Several months ago...
The bustling city of Manehatten rarely sleeps these days. Ponies of all shapes and sizes party, conduct business, and even have life-lesson-teaching adventures of their own late into the Equestrian nights.
In one old corner of the city, a few ponies argued. A large stallion with an odd, yellow hat on his head and an unlit cigar dangling from his mouth raised a foreleg and roughly poked a hoof at the chest of the pony standing nearby. "We need the whole place surveyed, buddy. The mayor's quite insistent on that."
"Yeah, Boss, but..." the second pony protested. He had on slightly grimy, white coveralls that didn't quite obscure his Mark of a small ruler.
The boss poked the other pony again. "I don't wanna hear it, Gauge!"
Gauge grimaced, but pressed on. "This place hasn't been maintained for ages, Hardhat! We'd need a whole team of ponies with clippers and shovels just to get the place clear, and you want me to survey it by myself?" He gave a despondent chuckle. "I can give general readings, sure, but the grove is so overgrown..."
Hardhat chewed the end of the cigar, which was quickly becoming a tattered mess just about ready to collapse in on itself. "Look..." he said, and paused, looking very much like he wished the cigar was lit. "Mrs. Creek left this place to the city. Sun only knows how long it's been left this way. But with the state the manor was in, I wouldn't be surprised to hear it ain't been touched in...in a long time. That manor's coming down, and we're putting a new street in somewhere, and I'm not about to go in front of the committee and explain how a few overgrown shrubberies stopped us doing our job!"
The other pony raised a hoof placatingly. "Alright, alright!" His unicorn's horn glowed a pale blue, and a nearby box of tools and a leveling instrument floated gently into the air. "I'll do what I can."
The boss nodded, started to inhale, then glared down at the cigar in his mouth. He turned about and stomped away, muttering to himself. "Makin' me quit, with all the things I gotta deal with, grumble."
Gauge set his tools down at the edge of the grove. Old Mrs. Creek's manor had included a large, walled-off section of land that had been spared the towering growth of wood and metal that marked the rest of the city. Old, twisted trees, shrubberies run rampant, and grass that hadn't seen a clipper in sun-knows-how-long had been left to grow every which way they pleased. He couldn't even see portions of the crumbling granite walls which kept the neighbors from shrieking and collapsing from the shock of such unkempt environs. He sighed. "No way I can sight along these lines."
He opened up the toolbox and pulled out a huge roll of tape measure and a stake. Stomping the stake through a convenient hole at one end of the roll, he marked one corner of the plant-choked backyard. With the roll floating just above and to the left of his head, he started trotting through the tall grasses as best he could, heading north. Thankfully, the biggest trees and shrubs hadn't been planted so near the edge, so he was able to progress. If he'd looked closer at the path he left behind him, though, he might have wondered at the grasses' vitality in straightening back up from being trod upon...
Twenty minutes later, with some rough measurements of the area taken, Gauge decided he'd try to plant some height markers and sight them as best he could. He muttered to himself, "Of course, I'll have to get the center..."
~ ~ ~
It stirred in its deep dreaming. It had paused in its strange thoughts, partially aware that something or somepony was nearby. It'd forgotten when it last had sensed another presence, but lazily decided to take a closer look. Stretching out its mind, it reached for its eyes.
WHAT. It woke with a start, and no lesser amount of sudden, rising anger.
It could feel the pony walking about, and saw he had paused, an expression of unease on his face.
Anger flowed away and a feeling of despondency replaced it as it reached for more eyes, but could not find them. Gone, gone, it thought. It pushed aside sleep and dreams and awoke.
~ ~ ~
Gauge stopped in the middle of hammering down a marker at the edge of one of the thickets. He couldn't put a hoof on why, but he suddenly felt nervous about the place, as if somepony else had shown up.
"Hello?" he called out, voice wavering a little. He got no response apart from the breeze rustling the leaves of the trees overhead. After a minute, he stamped a hoof on the ground and shook his head, wondering what he was worrying about.
When something burst out from the middle of the thicket in a torrent of leaves, vines, and grass that left Gauge splayed out on the ground in surprise, he couldn't manage to describe what he saw later on. But everypony noted the rather incredible slightly-larger-than-a-pony hole that had appeared in the thick rock wall that day.
~ ~ ~
Present day...
