“I win again!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed after beating Twilight for the approximately tenth time in tic-tac-toe. She looked at the upset unicorn in front of her. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m sure you will win the next one.” Pinkie told her with a cheerful smile. Looking up at Pinkie, Twilight groaned once.

‘That was the seventh time she said that. How can she keep on winning in tic-tac-toe even though, logic says that I can’t loose with my strategy. How does she keep doing that?’ Twilight groaned again. ’This makes no sense!’ Just when she began to start another round, Princess Celestia walked over to the two.

“Hello Twilight, Pinkie.” Nodding at the two while she spoke their respective names. “How have you fared so far?” She looked down at the tic-tac-toe games that were scribbled into the floor. “Ah I see. Who is winning?” The answer was pretty obvious by the temper the two had. Nonetheless, Celestia was bored and had to kill some time. On top of that, she also needed to distract herself by this feeling of being watched.

“Me, me, I am winning!” Pinkie shouted happily while bouncing all over the place. Twilight sighed and Celestia saw that her student wasn’t that enthusiastic as normally. She lowered her head to Twilight.

“You are also feeling watched, aren’t you?” She asked quietly so no one can hear them. Twilights’ ears perked up, and she looked around to see if no one were spying on them. Deciding that it would be safe she answered.

“Yes. It feels as if something is just waiting to pounce on our backs. I don’t like this.” While she said that, she slowly looked around the forests at the edge of the clearing. She could see nothing dangerous. It was quiet. Very quiet. Normally at least some birds would make their mating calls or a slight movement in the bushes could be heard, but right now it was silent, except for the conversations of the others.

“Princess, I definitely do not like this eerie feeling.” The Empress of the sun looked around the clearing and slowly nodded.

“I think it’s the best if we inform the others. At the beginning, I thought that my paranoia maybe got the best of me, but if you are feeling this too then I am quite sure that I wasn’t mistaken with feeling threatened.” Twilight nodded and stood up from her haunches. “And Twilight. Don’t make any hasty movements. Any sort of jump or run could make whatever is watching us attack.”

Twilight nodded again before she slowly started to make her way to Applejack and Rarity while the princess walked to her guards.

“And then I said ‘Oh please, I had bigger ones than yours.’” Rarity said while holding back her giggle. Applejack looked kind of confused. “She was infuriated because I insulted her hat. It wasn’t exactly little, but I really made bigger ones myself.” The farm pony could not understand, what was funny about ponies arguing about their hats. She wanted to ask about the reason why she insulted her hat, when she saw Twilight walking to them.

“Hey there, Twi. We were just talking about some ponies in Canterlot. What were ya’ll up to?” Twilight looked around again before she lowered her head to the two conversing ponies.
“The Princess thinks we are being watched.” The mares crooked an eyebrow and looked around the ponies until their eyes fell on the purple day guard, who suddenly had quite the interest in a stone he found.

“Oh do you mean that guard, darling? Oh please, everypony noticed that he is eying me the whole time.” Rarity exclaimed while lifting her mane with one of her hooves. While Rarity was showing off her mane, Twilight just shook her head.

“No Rarity. This is not what I meant. I mean we are being watched by somepony or something that has darker intentions than asking us out on a date.” Applejack understood what Twilight meant and looked around the clearing while still keeping a calm exterior. Rarity raised an eyebrow.

“Whatever do you mean, Twilight?” Twilight got closer to Rarity.

“I mean somepony is trying to attack us.” Rarity gasped extremely. Now there was no way that not everypony in the whole clearing knew that something was amiss. If whatever is watching them sees the nervousness in his prey, it could get motivated to attack. Twilight just hoped that this wouldn’t happen.

“Rarity you need to act inconspicuous or else they might come to the idea to attack before their prey gets to formulate an escape plan.” Rarity wanted to point out Twilights’ rude tone, but decided against it since there were more serious things right now, than chewing out Twilight. So she just nodded and looked back at Applejack.

“Applejack, did I ever tell you about how I met Jet Set and Upper Crust? It’s a rather embarrassing moment, I won’t deny that.” Applejack looked confused. How could she talk about something like that in such a dangerous situation? She nudged closer to Rarity.

