I am trying the TCB, not in a "I HATE HUMANS" or a "I HATE PONIES" way.
I want to give it a different spin, or at least try to.
But I know this brand of fanfic is pretty hated, so I want to see what kind of people this story will attract.
No pairing. Alex had only one 'She' and he is not getting a new one.
YAY! I AM COMMITTING LITERARY SUICIDE! LoL.
"This is monster talking / spell"
"This is normal dialogue"
"This is flashback/ Thoughts"
Disclaimer: I don't own Prototype or My Little Pony and I don't make a profit out of my stories.
He who stands at the top of the Food Chain Chapter 3: Celestia VS Mercer.
Undisclosed location -
"I hate this." Lyra Heartstrings said as she wore the spy gear Bon Bon gave her.
"It took me a while to convince everypony that you are NOT part of Gaia like that piece of manure tried to frame you as, but I had to make a concession in exchange of help making sure everypony knew you were innocent..." Bon Bon answered answered sighing.
"You mean forcing me to become a spy like you?" the mint-colored mare said snarling.
"You were one of the few that openly and thoroughly studied the humans and their culture...YOU DO KNOW more than most about them...And I always wanted you to join me in being a spy..." the other answered blushing a little.
"You'll have to train me in this as we go through it though." Lyra said sighing in defeat.
"That is why I insisted in you being my one and only partner. We'll do this together." Bon Bon said trying to cheer her friend up a little.
"And my code name?"
"Well...I am Sweet Drops...And you are Sweet Tunes." Bon Bn answered with a fiery blush.
"..."
"I swear I had nothing to do with choosing the names! That is all the HQ's doing!" she added immediately at seeing her friend's narrowed eyes.
Sigh! "FINE! What is my first mission?" Lyra finally asked while shaking her head slowly.
"Help me locate a dangerous criminal, not something rookies normally do, but I trust you to take this seriously...We will probably put our own life at risk doing this by the way."
"Oh!...Nice...Who's the guy?" the mint-colored mare asked in sarcasm.
"Pretty much a genius. An expert (or even, THE Expert) in Chemistry, Biology, Bio-Engineering, marksmanship, guerrilla tactics, torture, interrogation, espionage and counterespionage, hand-to-hand combat, hacking, infiltration, psychology, Mechanics, robotics, assassination, demolit-"
"WHOA! WHOA! WHOA! Nopony can be a Master in all of those things!" Lyra stopped her friend in shocked horror.
"Yes if the guy can Consume everypony he meets and steal their identity and their whole life plus experiences and knowledge, he doesn't need to study if he can simply absorb somepony already an Expert in those fields and then add further knowledge by Consuming other experts to his mind." Bon Bon answered gravely.
"...Bon Bon?...Who the hay are we trying to track down?!" Lyra asked in dread.
"Celestia herself wants us to find Alex Mercer, also known as 'Blacklight the Living Virus'...She wants us to find him, follow him and record in detail what he is planning and report what we find directly to her without passing by HQ." she answered.
"Why I feel like I should know him AND fear him?" Lyra asked gulping.
"Because the target we'll have to follow and monitor very closely without being discovered (since he will probably kill us on the spot if he does discover us), is the one behind the events of yesterday at Canterlot's train station."
"Oh, God." the other answered whimpering in horror.
"Yes, we have been forced to take a suicide mission in all but name...I know...Sorry for dragging you into this." Bon Bon answered grimly.
The previous day - Train moving towards Canterlot – reserved wagon -
The train was running at full speed towards Canterlot, the surroundings blurring almost into a featureless mass of different colors unseen by the few ponies inside that were instead too much occupied by their own problems; especially the two pegasus twin brothers that had took a whole wagon for themselves so to talk freely without others listening uninvited.
"A whole wagon, brother?" the brown stallion of the two asked half amused and half annoyed.
"In times like this I want what we say to remain between the two of us only." the cream-coloured one replied with narrowed eyes.
They were Stock and Load: The 'Price Brothers', owners of pretty much THE biggest shipment company in Equestria whose tentacles reached Canterlot, Manehattan, Las Mares, Neigh York and many others all the way to Neighrope countries over the ocean...A capital worth of Billions of Bits more than half of which coming from side affairs less-than-legal in nature.
