The Fox
The storm was tearing through the forest in a relentless torrent of changing gusts. The trees ached and cracked as they shed their overweight branches to the wind. The leaves held on to the twigs despite the force trying to tear them apart.
The Everfree Forest was a normally a dark and rather spooky place, but the night’s storm had turned it into an all out nightmare. Almost no animals attempted to leave their various nooks and coves for fear of the debris flying through the air. Rain slickened the ground into a muddy paste so thick that one might easily become stuck in it. Nopony would be foolish enough to venture out into the forest on a night such as this.
A lone timber wolf stuck its nose to the ground, hoping to pick up the scent of the evening meal that it had been chasing. All it found was a snout full of mud as its stomach protested. The wolf howled in frustration at the dark, cloud-covered sky. Then a glint of movement caught its eye.
A fox! The clever creature was not usually on the timber wolf’s menu, but its groaning, wooden stomach did not care about the unusual meal choice. It only sought out nourishment. Unfortunately the fox had sensed the wolf’s presence and was already on the move. It dove forward into the deep muck in a desperate attempt to get away from the much larger predator. The wolf pounced, almost slashing the small red fox in its deadly array of claws.
The fox bolted into a tangle of roots, thinking that the its pursuer could not follow. The fox was wrong: a large clawed paw split a root and gouged the fox’s shoulder, thin streams of fresh blood splattering into the wolf’s snout. The wolf retraced from the grove of roots; shaking its head to get the viscous liquid off its face.
Darting back and forth from tree to tree, the fox slipped away in an attempt to put as much space between him and the wolf as possible. The fox’s step caught on every fourth step as the slash had damaged the muscle deeply, but survival demanded that the little creature kept up its pace. The wooden wolf closed the distance in leaps and bounds, splashing up waves of mud as it tried to gain traction in the muck.
A great thick expanse of tall brush that opened up into a clearing stood ahead of the desperate small canine creature. It forced its muscles into over drive; the brush would provide enough cover that the fox would lose the wolf.
A flash of lightning blinded the fox for a moment.The ground shook with the rumble of thunder. When the fox regained its vision, the timber wolf stood between it and the brush. The wolf had its sharp teeth bared and eyes filled with the fire of hunger.
The fox had lost. It knew it; the fox braced itself for its impending death. The wolf pounced and the fox closed its eyes as it felt the sharp claws tear down its side and warm liquid seep out of its side. A loud crack and the claws retracted; the fox’s eyes snapped open. The wolf had pulled back, its eyes gazed up to the sky. A bright light glowed behind the thick layer of storm clouds.
A second boom, much louder than a first, rumbled the ground, shaking the fox’s vision. The wolf whimpered, all of the fire had left its eyes, and it ran. The light tore through the sky. A ball of fire shot towards the ground, a trail of fire following.
The fox’s vision grew blurry and everything went dark as the bright object stuck the ground nearby.
-------
“Oh, my Mr. Fox you’re hurt!” A sweet voice rang out, waking the fox from its pain induced sleep. Ity eyes opened to a yellow pony that had a concerned look on her face. She knelt down to the Fox and glanced over the wounds.
Fluttershy stood over the grievously wounded fox. She had been out on her rounds to make sure all of the forest animals in her area were well taken care of. Lucky for the fox she always brought plenty of medical supplies for the helpless.
Quick to act, the butter yellow pony wrapped the wounds in a tight bandage, not without a dose of painful antibacterial liquid. The fox bared its teeth as the medicine seemed to burn into the wound.
Fluttershy rummaged around in her pack for a little bit more until she found some food for the poor animal.
“There you go Mr.Fox. Eat up.” Fluttershy said. The fox sniffed the food nervously before taking several large chomps of the chow. She smiled as the fox started to take larger and large bites of the nutritious food.
The fox suddenly felt himself pulled off of its feet and into the hooves of the pink maned pony. He struggled to be free from her gentle yet firm gasp. She whispered soothing things to the fox as it continued to attempt to free itself. It licked her face causing her to squee with delight, and accidentally letting her grip slip. The fox seized the moment and sprinted off into the forest.
“Mr. Fox, you’re still hurt!” She said with a slightly raised voice, then she began to run after the red creature in a headlong sprint. She could still see the bushy tail of the wild animal. She dodged and weaved over fallen trees and through the brumble of bushes.
She ran, following the fox, into a massive clearing.But the clearing was no natural space: the trees in an area at least a kilometer in diameter had been blown down. Fluttershy stopped and stared. Her teal eyes gazed upon the massive felling of trees. All of the trees fell away from the center of the massive hole in the blanket of the Everfree. She was shocked that so many of her animal friends had lost their homes. She attempted to gather the attention of a group of scurrying creatures to ask if she could help in relocating them. None of them seemed interested in talking to the timid pony; they just seemed concerned with getting away from the clearing.
Fluttershy glanced nervously around wondering, if she should investigate or get help from her friends. She had a long list of things to do if she wanted to help her animal friends get their lives back to normal as quickly as possible. She had to make sympathy cards, of course; find proper spots for new burrows; get den warming gifts or else she might offend some of the animals that relied on her. Then she had to...