“I think we have bigger problems right now, Rare.” Rarity rolled her eyes.

“We should act inconspicuous, isn’t that what Twilight said? So why do we not just continue our conversation?” Applejack pondered about this for a second, but understood quickly what Rarity meant.

“Oh no Rarity, tell me more about it.” She said this with a way to forced voice. Well she was the element of honesty. It was understandable that she couldn’t lie like a pro. Twilight listened to their conversation and then made her way to Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. While she walked over, Celestia just arrived at the guards that were talking without worries. When she got closer, the guards all made a quick glance at her and simultaneously nodded. Celestia was a little taken aback by their informality.

“I am very sorry for the rudeness, your highness, but we are currently being watched by at least a dozen Timberwolves.” One of the guards said with a hushed voice. Now she was genuinely taken aback. Not only did her guards know about the threat, but also what was watching them and how many there were.

“How did you know?” Celestia asked in a quiet tone. The guard whom she was talking to nodded to his left to a purple Pegasus-guard.
“This one here saw a pair of yellow eyes in a bush. Our two unicorns then proceeded to use their aura-vision to check for enemies. That’s when we found out about their numbers and what they were.” He simply explained. Celestia was impressed by their intuition.

“Say, what is this aura-vision you just mentioned.” The guard looked surprised at the princess. She didn’t know about a spell they could perform? Nonetheless, he answered.

“Aura-vision is a spell that Aren, sorry High-general Aren showed us how to perform. It basically changes our normal physical vision into a, he called it, soul vision. We only see silhouettes of weak magical entities. Creatures with a stronger magical strength are being shown as shining orbs. It’s actually quite an easy spell to use.” Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“I thought High-general Aren wasn’t able to, I’m sorry, wasn’t allowed to teach spells to Equestrians?” She asked her guards. The guards looked nervously around.

“Didn’t you know, your highness? He took us in as, he called it, M-apprentices. He said that this was the only way for us, being able to learn magic from him. I don’t know what that means, but he said that this won’t hinder us in fulfilling our duty. It’s just a formality, he told us.” Celestia accepted this for now, but made a mental note to get answers from the human the next time she sees him.

“What is your plan for dealing with those wolves?” Celestia asked with a whisper.

“Continue like this until High-general Aren comes back with the port-platform. Hopefully we do not need to use Plan B.” He exclaimed and Celestia quickly followed up with the question what Plan B is. “Well Plan B is to defend ourselves against the onslaught. With luck, we don’t need that one.”

The plan was not perfect, but it was a good one for the time they had to plan a strategy. Just when Celestia asked another question at the guard, she heard rapidly flapping wings behind her. She turned around, and her heart nearly stopped. There in the air, flapping her wings, was none other than Rainbow Dash, posing like she wanted to fight in a ring.

“Come out you punks! I’ll beat you to a-“ Just before she could finish her sentence, she got enveloped by a purple glow and was instantly pulled down to earth, by a lavender unicorn. Every guard looked nervously around, but nothing happened. Celestia was also paying attention to her surroundings, but nothing seemed to move. Absolutely nothing. And then it happened.

Suddenly about five Timberwolves jumped out of the forest and were running at Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. Rainbow saw them coming and barreled away. She didn’t think this action through because Fluttershy was frozen with fear on the floor, with pupils as big as a sand pebble. Just when one of the Timberwolves pounced at Fluttershy, a purple barrier was around Fluttershy.

Fluttershy totally forgot about Twilight, who was still with them. With a loud thunk, the Timberwolf bounced of the barrier, which let Twilight wince a little. The other Timberwolves, who were not occupied with Twilights’ shield, were running around them and straight at the rest of the elements. Applejack quickly stood before Rarity since the white mare didn’t seem to have any defensive spells.
Applejack prepared herself to deliver an apple tree-shattering kick to one of the approaching Timberwolves, but didn’t know that this was not the first time for the predators to hunt equines. Applejack bucked out hard, but seemed to hit nothing but air. Not being prepared for the nonexistent resistance, she fell down on her abdomen. Just when she wanted to get up, she felt a stinging pain in her left hind-leg.

