The Witching Hour - Chaos is Change

by Chaotic Ink

Ch.7 - Hippogriffs, Kirins, and Owlursuses, Oh My!

Author's Note:

First of all, I want to apologize to each and every one of you for the 6-7 month wait for this thing. There was no reason for such a long wait and I am ashamed.
Secondly, from now on if a chapter goes past 12K words, I'm splitting it up. I never like it when an author drops a 15K chapter on me (with VERY few exceptions) and I doubt most of you lot like seeing me do that as well. I don't even care if some of you threaten to hang me upside down from a highway sign; you don't even know where I live!

His home address is-

CALYPSO!
Anyway, sorry again for the long wait and look forward to two more chapters very soon.

"I told you, we're lost," the earth pony said, pushing aside another branch and sweeping his flashlight into the dark woods around them.

"We can't be that lost," his companion retorted from a few steps ahead.

The dark green earth pony stallion stopped, finding her with his head-light and raised an eyebrow. "Scarlet, this doesn't look remotely like White-Tail Wood." His lime-green tail whipped behind him in annoyance.

In front of him a female hippogriff, the front of her body like a red-tailed hawk and her back half like a pony's with chocolate-brown fur and a red tail, stopped as well and turned to face him, shining her own flashlight at him in turn. "Come on Tight; all forests look the same at night."

"Uh-huh" Tight said, a note of tiredness in his voice. "Why don't you fly up and prove I'm right?"

She snorted back at him. "I was going to... but I didn't want to leave you all alone down here; ya' know, because you're scared and everything," she taunted.

Tight snorted right back. "I'm not scared; I just don't like the idea of wandering around the Everfree Forest at night."

"I already told you; we're still in White-Tail Wood!"

"Then fly up there already!"

Grumbling about scaredy-cats, the hippogriff took off into the trees. Tight's eyes followed her up, wishing he could at least see the moon through the dark canopy. He waited a full minute for her to come back down. "So... funny thing..." She ran a claw through her head feathers, which were all combed to one side and had a string of beads in it.

"You can't even see White-Tail Wood anymore, can you?" It was more of a statement than a question.

"Of course I can!" Scarlet shot back. "It's over that way!" She pointed with a claw.

"And how far away is that?"

"Umm... two hours?"

Tight groaned and held the bridge of his nose with a hoof. "Scarlet..."

"Oh, come on! We've been walking for days! What's two more hours?"

"Because, like I said, we're in the EVERFREE FOREST. There are tons of creatures in here that would consider a pony and hippogriff food."

Scarlet rolled her eyes. "Seriously? We've been in here two hours already and we haven't even heard anything. Do you really expect something big, mean, and hungry to just come marching out of the bushes at us without some kind of warning? Come on Tight, I'll bet you a bit we walk out of here without seeing or hearing a thing."

A loud roar split the relative silence of the forest around them and they both jumped, spinning to look in the direction of the noise. "I'd rather just get out of here in one piece!" Tight said, eyes bulging as something emerged from the far bushes.

Whatever it was, it was big; larger even than a grizzly bear. An apt description, as it looked and moved just like a bear, but at the same time it wasn't. Its head was avian-like and it took Scarlet a moment to realize it looked like an owl. A short beak, large round eyes, wide face, and feathers but its wings seemed to be attached to its legs. Then she noticed the stubby peg teeth lining the beak and before she could note how odd that was it raised itself up onto its hind feet. Seeing it this way, it was clear that both animal descriptions were correct; it was something half bear, half owl. And it was looking down at them with very angry, very hungry eyes.

"Uh... Scarlet?" Tight choked out.

The owl-bear roared, raising a massive, talon-tipped paw.

Before Scarlet could decide to charge the thing and hope to get the first hit in or try and get Tight away, something black as the night rammed into its side, making it stumble and abort its attack. "Run!" It shouted at them before shooting blue fire at the larger creature. The owl-bear roared again, sounding more annoyed with the flames than hurt. As it lashed out at the fire with a paw, something streaked in and connected with its head, making it stumble away again, quickly followed by a second. Out of the trees came five more figures that resolved themselves into five ponies as Scarlet and Tight pulled their flashlights away from the fight to identify these newcomers. One of them, an orange mare, charged past them to join the three already fighting the owl-bear.

"Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!" a yellow pegasus whimpered as she came to hover near them. "Please, try not to hurt it too much!"

"Somehow I don't think that'll be a problem Fluttershy," a purple unicorn said as she trotted up as well. She looked the two of them over. "What are you two doing out here? Don't you know the Everfree Forest is dangerous, especially at night?"

"We got lost going through White-Tail Wood," Tight explained before Scarlet could say anything.

Something blue flew past them and impacted with the pink mare in the group. "I'm okay!" the blue thing, which turned out to be a rainbow-maned pegasus, called out from the heap.

They all looked back to the fight as the black one that first started the fray let loose another gout of blue fire at the monster. It roared and swatted at the flames, only taking a small step backward. "Twi, Rares; a stun spell would be nice!" the black one called back over her shoulder.

"Right!" The purple unicorn, Twi, apparently, moved past them and shot a series of spells at the creature. That seemed to bother it even less than the fire, the owl-bear barely taking notice of them. "It must be magic resistant too!"

"Oh joy!" the black one yelled back, dodging another swat of the massive paws.

The blue pegasus flew back past them, but stopped and turned halfway between them and the fight. "Hey Fluttershy! How 'bout trying The Stare on it?" she called back.

"Oh, um... I guess I could give it a try..." Fluttershy mumbled, looking apprehensively at the owl-bear as it swatted at the orange mare who had just bucked it in the leg. She rolled out of the way in time for the black one to spit more fire at it. This time the fire seemed to have more of an effect as , for the first time, the owl-bear let out a pained roar and the slight stench of burnt feathers reached their noses. "All right, all right! Just stop hurting the poor creature!"

Fluttershy swooped in and got as close to the owl-bear's head as she dared. When it finally caught sight of her, she waited until it was looking directly at her, then flexed her eyes all the way open. Unbelievably, the owl-bear stopped roaring and swinging and just stood there stupidly for a few seconds.

Everyone let out a sigh of relief.

Then the owl-bear snorted and shook its head. Growling, it looked away, eyes closed, and began swinging at Fluttershy.

"Watch out!" the orange mare yelled, charging forward and leaping up to tackle the pegasus out of the way. The two connected and fell away from the enraged creature but not before its talons raked the earth pony's rear leg. She let out a shriek of pain as they landed, Fluttershy quickly pulling her friend further away.

The blue pegasus was back in the fight, once again nailing the owl-bear in the head. The black mare came back as well, ignoring her fire and opting to also buck it in the head. This hit actually knocked the creature onto its back. The last attacking flier, another pegasus, this one brown, flew in and used her wings to kick up a cloud of dirt right into the owl-bear, aiming for its already smarting head. Once she was satisfied with her work she flew back to the rest of them.

The black flier was examining the orange earth pony's wounds. "We need to get her out of here, quick. I'll take her myself. Windrunner, take Rarity. Rainbow, Pinkie. Fluttershy, Twilight; she can start teleporting you two higher if you can't keep it up. You," she turned towards Scarlet and Tight. "Take your coltfriend up with you and keep up."

"He's not my coltfriend!" Scarlet squawked. Tight turned away with a blush of embarrassment.

"But, what do we do about-!?" Rainbow asked, pointing at the dust cloud. A roar emanated from it.

"We'll take care of it later! AJ needs a doctor now!" Without waiting for an argument, she picked up the hurt pony in all four hooves and took off.

"Ah'm not that hurt!" AJ yelped as they went air borne.

"Keep struggling and I'll cauterize it here and now!" the black flier shot back.

Grumbling, Rainbow scooped Pinkie into her hooves and followed her up. Windrunner and Fluttershy picked up their passengers and Scarlet scooped up Tight and followed the other eight into the night sky. The roaring of the owl-bear soon fell away as the lights of a town quickly came into view.

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

The rest of the Mane 6, Windrunner, Scarlet, and Tight all sat around Ponyville Medical's waiting room as the doctors saw to AJ's wounds. After dropping off the farm pony, the black pony had flown off back home, telling Rainbow, Pinkie, Windrunner, and Rarity that she wanted to identify the creature they had fought. Scarlet, Tight, Fluttershy, and Twilight had fallen behind in the flight and had arrived after she had gone. She'd been forced to cauterize AJ's wounds in flight anyway when the farm pony had started saying she felt light-headed.

"What were you guys doing chasing that thing around the Everfree Forest anyway?" Tight asked as Rainbow once again paced past him.

"What were you to doing in the Everfree Forest yourselves?" Twilight asked in response.

"We were trying to get here to Ponyville," Tight told them. "Miss I-Don't-Need-Directions got us lost from our path through White-Tail Wood." He shot Scarlet a scowl.

Scarlet harrumphed, which got her a scowl from Rainbow as well. "So, you were chasing that thing because...?"

"Because it attacked Fluttershy's cottage!" Rainbow snapped.

"Actually, it was raiding my shed for all the animal food I had in there," Fluttershy corrected. "It only went back into the forest because it started chasing a boar that had come by earlier. It hurt a tusk on a rock while digging for food and I was mending it over-night."

"With any luck it won't come back," Twilight said, glancing once again at the double doors AJ and the doctors had disappeared through, all the others following suit. "Magic, fire, and The Stare combined hardly did anything to it."

*Smack!*

They all jumped when the double doors flew open to reveal an annoyed kirin. "And if I had bothered to read the "O" section again since coming to town, I might have recognized it," she said as she let a large book drop into the magazine table. "How's AJ?" she asked in a more subdued voice.

"We don't know; the doctors haven't come back out yet," Fluttershy said.

The hybrid hummed unhappily at this news. The wounds had been long but not really deep from what she could tell on the flight back. The farm pony was at least getting stitches.

"What did you find out?" Twilight asked her, looking down at the book she had brought; The Detailed Guide to Mythical and Rare Creatures.

"It's something called an owlursus." She flipped the book open to a bookmarked spot. "Rare, as you can imagine, but apparently considered more realistic than yours truly. It inhabits mainly old forests where caves can be easily found and has no problem eating anything that comes across its path. They're very strong and are somewhat crafty, apparently."

"Does it say anything about being magic-proof?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah. You know how bears are naturally resistant to bee stings? Well, somehow getting fused with an owl makes it resistant to magic. Guess nopony ever took a flame thrower to it 'cause they never mention fire resistance."

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second!" Rainbow interrupted. "Twilight juggled an Ursa Minor; how can something barely as big as its paw be a problem?"

"Ursas are made of magic, so it was, fundamentally, easy for me to magically interact with it. Midnight has very little magical potential in her-"

"Doesn't stop her from dragoning-out on us," Rainbow quipped.

