To be a Breezie

by Obsi

Chapter 10- The Meaning of Hardship

Honeydew’s anguished scream tore through the night as the rat’s teeth sank into his leg. His other hoof flailed against the monster, but it was like a bear, hardly even noticing his resistance. I watched in horror as it’s paws grabbed Honeydew, clearly intending to chew off his leg right on the spot-

“HONEYDEW!” Kalypso wailed as she scurried away in panic. “Twilight, do something!”

WHAT CAN I DO? My brain screamed in panic as the rat chomped on Honeydew’s leg. It was easily five times my size!

Suddenly, Honeydew’s head shot up, defiantly glaring at the rat as his antennae glistened. The next moment, my eyes were assaulted by a blinding flash, before I heard something drop to the ground. Blinking rapidly, between dark spots in my vision I could just about make out Honeydew, a look of panic in his eyes as he dragged himself away, his right leg leaving a red smear behind him. His name on my lips, I was about to run over to help him.

Just then, the rat reared up, its high-pitched voice full of rage as it fixated its blurry, black eyes on Honeydew. He let out a wail of terror, his feelers fizzling out.

I stared in horror as I saw the monster readying itself to pounce. My heart raced almost as fast as my brain, torn between running to Honeydew or just running, what could I do? Transforming this close would kill him as sure as the rat! I had to-

I plunged my hoof into the recently extinguished fire, flinging all I could grab at the rat, just as it was about to jump. It screeched as a chunck of sweltering charcoal hit its snout, smoldering its coat as it burst into a myriad of short-lived embers. With a startled howl, it backed away, fixating me with widened eyes. “BUZZ OFF!” I shouted, fighting my grimace as I grabbed a stick, ramming it into the ashes so more embers would erupt in the air. “GET LOST!” My hoof was flaming in agony, but I couldn’t allow myself to look away from the rat, it was only its fear of fire that was keeping it away. “SCRAM!” beating the stick into the ashes again, I let out a torrential cloud of embers. The rat let out one last terrified squeak, before it whisked away into the darkness.

“Honeydew!” I gasped, flinging the stick aside as I rushed to him. He gasped, his leg pressed tightly against his body as he stared at me with unfocused eyes.

“Y-you scared it off…”

“Fire scared it off.” I explained, my heart rapidly beating in my throat as I stretched out the bloodsoaked limb. Two deep holes remained from the rats teeth, with continuous streams of blood pouring over his leg. “KALYPSO!” I screamed in panic as I pressed my hooves down on the wound. “WHAT CAN WE DO?”

She emerged at my side, hurriedly scrounging through our supplies. Meanwhile, I kept my eyes on Honeydew’s pained grimace. If he went into shock, I’d turn into an alicorn, and damn the consequences!

“H-here!” Kalypso gasped, holding up a silken bandage roll.

“Alright, now hold the wound, I’ll be right there.” I ordered.

“W-where are you going?” Kalypso’s shrill voice squeaked as I ran to the firepit.

A few seconds later, I was back at her side, holding a hoffull of colder ashes. “It’ll all be okay, just hold still.” I told the squirming Honeydew as I rinsed ashes into the wound. Ignoring Kalypso’s protests and his screams, I hastily scattered the rest on the bandages before wrapping it tightly around the wound.

“W-what was that?” Honeydew gasped inbetween strained breaths. “You put something-”

“Ashes. They sterilize your wound. That means it will stop it from getting infected.” I informed him as I worriedly watched the reddening bandages. The bleeding seemed to slow down a bit, but the hint of a slur in his voice was setting of alarms in my head. It may just be from the pain, but if it worsened… “How are you feeling? Lightheaded?”

“Only a little.” he gasped, then looked down at his leg. “Oh, this is not good…”

“If you’re feeling woozy, you have to warn me, I’ll… help.” Teleporting may not be an option without knowing where you were in relation to your target area, but if push came to shove, I could fly him back to his clan, assuming he could still tell the direction from the new perspective. Or, if things got real bad, I could try some healing magic… oh, Twilight, why did you have to pass up on that class in favor of magical mathematics?

“I’m fine…” He asserted with a grunt “We’ll need to take an extra break tomorrow-”

“Are you mad?” I interjected, thumping my hoof into his chest. “We’re not flying anywhere tomorrow, you’ll be resting!”

