A New Potential

by EnigmaShade

Chapter XIII: The Child

Part III: Remnants
Chapter III: The Child

“Just tell me where the girls are, you fucking freak,” I slammed my open palm on the metal table. Stellis put his hand on my shoulder, making me sit in my chair.

“Good cop, bad cop,” The freak said. He gave a wide, yellow toothed grin, “I like this game.”

“It’s not a game!”

Stellis gave me a stern look, and I stood up, knocking the chair down behind me. I loosened my tie and stood real close to the man handcuffed to the chair, “Tell me where the girls are, fuck head. We have enough evidence for you to get the needle.”

“Oh, I know you do,” The man said, lounging in his chair, “Hell, I’ll even stand in court and say it was me with a smile on my face.”

“Then why can’t you tell us where the girls are, Carper,” Stellis asked with a stern expression.

“Because I like to watch you squirm,” The man said, “It’s utterly delightful.”

There was a knock at the door, and the psych walked in with the captain. Captain called us out, and the psych took our place to question him further.

“So what evidence do we have on this bastard,” The captain asked, “We may have to cut him a deal to save those girls’ lives.”

“We have twelve girls and five boys all raped, mutilated, killed, and ditched all across the country,” Stellis explained, “And we have significant forensic evidence on this sick fuck. Not to mention he’s pretty much telling us he’s the one.”

“And the most anyone will give him is taking the death penalty off the table,” I added, “I doubt he’ll take the deals anyway. He just wants to play games.”

The captain rubbed his balding head, “Look, the docs are saying these girls have five hours at the most if what he’s telling us is true.”

I rubbed my face, “At least it’s not winter. If he has ‘em buried neck deep, the most we have problems with is exposure.”

“At this time of year,” Stellis cut in, “We’d have to deal with earth bourn parasites, bugs, and maybe even snakes—especially if they’re out there with open wounds and no clothes.”

“Hey, Doc,” Carper said with his slimy voice, “I’ll cut you a deal.”

Doctor Nikimora sat back and observed Carper, “A deal for what?”

Carper gave another large smile, “You guys cut my sentence in half, I give you the girls.”

The psych leaned forward, “Do you really believe the DA is going to cut you that much slack?”

“Depending on how much you want to put on the lives of those girls. How much are they really worth to you? Is justice more important than the lives of five little girls?”

The psych stood slowly, “I will go and get the DA.”

“I want a contract,” Carper said, making the psych freeze, “I don’t want lies and deceiving. I want a written agreement.”

The psych left the room and started talking as soon as the door closed, “We can’t give him this deal. Do we have anything else to offer him?”

The captain shook his head, “What the fuck is this guy?”

The psych didn’t pick up on the hint that it was a rhetorical question, “He’s a sexual sadist with pedophilic and bipolar tendencies. He’s not going to give us the location of the girls even if we give him the deal.”

We sat in silence a while longer. Stellis and the captain decided to go and grab a coffee across the street. The psych pat me on the back. He told me to take it easy and went to get the DA on the other side of the building. I was left alone staring at the man through the interrogation room window. Finally I had enough.

I walked through the door and turned off the camera in the room, “So, Carper, where’s your lawyer at?”

“I am my own lawyer,” Carper gave a large grin, “Where’s your cop buddy, Detective?”

“In that case,” I took my handcuff key out and uncuffed the man, “Stand up.”

A look of confusion fell over him and he stood up, “What’s this ab—“

I cut him off by shoving my fist at full speed into the side of his head. He fell to the ground and I dragged him back up, “Where are they, you fuck?”

He laughed, “Looks like somebody is losing their job.”

I slammed my forehead into his nose, breaking it on contact, “Where are they!?”

He laughed again, in more pain this time. He didn’t say a word; instead he spit blood in my face. I felt the rage build in my chest. I smashed my knee into his stomach causing him to spit more blood onto the floor. After each hit, I asked the same question. I could feel the fight leaving him with the limpness of his body. I slammed my fist several more times into his pathetic face and then slammed it into the table.

I tilted his head back by pulling his hair, “You gonna give me the answers I want or am I gonna have to move onto breaking something?”

Blood dribbled from his chin, “Is it worth your job, Detective?”

I smacked my palm quickly into his shoulder blade, knocking his arm out of socket, “Every. Fucking. Second.”

I positioned my hand over the elbow of his other arm, “WAIT!”

I lowered my arm, “I’m listening.”