"-so my magic has no effect on her. I can only suspect that the owlursus is either equally low on natural magic or its natural magic functions differently from that of ponies, like a Will-O-The-Wisp which draws magic from its environment rather than from inside itself."

"It would be nice to know why it's fire-proof as well," Rarity chimed in. "If Midnight had shot that much fire into any other bird then, at the very least, its feathers should have all been burnt off."

"Might have something to do with the makeup of the feathers," Midnight guessed. "Some type of natural secretion or their structure to help protect it from predators. My fire did seem to effect a little bit near the end."

"What could possibly consider such a horrible thing as that as food?" Rarity asked.

"Dragons," Midnight said simply. "I can only think of three things big enough and mean enough to take on something like that: dragons, hydras, and rocs."

"What about wyverns?" Pinkie asked.

"I was just lumping them in with dragons, but sure; four things."

"And what about killer whales and sharks?"

"Pinkie, those live in the oc-"

"And what about giant crocodiles and snakes and-!" Her list was cut short by Rainbow's hoof in her mouth.

"My point," Midnight continued with a nod to the pegasus, "is that it takes something we wouldn't want to mess with to mess with an owlursus. Thankfully it seems that a few good, fast, hard hits to the head helps it reconsider things as well."

"It'll definitely reconsider ever coming back to Ponyville," Rainbow said with a smug smile.

"Now that that's settled," Midnight said, turning towards the two newcomers. "Mind telling us what-?" She stopped short, her turn faltering. The hippogriff was staring open-mouthed at her. The earth pony waved a hoof in front of her face but only shrugged at them when he got no response.

"Hey, Scarlet? Equestria to Scarlet; you're acting weird, again."

"Is she always like this?" Midnight asked him.

Tight shrugged again and the other six traded worried glances.

That seemed to bring the hippogriff back to her senses. "Oh my gosh; I know you!"

Midnight took a hesitant step back. "You do?".

"Yeah! You're that hybrid from the newspaper! Tight, help me fish it out!"

Just as surprised at his friend's actions as the rest of them were, Tight moved over to the saddlebag she was indicating and carefully opened it up.

As he fished around inside, Midnight shot a glance over at the rest of them, only to be met with equally confused stares. What newspaper article? Surely she didn't mean that one about them defeating Discord? That was at least three months ago! Had somepony published an article about the fight between her and Spike?

Finally, Tight found what Scarlet wanted. "See? Right here on the side near the bottom; that's you!" she said, snatching a clipping away from him and holding it up to Midnight's face.

Midnight took the newspaper clipping and, sure enough, it was a copy of the article about them defeating the lord of chaos, complete with the same picture that had compelled her mother to travel from Manehattan to find her. "Okay," the kirin said slowly. "Is there any particular reason you're looking for me?"

"Duh! Because I wanted to meet our hero!" Scarlet said with a smile that was threatening to engulf her entire face.

"Uh..." Midnight trailed off, dumbfounded. Hero? What in Equestria was this loopy half-bird, half-pony talking about? She again looked back at the others who had the same confused looks on their faces. Except Pinkie, who only smiled back at her in that I-don't-know-what's-going-on-but-I'm-happy-to-be-here look she usually had.

Their confusion finally got through to the hippogriff as her smile faded a bit.

"Hey, Scarlet? You might want to explain a bit before you scare them anymore," Tight whispered to her.

The hippogriff shot him a look but grumbled in agreement. "You see, there are hybrids scattered across Equestria. Hippogriffs like myself mostly, but you also get the rare pony/minotaur cross and even a bit of cross-breeding with diamond dogs and the like now and again."

"Who in their right mind would mate with those horrid canines!?" Rarity yelped.

"The same kinds of ponies who marry griffons, dragons, minotaurs, and goats," Scarlet said, narrowing her eyes slightly at the unicorn.

"Oh, um, yes, of course..." Rarity said, blushing a bit. "Forgive me darling, but the only diamond dogs we've even run into were... how can I put this politely? Uncivilized I believe describes them best. They certainly didn't know how to treat a lady properly."

"So every diamond dog is exactly the same?"

"Scarlet," Tight strained, giving her a quick jab in the side.

The hippogriff rolled her eyes. "Fine, whatever. The point is that there are hybrids here in Equestria but we don't really have anyone to look up to. Ponies have the princesses and heroes and the like. There's never been a hybrid who was the mayor of a town or city or been portrayed as the hero in a story and you can forget about one being a princess or noble. Then we all read about you in the paper and now we finally have someone!" Her large smile returned. "You have no idea how much that means to us!"

"Okay..." Midnight said as she processed the information. "But, if hybrids are so numerous, then how come I've never seen any of you when I was wandering around Equestria for three years? I've been to every city and never saw even a hint that you all were there."

Scarlet rubbed the back of her head as she sat back on her haunches. "Well... we and our families tend to move out to rural towns like Ponyville or end up in the outskirts of cities; we kind of stay low-key that way. Many of us don't exactly have the best childhoods."

"Sorry to hear that," Midnight said, her voice not exactly sympathetic but not dismissive either. Other hybrids right under her nose for all these years and not even the vaguest hint they were around. They weren't even trying to hide and she was getting tired of having her beliefs about Equestria at large be proven wrong again. "And you came all this way to find me because...?"

"Like I said; you're a hero to us!" Scarlet said, beginning to bounce in place as her excitement came back. "And I really wanted to meet you! Ooo! Could you autograph that article!? I can send it to my folks and friends back home! Lock Jaw will be so jealous!"

Before Midnight could really rationalize that a hippogriff was treating her as if she was like some version of Sapphire Shores, a doctor came through the double doors and interrupted the scene. "I'm pleased to say that Applejack will be making a full recovery," he announced. A chorus of relieved sighs rang out. "Yes but she will be laid up for a few weeks with such wounds. We'll keep her overnight for observation and let her go after breakfast in the morning."

A muffled yell from behind the doors that sounded suspiciously like "Ah'm fine, dag nab it!" could be heard.

"Could one of you come and pick her up?"

"We'll let Granny Smith, Big Mac, and Apple Bloom know," Twilight told him. "I'm sure they're worried enough as it is."

The doctor nodded. "Excellent. Now, unless there are any other injuries I suggest you all head home and get some rest. Doctor's orders."

They all chuckled as they began to file out of the waiting room and back out the hospital's front doors. They were beginning to feel tired, but who could blame them? Chasing an owlursus into the Everfree, fighting it, then flying all the way back only to sit in a room and worry was enough to take it out of anypony. Not to mention how late it was.

As they all left, Midnight found Scarlet and Tight following her and Windrunner down the road. The hippogriff was practically bumping cutie marks with her while the earth pony was following behind at a more respectable distance. "Yes?"she asked uncertainly.

Scarlet grinned at her again. "So, uh, me and Tight need someplace to crash for the night; could we stay at your place?"

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

Sapphire watched the hippogriff across the kitchen's island as the hybrid chugged the coffee she had just given her. The pegasus had come downstairs that morning to find an unfamiliar hippogriff and earth pony asleep on the living room couch. When Midnight had come out of her room before they had woken up, she'd explained the situation to her. Midnight had been equally surprised to find out that there where at least a couple of hippogriffs living in Cloudsdale. "I told you how pegasi are very friendly towards other flying creatures; I'm surprised you're surprised that there'd be griffons in Cloudsdale, much less that a few would marry ponies and have children with them."

Still tired and now perturbed, Midnight had only snorted and began taking out ingredients for omelets. The smell of cooking eggs and freshly brewed coffee had roused the two newcomers from their slumber and both groggily entered the kitchen. They had politely asked for mugs of coffee to help wake themselves up and Sapphire had introduced herself as she poured. Tight Fit took normal sips of his brew while Scarlet Claw downed hers in one go. A surprising feat, as she'd only ever seen Midnight able to do the same thing with the scalding hot liquid.

"Aw yeah... that hit the spot," the hippogriff said happily, patting her stomach.

"So what are you two planning to do here in Ponyville?" Sapphire asked as she took a sip of her own brew.

"Well, I'm here to meet Midnight Storm. She's the first hero we hybrids have ever had!"

There was a snort from the kirin, followed by aggravated moving of the spatula.

"Can I ask how she's a hero?" Sapphire asked, genuinely curious.

"She helped the Elements of Harmony defeat Discord! That's, like, EPIC levels of heroism!" Scarlet gushed.

"Please keep it down; there are still ponies asleep in this house," Midnight said as she took a break from the eggs to refill her coffee mug.

Sapphire looked over at her friend and raised an eyebrow at the slight growl in her voice.

"Sorry. The second reason I'm here..." Scarlet trailed off as creaking came from the stairwell, and both Windrunner and Squeaky Wings appeared at the bottom.

"Good morning," the other pegasus said with a yawn as she rubbed her eyes. "What's all the noise about?"

Squeaks had frozen completely at the sight of the two strangers, one almost as big as her mom, sitting in the kitchen. While Windrunner stepped from the tiny hallway into the room, Squeaks creeped into the living room and out of sight.

"Is she alright?" Scarlet asked, looking to Midnight and Sapphire and then back to where Squeaks had disappeared.

"Just wary of strangers," Midnight told her, turning around lowering her voice. "She'll come back in when she gets hungry enough." To emphasize this she flipped one of the omelets. "You were saying what your second reason was?"

"Oh, right! The second reason I'm here is to find a job," Scarlet told them.

"You came all this way for a job?" Midnight asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well, you see, when griffons reach a certain age, they're expected to 'leave the nest', make their own way in the world. My mom wouldn't let me off the hook just because I was half griffon and pretty much booted me out. So, I figured I'd trek out here to find you and a job while I was at it." Scarlet perked up suddenly. "Hey, you're not hiring, are you?"

Midnight shook her head as she laid out the omelets on the island. "Nope. Sorry, but right now everything's going smoothly with just Sapphire and Windrunner on board."

"Oh..." Scarlet said, her head drooping.

"Well, do you have an idea what you'd like to do? What's your cutie mark?" Windrunner asked.

Scarlet perked up a bit. "Oh, yeah, I've got a wicked cutie mark!" Standing up, she presented her side to them. On it was what looked like four animal prints pointing out in four different directions, each of them a bright cream color in contrast with her coat. "I can track animals really well. Hardly ever lose one on a hunt." She froze when she realized what she said and looked around at the others gathered. To her surprise, none of them seemed shocked or outraged at the mention of eating other animals. Then she noticed that three of the omelets had pieces of meat mixed in them. "Oh, right; part dragon."

Midnight nodded as she took a bite of her food.

"We could see if Fluttershy needs a talent like that," Windrunner suggested.

"What's your cutie mark, Tight Fit?" Sapphire asked.

