Oskar Osäker: True Omnivore

by Legionary

Chapter 7: Wounded

Oskar hummed a tune as she opened the oven to peek in on the chocolate cupcakes. It is late in the afternoon and Oskar is currently in Twilight’s kitchen cooking up a couple dozen cupcakes. This very night she was going to head into the Everfree to attack and hopefully annihilate the company of griffins that were tracking her. But despite the dark intent of her future actions she felt very calm, even a little content.

‘I always did love to bake.’ Oskar thought to herself as she hummed the lyrics to a lullaby her mother used to sing to her, Fola Fola Dobbin. ‘It never fails to make me feel so calm and tranquil… Okay enough of that, the cupcakes will be done soon.’

‘The last time I went into Everfree Twilight followed me, I must keep that from happening again.’ Oskar thought as she took out a tray of cupcakes. ‘So I’ll just make sure she doesn’t wake up in the middle of the night along with everyone else in this house. Simple enough… except for Spike, he is an unknown.’

‘Well, not that much of an unknown anymore.’ Oskar placed the tray on the counter where she proceeded to fan them with an oven mitt. ‘I have his genes and from feeling out the sequence I’m fairly sure he should be vulnerable to my arsenal of sedatives.’

‘Although…’ After a few moments the virus determined the cupcakes cooled enough and levitated over a mixing bowl full of french vanilla icing. ‘There were a couple genes I was unable to identify. I know they aren’t just junk genes, they serve a purpose but what? Hmm… I guess I’ll just have to wait for another dragon to appear and consume him completely, then I’ll have everything I need to know about dragons.’

Oskar put the icing bowl down and studied her work. Each cupcake filled out their cups completely, not a single one was lacking or overflowing. The vanilla icing covering each one was also expertly applied, so much so they all looked factory made in symmetry. The sight and smell was enough to make Oskar’s mouth water and give in to an impulse to have one of her creations.

‘Mmmm… ready for purchase!’ Oskar thought in satisfaction after taking a bite before becoming serious. ‘They all need a special ingredient first before I hand them out though.’

Popping the rest of the cupcake into her mouth the Evolved proceeded to extend a tendril from her hoof and reach towards the cupcakes. The tendril sank through the paper cups of the little cakes and injected a fluid into each one before retreating back into Oskar.

‘My own special concoction.’ Oskar thought. ‘It’ll put Twilight out like a light and keep her that way for eight hours… give or take. Though there is still the issue with Spike, there is little to no information on Dragons in the books and Silver Light encountered dragons very rarely in his career. BUT, I still have the little guy’s genome and from what I can tell he should be susceptible to this as well, speaking of which…’

The virus took hold of the tray of cupcakes magically and proceeded on her way to the library. ‘I can’t recognize a few genes in his genome, those are probably abilities he naturally has as a dragon… I think. I can’t count the number of times I’ve had to toss out geneticist knowledge in favour of making my own when it comes to Equestrian genes. At least the basic high school stuff still works… I think… my brain hurts.’

Opening the door to the library Oskar walked in and was met with the sight of the mess it was in. Stacks of books were everywhere, spare bits of parchment, half-filled and empty inkwells and broken quills covered every flat surface. And in the center of it all was Twilight, sitting at the circular table, surrounded by book stacks while reading and blazing through research notes. Spike was there as well, half frantic with his attempts to bring Twilight what she wanted. Navi darted to and through in the air, wearing a pair of librarian glasses, serenely and happily carrying books to Twilight though most of them weren’t the right ones.

“Hey guys!” Oskar greeted everyone cheerfully. “Got time for some snacks?”

“Oh definitely!” Spike declared enthusiastically, dropping what he was doing to approach the fake unicorn.

“Hm?” Twilight looked up from her intense studying and only then noticed the smell filling the air. “Oh that smells delicious Emerald! Mmm… maybe a few study snacks are called for.”

“Thank guys!” Oskar replied with a smile, genuinely happy that Spike and Twilight liked her baking. It was the only skill she could actually call hers after all, everything else she was skilled at was either stolen or tainted by memories from another person.

Oskar stepped forward and cleared an area on the table for the tray with her magic. She was setting down the cupcakes when she heard an excited trill from right above her ear. Glancing up the virus saw Navi perched on her preferred spot on the tip of her ear again, licking her lips and staring longingly at the little cakes. A thought occurred to Oskar and the Evolved took a moment to mull it over before nodding.

“Would you like to have some too Navi?” Oskar asked to which Navi answered with excited happy hopping. “Well okay I’ll give you a piece too, but not too much okay?”

Waiting until she got an obedient nod from the little bug Oskar took a cupcake as Spike and Twilight some as well. The virus pulled out a good portioned chunk from the cupcake with her magic as everyone else dug into the treats.

“Here you go, Navi, remember to chew now!” Oskar said a little sternly before levitating the piece to the madly hopping little insect. Listening to Oskar’s instruction Navi took the piece and began to savour it by chewing slowly and biting small pieces and not simply swallowing the treat whole like other Parasprites would.

Knowing she wouldn’t be affected by her own chemical Oskar started eating the cupcake she took a chunk out of for Navi. The Evolved nonchalantly watched as Twilight, Spike and Navi ate their treats with glee, expectantly watching for effects of drowsiness.

“Mmmm!” Twilight gave a little delighted moan after finishing off a third cupcake. “This is so good! I know it’s impossible but I think you got the wrong cutie mark Emerald.”

“Definitely!” Spike said, licking his lips and patting his stomach contentedly after eating seven of the little cakes. “I can only imagine how much better you are at your true talent!”

“Thank you!” Oskar replied, unable to keep down a bright smile.

“Well snack time is over, Spike could yo- haaaa…” Twilight began before interrupting herself with a yawn. “Oh my, I feel so drowsy all of a sudden.”

“Yeah… me too…” Spike agreed, rubbing his already bleary looking eyes.

Navi yawned and lighted down on Oskar’s mane as said virus studied the other two. Twilight was well on her way to falling asleep and Spike seemed even closer to doing so, likely due to his smaller size and the fact he ate quite a few drugged cupcakes.

“Well maybe we should end this session early?” Oskar suggested as she stepped beside Twilight as she became drowsier.

“Yeah… I think I got… what I needed anyway, oh!” Twilight said between yawns. “I think I overdid it… with the late nights…”

“Yep, come on you guys, into bed now.” Oskar said as she gave a little nudge to Twilight.

“Yeah… I’ll just… meh…” Spike began only to devolve into unintelligible muttering as he staggered off towards his bed.

“Ohhhh… why do I have so many stairs?” Twilight asked despairing as she looked up the staircase leading to the second floor and the master bedroom. “Too tired to teleport…”

“It’s okay, here mount up.” Oskar said as she gently levitated the near deliriously drowsy unicorn onto her back.

“Thank you Emerald and I’m sorry about this, I don’t know what’s come over me.” Twilight muttered, tiredly draping herself over Oskar’s back like some half coherent blanket. “One moment… I’m fine and the next… I feel like I could just fall over… and sleep anywhere.”

“It’s alright you’re not really that heavy anyways.” Oskar replied as she effortlessly ascended the stairs. “Like you said, maybe you just overdid it with the late nights?”

“Maybe…” Twilight responded as they reached the top and entered the bedroom. “Teach me to… to try to mimic your… sleeping habits…”

“Come on now, beds just right there.” The virus stated once again levitating the now very limp and barely conscious unicorn.

“Ohhh that feels heavenly…” Twilight stated happily before instantly falling asleep on her bed.

Oskar smiled at the sight of Twilight sprawled over her bed for a moment before moving the unicorn around a bit with her magic. Making it so that her head was comfortably on the pillows, Oskar also pulled up the blanket from beneath the sleeping unicorn to gently cover her up. Giving another smile to the peacefully sleeping studious mare, Oskar was about to leave the room when a small high pitched snore reminded her of someone.

The virus walked over to her own bed or specifically the table beside the bed. On the bedside table was a match box holding several sheets and tiny cushions, Navi’s bed. Levitating the little bug from atop her head Oskar gently laid her down in her bed before digging in the table drawer a moment. Finding what she was looking for, the virus closed the drawer and brought up a tiny little green sleeping cap. With a sly smile Oskar gently removed the glasses Navi was wearing and placed the sleeping cap atop her head. Stepping back to admire the look a little, Oskar then turned around to leave the room.

Just before exiting the door Oskar looked over her shoulder at the two people sleeping peacefully in their beds. She smiled again but this time it was more forced and very grim looking as she took in the two sleeping. Finally she turned away and proceeded down the stairs, unaware of a pair of sleepy twinkling green eyes that watched her go.

ALPHA

‘It’s time…’ Oskar thought grimly as he shifted back into his default form.

The virus was now back in Everfree, in his old base of operations to be exact. The very place he had created his pony form, Emerald Gleaner. Oskar knew that the griffins knew about this place but it had been months since he had been here so it was actually the safest place to prepare for the battle ahead than anywhere else in Everfree.

Oskar kneeled down to stare at his reflection in the water, he had spent the past several months almost entirely as Emerald Gleaner so seeing his human face staring back at him in a reflection felt… odd. Shaking his head clear, the Evolved refocused his mind on the task at hand, whilst still keeping his attention on his reflection.

‘First things first.’ The virus began. ‘I need a counter for their tracking techniques. The only thing they really have going for themselves is my extra deep footprints as my scent is nearly non-existent. Normally I wouldn’t really have a solution for this, only workarounds BUT now that I possess magic and average control that is no longer the case now is it? However I need a horn in order to channel magic which isn’t really an issue either actually.’

With that Oskar concentrated and watched as his reflection suddenly gained a pure white unicorn horn on its head in a small flurry of tendrils. The Evolved lifted his bucket hat to gain a clearer view of the new appendage and studied himself for a moment or two. He frowned when he was done and an instant later there was another small surge of tendrils upon his forehead. When the tendrils were done a pair of black spike like horns replaced the singular white one on his forehead.

‘Might as well be both symmetric and symbolic…’ Oskar thought darkly as he pulled his bucket hat back down, covering up his new horns. ‘Let’s make sure I can use these before I do anything else.’

The Evolved turned away from the pond to the scenery around him. His eyes searched around before finally landing on a small boulder.

Suddenly a crimson light emitted from just beneath Oskar’s hat and the boulder was enshrouded by a sanguine magical aura. The rock quickly shot up from its partially buried position and rapidly moved about in the air before the aura surrounding it faded, letting it fall to the ground with a dull thud.

‘As expected, magic can still be used as long as I have a means of channeling it.’ Oskar thought, turning his attention back to the pond and his reflection. ‘Hmm… I can’t help but feel I can improve upon this though… experimentation will have to wait as I really don’t have the time and this isn’t the place. Besides I can work with what I got, which is rather substantial. Now onto the matter at hand…’

Oskar sat down in a cross-legged position on the shore beside the pond, head resting on his hands as he pondered. ‘To counter the griffin’s tracking me I will need to use my magic, by exerting my pegasus circuits beyond what I normally do I can further enhance the lightening ability. However lightening myself to the point where my prints are normal looking, depth wise will be a considerable drain… no problem. I’m not going to rely on skills not yet mastered in combat so I will simply pour everything into keeping myself light and rely on my other abilities for fighting the griffins. I will need to make this as quick as possible though, my magical reserves are massive now thanks to Twilight and my control has improved greatly but even then I’ll still end up uselessly exhausted before long if I’m not careful. KEEP THAT IN MIND, REMEMBER IT.’ The Evolved told himself. ‘Right I’m losing moonlight here, let’s get lightened up and move out.’

The Evolved concentrated on his magic, bringing forth a surge of magic from the circuits located in his shoulders through his new horns. After that he then took a few steps and turned around to see that he had left no footprints on the ground.

‘As I thought, the drain is not insubstantial.’ Oskar pondered. ‘I should try to eliminate the rangers as fast as possible so covering my tracks won’t be a priority in the coming fight. Anyways, it’s time.’

With that the Cadre Evolved set forth towards the griffin base camp.

BETA

“Any word yet?” Bergren asked the rangers entering the cave.

Prince Bergren was currently within the very cave that Gilda had met her end in. The interior had been slightly refurnished, a few hay bedrolls laid here and there and a makeshift fireplace blazed in the background. There was also a large wooden table that seemed to have been recently made judging from the odd leaf poking here and there, on this table were many, many maps covered with marks and runic writing. The Prince and a few of his rangers were gathered around this table, having apparently been in the middle of a meeting.

“No my Prince.” One of the Rangers answered. “Talon nor tail feather of Morgoth has been seen since his mission to take account of recent tracks in Ponyville. I and my fellow Rangers agree that this is a bad omen.”

Bergren took a deep breath, giving a glare at Ponyville on a map that by all rights should have made a small burning hole. “It appears we have finally made contact with our quarry and paid a most grave price for it. But make no mistake Rangers of House Stormclaw, we shall reap terrible vengeance upon the beast we hunt. Morgoth Dak’s death must not go in vain.”

“And a grand hunt it shall be!” Declared a large Ranger with puffy gray feathers specked with black which was overflowing his tunic and sticking out everywhere. “The young lad sits with his ancestors now, cheering us on to fell this violent beast!”

“I’m so glad you are eager about this Ake.” Mumbled a Ranger who had crimson feathers visible under his cloak.

“Ever the grumbler Konrad!” Ake chortled in reply. “You’ll be grayer than me at this rate!”

“My Lord please forgive my rudeness but I don’t see why we should be keeping our hunt a secret from our hosts.” Konrad stated towards the griffin Prince. “The very moment we found out the beast no longer resided in the Everfree but in a town outside it, should have been when we informed Princess Celestia. What we are hunting is obviously not normal from the reported carcasses it had left in its wake months ago, and from the size of said carcasses we can guess it is quite formidable. I suggest that we continue our hunt but get as many pony Royal Guar-”

“I will hear no more talk of asking Celestia for help in this.” Bergren said firmly. “Some of the Principalities’ finest trackers and warriors are here in this very forest, surely we are enough to fell one foul monster?”

“My Lord please be reasonable!” Konrad implored the brooding griffin. “I know you have lost family to our quarry but you should not let that cloud your mind and narrow your foresight! We could have the mightiest warriors and the greatest hunters in the entire world but without proper preparation it will all be for-”

“ENOUGH…” Bergren growled, his piercing furious black eyes staring down Konrad until said griffin bowed his head apologetically and backed a few steps from the table. “Now then if there are no more issues we must return to the task before us. With Morgoth’s loss we have finally nailed down the position of our prey. We have made plans in case our assumptions about Ponyville were correct but now that they are, I believe we should refine those plans before using them.”

“If you wish to keep secrecy my Lord then we may have to abandon the idea of informing certain residents of the town.” Stated a Ranger. “All it would take is one pair of loose lips and not only would our quarry find out about us but Celestia as well. I suggest that…”

As Bergren and his Rangers planned, a patrol of Anvil Knights among many was going along its assigned route. This squad of griffins wore polished bronze plate armor and chainmail worn underneath, they also wore helms with chainmail coifs attached that also extended a plate over the top of the beak. The armor was standard for the Anvil Knights and was covered in engraved symbols of storm clouds, ancient griffin warriors and mountains with shining cities sitting atop them.

As the patrol of griffins moved along their route they couldn’t help but let their senses dull and give simple scans of their surroundings, having patrolled this area and route for so long that even their experience and professionalism gave in to some complacency. To a pair of predatory eyes the griffin in the rear guard glowed yellow.

“Maybe it’s territorial? We should just-” Ake begin when distant screaming was heard which was quickly followed by a dull boom.

“Move.” Bergren commanded and everyone in the cave quickly ran for the entrance.

Arriving outside Bergren and the group of nineteen Rangers quickly took to the sky. They stopped at about sixty feet up in the air where they were able to see an area crawling with knights and swarming the air overhead. Before long a Knight from the crowded area quickly made his way towards the group.

“Report.” Bergren stated when the Knight was close.

“My Prince there was an attack, we’ve lost an entire squad to something.” The Knight stated calmly, though his eyes were wide with alarm. “The entire squad was brutalised, there is blood and… what we can only assume to be gore all over the scene.”

“It appears it has finally come to us.” Bergren stated, turning to face his griffins. “The beast has decided to preemptively attack us instead of waiting for us to make the next move. No matter, Rangers you all do not need me to tell you what you need to do.”

“Of course Lord Bergren.” Konrad nodded. “Come, we must investigate the scene of the attack so that we-”

Suddenly the groups’ attention was drawn by shouts of alarm. Bergren and his Rangers were just quick enough to see several flying Knights drop lifelessly out of the sky and below the canopy, which was quickly followed by another dull boom and a long snake-like shape suddenly bursting from the forest floor, shooting up into the air for some distance before falling back down.

“Go, move!” Bergren commanded, leading the charge of Rangers as they made way for the scene of the newest attack.

It was a gut churning scene that Bergren, his Ranger and a couple of squads of Knights arrived at. The bodies of ten griffins laid across a small clearing in pieces, all nearly unidentifiable. The carnage seemed to be concentrated in one small area though, as was attested by the torn up earth and the… fleshy growths extending from one spot.

Bergren strode forward to study one such growth, disgust broiling in his stomach but he kept it down as a prince had no right to portray weakness in front of those he led. Those he led however had no such restriction and despite their status as veterans a good number of them ended up throwing up, the rest looked very shallow and ill. It had to be stated that although the warriors of the Principalities got into fights and the occasional battle, none of those conflicts ever had an aftermath such as this.

