We stand united 1x1 Maple Bat

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Edgard looked a bit baffled at Celestia's sudden gift, he didn't expect her to give him something so valuable.

"I.. um..  Thank you for this, though do you really want me to have this? I know I saved your life, but usually, we don't really expect anything back from it, we all help each other to survive." Edgard said as he was a bit at a loss for words.  "Well, it is a wonderful gift, I will treat it with good care, my daughter would be extremely happy to get this once she has been born, I will be sure to give her regards to you." He said as a smile grew on his face.

"We had yet to decide a name for her, but looking at this knife and its design, I know a good name for her now... Elaine, which means *Shining Light*.  Edgard said with a smile, he then started to say a verse that he had come up with   *An echo of the stars glances in the night while the sunshine gazes over the day, both smiling upon the Starchild with fortune, an aurora of colours, filled with every encompassed emotion that we can let out as we breathe in the air that we so favour. The essence of the 3 forms a combined being, the Starchild of Aurora, that name will be whispered as Shining Light is welcomed to the place of the living.*"  He said. "How did that sound? I had come up with it just now." He asked everyone.

 

"It is difficult to say, Evelyn, I don't know for sure. When I can walk again, that might depend on how fast I will heal, that bullet had damaged my ribcage, and I think my hipbones are having trouble supporting me. Because I can remember back in that town I had been fighting in that town, despite this big injury, I could do everything fine, or so I believed at first, what was truly the case was that the virus was masking all of the pain, even my brain couldn't register what was happening to me." Jack said "From what I can assume, I had that injury the moment I had been shot, and while doing all that fighting, I was constantly damaging my entire body. If I hadn't fought after I had been shot, I could actually still walk relatively fast again and would have health up faster, but the damage now is... Pretty severe, I think that is my conclusion." Jack said with regret.

"Every time I try to stand, I feel a massive pain in my hips, and trying to keep standing tires me out very fast as I currently am,  whether it might heal in time or it will be permanent, I am not sure, all I know is that I screwed up big time with realising it at first....." Jack said as he looked down

"Perhaps... Given enough time and perhaps therapy to relearn to move those hip muscles once they are healed up I think I could walk, but I am not sure about other parts of my body, let alone how this virus situation will end up, because heck, for all we know the virus might actually halt at some point because something in my body might interfere with it."

"And at the same time, I don't really know the differences between the physically of Children and Adults, I am technically 13, but i still have the body of a 10-year-old, so things might be a bit more difficult then I hoped they be... All i can say is that i will need all the help that i can get." He admitted.

"So i don't really know how i can reassure you, i don't even know the full extend of my own recovery other then what i can feel right now." he said with a sad look in his eyes

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Celestia smiled "How wonderful! I'm glad for you and Shining Light. And Please, the knife is something I have no use for. You have already found more use for it then what I have been using it for." She clipped hre halberd to her armor again and took a deep breath.

Luna smiled widely "She's not kidding that was amazing! I can't belive you can come up with something like that on the fly!" It was obvious that the fact he just came up with it was more impressive to her than the actual poem but she was amazed none the less.

 

Evelyn sighed loudly "Well... That sucks... I'm sorry about all that, It was purely since I wasn't there that it all went downhill. Now you can't leave my sight, even if you wanted to... But I never asked I think... Why on earth were you and Festus doing in that town in the first place?" Evelyn asked, with a subtle hint of being angry but she didn't really want to be.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Edgard blushed a bit at the compliments as he wasn't used to getting them, atleast not with this kind of enthusiasm.

But he quickly shied his blush away as he started to talk again. "Well, like I had mentioned before, I used to be a historian, or somewhat still am one. I know alot about history and cultures, have been to many places, so knowing all these things gives me all sorts of inspiration, and then I met you guys, both of you look very unique from anything that I have seen before, normally everything seems to have a sense of grief and negative, but you both seem to stand out in a more regal and ancient way, even through this war and its ravaged places, you 2 just give off this feeling, that there might still be a shimmer of hope in the eternal darkness, a feeling of reassuring radiance, seeing as the both of you possess some type of magic, that does make me thing about something." Edgard said as he scratched his chin.

"Have the 2 of you ever chased down the meaning of your backgrounds and history? Have any knowledge about your family history, or if there are any long lost cousins, nieces or anything in that regard? 

"Usually this *radiating feeling* is a sign that there is something untapped in the person who has yet to unlock it, and this untapped thing would not necessarily be power or an upgrade, but something... different, perhaps some type of forbidden knowledge, or being able to overcome something that you normally wouldn't be able to do? I only know so little about this, I had learned about this during my trip to the Eldritch homeworld, it..." Edgard said but he then realised what he was doing.

