Owlowiscious The Immortal Owl

by sunnypack

First published 28th of January, 2015

Owlowiscious is a very patient bird. One night however, tired after assisting Twilight with her duties, he lets slip advice that he meant to say silently... oh dear.

Owlowiscious spends a lot of time thinking and trying new things. Currently he's an assistant to an alicorn princess, something he's never tried before. Sometimes being an assistant to a neurotic purple princess with a penchant for persistent productivity though, can really prickle his primaries.

A-A-Additional tags: Feathers.

Edited by: The awesome Word Worthy!

Tagged Alternate Universe because Owlowiscious is quite obviously not canonically immortal.

(I guess this counts as an 'Immortal-verse' fic, but there's no universe for this, so it's just Owlowiscious talking).

1 - Who said that?

It was hard to see up here, perched in the corner of the room. I looked on with tired eyes. Twilight was performing yet another experiment. The same one. This was her sixth attempt. Mistakes in science were often small and innocuously made. A small tip of the balance here, a miscalculation there, and BANG! Everything falls to pieces.

“Owlowiscious, could you fetch me the condenser? The usual, please.”

I quickly spotted the 3/4 size condenser and gripped it in my talons. This was the sixth condenser she had wrecked.

Here you go, I muttered to myself. I dropped the condenser onto the bench with a slightly impertinent clatter.

“Thank you, Owlowiscious,” she said, oblivious to my discontent. “Could you also fetch the kit? The usual, please.”

I grumbled to myself silently as I flittered across the room to do as she bade.

Usually I would be happy to help Twilight with whatever she needed. It was a good feeling, knowing that you’re helping someone discover something new. Pushing the boundaries of our respective knowledge. I loved knowledge. I couldn’t get enough of learning something new. With how long I’ve been around, looking for something new to do was always a challenge. Luckily, I had found Twilight.

Exciting she was! A world-saving mare, with a neurotic disposition to sorting books and performing world-altering discoveries in science? Quite a unique partner if I do say so myself. I think Angel must be jealous. He has a tough task ahead, to bring his owner around, but I think he’s getting there, poor fellow. Oh well, where was I? Yes Twilight.

She’s amazing.

But this was trying my—admittedly deep—well of patience.

Twilight consulted her notes for the umpteenth time. I plopped the organic kit on the desk. This was a bit heavier so I did it carefully and I didn’t put as much insolence behind it. I don’t break scientific equipment. I’m not a monster.

“Okay,” she mumbled, bringing the notes in front of her. Her half-lidded eyes were fighting a losing battle to remain open. “Add in the phosphonium salt.”

I resisted the urge to face-wing myself.

“It’s the nitric acid and then the phosphonium salt.” My wings momentarily flew to my beak, then I quickly whipped it back to my sides. I worked on smoothing my expression. I needed to make my eyes less wide.

Twilight brought a hoof to her head as she rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“Of course!” she exclaimed, heaving a sigh of relief. “That was it! I can’t believe I missed tha—” She froze, then turned to me.

I stared back at her, trying to give my best impression of a dumb animal.

“You spoke, didn’t you.” It comes out as more of a statement rather than a query.

I continued to stare back at her blankly. My feathers were going to get all matted if I carried on sweating like this.

“Who?” I hedged.

“Don’t ‘who’ me!” she snapped.

I shrank back.

Twilight seemed to regret her outburst. She took a few steps back and took a calming breath.

“Sorry! Sorry! I’m just tired. I thought…” She sighed. “I thought you spoke.”

I watched as Twilight dragged her hooves back to her stool and set her head on the table. I felt a little bad about it, all things considered. Winona likes the ‘invented language’ game but I sometimes get tired of saying ‘who’ all the time. No matter how hilarious it was the first time. Still, I have to play the game. Rules and all that.

I really should have thought of something better to say than ‘who’.

With a small clatter, I realised Twilight had fallen asleep at her desk again. Sighing, I flittered over to a small blanket folded on a shelf. With some difficulty I manoeuvred my claws on the fabric until I got a solid grip. Then I beat my wings hard to bring the blanket out of its slot. With a flutter the blanket was drawn out and I settled it on Twilight’s shoulders.

I studied Twilight after perching on her desk. She was so stressed out. I mean true, she brings a lot of it onto herself, but it’s mostly to fulfil expectations. Expectations so many others place on her shoulders. I sighed again.

“Silly mare,” I muttered, fluffing my feathers.

A gigantic eye popped open and stared at me. Startled I fell on my backside, a couple of my feathers coming loose with how I was back-pedalling.

“I knew it!” Twilight seethed. “You talk!”

Quick! Fall back! Try something! Anything! Something witty to distract her!

“Who?”

Her eye twitched.

Ah feathers.

–––––

I’m not sure how many birds have been in my particular situation. I’m fairly sure that the answer should be not many. The light was bright. Really bright. Doubly so for a night creature as I. Though it pained me to do so, I kept my beak shut tight.

“Spill it, Owlowiscious. If that is indeed your real name.”

I heard the measured pacing of Twilight as she circled around me. My faceplate ensured all the sounds would track her very accurately. It also ensured that I would also hear the sound constantly when she paced in her bedroom as she was wont to do from time to time. I’d fly away then, the repetitive clopping of hooves was something I couldn’t stand for more than a few minutes.

I flicked an eye open.

“Who?” I repeated.

Twilight eclipsed my vision. Not that there was much to see, just the ceiling and such.

“Don’t give me that,” she growled, shining the light directly into my face. I squeezed my eyes shut.

Me and my big mouth, I thought to myself, angry that I had let slip the one secret that would guarantee to pique Twilight’s curiosity. I remained resolutely mute. The light moved away and I cautiously cracked open an eye.

Twilight’s mouth quirked and she drew back.

“Playing hard to get, huh? At least, that’s what Rarity would say. Hmm…”

Strapped to the table I was, I couldn’t see what Twilight was doing as she stepped away, out of sight. I heard her rummaging around in the back. Was she preparing something nefarious? Was this meant to scare me? A psychological game? Hah! I’ve lived long enough. Bring it on. I can take whatever it is. Just—

She brought out a long, slim quill. It was snow-white, possibly sourced from a swan, or some majestical creature as that. I watched as she levitated it towards me, waving it this way and that, making sure my full attention was on it.

I don’t get it. It’s just a quill.

Twilight seemed to know what I was thinking.

“This, Owlowiscious, is no ordinary quill,” she whispered almost reverently. “This is a feather taken from Princess Celestia herself. A gift to me, when I ran out of quills in a study session with her.” She flicked the quill under my beak. My eyes were locked on the feather. “This quill has an interesting background,” she continued mildly. “Because it came from the Princess, I’ve enchanted so many preserving spells on it that it is nigh impossible to destroy.” I didn’t like where this was going. The feather sounded ominous already.

“One time,” Twilight continued, heedless of my growing unease. “My brother challenged me to a fight. A game of tag. He knew I was ticklish just behind my ears. He knew.” I wanted to look away when Twilight locked eyes with me. The intensity of the exchange would have left me silent, had I been speaking.

Twilight paused for a moment. It was all sinking in. Her diabolical plot was becoming clearer and clearer with each passing second.

“So,” she resumed, waving the feather around once again. Her focus momentarily shifted away from me as she studied the feather. “I enchanted the feather. It was simple, really. Something to increase the sensitivity of the touch.” She gave me a particularly evil smirk. “I’ve heard my brother describe it as ‘painfully ticklish’... I wonder how you’ll react.”

The feather drifted closer.

It approached languidly, Twilight licking her lips as if savouring the moment physically. My eyes followed the feather, unable to move away from the terrifying enchanted instrument of torture.

Inches away, I couldn’t take it anymore.

“Stop!” I yelled. “Stop! Okay! I’ll talk! I’ll talk!”

The feather stopped, then withdrew.

“I knew it!” Twilight exclaimed throwing her hooves up in the air. “You can talk!”

I nodded, my heart still pounding wildly from the close encounter. Twilight tossed the quill onto her desk. Then she trotted forward and undid the bonds binding me to the table. I was shocked, to say the least.

“There now,” she said, grinning. “Wasn’t that easy?”

I stared at her, beak agape.

“B-But the quill! The interrogation!” I paused. “Wha-What?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “It’s just to make you more honest with yourself.” She crossed her hooves and gave me a stern stare. “Friends don’t keep such important secrets from each other. Especially when the other thinks she’s going crazy.”

Oh. Well I guess I did go a bit far with the ‘who’ thing.

I shrugged awkwardly.

“It’s something I’ve been used to doing for most of my life. I just didn’t think about it at all.” Gosh, my voice sounded so strange after all this time. I sound like a different owl.

Twilight’s hot gaze cooled down.

“Well I suppose that’s something we’ll have to talk about,” she said, dragging the quill and notepad from the desk. “There’s so much to learn!” She started writing something but the quill snapped.

“Huh,” she said, throwing it in the bin. My eyes widened in surprised at the casual abandonment.

“Wasn’t that quill special to you?” I asked.

Twilight grinned at me and waved a dismissive hoof.

“No that was just some story I made up.”

Well…

“Okay,” I said, as I subsided. I glanced at the window. With a few quick flaps, I could be out of here. I’d have to find a new place of course, and it wouldn’t be as interesting. Not to mention the game was ruined. There were a lot of factors clamouring around my mind. The more I thought about it, the more it made sense. I should probably leave.

For some reason though, I hesitated.

“What now?” I asked, throwing everything to the wind.

Twilight’s hesitant smile broke into a grin as she took a wing into her hoof.

“Just the usual.”

Author's Notes:

Weee~ I made a sequel.

It's probably not as insightful as Winona, but I wanted to keep this light and fresh.

Next Chapter: Woop de woo!

As always, my monolithic readers, thanks for reading!

2 - Who Me?

A symptom of anxiety is sweating. I may have been exaggerating when I told you I was sweating under pressure. I wasn’t. It was figurative. Birds don’t sweat. Still, I find that expression somewhat useful to describe fear, tension and my fraying nerves. I don’t do well under pressure, that’s why I’m a fan of Winona’s game. Pretending not to speak is easier than dealing with all the expectations and emotions.

I know what you’re thinking. Just wing it, right? Har, har.

Perhaps we’d mesh well together, you know what they say about birds of a feather? Alright, I’ll stop, but my situation really is out of my depth for me. I sit here unsure of myself. What will happen to me? Will it be the same? Will it be different?

In the other times I would wait for the poor pony to kick the bucket or move away and forget about me. I had the luxury of no strings attached. I was once a pet of a rich noblemare. When she passed away I became the pet of her daughter. I made my escape very soon after for they were suspicious of my lifespan. I wanted them to think it was long, but not forever. That would throw in some complications.

The situation with Twilight was unique. There was an undercurrent of suspicion as if we were both holding back something from one and another. It feels like now that my secret was out, we couldn’t be sure of each other. As if suddenly there was a stranger in the house and we were awkwardly dancing around the issue by meshing ourselves in routine. I knew it wouldn’t last forever, Twilight was a very straightforward mare. Tends to overthink things sometimes but afterwards it would all be on track.

The waiting was killing me.

“Would you pass the analytical kit? The usual one, please.”

I silently fluttered across the room and grabbed the somewhat heavy briefcase containing the equipment. Straining hard I plopped it on her desk and then settled on the perch overlooking her desk. She gave me a grateful smile, but it was tinged with some other emotion I couldn’t identify. I heard the clinking of glassware as she shifted the case with her magic and sorted them on the desk.

When everything was in the right place she sat in silence.

The sound of blood pulsing through my ear holes was deafening.

“I—“ she began but stopped herself. I shifted on my perch, the wood suddenly feeling uncomfortable to me.

“I think we should tell the others,” she said finally. I tried not to sigh. I knew this was coming.

“I don’t know, Twilight… That seems like a big risk.”

“You’re the only one that calls me that.”

“Call you what?”

“Twilight. Everypony wants to call me Princess or Princess Twilight, excluding my friends of course.” She sighed, her gaze growing distant. “Sometimes they call me Princess Twilight as well.”

I fluffed my feathers, caught off-guard by the question.

“Well that’s what you are now,” I replied, my voice sounded so loud. I was still unused to using it. “Just like I’m an owl and you say ‘this is my owl’. When they call you Princess, they’re simply calling you as you are.”

Twilight bit her lip and rocked in her stool.

“The problem is I don’t want to be a Princess. I don’t like the attention. I don’t want to be treated differently.” She shrugged self-consciously. “That’s why I like doing experiments down here. I do research and I study magic. It’s the only time I feel normal.”

Her eyes were wide and brimming with unshed tears. I felt a lump in my throat.

“Is it foolish? Am I just running away from reality?”

My beak twitched. “If it makes you feel any better,” I answered gently. “I’ve been running away all my life. I used to think it was because I wanted to find something new, learn something different, go from place to place without any consequences, but to be honest? It might be because I was afraid.”

Twilight twitched, her face bore a slight look of surprise.

“Afraid? What could you be afraid of?”

“Of being too attached. Of not letting go. Of staying around long enough so the feelings catch up with me.” I looked away, peering through the small window out to the night sky. “I think I was successful to some degree at least.”

Finding memories was hard. Information was easy to keep track of. Numbers, facts and figures were things I used constantly. Memories of ponies and places were a little harder. Especially the rough ones. I wanted to whisk them away. Some of them came back and would surprise me, but in time they all faded away. I knew if I waited long enough, engage in something new, it’d eventually be replaced. I didn’t need the sadness. It was unproductive.

“I remember some places,” I chuckled slightly as I reminisced about a few of my past owners. “Some ponies too. But here…” I tapped my chest with the tip of my primary. “I don’t feel anything. It worries me sometimes, but I think it’s for the best.”

I glanced back to see Twilight shaking. I heard the faint pitter patter of water hitting the tabletop. Was she crying? Oh no.

“Oh, oh dear. Don’t cry,” I said, dropping down to the desk. I approached Twilight cautiously. Did I say something wrong? “I’m so sorry. I’m not used to talking to others, you see, apart from the others like me. Sometimes we get together and we tell each other things. I don’t think I’ve seen any of us cry though… We just talk. About our little world…” I trailed off unsure of what to say next. “Are you okay?” Gosh that sounded weak.

There was a couple more sniffs and the quick swipe of a hoof.

“Yes,” she said weakly, pushing away from the desk. “And no.”

She reached over with a hoof and patted me on the head. I could feel the slight dampness of her hoof, even through all my feathers.

“Are you sure?” I ventured. I was afraid of making her cry again.

“Yes,” Twilight reaffirmed. “And I think that we are alike in some ways, different in others.” She sighed. “There’s something about you. Your voice sounds young but the words you speak seem so much more older. You also sound distant, like you’re unused to having a friend.”

“A friend?” I queried. How did that topic spring up? “I don’t quite understand.”

Twilight gave me a look that I think I will remember for a long time.

Finally she nodded.

“Yes. I think that’s the problem.”

Author's Notes:

Ca-Caw!

I'm a bird.

Or so I was lead to believe.

Next Chapter: Uploaded on the same day as this one. Sneaky author, you.

As always, my indivisible readers unless mitigating circumstance might otherwise allow for readers, thanks for reading!

3 - To Whom It May Concern

They say opposites attract.

I beg to differ.

Now I don’t hate Rainbow Dash. I just avoid her. A lot. I don’t know why Twilight wanted me to see her first. I was expecting Fluttershy—you know—the animal expert. Still, it wasn’t the toughest thing to do in the world, especially after the heart to heart we had last night. Twilight seemed determined to do… something but I wasn’t sure. I couldn’t read her thought process for once. I didn’t know if she was heading out to perform a task for a princess, or visit her friends, or help out in the community, or commit to some of her new duties. I couldn’t read her at all.

Back on point about Rainbow Dash, I just didn’t find her all that interesting. She was a lovely pony of course, nothing out of the ordinary. I just felt that our personalities wouldn’t mesh. I’m quite scholarly, with a thirst for knowledge, and she’s addicted to action and flying. Not the best matches, possibly barring the flying.

–––––

“Owlowiscious? Are you around?" Twilight's voice echoed around the library section of the castle. I was perched in the corner of the room, with the nook made by a bookshelf and one of the weird crystal walls. If you ask me, I preferred wood. The homely feel of the natural woodgrain reminded me of my early days when I slept in trees. Hmm, when was the last time I'd done that? Must have been centuries. I really missed the old library.

“Owlowiscious?”

With a small sigh I extricated myself from the small space and waddled to the edge of the bookcase. I peered at the skittish alicorn as she weaved about the significantly larger library in her spacious castle.

“Is this really necessary?” I tried to keep the petulance outside my voice, but it was hard.

“Yes,” Twilight replied firmly. Her hoof clopped on the floor with a authoritative echo. “It is.”

I tried not to groan. “I don’t think this is going to work out well. I know you don’t want to keep secrets from your friends but couldn’t we have tried somepony else? Maybe Fluttershy?”

Twilight paused as if the thought hadn’t occurred to her. Wait, it really looked like it hadn’t occurred to her.

“No…” I trailed off. “Really?”

“W-Well I still think Rainbow is a better idea. I think she would find the concept of a talking owl quite interesting.”

Interesting. I didn’t expect that.

“Is there something going on between you and Fluttershy?”

You could cut through the tension in the room with a sharp claw.

“N-No!” she answered a little too quickly for my liking. “Nothing!”

“Twilight? I hate to lay it on thick, but you’re being a bit of hypocrite here. No secrets.”

Twilight flushed a deep crimson. She mumbled something under her breath. Even with my exceptional hearing, I couldn’t make out her stuttering speech.

“Come again?” I pushed.

*Mumble* *Mumble*

“I’m sorry?”

“I accidentally stepped on Angel bunny.”

I winced for a moment, then did a double-take.

Oh sly, I thought.

“Angel? You stepped on him? How?” I choked out. I tried to keep my composure.

“I trotted in through the front door and I couldn’t see Fluttershy around. I decided to wait for her until she got back. Uhm, embarrassingly I got hungry—I’d just finished an all night reading session—so I went to the counter and grabbed some salad that was sitting there. It looked delicious, I couldn’t help myself. Apparently it was Angel’s so he thumped me a couple of times with his foot. It didn’t hurt but it was getting annoying so I pushed him back a bit with my hoof. Surprisingly he fell limp. That’s when Fluttershy walked in.”

You could hear a pin drop from a mile away.

“I tried to explain but Angel was playing dead, probably for ruining his lunch. Fluttershy looked so distraught that I couldn’t bring myself to say anything. In the end I just bolted out of there.”

I shifted on my bookshelf perch. “You don’t think Fluttershy would realise it and forgive you anyway?” I frowned. “It’s not even your fault.” I didn’t see the problem, was there something else? I peered at Twilight owlishly. She shifted her hooves uneasily.

“There’s something you’re not telling me,” I said, fluttering down from the bookshelf to the table. Craning her head like that would give her a crick in her neck.

“I… also may have accidentally unintentionally perhaps possibly conceivably…”

I clacked my beak, startling her.

“Get on with it!” I growled, resisting an eye-roll.

She took a deep breath. “I went back, of course, to apologise but Angel was there again. He was being a nuisance so I teleported him to the upstairs portion of the cottage. Then I made up with Fluttershy.”

“So…? What’s the problem?”

“Angel didn’t like it. When I got back the castle I found all my research torn to shreds. That was two weeks worth of research! Two weeks! I didn’t even sleep half the time!”

I tapped a talon to my beak. “Oh so that’s why you were so stressed a few days ago. Gee. I didn’t know.”

Twilight hung her head in shame. “I was furious. I reacted without thinking. I—“

She stopped herself. Her hoof drew across the floor.

No, I thought. No way, she didn’t.

“I threw a book at him,” she said finally.

“That doesn’t sound so bad.”

Twilight grimaced. “It was the unabridged dictionary of magical terminology.”

“No, not Oxley’s?”

She nodded. I winced.

Twilight continued, “He broke his wrist and was poorly bruised. Fluttershy was disappointed in me and rightly so, but do you know what the worst part of it is?”

I shook my head. I was enraptured.

“The worst part is the look of fear I saw on Angel’s face the next time I visited. It breaks my heart every time I see it. I never studied magic to hurt anypony. Or any creature for that matter. I used magic to hurt…”

I fluffed my feathers, deep in thought. What Twilight did with her magic was wrong. Abusing her magic like that was against everything she stood for. Angel was wrong for provoking her of course, but Angel was Angel.

Angel was Angel.

It began as a low chuckle. It increased with every hop I took until I was perched on Twilight’s back. Her confusion at my mirth gave way to indignation.

“It’s not funny!” she muttered. I heard the hurt in her tone.

I waved a wing at her. “It’s a joke between immortals. Angel was yanking your fetters.”

“What?”

“Angel is just like me, he wouldn’t be afraid of a little magic. Probably cautious because he’s not fast enough to dodge some books, but he’s lived as long as me. What a drama-queen.”

