The heroes of Ponyville
Anypony who had played chess would have recognized the formation. The princesses were in the middle. Around them were three knights. Rows of pawns served as the outer line of defense. The situation was more complicated than what appeared at first glance, but the objective was the same: protect the princesses.
In truth, only the princesses were truly equivalent of their game counterparts. They were all-valuable, and all-powerful. Like the knights, three vigilantes, Arrow, Canary, and Dash provided additional firepower and agility, but they also could dictate tactics. Finally, while the Royal Guard were the analog for the pawns, their strength and attack potential were far greater. Most importantly, the entire ensemble could act as a single entity, bringing all their attacks to bear simultaneously.
Upon hearing news of the attack, Dash extended her wings. Multi-colored lightning bolts coursed around them. She said, "To Ponyville! Who's first!"
Luna replied, "Nay, Dash. Leave your companions. I have my knight en route."
Twilight quickly added, "I can recall you if needed. We'll want Arrow and Canary here in case this is a diversion."
The other vigilantes nodded in agreement. Arrow said, "You can practically be in two places at once; we can't."
Canary added, "We cannot leave the princesses unprotected."
In a fraction of a second, the Dash analyzed the alternatives. She nodded in assent and disappeared in a streak of light.
Batmare’s airship was already over Ponyville as the heroes scanned for trouble.
"What are we looking for, exactly?" asked Scootaloo.
Spike projected a viewscreen in front of the passengers as a green telescope scanned about outside. When the view of the border with the Everfree Forest, he gasped. "Maybe a stampede of timberwolves?"
Batmare lurched forward in shock, but she managed to level the aircraft before it crashed. "What?!"
"I think it's time to dance," said Scootaloo.
Batmare nodded. "Prepare for ejection."
Before her companions could reply, panels slid back from the canopy. Powerful springs flung the passenger seats up and to either side.
Scootaloo screamed. “AAAAAAAH, SHAZAM!”
A lightning bolt struck her as her seat rose, turning her into Equestria’s mightiest mare. She extended her wings and flew toward the Spike.
In the meantime, Spike’s ring glowed, dressing him in his uniform and granting him the power of flight.
“Hey Lantern, remind me to kill Diamond Tiara after this!” said Alicorn Marevel.
“Diamond Tiara?”
“There’s only one pony who calls me Scootaloser. I don’t need the wisdom of Saddlemon to notice that.”
Lantern shrugged and flew to Ponyville, abeam with Marevel.
It was 1800, Canterlot Standard Time. Soon, it would be time for Celestia to send the sun to bed while Luna roused the sleepy moon. This was the time for their little ponies in Ponyville to wind down their day. Businesses were closing, homemakers were cooking, and foals were finishing that last bit of homework between them and freedom.
Everything seemed normal until they felt the ground rumble. Could it really be another earthquake in just two days?
Living next the Everfree Forest had conditioned the Ponyville residents to deal with disasters, both natural and pony-made. With the Element Bearers as residents, the latter were all too common. Warily, they edged toward their homes as they kept a lookout for the source of the disturbance.
Suddenly, Bulk Biceps yelled, "STAMPEDE!"
In a carefully choreographed ballet, the residents streamed toward their homes to seek shelter until the danger had passed. Only a lucky few reached safety. The others saw the true horror of the threat, timberwolves, twice the size of the normal variety.
The beasts streamed past the ponies forcing them to stay on the streets. With speed that few could match, the formed a moving cordon, herding the ponies together. A pattern emerged from what had at first seemed random; they left only one opening in their lines, the passage to the Everfree. The pegasi who had yet to take flight were quickly grounded as the timberwolves pounced and took them in their jaws.
A cyan annoyance buzzed the attackers. The blur resolved into the Dash. "Timberwolves? That's a bit anticlimactic." Streaking off, the speedster harassed the creatures, punching here, kicking there, trying to draw their attention to her.
The wolves ignored her as they continued herding the other ponies.
Seeing that her strategy had failed, she streaked in the direction the ponies were being herded. The true objective of the movement became clear. Anything that the timberwolves had flushed was captured by animated vines waiting in the Everfree. The captured ponies each struggled at first, but their strength faded fast in the grasp of the vines. The sheer mass of ponies prevented any from turning back while the timberwolves blocked the sides and the rear. Cocoons of vines hinted at the fate that awaited.
“Dang it!” complained the Dash. “That Forest Thing knows what he’s doing.”She growled. "The hard way it is."
"The horror! The horror!" screamed Roseluck as vines captured her legs and slowly forced them apart. She fainted as another vine wrapped around her barrel. In the next instant, there as a cyan blur, and bits of vine fluttered to the ground.
The attackers didn't even notice the escaping ponies as Dash took the florist to safety in a town closer to Canterlot. Dash mused, "It's a good thing she fainted; I don't think I could have washed the stains out of my suit."