"Oh right, forgive me, I need to learn to be quiet when I go into one of these subjects, I can go on for hours about it... Anyway, if I may say, see if you could find anything about this, look in your family background, trace down the origins of it, anything that might help, because this isn't the first time that people with this radiating feeling have had some sort of connection that they never knew about before." Edgar said with a smile.

"Hold on, i will get something real quick." He said as he walked away for a minute before returning with a dusty book, he blew the dust off it and opened it, ending up at page 77.

"You see this symbol?"

"This one reminded me of you." He said glancing at Celestia. "Not sure if you recognize this symbol, it represents a few words, one of them being Harmony, but at the same time also means flaming resolve.  It also mentions a circle of 6,  or atleast i think, this book is written in an ancient language and i only knew so much about that language." Edgard said.

"And then, there is this one." He says, glancing at Luna

 

"This one was hard to figure out and i still don't know all the meanings that were meant of this one, but what i could gather, the first meaning being,  Night Architect, and the other being Dream Gazer." He explained. 

"Now these 2 symbols reminded me of you 2, the moon mostly being referred to the dark blue colour of the night sky, and often stars, while the sun is often depicted in a flaming colour, but at the same time is associated with a rainbow colour, which is a pretty famous thing when it comes to daytime.    Does any of you recognize these things? Who knows... The universe seems to surprise us in many ways." Edgard said.

 

 

 

"Well... I was really bored, and I presume Festus as well, so we decided to check out to the town and where hoping to find something that we could salvage from those abandoned homes. But for the reason behind it, this is going to sound stupid but... I felt a bit too nostalgic because I miss the members of my old group so much,  to such a degree that others won't really understand, I had tried to talk to others about it, but yeah, nobody really bore interest due to what was going on, so..." Jack paused for a moment with a sigh of regret.

"So I tried to do the thing that I used to do with my oldest friend, scavenge for food and other things, climb rooftops, fleeing from hordes of infected while I could feel the rush of adrenaline pumping inside of me. Sure, those times were very rough and hard in terms of how we were forced to live, but the way we spent those moments together, it was... Almost like a family...     I have been walking around with this feeling for so long. Because they could be..." Jack gulped for a moment. "Alive, death or worse... and here I have been walking around with the feeling for over a good 3 years, not knowing what has become of them, and how can I deal with it? I can't... The only thing I can do is see those earlier days as some happy memories, but just memories, nothing more..." Jack said with sadness but is now that he was starting to reach a bit of an emotional breaking point, that he was now going to say the things that have been bothering him for very very long.

"That is pretty much why I did it... And relieving memories of this is hard because nobody of this group had been there when Cyril was still a somewhat remotely good place, and if I mention anything about it, who will understand it, who will listen? Nobody really..."

"I know we were planning on going to Cyril eventually but...  I can't hold it any longer, I can't handle this feeling anywhere, not knowing what has happenend to them, I have been getting nightmares, flashbacks, hallucinations, lots of strange voices in my head, and it is becoming worse and worse over time. I constantly get this hallucination of my best friend laying death in the snow, his emotionless face as tears stream out of his dead eyes, I can see the expression of devastation on his face as everything he once had is now being destroyed in his very eyes, and his very family being shr-"  It was at this point that Jack was going a bit out of control with his talking as he started to describe his nightmares and hallucinations with rather concerning but also very detailed descriptions, he started to tear up at times but that din't stop him from talking, on the contrary, his talking only seemed to increase, and he started to become more and mor emotional as it wen't on. It could go on for hours on end if it wouldn't stop.

Edited January 17, 2018 by Mickey Adaptus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Celestia unclipped her armor after hearing the soldier explanation. "Well... The dot on the moon looks rather new but..." Celestia took off her armor showing the cutie mark to them "I really think I know what you're talking about... That circle of 6 is my faithful student and her friends... One of which is now behind held by a slaver... My sister fits the other one pretty accurately. Her mark is the same thing that's on her Armors collar there." Celestia pointed it out "I've learned to move on not worry too much about the past... Even if I don't know what it is it's behind me."

 

Evelyn sighed as she listened it wasn't really helping her mood... but a new idea she had did! "Yes... But how many chances have you had since your crash to get to Cyril... I'll answer that None... Not safely. It's not about people not listening to you I promise. When we rescue this... Fluttershy. You, I and Festus can all steal a ship there and go to Cyril." Evelyn nudged him with an elbow gently. "Sounds perfect huh?" She smiled at him hoping that he'd smile too.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Edgar was thinking deeply when he heard what Celestia had explained to him.

"Hmm... That really is a coincidence. Perhaps-" Edgar got suddenly interrupted by his friend. "Yo, Ed, can you come over here for a moment? We need your help with something." Harry called to him.

Edgar sighed. "Very well, I will speak to you later, my friend needs my help with something, and thanks again for this knife." He said as he waved them goodbye and then ran over to his friend who was apparently in a bit of an argument with someone.

