“I have no idea what I’m doing!”

Emerald and Sunshine giggled as they walked through Smith street. It was one of the emptier streets, even though it was one of the nicest that Emerald normally walks through. She always wonders why nopony likes to walk through this place, but being alone on such a nice street was nice.

Sunshine was currently leading Emerald to a friend's house. As they left the orphanage, Sunshine thought it would be better to just look for this monster on her own. Emerald remembered the looks the adults gave her, so she opted to keep Sunshine’s plan.

Although Sunshine’s coat colors didn’t resemble her name, her parents named her because she was to bring their small life some happiness. Unfortunately for this happy tale, it stopped when the family was unable to support itself. As she turned five, the her parents were forced to set her up for adoption. Given her personality, it was a mystery as to why she has no family trying to adopt her, but some mysteries cannot be solved by just thinking about them.

As Sunshine led Emerald to the end of the block, Emerald noticed two things. One, this street was creepy as heck, and two, just why were the two here? To her knowledge, nopony lives on this street at all. “Yo, where are you, Zarrus?”

After she said these words, a squawking noise was heard. Emerald looked up, expecting a bird or something to fly out from behind a bush that was hidden somewhere just outside of her view. Instead of what she thought, a full grown gryffin came flew over from one of the buildings. He landed right next to Sunshine, grabbed her mane, and rubbed her head. “Hey, Sunshine. Long time, no see, huh.” He said. Sunshine giggled and nuzzled his chest tufts. “Yeah, big bro.” She replied.

Emerald smiled at this display, although it brought back some painful memories of her brother. She almost felt a tear fall down her cheek, but she was unsure if those were hurt tears or joy tears. “And who is this?” Zarrus asked, looking at Emerald. Emerald looked at him for a moment before responding. He had mostly white feathers, and his legs were chicken yellow. Unlike most gryffins, he had no band around his forepaws. His eagle eyes were yellow. “Hello? Anyone there?” He asked.

“Oh, sorry.” Emerald blushed. No amount of difference between species could make her overlook how attractive he was. Even the most cloud headed filly could recognize that. As a flier, strong wings and a wild attitude made you attractive to the females, but the same could be said for other races/species. It was indescribable, but as long as you were like that attitude, and had wings, you were attractive.

Or that was just Emerald not having another male role model in her life. They're all dead.

“Her names Emerald, Z. She’s my best friend!” The ever enthusiastic pegasus filly said, nuzzling her ‘brother’ a bit. Zarrus patted her head and walked over to Emerald. Sunshine clung to him the whole four-foot journey. It could easily be described as a pilgrimage. He stopped a little bit away from Emerald, removes Sunshine from his person, and placed her next to Emerald. “So what brings ya little fillies over to these parts, aside from a visit, I mean.” Zarrus asked.

“We’re going to hunt down a monster!” Emerald and Sunshine shouted. They both felt like yelling ‘YAY!’ at the end of that, but dismissed it. Zarrus chuckled at their enthusiasm, remembering the times when he hunted down ‘monsters’ in his youth, but only found shady characters that were nice people. The enthusiasm was still there, and he knew that they wouldn’t let up until they caught their own ‘monster’. It was still best to tag along, because there were those who aren't so nice in the world. Growing up in the Gryffin Territory had proven that to him, multiple times.

“Well, I’m going to go with you, keep an eye on you too.” Zarrus sighed. He severely hoped they weren’t going to turn this into a cutie mark expedition. Pony fillies, or females in general, had the tendency to start huge things, especially when they wanted something. That, and Zarrus never really understood the concept of Cutie marks. They were just magic tattoos that only served a purpose of giving males the reason to stare at female plots, under the guise of ‘figuring your talent out’. As much as he would like to say he was exempt from such practices, he couldn’t. The temptation is too much at times.

It was times like that, he wished he was a dragon, or pants were more comfortable.

Clearing his thoughts before he could expose himself in front of two fillies, he asked a different question on his mind. “So… Whos that monster?”

Sunshine looked at Emerald, who shuffled a bit. Emerald stood still for a moment, thinking about this. Most monsters stories told of a monster who disguised himself as a member of society, and ate ponies. This one just appeared out of thin air, and didn’t really seem all that violent. Then again, bodies don't just disappear. “I don’t really know. I met him in a dark alley, and he asked me a few questions.” She held a hoof to her face in contemplation.

“What?” Zarrus was suddenly on guard. He? Dark alley? Of course she thought he was a monster, the guy was a creep! ‘Wait, don’t just jump to conclusions.’’ he thought to himself, remembering a gryffin he singled a town against while thinking he was after some fillies. The guy was literally a candy salesman, and had the gryffin equivalent of a cutie mark. A business card. Still, this ‘monster’ that Sunshine’s friend speaks of was still worth checking out. Pedo or not.

“Yeah, he just appeared there, and he was very confused. Some of the Rising Stars came over and tried to mug him. I ran away, but those guys weren't so lucky.” she pondered for a moment, but her mind stayed set. “I came back later, and nothing.” she took a breath. “There were at least ten ponies there, and he just took them all on.”