"News from the others then?" Load, the brown Stallion, asked tersely as he understood his twin brother was talking about their partners in the 'Human Money Game' they had ongoing.
"Situation on the human side is dire, brother. Between Gaia and the regular soldiers, not many pony-friendly humans are around, and this is hurting our plans." Stock answered leaning forward to whisper, although the anger in his voice was still clearly present.
"Then be ready to get angrier." Stock answered grimly.
"What?" the other asked with a tired growl telling of an incoming nervous breakdown.
"I had to corrupt few guards, and it costed a lot...But there may be somebody else joining this mess." the brown pony hissed looking around frantically.
"Another one? Another human group?" Load asked clenching his teeth tighter, every day they slowed down meant millions being wasted, and he hated that.
"No." the other answered shaking his head and gulping.
"Ponies then? More human sympathizers?"
"Neither."
"Then who? The Griffon? The Bison?...The Changellings?...Please tell me it is not about changellings." the stallion begged tiredly.
"None of them. He is none of them." Stock said shaking his head and shuddering.
"...Then who the hay are we talking about?!" the twin asked getting furious at his brother's pronoun game.
"Things seem complicated and only Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, the Elements and that darned Discord know the full details...What that guard knew and told me is that we are dealing with a Virus."
"A Virus? An epidemic attack?!" Load asked disgusted.
"Worse, this one apparently can Think and Plan, it's smart AND deadly."
"A smart Virus?" he asked confused.
Tack-la-clang! The train in that moment shook light as something heavy landed on the roof above the two twins.
"What the hay?!" Load asked surprised as he looked up.
Clang…clang...clang...clang…
"S-S-Steps." Stock said paling considerably and leaning back more in his seat.
"Nopony sane of mind would land on a speeding train..." Load whispered as he followed the noise until it stopped right above them.
SKRIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEH!
It was in that moment that a thick blade seemingly made of bone pierced the roof of the train as if it was butter to roughly open a hole to let a black Pegasus stallion wearing a hoodie with a white hood calmly float inside.
"What the buck?!" Load yelled jumping away and looking ready to faint as the newcomer's wing broke-down to fuse with his body and let a unicorn horn pop out of his forehead slightly lifting his hood to show blood red-eyes and pure-white mane.
"M-M-M-Mercer…B-B-Blacklight!" Stock shrieked as he ran towards the door to the next wagon finding it jammed by something.
"It won't open, I jammed it." the now-a-unicorn answered showing a cruel smirk filled by sharp fangs.
"Who are you? How dare you come here?" Load asked glaring at the intruder.
"H-H-He is the third player I was talking about!" Stock said while desperately trying to open the door or at least call for help.
"You said it was a Virus." his brother replied watching Alex unsure.
"HE IS a Living Virus! A human weapon that then started thinking! A Monster!" the other answered in hysterics.
"To be fair: the right term is Bio-weapon. I was created to be the Ultimate tool of death and destruction, a way to unlock humanity's next step in Evolution...And the result of several mad-men wishing to play God…Unfortunately for them I have long since surpassed even their wildest expectations right after developing sentience AND a deep hatred for people like them." Alex replied chuckling darkly as his front right hoof turned into the blade of his Blade form scaring Load and Stock down to their core.
"We have nothing to do with the humans! On the contrary, we hate them! Right, brother?!" Load said with a trembling voice and forced smile.
"HE KILLED SHIPPER, YOU MORON! HE HAS PONIES AND HUMANS AS TARGET! HE IS AGAINST ALL OF US!" Stock yelled in answer as he was now bashing the door with his whole body in the hope to break it down.
"Y-You killed her?!"
"I Consumed her, that is why they never found her body but only lots of her blood...She is with me now...She is PART OF ME now..." Alex said amused as his body turned into that of a pretty Unicorn mare with deep-blue fur, pinkish-white mane and a ship cutie mark.
"It's incredible, Stock! I am part of everypony! We are one and the same! WE ARE ONE!" he then said imitating fully the mare's voice and showing a deranged smile.