 

"Yeah, that does sound like a good plan." Jack said as he slowly grew a smile, and had calmed down a bit from this moment.

"I am wondering how Festus is doing, I sure hope he is ok." Jack admitted. It seemed that Evelyn's answer had actually managed to calm him down, which was a good thing. "Altough you hadn't had answered my question from earlier yet. Do you want me to sit on your back or rather someone else's? Not that i am heavy, but i am not sure if you ever tend to get tired of me sitting on your back for so long." Jack asked with a bit of a chuckle.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"Goodbye friend..." Celestia said with a sigh. "I'm glad he didn't press me for the details I wasn't really sure what to say to him and what not to say... All this info I know... It's just getting to me." The burden of her weight in the world was getting to her in a way...

"Sister, It'll be alright. Once we regroup Karthspire can oversee everything and make sure nothing is said that shouldn't be. You don't have to do everything yourself. Even though you believe you've messed up too many times. You're only a pony, you make mistakes and you've been around long enough to make many, it's ok to make them." Luna put a hoof around her sister. "Promise."

 

Evelyn chuckled "I'm sure Festus is a fine kid. He's always been really tough. And no you're not heavy... I'm just worried about you. I want you to walk. To experience, a normal life after all this is over if you make it. Like Luna... or Maple, or Celestia... It's just an effect you have I guess." She chuckled more. "Ready to head back to the others?"

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

When Evelyn mentioned *normal life*, it made Jack think, but he quickly shook those thoughts away.

"You are right, but I can't deny that I haven't exactly been living in the best type of conditions before, and with all the injuries I have suffered in the past, also counting those torture sessions in the demon realm, I can safely say that I am not exactly in the best of condition for a 13-year-old,"  Jack admitted, tough he purposely left out the fact that he might  die at a pretty early age if he keeps up the way of living with constantly getting sick and breaking bones more than often due to not taking baths, being exposed in very hot or cold tempratures alot wich he shouldn't be doing because of his short fur, doing very dangerous stuff, and many other things that are destroying his health.

It was something he was aware of, but he didn't really see it as much of concern due to his old lifestyle.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Caerson was somewhere in one of the rooms of Canterlot Castle, he had taken the bath that Zecora had prepared for him, and it had worked, the poison joke effects had been gone, with that weird arm and the crazy eye also being gone, which must have been relieving for Twilight as she had been rather disturbed by those things from what Caerson had eventually to see from her expression.

He was right now analyzing one of the dead bodies that they had found in Hollow Shades.

Guards had been placed not only outside the room but also inside, 4 to be exact, because nobody knew for sure if that dead body would suddenly turn into an infected. At this point, they couldn't take any chances.

Caerson like he usually does had been overworking for far too long, only this time he had been rather silent about the whole ordeal, he usually informs others of what he finds in his research, but this time, he had not told anything to anyone, not even Twilight.

He actually wanted to tell others, but it was for the fact that he didn't know what to tell.

"This doesn't make any sense... Why are the virus and the normal DNA coexisting with each other? Normally the virus infects the normal DNA, but now... I can't understand what is going on here." Caerson muttered.

"In fact... The normal DNA actually seems to be encasing the virus, like it is trying to evolve it, this doesn't look good... It could... do something horrific..." Caerson muttered, with a hint of serious concern, even his facial expression revealed it all as he was rather disturbed.

He was concerned for the fact that the virus and the normal DNA of the dead person were actually merging itself into a new form of DNA, which could lead to a terrible mutation or perhaps create a monstrosity.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Back in Equestria Zecora had been continuing work on her cure which was in a bottle now, She'd done like Shining armor suggested put something into it that would make the cure more clear if she was getting close to curing it. It was murky but you could see through it if you looked hard enough "Progress..." Zecora said to herself quietly as she added something else to it and mixed it in, She saw it clear up more but then it went back to where it was even growing a bit darker. "And... Gone..." Zecora sighed audibly setting the bottle on the table near her. "It needs something extremely potent... but What?" She felt the cure was missing something key. She just really seemed to not know what that one thing was.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Caerson was staring at the corpse until he decided to take a break.

He was however hesitant to leave the corpse as there could happen changes while is away, but he then got an idea.

"Twilight, do you think you could watch that corpse over there? I want to know when changes happen but i need to check on Zecora real quick. Also, if anything goes wrong, you should get your brother as fast as you can, while i don't really expect anything to wrong, you can never be too certain, there is a slight chance that corpse might.. mutate or something in that regard." Caerson asked Twilight as he had walked up to her, and now started to walk to walk through the halls of Canterlot Castle, until he found what he had where Zecora was at.

"You doing alright? Any changes in your body, like fevers, sweating, anything?" Caerson asked Zecora with a hint of concern. "Also, how is the work on the cure going?"

