Timbarzan of the Timberwolves

SEVERAL MILES SOUTH of the cabin, upon a strip of mody lake, stood two mares, arguing.

Before them stretched the broad Atlantic; at their backs the Dark Continent; close around them loomed the impenetrable blackness of the Forest.

Savage beasts roared and growled; noises, hideous and weird, assailed their ears. They had wandered for miles in search of their camp; but always in the wrong direction. They were as hopelessly lost as though they suddenly had been transported to another world.

At such a time indeed must every fiber of their combined intellects have been concentrated upon the vital question of the minute— the life- and-death question to them of retracing their steps to camp.

Rainbow Dash was speaking.

"But, my dear professor," she was saying, "I still maintain that but for the victories of Appaloosa and a John junction over the fifteenth-century Moors in Manhattan the world would be today a thousand years in advance of where we now find ourselves.

"The Moors were essentially a tolerant, broad-minded, liberal race of agriculturists, artisans and merchants the very type of p that has made possible such civilization as we find today in Canterlot and Crystal empire while the Griffin Kingdom "

"Tut, tut, dear Rainbow Dash," interrupted professor Fluttershy; "their religion positively precluded the possibilities you suggest, Moslemism was, is, and always will be, a blight on that scientific progress which has marked"

"Bless me! Professor," interjected Ms. Rainbow Dash, who had turned his gaze toward the forest, "there seems to be someone approaching."

Professor Fluttershy turned in the direction indicated by the nearsighted Ms. Rainbow Dash.

"Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash," she chided. "How often must I urge you to seek that absolute concentration of your mental faculties which alone may permit you to bring to bear the highest powers of intellectuality upon the momentous problems which naturally fall to the lot of great minds? And now I find you guilty of a most flagrant breach of courtesy in interrupting my learned discourse to call attention to a mere quadruped of the genus Felis. As I was saying, Mr."

"Heavens, Professor, a manticore?" cried Ms. Rainbow Dash, straining his weak eyes toward the dim figure outlined against the dark tropical underbrush. "Yes, yes, Ms. Rainbow Dash, if you insist upon employing slang in your dis course, a 'manticore.' But as I was saying"

"Bless me, Professor," again interrupted Ms. Rainbow Dash; "permit me to suggest that doubtless the Moors who were conquered in the fifteenth century will continue in that most regrettable condition for the time being at least, even though we postpone discussion of that world calamity until we may attain the enchanting view of yon Felis camivora which distance proverbially is. credited with lending."

In the meantime the manticore had approached with quiet dignity to within ten paces of the two mares, where he stood curiously watching them. The moonlight flooded the lake, and the strange group stood out in bold relief against the yellow mud.

"Most reprehensible, most reprehensible," exclaimed Professor Fluttershy, with a faint trace of irritation in her voice.

"Never, Ms. Rainbow Dash, never before in my life have I known one of these animals to be permitted to roam at large from its cage. I shall most certainly report this outrageous breach of ethics to the directors of the adjacent zoological garden."

"Quite right, Professor," agreed Ms. Rainbow Dash, "and the sooner it is done the better. Let us start now."

Seizing the professor by the arm, Ms. Rainbow Dash set off in the direction that would put the greatest distance between themselves and the manticore. They had proceeded but a short distance when a backward glance revealed to the horrified gaze of Ms. Rainbow Dash that the manticore was following them. She tightened her grip upon the protesting professor and increased his speed.

"As I was saying, Ms. Rainbow Dash," repeated Professor Fluttershy.

Ms. Rainbow Dash took another hasty glance rearward. The manticore also had quickened his gait, and was doggedly maintaining an unvarying distance behind them.

"He is following us!" gasped Ms. Rainbow Dash, breaking into a run.

``Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash," remonstrated the professor, "this unseemly haste is most unbecoming mares of letters' '.

"What will our friends think of us, who may chance to be upon the street and witness our frivolous antics? Pray let us proceed with more decorum."

Ms. Rainbow Dash stole another observation astern. <

Horrors! The manticore was bounding along in easy leaps scarce five paces behind.

