Life Finds a Way

Friday, September 11th, 909 AB (the next day)
A few hours before sunrise

A feeling of unease wriggles its way into Cure’s gut, bringing him from his nearly sleeping torpor to full wakefulness in only a split second. Not even fully conscious of his surroundings, a Teleport crystal activates, bringing his melee specialized spider dragon into their room, positioning itself to shield both himself and his mother from any would-be intruder.

Stirred from her sleep by the sudden blinding flash, Amethyst flails wildly and rolls to her back, leaving the colt on her right as she rubs her eyes with her fetlocks. “Whatthafuck hap-” she starts, still blinking the spots from her eyes before coming face to abdomen with his unholy chimera. A glass-shattering scream tears itself from her throat and only a quickly erected Sound Bubble saves the entire castle battalion from being instantly propelled to full combat alert.

“Mom! It’s me!” he shouts, climbing atop her and grabbing her cheeks between his hooves. With his head blocking most of the view of his spider, he shakes her while shouting, “We’re safe! It’s my puppet! I teleported it here to protect you!” With her still processing what he told her, he focuses on scanning the room with horn auras and dozens of unblinking eyes.

“That,” she hisses, wildly pointing a hoof at the monstrosity hovering over the pair, “is your idea of protecting me? Givin me a heart attack in the middle ‘a the night?!”

“That went toe… hoof to hoof with the most powerful being we know.” He glances up and gives a half-hearted shrug. “Or, at least, a version of it. This one’s slower but has thicker armor. I don’t know what I felt, but something isn’t right.” A shudder passes through his whole body, but despite all of his senses, nothing in his room seems amiss.

“You sure it wasn’t just gas?”

Cure rolls his eyes, fully aware his mom can see it in the near pitch black darkness of the room. “It’s not gas, mom,” he huffs in exasperation. “You know I don’t fart anymore. No,” he pauses, checking the surroundings of his clinic and scanning over the castle grounds he can see. Once again he finds nothing out of place; the courtyard is empty aside from patrols and guards can be seen atop the wall’s crenulations and circling in the air. “Nothing seems out of place.”

“Great,” she grumbles, nudging him off of her chest so she can roll to her hooves. “How ‘bout you sort that out while I drain what little pee ya didn’t already scare outta me.”

“Sure, momma!” he happily chirps, using his construct to pick the mare up and set her gently on the floor. The annoyed, indignant look over her withers only worsens when it gently gives her a pat on her head, then nudges her rear to get her moving. A few curses and unmotherly grumbles escape as she none too gently kicks the door shut behind her.

Reaching further out, he has sensory organs sprout throughout the plants lining the base of the mountain. It only takes a moment for him to find something out of place. A single bat pony mare is poking around the base of a couple juniper trees where the ground starts to really level out.

Curiosity piqued, Cure observes as she continues probing around until, finally, she appears to find something appealing. She comes to a stop in front of a large, flourishing holly flush with bright berries that the local birds had been excited to find and gives it a few extra sniffs.

Leaning in deeper past the bundles of berries, she chomps down on a leafy branch and withdraws, pulling a bundle of leaves off into her mouth. She gives them a couple tentative chews before retching, spitting them out, and shaking her head vigorously. Furious at being denied something nourishing, she attacks the shrub with abandon, throwing berries all over the place then latching onto the branch at its base with her teeth. One quick jerk and she rips the whole branch off, throwing it away with a swing of her neck.

That is not something a female bat her size should be able to easily manage.

Even without the bizarre display, Cure was already fairly confident about what he was dealing with. While bats enjoy meat more than the more herbivorous tribes, there’s no reason why one would find the flavor so offensive. The leaves would be bland, perhaps, but that’s what you should expect when munching on some random bush.

Cure’s infantile mind pauses to chuckle at the inadvertently bawdy thought. “Hey ma,” he calls as the bathroom door swings open, “some mare at the bottom of the mountain is trying to snack on my wood.”

Left foreleg hanging in the air midstep, Amethyst blinks in shock at the statement. “Huh?”

“Yup!” he confirms, barely fighting back his laughter. “She wrapped her mouth around the base and didn’t stop until she got the whole thing. Ended up with a real mouthful, she did! I didn’t hold back and let her have her prize, but apparently she didn’t care for the flavor. The ingrate ended up spitting it back out! Not the kind of behavior you’d expect from a proper lady, is it?”

