//------------------------------//
// 6 - Questions and Answers 
// Story: Courage the Cowardly Dog In: Dog Days 
// by lunabrony 
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	Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash entered through the main doors of Canterlot Castle, and were ushered forward without question despite the late hour. They were well known, of course, to the point of being at near celebrity status, and there was little question as to their motives or demands for identification. When they asked to see Princess Luna, they were gestured right up the grand central staircase, which would eventually lead to the tower where Luna held power over the night.

Twilight and Rainbow knocked on the door which led to Luna's chambers, and the booming voice of the Princess met them at once.

"WHO DARES BOTHER THE GREAT AND POWERFUL PRINCESS OF CANTERLOT?"

"Twilight Sparkle, and we've no time to waste!"

The booming voice immediately dropped to a decibel that would not cause deafness at close range, and sounded much more cheerful. "Twilight! What a pleasant surprise! Thoust may enter!"

They did enter, and found Luna sitting with a pair of headphones around her neck, and a huge bottle of Mountain Dew sitting near the bed. Beside her lay a clunky arcade style controller, on which abysmally horrific pixelated graphics were scrolling up the screen. The room was, for the most part, rather neat, but Twilight's obsessive nature was most disrupted by the plate of doughnuts sitting on the floor near the door through which they entered, and she frowned disapprovingly. 

"Do you want ants?" Twilight scolded. "Because that's how you get ants."

"Forgive me, you caught me during a break," Luna said. "What can I do for the both of you? Surely it must be important, if you've come such a long, long way. Come, tell me what you've been through, so I may see what you might do."

"It's about Courage, Princess Luna," Twilight began, and was not surprised to see the Night Princess's face darken, almost as if she'd expected it.

"Continue," Luna said.

Twilight recounted the events as she knew them, from the moment that Courage had first arrived for the second time, to the disappearances in Ponyville, and of course her own failed attempt at resolving the issue. Rainbow Dash stood silent for the most part, and filled in the few details that Twilight either missed or forgot.

"I see," Luna said when Twilight had finished.

"Can you help us? Do you know what's going on?" Twilight asked.

"I do indeed," Luna said. "and it's worse than I feared. Come. There's something you need to see." She put down her headphones, and lured the two out into the hallway, then down a series of passages into a large, dark room. She fired a bolt of illumination from her horn, a bright white orb which shot up towards the ceiling and hung there, lighting up what now appeared to be a trophy room.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash both gasped at the same time. The room was lined with pedestals, and on each sat a small fragment or object. The majority of them Twilight did not recognize, but at the very end she recognized both a piece of the stone from which Discord had escaped, which sat on one pedestal, and next to it, on yet another, lay a dark red sliver of Sombra's horn.

"This is the Room of Remembrance," Luna said. "Off limits to all except Celestia and myself. Here we keep the memories of past encounters, both victories and defeats, in order to keep our self confidence in line and remember our successes and failures of the past. Here we come to reflect, and to remember."

"Awesome," Rainbow whispered, moving to touch a large viking helmet but Luna pushed her hoof away.

"What does this have to do with what's going on now?" Twilight asked.

"This," Luna said, and gestured to a chunk of purple rock that sat near the beginning of the room. "Recognize it?"

Twilight thought hard. "When we defeated Katz, the fog in the cauldron hardened," she said, after several minutes. "It spilled over, but it turned solid. This was the stuff that was turning innocent citizens into fogponies."

"Correct," Luna said. "It was at this point that I began to suspect the truth, but I did not voice it, for I hoped I was wrong. Now, it seems, I was right after all, and the truth must be known."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash both looked at her with their full attention, their hearts sinking as the conversation went on.

"Many centuries ago, Celestia and I defeated a nasty creature known as Smooze," she said slowly. "He was a corrupted being of filth, who wanted only to ravage and destroy, to turn the entirety of Equestria into a barren wasteland where nothing could ever grow again. That was his second attack, and even I know very little of the details of his first defeat. I know only that he was vanquished by the Flutter Ponies that inhabited the land at the time. Now, it seems, he has tried a third time. He is as relentless as he is mean."

