Fur Umbra

Chapter 2: An Uninvited Guest Part 2
The next day, Fur had made his way back into the castle and once again was watching on from the sidelines as the nobility before him were almost tripping over each other to have a chance at wooing one of the princesses. As he went to take a sip of his drink a voice spoke up.

“I’d be careful with the punch if I were you; somebody’s spiked it.”

Fur froze before letting what was in his mouth drain back into the glass. Cadance gave off a small chuckle at his antics; Twilight was right, he really wasn’t like any of the other- no, like any of the nobles here.

“Fur Umbra, I presume,” Cadance held out her hand which, after putting down his spiked beverage, Fur shook.

“Yup.”

Cadance’s smile widened. ‘Perhaps this won’t be so bad after all...’ she thought to herself.

The two of them talked for a while, Cadance eventually having to leave and mingle among the other guests again only for Twilight to show up a few minutes later. They then chatted until she too had to return to socialising with the noble idiots in the room. Fur decided to stick around longer today, his patience rewarded by eventually getting another chance to speak to the princesses.

Much the same happened the next day, and most of the day after that, sharing stories and talking about various topics. But after night fell, things quickly went south.

Twilight and Cadance had retired to their rooms for the night, as had many of the nobles with one notable exception. As Fur sat on the castle roof and watched the stars as he had done since he was first able to climb the castle walls, he noticed the gryphon noble called Tallon was making his way across the skies above Canterlot, and towards a certain princess’ tower.

Fur felt that something was off, as Twilight had never shown a particular interest in him before, certainly not enough to invite him to her tower alone at night, and so Fur moved to follow him from a distance as he landed on the balcony and entered the tower. Fur’s pace only quickened when he heard a shout and muffled scream from the tower’s open window- racing across the rooftops as fast as he could and scaling the tower without a second thought for his own safety, he arrived just in time to see Twilight push the gryphon away as he attempted to lunge at her.

Before the fool could make another lunge at the distraught princess, Fur grabbed him from behind by the waist, dragged him to the balcony, kicked the railing with his boot, and jumped backward over the edge with the gryphon securely in his grasp.

The moron was still trying to make sense of the situation when he realised his wings were pinned between them. “You IDIOT!! You’re going to kill both of us!!!” He screached as they fell, only for their descent to slow, coming to a complete stop as Talon’s beak barely grazed the dirt beneath him.

Fur let go of the frightened gryphon before shouting as he was pulled back upwards with speed, “Fuck you too, Talon.”

As the bungee-cord-grapple-hook-device Fur had built into his boot as a saftey measure years ago recoiled to as high as it could reach, he grabbed hold of the tower wall and scaled the rest of the way to find Twilight on the balcony in a state of shock.

“You alright, Spar-“

He was cut short as she ran up to him and pulled him into a hug, sobbing into his shoulder. Fur felt awkward with the sudden act of affection, but patted her on the shoulder and gave a small hug in return.

“It’s ok. You’re ok now. It’s over, Sparks; he’s gone. Talon’s gone.”

Twilight sniffled, “He... he said that he was here to com- *sniff* to comfort me, to help *sniff* me ‘destress’.”She began sobbing again.

A knocking was heard at the door. “Princess Sparkle, are you alright?” one of the royal guards asked through the door.

“Yes, I’m fine,” Twilight managed to reply, seemingly satisfying the guard’s curiosity for now.

“I should go...” Fur began.

“No! Uh, could... could you stay a little longer? Please? I-I don’t want to be alone after that...”

Fur gave off a small sigh. He didn’t exactly plan to be doing this, but a friend was in need of his help, and he wasn’t going to turn them down, “Sure, Sparks.”

After an hour or so the stress of the day’s events finally got to the princess and she fell asleep in his arms. Fur lifted her sleeping form up and over to her bed, laying her down and pulling the sheets over her before turning to leave. Apparently though, she still wanted a snuggle-buddy and mumbled while moving around in her sleep. He grabbed a nearby pillow, fluffed it up a bit and placed it in Twilight’s arms, soon seeing her quiet down with a smile on her face.

There was one last stop for him to make before he returned home though.

* * *

Cadance grumbled as the knocking on her window persisted. It was nearly 2 in the morning and whoever this was wasn’t going to let her sleep. She opened the window to find Fur hanging upside-down outside.

“Fur? What are... *yawn*”

“Twilight had a break-in. I didn’t see the whole thing, but there was a scream and Talon was fighting her when I got there. I think he may have tried to rape her given the line of ‘de-stress’Twilight said he mentioned, and I think he may have also been the one to spike the drinks.”

That snapped Cadance awake, “Oh my Celestia, is she ok?!?”

“She’s asleep now, and fine for the time being, but I suggest action is taken to help her come tomorrow morning. If he’s smart, Talon will have likely already tried to dispose of any evidence- including any traces of the drug that was mixed in with the drinks if he is the one responsible.”

Cadance nodded, “I’ll get onto that right away. But, how did you-“

“Ever since I could climb I would scale the castle nearly every night. The light pollution of the city doesn’t affect my view from the roof, so I’d always go there to watch the stars whenever I got the chance. It was coincidence that Talon chose tonight of all nights to follow through with his schemes.”

Satisfied that Fur wasn’t a stalker and had a legitimate reason to be there to witness the incident and intervene (given the rather convenient timing), Cadance saw Fur off before leaving to ensure her fellow princess’ safety.

By daybreak, the news was spreading like wildfire. Talon had apparently snuck back in after Fur had left for a second attempt at the princess, but was captured by Luna’s thestral guards that Cadance had sent to watch over Twilight. Fur’s suspicions had also been confirmed when a pouch, partially filled with a white powdery substance, was found in the gryphon’s room during a search by the guards. When he was brought to trial before the princesses, he’d apparently tried to play the victim card; but his lack of injuries and calling his ‘attacker’ a lunatic before the lunar diarch herself didn’t help his cause, and he was soon banished from Equestria, the Griphonian embassy apologising and attempting to make up for their mistake. Whether they were involved in the plot or not remains uncertain.

Unfortunately, things were not as cut-and-dry for Fur; his father having caught him returning to his room that morning and admonishing him for using the cloak, especially without express consent. The cloak was locked away in its case before Fur’s father left for work and Fur collapsed into bed from all the exertion he’d been put through in one night.