 

 

The corpse itself was only slightly changing a bit from the inside, the virus and the DNA started morphing together.  But the change itself was starting out slowly, and in about 5 minutes, the corpse would start to slowly change and would start to release purple smoke from its body.

The corpse itself was a unicorn mare.

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Zecora shook her head not taking her eyes off the potion as she watched the color lighten and darken again. "I haven't really been feeling any side effects." She had her rings off and had a towel around her shoulders. "Ok... Maybe some sweating. About the cure... It just keeps changing to adjust the things I add... I think I know now how to beat it after looking through Jack's notes. I need some sort of pure suppressant and something that would dry up water to concentrate it. If I had those things I could probably make more progress... there's something big I feel I'm missing. Perhaps I am missing it... I will require more time" She looked around the room eventually she took out a bamboo looking pole flipping onto it and balancing herself onto it with her head against it. She was meditating on it. "Salt... That could help draw out water. As I said things need to be more concentrated. Could you get some from the kitchens?"

 

Twilight looked up from the book she was reading and saw the smoke. "Yikes! Caerson! Something's happening!" Twilight shouted but Caerson was well out of earshot. She put a small shield around the body making it suppress the smoke and she could condense it to keep the thing down should it come back to life.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Caerson was impressed with how she was working on the cure, her method seemed alot more directed towards resources that came from nature and other things, where his own method had always been more directed towards things like blood transfers, DNA comparison, and alot more methods that involved machinery and overall technology.

"Sure thing, you are doing a good job on the cure, it's more impressive then what I have seen others do so far, far better than my own," Caerson told her.

He then started walking through the castle halls again, this time heading for the kitchen.

'The way she is mediating looks interesting, I wish I could do it, but then again... My bionics are too heavy.' Caerson thought.

 

 

And all this time he wasn't aware what was happening in the room that Twilight was at, he wasn't near enough to even hear her shouts.

But luckily, the 4 guards in the room where still present, and where prepared to follow any orders that Twilight would give them.

The corpse suddenly started to twitch a bit and within time, it came to life, in a similar way to how a dead infected person would turn into an infected if the brain wasn't destroyed.

Only this was not an infected, unlike the feral infected creatures that would try attack any prey they could find, this one tried no such thing, it was a good thing that Twilight had put the shield around it.

But there was one terrifying aspect to this one, it could talk! Wich was a thing that shouldn't even be possible as it had no soul, no working brains, the organs where death, the virus itself had not infected those when it merged, it was a mystery that was hard to describe, but very shocking in itself.

"Laaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh Blurgh Tomorozzzzzz, Sier daaav, miroo....." The now reanimated corpse said in a very slow and deep tone, its eyes were devoid of pupils, leaving instead of the golden eyes, a light purple colour, with green flowing shapes in it as a pattern.

It was hard to determine whether it was talking in an unknown language or if it was just sputtering out random words that made no sense, but it kept on going, but it didn't even try to struggle againts Twilight's shield... It was just laying there saying lots of words, and it kept on going, while the smoke was still coming out from its once wounds.

"Miiiiirrrrrrrrr.... Razo, Dalino....  Ooorrrrraaaa..... Slan, Slashaka, Mirono Roooooosssssss...." The corpse said.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Zeocra kept meditating thinking of what she needed to then add to the cure... Something strong that would sedate it's adapation... She opened her eyes quickly and grabbed some elderberries out of the cabinet, crushing them and adding some to the cure. It turned an odd color and after a long time frame, it changed back. "Maybe... Just... Maybe."

 

Twilight looked at the guards "What are you doing! One of you... Get Caerson! And my brother, Quickly... Please." Twilight turned to it again studying it carefully. "It's dead...yet speaking... What is going on with this... Virus. This is new-ish..."

Edited January 22, 2018 by Maple Bat

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

The guards saluted and 2 of the 4 guards left,   1 one of them went to get Caerson while the other one was trying to find Shining Armour.

Caerson during this time was in the kitchen looking for the salt, which he had a bit of trouble with as he couldn't find it anywhere as of yet.

"Sir! I-" The soldier was interrupted "Please, just call me Caerson, no need for formal titles or anything of that sort." Caerson interrupted him.

"R-right, Caerson, Princess Twilight requires your aid, that corpse has suddenly come back to life and is talking!" The soldier said fast, in which Caerson almost dropped the glass he was holding.

"Did you say... Talk? No wait, just bring me to her, now!" Caerson responded as the guard was leading him back to where Twilight.

The other guard was trotting fast through the castle halls until he spotted Shining Armour and skitted to halt near him before saluting.

"Sir! Princess Twilight asked for your aid, it turns out one of those corpses that we had brought from Hollow Shades seems to have... Resurrected... It is very urgent you assist us with the situation, you might want to see it for yourself, sir!" The guard told Shining Armour in a fast tone.

