The overlook above Ponyville is a popular place for those that want time to themselves to think while not distancing themselves too much if needed. Not many did go there though due to the long winding path to get up there for those that didn’t have wings; and those that did have them could easily find a cloud for personal use. This made it the perfect place for a certain orange unicorn to practice her magic without any casual interruption but still left her available for emergencies.
Aegis Flare took another deep breath as she started to channel her magic to form a bubble of energy around herself. She made sure to encompass her entire form so that no part of her was unprotected from any direction. “It’s been a while since I’ve practiced doing anything different with my magic, but after what happened during the Summer Sun Celebration…”
She trails off as she closes her eyes and thinks back to the final battle with Nightmare Moon and how she completely shattered her shield with a single spell. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever truly needed to stop anything that strong before, but I need to figure something out in case it ever happens again. I hope I don’t need to stop something like that again, but it can’t hurt to be prepared.”
She spent some time trying out different things with her shield, from firming it up more to softening, in an effort to figure out the best way to improve things. She was so lost in her practice that she failed to notice two ponies sneaking up on her position. Rainbow Dash snickered as she pointed towards one side, directing Pinkie Pie to sneak up that side as she crept up the other.
As they both came up on either side of the unicorn they quietly snickered as they each reached out to a side of the bubble and tilted it backwards. Aegis Flare was oblivious to all this at first as the shield rotated under her, but as it started picking up speed she was jolted out of her thoughts as she felt herself tilting backwards. Unfortunately it was too late to stop her momentum as she started rolling down the path backwards and steadily picked up speed.
Soon enough she lost her footing and began to spin around the inside of the shield as it tumbled out of control. She began yelling in shock as she careened downwards while she watched the sky and earth rapidly switch places in her vision. Eventually she reached the bottom of the path where she collided with a tree, stopping her forward momentum, though she still spun around the inside of the shield a few more times.
As she came to a stop, she finally lost control of her magic which dispelled the shield around her leaving her feeling sick and dizzy from her trip. She soon heard laughter from a pair of figures as they approached her, but with the world spinning around her she couldn’t identify them. As the two got close enough to stand over her she got a bit of revenge on them by emptying the contents of her stomach on the hooves of one of them. “Ewww, I think we might have gone a tad overboard Rainbow Dash.”
The cyan pegasus looks over at her pink partner with a glare as she tries to scrape the vomit off of her hooves. “Yes Pinkie, I noticed.” After she finishes cleaning off her hooves the best she can she focuses her attention on the fallen unicorn. “Are you all right there, Flare?”
The orange unicorn slowly climbs to her hooves and wobbles around for a moment before she gets her balance back. She has to raise a hoof up to cover her mouth as her stomach attempts to rebel again but manages to hold it in. When she turns to look at the two pranksters the back off as they see the look of anger in her eyes before it vanishes behind her usual calm demeanor. “I’m fine; just please don’t do that again or else I might have to rethink my stance of not bringing things out of the Everfree for the purpose of revenge pranks. I believe you two remember what happened when I found that skunkgrass.”
The two wince as they remember the week that Aegis Flare couldn’t use her magic without it giving off a terrible stench. While the grass sounded really tasty they didn’t want to have to deal with the aftereffects of eating it. “Um yeah, how about we go and see what Twilight is up to Pinkie. See you later Flare.”
The unicorn watched as the two ran off towards their next pranking target until she eventually sighed and started her climb back up the trail again. She spent the rest of the day practicing even though her efforts were a bit hampered by her emotions.
The next morning Aegis Flare made her way towards the Everfree as the sun started peeking over the horizon. She only had one thing she was planning to retrieve today, but it was such a hassle that it would probably take most of the day. She waved to Fluttershy as she passed her home and began stretching out at the entrance to the forest. “I hope I can find that place again quickly, I really hate having to go too deep into this place with how messed up things can get.”
As she finished her stretches she took off at a light trot along the path towards her acquaintance’s home while taking care to skirt the poison joke on the path. As she passed her hut she couldn’t tell if she was in or not, but her destination wasn’t there but somewhere past it. After that point things weren’t quite as safe as the previous sections so she paid closer attention to her surroundings while not reducing her pace.
After about an hour she paused as she came into a clearing as a spike of fear shot through her spine. After passing stranglevines, arrowthorn bushes, and even a swarm of exploding frogs she looked around to try and find the source of this feeling. She soon found the source as glowing green and yellow eyes started fading in from the darkness around her revealing a pack of timberwolves.
She started to cringe away in fear before she clamped down on that emotion and a manic grin appeared on her face as the wooden creatures surrounded her. “Is it that time again? I would have thought you would have given up after the last beating I gave you. Well if you want to go through that all over again…” She trailed off as they started growling at her and a beat started running through her head before she started singing to a beat that only she could hear.
