Triangle

[Several days later]

I think the wounds on her body were starting to heal up. She could now walk in a mostly normal way without having a slight limp in her step. I changed some of the dirty bandages but I only had enough left to change once before I was completely out. My main concern regarding her injuries was her wing. While her other wounds were healing her wing hasn't gotten any better, as she would wince in pain whenever she would accidently move it or bump it into something. I was willing to change the bandages but she wouldn't let me touch her wing, so I just left it for now.

Another concern was food. I had tried to make it work but with both of us eating from the rations the time it would have lasted me was shortened. I have been trying to survey the area to see if I could find something, anything that could help us. No such luck, of course.

I think it was the fact that our time was limited that caused me a lot of the distress I was feeling. I wasn't ready to die yet. And dying from starvation or getting torn to shreds from one of those wooden wolves didn't exactly help with that feeling. Not only that but if I didn't find a way to survive then she would probably die as well. Overall the future didn't look bright. I mean it could be much worse. I try not to focus on the negative but sometimes focusing on it can be healthier than denying the facts.

As I put the top of the metal pot I used to gather water I carried it back. One hand in my right pocket gripping the loaded flare gun. I was always trying to be ready for either those wolves or some other unnatural predator to spring up from a bush or from behind a tree. I never felt safe until I was far enough away from the edge and into the open area.

When I got back and close enough, I saw Butterfly, the name I gave the Pegasus because of the two butterfly marks on both her flanks, open the back car door and hop out. She trotted up to me and greeted me. I knelt down and scratched her ears, to which she hummed in enjoyment. It was adorable. I guess that was one thing that kept me calm. Moments like this. When I stopped giving her ear scritches, she followed me to the front of the truck. It was about that time again. After we were done eating I saw the colors in the sky indicating the switch was about to take place.

I took one last glance to the forest. Each time I did I didn't see anything but...well this time I wasn't sure if I was imagining things, or if I really did see something glowing, and yellow dart behind a tree. I kept an eye on that tree for a good few minutes before I got up, put everything away and got in my spot to hunker down for the night. I stayed up for a few hours listening to absolute silence. Eventually, however I drifted off to sleep.

...

The sound came from outside. It startled me awake. Grabbing the flare gun I heard the Pegasus shift in her sleep. It sounded like someone took something sharp and ran it alongside the car. I listened carefully for anything else, half expecting a wooden wolf paw or snout to burst through one of the windows. I was put in a tricky position. The flares explosion would be deadly to them but it would also be deadly to us as well. I had left my axe in the bed of the truck, so I didn't have much else to fight with.

I tried my best to hunker down even more so that I wasn't so visible from the outside. I don't know how these things vision worked, but I'd imagine they evolved to see pretty well in the dark. I heard the sound of Butterfly moving to the floor and the sounds of her whimpering. I was freaked out as well, the car and myself were her only line of defense.

Hours of sitting still and listening to the pounding of my heart went bye, but nothing happened. No more metallic scraping sounds, no yellow eyes peering at me from the pitch blackness outside. I had thought it moved on so my pounding heartrate started to slow down.

Until it instantly picked back up. It just came out of nowhere, instantly breaking the silence.

The sound of the passenger window behind me shattering broke the silence followed by the familiar growls and snarls.

I felt the truck shake under the weight of the beast. The sounds of its wooden maw reaching into the window snapping to get at whatever was inside. It didn't take long before it moved to my side to shatter the window on that side. I ha moved over, getting cut by pieces of broken glass. This time the beast caught on to my little strategy, because as soon as I moved to the other side, it moved to its previous spot.

I kept moving to each side, trying my best to keep up with the things momentum. Eventually, however, when it saw that its current plan wasn't working it moved to the front window. I had to get away, otherwise it would succeed in pulling me through the window. I grabbed the car keys and turned on the trucks lights, which illuminated the monster in its entirety. This combined with the fact that the car alarm decided to go off seemed to startled the beast enough to give me the opportunity I needed. Opening the drivers seat door I got out, shut the door, and got under the truck.

The thing didn't seem to appreciate the loud noises as is started to attack the car in attempts to make it stop. While it was preoccupied I rolled out the opposite side. I crawled to move to the back of the truck to open the tailgate. I grasped the release mechanism and pulled it open. I rummaged through for the axe. Getting it out I looked under the truck to see it had moved slightly more to where Butterfly was.

