Jay hadn't meant to fall asleep. Whether it was a sign that he was comfortable in his new home or was adapting to 'normal' life again he wasn't sure, but either way he had unintentionally fallen asleep in his bed only to be woken up seemingly soon after by the sound of a scroll materializing from his calling card. Jay grabbed the scroll from where it had fallen onto his bed and unrolled it, idly noting the shield and star emblem on the ribbon that had held it shut.

Daedalus,

Firstly, I'd like to congratulate you on your first hunt. Not many ponies- or evolved- can claim to have killed a hydra. Second, I'd like to apologize for contacting you so early in the morning and on such short notice. However, I have a favor to ask of you. If you are available today, I'd like you to come down to the royal training grounds at the base of Canterhorn Mountain. Myself, as well as many of my higher ranking guardsponies, would like to discuss with you efforts we should take in the event a more hostile evolved were to somehow arrive in Equestria. If you are free and willing to help, just head out the main gate to the city and follow the cobbled path on the right. You can't miss it.

Captain of the Combined Royal Guards
Shining Armor

P.S. I'd also like to talk to you in private.

Jay rolled out of bed and opened one of the drawers on the desk he had been provided, removing a scroll. He grabbed an ink well and quill and quickly wrote out a quick, albeit messy, reply.

Shining Armor,

Thank you for the congratulations. It had been an eventful night that nearly ended badly for one of us, but fortunately we made it home with only a minor injury among us. Secondly, there's no need to apologize. An early scroll isn't an inconvenience at all. Of course, I'd be more than happy to help the Guards prepare for such an event, though I dearly hope any training or preparation goes unneeded. I will be there shortly.

Lance Corporal Jay Fontenot

P.S. My real name is Jay Fontenot. I'd also like to talk to you in private as well, so that works out for me.

Thankful that Aqua had added other important imprints to his token, Jay held his calling card and Hunter token together before he tapped the rolled up scroll to them as he thought of the Captain. Immediately, the scroll erupted into a heatless fire before blowing away in orange wisps of smoke. The Evolved quickly grabbed his two swords and strapped them to his back using a copy of the original false-cloth strap formed out of his viral cells and then opened the closet door. If Shining had wanted to test things to find out an effective defense against Evolved, it would be best for him to come equipped like an Evolved. He quickly connected to the biomass cell and absorbed all except the frame, increasing his weight to five hundred five pounds. He hummed slightly as he realized that he had collected five pounds of biomass overnight, not quite sure just how the virus did that.

Now fully prepared to beat around some Royal Guards, he exited the room and made his way toward the royal training grounds. Once he exited the main door of the compound, he started heading toward the main entrance to the city. According to the letter, the grounds were at the base of the mountain beneath the main entrance yet he didn't remember seeing the area on the way to Canterlot either time.

Once he had made his way out of the castle and into the very early dawn, Jay picked up speed as he started to jog through the city. As he made his way toward the front gate of the city, he received quite a few waves and nods from the various ponies who were out and about, overall just having a more welcoming experience than he remembered last time he had walked through the streets. Then he smirked as he realized the myriad of pedestrians, while certainly not poor, also weren't coated in tens of pounds of jewelry. It seemed the nobles didn't quite like waking up at the crack of dawn.

Once out of the city, he spotted the cobblestone road easily enough. Shining had been right, he couldn't miss it. It was easily ten feet wide and had a gentle, winding slope that slowly angled down. Once he was on the path, he picked up speed even further as he followed the road at a calm speed of sixty miles an hour, soon finding out why he hadn't spotted the area yet. Situated in a natural alcove between two of the smaller peaks of the mountain range, the training grounds blended in quite well with a natural stone wall extended thirty feet up. Idly, Jay considered just leaping over the wall before deciding that just maybe giving the guards a heart attack wouldn't be the best idea. Instead, he just stopped just outside the closed gate. Before he could knock, a large slit opened in the gate as two Solar Guards gazed at him. "Good morning, Mr. Daedalus. Please present your Hunter token."

With a nod, Jay pulled the medallion from underneath his shirt and showed it to the gate guards. In his grip, the token gave off a soft silver glow as it reacted to the touch of the Hunter it was meant for. With a nod, the two Guards accepted the authenticity of his identity. Silently, a small door concealed within the large gate swung open on silent hinges and he entered the training grounds only to stop just inside, momentarily caught off guard by the sheer size of the area thanks to the tall walls hiding the inner view.

Based inside a large, walled in compound spanning what Jay estimated was easily fifteen square miles, the guards clearly had all the space they would ever need to form, train, and maintain their forces. The compound consisted of a grid of large barracks that Jay figured could easily hold the entire Combined Royal Guards as each barracks was emblazoned with the emblem of either the Solar, Lunar, or Heart Guard. Situated in equal points in the grid of buildings were two larger open air mess halls that didn't seem to be divided into certain branches, instead allowing any Guard who was waking up or coming off a shift to get a hot meal. Next to the barracks was a collection of large, multistory buildings. If the number of windows was any indication, they were probably apartments for the higher ranking members who didn't stay in the barracks. In between the barracks and apartment complexes was another low, long building that Jay wasn't sure the purpose of but could guess was recreational in purpose.

