As Time Passes by

Now, as Lyra and Colgate were going back to their new house from the major’s office, it was already evening and the warm summer air was wafting around them lazily.
The whole town of Ponyville was basking in a nearly unnatural golden glow as the shadows slowly grew longer and the ponies all around started leaving for home. The merchants were packing up their carts with the leftover goods and left the town square or just closed down their shops for the night.
The two unicorns were idly talking to each other, their mood higher than a few hours ago, greeting everypony on the way home.

“Well. This went rather good now.” Lyra commented, a small grin gracing her features. “Without that thing on our backs the whole ordeal was just a walk in the park.”

“Sheesh, Lyra. It was not that bad having it around. It was just bad luck that we couldn’t find the house because they changed its appearance while fixing it. Else we would’ve loaded it down there sooner and would’ve saved some time. But that’s not the matter now. We are done for today and I just can’t wait to get home and have a closer look at it.” The mint blue unicorn mare said wagging her tail a bit from side to side. She absentmindedly waved to some passerby ponies and giddily looked ahead to their destination.

Upon hearing Colgate’s retort, a sly grin crept up on Lyra’s face. “You like it.” The mint green mare stated, eyes slowly sliding to her teammate.

“Wha… Uh… Huh? Wha-what do you mean like it? I don’t like it. I’m just concerned, that’s all.” The unicorn mare tried defending herself, swiping a stray lock of blue hair out of her face.

“Reeeeaaaaally?” the mint green unicorn mare teased her teammate again, wiggling her eyebrows and nudging her in the side with her elbow. “Are you sure you don’t want to do… more?” she added, breathing the sentence in the blue mare’s ear like a whisper of the wind, eyes still wiggling.

Colgate’s fur on her neck was immediately standing on end, her ears shot straight up, her eyes widened, her back went stiff and a light pink blush was creeping its way on her face together with a shudder that was running down her spine. “Lyra!” the flustered mare hissed dangerously. “Stop that! You know I’m just concerned about it. And stop teasing me with something like this. You know I hate it when you do that.”

Lyra was taken aback a bit by the other mares harsh hissing for a moment, but regained her composure momentarily, cocking an eyebrow as she went back to just normally going beside her. “Then tell me my dear, why are you blushing?”

At first she didn’t notice it but her reply had caused her companion to stop in her tracks and stand there with her mouth slightly agape. When she finally saw that she was walking next to mild summer air, which company wasn’t unpleasant but not what her eyes thought to see, she halted herself and craned her neck to look over her shoulder. She saw how the expression on the face of the other mare changed ever so slightly but clearly, undergoing shock, awkwardness, bewilderment, a fleeting image of lust, panic and, as the cherry on top, rage; where it finally stuck. Colgate’s eyes drifted to the cause of her conflicting emotions ever so slowly and when they finally locked eyes she growled at her. “Lyra! I’ll get you for this one!”

The mint blue unicorn pounced on the other one to get to her and maybe strangle her just a teeny tiny bit, but her teammate saw it coming and made a head start down the road.

“You’ll have to catch me if you want to get me!” she gleefully yelled over her shoulder, etching the other mare on even more.

“Come back here and take it like a mare you chicken!” Colgate shouted after her, breaking into a mad sprint to chase the fellow unicorn mare.

“Make me!” the mint green mare shouted back between giggles and blew a raspberry at the other unicorn, dashing through the streets of Ponyville like her tail was on fire.

“I’ll get you! And when I do you’re so done for it!” the outraged unicorn yelled angrily as they passed some ponies on their way back home, each of them giving them a nod to say hello.

They chased each other through town for a while, Colgate’s raged look melting into one of joy eventually as they bolted past ponies, around houses and through side streets.

After what felt like an eternity but also much too short to both of them, Lyra skidded to a halt in front of a store labeled ‘Bon Bon’s Bonbons’, breathing heavily and falling on her stomach.
Tongue lolling out of her mouth Colgate arrived two seconds later and heaved a mighty breath before lightly punching the mare lying on the ground in the shoulder and flopping down on her belly too.
They both panted for a good while, lying absolutely still, whilst the fatigue of their long run caught up to them and they took in bigger amounts of air to get their muscles working a bit sooner.

“Lyra?” the blue mare asked, panting heavily with her tongue hanging out of her mouth and nearly on the ground.

“Yeah? … What … is it?” asked a just as worn out green mare, slowly rolling on her back.

“I miss things like this. Just running around, chasing each other like mad mares for no reason. It is so much fun and you forget everything around you.” She hummed dreamily, looking at her companion.

“Yeah. I miss those times too. Maybe we can get them a bit more now that we are assigned to watch over the princess’s student.” The other mare said in a hopeful tone, looking to the side and spotting the door of the shop they collapsed in front of. “Hey. You hungry? The store here is still open and I could use some sweets in me right now. Whadda ya say?” she asked, already getting back up on her hooves again.

“Well, why not. I could use something sweet right now. Bet our muscles would sing us the song of their ponies if we refused to get them a bit of energy back. And my tummy is making the rumblings anyways.” The mint blue unicorn replied, getting up too and beginning to walk over to the entrance slowly as not to upset her muscles any further.

The two mares huffed and puffed the short way to the door more than any pony not suffering a terrible form of asthma should, but smiled nonetheless, anticipating the sweets that soon would tingle their taste buds in oh such wonderful ways.

“Alright. Fight training and running are clearly different things. We should increase our running skills again.” Lyra panted, reaching for the door.

“Hey, we are unicorns. Our skills are more in magic than in bodily abilities.” Colgate retorted, walking into the shop as the other mare held the door open with her magic.

“Yeah, yeah. We still have to do something about it.” The mint green unicorn shot back playfully. “Your flank is getting pretty pudgy and I bet it’d jiggle nicely if I’d give it a little pat.” She underlined those words with a light swish of her tail on the other mare’s side while she walked up to the counter of the shop and knocked on a bell resting on top of it lightly.

“Hey! You know I met my family a few weeks ago and they practically shoved the cake down my throat.” The blue mare snapped back, ears laying down to the side of her head and her face taking on a light pink tinge. Trying to hide the tinge and the sourpuss expression she gained she started looking around in the shop and had a sudden interest in the goods displayed in the front windows.

