Owlowiscious The Immortal Owl

by sunnypack


9 - Big Whoop

Chapter 9: Big Whoop

“Ahem.”

Griselda excused herself from talking to a couple of the followers. Now that I got a closer look at most of them, they were relatively young-looking, with Griselda being the oldest of the bunch. She wore a band around her arm that bore the same insignia of an eye upon a feather, but curiously there were three red stripes underneath. A ranking of some kind? Possibly proclaiming that she was a ‘Who’?

“Your most Excellent Princess Prophet Twilight,” she greeted with a bow. I couldn’t help but hide a sneaky grin behind a wing as Twilight’s cheeks flamed in response. Being uncomfortable with being a princess was nothing to the clear worship and adoration sparkling in their eyes. I considered letting it go on a bit longer, but that kind of fervour was tenacious and dangerous… Well, we can sort that out before anything came about, hopefully.

“You don’t have to call me that, Griselda,” Twilight replied. “I’m just Twilight.”

“To address you in any other way would seem… disrespectful, Princess Prophet,” Griselda said.

Next to her, another griffon bowed deeply to Twilight, then to me more deeply. “Indeed, Princess Prophet, we are pleased to be a part of the monumental event of fulfilling prophesy.”

Twilight was visibly annoyed at their insistence, but I could see that she was curious, despite herself. “What is this prophesy?”

Griselda and her followers all smiled and made a strange gesture where they flung their arms out as if taking flight, balancing on their hindlegs. They posed like that as Griselda lowered her arms and strode forward, locking eyes with Twilight. I felt drawn in to the proceeding, like a fly in a honey-trap, so seductive was her charismatic persona. Griselda recited the speech in a low, but clear, voice.

“Among the ancient texts passed down our sect we have determined a common strand weaving together the fabric of royalty, power and prosperity.” She inclined her head in my direction. “The Great Owl has been the harbinger of the Great Golden Ages of the past. The Dragon Domains, Ottermule Empire, the Griffondom, and now it seems… the ponies.”

The griffon paused for effect as the other followers gathered around in a disconcerting circle, humming in a discordant fashion, like a thousand voices crashing as waves all around us. Twilight and I instinctively huddled closer and watched as Griselda flung her wings out. The followers stopped humming, each crashing down with a muted thump that set our teeth on edge and widened our already saucer-like eyes.

Frighteningly impressive.

Twilight shared a worried look with me.

“The tellings past down from follower to follower, who to who, have spoken of an owl that would give rise to the next Age’s Prophet. A Prophet that will lead the people to another Great Golden Age.”

“Great Golden Age,” the followers mumbled in unison.

“What are they talking about?” Twilight hissed, not taking her eyes off Griselda.

I shook my head. “Hey! It’s not really my doing, I just like to stick around interesting creatures. Some of them just happened to become world-conquering leaders, that’s all.”

Twilight shook her head doggedly. “There must be more to it,” she spluttered.

I shrugged self-consciously. “I’m not the only one of my kind. Of the others, they like to keep a low profile. I’m one of the most easy-going ones. Still, I promise I didn’t have any direct bearing on the ‘Golden Age’ business. Coincidence!”

Griselda was eyeing us with interest. “So you truly speak to the Great Owl, then?”

Twilight nodded reluctantly. “He says it’s not really his doing. He just happened to be around some major events, that’s all.”

Griselda bowed her head as the others followed suit. “His humility humbles us.”

I nudged the alicorn. “Hey, we need to get them out of the forest. Just slip into the role, alright? It’s for their own good.”

“I’m not comfortable with this,” Twilight shot back. “How come they can’t hear you?”

I clacked my beak in frustration. “I don’t know!” Then I hopped from Twilight’s shoulder up to her head and looked down at her. “You’re the magical pony princess, don’t you have a neat theory for this?”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t know Owlowisicious…”

“What? This’ll minimise the hassle of getting them to listen. I doubt they’ll just up and leave because you say so. You have to convince them. Anyway, since you’re simply relaying my wishes to them, technically anything you say is what I’m saying, so I’m responsible. Don’t worry, I’m the one spinning the tales, not you. SO you’re not lying.”

