Devourer

by Croabadrake

Chapter One: Beast's Presence

Present Day

The train pulled into the station in Canterlot during the evening, and there was a bustling of guards. Shining Armor hadn't seen them on this high of alert since he was with them during the Changeling threat, and that worried him. What could be causing them to be this on-edge? Most of the guards wore an expression of worry of tension. This was even more unusual, since he knew many of these ponies and they were not easily shaken.

When Shining Armor stepped off of the train, many of the guards seemed to relax a bit. It appeared that their respect and admiration of him had not deteriorated at all during his absence. Several guards stepped aside to allow Princess Celestia to enter into the station. She was out of the throne room... this wasn't good.

"Shining Armor," she began. It seemed that whatever was bothering the guards didn't have any effect on her, which was good. "I need to speak to you immediately."
"Of course, princess," he answered, and she quickly turned and left the station with him following. Shining Armor had escorted her to places before, and could recognize that she was walking much faster than normal; maybe she was being bothered by something after all...

It wasn't long before they arrived in the throne room, which was surrounded by more security than normal as expected. The guards at the door opened the way to let the Princess and Shining Armor through, closing it quickly once they reached the inside of the room. The princess didn't even bother finishing turning around before she began speaking, seemingly wanting to let him know what was going on as soon as possible.

"Shining Armor, there is something in the castle," she stated bluntly. Shining Armor was slightly startled, as she wasn't usually this straight to the point. "There have been reports from the servants and guards in all parts of the castle: sightings of a creature moving throughout the halls and rooms."
"What kind of creature?" Shining Armor asked. "I noticed some of my men seemed uneasy and-"
"I know, and with good reason. This creature is not like anything we've encountered before, and their nervousness in the face of this considerable danger is understandable."

The princess fell silent for a moment. She seemed to be waiting for Shining Armor to ask the question she knew he had for her.

"Why do you need me specifically, princess?" There it was. "Why wouldn't normal monster hunters be an acceptable alternative?" he asked cautiously, unsure of what he wanted to hear in return.
"Shining Armor, for the last two weeks this creature has been stealing random objects from random places in the castle, and guards have been going missing without a trace. We've had eye-witness reports of this... thing, and like I said it's not like anything we've ever encountered before. But... that's a half-truth. It is similar to something we've encountered and dealt with before."

Shining armor didn't like where this conversation was going, but continued to listen.
The princess continued, "The reports on what the creature looks like are usually vague at best. It's fast, and has proven to be strong in cases where it was suddenly encountered at close range." Shining Armor had already guessed the second detail, seeing as of how much strength it would require to bring down his men silently. "However... there has always been one consistent detail as to its appearance, which has given us a clue to figuring out exactly what it is and how we might deal with it."

The princess turned and looked towards a particular stained glass window; the one depicting a white unicorn and a pink alicorn casting a love-based spell against a pony-like creature that fed off of love. The window that was made in honor of Shining Armor and Cadence's triumph over the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, though the sheer power of their pure love.

"This creature is reported to be covered in a hard black exoskeleton, exactly like...." she turned back to him, "exactly like Queen Chrysalis and her changelings."
Shining Armor drew back a little. "You mean, you think a changeling could still be....?" He didn't want to finish the sentence. Through the conversation he had felt that this was what she was trying to imply, but to hear it out loud...
"Shining Armor," Princess Celestia continued, "you and Cadence were the ones who defeated Queen Chrysalis and her swarm. We can't call Cadence because she is currently keeping rule over the Chrystal Kingdom. Right now, we need you since you are the one who is most likely to know how this could be."

Shining Armor thought for a moment. The spell banished all changelings within range, and prevented their re-entry into Equestria by any means.... how could this one have stayed? A thought crossed his mind about what the princess had said earlier.

"Princess, you said that it was a half-truth that it was like a changeling," Shining Armor stated. "What do you mean by that?"
"Yes, I did say that. I did so because this thing is definitely not a changeling despite its similar appearance. It may be related to Chrysalis' swarm which is why we need you, but it is NOT like any changeling we've ever seen in anything but the similarities in its appearance to that of changelings."
"What exactly are we up against here, princess?"
"We... don't know. All we know is that it is fast, powerful, apparently very stealthy owing to its ability to escape and throw off pursuers, and... it's bipedal. The creature moves on two legs, with more speed than normal ponies can reach on four. The creature itself stands several feet taller than a normal pony."

Shining Armor sat backwards. What WAS this thing!? "You couldn't find anything about it in the royal libraries?"
"No," Celestia replied, "Luna has been searching through the libraries constantly ever since the guard disappearances started, in hopes of finding a reference to what it does or even just what it might be. I haven't been able to convince her to stop... she insists that her guards are enough to protect her if this creature should attempt to harm her, but still I worry. Books have recently started going missing in the past few days and nights, sometimes right off of the tables she leaves them on when she goes to retrieve more."
"This is a major threat to the castle, Shining Armor," Celestia said. "We need your help, since you're the only one of us here to have defeated a powerful changeling and that's the closest thing we can compare this to."
"I understand why you wanted me here, Princess... I will do my best to shed some light on the matter, if not drive the creature out myself."