"KYAAAAAAAAAH! Nononononononononono!" Load in the meantime was already crying as he bashed the door harder and harder uncaring of his broken, bleeding wing or of the blood hid hooves were leaving behind as he punched the door in despair to escape.
"W-W-What do you want from us?! Money? Mares? HUMAN women? A ship to go somewhere?! Ask! Ask whatever the buck you want! We will sign everything we own to you! J-J-Just go away!" Stock begged as the mare in front of him returned being male unicorn Blacklight.
"You and the humans have a lot of things in common, you all think that waving checks around will save your life in every situation, honestly, I find it quite baffling. No, I will need just two things from you twins then I will be satisfied...Let's say three even if 2 and 3 are strictly linked." Alex answered simply while putting away the blade form.
"W-What do you want?" both twins asked as one while grasping fully to that slight spark of hope they felt.
"Simple! Your deaths, the knowledge inside those rotten skulls of yours and where you are keeping those poor new-foals you helped shipping away under Celestia's nose so to cover your poisoning the water reserves and force the Conversion that helped this whole War start in the first place. See? Request two and three are strictly related, and while I got Miss Shipper's side of the prisoners, I still need you two to find the second third AND the identity of who took care of the last third of Converted." Alex answered simply.
"P-P-Please no!...No I beg you..." Load said in despair.
"No can do. Goodbye Stock Price and Load Price, I fear nobody will really miss you two that much..." the Living Virus said mockingly as he jumped them.
"GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!-GURGLE!" the last thing that could be seen from outside before the train entered the final tunnel towards Canterlot was Alex pouncing and a thick spray of blood covering most of the windows in that reserved wagon.
Two hours later – Canterlot – Royal Castle – Throne room -
Luna was a wreck, mane barely held in check and dark bags under her blood-shot eyes showing she had barely slept few hours in weeks, she was also shaking visibly and faltering in her magic.
"Sister…" Celestia said sadly as she forced the Moon Alicorn to look away from her papers and sit on the throne while passing a brush on her mane in a soothing manner.
"We made a mistake, we made a mistake and now everything is slipping away from our hooves..." Luna kept repeating while sobbing.
"It's for the well-being of our beloved ponies, we need to be strong, we will manage! We will push the humans back enough for Equestria to come here and THEN we will fix every loose end. But for now, those people will either comply willingly or be forced to stay put until we are done, and that too will be fixed once everything is over." Celestia said gently as she hugged her sister making her start sobbing uncontrollably.
"We are acting worse than Nightmare Moon! I look like the Corrupted Version now! Not the Original!" Luna wailed in sorrow.
"Once done I will shoulder every sin, every curse and all the blame. You won't have to feel guilt, but we have not the luxury to wait for the humans to accept this situation, we ponies need to move here and that's final. It's too important!" the other answered.
"...We are turning them by force..." Luna tried saying.
"They need to change otherwise our Magic will kill them, the lack of Bad Traits should be a blessing to them, but I secretly admit that taking away from them the choice is bad, but that side-effect as well is what we need to finish moving on this world. So please, be strong! For me, for Equestria, for our subject old and new. We need to stay together, in Harmony." Celestia said whispering as she rocketed her sister back and forth until she finally fell asleep in her hug.
"Once done here you'll see a brand new world full of new stars and constellations to wave and dreams to explore, I promise you." Clestia muttered levitating Luna on a make-shift bed the two had the guards prepare on the room due to their over-clogged schedules often demanding all-nighters from the two Alicorn mares.
Knock! Knock!
"Just let them in, you know this is a losing battle." Luna said groaning as she opened again her eyes.
"At least lay there a little. Enter!" knowing that fighting it was indeed useless Celestia looked at the Sun Guard enter with a frantic expression to look at both sisters.
"Yes?" the Sun Princess asked.
"There has been a new attack! Somepony assaulted one of the trains directed here...T-T-They sl-slaughtered two ponies, b-b-by the crossing of the names we believe the victims are Stock Price and Load Price." the poor guard asked looking ready to puke.
"Led to believe? Why?" Luna asked getting on her hooves immediately.
"Lots of blood, but no bodies. Just like with the Shipper-Co incident." he answered.
"...Mercer." Celestia tried saying making her sister shiver.
