The following sheer awesomeness is brought to you by HellRyden, the best cowriter ever!
"Nobody Hurts My Friends!" by Negi
Rainbow Dash didn’t waste a second. Before the timber wolf king had even finished his sentence, she was already in the air, and she streaked forward like a missile as he brought his paw down in an effort to crush them.
It never reached the ground. Before it was even halfway down, Rainbow Dash undercut his blow, and streaked past his elbow, her blade-wings flaring out at the same time. There was the sound of shattering wood, and the wolf king howled as he pulled his foreleg back, cradling the wounded limb close.
“All right, take that you big jerk!” Rainbow Dash whooped as she looped around again, diving in with her wing-blades and scoring multiple hits as she zipped around his body in death-defying bursts of speed, avoiding his swatting paws with inches to spare.
“Rainbow’s keeping him busy, get in close while he’s distracted!” Twilight yelled, dashing towards the wolf king and his army of timber wolves as she leveled her spear forward. “Applejack, front and center! Draw their fire and keep them off us! Spike, get on my back and watch it, take out any congregation of targets you see! Rarity, keep Fluttershy safe, and pick off any stragglers or targets of opportunity! Negi, back Rarity up! Pinkie, just… do what you do best.”
“Ya got it, Twi’!” Applejack saluted swiftly while the pink mare abruptly bounded right into the midst of the horde, disappearing among their numbers for a second before bouncing right out again, stringing along several dozen distracted wolves that pursued her futilely. Without hesitation, Negi and the rest of her friends followed her into the breach, their weapons raised and their powers readied. Snarling, the army of timber wolves behind their king shot forward to defend him, their jaws snapping and baying for their enemies’ blood.
“Twilight! The Darkness is the source of the King’s power, and it’s what’s powering his army of timber wolves!” Negi shouted to the charging mare as he hung back next to Rarity. “Take out the king, and the rest will fall!”
“Got it, Negi!” Twilight yelled her acknowledgement back as she sprinted forth. Surging forward to meet the threat, Applejack spearheaded the group’s formation, wading into the horde with a powerful double-kick that sent wooden fragments flying everywhere. The earth pony let out a stirring battle cry as she began delivering Apple family-grade bucks left and right, her steel-shod hooves and greatly enhanced strength utterly shattering a timber wolf with every kick she delivered. Wooden fragments soon began to litter the ground at her hooves, but for every timber wolf she shattered, it seemed as though there were at least two to replace it.
“Applejack, behind you!” Twilight warned.
Without even turning to look, the orange farmpony dropped into a crouch, and a hissing ray of pure white frost shot over her head, freezing solid the timber wolf that had been about to leap onto her unguarded back. Turning to face Twilight, Applejack shot her friend a fierce grin before off-hoofedly bucking the frozen timber wolf into shattered fragments. “Thanks, Twi’!”
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Behind them, Rarity laid into the onrushing horde with a withering hail of piercing diamond projectiles that showed no sign of running out anytime soon, the white unicorn’s uncanny precision ensuring that not a single shot was wasted. Staying well behind the forefront of the fighting where Applejack was attracting the attention of almost every timber wolf within earshot, barring the ones Pinkie had managed to distract with her incessant hopping, she unleashed a burst of rock-hard flechettes in the direction of every timber wolf she saw separate itself from the horde or begin running their direction.
“Back, you ruffians!” Rarity screeched as she obliterated another pair of leaping timber wolves before they could even come within ten paces of her and Fluttershy. “You won’t be damaging this outfit for as long as I’m wearing it!”
“Oh, do be careful, Rarity!” Fluttershy whimpered as she hid behind Rarity, away from the resulting shower of wooden twigs and other fragments, as she held up her staff defensively. “There’s another one, coming from the lef- eeek!!!”
“I got ‘em!” Negi yelled out, his horn glowing as he thrust his head upward, grunting under the mental weight of his newly mastered levitation spell. Abruptly, the timber wolf that had been charging towards them began to rise into the air, helpless and unable to defend itself from the subsequent volley of diamond-hard shards that dismantled it a moment later.
“Bravo, Negi!” Rarity trilled. “If we keep this up, Ponyville will be free of these ruffians in no time!”
“Yeah, great shot, kid!” Chamo applauded from the mage’s shoulder, his eyes still magnetically drawn to Rarity as he intently watched the unicorn fight, earning a sarcastic roll of the eyes from Negi. “But you’d better kick up the pace, or Rarity’s gonna leave you in the dust!”
“Oh, shut up, Chamo!” Negi snapped.
