Brave the Ulvenweald

by Silvermyr

Rating: teen
Tags: Fluttershy, Mystery, Adventure, Violence, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 24539

Twilight and Fluttershy explores a mythical forest at the edge of Equestria, looking for one of Sombra's sworn allies.

Following the birth of Flurry Heart and the acquisition of King Sombra's journal, Twilight Sparkle sets out on a new quest to bring the insane king's followers to justice. Her quest leads her and Fluttershy to the very edge of Equestria, to the mythical forest known as "the Ulvenweald", a place filled with deadly beasts and vegetation alike.

Can a bookworm like Twilight and a pegasus with crippling anxiety like Fluttershy overcome such a place and hunt down the mad king's loyalist? Or are they, in fact, not the hunters but the prey?

This story is a free-standing continuation of my story: Will of the Shadow Monarch. Reading that story is recommended, but not at all necessary.

This story will contain words and images. If you are allergic to such things you might want to find another story. The pictures come from Magic the Gathering and are repurposed to fit with what is written.

Published 2018-04-14 19:40:12 UTC
Last updated 2018-04-14 19:40:12 UTC

1. At the Edge of Equestria

Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, put the ponderous tome back on the small stack of journals, maps, letters and diaries with a satisfied nod. With a contemplative, if proud, smile she leaned back and surveyed the last weeks’ work in front of her. On a large piece of paper she had written out twelve headlines and then filled in the space under them with abilities, appearance, tribe and everything else she had been able to gather about Sombra’s twelve acolytes.

Since she returned from her adventure in the Crystal Empire and the birth of Flurry Heart, she had practically never left her reading room in the Castle of Friendship, expect for a few days when she had gone out with her friends. Her old self would never had taken that time, but Twilight could only admit that she worked better with these small breaks to collect herself and refocus when the harsh tales from the Old Crystal War became too grim.

Now, however, she would not need any more breaks. Her research was finally done. She had read everything that provided a first-hoof source of a war that, due to the much more studied schism between Celestia and Luna, had largely been forgotten by history.

The knowledge contained in the sources coupled with Sombra’s journal, or the ”special source” as she referred to it around other ponies, had given her a deep insight in King Sombra and his twelve acolytes. What Equestrian historians blamed on misfortune, poor sanitation and cold weather was revealed in Sombra’s journal to, more often than not, be the work of his acolytes. Everything from the rampant diseases to the violent blizzards could be attributed to them.

Put shortly, Twilight had managed to wash out information that not even Celestia or Luna should know about. The next morning she was off to Canterlot again. Now that she knew all there was to know about Sombra and his acolytes, it was time to go on the offensive. While the insane plague-doctor Golden Heart was caught, eleven of them were still out there, plotting the return of their king. It was up to her, as Princess of Equestria, to stop them. She would present all she had learnt tomorrow, and figure out where the cultists might have gone together with Celestia and Luna.

Then she would hunt them down and put them away. Twilight nodded to herself.

*****

”Then there is Sombra’s royal assassin,” Twilight continued. ”Again, I have no name, but I think I met him. He attacked Shining Armor and me in the library, and he seems to have been the one behind the disappearance of the generals Gleaming Shield and Clashing Swords too. I think he is a unicorn with gray eyes.”

Celestia shook her head solemnly. ”I knew Sombra was evil, but I had never thought he was responsible for all this. Thousands, tens of thousands dead in his wake…” Twilight had never seen Celestia like this. It suddenly became so very apparent just how ancient she was. Both Celestia and Luna remembered fondly some of the ponies Twilight spoke of. Ponies who were but names in history books to her were dear friends and trusted advisors to them. The details she described about the war were real memories to them.

Luna sat stiff on her throne, looking as cold and aloof as the moon itself. ”You have done well to discover so much, Twilight Sparkle, though it pains us to revisit these memories. However.” Luna emphasized the last word. ”We must not let this pain weaken our resolve. There is undeniable proof that Sombra is attempting to again defile to our beautiful land, and as its sovereigns, we shall stand ready to defend our little ponies.”

”Twilight?” Celestia asked, her voice soft as silk. ”Are you absolutely certain you want to join us in this? You have already seen the horrible powers the Pale Knights possess. I will not ask you to join in this campaign. Cadence herself has wished not to, as she wish to be with her newborn.”

”Just say the word!” Twilight said resolutely. She was surprised a grim task like this would fill her with such zeal, but here she was, longing to act. After what she had seen in the Crystal Empire, she wanted to have a hoof in stopping this. This time she would play her part, do more than any other, to stop Sombra again.

She was not content with smiling and waving anymore. This time she would fight for the pony who had given her everything and for the land that had raised her.

”My sister and I respect your choice and we welcome your aid, young Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said, slightly warmer. ”It is good to know you will be with us in this task.”

”When can we start?” Twilight asked, her hooves practically itching to chase maniacal cultists.

”We can start now,” Celestia said. Her voice was changed from saddened and tender to the hard, direct tone of a leader. Twilight reflexively straightened herself and puffed her chest out slightly. ”During the Crystal War, we already suspected there was something amiss at the western border of Equestria.”

”Come with me,” Luna said and led the other two alicorns from the vacant throne room and into a nearby study. On a large table in the middle of the room laid a detailed map of Equestria. Luna swept with her hoof over the table. ”At this time, most food in Equestria was grown over the hills now known as Unicorn Range. Deep within Equestria, it should not be threatened by Sombra, who was on the defense in his empire to the North.”

Luna motioned over the enigmatic neck of land that sprawled out from Equestria’s western coast, dividing the North and South Luna ocean. Explorers called that region ”Undiscovered West”. From what little Twilight knew of it, it was covered in a dense forest, many times larger than the Everfree. ”But soon farms and villages started to disappear in this region. We still do not know what caused this, but the phenomenon spread out from this forest.” She motioned to a particularly green region just between the two oceans.

”And you think one of the cultists might have a hideaway there?” Twilight asked.

”If any acolyte was acting in Equestria during the war, then that is one of the best hiding places. The forest is unexplored and teeming with untamed magic and beasts alike,” Celestia said. ”The reports from the war said that the villages were attacked by wolves. While that forest is the only place in Equestria where there are still wolves, my sister and I have never seen them near the forest edge before or since. For them to attack a village… I would say it was impossible if not for these reports.”

”There are Timber Wolves in Everfree,” Twilight pointed out. ”They come close to Ponyville sometimes.”

”These are not Timber Wolves, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna corrected. ”They are their living cousins, the creatures whose spirits now forms the essence of the Timber Wolves. They are stronger, hungrier, slyer.”

”If you are willing, Twilight, we would want you to go there and investigate the forest.” Celestia went on. ”My sister and I cannot leave Canterlot for such a thing ourselves, but you can, and you are the only pony powerful enough to capture Sombra’s acolyte if you find him or her.”

”My sister and I will do our best to find the rest of the acolytes in the meantime,” Luna said. ”With your research we know what to look for.”

”I will go, Princess,” Twilight said. ”After what happened to Cadence and Flurry Heart, I must be part of this, I just have to.”

”Before you leave, Twilight,” Celestia held up a hoof. ”Do your friends know what happened in the Crystal Empire?”

”Well… yes,” Twilight answered. ”I told my friends on the way home from Flurry’s crystalling. Not Starlight Glimmer though; she is still in the Empire reconnecting with Sunburst, and… well, it was not the right time to talk about this when they were so happy to see each other again.”

”I see,” Celestia said. ”It is good that your friends know. If they want, we would welcome their aid on this quest. After all, your friendship has helped Equestria greatly before, and I have no doubt it will again. However, I ask that you do not tell anypony else about this or about what happened in the Empire. Ponies will be terrified to no avail.”

”I understand, princess,” Twilight said. ”I won’t tell anypony else, and I will make sure my friends wont either.”

The three ponies silenced. Luna ruffled her wings and spoke up.

”Then we wish you all luck, Twilight Sparkle. Just so you know, the forest is named The Ulvenweald, or just ’the Weald’, for short.”

*****

Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!

Twilight’s ears picked up. She had never been very good with birds, having living most of her life away from forests, but that particular call she knew. Her parents always made such a big deal of the cuckoo coming for spring. Twilight was more fond of cuckoo clocks herself, as she had used one to track her study times when she was a filly.

”Oh, my!” Fluttershy said mirthfully. ”It’s the first one I hear this year! Hello!? Little birdie, where are you? Won’t you please come out?”

Sure enough, the cuckoo came flying from a bush and landed gently on Fluttershy’s head, making the shy pegasus giggle.

This was, without comparison, the most beautiful forest Twilight had seen. It was the exact opposite to Everfree Forest. This place was bright, with sunlight scattering in the spring-green beech leaves to form beautiful, gold green patches over the forest floor. The trees were thick and mighty, but the undergrowth was strangely thin, making walking easy and enjoyable.

For all of Luna’s and Celestia’s worries, Twilight could not see anything bad about this forest if she tried. Granted, they were not in the Ulvenweald proper yet. They were now making their way through the outskirts of White-Tail Woods, a large, sparse forest dominated by birches, hence the name. Still, the official border to The Weald was just hours of swift trotting away, so it couldn’t be that different.

And, as indicated by the cuckoo, even the wildlife was friendly. Not a wolf as far as the eye could see.

”Okay, here you go,” Fluttershy smiled and picked out some breadcrumbs form a pouch she had brought for that exact reason. The cuckoo gave a happy hoot and picked up its spoils, observed by two smiling ponies.

”Oh, Twilight, this forest is truly beautiful, isn’t it?” Fluttershy asked as they continued on their way, small birds chirping around them. ”I don’t think there can be anything bad here; the animals would never live in a place where they did not feel safe.”

”No, but this is not our final destination,” Twilight reminded her lightly. Not even she could be wary of their mission in a place like this. ”The map says we will arrive at a small village soon, by the name of Hollow Canopy. It is the last real Equestrian outpost before we come to the Weald. A bat-pony town, apparently.”

”Oh, I have never really met a bat-pony,” Fluttershy said, shrinking back slightly as she was prone to do whenever she was uncertain about anything. She felled her hears and tucked her tail close. ”And Luna’s guard are a bit… scary.”

”They are kind,” Twilight reassured her friend. ”This town has their own mayor and everything; it’s a town like any other in Equestria. Princess Luna has relayed information that we are coming, so they will have everything ready for our continued journey into the Weald.”

”Ehm, I don’t mean to be rude, but, um, do you actually know where to go? In the Weald, I mean? On your map it looked pretty large, and we can’t really search the whole forest after Sombra’s acolyte, can we?” Fluttershy asked.

”Well, no,” Twilight admitted. ”But there is a village in the middle of the Weald. Though they are formally a part of Equestria, they are too isolated to bother engaging in anything. There is not even a name for the town on my map. Either way, that’s where we are headed. We will continue to search the forest from there, maybe with the villagers’ help. They must know the forest.”

EEEEEEEEEEE!

Twilight and Fluttershy both stopped and picked their ears up. The sound was almost to high-pitched to make out, but it was definitely there. A consistent, drawn out squeak.

EEEEEEEEEE!

With a rustle of wings, the sound suddenly stopped. Twilight looked up, just as the two ponies above her looked down. ”Hey! We finally found you!” one of them called down with a piercing squeak. It was clearly a mare. The two bat-ponies descended gracefully, coming face to face with Twilight and Fluttershy. Both parties took an involuntary moment to study the other.

It took Twilight eight point seven picoseconds to conclude that bat-ponies were cute. The first thing she observed on the smaller-than-usual ponies were the bat-like wings, of course. She had always thought they were leathery and dry, like those of a bat, but now she saw that they were, in fact, covered in a short, silk-smooth hairs. Their ears seemed larger than normal, thought maybe it was because they were endowed with long, fuzzy tassels, giving them a watchful and at the same time cheerful look. The upper jaw also sported short, gleaming fangs. ”You are an alicorn, just like Luna,” the bat pony mare stated and pointed at Twilight. Her voice was still nearly to high-pitched to make out. ”And your friend is a pegasus. I have never seen one of them before.”

”I’m sorry,” Fluttershy said and looked down on her hooves.

”Princess,” the other one pony said calmly, a great contrast to his companion’s loud squeak. ”My name is Waxing Moon, and this is my sister, Waning Moon. We are the scouts of our Hollow, and we were tasked to find and guide you to our watchpoint.”

”Watchpoint? That is a small guard post, right? Why are we going there?” Twilight asked. She thought they were going to the town, not just a small guard post.

”I understand you are in a hurry, yes?” Waxing asked in turn. Twilight nodded. ”Then you will save time not entering Hollow Canopy itself. Better to stay in our little forest watchpoint and go on once the sun rises tomorrow. Worry not, my sister and I will make sure you have all provisions needed for an excursion through the Weald. Princess Luna herself has ordered that no expense shall be spared. Whatever you need will be provided.”

”I thank you, Waxing and Waning,” Twilight said formally with a small bow to the both of them. ”I ask that you give my thanks to your Hollow’s mayor too, on behalf of the Equestrian crown. As for provisions, I am afraid I will have to ask for your advice. I have never been to the Ulvenweald before, so I don’t know what is needed to traverse it.”

”I will see to it,” Waxing said quickly.

”Oh, and maybe we could have some breadcrumbs too? For the birds?” Fluttershy said so silently Twilight hardly caught it.

”Kay!” Waning squeaked. ”Breadcrumbs!” Twilight was surprised for a moment before she understood that the bat-ponies probably had a very keen sense of hearing, just like their lesser cousins. ”Come on! Waxing and I will guide you to the watchpoint now! We can talk more there!” The two bat ponies flew up again.

Twilight would have liked to ask some quick things about bat-pony culture, physiology, history, anatomy, language, magic tradition, mathematical advancements, engineering, cuisine, where they had been when Luna was on the moon, their current population, socio-economical situation in present day Equestria and simple things like that, but sadly the flight was swift and efficient, leaving minimal room for talking.

”Now, up here,” Waxing said suddenly and shifted his course towards a dense cluster of birches. ”We bat-ponies live in the canopies.” He and his sister all but disappeared into the thick foliage. Twilight met Fluttershy’s look and shrugged. Together they too flew into the tangle of leaves and would have collided face first with a door if Waning Moon had not held it open for them.

Twilight and Fluttershy, once they had oriented themselves, were greeted by a set table with four chairs around in a small room. ”Welcome,” Waning said jubilantly.

”My sister and I are tired,” Waxing continued. ”So we will go to sleep now. Feel free to help yourself to anything you find in the pantry. We will escort you the rest of the way tomorrow morning, and share a traditional meal tonight.”

”Hope you enjoy that!” Waning squeaked, though her smirk seemed too mischievous to be entirely sincere. Twilight filed it away as inexperience with reading bat-pony expressions. The fangs really threw her off.