“Huh?”

I cocked my head, then realised what I said.

“Oh drat. I wasn’t supposed to let on that we’re immortal.”

“WHAT?!”

Author's Notes:

Kookaburra sits on the old gum tree...

Kookaburras are like the less bad-tempered native to the Cockatoo. The only owl in Australia I can think of is the Australian Masked Owl. Tawny Frogmouth comes close though, but they're not owls.

The more you know...

Next Chapter: Rainbows.

As always, my gilded readers, thanks for reading!

4 - Ha Ha He He Hoo Who

“How many of you are there?” Twilight spoke slowly. She sounded as if she were still reeling from the implications. I guess it’s a lot to take in, finding out your assistant was some sort of immortal being. Not long after the talking stage too.

“I’m surprised you’re not more shocked,” I replied.

Twilight just shrugged and rolled her eyes. “Stranger things have happened. Ponyville is like a nexus point for the weird and the chaotic.” She pursed her lips as her brow creased into a frown. “Although Ponyville was a very quiet town until I came along. Almost makes me wonder if I had something to do with it.”

I cocked my head at that. Interesting thought. Was Twilight the catalyst for greater events or were events just attracted to Twilight? I chuckled inwardly. Perhaps they were the result of some sort of cosmic entanglement and Ponyville was just an innocent bystander caught in the crossfire?

Twilight shook her head sharply, her eyes refocusing on me with greater intensity as she came back to the topic. I suppressed a groan. I was hoping that little tangent would distract her.

“So?” she demanded.

“Who?” Classic.

Twilight stomped her hoof in frustration.

“Owl—” she began testily, but I headed her off.

“Okay, okay,” I replied, I felt like our conversations were starting to get into a rhythm, I was getting a serious shot of déjá vu. I rubbed a bashful wing against my head as I composed my answer.

“I wasn’t really supposed to let slip that we were immortal,” I admitted, I kept my wing raised to stem another interjection I sensed from the alicorn. “Though you know that, but this time I have a better reason. This really wasn’t my secret to tell. Angel and… the others would not like it if their secret got out. They have their own reasons and I’m sure if you can trust me, you can trust them too.”

I could tell she didn’t like it. Twilight was practically vibrating with the need to find out more. Finally, as my words finally sunk in, she leaned back and sighed.

“I don’t like it,” she ground out. “I don’t like it, but I trust you Owlowisicious.”

The way she said it sent a tiny prick of guilt in my avian heart.

Ah feathers, I thought to myself. I’ll talk to the others about it later, maybe we could work something out.

“So, about Rainbow…” I hedged, still perched on the shelf… where her hooves couldn’t reach me.

“You’re still coming to that.” Twilight seemed adamant about it.

“Can’t we visit Fluttershy or somepony else? I feel like we’re going to the one pony that could hurt me—” I caught her glare “—unintentionally of course!”

“Now that we’ve resolved this little dispute with Angel,” I continued hastily. “We can all go to see Fluttershy.”

“No,” Twilight said shortly.

“I’m sorry?”

“I said ‘no’,” she repeated. “I still maintain that seeing Rainbow is a good idea.”

There was a short silence.

“Well,” I grumbled. “It seems we are at an impasse.”

Twilight sat on her haunches.

“Mmm.”

––––––

Twilight stared at me. I stared impassively back. We considered each other for so long I was beginning to think that we would be stuck here forever looking into each other’s eyes and trying to figure out the shape of our souls, or something. Then I did the thing. You know, the thing.

…Where I would rotate my head axially about one hundred and eighty degrees anti-clockwise.

She blinked at me in surprise. Then scowled.

“Cheater,” she groused, stomping a hoof.

“We still need to blink, you know,” I shot back defensively. “We just have a few more tricks up our proverbial sleeves.” Despite ‘cheating’ I still ruffled my feathers in pride and sank further into my perched position smugly. I knew a staring contest would be a good idea.

Surprisingly, she let loose a light giggle.

“Okay, Owlowisicious, you win,” she conceded in defeat. “I still think it was unfair that you chose a staring contest. Aren’t owls good at staring?”

“We’re good at seeing,” I corrected and then flittered towards the door.

“Cheeky Owl,” she muttered with a scowl. “Okay, let’s go.”

–––––––

As we headed out and I beelined towards Fluttershy’s cottage. I made it only a few feet before I was stopped by a sparkling magenta field.

“Oof!” I yelped, flipping head over tail in her telekinetic grip. I eyed the passersby looking curiously at me as I was hurled back towards the smug princess. Twilight’s mouth simply twitched before she set out again, towing me along.

I glared at her as I realised that the direction had moved towards Rainbow’s house. “That’s cheating!” I growled softly.

Twilight gave me a devilish grin.

“I know,” she said.

–––––

Winged creatures have the unique problem of buffeting turbulence in upper altitude currents. One of the major factors that we have to take into account is the wind speed, direction, pattern and topology when we’re flying. Most winged creatures catalogue this automatically as they grow up. It was strangely satisfying to watch someone—or in this case somepony—that was not born with wings struggle with this.

I hovered in the air watching impassively as Twilight shot past me and corkscrewed into the ground. I gently landed next to her, taking care not to giggle too loudly. Others might hear.

“I can’t believe this,” she muttered. “More than a few weeks of flying and I still can’t get the hang of this.”

“It’s all in the tips, Twilight,” I commented. From the way she glared at me, I knew the advice was a tad inflammatory, but I couldn’t resist. Hmm, maybe I should cut back on the teasing, she does have the power to level a mountain… Yeah, that might be a good idea. I can’t help it, sometimes I’m a literal bird-brain.

Twilight picked herself off the ground, her legs unsteady and shaking from the impact.

“We’ll never get to Rainbow’s house at this rate,” she growled under her breath. She probably meant to say it to herself but I caught the words, what with my excellent hearing and all. I waggled my eyebrows at her.

“Perhaps we shouldn’t go?” I suggested. Her ears twitched at my tone.

“No,” she shot back firmly. “We’re doing this. I just have to concentrate.”

I glanced back behind her and opened my beak, but then shut it. Ah, sometimes comedy writes itself.

Twilight splayed her wings out, curled her back, pointed her muzzle upwards and took a deep breath. Twilight called this her ‘meditating’ stance. She used this whenever she wanted to explore her senses and reach her full mental capacity. Or so a dusty alicorn book had so claimed. I was skeptical, but apparently it held some merit because Twilight told me it worked.

Just as Twilight was about to launch into the air, a voice cut across the temporary stillness that Twilight had invoked around herself.

“Uhh, Twilight? What are you doing?”

Startled, Twilight let out a bird-like squawk her wings down-stroking and lifting her partially off the ground. Annoyed by her magically assisted defiance, gravity roughly yanked Twilight down to the ground, face-first.

I would imagine that dear old gravity would sit back smug, knowing natural order had been painfully restored.

I hid my beak behind a wing as I alighted on the ground and looked away as Twilight shot me glare. She turned to Rainbow who swooped around and regarded the disheveled princess.

“Are you practicing flying?”

Twilight paused, then brightened. “Yes, however I have something—”

“Were you doing that ‘medicative’ state or whatsomacallit, again?” Rainbow had crossed her arms. Must be a long standing issue.

“It’s meditative but—”

“Well no wonder! You’ve got to drill flying into your body! Twilight you’re always living in your head, but sometimes you just got to do it. Luckily for you, I have some time to give one of my best pals a lesson! Come on Twilight, we need to train!”

“Rainbow if you just wait a momen– woah! Hey!”

I watched with various levels of amusement as Twilight tried to explain to Rainbow exactly why she needed to talk to her, but failed as Rainbow jerked Twilight around by the hoof.

“How about we—”

“We do some double aileron rolls? Good idea! I knew you had it in you!”

“Actually, I wanted—”

“To do the triple aileron roll? Wow, okay. It’ll be challenging, but if you’re ready to do that, I won’t stop you.”

I could see Twilight realising that each interruption only furthered Rainbow’s determination to fit in more drills and practice. Rainbow babbled on on the intricacies of pegasus flight and aerial manoeuvres and movements, oblivious to her friend’s distress. She continued to drag the flustered alicorn by the hoof until Twilight simply gave up and subjected herself to Rainbow’s friendly, if somewhat misguided, barrage of help.

I flittered along behind, pretending not to notice the carefully timed glares that Twilight was sending me. What? She wanted to find Rainbow and that’s what she got.

Author's Notes:

I finally updated, as you will be glad to see. I'm still busy as heck but I fit in writing sporadically.

Sorry, sorry, sorry! I'm still active, just not so much.

I'll let you know if I ever actually quit writing so you can assume I'm still alive if I don't say so.

Next Chapter: Rainbow finally reacts.

And as always, my incalculably valuable readers, thanks for reading!

5 - Any Who...

“Okay!” Rainbow’s brash voice called out. “That should be enough practice for today. You can thank me later… after a few days… when your body recovers.”

Twilight was face down in the dirt. She barely had the energy to lift her head clear from the ground, much less give a response to the excitable pegasus. Only through sheer willpower and a concentrated effort was Twilight able to flutter open an eyelid and send me one more glare.

Rainbow alighted next to me, giving me a ruffle with a wing. I couldn’t decide whether that feeling was pleasant or strange, but I settled on the former as she sidled up to my ‘owner’ and gave her a hearty pat on the back.

“Good work there, Twi’. I was expecting you to clock out way before that… no offence. I don’t know where you got your motivation, but if you continue like this for a month, you’ll shape up to be a top-notch flier, no doubt about it!”

I flittered up to Rainbow’s shoulder and settled on her back.

“Who!” I said and Rainbow grinned at me briefly.

“See? Even Owlowisicious agrees!”

Absolutely right I did.

Twilight took a deep breath and forced herself to her legs. Her wings were spasming and they splayed themselves out automatically. I could even see the heat waves rolling off from the excessive use of magic. I knew that pegasi had an interesting blend of magic and muscle that were required to work in tandem in order for them to achieve lift. Unlike me and most other birds, pegasi and alicorns had to channel their special brand of innate magic though their wing tips to produce the force required to counteract gravity.

The amount of force generated is somehow correlated to the amount of power they use while beating their wings. Like all magic they would need practice, practice, practice to achieve any sort of practical flight. Since pegasi have been flying since they were young, it was easy for them to continue doing so if they ever became alicorns, but for Twilight, she’d have to learn from step one. Though, I’d think a pegasus trying to learn horn-assisted spells would be rather difficult as well, now that I think about it.

Twilight mumbled something, then straightened up. She shook her head.

Anyway, Twilight was lucky to have such a skilled flier as a teacher. Although… Rainbow needed to work on her instructional set. She’s good at leading, but her one-track mind tended to stone-wall her students, especially when they needed to tell them something. Like now, for instance.

“Rainbow, I need to talk to you.” This was probably Twilight’s twenty fourth try. If anyone was counting. Which was certainly not me.

“Sure thing, Twi’, you know I’m all ears when it comes to friends,” Rainbow replied easily. I stifled a chuckle on seeing Twilight’s muzzle open and shut as she thought better of opening that can of worms. Worms, hmm not fond of them. I wonder what’s for dinner. Better go hunting later.

“It’s about Owlowiscious,” Twilight said. Then she stopped suddenly and gestured to me. I must have been particularly slow because I stood there not comprehending for a few seconds. What? Oh! Right she wanted me to say something.

“Hi there Rainbow,” I said simply.

Rainbow looked at me quizzically then returned her look to Twilight.

“So… what’s the problem?”

Well it wasn’t the first time I’d seen Twilight at a loss for words, but I can say that this would probably rank as one of the rare times that Twilight really didn’t know how to respond to somepony. I think Rainbow took ‘coolness’ to a new level. Wow.

“Problem?! He talks!”

“Uhuh, don’t all owls talk like that?”

“What?”

“He’s talking, just like normal.”

“I am?” I interjected.

Rainbow shrugged. “See?”

“Really? What did he say just now?”

“Who.”

“Who?”

“Who.”

“He’s saying who?”

“Who?”

“Him. Tell me what he’s saying.”

“Who?”

“Owlowiscious!”

“Me?”

“You! Tell her what you’re saying.”

“I’m saying a lot of things, but I think she hears ‘who’.”

“That’s what I’ve been trying to say, Twilight, he’s saying ‘who’.”

“Who?”

“Owlowiscious!”

“Oh ‘who’.”

“Owlowiscious!”

“Me?”

“Yes you, don’t ‘who’ me!”

“Gah!”

“Gagh!”

We all lapsed into silence, thoroughly confused. I could see Twilight getting frustrated and Rainbow getting more and more bewildered and I didn’t know what to do, having lost track of the conversation a while back.

“I think Rainbow hears a ‘who’,” I said.

Twilight clamped a hoof to her mouth and took off.

Rainbow looked at me, and then Twilight’s retreating figure.

“Who was she talking to?”

I flopped to the ground.

I can’t take much more of this.

————

“So you’re saying… Owlowiscious can talk?”

Twilight nodded.

“That’s… I don’t get it, why can’t I hear him?”

I decided to nod my head too. My talking had already sown the seeds of confusion and grown into trees of befuddlement.

Rainbow frowned, sinking to her haunches. Then her expression brightened and she got to her hooves.

“Wait does that mean I can talk to Tank?” Then she blushed. “I mean then I could you know, discuss if he needs to see a vet or something. Like for… health reasons.”

“I’m not sure,” Twilight replied honestly. “I’m surprised you can’t hear him.” She shot me a look, but I just shrugged. It’s not my fault. I really thought that if I talked, anypony could hear me.

Rainbow turned to me. “Say something,” she said.

“You’re kind of making me uncomfortable?”

Rainbow shook her head. “Yeah, all I hear is ‘who’.”

Twilight sighed. “I really didn’t want it to come to this, but I think we might have to talk to Fluttershy.”

Rainbow did a double take. “Hey I thought Fluttershy would be at the top of the list, you know with animals and all. I mean I’m flattered you’d come to me, but isn’t Fluttershy the animal expert?”

The look of discomfort that Twilight bore on her face couldn’t really be put in words.

“Well… you see…”

“Twilight…” I added.

“I know, I know, I just have to talk to her. I’m just afraid of what she’s going to say.”

“It’ll be fine,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Just explain the whole situation. Heck she might even understand me.”

Twilight nodded. “Okay, do you want to come along, Rainbow?”

Rainbow had this weird scrunched up expression on her muzzle as if she were trying to decide if we were a puzzle worth solving.

“Yeah, it’s a little weird when you have a conversation that looks like you’re talking to yourself. The way I see it, you should just work things out. It’ll all come together.” She took to the air, hovering. “I’ve got to… do some weather management.”

I watched Rainbow go, knowing exactly what she was going to do. I wish I could see her talk to Tank. I’d imagine the exchange would get very strange, very fast… and that’s when he wasn’t talking.

Twilight sighed again. She was doing that a lot recently.

“Let’s go,” she mumbled and she loped away with me winging along.

Well I hope this goes a lot better with Fluttershy than it did with Rainbow. I don’t think I can handle another ‘who’ gag.

Author's Notes:

Face it, you knew this gag was coming.

Next Chapter: Angel and Owlowiscious hashes it out.

As always, my numerical readers, thanks for reading!

6 - Who Are You?

Twilight took a ten minute breather. I didn’t blame her, she’d been put through the ringer and now she had to wing it to Fluttershy’s cottage. I felt a little guilty. Not because I was to blame, but mostly because watching her struggle with Rainbow was oddly enjoyable. I guess the concept of amusement changes as you grow older. Gummy believes that it’s a gradual shift of our perception. As we grow older, our awareness of mortality fades and so does the stimuli that drives us. Me? Personally I think it’s to do with our personality. We can’t change who we are, but we can change how we act.

Observe.

“Twilight, are you alright?”

See? I’m being gracious now. Nothing like before.

Twilight took another breath, probably to make sure she got enough oxygen to last her another few more years. Goodness, with how hard she was breathing it was a wonder other ponies didn’t come over and see if she had some issue with her lungs. From the way they were looking at her and shaking their heads, it was probably a regular occurrence. I didn’t know. Most of my time was stuck in Twilight’s tree-brary during the night. She didn’t move around much during the night. Now I knew she didn’t move around much during the day either.

“I’ll— *huff* —be— *wheeze* —fine!” She flopped from her splayed position on her back to her legs. Like a newborn foal, she stood on legs that wobbled and tilted and threatened to give way at any moment.

“Are you sure?” I asked her. Twilight stumbled around a bit before steadying into something that resembled a shuffle more than a walk.

“I’ll be fine,” she said more firmly, locking her jaw. You have to admire her fortitude. When she says she will do something, that mare finds a way to get it done. The solemnity of her affirmation was somewhat diminished by the stares we were getting. Probably because talking to your pet seriously was something ponies should do at home rather than out here in the public.

Twilight seemed oblivious to this.

“Come on, Owlowiscious, let’s get going.”

I resisted the urge to say ‘who’, instead I beat my wings and circled above her.

“I’ll uhh, meet you at Fluttershy’s,” I said, flapping ahead.

Who said I couldn’t be generous from time to time?

————

When I arrived at Fluttershy’s cottage, Angel spotted me and waved an impatient paw. I settled down near him as he made a few gestures. Arm wave. Something big. Jump, jump, jump. Big steps. Running on the spot. Came over. Punching the air. Fighting?

“A big animal crashed through the cottage and got away. You tried fighting it, but it didn’t do much, and it took off with most of your…. Food?”

Angel shook his head and tapped his foot. He mimed sleeping.

“Most of your bed? How does that make sense?”

Angel shook his head again and mimed sleeping again, then waking up rudely.

“Oh, he robbed you of your sleep!”

A nod.

“Seriously? That’s what you were worked up about?”

Angel looked annoyed that I couldn’t comprehend how important his sleep was. He pointed to the woods and then my claws and made a ripping motion.

“Ahah, no.” I snorted. “I don’t pick fights with random creatures, especially when all they’ve done is disrupted your sleep.” Why was Angel getting so agitated by this?

Angel crossed his arms and stared at me. Maybe he was hoping to quell my objections with his imperious look? I almost chuckled at how absurdly unlikely that would be.

“Look, that may work with Fluttershy, but it won’t work with me.” I sighed when he didn’t budge. “Alright, fine, I’ll bring it up next meeting, but don’t expect much. I doubt Gummy would be on board with this. Oh yes, I know Winona would agree, but she agrees with everything! No sense of fear, that girl.”

Angel suddenly glanced up and hopped back a few steps. Confused, I turned around to see what he was making a big fuss about. Two large blue eyes stared at me.

“Woah!” I said, tumbling back awkwardly. “Personal space!”

“Oh I’m sorry,” Fluttershy’s demure voice answered. “I just sort of leaned in and before I knew it, I was muzzle to feather with you. Oh, I hope you don’t mind and sorry about your personal space.”

“Oh okay,” I replied, then I did a double-take. “Wait! You can hear me?!”

“I can hear you, Owlowiscious.” She winced a little. “Very, uhm, loud and clear.”

Wow. This was. Wow. Twilight would flip out when she found out about this! I unfurled my wings, ready to wing it back to Twilight and give her the news. I stopped when large yellow feathers blotted out the sky. A timid face curled around to address me.

“Uhm, I don’t think you should leave, just yet,” she said.

“Why not? Twilight would love to find out that you can talk to me!”

“I know you’re impatient to get back to Twilight, but it’s best if you stay here and wait for her.” She paused slightly. “If you don’t mind.”

“It’s okay, I’m not going to get lost or anything,” I replied. I was still somewhat surprised that Fluttershy wasn’t at all perturbed that I could suddenly speak. Wow, she can really handle animals. Still, it was something I’d want to discuss with Twilight.

“There’s a dangerous creature roaming about. I’m just worried about you. Why don’t you come inside with me? Pretty please?” Fluttershy gave me a winning smile. Angel looked smug.

“Thank you,” I replied, “but Twilight’s really close, so I don’t think it’ll be that much trouble, really.” I hopped forward… and Fluttershy blocked the way again.

“I don’t mean to be rude, Owlowiscious, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“It’s fine! Just let me go!”

Fluttershy tried a different tack. “I’ve got treats and food inside, what do you say?”

Hmm treats and foods. Now that was tempting. I glanced back at the path. With all the time we’ve been talking and arguing, Twilight would be along soon enough.

“Well then, I can’t refuse that,” I said, with a reluctant nod.

Fluttershy beamed at me. “Oh I’m proud of you,” Fluttershy said as she gestured towards her cottage. I gave up trying to get back to Twilight.

I settled on Fluttershy’s back as she darted forward, with Angel hopping behind us. Several times throughout our exchange he had tried to get Fluttershy’s attention, but the pegasus was too distracted trying to convince me that she must not have seen him waving his arms furiously. Angel made an indecent gesture at me, before huffing grumpily and hopping ahead. I chose to ignore it, because I wouldn’t sink to his level of crudity.