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Back inside the horde, Applejack and Twilight found themselves pressed back-to-back as timber wolves surrounded them from all sides. Even as they continued putting each one down with ruthless efficiency, the broken pieces would just reanimate and piece themselves back together in a manner of seconds, and they were rapidly beginning to exhaust themselves - they wouldn’t be able to hold out for much longer if the fight continued like this.
“Spike, this isn’t accomplishing anything - we have to get in close and help Rainbow Dash!” Twilight panted as she swept her spear’s frost ray over a large group of timber wolves, freezing them over instantly as Applejack leaped upon them, shattering them with lightning-fast kicks left and right. “Open up a path towards the king!”
“On it!” The young drake shoved a hand into the pouch he carried, withdrawing a pinch of the strange powder inside before throwing it inside his mouth. Not a second later, his cheeks bulged out, straining to contain the power within as the powder reacted inside to release its potent payload. The young dragon then rose to his feet on Twilight’s back, aiming for the timber wolves that blocked their path towards the king.
Spike opened his mouth, and he let out the largest, most explosive belch he had ever released in his life. The fireball that exploded out of his mouth dwarfed any wisp of flame he had ever conjured before, and it streaked towards the teeming mass of wolves, detonating inside in a spectacular conflagration and sending charred, smoking branches and twigs flying in every direction. When the smoke cleared, the timber wolves that had survived the explosion were still wobbling about unsteadily, struggling to regain their senses, and a long, clear path lay before them to the timber wolf king, still swatting futilely at Rainbow Dash in vain attempts to bat her out of the air.
“The way’s clear!” Twilight shouted, already sprinting forward into the gap Spike’s fireball had opened. “Applejack, follow me!”
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Up ahead, Rainbow Dash was having the time of her life dueling the timber wolf king, streaking about the wolf king’s body while easily evading his blows, striking out with her wing blades whenever she could and jabbing out a taunt with every swipe of his claws she avoided. “Oh, come on, is that really the best you can do? I expected better from the king of all timber wolves!”
“You won’t be nearly as mouthy when I get my claws on you!” The huge wolf roared as he swatted at Rainbow Dash again, and let out a snarl of pain as she streaked past his side again, adding another slash from her wings to the dozens of furrows she had already carved into his wooden body. “Would. You. Just. Hold. STILL!?”
“Sorry, no can do pal!” The brash pegasus snickered as she dodged another swipe of the black tentacles that extruded from his back. “The Rainbow Train has no brakes!”
Rainbow Dash continued dodging and slashing for several moments longer, getting cockier and more confident by the second in her ability to keep the wolf king occupied. Unfortunately, it also made her more careless, and as she wove to the side to avoid another swat from his shadow tendrils, she misjudged its distance by a slip of a margin, but it was more than enough to cost her.
The shadowy mass plowed right into her, and the wolf king howled triumphantly, knocking her aside and swatting her brutally out of the air. The pegasus’ limp body went flying, and Twilight and Applejack could only watch in mute horror as it slammed through the wall of a nearby house, disappearing inside the cloud of dust her impact kicked up.
“Oh no, Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy gasped, her eyes wide with horror at the brutal sight, and she abruptly took off from behind Rarity, galloping at a dead sprint towards her fallen friend.
“Hey, where- Fluttershy!” Rarity called out in surprise as she realized just where the frail little pegasus had gone running off to - there was an entire horde of timber wolves between her and where Rainbow Dash had fallen, and she was intent on running straight through them. Not only that, but apparently the wolf king had realized just what she was trying to do, and Rarity realized with mounting horror that the massive canine was beginning to lumber in her direction, unconcerned with the much closer Twilight and Applejack, who were still swamped by the individual wolves that surrounded them. “No! Don’t go there, it’s not safe!”
“Too late, she’s already dead set on getting there!” Negi growled, the anger within the young mage already growing at the sight of Rainbow Dash being hurt like that. Not Fluttershy as well! I can’t let somepony else get hurt too!
“Negi, you know, it might be a good idea to clear a path for the lady!” Chamo chimed out from his shoulder, and the young mage’s lips thinned into a grim line, finding himself nodding in grudging agreement with the perverted ermine’s tactically-sound advice. Reaching deep within himself, Negi drew upon the boiling cauldron of his anger, and called on more power than he had ever attempted to gather before, summoning up the energy for another volley of spells. "Nobody hurts my friends!" he shouted angrily.
“You heard Chamo!” He called out to Rarity, the power he was gathering already whipping up a billowing storm of wind around him. “We have to clear a path for her!”
