The Last Princess

Dawn awoke with a start in the bed she had been using for the night. It was musty and smelled a little like old mare, but that was not what her mind was focused on at the moment. She was trying to figure out exactly what had awoken her. She could not recall having any dreams, nightmare or otherwise, and the sky seemed clear, though it was a bit hard to tell in the middle of the night like this, so it was unlikely that thunder had awoken her. Had something in the house crashed to the floor? Or maybe...

Dawn's thoughts were cut off by the blood-curdling howl that tore through the night to reach her ears. Oh. That would do it. Now, what was howling? Dawn looked out of the window, and what she saw made her blood run cold.

At around this same time. Max was waking up, but he awoke due to a banging and crashing coming from the ground floor, where Apples had been sleeping. He rushed downstairs as fast as his hooves could carry him, but stopped dead at the sight he saw. Meanwhile, Pomegranate was having a struggle of her very own.

What all four ponies were experiencing was very closely linked, you see. Pomegranate was currently wrestling a creature to the floor and ignoring the immense pain in her right foreleg as she did so. Max was staring wide-eyed at Apples' one-sided (in his favor) confrontation of a group of the same beasts. And Dawn was staring out the window at the dozens, if not hundreds more of the creatures creeping toward the old house. Each one looked as though it was made of twigs and leaves, sap saliva dripped from their mouths, and their eyes glowed a malevolent yellow.

It was an incredibly large pack of Timber Wolves.

Dawn ran from her room, screaming bloody murder, and eventually found Pomegranate, stomping on the few twigs that remained of her assailant's head. Dawn gaped for a moment at the violence her friend had just committed, but once Pomegranate saw her, she grabbed her hoof and raced out the door.

"But... but... I thought you hated violence!" Dawn shouted as they turned toward the stairs.

"I do, but first of all, that thing will be fine, it just needs a little time to rebuild itself, and second..."

"Second what?" Dawn asked. But Pomegranate was no longer paying attention. They had come to a screeching halt, and now she was just gaping at whatever was playing out in front of them. Dawn turned, and began to gape as well.

In the main room, Apples was ferociously beating back a large segment of the pack single-hoofedly, and they saw Max was standing off to one side, also gaping at the amazing scene that played out before them.

The Fallen was positively ruthless. He would dart forward and pummel one of the wolves until it was little more than sawdust and some leaves, and then move on to the next. This tactic cost time, however, and the timber wolves would pour in one window while he was busy dealing with one unlucky enough to crawl through the other. Evidently, the mad pony was not very good at multitasking.

Finally, Max shook himself out of his awe-inspired stupor. He looked to his left and spotted the girls on the stairs.

"Pomegranate! Dawn!"  he shouted over the din that Apples was making, and startling the duo back into reality. "We've got to get out of here!"

"No kidding!" Pomegranate answered. "But where can we go?"

"On the second floor, there's a room with a window facing away from the forest. We'll have to jump out there!"

"WHAT?" Dawn screamed. "I don't know how strong you think I am, but I definitely can't carry the three of you more than ten feet, especially after all the things my wings have been through lately!"

"It's a bedroom! We can toss the mattress out and then jump on top of it. We'll be fine!"

Dawn looked like she was going to object further, but at that moment another crash came from the front of the house, and the ponies saw several sets of claws had pierced the front wall.

"Okay, I vote second floor window!" Pomegranate shouted, and the other two nodded, all of them running up the stairs, Max ushering Apples up ahead of him, despite the Fallen's obvious desire to continue fighting.

They reached the bedroom, and Dawn couldn't help but note that the closet was completely filled with big, scarlet hair bows. Max slammed the door behind them, and Apples set about tapping it with his hoof and whining, much like a dog who wants to go outside. The orange earth pony turned, grabbing the mattress in his teeth and pulling it off the bed. He then dropped it to the floor and said, "Dawn, Pomegranate, please take the bed." And the mares obeyed, each grabbing a side of the mattress. Max then trotted over to the single window, which was still intact, and bucked it with all his might, shattering it utterly. The window was awfully small for the mattress, but the three managed it, somehow.

"Alright, one at a time. Dawn, you first, so you can help catch us, if something goes wrong." Dawn simply nodded and flew out the window. Pomegranate followed, diving outside. The lack of cracking or squelching indicated that Max was right, and they would be fine if they jumped. So he did. He seized Apples by the tail, knowing the Fallen would not leave on his own, and jumped, angling himself so they would both land on the mattress. After landing, they dazedly stood up, and saw the large pack heading back in their direction, some even jumping out of the window above, though all missed the mattress and smashed to pieces on the hard ground.

"RUN!" Max shouted, unnecessarily. Everypony was already running. They ran, hearing the panting and clicking of the pack behind them.

"Max!" Dawn shouted suddenly. Max moved closer to her so that they could talk without shouting quite so loud.

"Yeah?"

"I've heard about timber wolves. Aren't their eyes supposed to be green?"

This fact made Max think. Yes, he had heard that, too. They had eyes as green as grass, that was what he had heard. So...

The surge.

It affected all magic.

A sickening thought occurred to Max in that moment.

"I think... and this is just what it THINK, but... perhaps the timber wolves were affected by the surge, too. They use magic to literally hold themselves together, and if the surge affected them like it affected pegasi, well then, maybe they can't hold themselves together as well." The two mares looked at him strangely, but Apples was watching the apple trees they were running past. "Think about it. A timber wolf can reform itself almost instantaneously, but did you see ANY timber wolves fix themselves while we were in that house?"

Dawn and Pomegranate thought for a moment, and then shook their heads.

"Exactly. I think these timber wolves are having a hard time keeping themselves in one piece, so when they break... they actually die."