The stallion swallowed his recent swig of coffee. "I'm actually really good at packing things." He got up and showed his cutie mark, a tightly packed trunk. "That's why Scarlet had me look through her pack last night; sometimes I pack it too tight and when you try pulling something out... everything comes out."

"But why are you traveling with Scarlet?" Windrunner asked. "Is she your sister and you both got kicked out?"

Tight actually blushed. "N-No! I'm just her friend! We've known each other since we were foals! When I heard she was leaving, I just thought it was an opportunity to see the rest of Equestria with some good company is all." His smile was just a smidge too big, but they let it go.

Off to the side, Midnight saw Squeaks trying to sneak into the kitchen from the living room through the hallway by the fridge. Faking a need to stretch her wings, she covered the space enough that the bat filly could scamper over to her without being seen by the hippogriff. The clacking of her hooves on the tiled floor gave her away to everyone in the room but as soon as she was between Midnight and Sapphire that didn't really matter.

"Good morning, Squeaky," Sapphire said, smiling down at the corner between herself and Midnight. "Would you like some juice with your eggs?"

"Yes, please," came the small, squeaky voice.

As Sapphire got up, Scarlet looked around the corner of the island and caught sight of the small thestral. Squeaks caught sight of the hippogriff as well and ducked further around the opposite corner. "Never seen a thestral before," she noted as she straightened back up.

Midnight quirked an eyebrow and for the first time that morning seemed genuinely interested in what the hippogriff had to say. "Really?"

"Yep," Scarlet confirmed. "A few other hybrids I've met from out in the country think they've seen them before, at night and near mountains, but none of us have actually met one. Where'd you find her?"

"Long story," was all Midnight said as she took a bite of her food. "To make it short, I adopted her more than half a year ago."

Scarlet looked back at Tight. "A hero and a mom. Awe-some!" she sing-songed. Tight merely rolled his eyes and took another sip of coffee.

"Well Midnight," Sapphire said as she returned with pineapple juice for Squeaks, "since you aren't hiring at the moment, do you have any ideas where these two could get hired?"

"As a matter of fact, I do," the kirin informed her.

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

"Ah'm sorry Midnight, but Ah don't know where we could use 'em," AJ apologized as she hobbled from one work bench to the other. "With cider season over and fall comin' in, ain't really a need fur extra hooves; and claws," she amended with another glance towards Scarlet. "Even with mah leg like it is."

Midnight had led Scarlet and Tight up to Sweet Apple Acres to speak with AJ, Big Mac, and/or Granny Smith about hiring some hooves to help out around the farm. Sapphire had come along as well while Windrunner stayed behind to get started on the day's woodcutting. Squeaks had gone to school, though it was doubtful she would have come anyway. They found AJ doing some minor chores around the barn, grumbling and looking about as happy as a grounded workaholic could be. Big Mac had made it a point to tell his sister on the way back from the hospital that there would be plenty of trees to buck and chores to do after she got better.

Midnight frowned at the farmer, both at her stance on new hooves and the mention of her leg. "How is it?" she finally asked.

The earth pony frowned even more. "Not that bad. Docs say Ah should be fine in a couple of weeks. They gave me meds to help with the pain but they say that whole time Ah can't be apple buckin'." She kicked the ground. "Still can't believe The Stare didn't work on that over-sized varmint!"

"I don't know how much the others have told you, but that thing, the owlursus, is really resilient." Midnight growled and kicked at the dirt as well. "I should have gone wyvern! I could have just stepped on it then!"

AJ shook her head. "Doubt Flutters would 'a forgiven you fur that, Midnight. Even though it did kinda attack her house, she was dead set on us not hurting it."

"Probably wanted to keep it as a pet," the kirin snorted.

Big Mac came trotting past, hauling a large load of apples behind him. AJ didn't even try to hide her unhappy look. Pausing to look them all over, the large stallion nodded at them. "Miss Storm, Miss Breeze." Then he looked over Scarlet and Tight. "Ma'am. Sir."

Midnight and Sapphire both nodded back and Scarlet and Tight did the same. "Hey Big Mac, do you think the farm could use another set of hooves and claws?" Midnight asked, getting a hostile glare from AJ for her troubles. Midnight could have cared less; after what happened this past cider season she was prepared to do what she had to.

All four Apples had let a pair of travelling con-artists talk them into a cider making contest against their machine for the rights to the farm itself. When the wager had been made (winner was whoever produced the most cider), Midnight had panicked and threw down her own bet. Not only did the Flim Flam Brothers need to make more cider than the Apples, they had to make it better. "After all," she had announced to the crowd gathered around, "what good is barrels and barrels of cider if it all tastes like muck?" Her end of the bargain was free firewood to the new owners of the farm, whenever and however much they wanted if they won. The muttering of agreement from the crowd had forced the brothers to agree to the new terms.

It had been a close race, but only because the brothers had allowed the rest of the bearers and Midnight's group to help the Apples. "We don't care if the whole of Canterlot helps! It's a lost cause!" Flam, or at least Midnight thought Flam was the one with the mustache, had proclaimed. When it became obvious how bad of an idea that had been the two shysters revved up their production, ignoring their little quality indicator in favor of more product. Seeing this, Midnight had figured the win was inevitable since, even though they won the quantity part, they'd never pass the quality part of the bet. To her unhappy surprise, the brothers had brought out their very first barrels of cider, set aside to avoid just such a disaster. Everypony watched with baited breath as the taste testers, randomly selected from the crowd thanks to Pinkie and a hat full of names, went to work on first the Apple Family's then the Brothers' cider (Pinkie provided some sherbet for them to eat between mugs to help eliminate cross-tasting). In the end, they announced that Apples had won the contest.

Surprisingly, the Apples had extended a hoof to the defeated brothers. "Ya'll can still sell that there cider ya made, but only if'n you split yur earnins a fair 50/50 with us. Ya'll made that cider with our apples." AJ had told them.

"Perhaps more of a 33/67 split?" Flim had proposed. "Yes, they were your apples but we both picked and made cider with them." The look everypony gave them convinced the two AJ's proposal was the better deal. So, in the end, that had actually worked out. Even so, Midnight had decided to take any measures she could to help avoid such problems in the future. Getting extra workers on the Apple farm was one.

"Sure be a help," he said, eyeing the other earth pony and hippogriff. "They lookin' for work?"

Midnight nodded. "Think you can use them?"

"Ah reckon," he said, still looking them over. "What are y'alls special talents?"

"I-I can track game, animals, really well," Scarlet said, intimidated by the large earth pony's stare.

"A-And I can pack things much better than almost anypony else I've met," Tight told him, just as intimidated.

The red earth pony continued to eye the two with a low "hmm". "Might use ya fur packin' the sales cart and such," he told Tight, then turned to Scarlet. "Not a whole lotta need to track animals on the farm but Ah hear griffons are plenty strong, so we'll find sumthin' fur ya to do."

"Now wait a minute!" AJ hollered at her brother. "This is Sweet Apple Acres, as in worked by the Apple family!"

"An' the four of us have been lucky up till now!" Big Mac yelled back, making them all jump and stare at the normally quiet stallion. "We just near lost the farm because we're the only hooves workin' it! We all need the help!"

"How can we possibly afford it!?" AJ challenged back. "We just finally replaced the roof to the barn!"

"We've had the bits fur a while now!" Here Big Mac's voice started to lower back down. "We ain't replaced it sooner 'cause Ah've been tryin' ta convince Granny ta use it ta pay for a new hip, but she just won't take it. She finally convinced me to replace the roof before savin' up fur her hip."

"And yur plow?" AJ asked, also in a more reasonable tone.

Big Mac actually looked embarrassed. "Pa's ol' plow, remember?"

"Oh, yeah..." AJ said, finally calmed down. "So... what about savin' up fur Granny's hip?"

"Make more money with extra hooves than with no farm at all," was all Big Mac said.

The orange mare looked around at each of them a bit more, the look on her face still one of unhappy indecision, then she looked at her brother and let out a sigh. "Alright, fine, we'll hire'm. Y'all know the books better than me anyway. I guess we'll set y'all up in the guest cabins," she said to Scarlet and Tight. "Ya'll just need one or-?"

Their faces blushed. "Two please!" they both said loudly.

Everypony chuckled a bit at their expense. "Alright then. Scarlet, we do git varmints out in the orchard sometimes, so maybe we can set y'all up doin' that 'til we figure out somehtin' a bit more productive fur ya." She waved them to follow her. "Cabins are just on the other side of the farm house."

Now smiling with the promise of employment, Scarlet and Tight picked up their bags and followed Applejack away. Before they got out of sight, Scarlet turned back and waved at them. "Hey Midnight, maybe we can hang out sometime soon!"

"Sounds great!" Midnight called back, sounding less than enthused. Scarlet smiled and again followed AJ away.

Just as the kirin was unfolding her wings to take off, Sapphire placed a hoof on her wither. "Can we talk on the way back to the house?"

Midnight eyed her, confused and a bit suspicious. "I... guess that's alright. Anything particular?"

"Something private," she assured her. There was something strange about her smile, but the kirin shook it off.

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

It was ten minutes into their flight before Sapphire said anything. They had just landed on a high cloud floating over Carousel Boutique when the pegasus regarded Midnight with a look of disappointment. "Is there a reason you were rude to Scarlet and Tight this morning? Scarlet especially seemed happy to meet you and all you did was be short with her!"

The kirin flinched. She'd suspected something was up, but didn't think the pegasus would jump right into it. "I wasn't short with her," Midnight defended herself.

"You were still rude for no good reason," Sapphire said unhappily.

"She was rude to Rarity last night for no good reason," Midnight countered. Not exactly true but close enough for the kirin.

"That doesn't mean you can be rude back to her! Besides, I would think the hero worshiping she's giving you would be making you preen!"

"I'M NOT RAINBOW DASH!" Midnight roared in her face, her temper flaring suddenly and alarmingly. Seeing the pegasus shrink away from her, Midnight took a breath and reigned herself in, whining softly and fidgeting her wings as she let her breath out. That whole Mare Do Well thing was still a sore point with her. "Look," she said finally, "I don't like the way she got on Rarity when there was a comment about hybrids; it was almost as if she wanted Rarity to give her an excuse to start something."

"I think you're misinterpreting things," Sapphire said. "If she was so hostile towards ponies, then why did she act so civil at breakfast?"

"Just woke up and was too tired to argue?"

"I'm being serious!" Sapphire shouted, stamping her hoof into the cloud and dispersing some of it. In all honesty, she didn't really know why Midnight's attitude with Scarlet was rubbing her the wrong way. The kirin had been this way before, so why was it bothering her now? "Why are you acting this way!?"

