It was a bright, sunny day in the town of Ponyville. The locals all milled about in their merry activities all around the familiar and comfy streets of their community, running errands and visiting friends and acquaintances. The songbirds in the trees lived up to their name, giving the day itself that much more cheerfulness than it already had. It was such a pleasant, ordinary day that one could easily forget several town damaging disasters had plagued the sleepy citizens on numerous occasions. In fact, no less than six bizarre and entirely dangerous extra-equestrian creatures, whom were walking disasters in of themselves, have taken up residence among them, which to any sensible outsider would alone be cause for alarm of some sort. Though, perhaps such frightful information didn't quite faze ponies in such normal routines simply because they were confident in their security. Or, maybe they were just used to it. Either way, the chipper mood certainly prevailed, and it would take something quite terrifying to attempt to sour it.

"I'll be heading out," Psycho Mantis uttered as the library door swung open for him.

"Hey, where are you going?" Twilight asked with light concern shown upon her face. She was prepared for a lot of things today, but the lithe human telepath that shacked up with her and her assistants at Golden Oaks Library deciding to take a day stroll wasn't one of them.

Silence lingered though the air for a few moments as the psychic simply hovered before the open door, his gaze fixated on the outside. There was a muffled sigh that escaped from the mask of his, whereupon he gave a light shrug and responded with, "I felt I needed a little fresh air. No need to accompany me, Ms. Sparkle."

Twilight's eyebrow raised, incredulous. Mantis, a natural introvert, that has a massive disdain for interaction with most individuals and only did so to satisfy some sort of curiosity, whom also wore a gas mask twenty-four seven, wanted 'fresh air'. Out in town. On his own.

"Is there a problem with that?" he asked, finally turning towards the newly minted alicorn, the orange lenses shining in the light in a somewhat foreboding way.

There was something off about the situation, but Twilight had no evidence nor was she in the position to try to exercise authority for no justifiable reason. Instead, the question served only to fluster the young mare as she tried to cover her personal uneasiness. "Problem? N-no, there's no problem! We're friends, after all! I trust you to be on your own in town with no issues. 'Cause that's what friends do! Trust each other! Because we're friends!" She gave a forced smile, trying and failing to sound convincing.

Mantis simply stared at her for a moment, before his attention was drawn back outside. "I'll be sure to return before curfew."

"I haven't given one, but OKAY!" she responded with overt enthusiasm. As the powerful manipulator of pure will departed the library and closed the door behind him, Twilight's face dropped the false smile as she turned to the side. "Spike! Where are you?!"

"Over here, Twilight!" the little drake announced as he wandered out of the room for fantasy novels.

"I need you to take a quill and notepad-"

"Here it comes," he muttered to himself.

"-and follow Mantis. Jot down anything of note. I want to be sure he's JUST taking a walk... hover?... trip through town. And nothing else."

"Aren't you being just a bit paranoid? I mean, he hasn't done anything wrong since he moved in with us," he argued, while fetching the tools requested.

"He mind-wiped a palace guard, usurped control of the throne, humiliated the acting princess, antagonized a noble, and gave me a MASSIVE headache trying to explain the entire situation to Princess Celestia and Luna!" Twilight all but shouted. Despite the passing of time and now being very far away from the incident, she could still hear her former mentor's excessive and uncontrolled laughter even now. "I think I'm a little justified when it comes to him."

"So, why don't you follow him?"

"Oh, I learned my lesson the last time I followed someone on my own," she stated, unconsciously rubbing the back of her head upon remembering the variety of things that happened to her the day she decided to spy on Pinkie. "Besides, I'm still busy with my research. I'm so close to making a breakthrough. I can feel it."

Spike sighed with a light shrug, "I guess it can't be helped. Fine, but if this takes all day, mind if I take the rest of the night off?" If there was one highlight to his job as assistant and assistant caretaker of Golden Oaks Library, it was his unlimited access to a rather robust collection of stories that actually piqued his interest. So, when he wasn't sorting the wide variety of texts that Twilight had more interest in for the third time in a week, or conducting special tasks like the one he's asked to do now, retiring back to the Fantasy section was his go-to reprieve.

"Spike, I'll even have some milk and cookies waiting for you if you do this for me," Twilight added, sweetening the deal so that the young dragon would take his task as seriously as possible.

Heh, you don't need to go that far. Buuut, if you insist. "Alright," Spike responded with a salute, "I'll keep an eye on him. Dragon's honor."

Twilight gave a light giggle as her dear assistant rushed out the door, off to perform his covert tailing operation. She only hoped Mantis wouldn't figure it out or, at the very least, wouldn't care.

