I walk quickly out to the throne room. Lucretia has her helmet off as she talks with three guards about their patrol routines. As I approach, she hears me and turns around. Without hesitation, I motion with my head for her to follow me into the side room we just had our meeting in.

As we enter, she closes the door behind us with a slightly worried look.
The moment I hear the doors latch, I blurt it out.
“The creature is controlling Luna and it’s called Zaran.”
Lucretia’s mouth hangs open.
“How could you possibly know that!?”

I cross my arms and start pacing.
“I went and visited her. She had a small amount of strange behaviors. It was subtle but there was something off about her. Also I think the real Luna tried to write me a message that said "Don’t trust me." I know she’s being controlled but how is the problem. Zaran read me a passage out of a book about him. Unfortunately I can’t read it myself, it’s written in an old language I don’t recognize.”
Lucretia sighs and sits down at the table. She plants her elbows down and holds the sides of her head with her hands.
She takes in a deep breath and lets it out as her eyes widen.
“I hate to be the one to say it, but I have the feeling it’s not that easy.”
I raise an eyebrow and take a seat across from her.
“What do you mean?"

Lucretia opens her mouth and glances at the door apprehensively.
“This creature is smart. I honestly feel this is too...novice for it. I mean it could be from a sociopathic need for recognition, but I doubt it.” She looks across at me and calms herself.
“Go over exactly how she was acting, maybe that will give me some clues.”
I lean back in my chair and do my best to recall all her odd behavior.
“To begin with, she...normally she’s...subtle at being seductive towards me to be blunt. There’s always a hint of it when I talk to her. Maybe she legitimately feels something for me, maybe it’s just her personality...could even be a recently devel-”

Lucretia interrupts me nervously.
“Sir...I’m sorry but...we need to stay on topic. We can discuss how she might feel about you another time if you want, but I need to know what she did different.”

I purse my lips and blush.
“Sorry. Anyways, she laid it on thick. She made me feel bad for her, she kept trying to drive the conversation to be about us, despite knowing how important it was that she relayed her info to me. Also when I told her I couldn’t read the language, I saw a suspicious smile. She tried to cover it up by subtly flirting with me, asking why she’s never seen my face. It could have been a legitimate question I guess.”
Lucretia stay silent for a bit then taps her fingertips together.
“I’m sorry Raiden, but I think it’s safe to assume everything she said and did was deliberate….maybe even the note.”
I ball my hands into fists angrily.
“I...I hate being played like this. Let's say the note was a fake, why then? Why make it so obvious you’re being controlled?”
Lucretia nods uncomfortably.
“That’s the right question to be asking.”
My eyes bulge as one last detail pops into my head.
“Also she tried to get under my helmet. She baited me into a kiss almost. Zaran knew just how to get at me. I think it now knows what Luna knows.”

Lucretia nods again.
“I think it has to be physical contact. Like her actual body has to touch yours. Maybe it even has something to do with the metal our armor is made out of, or it might just need to be your skin. Also it might be a full-blown possession, or perhaps Zaran can read your mind just by contact.” She leans to the side and props up her head with her left hand. She lowers her head a bit and sighs, puffing out her cheeks in annoyance while she stares at the center of the table. Long golden hair flows down in a complete tangled mess around her gauntlet. She lifts her head, and I see her hazel eyes filled with fear and irritation. I know she’s worried about losing our new home too. If anyone could beat Zaran at his own game, it would be Lucretia though.

She closes her eyes, slowly inhales and calms herself.
“Okay...I honestly think Zaran intentionally did a bad job to make us paranoid. I think he wants us at each other’s throats in fear. I could see the ponies freaking out and ruining everything. Imagine if like the few hundred refugees we have in the palace alone started suspecting each other and went nuts. It would cause some serious issues. Also, I think he can only possess one creature at a time, and for a short duration, but we’ll have to test it to make sure. So get this: if he can do it indefinitely, it would be more valuable to stay undetected inside Luna right? So I think he knows after a while he has to leave. Based off that, I also think that while he can view her memories, he can’t alter them, so once he leaves she’ll rat him out, otherwise once again, he wouldn't announce himself. So I guess he might as well mess with us since she's going to spill the beans anyways. That's the only logical conclusion I can imagine as to why he would expose himself like that.”