The timberwolves circled around her slowly as she got going with her song, none of them wanting to be the first to charge in. A few lines into the song the leader let out a bark and one of the wolves to the mare’s right charged in just to be met with a globe of energy across the face as Aegis Flare lit up her horn and swung her head to the side.
As the timberwolf was sent flying into a couple of its companions, the rest took this as a signal and they started charging in as well just to be struck by the same attack as two more spheres appeared and began to float around the unicorn as she danced to the beat of her song. After knocking the first wave away the mare noticed an opening that she quickly dashed through starting a chase through the forest.
Even on the move she kept up her song as she dove through a tangle of roots to put some distance between her and her followers. They still attempted to follow her but half of them fell further behind as one got trapped as it tried to squeeze its too large body through the gap. As the unicorn reached another clearing she flipped around and launched a small barrage of flames at the timberwolves, forcing them to scatter.
As they tried to enter the clearing from other directions, they ran afoul of the other plant-life as the arrowthorn bushes around the clearing started bombarding them with their toxic spines as they were disturbed. While it wasn’t enough to stop them, the timberwolves did let out yelps of pain as their forms were peppered under the assault.
While they were distracted by the attack the mare faced down the first wolf to enter the clearing and slammed another spherical barrier down atop its head. As it tried to recover she planted her front hooves down before spinning around on her good leg until she was facing away from the timberwolf before releasing a powerful buck to its chin, sending it flipping over onto its back.
Aegis Flare waited for the timberwolves to gather around her once again as her song started in on the final verses. Pointing her horn upwards she fired three pulses of flame straight up before grinning at the timberwolves and lighting her horn one last time as they all leaped at her.
vvvvvvv
Rainbow Dash was talking with her friend Gilda when she noticed the gryphon looking over her shoulder at something. Looking in that direction she noticed three flashes of light rising in the distance before they shattered apart and the resulting pieces plummeted back into the forest. “What in Equestria was that Dash?”
The cyan pegasus watched as the light hit the forest and passed out of sight before she turned back shaking her head. “It happens every couple months but nopony really knows what it is. It’s always some form of fire though but nopony is crazy enough to go out there.” She pauses for a moment before amending her comment. “Well, nopony except for a unicorn friend of mine, Aegis Flare, but with her magic she…”
Her eyes shrink for a moment in shock as she realizes something and brings a hoof up into her face. “And that would probably be her out there as she uses fire magic and is often out there alone for her job.” She looks back over the forest again before she continues. “Looks like I need to have a word with her when she returns.”
Gilda lets out a whistle as she looks back out over the Everfree Forest before whispering to herself. “A pony that can survive out in that place alone? And here I thought that there weren’t any other ponies that could be as cool as Rainbow.”
^^^^^^^
Aegis Flare’s voice trails off from her song as she surveys the area around her as a couple small fires slowly burn out as they use up the available fuel. Getting her bearings again she walked out of the clearing but not before pausing by a wooden wolf head and patting it with her hoof. “Don’t worry; maybe you’ll do better next time.” She walks off as the head tries to snap at her while the eyes watch her with fury.
Once she had gotten a good distance away from the clearing she looked back to make sure that the timberwolves were out of sight before taking a deep breath and letting it out again. As she did this her knees fell out from under her as she collapsed to the ground as the terror she was feeling came rushing back again. “Dear Celestia, why do those things keep coming after me? They haven’t even come close ever since that first time but still they keep on trying.”
After a few minutes of shaking in fear she managed to calm herself once again and continue on her way through the Everfree. Nothing else blocked her way from that point on as she trotted through the place in search of her goal. Eventually she came upon an area where the temperature dropped significantly; far enough that snow was falling in the area. About ten minutes into this area she found what she was looking for.
“I wonder how much longer this lake is going to be here. The worst thing about the Everfree is that I can never tell how long an area will stay the same as well as what will even be there from day to day.” There in front of her was a wide expanse of water that was large enough that the other side wasn’t visible. It had only been there the past few months that she had checked and the time before that it was a solid wall of trees.
After observing the area for a while to be sure that the area was clear she walked to the edge of the lake and started getting to work.
vvvvvvv
“Stupid lame ponies and their stupid lame pranks.” The gryphon known as Gilda flew away from Sugarcube Corner in a rage over what had happened recently. She tried to ignore the town, but a flash of reflected light drew her attention back to the ground again. She blinked a couple times at what she saw, and had to land on a nearby cloud to get a better look to confirm it.
Below her she saw an orange unicorn walking along but that isn’t what caught her eye. What drew her attention was the giant fresh halibut draped across her back even though there shouldn’t have been any locations nearby to fish it out of. Gilda watched with her jaw wide open and she considered flying down, but the music from the bakery made her decide otherwise. “Forget it, I’m out of here.”