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// I Leave You Guys for a Week 
// Story: The Substitute Demon 
// by Reykan 
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	After dinner, Ted returned the foals to their room and back to Mirage's care, promising to stop by when he found the time. He then spent the next few hour agonizing over the rules of officiating a marriage, and all the details that entailed.

'So similar to an earth wedding and yet so different.' He thought to himself. With literal Gods walking the planet, not to mention some of them ruling countries, the idea of marriage was more of an official thing than a religious one. This meant that the officiate was often someone who was granted that power by the ruler of the country, not someone who was a member of a religious caste. Not only that, but to have one of said rulers preside over a wedding was one of the highest honors one could receive, usually reserved for other individuals of great  political clout or, in Celestia's case, whenever she could slip out the doors unnoticed. Ted was amazed at the official list the author had managed to pull together for the number of times the solar princess had shown up out of the blue and asked to preside over weddings, even as her court waited for her to return from lunch.
'She really did love weddings.' He thought to himself. 'Shame I can't talk to her about this, she'd love to hear this. In fact, I'm sure Tia would be more than happy to teach me every damnable detail I need to know. She probably has them memorized.'

Certain he wasn't going to get anymore information to stick for the night, he made his way back to his room, the bath already drawn and the twins waiting for him. He relaxed into their care, allowing the stresses of the week to wash away along with all the dirt and grime. It was wonderful having a bath, even if the water was lukewarm at best. After soaking for a short time, he emerged from the bath, drying off with a few older towels before moving back to his room. Halfway through the doorway he stopped. 

"H-hungry."

In the hallway door was the proto-queen, looking at him for another meal. He took a step towards her and stopped, taking in her current appearance. She'd obviously been busy setting up her new nest. Dirt was caked into every hole, her chitin was dull and her mane and tail were ragged and greasy. He looked back at the tub, just about to be drained by the twins, and back at the changeling, a wicked grin playing across his face, even as the shape shifter took an uneasy step back.



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"Oh come on, it wasn't that bad" Ted said with a grin, the proto-queen shivering slightly under one of his wings. Hugs worked well for feeding the others, so until he learned more about feeding habits of the changelings, it would be his go-to method. Not only that, she'd been pretty angry when he'd thrown her in the tub and had Humble and Swift give her a good scrubbing. Thinking about it, he'd even decided to leave the bath open to the rest of the Temple's residents when he wasn't in the room, since the public one had crumbled under old age and they didn't have the know-how to repair it yet. Maybe having access to a tub would spur some unicorn to add heating runes to the tub? It wasn't like he was in his room all the time, no reason to keep such a wonderful thing to himself. Besides, four to five ponies could bathe in the tub at once. Maybe Gleam and Shadow could set up a rotating list?

"C-cold."

Pulling her a bit tighter, he chuckled at her expense. She looked a lot better, even if she was pissed at him, and despite her race the two servants had been more than motivated to scrub every last inch of the proto-queen down. She probably wouldn't have stayed in the tub for a minute if Ted hadn't made it part of the deal; she gets cleaned, then he'd let her feed off of him. She'd begrudgingly gone along with it, and barely let the serving ponies dry her before she'd jumped onto his bed, pulled a wing over her back and demanded food and warmth.
Finally not shivering anymore, she buried as much of herself as she could into his side, and soon stopped moving, apparently dozing off.

'Wonderful,' Ted thought shaking his head, staring at the planet's largest tick. 'Even if she tries to overthrow me, I'll be safe. I'm way to valuable as the royal pillow and buffet. She's adorable like that, too. How old is she, 14? Yea, cute kid.' Trying to wake her up to go back to her own chambers didn't work, so eventually he just settled down, dozing off comfortably on his big soft bed.

Gleam was right, nothing beat sleeping in your own bed. Even if someone else claimed your wing as a blanket.



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The night was relatively uneventful, though Ted noticed a strangely high amount of pink dreams. He avoided those, and brushed against any yellow dreams, easily pushing away nightmares. It was becoming simple to him, almost instinctual. When the morning arrived, he ended up having to disentangle himself from his attachment, to her grumbling displeasure.

