Crazy, Clever and Cunning

by Fresnor

Trip Home from Trouble

I slowly awaken to the feeling of a wet cloth across my eyes and something else near me. As I start to remember what I had gone through recently I could feel my breathing start to increase in speed until I hear a soft voice start to try and calm me. “Shh, calm down Flarenza, you’re safe now. Princess Luna and her guards are taking care of everything.” It takes me a moment to recognize Fluttershy’s voice but when I do my panic starts to shift over to amusement that she is the one trying to stop me from panicking.

I remove the cloth over my eyes and look around to find that we had moved inside to where the rest of the town was hiding. Looking around I see thestrals moving around examining the ponies and griffons, probably in search of the vampony and other undead threats. I notice that Fluttershy had brought me to an out of the way corner to take care of me while the others were near the center of the large hall talking with Luna. While looking over towards Twilight though I started to feel my fear start to rise as I sensed something in that direction. It felt like something that was darker than dusk and redder than blood.

Before I can try to figure out why I am feeling this, my attention is pulled away when a thestral starts talking to Fluttershy and I realize that I recognize him. “Night Wing? Is that you?” The stallion does a quick double-take towards me and his eyes widen as he recognizes me. “Well look at you. I never expected to find you anywhere near the scene of a vampony incident after I found you running away from a horde of thralls and their masters. If this happens again I’m going to start thinking you’re attracting these things.”

Fluttershy looks between the two of us looking confused about something. “Flarenza, you’ve already met Princess Luna’s captain already?” I raised an eyebrow at this, though I wasn’t overly surprised that he would be a captain after seeing him in action. “He was the very first thestral I ever met. Everything I knew about them I learned from him and he’s also why I thought to chase after you all when I heard you were headed to this town.”

Her ears perk up a bit when I say this. “Really? But why would you knowing about thestrals before be why you knew to follow us?” The captain also seems to be interested as well since they hadn’t had any notice about any potential problems here. “It was mostly a hunch since I met a group of thestrals when I came through this town before getting to Ponyville. They never did say why they were there or even their names, but the only reasons I know of for them to be in this area would be to for trade or to be on the hunt.”

Captain Night Wing nods in confirmation when Fluttershy looks to him though he seems a bit thoughtful. “While it’s not unusual to lose hunters when they go on missions, it isn’t often that an entire group just vanishes since I never heard about anything being found out here. If a group did go missing here then we might be dealing with something more dangerous than we thought.”

He doesn’t notice Fluttershy shrink away at this but when I look towards her my eyes are drawn to where Twilight used to be standing and I notice a strange sight. Across the way I see an earth pony colt huddled up against an older pegasus mare. I wouldn’t have thought anything about it if it wasn’t for two things that grabbed my attention. The first is that there was a look in his eyes that seems off for a pony of his age, and the second is that I started to feel my fear start to come back in force.

I vaguely hear Fluttershy and the captain talking to me but my eyes are locked on the colt. While watching him I notice that everyone else seemed to not notice the two standing there and the thestrals just seem to walk by without checking on them. I remember having sensed something from the building while we were out fighting, so I tried to use the same spell on a hunch. I wasn’t sure if it was working or if I was still too drained, but I couldn’t sense anything odd either way.

I am interrupted again when Fluttershy moves into my field of view. “Flarenza! Is everything all right?” I’m startled out of my thoughts by this and I turn to find her and Captain Night Wing looking at me with worry on their faces. “Wha? Oh yeah, I was just watching that strange colt over there.” They glance over there in confusion at my words and Fluttershy turns back while the captain starts squinting as he tries to look harder. “What colt are you talking about? I don’t see any over there. I think they still have all the foals in another room with their teacher.”

I look over at her in surprise as she is usually good at noticing things. I am about to say something but the captain quickly turns to me. “How did you notice them? There’s a spell on them to divert attention away from them.” As soon as he says this I recognize the spell as it’s one that I use myself as it’s really a simple one to cast. “I’ve just been getting a feeling the room and I noticed that is coming from where he was. The first time Twilight was in the way but the second time I had a clear view of him. Oddly enough I cast a spell to find undead while outside and sensed something from inside here, but now there’s nothing when I use it now.”

His eyes widen at what I said, but then his face goes all stony like what is normal from any of the Equestrian guards. He nods to both of us before slowly making his way over towards the princess and begins talking to her. It’s a good thing she is facing away from where the colt was as her eyes widen at whatever she was told. Thinking quickly I realize that either the colt or the mother must be what they were searching for. Fluttershy looks oddly worried so I try to reassure her so that nothing seems suspicious. “Don’t worry Fluttershy; everything is going to be fine. Did anything else happen while I was out though?”

