Chapter 1 Reunion

A bolt of green magical energy whips past Silver's head striking a tree close by; The tree explodes scattering shards of wood everywhere. She screams as she closes her silver nightmare eyes and turns her head away from the exploding tree, as her long deep green mane flies in front of her deep purple furred face blocking the majority of the wood shards. While she turns her head back just in time to narrowly miss hitting another tree. She thinks "Buck, I can't get away from them."

Another two flashes of green light erupted from behind her. This time one of the bolts burns deep across the upper left part of her muzzle; Leaving the scent of burning flesh and hair in her nostrils. As the second bolt cuts deep into her upper front right leg, she cringes in pain as she collapses and tumbles across the ground. Silver begins to cry from the pain that ravages her body. While the sound of buzzing wings and laughter starts filling the air.

Silver struggles through the pain to get up and turns around while limping on her injured leg tucked up to her body. Tears now streaming down her face as her little horn begins to glow dark blue with magical energy as she remembers what her grandmother told her in training "Never give up my little darling. You are strong for being so young." The memory gives her a sudden surge of confidence making her horn glow brighter. Then two big pairs of blue eyes with bright white pupils appear from the darkness.

As they approach with the whites of their eyes locked on her; standing twice her height they tower over her. The one on her left smirks "Ohhh. Look at the little nightmare trying to be tough." The other one giggles at the remark. They both charge their horns and their green light crushes Silver's little light emitting from her smaller horn.

She begins limping back in fear. While she feels the blood running down her right leg, leaving a trail of blood while backing up. She feels a sudden surge of anger and fear boil up from seeing the blood. She yells at them and fires her own magical bolt of energy at them. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" she screams as the bolt grazes the head fin of the right one.

The one she grazed yells "BUCK!" She then felt a rough shove from her left side sending her sprawling to the ground. As she hits the ground on her right shoulder she cries out in pain. She quickly looks up and sees a third one standing over her.

This one stands three times taller than the other two and its eyes look like a nightmare but with two different irises with two different shades of green in them. Silver quickly fires a bolt at the towering creatures but misses. The large creature charges its attack with a strange looking horn, as the green light emits from it. Silver gets a better look seeing its long green mane with holes in it and its wicked smile filled with sharp teeth. It fires the green magical energy at Silver. As it hits her she screams and hears a voice yell "WAKE UP!"

Silver opens her eyes to see Tairis, a green-eyed, black coated stallion nightmare pegisi, with a short gray mane and tail. He's in a crouched stance ready to dodge and is holding a spear in his left hoof with the pole end towards her. Silver says in an embarrassed tone as she lowers her head behind the blanket she was laying under "Oh no. Did I hurt you Tairis?"

He puts his spear down and heaves a sigh as he brushes his burned mane with his left leg as a few strands of burned hair fell out then says "No; Other than my mane I'm fine." He looks around the tent at all the newly burned holes; "Your tent on the other hoof got another beating from your magic."

"I'm sorry." Silver says, then she sees the sunbeams shining through the holes then says in a panicked tone as she throws her blanket off with her magic and rolls over to get up. "Horseapples I'm late and I still need to get my supply bundle from.."

Before she could finish Tairis says with a smile "Don't worry we have your bundle at the meeting spot for you all you need to do is get there."

Silver sighs in relief then said “Thank you for that Tairis.” now standing by her bedroll on the ground and magically grabs a cloth soaking in water. Then applies it to her right shoulders scar. Then pulls some water from the bowl with her magic and applies it to the scar on her muzzle. Silver heaves a heavy sigh of relief and says "That's better."

"Another one of those nightmares linked to your scars?" Tairis asks while slipping his spear back into his holster.

"Yaa." replies Silver "I really hate how my scars burn when I wake up after a dream like that. This is the third one this week." After a few moments, she puts the cloth back in the bowl. She grabs a few pieces of cloth and starts repairing the holes in the tent with her magic. Then asks Tairis "So how is the rabbit doing that you saved with the broken leg last week?"

"She made a full recovery last night. So I let her go this morning when we got to the forest's edge." He says a little bit disappointed. "It’s a pity I couldn’t release her where I found her.” He continues in a more upbeat tone as Silver pulls two daggers out from under her pillow “On the other hoof your healing magic helped a lot."

