13
“Well everything is clear out here as far as I can tell now, so unless something decides to come directly through the forest towards town then Twilight doesn’t have anything to fear. I still don’t get why she is panicking so much though since Spike said this is only going to be a casual visit from the princess.” Aegis Flare dusted a bit of ash off of herself as she surveyed the remains of a pack of timberwolves that she had finished clearing out. Seeing that the Everfree should be clear for the rest of the day she made her way back towards town but was brought up short as a large ball of fluffy creatures went rolling by causing her to raise an eyebrow.
“Now what in the world was all that about? I don’t think I’ve seen those things before but I can’t help but think that I remember hearing about a small fluffy creature with wings before. Also did those just roll in from town?” Looking back the way that the ball had rolled, she slowly walked along back towards Ponyville. She wasn’t sure why, but the sight of the creatures unnerved her for some reason though she couldn’t say why.
She left the shadows of the Everfree at her usual point near Fluttershy’s house and she basked in the light of the sun. She paused when she noticed how silent things were and she looked around to see what was going on. In the distance she saw most of her friends running off towards town while Pinkie was making odd motions at them.
Quirking an eyebrow at her antics she made her way over towards the pink pony to see check on her. As she set a hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder her friend’s head jerked around to look at her in surprise. Seeing who it was Pinkie looked a bit relieved and was about to say something until she changed her mind and instead settled on something else. “Sorry, can’t talk now Flarie. Have to find more instruments for the parasprites, bye bye!”
With that she took off towards town leaving the orange unicorn behind to process what she said. When it finally registered her eyes shrunk to pinpricks as she realized what she had already seen. “No. Not parasprites.”
vvvvvvv
Bella Donna smiled at her daughter as she finished another exercise with her magic as she managed to thread a needle using only her shield spells. She had been working on this for a couple weeks now and was starting to get frustrated until now where she was bouncing around in glee. “That’s very good now, Flare. If you can do that then you can do just about anything another unicorn does with levitation. Since you finished that we can move along to improving your mouthwriting skills.”
The filly stopped with her bouncing around as she turned to pout up at the older unicorn. “But moooom! If I can do anything that can be done like a normal unicorn then why do I still have to write with my mouth?”
The older mare looked down at her adoptive daughter as she considered how best to tell her. She decided to tell her about one of the more memorable events she knew of to impress on her the reason why she shouldn’t rely only on her magic. “There once was a town on the borders of Equestria that had a major pest problem that it wasn’t prepared for.”
The filly looked up at her mother in confusion before settling down to listen to her story even though she had no idea what it had to do with what she had asked. “That day the town was filled with small fuzzy creatures that we later on learned were called parasprites. It started with only one and the pony that found it thought it was so cute and would make a decent pet. It all started when she first fed the creature and it started to multiply out of control. It only took a single day before they were out of control and were swarming the town for all the food that they had.”
She sighed as she remembered that day. “We sent in what was supposed to be one of our best unicorns in to deal with the problem but we didn’t know what we were dealing with. The first thing he did was try to stop the creatures from eating all the food with his magic. That was the last mistake he ever made.”
Hearing the tone of her voice change and turn down a darker road made the filly shrink back a bit and widen her eyes. “With the parasprites no longer after the food their appetites turned towards other sources to feed on. By the time we brought in others to help relieve the town there was nothing left except for the food. They ate everything in the town except for the food and a solitary survivor. There were so many things that could have been done to stop them, but because he relied so heavily on his magic that was the first thing he used which ended up dooming the town. Too many unicorns use their magic for everything and end up causing more problems than they started with. That’s why I’m teaching you ways to do things without magic since you can’t always rely on it.”
Aegis Flare didn’t get any sleep that night as every time she closed her eyes all she could see was the image of a mouth of sharp teeth with wings. From that point she did as little with her magic as she could and saved it only for important occasions or when she was in a rush.
^^^^^^^
The orange mare shook her head as she tried to refocus on the here and now instead of the past. “If those things are here now then we are in danger. I only know what my parents told me but maybe Twilight knows more about them and…” Her eyes shrunk to pinpricks once again as a shock of realization runs through her. “…and Twilight relies on her magic for nearly everything as well and knows hundreds of spells! Not good!”
She took off running as she realized this and hoped that she could find her friend before it was too late. It didn’t take long for her to find signs of the parasprites as she passed groups of the as she entered the town. Her eyes widened as she spotted Twilight and her horn starting to lighten up. Her eyes darted around until the settled on an untouched apple barely sticking out from under a bucket.
With no time to spare she snatched it up in her magic before pivoting around and taking aim with her back hoof. Hoping that her aim was true she lashed out with the hoof and sent the apple flying towards Twilight at high speeds. She let out a sigh of relief when the apple impaled itself perfectly on her horn and she let out a cry of pain as her spell fizzled out.
She sighed with relief before she rushed forward to help her friend up. “Oh thank Celestia I was able to stop you before you could make the biggest mistake of your life.” She looked at Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy to see them all staring at her in shock as Twilight rubbed her head.
Before any of them could say anything a familiar pink for came dashing up. “Look, tambourines! If you could all just...” Pinkie Pie noticed that none of her friends were paying attention to her and she let out a scream of frustration before taking off again.