*****

Hours later, the four ponies sat around the table. The two bat ponies both had a wide assortment of fruit in front of them, laid up neatly on carved wood plates. Fluttershy and Twilight had two empty bowls instead. They had not gotten anything to eat yet.

”Should be ready now!” Waning chirped, flapped her wings and sailed over her two guests to a small fireplace where she picked out a teapot. She bit around the handle and went up between Twilight and Fluttershy. With a cloth around her hoof, she tipped the teapot and poured up a generous amount of what Twilight approximated to be some kind of soup, though it did not look like any she had eaten before.

It was strangely runny despite being completely opaque. The color looked a bit like blueberry leaves; a fresh, inviting green. She bent forward and sniffed it slightly, more out of reflex than anything else. All ponies would do that when confronted with unfamiliar food. The smell was thin for such a powerfully colored broth. All she felt was a faint, crisp sourness that really did not make her any wiser.

”Try some,” Waxing said as he took a bite from a wild pear. ”It is a traditional bat-pony course offered to all our guests.”

”I am honored,” Twilight said with her princess voice. She carefully picked the bowl up (with her hooves, as her bat-pony hosts would do) and drank two gulps. ”Thank you. That was truly-”

She silenced abruptly. Waning Moon had brought up her hooves to her mouth and giggled like a madmare, but Twilight hardly noticed. She felt like she had gotten her mouth full of bitter almonds. All moisture on her tongue instantly disappeared and left only a horribly, encompassing bitter taste in her whole mouth. ”GLLLLARGHH!” She screamed and looked around for water. She nearly knocked the now wheezing and teary eyed Waning Moon away to get the pitcher, but she could not care less. She turned it upside down and swallowed down mouthful after mouthful of clean liquid.

Once the pitcher was empty, Twilight laid put her head down on the table, feeling at once bloated and parched. A faint acrid taste still haunted her throat.

”That was not funny!” Fluttershy said pointedly to Waning, who only now stood up, clutching her belly. ”I thought it looked like a bitterroot decoction, but I’d never think you would do this! It must taste terrible!”

”It does,” Waxing said. He too sounded much to satisfied for Twilight’s liking. ”You are right in that it’s bitterroot, but you are wrong in assuming this was some prank on our part.”

”Yea, for real,” Waning went on. ”It is a tradition. When a bat-pony goes into an unexplored forest, she is given bitterroot the night before. That is to make her less tasty for the things in the forest. We have always done that.”

”Well, you ftill could have warneth ud,” Twilight said, though her throat once again felt as dry as a mixing bowl after Pinkie had licked it. She looked around for more water.

”But what fun would that be?” Waning asked happily. ”But really, you should drink the bitterroot. Even of you don’t think monsters will eat you, it is still healthy and filling. Besides, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was something that tried to eat you in the Weald. That place gives me the creeps.”

”Oh, it can’t be that bad,” Fluttershy said and sipped from her bowl. Twilight could see her shiver slightly as the powerful taste hit her. ”I’m sure no animal will try to hurt us. And even if there are some mean cockatrice or something, I’m sure we can find some mice or squirrels to show us another path.”

”Don’t count on that,” Waning said. ”The wildlife in the Weald is very different from here.”

”Different how exactly?” Twilight asked and took a minuscule sip from her bowl. It was really not that bad when she drunk it gently.

”Spiders,” Waxing said dryly. ”Biggest, strangest ones you’ve ever seen. Be really careful, because my sister and I sometimes see bird skeletons in their webs. I don’t really know what would happen if a pony got stuck in them.”

”No wolves?” Twilight asked. ”I heard the Weald was quite infamous for them.”

”They are in there, but not anywhere close to us,” Waning said. ”They live further in, beyond The Scar. I’m sorry to say I don’t know much about them. There are some foxes though, but they are not very common.”

”The Scar?” Twilight asked with a raised eyebrow.

”Some hours of walking into the Weald you will come to a gorge,” Waxing answered. ”Very, very deep. We call that place The Scar. I have never been beyond it. Just so you know, you can’t fly over it; the winds are curious around that place.”

Twilight nodded and magicked up her map to look.

”Foxes and spiders,” Fluttershy said, for the first time ever with more confidence than Twilight felt. ”I don’t think we have to worry about them; I’m sure if we just ask nicely they will let us pass.”

Twilight looked out through a nearby window. The sun was going down, casting long shadows over the ground. Somehow, the forest looked very dark in the direction of the Weald, like the trees were already trying to keep them away.

Author's Note

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2. The Crossing

The next morning, Twilight and Fluttershy stood with Waxing and Waning at the threshold of the Ulvenweald. Twilight had imagined it to be a formal decision from some cartographer in Canterlot: ”Here the White-Tail Woods ends and the Ulvenweald begins.” What she saw made that notion redundant though, as the two forests themselves seemed to have made their borders very clear. The four ponies practically stood in front of a wall. Behind them was the light, airy White-Tail Woods with its birches, birds and friendly mice waving goodbye.

The Ulvenweald was as different from that as the night is from day. It was made up of towering pines and firs. The undergrowth was a thick mess of struggling saplings and twisted blackberry thickets with thorns the size of a unicorn foal’s horn. There was no apparent way forward. Every inch of ground was covered by twisting roots, making Twilight unsteady on her hooves by just looking at them. In between the thick tree trunks clung a wispy, sliver-like mist. The forest was silent.

”Well… I guess that now you know why my brother and I almost never go in there,” Waning said humorlessly. ”That place is a nightmare to get around in, even for us bat ponies who usually fly without seeing.” She flicked her tufted ears meaningfully. ”You really sure you want to go in there? Like, absolutely sure?”

”Yes,” Twilight said as she scoured the ground for the best place to enter the dense forest. ”If the pony we are looking for is in there, then we need to find him. Or her.”

”Suit yourselves,” Waxing said. ”I would recommend that you try to keep straight to the West from here. If you fly up over the treetops you will see some low mountains. There is an earth pony hollow by their slopes, marked on your map. They send a few merchants every year to trade for supplies, but that's all I know. Strange bunch, but maybe they are a bit more open to a princess. And if there are any who knows this tangle of a forest, its them.”

Twilight nodded and continued to glare at the foreboding forest. The place looked just as Celestia-forsaken as The Everfree. There was an unnatural gloom to the trees and the mist. This forest was darker and the trees were taller than any Twilight had ever seen before. She found herself shying back slightly from it. She suddenly felt very small compared to the vastness she was about to enter.

She pushed the errant thoughts back into her mind’s depths. She had to stay rational. She could not freak out before they had even gone inside the woods. ”Well, thank you both, Waxing and Waning for your hospitality and supplies. Hopefully Fluttershy and I can stay a little longer on our way back, when that time comes.”

”Try to come at night then,” Waning squeaked happily, interrupting Fluttershy’s silent ”thanks.” ”But not this next night; my brother and I have a whole lot of sleep to catch up on after being out looking for you yesterday. Cya and good luck!”

The two bat ponies took wing and silently flew back the way they had come, towards Hollow Canopy. Fluttershy and Twilight looked after them. ”Just one thing before we get underway,” Twilight said and turned to her timid friend. ”Fluttershy, the pony we are after is likely one of the most evil and powerful mages in history. It will be dangerous at times. Are you really sure you want to come with me? I would fully understand if you would rather turn back; no good friend can ask another pony to follow her on this mission.”

”I will follow you, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, for once not overly nervous. She even flashed a small, cheeky grin. ”I think I will have a better chance than you to navigate a forest, actually. No offense!” She added in a hurry, causing Twilight to laugh slightly.

Thus, in the best of moods, the two young mares stepped into one of the last unexplored regions of Equestria; the mythical forest known as the Weald.

*****

A few hours later, most of that good mood was gone as Twilight suddenly felt like somepony was trying to bite her wing off.

”Wait, let me help,” Fluttershy said as she gently tried to untangle Twilight’s wing from a blackberry vine that would put a barbed wire to shame. Tough, long and with barbs as thick as her covert feathers.

”Ouch, and I could have sworn there were no blackberries here,” Twilight said as some of her feathers came lose. Fluttershy tried not to stare as they grew back. Twilight had briefly explained that an alicorn’s body used magic to regenerate any injury, but seeing it like this still felt… wrong. Feathers were not supposed to sprout and grow like that. ”I would use magic, but I don’t want to tire myself out more than necessary. If this cultist is anything like Golden Heart, then he won’t go down easily.”

”I understand,” Fluttershy said, looking away from the new, bright feathers. ”Just hold still for a moment and… you are free!” Twilight carefully folded her wing back out from the blackberry tangle. She backed away and surveyed what was in front of her. This particular thicket was even darker than the surrounding wood thanks to a large fir, and the blackberry vine was clawing its way up the surrounding branches towards what little light there was. For a moment she thought of long, groping arms reaching out from the ground to snag the trees and pull them under.

”I don’t know why I’m asking, but did you see any blackberries in front of me when I flew? I mean, of course they are there, obviously, but… you know what, forget it. Come on. The ground should be relatively free if it is this dark in the middle of the day.” Twilight carefully stepped forward, ears up and twitching at every rustle of every branch. Fluttershy followed, treading lightly on her hooves and with her wings spread, ready to launch her into the air. While she was at home in forests, this one was older and quieter than any she had been in before. The sheer size was enough to put anypony on edge.

They went on in silence, until Fluttershy spotted a large spider’s web. She whimpered, for in the web sat a spider larger as her hoof. It was rapidly tangling up a robin in a cocoon of strong silk. She knew the bird was dead by it’s stillness, and she knew that the spider had to eat too, but it still made her sad to see something like this. This poor little bird who would never come home to its nest.

”That is a very large spider,” Twilight said uncertainly. ”I have never seen them capture whole birds before.” The lilac alicorn was just as unnerved by the display as she was, Fluttershy could tell.

”Let’s go on,” Fluttershy mumbled and ducked under the spider web without looking at it again. She brushed some low hanging branches away.

And stood in front of a chasm.

Sunlight glared down through the trees, appearing unnaturally bright after the gloom in the forest. To the left and right of her was a thin stretch bare ground alongside the chasm, as if the trees were all afraid it would swallow them. Just in front of her was a bridge. Carefully she went out from beneath the trees and peeked over the chasm’s edge. Far down, a thin stream of water flowed like a slash in the ground. Around it the chasm walls were covered with long shards of rock jutting outwards, like long claws reaching from the walls.

She did not have the time to see more before a sudden gust of wind hit her face with the power of Harry’s uppercut. With a squeak, Fluttershy was sent tumbling head over hooves until she landed in the velvet grasp of Twilight’s magic. ”So, I take it we won’t be flying over?” Twilight asked and looked along the chasm. ”I guess the wind can pick up here, where there is nothing stopping it for miles.” She continued in a progressively lower voice. ”Maybe we could stay and research the wind phenomenon a little bit… should be able to afford the time… Sombra’s maniacal cultist can’t really hurt a lot of ponies in here… should research… must research!”

”Ehm… Twilight?” Fluttershy asked. She shook the alicorn gently. After a second, Twilight snapped at attention again, a blush spreading across her face.

”Right, on we go.” Twilight chirped. She cautiously set hoof on the bridge and started walking out on it. It creaked slightly, but the wood looked strong under her hooves. She stomped a few times, but the bridge remained completely still. While it might not see much use, it was clear that whoever built this bridge had built it to last.

Halfway across, Twilight tripped and fell. Confused, she looked back and saw her hind leg was stuck in an off-white paste slathered over the bridge. ”What in-” A rustle made her look forward again.

A cloven, jagged and blackish brown root had appeared at the side of the bridge. As Twilight tried to figure it out, another, identical root appeared nearby, followed by two more. ”Uh… Fluttershy, do you know what this is?” Twilight asked, her voice several octaves above normal.

The roots were each followed by a heavy, hairy branch. Only when the flat, eight-eyed head appeared in the middle of the four branches did she understand. The roots were claws and the branches legs of a spider three times as long as she. It slowly crawled up on the bridge with a hollow, creaking sound before it fixated all eight eyes on her. They were piercing green and below them twitched two massive mandibles. A gleaming red liquid dripped slowly from them.

Twilight screamed, flapped her wings hard to get away, and slung a beam of magic at the spider. She lurched uncomfortably and fell on her stomach when the hoof stuck in the slathered spiderweb pulled her down again. It had stretched briefly and the yanked her down, like she was caught in a rubber band. She could not get back up. She had fallen on the spider web and her whole underside was now glued to the bridge. The magic beam hit the spider’s head with a dry, hollow sound and the spider stopped momentarily. It seemed almost confused for a moment before it continued to advance.

”Stop!” Fluttershy screamed harshly and landed in front of the giant spider. ”That’s not very nice, now is it?”

The spider clicked sharply with its pincers and rose up on it’s six back legs. Slowly it stretched the forelegs out above it as if it was going to fall forward and completely impale the small pegasus. The mandibles glistered, dripping with red venom.

”Now that is rude, mr. Spider!” Fluttershy called up at it. ”We were just walking by and you decide to pick a fight! How would you feel if we just came by and ripped your web down when you were minding your own business? Did you ever think about that?”

The spider clicked pensively, dropped down on all eight legs and stared at Fluttershy. She flew up to its head and patted it. Apparently the fangs did not disturb her as much as they did Twilight. ”See, you are not all bad, are you mr. Spider? You can be kind if you want to.”

The spider made a sound that was equal parts hiss and click before it began climbing off the bridge and down the cliff face. In a way, Twilight was unnerved seeing it go. It was almost worse not seeing it than seeing it. For all she knew it was peeking up over the bridge edge behind her, preparing to sink it’s fangs into her back. She swallowed and fought harder against the glue-like spiderweb.

”Twilight, are you alright?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. ”It didn’t get to you, did it?”

”No, but maybe you could get me get out of this web before it comes back?” Twilight asked with what she hoped was an unconcerned smile. Fluttershy’s stifled giggle told her that she had not quite succeeded.

”Let me look if Waxing and Waning packed something,” Fluttershy said. She wiggled out of her saddlebags and looked through them. After two endless minutes she produced a bottle with a clear liquid in it. She uncorked it and poured it carefully over the webs, which immediately curled up and fell of her.

”Thanks. Now let’s get off this bridge.” Twilight said hurriedly. Against her better judgment she carefully peeked out over the bridge edge first. She could not see the spider, but quite a number of birds hung suspended in midair, ensnared by invisible threads. Twilight praised her luck she had not tried to fly over the canyon.

