Old Timber

by Diamond dust

Rating: teen
Tags: Tragedy, Princess Luna, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Cutie Mark Crusaders
Length: 4146

One night, deep within the Everfree forest, a guardian is called to protect 3 fillies from nightmarish creatures and the forest itself.

Timberwolves, creatures made of wood, bound by an old magic to protect the Everfree Forest and the Abandoned Castle that lays deep within.
A thousand years after Princess Celestia defeated Nightmare Moon, those creatures still roam the forest at night.
Called whenever an intruder tries to venture too close to the dark magic kept in the castle.
But after a thousand years of duty, are those guardians still following the same ideals ?
Are they still hearing the same voice who gave them life ?
When did their nightmare really started ?

Co-written with Noble Savage
who also drew this great Cover art.
We wrote this fic and drew the pictures for a contest held by the group T-FAB for this month with the theme being : Timberwolves !
We hope you appreciate the story, and do not hesitate to give us some constructive criticism about what we can improve !

Published 2016-10-03 17:30:01 UTC
Last updated 2016-10-03 17:30:01 UTC

The only chapter

A gentle breeze blew past the trees under the moonlight, quick and silent enough to not wake the inhabitants of the Everfree forest
but cold and deadly enough to scare the few predators who dared to roam at night in search of unlucky prey.

The breeze seemed to reach a clearing in the dark forest, swirling the organic life inside. Then like a thousand times before, the wind intensified, the moon was shining even brighter, and from the roots of the trees all around the clearing, small green particles started to emerge, soon turning into a little green ball of light that was quickly covered up by the many branches and leaves carried by the wind. Once again it had been called to protect the forest, it’s yellow eyes taking the time to look at the environment, it’s paws gently caressing the ground before taking a few steps and sitting in the middle of the clearing, it closed it’s eyes and raised it’s head toward the sky to howl at the moon.

The hunt had begun.

The guardian opened his eyes to take a few steps again before leaping out of the clearing into the maze created by the trees of the Everfree forest.

It had just run over a few meters that the beast already detected the smell of the intruders, three different ones, might be ponies.

Ponies were fools to dare walking in the Everfree, this place was clearly hostile to them, it rejected their presence, but it seems that even at night, with predators known to look for their next meals, some felt the need to brave the Everfree.

Jumping over branches, quickly crawling under a root or two sprouting from the ground, jumping over bushes, it knew the fastest way to find the ponies without getting detected, jumping on a rock then leaping to the branches of the tree nearby, the wooden spirit stopped, they were coming this way, it could hear them now, all the guardian had to do was simply to sit down.

“Ah’m still thinking it might be a terrible idea”.

One.

“Come on Apple bloom, I thought you wanted to get Tender Taps the best gift ever for Hearts and hooves day, don’t start to chicken like Scootaloo”.

Two.

“Hey! We agreed on never talking about that joke again Sweetie Belle!”

Three.

The ponies were walking right under the wooden guardian, why do they looked so…small?

Maybe they were young ponies.
“…Hey mister!”

Four?!

The spirit looked at his surroundings, sniffed the air and perked its ears, nothing.

It couldn’t be wrong, the spirit clearly heard it.
The wooden guardian slowly went on the next branches to keep following the fillies.

There was a fourth voice but only 3 ponies, maybe a spell from the unicorn one, to trick any predators sneaking around? She seemed to be too young to perform this kind of spell though.At least they were following what little light the moon could give them through the leaves.

All it had to do was to scare them all at once to make them go back to the town where they came from, this forest was no place for children.
The spirit quietly fell to the ground and kept following the fillies by hiding in the bushes around them.

“Ah don’t think mah book told us we had to walk through the bushes to find those flowers”.

“I don’t think we’re gonna find a clearing with a pond of water if we keep following this path, this forest is huge”.

“ Uuurgh... maybe we should have asked Zecora for help”.

The pegasus seemed to have trouble walking through the bushes, she was fluttering her small wings so fast to get through faster.

“One day i’ll fly just like you!”.

“Hehe just a few years of traini-”

Five ?!

A male voice, as close as the fourth one, it couldn't be from those fillies!

Was the Everfree playing with it’s mind ?

