come, one day at a time.”
“Hmm… what of your past?” Celestia asked. “May I ask how you feel about the time you spent in Mercer’s ‘employ’?”
“Guilty,” Emerald said with a sigh. “I’ve always felt guilty and probably always will for the things I’ve done in order to survive. But at the same time, I did those things because I did them to survive. As terrible as all my actions were in the past, I’d still do them again if it meant survival.”
“Does that mean if you were given the choice again, you would choose to kill the griffins?” Celestia asked curiously.
“…Oh,” Emerald said with a deeply unhappy frown. “That is one thing I would change… God damn it all! Why was I so weak? Why couldn’t I have-”
“It’s easy for one to assume acts of heroism would come easily in times of stress and burden,” Celestia said. “That one would rise to the challenge and face evil head on with courage. It never occurs to one that they may not be the knight in shining armor and may be driven to selfish acts.”
“It doesn’t excuse what I did, and a pony would not have done what I did in the first place,” Emerald stated and faced Celestia. “And you know it.”
“Perhaps, but like you have said, you aren’t a pony and it would hardly be fair to expect you to work by our social standards and norms,” Celestia said gently. “None of us were born on a world without compassion like yours.”
“There is compassion, though,” Emerald protested.
“From the people, and I am glad you can still see that,” Celestia smiled. “The world itself could hardly care.”
“Just because my life sucks doesn’t mean everyone else’s does as well,” Emerald said softly. “For everything that’s happened, I only have myself to blame. When I arrived in this world, I could have just settled down and lived a peaceful and mundane life. Did I do that? No. I let my fear of those stronger than me drive me to acts of brutality. Twilight told you that I nearly killed her when I first met her, right?”
“That she did,” Celestia replied with no emotion.
“Yeah, not my proudest moment.” Emerald smiled remorsefully. “It took me reminding myself that Mercer, who I saw die, was dead to keep me from ultimately following through with it. It’s all thanks to her. If it was just me, I don’t know what depths I could have continued to fall to, but she stopped me from falling further. She helped me get back up and see a reason to be happy again. They all helped me to be happy again. And most of the time, I was hoping one of them would suffer a horrible accident so I didn’t have to be bothered with getting rid of them myself. Oh god… I never wanted to be this way… I just wanted to be a baker when I grew up.”
Celestia was silent, simply letting Emerald vent and confess. Suddenly, there was a short knock at the door. Knowing who it would be, Celestia called for them to come in.
“You may enter!” the princess said.
“Princess Celestia?” Twilight said as she opened the door and closed it behind her. “I got your letter. What did you wish to see me about?”
“Come over here, my dear Twilight,” Celestia beckoned with a smile as Twilight couldn’t see Emerald due to the couch’s positioning. “I believe you’ll like what I have here to show you.”
“Oh… what is it, princess?” Twilight asked as she came closer and stepped in front of the couch Emerald was lying in.
“Hey there, Twilight,” Emerald greeted with a tired smile. “Happy Hearts and Hooves Day…”
“Oh my gosh… Emerald!” Twilight exclaimed in shock with wide eyes.
A long moment of silence followed as Twilight simply stood in place and stared at Emerald, looking like she was on the verge of crying. After a few moments of appearing to fight it, she finally let tears start to flow.
“E-Emerald, I’m s-so sor-” Twilight began.
“Shhh… it’s alright, Twilight,” Emerald said and magically pulled Twilight onto the couch with her. “I heard everything you said to me while I was sealed. Nothing more needs to be said.”
“…Please?” Twilight simply said as she lied against Emerald.
After a moment, Emerald nodded.
“I’m so sorry, Emerald,” Twilight apologised. “I never intended for this to happen. All I wanted to do was to help you and make it so we didn’t have anything to worry about. I just wanted to help. I never meant to seal you away for so long…”
Emerald held onto Twilight as she apologised for her actions. While this was happening, Celestia decided it was best to give the two some privacy and left the room. This continued on for a minute longer before Twilight finished her apologising and she just enjoyed having Emerald back. After a while, Emerald felt like she was actually beginning to drift off when she heard a voice.