Midnight was just as perplexed at her friend's hostility. That didn't stop the kirin's dander going back up, however. She knew exactly why the kirin had been in a foul mood before this. "For one thing, the fact that one of the bearers nearly got killed trying to choose a pet! Then another bets her home on some stupid race! And don't even get me started on the whole Mare Do Well thing!" Yeah, her job was to keep the bearers safe but she'd imagined stuff like hydras, chaos lords, and the occasional lunatic, not having to save them from their own stupid decisions.

"You're supposed to protect them from whatever could destroy them or their connection to the Elements! That includes protecting them from themselves!" Sapphire retorted.

"Then we're all doomed, aren't we!? The way they've all been acting lately, it's like trying to take care of a lemming!"

"Well if you hate this job so much then why don't you quit!? You made sure that was in your contract with Princess Celestia!"

"Maybe I will then!" Midnight snarled. "Then we can pack up this whole three-ring circus and you can go back to work in Canterlot since you don't like it here!"

Midnight instantly regretted saying that. Sapphire looked like she'd just been slapped. Before she could respond, Midnight took off and shot away over the town.

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

“Just be glad you weren’t around for her teenage years,” Summer said, taking a sip of her coffee. She hummed happily as the hints of maple and cinnamon flavorings she’d added hit her tongue. Perfect flavors for early fall.

Sapphire took a small sip herself, more out of politeness than anything else. The two had started sharing a drink together after Summer finished with clients for the day; a new little ritual that helped the two get to know one another better. It also gave Autumn and Squeaks a chance to see and play with each other more often.

The mint flavoring in her own just reminded her of the kirin and the fight they had earlier. She hadn’t meant to start it, but Midnight shouldn’t have gotten her feathers… tail… whatever, in a knot over a hippogriff she’d just met. And she was being so contradicting! If she didn’t like Scarlet, then why let her stay overnight? Why did she help find her a job?

“I just can’t figure out why she’s just so stressed out right now,” Summer continued. “So some of her friends have done some dumb things; she has her own life to worry about and it’s no reason for her to throw a fit like that.”

It didn’t help that they had to keep making excuses to Summer about why Midnight was so concerned about the bearers’ lives. Perhaps it was time they asked Princess Celestia if they could bring her into the know.

“Just because she’s half dragon, wyvern, doesn’t mean she can act like one all the time; she IS half pony after all,” Summer continued, still leading the conversation. Then she noticed that Sapphire hadn’t said a word since telling her about the fight, her face scrunched up in concentration. “Oh, cheer up Sapphire dear; even the best of friends are bound to fight sometimes. I’ve even heard it’s a sign of a healthy relationship if a couple engages in some verbal warfare every once in a while; shows that they’re still each their own pony.”

As Sapphire took another sip, an idea struck the pegasus. “M-Maybe she’s angry because she doesn’t know how to feel,” Sapphire suggested.

Summer eyed her for another second before asking “What do you mean?”

“Well, Scarlet is the first hybrid she’s ever run into, right?”

“As far as I know,” Summer confirmed.

“Well, I think she’s conflicted, now that I think about it. On the one hoof, this is the only other hybrid she’s ever run into and I think she really wants to know somepony like herself. On the other hoof, Scarlet has said or did things that rubbed her the wrong way. If it was any other pony, she’d just snort at her and leave.”

“But because Scarlet is the only other hybrid she knows, she can’t just ignore her,” Summer said, slowly nodding in understanding.

“Which explains the hypocritical behavior and why she got angry so quickly,” Sapphire finished.

“That may be so,” Summer said slowly, “but how long before her being another hybrid no longer matters?” She took another sip of her coffee, then looked at the clock above the window. “Uh-oh, I’d better get home and help Orange with dinner. Just remember, Sapphire; a little spat isn't the end of everything."

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

Midnight landed in front of the shed, entered it, and dumped the contents of her bloody saddlebags on the cutting board/work bench. In an effort to cool herself down she'd gotten her hunting bags, flown into the Everfree, and tore into whatever small woodland critters she could sink her teeth or tail blade into. The final tally was five squirrels, four birds, and a rabbit she'd actually dug after when it tried to go down its hole. She'd also ambushed a small group of timberwolves from the air, setting all three ablaze. She wasn't angry at Sapphire nor even with Scarlet very much. She was angry at the bearers and herself.

She’d just began work on the first squirrel when there was a quiet knock on the shed door. "Who is it?" Midnight called out, checking her voice and trying to sound at least non-hostile.

"It's me," came Sapphire's soft voice.

The kirin groaned internally but still said "Come in." She owed it to her friend to apologize and try to be more civil.

Slowly, Sapphire opened the door and slipped inside. With the two of them both in the shed with the door closed it was a little cramped. Ignoring the blood and partially dismembered woodland creatures, the pegasus cleared her throat. "I want to start off by saying I'm not going to apologize for starting this... disagreement earlier. Stressed or not, I don’t like the way you’ve been acting lately and I’m not going to pretend like I don’t. I’m not asking you to change; that isn’t what’s bothering me. What’s bothering me is that you’re upset but won’t talk with me or Windrunner or your mom about it. You’re letting it fester when there’s no reason to! And then you were being so contradicting by letting Scarlet and Tight stay the night and help get them jobs but at the same time acting like it was such a problem! Being grumpy is one thing, but why are you letting yourself be miserable!?”

Midnight felt her dander go up again and wanted to snap back that she wasn’t miserable, just frustrated, but stopped herself. Even if she didn’t think she was miserable, Sapphire seemed to think she was. “I’m not… I just…” she sighed as she tried to get the right words out without sounding defensive. “I’m not miserable, I’m frustrated. Rainbow nearly gets killed trying to choose a pet, Applejack nearly loses the farm because of a bet, then they all gang up on Rainbow and humiliate her because she got cocky from saving a few lives. Then we’ve got some new creature attacking Fluttershy’s cottage to top it all off. At least that I can buck in the face; I can’t fight rock slides, beat up sleazy business ponies, no matter how much I'd like to, nor can I continually smack them upside the head when they’re doing something stupid. I swear, I’m getting pissed just because they wore costumes!” She brought the cleaver she’d been holding (it was too tight inside to use her tail blade even without Sapphire there) down and decapitated the squirrel. The head bounced away from the impact, rolled off the cutting board / work bench, hit the ground, and came to a stop by Sapphire’s hoof. The pegasus flinched away from it and Midnight kicked it under where she was working.

“As for Scarlet… I don’t know. I invited them to sleep over because I figured it was too late to try and get them into the inn. I found them a job with the Apples because they need more workers. Maybe her getting snippy with Rarity rubbed me the wrong way; maybe it was how she kept putting so much emphasis on hybrids.” The kirin laid her head against the wall, looking tired. “She's also the only other hybrid I've ever met, so maybe that has something to do with it, too. I should see a therapist,” she sighed.

“You know, Princess Celestia told me something while I was working with her,” Sapphire said gently. “She told me that what we call “therapy” today, they used to call “listening”. Maybe you just need somepony to vent to, to hear out what’s bothering you. That certainly seems better than just holding it all up inside.”

Midnight eyed her. “You volunteering?”

“I wouldn’t mind going on a flight now and again after dinner,” Sapphire said, “but you also have Windrunner, your mom, Berry, Derpy, Lyra, Vinyl, even the bearers; you’ve got plenty of ponies to talk too!”

“Not sure Lyra or Vinyl would be good ideas,” Midnight murmured, “but you’ve got a point.”

“Want to start now? You didn’t seem to like how Scarlet talked about hybrids.”

“You sure you wouldn’t want to wait for me to finish this first?” Midnight asked, motioning towards her gruesome work.

The pegasus had been trying to avoid looking that way the entire time. She had no problem with Midnight eating meat, never had, but seeing how one prepared it was something else entirely. “I’ll… manage,” she said with an unconvincing smile. "Any particular reason you got so many?"

"Hunting is my stress ball, I guess." The kirin turned back to the squirrel, her body and wings purposely blocking the scene from her friend. Her ears swiveled to show she was still paying attention. “I guess what I didn’t like was how hard she seemed to be trying to stress how different we were from ponies. “Ponies have all this while we’ve got nothing!” was what it sounded like she was saying and how I was now some rallying point for all the hybrids in Equestria for helping stop Discord.” She paused as she finished with the rodent and moved on to a bird. “It rubbed me the wrong way because all my life I just wanted to be normal, not different. It’s like she forgot she was half pony, not just half griffon.”

“Well… maybe that was the point she was trying to make,” Sapphire tried. Midnight looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. “I mean, let’s face it Midnight, you aren’t normal. You’re half wyvern but “different” isn’t the word I would use.”

“What would you use?” Midnight asked, an edge in her voice.

“Unique, special,” Sapphire said, only to blush right after she said it and looked away. “I-I mean, you are the only kirin in Equestria, probably the whole world, after all. That pretty much makes you the rarest of the rare and, well…” she trailed off.

“Thanks,” Midnight said, looking a bit awkward herself. Her mom had used the same words to describe her before, but coming from Sapphire they seemed special. She inwardly shook herself. So she’d complimented her; it wasn’t a big deal. The memory of her nuzzling into her neck popped up. “Still, the idea that a group would use me as a rallying point… it feels uncomfortable. What if some of them are those fringe nut-jobs and get it into their heads to do something so that I notice them?”

“That’s a bit extreme, don’t you think?” Sapphire asked.

“Maybe, but I still can’t help thinking about it. I’m already hyped up thinking the bearers are going to screw themselves over and now this. I’m going to have the same mane as Squeaks before too long.” That both got them to laugh.

“If you’re so worried, then why don’t you spend more time with Scarlet then? Get to know each other and you might find there’s nothing to worry about. She might stop the hero worshiping if she sees you’re just like anypony else,” Sapphire suggested.

Midnight nodded. “I bet a few fans might think differently of Sapphire Shores if they lived with her for a week.” They chuckled again. “Alright, I’ll give her another chance. And Sapphire; sorry about snapping at you earlier. I... shouldn't have said what I did.” Her wings drooped but then stiffened slightly as she felt a feathered wing touched her leathery one.

“Just promise me to talk to somepony before it gets that bad again,” Sapphire said softly.

“... I will,” Midnight told her, her voice equally as soft. With that Sapphire left Midnight to her work.

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

The next day found the kirin circling over the town market. It wasn't long before she found her target: the Apple Family cart. Today it seemed it was Big Mac's turn to take the cart into town and joining him was just the hippogriff Midnight wanted to see. "Morning," she said as she landed.

"Miss Storm," Big Mac said with a nod.

"Morning Midnight!" Scarlet shouted enthusiastically.

"Come to buy some apples?" the large stallion inquired, shifting the wheat stalk he was chewing from one side of his mouth to the other.

"That, and I'd like to talk with Scarlet for a moment. Five red delicious please."

As Big Mac bagged her order, Midnight turned back to Scarlet. "Look, I just wanted to apologies for being rude to you and Tight yesterday morning."

