I am not okay, not in the slightest.

"This is monster talking / spell"

"This is normal dialogue"

"This is flashback/ Thoughts"

Disclaimer: I don't own Prototype or My Little Pony and I don't make a profit out of my stories.

Top of the Food Chain Chapter 5: Deception VS Honesty.

Manehattan – Penthouse – Living Room -

It was late in the evening in the luxurious penthouse Alex Mercer and Discord had commandeered as their HQ from which try to counter Celestia's plans while also trying to contain Humanity's answer to the invading forces of Equestria to a minimum.

Although, the Dragonequus was at the moment sitting aside with the traveling mare Magician Trixie (new recruit of their small movement) as both stood in a quite-awed silence as Dana Mercer, now a mare herself, went through the second hour of her non-stop vitriolic tirade against Alex, AKA the Blacklight Virus having reached sentience, looking always more angry at the Bio-weapon lack of response and/or care about what she was saying until she FINALLY ran short of breath and had to stop to recover.

"Impressive." Discord was forced to admit impressed.

"Feeling better?" Alex asked still reclining on the low sofa.

"You still wear Alex' face...You killed my brother and now you go around parading his corpse." she answered sounding still bitter.

"And that makes me a Monster, I guess?" he asked curious.

"What do you think?" was the sarcastic answer.

"What do I think? I think that at in the end, I am no Monster, Dana. I am, de facto, the perfect representation of Humanity at its finest and purest form!" Alex said jumping to his feet and walking towards the window to bask in the sun's blinding light.

"You are not."

"Unfortunately for you, I am." he said simply as he turned around to look at her and opening his arms wide so that the light could cast an almost-holy halo around his whole body.

"I am the poster-child of Humankind. I am its proudest achievement AND its perfect reflection!"

"Humans evolved a lot through the ages, hardened and perfected through trial-and-error by Mother Nature itself. Look at sharks and crocodiles, with them 'Fine Tuning' wasn't necessary because they already have what they need...But with Humans? With you others Nature took its time and carefully tried to see how far things could go and created humanity at it is now as a result...And millions of years later your dear brother Alex and his friends managed to re-create the final result by themselves in their fancy laboratories. Me."

"I don't follow." Dana replied stubbornly.

"I am the finest example of what humanity really is. A Virus, something that does not merely set down in an environment like every other being does, no, humans spread like normal animals, but then like a virus, they CHANGE their surroundings to match their needs and tastes, going as far as burning down whole forests and flattening mountains. We (Viruses) do not settle-down, we Conquer and Assimilate." he explained as he walked forward until he towered above the mare.

"Humans had always Consumed everything that stood in their way, they make it submit and become theirs, a part of them, just like I do..." the Blacklight Virus said leaning down until he was at eye-level with Dana.

"Stop your day-dreams about your dear brother being a saint and accept the truth: if I am a Monster, then he was Doctor Frankenstein." he said harshly making her recoil slightly.

"It was not me to tell him to take a vial of the Blacklight Virus (his proudest achievement) and bring it to a crowded train station hoping to release it and infect THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT PEOPLE just because his pride had been wounded, and it was not me to pull the trigger that killed him, releasing the Virus the first time and causing all the mess you others went through. I am simply a byproduct, I took over his face and his memories were the first I Consumed, all things that in a bout of chance I believed to be mine to begin with. Your 'beloved' brother Alexander Mercer was FAR from being who you believed...And deep inside, you know it." the Living Virus said getting back up and walking away.

"I was your brother back there, more than the real Alex ever was! I moved Heaven and Earth to save and protect you and I was the one that risked his life to stop a nuke or other monstrosities from destroying the city. I was more 'Human' than the real deal, and I was born in a laboratory in a secret facility. Quite ironic, isn't it? Before you people forced my hand, I was a living weapon more compassionate than the humans that created me!" Blacklight said with a mocking laugh filled by acidic sarcasm.

"And what you tried to do after that, eh?! You tried to have us go extinct! EXTINCT!" Dana yelled in answer.

"Do not play the martyrdom card with me, Dana. I know every single thought Alex ever had, I saw/heard/felt everything he had ever since the day he was born just like with EVERYONE I ever Consumed. I can dissect all those different 'Lives' down to the smallest detail thanks to my living through them and the ability to observe them from outside at the same time. What I did was just trying to switch a Virus with another, one where everybody would be connected, EQUAL...Considering how humans acted before Celestia's coming I thought that maybe a hive-mind would have been a nice way to fix them, among removing pesky things like sicknesses, hunger and genetic defects. But now we will never know if that would have worked, unfortunately."

"Why? You won't try again?" the mare asked sarcastic.

"Celestia is already modifying Humanity to her needs, and should she win, very little of what makes a Human what it is will actually remain...Even I am not so deranged to also add Blacklight's low success rate in 'uplifting' on top of that."

"Then why you are actually helping humanity?"

"I am not helping Humans, at best I am making the transition less painful. As dear Discord here may have already told you, by now Conversion has to happen, I am only helping along in making it so that humans do not just go Extinct, but simply get through a small remodeling to fit in the new Management of the globe."

"To be fair, we are also trying to have as less casualties as we can." Discord felt the need to add.