“First. You know you loved every last slice and every crumb you could lick from the plate. And second, that jiggly mass on your flank is not just from your little get together with your family. I know what a sweet tooth you have and don’t even try denying it. I know of your secret stash. Nearly everypony knows. The scent is just too strong.” The mint green unicorn teased her teammate, snickering all the while.

The teased mare prepared a heavy retort but was cut short by the sound of hooves approaching from the back room. “This isn’t over just yet.” She hissed as she got next to Lyra again to make her order.

Through the back door came a cream colored earth pony mare with a curly purple and pink mane and tail and three bonbons with light blue wrapping, which had a yellow stripe in the middle, as cutie mark. She wore a big smile and greeted the two with a chipper tone. “Hello. This is Bon Bon’s Bonbons. I’m Bon Bon. What can I get you? Huh?”
The mare stopped in her tracks for a moment and she looked confused for a moment.

“Lyra? Is that you?” she asked excitedly, already sporting a bigger grin then before.

The mare in question, which stuck her tongue out at her companion, slowly turned around to face the mare on the other side of the counter and her face lit up too.

“Bonni! It’s you!” she shouted in recognition. “I never knew you moved to Ponyville! So that’s where you went to.”

“Yeah! I haven’t seen you in forever! How’s it going for you?” the earth pony mare replied happily trotting around the counter and wrapping the unicorn in a bear hug.

“Great! And how’s life treating you?” she asked once Bon Bon let go of her and faced her again.

“It’s really sweet!” the cream colored mare answered, giggling at her own pun.

“Oh buck! Bon Bon! That pun was so bad!” Lyra laughed and nudged her lightly.

“Huh? Um… Lyra? Care to explain that one to me?” asked a very confused Colgate.

“Oh right you don’t know each other.” The mint green unicorn noticed facehoofing lightly. “Silly me. Colgate this is Bon Bon an old friend of mine, Bon Bon this is Colgate a new friend of mine.” She continued, snickering quietly at the end.

“Your puns are not better than mine.” The cream colored mare said giggling. “Nice to meet you Colgate. I hope you two like our little town. But why did you move from Canterlot and here of all places. Not that it isn’t great here, but I’d imagine something like Trottingham or Manehatten would be something more your style.”

“Nah. We wanted to get away from the big cities and get to a place where we can relax. Ponyville seemed like the perfect solution. Not too far away to move here and it’s nice and quiet.” Lyra replied matter of factly.

“So you two were coming here to have some alone time.” Bon Bon said with a sly grin, eyebrows jumping up and down.

“Wha…? NO!” Colgate shouted her face turning beet red. “We’re just good friends and both needed to get away from Canterlot. And since we didn’t want to run bankrupt we decided that we’d move together. That way we were able to afford a house big enough for the both of us to live in and still get over the bumps at the start of the road. We’re not in a relationship.”

“Really? You were teasing each other just like a couple. But maybe it’s just me living here for so long. You know this is a town with a high percentage of mares and just the occasional stallion. And with some of the stallions being stallion-swingers more mares tend to be mare amorers since there are not nearly enough stallions, even with herds. Guess it’s just everyday life speaking here.” She sighed and rubbed her neck with one of her forehooves, a sheepish smile on her face. “Sorry for that.”

“Ah, don’t sweat it Bonni. You said it yourself. You lived here a long time. It’s nothing to be ashamed of to get accustomed to the situation you are facing every day. And now get us some sweets. My tummy is making the rumblings only your sweets can satisfy.” The mint green unicorn mare answered while locking the earth pony in a head lock and rubbing her hoof over her mane, making it all messy.

“Hey!” the mare protested with a flushed face. “Let me go and I’ll see what I can get you two. And you are very lucky that I’m closing the shop after you left for today or you’d be in for trouble right now Lyra.” she added growling lightly.

She escaped Lyra’s deathly head lock and went around the counter again, filling some sweets in two small bags and hoofing them over to her costumers before she went in front again.

“Hey, wait a second. We still have to pay these.” Colgate said to Bon Bon.

“No need to. Just see them as a welcome to Ponyville present from me and leave it at that.” The cream colored earth pony mare responded with a slight smile. “Speaking of welcome to Ponyville. I bet you already met Pinkie Pie. Am I right?”

“More like she met us. She just popped out of thin air, babbled on and on and disappeared again. This mare it crazy to the bone.” Lyra sighed, shoulders slumping slightly at the memory of the pink maelstrom of impossibilities.

“Oh good. What did she say to you when you arrived? Did she say that she had something planned?” Bon Bon asked curiosity clearly evident in her voice.

“Well, she said that she wanted to greet us after something she calls her ‘Pinkie Sense’ went off and blubbered something about a cake she was making and how good the sweets here are. Why are you asking?” Colgate summarized their encounter with the hyper pink pony.

“Oh just interested in how she greeted you two. She does that with everypony.” The earth pony mare replied with a hidden grin none of the other two mares were able to see. But now you have to go. I want to close the shop for the night. Maybe we can meet up later and talk some more. What do you think?”

“Great idea Bonni.” The mint green mare said in an instant. But she stopped for a second with a look of concentration on her face as if she was thinking hard on something. “Well, we have to settle in first and get everything in order. Do you mind if we meet up some time next week?”

“Sounds good. And since I have my shop to take care of how about Sunday? I’ll have the whole day free and we can spend it in the park if you want.” Bon Bon said excitedly clopping her front hooves together in anticipation.

“Then that’s settled. We’re meeting up in the park next Friday.” Lyra stated loudly, throwing her right front hoof in the air for a high hoof, which Bon Bon met enthusiastically.

“Have a nice evening you two!” The earth pony mare called after them when they were out of the door and a bit in the street, as she turned the sign of her shop from open to closed.

The two unicorn mares waved goodbye to Bon Bon and turned around again, each a candy cane in their mouths and the rest of their sweets stashed away in their saddlebags.
They were merrily licking away on the sugary goodness, the fatigue from earlier nearly gone, when Colgate remembered something.

“Oh horsefeathers! We completely forgot it!” she suddenly stated, turning her head to Lyra abruptly.

“Huh? What are you talking about?” the mare asked with the candy cane loosely hanging from the corner of her mouth like a cigar.

“The creature.” The mint blue unicorn hissed in a hushed tone. “We left it alone and the sleep spell will wear off soon. We have to get back. And no more distractions. We should have enough time, but I don’t want to take the risk.”