Author's Note

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3. Brave the Ulvenweald

If the Weald on the first side of the chasm was old, then the forest beyond the Scar was nothing short of ancient. The trees stood far from one another, like pillars in a cathedral, and yet everything was still shadowy green. The pine branches wove a thick green roof high above the two ponies which blocked out nearly all light. The entire ground was covered in the softest of moss, like a green carpet over the forest floor. Hardly a sound was heard, except for the softest rustle of wings or, more ominous, the lightest taps of… something walking in the forest. The sounds were too quiet for the pony ear to properly catch. The two mares rather sensed that there were sounds, for their ears instinctively twitched every now and then, and they would both hold up and look to the same old stump, moss covered rock or stem of a tree, as if they subconsciously knew something was lurking there, just watching and waiting.

Twilight looked up from the small compass she held in her hoof. ”We have been walking for hours now. We should be getting close to the town.” She spoke quietly. She knew that in this silent, eerie forest any number of predators might be stalking them.

”That’s good. I don’t know if I like this forest very much,” Fluttershy said. ”I know there are animals around, but they don’t want to come out and say hi. It’s like they are afraid of us…”

”You don’t think they are just trying to lull us into a sense of security before… you know, do what the spider tried to do?” Twilight asked.

”No, then they would have attacked already,” Fluttershy said. ”Very few animals stalk their preys for hours on end without making any move at all.”

”Yea… silly me,” Twilight said glumly. They went on in silence, both of them listening for any sound, if for different reasons. While Fluttershy hoped an animal might approach them, Twilight hoped for the opposite. Their ears twitched and flicked this way and that to catch the dampened sounds around them.

”Oh, Twilight, look!” Fluttershy’s soft, anxious voice suddenly felt shockingly loud in the still forest. ”Oh no!”

”What is it?” In front of Fluttershy laid a smallish, white-green mushroom that seemed to have tipped over recently, for it was still fresh. Curious, Twilight leaned forward and sniffed at it. It smelt mildly sweet but also left a weird acrid burn in her nostrils. She did not think it was edible. ”Do you know what this is, Fluttershy?”

”That is a death cap, Twilight. One of the most poisonous mushrooms in Equestria! And some poor animal has eaten them! See?” She pointed to the inconspicuous holes nearby. It really did look like there had been more mushrooms growing here, but now they were gone. Since the one left had tipped, Twilight agreed it looked like something had eaten the others.

”Oh… but what animal would eat these? They must know they are poisonous, right?” Twilight argued.

”I don’t know, but we need to find whoever ate them! Waxing and Waning packed us something for poisonous mushrooms. We must help!”

Twilight knew she would never get Fluttershy to reconsider, but that did not making look for a victim of poisonous mushrooms in a creepy forest where the sun was going down any more appealing. For all they knew whatever ate the mushrooms very well might want a couple of ponies for dessert.

Still, the two of them fanned out and started looking around. Whatever had eaten them must have left some tracks nearby. Twilight was careful to always keep Fluttershy close. They could not get separated in this forest.

Time passed, and the forest got darker and darker. ”Fluttershy…” Twilight said carefully. ”I don’t think we will find anything now. It’s to dark, and you too must understand we can’t search through the whole forest. We should go on so we get to safety for the night.” Fluttershy was silent as she continued to look around and up a large rock. ”Maybe we could return tomorrow?”

”Then it might be too late!” Fluttershy said. She left the rock she had looked around and continued to a fallen tree and the stump that still held one end up. The tree had fallen some time ago and was now covered in moss and clusters of yellowish fungi. Fluttershy peeked in under the stem and quickly went on to check the stump. It was hollow. She leaned forward ever so slightly.

The bark of the stump moved in a blur, faster than the eye could follow. Two long, hooked legs fanned out, grabbed the surprised pegasus behind the wings and yanked her closer until her head was inside the stump.

Twilight screamed in horror and surprise as she saw the spider pounce over Fluttershy’s head and drill it’s fangs into her lower neck. The two were locked in that horrible embrace for what seemed to be an impossibly long timespan while Twilight just stood there unable to fathom what she saw. Then, with a dry rattle, the spider retreated inside the stump again and Fluttershy backpedaled away from the stump before her legs went out under her and she came to rest on the soft moss, hyperventilating and shaking.

One picosecond later Twilight was at her side. ”Fluttershy! Fluttershy can you hear me?! FLUTTERSHY!?” She screamed. Her first instinct was to shake her friend, but she stopped herself. Instead she magicked off her saddlebags and began throwing everything out of them to find anything against spiders. Horror dawned upon her as she realized she did not know what type of spider that was. How could she find the right antidote if she did not know what had attacked? Fluttershy might know, but shocked as she was she could not help. Twilight swallowed down the growing panic and turned Fluttershy’s head. Maybe the bite itself could give her a clue?

A little bit of blood was seeping, but the bite marks were deceptively small, hardly bigger than the sting of a bee. Somewhere in her overloaded mind Twilight was confused as to how such a large creature could leave so small bites. She stared at the marks, but her mind was blank. She had no idea what to do. She did not know what antidote to give.

She stared down at the flasks and salves around her, all with carefully written labels and instructions. She had never felt so powerless or so infinitely stupid. She had the answer here. She had the antidote, but she was too stupid to know which one it was. How could she be so ”STUPID!?” She screamed the last word, followed by a wail of despair. The tears came freely and flowed down her muzzle and cheek until they fell into the green moss. Was this how it was going to end? After Nightmare Moon, after Discord, after Tirek and everything else, was this how Fluttershy would die? To a spider’s bite because she, Twilight Sparkle, an alicorn, was too stupid to know what antidote to give?

Something made Twilight look away from her shallowly breathing friend. Another sound she had not heard but felt. She looked up on the fallen tree neaby.

A wolf looked back.

Twilight’s breath caught in her chest. The beast was huge, easily twice as long as her and probably three times as heavy based on the muscles that strained around the neck, legs and sides. The fur was steely gray and the eyes burned like embers. There was a certain intelligence behind them that Twilight had never seen in an animal before. The shadows of thoughts and reason flitted inside those molten pools.

”These are not Timber Wolves, Twilight Sparkle. These are their living cousins. They are stronger, hungrier, slyer.” Luna had said. Now Twilight knew what she meant. This creature was not one of mindless hunger like the Timberwolves. This creature was an apex predator because it could outsmart it’s pray.

”Y-you are not getting her,” Twilight said silently. ”YOU ARE NOT GETTING HER, YOU HEAR ME!?” She screamed out her challenge, and with it all her agony. She knew it was irrational, but somehow she thought that if only she could protect Fluttershy from this wolf, then all would be well.

”What have you found, girl? It sounds like-” A pony hopped up beside the wolf and looked down at Twilight, surprise clear in his eyes. Twilight stared back, just as surprised herself. ”Who the hay are you?”

Twilight blinked. ”Y-you! Help me! Fluttershy got bitten by a strange spider! She needs… Help!”

The alien pony deftly leaped from the fallen tree and landed beside Fluttershy, eagerly followed by his wolf. ”Was the spider in this stump?” Twilight nodded. ”Then it must have been a Hookclaw Recluse. Deadly if untreated, but the poison is rather slow acting.”

”I don’t care!” Twilight screamed hysterically. ”Just… do something! I have an antidote here, but I don’t know which one to use!”

”She needs a blood thickener.”

That was all Twilight needed to know. She had seen a bottle with that label! She whirled around, picked up the bottle, uncorked it, nearly split it because her hooves were shaking and made her way over to her friend. Carefully she lifted up her Fluttershy’s head and gently poured the antidote down her friend’s throat. Fluttershy swallowed and then laid still in Twilight’s front legs, just breathing. With every breath she took Twilight felt the cold, hard knot in her stomach loosen up a little until there was just a draining tiredness left. ”Thank you. I don’t know what I would have done without you. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.”

The other pony shrugged. ”You’re welcome. Now, pardon my question, but what are you doing here? We don’t often get many visitors out here in the Weald. I guess you have understood why.”

”I’m Twilight Sparkle, alicorn Princess of Equestria. My friend and I are here looking for somepony. A criminal we think might be hiding in the woods.”

”No criminal is hiding here. We would know,” the other pony said. ”Name’s Trackhoof, by the way, and this is my partner, Silver Chase.” The wolf gave a loud bark at its name.

Twilight looked to the wolf. It was a bit unnerving to have a predator so much larger than herself so near. She could smell the wolf, and that smell put her on edge. Ponies had always had to fear beasts like this one, and that heritage still resounded strongly in Twilight. She took a few steps back. ”I assume you live in the village nearby? Perhaps you could guide us there?”

”W-wait, Twilight,” Fluttershy said groggily. She closed her eyes and slowly eased herself up on her hooves. ”We still need to find whoever ate that death cap. Some little animal might still be in danger.”

Trackhoof looked at her as if she had suddenly grown several extra heads. ”No animal would ever eat a death cap. Where would you get that ridiculous idea from?”

”We found one, and several more that were gone. So something has eaten them.”

Trackhoof looked a little uncomfortable at that. ”Well… no, actually.” He lifted of the saddlebags he had over his shoulder and opened one of them. There, carefully wrapped up in small pouches made from dry leaves, laid at least ten of the greenish mushrooms. ”I pick them for potion making. With the Hunter’s Moon festival tonight there is no doubt some foal will try her hoof at it.”

”Hunter’s Moon festival?” Twilight asked. ”Never heard of it. What are you celebrating that needs poisonous mushrooms?”

”It’s a coming of age ritual for our foals,” Trackhoof answered. ”For the whole night the entire village tells stories, eat, drink, hold competitions of skill, strength and crafts, with the youngest trying to find something they enjoy. Then at night everypony shares a traditional meal and the foals journey into the woods to meet their own companions. After that, they are considered full members of our village.” Trackhoof’s eyes lit up warmly and glanced towards the wolf.

”Oh, well I’d be honored to attend,” Twilight said courteously. ”But we really can’t stay for long. We still need to search for our criminal.”

Trackhoof shrugged. ”You can come if you like.” He turned around and started walking, the wolf already at his side.

”He is wearing a bow,” Fluttershy mumbled accusingly. Twilight had seen it too. At Trackhoof’s side hung a shortbow with a few arrows in a quiver beside it. ”And his saddlebags too… that’s not fabric. I think it’s leather. From animals! He is killing animals!”

”What’s it to you?” Trackhoof asked back. ”Nothing strange with taking what you need to survive. That is just nature’s order. The strong live, the weak die.”

”The rest of Equestria does not need to kill to survive!” Fluttershy said sharply. She flew forward and stared up into Trackhoof’s face with a harsh glare. It suddenly struck Twilight that Trackhoof was rather large to be a pony, almost the same size as Big Mac.

”The rest of Equestria is not like this either,” Trackhoof retorted and made a gesture to the forest around him. ”As you can clearly see. You would have been dead if not for me.”

”That does not give you the right to kill innocent animals!” Fluttershy snapped back. The massive wolf bared its teeth and snarled angrily, fur on end and tail straight backwards.

”Fluttershy, I don’t like it either, but we can’t argue with Trackhoof. He saved your life; you should be grateful,” Twilight said. She did not like to take a party against her friend, but they needed Trackhoof’s help, and while she was sure none of the ponies would actually hurt one another, that wolf was another thing entirely. Twilight was not going to let Fluttershy get herself injured over this.

Fluttershy looked back at Twilight, hurt clear in her eyes, but she backed down from Trackhoof. The wolf skulked back as well, but it kept a wary eye on the yellow pegasus.

”If you want to come, my village is this way,” Trackhoof said neutrally.

Author's Note

For those who wonder, here is what a death cap looks like (rather beautiful mushroom, actually):

Even more trivia: I was actually going to use another type of mushroom than the death cap, since death cap does not grow in forests like the Weald (they prefer deciduous forests). I wanted to use something that I failed to find a legit english word for, namely Amanita virosa, which does grow in coniferous forests. "Destroying Angel" was the word I found, but that sounds so none-Equestrian I did not want to do that.

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4. Hunter’s Moon

The three ponies and the wolf stepped out of the forest. Or, rather, they stepped into a large glen. Twilight looked up and saw the last vestiges of evening breaking into night. The sun had already set and the stars were beginning to appear.

”Is this it?” Fluttershy asked, her voice still sharp with dislike. Something told Twilight she had not heard the last of Fluttershy’s complaints about hunting, and that it was going to be an unpleasant conversation.

”It is. Welcome to our village,” Trackhoof confirmed and gestured to the earthworks that had been thrown up in a loose ring with sharpened stakes of wood pointing outwards and upwards. The earthen ring itself was maybe twice as tall as Twilight, but the stakes made it appear much larger. The only interruption in the wall was a heavy wooden gate with two small platforms of wood on either side, presumably to let ponies in or out of the fortified town. She suddenly realized just how civilization could exist in the Weald. Nothing that could not fly would get past that barricade, and for a large animal to land without getting speared would require a lot of precision. She could not see much of what laid behind the defenses, but wisps of smoke were rising from a few places.

The wolf gave a happy bark and rushed up to the gates, soon followed by Trackhoof. Twilight and Fluttershy lingered slightly behind.

An earth pony appeared on one of the platforms with a bow held in his mouth. He stowed it away quickly when he saw Trackhoof. ”Welcome home! Any luck with your gathering? The competitions are just about to start.”

”I found enough death cap to last us for the celebration, and a few extra to save,” Trackhoof called up to the other pony. ”And two travelers who decided to take a stroll in the Weald without knowing what to do with a Hookclaw Recluse bite.”

”Then they were lucky,” the guard said heartily. ”You, travelers, feel free to join the festivities! When you come across Mayor Evermoon, introduce yourselves and she will set you up with a place to rest for the night.”

Before Twilight and Fluttershy even got to answer, the pony turned away and descended the platform, out of their line of sight. A few moments later the gate swung open. Twilight was surprised to see just the lone guard behind it. He must be very strong to open it all by himself. Once she got close she noticed that, just like Trackhoof, he was a muscular pony and nearly the head taller than her. The three ponies and the lone wolf went by him into the town.

Both Twilight and Fluttershy stopped in their tracks once they had gotten in, looking around curiously.

This town was not large by any standard. In front of them was an open square with a hole in the middle. In it laid a pile of wood, evidently for a bonfire. Huddled up nearby the earthworks were low houses, all of them built from thick wood logs with plaster in between them and roofs of dark slate. While the houses did not look nearly as homely as the thatched roof cottages of Ponyville, Twilight could see that they were steady and certainly held for the roughest of weather with their stabile foundation, low profile and sheltered place behind the earthwork wall.

Many ponies mingled about, most with a wolf nearby. There were no pegasi from what Twilight could see. Nopony was flying. ”So… now what?” Twilight asked. ”I’m actually pretty tired. Think we could get something to eat, find the mayor and hit the hay?” She had suddenly realized how hungry she was. They had been walking for hours and had not eaten since noon. The excitement in the evening had made her forget dinner.

