Upon one of the many ruined and tendril covered skyscrapers of the Red Zone, Formerly the southern half of Manhattan Island, a fairly large group of men, women and several children stood in the pouring rain. They stood completely captivated by the scene on a shorter building they stared at.

The scene was of one James Heller and Alex Mercer locked in an absolutely vicious battle for supremacy. Black Watch choppers circled overhead watching the battle unfold between the two ungodly powerful Blacklight beings, occasionally they would be a victim of Alex’s tendrils and would be thrown at Heller himself. But other than that James and Alex paid no attention to the Black Watch observers, Black Watch itself knew better than to get involved in this fight and would have pulled back at a much more safe distance if it were not for Colonel Rooks’ orders. The moment the man had been notified of the battle, Rooks’ ordered all his local air support to the area, not to attack either infected or even to support Heller but to watch. If Alex won then hopefully he would be weakened enough for Black Watch to finally take down, if Heller won then the problem was already solved.

Back on the tower the people continued to watch the fight intensely; they were heavily invested in this fight specifically in Heller winning. The reason why was because they were the rest of Alex’s Evolved army, and if Alex won then he would not be pleased in them not coming to his aid.

If one recalled the behavior of Alex’s other Evolved then one would wonder why these were revolting. The reason was simple, unlike those Evolved these were recruited purely from the civilian population. These men and women were desperate and broken by Black Watch’s cruelty, seen as easily controlled by Alex, he infected many to use as elite Cannon Fodder against the armies of the world once he began to expand his operations outside the NYZ. However Alex was never the deep thinking or planning type, despite what he may think or the empty praises of his Gentech and Black Watch Evolved. If he was then he would have seen an obvious flaw in his plan. The fact is that once the “Cannon Fodder” of the Evolved army had no more reason to fear Black Watch because of their new found strength and power, their initial loyalty would then fade quickly in the face of his sociopathic cruelty. Years of being looked down upon by the “elites” of the Evolved army, years of having no choice but to obey the brutal commands of their viral overlord and his Cadre of psychopaths were finally coming to a head.

James Heller. Everything changed with his recruitment, very few marines were recruited due to the fact the USMC tended to screen out all the psychopaths Alex adored to get, but a few would catch the eye of an Evolved. So the rest of the Cannon Fodder simply assumed that James Heller was another marine that managed to hide his psychopathy or became twisted in the face of the horrific fighting of the Red Zone and the sanctioned atrocities committed daily by Black Watch. They began to rethink this opinion when word reached them of Koenig's’ death at the newly minted Evolved’s claws. When operations began to fail all across the Green Zone, everyone had their suspicions of who it was. After years of success after success and Black Watch recruitment standards falling ever further to cover their losses it was clear that the Evolved had an enemy amongst its own. It didn’t take Alex long to find out who and when he personally set out to “fix” the problem the Cannon Fodder simply assumed that was that. Once again, they were wrong.

Somehow Heller not only resisted Alex’s attempt to consume him but forced him back. It was with this news that the members of the Cannon Fodder Evolved began to have hope. More than a few members set out to watch Heller’s rampage against both Evolved and Black Watch operations and became glad that Alex couldn’t pinpoint where Heller would stay when he wasn’t tearing Black Watch a new one. Seeing Heller annihilate whole Black Watch bases and tearing Evolved limb from limb had told the Cannon Fodder that going against him, even in force, would only end in their deaths.

Finally after both Black Watch and the Evolved suffering crippling blows to both their operations and manpower, Alex finally gave an order to the Cannon Fodder Evolved. They were to surround a building where Alex and his remaining Cadre of psychopaths would await Heller and once Heller did arrive they were to surround and overpower him through sheer force of numbers. But the Cannon Fodder decided to make a change to the plan. Instead of surrounding the building they would gather the whole of their numbers and watch from a neighbouring skyscraper. Choosing to do this had its risks, namely that Alex would likely consume all if not most of them for disobedience but that was only if HE won, and so far it was appearing to be not the case.

The Evolved collectively held their breath when they saw Alex charge at Heller with his blade and Heller choosing to block instead of dodge, an act that hadn’t worked before. But it seemed that the fight had finally drained Alex to the point his blade couldn’t pierce Heller’s shield and the former marine repaid Alex by quickly severing his blade with a claw. Recoiling away from Heller, Alex quickly formed a whipfist and shot it towards Heller and once again the rebellious Evolved blocked Mercer’s attack and severed that arm with his own blade. Visibly becoming weaker by the second, Alex quickly formed his two hammerfists and leapt into the air, intending to crush Heller. Forming his own hammerfists, Heller choose to meet him with force instead of getting out of the way like before. It only proved how weakened Alex was by the fight when Heller was not only not crushed by Alex’s blow but managed to catch his hammerfists in his own before proceeding to pull Alex’s arms out of their sockets.

