Chapters The school bell rang and students all left their classes. They all left to have their free time. Yona looked around until she found a green colt. "Sandbar," she cheered. The yak ran up to him for a might hug.
"Yeah, I'm happy to see you too," Sandbar said. The two shared a kiss before they walked down the hall.
"Yona wanted to talk to headpony about classes."
"Yeah, me too. It's been about a week. I think we can be in the same classes now." The two walked towards Starlight's office, to find Ocellus walking out.
"Oh, were you wanting to talk to her?" Ocellus asked. "I already checked, we'll be sharing classes starting Monday."
"Yes," Yona cheered. She started stomping in excitement, which caused the floor to shake.
"Yona!" Sandbar cried. The yak stopped by tripping over and Gale flew around the corner.
"What kind of an earthquake was that?" the griffon asked.
"It was just Yona," Ocellus said. The yak gave a guilty grin.
"Please don't do that again."
"No promises," Yona replied. The griffon just grumbled as he walked away.
"Just ignore him," Sandbar said. "He's still learning."
"It's nice the weekends here again," Ocellus said.
"Yeah, I have a lot of things planned."
"What Sandbar have in mind?" Yona asked.
"Spending time with you." The two blushed as they nuzzled each other.
"I'll just leave you two to have alone time," Ocellus said. She walked away to let the yak and pony have some fun on their own. They left the school and started heading towards town.
"So, what we do first?" Yona asked.
"I was thinking we just hang. We'd get some snacks from Sugarcube Corner then head to the treehouse."
"You think treehouse is still there?"
"Of course. We helped build it." The two walked off to get their treats. While on their way, they came across Big Macintosh and Sugar Belle. "Hi, Mr. Mac. How are you today?"
"We're doing good," Sugar Belle replied. "Though Granny is acting weird."
"Yep," Mac said.
"For good reason," Granny Smith replied as she walked up beside them. "Timberwolf season is starting again."
"Timberwolf?" Yona asked as she started getting scared.
"Granny," Macintosh groaned.
"They're coming. Explain what that foul smell was last night."
"I think that was an apple cake I made a mistake with," Sugar Belle said.
"You just wait. If they come into our home tonight, don't come crying to me."
"You know," Sandbar said, "Yona and I should get going."
"Probably a good idea," Big Macintosh replied. The colt and yak ran off.
"If you ever need protection, give me a call," Granny called. Macintosh and Sugar Belle looked at the old mare with frustration. "What?"
"Granny pony weird," Yona commented.
"Agreed," Sandbar nodded. After getting to Sugarcube Corner, they were glad to see that the line wasn't too big. Just when Sandbar and Yona were about to get in line, a pegasus cut in front of them. "Um, excuse me."
"What?" the pegasus asked not even turning around.
"I think we were here first."
"Really? I guess that furball is hard to miss."
Yona's gasped as her ear's drooped. "Y-Yona not furball," the yak cried feeling offended. She would've said more, but her colt-friend spoke first.
"That was rude," Sandbar stated.
"Thanks captain obvious," the pegasus scoffed.
Sandbar stepped closer. "Look, apologize."
"Seriously? Who's gonna make me?" The pegasus was taller than Sandbar and the colt didn't know what to say.
"Well... You... It's not..." He felt nervous as the older colt towered over him.
"Next," Mrs. Cake said. The pegasus walked up to the counter. "Hello, sir. What can I getcha?"
"My muffins to go." The baker mare gave the pegasus his order and he left. As he walked out of the store, Sandbar watched him leave having a sinking feeling. He and Yona walked up to the counter. "Hello, Sandbar. Something wrong?"
"Not really," Sandbar replied.
"Pegasus mean to Sandbar," Yona explained.
"Oh, that colt?" Mrs. Cake asked. "He's just so rude. I'd make him pay fifteen percent more than he needs to, but I don't think that would be legal."
"We'll just take some cupcakes to go," Sandbar explained. The mare nodded and walked away as the colt sighed.
"Why didn't Sandbar say anything?" Yona asked.
"I panicked. He's bigger than me and probably stronger."
"Yaks strong too."
"I know, but you know we shouldn't get into a fight."
"Sandbar right. Maybe we have better time at treehouse." The colt smiled as Mrs. Cake came back with his order. Once they got this, Sandbar and Yona left to head to the castle of the two sisters. The forest seemed to normal like it usually was, but there weren't that many animals wandering around. "Sandbar think we should back?"
"Maybe. We could've just hung out at the lounge."
"Probably good idea."
"Hold on, I think I see the castle." He was right. They walked across the bridge and inside their treehouse.
"Has Sandbar ever heard of timberwolves?"
"I've heard of a few stories. They're wolves that are made of wood. If they get damaged they can just rebuild themselves, they can even combine each other's body parts to become bigger."
The yak shivered just hearing that. "Yona don't want to know more. Yona shouldn't have asked."
"Then have a cupcake." Sandbar took one of the cupcakes out of the box and gave it to his girlfriend.
"Thanks." The yak chewed away as the colt got another cupcake for himself. "So, how was your vacation?"
"Mostly cold. Yaks sometimes go to empire to visit crystal ponies."
"Did you see Princess Flurry Heart?"
"Once. She growing up fast."
"Really? I wish I could've seen her." They stayed silent as they ate their cupcakes. "What did you Cozy Glow was talking about?"
"What?"
"She said she tried friendship and it didn't end well."
"Yona don't want to talk about Cozy Glow. She didn't want chance. Besides, she's gone now."
"Ocellus told me about her, and I kind of agree with her. What was she talking about?"
"Yona doesn't know." Just then, the two heard a howl. "What was that?"
"I think that was a timberwolf."
"Should we get back to the school."
"We should probably wait until they go away." The two closed the clubhouse door just to be safe. "I think Granny Smith was right."
"What we do?"
"Just stay calm and don't make any sound. Hopefully, they'll go away." The two stayed quiet and wait for like five minutes. Yona cracked the door open to look outside. Nothing was out there.
"Yona thinks we should get back to school."
"Right, let's go." The two raced out of the treehouse and back to school. They heard several different critters and birds they ran passed them, but the yak and colt didn't care. They just wanted to get back to safety.
Silverstream leaving the school with a beachball when she saw them running back. "Oh, hey, guys," she said. "I thought you were going to hang out at..."
"Timberwolves," Yona cried while running past.
"What?"
"They're wolves that are made out of wood," Sandbar explained. "Yona and I are going to play it safe and stay in the lounge."
"Aw, but I wanted to see if you wanted to head to the lake."
"Yona's going to be a little scared. I don't think she'll want to leave for a while."
"But I wanted to see what happens to the others after when I use my pearl piece on them."
"Maybe another time. I'm going to help Yona calm down." Sandbar walked inside to find his girlfriend. "Yona? Yona." He looked around until he got one of the dorm rooms. He saw Yona hiding under the covers while shivering. "Yona, are you okay?"
"B-b-b-been better," the yak shivered. "Are there timberwolves?"
"I didn't see any on the way here. I'm pretty sure we're safe." Yona removed the covers and stepped out of bed. "I'm pretty sure our teachers would have some plan if they were attacking. We can still hang out."
"No, Yona want to finish homework first."
"...If you so." Sandbar left the room now feeling a little glum. He slowly strolled through the hall until he got to the lounge, where Gallus was resting.
"Hey, dude," the griffon said, "What's up?"
"My day hasn't gone as planned."
"What happened?"
"Well, it just supposed to be a day just to me and Yona. We headed to the treehouse and had some snacks but then Granny Smith said that there are more timberwolves around this time of year."
"Timberwolves? I've been through that forest multiple times and I haven't seen one of those wolves."
"Do you even know what a timberwolf is?"
"Do you what a flatrata is?"
"Sounds like something you just made up."
"Because I just did. I have no idea what a timberwolf is."
Then Sandbar remembered something. "I forgot the cupcakes! They're still at the treehouse."
"Can't you go get them?"
"I'm not going out there."
"Well man, I'm don't know what we're dealing with and I'm not going to be juggling spears." The colt just sighed and walked off to find Smolder chatting with some hippogriffs.
"Hey, Sandy," the dragoness said. "What's up?"
"I left some snacks in our treehouse."
"Can't you just go get them?"
"I can't. There are timberwolves in the forest?"
"Timberwolves?" the dragoness and hippogriffs asked. The griffs didn't know what they were, but Smolder just took this as a challenge.
"I think I can handle a wolf," she scoffed.
"Smolder, I don't think you know what a timberwolf is."
"You're looking at creature that bathes in lava. Just go with me and you'll be fine."
"...Okay. I mean, dragons are pretty tough." The dragon and colt left the school and headed into the forest. Smolder just kept walking like it was any normal day, but Sandbar was a little on edge.
"You don't have to be scared. I've got your back."
"Have you... Ever heard of a timberwolf?"
"Professor Fluttershy didn't talk about those."
"They're magical beings made of wood."
"Then I'll just burn it to a crisp."
"Okay. Let's just get the snacks and get back to safety." They picked up the pace and got to the treehouse and found the box of cupcakes lying on the floor.
"I don't know why you would just leave these here." just as Smolder picked up the box and closed it, she and Sandbar heard a howl.
"That's why we just left them there. We left in a hurry. Like we should do right now." In fear, the colt raced out of the treehouse with the dragoness following behind.
"Okay, buddy, slow down. It's just one wolf."
"Smolder, this is serious."
The dragoness landed in front of her friend, stopping him in his tracks. "Listen, you have nothing to worry about anything. We've been through this forest hundreds of times and I haven't seen a single timberwolf."
"You're not taking this seriously. I haven't seen a timberwolf myself, but I'm pretty sure that the last thing I'll see is the inside of one's mouth." Suddenly, they both heard growling. "Please tell me that's your stomach."
"Not at all." From the shadows of the trees, they both saw glowing green eyes. Nine sets of them.
"I don't think they'll attack if we don't make sudden movements," Sandbar whispered. Two of the wolves slowly crawled closer to them. The two stood as still as they could, but they were terrified. "What happened to 'burn them to a crisp'?"
"I didn't know there be this many of them. What do we do?"
"Just stay still." One of the wolves sniffed the colt who started sweating with fear. The other sniffed Smolder and then started growling.
"Okay, that's a bad sign." It tried to bite her and with that, the dragoness grabbed her friends hoof and flew off. The timberwolves gave chase. "Why did they tried to bite me?"
"I don't know." The wolves tried jumping up to bite them. They were nearly nipping the pony's legs.
"Smolder, a bit higher."
"I'm trying. You're heaving."
"Drop the cupcakes." The dragoness did so but it only helped so much. Just before they lost the pack, one of them bit Sandbar's leg. The colt cried out in pain as the wooden teeth sank in. Smolder kicked the wooden wolf, causing its jaw to break and for good measure, she breathed fire on it and set it ablaze.
After that, they lost the pack but Sandbar's legs had a large bite mark and he heavily bleeding. Smolder landed outside the school as her friend was still moaning in pain. "Are you..."
"No, I am not okay! I'm bleeding!"
"What's bleeding?" Sunburst asked walking outside. He gasped when he saw Sandbar's wounds and blood. "Don't panic. I'm going to get you some bandages." He raced off as the colt started getting light-headed. His vision started getting blurry as he struggled to sit up.
"Whoa, stay with us," Smolder said. She tried to cover the bleeding which caused her friend more pain due to the sound of his groaning. Before he could figure anything else out, Sandbar passed out.
"Sandbar? Can you hear us?" The colt slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurry and he could only see blobs.
"Look, he's waking up." When his vision cleared up, Sandbar could see his friends standing by the side of his bed.
"Hey, Sandy," Ocellus said. "We were getting worried about you."
"Wha... What happened?" the colt asked weakly.
"You passed out due to the lack of blood," Gallus explained. Sandbar looked down at his leg to see it was fully bandaged.
"Sandbar, I'm really sorry about this," Smolder apologized. "I didn't know anything about timberwolves. I thought..."
"Smolder," the injured pony said weekly, "It's... Okay." Sandbar looked to see Yona, who looked like a dog begging. "I... Feel... Fine."
"Sandbar don't sound fine," the yak said.
"He's just weak from the blood loss," Ocellus said.
"Yeah, did you see how much blood he lost?" Silverstream asked. The four creatures looked at her a bit annoyed. "Bad time, isn't it?"
"Just don't say anything," Gallus said. The hippogriff nodded.
"So... What... Happens... Now?" Sandbar asked.
"You just lie there and rest," Ocellus explained. "It's what the doctor said you should do. It's getting late anyway." The girls left the room and Gallus flew up to the top bunk. He and Sandbar both saw that Yona still standing by the bedside.
"Yona, he needs sleep," the griffon stated. "And so do you. And me too."
"Yona wants to make sure Sandbar is okay," the yak replied.
"I'll be... Fine," Sandbar stated. Yona's ear drooped as she walked to the exit of the room.
"Goodnight Sandbar." She turned off the lights and closed the door. Sandbar and Gallus got to sleep no problem, sort of. The colt couldn't move all that much due to his cast, which made his discomfort worse. It wasn't just his leg feeling sore, it was his entire body. Sandbar clenched his teeth and moaned, which became growling. Sweat started pouring down his brow as he slept through the sore feeling all night.
When the sun rose over the school, Sandbar felt worse than he did last night. He would've gotten up but he didn't want to make his injury worse. Gallus drifted down from the top to check on him. "Sleep well?" the griffon asked.
"No," the earth pony groaned. "My body is getting sorer. As if just my leg isn't bad enough."