As much as I just wanted to run away I couldn't leave her to be devoured by this thing. I needed to get it away from the truck. Getting the axe ready I moved from the back of the truck, axe raised and with all my might I brought it down, lodging it in the beasts wooden hide.

Guess I should have aimed for a more vital spot like the neck, because this didn't seem to faze it much. In one swift motion it turned and swiped me with its paw, knocking the wind out of me and causing me to lose my flare gun. I watched as it pulled the axe from its body with its teeth and throw it to the side. I tired to get up and move towards the flare gun but the thing was quicker than me. I was just out of arms length from it before it pounced on me. It planted a paw on my torso to prevent me from moving as it stood over me, slowly lowering its maw closer to my face. It raised its head back up with its maw wide open ready to chomp down onto my neck.

I used my arm to shield my neck, its wooden teeth latched into my left arm digging into the flesh causing excruciating pain. I wrestled with the thing for several minutes. It opened its maw back up to try again, but just as soon as it started to lift its head something collided with the side of it causing it to reel to the side. Looking to my right I saw butterfly, who bucked the wolf's head.

I stared at her for a few seconds before I realized I now had an opportunity. Sitting up I tried to look around for the flare gun, but I couldn't find it, it was too dark to see anything. I started to search more frantically as the thing drew closer to her with each glance back I took. I slowly started to realize I wasn't going to get it in time.

Come on...

Where the fuck is it?!

Fuck!

I looked back at the wolf, then to Butterfly, I could barely see her trying to get under the truck for safety. I was no match for that thing but I could at least try to distract it so that she could get away. Honestly why was I even doing this? I had only met her less than a week, yet I was willing to risk my life for her? Was I truly ready to give up my life now?

You ever read about how in stressful moments you get that illusion that time seems to slow down? Yeah, it was one of those moments. Never got anything like that until now. Why couldn't I move? Was I really rejecting the idea of trying to help her? Did I really not care? Was I really willing to flee while she got devoured?

No. I refuse to believe that. Come on, MOVE DAMNIT!

MOVE!

I was starting to get up from the ground and onto my feet, but something knocked me back down. I couldn't process it right away, but when I did I swore. I swore I just saw lightning strike that wolf. I was about to believe that it was either by incredible luck or by some kind of intervention by some unknown force, but when I saw a second lightning strike I looked up to see between the flashes of light that there was something up there.

I took my eyes off the thing as I looked back at the wolf that was now burning. It was then I first witnessed what happened when these things died. It was like whatever was keeping its body together just shut off, and it collapsed into a huge pile of burning pyre.

My attention was shifted back to the truck. There was a form looking under it, no doubt whoever, or whatever saved us. I think I saw Butterfly emerge from under the truck to greet, or embrace whoever this was. Now that I had a moment to pause, I realized that my arm was in a lot of pain. I don't know if it was broken or not, but I had to get this cleaned and bandaged up.

Getting to my feet I started to slowly walk over. The newcomer noticed me when I got close enough and immediately went into a defensive stance in front of Butterfly. Butterfly seemed to speak to them, but they didn't really budge, just stared at me with the intensity of a mother protecting her baby. I didn't attempt to get any closer to them, I made my way around and shut off the car alarm before I walked to the tailgate and got out the stuff I needed.

After I cleaned the wound the best I could, I took to wrapping it. I don't think it was broken, just more or less torn to shreds. I sat down on the tailgate and proceeded to clean and dressed the wound. I was so preoccupied with my thoughts that I almost didn't notice Butterfly rounding the corner to look up at me. I just finished up before I looked in her direction. Following her was the newcomer, whom I now got a better look at. Light blue coat, a rainbow mane of all things and...I think red? Magenta eyes? I couldn't tell because of the red light. We just stared at each other for the longest time before the rainbow one turned to speak to Butterfly.

[Rainbow Dash POV]

I had decided to get a head start at searching for Fluttershy. Taking a lamp I begun my search in the dark. Looking back that wasn't really the smartest thing to do but I was confident enough that I would be able to take care of myself if the situation called for it. However this confidence slowly evaporated as I took my first steps in. I growled in frustration for being a coward as I went back to the cottage and set the lamp down near the door.

I wouldn't be able to get sleep if I tried. But one thing that made me feel better was flying, so I did just that. I went for a very early morning flight. Ever since I was a filly flying just felt right. It made me feel free, shaking off any stress of life. Normally I only focus on the beauty of the clouds or the sky. But when the sun wasn't out I found myself appreciating the street lights of Ponyville.