Weakened to the point that even a certain Black Watch operative might have been able to end the Blacklight being, Alex fell to his knees, unable to regenerate and heal his wounds. At this the Evolved on the nearby tower began to crowd and lean over the ledge, eager to see their tyrant ended once and for all. They were rewarded with their patience by Heller taking Alex by the neck and proceeding to rip him to shreds and cut those shreds to pulp. Soon Alex Mercer was nothing more than a bloody stain on the tower, consumed by James Heller who was clutching at his torso and shaking slightly from the sudden intake of memories.

Finally… it was over. The remaining Evolved began to laugh lightly and smile for the first time in months if not years. It was over, they could finally-

It was then that James Heller exploded. The Evolved remnants fall to the ground with a startled shout as Heller became a massive ball of tendrils that proceeded to lash out and spread all over the Red Zone. The Evolved quickly got to their feet as large tendrils began to appear over the edge of the building and rapidly reach towards them. Claws appeared in a surge of black tendrils as the Evolved prepared to defend themselves and their own but the large tendrils stopped in place suddenly before rapidly retreating away. Slowly and hesitantly the Evolved approached the ledge and peered over it.

“Is… is it over Gabriel?” A blond woman asked.

“I think so.” Gabriel, a man wearing blue jeans, black sneakers, a white hoodie and a large ribbed black vest (1), said.

Gabriel then began to look for Heller, only to see that he had disappeared from his spot on the building below but that was not the only thing Gabriel noticed. The large viral growth and tendrils that had attached to the very building Heller had stood was now black and not glowing, everywhere else that Gabriel looked he saw dead viral growth or pieces of infected laying all over the streets below. Not only that but the red glow that the entire Red Zone emitted was now gone, leaving it dull and dark.

“I don’t believe it.” Gabriel said in awe. “He killed the virus, the whole virus.”

“Incredible!” The blond woman from before exclaimed. “It’s lucky we were standing on this building!”

Nodding in agreement Gabriel turned away from the ledge to face someone that stood away from the group, practically on the other side of the roof and stared at the others with untrusting eyes.

“Oskar?” Gabriel asked with an outreached hand.

“What is he doing here?!” The blond woman gasped and many other Evolved quickly reformed their weapons. “He was supposed to be down there with the other psychos!”

“It’s okay!” Gabriel shouted as he waved down the other Evolved. “He and I had made a deal, right Oskar?”

“… Yeah.”

“Oskar… it's time.” Gabriel stated as he reached a hand out to the apparently disliked Evolved.

Oskar was a fair skinned man, standing at a rather average height, possessed ice blue eyes and platinum blonde hair. He wore a pair of white runners, tan cargo pants, a white unzipped hoodie, a bright blue tee-shirt and a white bucket hat that left his eyes shadowed in the dark of the night. He was also one of the few Cannon Fodder Evolved that had been “promoted” to Alex’s Cadre when he had killed and consumed a Black Watch Evolved, despite the fact he had seemingly been consumed by said Evolved for impudence only for that Evolved to collapse in pain later and Oskar to appear in his place, thus appearing to have become another one of Mercer’s loyal psychopath’s to the Cannon Fodder Evolved.

For a few moments Oskar seemed to stand and not acknowledge Gabriel before hesitantly stepping forward and reaching out with his own hand to grasp Gabriel’s. To an unsuspecting observer this looked like an awkward handshake but to the Evolved on the roof this was an exchange of genetic information. There was a reason why they were the Cannon Fodder Evolved despite being Blacklight beings, Alex kept them hold up in outposts all over the NYZ but mostly in the Red Zone. They were given a few useful traits and one weapon mutation and that was it, only Alex’s Cadre of psychopaths were allowed to stock up on traits, weapon mutations and roam the NYZ as they pleased. Being a part of that Cadre meant Oskar was allowed to do all that and be assigned important missions when Alex had deemed he had “bulked up” enough. Killing and eating a Cadre member meant Oskar was sent on missions from the get go. He was reported to be a very successful and efficient agent in the field because of the fact that he was never caught or that the aftermath of the destruction he wreaked only ever looked to be the work of “civilian agitators” to Black Watch.

Seemingly because of his origins as a Cannon Fodder Evolved Oskar was never that loyal or confident of Alex’s victory, he had actually been the first Evolved to notice Heller’s traitorous actions and instead of notifying Alex and ending the problem then and there, he had volunteered to work in the Yellow Zone to re-establish Evolved influence and control. This is where he had stayed and actually worked to do what he said until Heller began wreaking havoc in the Red Zone. He had received a recall order from Alex for him to be present at the final confrontation between him and Heller; he had replied that he was on his way but may not make it in time. This was actually not true; he was fully able to make it back in time but actually used the excuse in order to meet in secret with the “leader” of the Cannon Fodders, one Gabriel Cain. Once again Oskar had kept important game changing information close to heart in the form of the Cannon Fodders’ quiet rebellion. After an initial confrontation between the two, Oskar and Gabriel came to a deal. If Heller won then Oskar would offer up his whole arsenal of weapon mutations and useful traits to boost the entirety of the Cannon Fodders to his level. However if Alex won then Oskar would kill Gabriel first and foremost to keep Alex from learning of his sole remaining Cadre member’s duplicity. But since Alex was dead and nothing more than blood splatter on the ground, Oskar had an obligation to Gabriel to keep.

