Whitetail Woods, Equestria
Dark, wet, and insanely dreary. The pegasi from nearby towns were told to let the rain pour late this evening. The rainfall helped to mask the scent of the humans who were hunting their prey within the forest. Within the bushes, five silent humans wearing dark paint on their faces and camouflage uniforms crouched, looking over an area of the forest from a small cliff. Each human carried what appeared to be plastic firearms. They had spent nearly a week in these woods, following their quarry and preventing them from trying to attack nearby townships. This was an extremely dangerous mission that Princess Luna assigned them to after villagers became terrified of the beasts which lurked in the dark from this place. The tallest human from the group whispered to the one who seemed to be the leader.
"Now Sarge?" The leader immediately signaled for quiet. He then used hand signals to send two of his men to another position. One of these men appeared to be carrying dynamite on his back along with charging cord and a detonator. About a minute after these men left, the leading human shouted.
"NOW!!!!!" Soon, the sound of pouring rain was interrupted by the sounds of gunfire as the three remaining men opened fire upon the pack of timberwolves that they had been stalking. The wolves turned to face the humans, and after realizing that they could not attack the humans who were perched on high ground, the pack turned and ran. As soon as they did, however, the two other humans rose up in their path of retreat and unleashed a large wall of foam, leveling many more of the timberwolves. These wolves now turned yet again and ran into a large hole that was dug into the side of a small hill. Two of the male wolves guarded the entrance, but they were shot to pieces by automatic fire. Soon, the five humans regrouped at the mouth of the cave.
"Alright! Get those charges set before the other ones regroup!" the lead human, known as Sergeant Daniel Ramirez, told his men. After chasing these creatures for a week, he understood that they were incredibly difficult to put down, as they had a tendency to pull their pieces back together after being destroyed. That was why he went on a hunch and decided to follow the wolves to their den. Two of his men, William Parker and Jeff Smith, began setting dynamite charges around the mouth of the cave and reeling out the charging cord. The other two troops, Corey McLaughn and Andrew Summers, stood guard against the returning timberwolves which were shot down earlier. Within five minutes, the cave was set and the guys began to move a safe distance from the cave's mouth. Unfortunately, the snarling and howling of the reassembled timberwolves could now be heard coming from all sides around the team now.
"Any time now, Parker!!!!" McLaughn exclaimed as a timberwolf jumped out from the bushes.
McLaughn immediately put multiple rounds into the creature with his Stryfe smg. He dropped his empty magazine and started reaching for another when another snarling timberwolf lunged at him.
BOOM!
The timberwolf's head exploded into splinters as Summers racked his Atlas shotgun.
"Thanks, Newbie!"
"It's been six months. I think I need a new name," replied Summers.
"Save the names for later; blow that den, Parker!" Ramirez shouted as more timberwolves came out of the bushes and surrounded the group.
Parker pushed the handle.
A fireball went off nearby, and as the shockwave of the explosion passed, the rest of the timberwolves fell to pieces. The fazed, but unscathed, men began poking at the sticks with their guns, only to find them not regenerate into wolves. Ramirez spoke up.
"Mission accomplished."
After a half day hike, the humans approached a village north of Whitetail Woods
Nearly a week earlier, the Lunar Nightwatch, now renamed the Equestrian Rangers, had been in this village and had seen the devastation of the timberwolves. Multiple families had lost a loved one to the ravenous appetites of these animals. For months, these villagers had lived in fear of stepping outside, afraid to lose a limb. Many mothers kept their foals and fillies close, fearing that the moment they took eyes away, somepony would go missing in the jaws of a hungry timberwolf. Life had become unbearable in the village north of Whitetail.
A young colt keeping watch took notice of the humans coming up from the south.
“Guys! Guys! GUYS! the Rangers are back! The Rangers are back!”
All the ponies within earshot stopped what they were doing and quickly spread the word that the “Heroes of Equestria” had returned. A crowd of ponies ran to greet the humans. The dirty humans with their guns slung over their shoulders, while carrying wood chunks that came from the timberwolves, waved to the approaching ponies. The crowd arrived full of questions.
“Did you kill them? Are they dead? Are you all ok?”
After a moment of endless questions and inability to answer them, the group ceased as a little sea blue filly with a lime green mane walked up directly in front of Ramirez and pleadingly asked:
“Mister, are we safe?”
Daniel put down the pieces of timberwolf he was carrying and placed the butt of his stryfe on the ground with his left hand while kneeling down in front of the small filly. He reached out with his right hand to scratch the her behind the ear.
“You no longer have anything to worry about” Ramirez while giving the filly the biggest surest smile he could muster.
The everyone in began to cheer and stomp their hooves, tossing their hats and horseshoes in the air.
“Cliche much Daniel?” teased McLaughn.
Before Ramirez could even respond, all heads turned to a loud shouting within the crowd.
“Daaaaaaaaaaaneeeeeeeeeeeeeil!!!!!!”
