Twilight pursed her lips as she scanned briskly over the paperwork on her desk. Her hooves arched over her ruffled, messy mane. Her pupils shrank as she scanned over, and over, and over again.

"You were attacked?!"

She slammed her hooves down on the desk, causing the papers to fly askew.

A certain cyan-coated, rainbow-maned pegasus rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I think that's been established already," she droned. The orange earth pony sitting beside her patted her on the shoulder sympathetically, then turned to the unicorn that could really use some comfort.

"It ain't your fault, Twi. Dash and Ah' should've researched the route. If'n it'll make ya feel better, we'll-"

"Of course it's my fault! It's all our faults," bursted the lavender alicorn, her horn sparking with frustrated flares of magenta aura. "I can't run a school with some sort of cartel trying to take us out!"

Rainbow Dash groaned, burying her head in her hooves. "Do you even know what a cartel is...?"

Twilight then screeched with stress, shuffling through the remaining papers on her desk. "That. doesn't. Matter! What matters is that we've got a hoof-full of concerned parents and guardians threatening to pull their students from the school!"

"Oh," Dash sighed, "Right."

"On top of that, ah' reckon we should at least try an' see if the student's're feelin' okay."

Twilight took a breath, sitting back down and nodding slowly. "...And, I think it'd be a bit more reasurring if it came from you two."

Rainbow nodded as well, flapping her wings and hovering in front of Twilight. Pressing her hooves gently on the desk, she said, "Yeah. Me and AJ'll go check on em'. You... try and calm down a little. Have you ever tried bathing in the hot springs?"

"Uh, no!"

Applejack digressed. "We'll go check on the students like we said. If'n they're feelin' better after what happened, we'll try and go see what these "Hot Springs"'re about," she said calmly, turning to the cyan pegasus and nodding her head forward.

"Yeah," she agreed with a small smile. "Just stay calm until we get back, okay?"

Twilight sat her head down on the desk, speaking with a muffled "Got it."

"...And you thought sending those two buffoons was a good idea?!"

He slammed his hooves on the desk, the answer machine clanking down on the piled up papers in front of him.

"S-Sir, I-"

"I wanted that dragon dead! They let them get away," he bellowed again. "I should have you all terminated. What the hell, are you trying to keep them alive?!"

"N-No, Sir! I-I didn't get the chance to finish! Y-You keep-"

He narrowed his eyes. "Well then, I can't understand you if you keep stammering. Slow the hell down, it's not like we're in a hurry."

The pony on the line seemed to calm down after that. "I was trying to say that-"

"Hurry up, we don't have all day, damn it!"

Smolder sat lazily with her feet kicked up at what seemed to be the cranky creature's desk. She was wearing a slate colored tuxedo, adjusting her Warby Parkers and holding an index card, saying "After at least five more minutes of the most frustrating dialogue ever..."

"Sir..."

"Okay, okay, fine. Explain your reasoning."

"What I meant to say was that... m-maybe we could send the stronger ones?"

He tapped his hoof on the desk, putting one hoof on his chin in thought. "That makes... little sense, but I suppose it could work." The pony on the answer machine took a breath of relief.

"Right. B-But another thing- What if instead of sending recruits directly to the creature, we could... rough up the one's they seem to care about?"

He arched a brow. "What are you getting at?"

"I-I just mean that... m-maybe we could observe who they seem to care about most and- and go after them? Maybe the creature would be a bit more vulnerable to that so we could prey on them next."

"So what's your plan? We haven't been researching this creature that much since that last incident," he shuddered, "Who do you have in mind, I mean?"

"W-Well, the thing we know is that the creature is attending the School of Friendship. Students practically worship their professors, who are also the, uh... Elements of Harmony."

He furled his brow, his eyes widening as his hoof tapping increased rapidly. "That's... a pretty good idea. My only criticism is that we cannot attack the Princess of Friendship. That's practically financial suicide."

"Yes sir, but isn't she already foiling from parental concerns?"

"Hmm?"

"She's already being penalized by parents and guardians concerned for their children and students since the last incident. C-Correct me if I'm wrong, sir, but you did hire me for my expert skills in research. If we can ruin her any further, we could possibly knock her out of the picture. Her social standing could potentially be decreased by tenfold."

He stopped tapping his hoof, his brow unfurling. "That's it! I can't believe I'm saying this, but- for once, I'm glad I hired you!"

The pony was silent for a time, but he made a dissmissive whinny at the compliment. "So, where will they be headed?"

"We could send one of our specialists."