As Oskar withdrew his hand he contemplated his new situation, the sole surviving Cadre Evolved was both pleased and unhappy, pleased that the greatest threat to his personal safety was dead and that the other would be leaving the NYZ with his child very soon, unhappy that because of his sharing his strength with the weaker Cannon Fodders meant that in terms of strength soon all of them would have the potential to kill him. It would have been simple enough to go back on his word to Gabriel, with their numbers the Cannon Fodders would have been able to wear him down and kill him but Oskar wasn’t so stupid that he would just charge at them, claws swinging. He knew many viral quirks and tricks that would give him eventual victory. But backstabbing is a bad habit for one to have and would lead to his death sooner or later if he went through with it.

The roof under Gabriel began to crack and pieces of debris lifted in the air to float around the hooded Evolved as a blood red vapor began leaving his body; black tendrils surged and writhed over his form. Suddenly with a burst of air pressure it was over, Gabriel was staring at his hands in amazement.

“Incredible! I feel so much power!” Gabriel exclaimed as he felt his own biomass began to rapidly surge and grow without him needing to consume bio matter. A hide harder than steel formed under the Evolved’s skin, all his muscles became denser and many times stronger than they were before and that was only but a few of his new strengths and abilities.

Gabriel closed his eyes and indulged in the feeling of his new power for a moment longer before quickly turning on his heel and walking towards his fellows, eager to share with them his new strength.

Oskar stood still and watched as the other Cannon Fodders underwent the same changes. Suddenly the Cadre Evolved turned on his heel and walked towards a door leading to the building's stairwell. Oskar had a sudden urge to go downstairs for something, what that something was the Blacklight being had no clue only that he needed to head downstairs for it.

The bucket hatted Evolved’s departure went unnoticed as the Cannon Fodders were too enamored with their new found power to pay him much attention, not that they were willing to have him around in the first place.

Oskar closed the roof door behind him and began to walk down the staircase. The Evolved tripped on the very first step and began to fall forward. Normally this would not be a danger to Oskar or even most people but instead of seeing a dimly lit staircase coming to meet him Oskar saw an endless plain of black dotted with white lights begin to rush past him. Before he could open his mouth and scream in surprise he found a grass covered ground appearing suddenly in front of him. Oskar slammed into the ground with a loud crash, kicking up substantial clods of dirt. The Cadre Evolved lay a moment in stunned silence before letting out a groan.

In a place unimaginably far away and unbelievably close by lived beings of great power and in mind boggling numbers. These beings were known for many things by many different peoples, leading hordes massive enough to make the ground quake in their footsteps, holding great strength and speed within their bodies making them able to go toe to toe with even the strongest warriors, masters of grand planning and subterfuge weaving plots that even mortal legends could face great difficulty unraveling, of these things all are correct yet at the same time all are wrong. Just as the average person these beings have their own preferences for what they like to do and their own natural skill level at it, some are great fighters, some are great strategists, some are great leaders of men and there are others who lie on the opposite end of the spectrum and those who are somewhere in between. As to whom these beings are and the name of their home… they are called the Astral Lords and their home is the Infinite Kingdom.

The Infinite Kingdom itself is a massive city scape that seemed to stretch on infinitely interrupted only by the occasional park or rooftop garden, buildings of various heights and widths filled the realm with some that seemed to be as small and thin as a cottage and others that seemed to be as wide around as a planet and stretch off into the “sky”. The sky itself was strange in that while there were clouds, if one stared hard enough they would notice that the sky did have a roof and that roof was another equally developed city scape. The entire realm was lit during the day by miniature suns placed between the halfway points between city planes and scattered here and there to light up the whole of the universe during the day, during the night the light of the suns would “burn” down until they gave a comfortable glow comparable to the moon. Finally it had to be said that the buildings and even the fashions of this massive place was based upon an era of an island country just north of your average Earth universe Europe, namely Victorian England… granted the whole idea of skin tight pants and powdered wigs had been thrown as soon as seen but the buildings reflected the culture of the era grandly. Great Palaces, grand estates, massive mansions covered in beautiful architecture and gilded in precious metals made the whole realm shine during the day and glint during the night.

In one such grand pearly palace, that was as wide around as the Earth and half as tall as the Sol system was wide, was a room containing a massive crystal ball, being watched by several Astral Lords and Ladies. The room itself was just as grand as one would think of a room within a palace would be, gilded furniture stuffed with the softest cotton, masterpiece paintings and masterfully carved busts, which went unnoticed by its occupants.

“Bored, bored, bored, bored!” An Astral Lady, who wore a gilded jacket rather than some grand dress, stated repeatedly. “When's he gonna do something fun?!”