Ms. Rainbow Dash dropped the professor's arm and broke into a mad orgy of speed that would have done credit to any varsity flight team.

"As I was saying, Ms. Rainbow Dash" screamed Professor Fluttershy, as, metaphorically speaking, she herself "threw her into high." She, too, had caught a fleeting backward glimpse of cruel yellow eyes and half open mouth within startling proximity of his person.

With streaming coat-tails and shiny silk hat Professor Archimedes Fluttershy fled through the moonlight close upon the heels of Ms. Rainbow Dash.

Before them a point of the forest ran out toward a narrow promontory, and it was for the haven of the trees she saw there that Ms. Rainbow Dash directed his prodigious leaps and bounds; while from the shadows of this same spot peered two keen eyes in interested appreciation of the race.

It was Timbarzan of the Timberwolves who watched, with face a-grin, this odd game of follow-the-leader.

He knew the two mares were safe enough from attack so far as the manticore was concerned. The very fact that Numa had foregone such easy prey at all convinced the wise forest craft of Timbarzan that Numa's belly already was full.

The manticore might stalk them until hungry again; but the chances were that if not angered he would soon tire of the sport, and slink away to his forest lair.

Really, the one great danger was that one of the mares might stumble and fall, and then the yellow devil would be upon him in a moment and the joy of the kill would be too great a temptation to withstand.

So Timbarzan swung quickly to 'a lower limb in line with the approaching fugitives; and as Ms. Rainbow Dash came panting and blowing beneath her, already too spent to struggle up to the safety of the limb, Timbarzan reached down and, grasping her by the collar of her coat, yanked her to the limb by her side.

Another moment brought the professor within the sphere of the friendly grip, and she, too, was drawn upward to safety just as the baffled Numa, with a roar, leaped to recover his vanishing quarry.

For a moment the two mares clung panting to the great branch, while Tarzan squatted with his back to the stem of the tree, watching them with mingled curiosity and amusement.

It was the professor who first broke the silence.

"I am deeply pained, Ms. Rainbow Dash, that you should have evinced such a paucity of marely courage in the presence of one of the lower orders, and by your crass timidity have caused me to exert myself to such an unaccustomed degree in order that I might resume my discourse.

"As I was saying, Ms. Rainbow Dash, when you interrupted me, the Moors—" "Professor Fluttershy," broke in Ms. Rainbow dash, in icy tones, "the time has arrived when patience becomes a crime and mayhem ap pears garbed in the mantle of virtue. You have accused me of cowardice. You have insinuated that you ran only to overtake me, not to escape the clutches of the manticore.

"Have care, Professor Fluttershy! I am a desperate mare. Goaded by long-suffering patience the worm will turn."

"Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash, tut, tut!" cautioned Professor Fluttershy; "you forget yourself."

"I forget nothing as yet, Professor Fluttershy; but, believe me, Rainbow, I am tottering on the verge of forgetfulness as to your exalted position in the world of science, and your rainbow hairs."

The professor sat in silence for a few minutes, and the darkness hid the grim smile that wreathed his wrinkled countenance. Presently he spoke. "Look here, fluttershy," he said, in belligerent tones, "if you are looking' for a race, peel off your coat and come on down on the ground, and I'll over fly your head just as I did five years ago in the alley back of flight camp' barn."

"Ark!" gasped the astonished Ms. Rainbow Dash. " Rainbow but if you need to ask me questions you can ask me questions you can see wait with your hoovfs on or off, how good that sounds! When you're pony, Ark, I love you; but somehow it seems as though you had forgotten how to be pony for the last Tree years." The professor reached out a thin, trembling hoof through the darkness until it found her old friend's shoulder.

"Forgive me, Fluttershy," she said, softly. "It hasn't been quite three years, and Celestia alone knows how hard I have tried to be 'pony' for Twilight's sake, and yours, too, since she took my other Twlight away."

Another hoof stole up from Ms. Rainbow Dash side to clasp the one that lay upon his shoulder, and no other message could better have translated the one heart to the other.