As Silver slipped her daggers away into their sheaths, then straps the holsters on and then strapped her saddlebags on over them with her magic. "I only have a few years of healing studies, but if I really understood healing magic I would have healed leg right there." She picks up a small black box from beside her bed; As she opens it to reveal a metal horse skull with its ears still intact on an iron chain. She uses her magic to place it around her neck.

Tairis says as he looks at the necklace "You know the Captain hates that thing and what it stands for."

"I know he hates it, but I don't really care. I’ll just hide it in my mane or something when he comes to see us off ." Placing her left hoof over the necklace she continues "Besides its one of the few things I have left from my family."

Tairis smiles as he heads for the flaps of the tent and Silver sits facing her bed he says "Yaa, hide it in your short mane. Just hurry up we need to be there in about fifteen minutes."

Silver replies, "I'll be there as soon as I finish my prayer." As she hangs her head and closes her eyes readying to say her prayer.

Tairis says "Okay I'll inform the others you're on your way." As he walks swiftly out of the tent.

Silver opens her eyes and turns her head to the right in time to watch Tairis leave with his wings stretched out, smiling to herself while thinking and blushing, "I would love to be wrapped in those big strong wings of his. Then there's the fact how kind he is to animals even while we are caught in the middle of this terrible war." When the tent flap closes she shifts her head back to her bed.

She lowers her head close to her chest as she closes her eyes; quietly intoning "Mara the mother of all nightmares, the master of illusions and manipulation, I ask for you to watch over us as we enter the Everfree Forest from all the things that lurk in the shadows and bushes. Let our mission be a success to try and save our race from extinction and enslavement." Once finished she exits the tent to the view of a grassy hill and a few large rocks around her tent. When she reaches the hilltop she sees the nightmares training camp in the distance as there are a few pegasi doing some combat drills in the air. She starts heading for the edge of the Everfree Forest.

"Where the hay is she?" yells Violetta, a purple-eyed, indigo coated earth pony mare with her short ruby red mane and tail. As she looks back at the training encampment.

"Calm down she'll be here soon, that's why Lotus sent Tairis to check on her." replies Melody Night, a green-eyed, yellow coated earth pony stallion, with a short pink mane and a short light green tail. While he sits watching the forest for any movement.

Violetta turns around and says in an irritated voice "We should leave her behind this time if she doesn't get here in time. She knows where we're going anyways.”

“Violetta will you shut your hay hole. We aren’t going to leave her behind for any reason. Besides she lost her whole family when she was a filly. For pony sakes we all lost somepony important at one time or another so take it easy on her.” says Bloody Lotus a deep green-eyed, crimson coated mare with a short cobalt mane and tail. While she lays in the shade of a large rock with multiple supply bundles next to it.

Violetta replies in an upset tone “Fine.” as she looks away from Lotus and gives a snort of disapproval at the same time she drips a few tears to the ground as a few painful memories come back.

“Besides she’s probably having another one of her nightmares.” says Lotus as she stretches out in the cool shade “Besides Captain Starrl won't be here for another eight minutes or so.”

After a few minutes pass Tairis lands beside Louts but before he could say a word or close his wings Violetta rushes up close to him asking frantically “Where is she!?”

Tairis pulls his head back and pushes her back with his right hoof until there was at least one leg length between them. He replies “She’s on her way. She was in the middle of one of her nightmares. I almost lost my head to her again.” He brushes his mane with his right hoof; as a few more strands of burnt hair falls out.

“That’s her third one this week.” she turns to Lotus “Are you sure it’s wise to bring her on this mission? She could burn the underground outpost down on us.” Violetta says in a worried tone.

“Don’t worry when I talked to Starrl on the way to the outpost the last time he said that the wood they used had a spell cast on it that absorbs magical energy so her attacks won't damage the outpost along with the magic research we will be doing.” Replies Lotus “So as long as we stay out of her room when she's having a nightmare we will be safe.”

After a bit, the sound of Silver’s voice cuts through the air “I’m here! I’m here!” Silver runs out from behind the rock Lotus is laying against. Silver stops just past the rock and looks over at Lotus as she says while gasping for air. “I’m sorry for being...”