“Hey there, boss,” said what must have been Whisper Wind in disguise. She was wearing a maid’s uniform, but her coat was yellow and her mane was varying shades of dark blue; likely her cutie mark had been altered as well with paint. “Sorry to disturb you and all, but there’s some stuff going on back home that kinda needs you to look at it.”
“What’s going on?” Emerald asked as she continued to hold Twilight.
“You know those pods you made?” Whisper said. “They’ve started crying a while back and we had to get some of the old nannies to sing to them every day. We think they miss you.”
“Right, I’ll handle it right now. Twilight, I’m sorry but I have to go,” Emerald said and gave the unicorn a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll see you later back home at the library, okay?”
Twilight nodded and Emerald disappeared in a flash of light. Then it was just Twilight lying on the loveseat Emerald had vacated, and Whisper Wind leaning over the back of it. The former thief’s expression grew unfriendly the moment Emerald disappeared and Twilight knew the reason why.
“You are so bucking lucky you still have her. You know that, right?” Whisper Wind scowled. “You stabbed her in the back with the excuse of trying to help her. You sure as hay don’t deserve her.”
“…I know,” Twilight said, averting her eyes away from Whisper.
“Guess this means you get to come back to the Enclave again, I suppose,” Whisper said unhappily. “Don’t expect anyone to give you a warm welcoming.”
“I know… I’m sorry…”
Whisper shook her head with a scoff and turned away and left out the door, closing it with a bang behind her.
Twilight continued to lie on the loveseat and curled up with an unhappy sigh.
LAMBDA
‘So lonely… where is mommy?’ the creature thought unhappily.
It had been so long since mommy had last visited them. There were others who sang songs that made him and his brothers and sisters feel better, but they weren’t mommy. They were nice and said comforting things, but their presence didn’t give the rush of warmth and happiness that mommy’s presence did.
Suddenly, the creature could hear the sound of footsteps and wondered what songs it would hear today.
“Hey there, heard you guys missed me?” a familiar voice said.
‘Mommy!’ the creature thought and let out a happy call, hearing its brothers and sisters let happy croons of their own.
“It’s okay, I’m here now,” Mommy said comfortingly. “You guys are getting bigger. Won’t be long before you get to get out of those pods and walk around. Figure I ought to stay in here for a while. You know, to make it up to everyone for being gone so long. I heard they were singing to you, too. Maybe I should do that as well? Let’s see… what would be a good song? Alright, I have one. I’ll just conjure an instrument here, alright… There’s a monster that lives underneath your bed~”
There were calls of happiness and excitement following that announcement but the creature didn’t really care about that too much in this moment. Mommy was back and that was the only thing that mattered.
“There’s a creature a lurks behind the door~” Emerald continued to sing. “Though I’ve checked there fifteen times~ When I leave, he then arrives every night~”
MU
By the time Emerald arrived back at the library, it was already midnight. Comforting her creatures took a good few hours. On top of that was finding out what Belvedere had been up to in her absence. She didn’t hold any of it against him, and found his loyalty touching, but it was still all a rather large mess that Emerald had to figure out how to fix. When it started to get late, she decided she left Twilight alone long enough and made her way home via teleport.
Entering the library, Emerald wasn’t surprised in the least to find it dark and quiet. In all likelihood, everyone was now asleep. Making her way up the stairs, Emerald walked into Twilight’s bedroom to find her fast asleep like she thought. Over on her bedside table was Navi, also fast asleep in her tiny little bed and wearing her little green sleeping cap.
The virus turned to walk down into the library to read the night away when a voice stopped her.
“Emerald?” Twilight said and turned over to face the virus. “Welcome home… could you sleep with me?”
Emerald blinked and stood frozen in spot for a moment before quickly shaking it off.
‘She’s a pony, remember?’ Emerald reminded herself. ‘She’s asking you to sleep beside her, not have sex with her.’
“Sure, Twilight.” Emerald smiled softly and walked over. “Move over a little.”
Emerald slipped under the covers after Twilight moved over for her and the unicorn then curled up next to Emerald. The virus smiled and wrapped an arm around her, and before long she could hear Twilight’s breath and heartbeat slow as she fell asleep.