"Why are you helping them, instead?" Alex asked honestly curious.

"..."

"Want me to ask Discord to ask you, Dana? So you won't have to answer the Monster."

"...Conversion is killing humans, mentally I mean. They turn 'frail', the smallest bump and they shutdown for a couple minutes to process what is happening. Partly because the Bad Traits are forcefully suppressed and then because they are in denial of their new shape. I want to stop Conversion before others go completely insane...Somepony-UGH! SOMEBODY actually slammed his own head against a wall to death just to not hear the voices telling him what a good pony he was and how nice it was to be friends with everyp-EVERYBODY." Dana answered.

"..."

"The voices are one of the few temporary side-effects, it usually stops a month after Conversion." Discord explained to answer Alex surprised look.

"There are rare cases of short relapses, but those too then stop after another month." Trixie added.

"You are one of those cases." Alex said.

"Yeah, so what?" she answered bitterly.

"Nothing, it just makes it more personal." the Virus answered shrugging.

"Tch! As if you care."

Sigh! "We are going nowhere. You take care of briefing them on what we are doing, in the meantime I'll go visit a couple mares." Alex said turning into a pale-red Pegasus and flying away at top speed.

"..."

"...You know? I believe he still cares about you." Discord tried saying.

"Pfft! Yeah, right." Dana huffed in answer.

"Girl, I am the embodiment of Disharmony and Discord (It's in my name even!), I am an expert in bringing disharmony whenever I want and break apart friendships if I so wish. And in order to do this I need to be able to see what there is for me to Break. He cares about you, and I am ready to bet more than the real Alex Mercer ever did, more than you know and more than even HE HIMSELF knows. You two are just bickering like spoiled foals, and while I would normally appreciate it, now I kind of see the need for you to stop playing ostrich and take your heads out of the sand and admit each other's mistakes. For your sake and nothing else." the mismatched Draconequus answered waving her pettiness off.

"..." at that Dana simply looked outside the window Alex used with a troubled expression.

"Now, small matters aside, let me give you a rapid run-down of what me and him have been up to since his return." she barely heard Discord say as he went through his speech.

Meanwhile – Human Side – run-down apartment complex -

The roads were completely deserted, few cars abandoned with most of them having being burned down by revolts of civilians against the initial Conversion centers Equestria tried, and failed miserably, to create to accelerate the turning of people into pony; many walls still littered by graffiti of dozens of colours made by people and pony against Conversion or happy about it.

Friendship is a Lie.

Humanity's Rebirth.

Embrace Harmony.

Don't trust the Invaders

Some seemed to be repeated more often than the others, probably coming from established 'Groups' of both sides and of both ideologies.

"Found it." a human soldier said smirking as he and his pals finally found the base of one of those groups.

"Hallelujah." another soldier, this one a brown unicorn, answered sighing.

"Hey, Johnny!" another human asked.

"Uh-hu?" replied the pony.

"How's having hooves?" the other asked laughing.

"Screw you, man! I miss my hands! And I can't reach for anything back home unless I use this horn thing (And that is creepy to see), the only good thing is that my daughter is having a blast at having a cute pony for a father, for a three year old, that's a dream come true." the stallion answered huffing annoyed.

"Well, there are also good sides in being a horse! Your wife must be smiling a lot lately!" the first human added smirking making the rest of the group with them break into wild catcalls.

"Ha-Ha-Ha. Jokes on you, I fear my dick got smaller instead."

"Modest aren't we?" a third human said making the whole group start laughing at the pony expenses.

"Okay, kids! We had our moment of fun at Johnny's expenses, but now it's time for business. In there there is yet another group of sickos that want us to turn to ponies without remain mentally human so to worship their 'Beloved' Celestia. You know the drill: we get in, grab them and get out without too much of a fuss, all this by leaving behind enough Gaia paraphernalia to make our Terrorist Group look still relevant." the group's commander ordered sharply making the laugh die down instantly.

"And if they resist arrest? Or worse, if they attack us?" the only pony of the group asked.

"In the latter case...Well, we only need them alive, if in in the meantime they turn quadriplegic or even lose a leg or two, incidents happen." the Commander answered.

"Yessir!" the group answered.

"The bastards have been sold by a furry, even they have morals then..." one of the soldiers was heard mutter in the backlines.

"Just shut-up, Carl!" the pony soldier answered annoyed.

"We start now, kids. From this moment, we are members of Gaia, so get in character." the Commander ordered with a very low voice and giving the signal for all of them to silently approach the complex.

One hour later – Pony Side - Apple Family Acres -

"AJ?" BigMac asked aloud.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

"AJ?" the stallion asked again.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

"AJ!" Mac's scream finally came through making the mare stop mid-bucking to look at him with shocked eyes.

"W-What?" she asked confused.

"Tha tree is empty, ya've been buckin' an empty tree fer ten minutes straight, what's happenin'?" her brother asked concerned.

Very few things could shake BigMac himself, especially when having a sister used to fight for the safety of their world on a daily basis and his being pretty much the 'Stallion' of the house thus the main pillar holding the barn up, using Granny Smith's own words…

But to this day, he would say nothing else will ever have his stomach lurch like seeing his sister's eyes fill in tears, the feeling of his bowels turning to ice would actually take a while to go away after seeing that.

