Chapter VII

I awoke slowly, hearing birds chirping through the early evening air of the Everfree. I could see the orange glow of the sunset through the forest canopy. I double checked my gear, making sure nothing had fallen from the tree and downing a mouth full of water before hopping down and continuing my search for a water source.

Luckily, I had no sooner began to settle into a rhythm for the search when I practically fell into a stream in the fading light. I happily filled my canteen, holding it under the surface to avoid any debris floating on the water, and drank deeply. Happy to finally have a way to renew the precious resource.

My mind strayed back to the incident in Ponyville, and to be honest I was rushing myself to come to a conclusion about the event as a whole. I didn't know their customs, maybe stepping in was the exact wrong thing to do. Maybe that was an everyday occurrence and I stepped on some major cultural toes, so to speak.

I shook my head, no, I thought, if that's the way they live then I doubt I'd even fit in for a week without shooting some ignorant motherfucker for harassing a girl.

I may not be the most virtuous guy around, but I was raised to respect and protect females. I didn't see the species mattering much. I spent a few more minutes thinking about it, before shoving it to the back of my mind and grabbing my kit from the shore of the creek. I double checked all my gear, knowing that I'd have to either find some edible plants or kill an animal if I wanted to eat that night. Thinking back, consuming my last MRE after eating a real breakfast that morning wasn't a smart move in the slightest. I berated myself for being so short-sighted as I sighed deeply, and put boot to mud.

I made slow progress, being in unfamiliar territory was still far from comfortable. I had no bug-out sites, no safe house to retreat to if things got heated, just my rifle and pistol with plenty of bullets for a few encounters with hostiles or several dozen hunting trips.

Night fell quickly, the dark forest shifting from gloomy to downright creepy like someone flicked the color-filter switch. What was dark shadow turned to bluish grey, and what were sun shafts poking through leaves turned to ghostly white moonlight. What was worse, was that the forest just stopped. There were no dogs barking in the distance, no elk bugling or owls hooting. Everything was dead with the exception of one thing: timber wolf calls.

I knew Alpha said it would be dangerous, but fuck me. Every few minutes a snarl would rip through the stillness, causing me to whip around and fall against a tree trunk with my rifle raised. Occasionally, I could hear a howl from some wolf or another, though I couldn't tell one from another at those ranges. I could hear fairly constant snaps and cracks, and eventually figured that the wolves were either ripping apart trees to fix themselves or engaging in territorial battles.

With the wolves such a present and constant threat, I didn't even consider what other threats could be hiding among the trees.

I kept creeping forward, keeping a constant bearing with the moon since it was still hovering over the eastern horizon. I kept it at my back, allowing it to provide a sort of guide and illumination. More than once I found myself thankful that it was so bright as it allowed me to spot movement in a few small groves. Every time it was the same thing, a timber wolf, sitting proudly in the center of the clearing. Their ears would swivel, muzzles twisting atop a stationary body as they tracked whatever snarling could be heard at the time.

Their eyes, though. When in 'sentry mode,' apparently they turn off. More than once, a snarl ripped from my six, making me tense up as I stared at yet another sentry wolf. As its head turned my way, I could see none of the glow that substituted for eyeballs. Instead, a subtle green hue was glowing inside their heads. My guess was that they sacrificed their sight to improve their hearing or sense of smell.

Onward I went, avoiding initiating contact with any wolf just to be on the safe side. Alpha did mention that some packs thought differently, and I really didn't want to fire off my rifle with so many apparent predators relatively nearby.

I unconsciously turned south, putting the moon on my left, after my fifth clearing occupied by a timber wolf. Somewhere in my mind I noted the change of heading, and started tracking my steps and any strange looking landmarks. A weird boulder here, snarled tree there, simple things. They would help me find my way back to the stream later. It was all instinct to me by that point, and it fell easily back into place after my apparent tenderizing in Ponyville.

I stopped running into clearings after the switch. Offhandedly noting how strange it was that they were all aligned in an almost straight path. Somewhere it occurred to me that they were placed there strategically, though I couldn't bother to think about it.

Right, clear. Left, clear. Back, clear. Front, Clear. I repeated the crucial mantra in my head again, sweeping my SCAR across my field of vision and craning my head to double check my back. I would repeat the process at random intervals, a practice born out of being hunted by humans at least as smart as I was. Even if they were feral, they could still set a trap, and they could still send scouts to watch my movements. I wasn't taking any chances with wolves practicing that doctrine, especially after my meeting with Alpha.