I groan and take off my helmet as well.
“I forgot to mention. He seemed genuinely fearful when I told him the Og Nag were coming. I think he can’t control them while either possessing or really far away. I mean if he could, then he’d know they were coming while he was inside Luna.”
Lucretia drums her fingertips on the table while her eyes dart back and forth.
“I’d feel better if we could confirm what we know. I have an idea!”

She jumps up excitedly and starts talking with her hands.
“Okay I can test a bunch of stuff in one go! So when we go to fight the Og Nag, we’ll have the Wonderbolts go up into the clouds at the start. Now follow me here:
We’ll tell the Wonderbolts not to attack, just fly around for a bit.
1. If the Og Nag do nothing and just attack normally and get slaughtered, it means Zaran isn’t controlling them currently. Which says he’s either too far away, or can’t control them while possessing or both.
2. If they move apart, it means Zaran is controlling them but doesn’t know about the Wonderbolts orders not to attack, meaning he can’t read our minds, because he’ll be strategically reacting, instead of predicting.
3. If Zaran has them spread apart, they’ll get annihilated by our ground infantry. If they stay closed together, we’ll actually have the Wonderbolts do a bombing run, meaning he has to do something. And he can’t just let us destroy a few thousand Og Nag. Our scouts reported in and said it’s the largest force he has at the moment.”

I put my hands on the side of my head.
“Lucretia I could hug the crap out of you right now.”

She crosses her arms and grins.
“One last thing: We need to go see if he’s still possessing her. If he is, then we can say what he can and can’t do while possessing. If he isn’t possessing her, then we’ll find out if he actually can read our minds or not. I mean if he is psychic, then his best option is to retreat, because just wasting his Og Nag on an attack that will fail is pointless obviously. We’ll be forcing him to give us information. Or if he really wants, he can ignore all of it and lose a few thousand Og Nag for the sake of keeping a few secrets, it’s all the same to me. Either way, we’re about to get the upper hand in this war.” She gets out of her chair and strolls over to me. She stands at my side silently, before messing up my short hair.
“And if Mr.Redhead here could keep his head in the game instead of swooning after some princess, things could go a lot more smoothly.” I narrow my eyes at her in a joking glare.
“It’s actually auburn. You’re getting sloppy. Maybe we need to replace you with Derpy Hooves for a bit.” Lucretia laughs while rolling her eyes.

We grab our helmets and are about to make our way to the throne room. I stick out my hand and grab Lucretia's arm. She stops and looks at me. I lower my voice so only she can hear me.
"What are the chances Zaran could hide inside of a guard?"
Lucretia blinks a few times.
"There's a good chance he'll do that as a backup plan...which means..." I purse my lips.
"That we'll have to make sure he doesn't get a chance to escape...by any means necessary." Lucretia gently twists out of my grip and stares at me.
"Can you do that? If the time came?" My mouth hangs open. I'm torn between what I know I should do and what I actually can do.
"Let's cross that bridge when we get there."

She lowers her eyebrows and grins.

“Well then, keep your beard but keep it short, it’s a good look for you.” As my cheeks grow red, she lets out a loud snort. We both put on our serious faces and slide into our helmets. The outside hall is strangely quiet as we walk.

Celestia is talking with a few guards accompanied by Cadence. Celestia stops talking and watches us walk by curiously. I give her a serious stare. She says nothing and goes back to her conversation. I just realized we had never discussed whether we were going to tell Celestia about our discovery of Zaran. If we did, she’d want everything, and we couldn’t afford Zaran overhearing us.

We stop outside Luna’s current quarters. I glance behind me: the entire hallway is clear. I lean in and whisper to Lucretia.
“We can’t tell Celestia anything right now. It will just complicate things and we can't risk tipping off Zaran.”
Lucretia stares at me thinking, then nods in agreement. We slowly open the door, and see Luna lying on her bed, with her scratched up back to us. We gently walk into the room, expecting her to either try to attack us, or do nothing. As we step forward, my heart starts pounding. Would I have to kill Luna if she was possessed? Could I kill her? Could Zaran use her magic?
I’m a few steps away from her, and realize I’ve already made a huge mistake. Lucretia is to my left, Luna is in front of me, and there’s breathing coming from directly behind the door.

Clever girl.