"Okay. Look, I'll see I can get you breakfast in bed." Gallus flew off leaving a cranky colt in bed.
He kept grumbling to himself until Yona and Ocellus walked in. The changeling was carrying a tray of cereal while the yak carried some books. "Hope this makes you feel better," Ocellus said. She placed the tray on Sandbar's lap while Yona placed the books next to the bed.
"Thanks," Sandbar grumbled. He poured the glass of milk that was next to the bowl into it to fill it up.
"Sandbar feeling better?" Yona asked.
"I feel better when I eat." He gave a glare at the girls, signaling that he wanted to be alone. Once they left, he started eating. "I plan out a weekend just for Yona and me. And what do I get? I bite from a timberwolf. Now my body hurts, my legs going to take forever to heal." Sandbar kept grumbling as he ate his breakfast.
In the mess hall, his friends were talking with each other. "Should we eat with him?" Silverstream asked.
"I think he woke up on the wrong side of the bed," Ocellus said.
"Oh."
"I keep blaming myself for what happened," Smolder groaned. "I thought I could handle a timberwolf. I didn't know they were actually made of wood."
"Seriously?" Gallus asked.
"Hey, you didn't know a thing about them either."
"I think I can find a couple of books on them," Ocellus said.
"I doubt that the school library's going to have a book about them."
"Well, we have to do something., we should check on Sandbar throughout the day."
"Please don't tell me we have to help him to the bathroom," Gallus sighed.
"Yona will do it," the yak said without hesitation.
"We knew you would help with that," Smolder said.
"But where are we suppose to figure out more about timberwolves?" Silverstream asked.
"Granny pony," Yona suggested.
"Granny Smith?" Ocellus asked. The yak nodded.
"You sure about that?" Gallus asked. "I honestly think that pony has a screw loose."
"That's not very nice," Silverstream commented.
"Be honest, she kind of acts weird."
"She's our best option," Ocellus said. "I'll go over there as soon as possible."
"I'll help Yona with Sandbar," Smolder said. "It's my way of saying sorry to him."
"Silver and I will hang around if you guys need any backup," Gallus said.
"Alright," Ocellus replied.
"Sandbar probably done by now," Yona said.
"I'll take care of that," Smolder said. She promptly took off towards Sandbar's dorm room.
The colt was just reading one of the books lying beside his bed as the dragoness flew in. "What do you want?" he asked.
"I just came to take your tray." Smolder bent down to pick it up, but Sandbar was far from pleased.
"You know, this really doesn't make up for being bitten by a timberwolf."
"Listen, I'm sorry about that."
"Tell that to my leg. I'm in pain right now."
"You're overreacting."
"Then explain why I passed out?"
"I..."
"Do you know how much getting bitten hurts? Its teeth were in my flesh."
"Sand..."
"No. You try drawing blood yourself and you'll see what I mean." Smolder didn't say anything else, she just picked up the dishes and trays then left.
When she met up with her friends again, her guilty attitude was far gone. "You know what?" she asked. "Silver, you can help Yona take care of him."
"Why?" the hippogriff asked.
"He didn't want to say 'sorry', I'm not going to say it to him. He can find his own way to the bathroom."
"That's a little harsh."
"He told me to bite myself and draw blood. I'm going to go hang with Emma and Peri." The grumpy dragoness walked away leaving some confused friends behind.
Sandbar was still reading one of the books, which he was starting to lose interest in. Before he could start on another one, Yona and Silverstream walked in. "Hi, Sandy," the hippogriff said. "Are you feeling better?"
"Slightly," he replied.
"Smolder told friends about bad behavior," Yona said flatly.
"I'm just mad at her right now." Silverstream started gagged after smelling her friend's breath.
"How about we help you to the bathroom," she said. "You really need to brush your teeth." The hippogriff helped the pony out of bed and onto the yak's back. They made their way to the washroom, but the girls couldn't go in. "We probably should've gotten Gallus."
"Griffon didn't want to do this," Yona reminded.
"You didn't think this through?" Sandbar asked.
"I didn't plan Smolder would just dump this on me," Silverstream stated. "I'll go and find Gallus." She flew off as fast as he could but the colt was still cranky.
"Sandbar want to talk?" the yak asked.
"I'm sorry, Yona," Sandbar sighed. "I'm just not feeling like myself. I had such a fun day plan yesterday and now..." He paused as he looked at his injured leg. It felt... Normal. Out of curiosity, he slipped off his yak-friend's back and started removing his cast.
"Sandbar, stop."
"No, Yona, my leg feels better." He removed all the bandages to see the injury, but to their shock the leg was normal. No bite marks, no cuts, not even a scab.
"We're back," Silverstream announced. She flew back with Gallus and they were shocked to see Sandbar standing on his own.
"What's going on?" Gallus asked.
"My injury's better," Sandbar explained.
"No way."
"Impossible," Silverstream added.
"I'm not questioning it," the colt said, "I'm just glad I don't need any help to use the bathroom." He walked into the washroom leaving three confused friends.
"Does healed injury raise red flag?" Yona asked.
"Crimson," Gallus responded. "I don't care how much magic a pony has, that is impossible."
"The doctors didn't give him anything out of the ordinary," Silverstream said. "Unless ponies have made a cure-all tonic."
"Doubt it."
"Yona going to spend day with Sandbar," the yak said. "Might help with behavior and mystery."
"Okay, you do you." The two griff flew away as Yona wait outside the washroom for her colt-friend to come out.
Meanwhile, Ocellus had made her way to Sweet Apple Acres. "Ocellus," Applejack said surprised to see her. "I know you like to be the top students, but you don't have to around your teachers all the time."
The changeling chuckled. "Actually, I came here because my friends and I want to know more about timberwolves," she explained.
"Well, I'll be," Granny Smith said. She walked over to Ocellus with a grin on her face. "It's about time another creature wants to know more. So, what do you want to know?"
"Um... The basics of them." The changeling took out a pencil and notepad.
"Alright. Timberwolves live up to their name, on a count of being made of wood."
"Right." Ocellus quickly started writing notes. "Can you tell me what they eat?"
"Well, judging by their bad breath, I'd guess they eat small critters, like rabbits, squirrels, or possibly even sheep, like normal wolves."
"What about their unique abilities?"
"Oh, you mean like the regeneration? I have this theory that they also have a hive mind. It'll explain how they can come together into bigger wolves."
"Ocellus, why do you want to know this?" Applejack asked.
"Sandbar got bitten by one last night," the changeling explained. The two ponies gasped. "He's okay. In fact, my friends are helping to look after him."
"If it makes him feel better, I think we'll bring over a pie to help cheer him up."
"Those kids will need more than just a pie to keep them safe," Granny stated. She placed an army helmet on Ocellus's head, much to her confusion. "Come on, youngin, we need to prepare you for another attack. Luckily, I've got just the thing for timberwolves."
"Granny!"
"AJ, leave this to the experts. Let's go, Ocellus. We need to get you prepared." The old mare took the changeling inside the barn to show off the supplies.
"I think this is the one time I'm not happy to learn something," Ocellus said to herself.
Back at the school, Sandbar and Yona left and headed into town. "I'm so glad I'm not going to be stuck in bed all weekend," Sandbar said. "I still can't believe my leg is all better."
"Yeah, Yona can't either," Yona agreed. The yak couldn't help but question his miraculous recovery. "Doesn't Sandbar find that weird?"
"Who cares, we can get to spend the day together. Let's get some snacks at Sugarcube Corner." Sandbar took off and Yona struggled to keep up.
"How Sandbar so fast?" Before she could get an answer, she tripped and tumbled over. Sandbar stopped and walked over to help her. They both heard some laughing and looked over to see the pegasus from yesterday.
"So, did furball have a nice trip?" he asked. "I thought I wouldn't see her nex..."
"Don't finish that," Sandbar interrupted. "Not only has it been said to death, but it's also rude to my girlfriend."
"Why would you have a girlfriend that's fat like her." Yona hung her head having her feelings hurt while Sandbar growled. He walked up to the larger colt and decked him in the face. Once he was on the ground, Sandbar stomped on his wing.
"Dude, get off me!"
"Apologize to Yona." The pegasus didn't even look at the yak. This caused Sandbar to stomp on his face. "Did I ask that? Say it."
"Alright, I'm sorry. Get off me!" He did so and the pegasus took off. Sandbar then walked over to Yona.
"Are you okay?"
"Yona fine," the yak replied. "Sandbar okay?"
"Actually... I feel great. You still want to have a proper date?" Yona nodded and they carried on to Sugarcube Corner, where they got more cupcakes and they sat down at one of the tables. "This isn't as good as being at our treehouse, but it’ll do." The colt then started violently eating his snack, startling Yona.
"Uh... Sandbar."
He looked up with his face covered in crumbs and frosting. "What?"
"You said you not acting like yourself. Sandbar right."
The colt licked the crumbs and frosting off his face. "I only had a bowl of cereal. That's all I had since breakfast. I'm going to see if I can get anything else." He walked back to the counter, leaving a worried and confused yak to eat her cupcake.
After leaving Sugarcube Corner, the two went somewhere else for lunch. "Yona think it'll be good to have lunch away from school." They were walking past the Café Hay where they found Rarity waiting at one of the tables.
"Sandbar," the unicorn gasped. "You're better already?"
"Yona and friends surprised too," the yak replied.
"Same here," Sandbar added. "I don't know how, but my leg's just healed up."
"Then... Congratulations," Rarity said. She then showed them a small box beside her. "I was waiting to show you this Monday, but considering what happened, I though I'd give them to you early." Rarity opened the box to show a purple and pink jacket with the School of Friendship's emblem on the left shoulder.
"What's that?"
"Since this is your third year at the school, I thought you and your friends would enjoy having special jackets. Try it on."
He did so, and the jacket felt pretty snug. "It's so warm."
"I'm glad you like it. Would you take it over to the school when you have the chance?"
"Sure, we're just going to stop by the Hay Burger." The colt picked up the box and walked off with the yak following behind. After they got to the Hay Burger and made their order, Sandbar imminently got impatient. "Where is it?"
"Order was made three minutes ago," Yona reminded.
"But I'm hungry. What's taking them so long."
"There are other ponies too." She pointed to the line of ponies waiting to take their order.
"I don't know what's with me. Maybe it's because I'm still mad at Smolder."
"Sandbar need to apologize."
"You're right. I just don't know why I got so angry."
"Maybe Sandbar still sore."
"Maybe."
"Order up," cried the stallion behind the counter. "Number two-o-nine."
"Sweet, that's our order." Sandbar raced up to get their food and then placed it on the table. Yona started munching away at her burger, Sandbar wolfed down his meal, sending crumbs all over the table and onto the floor. Many other ponies stared at him and Yona could feel the awkwardness rising.
The yak stomped on the table to get her boyfriend's attention. He saw what he was doing and suddenly felt guilty. "Let's pay and go."
"Agreed." Sandbar left some bits on the table and he and Yona ran off. The yak was still eating her hay burger as they slowed down.
"I have no idea what came over me." He looked down to see his new jacket stained, which he groaned in annoyance.
"Ocellus trying to find out more about timberwolves. Maybe she back at school now." She finished off her burger and raced off towards school. It didn't take long for Sandbar to catch up with her. In fact, he ran ahead of her, so much that the yak struggled to keep up.
When they got back to school, the colt had to wait for the yak to catch up. Yona was out of breath and sweating. "Are you okay?"
"Just... Need water." They slowly walked back inside to find Smolder and some griffons walking the opposite way.
"Hey, Yona," the dragoness said. Her expression fell when she saw the colt. "Sandbar."
"Listen, Smolder..."
"If you want to be a jerk again, go ahead."
"No, look, I'm sorry for my behavior earlier." The dragoness was finding this hard to believe. "I wasn't myself earlier today. I don't know what's with me today."
"Uh-huh." She walked off before he could say anything else.
"Hey, I'm trying to apologize."
"I don't think she wants it," a griffon said. She flew away with the others, leaving a frustrated colt and tired yak.
"Why won't she accept it?"
"Maybe try again later," Yona suggested. "Right now, Yona needs water." After getting a drink from the water fountain, they found Gallus and Silverstream.
"So, how's your day been going?"
"Pretty good," Silverstream replied. "I've started making an idea for my Nightmare Night costume."
"You know that isn't for a few more weeks," Gallus stated.
"I know. I'm just getting prepar... Hold on, where'd you get that jacket?"
"This?" Sandbar responded, "Professor Rarity made it. In fact, she made some for you too." He opened the box and Gallus took out another jacket and put it on.
"Nice," he commented. Silverstream looked in the box as well but only found one more jacket.
"She did say they weren't finished."
"Oh, so that's why this one doesn't have holes for my wings," Silverstream commented. She was right. If she were to put this jacket on, her wings would be covered up.
"Again, not finished." The hippogriff handed the jacket over to Yona, but it was too small for her.
"Yona going to tear jacket if she put it on," the yak said.
"Looks like it," Gallus said.
"I wonder if Smolder would this," Silverstream pondered.
"I don't think she would want anything from me," Sandbar said.
"Why not?"
"Smolder still angry at Sandbar," Yona explained.
"It doesn't help that I stained my jacket," Sandbar added, "Half an hour after I got it." He let out a frustrated sigh, which made Gallus and Silverstream gag.
"What did you eat?" Gallus asked covering his beak.
"What are you talking about?"
"It smells like there's a skunk in your throat," Silverstream answered, mimicking Gallus's action.
"I'm going to show this thing off," the griffon announced. "Let me know when you brush your teeth." He started walking off before he looked back. "Do it." The griffon and hippogriff walked off, wanting to get away from their friend's bad breath.