No time for questions, it had to send those ponies back to their home before anything else find them.

“It’s too late for that now, plus ah don’t want her to tell mah sister that we left at night to come here.”

Moving swiftly in the bushes around them, only making a few noises to make them stop.

“Girls...did you hear that ?”

The unicorn was the first to notice, good it would make it harder for her to use her tricks.

“Hear what” ?

Focusing on the pegasus, she would be the first to run away with the others following her.

The spirit growls through the bushes, it’s yellow eyes shining bright in the darkness
One step after another, it walked in front of the fillies, it’s claws scratching the ground, a it’s wooden jaws were revealing teeth sharp enough to break one’s bones.

They were trembling, frozen in place, the ghastly eyes still focused on the little pegasus as it took another step forward, the growling getting louder.

“T-t-t-timber…”
The wooden spirit didn’t lose it’s focus on them for a second, the plan was working

“More.. there’s m-m-more”

More ? the Earth pony was pointing at the bushes on her right.

Two set of eyes glowing through them, another one on its left, and a howling from behind
It was so focused on the ponies that it didn’t notice the other beasts following them.
They clearly weren’t sharing the same mission.

They were here to kill.

Two moved from their hidings, followed by the other two, making sure to circle their prey. The guardian stood in front of the fillies, taking a defensive stance, they had to leave quickly, they needed an opening. The wooden demons were snarling and barking at the one who dare to face them.

The one on the left lunged at the guardian only to find two back legs kicking him to a tree nearby. No time to lose, the spirit ran straight for the one behind the fillies and headbutt it before plunging its teeth in the demon’s neck.

“RUUUUUUUUUUUN !”

The pegasus noticed the opening and ran straight through the dense vegetation of the Everfree, into the unknown, quickly followed by the earth pony and unicorn, screams of terror echoing in the night.

The monster’s comrades didn’t wait for long before coming to it’s rescue,, the two wolves left lunged at the guardian, pinning him on the ground with their claws. Biting it’s wooden corpse and destroying what little organic life it possessed. Kicking away wouldn’t save it’s body, they trapped the spirit in their nightmare.

“I know you’ll be okay….be safe”

A new voice again! A pony maybe ?!

“I’ll be”
No, the spirit screamed mentally, it wouldn’t end like them, it wasn’t going to, it would finish it’s duty no matter what, HE wasn’t going to lose himself to the Everfree.

Through the biting of the two wooden demons, the Timberwolf rolled on his back swiftly
sending on of its opponent on the tree behind them, the other’s guard was left wide open, The wolf simply slashed his right claw over the monster’s face.

Two down.

The other two were already backing away, feral predators or not, they weren’t stupid, retreating was their best option right now.

The Timberwolf took this chance and ran away, following the fillies smell through the vegetation, jumping over a few rocks to gain some height and leaping to the hill nearby.

The moon being their only light source to follow, it meant that they were going over the old castle.

“...Is everything alright?”

Voices again, since he heard this one and the male one again during the fight.
Their was this warm feeling in his mind
The Timberwolf felt confused, the words, the stallion voice was... so familiar to him.
Was the nightmare finally reaching him? Since Nightmare Moon’s appearance ages ago, he had seen Timberwolves acting different, attacking creatures for the pleasure of it, some refused to sleep once their duty to the Everfree was over, left to roam the forest like soulless husks living only for blood, they forgot who they were.

Was he going to share their fate ?

Was it how their nightmare started ?

The only thing who mattered to the wooden wolf right now were the fillies, he had to watch over them and bring them to safety, even if tonight had to be the last time he was summoned.

------------------------------------------------------------

“D-did we lose them?”

“I think so Sweetie belle.”

The wolf had a few injuries due to the previous fight, but none of them were serious enough to really damage his organic body, or his soul.

He would not lose himself to the Everfree

“..Protect and Serve..”

Yes, that, protect, protecting them was his mission, all he had to do was stay far enough behind them to not be seen, and watch them.

“Wait..where’s Apple bloom ?!”

“She was right behind me! Oh no I hope they didn’t get her”

Screaming again, were they trying to attract every predators to them ? The Timberwolf growled.