”Yes. I want to give this mayor a piece of my mind,” Fluttershy said in a, for her, oddly firm voice.

Twilight would have preferred not picking a fight with the pony who they would have to ask for help tomorrow, but at the same time she knew this was important to Fluttershy. She could not ask her friend to let something like that just slide.

They slowly went towards one of the cooking fires, a bit apprehensive about all the foreign ponies around them. Now that they were closer, both Fluttershy and Twilight realized that all the ponies in this town were just as muscular and heavy as Trackhoof. Twilight blushed ever so slightly as many ponies turned to look after them. She could not deny she liked the attention from all these well sculptured ponies. Nopony made any attempt to speak to them though.

”Ehm… hello,” she said when she came to the circle of ponies around the fire.

Nopony took any notice of her. In fact, everypony around the fire was enraptured by the story a brown earth pony was telling. ”… and then I sicked Grey Mist on the beast from behind. Stupid bear gotta have been surprised, I tell ya. Thought he had me cornered when suddenly a wolf gets him right in the neck! The bear whirled and I jumped at him, put my hind hoof right at his skull and crushed his neck to gravel!” The ponies around the campfire nod approvingly.

”And what trophy did you take, eh?” A mare asked. ”A bear is no small feat. Gotta be something mighty impressive.”

The storyteller smirked and pulled out the bow he had stowed on his saddlebag. ”Got the fang on the handle. My lucky charm.”

”Ah, that’s nothing,” another stallion said. ”Let me tell you about the time me and Varg killed two boars and their piglets, using only one arrow! Now there's a story worth hearing!”

”STOP!” Fluttershy barked and flew into the ring of gathered ponies, angrier than Twilight had ever seen her. ”How can- how can you even-” she sputtered, wings quivering in rage. ”You should be ashamed!”

”Who the hay are you?” The pony with the bear story asked. ”Wait, when did we get a pegasus in our town?”

”And why is she so small,” the mare asked with a superior smirk. ”Bet she couldn’t even neck a fox!” The ponies around laughed.

Fluttershy’s eyes looked like they would plop out of her sockets. ”SHUT UP!!”

”Hah, that’s adorable,” the pony with the bear story said. ”The little filly is flustered! I know the mayor’s said that pegasi are weaker than us earth ponies, but I never thought it'd be this bad! Are really all pegasi this small?”

Fluttershy picked up the tankard the storyteller had at his side and threw the contents in the other pony’s face.

The laughter silenced. Twilight felt a powerful urge to dig into the ground and not come up for ten years of so.

”Hah, she’s got moxie, this one!” another stallion said. ”I like it!”

”About time someone did that to him,” The mare said. ”Pity it wasn’t me.”

”Seems there is more to you than meets the eye, little filly,” the now soaked storyteller said. ”You’ve got more guts than some of my best friends here. Good going!”

Fluttershy looked about, disoriented about the sudden turn of events. She even seemed to have forgotten her anger, though Twilight guessed it might be because her crippling shyness was drowning it out when she was suddenly the center of attention. Anyway, since Fluttershy’s outburst had gotten their attention, maybe now they could get something to eat.

”Hello, everypony,” Twilight said. ”The guard at the gates told us we could get something to eat.”

”Of course you shall,” the storyteller said heartily. ”I don’t know who you are, but I don’t wanna get on this filly’s bad side again.”

”If you do, I bet my bow that the newcomer’s gonna beat your flank,” The mare in the company said as somepony hoofed Fluttershy and Twilight a bowl of broth each. The broth was brown and smelt strongly of rosemary and juniper berries. Just a whiff told her it was unlike anything she had tried before, but it definitely smelt good and filling. She carefully took a sip. After Waxing and Waning’s prank she had learnt to be careful.

It tasted just as she had expected based on the smell, but the tastes were all more racy than practically anything she had ever had before. It was not at all a bad experience. She proceeded with vigor, every sip more delightful than the last.

”This is truly wonderful,” Twilight said to the pony who had given her the bowl. ”What’s in it?”

”Depends,” the storyteller said as he finished his own bowl. ”We put in whatever we find, so it’s never quite the same. Today it’s a feast, so everypony have been out collecting ingredients. I think it was portobello mushrooms, juniper, lingonberries, cranberries, some rosemary, garlic… some chanterelles maybe and venison from deer, moose, a little bit of bear… what am I missing, guys?”

”Pheasant, for one,” the mare said. ”And didn’t somepony get a lynx?”

Twilight had stopped listening. Her stomach revolted. Fast as lightning she ran towards the town gate. She was going to be sick! The moment she was outside she emptied her stomach in the grass. The acrid smell made her grimace. She spat repeatedly to get the horrible taste of her tongue. By the sounds of it, Fluttershy was suffering a similar fate nearby.

Twilight spat one last time before checking on her friend. ”How are you, Fluttershy?”

”I feel dirty,” she said with tears barely held back. ”I ate… I ate a…” she turned back and gagged again, though there was no food left to throw up.

”Hello? Is anypony here?”

Twilight wiped herself as best she could and looked towards the pony who stood in the doorway to the village. She was en elderly mare with sand colored coat and turbid, green eyes. At her side stood a lithe silvery wolf. ”Yes, we were just… uh…” Twilight did not know how to explain why she and Fluttershy had run as if their tails were on fire. ”Trying to find the little filly’s room…?”

”Inside the houses,” the sand colored mare said. ”But this at least gives me the opportunity to finally introduce myself. I am the mayor of this village. Name’s Evermoon.” The Mayor’s eyes narrowed. ”What… are you? Unicorns do not have wings…”

”I… am an alicorn,” Twilight said. ”Uh… a Princess, like Celestia and Luna.” She briefly wondered just how remote this place was if they did not even know the name of the alicon race.

”Alicorn… I have never heard that before. Sorry for not coming earlier, but the wolves too are distracted by the celebrations. They told me you were here just now. But you are still welcome here, of course. Come on in and we’ll get you something to eat-”

”Noooo…” Fluttershy moaned. ”Please no more…”

”Eh, my companion and I are tired,” Twilight said with a hopefully unconcerned smile. ”If you could just show us a place where we can rest, that’d be great.”

The mayor stared questioningly at Fluttershy’s still heaving form, then back to Twilight. ”I guess… If you don’t want to eat anything. But if you would be so kind, perhaps you could wait just ten minutes or so. I have an announcement to make.”

”Sure, we will wait,” Twilight said.

”Great, come on in! The foals and fillies of our village will be honored to have an alicorn to watch this!”

Twilight had really thought to stay outside, but she did not have the heart to disappoint the mayor’s eager look. Besides, she would have to sleep inside the village whether she wanted to or not. Fluttershy shambled up beside Twilight, and together they went back into the village. ”Mayor, this is when the foals get their wolves, right?” Twilight asked. ”Does that mean everypony has their own wolf here?”

”I wouldn’t say ’has’,” the mayor replied. ”That sounds so possessive. We are friends with our companions. We help our them because we want to, and they help us because they want to. Simple as that, and because everything is so simple, our bond is so strong. It is not from need but from want, a want that lasts all our lives. The bond with our wolves is … stronger than I can explain.” Her expression lifted into a bright smile. ”But this sure is a great day for our young.”

Twilight nodded absently and followed the mayor towards the now lit bonfire in the middle of the town. Everypony in town and their wolves were gravitating towards it. The mayor went up to the fire with a spring in her step.

”And now, what we all are here for!” she said loudly once she stood where everypony could see her. ”Will our youngest step forward?”

”Earlier, she said that the wolves had told her we were here,” Twilight said slowly. ”The pony we are looking for did coordinate an attack of wolves against Equestria. Whoever it was must have had the ability to speak with them. And if everypony has their own wolf here, that means they would be used to obeying orders from ponies. I think we might have found our cultist.”

”This place sure is vile enough for her to be a cultist,” Fluttershy said bitingly.

Twilight turned her attention back to the mayor and the three foals who had come up to her. Each one of them were dressed in fine leather stockings and had a simple knife at their sides. Aside from that, Twilight could see that each one carried something. According to Trackhoof, that would be something they had crafted tonight. Twilight could tell by the anxious looks and impatient trample of the foals’ hooves that they were all nervous.

”I am sure you all know what to do and what to expect!” The mayor called. ”You three will stand vigil tonight. Follow your instincts and you will meet your companion soon! We wish you luck! May you find a worthy companion, and may your companion find you worthy! The Hunter’s Moon has risen!” Her audience of foals jolted as if they had heard a starting shot and dashed towards the open gate, followed by the cheers of everypony in the village. For a few minutes, the entire village went up to the three foals to wish them luck, before the villagers made their way into their homes for sleep. Mayor Evermoon took Twilight and Fluttershy with her towards one of the low houses.

*****

Fluttershy groaned and sat up. It was pitch black in the small room she and Twilight had gotten to spend the night in, and there were no firefly lamps in this village. They had no fireflies. With no way to light up the room properly, she resorted to just feel herself carefully, still nauseated from the nasty broth she had eaten before.

She had awoken because of a nightmare, one that involved her Flutterbat persona going berserk among her animals back home. She was only thankful she had woken up before it got even worse. She did not need to ask herself where the nightmare came from. Even now, hours later, she felt impure and dirty.

And sick.

Fluttershy rose up from the bed. Hopefully the clean forest air could make her feel a little better; sleeping like this was out of the question. She snuck out of the room quietly as to not disturb her friend, who was still deep in Luna’s realm.

The air was cold and crisp, fresher and clearer than she had ever felt. In the middle of this ancient forest the world seemed strangely primordial. Here, ponies had not tamed the land and sky as they had back in Ponyville. Here, they lived off what the forest saw fit to give them, nothing more. While Fluttershy might despise the fact that they hunted animals, and never could imagine living like this herself, she could still respect that the ponies in this village had managed to carve out a small portion of this dangerous place and make it a home. If nothing else, she felt a little proud of it, for it was a powerful testament to ponykind’s ability to always find a way through any hardship.

She looked up to the stars. The clear air, far from any light sources, made her see stars and constellations she had only read about. Even the white stretch of stars called ”The Alicorn's Path” could be seen clear as day in this forest. In the middle of it all sat Luna’s moon. Large and pale and with a halo around it, white as the deepest winter, like a giant pearl in the sky.

Fluttershy looked up, mesmerized by the vastness of the night, until the chill made itself known. She trotted up to the pit where the large fire had been hours before and slowly made her way around it.

Something tugged at the back of her mind. Something made her look over the fire pit towards the large gate. It was still open. Maybe her cutie mark gave her the ability to sense that there was a small pack of wolves there, or maybe it was just random chance. Either way, she saw the five or so wolves quietly march out of the gates. Together with them went foals from earlier, two colts and a filly.

”Hello?” Fluttershy called to the strange group. ”Where are you going? Isn’t the forest dangerous at night?” The question sounded stupid even to herself. She knew perfectly well how dangerous the forest was.

One of the wolves stopped and turned to her. Her special talent kicked in. She instinctively knew to fly over the fire pit and approach, but not so much as to appear disrespectful. This wolf was stronger than her; it was the dominant party and she had to show proper respect. She fixated on the many signals it gave her. The ears, the tail, the small growls, snarls, sniffs and postures that made up the language of these beasts. While she could not put into words what the wolf told her, she understood the basic meaning:

No, the forest was not dangerous to them. No, she was not privy to know where they were going. No, she would not join the foals tonight.

The wolf turned and bounded out of the settlement and after the others, leaving her alone. She looked after the wolves and foals, torn about what to do. The wolf clearly did not want her in the forest, and she knew it was dangerous. This time she could not count on a pony to find her if she got in trouble. But the foals… she could not just leave them! The forest was not safe, no matter what the wolves said. Slightest mistake from the foals or the wolves could be deadly!

Fluttershy sighed, took wing and flew into the forest.

She had to keep them safe. She was Kindness. She could not let foals or wolves come to harm.

5. When Only the Moon is Watching

It was like she was flying in a forlorn cathedral. Gargantuan and silent but with a feeling of being watched by something that refused to leave her be. Fluttershy concentrated on just flying forward, but she still looked around, half expecting to see a blur of a beast dash out of the shadows and attack her. No such attack came, but the vastness and emptiness made it impossible not to envision. She could feel she was not alone despite the silence.

”Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” she mumbled to herself. ”As long as you are not ambushed again it will be fine. You always have The Stare. Just need to use that if you are afraid.” She continued her mantra in her head, again and again until she fell into a rhythm. Wingbeat, ”Just need to,” wingbeat, ”use The Stare,” wingbeat, ”Just need to,” wingbeat…

Soon another worry took over: that for the foals. She knew that if they had grown up here they must be experienced woodsponies, but still. They were just foals, and creatures like the Hookclaw Recluse would be even more dangerous to a small foal than a full-grown pony like her. She began to beat her wings faster. She did not know if she was on the right track, but she knew that the ponies she looked for were not where she was, and so she continued flying.

AHOOOOO!

Fluttershy staggered in the air and nearly dropped from her flight. It was a wolf’s howl, she realized. The eerie sound cut through the silence of the night like a sword. The volume and the implications of danger the sound carried was enough to spook the bravest of ponies, not to mention her. She knew to be afraid of that call, some primal instinct told her it signaled great danger. Only a few predators could afford to make such a sound, namely those who did not have to be silent. Those few apex hunters who knew they could fill their bellies even if their prey knew they were hunting.

Yes, Fluttershy was afraid of that sound, even if her special talent told her it was not a hunting cry. Not yet. No, this was a rallying cry. ”Come to me, my pack! I am here and I hunger! Come to me!” a lone wolf called through the woods.

Fluttershy stopped and held still in the air, weighing her options.

Every instinct in her body told her to fly away as fast as her wings would carry her and then hunker under her bed until morning came. A predator was on the loose, and she would be as good prey as any. But she could not do that! What if this was one of the wolves escorting the foals? What if the wolves had lured the foals with them and were just waiting for the rest of the pack before they attacked?

Fluttershy made an unhappy whimper and started following the sound through the forest.

She was not very far away from the source, she discovered. Only five minutes of flying later she could glimpse a spot maybe fifty pony-lengths or so ahead where the moon broke through the canopy, creating a silvery white spot nearby a mound of stones with a large cave. While Fluttershy did not know much about wolves, she knew that they could live in dens, and this looked like a perfect place. She approached slowly, carefully.

The howling wolf stood just outside the cave. The foals stood… no, kneeled, behind the howler, and the other four wolves sat behind the foals, all with their heads bent as in respect for something. Fluttershy swallowed. This was, in a way, even more frightening than finding the foals in danger. She knew how to handle wolves. It would have been a terrifying experience to face them all with The Stare, but it would have been something she understood. This was something else, something unknown. How could she protect the foals and herself against something she had never heard of?