-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-

Sticking to the shadows and trying to keep away from anyone's attention, Spike trailed behind Mantis several paces back. He knew that getting close in any regard might completely blow his cover, especially since he didn't know the range of Mantis' mind reading ability. Still, to say acting out a role of a secret agent wasn't at least a little fun would be a bold faced lie. It's rare for him, let alone anyone he knew, to have the opportunity to do this, so he couldn't help help but mutter "stealth" music under his breath.

"Dern-dern... ... dern-dern, tch-tch-tch tch-tch-tch, dern-dern..."

Every time Mantis turned a corner. Spike rushed forward, keeping his presence as inconspicuous as possible and hid behind anything that could keep him properly concealed. Considering he was often out running errands for Twilight, even if some of the Ponyfolk spotted him, they paid him no mind and thus left him be.

However, despite his enthusiasm, it slowly started becoming rather clear that the strange creature, the one that flew a hospital room from Ponyville to Canterlot, really was just wandering for no strict reason. Even when ponies, still somewhat spooked by his presence, offered a shaky salutations, Mantis seemed to return politely in kind. To say that it was a little uncharacteristic would be the closest thing to accurate to assess. Still, despite the seemingly benign behavior, Spike wrote it down, both because he felt telling Twilight there was nothing to report would be kind of a waste and that it IS true his pleasant behavior was something odd and worthy to be noted down. At least, that's what the little dragon believed.

It didn't take long, but Spike soon followed the thin psychic to the town fountain, as it seemed like Lyra Heartstrings, a bright green and white unicorn mare and resident "anthropologist", was out entertaining passersby. The crowd was pretty decent for a street musician in a small town, and the melody was quite lovely today, to tell the truth. Mantis himself was a fair distance away from the crowd and Lyra, likely trying to also not be noticed. However, Spike did notice that Mantis seemingly was enjoying the music present, gently waving and swaying an uncovered finger back and forth, almost as if he was acting like a conductor.

Suddenly, however, Lyra squeaked in surprise as there was a short flash coming from her lyre, before a string broke and she dropped the instrument. The crowed murmured to themselves, wondering what had just happened, asking if the young musician was ok. She responded with gratitude for the concern, explaining she didn't know what happened, but wondered what that surge of magic was all about.

Mantis then approached the crowd and greeted the mare pleasantly, which startled her, causing her reply to come out stuttered and unsure. The psychic, once again in an uncharacteristic motion, offered condolences for the broken instrument, behaving slightly shocked and surprised for the whole situation, and suggested that she should take it to the repair shop immediately.

"I do hope you weren't hurt when the string snapped," Mantis added in concern.

Lyra's eye squinted as she stared at the human, cautious over the overtly kindly nature of her former captor. "I'm... fine," she uttered, rather distrustful.

"Good." He then reached into one of his hidden pockets and fished out a few bits before floating them over to her. "Hopefully this will cover the broken string. I must be off, now."

"Thanks..." Lyra responded, before the crowd dispersed and she herself departed for the music shop.

Spike diligently wrote down everything that happened, but added a few notes on how out of character Mantis seemed to be today. He's never this nice, not even when he's reading in the library. It was odd, sure, and the concern Twilight had started to make more sense, but there was nothing definitive to imply anything beyond the out of character behavior.

After Spike finished taking his notes, he followed Mantis as he made his way towards the marketplace, where the bustling crowd of ponies made for perfect cover as the psychic moved about. Honestly, considering the extra-equestrian stood upright, which made him end up being roughly one third taller than most ponies, and with his stark black get up against his extremely pale skin, it was hard not to notice the psychic, even with Spike's considerably small stature and the taller ponies normally blocking his view. He watched Mantis float himself towards a very familiar stall with a very familiar farmpony running said stall, whom was flanked by the much less familiar entity that was clad in a shiny dark grey and maroon.

Strange, Spike thought, Isn't Big Mac supposed to be there? Spike's thoughts then drifted towards his knowledge of Sweet Apple Acres, trying to guess why Monsoon was there in place of Applejack's big brother. Said thoughts further drifted towards the time he spent at the farm, trying to repay a debt, and failing miserably at it. He shuddered, realizing how daft he was behaving. Sure, he's a young dragon, and a small one at that, but he was responsible enough to take care of the Library, even without Twilight's supervision, and his actions at the farm had only been a past shame of his. Ever since that day, he chalked it up to a combination of tunnel-vision, bad luck, unfamiliarity to farm-work, and perhaps a small desire to try and show off in keeping an oath of honor, and reminded himself to be more cautious and courteous in regards to helping others in unfamiliar locations and expertise. He then shook the thoughts from his head, remembering that he had a job to do at this moment, and needed to stay more vigilant.