It was a typical, lovely sunshiny morning in Ponyville as Twilight Sparkle, student, librarian, and chief organizer or all things that should be organized whether they like it or not relaxed in her home with a tome laid out before her: 101 Ways to Improve Levitation Magic. Absentmindedly, she licked the end of her right hoof and turned the page. Nearby, Spike lightly snored atop his basket, one arm dangling out towards the floor. Twilight raised her head from the tome and smiled at her sleeping dragon companion before returning towards the reading.
tock, tock, tock
Twilight, irritated a bit, brushed back an errant hair with her other hoof. With a bright reddish glow, she used her magic to pull the warm woolen blanket that was across her back closer up to her shoulders. She glanced again at Spike, whose tough claw of his dangling arm just reached the polished wooden floor. After a moment without sound, she started to read a passage about the theory of self-levitation.
tock, tock, tock
"Spike." Twilight stated, trying not to sound annoyed but clearly wishing to stave off further interruption. "Spike, you're tapping the floor." The dragon continued snoring, his inhalations and exhalations raising his body, his arm, and the claw at the end of the arm along with it. "Spike."
"Nnnrrfff?" Spike mumbled in unknowing reply. With a little roll of her eyes, Twilight levitates Spike's arm and tucks it back alongside the rest of him within the basket. Forgiving the little dragon his late repose, she hovered over the book once again, having earlier decided to finish it before joining Pinkie and her other friends for afternoon tea and cake down at the pond.
tock, tock, tock
Twilight's head flew up in exasperation, but she paused without speaking when she saw that Spike was still fully within the basket. She stood up, the wool blanket falling off her back and pooling around her hind legs, and she looked around the library seeking the source of the noise. Her eyes fall on one of the shut windows, where a small, black, unrecognized form was bathed in the sun's light from behind. Clearing her throat a bit, she trotted towards the window. Spike, having already been pressed into semi-consciousness, opened his eyes to follow her progress as her hooves resound on the hardwood flooring.
"Twilight?" he mumbled. "What's going on?"
Twilight aimed her magic at the window shutters and pulled them open. To her surprise, the black form turned out to be a small bird...clutching a roll of paper in its beak. With the obstruction of the window cleared, the bird flew down to a nearby table and dropped the paper upon it. With a small chirp, it nudged the paper, which obligingly rolled once over, then flew back out the window. Twilight, shrugging, magicked the shutters closed again, and walked over to the table.
"Wake up, sleepyhead," she called out.
Spike turned over in the basket and planted his face directly into the pillow. "Erggh, you saaaaaid today could be a late sleep," came a muffled groan.
Unfurling the paper, Twilight's eyebrows furrowed as she glanced over the roll. "Spike. Get up."
Spike growled a deep, dragon growl, ruined only slightly by his youth turning it a few pitches higher. With groggy eyes, he peered at the paper floating in front of his friend. "So what's that, huh?"
"A message."
"What?!" Spike came awake quite quickly. "Sending you messages is my duty! Whose trotting on my turf?!"
"Calm down, Spike, you're supposed to be thick-scaled." Spike frowned, but made no reply. "It's a note from Fluttershy. I think that was a raven." Twilight cleared her throat again and started to speak in lecture-voice. "Dear Twilight, I hope you are having a wonderful day. If you have some time, I hope you are not too busy, I could really use your help with a problem at my cottage. If it's not too much trouble."
"Sending messages by bird, it's enough to put a dragon out of a job," Spike muttered. "Who would come up with such a thing?"
"Enough moaning, Spike! There's more," she continued. "I'm sorry for sending this by bird, I know it upsets Spike..."
"That much is right..."
"...but I just can't leave the cottage right now and it's really so very urgent. Thank you!" Twilight stamped the floor. "We'd better see what's up. Grab my emergency book-bag, please." She started perusing tomes. "Animal Afflictions A-Z, she might need that, better take it. Hmm, Home Gardens and Cottage Maintenance, could be useful." Books from various shelves, tables, and corner stands flew towards the bag in front of Spike, who huddled behind it trying to avoid being struck. "Okay. Okay, that should be good enough for a start. We can always send you back for more."
"Yeah," Spike said, straining to hold up the bulging pack. "Let's hope that won't be necessary..." Twilight floated the two-pocketed bag over her back and secured it. They strode out of the library into the welcoming daytime sun and started down the town's path, nodding morning greetings to the citizens.
After a few minutes, they turned a corner of the pebbled path leading to Fluttershy's cottage at the edge of town. As a small hillock passed by and vision of the cottage opened up, they stopped, jaws dropping in shock.
Almost every inch of space in, out, and around Fluttershy's home was covered in...animal. Fur, feathers, horns, ears, beaks and maws crowded in bushes, tree branches, atop the roof, and along window sills.
Fluttershy, standing near her doorway, bluebirds and redbirds and owls resting atop her mane, rabbits and mice piled up around her hooves, saw the pair approaching and called out softly but entreatingly. "Oh! Twilight, Spike...thank goodness. I sooo need your help!"
Twilight looked at Fluttershy, then at the trees, the cottage, and back at Fluttershy, who looked back with wide, innocent eyes.
