Chapter 7
Unneeded Possession
They say possession is nine-tenths of the law. However, does that law still stand if you're being possessed by an animal that can enter your body at will? I don't know, maybe? Whatever the case, being possessed is something that you definitely need to take care of and fast. It's a good idea to have the number for an exorcist just in case. That is something one pony would have loved to know before they almost ate all the food in Ponyville after being possessed by a devious Werehog. It all began one dark night in Ponyville. Flareon, Twilight, and his friends were walking through the Everfree Forest back home after they had visited Zecora. Flareon was using his horn like a torch to lit the way so they could see. Suddenly, a strange-looking hog with ragged fur appeared before them. At first they thought nothing out it, that is until, Fluttershy began to panic.
"Oh no!" Fluttershy cried out as she began to slowly back away from the wild boar, "This isn't good."
"What's wrong Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.
"That animal is a Werehog," she replied while trying her best not to agitate it, "It has the ability to become transparent like a ghost and can enter your body at will and possess you! The problem is you may not even know your being possessed. I hear they have very big appetites. Whatever you do...don't let it out of your sight!"
"Don't worry Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash said confidently, "There's no way he's going to get past all seven of us!" Unfortunately, it turns out the Werehog had somehow managed to disappear from the spot he used to be at, even with seven ponies present. Immediately, they began to cautiously search for the missing Werehog. A few minutes later, as Flareon was walking backwards, he accidentally bumped into Fluttershy. As a result, she began to scream loudly, which startled Flareon and made him lose concentration with his magic. As his horn's light vanished, chaos erupted as everyone began to panic and scream in total darkness. Eventually, Flareon was able to get his concentration back and quickly brought back the light with his horn again. As they desperately looked around the area, the Werehog was still nowhere to be seen.
"You think it ran away? We did make a pretty big racket after all. Maybe it got scared and fled," Applejack said.
"I sure hope so," Fluttershy replied, "If by small chance the Werehog did possess one of us, there's no way of telling which of us is possessed right now."
"How about we agree on that whoever shows unusual signs, or in Pinkie Pie's case more than unusual signs, that is the pony who is possessed by the Werehog," Twilight said as the others agreed with her. "For now...let's get out of this forest before we run into something worse." Later on, everyone eventually made it out of the Everfree Forest and returned home to go to sleep. The next morning at Golden Oak Library, Flareon and his family awoke to another day in Ponyville. After they had breakfast, Solana headed off to school, while Flareon and Twilight went into town. Soon after, they saw a huge crowd of ponies standing around Sugarcube Corner. As Flareon and Twilight made their way through the crowd, their jaws dropped. Sugarcube Corner had been completely ransacked. Not a single piece of food was left behind. All the donuts, cakes, cookies, and pastries, everything, was gone. Flareon and Twilight rushed over to a devastated Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Pinkie Pie.
"What happened?" Twilight asked.
"We don't know," Mrs. Cake replied, "Last night we heard someone break in, but when we went downstairs, they had vanished along with all our sweets. The weird part is...they didn't even bother to take anything for the cash register."
"That is definitely strange," Flareon said as he turned to Twilight, "You think it's possible that the Werehog possessed one of us yesterday and then used our body to eat all the food in Sugarcube Corner last night?"
"Maybe," Twilight replied uncertainly, "Mr. and Mrs. Cake...was Pinkie Pie with you when you checked for the culprit?"
"Yes, she was with us the entire time," Mr. Cake said, "Now...what's this about a Werehog?" After Twilight explained to them about the Werehog, they agreed to keep a watchful eye on Pinkie Pie, just in case. Luckily though, Flareon and Twilight didn't seem to find another disturbance in Ponyville. Hopefully, Sugarcube Corner would be the last one, but as it would soon turn out, that was not case. Later on, past midnight at Apple Acres, Applejack was sleeping soundly in her bed when she suddenly hear the animals making racket outside. After getting a flashlight, Applejack hurried downstairs and went outside to see what all the commotion was about.
"Who's there?!" Applejack yelled as she quickly used her flashlight to search around. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a half-eaten apple rolled across the ground and stopped right in front of her. As she looked down at the apple, Applejack saw out of the corner of her eye a dark silhouette dash from behind a barrel to inside the open barn. "Gotch ya you dastardly varmint!" As Applejack went inside the barn, she used her flashlight to look around, but didn't seem anything suspicious, just some farm animals. They seemed to be spooked by something. As Applejack was about to leave the barn, she suddenly felt something land hard on her back. As a result from the hit, Applejack dropped her flashlight. Eventually, she was able to get back up and quickly picked up the flashlight, but when Applejack looked around for whatever had knocked her over, she didn't see anything. Whoever, or whatever, it was had apparently ran away. Applejack then left the barn and searched the rest of Apple Acres, but still didn't find the intruder. Seeing as searching around anymore was pointless, Applejack went back inside and feel asleep. The next morning however, Applejack was able to see the resulting damage the trespasser has caused. They had somehow managed to eat every apple off all the tress that resided at Apple Acres in a single night. The only apple that was left behind was that half-eaten one. As the rest of her family tried to cope with the devastation, Applejack gathered her friends and told them what happened. There was no doubt about it. One of them had been possessed by the Werehog and it was using their body to eat not only all the sweets at Sugarcube Corner, but also all the apples at Apple Acres. The problem was they still didn't know who was possessed, but after some discussion, they were able to rule out Pinkie Pie and Applejack. That just left either Flareon, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, or Rarity. Even though Rarity insisted she would never allow such an ugly, disgraceful beast possess her body, they still had to suspect her. Unfortunately, they still couldn't figure out who it was as every single night more and more incidents consisting of food theft had sprung up. It was getting so bad that Mayor Mare put up a state of emergency as Ponyville was in danger of running out of food. The good news was that they were finally getting close to figuring out who was possessed by the Werehog. It was now down to either Flareon or Twilight. After some discussion, Flareon and Twilight decided to keep a very close eye on each other to see which one showed signs of being possessed. Later on at night, Twilight turned in her bed and attempted to put her hoof around Flareon, but instead, it touched the blanket. Twilight opened her eyes and saw that Flareon wasn't in bed. She quickly sat up and looked around the room, but Flareon was nowhere to be seen. Suddenly, she heard a faint sound coming from downstairs and decided to investigate. As Twilight walked down the steps, trying not to wake Solana and Spike, she heard the noises coming from the kitchen.