“Cure,” she sighs, shaking her head in despondence. “Yer poor dam would snatch you up -” she pauses to look up “- big, scary spider thing or no, drag ya inta that there bathroom, and spend all night washin that mouth a’ yers out if she heard half’a what you just said.”

Snickering at his own crude humor, Cure can only nod in agreement. “Good thing she ain’t here. Seriously, though, she isn't actually a pony. It’s one of those vampire fucks like the one that was eye humping me a few weeks ago. It’s sniffin around some plants I had at the base of the mountain. It took a bite of one, but doesn’t seem to have enjoyed the free salad.”

“We probably ought’a tell somepony. Think we should wake the princess?”

“Why bother?” he asks, shrugging his wings. “It’s not a threat to anypony as far as I can tell. Not right this instant, at least. There's no need to raise the alarm or anything.”

Amethyst hums in consideration for a moment before shaking her head. “I dunno, colt. Ya got no idea what them things can do.”

“And I’ll never figure it out as long as Celestia wants to coddle me. Twenty bits says we alert the Guard and she’ll want to lock me in my room ‘till it’s dealt with. ‘For my own safety,’” he mockingly adds. “Don’t worry ma, I’m not even leaving the room. This thing,” he gestures up to his spider, “only lost to her when she went all walking-sun mode on me. If those things could throw down like that I’m pretty sure ponykind would be extinct by now.”

Decision made, Cure Teleports his spider back out to his clinic and begins assembling a new one out of sight of his target. It’s not the most convenient solution, but at least he won’t scare the monster away with the bright flash the Teleport would have caused.

With the intimidating protector no longer present, Amethyst climbs on the bed and wraps her forelegs around him, smushing him against the mattress. “What are ya gonna do with it? Kill it?”

Cure shakes his head no, explaining, “Nah. I figured I’d give it a few tests and see how it reacts. Maybe afterwards we’ll hoof it over, but not ‘till I’ve seen what all it can do. It’s not worth waking her up over, but Canterlot is her territory, so once I’m done I'll let her have it. Honestly, even if it is a monster I’m not sure I have the heart to just rip its head off. I’ve never killed anything bigger than a bug on purpose.” A second of consideration has him amending, “Well, some fish, I guess, depending on how you want to tally everything up. But those were eaten, at least.”

His mother huffs and shakes her head, struggling to not feel sympathy for the monster that the colt is about to be inflicted upon. “Well whatever ya decide, don’t go torturin it. Evil or not, there ain’t no reason fer that.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, ma. I don’t have to hurt it to see how it ticks. Probably. I’ll see how it reacts before I do anything. For all I know they could be like the changelings; hungry, but lacking a way to eat without hurting ponies.” He leans up, nuzzling against the bottom of her chin. “Sorry for scarin the piss outta ya when you woke up.”

Sinking down on top of him with a groan, Amethyst shakes her head in dismissal. “No harm done, I reckon. Rather ya be a little overcautious, all things tha same.”

“Want me to send you back to na-night land?”

A jaw-splitting yawn forces itself from her muzzle. “Nah. It’s fine,” she declines, pulling him against her chest as she rolls to her left side. “Tell me what’s happenin, though. Wanna make sure you don’t do anything too dumb.”

“Perish the thought,” he agrees, nodding his left cheek against her foreleg. “I’ll send a pony body first to see how it responds.” Figuring he should start with an adult to see the reaction, Cure makes an adult stallion bat pony puppet out of sight and has it fly in the mare's direction, but not before adding a full set of accessories.

Armed and armored, the charcoal stallion lazily flies from the east side of the mountain, sliding only a hundred meters through the air. Its wing flaps can be heard from the suspected vampony’s position well before it becomes visible. Initially, the creature stops what it’s doing, ducking into the foliage until it catches sight of the new arrival.

Upon seeing that the stallion is flying alone, the Illusion wrapped around the mare alters itself. Bleeding gashes and cuts and rents in her wings appear where healthy, undamaged skin previously was. Limping pathetically out of cover, she collapses to her barrel with a fake cry of pain.

Cure begins moving his spider, silently crawling through the trees and bushes to flank her while his stallion puppet turns to investigate. A few slow loops overhead and he finally calls out, asking if the disguised mare needs any assistance. She continues to play possum, not moving or responding, luring the Guard into the trap, all the while unaware of the real hunter moving into position behind her.

