//------------------------------//
// The Nightly Errand - Moon Shooter 
// Story: Philomena: Short Stories 
// by CMCShortStoryBrigade 
//------------------------------//

     In her cage, Philomena looked out the window of the Royal Canterlot bedroom of Princess Celestia. The princess was fast asleep under her sheets, every so often repositioning herself on the side of the bed in order to switch to a more comfortable position. Philomena continued to switch from staring at the moon and at her master, making sure she was truly asleep as the moon continued to rise into the sky. Finally, the moon hit its peak... no doubt in the phoenix’s mind, it was midnight. It was that time again.
Silently, Philomena began to pick the lock of the cage with her beak. For the first time, it would have been extremely difficult to pull off... but for someone who’d done this as many times as her, she knew exactly what she was doing. The lock clicked open with ease as her birdcage creaked open. The bird briefly looked at her master who once again repositioned herself seemingly in response to the sound. Thankfully, the sun princess didn’t open her eyes and try to stop the bird from leaving. She stayed sound asleep... as she likely would untill the sun was to come up just a few hours later...
Philomena hopped down from her cage. She didn’t fly, considering the possibility that unnecessary flapping of the wings might alert the princess. It wasn’t likely, but just a precaution. She couldn’t afford to wake her up. Philomena silently walked over to Celestia’s bed. This was the second most dangerous part of her little nightly routine. She went over to the bed and crawled under it. It wasn’t long until she found what she was looking for and managed to grab it with her beak from under the bed. It was a small note she’d written and hid in the last place Celestia would find it should she suspect something of her nightly journeys. The note was written, painstakingly and from much effort, considering she had to learn both bits and pieces of Equestrian writing, and learn how to use an ink and quill... but it was worth it. After all, should the worst happen to her on one of her nights, she wouldn’t be able to live with herself if she went missing for good and her master had no idea about it.
Written on the note, written sloppily with her beak and claws were simply the letters
 i’M SorRy
PH
Hopefully, if she didn’t return, her master would understand by that little scribbled note. She barely knew what it meant, let alone how to say it, but apparently the words seemed to be important to her master. They must have held some value for when a bird like her did something bad, tricksterlike, or something enough to break the heart of a pony... at least that’s what she figured after she’d been instructed to attempt to say the phrase after the incident with the yellow mare.
She was going to return though... she was sure she would. She always came back before the sun rose in the morning... though it was still just a precaution. She may have been an animal... but she was smart enough to know that without her, she would break her master’s heart... the thought made Philomena almost reconsider the risk she was about to take. She was sure they would be fine...
The bird shook her head, knowing she could skip tonight. She’d be fine. She was always fine, returning home without a scratch on her within the next three hours. With that last bit of reassurance, she hopped back up to her cage and tossed the note inside. Once she returned, she would put it back in her hiding spot for the next night she had to sneak out. Once it was set, and the phoenix was once again, positive the mare wasn’t going to wake up anytime soon, Philomena hopped out of the window and into the Equestrian skies, off to do her little nightly errand.
She flew over the skies, overlooking Ponyville. The clouds were clear that night, not allowing the phoenix to use them as camouflage from any pony who would have been insane enough to be awake at that hour... then again, that was just the paranoia talking. No pony could have been up... she supposed it was the sheer nervousness she always got on nights like this one, that her plans would somehow come to a halt. Whether it was getting back to the safety of her cage, or the interruption of her plans altogether. It was normal... but the phoenix had yet to get used to the routine, despite how many times she’d done something like this.
She flew over Canterlot... then Ponyville... then eventually, she was flying over the seemingly endless green of the Everfree forest. She used her phoenix vision, far superior to eagle vision, to spot the little hole she was looking for... there! Right in the small clearing of trees she saw the small glowing blue hole. It looked as though the event was getting started... and she was late.
