"I said: Laugh!" Pinkie sang, striking a few frantic tunes on her guitar.

Applejack felt the inspiration, and managed to avoid getting her throat torn out as the nearest timber wolf pounced. She landed a solid uppercut that sent twigs flying it connected with the wooden muzzle.

Noticing that her opponent was dazed , she spun around and bucked the creature with both hooves.

"Thanks Pinkie!, she shouted as the creature designated.

Unfortunately another three took it's place. This goshdarned forest was full of the darned things.

"Anytime Fluttershy!" she called out, as they lounged for her now overextended hooves.

"I can't! They must be constructs!" the panicked voice of their druid replied.

"Well do something!" Applejack called back as two wolves pounced. Why did she have to be the party tank?

"Okay!" Fluttershy called back. She made a gesture with her hooves and a green light enveloped one of the timber wolves attacking Applejack. It sprouted leaves and branches and withon seconds it had rooted itself to the ground, unable to follow as Applejack backed away.

"Great," Applejack shouted, then howled in pain as a set of wooden teeth sank into her leg. There was just too many of them, and they fought like a pack of dogs.

"I got ya!" A voice cried from above.

A streak of rainbow shot down from the treetops and struck the creatures chewing up Applejack.

"Taste the painbow!"

There was a small explosion of twigs as Dash got her sneak attack in, absolutely demolishing one of the wolves with a sweeping kick. She managed to kick one more as she flew past, but it did little more than dislodge a few twigs.

"I'll get them all next time!" Dash promised as she disappeared out of sight, circling back for another devastating swoop.

"Ah don't think there'll be a next time!" Applejack called after her as another wolf bit into her flank.

"Oh no you don't!"

A barrage of purple lights streaked over the struggling creatures, dealing a lot of damage to the wooden constructs, but sparing the struggling pony beneath them.

"How tough are these things?!" Twilight called out in disbelief as her blasts only managed to knock the wolves back.

Within seconds one of them was back at attacking their friend.

Applejack's scream was cut off as the wolf scored a critical hit, its teeth sinking into her neck. It followed her down as she felt, biting and clawing to finish the job.

Pinkie moves to help but was intercepted by another wolf. It got a faceful of combat lute for its trouble, but the distraction meant Pinkie couldn't get to Applejack in time.

Fluttershy could however and there was another flash of green light and this timber wolf was rooted too. Unfortunately it did little good as it was already on top of the earth pony and only served to pin her down harder.

"Oh my!" Fluttershy cried out, horrified at what she had done as both the other wolves descended on the rooted and prone pony, making short work of her.

"APPLEJACK!"

Rainbow Dash was a blur of kicks and punches as she dove down once more. She didn't even try to stealth, taking several bites as she made short work of two of the wolves.

It wasn't fast enough though as the orange pony stopped struggling, her body falling limp.

Tears in her eyes Twilight blasted the last wolf to smithereens, doing a lot more damage now that her magic missiles weren't spread over multiple targets.

The forest fell silent as the last timber wolf was defeated.

Silent, apart from the sobbing of four mares. It was a hollow victory, they may have defeated the timber wolves, but it had cost the life of one of their number.

They all had their way to grieve.

Pinkie picked at the remains of her battle lute, managing despite the absolutely trashed stare of the instrument to produce a few somber tones.

Fluttershy curled into a ball, blaming herself for what had happened.

Rainbow Dash stomped the ground near the corpse and swore.

"Dammit AJ!" she screamed. "Why did you have to get into the middle of them like that?!"

"Because somepony had to," Twilight replied, her voice horse, but there was authority in it.

Rainbow's head snapped up, and she shot her cleric friend a glare.

"That's Rarity's job!" she snapped. "She's the one with the big armour and the defensive spells."

"I know," Twilight replied, ignoring the glare and taking a seat next to their fallen friend. "But Rarity didn't come along on this quest, so somepony had to."

"It shouldn't have been AJ," Rainbow sobbed, slumping down next to them.

"No," Twilight agreed, "it shouldn't."

"But it was," the purple unicorn raised her eyes to the sky and smiled when she saw the sun was still up. "And next time we will all stand by her side."

"Next time?" Rainbow looked up too, incredulous.

"Next time," Twilight confirmed. "The sun is still up, and Rarity did give us a gift before she left."

Rainbow barely dared to hope as Twilight pulled a shining gemstone from her robes and placed it on Applejack's blood soaked chest.

"Sparkly," Pinkamena commented as she trotted over, her voice flat.

"It is a Sun Gem," Twilight explained, and the gem really did seem to glitter in the light of the setting sun.

"Y-you don't mean?" Fluttershy asked, uncurling just enough to show a glimmer of hope in her tear soaked face.

"I do," Twilight smiled, clasping her hooves together. "The Solar Princess will provide, and with the magic of friendship our friend will rise."

Rainbow would have rolled her eyes, not this religious crap again, Celestia was just a pony, if a stupidly powerful one. But she didn't dare not letting Twilight try, if there was just a sliver of a chance Applejack could be revived, Rainbow was willing to endure any sermon, or whatever they were called.

"Prayers," Twilight replied, as if she could read Rainbow's mind.

To be fair, she probably could too, with all the magic in her horned egghead.

"Hold my hooves and repeat after me," Twilight said, gesturing for her three living friends to form a circle around the fifth.

"Sunshine Princess who makes our day, guide my hoof and light my way."

Three voices repeated the words. To their amazement a beam of sunlight shot down from the sky, illuminating their little group.

"It's work-" Rainbow began, but was silenced as Fluttershy stuffed a wing into her mouth.

The glare the yellow pegasus gave her made Rainbow shut up. Honestly she was grateful. She'd never live it down if she fucked up something like this. Applejack's life literally depended on this prayer thing.

Ignoring the interruption Twilight continued the prayer.

"Dear Ruler over Sun and Moon, grant your little ponies this boon.
Applejack was lost far too soon.
Please, oh please spare our friend. Don't let her story end."

The beam of sunlight seamed to somehow disappear into the body between them, plunging them all into darkness.

They all held their breaths, hoping that ~~whatever deity watched over them~~ Princess Celestia had ~~lived up to her hype~~ answered their prayer.

"Owwww!"

They all wooped and cheered as Applejack coughed. Miraculously it seemed the mare was no longer dead, although her injuries weren't all healed, just the one that killed her.

"Lil' hear there Twi," the beautiful voice croaked. " Ah feel like Ah was just run over by a heard of them buffalos."

As Twilight and Fluttershy all pooled their magic together to heal Applejack's wounds the former couldn't help but stick her tongue out at their rainbow maned friend.

"I told you The Princess will provide," Twilight smirked.

Rainbow didn't snark back, she just wrapped her clerical friend up into a big hug.

"If it means I get to keep my best friend, she's definitely best Princess!"

They all chuckled. It had been a harrowing encounter, but thanks to their friends it had all turned out okay in the end.

Author's Note

So today's prompt was Prayer, and I wanted to make something positive out of it. This being Kalvinburma, it sort of had to have a gritty dark spin to it, so enjoy pony DnD with character death. (Well sort of.)