“Chillax filly. The spell will hold for another hour or so. When we go to our house now nothing will go wrong.” Lyra said completely calm as she moved her steps in the direction of their house.

A short time later they arrived at the building and the mint green mare unlocked the front door with the key.

“See? Just in time. Nothing to worry about.” She said to Colgate, walking in and tossing her saddlebag into a corner. “I’ll go check up on our ‘visitor’.” She informed her teammate and walked in the living room.

Relieved that they got there in time the mint blue unicorn mare lifted her saddlebag from her back with her magic, her horn shimmering a healthy blue, and put it away in a drawer that was standing in the hallway.

She just wanted to close the front door behind her as a loud shout rang through the house.

“Oh buck!”

Colgate cringed a bit at the sudden sound and was about to ask if everything was alright as Lyra called out again.

“Colgate! Come here! Fast! The creature! It’s gone!”

The head of the mint blue mare snapped to her right and she immediately took off into the living room.

“What?!” Colgate shouted eyes wide as saucers. “How is that possible? We had it out cold!”

“I don’t know! But the back door is open and it is not here anymore! We have to find it!” the green unicorn mare shouted back hectically and they both raced to the front entrance without a second thought.

“Wait!” the mint blue mare yelled after her companion, racing out of the house right behind her. “We can’t just run around in the town and search for an invisible creature frantically. We have to get it without anypony noticing and we have to make it quick. I’ll go left and you go right. We’ll meet up at the town hall as if we just enjoyed the scenery. Got it?” she added in a whisper once she was outside and next to the mint green unicorn.

“Got it. But what if we don’t find it? What are we going to do then?” Lyra asked, already jumping from one hoof to the other.

“Then we’re going to search out of town. And it shouldn’t be too hard to spot it because the invisibility should wear out riiiiiiight…Now.” Colgate said looking around the scenery, spotting nothing out of the ordinary.

“Alright.” The mint green mare said, after turning her own head back to her comrade. “Seems as if we have to search for it. Meet you at the town hall in a few.”

They nodded to each other and galloped off.

Half an hour later Colgate and Lyra met up at the town hall again, both with their hooves empty and a frown on their face.

“You didn’t, right?” the mint green unicorn mare asked the other mare in front of her while both were panting heavily.

“No. Searched high and low, but couldn’t find even the slightest clue. I think we have to spread our search. I don’t know what will happen if somepony found it.” The mint blue mare said, voicing the grim thought that haunted them both.

“Yeah. Me neither. This could get ugly if it were to run into somepony.” She shivered and added, “And I said we shouldn’t bring it with us in the first place, but you refused to listen to reason and now we have the salad. We have to find it before anypony sees it and it’s your fault!”

“Hey! I couldn’t know that would happen and I think after the reaction it had when we saw it, its highest interest lies in avoiding any more ponies for the next time. So it will hide somewhere. We’ll find it in time. I promise you.” The mint blue mare reacted defensively.

“Uhm…” came a barely audible whisper from a few steps away, but none of them noticed it.

“You and your caring sense. It always gets you into trouble. And now I’m in on it too. Just great.” Lyra moaned in desperation.

“Sorry…Uhm…Hello?”

“Don’t you scold me because I’ve got a caring heart and you just got a block of ice in its place and would let innocent creatures suffer. At least I can say that my hooves are clean. What about you?” Colgate shot back angrily.

“Could it be…that uhm…that you’re speaking of a…a creature walking on two…two legs that had some sort of…of clothing on?”

“Oh? You really think so? Well to your inf…” the mint green unicorn said but stopped. “What was that?!”

Both of them turned around and saw a butter yellow pegasus mare with flowing pink hair, which she was using as a curtain right now to shield herself from the stares of the two mares, and three butterflies with pink wings and light blue bodies as cutie mark. She was startled by the sudden attention she got from them and only whimpered in response.

“You…you saw a creature like that?” Colgate beamed.

“Where did you see it? Where did it go?” Lyra added eyes widening.

The questioned mare, instead of answering the demanded answer, hid behind her own hair some more and sunk to the ground and tried to desperately escape the stares of the mares in front of her.
Colgate noticed that behavior pretty easily, but it seemed as if Lyra was not getting it at all. So the mint blue mare held a hoof in front of her teammate’s chest and pushed her back gently.
The mint green unicorn looked at her in befuddlement but let her push her out of the way nevertheless.

The mint blue mare approached the now shivering and whimpering pegasus, slowly pulling her into a comforting hug. “Sssh. Ssssh. It’s all good. We’re not mad at you or anything. Just please tell us your name, where you saw the creature and where it went afterwards.” She said in a soothing tone, stroking the back of the pegasus mare gently.

A minute or two later the foreign mare calmed down enough to make a first attempt to speak.
“I’m Fl….” She mumbled inaudibly.

“Sorry. I couldn’t understand you. Could you repeat that please?” Colgate asked the mare, moving her ear near the muzzle of the mare to her the words she was speaking better.
Meanwhile Lyra was standing aside, fiddling with her hooves nervously. She was worried about what might happen with the creature on the loose but was also astonished by the job her teammate was doing on calming the butter yellow pegasus down.

“My name is Fluttershy.” The mare said just loud enough to be heard by Colgate faintly.

“Well hello Fluttershy.” She addressed the pegasus in an audible tone so Lyra could catch it too while she broke the hug, held the yellow mare by her shoulders and gave her a big smile. “My name is Colgate and the mare behind me is Lyra. We are pleased to meet you. We just moved here and the thing you saw was with us, but something or somepony scared it. Could you tell us where it went now?”

The other mare, seeing her smile and feeling a confidence boost spoke up; this time whoever it was audible enough for both of them to understand. “I saw it near my cottage. It looked in my window and ran away very fast. As I got out of my door it was at the edge of the Everfree Forest and running on in.” Her voice was shaky and she was nearly in tears and looked on the ground. “I wanted to stop it from going in there but the Everfree is such a scary and dangerous place. I was too afraid to follow it inside.”