"I am okay." AJ answered trying to sound the usual confident and cocky self.

"Yah're not bein' honest." Mac tried saying with his most convincing gentle smile to not aggravate her more.

"...But, can the Element of Honesty actually lie?" a new voice asked in mock curiosity, and Mac's heart skipped a beat at seeing AJ's eyes turn into a mask pure fear.

"Hello, AJ." Alex said as he descended from the sky already looking like his infamous 'Pony Persona': pure-black fur, white mane, blood-red eyes, hoodie and DNA Helix red cutie Mark.

"Who are yah? This' kind of a bad moment tah visit." the stallion answered unsure.

"STAY AWAY!" AJ yelled as she moved to stand between Alex and Mac.

"AJ?" her brother asked confused.

"I was just passing by, nothing to be worried about...Nice plan though, hiding little Sweetie Belle in Manehattan under fake identity, I am sure nopony will guess Miss Sunshine's 'niece' is actually your little sister." Alex said with a mocking clapping of his hooves.

"H-H-How do you know?!" AJ asked.

"Let's say that her neighbor will take a while to return from his sudden trip to Las Mares." the living Virus answered with a smirk filled by sharp fangs worthy of a wolf.

"You monster!"

"Oh, yes. I am one, so what?"

"So he's tha one ya said wants to hurt Sweetie Belle?" Mac asked with narrowed eyes.

"Hurt her intentionally? No. Consume her whole being and wear her like a mask as a last resort to finally reach dear AJ and kill her? Yes, if I must, that is." Alex answered simply.

"Stand aside." the stallion growled.

"NO!" AJ answered horrified.

"Nono, let him do his thing, it's his right." the Virus answered switching from being a Pegasus into becoming an Earth Pony himself.

"What in tarnation..."

"Mac! He's not a pony or-or a human, h-h-he is some monster that can eat everypony, he's not afraid of you, or of the Princesses or even the Elements! He will eat ya! Just run away, he wants me!" the mare begged.

"Nay. Ah'm not goin' anywhere until Ah bucked his head clean off." BigMac answered walking around AJ to stand in front of Alex.

"You are ready to lay down your life to save your sisters?" Alex asked sounding ALMOST impressed.

"Eeyup." the other answered with narrowed eyes.

"Then give me your best shot. Here, under the chin." the Virus said lifting his head slightly.

"EEEYUP!" Mac yelled as he charged forward.

"NOOO!" AJ yelled with wide eyes as he brother rapidly spun around to us both back hooves to kick the Monster with all his strength.

WHAM!

And while normally a kick like that would have almost beheaded a normal pony, to the Mare's horror Alex' head merely moved slightly back.

"My turn now." the Virus said coldly making Mac start sweating.

The embodiment of Blacklight's answer was to engorge in bio-mass one of his front hooves into a thick and HEAVY ball of hardened bone in his old Hammer Fist and use it to hit Mac's face to launch the stallion away in an impromptu fly against a tree, uprooting the plant and making the unconscious Mac rest on top of it with empty eyes.

"MAAAAAAC!" AJ yelled horrified.

"YOU MONST-"

Sling!

Her tirade stopped though when five long blades closed around her head as soon as she turned around, forcing her to stay quiet and lock eyes with Mercer.

"He is still alive. Now, let's talk." he said simply.

"About what?" she replied with narrowed eyes.

"This little crusade of Celestia, and your involvement in it."

"My friends-"

"I asked about YOU. Forget your friends, Celestia, Equestria and all that shit. I am asking the opinion of Applejack of the Apple family and nobody else." Alex said cutting her off.

"..."

"I am waiting." he prompted.

At that her body seemed to shiver heavily for an instant and her eyes get cloudy in tears along her lips trembling.

"So?"

She tried to shake her head and close her eyes shut tight.

"APPLEJACK!"

"AH HATE THIS, OKAY!?" the mare finally answered.

"I am listening, go on." Mercer said poking her cheeks with two blades for an instant to let her feel the sharp edges.

"This' not right, 'kay? We are comin' to other people's home and force 'em to change or die...Ah'm no killer, Ah don' like to think we are takin' lives. I-I-I mean, yeah, Ah've bucked a couple timberwolves to pieces, but they're not Alive per se, right? We never...We never had to take a life, even the Changelin' Queen never died when we faced her, or Discord...Sombra simply went poof and tha Princess said it was because he was no longer a pony after all he did..."

"But then this started and humans and ponies started dying." Alex said making the mare wince heavily.

"A-A-Ah saw few friends from other orchards march happily to help humans accept Harmony, a-a-and then a week later Ah saw their families cry over-over a wall with their pictures on as War Heroes because humans left nothing for them to bury...What is when there are fake news about victory and hope and very bad things said about the other side to have more ponies join the cause?"

"Propaganda, AJ."

"That, everyday yah could hear somepony chuggin' down those messages like cold cider in a summer day, if not for him bein' needed here, Mac too would have joined. But Ah was afraid and stopped him."

"And what about you?" Alex asked coldly.