Twilight didn’t seem to have a counter to that. Besides, it was true that this group needed to stay away from the forest, especially if they were ignorant of the dangers. At my final little push, and the responsibility of lives getting caught up, she seemed to accept it.

“Fine,” she muttered with a sigh. In a louder voice she addressed our avid listeners. “I have a message from my owl.”

Hmmph, no ‘Great Owl’?

Griselda and her followers looked up expectantly. “What is the message, oh Most Excellent Exultant Princess Prophet?”

Seems like Twilight was getting more titles by the second, I suppressed an amused giggle.

“Putting aside that I’m not a prophet, my owl and I expresses concern of you and your followers setting up encampment here. We would like you to move to a safer location. As Princess, I can guarantee certain diplomatic concessions for your followers and your faith, as long as you’re not harming anypony with what you do.”

Griselda glanced at me as I nodded sagely.

“The Great Owl wills this?”

I held out a wing in the direction of Ponyville.

“It seems it is so,” Griselda commented wryly. She bowed once more with the congregation, then straightened. “Very well, we had begun to make camp, but of course we are willing to move as the Great Owl wishes. The Followers at the border must be alerted.”

“Wait,” Twilight said quickly as Griselda moved off. She paused and turned around.

“Yes, Princess Prophet?”

“More Followers? How many are nearby?”

Griselda blinked. “Why, all of them, Princess Prophet.”

Twilight widened her eyes. “Hold on, you mentioned there were one hundred thousand followers… they’re all coming here?!”

Griselda didn’t seem like she could see the problem. “Yes, Princess Prophet. The Who’s have been travelling in search of the next land of the Great Owl for centuries now. We are eager to be a part of the New Age.” Griselda smiled heartily. “We are very glad the Princess Prophet have allowed us to stay within her lands in the interim. All hail the Who’s! All hail the Great Owl!”

At once, the camp followers paused in their tasks and repeated the mantra.

“S-Stop that!” Twilight said, her cheeks flaming in flustered indignation. She turned to Griselda. “B-But, you must lodge with Equestrian Immigration, we simply can’t take so many near a small town.”

“Never you mind, most Excellent Exultant Princess Prophet Twilight! We are self-sufficient, semi-nomadic with plenty of finances from the central treasury to fund our resettlement. You will find us most hospitable to your ponies, and your own Followers.”

“My Followers?”

“Yes,” Griselda replied reverently. “You are of course the most Excellent Princess Prophet, second only to the Great Owl himself. We will follow you to the ends of this land and the next!”

Twilight swallowed audibly. “I-I don’t think you have the right mare.”

Griselda raised a feathered brow. “What better leader is there but you, Princess? You are already a leader of your ponies, what are a few more?”

“A f-few more!” Twilight spluttered. “There’s a hundred thousand!”

“It’s better than making one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders a Prophet,” I added helpfully. By the way her eye was subtly twitching I knew Twilight was on the verge of panicking. Ah, maybe I shouldn’t feel so happy that I dumped about a hundred thousand lives into her saddlebags.

“Cheer up, Twilight,” I said jauntily. “At least we got them out of the forest before—”

Then we heard it, a chilling roar.

Twilight glared at me as I stuffed a couple of feathers into my big, fat mouth. I should have known by now that fate just really loves being tempted.

————————

“What was that?!” Griselda yelled, whipping around. “Find out what it is!”

“No!” Twilight yelled. “Stop!”

The camp followers moving to Griselda’s orders skidded to a stop, some even tripping in the whiplash. Griselda eyed Twilight and I expectantly.

“It’s too dangerous,” she growled. “Let me handle it.”

Griselda shook her head and signalled for the two camp followers to get going. “No,” she said in reply. “We must protect the Princess Prophet with our lives.”

Twilight’s eyes twitched. “Now wait just a sec—”

Griselda turned to another pair of griffons that had donned some armour and were saluting. “I want this creature contained before it can harm anywho in the camp.”