Pomegranate and Dawn looked horrified. Mindless beasts they might be, or maybe not, but Pomegranate and Apples had downright murdered some of those things. This thought was almost too horrible to bear, and Pomegranate's pace slowed as they neared the first buildings of Ponyville's town square. Max stopped, and cupped her face in his hooves.

"Pomegranate, I know it's horrible, I know you feel badly, but we have to keep moving, or we're all going to die. So come on." He said it all as gently as he could, while still making it quick and clear. And it worked. Pomegranate kept on running, catching up to and keeping pace with the others.

"Why are they chasing us? Are they that hungry?" Dawn questioned. She was always the one to wonder things as they ran from certain death.

"Hungry for Apples!" Apples cheered merrily.

"I don't think so." Max thought. "I think Ponyville is just their territory, and they're defending it. Unless..." The thought occurred to him just as they were nearing the bridge out of the small town, and he realized what an idiot he'd been. Ponyville was their territory, and of course they'd  want to defend it, but the surge had affected them, too, and you didn't dive out of windows to certain death just because you wanted something to leave. No, you went to desperate measures to get food when there was no food. But there were so many creatures in the Everfree, why would they be starving? Could they have eaten them all that fast?

The most likely theory he'd come up with yet crashed over Max like a large wave upon a beach. The surge. It had depleted their magic supply, making them mortal, but also putting them in a perpetual state of starvation. No matter how much the pack ate, they were still starving. And a hearty meal of four ponies had wandered right into the center of their territory.

The four had reached the far side of the bridge, now, and Max looked back. As he feared, the pack was still coming across the bridge for them.

"DAWN!" he shouted over the din of snarling and running that was now closer and louder than ever. "I WAS WRONG! THEY ARE THAT HUNGRY!"

"Alright." Dawn said, though nopony else could hear. "SO, WHAT SHOULD WE DO?!"

Max thought for a moment. He could think of one option, but it was not only risky, it was suicide. He racked his brain for any other options, but could think of none.

"I think..." He started, and then cleared his throat and began to shout. "I THINK ONE OF US HAS TO GO BACK INTO TOWN!"

"WHAT?! THAT'S SUICIDE!" Pomegranate screamed.

"I KNOW! BUT IT'S THE ONLY CHANCE THE OTHER THREE HAVE!"

"WHY WOULD THEY ALL STOP TO FOLLOW ONE PONY?" Dawn questioned.

"I'M HOLDING ON TO A FLIMSY HOPE THAT THEIR MINDS ARE GONE! THEY'D RATHER BE HUNTING IN THEIR OWN TERRITORY, SO WE LET THEM, AND THEY LEAVE THE ONES OUTSIDE THEIR TERRITORY ALONE!"

"THAT'S YOUR BIG ESCAPE PLAN?! A PLAN BASED MOSTLY ON LUCK?!" Pomegranate bellowed. The noise behind them was getting louder all the time.

"YOU HAVE A BETTER IDEA?!"

Pomegranate said something, but nopony could hear it. Apples was bouncing alongside, apparently unaware of the crisis they were in, and chanting, "Apples apples apples apples apples apples APPLES!"

"IT'S BEEN NICE KNOWING YOU, GIRLS!" Max shouted, and veered off their current path. The two mares screamed for him to stop, but he had run off, and Apples was following him, still seeming oblivious to their pursuers.

"MAX!" Dawn could only scream. But there was no need to yell, anymore. The timber wolves were all being drawn off by... something. In the distance, the two mares could hear the cheerful shouts of "APPLES!" that marked their crazy friend's location. Pomegranate urged Dawn onward, but the pegasus turned, and galloped back the way they came, Pomegranate rolling her eyes and following.

They continued galloping until they reached the river, and spotted something lying at it's banks. Something orange and gold.

"Max!" Dawn cried out in relief, but then noticed something. Max was crying, sobbing wholeheartedly and letting his tears fall into the water below.

"Max, what happened? Where's Apples?" Dawn asked quietly, placing a hoof on her friend's back. The stallion continued to sob for some time, but then raised his head, and lifted a hoof in the direction of Ponyville.

"He did it. He drew them off. He screamed out 'apples', so they all knew he was there, and then he ran. Through Ponyville. Into the Everfree Forest. Listen." They listened, and they could faintly hear a distant voice coming from the Everfree, saying, "Apples apples apples apples apples apples apples apples apples apples."

"He stopped me. I was about to cross the bridge, and he stepped on my tail. He picked me up and set me on the bank, and he spoke to me. He said, 'Apples loves his friends.' and then he ran off. He saved me. He saved all of us."

Dawn felt tears coming in her own eyes. The Fallen, the mad pony had sacrificed himself for them. But Pomegranate stepped forward.

"C'mon, he's still talking, isn't he? Maybe he can get out, we don't know, we don't know just how skilled that pony..."

"APPLES!"

The shout was loud, amazingly so, and it came from the Everfree Forest. After that, no matter how hard they listened, none of the three could hear a single word being spoken from within the dark, twisted trees.

They all wept for the loss of their friend. It took a while for any of them to get themselves together, but they did, and they all stood up, ready to move on to wherever it was they would go. But before they left, Dawn thought of a question. A question she wished she had asked before.

"What do you think his name was? His real name?" Max looked at her for a moment, and then shook his head.

"I suppose we'll never know." He said, and trotted off, away from the small town and frightening forest.

Dawn stood still, an interesting thought coming to her. She had been friends with a pony who she didn't know anything about. She hadn't known his real name, his job, his dreams, his favorite color, anything. She hadn't known anything about him, and yet she was his friend. And he was hers. He sacrificed himself, and she knew nothing about him.

With that thought in mind, Dawn followed behind her two living friends, watching as the first rays of dawn rose over the land.