The first green dot appeared in the night like a rotting grape that glowed. It strafed, and a second light appeared next to it. A pair of spiky green leaves closed halfway over the two dots, angling their light downwards over a jagged set of timber teeth.

More eyes appeared around the first—closer and farther—slowly growing larger—as the sounds of snapping twigs and crinkling leaves grew less and less subtle, not to mention the growling. Four, eight, twelve eyes appeared, and thanks to the vanished sun, there was no way of knowing if there were only six pairs or at least a hundred.

Anyone's guess would be as good as the deer's.

Pretty soon it decided—likely for the sickly green light it was bathing in—that standing perfectly still wasn't fooling any of them. It moved forward first, but its back knees and hooves only clunked against the plank under its stomach in a half-frantic scramble. It whimpered, lowering its head and reversing instead, but its branched antlers only got in the way, knocking all too loudly against the plank above its neck.

It snorted and persisted, pulling against the plank with all it could muster, and groaning like a injured cat with a sore throat.

The first timberwolf to appear was the first to approach—either for dominance or tradition. It exhaled a mossy cloud from its maw that smelled like garbage and rotting weeds. The prey pointed its crown at the predator, and it tugged, and it tugged, but the nails trapping it in held strong.

It stood up and grunted, sidestepping away from the wolf and sliding into the post next to it. It rubbed against a small bit of rough rope at the plank's end, and took one last look at the approaching alpha, who had stopped just a little short. The two angled lights in its face stared at the rope, and got a lot less angled.

It was a long and very scratchy rope. One that had seen a lot of use. It sat loosely over a corner of the upper plank, until it went taut with a tug. The wolf and the deer followed its length into the darkness next to the wolfpack.

"Heads up!"

The timberwolf yelped, the deer whined, and the rope stretched tight. With a resounding crack, it ripped the board off the fence and sent it careening past the alpha wolf, who avoided it just barely before the nick of time. It smashed into a tree, loosed an apple from a branch, and sent a smattering of nails—and a piece of the alpha's nose—into the remainder of the wincing pack.

"Yee-HAW!"

The alpha timberwolf clutched its face and sprinted through a divide in the its peers. The freed deer hopped backwards over the damaged fence and sprinted away from the green spotlights.

"Wrong WAY!" Applejack bellowed—springing from the night, short her hat. "That's t'wards the FARM!"

She made to follow, but halted when a buzzing rumble sounded from behind her. The timberwolves—less an alpha—gathered closer together and started a synchronized growl. They made an effort, for a second, to surround the farmer.

Applejack pointed at the board between them.

"And how many nails're holdin' you goons together? 'Cause if it's less than nine..."

The wolves—having not a single nail holding them together—stopped surrounding her. The group growl fell into a few murmurs, but the glowing grapes didn't look away.

"GET LOST!"

The wolves scattered. Their green headlights whipped around to the direction they'd come, and they ran, letting off a few half-hearted howls.

Applejack waited for the their auras to disappear, and then their noises. She stood in darkness for a few seconds, before the cloud above her was dispersed, and the moonlight could shine through the trees.

"Cheers, Fluttershy..."

She trotted to the fallen apple, kicked it up with one hoof, and snatched it out of the air with the other. "Ugh..." she groaned at the mushy bruise on its side. "Dag gummit."

Tossing the apple over her shoulder, the farmer made to leave for home—spilt nails and broken fence to be dealt with another day.

A twig snapped and she froze.

"...Ya still there?"

The deer poked its head out from behind the nearest apple tree and pressed its neck against the bark. It stared at Applejack with moon-filled eyes.

"Y'all can come out, now. Big bad wolves are gone."

With a careful look to each side, the deer stepped out. It took another look behind itself, past the farmer, and began to stride over to her.

"Um..." Applejack started. "Any, uh... injuries?"

The deer didn't answer. But it didn't limp, either. It hopped over the broken fence and came up as close as Applejack had that evening, and no farther. The staring contest began again.

Applejack forfeited right away. "Uh... Run along, now, sugarcube. I ain't gonna... lure ya into a trap no more, but Ah sure ain't gonna look after ya no more, either. Y'understand?"

A tilt of its head. A flare of its nostrils.

"What'd I say 'bout makin' me ask again..."

Without warning, the deer closed its eyes and dropped its head. Bending one foreleg and straightening the other, it bowed to the farmer quietly, not unlike the way she might greet a princess.

Applejack blushed. "Oh, uh... Don't mention it," she said, and she returned the bow. "I mean, it was mah fault you even—"

The two of them raised back up together, and Applejack saw the bruised apple lodged in the deer's teeth.

"...Oh."

It cracked the apple in half, and let the outer half fall skin-down into the dirt.

Applejack turned over the apple and saw the bruise.

"...Thanks."

The wild deer winked—though the rain had long stopped. Then it swiveled around and dashed off into the trees, bounding left, right, left, and out of sight.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading! And be sure to check out the other entries!

I'll fix that link once the organizers release a list or something. And if it's already out and the link isn't fixed, feel free to leave me a nasty comment.