"Mmmm, warm" I mumbled, my eyes still closed as I felt sunlight shining down on me. The cool morning air smelt of pine trees and the earth I was presently lying on. The warm blanket draped across my back moved and I was about to try and tug it back over myself when I realised what was going on.

I was a unicorn, lying in the forest. Covering my back was Maya's wing, her sister on the other side covered with Maya's left wing. Based on the soft snoring Katty was still asleep, and from the occasional snort, Tibbs was definitely asleep.

As slowly as I could, I cracked my eyes open. The soft light beaming down on us wasn't painful today, but a quick look at my friends confirmed what I'd expected. Tibbs was asleep, curled up by a tree with his wings entirely covering him. To my left Maya had her head tucked down between her and Katty's bodies with a wing stretched over her own head and Katty's back. A shudder ran down my spine as I looked at how Maya's neck had bent, it was creepy how flexible her neck seemed to be, was that a Pegasus thing?

I ran down the checklist in my mind, we needed to get to that river we could just faintly hear. That would hopefully provide some freshwater, if we could I'd want to boil it to be safe. Once we were at the river we could follow that downstream to hopefully find someone to help us. Plus the river likely had fish in it that we could eat, Horses could eat meat if I remembered correctly.

Food would be important, I don't remember when I last ate. Replaying what I could in my mind, we were in Tibbs' car and then my memory blanked until I woke up in the forest yesterday. At best that was just over a day I hadn't eaten, at worst maybe two days. My stomach gurgled loud enough to startled Maya, her eyes blinking open.

"T-this wasn't a dream?" She asked, the hope draining from her voice. All I could do was sigh and shake my head. Giving her a soft nuzzle, instinct telling me it would make her feel a little better.

"Sadly no, we're here, wherever here is. Whatever we actually are. For now, we need to focus on staying alive, we can worry about our bodies later." I said, trying to keep my voice steady. Inside I was torn between what little of my survival training could be applied, and the building desire to have a meltdown. Everything felt wrong but right at the same time, the clash between my brain and this body's instincts, walking on four legs should be a challenge but after yesterday it seemed right, and the worry that we would run into something other than ponies lurked in my mind.

From what I'd felt, I didn't like our chances should we be found by a flock of Griffons. Just Tibbs on his own had made my body scream at me to run when he first locked eyes with me.

I wiggled a little to get clear of Maya's wing, with surprising ease I rose to my hooves. I was about to try to walk when something blue fell across my vision. With a puff I tried to blow it out of the way, forgetting that my muzzle made that impossible. To my left, I heard Maya giggle to herself. If she wanted a laugh I'd give her something to laugh about. I took a moment to think through the motion before flicking my mane from my eyes with an elegant toss of my head that would look perfectly at home in a shampoo advert.

Maya went from a giggle to full-blown laughter, wheezing slightly as her wings stiffened. Katty gasped as her warm blanket was suddenly lifted, her silver eyes glaring with enough intensity to melt steel. Until she made eye contact with me, as I continued the stupid shampoo model routine, swishing the surprisingly bouncy blue mane from my face a second time with a more enthusiastic flourish. I realised a split second too late that I'd overdone the movement as my right foreleg rolled the ankle and I went down straight into the dew coated grass.

Silence hung in the air for a moment before I burst out laughing, prompting the other two to join me. Tibbs' frustrated grunts as he joined the land of the living only serving to fuel our near-hysterical laughter. It felt good, just some kind of release from the stress and anxiety that had been building ever since we woke up in this forest.

____________________________________________________________________________

Forty minutes had passed as we wound our way through the woods, bird song all around us as the bright sun illuminated our path. I couldn’t help but smile, this whole situation was mad but at least we weren’t dropped somewhere in the middle of winter. My horn tingled slightly as we walked, I couldn’t see anything like what I’d seen in the skies last night but I could almost feel something around us.

“Katty, are you feeling anything?” I asked, maybe only I was feeling it but I figured to start with the other unicorn and we could theorise from there. She looked at me for a second, I could practically see the cogs working in her head as she thought.

“Yeah, it’s weird like static electricity almost? Or something else that’s just kind of all around us?” Maya hummed softly to herself as we walked along, the sound of running water in the distance providing the backing track for her. I was hoping we were close, my throat felt dry and that meant I was either dehydrated or very near to it. Assuming the others felt the same I continued to try and digest what I was feeling around us.

A wing draped itself over my back as I felt Tibbs bump against me, smirking as he flexed the other wing experimentally. “I think I’m getting the hang of these things,” He said, flicking his wing to cuff me across the back of the head, narrowly missing the top of my horn as I stumbled forward. We chuckled as Tibbs blinked in shock, his pupils widening as I saw the plumage on his head droop. “Shit I didn’t mean to” He started to try and apologize, being cut off by a hoofwave from me. “You’re fine mate” I chuckled before stopping to listen, my ears twitching as they moved slightly.