He took a couple deep breaths but stayed silent, so I raised my hand again over his elbow. He sputtered and finally spoke, “Th-the Redferd Ranch, field four, two corn rows east of the center clearing.”

I lowered my arm and threw him to the ground. I kneeled down over him, “If you’re lying to me, I swear by whatever god there is that I will destroy you. I will make you suffer more than all those little girls and boys you raped.”

He was still gasping for breath when I walked out the door with my phone to my ear.

*

I woke with a start. For the past couple weeks, I had been having these nightmares. Nhung’s story hit me worse than I originally had thought.

“Shadey,” A soft voice filled my ears, “Are you awake now?”

I looked down and realized I had my forelegs wrapped around Fluttershy in a vice grip hug. I released my grip, “Oh, I’m sorry, hon! I hope you weren’t stuck too long.”

She rolled away, “No, just ten minutes. I tried waking you because it looked like you were having a nightmare, but you wouldn’t budge.”

After apologizing profusely for the next five minutes, we were interrupted by a knock at the door and Twilight’s voice, “Hey, you two, can I come in?”

“Yeah, come in sis,” I said, and when she walked in I added, “No reason to ask as long as you give a knocking warning.”

“Well,” She looked at Fluttershy and shook her head, “Nevermind. Listen, I got the message that the humans have almost finished the transformation machine. They need your final input before they close it up.”

“Do I have time for food?”

She shook her head again, her untamed mane bouncing this way and that, “You can snack on the way out. You were supposed to be there an hour ago. Now move your flank!”

I turned to Fluttershy and gave her a quick kiss, “Sorry again, hon.”

I took off, leaving Twilight and Fluttershy behind. My stomach rumbled, still unused to two meals a day. I will be glad when I can go back to my four meals a day back in Equestria.

“Yo, Enigma,” The young engineer called me over as soon as he saw me, “You get my message, bro?”

“Yeah, Twilight sent me,” I stood over the young engineer, “What’s the problem, now?”

“The scavenge party came back from a Wal-Mart up the street. They brought back a few parts, and I finally have everything in place. I just want your final approval before I cover the skeleton.”

I stared into the wiring. Everything seemed almost exactly like my machine with a single exception, “Where’s the chip?”

“What chip?”

“The XK90pq4V,” I asked, pointing to an empty slot, “You need that for DNA extraction.”

The engineer put his hand to his chin and rested his elbow on his knee. He stood up, “Oh, that chip they found last week! Yeah, I forgot about that.”

“Good thing you asked me first,” I said.

“Sorry, bro,” He said, pulling the chip out of a plastic baggie, “And I set up the control panel to do both operations separately and not at the same time. Now all we need is a subject to test this bad boy on.”

I nodded, “You guys did a great job. You wanna be the one to test it?”

“Hell no, man,” He said with a short smile on his face, “Nah, I’ll go last.”

“Know where Stellis is?”

“Yeah, man,” He pointed out at the mess hall, “He’s over there talking to the rest of the leader people. He’s been getting nervous lately. You notice that?”

“Yeah,” I said, watching to make sure the young engineer didn’t put the chip in wrong.

“If you want my opinion: He’s jealous of you, bro,” He said, standing up from his little operation and wiping his greasy hands on his pants.

“Jealous of what?”

“Bro, you don’t see it,” He poked me in the shoulder, “You are taking his place. He don’t like that. Plus you gots yourself a family, he don’t.”

“I’m not taking his place.”

“But you are,” He put his screwdriver in his bag, “More of us look to you for leadership compared to him. Plus, he’s a nut.”

“Just go get him. Tell him to convene everypony so that we can find a test subject.”

*

Stellis called out to the crowd for silence. Less than half of the crowd quieted—all talking about the strange contraption being wheeled on stage. I could sense Stellis’ anger building, so I figured I would help him out a bit, “Yo! Quiet!”

The crowd went dead silent at my mezzo forte yell, “Thank you.”

Stellis let out an aggravated breath threw his nose, “Our engineers have finished the machine Enigma has promised us. I was told we can begin the transformations tomorrow and the transportations next month. The only issue we have now is testing the machine.”

“And for those of you afraid to try,” I added, “There is a very small margin of error. The worst that could happen is baldness, and we can easily fix that.”

The crowd stayed silent. Nopony would step up or even make a noise for fear of drawing attention to themselves. Stellis sighed again, “Anybody?”

“I’ll do it,” Nhung’s voice came from the crowd. Her mother clapped her hand over her daughter’s mouth, but Nhung wriggled free and ran up to us, “I want to do it.”

