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The Idea1,313 words
Intrusion3,096 words
Infiltration4,098 words

Infiltration

Under the dark shadow of the ever persisting Solar Eclipse, Luna exits the Everfree Forest with an exhausted sigh of defeat. She and a contingent of pegasus and unicorn guards searched the forest as thoroughly as they could while avoiding conflicts with the local fauna to find the mysterious reptile creature. However this proved futile as the creature was nowhere to be found despite discovering the point of impact from its fall. Not even Zecora, the zebra who lives in the forest, knew or saw anything other than weird, unfamiliar noises echoing through the trees.

“What’s our next course of action Princess Luna?” Asks a guard close to her. She glances up towards the Eclipse, thinking of her next plan of action. The Eclipses stares back, the magical portal still there and firmly locking the two celestial bodies in place.

“I must inform my sister’s student, Twilight Sparkle of the current situation.” She points to the two closest pegasus guards. “You two shall accompany me, the rest of you are dismissed for now. Celestia will need help cleaning and repairing the destruction caused by the earlier events.” They all bowed to her in agreement to their orders and left.

Now on route to the library, Luna notices pony faces pressed in windows, fear in their eyes once again. Luna sighs once more; this is what she was afraid of. After finally establishing that she had no intention to create eternal night again, here she was in near total darkness during the afternoon from the moon blocking the sun, coming out of the Everfree Forest with a pair of guards sporting night shift armor.

“Princess Luna!” a young voice calls out as something runs towards the Princess of the Night.

The guards immediately move to block Luna but she motions them to stand down as Pip Squeak stops short, startled by the abrupt movement of the guards. He looks at both of them and then timidly and slowly approaches Luna.

“I was- I mean we were wondering why the sky hasn’t gone back to normal yet.” The young pony now trots side by side with Luna and her guards when she resumes her walk.

“We have not figured out what has happened yet little one. But rest assured I am not trying to bring back eternal night once again. Both the moon and sun are locked on the position they are now and we are trying to find out why.”

“What was that light that came out of the moon? And-And that explosion at the castle?”

Luna takes a pause in her walk to think of a good explanation before resuming. She had no clue if she should reveal the light was the invasion of a creature that is immune to magic just yet.

“That was the magical feedback from the locking of the celestial bodies. Do not worry; both my sister and I are fine. We are just trying to get things back the way they were right now.” That cover story will have to do for now. “In any case, I need you to go back inside and inform every pony that everything is fine and we are working to correct it as fast as we can.”

“Yes Ma’am!” Pip squeak gives a salute then runs back home while Luna and her guards walk up to the library’s door.

***

Fluttershy slowly grows bored of watching the unchanging Solar Eclipse on top of her little hillside cottage after that flash of light shooting down towards the castle. She lets out a long but soft yawn before heading out in her yard to check on her animal friends. The dark sky in the middle of the day must be confusing to them and seeing as nothing else is happening, she might as well spend some time to care for them until daylight comes back. But as she goes get the many assorted kibble, a bat flies through her window flying around the room frantically.

“Goodness! You must be confused with all of this and probably think it’s already night time so you came out looking for food.” Fluttershy holds out a bowl of food but the bat only flies out of the window it came in. “O-oh! Wait! I have berries too!”

The caretaker pegasus goes after it barging out through the front door in hot pursuit of the little bat with the bowl of kibble in her fore hooves. The bat zooms around to the back of the house and stops abruptly just as the yellow pegasus rounds the corner and nearly bumps into him.

“Oh! I’m so glad you decided to-oh no! Angel!” Fluttershy drops the bowl of kibble in shock. Both the bat and she were looking towards the sight of her longtime companion dangling by his ears from the maw of an intimidating and foreign reptile perched on her fence, its eyes lit and focused in the darkness of the Eclipse. In the light cast from the windows of her cottage she could see bruises, cuts, scrapes and what looked like porcupine needles all over the reptile, evidence pointing to his implication in a rather hard struggle, probably moments after coming out of the forest and snatching up Angel as a quick meal. Angel gives a very pleading “help me” look and without a second thought, Fluttershy hovers a little closer.

“I-I have no idea who or what you are, but I would appreciate it very much if you didn’t eat my friend. I could find something else for you to eat… A-and maybe help you with your wounds? …pretty please?”

The reptile blinks at Fluttershy but still keeping a much focused stare at the hovering pegasus. Without any resistance, he opens his maw to drop Angel who gasps in relief before dashing behind his caretaker’s hind hooves. The reptile proceeds to hop down from the fence but immediately collapses onto the ground at the yellow pegasus’ hooves after landing.

“Oh my… I better get you inside.”

***

“Just to be certain I understand Princess, this creature who came from the portal created by the Eclipse can cancel out magic on contact?”

