Aegis' POV
"Can't catch me, slowpoke!"
"Is that a challenge?" I huffed, galloping after Summer thought the long grass. The circular clearing was a huge swath of tall grass, at least a hundred yards across. Summer and I were playing tag on our day off and decided the clearing was the best place.
"Yes, it is," she said playfully. "C'mon, lead-hooves, can't catch me-- oof!"
We rolled around as I tackled her, tumbling around in the tall grass. Laughing, our roll came to a stop on the slope of a hill. "I'm sorry, I thought the aim of tag was to keep away from the pony whose 'it'," I teased. Gingerly, I tapped her chest. "You're it."
Her lower lip quivered, looking at me with sad puppy eyes. "Do I have to be?"
"Oh no, I'm not falling for that again," I insisted. In response, she unleashed her secret weapon. Curling up next to me, she nuzzled her nose into my chest, wrapping her hooves around me. "You fight dirty, you know that?" Circling her form with my forelegs, I drew her closer, bringing my head over hers.
"I love you, Aegis," she mumbled through my coat.
I gave her a firm squeeze. "Summer, I'm glad I lost my memory." She looked up at me, her blue eyes alight with confusion. "Because there's nothing holding me back from you. I have no other home, nopony else. Just you and the forest." I craned my neck to meet her lips with my own. It wasn't an overly intimate kiss, but it lasted a long while, yet was still much to short. "I love you too, Summer."
Summer smiled and pressed herself against me, her body warm against my own. This early in the winter, the snow was prone to spontaneous melting, as it was now. The slightly frigid air did nothing to make us uncomfortable as the early afternoon sun warmed our coats. Even if the sun had been covered, the warmth of our bodies touching each other was enough to dispel any coldness we would have felt.
With the warmth of the sun and the feeling of the mare I loved pressed against my body, I drifted off into sleep…
>><<>><<
"Run, Dash, Run!"
The conifer trees rushed by in a rush of terror.
"Chloe! They're gaining! We need to move faster!"
The snarls of the pack of timberwolves was getting louder with every second, baring down on them.
"Can we fly?"
"The trees are too low! Not enough room!"
"At least we're out of the Everfree…"
Yellow eyes appeared in the bushes ahead, and they skidded to a stop. They were trapped, surrounded. The timberwolves advanced, circling them.
"Looks like we have to do this the hard way…"
Rainchaser looked up. "This is for you, Nick…"
>><<>><<
I was startled from my strange dream by Summer bolting upright. What the hay did I just see? The two pegasi seemed so familiar. Why did I call the grey one Rainchaser? Who in Equestria is Nick? Everything just felt too vivid to be a dream…
"Summer? What's up?" I asked my fillyfriend, who was sitting up, glancing around, ears twitching. "What are you--?"
"Shh!" Her head swiveled as she shushed me. "Do you hear that?"
I perked my ears up, straining to hear whatever noise Summer had heard. Aside from the chirping of the winter birds, I heard nothing. Then, out of the peace, came a bone-chilling howl. "What was that?" It sounded like something I've heard before, but I couldn't put my hoof on it.
"Timberwolf pack," she said worriedly. "And I think they have something surrounded."
At first, I was confused at what she was insinuating. Summer had lived in the woods for a long time, and showed a lot of knowledge about nature. In this case, Summer could tell what timberwolves were doing by the different kinds of howls. Including what kind of prey the pack was after.
After another howl, the pearl mare's irises shrunk in fear. "It's another pony!"
"What?!" I jumped up in surprise. "We have to help them! They could be in trouble!"
"You think?!" she replied, dashing off with me in hot pursuit. As we ran, I made sure I had my shield-bracer on my foreleg. Seeing the metal glint off the sun, I sped up to the mare in front of me, matching her pace thought the woods. Branches whipped into my face, but my earth pony resolve allowed me to barrel past without a second thought. The howling grew closer, and I began to hear growling and yelping as well. Whoever was being attacked was fighting back.