"Where'd... Where'd you get that," Gallus asked, watching his draconic friend tighten up her suit from the dorm bathroom mirror. "That looks... expensive as hell."

Smolder just put on her stylish black-framed glasses and fixed up her necktie. "Don't worry about it," she said. Gallus simply rolled his eyes as he watched her exit the bathroom.

She was dressed in a light grey-slate suit. She was wearing black work pants with a darker black belt wrapped tight around her waist as well. Gallus smirked. She looked surprisingly sophisticated.

"Woah," he exlaimed, "What're you looking all 'business dragon' for?"

Smolder cleared her throat at that, tugging at her collar and straightening her tie again as sweat began to bead on her forehead. Gallus smirked at her, saying, "That tie isn't gonna get any tighter, you know."

"I-I know," The dragon blurted nervously, tightening the tie even more against Gallus' suggestion. The griffon chuckled.

"...And it really looks like you're dressing to impress," he paused for a second, playfully pinching his beak. "My guess, you're trying to impress someone."

Smolder gulped as Gallus paused again. The room was silent, the air filling with small clouds of black coming from her nostrils and mouth.

Her tail lashed as the blue-feathered friend decided to open his mouth again, saying "Hm... maybe some'ling?"

Smolder would've said something to deny it, but she knew that it was probably useless at this point. Still, there was no harm in a good excuse. "I-I just got tired of my normal costume," she sighed, the false excuse being somewhat accurate. "I wanted something else to wear, since that thing got really smelly from the... the blood."

Gallus winced. "That sounds about right."

Smolder sighed. "Exactly. I-I wanna see what everyone else thinks. If there's one secret I wanna reveal, it won't be tea parties."

Gallus already knew at least a little about one of Smolder's strange obsessions besides assassination, so he didn't question that bit. The part he was a bit skeptical about was the 'secret revealing.'

"Wait a minute, what do you mean 'secret you wanna reveal?'" Gallus quirked a brow while he spoke, and Smolder scuffed her feet on the carpet floor.

"I-I mean..." She stopped, letting out a long, exasperated sigh. "Dude, you're, like, the only person who knows about my... 'career'," she adorned the word 'career' with air-quotes. "And I've already introduced Ocellus to that dragon, so why not just... experiment, you know?"

Gallus shook his head(unsurprisingly to Smolder), letting out his own sigh as he turned his back to the dragon. Tracing his talon on the dorm floor, he finally spoke, his voice cold and distant. "You... You can't do that. She'll freak."

"So did you," his draconic friend hissed from behind him. The feathers on his hindlegs ruffled from a rush of cold air, suggesting that Smolder's arms extended with frustration. "If you keep being such an asshole about this, she'll only find out sooner!"

"I'm not being an asshole," Gallus bellowed, whirling around and whipping his tail. "I'm trying to protect you! If you keep fucking around with your little 'job,' you're gonna get yourself caught, or worse, killed!"

The room was silent again. The brewing tension in the air was tight enough to throttle the both of them.

Each stared feircly into the other's eyes, their shrank pupils surrounded in feilds of white. Each had their foreheads pressed against the other's as well, and if their glares got any icier, they'd be frozen in the same position.

Not even the small sound of a creaking door could dissuade their feud. "A-Am I interrupting something...?"

Both Smolder and Gallus turned to Ocellus, who was standing nervously in the doorway and rubbing one timid hoof on the other.

"N-Not at all," Smolder blurted, rushing away from Gallus and to her changedling friend. The griffon scoffed, walking over as well as he adjusted his head-feathers.

"Wow," Ocellus breathed, gazing at Smolder's surprisingly well put-together outfit. "You look... nice. Where're you going that has you looking so fancy," she teased, brushing her hoof on the dragon's tie.

Smolder smiled. "The, uh... relief conference the teachers want us going to. I-I wanted to dress nicely for it, I guess. Y-You know, like everyone would."

"More accurately, for someone," Gallus corrected. Smolder barely batted an eye at him, only reaching for his neck and pinching at a nerve.

He went limp as he fell to the ground. Ocellus gasped, reaching a hoof out to help him up. Smolder grabbed her foreleg, saying, "Don't worry- he'll be alright."

The changedling looked unsure, but still nodded reluctantly. "I-If you say so."

Silence again.

"I-I just came to check on you, it... seems like everything's going well," Ocellus spoke, trying to get rid of the menacing quiet. Smolder tried to smile, but that small, supposedly unwavering grin turned into more of a grimace.

"...Yeah... see you there...?"

"See you there."

Author's Note

Yeah, this one was a bit quick like the other one, but trust me, there's a lot more I have planned