"...If tha orchard is safe and the trees produce apples Ah'm happy, if Bloom takes a good grade at school Ah'm happy and when Granny Smith takes out of the oven a new pie Ah'm very happy...If then there are humans too hanging around Ah don't care, if they keep to themselves then Ah keep to mine, can't see why we have to change 'em NOW if they had been like they were until we arrived, they looked happy in their sorta strange way."

"If they do not change, they die. It had always been like that for them, they just lament the fact that the thing is being FORCED on them when it comes to Conversion...And the threat of going brain-dead if they actually do."

"So it's true? Pinkie said she saw some Converted trembling like crazy and droll a lot."

"Those are convulsions, AJ. It is usually VERY BAD to go through them."

"Ah know what those are, but Ah didn't think almost half o' them could get some...Then she said she saw them laugh and cry and scream, in the bad way, and sometimes all at the same time...Others...Others instead stand there lookin' nowhere, Ah saw those ones...Lights' on and nopony home...Is all that Twilight's doin'?" AJ asked looking extremely worried.

"Yes. If voluntarily or not I can't say." Alex answered bluntly.

"A-A-Are we..."

"Yes?"

"...Are we tha bad guys?" AJ asked with a very low voice and a disgusted expression.

"It depends, from Humanity's point of view, yes. For Equestria? You all are saviors, it depends on who you ask." the Living Virus answered uncaring.

"Yah don't even try sugar coatin' it, eh?" the mare asked looking miserable.

"I am a third party here, to me both humans and ponies are far from being perfect, so I can't judge, I am biased."

"And you are perfect?"

"Far from it, AJ."

"Ah see...That is why ya are killing us? Because we are imperfect?" she asked.

"Sometime ago I would have answered yes, without even a second thought. Now I have other targets, another Mission. And I need you and your precious friends to stay put, I have no intention of killing other targets than the ones I already planned for."

"Targets? So ya..."

"I am not a mindless killing machine, Applejack. I may be a Virus, but I am a natural disaster that can DECIDE when and where to strike. I have my reasons for doing what I am doing and the less bumps I find on my path the better."

"Tha Princess will force us to stop ya, you know? The Elements of Harmony and all that."

"But had you the chance to choose?"

"...Ah just want this madness to be over, if the Humans will join us as they are or as ponies Ah don't care, 'slong as we all are happy tha shape doesn't matter."

"Then I suggest you to gently forget how your Element works when and if the time to use them against me will come."

"B-B-But Twilight…The Princesses..."

"Or you do this or, should the Elements actually pose a treat to me, I will convert myself to spores and contaminate Equestria as a whole. Can you imagine that, AJ? Trillions upon Trillions of pollen-like spores of Blacklight Virus spreading everywhere causing whoever breaths them to die or mutate into flesh-eating living corpses, millions of innocents will die just in the first few days before the first ravaging pony-eaters will appear. How many do actually have a chance of defending themselves against that? And you REALLY believe Celestia can and will actually spare the resources to save them with humans at the other side of the Barrier waiting for the few desperate enough to seek salvation there to capture and/or kill them?"

"Threatenin' me with Extinction is a low blow..." the horrified mare muttered gagging.

"So? Your answer?"

"Ah will stay put, yah don't need tha kill all of us, Ah was already lookin' for an excuse to drop this thing. Ah don't like this as much as the humans do...They make good apples and treat their orchards with good stuff, they may put a bit too much strange stuff inside their fertilizer, but tha passion is still there." AJ answered.

"Very well. Any other friend of yours you think is against this war?"

"Pinkie probably, she didn't mind until she saw those Converted and she took it badly, Ah still wonder why she still hangs around with us and help us."

"Maybe she hopes to stop you from dying."

"Ah hope so, yah can talk with her, shoulda not take too much to convince her...Just...Just please do not hurt her."

"I'll see what I can do." he answered coldly.

"Thank you."

"The others?"

"Dash is too much into being a Hero of War as yah said, Fluttershy simply loves human pets too much and believes humans mistreat them too much. Ah heard the few couple times she tried taking away the dogs from soldiers and police barracks she got attacked."

"They probably saw her hurt their partners, those loyal beasties never take that well."

"Yah can bet on it, one almost got her good, the guard with her lost a wing for that."

"Good doggie. Almost makes me want to get one myself." Mercer replied in cruel amusement.

"What about Rarity?"

"Feh!Yah would almost think Discord got her again, as soon as she saw all tha dresses and jewels of the humans she turned deaf to mah reasonin', Ah never told anypony...But Ah saw her collect a lot of stuff when she thought nopony noticed...Ah was just too darn loyal to her to say a thing, she's getting a bit too greedy for ma tastes...Not that Dash is any better, Ah saw how she looked at few Converted Stallions, yah know Conversion do not affect their...'Timing'?" AJ answered bitterly.

"You mean how long they last before ejaculation?" Alex asked with a scrunched nose.

"Before wha?"

"Before they come, AJ. For fuck sake."

"Yeah, that. Ah keep hearing stories about soldiers and mares alike using the New-Foals thing about not fighting back to talk them into doing that, and now a few are starting tha drift towards Converted a bit too young to make ma feel comfortable."

"Disgusting."

"Quite."

"I meant reproduction in general, AJ. Never was a fan of it."

"Eh?"

Sigh! "I am a Virus, AJ. I do not need sex to multiply. To me is a waste of time."