"He was one of the first possible culprits we considered, the attack happened while the train was still moving and Human soldiers can't pass the Barrier; so it's either that monster or some of the ponies that joined Gaia," the soldier answered.
"I see. Take me there and call the Elements, he may still be around admiring the results of his work," Celestia ordered.
"We already contacted them along isolating the whole train station, nopony will enter there, your Highness."
"Good, we will go there immediately," Luna said nodding as she marched towards the door.
"You are-"
"We have a monster roaming around, sister. We'll need all the power we can amass just in case he decides to attack other innocents...or the Elements themselves." the Moon Princess said making Celestia's eyes widen in horror.
"Twilight!" she yelled in fear.
"He knows they are our biggest assets, maybe he wants to see if he can attract them all in a single place so to deal with them all at once."
"Then we have to hurry! NOW!" Celestia yelled as she flew out of the room at her top speed.
"Right behind you!" Luna added rapidly following her leaving the poor soldier in the dust as he was forced to follow them on foot since as a Unicorn he lacked wings to begin with.
Thirty minutes later – train station -
Flying as fast as they could, the two Alicorns arrived just in time to see Twilight and the other Elements of Harmony descend from the personal carriage they had been collected with and escorted by Twilight's brother Shining Armour himself.
"Princess!" the purple Unicorn said happily as she saw the Sun Alicorn nearing her with barely-restrained apprehension momentarily flashing on her face as the Princess landed very close to Twilight and discreetly check her from head to tail.
"So you do have a weakness, Celestia...I wonder if there are more you keep deeply buried under your so-called 'Godhood'..."
"Princess Luna, you are here too?" Shining Armour asked surprised.
"An attack so close to the Castle was bound to attract us both, especially considered WHO may very well be behind it." Luna answered.
"Maybe your sister too, even if she is on par with you in power, she is still younger than you."
Celestia kept her mouth closed and acted naturally, but she could feel something in the air, a faint taint of malicious intent she could not pinpoint but still knew was directed at her and the others.
"Somepony is watching us." she thought with narrowed eyes.
"Captain Shining, Your Highness Luna and Celestia, please this way, but I should warn you...It's not pretty to look at." the guard that had been evidently tasked by analyzing the crime scene said nearing the group.
"Please stay close to me, Twilight." Celestia whispered.
"Your Highness?"
"Please." she pleaded.
"O-Okay."
The insides of the luxurious train, a more high-class model than the ones usually covering the same track, looked still pristine clean, not a single speck of dust to be seen nor a scratch on the high-quality wood or the drapes inside or the comfy red cushions of the seats.
"I always wanted to ride this one." Rarity couldn't help but mutter in wonder.
"If we manage to resolve this, I promise you you others will be free to ride this train all you want." Celestia answered sighing as she already saw the guards acting as border between the clean wagons and the ones where the killing happened.
"This way, your Highness." one of the guards blocking the view said grimly as he and his companions moved aside to show something out of a horror movie.
Contrary to the previous wagons this one was a mess, wide sprays of red covering everywhere up to the ceiling and completely obscuring the windows in a thick sludge of already-coagulating blood.
Needless to say Rarity and Fluttershy fainted almost instantly while Pinkie simply emptied her stomach violently before curling into a whimpering ball to not look further, AJ and Dash instead were valiantly trying to not follow their pink-maned friend and clearly coming close at losing control themselves; the scariest one was Twilight as she simply watched everything in morbid detachment.
"They used a sharp blade to cut a hole in the roof...The same blade has cut somepony in half, the sprays suggest high-speed too..." she droned with empty eyes.
"Twi." Shining said immediately as he hugged his little sister tightly to help her overcome the sight as she tried to ignore the scarring image by over-analyzing it.
"Luna? Can you take care of the blood? I'll Add Mercer. This is his work, Gaia would have left some marking of their insignia to reclaim the kill." Celestia said once swallowed hard to reign-in her bile.
"Yes." Luna answered with a forced even tone as her horn flared to life making the two mixed blood come alive to form the shape of two distinct ponies standing near the door.
"What magic is this?" Shining asked in awe.
