Devourer

by Croabadrake

Chapter Four: Plans and Worries

A pattern… there was a pattern here. Princess Luna looked back over the notes she had been taking on the attacks over the previous weeks. She triple-checked to make sure and confirmed that she was indeed seeing what she thought she was seeing. She waved a hoof for Shining Armor to come look at her progress.

Shining Armor failed to respond, too focused on trying to figure out why the hole they’d made in the library floor just led to more floor. The spot didn’t make the hollow sound again when he tapped it to tell the servants where to start digging, and after they started they had found nothing but dirt and stone once they got all the way through the floor. The effort was leading nowhere.

When Shining Armor didn’t respond, Luna raised her head and looked over to him. “Shining Armor, come look at this,” she said, calling for his attention. He glanced at the hole again, which the servants had given up on making deeper than four feet, and walked over to the table.

“What is it?”
“I’ve found something. Look at this…”

Luna spread her charts out across the table in order. They seemed to be bar charts of some sort, detailing months, divided into weeks, divided into days, divided into hours. Early charts just depicted a number per day and most weeks were only marked with a one. However, as the charts’ dates got closer to the current day, she had made them far more detailed. Shining Armor saw that she had split the bars in two: one for objects, one for ponies. She’d been tracking when and what had gone missing in the previous weeks. He also made note that the recent few days he’d been there had a marked increase in disappearances of both objects and ponies.

“What is this?” Shining Armor asked, not sure of the point.
“Look more carefully at the recent days,” Luna said while sliding a hoof across the last few charts. “Do you see anything odd about them?”

Shining Armor looked closer. After a moment, he figured out what she was talking about: there were fluctuations in when things went missing. Every twenty hours, there was a period of three or four hours in which the bars were absent, indicating that there were disappearances of neither objects nor ponies in those periods.

“…..what do you think it means?”
“Well, it’s a start at least,” she replied, “but I’m not sure what the significance is just yet. It’s forward progress, but it’s as puzzling as it is revealing…”
The Princess of the Night yawned. After all, she was Princess of the Night, not Princess of the Late Morning. Shining Armor looked at her and his eyes widened in realization. Luna seemed confused.

“What?” she asked.
“You’re… tired,” he replied slowly. “You need to sleep…”
“Yes? I may be a princess but I do need to rest from time to ti-“

The realization suddenly hit her as well. She looked back over the charts again… if they were working constantly, and collapsed into sleep whenever they felt they couldn’t go any further. If the charts weren’t lying and if the reports from the guards and servants around the castle were accurate, then this thing was working constantly, taking objects at a consistent rate with the occasional guard or servant. With that much work being done, it must grow tired every now and then…

“…so we can predict when it’s safe for ponies to be alone in the castle, and…” Luna said.
“That’s another step forward,” Shining Armor replied, not noticing that Luna trailed her sentence off.
“It’s next dormant state is likely to be in a few hours, if it sticks to what has so far been a fairly consistent schedule,” Luna noted. “It stays awake and active for at minimum nineteen hours and at most, twenty-two. Then it goes somewhere and sleeps for three to five hours, during which period it’s safe to wander the hallways alone.”

The two had a moment of silence to think of how they could use this to their advantage… though Luna already had an idea. She had an ability that few ponies knew of save for her and her sister, and if they were correct in thinking that the creature sleeps during these periods…

“Shining Armor,” Luna said while making her way to the door with her guards. “Stay here and take down the hourly reports. I have something I need to discuss with my sister.”

“I will,” Shining Armor said as he sat down in front of her research again. When she exited the room, he looked over the notes she’d taken down regarding myths from all over the world; she’d marked down anything that might have any connection to the changelings, but none of it seemed to be leading to anything significant.

He sighed in frustration. Phantom hollow in the ground, being outwitted by it twice already, and there was nothing in the entire library that seemed to have any relation to this thing. How can there be absolutely no information on it!? There were plenty of books detailing Changeling encounters, myths, facts, and historical events, but there was no mention of anything like this with them. The royal library was one of the most expansive libraries in all of Equestria, and it didn’t have a single word on the creature. They’d already cleaned out the sections detailing flora and fauna, they were almost completely done with the mythological section, and the servants assigned to look through the history section were done. Before too long, the only thing left to do would be to look back through the things they’d already read…

Shining Armor lightly hit his head on the table a few times to try and jog his brain. How could it have escaped from right in front of him twice? Was there a hollow spot back at the first disappearance site? He got up and instructed his bodyguards to follow him. If there was anywhere to go from here, then that idea was probably it.

---------------------------------------------------------

“Oh…. Hello, Luna,” said Celestia as Luna entered the throne room. Celestia had been speaking to several advisors, who she then dismissed as Luna approached.
“Sister, I need to speak to you in private,” Luna said. Celestia could tell that what she was wanting to talk about was serious.
“Of course. Guards, if you would…?”

The guards vacated the room, including her entourage (with some hesitation). When they all left, they met each other’s eyes again.

