The Brothers Don't

The wolf bared its icicle teeth.

Macintosh's frown deepened.

"Stay back, Macintosh, that's an order!" Shining yelled at the limping stallion. "You are in no state to face that thing!"

The great red farmer didn't listen, nor did he say a word. Macintosh's slow, steady gait continued toward the giant snow beast. Nopony else followed.

"What's the plan, Captain?" Flash Sentry asked in a high voice.

Shining Armor's teeth ground together. "Wait a moment. But be ready to get in there."

Macintosh's hind leg dragged, leaving a long line in the snow behind him. The wolf's growl shook the air and Macintosh's long mane quivered around his face.

"Captain, I think we should—" Spitfire started.

The wolf lashed out an enormous paw, bigger than all of Macintosh's body. Macintosh leapt at just the right moment, twisting around in midair and latching his forearms around the wolf's wrist. The monster sat on its haunches and tried to shake Macintosh off.

He squeezed with all his strength, the muscles in his chest contracting tighter than they ought. With a drawn out crunching sound, the tendons of ice in the wolf's paw shattered into weighty chunks. The whole paw dropped into the snow below like a sheet from the roof of the barn after a storm.

The great wolf howled in pain and smacked its stubby limb against the ground, but Macintosh held on tight. It brought him up to its mouth, but Macintosh let go during the swing and buried his hind legs into the wolf's chest. It raised up onto its hind legs with a piercing whine.

"Go!" shouted Macintosh.

His team was ready. Spitfire and Flash Sentry rocketed to the wolf's neck, slamming their shoulders into its lifted jaw and toppling the monster backward.

"Timber," Macintosh said under his breath.

Shining Armor and Zecora galloped at full speed. They jumped onto the wolf's legs and ran up the length of its body, reaching Macintosh before it hit the ground. They pulled him out of the crumbling snow and stood together over the wolf's sternum.

Just before its back smashed into the ground, all three of them jumped in the air. Spitfire and Flash joined them on the descent; under the weight of all five ponies from above, concurrent with its impact on the ground from behind, the wolf's giant chest cracked and crumbled into piles of snow. Without another sound, its glowing eyes extinguished and the monster was no more.

Team Harmony lie together in a pile of inanimate snow and, from surprise or exhaustion or the thrill of victory, laughed together between cold and painful breaths.

"Welcome back, Mac," Flash said, ruffling Macintosh's mane.

"Hello," he replied.

"You all right, Macintosh?" Spitfire asked. "That was one heck of an idea."

"Apple Bloom used to make snow ponies," he said, and shrugged.

Shining Armor wriggled out of the snow and helped Zecora to her feet. "Make sure he's all right, will you?" he asked with a grin.

"I can already tell ya, Miss Zecora," Big Mac said, pulling himself out of a pile of snow with only his upper limbs, "that my leg is plum broken."

They all looked at the same time and immediately grimaced.

"Euughhh..." Spitfire looked away.

Flash Sentry threw up.