With the spider finally ready to pounce on its prey, the stallion lands several meters away. “Miss? You alright over there?” he calls once again, failing to get any response. Cautiously approaching the prone mare, he continues playing the part. “Do you need medical attention?”

“Please,” she weakly responds, reaching a hoof out without raising her head, “I hit a tree and fell.” Her eyes crack open to meet his own. “Can you please help me up?”

A trickle of magic invades the puppet’s eyes, bypassing Cure’s subdermal defenses. It dissipates harmlessly where the optical nerves end and are replaced with copper wiring instead. He has a pretty good guess what the mare just attempted, but it would seem that his nonbiological additions have mitigated her attempt to subvert his will. Cure briefly wonders if the magic would be capable of passing through the blood-bound ring, but can’t think of a way to test that without unnecessarily risking himself. “Hypnosis, huh?” he ponders aloud. “That must make capturing victims a whole lot easier.”

If the mare is surprised at his resistance she doesn’t show it at all. Instead, she reiterates with another blast of magic, “Please, I’m very badly injured. Will you come help me up?”

“Listen, lady… assuming you are, indeed, female. Whatever mental command thing you’re doing isn’t working. Also, your Illusion isn’t fooling me. You,” he emphasizes, pointing his hoof in accusation, “are not a pony. We can do this one of two ways. I can beat the crap out of you and hoof you over to the princess and her paladins, or we can have a civil conversation and you might just get out of this alive. Maybe. So what’s it going to be?”

Once again she fails to show any emotional reaction either visibly or through a change in her scent. Instead, she gives up the act and stands, squaring off with the stallion aggressively. “How stupid must you be to approach me alone, then, pony. How did you know?”

“Oh, that’s easy. I was keeping an eye on you while you were digging in the bushes. I saw you before you made yourself look injured. There’s also a few other things that don’t add up, now that I’ve gotten a better look. You’re a little too cold and your scent is completely off, especially your breath which is… frankly, nasty doesn’t even scratch the surface. There’s also this,” he says, holding his left forehoof up to reveal an ultraviolet emitter he grew on his frog.

The mare hisses and dives out of the light as steam wafts off of her face, neck, and chest. Her left wing gets the worst when she uses it as a shield, and the Illusion is dispelled completely when she lands in a heap.

“Wow. My bad,” he halfheartedly apologizes. “I didn’t expect that bad of a response. Not a big fan of UV light, are ya?” As much as it feels a perfect time to quote one of his favorite movies, Cure keeps quiet as, hissing and snarling, the creature rises from the ground, glaring balefully in his direction. “Feel free to attack, but just know that I can do that from any part of my body. Again, you have two options here," he says with a shrug. "We can talk or we can fight. It doesn’t really make a big difference to me. Are you intelligent enough to have a conversation, or are just some mindless animal that’s learned enough to lure in unsuspecting -”

It launches itself at him mid-question, claws and jagged teeth at the ready. Cure angles himself left and rears up, batting both foreclaws to his right with his right foreleg. His left shoots up in a forceful kick, slamming her mouth shut with a mere fraction of his full power. The blow seems to rattle its brain as it takes a second to recover. Cure backs off to his left and drops to all fours, lifting his wings in threat.

The creature doesn’t hesitate to attack again, pouncing at its target with naked aggression. The stallion ducks down, swinging up with his right wing in an uppercut strike to its barrel. He grabs on to its underbelly with the membrane of his wing, then rises up underneath it and leans to his left, rolling her with force over his back and slamming her back-first into the ground.

Cure stomps down with his left hind leg, demolishing the monster's wing's left humerus and eliciting a gasp of pain in the process. He allows it to roll away while resetting his stance and giving it a look of boredom. “I’m stronger, faster, and far tougher than you are. I’ll admit, if I was a normal bat you may have had a fighting chance, but… I’m not. Last chance.”

“I WILL FEAST ON YOUR HEART!” it snarls, ducking down to pounce once again.

Cure outright guffaws in its face, shaking his head in disappointment. “I swear, I never, ever, not in a million years expected something to actually say anything like that to me. I mean… does that actually scare -”

Once again interrupting his speech, it dives forward attempting some kind of tackle. This time going low for Cure’s legs, the beast is dodged with a hop to his right. Turning his body as he lands, Cure lashes out with both hind legs. Both armored hooves land true, sending the vampire rolling across the ground and bouncing on more than a few rocks protruding through the dirt.