“By the ancestors!” Exclaimed Konrad as he recoiled from a bloody torso he nearly stepped on. “What kind of monster could cause such… such horror?”

“Bring me one of the fallen flyers!” Ake called out to some Knights. “I want to see what brought them down!”

“Ugh… my Lord, what are your thoughts?” Swallowing down bile and walking over Konrad asked Bergren a question. “I’ve never seen anything like this… the closest I can possibly get is a spider web only… far more twisted and monstrous.”

“My thoughts mirror your’s.” The Prince stated. “I too cannot identify what this could be. Fitting this creature should have twisted mysteries. But… this growth obviously had something to do with this patrol’s demise.”

It was then that a group of three Knights returned bearing the body of one of their fallen brethren that was stricken from the skies. Bergren and Konrad walked over, joining Ake in the examination of the body.

The fallen Knight was almost completely unharmed save for the impact of hitting trees and the ground and the ivory blade sticking out from one of the eye holes in the helmet. Ake reached over and pulled out the blade carefully. The reason for the care was made quickly apparent as the ivory blade had no handle, only two points and a sharp edge all around.

“It’s made of bone…” Commented Ake as he examined the blade, tapping the side with a claw. “Hard bone… very hard. Wait a moment let me…” Ake reached within his cloak and brought out a polished dagger covered in decorative runic engravings, he then placed the bone blade edge against his dagger’s own… and very nearly cut himself when the bone sliced right through the dagger. “… that’s sharp…”

“Our armor is useless against such an edge.” Konrad stated what everyone was thinking.

Bergren gave a long hard stare at the bone blade and made a decision.

“Being up in the sky is not doing us any good.” The Prince said with a growl. “All it’s doing is giving it target practice, give the order! I want all flyers to join the ground units!”

“Yes my Lord.” A nearby Knight nodded before he raised his head to the sky and released a long piercing whistle that rapidly changed in pitch. A moment after giving it all the airborne griffins dived from the air and headed for the ground.

“Rangers, I need you to take charge of the Anvil Knights! We have already lost nearly thir-” Bergren was interrupted by another now familiar scream that was followed by an expected boom. “Forty griffins… we have nearly lost forty griffins and we have yet to face the beast in open combat… I must return to the fort, there I shall prepare my abilities for battle. I have a feeling I shall be needing them soon, I leave command in all of your capable talons.” With that pronouncement Bergren lifted off the ground but did not fly higher than the canopy, instead staying low to the ground and expertly weaving between the trees.

“I say we need to bring our forces together.” Konrad said. “We are facing something that very clearly excels in stealthily taking down its prey. So we concentrate our forces before carefully sweeping out and tracking it using the same methods as before.”

“Right, while you do that I’ll be taking Ivar, Magnus, Ove and two squads of Knights with me to investigate the newest attack.” Ake said, motioning for the said Rangers and squads of Knights to follow him.

“What?! Ake It’s too- wait don’t follow him! Come back!” Konrad began before shouting at the griffins following Ake to the site of the recent attack. “Grrrr… why isn’t anyone thinking rationally?! This isn’t like the hunts back home, Ancestors damn it all!”

“Be calm, we are with you young Konrad.” Soothed one of the many remaining Rangers.

“Well at least there’s that…” Konrad said after taking a breath. “Does everyone agree with what I said earlier? Good, let’s get organized as quickly as possible and hopefully we’ll be able to reinforce that perilous old fool before he gets himself killed.” With that the Rangers and the remaining Knights left to gather the scattered units of patrols all over the nine sectors.

It did not take long for Ake and his entourage of griffins to arrive at the scene of the attack, already there were at least two squads of Knights on the scene. It was a mirror of the last attack with the torn apart remains of the griffins, the destroyed landscape and the disturbing fleshy growths however there was one difference…

“Tracks.” Ake stated as examined an odd set of footprints leading away from the scene of the attack. “They look deep enough and from the appearance… I can say it’s in its base form right now. Right let’s follow them, Ivar get those other Knights and follow us.” The elder Ranger commanded, the other younger Ranger Ivar nodded and quickly left to gather up the Knights.

Ake, his fellow Rangers and a now forty strong force of Knights followed the tracks but all the while the Elder Ranger felt that something was wrong.

“I’ve got a bad feeling Ake…” Stated a Ranger. “Something feels very off about this…”

“I agree with your instinct, Ove.” Ake nodded as he spotted a clearing up ahead. “There is something rotten about this… I just don’t know what.”

Ake continued to study the tracks as his group followed them into the clearing. The more he looked at them the stronger the feeling of wrongness grew. As they moved into the center of the clearing two things suddenly occurred to Ake, one of which explained his feeling of wrongness and the other caused him some alarm. One was that in the attack before the one they investigated there were no tracks at all yet in this one there were tracks appearing in the open and leading away. Two was that the tracks there following were becoming shallower and shallower in depth until they faded into nothing, which caused the Elder Ranger to come to one conclusion.

‘It’s a trap.’ Ake thought in realization just as he felt a small weight appear on his back.

“A rabbit? Bold little thing to approach a carnivore like that.” Commented Ove.

Ake quickly turned his head at that and stared at the white rabbit standing on his back. The Elder Ranger noticed three things the moment he saw the rabbit. One was the surprisingly threatening predatory stare the rabbit was giving him. Two was the confident stance it had as it stood upon his back. And finally there was the small pair of spike-like black horns extending from its forehead. As he took these observations in Ake felt a great sense of finality and apathy fill his being, he had lost…

“Clever thing…” Ake complimented just as the rabbit leapt from his back and flew at his head, black and red streaks flowing off its tiny limbs.

Griffins shouted in shock as the rabbit impacted Ake like a cannonball, snapping his neck and collapsing his face instantly in a shower of blood and bone fragments. The rabbit’s momentum carried it past Ake’s destroyed head and into the air where two handleless blades appeared in its paws in a surge of tendrils. The newly generated blades looked like the bone blades seen from before, but instead of white were pitch black with a crimson sheen made clear in the moonlight.

The now blood stained rabbit turned midair and with a flick of its little paws sent the blades flying into the group of Knights. Two Knights were hit with resounding thuds, the blades stuck out of their chests for a brief moment before disappearing into the wound they opened in a quick swell of tendrils. The wounded Knights began screaming loudly in sure mind breaking agony as a self-destructive virus quickly filled their veins before finally reaching critical mass. With a final scream of pain filled despair the two infected Knights reared up on their hind legs and reached up to the sky with their forelegs… then they exploded.

Massive tendrils shot out from the infected Knights, quickly latching onto trees, the ground and several other Knights before finally pulling back in. Trees, bits of ground and several Knights were pulled into a point where they were destroyed in a swell of kinetic force and bio matter, a crushing wave of pure force expanded out from the two points of destruction, causing the deaths of many more Knights who were unfortunate enough to be too close by rupturing their internal organs and tenderising flesh in an instant. More Knights still were affected by the explosions, rendered dazed and near useless as they stumbled about in confusion. And they weren’t the only ones, with half the force being annihilated or crippled in a near instant the rest of the Knights and Rangers were left scattered and confused about the impromptu battlefield. What followed next was an utterly merciless massacre.

Ove died in confusion as a rabbit with foot long gleaming claws coming out of its paws sliced his head open in a spray of blood and gray matter. Ivar closely followed his compatriot though he had quickly regained sense of his surroundings, his death mirrored Ake’s when the rabbit leapt into the air and suddenly shot towards him trailing tendrils of black and red and giving a skull smashing head butt. The last living Ranger in the group, Magnus was definitely prepared by the time the Rabbit launched at him. The Ranger managed to sidestep the bloody white blur as it sailed past him, though a deep gash sliced into his shoulder despite the dodge. With a growl Magnus withdrew his dagger and stabbed at the rabbit which didn’t even bother to dodge or block. The Ranger felt like he had just attempted to stab into a block of solid steel before he was quickly impaled upon the rabbit’s claws. The blood thirsty bunny wasted no time and quickly delivered a crushing kick to Magnus, sending the rapidly fading Ranger flying into a Knight with bone crushing force.

By this time the rest of the Knights had recovered from the confusion caused by the ambush and were now surrounding the lethal rabbit with the intent to overwhelm and outmaneuver. The rabbit didn’t pay their strategy any mind however and just leapt forward into the thickest grouping of them. The Knights lashed with sword and talon but when the few times their blows actually landed it felt like they were striking steel instead of flesh.

The rabbit was a blur of motion and spinning blades as it leapt through the air, its every movement ending in the brutal death of a griffin being sliced or smashed open. Before long there was only one.

“Hurk!” A Knight croaked out as claws impaled his chest, a moment later the deadly bunny withdrew a claw and quickly decapitated the griffin.

Pausing for a brief moment the rabbit took stock of its surroundings before releasing a snort.

‘Beware the Rabbit of Caerbannog’ Oskar quipped, unable to hold back the impulse, before quickly bounding into the underbrush.

‘It’s not been too bad so far, they don’t really seem to have anything that could hurt me, this night might go more or less uneventfully.’ The Evolved thought as he carefully moved through the forest, searching for more patrols to ambush. ‘I’m still waiting for the other foot to drop though, good chance this might be an easy mission but always a good habit to be alert and prepared… hmm, storm coming in.’ The Evolved noted as black clouds began to gather overhead and a rumble of thunder resounded in the air.

‘Strange… that fight was fairly loud, there should be griffins swarming towards the place.’ Oskar noted as he studied the silence of the forest. ‘Hmm… they must be adjusting their tactics. Let’s see if I can ambush one more squad before I change tactics too.’

Oskar moved through the underbrush dodging lanterns, only moving in the open when he was sure no one was about. Within a few moments the Evolved’s powerful ears could just pick up the sound of another patrol moving through the woods.

Still in the form of a rabbit, Oskar carefully peered out from some bushes and spied the griffin patrol. They were all alert and moving as quietly through the woods as their heavy armor allowed them. Oskar was about generate another of his ranged bio bombs when a Ranger came slinking out of the brush.

“I’ve come with new orders, your squad is to return to the wood fort and await further instructions.” The Ranger told the apparent captain of that squad of Knights.

“Understood, we will return immediately.” The Captain nodded.

‘What a coincidence, a Ranger bearing important information.’ The virus remarked lightly before generating a bio spike and sending it flying at a Knight furthest away from the Ranger.

Just as before the Knight started screaming in agony from the virus flooding his system. And just like the times he had ambushed a patrol before, it was their own training that killed them the quickest. Eight Knights quickly formed a protective circle around the agonized one while their Captain attempted to aid said afflicted griffin, this action sealed their fate. The bio bomb went off, slaughtering the griffin patrol in an instant but just as Oskar had hoped the Ranger was in one piece. The Ranger had been far enough away to not be pulled in by the bio bomb or be pulverised by the kinetic blast wave, but he had been close enough to be sent flying and suffer a number of internal injuries.

The virus leapt into the air and propelled himself forward with a small burst of biomass, quickly bringing himself over the dazed and injured Ranger. Oskar stopped the flow of pegasus magic to his horn and regained his immense weight in an instant before he impacted the griffin. There was nearly no resistance, the virus’ bunny form just sunk into and through the chest of the griffin and into the ground underneath him, sending up a spray of blood and staining the ground.

Tendrils extended from Oskar’s small form and quickly consumed the Ranger’s corpse, leaving only the blood stained ground and the hole the virus was partly buried in.

‘Okay let’s see what we have here.’ The Evolved thought as he began examining pertinent memories.

A flood of memories flowed into Oskar’s mind, he ignored a mass majority of them and shunted them off into the corner of his mind. A memory came forward, bright and colorful from the recentness of its creation. Locations of the various griffins appeared before him, the memory was about to go into focus about Bergren in the wood fort when Oskar ended it and searched for info about the griffins gathering in front of the fort. Another memory came forward, this one too was bright and colorful, and it showed Oskar images of a griffin named Konrad who was now reorganizing the remaining Knights in order to effectively counter Oskar’s ambush tactics.

‘Hmm… I believe now is the time to go loud, well louder then I’m being now anyways.’ The virus thought as he pulled himself out of the memories. ‘I’ve managed to kill nearly a third of them with ambushes before needing to alter strategy, not too bad. And their commander Bergren is hiding out in the fort from the action, typical officer even here. Right, let's scope out the battleground before diving in.’ With that Oskar bounded back into the underbrush, heading into the central sector where the wood fort was. ‘… at least I get to stop using my magic, I’m feeling so drained…’

The Rangers and Knights appeared to be very efficient at their jobs as Oskar did not hear nor encounter any patrols on his way to the wood fort. Coming to a stop in some thick bushes Oskar shifted into his default form and gazed out at the crowd of griffins with his powerful eyes.

It seemed all the remaining Knights had arrived by now and were scattered all over the artificial clearing, however a few moments of study revealed that the “formation” wasn’t as haphazard as it appeared. There was some wondering about but it was very clear that the Knights were purposefully keeping distance from each other. The Evolved was curious at this development until he spied a group of Rangers holding a conversation with each other, the rest standing a ways off and scanning their surroundings intently. Oskar concentrated on his hearing to further boost his already impressive ears.

“… the foot prints?” Oskar managed to make out against substantial background noise.

“We examined all of them, all the Knights’ prints have the right depth for their weight.” A Ranger Oskar identified as Konrad replied.

“The Knights are wondering about the formation but are doing as told.” A different Ranger stated.

“It’s a guess but I believe the beast is using some sort of explosive to ambush us.” The first Ranger said. “I had the Knights take up a scattered formation to minimize losses should it attack us.”

“How should we begin hunting the beast?” A Ranger asked.

‘Alright they are still somewhat unorganized and currently busy trying to form a plan of attack against me.’ Oskar thought as he ended the flow of pegasus magic to his horns. ‘I hate attacking out in the open but the advantage appears to be totally on my side, even so best be prepared to run if need be.’

Tendrils surged forth and covered the Evolved’s arms before just as quickly withdrawing to reveal a pair of hammerfists ready to be used. Oskar took a few steps back before sprinting forward and leaping into the air. There were several shouts of alarm as griffins spotted the virus flying out of the forest canopy but by then it was too late. In mid-air Oskar swung his hammerfists towards the ground, causing him to not only change trajectory but increase in velocity greatly.

The Evolved smashed through a Knight, pulping him in an instant and crashed into the ground with immense force. A second after impact hundreds of spikes stabbed up suddenly from the ground fifteen meters in all directions, adding several more Knights to the initial death toll.

Oskar’s impact with the ground had kicked up a large cloud of dust that impaired his vision as well as the griffins and was quick to jump out of it. While in the air from his jump the virus rapidly generated bio spikes in each hard and flung them with expert precision. He generated two more spikes and sent them flying as well when he landed on the ground.

As the bio spikes did their deadly work and caused chaos amongst the Knights, Oskar charged forward with only his fists at the nearest group of Knights.

‘Got to draw them in.’ The Evolved thought as he dodged a sword slash and grabbed the offending griffin by the neck, snapping said neck in an instant and sending the body flying with crushing force at some other griffins. ‘Set them up for a clearing longshot sweep.’

Oskar twisted around and caught the forearm of a griffin as he attempted to strike at the virus from the behind. Gripping the offending limb with his right hand Oskar stuck out his left and gave a sharp tug, pulling the griffin head first into his palm and breaking his neck with the impact. Letting the griffin flop to the ground, Oskar turned and targeted another Knight.

The Evolved shot forward like a cannonball, streaks of red and black flying off his form as he sailed towards a griffon. The virus impacted his target with a sickening crunch, the sound of countless bones breaking sounding deafening in his ear for a brief moment.

Oskar rolled to a stop before another griffin, his fist lashed out and crushed the Knight’s ribcage before he could react. The virus turned as he rose, catching another attempt to hit his blind spot. Gripping tightly onto the arm Oskar lashed out with a kick, both sending Knight flying and ripping the arm clear away.

The Evolved looked all around himself, he was now completely surrounded, just as he wanted. Anvil Knights along with the few Rangers stood all around him, either preparing to charge or preparing for his charge. In the end it didn’t matter though.

Oskar morphed both his arms into whipfists but he didn’t stop there. Tendrils surged and twisted a moment longer on his weapons before suddenly the long length appeared to have slackened before dropping the razor sharp harpoon-like heads into the ground.

‘Whipfists, Longshot edition.’ Oskar thought before tensing and suddenly spinning on the spot. The long bladed whips tore into the ground for a brief moment before Oskar’s spinning picked up enough momentum, and then the carnage began and ended in a mere moment.

Contrary to its namesake the Longshot whipfist had worse range then the unaltered whipfist when it came to shooting the harpoon and its length was so great that it couldn’t be coiled up, leaving it dragging on the ground and needing momentum to be used effectively. These drawbacks aside however the Longshot was the perfect room clearer.

Creating two spiral trenches in the ground as they dragged, the long whips lifted off the ground and finally extended to their full length in a moment. The knights and rangers had nearly no time to react, only a mere handful managed to lift off before the whips did their deadly work. Thanks to Spike’s DNA all of Oskar’s bladed weapons had an edge sharp enough to easily cut into gemstones , which meant the Knights might as well have been wearing tinfoil for armor for all the good it did.

Veterans of many hunts and Dragon incursions the Knights and Rangers, the Griffin Principalities’ finest, could not help but stare in horror at the carnage wrought in one moment. One second well over a hundred griffins stood in proud defiance against the beast they were hunting, the next nearly all of them were in two pieces on the ground, staining it crimson with viscera and blood.