Finally, the actual training grounds took up the rest of the rather large area. Jay took a quick glance across the place and saw a myriad of things. Six training courses of varying lengths and design curved slowly to match the outer curve of the far wall, some of the courses actively in use. With a few hundred foot buffer zone, a small group of Solar unicorns were practicing magic against both dummies and other Guards, seeming to be training unicorns on combat magic just as much as training non-unicorns on how to resist combat magic. Next to that, he could see Lunar Guards of varying races practicing with modified crossbows that seemed to connect to a special slot in their armor. A large collection of mixed unit guards were also practicing hoof to hoof combat and weaponry duels with wood replicas. Finally, Jay noticed a set of four familiar arenas set side by side next to a small building. Apparently, even the Royal Guard had a set of Discord's arenas to play with.

Even in the early hours of dawn, the Guard was active. Not even counting the number of ponies eating or practicing, there were also a large number of stallions and mares relaxing, chatting, walking, or flying about the area. Surprisingly, Jay didn't garner much attention as he made his way deeper into the grounds before a pegasus Solar guard caught up to him and hailed him. "Good morning, Lance Corporal. Captain Armor is waiting for you in the private arena."

When the pegasus gestured toward the small building next to the arenas, he was glad he chose to return to his usual density if they were going to through some practical tests into the mix with the discussions. With a quick "thank you" to the pegasus, he quickly made his way to the enclosed arena and entered. Inside, he found Captain Armor laying on the ground in his armor. The unicorn looked up when the door entered before he gave Jay a nod, then gestured next to him. The Greater Evolved made his way over and took a seat on the floor, crossing his legs. Shining Armor spoke first.

"Thank you for coming, Jay."

"It's not a problem, Captain. I'm more than happy to help out."

The unicorn nodded. "The others will be joining us in twenty. I wanted to talk to you before."

"I did as well." Jay agreed, nodding his head as he met Shining's eyes. "I wanted to apologize for attacking your sister."

Shining sighed softly as Jay accurately guessed at what he wanted to talk about. "I don't blame you, Jay. I know you weren't under your own control. It's just..."

"That's your sister." Jay continued when Shining trailed off. "Whether I was in control of my actions or not, she could have gotten hurt and that's weighing on you."

The Captain gave him a weak smile. "Well, hearing you apologize does help."

Jay chuckled softly. "I may not have a sister but I have a lot of close family too. I know the feeling."

The stallion's head tilted in surprise, looking at Jay. "I, uh, didn't want to ask."

The Evolved nodded. "Yeah, I get that. No siblings but I do have a mom, dad, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I grew up knowing all my extended family and cousins were no different to me than brothers or sisters."

When Jay didn't continue, Shining was quiet for a moment with a pensive look on his face. Then he continued, his voice quiet and tinted with concern. "If it doesn't bring up bad memories, what happened?"

Jay sighed softly. "They're alright, as far as I know. They were halfway across the country from where Blacklight happened, so they weren't at risk. They think I'm dead, though. When I got infected, I changed my name to Daedalus so that people couldn't link me to them and hurt them for what I was. I wish I hadn't needed to but, well, I'd rather my family be safe and think I'm dead than be in danger."

"Yeah, I get that." Shining nodded in understanding, glancing at Jay as if looking at him in a new light before the Evolved continued.

"I haven't talked to you much and for that, I'm sorry. You're the Captain of all the guards from what I understand. No doubt, you care deeply for your country, your ponies, and your family and I've already tried to hurt the last one. I promise you, Shining, that I'm not an enemy. I've come to see this place as home, something I thought I lost the right to when Mercer made me a monster. The ponies here have shown me nothing but acceptance and friendship. I'd never do anything to ruin that. Even if somehow Mercer himself were to arrive, I wouldn't turn. He doesn't have sway over me anymore."

Shining didn't say anything after that, thinking over what Jay had said. Though he didn't say it, the Evolved knew his words were just what the Captain had wanted to hear. Jay didn't feel a need to push anything, either. He just waited in a comfortable silence with the younger stallion.

It hadn't taken long for the others to arrive as the door to the private arena opened right on time and three ponies entered, one for each branch of the Royal Guard. All three Guards were fully armored, their colors matching their respective branches. The Solar Guard was a young, white coated pegasus mare. The Lunar Guard was an older looking earth pony stallion. The Heart Guard was a pink pegasus stallion. Each of them wore the dual silver stripes denoting the Captain rank. As they neared, Shining spoke. "Jay, these are the Captains of the branches of Equestria's Royal Guards who each run a branch mostly self sufficiently with only the barest oversight from me. The Solar mare is Captain Dawn, the Lunar stallion is Captain Azure, and the Heart stallion is Captain Break. Captains, this is Jay. I trust you three know why we're all here?"

