The chariot dropped of Scarlet a little ways off from the town. She could hear a few yells of startled ponies still about in the attack. Yet still she could not feel the dire urge to rush in, just an even calmness. She wasn't to forlorn about this though, as it allowed her to keep and cool head and plan out how to best attack. She knew the timber wolves would not stay down when slain through normal means, you needed a fire or something to crush them up with or else they would simply pull themselves back together. Unfortunately Scarlet did not have access to either method, nor would she use them unless necessary.

She reached the town with several of the guards following in behind her. They quickly ran into the town and set out to get the ponies into homes and out of streets. However they were almost immediately attacked by packs of timber wolves. It was not uncommon for a few wolves or even a pack to stray into the town of Ponyville, but the number that was attacking now was simply unheard of, each guard had at least three wolves on them, some stared down even more the that. Scarlet was currently looking at two average timber wolves and one rather large one. Scarlet drew her new sword in her magical grasp and the white markings pulsed faster, like they anticipated the battle.

Before she could even begin analyzing her opponents they leaped at her. Scarlet deftly avoided their bites and slashes with practiced ease and made return strikes at them, slashing their muzzles and fore paws. But every strike merely left a mark and had no other true physical effect on the wooden hounds. With all of her parries, dodges, leaps, and strikes, Scarlet continued to remain in that eerie calm state, not growing afraid when a claw swung to close, or angry when her strikes had no effect, even her movements remained practiced and simple without desperate flares or arrogant lunges.

After a minute or two of their dance of battle one wolf fell, it's log body collapsing and scattering. Scarlet knew it would take the wolf a while to pull itself back together and join the fight so she could focus more on the others. At least that's what normally happens, this wolf got back up and together almost the moment it hit the ground. It joined the fray once more and Scarlet went back to shifting her focus from wolf to wolf. She continued to fight them for a few moments more before leaping over one and quickly moving to help a nearby guard who had six wolves on him.

"These numbers are staggering, I've never seen so many in my life," a few specks of blood flew from a busted lip on the guard as he spoke "And they just reform so quickly."

"I know, something doesn't seem right here." Scarlet wondered if there was something at work behind it as she countered and slashed the wolves. Her thoughts were interrupted by a yelp of pain followed by a thud. When she turned around she saw the guard on the ground squirming against a timber wolf that had locked it's teeth into the guards shoulder. She stared as he fought against the wolf in vein, it's teeth locked firmly into his flesh as blood flowed between it's teeth. Scarlet drove her sword into the monster's head snapping that section of wood in half. And for the first time since the urge to help she began to feel her emotions spark within. A tiny flame of anger lit in her, mixed with a tinge of fear. It felt good to feel anything again without it being so numbed and dulled.

Scarlet helped the guard to his feet then stood back up and looked around as the guards all around became overwhelmed by wolves. The small fire of anger began to grow into a rage, then a fury, heat consuming her chest and burning her thoughts. She was mad that her town had burned, she was mad that she had survived it all without a scratch, she was mad at the wyvern for killing her friends, she was mad at the wolves for attack, but most of all she was mad that the damn things wouldn't stay down. The anger continued to burn in her chest before finally she let out a roar and charged the nearest wolf, the large one from before. She leaped at the hound and drove her sword into it's head, but unlike before where the wold would fall then stand, this time the wolf burst alight in flame, the wolf howling in pain and causing a the fighting to stop momentarily as all combatants stared at the howling beast. Finally the wolf turned to ash and scarlet landed on the ground.

Scarlet was confused as to what just happened, but then she looked at her sword which was now alight with a white flame. A maniacal grin spread across her face as she suddenly knew what to do. Scarlet lifted her sword high above her head then brought it down in one swift motion and a wall of flames burst from the blade and shot forward, cutting a line through the wolf forces, and burning any of those in it's path. Sick pleasure washed over Scarlet as she watched them turn to ash, now her emotions were back tenfold and the tiny anger she would have felt was a raging flame consuming her thoughts, forcing Scarlet to attack on instinct rather than tactic.

Until the small voice of reason poked through the flame and reminded her of Celestia's words, only use lethal force if necessary. While true that some was necessary there was no need for the mindless slaughter of all the wolves, the largest was gone after all. The rest of them should begin scattering by now, and sure enough they were. One by one the wolves saw the ashes and began to turn tail and run.

A crowd of town ponies came out cheering as the last wolf fled back to the woods. Scarlet was lifted up on the crowd and carried around the square in celebration, and though Scarlet was happy for saving the town she couldn't help but question her actions. The crowd set scarlet down in front of a large tree modeled to be a building, And standing in front of the door was Princess twilight sparkle. Scarlet immediately knelled before her as the purple alicorn walked up to her.

"Please don't bow Scarlet, you know me, and I only just became a princess." Scarlet nodded then stood back upright. "Thank you for your efforts in leading the guard against these timber wolves. I've never seen so many and so organized before in my life."

"Neither have I Twilight. Perhaps there is something more to it?" Scarlet didn't know why she was so suspicious of it all but something in her gut told her this was not some odd coincidence.

"I believe you may be right, Be aware I will be doing everything I can to look into this. But for now thank you for your noble service. If it's alright we would like to thank you and offer you a reward for your service."

"That won't be necessary Twilight, I'm just glad i made it here in time to help. If it's all the same keep your reward."

"Very well Scarlet thank you again for your help." With that Scarlet turned and began walking over to where the chariots were left and climbed aboard as two guards strapped themselves in. They took off and Scarlet cast a fleeting glance back at ponyville before turning around and getting ready to report to Celestia.

Author's Note

Wow this one took a while to get out. Curse you writer block and distraction. but here it is and hopefully the rest won't take so long. this chapter is unedited (i really need to get around to edit it all) leave a comment what you think, any fan stuff can go to tidicuses@hotmail.com Thank you for reading.