‘And that brings them down to forty.’ Oskar noted with a glance. ‘This should be over fairly soon, provided nothing catastrophic happens I should be home several hours before sunrise… and now I know something is going to go wrong because I just had to mention something going wrong.’ Sighing openly as he morphed a pair of claws, the virus leapt back into the fray.

Oskar had to admit, these griffins were impressive. They didn’t have Blackwatch’s experience handling viral outbreaks or their technology but they had that near unbreakable dedication said black ops organization had… well had had, Blackwatch was pretty much a shadow of its former self by the time Mercer died.

‘Still, their dedication is impressive all the same.’ The Evolved complimented lightly as he disemboweled a Ranger and decapitated a Knight with a kick powerful enough to tear a hole in a tank. ‘They can see that their blades are having no effect the few times they actually manage to hit me, oh they are scared though, that look in their eyes is all too familiar. But they’re not letting fear stop them in at least attempting to fulfil their duty… actually now that I think about it this is rather stupid, I’d retreat if I met an enemy I couldn’t fight … they aren’t idiots though so why are they still- ahhh!’

Oskar stumbled forward as he was hit in the head with a small boulder that was at least a hundred pounds… not that it meant anything, Oskar could be hit with far worse and barely get a scratch. The sudden impact was enough to knock him off balance though and knock him out of his musing.

‘I deserved that! I got distracted, it’s not going to happen again.’ Oskar thought, rubbing his head and turning to face his airborne attacker. It was a rather large Knight, all of the Knights were muscular by default but this was particularly large. Nevertheless he was still only flesh and bone.

Oskar outstretched a hand and rapidly formed an ivory white blade without a handle. The Evolved flung the bone blade forward with incredible speed. Barely a visible white blur the blade ripped through the griffin’s chest plate like it wasn’t there and sunk deeply into his chest. Oskar didn’t spare a single moment, darting back to tearing apart griffins with his claws the moment the blade left his hand.

Oskar let loose, there were far fewer griffins now and the remaining ones didn’t want to retreat for some reason so he, for the moment, didn’t have to worry about tracking down stragglers. Armor and flesh parted before the virus’ claws like they weren’t there, staining the ground crimson.

The Bucket Hatted Evolved charged one final Ranger, his arm pulled back for the hardest punch he could muster. The Ranger was unable to dodge Oskar as despite the short distance the Evolved had quickly accelerated to incredible speeds. Tendrils writhed around the Evolved’s raised arm as it shot forward, impacting the griffin in a split second. In one moment the Ranger ceased to exist, so great was the amount of force in Oskar’s blow that he exploded on contact, spraying his pulped innards everywhere.

Oskar skidded to a stop, his head turning this way and that for a new target. There wasn’t one. Everywhere he looked was the eviscerated remains of the griffin company. The ground was soggy with blood and organs, the smell of viscera was suffocating in its strength.

‘It looks like one of Mercer’s other psychopaths was just through here.’ Oskar frowned as he studied his surroundings. ‘Well when Alex Mercer wanted a group or a base attacked he usually got one of his more bloodthirsty Evolved to do it. I was the one to handle the subtle missions, mostly because I wasn’t likely to just get impatient and kill everyone. It's sights like this that make me glad I never really got called to do the dirty jobs very often.’

A sudden loud rumble of thunder attracted Oskar’s attention upwards. The storm the virus had spotted earlier was growing stronger but… there was something strange going on. Oskar’s improved night vision allowed him to spot where the storm clouds ended in the dead of night and what he saw bemused him. The storm was unnaturally small and seemed to be centered on one location…

‘Something’s happening.’ Oskar thought as he turned to face the wood fort. ‘I can guess that this isn’t a good sign, better end it as quickly as possible.’

Sending out a quick viral pulse to get a fix of Bergren’s location, Oskar then did a quick calculation in his head before leaping forward. Sailing just over the wall of the fort Oskar saw Bergren sitting on the ground with his wings fully extended. He was wearing a full suit of bronze armor like his Knights but his helm was different in that it had a pair of wings on it that pointed upwards, reminding the Evolved of a certain caped crusader.

Bergren’s eyes were closed in intense concentration but they flew open the moment Oskar was over the wall and soaring towards him with claws outstretched. The griffin moved… but not fast enough. The Prince fell into a roll with a pained shout before coming to a stop on his stomach, he had managed to avoid being bisected by the Evolved’s claws but at the sake of his left wing which now lay several feet away.

Oskar quickly strode forward, intent on ending the Prince’s life. Seeing this Bergren concentrated on bringing forth the power so many lost their lives for. Just as the Evolved came to a stop before and raised a claw the Prince laid his remaining wing against his leg. This one action bought but a single moment for Bergren as Oskar blinked in confusion, it was all he needed.

Oskar didn’t even have time to react to what happened next. There was a boom and blinding flash of light before he suddenly felt his form seize up in painful spasms. Then he was flying through the air and crashing against the fort wall hard enough to splinter and crack the wood.

The wounded Prince rose onto his hind legs as his quarry writhed for a brief moment on the ground, electricity arcing on his body. Bergren’s remaining wing now had lightning dancing amongst its feathers, buzzing dangerously. Bergren brought his mace up to his wing, the moment they touched lightning leapt from the wing onto the mace head, causing the weapon to glow as a ribbon of lightning wrapped itself around the head and through the spikes.

Seeing that Oskar was about to recover from the lightning Bergren charged forward in an awkward run, his missing wing leaving him unbalanced. Just as the virus raised his head Bergren delivered a crushing blow to it. Pain rippled through the Prince’s arms from the strike, feeling very much like he had struck solid steel but it had the effect he wanted.

Oskar felt lightning surge through his body, causing his false muscles to spasm painfully but the burning was oddly absent. The Evolved was not given even a moment’s respite this time however as his griffin opponent struck him again, this time at the back of his knee.

Falling to his hands and knees Oskar attempted to fight through the spasms and defend himself only for Bergren to deliver another blow, this time at his shoulder. Oskar rolled onto his back, the electricity surging through his body affecting his control over his density and making him a much softer target.

Standing over his prey Bergren continued his assault not noticing the lessening pain from striking the hard viral being. Each blow was directed towards the head and each one smashed deeper and sent bloody chunks flying further. The griffin kept going, striking down at Oskar again and again, breathing in angry growls as his mace smashed. Finally only after he started to hit the dirt did Bergren stop.

The Prince stepped away from his quarry, where the head was, was just a massive blood stain on the ground. With an exhausted sigh Bergren turned away, dismissing the lightning from his body and mace. Stepping away from his presumed dead foe Bergren shot a saddened look at his dismembered wing lying on the ground.

‘It seems I will have to take a boat home…’ The Prince looked skyward, staring into the storm clouds. ‘I have avenged you little skyflower… and all those loyal warriors who followed me as well, though I will bear the weight of my guilt for letting my pride rule me for the rest of my life…’

Bergren closed his eyes for a silence dedicated to both his daughter and his fallen griffins when he heard the rustle of grass. His eyes shot open and he threw himself to the side… he was far too late.

The Prince fell onto his back, an unseen slash across his back marking where his last wing had been dismembered and his spine severed. Bergren turned his head to face his foe, taking in the sight of a completely regrown head.

‘I have failed…’ Bergren thought as Oskar stomped forward to end him. ‘My sons… Vilja… I’m sorry for abandoning you… creature you may claim my life but I swear I will claim yours as well!’

Bergren raised his mace to the sky, an action which caused a now wary Evolved to leap backwards to put safe distance between himself and Bergren.

Suddenly a deafening boom filled the air as dozens of lightning bolts danced about the clouds overhead. The black clouds swirled before forming a massive hurricane eye. Lightning leapt by the hundreds away from the walls of the eye, meeting in the middle and becoming a blinding ball of light. For the briefest moment all was silent… then with one final bang a massive lightning bolt shot towards Bergrens outstretched mace.

The last thing Oskar saw was a blinding light, the last thing he felt was intense agony before everything went dark.

GAMMA

Princess Celestia was lying peacefully in her large bed. She was wearing a sleep mask and her mane was now long and pink, as Celestia was not channeling her power into it to make it into the iconic rainbow like state. It was then that her sleep was interrupted by a loud bang.

“Sister! Awaken!” Luna shouted upon slamming Celestia’s bedroom door open. “A dire issue requires your attention!”

“… Yes Luna, what is it?” A bleary eyed Sun Alicorn asked after lifting up her mask.

“Come sister! Arise thyself from thy bed and gaze upon the sky!” Luna declared before dashing for her sister’s bedroom balcony.

Releasing a small sigh Celestia crawled out of bed. Not bothering to ignite her iconic mane she strolled over to her balcony, telekinetically bringing over a house coat to wear.

“And what exactly am I looking fo…” Celestia’s voice trailed off as she saw a massive anvil shaped storm cloud over Everfree.

“Look! Tis an odd and alarming weather formation is it not?” Luna stated.

Before Celestia could respond the anvil cloud suddenly surged with hundreds of lightning bolts, lighting up the night in its brightness and causing audible shouts of alarm to rise up from Canterlot and the palace guards. For a brief silent moment the light disappeared… then it was like a second sun had been born beneath the anvil cloud, blinding all in its glare save Celestia. The glare lasted for a single moment then it was gone, followed by a quickly fading anvil cloud.

“Was… I think it twas the power of Stormwings!” Luna said wide-eyed. “I had not the faintest idea that Prince Bergren was trained to be one. Tis obvious the Prince is in danger! Come sister was must-”

“No Luna.” Celestia interrupted sadly. “You have been gone for a long time and do not know how far the magic of Stormwings has developed. What you saw was the full potential of Stormwings being brought forth, the might of an anvil storm cloud. But only a master Stormwing could safely harness the full power of such a cloud.”

“Sister… does this mean…”

“Yes Luna…” Celestia said with a tired sigh. “I’m afraid that Prince Bergren is no more, for no matter how skilled he was he was only a dabbler in the end, not a true Stormwing.”

“And what of the threat that the young Prince saw fit to unleash such deadly power on?” Luna asked.

“All within a certain distance of the blast zone would be annihilated.” The Sun Princess stated grimly. “Very few beings of flesh and blood would survive the sudden blast of heat and electricity.”

“Ah… what is to be done sister?” Luna asked Celestia as said alicorn turned about and started to leave.

“I will not be able to get much sleep tonight, that much is certain.” Celestia answered. “I will have ponies to calm and break the news to the Grand Prince of the Principalities, he will want to know one of his nobles has fallen, not to mention create an expedition to locate the survivors of Bergren’s company of Knights… shame, I was looking forward to attending the Best Young Flyer Competition tomorrow…”

Luna turned her attention back to the distant forest of Everfree, her mind pondering the mystery of the “Imp”.

‘Was the Imp truly responsible for young Gilda’s disappearance? Was it the reason why Bergren used such a self-destructive attack? Does it even exist at all?’ The Moon Princess frowned thoughtfully. ‘I shall attend this expedition mine sister is planning, thus once and for all shall I know.’

DELTA

‘Oskar… my little baby… you are my heart and soul… you’re going to be such a handsome kind man when you grow up… remember Oskar, no matter what mommy will always love you… honey…. It’s time to wake up for school… your breakfast is going to get cold…’

Oskar awoke with a gasp and immediately started coughing up ash and bits of charcoal that had fallen into his mouth. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and started hacking up ash and blackened chunks of flesh. Only when he was finally done coughing did Oskar realize he was atop a small pile of burnt flesh, a gnarled skeletal smouldering hand was the only thing he could recognize of the pile beneath him. The Evolved paused when he heard a sound that made him go wide eyed, the sound of frantic worried trilling. Oskar lifted his head up to see Navi wildly buzzing about above him.

“Navi?” Oskar said hesitantly, which caused the bug to give a happy trill and flew to Oskar’s face, rubbing her tiny cheek against his.

‘I… I guess she followed me into Everfree and saw me change forms… but how?’ The virus thought in bemusement as he reached up and grabbed Navi, cupping her in his hands, looking down at her as she smiled up at him. ‘Wait, how could I have forgotten? Parasprites have a higher metabolism, her body must have worked through the sedative remarkably quickly. Well as far as reveals go this was thankfully anticlimactic.’

Oskar gently tossed the little insect into the air where it proceeded to buzz about the Evolved’s head cheerfully. The viral being then slowly got onto his feet a number of aches and pains flaring mildly throughout his body as he did so. He then took stock of his surroundings.

The wood fort had been destroyed, only a few burning logs marking where the walls had been. For a great distance the ground had been completely burned, reducing grass to ash, boiling away the blood of the nearby battlefield and either cooking or charring the gory remains of the Knights. Then was ground zero of the blast...

‘I can’t tell which ash from the grass and from his body is.’ Oskar thought as he dug around a fine pile of what once must have been Bergren. ‘The only thing here even remotely approaching half way recognizable is this cooled puddle of slag and there is barely enough for the mace let alone the armor. Well in the end he did win in one way against me, his brain is ash and his dismembered limbs are bits of charcoal leaving me with nothing but his Knights, speaking of which…’

Oskar turned away from the ash pile that was once Bergren and walked over to the field where he had fought the Knights and the Rangers. As he stepped onto the field Navi suddenly gave a nervous trill before darting for beneath the lip of Oskar’s bucket hat.

“What’s wrong Navi?” Oskar asked his pet, giving her a few gentle nudges with his finger. “Why are you nervous?”

Staying under the lip of his hat, Navi moved to where Oskar could see her and peaked out fearfully at the world. It took him a moment but the Evolved managed to piece together why Navi was afraid after watching her look nervously from the maimed corpses to the surrounding tree line.

“It’s alright Navi, you don’t have to be afraid.” Oskar reassured. “A wild animal didn’t do this, it was… I did this… and you aren’t afraid of me right?”

Apparently that was all Navi needed to hear because she immediately darted for the tip of Oskar’s nose to nuzzle it affectionately before darting back out to buzz happily around the Evolved’s head.

‘Such a naively innocent little thing…’ Oskar smiled wistfully at his pet as she happily shrugged off the sight of the smouldering gore all around them. ‘Well it’s time to clean up my mess, can’t just leave all these corpses lying around since the local wildlife won’t actually “clean up” for me.’

With that Oskar began to focus on his magic, intent to gather up all the remains of the Knights. He was immediately incapacitated by the sure agony shooting through the core of his being.

Falling to his knees and giving a strangled gasp at the sudden unexpected pain, Oskar’s mind was a muddled mess for a brief moment before he managed to forcefully reclaim his focus. As Navi darted about trilling in alarm Oskar focused on his body, intending to find out what exactly was causing him such pain. Nothing, that was what his initial analysis of his body told him. He was in perfect health and shouldn’t be bent over in agony right now. Somehow Oskar was able to remember that he had a part of himself that he didn’t completely understand just yet, his magical circuits.

As was stated, Oskar didn’t understand his magic completely just yet but even he could tell that there was something wrong. It was like coming into a room you hadn’t completely seen before, leaving and then coming back to see that it was on fire. And his magical circuits might as well have been on fire with the condition they were in, all three circuits were fluctuating wildly and surging into each other unpredictably. Every time he tried to use his magic it would work, but at the same time the surging caused other bits of uncontrolled damaged magic to tag along and painfully but temporally deform the circuit pathways they traveled through.

‘Urgh… what caused this?!’ Oskar thought as he panted and rode out the pain going through him. ‘Tha-that attack! It must be! It injured me somehow! But what was it? I must know!’

Oskar delved into his mental archive of shunted off memories, dedicated to searching for an answer to the point of even diving headfirst into the emotionally strong ones. It didn’t take him long, surprisingly. It was one of Gilda’s memories from when she was young, about six years old or so. The memory was bright, filled with colors and the feeling of amazement and awe. The view point was through a crack between two doors but it was enough for Oskar. He watched as a slightly younger and just as insulted looking Bergren studied a scroll containing runic writing. It was then that Bergren concentrated and flared out his wings, suddenly in through a window shot a bolt of lightning. The bolt struck the Prince’s wings and covered them with lightning that bounded and arched between the feathers. There was an audible gasp as the viewpoint suddenly dipped forward and the door opened wider with a loud creak. Bergren’s eyes shot open and the lightning faded from his wings instantly. His already formidable glare intensified and turned towards the door but upon finding who was there, softened. He motioned Gilda forward with his talon and the viewpoint rapidly accelerated forward until Bergren was towering overhead.

‘What was that dad?!’ Oskar heard an excited young Gilda ask.

‘That my little skyflower was the power of the Stormwings.’ Bergren answered solemnly.

Navi worriedly flew to Oskar’s face and started to poke him in the cheek with a tiny leg when said virus opened his eyes.

‘This is what happens when I don’t have time to plan and have to rush things at the last minute.’ Oskar thought with a sigh as he stood back up, his body still aching but not as badly. ‘I end up making stupid mistakes like not properly going over memories as I get them… urgh, this is an utter mess. I’ve lost Bergren both in mind and body, that fight can’t have gone unnoticed so now I may be raving against the clock to clean up here before others arrive, and to top it all off my magic has apparently been crippled for who knows how long. Well… at least I know these griffins took their knowledge about me with them. Right it’s time to get to work and head back home.’

“Sorry Navi.” Oskar apologized as he waved off the worried bug. “I know you are concerned but I need to get this down and take the both of us home really quickly.”

Navi sighed sadly but proceeded to watch Oskar curiously and innocently as he set about rapidly consuming all the gore lying around.