“We can’t just rest:” He shook his head, then groaned, pressing his healthy leg to his temple. “T-the clan needs us to come back with the sizzlegrass-”

“First, the clan needs you to come back at all.” I said sternly, placing a hoof on his chest to push him back down. “You won’t help anyone by killing yourself.”

“But the food!” he gasped, trying to reach for our supplies, but my hoof kept him pinned. “We don’t have enough to remain out here, we need to keep moving.”

Okay, that argument was harder to shove aside. “W-we’ll have to find more then.” I stuttered, giving Kalypso an uneasy glance. She only returned a helpless shrug.

Just then, a far-off rumble shook me to my bones. I whirled around, trying in vain to find a predator, before a second rumble drew my eyes to a black sky, stars hidden away by an army of dark clouds.

“Thunderstorm.” Kalypso whispered tensely.

I swallowed, a dozen alarm bells inside my head going off simultaneously. Stay away from trees. That was what my knowledge of thunderstorm safety amounted to. Great advice in the middle of a Celestia-damn forest!

“Need to find shelter.” Honeydew muttered, trying to rise to his hooves.

“You’re not going to find anything!” I hissed, keeping him down on the ground. But then, Kalypso appeared beside me, prying my hoof away before helping him up.

“He’ll have to move anyway.” She groaned as she helped stem his weight. “Come on, I think we flew over a mushroom field just before we landed.”

------

Rain splattered the ground mere moments after we hid away under a large mushroom cap. Honeydew leaned against its stem, slowly cutting open another thorn for the edible plantmatter inside. However, with just one limb, it was going to take him a while. Kalypso sat beside him, carefully keeping watch for anything that might emerge from the rain. Meanwhile, I was pacing about in the small protected area. It was like a nightmare come true. Stuck somewhere in the wild, with the one who be leading us injured, needing our help. My help! Food was running low, Honeydew really had taken just enough to get us to the Highbreeze-clan, and not a crumb more. We’d be out in two days, and rationing it out would only aggravate his condition. My frustrated sigh emerged from my mouth as a foggy cloud. Shivering in the cold air, I glanced back to my companions, who were already sharing their warmth with each other, but it would hardly be enough. Especially as the erupting drops sprayed us with tiny splatterings of water.

We needed fire, before it froze in our coats! We needed better shelter, so we’d be able to keep it burning. We needed food, so we wouldn’t face starvation in the next couple of days.

Finishing my pace around the mushroom, I gently shook Kalypso. “Watch him for a while.”

She blinked, and I was once more amazed by her eyes, yellow and red, both narrowing in confusion. “Y-you’re going?”

“You heard him. We need to find food. And shelter.”

“And you think you’re going to find it? Now?” She shook her head, feelers glowing lightly. “You don’t know the first thing about the forest, if you go, you’re not going to return!” Groaning, she heaved herself to her hooves, glowering at me. “I’m not letting you die so stupidly.”

“Trust me, Kalypso.” I whispered urgently. “You can see the future, what does your sense tell you about me?”

She looked just about ready to scream at me, but then her expression changed into confusion. “But… how?”

“Keep him safe.” I told her, before sprinting out into the rain, nearly half of our supplies in my grip.

Within the minute I was soaked, my wings hanging off my back as I shook my head to fling the water off. The occasional direct hit by the water made me wince, but it lacked the impact to do more than sting. But that wouldn’t be a problem for much longer. Looking back, I found that Kalypso and Honeydew were now entirely hidden by the rainstorm.

I took a long breath as I climbed over a root, finding myself only a few feet away from our extinguished campfire. I found a tiny spot that wasn’t really dry, but at least protected my from the falling rain as I unpacked our supply of berries, devouring them without much care or attention. I just needed fuel.

We needed more food. And, with a full belly, I would be able to get it. For the first time in weeks, I closed my eyes, reaching for a warm spark I’d hidden from this world. Within seconds, I could feel my legs getting hit by the rain as I grew too large for my cover, felt feathers pop out of my wings, quickly replacing the insectile membranes. Meanwhile, my horn sprouted from my forehead, from which shot a quick flurry of sparks before I wrestled back control over my magic.