The crowd split as a minty green unicorn charged out and collided with Ramirez, embracing and knocking him over while unintentionally setting off his stryfe. The crowd jumped in surprise of the loud crack that erupted from the barrel. Everyone looked behind them, to where the dart went and saw Summers standing there with a pale look on his face and a smoking groove on the very top of his head where hair had been. This seemed to strike a chord in Smith and Parker as they fell to the ground holding their sides in while crying tears laughter. The pony gasped at what she had done. The unicorn, Lyra, earlier had arrived in village with the humans along with many other ponies who brought aid and supplies to the suffering village and had stayed behind to help. Lyra always liked to come along with the humans whenever they were on a mission or adventure. The squad had allowed her to participate as long as she followed their rules and kept herself out of harm’s way.
“OH MY FAUST! I am so sorry Andrew, are you alright?” asked Lyra quickly rushing to look at Andrew’s head.
Summers sat down, still in shock from his near death experience.
“I guess we might need to start incorporating ‘safeties’......and a hat,’” said Ramirez looking over the triggering mechanism of his stryfe then looking at Summers.
An elderly stallion, who was obviously respected as an elder by the ponies around him, spoke up.
“AHEM…..I would like to thank you boys so much for saving our village along with the others in this area for those dreaded timberwolves. I don’t know what would have become of us without you help. In return for your service, we would like to invite you to our first festival that we’ve been able to have since the timberwolves came!”
The crowd started cheering again and began rushing everyone to the village to clean up and begin the festivities.
After a good three hours of watching ponies do tricks, sharing epic stories, dancing awkwardly, and eating their fill of emergency relief rations, the humans struggled to keep their eyes open. They decided that it would be best to turn in for the night after Parker accidentally bruised his head on a table while nodding off. They went with Lyra to the local makeshift hotel, a vacant shack that was setup to provide a place to sleep for the humans and ponies that had brought aid.
On their way, Lyra asked Ramirez: “Of all the amazing things that you have told me, there is still one thing I still don’t understand. What made you think that blowing up their den would stop the timberwolves from coming back to together again?”
Ramirez replied: “Well Lyra, when we learned that the wolves couldn’t simply be killed by normal means, I deduced that there must be something unique about their magic that prevents them from dying. Going on a hunch, we followed them to their den and blew it up. I figured that there might be a magic stone or something in the den which powered their life force.”
“Oh wow! That really was a clever move! Since timberwolves are so dangerous, no pony had ever thought of finding a way to eliminate them before. Aside from the ‘flutter stare’, we have had to rely on alicorn warding magic to keep them at bay. You guys might have just discovered a potential way to actually control the numbers of timberwolves in Equestria!” Lyra told him.
When they arrived at their “hotel”, they were surprised to find that a chariot with two royal guards and an earth pony was waiting for them.
“That pony looks familiar,” stated Jeff staring at the earth pony.
The pony was a color somewhere between tan and yellow and had a pink and blue mane and tail. She wore shades (even though it was pretty late in the evening) and also had saddlebags on her back. Lyra’s current smile suddenly increased tenfold.
“BON BON! I’m so glad you’re here!! The humans are here! They’re with me! Look! There they are! Hey boys! Look! It’s my BFF Bon Bon!” Lyra excitedly exclaimed.
She rushed forward and gave Bon Bon a huge hug.
“Is it me or does Lyra really like hugs,” stated Parker as Bon Bon half heartedly returned Lyra’s passionate embrace.
“Thanks Lyra, I’m so glad to see you too, but I’m afraid that I’m here on business.” said Bon Bon.
Bon Bon then turned and faced the humans.
“Guys, right now I am Special Agent Sweetie Drops of the Royal Agency of Foreign Species. You have been hereby summoned by the Royal Court Hearing in Canterlot,”
Special Agent Sweetie Drops reached a hoof into her left saddlebag and pulled out an official document, signed by the Head of the Royal Court, Prince Blueblood.
“Uh oh, we’re not in trouble, are we?” Parker asked upon seeing the summons document.
“I am afraid that I cannot tell you anything until you are in Canterlot,” Agent Sweetie Drops replied.
“Can we at least get a little shuteye?” complained Summers.
“You will have to save that for during the trip,” replied Agent Sweetie Drops.
“Ok Sweetie, but before we go, can I see your badge please? Not that I mean any disrespect or I don’t believe you, but in our world, it’s just plain cool when agents or police flash a badge to show their authority.” Ramirez asked half sarcastically, half literally.
Bon Bon pulled out a special gold plated badge from her right saddlebag and pushed it in Ramirez’s face, much to Ramirez’s pleasant surprise.
“OoooooOOOOoooo,” responded the group
“Sweet. Now I can die in peace. Well, let’s go pack up,” said Ramirez jokingly.
Soon the guys had packed their remaining things from the shack, said their last goodbyes to village ponies and boarded the chariot with Lyra and Bon Bon.