“Just give him a few moments; these Blacklight fellows are always interesting.” An Astral Lord replied while watching the massive crystal ball, which was currently displaying a picture of Oskar shaking his head and getting up. “Even when they are not.”

“Well he’s not interesting now!” The Astral Lady whined before falling back into her seat with a pout and arms crossed.

“You’re just mad because the world you were watching got clichéd.” The Astral Lord replied as a fairly large popcorn bucket which actually held gummy bears appeared above, he reached out to let it drop into his grip but it moved over in midair and tipped over his head, the bucket fell a second later and covered said head.

Another Astral Lord lying across a neighbouring couch giggled at his handy work before turning to the Astral Lady.

“What were ya watching Astrid?” He asked her.

“Naruto.” Astrid grumbled. “It was getting good too. It had a sweet believable romance with Anko and awesome action scenes but then it started to get into harem hijinks and ruined everything!” Astrid shouted as she stamped her feet.

“Huh.” The Astral Lord stated simply. “I’m here because the guys I usually watch just got invaded by bunch of brawlers and now the reception gets all messed up when I try to look.”

“Pfffft, stupid brawlers.” Astrid scoffed. “Can’t just enjoy the show; have to actually get involved in it.”

“I dunno it's kinda fun to get into it.” The other Astral Lord replied.

“Meh.”

“Shush.” The first Astral Lord said, he had another bucket of gummy bears but had yet to remove the old one from his head, having only pushed it up enough to not block his sight.

“What, is something happening Orion?” Astrid asked as she turned back to the crystal ball.

“Not just yet.” Orion replied, tossing a handful of gummy bears into his mouth. “In just a moment or two though…”

Oskar scratched his head as he took in his surroundings. He appeared to be in a forest beside a river, a rather spooky forest. There was a low hanging mist everywhere he looked and the trees had shadows casted on their bark that just happened to make them look like they had freaky snarling faces. All in all it was pretty nice compared to the Red Zone at night, or even the Yellow Zone for that matter. The Cadre Evolved was still stuck on the point of just how he had arrived here in the first place though. It was at this point that a local resident of the forest Oskar had arrived in decided to make himself known.

A dark spot in the water suddenly bulged and out came a massive serpent like creature. It had purple scales, two arms with hands and a head of orange hair with an immaculate moustache that somehow managed to stay in place despite being wet. The serpent then turned his attention to the creature that had landed in a fashion that had looked rather painful and attempted to greet him.

“Oh why hel-accck!” The river serpent got out before he was interrupted.

Out of the corner of his eye Oskar had seen a long thin shape come out of the water and his first thought was ‘HYDRA!’ of course being an Evolved in Alex’s army meant that unless he rebelled then he had nothing to fear from the hydras, but Oskar did not like hydras, AT ALL. It was to the point that he would attack them whenever he saw one, a fact that either amused or annoyed Alex Mercer depending on the situation Oskar had attacked a hydra in.

So thinking that a hydra with a death wish popped up beside him, Oskar proceeded to quickly morph his two arms into twin whipfists. Absently Oskar had noted two large eyes without yet realising that the creature before him was not a hydra and was beginning to speak to him. The Cadre Evolved quickly wound his arms up and proceeded to shoot both whipfists forward. The deadly harpoon headed whips shot forward and sunk into the eye sockets of the large serpent.

With a shout quickly cut short, the river serpent stayed up wobbling a moment before its corpse fell forward, landing on the river bank beside Oskar with a loud crash.

Angry scowl firmly plastered on his face, it took Oskar a few moments of breathing before his mind suddenly caught up with the situation. For one, he was most definitely not in the NYZ so this creature could not be a hydra, two, the creature before him appeared to be an arguably campy looking loch ness monster and finally three, it had SPOKE just before Oskar had killed it or rather him judging from the voice.

With that in mind Oskar proceeded to disappear in a mass of writhing black tendrils that, with a moment’s hesitation, proceeded to advance on the serpent's body and move into its torn eye sockets. The tendrils soon disappeared into the torn flesh of the serpent's eyes and before long the whole corpse began to rapidly twitch as shapes moved just beneath the surface of the scales. Suddenly the entire body had turned black for a brief moment before fading back into its old color.

The body of the serpent was now without any visible wounds, the eyes now restored and were now closed as the serpent continue to lay on the ground, seemingly asleep. Suddenly the eyes opened and the serpent rose from its place on the ground, it stretched out its arms and arched its back, as if waking from a deep sleep.

“Well this different, I’ve never tried to take on the form of something this big before.” Oskar commented in the serpent's voice absently and idly wondered why he never tried before. “Well as interesting as this body is it’s time to take in the memories, here we go!” Oskar said before arching his back and grasping at his head, letting out a loud groan.