A loud crack of wood broke her out of her concentration. She gazed in awe as a large tree was flung from the center of the clearing, the gnarled roots scattering dirt through the air. It landed with a solid thud near the edge of the fallen trees.
A hiss and sound of screaming metal filled the air as the middle of the clearing rose; dirt and stone fell off as the bulge of the clearing grew larger, slowly revealing a monumental creature. Trees tumbled away as it grew taller and taller, towering over 15 meters in height. It stood, gray and dull, unmoving on two legs that grew thicker near the feet. Its body was covering in rivets like a train. A broad chest tapered down to a smaller abdomen made out of plates. A fin rain across its head from front to back. Empty white eyes stared out at nothing in particular. Its arms ended in hands that had opposable fingers like the kind that Fluttershy had only seen on Spike or Diamond Dogs.
Fluttershy stood, frozen like a statue. The creature was like nothing she had ever seen; its ghostly eyes scanned the landscape. Fluttershy watched in frozen horror as the head stopped once its gaze fell upon her. Her yellow stood out from the dank brown of her surroundings.
A foot of the creature rose from the broken timber and took a heavy step towards her. The weight of the bipedal creature snapped the thick trees underfoot as if they were twigs. Then it took another step; the sound of grinding metal assaulted her delicate ears. It raised a hand towards her as it picked up the pace of its slow steps.
Fluttershy broke free from her fearful still state. She let out a shrill squeal, and immediately started sprinting away from the massive metal hulk. She ran into the forest, willing herself not to look back at it. She knew the forest well and made her way back to the familiar path that led to town.
-----
It was a normal day in Ponyville. Some would say it was even a rather boring day. The sun was shining, but there were no events planned for the day, nor were the ponies in much a mood to do anything anyway. It was a laidback day where even the Apple family was taken the day at a leisurely pace. Ponies walked to and fro, greeting each other with warm smiles and friendly conversation that blessed the little town. The buzz of the day was the meteor that had been spotted the night before. They asked one another if they had seen it, and expressed their thanks that it had not hit anywhere near a pony settlement.
Twilight sat with Rarity at a casual cafe, eating a light brunch while chatting with her friend.
“I’m surprised I didn’t spot the meteor sooner. I mean what if it had a trajectory with Ponyville or someplace else? Maybe I should cut back my sleeping hours to keep a better watch of the sky. Perhaps 5 hours would be enough sleep, right? What do you think?” Twilight looked at the white pony who was stifling a yawn: she was finding the conversation she found to be rather dull.
“I wonder where Fluttershy is. It isn’t usual for her to be late.” Rarity attempted to steer the conversation away from Twilight’s numerous studies. Twilight seemed not to notice her manipulation and happily changed the conversation.
“She’s probably just out in the Everfree after last night’s storm; you know how she likes to make sure everything is okay with the animals after a storm.” Twilight explained. “She’s probably been up since before you or I were up.”
“She is such a sweetheart for taking care of those poor, defenceless creatures.” Rarity sighed, “But the poor dear is going to run herself ragged if she tries to keep up with all of those animals of hers.”
Twilight was going to respond, but a shrill squeaking sound caught her attention, as well as Rarity’s. They turned their heads to see the pony in question making a dead spirit towards the cafe. She was wet with sweat and panting as she dashed under the table Twilight and Rarity were at.
“Fluttershy?” Rarity leaned down to look her face to face. “Are you alright, dear, are you hurt?”
Fluttershy shook her head with a shaky no. Her eyes closed shut as she put her hooves over her head.
“What’s wrong Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, placing a comforting hoof on her back.
“M-mm-monster!” Fluttershy squeaked. “It was big, and it had flattened a huge circle of the forest, and it was big!”
“Fluttershy, darling, you're going to have to explain... was it a dragon again?” Rarity asked in a soothing tone that stopped some of the yellow mare’s trembling.
“In the Everfree. A clearing where all the trees were flattened into the ground-” Fluttershy was interrupted.
“So thats where the meteor hit! That would explain the tree flattening part, I’m surprised we didn’t feel the impact, but maybe it was-”
“Please let Fluttershy finish her story.” Rarity stopped Twilight.
“Then a giant metal thing appeared; it came out of the ground!” Fluttershy stuttered and described the creature. The story seemed far fetched to both Rarity and Twilight, but they weren't about to dig into their terrified friend for details. Rarity decided it was time she said something to calm the cream pony down.
“Alright I’ll tell you what, we’ll go check out this metal ‘beast’ tomorrow.” Rarity soothed. “Today, we can just have a you and me day and get your mind off this business. We can do whatever you want. Maybe we can even get a certain stallion, that I’ve seen you’ve eyeing, to get to notice you a bit better.”
Fluttershy had stopped trembling and had a deep blush upon her snout. “Y-you know about him?”
Rarity smiled, glad her timid friend had momentarily forgotten the mess that she had encountered in the forest. Twilight tilted her head and grinned to reassure her fearful friend that everything was okay.. Rarity pulled Fluttershy from out from under the table.
“Lets go back to the Boutique, I have so many things that would enhance your abundant natural beauty would look so great in!” Rarity squealed in delight. Fluttershy smiled, her fears pushed back for now by helping her friends, but not forgotten.