When Bon Bon left the hospital five days after being eaten alive, spat out, and then being pulled out of the ground, the first thing she wanted to do was to go home and cuddle with Lyra for at least a day.
Lyra, who had been anxiously waiting for Bon Bon in the lobby, wanted to take her home, shout at her for not being careful and making her worried, and then cuddle with her.
Investigator Sharp Eye, who was also waiting in the lobby, wanted to know what had buried his colleague alive after her disastrous mission, and also discuss some other important things.
Of the three, the investigator's work had the highest priority.
Bon Bon repeatedly questioned if that was true as she waited for the investigator in an empty meeting room in the police station. It was illuminated by the light of the afternoon sun coming in through a window; it was perfect weather to be at home, but she was here. She knew that she'd be answering quite a few questions and she wished that she didn't have to and that she could go home already.
She couldn't leave yet though, and so, she passed her time tapping at the room's lone table while staring at the empty chair opposite from her, hoping that she'd zone out until the investigator came.
Her thoughts, however, kept wandering back to Anya's house and how it literally ate her and spat her out under some field. It was the monster that she had been looking for. It was what Anya was making, and it was what she had to destroy. She would have to inform the agency of the thing and get backup as well. She knew that Anya was still in the hospital and that they could get the drop on he–
The door to the room opened and Sharp Eye strode in, carrying with him a file in his right hoof and an annoyed look on his face. Bon Bon recognised him as her superior and relaxed somewhat, knowing that she wasn't dealing with a normal investigator. He took a seat opposite of Bon Bon and put the file down on the table.
He immediately started talking. "I hope your stay in the hospital was peaceful, agent Bon Bon, but we have business to attend to. To start off, what exactly happened after you were done putting up surveillance in the target's home?"
Bon Bon remembered the house coming alive and how she felt like she was actually going to die in there. After taking a few breaths to compose herself, she answered, "The house... it's alive."
Sharp Eye raised his eyebrow at that. She continued, "After I had knocked out Anya, I was just leaving the house when all the rooms started turning into... mouths. A– all the doors were locked shut and I couldn't escape out the windows either. It... it ate me, and spat me out under that field."
Bon Bon took a moment to calm herself. The memory of being inside that thing was still fresh in her mind.
"That house... that thing is dangerous. Anya's made it for sure and she's made it large. W– we have to do something about it!"
Sharp Eye didn't look disturbed at all, and Bon Bon thought that it was probably because she didn't describe it properly. Then, Sharp Eye spoke, "All the rooms turned to mouths?"
Bon Bon nodded.
"And it ate you?"
She nodded again.
Sharp Eye seemed to be lost in thought for a moment before saying, "Alright. Moving on–"
"Moving on?! There's a Faust-damned monster in town and who knows what Anya will make it do!"
Sharp Eye took a deep breath after Bon Bon was finished. He then started, "First things first, Anya did NOT make that thing."
"What?" Bon Bon was lost. That thing had all the signs of being engineered by a biomancer, but here was Sharp Eye, telling her it wasn't.
He continued his explanation, "That thing is a naturally occuring creature that we call 'living houses'. It's a kind of magical creature that exists both in the physical world and in a plane of reality right below ours, and it shifts between either when it pleases. It latches onto any structure that can accomodate its size, most of the time anyway."
"But it's still dangerous, right?" Bon Bon asked the important question.
"Depends on which type it is. The one you came across in her house is very likely one of the 'rural variety', as we call it. They're usually pretty large and nonviolent–"
"It literally ate me."
"And then it spat you out mostly unharmed. It could have done a lot worse. Remember how I said that they're pretty large? They don't get large just like that, they hunt and eat a lot of the surrounding fauna while gathering energy from flora, and ley lines if there are any. In cities, there isn't much of any of that, and that's how you get the other variety of living houses, the urban variety, which are a lot more aggressive and consume ponies primarily. The rural variety don't do that unless they're particularly pissed or if there's a shortage of food."
Bon Bon thought about what it would be like to be actually eaten. She then shook her head to get rid of the images, and asked, "Still, what are we going to do about it?"
"Nothing."
"...We're doing... nothing?" She had to confirm if she had heard him right.
"Well, not exactly nothing, but we're not going to be killing it like you're thinking. Killing it would affect the local ecosystem quite a bit, and the clean-up afterwards is going to be a big challenge. Plus, there are usually more than one–"
"There's more of them?" Her eyes were wide with since horror at that information.