She took a calming breath and landed among some thick bushes. The foals did not seem to be in danger for now, so she had better wait before rushing in. The wolf leader had explicitly told her she was not welcome. She should not provoke them by showing herself.

Suddenly, the wolves and the foals all backed away from the cave. The leader stopped howling. Fluttershy peeked out from her shrubby, trying to spot what could cause them to silence like that.

Her breath caught in her throat. There was something above it. Something was coming out of the forest, standing on top of the den. Something she knew did not exist. A wolf that walked upright.

She stared blankly at the shadowy figure with the gleaming eyes that slowly emerged form the forest. She must be seeing things. This was not possible. That thing could not exist! No wolf could walk like that!

She watched the shadowy creature, transfixed as she tried to convince her brain that it must be some hallucination. It even moved like an one; there was not a trace of ponykind’s bobbing trot in its step, nor the leaping gait a wolf would have. The movements were sinuous and undulating like the ripple on a pond, softer and quieter than any animal’s.

The creature stopped just outside of the moonlit circle, looking down at its small assembly. ”I have been looking forward to this night.” The voice was hoarse and raspy, but Fluttershy still guessed the figure was female, if it even had a gender at all. ”You all have something for me.”

The foals went forward hesitantly, each one clutching a small item. Fluttershy could, even from the distance, see that they were all suppressing the urge to run for their lives. The way they had their tails tucked close to their backsides and ears felled down told her everything. The shadowy figure waited patiently for them to approach.

”Show me what you have brought,” the creature commanded.

Fluttershy could not see what the foals had brought, the things were too small for her to make out. The creature stared down from her elevated position as the foals trembled before her. She grunted. ”Your gifts are acceptable.” The figure looked away from the three cowering foals. ”You all have something for me.”

From outside the illuminated circle, five ponies appeared. Fluttershy gasped softly as she recognized the mayor, though now dressed in sturdy hunter’s gear. From among the ponies came three small wolf pups, each one carrying something in their mouths. Just as the foals, the three pups placed their items in front of the creature. It looked over the offerings.

”I find your gifts acceptable.” The figure rose up and stretched her long arms and paws to the sky as if to embrace the silvery moon. ”Listen now and listen good: In ages past He came from the shadows to bestow a gift upon me! His Majesty gave to me a blessing. I am His faithful huntmaster from now until the end of time itself, and all I do for him, he would do for me. I now see fit to extend a piece of my blessing onto you, young hunters! Accept this gift, so that you may provide for your kind, and so that you too can serve Him when the time of reckoning comes!”

A wind started blowing, howling in the forest. Fluttershy hunkered down further behind her bush. Somehow the wind was blowing straight towards the shadowy figure, whose paws had started to glow in a piercing green light. The adult wolves howled out their song together with the wind, their tones rising in a chilling crescendo as the green glow became stronger and stronger and stronger until it hurt to look at it. With a flash like that of a giant camera, the glow spiked and Fluttershy had to avert her eyes.

”I was weak! Now I’m ideal! You are weak, but you can be better!”

”CONIUGO!”

Three young voices and as many wolf pups screamed out in agony, before they abruptly silenced. Blazing light burnt through her eyelids, making her see everything in red for the fraction of a second.

The light receded. Dazed, Fluttershy looked up. She blinked a few times, for her whole vision was still filled with remnants of the bright flash. When she regained her sight, she saw the same scene as before. Pups, wolves, foals and the adult ponies all standing in the moonlit circle, looking up to the strange creature.

”We are ideal.” The ceremony leader declared. ”We are apex hunters, masters of this forest and all others! Through the speed of our legs, the cunning in our minds, the strength of our jaws and the bond that links us all, no prey can escape us! Tonight you shall hunt together! Kill together! Feast together!”

The wolves around her howled out their reverence, and the ponies stomped their hooves in approval. ”Young ones, you shall lead this hunt,” the mayor said. ”Find us a trail.” Immediately, the young wolves barked happily and started sniffing around at the ground, accompanied by their newfound companions.

Fluttershy wanted to move. She wanted to fly as fast as her wings would allow back to Twilight and tell her everything, but she could not bring herself to it. If the unknown creature was nocturnal then it might very well spot her if she moved. And if it did, it would… eat her. She fought down the urge to cry. She must not make a sound.

On the other hoof she was horribly aware that even if the creature did not find her, wolves had a keen sense of smell. Every moment she stayed here was another moment they might sniff her out. She looked away from the searching youngsters and up to the strange creature.

It was gone.

Yet another reason for her to get back to Twilight. Most likely Fluttershy had just seen the cultist they were hunting, and the cultist-creature apparently had the entire town at its beck and call. If that was true, then Twilight was in terrible danger sleeping in the village. For all Fluttershy knew, the creature was making its way there now, eager for a pony snack.

The thought of her friend asleep and in danger was the thing that gave her the courage to move. She swallowed, lifted her wings and flew up. The moment she was off the ground the paralyzing fear disappeared and was replaced by fight-or-flight instincts. She flew. She flew faster than she ever had before, adrenaline and pure terror speeding her along.

One frantic half hour later when she saw the outlines of the spiked palisade her heart leaped in relief. She dashed over it and into the small room where Twilight slept without slowing down.

”Twilight!” Fluttershy said quietly. ”Twilight, wake up, wake up!” She shook her friend and threw an anxious look over her shoulder.

”Five more pages,” Twilight mumbled and tried to curl up.

”TWILIGHT!”

”Gahh!” Twilight flew up, wide awake, and looked about the small room. A moment later she settled down on the bed. ”And I was having the best dream too.”

”Twilight, we need to get out of here,” Fluttershy said and looked over her shoulder again. ”I have a bad feeling about this entire town now. Something is wrong with them. If they are all blessed like that… if they are all Sombra’s…”

”Fluttershy, what are you talking about? What happened?” Twilight’s voice was assertive and firm. Something about it managed to reach down through the many layers of anxiety that Fluttershy had spun around herself and calm her.

She forced herself to sit down on the bedside a take a deep breath. Then she told Twilight everything she had seen.

”This… sermon leader, are you sure she was not a pony?” Twilight asked when she was done. ”It’s not that I don’t believe you, but I just can’t understand how Sombra would have found some entirely unknown race and allied with them. Nothing I have ever heard of matches your description… maybe it was a minotaur?” Twilight proposed dubiously.

”No, it was not a minotaur. It was far to sleek,” Fluttershy said. ”And it had no horns.”

”I suppose that’s a mystery we will have to solve when we find it,” Twilight said. ”Do you think you can find the way back to where you saw the ceremony? That should be our best place to start tracking this mysterious creature.”

”I… I think so,” Fluttershy said. ”Yes, I can,” she clarified, her voice stronger.

Twilight smiled. ”You know, Fluttershy, thanks to you we have a real lead for Sombra’s cultist, and a good chance of catching her completely by surprise. I always knew you were the right pony to bring on this mission.”

Fluttershy blushed slightly and ruffled her wings. Suddenly, she did not feel all that afraid anymore. The two set out. They stayed in the forest until the morning came, cooped up together in a tree.

6. Crying Wolf

They left as soon as the sun rose high enough to see a comforting distance ahead and around them. Both Fluttershy and Twilight now knew of the dangers lurking in the Weald, and not even the urgency of catching Sombra’s cultist could overrule the folly of trying to traverse it in the dark. Also, they hoped the villagers and foals would no longer be out hunting once the sun was up. The cultist had told them to ” hunt together tonight,” after all.

”Here we are,” Fluttershy said and pointed towards the shrubbery she had hidden behind. ”This is where I hid, and they were standing over there by the rocks.” She pointed. The mound of stones and dirt looked a lot less menacing now than it did during the night. In fact, what she had taken for a cave was really nothing more than a hole formed by the random stacking of the stones. It was not more than a ponylength deep and had a strange conic shape towards the back.

Twilight resolutely trotted up to the mound and flew up on it. Fluttershy followed after a moment’s hesitation. ”So she stood here?” Twilight asked as she looked around at the top of the rocks.

”Yes,” Fluttershy said. ”Right here.”

Twilight nodded. ”Well then, I guess we will have to look around and see if we can find out where she came from.” She jumped from stone to stone until she was down on the other side of the mound. ”Whoa! Look at this!” Twilight called. Fluttershy ran to her friend. It did not sound like Twilight was in danger, but Fluttershy knew from the Hooclaw Recluse that all dangers were not visible at first glance.

The back of the stone mound had a similar opening as in the front, only much larger. ”Strange,” Twilight said and went in. She looked around quickly, but there was not much to see in the cave. It narrowed quickly and offered no place to hide oneself or anything else.

”Do you see anything that could lead us on from here?” Twilight asked when she came out. ”You are more at home with this sort of thing than I am.”

”Well…” Fluttershy looked down to the ground. She was not a good tracker by any means, but did occasionally have to follow animals into the Everfree Forest. Sadly, most of the Everfree had a bare forest floor of dirt and dry leaves which were easily disturbed by any movement. The moss in The Weald was soft and dampening. Mere moments after she stepped on it there was not a trace left of her hoofprint. Unless you really knew what to look for, this moss would conceal any tracks, especially if the tracked creature knew to be careful. ”Well, no, but there must be something here we can use to find our way.”

”Right. Let’s look around.”

Twilight stayed behind and looked around the larger opening, while Fluttershy decided to walk around to the glade again. She stopped and stared at the shallow ”cave.” She could not quite put her hoof on it, but she felt like there was something off about it. The conic shape was unlike anything she had ever seen in nature before. The walls looked too smooth and to symmetric be natural.

”How strange,” she mumbled.

HOW STRANGE!

Fluttershy let out a squeak of surprise and jumped up in the air before she realized it was just an echo. A very loud echo.

”Flddrshy?”

It took Fluttershy a few moments to realize that the distortion was not due to some echo in the cave. Twilight had spoken to her from the other, larger cave, and her voice swayed strangely, almost like she had been drinking. Fluttershy flew over the mound and saw the alicorn wobble around in front of the large cave with a dazed expression. Eventually she fell back on her haunches and stared blankly ahead.

”Ehm, Twilight, what happened!? Are you okay!?” Fluttershy flew up to her friend and looked her over worriedly.

”I was just looking around when suddenly it sounded like the thunder went off just beside me,” Twilight answered and placed her forehooves on her temples. ”Ow, my head…”

”Oh! I understand it now, Twilight!” Fluttershy exclaimed, causing Twilight to clutch her head harder. ”The cultist must have her hideaway in this direction!” She pointed straight into the forest in the direction the cave was open to. ”Come, we have to hurry!”

”Uh… why do you think that?” Twilight said as she got up.

”The wolf stood and howled into the other end of the cave last night! That’s how the cultist knew she should come, this cave works like a big flute! When the wolf howls on one side the sound is amplified and can be heard really far away! The house must be right in front of the large cave opening, just where you sat!”

”It sounds plausible,” Twilight said and looked from the large cave and into the forest beyond it. She shook her head. ”Okay, let’s check it at least.”

*****

”Is this it?” Twilight asked loudly.

”Well… it’s something,” Fluttershy said dubiously. ”But it doesn’t really look like a cultist hideout, does it?”

Twilight could only agree. They had gone straight since they figured out the cave’s secret, making their way through the forest for more than half a day when they arrived at the stone cottage standing in the shelter of an especially old and gnarled oak. The stones were almost completely covered by a thick layer of green moss, including the slate tiles that made up the roof. Beside the cottage ran a cheerful, rippling brook. Also beside the wall of the house stood quite a few queer plants and mushrooms. Even from here she could smell a pungent, rotting odor, coming from the makeshift plantation.

Twilight realized the strangeness of the place, not only because the sun was starting to dip and cast long, contorted shadows over the scene. This was also the first oak she had seen in the forest. Even more though, the fact that there was a lonesome house here in the first place told her that something strange was ahoof. Especially since the flowers pointed towards the notion that somepony- or something- lived here.

Still, this cottage was hardly larger than a normal home in Ponyville. With Sombra’s pride and arrogance it felt incredible that one of his cultists would be satisfied with living in this little house.

Twilight lifted her ears and listened carefully. There was not a sound to be heard from the house aside from the water flowing in the brook. She looked to her friend and nodded to the house. They should stay quiet, just in case. Together they made their way up to the house proper. The odor was even more pungent here and enough to make Twilight scrunch up her muzzle. She soon identified the source to be a few large, aggressively red-leaved vines that crawled over the ground and up the wall of the house.

Twilight spread her wings, took a deep breath and readied herself. If Sombra’s cultist was inside, then this was going to be a bitter battle. She took one last moment to listen before she flapped her wings and flew forward, her heart hammering in anticipation.She came up to the door, lifted it off hinges with her magic and smacked it down. The door fell inward. Twilight was over the threshold before it hit the ground. She landed on it and once again called for her magic. A lilac ring centered on her and quickly spread outward like waves on a lake. It went through the walls of the house without a trace, through Fluttershy, and out into the woods without a sound.

Silence settled. Twilight breathed heavily and shook a little from the jolt of adrenaline her body had received. Her horn still shimmered, but soon it too went out.

”Nothing?” Fluttershy whispered. ”Is there nothing there?”

Twilight shook her head. ”No, my spell would have caught it if there was another pony nearby.” She looked around. The house was gloomy and cold. A slight stench of decay and mold had begun to mingle with the sharp odor from the plants outside. A similar sensation began to prickle her tongue, scratching it like a thousand needles as she stood there. She did not care about any of it. She just stood still, looking around at everything. Fluttershy gently came up beside her. Twilight heard her small gasp.

The walls were covered in shelves, and they were filled with jars, pots, vials, knives, sickles, mortars and boxes of all shapes. From the roof hung a long thread with pieces of plants and mushrooms, evidently for drying. Glass jars of preserved leaves and roots stood in neat rows on the shelves, each one with a small label. Twilight carefully stepped forward. Right in front of her the room broadened, though the shelves continued uninterrupted over the walls. In the larger room she was immediately greeted by a fireplace with a heavy cauldron nestled inside. Beside the fireplace stood a stack of firewood and a dark iron poker. The only light came from a window, nearly covered by another line of drying plants. Her eyes fell on a counter nearby.

It took Twilight a few moments to understand what she was seeing, but when she did she gagged in repulsion and took a step back.

”Hmm? Twilight, what are you-” Fluttershy silenced and stared at the jar. It stared back.

Dozens of eyes stared emptily out in the room from the jar. For a moment Twilight thought they were pony eyes, but then she realized they were much too small. They must be from some forest animal.

”Fluttershy, look away,” Twilight told her friend. She went up to Fluttershy and gently steered her face away from the macabre jar. ”Don’t look at it, Fluttershy. Look at me instead.”