In a mere second it was done and Oskar was left staring wide eyed at the river bank. Images, thoughts, sounds, smells, opinions, all that was ever experienced, all that made the river serpent who he was flowed through Oskar’s own mind in a blur. A name, Steven Magnet, it was the river serpent’s. More memories flowed, some dull, colorless and devoid of anything that stimulated the senses, these were unimportant memories, rarely if ever remembered even a moment after their creation. Then were the other memories unequal in the senses they evoked, some had incredibly bright colors and lacked all else, others had a blurry image but held powerful aromas and a few were deeply emotionally involved, the Blacklight being backpedal rapidly from those, unwilling to experience them in anything other than a detached viewing. Then were the memories which held great significance to Steven and involved all the senses, one slammed into Oskar’s mind faster than he could pull away from it. An image of a city from just above an ocean’s surface, a name leapt up, Vanhoover. Then the view suddenly plunged beneath the waves and Oskar was greeted with the view of a long emerald green serpent much like Steven that had a head of long purple hair. Sounds, beautiful music, the emerald serpent was singing and by the sounds of its voice and look of its face, it was a she. Emotions immediately leapt into being, a desire, a need, a want, the sound of a beating heart accompanied the singing. There a scent, alien yet familiar at the same time, almost like a flower, to Oskar it was powerful almost burning to his nose. Then the memory began to fade.

It would be here that Oskar start pulling away from Steven’s memories for a time after being caught in a powerful one like the he was just in. But another vibrant one began rushing at him, accompanied by laughter and bright colors. Oskar thinking it must just been some sort of celebration memory, allowed it to come to him. He was not far off; it was not a celebration but more of a show, a fashion show. The view was from a river right next to where the fashion show was taking place. To Oskar the show was being watched by what looked to be dwarf horses of many vibrant colors, several minor memories from Steven leapt at him, names; Ponies, unicorns, pegasus, earth pony. The view shifted from the mares walking up and down the aisle, showing off the outfits they wore, to an off section where several unicorns were discussing fashion trends, a conversation that Steven seemed to be taking part in. While they were talking the unicorns began idly dressing up a dummy with many dresses and partially made outfits, their horn aglow as they manipulated the fabrics and clothes. This seemingly unremarkable to the unicorns and Steven brought a sharp jump of surprise from Oskar. The Blacklight being wondered at how the unicorns were doing that, moving things through the air with their horns when another minor memory came to Oskar with a simple answer… magic. And with that Oskar ended his assimilation of Steven’s mind.

Still in Steven’s form, Oskar continued to stare wide eyed at the river bank. His mouth worked wordlessly for several moments before he finally spoke.

“…Magic…” Oskar repeated dully, his mind awhirl. “…Magic…”

Magic was how pegasi flew with such small wings and at such high speeds, magic was why earth ponies were so strong and could work so hard and long, magic was what the unicorns used whenever their horns were glowing.

“…Magic…” Oskar said with soft laughter, his eyes glinting in interest.

Magic was what the unicorns also used whenever they wanted to protect themselves, as one memory of when Steven accidentally startled one that specialised in just that attested.

“Such potential!” Oskar said as he thought aloud. “All the things I could do with such abilities, all the unknowns of what such genes may do if they underwent mutation!”

Oskar idly wondered why he was taking this revelation so seriously. Obviously he was not in his world anymore; a glance to the utterly alien star constellations only cemented that fact. It probably had to do with the physics defying viruses, the constant violation of the constitution by the government, the half trained army of psychopaths Black Watch had in their employ but a mere glance of this world from one perspective was enough for him to prefer this one to his home, not to mention that here no one knew about Blacklight, no one knew about him! Without anyone searching for him he could go unnoticed forever, he could seek power safely without constantly being hunted by secret organizations and neither did he have to deal with beings far, far more powerful than him watching him constantly for treachery. Even if he was found out about he wasn’t even sure these people had the technology to even try to find him!

“Yes…” Oskar smiled as he twirled one end of his moustache. “I could finally be-eh!”

Suddenly Oskar was holding a severed piece of his moustache; he looked around but saw the forest and the low hanging mist. That is until he looked around above his head, there was a swirl of odd sparkling purple smoke that hung in the air before suddenly darting off into the forest.

‘The hell was that!’ Oskar thought in shock. ‘Okay enough messing around! I may be in a place without people actively hunting me but that does not mean there aren’t any that wouldn’t hunt the forms I take. This is a magical world… that could have been a fairy playing a trick on me or a spirit doing… something. Arrrgh, I need more information! Now where was there any towns this river flows by? Hmmm, let’s s-hmm?’

Just off in the distance Oskar could hear voices approaching him, concentrating he could make out the whole group as girls, most likely mares,

‘Right… time to gather information.’ Oskar thought to himself. ‘Steven has talked to ponies before so I know I should be able to talk to them without them freaking out, good thing too, I’d rather not have to deal with more baggage eating someone brings. Okay so how does he… really?! I’m supposed to act like… oh well.’ Oskar thought with a sigh as he got into “character”. ‘Not as bad as acting like a skinhead at least.’

“Bye mister Sea Serpent!” Pinkie Pie waved at Oskar before trotting after her friends.

“Steven” returned Pinkie’s wave cheerfully until she and her friends were well out of sight before the cheerful expression fell away like the mask it was.

