Twisted Moose Magic

Moose

Fluttershy was searching the Everfree Forest for some special herbs Zecora had shown her. She didn't like going into the forest, and she normally wouldn't be looking for the herbs herself. However, Zecora was on her yearly pilgrimage back to her homeland, so Fluttershy was on her own finding them.

The forest's unpredictable weather had thrown up a thick sheet of fog, reducing visibility down to distances that could be measured by ominous phrases such as "from here to that tree over there" and "that’s no tree." This didn’t help the forest’s already clear monopoly on thorned bushes, malignant trees, and unpredictable wildlife.

After all, fog held on to smell, if her animal friends were right. It made it easier for predators to track down prey. This was why Fluttershy had been so unnerved by this recent gout of fog from the Everfree: it tended to creep out of the forest and wrap around her house, leading to one or two encounters with (fortunately friendly) animals that she did not want to repeat.

Fluttershy couldn't believe her luck when she found a patch of fungus that was an extremely rare and somewhat valuable painkiller. Hastily scooping up as much of it as she could with her spade, she had completely failed to notice the timberwolves crowding into the clearing until she bumped face-first into one directly.

Fluttershy looked up and saw something was out-of-place for the normally fearsome wooden wolves. Every one of them was sporting an unhealthy orangish purple tint normally only found on very hungry, or very sick, timberwolves. Most importantly though, it was found on very desperate, and extremely aggressive, timberwolves.

Frantically backing away, Fluttershy found herself trapped against a tree, desperately looking for an escape route. She found only glowing green eyes and sharpened wooden teeth.

"I tell you, its real!" Lyra said to Berry Punch for the umpteenth time. "I saw Bighoof out there in the Everfree Forest."

"Yeah," Berry said, sipping her grape juice in a grumpy manner. "Is this like that time you had real photo evidence of a human too?"

"Well, no..." Lyra sat stewing under the unamused gaze of Berry, "OK, ok. Yeah it is, but this time I've seen it, and it’s not just a bush."

"You know, Lyra, its talk like that," Berry said, waving a hoof at her, "That keeps this whole girls’-night-out thing to just you and me. I mean, why can't we talk about more normal things?"

"But I've really seen it this time!"

"Honestly, I don't know why Bon Bon puts up with you."

That smell, Something thought.

It had been wandering these forests aimlessly for days now, nothing seemed to want to bother it. Nostrils flared as it let out a deep grunt and loped off into the forest with long easy strides.

"Fear." It growled, its huge furred body bashing aside branches and bushes alike.

Holding her mushroom basket in front of her as a shield, Fluttershy desperately tried to back her way through the tree. Then, Fluttershy heard a sound from off to the side. It sounded big, it sounded angry, and it sounded a lot bigger and angrier than a timberwolf.

It exploded out into the clearing, making a sound halfway between a growl and a roar. One timberwolf was already flying away, a cloud of kindling, as something Fluttershy could only describe as a monster thrashed and stomped another timberwolf into mulch.

The next timberwolf leapt at the monster, but was swatted into a tree where it exploded into splinters. Another latched onto the monster's legs but one thunderous stomp was enough to break the wolf's head off its wooden body.

The monster locked eyes with the largest timberwolf, an alpha that hadn’t backed down from many fights before. Its charred skin suggested that it had even tangled with a dragon of some description.

The monster roared in its odd way again and slammed its hoof down, the one that was still in the jaws of the beheaded timberwolf. Fluttershy could feel the power radiating off the monster’s apparently magically enhanced strength. She almost didn’t notice that she got hit in the head by a splintered piece of timberwolf skull.

With that the timberwolves’ will broke, and they fled.

And before Fluttershy knew it, the clearing was empty except for her, the monster and a pile of former timberwolves.

The monster oozed menace in that unpleasant way that has been backed up by a show of strength, such that none of the timberwolves were even trying to reform in its presence.