”Who would… why would anypony do this?” Fluttershy whispered as she stared at the floor in front of Twilight’s hooves. ”Ponies can’t…” she hiccuped, and for the first time since they came into the woods, started to cry. ”I don’t understand Twilight… Why is it like this here? What in this forest makes ponies do this? How can’t they see that animals have feelings and lives like you and me? This… this isn’t even for their survival!” Fluttershy hiccuped again, swallowed and pushed Twilight away. She flew up to the jar of eyes and grabbed it. ”This is not for surviving! This is just sick! Sick and wrong!” She made a motion to throw the jar, but stopped herself. She instead went past Twilight and out of the house. Twilight watched her open the jar and dump the macabre contents inthe brook nearby.

”No, wait! What are you doing!? I need those! No!”

Twilight was airborne the mere second after she heard the shrill cry. She shot out of the house, located the pony who had screamed and immediately applied the full pressure of her magic.

The pony gave a startled yelp before she was knocked flat on the forest floor as if an organ had dropped on her back. She laid practically flat with her legs spread in every direction. Twilight could see her eyes dilating in shock, even if the pony made no attempt to speak. Most likely the hard impact had knocked the air from her lungs.

Twilight assumed her most regal look and slowly made her way over to her quarry. The flattened pony was completely black, both in mane and tail. She had no horn or wings either, but Twilight was not surprised. All the potion-making supplies in the cottage had pointed towards it being occupied by an earth pony as they had an aptitude for plants and mushrooms not only when they grew, but also when used for cooking and brewing. The pony wore two large rawhide saddlebags, both to them well filled based on how they budged out.

”So you live here, do you?” Twilight questioned regally. The other pony was silent. ”Answer me!”

”Yes, I do,” The pony coughed forth. Her voice would probably have been cheerful if she had been able to speak normally. ”Why are you attacking me? What have I done?”

”Sombra’s cultist has a lair in this direction. Your house is the first place we have found. How do you explain that?”

”I… I don’t know,” the pony said lamely. ”I just live here. I don’t know nothing- cough -about a cultist.”

”Ehm, Twilight,” Fluttershy said shyly, ”I don’t think she can breathe properly like that. Maybe you could just lift her a little?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. Just a minute ago, Fluttershy had wailed about this pony killing innocent animals, but now she was worried about her comfort? Still, Twilight complied and lifted the cultist up and kept her hovering a little bit over the ground. The cultist blinked and stared at Twilight. Her eyes had the same color as polished copper, and she looked strangely young, just barely older than Twilight herself, maybe not even that. Twilight suppressed a smile at her captive's confounded face. ”You are an alicorn! You are Twilight Sparkle!”

”So you know what an alicorn is?” Twilight asked. ”Nopony in the village did. How do you explain that? And my name.” She levitated the black pony a bit higher, up to her eye level. ”Nopony in the village knew my name. For living here, in the middle of nowhere, you are very well informed.”

The other pony bit her lip and said nothing.

Twilight nodded. ”I think you are the cultist I’m after. You will come with me to Canterlot, and the Princesses themselves will get to have a good look at you.” If this pony was the cultist, then chances were that Celestia and Luna might recognize her.

”I don’t- wait,” the captive pony said lamely. ”You can’t do this to me! I have rights!” She thrashed in the magic shell, but to no avail. ”Not now!” She whispered something more, though her voice was too weak for Twilight to hear what it was. However, she felt a small tingle of satisfaction at the fear in the cultist’s voice.

”But what about the creature I saw?” Fluttershy asked. ”It can’t have been her, I know it wasn’t a pony.”

”I don’t know,” Twilight said. ”But I think we might get some answers back in Canterlot. I have been working on a way to use the Element of Honesty to compel a pony to tell the truth. I think the method is ready for its first test.”

SNAP!

A sharp sound, almost like a whiplash echoed through the forest. The cultist paled as if in terrible pain, even if not a sound escaped her lips. It took Twilight a moment to understand why, but when she did, she gasped and covered her mouth with a hoof. The cultist’s right hoof hung limp. The tendon had snapped. ”H-honored be His Majesty, King Sombra…!” she stammered, breathless with pain. ”I pledge… to destroy your enemies. Whatever it costs me…”

7. The End of Evolution

SNAP!

SNAP!

SNAP!

The cultist whimpered weakly at the last snap and trembled in Twilight’s magic. She had curled up in a protective ball as far as the magical grip allowed, but it was still painfully possible to see the unnatural limpness of her hooves.

”Twilight! What is happening to her!?” Fluttershy asked frantically. She had already galloped up to the crippled pony and stood with her forelegs pressed against the semi-solid bubble of magic, peering in at the cultist.

”I don’t know!” Twilight replied just as frantic. What if it was her magic that was crushing her? She had to lighten the pressure! But that might be just what the cultist wanted! Twilight stood still, not knowing what to do but feeling more and more stressed with every indecisive moment.

The cultist screamed. With a horrible, sickening crunch the cultist’s legs and back started twisting backwards, further than her anatomy would allow. Twilight stared, transfixed by some morbid curiosity as the cultist’s spine splintered and coiled into a conformation it could never be in. The lurching convolutions spread further up her body until her forelegs began to stretch as if she was being tortured in a rack. With six hollow cracks, each one punctuated by an excruciating scream, the joints in her forelegs dislocated. They continued to stretch until they were almost one and a half times their normal length. At this point the cultist had completely unraveled from her curled up position and twitched spastically, every part of her body exposed and racked by the hideous torture. Her hooves began to splinter and entirely new bones became visible in the ruptures, bones Twilight never knew existed.

The convolutions finally reached her skull. For a moment she stared at Twilight, and something sharp seemed to flare in the depths of the cultist’s copper-red eyes. Then she closed them and the skull began to grow. It grew outwards, cracking loudly around the area of her ears. The pony’s mane seemed to sag for a moment as the skull bone could no longer support it, before something reaffixed and regrew. Twilight looked back to the legs. They were still unnaturally long, but they were no longer dislocated and broken. The bones in her forelegs were growing in front of Twilight’s eyes! Growing to meet the dislocated parts and repair themselves. Muscle tissue twined and stretched over the newly formed bones and inflated like grotesque balloons under the jet-black coat.

The body too underwent the same treatment. With a series of loud pops, her ribs snapped, splintered and regrew, longer and thicker than before. The pony’s entire chest expanded and rippled like hot wax when a host of new muscles crisscrossed under her coat to link the fractured parts of her body together. She still screamed, but the rawness in her voice did not seem to be just from her screaming. It was like her voice itself had become lower and harder in her throat.

Twilight looked back to the pony’s skull. Or rather, where there should have been a pony’s skull, for there was nothing ponylike left. It was sharp and pointy, canine in its design with small golden pinpricks for eyes. No pupils or sclera, just restless pools of molten gold. The ears had bent backward and the large mouth was filled with glittering teeth.

The cultist smiled and a ripple seemed to pass over her body. Twilight’s breath caught in her throat; the cultist suddenly felt slippery in her magic! It was like trying to hold a sphere of water with only her hooves. Twilight struggled to compensate for the lack of balance, but to no avail. The cultist slipped out of her magical grasp in a way that Twilight knew was impossible; like she was droplet of oil gliding through water. The cultist floated out of her magic grip and the magical field, now empty, promptly collapsed in on itself.

The cultist, Twilight and Fluttershy all stood frozen, taking in the new body.

She was bipedal and the hooves were replaced with long paws, gleaming obsidian-like nails extending from the each of the five nimble fingers. The body was almost drop-shaped, thin and lean towards the back but with a robust chest and shoulders. Her forelegs almost reached the ground. The muscles under her coat looked like spun metal wires, an impression only accented by the glossy black coat with the patches of orange evening light shining down on her. The skull had grown to become larger than any pony’s and was shaped just like that of a wolf. Between her legs she had a shaggy tail. The saddlebags now hung on her chest, skewed and ill-fitting on the new body.

”I am Moonglint Dusk, acolyte of His Majesty King Sombra. He chose me to bear this blessing, to be his weapon against the immortal enemy, the alicorns.” She licked her lips slowly, hungrily. Her stomach rumbled. ”How fitting that you, who stopped us in the Crystal Empire, would be the first I got.” She took a step forward. The cute bob associated with a pony’s walking was gone, replaced with an undulating, skulking stride. Hardly a sound could be heard when she stepped on the moss.

Twilight stepped back, flared her wings and lowered her horn, more wary than she wanted to admit. She knew that metamorphic spells were possible -she had even been subjected to one when she became an alicorn- but this was something else entirely. The cultist had not changed shape from a magical standpoint, like for instance Discord or a changeling would do, just reaffixed her bones and muscles into a new shape. The magic was certainly crude, crude and painful, but it did seem to have worked, somehow. She could not even begin to imagine the dark inspiration needed to come up with a spell like the one she had just witnessed. ”Fluttershy, back away,” Twilight said. ”I will handle this.”

”Will you now?” Moonglint asked menacingly. ”Well, we’ll just see about that,” Moonglint crouched and then sprang forward as if launched from a cannon, jaws open and teeth glistering with saliva as if to rip off a piece of her. Twilight quickly teleported away from her reckless charge and followed up with a blast of magic. The lilac ray hit the cultist in her chest and knocked her slightly backwards, but other than that, the magic just seemed to spread over her coat and run right off her. Again, Twilight thought of how water flowed over oil. The Cultist shook her head and sprang forward, dark and swift as a shadow.

”Huh?” was all Fluttershy had the time to say before Moonglint appeared in front of her. The long arms and claws raked through the air mere inches away from Fluttershy’s muzzle. The shy pegasus froze up in terror and would have slumped to the ground if Twilight’s magic had not held her up. Moonglint snarled angrily, slashing and biting after Fluttershy’s legs as Twilight quickly teleported her friend out of harm’s way. She could see Fluttershy shaking when she glanced over her shoulder.

”That’s not fair!” Twilight screamed, rage coloring her voice. ”This is between you and me! Leave Fluttershy out of it!”

”Fair? Fair!?” Moonglint snarled angrily. ”There is only one rule in this forest, Sparkle: Survival of the fittest! There is no such thing as fair!” The cultist and Twilight both began to circle one another, searching of an opening. The cultist’s stomach rumbled again.

”You know what, Sparkle?” Moonglint said without taking her eyes of Twilight. ”I’m an alchemist by trade. From the minotaurs to the centaurs to the zebras, I have studied with all of them.” She reached one of her arms up to the bags on her chest and pulled out a small, angrily red vial, hardly longer than one of her fingers. ”And here is one of my own recipes: a fertilizer.”

”Not impressed,” Twilight spat back, though she kept a wary eye on the vial. Moonglint would not have taken it out unless it could help her.

”Mind your step!” She shouted, jumped upwards and backwards, onto the roof of her house and threw the vial straight down into the small plantation. It looked like a wildfire sprouted. A twisting, spiny and foul-smelling wildfire of aggressively red vines shifting towards brown as they grew. They snaked up the house, into the windows and over the ground, straight at Twilight!

Twilight flew up and threw a glance at Moonglint, who stood on the roof of her house watching the vines near her warily. Twilight felt something grasp around her hoof.

She screamed and looked down. There was no ground beneath her. The entire clearing was covered by a mesh of angry red vines, so many they could use one another as support to grow on until they reached her. She blasted them with magic to cut them off.

A few drops of red sap ran from the vines that still clung to her lower leg. She shook her hoof, but the severed vines refused to fall off. Instead they twisted themselves around like snakes and wriggled, wrapping around her leg tightly.

”Pop quiz, Sparkle! How do you kill an alicorn!?” Moonglint jumped back from the roof and up into the gnarled oak, further from the vines that tentatively groped over the roof. ”You suck them dry with your Leechleaves, that’s how!”

Twilight begun to feel dazed. The clump of vines around her front leg were already starting to swell. ”Get off of me!” She shouted at the vines and pulled with her magic. They did not come off; it was like they had already begun to ingrain themselves into her body. ”Get off! Get off!” She screamed, panic in her voice. There was something deeply unsettling with these vines. The fact that they were feeding of her made them unbearable. ”GET OFF OF ME!” She screamed and summoned magic into her horn. She felt the magic diffuse into every part of her, like it would when she used her most impressive spells. Her entire body was crackling and sparkling with magic. She felt a bottomless relief at the stabbing pain in her forelegs that told her the vines had been completely evaporated.

She locked her bleary eyes at Moonglint and felt a tingle from the tip of her tail to her horn as every ounce of magic she had rushed through her, and out of her. A thunderclap followed as the magical beam rushed towards the surprised Moonglint. The she-wolf threw her arms up over her head and curled up for protection.

The magic onslaught hit like a giant hammer, knocking Moonglint clear off the roof and into the forest behind it.

”TWILIGHT, BEHIND YOU!” Fluttershy suddenly screamed. Twilight whirled around the at the same time as a… creature? dropped down from the trees around her.

A tangle of Leechleaves, looking almost like a living creature, fell onto her wing. It felt like a thousand small teeth punctured her skin as the vines immediately began to wrap around her, entangling her wing and sending her plummeting towards the ground. The vines beneath her twitched and writhed in anticipation. ”NO!” A terrified Fluttershy screamed and caught her, just inches over the mesh of vines. They stretched after her, but Twilight cut them down with her magic. ”Twilight, where do I go!?” Fluttershy peeped. The entire forest was practically a hellish tangle of Leechleaves. All except for…

”Her oak tree! The vines don’t grow in that tree!” Twilight shouted and burnt away another offshoot reaching for them.

Fluttershy flew like never before, twisting and clipping about the ever encroaching vines both from around her and from Twilight’s wing. She practically crashed into the oak, grabbing on to a thick branch and stopped there. Twilight quickly disentangled and stumbled forward, away from Fluttershy to prevent the vines growing on her wing from reaching her friend.

Twilight stopped for a moment, then closed her eyes and concentrated.

She could not afford to use up all of her power on removing the vines from her. She had to be clever. Her horn glowed, she clenched her teeth and sent a jolt of magic through her wing. It felt weird and none too pleasant, but slowly she could push away the roots in her wing. She wanted to throw up at the thought. She had roots of a plant inside of her! And she was pushing it out, feeling every disgusting movement! The clump of swollen vines fell of her with a thump and landed below the tree.

”I! Don’t! Think! SO!” Moonglint’s voice came from somewhere in the entanglement around Twilight and Fluttershy. With a ”Whooomf!” a real wildfire suddenly erupted among the vines, burning a large swat of them to crisp in a moment.

On the bare ground stood Moonglint, her coat smoking slightly and with another vial in hand, this one noxiously green. ”Solar Flare, a zebra recipe.” Moonglint jumped from the ground and up into the tree. She met Twilight’s glare with her own. Her stomach rumbled again, this time accompanied by a twitch of Moonglint’s eye. Fluttershy was behind Twilight on the same branch.