“No,” I said with a stern expression, “I can’t allow it.”

Nhung’s expression fell into disbelief, “But you said there is almost no chance of error. You said it was safe!”

A few members of the crowd agreed with her, “Look, that’s not the reason, Nhung. Just wait for the private sessions. I’m sure both of us would prefer that.”

She looked over to Twilight, but she didn’t receive the answer she wanted. Finally she climbed the stage and ran past me towards the machine and planted herself in front of it, “I’m doing it.”

I looked over to Stellis for support, but he just shrugged and sat on a chair at the control platform. I sighed and nodded at Twilight, “Fine. Twilight, find her name.”

Twilight nodded and approached Nhung with her horn glowing. She stood with her horn against Nhung’s forehead for a good minute before stepping back, “Velvet Sparkle.”

I nodded at the young engineer and he typed in the name, “Okay, Velvet. Remove all clothing and any jewelry you have on anywhere.”

Nhung’s face went white, “Wh-what?”

I looked away, ignoring the crowd’s disapproval, “The machine works using DNA. It can pick away small traces of incorrect DNA, but not large amounts like clothing. Metal and plastic will melt to your skin and leave markings and possible organ failure.”

Nhung nodded, her face still white, “I understand…”

She started by removing two black ringlets from her left wrist and handing them to Twilight. Barry let out an aggravated huff. He stepped next to Nhung and spread his wings wide to cover her from the crowd while she undressed. As soon as her shirt was off she began shaking. Her arms and back were covered in scars and discolored skin. Nhung never objected to me being there, but after a moment I realized I was blocking the view of all the engineers and Stellis. Besides, she knew me.

Twilight had a look of pity on her face—which disappeared whenever Nhung faced her. Nhung set the rest of her clothes aside and let out a shaky breath. We led her slowly to the machine, and Barry followed with his wings lower so the crowd could see Nhung shoulders up. She stepped into the pod and commented on how ice cold it felt. She faced forward and we shut the pod.

“Okay, Eddy,” I gave the engineer the go-ahead. The machine started up, and the crowd seemed to lean forward as a single unit, waiting for the outcome. After ten seconds the machine slowed down and I motioned for the engineer to bring up the activity feed and to open the hatch.

The hatch began the unlocking process and I stood before the crowd for a dramatic show, “Fillies and gentlecolts, may I present to you Velvet Sparkle!”

In perfect timing, the hatch opened. Inside a pink blob of feathers and fur slowly rose from a lying position. The pony slowly rose to her feet. Her mane was a mix of pink and violet, her eyes matched the dark violet of her mane, and her body was a bright pink. Her head bore a horn and her back bore wings that looked of smooth velvet. The crowd stared in awe as the new pony stepped uncertainly out of the pod. She slipped and Twilight caught her with her magic.

Twilight looked at me amazed, “She’s an Alicorn…!”

I closed my jaw, which had been hanging open in the surprise of finding the rare pony species hobble out of my machine, “W-well, fillies and gentlecolts… It appears we have… Royal blood here…”

The crowd started a slow applaud, and it gradually got louder and louder as everypony cheered for the new Alicorn—Velvet Sparkle.

*

From the power readout of the machine I found that we could only make ten transformations per day or we would overheat the chip and destroy it. The engineers gave the information to the council to create a list of patrons per day. By the end of the day, not a single human wanted off the list. Stellis signed for the final transformation. With a big day ahead of us, everypony set to finish all the stronghold chores. Twilight and Pinkie announced that they would assist me (after volunteering me) in teaching the newly transformed ponies about Equestria starting next week.

But Velvet did not want to wait.

“Do you guys have any fairy tales in Equestria,” She asked with a huge grin on her face, “I always loved hearing fairy tales my mama told back home.”

“What’s a fairy tale,” Twilight asked, leaving an incredulous and horrified look on Velvet’s face.

“She means mare’s tales, Twi,” I explained.

“Oooh,” She looked up at the sky for a moment and lit up, “Oh, I remember one in specific, but it actually happened!”

“Really,” Velvet leaned in toward Twilight, “What? What? What?!”

Twilight leaned back, “The Mare in the Moon.”

I nudged Velvet, “This is one of my faves.”