Then Silver feels something clamp around her neck cutting her voice off as Violetta says “Thank the moon you made it here on time. We won’t need to listen to Captain Starrl complain about you.” She lets go as she prances away humming a joyful tune.

Silver looks over at Lotus with wide eyes and says “Judging from Vio’s strange reaction I’m not late.”

Lotus smiles as she stretches and gets up while shaking then says “Yes your on time barely but still here.” As she walks past her she remarks “So catch your breath.” And sits down watching the encampment in the distance.

Silver walks over to Melody and sits beside him then asks “So what the hay happened to you Melody?”

Melody giggles as he looks over at Silver with a, smile. “Well I tested a new device last night for earth ponies and Pegasus to use. The plan was to get an illusion spell of a bush to happen; but I guess when Lotus charged the small orb, the orb became unstable. When Lotus left the tent I tested it; but unfortunately I barely touched it and it exploded.” He stands up and gives a spin while saying “Then I ended up with this new look afterwards.”

Silver looks Melody over as he spins around while saying “You look good in those colors. So when will this wear off?”

Melody sits down while saying “Well it should’ve worn off by now.” he shrugs “Oh well hopefully it wears off later today. It’ll be nice to get my royal blue coat, Seafoam green mane, and tail back. Although I can’t deny that I do like these colors.” He replies happily as he swishes his short tail from side to side.

Lotus turns around from watching the camp smiling then says “A mistake you would gladly make again like your sex change spell you accidentally made.”

Melody gets up and turns around then tilts his head to the left and raises his right front leg up then flicks his hoof downwards saying in a girly voice “Oh no I wouldn’t ever do this or the other thing again.”

Everypony bursts out laughing at how sarcastic he says it. Lotus still giggling as she turns around to look at the camp and sees a pony walking towards them. Lotus says “It looks like Captain Starrl is finally coming so line up and grab your supply bundle.” Lotus looks at Silver’s necklace. “Silver I know that your Mara pendent is important to you but could you put it away just till Captain Starrl dismisses us.”

“Okay.” Silver says in a disapproving tone as she removes it with her magic and puts it back in the black box in her saddlebag; as she puts the box back she slips the large supply bundle she was to carry into her bag with no problem.

They all line up facing from the forest, Lotus gives them one quick look over and then stands in front of them all turning to greet the Captain. As the pony she thought was the Captain got closer the less he looked like the Captain. After a few seconds Lotus realized it was Lieutenant Razor Cloud. He stands a little over a foot taller then all of them. His chestnut coat shimmers in the morning light, along with his short snow white mane and tail. When he finally got to them they could see his left deep blue nightmare eye, and his right eye was completely white. The right eye has three scars going from the left of the eye down his muzzle. On his chest he bares a large scar from his right shoulder to the bottom left of his chest. They could also see his armor along his wing bones which also housed his weapons called wing blades.

“Sir.” Lotus says “we weren’t expecting you today. Is Captain Starrl going to be here soon?”

“Not today.” replies Razor “He was called back to Nighdramar for another mission late last night. So by his order he wants me to escort your team to the hidden outpost when the retrieval team gets back here with the Elements of Harmony.”

“Sir I mean no offence by this but we were there yesterday to drop most of our gear off.” says Lotus “So why the escort?”

“Well with the Timber wolves getting more active from are building of the hidden outpost the Captain told me to escort you there; then when he got his orders last night the Generals also said that if this operation goes BUBAR to send the survivors home for redeployment along with closing this camp up and getting the rookies back home.” He replies “So I want to make sure you all make it there safe and give these rookies more time for training. So with that aside you all can take it easy.” As they sit down and Melody retakes his position looking at the forest. Razor looks around in confusion then asks. “Where’s Celia?”

An odd silence falls over the group as Lotus reports with a heavy heart, “We lost her to the changeling forces a while ago. We were on a hive attack for another country and our teams had a shot at killing their Queen. So our team and six other teams decided to help them but when we ambushed them she was cut down by the Queen so fast we barely knew what happened. We would have been killed or captured if it weren’t for the others that came in to back us up.”

“Sorry for....” He stops and closes his eyes then hangs his head while he sighs heavily.

“It’s okay.” says Lotus in a sad tone “So what happened to your eye sir?”