”Where are you going to run now?” Moonglint snickered and slowly began to advance on them.

”I’m not!” Twilight bit back and shot forward. They were all standing in a tree, and Twilight was well aware her disadvantage. Hooves were not good for balancing on branches while Moonglint’s dexterous paws and claws certainly gave her some measure of balance. Twilight had to finish this quickly somehow, before she literally slipped up and fell.

”But you should!” Moonglint snarled and leaped forward. The two of them clashed in the middle of the tree, both half blinded by leaves and boughs. Twilight ignited her horn and struck with her forelegs, only to find her hooves blocked and caught by Moonglint. She let her spell fly straight into her opponent’s face. Moonglint howled in pain, took hold of Twilight’s hooves and all but threw her away, out of the tree.

She righted herself just as a multitude of red vines attacked her from every angle. More out of instinct than anything else she teleported back into the tree only to be caught by Moonglint again, though her right eye now looked red and swollen. The she-wolf was panting heavily and stared wide eyed over Twilight’s shoulder.

”Let her go,” Fluttershy said simply.

Moonglint growled angrily, but somehow Twilight felt her hooves come loose. She was so surprised she even forgot to get away from her enemy; she just stared, slack-jawed and confused at Moonglint. The she-beast did not move. She only stood and stared, transfixed by something behind Twilight.

”You are the reason so many animals have had to be eaten,” Fluttershy continued. Her voice was cold as a blizzard. ”I understand that predators must eat. I don’t blame them. But ponies are not predators; every death at the hooves on the hunters in the village are on you, aren’t they? You made them hunt?”

Moonglint nodded. ”Meat makes a pony’s body stronger,” she explained. Twilight risked a glance behind her, even though turning her back on her enemy felt wrong on every level. Fluttershy was Staring, and not even Moonglint could withstand the overwhelming weight of the Stare.

”Turn back into a pony,” Twilight said, matching Fluttershy’s cold tone with her regal one. ”I will take you back to Equestria.”

”I… I can’t,” Moonglint said. Through her raw voice it was still clear she was afraid. ”I can’t turn back on my own. I must drink a potion from my bag.”

Only now did Twilight remember. She did, in fact have the saddlebags still slung over her chest. ”I don’t think so. You are not getting into that bag. In fact…” Twilight applied her magic around the saddlebag to magic them off of Moonglint.

”Heighten your arms,” Fluttershy commanded. Moonglint whinnied, but complied. Twilight removed her bags. Moonglint let her paws fall slack, slicing straight through Twilight’s magical field in a way that she knew was impossible. Twilight saw the beast crack a smile before it disappeared behind a veil of piercing blue fire.

Twilight backpedaled and hid her face behind her hooves to protect against the blazing heat. ”Fluttershy!?” she called out, ”are you okay!?”

”Look out, Twilight!” Fluttershy called just as Twilight felt like anvil dropped onto her back. She coughed and fell flat over the branch she was standing on. When she looked up she saw Moonglint leaping at Fluttershy, paws poised to strike. Without thinking she rolled around and grabbed after Moonglint’s legs, tripping her. They both jumped to their feet again, only for Twilight to be knocked on her back again as Moonglint all but threw herself at her, aided by her massive weight.

”Just give up and…!” she snarled, grabbed Twilight by her wings and roughly threw her down into the ground. ”become plant food already!”

”NO!” both Twilight and Fluttershy screamed. The last thing Twilight saw was a pale yellow streak dashing towards her, but it was not fast enough. Before Twilight had even understood what happened her eyes were covered in red vines. She felt a million needles prickling all over her coat. She screamed out in pain, repulsion and fear. When she felt a bunch of vines wriggling into her open mouth, every ounce of rational thought yielded to a type of wild panic concentrated on only one thing: survival at any cost.

She reached for her magic, but rather than shaping it into a proper spell she just let it pour through her horn, more and more and more. For a moment she was blinded with a harsh white light.

When she saw properly again, the ground around her was bare. She rolled onto her side and tried to vomit; an instinctive action after the brutal attack on her mouth. She coughed and sputtered, but realized that the vines were gone, both from her and the clearing around her. She tried to get up on her hooves, but stumbled and fell. Her legs no longer supported her. Her head was hammering. Her vision was swimming. Her heart felt weak in her chest. ”Blood loss,” she thought absently.

”Where… where are we?” Fluttershy asked beside her. It sounded like she was calling from very far away.

”I must have teleported…” Twilight mumbled. ”Dunno where we are… I can’t see right. F-Fluttershy, are you…?”

”I’m fine, Twilight, don’t worry about me.”

”We need to… get out,” Twilight said and staggered up. ”Must get to Celestia and Luna… they can… even if I can’t defeat her…” Twilight took a few stumbling steps in a random direction. ”Must hurry…”

Fluttershy nuzzled her friend quickly and then draped Twilights’s wing over her back. She could not do much about Moonglint, but she could and would keep her friend on her hooves. They just had to rest until Twilight felt strong enough to send them home. The shadows were long now, as the dusk begun bleeding into evening. Fluttershy determined an approximate direction and begun guiding her injured friend through the woods, back towards Equestria.

*****

The patch of vines was all still, strangely still. Moonglint still could not see very well since Twilight had sent a blast of magic straight into her eye, but she still felt like she should see something. Leechleaves were not gentle, most ponies would thrash and scream as they were completely sucked dry of every drop of liquid in their body.

The stillness either meant that the alicorn had greeted her end with a calmness befitting her, or there was something wrong. Sadly, Moonglint had no good way of determining which of these two possibilities were true, as she could not waltz down into the vines herself to look.

Still, in her beast-shape, her sense of smell rarely lied to her, and if that was the case then there was something wrong with this situation. However, leechleaves had the annoying side effect of smelling like weeks old cheese, something that made her sense of smell less reliable in this particular case. She grunted and turned away from the clump of vines where Twilight should be buried. She had to think.

As the adrenaline started to draw back, she became all too aware of her hunger. Of course, that was nothing surprising. She had only eaten a light lunch off the forest floor earlier today, and then she was a pony. This new body needed much, much more food to work. That being said, she still could not leave the alicorn to chance; too much was at stake.

She bent her legs and launched herself from the tree into the tangle of vines, tapping down and leaping away before the vines even realized she had been there, and dashed into the forest. There was still something she could do to ensure Twilight fell into her paws.

8. Out of the Woods

In truth, Twilight could not remember much of her and Fluttershy’s journey trough the Weald that night. It was all a haze. She felt like she was having an out of body experience; like she watched her body stumbling through the woods from above. Her skull hammered like several Applejacks were trying to buck their way through her forehead, and the rest of her body felt strangely distant. She was freezing despite the night being warm and Fluttershy’s body pressing against hers. Her vision was narrow. Black-red tendrils were creeping and shifting along its edges, blurring her surroundings until it felt like she was seeing the world through unfocused binoculars.

She just wandered in a daze with Fluttershy and hoped, hoped with all her heart, that they would soon get out of the forest. Moonglint was still out there somewhere, and she was still fit for combat. If she showed up now, Twilight did not know what to do.

”Just a little longer, Twilight, just a little longer,” Fluttershy said with certainty. ”I’m sure Pinkie will have a great party ready for us when we get home. With red balloons and punch for both of us and our friends. Then Celestia will catch Moonglint. We know where she is hiding now. We will get her, Twilight. You’ll see. We’ll get her and all will be well.”

Fluttershy continued to whisper sweet, silly little things to her. Twilight did not know how long they went on like that, but it did make her feel just a little bit better.

Fluttershy suddenly tensed up, ears lifted and searching. ”Somepony’s coming. And they are not alone,” she whispered. Twilight followed slackly when Fluttershy pulled her into a nearby bush. Before long, even she could hear hoof steps approaching from further down the game trail they had been following.

”Is there somepony here, girl?” a mare’s voice asked quietly. A wolf growled. ”Is there? Where?”

Twilight willed magic into her horn, though it felt like somepony was trying to drill into her skull. With a groan of exertion she felt the light around her and bent it away. If no light reached them, they could not be seen. She slumped to the side, but Fluttershy held her up. One moment later, the village mayor, Evermoon, peeked through the bush, a torch in her mouth and a hunting knife in a scabbard on her leg. She was looking right at them, mere hooves away.

”I could have sworn I heard something,” the mayor said and looked towards her wolf. ”And you did too, right?”

The wolf barked.

Twilight forced her mouth to stay shut and prayed to Celestia that the mayor and her wolf would leave. She could not keep up the spell for much longer, and once she dropped it they would be seen.

”Weird…” the mayor shrugged and retreated. The wolf stayed, however. It growled lowly and sniffed. ”You coming, girl? There is nothing there.”

The wolf stepped forward and promptly fell over Twilight. It gave a confused sound, jumped out of the bush and barked. The mayor came back. ”What’s gotten into you? Leave that bush alone already and- hey, gimme that!”

The wolf snatched the mayor’s torch and threw it into the bush. Fluttershy pulled Twilight with her and threw herself to the side, but not before Twilight had her coat singed. Her magic waned for a moment. The mayor’s eyes visibly dilated when she saw Twilight suddenly flicker into existence, laying in Fluttershy’s lap.

The two parties stared at one another. ”You’re here? SHE’S HERE!” The mayor screamed. ”EVERYPONY COME!” The wolf at her side joined in her call, howling loud enough to cause Twilight to flinch back and cover her ears. Then she was on Fluttershy’s back, dashing through the woods.

Twilight gasped and coughed. Her breathing came shallow. She had never tested the limit of her magical regeneration, obviously, but it did not seem like she could regenerate blood like she could heal wounds. In fact, the more she exerted herself, the worse her condition seemed to become. Her already narrow field of vision pulsed and shrunk until it was like she was running through a long tunnel with only a pinprick of light at the end. The Applejacks in her head seemed to have broken out a battering ram. Every one Fluttershy’s hoofbeats on the ground sent shockwaves up into her chest. Her heart beat as if to escape her ribcage, each pulse diminishing her vision yet a little more.

”Got you!” Somepony shouted ahead of them. It was a stallion. ”Sic ’em, Gray Mist!” An angry snarl followed. Twilight could not see, but she willed magic in her horn nonetheless, though the headache made her grimace. The snarls changed into a confused whinny as Twilight levitated the entire wolf up and threw it back into the woods. Fluttershy had not stopped or even slowed down. She was running as fast as she could. Twilight felt her hop sideways to avoid the villager.

Sluggishly, Twilight turned her head forward. She could hardly see anything, but what little she could see filled her with hope!

The trees looked thinner up ahead! They could make it! They were going to make it! She and Fluttershy ran for the forest edge! Past it!

Fluttershy squeaked and backpedaled, trying to stop herself. She was still carried forward by her momentum, but she did stop with flailing hooves and fluttering wings mere hooflegnths from the vertical drop of the Scar.

Where there once had been a bridge, there was now nothing but a charred, blackened bridgehead.

”N-no…! Not like this…” Fluttershy peeped and looked around as if a new bridge was going to materialize out of thin air. ”This is not… not fair,” she peeped lamely.

”If you know your prey only have one means of escape, the hunt gets a lot easier. Cut off the escape route, and you have yourself a neat little trap.” Filled with dread, Twilight and Fluttershy turned back to look into the black forest.

Without a sound, Moonglint landed just in front of her. Her black coat made her blend perfectly with the dark forest behind her. Twilight could not see where she began and the forest stopped. She just saw the blazing eyes, glittering like gilded dagger points in front of her, and a muzzle drenched in blood. Slowly the canine shape stalked closer, licking her spike-like teeth. Behind her followed many ponies and just as many wolves, some with torches, others with bows nocked and ready.

”NO!” Fluttershy screamed. The otherwise so anxious pegasus dropped Twilight placed herself in front of her, wings spread. Moonglint quickly averted her eyes, evidently still wary of the Stare. Fluttershy’s legs were shaking and her wings were twitching as if to take off, but she stood her ground. Twilight knew every fiber of her told Fluttershy to fly away, but she did not. Fluttershy stood firm in front of Twilight. ”You are not getting her! Not Twilight!”

”Fluttershy…” Twilight mumbled weakly.

”Stand down, pegasus,” Moonglint growled, though she did not look at Fluttershy directly. ”Before I lose my patience.”

Fluttershy quivered and hiccuped, tears falling from her eyes. She did not move.

Moonglint snarled. The wolves around the forest started to move closer. Fluttershy’s talent kicked in. Though barely a sound was made by the wolves and Moonglint, the message was all too clear. ”Stand aside, or you will be killed and eaten.”

”N-n-no animal will hurt me,” Fluttershy whispered. She looked around at the wolves. ”You won’t. I know you wont.”

”And me?” Moonglint asked and stalked closer and bent forward. Fluttershy could smell her, a powerful, somewhat metallic scent of bloodlust and hunger that sparked instant terror in any pony. The reaction was a heritage from an ancient past, when all pony tribes had to fear the predators of the forests. ”Are you sure I won’t hurt you?” She whispered, barely more than a breath in Fluttershy’s ear. ”Are you sure I won’t rip you to shreds, here and now?” Fluttershy felt the dagger-like nails press against her soft belly.

Fluttershy was proud her heart had not stopped from fear at this point. Her voice did not carry. She just nodded frantically. Moonglint retreated slightly. ”Well, I suppose you are right. There is something else I want you to do. Now out of my way!”

Twilight was glad she did not see, but hearing how Moonglint’s paw struck Fluttershy and sent her tumbling away was horrible enough. She felt herself being lifted. She kicked and bucked as best she could, but she doubted Moonglint even noticed.

”You, pegasus! You are going to give Celestia a message from me: If she wants Twilight back, she will have to give me somepony in exchange!”

”Y-you… won’t get Twilight,” Fluttershy whispered. ”I won’t let you!” Her last words were marked with despair. And around the gathered ponies, many voices answered her plea.

With a guttural roar, a large bear rushed out of the forest, straight through the loose semicircle of ponies and slapped Moonglint away as easy as it would have knocked away one of Rarity’s dress forms. It placed itself in front of Fluttershy and the now unconscious Twilight and roared at the ponies around it, though not that many were looking at it; they were all busy defending themselves against the onslaught of deer and foxes and boars that rushed in after the bear.

”Don’t you dare!” Moonglint snarled angrily. ”I am the alpha in this forest, and I won’t take you opposing me!” With that, she leaped forward with her paws lifted to swipe with her razor-sharp nails. The bear roared back, just as angry as Moonglint over such an insolent challenge.