An hour after the change in direction, I happened across another clearing. Alarm bells rang in my head as I laid eyes upon the wolf in the center of this one. It was bigger than the others, still sitting calmly in the center, although his eyes were 'active', I suppose you could call it.

It was all too convenient. Five clearings in an almost perfect line heading east/west, and one at a perfect ninety degree angle to the south. Everything about the layout screamed intelligent design, and as I hunkered down behind a tree, silently, I began to process possible reasons behind such a setup.

There was an annoying sound though. Small grunts and sniffles could be heard from the clearing, and I was effectively confused. From what I'd heard, the timber wolves didn't make any sort of grunting noise, unless they were grinding their teeth or something I suppose, so I peeked my head around the tree. There was a hole in front of the wolf, though I couldn't see anything within, just a little patch uncovered by grasses.

In the midst of my gawking, a snarl and a loud snap could be heard. Directly behind me. This one was closer. Much closer. I froze on instinct, tightening my grip on my SCAR until my left hand reminded me of the still painful stab wound present in the palm. Icy fear drenched every atom of my body, like playing a game of tag and getting an adrenaline rush when you're about to get caught, but multiply that by about eighteen thousand. Give or take.

The large wolf's head snapped in my direction, and the eyes got me to move. I ducked behind my tree, hyperventilating and keeping my rifle aimed at where the wolf would have to come before a familiar feeling prodded the back of my mind again.

"Mladý, it has not even been three suns since I warned you of the dangers of the probuzení, and yet here you are. Scurrying amongst the trees. Just like last time. What is your game, human?"

I could've jumped and cheered, but settled for taking my rifle off of his forehead. I put on a wan smile, letting my SCAR swing at my side as I stood and approached him. "Alpha," I sighed, "It's good to see you again. I had a bit of a. . . misunderstanding with the ponies."

The massive wolf's head tilted in confusion, "Ah, not as much prey as predator, I take it?

I almost chuckled. . . almost. "Yeah, you could say that," I rasped, whispering.

Another snarl from behind us caused me to snap around again, falling silently to a knee and scanning the trees. Alpha's eyes flashed yellow, before fading to a deep, blood red.

" Mladý. I must present a task to you in exchange for your protection. Do you accept?"

I gulped slightly, before nodding to the wolf.

"Good. Children," he motioned to the center of the clearing, "Fillies. They must be protected while I deal with this intruder. We will discuss more upon my return."

Without waiting for any confirmation, Alpha leapt forward. In one leap, he took to the forest canopy, bounding from branch to branch as he disappeared from sight.

I gulped, seeing the giant wolf's agility reminded me just how impotent I might be against some predators in this God-forsaken forest. My adrenaline rush wore off, leaving me shaking slightly as I gripped my rifle to my chest for comfort. I debated on how to protect the children that he mentioned, figuring I could either hide in the tree line and provide cover from a distance or get up close to make sure they were alright. The decision was made for me as a series of hushed whispers came from the hole, which at second glance was much larger than I'd assumed.

"Is he gone?"

"Ho-How am I supposed to know? I can't see two feet in front of me in this stupid dark!"

"Well go look, stupid! It's your fault we're here in the first place!"

"My fault? I'm pretty sure you're the one that dared us to come in here! We could all be asleep at our homes right now but noooo~, Diamond Tiara wanted to go into the scary stupid forest!"

The voices grew more heated, gaining volume as I crouch-walked closer to my new charges. If they were kids, which sounded right and fit what Alpha told me, they were either very stupid or very overconfident. . . hard to tell the difference really. I glanced in the hole, my eyes fully adjusted to the darkness, and saw what it contained. In the pale moonlight sat five small shapes, two of which looking vaguely familiar to a couple of Twilight's friends back in Ponyville.

They argued for another few seconds, before the white one suddenly stopped mid sentence. Eyes dilating as she did a rather good fish impression, prompting my eyebrows to rise a bit in amusement. Slowly, the others turned to follow her gaze, one by one falling into the same fish impression. Their synchronized awe/fear/brain failure was almost enough to get me to laugh, but I settled on tilting my head to the side and quirking my mouth into a lopsided smile.

Cute kids. . . stupid, but cute.

Not wasting time, I hopped down into the now vacated half of the pit that was occupied by three of them when I arrived. They flinched away as I sat down with a huff, pulling my backpack off and placing it beside me in the hole. I kept my SCAR in easy reach, though I turned the safety on just to make doubly sure that the children weren't at risk. A very awkward silence followed, the fillies clinging to each other and trembling, terrified.