Gritting her teeth, Rarity grimly nodded and readied her diamond shards again, already picking out targets close to Fluttershy and lining them up. “They shan't lay a single filthy claw on her!”
As one, the duo unleashed hell upon the wolves that stood between Fluttershy and the fallen Rainbow Dash. Propelled by his rage, Negi cast forward with both of his forelegs, pushing outward with all of his will - the resulting gale blew nearly all the timber wolves in the entire area off their feet, and Rarity’s follow-up volleys utterly obliterated them, sometimes with a single burst taking out as many as three or four timber wolves at once. Spike added more of his own fireballs to the barrage, and soon enough, more than half of the wolf king’s army lay upon the ground in shattered fragments, still struggling to put themselves back together from the massive damage they had sustained.
The path ahead of her cleared, Fluttershy dashed forward, heedless of the danger around her. Surviving wolves snapped at her heels moments before they were obliterated by precise volleys of diamond shards from Rarity, but she ignored them - there was only one place she had to reach, one friend she had to make sure was all right!
So focused on getting to Rainbow Dash, she completely failed to notice the lumbering mass of the wolf king that abruptly came crashing in from the side until it nearly bowled her over and knocked her prone on the ground as it swiped at her with a claw. “You think that it will be that easy? Fool! I know what your powers are, and you won’t be reviving that pegasus so simply!”
Fluttershy stared up at the towering wolf in mute terror, shaking madly and immobilized with fear. As the wolf king raised a massive foreleg to crush her underneath his paw, the pegasus covered her face with her forelegs, letting out a scream of pure terror, and Negi’s eyes blazed, power unlike anything he had welling up from inside him.
“NO!” The young mage shouted, and he hurled everything he had at the massive wolf king in a single, concentrated burst of gale-force wind. At the same time, Rarity unleashed an overwhelming volley of diamond shards as she screamed in denial, and the two torrents combined together to propel the shards forward with incredible power. The twin combined torrents slammed into the wolf king’s raised foreleg with sledgehammer force, and completely shattered it, sending its lower half crashing lifelessly to the ground next to Fluttershy as wooden fragments rained down around her.
The wolf king let out a bloodcurdling howl of agony as it cradled the wounded limb close, and Fluttershy took the opportunity to get to her hooves and dash inside the wrecked house that Rainbow Dash had been knocked into. Turning towards the ones that had wounded it so, it began to stalk towards them threateningly.
“You dare!?” The shadow wolf lord snarled viciously. “You dare wound me so!? You shall pay for your insolence!”
“Y’know, you might want to look to your left first! There’s something you might be interested to see!” Chamo piped up from Negi’s shoulder despite the young mage’s frantic gestures for him to shut up, and the wolf king’s expression only grew more incensed.
“You would presume to make a fool out of me!?” The massive canine roared, the black tendrils on his back thrashing about madly in his fury. “You may have bested me once, but that shall not happen agai-”
“Geeeeeeeronimooooooo!!!” A bubbly voice echoed out from the wolf king’s left, right before a very familiar-looking grey boulder topped with a blonde, unruly mane came rolling out of nowhere, bouncing off a nearby hill and abruptly landing on top of the wolf king’s one remaining intact paw.
The sheer weight of Derpy’s boulder-clad body utterly crushed the wolf king’s remaining paw into dust and detritus, and the massive wolf howled in pain again as he leaped backwards and away from Negi and Rarity, struggling to stay upright despite his crippled limbs.
“What the- Oh, geez, I completely forgot about Derpy!” Twilight gasped out in relief as she and Applejack came running through the dazed remaining timber wolves to Negi and Rarity’s side.
“Nice timing, Derpy! That was just what we needed!” Chamo declared, giving her a thumbs up.
“I’m sorry, Twilight, but I have no idea what I just did!” The wall-eyed pegasus chirped cheerfully as she got to her hooves again, her eyes spinning about even more so than usual. “Can somepony tell me what just happened?”
“Hmm…” Chamo rubbed his chin thoughtfully for a second after witnessing Derpy’s magnificently dynamic entry. “Aha! Idea! Applejack, c’mere for a sec!”
The orange farmpony trotted over quickly, an eyebrow cocked quizzically. Leaning in, Chamo began whispering into her ear, and after a few seconds Applejack’s eyes widened in comprehension.
“Ya got it, Chamo!” Applejack smirked, and she beckoned towards Derpy. “Derpy, over here!”
The wall-eyed mare stepped closer, looking curiously at her, but she nodded enthusiastically regardless, eager to help. “Whatcha need, Applejack?”