Zarrus thought for a moment. “We should call the city guard. File a kidnapping charge.” Theres no way a lone guy can take on ten and come out unscathed, especially the multi racial gang including unicorns, like the Rising Stars. Those guys knew how to fight, and nothing short of another group could stand up to them. Either this guy was kidnapped, or there really was a monster, or a creature of great skill, running amok.

--- (Insert Black-light’s newly signature Line Break here)---

Alex was currently walking through the streets, now accustomed to his new body. It didn’t take much practice, considering consumption was the best way to learn anything. He realized that wearing a hood, or clothes, within this society would raise a few eyebrows, but ponies, like humans, would not bat an eye at uncommon things. Sure, they will whisper and gossip (unlike humans), but that was no trouble to Alex.

He had gained quite a bit of knowledge from the consumed. He knew the ins and outs of the lower parts of the cities, the money system, and there was a particularly threatening force in play here.

Magic.

From what he gathered, the key indications of magic was to look at the horn of a unicorn. If it is encompassed in an unstable looking spectral energy, it could be doing pretty much anything with it. Although that would be an interesting thing to experiment with, it was probably out of his reach. He had consumed a few unicorns, and should have gotten magic, let alone a horn, once he consumed the first one. Also, the wings of a pegasus pony should also be available to him. But they weren’t. He could form the appendages, if he wished, but they wouldn't work at all. They were nothing but non-functioning deadweight at that point, so he just discarded them.

Alex was stuck with the next best thing, adapting to overcome the odds.

There were also other things. For one, while this city looked like Manhattan, the rest of the world was differen . The skyscrapers were mere projects the rich had devised to better manage buildings. The rest of the world looked to be from a much earlier time. The majority of it looked like it was from the renaissance, or earlier points in time. Then again, these were only the memories of a few ponies, and the rest of the world could look to be from other times. If a twenty first century city could built, surrounded on all sides by the past, maybe there were other cities.

Again, that would be interesting to see.

Alex already had a plan for the rest of his immortal life. See the world, blend in with society, and disappear from the eyes of everyone. It would be relatively simple, if the world weren’t so interesting.

It was cute. Far too cute. The world was much brighter than his own, and the air was purer. The lifeforms didn’t feel much better than the humans he had grown to loathe, but there were barely any wars being waged for mundane reasons. No genocides performed out of mere spite. Only petty conflict, mostly between individuals.

Sure, these conflicts were one of the reasons that he had decided to destroy his own world, and create a better one, but these things were similar to what his world was going to look like. He envisioned a world where the majority of the people were walking, disfigured abominations or giant, hulking monsters. The top of this world would be him, and his evolved. As much as he would try to deny it, there was a huge caste system on his dream world.

And the infected?

They would tear each other apart. They were mindless creatures, and even he knew that deep down. He somehow knew they would be violent and uncontrollable, and the hive mind was dangerous to most users. Greene hadn’t had enough of her mind to use the virus in ways that he could, because the REDLIGHT hive mind had deteriorated her mind. She had more personality than a normal infected, but she was still MOTHER, not Elizabeth Greene. As much as he hated Greene, some part of him wondered what she could have truly done if she had her original mind. She was the most powerful runner recorded, and she could literally pull new strains of the virus from her ass. Alex, however, would have a harder time to do so than she. His own virus was made from one part of hers, and he only has the DNA that Greene was making at the time. He was sure that there were different strands of REDLIGHT out there, but he wasn't sure if they were the same virus.

And Pariah?

Sometimes, Alex wondered what was wrong with that kid. Or at least, what he was planning. Who requests to stay in a cage, with scientists poking and messing with him all day? That guy was stranger than his mother.

Then again, they were both her children.

And one of them suffered her fate.

“Well, that was… Something to think about.” Alex mused to himself, as he kept walking. The streets were crowded, but there were other ways of getting around. Sure, he was in a high society place, and high society is supposedly made up of unicorns, but there were a few pegasi flying. They seemed so… Coordinated. Like their lives have a routine, and they just didn’t know about it yet.

‘Wow. When did I become such a philosopher?’

Alex knew the answer to his question of course, but asking really helped his mind not drift to darker things. He supposed growing up in only violence would make violence a necessary thread in his life. It didn’t really matter to him, since the old urges of killing could easily be suppressed. Not like in the old days, when killing was the only answer. Alex would have chuckled, thinking about how things would be if he had came here at any earlier time.

---Somewhere in another world---

Alex had been sitting in the room, knowing full well the impending conversation would be awkward. As he prepared to tell a censored version of his life story to a voice in his head that somehow got there without being consumed, then the ponified Virus sneezed. “I didn’t know I could do that…”

‘Gazuntite’ the voice said.

“Thanks, I guess…”

---AAAAAAAAAAAAAND WE’RE BACK!---

Yep, almost chuckle worthy.

Alex stopped walking, for he had reached his destination. He looked at the dome-shaped building, and smirked. “Perfect.”

Pone Station