Its left wing is completely destroyed with the attack, and Cure is almost certain he at least cracked a few of its ribs. It comes to a stop several meters away in a heap, whimpering pathetically in pain. Even though the monster has made several attempts to kill him, he can’t help but feel a slight pang of guilt at the canine-like cry of anguish.

It's not that he feels bad for the creature; it has more than exhausted his extremely limited “interrupted my sleep” amounts of patience. The sound is just way too similar to something he heard from an aging pet in another life, twinging something sympathetic in the back of his mind.

“So… are you done now?” he asks, walking to stand over his would-be attacker.

A weak swipe of its claws skidding harmlessly off of his shin guard is its only answer. “Disappointing. Well, let’s see what makes you tick, then I'll fix you up some, then we'll see what Tia wants to do with ya.” With the spider nearby, there is no need for him to grow another horn on his puppet. He begins his scan of the monster, its anatomy flooding into his mind in an instant. His magic no more than floods through the beast when it erupts into a geyser of gore, exploding all over the stallion and the surroundings.

Standing there, blinking in shock with black gooey chunks of vampire running down his face, a thought comes unbidden with so much force that it escapes his muzzle with nary a thought.

“Eugh! It got in my everything!”

Shortly before sunrise

“Ohh TiiiiiaAAaaaa~” Cure croons, leaning to snuffle at the base of the princess’s right ear. Forehooves on the side of the bed, the colt struggles not to hop up and wrap her neck in a hug. Despite the ancient mare’s large frame, her adorable sleeping visage is just too difficult to resist. His small tongue snakes out, grooming the floppy appendage into submission and earning him more than a few face whacks in the process. “It’s time for all the pretty pony princesses to get out of bed and raise the sun. Let’s go bring another beautiful day to all of our little ponies!”

“Go ‘way. F’ve m’re mins.”

“You did not just ‘Five more minutes’ me!” he amusedly huffs. “You either get that fanny outta bed or I’m gonna hop up there and drag ya out by yer tail, little missy!”

Slowly, Celestia twists her neck to give the diminutive foal a doubtful look over her withers.

Hoof thrusting authoratatively, Cure bobs his head from side to side. “I will do it! Don’t you doubt for a minute! And you keep givin me that side-eye and I promise I’ll make ya regret it!” He leans forward in a poor attempt to intimidate one of the most powerful beings on the planet. “I showed you what it’s like to have an intense itch. Just imagine if I set that to ‘tickle’ instead.”

It only takes a fraction of a second for the threat to register before her eyes go wide.

“Uh huh,” he knowingly grunts. “I’ll have ya dancin and gigglin like a fool in front’a Primrose if I gotta. Bet them guards outside yer door would tell everypony ‘bout the princess laughin her flanks off.”

“You are entirely too chipper for this early in the morning.”

“Eh,” he shrugs his forelegs and wings, “I had a good night. Took a long, hot bath, fell asleep right away, killed a vampony, then woke up to a… well… not great, but a nice relaxing preening from my ma. I think she was feeling a little more clingy than normal.”

“Wait, you did what?!” she asks, suddenly alarmed.

“A bath. You know. Hot water. A tub. Some bubbles. You should try it someday. Maybe let them wingpits soak a little more, ya know?”

The completely flat look he earns brings joy to his very soul.

“You know exactly what I meant.”

“There wasn’t much to it, really. I woke up feeling like something wasn’t right, so I started looking around. When I didn’t find anything around the castle I started expanding the search area until I finally found it. It was disguised as a female bat sniffin around the bottom of the mountain. I moved one of my fighter units within range, then flew another puppet nearby disguised as a night guard stallion. I had expected it to hide and wait for an easier target, but it pretended to be wounded and cried for help.”

“I presume it attacked when you tried to render aid?”

“Not until I made it clear that I knew what it was. I tried talking a couple times, but it just kept throwing itself at me. I honestly expected it to be a lot stronger than it was. I would peg it somewhere around baseline earth pony, so, ya know, stronger than a bat by a fair amount, but nothin I couldn’t take care of easily enough. I don’t know how those things could ever have been a problem for a few well trained guards, let alone you and Luna. And, by the way, do you remember my theory about my blood maybe being toxic to ‘em someday?”