"Does it really stink that bad?" Sandbar asked. He looked at Yona, who had the same reaction.
"Sandbar need to brush," she said.
"Alright." He walked away to the washroom as Yona stayed behind and heard something squeaky. She walked to where she heard it and found a minotaur wearing an army helmet pulling a cart loading with some crates. It saw the yak and changed its form to show it was Ocellus.
"What Ocellus doing with cart and crates?"
"Granny Smith said these would help in case of a timberwolf attack," Ocellus said flatly. "Did you know that their eyes give a glow so they never have to worry about being in pitch-black darkness? I do now."
"What in crates?" The changeling flew up to one of the crates and show some tools for cutting wood, saws, axes, and even a sickle. "Why granny pony have these?"
"I don't think we should question that. I stopped to make things go faster. I really don't think that we should have these."
"Agreed."
Later that evening, Ocellus met up with all her friends, except for Sandbar, who he and Yona were missing from the group. "So, that's all you know about timberwolves?" Smolder asked.
"Yeah," the changeling replied. "Have you seen Sandbar?"
"We haven't seen him since he went to brush his teeth," Silverstream replied.
"He's been gone all day?"
"No," Gallus stated. "Since one o'clock. To quote Silver, 'It smelt like he swallowed a skunk.'"
"It's not that bad," a voice replied. They looked over to see Sandbar and Yona walk towards them.
"Oh, we were just talking about you," Silverstream said.
"And the fact I don't want to see a certain dragon right now?"
"Okay, fine," Smolder said. "I'll see if Moss wants to find some gems." She stood up and started walking off, but Silverstream stopped her. "Hey, he didn't want my apology, so I'm not accepting his."
"Just stay here and say sorry to each other."
"Nope." Smolder tried to walk off, but her friends held on tight. "Silver, let go of me."
"Not until you and Sandbar apologize."
"Smolder just apologize," Yona said. "Not make hard than it is." Sandbar was about to leave too, but the yak stepped on his tail. She gave him a look that meant 'no' wasn't going to be an answer.
"Alright, fine," the colt groaned. He and Smolder looked at each other.
"Sorry," the pony and dragon said to each other, though not with much passion.
"There. Was that so hard?" Gallus asked.
"I'm just going to get something to eat," Sandbar replied. He and Yona walked off for and returned with their meals. Yona had a simple meal, but Sandbar had his food stack up so high, it was almost as tall as a yak.
"There's no way you can eat all that," Ocellus said. "Maybe if you..." She didn't have the chance to finish as her friend just dug in. Food scraps went flying, some of which landing on some of the students. The yak tapped on her boyfriend's shoulder, which thankfully made him stop.
"Seriously?" Smolder asked.
"I knew you were hungry, but that's just crazy," Silverstream said.
"I can't help it," the colt protested.
"Yona don't think Sandbar is okay," Yona said.
"I feel fine! Look, I'm full now and I'm just going to my dorm." He stormed off in a huff, leaving his friends to clean up his mess.
"Okay, we need to figure out what's going on," Ocellus said, grabbing some napkins.
"We're dealing with weirdness to often," Gallus said.
"Yeah," the group agreed.
Sandbar walked into his dorm room and slammed the dorm behind him. He let out a roar of anger. "What is wrong with me?" he cried. "I mean, giving that bully he deserved felt good, but why can't I control my appetite?" When the clouds in the sky moved to show the moon. Suddenly, Sandbar felt a bit of pain all over his body. "Oh gosh... What's... GAH!"
His hooves felt like they were getting stabbed by splinters, hundreds of them. He looked down and gasped to see three claws forcing themselves out of each hoof. Sandbar brought them up to his face to see they were made of wood, and it wasn't just his forelegs that had this, they were also coming out of his hind legs.
Sandbar got hit by another wave of pain. He collapsed onto the floor as he felt like his bones were being stretched. There was a loud crack, it sounded and felt like it was from his bones. He screamed in agony as he heard more snapping. As it kept going, the snapping started to sound it was coming from wood.
His skin was on fire. Sandbar saw his skin was actually splitting to show several pieces of wood were starting to show. Bits of his fur was now on the wood, making it look like it had moss on it. He started growing in height, making his jacket start to rip apart.
More parts of Sandbar's body started to show pieces of wood. His tail started getting pushed apart to make room for his new wooden tail. He was now hunched over as a majority of his body was now of wood, except for his head. Sandbar cried calling out for help, but he just kept making growls and even some barks. He let out one more cry of pain as his ears took the shape of twigs. His muzzle stretched out as his teeth now looked like wooden spikes. He covered his eyes as his eyebrows turned into leaves. When he opened his eyes again, they were hollow and were replaced with a green glow.
In the hall, the colt's friends were walking towards his dorm. "I think it'll take him more than three minutes to calm down," Ocellus declared.
"He's normally a calm pony," Silverstream replied.
"Not right now he is," Smolder declared.
"Yona don't want friends to fight," Yona spoke. "Just let Sandbar talk and finish problem."
"Yeah, let's get this over with," Gallus said. The griffon opened the door to the dorm room. "Hey, Sandbar if you're not in a talkative... Mood?" The griffon was scared and slammed the door shut.
"Why Gallus slam door?" The yak got her answer as the door was broken down by the new timberwolf. Each creature was now scared as the wooden beast growled. It slowly stomped towards Smolder, who stumbled backward. The wolf toward over and looked the dragoness in the eye. Smolder was hyperventilating now. The beast roared at her before storming off down the hall and out of the school.
"Where did that come from?" Gallus asked.
"I think the bigger question is, "Where's Sandbar?'" Ocellus asked. They looked in the room to see the furniture and the floor was scratched up. Not to mention some drops of blood on the floor. "You don't think that..."
"That thing ate him?" Smolder finished. The group went silent.
"No," Yona denied.
"If he was eaten, there would be a lot more blood," Gallus answered. He was given several glares, especially from Yona. "Not helping, got it."
"Well, we can't just let that thing run wild," Silverstream said.
"But... The supplies Granny Smith gave me are for trapping timberwolves," Ocellus said, "Not for hunting down."
"What about axes and saws?" Yona asked.
"Um..."
"Ocellus, show us where you put those supplies."
Downtown, Sandbar raced down the street. He stopped and sniffed. Something was nearby. A lost bunny was looking around. The predator pounced at it. Before the prey could react, it was already in the jaws of the wooden beast. With a loud crunch, the rabbit was swallowed up, but the beast was still hungry.
It raced around looking for more food. Some squirrels were looking for some nuts, but instead, they would soon find themselves as another snack for the timberwolf.
The five students walked around carrying the tools Ocellus got from the old pony. "I don't know why she would have all these," Gallus said, "And that concerns me."
"There's a timberwolf on the loose," Smolder said. "An old lady is the least of our problems."
"Guys look," Silverstream cried. There was a rabbit ear on the ground, along with some droplets of blood.
"We must be getting close," Ocellus commented. She gulped as she and her friends carried on.
Yona was shivering at the thought of what the wolf would do to them. "Okay, this is something I'm curious about," Gallus said. "Why didn't that thing attack Smolder when it had the chance."
"That's a good question," Smolder responded. "I mean, when they sniffed me they tried biting me."
"We could just stay in the air and away from the wolf," Silverstream suggested. "Unless they can fly. Can they fly?"
"No," Ocellus replied. Just then they heard a growl. "I think we're close. Silver, help me lift Yona up."
"Why are we facing that thing?" Gallus asked.
"Smolder's a lot tougher than us." The changeling and hippogriff lived the yak into the air, but the dragon and griffon weren't done.
"You're not going to do this without us," Smolder stated.
"Yona can't face timberwolf," Yona replied.
"Right," Ocellus said. Then they heard some screeching. They looked down and saw the timberwolf having another meal.
"I really wish I didn't see that," Silverstream said. The others agreed.
"Hold on," Gallus said. He pointed to the torn jacket on the timberwolf. "That's Sandbar jacket."
"But... How could that be?" Ocellus asked. The five stood silent.
"You don't think...?" Silverstream asked.
"There's no way."
"It would explain how the timberwolf got in our room," Gallus said. The windows weren't broken and you saw it knock down the door."
"It... It makes no sense. I mean it's just..." Then Ocellus saw the wolf climb up to the rooftops. "What is it doing?" Her answer came when the wolf pounced at them. Smolder was tackled to the ground as the wolf growled at her.
"He... Hey. Buddy," the dragoness said nervously. "Sorry about being mean to you. Just... Don't eat me." The timberwolf just stared at her for a minute before the others landed behind him.
"Sandbar, is that you?" Ocellus asked. The wooden beast looked back at his friends. He suddenly took off before Yona gave chase.
"Yona, wait," Silverstream cried. They gave chase as some ponies looked out to see the timberwolf running through the streets. They quickly barricaded their homes, hoping that it wouldn't get inside. Ocellus saw some shovels leaning on a wall and got an idea.
"Guys, wait a minute," she cried. Yona didn't hear her and kept chasing after Sandbar.
Sandbar looked around and saw some birds in a nest. He tried climbing up the tree to fill himself up. Yona could see what he was doing. "Sandbar, stop!" she ordered. "Birds not hurting any creature."
The timberwolf glared at the yak, who was regretting her decision. She started whimpering as the wolf walked towards her. Suddenly, some stones were pelted at the wolf. "Hey, timber tooth," Gallus cried. He threw more stones, making the wolf angry. "Catch me if you can."
Once the timberwolf charge at him, the griffon took off. Gallus struggled to stay ahead as Sandbar was on his tail. When the wolf pounced at him, he missed and fell into a freshly dug hole made by the girls. "It worked," Ocellus cheered.
"How friends dig hole so fast?" Yona asked as she caught up. Ocellus just transformed into a giant mole then back into a changeling. "Right."
The group looked down in the hole of their transformed friend. "I'm still confused about how this happened," Silverstream admitted.
"We've faced weird crud before," Gallus said. "I'm pretty sure that'll we'll figure this out."
"This definitely explains why he's been acting like a jerk," Smolder said. She looked at Yona, who looked really upset. "We'll figure this out."
"But... But that..." Yona was choking up on her words as she looked at the timberwolf trying to escape. "That not Sandbar."
"I'm sure he's in there somewhere," Silverstream said. "We'll get him out. Probably not the hole."
"...What friends do now?"
"I think we should just back to the school," Ocellus said.
"And what if Sandbar escapes?" Gallus asked.
"Trust me, he won't." The group set off, but Yona didn't move from her spot.
"You coming?" Smolder asked.
"...Yona will catch up," the yak replied.
"Come on," Ocellus said. "I think she wants to be alone." The four walked off as Yona looked at the monster that was her boyfriend.
Yona had fallen asleep. She was woken up when someone called her. “Yona?” Sandbar called. The yak jumped awake and looked down in the hole. There, Sandbar was lying down wearing his ripped up jacket. “Can you tell me what happened last night?” he asked.
“Uh... You...” Yona had no idea what to tell him.
“There you are,” Smolder cried. She flew up to the startled dragon. “Were you here all night?”
“...Yes.”
“Please tell me what's going on,” Sandbar begged. Smolder looked down in the hole and saw he was back to normal.
The dragoness flew down to help get the pony out of the hole. “We'll explain on the way back,” she said. Once Sandbar was out of the hole, the three walked away.
“Last night was just a blur. I had this weird dream where I had claws. Must've been that timberwolf giving me nightmares.”
“Yeah, about that.” Smolder whispered into her friend's ear.
“I’M A WHAT?”
“Yep, it’s true. You went crazy last night and a few snacks.”
“Oh gosh... I ate a rabbit and squirrels. I’m a monster. This is your fault.”
“My fault?”
“If you didn’t mess around in the forest, I wouldn’t have gotten bitten and go on killing...”
“Shhhh.” She covered his mouth as some ponies were now walking around. “Some of them saw you know what last night.”
“Well, I’m still mad at you.” Yona felt uneasy with her friends fighting.
“Can’t friends just stay quiet?” the yak begged.
“Yeah,” Smolder said. They kept their mouths shut until they got back. At this point, Yona was feeling a little tired from stay up so late. Her eyelids felt heavy as her horns scraped against the wall, making her wake up.
“There you are,” Silverstream said. She flew over to the three. She noticed a leaf on top of Sandbar’s ears, thinking it was stuck she pulled it off, but it caused her friend some pain. “Sorry.”
“You know what,” Sandbar said. “Why don’t you just heat me up by setting me on fire? No? Okay, I guess I’ll just have my leg bitten and I’ll become a bloodthirsty monster.”
“Hey, you’re a lot heavier than I thought,” Smolder protested.
“You’re a dragon. They can throw boulders and you can’t carry me?”
“I was also carrying the cupcakes you left behind?”
“What’s going on?” Moss asked. He walked up to where he heard the arguing. “Some of us want to sleep in.”
“Sorry,” Silverstream apologized. The changeling grumbled as he walked away. Yona wished she could get some more sleep too, but Sandbar had other ideas.
“I’m sure you guys have already eaten,” Sandbar said annoyed. “Let’s go Yona.” He grabbed the yak’s hoof and dragged her away.
“Was that thing in his ear?” Smolder asked.
“I think so,” Silverstream replied. Both of them were now worried.
In the mess hall, the only creature left in there was Gallus. He had two trays in front of him, one had an average amount of food, the other had food stack to match his height. “We thought you would be hungry,” he said trying to hide his surprise when he saw his friend, “So, we got some food for you.” The yak and pony started eating, with Sandbar going for the bigger tray.
“Thanks, Gallus,” Yona yawned. The griffon gave a thumbs up before leaving the room.
He found Ocellus in the library reading a journal that looked pretty old. “Anything new?”
“Not anything new that Granny told me,” Ocellus sighed. “I don’t even think she would be able to have a cure to change him back to normal.”
“You think we could just use our miracle beams to fix this?”
“Timberwolves are a lot more common than you think. I don’t think shooting him with rainbows is going to work.”
“Well... What about that Zebra?”
“Zecora?”
“Yeah, her. She helped us when the school was sick, maybe she can help with this.”
“It’s worth a shot. Though, I’m a bit scared to go into the forest with all those timberwolves running around.”
“Just turn into a timberwolf. They won’t know the difference.”
“Okay. How’s Sandbar doing?”
Sandbar was wolfing down his food. Yona was feeling pretty scared at this point. Her fatigue didn’t help either, she could barely keep her eyes opened. “Yona? Yona.” The yak looked towards her boyfriend but instead saw a timberwolf. The wolf lunged at her. “YONA!”
She shot awake to see Sandbar was a still a pony. “How much did you sleep?” he asked.
“Barely,” Yona replied. “Yona stayed up late to keep an eye on Sandbar.”
“You wouldn’t have to if Smolder just went in and out of the forest as I told her.”
“Sandbar shouldn’t be mad at friend. It wasn’t Smolder’s fault.”
“She stopped me and then we got surrounded by timberwolves.”
“What if Yona trip and stopped Sandbar?” The colt paused and thought. “Would Sandbar blame Yona?” He had no clue how to reply. He just scarfed down the rest of his food and walked away.
“Hey, Sandbar,” a griffon called, “You wanna help us practice buckball?”
“Heck yeah.” The pony tossed his torn jacket on the ground and walked away with the griffon, leaving a worried yak behind.
Later, Ocellus was making her way through the Everfree Forest. Since the wooden wolves were more common now, she a little on edge. The second she heard a twig snapping, she panicked and turned herself into a rock. She closed her eyes and hoped whatever was close would go away.
“Ocellus,” a voice called. “Are you here?” The disguised rock opened her eyes and saw Smolder looking around. Not wanting to draw attention, she changed back and flew up to her to cover the dragon's mouth.
“Keep it down,” the changeling ordered. “They could be around.”
“Sorry, I just wanted to help. Unless you don’t want my apology either.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Sandbar’s mad at me again. He blames me for this whole problem.”
“Let’s just get to Zecora’s before we get eaten.” The two carried on as quietly as possible. “How’d you know I was here?”
“Gallus told me where you were going.”
“Make sense.” After a while, they got to the hut and knocked on the door. It swung open and the two were dragged in.
“What are you doing here?” Zecora asked, “This forest is a place most creatures fear.”
“We have a timberwolf problem,” Ocellus explained. “Is that why you're so scared.”
“Yes, I’m under a little stress.”
“Okay, I don’t like the rhyming, but we don’t have to talk about that,” Smolder said. “Our friend got bit by a timberwolf and he then turned into one. But now, he’s back to his old self, still a jerk though.” Zecora’s face fell.
“Wh... What’s wrong?” Ocellus stuttered. “You can help him right?”
“Hopefully things won’t go wrong,” Zecora said, “Just tell, he’s been like this for how long?”
“He was bitten two days ago,” Smolder explained. The zebra’s face looked grim.
“Zecora, please tell us you can help,” Ocellus begged.
The zebra walked up to her cauldron and poured in some potions. “Your friend is in danger, that much is said,” Zecora explained, “But there is more trouble for you ahead. Timberwolves are interesting creatures, regeneration and hive minds are helpful features.”
“They do have hive minds?”
“Of course, it’s how they form together, but your friend's problem is more dangerous, however. Theories about timberwolves are left to be debated, but something that’s hardly known is that they’re not born, but created. A pony who was going mad with power, wanted to make creatures that’d make others cower. Instead of getting his magic to increase, his last spell forever turned him into a beast.”
“A timberwolf?” Ocellus asked.
“Yes, he was the first, and he would soon spread his curse. Once a victim is bitten, their very selves start becoming rewritten. First, they gain nearly endless hunger, then they start having outbursts of anger. On the third night bitten, timberwolves come together, as their newest member becomes one of them, forever.”
“So, if we don’t fix this, Sandbar’s going to be a timberwolf for the rest of his life?” Smolder questioned. “Why didn’t you just tell us?!”
“Smolder, calm down,” Ocellus cried. “Zecora, can you help us?”
“I have been making potions for years, that I can assure, but I’m afraid this timberwolf curse has no known cure,” she replied.
“Seriously?” Smolder questioned.
“You don’t have to worry, there’s this theory but you must hurry. You must find the timberwolf responsible for this crime, and hopefully, kill him in time.”
“So, we just kill the timberwolf that bit Sandbar?” Ocellus questioned. Zecora nodded. “How are we suppose to do that?”
“I remember setting it on fire,” Smolder said. “The wood’s gotta be burnt.”
“So, we could set up a trap. Sounds easier said than done.’
“I think I gave all the information so you’re done,” Zecora said, “Now leave before they get you and turn you into one.” The changeling and dragoness nodded. The left the hut and flew off back to the school.
“So, Sandbar just changed back?” Ocellus asked.
“Yeah, like a werewolf,” Smolder replied. “Let’s just get what we need and kill the mutt that bit Sandbar.”
Speaking of which, Sandbar was helping the griffons practice buckball. When the colt kicked the ball to one of the enemies’ goal, and he scored. “YEAH!” he cheered.
“Thanks,” a dark indigo griffon said flatly. “Care to let one of us score?”
“Listen, Geena, you need to get tough if you want to win. You really think the other that other schools are going to go easy?”
“Well... No...”
“Then you need to learn.”
“Gallus said you were a lot nice than this,” a chocolate brown griffon said.
“Grace, you’ve barely even been trying to protect our goal. If you don’t like getting dirty, try dance classes instead.”
Geena didn’t like this at all. “I’m done,” she said.
“Me too,” Grace sighed. The griffons started leaving the field, leaving the colt behind.
“Alright, fine, you guys are boring,” he said.
“You’re actually a jerk,” Gale said flying by. Sandbar just growled and stomped off.
Inside, Yona and Silverstream were hanging with Shimmy Shake and Lighthoof. “It’s so cool that we have so many creatures here at this school,” Lighthoof said.
“I know,” Shimmy agreed. “Silver, Yona, how do you feel about this?”
“It’s amazing,” the hippogriff replied. “It’s so nice that some of my friends from Seaquestria and Mount Aris are here now. Yona, how about you?” They saw the yak was pretty much just a big brown pillow, as she was fast asleep. “Yona?” Silverstream tapped her friend on the head, which woke her up.
“What?” Yona asked sleepily.
“Are you okay?” Shimmy asked.
“Yona just tired. Didn’t sleep well last night.”
“You have a bad dream?” Lighthoof asked.
“Kind of.”
“I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about,” Shimmy chuckled. The yak and hippogriff thought otherwise. They then heard some stomping and looked to see an angry Sandbar walk in.
“What’s bothering him?” Shimmy Shake questioned.
“Yona going to find out,” Yona said. She got up and walked over to her boyfriend.
“Oh, Yona,” Sandbar said. “Good, I can talk to some creature that knows what I’m talking about. So, some griffons wanted me to help them practice, but I was too good for them and they just quit. Am I being a jerk for giving them a challenge?”
“Yona doesn’t know. Need more information.”
“Um, Yona,” Silverstream called, “You haven’t answered our question yet.”
“Is it important?” Sandbar asked flatly.
“It just her opinion on what she thinks about the other students,” Shimmy said.
“Yona thinks yaks doing alright.”
“Yeah, yaks are best,” Sandbar added. “Anyways, I thought we try something new today.”
“Didn’t Sandbar and Yona have their day yesterday?”
“I just want to spend time with you.”
The yak looked over to the girls. “Yona wants to spend time with other friends.”
“Yona, I’m your boyfriend.”
“That doesn’t mean we have to spend every day together.” Yona walked back to the girls, which made Sandbar angry.
“You know what, fine. I’ll just spend my time somewhere else?” He walked away in a huff, leaving the girls confused.
“What’s his deal?” Lighthoof asked.
“Psst,” Smolder said. Silverstream and Yona looked to see the dragoness along with Ocellus.
“Be right back,” Silverstream said. She and Yona walked around the corner to see the nervous face of a changeling.
“What wrong?” Yona asked.
“The good news is, we found out there’s a way to cure Sandbar,” Ocellus explained. “We just have to kill the original timberwolf that bit him.”
“But they can regenerate,” Silverstream said.
“Exactly,” Smolder acknowledged, “That’s part of the bad news. The other bad news is if we don’t fix this, Sandbar’s going to be like this for the rest of his life.”
“WHAT!?” Yona cried.
“Keep it down. We don’t want the entire school to know.”
“I think that the dorm door is hard to miss,” Silverstream commented.
“What do you... Oh boy,” Ocellus gasped relizing what her friend meant. They raced off to find Sunburst taking a look at the broken door.
“Um, hi... Vice Principal Sunburst,” Silverstream said.
“Care to explain what happened here?” the unicorn asked.
“That...” Smolder said. “Well...”
“Yona saw wasp,” the yak lied.
“Really? Then what about those claw marks?”
“...Uh.” Any idea would be good right now, but Yona couldn’t think of anything.
“Vice Principal Sunburst,” Gallus said. The griffon flew up behind the stallion. “Yeah, you’re probably wondering about this. I honestly thought that this wood was going to snap at any moment.” Using his talon, Gallus broke a piece off the door. “I don’t think it’s that good.”
“Weird,” Sunburst commented. “I’ll see if Applejack can help with this.” He walked away leaving the students to talk.
“Thanks, Gallus,” Ocellus said.
“No problem,” the griffon replied. “Have you seen where Sandbar went?”
“We don’t know,” Silverstream answered. “We just saw him leave moments ago.”
“What we really need to do is take care of the timberwolf that bit him,” Ocellus said.
“And how soon do we have to do that?” Gallus asked.
“Before tomorrow night,” Smolder said.
“Yona doesn’t want Sandbar to be timberwolf forever,” Yona wept.
“Wait, what?” Gallus questioned.
“I’ll explain while we’re setting traps,” Smolder said. She took Gallus and Ocellus outside as Yona started to get worried.
“What if friends can’t find a way to help Sandbar?” she asked.
“We’ve faced worse,” Silverstream said trying to reassure her friend. “Maybe while their setting traps, we can go hunting for a wolf.” Yona’s pupils went tiny. “No?”
The yak shook her head. “Yona smash timberwolf to save Sandbar.”
“That’s the spirit. Let’s just get some tools and get going.” The two raced off, not knowing what they were really up against.
Somewhere in the Everfree Forest, a jackalope was trying to make a run from something growling. It was suddenly slashed by a large creature. It squealed as a set of jaws lunged at it.
Sandbar suddenly cried in shock. Some of the other students walking past him looking to be surprise and confusion. “What did I just see?” he questioned. He rubbed his forehead as a headache was now forming. He started seeing visions of different, some of some animals running in fear, but there was one with timberwolves howling.
Suddenly, the other students heard a howl. “What was that?” a changeling asked.
“I think it was a timberwolf,” a unicorn explained. “We should be safe here.”
“But they sound so close.”
“You can turn into anything,” Sandbar stated. “Just turn into a titan and stomp on them.” He growled as he felt his headache get worse.
“Are you okay...”
“I’M FINE!” The unicorn and changeling decided to walk away to leave the colt to his headache. Suddenly he saw the point of view of something. It was looking from some bushes and saw a certain hippogriff and yak walking by. “Wait a minute.”
In the forest, Silverstream and Yona, who both carried a different set of cutting tools. “Maybe this was a bad idea,” Silverstream said. She heard some twigs snapping, making her flinch.
“Friends should’ve come with,” Yona said. “Friends help protect against monsters.”
“Yeah, let’s turn back.” When they started walking the other way, each direction started looking the same. “Maybe we should’ve stuck on the path to the treehouse.” Then they heard some growling. Glowing green eyes were starting to show as timberwolves stepped towards them. The one that stood out was one that had black leaves and gray wood, and judging by its smell it was burnt.
The two shivered as the beasts got closer. They tried holding onto their tools but fear was overpowering them. Silverstream threw her ax as the pack but she missed. Yona just dropped her tools on the ground and screamed, “RUN!” The two booked it as the timberwolves gave chase.
The hippogriff tried to carry her friend, but she struggled to so. “Yona, you’re too heavy,” Silverstream said. “Just keep running.”
“But Yona doesn’t know where to go.”
“I’m sure we’ll losing.” She was wrong, the pack was gaining on them. Just when it looked like the two were done for, a laser beam struck one of the wolves and sent all of its wooden parts onto the ground.
“Keep away from them,” cried a voice. Silverstream and Yona looked to see Starlight Glimmer, Sunburst, and Sandbar. The stallion blasted away at the wolves while the mare teleported the hippogriff and yak away from danger. Once they were at safety, she teleported them all away back to the school.
“We’re so sorry,” Silverstream said before her principals could say anything. “We...”
“What were you thinking?!” Sandbar asked.
“Sandbar, we’ll handle this,” Starlight asserted.
“No, I wanna know, why were you just wandering around the Everfree Forest? You saw what one timberwolf did to me.”
“Ocellus told us how we could help you,” Silverstream said meekly.
“What did they say?” Sunburst asked.
“Oh, I’ll tell you,” Sandbar declared. “Thanks to Smolder, I got bit and now I’m becoming a timberwolf.”
“...What?” both unicorns questioned.
“I’m pretty sure that ponies becoming timberwolves were just a legend,” Sunburst said. “I haven’t found any proof of that theory.”
“I’d like to show you some,” the colt grumbled.
“That’s not imported right now,” Starlight affirmed. “Girls, until further notice, it’s not safe to go into the Everfree Forest.”
“Got it,” Silverstream and Yona sighed. Just then, there was a springing sound, followed by a loud snap.
“What was that?” Sunburst asked. They headed towards the side of the school, to find Gallus, Smolder, and Ocellus taking opening some crates to take out and set up traps.
“This just looks like a bear trap,” Gallus commented. “How is this even suppose to...”
“What are you doing?” Starlight cried.
“Oh,” Smolder said poking her head out of the crate. “Granny Smith gave us some traps for timberwolves.”
“These are no where safe you,” Sunburst explain. He levitated the traps away from the students, much to their frustration. “I'm going to have to talk with AJ about this.”
“But what about...”
“If there are any timberwolves,” Starlight said, “I’ll just put a barrier around the school. It’ll keep you safe from them and these traps.” The two unicorns walked away, leaving the six behind.
“Why would an old lady even have these?” Sunburst question.
“I don’t think I want to know.”
With them gone, the students talked between each other. Sandbar wasted no time ripping into Silverstream idea. “Do you ever think?” he asked.
“But they...” The hippogriff wasn’t allowed to finish.
“You might as well cover yourself in soy sauce. It’s going to take more than axes and other blades...”
“Sandbar,” Yona cried, trying desperately to calm him down.
“Yona, let me finish. Silver, you’re an idiot. You could’ve gotten killed by that pack.”
“H... H-how did you know we were out there?” Silverstream asked, now uncomfortable.
“Hold on,” Gallus said, “How did you know they were out there?”
“I... I just saw them.”
“From the school?”
“No, from a bush, somehow.”
“What do you mean, ‘somehow’?” Ocellus asked.
“I saw them from a bush, but I was still in the school.”
Ocellus and Smolder looked at each other. “Hive mind,” they said in synchronization.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s something Granny and Zecora told us,” Smolder explained. “Timberwolves hive minds. I think you’re started to become a part of it.”
“Wolves can see us right now?” Yona asked.
“Possibly,” Ocellus replied.
“I think we know who’s fault this is,” Sandbar said. He gave Smolder an angry glare.
“Could you drop it?” Smolder asked.
“You’re the entire reason this is happening. Yona and I are going to get lunch.”
“We are?” Yona questioned. She was too surprised to say anything as they left their friends behind.
“I don’t even know why I bother,” Smolder groaned.
After lunch, Gallus and the girls were trying to think of a plan. They looked out the window and saw the dome surrounding the school, preventing anything getting in or out. “Okay,” Gallus said, “I’ve got nothing.”
“Me neither,” Silverstream agreed.
“Gonna be honest,” Smolder amitted, “If it wasn’t for Sandbar’s past behavior, I wouldn’t even want to save him.”
“Smolder,” Ocellus cried.
“As I said, I’m being honest.”
“Nevermind, let’s just go over what we know. We’re not allowed to leave the school, all the tools we got from Granny Smith are gone, and we have only two more nights to save Sandbar.”
“Not to mention the hive mind thing,” Gallus added. “They can spy on us now and attack us wherever we are. As long as Sandbar’s near us.”
“We don’t really have that much luck going for us,” Silverstream commented.
“We don’t need luck when we have a good plan. Something I wish we had right now.” The group went back to thinking, with little progress.
“Hold up. We just need to go through the tunnels.” The four flew to the library, but they found a heavy safe with a forcefield around it where the grate would be. On the floor next to it was a note reading, ”Way ahead of you.” “Welp, there goes my plan.”
“It was worth a shot,” Ocellus reassured.
“Can friends tell yak what safe in bubble is doing?” Trud the yak asked.
“Not now,” Gallus said. “We’re in a bit of a time crunch.” Trud nodded and walked away and out of the library, past Yona and Sandbar. Once they saw him, Ocellus and Silverstream promptly hid.
“Okay, really?” Sandbar asked.
“I’m not risking it,” Ocellus stated.
“I can still see you.” Silverstream tried crawling further under the table but her tail was still exposed.
“How are we even suppose to keep him locked up?” Gallus whispered to Smolder. “We don’t have any chains.”
“I can hear you.” The griffon and dragoness jumped at their friend’s comment.
“Yona didn’t friends,” Yona admitted.
“Really?” Sandbar asked. He rubbed his ears as he felt his hearing was getting stronger.
“Now I’m scared,” Ocellus whimpered.
“Of what? The fact that Smolder...”
“Don’t you say that again,” Smolder interrupted.
“It’s true.”
“You know what else is? You’re being a jerk.”
“Friends try and calm down,” Yona suggested.
“Probably a good idea,” Silverstream commented.
“Sandbar?” called a voice. Geena came flying into the library along with some dragons. “You ready for round two?”
The colt chuckled. “Only because you’re giving me a real challenge.”
Ocellus poked her head out of her hiding spot as one of the dragons explained. “Sandbar was a jerk to the griffon during buckball practice,” he explained, “So we’re helping them kick his flank.”
“I’m in,” Smolder said without hesitation.
Sandbar just laughed. “You’re going to be wasting your time. You’ll lose in seconds.” The pony, griffon, dragons left the library as the others followed behind.
Once on the field, Sandbar had the odds stacked against him. He was going in single-handed while every creature else, besides Gallus, Silverstream, Ocellus, and Yona, were on the other team. “How is this fair?” Ocellus questioned.
“I can make it work,” the colt said. The dragons and griffons started chucking balls at him, but Sandbar dodged and rebounded every single one of them. The ones he bounced back, nearly hit the other team members.
“How is he doing this?” Grace questioned. She was suddenly hit in the face by one of the balls. Smolder was decked in the face as well and landed next to an unconscious griffon. The dragoness rubbed her nose to find blood was leaking out.
“Hold it. Time out!” she cried. The creatures stopped and then saw Grace lying on the ground.
“Oh my gosh,” Geena gasped. She looked over her friend to see if she was alright.
“I didn’t think I was hitting that hard,” Sandbar said.
“You gave me a bloody nose,” Smolder cried. “These balls are made of rubber... How are you already this strong?” Smolder’s friends looked at each as if they knew.
“What is going on here?” Starlight asked. She walked up to the field and saw Grace just waking up. “I want answers.”
“Sandbar should not be allowed to play buckball,” a drake said.
“Why...” She then saw Smolder’s bloody nose. “Sandbar, explain.”
“They wanted a rematch and I gave them one,” the colt explained.
“Okay. Meet me in my office.” She helped Grace up and took her inside. “If it makes you feel better, we’ve been trying to hire a school nurse.” The unicorn looked back to the colt. “Sandbar!”
He followed the headmare while he gave an angry glare at the griffons and dragons, especially Smolder. “Are you okay?” Ocellus asked. She gave her friend an icepack.
“I’m angry right now,” Smolder replied. She cringed a bit as he placed the icepack on her nose while the other creatures went back inside.
“We need to figure this out.”
“We can’t get past Headmare Starlight’s shield,” Silverstream said.
“Not to mention, the library rarely has the books we need,” Gallus added.
“Guys, we have to figure something out,” Ocellus said. She looked up in the sky to see how they only had a few more hours. “Nothing’s going to get out of this forcefield.”
After a long talk, Sandbar was let out of Starlight’s office. “Finally,” he groaned. “I thought I was going to die of boredom.” As he walked down the hall, all of the other students tried to get away from him. He just ignored them until he found Yona talking with Grace.
“So, you really think I...” Grace paused when she saw the colt. “Gotta go.” She took off, leaving Yona confused.
“I injured two classmates by accident,” Sandbar stated.
“Oh, Sandbar,” Yona gasped.
“Sorry, I was in there for an hour. I can’t believe what she was saying.”
“Wasn’t Sandbar talking to headmare?”
“I don’t want to talk about her now. Let’s just go grab a bite.”
“But Yona not hungry.”
“I am. I’m sure that there’s still something left in the mess hall.” He walked down the hall with his girlfriend following behind.
In the library, Ocellus was trying her hardest to break the barrier surrounding the safe that was blocking their exit. “Don’t bother, Ocellus,” Smolder said. “I’ve already tried that.”
“I know,” the changeling said, “But maybe if a creature who uses magic...”
“Just stop,” Gallus said. “Do you still have that army helmet?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I think we’ll need it,” Silverstream said. The four couldn’t do anything but prepare for the worse as the sun went down. Ocellus gave her helmet to Silverstream as she would need it the most out of all of them. They found Sandbar chowing down in the mess hall. The only creature next to him was Yona. Everyone else was staying as far away as possible.
Smolder looked out the window to see the moon was going to rise soon. “Okay, so who’s getting him away from here?” she asked.
“I’ll do it,” Gallus said. He flew over to his roommate. “Buddy, you wanna talk?”
“Sure,” Sandbar replied with his mouth stuff. “What about?”
“Well, I was hoping that you’d help me with this project. I kind of left it to the last second.”
“Seriously?”
“We’re roommates, you know me.”
“Fine.” He pushed his tray to the side and followed the griffon to their dorm.
“Okay, now for our part,” Ocellus said quietly. She, Smolder, and Silverstream walked over to Yona.
“What friends want?” Yona asked glumly.
“We need you to help hold something back,” Smolder said.
Gallus and Sandbar got back to their dorm room, the moon started to shine from the clouds. The colt fell onto the floor as he was struck with pain. “You okay buddy?” Gallus asked.
“...N... No,” Sandbar groaned. He started regaining his wooden claws again as his bones began to crack.
“Don’t worry, I’ll get help.” Gallus flew out of the room and closed the door. The transforming pony pounced at the exit, but the griffon held back. His friends saw what he was doing and ran over to help. Still, Sandbar put up a tough fight. The door hinges nearly broken off as the timberwolf kept trying to break out.
“Okay, say he calls for backup,” Smolder said. “He can break down a door, what’s stopping him from breaking windows?”
“He won’t be able...” Ocellus paused as the door was rammed again. “...To break out of Headmare Starlight shield.” There was another ram but then, it stopped.
“There’s no way he’s already tired out,” Gallus said.
“Maybe it’s a test,” Silverstream said. Suddenly, there was a shattering sound.
“Uh oh,” they all said. They let go of the door, which now hung by one hinge, to find a broken window. Outside, they saw Sandbar in his timberwolf form. He was scratching at the forcefield trying to get out.
“Now what?”
“I think we try and trap him,” Ocellus explained. Before they could make their move, Sandbar looked towards them. They could see there was less ‘moss’ on his body. Before anything else could happen, there was a scream coming from another changeling.
“A timberwolf!” he cried.
“No wait,” Yona said. The timberwolf raced off to try and find a way out. “Sandbar wait!” The yak raced after him, with her friends following behind.
“Just stop and we can figure this out,” Silverstream cried. The timberwolf glanced back but was struck by a blue beam.
“How did that get in?” Starlight asked. “Nothing can get in here.”
“Headmare starlight, please...” But Ocellus couldn’t finish as Sandbar pounced at the unicorn that shot him. Luckily, Starlight formed a shield, but the timberwolf kept attacking.
“Sandbar, stop!” Yona cried. The headmare was confused but the timberwolf looked back towards the yak.
“Starlight!” Sunburst cried. He came running towards Sandbar and started firing beams at him. The timberwolf roared and raced off.
“Oh no you don’t,” Starlight said. She let down her shield and started charging up a beam. Yona quickly tackled her to the ground, causing the mare to miss. “Yona, what are you doing?”
“Headmare will hurt Sandbar,” the yak explained.
“Sandbar? That’s...”
“Long story,” Gallus said. “Just catch him, but don’t hurt him.” He flew off to help his friends catch the rogue timberwolf. Though they didn’t know what was going on, Starlight and Sunburst followed behind.
Sandbar had made his way into the school, where several of the students saw him and ran for cover. Some of them threw objects at him, which just made him mad. He snarled at the students, which made them run. Suddenly, a bugbear tackled him to the ground.
“Sandbar, we know you’re in there,” the bugbear said in Ocellus’s voice. “Just try and calm down.” The wolf growled as the other creature and principal and vice-principal caught up. The two unicorns activated a spell that trapped the wolf in a bubble. Ocellus flew back and changed back to her normal form.
“Okay, we caught him,” Silverstream said.
“We did,” Sunburst stated. “Now, explain what’s going on.”
“Sandbar’s a timberwolf,” Smolder said.
“But I didn’t believe it,” Starlight said.
“You sure it’s not him?” Gallus asked sarcastically. “I mean, he’s nowhere around and this timberwolf somehow got past...”
“Gallus,” Ocellus said with an annoyed look.
“I’m sorry, but I really think they should’ve figured this out.”
“This is something I’ve never seen before,” Sunburst commented.
“Zecora said we need to kill the timberwolf to change him back,” Ocellus explained. “If we don’t find the timberwolf before tomorrow night...” She looked up to Sandbar who looked to be trying to claw his way out.
“He’ll be that way forever,” Smolder finished. There was a long silence.
“We’ll search for the timberwolves tomorrow,” Starlight said. “I’ll see if the teachers can help out.”
“What about Sandbar?” Yona asked.
“We’re going to have to keep in there for a while,” Sunburst explained. The wolf kept growling as his friends looked at him.
“Just get some sleep,” Starlight said. “We’ll figure this out.” The five students walked away to their dorms. Yona one more look towards Sandbar before she walked away with Ocellus.
“They know now,” the changeling said as she got in bed. “There’s still a chance to save him.” The yak said nothing. She just pulled the covers over her head and forced herself to go to sleep.
“Yona? Yona,” Ocellus said. The yak jumped awake.
“Sandbar?” the yak asked as she jumped up. But her expression fell when she saw it was her roommate.
“Don’t feel so upset. He’s going to be better soon.”
“Can we check on him?”
“I think so.” They left their dorm and walked to where they last saw their friend. Sandbar was still in the bubble and had fallen asleep. However, they noticed something about his hooves still had wooden claws. Ocellus tapped on the bubble which woke the pony up.
“Girls?” he questioned. “What’s going on? Why am I...?” Then Sandbar noticed his claws. “But... I’m not a timberwolf now.”
“I think it’s becoming more permanent.”
“This? I don’t want to be a mindless beast. Yona, you have to help me.”
“Yona and friends doing everything they can,” the yak replied.
“Well, search faster. I only have one night left. Plus...” He groaned and held his stomach which growled loudly with hunger. “I’m starving.”
“We’ll get you some food,” Ocellus said before running off. Yona started following behind as she glanced back and sighed. “I know how you’re worried, but stay calm. We’re going to fix this.”
“If Ocellus says so,” Yona said.
Breakfast was uncomfortably quiet. For some of the students, it was the events that happened last night, but for five of them, it was their friend. “So, what do you think Headmare Starlight’s going to do?” Smolder asked.
“Maybe they have a special spell,” Silverstream said.
“I honestly think they just try and kill the wolf that bit him.”
“Easier said than done,” Gallus said.
“Yeah,” Ocellus agreed, “Regeneration is hard to beat.”
“So, we just burn them to a crisp,” Smolder said. “Right Yona?” The yak didn’t reply, she just stared at her cereal. “Yona?”
“She doesn’t want to talk right now.”
“Right,” Smolder and Silverstream said. Just then, they heard Starlight over the P.A. system.
”Attention students,” she said, ”Until further notice, classes are postponed.” Most of the students seemed more relief than upset by what they heard.
“At least we don’t have to worry about that,” Gallus said.
“Okay, but then how do we get out of the school?” Smolder asked. “You saw we couldn’t remove the safe.”
“Maybe there’s another exit,” Silverstream suggested. “That isn’t the only grate in the school.”
“The tree did make those tunnels to our homes,” Ocellus said. “I think it’s worth a shot.” Without saying anything, Yona got up from the table and ran off. She looked around and found a grate next to moat and bridges. She started using her horn as a crowbar she tried to pry it up.
Gallus flew up to her. “Um, Yona,” he said.
“What?” the yak replied, struggling to lift the grate up.
“I think it’ll be smarter instead of just prying it off you...” Yona flew backward as the grate came flying off. They both tumbled into the water. Silverstream said this and dove in to help her friend back on land.
“Thanks, Silver,” Yona said. They looked down the hole and saw it didn’t have the tunnel they were looking for.
“I don’t think we’re going to fit through there,” Silverstream said.
“Maybe friends try other grate. Maybe in showers.”
“Yona, that drain’s the size of a cereal bowl,” Gallus stated.
“Maybe... Ocellus transform.”
“Yona...”
“Yona can’t lose Sandbar! School quarantine all over again.”
“I wish I didn’t remember that,” Silverstream said.
“I think Ocellus wouldn’t either,” Gallus added. The griffon and hippogriff looked to their friend, who was weeping.
“I don’t know how, but things will get better.” Silverstream helped her friend up and tried to calm her down.
Starlight was down the hall and saw the crying yak. She walked out of the school opened a part of the forcefield so she could get out. “Starlight,” Rarity gasped as she and the other teachers walked up. “Why is the school covered by a forcefield.”
“I’m not risking the students getting caught up in a timberwolf attack,” Starlight explained.
“Gosh, I guess Granny was right,” Applejack commented.
“It’s much worse than that. There’s this theory that timberwolves aren’t born, they’re created after biting another pony. And Sandbar got bit.” The mares gasped. “It’s okay. There’s another theory that can change the pony back, but we have to do it before tonight.”
“Why?” Pinkie asked.
“Well... Sandbar will be a timberwolf forever.” It felt hard to say that.
“Where did you get this information?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Smolder and Ocellus talked to Zecora. The thing is we need to find the timberwolf that bit Sandbar.”
“But they all look the same,” Applejack stated.
“Not exactly. Here’s my plan.” She started explaining her plan as more carried on inside.
Ocellus and Smolder were looking through the window. “Okay, they’re taking care of it,” Ocellus said.
“But they have no idea what wolf they're looking for,” Smolder said.
“You breathed fire on it. I’m sure they’ll find a burnt timberwolf.”
“What about the hive mind?”
“Huh?”
“Hive mind, remember?”
“Oh... Right. If Sandbar found out Silver and Yona were in the Everfree Forest, then they could set up a trap for the teachers.”
“You really think so?”
“Wolves are cunning creatures. With a hive mind, they can be in separate locations and plan out where they're going to be.” The two quickly flew out of the front of the school, but before they could warn them, Starlight teleported herself and the teachers away.
“Dang it.”
“Don’t panic. I have another idea.” The dragoness didn’t know what she had in mind until the changeling showed her the earth pony stuck in the bubble.
“No way.”
“Why not?”
“He’s could turn on us.”
“He doesn’t want to be a timberwolf. Why would he turn on us?” Smolder crossed her arms. “You can’t still be mad at him.”
“He’s making it too easy.”
“...We don’t have time for this.”
“You know I’m hearing everything you’re saying, right?” Sandbar asked.
“Oh... You’re awake,” Ocellus commented.
“Yeah, and you're really annoying.”
Smolder was about to reply, but the changeling covered her mouth to prevent an argument from starting. “Breakfast is served,” Silverstream sang as she brought a tray of food up to her friend. Yona and Gallus were following behind as the hippogriff gave to the food their trapped friend, but the bubble kept it out.
“Silver, I’m glad you and the others are here,” Ocellus said. “We couldn’t get to the professors in time.”
“And that’s important because...?” Gallus asked, waiting for the changeling to finish his sentence.
“They’re going into the Everfree Forest to kill the timberwolf. With their hive minds, they can track whoever enters the Everfree Forest.”
“Then does that mean our teachers are going to becoming timberwolves?” Silverstream asked.
“Um... Much worse.”
“Wolf... Food?” Yona asked sheepishly. Ocellus just nodded.
“Look, they wouldn’t be stupid enough just to go out there,” Gallus said. “They need weapons and maybe armor.”
“I’m sure they’re smarter than that, but I had a backup plan. Since Sandbar is connected to hive now, maybe we can use him to check to see what the wolves see.”
“You sure about that?” Smolder asked.
“It’s our only plan now. Sandbar, can you do it?”
“I... I’ll try,” the colt replied. “I’m not sure how, but... I’ll try.” He took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He could see a point of view of something running through a forest. Another was pouncing at an unlucky squirrel. Then, there another looking at a barn with some familiar mares walking out. Sandbar gasped as he opened his eyes.
“What did you see?”
“Our professors. They’re at Sweet Apple Acres.”
“They must be getting tools there,” Gallus commented.
“What else can you see?” Silverstream asked.
Sandbar closed his eyes again and saw the timberwolf’s view of the farm was getting closer. “It’s moving,” he said.
“Where?”
“Closer to the barn.”
The timberwolf crawled to look inside the barn to see Rarity and Pinkie. The pink sniffed the air, which stank. “Do you smell any rotten apples?” she asked.
“Funny,” Rarity replied, “I thought Applejack put the apples in the cel...” She paused when she turned around. The timberwolf roared which promptly caused the two ponies to scream in fear. Rainbow Dash and Applejack heard them and ran back to find the wolf about the pounce.
The pegasus flew around the wolf before smacking it in the face with a kick. Sandbar held his jaw as he felt the same pain. “What happened?” Ocellus asked.
“They’re fighting back,” he replied. “I felt that wolf’s pain.”
“Pain too?” Gallus questioned.
“We need to stop this,” Ocellus said. Suddenly, they heard a loud thump. Then there was another one.
“What the heck?” Smolder questioned. She and Silverstream flew down the hall to find Yona in the library. She wasn’t alone, as some other yaks were helping try to break down the dome surrounding the grate.
“Yona, I think you’re wasting your time,” Silverstream pointed out.
“No, yaks not giving up,” Yona cried. She and the other yaks kept trying to ram into the dome until it started cracking.
“Yaks making progress,” Trud cheered.
“Little more.” The yaks gave one last ram, causing the dome to shatter. “Finally!” While she was a bit tired from breaking the dome, she pushed the safe off the grate, then opened the said grate.
“I’ll go tell the others,” Silverstream said. She flew away back to the others as Smolder followed Yona to the tunnels.
“Good job guys,” she commented. She slid down the hole and saw Yona running down one of the tunnels. “Wait up!” The dragoness gave chase to catch up.
Ocellus and Gallus were still sticking around Sandbar as the hippogriff came flying up to them. “Guys, we can get out of the school now,” Silverstream cried.
“Wait, really?” Ocellus questioned.
“Let me guess, Yona broke it?” Gallus guessed. The hippogriff nodded.
“Maybe we can do the same to this bubble,” Sandbar asked.
“...I don’t think so,” Ocellus replied. “It’s much safer if you stay there. If you transform again, who knows what could happen.”
“You stay here with Sandbar,” Gallus said. “I’ll go with the girls.” The griffon flew away to catch up with his friends. After going through the tunnels until he got to the castle. One he got out, he met up Silverstream, who had flown ahead of him, and they saw Smolder chasing Yona down.
Yona was making a mad dash to Sweet Apple Acres. Her friends were struggling to keep up with her. “Slow down,” Smolder cried.
“Yona need to get to professors,” the yak replied.
“You really think that wolf is the one that bit Sandbar?” Gallus asked.
“Yona have to try.” She picked up the pace as her friends struggled to keep up. When they got to Sweet Apple Acres, they could see their professors and headmare were struggling to fight off the timberwolf. The four hid behind a bale of hay.
“That wolf doesn’t look like the one I burned,” Smolder confirmed.
“They look like their struggling,” Silverstream commented. She wasn’t wrong, even when the mares tried to smash the timberwolf, it just rebuilt itself.
“How do we stop this thing?” Dash asked.
“I don’t know,” Applejack admitted.
“Hold on,” Gallus whispered. “Smolder, try burning that wolf to crisp.”
“I can’t burn it in a barn,” Smolder cried.
“Then do something to bring it out here.” The dragoness saw a rock on the ground and tossed it to the timberwolf. The rock hit it square on the head and it turned around to see who threw it. Once it saw Gallus, who was pushed out of his hiding spot.
The wolf charged towards the griffon, who quickly took off. Once he did that, Smolder flew behind the wooden beast and breathed fire on it. The wolf was ablaze as and it tried rolling around to put it out. It wasn’t enough and eventually, all of the wood burned into ash.
“Alright, it worked,” Gallus cheered. Suddenly, he and Smolder were levitated into the air and towards the barn.
“We put a forcefield around the exit,” Starlight said.
“It takes a lot more than that to keep a stubborn yak back.” He and Smolder chuckled as they high fived each other.
“Look, I don’t care, you’re going back to the school, where it’s safe.”
“For your information,” Smolder addressed, “I’m the one who stopped about that wolf.”
“She’s right,” Pinkie agreed. “We couldn’t stop it.”
“So, we just get some fire,” Dash said. “We’re not putting them in risk.”
“You know we helped save Equestria a couple of times,” Gallus said.
Starlight didn’t say anything and just teleported them back to the school. “I think we should check on Sandbar,” Silverstream recommended. They did so and found the colt writhing in pain.
Smolder put together what happened... “Are... Are you...?”
“No, I am not okay!” Sandbar cried. “I felt what it’s like to be set on fire. Do you think I’m okay .”
“We save our professors’ lives.”
“Look, let’s not fight right now,” Ocellus interrupted. “Can you see where the other timberwolves are?”
“I’ll try,” Sandbar grumbled. He closed his eyes again and looked around. Several timberwolves were heading back into the Everfree Forest. He then gasped when he saw a smoky gray timberwolf. “I saw the timberwolf that bit me.”
“Okay, we’ll just finish the job and...” Smolder couldn’t finish speaking as Starlight teleported in front of her. Once she did that, she teleported them into another room.
“You’re going to stay in this room until we get back,” the Headmare ordered.
“Again, fire?” Gallus asked.
“I’ve studied magic for years. I can make a simple fire spell. Watch.” Her horn glowed and she let out a torrent of flames. “See?”
“What about Sandbar?” Yona asked.
“I’ll have Sunburst make sure he’s alright. You are not allowed to leave this room.”
“What if we have to eat?” Smolder asked, raising an eyebrow.
The unicorn cast a spell, which had a beam hit each student. She walked outside for a minute and then after a bright flash of light she walked back in. “...Follow me.” Starlight walked out of the dorm room to show a tunnel. It glowed light blue and she walked through one of the walls. Silverstream tried to do the same, but she couldn’t. “These tunnels will lead you to the bathrooms and mess hall. The other students can just walk through these but you can’t.”
“You can’t do this,” Gallus said. “Sandbar’s our friend.”
“And you need to let us help you.”
Smolder was about to break down the tunnels, but Ocellus stopped her. “She’s right,” the changeling said. “We can only do so much.”
“Thank you, Ocellus. I’ll check with Sunburst and see if he has another solution for Sandbar’s problem. Just don’t do anything stupid.”
“We won’t,” the students replied. Gallus tried sneaking towards the window but Starlight was one step ahead of him and zapped it with a spell, preventing the window from opening.
“Nice try.” She walked off, leaving the students in the room.
“I breathe fire,” Smolder complained. “They’re asking a bird not to fly.”
“Let it go,” Ocellus said. “We can’t do anything now. Besides, our professors have faced more adventures than us.”
“That’s true,” Gallus commented.
“Hey, Smolder, I think this is our room,” Silverstream noted. Yona immediately prompted on the bed. “Yona...”
“Yak not want to talk,” Yona replied.
“Yona...”
“Yak don’t want to talk!”
“Right.”
Later, Sandbar was lying in the bubble as Sunburst walked up to him. “What do you want?” the colt asked.
“I brought you something to eat,” the stallion replied. He handed some lunch to the colt, who started eating.
“I didn’t even have breakfast you know.”
“That explains the food tray on the floor.”
“Do you have anything that can help me?”
“Starlight helped get some extra books for me, but I couldn’t find anything useful on timberwolves.”
“Seriously?”
“I’m trying. The others are too.”
“Can’t I see my friends?”
“Starlight said I’m supposed to keep them in a dorm.”
“Trapping them like me?”
“I’m just following orders.” He walked off to leave Sandbar to his meal.
Starlight and the professors wandered through the Everfree Forest. Pinkie sniffed the air. “What’s that smell,” she asked.
Fluttershy looked around and saw what looked to be a rabbit. It was in a small puddle of blood and didn’t seem to be moving. “Oh no,” the pegasus gasped. She flew over to it and looked over it.
AJ walked next to her. “Is it...?” she asked.
“Yes...” The pegasus began to weep after what she saw. Growling was then heard. The mares looked around to see what was there. Starlight’s horn glowed as she was ready to see some beasts on fire. Glowing green eyes could be seen through the darkness.
Before Starlight could attack, she was pounced by another timberwolf. She tried her fire spell, but the wolf raised his claw and she instinctively used a shield spell. Several more timberwolves came out to attack. They ganged up on the ponies, who were starting to struggle.
“There’s gotta be hundreds of them,” Applejack said.
“Why didn’t we bring Granny along?” Rainbow asked dodging a pouncing timberwolf.
“She’s too old for this. Starlight! Use your spell!”
“A little busy,” Starlight replied. She teleported away before she could get bitten. She appeared next to Fluttershy, who was hiding behind a tree.
“I should’ve stayed at the school,” Fluttershy shivered.
“Just stay calm Fluttershy.”
Pinkie bounced pass some of the wolves away as she turned to Applejack. “None of these wolves are the one we’re looking for,” the farm pony said.
“How can you tell?” Pinkie asked.
“Starlight said that Smolder burnt the one that bit Sandbar. None of these are burnt.” Just then, Rarity got knocked to the ground as she fell unconscious.
“Oh, dear,” Starlight gasped. “Fall back!” The gathered the others around and teleported them all away before the wolves could have another meal. They teleported back to the school and helped Rarity inside. Sunburst was surprised they were back so soon.
“Did you find the timberwolf?” Sunburst asked.
“Not the one we’re looking for,” Pinkie replied.
“Plus, Rarity got injured,” Fluttershy added.
The vice-principal saw the injured unicorn. The helped her into the lounge and lied her down on the couch. “I think we’re going to need some help with these wolves,” Rainbow said.
“You think some of the castle guards will help us?” Pinkie asked.
“Only a few of them are unicorns,” Starlight stated. “Not mention I don’t think many of them practice any spell kind of magic aside from levitation.”
“How about the dragons?” Sunburst suggested.
“That might work.”
“I’m on it,” Dash said. She flew outside and Starlight opened a part of the shield so she could fly to the Dragon Lands.
“What do we do?” Applejack asked.
“I’m not sure,” Starlight said. “We only have one thing that put them down for good. The dragons are far tough than us and breathe fire.”
“That’s what I said!” Smolder cried from down the hall. The mares looked at Starlight.
“I’m trying to make sure certain students don’t get into trouble.”
“Is that what that weird blue tunnel was?” Pinkie asked.
“Look, the important thing is we need to keep all of the students safe.”
Smolder was listening to the conversation before she walked off back to the dorm. “Okay, so, I couldn’t get close to Sandbar,” she said.
Yona sighed as she sulked lower in the bed. “Isn’t there any other way out of this tunnel?” Silverstream asked.
“I’ve tried getting out of the mess hall, but no luck.”
“Great,” Gallus groaned.
“You do remember what one timberwolf did so Sandbar,” Ocellus explained.
Smolder shivered at the thought. “Is there anything we can do?” Gallus asked.
“So, far,” Smolder said pausing to think, “Nothing.” Yona face-planted in the pillow and started crying. “Probably shouldn’t have said that.”
“It’s okay,” Silverstream said trying to calm her down.
“It’s not,” Yona sobbed. “Yona won’t get to see Sandbar again.”
“You will,” Gallus said, “If we were allowed out of this room.”
“I’d just transform into one of the professors,” Ocellus addressed, “But since I can’t walk through the tunnel walls, it won’t work.”
“What about when the yaks smashed that smaller dome?” Smolder said. “Couldn’t we just do the same thing with these tunnels?”
“It does sound like a good idea,” Gallus commented.
“You said the same thing about the poison joke cure,” Ocellus said.
“It worked.”
“But you got detention.”
“That’s in the past.”
“Yona,” Smolder said, “Can you hel...” The dragoness saw her running towards the exit, and she flew out of the way as the yak rammed into the side of the tunnel. Yona felt a bit dizzy after the impact. “Did it work?”
Yona looked and only saw a small crack. “Not much,” she said.
“Try again,” Gallus explained. He helped Smolder and Yona try and ram into the tunnels, as they kept trying to make it crack.
“Harder,” Smolder cried. They rammed it again, and again, and again. Finally, after what felt like and hour, with one last ram, they broke through the wall.
“We did it,” Yona cheered. With that, she ran off to where Sandbar was. The colt was feeling bored until the yak ran up to the bubble.
“Yona,” the colt cheered. “Where were you.”
“Head pony tried to keep friends save. Yona wanted to see you again.”
“That’s good. I’m just glad to see you.” He placed his hoof on the wall of the bubble and Yona did the same.
“There you are,” Ocellus said as she and others caught up with Yona.
“Sandbar, how are you feeling?” Gallus asked.
“Still the same,” the pony replied.
“How about we try using his hive mind vision again,” Silverstream suggested.
“I haven’t used it since you left. I’ll try again.” Sandbar closed his eyes and could see timberwolf’s vision. It looked up and could see Rainbow Dash and some dragons flying overhead. Many of the dragons were quite big, but nowhere near full grown.
“So, you’re saying that these wolves can just rebuild themselves?” one of the dragons asked.
“Yeah,” Dash replied. “Fire seems to be the only thing that can stop them.”
“This is going to be easier done than said,” a drake scoffed.
“So, where are they?” a dragoness asked.
“Down in that forest,” Dash explained. “Starlight said we need to meet her back at the school.”
“Couldn’t we just burn this forest?”
“This way is more simple. Just try and keep up.” They kept flying on towards the school, but the timberwolves saw them and quickly ran off.
“We’re going to get dragons,” Sandbar said.
“Really?” Smolder asked.
“Yeah... Maybe they’ll... Stop this.”
“You were stuttering. What’s with that?”
“I’m getting tired of us arguing. I was just angry before and I don’t think I was myself at the time. I’m sorry.”
“...I understand. When should they get here?”
The doors suddenly swung open and Dash, Starlight, and the dragons walk in. “Right now,” Silverstream chuckled.
“Okay,” Starlight said walking with the dragons, “We’ll go in different teams. If we stick one group we’ll...” She paused when she saw the students. “How did you get out?”
“You underestimate the strength of a yak,” Gallus told.
“Yona not leaving Sandbar,” Yona affirmed, stomping her hoof on the floor.
“I don’t know why we didn’t like the yaks earlier,” a drake said.
“Look,” Starlight said, “You were in the dorm because you could get hurt.”
“That’s what I tried to say,” Ocellus responded.
“Yaks are stubborn,” Gallus said. “No offense, Yona.”
“None taken,” the yak replied.
Starlight was about to teleport them back, but Dash had to point something out. “We can punish them later,” the pegasus said. “We have timberwolves to take care of.”
“She’s right,” a dragoness agreed. “What do we do?”
“Just... Follow me,” Starlight grumbled. They walked off to leave the students by themselves.
“Hold on,” Ocellus said. “Sandbar’s part of the hive mind. He can track where the timberwolves are at.”
The headmare stopped. “Go on.”
“If he can see what they're seeing we can get the leg up on them.”
“That could work.”
“But how are we suppose to stay in touch with each other?” Rainbow asked.
Starlight thought for a minute before she remembered something. “I have an idea.”
Dash, Applejack, and some dragons walked through the Everfree Forest. AJ was carrying a scroll that had a sketch of Starlight, while Dash had a sketch of Sunburst. “This is kind of weird,” the farm pony said.
“I know it is,” the sketch of Starlight said, “But I’ve seen Twilight do this. I’ll let you know if our group finds anything.”
“And how do we control this thing again?” Rainbow asked.
“Just keep it closed when you don’t want to talk to us. If we need to talk to you if it’s closed, it’ll glow and shake.”
“Got it,” AJ and Dash said. They rolled their scrolls and carried on.
With Starlight’s group, which had her, Pinkie, some other dragons, and Pinkie’s party cannon, they crept moving through the forest. “So, that thing can set up a party in seconds?” a drake asked.
“Yeah,” Pinkie replied. “It can distract the wolves before you get them.”
“Shh,” Starlight hushed. “I hear something.” The group braced themselves as they crept closer to the noise. They looked and only saw a small twig.
“Is this seriously what a timberwolf is?” a dragoness asked.
“No, they’re way bigger,” Starlight stated.
“Yeah,” Pinkie agreed. “Like...” She paused as her tail started twitching. Pinkie looked around and saw a timberwolf pouncing at her. She moved out of the way and dodged it. The mare positioned her party cannon and fired it at the wolf. Once it was done, the fired breathed fire at it.
Sandbar, who was still at the school, groaned in pain. “Are you okay?” Sunburst asked.
“I’m fine,” the colt groaned.
Back with the others, Starlight shielded herself from an attack as the dragons kept breathing fire. Some of the flames hit a bush, which Pinkie aim her party cannon at and shot it with cake batter. “Take it easy,” she cried, “You don’t want to burn the forest too.”
“Sorry,” a drake replied, “These things won’t sit still.”
“None of them are burnt,” Starlight said, burning a wolf.
Pinkie grabbed her scroll and contacted Dash and AJ. “Girls, any luck?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Applejack replied.
“We found a pack. Can you come over here and help.”
“Um, scratch that,” Dash replied, ”I think some found us.” The sketches of the ponies vanished as Pinkie then started noticed that Starlight was getting tired.
“Starlight, what’s going on?” the pink pony asked.
“I’m getting tired from using so much magic,” the unicorn replied. “I don’t think I’ll last much...” Suddenly, another timberwolf pounced on her. A dragon managed to throw it off of her and started breathing fire on the beast, the unicorn could barely stand up.
“We should probably get out of here,” Pinkie said.
“You go,” a dragon said, “We’ll make sure these things don’t go anywhere.” Pinkie nodded, picked up Starlight, and ran off. Just when it looked like they were home free, Sandbar saw something.
“They’re going to catch them!” he cried.
“I’ll try and warn them,” Sunburst said. He unrolled the scroll to warn Pinkie and Starlight, but instead of sketches of the ponies, he got a couple of scribbles. “Uh oh.”
Pinkie had to leave her scroll as one of the timberwolves had torn it to shreds. When it looked like she and the unconscious unicorn were home free, they were promptly surrounded by more of the wood beasts. “Why did they go after the scroll?” Pinkie questioned.
“Sand... Bar...” Starlight groaned weakly. The pink pony was confused as she bounced over the timberwolves, but started to realize what her friend meant. She kept going as fast as she could to get away, but the wolves wouldn't give up so easily.
Meanwhile, Dash could see the drawing of what would be Pinkie or Starlight was now just scribbling. “AJ, there’s something wrong with this scroll,” Dash said.
“What do yah...?” Applejack paused when she saw the scribbles. “Golly.”
“That’s bad, right?” asked a dragoness.
“Very. Star and Pinke are in trouble.”
“So, we just split up.”
“Normally, that be fine,” Dash commented, “But again, timberwolves.”
“Dash is right,” Applejack explained. “We can’t split up.”
“Then what can we do?” the dragon asked.
“I don’t know,” Dash replied. “We’re thinking of this on the fly.”
“RD,” Applejack said, “Take three of the dragons with you. That should be enough to keep y’all safe.” Dash and three of the dragons flew off to find the mares in danger. The rainbow pegasus dragged two of the dragons with her to speed things up until they saw Pinkie fleeing for her life while carrying Starlight.
“Pinkie!” Dash and the dragons raced to catch up with the ponies, just as some timberwolves got in the pink pony’s way. She turned around as the pegasus caught up.
“Dashie,” Pinkie gasped. “These wolves won’t let us leave the forest.”
“Why’s that?” a drake asked.
“They’re picking up on our plan,” Dash said. “Think about it.”
Pinkie gasped, “Sandbar! You need to get to him.”
