//------------------------------//
// 99 - Aftercare 
// Story: Fading Suns: A New World 
// by David Silver 
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"Laud can't handle this." Bon Bon inclined her head towards a metal box. "I'm going to deliver our 'gift' to the merchants before they get impatient."

Starlight shook her head at the box. "I tried to play nice, now you get to see how the humans are feeling." Looking back to Bon Bon, she shrugged. "Want any help getting the box over there?"

"If you would?" Bon Bon turned for the door of the castle. "Is Spike back?"

"Still at the hospital." Starlight plucked the great metal cube up with her magic. "Watching over Laud. Humans are as brave as they are frail, an interesting combination."

"That is my husband you're musing about." Bon Bon headed outside with Starlight, their prisoner floating between them. "Let's drop off this dear little present and hope that smooths things out."

"Speaking of that." Starlight trotted along, glancing towards Bon Bon. "You seem... more into it now."

"'It?'"

"You know, the whole being married to a strange creature thing." Starlight shrugged softly. "If it's a sore topic, lemme know."

"He is the father of my unborn foal..." Bon Bon glanced back. "I can try to be a... functional mother, or not. Besides... It's not that we don't have anything in common..."

Starlight scooched a little closer. "I've seen moms without dads before, it happens. You like him, huh?"

Bon Bon's cheeks warmed at the topic. "He's a real fighter, even if he breaks so easily. Hmph, can you imagine? Pony hide is tough enough to not easily be pierced."

"I heard the girls got knocked aside by their tail before." Starlight trotted easily out of town, towards the landing dock. "Can you imagine? A wild manticore just knows to not bother trying to sting us, so it bats us around instead."

"If the humans are as wide spread as they claim, and have met other creatures beside, have you considered that they aren't weak?" Bon Bon closed with Starlight, peering at her from the side. "Maybe Equestrian creatures are that strong?"

Starlight burst into laughter. "That's rich. Ponies, toughest things in the cosmos." She threw a hoof wide for emphasis. "They'd better watch out, because they can't stop us from approaching them to discuss things like a reasonable creature."

"Except they still haven't been convinced we're the reasonable ones." She paused at the entrance of the landing pad, ducking into a small room and emerging with two translation collars. One she offered to Starlight as she wriggled into the other. "So let's not scare them." Her collar began translating her words in mechanical human words. "We come in peace."

"Now you sound like one of Spike's..." She trailed off, noticing a small group approaching them.

They were not merchants, coming from the priest's ship, with their priest/ambassador in the middle of the crowd. Gregor was smiling, he usually was. "Good morning," he called. "What an interesting thing you have there." His eyes pointed the way to the metal cube they were carrying along.

Starlight inclined her head towards it as they clopped across the tarmac. "This would be what you would call a demon." Several of the humans drew their blades immediately. "That we have captured. We're turning it over to the merchants, seeing as Chrysalis here is the reason they got hurt."

The cube suddenly jumped as if something ran into it from the inside, knocking it off center before Starlight's magic could bring it upright again. The guards were scowling at it, looking ready for a battle, but Gregor still smiled. "How wonderful! I had thought your world free of demons, but your princess, Celestia, did reveal one to me. You do active battle against them... What is this demon's vice?"

"Vice?" Bon Bon frowned a moment. "Lust. Vanity. She wishes for undeserved hedonism and to be adored and loved for looks she steals. Gluttony, thinking of her hunger so highly she allowed her own kind to starve." She raised a hoof to tap her chin. "Wrath, ready to lash out and attack any that get in her way and refusing offers of peace."

"I will destroy you!" came muffledly from the interior of the cube.

"I see..." Gregor placed his hands together. "Might I accompany you? To allow a demon out of my sight to be placed in the hands of the untrained... I can't account for that."

Starlight shrugged softly. "I have no problem with that. Bon?"

Bon Bon considered a moment before nodding. "That's probably for the best. You will be a witness if nothing else." She pointed to the merchants' ship. "Let's get moving."

"By the way." Gregor fell in with them, his guards focusing themselves in the space between him and the cube. "Where is Sir Mountbatten? I would imagine him eager to accompany you in this task."

"He got hurt," admitted Starlight without hesitation. "We're taking care of things while he recovers."

Bon Bon frowned just faintly, but it was well too late to consider discretion. "Just a minor wound. As his wife, I am perfectly able to do this little chore for him."

"That reminds!" His voice was a jubilant one. "Why don't you come by after this? I still owe you a proper examination and prayer."

"That would be lovely." Bon Bon softly nodded as she went. "Let's get this properly handled." She trotted right up the angled gangplank that led up towards the merchant's ship and clopped a hoof against the closed metal door at the end. "We have the guilty party."

An image appeared beside the door, flat against the wall. A human was looking out through it, towards Bon Bon. "Guilty party?" Eyes darted towards Gregor and his guards, then on to Starlight and her cube and back. "Is it the other pony with you?"

Starlight burst into laughter as she reached up and tapped the cube. "She's in here, bottled up safely."

"One moment." The image flickered away.

Starlight turned away from the door. "I'm guessing he's telling his boss. Hopefully he'll be down here soon."

Gregor tilted his hands, both clasped with one another, towards the cube. "Is the metal blessed to hold a demon securely?"