She turned her head around and saw how one of the wolves had bitten down on her leg. Not only was the bite itself painful enough, but he also decided to pull her away from the white mare behind her. Applejack turned to Rarity and her eyes widened like never before.

“RARITY! Behind you!” Behind Rarity stood the other Timberwolf that ran to them. He sneaked around Applejack and wanted to attack from behind. Rarity couldn’t turn around fully before a strong bite pierced her neck. Applejack couldn’t believe what she saw. Her friend was assaulted by a Timberwolf. She thought she had lost her, but then she realized that it hasn’t bitten down on her neck only. It has bitten down on her neck AND her left fore-leg, which was now between its’ jaws.

That meant her neck was not broken. There still was hope for her. Applejack felt another tug at her legs and saw that the wolf continued to pull her further away from the clearing. While watching her friend nearly getting killed, she totally forgot about her own predicament. She turned around, so she was lying on her back and kicked with her other hind-hoof directly on the snout of the wolf, who yelped shortly after. While yelping, he lost the grip of his prey and opened his mouth.

Quickly going back on her belly, she pulled herself back into the clearing with her remaining three legs. The apparently broken leg was being dragged on the floor and hurt indescribably. She looked up and saw the Timberwolf running away with Rarity in its’ mouth. “RARITY!” Applejack shouted, but had to cough shortly after, because of a cloud of dust and smoke that got in her lung.

Just before, the Timberwolf vanished into the thicket of the forest, he got slammed away by Princess Celestia who ran into it. She held Rarity with her telekinesis while she was ramming into the wolf. The short flight of the wolf got abruptly ended by the presence of a broad oak. The wolf shattered into many tiny twigs and leafes when he impacted.

Celestia looked at Rarity closer and saw that she was still alive, barely. She levitated her fast into the last remaining chariot and closed the door behind it. She was safe there. Celestia turned around to the guards and saw that they still were fighting against the main body of the enemy pack. Many pieces of wood were thrown around and also three corpses of the guards littered the floor. To her surprise, every dead guard was a night-guard.

There were three Timberwolves remaining from the main body of around eight. One of the day guards’ unicorns used his magic on the floor, which quickly shifted into a cuboid that rose from the floor and slammed into a timberwolf practically destroying it. Another Pegasus-guard flew straight at another wolf, but before he got into the reach of its’ snout, he stopped his descent and threw himself over the wolf.

Landing behind it, he released a fierce buck that threw the Timberwolf at the ground. Two earth-pony-guards quickly saw their chances and bucked the Timberwolf into oblivion. The remaining last one of the Timberwolves was fighting a purple Pegasus-guard that was flying low above the ground. The guard shot up and took a run-up. When he was prepared, he shot straight at the Timberwolf.

The wolf wanted to bite at him when he was in reach, but an orange glow engulfed the Pegasus, and he was violently jerked to the side and shortly after the Timberwolf felt a fierce pain in his side. While the guard was flying down, one of the unicorns engulfed him in his telekinetic field and changed his course and angle, so the Pegasus slammed with the power of his dive right into the side of the Timberwolf, shattering it to pieces.

That Celestia was impressed by this show would be an understatement. She never saw her guards fighting like that. What did that human do to them in those two weeks? At the other side of the field, Twilight was still holding up her barrier. The Timberwolf was biting at it violently and with every bite she felt a searing pain going through her head, but she couldn’t give up. Not if that meant Fluttershys’ death.

Fluttershy still in panic: “T-T-Twilight?”

“No time right now.” Twilight exclaimed while being under tremendous pain caused by the onslaught.

“B-B-But Twilight, c-c-can’t y-you just us-use your ma-ma-magic against i-it?” Twilight shook her head.

“No. Timberwolves are magical beings, and they absorb every form of raw magic. If I *slam* ARGH. If I use any magic against it, it will just absorb it and get stronger.” Twilight held on to her barrier, but before the Timberwolf could strike once again, it was thrown to the side by a pegasus flying straight in it. Not long afterwards, the wolf got squashed by a group of guards.

Twilight could finally loosen up a bit and release the barrier she was holding up for far too long. Before she fell into unconsciousness, she heard a loud cry. “HELP!”