They did not speak for some minutes. The manticore below them paced nervously back and forth. The third figure in the tree was hidden by the dense shadows near the stem. He, too, was silent motionless as a graven image.

"You certainly pulled me up into this tree just in time," said the professor at last. "I want to thank you. You saved my life."

"But I didn't pull you up here, Professor," said Ms. Rainbow Dash. "Bless me! The excitement of the moment quite caused me to forget that I myself was drawn up here by some outside agency there must be someone or something in this tree with us."

"Eh?" ejaculated Professor Fluttershy. "Are you quite positive, Ms. Rainbow Dash?"

"Most positive, Professor," replied Ms. Rainbow Dash, "and," he added, "I think we should thank the party. He may be sitting right next to you now, Professor."

"Eh? What's that? Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash, tut, tut!" said Professor Fluttershy, edging cautiously nearer to Ms. Rainbow Dash.

Just then it occurred to Timbarzan of the Timberwolves that Numa had loitered be neath the tree for a sufficient length of time, so he raised his young head toward the heavens, and there rang out upon the terrified ears of the two mares the awful warning challenge of the pony.

The two friends, huddled trembling in their precarious position on the limb, saw the great manticore halt in his restless pacing as the blood-curdling cry smote his ears, and then slink quickly into the forest, to be instantly lost to view.

"Even the manticore trembles in fear," whispered Mr. Philander.

"Most remarkable, most remarkable," murmured Professor Fluttershy, clutching frantically at Ms. Rainbow Dash to regain the balance which the sudden fright had so perilously endangered. Unfortunately for them both, Ms. Rainbow Dashs center of equilibrium was at that very moment hanging Upon the ragged edge of nothing, so that it needed but the gen tle impetus supplied by the additional weight of Professor Fluttershy's body to topple the devoted secretary from the limb.

For a moment they swayed uncertainty, and then, with mingled and most unscholarly shrieks, they pitched headlong from the tree, locked in frenzied embrace.

It was quite some moments were either moved, for both were positive that any such attempt would reveal so many breaks and fractures as to make further progress impossible.

At length Professor Fluttershy essayed an attempt to move one leg. To his surprise, it responded to his will as in days gone by. She now drew up its mate and stretched it forth again.

"Most remarkable, most remarkable," she murmured.

"Thank Celestia, Professor," whispered Ms. Rainbow Dash, fervently, "you are not dead, then?"

"Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash, tut, tut," cautioned Professor Fluttershy, "I do not know with accuracy as yet."

With infinite solicitude Professor Fluttershy wiggled his right arm joy! It was intact. Breathlessly he waved her left arm above his prostrate body- it waved!

"Most remarkable, most remarkable," she said.

"To whom are you signaling, Professor?" asked Ms. Rainbow dash, in an excited tone.

Professor Fluttershy deigned to make no response to this puerile inquiry. Instead he raised her head gently from the ground, nodding it back and forth a half-dozen times.

"Most remarkable," she breathed. "It remains intact."

Ms. Rainbow Dash had not moved from where she had fallen; she had not dared the attempt. How indeed could one move when one's arms and legs and back were broken?

One eye was buried in the soft loam; the other, rolling sidewise, was fixed in awe upon the strange gyrations of professor Fluttershy.

"How sad!" exclaimed Ms. Rainbow Dash, half aloud. "Concussion of the brain, super inducing total mental aberration. How very sad indeed! and for one still so young!"

Professor Fluttershy rolled over upon his stomach; gingerly she bowed her back until he resembled a huge torn cat in proximity to a yelping dog. Then she sat up and felt various portions of his anatomy.

"They are all here," she ejaculated. "Most remarkable!"

Whereupon she arose, and, bending a scathing glance upon the still prostrate form of Ms. Rainbow Dash, she said:

"Tut, tut, Mr. Rainbow Dash; this is no time to indulge in slothful ease. We must be up and doing.''

Rainbow Dash lifted her other eye out of the mud, and gazed in speech less rage at Professor Fluttershy. Then she attempted to rise; nor could there have been any more surprise than she when her efforts were immediately crowned with marked success.