 

The corpse was still rambling with its weird talking until it suddenly stopped, but it then out of nowhere flexed its front and hind hooves againts Twilight's shield and started to push againts it. The pushing itself with the hooves obviously has no effect at all, but it became dangerous when the Unicorn's horn started to glow with a dark purple colour. At first nothing happenend from it. But then suddenly a strong force clashed againts the shield from the inside, and the horn of the now resurrected corpse started crackling with energy and was starting to become stronger as time went on.

The Unicorn corpse was undergoing a magical surge, which triggered when the corpse attempted to use its horn with the combination of unicorn magic and an unknown type of magic that it had inside its body, when those 2 magics where used at the same time, it triggered a magical surge from the horn, that was going stronger and stronger, which was starting to create some form of unstable spell.

It would be impressive for a unicorn to keep a shield going that would have to fight againts a force of this magnitude, which was going to become even stronger if it kept on going, even for someone as experienced and strong in magic as Twilight it was a pretty difficult task in keeping it going. Obviously now the shield could still hold since the magical surge had just started, but if it kept going for to long, imagine what results it could bring.

The corpse itself seemed to no longer be talking, but instead, it was... chanting...

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

"D-Did you say resurrected? I... I don't believe it but I'm coming to make sure Twily's ok!" Shining bound after the guard "Lead me to her... and make haste!" Shining was obviously upset by this new development. He was still wearing his armour, even during downtime

 

Twilight was too focused on the shield her horn glowing brought as an indication of such she dropped a bit of it only for half a second and put it back... "Careson... Please... hurry..." Twilight said quietly and desperately

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

The guard quickly let Shining Armour to the room where it was happening and kicked open the door with its a strong buck since the guards had closed it for in case the corpse had tried to escape.

Caerson had also arrived only moments after Shining Armour.

"Twilight what is going o-" Caerson stopped mid-sentence as he witnessed what was going on.

His mouth was slightly open, and on his face was an apparent sign of shock as he was having difficulty processing what was transpiring, there sight of how this corpse was behaving was what really shocking him, for the fact that it was not only using magic and talking but for the fact on how it utilizing its magic,  aside from the strange chanting, a purple aura was emerging from the horn itself, and even tough Caerson knew next to nothing about magic, even he could figure out that this aura would not emerge from a unicorn normally.

 

The corpse was still chanting while it was trying to break Twilight's Shield that was surrounding him, and while his magical surge was growing stronger, the corpse apparently was not so mindless as anyone would believe, and started to use its hind hooves to constantly slam upon the surface of the table that it was lying on.

Normally it wouldn't do much, but with the magical surge small cracks had already been forming due to the big pressure that it was causing, and so the corpse was attempting to break the table itself, which was an attempt to bypass Twilight's shield, since when the table would break, it would go under the shield, since the shield itself would have been cast on a solid surface.

"Mooooor vori......"  The corpse said a rather more angry tone this time, and its eyes narrowed slightly to the door.

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Shining Armor looked at Twi, who was struggling to keep her shield up and at Caerson and lastly, to the terrified guards. He made a choice... An arguably bad one but it was a choice he felt he had to make. He summoned a spear of pure magic and drove it into the corpse broke the table and impaled the corpse on the ground, it was still alive... since it didn't have vitals anymore. "There... It can't touch the spear or it'll hurt itself... Problem solved, right?"

Twilight had moved her shield down to contain the magic storm "You... Are so Lucky..." Twilight managed to say as she put more energy into the shield. "Can you help with the bubble too?"

Shining nodded and added his remaining energy to the shield keeping the spear in place simultaneously.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Caerson looked at the ongoing situation with worry written on his face.

Obviously, he didn't know what to do, he was no magic user and as far as he knew there was nothing he could do himself other than keep on guard.

However, he did have a plan. "We might want to resort to a permanent situation since this will only work temporarily, do any of you happen to have those erm... Magic disable things that you put on someone's horn?" Caerson asked everyone.

"In any case, don't kill that thing, that purple smoke isn't normal, and I can safely assume that this *corpse* isn't  something that we believe it is.  if anybody can get one of those horn disablers, and some very strong cuffs, then we should restrain this creature, and lock it up!" Caerson said with urgency.

"I don't know exactly what this thing is yet, but something is not right.." He muttered, patiently waiting for anyone to respond.

The Guards, however, where terrified, they were ready to act if given any orders or if the corpse would ever manage to get free.

 

The corpse shrieked when it got impaled, and started to trash its hooves around wildly, but because of all the moving, it only got more and more pain.

It became apparent that the creature seemed very desperate in trying to escape as it didn't stop panicking or rather throwing a massive tantrum in that sense, even despite the constant pain, but it didn't really matter since none of that would get it free in the first place.