"So how do we stop him?" Rainbow asked. "Can I kick him in the face?"

"Nothing would please me more," Luna said. "Unfortunately, Celestia and I destroyed his physical body during his second attack, and sealed his spirit underground. I can't imagine what he's been doing this whole time, if he has, in fact, been awake. Without a host, he is powerless, but I fear that he was using Katz to do his bidding while regaining strength."

"So this whole time, it's been Smooze behind the fogponies, using Katz as a host?"

"I'm afraid so," Luna said. "I don't know for sure, but all the pieces seem to fit. Defeating Katz would have pushed him back out into spirit form."

"And we defeated Katz," Rainbow Dash said. "So we're good, right? A spell was cast that would protect everypony from the fogponies and everything went back to normal."

"That's exactly the problem," Luna said slowly. "Magic is an extremely specific beast, and a spell was cast that would protect everypony," she said. "There were creatures other than ponies caught in the wake of the fogpony attack, and following Katz' defeat, that body would have remained vulnerable to be used as a host because it wasn't under the influence of the protection spell."

"I don't know what-" Twilight began. But she began to remember, and her face paled as she did. 

Fluttershy, Twilight and Pinkie Pie were in the back room, looking dazed. They brightened up as soon as they saw the pup, however. The giant cauldron into which they had been thrown had been overturned, thick purple slime spilling out into the corners. It looked like hardened magma, and no longer posed any danger.

"Courage!" Fluttershy squeaked, and rushed to him. "You did come back! What happened? My head feels funny..." Courage returned the hug that he was given, and patted her head in sympathy.

"Look, it's Princess Luna!" Spike suddenly exclaimed, perched in his usual spot on Twilight's back.

"Agh!" Twilight yelped, nearly jumping a foot in the air. "Spike, how'd you get here?!"

"I've been here the whole time," Spike deadpanned. "You brought me with you."

"Oh. I guess I sort of forgot you were here," Twilight admitted, cheeks burning red. "Sorry." Spike huffed and crossed his arms.

Luna smiled at the reunion, and then coughed. "I think a ceremony is in order, but there are still a few things to clear up. The citizens of Canterlot very narrowly escaped a bleak existence of slavery today, but I want you three to return to Ponyville at once to ensure that the residents there are returned to normal as well. They were under the curse more than a day longer than Canterlot was, and there may be lingering side effects."

"Smooze is possessing my dragon?!" Twilight exclaimed.

"In older times, purple was a color of royalty, and exclusively reserved for kings and queens," Luna said regretfully. "Being as egotistical as Smooze was and since he comes from times long past, a purple dragon would have made an alluring target. Being purple would mean being royalty. An unfortunate coincidence in this case, but a chance I imagine he would have taken."

"But... Spike hasn't been acting evil... or even out of the ordinary, really," Twilight said.

"I imagine Katz hadn't been either," Luna said. "Smooze would have had access to things like memories and personality traits, and playing things normally to deflect suspicion. But since you spend so much time with Spike, I imagine you would have caught onto anything suspicious in recent days?"

Twilight rubbed her neck. "I... I guess I haven't really given him the attention he deserves, I've been so busy lately..." She admitted with no small amount of shame.

"Did you even tell him you were coming to Canterlot?" 

Twilight hung her head slowly. She was beyond embarrassed, and felt terrible. "I guess I didn't... it was only going to be a quick trip, there was so much on my mind already, and we just sort of... left. Gosh, I feel awful. When this is over I'm going to hug him and never let him out of my sight again."

"So let's get him!" Rainbow said, taking to the sky and giving the air in front of her a quick one-two punch. "We'll knock Smooze right back to where he came from, Twilight!"

"It's not that easy," Luna said. "You remember how it was with Katz. Any damage done will still harm the physical body. Unless you intend on hurting Spike, you must remove Smooze from his host without harming the dragon."

"But in that case, we're going to need another tempting host to lure him out. Where are we gonna find another purple host to-" Twilight began, then blinked. Both Luna and Rainbow Dash were staring at her.

"Oh."