Desert – South of Appleloosa – Dead of Night
"Mmmff... gffff... guh... ommmff..."
Lyra whimpered.
Lyra wheezed.
Lyra squeaked between each labored breath.
Sweat poured from her brow, dampening her pale-streaked mane until it was matted against her green forehead.
She had hoped that the steep northern edge of the platform would have proven an obstacle to her canine pursuers. She was wrong. The air lit up with the scraping sounds of claws against arid earth. Dust kicked up, blocking a portion of the southern horizon, and all Lyra could make out in frantic glimpses was a tide of reflective eyes bounding after her, growing denser... deadlier.
Huffing and puffing, Lyra threw another futile glance over her flank.
Past her whipping tail, she made the first of many furry shapes emerging through the outer penumbra of starlight. Fangs glinted in the moonlight, and she could smell their rancid breaths.
"Oh Goddess...!" Lyra cried, staring straight forward as she bounded over boulders and fallen deadwood. "Oh Celestia... pl-please...!"
The air filled with growls. Panting breaths intensified. She heard a scampering sound to her left. She was being flanked—
"Guh!" Lyra concentrated through her horn. The unicorn snapped a thick branch off of a chunk of deadwood up ahead and tossed it fiercely to her side.
There was a deep yipping sound. Lyra saw a flash of paws; the wolf side-jumped the projectile in a blink. The thing was toying with her. They all were. The pack was simply waiting for the rest of the beasts to catch up before leaping at her throat as one.
"Dammit! Dammit!" Sweating, shivering, Lyra flashed her gaze left and right. "Gotta—"
She saw a loose stack of boulders right in front of a steep chunk of rock.
"!!!" Lyra banked to the right, galloping straight for the structure.
The pack sensed her change of direction, and they weren't having it. The scrape-scrape-scraping claws behind her instantly tripled in speed. Lyra could sense the edges of their razor-toothed muzzles in the moonlight beside her—
"Mmmmf!" Lyra jumped with all her might. The unicorn's hooves landed nimbly atop the stack of rocks—and they instantly collapsed. "Gnnnnngh!" Utilizing a burst of telekinesis, she leapt again, flinging her forelimbs forward. Thwap! She caught the jutting edge of the rock and pulled herself up.
A loud growl—a wolf pounced at her.
"Euuhh!" Lyra rolled up onto the rock, yanking her tail up just out of reach of the canine's snapping jaws. It pratfalled against the southwest edge of the rock and tumbled into the sea of freshly collapsed stones directly below. The rest of the wolves yipped in protest and scampered the long way around to ascend the promontory.
Wincing, Lyra stood straight up. Her heart was pumping a million beats per second, and her head swam... seeing lights... lights...
"Lights...?" Lyra wheezed, snapping out of it. She flung a desperate look due east.
There—down in the valley, no less than three hundred meters away—was a circle of teepees. It was a camp, complete with shelter, tool sheds, and a burning bonfire. Even from afar, Lyra could spot wandering, hairy bodies shuffling about, wearing elaborate headdresses.
"Hey..." Lyra murmured, gulped, and found the strength to holler: "Heeeeey! HEEEEEEY!" She hopped up and down, wildly waving her forelimbs. "Over here! Help! Please! You... y-you gotta help me!"
A cold, howling wind blew over the desert. None of the occupants of the camp could even here an echo of Lyra's desperate exclamations.
"Come on!" Lyra gnashed her teeth. "Come on you... thick... hairy-headed... grnnnkkt... highway-litter-mourners! GAH!" Fuming, she looked all around for something to make a signal with. "Oh! Duh!" She lit her horn bright, concentrating. "If they can't hear me..." She clenched her teeth, intensifying the illumination spell. "...then maybe they can see—"
"RAWWWRSH!" The horn-flash caught the gaping mouth of a rabid wolf, leaping straight for Lyra's face.
"Aaaaaa—!" Lyra fell back, flinching—
The beast's weight threw her to the ground, pinning the mare in place. It lunged down, sinking its teeth deep.
Lyra sucked her breath in.
Riiiiiiiiiip! The wolf's jaw tore into nothing but saddlebag.
Lyra flinched, her body being jerked around by the monster's grip of her satchel. Panting, she looked all around, found a branch, then swung it savagely into the wolf's side. "Gnnngh!"
Wham!
The wolf whined... but lunged again. This time, its jaws snapped a strap of Lyra's saddlebag clean off.
"!!!" Lyra surged forward, freed from the restraint. As the beast thrashed the saddlebag around like loose meat, the mare hobbled desperately forward.
"RAWWRSH!" A second wolf lunged at her.
"Eeuugh!" Lyra ducked low. The beast flew over her, slamming into the other canine. The two wolves snarled, snapping and biting angrily at each other.
Lyra took the opportunity to gallop up a steep incline, loosing pebbles and flakes of dirt beneath her throughout the panicked climb.
Soon enough, the two creatures stopped bickering. They scaled the hill beside her—joined by the rest of the pack that had finally rounded the stone promontory. Behind them—thrown against a random rock—was an ill-fated lyre, bent out of shape with several of its strings ripped asunder...