"How much closer is--?" My question died in my throat as we rounded a thicket.
Summer had told me that the average timberwolf pack contained about fifteen individuals. The group in the small clearing was at least twice that large, the wooded canines flocking whatever they had surrounded.
"C'mon, you mite ridden mutts!" came a tomcoltish voice from the center of the circle. "Eat frying pan!"
In an explosion of plant-like wolves, two pegasus mares blasted out of the assault. One wielding a frying pan, the other with a bronze switchblade.
Oh you have got to be bucking kidding. The two mares from my dream, the ones who were running from the timberwolves. They were standing in front of me. And I knew one of them. The grey one with the pink mane…
Rainchaser…
>><<>><<
Rainchaser's POV
"Eat frying pan!" I shouted, bursting from the wave of timberwolves. Gripping the cooking flat between my hooves, I bashed it on the head of the nearest wolf, effectively removing it from the fight. For a household object, it was a surprisingly dangerous weapon, proving it's worth against a manticore, plus three timberwolves and counting.
Spinning, I faced my next adversary. The wolf was already in the air, pouncing for me. But I was ready. Drawing back and relying on mostly tennis and softball skills from Earth, I swung around. The bottom of the pan met the wolf's face in midair, pausing it's momentum and making it slump into the snow below.
Glancing over my shoulder, I checked on Dash with the little respite I had. She was in a battle stance, the ground below her littered with four sliced bodies of timberwolves. In the small amount of time I had her in my vision, she stabbed another wolf and tossed it aside. Was it just me, or did Dash look super hot when she--
WHAM!!
Damn it! Why can't I just have a decent look at my fillyfriend while she was at her best angle! The timberwolf hit me broadside, knocking the wind from my lungs and the pan from my hooves. No! Not my beloved frying pan! In a desperate attempt, I tried to reach for it…
"Augh!"
…and was stopped by pain racking my side. "Chloe, don't move!" I looked up to see Dash standing over me, her switchblade shattered. "That's a pretty bad bruise. Just stay here and… don't… move…" Her voice trailed off when she saw the situation.
With only ten wolves down, a majority of the pack was up and able to fight. Able to kill. Able to feed… Oh dear sweet merciful graceful majestic magical baby Luna, I'm going to die. Dash couldn't possibly hold off twenty-odd timberwolves! With a broken sword, no less. I hope Tartarus is the 'wander aimlessly in a black field' kind of hell, in contrast to the 'burn for eternity in a fire'.
My last thought as I closed my eyes to wait for the end was of Aegis. His unbelievable cooking. His emerald eyes glinting in the sun when he watched Dash and I practice. The softness of his chest when I nuzzled him. His shield glinting off the sun when he beat the living oak out of the timberwolves…
…WAIT, WHAT?!?
The timberwolf that was midair, barreling for Dash and I, was bowled over by a maroon flash. Aegis tackled the wolf and rolled over it, his large form crushing the wooden canine. Whipping his shield around, he dispatched another with a 'clang' not unlike a frying pan. As another wolf pounced for him, the large stallion reared and crashed his heavy hooves down upon the wolf's head, collapsing the wooden skull.
However, I didn't have time to relish in the victory of finding our loved one, as Dash had to buck another wolf away from me. "Dash! Behind you!" I yelled as a wolf stalked behind the cyan mare and pounced. Before Dash could spin to counter, pearl hooves sent the canine flying.
"Stay close to your friend!" the leafy maned mare ordered Dash. I looked back over to Aegis, who was fending off a timberwolf with his shield. "Don't worry about him. He's taken worse." Glancing back at the mare, she gave a brief smile before kicking another wolf away.
"How much worse?" I asked when she disposed of another wolf with a whack from her forelegs.
The mare smirked and turned to face an advancing enemy. "For one thing, he took a fall of a cliff and hit his head hard enough to induce memory loss."
Dash froze at this, glancing at me in between opponents. "What?!" she said incredulously.