Wait where’s the Earth pony one ? She must have lost them when they were running away, the forest being so dense out of the clearings.

Alright no time to panic, he just needed to detect her smell to find her, though he couldn’t leave those two alone.

Still walking with careful steps, The wooden wolf was thinking.
Maybe he could lead them to their pony friend ?
They were terrified of him so there wouldn’t be any chances of doing so directly.

The wolf sniffed the air a few times, only two ponies
He retreated from the moonlight and went back to the darkness under the trees
crawling next to the fillies position still trying to detect a new smell in the air.

“Oh no... how did it come to this ? We just wanted to make a great gift for the colts at school”

“As if that Button guy would have noticed it through his Gamecolt”
“Of course he would !”

The small pegasus walked in front of the unicorn looking in her eyes.

“Anyway that’s not the point, we have to find Apple bloom, flowers or not, she would do the same for us, we’re the cutie mark crusaders! we’re not leaving any of our friends behind !”

“Yeah !” The squeaky filly seemed to find her courage.

“We don’t care about those Bluemoon flowers, we find our friend and leave as fast as we can, we can still buy Roseluck something tomorrow morning”.

“Yeah !”

The pegasus wings were fluttering faster and faster with each words.
He had to admit they looked cute acting like this,
but cuteness wasn’t going to save them.

His yellow ghastly eyes still focused on the filly’s wings

The wooden wolf was relaxing, thinking about how the cold air of the night would caress his body when soaring in the sky, reaching the clouds and fly through them.
He could almost picture himself doing so.
The Timberwolf climbed up a tree, reaching the highest branch before sitting on it.
Leaving the starry night sky invade his mind and imagination for a few minutes.

Like if he reached the stars once.

“..Just a few years of training and you’ll be unstoppable in the sky”.

-------------------------------------------------------------

The voice didn’t bother him, the wolf was still frozen in place, trying to pick up the most of this instant, the cold air of the night, the silence among the plants, the smell of three little ponies…

Wait three of them ?

He immediately went down a few branches still following the smell, smell of an earth pony, a young one
She wasn’t too far from the other two !

Now to lead them to their friend so they can be...safe, somewhere.

“Apple Bloom ?!”

The Timberwolf jumped down the tree, the young ponies yelling wouldn’t be helping them to be safe for long, but at least they wouldn’t be focusing on any noises he could make.

“Apple Bloom, where are you ?!”

He quickly went afar from them, if they were following the same direction they wouldn’t miss it.

“...It’s just for tonight”
The wolf just had the time to scratch the ground a few times before leaping back behind the plants

“Scootaloo wait ! look”

“An…. arrow ?”

“May be Apple bloom draw them on the ground to help us find her !”
“Why would she do that ?”

The Timberwolf growled, they were taking too long to follow the direction
they needed to move now.
“...things could get heated pretty quickly..”.

He changed position, running fast enough to not be seen by the two wandering ponies

“What was that noise ?”

“Oh no...please tell me that’s not another Timberwolf”

The wolf growled louder from the bushes

“Oh no there’s another one !”

“RUUUUUUN!”

Good they were following the right direction.

He ran again through the plants of the Everfree, not taking a break.
At least they were following each others.
He jumped from the darkness again this time barking at them once to make them change direction before retreating to follow them from the dark.

“Sweetie Belle ! wait for me !”

The fillies were heading toward a third pony.
The wooden beast was still after them, soon it would be all over, they would be safe.

“..protect and serve..”

Yes he can protect them, him and the others, all together. The beast wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings anymore, only following its goal.
Reaching the third pony, goal that was now shared by a few other predators made of wood, as they ran alongside him

“...Everypony retreat !...”

Yellow eyes glowing bright in the night, locked on the fillies, they had bumped into each other near a small pond of water.
They would make easier prey.

“...Protect and serve...”

The beast took a stop, followed by his hunting comrades, each taking their position to circle the fillies.

A yellow earth pony, apparently showing a few flowers with blue glowing petals,
to an orange pegasus and a white unicorn, they were talking to each other and jumping happily.

The wooden monster couldn’t hear their voices despite being close to them, but it didn’t matter, now he could protect them.