In one fluid motion, she rolls over, shoots to her haunches, and snatches the foal up off the floor, checking him from tail to snout for any sign of injury, all while wailing, “Please tell me you did not get bitten!” despite his many protests.

“Easy, boss! I’m perfectly fine!” he insists, frantically waving his forelegs. “What I was gonna say is that my magic itself seems to be more than enough. I scanned the damn thing and it popped like a friggin water balloon. I mean, we’re talkin nasty with a capital N. I had to blast the whole area with so much UV that even the trees ended up with sunburn before I got it all cleaned up.” Groaning, he sags in her grip. “Talk about a real pain in the ass. That shit got everywhere, I’ll tell ya what.”

The princess sighs and nods in acceptance, allowing the colt to relax in her grip before it suddenly tightens. “WHAT. WERE. YOU. THINKING?!” she demands, giving him a small shake with each word.

He reaches up with his hooves and grabs ahold of his temples, steadying his eyeballs rolling around in his head. “That you would probably overreact if I woke you up?” he matter-of-factly answers. “So far I’m inclined to say my guess was dead on.”

Celestia drops him on the bed and looks up to the ceiling, silently begging the maker, Harmony, or any other higher being for help. Sadly, none is forthcoming to save her from the tiny ball of chaos that she has been saddled with. “We have guards, Cure! Real ones! They are specifically trained to deal with such threats!”

“And how quickly could they be deployed?”

“There are squads in the city! They could have been there in a matter of minutes!”

“In which time I already had it disabled with no risk to anypony at all.”

“Except yourself!” she grounds out through clenched teeth.

“I’ll admit, the hypnosis thing did kind of catch me by surprise, but other than that, it never stood a chance. I’ve fought ten year old fillies in guard practice that gave me more of a challenge than that thing did. Seriously, the only difficult part was coming to terms with the fact that I killed something intelligent, but it’s kinda hard to feel bad when you give something like… four chances to talk and it just keeps attacking.” Pausing only a split second, he adds, “Snuggles with ma helped a fair bit, too.”

The mare’s anger dissipates and she pulls him against her barrel, surrounding the colt in a warm wing embrace. “Are you okay?” she softly asks, running her hoof down his back.

“I guess,” he says, burrowing deeper into her fluffy chest. “I mean, I’m sure I’d feel a lot worse if the thing actually wanted to have a real conversation, but all it did was try to bait me into a trap, hypnotize me, then tell me how it was going to eat me alive. I’m sure I could take a life if I absolutely had to. Or I was super pissed off, I guess. Other than that there’s very few scenarios I can imagine I would ever need to.”

“As much as I wish I could say you should never be put in such a position, when one lives as long as us then it is all but inevitable. That said, you are nine!” she growls, squeezing him harder. “There is no need for you to do anything that could put your safety at risk!”

He leans away from her chest to look up and meet her eyes. “What risk was there? Even you knew better than to get within grabbing range of that construct. I could have squashed that thing like a bug, and that's without even knowing that my magic is potassium to their water.”

Celestia raises a brow in question.

Flatly, he explains, “They do not mix well. At all.”

“I see. Regardless, tell me what would have happened had you not been able to resist the mental influence?”

Cure has the good sense to cringe at the question. “That would have been more than a little problematic.”

“You don't say?” she lightly asks.

“I guess it would depend on how quickly I would be able to overcome it if it did land. I'm assuming mind control is not a once and done thing, right? You have to maintain it, don't you?”

She sucks in a deep breath and slowly blows it out, forcing herself to calm down. “You do. Not only magically, but you must also fight to suppress your target’s will. For that reason alone I cannot imagine this… thing would have ever had a real chance to subvert you.”

“Then why…”

“The next time could be different. Our paladins fight as a team. Nopony should ever face any monster alone. When there is not somepony watching your back then one single mistake can result in disaster.”

“My mom was there. In my room, holding me against her chest. Keep in mind, Tia, I wasn't actually there fighting that thing. I can't imagine a set of circumstances that would result in them evolving to be able to hypnotize somepony through a nonstandard medium like one of my puppets.”

“I suppose there is that,” she agrees with a sigh.

“See? I was perfectly safe,” he insists, coughing awkwardly and turning away from her less than pleased stare. “So… last I checked, we do need to raise the sun at some point. Don’t worry,” he rushes to assure her, “if anypony asks, I’ll give you most of the credit. Especially if you somehow screw it all up.”