I cleared my throat, quietly, which of course made them all just about seize in surprise. "Uh, hi?" I said intelligently, tilting my head a bit. I kept my voice down all the same, popping my head upright to catch a glimpse of the tree line around the clearing.

The fillies stayed riveted to the spot, unwilling or unable to look away from the big scary. . . malnourished human that had just plopped down into their foxhole. Fine then, I thought, be that way. The white one suddenly gasped, making me flinch.

Her voice was clearly more than excited, "Are you that Geoff thingy that Rarity was talking about?"

Her voice. . . my God if I wasn't such a good person, I'd cut her vocal cords out to save the ears of the next unfortunate soul to hear that frequency.

Alright, maybe it wasn't that bad, but I double checked for blood just in case as I shushed her and checked the clearing again, praying that nothing hungry heard that nice little dog-whistle.

"Keep it down, will you?" I hissed, "There's things in this forest that are dangerous, you know." She looked down, scuffing the bottom of our cozy little foxhole with her fore-hoof. I sighed, "Yeah, my name's Geoff. I. . . uh, I've met Rarity once or twice, why?"

"Oh, uh," she stammered, "Nothing. . . What are you doing here?"

The orange one spoke up next, "Yeah, where'd the big timber wolf go?"

My eyes had taken to scanning the tree line from end to end, "Well, he had to go take care of something. He'll be back." I huffed a silent laugh at their horror-stricken faces, "Trust me, he's protecting you until it's safe to take you back. I know him."

"Y'all know that thing?" The yellow one whispered, apparently set at ease with two of her companions speaking freely.

I nodded, scanning again, and left it at that. The talking wasn't helping my focus, and being snuck up on was not my favorite past time, despite what others may think. Several minutes passed with no activity. The barking and snarling of the timber wolf pack moved further to our north, seemingly getting further away as I somehow recognized the barks as orders from Alpha himself. I couldn't actually discern any real meaning, but simple impulses like 'flank' or 'dodge' or 'kill' were ringing through my head at certain calls.

I was startled to realize that those associations came from the pack's memories, not my own. . . and that I had been interpreting everything in the forest through their mind. It was. . . unsettling at the very least. The fight seemed to be going well for them at least, from what I could tell. Something was nagging at my mind though, as they drifted further from our little slice of mud and dirt.

A voice made me jump, squeezing my SCAR into my shoulder, "So what was it like?"

I sighed, "What was what like?" I didn't even bother to look at them, as far as I was concerned, their only purpose was to stay safe long enough for Alpha to return, and then I could see what he wanted.

"Rarity said you had to survive on your own," another voice crack, another flinch from me, "She said you were from somewhere very far away, too. So what was your home like?"

I glanced at the white one, who had her head tilted in curiosity. Her two apparent buddies were looking curious as well, and the two others. . . purple and grey, left and right, were still hugging each other in fear. I snorted, remembering when I was that scared of everything.

"In short, it sucked." I whispered, "Some people got mad and hurt a lot of folks. From then on, it was pure survival. Some people would try to hurt others. . . hurt me. . . You learned fast or you died."

They were all shivering again. . . and I had given them the abridged, sugar coated version. The unabridged version contained a lot more blood and guts. I continued, "It was tough, any sleep was restless, since actually falling asleep was a good way to get hurt. Come to think of it. . . think about how scared you are now, sitting in this hole in the middle of the Everfree forest, and know that I had to live with that fear all the time, and still move and operate to stay alive."

I grew quiet after that, the general idea was enough for them to know until they were older. Maybe I said too much, but oh well. Another minute passed, another minute that Alpha wasn't back and his barks grew further away. I felt small legs circle around my midsection as the white one crawled onto my lap for a hug. I could see her tears in the moonlight, and to be honest, it was heartbreakingly cute.

I sighed, wrapping an arm around her for a minute while she trembled. Her friends put on a brave face, settling for looking solemnly at the dirt. Poor little filly. . . they really were just that sheltered after all, I guess. A bit of movement on the tree line made me tense up, squeezing the filly a little tighter before pushing her back to her friends.

As I watched, my SCAR propped on the side of the hole, a massive hulk of a cat came prowling into the clearing. Half again my height, the thing was fucking massive. Oh, and just to make things predictable, it had bat wings and a scorpion tail. The latter was dripping with honey-colored fluid, presumably venom. It seemed like a waste to me, but maybe its body just produced that much of the toxin. Come on, I pleaded silently, just turn around and walk away!

