POV:???-First Person

Crashing through the forest, I beat branches and outreaching bushes away with my shillelagh, my fear for the panicked young voices lending wings to my feet. After leaping over a root and sliding under a fallen log, another howl cuts viciously through the air. To make matters worse, the sun had begun to set, casting the forest in deeper darkness.

"By all that is Holy, let me not be too late." I mutter to myself again and again as the howls and screaming grow louder and louder.

As the screaming and howling grows to its loudest point, I burst into a clearing and bear witness to a grim scene: The timberwolves, a whole pack, are gathered around a tree frantically scrabbling at the smooth bark, snapping at whatever was concealed in the branches. The source of the screaming now revealed to be three little fillies, backs pressed up against the trunk of the tree and perched on one of the lowest branches. One of the fillies, the one with a bright white coat, now dirtied by tree sap, seemed to be unconscious, and the one with the red bow perched crookedly on her frazzled mane looked to be injured, with a gash on its flank. Timberwolf sap is dangerous if it got into wounds, and it looks like the young filly got either clawed or bit by one of them. Taking stock of the situation I weighed my options, I could fight the wolves, but that would be a risky endeavor that might result in injury for me, and I only had enough Barkbile potion for a single dose. I could use my powers... but that would scare the fillies, and if I did save them they would run away screaming, and I would have to move again...

I sigh in resignation, "Guess I'll have to be ready to move again, a shame...I was starting to really like this forest." I think to myself as I shove my hand into my pocket, and slip on the ring.

As soon as the ring settles on my finger, the familiar surge of power erupts from deep within me. My cloak begins to flutter in a non-existent breeze, my eyes burn with emerald fire, whisps of bright green flame flickering out from the corners of my eyes. With my hood up, my face is in shadow, with naught but my eyes that burn with an unnatural flame. I raise my gloved hand, fingertips alight with emerald flame.

"Leave this forest, this is a fight you cannot win." I state with a soft voice, its menacing undertones rippling underneath the surface promising doom and despair.

My voice is bolstered by the power of the Ring, deepening and darkening its tones and timbre. Like a rolling thunder, it rumbles across the clearing, punctuated by the sound of a flock of birds taking flight in fear of my voice. With each word the sky darkens faster, and shadow gathers around me, adorning me in a cloak of midnight. I take a step forward, and that is all the timberwolves need before they flee, yipping and whining in deep mortal fear into the forest.

With a sigh I remove the ring; the shadows dissipate, and the moon shines a beam light down into the clearing, the tension and fear of before fades away like a dream. I remove my hood as I look up to the two fillies, wide eyed and open mouthed, staring in awe at what had just transpired. Hoping for the best, I gave them my most winning smile, and spoke to the first ponies I had ever spoken to in millennia.

POV: Cutie Mark Crusaders-Third Person(a minute or so before)

The howls where getting closer, the pack of glowing eyes getting ever closer through the darkness. The three little crusaders ran, fleeing for their lives. As they blindly ran through the bushes, panting and gasping desperately for air, they stumble into a clearing, with a singular tree in the center.

"What now girls!? They're right behind us!" yelled Applebloom, collapsed on the ground in exhaustion.

"I dont know, I dont know! Where do we go!?" squeaked out Scootaloo, her normally boyish voice now replaced with a panicked squeaking.

"There, the tree! We can hide from them there!" exclaimed Sweetiebelle, pointing her hoof to the tree in question.

As the three girls approached the tree in question(who's name was Gerald), one problem made itself quite apparent; the lowermost branches were well out of their reach.

"Aw fiddlesticks, we can't reach!" Applebloom moaned, trying to jump up to the lowermost branch in vain.

"wait, I got an idea. Hope this works." said Sweetiebelle.

With that the little filly drew up on her meager reserves of magic, and used the one spell she knew; levitation. She strained her magic to the limit and with a light blue hue about her friends and herself, she slowly lifted them up to the lowest branch. As soon as they had touched down on the branch, Sweetiebelle's horn sparked and fizzled, signalling the magical backlash that knocked her out senseless.

"Sweetiebelle!" her friends shouted out, fearing for her wellbeing.

They had little time to say much more, however, as the timberwolf pack burst into the clearing. After a moment of looking around they spotted the trio up in the tree, and proceeded to try and climb up after them. Fortunately for the fillies, Gerald prided on his silky smooth bark, which now confounded the efforts of the wolves. Much to Gerald's displeasure these ruffians were marking up his beautiful bark and he wished that they would just go away. His prayers where answered in the form of a cloaked figure, upright and bipedal, bursting into the clearing from the opposite end.

A pregnant pause settles on the clearing, all eyes staring uncertainly at the newcomer to this precarious situation. The stranger looks to the fillies, then to the timberwolves. After a moment of silence, the stranger seemed to slouch, its expression unreadable under its deep hood. Then, without hesitation, it puts a hand into a pocket on its side, grasping something within. Suddenly, there is a shift in the clearing as the sky darkens considerably, shadows lengthen, and seem to converge to the strange figure, cloaking it in darkness, from the dim recesses of its hood burst forth a pair of fiery eyes with burning emerald flames.