Every demons waiting for their new brother to open their feast.

The beast walked out of the shadows, taking slow steps toward the fillies,
they had stop dancing upon seeing him, a familiar scene playing in front of them.
Eyes glowing all around them, no escape, the beast kept walking toward them, his jaws trembling.

“ protect and...”

Yes protect, they could all protect them,
why were they backing away from their new guards ?

They fillies were terrified, but the wooden demon couldn’t hear them and simply sat in front of them before howling at the moon.

The silence of the night was its only answer, none of his brothers came out, they were all exchanging glances.
What was happening ?
They were the guard, they had a duty after all !
One decided to step away from the dense vegetation, one much bigger than the others, probably the Alpha.
It snarled at the beast, barked a few times as it close the distance between them.
The monster turned from the fillies to take a defensive stance.
Weren’t they here to protect them too ?

The two wooden demons bumped their head, each one trying to intimidate the other.
When met with no results, the Alpha grinned before unleashing a deep howl

All of the other Timberwolves jumped from their hiding, circling both the three unlucky ponies and their new protector.

Traitors !

They were all traitors to the guard !

The ponies petrified of terror watched as the timberwolves lunged at the demon standing up for them.

Attacking it from every sides at once, the beast was doing his best to fight back,
to shake off those trying to pin it on the ground, but the more he resisted, the more his organic body started to suffer.

“...protect…”

The alpha stepped closer, ready to give the final blow to break the wooden beast apart.
Though it never expected the demon to jump away from it’s pack, bite its neck and slash one of its eyes with a broken claw.

The wooden demon was quickly shaken off by the alpha’s paws, howling in pain
The alpha took back its position to finish the one who dared facing it, but not before a blinding blue light coming from the sky, made it lose its composure.
Every Timberwolves backed away, the light being too bright for them to even look at the ponies, their leader decided it was best to leave.

When the light died down the only ones left around the pond of water were the 3 fillies, Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, one severely injured Timberwolf and a Dark blue Alicorn with a mane twinkling like the stars in the sky.

She watched as the fillies ran over her, crying and trembling as their favorite princess just saved them from an horrible fate.
She gently draped one of her wings over them and looked at injured demon next to her.
It’s body was half-submerged in the pond of water and seemed to be breaking apart, the moss covering its back was torn away, it’s tail broken.
And yet it was trying to stand up, looking at her with a deadly glare and snarling.

Even though that beast was in pain, it could be a threat, better end it’s suffering now.
Her horn lit up with a dark blue aura as she charged her magic though all of sudden one of the Cutie mark crusaders she recognized as Scootaloo ran over the beast holding her forehooves in front of her.

“Wait Princess Luna don’t do this !”
Princess Luna raised an eyebrow

“This one...saved us”.

“Yeah..earlier…. it was the same one who fought the other mean timberwolves so we wouldn’t get hurt” commented Apple bloom joining her pegasus friend.

“Please Princess Luna, we only wanted flowers but it did its best to protect us from troubles”.

“Flowers you say ?”

“Yeah, the Bluemoon flowers known…” began Apple bloom.

“...For growing only at night under the moonlight” finished the alicorn

“I loved those flowers when i was younger, a lot of them used to grow around my sister and i’s old castle”
She made her way over the pond, looking at the injured beast facing her, growling at her through the pain before starring at the fillies again
“I cannot believe you three decided to brave this forest at night knowing the dangers you might encounter, do you have any ideas how worried your sisters are right now ?”
She said sternly, making the fillies look away in shame..

“We’re sorry Princess Luna” they said in unison, sadness in their voices.

“I am not the one who needs to hear those words, for now, i am only glad i found you before anything bad happened”
She lit her horn again, eyes glowing white, Despite the fillies pleas to not hurt their guard and gently tapped the tip of her horn on the injured beast’s head.

She needed to know what drove this Timberwolf to fight for the fillies, what kind of nightmare consumed this spirit, to drive it away from its original duty to the forest.

Everything went white in her mind before she found herself in a familiar place in the forest.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

Her dream-walking spell worked as intended as she was now in front of what she recognized as her old castle, in a much better state than it was now with the moon rising high among the stars.