"Blood Puppetry, it animates the blood to replay the owners last moments before death, Starswirl was forced to create it when a young noble was found dead under mysterious circumstances...But where was Mercer, sister?" Luna answered.
"There is a clean spot on the floor." Twilight muttered with unblinking eyes as she pointing at the only small area of the floor free of blood on the thick puddle in the middle of the wagon.
"So he was there, he has absorbed the blood falling on him other than the two victims, so around him it's clean." Celestia said as a translucent copy of Alex pony body appeared in the middle of the clean area.
"Go, Luna..." Celestia said gloomy, making her sister's horn light up so that one of the two featureless puppets of condensed blood could fall to the ground with its mouth open and a giant hole appearing in its stomach before jerking violently high in the air to be cut in two (Thus returning the blood in the same position it was when the group arrived).
"The new-foals say he can turn parts of his body into weapons, a single blade one is between his powers, he must have used that once pounced on one of the twins." Shining said somberly.
"The other twin...What was he doing in the meantime?" Celestia asked as the scene restarted from the beginning, only this time the second puppet too started moving as it raced towards the door trying to open it and slamming both hooves on the space where its solid wood used to be when closed.
"He tried to escape leaving his brother behind to die." Shining said frowning before the second puppet too stopped and a similar hole opened on its chest.
This time though the body went slammed on the ground and something then slammed against its head making it explode.
"He stomped on the victim's head." Luna said grimacing, finally making AJ and Dash too puke at the image.
"Brutal and efficient, but I guess real Violence is not something you others are used to see."
"The door was pierced too, isn't it?" Celestia asked in detached curiosity.
"All the way through, sturdy iron that didn't stand a chance to his blade." another soldier answered.
"I see...Let's return to a more clean habitat." Luna said as the group returned to the previous wagon so that the girls could sit and catch their breath.
"I am sorry I forced you to see this, but I needed to have you understand that we are dealing with somebody completely different; somebody cold and ruthless, but also calculative and smart more than what you others may believe." Celestia explained as she took a bottle from the wagon's bar to pour few tiny shots of alcohol.
"Just for this time. The situation is dire enough to close an eye on your age." she explained as the Elements downed the shots shivering and choking at the strong alcohol slamming on their taste buds making even their brain burn for an instant.
"How can somepony able to do this be considered intelligent?" Rarity finally asked in disbelief.
"That is his brutal side, but you need to remember that he assimilates everyone of his victims, he gains all they are and all they know: training, memories, knowledge and we fear even Magic...But why attacking Stock and Load?" Shining explained.
"We think he was behind the death of Express Shipper as well...It means he attacked the leader of the biggest shipping company by sea and now the twins owning the biggest one covering land and air...but why?" Celestia asked confused.
Shick-shick-shick! The sound of a shaker being vigorously shaken made the group jump and turn towards the small bar.
"Discord!" Luna yelled furious at seeing the barman-dressed Draconequus mix himself a cocktail with the utmost care, pour it in a wide glass and even add a small colorful umbrella to it for himself.
"Good morning, Celly, Lulu and you others. This is what the humans call a Bloody Mary, quite fitting isn't it? Considering what happened next door." he said nonplussed.
"Why you are here now?" Twilight asked.
"My reasons. As for dear Alex, he probably needs routes, names, places, contacts...Or maybe he discovered some more 'obscure' details from Shipper and wanted to know the side of the story the Price Twins knew about," Discord answered simply as he calmly sipped his drink without a care in the world.
"...He could have done a more clean job thought." he then added looking at his glass with critical eyes.
"What are you doing, you idiot?! Don't give them details!"
"You know the real reason, don't you?" Twilight asked with narrowed eyes.
"Maybe I do, maybe I don't."
"Then tell us!" Shining ordered growling.
"Or what? you'll turn me to stone? Hey, Celestia! How many ponies lost their lives during my reign in Equestria? Come on! Give me a number! An estimate!" Discord answered leaning on the counter and resting his head on his lion paw arm.
"...Nopony died...They changed form, went Discordified, petrified, jellyfied, turned to furniture or garden decorations or turned into glass panels you used to decorate the windows...Among other things...But there have been no victims." she answered with clenched teeth.