With my horn flaring, I cast my first spell. Two arrows of silver energy shot from my horn, then curved around to sink into my eyes, forcing me to blink as the magic caused a stinging sensation. When my eyes opened again, the world was colored in deep blues, yet my hooves shone in a radiant yellow and orange. Turning in a full circle, I could see a glimmering spot back where Honeydew and Kalypso were resting… and suddenly, one zipping past my hooves. My horn flared, grabbing whatever it was in a field of telekinesis, just before it could vanish inside a hole in the ground. The rat let out a terrified squeal as it floated helplessly in mid air, dangling in front of my face.

“You’re out again.” I whispered with a glare at the offending animal which had nearly killed my friend. Kneeling down, I peeked into the hole, which must be its burrow. The entrance was nearly entirely hidden under a rock which also prevented it from flooding with water right now. It was no longer a surprise it attacked us… we had unwittingly set up camp right next to its home. If I had not tried lighting a fire today-

With a shake of my head, I forced myself back to reality, glaring at the rodent squirming in my magical grip. I remembered Carveshine’s words about rats, his tales of several clans banding together to hunt one of these vermin. If I brought one back, it would help out the clan immensely, heck, winter wouldn’t even be a problem anymore, we could even trade leftovers with the Highbreeze-clan instead of the honey. My magical grip tightened around the rat, which screamed in panic. Any breezie that did would be regarded as a hero.

But I wasn’t a breezie.

My horn flickered, loosening my grip around the rat without fully letting go. Swallowing, I sent magic tendrils into its burrow. “I hope that you’ve gathered enough to share.” I whispered as my magic pulled on something within the burrow, soon emerging with an assortment of nuts, seeds and dead insects. The animal squeaked pathetically, helplessly watching as I stole from its hoard. Was it really better to leave the rat alive, just to doom it to slow starvation? With all the warnings the breezies had about this winter, I was likely taking far too much for the rat to replace. Would it not be better, more helpful then to simply slay it, to feed a whole community which would benefit greatly from such a gift?

But I don’t think I could have. I was a pony, not a hunter. And… it was probably stupid, I knew Honeydew would call me that.

I didn’t know if I was being noble, or selfish. But I don’t think I could look Fluttershy in the eyes if I did. Have fun eating that millipede then. My snarky brain said drily.

Shut up. I eloquently hissed.

Canceling my magic, I watched the rat scurry away into its burrow, likely to mourn its lost hoard.

For shelter, I took a piece of bark, ripped from an old-looking tree, placed above a patch of soaked dirt, before evaporating the water with a drying spell. A few sticks plus a fire spell created a nice campfire. When I finally shrunk back into my breezie form, I felt a little headache from all this spellflinging after such a long magic-less timespan. And with the added two transformations, I could already feel the cold blanket of sleep try to take over. But I shook it off, I had to get the others still.

--------

Said others staggered into the shelter with widened eyes. “How- How?!” Kalypso stammered as she let Honeydew slide to the ground. I noticed that the two stayed as far from the fire as they could without entering the rain zone.

“You found food.” Honeydew muttered.

“Y-yes, yes. You should both eat something, then we should rest.” I said, fumbling my hooves.

“A lot of food.” He continued. “Where?”

“In the rats nest. I, uh… snuck into it.” I replied with a nervous grin.

Somehow, the widening of his eyes bothered me. His amazed look even more so. “That was incredibly brave.”

“I-it was gone.” I deflected, silently gritting my teeth.

“You didn’t know that.” He said way too reasonably before he pat my shoulder. “Thank you.”

The sincerity in his voice was almost too much to bear. It had been easy! I didn’t do anything except bully a small animal and probably doom it to starvation, it wasn’t brave, it wasn’t special! If he’d done it, it would’ve been a feat, but for me it had been a cakewalk! It… surprised me how much it upset me, the realization that what we struggled through, all the effort of the breezies and me had spent, that it meant so little compared to how easily I’d just been able to do it. Need food? Take it from something smaller. Shelter? Rip some materials from your surroundings and make one. Predators? What predators? I was an alicorn, I outranked all of them! And while this fact should cheer me up, right now, it only left me frustrated.

Just then, a shiver went through my spine, and I scooted closer to the fire, forcing Honeydew to shuffle forward as well, or else lose me as his heat dispenser.. At least the cold was a struggle for every being, no matter the size.

Kalypso settled beside me, giving me a strange glance. I knew she suspected something. Honestly, who wouldn’t? But how much did she know? Any moment, a god or a spirit might whisper some secret into her ear, there was no limit to what she might know. The realization made my spine crawl.