Celestia nodded as Shining Armor continued, "I'll start in the library since you said that Princess Luna is there, as well as the fact that it's been an area of activity recently."
"Before you go, though," Celestia said before Shining Armor could turn around, "you should get some sleep. It was a long journey from the Crystal Kingdom to here, and I imagine that you need some rest before you begin investigating."
"No, princess, I need to begin immediately. I'll go to the library and-"

Celestia raised her hoof to tell him to stop talking. "You'll do no such thing. We need your mind wholly on this matter, so if you want to stay up late then sleep in tomorrow. You need your rest."

Taking the hint, Shining Armor nodded, bowed, and then turned to leave. When he reached the door, he heard Celestia call to him: "And be careful. We don't know if it knows you're here or not."

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What...... *sniff* *sniff*......... what is that? It's... oh, I see........
The one that set off that spell so long ago.... he's here.
That magic scent is unmistakeable. He's the one..... that......
My queen has not sent new orders since the spell. It's his fault...
.........let's see now..........
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The walk to his guest room was a long one. He noticed that every servant or guard he passed was on edge, even more so than the ones that greeted him at the station. A few servants even jumped a bit when they saw him round a corner near them before calming down when they realized that he wasn't the creature. Other than everypony else's tension, the trip to his room was uneventful until he arrived.

Before he could open the door, he heard the sound of pounding hooves on the floor: somepony was running. He turned down the hallway in time to see one of Princess Luna's guards charge into view. On seeing Shining Armor, he immediately called for him to follow and then ran off down another hallway. Shining Armor answered the call, catching up to the guard as continued to wind his way through the hallways.

As he caught up, he saw the guard calling for other guards to sound an alarm, not stopping to explain. When he finally evened himself with the guard, the guard shouted over to him "Did you see it!?"
"No, what was it?" Shining Armor answered, though he knew what the guard was going to say.
"I saw it! The creature! That's why Celestia called you here, isn't it!?"

The guard looked forward as they rounded another corner. Following his eyes, Shining Armor saw what the guard was chasing: a shadow at the end of each hallway, just barely visible for an instant every time they turned the corner. "Are you sure it's the creature," Shining Armor asked the guard.
"You didn't see its skin, sir," he answered before speeding up.

Upon turning to a long corridor, the guard suddenly jumped a short distance into the air and spread his wings, taking flight. He sped up to the point where Shining Armor could no longer keep up, rounding the next corner several seconds before he could reach it. He caught a glimpse of the guard rounding another corner at the end of another long hallway and headed in his direction.

Then there was a scream.

Adrenaline pumping through him, Shining Armor pounded his way around the corner... and stopped at a dead end. None of the doors were open, and he hadn't heard any open or close. There was no sign of the creature, nor of the guard. Several more normal guards showed up behind Shining Armor as he frantically searched the hallway.

"Sir, what's going on!?" one of them asked.
"The creature, it just took one of Princess Luna's night guards!" Shining Armor answered, running his hoof across the walls to try and find a secret passageway.

Several guards gasped while others shuddered a bit. The one who asked the question withdrew in shock. "Did you... did you see it?"
"Yes. I mean no. I mean, I saw its shadow and Luna's guard said he'd actually seen it. We chased it through the hallways and when he took flight he outran me. When he came around the corner into this dead-end, he screamed and vanished and.... I--......."

Shining Armor sat down, frustrated with having turned up no clues. After a few moments of contemplation, he made a decision. He turned to the guards that were still gathered at the entrance to the dead end. He began pointing to them and issuing orders, which they carried out without question.

"You, I want you to search these rooms. If you turn up ANYTHING, report to me in the guest room. You four, guard this hallway. I don't want anypony or anything to leave or enter save for the Princesses or I. You two, go find Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Let them know what's happened. And you, you come with me to the guest room. I want somepony to be there with me in case the creature tries to attack me by chance."

As they each took up their positions and ran off through the hallways as ordered, Shining Armor made his way back to the guest room. When he reached it, he didn't go to sleep; instead, he ordered his guard to sleep in the bed. It seemed like an awkward request, but he complied. After the guard fell into an uneasy sleep, Shining Armor took up position near the door. It making an attack on his arrival was highly likely to have no been a coincidence. If it was coming for him, he was going to catch it by surprise at the door while it thought it was only going to have to deal with a normal guard while he slept.

He spent the entire night like this..... but an attack never came. Eventually he himself drifted off to sleep by the door. When he awoke in the morning by the call of a guard sent by Princess Luna, he at first panicked at having fallen asleep. When he saw that the guard in the bed was safe, however, he left the room. First, he checked on the hallway where he posted the guards: none had left the post, and they reported that nothing unusual had happened. Satisfied, he then made his way to the library.

Investigating the hallway would have to wait. For now, it was time to find out if Princess Luna had anything that could help him.

Comments

[Razzy]

Yes, yesssssssss, murder all the ponies, avenge your defeat and make the Queen proud!