When I got bored of looking down at the lights I decided to fly over the Everfree. The pitch blackness below was unnerving, like I was flying over some weird abyss with the night sky above me. I was about to head back but I took notice in something that I hadn't expected to see. Amongst the black inky look from below, there was something I couldn't believe I was seeing. Near the south east border of the Everfree I saw lights. My first thought was maybe it was a caravan taking a shortcut.

As I got closer I took notice on how odd this caravan cart was. Its lights were something like I've never seen before. There was only two sets of them. Each set facing the opposite direction. Two seemed to be very powerful lights reaching out farther than any other light source I've ever seen. The other two were an ominous red, and not nearly as powerful as the others. The closer I got the more a realized that the familiar glowing eyes of one of Equiestria's most fearsome predators, the more my stomach dropped. Whoever this was was under attack by timber wolves.

Coming up with an idea, I searched the nearby clouds. At first they all looked the same, but the higher I got the moonlight provided just enough light for me to spot a cloud that was darker than the rest. Grasping it and flying back down I closed in on the scene happening before me. The two sets of lights provided just enough light to where I thought I caught a glimpse of something, or some pony backing up and crawling underneath the caravan cart for safety. Taking this opportunity I set the cloud in the best position I could before I bucked it. Twice.

When the dust settled after giving that timber wolf two good lightning strikes I saw something from the flashes of lighting. I don't know if I was seeing things at first, but it looked like something I never had seen before. I had chalked it up to me just seeing things from the pent up stress from what's been happening for these last several days. Looking back at where the timber wolf was, I saw it turned into a giant smoking pile of wood.

Landing near the noisy caravan cart I looked underneath to see the outline of a pony. Getting closer I called out.

"Hey, its alright now. The timber wolf is gone."

Whoever they were they froze, before they started to crawl out from under there. When I heard who the pony was, if just barely because of that loud alarm, I was overcome with relief, joy, and a mix of other emotions. I almost couldn't believe it, It was her, Fluttershy was alive! Our reunion was cut short however as her focus shifted. She looked like she was about to start running off somewhere but I stopped her.

"Woah woah, hey take it easy, what's-"

It looked like she was looking at something behind us. I turned around to see something from the dark walking towards us. The closer it got the more I realized it was the thing I briefly saw. It was bipedal like a minotaur, covered in something. Fur? I couldn't tell. I got ready to attack but Fluttershy stopped me. Now I wasn't sure what to do, so I just kept my defensive stance in front of her.

Whatever it was stopped at a certain distance from us, before it changed course and moved to one of the sides of the caravan cart. As I watched it I saw its features get illuminated by the red light. It had no fur save for the top of its head, it was wearing some strange clothing. It had small eyes, nose and mouth. Shortly after it disappeared from my sight the alarm shut off. Fluttershy started to walk towards the red light. I heard something before she stopped and sat down looking at it. It was also I discovered that she was wrapped in bandages. I followed shortly after and saw the thing sitting on the end cleaning then wrapping its left arm.

We just stared before I asked.

"What, is that?"

"I don't know, but he's been helping me for these past few days."

I looked to her in disbelief.

"Seriously?"

"Yes." She said. Never taking her eyes off him.

Looking back I could see it was now looking at us.

"Ok, sooo that's nice and all but we need to get you to the hospital."

"And leave him behind? HIs home is destroyed." Fluttershy looked at me.

"You seriously aren't thinking of bringing it home with us, are you?"

She just stared at me.

"You are, aren't you."

She said nothing. I just sighed in defeat.

"Can that thing even understand you?" I asked.

"No I don't think so, but it is clearly intelligent. It speaks, just in a language I can't understand."

I didn't say anything this time, just looked at it who was now covering its face with its good arm.

We sat there until dawn came. When Fluttershy somehow got through to it that we were moving it started to pack up many different items into two odd looking packs. While it was doing this I took the opportunity to look over its strange abode. From the outside of course. Honestly I was impressed something like this could be made. It looked to be made out of metal instead of wood, and the wooden wheels were replaced with, leather I think.

After it was done packing it started to follow us again. It took one last look at its small abode, before it turned and followed us. A slightly sad look on its face.

Guess it wasn't just ponies who got sad with leaving a home behind.