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Shining looked back at the 2 guards... Well? What are you waiting for! Get a Magic inhibitor! And hurry with that. We can keep it down until you get back..." Shining knew that those Inhibitors where there because Maple would bring in changelings they'd use those to keep them from just teleporting out, they'd use them on unicorns too. Punishment, of course, didn't last very long normally ponies where held for about a day then let go... more if it was a really bad offence.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"Y-yes sir!" The 2 guards said with a fast salute as they ran out of the room to get the inhibitor.

Caerson kept a close eye on the corpse and waited for the guards to return while the 2 remaining guards drew their weapons in case the creature would try to escape.

The guards eventually returned with a magical inhibitor and the strongest cuffs that they could find, which would go on all 4 of the creature's hooves.

"Alright, I will place the magical inhibitor around its horn while you 2 equip the cuffs on it." Caerson told the 2 guards.  "Twilight and Shining, you 2 put the shield down the moment I give the signal, I and the guards can handle this." Caerson told the both of them.

Tough it was obvious he didn't expect an answer in return and knew they would put the shield down.

When the Caerson gave the signal and when the shield went down, the guards quickly put the shackles around the corpse's hooves, while Caerson quickly put the magical inhibitor around the corpse's horn.

But when the effects of the magical inhibitor started working, something happenend, but not something bad, far from it.

"Mari Da Lie-......." The corpse suddenly stopped its ranting in the weird language as he noticed something, and it became apparent what happenend, when the magical inhibitor started nullifying the magic of the corpse, it had also nullified the magic that had disabled his vocal cords, or atleast, something that prevented it from talking in an understandable language.

"You... You monsters... Allowing one of the marked ones to be dwelling in your lands, leading these horrors to feast upon innocent lives and allowing them to grow stronger by all the conversions... And worst of all, you are all feeding the purple void, allowing the soul shaper to escape like that, dooming all of us in the process..." The corpse said slowly, the voice sounded female, the same voice as the mare originally had, but something was not right about it, she knew about things that she would have never known off in her previous life.

But there important things mentioned, the marked ones were referring to the those who had been cursed by Valtrek, placing entities in the bodies of the cursed ones and eventually letting them transform into abominations, the same curse that Jack used to have, the very person that the mare was now referring to.

The purple void was one of the many names that were given to the one thing that every member of the Blood Cult seemed to worship, but it was mostly known as the Devourer.

And the last one was somewhat easy to figure out for those who remembered the last name of the person she was referring to, Montarion, the person that Jack had killed in the Temple, or so everyone had believed, because back then none of them knew yet of the factor that the body was more or less a costume to them, where the spirit was the real body.

"All of you... Have done this to me... Allowed some of us, including me to... To turn into slaves of the purple void, and even death will no longer work to free us. I will never forgive any of you! We have been suffering while all of you have been having it good, but now it is time that you will feel our pain, and know what it means to suffer... You ignorant fools..." The mare hissed with a hint of venom in her voice.

 

With the slavery part, she meant that her soul had been devoured by the purple void, and had been replaced with a replaced soul that had retained her former memories, turning her into a slave, with no way of freedom.

The moment that Montarion had dropped those purple spores on the ground, it had reached some of the ponies, and those very ponies have suffered the same fates.

 

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Shining looked at the Mare confused "What? Purple void... Marked ones?..." Shining shook his head "I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about... So how am I ALLOWING it when I don't even know what it is... and Twily would've stopped it for sure should she have known." He was acting rather rashly... trying to reason with a corpse...

Twilight put a good on her brother "Calm down... She's just lashing out at anypony she can I mean we should probably look into all this more... Careson? Do you know what she's talking about?" Twilight assumed the answer to be yes since Caerson had met a lot more people "What all do you know?"

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Caerson was thinking for a moment how he was going to explain these things since it was both pretty difficult subjects to talk about.

"Well... The marked ones is an easier thing to explain, it is curse given by Valtrek to specific individuals, who end up slowly giving birth to entities in their bodies, who are born from the very emotions, thoughts, and feelings of said person, but serve a big purpose in the end. Your friend Jack used to have that curse from what I had heard." Caerson told them.

"But the purple void part is hard to explain... Not only because of how complex it is, but also because I don't know a whole lot about it, though I do know some people who know more about the subject, though I will try my best to explain regardless."

"The purple void is one of the many names given to the entity or, in some even call a *god*, which is worshipped by the infamous Blood Cult, tough many know this entity, the Devourer, simply for the fact that it consumes souls.

Now... the Blood Cult itself is a pretty sour subject to talk about, but to give a good explanation, the blood cult is not just a cult or anything, it is an ENTIRE race.  Of course, the Blood Cult is mostly populated by the Raukan that had left their planet just weeks before the event that we all know as the destruction of Raukan. But aside from those Raukan, it also populated by many other races, in fact... At this point, the entire cult seems to be a mixture of like 40 races."