"We don't know that yet but considering that the rural variety of living houses are rarely isolated, and that Ponyville's on a ley line, which these things can feed on, we can safely assume that there are more of them in town. Anyway, as I was saying, if there's more and we kill one, the rest will turn aggressive and that would be a lot more trouble than just leaving them alone. Mind you, we won't be leaving them completely alone — I'll have a team come down here to find and set up surveillance for all instances of living houses in the town."
Bon Bon took a minute to process all that information. There were more than one of those things in the town and it was safe? It was hard to believe for her.
"So, do we tell Anya or?" she asked dumbly before stopping herself. Why would they tell her, it's supposed to be secret. Besides, she'd probably try and use it to further her own goals if she knew.
"No, we won't be telling her since it is very unlikely that it will harm her. On the topic of harm though...
Agent Bon Bon, your handling of Anya was terrible."
Bon Bon had not really expected that; she had thought the issue of the living house would be more important.
Sharp Eye continued, his tone shifting from annoyed to slightly angry, "You've made quite a mess with how you put her in the hospital–"
"It wasn't my fault that she kept fighti–" she tried defending herself but was cut off.
"It's your fault that you didn't plan out your mission to avoid that entirely! Do you know how Anya was found? She cried out for help in a dream. Princess Luna herself sent a letter to the police here to go and save her, and now that I've settled this as a burglary, she wants to know who was behind it. A princess, who also happens to know Anya personally, wants answers and I can't just go and tell her that a SMILE agent was behind it, not without the whole agency facing consequences! Do you know what this could mean for you?"
Bon Bon shook her head, and seeing that, Sharp Eye became slightly angrier. "You could be tried for aggravated assault, home invasion, and involuntary manslaughter if Anya dies, which she might. The agency would be put under a lot more oversight and bureaucracy that can interfere with our ability to protect Equestria."
"But she's a biomancer — a dark magic user — she'd eventually do something. I found books on other dark magics in her house!" Bon Bon argued as she tried justifying her actions.
"But we do not have any definitive evidence that would warrant that level of force being used, let alone any. Gathering that evidence was supposed to be the only thing you were to do in there!"
Both stayed silent for a while but the tension in the room didn't go down.
Finally, Sharp Eye spoke, his voice calm once more, "Look, what's happened has happened. The agency will work to keep our involvement in this incident secret. We'll get somepony to blame the burglary on. You, on the other hoof, have a new task."
Bon Bon looked up at that.
"The cameras you put up in Anya's house were all destroyed by it. We can't go and put more up since they'll probably be broken as well," he said as he opened the file and flipped through a few of it's contents before closing it. "You are going to keep an eye on her through more active means."
"You're saying that... I should... become her friend so that I can keep track of what she does?"
"I didn't say that, but it will be a good way to achieve your goal."
"I don't think that's possible. I literally pissed her off enough for her to ban me from the library."
"Then you're going to fix that. Consider it as punishment for your unprofessional conduct, " he said, ignoring her complaint. He then pushed the file to her and said, "This file has all the information we could dig up on her. Use this as you need to."
Bon Bon turned the file and opened it, flipping through a bunch of pages that had quite a lot of information. It would help with the task for sure, but she was still not convinced, especially since it involved befriending a dark magic user, one that did not like her.
"Now, what we did here was discuss what attacked you while you were out on a walk. You'll tell the sheriff that you didn't see what asked you but that you think it might have been a timberwolf. Got it?"
She nodded, closing the file. In her mind, she almost wished that she wasn't a secret agent with all the things she had to do. However, she was one and she had to do get job. Said job could wait for some time though; she wanted to rest first.
I regretted waking up.
I was in some dim hospital room with my right arm in a cast and three different things hooked up to me. I was far from being okay, let alone comfortable, and I missed Voth's warm embrace. I don't know how much time I had been with him, using him as a shoulder to cry on, but I knew that it wasn't for long enough. I wanted to go back to sleep so that I could go back to him, but I didn't since I was too uncomfortable to, and because I'd be wasting more of his time as well.
I just stayed awake, wishing that I could turn over to lie on my stomach since lying on my back was becoming uncomfortable. I was immobilised though, with my right arm in a cast and all the stuff hooked up to me, and so, I could do nothing about it.
I could only look around the bare room, which didn't even have a window as far as I could tell. It was cold and the blanket I had was thin. My fur was pretty useless. Just like me.