As soon as the words ‘Everfree Forest’ left the mouth of the pegasus the eyes of both unicorns dilated and their breaths picked up. Every foal in Equestria knew that the Everfree Forest was a dangerous place. Nopony would willingly go in there, if it wasn’t necessary. The creature sure thought that a forest was a good hiding place seeing as it went into some foliage to hide in as the unicorns first saw it, but the Everfree was another thing. Some of the most dangerous animals in all of Equestria were lurking in the shadows of those trees and the magic there, if it existed was wild and chaotic.
The head of the mint blue unicorn mare whirled around so she was directly looking into the eyes of her companion. Her deep blue orbs were screaming in fear and determination. They were pleading her to go to the Everfree with her and rescue the strange creature. And even though Lyra could not deny that she wanted to get rid of the creature as fast as possible, she didn’t want to see any living being getting slaughtered in these woods. The thought alone of a being that was possibly sapient, was able to even speak their language, being ripped apart by fangs and claws of monsters or dying because of some poisonous plant in there made her stomach twist and grow cold.

After what felt like ages for them, but was actually only two or three seconds, Lyra’s eyes went from her shocked state to one of determination as the ones of her teammate and she nodded her head.

“Alright then. Let’s do this.” The mare said, her golden eyes nearly glowing.

A relieved smile spread across the face of the other unicorn and she turned to Fluttershy. “Thank you very much for your help Fluttershy, but we have to go now. Maybe it comes out of there again and we can bring it back home.” She said a grateful look in her eyes.
She stood up and together with Lyra they broke into a gallop down the road and to the Everfree Forest.

“Oh and before I forget it.” She yelled over her shoulder. “Please be so kind and tell Pinkie Pie that our party is delayed until we give her another date. Right now we can’t have that. And tell her we are very sorry but have to take care of something very important. Thank you!”

The pegasus mare was just sitting there until they were out of sight until she timidly replied. “O…ok. I’ll…I’ll do that. T…Take care.”

The two unicorns were racing like crazy to the Everfree Forest, their hearts beating so hard that one could fear they were to jump out of their chests, but they didn’t pay it any mind. It was far more important to find the creature and get it back if that was possible. And if that won’t work they could still teleport to the edge of the forest and run back into town.

After a few minutes of mindless running the two unicorn mares reached the edge of the Everfree Forest. They skidded to a halt right in front of it and took some deep breaths to get their cardio back in track.

“Hey… Lyra… Thanks… for being… with me… on… this… one.” The mint blue mare wheezed.

“No… No problem. Can’t… let any… creature… get… munched… down… in there… Right?” the other unicorn replied with a small grin.

They sat there for two more minutes catching their breath and already looking around the foliage before them for any sign of the creature. A minute in their recovery Lyra nudged the other unicorn mare in the side and pointed a hoof to their left, where some branches were snapped and grass trampled down.
The mint blue unicorn mare nodded her head and as soon as they were good to go again, they crossed the border into the forest, following the tracks the creature left in its wake.

A few minutes into the dark and gloomy woods the mares could make out somepony shouting in the distance. They couldn’t understand what was said, but they knew somepony was in danger.

They started running off in the direction the shouts came from and moments later they saw the source of the shouts. It wasn’t a pony but the creature; stumbling down over a rock while a big wolf made of thorns, branches, twigs and chunks of wood was jumping on top of it, sinking its claw in the creatures back. The skin broke easily and the glowing green eyes of the wolf were focused on the creature’s neck, ready to deliver the final killing blow by biting the neck and snapping it, breaking the spine and severing the nerve ends.

They saw that and a whole pack of the wolves already waiting for the one on top of the creature ending it so they could feast. The ponies were shocked for a moment before Lyra breathed out one word. “Timberwolves.”

And as if a spell was broken by that one little and simple word, Lyra and Colgate charged their horns and both hit the Timberwolf on top of the creature. It howled in pain as it was flung off of its victim, but the claw still in the back of the creature ripped a long gash down in its back before the wolf lost its hold and flew in front of its pack.

The other members of the pack were not pleased that something came to the aid of their lunch and prevented them from having any. They jumped forward and tried to get to their prey to kill it so they could just drag it deeper into the forest and wolf it down. Unfortunately for them the ones aiding their meal were not going to give up that easily and shot them with more beams of energy which flung them back again and again.

Soon enough the wolves saw that it was futile to just jump in and try to munch down on their prey, so they adapted and more of them run directly at the target at once, while others changed their way and charged for the ones shooting them instead.

“Watch out!” Colgate screamed over the magical assault they were delivering. “They are trying to attack us too. To your right!”

The mint green mare turned her head in the direction her teammate warned her about and shot the approaching Timberwolf dead in the center of its head.

Unfortunately the distraction the added attacks to the unicorns caused, forced them to cease their fire on the wolves that were approaching the creature.

Due to the ceased fire rate of the unicorns to protect the creature, one of the wolves got through and slashed it across the face.

But what then came surprised them and the wolves.

They just blasted back the last of the Timberwolves and were aiming for the one on top of the creature, when its front limbs shot out and its claws dug deep into the eyes of the wolf.

Time seemed to go by in slow motion for Lyra and Colgate as they saw how the creature they just desperately tried to safe, ripped out the eyes of the wolf on top of it. The wolf howled in pain and swung its paws around wildly, hoping to hit the creature. But nothing like that happened. The creature grabbed both swinging limbs and smashed them on the ground repetitively until they were completely useless.

Then the ponies could see the eyes of the creature and even though they knew nothing about it, they could swear that they saw anger in them. Pure rage even.
They were all standing there slack jawed, ponies and Timberwolves alike. Stunned by the display of brutality in front of them.

And then the creature moved its claws to the throat of the wolf on top of him, which was still howling in pain, grabbed hold of the throat of the animal and ripped it out in one swift motion, spilling the life juices of the wolf all over his upper body and face.

After the trickle of light green blood died down a little, the creature shoved the lifeless body of the Timberwolf off of it and slowly stood.

Facing the pack the creature turned its back to the two ponies and what they saw made them gasp in horror.
They had seen that the first Timberwolf had done some damage to its back, but couldn’t focus too much on it since they were trying to fend off the other ones.

The view given to them now was horrible to say the last.
The back of the creature had a long, deep gash across it, from the right shoulder to the left hip. The skin was torn and hung down slightly at the edges due to the rough surface of the Timberwolf’s claws. The gash itself was filled with a mix of blood, dirt and even some life juice of the wolf it felled just now. Some strands of fabric were also thrown in the mix as its shirt scraped over the wounds. And some of the bizarre mix was flowing down his back constantly.

The mares nearly vomited there and then, when they saw the damage, but were able to restrain themselves. They had to be at the ready if the Timberwolves tried anything again.