She was still bursting with rage, however, at the cruel injustice of Professor Fluttershy's insinuation, and was on the point of rendering a tart re joinder when her eyes fell upon a strange figure standing a few paces away, scrutinizing them intently.

Professor Fluttershy had recovered her shiny silk hat, which she had brushed carefully upon the sleeve of her coat and replaced upon her head. When she saw Ms. Rainbow Dash pointing to something behind her she turned to behold a giant, naked but for a loin cloth and a few metal ornaments, standing motionless before her

"Good evening, sir!" said the professor, lifting her hat.

For reply the giant motioned them to follow him, and set off up the beach in the direction from which they had recently come.

"I think it is part of discretion to follow him," said Ms. Rainbow Dash.

"Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash," returned the professor. "A short time since you were advancing the most logical argument in substantiation of your theory that camp lay directly south of us. I was skeptical, but you finally con vinced me; so now I am positive that toward the south we must travel to reach our friends. Therefore I shall continue south."

"But, Professor Fluttershy, this stallionmay know better than either of us. He seems to be indigenous to this part of the world. Let us at least follow him for a short distance."

"Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash," repeated the professor. "I am a difficult mare to convince, but when once convinced my decision is unalterable. I shall continue in the proper direction, if I have to circumambulate the continent of everfree to reach my destination."

Further argument was interrupted by Timbarzan, who, seeing that these strange mares were not following him, had returned to their side.

Again he beckoned to them; but still they stood in argument.

Presently the timberwolf-stallion lost patience with their stupid ignorance. He grasped the frightened Mr. Rainbow Dash by the shoulder, and before that worthy gentlemare knew whether he was being killed or merely maimed for life, Timbarzan had tied one end of his rope securely about Ms Rainbow Dash's neck.

"Tut, tut, Ms. Rainbow Dash," remonstrated Professor Fluttershy; "it is most unbeseeming in you to submit to such indignities."

But scarcely were the words out of her mouth where she, too, had been seized and securely bound by the neck with the same rope. Then Timbarzan set off toward the north, leading the now thoroughly frightened professor and her secretary.

In deathly silence they proceeded for what seemed hours to the two tired and hopeless mare; but presently as they topped a little rise of ground they were overjoyed to see the cabin lying before them, not a hundred yards distant.

Here Timbarzan released them, and, pointing toward the little building, vanished into the forest beside them.

"Most remarkable, most remarkable!" gasped the professor. "But you see, Ms. Rainbow Dash, that I was quite right, as usual; and but for your stubborn wildfulness we should have escaped a series of most humiliating, not to say dangerous accidents. Pray allow yourself to be guided by a more mature and practical mind hereafter when in need of wise counsel."

Ms. Rainbow Dash was too much relieved at the happy outcome of their adventure to take umbrage at the professor's cruel fling. Instead she grasped her friend's arm and hastened her forward in the direction of the cabin.

It was a much-relieved party of castaways that found itself once more united. Dawn discovered them still recounting their various adventures, and speculating upon the identity of the strange guardian and protector they had found on this savage shore.

Spike was positive that it was none other than an warrior of the princess Celestia, sent down especially to watch over them.

"Had you seen him devour the raw meat of the manticore, Spike," laughed Blue Blood, "you would have thought him a very material warrior." "Ah doan know nuffin' 'bout dat, Marse Blue Blood," rejoined Spike; "but Ah 'specs de Lawd clean forgot to give him any matches, He sent him down in such a hurry to look after us-all. An' he suddenly can't cook nuf fin' 'thought matches no, sah."

"There was nothing warriorly about his voice," said Twilight Sparkle, with a little shudder at recollection of the awful roar which had followed the killing of the manticore.

"Nor did it precisely comport with my preconceived ideas of the dignity of divine messengers," remarked Professor Fluttershy, "when the ah gentlemare tied two highly respectable and erudite scholars neck to neck and dragged them through the forest as though they had been cows."

To be continued