Inside, I was prepared for the noise and clutter of animals that made their home in Fluttershy’s home. Surprisingly it was quiet. Too quiet.

Angel bounded into the kitchen, where he disappeared with a clatter. Fluttershy paid him no heed and immediately beelined to a perch that I recognised belonging to Mr. Night Hawk. Though he was indeed a hawk, he didn’t deign to make conversation with a fellow avian. Most of the time he just stared at me, and he usually kept to himself. That was fine with me, but I wondered what he got up to from time to time.

Fluttershy smiled at me, gesturing to the perch.

“You can take Mr. Night Hawk’s perch. He recently moved out.” She grinned with excitement, though her cheeks blushed with modest propriety. “He found his special mate.”

I settled onto the perch, but almost fell out of it when a knock on the door echoed around the room. Fluttershy flinched at the loudness of each pounding knock, but she made her way to the door, though somewhat quivering. There was a quick peek through a crack and she relaxed, opening the door to admit a weary alicorn.

“Twilight,” she greeted cordially, though somewhat coolly. “Hello.”

It was then I recalled the incident with Angel. I decided to be a good pet and intervene.

“You know, Fluttershy, I’ve been meaning to mention that,” I said, fluttering over and perching on Twilight’s shoulder. “It wasn’t Twilight’s fault, Angel was stirring up trouble.”

Fluttershy blinked at me, then turned back to Twilight.

“Uhm, what brings you here?” she asked.

Twilight looked a bit nervous. “I just, wanted to apologise for how I acted.”

Fluttershy looked a bit disappointed. “It’s not me you should be apologising to,” she stated testily. “It’s Angel.”

Twilight sighed. “You’re right.” She glanced behind Fluttershy. “Is Angel around?”

At that, Fluttershy smiled and nodded. “Yes, he’s in the kitchen, would you like something to eat?”

A audible grumble from Twilight’s stomach sent Fluttershy into a small fit of chuckles. Twilight went scarlet.

“I’ll take that as a yes,” she said, turning tail.

As Fluttershy stepped away, I leaned towards Twilight’s ear.

“Hey, why apologise? I told you it’s just Angel acting up.”

Twilight nodded slightly. “I know,” she spoke from the corner of her mouth. “But Fluttershy doesn’t know that.”

“She does! I just explained it to her,” I shot back in a whisper. I didn’t even know why I was whispering.

Twilight tracked Fluttershy as she left the room.

“Well it didn’t seem like she heard you,” she growled.

“I– Err… Hmm, she didn’t look like she heard me. Maybe she was too focused on your little argument?”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t think so. This needs—” she began.

“—Testing,” I finished.

—————

When Fluttershy came back from the kitchen with Angel in tow, she found Twilight seated awkwardly on the couch and me back on Night Hawk’s former perch. Angel was held quite comfortably in her hooves while she seated herself in a spare recliner, one of only three possible seats in her small living room.

Twilight cleared her throat and launched into her script quickly.

“I’d like to begin by apologising to you, Angel. I shouldn’t have thrown the book at you, no matter how angry I was. That was wrong of me. Will you accept my apology?” She held her hoof out.

Angel stared at it while we waited with bated breath.

Then he slapped it away.

“Angel!” Fluttershy admonished, her face the very picture of shock. “That’s terrible!” Angel blew Twilight a raspberry and kicked out of Fluttershy’s grip. Before any of us could move, he bolted out of the cottage, leaving behind a frustrated owner, a bemused alicorn and a tittering owl.

“Knew it,” I called out. “Angel’s always like that.”

Fluttershy turned to me somewhat defensively. “Now Angel might not be the politest bunny, but he means well most of the time.”

“Why can’t he mean well all of the time?” I shot back.

Fluttershy bit her lip and stared at the floor. “You’re right, he should have been on his best manners after Twilight apologised to him.”

I glanced pointedly at Twilight. Twilight shot back a look that seemed to say ‘hold your horses’. I clacked my beak in response.

“Fluttershy, I want to ask you a quick question.”

Fluttershy blinked at the sudden change in tone and settled back down in her seat. “You’re not mad?” she asked tentatively.

Twilight shook her head. “Actually, it’s about Owlowiscious.”

“Oh no, is he sick or injured? I-I didn’t see anything wrong with him when I talked to him.”

Twilight paused at that. “You talked to Owlowiscious?”

Fluttershy nodded, though her eyebrows wrinkled in consternation.

“Yes, uhm, we agreed that it would be best to wait for you inside. There’s a creature outside… it could be dangerous.” Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment. “I, uhm, meant to talk to you about it, but with things between Angel and yourself… I didn’t know if I could approach you.” She perked up. “I’m actually kind of relieved it’s over.”

Twilight nodded automatically, I could almost see the gears turning in her head.

“So you spoke to Owlowiscious, what did he say?”

Fluttershy looked even more confused. Her gaze shifted uncertainly between us.

“Uhm, he wanted to find you, but then he was okay with coming inside the cottage, I think.”

I fluffed my feather triumphantly.

“Hah! See?” I crowed. “She can hear me talk.”

Twilight pursed her lips. “Huh, so why couldn’t Rainbow hear you?”

I shrugged, bird-like. “I don’t know,” I replied honestly. “Maybe Fluttershy has some affinity with animals, and that somehow helps?”

“No, no, I don’t think that’s possible,” Twilight mumbled. “Magic doesn’t work that way. There has to be an underlying reason that makes more sense. Maybe exposure to the same chemicals?”

“Nopony ever visits you and gets exposed to the same sort of chemicals in your lab,” I put in. “That eliminates the chemical exposure route.”

“Then how?” I said.

“Uhm…”

“Maybe it got into the waterways? Conceivably the waste could have seeped into the supply.”

“But that would mean everypony exposed to the water source would be affected. I didn’t see any of the other ponies in public recognising me speak.”

“Excuse me…”

“Hmm that’s true,” Twilight muttered. “Maybe it has something to do with your immortal connections?” Her eyes widened. “Maybe Pinkie or Applejack have the same ability?”

“Shh!” I exclaimed with a glare. Twilight realised what she said and glanced at Fluttershy guiltily.

I frowned. “We’re not linked that way,” I continued. “At least, not that I know of.”

In silence, Fluttershy spoke up.

“Uhm, Twilight, who are you talking to?”

Twilight stared at Fluttershy. “Owlowiscious, who else?”

Fluttershy looked even more befuddled, if that was possible.

“Uhm, okay. Never mind,” she said quickly when Twilight continued staring at her.

“I thought you said you talked to Owlowiscious?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy ran a nervous hoof down the armrest of her recliner. “Uhm, yes. But uhm, not in that way.” Her eyes widened. “Not that there is anything wrong with your way!”

“You can’t hear him?”

“Uhm, no.”

“What’s he saying then?”

“Uhm, who?”

“Owlowiscious.” Twilight snapped impatiently. “What does he say?”

Fluttershy bit her lip and cringed. “Who?” she offered again.

“Owl—” Twilight stopped herself just in time. She took a deep breath. “Right. All you hear is ‘who’, just like Rainbow.”

Fluttershy nodded slowly. She studied Twilight the same way a sheep does when a wolf is around.

“Of course,” Twilight muttered darkly. “Back to square one.”

I caught sight of Angel around the staircase. He looked at me with eyes dancing with laughter. Both of his paws were clasped to his mouth as his tiny barrel chest shook. I sighed. We had fallen into the same trap of misunderstanding again.

“So, uhm,” Fluttershy mumbled, in voice barely above a whisper. “About the super dangerous creature lurking around in the woods…”

Author's Notes:

Blam, blam, blam. Update spam!

Well not really for this story, but more of all my stories in general.

Next Chapter: Danger? Creatures? Features? Leeches?!

As always, my important readers, thanks for reading!

7 - Woo Who!

Twilight finally seemed to pay attention to Fluttershy. She immediately grew concerned at Fluttershy’s lack of verbosity. You might not know this, but Fluttershy can talk just as animatedly as anypony else when she gets excited, but when she’s scared or intimidated, Fluttershy gets real quiet, and her eyes widen and jump from place to place, almost as if to match the small quiver of her frail frame.

“Dangerous creature? Some sort of monster around here?” Twilight pressed as Fluttershy backed a few steps.

“U-Uh y-yes!” she replied. Her voice quivered slightly. “I heard from Harry the Bear that there was something in the Everfree that was causing a lot of distress. Angel seems to think that it broke in.”

For a mare that couldn't talk to animals, she could get a lot out of them. It was no wonder Angel liked to stick around Fluttershy. She could understand most of what he was saying. Although I still like to think that Angel picked Fluttershy because it suited his somewhat temperamental disposition.

Twilight blinked at Fluttershy. “Well that doesn’t sound so bad." When Fluttershy only looked bewildered at Twilight's lack of awe at how obviously terrifying the creature must be, Twilight tried to clarify her point.

“The Everfree is full of dangerous creatures,” she continued hastily. “Manticores, Hydras, Cockatrices, Timberwolves… There’s a lot to be afraid of.”

Fluttershy acquiesced to Twilight’s point with a gentle dip of her head. “That’s fine,” she said. “Most of the woodland creatures know how to deal with the regular dangers of the Everfree.” Fluttershy bit her lip and peered around the room as if the monster was going to leap out of a shadow and devour them all. Luckily, the shadows stayed where they were.

“It’s something different, though,” Fluttershy continued in a low voice. “And I don’t like it.”

Now that they had resolved their differences, Twilight looked like she was concentrating hard on helping Fluttershy out. I think it was possibly to make it up to her friend. Although none of circumstances surrounding Angel’s little deceit was Twilight’s fault, she may have thought avoiding Fluttershy was reason enough to go above and beyond. That’s why Twilight’s next statement caught me by surprise.

“I’ll go and investigate it!” Twilight exclaimed. She got to her hooves and grinned confidently at Fluttershy. A grin that would not go remiss on Rainbow Dash’s face. A grin that sent shivers down my spine.

“Twilight…” I muttered. I had misgivings about going into the Everfree forest and traipsing around until we found a creature that scared Harry the Bear. Even someone who has lived as long as me would think twice about that endeavour. In fact, being as long lived as me meant I knew my own limits much more than your average owl.

Twilight merely glanced back at me with a raised eyebrow.

I huffed, fluffing my feathers in silent protest. I couldn’t stop Twilight from doing what she wanted, but it didn’t mean I had to like it. Silly mare. She was going to get herself hurt over… over a friend.

Okay, maybe I haven’t got the moral high ground, but I could still see how foolhardy the venture was going to be. Even Fluttershy didn’t know what it was, and she was the animal expert!

Now that Twilight was committed, she pressed forward with her questions, despite the little shrugs and flaps I was making in my little corner of the room. She ignored me. How rude.

“Did you see what it looked like?” Twilight asked.

Fluttershy shook her head timidly, biting her lip nervously as Twilight sighed in disappointment.

“I’m sorry, Twilight, only Harry has seen it and Angel. I can uhm… know what some of my animals want to tell me, but it’s not like I can really talk to them.” She hesitated and then glanced between me and Twilight. “Can you… speak to Owlowiscious?”

Twilight nodded slowly as Fluttershy brightened considerably.

“Really?!” she squeaked in excitement, getting to her hooves. “Oooh, I wonder what he’s saying? Is it a spell? Can I try it? It must be so exciting to know what your pet is finally saying!”

A pet?! Well, I guess you could call me that when I couldn’t talk to Twilight. I was more of an assistant. Winona doesn’t mind being called a pet, but I certainly have a measure of pride.

Twilight hesitated, probably casting her mind back to when she found out I could talk. Oh feathers, that was quite a rumble.

“It’s… not as fun as you think,” Twilight replied.

I didn’t know a pony’s mouth could stretch that wide. Fluttershy was practically radiating joy, a complete flip from her attitude not more than a minute ago.

“Oh, but you can still talk to him. Can you speak to him right now? What is he saying, what is he thinking right now?” Fluttershy continued shooting the questions off at Twilight, but she trotted forward, eyes glued firmly to me on my perch. Within moments, her face was uncomfortably close.

Twilight peered at me with an amused expression. Her eyes danced with laughter.

“What do you think, Owlowiscious?” she called out to me. “Fluttershy wants to know what you’re thinking right now.”

“I’m thinking Fluttershy had a lot of hay for breakfast,” I muttered, leaning away from Fluttershy’s muzzle.

Twilight giggled and repeated what I said.

Fluttershy suddenly looked mortified.

“Oh I’m so sorry!’ she said quickly, pulling back from my perch. “I didn’t mean to make you feel so uncomfortable. It’s just…” She looked at Twilight with eyes filled with no small amount of envy. “It would be nice to know what my animals are saying.”

I shrugged as much as I could with wings. “I can’t answer that,” I said. “I’m as deaf to your animals as you are. I doubt a spell would work anyway. You’d probably get the exact same information as you do now.” I shook my head. “A lot of them are highly opinionated anyway. Stubborn creatures.”

Twilight nodded, but raised an eyebrow at the last part of my sentence.

“Owlowiscious says that you probably know as much as the animals tell you anyway.” She glanced at me briefly, before turning back to Fluttershy. “Don’t worry, you really aren’t missing much.”

I huffed to myself. Really. Has Twilight forgotten all the times I’ve helped her during the night?

Fluttershy grinned. “Don’t worry,” she told me. “Twilight doesn’t mean that.”

I rolled my eyes, but nodded anyway.

“So, Twilight, are we still going to hunt some unknown beastie in the Everfree, or are we going to go home like sensible birds, uh, ponies.”

Twilight shook her head.

“We have to find out what’s scaring all the animals,” she said firmly. She caught my eye and fixed me with a stare until I was starting to feel uncomfortable.

“Oh alright,” I said. “Just make sure you have a teleport spell ready.”

Twilight chuckled. “When am I not ready?”

I didn’t respond to that.

Bad luck and all.

Fluttershy cleared her throat in a sound no louder than a whisper.

“Uhm, if it’s alright with you two, I think I’ll stay in the cottage.” Her lip quivered. “U-Unless you n-need me to come along.”

Twilight nodded easily, I wouldn’t force that poor pegasus to come along too.

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, we can handle it.”

Fluttershy heaved a sigh of relief. “Oh good, I was afraid you might ask. I m-mean, not t-that I wouldn’t want to help! I—”

“I know what you meant,” Twilight replied gently. “Thank you.”

Fluttershy nodded, but she didn’t relax.

“Oh, please do be careful,” she called after us as we headed for the door.

“We will,” Twilight said for the both of us.

I waved Fluttershy a goodbye as we left the cottage.

Time to hunt a mysterious monster.

––––––––

On the way to the Everfree, Twilight had her head in the clouds. Not literally, mind you, although that is entirely possible since we could both fly, but Twilight seemed adamant in walking. I flittered from branch to branch, but it got pretty boring without a conversational partner.

I know what you’re thinking. But Owlowisicious, you’ve been silent all this time when you were with Twilight and Spike, why do you need to talk? Surely you have to be used to this by now.

Well no. Let me explain.

I like talking to myself. I like talking to everyone. In fact I talk to them as if they could answer back. Most of the time they can only hear a ‘who’, but Twilight can now understand what I’m saying. So politeness dictates that I shouldn’t engage in conversation without receiving a ready reply. I’m particular about certain things.

Besides, Twilight seems to be concentrating on something, so I wanted to give her some space.

So onwards we went, all in the silence of the forest, save for the ambiance of leaves rustling, branches creaking as I settled on them and the slight pitter patter of tiny woodland creatures skittering around. I heard a mischief of mice, but I didn’t want to disturb them, so I left them to their own devices.

There was something low-pitched mixed in with the noises of the forest. Even with my excellent hearing, I couldn’t really pin down what it was. It was an uncomfortable sensation, like the prickling of pins and needles wheedling into your ear.

“Hey.”

I almost squawked. Don’t blame me, I was straining for a particular noise, so Twilight addressing me came out way left field.

“What?” I replied in confusion. “What? What?”

“You look like you spaced out there for a second,” Twilight said, trotting up to the tree branch I was perched on. “I got worried that you were no longer following me, so I doubled back.” She looked worried. “Are you alright?”

I blinked at Twilight and nodded. “Yes, mostly. I’m just hearing this… low pitch noise that seems out of place here. I can’t seem to put a feather on it.”

Twilight’s ear flicked as she strained to hear the sound. She waited in silence for a few more seconds, then shook her head.

“I don’t hear it,” she said slowly. “But I don’t have as good hearing as you do.”

I nodded, and was about to take off, but stopped when Twilight cleared her throat and motioned for me to stay where I was. Reluctantly I retracted my wings, noting her troubled expression.

“You know, I was thinking,” she began, then trailed off as she marshalled her thoughts. “Uhh… how is it that I can hear you and nopony else can?”

“That’s what we’ve been trying to find out,” I replied.

Twilight nodded impatiently. “Yes I know, and we’ve put out some theories, but this not-knowing is making me feel uncomfortable.”

I sighed. “Is it so bad?” I said.

Twilight shook her head firmly.

“No!” she said quickly. “No, not at all! Despite what I said, I trust you. I just don’t like unsolved mysteries.”

“Me too,” I said. “But that’s also why we’re trying to find some scary creatures in the middle of the Everfree, right?”

Twilight grinned somewhat ruefully.

“Right,” she said. “Sorry.”

I waved it off with a dismissive wing. “Don’t worry about it. You did it to help a friend. I would have done the same thing, if I had a friend.”

Twilight was smiling at me in a sort of satisfied way. It kind of reminded me of Opal when she found a particularly satisfying spot to sleep on. I admit I was a little perturbed.

“What?” I said.

“Perhaps that’s why you’re also following along with me,” she said, then trotted forward, with a light chuckle echoing back.

I perched on the branch for a few moments.

Helping a friend… that’s what I’m here for.

Hmm, having friends is complicated.

—————

It didn’t take long for us to spot the ‘monster’ of the woods.

“That’s not a monster,” I finally said.

Twilight nodded with a sigh.

They’re certainly intimidating though.

Ahead in a clearing, a menagerie of creatures had gathered. From minotaurs, to ponies, griffons and even a couple of smaller dragons. There were a great many within the clearing we spotted them in. The griffons were the most numerous among the group, and they were dressed in serious-looking armour. Though the armour looked shabby and made-by-claw, they were all business. They scanned their surroundings with sharp eyes and were moving about in a unified manner. We were crouched in the bushes, close enough to smell their cooking, but far enough that we couldn't see more than their general shapes.

"What are they all doing here?" I hissed to Twilight.

Twilight bit her lip as she studied the griffons and their assorted crew going about their business. No wonder the woodland creatures were intimidated, all the clanking of the griffons marching around and the sound of sawing in the woods set me on edge. There weren't many of them, I guessed about ten or twenty of them, but it was worrying that they had decided to make residence in the forest.

“I don’t know, I don’t recognise their insignia.”

Even though I had better eyesight, the way my brain processes images works differently. I could see movement better than something static, and the white cloth tents that the griffon ‘army’ had erected bore a strange-looking symbol.

“It’s an eye within a feather,” I mumbled. The symbol sparked something in the back of my mind. It seemed familiar but I couldn’t place my claw on it.

“I’m going to talk to them,” Twilight decided.

“Hey—” but before I could stop Twilight, she had darted out of the bushes and was headed straight towards the grim-looking griffons. I sighed and flittered closer.

The sentry posted on the outer perimeter must have heard the snap of wood and twigs as we approached, because she shouted something and immediately, some of them dropped what they were doing and picked up some makeshift weapons.

“Something in the bushes!” she exclaimed.

We pushed aside the stray branches and approached.

“Oh, it’s one of the local ponies. False alarm, everyone!”

Some of them that were halfway to mustering grumbled something and trudged back. I made eye contact with Twilight and gestured for her to keep going.

“Stop!” the sentry shouted, and we paused, uncertain. It was obvious from the way she held her weapon that she wasn’t used to it. “No further!” she continued, but her words didn’t seem to carry much weight.

We waited for her to say something, but she didn’t, just keeping the point of the sharpened stick on Twilight. She didn’t threaten me with it, but I could see that from this angle I would be hard to spot. Her head glanced back towards the centre of the camp every now and then, as if she were trying to decide whether or not she should leave us to go fetch a superior. Now on closer inspection she did look rather young, but I wasn’t an expert on griffon physiology, so I didn’t know.

“Geneva, what are you doing over there? Come welcome our guest!”

“B-But she could be a threat!” Geneva muttered.

“Then she would have done something by now,” the other one admonished. “Come on, let her through!”

The sentry mumbled, and then pointed with her stick towards a grinning griffon at the centre of the camp. We took this as an invitation to move forward, but I kept my eye on Geneva as Twilight trotted past. Geneva spotted me and almost dropped her stick in surprise. Then she scrambled back to her post. Strange.

Twilight inclined her head at the other griffon. She was taller and fluffier than Geneva, with faint white streaks going through black feathers on the upper half of her body.