I adjusted our course and started to negotiate a steeper section of the hill. The grass was damp and soggy, filling me with confidence we were headed in the right direction. Katty followed closely behind me, navigating the hill before we reached the bottom. Tibbs came after her before we saw Maya galloping as best she could, in one fluid motion her wings snapped out and she leaped from the hill.

My jaw dropped as I saw Maya catch the wind, her wings were smaller than Tibbs but she seemed to be doing alright. The fire behind her eyes burned like a sun, and I could practically feel determination radiating from her as she glided towards us. Hooves stretched out forwards like a pony version of superman, she lost altitude rapidly. She landed in front of us, panting as she staggered a little. Her wings buzzing slightly as they fluttered up and down.

“F-fuck that was hard” She groaned, turning before burying her muzzle in her wings. I had no idea what she was doing but I heard a yelp of pain from her before she pulled her head out with what appeared to be a broken feather. She spat it out and grinned triumphantly at us, taking the lead towards the river, nearly skipping along.

I had to trot quickly to keep up, Tibbs and Katty behind me as Maya bounced along. Whatever the motion was it seemed to somehow be faster than trotting. I swore I could hear music in the background as Maya resumed her humming, whatever energy I and Katty had sensed was definitely building around us making my coat bristle.

The energy seemed to pass as we walked, my horn tingling occasionally in response to whatever it may have been. The sky was relatively clear above us, allowing me to start looking for contrails or any sign of aircraft. My eyes strained as best I could, spotting the occasional cloud but other than that the sky was seemingly devoid of traffic. Tibbs soon joined me in combing the sky as we walked, the water was definitely close as we could hear the faint splash sound from fish jumping upstream. I looked over to see Tibbs's eyes tracking something, his pupils almost the size of a pinprick as the plumage on his head twitched.

“Three dots, no idea what they are but no contrails” I looked back at the sky, trying to spot what He was talking about, and saw nothing. Griffon's eyes were evidently better than Unicorn eyes I suppose. The ground before us gave way down to a river lined by trees, the rushing water making my dry throat ache with need as I found myself galloping forward with the others right by me. I plunged my muzzle and head straight into the water, a wave of crisp and almost painful cold washing over my head as I gulped down as much as I could. Each mouthful of liquid made me feel that bit more alive before the screaming in protest from my lungs forced me to lift my head out and gasp for air. My lungs heaved as I pulled in the air, staggering back and sitting down like a dog, my forelegs holding me up as I watched Maya pull her head out of the river.

Katty flopped to the ground, only to have Maya drape herself over Katty’s back. “So, what now? We’ve found water, I don’t fancy our chances making fire with these” Maya groaned, lifting her grass-stained hooves up into the light, her cream coat and light white hooves both tinted green and shining where they were damp. Tibbs’ head burst from the river as he grunted, drawing all eyes to him as I felt my jaw drop. Clamped in his beak he pulled a full-sized salmon out of the river, tossing it over his shoulder where it lay still, its spine severed from its head.

With a shrill whistle, We watched in a mixture of horror and awe as Tibbs devoured the fish raw, his talons gliding across its stomach before pulling out its internal organs. I had to duck as Tibbs flung them over his shoulder towards the river, only for them to nearly hit me before splashing into the river. I turned back in time to see half the salmon be ripped off the fish and disappear into the beak of the very hungry Griffon. My ears dropped close to my head as I felt myself shuffling backward away from Tibbs, towards Maya and Katty.

My whole body flinched as I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the display, Tibbs’ beak crunching through the fish’s bones as if they were nothing, gore and what appeared to be scales plastered to his beak and feathers. I cringed as I saw him use a talon to rip the spine and tail from the tattered salmon carcass, flinging it over his shoulder with the same apathy as before. I was stunned, I hadn’t been this squeamish before, I’d done that myself after a fishing trip, gutting and cleaning a trout that I'd caught. Yet as Tibbs ate the fish I felt nothing more than utter revolution and an urge to puke, my body shuddering at every sound that came from the griffon feasting.

Silence fell across the forest moments later, birds having gone silent the second Tibbs whistled. I looked over at my friend, his feathers stained red, Talons coated in scales and skin. His tongue flicked out and licked his beak clean, panting for breath he blinked before seeing us three ponies practically cowering together. I shook my head before forcing myself to stand up, determined to conquer the bizarre herd instincts that kept trying to force me to run and hide.