“What is it?” Celestia asked.
“We have discovered that this creature sleeps,” Luna stated. There was a brief silence.
“……….well, that proves that it gets tired. There must be more to your discovery than that,” Celestia finally replied, a little confused.

Luna gave Celestia a look that told her what she was planning. At first, Celestia drew back a bit. She hadn’t thought of the possibility of doing such a thing… and it discomforted her, knowing that they knew so little about the creature. While the process was normally harmless, this thing could present any number of dangers to processes that might affect it differently. Luna’s gaze did not waver, and Celestia could feel her conviction to her task. She knew that Luna had come here not for discussion or permission, but merely to let her know that it was going to happen.

“……be careful,” Celestia said. “We don’t know if it will affect the creature differently.”
“I know, sister, did you not think I would take that into account?”
“No, I knew you would have weighted the possibilities. I’m just worried about you is all…”
Luna’s eyes moved to the dark circle under her sister’s. “Sister… have you been sleeping well?”
“Yes, I have,” Celestia lied. “I’m just tired of having to deal with this issue that’s come up…”
“What issue?” Luna inquired, not believing the lie for a moment.
Celestia had only lied about the sleep, though. “It seems that somepony in the castle has been leaking information out to the public about the creature in the castle…”

Celestia levitated a newspaper to Luna that she had been keeping next to the throne. Luna took it and read the headline.

THE CANTERLOT CASTLE MONSTER
Is there something in Canterlot Castle that even the Princesses can’t best?

Luna threw the newspaper to the floor. “Who would do this!?” she said, nearly yelling.
“I do not know,” Celestia replied, “but I have been trying to find out who the informant is. I’ve narrowed it down to the servants in the east wing with the help of the advisors, who I made sure were the first to be screened.”
Celestia sighed. “Still, it might be a few days before we find the culprit, especially if the creature decides to concentrate on that area… and mother help us if the creature takes the pony that’s doing it.”

Luna shook her head in response. “Well, if that does happen then at least we won’t have to worry about them for a while. And, we’ll also probably be able to figure out who it is right away thanks to seeing the leak stop. If there’s more than one, though…”
“I don’t even want to think about it,” Celestia said, putting a hoof to her head and sighing again.
“….You’re sure you’re sleeping well, sister?”
“Yes, I am.”

Luna looked back to the door. If she wanted to do this, then she would have to go now to prepare.

“Sister, I must go.”
“Oh yes, yes, of course. I forgot why you came here in the first place.”
“Goodbye, sister, and please do get some sleep.”

Celestia didn’t reply as Luna left the room and headed towards her room. She had to take some time to mentally prepare herself for what she might be about to encounter. The trip there was uneventful, and what followed at least started off normal…

---------------------------------------------------------

Luna’s next few hours were spent in preparation. She meditated for a part of the time, she did some mental exercises, and she made sure she was well-rested. Nothing interrupted, and the guards outside remained at their post without a problem while the guards inside the room did not interfere. When she was done, she looked at the clock… one o’clock P.M. It was around this time that the creature was predicted to be falling asleep, wherever it was.

Luna took one last deep breath and laid down on her bed. The light flowing through the window was suddenly blocked out by a small cloud of darkness, as well as the light underneath the door. There was a soft blue glow coming from her mane and tail as she quickly fell asleep... but didn’t at the same time.

Luna opened her eyes, but still lay asleep in her bed with her eyes closed… her mind’s eyes were now open instead. She looked around at the surrounding empty void as the sound of a breeze emanated from somewhere, even though there was no wind. The range of her sight had been expanded by the preparation beforehand, so she was able to see bright, shining lights in the distance as well as ones up close; however, she was only interested in those that were close enough to be in the castle. She looked around, seeing some lights shake and fidget about, though not moving significantly from their position.

Luna had expected to see nightmares here on the dreamscape. The recent events had been hard on the guards and servants, and now it seems the town as well thanks to the information leak. She looked across the shaking lights that indicated that their corresponding pony was having a nightmare, but as much as she wanted to she didn’t have the time to go and comfort each of them. Right now, she had a mission: search the dreamscape for the creature’s dream, if it indeed did dream at all.

As she looked about without moving from her position floating in the black void, she spotted something strange. There was a dream… of a different color? Most dreams appeared as shining green lights; exceptionally evil ponies and beings had a red light instead, while those with special links to harmony such as Twilight and her friends, as well as Luna and Celestia, appeared yellow. This dream… was a fluctuating hue of blue and gray. That had to be the creature, since no guard, servant, or other pony had ever had a base dream color like this. She willed herself towards it, her wings useless in the airless void.

The closer Luna got to the dream, the more she felt uneasy about it. This creature was obviously strange, and she was beginning to think once more about whether or not this dream invasion process would proceed differently for it or not. When she reached it, she shook the thoughts out of her head: now was not the time for hesitation. Luna closed her eyes and moved towards the dream, allowing its light to expand and encompass her.

Comments

[Razzy]

You gonna get rekt, Moonbutt.