The griffon spotted Twilight and bowed to her, after noticing her wings in addition to her horn.

“Greetings, pony princess. I am Griselda, Who of the Who’s.”

Hmm the name sounded familiar. Not Griselda… who… No, maybe I say that word too much.

“You’re who? Griselda?”

“No. I’m the Who. This is the Who’s.”

“Wait, so who’s who?”

“We all are Who’s, the Who is me, but I’m a part of the Who’s too. It may be confusing knowing who’s who in the who, that is why I am the Who.”

Twilight blinked as she mentally parsed through the sentence.

“So you’re the Who... whose job is to lead the Who’s?”

“That’s it! But the question is… who are you?” Griselda leaned forward, finally noticing me perched on Twilight’s back. “And more importantly who is that?”

“What? Oh, that’s Owlowiscious, he’s my owl assistant. Anyway, I’m Princess Twilight—”

Twilight didn’t get any further.

“An owl?!”

Twilight was suddenly aware of how quiet the camp got. I looked around. Everyone was staring at us.

Then everyone started bowing.

“Owlowiscious…” Twilight mumbled through the side of her mouth, clearly freaking out.

“AHAH!” I shouted, suddenly remembering.

“What?” Twilight said.

“The Who’s! My followers!”

“Followers?!”

“Yeah, I think I had a group of fans a few thousand years ago.” I shrugged self-consciously in embarrassment. “I completely forgot about them.”

“I’ve always wondered what happened to them when I fled the Ottermule Empire.”

Griselda was watching us with a keen eye throughout our whole exchange.

“You can speak with owls?”

Twilight shrugged. “Uhh, no, I can only speak with this one, he’s a little special.”

Griselda leapt forwards, surprising us both.

“This is cause for celebration! This must be the Great Owl, as foretold in the prophesies!”

Twilight stared at Griselda in shock as the camp erupted in cheers.

“Uhhh…” was all she could utter.

Griselda wrapped a feathery arm around Twilight.

“Tonight we celebrate Princess Twilight, the prophet of the Great Owl. All hail the Who’s. All hail the Great Owl.”

“All hail the Who’s! All hail the Great Owl!” the rest of the camp chorused.

“Hmm, this might be a problem,” I commented.

Twilight shot me a look. “You think?” she muttered sarcastically.

Griselda broke off, grinning widely. “You two!” Two griffons paused and saluted, coming to attention before Griselda. “Go send word across the border.”

“What?” Twilight said. “How many of you are there?”

Griselda gave a deeper bow to Twilight than before. “About a hundred thousand at last census, Prophet.”

“Don’t call me that!”

Griselda shifted uncomfortably. “Your most Excellent Princess Prophet Twilight?” she offered.

Twilight groaned. “Why do these sorts of things happen around me?” She glared at me. “This is partially your fault.”

I shrugged, giving Twilight a somewhat petulant look.

“Who, me?”

Author's Notes:

Wow, quite a long chapter.

So... Owlowiscious when were you going to tell me you started a religion?

Next Chapter: Whoot!

As always, my clean readers, thanks for reading!

8 - Boo Who!

Griselda, I thought, that name sounds familiar…

————

Queen Griselda was an elegant griffon with the uncanny ability to turn everything she touched into gold. This wasn’t literally true, but if you had witnessed the way she was able to influence world events that transformed the small backwater country of Griffle into the sprawling Griffondom today, you might have to think twice about logical impossibilities.

Her court was quite bare for a Queen of her calibre, but it thrummed with the authority of one assured of her status. Contrary to popular opinion, Queen Griselda’s courts were not empty for want of applicants. In fact, the list itself was quite long. No, the courts were mostly empty because she had no need for officials to be there. Her only attendants was a scribe from the remote backwater hometown she had originated from, and a small predatory avian that quite liked to sit on her shoulder and hoot.

The bird, of course, was me.

“Fetch me a scroll, Owl. I require something to draw on.”

I stared at the Queen for a moment, then flittered over to her writing desk, grabbing a scroll in my taloned claw and flinging it on her bed covers with a disgruntled huff.

Griselda eyed me curiously.

“What is it, Owl? Tell me.”

I settled on one of the grand bed posts and stared at her. She wanted to talk? Too bad. Griselda stared back, but after a while she blinked and looked away.

“Is this about the new policies?”

I remained silent, watching her shining plumes of feathers reflecting the ambient light filtering through the clear glass windows. Glass was new technology, recently fashioned by experts of griffon science. The tall transparent opulence reflected the grandiose buildings surrounding the palace, but in the distance I could just make out the dirty grey smudge of the slums clinging the edges, like a steadily spreading mould.

I glanced back at the Queen, but otherwise didn’t react.

It had been a while since the little griffon girl Griselda had emerged from her palace. It felt equally as long since I had found the dirty little puffball as an orphan abandoned by her own village. I promised the little hatchling that I would stay with her. I promised the hatchling…

…But this Queen was no longer a hatchling.

With a sigh I returned to observing the bland, cloudless sky. I found myself wishing that I could fly away, to get out of this stifling palace and see something new.

I did make a promise…

—————

I knew Twilight wasn’t a fan of loving adoration and fame, but this sort of worship was far beyond the relatively ‘simple’ Princess-excitement that had taken over Ponyville a little while before. While I wrestled with my memories concerning the small band of thieves I had encountered in the Saddle Arabian desert, Twilight was trying to draw the conversation topic to somepony else so that she could politely excuse herself from present company.

“Owlowiscious?”

We could have teleported out of here, but I was fairly sure that Twilight wanted to keep in the good graces of our hosts. She was probably trying to think of a way of asking these excited followers to leave the dangerous Everfree forest. I mean I’ve been in the forest, and even with my extensive knowledge there are some things I don’t understand about it. Not knowing about something scares me. So generally I stayed away until I could find a reference text on it.

“Owlowiscious!”

“Huh?”

Twilight was frowning at me, her mouth twisted in annoyance.

“I’ve been trying to get your attention for the last few minutes.”

“Sorry,” I replied absently.

Twilight leaned in closer, her expression transitioning quickly from frustrated to worried. “Are you alright?” she whispered. “You don’t seem yourself.”

“I’m fine,” I mumbled in reply. “I just had a few… memories of the past.”

I waved a nonchalant wing and clacked my beak jauntily. Twilight didn’t seem convinced.

“I’m fine,” I repeated firmly. “Don’t worry about me. We need to figure out these, uh… followers.”

Twilight frowned at the party of followers carousing around a large campfire. There were songs, and dancing, and stories around. It all looked very innocent, until I realised that all the lyrics were about me and my escapades a few thousand years ago. Well it was nice to have someone singing about you, but it does get grating when they're still going even after a few hours.

Evidently, Twilight thought the same, although she already seemed annoyed within the first line of their folksong ditty.

“Do you think that maybe we could convince them to go somewhere else?” I asked.

Twilight blinked. “You’re right Owlowiscious, it never occurred to me to ask them to leave!”

“Wow, sheesh, I’m only trying to help,” I groused sullenly. “I didn’t exactly ask for a hundred thousand followers. I’m just as shocked as you are!” The last bit came out more snippy than I intended it to. Twilight glanced my way, but I found something interesting to look at in the tree line.

“Oh,” she said softly. “I didn’t know you felt that way.”

“Yeah, well, it is what it is.”

Twilight was silent for a while.

“Sorry,” she said. “I thought you would be all over this.”

I sighed and swivelled back to Twilight. “No…” I replied. “Just some bad memories, that’s all.”

Twilight nodded sympathetically. “It’s all right, Owlowiscious, you don’t have to tell me.”

“I thought you said ‘friends don’t keep secrets from friends’,” I commented wryly.

To my surprise, Twilight merely patted me on the head.

“Friends also know when friends need space,” she said. “And I’ll always be here if you need a shoulder to cry on.”

For some reason a lump in my throat prevented me from giving a timely reply. I noticed Twilight was getting blurry.

“Wha—”

I brought a wing tip to my eyes and examined the beaded droplets that gathered there.

“Huh.”

———————

“Owl!” Griselda called out sharply. “OWL!”

I was perched in the rafters, unsuccessfully trying to erase my presence. Griselda spotted me almost instantly.

“Owl, what are you doing up there? Get down, I need you.”

I remembered sourly when those words were actually true. With a reluctant flutter, I alighted on my perch.

“Good,” Griselda said. “What do you think you’re doing, skulking around?”

I might have told her to mind her own business, but ever since she started ruling over the country, there wasn’t much that wasn’t her business. Still, couldn’t an owl have a moment to himself, and away from unpleasant thoughts for awhile?

Griselda didn’t seem to notice my reluctance, that or she didn’t much care for my opinion either way. It seems like my use as her prophetic pet had come to an end, and all I did around here was to ease her conscience of the things she was doing, or perhaps I was her conscience, and she couldn’t bear to let me go.

“Could you look over these and give me your opinion?” The Queen commanded, rather than asked. “You’ve always been good with these sorts of things.”

I glanced at the proposal to build a great temple in a mostly inaccessible part of the desert. The surrounding area was ringed with treacherous shifting sands that were alive with deadly creatures. Beyond that were steep cliffs and mountain ranges, and even if you managed to get past all that, there was precious little water in the flat plains that existed further along. That was where she wanted to build a grandiose structure?

I shook my head firmly and hopped away. Why would you even consider such a thing?

“I want something to be remembered by,” Griselda replied to my silent question. She took the scroll and held it as if it were her own hatchling. “The difficulty of such an endeavour will show generations to come my mark on this world.”

I didn’t say anything to that, as had been my custom. Not for the first time in the past few years, I regretted my decision to help the Queen. I would have done anything for the kind little Griselda I had found, but this monster was not who I had kept my promise with. Many lives would be lost in her pursuit of immortality, and I didn’t want to be a part of it.

I flittered back up into the rafters and hid in a shadow. In the morning I would be gone. Perhaps fortunately for me, Griselda didn’t notice my departure, her eyes only saw boundless ambition.

—————

“So what are we going to do about your followers?” Twilight hissed.

I clacked my beak, considering the problem. There wasn’t much we could do to dissuade them from their endeavour, but perhaps we could divert them?

“I was thinking,” I murmured. “If we get these followers to focus on something, we can get them out of the forest. The Stars and Signs know that there are plenty of dangers around here.”

Twilight nodded, she glanced around warily. “There’s also the matter of the monster that Fluttershy mentioned. I don’t feel comfortable leaving them here, when there’s something dangerous on the loose.”

“I agree,” I replied. I ruffled my feathers, trying to think of a proper plan that involved getting the followers out, tracking down an unknown beast, and getting both done without us getting hurt.

“Wait a minute,” I said. “I think I’ve got something…”

Author's Notes:

Some more procrastination.

Next Chapter: We find out what our resident avian has in store for these two.

As always, my nocturnal readers, thanks for reading!

P.S. Sorry for not updating regularly, I'm a slow writer.

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.”

Author's Notes:

RAWR! I AM A SCARY MONSTER!

S-Stop it, don't laugh at me!

Next Chapter: Your bestest friendest.

As always, my rotational readers, thanks for reading!

10 - Whose Line is it Anyway?

There it was, the beast we were looking for. It stood there in all its glory, fangs dripping, tongue lolling and eyes wild and feral as they come for beasts. Black fur streaked with white lines scored its hide, and as soon as I realised what it was we were looking at, I made sure not to make any sudden movements. Barely inching my beak open, I whispered to Twilight.

“Don’t move, don’t move a muscle.”

Underneath, I felt Twilight stiffen slightly, but other than her deliberately forced, but measured, breaths, she followed my instruction flawlessly. The beast was looking at us, as it snarled ominously, a deep rumble that seemed to reverberate the air around us, as if seeking to extinguish our will to live from sound alone. I perched perfectly still, despite feeling a faint vibration from Twilight.

It lumbered a few steps closer, as its eyes locked onto us, pinning us down with its sordid gaze. I stared forward, hoping that Twilight wouldn’t instinctively track the beast with her head as it approached. The sheer size of the beast meant that it topped near the trees, its head nearing to the height of even the tallest branches of the mighty oaks around us.

It growled again, this time much softer, then it eyed us once more before lumbering away slowly, ponderously, without a care in the world. I felt like I had cheated death and courted the grim reaper. Both of us let go of our breath at the same time.

“W-What was that?” Twilight whispered in a voice made harsh through adrenaline.

I couldn’t stop a shiver creeping down my spine as I answered.

“It’s a Bite.”

Twilight blinked. “A Bite?”

I hunched closer to Twilight. “The name is fairly self-explanatory. A Bite is an ancient beast that has the inclination to take a bite out of anything it’s curious about.”

Twilight’s eyes widened. “You don’t think that thing was the beast that Fluttershy—”

“No, no, no!” I shot back quickly. “Definitely not! If a fully grown Bite had wandered into Fluttershy’s cottage, nothing would be left!”

I flittered to a nearby tree that was next to a stump. Instead of a clean cut stump, the stump looked like it had been made by a tree falling over, only… there wasn’t a tree trunk around.

“Here,” I said, pointing to the stump, “the Bite would have chomped on this tree.”

“Why?” Twilight replied, eyebrows wrinkled in confusion. “What would a Bite…?”

“They don’t look like it, what with the fangs and all, but they’re herbivores. They eat trees. Not any tree, mind you, but a certain type of tree in forests like these.”

“Forests like these?”

“Yes, yes, there are more forests like the Everfree forest all around the world.” I waved my wing dismissively. “You don’t need to know about that. What’s important is that Bites love this type of tree, but they don’t usually venture out of the forest. They’re hugely territorial. Something must have forced them to leave.”

“What could make a Bite leave?”

I tapped my beak. “There are only three things an animal would want: Food, shelter, or…”

“Their offspring,” Twilight finished with a look of comprehension dawning on her face.

“That’s right,” I said, getting off the branch and alighting on her shoulder again. “Now, I know it’s dangerous, but I should check out the Bite habitat.”

“You mean we,” Twilight corrected.

“No, I mean I. You need to get the Followers out of here.”

“You think they would listen to me without you?”

I smiled. “Of course, did you see yourself?”

She sighed. “Okay, I’m not comfortable, but this is for their own good.”

“Pretend they’re listening to you because you’re the Princess around here.”

Twilight made to turn towards the Followers, then stopped. “How do you know where the Bite habitat is?”

I looked away. “Well, I kind of don’t.”

She narrowed her eyes. “Wait, why would it make sense for you to go by yourself?”

“I can fly.”

“So can I.”

“I keep forgetting you’re not a unicorn anymore.” I shrugged. “I can fly well.”

Twilight’s mouth twisted into a skeptical grimace. “I have an arsenal of magic spells.”

“I guess now’s a good time to mention that Bites are almost immune to conventional magical spells?”

Twilight stared at me for a few moments, before sighing. “Are you sure you can handle it?”

I smiled at her concern. “Don’t worry, all I’m doing is looking around the area. I don’t even know where it is—” Oops. I wasn’t supposed to say that.

“So how are you going to find it?” Twilight raised an eyebrow with a smirk.

I shrugged. “I thought I might wheel around and try and find it.”

“Then we both would be good at that.”

She had a point.

“Why do you want to do it alone?”

I shifted uncomfortably. This wasn’t something I had wanted to reveal to Twilight just yet. Shaking my head, I clacked my beak and then hopped onto a nearby branch to make sure I was facing Twilight when I told her just what was getting to me.

“The Bites… I thought they were actually extinct.”

Twilight blinked at me, then inevitable confusion flittered across her face as the implications sunk in. “They’re… obviously not now.”

“That’s why I find it concerning. I haven’t heard tell of a Bite for thousands of years.”

“Thousands?!”

“Yes. I can’t mistake it, but Bites are a symptom of two problems.”

“Two problems?”

“First, they’re dangerous, which is self-evident.”

Twilight nodded, then indicated for me to continue.

“And…?”

“And the second, Bites are definitely extinct. I know that for a fact.”

“How?”

“I was there when the last one died.”

—————

Under the blistering blaze of the oppressive heat that pervaded the desert, a small delegation made their way across the dunes. Griffons, four of them toiled under a palanquin, with a severe mistress perched on her seating, surveying her surroundings with a calculated sweep that seemed both disinterested and haughtily commanding.

On the top of the palanquin, unbeknownst to the royalty beneath, an owl gripped the top with his predatory claws. Looking disheveled by the lack of sleep, the sun bearing down on his small frame, and the need to keep away from the monster that lurked beneath his weakening claws, the owl told himself that this day would be the last. A mantra he had repeated almost one hundred times from the first.

That owl, of course, was me.

“Your Majesty.”

It was Seth, one of her chief advisors. Seth had been becoming less slimily servile and more serpentine as of late, not that I paid much attention to the Courts. His presence exemplified the decaying heart I saw in my little Griselda, but I never said a word about him, just as I kept my beak shut as he ordered the griffons to toil in the heat, knowing full well he was ordering their demise.

“What is it?” Griselda’s voice crackled with icy impatience that cut straight through the heat. “Tell me.”

“The temple is moving along as planned, except…”

“Except…?” Griselda’s reply was underscored with anger. Several of her guard rounded on the courtier as he gave a deep bow. The Queen never liked to repeat herself.

“Except for the local wildlife. The oasis nearby that we were drawing water from turns out to be inhabited.”

“Clear it. The temple must be completed.”

“Of course, your Majesty. Would you like them exterminated?”

“Expediently.”

Seth bowed and turned around to leave, but before he could clear the ring of guards, the Queen called out to him.

“Just out of curiosity, what are these beasts called?”

Seth cocked his head. “I believe they are called Bites.”

——————

“Do you think that has something to do with this?”

I shook my head. “I don’t get it. Bites are supposed to gather around magical hotspots, but they haven’t appeared since…”

“Since what?”

“Since the griffons burned down their home and eradicated them from the oasis they originally inhabited thousands of years ago.”

“But why come out after all this time?”

“I don’t know. It worries me.”

Twilight considered what I had told her, pacing around a couple of circles before nodding to herself and then looking back up at me.

“Right now, the priority should be to seal off the Everfree forest. Those Bites are dangerous, so we need to lessen possible exposure before we think of way to deal with them.”

“You’re not thinking of…” I trailed off.

Twilight cocked her head. “Thinking of what?”

“Of exterminating them?”

Twilight gasped. “No! Of course not! Why would you ever think that?!”

I heaved a sigh of relief. “Nothing, nothing. It was a stupid thought.”

Twilight looked like she was about to add something more, but she glanced back at me and closed her mouth.

“Are you alright, Owlowiscious?” she asked gently.

“Yes, sorry, I was just… never mind. I’ll tell you later, for now we have to clear the forest.”

“That’s right. I’m going to make sure your Followers are following my instructions.”

“The Who?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “The Who’s.”

“Whose who?”

“Ha, ha,” Twilight grumbled, “just take this.” With that, Twilight summoned a parchment, quill and ink. She quickly scribbled a message and rolled it up, passing the document to me.

“What’s this for?” I said with more than a little confusion. “Need me to fly to the Princesses?”

Twilight chuckled. “Aren’t you forgetting somepony, or rather, some zebra?”

“Zecora!”

“Right, she’s in the forest too, she might be danger, heck, she might even know more about these Bites and how to deal with them.”

“They’ve been extinct for thousands of years, you know.”

“She always seems to know about the strangest things.”

I couldn’t argue with that. Zecora was actually my second choice to be a pet for. If only if she were more amenable to keeping animals around. She seemed to suspect I would eat something in her hut. I’m not that stupid. I’m also carnivorous. I don’t drink boiled plants.

“Done, where should we meet?”

Twilight thought about it briefly, before pointing towards Ponyville. “Let’s meet on the path towards Ponyville. Head there as fast as you can!”

With a jaunty hoot, I took off, heading towards the resident potions master.

———————

Ahead, I spotted the telltale glow of Zecora’s hut amongst the darkening light. I suspected that it was mainly due to the trees being more clustered around Zecora’s humble abode, but it may also be getting closer to evening. That would be a problem. Bites were mostly dark and their coat broke up their shape, making them impossible to spot even with my keen eyes. I needed to get Zecora out.

“Hey, Zecora, open the door!”

I pounded on the door with a free claw. It wasn’t very effective, and there seemed like there was no response, so I decided to use my head.

Literally.

Smack.

Ow, that’s going to leave a mark.

“My, my, what do we have here? A wandering pet of Twilight has appeared.”

I turned around woozily to make out Zecora standing on the path with her saddlebags full of strange plants and herbs. She eyed me with apparent amusement at my desperate efforts to reach out to her when she wasn’t even there. I felt like an idiot.

That’s not a perfect rhyme, I thought darkly.

“Is that a letter you have in your grip? Let us see the fruits of your long trip.”

With a scan of the letter, Zecora’s curious expression changed to confusion, then rapidly descended to worry and alarm.

