The Everfree Forest had always been dark, but this one night it was darker, even with the moon in the sky shining down upon it. It was the time of the day when the critters and most wild animals would certainly go to sleep, and it was the perfect chance for a pair of travelers to go into the forest. One of them seemed to be an earth pony stallion, he walked carefully and quietly into the forest, but the other one, a female griffon armed solely with a spear, walked impatiently and just wished her companion would walk faster, though not because the forest scared her.
The pair walked deeper into the forest, the pony being wary of his surroundings while the griffon didn't care at all. The trees became more twisted the deeper they went in, and the sky was soon no longer visible. There was this certain feel of dread that came to the mind of ponies when the forest was mentioned, and the traveling pony was slowly falling victim to it. While him and his companion were not enemies of House Everfree, they were not allies either. They were just a pair of travelers desperate for food, and the Everfree Forest was a good source for both of their foods. It wasn't long before they found a tree with fruit, to the stallion's delight. As he began kicking the tree with his hind legs, the griffon sighed in frustration and kept walking, no words spoken.
She walked even deeper into the dark forest. Her goals were clearly to find any critter or small animal and devour it, but she wouldn't be able to get one without some hunting. She began prowling, her spear ready to strike anything that moved, and kept looking for any creature to eat. After what must have been ten minutes, she reached a large, hollow tree adorned with what seemed to be zebra masks and bear teeth, the entrance to the inside of the tree being little more than a hole just big enough for a pony to fit in. She thought that maybe there would at least be something to eat inside, and walked into the tree. To her disappointment there was no food, only a boring hut. She took a look around, hoping to find anything, but the only things she could see were blood paintings on the walls depicting birds, bears, snakes, timberwolves, parasprites, and other creatures. She dismissed them and went back outside. To her surprise, there was now a crow in front of the tree, its back turned on her. She smirked and readied her spear as she licked her beak. With one swift movement, she impaled the unfortunate bird. As the bird writhed in agony for a few moments, its blood spilling on the ground, the griffon prepared to eat her meal.She grabbed the bird with her talons and prepared to eat it whole when she was interrupted by the sounds of more crows. She looked around and saw a murder of crows gathering above her and on the tree, and then heard the sounds of hooves approaching her. She hoped it was her companion and she looked in the direction of the sounds, but she froze upon seeing that it wasn't her pony friend at all.
Standing in front of her was a male zebra with blood markings on his face, his body covered in Everfree clothes adorned with crow feathers and wearing a bear tooth necklace, his eyes a light shade of violet and focused on the recently killed crow. Shortly after an initial shock, the zebra's expression changed to one of extreme rage as his eyes began glowing a sickly green. From behind him came a pair of timberwolves, their eyes glowing with the same green as the zebra's, and the crows around the griffon soon had the same fearsome eyes. The griffon realized she had just angered a Beastmaster, and this was not good in any context. The zebra pointed at her and roared the same way a beast would do, and the timberwolves and crows attacked the griffon, who dropped her spear and the crow and attempted to escape as quickly as possible.
The pony had finished collecting fruits when he noticed his friend was gone. Before he had the chance to wonder where she had gone, she heard her screaming in pain along with the caws of crows. Fearing the worst, he ran to where the screams and caws came from, but upon arriving at the scene his face turned pale and his heart nearly stopped. His friend was being eaten alive by a murder of crows and a pair of timberwolves. She could see him, but as she tried to reach out for him, the beastmaster came in with the griffon's spear in his mouth, making them both freeze. The beasts moved out of the way as the beastmaster approached the agonizing griffon, stopping right in front of her. He reached for something in his clothes, his dead crow, and showed it to the griffon. The spear had gone through the crow's back and had come out at the base of the neck. Without any further attempts to communicate, the beastmaster drove the spear into the griffon's back the same way it had killed his crow, ending the griffon's life immediately, to the shock of her companion. Letting go of the spear, the zebra took a couple steps back and waved his hoof at the hungry beasts, which made them jump to the griffon's corpse and finish feeding on her flesh. The beastmaster's eyes regained their violet color as his rage was quenched, but he soon noticed the pony that had been watching the act, and most of the crows looked at the pony as well. Sensing the griffon's smell on the pony, the zebra pointed at him and ordered his crows to attack him.
Without thinking twice, the pony ran as fast as he could, hearing the flapping of wings and caws of crows flying after him. However, luck was not on his side, and he tripped on a root, falling face first on the ground. He didn't have the chance to move before the murder of crows surrounded him. As he struggled to keep the birds away, there was only one thing he could see between the black feathers and wings dancing in front of him: the beastmaster's hooves and his glowing eyes, coming closer every second.
"W-Why?! Why did you have to kill her?!" the pony asked, fearing for his life.
The beastmaster stopped in front of him and ordered the crows to leave him alone. "She deserved it..." he replied in a voice that sounded like if a beast was talking. "If you want to survive, leave this forest, and NEVER return!" the beastmaster warned him. The pony didn't waste time and ran away, the crows looking at him go. As the timberwolves returned to their master's side, the zebra turned around. "Let him go...it was the griffon the one we wanted." He walked back into the depths of the forest, followed by his timberwolves and the murder of crows, all of them disappearing into the dark of the night.
Author's Note
This is for the Everfree fans out there. I don't know if zebras can become beastmasters, but I assume the House doesn't discriminate in that situation. Criticism welcome.