“Just you,” the orange mare said.
Derpy frowned in confusion, not quite getting it. “Sorry, Applejack, but I don’t get what you have in mi-IIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNN-”
The rest of the grey pegasus’ sentence trailed off as Applejack grabbed Derpy by the base of her boulder body, hefted her into the air, and tossed her upwards before spinning around and giving her a double-legged buck that would have put Big Macintosh’s kicks to shame.
The improvised cannonball streaked right towards the timber wolf king’s face, and smashed right into his snout with bone-shattering force. There was a loud crunch as twigs and branches were sent flying everywhere, and when Derpy’s rock-like body dropped to the ground again, the wolf king’s entire body soon followed suit with a heavy, shuddering impact, his burning eyes now dull and lifeless as the tendrils upon his back still waved about weakly but incessantly.
Now that the girls were finally able to get a clear look at it, they realized that his nose had been completely broken. His snout was hideously deformed, yet it was still slowly but surely knitting itself back together, the dark magicks that powered his body slowly mending the damage that it had sustained.
Negi wasn’t about to give it that chance.
“Now!” He shouted, dashing forward, and the girls quickly took off after him. “While he’s unconscious, we have to get the girls out!”
“No need to worry about that!” A familiar, scratchy voice rang out, and a prismatic blur shot past the wolf king’s head. “I got this!” Rainbow Dash declared.
There was a flash of metal, and the massive wolf’s cranium parted, revealing the three captive fillies that he had been holding hostage since the beginning of the fight. Scooping them up into her forelegs, Rainbow Dash took off again with a mighty beat of her wings, clearing the way for the coup de grâce. “Now, Pinkie!!!”
“Okie dokie loki!” Negi and the others whirled around to see Pinkie, who had been more or less missing and out of sight for the entire fight, as she pulled out a truly massive party cannon that was nearly five times her size. “You girls might want to get out of the way - this is gonna make a big bang!”
Their hanging jaws abruptly shut themselves, and the entire group threw themselves to the side as an audible whining began to build up from Pinkie’s modified cannon, a bright, incandescent light beginning to build up within the depths of its barrel. In front of the cannon, the wolf king had barely begun to recover his senses, struggling to get up.
“W-Wha… What did you do…?” Blinking rapidly as his sight returned, the wolf king cast his gaze about in an attempt to find his prey, but when he caught sight of the massive cannon and his opponents gathered behind it, his eyes widened in disbelief. “No… No, I cannot… I will not lose here! My power is absolute-!”
“Face it, wolfy!” Pinkie shouted as her hoof hovered over the firing button. “You’d already lost the moment you picked on the Crusaders and took ‘em hostage! Nopony hurts my friends and gets away with it!”
The whining building up within the cannon reached an ear-piercing crescendo, and Pinkie slammed her hoof down on the button. “The party’s over for you, you big, fat meanie-pants! EAT PARTY CANNON!”
There was an almighty flash of light, a deafening roar of sound, and the cries of the timber wolf king were drowned out by the ensuing thundering wave of confetti that sustained itself for several seconds straight. When the light finally faded and the noise finally died down, everypony looked up to see the results of Pinkie’s cannon blast.
Absolutely nothing remained of the king. Nothing marked his passage but a large singe mark to signify where he had stood when the blast had been unleashed. Not even the darkness that had possessed him was anywhere to be seen - not a single trace of it could be found, even as Negi extended his senses outward.
“We did it,” The young mage whispered in awe, barely even believing it. “Ha… HAHA! WE DID IT!!!”
“Hay yeah we did!” Rainbow Dash whooped, swooping down next to the colt to give him a high hoof. “Who’s awesome!? We’re awesome!”
"Darn straight, Bluebird!" Chamo crowed, holding out his tiny paw for a hoof-bump of his own.
Omake:
There was a flash of steel, and the massive wolf’s cranium parted, revealing the three captive fillies that he had been holding hostage since the beginning of the fight. Scooping them up into her forelegs, Rainbow Dash took off again with a mighty beat of her wings, clearing the way for the coup de grâce. “Now, Pinkie!!!”
“Okie dokie loki!” The pink mare’s voice rang out, and Twilight realized it was coming from above.
“ROAD ROLLER DA!” Out of nowhere, a massive steamroller came crashing down from the sky, utterly crushing the wolf king beneath its weight, and that was when Twilight realized that there was a pink mare riding the damn thing, laughing maniacally as she pummeled it madly with a wild flurry of punches.
“MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!!!”
Twilight could only stare in disbelief.
"Wat."