Crystal Cat

The creature looked up at the guard and upon realizing that she had been discovered jumped back in fear and said "Ah! Please! Don't hurt Molly! Molly just lying here! Never saw me! You never saw me!" The guard was curious about this creature, he had never seen anything like it before, some kind of bipedal cat creature with a worn and torn brown skirt with matching jacket, presumably to hide visible genitalia and breasts.

The guard adopted a stern look and in his stoic voice said "Come with me". The creature, who had revealed her name to be Molly, simply obeyed and followed the guard with a dejected look and the horrible feeling that she was about to be imprisoned or worse. A few more guards joined the one that had found Molly as they walked her towards the palace where Shining Armor and Cadance were waiting to see what the guards had found. "Your majesties...." said the guard "We found this strange creature in the frozen wastelands, it is unknown what its intended purpose is for being in the Crystal Empire".

Molly decided to interject "I'll tell! I'm no threat I promise! Let me talk! Let me talk!"

Shining Armor looked to Cadance who simply nodded, Shining Armor said "Guards, you are dismissed, please allow me to talk to this creature"

The guards bowed before saying "As you wish your majesty" and left Shining Armor and Cadance to talk to Molly.

Shining Armor was wary of this creature, it appeared to be some kind of cat, but walking on two legs. "What are you?"

Molly smiled cutely and said "My name is Molly! I'm a crystal cat! That's why I live here in the Crystal Empire, it's where all of my kind lives!"

Cadance went "Well then where is the rest of your kind?"

Molly said "We live underground in burrows, I promise I'm not here to hurt any pony! I've been kicked out of my clan for breaking the rules and was just sat in the snow"

Cadance said "What rule did you break?"

Molly said "I disobeyed a direct order from the matriarch and was considered a bad influence on the other underlings, I'm a stray kitty". Molly looked heartbroken, Shining Armor and Cadance looked at each other with concern, they had no idea if this creature was really in distress or was involved in some sort of clever ruse as a prelude to an attack, she could have been scouting out the area to look for weak points, there were so many things to consider.

Shining Armor said "Molly, you may reside within the palace momentarily with Cadance, meanwhile I'll be off on a mission to discover if what you say is the truth"

Molly smiled and jumped in the air with a "Yay!" She was certainly going to be an interesting visitor. While Cadance attempted to deal with this Shining Armor went to visit Sunburst, if anyone knew what this "Molly" was then it would be him.

Shining Armor knocked on the door of Sunburst's home and when he opened it the orange unicorn was a little shocked, he didn't often get visitors, let alone from royalty. "Oh! Your majesty..." he said "Um, what a surprise to see you here! Can I help you?"

Sunburst seemed more awkward than usual, Shining Armor said "Not interrupting anything am I?"

Sunburst just laughed nervously and said "No! Not at all! I was just-"

That's when Starlight Glimmer appeared and said "Oh... it was great seeing you Sunburst, I can't wait until the next time we get to f..." Starlight immediately stopped talking when she noticed Shining Armor at the door. There was a brief silence before Starlight just went "Well, like I said it was great seeing you! I love these visits! Bye!" Starlight galloped off, eager to escape the unpleasant situation.

Sunburst chuckled and said "Uh... well, please do come in, your majesty"

Shining Armor walked in and made himself at home while Sunburst shut and locked the door before saying "So what can I help you with your majesty?"

Shining Armor said "Recently, an unidentified creature was found in the frozen wastelands, we don't know its origin, where it came from, or its intent. I've come to you for information on the species, it claims it is native to the Crystal Empire, says that it is something known as a "crystal cat", what do you know?" Sunburst rubbed his chin with a hoof before going to a nearby bookshelf, after going through several books he pulled out one titled "Crystal Empire Creatures: A Compendium".

After flicking through its pages he went "Aha, here we are, Cattus Crystallo, commonly known as the crystal cat. A bipedal species native to areas where crystals are present, the reason behind their admiration for crystals is unknown but it has been theorized that, similar to a magpie, crystal cats just like the beauty and shine of crystals more than any other substance despite having no apparent use for them."

Shining Armor was intrigued, "Go on" he said.

Sunburst kept reading, "Main food source is as you might expect from a normal cat, small mice and birds, fish etc. have no natural predators but tend to give a wide berth to other species as a safety precaution".

This was all very interesting but it wasn't quite addressing Shining Armor's concerns enough, "Look, as fascinating as this information is there is one thing I need to know, is it a threat? The creature referred to different types of cat, a matriarch and... underlings I think it was".

Sunburst scanned through the pages and went "Ah yes! Here it is! Crystal Cats are a predominantly female orientated society, they have a line of command so to speak. Leader of the clan is known as the matriarch, the matriarch will often have one or multiple lieutenants, then those lieutenants direct the soldiers, soldiers keep the workers in check and at the bottom of the heap is the underlings, they are essentially the civilians of crystal cat society".

Now they were getting somewhere, Shining Armor was relieved to find that Molly was at least telling the truth, "Is it possible that she is some kind of military scout?"

Sunburst shook his head and said "Not likely, crystal cats are notorious for keeping themselves to themselves. Though if this crystal cat was alone then the likelihood is that it has been rejected by the clan and is most likely not permitted to return, the assumption being that if it does then... well, let's say the other cats will find a way to deal with the problem of a rogue clan member more permanently".

That was reassuring, sort of. "Is there any other information? Are they related to diamond dogs somehow? I also remember Twily mentioned some kind of cat guy named "Capper" that she and her friends met in Kluge Town".

Sunburst said "Well I can certainly say that despite the similarities such as burrowing into the ground for warmth, there is no apparent link to diamond dogs, as for this "Capper" character you mentioned it is unlikely that he is a crystal cat if he lives in Kluge Town, the climate is too hot, it's more likely that he is a member of a distantly related cat species and nothing more."

With that, Shining Armor was satisfied, "Thank you Sunburst, you have been very useful".

As Shining Armor took his leave to return to the palace Sunburst simply said "Any time your majesty!" Now to deal with Molly.