‘Well, that was a bit informative.’ Oskar thought as he twirled his fixed moustache. ‘I’m curious, what are they doing here? From what I can tell of Steven’s memories the ponies don’t like coming here because of how “unnatural” it is…hmmm…’

Oskar stared after the group of mares in thought before glancing at his moustache, or rather Rarity’s tail.

‘This is the moment of truth!’ Oskar thought excitedly as he tugged the tail off. ‘If this works, a whole new world of possibilities opens to me. If not… I’m going to be heartbroken but I still have this world’s possibilities open to me…’

‘Here goes!’ In an instant the purple tail was gone and immediately Oskar felt his body react.

Clutching his purple scaled chest, Oskar fell forward onto the riverbank. Halfway out of the water the Blacklight being began thrashing on the ground for a moment before finally raising his fist high above his head and brought it down on the riverbank with all his might. Black tendrils erupted out of and began covering Oskar’s body as he started to release a howl of exertion; his body became a large unrecognisable mass of tendrils, rapidly shrinking down into a smaller form. Tendrils finally forming a familiar shape, Oskar’s howl turned into a shrill feminine scream before he suddenly stopped as a pressure wave exploded from him and he fell onto his back, panting in exertion.

“I… I hope the reason for that was because how different magic is.” Oskar said in a soft voice before climbing onto his feet; only to flop over almost immediately, Oskar looked down to see four marshmallow white hooved legs. “Oh right, those… I completely forgot. Okay, come on instinctive memory don’t fail me now.”

Much more carefully Oskar rose back onto his feet and began wobbling over to the riverside to get a look at his reflection. Looking down Oskar saw her face looking back at her with a curious expression, the Cadre Evolved now looked exactly like Rarity right down to the cutie mark on her flank. Smiling, Oskar gave a quick toss of her mane as she examined herself closely before her eyes landed on her horn.

‘Well this little thing was the whole reason for all that so I hope I can actually use it.’ Oskar thought with a troubled frown as she pondered how to use her magic… that is if she actually had it. ‘Maybe… maybe it’s like Eragon? Maybe the source of my magic is in the depths of my mind as a small spot and if I prod at it enough I’ll trigger it? Hmmm…’ Glancing upwards at her horn, Oskar shook her head. ‘Why should it be in the depths? My horn is right there, the part of my brain that controls magic should be in a section in the frontal lobe.’

Closing her eyes in concentration, Oskar used her absolute control of her body to her advantage. Drawing on the knowledge gained from eating Black Watch’s finest minds, Oskar began searching her blank unicorn brain for unknown sections and forcefully activating mental triggers. A few false starts and accidently turning her lungs and heart off later she finally had it.

“AHHH!” Oskar shouted in surprise as she felt… something suddenly flow through her horn. Eyes blinking rapidly, Oskar hesitantly “flicked” the mental trigger again and once more Oskar felt something flowing through her horn but this time she saw it as well. A bright purple glow surrounded Oskar’s horn and she quickly looked down onto the water’s surface, she was greeted with herself smiling like a kid in a candy store and her horn glowing brightly. Still smiling like child who was told Christmas came early Oskar flicked her mental trigger again and turned her flow of magic off. Suddenly she had an idea that somehow made her smile wider.

“Lumos!” Oskar shouted as she triggered her magic on and as she triggered it off she shouted. “Nox!”

Heart beating in mind addling excitement, Oskar began bounding all over the river bank in a fashion very much like that of a certain pink pony while shouting “Lumos!Nox!” in time with her triggering her magic on and off.

After a few minutes of doing nothing more than simply turning her magic on and off while shouting Harry Potter references, Oskar finally calmed down enough to try to do something more complicated with her magic.

Moving over to the riverside Oskar grabbed a small pebble with her hoof and began to concentrate on it before suddenly blinking her eyes in stupefaction. Oskar began rapidly looking back and forth between her hoof holding the pebble and the riverbed she grabbed it from.

“How the hell did I…” The Blacklight being began only to quickly shake her head. “One thing at a time Oskar, first master magic horn THEN solve mystery of magic hooves.”

Bringing her focus back on the pebble held in her hoof, Oskar triggered her magic back on and concentrated. Oskar spent the next several minutes staring at the rock with her horn glowing in the darkness of the night all the while but in the end all she managed was to get the aura around her horn to slightly bend towards the pebble.

“Damn it.” Oskar muttered as she threw the pebble back into the river. “I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but I was hoping it would be easier for me. I really don’t want to spend the next decade or so in some pony equivalent of Hogwarts… I guess I’ll just eat a magic master or something. I’ll need more information about what those sorts of people are capable of though, before I commit to anything drastic and potentially life threatening to me. Which would require I find a town with a library or maybe a city… no I’ll leave off going to a city for later after I’m more adapted to the place and culture.”

“…Maybe if I follow after them they’ll lead me to a town?” Oskar thought aloud as she stared after the path the six mares had taken. Nodding in decision Oskar shifted back into his default form and began jogging down the path.