‘Must have been waiting for me,’ Emerald thought with a small smile before frowning. ‘Everyone knows now; the girls, Princesses Luna and Celestia. What do I do? How I do I handle this? Are they still going to treat me like a friend or are things going to be different between us? How is Luna going to react? Am I still going to be her student?’
Emerald didn’t know the answers to any of these questions. And wondering just what tomorrow had to bring had her worried all night.
-TBC-
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FIRST!! Suck it Brandon, I told you I love this story more!!!!!
This chapter was executed flawlessly. I have to give you props for it.
(Although I would rather not wait another month for another chapter)
~Crystalline Electrostatic~
I like the way Emerald escaped, that was very interesting. Also, I was in the bath when this updated (I read on my ipod in the tub), and immediately forgot whatever I was reading and opened up the new chapter!
I giggled like a school girl when i saw this come out. Now that i read it I can only say one thing: I was hoping for a fight scene. That's just my bloodlust side speaking though, so in other words this chapter was perfect.
I'm not going to lie I did expect this chapter to be more... well... bloody but it's still a good chapter.
I am actually glad that you give the background ponies time. It is nice to see the effects of Emerald beyond the main and important characters. After all, the little people matter too.
Great path huh...utterly destroyed...I wonder if the wedding invasion will even take place...
5287068 hey! When in doubt, FUCK SHIT UP!
5286893 I don't know who Brandon is, but I love this story a lot too!
So emerald doesn't hate them….well that’s one crisis averted… I honestly don’t know whether to feel disappointed or extremely relived…
I’ll go with relived. It means where this story will go will be more of a mystery.
The griffins are obviously going to play another part in this later on; along with that ‘harmony’ voice.
I cant help but wonder how the dogs will react to this… They are going to feel pretty dam conflicted that’s for sure. And now the Enclave is probably going to have to come out into the world soon and being led by the ‘Monster of the everfree’ probably won’t earn them any political points… and at the same time it definitely will.
I cant help but wonder if Celestia's tune would be a little different if Emerald wasn't so powerful.
did trying to quantify pinkies thoughts melt your HHD? Is that why the chapter took a little more time?
And just this once I will end with one rare little note of criticism. It would have been nice if you had shown Emerald slowly coming to terms with her situation rather than just telling us she did. Your tact for subtlety pulled it off, but I’m just putting it out that it would have been nice.
I feel..... indifferent towards this chapter. It just felt that not a lot came from Emeralds sealing.
Moar...moar... please... I need this to live... Damn I have become addicted to this story. I still love this and will always love it. Amazing work!
Although i will continue to read on, i felt this chapter was far to forgiving. Makes me feel like that gigantic betrayal of trust that felt like a huge game changer....changed little. I like how glimmer broke free, and the dog jail break, but everything ending so happily makes me feel like this chapter is off somehow.
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Just pointing out that this seems to be another part of the lead up to the actually consequences, not the payoff. Looks like Lege has thrown us another curve ball....
And quite allot came of it actually...
The Enclave now will be known to the world. Or they will be very, very soon. How do you think the other world nations will react to a 'renegade' state that has assess to technology way ahead of anything they have, and is lead by a creature who's very existence fuckes the old statusque of power?
The griffins know the ‘monster of the everfree’ is free again, and I don’t think they will like that very much. Hell a whole side story could be told from their perspective in this mess.
The princesses know the truth. Nuff said...
Twilight and Emerald may have reconciled, but we have yet to see how every one of the main 6 feels about her. So far we’ve only seen two and both feel sorry for her. That might imply something about how the others feel.
And the dogs are probably going to have an interesting reaction to Twilight after all that’s happened. A lot of them have well established dislike of ponies before. How do you think they will feel towards her now?
Plus its the first time Emerald has been 'wrong' while leading the Diamond dogs. It may lead to some of them questioning her a little more in the future.
And not to mention that the Element 'spirit' hasn't had its final say in this.
And Emerald may have 'forgiven' Twilight in the sense she isn't currently in a homicidal rage... Weather she will actually trust her again is another matter.