Still smiling, the mare stomped on a wooden head before continuing. "Yeah, and still managed to completely heal in the span of two days! True earth pony. I guess that's why I fell in love with him."
Oh no she bucking didn't just say that. "Hey Rain?" asked Dash as she stabbed the broken end of her switchblade into a wolf. "You may want your frying pan back when this is over." Her voice was filled with the same amount of rage I had.
"You have no bucking idea."
>><<>><<
"Well, Summer, I think we're bucked," Aegis said plainly. While the small team had downed most of the timberwolves, the fight soon when downhill. Mainly, Aegis' shield had been torn from his wrist and was backed into the Dash and Summer, who were protecting me by slowly becoming exhausted. The hit I took earlier broke a rib, immobilizing me and leaving me defenseless. Just bucking great.
"What gave you that clue?" Dash snapped sarcastically.
"Hey, guys?" I berated from my humble position on the ground. "Kinda in a situation right now. Keep together and stay focused." I had the weirdest reminiscent feeling from when the two of them would clash when I dated them.
My reverie drew their attention back to their tense surroundings. The wolves continued to circle us, baring their wooden fangs. They were becoming more cautious of us, already having killed or incapacitated most of their pack. But by Celestia, they were not going to give up on a meal this big.
A particularly large wolf had slunk out of the shadows. Instead of circling us, it stared with cold, calculating eyes. Suddenly, it tensed, dropping low. With a loud growl that would turn the bravest soul, the alpha leapt, clearing the distance between us in a single bound. His eyes stared straight at Rainbow Dash. It tensed again, ready to pounce on the pegasus and quicken the inevitable. Narrowing it's yellow eyes, it was ready to make the kill…
LEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEENKIIIIINNNNSSS!!!
Abruptly, the alpha wolf was back where it started, cleaved entirely in half by a blue blur. "What the hay was--" I began, but was interrupted.
BOOM!
Green fire exploded across the clearing, setting three wolves ablaze. In the same manner, lavender bolts of lightning struck down three more. For the finale, tendrils of cobalt blue gripped the remaining timberwolves by the neck, twisting their heads with an audible 'snap!'.
The ground next to Aegis suddenly exploded in a cloud of dust. When the cloud settled, a blue pegasus stood with an enchanted switchblade drawn. "I always wanted to use that line!" Skyblaze proclaimed.
"So the fact that you only have a single kill doesn't bother you?" To our surprise, Princess Luna herself landed next to him.
"Oh it bothers him, alright." Shift and Twilight stepped out of the trees. "He just doesn't like to admit it," the Changeling said. Shift was in his usual unicorn disguise.
Dash and I were stunned at the appearance of our friends. "What the hay are you guys doing here?" I asked, incredulous.
"After we found out you were headed for the Everfree, we thought you could use some help finding Aegis," Sky said with a shrug. "I see your mission is a success. Sup, Aegis?"
Summer was looking between Aegis and the four new arrivals. "You're friends with these ponies?!" she asked.
Aegis put on an innocent look. "How the hay am I supposed to know!" he countered. "I lost my memory, if you haven't noticed."
The alicorns and Shift all put on a confused face. Sky simply shrugged. "I'd be surprised if he didn't," the blue pegasus admitted. "He did fall about one-hundred-fifty feet. Shift, Twilight? Do you have any spells for memory?"
While Shift shook his head, Twilight nodded rapidly. "I used a memory spell on the rest of the Elements when Discord took over, so this shouldn't be any different," she said confidently. "But it works best when the recipient is unconscious. And I'm going to be restoring his entire memory, so--"
CLANG!
"Rain!" Sky yelled as Aegis slumped to the ground. "What the schist was that for?!"
I placed the frying pan over my shoulder. "You heard Twilight. Unconscious is best."
"I could have cast a sleep spell on him…" stated Luna.
I just shrugged and grinned while Dash continued to laugh her flanks off. "He had it coming to him," I insisted with a glare to Summer Blossom.