He noticed only now that the table had a map scrolled across it of Equestria’s western countryside. There were several points marked with flags and a few notes had been scribbled and laid out over spots that Gleam could only assume were points of someone’s interest.

“Trust me,” Lion continued, shooting Merger a brief glare to keep him from speaking out of turn, “I wouldn’t ask you to abandon your students if the situation weren’t dire. We need your help.”

Lion glanced back at the sixth pony present, a unicorn fully equipped in armor that had yet to say a word amd seemed to be serving as both bodyguard and assistant to Lion. The unicorn’s horn lit up with a glow of magic as he levitated a scroll over to Gleam.

“We seem to be under attack,” Lion claimed while Gleam rolled the scroll out in front him, “over the last few months there have been several occurrences of unusual and sudden appearances of various kinds of wildlife.”

“Animals have been showing up seemingly out of nowhere,” Diligence spoke up, Gleam listening as he scanned the contents of the scroll, frowning the further into it he got, “So far we’ve counted four separate occasions, and they’ve been increasing in severi-”

“It started in Greenswill,” the voice of Merger, cutting off Diligence in another display of short term petty self fulfilment, “some… animals materialized out of thin air. The guard looked into it but found no evidence of any criminal activity.”

“That’s your city, isn’t it?” Gleam asked without looking up from his scroll, “what was the variety. Of wildlife, I mean.”

“… It doesn’t matter-”

“Bunnies!” Diligence interrupted, pausing only to catch her breath after a fit of laughter, “his market was flooded with bunny rabbits and it was the silliest thing anyone ever-“

“Yes! They were bunny rabbits!” Merger retook control of the conversation, speaking loud enough to drown out Diligence whom had refused to stop laughing over the nature of his crisis, “Rabbits appeared at noon in the center of the market square during the height of business hours, or so the patrons had reported. None of my guards had seen it happen, but according to witnesses the rabbits just suddenly appeared out of nowhere like they had teleported into the area with no warning. Like I said, I had my guards look into it but they found nothing beyond a few traces of magic. We’d assumed it was a prank some up and coming mage had played on us for laughs and disregarded it as such.”

“Then a pack of dogs appeared in Noble’s market,” Visionary adopted the narrative, Gleam halfway through the scroll that detailed what he was being told though done so with more magical technicality and insight,

“They showed up at noon during a grand opening for a new restaurant. Most were run off by the guards that were watching over the event but some managed to get a few bites in on the attending ponies before being scared off. We still get the occasional report of feral hounds harassing people after dark. I would have chalked it up as a prank similarly to how Merger had done so with his… uh… ‘bunny situation’,” another fit of laughter from Diligence, “but ours was different. When we investigated, I got reports from my guards that detailed how some of the dogs appeared to be… Inside the walls of the buildings around the market. Half of the dogs were melded into the building while the other half were, well… you know. This made us assume someone had used magic to teleport the dogs but had been off target.”

The conversation stalled long enough for Diligence to catch her breath, Gleam finishing the scroll and setting it aside and impatiently clearing his throat. Diligence paid no mind.

“Hahaha! Aha! Ah… Hah… Oh… Okay… So… After they dealt with their dumb harmless nonsense,” Diligence finally managed to form words, much to the chagrin of Merger and Visionary, “I was hit with timber wolves.”

Diligence’s voice dropped to a sudden grave tone that Gleam hadn’t expected from the previously laughing mare.

“They appeared closer to Perticity’s castle than in Greenswill and Noble, I might add, managed to do more damage than their stupid bunnies and dogs. Several ponies were mauled before my guards were able to get things under control, so maybe you two should stop friggin complain about the inconvenience of having mild woodland creatures show up to momentarily interrupt otherwise normal events!”

Merger and Visionary went on to start shouting some pointless defense that Gleam didn’t care about. He ignored the brewing argument while he went over in his head what the scroll had informed him one more time.
Several occurrences of seemingly random teleportation that involved animals of increasing threat classifications. First bunnies, then dogs and timber wolves. The report mentioned manticores coming next which Gleam assumed one of the mayors present would go into detail over soon enough, but he rolled the idea around regardless in hopes of ideas coming to him before this train wreck of a briefing was through.

“Stop!” Lion again attempted to regain control of the conversation, his tone making it clear that his tolerance of these ponies and their rivalries was wearing extremely thin, “Your people are being attacked by wild animals and monsters from the Everfree, and you think this the time to argue and fight amongst ourselves? Reign it in! This is serious!” Lion took a second to let loose another sigh and shake his head at the others.

