The Mystifying Adventures of Occult Readings and Gallant Knight

by Giftmak3r

Search Party

It had been over an hour since Occult sent Ilatzi to look for Gallant. Over three since his new trainer was supposed to report. He wasn't happy. Not one bit. It shouldn't have taken Ilatzi so long to find Gallant and this trainer Luna had assigned was supposed to have been a reputable pony. Deciding to help with the search himself he left the library and made his way to Gallant's room.

After only a short walk he found himself at the doorway and activated a spell that had laid dormant. The spell recorded the most recent emotional states of the pony within the room. Suddenly he was filled with the groggyness of waking up. Helpful. Gallant should have come back to his room to bathe after his workouts and if the most recent state of being was in the morning then he must not have made it back to his room.

The next logical place to check was the courtyard. The gaurd were strangely abundant on his way to the courtyard. He briefly considered asking the gaurds if they knew anything, but that was rather pointless. If they did know something then Gallant wouldn't be missing.

At the courtyard he saw something rather peculiar. Both Gallant and another thestral were stretching. If they were here the whole time then why hadnt Ilatzi found them? Occult knew something was wrong, the hairs on the back of his neck were raised in anticipation. Neither were showing signs of exhaustion, the disgusting stink of physical exertion wasn't present. Something wasn't right.

Taking a deep breath Occult elected to play it cool as Gallant would say. If something is wrong, no need to let them know he's already suspicious.

"Hello Gallant, enjoy your exercise? Oh and I don't belive I've had the pleasure of meeting you before sir, Occult Readings at your service." He formally introduced himself. The two looked at him as if he was expected. Silenty he sent a call for Ilatzi.

"Nice to meet you Occult, I've only been with young Gallant for a short time but I've already heard so much about you. I'm Gale Wing." The stallion introduced in a kind way.

"Yes well forgive my interruption but usually Gallant would be done by now so I decided to check up on him, the little troublemaker." He laughed casually. He could feel Ilatzi approach, he would learn soon if he was just being paranoid or if something truly was wrong.

"Oh I understand, we were just finishing up, I won't hold him any longer." Gale Wing said with a chuckle.

"Hey Occult, do you mind if we have our studies a little later?" Gallant asked. Another oddity. Gallant was infatuated with magic even if he couldn't use it at the level of a unicorn.

"Of course, I had something come up in regards to my studies anyways." He replied casually. IlatI arrived behind him as he finished speaking and he looked at Gallant only to see him not acknowledge the shadow demon at all. Even if he didn't have a strange reaction to non harmonic magics he still should have noticed ilatzi.

"Well I'll be off to my work." He replied curtly making as hasty of a retreat he could make without making himself to suspicious. As soon as he was well out of sight he immediately spoke to Ilatzi through his mental link.

Dont tell me I was the only one that noticed that.

That Gallant didnt even react to me, that those two weren't there when I checked an hour ago or that it didnt look like they had worked out at all?

All of the above. I'm going to speak to Luna about this trainer of his. Would you be so kind as to shadow Gallant. If he responds to you outside of the trainers precense that would be a huge weight off my back.

I'll do it, but I got a bad feeling about this Readings.

"That makes two of us" He muttered.

Occult watched as the shadow demon turned back. It was strange, he's investigated plenty of mysteries like this but they never felt this uneasy. He really hoped the strangeness was just part of his imagination and Gallant was just acting weird today.

---

"So what are you?" The colt asked from his cage. Skitter never wanted to punch a colt in the face more than she has now. She was a changling, he was a pony, he was supposed to be terrified of her yet she could taste nothing but curiosity.

"I'm not gonna stop asking till you tell me." The colt insisted.

"You're my prisoner, you're supposed to do what I say so be quiet." She hissed at the colt.

"You don't seem to understand how this works, it's the duty of a prisoner to resist his jailer whenever possible and you're letting me get away with this Ms...?"

"Skitter!" She snapped not even thinking about it. She wasn't supposed to give the prisoners any information. She was just supposed to watch them until Chrysalis arrived to interegate him.

"Pleasure to meet you Ms. Skitter, I'm Gallant Knight." He introduced politely. She found it weird because it didn't sound like he was being sarcastic.

"Why aren't you afraid of me?" She prodded.

