Guardian of the Everfree

A few years ago, I saved a squirrel from a musceagle, essentially an eagle that was much larger and stronger than usual. He's followed me ever since, so I named him Skitters and trained him to help me find ponies. The night after the mailmare missed her pickup for the fifth time, he woke me up and brought me out into the forest.

A deep-blue unicorn was lost in the dead of night, and was doing seemingly everything in his power to get attacked. He was sending orbs of light along the clearings and calling for somepony to come help him. I watched eagerly, weighing the risk to my own life should I decide to help him. After his response to a timber wolf attack was to blast it to pieces with some kind of loud explosive spell, I realized I had no choice.

I fired off a small blue signal flare, meant only to get a pony's attention, and yelled, "What the hay do you think you're doing?!" At this point, half the forest would be coming for a meal, so it didn't matter if I shouted.

"What?! Who are you?! Where are you?!" he cried. "I'm lost, and I need to go to Brave!"

I jumped down from the trees. "What's wrong with you? Do you want to be attacked?! You're making so much noise and light that half the forest has to be coming by now!"

"How else am I supposed to defend myself from these monsters?" he insisted.

"By not starting fights everywhere you go, keeping your head down, and not traveling in the middle of the freaking night! I was practically screaming at him, glaring straight into his eyes.

The unicorn, having started shaking, took a few steps back. "Sorry, sorry! Please just take me to Brave!"

"You're going to follow me and stop casting spells, or we're going to have a problem. Got it?" Suddenly, I heard the rumblings of a dozen Everfree predators in the distance. "Actually, it sounds like we already do. Come on!" I took off, not really caring whether or not this stupid unicorn was actually following me.

As soon as I arrived at Brave, I rang the guards' signal bell. "Stampede!" I shouted. "A stampede is coming! Get ready!"

A dozen ponies rushed from their houses into the barracks, reemerging with rope, spears, and other equipment. Moments later, the unicorn that got us into this mess burst from the Everfree forest wailing for help.

"Troops, form a line! Hasty, get us some light! Arva, do what you do best!" The captain of the guard ordered. Orbs of red light appeared near the edge of the forest and in the open ground before it as I took a position in front of the guards. Preparing for a fight, I leaned into the ground and extended my wings.

Within seconds, I saw dozens of animals rushing through the trees. All shapes and sizes, growling, snarling, and certainly hungry.

I threw my weight upward and drove a mighty roar from my body. My blood warmed as these guards roared with me, and all the animals froze in their tracks. Six flaming arrows flew into the crowd, scaring most of the beasts back into the forest. I was the first to charge in, gouging the small end of a torch into a bugbear's eye and kicking both of my hind legs into its throat. As it choked out a scream, I caught its swinging arm in my teeth, riding it to the opposite shoulder so I could buck the back of its head. It fell face-first to the ground with a loud thud. I hopped off its back and ripped the stinger out amidst the bugbear's panicked grunts. The monster lumbered to its feet, fear and pain in its eyes, before fleeing for its life. Looking around, I could see the guards were cheering amidst an empty battlefield. I raised the stinger and cheered with them.

Most of the guards returned to their homes, but a few were assigned to watch for more activity. Before accepting the captain's suggestion to stay in the barracks, I had a word with the unicorn I had to save.

"Do you know how much work we had to do just to protect ourselves, let alone your sorry flank, because didn't use your head?" My face was inches from his.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do anything," he pled.

"I just had to fight off a bugbear, and that's all you have to say for yourself?!"

The unicorn slowly began backing away from me. "And I'm really grateful for that! What more do you want?!"

"Tomorrow morning, first thing after breakfast, we're going back to Ponyville, and when we get there, you're never going to come back to the Everfree forest unless I say otherwise." I took his horn in my hoof and pressed my snout to his. "And while we're traveling, you are notgoing to do anything I don't tell you to do! Got it?"

"Y-Yes, okay, just please let me go..." I shoved him away and watched him run away from me, a trail of tears following him.

"Stupid unicorns." I went to the barracks and caught up on my sleep.