But to their surprise, and seemingly to the one of the wolves too, the creature took a step forward and the tails of the Timberwolves went between their legs.

Nothing had ever dared as much as to try to shove them away in order to be able to run from them, let alone attempted to kill one of them. But this creature in front of them, this creature which they thought of as a meal, this creature turned the tables and killed one of them. And they suddenly felt something they never felt, for they were always stronger than anything they hunted down. Fear. Fear for their lives. They looked at each other nervously, waiting for one of them to make a move, but none of them wanted to end like the lifeless pile of wood they once called a member of their pack.

Suddenly, and out of nowhere, the creature shouted loudly, taking a sudden step towards the wolves.

“Come on! Who’s next?!”

The wolves didn’t need any further proof that their hunt has gone horribly wrong as their former prey took a step to them and challenged them. They knew when they had to retreat and ran away immediately.

The two unicorn mares stood behind the creature, jaws lingering on the ground for a good while now.
Their eyes met each other and went back to the creature in front of them.
Nopony had ever taken on a Timberwolf and came out alive at the end. Being in the position it was in nonetheless. And then it killed, KILLED, the wolf just like that. Injured and all.

They were still staring at the creature in awe, when it slowly turned around to face them.

They quickly snapped out of it, picked their jaws up once more and gave the creature their full attention.

It looked at the mares, smiled a bit and, with something they could describe as mockery shimmering in its eyes, crossed its front limbs in front of its chest.

“You’re late.” It said. Just that. Nothing more.

It kept that stance a few moments, seeing as the jaws of the mares dropped so hard that it looked like they’d fall off any moment, and then, as if it was all it wanted to see, dropped to the ground, losing consciousness.

The mint blue unicorn lit her horn fast, before the creature could hit the forest floor and levitated it to them.

The face of it had a long slash across it but nothing too deep and it missed its eyes.
A pony would’ve been easily blinded by such a hit, but luckily for him his eyes were smaller than pony eyes.

“I… I… What was that? It just killed a Timberwolf!” The mint green unicorn mare stuttered out, eyes nearly bulging out of her head.

“I saw that Lyra. But we have to get out of here before the Timberwolves decide to look for us one more time. It scared them away, but we can’t risk being in here longer than necessary.” The other mare stated relatively calm, gesturing at the creature in her magical grasp. “We can worry about that kind of stuff later.”

“You… You are right. But I never saw something even coming close to surviving a Timberwolf attack, let alone killing one. That was amazing. And kind of unsettling if I might say so.” She replied, heaving a deep sigh.

“We can talk about everything later when we are out of this place and back home Lyra. You know that we have other things to do too and now we have to see how intelligent it is. You heard it speaks our language, at least a bit, so I assume we can talk to it when it wakes up. And on top of that we have to tend to its wounds to prevent infection. But now we have to go.”

The two unicorn mares set into motion, slowly getting out of the Everfree Forest, watching out for each and every rustle in the foliage. They wanted to avoid any more situations in which they had to fight, especially with the dead weight the creature now symbolized.

Luckily the three of them got out without any more incidents and made for the town.
The invisibility spell was laid over the creature again so even if anypony was still out they wouldn’t see it.

As they got into Ponyville again, it was night already. The moon was slowly rising above the horizon and the stars in the dark blue, nearly black, night sky started to sparkle.

It was a beautiful night and on their way home they could see some couples sitting in the park, enjoying each other’s presence.

Lyra and Colgate were also watching the night sky as it shone in this pure white light from the moon and all the stars around it. Staring at it made them slow down, but they didn’t mind. The scenery was astonishing.
Once they reached their home they quickly unlocked the door and slipped into the darkness of the house.
Colgate, who had the creature gliding through the air next to her, went straight for the bathroom to wash all the filth that collected in its wounds out.
Lyra in the meantime went to the kitchen and prepared some food for them to restore their energy with. On the way back she saw a note lying on the table.
The note was apparently from Pinkie Pie who wanted to know why they cancelled the party this evening, when they wanted to have it rescheduled to and to write everything down on the back note. She would get it.

The mint green unicorn mare took a look around the room to make sure the pink party pony wasn’t there and wrote that they would come by and tell her everything when they were ready.

She set the note down again, turned around to the tray with food she placed on a side table and when she turned back around the note was gone.
It creeped her out immensely, but after the pink mare appeared out of thin air and had no magic trail on her signaling the use of a teleportation or any other spell she ignored the physics breaking around her and just took it as best as she could.
This not meant that she was not developing a headache just because the earth pony mare did things that seemed impossible without magic.
She went to the bathroom, tray in her magic golden glowing field, and rubbed her temples with one of her front hooves.

When she arrived she could hear water running. She stepped in just in time to see how Colgate removed the last bit of clothes from the creature in order to get it into the tub and rinse its wounds with warm water.

The pants fell down and both mares eyes went wide just before a deep blush adored their faces and Lyra nearly dropped the tray with food on the ground.

“I… I… I didn’t think that magic would have that kind of effect on it.” The mint blue mare stammered, turning her head away, blushing deeply.

“We… Well. Seeing this… this, I think it’s safe to say that it is a he. I… I just bought us something to eat.” The other unicorn also stammered, setting the tray of food down between them.

“Uhm. We… We should put him in the water to… to clean his wounds.” Colgate said, looking just enough to set him in the tub and hold his upper body upright. “W… Would you help me with the cleaning Lyra?”

“Sure, sure. I uhm will help you with that.” The mint green mare replied and lifted a soft sponge to the creatures back in order to clean his wounds.

A bit more than an hour later the wounds of the creature were clean and a healing paste was applied to its back and face.
Lyra asked why they don’t just heal it with magic, to which Colgate threw in that they didn’t know how it would react to magic as the former incident was any indication. They both blushed again with the memory of the beginning of the session coming back, but fought it down quickly. The wounds on the creatures back were also wrapped up so as little as possible could get inside them and possibly cause infections.

“We don’t know what else could happen to him if we left him just like that with his wounds open.” The mint blue mare stated, wrapping gauze over the creatures face, successfully covering the gash on it without doing the same with his eyes. “He could roll around and get Celestia knows what in the wound and I don’t want to clean out everything when an infection starts spreading. Do you?” she asked her comrade, laying the creature back on the couch in the living room where it slept for the first time they brought him here after she was done wrapping the gauze around his head.