Applejack was not faring well. She was still crawling away from the last remaining timberwolf. It was gaining ground tremendously and just when Applejack thought it would all be over, the Timberwolf got slammed to the side by a dark blue blur. Opening her eyes, she turned around and saw the princess of the night.

“THY FOUL CREATURE, SHALT NOT BE ATTACKING OUR LITTLE PONIES!” she shouted with her royal Canterlot voice. Before the wolf got up, she had charged her horn and shot a moonbeam at the wolf.

“NO!” Celestia screamed from the other side of the clearing to Luna, but it was too late. The beam already hit its’ target. When the beam hit the wolf, he just stumbled a little, but then began to glow a dark blue. The wolf let out a loud howl while Luna looked dumbfounded at the still living Timberwolf.

“How can it still live?” She asked mostly herself.

“Luna! Timberwolves absorb magic, don’t you know that?” Celestia exclaimed with a hint of anger in her voice. Luna raised an eyebrow.

“What’s a Timberwolf?” And then it hit Celestia. Luna was 1000 years on the moon and the Timberwolves only started appearing around 700 years ago. Of course, she couldn’t know about them. She was only back for around a year and still hadn’t caught up on every change in history, including the Timberwolves.

Celestia looked at the howling Timberwolf. ‘This will be an enormous problem’ she thought as the remains of the dead Timberwolves began to fly straight at it. It piled up to a big pile and out of the pile was a new Timberwolf formed. Being nearly ten meters long, it looked around the group of now gathered ponies.

To say that the current situation was disastrous would be an understatement. It roared a loud roar and the trees shivered under the might of the roar. Then it suddenly started to cry in pain. Celestia looked up to see that the purple Pegasus-guard threw sticks at the Timberwolf that were ignited by a unicorn while flying to the wolf.

Slowly the wolf began to ignite. Just when there seemed to be some hope, it roared again, and all the fire on its’ body was extinguished. Celestia knew that this was not just a simple roar. It was a scream, accompanied by a wave of magic. Celestia could do nothing. The only thing she could use as her weapon was her magic, but this was blocked by the Timberwolfs’ ability to absorb it. ‘If only Aren was here. He would know what to do.’

The guards did not give up as fast as Celestia and continued to throw burning wood at the humongous wolf. Whenever the wolf tried to swish at one of the Pegasi, the Pegasus got jerked to the side by one of the unicorns. The wolf growled again, and the fire was also extinguished again. Celestia looked to the side and saw that the chariot, in which Rarity was, was being filled with wood.

Before she shouted at them, she noticed that Rarity already was placed at some tree. The Timberwolf had enough and used a concentrated roar to push one of the Pegasi out of the air. It looked like a fly flew into a leaf blower. The Pegasus shot away and impacted with a tree, shattering his back.

When the wolf looked triumphantly at his kill, it didn’t notice the other Pegasi being gone. When he turned around and didn’t notice them, it searched the skies for them but hasn’t found anyone. And suddenly there was a humongous pain. The chariot that was filled with wood was burning furiously and just got slammed into the Timberwolf. Not only did the weight of that thing damage his side, it also enflamed the part where it hit it.

It shattered at the impact, but it was worth it. With another scream, it extinguished the fire again. Celestia still looked awed by the motivation her guards were showing, but then she noticed something.

“Wait a minute. Is it getting smaller?” Luna looked quizzically at Celestia but turned her gaze at the gigantic wolf. It really got smaller. It was now maybe seven meters long, but how can that be? And then she knew what the plan of the guards was. The guards wanted to lit it on fire, not because they wanted to damage it, no, they wanted it to use up its’ magic with its’ roar.

The wolf also noticed that it was using way too much energy. It quickly searched around and found the unconscious Twilight lying on the ground. It ran at her but slammed into a force field. Celestia groaned in pain, when the wolf slammed into her barrier. The wolf was in a rage, it needed power, NOW! It practically assaulted the barrier like there was no tomorrow. Celestia having more magic than normal unicorns, was able to hold up the barrier for a long time, but it crumbled eventually under the unrelenting attacks of the wolf.

The Timberwolf didn’t care that it was on fire again, by all the annoying Pegasi flying around it. He just wanted to eat that unicorn. Just when it pounced at Twilight, the unicorn got scooped up by a dark blue alicorn and was flown away by her. It quickly followed the flying path of the alicorn and released a focused roar at her. Luna got hit directly and shot away from the clearing.