So, the very world itself demands that Emerald die or be sealed away? Fuck the world. Whatever "Path" it demands to stay on can suck it; independent thought and motivation are more important than some big scheme.
5287368 Heh heh, you know me far too well. I play the long game, most people are used to the short game but that's not how I'm writing the story. I have a plan, an extensive one and only AEF will stop me from fulfilling it.
I enjoyed the chapter, but I'm on the 'Emmie was WAY too forgiving' side. At the least she could pulled a 'I need time to think' and left to stew a bit longer.
I look forward to the Griffon assassins she'll end up eating though.
I thought there would have been a bit more insanity in Emeralds head while she was a statue. Oh well I really like this chapter anyway. This is great an I would expect no less from my second favorite series. (First is Hard Reset) But it is a really close race.
Seems to me that she missed an opportunity to score some points with a great counter-argument, like: "They want me free, too, so fuck off, I'm leaving."
I love the Voltaire lyrics though! Thanks for the video link, 5287161
5287393 Well then, I suppose i'll have to wait and see the true outcome. Good. Still feel the reconciliation felt odd, but i am a vindictive person, so it might just be me and my love of revenge. All that aside, good work.
5287368 Sure, all of what you said is true, but as i said, i feel slightly underwhelmed with the outcome of this conflict, i expect more of a reaction to my love attempting to brainwash me, only to fail and seal me in stone for 2 months (which would drive anyone crazy regardless of having someone to listen to every couple of days). If i gave all of my trust into one person, told them i'm trying to be a better person and they say 'lol nope i'm gonna be brainwashing you now' i expect more than 'Now i feel bad for her mistake of that seals me in stone for 2 months'. You are entitled to your opinion, as am i. Emerald just feels... i don't know how to put it.
5287536
How can you be underwhelmed with an 'outcome' that isn't actually an outcome?
About to go to bed, then you updated. What is sleep?
So... much... Harry Potter references!!!
PS; What exactly are the creatures that Emerald created?
5287393 One thing I've know You do not mess with someone's one Family or two Friends. Especially if they can rip off your face and throw you several miles.
That was awesome I knew Emerald could break free when she recovered
emotionally at least to some degree.
But now she have to check on her friends specially Rainbow Dash I hope it end well
you don't always have your new friends eating the old ones.
Oh and Emmie did was mad about being sealed but had a lot of time to think plus
she isn't ignorant of why she did it and having a sad twilight for a week
could have been too much for anyone.
Finally I loved how caring was Pinkie Pie she is not just random she also care a lot
I bet she could use all the Elements if she wanted but will never try
because the more the merrier.
Well I have to say I'm somewhat disappointed by how anticlimactic that was.
5287546
Look, we understand that there are consequences yet to be had. Yes, shit will happen in the Enclave. Yes, shit will happen in world politics. Don't get me wrong, I love those types of scenes, and I can't wait to see them unfold. Yes, we have yet to see how Emerald's relationship with the rest of her friends/Luna will unfold. I can appreciate these impending plot elements, and it is not this that we feel underwhelmed about.
What we feel underwhelmed about is the conflict that HAS occurred and was (seemingly) already resolved. Twilight betrayed Emerald, spent two months apologizing to her statue that can't talk back, and when Emerald gets released she just forgives Twilight. Emerald didn't even have any words to say, she just forgave her. It is this conflict we feel underwhelmed about because it's pretty much resolved. Yes, from Twilight's short conversation with Whisper Wind, we can tell Twilight will probably carry guilt for what she did for a long while, but that doesn't really have any effect on how Emerald feels about the situation, which is what we're focusing on; if anything, Twilight will probably have lapses of guilt and we'll have to listen to Emerald reassure her that everything is all good and peachy, which is just twisting the knife in this conflict-that-was-never-a-conflict (Which I will once again clarify that I am talking exclusively about the conflict between Emerald and Twilight, no one else).