“That is correct, Twilight Sparkle.”

“And more importantly, if it touches a unicorn’s horn it can completely shut down his or her magic temporarily?”

“Much to our dismay, yes. However it did not have the chance to make contact with my horn, thus I have no idea as to how it might affect me or my sister.”

“And on top of it all when it almost escaped, you “subdued” it in midflight making it fall into the Everfree forest where it’s now roaming free and dangerously close to Ponyville.”

Twilight paced around the center table of the library as she recaps Princess Luna’s account of the events that unfolded when the Sun and moon moved into the same position. She spent much of the afternoon listening to the story intently about this potential new threat to equestrian society considering how prevalent magic is to everyday life. Luna simply nods and confirms every word, sitting comfortably with Spike while they both watch the lavender unicorn make laps around the table.

“I am truly sorry for that. I was caught in the excitement and I knocked it out of the sky over the forest before I realized what I had done. It had gotten a good hit in before it escaped and I felt like I needed to… Settle the score as they say.”

Luna gets up on her hooves before nodding her head courteously. “Now then, I must get back to the castle to tell my sister that we couldn’t locate the creat-” The door to the Library swings open and one of the guards stepped in, bowing to the princess and librarian.

“I’m sorry for interrupting your highness, but there is…. Uh… Someone here demanding attention.” A white bunny runs out from between the guard’s fore hooves and flails his arms in a panic. Twilight stops pacing when she recognized the little guy right away.

“Angel? What are you doing here? Did…. Did something happen to Fluttershy?”

The bunny quickly nods then strikes a pose. His ears where flat on his back and his head low with his rump high followed with some pretty cute growling since it was coming from a rodent after all. Luna gasps as she realizes who he was imitating.

“It’s the creature! Quickly! We must ensure Fluttershy is safe!”

***

Meanwhile, Fluttershy placed the creature on her sofa while she prepares her first aid kit to tend to the unusual creature’s wounds. Usually her bunny companion angel would be helping but she can’t find him anywhere after she brought the creature inside. Poor thing must’ve been traumatized and hiding somewhere till he’s gone she thought.

With a tray in her mouth holding assorted first aid supplies, she walks back to the sofa where she sets down the try before examining the reptile thoroughly. Much to her surprise, all of the cuts, scrapes and bruises are all gone, but the porcupine quills still are planted firmly in its scaly hide and they just have to come out. It was still asleep so this should be the best time to pull them out, the draconic features leads her to believe that it had thick scales like Spike. Turns out this wasn’t one of her best calls.

A piercing shriek resonates across Ponyville as the creature violently wakes up sending Fluttershy tumbling across the floor where she stops propped upside down against the opposing wall with a timid “eep!” The reptile stands up on the sofa, head still low down and growling as it hops down and begins taking steps towards the upside down pegasus. The mare cringed as she looked into those bioluminescent eyes with their aqua blue glow, emitting an intense pressure at her, making her instincts scream to panic, flee and fear the being in front of her. Fluttershy makes herself smaller, whimpering under the pressure and getting ready to bolt out of her cottage. But, that would mean leaving all her little friends to this dangerous and most likely hungry animal and those quills stuck around his backside really need to come out. With those two facts, she steels her resolve, stands upright and gives her own stare back. Unlike the creature’s immense crushing pressure which forces those caught in it to turn tail and run, Fluttershy’s commanding gaze pierces straight through and into the soul. The creature immediately succumbs, keeping its head low to the ground but its eyes showing surprise while the caretaker gives her opinion whether it wanted it or not.

“Listen here! You’re hurt and need medical attention. Now I need to get those quills out before they get any deeper so you’re going to sit down and stay calm while I do so.” The yellow pegasus was right in its face, looking straight into his previously intimidating eyes. After a pause of silence, the reptile lowers his entire body onto the cottage floor, its head barely moving. “That’s better, now I can finish taking these quills out. They’re in deep so this will hurt, I’d prefer if you didn’t yell out so loudly. Hmm…” Fluttershy looks around for something to bite down on but can only find a chew toy. “Um… if you want… y-you can bite down on this… it might help… Maybe…”

The creature raises a brow at the dog bone shaped chew toy, then hesitantly but slowly places it between its sharp teeth just as the caretaking mare bites down on one of the quills and yanks it out. There was a loud grunt and a high pitched squeak followed by silence. Then a very quiet giggle from the pegasus that she couldn’t help but let out. The reptile replies with a growl after which Fluttershy stifles her laugh and clears her throat.

“I-I’m sorry, I’ll get the others out quickly.” But it wasn’t easy as each yanking of a quill was a guaranteed reaction of a grunt, squeak and timid giggle every time. Finally at the last quill, Fluttershy bites down and gets ready to yank it out when suddenly the door to her cottage swings open.