The hippogriff waved a claw dismissively. "Rude? Please, if what you did or said yesterday is considered rude, then I've been severely abused my whole life."

"All the same, I'd like to take you up on that offer on hanging out sometime."

"Great! Gotta see about hours and days off, but definitely!"

Midnight nodded and accepted her bag of apples from Big Mac. When Scarlet turned to help another customer, she leaned in close to him. “She hasn’t said anything… disconcerting, has she? Like, anything sounding like hybrid pride or the like? I know she’s only been working for you for a day but still.”

The big stallion shifted the stalk in his mouth again. “Not really. Eager as a beaver and ready to put the cart before the horse but nothing to really raise an eyebrow at. Does talk the ear off about ya’ll, though, given half the chance. Know anything about that?”

“It’s that article about how I helped beat Discord. Somehow that’s gotten me a following among hybrids and I’m just a little worried how fanatical some might be.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So ya’ll are followin' her around town to keep an eye on her then?”

“That, and I’m hoping spending some real time with me might wear away some of my apparent sheen.”

Big Mac nodded. “Can’t hurt. Ah don’t think she’s that short a few bushels, though; just a bit hero-blind is all.”

That helped put her mind to ease, and she took off back into the sky.

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

Midnight yawned as she searched the forest below her. Next to and facing away from her, Scarlet did the same, flicking her tail as she did so. Neither one said anything; they were too professional at hunting and knew better. If one saw the prey they were looking for, they’d give the other a slight kick and they’d both dive down on it together.

As she once again scanned the same clump of trees, Midnight reflected back over how the rest of the week had gone since she'd followed Sapphire's advice and actually tried to be friendly with Scarlet. After her short talk with him, Big Mac had been very accommodating and had given both his new employees almost every night off. "Ya'll need ta get out and about and meet folks if ya'll plan ta stay here long," he'd told them as way of an excuse. Midnight had found the hippogriff on her doorstep each night after dinner, ready and raring to go.

The first night Midnight had taken her around to meet all her other friends. Berry and Derpy liked her well enough but agreed that she was a bit... hyper. That and both mentioned they too caught an undercurrent of hybrid pride but neither seemed very worried about it. "It's no different than an earth pony, unicorn, or pegasus taking pride in their own tribe," Berry told her with a shrug. "The Hearth's Warming Tale is a perfect example, or just head to Canterlot, Cloudsdale, or any other earth pony village and see how the majority tribe acts towards the others."

Vinyl and Lyra took to Scarlet like peas in a pod and quickly got her to agree to come to their poker nights. Midnight silently wondered how long it would be until they had so many ponies in on their games that the card pile would reach the ceiling or needed to rent out town hall.

Things only got better as she and Scarlet spent more time together. Yes, the hippogriff had a tendency to talk all the time, but she left enough space so that one could interject. The talk of hybrids and Midnight’s actions tapered off as well as Midnight insisted to her that they weren’t that big of a deal. “It wasn’t like I outright beat him single hoofed; I just kept him occupied while the bearers blasted him back to stone.”

“But you still stood up to him! That took some serious guts!”

“But why wouldn’t I? Why wouldn’t I stand up to somepony who was going to hurt my friends and family?” Midnight asked her before taking a sip of her strawberry shake from Sugarcube Corner.

“But no normal pony could stand up to him!” Scarlet insisted, waving her own chocolate shake around.

“The bearers did.”

“Yeah, but they have magical do-dads that turn bad-guys to stone. What if you were just another pony? Would you have stood up to him then?”

“The guard stood up to him for a bit,” Midnight pointed out, “and they’re all “normal” ponies. And look at Windrunner; she’s just your average pegasus but she flew and fought right beside me. Are you really going to say she doesn’t deserve praise for what she did? I’m nothing special Scarlet.”

And just like that, Scarlet dropped it. Well, she didn't really, but only for comparison to some of the other things Midnight had done. The kirin was surprised the hippogriff had so easily eased up. Although she did seem a bit more vehement when she did bring it up.

“A lot of times first impressions are wrong,” Sapphire told her during breakfast the morning after. “Just think about it; when you meet somepony new, formally anyway, they usually put their best hoof forward. You don’t really get to know them until after you’ve spent time with them. Or how about the buffalo? We first met them when they attacked the train but that didn’t stop us from trying to help them.”

“Alright, alright, I get it,” Midnight said with a wave of her hoof. “Don’t judge until you get to know them; lesson learned. You can take off the Sapphire suit now mom.”

The pegasus slapped her with a wing, but they both laughed.

And so the week progressed and as it did Midnight’s mood improved. Even Rainbow lost her own bit of hostility towards her when she realized Scarlet wasn’t just Gilda 2.0. It had all culminated with Scarlet asking Midnight if she’d like to join her on a deer hunt Saturday morning. “I haven’t had deer in a while and Mr. McIntosh-”

“Just call him Big Mac,” Midnight told her.

“-Big Mac said I could start late Saturday, so whaddya say?”

Midnight had to admit she’d never gone after deer before. It was just too much meat for herself and Squeaks didn’t make that big of a dent in the supply. Tartarus, a boar could last them a month. Scarlet assured her that Midnight would love the taste of it so much they wouldn’t be able to keep up with her demand.

So there they were, early Saturday morning with the sun just peaking over the horizon, sitting on a cloud over White-Tail Wood waiting for a deer to wander by. Both periodically used their wings to move the cloud so as to both scan new ground and to try and make the cloud look like it was naturally plodding through the sky. Scarlet showed a new side of herself by staying as quiet and still as Midnight while they hunted. The only thing she had said after they arrived on the cloud was that deer were hard to chase down, so they needed to stay high, quiet, and wait for one to come to them. She’d even dumped a few rotten apples below as bait.

And so they waited.

It had been a full two hours and still nothing had come below them except a few smaller critters who took bits of the apples for themselves. Waiting to ambush prey wasn’t her ideal form of hunting. Waiting for food to come to her was… well, boring. For the kirin, hunting was more of an active activity. She was just on the edge of suggesting they try it her way when she felt a hoof prod her side. Looking back, Scarlet motioned for her to look down to the side. Down in the brush, moving cautiously towards what remained of the apple pile, was a buck. It was a decent sized one, with six points on its antlers. Those antlers would be a problem if the deer suspected anything and decided to fight.

Midnight looked back up at Scarlet and the hippogriff pantomimed bringing her claws together, grasping each other tightly over a patch of cloud. Pincer maneuver. Midnight nodded, and they both waited until the deer was right under them before they dived off the cloud.

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

Midnight grunted as she and Scarlet hauled the deer up and over the cliff behind her house and finally descended towards the shed. From now on she was going to stick to hunting in the Everfree. It wasn’t that there had really been any problems killing the deer other than a few cuts on Scarlet’s front leg; it was that they needed to haul the thing all the way around the town limits so that nopony would panic upon seeing a dead, gutted deer flown over head. That had made a five minute flight turn into twenty, and there was no way to simply glide with their catch. Once they were close enough and low enough Midnight dropped the deer carcass and landed in a heap almost right next to it, huffing and puffing while letting her wings fall where they would.

“Geez, it wasn’t that hard of a flight,” Scarlet admonished, landing and wiping sweat from her brow. “I thought you were a great flier?”

“Can’t… flap… that… long…” the kirin wheezed out. “Normally… glide… for… a while…” She did need to train for that more often. Maybe timed laps?

“Well, let’s get this thing in the shed before anyone sees it. Kinda screws up the whole point of flying around the town.”

“Next time… we bring… a sack of some kind…”

The side door opened and Sapphire flew out to them, two large glasses filled with ice and water in her hooves.

Midnight greedily took hers and chugged it, despite the pegasus telling her to take her time. Scarlet drank hers with a bit more dignity, but with no less eagerness.

“By the way,” Sapphire said as she took the finished cups from them. “Something’s up at the schoolhouse; I saw Cheerilee running from it, then coming back with the two police officers soon after.”

“Probably some foals broke a window because they got an F or something,” Midnight said from her place on the ground.

“I don’t think she’d look so panicked over something like that,” Sapphire insisted. “I mean, the police are there but since it’s so close to the house, I think we’d all feel better if you checked it out. Windrunner and Squeaky will hear about it soon enough.”

Midnight groaned. “Fine, I’ll check it out, just give me a minute to breathe here.”

“More water?” Sapphire asked, her face a mix of concern and amusement.

“Dear Faust, yes!” Midnight cried.

“I’ll have another, too, please,” Scarlet said.

Sapphire nodded and went back inside.

“I didn’t know you were a follower of the Fausticorn,” Scarlet said, interested.

“M’not; just got tired of everypony praising Celestia when she isn’t even a god,” Midnight told her as she sucked on the ice cube she'd almost swallowed when she sucked down the water.

“Then why not just evoke the Makers?”

“I was a teenager. Did a lot of stupid things. This one just stuck. Like saying ‘buck’ instead of….”

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

Midnight stared at what Cheerilee had been panicking about and she could sure understand why. There was a giant hole in the back of the schoolhouse, as if something had smashed into it. All the desks and school supplies had either been destroyed or thrown around the room. The black board had been knocked askew and deep gouge marks were in it.

“It’s like some wild animal came through here,” Cheerilee said, distressed. The school was close to the Everfree, for whatever reason, so that was what most likely happened, but something about how this looked was unhappily familiar.

“And you just found it like this?” Midnight asked as she inspected the black board. The teacher had already given her report to the police, but Midnight wanted to hear it again. This was someplace Squeaks and the other foals were supposed to be safe, and it was damn near close to home.

“Yes! I was just coming by to pick up some papers I forgot when I found it like this! What do you think could have done this?” the teacher asked, glancing back out the hole and at the forest beyond.

Scarlet was also picking through the wreckage, trying to help the earth pony set some things to right.

Midnight shrugged. “Manticore or timberwolves, most likely. There’s a bunch of other things living in the forest that could do this as well.”

“Hey, I found something!” Scarlet called out as she righted another desk. She picked out something stuck between the metal parts of the chair and held it up for them to see. “Looks like a feather.”

A very familiar looking feather, and it ruled out manticores and timberwolves. “We need to see Twilight,” Midnight told them, her voice a growl.

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

“It’s definitely an owlursus feather,” Twilight said as she backed away from the microscope, located in her basement lab. “It has the exact same structure as the one I found at Fluttershy’s supplies shed.”

"But what's it doing back here?" Midnight asked her. "I thought ringing its bell like we did would have made it think twice before coming back." The kirin was seated right next to Twilight as if proximity would give her answers any quicker. Word had yet to spread among the rest of Ponyville about what happened at the school house, but it was only a matter of time and Midnight wanted the situation under control before the whole town went into another panic.