“LUNA! TWILIGHT!” Celestia screamed with horror. She flew after them, but couldn’t reach them due to her still being dizzy. Her magical energy was exhausted, and she couldn’t even perform the simplest of spells. She could only watch as her two most important ponies flew straight at a big oak. And then they vanished.

Instead of Luna and Twilight flying at the Oak, was now a red earth-pony. The red guard slammed hoof first into the oak, but could withstand greater injury due to him being an earth-pony and his strong leg muscles. After impacting with the tree, he fell down to the floor where he was caught by one of the Pegasi-guards. Celestia looked around for Luna and Twilight and found them in the middle of the guards.

She thought about it for a second, but then realized what brilliant plan her guards used. Since a teleport-spell also transfers kinetic energy, it would have just thrown the two at something different hard. So they used a swap-spell. With the swap-spell, it is possible to swap multiple living beings with one or more other creatures. The kinetic energy doesn’t get transported and rather transferred. The other party that gets swapped in their place receives the kinetic energy.

So they took their strongest guard and swapped him with Luna and Twilight because he could handle himself smashing into a tree, while Twilight and Luna couldn’t. Celestia was impressed that her guards were able to calculate such plans while being under such stress. Being impressed by her guards, Celestia totally forgot about the still living Timberwolf. When she turned around to look at it, she could only see a big maw that was about to bite down on her.

She saw her live flashing by her and prepared herself for the pain that would most certainly come, but it never came. Instead of feeling pain, she heard the wolf screaming out in pain and agony. She opened her eyes and looked up at the wolf with wide eyes. There was that purple guard again, but he held something. He held a spear in his hooves, but the spear was not normal. The spear was burning fiercely, but that was also not everything. The tip of the burning spear was currently located in the former right eye of the wolf.

The wolf cried loud and with that the guard was flung back violently. And also this time the guard vanished, but in his stead was nothing this time. Celestia couldn’t even start to look around before she heard a loud thump. Changing her gaze to the reason of the sound, she saw a pile of one Pegasus and three earth-ponies. Apparently they teleported him and placed three strong guards at the path he will most likely fly into.

Celestia heard another growl, but this time instead of turning around, she instantly took flight. She looked back and realized that, she would be most likely dead if she hadn’t flown away. Suddenly there was a loud boom, but the wolf didn’t budge. ‘What made that noise?’ she thought and looked at one of the legs of the wolf. Apparently Pinkie Pie has shot her party cannon at the paw of the wolf. It wasn’t very effective. It turned to Pinkie and bit down hard.

“PINKIE PIE!” Celestia screamed, but she quickly saw that the pink mare was bouncing around on the other side of the clearing like nothing happened. Not wanting to try to understand the pink riddle, Celestia flew to her guards. They were winning apparently since the wolf was now only half his original size, but she also noticed that her guards were exhausted. This fight could go either way.

The wolf suddenly turned around and bit down on a big tree. It bit and ripped and chewed down as hard as it could. ‘What is it doing?’ Celestia thought. The wolf continued to bite the treetop off and when it had it in its' mouth. He swallowed and after that bit down on the trunk and now Celestia knew what it planned.

It is known that Timberwolves could also eat wood. Since they are not so bulky, they only ate some branches, but since this one was so powerful, it could eat a whole tree. “STOP IT!” The guards nodded while the remaining elements looked bewildered at Celestias’ outburst. The guards flew at it and threw more fire, but the wolf didn’t seem to care. It only continued to eat, and when it finished the whole tree, it closed its' eyes and suddenly some kind of resin oozed out of its' shell.

Normally, resin would be flammable, but since it was filled with magic, it couldn’t burn. It turned around swished at the earth-pony and unicorn guards. They couldn’t react fast enough and got all thrown to the side. All of them impacting on something with a loud bang. Most of them were dead, some only had a few broken bones, but one was clear. They couldn’t fight anymore.