“Fluttershy! Are you here?” Twilight asks while coming in with Spike riding on top followed by Princess Luna. “There was loud noise that came from here after Angel warned us about a possibly dangerous creature in your ho-AAAHHH!” Twilight eyes lock onto the creature who stares back. “Luna! Is that the creature?!”

Luna walks around Twilight immediately recognizing her opponent and the source of all this trouble since this started. She assumes a fighting stance, turning her body a quarter sideways and aiming her horn down towards the creature. Spike hops down from Twilight, immediately protecting her from the front and gives his best menacing appearance.

“Indeed it is Twilight, It would be best if you could go back to your library. Fluttershy, I’m afraid I must take the creature into custody.”

The timid mare was still hunched over the reptile’s back, about to bite down on the last quill. She gives quick glances back and forth between the quill and the princess, occasionally giving a pleading look towards Twilight. The reptile, oddly enough, has not jumped up in reply against Luna’s hostile stance. Instead he has suddenly taken an interest in Twilight as he stares in her direction when the princess told her to go back to her library.

“But… um… I still need to finish tending to-”

“Hey! What are you looking at buddy!?” Spike suddenly calls out as he hops down from Twilight and takes a protective stance in front of her, baring his tiny little teeth at the creature. “Twilight is MY pony and I don’t like the way you’re looking at her.” The reptile answers Spike’s hostility rather than Luna’s by popping its rump in the air and keeping its head low to the ground while growling back at Spike. Twilight however takes the well-meant statement the wrong way.

“Excuse me?! What do you mean “your” pony? Last time I checked spike, you are MY assistant.”

“Um… E-excuse me, but I need … Oh my…”

Spike, pre-occupied with staring down the reptile posing as a rival didn’t hear anyone, only growling back rather courageously at the bigger winged lizard.

“Twilight, Spike! Now is not the time for arguing! We must bring the creature in to help find a solution for the locked Ecipse!”

“P-please can it wait until I fini-”

“Do you have any ideas on how to capture it without spells, Luna?”

“We must incapacitate it…” She raises an ornate hoof. “…Physically…”

But before the Princess of the Night could get ready, Fluttershy decides that words weren’t going let her finish her job and quickly reaches for the last quill on the creature’s backside. The sudden yank causes the reptile to release an ear piercing shriek which forces everyone to recoil away with their hands/hooves over their ears in both shock and pain. While everyone was cringing from the surprise noise, Luna had kept her eyes on the creature, making sure it wasn’t going to make a grab for her or Twilight’s horn. But instead of doing that, the creature makes a break for a window in the sudden confusion and Luna goes into pursuit. However the reptile seemed to have foreseen this as it jumps over Fluttershy’s living room table to land on the far edge of it, flipping the table up as an obstacle which Luna promptly hits in her haste to apprehend the invader.

“Princess Luna!”

“Your Highness!”

Twilight and the Royal guards waiting outside rushes to help her but with a take-off kick, the reptile sends both the princess and the table flying into the group, then into spike which ends up with everyone tumbling out the front door while the Creature exits through a window and into the darkness of the Eclipse. Fluttershy crawls out from under her sofa when the ordeal appears to be over then timidly trots over to the pile-up at her front door. She slowly lifts the table a bit to peek under to see if anyone was injured. All of a sudden Luna roars, grabbing the table with her magic, hopping to her feet and attempts to smash the table against the ground to vent out her frustrations. She quickly realizes she is in public and simply sets the table gently down back in the living room. She notices everyone keeping a distance from her, making her sigh in defeat and plop her face down on the very same table.

“Forgive me for that outburst… This is twice that annoying creature successfully embarrasses me in front of other ponies only to escape before I even get a chance to get even. We need answers! Why did it come here? Is it responsible for locking the Eclipse in place? What does it want?”

Fluttershy, Twilight and spike sit down around the table with Luna while the guards patrol around the cottage in case the creature comes back. Spike offers a conciliatory pat on the dark mare’s back.

“Don’t worry your highness, I’m positively sure you’ll catch that guy. Hopefully before he does something to Twilight… Seeing him stare at her like that makes me worried.” His personification of the creature makes the ponies around him raise an eyebrow.

“that guy?” Twilight repeats.

“Him?” Luna adds. Spike crosses his arms and sticks his nose up in the air with confidence.

“Of course! Only another guy would have the guts to stare ME down!” His statement is met with a double eyeroll and a shy giggle. However, Luna decides that the little dragon was onto something.

“Well at any rate, treating the creature like some mindless monster has humiliated me twice in one day. It is certain that… “He” should not be underestimated. He has proven very skillfull in unarmed combat and adept at evasion.”