Without any further hesitation, she swooped down into the hole and flew in. Expertly, she dodged the jagged rocks and small formations that were scattered around the little tunnel, going deeper into the earth. She flew as fast as she could toward the light source before finally, she was hit. Not only with intense light, nearly equivalent to her master’s own sun... but an extremely cold breeze. The cave she was, surrounded by blue glowing crystals, decorating the cave with a magnificent aurora. Philomena had been to the caves enough however, to know these crystals were just as dangerous as they were pretty; floe crystals. These magnificent glowing stalagmites were often found in abundance in the colder regions of Equestria, causing the weather patterns of cold and snow to be out of anyweather pony’s control... ultimately resulting in permanent winters in Equestria. Anywhere else, such rocks were extremely rare... except for this one cave, in which Philomena was to visit every night...
Though the intense cold would be painful to any creature, it was much more intense for the phoenix. Birds like her weren’t built for such arctic conditions, especially at such close range to rocks like the floe crystals. Perusal, she would only have 30 minutes... maybe an hour tops before her body would be unable to handle the intense, below zero temperatures.
As Philomena flew deeper into the icey cold cave, she contemplated how she’d gotten into doing such an errand... though it’d been all too long  since she’d first begun all of this, she did manage to remember what it was she was doing. A challenge of sorts... one of life and death. If she was correct, by the time she reached her destination there would be a caged bird, only she could free... by winning the challenge, sponsored by Zognet.
Zonget was another rare female ice bird from the east side of Equestria... or at least that’s what she claimed. Along with her little pod of other miscellaneous arctic birds had migrated to Everfree and taken homage in the cage many moons ago... but not without bringing a little bit of “home” with them. Back on the east side, it was said that every bird was a skilled flier. Any one who didn’t comply to the standard was to be... killed, or left out to die slowly by some other means. They’d been doing this very same thing to the birds around here. Most of the said birds could fly without problem, almost equivalent to somepony like that rainbow pegusis she’d seen with her master’s student... though there were still those birds who failed the trials that Zonget had prepared. If they weren’t killed by the trials themselves, by the sheer touch of the floe crystals, they’d be trapped here, and left to die of either starvation or hypothermia... at least until another bird took the place of her, finishing the obstacle course in the place of the failed bird. It wouldn’t get them totally off the hook, but it would give them the chance to see another night before they would be dragged away to do the same thing over and over again. 
Philomena was that bird who gave the second chances... at least one of the few who bothered to try and show up every night. She wasn’t about sleep with the death of a fellow fowl on her conscience.
Finally, she found what she was looking for. In the cave there was a small clearing, not occupied by the floe crystals. At the center, hanging from a floe stalagmite, was a rope, and inside of it was a little bird... a snow owl she figured. Standing around the hanging cage were a few cold, shivering birds that had joined Zonget’s flying gang. Though, the odd thing was... Zonget wasn’t there.
Philomena landed in front of the circle of other birds, who glared at her arrival. They weren’t fans of the phoenix who managed to free every bird they managed to weed out for their inability to fly correctly. A sadistic bunch they were, enjoying a bird fail at what they might have been best at, and die from said failure. They almost regretted ever testing such a skilled and brave flier in the first place...
The phoenix was not afraid to confidently glare back at the birds. Despite the fact she was still outnumbered, her eyes kept stern. She clawed something along the lines of “Where is Zonget?” loudly and commandingly. It was enough to remind the birds how the phoenix possessed as much power as she did skill.
As though on cue, something large swooped down behind Philomena, causing her to whirl around. When she saw nothing there, she turned back around to find a new bird, nearly twice her size, standing infront of her. It’s sky blue feathers, snow white claws, stern orange eyes, and yellow key around his neck... was enough to tell the phoenix that this was, in fact, Zonget. A brief wave of fear rushed through the phoenix at the only bird keeping her from stopping this horrible operation. She kept strong though, knowing the moment she showed weakness, was the moment she was bound to fail in saving the poor little bird in the wooden cage.
After staring each other down, Zonget raised his left wing, as instruction for the other birds to do something. This was odd to the phoenix, as this was the first time he’d done something like this. Weren’t they going to watch her like they always did? Cawing and chirping for her to fail at one turn or another of the obstacle course? This new step was slightly jarring to the phoenix. It had always been that she arrived, attempted to comfort the bird who had been unfortunate to be captured and caged, and went off to complete the course. The next step should have been Zonget giving the O.K to meet with the prisoner. sure it was a snow owl, and likely used to such conditions, but she could imagine the thing was scared out of it’s mind.