One by one, Dash took her neighbors to safety. First, it was Applejack, then Granny Smith. Somehow, they were sound asleep in the midst of all the excitement.
And went back to rescue Applejack, next Granny Smith. Strangely enough, but mares weren’t struggling at all, but sleeping peacefully. Twist and Featherweight were next, slumbering soundly.
"I don't get it!" exclaimed Dash as she continued her rescues. Giving the crowd a quick once-over, she could see those in the vicinity of the vines were all starting to collapse. As she began to nod off, she noticed a sweet smell in the air. Looking down, she could see the pollen drifting from the pink flowers on the vines.
Dash rocketed skyward, snap rolling to shake off any pollen. Once she was well above the clouds, the air again smelled clean and she snapped back to full consciousness. She took a deep breath and dove back into the fray.
To the speedster's surprise, a giant green scythe was clearing the vines. A familiar voice cackled, "Don't fear the reaper!"
Dash yelled, "Spike! Gas attack!"
“Lantern!” corrected the dragon. “It looked like you could use a number one assistant. And, I told you to lay off the beans."
Dash groaned. "Gas from the vines is putting the ponies to sleep. Can't you smell it?"
Shaking his head, Spike replied, "Automatic defenses. What about you?"
Dash's eyelids started to droop. She felt something cover her muzzle. In an instant, she was awake. Spike said, "How about a gas mask?"
Dash's eyes crossed as she looked at the green construct. She said, "Keep them busy; I'll grab the ponies."
The timberwolves were content to keep Lantern penned in. The beasts paid no mind to the ponies who seemed to just disappear when they reached the vines. Cocoon after cocoon disintegrated without eliciting a response. When the last pony was gone, the moving cordon of timberwolves formed a solid wall in front of Lantern. A distant roar served as a grim reminder that there were still plenty of the beasts in town.
In Ponyville proper, the timberwolves searched the houses, one by one. Unaffected by the flowers, they could move at their leisure. Following the beasts inside, vines would gather any stragglers who had succumbed to the flowers.
At a particularly large house, they stopped, momentarily confused by the black-clad filly waiting on the porch. She said, "Here, puppies. Want to play?"
The timberwolves growled and slowly padded toward her.
Batmare grinned as she bucked a small black ball at them. "Fetch!"
The ball struck the nearest timberwolf in the mouth and detonated. Thick black smoke streamed from the beast. The others howled in fear and retreated as the victim's head burst into flames. Unnoticed, an orange streak plowed through their ranks, reducing them to kindling.
Batmare turned to Marevel. “Good job! But you have to burn them if you don’t want them to assemble again!”
“On it!” said Marevel. Flying in circles, she generated a dust devil, picking up all the fragments. There a was a sudden flare of light as she ignited them all at once.
The surviving timberwolves surrounded the two heroes. They stood indecisively, weighing their chances against the two. A howl from the alpha prompted them to close in.
As one, the heroes sent a warning. A lightning bolt struck right in front of the alpha while a small flare landed at its paws.
The alpha howled again. The pack closed in at speed, with the ones in back jumping onto the ones in front, forming a dome over the heroes. They then collapsed in on the pair.
As darkness surrounded the two, Marevel took Batmare in her hooves and said, "Hang on!" With a titanic leap, Equestria's mightiest mare broke through the timberwolves, leaving them howling in frustration. While she circled, Batmare gave a parting shot. A metallic cloud fell onto the top of the dome. It burst into flame when another smoke bomb ignited on the dome.
Looking at the inferno, Marevel yelled, "What was that for? They couldn't hurt us!"
Batmare glared at the alicorn. "This is no filly's game, Scootaloser! Do what you want, but stay out of my way!"
Angrily, Marevel dropped Batmare onto a roof before streaking through town to assess the situation. The cyan blur was obviously her sister, evacuating ponies. The glow in the Everfree was Lantern. The inferno was collateral damage from Batmare.
The timberwolves tried to overwhelm Batmare, but she was simply too fast, too agile, too ruthless. She was tired of living in a cardboard world where she had to be careful not to do any permanent harm. Timberwolves were different. They weren't really alive. All of the anger and frustration from the murder of her parents came bubbling to the fore. The refusal of the world to take her seriously fueled her rage. Finally, she could let loose with her full strength.
Pyre after pyre ignited with each failed attack. "Who's the filly now?" taunted Batmare.
“Enough!” said Marevel, landing between the timberwolves and Batmare.
“What are you doing?!” asked Batmare.
In an orange streak, Marevel pulverized the surviving timberwolves. Transitioning to a tight barrel roll, she gathered the pieces in her slipstream and deposited them deep into the Everfree.