Spike then maneuvered his way between the ponies, still keeping out of sight, but trying harder to get closer to his target and the stall. It didn't take him long to find a comfortable, out of sight spot, to which he readied his quill and notes once again, listening and watching the conversation.

"-rchase some golden delicious apples," Mantis asked, with a light flourish of his hand, presenting some bits that floated in the air before his fingertips, "Would this suffice?"

Applejack eyed the coins, and gathered them with her hoof. "Ah reckon it should be 'nough," She stashed them in a small chest before fetching a few of the fruits from the back. Monsoon leaned slightly to the side, as if discomfort were starting to settle in for the nearly artificial being, just as the farmpony resurfaced with the requested product. "Here ya go. Don't eat 'em all in one sittin'," she added in jest, sensing the light tension and trying to keep things relatively at peace.

"I doubt that will be a problem, Ms. Applejack." He responded, floating the apples near him. He then noticed that another customer, a young unicorn mare, approach the stall, prompting him to shift back and allow the new presence to conduct business at the stall.

So far, so normal, Spike thought as he scribbled down the mundane report while watching the lithe psychic. Then, there was a sudden gasp, which called the little drake's attention to the new customer. It was a blink and miss it moment, but within a split second, the new customers horn flared harshly before the shiny bits and the apples being traded suddenly crushed within the magical grip. The look of shock upon her and Applejack's face was palpable and evident.

"I-I'm sorry!" the customer panicked, "I don't know what happened there." She then reached into her satchel once more and produced new bits, by hoof this time. "That should cover the cost. I'm so sorry!" She then scurried off, spooked by the whole thing.

"Well, THAT'S new," Applejack uttered, collecting the bits that weren't crushed before grabbing an emergency rag to wipe the apple juice and pulp spread across the counter.

Spike furiously wrote down the event. Even if it was unrelated to his task, it was odd seeing magic get strange like that. He was sure that Twilight would want to investigate this regardless. Upon finishing his notes, however, his eyes were met with the market crowd now missing the slender biped. Rushing forward, he made himself present before Applejack, whom gave him a warm greeting, before he asked the apple farmer where Mantis wandered off to.

"If you're looking for that freak," Monsoon uttered, pointing to the south, "He went that way."

"Oh, uh, thanks!" Spike replied in a chipper tone, before he raced off once again, oblivious to Applejack's ire to her forced coworker.

It didn't take him very long to catch up to Mantis once again, as his form was easily spotted just floating down towards a nearby meadow. Many folks were there, playing, having picnic style lunches, and even practicing a variety of skills and actions. The whole area was alive with activity from all sorts, all while Mantis stopped near the edge of the parkland, and Spike himself dove into a nearby bush to keep himself well hidden.

Peeking through the foliage, he watched Mantis and the scene before them carefully, trying to find something, anything, that could be tied to the human. A job well done should score him a bonus, after all. He could almost taste the fresh chocolate chunk and gem cookies.

It was then he noticed another flash. Spike focused and spied yet another unicorn flinch in shock as a magical shot, which was once heading towards a bullseye target, now suddenly took a hard forty-five degree angle turn away from its intended path. The stray magic then struck a wayward submarine sandwich, which caused the food to come alive as if it were a snake. It then began slithering away like said reptile, freaking out the picnickers and surrounding ponyfolk.

"Ok, THAT," he started, "Is fishy." He turned his attention to Mantis, whom was already leaving the area, heading towards the denser part of town. Spike clicked his tongue, and opted to hurriedly scribble what he saw while he chased after Twilight's ward.

Soon, he found himself following the human into the lesser populated backstreets, which were ever so slightly maze-like in appearance, despite the small size of the town. Ponyville was a safe place, for the most part, but the alleys would still give him the willies every now and then. He gazed about hesitantly for a moment, but only for one, before he steeled his resolve to continue his mission.

Except, upon taking his eyes off Mantis for the split second to recognize his surroundings, he found his target was now missing. Confused, he was sure that he wasn't too far behind the extra-equestrian, so vanishing like that shouldn't have been possible.

"Well, good afternoon, Spike."

The raspy, heavily filtered words came from behind the baby dragon, causing the poor boy to jump in fright. Turning around, he realized the jig was up and thus the mission had ended. Trying to keep cool, he opted to feign some innocence in following the mentalist and attempted to turn the tables. "Oh, jeez, you scared me there. Fancy meeting you around these parts."

"Quite," Mantis replied simply. An awkward silence lingered as the human crossed his arms, tapping one finger against his slender bicep.

"Uh, yeah, hey, this isn't what it looks like."