“Owlowiscious, we must fly! I will gallop ahead, you must take to the sky!”

Surprised the zebra didn’t ask any further questions or even hesitate, I took to the air as she bolted down the path. We didn’t make it far.

With a shuddering roar that shook the leaves off the trees near us, a Bite came out from the left in a shambling lumber. Without even missing a step, Zecora fetched something from her saddlebags and flung it at the Bite. It roared as it was caught face-on with the satchel that Zecora had thrown at it. I veered away as a plume of green powder exploded out of the bag.

“Quickly now while it is currently distracted, that is all the poison powder I have extracted!”

Flapping ahead, I wheeled momentarily around to see if Zecora was alright. The zebra was making excellent time, and I could no longer see the Bite.

A chilling roar slammed into us.

Needing no further encouragement, Zecora and I doubled our efforts. I shot a look back, then saw the shape coming. With a harsh shriek, I dived down and slammed into Zecora, forcing her to stop just as another Bite charged past us, missing us by less than a foot. She veered off the path and stumbled over a fallen log. We tumbled together and I felt a sharp pain lance through my left wing.

Zecora got up and stared at me, then where the Bite had gone.

“No time for gawking,” I croaked. “Go, go, go!”

Zecora seemed to hear my message and she nodded. I prepared to take off again, but cried out as my wing suddenly seized. I must have twisted it when I hit Zecora. I hope Zecora wasn’t coming back for me, if she knew something about Bites, they wouldn’t go after the smaller problems, when there were bigger threats about.

Then I saw her, she had rounded back.

“No, no, no!” I yelled at her. “Get away!”

It was useless, I saw the Bite behind her. It was gearing up for another charge. Zecora scooped me up, despite my protests, and rounded a tree. The cover of the trees weren’t going to help us. We were trapped. I couldn’t tell her. We had to run.

The Bite roared again, snarling a challenge. Then it charged. Zecora, stepped out, facing the Bite. Then she charged straight at the Bite.

“We’re going to die, we’re going to die, we’re going to die!” I screamed.

The Bite tensed and leapt towards us, claws outstretched. Zecora waited until the last moment, then she ducked. It was only moments, before I registered another flash of black and white, and I realised it was the first Bite we had encountered, green powder still on its muzzle. I gaped as the first Bite tackled other, snarling and scratching each other as they tumbled off to the right, narrowly missing the opportunity to crush us along the way.

“That will not keep them fighting for long, we must leave before they find out what’s wrong.” She got up, helped me onto her shoulder and then broke into a brisk trot away.

I stared at Zecora with wide eyes. Maybe I should have picked her.

Author's Notes:

I've got the hiccups, and a lot of tests. I still got this gem out. Hope you like it.

Next Chapter: Who's who?

As always, my opulent readers, thanks for reading!

P.S. Needs editing, I know. I will make a pass in a few days.
P.P.S. Also thinking up of chapter titles I swear takes me days.

11 - Whoop de doo

A few minutes after our near-death experience, Zecora spotted a manticore and sighed with relief. I know that's usually not the usual response, but heck, after watching two creatures that could literally rip trees apart almost kill you, a manticore seems almost normal. Instead of making our life more difficult, the manticore glanced at us with disinterest and loped away.

“These herbs are still of great use, but they do us no good when Bites are loose.”

I didn’t reply to that. I was still trying to swallow back a heart that wanted to exit through my mouth.

“You are right my friend, time is of the essence, a hoof we must lend.”

We caught up with Twilight as she was herding the last of the Who’s. Every time she asked them to do something, the Follower would bow ridiculously low, and things would often spill out of the backpack or saddlebag they were using. I think that was frustrating her more than anything else.

When she spotted us, she heaved a sigh of relief. “Zecora, Owlowiscious, you’re both safe!” She gave each of us a hug. I eased myself away and perched on her shoulder before she squashed a few more of my primaries.

“Twilight Sparkle, I have received your letter, I wish our circumstances could be better.”

“Me too. Zecora, do you know anything about these Bites?”

“Ah you are familiar with their name? Then you must know they are not so tame. Apart from fangs and teeth so sharp, I would not know where to start.”

That’s still not a perfect rhyme.

Twilight nodded, not seeming to notice. She gestured behind her. “We found these… Followers setting up camp in the Everfree for some reason.” Twilight took in the forest with curious eyes. “I don’t know why everything seems to happen here.”

I tapped Twilight on the shoulder with a claw. “Maybe they’re attracted to the hotspot too? Seems like an innate sense you ponies have.”

Twilight considered the statement, looking surprised, as if the thought had never occurred to her.

“Hmm, could be possible, but we’d never be sure unless we’ve had tests done.” She turned to me. “Have you checked the area for smaller Bites?”

“For little baby Bites?” I shook my head in disappointment. “I haven’t had the opportunity, two big Bites came out of nowhere and attacked us.”

Her eyes widened. “Are you alright?”

I shrugged, wincing as that motion sent a twinge of pain through one of my wings. “Could be better,” I answered, motioning to the zebra. “Zecora was amazing, she threw a bag of poison and charged at a Bite like it was nothing.”

“Wow that must be—” Twilight abruptly stopped in the middle of her sentence when she realised that Zecora, and the rest of the Who’s were staring at her.

“Perhaps an explanation is in order.” Zecora glanced back at the Everfree. “But maybe not while we are still at the border.”

Twilight nodded, signalling to the rest of the Who’s standing around. “We need to get to Ponyville. You, what’s your name again?”

“Geneva, Most Excellent Princess Prophet.”

“Okay, thank you Geneva.” Twilight frowned. “Also, don’t call me that.”

“Call you what, oh Most Excellent Princess Prophet?”

“The Princess Prophet thing.” Twilight heaved a weighty sigh. “Just call me Twilight. Or Princess, even.”

Geneva bowed lower. “Yes, uhh, your Most Royal Highness, Princess Twilight.”

From the sound of the smack, Twilight’s facehoof must have been painful. She took a calming breath and licked her lips.

“Geneva, I’m just Twilight.”

Geneva nodded. “Yes, oh Magnificent Twilight the Fair and Just.”

Twilight’s eyes shot to the sky as if trying to extract patience from the sun above. She shook her head and sagged her shoulders, probably deciding that it would be best to put the issue of their deification to a latter time.

“Okay Geneva, we’ll discuss titles later. Right now, I have a friend that lives close to the Everfree. Her name is Fluttershy, a pegasus that lives in a small cottage and tends to the animals nearby. Can you go over there and explain there are dangerous Bites around, and that she needs to come with you back to me?”

“As you command, Princess Prophet.”

Twilight groaned. “Can we not use Prophet?”

“Forgive me, Princess Prophet, addressing you in any other way would seem just… too disrespectful.” Geneva hesitated, then gave a timid bow. “If I may humbly add an apology for threatening you earlier with that stick…”

Twilight smoothed her expression, giving the stricken griffon a slight smile. “Oh don’t worry, I know you were doing your job. I need to ensure the safety of all of your Followers.” Twilight shifted uncomfortably. “I know you’re technically not citizens of Equestria, so consider this a favour to me—”

Geneva bowed lower. “Your boundless mercy and enlightening forgiveness speaks for itself, Princess Prophet. I swear to carry out your orders.”

“You don’t have to go that far—”

Geneva flattened herself to the ground. “O-Of course, Princess Prophet, if you find me unworthy, after all—”

Twilight hastily picked the griffon up by her shoulders. The griffon looked mortified that Twilight would even touch her and stood much like a petrified cat in the arms of a grabby foal.

“Okay, okay, please carry out my request. You’re perfect for the job.”

“Thank you, Most Excellent Princess Prophet, I will not fail you!”

As Geneva left, I whispered into Twilight’s ear.

“I think you’ve made a friend, Princess Prophet of Friendship.”

She smacked me.

I winced, but split into a silly grin.

“Worth it.”

————————

Zecora was silent on the walk back to Ponyville, and I was beginning to get concerned about the surreptitious glances from the Zebra. Ever since my little chat with Twilight, Zecora had taken to observing me when she thought I wasn’t looking.

“You know, I think Zecora is suspicious of me,” I said finally.

Twilight glanced back at Zecora. She appeared to be having a conversation with one of the Followers that I saw back at the campsite. I recalled this one near a cauldron when we were there, and it suddenly occurred to me that instead of food, the Follower could have been concocting a potion.

Twilight gave me a look. “You think she might be up to something?”

I stared at the zebra, feeling a little dimwitted for bringing it up.

“No. I mean she probably thinks it’s strange that you’re talking to your pet owl.”

Twilight bit her lip, a faint blush seeping to her cheeks. “I would have explained, but it’s really your secret.”

I blinked at her in surprise. “I thought friends didn’t keep secrets from friends.”

Twilight sighed. “I get the feeling this is different. Besides, she hasn’t asked me about it yet.”

“Okay, I guess that makes sense. You can tell her, I don’t think my secret is going to stay a secret for very long.” I cocked my head as a thoughtless idea occurred to me. “You know…”

“Mm?”

“I’ve always wondered why Zecora rhymed?”

Twilight nodded, her face splitting with a wide grin that shared my sentiments. “I know, right? I’ve always wondered but I’ve always been afraid to ask.”

“Yeah, I thought it’d be rude.”

Twilight clicked her tongue. “Exactly, but I really want to know.”

“Maybe we should ask her? We could find out later.”

We both turned to look at Zecora… and found her staring straight back.

“On second thought…” I mumbled.

Zecora made her way to us, trotting a little faster to walk abreast. “I know from those looks you have a question, is there anything both of you would like to mention?”

“Zecora…” Twilight trailed off, as she tried to grope for a tactful way to put it. “We were wondering…”

Zecora gave her an encouraging smile, bobbing her head.

Twilight did a sort of shrugging hunch as she walked, which was impressive, since she was a quadruped. “I… really want to know why you always speak in rhymes.” She blushed at Zecora’s look. “If you want to, of course.”

Zecora considered this for a moment, then gave Twilight a slight smile. “One reason that I may impart, is that rhyming keeps the mind sharp. My words are considered most tactfully. Thought clearly, spoken dearly, communicated accurately.” Her smile turned devious. “Or perhaps the reason could be a cursed vine, having stolen normal speech of mine? Maybe, you may voice, these rhymes are simply a fleeting choice this time? It could be this, it could be that, it could be gossip ponies have found. Maybe Zecora likes the sound of words in rhyming couplet bound.”

Zecora grinned somewhat ruefully. “The truth of my rhyming, I wish to confess, is a tale I would not think would impress. I used to be brash and harshly spoken, it was too late to see what was broken.” Zecora grew pensive as she continued. “As a young zebra I had thought I was strong, but the loneliness finding out I didn’t belong….”

Zecora shook her head and gave a sad smile. “My mastery and craft did me no good, and in a bout of foolishness I thought I understood. I brewed a potion to cure my sharp speech. In the end, nothing was mended, and my friends were out of reach… I could not cure this ailment of my own, born from seeds I myself had sown.”

Judging by Twilight’s look, it seemed like the thought had never occurred to her that Zeocra’s rhymes were the tragic result of her own troubles in dabbling with dangerous magic.

“Are you, alright?”

Zecora’s lips twitched into a smile. “Though I’d found a rhyming cure, time had moved on, I was not sure. I was once a mare without a care. Too much to bear, I had fallen to despair. I keep the curse to remind me so, do not treat lightly those from below.”

Twilight walked on ahead, unable to think of what to say. I stayed silent, for once, not knowing what I should add to the conversation. Zecora saved us the trouble of thinking up something to say.

“Now that I have revealed my troubled past, I would like to know why Owlowiscious has followers amassed?”

“How’d she know it was me?” I muttered.

Twilight repeated the question.

Zecora glanced at me. “An eye within a feather? It is as clear as the weather. You may talk with the owl, true, but from far lands I have come from, too.”

Ah, that explains it. She must have heard about the Followers of the Who from travelling from one land to another.

Twilight shrugged uncomfortably. “You’re not surprised I could speak with Owlowiscious?”

Zecora cocked her head. “Many things in Ponyville defy explanation, I have learned not to question causation.” Seeing Twilight’s look, Zecora added. “I cannot hear what he has to say, I am deaf to what he has to convey.”

I ruffled my feathers. Well, it was worth trying. This mystery of Twilight being the only one to understand me was perplexing. Maybe she should talk to Winona, if she can talk to her, maybe we could find something out. I perked up. That’d be a great idea, except we need a way to deal with the Bites first, we can’t just leave them alone.

————————

We were only a few steps into town, before ponies instantly swarmed the congregation.

“Princess Twilight, what is happening? There are more than a hooful of ponies, griffons and even dragons in the town!” Mayor Mare stumbled to a halt in front of Twilight. “Is something wrong?”

Twilight greeted Mayor Mare with a wobbly smile. “You can say that, though these aren’t the real trouble. Ah, just in time, Griselda?”

“Princess Prophet, your Excellency.”

Twilight sighed. “This is Griselda, the Who of the Who’s.”

“The Who?”

“Yes. The Who of the Who’s. Look the titles will be a little confusing but their organisation spans over a hundred thousand followers.”

Mayor Mare straightened, her eyes widening. “And are they all coming to Ponyville?”

“Yes.”

“No.”

Twilight shot a look to Griselda who merely blinked back. “Now that we have located the Great Owl,” she said. “It is duty to follow you to the end of the new era.”

Mayor Mare reared her head. “Twilight…”

“No. Hold on, Mayor.” Twilight turned to Griselda. “I would like you and the followers to stay out of the Everfree forest, among other dangers, the Bites aren’t something you can casually address. In the meantime, Ponyville cannot possibly support your population. Please leave the main group of followers at the border. You may keep what you have inside Equestria around for now, but they must be outside Ponyville’s town limits and most of you should keep your distance from the town’s residents unless absolutely necessary.”

“Is that a command, Princess Prophet?”

Twilight pressed her lips tightly together. “If need be.”

Griselda gave Twilight a graceful bow. “It will be as you command, Princess Prophet.” She gave a nod to Mayor Mare. “We will respect your laws and make sure there is as little disruption as possible. You have my word.”

Twilight nodded. “Thank you, Griselda, now I think you two will have lots to discuss. Mayor Mare, there is a dangerous creature in the Everfree so I will try and contain the situation before it blows out of proportion.”

Mayor Mare’s eyes widened. “Are we in any danger, should I order an evacuation?”

Twilight shared a glance with me. I slowly shook my head.

“No… not for now, but I think the town should be on alert.”

“Thank you…” Mayor Mare trailed off as Griselda took a few steps forward with a somewhat disarming smile.

She indicated with an open arm to her side. “Would you like to discuss how we may be incorporated outside the town limits? I assure you we will be out of your mane as much as possible…”

As the two strolled off, Twilight heaved a sigh of relief. “That’s one thing out of the way…”

“Princess Prophet!”

Twilight turned around. It was Geneva. “Oh, hello Geneva.” Twilight scanned the skies. “Where’s Fluttershy? She should have come with you.”

Geneva alighted with a stumbling half-bow. “I told her of the Bites and as soon as I did, she disappeared back into her home yelling something about saving all her animals.” Geneva bowed lower. “I’m sorry, Princess Prophet, I tried to get in, but she locked the doors and the windows and wouldn’t answer my hails.”

Twilight clicked her tongue. “Ah no, it’s not your fault, Geneva, I should have known that Fluttershy would place the safety of her animals first, I will go and help her, you should join back with the rest of the Followers.”

Geneva shifted on her paws. “All the same Princess Prophet, I think we should send you an escort.”

Twilight shook her head. “An escort? I’m flattered, but you are not Equestrian citizens, nor militarily trained. Bringing you, or any other Follower along would endanger us both.”

Geneva wrung her claws. “Princess—”

Twilight held up a hoof. “Thank you, Geneva, I’ll be fine.”

We left Geneva while she was pacing, pausing only to let Zecora know that we were heading to Fluttershy’s cottage. Zecora told us she’d keep an eye on the Followers of the Who, but from the way Geneva perked up and rushed off, I had a bad feeling that something Twilight had said, might have tipped Geneva off to doing something drastic. The poor soul was eager to please, but that fervour was a little disturbing, she was willing to put herself in danger simply because Twilight had been able to speak to me.

Luckily, another pony might have been tempted by the sway of absolute obedience and the willing sacrifice of over a hundred thousand members of an ancient cult, but Twilight just seemed uncomfortable. Clinging onto her mane as she took to flight, I was suddenly optimistic as to how this little rodeo might turn out.

————————

Then again, maybe not.

“YOU WHAT?!”

Fluttershy cringed under Twilight’s heated gaze. She made a visible effort to calm herself.

“Sorry, sorry, with all that’s going on I didn’t expect…” She shook her head. “Although now a lot of things are starting to make sense.”

“I’m sorry, Twilight, but I couldn’t just leave her…”

Twilight sighed. “No, no, of course not. I just… our luck is just really bad.”

I stared at the cooing little mess of the creature. It was kinda cute, but sorta knowing that it would grow up into, it lost a little of its vulnerable attraction.

“Gees Twilight, that’s a…”

“Yes, I know, a baby Bite, I don’t know what we should do.”

“Get rid of it!” I shot back.

Twilight pursed her lips. “We can’t do that. Besides, Fluttershy wouldn’t give it up just like that.”

“Her,” I said with a sigh, “and I think she named her, so it’s not going to be easy.”

“Wait,” Twilight said, turning to Fluttershy. “You named it?”

“Her name is Streak, and she’s hurt, we can’t abandon her.”

Twilight held up her hooves. “Of course not!” She blinked at Fluttershy’s reaction. “What?”

“Oh… uhm, I thought you might be against me keeping her.”

“Well not for now, we just need a way to do it safely. Can’t you return it back to her parents?”

Fluttershy considered the thought, then shrugged. “I don’t know if she could survive being hurt like this.”

I glanced down at the bandaged foot and the thick gauze that covered the side of the baby Bite. That was pretty hideous.

“What did that?” I asked.

Twilight repeated the question. Fluttershy shrugged. “I found her in the middle of a clearing, there wasn’t much around, but I think she had somehow crawled away from whatever caused this.” Fluttershy shivered. “From the wounds, it was either claws, or…”

“Or…?” Twilight prompted.

“Or an animal trap.”

Twilight’s frightening visage sent a prickling sensation through my primaries.

“A trap? Are you sure?”

Fluttershy shook her head. “I’m not sure, but they’re regular, and unevenly spaced. Claw marks or teeth marks tend to be roughly even.”

“Do you think there might be trappers around? Anypony from the outside?”

Fluttershy shifted on her hooves. “I’ve heard that there were a group of poachers spotted nearby, but I didn’t think they would be, uhm, crazy enough to go into the Everfree.” Her jawline set into a disapproving scowl. Those poachers should be ashamed of themselves, going after animals, and especially as little and defenceless as this one.” She hugged the baby Bite protectively to herself. The Bite squirmed a bit and nipped Fluttershy on the ear. Though she winced slightly, the Bite didn’t draw blood, and she merely smiled in response.

“There, there, we’ll get you back as soon as you’re all better.”

The baby Bite seemed to nod. “Okay.”

That nearly knocked me off the perch in surprise. “Did you hear that?”

Twilight was gaping at the Bite. “Yes! It spoke!”

Fluttershy glanced down at the Bite, then back at us. “Really?” She looked disappointed. “I didn’t hear anything.”

Twilight cocked her head. “Do you think Bites are sapient?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, we don’t know much about them.”

“If I can hear them… what does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “but I’m just as shocked as you.”

Angel signalled at me.

“What?”

He thumped his foot and made a few waving gestures, then pointed out the door.

“Hey, I think Angel might have an idea,” I said.

Twilight quickly related this to Fluttershy. From her envious look, I think she really wanted to know what we were saying first-hoof.

As we came outside, Angel started hopping towards Sweet Apple Acres.

“Hang on,” I called out. “Now?”

“What?” Twilight said.

“He wants to hold a meeting, but like I said, now?”

Angel crossed his arms, looking impatient.

“We can’t bring a baby Bite into Sweet Apple Acres, I don’t think you noticed, but Bites can destroy trees and that’s an apple orchard.”

Angel considered this for a moment then shrugged and pointed to Fluttershy.

Fluttershy took a couple of steps back. “Me? Go there?”

Angel nodded, then mimed a dog, barking and sniffing. It would be hilarious if I didn’t have context for what he was talking about.

“Winona?” Angel nodded as Fluttershy bit her lip. “But I can’t leave—”

“It’s okay, Fluttershy, I’ll take all three of us.” Twilight rubbed her forehead. “It might be good to see what Applejack thinks anyway.” She glanced towards the forest. “If a Bite comes out looking for its young again, you need to give it up.”

Fluttershy glanced uncertainly at the baby Bite and back to her friend. Her eyes were round and pleading.

“Fluttershy,” Twilight said gently. “I know it’s hard, but you know it’s the right thing to do. We can’t afford to get you hurt.”