“Equestria was created by two powerful Alicorns. Sola, the father, built the skies and put a giant ball of energy and light—the sun—in the sky to give life and light to the land. Artemi, the mother, dotted the skies with smaller pellets of light and pulled a large rock from the land—making the moon and the first ocean. Sola adored the marvelous sight and lowered his creation every so often to show off his wife’s handiwork to the creatures of the land. They named Artemi’s sky ‘the night’ and Sola’s time ‘the day’.

“At first, the land’s creatures danced in the beautiful light—they adored Artemi and her lovely artistic ability. Soon, however, the subjects of the two creators found the night’s dark light perfect for sleep. Artemi grew saddened and angered by the creautres for ignoring her masterpiece.

“Artemi hid the sun from Equestria, plunging the land into eternal night. Sola pleaded his wife for the sun back, but Artemi’s anger and sadness deafened her to his cries.

“The land slowly fell ill and died. Without the life-giving light of the sun, the world suffered. Sola entrapped his wife in the moon, forcing her to lower and raise the moon for eternity. Sola found the sun and raised it to bring back the day and life to the land, but he felt haunted. The last words his lost wife uttered before her imprisonment were, ‘I will return, and when I do, the night will last forever.’”

Velvet stared with wide, receptive eyes as Twilight finished the story, “Is that really a true story?”

“Yup,” Twilight smiled, “It’s been changed throughout the seasons to incorporate the newest divinities, but this is the original from the story books.”

“New divinities?”

“Sola could live forever, but when he was killed, his power split into two, another mother and father of the land. When they were killed in the Discordian wars, two more rose from the ground, but they lost their immortality. They had two daughters and worked their whole lives to find the cure for mortality, but died on the verge of their discovery. When they died, their daughters took up their work and found the cure. The younger one insisted on giving it to everypony, and now everypony is immortal.”

“You mean,” Velvet’s eyes lit up more, “I can’t die?”

“Once you get to Equestria, no,” Twilight smiled again.

“Did Artemi ever return?”

Twilight nodded, “Unfortunately. When I was younger and just starting my lessons in friendship and magic, the younger sister—and my best friend, Luna—was ponynapped and possessed by Artemi’s spirit. She called herself Night Mare Moon.

“Night Mare Moon attacked the older sister—and my teacher, Celestia—and teleported her to the sun. My new friends and I stopped Night Mare Moon by gathering these ancient weapons called the Elements of Harmony. We became the elements and stripped Artemi from Luna’s body and banished her from Equestria.”

Velvet looked down at her new hooves, “That’s a sad story…”

“How so?”

“All Artemi wanted was love,” Velvet said, “And everyone just shunned her…”

“Sometimes,” I butted in, “We do terrible things to feel loved, but ultimately it turns us into monsters… Just like the son of Discord…”

“The son of Discord?”

Twilight continued her lesson, “Discord was a Draconequus, a creature made up of all types of animals. He caused havoc and nearly decimated the Alicorn population. Eventually, after many, many seasons of war, Celestia, Luna, and their parents band together and turned him into stone and smashed him to bits. His son was also turned to stone, but he was kept in the garden in Canterlot. He was freed somehow a few hundred seasons later and tried to take over Equestria. The difference was that he wanted to have fun and didn’t want to kill anypony.”

“What does that have to do with love,” Velvet asked me.

“Discord Junior joined his father in wreaking havoc after he was turned down by Celestia. He felt that if he was going to be treated like a monster, he would become one,” I explained, “When he was released again, he wanted nothing but to prove he wasn’t a monster. He was just a creature who wanted to have fun and be loved.”

“My friends and I gathered the Elements of Harmony for a second time and turned him back into stone,” Twilight added, “But Luna and Celestia freed him and keep him in Canterlot as a servant to the workers there.”

“Wow… poor Discord,” Velvet said, “Your mare’s tales are all sad and depressing.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, Discord loves it,” Twilight said, “The foals love his tricks. Also, don’t tell Pinkie I told you this… but she has a crush on him and talks to him for hours every time she sees him.”

“Discord’s a pretty nice guy,” I added, “Just misunderstood. I think they would get along pretty well.”

“Hey, Shade,” Velvet said after a few moments, “What would you say is the best thing about Equestria?”

I thought for a moment, “Other than my family?”

“Right.”

“A developed and functional social anarchy.”

*

Stellis put his arm around my bulky frame, “Y’know, I’ve been thinkin’ about all this pony stuff and… I’ll be honest, I really wanna stay human.”