“And from what you told me back at my house, if he really is the cause for the locked eclipse, he could actually be able to give answers we can understand. I want to help you get those and … Maybe get to know that creature better.” Twilight adds. The possibility of examining and understanding this foreign creature is also very appealing to her scientific mind.

Luna smiles and stands up in a formal manner.

“Then it is decided then! You, Twilight Sparkle shall aid me by using your skills in research. Find out anything based on his appearance and a way to counter his ability to cancel magic.”

Twilight bows her head down.

“I look forward to it Princess Luna. What about you? What are you going to do next?”

Luna taps a hoof against her chin, her eyes scanning the roof for nothing in particular as she thinks.

“I will have to report back to my sister and continue to help her find a way to undo this Eclipse. For now Equestria will have to rely solely on clocks to tell that it is nearly nightfall right now and with some luck, we shall find a way to set things right again.” Luna walks out the door, followed by her guards. “I will send a few Royal Guards to patrol around the forest in case he comes back, we can’t leave Ponyville defenseless against that creature since we still have no idea as to what his intentions are.” And with that, Princess Luna and her personal bodyguards take off into the dark sky en route to Canterlot.

Twilight and Spike turn back to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus shrinks back from the table from the sudden increase in attention.

“I know you’re the kindest pony in Equestria but you didn’t worry a little bit even going near some creature we know nothing about?”

“Well, we don’t know just what exactly lives in the Everfree Forest…”

“Good point. Well then, in any case, could you possible tell us anything you learned why taking care of him? His reason to be here? Why he locked the Sun and Moon together? How to fix it?” Fluttershy continues to shrink under Twilight’s impromptu interrogation.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t ask anything. I-I just treated him like any animal friend who comes to me injured.” Twilight can’t help but be both proud and impressed with just how far the yellow pegasus is willing to share her kindness despite any dangers that could be present.

“I feel kind of sorry for him though,” Fluttershy says in a much quieter voice. “He looked very lost…”

***

“I know she represents the element of generosity but did she even see how that lizard kicked her living room table right into Princess Luna’s face?! He didn’t even hesitate to hurt one of the princesses!” Spike states while riding on Twilight’s back on their way home. “He better not come anywhere near us or else!” he adds while doing a bit of shadowboxing and finishing it with bearing his fangs while hissing. Twilight giggles at her assistant’s attempt to be intimidating.

“Oh Spike, that creature had successfully escaped both princesses and was able to keep up with Luna in combat. What makes you think that a baby dragon could do anything to him? I think you’re taking this territorial instinct a little farther than you can reach.” Spike crosses his arms and sulks.

“I bet he wouldn’t be so tough if I was gigantic again…”

“That’s something I rather not resort to, and I think the rest of Ponyville would agree.”

Twilight opens the door to her library home built into the trunk of the massive oak tree in the town and immediately gets a greeting hoot from Owlowiscious. Spike slides off the mare’s back and yawns loudly, both realizing that it must have gotten pretty late even with the Eclipse still locked in place. Spike begins to walk up the stairs towards their bedroom.

“Well Twilight, it’s been a tense afternoon I’m gonna call it a night. How about you? Are you going to stay up and study some more as usual?”

Twilight taps her hoof against her chin in thought. She really wants to help out the princesses by researching more about Eclipses and portals, for all they knew that creature could have come from a whole different dimension or timeline. His ability to cancel magic is also something to worry about, for magic is not only part of daily life for every pony, but is the greatest power to wield through friendship. This could very well mean that should the situation call for it, the Elements of Harmony may not be of any help at all. However, all the excitement from earlier coupled with all of this troublesome information is only reminding her body of how late it is.

“As much as I would love to, it can wait until tomorrow. Then we can gather the girls and get every pony to watch out for sightings of the creature. I’ll work on researching about it then.”

Both of them walk upstairs into the bedroom and proceed to catch some sleep. After two hours of tossing around, Twilight realizes she can’t sleep BECAUSE of everything that is happening with the Eclipse. She looks over to Spike’s little basket where he is sleeping like a log with his pet Peewee snuggled against him, completely unperturbed by the events. She decides to get started on some reading since she can’t sleep anyways and goes down to go make herself something to snack on before she starts. Using her horn to light the way to her kitchen, Twilight quietly makes her way down the stairs.

As she reaches the ground floor, she spots a pile of books on the ground near a bookcase where they’ve been all pulled out of. She was sure Spike cleaned everything up before Princess Luna had arrived and she hadn’t started anything before.

“Hmm… A Complete History: Equestria, The Tale of the Royal Sisters, a catalog of Equestrian Cartography. I don’t remember reading any of these recently, why would they be lying on the ground off the shelf?”