To New Horizons

A loud repeating knock on wood slowly draws you from your drunken slumber. Carefully you roll over on the cool yet soft and fluffy material beneath you as you try to ignore the annoying sound. Though it remains persistent, each knock on the wooden material causes a shockwave of pain to ripple throughout your head. Reminding you why you hated getting drunk in the first place.

Soon the rhythmic knocks on wood turned into loud frantic bangs joined by what sounded like Starfire's voice. She yelled something that only came out muffled through what was most likely a door, which you were too hungover to pay much mind to. Knowing she won't stop until she breaks down your door, you let out a sigh and lazily open your eyes, briefly scanning the room around you.

Your vision was blurry, making the room nearly unrecognizable. But slowly you blink away the haze from your vision and get a proper view of the room. You were laying on your cloud bed in the guild hall, though it did look as though somepony went rummaging through your things. Most notably your sword wasn't where you’d usually leave it, nor was your armor and shield on the armor stand.

Feeling a familiar weight to yourself, you look down to see you're still wearing your armor, as bloodstained and dingy as it might be. But a crimson-stained bandage on your right hind leg catches your eye, reminding you to why you drank so much last night. With a sigh you slowly roll out of bed onto all three uninjured hooves and briefly try to put weight on the wounded one, only to yelp as pain shoots up your leg, forcing your hind leg back up against your body.

The frantic knocking continues as you slowly limp your way toward the door. “This better be good.” You whisper to yourself as you unlatch the door. “I already feel like death incarnate thanks to last night, and Star has to go and bang on my door at what?” You murmur to yourself before briefly looking out the window at the other side of the room, only to be greeted by an orange hazed sky.

“Morning?” You continue as you fling open the door to see a light yellow coated mare with green eyes and a light brown mane that has a dark brown stripe over her left eye. “Star you better have a damn good…” You start to chastise her, but stop once you notice the fear in her eyes.

“Sky… there are…. The Timberwolves are trashing the town.” She says between breaths, though her breathing starts to quicken as if whatever adrenaline she had used to get here was starting to fuel her anxiety. On top of that she wasn't wearing her armor, nor did she have her crossbow on her. “Then where’s Eclipse?” You ask simply, not knowing whether to take this as a well-executed prank or a serious situation.

“H-he’s waiting outside the guild hall door, he said…” Starfire was tried to explain between breaths before the loud crack of shattering wood directed both of your attention toward the guild hall door. Standing in the place of the once sturdy door was two very bloody Timberwolves, one of them growled in delight at the sight of two new prey.

The sight of what was in the second's teeth caused your stomach to fall into a pit, and Starfire to scream. In the jaws of the second timberwolf, was the bloodied corpse of a purple-maned, white coated stallion unicorn. Blood dripped from the stump where his left foreleg should have been as he dangled in the mouth of the timberwolf.

Though at the sight of you and Starfire, the timberwolf tossed Eclipses corpse off to the side of the room, where he landed on his back, giving you the full view of his dark blue eyes, once filled with joy and life. Now vacant and cold. The first timberwolf began its charge at the two of you, prompting you into action. “Bucking run!” You yell as you try to run out of your room and to the left towards the big window. Though you can really only manage a fast walk on three hooves.

You look over your shoulder as Starfire screams again. She stumbles to turn around to follow you. However, the Timberwolf wastes no time closing the distance on the poor mare, biting down on the mare's midsection with the loud crunch of bones and flesh. Crushing the mare's lungs, and turning her loud scream for help into a silent plea, as she makes eye contact with you.

The light, slowly fading from the young mare's eyes as blood begins to seep out of her muzzle. Briefly, she manages to raise her left forehoof out toward you before mouthing the words “Help...me.” as she weakly struggles against the Timberwolves maw, the second wolf at this point decided to join in the action and charges you.

Tears start to make their way down your face as you run for all your worth. The sound of the second timberwolves wooden paws on your guild hall floor only encouraging you to run faster, lest you meet the same gruesome fate as your friends. It only takes seconds for you to make it to the window, the world seemingly begins to blur around you, only to be filled with the horrific sounds of wooden paws on the guilds rug and the occasional slosh of tearing flesh behind you.

Without the slightest bit of hesitation, you dive through the window. Glass shattering all around you, cutting into your now unfurling wings. Briefly, you get a view of the small town of Ponyville, once a quiet hamlet in the shadow of Canterlot, now a burning pyre of the dead or dying. Packs of timberwolves patrolled the streets below, chasing ponies trying to flee their ravenous pursuers while some cottages and shops burned nearby.

This brief moment of freedom, however, was short-lived as the all too familiar feeling of jagged wood tore into your hind leg followed by an overwhelming pull that began dragging you down to the ground below. Against your will, you let out a blood-curdling scream as you quickly looked back to what was dragging you down.

The timberwolf that killed Eclipse was firmly clamped onto your leg, apparently, it made the dive after you, ensuring both of your demise as the ground quickly rose up to meet you. “See you two soon.” Is the last thing you think to yourself before your body impacts the ground with a loud thump.