Fluttershy looked around herself, scared out of her wits. So much blood! So much violence! All around her was a swirling melee where forest animals bit and gored and kicked their opponents. The wolves remained loyal to their hunters and were napping and bogging down any animal that got separated. They were a pack, and they fought like one too. Their masters, the hunters from the village were not much worse, supporting their wolves and friends with arrows and torches whenever they could. Whinnies of agony blended with angry snarls and howls as well as grunts and cheers from the ponies.

But the animals were many; more and more were rushing out of the forest! Even a moose came charging in with its large horns bent down.

A sickening crunch brought Fluttershy’s attention away from the bloodbath around her, back to the side where Moonglint had been sent. Fluttershy backpedalled in horror from the sight. Moonglint had caught the bear’s throat in her jaws and broken its neck. She spat out the lifeless carcass and leaped away into the fray with a carnal howl, her muzzle and paws bloody and glistering. She grabbed the moose by its horns, stopping it dead in its charge and lurched its head violently, breaking the neck like a twig. Many animals moved to attack her, and the forest around her became a bloodbath.

”STOOOOP! PLEASE!” Fluttershy screamed. She could not take it anymore. It was just too horrible to see! She could not stand to watch this anymore!

”Call them off of us!” Mayor Evermoon shouted back to through the hunting knife she held in her mouth. ”We won’t back down another inch, even if the whole forest is coming at us! Moonglint has helped our village prosper for generations! We won’t abandon her now!” She called the last part as some sort of battle cry. The ponies around her shouted in approval.

”Yea, for Moonglint!”

”Come on lads! They’re just animals!”

”Yea! We eat these runts for breakfast!”

”Come on! Let’s show 'em what species is dominating in this forest!”

”I want a new pair of leather boots!”

”Nonono! Just stop! Please!” Sniffling and half blind with tears Fluttershy leaped forward to try and hold back a hunter’s hoof as he prepared to let an arrow fly. She did not get all the way to him before she herself was tackled to the ground by Mayor Evermoon. They wrestled only momentarily until Evermoon’s earth pony strength allowed her to pin Fluttershy down. She held the knife just hooflengths from Fluttershy’s face.

”GET BACK, ANIMALS! GET BACK NOW!” she barked loudly.

Slowly the melee stopped. All the animals looked at Fluttershy, and all the hunters looked back warily on their opponents. Moonglint stood on a minor pile of dead and dying challengers, licking her paws clean. She eyed Evermoon approvingly.

”Get back to where you came from!” Evermoon shouted. ”Leave us!”

”I promise I will let Fluttershy leave!” Moonglint filled in. ”She leaves! And nopony or beast more has to die!”

Evermoon’s hoof on her skull stifled any protest Fluttershy might have had, not that she was sure she could bear to watch any more of this.

The animals waited, watching Moonglint warily.

”I’m honest! We’ll retreat and leave her here!” the she-beast shouted. ”Get Twilight, the purple one,” she added to her loyal ponies, who hurried to obey.

Fluttershy fought against Evermoon's hoof, but she had no power left. The fight with Moonglint at her hideaway, the desperate escape through the forest and this carnage had left her both physically and emotionally drained. She fell into a stupor, not asleep but neither awake. She was vaguely aware that the villagers and Twilight disappeared into the woods and she understood that a very large spider eventually helped her across the Scar.

She heard two familiar bat ponies shouting around her, and then there was nothing more.

*****

Celestia sighed and hesitated before the plain wooden door. She did not want to do this. It went against all she believed in as a princess, against virtually everything she did every day to keep her ponies and her realm safe. She felt her sister's hoof on her shoulder.

”I understand your sentiment, sister,” Luna said. ”I never thought we would be back here so soon either. However, for the sake of Twilight Sparkle, this is something that needs to be done.”

”That does not make this any more pleasant. And what will Cadance think? How can she find peace with this, even if it is for Twilight’s sake?”

”I don’t know, sister,” Luna said. ”But I know that she would go through with this too, just as we are.”

”Princesses?” One of the ten or so guards around her asked. ”Is something wrong?”

Celestia sighed again and put her hoof to the door. It opened on silent hinges, baring a small room. There was a bunk for sleeping, a desk and a barred window, that was it. Inside there was one single pony, sitting on his haunches with his head dipped low, as if he had fallen asleep. He wore a thick wool robe with a hood and long ribbons hanging from around his head and chest, each one ending in a sharp metal spike. The thick garment looked like it would be very hot in his small room. His face was bent down, but Celestia still saw the mask over the pony’s face. The plague-doctor’s beak was unmistakable.

”He is meditating, princess,” the guard explained. ”I dunno why this guy is imprisoned here, but he’s been a real exemplar prisoner. He never complains about curfews nor does he get violent. Somewhat weird though; he meditates like that for hours every day and well into the night. I swear, if the prison somehow collapsed around him, he would not even get up to run.”

”And when he is not meditating, what is he doing then?” Luna asked.

”He is doing whatever ponies are doing to pass their time,” the robed pony answered. His voice was upbeat and perky. ”Reading the newspaper if the guards are kind enough to give it to him, talking with whoever would spend some time with him. Maybe play a game of chess or cards. He is not thinking of the screaming agony of a thousand murdered souls, or whatever you were thinking.”

”Golden Heart,” Celestia said disdainfully.

”The goldiest,” the pony replied and stood up. He met Celestia’s gaze.

”Come with us,” Luna said shortly.

”After such a kind request I can’t really refuse,” Golden Heart said sarcastically and went out behind the princesses, the battalion of guards forming a circle around him. ”So what gets me the honor of a royal escort?” Nopony answered him. Golden Heart sighed. ”If you’re gonna be this dull I might as well have stayed in the cell.”

The dozen or so ponies went down a winding staircase until they came to a seemingly simple door. They went out and were greeted with what seemed to be an endless plain. As far as the eye could see there was nothing around but a flat field of grass swaying in the wind. Celestia knew the endless field continued for many hours of swift flight still. That’s why she put Golden Heart in this prison; it was near impossible to find and Cerberus had already failed once with disastrous results.

Still, it had not helped. In the end, it was she who let Golden Heart out. The very thought made her stomach turn. She and Luna took their places in the chariot that had brought them. After some hesitation, Golden Heart climbed up with them, though he sat as far away from them as he could. ”Are you going to tell me where we are going?” he asked as the chariot lifted, pulled by the guards.

”Thou art to be exchanged for our beloved princess Twilight Sparkle, whose health and vigor is of greater importance than thine incarceration,” Luna said without looking at Golden Heart. ”Our journey’s end shalt lie at the Ulvenweald.”

”The Weald huh?” Golden Heart mumbled. ”I understand.”

The three ponies crossed most of Equestria in less than a day, thanks to the great stamina of the guards. Not another word was spoken between the three chariot occupants. Instead reigned a chill between them that would make even a Windigo freeze. All of them sat and stared at in different directions, immersed in their own thoughts.

”Princesses, Hollow Canopy is below us,” a guard suddenly said, snapping the three ponies back to reality.

”Very well, lower us down,” Celestia said. For the first time, she saw Golden Heart fold back his hood and remove his mask to polish it slightly with the sleeve of his robe. His coat was pleasantly blue.

A small crowd of bat-ponies met them when the chariot landed. It was early evening, so most of the town was still asleep. Two of them bowed respectfully to Celestia and practically pressed themselves flat against the ground before Luna. ”Revered Princess of the Night, we bid you welcome to this little corner of your realm. My name is Waxing Moon and this is my sister, Waning Moon. We helped guide the princess to the Ulvenweald entrance, and we humbly offer to guide you as well.”

”That is good, Waxing, Waning,” Luna said. ”Let us embark. Guards, circle formation. Should the prisoner attempt an escape, thou art allowed to use any means to secure him.”

”After command,” the guards said and formed a circle around Golden Heart, who put his mask on again.

”Be on your guard,” Celestia said. ”Our opponents are not to be trusted.”

*****

Moonglint was bleeding. She had bit her lip so hard as to actually draw blood. Again. It was the tenth time that had happened in just a few days. She fell back on her haunches and dug out a small, carved jar with faintly yellow salve that smelt strongly of honeysuckle. She dabbed her hoof in it and gently smeared it over her lips. Once done she looked up towards the sun. It was almost time.

She rose again and turned back to the clearing where she had made her temporary home, as her hideout was currently infested with bloodsucking plants that would reduce anything that came near to a mummy.

In the middle of the clearing stood what few concoctions she had been able to brew with the items found in the village. More interesting that that though, was not in the middle of the clearing but in a tree at the side. There hung Twilight Sparkle, upside down and unconscious with a singe vine of Leechleaves wrapped around her barrel, her horn a few hooflength above the ground. The vine was visibly swollen. While they grew impossibly fast if given free reign, they could easily be controlled if potted, like this one was.

”That’s all I’m going to get, I guess,” Moonglint mumbled went up to the cauldron she had burrowed from the village. Using the ladle that hung from its edge she scooped up a generous amount of clear, viscous liquid. Carefully she went closer to Twilight and swiftly dumped the ladle’s content in the pot, whereupon the vine loosened its grip on Twilight and fell slack to the ground. She then removed the roots and pot, picked up the dead vine and threw it into a jar where similar red, swollen stems already laid. She then covered the jar with a piece of cloth. She did not want the alicorn to know she kept the vines. Twilight came about just as Moonglint turned around again.

”I’m going to let you down now,” Moonglint said, chewing on her lip again. ”My villagers have been working to build a new bridge. We are to meet the pretender princesses there in an hour. Don’t you dare to try any tricks. I still have enough potions to make you regret it.” That was a lie, but she hoped Twilight would not notice, being more dead than alive. Moonglint tried to appear unconcerned when she went around Twilight to cut the ropes that held her up.

She heard Twilight hit the ground behind her. She was still bound by the wings and had heavy ropes around her hooves, linking all four legs together. Other than that, Moonglint counted on the blood loss and her experimental anti-magical potions to prevent the alicorn from escaping.

And an escort, of course. Mayor Evermoon and another pony were already picking Twilight up. ”Should we go, ma’m?” The mayor asked.

”Any news from the bridge?” Moonglint asked worriedly.

”Nothing to report. Most of the village is keeping watch around it, and they are sending their companions to us every twentieth minute. Nothing so far.”

Moonglint nodded. ”Okay, just give me a moment and we’ll get going.”

Moonglint turned to the one small packet she had managed to save from her infested hideout. Using her beast-shape, she had been able to get in, grab her stuff and get out without dying a hideous death. A risk of course, but one she gladly took.

All she believed in was in that packet.

A dark steel mask. Hers had been modeled after her face while in beast-form, but made to fit her as a pony. That mask was her identity, the one wordily belonging that boldly proclaimed for all to see her allegiance to King Sombra, the Shadow Monarch. Other than that, she put on her practical gatherer gear. Heavy leather boots for traversing rocky ground, a pair of new saddlebags and some straps around her right front leg, holding a sickle, a knife, flint and steel and a vial, currently filled with colored water.

”Let’s get moving,” she said. ”Keep your eyes peeled. Our enemy is not to be trusted.”

*****

”There you are, finally!” Fluttershy said the moment the two princesses came out of the woods and to their side of the bridge. She had been waiting there for the last nights, ever since she had recovered well enough to leave the bat-pony town, hoping to catch a glimpse of Twilight. No such luck had come, but she did get to see how the villagers rebuilt their bridge and placed a few guards around a temporary campsite at their side of it. ”Do you have him? Who is it Moonglint wants so much?”

”That would be me,” Somepony said from within his circle of guards. ”I would come and greet you like a civilized pony, but I don’t think these fine fellows will allow that.”

Fluttershy went up to the guards. ”Can I meet him? I want to see who he is.”

The guards looked questioningly to Celestia, who nodded. The guards stood aside.

Fluttershy reeled slightly from the plague-doctor mask, but swallowed her apprehension and went up to the alien pony.

He had kind eyes. Pleasant amber. He shook her outstretched hoof vigorously. ”Golden Heart’s the name. Doctor, founder and only student of the magical arts of bacteriomancy, viromancy and fungamancy, at your service.”

”It was you who Twilight stopped in the Crystal Empire, wasn’t it?” Fluttershy asked. ”Is that’s why Moonglint caught my friend? To get you out?”

”Maybe,” Golden Heart said. ”I’ll be sure to ask her.”

”Twilight!”

Both Fluttershy and Golden Heart turned around towards the Scar.

Moonglint stood at the other side, leading a seemingly exhausted Twilight in a rope. Celestia took a step forward.

”Stand back!” Moonglint shouted. ”Only the prisoners cross the bridge! If any of you try anything I’ll have you filled with arrows!”

”Thank’s for your concern,” Golden Heart mumbled. ”By all means, make the alicorns angry while I’m still their prisoner.”

”We have brought who you asked for,” Celestia said. Her tone was cold and hard. ”We will send Golden Heart over and you will send Twilight. The moment you try something the deal is off.”

”I could say the same!” Moonglint called back.

Golden Heart and Twilight stood up at either side of the bridge, and slowly started walking across, observed in deathly, anxious silence by both sides. They met at the middle of the bridge. ”Fancy meeting you again, eh?” Golden Heart mumbled lightly. He altered his steps ever so slightly to make sure his long robes momentarily brushed over Twilight’s side.

”Twilight! Are you hurt! What have they done to you!” Fluttershy was hugging Twilight the moment she had left the bridge, nuzzling her and wrapping her wings around her friend. Celestia too looked at her student with concern. Twilight must have been drugged or something.

A twitch in the magic around her caused Celestia to look away from her student and over the Scar. Luna did the same, spreading her wings.

”Never felt better!” Golden Heart said and willed magic into his horn, making it glow in a pleasant orange aura.

”Great, now follow me,” Moonglint said with a worried look at Celestia and Luna. ”Let’s get out of here before this goes wrong. The rest of you, keep watch here, and if anypony tries to make it over the bridge, burn it! And send a messenger to me immediately.”

Golden Heart and Moonglint took off into the Weald.

”Shalt we follow, dear sister?” Luna asked. ”Tis not an honorable thing to do, but for the sake of our subjects we oughtest pursue them, would thou not agree?”

Celestia slowly shook her head. ”Not on their home ground, without any backup and with Twilight possibly ill. You saw how Golden Heart made sure his garments touched her? We cannot be sure he did not do something to her.”

”We… I presume you are right,” Luna said, glaring into the woods. ”So it would seem Sombra has equalized in our struggle. Both parties are back to square one.”

”Not quite, my sister,” Celestia pointed out. ”Much of their strength comes from their anonymity. We did not know what we were fighting. But every time we meet one of Sombra’s followers, we learn more. I know things look bleak now, but soon we will have the upper hoof again. With the Twilight and her friends, Equestria have stood against horrible foes and prevailed every time. I know we will this time too.”

Author's Note

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