It had taken Oskar longer than he would have liked, far too long. By the time the virus was Emerald again and heading back to Ponyville she was truly worried the sun might decide to just rise above the horizon at any moment. Worse was the fact that she was feeling tired. The only times she had felt tired was before becoming a virus and when she was pushing her magic too far and frankly she would be all to glad to never experience the feeling again, she felt numb and stupid. So much so that she almost never noticed the ponies awake in town running around the streets at such a late hour. And when she did? She brushed it off, being far too concerned with just getting home and crawling into bed to relax on something soft for a good long while.

Getting through town and plodding up the staircase to Twilight’s master bedroom was a blur to Oskar who was now beginning to feel what exhaustion was like. When she was finally in the room she merely told Navi to tuck herself into bed before crawling beneath the covers and unwillingly falling into a thankfully dreamless sleep.

Too bad it wasn’t actually her bed.

EPSILON

Twilight woke up with a foul taste in her mouth and a pounding head.

“Euagh…” Twilight grimaced at both taste and pain. Shaking her head she was about to move out of her bed when she heard someone exhale and a breath on the back of her neck. Quickly turning over in surprise Twilight blinked when she saw Emerald sleeping right beside her with.

Unlike before when she last saw the mare sleeping Emerald didn’t look distressed this time. In fact if it weren’t for the slight frown she had Twilight would say the other unicorn was outright peaceful looking.

‘And as per the usual she looks like she spent an hour fixing herself up.’ Twilight thought as she saw that Emerald once again had immaculate hair while she herself had her usual morning “rock star” hair. ‘At least she doesn’t look like she is having her night terrors, I wonder why she fell asleep in my bed though?’

The violet unicorn reached over with her hoof and shook Emerald’s shoulder and also unlike last time she did not have to shout to wake her. Emerald frowned before letting out a little groan and brought up her hooves to rub the sleep out of her eyes… which she didn’t have.

‘Huh, she doesn’t get eye crust.’ Twilight thought curiously. ‘Well that’s another advantage Emerald has over everypony else.’

“Twilight?” Emerald said in confusion. “Why are you in my bed?”

“Actually, this is my bed.” Twilight answered with a smile despite her pounding head and asked curiously. “So care to explain why you decided to sleep with me?”

“Ah… well…” Emerald began a little hesitantly. “I… I may have… over extended myself last night.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked as she got up from bed.

“I sort of did something I shouldn’t have and ended up paying for it.” Emerald answered with a sigh. “I feel like I have a badly pulled muscle whenever I use my magic, then I get really tired afterwards and just want to crawl into the first bed I see.”

“Wait, you pulled your magic?” The violet unicorn paused as she stared at her friend.

“Well… yes.” Emerald replied.

“Emerald you should have known better!” Twilight stated reprovingly. “A unicorn’s magic advances at its own pace! This is first year stuff! How is your magic!? Does it still feel normal?!”

For the briefest moment Emerald had this really deadpan look on her face, like Twilight had said the stupidest thing but it was gone before the worried unicorn could notice.

“I’m fine… it just hurts to use my magic is all.” Emerald said soothingly.

“If you say so… I suppose this means we aren’t going to be able to continue your lessons for the time being.” Twilight grumbled before sighing. “I’m going in the shower first.”

“If that’s what makes you feel better.” Emerald said after her.

“It will!” The peeved unicorn shouted back before closing the bathroom door.

About half an hour later both unicorns were freshly showered and were now in the library to see about cleaning up the aftermath of an entire weekend’s worth of studying… it was a bigger job than it sounded. All the books were off their shelves and in random stacks all over the room and even beyond. Not to mention that the stacks weren’t exactly in order making the job even harder.

“This is going to take all morning!” Twilight declared as she took in the sight of the library. “I figured this would have taken us an hour, two tops if a certain somepony hadn’t strained her magic last night.”

“I get it, I made a stupid mistake.” Emerald said tiredly. “Believe me when I say I am not going to do it again.”

“Well I guess I can feel somewhat better knowing you learned something.” Twilight sighed. “And I was really looking forward to getting into the advanced final year stuff with you… oh well, let’s see about getting this place cleaned up.”

“How about we ask some of our friends for help?” Emerald offered. “Dash said something about training today and taking Fluttershy with her but I’m sure Pinkie, Applejack and Rarity are free.”

“Hmm, that is a good idea…” Twilight said. “Sure, I’ll just send them all a message with Spike. Spike! Could you come here please?” The unicorn called out.

“Spike!?” Twilight called again when she didn’t get an answer. “Where is that little dragon? Is he still sleeping?”

Suddenly a groan issued from the next room and the sound of claws on wood announced that Spike was indeed still sleeping. Eventually he arrived in a doorway to the library, dragging a blanket with one claw and rubbing his eyes with the other.

“I’m here, I’m here…” Spike said with a yawn. “Ugh, I feel horrible and my mouth tastes like that one time I mistook that glass diamond for a real one.”

“Hmm, does your head hurt?” Twilight asked.

“Yep.” The little dragon nodded.

“Strange… I woke up with a hurting head and a bad taste in my mouth too… well anyways.” Twilight said with a shake of her head. “Spike, do you mind if you could send a few messages to some of my friends?”

“Sure thing Twilight.” Spike said with a yawn and dropped his blanket to walk towards a desk. “Just let me get the quill and parchment.”

Soon enough the letters had been sent out and Spike had been excused to sleep off his headache, which seemed to have persisted though Twilight’s having faded a few moments after waking. The two unicorns had started cleaning with the hope that their friends would be free today to help them finish up early.

As she started putting away books by the dozens with her magic Twilight spotted Emerald out of the corner of her eye, reading through a book she was putting away.

“What are you reading?” Twilight asked after stepping closer.

“Vague Pony History.” Emerald answered, showing her the cover. “It actually has a ton of interesting information in here, like this powerful unicorn called Star Swirl the Bearded and how he was a great innovator in unicorn magic. It even has information on a few monsters locked away in Tartarus, like Cluny the Vengeful Rat, Nidhogg the Dragon, Olog the Genius Troll.”

“Oh I know this book!” Twilight said excitedly. “It’s one of my favorites actually. I had a great idea for a Nightmare Night costume after reading this book, it’s-”

Suddenly there were a few short knocks at the door before it slammed open and in walked a smiling Applejack and Pinkie.

“Howdy ya’ll!” The cowpony greeted cheerfully. “Heard ya needed help ta do some cleanin?”

“My word Applejack!” Rarity declared as she entered herself. “You can’t just barge in like that!”

“Oh Twi and Emerald are great friends, they don’t mind!” AJ replied with a smile and roll of her eyes.

“Hi Twilight! Hi Emmy! What’cha reading huh?” Pinkie said as she bounded over and looked over Emerald’s shoulder. “A crusty old history book?! That’s boring!”

“Well then you’ll probably not like having to pick them up then.” Emerald stated simply, motioning to all the books surrounding them.

“Yeah but I still want to help…”

“As do I.” Nodded Rarity.

“An me too sugarcube.” Applejack said with a tip of her Stetson.

“Thanks girls!” Twilight smiled. “This will go by so much quicker with your help.”

With that the group of five set to work bringing the library back to order. However after a few minutes Rarity noticed an oddity, Emerald wasn’t using her magic to help clean up.

“Emerald darling, why aren’t you using your magic?” Rarity questioned. “It would accelerate this chore ever so much.”

“That would be because she strained herself last night practicing some practical lessons and now she hurts whenever she uses magic.” Twilight huffed in irritation. “It seems we are going to have remedial courses in some first year safety lessons.”

“Joy…” Emerald muttered at that.

“You hurt yourself! Are you sure you are fit to be out of bed Emerald?! Perhaps a quick walk-in with the local nurse is in order.” Rarity said as she began to fuss over her fellow unicorn, also surprising said mare with the amount of worry she was showing.

“I’m fit to run a marathon, Rarity.” Emerald assured. “It’s just my magic that hurts, there’s no need to smother me with concern.”

“Well I can’t help but mother you Emerald, I’m worried about you after all.” Rarity said with a frown.

Emerald twitched. “Mother… right…”

An awkward silence suddenly dominated the room as all the mares suddenly froze in what they were doing.

“Oh my!” Rarity gasped, bringing her hooves up to her mouth in mortification. “I’m- my dearest apologies Emerald! I didn’t intend to bring that up!”

“No… it's okay, I really ought to be over that by now… it’s just what you said reminded me of something.” Emerald said with a sly though unmistakably sad smile.

“… Okay Emerald…” Rarity said quietly and got back to cleaning, the other mares in the room quickly following.

The following twenty minutes were spent in silence cleaning and stacking books back on the shelves, though Twilight often whispered corrections to Applejack when she inevitably got something wrong with the order. Then they were finally done and all looked rather glad for it.

“Thank you so much for helping us clean up these books, girls.” Twilight smiled. “It was a crazy weekend of studying.”

Suddenly before anyone could say anything the sound of someone shouting filled the air. Everyone turned just in time to see Rainbow Dash fly through the window and crash into the room with a yelp, kicking up a substantial cloud of dust. When the dust cleared the only one still standing was Emerald who was staring in surprise at the massive mess Dash’s crash landing created.

“Rainbow Dash you rock. Woohoo.” Fluttershy cheered softly as she appeared in the window before gasping at the sight of the room. “Did my cheering do that?”

“Eh heh heh… sorry about that ladies, that was a truly feeble performance.” Dash said, glancing irritably at Fluttershy.

“Actually it wasn’t all bad.” Fluttershy assured with a smile. “I particularly liked it when you made the clouds spin.”

“I’m not talking about my performance!” Dash exclaimed before pointing at Fluttershy. “I’m talking about yours! That feeble cheering!”

“What are you two arguing about?” Twilight asked.

“Were we arguing? I’m sorry…” Fluttershy said penitently.

“I wish you guys could come to see me compete in the Best Young Flyer competition!” Dash said the tiniest hint of a plea in her voice.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked.

“It’s-” Pinkie began.

“An athletic flying competition.” Emerald stated. “It’s basically an oversized talent show where pegasi get to show off little tricks they worked on in the hopes of getting a little piece of metal to wear on their heads.”

“It’s more than that!” Dash shouted, insulted.

“Sorry, I’ve never really liked those sorts of things, always saw them as a waste of money really.” Emerald said honestly.

“What? Why did you join the Running of the Leaves then?” Dash asked confusedly, something most of the other mares reflected.

“Because the Running of the Leaves is actually a chore ponies turned into a game to make it fun.” Emerald answered. “There is a point to it.”

“Well there is a point to this too!” Dash defended hotly before getting a faraway dreamy look in her eyes. “The grand prize is an entire day with the Wonderbolts! A whole day of flying with my lifelong heroes… it’ll be a dream come true!”

“yay.” Fluttershy cheered “loudly” as Emerald smiled widely at Dash fangirling over her heroes.

“…I-I’m going to go rest up.” Rainbow Dash said after glaring a little at Fluttershy. “Don’t want to over prepare myself, you know? Heh heh…”

“You on the other hand better keep practicing!” Dash told her fellow pegasus firmly before strutting over to the window. “I need a cheering section to match my spectacular performance!” She said confidently before darting out the window.

“She’s been practicing a move that would win the competition hundreds of times over and over but she hasn’t even come close to doing it.” Fluttershy admitted after Dash left. “I don’t know if I can cheer loud enough to help her.”

“What is she trying to do?” Emerald asked curiously.

“It’s called a sonic rainboom.” The shy pegasus explained.

“A sonic rainboom?” The unicorn repeated with a raised brow.

“What?! You don’t know what it is, Emmy?!” Pinkie Pie gasped. “The sonic rainboom is legendary! How can you possibly not know what it is?!”

“Obviously it’s not that legendary or I would’ve heard of it.” Emerald dead panned. “Why don’t you just go ahead and tell me what it is exactly.”

“When a pegasus like Rainbow gets so fast…” Pinkie said as she quickly jumped up to an alcove before leaping down and scattering a bunch of books with a bang. “BOOM! A sonic boom and a rainbow can happen all at once!”

“And Dash was the only one to ever do it.” Applejack said with a nod.

“Wait, wait… a sonic boom, are you saying Dash is capable of breaking the sound barrier?” Emerald said incredulously.

“Ah did say she did it before didn’t ah?” Applejack replied. “What’s with the disbelief huh? Dash is the best flyer that ah ever did see, if anypony is capable of a sonic rainboom it’s her.”

“But that’s the problem, Applejack.” Fluttershy said. “She had been trying and trying so hard to do it, but no matter what she does Rainbow Dash has never been able to do another sonic rainboom.”

“And that’s why she is scared.” Rarity stated.

“Scared?! Have you spit your bit or somein?” Applejack said disbelievingly. “Why when that mare was in here she looked as confident as can be bout winning that grand prize.”

“Oh puh-LEASE! I’ve put on enough fashion to recognise stage fright when I see it!” Rarity stated before turning to Twilight. “We have GOT to find a way to be there for her! Twilight do you have anything to accomplish this? Anything at all? Like a… flying spell perhaps?”

“A flying spell…” Twilight muttered in thought, hoof on her chin as she looked at the books lying on the floor around her. “Possibly… but it may a take a while with this huge mess that-”

“A flying spell? One Sec!” Pinkie said before darting off and coming back with a book in her mouth, tossing it to the violet unicorn. “Here! Page Twenty seven!”

Emerald stepped beside Twilight as she looked down at the book Pinkie had thrown her. Studying the page Pinkie had indicated Emerald was thrown for loop from all the diagrams, arcane math and parameters covering the page.

“Okay this is a little beyond me, Twilight can you understand this?” Emerald asked the unicorn beside her.

“Yeah but… Oh it looks quite difficult…” Twilight paced a little as she held the book in front of her, her expression one of pure concentration. “Hmm I think I may be able to do it with some practice casts though.”

“But the Best Young Flyer Competition is today Twilight.” Fluttershy said worriedly. “There may not be enough time for you to practice.”

“Well… I hate to say it but that leaves somepony volunteering to be a test subject.” Twilight stated at that.

“Ask no more, it is clear what must be done!” Rarity announced grandly. “I Rarity shall gladly be the first pony to undergo the spell.”

“Are you sure about this Rarity?” Twilight asked her friend.

“I gladly do this for Rainbow Dash Twilight.” Rarity answered. “You may begin when ready.”

“Okay, here goes…” With that Twilight began to concentrate on the instructions in the book. Her brows furrowed in exertion as her horn lit up brightly and Rarity lifted off the floor. Filaments of sparkling light formed two cloaks that began to wrap around a slightly worried looking glamorous unicorn. Twilight narrowed her eyes and began to take long deep breaths as she continued the spell, pouring more and more of her power into it by the moment. Just as Rarity became fully encapsulated by the cloaks, a blinding ball of light emitted from Twilight’s horn burst forward and suddenly exploded, sending out a small pressure wave.

Twilight was still standing when the light ended, taking slow deep breaths as she studied the result of her efforts.

“Well… it worked!” She said happily as brightly colored lights danced about the room.

“Oh my gosh Rarity!” Fluttershy gasped at the sight of her friend.

“Butterfly?” Emerald said with a blink.

ZETA

“My wings are glorious!”

Oskar groaned when she heard that.

The spell Twilight had cast on Rarity gave the unicorn wings but she hadn’t been too sure of whether or not she could cast the spell for everyone, so she had taken a closer look at the book she cast the spell from. She found a much easier spell on the next page to give everyone a pegasus’ ability to walk on clouds. But when she had cast the spell on Oskar…

‘Everything hurts…’ The virus thought with a small scowl. ‘And I think the spell messed up, not that I needed it but it should have worked anyway… instead I have this constant ache everywhere.’

“Simply glorious!” A gleefully hovering Rarity gushed.

After Twilight had cast the cloud walking spell on everyone they then decided to head over to where Pinkie’s balloon was anchored, though Fluttershy had flown ahead to meet them there. Oskar wasn’t at all looking forward to that, as she would have to push her pegasus magic to make herself light enough for the balloon to carry, and doing that would be painful.

“So beautiful!” Rarity said happily, all around the group ponies stopped in the streets of Ponyville to point and stare, talking awe filled voices of Rarity's new temporary wings.

“Could you please stop?” Oskar asked irritably of the unicorn. “We get it, your butterfly wings are great.”

“More than great, darling!” Rarity retorted absently. “They are absolutely fabulous!”

“Right… of course.” Oskar scowled as she walked a bit faster.

“Why so peeved Emmy?” Pinkie asked as she hopped along next to the virus. “Rarity just being Rarity.”

“I’m just hurting…” The Evolved muttered a reply.

Suddenly Twilight was next to her. “Hurting? Are you alright? I didn’t think the spell would agitate your magic.”

“I’m fine Twilight, it’s just a little ache.” Oskar assured.

“You don’t have to come to the Competition you know?” Twilight said in concern.

“I’m FINE, besides… I want to see Dash do the sonic rainboom.” Oskar stated jogging forward when the anchored balloon came into view.

The Evolved came to a stop and sat down beside the slightly hovering balloon, intent to wait until everyone was else in and ready to go before lightening herself.

“I believe I shall fly there myself!” Rarity said cheerfully, flapping her wings extra wide to make them even more noticeable. “I shall meet you there!”