“I’ll be honest too,” I said, trying to ignore the flask in his hand, “It’s not that bad. Besides, we really have no choice in the matter…”

“We’re talking about eradicating the human race,” Stellis said through a couple slurs, “You want to turn whatever’s left of the human race into a buncha got damn ponies.”

“Stellis, I thought you quit years ago,” I said, no longer able to ignore the flask.

“I quit for Luci’s sake,” He said glaring at the metal poison holder, “But why should I give any shits about that now?”

“To be a leader,” I said, looking up at the bright night skies, “To show that you are capable of restraint for the good of your people. You are their leader.”

“Know what,” He said glaring at me now, “Fuck you, man! You know you took my spot. They don’t respect me anymore. I’m nothing more than a… forgotten loser, just like always.”

“I respect you, Stellis,” I said, “I always have…but that fucking bottle is making it harder and harder for me to continue to.”

“Scraping the bottom,” He said, wobbling as he stood, “Hey, wadn’t der a fuckin krog band called Scrape the Bottom?”

I smiled, “Yeah. They were on the radio almost every day.”

Stellis laughed, thinking back into the good old days, “Many o’ them sucked ass.”

“But hey, man,” I said, shrugging one shoulder, “The human race is doomed in the end… But you guys aren’t doomed.”

He looked out into the openness in front of us. He finished his flask and dropped it off the wall, “Maybe I should rescind as leader of the group. I’m not fit for leadership. That was always you. Maybe you should take control.”

“No, man,” I said, putting my hoof over his shoulder. Whenever he got drunk, he would get especially depressing, “You did a fine job before I came along.”

“They feared me,” He said, “They respect you.”

I shook my head and stood up, “It’s getting late, and Fluttershy won’t sleep unless I’m with her. Maybe we can continue this discussion when you’re sober.”

“Yeah,” He kicked a couple rocks off the edge, “Night man.”

I wished him a good night and headed back home. I snuck into the house to make as little noise as possible and slipped into my room. Fluttershy was lying down on the bed, but with her eyes open. She always said she didn’t like sleeping alone in the human world. All my stories of my life here must have made her fear the humans. The floor under me squeaked under my weight and she jolted up, relaxing when she saw me, “Oh, Shadey, you scared me.”

“I’m sorry, sweetie,” I kissed her on the forehead and slipped into the bed.

“That’s okay,” She snuggled up closer to me, “How’d your hangout with Stellis go?”

I sighed through my nose, “He got drunk, so we had a bit of a heart-to-heart. As close as I can get to his heart, at least.”

“You’re a good colt, Shadey,” She kissed me and snuggled closer still.

She acted like this whenever something was bothering her. The last time she got really huggy and complimented me in a quiet tone, she was concerned about Twilight going with her brother to visit their sister. At the time, Twilight came back and wouldn’t speak more than three words at a time to anypony, and it hit Fluttershy hard.

“Is everything okay, Fluttershy?”

She sighed, “Yeah, I just had a thought last week, and I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.”

“Well, what is it?”

She looked away from me for a moment and back, “Since I was a little filly, I wanted to be a mommy. I was really happy when I could be a mom to Sapphie, but…”

I shifted a bit, “but…?”

“But I wanted one from my own blood,” She explained, still not looking at me, “One that I can raise from the beginning to the end…”

I nodded and kissed her forehead, “I understand.”

She shook her head, “I know how you feel about that though… And I don’t want to force you into it…”

“Jason had that same problem,” I said and smiled at her, “Minus the raising a foal part.”

Fluttershy refused to look at me, her face was warm. Even in the dim light I could tell she was blushing. It was more an awkward conversation for her than for me. I’ve had this conversation before.

“I’m here for you, hon,” I said, “Whatever it is you want, you tell me, and I’ll see what I can do to make sure you get it.”

“I don’t want to force you…”

“Lucky for you this is one of those easier ones. The only issue is being here in this dimension and the travel back.”

“I talked to Twilight about it,” She explained, “For the first four months, physical activity doesn’t harm the foal. I just have to be careful the last seven. And teleporting back there won’t harm it either. We’re only going to be here another two months if we keep up the work we’ve been doing.”

We stayed in silence for a while. I thought about everything she was telling me. Through the time I debated this decision, Fluttershy seemed to shrink down, embarrassed by the topic. Finally I came to a decision.

“I’m tired, sweetie,” I said, and she seemed to slump.

“G’night Shadey,” She said in a resigned tone.

“How does tomorrow sound?”

She perked up, “Tomorrow?”

I laughed once and kissed her once more, “Tomorrow.”