After de-elevating his left wing, he pointed his right wing to the bird in the cage. It was time to confront the poor little snow-
This wasn’t a snow owl, Philomena realized under closer examination. No... this was that bird that her master’s pupil had! Owlowicious! Frost was now covering his wings, and some of which had turned black from the intense cold of the cave. She wasn’t shivering like the rest of the birds had... she almost seemed dead, if it weren’t for the steady breaths coming from his chest... 
No doubt about it, The phoenix resisted the urge to let her beak drop at this realization. It didn’t make sense though. She had never personally known every single one of the Element’s pets, or their masters... but she’d met Owlowicious long enough to know he was an excellent flier. His skill was equivalent to the rainbow maned mare... maybe even better. What in the hay was he doing here?
Philomena lightly chattered to Owlowicious, in an attempt to calm him, letting him know she’d get him back to his master. Owlowicious tried to say something, and tried to move his wings. His beak was too cold to move coherently, and his wings seemed frozen to their sides. Philomena raised a wing, stopping him, trying to keep him calm... though he wouldn’t have it. For a moment, she could have sworn his eyes were warning her of something-
Zonget cawed forcefully over to Philomena, causing her, and even Owlowicious to jump. With one last nod of reassurance, Philomena flew over to Zonget, who was standing at the edge of the rocky face, staring deeper into the cave. Once Philomena was next to him, he glanced over at her. He looked at her, checking to see if she remembered the rules. She nodded with understanding. It was simple. All she had to do was get through each of the frozen rings and gates, while dodging the stalagmites that were surrounding them... all within an allotted time of 4 minutes. She would be to get to the end of the course and back, taking the same order of rings and gates, forwards and backwards. If she were to lose, being unable to complete the course in time, she’d be forced to join Owlowicious in the cage... where her and him would surely die within the hour.
WIth that, Zonget gave one stomp with his claw.
3...
Philomena got into a ready flying position at the edge of the rock face of the cave. Zonget stomped his claw again.
2...
The phoenix spread her wings as far as she could. One last stomp.
1...
She squinted into the glowing blue cave, spotting as many of the floe diamond created rings and gates she could find. She planned out her path before-
CAW!
Zonget screeched as Philomena launched herself off of the rock face and onto the obstacle course. Perusal, the phoenix counted about 9 checkpoints. 6 stalagmite gates, and 3 rings, marked by feathers plucked by Zonget himself. Philomena was given somewhat of an advantage with her phoenix vision, as she was able to spot them as they were camouflaged by the floe crystals around them... this advantage also allowed her to pass through the obstacle course so much more quickly and efficiently than any other birds. In a way, the obstacle course wasn’t a test of flying speed and agility... but how well one could perceive the gates.
Philomena swooped up over to the first wing. As she went through, in order to keep from touching the crystals, she tucked her wings in as she dove through the ring. In mid air, she extended her wings again, and swooped down to the cave floor for to the next gate. Expertly, she flew past the stalagmites and through two of the gates that were on the floor. By now, only 10 seconds had passed. If she kept this up, she’d have Owlowicious out of his cage and the cave with time to spare.
Once she flew past the next 4th checkpoint, Philomena flew out of the field of floe stalagmites and over to the rightmost part of the cave where the 2nd ring and 5th checkpoint was. As she tucked and flew through it, she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It was long, sharp and glowed blue like the rest of the cave. Rather than re-extending her wings as she fell through the ring, she stayed tucked in, letting gravity take her out of the path of the thing. As she heard it collided with the cave wall with a DINK, Philomena’s eyes quickly followed the path the spear like crystal came from... to find, stuck in a little hollowed out part of the cave, a few of Zonget’s gang, manning some kind of crude, crossbow-like device mounted on some kind of wooden pivot system. The device seemed like it had been painstakingly crafted by the birds themselves over a long period of time... and it was now reloaded and being aimed right at her! This wasn’t some flying test anymore, they were trying to kill her! That explained why no bird was watching for her to fail... they were trying to MAKE her fail! It was a trap!