"Warm." She mumbled, trying to pull his leg back into her chest. Finding a few loose feathers with a quick pass of his magic, he held them over the proto-queen, before sending them brushing all over her body, darting in and out of areas that were lacking chitin. She shrieked, springing out of bed and away from the dark alicorn, hissing at what was brushing against her. Her anger turned to confusion and embarrassment when she saw the floating feathers and the laughing alicorn. She stuck her tongue out at him, drawing a raised eyebrow from Ted when her childish raspberry was done with an almost snakelike tongue, and darted out the door, nearly running over several ponies in her path.
Finally free, he stretched and checked himself in the mirror, straightening out his growing mane and even taking a look at his own tongue in the mirror. Chuckling, he touched the tip of his nose with his tongue, then lifted his leg up and licked the underside of his elbow, or at least the joint that was most similar to it. Mentally promising to get not just a haircut, but all of them cut, he made his way to the dining hall, where his breakfast was interrupted by an cheerful Slop, thanking him for picking up the spices. Afterwards he watched as the logs claimed from the jungle earlier were slowly prepared in the halls, being cut into boards and planks for use in the buildings outside. Some stone had also been pulled from the tunnels for the forge, a unicorn and earth pony working the stone chunks into proper shapes for when the building was ready to go up.



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During lunch the gnolls arrived, and Ted picked up his bags on the way out the door. The armor would allow him to keep an eye on things while he was gone, so he'd set it on his bed with orders that it was not to be moved. It wasn't very useful if he was stuck on the wooden posts designed to hold the armor up. The gnolls were both males, the larger calling itself Buster, and introducing the smaller as Auto. Leaving the Temple, the canines lead him  to the north east, their pace nearly twice that of the caravans and gathering runs Ted had manned before. The two gnolls easily led the way, darting through the underbrush with practiced ease. 

Finally approaching evening, the escorts were getting jumpy. Ted first thought they were getting ready for some sort of ambush that was prepared for him when it finally reached him. The smell of smoke.
"Faster, I want to know what's going on." He told the guides, picking up the pace to a quick trot. Soon the group broke into the clearing just outside the den, and were greeted by the sight of a massacre.

All around them the bloody remains of gnolls were scattered, though the majority seemed piled onto bonfires that were slowly burning out. Death hung heavily in the air, nearly drawing a dry heave from the alicorn. However he pushed forward, past his guides and cast his life detection spell, going from faint glow to fain glow, checking to see if there were any survivors. Finally, he found himself just outside the main entrance, having no luck besides a few jungle reavers that hissed at him and flew off to other bodies. Stuck into the ground at the entrance to the den was a single banner, bearing three white claw marks. Ted just stared at it, almost instantly recognizing the symbol.

'Oh my god.' he thought 'I never told Sahkest or the mercenaries my plans for the gnolls, just that we drove them back with heavy losses inflicted on them.' It didn't take much imagination to figure out what had happened next. Having one of their own returned who knew the location of the den, the Talons had decided to put an end to the raids once and for all, razing the den while it was weak. He'd told the gnolls he'd help them, and while he was gone they were wiped out because of his ignorance.

'Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid!' he berated himself, renewing the spell deep in the den, but receiving no hits. Ted searched for what felt like hours, before coming back to the entrance, to find his guides howling at the moon in long, mournful tones. Ted approached them, letting them howl for a bit before laying a hoof on the shoulder of the Buster, whispering to him.

"You should see if you can find anything you need from the area. Afterwards you two are more than welcome back at the Temple."

The canine just whimpered in response. "Should been here. Helped pack."

"No, the ones who attacked your den, they were strong. Very strong. Bigger soldiers, better weapons, more complex tactics. You'd be dead as well. So don't throw this away." Ted stopped, ears swiveling to a sound from the shadowy underbrush. He saw what was there, and smiled, pointing a hoof in front of the despondent gnoll. "Besides, they'll need your help. We'll stay here for the night, salvage what we can, and head back tomorrow."

Out of the underbrush, drawn by the howling, were several smaller pups and three injured survivors, who luckily only seemed to have a few cuts on their pelts. Ted brushed past the guides and approached them, sitting down before the survivors and questioning them about the attack, afterwards repeating his offer to them. The remaining den members huddled together on the outside of the battlefield that night, mourning their losses and recovering from the ordeal. Ted kept watch all night, not daring to interrupt them while he felt the crushing guilt of being partly responsible for the destruction.

The next morning the group left a trail marker pointing any survivors to the Temple of the Shadows, and after gathering what little was left, they made their way back. The entire group was silent for the duration of the march. The survivors from what they'd seen, the guides from guilt of not being present to help, and Ted, from his growing sense of self-loathing.

He couldn't help but feel he should have done something more, that he could have done something different or said something to the mercenaries to prevent this disaster. Because he returned the griffon, the gnolls were destroyed. Because he'd not thought of the possibility. The possibility that his actions would impact more than just those he was living with. Ted had made a grievous error in judgment, and the gnolls had paid the price. 

'True their own actions before this set it up, but still,' He thought shaking his head as the Temple came into sight. 'I can't help but wonder if I could have prevented the loss of so many lives.'