By that time the purple unicorn had recovered and was glaring at Aegis Flare. “What was that for? I was trying to stop those creatures from eating all the food in town!”
Ignoring the glares from the others she leveled a sad look at Twilight. “And if you succeeded you would have caused another Mustang Prairie right in the middle of Equestria. These things are creatures soaked in chaos magic so your magic would have made things worse.”
Twilight looked confused at her words. “Mustang Prairie? What does a lost colony have to do with why you decided to impale a piece of fruit on my horn?” She points a hoof at the object that now had a parasprite slowly chewing away at it and licking the juice off as it dripped down.
“It wasn’t so much lost as it was devoured completely. A black guard member was sent to that town when these things infested it and tried to do exactly what you did. They ended up eating everything EXCEPT for the food, including all the ponies.” Twilight paled so badly at this that she looked almost like Princess Celestia and the others weren’t faring much better.
Aegis Flare swatted a few of the creatures out of the air with her magic while they recovered and when she did Twilight’s voice was trembling. “W-well how are we supposed to stop these things? If they aren’t stopped they’ll eat all the food in town and might just do what you said anyways.”
Glaring at one of the overly cute monstrosities the orange mare eventually sighed in defeat. “I have no idea. All I know is that little bit and that they react to touch and smell. The only reason they haven’t taken over everything is because many animals prey on them but I don’t think you want to replace them with a large number of manticores or a hydra.”
Twilight frowned before looking around in panic once more before she grabbed one of the creatures in her mouth and ran off towards the Everfree. The others took a moment to watch as she left before doing whatever they could to stop the parasprites from eating anything, all to varying levels of success. It wasn’t until Twilight returned and looked as if she was about to snap that help arrived in the form of Pinkie Pie.
After following her through town at the head of a parade of parasprites to the edge of the Everfree and meeting with the princess they all gave a sigh of relief as everything started getting back to normal. As they walked the short distance back to town Aegis Flare moved to walk by Pinkie Pie.
“You know if you told me about what you were doing I would have helped you. I had no idea there was a way to stop them but I did know what parasprites were and could do. Of course I’m curious about how you knew as well.” Pinkie looked over at her before looking down.
“I wanted to but after the others just ignored me even though I knew what to do I was just scared that you would do the same thing. I should have said something when I saw how scared you were when I mentioned the parasprites. My granny told me about how she survived an attack of them once by listening to a music record years ago. Since then she’s always kept that record near her and she told me why when I asked.” Aegis Flare just nodded at Pinkie and didn’t say anything about how odd she serious she sounded as the town had a really close call.
Of course a sudden gasp from the pink pony showed that her seriousness wasn’t to last. “I know what everypony needs now! A party is the perfect thing to cheer everypony up from almost being eaten alive and losing all that food!” With that she vanished somewhere into town to set up for the party that they were bound to run into eventually.
After she left Twilight sidled up to Aegis Flare to get her own comments in. “I don’t know how you do it. From Nightmare Moon, to the ursa minor, and now parasprites; you just never seem to be scared of anything. Of course I can’t tell what you’re thinking most of the time anyways.”
Aegis Flare sighs as she tries to remember if she told them about her sensitive hearing before or not as she catches that last bit. “Twilight, it’s not that I’m not scared, in fact I was terrified during all those times. I’ve just learned over the years to not show that I’m scared and to not let fear control my actions.”
Twilight paused for a moment and watched her friend walk ahead as she thought about this. Her friend always seemed aloof and approachable but she was starting to suspect that it was mostly an act and under her hard surface there was something else.
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for 2k words, this chapter felt short and empty
6309174 Yeah, I'm not fully happy with it myself. Some of the episodes it just won't be easy to add the OC that well when it deals with her general area. I mean I could have totally railroaded this chapter and had her solve everything but settled on only preventing the worst of things as well as adding a bit more to what the parasprites could have done. It's already going to be bad enough later on when Daring Do shows up.
Next chapter... Well I'm not fully sure yet where to go with that yet, though some reason my mind wants to put Suited For Success next followed by Fall Weather Friends and Winter Wrap up. I think it's mostly because I have some ideas going with that one and can lead some of it into the Running of the Leaves bit.
Something to think about with the canon Mane 6, are any of them honestly going to lack in the muscles department if you really think about it?
I think that the black guard parents thing works as an explanation for her knowledge. It is established that her parents were experts/watchers of the everfree forest so it makes sense for her to have knowledge relating to it.
6309439 maybe instead of struggling to integrate your OC into an episode such as this one, have her do something else? i highly doubt she is only friends with just the elements is she?
Hello sole survivor from the Mustang Prairie
I like how she forcing twilight to learn to use her head. For supposedly the best student in the school she acts awfully stupid sometimes.
She may be in the body of a prey, but she still has her predator reactions and instinct. You can take the soul from a human, but you can never take the human from the soul.
That's the difference between bravery and courage. Bravery is going into the situation without fear. Courage is being absolutely -and often rightly- terrified, but going anyway, because it's what has to be done.
As I know all too well.