“My city was next,” He turned his attention to Gleam, shooting the others quick stabbing glances as he spoke to keep them quiet, “and I think it’s fair to say that mine was the worst. Gleam, I noticed you rolled up the scroll I gave you, so I assume you read about the manticores? They hit Corona, right in the center of my castle’s square, and they did quite a bit of damage before my Cortoza were able to put them down.”

Ah, yes, the Cortoza. Gleam almost rolled his eyes at the mention of Lion Heart’s pet project. A corps of battle mages intended to outperform and possibly replace the royal guard? He’d found the idea amusing a few decades ago when he’d had the honor of helping to found its original incarnation, but now it seemed like a rather desperate attempt to impress the royal sisters and make a name for himself. He didn’t bother hiding his distaste for Lion’s mentioning of the Cortoza as he never felt a need to and thought Lion’s defending of the resurrection of his retired corps to be sad.

“They took control of the situation,” Lion continued with emphasis placed on the Cortoza’s efforts, “after putting them down and calming the civilians they cleaned up the mess. Immediately after I set them to investigate the situation I contacted the others here and learned of their experiences.”

“what did Captain Willows find?” Gleam asked, speaking for the first time in what he felt was forever.

“Willows wasn’t consult-“

“What did Captain Willows find?” Gleam repeated, his tone demanding in his desire to know what the captain of Corona’s guard had discovered.

“Willows. Was. Not. Consulted,” Lion repeated with a blunt stop and start cadence, “My Cortoza were assigned to investigate the phenomena and found little to go on.”

“You’re toy soldiers failed to pick up on any leads then?” Gleam chuckled, directing his attention to the table in front of him as Lion huffed from his corner, “I’m shocked. Truly. What’s this all about then? This map has markers over several towns and cities that none of you mentioned. What’s their significance?”

“We’ve been trying to discern a pattern,” Visionary spoke up to explain, “There’s no concrete rhythm to the appearances that we’ve been able to decipher, but we’ve noted several possible targets that might be hit next according to the locations that have already fell victim to these attacks.”

“Attacks!?” Diligence nearly fell over, clutching at her sides as she howled with laughter, “’Attacks’ she says! Dogs and bunnies! Ahahahaha!”

“… These are the most likely targets according to our estimations,” Visionary tried to ignore the raucous cackling of Diligence, “We can’t tell for sure where it might happen next, of course, but we’re pretty confident that it will be in one of these two locations.”

“Berylsburg,” Gleam named off one of the marked locations, a sizable city some distance away. He shot Matrix a glance at the mention as he realized why the pony had been present this whole time.

“And… what is that… Weaver? Why is Weaver marked on here?”

“Weaver is going to be holding a festival within the next few days,” Matrix mentioned while scrutinizing his left hoof’s most recent manicure, “Some locally run square dance or whatever they do out in the boonies. Lion think’s that might make it a target but I don’t get why. It’s just some backwater where everyone sleeps all day, I think.”

“It’s the nap capitol of the world, actually,” Diligence tapped near Weaver’s position on the map and whispered as if letting everyone in on a secret, “They make blankets.”

“Every attack has happened either in a center of a congregation of ponies or near the cities administration,” Lion stepped in again, “and a festival falls in line with the former. However, I agree that it’s an unlikely target. Berylsburg is a much stronger candidate what with its upcoming gem exchange.”

“Yeah,” Matrix, “we get tons of tourism this time of year since a bunch of collectors show up and show off their rare gems. It does wonders for the economy, I tell you what. Those nerds love to flaunt their shiny rocks.”
Gleam looked over the map and weighed the options. He’d heard of Weaver but never been there personally. The festival coming up was unknown to him, and as such he could only assume it was more of a local event than Berylsburg’s well known gem exchange that reliably attracted thousands of ponies every year. As a “nerd” – according to Matrix at least – he found himself in agreement with the arrogant mayor. Especially when considering that, in this heatwave, most of the exchange would probably be taking place indoors to get out of the sun. More concentrated targets. More potential for damage.

There was, however, one question that had been bothering Gleam ever since he’d received that scroll from Lion Heart.

“Why haven’t you told the royal sisters?” Gleam was blunt, staring Lion in the eye as he asked this.

Lion was hesitant to answer, but Diligence started to snicker as had become common behavior for her when it came to the other mayors’ missteps.

“Well?” she asked halfway through a breath, “Why haven’t you told the princess? Please, enlighten us.”