"I've been doing my own research on them, like I did when that show-pony Trixie boasted about beating an Ursa Major."

"Still can't believe you slept through that," Scarlet said from her seat opposite them, referring to the rampage of the Ursa Minor she'd been told about.

"Yes, well," Twilight continued. "Turns out that one of the reasons owlursuses are so rare is because they require a lot of territory per individual. At its maximum, Equestria could only accommodate about twenty of them if they were each evenly spaced out. That number shrinks when you take into account how much of the land is run by ponies, and..."

"So this one's claimed the Everfree and Ponyville as part of its territory?" Midnight interjected before the unicorn could go off on a tangent.

"Yes. Its attack on Fluttershy's shed was probably just it scouting its new territory. The damage it did to the school house was probably a warning to us as well as a scavenging trip. We need to find a way to keep the owlursus out of town and away from ponies before somepony gets hurt or worse." Using her magic, Twilight picked up several more books, opening all of them. "I've been trying to find out what repels them, but so far the only thing that seems to get them to move are larger, more aggressive predators or their prey supply running out."

"Well, we can't wait around for it to get tired of picking pony bones out of its beak, so scare it off with a giant predator it is," Midnight said. "And we'll play it safe this time. If the thing's nocturnal, then we'll just find it during the day, scare the feathers off it, and be back in time for dinner."

"And just how do you plan to find it?" Twilight asked. "The Everfree Forest is still dangerous during the day and there are probably dozens of caves out there, many likely covered by foliage too dense to see through."

"I could help with that!" Scarlet said, bolting up and presenting her flank to them. "Great tracker, remember? All I've got to do is start at the school first thing in the morning and I'll find it by lunch time for sure!"

Midnight shot this down almost immediately. "No way. I can't be worrying about anypony while I'm a wyvern and dealing with the owlursus. While I'm attacking it something else could shoot in and grab you for lunch. It's better if I go this one alone."

"But... but how are you gonna track it?" Scarlet asked, her feathers fluffing slightly at the quick dismissal. "Besides, Windrunner also goes into the forest to work with you, so it can't be that dangerous."

"Windrunner and I don't go in as deep as this thing supposedly is," Midnight told her, "And she's proven she can take care of herself." She turned back to Twilight. "I'll set up a search pattern starting from the deepest spot I've worked at. First I'll check around where we first found Scarlet and Tight, then work my way back towards the school. From there I'll check out the route to the old castle, then I'll try to section off the forest from the air. And even if there are dozens of caves, I doubt many of them that are big enough to hold the thing can be hidden very easily in the undergrowth."

"I guess that could work," Twilight said, not sounding very confident with Midnight's plan. "Are you sure you wouldn't want one of our pegasus friends to go with you and plot out where you've been? I could even go up with that observation balloon and stay in one place while you fly around."

Again, Midnight shook her head. "Staying in place would be even worse, especially if we end up going deep into the forest. I've seen rocs once or twice out that way and a balloon would be a very easy target for them. Besides, we all know Spike's the one that'll be driving the thing so that's two of you that'll be in danger." The kirin ignored the annoyed look the unicorn gave her.

"I still say I should go with you," Scarlet said, not backing down. "I think if I can kill a buck, I can handle most anything else in there."

"Both of us got the buck, and you got cut pretty good in the process." Midnight nodded at the bandage on her front leg. "Whatever else we run into out there will be trying to eat us, which is a whole lot different than something trying to get away from us. My answer is no and that's final. Thanks for confirming that, Twilight," Midnight said, turning back to the unicorn. "I'll start looking first thing tomorrow and I'll let you know when I've driven the thing off."

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

Scarlet kicked the door to her guest house close behind her. Tracking was what she was good at, what she was best at, and Midnight had told her off for suggesting it like she was a child! It wasn't like she was asking to fight the thing when they found it! Grabbing the pillow from the bed, she dug her talons into it. "I just want to help!" she growled out.

*Knock Knock*

"Who is it?" she snapped.

"Scarlet? Can I come in?" Tight's muffled voice came from the other side of the door.

Taking a breath to try and calm down, Scarlet put her pillow back, tucking it under the blanket to hide the claw marks, and opened the door.

Tight was standing on the other side with a worried look. "Hey, is everything alright?"

"No," she bit out, turning back inside and walking into the small kitchenette. She pulled some apple juice from the personal refrigerator there and chugged it down as if it was what had done her wrong.

Tight had seen her like this before and let the hippogriff fume before pressing her for more details. As he expected, after she finished off the drink, she went back into the fridge, pulled out a container, then tore into its contents. From the look of the pieces and the sound of cracking bone, it was bird leftovers. "So... want to talk about it?" he finally asked when she'd put the food back.

"That owlursus came back last night and ripped up the school!" Scarlet told him, beginning to pace. "Midnight's going after it but won't let me help! She needs a tracker to find the damn thing but says it's too dangerous for anyone else to go after it with her! I don't get why she's being so bull-headed!"

Great, so the monster was still around. The idea that the thing was prowling just outside of town and looking for ponies to eat sent a shiver down Tight's spine. It didn't help that the farm was on the border with the forest either. "Well, she's trying to keep everyone safe," he tried. "I mean, how would you feel if someone got hurt while trying to help you do something dangerous?"

"But I wouldn't!" Scarlet shot back. "I can take care of myself! Why else would mom kick me out if I wasn't ready?" She kicked one of the legs of the room's table. "Just... just leave me alone for the night, alright Tight?"

Reluctantly, the stallion nodded. "Alright. Just remember she's not doing this to be a hero; she's doing it because she cares." The hippogriff grunted and Tight figured it was the best response he was going to get.

Once the door shut behind him, Scarlet moved over to the dresser next to the bed and opened the bottom draw. "I'll show her," she muttered as she pulled out some equipment, including a compass, rope, and a first aid kit. "I got this cutie mark for a reason and I'm going to do what I can to help out."

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

'Okay, I MAY have rushed into this,' Scarlet thought as she watched the manticore below her finally give up trying to find her. She'd set out just before dawn that morning and started tracking the owlursus from the school before Midnight could get up and start her own search. She understood Midnight wasn't trying to be a hero; the kirin seemed to hate the very idea of being one. However, doing this alone was stupid and could very well end up with someone getting hurt before she found the owlursus and drove it off. With the hippogriff on the case, they'd find the monster's hiding spot before the end of the day.

That is if the other forest inhabitants didn't get a piece of her first. That particular manticore had set her off course for a good half hour. After going two hours through the forest in the dark and hearing how Midnight went into it every day, she figured that the area's bark was worse than its bite. That had swiftly been reevaluated as she'd run into creature after creature. Plants that snapped at her legs and wings, nightmare insects that got WAY too close for comfort, and predators that wanted to try hippogriff for the first time made tracking the owlursus almost impossible. She could now see why Midnight only went so far in to cut wood as she had.

She waited another few minutes after the beast stomped out of sight before gliding down out of the tree and continuing. If there was something good about tracking down an owlursus, it was that the thing was big enough that it left plenty of signs of its passing in the underbrush. Thus, picking up where she left off wasn't a problem. The other bit of good news was the manticore had left in the opposite direction of where she was going, so there was no chance of a repeat run in. Thank the Makers it went around that patch of blue flowers...

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

Above the forest, Midnight yawned as she glided. She'd already found three caves big enough to house an owlursus and so far all she'd gotten was a couple of manticores and a face full of bats. She'd already checked the area from the school to the end of her cut, her cut to the old castle, and from there to Zecora's hut and then back to town. All that meant was that she was right in thinking the thing had set up shop deep into the forest, deeper than she really wanted to go. It seemed like the deeper in you went, the more dangerous the creatures and things located there were.

She was just considering laying a trap close to Ponyville as a safer course of action when Windrunner shot up to her. "Geez!" the kirin shouted as the brown pegasus stopped only a few hooves away from her. "A little warning next time! And what are you doing out here? I told everypony to stay back in town and wait for me!"

Windrunner nodded and took a sip form one of the two canteens she had with her. "I know, but Tight Fit just showed up and said he thinks Scarlet Claw is in the forest tracking down the owlursus."

Midnight felt her stomach bottom out a bit. "Please, please tell me he has a good reason to think that."

Windrunner nodded. "He says that all her tracking equipment is gone and that nopony has seen her all morning. He and the Apples thought she might have gone into town, so they didn't check up on her until a little while ago."

"They didn't check to see where one of their new employees where when they didn't show up for work?" Midnight asked incredulously.

"Apparently they start late on Sundays," Windrunner told her.

Midnight shook her head and groaned. "Great. Alright, I'll keep an eye out for her as well. Now get back to the house."

Windrunner shook her head. "Scarlet was right about one thing: you need back up, somepony to watch your back if things are going to get as dangerous as you say they will."

Midnight growled. "That's an order-"

"Then you may discharge me when we get back but for now you're stuck with me," Windrunner told her firmly, sticking the other canteen into the kirin's hooves.

Midnight looked from the canteen to the pegasus and let out a sigh of defeat. "Did he say if she has some way of signaling us when she finds the thing or when she gets lost?"

"He said she has both flares and a signal mirror in her gear for just such a thing."

The kirin nodded. "Good; keep an eye out for both because at this point I'd rather wait for the damn thing back home than fly any deeper over the forest. I told you I saw rocs before."

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

The past hour had been... odd in Scarlet's opinion. What had almost been a one after another stream of oddities in her way had slowly but surely trickled off into almost nothing. There were still insects and snapping plants, but they were few and far between. On more than one occasion she'd seen patches where the snapping plants had been torn up and thrown off into the brush. The trail she'd been following had become more distinct as well. It was most likely the owlursus' handiwork, clearing the area around its home of stuff that bothered it. That would also explain why there were so few, if any, predators around.

She rounded a thick tree and came to a stop. There was a small clearing in front of her and on the opposite side was a large cave mouth. The trail she'd been following lead right into it. She'd found the owlursus' lair. Looking up, she could see it was late in the afternoon. She needed to work quickly if they were still going to surprise it.

Quietly unslinging her pack from her shoulders, she pulled out both her signaling mirror and flare kit. Looking up, it was obvious the mirror wouldn't do her any good. The light it reflected needed to be seen by someone over head, and there was currently no one up there. That left the flares, which were bright and noisy things. Then again, if she fired them from where she was, she could duck back into the trees and stay hidden just in case the monster woke up. Grinning at the thought of the look on Midnight's face when the kirin would show up, she carefully loaded a flare into the gun.

Just as she was about to aim it skyward and shoot it off, she felt something on her back leg. Looking around, she found a large, horrifying looking nope-bug almost up to her cutie mark.