I tried to go back to sleep once I realised that being awake wasn't worth it but my chest hurt too much and my mind wouldn't shut up. I almost tried casting the sleep spell but remembered the cone-thing on my horn and the nightmare I had had. I then tried to think about what I'd make to protect myself and anything else that I wanted to, but I couldn't focus enough to even get a vague idea. So much for my mind not shutting up. I was frustrated with myself.
I eventually decided to call Voth and get him to put me to sleep. I felt a bit guilty about disturbing him just because I wasn't content with doing nothing but I buried my feelings for a bit
'Voth,' I said in my mind. He came quick, letting me continue, 'Can you put me to sleep?'
I recieved my answer as suddenly, my eyes felt heavy and the world faded into black. I was floating in darkness for a while, which was nice since I couldn't feel any of my injuries or any pain.
I opened my eyes when I stopped floating and I found myself in my bedroom. There was no light but I could look around without any issue. My right arm wasn't broken and my torso wasn't covered in bandages and dressings and I could see alright as well. I was clearly in a dream.
I was sitting on my bed and there was the sound and smell of rain filling the air, all of which were a thousand times better than the bare hospital room. I pulled the blanket and pillow on the bed into a pile, which I then started kneading at so that it would be perfect to lie down on.
Once I was done making the pile perfect, I lay down on it and curled up with my back to the wall. It was so much nicer than the hospital. I closed my eyes for a moment and nuzzled the pile, appreciating how soft and fuzzy it was. It was almost like hugging someone. Almost. It was still cold though and not in a comfortable way. I didn't complain though. It was more than I deserved anyway.
The door opened, making me open my eyes and lift my head up. I saw Voth walk into the room. I was going to thank him for the nice dream but was cut off by Voth stepping onto the bed and then laying down next to me. He curled up around me and draped a wing over me as well. It was warm and fluffy even though he was made entirely out of skin and eyes, and I found that I could think more clearly now that he was here. He put his left arm over me and began, "I HAVE COME TO SPEAK ABOUT YOUR SAFETY."
"Oh," I replied as I put my head back down onto the pile. "I haven't really thought about it yet."
"IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU DO I PREFER YOU DO NOT PERISH BEFORE YOU FIND MY KEY."
"Hmm, but how would I do it? Do I just become buff? Or should I make a gun?"
Voth didn't say anything, letting me think a bit. Becoming buff would be hard since it involved exercise and going to gym and whatnot, and all that was stuff I probably could not do. Because I was weak. Making a gun would be difficult as well but for different reasons.
If I went the full magic route, I'd make a thing called a 'spell slinger' which was basically a magic gun. Those things were used extensively in this world's two world wars, after which they were phased out, partly because they were just stopgap solutions to arm a lot of people very quickly and partly because there were few major wars afterwards, which was a bit weird for me since my original world had three world wars and was on the verge of a fourth. I guess these guys are just more peaceful. Anyway, as a result, they're very well regulated and hard to get and making one at home would be a crime.
I couldn't make a traditional gun with gunpowder and stuff because I didn't know how to, and I'm sure that I wouldn't even be able to get gunpowder because it's something you use to get yourself a working cannon i.e. a controlled thing.
That left me with the option of either making something that wasn't a gun, or a gun that wasn't covered by the law. But would I really do that, introduce new ways to kill people?
The image of Spider's crushed body came to my mind and I made my decision quickly after that. I'll make something lethal. But what?
I thought some more and eventually, something came to my mind. In my old world, there were two superpowers: the Union of Free Nations and the Eurasian Union, and long story short, the Eurasian Union was arming its soldiers with coil-guns.
The idea behind a coil-gun was simple — just use timed electromagnets to accelerate a projectile to devastating speeds. I could make that, especially since I had literal magic to help me. It would be great since it wouldn't depend on my combat magic skills, and the parts would be simple enough to find or replace with a magical equivalent.
"What if I make a coil-gun?" I said to Voth, proposing my idea.
"I SUPPOSE THAT WILL WORK BUT I ALSO HOPE THAT YOU DECIDE TO INCREASE YOUR NATURAL STRENGTH."
That was reassuring to hear and I returned to resting. Voth didn't leave like I expected him to but that was alright with me since he was warm. I'd hate to wake up. It felt nice with him and he wouldn't be there in the physical world.
I'll have to wake up eventually though, and when I do, I'll have work to do. But until then, I could rest.