She remembered this night all too well, the windows from her balcony were closed, only a few guards and her sister, Princess Celestia were in the castle at this time.
She remembered she must have been crying , her jealousy toward her sister consuming her
and soon….turning her into a monster.

“Hey mister !”
She heard the voice of a filly coming from the castle’s entrance.
“You said you were watching !”
The filly, a young pegasus was talking to one of the royal guards a light grey pegasus with a short blonde mane.

“I was, and you’re fluttering like a real pro !’

The filly made a pouting face

“I was flying ! not fluttering”.

“Flying ? are you sure ? cause i’m pretty sure that’s not how you fly, it’s more like…”
He took the filly on his back and took off above the castle’s entrance, flying in circles with the filly giggling on his back before landing on the ground

“That was flying”.

“More like fluttering to me”.

They both shared a laugh as the young filly jumped from his back.
“One day i’ll fly just like you”.
“I’m sure of it, just a few years of training, and you’ll be unstoppable in the sky”.

“Having fun you two ?” A pink unicorn mare with a white mane commented as she joined them.
The filly nodded as she joined the mare

“Thanks for watching over my sister for a bit, today’s been a long day at work”

“No problem, as we guards always say, Protect and Serve !” He grinned while striking an heroic pose.

“I know, silly” she gave him a light kiss on the cheek before looking in his eyes
“You sure you can’t come over tonight ? i might need help to get this little demon to bed”.

“Hey !”

“I would love to hun, but...the situation has been getting worse in the castle lately, even though Princess Celestia insisted that we leave her alone with her sister for the night, Captain Stormbringer asked a few of us to stay, we can’t leave the princesses unguarded, things could get heated pretty quickly”.

“Is everything alright ?” asked his marefriend with concern.

“Yeah don’t worry, look, It’s just for tonight, once this is over, we’ll have all the nights that you want for a little dinner and..may be more”.

She let out a small laugh before gently hugging him.

“I’ll be okay”.

“I know you’ll be okay….just be safe”.

“I’ll be”.

The scene became a blur for the princess of the night before she could clearly see again,
She could hear her voice in the sky as she watched herself...no Nightmare Moon chasing her sister in the sky, firing powerful magic beams at Celestia who kept dodging, though one of the magic beams hit the castle’s roof, making a part of it crumble on the ponies under.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Princess Luna closed her eyes and cancelled her spell, she didn’t need to see more to understand this Timberwolf.

The timberwolves are the disincarnated spirits of those who died in the Everfree forest, bound to protect it forever, or to lose themselves to their own nightmares.

Even now, this Timberwolf was trying it’s hardest to protect the fillies from anything, even from one it could only recognize as Nightmare moon.
But it wasn’t completely lost, there was still one thing she could do for this guard.

“Princess Luna ?” asked Sweetie Belle.

The fillies watched her as the alicorn channeled her magic to her horn and opened her eyes.
The wooden demon wasn’t snarling anymore or trying to move, no, it looked..peaceful, it’s eyes closing slowly.

“What happened Princess” the unicorn filly asked again.

“I chased it’s nightmares away to give it the dream it deserved” she bowed at the Injured wolf
“Thank you, Old guard” she said quietly, a single tear running down her cheek
“Now it’s time for you, young ones to go back to Ponyville” she finished with a smile
“And we have the flowers !” jumped happily Apple bloom before they disappeared from the forest in a blue flash of magic, leaving only the broken body of a Timberwolf in the water.

A gentle breeze blew past the trees under the moonlight, quick and silent enough to not wake up the inhabitants of the Everfree forest, but powerful enough to dispatch the broken body and give it back to the forest as the spirit was carried away toward the stars, for it’s nightmare, was finally over.

Author's Note

Everyone got their own interpretation about what the Timberwolves are.
The show never really gave us any informations about them, except :
"They live in the Everfree Forest".
Which leaves us really open to imagine what they are,
are they just some magical beasts, or is there more to them ?
Were they created by some natural magic from the forest
and what kind of influence could Nightmare Moon's essence, have on them.
This is our take on the Timberwolves, and you, what do they represent for you ?
don't hesitate to tell us in the comments:raritywink: