The first thing Sunset Shimmer felt was pain as she was ejected from the portal, the near blinding brought on by the spiraling vortex that was the limbo between worlds wearing off . Her head spun and the weight of someone else lying on top of her did not help the soreness of her posterior and lower back. Judging by the scent of some costly perfume and shampoo, it was most likely Rarity.

Sunset felt as her hand touched cold stone underneath her and- Wait. Hand?!

Indeed, looking at the limb she was extending from underneath the pile-up composed of her and her friends, she saw that her arms and hands hadn’t changed back into their original equine form, wiggling her fingers just to make sure she wasn’t just seeing things from the disorientation. Indeed, no hooves, only fingers, and the toes she felt pressing against the insides of her boots.

Rarity moaned atop Sunset. “… Are we dead?” she muttered.

“I feel dead, does that count…?” asked Fluttershy with a discernible trembling in her hushed voice.

Sunset tugged her body backwards in an attempt to slide out from underneath Rarity, and Twilight who was lying on Sunset’s legs. Managing to scoot up to a sitting position, she also saw Applejack half lying on her back, dislodged from their pile, albeit her leg being caught under Twilight, atop whose chest, clutched protectively in her arms, was Spike, with Pinkie Pie lying prostrated on the floor, arms stretched forward and one shin bent up. The puffy-haired girl was moaning loudly.

“Ya’lright there Pinkie?” asked Applejack, her trademark Stetson missing from atop her head.

“I fell on my keys…” groaned Pinkie before she reached under her belly, pulling out not her keys, but a strangely antique looking brass candelabra. “Oh, nevermind!” she said, back to her chipper tone as she inserted the random find into her hair.

“Ohhhh…” groaned Rainbow Dash who was lying over Fluttershy’s legs, holding her head as she rose to an elbow and shook her head, “Did anyone get the number of that bus?”

“Birthday or social security?” quipped Applejack, not in any malicious context as she placed her cherished hat back on before yanking her foot out of their pile-up to go and help Pinkie. Her response was a dry, humorless mock laugh from Rainbow Dash.

Twilight sat up on her knees, Spike setting onto her lap, before inspecting her glasses for damage, “So is this how it feels to cross between dimensions?” she inquired with a soreness to her voice, no doubt directed at Sunset.

“I’d say both yes,” Sunset began, wincing as a dull pain flared in her buttocks, “and no.”

The girls slowly, with groans and gripes a plenty exchanged, managed to get themselves disentangled from one another and back on their feet, albeit Twilight and Fluttershy stayed kneeling on the floor, going over Spike, like worried mothers, in spite of the dog seeming no worse for wear. The seven friends looked over their surroundings, a slight chill hanging in the air of wherever they were.

“For a castle in a magical land, this place seems a bit… archaic?” said Rarity, having immediately begun to fix her hair.

“Plus I didn’t think pews came standard with castles,” Rainbow Dash added, craning her neck.

“Princess Twilight never said anything about having a chapel,” said Fluttershy as she looked around.

As her friends shared their remarks about their new surroundings, Sunset Shimmer had remained silent. She didn’t do anything to even interject to her friends’ remarks at how wrong they were in their assumptions as the feelings of dread came rushing back.

She and her friends were not in Princess Twilight’s crystalline castle. Somehow against all expectations the portal had tossed them into a dark, downright dreary place, almost gothic in atmosphere: They were in a large rectangular room with a high ceiling supported by hefty wooden rafters, the stonework a somewhat faded hue of reddish granite. As Rainbow Dash had pointed out; before them started a side-by-side double row of heavy wooden pews that ran down the room towards a sturdy looking set of wooden double doors. The only thing she found different were the stained-glass windows.

Turning around, Sunset had her trepidations confirmed at the sight of a familiar statue. Set atop of sturdy granite pedestal, carved from a white marble. It was clearly equine in form, rearing on its hind legs with its forelegs bent close to its body, its head held aloft proudly atop its elegant slender neck, with a long, conical horn coming out of its forehead. A pair of wide wings arced from its back, and a long mane flowed down along its neck, Sunset noticing the painstakingly etched strands. Atop its head sat a brilliant golden tiara, and despite being only stone, an expression of warmth and benevolence stared down at those who would stand before its gaze.

“Ooooh, glow-y!” Sunset Shimmer heard Pinkie exclaim beside her.

As if she could forget; below the statue’s gaze was a familiar altar, though its contents were now sprawled on the floor, including the pair to the candelabra now stored in Pinkie’s… hair. But they were all insignificant to what lay on the floor before the feet of the seven girls: A small fragment of pure, golden radiance that served as the sole source of illumination to this otherwise dreary place.

It’s just like before… Sunset’s mind echoed as she saw Pinkie reach a hand for the shard of light.

Snapping out of her reverie, Sunset Shimmer lunged to grab Pinkie’s wrist, the others expressing each their own response, from questioning grunts, stunned gasps, or a pained yelp in the case of Pinkie.

“Don’t touch it!” Sunset snapped and in one fluid motion turned tail and ran for the doors, which weren’t even barred.

“Sunset? What the heck is goin’ on?!” Applejack called with a tone of frustration and befuddlement as she and the rest watched their friend’s episode of hysteria.

“It’s just like in my dream!” Sunset Shimmer responded with panic in her voice. “The darkness is-”

Looking through the doors… It wasn’t nearly as dark as she’d remembered in her dream. Her mouth hung agape as she opened the doors wider, her eyes now staring intently at the sky, whereas before she dreaded peering back up into that endless, maddening void she’d beheld in her dream. The sky was now a soothing dark azure, a vast canvas beyond her reach, dotted with brilliant little dots of light amidst radiant nebulae and the pearly white face of the moon shone down upon her. A moon much larger than either ones in Equestria, or the human world. Or closer. So close in fact that it looked the size of a tennis ball from where they stood.

“Well just look at that…” said Applejack as she and the others joined Sunset Shimmer, all of them just as amazed at the splendor of a night sky unlike anything they’d ever seen before.

“It’s like the sky is dotted with diamonds,” awed Rarity, her hand rising steadily close to her mouth in wonderment.

“So… is this it?” Twilight Sparkle chimed in, in between her own marveling of the sky, glancing at Sunset. “Is this Equestria?”

Sunset’s gaze lowered from looking at the white maiden in the sky, down the steps of the temple building which led to a well-travelled stone path that might have been angling at a slight downhill into a sparsely forested area. The trees themselves weren’t exactly the same as they’d been in her dream, while not fully stripped of their leaves, husks carpeted the path forward. She slowly shook her head, her mind filled with a plethora of questions of her own, and the persisting tinge of terror.

“This is not Equestria…” she murmured. “This can’t be Equestria!” she said with raised volume, looking back towards the statue.

Rainbow Dash raised a brow, “So did we just get transported to Cloudrim?”

Everyone eyed the rainbow-haired girl with varying expressions, none of them implying amusement. Applejack squeezed the bridge of her nose and shook her head whilst Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes. Spike shook his head at the athlete, before idly scratching at an ear with his hind leg.
“And it’s outta here, ahhhhhh…” said Pinkie in a hushed tone as she mimed swinging a bat, before simulating a roaring crowd with slight waves of her hands.

Sunset walked back towards the altar, unable to look away from the statue of her old mentor.

“Wherever we are, I’m certain that this isn’t Equestria,” she said with finality in her voice. She knelt down, and like she did in her dream, she gently picked up the glowing fragment of light, holding it in her cupped hands, feeling the warmth and ethereal comfort that began to flow into her body.

“So then…” Fluttershy piped up, appearing beside Sunset Shimmer, looking up at the statue, “What is this statue doing here?”

“And who is that anyway?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“That’s Princess Celestia,” said Sunset, looking up from the shard in her hands. “I don’t know why that is here, and where we are, or why we didn’t change into ponies, or what even this is,” she turned to her friends, all of them looking at her with mixed expressions of concern, if not outright fear. “All I know is that this is what I dreamed of. It’s right here, in this church where those things in the darkness chased me. On this very spot is where the darkness swallowed me.”

As her friends looked amongst each other, Sunset rounded the altar under the statue. She felt the surface of the pedestal, holding onto even the slightest hope that like the one at Canterlot High, maybe it could also take them back. Her heart sank as all that greeted her touch was cold, dusty granite. With a heavy sigh, she returned to her friends, who at this point appeared very much frightened, particularly Fluttershy, who stood in place with terror in her eyes, clutching onto the closest thing for comfort, that being Rarity.

“I need to get in contact with Princess Twilight. We’re completely cut off from our home, and I can’t be certain whether of not my dream was a warning, or a premonition of what will happen.” And with that she went to seat herself on the frontmost pew on the left row, propping her backpack on her lap to get her journal.

-

Applejack paced back and forth under the gaze of the equine statue, hands to her hips as she and her friends waited for Sunset Shimmer to finish writing her distress letter. She watched as Fluttershy sat huddled on the frontmost pew of the row to the right, with Rarity seated closely beside her in comfort. Applejack smiled proudly at the fashionista’s care. Rainbow Dash, being Rainbow Dash who had no sense of patience or discipline whatsoever was lying on her back on the pew behind the first, her brow furrowed either in contemplation or, as would usually be the case, boredom.

What she would do to have the Equestrian Twilight Sparkle there with them right now. The seven of them in this room had faced dangers that only a few years ago she’d have thought on the realms of impossibility, and since then she’d never in her wildest dreams imagined something like this. She thought about what was happening back home. Had the school been reduced to rubble from those tremors that struck their town? Tremors she’d overheard Twilight declaring as being impossible. And in cases where scientific knowhow was concerned, the farm girl had the inclination of believing her.

Were their fellow students alright? Her family? The farm? Her teeth grit behind her lips from the sudden hint of paranoia clawing at her mind. No! No. She assured herself that everyone was fine. She had to remain strong, for the sake of everyone, both in body and mind. She had the inkling that her strength would be needed to see this through.

Pressing her hat down against her head, she walked up to look at Pinkie Pie, who was slumped on the floor near the wall. The normally bouncy pink girl had set up a row of individual sprinkles, which she was idly flicking at the wall with a finger, making them pop like bang snaps.

“Ya doin’ alright there, Pinkie?” she asked, leaning forward, watching Pinkie’s hand trail along the line of sprinkles with each pop.

Pinkie’s wide-open eyes rolled at Applejack, her lips distinctly pursed. Given the state of the pink girl’s hair, which remained puffed, Pinkie Pie’s state of mind that moment might best be deemed inconclusive.

“Honestly,” Pinkie said, popping another sprinkle, “Not great.”

Flick. Pop. Flick. Pop.

“I think I might be just slightly freaking out,” she concluded, holding up her popping hand with a gesture.

All that Applejack could think to do was give her friend an assuring smile and a pat on the shoulder, “Well don’t you worry there, Pinkie; I’m sure Sunset and the Princess can come up with somethin’.”

Flick. Pop.

She switched her attention to Twilight, who’d taken the liberty of going through a chest left in the corner left from the statue. She seemed to be busy going through a stack of old yellowed papers, sifting them in her hands, perched against the wall. Spike, being a dog, was sniffing around the chest and anything that caught his attention. He promptly snorted with a sneeze from the dust.

“What’cha got there, Twi?” asked Applejack, when she felt her nose twitching, and before she knew it, she sneezed, sending dust spraying everywhere, making Twilight reciprocate the gesture. The farm girl laughed awkwardly, “Uh, sorry about that…”

Twilight took off her glasses to wipe away the dust with a cloth. She looked up at Applejack, the two sharing an awkward laugh.

“I thought I might find something pertaining to this new world. Given that we’re in a temple that, as far as we know, venerates the Princess Celestia of Sunset Shimmer’s world, or possibly a dimensional counterpart to her, in the very least, then perhaps the religious texts might shed some light,” she explained in her overly formalized manner, tapping the chest beside her with a foot. “Unfortunately the chest was empty, save for these few scraps I managed to gather,” she frowned, holding up one of the pages, squinting in the dimness due to Sunset’s removal of the glowing shard.

“Well, can you make something out?” Applejack asked. In all honesty, she couldn’t give a ball of manure about whatever people who lived here believed, but she wasn’t about to say that directly in Twilight’s face when occupying her time clearly did good in keeping their studious friend calm.

“Not all that much, sadly,” said Twilight, sifting to another page, or rather half of one. “Their language and linguistics match that of our world, albeit more archaic in grammar. Hmm, of all the things to know about parallel dimensions, isn’t it fascinating that three different universes have no language barrier to speak of…?” As Twilight went on in her own little narration, she failed to notice Applejack quietly backing away.

Applejack sighed as she slumped down next to Rarity on the pew she shared with Fluttershy, Spike running up and jumping up to join her, the farmer giving him a pleasant scratching to his fluffy chest in gratitude. The pink-haired animal caretaker had calmed down as she and Rarity shared words of encouragement, Applejack herself managing to catch how Rarity spoke about the beauty of this world’s night sky. She looked over the back of the pew where Rainbow Dash was lying stretched out, her arms folded under her head. The rainbow-haired girl looked up at Applejack in acknowledgement.

“Yer head doin’ alright there?” Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash flashed a smirk, rubbing the side of her head. “Just a bruise. I’ll be fine,” she said, before peeking back at Sunset, still embroiled in her journal, “How much longer do you think she’s gonna be?”

Applejack sighed through her nose, “For getting’ almost squashed by a statue and getting sucked up by that portal to who knows where, ya seem to be taking this awfully well…”

Rainbow Dash just smiled, crossing her legs, “Am I the only one here who doesn’t think of this as being awesome? I mean sirens and magical plant monsters, or magic imprisoning mirrors and cellphones aside, those were all in our own world. But now we’re somewhere completely different! It’s like something right out of Daring Do and The Celestials’ Gate!”

Applejack did not feel like indulging in Rainbow’s disregard for their predicament. “Oh for Pete’s sake, Rainbow; didn’t ya listen to what’s had Sunset scared half to death even before anythin’ happened?”

What she’s said was surprisingly enough to give the star-athlete of Canterlot High pause. Applejack watched as an uneasy grin etched itself on Rainbow’s face, giving off an awkward laugh. “So…” Rainbow began, taking another, more concerned look at Sunset, “W-what do you suppose this darkness is?”

Applejack rested her head atop her arms over the back of the pew, looking at the doors to the temple, the feeling of unease worse than before as she thought back to the unusually pale Sunset Shimmer she’d met outside Canterlot High. If she’d known anything, it was that Sunset Shimmer was someone who didn’t scare easily, especially given her origins as a being already from an alternate world: A world where magic and monsters, something thought to exist only in stories and Granny Smith’s tall tales, were real.

“Ah really can’t say…” said Applejack, exchanging apprehensive looks between one another before looking at Sunset, currently chewing on the back of her ballpoint. “But whatever it was she saw in that head of hers, I don’t reckon I really wanna know…”

At that Rainbow Dash kicked herself up and off the pew and approached Sunset. Applejack watched as the athlete went around and sat next to Sunset. The two trading looks she couldn’t make out from the angle before Sunset resumed her message, until the two looked at one another again, Applejack swore she could make out Rainbow Dash giving an empathetic smile. At least she was on the same page as the rest of them now.

Applejack then looked over to Fluttershy and Rarity. She placed a hand over Rarity’s resting on the pew, gently pressing her fingers around its soft form, “Ya’ll doin’ okay?”

Rarity scooted closer to Applejack, taking hold of the farmer’s arm for comfort. “I’m… adjusting. But, Fluttershy was feeling anxious,” she said, looking over at their shy friend, who now sat cross-legged next to Rarity with Spike having moved to rest on her lap.

“I can’t deny it,” said Fluttershy, gently stroking Spike’s head. “Out of all the times I’ve felt scared; this is possibly the worst…”

Rarity’s hand went from Applejack’s arm to Fluttershy’s shoulder. Applejack smiled softly at the two as her hold on Rarity’s other hand tightened ever so slightly.

“Don’t you worry Fluttershy,” she said with a note of confidence. “Remember; we’re all here with you, together. And like all those other times, we’re gonna pull through, get back home somehow and we can fix whatever’s goin’ on!”

Fluttershy looked down, touching the geode necklace hanging from her neck. She took in a deep breath through her nose, held it for but a moment before gently sighing from her mouth. “I know…” said Fluttershy, straightening up ever so slightly as a display of a rise in confidence. “I’ll… I’ll try to be strong. I shouldn’t be afraid when I have all of you.”

Rarity looked at Fluttershy with a smile that could melt ice looking at the animal caretaker. As did Applejack, though she also focused much on Rarity’s, feeling herself blush as the two of them still held hands.

“Alright!” came the voice of Sunset with finality in her tone, closing shut her journal and tucking it away into her backpack before standing up and slinging it onto her back in one sure, fluid motion. “I’ve informed of Princess Twilight of our dilemma as best I could summarize it. We’ve now got a choice and I want everyone to be honest and true.” She then gestured their overall surroundings, “Do we stay here and wait for a response?” Then she indicated the doors, “Or do we leave? I still can’t say what is even out there and we will be vulnerable. But I personally feel we won’t be accomplishing anything by staying put.

Rainbow Dash stood beside Sunset with her arms crossed, “I say we leave. And I swear it’s not just because I’m bored and feel cooped up, but that I agree with Sunset on her part.”

Pinkie Pie suddenly popped up from behind the pew those two had been sitting on, in true Pinkie fashion. “About time!” she exclaimed. “I know it’s dark and spooky and eerie and maybe harmful and so many other negative nouns out there in this completely new and unknown dimension-” She gasped for air, “But it’s only so long until listening things pop isn’t all that fun anymore.”

Rainbow looked at Pinkie with an arced brow, “Sooo… We leave?” To that she earned what would best be described a rapid-fire nod from the puffy haired party girl.

Twilight Sparkle, ever the polite academic, despite the decayed state of her subject of research, placed the scraps of paper back into the chest where she’d discovered them and joined at the side of Sunset, “One can’t expect to find answers by always keeping it safe? Wouldn’t you agree?” She took Sunset’s hand into both of hers. Sunset only smiled, immediately grasping the meaning behind Twilight’s inquiry. This prompted Applejack to stand up, adjust her hat all the while assuming a lax stance.

“I know enough about democracy to see where this is going,” remarked Spike, hopping off Fluttershy’s lap onto the floor, tail wagging eagerly at the prospect of exploration.

“Well what’re we waitin’ for?” asked Applejack in emphasis to her decision. She was an Apple, she’d rather tackle the predicament head-on rather than hunkering down.

She spotted from the corner of her eye how Rarity rolled hers in good humor, before she and Fluttershy were both on their feet. It was fair to say the decision was unanimous.
And with that, with Sunset’s lead the party made their way out into the night under the radiant glow of the great moon up above.

“Pardon me for askin’,” said Applejack as she looked around with a squint: Bright as the moon’s glow was, it didn’t offer the amount of illumination she’d been comfortable with, “but by any chance one of ya bring a flashlight?”

Right on cue, Twilight produced a small LED keychain flashlight with a proud look on her face, promptly clicking it on. To everyone’s surprise, the little device emitted a beam of light brighter than what something so small should be capable of. To anyone but Twilight and Spike’s surprise, specifically. Unfortunately, she hadn’t paid attention to everyone’s placements when a certain puffy pink bouncy friend screamed “Bright light!” and fell over with a thump and a rustle of leaves.

Sunset reached into a pocket on the inside of her studded leather vest to produce the radiantly glowing shard of light, “I’d say we’ve got everything covered,” she affirmed.

Pinkie Pie suddenly appeared out of nowhere upside down and above them, a mess of shriveled leaves tangled in her hair, “Then let’s go-go-go!”

-

With the intensity of Twilight’s little modified light, the group unanimously agreed to her taking point. Sunset Shimmer placed herself amidst the group, in no particular order as they preferred to stay huddled together, holding onto the shard of light in an upturned palm to grant them further illumination among one another. Whatever Twilight rigged into the little lamp, the ring of illumination was intense enough that one could mistake any spot it landed on as being in daylight. Spike was numerous paces ahead, faithfully remaining in sight as he sniffed about and kept a diligent ear out for anything.

“Everyone present and accounted?” Sunset heard Applejack ask from behind her.

The group let out a unified “yes” in varying volumes. Sunset took to holding hands with Fluttershy for comfort whilst she looked around their surroundings as they went along the slight slope. The endless crackling and rustling of leaf husks filled the night air. They should have been chilly, but the fragment seemed to exude a warming aura that kept them largely comfortable, despite many of their outfits being ill-suited for this dusk.

“Everyone still here?” came Applejack a little later, to which she received the same answer as last time, though with a murmur of “For Pete’s sake,” from Rainbow Dash.

Sunset looked up into the starry sky. That was one of two factors in their predicament that had placed her mind somewhat at ease. The other was her having the fortune of having all her friends there with her. All over the endless canvas above stars glittered around the great moon that looked down upon them. She even noticed pockets of stars that seemed closer together, forming rather peculiar shapes amidst the dark blue and nebulae. If she was looking at it correctly, she could have sworn she saw one cluster formed into what clearly looked like a heart, with possibly wings or some other curved shapes on its left and right.

“Everyone still-”

“Applejack!” Rainbow Dash called in annoyance. “You don’t need to keep asking every five minutes!”

“Ah beg yer pardon, but one of the first rules of survivin’ outdoors is keepin’ constant tabs on everyone,” the farmer girl retorted.

“Um, maybe we shouldn’t be making too much noise altogether, if you wouldn’t mind…” Fluttershy interjected, her eyes peering into the distance.

“What’s up, Fluttershy?” Sunset inquired with urgency, the events of her dreams now at the forefront of her mind, having taken to mentally check for any potential coincidence since stepping out of the temple building. While the events weren’t playing out in correct sequence, she knew it was in the woods where the shadowy husks appeared and gave chase.

Sunset noticed Spike, much closer to the group, standing firm and vigilant, one forepaw off the ground as his ears perked. “Everyone, quiet,” he requested urgently, “I hear something…”

Fluttershy furrowed her brow, bringing her free hand to her ear. As a light breeze blew past them, “There’s something out here with us…” Fluttershy said ominously, amazingly not exhibiting outward fear.

Whereas Sunset felt her heart begin to race as her head darted around, trying to spot anything in the darkness, spike slowly backing up to the group, a faint rumble emanating from his throat. She was specifically on the lookout for anything illuminous. But that’s when she realized… “Wait, Fluttershy; your power is sensing animals. Are you saying there’s-”

The group almost jumped as howls filled the stillness of the night, reverberating through the trees. This was enough for Spike to yelp and back into the safety amidst everyone’s legs.

“I’m not sure,” Fluttershy responded, now seeming afraid as everyone huddled together into a circle, “But I can feel hunger, and... and terrible pain…”

There came another howl, followed by another, and yet another further away from their position. The tone had a hollow, almost ethereal tone as it rang through the darkness. Twilight’s sudden scream made the group shift their attention in her direction, when she was immediately trailing her light towards the right.

“Wh-what?!” asked Rarity hysterically. “What is it?!”

“I don’t know! It ran into my light, but then vanished!”

Another howl rang out, this time much louder, like whatever was stalking them could have been anywhere close by. Applejack held her arms out to shield Rarity and Pinkie Pie whilst Rainbow had assumed a combative stance, glancing left and right, straining her eyes trying to spot anything.

“Not just one either!” called out Spike, head darting in every direction in front of him, “Don’t know how many… There!” he yelled, Twilight’s hand bearing the flashlight diverting to catch a glimpse of something, only for said something to leap away from the light.

That’s when they finally spotted the dozen or so pairs of red orbs approaching from the woods, accompanied by a series of feral snarls. The orbs got closer; while taking to avoiding Twilight’s impossibly bright light, the illumination cast by the shard finally unveiled the monsters.

Sunset’s mouth hand agape as she beheld the creatures that begun to circle the group. They walked on four legs, with bodies at about two and a half feet tall and at least the length of an adult human. They looked very lupine in form, but the most peculiar trait about them was that their bodies seemed composed of pieces of wood, branches and roots, as well as moss and even some lichen.

“Timber wolves?!” Sunset blurted.

“Say what?!” called Rainbow Dash, eyeing one of the purported wolves that seemed to have taken interest in her.

“Equestrian creatures composed of wood bonded together with wild magic,” Sunset explained.

“Oooh!” called Pinkie. “I get it! Because they’re wolves made of-”

“Timber; we see that Pinkie,” Applejack concluded for the pink girl.

Rarity whimpered as one was stalking in her direction until Applejack brusquely stomped a foot in its direction. The creature darted about a foot away, but continued circling the group, a rattling snarl emanating from its wooden jaws. Spike defiantly stood forth, barking at one nearing Twilight, but a snap of its wooden jaws made the much smaller canine leap back. To his credit, Spike continued to growl, undoubtedly driven by his baser protective instinct. Fluttershy tried talking to the beasts, but any attempt at establishing a rapport was met with vicious snarling barks.

“Th-they’re so angry…” Fluttershy croaked, visibly shaken how the creatures seemed to be equally intent on attacking her as everyone else.

Twilight seemed to be able to use her lamp to make a single wolf scurry farther back, but each time they would always return to encircle them. The girls had managed to inch forward a short distance, backs held together in trying to make it harder for the beasts to single one of them out as easy prey. Sunset leaned out just for a moment to shine the light of the fragment at them, which had similar effects to Twilight’s keychain, albeit seemed less effective.

“Alright, that does it!” Rainbow Dash roared and, in a blink, darted at the one timber wolf that had been eyeing her and delivered a vicious soccer kick. With the force added by the momentum of her super speed, this sent the head and a few inches of the creature’s body splaying into wooden debris.

Before the girls could object, one of them seemed to have picked Pinkie due to her back facing this particular one. As the creature lunged, it found itself slamming not onto the unsuspecting, succulent flesh, but a diamond barrier that had formed in the gap left by Rainbow Dash, after which a brutal thrust kick came bursting through it and shattered the timber wolf into firewood.

“I… I…” Sunset felt how Fluttershy huddled close to her, “I can’t get them to listen! They’re in so much pain and- and anger!”

“Well I’m not too fond of them either!” retorted Rainbow Dash as she took a chunk of the wolf she’d shattered before rushing to Sunset and Fluttershy’s side and forcefully slammed the piece of wood right between an approaching timber wolf’s eyes before presenting it with her infamous goalie kick enhanced with her super speed.

Sunset could only watch with Fluttershy as her friends fought off the beasts. Twilight Sparkle reached out with her telekinesis, and with a strained mental yank pulled a prowling timber wolf’s hind leg off, making it lose balance, followed by Rainbow Dash rushing up to pick up said leg and swing it like a golf club to shatter the rest of it.

A sigh escaped from Pinkie’s lips, oddly enough, as she twirled a can of sprinkles, somehow, in her hand, popping the cap off with the flick of her thumb.

“Just so you know,” she said, her voice carrying a tinge of guilt, “I don’t approve of violence towards animals…” She suddenly looked nowhere in particular, “Although these are wolves made of wood. And technically if they’re made of wood, wouldn’t that mean it’s not an animal? And given that I’ve blown up trees before, but with the addition of the whole wolf thing-”

“Pinkie,” Rainbow grunted as she slide-tackled a wolf off its legs, “you know I respect your observations, but maybe this is not the best time to philosophize?”

Pinkie’s mind focused again with a blink, “Oh, right!” She shook the jar before swinging out an arcing wave of sugary death that erupted into a sparkling, popping series of flashy bursts, that completely obliterated two timber wolves. The remaining few scattered and fled back into the woods, leaving behind the shattered remains of their kin.

The girls and dog regrouped, all well and uninjured and not at all worse for wear.

“So, does this confirm anything about where we are?” asked Twilight as she carefully nudged a piece of timber wolf to the side with a foot.

Sunset looked among the scattered pieces of wood, Spike having taken the opportunity to viciously gnaw at one before spitting it out, kicking dirt at it with his hind legs. While she was not an expert on Equestrian fauna, or flora or anything in between, she knew that timber wolves were composed of healthy, strong wood, the magics animating them revitalizing its structural integrity, making them strong as oak. These timber wolves, for the lack of a better term, seemed less healthy. She remembered them being an indicator of the health and inherent magics of whatever region in Equestria they inhabited, like the Everfree Forest.

“I’m still not so sure about that,” said Sunset glumly as she tossed a piece of wood away. “These timber wolves; they didn’t seem as healthy as normal. We should probably keep moving in the event these things might reassemble.”

The girls looked around, Twilight’s rigged light illuminating a tree that was almost pale white, pieces of its bark split open to reveal its greyed, hollow insides.

Sunset looked up, back towards the great moon dominating a large swathe of the sky. She then looked back at the strange shard that continued to bathe their immediate vicinity in light. It felt like every step they took only brought more questions.

With a sigh, Sunset solemnly turned to her friends, “Let’s keep going. This path must lead somewhere.”

-

Rainbow Dash groaned quietly as, after an agreed ten-minute gap, Applejack once again asked if everyone was present and accounted for. She didn’t even bother to respond along with the others; Applejack could clearly see her, given that she was walking ahead of the farm girl.

The walk felt like it was taking forever. Every step revealed just more trees, the only variation being a felled one in the middle of the path, followed by a small stream they needed no more than to hop over. Sunset informed them that from there on out they would be walking blind, that this was as far as she’d gotten in her dream before being forced into a retreat. Dash and Spike had offered to do some forward scouting ahead, but by unanimous vote by the rest it was deemed safer to stick together.

“I spy with my Pinkie eye, something beginning with… M!” Pinkie abruptly spoke out, no doubt trying to liven the mood.

Rainbow rolled her eyes, “Is it “moon”?”

“Nope!”

Her eyes darted left and right in bewilderment, “What else could it be?”

“That speck of mildew we passed about ten feet back!”

Rainbow snorted. Just Pinkie Pie cheating at life, as usual.

“Well, I believe I’ve got one,” called Twilight from the front of the group. “Something beginning with the letter T.”

“Seriously Twi?” Rainbow groaned. “I was expecting this from Pinkie Pie, but you’re giving me the most obvious, in-our-faces answer possible?”

“You mean “town”?” asked Spike, pointing forward with a paw.

As the path began to curve downwards into a hill, Rainbow could see the forest give way to a few pockets of trees along the path, leading to a small, walled town, or perhaps village would have been more fitting, because from this distance it seemed like it wouldn’t hold more than maybe a few hundred people. The land around it consisted of large square patches of land that further in the distance were bordered by more forest.

Applejack stepped forward and squinted her eyes, covering the top of her eyes with a hand, “Well, it’s somethin’. But am I the only one who doesn’t see any lights?”

“Indeed,” said Rarity. “It looks abandoned.”

“Or everyone’s asleep and there’s no crime rate to speak of, thus no need for law enforcement?” asked Pinkie optimistically with a half-hearted grin. Everyone exchanged looks with one another. “Eh, it was worth a shot,” she shrugged.

“It’s better than nothing, I suppose,” said Sunset. “We could use a rest, and it’s better to have shelter for that.”

That was a notion everyone could agree on as they continued forth, with a slight increase in their pace. The group went on for quite a while without so much as saying a word, Applejack even disregarding the need to keep asking about everyone’s presence, much to Rainbow’s delight, seeing as they crossed over the tree line. The light of the moon on the open road granted them much needed expanded vision. Rainbow took an idle look around, surveying the change when she noticed Pinkie’s face suddenly scrunching and her awkwardly hopping on one foot.

“You alright there, Pinkie?” Rainbow asked.

Pinkie’s head snapped in Rainbow’s direction, her face sporting an expression of overexaggerated alarm, “Pinch-y knee!”

The group stopped at Pinkie’s shout, all eyes on the pink party girl. “Uh, what was that now?” asked Applejack, no doubt having to strain her memory trying to remember every single bodily spasm that was the Pinkie Sense.

“That something scary is about to happen,” said Pinkie, looking back where they’d come, her mouth forming into an O. “I think it might be that,” she pointed casually.

Rainbow looked back, just in time to hear Fluttershy’s peeping whimper and a shocked scream from Rarity when she could feel the color drain from her own face. Running after them down the path came another of the aptly named timber wolves. A timber wolf six times the size of the ones they’d fought off, and even from the increasingly closing distance one could make out this one having three heads at the front, each with their own pair of eyes; hollow white orbs that stared at Rainbow and her friends, black motes of what looked like smog seeping from its mouths.

Author's Note

Timber Cerberus. I think I'll name him... Twiggy.