“No. I wouldn’t want to do that. You’re right. It’s better to be cautious than to clean up a mess in the end. I’m just happy we made it out of that pit of Tartarus alive and relatively unscratched. Well, the two of us. He was not so lucky. Just hope he heals up soon so we can speak to him. I want to know what he is, where he came from and what he wants from us.” The other mare replied and yawned heartily, holding a hoof in front of her mouth.

“It’ll have to wait until tomorrow though. Today was tiring and we need some rest too. I’d say we leave him here and get up bright and early to see how he fares in the morning. Even if he awakes he’d be in no condition to move very far and after how he reacted seeing us in the forest I’d think that he’ll stay here rather than going out again.”

“Sounds like a plan.” The mint green unicorn said, trotting out of the room and switching off the light.

Walking through the now moonlit house, going up the stairs to their rooms, the mares wished each other good night and went to bed.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Everything was black.
I think I fell unconscious again.
The last thing I remember is the attack of those wolf things and how I killed one of them.
I still remember the two ponies or better yet the two unicorns standing before me mouths agape and eyes wide in shock. Must have made something really impressive to make them gawk like that.

Though. Killing a thing like this wolf after being totally owned by it sounds really badass in my book. And I bet me being covered in mud; scars and this greenish blood must have been quite a sight.

I was floating through a void space, and it seemed just like the one I escaped from earlier that day. The feeling was offsetting and I would have preferred a nice dream at any time but at least the voice I heard last time I was here wasn’t present now.

It was numbingly boring.
At least until a splitting headache made its way in my head and decided to use the inside of my skull like a giant tennis court, smashing my brain left and right.

Boring sounded very nice at that moment.

However, the pain was slowly subsiding and I could ease up again. I opened my eyes, because seriously, who keeps their eyes open while a surge of pain blasts your head to the heavens above and back, and was shocked.

Before my very eyes I saw my room. Everything was like the moment I left it. Well not completely. A thick layer of dust covered every surface and hundreds of cobwebs adored the nooks and corners.

It was like one of this then and now pictures only the then was missing completely.

Sunlight streamed through the windows and I expected to see small particles of dust gliding lazily through the air, but not even those were there.
I felt like being in a grave or something like this, flying like a ghost over what was once my home.

“No. I said we’ll leave it like it is until he returns and that’s final.” I heard a female voice from outside my room.

Mom. This was mom. But what does she mean? Probably my room as it sounds like she was right in front of the door, talking to someone who wanted to go inside.

“But don’t you think he would like to have a clean room to get back to honey? You wouldn’t want to get back to a dirty room either, do you?” My father asked her, concern swinging in his deep voice.

He already gave up. I could hear it. And after how my room looked I’d guess it had been some time since I vanished from the face of the world.
I couldn’t really blame him. I guess it’s been about half a year or longer and there was not a trace to be found.

Still.
It hurt to hear that he’d given up on finding me ever again. I’m sure he did everything in his power to find me, but to no avail.
Mom was still clinging to whatever hopes she has and refuses to let go and that pained me even more.

I know we had not the closest of relationships between child and parents, but loosing each other and not being able to say goodbye or knowing what happened hits hard, no matter how the relationship is faring.

“No! Nothing in there will be moved one millimeter! What if something breaks or there is something not in the right place? He could be upset or even afraid that someone broke in his room while he was away. No. When he gets back we’ll show him that everything is as we left it and then and only then it can be cleaned so that he sees that nothing is amiss.” Mom started to reason with dad.

“Honey. It’s not like there is anything highly fragile in there. If something falls down there will only be a small scratch on it and nothing more. And I bet when he comes back he’s too happy to see us that he won’t bother with minor details such as this.”

“I said no and that’s it. End of discussion.”

“At least let me tend to his garden. He won’t be happy about all his plants being dead and rotten, I’m sure of it. Let me tend it and when he gets back he’ll have them even bigger and in better condition. I know that he’ll appreciate it and I’ll even say we cared for his plants together. Does that sound good to you Sweetheart?”

There was a brief pause before mom spoke with a lot of hesitation.

“That…might be okay. Yeah. If you can guarantee he’ll be happy about it you can do that.”

“Alright. The plants and nothing more.” Dad said in a soothing voice, and it was easy for him to use it with how deep it was. “If you want you can sit in the pavilion and drink some tea while I tend to his garden. You’ll get out again; will be in the sun and you can see what I’m doing with it.”

I could hear them walking away side by side and boy was I happy that dad had her calmed down and out of the house again.
Wait.

If she’s out of the house ‘again’, does that mean that she was cooped up in here all the time and was waiting for me to get home?

“Mom.” I silently whispered as a wave of sadness washed over me.
She waited inside the house for god knows how long for me to come back, just to jump up with her hopes up high whenever the telephone rang or somebody opened the front door and having it all shatter again as there was another voice answering her calls for her son.

I felt miserable. I know I couldn’t have done anything against it, but I wished I could go back home, wait until they got back from their business trip they were on when I left, and just hug them for being there sometimes. I’d tell them that I’m okay with them being away on business trips for longer as long as they promised to come back.
I just wanted to be there to prevent them from becoming that.
But I couldn’t.
I tried to go through the door to at least see my parent’s faces again, but as I tried to touch the door handle my hand ran clean through.

“Oh, ghost. Almost forgot.” I remembered and just flew through.

But on the other side wasn’t the hallway that was there normally. I was back in the black space.

I saw a light in the distance and flew in its direction.

“I hope this leads me out here again like last time and I’ll wake up.” I frowned deeply. “This place and those dreams about my parents are depressing.”

So I flew in the light and shielded my eyes from the sun that would surely fall directly into my eyes. And I was right. Just as I flew into the light it got bright like the sun and my eyes could adjust to the brightness slowly.

“Clever me.” I cheered a bit for myself as my eyes slowly adjusted, but my cheers and the little smirk I allowed myself fell from my face all too fast.

I was outside. That much was good, but I could see our house to my right and dad working on my plants just as he had said earlier.

This was not waking up. This was another phase of my dream.

“Goddamnit!” I cursed under my breath. “Now I can’t even say if I’m going to wake up or if I’m just entering another dream stage. How are these my dreams?”

My flat right hand automatically tried to hit my face with full force, but my left came to my rescue and stopped it right before it could hit home.