“Such as raising it from the west, instead?” she lightly teases.

Cure leans away and looks up, his humor replaced with an unusually serious expression. “I really, really hope you’ve never done anything funky with the sun or moon like that.”

Taken aback, Celestia meekly nods in response. “I have, but not for a very long time. Why? Aside from releasing a statement to the press -”

“You could get innocent creatures killed, boss. I remember reading something about some scholars failing to predict an eclipse at one point -”

“An… eclipse? Of the moon and the sun?” she interrupts, voice full of confusion. “We have not allowed such an event to occur since we assumed our duties. I recall he found the chaos they caused greatly amusing.”

“Right. That’s exactly what happened in my story. Pure, unbridled chaos. They thought some deity was angry and had blocked out the sun. I think some folks lost their lives for failing to see it coming. Others, probably, as some kind of sacrifice to appease the offended god. Given how superstitious and paranoid creatures can be, I don’t doubt something like that is possible.”

“Again, if such a thing were to occur then we would promptly release a statement explaining what happened.”

“Uh huh. And what about anything on the other side of the planet? What does it look like from their perspective? Does the sun suddenly go zipping across the sky in the wrong direction?”

“... I suppose it would,” she hesitantly replies.

“And evercreature over there would freak the fudge out, especially if such a thing hasn’t happened in generations.”

A grimace crosses the mare’s features, looking incredibly out of place where there is normally nothing but confidence. “I will keep that in mind going forward.”

“That’s probably a good idea. We don’t want to eventually find out that you got a few hundred virgins killed for a prank.”

The walk to the dining room takes longer than usual. With the competition coming to an end everypony is busy preparing for the upcoming celebration that is happening this evening. Though the party itself will be in the west ballroom, every square millimeter of the castle must be cleaned from the top to bottom. While everypony rushes to get out of the way of the royal procession, the small pauses at intersections and time spent stopping to exchange a few words still slows them from reaching their breakfast.

Finally, the double doors open, revealing the captain and lieutenant both shooting to their hooves to stand at attention. “Good morning, your majesties,” they greet in unison, waiting until Celestia, Cure, and Amethyst are seated before retaking their cushions.

“You requested our presence, your majesty?” Captain Shield asks in an instant. “If this is about the dog, ma’am, Colonel Mayday assured me -”

“Peace, captain,” Celestia interrupts, her hoof held up to calm the mare. “No, I am not the slightest worried about how a dog, of all things, somehow managed to penetrate the event ground’s security. I am certain I know who the true culprit behind that was. Rest assured, there will be no further disruptions to the event from that party.”

“Good!” Cure energetically declares, slamming his hoof on the table. “I hope you really gave them what for, boss. That somepony would have the gall to do such a thing is downright disrespectful! Not just to the guards who are competing, but also to the ponies that worked so hard to organize everything. Also, all of the little ponies who took the time out of their day to see for themselves that Equestria’s guardians are up to any challenge. I count myself in their number, though I don’t take any offense myself. It was, after all, a mildly entertaining distraction. My opinion aside, I hope you threw the book at the offender,” he firmly insists with a nod of finality.

The mare doesn’t turn or acknowledge his speech. She merely closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, counts to ten, and slowly exhales through her snout. “Yes. Moving on,” she insists, giving him a stern look, she turns back to the captain and continues, “I asked for you to come so that you could dispatch a team to the south side of the mountain. A vampony was spotted in the area last night.”

Both officers’ eyes widen at the reveal and Shield begins to rise with a sense of urgency, pausing when Celestia once again raises her hoof. “It has been slain and the remains were cleaned up, but I would like somepony experienced with the monsters to double check that nothing was missed. Also, it seems prudent to have teams scout the edge of the Everfree to ensure there are no signs of anything else nearby that may pose a threat.”

“Yes, ma’am! Do we know who killed it, ma’am?”

Celestia sighs once again and slowly turns her head to the colt. “That would be our young prince, purportedly.”

Cure buffs his hoof against his chest, preening at the disbelieving looks both mares send his way. "Whooped its ass clear ta Tuesday," he proudly boasts.

“Ahh, your suit!” Lieutenant Spear finally guesses.

“Yep! Gave the thing a right proper whoopin, I did!” he declares, throwing a few jabs over the table. “Also, it turns out my magic makes them blow up, so… yeah. Could have just used my special talent from the beginning, I guess.”