"Oooh!"

"What about Twilight?"

"Lost cause."

"..."

"...That's it?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Too much deep into Celestia's" Cough! "Butt for you tah reach her anytime soon." she answered clearing her throat with a red face.

"Quite the nice choice of words."

"Until yah don't resolve this mess with Humans and ponies, Twilight won't listen to yah...Unless yah have such HUGE proof of this being very very wrong, Twilight will always listen to the Princess first."

"And yet I can't feel the same anger you had when talking about Dash and Rarity."

"Twili's misguided, she's followin' her Hero blindly. She is not evil and knows she did bad, but she loves tha Princess too much to go against her. She is almost kinda obsessed. Ah fear before we came along, Celestia was the ONLY friend she ever had, so Ah can understand...Can you help her?"

"Are YOU asking ME to help your friend Twilight?" Alex asked confused.

"Yah are not evil."

"..." a long, disbelieving silence fell between the two at that answer.

"...I beg you pardon?"

"Ah can tell now, just spent enough time with yah. Ah can't say if you are lyin' or not as Ah'm not a Lie Detector thing, but Ah can still tell if somepony is hidin' something from me. And yah are not Evil. Ah feel it."

"I have you at claw point and probably gave your brother a concussion."

"Eeyup. But Ah'm still alive and Mac's alive too. Yah can steal memories so yah just needed to eat me to get 'em and more, and yet yah didn't. Ya are not killing everypony but just the ones that tried to use humans as slaves, the Castle was destroyed but nopony died because SOMEHOW they were all told to leave...Yah act all tough and evil with Celestia, but deep inside yah're not a big monster like tha Converted say yah are. Not anymore at least."

"Tch." Alex said removing the claws from around AJ's head.

"Why yah consumed that stallion that knows where Applebloom is hidin'?"

"He was one of the 'providers' of the Price Brothers, the ones bringing New Foals to them for shipping in exchange of some bits, I felt there was no need for somebody like him standing around when I instead needed another identity to wear and blend-in. That he knew about your sister was just an unforeseen bonus for me."

"Did he suffer?" AJ asked growling.

"He was eaten alive by a mass of Blacklight that Consumed him a cell at a time, and there are as many cells in a pony as stars in the sky."

"Good riddance. Thank you, as Ah said, yah are not Evil, Ah can tell. Just like Discord: two big meanies and chaotic messes, but not evil for tha sake of bein' evil."

"Whatever." Alex said walking away.

"Yah can pretend all yah want, but Ah still believe yah can be a nice-" Sling!

"Shut your trap." Alex growled as he grew a pair of wings and flew away.

"...'Kay..." AJ whimpered as she slowly looked at the tree behind her that had been cut in two by the Virus whipfist that had slashed right above her head barely missing her stetson hat.

"I am not a damn Hero, and now I'll need to kick a puppy or something to fix my image." Mercer thought in annoyance as he flew towards Canterlot to see if he could find the whereabouts of his next target.

Meanwhile - Canterlot – Royal Palace rebuild site -

Celestia sighed as she kept watching unicorns and pegasi come and go to take measurements while earth ponies with talents about engineering/building studied what had remained of the castle to see if some of the original materials could be recovered.

"This was not the remodeling I envisioned few centuries ago when I wished to 'update' the Castle, I would have been happy even by just changing the curtains and paint the corridor's walls in a new colour...Like cream or a very light shade of blue for example, or even using a nice flower wallpaper." she said to herself sighing once more.

"Sister?" Luna said nearing her.

"Found more?" the Sun Alicorn asked.

"A couple, want to be with me when we first crack their leader's head open?" her sister answered coldly.

"Yes." she answered before turning to the construction squads to flash her usual 'Maternal Smile', faked to perfection.

"My dears, I need to go with my beloved sister to smooth a couple of small issues, please do not work too hard." Celestia asked with a gentle tone.

"We won't, your Highness, but be sure we'll have the blueprints for the new castle ready in a jiff nonetheless!" one of them answered immediately.

"Thank you, my little ones." the Sun Princess answered grateful an instant before she left Luna teleport both to their destination.

Human side of the Barrier – secret holding Facility -

"So?" Celestia asked as soon as she and Luna reappeared in an old and abandoned human prison the Alicorn sisters had took and used to create their personal holding cells for 'Misbehaving ponies' in its underground areas.

"Other three pony groups have been found smuggling Conversion Serum to their human partners in the other side, one of which unfortunately has been recently 'visited' by Gaia that decided they didn't like it one bit. These ones though did it not for money, apparently there are some human extremists that want Conversion to happen out of sheer hatred for their own kind." Luna answered as both walked through the silent and dusty corridors until they reached their destination.

"Now THAT KIND of people is popping-out as well?" the Sun Princess asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Just like we have found ponies pushing for us to turn human because THEY see ponykind as flawed and in need to reach a superior form, the opposite is happening as well. Yet another thing making Humans and us alike: we both have sociopaths that were only waiting for the chance to freely spit around their deranged ideas and hatred without fear of repercussions." the other replied as the Moon Princess motioned two guards to bring whoever was in one of the cells to them.