“Nice try righty, but not this time.” I said, scowling at my hand as if it was a little brat that you just prevented from doing something incredibly stupid and annoying.

“See honey? It’s not so bad to do this, now is it?” I heard my dad call over to mom in the distance.

I saw her and she was on edge already. You could see it in her eyes that she wanted nothing more than to run up to dad and shoo him away from my garden. In the best case yesterday. But she saw reason behind what my father did and held herself back.
To her it must be a sin to touch anything her son once owned, as if it would be defiled the moment another soul laid hands on it.

I don’t know why, but right at that moment, no matter how far we were apart, when I’d still be with my parents and in my own universe, I’d go right up to mom and give her a long hug.
Same would go for dad.
I don’t want them to be wasted like this. Even if they were away most of the time, it was still good to see them from time to time. Just… knowing they were there and we could go to each other if needed.

This was now gone. I’m all alone in this new world and there is no one there for me.

I can still see my father working on my garden and mom watching him from the pavilion, now sipping at a cup of tea and more calm then before.
Must’ve accepted this change. Finally. And I say finally because now my plants were back alive and ripe with fruits. There must’ve been a time skip I didn’t notice.

Honestly, I couldn’t care less about my garden or my father working it. I just wanted to go home and forget all about the storm, the cave, the portal and the world behind it.
But instead my dreams are taunting me. Or maybe that is what I think will happen while I’m gone. I don’t know. All I know is that it hurts. It hurts me to see these things happening to them and it hurts me to see everything and not being able to do anything.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

I awoke in the middle of the night on the couch of the home of those two unicorns. My eyes were tearstained and there was a wet patch where my head laid.
Surprisingly I also felt a damp spot at my face and went to touch it.

‘My face wouldn’t soak up my tears like this. What is it?’ I thought and ran a hand over my face.
There was something on it something that felt familiar. ‘A gauze!’ realization hit me and I breathed in deeply in my surprised state. Or at least I intended to. Another band aid wrapped around my torso prevented me from breathing in too deeply. “Hmmm… Why is this…? Oh right. My back. Outchy.”

I laid there and waited for the pain to settle back in, which could only be seconds. I made the mistake of remembering the damage done to my body. Seeing that, I instantly concentrated on them and that would, without a doubt, lead to electrons running through my nerve ends until they found the one spot in my body that screamed in pain and would directly send a wave of pain up my spine to show me where exactly this spot was located.

My eyes were scrunched shut, while I was waiting for the oncoming wave of pain.
Ten seconds.
One minute.
Five minutes.
Nothing.
I felt no pain.

It was weird. After something like the beating I received in the forest every nerve end around the wounds should be screaming like the lead singer of Aerosmith the whole time.
But instead I found that I could even roll on my side with no problems at all.

That gave me confidence and I tried to lean up as I was lying on my left side.
Figures my wound took that moment to wake up too.

I screamed as jolts of pain rocketed through my entire body. It wasn’t very loud, due to my throat being dry as sand, but it served its purpose.

My mind went into high alert mode because something could’ve heard me and thus distracted me from my pain enough to sit up in the blink of an eye and scan the room for any movement.

Luckily for me due to my dry throat my scream wasn’t loud enough to wake my two acquaintances or any other living being.
After I made sure nothing was coming I tried to stand up, but found myself unable to due to my legs being wobbly as jelly.

‘Well that’s a problem. I’m parched and can’t stand up without toppling over or anything.’

I just thought about how I could make it to the kitchen and snatch me a glass of water to liven up the inside of my mouth and throat again, as I saw a glass already standing there for me.

‘Must’ve guessed that I could wake up when they are not here and placed it for me in advance. Nice.’ I smiled as I grabbed the glass of water and gulped it down greedily.

“Aaaaaah. That’s the stuff.” I wheezed and set the now empty item back on the table in front of the couch.

Looking out of the window I noticed that the moon was just a bit over the top of the sky, so I must’ve slept for a few hours now.

Deciding that I wouldn’t be able to do much in the darkness and for the fact that too much movement meant pain right now, I decided that laying down and sleeping some more sounded like a good idea.

So I rolled back down, wincing at the sting my back sent me to remind me to be careful, and closed my eyes again, falling into a deep dreamless slumber.

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The morning arose and the sun was sending its first rays through the curtains in Colgate’s room.

They travelled from the top of the ceiling down over the wall. Not quite bathing the room in its glorious warmth yet, the sun was reflected off of a photo on a drawer and right into the eyes of the sleeping mare.

“Mrrrrrrm.” came the answer to the assault on her eyes from the unicorn as she tried to find the sweet land of dreams again without moving too much.
Yet it proved to be a futile attempt.

“Oh for Celestia’s sake. I knew it was a bad idea to place the photo there.” The unicorn mumbled annoyed.
She used her magic to envelop the photo in the deep blue hue of her magic and turned it just enough so that the light was shining somewhere else.

“Ugh. Finally I can get back to…” She started before the ringing of her alarm clock interrupted her harshly.

“…sleep.” She sighed and put a front leg over her face.
“Just my luck it seems. Being awoken by the sun before I have to get up, only for the damn alarm to go off a minute later. Go figure.”

With one final breath underneath the cozy blankets, Colgate tossed them aside and stood up, just to be met with the thing every former refugee of the blanket castle, crisp morning air.

The mare shivered slightly as she stopped the alarm and walked over to the door.

“Damn cold morning air.” She grumbled. “Always making my coat stand on end.”

The mint blue unicorn made her way over to the bathroom to wash up for the morning and was just about to turn the doorknob, when it swung outside and barely missed her face, knob shimmering with a golden glow of magic.

Both mares were shocked for a moment; Colgate for nearly getting the bathroom door for breakfast and Lyra for nearly smashing said close call breakfast in her teammates face.

“Sorry. Didn’t think you were up already.” The mint green mare greeted.

“Yes. Me neither. Stupid light fell on my photo and right in my eyes.” The other mare grumpily murmured.

“See? I told you it was a bad place to put it. Should’ve set it up on your nightstand next to your bed. There’s no sunlight in the morning to fall on it and on your face, disturbing your sleep.”

“Oh cut it Lyra. I’m not in the mood right now. Why are you up anyways? Normally you’re the one sleeping in and I have to drag your lazy flank to the dining hall and the training grounds before you even start to wake up.” The mint blue unicorn countered in a mocking tone of voice.