"And how many died ever since you started this crusade of yours against the humans instead?" the Chaos Master asked simply as his body walked in front of the counter while head and lion paw remained on the table in the same relaxed position.
"..."
"So?"
"...Hundreds."
"What does this have to do with everything!?" Luna asked hissing.
"Just wondering if I am still the evil guy, after all, at every opportunity you dangle the Elements in front of my face to make sure I behave and yet you all go around trying to erase a whole race to make room for ponies. It just makes me wonder if I am missing something." Discord answered in grim amusement as he reconnected his head and arm to the rest of his body.
"Those are extreme measures but we are-"
"You are doing what's best to make the transition peaceful, Celestia? Have ANY of you tried to see things from THEIR perspective? We came here 'By Accident' and at the first occasion start changing them en masse with the threat of disintegration should they refuse to turn into ponies...The fact that we are suppressing their Bad Traits we don't like it's only a plus we simply failed to mention of course."
"So coming here was not an accident, eh? Interesting!"
"Suppress?" Celestia asked confused.
"I could not make the potion remove them completely, so I opted for total suppression...They are still there, but the Converted cannot express them, nor feel them...At all." Twilight admitted ashamed.
"It's okay, I am not mad." Celestia answered with a reassuring smile.
"Of course not! It doesn't change anything for her after all! Why would she care?"
"DISCORD!" the Sun Alicorn yelled scandalized.
"Oh please spare me! You still believe that your beloved ponies are the most gentle, friendly creatures ever! Above any guilt and flawless! Do you also think that they poop rainbows perhaps? Must be great to wear such lovely rose-tinted glasses!" Discord said clapping his hands mockingly.
"Get to the point!" Celestia roared.
"Stall her, distract them all. Just five more minutes!"
"Okay." Discord thought in answer as he cleared his throat.
"Slavery, Celly. I am talking about slavery." the Draconequus said simply.
"What slavery? Slavery is illegal in Equestria!" Luna answered immediately.
"It is? Then why several hundreds of New-foals have been Converted by force, took away from their homes as soon as they turned into ponies and roughly transported into secret locations? Locations where they are supposed to be trained into working for their new Masters? It would not be your typical Slavery, but it would be something going pretty close, and very influential ponies are involved in this newly-developed ring of low-cost personnel for filthy rich ponies to use that will never rebel against their mistreatment…Most of them are even too much tempted by the New-Stallions and New-mares too, let me tell you." Discord answered.
"And how would this happen, eh?! How would nopony notice?" Dash countered with a challenging tone,
"The Cargo ships!" Shining said gasping in shock.
"The two biggest companies around can cover the delivery of prisoners without rising a single suspect, just the fleet of flying ships the Price Twins could count on would have been able to move hundreds of New-foals unseen by covering them with the normal chaos of their deliveries." Twilight said faintly.
"And if they send some by sea too, Ah can bet even less pony would notice." AJ added disgusted.
"No! No! No! I-I-I refuse to believe this!" Celestia said in denial.
"Then check it yourself, Celly! Just spare five minutes to go through their stuff! And by the way, how do you define indentured servitude with no rights, no hopes for freedom, miserable conditions and little to no pay? Just the basic needs to survive and no warmth whatsoever?" Discord asked smirking.
"...Slavery." The Sun Alicorn answered grimacing.
"Our new threat apparently has some goal that required him to eliminate those ponies...Or maybe a small part of him still has some goodness buried deep under. Fact remains that he already has the how the Newfoals were captured and the why, now he needs to know where they are kept and Who is behind everything." Discord said chuckling darkly.
"We would have discovered it ourselves," Luna said stubbornly.
"Not with how well it was hidden, Lulu. Some of the biggest contributors are ponies you won't suspect want to use the New-foals forced inability to rebel to gain few more thousand bits. Maybe we should suppress ponies Bad Traits too, as a security measure." Discord answered making Twilight flinch, her potion was probably the reason why the New-Foals could not even verbally rebel and denounce their captives and she now knew that.
"I AM SORR-" KABOOOOM!
What Twilight was about to scream while crying went eclipsed by a tremendous explosion that shook everything violently and had even the train windows explode forcing Celestia and Luna to raise a quick shield to protect the others from the shards of glass.
