What's Hidden In The Woods

Stars Came Crashing Down

The attack came from my left side. I quickly ducked and could hear the blade swing above me. I charged towards the stallion but had to jump sideways to avoid his blade hitting me in the back. Damn Unicorns and their magic. I parried two other strikes and grabbed my enemy’s blade by the hilt. For a moment we struggled over the control of the blade, but in the end his magic aura shattered and I stood there with two swords.

"Now that's new. I didn't even know you could do that. And please Ser, never do that again, it hurts very much." Brave Steel rubbed her horn and packed both of the wooden swords into the bag we had been using ever since  Celestia had assigned her to train with me. She was a great teacher and sparring partner. In the last three months she had taught me the basics on how to use a sword, bow, spear and even a war axe, should I ever use one. Since she's not a human she was only able to teach me theory but it still worked out. With the sword we went more into detail, and had started to train on a weekly basic. It was a nice distraction from my daily boredom. Since I was a knight, I was freed of most of taxes and I had received a pretty big amount of money when I received the title. But still, I had started looking for a job around a month ago, yet I hadn't found anything yet.

"Well, we both learned something new, I guess that's enough training for today."

"Very well. Now, I need to return to Canterlot. So until next week." And with that she picked up the bag and wandered off towards the train station. I waved after her and then went back inside. When I got into my living room, Fluttershy was there, pacing nervously.

"Oh, Alex, thank Celestia you're here, please you need to come with me, Angel and some other animals have run off into the Everfree Forest! Please help me find them."

"Sure. But, ah, could I put on a shirt really quick?" Even though nopony else was wearing clothes, it still felt wrong to walk around without them.

"Please, just come now. They could be in serious danger. I've been hearing the Timberwolves howl way more often than usual. Who knows what else could be off in there?" By the look she gave me, I realized that there would be no time to put on a shirt. If I wouldn't come with her right now, she was probably going to cry.

"Okay. Let's get to your cottage then." I grabbed my sword and followed her out the door. For once, she was actually flying. Since Fluttershy's cottage was on the other side of town, it took us some while to get there.  When we reached her cottage I could see several animals running out of the Everfree, obviously running away from something. Fluttershy immediately rushed towards them and hugged all of them at once.

"Ohhh, my little friends, please don't ever run off into the Everfree again, okay? You really scared me." When I reached her, the hug was over and Angel was pointing at the forest, terrified. He then tried to imitate some kind of animal but neither I nor Fluttershy understood what he was trying to tell us. The answer came crashing through the trees a few seconds later.

A bear. An angry bear. And as if that wouldn't have been bad enough already, it wasn't a normal bear, no it was an Ursa Minor.

Fluttershy and the animals panicked and ran back towards her cottage. The Ursa locked its eyes on me, since I was the only target hat wasn't intelligent enough to run. I secured my stance and prepared myself for the impact. When it reached me, it raised its paw and swung it down on me.

It did not expect its paw to be stopped by my fist. It looked at me confused and I did what I always had done when I had met a creature in the Everfree over the three last months. I shot it a glare. That usually worked. Since my eyes were almost ice-blue, I could look scary if I wanted to and when I centered my magic in them, they started to shine and little sparks of magic would flow out of them. At least that's what Twilight told me. But it didn't seem to work this time. The Ursa simply tried to hit me with its other paw, which was blocked by my other fist. But now, my situation was pretty bad. Sooner or later my arms would give in, if my bones wouldn’t break before that. Or, if I was unlucky, it would realize that it could throw me. So, I did something very dangerous. I opened my hands, grabbed its paws as good as I could, shifted all of my weight onto my left foot, drew it towards me and kicked it with all of my force. It stumbled backwards and I got to draw my sword. I really didn't want to kill the Ursa but I wasn't sure what else I could do. It charged at me again and this time I jumped to the side and hit it in the back with my hilt. It stumbled again but only seemed to get even angrier. When it attacked again, I swung my sword, but it simply bounced off of the Ursa's paw. This time I was the confused one. It used its chance and hit me with its paw, sending me flying several feet. When I tried to get up, I saw three cuts in my side.

They did not exactly make it easier to get up again. When I was finally standing again, the Ursa was right in front of me and it knew that it had won. It reached out for the final hit, when a very determined voice came from behind me.