Oskar barely spared the unicorn a glance as everyone else moved into the balloon basket, and then she herself entered the basket, lightening herself as she did so. As she strained her magic pain wracked the core of her body and Oskar was pushed to her acting limits to not display any discomfort beyond what was expected. Not at all in the mood to be social, Oskar trudged to a corner of the basket and sat down to wait out the ride to Cloudsdale, which would no doubt feel like an eternity. And she was right, the ride felt like hours though it was only a few minutes. Though she was in pain Oskar managed to notice that even with her head start Rarity wasn’t too far ahead of them.

‘P-probably because… she isn’t u-used to flying.’ Oskar thought, fighting just to keep her expression a mask of boredom.

Finally the balloon breached the clouds that the floating city was made out of and a voice reached the virus’ ears.

“I-I can’t believe it!” Oskar heard Dash’s voice say happily.

“Isn’t it amazing, Rainbow Dash?” The virus heard Fluttershy say.

“This is so cool!” Dash said as the balloon landed with a soft thud on the clouds… somehow.

“Sure did!” Pinkie Pie responded as she hopped right out of the basket, Oskar not one second behind having simply heaved herself over the side.

“Wait!” Dash shouted though too late to actually do anything.

Both Pinkie and Oskar landed with an audible thud on the clouds. Though Pinkie landed on her hooves and Oskar landed on her face.

Rolling onto her back Oskar finally released the pegasus magic she was channeling. The Evolved couldn’t help the massive relieved sigh that came out of her mouth when the pain immediately melted away to a dull ache, which was soothed by the feeling of the incredibly soft clouds under her.

‘That’s it! I’m sick of pain!’ Oskar thought as she wiggled herself a little deeper into the cloud. ‘This isn’t going to do anything for the source of the problem but I won’t care! Morphine time!’

Down on the cellular level Oskar’s viral cells immediately set to work generating new cells to cannibalise for parts. It was times like this that Oskar appreciated her stolen intelligence, she was not at all good at chemistry and dropped that class the first chance she could but there were many people she had eaten who didn’t. Thus synthesising the drug and flooding her body with it was simple, it was holding back her instinct to resist the chemicals now flowing through her and accepting their effects that was the hard part.

“Uhh… Emerald?” Dash asked with a slightly worried look, now standing over the fake unicorn. “You okay?”

“A-OK!” Oskar replied with a goofy smile and slightly glazed eyes, raising a hoof to make the appropriate gesture but stopped when she realised she didn’t have fingers. “You have reeeeeeeeeeealy soft cloudsssssss… heh.”

“Uh… yeah.” Dash responded with a perplexed tilt of her head. “They’re made of water after all.”

“OooOOOooohhh, I should get a water bed!” Oskar said cheerfully.

“Is… is she alright?” Dash asked Twilight.

“I don’t know, I’ve never seen her act like this before.” Twilight answered before lying on the ground next to Oskar. “Emerald, are you feeling okay?”

“FANtastic!” The doped up virus replied happily, wiggling in place on the cloud. “SO SOFT! Right Pinkie!?”

“Hmmmmmm… YEP!” Pinkie, who thought Oskar shouldn’t have all the fun and lied on the ground next to her, answered with a rapid nod.

“… Well we ought to get going.” Dash said suddenly. “I wanna show you guys around Cloudsdale and there’s only a few hours before the competition starts.”

“Sure thing Dash, lead the way!” Twilight said cheerfully before turning to Pinkie and Oskar on the ground. “Come on girls, time to go.”

“AWWWWW!” Both said in sync and then got up grumbling from the ground, also in sync.

“…” Twilight stared for a moment before giving a befuddled shake of her head. “Right, let's get going.”

The group of seven made their way, following Dash and Fluttershy. As they went along their way Oskar watched Pinkie and saw how she hopped along on her legs, something she’d do if she was more excited than usual. The virus suddenly let out a giggle of unabashed amusement and started mimicking the party pony, said pony laughed in glee when she saw Oskar copy her. This new bout of uncharacteristic behavior only caused greater concern in the others though, as “Emerald” wasn’t at all a silly pony.

“Uhhh… well here it is.” Dash said as they crested a hill. “The greatest city in the-”

“Oh hey it’s Timer Turner! With wings! HI TIME TURNER WITH WINGS!” Oskar suddenly shouted, waving at a pegasus flying by. “OH and way over there is Lyra! Also with wings! HI LYRA WITH WINGS!”

“Emerald darling, are you absolutely sure you are fine?” Rarity asked worriedly, flying over from a mirror she had been interested in.

“The best!” The drugged Evolved replied happily before pointing behind Rarity. “Oh he’s there now! How did he do that?”

“Emerald, you're really worrying me here.” Twilight said, frowning concernedly.

“Everything is so soft here!” Oskar responded nonsensically, hugging the nearest fluff she could reach. “SOOOOOOFT!”

“Yay! I’m a comfy cloud!” Pinkie cheered with delight as the doped up virus buried her face in the pink pony’s mane.

“Emerald!” Twilight shouted and darted forward, grabbing hold of the Evolved’s face and forcing her to meet her eyes. “I’m really worried here! What is wrong with you!? I’ve never seen you act anything like this before!”

“I am worried as well darling.” Rarity stated with a frown. “This behavior is most unlike you.”

“Wha… I uhhh…” Oskar shook her head, realising that her behavior wasn’t exactly inconspicuous and started to clear the morphine from her system. Unfortunately this caused the pain to return and drew a shocked gasp from Oskar who was completely unprepared for it.

“Whoa! Emerald, are you alright!” Dash shouted and darted for the fake unicorn’s side, wrapping a wing around her.

“Uggggh...” Oskar groaned, mind now a lot more clear but in some pain. “Truthfully? No, I’m not. My magic is really acting up.”

“What’s wrong with your magic?” Rainbow Dash asked in concern.

“Wait… Emerald?” Rarity said hesitantly and flew in close to Oskar’s face, looking deep into her eyes. “You… normal now. What was that earlier Emerald? Why were you acting like that?”

‘Crud… maybe doing wasn’t such a good idea.’ The Evolved thought. The drug was still somewhat in her system and dulling the pain she felt, but the pain she did feel wasn’t at all insubstantial. ‘This is horrible… I do not want to just have to bear with this… but the drug makes me so loopy… maybe I could… maybe I could just say it’s a pain control technique I learned? That seems a bit farfetched though… although this is a world of magic…’

“It’s just… I’m in pain right now and I have a way that makes me not feel pain.” Oskar replied cautiously. “The downside to it is that I tend to be a little… loopy.”

“A little? Emerald, you are completely not yourself right now.” Twilight replied in a little anger. “And why didn’t you tell me it was getting this bad! I knew I should have made you stay home when you complained after I applied the spell!”

“It was exactly this reason why I didn’t tell you.” Oskar responded candidly. “And besides, I wanted to be there when Dash performed the sonic rainboom.”

“Wow Emerald, thanks.” Dash replied with a happy though concerned smile. “I really appreciate you being here for me… but maybe you ought to go home if you hurt. As much as I like having a tough mare like you cheering for me I’d rather you were in better condition.”

“NO. I’m tired of staying home constantly!” The virus replied hotly. “I’ve been through tons of dangers in my life and I’ve survived it all without a scar to my name! Yet every time you go off to adventure and fighting monsters I’ve got to play the housewife until you get back? Do you know how galling that is for somepony like me? Now I can’t even leave the house without everyone telling me to stay home while they enjoy themselves?!”

“Emerald… I never knew you felt this way.” Twilight said softly. “I always figured you were happy to have a roof over your head, a bed to sleep in and no more danger to worry about.”

“I’ve been in more danger than you’d care to imagine, Twilight.” Oskar replied. “Going out with some aches and pains isn’t nearly the worst thing I’ve had to do. But don’t get me wrong, I do appreciate having a home now. I just don’t need or want to be protected from suffering.”

“… Okay Emerald.” Twilight replied quietly. “You don’t need to say anymore, I understand now. The next time something comes up we’ll… you’ll come along too. And… well it’ll be great to have a pony with your skills along.”

“Fantastic.” Oskar said, smiling lightly before grimacing. “Well I’m going to go loopy again because this is really uncomfortable.”

“Well… at least you’re warning us this time Emerald.” Rarity said with a frown.

“Mmhmm.” Oskar hummed a reply before flooding her system with morphine again and sighing with relief, her eyes glazing over from the drug. “Heh…”

“Well… maybe I should show you guys how the weather is made?” Dash offered.

“Yes that's interesting, lead the way Dash.” Twilight said as she threw a worried glance at the Evolved who seemed to stare at everything with deep amusement.

“Right this way!”

Before long the group had made their way across Cloudsdale and to the weather factory though there were some issues with Oskar giggling randomly and getting distracted by inane things. They had put on some safety gear and were now entering the snowflake room.

“This is where they make the snowflakes, each one is hoof made.” Dash explained to her friends gesturing to a wide open cold room, filled with pegasi wearing winter coats and studying snowflakes through magnifying glasses intently for flaws. “As you can see it is a very delicate operation.”

“Sparkly~” Oskar giggled as she strolled over to a pile of carefully stacked snowflakes. She tilted her head in curiosity as she studied the snowflakes when a sudden breeze made the snowflakes take flight and made her look upwards. Along with a vast array of snowflakes flying through the air she spotted Rarity up in the air looking rather sheepish, suddenly her attention was diverted by a snowflake landing on her snout. Oskar gave a cross-eyed stare of great concentration at the snowflake, all around her the pegasi workers shouted and darted this way and tried to save as many snowflakes as possible.

“We better move on before Rarity ruins winter and causes a drought.” Rainbow Dash said and flinched when she heard a loud crunch. She turned her head to see Oskar chewing on something before swallowing audibly.

“NONsensically salty!” The virus commented cheerfully before hopping into the air and biting another snowflake.

“And Emerald too.” Dash sighed before waving to Rarity and Oskar. “Come on you too! Let’s go!”

The group finally moved on after being delayed by Oskar trying to catch more snowflakes and greatly annoying the workers. They were just getting into another section of the factory when the virus’ loopiness started to act up again.

“HEEEEeeeeeY~ everypony!” The doped up Evolved started to pegasi workers walking by. “Just a bunch a wiiiiiiingLESS ponies visiting a friend! Just walking on clouds, yup, yup! Just another everyday sight in Cloudsdale!”

Everyone sighed at the scene their friend was making but Pinkie seemed to be taking her completely seriously, as her deeply pondering hoof on chin expression demonstrated.

“Ya Know? You have a point there Emmy.” Pinkie said with a serious nod. “Here we are, a bunch of non-pegasi walking on clouds and nopony seems to- OH RAINBOWS!” The party pony suddenly shouted and darted for a river of molten rainbow flowing out of several fountains being manned by pegasi.

“And here’s where they make the rainbows!” Dash said, waving a hoof at her surroundings.

“Tripping BALLS!” Oskar laughed delightedly before flopping down on the edge of a river of rainbows. The virus nonchalantly dipped a hoof in the rainbow mixture and stuck her hoof in her mouth.

“Oh how's it taste Emmy!” Pinkie asked excitedly.

“Mmmm… heh hehehehe it could, SNERK, use a bit of pepper… TRY SOME!” Oskar said, rolling onto her back and unable to hold her devious giggling in.

Pinkie didn’t need to be told twice and quickly dipped her hoof into the rainbows and tried it for herself, the results were near instant.

Pinkie’s expression flashed all the colors of the rainbow before she wheezed out. “Spicy!!!”

Oskar roared with laughter, kicking her hooves in the air like crazy and rolling around as Pinkie quickly ran off to find water. The others found Pinkie’s predicament funny as well and laughed.

“Yeah, rainbows aren’t really known for their flavour.” Dash said with a smile, Fluttershy frowning with concern beside her.

“WHOA!” Came a shot which attracted everyone’s attention… well everyone’s attention except Oskar’s.

“Ba ba ba buh bub buh….” The virus sang softly as she stared into the river of swirling rainbows. “But I got high, but I high~”

“What did you say Emerald?” Twilight asked as she lied down next to her friend.

“Heh hehehehe…” The Evolved giggled in response.

“You know… this would be rather funny if it weren't for the fact you’re loopy because you didn’t want to be in pain.” Twilight said sadly before looking back towards everyone else.

Oskar decided to see what was so interesting and looked away from the rainbow river just in time to see three pegasi flying away and laughing raucously.

“Don’t listen to them girls.” Fluttershy told everyone as she gently comforted a miserable Rainbow Dash.

“Already done!” Oskar shouted impulsively.

“Oh… well how about we go see how clouds are made?” The shy pegasus offered and led the way.

It didn’t take long for the group to arrive at their next location, though it was lengthened somewhat by needing to actually drag Oskar away from the rainbow river.

“Oh wow!” The virus gasped upon catching sight of the inside of the cloud factory. “They’re like giant bongs!”

“Er, what?” Applejack said in confusion before Oskar darted towards one weather machine, which happened to have a pegasi that was just pouring water into it. The Evolved stuck her head curiously into the machine just in time for a massive rush of clouds to shoot out and blast her in the face. A moment later she pulled her head away to reveal it completely covered in clouds with only her eyes visible. It cleared up a moment later when she giggled and shook her head.

“… Come ere you.” The cowpony sighed after a moment and pulled Oskar away from the machines. “Ya should know better than ta stick yer head into some weather pony contraption.”

“But Pinkie's doing it!” The virus protested.

“Ah don- PINKIE! Consarn it ya fool filly, get yer head away from there!” Applejack began before shouting at Pinkie who indeed was in the middle of mimicking Oskar.

“Awwww…” The party power said disappointedly.

“OoooOOOoooh! Psychedelic!” Oskar said in glee quite suddenly.

“Huh? What in tarnation is that supposed ta mean?” Applejack asked the fake unicorn she had a grip on only to see what said person was talking about.

Rarity was up in the air a little above the factory and was stunning everyone with the light show her wings provided when the sun shone through them.

“Hey look!” The doped virus said to Applejack, pointing a hoof. “Dash is turtling!”

Sure enough what Oskar said was true. Dash was on the floor and curled up into a sort of fetal position with her hooves clutching at her cheeks, eyes wide with worry. She and Twilight were talking about something when a pegasi suddenly shouted out.

“Hey! There's an idea! You should enter the competition!” A light purple pegasus shouted up to Rarity.

“Yeah! I could watch you fly all day long!” Agreed an elderly pegasus.

“There really isn’t anypony who uses their wings quite like me!” Rarity stated as she struck glamorous poses up in the air. “Perhaps I should compete?”

“WHAT!?” Dash exclaimed in disbelief before Rarity floated off with a large following of pegasi behind her.

The rest of the Mane Six plus Oskar gathered about the increasingly distraught and worried pegasus.

“What am I gonna do!?” Dash asked her friends despairingly. “I’ll never win the competition now!”

Dash stared at the ground pitifully, so completely and utterly unlike her, all her friends sharing in her sorrow and looking equally as sad… well almost all of them.

“SoOOoo…” Oskar said after a moment, currently possessing as much emotional depth as a spoon. “When are we going to watch Dash go boom?”

Everyone glared at the virus as Dash’s terrible mood only plummeted.

“… What? Do I have somein on my face?” Oskar said, crossing her eyes for some reason.

ETA

“YAY! GO DASH!” Pinkie Cheered, waving a large novelty foam hand around.

“Ta match ain’t started yet sugarcube.” Applejack said.

“Pshaw! That isn’t a reason to not cheer!” Pinkie retorted and went right back to cheering.

“Pinkieeeeeee, heeeee~eey.” Oskar said, getting the party’s pony’s attention. “Do you have another hand like that? Only, heh, with the middle finger up?”

Normally Oskar would be more concerned with the fact that Pinkie had somehow picked up a novelty hand in a society in which a vast majority of the population didn’t have hands. But currently she was only concerned with getting a kick out of secretly flipping off everyone she waved too.

“Hmmmmmmmmm…” Pinkie said, scratching her head with the outstretched finger of her foam hand. “OH! I got one right here! It’s actually a defective one but-”

“Gimme, gimme!” Oskar interrupted excitedly, hopping in place on the cloud.

“Here ya go!” Pinkie said, giving the Evolved a large faulty novelty hand she had pulled from… somewhere.

“Yay!” Oskar cheered with delight as she quickly put on the hand and started waving like mad.

“FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!” The voice of the announcer pony washed over everyone. “PLEASE RISE AND JOIN ME IN WELCOMING OUR BELOVED-oh?”

Suddenly an armored pegasus flew into sight and right next to the announcer, whispering a few things into his ear before quickly flying off.

“Ahem… unfortunately I was just informed that a matter of great importance has just come up, and as a result Princess Celestia will not be able to watch the competition.” The announcer said to everyone’s audible disappointment. “BUT! Don’t let that get you down! PLEASE WELCOME OUR CELEBRITY JUDGES FOR THE BEST YOUNG FLYERS COMPETITION: THE WONDERBOLTS!” The announcer shouted, waving grandly over his head just as six pegasi wearing latex suits flew over, trails of smoke in their wake.

The six flying ponies streaked across the sky for a brief moment before suddenly pulling together into an unbelievably tight formation and exploding apart with a fantastic burst of green fireworks.

All the pegasi cheered at the display of showmanship and flying as the six Wonderbolts flew over to take their own seats in the stands.

“AND NOW LET’S FIND OUT WHO WILL TAKE HOME THE PRIZE AS THIS YEARS… BEST! YOUNG! FLYER!” The announced the games broadcaster, pointing towards the curtain where all the flyers would be entering the arena to display their skills and talent.

“Yeah! Look at my finger!” Oskar shouted gleefully, one foreleg wrapped around Pinkie’s neck as she waved her hand energetically. The pink party pony was returning the embrace eagerly and was also waving her hand around with the energy to match.