The phoenix dodged again as she went to the next gate checkpoint. From the wall, opposite the first crossbow, and a little deeper in the cave, there was a second crossbow waiting for her. They were both trained onto her body, as they fired again. Philomena dodged the next two floe spears as she passed through the next two gates along the cave floor.
As Philomena flew as fast as she could, maneuvering in order to keep from getting hit by the spears, she contemplated why this was happening. She knew that the birds didn’t like her, and weren’t concerned with the death of another bird... but somehow, she didn’t see any of them as the murderous types... even if they didn’t like her for saving the birds. And even more, it looked as though they’d planned this for a long time. It wasn’t like a bunch of beaked and clawed birds could make a crossbow overnight. They must have been planning this ambush from the first bird she saved only a month or two ago.
As Philomena flew through the 8th checkpoint and final gate, she thought about circling back now and attempting to give Zonget a piece of her mind... but fear kept her from doing so. The phoenix already had all of the other birds trying to kill her... why add the only one who she believed could rip her to shreds? She was almost at the final ring, where she’d have to circle back anyway, right?
Philomena swooped up into the ring, and looped through it twice, finishing the first half of the  of the obstacle course. For a few moments, she hovered in the air, quickly scanning the area for the crossbow locations. Unfortunately, from her vantage point, she couldn’t tell where the weapons were, or the flight path she had to take to efficiantly keep out of their line of sight... the phoenix figured whe would have to wing it, and hope she could dodge in the same way she did on her way...
After one final mind check, remembering the order of gates she took, she sped back the way she came. By now, she had about 3 minutes to return to the rock face where... he was waiting for her.
The thought dawned on her as she passed through the next three gates, and was once again bombarded by more floe spears. Zonget was likely the one who planned all of this. He was the one who wanted her dead... and badly at that. What would happen if she did make it back to the rocky face, and the cage? How would this all play out? Would she be allowed to just fly away with her friend?... or was she going to have to fight for her freedom, let alone Owlowicious’s. She was actually legitimately starting to fear for her life, considering Zonget’s size... and likely the speed and strength accompanied with it.
Philomena flew up to the next ring, only barely dodging another barrage of floe spears. Rather than hitting her, the spears hit the small thin stalagmite the ring was hanging by. The support broke and caused the ring to fall to the cave floor with a crash, as it broke into little tiny pieces. The broken floes seemed to emit some kind of gas that made the cave’s temperature drop a few more degrees... making it even colder. The phoenix shivered at the new level of chill, but remained determined to stay focused on reaching the other checkpoints... as she continued to try and come up with a plan for confronting Zonget.
Dodging more spears and maneuvering through the next gates, something dawned on Philomena... why hadn’t she been attacked yet? Zonget seemed stronger... faster... but why hadn’t he tried to off her with his own two claws? Or try impaling her with his beak? Or cut her off himself while she was flying? Why... what if he couldn’t in the first place? This trap wouldn’t make sense, and be entirely unnecessary with his skill. It only made sense... now that the phoenix thought about it, Zonget never tried to hurt her, or damage her in any way over the months she’d been doing this rescue errand. She knew he hated her down to her feathers but... what if under all of those tough looking wings, he was just a big old kitty cat?
As Philomena came to this thought, she stopped paying attention for a split second. As she flew through the final wing, she forgot to wait to get through the ring before re-extending her wings from their tucked in position. In result, Philomena’s wings grazed the floe ring, causing her to screech out in pain and lose focus. The other birds saw this as their opportunity and fired the last of their spears at the falling Philomina. The phoenix escaped the first one thanks to the power of gravity... though the second one managed to pierce the end of her wing. With one last screach, Philomena fell to the cave floor...
…
…
…...
…
Luckily, however, Philomena managed to avoid any of the sharp stalagmites and fall onto a flat patch of floe crystals... as though it were any better. The numbness and coldness of the surface was nothing like the phoenix had felt before. She couldn’t move, and she could barely sound... she may have avoided a fatal blow from the spear, but she was definitely going to die from the surface that had saved her from impalement... this was it.
Then something came into the phoenix’s mind. Her master’s face. Her raising the sun in a few hours... and her finding the note. She remembered how worried she’d been from getting taken away by the yellow mare. At least she was found then... but what would happen if she didn’t get found. Celestia would be undoubtedly heartbroken. Philomena hadn’t seen her master cry before... but as the thought of her tears in her head...