“I...I’m sorry, I didn’t expect to do that. I grabbed the fish and was planning on sharing but I just kind of zoned out I think, I didn’t realise just how hungry I was” Tibbs tried to apologize, moving closer before stopping and heading for the water. I trotted over to him, putting a hoof on his shoulder as I watched him scrubbing the blood off his talons. I could feel Tibbs ruffle his feathers, the plumage on his head having practically glued itself to his head in what I could tell was shame. The Sun was starting to sink in the sky above us, and I knew we’d need a fire tonight, the smell of blood from Tibbs’ incident with the fish could attract predators. I relayed our needs to the others and Tibbs volunteered to venture out to gather dry wood, Maya and Katty nodded and set about gathering rocks from the river for a fire barrier. I sighed before wandering into the woods to try and find some flint to help light the fire.

My spine shuddered as I trotted away from Katty and Maya, into the woods ostensibly alone. I took a deep breath, if I was honest, I just needed a chance to clear my head before it broke. This new body I found myself in ached, it wasn’t used to the amount of walking we had done and I was starting to suspect I was pushing it too hard. More importantly, I felt guilty, I’d stepped up and taken charge, and if the others got hurt it would be my fault. My stomach twisted in knots about the idea of Maya, Katty, or Tibbs getting hurt due to my stupidity. I snorted and blew air out of my muzzle as I walked, I wasn’t sure where my hooves were taking me. I just needed to walk and think, blow off what steam I could before we tried to light a fire. As I walked my emotions just sort of simmered, I should be calmer than this but everything was just feeding into itself and getting worse as time continued.

I was pulled from my thoughts as I put my hoof into a hole in the ground, grunting in frustration I pulled it out relieved I hadn’t injured myself. It took a second before I looked at the actual hole in the ground and my charcoal coat turned white as blood drained from my face like I was a barrel with a hole in it. I had just stuck my hoof in a paw track, a bit one at that, claws about as big as I thought my fingers had once been like a nightmarish fusion of a bear in size but a wolf in shape.

I turned and bolted, moving my hooves like the devil himself were behind me, which for all I knew could be true. The sound of galloping hooves echoing around me as I surged back towards Camp. “Tibbs! Back to the others!” I yelled out, hoping he’d hear me and get back quickly. I could see the last rays of twilight starting to disappear and the cold setting in around. How long had I been lost in my damn thoughts, my horn tingled as I bolted along, maybe whatever energy I could feel was influenced by emotions?

I burst back to the river to find Tibbs and the others huddled around a small bundle of sticks crackling softly, casting a warm orange light across all of their faces. My heart pounding through my chest I slowed and collapsed in the gap they’d left for me, a warm wing draping itself across my back as I saw three pairs of worried eyes staring at me.

“Tracks... fucking big ones… some kind of canine I think... 4 toes and a central heel... very very big claws.” I panted, my ears swiveling to hear anything from the woods over the crackle and pop of the fire. It took a few minutes but I calmed down, in some ways having a clear threat was good, my training started to take back over, monitoring the edge of the forest around us.

“I’ll take first wat-” I started to say before we heard a howl in the distance, long and ear piercingly loud. It was close I could immediately tell that much, my blood-chilling as I felt fear creeping in. That was fine, fear would help me focus, I shuffled and gave Maya and Kitty a soft nuzzle hoping to help them stay calm. Tibbs flexed his talons on the opposite side of the fire, his catlike eyes reflecting in the light.

“Behind you three, move slowly towards me, I can see some eyes.” He said quietly, I turned and saw them immediately. Dim green glowing eyes stared back at us, four pairs of them. Katty and Maya rose to their hooves, standing close to me and Tibbs as we weighed our options. We could try to bolt and outrun them, leaving behind the fire. We could stay by the fire and pray that it would ward them off. I knew that predators would eventually brave the light to get their prey, and our little fire wasn’t big enough to truly scare what looked to be a pack of megawolves.

I looked at the fire before leaning in, biting down on a long stick that was burning on one end. I lifted it from the fire below tossing it towards the creatures. Whilst our firewood was limited maybe this would scare them off. The creatures snarled as the fire landed by them revealing them in their entirety, they were literally wooden. Dark wood, with what looked like fangs made from bark, the wolves stared back at us, the fire having barely fazed them.

“Literal timberwolves” Katty mumbled before they started to move, the largest taking a step forward and revealing how large it was. Almost three times our size, with fangs which looked like they could rip me in half. Any confidence I had felt evaporated as with a stamp the wolf brought its paw down on the burning stick, barely even moving as it smothered my pathetic attempt at warding it off.

Emboldened by the fire clearly not being any threat they began to circle, more green eyes lighting up in the woods around us, penning us in against the river. My brain realized that we’d make camp in the perfect place to attack, dense forest all around us, with the only nonforested side cut off by a river that looked like it could sweep us away in an instant. An idea came to me as we backed against the river, A stupid idea but if it worked we might be able to survive this.

“Into the river!” I yelled out into the darkness

Author's Note

I tried for the alliterative title, I'm really bad at titles.