The first flyer came out, a yellow pegasus with steel blue eyes and a curly dark pink and white mane. Truth be told she wasn’t all that impressive, doing straight forward flips, loops and dives but she was certainly enthusiastic.

“Woo! Dashie is next!” Pinkie cheered and started waving her novelty hand like crazy when she saw the curtains part. “YAY DASH! GO DASH G-go?”

“That ain’t Dash!” Oskar groused unhappily. “That’s Time Turner with wings.”

“What’s going on?” Twilight thought aloud. “Did they change the line up?”

“Nope, that there is a number two on that fella’s flank.” Applejack said, straining her eyes. “Same number we saw Rainbow get.”

“Oh dear… maybe she got nervous and switched her number with somepony else’s?” Fluttershy offered.

“Now that doesn’t sound like Rainbow at all.” The cowpony frowned.

“That’s still not Dash…” Oskar huffed upon catching sight of the next contender. “BORING! I’m going to bed! Wake me when there’s snacks… or Dash… either one!”-

With that the virus fell over onto the cloud with a thump. She had not lain on the ground for more than a few seconds when she heard a voice over the cheering.

“Popcorn! Hay fries!” A mare shouted, carrying a tray full of fast food as she flew. “Get your popcorn and hay fries here!”

“Snack lady! Over here, snack lady!” Oskar shouted and waved her novelty hand wildly, having leapt from her former position on the cloud to leaning dangerously over the edge of a cloud.

“Careful miss!” The confectioner said as she quickly darted over. “Don’t want you falling now! What can I get you?”

“Oh a little bit of everything!” Oskar said before patting herself briefly and getting a wide eyed. “Twilight! I got no money! Pay the nice lady!”

“Alright, alright…” Twilight sighed and stepped over. “How much do I owe you?”

It was nearly over a dozen competitors later before Dash and Rarity made their appearances. Oskar didn’t mind though, as she had a bunch of snacks to keep her distracted… much to a very broke violet unicorn’s annoyance.

“Finally!” Oskar exclaimed, chucking her last bag of popcorn away and quickly putting her hand back on. “Come on Dash! Make a big bang!”

“YAY DASH! GO DASH GO!” Pinkie cheered alongside Oskar, her friends quickly following.

The two flying ponies talked for a brief moment in the air… well Rarity talked, Dash just sort of looked incredibly panicky and was visibly shaking. Rarity then flew off and classical music began to play, Dash was about to do the same when she spotted her friends. She took a double take at Oskar’s novelty hand and her shaking stopped, she popped a crooked smile and appeared to laugh a little before shaking her head and continuing on.

‘Dash knows what a middle finger means?’ The virus thought in surprise, pausing her vigorous waving for a brief moment before giggling loudly and waving her hand even harder. ‘Oh well! Imma flip her off anyway!’

Rarity began dancing and Rainbow Dash began her routine. Oskar wanted to watch Dash but as Rarity gracefully moved through the air she sometimes flew by the sun, which caused a brief spectacle that was irresistible to the doped virus’ eyes. She snapped out of it when she heard Dash’s pained shout.

“Nice work Rainbow Crash!” Said a voice from below followed by mocking laughter.

“Wha? What did I miss?” Oskar asked confusedly as she spotted an angry Dash fly away from somewhere below the cloud they were sitting on.

“Dash is… not doing well…” Fluttershy answered, her hooves held up to her mouth in worry for her fellow pegasus.

“Oh…” Oskar said and shook her head, focusing on Dash who was now speeding out of the arena and towards some clouds. Upon reaching the clouds she immediately started flying circles around them, going so fast they started spinning.

“Look! Phase two is working!” Fluttershy said and she and her friends started cheering… a moment too soon.

Just as she was finishing spinning the final cloud a piece of said cloud flew off and struck the rainbow maned pegasus in the face, making her go spinning off. After gaining control of her spinning Dash quickly turned around to face the crowd, afraid of their reaction. She needn’t have worried though since everyone seemed to have written her off after the first mistake and kept their attention solely on Rarity. In fact the only people paying any attention to the pegasus at all appeared to be her friends and some ponies sitting on the cloud beneath said friends.

“Uhhh… this ain’t looking so well.” Applejack said with a frown.

“Well, look at it this way… at least everypony isn’t paying attention to her.” Twilight said with a forced smile.

“This is it, she’s going for the sonic rainboom.” Fluttershy pointed at Dash as said pony rose sharply into the sky which Rarity also happened to be doing. “Ohhhh, I hope it works.”

A few pegasi’s attention was gained by Dash’s fast ascent into the sky and became interested in her again, wondering what she was going to do that required her to fly so high. At the same time Rarity rose as fast as she could which wasn’t much to be honest and she stopped long before Dash did. Rarity happened to be positioned just right for the sun to shine through her wings and onto the stadium below much to everyone’s delight. Their delight ended when Rarity’s wings suddenly burst in flame for an instant and turned to ash.

“OH MY GOSH RARITY!” Twilight shouted in alarm as she saw her friend plummet from the sky.

Oskar focused intently on the falling unicorn and brought up her magic to catch her, absently wondering why Twilight wasn’t doing the same. For a brief moment her horn flared with her magic and her magical circuits felt so very warm. Then in one instant, utter and total agony completely lanced right through the numbing drug flooding her system.

“AUUUGH!” The virus’ eyes widened and she released a choked shout of pain.

“E-Emerald?” Twilight turned her worried eyes to her fellow unicorn just as Oskar coughed and let out a small spray of blood then fell through the clouds she stood on.

“NOOO!” Oskar heard through delirium and pain, along with shouts of shock and dismay. Her mind was blank for a moment as she struggled with the sure agony wracking her body, the sound of air rushing past and wings beating filling her ears.

‘W-wings?’ Oskar thought and opened her eyes to see Fluttershy flying as fast as she could towards her with a completely determined expression on her face.

‘S-she… She won’t b-be able to catch m-me…’ A memory of the shy pegasus trying to pick her rat form up flashed through the Evolved’s mind. ‘… T-this is g-going to hurt s-so much… but it’s t-the only way…’

Oskar fought to regain concentration and called her pegasi magic forth, lightening her considerably. Just as she thought the pain was incredible and the Evolved wondered how she was ever going to keep this up long enough for Fluttershy to catch her and bring her back to Cloudsdale. Then suddenly the feeling of something ripping inside her body filled her and there was an almost audible tearing sound in her ears. For a brief moment Oskar panicked as she felt her magic completely disappeared before it roared back to life. The pain was gone as well but the virus was completely and totally sick to her stomach. Nonetheless Oskar channeled her pegasus magic through her horn once again with a groan just as Fluttershy wrapped her fore legs around her.

Oskar felt her velocity towards the ground immediately slow and soon they were flying back up towards Cloudsdale, the Evolved had also heard a loud boom but was in no condition to find the origin and just lay across Fluttershy’s back as she carried her back up to Cloudsdale.

“Emerald! Emerald look at me! Are you alright?!” The Evolved heard through her delirium and opened her eyes to see she was back in the stadium, Twilight was staring worriedly at her along with everyone else. Dash was there as well, Rarity across her back along with a few Wonderbolts standing nearby.

“Twilight… I’m not feeling so well…” The Evolved answered honestly before suddenly heaving. Suddenly what seemed to be almost a waterfall’s worth of blood erupted from Oskar’s mouth and over the nearby ledge.

The stadium was still very much full and ponies screamed in shock and horror at what they were seeing, the Mane Six along with a few Wonderbolts joining their voices to the cacophony.

Oskar felt something large and jagged move through her throat and out her mouth, with its passage her vomiting quickly slowed and ended. Suddenly she felt much better.

“I’m feeling better now.” Oskar said lightly before blacking out.

“EMERALD!” Was the last thing the Evolved heard before her mind descended into unconsciousness.

THETA

“This is horrific.”

“So much blood…”

“Where are all the bodies?”

The voices of various Royal Guard ponies filled Luna’s ears but she paid them no heed. Her attention was solely on the mass of charred flesh before her.

If it wasn’t for the long cooled chunks of cooked flesh it wouldn’t have been possible to identify the pile of charcoal as something that used to be alive, as it was none could identify what it used to be… none except Luna that is.

‘So… the Imp is dead then…’ Luna thought to herself as she stared at a charred skeletal hand. ‘This feels… very unfulfilling.’

So many questions wracked the Princess’ mind. Why was the Imp in Equestria, why did it kill Gilda, where did it come from, what was its story and why did it chose to stand its ground and fight instead of run away? Now with its death by Bergren’s suicide attack all these questions would forever be unanswered.

Sighing aloud Luna turned around. The Royal Guard swarmed the area, looking for the remains of griffins and looking rather ill all the while by the smell of cooked flesh in the air. Her sister and Shining Armor, Captain of the Guard stood a short distance away conversing with each other.

“Nothing? There is no sign of the Anvil Knights at all?” Celestia asked in disbelief.

“None at all your Highness.” Armor replied. “Other than blood stains we can’t find any griffins. It’s like somepony took all the bodies away… do you think the Monster of Everfree ate them all?”

“There were a lot of griffins Armor.” Celestia said with a frown. “If it were a large creature then I would agree but its remains are right there. It doesn't appear to be much larger than the average pony.”

“Then what happened to the bodies?” Armor thought aloud with a bemused look. “They have not been lying here for very long, the local predators couldn’t have gotten to all of them.”

“They would have left the armor and the bones as well.” Celestia added. “Hmm… it is quite the mystery.”

“What of the Griffin Grand Prince Sister?” Luna asked.

“He is… unhappy.” Celestia replied with a sigh. “It’s not every day that one of your valued subjects is killed in a foreign country. He was understandably displeased with me not ensuring Prince Bergren’s safety.

“Tis a heartless statement but I can hardly see the fault lying with us sister.” Luna replied with a frown. “The departed Griffin Prince had only himself to blame for choosing to enter the forest. Did we not inform the Prince of the dangers? Was he not informed of a recently discovered one in the form of the infamous “Monster of Everfree”?”

“True though that may be the Grand Prince still sees we should have done more to protect Bergren.” Celestia responded with a troubled frown. “However I can’t help but feel that I am to blame for this travesty. I gave permission to Bergren to enter my lands, I allowed him to go unmonitored by my Royal Guard… and this is the result of those decisions, Bergren dead and three hundred griffins unaccounted for… and most likely dead as well… and I am to blame.”

“Princess you are not to blame.” Armor said hotly. “You expected the mightiest warriors the Principalities had to offer to be enough, you expected a Prince of a Grand Hold to have the sense to call for help and notify others of his actions. These expectations were all very reasonable and it is simply terrible that it didn’t work out that way. You can’t be expected to know all Princess, this was not your fault.”

“And that is where you are wrong my dear Armor.” Celestia smiled sadly at her Knight captain. “In the end I am the Princess of Equestria. When great events happen in the Kingdom those responsible are applauded. When terrible things befall it I am blamed for not foreseeing it…” Suddenly the Princess turned away and began walking. “For I am Celestia, Princess of Equestria, Mighty All Seeing Goddess of the Sun and Architect of a thousand years of peace… I am not allowed to be wrong.”

‘Dear sister…’ Luna thought sadly as she watched Celestia walk away before glancing back at the pile of ash and charcoal that must have once been the Imp. ‘Tis a most unfulfilling end… still tis fortunate it has ended, this dark creature will not harm another.’

IOTA

Oskar's mind swirled in darkness, voices faded in and out at the edge of her hearing as she struggled to overcome an intense feeling of helplessness. Further adding to her confused turmoil was voices she never thought and hoped she’d hear again.

“Ugh… heavy for a mare…” A male voice said suddenly with a stained grunt.

‘Oskar there is this Blackwatch officer I need eliminated.’ Alex Mercer’s voice said. ‘He frequents a brothel on this address here and there needs to be a body... in one piece do you understand? Do what you have to but make it look like one of the girls did it. The patsy needs to be alive and well as well. Now go.’

“… a strong girl, it must be the muscle…” A familiar voice said… Rarity?

‘Hey there slut.’ A voice, dripping in conceit, greeted cheerfully. ‘How about instead of cash this time I just give you a couple ration stamps instead huh? It’s practically a fortune for a useless cow like you.’

“… hear that?” The male voice form before asked. “Is she grinding her teeth?”

‘Mmmm sure thing honey.’ Oskar heard herself purr in a voice that wasn’t hers, the feelings of disgust with herself and an all-consuming sense of emptiness roiled within her. ‘I’m h-horny anyway!’

“What! Oh my gosh she’s having one of her night terrors!” A voice shouted loud enough for the Evolved to clearly identify: Twilight.

‘On the bed face down, I’m taking your ass virginity whether you like it or no- HEY WHAT THE FUC-gurk!’ The feeling of meat separating around her claws like warm butter brought only the smallest twinge of horror from the virus, the emotion beaten down by the desire to live and murder after murder, and reinforced by a wide abyss of emptiness. But beneath the faint horror, beneath the feeling of emptiness laid an emotion all too terrible for the Evolved to ponder… delight.

“O-oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Fretted a stuttering voice. “This s-seems so very bad! She needs to go to a hospital!”

Suddenly it was as if the doom bell tolled and a great sense of dread filled Oskar as the word hospital rang in her ears. Images of men in blue hazmat suits appeared before her, her own terrified expression reflected back at her in their visors. Scalpels gleamed from a blinding light overhead as they descended, foretelling great pain and suffering.

“NO HOSPITALS!!!” Oskar roared in terror fueled fury at the first person she saw after she shot up from her lying position.

“EEP!” Fluttershy squeaked in terror before falling over in a faint.

Breathing rapidly almost to the point of hyperventilation Oskar took quick stock of her surroundings.

After she had passed out the virus had apparently been placed on a stretcher and was being carried by four pegasi. She was still in Cloudsdale, likely on the very outskirts of the cloud city as she was just before the edge. All around her were the Mane Six and the six pegasi who had been carrying her on a stretcher, all save for one unconscious pegasus were staring at her with some mix of shock and incredible worry.

“Emerald!” Twilight shouted before darting forward and pulling the virus into a hug. “Are you alright?! How are you feeling?! Does it feel like you might throw up again?! Are you in pain?!”

“What? Twilight I’m feeling fine now.” Oskar said after forcefully calming herself and added when she saw the violet unicorn’s incredulous look. “No really! Look!” With a small flare of her horn Oskar changed the color of the stretcher from white to bright orange. “See? I feel better now! I can even use magic again without it hurting.”

“Feeling better? Yeah I’ll believe it when I see it.” Dash said disbelievingly.

“Well… take a look.” Oskar said with a gesture to herself.

“Yeah, yeah you’re flaring your horn and talking big but you know what? What I just saw earlier says otherwise!” Dash said, stamping her hoof in emphasis. “You don’t just puke up a bunch of blood and walk away from it! When something like that happens, all kinds of things could be horribly wrong with you… permanent things!”

“OH MY GOSH! Dash you’re right! But… how did you know?” Twilight gasped then looked confused and stared at the pegasus in question. An action mirrored by everyone else save for Oskar who was looking more and more alarmed.

“What? I’m an athlete!” Rainbow Dash said her cheeks flushing as she turned her head away. “I’m not an egghead or anything, it just pays to know how serious an injury could be!”

“No pony is judging you for knowing this darling, in fact we are all very grateful that you knew.” Rarity assured Dash quickly before turning to Oskar. “Emerald, we must get you to the hospital right away! You-”

“NO! No hospitals!” The virus interrupted with a shout, the images of alarmed doctors holding test results up to Celestia flooding her mind.

“What in tarnation! Emerald, you are looking more panicked than the chickens after that wolf raided their coop!” Applejack exclaimed after seeing the expression on the fake unicorn’s face. “What in the world got ya so spooked?”

“Emerald please there might not be much time!” Twilight implored the virus. “We have to get you to a doctor! You… you might D-DIE!”

“No, no it’s- I-I’m okay!” Oskar said nervously, gulping slightly as her eyes darted to each of the mares around her. “I don’t need a hospital! Not at all! Seriously, I'm fine!”

“Please Emerald! You… wait…” Twilight said, first in worry then pausing as she remembered something. “Emerald, you mentioned the hospitals where you were not being very good, but I can assure you that the hospitals here in Equestria are some of the best in the world.”

“Twilight I… it’s… ohhhhhh…” The virus groaned, gritting her teeth in anxiety. “Those hospitals… weren’t just useless… they were horrifying…”

“What? Emerald, what do you mean?” Twilight asked, wondering how a place meant to heal could be described as such.

“It- THEY WERE BAD OKAY!” Oskar yelled, being forced to play the pity act and the fear of going to a hospital driving her to the edge. “…I’m sorry… they… they did something to ponies. You’d go there, wait to be treated and wait and wait and wait, until finally you had to sleep in cots they had prepared. You’d go to sleep but when you woke up, there would be cots empty of ponies all over the place. You’d ask what happened only to get shushed or told to shut up, and when you wouldn’t listen you got hit.”

“What!?” Twilight gasped, as did everyone else. “Wait… Emerald you were just a filly when-”

“WANT KIND OF MONSTER HITS A LITTLE FILLY!” Applejack roared in outrage.

“Yeah… that sounds like them…” Oskar muttered quietly. “I… I don’t want to say anymore … I don’t want to go to the hospital, okay?”

“Emerald… as much as I want to I can’t just let this go.” Twilight said quietly but firmly. “And I’m certain everypony here feels the same way. We can’t just ignore something like this and hope everything turns out okay, you need medical attention Emerald.”