For a moment, we both waited with bated breath, as Fluttershy tensed. Then she sagged, giving a slight, but resolute, nod.

“Okay,” she said quietly. “I will keep an eye on it, but Twilight?”

Twilight paused, her wings already outstretched to begin takeoff. “Yes?”

“I hope you’re around if I find the poachers… because I might find it hard to be kind to them.”

That’s when I saw it, a flash of steel hidden beneath the placid ocean of Fluttershy’s eyes. A hardness that could stare a cockatrice down, frighten a dragon, or stand up to frightening odds but for the act of saving a friend. For a moment, I saw Fluttershy, not disappointed, or testy, or even angry. This time I caught a glimpse of Fluttershy furious.

I was glad I was on the right side.

On Twilight’s back, that is.

Author's Notes:

I need sleep. zzzzz

Next Chapter: Meeting adjourned on account of GIANT MONSTERS.

As always, my frenetic readers, thanks for reading!

12 - Whodunnit?

Before Fluttershy left, we questioned Streak; we needed to know what we were getting ourselves into.

“Come on, we need to catch those poachers.”

“Hold on, Twilight. Hey Fluttershy—oh for feather’s sake, can you tell her?”

“Fluttershy! Wait!”

We landed next to a surprised Fluttershy.

“We need to ask Streak a couple of questions, do you mind?”

“Oh not at all!” Fluttershy hesitated briefly. “Erm, if you don’t mind, can you translate for me? I mean, if you want to, that is.”

“Sure!” Twilight replied, then she turned to Streak. “Erm, Streak, can you hear us?”

Streak blinked at us, then when she saw us all staring at her, she tilted her head. “My name is not Streak.”

“Then what is it?”

“It’s Streakimilidiliowlinia!”

Twilight’s eyebrows drew together. “So it’s Streak.”

“No it’s Streakimilidiliowlinia!”

I glanced at Twilight. “It’s surprising how close Fluttershy got without even asking.”

“She asked,” Streak replied, “and I answered, but she just kept calling me Streak.”

“So you’re Streak.”

“No I’m Streakimilidiliowlinia!”

“Right, Streak, we need to ask you a few questions, please.”

Streak made to reply, but then rolled her eyes as she huffed. “Oh fine, whatever.”

“Do you know where your mother is?”

Streak went quiet for a few moments as tears welled up in her eyes. “No.” She glanced towards the forest. “She was trying to chase off some bad things.”

“Bad things? What kind of things?” Streak shrunk away from Twilight’s intense look. The offending alicorn immediately smoothed her expression. “Sorry! Sorry! I just wanted to know.”

Streak nodded warily. “It’s okay. The other pony is nice but she talks to me like I’m two years old. I’m glad you don’t.”

“How old are you?” I asked.

I nearly fell off Twilight’s shoulder when she answered. “I’m five!”

“You can hear me?” I spluttered.

Streak tilted her head. “You can hear me, can’t you?”

Twilight smiled at her. “Well, we want to get you back to your mother, she must be worried sick about you.”

Streak shivered in her blanket wrappings. “The mean things are in the forest. You have to help Mommy.”

I chirped at her. “Don’t worry, Twilight is a very powerful magical princess.”

“A princess?” Streak tilted her head. “What’s that?”

“Absolutely nothing!” Twilight cut in before I could say anything. “Don’t worry about it!” She squealed happily and danced on the spot.

“What’s magic?” Streak motioned at Twilight with her head. “And what’s she doing?”

I shrugged at the young Bite as I answered in Twilight’s stead. “Erm, I’ll explain later.” I sent the beaming alicorn a quizzical look. Why was she so happy? “Can you tell us what these mean things look like?”

“They had horns and they were very strong and they looked mean.”

Very helpful, I thought to myself, but that wasn’t really fair on her. She was on the run at the time. Still, it was frustrating not knowing the full extent of what we were going to face.

“Right. I think you should stay here with Fluttershy.”

“Okay, I will stay with the weird pony that talks slow.”

When we were done, we handed Streak back to Fluttershy, who smiled endearingly at the struggling bundle of fur. Fluttershy made some cooing noises, but Streak merely rolled her eyes and crossed her forelegs.

When Fluttershy asked about what we spoke about, Twilight and I decided to keep the last part Streak mentioned to ourselves.

————————

As we headed back to Ponyville, I enjoyed the feeling of wind ruffling my feathers. My wing was still hurt, but considerably less so than before. Twilight insisted I perch on her shoulder, though, so I did that as we flew. I caught her looking thoughtful, however, and decided to see if she would share any thoughts as her eyebrows furrowed with her deep rumination.

“What’s going on in that big brain of yours?”

Twilight’s expression turned wry, though she kept facing forward, having learned quicker than Rainbow that to look away from what was in front of you while flying was to hit a cloud.

“Was I that obvious?”

“Yes.”

She sighed. “The Whos, the Bites, talking animals, there’s just so much happening all at once… I think I’m going crazy!”

I patted her on the shoulder with a free foot. “You’re doing fine, Princess. It’s not like this is the first time you’ve had to deal with a crisis.”

“I don’t like to deal with crises. I just want to have some quiet time, read some books and retire to a big bed with soft covers and a pillow. Sometimes… I think that I would be happier being somepony else.”

My beak flopped open in astonishment.

“Woah.” I realised, for the first time, that Twilight might never have wanted to be a princess, and yet the role and responsibility of being one had been foisted upon her. I caught her worrying about whether she’d live up to expectations or anxiety about her performance, but never directly about her position. “Do you regret becoming a princess?”

“No, no, no,” Twilight shot back quickly, “it’s not like that. There’s so much great about this position. I can help others, teach others, learn and grow and see so much. I just… wish I could do that without the fate of Equestria laying at my hooves every time.”

I finally understood. It wasn’t so much that Twilight didn’t want to be a princess, she simply wanted to be somepony that helped others without that crushing weight of responsibility. And it was a heavy weight, the burden of lives never got lighter, was worrying her.

“If it helps, I think that you’re probably the most suited for this job. I’ve seen a lot of rulers in my time, and I think you’re one of the best.”

“You really think so? Also, many rulers?”

“Hey I’ve lived a long time. And, well, like I said, you’re not the best-looking one.” I got smacked by a backstroke-wing for that. Worth it. “But, you know, anything that doesn’t look like a bird, looks weird. At least you have wings, which is a bonus. I haven’t told you this before, but I only stick around interesting beings, and while you aren’t perfect, you’re super interesting.”

“Thanks, Owlowisicious. You know… Streak not knowing I was a princess made me happy for a bit.”

“Why?”

“Because she didn’t think it was a big deal and just treated me like I was normal.”

That’s right, she was freakishly happy when Streak didn’t know that Twilight was a princess. But I still didn’t get it. “Lots of ponies treat you like normal.”

“Of course, if they know me, but they all treat me like a princess if they don’t.”

“Some ponies don’t bow to you when they meet you, or treat you like a princess.” I’ve seen quite rude fellows in my time, but that’s proof that most ponies or other creatures didn’t care she was a princess, right? “That means they don’t care, right?”

“Actually, it shows that they still do. They either treat me reverently, or irreverently; it’s all polar opposites and extremes.” Twilight shook her head morosely. “It’s never like it was before, just a ‘hello’ or a ‘good day’ or a casual ‘hey, how’s it going?’. I miss just being a normal pony.”

“What?” I chuckled. “You are the normalest pony I know, Twilight. Don’t ever think you’re different, or you’ll start acting like it.”

Twilight’s ear twitched as she smiled. “You’re right, Owlowiscious.” Then she turned silent and flew on a little while. I felt a little bit of melancholy from the neurotic mare, so I decided to set her straight.

“You know, I never told you my real name.”

That was enough to stop Twilight dead in the air.

“Oh dear Celestia, I haven’t even thought about that!” She turned around to me. “I’m sorry, Owl—” She blushed. “Sorry, erm, habit. What’s your real name?”

“Oh so now you ask.”

Twilight fumbled around for words as she blushed deeply. “I-I didn’t mean it! I’m just so used to calling you Owlowiscious, I mean, now that I think about it, that’s a pretty crude name… It’s actually quite ridiculous.”

“I mean really, it’s like calling somepony ‘poniponicia’! How rude!”

“Sorry!” Twilight bit her lip. “What should I call you? What’s your name?”

I laughed at her. “I don’t have one. Most creatures I meet are content with just calling me ‘owl’. You can just call me Owlowiscious. I quite like that name.”

Twilight puffed her cheeks out and pouted. “That was mean.”

“It got you to stop brooding, didn’t it?”

“Oh fine. Yeah, I guess it did.”

“And you did ask me for my real name in a roundabout way before, you know?”

“What? When?”

“All the way back when you were interrogating me. You said: “Spill it, Owlowiscious. If that is indeed your real name.”.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “That sounds so cheesy when you repeat it like that.”

“It was cheesy. What were you trying to be? A detective?”

“I thought I was doing pretty well, actually,” Twilight grumbled. “It got you to talk.”

“But not my name.” I chuckled. “That’s what you get for applying stuff you read in books into real life.”

“It would have worked if this was a story. Besides, you spilled everything, so there.”

“Well… I guess it did,” I fluffed my feathers and tilted my head at her. “So we’re probably in a story.”

Twilight laughed. “Oh, the story of our lives! I forgot owls could be so philosophical.”

I clacked my beak at her. “We are very wise. Or only me. The others give me a bad reputation, all they do is hoot. Pretenders!”

“What do other owls talk about?”

“Oh boring things, you would not imagine! Like existence, the meaning of life and so on.”

“Aren’t those really important questions?”

“Not if you spend your whole life on it! It’s all Gummy’s fault; he thinks he’s so clever, that armchair philosopher. I, at least, have experienced more in heaven and on earth than he has piddling around in a swamp and staring into the Cosmic Void.”

“Wait, Owlowiscious, you’re telling me Gummy’s reached enlightenment? Also, what’s the Cosmic Void?”

“Oh of course now you’re interested too. I’m pretty sure that alligator hasn’t reached anything. Trust me, seeing the world through that alligator’s eyes will drive you nuts. Like the Cosmic Void. Don’t find the Cosmic Void, and if you do, don’t stare into it. In fact, don’t even mention it. There is no Cosmic Void. It doesn’t exist. The Cosmic Void doesn’t exist.“

“But—“

“THERE IS NO COSMIC VOID!”

Twilight reared her head back. “Alright, alright, there’s no Cosmic Void.”

“Trust me, I stared into it for a couple of centuries and do you know what I found?”

“What?”

“Nothing. It’s a waste of time.” I fluffed my feathers. “The Cosmic Void is all hype. Bleh. Who knows why Gummy sticks around Pinkie? She’s the direct opposite of him.”

“I think pets are most reflective of their owners.”

“Winona is straightforward and lively, Opalesence is prim and proper, Tank is dedicated, enduring and loyal, and I’m very intelligent and curious.” I locked gazes with Twilight, banking over the outer-limits of Ponyville, where the Whos were gathered. “What I don’t get is how Gummy is the same as Pinkie in any way shape or form.”

“Well I guess you’re not as wise as you thought, because Gummy matches her perfectly.”

“How?” I demanded.

Twilight pointed down. “Because what she shows outside is not what she necessarily feels on the inside. Because she wants ponies around her to like her. Because she’s afraid of what ponies think about her.”

“How do you know that’s what Gummy feels?”

“I probably don’t, but do you think an ‘enlightened’ being would go out of his way to attend every one of your secret meetings?” With my vision, I could see Gummy gripping tightly to Winona’s fur as she darted towards Applejack’s farm. Winona was fast! We couldn’t even beat her flying?!

“Heh, well hey, isn’t that the Whos? What are they doing?”

———————

Earlier that day, Mayor Mare was pulling out her mane dealing with the fanatics.

“Who Griselda, do you have a moment?”

Griselda broke off from a gathering of griffons that wore hard construction hats and reflective vests. They saluted her and scattered as Griselda nodded towards them. The Who of the Whos stalked towards the mayor in a dignified manner, looking very much like royalty, as if Princess Celestia herself was walking towards her.

Complaints she had so easily voiced in front of the other agreeing Council members died in her throat as the imposing figure swept in. Griselda bowed slightly with a flourish.

“How may we assist you, Mayor Mare?”

The Mayor took a deep breath and forcibly stopped her teeth from rattling.

“Ahem, Who Griselda, you must obtain permission from us to construct any structures within Ponyville.”

Griselda tilted her head thoughtfully. “Perhaps we can come to some sort of agreement?”

“It is already very trying to get the representatives in the Council to agree on allowing you asylum in Ponyville and that was only because it was a kind request from Princess Twilight herself. We cannot simply—“

A dull clinking sound resounded in the clearing. The sounds of hand saws, hammering and shouts and orders all faded into the background as Mayor Mare eyeballed the sack that fell open on the ground in front of her.

“That is two hundred thousand platinum Equestrian bits; an extinct currency, I hear, from what some of our followers have informed me. I believe the value today is roughly six or seven hundred million Equestrian bits. You and your representatives can overlook this for this much, right?”

Mayor Mare stared at the coins for a long time, before tearing her gaze away. “That’s not—“

“Enough?” Griselda sighed. “Very well, that is a trifling amount for us, we can always—“

“No, I mean that is not acceptable! Bribing an official, I won’t tolerate such nonsense!” Mayor Mare glared at Griselda. “I’m insulted that you would think I would do such a thing!” She sighed. “Although I could think of a million ways that would be useful for our rickety school, or our clogged fountain, or our worn down paths… it would be wrong. I came here to represent my constituent's wishes.”

Griselda raised a feathered brow. “You just admitted to yourself that this money could do a lot of good for Ponyville. You can take it and use it for the town. You wouldn't be betraying your constituents.”

“I will not!” Mayor Mare pursed her lips, and then her shoulders sagged heavily. “But I will take it to the Council Meeting and bring it up in the Agenda. They do have the right to know about this. In all likelihood you will get what you want with this sort of money anyway.”

Griselda glanced at the sack and then back at Mayor Mare, her smug façade faded as she started to realise that the Mayor was not like any other bureaucrat she’d come across before. “Then why not take it now? Save yourself the hassle of a meeting.”

“Because, Who Griselda, my integrity is worth more than any amount of bits.”

Mayor Mare didn’t see the worried expression on Griselda’s face as she walked back towards the town. Later that day, when Mayor Mare returned to the clearing, she was surprised to see the Whos had moved past the town limits. Even more shocking, on return to her office, an unknown griffon had left a sack of strange silver-coloured bits at the front counter of Town Hall. Mayor Mare smiled. That griffon wasn’t as unknown as she thought.

Also later that day, a statue of Princess Twilight Sparkle was erected.

Author's Notes:

Beep boop I am a writer. Wait... that's not how it goes.

Next Chapter: Owlowiscious figures out how to teleport and Twilight gets a mustang. Or a moustache.

As always, my honeycomb readers, thanks for reading!

P.S. I really need to update this more often.

13 - You're a Whoot

Twilight thought something was wrong. I spotted her eyes wandering around the square, tracking over various objects with a look that was somewhere between confused and skeptical.

I tagged along as she trotted at a brisk pace into town. Nothing was any different. She visited the plaza, the town hall, Sweet Apple Acres, her castle, the fountain, the statue of herself on top of the fountain, the school—

There was a pause. Twilight slowly retraced her steps.

The school, the statue on top of the fountain, the fount—

Much like a mechanical puppet, her eyes slowly traced back to the source of confusion. I watched with mild curiosity as they widened slowly. Blinking at her, I wondered what the crazy mare was up to.

“Owlowiscious…” She finally spoke. “Do you see that?”

“See what?”

Twilight raised a shaking hoof. “That!”

“Oh… it’s the fountain, isn’t it?”

“No, no, no… on top of the fountain!”

“… Water?”

Her wide eyes narrowed to slits.

I sent her my best ‘who me?’ look.

She tossed her head as if frustrated that I was messing with her, or something.

Okay, maybe I was messing with her a bit.

Twilight flicked out a hoof to stop a passerby.

“Carrot Top… what is that?”

“My… what a beautiful statue of Princess Twilight, don’t you agree?” Carrot Top looked back at Twilight and stumbled back. “Oh, Princess!” She scurried to bow before her. “Oh, sorry, I-I mean, Princess Prophet!”

“What?” Twilight shot back around and grabbed Carrot Top by the chest fluff. I winced as Carrot Top’s eyes widened to the point that tears were beading at the corners of her eyes. Be a little more gentle, Twilight. Also, judging by the state of things, it looked like she hadn’t learned from last time. I had a feeling that this was going to turn out like—

“Erm, Your Most Royal Excellent Princess Prophet?”

I knew it.

Twilight tightened her grip on the poor pony.

“What?!”

“F-Forgive me, Exalted Excellent Princess Prophet! I-I thought you weren’t into titles, s-so I didn’t add so many at first but then—erk! I’m getting dizzy!”

Whilst a stuffed animal could only take so many shakes before tearing, I could only imagine what was happening to Carrot Top’s spine. To be honest, I was amazed at how it was holding up under the pressure of repeated flexing—

Creak.

Ah yes, there it was: the theoretical universal spinal limit. It’s said that no pony should ever exceed this cosmic speed. Stop now, or I think she’ll need a hospital visit, Twilight.

Crack. Flop.

Oh, too late.

“Oh! I’m sorry Carrot Top!”

Whispers broke out of the crowd.

“Divine retribution!” one yelled out. The bowing feverishly increased by a reverent order of magnitude.

“No, no, it isn’t!” Twilight started, but was cut off when Filthy Rich threw some coins.

“Accept the tribute, oh wise Princess!”

“Daaad!” Diamond Tiara glared at her father.

“Hush now, honey, we must follow the trends of power.”

Following his exemplary lead, the rest mimicked his actions. Bits started trickling in, before outright raining down. I’d be a bit more excited if bits weren’t so hard. I drew my wings over my head in an impromptu canopy as sparkling bits bounced off my wings. Ah, much better.

“Oh for pony’s sake! Please stop!” Twilight yelled desperately. The bits slowed, but didn’t really stop. How many of these things did ponies keep on them anyway?

Carrot Top suddenly popped back up. “Ow…”

“Oh thank Celestia she’s alright,” Twilight mumbled, then louder, “I mean, see? She’s fine!”

“The tributes are working! She spared Carrot Top!”

“Resurrection!”

“She didn’t die!” Twilight yelled angrily.

“Bless us, Prodigious Pearlescent Princess Prophet!”

Bits started raining in again.

“You know, I think you can forego their taxes… for a few years.”

“Owlowiscious, now is not the time!” she impressed upon me through gritted teeth and flared nostrils. I shrunk back on her shoulder and, erm, swept up a few bits. Don’t ask me where it goes, you might not like the answer.

Just as Twilight was about to lose it, Carrot Top interrupted the crowd.

“Twilight was just…” Carrot Top started, then felt around her neck. “My neck pain, it’s gone!”

“A healing miracle!” Somepony in the back yelled.

“Oh for pony’s sa—”

More bits rained down. Twilight took off, muttering something venomous under her breath. I personally thought it was a waste of bits, but I didn’t say anything, because her seething look could roast a dragon. I gripped her mane instinctively as she bolted, realising that she was beelining to the source of the problem: the Whos.

The Whos were situated outside the town limits, which surprised me a little. We landed on the outskirts of the camp, trotting into a bustling scene full of fanatical followers flitting around with fixtures bearing feather features of a certain flirtatious persona. Which was me. They were carrying poles and relief carvings of me. Oh, and Twilight.

“Owlowiscious, do you see what I’m seeing?”

I turned to the flustered princess asking me the question. “That’s… pretty impressive.”

We were hovering just outside the line of sight of the main camp, so we weren’t noticed. They seemed to have ditched most of the ‘sentries’ in the encampment, which led me to believe that the Whos weren’t professional travellers, like they were gathered here recently… Just as I was going to continue that train of thought, Twilight cleared her throat. Oh right, she wasn’t referring to the encampment, she was talking about the carvings, which featured me and, to a lesser extent, her.

After a long period of silence, I finally spoke. “Looks like art.”

“That’s not the point!”

“Amazing art. It looks very lifelike, like one of them could fly out of the carving at any second.”

Twilight’s eyebrows drawing down reminded me of a pegasus forgetting it was thunderstorm day and making a hasty last-minute adjustment.

“They have pretty good taste.”

Her resultant glare could shock a changeling into their true form.

But you know me, I’m persistent.

“I’m surprised they could do such a great carving so quick, there must be a pony with talent for that around here.”

“Owlowiscious!”

I threw up my wings in frustration. “What, so you expect me to do about it? They can’t hear me! Just go talk to Griselda and have her stop it instead.”