This is a welcome distraction as she informs me about what little happened as well as what they all went through before I showed up. I find that my information was a bit behind and that they actually had a train out to here now. Soon enough her friends join us in the corner at Luna’s request and I notice that the princess and her guard are starting to make a move.

Glancing at the two ponies out of the corner of my eye I decide that the colt is definitely the target as the mare has a glazed look in her eyes. This is confirmed when he is suddenly wrapped up in Princess Luna’s magic to his complete surprise. He soon recovers and he starts hissing in anger as the Lunar Guard start to advance on him. From here I can see the fangs jutting from his teeth, confirming that he was the vampony they were searching for. I am a bit surprised really considering the power he showed in comparison with his apparent age.

Twilight and the others watch in shock as this all happens as none of them had even noticed the colt until now. They seem a bit unnerved at how he reacts as well as the sight of his fangs. Fluttershy looks at me as she realizes that I had seen the creature the entire time while everybody else didn’t even realize. I start to wonder what would have happened if I never did follow them even if they somehow managed to survive the initial attack from the thralls. This makes me shudder a bit as they could have been under its control now and spreading its control to other towns. For the first time since I’ve known them all I reach out and pull them all into a group hug on my own initiative, realizing how much I’ve come to care for them all.

They seem a bit shocked at this, but they have needed this as well with all that has happened. I think it only now hits them how badly things could have gone if I didn’t show. I see a few of them look towards Applejack and I’m sure that they are remembering how badly she was hurt just before I showed as well as what I stopped from happening. We all just sit there, some with tears in our eyes, until the guard finally requests our presence at the chariots outside.

Outside we find that Luna and some of her guards had already went on ahead leaving two chariots behind to take us to Canterlot, as well as a couple squads to watch over the town until relief is sent from the capitol. Seeing as there are eight of us we split into two even groups for the flight home. Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie happen to be with me as we all head back to report more fully to Celestia and Luna on what happened.

Pinkie Pie pretty much controls the conversation as we are in flight, trying to keep everyone’s spirits up. Applejack does take a moment to thank me for the save during the fight as she was scared about never seeing her family again when she was hurt. She almost broke down again at that point, but it’s rather hard to get depressed with Pinkie Pie around.

When we arrived in Canterlot we could see the sun beginning to rise and we were all letting out yawns of various sizes. I wasn’t exempt from this, even though I had a good amount of sleep still, as I had burned through a large amount of magic throughout the night and previous days. As things had been resolved for now we were all escorted to somewhere to sleep until we were ready to see the princess. They offered separate rooms for everyone, but after what occurred nobody wanted to sleep alone just yet and all ended up in a pile in the first room large enough to handle us all.

We all awoke sometime around noon and started to get ready to meet with Celestia. As the last of us finished cleaning up Princess Luna came through the door of the room to check on us. Seeing that we were ready we followed her out towards the dining area for lunch where we would also meet with her sister. As we made our way there she pulled me aside to ask something. “Would you mind telling me what you did recently that annoyed my sister?”

This reminds me that I’ll probably have to pay a bit for what I did with the letter. “Ah, that. Well when I sent the letter asking for help I wanted to make sure it would be noticed right away so I added a couple noisemaker fireworks before sending it.” She just looks at me as I say this while Twilight whips around to look at us. “You did what?!” Her gaze turns towards Luna who started laughing as she finally comprehends what I just said. “Well I guess that explains that new hole in the ceiling that’s about the size of her horn.”

Twilight’s glare just gets a bit darker at this which she soon directs at her friends to try and find out who let out a laugh as well. Luckily we reach the dining room just then so her attention is redirected to her mentor who is already seated and waiting. We all take a seat at the table, with me as far from Celestia as possible but with Twilight as close as possible. Orders are quickly placed and the princess begins to speak while we wait.

“First of all I’d like to thank you, Flarenza, for rescuing Twilight and the others when you realized what they were going to run in out there. For future reference though, dragon fire is not meant to transport fireworks into my bed chamber when I’m asleep.” She glares at her sister when she chuckles at this. “If it happens again I won’t be held responsible for any reprisals.” I notice a mischievous glint in her eyes as she says this and I just warily nod, not wanting to anger a millennial old being.

She then turns towards Twilight to find out what all happened during their adventure from their side. I only half listen as much of it was just about the trip to the town and there wasn’t much time for anything to happen before I arrived on the scene. I notice Celestia wince a bit when mention of how badly hurt Applejack was as well as something else when she was told of the gem used to save her.