“Can you watch the fire?” I asked her, not letting my eyes meet her two-colored ones.

“I watched you do it for a while.” She nodded. “If something happens, I’ll let you know. Or just drag you two into the rain, that’ll probably be enough.”

“Thank you.” I tried to say, but was cut off by a huge yawn. My eyelids were already drooping, cutting my vision in half as I decided to just surrender all of it in return for slumber...

Author's Note:

Obsi here again, informing you that for the forseeable future, updates will probably be Sundays instead of Saturdays.

Mostly. I may update on Saturdays, too, its not a rule set in stone.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. I hope that was dramatic enough for you. Feedback is always appreciated, though on this chapter even more so than usual, it's the first piece of action since the first chapter, after all ^^

Comments

[Dark Feather]

Twilight, Twilight I can understand your frustration whit how your suppose to be "above" such bad things but you did what you had to do in order to help your friends survive and when it is down to you and your friends vs a single rat that has attacked your party, your party allways comes first,

[xDHannibalxD]

Did you change the premise? I was under the impression that Twilight could't use magic, otherwise finding the way home shouldn't have been a problem at all. She wouldn't have almost died of cold or fauna in the first chapter? Or did I just assume because it was never outright said otherwise?

[Obsi]

9487520
Couple of reasons:
1st, as I stated in this chapter, teleporting only works when you know where you are in relation to where you want to go.
2nd, Twilight was holding on to a bit of hope that she would recognize the path she took running from the mantis, which she definitely wouldn't if she was fifty times as tall.
3rd, transforming is pretty taxing (yes, that is not 100% in line with the show), and she would have to eat a bunch to make up for the lost energy. Now, when you know where you can get a nice supply of food, that is okay, but Twilight has no idea where to find it.
Thats why she ate a big chunk of their supploes before she transformed.

I think around the time chapter 6-7 got out, I changed some of the earlier chapters to spell these reasons out a bit clearer, so if you started reading before that, its perfectly fine to be confused ^^

[kildeez]

I guess killing rats is different to ponies. Here, rats are vermin that spoil food and spread disease, a plague from ancient times, and killing them is seen as necessary. Ponies could have a very different history with magic.

[link4]

Wonder how the seer would react to twilight being a former student of she who brings the sun

[Obsi]

9488894
uh... what meeting?

[link4]

9488899
was typing on my phone at the time. not sure how it got 'meeting' from seer..

[Obsi]

9488973
well, thats easy: Kalypso wouldnt believe a single word.

[Texus]

Turning in a full circle, I could see a glimmering spot back where Honeydew and Kalypso were resting… and suddenly, one zipping past my hooves. My horn flared, grabbing whatever it was in a field of telekinesis, just before it could vanish inside a hole in the ground. The rat let out a terrified squeal as it floated helplessly in mid air, dangling in front of my face.

Okay I need to stop here for now, but hopefully we find out why she hasn't turned back earlier. Not saying that I have anything against it, but I think it would be better if it's somehow difficult for her to just switch back between big and small there.

I'm just not sure how good it would look if I think about what happened so far if she could just switch between big and small.

[Thibi]

9550533
While I've just gotten to this point, it's come across as if Twilight is trying to make the best of her original plans and continue the research. What better way, really, than to research with the subject not knowing that you're also not one of them?

[Azure Drache]

Oh boy And here goes the logic, realism and empathy. I am sure you already know what I mean

[Luckyfanisaac]

the hint of a slur in his voice was setting off alarms in my head.

[Yoshifan30]

Ok so the group were attacked by a giant rat and honeydew took the full force of the Rat almost biting his leg off but Twilight somehow scare off with the piece of wood of the ashes but honeydew was very injured and there's no way they cannot travel not like this so they had to force to seek shelter and because of the rain storm they had to delay everything so Twilight goes out there telling them she'll be back to find any food and probably fighting some Woods to start a fire but the only way she has to do it she has to transform back into her Pony self which I forgot you can do that back in season 4 with or without the horn which that's pretty interesting but anyway she grabbed the food from the rats hiding space which she feel guilty but he was the one who attacked them basically it's called survival of the Finish yes Twilight probably will feel guilty that she stole it from the rat but she has to do it for her friends so with that they had to wait out the storm and having honeydew to recover this is pretty intense so far