“Oh, right.” Twilight shot me a sheepish glance as she swooped down towards Griselda. The griffon in question was directing a ceremonial-like carving to be situated under a very eye-catching statue of a certain purple princess poised to take flight. It had to be said that it also featured me, being several times bigger than her, shrouding her generously with my wings. A very pleasant sight, if a little unsettling that they managed to complete such an exaggerated piece of art in such a small time frame.

I wasn’t complaining, mind you. Excellent taste.

“Who Griselda, would you please ask your followers to stop placing statues of me and Owlowiscious all over Ponyville?!”

Griselda blinked at Twilight and then turned her querying gaze to me. I shrugged and gestured to the statues making a ‘knocking down’ motion.

Griselda looked uncomfortable with the suggestion and it was the first time I’ve seen her unwilling to follow orders… intentionally.

“Your Exultant Excellency—”

“Just Twilight!”

Griselda widened her eyes, paused briefly, then bowed.

“—ah, yes, Geneva mentioned before… Your Exultant Excellency, Fair and Just, Wise and Powerful Perpetual Princess Prophet—”

What little resistance Twilight had was finally crushed. Geneva sure acted fast. Twilight gave in and let Griselda continue without interrupting this time.

“—Twilight, our followers take great pleasure in exulting the Great Owl. It would… not sit well with the followers if we took them down.”

“I’m not comfortable with the attention—” Twilight replied flatly.

“They have spared a bit of effort, however, your word is Law.” Griselda bowed, her reluctance almost gelatinous with how thick it was in the air. “By your command, Princess Prophet…”

“—but,” Twilight interrupted with a resigned tone, “I suppose there’s no harm in it. I am in stained glass windows… I guess a few statues aren’t going to be much different.”

Griselda perked up. “Thank you for your generosity, Princess Prophet.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, but didn’t push it any further. “But I really would like all this worshipping to stop. I don’t want to be a pony that is worshipped unconditionally. I think you should focus on yourself and your followers and not worry about deifying me. I’m not what you think I am.”

Griselda looked confused. “But… Princess Prophet… wouldn’t you like to make your mark on history?”

Twilight had a slight lopsided smile that put off Griselda, forcing the griffon to take a couple of steps back. “Who Griselda, I don’t decide whether I make my mark on history. History is not decided by me. Others will judge me and create history. They decide whether or not I am worthy enough to make a mark.”

Griselda considered the statement carefully, and then bowed lower. “Indeed that is wisely said, Princess Prophet.”

———————

“Woof!”

I turned around in shock to see Winona wagging her bushy tail at me. What shocked me more was Streak clutching onto Winona’s fur. She looked a little green, as if she had an unpleasant ride on Winona’s back. I felt sympathy for the little Bite. I’ve experienced that before. Clearing my throat, I engaged Winona while I gave Streak some time to recover.

“Oh, hey Winona, why are you here? Why are you with Streak?”

“It’s Streakimilidiliowlinia!”

Looks like she’s fine, though.

I ignored the fledgling Bite, not intentionally, Winona was talking.

“Woof, woof, woof!” She jumped up happily. She panted happily with her tongue out. “Woof! Woof!”

“Ah, right, and?”

“Woof!”

“So they’re over there and safe?”

“Woof, woof!”

“You didn’t run into any trouble on the way?”

“Grr. Woof.”

“Good, we’ll go explore the forest and get to the bottom of this.”

“What did she say?” Twilight asked with a mortally confused look.

“Don’t you speak dog?” I teased.

I quickly explained it before she could roll her eyes.

Streak and the rest were debating about the Bites, when Streak mentioned they came from the forest and that her mother was probably worried. She didn’t know much about why the Bites were here or why they were in this particular forest, only that something bad had been chasing them all the way to this foreign land. To add to this, Gummy and Winona didn’t know much about Bites because they didn’t pay much attention to history, but Angel had heard that the Bites had disappeared since the temple was built during Queen Griselda’s reign.

Which begged the question, where did the Bites suddenly come from?

“So, we should go into the forest and investigate. They have to have come from somewhere…” Twilight rubbed a hoof along her chin, deep in thought. “Maybe we should head to the Tree?”

“The Tree of Harmony? Do you think that’s involved?”

“Well… yes and no.” Twilight sighed. “But it’s the best lead we’ve got.”

Streak wanted to tag along with us. We reluctantly agreed. Although she was injured, the splinter could be easily removed and the Bites were intelligent enough to handle it without our help. Besides, her mother would have been worried sick.

“Does Fluttershy know you’ve gone off?”

Streak shrunk and looked away guiltily.

“No… I just want to go home.”

I glanced at Winona, but she just cocked her head in the way dogs do and wagged her tail happily. “Woof!”

“You’re a fat load of help,” I muttered.

“Woof!” Winona bit my wing insistently.

“Ow! Alright, we’ll take her, what’s gotten into you?”

“Woof!”

I tugged Twilight. “We should probably take her back. I don’t know what Winona’s up to, but she has a sense for these things…”

Twilight considered it for a bit and then nodded. “Alright, we’ll take Streak.”

“Streakimilidiliowlinia!”

“Streak, get on my back,” Twilight answered wryly.

Pouting, but not really in the mood to argue, Streak did what she asked and clambered onto her back.

Just as we were about to take off, a voice reached out to us.

“Princess Prophet!”

It was Geneva and Griselda.

“We would both like to come with you,” Griselda plead.

Twilight took a look at the both of them before answering. “Do you know something we don’t?”

Griselda coughed. “On interviewing some of the Whos who were scouting, they mentioned they were attacked.”

“Attacked?” Twilight frowned. “By what?”

“By the Bites,” Geneva replied accompanied by an uncomfortable flick of her ear. Then she finally noticed Streak. “By the feather! You have one on your back! Geneva—!”

“Don’t move!” Twilight yelled sternly. Geneva and Griselda both stiffened, then bowed with reticence. “She was hurt by an animal trap!”

Suddenly, a thought occurred to me.

“Did you do anything to them?” I asked. Twilight relayed my question.

Geneva and Griselda hastily bowed. “No, no, we are generally very peaceful! We didn’t destroy the foliage or chop down any trees, let alone set any traps!”

Twilight glanced towards the camp, regarding the wooden statues and carvings.

“It’s all driftwood or bought lumber, we didn’t chop any trees down or venture further than the clearing you found us in. The rest of the Whos were waiting at the border! Please believe us, oh Great Owl!” Griselda added quickly under our skeptical gazes.

I could feel my feathers ruffling, a restive sensation was creeping up my spine. Sinking my beak down, I pondered her words. This didn’t make any sense. If the Whos didn’t place the traps, who did? Who were the real culprits?

“So you were attacked first?” Twilight asked hesitantly.

“Yes!” Geneva and Griselda both answered, bowing.

I stopped dissecting them with my eyes and fell into thought. “They don’t seem like they are lying. But why would Bites attack out of nowhere? They’re usually peaceful from what I’ve seen and Streak and the Bites seem intelligent enough to converse, so they must be aware of their intent…”

Twilight chewed on her lip for a bit and then cleared her throat. “We’ll go investigate, stay here.”

Geneva and Griselda shared a look. “Princess Prophet, we would like to go—”

“No,” Twilight shot back simply and then took off, leaving the two behind.

———————

I caught sight of them when I glanced back.

“They’re following us,” I commented wryly.

Twilight let out an annoyed grunt and pushed harder. Her flying wasn’t really up to standard compared to the trailing griffons, but she used the raw power of an alicorn to lose them. Meanwhile I clutched at her mane, trying my hardest not to be thrown off from the speed.

We tilted towards the Everfree, peeling towards the centre of the forest, dropping just behind the Castle of the Two Sisters. Twilight started trotting.

I pecked her on the back of her neck. “Aren’t you running away from them too quickly? Maybe they have something important to tell you?”

Twilight rolled her eyes and irritably shot back, “They’re probably just want to be near you.”

I shrugged and perched on her back as she led the way deeper into the forest, along familiar paths and tracks leading to the legendary Tree of Harmony. We crested the edge and had to paused slightly. I think it has to be said that this was one of the most beautiful sights I could imagine. Shining lustrous branches bearing brilliant gems of dazzling depths all twinkling in solemn majesty. It would have been breathtaking, but our chests froze for an entirely different reason.

Under the branches was a glowing circle showing the shimmering, but frosted, vista of an unknown landscape. It was a portal.

Though pooled in the area below were Bites.

A lot of Bites.

———————

Twilight shivered and crept back from the edge, trying to make as little noise as possible.

“Now we know how the Bites got here, all we need to do is figure out how!”

I hopped from her back and glanced towards the Tree. This not being good would be an understatement. Just as we were about to turn back to discuss what to do next, out of nowhere, Griselda and Geneva showed up.

Oh no.

Predictably, the Bites were aware of the movement and immediately spotted the two griffons, charging towards them as they settled on the other side of the raised edge surrounding the Tree. I immediately took flight and headed over with Twilight as Geneva and Griselda, startled at the sudden charge of Bites, panicked and immediately tried to flee backwards.

“Fly!” Twilight yelled.

Geneva and Griselda hesitated for a moment before launching themselves into the air, narrowly avoiding a lunging Bite’s snapping jaw. It crashed through a tree instead, the trunk exploding into splinters that rained down in a frightening display of power. The Bites were undoubtedly strong, and I was there during their extinction, how in the world did Queen Griselda eradicate them?

Not willing to dwell on it any longer, we chased the Bites as they relentlessly pursued them. Twilight galloped as I took off, trying to cut them off. Twilight quickly conjured a barrier, but the Bites deftly dodged the magical defence and avoided us. Enraged at our interference, they rounded on us, however before we could do anything, one of them registered us and stopped in its tracks. Before we could wonder at the cause of this unexpected stalemate, a delighted voice called out from Twilight’s back.

“Mother!”

The Bite growled, rumbling softly in its throat as it towered over us. Now that I saw it, this Bite was the second-biggest of the whole group, second only to a towering figure behind it. Bites were black with white streaks along their bodies, which varied in pattern, but the largest Bite had greying hair and that looked more like white streaks through spotted black and grey.

Streak’s mother growled something, causing Streak to scramble from Twilight’s back and flop towards the ground. Gently, Twilight caught Streak and set her in front of the hulking Bite. I swallowed back my rising fear and regarded the massive beasts with a sense of awe and caution.

Twilight dipped her head and with a hesitant voice, called out.

“Good afternoon, I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Streak’s mother’s response was a deep growl.

“Mom, they’re nice!”

Streak’s mother considered Streak for a second before snorting. She then tilted her head and let out a resounding roar. The Bites that were circling around us to pursue the griffons stopped.

A deep womanly voice resounded through the forest. Its power was magnetic. Its tone was absolute.

“I am Streakimilidiliowlinia’s mother, Alacanithiuminus.”

I almost choked on my own spit. What’s with their long names? How are they communicating with us?

“You can speak?” I blurted.

Alacanithiuminus swung her massive head and regarded me with a scornful eye.

“As can you,” she replied with poorly concealed impatience. “I am… grateful that you returned my daughter, but you must let us at those griffons.”

“Mrs. Alacanithiuminus,” Twilight interjected lightly, “Griselda and Geneva were not at—”

Before she could get any further, the rest of the Bites let loose a chilling roar as Alacanithiuminus’ eyes shone brilliantly with murderous rage.

“THAT WAS GRISELDA? I SHALL RENDER HER ASUNDER!”

“WAIT!” Twilight shouted, punctuating her remark with a bright spark from her horn.

“Ugh!” The Bites stumbled back at the sudden burst of light.

Alacanithiuminus teetered on her paws and then regarded Twilight with something close to caution and respect.

“That light,” Alacanithiuminus said slowly. “What is it? It feels familiar… Do you have something to do with the Holy Tree?”

“Holy Tree?” Twilight glanced at the Tree behind the Bites. “Do you mean the Tree of Harmony?”

“Yes… is that what you call it?” Alacanithiuminus glanced back at the Tree. “It is the lifeblood of the free forests and the sanctum of life for our species.”

I cleared my throat. “Maybe you should pause for a second and let us explain everything, I think there’s been a misunderstanding.”

————————

Though the Bites were considerably less riled after Streak was reunited with the rest of her kind, the Bites were restless. According to Alacanithiuminus, the Bites were hunted in their forest and were chased by innumerable griffons. The forests were laced with deadly traps and although most were trivial compared to main bulk of the Bites, some, mostly young Bites, were caught and seriously injured. This resulted in many of them crippled and injured as they tried to defend their young and escape.

Some… some didn’t make it.

Alacanithiuminus and the rest of the Bites were being pushed further and further into the forest. The Bites were usually peaceful and curious creatures, but turned wild after losing more and more of their young and territory. Amongst the onslaught on the swarming griffons, the Bites were whittled down as they were pushed to the centre of the forest. Near the end, they met the centre of the sacred forest, a tree of crystal, much like this one but much smaller. They were backed against it and had nowhere to go and once they touched the tree, it sent them here.

Thousands of years into the future.

“Dear Celestia…” Twilight muttered softly.

For once, I had nothing to say.

Author's Notes:

I haven't been around for a while! Lookit that, a new chapter!

More to come in the following weeks!

An extra special awesome thanks to Word Worthy for editing my hot mess.

Next Chapter: Animals and animated apparels, oh my!

As always, my anticipating readers, thanks for reading!

14 - Whoopsie

One thousand years… It was enough time for seas to dry, lands to drown, empires to rise and fall and the foundational paradigm to shift.

It was enough to make me flabbergasted.

And afraid.

The Tree of Harmony was so powerful it was considered absolute. Around it sprouted a forest that grew around this sheer force of nature. It nurtured the land, but warped it, and the beings around it, in a mysterious dance along invisible tracks of fate.

Even a draconequus with the strength to alter the nature of reality was fairly mindful around it. Discord once regarded the Tree with fear, but now did not mind it so much. I think that was part of the reason I feared its existence.

What could be so powerful that it could make the Lord of Chaos change his ways?

And a disturbing thought:

What if I rebel against it? Would I be considered a target for change? Was I in the crosshairs to reform my ways and come into its folds.

The roots of the Tree spread insidiously not just through the earth, but through the hearts and minds of those around it.

I stayed well away from it, usually.

Is an immortal subject to the corrective power of Harmony?

Possibly.

I didn’t want to find out.

Some immortals were happy to utilise it, some were not.

Angel, Gummy, Winona and myself were among those hesitant to interact with it.

Celestia and Luna were not afraid.

Forever they were relegated to being a part of nature, now neither mortal or immortal, but sort of between.

They had paid a heavy price.

I wasn’t willing.

Still, here I was, in front of something I barely understood, to a being accompanied by thousands of years of knowledge, cowering from an absolute force that it represented, now visited by the echoes of what I had run from.

I saw the last Bite die.

But they did not let me go.

They were back and they were here.

“Owlowiscious?”

Bright purple eyes tinged with seeping concern filled my vision.

“Ah, yes?” I answered, giving my head a savage shake to clear it of thoughts. “What’s up?”

Twilight looked like she wanted to say something, but then held it back. Instead, she gave me an affectionate rub with the tip of one of her wings. I felt embarrassed, but at the same time, a lot better.

Yes, the present is where the problem lay. I had to focus on the present. I couldn’t change the past.

“We need to tell the Whos about the Bites and help settle the Bites here.”

Twilight sighed. “Although not many venture into the Everfree forest, some ponies do. If I tell the Whos, they won’t do it, but what about later? Maybe...”

I caught the uptick in Twilight’s voice and smiled.

“You have an idea?”

“What if we task the Whos with being the guardians for the Bites and the Everfree? Nopony will venture in after that.”

“And after that?”

“Then after that, Pinkie can throw them a welcoming party while I—” she rubbed her eyes with her hooves “—sort out the paperwork.” She smiled. “But that’s worth it if they can settle here in peace, away from the horrors that chased them. I just wonder if they’ll be happy to follow along.”

“Heh.” I was impressed with her fortitude. “That’s perfect, they would definitely do that! Only…”

Twilight smirked, her head tilting in curiosity. “Only what?”

“Only... what’s that?”

Before I could shout a warning the Tree started glowing intensely, streaks of light streaming from the ground and coursing through the veins of its intricate crystal branches. Twilight gaped as the Bites made to back away from the Tree. Although the Tree was regarded as holy by the Bites, they revered and respected its power. They were just as anxious as I was feeling as the light steadily grew in luminosity.

“Twilight!”

“Right!”

Twilight sprung into the air, legs kicking off from the ground with such force that it cracked, but before we could even get a feet away, the light enveloped us and my consciousness sunk into a bright white oblivion.

The last thought I had was…

I wonder if this is what Discord felt?

Was I to be erased?

————————

It took a long time, but my eyes broke open to the glare of an unforgiving sun.

I squinted and tried to shield my eyes from the seething fury of its white-hot rage, but the action dumped something gritty into my eyes and I blinded myself instead.

“Oh feathers!” I cursed whilst rolling on the sand.

Wait.

Sand?

Heat radiated from the ceaseless dunes as I stumbled to my claws and fluttered my wings, dislodging the sand hastily in the process.

Wait a minute, this area felt familiar. Was this the desert?

Then it hit me.

“Twilight?”

“Twilight!”

“Streak?!”

“Alaca-whats-your-name?!”

“Anything! Answer me!”

I yelled this out to the boundless sands until my throat went hoarse.

Not good, I was overheating and panicking at the same time.

Stay calm. Find shelter. Find water. Find my friends, I told myself sternly.

I shot into the air. The best method for finding anything in this barren landscape was to scout by the air. I didn’t know where Twilight was, but I had to pick a direction or the sun would make short work of me.

Though the sun was still overbearing as the start, the wind was cooler in the higher altitude, though I kept close enough to spot any anomaly in the sands. I hope anyone who had come here with me had a better time of it.

I didn’t want to entertain the notion that I was alone.

Flapping ardently, I proceeded in what I thought was a northerly direction, judging by the sun. No reason I chose north. It was a featureless barren landscape; every direction appeared the same.

I flapped desperately, feeling myself become hot and exhausted as the merciless star bore down on me with all its thermal fury. If I didn’t find something, anything, I was going to cook.

There!

A small shadow that wasn’t cast by a dune!

Excited, I exerted a hungry burst of strength and shot towards the growing image of a rock. Corkscrewing out of the air without being able to control my descent, I tumbled to the rock and threw myself under its shade. Only… it was not a shadow cast by the lee of the rock, but rather the maw of a hidden cave instead.

I sighed in gratitude, flipping a humble wing to the high heavens.

Screw you, sun.

It felt like heat was rolling off my body in waves, but in the shadow of the cave, it was leeched away almost like it was lapping at it greedily. I was safe, for now.

All at once, the feathers on the back of my neck stood erect as a shiver crept up my spine. There was movement behind me! Whipping around, I came face to face with a vicious looking beak and golden eyes.

“Ah! Who! What? Who! Hoot!”

An embarrassing jumble of sounds and half-words tumbled out of me.

“Great Owl?”

I sighed in relief, flopping back as I shed some feathers with the stress of the encounter.

“Don’t scare me,” I muttered moodily after my brain rebooted. “Even a dragon would shed scales when you creep up behind them with a hungry-looking face like that!”

“Oh, my sincerest apologies, Great Ow—you can talk?!” Now it was Geneva’s turn to let out a muffled yelp.

I reared my head and swung back in no less surprise. “You can hear me now?!”

Geneva squealed in excitement. “G-Great Owl, I’m at your d-disposal.”

“Stop shaking so much, you’re weirding me out.” I grumbled something unrepeatable under my breath as the griffon bowed so low and quickly that she almost did a tumble.

“I-It is a great honour to speak with you, Great Owl!”

This is what Twilight probably felt like back then when she gained a lot of followers. I didn’t expect this to be… so intense. It was very unsettling. Stop staring at me like I’m Celestia or something.

“Well, erm, you can take it easy, uhm, Geneva. I’m just an owl, no need to go crazy.”

“I wouldn’t dare, Great Owl, you are the Prime Who and the core prophet of the Followers of the Whos.”

I clicked my beak. “Princess Twilight deserves that credit.”

“Princess Twilight is astounding, but you are supreme.”

“But she’s a princess, I’m simply Owlowiscious, her pet owl.” I arched a fluffy eyebrow. “There’s no need for your reverence and I’m certain you’ve got the wrong owl.”

“Fate brought us together and you are a part of our destiny. I believe you are the Great Owl, the fact that you are chosen by the Tree of Harmony marks you as significant, if not pivotal to the world!”

“You came through the Tree as well.”

“Merely to assist!” Geneva gracefully bowed in an overly humble fashion. “So that you may encounter less discomfort in your prodigious journey.”

What am I, a hero in a fantasy tale?

“I’m just Owlowisicious!” I snapped testily.

“Yes, oh Owlowiscious, the Wise and Just.”

I couldn’t find the words to retort her blind self-assessing verisimilitude. Her belief gave herself her own truth that barred any attempt for me to correct.

And boy did I want to correct her right now.

“Stop it with the titles.”