“I can’t leave you guys here with...”
“We’ll be fine. Just make sure the others are safe. The only dragons there are just teens.”
“Alright.” Dash flew into the sky and back to the school as the dragons helped Pinkie fight off the timberwolves. When the pegasus returned to the school, she saw some timberwolves beat her there. Dash tapped on the upper part of the dome to signal to Sunburst that she wanted inside.
The stallion opened a hole and the mare flew in. “What’s wrong,” Sunburst asked.
“They’re using the hive mind against us.”
“What?”
“They heard everything we’re doing.” They looked towards Sandbar, then outside to see the timberwolves scratching at the dome.
“We have to knock him out.”
“No!” Yona cried.
“Yona, he’s a spy,” Dash stated.
“But they’re already outside,” Gallus said.
“The suns going down!” Silverstream cried.
“Already?” Smolder questioned.
“We were in the dorm for a while,” Ocellus said.
“And I had a long way to go to get to the dragon lands,” Dash added.
“Guys,” Sandbar said. “I’m starting to feel weird again.”
“No,” Yona cried, “Sandbar, fight back.”
The glow of the moonlight shined through the window. The colt groaned as his body started turning into wood again. The timberwolves outside started sniffing the air. They could smell something that was transforming. The glow in their eyes diminished and their body parts fell to the ground.
The timberwolves that were the forest with ponies and dragons suddenly ran away from them, much to the creatures’ confusion. The smaller wolves surrounded the floating pieces of wood which formed into an enormous timberwolf, which let out of a mighty roar.
The giant started slashing at the dome which started cracking in seconds. “We need to get out of here,” Sunburst cried.
“Yona not leaving Sandbar,” Yona asserted. Sandbar’s eyes began to glow again as his entire body was almost wood. There was barely any ‘moss’ on his body. The only bit was one his head. He grew in size which helped him when he tried breaking out of the bubble, which was quite easy. He landed on the ground and growled at the creatures. They all got back, except Yona.
“Get back here,” Smolder cried.
“Sandbar, please.” The wolf wasn’t in the mood for listening. “Yona don’t want Sandbar to be monster. Please, don’t...” The timberwolf slashed as the yak, making her scream in pain. There was a large gash on her arm as she started bleeding.
“Yona!” the students and teachers cried. Rainbow and Sunburst rushed in front of the yak to protect her. As Yona’s friends raced over to help her, Sandbar looked at what he had done. His girlfriend’s wool was beginning to stain with blood. He whimpered as he knew his mistake, and he quickly ran off.
“Sandbar, wait.” Yona tried to stand up, only to make her injury worse.
“Don’t move,” Gallus ordered. “Where’s Ocellus?”
“She went to get Professor Fluttershy and a first aid kit,” Silverstream explained.
“Stay here,” Sunburst said, “We mean it.” He and Rainbow went after Sandbar just as Fluttershy and Ocellus came running up. The mare started bandaging Yona up, but the yak and her friends had no idea what to do.
Sandbar burst through the school doors, the giant timberwolf did the same with the dome, and the whole thing came crashing down and vanished. Once he saw he was spotted, he ran away but the pack wasn’t going to let their new member get away that easily. Luckily, the ponies and dragons came out of the forest, just as Sunburst and Dash got out of school.
The stallion went to help the others as Rainbow went to catch up with Sandbar. Fluttershy and the other students stayed inside, hoping the wolves won’t come inside. Even though it was dark, Gallus could see some gray wood was part of the giant timberwolf.
“I think I found our smokey,” Gallus said.
“What?” Smolder questioned.
“The wolf you burned. It’s part of that giant.”
“Oh, good, now it’s going to be harder to kill.”
“It’s heading into town,” Silverstream cried. It was, Sandbar was running the same way. Yona started limping towards the exit, but Fluttershy stopped her.
“Yona, you’re making your injury worse,” she explained.
“But friends need to help Sandbar,” the yak replied. She cringed as she applied pressure to her cut arm.
“Just lie down. I’ll go get you some pillows.” The pegasus flew off leaving the five students be themselves.”
“This isn't right,” Gallus groaned.
“Yeah, you guys came to save me,” Silverstream commented. “Why can’t we do the same for Sandbar.”
“There’s a twenty-foot monster that’s pretty much indestructible,” Smolder said. “Even if we burn it, it’ll just move around and put itself out.”
“If only we could keep it in one spot,” Ocellus pondered.
After hearing that, Gallus snapped his talons. “Where’s that hole?” he asked.
“What?” the group asked.
“The one where Sandbar was trapped.”
“Oh, that,” Smolder responded.
“It would be deep enough for it to get stuck,” Ocellus said.
“If we put some flammable stuff in it and get the dragons to help, we could pull it off,” Gallus considered.
“And what do we use to bring that wolf to the hole?” Silverstream asked.
“...I hate to say this,” Smolder said, “But I think one of us is going to have to be bait. The group stayed silent for a while until Ocellus broke the silence.
“I guess I’ll do it,” the changeling sighed. “Yona can’t walk, she’ll be ripped to shreds.”
“Okay,” Gallus spoke, “Silver, you’ll help me put flammable stuff in the hole. Smolder, you’ll help the dragons turn up the heat. And Yona... You should probably stay here. That leg’s just going slow you down.”
“Got it,” Yona replied.
“I’m back,” Fluttershy said, flying towards them.
“Quick, act natural,” Gallus cried. Lucky for them, their professor didn’t hear their plan.
“Sorry, it took so long. I was checking with Rarity to make sure that the students were safe.”
“Understandable,” Ocellus commented.
“If anything else goes wrong, you should head to the tunnels under the school.” Fluttershy helped Yona onto the pillows to help her get comfy.
“How do we get out?” Smolder whispered to Gallus.
“We need to get her into another room,” Gallus replied quietly.
“On it.” The dragoness walked up to her professor. “I thought that Headmare Starlight set up another barrier around the exit. Could you double-check for us.”
“What’s stopping you from checking?” Fluttershy asked.
“Well... I want...”
“Starlight warned me about this, and the answer is ‘no’.”
“Here’s the thing,” Gallus explained, “If we don’t do anything now, there’s not going to be anymore Sandbar.”
“Yona want to see Sandbar again,” Yona said.
“I know you’re scared,” Fluttershy reassured. “But this is the safest place to be at right now.”
Something begged to differ. A large wolf broke through the window without warning. It bit on Yona’s horn to pick her up. The yak screamed in fear as Smolder was about to attack. However, the wolf just smacked her flying into a wall. Once it did that, it ran off. Without hesitation, Yona’s friends gave chase.
“Guys, remember the plan,” Gallus cried.
“On it,” the girls replied. Smolder went to get some of the dragons, while Ocellus searched around for Sandbar and the giant that was chasing him. Silverstream and Gallus flew to where the hole was while grabbing some flammable items such as twigs and leaves along the way.
Meanwhile, ponies fled and hid in fear. Sandbar wasn’t wanting to hurt any pony, he was just wanting to get away from the other timberwolves. This was incredibly hard as he kept trying to resist the hive mind. While he ran he could see and hear the screams of a certain yak. Since the giant timberwolf was still behind him, Sandbar had to get a bit creative.
He lept onto the rooftop and was light enough to do so without breaking them. The other wolf was too heavy, so the building it tried to climb just collapsed. He would go after him, but it smelled something. It looked down and saw a blue pig, which it promptly chased. Now that he lost it, Sandbar raced back to the school to help Yona.
“HELP!” Yona screamed as she dangled from the wolf’s mouth. Sunburst tried using his magic to pull her out, but the wolf held it’s grip. Dash and Fluttershy tried flying up to catch Yona, but they were just swatted away like flies.
One of the dragons was about to breath fire, but another stopped her. “Cinder, you’ll hit the kid,” the drake said.
“But we don’t do anything, she’ll...” The dragoness, as well as the drake, were knocked to the side by the timberwolf. Just when it looked like Yona was a goner, a mossy timberwolf pounced and catching the bigger beast off guard. Yona was released and the small timberwolf caught her on its back and ran off.
“Put Yona down,” the yak begged. The wolf stopped so Yona could get off. The yak noticed the ‘moss’ on the wolf’s head and gasped. “Sandbar?” The beast’s tail wagged, though his ears drooped when he saw Yona’s cut. “This? No, cut not Sandbar’s fault. Friends making plan to save you.” Sandbar regained his smile as a blue pig ran past them.
“Get out of the way,” the pig screamed.
Sandbar looked confused. “That Ocellus.” They soon saw the giant timberwolf chasing their friend. Sandbar picked Yona up onto his back and ran off behind the pig.
Elsewhere, Gallus and Silverstream were tossing in some logs and leaves into the hole as Smolder and two other dragons breathed fire into it. “You sure this is going to work?” a drake asked.
“It has to,” Gallus said.
“Is that a blue pig?” the other drake asked.
“That’s gotta be Ocellus,” Silverstream responded.
“Get ready,” Ocellus replied as she changed back into her changeling form. Right behind her was Sandbar carrying Yona, and the giant timberwolf. It swiped at the former pony and yak, both of which tumbled into a tree. Yona winced in pain from the blow as Sandbar stood up.
The giant towered over him and let out a mighty roar. “Get that thing into the fire,” Smolder cried. She and the two dragons helped, Ocellus, Silverstream, and Gallus fly around and ram into the giant wooden beast. Despite the strike, the timberwolf fought back. Gallus and Silverstream went down, but Ocellus turned into a dragon and help breathe fire at the beast.
Sandbar winced in as he felt the giant’s pain. The huge timberwolf roared in anger and used its tail to swat the dragons away. Unforinetly, it began to lose its footing as the ground near the hole crumble and it nearly fell in. The timberwolf stopped the regeneration to small and regain its footing while the other timberwolves fell into the flames.
“It’s getting weaker,” Gallus groaned while standing up. “Get it while we have the chance.” Ocellus and Smolder got up, but the other dragons were too tired to fight on.
“We’re so close,” Smolder panted. She flew up and flew around to distract the timberwolf from Ocellus, who turned into an Ursa minor and started getting into a fight with the timberwolf. While this was happening, Sandbar was struggling to resist the hive mind. His body parts started to glow and started floating apart. Yona saw this and tried grabbing the part from floating away.
“Yona need help!” she cried. Gallus and Silverstream saw her problem and helped her keep Sandbar in one piece. “Sandar, fight back.”
The giant saw what was going on and managed to lift Ocellus upwards and smash her on Smolder, knocking both of them out. It then stomped towards the griffon, hippogriff, and swiped them to the side. It bent down to bite Yona, but lucky for the yak he horns prevented the wolf from biting her body.
“Help! Put Yona down! HELP!” Sandbar looked up at the terrified yak. The bigger timberwolf looked at him but the infect pony’s body parts stopped glowing. The answer to that came from him running up and slashed through the hind legs of the timberwolf, causing it to stumbled backward to the burning hole.
Sandbar did it again with the foreleg and the big timberwolf let go of Yona and tumbled into the hole. It ditched all of the extra pieces of wood, though that only got the burnt wolf enough to grab the ledge. Sandbar stood over the timberwolf hanging on. He bit it’s paw, causing it to break apart and the smoked wolf fell into the flames.
He let out a howl for victory as his body started glowing green. Instead of fusing with another wolf, his wooden body turned back into one consisting of flesh and blood. Hooves, fur, a cutie mark, mane, tail, all of the parts that would make up a pony. When the glowing stopped, Sandbar sat down as he returned to his old self.
He looked towards Yona and stumbled over to her. “S... Sandbar?” the yak studdered.
“Yeah,” Sandbar groaned. “I think... We got it.” He gave weak chuckled as the yak hugged him and kissed him on the lips. Both yak and pony embraced each other and released when their professors ran up to them.
“There they are,” Sunburst called. He, the ponies, and the dragons helped the students up.
“Sandbar,” Starlight gasped. “You’re... Back to normal?”
“Looks like it,” Sandbar replied. “Still feeling a little weak.”
“Yona just happy Sandbar still here,” Yona cooed.
“What happened to the other timberwolves?” Ocellus asked with Pinkie helping her up.
“They just ran away,” Dash explained.
“Seeing how Sandbar’s himself again, I can see why,” Sunburst said. “Let’s get you back to school.”
It was midnight when the six students were resting in the lounge. “I still can’t believe how much those things weigh,” Smolder mentioned.
“Sorry about that,” Ocellus apologized.
“It wasn’t your fault. At least that thing is gone.”
“I hope you learn to stop throwing yourself in danger,” Fluttershy said. She gave the students some ice packs, which they placed on different parts of their bodies.
“I hope things start calming down,” Silverstream commented.
“Me too,” Sandbar agreed. Yona leaned against the pony as she was very tired. “Easy Yona.”
“Sorry,” the yak apologized. “Yona wants to forget what happened.”
“Ditto.” The two just lean against each other for a nuzzle.
“It’s great to have you back Sandbar,” Gallus commented.
“Yeah, it is.” Sandbar saw that Yona had already passed out. One by one, the friends went back to their dorms. However, Sandbar decided to stay behind with the snoozing yak. He helped her lie down and covered her up with a blanket. He was about to leave but the yak started shivering a muttering to herself.
“Sand... Sandbar,” she groaned. The pony started feeling bad for her and lied down next to the yak. Yona calmed down and snuggled against Sandbar.
He gave his girlfriend a kiss on the cheek as he got himself tucked in. “Thanks for being by my side.” With that, the pony and yak snoozed throughout the night.
Author's Note
I hope you enjoyed my Halloween special. I think I’m going to take a little break to help us all calm down.