"T-T-The Castle…" Celestia said in horror as more than half the titanic construction was already collapsing along part of the mountain and the train tracks under it and micro explosions seemingly happened behind every window while the crumbling of such massive construction generated a micro-earthquake.
"The Tower!" Twilight said with wide eyes as the tall construction too slowly fell to the side in a deafening explosion of flying bricks.
"What happened?!" Luna demanded in shock as the explosions finally settled down leaving only giant clouds of smoke behind as the final pieces of the collapsing structures finished submitting to gravity leaving only probably a third of the Castle still standing albeit precariously.
"You should take a page from the humans and learn to better control who buys certain types of chemicals and fertilizers." A cold voice said in amusement as a Unicorn was seen fall from the sky in a splattering of breaking bones.
"H-H-Help!" the old Stallion begged dragging himself with his only sane hoof while leaving behind a thick red trail.
"Money Bag!" Celestia said in shock as the director of one of the biggest banks of Equestria slowly dragged himself towards her.
"P-P-P-Princess! Help M-GUAH!" the old Stallion tried begging before five dagger-sized blades fell mercilessly on him piercing his head and jaw and almost beheading him, all in front of the Princesses and the others' horrified eyes.
"Hello there, Celestia." the new-comer said chuckling darkly as the pony once knew as Money Bag went broke-down and Consumed until nothing remained.
"MERCEEEER!" the Sun Alicorn roared in absolute fury as her mane almost turned into pure fire because of her rage.
Cliffhanger! Yes, hate me! I am a cruel bitch and I am proud of it! Bwhahahahahaha!
Under her the closing extra: "Tea with Discord"
Thank you for reading my story, I hope you liked the "twist" I am giving on the TCB Genre...Please tell me I didn't buck-up! :(
Until next time!
Tea with Discord – Before the attack to the Castle -
Alex Mercer was once again free to return human while perusing the penthouse in Manehattan he took by a New-foal Mare posing as a 'proper' pony she got for helping in Converting humans.
"Lemon, Discord?" the Living Virus asked pouring a cup for the Draconequus.
"Few drops, thank you." Discord answered using the fluff of his tail to grab the cup and drink from it.
"You wanted to tell me you have a new target?" he then asked.
"Oh, yes! I think I will demolish the Royal Castle of Canterlot." Alex answered with a chilling smile.
"Spruuuut! YOU WHAT?!" Discord asked once spat out what he was drinking.
"I want to demolish the Castle to attract Celestia's attention on me, hers and the attention of Luna, the Elements of Harmony AND as many guards I can." the Living Virus explained.
"WHY? Have you any idea of how many innocent victims there will be?!" Discord asked still shocked by the preposterous offer.
"No innocents will be harmed, I have absorbed several Night and Day Guards, if I use those few identities to spread the order for every single pony present there to move to the gardens then there won't be deaths...I cannot promise no wounded because of the erratic nature of explosions, but I can assure you no deaths." Alex answered smugly.
"...I better help you with that, just to be safe. But won't Celestia subvert the order and grow suspicions?" Discord answered with narrowed eyes after a short pause of thought.
"She will be away from the castle by the time the time bombs go off, I'll be sure she and both her beloved sister and Elements will be where WE wanted them to be." the bio-weapon answered simply.
"And how will that happen? And what do you plan to use to demolish the Castle? Those walls are sturdy, there is a thin layer of Magic reinforcing it, you may damage the inside, but the walls won't go down easily." the other asked.
"Is that Magic in the rocks of the mountain where the castle was built too?" Alex asked smirking.
"I...I don't think so..." The Draconequus started saying before growing unsure.
"It's a common mistake, reinforce the door but not the wall around it. A big enough bang and the rocks under the castle will turn to dust, then the whole weight of the structure and the weakening from the explosions inside will do the rest, that if the bombs I will prepare won't blow-up the walls first."
"It will need to be one hell of a bomb to do that." Discord commented unsure.
"Are sixty human-seized barrels filled by a mixture of gasoline, propane, nitrometane and fertilizer put in structurally weak location be enough? You need to tell me now if I need to make more."
"Fertilizer?"