"Well, you haven't killed me dispite my trainer severely wounding one of your own so that means you must be reasonably to at least some degree. Plus your eyes are pretty." Gallant complemented throwing her off gaurd. Skitter didn't know what this colt was trying to get at but she wouldn't let him. If this colt got away Chrysalis would rip her straight out of her chitin.

"So what are you after anyways? World domination? Are you assasins? Thieves? A cult? Demons?" He asked. Skitter really did want to punch this colt in the muzzle.

"Our people are just trying to survive you little brat! Not like you ponies would ever know what it's like to go hungry!" She snapped at the little brat. The brat in turn just smiled which only served to anger her more.

"And how does shape-shifting into the guard and kid-napping a child fit into you getting food?" Gallant asked. Skitter wanted to be angry but it was a good question. Ponies as a whole are largely unaware of their existence.

"We feast on love so we need to foal-nap ponies to feed off of." She told the colt. Rather than dread or anger she just tasted his confusion. It was like a sweet and sour taste.

"But you're a shapeshifter?" He replied with confusion.

"Yes and?" She replied tired of the endless questions.

"Why don't you just shape shift into a pony and find a coltfriend?"

Skitter couldn't belive the ignorance. The audacity. She cried "No we can't just get a coltfriend! That's ridiculous."

"Forgive my ignorance but why not? You're magical shapeshifters that eat love. I can't imagine it would be hard to find somepony to fall in love with." He replied as if he was bored. This colt was supposed to be her prisoner, he was supposed to cower in fear, and here he was giving her advice on how to collect love.

"Well for starters we still need to support the hive so that's not efficient enough. Not only that but only infiltrators given the Queens permission can do that." Skitter explained. It felt weird, talking to a pony so casually.

"Sounds to me like your queen is going to be the death of your hive. If you finding a pony to hook up with does work but she only let's a few do it that sounds counter intuitive to me," Gallant said in a tone that conveyed that he thought he knew everything. "Not to mention that whatever you're up to here is going to be foiled because you caught me. Luna and Celestia are personally invested in my well being and Occult has likely already found me."

Skitter blanched at that. She knew this colt must have been important if Chrysalis herself was interested in interegating him but to be a protégé of both princesses? He had to be lying.

"Why would the princesses be interested in you?" She asked, curiosity getting the better of her.

"That's because I'm not actually a thestral, I'm an interdimensional alien ghost that possessed this colts body." Gallant said with such a stupid grin. Skitter wanted to ask what the real reason was but she could taste the confidence and assurance radiating off of him. The little stink was messing with her.

"Then why haven't the princesses banished you to Tartarus?"

"Well partly because it wasn't my intention to possess this kid and I am also a victim, but also because the princesses are pretty chill." He explained. "You know, I'm not gonna ask you to risk your hide by letting me go, but maybe we could work something out?"

This got Skitter's attention if this... pony was telling the truth then it would only be a matter of time before Queen Chrysalis' plan failed but Gallant could just be blowing hot air. If there was a way she could cover all her bases though?

"What do you propose?" She asked.

"Well I already got most of what I wanted from you, so all I really need from you is to help with the fallout of all this." He stated with an aura of smug superiority. Skitter remembered why she hated this small pony once more. He openly admitted his trickery.

"That sounds acceptable, but what does fallout mean?" She asked swallowing her annoyance.

"Oh its just the after effects. I'll talk to the princesses and you help your people accept their loss and integrate into Equestrian society." He explained as if he was only asking her to do some simple menial task for him.

"And how am I supposed to do that?" She demanded getting fed up with the little brat.

"Well you can start by explaining why Chrysalis' methods were inefficient and part of the reason you were starving. Besides even if your queen gets away with her crazy plan she doesn't even have to know you were colluding with me." He reasoned. Skitter couldn't see the harm in it. She didn't belive Gallant, but if he was right her people would definitely benefit from this. But that rose another question.

"What are you getting out of this?" She inquired.

"Well you said your people were starving, the solution seems simple enough, and it costs me nothing to help you. Not helping you just seems like a morally wrong decision doesn't it?" He shot back as if it were simple. Here the colt was imprisoned, under gaurd and he tells her that not helping is a bad thing. This either had to be the densest colt in all of Equestria or he genuinely was an alien.

A long moment of silence passed between the two as Skitter tried to digest what the colt had said, mulling it over slowly.

"I'll consider it."

Comments

[Ardent Dusk]

Woo! New chapter.

[Beanygrow15237]

11670271
But the problem is they don't hope they just immediately assume