//------------------------------//
// Lutte Antiparasitaire 
// Story: Quete 
// by Comrade Bagel Muffin 
//------------------------------//

"I'm not staying around to be turned into baby food. And I'm not going to just let these things hatch." Escutcheon looked around for something to use to destroy the eggs. His eyes finally finding a large femur. "That will have to work." The large bone was enveloped in his magic. He swung it with all his strength, and smashed a series of eggs. He wasn't about to let these things hatch. The less there were the less likely any would survive his plans for the night. He wasn't let any of these things get away to attack the colony.
The giant bird seemed happy to join in his mission to engage in pest control. It pecked the eggs the shells offered no resistance against the bird's beak. It scooped up the unborn shrimps and swallowed them down. Escutcheon didn't know how he felt himself wondering what the creatures tasted like. He shook his head as he smashed though another pile of eggs. He knew that eventually the creatures would return. He wanted to make sure that all the eggs were destroyed before their return. He hurried smashing each egg sack. It took the two of them only a few minutes to completely destroy all of the eggs in the chamber. He looked over the room many of the creatures were probably only a few weeks from hatching.
"Well that's that." He lowered the femur keeping it firmly in his magic. He trotted over to his things, which lay all over the ground. He caught his reflection in one of the bottles. He could only imagine how appalled his mother would have been at how he looked with egg goop splattered on him. He didn't even want to know what his mother's friend Fluttershy would have thought of him. He wiped the slime off of his face. "It doesn't matter this isn't home, and this had to be done." He looked down at his saddle bag. It was completely destroyed. There was no way of him fixing it even if he had the time and thread. He looked around. His eyes coming to rest on a brown leather bag, most likely belonging to one of the ponies from the town above, so long ago. He levitated it over to him and filled it with the sum of his worldly belongings. "It'll work." He finished the last thing to go into the bag was his combing stick.
He and the bird headed down the cavernous hall the giant shrimps had brought them down. The femur bone floated beside him. The magical light from his horn lit a meter radius around him. He focused on the darkness at the end of the hall. Every shadow could be one of those things. His ears perked at every sound. He had no intention of being ambushed by those things.
The large bird let out a soft hum causing Escutcheon to jump. The bird let out another and got beside him. Its head lowered down to his shoulder.
"Yeah, I feel a little bit antsy too." He petted its head. He was starting to get a little paranoid. The tunnels were to empty. Something needed to happen, it couldn't be this easy, could it? Just as he thought it the tunnel diverged into three separate directions. "Well, when in doubt go right. At least then you'll be right." He smiled at the bad joke. After his first couple of steps though his feathered companion butted him in the side, nudging him to the left. "Hey what gives?" It butted him with its head, again nudging him to the left. "Is there something wrong with that tunnel?" As if to answer him, the bird let out a soft whine, and nudged him again to the left. He looked down the tunnel, it seemed to get darker and more ominous as the seconds became minutes. "Well if that's the tunnel I should stay away from then that means that, that's the tunnel I need to go down. I'm not letting any of those things threaten the colony." He continued for the far right tunnel, the large bird continued its protest. "I know you don't want to go down this one. You don't have to just go back up its fine I'll do this alone." The bird answered him with a soft whine and ceased its protest, but continued to follow him down the far right tunnel.
"Your somepony's pet or animal aren't you?" he asked trying to calm his nerves. "You're to well trained to not be." The bird just looked at him. A sound drew both of their attention to the end of the tunnel. A smaller version of the shrimps came charging at them. Escutcheon swung the femur bone at it as hard as he could it collided with a bang the creatures carapace dented from the force. Escutcheon's horn lit up brighter as a bolt of energy zapped it shooting though it. No sooner had it hit the ground with a thud than another three came charging down the hall way. Escutcheon fired a bolt at one of them. It screeched as the magical bolt made contact, not strong enough to kill it out right. The other two ran into each other, the bright light from the magic temporarily blinding them. He lifted the femur bone with his magic and started bashing one of them, while the bird began attacking the other two. In a minute they had finished their pest control of the four giant creatures that had charged them. "Four down. Celestia only knows how many left." He tossed the femur bone down. It was to badly damaged to be useful to him anymore. "At least their vulnerable to light." He smiled. "And I've got a near endless supply of that. We might actually survive this."