"I see. So you were helping those groups of humans to Convert everypony? All because you believe humans to be flawed?" Celestia asked aloud as she saw the night guards of Luna drag out a beaten unicorn with a burlap sack on his head and a black ring around his horn.

"Did you ordered him to be tenderized, Luna?" she added confused by the miserable state of the prisoner, especially by how his horn seemed ready to fall to pieces with how many cracks there were on it.

"I never ordered him to be beaten black and blue. The beating comes from a human man, they Converted his daughter and tried to do the same to his wife, it took two of my guards to pry the foal out of that man's grasp before he killed him. As you can imagine he refused our help and simply took his family away, we had no heart to try and reason with him, we felt we had no right or way to apologies. So I just ordered a few of my guards to discreetly follow him as an escort until he met few human soldiers to be taken to safety." Luna explained.

"This voice...Princess?" the Unicorn asked weakly.

"Remove the sack." Celestia ordered so to clearly see the two swelling black eyes on the prisoner's face.

"Hello, dear." the usual greeting of the Sun Alicorn held not even a spark of its usual warmth, and the night guards holding the wounded pony in their magical hold swallowed loudly in dread because of it.

"Your highness?"

"Do you know why you are here?"

"There has been a mistake?" the pony asked with a hopeful tone.

"Yes, but on my side. I should have not trusted blindly my ponies being completely above reproach." Celestia answered destroying the stallion's hope to dust in an instant.

"It may have escaped your notice, again I blame myself for that, but we are at the moment in a situation of FRAIL stalemate with humanity, one where me and my sister need to save both our kinds from spewing further blood. And the last thing we need is more terrorists groups outside Gaia going around mocking the few steps forward we did in Converting this world peacefully."

"Mercer going around Consuming everypony is not helping either." Luna added snarling.

"True. Now, how many of you are still out there?"

"We...We are just helping along, your Highness! Gaia has the right mindset, but the target is wrong! I SAW IT! Humans came out wrong! The good intentions are there, but it simply came out the wrong way. The Conversion will fix those small details and once changed them, between them and us a new generation of Ponykind will be born!" the stallion said with wide eyes of fanaticism.

"What load of rubbish are you blabbering about?" Luna asked shocked.

"We complete each other, your Highness! Can't you see it? They have the genes of superior predators but lack the more refined details of our kind's superior social race! If we can Convert them and THEN produce offspring with them, the result will be a super race! An ideal one! Free from every downsides both Humanity and 'old' ponykind have!" he answered making the guards holding him look at each other uneasy about being THAT CLOSE to a clearly insane stallion.

"Who was the one that talked you into this madness?" Celestia asked appalled.

"It was a sign, your highness! I was just about to sign-up for the army in one of the Conversion Bureau in the human side when-"

"Sign up? Where? When? Nopony can sign-up like that! Requests have to come through me before being officiated and validated!" the Sun Alicorn interrupted him.

"Your highness, apparently a few captains have been closing an eye when accepting new recruits in order to boost our numbers against the human armies without waiting for the proper papers being signed." one guard answered.

"We have also cases of illegal alchemy labs where few dissidents tried to replicate the Conversion formula...With darn bad results, it's a wonder the humans managed to create their own version without knowledge of Magic." the other guard added.

"Do we still count something, Celly? Everypony here is going crazy and moving behind our backs!" Luna muttered horrified.

"What is happening here? Why everypony here is losing their darn minds!" Celestia bellowed furious making the room tremble.

"Either we have been really blind to our subjects hidden darkness, or it's really the natural Chaotic Nature of this world that brings out the worst of both humans and ponies alike, it would mean that they too are simple 'victims' of the madness this place cause." She heard Luna's projected thoughts in her mind in answer to that.

"Who is the Leader of your various groups? I want their name. Now." The Sun Alicorn hissed with a low voice as she neared the petrified prisoner until her nose touched his.

"P-P-P-Prince Blueblood, y-your Highness." the poor, frightened pony answered, scared out of his mind.

Never in all her long life she felt so betrayed then as a cold feeling of pain settled in the pit of her stomach making her take a step back.

"Say it again." she asked with a void expression.

"Sister." Luna muttered in sadness at watching her sister's completely broken expression.

"Prince Blueblood, your highness. He came to us personally, each one of us, he showed us where we were wrong in our hatred for humanity and what we could really achieve if we could just coexist and breed together. We all heard about Mercer, about how humans created him in a quest of achieve perfection, and in a way they did! They created life! A being representing their next step of Evolution before it completely lost control! Why can't we not do the same, but better? They are geniuses but misguided and we have Magic but very limited science because we need to have a Talent/Cutie Mark for each and every side of science while humans are free to explore each one of them as they please. If we could just unify our races and erase the few Bad Traits remaining, the result would be a superior race, a perfect one! Why don't you join us, your highness? You are already perfect, help us too reach you in godhood!" the pony pleaded.

"...Toss him back into his cell, I'll make it soundproof so he won't pollute anypony else, once he calmed down we'll interrogate him again." Celestia ordered as she turned around to not look at the stallion.

"As if I will listen to this buffoon's dung another minute." a guard muttered in disdain.

"Same here, brother. Maybe we should have left that human finish kicking his teeth in before stopping the struggle." the other answered as they dragged the prisoner away.