As Captain Armor introduced each of his subordinates, they gave him a nod as their name was called. Once Shining finished speaking, Break spoke. "Yeah, we're here to figure out exactly what we can do to defend against any more Evolved showing up who aren't as nice as Jay."

"Right. Jay's agreed to give us some pointers on how to combat Evolved with the least amount of casualties. If he's feeling up to it, we may move on to some practical demonstrations." Shining explained as the everyone took a seat again. "Jay, the floor is all yours."

"Alright, I'm just going to start off blunt. Anyone who isn't a unicorn or alicorn won't stand a chance." Jay said honestly, immediately getting frowns at that. "Earth ponies, pegasi, and thestrals will be better off focusing on the horde."

"Horde?" Dawn interrupted him, her frown shifting into a concerned look. "How big are we talking?"

"Blacklight, depending on a variety of factors, can result in different Blacklight creatures. The Evolved are the rarest kind. The most common are the Walkers. Walkers are the result of the Blacklight being injected into a creature and then left to do whatever it wants to do. The victim invariably dies and then becomes Blacklight, usually mutating into some monstrosity before attempting to murder and devour those around it. These things have strength, speed, and resilience to the extreme but the average earth pony hits much harder than a Walker." Jay explained, leaning back against the wall as he sighed softly.

"Wouldn't earth pony Walkers hit even harder, then?" Shining asked. A heavy frown creased his brow as he started to understand the threat Blacklight held.

"Yeah, but not as strong as an earth pony. Biologically speaking, earth ponies aren't that strong. Would you consider Applejack to kick hard?" Jay asked, looking between the Captains and receiving nods all around. "Applejack can kick hard enough to crack iron. I would know, she split an iron horseshoe on my chest when we first met. If I remember right, cast iron takes about twenty thousand psi to break- don't worry if that measurement doesn't mean anything here. What's important is that just based on muscle strength, Applejack should only be able to kick at about two thousand psi, a tenth of the force needed."

"What does that mean?" Azure asked from where he was resting his head on his legs.

"Almost ninety percent of an earth pony's strength comes from their passive magic. As far as I can tell, all Blacklight including myself are completely unable to harness magic. With earth pony Walkers not having their magic, but still stronger than average, I'd say one of them would kick about a third as hard as Applejack would. Overall, an earth pony Walker would be significantly weaker than an earth pony. Now, moving on, there are the actual Blacklight beasts."

"Other than Walkers, there are three main types of Blacklight beasts. None of these develop as a natural form the virus makes and instead must be created by an Evolved. The first is the Gladiator, a large humanoid creature covered in viral plate armor and wielding a shield as well as a weapon. Usually bladed, these weapons can also take the form of hammerfists or whipfists. Overall, these things are very strong. Unlike the warpers and walkers, they don't have any particular weakness. They're surprisingly agile for their weight, incredibly strong, with fast reactions and tough outer layers."

For the next two hours, Jay explained every type of creature the Blacklight Evolved used from the simple Gladiator to the terrifying Behemoth, and even going so far as to detail the old gen monsters that were no longer in current use by the Evolved. He detailed their strengths, their weaknesses, and his suggested tactics for fighting them. The Greater Evolved told the four Captains of how the beasts can be made from a freshly killed or still living body or even grown from a sac using raw biomass. He explained how a few Behemoths and a horde of Gladiators can be used to create a self-replicating Hive, bringing back biomass to create more and more creatures.

Jay went on to explain how Blacklight had a massive weakness to magic as even the lowest powered of stun spells would burn a hole into his body. He told them of the difficulty he had healing magically-inflicted wounds and how enough damage could cause his body to destabilize. Eventually, the conversation moved onto practical demonstrations and the four Captains began testing strategies against the Evolved. Jay demonstrated the physical strength that he had by throwing Azure around with one arm. He demonstrated his speed and reactions by catching Dawn out of the air, and even caught Shining off guard. The unicorn had grabbed hold of his arms, legs, and head in a telekinetic grip and smirked as if he expected that to be the end of it. The Captain hadn't expected a thick tendril to erupt out of Jay's chest but reacted impressively quick, catching the giant spike. Only, a few seconds later he lost the duel as another tendril split off of the first one and 'impaled' him. "Keep an Evolved away from you. The amount of limbs we can produce is limited only on our biomass and the more we get to consume in a fight, the more biomass we have to use. Even as I am right now, I'm just over five hundred pounds. I consider my minimum threshold to be three hundred so that gives me two hundred pounds of biomass to play with. If Mercer had just recently gorged himself on the various citizens in Canterlot, he'd easily have a few tons of organic matter to chuck around. Keep your distance and remember that even the weakest spells are damaging to an Evolved."

Author's Note

Starting in ten or so chapters, expect longer lengths and just more things happening as I push past the roughly 3k word limit I've been doing. The longer length would start now, but I've written these chapters a couple months ago and they don't quite flow well when combined with the next.