Lion avoided eye contact with the others. He glanced back at his bodyguard, Gleam only now noticing the insignia on the guards’ armor and scoffing while Lion turned back to finally answer.

“The Cortoza can handle this,” He claimed, the other mayors either groaning or chuckling at the idea, “All they need is to be told where to go and we can stop it. One lead and this problem is solved.”

“You want me to trust your toy soldiers with what could potentially be a burgeoning crisis?” Gleam’s words cut like a knife, Lion flinching slightly while the other mayors only took pleasure in it, “Have you gone insane?

This needs to be brought to Celestia or Luna immediately.”

“No!” Lion pleaded, Diligence cackling away in the background, “Gleam, I know you don’t think much of me, but I implore you, give my Cortoza this chance! I’ve already gone through the trouble to organize this meeting, Corona is far closer to both of the next potential targets than Canterlot and I have a number of prepped teams on stand-by just waiting for me to say the word-”

“Sorry, you’re going to have to repeat that,” Gleam said after loudly shushing Lion down, “You’ll have to forgive me, I’m getting up there in years so it’s getting a tad difficult to be sure, but it sounded like the words that just came out of your mouth weren’t: ‘Yes, Head Instructor, I apologize for being a selfish child that values his project over the security of my people and will alert both Celestia and Luna immediately’. Am I wrong? Someone correct me because I swear it sounded like something completely different!”

Lion was silent then straightened himself out and looked Gleam in the eye.

“I’ve done my research, Head Instructor. I know about the Cortoza. Their past, their history, what they did and what they were capable of. I also know that you’ve doubted my reincarnation of the corps since its inception. But please, just give them a chance. I have overseen their training, taken great pains to ensure that they are the best of the best, all so I can prove that their corps not only is needed but has a place in today’s military that none can deny.

“I grew up with stories of what you and your friends managed to do,” Lion continued, his gaze dropping to the floor beneath him, “My library is one of the few to still have surviving evidence of these events. Gigatrax, The Cloven March, Surmount…”

Lion sighed, the stallion sitting down where he was and focusing on the map in front of him as he ran a hoof across his forehead to wipe away a few beads of sweat.

“I know that the Cortoza are exactly what we need in this day and age. All they need is one opportunity to prove themselves. This is that opportunity, I‘m sure of it.”

There was silence.

Then Matrix spoke up.

“I say let it blow up in his face,” Diligence loved this idea and expressed it in a way that I’m sure you can assume, “I mean, his joke of a guard reformation guided by a selfish desire to be at the head is primed to become a hilarious disaster already. Why not go full throttle?”

Lion glared daggers at Matrix while Merger contributed with:

“I honestly don’t care either way. Whatever shows up will be an issue for you all to deal with anyway so I don’t really give a flying fudge what you decide. I don’t even know why I’m here. Did I mention that my city only had to deal with a sudden explosion in it’s rabbit population? Can I leave now? I don’t think I’m really relevant to this discussion.”

“Sit down!” Lion barked, bringing Merger’s butt back to the ground.

“So long as someone looks into it, I’m happy,” Visionary sounded urgently, “Just so long as maybe it happens right now? We’ve spent all this time talking but we’ve decide on almost nothing. Can we get a move on?”

The group looked in Diligence’s direction but were left with no insight as she just slapped on a smirk and shrugged.

Gleam passed his gaze between each of the ponies. He gave each a full scan before moving on, focusing on the eyes and body language before moving on to the next. Eventually he reached Lion and narrowed his own watery gray eyes. After a few seconds, he looked back down at the map scrawled out in front of him.

“… I’ll see what I can do to send a few guards over to Berylsburg,” Gleam assured the congregation after heaving a deep breath, “I can call in some favors and pull some people. They can show up under cover and keep an eye on things. If anything suspicious comes up they can send word to Corona then Canterlot and we can decide what to do from there.

“but know this, Lion,” Gleam growled, leaning over the table and appearing somehow larger than he had before, “If these wannabes that you’ve scrounged together fail to provide results, they’re finished. I will personally come to Corona and fire each pony one by one and turn their little headquarters into a bakery.”

Lion didn’t flinch, but Gleam felt he’d gotten the message.

“What of Weaver?” Visionary asked, thrusting a hoof in the town’s respective position on the map.

Gleam backed off the table and looked towards Weaver on the map. After some thought, he waved a dismissive hoof at the town.

“I know a couple of ponies that can look into Weaver...”