"Fluttershy, what in all of Equestria..." she managed, but then hoofsteps sounded from behind the mare and her dragon associate. They turned to see who else was approaching, and saw Rarity coming up the path along with a bouncing Pinkie Pie. Similar to Twilight's own reaction, Rarity paused in jaw-dropping awe at the sight of all the animals. Even Pinkie stopped bouncing and looked flabbergasted.
Rarity recovered surprisingly quickly. "Ahh, Fluttershy, dear... don't you think... you're maybe adopting one too many animal friends this time?"
"Ohh, no!" cried Fluttershy. "I mean... um... yes, but you see..."
"Fluttershy! Are you starting a zoo?" shrieked Pinkie in apparent glee. "With bears and owls and squirrels and rabbits and..."
"No...it's..."
"...deer and bluebirds and..."
"No...I..."
"Pinkie!" Twilight stomped the ground along with the shout. "Give Fluttershy a chance to respond! Fluttershy, maybe you'd better tell us what's going on here? Why are there so many animals? Why did you send a note for help?"
"She sent notes to Pinkie and I, too," Rarity interjected.
Fluttershy lowered her head close to the ground, and a few critters hopped down to the ground before she raised it back up. "They're not my regular animal friends, Twilight! Not most of them, that is." Next to a nearby tree, a large brown bear yawned, muzzle dripping with spittle, then stretched out on the ground as Fluttershy trotted over and patted him affectionately. "These poor guys came from the Everfree forest!"
"The Everfree forest? The animals there normally keep to themselves. Now why would they leave their home and come here?" Twilight questioned.
"Maybe they're having an animal family reunion!" piped Pinkie.
"That doesn't seem too likely, Pinkie dear..." said Rarity.
"I tried to ask them, but... their dialect isn't quite the same," Fluttershy looked a bit ashamed. "I don't know...they seemed nervous about something, enough to make them leave. I bet they came here because of all my other animal friends, I couldn't turn them away, I just couldn't! But I can't give all of them a home here, I don't have the room or supplies!"
"So that's when you sent the notes to us?" Twilight asked. A couple squirrels began bounding up and down Spike's back, as he shook his head.
Fluttershy nodded. "If you could find out what's scaring them, maybe they could return to their homes? Anytime is fine, but sooner might be better? I was hoping somepony could help me with these critters, too..."
"Fluttershy, did you ask Rainbow Dash and Applejack for help, too?" Rarity spoke up. Pinkie sat on her haunch off to the side, apparently engaged in a game of pat-a-cake with some rabbits.
"I did, I don't know if they were coming, though..."
Twilight pursed her lips and eyes a bit. "I'm sure they should have been here by now. I don't know where Rainbow would be, but we should check Sweet Apple Acres and enlist Applejack's help if she can. Spike, Rarity, Pinkie..."
"YEP?!" Pinkie zoomed to attention next to Rarity, who blinked.
"...you three stay here and see what you can do to keep the animals comfortable. I'm going to head to the farm. Spike, send me a message if anything comes up or if any of you see Rainbow Dash, okay?"
"You got it!" saluted Spike. "Dragon-messaging, much better than sending some pecking bird..." he muttered.
"Oh, Spike," Fluttershy pawed at the ground. "I'm sorry, it was an emergency..."
Twilight left the cottage at a trot, heading down to the Apple's farm.
~ ~ ~
The sun inched closer to noontime as the young mare passed by the first of the Apple family's apple trees. From the long distance, she could see the farmhouse and barn, and her ears started to pick up the sounds of shouting. Furrowing her brow in determination, she picked up the pace and entered a swift gallop. As she drew closer, the shouting became mixed with a low pitched buzz and hum, and her eyes picked out a fuzzy-looking form twisting back and forth across the horizon. She crested a little hill, then saw Applejack and Big Mac at the end of one of the celery fields, adjacent to the forest. The unidentified fuzzy object came into focus; a slough of varied colors gave hint that Rainbow was dashing back and forth above the other two.
Twilight continued her gallop, then almost skidded to a stop as she saw what the three were doing. Timber wolves were at the edge of the forest!
"Applejack! I'm here!" she called out. The two earth ponies spared a glance behind them before facing down the wolves again. There looked like five, maybe six of the wooden menaces hovering within the soft underbrush at the forest's border.
"Sure am glad you dropped by, Twilight!" Applejack called over her shoulder. "These here wolves need to learn a lesson about boundaries!"
"Eeyup!" shouted Big Mac.
The swift skystreak broke course and zipped down to the earth next to Twilight, who arrived to stand by the Apple kin. "Hey...Twilight..." Dash panted. The timber wolves, no longer cowed by the droning wings of the champion flyer obstructing them, stood taller on their legs and began to tentatively prowl towards the group.