"Hey! Mr. Ursa Minor! What do you think you are doing, hurting my friend like that? Leave him alone!" The Ursa stopped dead and I turned around, only to see the one pony I expected the least to help me out with this.

"Fluttershy?!?"

"I want you to go back into the forest and think about what you've done right now!" The whole time she was talking, she stared at the Ursa. And to my complete surprise, it worked. The Ursa lowered its paw, now looking scared himself and walked off into the Everfree. My lower jaw pretty much hit the ground at that moment. Once the Ursa was gone, Fluttershy stopped staring at it and turned to me, now sounding like herself again. "Oh, I'm so sorry Alex, I should've come sorry but I was so scared. Are you alright?"

I sat down, trying to comprehend that Fluttershy had just told an Ursa Minor to think about what he'd done. "More or less. These cuts shouldn't take too long to heal. And thanks for saving me. But... how did you do that?"

"I-I'm not sure. We call it the stare. My staring seems to have a pretty big effect on animals, they always listen to me when I’m staring at them, even the ones that usually don't listen to any pony."

"But that was an Ursa Minor! That's not just your average snake or wolf or whatever, that's officially a mythical creature!" Her voice got even quieter than before.

"W-Well it worked on a Cockatrice, so..."

"You stared at a creature that turns you into stone when it looks at you? I give up. But once again, thanks for saving me." I got up again and flinched a little due to the cuts. This did not go unnoticed by Fluttershy.

"Oh my, you're hurt. Should I get a doctor?"

"No, no, it's okay. These are nothing serious. They'll be good again in no time."

"Please, at least get some rest before you walk all the way to your home again." I sighed. What could it hurt.

"Sure, thanks Flutters." We went inside her cottage and she told me to lie down on the couch. She then went into another room. If I didn't walk around too much, these cuts should be healed in half an hour. Well, at least I wasn't in a hospital. When she came back, she had a tray with some tea and some of Pinkie's cupcakes. I sat up.

"So, what type of tea would you like? I have lemon, apple and cinnamon. Or would you rather have some water?"

"Tea's just fine. And lemon please." She quickly filled the two cups she had brought and handed one of them to me. "Thanks Flutters." We both took a sip. "You said that you were hearing the Timberwolves way more often than usual. Have there been any other oddities regarding the Everfree Forest?"

"Yes. There were several times were I could watch a creature from inside strolling at the forest's border and I've been hearing fighting noises coming from the inside." This was not good. Of course, the Everfree wasn't save but you should be able to realize that from its looks and not from monsters strolling around at its borders. And that the creatures would fight against each other was also new. We sat in silence for a while, me racking my brains over the forest and Fluttershy nipping at her tea every then and now.

After a while she got up. "I need to feed the animals, if you need anything just let me know, okay?"

"Yeah, you do that. I'm getting sleepy again anyways." This was one of the major flaws of the way magic worked in humans: When it started to regenerate, I'd always become sleepy. If I overdid it I could pass out on the spot. I laid down again as Fluttershy left and fell asleep soon after.

I woke up again from the feeling of falling. Once I was fully awake, I realized that I wasn't falling but hovering upside down, covered in a purple aura. Also, I was getting shaked. "What did I do to deserve this?" The shaking stopped.

"Except from being a sleepyhead, nothing. But really, I tried every other way of waking you that came to my mind but you just wouldn't wake up." Twilight placed me on the couch and I suddenly shivered. Looking at my side, I could see the last bits of the wound closing, so I couldn't have slept for long.

“So, what’s the matter?”

“I got a letter from Celestia. It said that there seems to be a large amount of storm clouds forming around the old castle. She wanted you to find out what’s causing them  to form and how they stay on the ground.”

“Something is definitely wrong in the Everfree. Fluttershy said that some of the creatures started strolling around at its borders. And an Ursa Minor even decided to attack the cottage.” As expected, this statement frightened her. Before she could bombard me with questions, I took a step ahead. “Fluttershy stared it away. She also said that she could hear fighting noises coming from the inside. Entering it at the moment could be pretty dangerous.”

“Probably. We should tell everypony not to enter it at the…” Her expression suddenly became scared.

“What’s wrong?”

“Zecora is still in there! Who knows what could’ve happened to her by now!” Oh crap. I hadn’t even thought about that. For the second time today, I grabbed my sword and ran out of the cottage, this time with Twilight right behind me.