She jumped, quickly grabbing her beak to stop the scream of fear she'd almost let out with her free claw. Her wings and tail smacked at the abomination as she reared up. This dislodged it, but as she came back down to buck it away into the brush, she forgot to let go of her beak. The claw holding the flare gun landed with a clatter, and the impact pushed her claw back into the trigger. With a loud *whoosh* and a whine, the flare shot out.

Right into the cave.

Scarlet watched the flare go deep into the cave, eventually outlining the form of a large, feather and fur-covered hulk. A hulk that roared a second later.

Her mind and body remained frozen a few seconds more, then she bolted back up and drove another flare home. She got it up into the sky just as the owlursus stuck its head out of the cave, spotted her, and roared again before charging.

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

"Sweet bucking Faust," Midnight mumbled as she once again looked over at the sun. It was late afternoon and the orb was starting its decent towards the horizon. They hadn't found any sign of either the owlursus or Scarlet and both the kirin and pegasus were starting to really worry now.

"What do we do if it gets dark?" Windrunner asked.

"Nothing we can do at that point. You can't see in the dark at all and my night vision has a hard time seeing anything not bathed in moonlight. I hate to say it, but we'll have to leave Scarlet out here if we don't find her soon."

Windrunner hummed unhappily and darted around in agitation. She knew Midnight didn't like it either, but there would be no way they could help after the sun went down. More than likely they'd end up with their own bit of trouble before they found the hippogriff. The pegasus darted around a few more times before she saw a bright red orb fly up into the sky from the trees a mile or two away. "Midnight, what does a flare look like?"

"Big ball of bright red light, shoots up from the ground and hangs in the air for about half a minute," she said absently as she scanned the opposite section of jungle. "Makes a loud noise, too, from what I understand." Then she realized why the pegasus would be asking that now and whirled around. "Exactly like that! Get over there and see what's up!"

Windrunner bolted for the slowly fading orb of light. Midnight followed after but didn't pour on the speed. She'd catch up with the pegasus after a few wing beats.

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

Scarlet ducked as the owlursus' paw flew through the space her head had been a few moments ago. The creature was using its size to take up as much of the small clearing as possible, limiting Scarlet's movements and making it impossible to get airborne. If she tried to stretch her wings to get aloft, one could easily get caught by the surprisingly quick paws or jaws. If she'd been given a moment to think clearly she could have ducked into the forest or back down the trail to get some distance but the owlursus wouldn't let up its attempt to catch her. The best thing her racing mind could think up was to keep ducking and dodging until Midnight came to her rescue. If she even saw the flare.

As she dove away again, she saw that the creature's rear legs were far enough apart that she could duck through them when it swung again. Without a second thought she dove between them. In the blink of an eye she was through with open forest in front. All she needed was a few seconds of running and she'd be airborne.

The owlursus spun around to catch her and in the process lost its balance. As it fell, it reached out a paw after Scarlet, which slammed down on her tail. The hippogriff, a mere hoof away from the tree line, was jerked to a stop. In mad panic to get away, her instincts kicked in and she went berserk on the paw that held her. The owlursus roared in surprised pain this time as the hippogriff's talons and sharp beak tore at the paw, but it was all superficial; it had no intention of letting her go.

It raised a paw to finish off the struggling hippogriff but before it could it was hit hard and fast upside the head. It roared out in real pain then, swinging both paws up into the air to try and catch its attacker. Scarlet took the opportunity to haul flank into the forest, running blindly to just get away from her attacker. Before she could hop into the sky, things quickly became darker and a set of large, jet-black talons slammed into the ground ahead of her, crushing a few trees and shrubs. This was followed by an immense roaring behind her and Windrunner landing next to her.

"You okay!?" the pegasus asked, looking her over as if expecting to find her ripped up.

"I... I... I... think so...?" Scarlet said as she was finally able to get a moment to think. Windrunner was here and it had to be Midnight roaring in her wyvern form. "I... I just..."

Windrunner stuck her canteen in the hippogriff's talons. "Drink," she ordered. Scarlet didn't argue.

The creaking and breaking of trees made them first look back towards Midnight's legs, then up when they saw she was sitting back on her haunches. To their amazement, the owlursus was clenched tightly in her right wing claws, cowed by the wyvern's sudden arrival and roars to the face. As they watched it regain a bit of ferocity and tried to bite the claw holding it, only for the claw to squeeze tighter and another roar to be delivered at point blank range.

"Now you listen to me," Midnight growled out, her grumbling voice thick with threat. "I'm fully ready to eat you right now and be done with it but my pony friends, who you tried to kill, want me to give you one more chance, so here it is. You stay away from the pony town and the forest directly around it and we'll leave you alone too. Bother us again, and I have owlursus steak for dinner. Understand?"

The owlursus just stared up at her.

"UNDERSTAND!?" she roared, shaking it. When she was done it nodded vigorously. "You had better," she growled. Then she leaned forward and stuffed it back into its den. "I MEAN IT!" she roared in after it, then she turned to Windrunner and Scarlet, nodded, and took off. The pegasus and hippogriff followed her aloft.

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

Scarlet hadn't felt so low since she'd broken Grandma Peregrine's fine china. Midnight marched up and down in front of her, berating her for going out without telling anybody after she specifically said not to and gave very good reasons and how she nearly got killed and was lucky to be alive. Tight looked torn between wanting to make sure she was okay and yelling at her himself while the rest had varying degrees of disapproval, worry, and relief on their faces. Sapphire currently had her hooves over Squeaks' ears to try and block out the profanity Midnight was using. She'd dropped the 'buck' and was dropping F-bombs like a piñata drops candy. "And what exactly do you have to say for yourself!?" Midnight finally finished, sitting and starring down at her. With her rant over, all the anger that had been building up since after the trip to Baltimare had finally gotten out of her system and now she was just tired.

"I... uh..." Scarlet tried, but stopped. Saying sorry would not cut it in any way here, but what else could she say to show how sorry she was?

With her anger spent and the situation resolved with no permanent injuries, Midnight cut her a break. "I've already had somepony not do what I told them and it nearly cost them their life too. I should have told you the story before, but what I need you to take out of this is that when I tell you to not do something, it's not because I'm trying to be a plot-hole and say I'm better than you, it's because if you do it an owlursus could kill you or something. As far as I'm concerned what's done is done and you just better not do it again, clear?" Scarlet nodded. "Good. Big Mac, she's all yours."

Sapphire, Windrunner, and Squeaks got up and followed her back to the house, leaving the hippogriff to the tender mercies of her employer. "So..." Sapphire said once they'd gotten out of ear shot. "...feeling better?"

"A bit. Dear Faust what was she thinking? And Fluttershy is lucky I was able to scare the crap out of it; I really didn't think her plan would work. Still don't actually, but then again I'd rather straighten this one out than have to do this all over again when another one shows up."

"If I may?" Windrunner asked. They all turned to her. "As reckless as she was, she does have a talent for tracking. If she had an escort, I think we would have found the owlursus before lunch like she said." Seeing Midnight about to argue, she raised a wing. "I know why you said what you did and to a degree I agree with you. However, Scarlet Claw has promise. You may not have noticed, but I saw her struggle with the owlursus and had the beast not caught her tail, she would have gotten away. Even when she was caught, she was willing to fight to the end. She has initiative, resourcefulness, and tenacity, but just not the training to put all those to proper use. I think we could help her with that. She would be the perfect one to track down a wayward bearer."

Midnight felt her mouth drop open. "You... you can't be serious! Scarlet in the Bearer Guard!?"

"I'm perfectly serious. She could make a fine soldier, I think, if trained properly and learns discipline. Didn't you say just last week we need more guards?"

Midnight opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, then sighed and shook her head. "If you really think she could be a guard, then we'll give her a chance. Start by getting her on some sort of daily routine so she can learn some discipline, then think of an excuse for us to take her into the woods and throw timberwolves at her." She sighed again. "And we have poker night tomorrow... great."

Comments

[Jasmine Tea]

I would say it's a life, but tired saying that. I'll get back to you with something new.

[Rhino]

Hmm... still nailing down why, but I am strangely satisfied that Midnight gets fed up with Bearer foolishness.

[Falx_of_Lume]

then think of an excuse for us to take her into the woods and throw timberwolves at her.

I can't help but think of them doing training exercises by literally throwing timberwolves at her while shouting....

[PsiGuy60]

If you ask me, it was worth the wait.

Great addition to the story, can't wait to see how it goes from here (with Scarlet in the Bearer Guard, and all that).

[The Forgotten Comrade]

Can't wait to see Scarlet in the morning. Gonna be interesting at least.

[coldsilverd]

Moment I heard "tracking" I knew Scarlet be asked into the guard. Good. It'll be nice to have a 'Pinkie' on the team to smooth out Midnight's rougher edges.

[Seether00]

Yay! Griffon! Best race represent!

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

6741805 Yeah I kind of wanted to see her reaction to MDW.

[TwilightDrgn]

OMG YOU ARE ALIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *starts reading* (4:09 pm cntral time zone)

[TheStratovarian]

Its nice to see this updating again, and not in the hiatus heck.

[Night_Moon60606]

6742061 Hyppogriff, not Gryphon, true Scarlet has a beak, talons and wings, but her rump is that of a Pony

[Chaotic Ink]

6741906
Midnight might jut do that...

DODGE!!!

Wha...? *takes Calypso to the face*

[Chaotic Ink]

6742061
Hippogriff, actually, so only half right

[Chaotic Ink]

6742208
That'll be covered in 2 Bits (with how long this was taking I had to cut it)

[Chaotic Ink]

6742420
I swear I will not be this long again. I'm not Overlord Hasbro and don't want to be.

[Kingofthecouch]

hmmmm, gotta say
cdn.meme.am/instances/37932407.jpg

[EvilEnchantress]

img.memecdn.com/I-COULD-SHIT-RAINBOWS_o_97130.jpg
Awesome chapter!

[TheStratovarian]

6742478 Broadsides fired! But eh, sometimes life happens. Other times the muse runs to canada and gets drunk on maple syrup. Still, a fun update.

[dracone]

Hm, you don't see all that many hippogriff OCs. Heck, the series proper has yet to give us any hybrids. That all said Scarlet is another interesting addition to the squad, I wonder what the official outfits Celestia's been cooking up will look like on her (we all know that Celestia is prepping the uniforms for when the Bearer Guard is revealed).

[lunashonorguard]

oh at long last. I'll even take this as an early Christmas present and be completely satisfied with it

[magemagics]

Yay Witching Hour's back!

[Chaotic Ink]

6742939
And if I do everything right this weekend, you'll have a Nightmare Before (or During or Right After) Christmas!

And then Christmas on Valentines.

And Valentines on Easter.

*bangs head on table*

[lunashonorguard]

6743022 this sounds about as crazy as I am. I LOVE IT!!!