He looks up saying “I lost it to some Timber Wolves when our old training camp was attacked. We lost quite a few recruits and a few trainers. So three years ago a group from research and development was dispatched here to build this time distortion zone that can only be entered by these bands we have.” he raises his left leg up to show off a black metal band. “But as you know there is a fault in it when one enters the zone there is a hole in the field for about seven seconds before it seals up.” He lowers his leg while asking “So why did command send you...” but before he could finish an ice cold howl cuts through the air.

Melody quickly runs back as the others ready for battle by drawing their weapons. Lotus teleports to the front of the group readying her sword with her magic. The sounds of leaves rustling and twigs snapping starts becoming clearer. Then from deep in the forest they see a one wing pegasus with a dull yellow eyes, gray coat stallion, with a short light brown mane and tail jumps over a bush. A few seconds later a Timber Wolf jumps over the same bush no more then five meters from him and closing in on him fast. Another three Timber Wolves comes bursting out of the deep bush of the forest running after the pegasus.

The pegasus uses the trees to try and keep the wolf off his back. As he yells “Get this bucking wolf off my flank before I’m his chow!"

Razor Wing yells as he expands his wings revealing his bladed wing armor. “That’s Storm Runner from the other team; can any of you deal with that wolf?”

Lotus drops her magically held sword to the ground and starts taking aim at the wolf. Her horn begins to glow a bright yellow. She takes a step back with her right front leg and left rear leg. She continues watching for an opening. While the Timber Wolf takes an opening by darting around a few trees. Storm goes past a tree as he looks to his left to see the Timber Wolfs wooden teeth closing in fast. As Storm tries to change his direction on the spot. Lotus sees a small opening and fires. The bolt of plasma she launched grazes a few trees but makes solid contact with the Timber Wolfs neck. Storm watches the wolves greenish-yellow eyes fade while the wolf falls apart. Storm looks back just as he grazes a tree with his flank.

Storm rushed out of the woods and collapses behind his allies while breathing heavily. The other three Timber Wolves stop where Lotus took the other one down. The fallen Timber Wolfs wood, and leaves start to levitating; slowly reforming back together and after it fully reforms it expels it’s awful breath as it opens its eyes.

Tairis asks nervously as the wolves approach and the stench of there starts to reach them. “What do we do sir?”

Razor Wing looks back at Storm who upon closer examination was in need of medical attention and was still breathing heavily. He looks back at the wolves which have reached the forests edge and look ready to charge. Then says “Silver deal with Storm. The rest of us will keep the Timber wolves busy.”

“Yes sir.” She replies while sheathing her daggers. Then pulls her medical kit out as she turns around to look her patient over. Her eyes lock on to his missing left wing where a black aura emanates from the wound. She mutters “What the hay?”

She quickly look Storm over for any injuries. While doing this she asks “What pains are you experiencing?”

Before Storm could say a word Razor yells “Attack!”

The sound of combat fills the air as Storm says “No, other then the gash on my head. I have a pulsing headache, my left ear is mostly gone, along with my left wing, part of my tail, and the tree I just scrapped into just now.”

Silver focuses on the flank first and cleans it up. Then turns her attention to his head wound which is covered in a combination of dirt, and dried blood. She uses her magic to pull a canteen of water from her saddle bag. She uncaps and pulls some water out with her magic and starts cleaning the head wound. After a few seconds the wound opens and starts seeping blood. She quickly discards the water and then applies an ointment to stop the bleeding. Then quickly wraps his head up while moving the water canteen and saying “Drink this when I’m done.”

Silver finished wrapping up his head and moved to his left wing to examines the black aura. Storm takes a drink of water then says “Thanks I needed that.”

In the background they hear Bloody Lotus says “Uh Silver, is Storm good to go?”

Silver and Storm looks where Lotus is looking, they see the wooden remains of the four Timber wolves slowly morphing into one; using other pieces of trees to become bigger. Silvers eyes widen in fear and says “Oh Buck! There's no way we can beat a Timber King, can you move on your own Storm?”

She looks back to see Storm getting up. He nods his head as he says “Yaa I can move on my own.”

Just then Razor shouts “Lotus blast that things leg to give us the time to retreat back to the camp.”