Starlight looked baffled, but Bon Bon stepped in, "Her trick is shapeshifting. Strong enough metal can hold her without any magic, or blessings, involved. We also hurt her during her capture, so I'm not expecting any sudden moves out of her." Bon Bon angled her head towards the cube. "As it turns out, even changelings don't like bleeding."

"Speaking of that," started Starlight. "What happened to her changeling minion?"

"Thorax is coming to pick them up." Bon Bon sat on her haunches, glancing between the closed doors and the cube. "Some quality time with reformed changelings should set them on a better path."

"Reformed changelings?" Gregor could not be quiet at such talk, smiling as always. "Are they not demons?"

Bon Bon levelled a hoof at the cube. "She is a demon, capital D. We've tried to talk her over to the nice side, it doesn't work. Her people we have reformed and turn into the sweetest things once they're away from her."

"This is no small thing." He spread his hands. "To simply state that servants of a demon are redeemed. Would you be opposed to my meeting such a soul?"

Starlight pointed away. "Well, there's Thorax now." In the distance, the king of the changelings was sailing on colorful wings towards Twilight's castle. "Like Bon Bon said, he's a real sweetie. Want me to get his attention?"

"If you would?"

Bon Bon resisted the urge to apply a hoof to her face. The opening doors distracted her at a good time, causing her to turn back towards them in time to see several merchants emerging. One was their boss, she knew. Several others were guards, much like Gregor had, though they had guns, not swords.

The leader of the merchants nodded. "Good morning, Bon Bon Mountbatten was it? Father."

Bon Bon perked an ear. "Technically correct." She pointed a hoof towards the cube. "The demon that caused the explosion is contained here. We have ways we would deal with it, but she dealt you a greater blow in that explosion than she did to me."

"Oh that's right..." He had forgotten Bon Bon was the one caught in the explosion. It was easy to do, seeing as she was entirely fit and able, and his own man had been reduced to a critically wounded state. "Uncanny... I will confess, we're merchants, not warriors by trade, or priests. I only want to know how you can prove it was this demon that was at fault."

"I'll be right back." Starlight vanished, popping out of existence in a flash of sparkles and setting all the humans present on edge in her naked display of magic. That the cube slammed down onto the ramp didn't help, no longer held in her magic.

Bon Bon let out a little sigh. "We have the word of the pony she deceived into helping her. We have her underling captured, and we know this demon. She admitted it, and we wanted you to get the first chance to decide what we do with her."

Gregor gently clapped his hands together. "I am inclined to believe them. But, curiosity compels me. If they gave the demon back to you, what would you do with it?"

Bon Bon scowled in thought. "Tartarus isn't secure enough. She could slip out of any cage we put her in, and a literal box like this is a temporary measure. Petrification seems likely."

The merchant took a step back. "You... I am not used to this, I will just admit."

"Nor I," joined Gregor. "Still, being turned to stone seems a fitting end to a creature whose liquid nature was used for evil ends. But... Why not simply kill the demon?"

"Father!" The merchants' boss seemed shocked. "I thought you were a follower of Amalthea."

"And I would have mercy on any of His children. Demons are not those. Ending them is not beyond consideration..."

One of Gregor's guards lifted his sword. "My blade is twice-blessed. It would be my honor to execute this demon, if I may?"

Bon Bon gave an unsure 'ehh'. "If I open the cube, she will make a break for it, or attack everyone. Are you sure you want that? No offense intended, but I've seen how... quickly a human can become seriously hurt. If we can avoid that, that would be preferred." She dipped her head. "You are our guests."

"Right there!" came Starlight's voice as she popped back into existence, Thorax just next to her.

Thorax blinked, perhaps thrown off balance by the teleport. "Oh, hello there!" He waved a hoof gently at all the strange humans, not that most of them had any idea what he was saying.

Gregor did. "Well met. You are Thorax?"

"Yes." He bobbed his head, then noticed the cube. "Is she... in there?"

"Is that Thorax?!" came a furious shout from inside the cube. "Just you wait until..." She began to bang and thrash against the inside of the cube, making it jump around angrily.

Thorax's ears fell. "I'm sorry, Mom..."

The merchant backed away from the lively cube. "Look, just kill it. I don't care how. Tell me when it's gone." And so they did flee back into the ship.

That left Gregor and his men. Gregor's attention was on Thorax, his men looked ready to test if their blades were stronger than the sides of the box. "Mother? You are literally the child of a demon?"

Thorax inclined his head. "She is... mean... I'm really sorry if she caused any trouble. Most changelings are better than that now. Oh, I was called to help one."

Starlight pointed. "That one's at the hospital, being treated for some owies it got while we were fighting Chryssie in there."

"They're hurt?! Oh no..." Thorax had a hoof raised before his snout in shock.

Gregor had to smile. A child of a demon, alarmed and dismayed at the news that someone was hurt. "Thorax, we need to punish your mother. Will you allow this?"

Thorax suddenly went still, a tear escaping his large colorful eyes before he could blink it away. "I... Yes... I guess... Mom, can you calm down, please?"

"I'll be calm when you--"

"Go ahead," Thorax sighed miserably even as Chrysalis ranted and raved. "I really wish there was another way."