This conflict resolution(Emerald forgiving Twilight) is essentially locked in because Emerald can't exactly change her opinion on this matter; after all, she's basically felt this way for like a month and half while she was in stone. The only conflict left in this situation, like i said before, results purely from Twilight's guilt; and apparently Twilight's guilt only makes Emerald more sympathetic towards her, which is completely backwards. From what I've read, Emerald's thought process shifted from "Twilight betrayed me, I am so livid that I'm seeing red" to "Poor Twilight, I forgive you because I can see how upset you are that instead of brainwashing me, you sealed me in stone. Hmm, I wish the Elements did brainwash me, because I would be happier." And honestly, she really did basically admit her receptiveness to getting brainwashed, although she worded it as 'redeem'; there's no way to redeem her without brainwashing her; it's not like there's a karma-counter that the Elements can just reset. The whole Emerald-Twilight situation just feels underwhelming.
5287997
I was the first person that said that Emeralds coming to terms with it could have been shown rather then told. But Emerald ‘just forgiving’ Twilight is not really inconsistent with her character. She has often said that she ‘deserves to die’ and considers herself a ‘monster’ and has outright said that Twilight is the only reason she isn't even worse then Mercer was.
When she said she forgives Twilight it could simply be that Emerald acknowledges that Twilight legitimately thought she was helping her rather than consciously choosing to betray her and said that she forgave her while in a haze of exhaustion in the few seconds after she is released to spear Twilight s feelings on that matter. (If it had been anyone else they would probably be a bloody smear on the walls, - she was completely apathetic to anyone who tried to talk to her other then Twilight-but Twilight is basically Emerald morality pet at this point and the center of everything that Emerald thinks makes her anything other than a sick dog that needs to be put down. She just can’t go into conflict with Twilight without tearing down the one thing she draws any semblance of self-worth from.)
How deep that forgiveness actually goes in a practical stance is still up for question, and even if it is true that Emerald isn't hurt at all by it, and doesn't even subconsciously blame Twilight one tiny little bit, that doesn't mean she could ever actually trust Twilight for a very long while, if ever again.
Like legionary said. He plays the long game. And while everyone thought this would lead to Emerald beating Twilight to death With the whole mountain, it could simply be that she will always hesitate when Twilight asks her to trust her again- which would probably hurt Twilight more then a mountain ever could. And don't forget, The canterlot wedding is coming up soon and the whole crux of that plot line was that no one would trust Twilight suspicions. I personally thing that is what everything is building up too.
(Maybe I’m just used to throwing long built up thoughts on this story out of the window- seeing as I pretty much made trying to predict where this story was going into something close to a hobby. I just run with it.)
I will love this story No matter what, with how you've done so far, but I felt like the powder kinda fizzled. I know not everything is settled yet, and honestly, I LOVED how the escape turned out. You are in a vault, surrounded by those who are loyal to this creature, who has also broken free of a seal placed there by the most powerful artifacts on the planet. There really isn't much you can do. XD
i cant wait for next chapter
Awesome chapter!
I think that you did a very good job at portraying how Emerald and others would react, good job!
I was half expecting Emerald to still be in 'consume mode' when she broke free due to her constantly eating as fast as she could for a whole month and almost enveloping the vault in tendrils when she escaped. I think that would have been a much cooler break out scene. The flash of light thing was just as underwhelming as the rest of the chapter. Still good of course! I'm assuming the 'path' voice is some local deity, maybe a spirit in the tree of harmony or something, and the new political angle emerging is also interesting. The last chapter implied the Zebras were becoming isolationist, the Griffons have got their feathers rustled, and Equestria is in an economic toilet still. Thats ignoring the imminent Changling invasion. With the introduction of the Enclave onto the balance of world power, it might just be the spark that starts a world war. That would be fascinating and absolutely entertaining. I genuinely want the story to take a turn for the worse like that. All this noblebright redemption and forgiveness crap is getting old.
If Emerald has the memories and the bio-matter of a person, or in this case, a Griffion, is it possible she could reconstruct a consumed being based off those memories and bio-matter? would they remember the last moment of their life; the moment they were being consumed? or would the remade being be a viral like Emerald?
either way, something to consider if relations with the Griffions are falling apart. if anything, it would show a gesture of good faith by the "monster" in trying to make amends.
