The Everfree forest was not a nice place, especially at night. It was dark and wild, the plants inside taking on a life of their own. Trees grew to monstrous sizes, their branches crossing and interlocking so closely that they blocked out even the high-noon sun. Vines and weeds that thrived in the dark crept across the forest floor, cancerous tumors that could not be removed. Terrible beasts lurked amongst the forbidding flora. They roamed where they wished, ate what they liked, and left destruction in their wake. Manticores, scorpion tailed lions that could eat a man whole, prowled across the rocky gorges scattered through the forest’s depths. Chicken headed Cockatrices laid in wait for unsuspecting prey, ready to turn their next meal into delicious, scrumptious, living stone. Ursas wandered through the Deep Groves, places where not even cragadiles would set foot, the colossal elementals the unchallenged rulers of the forest.
To be in the Everfree in the dead of night, or even in the middle of the day, was near suicide, it was commonly believed.
This was a sentiment Twilight Sparkle agreed with whole heartedly as she sprinted through the trees, twisting and turning along an erratic path. She leaped over a particularly large root, her muscled legs spreading wide in a clean split as she cleared it. She landed back on the ground without loosing a single bit of momentum, her legs resuming their steady rhythm. Her limbs rang with the dull ache of exertion, dimmed by the repetitive motions of running. Her chest heaved in and out like the bellows of forge, the taste of blood filling her mouth. Her tail trailed through the air behind her, the wind slipping through the hair and skimming along the skin, sending goosebumps up her spine. While not a physical combatant by any means, her body could sustain that breakneck speed for a modest amount of time. This was something that she instinctively knew, which left her completely and utterly baffled, even as she focused on running for her life. How could she run at this speed for more than a handful of seconds?
“Hurry up Twilight!” shouted Rarity from ahead, forcing herself to slow so as to not leave her comrade behind.
“I’m hurrying!” Twilight called back, only a slight gasp entering her voice as she ran. She weaved around a particularly large tree, her feet skidding across the uneven ground before regaining their purchase. She risked a brief glance back over her shoulder, her head snapping around to the front before what she’d glimpsed even registered. Over a dozen golden yellow eyes rushing to keep pace with them, slinking in and out of sight, baying howls filling the air. Timberwolves. Predatory elementals that were as much beast as they were plant. They hunted in packs, using pursuit and tire tactics to bring down their prey. They almost always hunted animals that were four or five times their size.
Except when they were agroed.
The crunching and scraping of wood under claw caused her to glance to her right, her gaze falling upon Spike as he gamely kept pace with her, his emerald eyes burning with an intelligence that, frankly, scared her. They stared sightlessly ahead though, the juvenile dragon’s nostrils flaring wide, his ear fins wiggling about every which way. Just a day ago he was nothing more than a program, a game mechanic her character was based around. But that didn’t matter right now. His feet pounded away at the ground, well muscled legs moving at a steady gallop. His purple scales would have shimmered if the moon or stars could have shone upon them. As it was, only an unexplainable ambient light allowed her and Rarity to see where they were going, avoiding headlong crashes into trees or boulders, things they should not have been able to see in the dead of night.
A large rock wall rose in front of them, its craggy face rising high into the air before spreading out in either direction. Plants and vines scrambled their way up the surface, digging into crevasses and looping about outcrops. Twilight and Rarity skidded to a halt, booted feet digging into dirt as they did.
Twilight spun around, her eyes and ears flicking to and fro in every direction, her fingers twitching in nervous anticipation. The timberwolves stopped as well, their baleful yellow eyes glaring out at them from the tree line. There were twelve of them, and they moved about with a grace that nothing made out of wood should have. The sounds of groaning trees and growling animals filled the air. Quick glances to the left and right showed that the beasts had already closed the circle, trapping them against the cliff face.
With a trembling hand, Twilight drew a long, narrow sword from her waist. It was a simple weapon, the arm-length made of beaten steel, the hand-and-a-half hilt tightly wrapped in black leather, and the pointed pommel left smooth and unadorned. Her ears twitched nervously as the timberwolves growled to one another. Spike came up to her side, settling his body into a deep crouch, nostrils flaring as clawed feet pawed the ground. He was with her, and the knowledge filled her with an unimaginable amount of gratitude and confidence. It was almost like her body was strengthened by his presence.
A powder blue glow suffused the spiral horn that grew out of Rarity’s forehead, and words from an alien language began to spill past her lips. A timberwolf leapt out from the trees, brown sap dripping from white birch teeth. Twilight lashed out, her sword skimming just over the wolf’s head as it danced away, back into the tree line. Before she could recover, another wolf darted out, only to be chased away by a crack of Spike’s tail. They would whittle away at their strength, tiring them until they fell down from exhaustion. Then, the pack would eat.
Slowly, rocks began to uproot themselves from the ground, covered in the same blue light the wrapped around Rarity’s horn. They stacked themselves one next to the other, forming a narrow footpath up the cliff face. They could do this, they could escape. But the spell had a long channel time, so Twilight and Spike had to buy Rarity enough time.
The growling increased in volume and pitch as the wolves began to realize what Rarity was doing. Chipping away at their strength wasn’t going to work, they needed to kill the prey now, before it escaped. Two wolves dashed forward, ignoring Twilight and Spike as they rushed to reach the elementalist. Like hell they were.
Leaving the one on the right to Spike, Twilight’s sword scored down the flank of the other one, a pained yelp filling the air. Her sword bit into timber, sap beginning to leak from the wound as she withdrew. She felt herself sickened at the piteous whimper that escaped the wolf’s wooden lips, bile rising in her throat. It was injured. It looked like it could barely move. Wasn’t that enough? But some new, savage part of her stamped down on the notion, and she brought her sword up once more, gripping the handle with both hands. Her arms tensed, and with a furious cry she brought her sword down in a vicious overhead, decapitating the wolf.
Twilight froze, her mind going blank as she realized that she’d just killed an innocent creature. She hadn’t even meant to, she’d just...reacted, like it was an instinct. Her eyes widened as her lips parted, her breath fleeing her with an uneasy gasp, her sword slipping from her grip.
Over a hundred and fifty pounds of living wood slammed into her side, knocking her to the ground and forcing out what little air remained in her lungs. She looked into two gold, witch-fire eyes blazing with a savage fury. She was pinned to the ground, wood paws digging into her right side, her arms pinned beneath her body. A slow, steady growl emanated from its throat, crystal sap dripping from birch wood fangs. It promised vengeance.
It was then, as the timberwolf reared back to sink its teeth into her neck, that Twilight learned her first real lesson in this new world. To freeze on the battlefield means nothing less than death.