Oskar silently shook her head with wide eyes, looking this way and that for a way out as she began backing away.

“Now don’ go runnin off sugarcube. This here is Cloudsdale and their ain’t many places a wingless pony could hide in!” Applejack said firmly, bringing up a rope to catch Oskar the moment she decided to bolt.

“I’m not letting you run away either Emmy!” Pinkie shouted from behind the Evolved, spooking her.

“EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!” Twilight shouted. “It’s okay Emerald, I know you’re scared but I promise that all of us will be by your side every step of the way. Will you go to the hospital now?”

Oskar swallowed, her anxiety plain to see as she realised there was only one thing she could do.

“… Alright.”

KAPPA

‘Okay, okay, density: normal, mass: normal, pulse rate: normal.’ Oskar thought anxiously as she walked through the hospital doors. ‘Large supply of normal blood with Emeralds natural genome, magic… shit! I don’t know what to do! GOD DAMN IT! What do I do?! How do I hide magic?’

“It’s okay Emerald.” Fluttershy said reassuringly, having been roused before leaving Cloudsdale. “If you are as healthy as you say you are then it’ll be just a normal checkup.”

“Deep breaths Emerald.” Twilight advised. “Fluttershy’s right, we’ll just go see a doctor and go from there.”

The group of seven moved towards the front desk where the nurse was busy writing out some forms, it also happened to be the same nurse Oskar had seen before.

“Hello how may I- Oh! It’s you again, how are you?” The nurse began before spotting Emerald and turning cheerful.

“Not good, miss.” Twilight said before Oskar could answer. “We need to see a doctor really quickly. Is there one free?”

“It’s another slow day so yes there is.” The nurse replied before asking worriedly. “Is it really serious?”

“It’s my friend, she had pulled her magic yesterday and was complaining of aches and pains today.” Twilight began, motioning to Oskar. “Then during a competition she started puking up blood.”

“Oh my goodness!” The nurse gasped before quickly moving from her desk. “Follow me!”

As the group jogged after the nurse Twilight noticed that Oskar was looking more and more apprehensive.

“It’s okay Emerald, deep breaths.” Twilight told the virus. “You’ll be seeing a doctor soon and everything will be alright, and remember no matter what we will always be right there beside you okay?”

“Yeah… alright… thank you Twilight.” Oskar said, inwardly surprised at the fact she did feel calmer now, not much but she had an easier time thinking now. Feeling that time was running out, Oskar refocused on the issue at hand, getting her magic to hide. She looked inwards and stared at her circuits, namely at the earth pony and pegasus circuits.

‘Hide… hide… come on…’ Oskar thought intensely, trying anything to hide the magic a unicorn shouldn’t have. She almost gasped aloud when ever so slowly she felt the earth and pegasus circuits shrink. The circuits continued to shrink down in size until they seemed to have disappeared. The virus experimentally called on her pegasus magic and immediately the circuits appeared and the magic from them flowed. She stopped and quickly got the circuit to hide away again. ‘I don’t believe this… this is fantastic! I might just get through this with no problem!’

Just then the nurse they were following stopped in front of a brown mane and coated unicorn wearing a long white coat. She walked over and whispered in his ear for a moment before the other unicorn’s eyes widened.

“Get her to the ER stat!” The doctor shouted and suddenly several nurses and other doctors in full operating garb appeared and whisked the Evolved down a hall towards a pair of double doors.

The images of men in blue hazmat suits flashed in the Evolved’s mind, sending her into a panic.

“NO! GET OFF ME!” Oskar shouted as she wildly flailed her limbs. “DON’T TOUCH ME! LEAVE ME ALONE!”

“Ahhhh!”

“OW!”

“Control her! Con- ACK!”

Nurses and doctors retreated from the panicking virus, most now sporting painful bruises.

“Miss, please calm down.” The brown coated unicorn said calmly, holding up hoof to her. “We only want to help you. You could be very seriously injured and we need to make sure you’ll be alright.”

While the unicorn was talking Oskar’s powerful ears easily picked up on some whispering going on between a few doctors.

“Alright, slowly but steadily apply the sleep spell.” Oskar heard someone say.

“Alright I’m starting now she should be out in about-” Another voice began but was interrupted.

“NO!” Oskar screamed out, her eyes and horn alight with a magical aura. Suddenly the nurses and doctors were wreathed in a pink aura so intense they could’ve been mistaken for flames. The medical ponies flew through the air and slammed into the walls and ceilings of the hallway with loud thuds, held in place via the virus’ magical might.

Oskar stood there in the middle of the hallway, her breath coming in deep pants and her eyes like spotlights in the night. Suddenly a pony came running at her and Oskar surprised herself by not immediately restraining it like she did the hospital staff. The pony impacted into Oskar and the Evolved felt a pair of limbs wrap comfortingly around her neck.

“It’s okay Emerald… please calm down.” Oskar heard Twilight say softly. “I know you’re scared. So very scared but these ponies only want to help you, please stop hurting them.”

The virus’ panting slowed and her magic slowly receded, her eyes stopped glowing and the medical ponies were gently lowered to the ground.

“It’s okay, everything is going to be alright Emerald.” Twilight soothed, hugging the virus tighter.

“I suppose your friend has a phobia of medicine, miss?” The brown coated unicorn said, rubbing a sore spot on his back.

“She… she is afraid of hospitals.” Twilight replied.

“Hmm… right we are going to have you in the room as well.” The doctor stated and turned to a few nurses. “Get her some scrubs.”

“Hear that Emerald? I’ll be right there beside you, nothing to be afraid of.” Twilight said finally releasing Oskar after she appeared to be completely calm.

“…I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to panic.” Oskar said softly.

“It’s alright, you’re just scared.” Twilight said reassuringly before taking some clothes a nurse handed her.

The next thing Oskar knew she was in the ER and was on her back lying on some gurney. Doctors and nurses were all around her with Twilight nearby but out of the way always flashing her a reassuring smile whenever she looked at her, the others were there as well but were behind the doors and crowding its little windows.

“Okay first we are going to examine you with a spell, it’ll tell us what your health is and what injuries you may have.” The doctor from before said, telling Oskar so she’d know what to expect.

“…Alright.” Oskar said and took a deep breath, going through everything she did to make herself normal one last time. “I’m ready.”

“Okay it is… 3:42pm and we are now beginning diagnosis of the patient.” The doctor said aloud, his horn glowing with a light blow aura. “Then we will proceed to medicate any and all injuries we find.”

A beam of light emitted from the doctor's horn and began scanning up and down Oskar’s body. The Evolved became ever more anxious, her breath came faster. The seconds passed like hours to the virus as she examined the doctor’s expression, what little of it she can see anyway. Most of the doctor’s face was covered by a surgical mask but his eyes were clear to see, they were narrowed in concentration but after a moment his brows furrowed and confusion appeared in his eyes. After a few more moments the doctor stopped his spell and motioned for a few of his fellow doctors to follow him as he walked over to the far side of the room.

Oskar listened intently with her powerful hearing and soon felt her worries melt away. The doctors were confused by the lack of anything wrong with Oskar, they were also discussing a few irregularities they had found but it was nothing major.

‘Oh thank god!’ Oskar thought with relief as she watched the brown coated doctor walk away from the group.

“Excuse me miss, I’d like a few words with you and your friends.” The doctor said, pulling off his mask as he did so.

“There isn’t anything wrong is there?” Twilight asked in worry.

“No actually, and that is the problem.” The doctor said to the other unicorn’s confusion. “I just need to question you and your other friends on what you saw.”

Twilight looked deathly curious to what the doctor meant by that statement and wanted to go with him to talk but she also didn’t want to leave Oskar when she had promised to be there for her. She turned to look at the virus and got a wave from her, telling her to go on. Twilight shot one last hesitant look at her friend before nodding.

The doctor left the ER with Twilight in tow, leaving Oskar alone with the other doctors and nurses but the Evolved was no longer too concerned, believing she was now past the worst. Suddenly one of the nurses appeared at her side with a rather large needle.

“We are just going to take blood sample now, are you ready, miss?” The nurse asked softly, now rather aware of “Emerald’s” magical strength and phobia of hospitals.

“Y-yes, you can go ahead.” Oskar said with now mock nervousness, prepared to send normal unicorn blood to wherever the nurse was going to take blood from.

“Alright… deep breath.” The nurse said before carefully sinking the needle into the virus’ shoulder and began taking blood. “There we are done.”

“When was the last time you had vaccination shots, miss?” A mare doctor asked, smiling kindly down at her despite having a black eye from one of the Evolved’s blows.

“Umm… years and I don’t think it was for any of the local illnesses.” Oskar replied before adding honestly. “And I’m sorry about your eye, I should have controlled myself better.”

“It’s okay miss, fear can get the better of the best of us.” The mare said compassionately before bringing up several needles and a few little bottles filled with colorful liquids.

Before long the vaccinations had been injected into her and Oskar had to fight to keep herself from lashing out at the foreign chemicals and consume them, for the time being at least. The moment the nurse had finished her injections a stallion doctor walked over wheeling a primitive looking computer that had a clamp and two suction cups hanging off the side.

“Next on the examination is your magic miss.” The mare doctor said. “We are just going to attach that clamp on your horn and place the cups on your temples then ask you to simply channel as much magic as you can okay?”

“S-sure.” Oskar had been rather nervous about this part of the examination but from what she was just told the equipment would have only attached to areas that had only unicorn circuits. So even if she wasn’t able to hide her other circuits chances were they wouldn’t have noticed them. Still the Evolved was wary and kept up her recently discovered skill at hiding her circuits.

The computer was wheeled right next to Emerald but the screen was turned away from her. A nurse took the clamp and cups and proceeded to attach them to her horn and temples as had been said.

“Alright miss.” A doctor watching the screen began. “Just channel as much magic as you can, no need for any spell, just pure magic.”

Oskar nodded silently and did as she was instructed. The Evolved channeled her magic but was not using her full strength because it just wouldn’t do to have her full power on record and that it wouldn’t be very inconspicuous. Unfortunately the Evolved had no idea of just how much magic she had and how it compared to normal unicorns. So she had little doubt in her mind that she had failed to properly hide her magical strength when the doctors and nurses gasped, it was further reinforced when the computer started to suddenly spew smoke for a brief moment before bursting into flame.

“What’s going on in here!?” The brown coated doctor shouted as he ran back into the room, having been alerted by the shouts and screams of his fellow staff. He had also been followed into the room by Twilight and the other members of the Mane Six.

“Sorry Crimson.” A doctor said as he sprayed down the flaming wreck that had been the PC with a fire extinguisher. “We were just onto the magic examination when the MSG was overloaded.”

“She overloaded it?” The brown unicorn now identified as Crimson said with surprise. “What was her grade before it exploded?”

“Fourteen.” One of the mares said with awe.

Oskar looked around with worried eyes as everyone gasped at the apparently high number.

“Uhh… is that good?” The Evolved asked after a moment.

“Emerald, that is fantastic!” Twilight said excitedly. “The average unicorn grades at five! I myself had a grade of eleven. Why, your potential at magic is even greater than I had ever hoped it would be!”

“Oh… uh, what was Celestia’s if I may ask?” Oskar enquired.

“Twenty.” Crimson promptly answered. “We had to modify the equipment to keep it from exploding, even though she wasn’t even trying. We should have just kept the modifications in hindsight… anyways.”

“Miss Gleaner? I questioned your friends on what happened to you and I compared it with what I have discovered from your diagnosis.” Crimson continued. “It’s incredibly odd that there is nothing wrong with you despite the fact that you threw up an excessive amount of blood, but the data doesn’t lie. There is absolutely nothing wrong with you, in fact you are in better shape than most earth ponies which is a praiseworthy feat by a unicorn. Combined with your magical grade I would say you are one of if not the most fit pony in all of Equestria.”

“Normally I’d have you stay a few days to be monitored but…”

“NO.” Oskar said firmly.

“I thought that was the case, miss.” Crimson said with a nod. “Well I’m not going to force you, not only would that not be ethical it probably would not end well for me. You may leave anytime you like.”

With that Oskar got off the gurney and quickly walked out the ER doors, the Mane Six not a second behind her. The very moment the Evolved walked past the doors she was set upon by the mares following her, overwhelming her in a large group hug.

“Wha?” Oskar got out.

“I’m so happy nothing is wrong with you Emerald.” Twilight said happily.

“Darn tooting!” Applejack agreed. “Ah never had any doubt, ya are a strong filly but Ah’m happy all the same.”

“I felt more nervous for the results of that medical exam than I ever did for the competition!” Dash admitted with an embarrassed flush.

“I think I speak for all of us when I say that I am glad to be wrong!” Rarity announced, something the other mares heartily agreed with. “You know yourself well darling, you were right about the state of your health.”

“Well… I’m glad you were all wrong too.” Oskar said with a sheepish smile at all the attention she was getting. “And uh… thanks for the sentiment guys, I know what happened at the competition worried you all horribly. But can we go now? I'd rather not stay in a hospital longer than needed.”

Twilight’s grateful smile instantly turned sad. “Of course Emerald, let’s go home.”

The six mares and one virus then proceeded to make their way back to Ponyville. Though the mares were still very much curious at why Oskar was scared of hospitals and what had happened to her in her youth to scar her mentality so badly, they weren’t willing to cause “Emerald” unnecessary pain so they let it be… for now.

LAMBDA

‘Hmm… there used to be something here.’ Oskar thought as she examined a jagged impression in the ground surrounded by faded bloodstains.

It was little over a week after the incident in the Cloudsdale stadium. It had taken only a day for everyone in Ponyville to hear about what happened and suddenly Oskar couldn’t get a moment of free time to herself, what with all the ponies dropping checking up on her and Twilight and her friends treating her like she was made of glass. Hell she couldn’t even properly enjoy a talent show without people asking about her health. It was only recently that people let up enough that Oskar could sneak off and get some time to herself.

‘Tracks… padded feet…’ Oskar thought as she studied some canine-like footprints. ‘Let’s see what I can do with my new tracking skills.’

The Evolved had then taken the opportunity to find out just what she had expelled from her body along with all that blood. However it seemed that over the weeks someone or something had come by and taken the object themselves.

‘Definitely canine… Diamond Dog tracks…’ The Evolved thought as she continued following the tracks. They were faint, very faint and the average tracker may have just given up but Oskar had the knowledge and technical skill of some of the Principalities’ finest trackers and hunters. However… even that had its limits.

‘Gone… from the way the soil is disturbed I’d say it dug down from here.’ The virus pawed at the ground with a thoughtful frown on her face. ‘Can’t do much tracking with that but let’s see if it is in range.’

Oskar sent out a viral pulse and waited… and waited… and waited.

‘Damn, out of range.’ Oskar scowled and turned away from the disturbed soil. ‘No telling where it could be now. Well… I might as well take this chance to explore my skills with magic in Everfree now that all the heat has died down.’

The fake unicorn sat down on the ground and began focusing, her expression that of intense concentration. Her horn began glowing brightly and after a moment of magic being built she disappeared in a flash.

Many miles away in one of the many clearings darting the Everfree there was a flash of light, and suddenly there was a startled shout followed by a thud.

‘Ugh, okay I need to work on my teleporting a bit more.’ Oskar thought as she got up from the ground and spat out dirt from her mouth. ‘Now, let’s work on using my magic while in my human form.’

In a burst of tendrils Emerald Gleaner was gone and in her place was Oskar’s default form. Just under his white bucket tendrils began to writhe, about to form a pair of horns when they suddenly stopped.

‘Hmm… I don’t need to have horns to use magic, I just need a foci to channel unicorn magic.’ The Evolved then turned his attention to his hands ‘Let’s see how this works shall we?’

Oskar stared intently at his arms for several long moments. Seemingly nothing was happening other than the Evolved staring at his arms quietly when suddenly tendrils writhed over his fingernails briefly and then it was gone.

‘Alright, done.’ The Evolved thought with a satisfied shake of his head before turning his attention to a nearby tree. ‘Alright, just visualise grabbing hold of the tree, it doesn’t matter that I’m channeling magic somewhere else, VISUALISE simple as that.’

Oskar reached out towards the tree with his hand and grasped at the open air. Suddenly a crimson aura flared up like little flames around his finger nails. A great flaming hand appeared out of nowhere and grasped the tree, gripping so tightly onto the tree that it left an imprint of itself into the bark. With a suddenness mirroring its appearance the hand disappeared.

‘Okay, too literal I think… but it worked!’ Oskar thought, directing a smile at his hands. What the Evolved had done was reconstruct the bones in his hands and forearms with the same material unicorn horn were out of. Then he had altered his fingertips and nails, the tips of his new bones in his fingertips were extended to connect to the fingernails which were also reconstructed to be made of unicorn horn but made to look like normal nails. Oskar made use of these new foci by channeling unicorn magic through his earth pony circuits and into the bones the circuits crossed over with. ‘Let’s try that again, this time without being so literal.’

Oskar began gesturing with his hands, a look of concentration on his expression. This time the tree was enveloped by a crimson flame like aura. The Evolved frowned and began slowly raising his hands into the air. A low groan filled the air as the tree bent and with a shudder it was uprooted violently from the ground. Oskar smiled giddily at the sight before smirking with dramatic sadism.

‘Feel the power of the dark side!’ Oskar thought happily before turning a curious look towards his hands. ‘Hmm… do I need to gesture? Uh, nope but I can’t help it really. It just feels so natural to do this.’