The Pegasi guards flew away from it, apparently to help their guard friends. The Timberwolf turned around and looked at the bunch of defenseless ponies. Just then a massive explosion erupted around the wolf. It was so loud that Celestia could only hear static in her ears, and when the Shockwave arrived, it got stopped by an invisible wall.

When the smoke cleared, the Timberwolf was still standing, but it was damaged badly. Before it knew what happened it was already over. A black blur passed near the head of the Timberwolf and shortly after, the head fell down to the ground and splattered into pieces. The body followed. The blur landed, and Celestia could see what it was.

It was Aren on top of his Stormbreaker with a readied sword. He looked at the remains of the Timberwolf and fired one solid long beam of fire at it. He fired for about 20 seconds, after which there was no more wood left.

“Don’t want that bastard regenerating.” He just muttered to himself. Looking around the battlefield he sighed. “Why does this have to happen when I’m not around?” He saw the ponies watching him with wide eyes. “What?” And then the cheer broke out. Everyone thought they would be dead by the end of this, but they lived. The happy moment was only short-lived.

The death of their partners, friends, and guards pulled the ponies back into depression. Rainbow Dash looked around the battlefield and then spotted something horrible. “RARITY!” She screamed while flying to the tree where Rarity was. The remaining friends followed, except for Twilight who was unconscious and Applejack, who could barely move with her torn leg. When they arrived, they could hear heavy breathing. Fluttershy looked at Rarity but then backed away due to all the blood. Rainbow got to Rarity. “Rarity! Everything will be fine. Don’t worry. The princesses are here, we will be able to save you.” She exclaimed with tears in her eyes.

Rarity slowly opened her eyes with a sleepy look in them. “Rainbow *pant* Dash, you don’t *pant* need *pant* to worry about *pant* me. I will be fine.” She slowly said between pants. Her friends looked terrified. Rarity was slowly closing her eyes again. Rainbow got into panic-mode.

“NO! NO Rarity you can’t die! SOMEPONY HELP!” She screamed out. Celestia and some guards walked up to them. As soon as Celestia saw Raritys’ state she averted her gaze. Rainbow got down on her knees and wrapped her hooves around Celestias’ legs.

“You must do something! You can save her, right?” She begged with a forced smile. Celestia averted Rainbows’ eyes and shook her head. Fluttershy who was sobbing at the background now fully cried. Pinkie joined her with her straight mane. Slowly Aren came to them.

“You can’t save her?” He asked with a neutral tone. Celestia shook her head.

“But you can revive her right?” Aren looked away but answered with a grim undertone.

“No, I can’t revive anyone outside of a resurrection field.” Celestia looked at the ground and also began crying. She had hoped that he would be able to at least resurrect her. He went down on one knee and looked at Rarity. He slowly picked up her chin and looked into her eyes.

Rarity just looked in his eyes and smiled knowingly. She knew that she wouldn’t survive that bite for much longer. She had maybe a few minutes left, but nothing more. Everything was silent, except for the crying ponies. They all stopped crying when they looked at the human. ‘Maybe he can do something?’ They all thought. Now it was perfectly quiet.

Aren looked back at the expectant gazes of the ponies. The tear filled sad gazes. There was no doubt, Rarity was loved by everyone. He looked back into her eyes. She truly was an innocent creature. She shouldn’t have died in a battle. Aren sighed and stood up. He walked away from her, but before he passed the ponies he turned around and gritted his head with his right hand.

Suddenly he started screaming in agony. He screamed so loud that everypony had to lay down their ears. His screaming continued and he started gripping his head with his second hand. Slowly he pulled his right hand away and screamed even louder than before. In his right hand was something deep blue like the Ocean.

He paused a second with the screaming, but continued when he started pulling again. After a while, the thing he pulled out began to stretch. It got longer and longer until with one final loud scream it snapped. Aren was now on one knee and held something transparent in his hand. It looked like a blue fire. He stood up and walked back to Rarity.

When he bent down he looked one last time in her eye and put the fire in his hand at her heart. It went in her, and she slowly drifted off to sleep. Aren walked this time through the ponies, and to some tents that the guards have built. He turned around one last time.

“I gave her half my soul. She will survive.” With that said he went into the tent.

Author's Note

Finally my first fighting scene, where one party was not totally overpowered. Let's see if we get more of those^^