“Great Owl?”

“Oh, leave it!” I sighed, deciding to drop it for now. “We have to find the others. If you were dragged here somehow, I think Twilight, Griselda and the Bites must also be here.”

“Yes.” Geneva nodded. “As you command.”

She sprung up, but I hooted at her impatiently.

“You can’t go out there, it’s still blazing!”

“But—”

“I know you’re anxious to find the others, but there’s no point in going out there now!” I pinned her down with a steady gaze. “Stay here and rest. Food, water and other needs will be hard to come by, conserve your strength and wait for me. We’ll travel just before the sun sinks below the horizon and scan for additional shelter. We cannot trek through the desert aimlessly, it could cost us dearly, understand?”

Geneva bowed her head. “As the Great Owl commands.”

“No! Not as I command!” I poked her chest with an outstretched wing. “As you think! I value intelligence. Nothing is worse than thoughtless obedience!”

Geneva made to bow but then pondered a bit and then inclined her head.

“As you w—I will do as you say.”

Grunting, I shook my head. Instead of arguing with her, I decided to retreat back to the cave and get some rest. I gave her a curt nod and slumped into a corner of the cave to sleep.

There was a long way to go.

——————

My nap fared fitfully and I woke up bleary, not remembering my dreams. Other than a feeling of creeping dread, I woke up to a concerned face close to mine.

“Ah, feathers!” I flipped a wing and got to my claws in a hurry. “Will you stop doing that?”

Geneva bowed her head. “My sincerest apologies, Great Owl, you looked distressed so I came to check up on you. You were talking in your sleep.”

I quickly cooled down and turned my head away in slight embarrassment. Well, at least she had good intentions.

“Thank you,” I replied in a softer tone. After a pause, “By the way, what was I saying in my sleep?”

“You were apologising.”

“Apologising?”

“Yes, you kept saying you were sorry, but you didn’t say about what.” Geneva was studying me with discomposing amounts of pity.

I sat back and rubbed a wing under my beak, shrugging my shoulders. “I don’t remember my dreams, so I don’t know what I was apologising for.” I coughed slightly. “Don’t worry about it.”

Geneva opened her beak as if to say something, but then closed it slowly. “Alright, Great Owl.”

“Geneva, there’s no one else around here,” I pleaded, “call me Owlowiscious.”

Geneva paused. “But—”

“Please.”

Finally, she nodded. “Alright… Owlowiscious.” She cleared her throat uncomfortably. “It’s such a silly name. Who gave you that name?”

I smiled wryly. “The Princess.”

Geneva’s face had ‘dubious’ written all over it. I didn’t blame her, I almost rolled my eyes when I was first given that name. I mean, who calls their pet a name like that? Coming to think of it, the Bites have very similar names.

“The sun is setting,” she suddenly announced.

She was right, the light in the cave was dimming slowly. It wasn’t a problem as I had excellent vision at night, because I’m an owl. Hoot hoot. Anyway, for a second, I was worried about my other feathered and furred companion, but it seemed that Geneva didn’t have a problem making me out in the rising dark.

I flittered to the entrance of the cave and gestured for Geneva to come out with me. I estimated we had roughly ten minutes of light left before the desert ticked over to night. Luckily, the moon was almost full and I estimated that the light it shed would be enough to make out features in the desert.

“Okay, I’ll scout out ahead and you follow along behind me, got it?”

Geneva frowned. “Grea—Owlowiscious, won’t it be better if we split up to cover more area?”

I considered it. “It would, but we don’t have anything to help with our navigation.” I glanced back at the cave. “This is our only shelter out here and we need to be able to double back to it, in case we can’t find our way out of the desert.” I shook my head bleakly. “We don’t have any tools or anything we can use to survive. It might be better to stick together.”

Even though I had lived a long time, experience doesn’t put me in the best of positions. After all, I only knew a little about how to survive in the desert, but usually civilisation or help was only a short flight away. Just because I lived a long time, didn’t mean I was an expert on everything, and like anyone, I’d forget what I’d learnt if a long enough time passes. I was immortal not invincible. Knowledgeable not omniscient. Owl not deity.

Still, what little I had said seemed enough to convince Geneva; she nodded in agreement.

“Yes,” she answered slowly. “That makes sense. Great Ow—Owlowiscious, maybe we should split a little further? As long as we keep in eyesight of each other, we’d cover a greater area.”

“Fly in parallel?” I said, then nodded. “Alright, let’s—”

Geneva stared at me curiously. “Owl—”

“Shh!”

Geneva fell silent as I scanned our surroundings.

There was something out there.

My face plate was picking up minute sounds in the sands around the east, opposite from where the sun was setting. It sounded like the sea. That wasn’t right. We were in the desert, there shouldn’t be any water that large. And how did we miss it?

Geneva tensed next to me. It seemed like she also heard the sound. The rustling sound of the sea was increasing in volume, it was picking up, seemingly familiar and not at the same time.

“That sounds like… an hourglass,” Geneva commented softly.

Then it struck me.

“That’s because there’s a lot of sand moving! Up! Get to the air!”

I launched myself, desperately clawing the air with my wings to gain altitude. Geneva hesitated slightly, but followed me resolutely. After climbing about a few hundred feet, I finally took the initiative to scan below. My suspicion coalesced to certainty as I registered a black smudge sweeping across the horizon.

“Sweepers,” I muttered, feeling a shiver crawling up my spine. “But they’re supposed to be…”

Extinct.

I didn’t finish that thought out loud. Last time I thought that, I was proven horribly wrong. These creatures, like the Bites, were eradicated before the reign of Queen Griselda. Although the slaughtering of the Bites were wrong, the Sweepers were another matter. Part infused biological matter, part magic, all hostile, the Sweepers were creatures that bred and self-replicated as a destructive legacy of a long-lost creator. Driven mad without a directive, the Sweepers combed the desert, making barren any land it tread on and wiping clean the life from the land in the process.

In fact, it was I, accompanying Griselda before she was Queen, that wiped out the central core of the Sweepers and restored the desert to its former glory cementing the influence of the Empire and elevating her status from orphan to heroine.

But… that’s not possible. If the Sweepers were back, then the control core was either restored, or…

It was never broken in the first place.

A chilling realisation was beginning to form in my mind and every second the sun sank below the horizon giving way to a brilliant vista of twinkling stars only further cemented the horrifying notion. Those constellations were not identical to our own. To be more accurate, they were the same, but a little different.

I shot a quick look at Geneva, who cocked her head.

“What is it?” she asked timidly, looking at my grave expression.

“We have to find the others quickly.”

“Do you know what those things are? Are they dangerous?”

“Yes,” I replied grimly. “They’re dangerous and don’t belong here. And…”

“And?”

“And neither do we.”

Author's Notes:

Woah, like a chapter kind of like every week?!

IMPOSSIBLE.

It's almost like you intend to finish this story sometime this year...

Next Chapter: Like the wing in the sky and the rein on the sea... wait that's not right.

As always, my schrodinger: readers * authors < reduced Planck's constant/2, thanks for reading!

P.S. Word Worthy continues to be the best editor.

15 - Whoosh!

I took the lead, stretching my wings in a strange, but vaguely familiar sky. Now that I had figured it all out, unnerving tension coiled around my gut with frightening tenacity, occasionally lashing out like a snake with petulant misgivings.

I watched those strange-but-familiar stars and knew how far we’ve gone down the rabbit hole.

“Geneva,” I called out.

“Yes, Gre—Owlowiscious?”

I could feel her suppressing the desire to confront me. She was dying to know.

“You must be wondering if I know what’s going on.”

“The Great Owl knows all.”

I sighed.

“Geneva, what you see around us is the Granular Gale Desert.”

“Granular Gale? I’ve never heard of such a desert.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t great at geography but I know the lands surrounding Equestria.” She squinted around as if she could see where she was but scanning the horizon. “If I haven’t heard of it, we must be very far away, indeed.”

“We’re far away,” I continued mirthlessly. “We’re halfway around the globe. But that’s not the only problem. We’re even further than that.”

“Further?”

“Not in space, but in time.”

“Are you saying…?”

“Yes, right now, as I gaze at the stars above, they look familiar. Old and comforting, but not the same as they will be. This, Geneva, is the past; a thousand years in fact.”

Geneva chirped in surprise. “What do you mean, Great Owl?” She took a moment to digest it. “How can we be in the past?”

She reverted back to her usual form of address, but I didn’t correct her, she was probably shocked out of her wits.

“That’s a very good question,” I replied reluctantly. “One I don’t have a direct answer to, only…”

“Only?”

“Only I think this should have been done by the Tree.”

“The Tree of Harmony you mean?”

“Yes.” I veered up to flip around and hover, seeking the opposing horizon with keen vision. The smudge on the dunes had retreated and with my vision I could barely see the outlines of our pursuers. It looked like an inky black stain slowly filtering out and retracting, much like the waves of the ocean sweeping out and receding.

The Sweepers were fanning out and drawing back alternatively, covering each area methodically with dogged determination. It didn’t look like they noticed us on the ground, which triggered a wave of hopeful relief.

If they had noticed us, I doubt we would have survived to tell the tale. We needed assistance. Before, when I deactivated them with Griselda I had the element of surprise and luck; they were hardly a threat being deactivated. We had a minor scare when we tripped some and stumbled across the core.

Now, I needed help.

Magical help.

———————

“Now if I’m right about our current situation and judging from the stars and the geography, then essentially, we’re far west of the nearest griffon city, here. How far? Unknowable, but at least we have a direction.”

We had settled on the ground, ears and faceplates pricked and primed for any sounds of the Sweepers coming any closer. Fortunately, it seemed like they were decreasing in speed or moving away. We were safe here for now.

Griselda nodded in confirmation.

“We’ll go to the city and search for anyone else that got whisked back in the timeline.”

Griselda’s eyes widened in the night, looking very much like two fireflies glowing brightly in the cool reflection of the moon.

“You think the others will be here, Great Owl?”

“Didn’t I ask you to call me Owlowiscious?”

Geneva drew back, briefly unwilling to reply.

“Yes, Owl…owiscious.” Her head drooped down as her ears splayed flat on her head.

“Thank you, Geneva. So about our plans in moving towards…” I trailed off as I noticed her still sending me simpering stares.

“Is there something wrong?” I finally asked.

“I was just replaying all the moments in my mind where I could call you Great Owl, erm… Owlowiscious.”

“Okay…” I collected myself. “So in order for us—” I could feel her regarding me with a pitiable gaze from the edges of my periphery. “Ahem, in order…”

I sighed.

“Oh for feather’s sake, fine!” I snapped. “Call me whatever you like!”

Geneva’s tail perked up, swishing left and right in excitement. “Really? Thank you, Great Owl!”

This griffon…

“We’ll need to start at this border town here, then move towards the capital.”

“Forgive me, Great Owl, but why are we heading to the border town? It’s actually faster to go straight to the city, right?”

“Yes.” I pointed to the border town. “But that border town is special.”

“Why?”

“It’s where I met a special griffon, Griselda.” I waved an amused wing at her confused expression. “No, not the Griselda you know, but rather Queen Griselda, a griffon queen that was alive thousands of years in the past. If I’m correct about my assumption that we’re in the past, then she should still be there in the border town.”

“How can you be sure?”

“I can’t.” I shook my head. “The only thing I know is that the Sweepers are activated, for some reason, and that means we’re either before the event where Griselda and I broke through the ruins and deactivated the central core controlling the Sweepers or we’re in the future and someone or something was able to reactivate them. Either way, we have to check it out.”

“So those things are called Sweepers?”

Surprise crept into my expression as I glanced upwards. “Oh, sorry, I didn’t mention it before, did I?” I cleared my throat. “Yes, those magical constructs are Sweepers. Originally they were made by a mad griffon that dabbled in some sort of magical-mechanical golems. Eventually, he got them to build themselves. They track anything that has life and extinguishes them. If they can’t find any lifeforms nearby, they’ll try and replicate themselves. Rinse and repeat.”

“Wouldn’t that make them a huge threat?”

The question held merit, but I answered whilst shaking my head. “The Sweepers have finite resources. You can’t replicate without materials. Fortunately for us the Sweepers don’t have many materials available in the desert. Usually, after sweeping an area, they harvest metal and scrap and other pieces in order to replicate themselves. There—”

Flashes of clicking and whirring filled the soundscape. The taste of metal filled the air, saturating my mouth with the memories of those horrifying creations.

“—there should be something about the Sweeper’s design.” I shrugged off the fragmented memories and concentrated on the task at hand. Geneva had been on the verge of alarm, but I calmed her down with a quelling gaze.

“I’m fine, don’t worry. Yes, ahem, in any case, the Sweepers aren’t very intelligent, but they are powerful and vicious. The only good thing about the Sweepers is that they can’t fly. It was useful before when I went with Griselda in the past and it helped us now, so it doesn’t look like much has changed, thankfully.”

Upon seeing my expression, Geneva appeared slightly shaken. “So that means they’re not that bad? Can’t we leave them alone, Great Owl?”

I sighed. “I wish that would be the case, but you can’t live with these things roaming around. They need to be stopped. Even without replicating, they’re still able to expand slowly and destroy the land underneath their tracks. Plants can’t grow and they’d essentially slowly eradicate all forms of life, turning the whole land into a desert.”

My eyes hardened with resolve.

“We have to stop them.”

Geneva’s continued silence took me back to the present and drove a stake of guilt into my heart.

Demons aren’t meant to be shared.

Time dragged with me trying to shift words together to articulate what I meant. It started slow, like a confession and then turned into an apologetic babble. “But you don’t have to accompany me. This isn’t your time, or something that you have to take part in. You shouldn’t come with me. Instead, you can focus on getting home. Sorry, I got carried away and dragged you this far. When you get to the griffon capital, try and find the others and the Oasis. It contains a Tree there, maybe with Twilight’s help you might be able to get back to the future.”

Geneva smiled. “The future cannot exist while the past is threatened.”

I stared at her. “It will be dangerous.”

Geneva’s smile faltered. “I know.”

“Are you doing this because of me?”

Geneva chuckled. “No.”

“Then why?” I genuinely felt puzzled. “There’s no sense of responsibility here.”

“It’s related to the reason why I joined the Whos.”

“Why did you join?”

“Do you know the central tenants of the Whos?”

I shook my head. “I only know that I founded an organisation in the ancient times, but my memory is a bit fuzzy there.”

“The Whos were founded to follow the Great Owl and his Prophet. To uphold the Wing and protect the Way.”

“The Wing and the Way?”

Geneva pointed to her wings with one of her claw tips. “The Wing represents freedom, the Way represents the flight we take.” She smiled. “The Great Owl, you, once said: ‘All those who fly have freedom. All those with a will shall find the way.’”

I cocked my head. “Why would I say that?”

Geneva blinked at me. “Well surely you know the meaning if you said it yourself?”

I shook my head helplessly. “I don’t remember ever saying that!”

Geneva stared at me for a few moments, but then shrugged and continued. “Anyway, Great Owl, what you are saying to the Whos is that all those with wings are unrestricted and free. We should do anything we want whenever we want!”

I reared my head. Did I say anything like that? A past me might have said so…

“Freedom!” Geneva turned an avid gaze to the stars. “In the truest sense among the Whos where we can be what we want whenever we want. Not having a fixed location, not depending on any bird but ourselves and liberating ourselves in the truest sense!”

Geneva peered at me with avid intensity. “Great Owl, when I joined the Whos, it changed my life. I… had a rough time before, but now, I have purpose, I have a direction, I have… you.”

No, she didn’t have me. I was the one that abandoned my followers. I don’t even remember them. I left so much. I don’t deserve them. I don’t deserve any of this. I need to make it right.

“Listen—”

“No!” Geneva interrupted. “Listen to me, Great Owl! Whether you intended to or not, you have been there for me. I want to be there for you. I have that choice, I have that freedom.”

She hesitated, then sighed wistfully. “I love being a part of the Whos, we are a family that isn’t beholden to anything or anyone.” She coughed and glanced at me. “Except perhaps the Prophet and the Great Owl, but we know that the founder wouldn’t tie us down.”

Her view gave me misgivings. Is this what the Whos were really about?

“Surely… that can’t be a central tenet of the Whos. They seem so… organised.”

Geneva blushed so hard I could even see it under the moonlight. “Um… it might not be…”

“Might not be what?”

“Be a central tenet, I mean…” Griselda’s wings rustled restlessly on her back. “I, well, uhm… it’s an interpretation of mine…”

I chuckled.

“A-Anyway!” Geneva cleared her throat. “That passage was an inspiration for me to join. The Whos were the best change of my life. I want to follow you wherever you go, even if it means danger.”

I slowly stretched out with a wing, hopping towards Geneva. “I’m glad that the Whos were a positive experience in your life.” With my wing, I brushed it against hers and said in a low tone. “But you should remember that it should be just an inspiration and nothing more. You don’t need to follow anything I said or have said.”

“Well, you would say that.” Geneva smiled at me, but when I didn’t smile back, her own wilted. She met my eyes with determination etched deep in her irises bringing forth a presence so powerful that I couldn’t tear away. “I want to follow you and learn from you.”

“All the more reason you shouldn’t follow me.” I shook my head. “There’s nothing to learn.”

“Of course there is! You’re an owl.”

“That’s a stereotype, and stop diverting the subject! I have to ask you again. Why are you coming? It can’t be because of me, I won’t approve of it.”

Geneva stared at the stars. “This is more important than any one griffon.”

“But you don’t have to be the one to do it.”

“You don’t either!” She glared at me, for once openly angry at me. I noticed she had dropped my title in the process. “Why are you doing it?”

“I…” I preened my feathers to hide my expression. “It’s… a little embarrassing.”

“What is it?”

“I feel like this is all my fault.”

“Why?”

“I ran away from my responsibilities here.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, well, I guess you already know this, but I am immortal. I’ve lived a long time.”

Geneva thought I was the Great Owl so I thought it wouldn’t surprise her, that’s why her reaction shocked me.

“W-What?”

“Oh… I thought you knew.”

“I-I thought you were the reincarnation of the Great Owl or something.”

“How is that any more plausible?!”

“It’s more plausible than immortality!”

“The pony princesses are immortal!”

Geneva blinked. “Oh right, they are, but still!”

I blew out an exasperated breath. “This is my responsibility. I have to stop running away.”

“You ran away? Ran away from what?”

I took a deep breath. Well, maybe she’d understand why I had to do this if she knew. I told her about the whole story behind the Bites, Queen Griselda and the claw I had in it.

When I finished, she had a shocked look on her face.

“But… that’s not your fault…”

I shrugged and hunched my shoulders, fluffing my feathers instinctively.

“It is. I’m responsible for shaping her and guiding her. I shouldn’t have used my knowledge to push her into power without tempering it properly.”

“But—”

“But nothing. I flew away instead of doing something about it. I watched as she eradicated the Bites and worked her population to the ground. Griffons were never the same. I thought I was doing good, but I was misguided. After that… I started drifting, but now I’m back here.” I smiled wryly. “I guess even immortals like me can’t run away from the Tree in its quest for balance. I have to balance my past mistakes.”

I felt the shiver of guilt crawl from the abyss to wrap its sordid arms around my heart.

I felt cold, paralysed.

What was I doing? How was this going to change anything? Was the Tree of Harmony asking me to change the past and fix my mistakes, or was it telling me I should have never left? What was it showing me? The future or my past?

“I-I’m doing this because…” I couldn’t even finish that sentence.

Was I doing this because I had to fix my mistake or because it was right? One is selfish, the other selfless, one of the reasons should be right, the other wrong…

“Why not both?”

I realised too late that Geneva heard me speaking my thoughts out loud.

“If you want to do it, then you should do it,” Geneva murmured, wrapping her wings around me and clinging to me with a bear hug. Unprepared, I was squashed against her furry chest.

“Umph! Is that a quote from me?” I asked drily.

“No, it’s a quote from me.” Geneva chuckled, sending vibrations through her chest. “Whatever you choose, I’ll follow.”

“You don’t even know me, why do you want to follow me?”

“Because I want to, that’s all. You’re good. I refuse to believe that you had any bad intentions.”

I was quiet for a few moments, just listening to her breathe as I calmed myself down.

Then with an emotionally-laden sigh, I pulled back and saw her smiling down at me.

Who was the elder one here?

“Thank you, Geneva.”

She pulled back her wings in embarrassment. “I’m glad I could be of service… Owlowiscious.”

I stared at her in surprise, but before I could say anything she launched herself eastward. I followed with a wry smile.

Author's Notes:

Owl be seeing you around, hahaha I'll see myself out.

+1 street cred for all readers who make an owl pun in the comments below.

Next Chapter: Where's Twilight?

As always, my finely feathery featured frivolously fickle free readers, thanks for reading!

P.S. Owl be back. Couldn't resist.
P.P.S. I swear my writing has gotten a lot worse recently, thanks WORD WORTHY.