“I would advise you to do so in the future,” Celestia gruffly insists.

“Noted. And I already checked through the forest. I found a dead, exsanguinated fox a dozen klicks south and to the west a bit, but it didn’t have anything weird in it, so… a snack, maybe?”

“Likely so,” Celestia agrees with a nod. “Still, it is worrying that two of them have shown up in less than a month, seemingly attracted to you for some reason. I am beginning to think we may need to put out a warning to the public.”

“It wouldn’t be a terrible idea. By the way, I learned that ultraviolet light burns them pretty quickly, so some kind of UV projector would be a good way to dispel their Illusions, even at a pretty low level of power. I would suggest using stronger ones as a weapon, but UV light is dangerous to play with. It’ll blind ya real fast if you don’t wear eye protection.”

Celestia agrees with a nod. “I will make the suggestion to Chancellor Stormsurge when I next see him. He has teams that should be able to come up with something, be it equipment or some kind of modification to the shield spell. I am more concerned with where the creatures are coming from, however.” Turning back to the officers, she asks, “We have not had any reports of missing ponies recently, have we?”

“No, ma’am,” Captain Shield denies, “but there’s always smaller communities that we don’t hear from as often. Also, ponies travel from city to city by hoof even with the rails covering most of the country. They usually move in groups, but… well… not always, ma’am.”

“There’s always my bugs,” Cure suggests. “Once those get the stamp of approval we’ll have a wide-reaching, cheap, safe, and quickly deployable way to find and kill off these things. Especially now that I know UV works so well. Just you watch,” he assures her, reaching over to pat her left hoof, “they won’t have anywhere in Equestria to hide once I get started."

"I hope that they work as well as you expect."

"There's not a doubt in my mind, princess."

The captain and lieutenant begin to stand, "If you'll pardon us, ma'am, sir, we'll go get those teams organized right away."

"Have you already eaten breakfast?" Celestia inquires, causing both ponies to freeze in place. "I know I summoned you rather early. Surely you can eat before departing? The immediate threat is dealt with, and food should be..." she pauses when the service door swings open. "Ah, there we go. Go ahead and have a seat, captain, lieutenant. A few minutes will harm nopony."

Though they look somewhat hesitant to do so, both officers sit as food is set down in front of everypony. Cure wiggles happily in his seat when a big, steaming plate of French toast is set in front of him. Four thick slices of batter-soaked and pan seared bread are stacked nearly a hoof high with another artfully laid off-center. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and slices of banana decorate the outside of the main dish which is topped off with a generous dallop of whipped cream.

Wings and tail dancing behind him, Cure is so enraptured by his meal that he fails to pay attention to the lieutenant. The mare had inconspicuously reached into her armor and pulled out a folded up copy of the newspaper, holding it in her left hoof while she started to eat. Fork laden with food, Captain Shield leans closer to hum in thought while reading the article with her.

The odd behavior draws looks of confusion from both Celestia and Amethyst, all the while Cure is none the wiser. Shield pries the paper out of her hoof and passes it to the princess who spends a moment reading the article.

"So," the pegasus casually begins, "I've finally gotten a few bulbs from my oil plants. I have to admit," she says, leaning slightly left to stretch her right wing to full extensions, "I'm quite enjoying the yellow hydrangea. The scent is absolutely lovely, and my husband says the sheen is marvelous. How are yours coming along, majesty?"

The vicious assault on Cure's toast comes to an abrupt halt as his eyes snap up to take in the outstretched appendage.

"Quite well. I was also very impressed with how easily the oil spreads." Two glorious white wings open wide, nearly filling the room with their magnificence. Jaw hanging open in shock, Cure nearly loses his grip on his fork. "I have tried countless oils over the years, as you would expect," she runs a hoof through her left wing, brushing through the feathers, "but many of them have been disappointing due to how much they run down the coverts and into the my secondaries and primaries. It can be so bothersome to get it just right, and nopony wants to go around dripping all day."

The fork clatters loudly on the table.

"Mmhmm. That is the worst, isn't it?"

"It absolutely is," she agrees, lessening the world when she refolds her wings. "Is something the matter with your breakfast, Cure? Your dam told me that this is one of your favorite recipes. I do hope the kitchen got it right."

"Yeah," he weakly mumbles, picking back up his fork. "Toast good. Very food."