At this point in time both the fillies and the timberwolves are both equally fearful of this hellish creature, spewing forth emerald flames from both its supposed "face" and its fingertips, and along the hem of its cloak. To add to this already horrifying apparition, it raises a hand enshrined with flame, and from the depths of its hooded cloak booms forth a voice; rich and guttural, its tongue like the crack and boom of rolling thunder as the very earth shuddered at its words;

"Deparav avhiuk foreukav, avhiuk iuk noav ij fighav lat saib accompliukh!" Thundered the creature, though unable to understand, they all knew its meaning well enough; "Leave, flee, fly you fools! Lest ye be dragged screaming into the dark..."

Without a second's hesitation, the timberwolves ran, they ran as if all of Tartarus chased after them. Silence once again reigned over the clearing. The fillies, frozen in abject terror, stare in awe and amazement of their terrifying savior. After a moment or so, the shadows fade and moonlight filters through the trees into the clearing, with a blink the two ponies realized that the stranger had removed a glowing green ring of some sort, and now looked as it did when it first entered the clearing. To the girls surprise, the stranger then pulled back its hood, revealing a strange creature with a shock of black hair on its head, a furless face with a small nose, and its eyes, green like the most beautiful emerald gems, yet they glowed with a warm and comforting light, it kind of reminded them of Celestia.

"Hello little ones, are you alright?" a stallions voice cuts through the tense silence, and it takes a minute for the fillies to realize that the creature had spoken.

"W-what?" stammered Scootaloo, her teeth chattering a rapid tempo.

"I said, are you alright? Your friend seems to be unconscious, magic backlash I believe, and your other friend seems to have been clawed by a timberwolf." replied the stranger, his voice calming and comforting. "I have Barkbile potion to treat her wounds, and your unicorn friend needs rest if she is to recover. My home is not far from here, I can treat you to some vegetable soup if your feeling hungry."

"What are you?" Applebloom asks, finally finding her voice.

"Me? Well, I guess I am a Human, though not in the traditional sense. Do you need any help getting down from there?" as he spoke, the stranger had walked up to the trunk, and now his height was made apparent as his head was level with the branch that the fillies had taken refuge in.

"Um, I think we might need some help," said Scootaloo while rubbing the back of her head sheepishly, "we didn't really have a plan on how we were gonna get down."

"In that case, allow me to assist."

And with that, the stranger gently plucked Scootaloo from the tree branch, and softly set her down on the forest floor. She was then soon joined by Applebloom and a comatose Sweetiebelle. Brushing off his hands, the mysterious savior turned to his satchel at his side and fished around, the clinking of glasses and rustling items unknown filling the air, until with a triumphant "aha!" he whipped out a small glass vial of swirling forest green and earthen brown liquid.

"Here we are; one vial of Barkbile." he then presented the vial to Applebloom, "please drink all of this while I look in my bag for some bandages."

"Isn't this gonna taste yucky? Mah sis once fed me some medicine and it tasted awful." asked Applebloom while staring curiously at the slowly swirling colors.

"Ah, I thought you might ask that, to be honest," the stranger pauses in his search to lean down and whisper to the filly, "I don't like medicine too, thats why I put in a little sugar to sweeten it. As a certain someone used to say; 'a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down.'"

Grimacing in preparation, Applebloom brings the bottle to her lips and gulps down the potion. Her eyes widen in realization of the silky sweet taste that spreads across her mouth. With a smile she swallows the potion and sighs, smacking her lips in appreciation.

"See? It wasn't yucky at all" said the stranger with a wink, "now if you would hold still little one, Im going to bandage up your cut, then we can head over to my home for some soup."

Kneeling next to the filly, the strangers gloved hands expertly and efficiently clean and bandage the nasty gash in Applebloom's side. After the deed was done, it sat back on its hands and let out a sigh, taking a moment to think. As the stranger contemplated, Applebloom look to her flank, and observed the red stain as it spread slowly out across the white strips of the bandage.

"Huh, Ah didn't notice I got cut, weird." she murmured,

"Thats understandable, you were under alot of stress, the three of you." interjected the stranger, now standing up brushing off his pants, "now, off we go, since two of you are unable to walk properly, Im going to have to ask you if I can carry you all to my home." he said as he looked to each filly in kind.

"But I can walk, Im fine. What do you mean 'all of us'?" asked Scootaloo, sitting next to the stranger's leg, looking up at him with wonder.

"Well, as you can see, little one; Im very tall, with very long legs. It would be very hard for you to keep up, so; I shall carry the three of you together." as he said this he straightens up to his full height, looming over the three fillies.

"Oh, I see."

With a clap of his hands, the stranger gently but firmly lifts up the three fillies in his arms, and without further ado, briskly walks off into the night. Each step taking the group to that quaint little hobbit hole house.

Author's Note

This one I made a little longer, don't know why I did it though. I'll try and make em as long as possible while keeping the story interesting.

Just a heads up: my writing style is similar to J R.R. Tolkien's, meaning, Im gonna be writing with detail to spare. Im gonna be stretching out this CMC arc for atleast another chapter...then we'll see where things go. Again, constructive comments are much needed, and don't hesitate to correct me on some things. My spelling is embarrassingly the worst part of my writing and theres only so much the auto-correct can do.

Hope I did an okay job with this chapter. 😉

Also: A TUPPENCE FOR THE FIRST ONE TO PICK UP ON MY REFERENCE!