[Jirodyne]

6742461
img00.deviantart.net/39d2/i/2010/273/c/7/a_beating_thats_it_by_shadowhell60-d2zt28o.jpg

[Chaotic Ink]

6743150
I try, and thanks for the watch!

[Bryan Luna]

Ink you magnificent bastard. I have not seen an Owbear since my time playing D&D.

[kakkaohjus]

So Scarlet's part peregrine? no wonder she's fast. Also welcome back!

[NobleLeader6]

"Just weary of strangers," Midnight told her...

I'm sorry, but weary and wary are not the same thing. I have seen so many authors on this site confuse the two that it has gotten annoying. Weary refers to how tired someone is of something, or just tired in general. "He looked up with weary eyes." Wary refers to suspicions, misgivings, or just being careful or staying away from new things. "He entered the room warily."

[Fourpony]

Unbelievably, the ow-bear stopped roaring and swinging and just stood there stupidly for a few seconds.

It's an ow-bear now cause it got hurt.

Scarlet scooped up Tight and followed the other eight into the night sky.

Why the hell didn't they do this sooner?

at the very least, its feather should have all been burnt off."

"feathers"

To emphasis this she flipped one of the omelets.

"emphasize"

The stallion swallowed his recent swig of coffee. "I'm actually really good at packing things."

Like... fudge?

With cider season over and fall comin' in, ain't really a need fur extra hooves; and claws

Fall is apple harvesting season.

Is there a reason you were rude to Scarlet and Tight this morning?

To be fair, they did just kinda drop in. Unexpected guests are not fun.

With the two of them both in the shed with the door closed it was a little cramped.

So, I couldn't help but think about this old video.

What do you think it was that did this?

Cheerilee, you need to work on your sentences, I feel it could be worded a little better. Or you can just leave it.

Thank the Makers it went around that patch of blue flowers...

This can only mean good news. Least poison joke seems to take a night to start affecting whoever walked through it.

she could duck back into the trees and stay hidden just in case the monster woke up.

Or she could fly. That is another option. Backtrack a little and take off into the sky, it wouldn't be hard and a lot safer.

Windrunner was here and it had to be Midnight roaring in her wyvern form. "I... I just..."

Scarlet easily accepts that Midnight can change into a wyvern; eeeehhhhh, alright. But I don't like it.

She has initiative, is resourceful, and tenacity, but just not the training to put all those to proper use.

"tenacious" (would also need to drop the comma after resourceful)
There are actually multiple ways to fix this. Currently that "is" is being applied to the "tenacity" as well. Changing "is resourceful" to "resourcefulness" would fix the issue as well.

Nice to see this is back, I am happy a lot of show episodes are just skipped over and later summarized. Though I feel there might need to be a little more explanation about what Midnight did during the Mare-Do-Well episode.

[Chaotic Ink]

6745756
Thank you for pointing out the mistakes; fixed!

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

6743164 No problem!

[harts fire]

this is a really good chapter exultant detailing with a strong story line.
good work Chaotic Ink as to the length I know of one story that the chapters have ben running around 60k or more.

Harts Fire

[Ekul29]

oh the horror, the absolute horror

THERE ARE NO MORE CHAPTERS!!

why is the world so cruel??

[Chaotic Ink]

6753907
Give my proofreader some time! Christmas is a hectic holiday!

[Jonakhensu]

I really need to stop reading book-length fics when I have things to do... still, this is a great read, and I'm glad I found it.

As the guard grows, so does the chance of one of the Bearers figuring it out... That should be an amusing scene.

[Secret Septus]

6754585
This Story is great, but I just can't help but wonder, what exactly is a thing about "Dragons' Magic".
I mean. Midnight can shape-shift, Spike can teleport thing (most likely not only letters), and there are more dragon sub species...

Well, I have a theory about magic in Equestria, which says: "There are two forms of magic: mental magic - Aerum - called also shining magic [...] and physical magic - Nitor - which manifests itself in shape of flames or lighting [...]"
///.... I am not going to explain everything, so...
Meus Regina, Domina Nocte.

[Alondro]

"Who in their right mind would mate with those horrid canines!?" Rarity yelped.

Fluttershy blushes deeply and mumbles something about canine reproductive anatomy having certain advantages...

(You are all now free to vomit once that mental image invades your brains.)

Isn't nature wonderful?

"My point," Midnight continued with a nod to the pegasus, "is that it takes something we wouldn't want to mess with to mess with an owlursus. Thankfully it seems that a few good, fast, hard hits to the head helps it reconsider things as well."

The owlbear grumbled to itself, angered that its victims escaped. Oh how it had wanted to slowly pick their tender bodies apart and relish their screams and pleadings to just kill them and end the agony. It loved that sort of thing, because it was, like, totally evil and stuff. Like Owlbear Hitler. We'll go with that.

Anyway, it suddenly came across a lone wanderer in the wood, a slender bipedal creature dressed in a silly garment and appearing as though it lacked even a single hair follicle. Most importantly, it looked weak. And bored. Very bored. Well, thought the owlbear, let's just see if I can't provide a little excitement for this thing in the few minutes I let it live!

With a terrifying hooting roar (I can't imagine what the hell that would even sound like...) it erupted from the brush and bore down upon the flimsy-looking biped... which shot a fist in its direction before its expression could even shift to surprise.

Gazing down upon the bloody mess of gore left after the impact, the stranger sighed. "As always... just one punch..."

wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net/80450F/comicsalliance.com/files/2014/02/OPM01.jpg

And so, another MLP: FiM crossover trope began...

[Alondro]

One day, a hybrid dragon-hydra screwed a pony-chimera hybrid... and Discord was born.

Because magic gives the middle finger to genetics.

sometimes I pack it too tight and when you try pulling something out... everything comes out."

That made my mind go into bad places...

"We ain't replaced it sooner 'cause Ah've been tryin' ta convince Granny ta use it ta pay for a new hip, but she just won't take it. She finally convinced me to replace the roof before savin' up fur her hip."

And then they all realize they live in a land with MAGIC and just have Zecora whip up a batch of Skelegro from the Medical Magic book Twilight swiped during that random Harry Potter crossover scene in Discord's song about a glass of water.

Ignoring the blood and partially dismembered woodland creatures,

And at that moment, Fluttershy showed up! "OH GOD, MR. AND MRS. MCSQUIRLEY!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!"

Midnight grunted as she and Scarlet hauled the deer up and over the cliff behind her house and finally descended towards the shed.

And at that moment, Fluttershy came singing over the hill and stopped dead with a horrified expression, "BUCKY VON STAGHORN!!!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! WE JUST HAD A PICNIC LAST WEEKEND!!!"

And then something seemed to break in the Pegasus... "Why do you keep eating my animal friends?" she spoke in a voice which felt like the tremor of a volcano about to erupt. "I understand that you have to eat some meat..." Her rage level climbed over 9,000... "But SERIOUSLY?! YOU KEEP EATING MY PERSONAL FRIENDS!! WTF?!" And then totally went into roid rage mode.

i.imgur.com/bESyASj.png

[Sigmacipher]

6757798 Can you tell me exactly where you got those oddly specific names for these two forms of magic.

[Lord_01010000]

"You see, there are hybrids scattered across Equestria. Hippogriffs like myself mostly, but you also get the rare pony/minotaur cross and even a bit of cross-breeding with diamond dogs and the like now and again."

I really don't want to see what those look like. I would thing the minotaur/pony hybrids would look like Tirek though.

Did anyone else laugh at Tight Fit's name? I can't even think about it without laughing.

"What's your cutie mark, Tight Fit?" Sapphire asked.
The stallion swallowed his recent swig of coffee. "I'm actually really good at packing things."

Oh my God! My sides...they hurt

*My thoughts all through the shed seen*
Just buck already in that small room of death!

It had all culminated with Scarlet asking Midnight if she’d like to join her on a deer hunt Saturday morning.

So, in a world ware pretty much all hoofed creatures are sentient, the deer aren't? I always thought of them to be like the druids myself. Preferring to live close to and surrounded by nature.

[Greatazuredragon]

what I need you to take out of this is that when I tell you to not do something, it's not because I'm trying to be a plot-hole and say I'm better than you, it's because if you do it an owlursus could kill you or something.

Sound reasoning.

Start by getting her on some sort of daily routine so she can learn some discipline, then think of an excuse for us to take her into the woods and throw timberwolves at her.

Well at least her Griffin side will probably feel kinda of comfortable with the way Midnight plans to 'train' her.

Nice work.

[Aguion12 - GotA]

6783253 I think Midnight and Aether from "Astral Aegis" would br good friends, Aether's style of training is "I'm going to throw this giant rock at you and you need to dodge"

[Dragon of Shadows]

Tight shrugged again and the other six traded worried glances.

That seemed to bring the hippogriff back to her senses. "Oh my gosh; I know you!"

Midnight took a hesitant step back. "You do?".

im such a fan and you're my hero came to mind when i read that.s2.quickmeme.com/img/a9/a9b4dbcbaf90b6cf3e44233a74aa9133ca6ae136f7432fc76d773b72445b0eda.jpg

Scarlet grinned at her again. "So, uh, me and Tight need someplace to crash for the night; could we stay at your place?"

that was my response

"Oh, right! The second reason I'm here is to find a job," Scarlet told them.

DAMN IT AUTHOR WHY DO U HAVE TO MAKE THINGS SOOOOOOOO OBVIOUS!!!!!!!!!

When I heard she was leaving, I just thought it was an opportunity to see the rest of Equestria with some good company is all.

or see the rest of her plot?

Thank the Makers it went around that patch of blue flowers...

oh god a manticore on poison joke that would be baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad very baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad.

She has initiative, resourcefulness, and tenacity, but just not the training to put all those to proper use.

I KNEW IT YOU ARE TURNING HER INTO A GUARD DAMN IT

[Dragon of Shadows]

Doubt Flutters would 'a forgiven you fur that

i would have gone with "fer that" but it still works

[Titan Commander Sebaste]

My reaction to the end: gif.co/rzqq.gif

[LordHaydon]

"What's your cutie mark, Tight Fit?" Sapphire asked.

The stallion swallowed his recent swig of coffee. "I'm actually really good at packing things."(...)

At this point all I could think was "Huh... Equestria does have porn stars."

[DDDDDDDDD23]

Midnight was pretty stupid here. She is a fighter through and through which is all well and good but this was a tracking mission.

[Ebony Gryphon]

You know, Princess Celestia told me something while I was working with her,” Sapphire said gently. “She told me that what we call “therapy” today, they used to call “listening”.

Someones cribbing notes of a certain crab apple aren't they

[Chaotic Ink]

8436327

[skyflare2]

You know, Princess Celestia told me something while I was working with her,” Sapphire said gently. “She told me that what we call “therapy” today, they used to call “listening”.

Electro shock 'listening'