‘Let’s see…’ Visible only to himself, Oskar sent out a viral pulse which came back after a moment. ‘They are still in range, not a surprise there considering they were on foot. Right let’s go!’

With that the humanoid virus started sprinting down the path, his footfalls tearing up large clods of dirt in his passage.

‘Spooky ruins in a spooky forest not surprised.’ Oskar thought as he took in the ruins of an ancient palace. ‘Now where are those ponies?’

Suddenly one of the still standing towers in the ruins lit up like a lighthouse as the sound of someone loudly cackling in triumphed glee came from within.

‘Survey says! Spooky Tower!’ Oskar declared in mock cheer before making a massive leap towards said tower and gliding the rest of the way.

Landing with a soft thump, Oskar quickly shifted a whipfist and sunk it a ways into the roof before “rappelling” down the side of the tower towards a window. Coming to a stop next to the window Oskar slowly and subtly placed his hand on the stone sill to not attract attention, and then his entire form quickly degenerated into a mass of tendrils that moved onto the sill but managed to remain in a small extremely dense lump of black roughly the size of a fist. After doing so Oskar quickly shifted into a form that anyone would ignore in moldy old ruins, a rat. Retaining vastly superior vision despite the form Oskar took the scene before him in.

He was… not impressed…

“Applejack, who reassured me when I was in doubt, represents the spirit of... honesty! Fluttershy, who tamed the manticore with her compassion, represents the spirit of... kindness!” Twilight began.

Twilight and her friends were in the middle of their final confrontation with Nightmare moon, who Oskar had already deemed the villain.

‘Really, just look at her how could she be anything else in this situation with that swirly energy hair of doom above her.’ Oskar thought derisively. ‘And not only is she the villain she’s an average villain! Look at her! Looking all shocked and outraged while that unicorn is just rambling along about whatever it is she is talking about. With the way things are looking I bet it is the key to her defeat or something.’

“…And Rainbow Dash, who could not abandon her friends for her own heart's desire represents the spirit of... loyalty!" Twilight finished. “The spirits of these five ponies got us through every challenge you threw at us.”

“You still don't have the sixth Element! The spark didn't work!” Nightmare Moon declared, desperation beginning to seep into her voice.

“But it did! A different kind of spark. I felt it the very moment I realized how happy I was to hear you, to see you, how much I cared about you. The spark ignited inside me when I realized that you all are...my friends! You see, Nightmare Moon, when those Elements are ignited by the... the spark, that resides in the heart of us all, it creates the sixth element: the element of... magic!” Twilight said to Nightmare Moon at first before turning to her friends.

‘Tch, if it were me up there instead of miss swirly hair there, those six would have been dead the moment that unicorn spoke up.’ Oskar thought, criticizing Nightmare’s villainy. ‘All it would have taken me would be a half second to form my whipfist and ‘BAM’ pony heads rolling. Seriously what kind of- WHOA!’

Suddenly in a fairly impressive light show, Twilight’s Element of Magic suddenly appeared above and settled on her head. But that was just the beginning, soon the other five mares began to float in the and their eyes glowed brightly with the power of the Elements, soon enough Twilight joined them herself as a buildup of rainbow colored energy appeared around the six. Then the energy shot forward towards Nightmare Moon in a powerful beam.

“No! NO! NOooooo!” Nightmare Moon screamed out as she was engulfed.

Oskar found himself forced to close his eyes as a sudden explosion of white light bloomed throughout room yet felt no heat from what he thought was an actual explosion. When the light faded Oskar was met with the sight of the six mares passed out and Princess Luna lying on the ground with the pieces of her armor around her.

‘Wha-what the hell was that?!’ Oskar thought in shock, though his magic was only recently gained even he could feel the sheer amount of power in the air as it was unleashed. ‘What did they do to her?! She seems to be alright… but with so much… ENERGY they must have done SOMETHING! GOD DAMN IT TO HELL!! I thought I didn’t have to worry about this anymore! I thought I was safe from things capable of hurting me! This is what I get for letting my guard down and trying to relax! A FUCKING punch to the face!’

So focused on his internal rant and being angry with himself for not being more aware of his surroundings, Oskar did not notice when Princess Celestia swooped into the room through the window he was just using and began speaking with the now awake Mane Six. By the time he did notice Luna was crying into Celestia’s shoulder, saying sorry she was.

‘She… she’s different now…’ Oskar thought as he took the sight in. ‘Is that what they did? Rewrite her personality into something that would regret her past actions? Did I just witness a person’s mind get obliterated and get replaced with what is essentially an entirely different person?’

“Hello there little one.” A soft voice said.

Utterly startled Oskar squeaked out loud in surprise when he saw Fluttershy staring at him as he sat on the window sill.

“Oh, it's okay I don’t want to hurt you.” Fluttershy soothed as she stepped closer until she was just in front Oskar. “What are you doing here all alone? Is your home in the tower? Well come here, I’ll bring you home.”