5288136 I agree with that last part. The only intrigue that seems left is meeting the girls, meeting with Luna again and the increasing hostilities of the deinos. This story needs some conflict to go with all these gun-toting diamond dogs!
Celestial needs to consider building a colony or town for the Thracians. A place for any to stay rather than the castle or where ever else they live. I don't mean that she should move them by force at all, just give the. The chance to start a new life, a place to test their abilities to the full without fear of hurting others. It is a good/bad idea, having some perks but it can easily be seen in the wrong light. Alternate universe?
5288217
Emerald could indeed make a clone with memories on it but will not have the mind or hearth
of the individual who was cloned, she absorb the memories like one would pick up a
document then read it and store it on her mind she don't capture minds or souls so it will never work
and they will be only viral if she intended for them to be
5288473
*Cough cough* 5283568 *Cough cough*
5288136
How you do you expect Emerald to react to war being declared on Equestria? Heck, how do you think Discord, Celestia, or Luna would respond? Between them, they can more than easily fend off any threat, and could VERY easily take pre-emtptive measures, and just build a giant wall (mostly Discord's work) to keep out any threat.
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5287308
Honestly, I don't feel underwhelmed by the resolving of the immediate conflict. My reasons are two fold:
1) It fits Emerald's character very well to forgive Twilight. Keep in mind that Emerald is fundamentally broken. For all intents and purposes, Emerald is a sociopath. She can not place any value on anyone else beyond what they mean to her. Everyone and everything is just a means to better herself in some way...except Twilight. Somehow, miraculously, despite the fact that Emerald has conditioned herself to only think about herself in the name of survival...somehow Twilight has become important enough to actually give her feelings importance.
By god, Emerald can actually empathize with Twilight. She can have empathy! That's huge, considering for a good portion of her life (a little more than an eighth I think) she has had only one rule: Survival above all else. To Emerald, Twilight is a miracle that can't be described. Emerald is more alive thanks to Twilight.
Now instead of Emerald's world just revolving around just Emerald, it now revolves around Emerald and Twilight. And Twilight probably gets like 49% of the attention. This is especially demonstrated when Twilight mentions offhand how her brother Shining Armor is having trouble with the Gray Fox. Emerald immediately considers ending the stealing spree, only to wonder why he is thinking about stopping it when it is hurting Shining Armor, and only after she learned the he was Twilight's brother, when he harmed many ponies more by putting them out of jobs.
So Twilight is now is a huge competitor for the center of Emerald's soul. If Emerald had broken free immediately, the results would have been very bloody. But she didn't. She instead got to listen to Twilight poor her heart out in sorrow, begging for forgiveness. The one thing he has cared about in years besides himself is asking for forgiveness. With two months of nothing but thinking and listening, Emerald would forgive Twilight. It just makes sense and fits her character.
2) The immediate catastrophe was averted, but the fallout remains. The Thracians now know or will very soon know who created them. The Griffons now know the killer of a prince, his army, and his daughter is at large, and with an army and very, very powerful. And those are just the large implications and problems.
How will Luna react that her student is a murder with a far higher body count than Night Mare Moon? Will she a kindred soul also looking for redemption, or a monster even worse than the one she became? What about the mane six? We know how Pinky and Twilight feel, but what about the others? Is the honest Applejack horrified and angry that a friend was a liar in almost all things? Is loyal Rainbow Dash consumed by guilt at the betrayal of a friend under her own choice? Can kindness of Fluttershy outweigh the horror of Emerald? How generous will Rarity be with Emerald's story (yes I couldn't really come up with anything for the last two. Sue me.). What of Discord?
The stations of cannon have been completely railroaded. We have no set course for where to go. I love it. Keep it up.
5288715 I have a better question for the Rarity part: if and when Rarity learns that Emerald used a part of her, some of her hair, to make her pony form, how will Rarity feel? horrified that a part of her was used by some creature to get close to her, her friends and all the ponies she knows? motherly in that she is wanting to forgive her and understand her choices?
(last one not that great but I thought a counter to the first one was needed.)