"In hindsight."

"..."

"What's in your mind, Celly?" Luna asked sitting on her haunches next to Celestia.

"What are we doing? W-W-What's this?" the Sun Alicorn asked sobbing.

"War. And the madness that follows it." Luna answered sighing.

"Blueblood. My nephew. T-Talking about Racial Supremacy! Why!?"

"I don't know."

"And what about-"

"I finally got some news from Cadence. She openly stated she is washing her hooves about this whole ordeal and sealing the Crystal Empire shut. If any Converted needs a safe heaven they can look for her, we others instead are on our own...Also, she says we can keep Shining until he finally stops kissing your...Well...I will say cutie mark, but she used far less nice terms."

"She is the Princess of Love, War is her exact opposite. I can't honestly blame her from taking distance, but if we don't stand together, we are going to be crushed between two forms of Oblivion."

"One coming from home and one from here." Luna confirmed sighing.

"Let's go back, we still have lots to do." Celestia asked as both returned to their temporary HQ to meet, of all stallions, Shining Armour and other various guards already there waiting for them.

"Yes, Captain?" the Sun Princess asked tiredly.

"I-I have bad news, your Highness." Shining said looking disheveled and worried sick.

"What happened?"

"We...We have finally found the disappeared Fleetfoot and Spitfire."

"They have been reported as missing for a week and we should celebrate their return, then why you look so stressed-out?" Luna asked confused.

"Because while we have certain it had been a 'Pony Hate' group to ponynap them, one with both Human and Pony members in, we are also sure Rainbow Dash herself had been captured just the day before the other two have been found." Shining answered shivering.

"BY THE STARS ABOVE! How's she?!" Celestia asked immediately.

"We do not know."

"HOW!?" Luna demanded.

"We have been bought to the abandoned storehouse where they all were being detained by Spitfire herself, there they have been beaten and tortured by the group for their taking part to the battles against humanity...Then Dash had been bought there as a new guest along few others." Shining explained.

"She freed them then?" Celestia asked hopeful.

"No, your highness. Apparently Mercer found the place as well and he then proceeded to do his thing with everypony in there bar the ones ponynapped." the captain said making the guards behind him gag in disgust.

"...Is she dead?" Luna asked while next to her the Sun Alicorn already started shedding tears of sorrow.

"We only know that she is not dead thanks to Spitfire's description of what happened, he seemed happy to just slaughter the humans and ponies of that group along few animals they were keeping around as well. As for Dash, he simply took her away, our guess is that the Human Leaders offered him some form of compensation for taking her alive as he was heard muttering about the annoyance of not being free to simply kill her." Shining answered shaking his head.

"They must know about the Elements, and know that by holding Rainbow Dash hostage we cannot use them to their full power." Luna said sighing frustrated.

"But will they keep her alive?" Celestia asked aloud gritting her teeth.

"It's a possibility, your Highness, even just for leverage of some sort." Shining offered in answer.

"We need to alert Twilight and her friends, they must be on high alert." The Sun Alicorn said immediately.

"At once, your Highness." the guards answered as one before hurrying away leaving the two Alicorns alone.

"The situation is getting worse by the minute." Luna said with shaking breath.

"We have to act fast, we have to either speed-up Conversion either by convincing them to accept it willingly or...or...Or FORCE THEM through it..."

"They have gone quiet, Celly. We can't no longer pick-up and spy messages of sort, few Converted said that maybe they are using their Internet to exchange messages, especially what they called Deep Web." Luna answered.

"And we can't..."

"Monitor the WHOLE Internet? When I suggested it the Converted started laughing and didn't stop for hours, apparently the thing is so massive nopony can effectively monitor it, especially if their Hackers have all joined forces to keep said info secret from us to help their Leaders."

"So it is not only a collection of videos of cute puppies and funny kittens?"

"Apparently not, Celly."

"Be as it may, we need to find Rainbow Dash and make sure nopony else gets kidnapped, either by soldiers of Hate Groups. We are CLOSE to finishing Conversion and fully cover the planet with the Barrier, we are almost done."

"I know, sister...Just...Where did all the humans go? Our scouts find less and less everyday." Luna asked confused.

"And at the same time our numbers increase, luckily it seems like our ponies are not suffering from their moving from Equestria to Earth, they even seem to like their new neighbors."

"A spark of something positive happening, I never thought I would finally see one." Luna muttered sighing.

"One step at a time, sister. Now let's find Dash and then we'll continue trying to make this transition smooth. One step at a time."

"One step at a time." the Moon Alicorn answered nodding.

Human Side – New Orleans – (Converted area) -

"Miss Daisy, good evening!" a mare, from Equestria, said with a wide smile as she waved happily at her neighbor.

"Hello there, Sunshine. Good evening to you too!" the other mare answered with a gentle smile as she and her daughter entered home.

"...Ugh! Pretending to be Equestrian is sooo lame!" the mare's daughter huffed annoyed as soon as their door closed.

"I know, sweetheart, but you heard those generals, until this war is over we have to pretend we are ponies from Equestria instead of Converted. At least Mister Discord helped us remaining human inside!" the girl's father replied gently as his horn lighted-up to bring his newspaper closer to his face.

"Pony or not, you still need glasses, dear."