"To make it clear, the Blood Cult is not one massive alliance, but rather consist of a big amount of separate clans, which seems to be a call back to the ancient days of the Raukan empire, who also seemed to utilize separate clans before its unification.

And keep in mind, a member of the Blood Cult can no longer be considered to be alive nor dead, but rather in a state outside of those 2, i think the best and logical term of a blood cult member would be a  Perpetual, given how they are spirits which utilize bodies from either their original host or something else."

"So from what I can gather here, she is blaming us for how she has become one of them, stating that the reason is because we let someone called *soul shaper* escape, which I can presume is a blood cult member that might have been here, though I can't know whether what is she is telling is the truth or not, I haven't been here for that long," Caerson explained.

"Those are sadly the only things I know about them, where I come from there have barely been any sightings or rumours about the Blood Cult, while in some other places they seem to be more rampant." He said with a shrug.

 

 

"All you have been allowing these things regardless of what you were aware of!" The corpse barked at Shining Armour with anger.

"Where was the royal guard when those monsters started appearing? From what I have heard, most of them have been pulled back, to evacuate some backdoor village while all the bigger cities and other villages have left out! What is it about that?! Nobility gets treatment first?!" She shrieked.

"You expected us to act as a bunch of conscripts because the very military that is supposed to protect us is absent? The only detachments of Royal Guard that were present where the ones that had been assigned as city guards long before, there is no excuse for the absence of the Royal Guard."

"And don't you dare to try and justify these reasons, because there is no justification in leaving other cities to die while focusing all of the attention on places where ponies in high places happen to reside! You know what happened to those very cities? Death! They had fallen not long after the initial invasion had already begun, had you sent reinforcements, those cities would not have fallen the way they did!"

"Face it, the Royal Guard doesn't know how to handle threats that it isn't familiar with, the changeling wars was one thing that may have been ended long ago, but things wouldn't have turn out the way they did if selfish greed of nobility hadn't been present,  Hollow Shades is one of the many places that you all left to die...  The Soulshaper has been rigging everything thus far and manipulating things that has been going on here. You know who I am talking about! That creature with that twisted smile, its crazy powers and manipulative nature... The so-called *Mythic Crunch* who disguised himself as a green earth pony, so don't play stupid with me!"

"Not to mention Treasured has been able to benefit so much from this situation, with all the now unprotected cities, scattered ponies, and overall lack of protection, tell me Prince Shining, how does it feel that you have let down your entire race all so you could give extra benefit to those close to you? I bet your daughter wouldn't have left the way she did, or what might even happen to her..." The corpse said.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Mickey Adaptus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Twilight had listened more to careson not really caring about what the pony was saying

Shining, however, heard every last word. The day guard captain was a refined stallion he'd been through the ringer more than once and knew how to keep his cool... Under normal circumstances. Shining armor lifted the pony into the air bringing them close to him "SO... You think I'm selfish? That the guards are selfish? You're the most blatantly ignorant pony I've ever spoken to. We have dozens of cites worth of ponies here... All the towns that got destroyed... all the families broken... Home's abandon... The day guard can barely take it and now the night guard has lost their captain. The 2 princesses are missing and now the dragon's thing we killed Ember. Everything has gone downhill. I have a job to do and I'm not going to be told how to do it. Especially not by somepony like you." Shining dropped the mare. 

There was a knock at the open door, Treasured Crystal was there. His metal wings scratched and dented even his body had some bruises "A moment... Captain Shining. I need to talk about something. I think you're suffering the same problem as I am. I know you don't trust me but I want to put aside my will to the throne... and my will to harm alicorns. If I don't help you out there won't BE a kingdom to control.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

Caerson was a little puzzled about the situation, nobody had told him of Treasured before, so it was a surprise when Treasure had walked in and said some particular things.

But he it was rather easy for him to figure out that Treasured was someone who was againts Celestia and Luna and wanted to rule the Kingdom of Equestria. Tough when he mentioned his will to harm Alicorns, he realised he might have something againts Twilight in particular, and even if it might not be the case, he wouldn't really take chances.

"Twilight, could you go to the kitchen real fast and get some salt for Zecora? She needs it for her cure, I was supposed to get it but it might be better if you get some for here, just teleport there and head to Zecora alright?"  Caerson whispered in Twilight's ear quietly, as he was worried for Twilight's safety, he had grown very attached to her, Twilight was his best friend at this very point, and he couldn't deny that she had changed him alot, changed in a good way, he felt like he had regained something that he had lost long ago.

 

The corpse was now laying on the ground with the chains and the magic inhibitor still on her.    She had grown even angrier after Shining Armour's response, the things he mentioned, the losses, everything that they had to endure she understood, but it was the way he was handling things, the way he had not even considered about what Montarion could even do, how he seemed so casual about that fact.