Twilight pursed her lips and tried again. “Griselda, we need to stop it, I am currently the most knowledgeable—"

Griselda continued to ignore Twilight and waved down a sentry that I recognised was Geneva instead. “Get eyes on the beast. We need to know what it is before we engage it.”

Twilight’s eyebrow twitched. “Griselda, can we—”

“Get together weapons, we need to go the battle!”

That did it.

“NOPONY IS GOING ANYWHERE!” Twilight yelled as she let loose a powerful spell.

Around us, ponies, griffons, minotaurs and even some dragons froze in place. A faint sheen of magic covered them, preventing anything but breathing and blinking. Most were wide-eye with the accomplishment of the spell cast. I spotted a couple of unicorns and even from this distance I could tell that they were deeply impressed, despite the fact that they could quite pull of the expression.

“Nice one,” I said to her, even though she was a little beyond hearing me.

“Now you’re all going to listen to me,” Twilight growled in an ominously low tone. She swept across the field, magically amplifying her voice at the same time. Sweat beaded across her brow with the strain of multi-spell casting and affecting so many participants at once.

I’m going to deal with the beast, do you understand me? I will deal with it alone.” She glared at everypony, well, anypony that she could meet eyes with, then released the spell. Ponies and griffons came crashing down as they lost the spell holding them together.

“But Princess Prophet—”

“I am giving you a direct order,” Twilight stated. “Not only as the sovereign power of this land, but as your Prophet, if your claim is as you mean. Or do you just let anypony hold the title as a figurehead?”

Griselda bowed deeply. “N-No, your most Excellent Exultant Extraordinary Princess Prophet Twilight! It will be as you command!”

Twilight waited to see if anypony else would dare to contradict her commands openly, then stalked off in the direction of the beast, as followers scrambled out of her way with wide eyes.

I looked back, seeing Griselda’s stricken look as she sat on her haunches and wrung her claws together. I took one look at Twilight’s seething gaze and shrunk back.

Woah.

——————

We were quite a ways away from the camp before I found the courage to speak.

“Twilight what was—”

“Sorry,” she interrupted me with a sigh. “Sorry. I was just frustrated with the whole thing. I’m mad at myself more than anything.”

“What?” I said in surprise. “Why?”

Twilight looked away, somehow I doubted that it was to scan the trees for a sign of the beast.

“Because I lost control of my temper,” she replied morosely. “Princess Celestia would never do that!”

I chuckled and rubbed my wing along her neck affectionately. “Oh Twilight, you can do better than that.”

Twilight frowned. “What?”

I rolled my eyes. “Stop trying to analyse what I’m saying and listen to the message behind it. You’re no Princess Celestia. You will never be as great as her.”

Twilight turned her eyes to the ground. “Oh.”

I slapped her on the neck with a wing. “Will you let me finish?” I said impatiently. “You’re never going to be as great as her, because you’re not her. Stop comparing yourself to other ponies. You’re different, that’s how you are.”

“But—”

“But nothing. Twilight, look at me.”

Twilight turned her head from the ground to stare into my eyes. Her own had the beginnings of a few tears that had gathered in the corners.

“Twilight, you are a Princess, and with that comes responsibility and the pressure to succeed. What differs between royalty is not their title, nor is it their history, experience, or upbringing. It is their legacy and their rule. To rule with grace is hard, to rule with compassion is harder. You may not be the best-looking princess out there—”

“Hey!”

“—But you are the one that cares the most. I mean it in the special Twilight kind of way. You are so grounded and among the ponies and creatures you’re with, it makes you different from the other Princesses. You are the Princess of Friendship, but you have to remember that you embody friendship, not being a princess.”

Twilight smiled at that. It was a small private smile that I returned wholeheartedly.

“Thank you,” she whispered as I nodded.

The forest echoed with the mad roar of a mysterious beast. We both started at the ear-splitting sound.

“Oh,” I said, “yeah there was that problem.”

Twilight eyed the bushes. “That sounded really close.”

“How close?” I murmured nervously, finally noticing two bright yellow eyes watching us from the same bushes.

“Right in front of us,” Twilight squeaked.

Oh.

I swallowed. “…that’s pretty close.”