The last two weeks had been rather hectic. He had to micromanage these fools in order to ensure his plans would be followed to the letter. Every stereotype he knew about lazy craftsmen held twice as much truth for ponies. A good amount of intimidation had been necessary to keep them on time. Everything that could go wrong eventually did in the process of building the laboratory. Murphy's ugly visage had shown itself far too often and these ponies were his harbingers.

A window on a wall completely inside the building? Check. Stairs leading nowhere? Check. It was almost comedic. He had been so close to ripping off all the company owner's obscenely fat extremities for their slip ups. Unfortunately, it was still Princess Twilight's orders that he had to operate under since the laboratory was in the city limits of Ponyville, so he was perturbed with having to vent his frustration with cold silences and a bitten tongue. Gritting his teeth, he therefore continued to work with the insufferable cretins.

Winning doctor Clean Cut over in his final talk was no problem at all. He was more than eager to help the man with his scientific endavors. He had assisted in the planning of the building to fit his needs as a biothaumathican. Some things didn't make sense to Albert, but this wasn't his profession, and it wasn't his right to question his demands. He commissioned a background check on the silent stallion. Cut had received his doctor's degree "summa cum laude". He had no family. No previous criminal record. Nothing. He was a blank page. All he had in his life was his job. It was almost as if his record had been cleaned. Finding that rather suspicious, Wesker dug deeper.

What little information he’d gleaned had been hard fought, but his connections with the princesses, especially Princess Luna, had been surprisingly helpful, he found out the reason for the classification. Five years prior, Clean Cut had been working in a top team at Canterlot University, researching genetically modified crops and vegetables.

They were rather successful, reaching output increases of over 40 percent. After a few months they started testing outside the laboratory in order to discern the resistance of the plants to normal environment influences, although some team members expressed their worries.

The plants were heavily magical with pestilence repulsion, increased growth rates, and similar attributes that even kept the harvested fruit longer fresh. Those opposing the early introduction argued that the results were unpredictable at best and dangerous at worst. Further clinical testing was required, but Clean Cut, the head of the research group at that time, ignored their objections and ordered to carry out his plan anyway. A small community in the west had started planting those crops and there were no severe biological repercussions. The critics fell silent in light of full bellies and safer food.

But then something happened no one had foreseen and everything went to hell. A species of locusts hit the town late in the Fall and devoured the plants. No one ever found out how it could have happened, but they mutated their metabolism increasing it to incredibly unstable levels. They became what today are known as parasprites. They cost hundreds of ponies their livelihood every year, even hitting Ponyville two years ago. Since then, enormous sums had to be spent to fight the damages.

Cut was blamed for the birth of the pestilence and his promising career was brought to an abrupt close. The whole operation was covered up to avoid damaging Celestia's image. Indeed, the matriarch could not be associated with a beast such as Cut. What Wesker had offered the stallion was practically the only chance he would ever get again to escape the meaningless mediocrity of his ridiculous existence. And he very likely knew it. That was all the leverage Albert needed on the doctor. It was better to be feared than to rely on the love of one's employees after all.

One evening, when the laboratory was close to being finished, Wesker made his way to the construction site. Since he had to run errands the whole day in order to acquire the necessary equipment for the lab, he didn't have the chance to inspect the day's progress yet. Wesker even paid a short visit to Canterlot where he met with the Princess of the Night. Luna had demanded his presence suspiciously often since his first visit to Equestria's capital for quite dubious reasons. And their talks grew increasingly more awkward because Albert felt like she desperately wanted to tell him something he didn't quite understand. With every visit he could see her frustration increasing. But being disrespectful was the last thing he'd be now that he was practically the crown's employee. So he endured it stoically like he always did when it wasn't in his power to change something. She was a pleasant person to be around, so he didn’t so much mind giving her the time of day.

The man hoped for his dwindling sanity that the construction company didn't fail him again. What had been planned for today was relatively easy to accomplish though. Roughcasting the walls wasn't exactly the most difficult task for an experienced craftspony. So he wasn't too pessimistic it wouldn’t be done by the time he arrived.

Still, he felt watched from time to time, but it didn't bother him anymore. Obviously it was just a figment of his imagination. He assumed that even he wasn't unaffected by all the craziness that surrounded him for the last few weeks. The rather unusual situation had taken its toll on the man. He’d looked for further evidence to validate the nagging feeling that he was being observed, but his searches turned up nothing. Still, he was wary, but for now he was writing it off as inconsequential.

The scientist was positively surprised and, at the same time, concerned when he still heard the sounds of construction from the future site of Parasol Pharmaceuticals. What went wrong to make the normally lazy construction ponies work so eagerly?

Quickly, he entered the unsuspicious building with the big emblazoned 'P' in an Umrella-esque blue and white octagon, the logo of his company. And indeed, the dozen ponies, mostly stallions, were still working. The quota for the day had already been accomplished from what he could see, so he wondered why they didn't call it a day.

When he cleared his throat to attract their attention, all ponies turned around simultaneously in a zombie-like fashion. All their eyes, but one green pair, were the same blue as the ones that followed him around in Ponyville for the last few weeks. The door slammed shut behind him and a cackling laugh echoed through the building.

Author's Notes:

[dramatic sound]
So finally another player enters the game.
One who might have rather harmful intentions.
How will Wesker cope?
Can he defend himself against the shape shifter queen?

Stay tuned!