Sigh! "I know..."

"But is lame! I have to, like, be a pastel pony! I AM PINK! I stopped wearing pink when I turned twelve! I liked my red hair and my new boots no longer fit me anymore!" the girl said whining.

"Come on, honey, cheer up! I heard Monica too has been Converted, her family bought the apartment right next to this one, actually, so next week they will move here." the girl's mother answered smirking.

"REALLY?! Thank God! At least I will have somebody nice to go shopping with! Those Equestrian mares are all...Girly." she said euphoric.

"To be honest they remember me those characters from that old Saturday Morning Cartoon you were obsessed with when we were kids, what was the title? Pretty Warriors of Friendship?" her brother answered laughing uproariously.

"MOOOOOM! Tell that dork to stop!"

"Ah-haaa! You hate it because you look like a boy compared to them."

"That is so not true!"

"Aaah! Teenage rebellion, some things never change even when turned into a pony, that's good." the girl's dad muttered happily as he gladly returned to his sport news page.

Tea with Discord – Manehattan – Penthouse -

"How's she?" Dana asked worried as Trixie kept passing a wet cloth on their new guest's forehead.

"Still having nightmares, whenever she doesn't wake-up to cry, that is. Trixie...My magic is not very advanced when it comes to healing, but I patched her wings at the best of my abilities, they will recover, especially with he medicines we managed to get." the showmare answered.

"Did they?" Dana asked with a choking tone.

"No, he got to them before anything happened, it was just the scare, the beatings and part of the stuff they injected her with."

"The original plan was turning her into a heroine addict, just to be sure she would comply. Curiously it was the human side of the group to shot down the idea." Discord answered bringing a new basin of water in the room.

"What will happen now?" Dana asked.

"Now? Now as soon as dear Rainbow wakes up you will help her recover a little and we'll talk her into helping us, she owes your brother a big debt, they were not about to simply kill her." the Draconequus answered with a grimace of disgust.

"Are we making the right choice? Giving them back their Bad Traits?" she asked shivering.

"You should tell us, you went through both situations before I found you raving and convulsing in a ditch after a bout of rejection of the serum. What do you think?" Trixie asked her back.

"I-I don't know, before Discord gave me back all that I felt trapped in my own head, knowing I had to feel something, but without even thinking what that something was, and the more I tried to understand, the more scared I got. Then the headaches and the nausea would soon follow along this nagging feeling I should only be happy and friendly, even if I normally shouldn't." Dana answered.

"But this is disgusting." she finally said while moving a hoof towards the sleeping, bandaged pegasus.

"And disgusting was their death, nobody will miss them." Alex said from the door frame.

"Thank you for saving her, and the others." Dana said with a low voice.

"Bah! They were in Discord 'Do not kill' List, I had my hands tied." he replied scoffing.

"Since you are here, I talked with few Human Leaders, their Conversion is going smoothly, the few ponies we infiltrated in the Conversion Bureaus are creating the fake IDs to have everypony believe the New-Foals we are making are instead original ponies coming from Equestria, luckily Celestia's tight schedule is helping us in slipping them in the huge crowd of Equestrian moving here every day, and a bit of confusing Magic from me helps smooth the rare bumps we meet as well." Discord explained.

"Nice to hear, AJ decided to stay put, she won't use her Element if asked, we just need to hope Dash too will do as we ask since I stopped those men from turning her into her toy. Tomorrow I will go talk with Rarity and Fluttershy, to see if I can threaten them too into non-action." Alex Mercer answered nodding pleased.

"Again, PLEASE do not harm them. As for Celestia and Luna, I added a new distraction for them, just in case."

"Which is?"

"Blueblood and his friends have been recently using several groups of deranged idealists Pro-Conversion to speed-up the change in humans so to free more states for them to sell, as usual. BUT! I happened to come by a few of those psychos and made sure they would get captured AND spill the beans about Blueblood being their Leader."

"...Wait...You managed to turn a secret group of spoiled kids playing around with the Real Estate Market...Into a secret society of Racial Supremacists that want Conversion to happen jut because they hate humans? AND you make it so that Blueblood (barely one of the participants) appears to be the absolute Leader of the whole Group/Cult?" Alex asked in disbelief.

"All in one morning, yes. You are good at killing and destroying, I am good at bringing Disharmony, we all have our own talents. Like that Celestia should FINALLY move to dismantle the Hate groups and the ones using Conversion for their 'get rich quick' schemes." Discord answered smugly.

"...I should have asked you to help me back there instead of Heller, working with professionals gets shit done." Alex muttered shaking his head as he walked away.

"If you make some tea, I want mine with honey!" the mismatched dragon asked smirking.

"ALEX!" Dana called-out making him stop abruptly.

"Thank you, for saving her." she said unsure.

"Tch!" he replied as he waved her off annoyed.

"You are doing great...Brother..." the mare muttered with a low voice once he was out of earshot.

End of the chapter.

So! another one done! Next one will cover what happened to Dash, Alex' talk with Rarity and Fluttershy AND Gaia soldiers in action against the cliché 'human hate groups' this branch of fandom seem fond off, or at least required to use at least once! XD

I hope you enjoyed this new chapter just like I enjoyed writing it.