"The Ammonium nitrate extracted from the fertilizer, to be precise. I got the idea when you told me the Elements were taking liberties with human possessions...Dear Miss Applejack and their family have raided several hundreds of thousands tonnes of human-made fertilizer for their apple acres (along few samples of apples we had so to cross-breed with theirs and create new exemplars). They may have had few experts remove what they believed being the toxic parts of those before storing and using it, but even doing that they didn't remove the ammonium nitrate contained in it. You others should start seeing the merits of science instead of using only Magic, you are lagging behind and missing a lot of nice things." Alex answered amused.
"And how much explosive you made with what you took?" Discord asked.
"Enough to make the Ok-homa City Bombing look like a firecracker went off in comparison."
"I have read about that...But how do you plan to take those barrels-"
"They are in the Castle's cellar already." Alex cut him off.
"HOW?!"
"I turned into several guards to get clearance and enter and then pretended to be just a delivery pony bringing new human wine to Canterlot for some celebration I was not invited to since I am not into high society. Then during the night I used few Night Guards identities to bring everything inside without being noticed. As soon as Celestia and Luna leave the Castle and all the staff is in the gardens I will move the barrels to their locations and activate the timer."
"The trick will be have the two Princesses and the Elements go away from the Castle."
"There is where YOU enter the picture." Alex said simply.
"ME?!"
"You love to talk and aggravate everybody you come across, spin some bullshit about them, their decisions and this war against humans...I don't know, you just need to talk to them and make them angry enough to waste time until the bombs go off. I will then make my grand entrance and literally tell every pony that I indeed exist and can attack everywhere and become whoever I want, Celestia has done a good job in hiding my existence, but we need the fear of me being around to stop further raids on earth...And we need the diversion."
"Diversion?"
"Can you be in two places at once, Discord?" Alex asked.
"It's confusing and tiring, but it is also easy enough, why?"
"As soon as I appear you need to pop in one of the camps where the Converted human soldiers are and give the back their Bad Traits, they will do the rest; just make sure every pony you would like to see survive will be far from that camp as they won't be gentle; and make sure it will look like a raid of Gaia, we also need Celestia to wonder if I am joining force with them or not."
"They will be the ones acting as Gaia soldiers and become your source of distractions for future missions, I see..." Discord said in understanding.
"If we make only videos they may grow suspicious, we need real ponies to give this Terrorist Group some credibility." the other confirmed.
"So we only need a proper bait to attract Celly, Lulu and the Elements away. But what?" the Draconequus wondered.
"I already know what to do, I already know that two of our targets, Load Price and Stock Price, have been invited at a brunch in Canterlot by mister Money Bag, director of the Equestria National Bank...Probably to celebrate the freeing of new houses and the acquisition of more money to fill their pockets. I will attack the Twins, alert the Princesses myself along suggesting that Alex Mercer is the probable culprit along telling them the Elements too have been called. If things go as I expect, Celestia should worry enough about her precious student Twilight to rush there at maximum speed...I just hope she really cares about that Unicorn like you said and that Luna too will join."
"She loves Twilight, even too much actually, even if she will never admit that. And Luna will go, ever since this war started she is obsessing on finishing it quickly before new deaths happen, and you are a giant threat so she will do her best in removing at least you from the scene." Discord answered.
"What an honor! A horse deity wants me dead." Alex answered sarcastically.
"We'll manage. Give me directions about what camp I have to free and I'll be sure transportation for the civilians will be there to take them home back in the human side."
"Here is the map, now if you excuse me, I have to go. I have a train to catch!" the Living Virus said taking a folded map out of his pockets and then transforming into a Pegasus to rapidly fly away.
Sigh! "...What the buck am I doing...I am supposed to bring Chaos and have a laugh at everything and everypony, not be a hero and trust a mass-murdering weapon of mass destruction with the fate of two races...Celly...Why?" Discord asked aloud sighing before disappearing with a snapping of his fingers and a miserable expression on his face.
Chapter finished! WOOOO! I am awesome! I am cool!
…
I am afraid I am writing a story with a quality comparable to feces…
Help?
My condolences to the victims of that certain bombing, I hope I offended nobody with my mentioning it, if I did, please accept my apologies, it was not intentional.