5288715 For the first part, I feel that you are exaggerating some, but otherwise accurate. And something else to consider, just how much Self-hate Emerald has. It has shown itself on a number of situations, especially in her dreams, portrayed by Alex. She can't hold it against Twi, cause she thinks her actions are entirely justified. She feels that she DESERVES to die (even pretty much straight up said in the Ask blog, when asked about what she would say to her past self (her when she first entered Equestria) if she got the chance), but death is not a option, and she must survive.
Yeah, I'm still not exactly sold on 'Petrifying' Emerald. It just struck me as an unneeded decision and.....BY JOVE, THAT BASTARD HIT TWILIGHT!!!.......Ehem, sorry. Just.....Oh my gosh, I felt so sorry for her. She didn't mean anything and from this point on, the Enclave is just going to be total D***s to her. Hopefully Emerald can pound that d***ishness out of them, because, honestly, Emerald was asking for it....Not saying that she deserved to be in stone forever, but.........Yeah, try telling all those homeless and jobless ponies that the mare in the limelight, living the good life with a sweetheart, was the one who ruined EVERYTHING! for you? It isn't right. Karma, Emerald. I'm glad she acknowledges it and......Shut up Whisper. She may have let you off, but remember Emerald had you poisoned to keep you with her.
I'm sorry. This...kind of got a big reaction out of me. You write well, but I'm not exactly partial to 'beating' a character like Twilight had to endure. For two months....
Can I hug her?
5289017 You can offer her a hug on the Ask Blog?
You are evil. Ending there, it is just evil to end the chapter at this point.
I had hoped to see a little more bad blood between Tia and the Dogs. Or the griffons going to attack Emy and got shoot from one of the dogs.
So what will the griffon kingdom do now? Will they try to go at war with Everfree? Will the Spirit of the Forest Fight at the side of the Dogs to protect the few people that can live in the circle of life? Or will it sit this out?
Will Emy rage war later over equestria for what has happen to her? This and much more you will see at a much later chapter then the next..........
this is how i feel right now. jep playing the long game is good for the Autor to hold the reader on a tight leash, but it isn't good for our hearts XD or psyche at this point. THIS IS LIKE A DRUG!
this story started out good then went full retared with the IMG I AM SO BAD WAAAAAAAAAAA bullshit
5287126 its not a good chapter is crap
5288715
did I not basically say the same thing here? 5288056 and here? 5287368
5288715
Welp, I was typing this once before and then lost it. Bloody tablet.
But anyhow, I can't help but feel that Emerald is experiencing at least a little bit of Stockholm Syndrome. She was captured and raging, and then had to stay there and listen to her captor as Twilight said over and over how sorry she was about it and all that. Sympathy for the captor and all that. It just sounds very Stockholm-esque to me. Even if Twilight meant every word about how sorry she was, and even if Emerald truly does forgive her, I cannot help but feel Emerald is going to have trouble trusting people so so much in the future. She was betrayed once even if it wasn't truly meant to happen that way, there's going to be that little nagging voice whispering her about conspiracies, they can't be trusted, and whatnot.
While Emerald does display some sociopathic tendencies, I would say Emerald's path to redemption began long before she met Twilight. It began when Oskar spared Rose Locks. She could have killed her right then and there, but didn't want to and when it finally sunk in that Mercer was gone, she made the choice not to, and felt guilty about scaring her later.
Navi also has a place in Emerald's heart. So Twilight is the biggest part, but Emerald/Oskar also made the choice they wanted to do things differently early on.
As for how others will react. I cannot say for sure... although I figure if Rarity can get over it, she'll probably ask Emerald to model all sorts of dresses for her.
5289294 Well, if she did that, there is a good chance there wouldn't be a Canterlot anymore, and a small chance there wouldn't be a Equestria anymore. She is REALLY strong after all. Just releasing all that power in a blast would not be good for her surroundings.
Not enough conflict compared to the actions done. Also, Twilight took a bullet to the face and lived? She must have a really thick skull.
Anywho, it was a nice chapter. Although I wish for violence and death to arrive soon, the D Dogs needs to use their guns for something.