Afterwards she asked for my side of the story which didn’t add much other information beyond my notice of the vampony though Spike did interrupt me at one point. The rest were just as confused about the actions of the timberwolves on our trip through the forest, but I could swear I saw a hint of recognition from Celestia. Soon enough I had finished my tale and she sat considering what we said as the food was brought out.

Lunch was consumed in silence as most of us were starving after all that happened and the Princesses were considering what we all said. Rarity looked as if she wanted to say something about some of her friends eating habits while dining with royalty, but she refrained as it would be unlikely to change anything. As most of us were finishing Princess Celestia cleared her throat to attract attention to her.

“Flarenza, I was wondering if I could take a look at those objects you were using as weapons when you were fighting those creatures.” I could hear the tone of it being a request instead of a question as I nod and pass them to her from my nearby bags. She looks at them in interest with both Luna and Twilight joining in as well. “These are rather interesting, though I don’t see how they would have worked like they were described though.”

I realize that I left that part out as well as the guesses I had made but hadn’t verified yet. “Well alone they didn’t do much, I had to contain the energy in a smaller area with a shield for them to work like they did. Why the sunstone did what it did I’m not fully sure yet. I’d guess that since the sun weakens the thralls normally that the magical nature of the light did more than normal sunlight would.”

I can tell that Twilight is itching to start researching more deeply on them but she’ll have to be disappointed as they are too important to me to let her near them with her equipment. The two princesses though gravitate to their respective gems that represent their celestial bodies for closer examination. “Strange, they seem to emulate aspects of that which they represent. Whoever made these must have been very gifted at enchanting these.”

I feel a stab of longing at Luna’s words, though not as strong as it used to be since I last told them about my mother. “She was; I just wish she was still here with me.” I think they only remember now what I told them when they first found out about me and they look a bit abashed at what they were doing. They return the gems to me which I return to their respective wrappings and pouch.

Things break up from there though Pinkie and Fluttershy stop to make sure I’m fine before leaving. I also intercept Princess Luna before she heads off as well after making sure her sister isn’t nearby. “Princess Luna, before I leave I wanted to check with you on any plans you have for Selene and how I can help.” She looks thoughtful for a second, as if she hadn’t thought on it too much herself.

“I really don’t have anything yet for her. We’ve come to a sort of agreement for now though where she stays in Ponyville until she feels ready to try something else. Of course things might change if my sister finds out certain things about her, but even there I’m not sure how to introduce them without something going wrong.” I think on this as I was kind of hoping that she would stay with me for a while as I’ve been a bit protective of her lately. “So not much has changed then from before. The only thing I can think of is to try and get them together when your sister is in a good mood. Of course just because she is staying with me doesn’t mean you can’t visit her more often.”

She doesn’t say anything to that and just nods as we part ways. I find that I’m not needed for anything else so decide to head home along with the others. The trip is uneventful though I can tell something is wrong as I near my home. Remembering that I left the Crusaders alone with only Umbra to watch them I fear what I may find, especially when I remember that I never closed the attic before I left.

Steeling myself for trouble I open the door to find chalk all over the ground with a few magic circles drawn out in various locations. Entering the sitting room I find the three and Selene each playing around with a few different circles as they found out that not only unicorns can use them. Luckily they hadn’t been able to get the dangerous ones to work, and on a quick examination only the levitation one is correctly drawn.

I notice the thestral in a corner shaking and assume that she had snapped from the stress the three caused while I was gone. All four of the fillies look up at me when I let out a loud sigh and their faces shift between worry about what happened while I was gone, and embarrassment for being caught doing what they were as well as the mess they caused. Seeing as Twilight still hasn’t talked to me yet about bringing Spike into danger, as well as the stunt with Celestia, I decide to try to distract her into forgetting about it.

“Yes I was right but nobody was hurt and they are all back in town again. So since I seem to have a mess to clean up, why don’t you all go and show Twilight the new tricks you learned while I was gone?”

Author's Note:

Bleh, finding names for the chapters gets annoying sometime. Also I got lazy with the one name as I don't expect him to show up again and it was the first thing to come to mind.

Comments

[Dabstregous]

you evil evil little kitsune. love that last line

[john117]

“Well I guess that explains that new hole in the ceiling that’s about the size of her horn.”

i can just picture celestia hanging from the ceiling by her horn

[Asolem2]

“Yes I was right but nobody was hurt and they are all back in town again. So since I seem to have a mess to clean up, why don’t you all go and show Twilight the new tricks you learned while I was gone?”