As Fluttershy reared up to pick up Oskar’s rat form the Blacklight being found himself shocked into stillness with how close he was to one of the magical objects he saw used on Nightmare Moon.

Taking the rat’s stillness as permission Fluttershy proceeded to attempt to lift it onto her back. The demure pegasus’ eyes widened when she tried to lift the rat only for it to stay put, the reason being Oskar being incredibly dense and heavy even when he was in his default form, this was even more so the case in such a small compact form of a rat.

“Urrr, gah!” Fluttershy stopped her second attempt to lift the rat and looked at her hooves with a pout. “I-I’m not that weak… am I?”

“Hey Fluttershy what’cha up to?” Rainbow Dash asked as she swooped over.

“I’m trying to bring this rat back to his home but…” Fluttershy began before stopping, hesitant to explain why she couldn’t.

“Buuuut?” Dash pressed.

“…It's too heavy for me.” Fluttershy murmured.

“…Pffft, Hahahaha!” Dash laughed aloud. “Seriously?! It’s a rat Fluttershy! How heavy could it be?”

To prove her point Dash quickly brought herself to a hovering position over Oskar’s rat form and reached down to lift him up. Oskar during this was too nervous of the proximity of the magical artifacts around him to do anything but allow Dash try her hoof at lifting him.

“Wha?! Holy hay! You weren’t kidding Fluttershy!” Dash said in disbelief as the rat wouldn’t budge from the window sill. “This rat is heavier than a cow!”

“What’s this ‘bout cows?” Applejack asked as she stepped next to Fluttershy.

“This rat Dash is trying to pick up is super heavy.” Fluttershy answered, pointing at Rainbow who was still going at it and flapping her wings ever harder. “I tried to pick it up too but…”

“Come on Sugarcube leave the little fella alone, ya scaring him.” Applejack said, noting the rat’s scared wide open eyes.

“Almost got it, almost got it,” Dash replied as she just managed to lift the rat off the window sill and bring it up about a foot. “Almost-”

With a squeak Oskar slipped through Dash’s grip and fell back onto the window sill. Being as small and dense as he was, Oskar not only ended up cracking the ancient sill but smashed right through it, falling down the cliff face to the forest far below.

“OH MY GOSH, DASH!” Fluttershy shouted as the rat fell out of sight.

“Crud.” Rainbow Dash muttered before quickly darting through the window.

If Oskar was a normal rat then Dash would have not only spotted him mid-fall but caught him as well. But he wasn’t a normal rat, Oskar was incredibly dense and small as well, he fell towards the ground like a bullet. By the time Dash flew out the window after him he had already reached the forest canopy, leaving one rainbow maned pegasus to nervously go back empty hoofed.

Down on the forest floor far below, a mass of tendrils exploded out of a freshly dug deep hole in the ground. The tendrils quickly took on Oskar’s default form who upon reforming leaned against a tree and released a relieved sigh.

‘That was far too close for comfort.’ Oskar thought as he stared up at the ruins far above. ‘There is no telling how they may have reacted if they found out about me. They probably would have mind wiped me as well and implanted some sort of subservient persona.’

‘I really don’t want to do this…’ Oskar mentally sighed as his viral sonar showed the ponies beginning to move off. ‘But this is the quickest way to find civilization here. I should be okay as long as I keep a fair distance from them.’

With that the Cadre Evolved began running up the cliff face to follow the ponies home.

Oskar watched Ponyville from the shadows of Everfree. There was a celebration going on, it had started fairly soon after the ponies arrived in the town.

‘Probably congratulating them on their enslavement of a powerful being.’ Oskar thought darkly.

Putting those thoughts aside Oskar began contemplating the near future. He had accomplished his objective of finding a nearby town and judging by the spires in the distance a city wasn’t too far away either. Now however he needed a disguise so he could get the information he needed, he already had a pony form thanks to Rarity’s tail but that pony lived in this very town, not to mention how suspicious it would be if “Rarity” started asking about things and places she should already know about. What Oskar needed was a pony from out of town… or at the very least one that would be heading out of town for a while… Oskar had just had an idea.

‘Hmmmm…’ Oskar rubbed his chin in thought as he studied the town before him. ‘I’m fairly certain I can do it, never needed to before but I had plenty of places to get a “disguise” in a city. Yeah… yeah if two normal humans can do it I can do it by myself.’

Oskar made a small smile as he watched the ponies continue to celebrate.

‘It’s just a matter of time from here on out.’

1) Anyone who seen the first videos of Prototype that was showcased will recognize this as the outfit Alex wore before it was changed to the one he wears now.

Author's Notes:

Grammar wise I think I did okay. Of course the few grammar Nazis reading this are probably screaming at their screens right now. Meh, I tried.

Anyways those few of you that read my other work, Erika Gefallen: Atlantean Unicorn are probably familiar with the Astral Lords.

I'll see if I can get the next chapter out quickly, no promises though!

EDIT 2/13/16: Someone did me a major favor and edited the whole of book one. It's been sitting around for a while and I've finally got around to posting it