Looking at it, "veteran" or "battle-hardened" came to mind. Scars on its thin-looking legs and body were readily apparent, even through its thick coat of rough brown fur. Once you got around to looking up at his face, the word "unpleasant" would creep to mind. Two closed eyelids hid eyes that were clearly no longer there, and its long face was framed by the most unpleasant pair of antlers Fluttershy had ever seen. They looked horribly deformed and twisted, almost like coral, in a way one did not want to associate with a healthy creature.

The only out-of-place touch was that its antlers were wrapped in some kind of twisting vine that was sprouting bundles of small white flowers.

It turned to Fluttershy, who whimpered and tried to hide behind her basket again, realizing two things about it that she had missed. First, it was huge. Towering over her, it was easily nine feet tall. And second, perhaps more importantly, its antlers were giving off the telltale glow of magic.

Then it spoke, what it said unleashing an even deeper-seated fear in Fluttershy, who bolted from the clearing at a speed which Rainbow Dash would have approved of, if not actually been impressed by.

The moose looked at the abandoned mushroom basket in confusion for a moment. Or, more accurately, radiated magic from his antlers and directed different types of magic at the mushroom basket, detecting the returning wavelengths to see with.

He was honestly confused as to what he had said to finally scare the little pegasus creature off, maybe they didn't speak his language here. Or, perhaps, it was his voice, clearing his unfamiliar throat produced a deep but not particularly gravelly voice. He couldn't rule out his appearance frightening it off, either. Unfortunately, while his magic vision gave him a full 360 degree field of view, he couldn't see his reflection. Or, in fact, himself at all, and he didn't quite know why.

"Yeah..." He grumbled. "Great first impression there."

Just his luck, too: wake up in a creepy forest with an identity crisis, no memory other than a familiarity with using strange magic and the first person… er... pegasus he meets, who could direct him to any kind of help, is scared off the first time he actually tries to start a conversation.

Looking off in the direction the pegasus went, he snorted loudly in distaste. There was a strong scent he would have no trouble following back to civilization. Or something resembling that. Then, maybe, he could figure out if somebody could help him with the pain in his head.

As if on cue, it came back full force, flashes of memory coming at him rapid fire, burning into his head.

An icy road, bones, beasts that roared with two great glowing eyes, a deep winter cold, unfamiliar words, the taste of willow branches, HATRED.

Almost falling over then and there from the pain of it all, Tuntuvak paused for a second.

Where did that name come from? he thought. That name...

It sounded so familiar, so…

The memories left no doubt in his mind: Tuntuvak was his name. As quickly as they came, the memories went, leaving only a half-recalled, meaningless jumble in their wake.

Looking back at the abandoned basket, he had an idea, and with renewed resolve Tuntuvak set off in the direction of the scent of animal and horse. Not before scooping up some former timberwolf twigs with magic to snack on, first.

That was the strange thing for Tuntuvak. Half the time, he was freaked out by this magic, but the other half of the time, powerful and terrifying spells came to him without thinking. And stepping around another tree, and maneuvering his antlers through its conniving branches, just felt so natural. Even seeing with magic came to him seconds after he woke up alone in this forest.

Tuntuvak couldn't even remember how long ago that had been. Everything was a blur before he was stomping those strange, but admittedly tasty, wooden wolves to bits.

Lifting his head up, Tuntuvak smelled the foggy air around him. Maintaining that fog had been a good idea of his. It kept him cool, it caught scents better, and it put anything that needed to see in order to fight him at a disadvantage. In particular, though, it kept that pegusus's scent very well.

It smelled very strongly of fear.

Fluttershy bolted into her house at record speed, bolted the door shut at an academy record pace and bolted upstairs so fast that it registered on a wing power meter that had been left out on the table.

Instantly in front of the mirror, she checked herself over in a panic. What gave me away? How did the monster see... see...

It took half an hour before Fluttershy calmed down enough to remember she still had animals in her care that needed feeding, and that she had left all the herbs, and her basket, in the Everfree Forest.