Aurelic sits alone in the abandoned Canterlot Twibrary, down in the basement level at the workbench. The dusty, dimly lit room isn't doing him any favors, despite his attempt to air it out by opening a window. An assortment of books and notes litters the workspace, as do various pieces of assorted metals. "I need some kind of conduit for the spells. And small pieces of metal alone won't cut it. I need something more capable... Wait, that's it!" Aurelic picks up two books, flipping them to the pages he needs. He sets them side by side, along with some additional notes. "Unicorn magic works because their horns focus their magic to a single point, and the energy still needs to be conductive, with the capability to let off heat..." He begins to draw a diagram, making notations on it. "This small piece of moonmetal, courtesy of Nightmare's armor, is chill to the touch. If I can use some of that as a heat sink... And metal isn't an option for the conductor since it would melt... I need a gem of some kind!" He sets the finished diagram down, hiding the materials in a locking box, and then hiding that in a secret compartment in the furniture. "Thanks for the sex toy hiding spots Two-eyed one horned not yet flying purple pussy beater." Aurelic thinks as he exits the Twibrary, heading back for the castle for a deserved rest.

A small wasp buzzes in through the open window, landing and shifting back into her usual appearance. Wasp looks at the mess of a room, glancing over the research. Then she spots the diagram on the table, looking at it with wide eyes. She immediately activates her device. "My Queen, this is something you need to see. He's making some kind of weapon, but it uses magical energy! It's like nothing we've ever seen!"

"This isn't good. Weaponizing magic with an external thing hasn't been done since... ever! Anypony could have access to unicorn magic, regardless of race if this gets out!"

"Shall I destroy this research?" Wasp asks, raising a hoof.

"No, doing that will only make him aware we know what he's planning on doing. Take a photo. Lipid's team should be able to easily copy the plans so we might make sense of them. And besides, those kinds of weapons won't even work in the hive thanks to my throne's special little enchantment. No, this would only be a problem during our invasion in the coming months. Leave everything as it is, and continue spying on him until further instruction." Chrysalis ceases the connection.

Wasp turns back into her namesake, leaving the building the way she came in.

-<>~--*--~<>-<

Forge carries his mostly empty saddle bags as he heads towards the Ponyville gem caves. He spots a vacant minecart, levitating it behind him as he heads inside. Once he's deep enough, he drops his disguise, looking around the barren walls. His excellent night vision renders his need for light to see minimal, the glow from his active horn providing sufficient light.

"Crap, I don't have Rarity's spell for gem locating... I'll be looking for them blindly. Unless..." Aurelic quickly dons his disguise, exiting the cave quickly and heading back into town. He browses the market stalls, not really finding what he was looking for. That's when it hits him.

"Of course! Filthy Rich's shop! Don't remember the name... Fuck. Guess I need to snoop until I see him inside one maybe." Forge thinks as he snoops around carefully, right up until he sees a pet shop. With a newspaper rack near the door. "Fuck finding Filthy's shop, this is perfect for my needs."

Forge enters the shop, a bell ringing as the door opens and shuts. He quickly grabs a newspaper from the rack, looking through the small shop for the other supplies. "Tennis balls... check. And... dog whistle! Good, that's perfect. Ooh, bag of treats as well? Yep, gonna need those for sure." He makes his way to the checkout counter, setting his items down for the stallion manning the counter to see.

"Hmm, so you want a small net bag of tennis balls, a dog whistle, a copy of Equestria Daily, and a jumbo bag of treats? Okay, that'll be thirty-two bits." The cashier affirms.

"Alrighty then, here ya go." Forge puts the bits on the counter.

"So, you get a new puppy? What breed?" The cashier asks with some enthusiasm.

"Oh, no. These aren't for a puppy or anything." Forge says.

"Well, what are they for, if you don't mind me asking?" The stallion asks, now with an itching curiosity.

"Oh, I'm heading into the gem cave. These are... more like... insurance?" "Do ponies even have insurance? I don't remember any insurance jokes in the show..." Forge ponders.

"Oh, I see. I think I heard around the grapevine about some incident with dogs some ponies had a while back. I got it."

Forge takes another glance at the cashier. "There's something... familiar about him..." "Yeah. Anyway, have a nice day mister...?"

The stallion nods. "Puppy-Dog Tails."

"Oh my fucking god this is perfect. Snips, Snails, AND Puppy-Dog Tails all live in Ponyville." "Well, have a good day Puppy-Dog Tails."

"You too!" The small exchange seems to brighten his mood.

Forge bags his items, heading back to the cave. Once inside, he goes back to what he was doing. Hauling a minecart with magic while walking in the dark undisguised. It's not long before a small patrol of three diamond dogs finds him in the caves.

"What the, what is... what are you?" One of the dogs asks.

"Dim-witted dogs. Usually I like dogs, but not these abominations." "I'm a changeling. Or a bug pony if you prefer."

The dogs huddle together, whispering among themselves. One breaks the huddle, turning to Aurelic. "Okay bug pony, we will enslave you now."

"Pfft, like hell you are" Aurelic snarks, waiting for one of them to make a move.

One of the dogs rushes forwards, Aurelic quickly blows on his whistle, causing the dogs to flinch and cover their ears briefly.

"I don't think you fully understand what I am, or what I can do. I'm not some helpless pony that relies on wit. I can, and will assert myself if I have to." Aurelic warns, baring his fangs and licking them as a warning, complimented with a low growl.

Another one of the diamond dogs rushes at Aurelic, only to be met with a swift rolled up newspaper to the snout. This startles the dog, as well as the others.

"Back off." Aurelic warns.

The dogs run off, their weird tails between their legs.

Aurelic sets to searching for the gems. They tended to be fairly close to the surface, mostly. Shapeshifting an extra armature from his back, he forms thin, metallic spikes on it, until it resembles a rake of sorts. Slowly but surely, he taps it on the cave walls, feeling and listening for unusual resonance. This odd way of locating the gem pockets seems to work well enough, the rake arm digging the dirt away as he levitates the gems into the minecart.

But, even the best laid plans can fall through, as Aurelic is made aware of when a larger group of dogs, including the armored guards, shows up.

Aurelic sighs. "Welp, time for plan B."

Aurelic pulls the tennis balls out of his bag, flinging them in a scattershot-like manner around the cave. The dogs that had been moving towards Aurelic are now running around, knocking into each-other to try and catch the ricocheting tennis balls. Except for one of the dogs from before, presumably the alpha. In the chaos, the alpha notices something. The bug pony is gone, and some tall, weird looking creature is there now. The odd being rushes at the pack alpha, sprinting pretty fast for being on two legs. Before the alpha has a chance to register what's about to happen, the being uses its weird flexing claws to grab him by the scruff and pin him to the ground. The alpha's instincts kick in as he struggles to break free of this biped's grip, to no avail.

"Yield." The biped says in a commanding, stern tone.

"I... yield..." The alpha dog sighs, accepting defeat.

The biped smirks, placing a dog treat on the now beta's nose. "Good boy. Now, I'll be leaving."

The biped reverts back into Aurelic, who promptly heads for the cave's exit, grabbing the minecart. To further keep the dogs from following him, he opens and tosses the bag of treats out, letting them scatter along the ground.

Author's Note

Edit 2/27/22: Fixed the MASSIVE oversight it used to have regarding the Diamond Dogs. They can't locate the gems easily, which was the whole point of them capturing Rarity in the episode in the first place.