‘Alright, what next?’ The Evolved thought as he ended the flow of magic and dropped the tree with a crash. ‘I remember wanting to test my max speed way back at the Running of the Leaves and now I finally have the opportunity.’

Oskar limped briefly before taking a stance. He paused for a moment before tendrils surged over his legs and Oskar shot forward, running as fast as he could and building up velocity as quickly as possible. Unfortunately he had underestimated just how fast he could go when he tried to.

‘Crap!’ Oskar thought when he shot forward so fast he was unable to do anything but watch as he rammed into and through a tree, then another, then another. It only ended when he started trying to slow down and crashed right into a rather large boulder. The boulder cracked and large pieces of rocks were sent flying as a comparatively small object weighing over two tons slammed into it at several hundred miles an hour.

“Ugh…” Oskar groaned and coughed as the dust settled around him.

‘Okay I managed to reach high speeds almost ridiculously fast.’ Oskar thought as he walked out of the rubble and dust cloud. ‘That is great but I am most definitely not used to going that fast, I’m glad I have owl genes or everything would be a blur at that speed as well. It’s a fantastic skill but I’m going to need time to develop it. What next… how high can I jump now?’

Oskar bent his knees, tendrils writhed around his legs rapidly as he built up strength to his utter maximum. A few seconds later Oskar released the energy expecting to be high above the forest in a few seconds… he was right…

“Crap!” Oskar shouted as he shot through a cloud, his arms wind milling as his velocity finally died down. The Evolved paused for a brief moment a few feet above a cloud before he remembered his pegasi magic and quickly called it though his hands. Gravity reasserted itself just in time for the Evolved to light land on the cloud with a soft thud.

‘Wow… okay I can jump pretty high now.’ Oskar thought as he looked over the side of the cloud. ‘That is useful. Let’s get back done now, a quick teleport should do it.’

Oskar clasped his hands together before him and the fiery little auras flared up again, after a few moments Oskar disappeared in a flash of crimson.

Down many hundreds of feet below back in the clearing there was a crimson flash before Oskar suddenly appeared. He took a look around his surroundings before sighing tiredly.

‘Yep, really got to work on my teleporting.’ Oskar thought with a grumble as he pulled his legs out of the ground. ‘Right I just one last thing before I head back, testing my strength. Now how in the world do I test that?’

The virus searched his surroundings a bit and saw only trees and the occasional large rock but nothing he could seriously test himself on.

‘Nothing here but… hmm, is there a cliff nearby? I think I saw one that way from up there.’ Oskar thought before quickly running off, his form a blur as he ran past and sometimes through trees. Before long he reached his destination. The Evolved stared down from atop a cliffside a moment before jumping down. Then he turned around and studied a sure rock wall.

‘Right those APCs were around twelve tons and I could lift those with a little effort.’ Oskar thought as he studied the wall of rock before him. ‘Taking into consideration my other power increases I should be able to lift some a bit heavier. Hot about fifty tons? Let’s see… a few cuts there and a few cuts here…’

Tendrils shot out from Oskar’s form and dug into the rock. Little bits of stone flew through the air as dozens of tendrils chipped away at rock until a roughly spherical form began to appear. A few more moments of rock being chipped away and suddenly there was a loud crack before a large round boulder rolled down from an artificial hole.

Oskar watched the newly made boulder rumble down the cliff and roll on the ground for a few moments before it finally came to a stop. He then approached the boulder and studied it a bit more.

‘This looks good, let’s just root myself a bit before lifting it.’ Tendrils extended from the Evolved’s feet and deep into the ground, which was done to keep the ground from breaking and spreading the weight over a large area. ‘Right, time to lift this thing.’

Oskar reached forward and forcefully dug his hands into the boulder, spreading tendrils into the large stone so he had an even better grip. With a grunt the virus lifted. The boulder slowly rose from its position on the ground and shifted to just above Oskar. With a scowl Oskar placed the boulder atop his shoulders, miming the statue of Atlas holding up the world for a brief moment before he shoved it off to the side unceremoniously.

‘That was heavy.’ Oskar thought lightly as he worked his shoulders. ‘I actually felt some strain there, not sure if I can lift something much heavier than that. Well this was an interesting exploration of what I can do, I’d like to do more but I really should get back. I've been gone for half an hour, everyone is probably running around like headless chickens in worry.’ Oskar thought with an annoyed sigh and shifted back into Emerald Gleaner.

Focusing on a spot just outside town Oskar gathered her magic and focused on another teleport. Thankfully when she teleported this time she was upright and only a few feet above the ground, landing with a soft thud Oskar then proceeded into town.

It was with a feeling of déjà vu that Oskar walked through the streets of Ponyville. Once again she was being stared at but this time it was by both genders and they were doing so out of worry. It was no secret that Oskar was very much annoyed by the treatment she was getting from everyone and so just sped up when a few ponies approached to ask if she was feeling alright.

A few streets later and she came upon the sight of Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie talking to each other. They noticed her as she approached and quickly quieted, Dash noticeably looked irritated at the others when they did this for some reason.

Oskar came to when she heard a trilling noise just above her and looked up to see Navi wearing a little crocheted green hat along with some designer, standing on the tip of her ear.

“Hey there Navi, how are you?” Oskar asked and got a little happy trill in response. “That’s nice to hear. Hey girls! What were you talking about?”

Twilight was about to answer when Spike came running out of nowhere and started shouting.

“AHHHH! RARITY! WOODS! JEWELS! DOGS! HOLE! TAKEN! SAVE HER!” The little dragon shouted before beginning to hyperventilate.

‘It’s just one thing after another isn’t it?’ Oskar thought in the long quiet moment that followed.

-TBC-

AN: Finally done after a little over two months! I know it was a long wait but at least I made this chapter especially long ☺ I hope you guys enjoyed!

CREDITS

Ideas and Story Development: Gekko and Trondason

Partial Grammar Edits: Trondason

Author's Note:

Finally done after a little over two months! I know it was a long wait but at least I made this chapter especially long  I hope you guys enjoyed!

CREDITS
Ideas and Story Development: Gekko and Trondason
Partial Grammar Edits: Trondason

EDITED 6/7/2016

Comments

[BrokenSpaceBar]

26K? no wonder it took you so long to write it

[NASA]

Thankyou for the chapter... have a spike

[Tulip]

Nnnice chapter. Much better then those before. And episode`s retelling is much more interesting. More original plot pls.

[Knowledge]

This is probably putting a lot of misguided thought into your story, but whatever, right?

I loved the doping and hospital scene because we got to see much of Oskar power in action while in public and not killing people, not to say the forest scenes are bad, just they tend to have a distinct lack pony.

You end on a cliff hanger, but because the final scene is the beginning of Dog and Pony Show, I lack as much suspense as I did at the end of the previous chapter. The retelling of what happens in the episodes is usually the middle parts of your chapters rather than the beginning and end. Usually they are the Oskar specific parts that border the chapters. There is little question that Oskar can deal with the relatively more mundane problems the Mane 6 face. The multinational god-level threat Oskar is facing is where most of the suspense really lies, and it makes what Oskar is doing with the Mane 6 story line all the more interesting.

To be fair, I actually like the small challenges that Oskar has to solve in living with ponies and how those solutions lead to even more complicated problems like Rarity's motherliness, so I really look forward with what you do in next chapter's starter. You also have these complicated consequences from what happens in the Everfree as well, and I like those when they occur, but I still like the pony scenes better because ponies.

As the ending currently stands, it feels simultaneously like an end to an Act, because the chapter had some major conclusions regarding the griffins, and like the first half of a chapter that you split because it was getting too long.

I also really loved the middle finger and time turner with wings jokes. I would love to know how Rainbow Dash knows what the middle finger means too. Perhaps I missed that.

Again, very solid chapter. I expect you already have the next in mind given how you wrote it like how you are drawing out the princesses investigation. If I had to guess, you need the right episode or at least the end of the season before Oskar has her identity revealed to any pony in the most literary ideal manner. I also suspect the Dog and Pony Show to demonstrate that Oskar is willing to take more risks in saving her friends, especially Rarity, given Suited for Success conclusion and the pain endured in this chapter.

[gwojo]

[BrokenSpaceBar]

Really? After all that action, you decided to park this story next to a cliff? the last bit could be merged into next chapter, it would make the wait less painful... Or maybe you just love teasing us. I can't wait to read the next chapter.

[Terrifying Space Worm]

3340506

Rainbow Dash knows what the middle finger means too.

Maybe the griffins have a similar gesture?

[More Dakka]

dam it who left this cliff here... oh wait you did, dam you!

you had me going with the hospital scene, not often I'm on the edge of my chair reading a story on this site kudos.

[hs0003]

Ohh how much I missed an update from you
I was just thinking about how long it had been since this story had an update, here the other day. But is chapter certainty don't disappoint

[McPoopin]

"Ah, so this updated, eh? I sure do hope it's not some piddly little three thousand wor- Oh sweet googly moogly."

[EclipseStar]

productfocus.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Fotolia_13557413_XS.jpg

[Cadmium]

That rabbit's dynamite!
I cant wait for the Canterlot Wedding episode and how Oscar reacts to the Changelings, or the Discord parts and how the whole brainwashing thing works on her.
A bit of Diamond dog biomass in the next chapter should do wonders for her digging/navigation under the ground abilities.

[Legionary]

3340317 Yep! Though life too tends to get in the way, oh well what can ya do?

3340501 The canon plot is more of a side story really, the focus is on Oskar. You'll get your wish for original storylines don't you worry

3340506

I actually like the small challenges that Oskar has to solve in living with ponies and how those solutions lead to even more complicated problems like Rarity's motherliness

I like writing those as well. It's fun having Oskar enjoying quality time with the Mane Six then go off to quietly murder someone for power.

As the ending currently stands, it feels simultaneously like an end to an Act,

Yep, the end of the Griffin Investigation and the beginning of Oskar's work towards the completion of objective four.

I would love to know how Rainbow Dash knows what the middle finger means too

Read darcyyanew's comment

3340810 Thanks!

3341322 Well let's help nothing happens to our favorite partly sociopath bio-weapon so we get to see what happens doing those episodes

So much nice comments!

[Legionary]

3340658 Thank you!

[omega-ze-wargod]

N-no need t-to rush..... oh who am I kidding..... CLIFF HANGAR WHYYYYYYYYYYY

[prince mi amore mystic]

LOL

[Knowledge]

3341594 3340687

Thanks. That makes more sense. To be fair, Griffins only have four claws on each leg/arm, so either they have two middle fingers or none on each arm, depending on how you look at it.

[sum_person]

*inhale* yay!
Tis' beautiful!

[Legionary]

3341881 Hello Gekko, you like the chapter?

[sum_person]

3341898
YESH. If you want, I can edit the rest of the grammatical errors for you too.

[Legionary]

3341903 PM them to me via Fimfiction, I'll fix them

[trondason]

3341837 Well one of those fingers act like a thumb, and when standing are separated from the others, so they still have a middle finger in a sense.

CREDITS
Ideas and Story Development: Gekko and Trondason
Partial Grammar Edits: Trondason

yay! I'm sorta important!

[Legionary]

3342036 A little *Waves hand in a dismissive fashion*

[Legionary]

3341903 Tron is doing some fixing too, you may want to take another look at any mistakes you found to make sure they are still there before you point them out

[trondason]

Can't. Resist. Urge. To share song. It fits Oskar very well, though he is getting better.

[Cadmium]

3341594
WOuld be fun if the diamond dogs notice he is not a pony and begin to worship him as a god of change and destruction or something and everypony is confused why they sacrifice him gems and stuff like that.
And the biggest problem on the way to A Canterlot Wedding would be Discord because if he managed to brainwash Oscar then Mercers actions in NY would seem like a small scale incident in comparison to what he could do to equestria with all his new powers, and i doubt hell get weaker until the end of season 1.

[Europa]

Holy shit. 26,000 words? Calm down, man!

Curious about Spike's 'extra genes'. Wonder what those are.

Oh, wow. I never really grasped how horrifying the tendril powers would be to an onlooker... yeah.

“A moment after giving it all the air borne griffins dived from the air and headed for the ground.” It's dove, not dived.

The killer rabbit of the Holy Grail STRIKES AGAIN! Where's a Holy Hand Grenade when you need one? Though in this case Holy Nuke may be needed...

Nice touch with the electricity vulnerability from the first game!

Oskar is incredibly powerful, but you should do something to set that off. He's clearly afraid of the Princesses, but they aren't actively threatening him. He needs something to genuinely be wary of, something that may even beat him. You need something to either match/excede Oskar's power, or something to severely cripple him without an easy method of fixing, like the Parasite and Alex Mercer; without Ragland's help Alex would have died.

Oh mercy. Oskar on morphine. Heaven help us all.

Eugh, yeah, vomitting biomass is nasty. Though I wonder what that other

“We get it, you’re butterfly wings are great.” Your.

[Legionary]

3342280 A god you say? Heh heh heh, my,my what an imagination!

Yes if Discord managed to brainwash Oskar he would probably find that would result in great death and destruction with only a little chaos on the side

[Legionary]

3342300

Curious about Spike's 'extra genes'. Wonder what those are.

Those are exotic stuff that Oskar doesn't know how to identify just yet, things like fire breathing, incredible heat tolerance and greed growth but there are a few things that Spike has that are thanks to his lineage...

Oh, wow. I never really grasped how horrifying the tendril powers would be to an onlooker... yeah

Yeah got some real eldritch carnage here

Nice touch with the electricity vulnerability from the first game!

Thanks! Though that does make me wonder why Blackwatch in P2 never had some advanced electrical based weapons, I mean they obviously were more effective on runners then bullets... hell they could have given the ORIONs some shock gauntlets , hmm...

Oskar is incredibly powerful...

It's the theme of the games, they sent two armies after you and it still wasn't enough. But I understand your point and let me tell you that I have plans for things. Although let me point out that violent conflict isn't the focus of the story as is the inner and moral conflict Oskar faces currently.

Oh mercy. Oskar on morphine. Heaven help us all.

“We get it, you’re butterfly wings are great.” Your.

Just for that I'm not fixing it

[trondason]

3342412

Thanks! Though that does make me wonder why Blackwatch in P2 never had some advanced electrical based weapons, I mean they obviously were more effective on runners then bullets... hell they could have given the ORIONs some shock gauntlets , hmm...

Alex was in control of Blackwatch, probably kept them from being very effective.

[Legionary]

3342437 Yeah but Rooks tended to strong arm RnD when he wanted something made. Hmm... I guess it'll be one of those questions...

[Llch]

[Legionary]

3342628 Nah, this is fun! And that purely the reason why I do it. Though the praise from happy readers does help

[Europa]

3342458

It's because in Prototype 2 and the tie-in comics they forgot nearly everything they did in Protoype 1. No, I'm not bitter.

[Lord Charles]

A Reading from the Book of Armaments, Chapter 4, Verses 16 to 20:

Then did he raise on high the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch, saying, "Bless this, O Lord, that with it thou mayst blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy." And the people did rejoice and did feast upon the lambs and toads and tree-sloths and fruit-bats and orangutans and breakfast cereals ... Now did the Lord say, "First thou pullest the Holy Pin. Then thou must count to three. Three shall be the number of the counting and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither shalt thou count two, excepting that thou then proceedeth to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the number of the counting, be reached, then lobbest thou the Holy Hand Grenade in the direction of thine foe, who, being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

[Lord Charles]

*throws cookie at phone* that's for a such a wonderful chapter

[gwojo]

more doped up osker

[Legionary]

3343394 It better not be raisin!

[Lord Charles]

3343554 rasion? Screw that noise, its double fudge and icing.

[Legionary]

3343576

[Legionary]

3344373

Fun fact: I learned that quote from the first Empire Earth

[Thule]

3344445

‘I always did love to bake.’ Oskar thought to herself as she hummed the lyrics to a lullaby her mother used to sing to her, Fola Fola Dobbin. ‘It never fails to make me feel so calm and tranquil… Okay enough of that, the cupcakes will be done soon.’

Er du muligens norsk?

[Legionary]

3345302 I reading up on Swedish Lullaby's and read that, that one was about ponies... er, I'm guessing from your comment it isn't?

[Legionary]

3345302 Just translated that. No I am not Norwegian. But Oskar is half Swedish

[Thule]

3345308 It's actually an Norwegian lullaby about ''Blakken'' (common pet name for a pony/horse). It's either called ''Fola fola Blakken'' or 'Kveldsang (goodnight song) for Blakken''.

[Legionary]

3345323 Oh! Well either way it fits the story!

[Thule]

Ake quickly turned his head at that and stared at the white rabbit standing on his back. The Elder Ranger noticed three things the moment he saw the rabbit. One was the surprisingly threatening predatory stare the rabbit was giving him. Two was the confident stance it had as it stood upon his back. And finally three was the small pair of spike like black horns extending from its forehead. As he took these observations in Ake felt a great sense of finality and apathy fill his being, he had lost…
“Clever thing…” Ake complimented just as the rabbit leapt from his back and flew at his head, black and red streaks flowing off its tiny limbs.

Oh you didn't.....

3341732 Beware the Rabbit of Caerbannog indeed.

[Runa]

that fool!he left biomass that was infected with the blacklight virus just sit around like that? he must track it down before it is too late!

[Legionary]

3346003 Heller does it all the time and nothing happens, I reasoned it is that way because something must happen to Blacklight material to make it go inert and basically die when not connected with a consciousness of sorts.

3345446