As Lotus blasts at the giant wolfs leg busting a chunk off. The rest started to run for the camp. Lotus then teleported to catch up with the rest.

On their way back to the camp a terrifying howl pierces through the air. Silver looks back to see the Timber King charging them. Silver yells as she starts charging her magic “LOTUS! INCOMING! WOLF! SHIELD! NOW!”

Lotus looks back and says “HOLD POSITION AND RAISE THE SHIELD!” As there shields converged into a dark green the wolf raises its right leg to swat them. In a flash the wolfs paw shatters there shield and throws them across the ground.

As Silver and Lotus lay on the ground stunned and bleeding from their noses. Razor gets up as the giant wolf starts to approach. He takes an aggressive stance with his wings stretched out. Then out of nowhere multiple colours of bolts strike the wolfs side forcing it back towards the forest. As it retreats back, the wood that fell off starts levitating and reforming to it.

As it falls back Razor looks back at Storm and says “What the buck did you do to piss them off?”

Storm replies “I was crossing a river and disturbed a Cragadile by accident then I jumped over a near by bush to get away.” he sighs “Then I landed in the middle of a pack of Timber Wolves and landed on one of their pups. Then they chased me here.”

While Razor and Storm are talking Violetta, Melody, and Tairis cries out “Lotus, Silver!” They run over to check on them.

Melody stops beside Lotus right side and lifts her head up. Lotus mumbles “Is ever....” The ring in her ears drains all thought. She closes her eyes to try and stop the world from spinning.

Meanwhile Tairis and Violetta checks on Silver. Tariris asks “Silver, are you okay?” He kneels down by her head and lifts her head up.

Silver opens her eyes and smiles at Tairis as the sound of other ponies running passed yelling as they go by. Still not all there she raises her right hoof and touches his muzzle with a smile. Then says disoriented “I’m fine, honey.”

Silver rolls out of Tairis’ legs and onto her belly. As she tries to get up with no success Tairis says “Take it easy Silver. Were safe from the Timber King. The others are dealing with it.” He wraps his wing over her right shoulder and holds her tight to his body.

Over the howling of the Timber King and the yelling of the ponies attacking it, Silver says a little more coherent “Help me get over to Lotus. I can heal us a little to at least stop the bleeding.” Violetta helps Tairis stabilize her as she stands up. As they help Silver up, she cuddles up to Tairis more as she sighs contently.

Violetta says with a sly smile “Looks like somepony fancies you.”

Tairis blushes and says “Lets just get her over to Lotus.”

When they reach Lotus they lay her down next to her. As Lotus opens one eye then groggily asks “What's going on?”

Silver replies “Just relax I’m going to try and heal us as best as I can.” Lotus closes her eye as Silver closes her eyes too as a dark blue field engulfs their heads.

After a bit the magical field dissipates then Lotus says with a clear head “Thank you Silver. I feel a lot better but what about the Timber King?” They all look back at Everfree Forest and see all the recruits attacking the Timber King. They were successfully pushing the giant wolf back.

Razor yells “Nithes, tell them to cut the attack when I get in position with the others.”

A unicorn with a short light blue mane and tail replies “Yes Sir.” Razor takes to the air with three other pegasi. When they get into position Nithes yells “Hold fire!” As the last bolt hits the Timber King. Razor and the others dive bomb the wolf. Their wing blades cut deep into the wood and vines that comprise its front legs and score two more hits on its chest. Once they were clear they heard Nithes yell his command “Concentrate fire on its legs and chest!”

In seconds the Timber King begins falling apart and collapses to the ground. The four Timber wolves reform and take off into the forest. Razor lands near Nithes and commends him with a pat on the back “Thank you for saving our flanks. Your doing a great job training these recruits. Keep it up.”

They shake hooves and then Nithes yells “Okay! All you rookies fun time is over. Back to training! I`ll make soldiers outta you grubs yet!”

Razor walks over to Silver and Lotus asking “Are you two okay?”

Silver rubs the blood from her nose then says “We should be fine but I think we all should visit the medical tent. Would be a wise decision.”

Author's Note

For anyone wondering what BUBAR is I took the military term FUBAR. (Bucked Up Beyond All Recognition)