Philomena forced herself to get back onto her claws. She must have wasted at least a minute or more lying on the crystal patch. Shivering badly, and in intense pain, she re-extended her wings and flew up to the stone surface Zonget was waiting on. She’d finished with barely 5 seconds left on her clock. Zonget glared at her, as though he were ready to do something to her. Philomena remembered her hypothesis about Zonget’s true nature...
He’s all squawk... but no scratch...
As Zonget opened his beak to sound something, but Philomena let out a loud caw before he could. It was angry, commanding and brave. Angry because of what he’d tried to do to the phoenix, commanding to let her friend go, and brave, knowing that he wouldn’t try to hurt her. After all of this time, Zonget was somewhat surprised, sickened not only at his plan’s failure, but now the female phoenix was giving him orders... but he didn’t do anything in retaliation. Instead, he turned around and went to release Owlowicious from his cage.
After fluffing her wings in victory, Philomena picked up the frozen owl with her claws as gently as she knew how. With one last look at the large arctic bird, she flew out of the cave with her friend.
While Zonget squinted at the phoenix as she flew for the exit of the cave, the other birds began flying over to their gang master... though one of them made a mistake, and caused one of the heavy crossbows to fall down onto the cave floor the vibration caused the entire cave to shake... some stalagmites began falling... one of which, unexpectingly on top of Zonget himself.
…
Once out of the cave, Philomena lied down the shivering Owlowicious on the dirt. The warmth of the night air... though not as comforting as the sun, was pleasant to the phoenix. She could feel herself healing her wing from the heat. At that rate, it would be healed before her master had time to notice.
Out of curiosity, Philomena checked Owlowicious for injuries... and checked under his wing. It seemed as though it had been scratched several times, causing them to be unworthy for flight. The wounds weren’t severe but... no one would be able to fly in that condition. In other words... Owlowicious wasn’t tested. He was forced to act as her bait for that night!
As a new wave of anger rolled over Philomena, she heard something back in the floe crystal cave. It was a tremor... was some kind of cave in happening in there? Against her better judgement, she left Owlowicious on the dirt to continue to try and warm himself as she flew back into the cave.
Her wing hurt as she flew, but her curiosity kept her pushing forward. Finally, she made it back to the cave area... and watched as the other birds tried to pull a large block of floe off of Zonget... now he was the one trapped. After what the bird had put her through, she thought about simply leaving him here to be trapped in the cave. Her paining wing seconded the decision. Her heart however, couldn’t fathom leaving the bird alone...
Philomena flew down to the surface and began assisting the birds with pushing the floe off of Zonget with her head. The pain was unbearable, and she pushed the rock off of her. Every fiber of her being told her to give up now and leave while she could. She didn’t know if it was the pain of the chill or the hatred for Zonget that induced these thoughts... but she resisted every urge to fly out of the cave at that moment.
After much effort, and the combined strength of all the birds, Philomena pushed the rock off of Zonget... he got onto his tallons... but immediately screached in pain, as there were broken bones in his lower body and in some of his wings. He couldn’t fly without help...
With pleading eyes, Zonget gurbled pitifully for Philomena to help him escape the cave, realizing that the others wouldn’t be able to take his heavy self out of there alone. Philomena let out a sigh, and grabbed him with her claws, along with the rest of the birds. They then began to all flap their wings fiercely to get out of the cave. Barely, they managed to escape before the cave’s crystals all fell from the ceilings, and closed off the cave. There was no way for any bird to enter or exit the cave anymore...
Breathlessly, every bird lied on the dirt of the forrest, tired from the night’s activities... though Philomena didn’t stay down for long. She got up and gave one victorious caw to the other birds, especially Zonget, before grabbing up Owlowicious and flying off into the moonlight.
As she headed for the library to drop off Owlowicious, and from which she would return to the comfort of her cage, she realized something... the cave was destroyed. Zonget didn’t have his little hideout anymore. He couldn’t use it to test birds and their “flying” ability. She no longer had to do it anymore. She was free from...

The Nightly Errand