“H…hey! That was a onetime thing! I’m an early morning pony by nature.” She huffed back, scrunching up her muzzle.

“Yeah. A onetime thing every day. If you are a morning pony then I’m Photo Finish.” Colgate countered, her brain starting to work properly at this point.

“Yeeesh. Fine. Be that way. I’ll go in my room and finish brushing my mane. If you need anything don’t ask me.”

The mint green unicorn mare began walking away to her room already as her comrade suddenly stopped her with an outstretched hoof.

“Wait. I know you are not a morning pony, so why are you up so early and why are you so chipper?” she asked her with a suspicious glance in her eyes.

“N…no reason. It was such a beautiful day and I thought I’d start it early.” Came the nervous reply.

The mint blue unicorn caught up on the nervousness of the other mare and arched an eyebrow.
“Really?” she asked with a deadpan look. “That’s all you got?”

“Wha…what do you mean, all you got? That’s the truth.” The mare answered, eyes shifting left and right.

“Yeah. Sure. You know that I know when you lie, right? And right now you are lying so hard; a lie detection spell would jingle like the bells on the hat of Starswirl the Bearded. So tell me what your true intent is. You know I hate it when you lie to me.”

The stern voice the mint blue unicorn used combined with the look she was giving the other female quickly crumbled the weak wall of lies Lyra created hastily.

“Alright, alright. I was still nervous about the creature in the living room. I thought it may have done something else and would be missing again. Walking through the streets and causing a ruckus. So I went down to check up on it and was relieved as it was still there. I went up to the creature and gave it a once over look. It seemed to fare rather well and even drank the water you put on the table in front of it. And since it shouldn’t be too long until it awakes and we can finally get rid of it after we gather all the information needed I’m just happy for the day to come.” The unicorn mare admitted in an innocent tone.

“What?!” her comrade fumed. “Get rid of it?! First of all, my dear, we discovered yesterday that, it, is clearly a male so you should say him; second, are you bucking nuts?! We can’t just throw him out like this after we know what we want! He’s wounded! And tell me this, how are we supposed to get him somewhere without anypony taking notice of him? And what if he had to flee from his home because there were bandits or monsters trying to get him? How could we send him back there if that’s the case? Would you be so cold as to send away a poor soul that just wants to be safe?”

“Uuuuuuhm… Aeeeeeem… No?” Lyra asked in shock.

“That’s right. No! And what was it that you wanted to do with him? Just that! Did you not think of the consequences?” the mint blue unicorn mare snapped angrily at the other.

“I did!” the mare retorted weakly, shrinking under the other ones gaze. “I just thought we… we…”

“No. You didn’t think about them properly.” The mint blue mare sighed. “You saw him as something abnormal; something that doesn’t fit in your little world. You thought he was dangerous just because you’ve never seen anything like him ever before. Lyra… You must learn to accept that there are things we would never dream of that live in our world and just because you never heard of them doesn’t mean that they want to wreak havoc where they stand. So far he’s done nothing in any way to harm us. He was even careful enough to not be spotted by anypony on his way to the Everfree Forest and only by chance that pegasus mare spotted him entering the woods. And think. He even complained that we were pretty late before he fell unconscious. Taking this in account I’d say he’s sapient and we can reason with him so he won’t be a burden.”

“I… I…”

“So I take it you get my reasoning and you are okay with it. … Good. Cause I’m going to use the bathroom now. See ya when your mind caught up.” The mare said, walked over to the bathroom door and shut it rather forcefully.

“Hey! Stop that! I’m not dumb! I’m just not really awake yet!” The mint green unicorn huffed in annoyance.

“And there I thought you were a morning pony. Well seems like I was right all along.” Came the muffled answer through the door.

“Why… I… You… Ugh!” the unicorn gasped; scrunching up her face and blowing a raspberry at the door.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

A little while later Colgate was out of the bathroom and was greeted by Lyra already waiting for her at the door, sitting on her haunches.

“Hey. I’m sorry about earlier. My fears got the better of me and I jumped to conclusions.” The mint green mare apologized, ears drooping and head hanging low. “I just feel uncomfortable around him. You know I’m not good with new things crash landing into my life and changing something I was familiar with.”

“I know Lyra. I just wanted to tell you that this fear was unreasoned. I think I went a bit overboard myself.” Her comrade admitted, smiling sheepishly and rubbing the back of her neck with a front hoof.

“So all good again?” she asked before stretching out a hoof for the mint blue mare to shake it.

“Yep. All good again.” The mare responded and shook the offered appendage.

“Good. Then we can finally go and get some breakfast in. I’m starving.”

“Oh Lyra.” Colgate giggled.

The two mares walked down the stairs both giggling due to the infectious nature of the happiness spreading sound.

They walked through the living room with the still sleeping creature laying curled up on the couch and advanced on into the kitchen.

“What do you think of some pancakes for breakfast?” Colgate asked the other unicorn, already wielding the pan in her magical grasp.

“Pancakes! Really!?” Lyra asked tail wagging happily as she sat down on the kitchen table.

“Yep. Really.”

“Aaaaaw yeah! That’s so sweet! Oh wait can it be blueberry pancakes?” the mint green unicorn hoof pumped, but switched to a wide eyed puppy like expression with drool pooling in the corners of her mouth already.

“Blueberry pancakes? I don’t know. Isn’t it a bit too much?” the mare asked teasingly, hiding her grin by turning her attention to the stove in front of her and lighting it up before she put the pan on it with some butter within.

“Noooooo it’s not. It’s delicious!” the mare at the table wailed.

“Okay, okay. Just kidding. Blueberry pancakes it is.” The unicorn laughed and prepared the pancakes.

Soon the smell of the freshly made pancakes was wafting through the house and reached into the aerial zone of the couch in the living room as well.

“Hmmm… Pancakes.” A tired voice emitted from it and a blanket was shoved aside.

“Must follow sweet aroma and eat source.” It said again as the belonging body slowly rose from the furniture and lazily dragged itself to the confines of the kitchen.

The two unicorn mares were just starting to dig in their fluffy tasty goodness known as blueberry pancakes, as a voice coming from the door interrupted them.

“Hey there. Got anything left for me to munch? My stomach is kinda making the rumblings right now.”

And that was the moment the forks that were meant to ravage some innocent pancakes, met the cold hard floor of the kitchen.