'He thinks I am ignorant? That is coming from the same pony who isn't even taking into consideration that they have been manipulated from the very start, and even for the fact they have allowed that manipulator to do as he pleased, from the very start, it shows how gullible everypony is here... How can I expect them to save everyone here if they don't even do the research themselves... No, somebody has to constantly tell them what is going on, and that is going to be dead to all of us.' The corpse thought with anger.

'And now Treasured himself shows up right at their doorstep... And then that wretched engineer, that lowlife alien thinks he can help, but his kind is the reason we are suffering! I am surrounded by idiots and buffoons, not knowing how to properly deal with a situation.  But I am not going to sit here and let them destroy everything that Equestria has striven for, I am going to take matters into my own hooves... It is only 2 weeks before the meteor arrives, I WON'T let ponykind be the victim of extinction, mark my words!' She thought with determination and anger.

Edited January 24, 2018 by Mickey Adaptus

[Maple Bat 3,568]

Twilight nodded "Y-Yea sure I can do that... Be right back brother" Twilight teleported out of the room.

"Well... a stallion comes pleading for help and you get defensive but... whatever... I came to apologize... This disease I didn't take it seriously... I have... had my own army... one of my soldiers attacked 4 and he was disposed of proper... Then those 4 attacked 16... Well... I noticed and me, My engineer, Graystone, Scarlet, My right hoof mare, and about 17 other ponies escaped MY OWN BASE. We need to eradicate the problem and I want to help in any way I can to do that... Graystone... Could you come here..." A healthy, around 24 of age, Earth pony stallion approached the group. His mane was short tail matching, The azure eyes offset the gray coat and darker gray mane. Treasured lifted his wing showing all the mechanisms in it it was rather complex... Almost like one of Maple's... yet it came from a rather young pony. "Well tell them about it... Don't be shy." For someone who wanted to take over... that was a really calm thing to say... Treasured may hate alicorns... but he still had his own desire to make other feel nice.

"W-Well... The wings... I knew I had to make them capable of withstanding Equestria's strongest... SO it had to be blade and arrow proof... It was so he could approach the castle without getting hurt... T-The ends of the feathers are as sharp as knives... so they could be weaponized if Crystal was to lose his magic, They're very strong wings too able to easily carry not only Treasured but about... 400 pounds of weight with ease not that he could lift it. The thing I have to be most proud of is that they can be taken off at a moment's notice for repairs or upgrades." The earth pony took off the wings and it revealed half a dozen mechanisms all embed into Treasures sides. "The body... Enhancements... where to make the wings feel natural... Like they'd been there his whole life... but also to assist in lifting them." Graystone presented one of the wings to Cameron "You are... an engineer yes? If so tell me what you think of my design. Not really for improvement just wondering what you think." Upon closer examination, the design was sleek and could be easily compact a marvel... for a creature with no fingers.

[MickeyAdaptus 2,211]

"I am an Engineer yes," Caerson said with a nod.

Caerson then looked at the design with interest, giving a bit of a closer look to see how the insides of the wings where made.

"Though I must say those that those look well made, especially for the fact that this was done without the type of technology that I have been learned to use, but rather in a way that your species seems to utilize, which makes such things easier to maintain. Is it true that these wings operate on a form of magic generators or something? I do understand how the mechanisms and such work in these things but not what powers it." Caerson said as he inspected it further.

He didn't really respond to Treasures words as he felt like Shining Armour would be better to respond to it, and after all, Caerson didn't really feel like he should be involved in the matter of having a say in the more political matters, while he did give advice and helped out everyone, he didn't feel like that he should involve himself in politics where it was now the job of Shining Armour, Cadence, and also Twilight to judge such matters, especially now that Celestia and Luna where absent.   Tough Caerson did still have interest in every word that Treasured had spoken, especially the story he mentioned about what happenend, it seemed rather familiar to him in many ways, it was a repeating cycle for him to hear about those stories about people had gotten into first contact with the virus.

 

The corpse, however, was not so content with this situation, not only was she going to be ignored now because of Treasured's arrival, she was now pretty much a prisoner, with not even capable of dying to be put out of her misery, which she would have preferred over her current fate. But she wasn't just going to sit around.

'Those fools forgot to even chain me to something, and this distraction sure is going to prove usefull, they are going to wish I was still a corpse...' She thought with venom.

Before anyone could even react, she jumped straight through the window, shattering the glass.

For anypony, it would have been suicide to jump out of a window that was on one of the highest floors of the Canterlot Castle, but to her, it was actually a benefit because she wasn't really going to die from falling anyways.

She was falling for few seconds until she used her chains as a swinging tool, letting the chains get caught on the nearest ledge and use it to swing straight into the window under it, crashing through it as some castle servants couldn't believe their eyes, a rotting corpse with purple glowing eyes and purple smoke coming out of it was running straight past them, as the maid screams could almost echo through the entire castle from what they had seen, and also perhaps the smell of it.