One of the wolves leaped and got caught full in the muzzle by Big Mac's powerfully thick hindlegs. Three more of them began to circle around Dash and Applejack. Twilight glanced around the area, and noticed a small boulder at the edge of the field. She inched to the side, but a fourth wolf growled and matched her movements. She could see more of them appearing from the forest, now, and Big Mac moved to head them off. A thwock sounded from the side as Applejack caught a wolf with a kick of her own, followed by Rainbow Dash grabbing the stunned wolfstrosity and lifting it into the air.
Twilight closed her eyes briefly and summoned her magick, focusing it on the boulder. It was half-buried in the ground and resisted her efforts at first, but as the dirt gave way it popped out into the air. It was just in time, too - the wolf that had been stalking her began running in, only to smack face first into a rocky shield. With a little grunt, she raised the boulder a few feet higher, then brought it crashing down on the wolf's body. The connections holding it together snapped, and it broke apart in a whirl of sticks.
Big Mac had dispatched another timber wolf, but two more had taken its place. Applejack's hat had gone askew as she continued to buck at the threats. Twilight snapped glances this way and that. The first wolf that Big Mac had broken apart was starting to slowly regain form, the sticks magically coming back together. "Dash!" she shouted. The multicolored pony turned to look at her, questioningly. "Rainboom!" Rainbow looked confused. "Scatter them!" Dash frowned, nodded, then burst out in a huge grin before flapping her wings in a gust of power and streaking straight up into the sky.
Applejack, Big Mac, and Twilight backed towards each other as a dozen wolves encircled them, dodging in to nip at their hooves, but trying to avoid the dangerous Apple kicks. A speck in the sky appeared and began growing larger. Rainbow Dash, mouth fluttering in the growing wind, moving her wings at greater and greater speeds, spurred towards the group like a rocket.
"Look.....out.... BELOWWWWWW!" she called, but the words were a wasted warning as she crested the edge of the sound barrier. Twilight and the two Apples threw themselves to the ground and spread out their legs as a rainbow streak barreled straight at them, turning aside at a near-amazing ninety degree angle, a sonic rainboom sparking a few feet above their heads.
The battering power of the rainboom, too powerful for the wooden limbs of the timber wolves, cascaded off them, bursting them apart like popped balloons, sending wooden shrapnel in every direction, scattering wolf-sticks across a hundred feet of farmland. The three ponies huddled where they lay, bruised a bit by the flying sticks and dazed by the rainboom, but otherwise unhurt.
Rainbow Dash returned at a brisk pace, flying low to the ground and obviously cheerful with flee. "Look who saves the day again with the one-and-only best move in all of Equestria, huh?!" She landed and flexed a blue-feathered wing.
Applejack stood up and wavered a bit on her legs. "Appreciate it, sugarcube, but that's not the way I imagined seeing a rainboom again...from up so uh... close." Big Mac and Twilight stood as well. "Twilight! Happy to see you."
Twilight gave her friend a hoofbump in greeting. "So Fluttershy's not the only one having forest-related trouble today, it seems."
Applejack adjusted her hat, laying it back in place after it had been disturbed by the brawl. "What's going on with Fluttershy?" Big Mac and Rainbow Dash edged in to join the conversation, Dash folding up her wings alongside her.
Twilight looked at each of them. "Something's scared the forest critters. Did you two get her note?"
Applejack and Rainbow shook their heads. "Rainbow here dropped by to clear up a few pesky clouds over the fields," said the saffron-colored pony, "when we saw those wolves appearing, so none of us were at home. What'd the note have to say?"
"She's got whole herds of forest critters down at her cottage. She couldn't be sure, but she said they were frightened and abandoning their homes in the forest. Rarity and Pinkie got the messages; I left them there to help keep things under control while I came here to find you and," she smiled at the pegasus, "hopefully run into Rainbow Dash too. We ought to investigate the matter; Fluttershy can't abandon the critters, but she can't keep them housed forever and we don't want Ponyville overrun by a creature convention. How about you two come with me?"
"Awwwwlright, daring adventure time!" Rainbow reared up and happily pawed the air. Applejack patted the light-blue-maned pony with a hoof. "'Course we'll help out," she nodded. "Best we clear up this mess first, though."
"Eeyup," said Big Mac.
The group picked up the ex-wolf pieces one at a time in their mouths, tossing them back into the forest apart from all the rest, to keep them from reforming. That done, the females regathered while Big Mac, with a nod, headed back to the farm to manage some chores.
"So, what's the plan?" asked Dash.
"Well," clicked Twilight. "If there's anypony who knows what's going on in the Everfree forest, it'd have to be..."
"Zecora!" they all finished together.