"So, you AREN'T following me around due to your master's order?"

"Master?"

"Oh, do forgive me. It's quite difficult to understand the relationship between you and the new Princess," Mantis explained, uncrossing his arms, "My question still stands, however."

Busted, Spike thought to himself. Regardless, he was never very good at lying, especially when confronted so directly, so the little dragon decided to fess up. "K-kind of. Sorry, but you know Twilight. She's kind of a worry-wart. Paranoid at her worst."

"Indeed."

"But, honestly..." Spike started, thinking to himself as he leafed through his notes briefly, "I don't know what she's worried about. Sure, you're kinda scary, but you haven't really done anything bad except talk to a few ponies and wander around town. I mean, if that's supposed to be a part of some sort of sinister plot, then it's the lamest one I've ever seen."

The human then chuckled lightly, before he answered with, "Perhaps you're right." The little drake couldn't pinpoint why, but the laugh unnerved him a tad.

Spike then thought about the events of the day for a moment, and couldn't help but start to question the mentalist. "I mean... what are you even doing? A lot of this seems very out of character for you."

There was a heavy, filtered sigh before Mantis began to answer, almost out of reluctance. "During my stay here, I've learned some very important lessons that will serve me well. One is that behaving agreeably is prudent when you want something done. As they saying goes, you catch more insects with honey than vinegar, after all."

"Don't you mean catch more flies?"

Mantis pondered in silence for a moment, eyes fixated upon the drake. "Would you be so kind as to do me a favor?" he asked, ignoring Spike's corrective question.

Spike hesitated, unprepared for Mantis wanting a request from him, but obliged anyway in cautious naivete. "Suuuuure?"

"Your fire breath is magical in nature, is it not?"

"Oh, yeah! My flame has been enchanted a while ago to send and receive messages," he excitedly answered. Spike then fell silent for a moment, before asking, "What about it?"

"I would like to see a short demonstration."

"Really? Haven't you seen it, like, dozens of times?"

"Indulge me."

Spike shrugged, flipped forward through his notepad, scribbled something on a blank sheet of paper, and blew fire at it. Suddenly, the magical fire veered away, straight towards Mantis' open hand. The fire gathered into a small ball, hovering above his palm. Spike was gobsmacked.

"Wh-what... How...?"

"There was another lesson I wanted to indulge myself with today. Call it a 'revelation' of sorts. I had finally realized magic is as tangible and physically present as water and air. It is akin to a substance, or barring that, perhaps energy. Even more troubling, there is a science behind it. Certain rules and equations that need to be followed for the magic to work. That does not mean the magic can't be changed." He played with the magic fire, rolling it back and forth between his hands as it started to turn blue. "As one who is the greatest practitioner of psychokinesis, I needed to confirm such a revelation." He held the flame aloft in his hand, almost presenting it like a treasure to Spike, just before he shot it directly at the pages of notes the mentalist had quietly ripped from the note-pad.

"The notes!" Spike exclaimed, alarmed. Whatever Mantis did to his fire, that blue flame was not going to send the notes to Celestia or Twilight. If anything, the ashes implied their destruction.

"You have performed very admirably, giving me a nice little witness through the whole day." He leaned in closer to Spike, causing the little drake to take a shaky step back. "So, what did you think of my little experiment?"

Spike's eyebrow raised, keeping his arms up in defense, "E-experiment?" He then thought about it for a moment, considering what he was just told. "Wait, all of that was-"

Mantis laughed again, "It's quite intriguing, taking hold of the magic from a unicorn. Especially directly from the source."

"W-why?"

Mantis paused for a moment, gazing at his own hand before it clenched with the sound of popping joints. Spike winced from the sound, waiting for the reply. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid that's for me to know..." He then turned to the little dragon. "And for you to forget."

"Forget?"

The Mentalist suddenly disappeared, causing Spike's heart to quicken in shock and fear. His head whipped about to and fro, trying to find any trace of the human. Any sign of movement or any presence what-so-ever. But, there was nothing. Before him was the light coming from the entrance of the alley he stood alone in. Behind him was the darkness and shroud of such a forgotten place. He shook his head hard, and began bolting for the light.

However, much to his utter horror, his feet froze in movement as he felt slender, bony fingers gently grasp at the side of head. He felt his body entirely stop responding to his desire to run, no matter how much he wanted to. His heart leaped into his throat as his breathing quickened in terror while a raspy, filtered, and labored breathing was heard directly behind him.

"Yeeeeessss... forget, Spike," Mantis whispered.

Within moments, the little dragon's heartbeat and breathing began to slow down to stable levels once more as his eyes dulled. "Forgeeeeeet..." he mumbled.