I glanced at the girls, who were staring at me with wide eyes. "Cover your ears, and stay in this hole if something happens. You're safer here than in the open. I'll come back for you when it's safe, or Alpha will come back to protect you, okay?" I hissed as quietly as I could, seeing them nod and put their front hooves in their ears.

I returned my eyes to my holo -sight, only to find the massive cat staring right at me. Everything coalesced into that tiny moment as I watched the events unfold in slow motion. The cat's massive legs coiled, launching it easily five yards with each stride, foot long daggers shining in its mouth. My heart beat once, my finger stroked the trigger, *Crack*. From the corner of my sight, the fillies flinched. My heart beat again, my finger moving in time as I curiously noted the brass casing fly out of the breach and out of the hole.

*Crack*.

Blood sprouted from the forehead of the cat, from two black holes. Both right between the eyes. It fell to the earth, digging a trench with its massive weight and skidding to a halt barely a foot from the muzzle of my weapon. It let out a great huff, blowing my short hair a bit as its life left its body. From its size, the skull alone could've been a foot thick for all I knew. That thought made me glad I had green-tips loaded. Any less penetration and it may have just shrugged the hits aside.

I could hear the beginnings of screams from the girls, tiny little whimpers that grew gradually. I immediately shushed them, turning my head to shoot them a withering glare. They shut up without complaint, and I sighed heavily. I motioned with a hand for them to stay down as I hauled myself out of the hole, and debated with myself on how to move the body. It was massive, true. I didn't even know if I could move it, but I knew two things; one: the sound of my rifle firing would for damn sure attract the attention of other predators, and two: I needed to get this thing away from my hiding place before they showed up. Having it right there was a dead giveaway, and maybe it would distract whatever came to investigate.

In all honesty, I didn't want to kill in front of these kids again if I could help it.

I grabbed a hind leg, hefting as hard as I could. Thankfully, it turned out to weigh about as much as a big elk, maybe a little more. I'd had plenty of experience dragging those to a safe place before, so I was able to make good time getting it to the edge of the clearing and laid behind a tree. The process took too long, though. I snapped around at the sound of a mournful meow. . . or growl. . . or rocks in a blender with an air horn. Not ten yards from the foxhole was another cat. This one was about half the size of the first one, coming up to about my shoulder.

There was no adrenaline this time. I brought my SCAR up, pulling the trigger three times rapidly. The rounds went wide, impacting into the trees on the other side of the clearing. I heard the fillies scream out, high pitched wails compared to the snarl of the beast that was now charging me. I squeezed again, only to be met with a damning *tick* as the firing pin of the SCAR struck a dead primer. An icy lance of fear ripped through my chest.

I fumbled for a second, not having enough experience in this type of situation. Usually, if I was using my SCAR in a fight, it was because the other guy had an AK or an AR. In my hesitation, I panicked. I dropped the weapon to my side and reached for my pistol, bringing it up at the last possible second.

Twilight looked at her bedroom clock as it chimed again, signaling that the hour had just struck 3:00 AM. She sighed, picking up her most recent textbook on psychiatry and stuffing it onto a temporary shelf beside her bed for safekeeping. She strode to the window, pushing it open and breathing in the cool night air. Aside from Geoff still missing, everything was going great. The Cutie Mark Crusaders had been invited to a sleepover at their rival, Diamond Tiara's house at the urging of her father, Filthy Rich.

Twilight smiled at the sentiment, he'd been putting a lot of effort to get his daughter to ease up on the three fillies, since they'd all be living together in Ponyville well into their adulthood as far as anypony could tell.

She slipped under the covers of her bed, savoring the cool night air as she closed her eyes for a restful night's slee-

A window pane no more than three feet from her bed shattered, bursting inward for seemingly no reason with a loud *SNAP-HISS*, the psychology book she'd just been reading exploded into a flurry of paper shreds. The noise of the glass hitting the ground had yet to abate before a series of noises came rolling into her room from the Everfree, causing the hair on her withers to stand on end.

*pa-pa-pop*

*grrAH*

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-!"

Author's Note

Alrighty, A/N time. Please point out any mistakes I might've missed, as usual.

All of my stories have been put on hiatus, as I am just burnt out on writing for the most part. I'll update them as they come, but compared to the chapter every 1-4 days like before, I'm expecting to finish one chapter for one of my stories every couple weeks. It's a long wait, I know, and I'll say sorry now for the cliffhanger.

Leave a comment, let me know your thoughts. I'm posting this story for you guys and gals to read, so tell me what you're thinking. I enjoy comments more than faves or thumbs. (though both are always appreciated)