"Flareon...is that you?" Twilight said as she rubbed her tired eye. When she entered the kitchen, Twilight saw a dark figure ruffling through the open fridge, but when she got closer, Twilight eye's widened as she let out a silent scream. What was standing before her eating everything in the fridge was none other than Flareon. However, it was hard to tell it was actually Flareon as his body was completely covered in ragged fur and had boar tusks coming from his mouth. When Flareon spotted Twilight, he stopped eating and tried to shield his furry face with his hooves.
"Twilight! Don't look at me!" Flareon cried out in a rough voice. A few seconds later, Flareon looked up and saw Twilight sitting right by him.
"Don't worry Flareon," Twilight replied as she hugged him, "Let's go to see Zecora so she can make a potion to get that thing out of you." Out of nowhere, Flareon tried to attack Twilight, but thankfully, she managed to evade just in time.
"I'm sorry Twilight," Flareon muttered as he tried to apologized, "I'm not that in control of my body right now. The Werehog is still trying to completely take over me again. It won't be long before he does so let's to go Zecora now. I won't be able to forgive myself if I end up accidently hurting you." As Twilight gave him a reassuring smile, Flareon followed after her. Later on, in the Everfree Forest, Twilight and her friends were walking to Zecora's hut, while Applejack was pulling Flareon in a metal cage on wheels. The Werehog to this point had completely taken over Flareon's body and was trying his best to find a way to bust out of his metal prison.
"Come on girls," Flareon snickered, "Let me out. I promise I won't...eat you!" They were not paying any attention to him as it wouldn't be long before they had Flareon back to normal and Werehog-free. "All I want is to eat! That's it! If you don't let me out of here...you're going to regret it! I guarantee it!" Unfortunately for the him, Flareon's threats were having no effect whatsoever.
"Sorry Flareon, but we're not letting you out of that cage," Twilight firmly replied. Suddenly, she heard Pinkie Pie calling her name.
"Um...Twilight, he got out," Pinkie Pie said. Twilight quickly turned around and was shocked to see the cage with a gapping hole on the right side. It appeared that Flareon had somehow managed to tear his way through the metal bars. Immediately, everyone began to search around for their missing prisoner, when out of nowhere, Flareon appeared behind him. He had a mischievous smirk on his face.
"Here's Flareon!" he shouted out as everyone screamed and ran off in separate directions. Meanwhile, Twilight was trying to best to make it to Zecora's hut. She was desperately hoping the others were ok. Eventually, Twilight finally made it her destination and immediately began to knock on the door. As Zecora opened the door, Twilight came running inside. Even before she was able to catch her breath, Zecora thrust a blue potion into Twilight's hooves.
"Fluttershy told me to make this just in case one of you became possessed by the Werehog," Zecora said as Twilight put the potion in her bag, "All you have to do is make whoever got possessed to drink this potion and it will force the Werehog out of their body." After she thanked Zecora for her help, Twilight hurried back outside to find Flareon. A couple of minutes later, Twilight finally found Flareon, who quickly jumped at her. Twilight then used her magic to slam him to the ground.
"Sorry Flareon," Twilight said as she took the potion of out her bag, "This is for your own good." Even against Flareon's barrage of threats, she was able force the potion down his throat. Shortly after, the Werehog was ejected from Flareon's body. As a result, he turned back to normal. If that wasn't bad enough for the Werehog, it had begun to cough out blue smoke and soon disappeared. She then rushed over to Flareon who had lost consciousness after the Werehog left his body. As Twilight held his lead in her lap, he eventually opened his eyes and saw Twilight's relived face.
"Hey there," Twilight muttered, "Feeling better?"
"Yeah...a lot better now that you mention it," Flareon replied as he got back up, "Being possessed was beyond terrible. I hope I never see another Werehog in my life ever again." He looked around to see what happened to the others. "Where did everyone go? The last thing I remembered was getting into the cage and then everything went black." Before Twilight could respond, their friends appeared from behind some bushes. Best of all, they seemed to be completely unharmed. It turns out they had somehow managed to escape Flareon after everyone separated. As they began to celebrate having Flareon back to his usual Werehog-free self, he pleaded for them to leave the Everfree Forest as soon as possible before another wild animal with the ability to possess at will showed up.