"Nothing happened today."

"Nothing happened..."

"Mantis behaved himself all day."

"Behaved..."

"Nothing strange went on in town at all."

"Very boring day..."

Mantis chuckled beneath his mask. "You are quite the good little child, aren't you? Such a desire to be a knight. A hero. Never lose that. Continue to perform admirably for me, Spike. Be your hero, but NEVER stand in my way." His fingered curled, wanting to pierce his nails into the little skull, but restrained himself. After all, it wasn't Spike's fault that he was following the mentalist all day and making his experimental efforts harder to perform. Plus, the child can still be quite the useful tool in the future.

"Now, Spike, I must leave and... wipe a few minds of what happened. You will be the dutiful witness that you are and go home and tell your little princess, Ms. Sparkle, that all I have done today was buy a few apples, and listen to some music."

"It's all in her head..."

Mantis chuckled again as his hands retracted from the dragon and floated away to go take care of business, leaving Spike to regain his senses once more, all alone in the alley.

"Wait... where'd Mantis go?"

-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-v-o-

The telltale creaking of the opening wooden door at Golden Oaks library alerted Twilight and pulled her from her research. As the door closed, she noticed it was Mantis that wandered in, back from his trip through town.

"Soooooo," she started hesitant, "How was your day out?"

"Uneventful," Mantis replied, floating towards one of the reading rooms further back. "Even with your little assistant following me."

Twilight kept her mouth shut at that, panicking over the fact that he either already knew, or that he spotted him.

"Don't worry, Ms. Sparkle. I may be used to dealing with individuals that practice... tactical espionage, but I have no desire to hurt a child. Besides, I have long since agreed to 'playing nice', as one of the others so eloquently put it."

The breath the newly minted princess was subconsciously holding had suddenly been let go. "OH! Oh, good! That's good. I'm glad you're... playing nice," she uttered, tripping over her words a bit. As the mentalist was about to disappear into the reading room, Twilight opted to mention one more thing. "By the way, something odd happened at the Sweet Apple Acres stall in the market. You don't know anything about that, do you?"

Mantis froze. His mind raced. He could have sworn he erased his presence from everyone he even remotely encountered that day. Then, he remembered. The cyborg was missing. That urchin. "I did indeed see it, Ms. Sparkle," Mantis admitted, turning around to face Twilight, "I've never seen... magic go haywire before."

"Right," Twilight said, "Neither have I."

"Will you be investigating the phenomenon?" he asked with fabricated sincerity.

Twilight pawed at her chin with her hoof briefly, in actual thought, before sighing in defeat. "Actually, no. It's an isolated incident, and I'm sure it's not going to happen again," she confessed, emphasizing the last half of the comment.

Mantis knew she was implicating him for the incident, and rightfully so, but calling it out would only point more suspicion towards him. Instead, he felt it was best to keep quiet and nonchalant about it for the time being. "Very well, Ms. Sparkle. If you do need me, I shall be reading for the next few hours." With that, he disappeared into the reading room, out of sight of the Princess and the rest of the world.

Twilight sighed again, shaking her head. "Maybe I am being a bit too paranoid. I mean, Spike vouched for him, after all. I should actually trust his word on this rather than Mantis' memories." She considered her outward thoughts, before smelling the expected aroma of cookies on the cusp of being burnt. "Oh shoot!" Racing back to the kitchen, Twilight decided to just put her suspicions to bed for the time being and believe what she had been told. After all, despite certain events, Twilight felt he wouldn't plan something wicked for the time being.

"Spiiiiike! You're cookies are ready!" Despite the call to snacks, the little dragon remained absent from Twilight's presence. Honestly, the Princess considered this a little bit odd, but decided to take the tray to him instead. Heading for the fantasy section, she poked her head through the opening of that nook, only to find it devoid of the young drake. That's odder, Twilight thought. "Where are you, Spike?"

"Over here!" answered her faithful assistant, his voice coming from the non-fiction reference section.

Twilight's eyebrow raised as she made her way to Spike's location, finding him nose to page deep inside of a rather thick tome, with a variety of other books stacked next to him. "I, uh, have your cookies, since you did me a solid."

"Oh, yeah, thanks," he said halfheartedly, not turning away from the text.

The Princess of Friendship's eyes narrowed as she focused on the title printed along the spine. The Code of the Knight: How to Become an Everyday Hero, Twilight read silently. She gave a light laugh in both amusement and pride. Well, that's not the worst kind of book to read, she considered with a smile. Deciding not to disturb him further, she simply floated the plate of cookies over next to him and left Spike to his research.

Author's Note

Lordi