A cyan streak stopped by Marevel as she returned to Ponyville. "Looks like you took care of the timberwolves."
Marevel shrugged, "Batmare did most of the work; I just cleaned up the stragglers."
"Hey! There's no "i" in team! We all have our jobs to do."
“Enough for the sisterly chit-chat!” complained Batmare. “I only have a couple minutes left on my rebreather. Have you finished rescuing everypony?”
Dash smiled. “My parents were the last ones.”
“Now we have to deal with these vines.” said Batmare, worried.
“I’ll do it!” said Lantern, joining the group. “Now that everypony is safe, I can concentrate on rooting these things out.”
Dash warned, "Don't bite off more than you can chew. You have friends, remember."
Lantern scoffed. "This is just a plant. It'll just be another weeding job."
“But . . .”
"It'll be easier if I don't have to worry about accidentally hurting any of you. Besides, that'll buy you more time to check for stragglers."
Dash protested, "I can do it faster."
Batmare shook her head. "We got this; you need to support the princesses."
Dash sighed. Batmare was right. In a cyan flash, she was gone.
Lantern said, "Let me recharge that thing for you." Batmare's mask glowed green for a moment as her scrubber was refreshed. Lantern flew off, following the vines.
Once the others were gone, Marevel looked at Batmare with concern. "What were you doing? You looked like you enjoyed burning all those timberwolves."
Batmare snarled. "You have it easy; you're a full-grown alicorn. Everypony treats me like a little filly. I'll show them not to underestimate me! Now go give me top cover!" With that, Batmare activated her infrared vision and began her search.
In spite of the mess she had left behind, the most of the damage consisted of broken doors and windows. The worst of it was a wall that Marevel had collapsed onto some of the timberwolves, but that could be repaired in about a week by a qualified mason.
As Batmare turned her back to the wall a shadow came over her, along with an unmistakable stench. The night filly stopped. She turned to face the threat.
At that moment, the pieces that had been under the wall had worked themselves free and formed a giant timberwolf, four times the size of its former alpha. It glared at Batmare.
“Aw, did I play too rough?” mocked Batmare.
The wolf roared and rammed the vigilante before she could react. The impact sent the dark knight through a window. Instinctively, she performed a break fall, preventing serious injury.
The wolf advanced toward her slowly, caring only about vengeance.
As she watched the scene unfold, Marevel found her way blocked by vines. While she was immune to the flowers, she found that they could stop her in such large concentrations. She couldn't help but worry about the dark knight. After watching her decimate the timberwolves she feared the filly would lose her mind. With her lack of self-control, who knows what or who might become an innocent victim?
The timberwolf had followed Batmare inside the building. It could see that its foe was clearly hurt as it limped away. Still the filly had enough agility to dodge, but just barely. Each miss, however, was progressively closer. As it entered the final room, it saw it had the filly cornered.
With a flick of her head, Batmare threw a batarang. With a smirk, she watched as it punctured the exposed gas line. The timberwolf was practically breathing down her neck went she wrapped herself in her cape. Hidden by her flourish, a small flare bounced under the timberwolf and ignited. The small flame sparked a big flame that immolated the timberwolf. Panicked, it went through wall after wall as it ran in circles in its haste to escape. With its support undermined, the floor of the bedroom above gave way.
Sweetie Belle was sleeping peacefully, draped over her just-finished watercolor painting. Inebriated by the sweet perfume of the vines’ flowers, she dreamed that she was sunbathing on a beautiful beach, with white sand and crystal-clear waters. It was warm, very warm. No, not, warm, pretty hot. Too hot indeed. She needed air, she needed air right now.
She woke up suddenly. Somehow, she was in bed, but on the ground floor in a sea of flames.
“AAAAAAAH, HELP, PLEEEEASE!!”
A horrified Batmare turned to her.
“What have I done?” she asked, frozen in fear.
In its death-race, the wolf was still running inside the house, and accidentally kicked Sweetie Belle to the other side of the room. Her scream of pain was cut short as her body impacted the wall.
Batmare ran to action, avoiding the timberwolf, in an attempt to save her friend. Looking down, she could see head and limbs in unnatural angles. There was no way she could move Sweetie Belle without making things worse.
“No!”
A new wall collapsed, and Alicorn Marevel ran into the house. Magic lessons proved their worth as she cut out a section of the floor and repurposed it as an improvised backboard. Batmare staggered after them.
Marevel managed to locate some clear terrain where she could examine Sweetie Belle more closely.
“Is she going to be okay?” asked Batmare shyly.
Furious, Marevel turned and lifted the other vigilante with her magic.
“YOU! WHAT THE HAY IS WRONG WITH YOU?”
“It was an accident! I didn’t think . . .”
“Blow up an entire kitchen just to kill a Timberwolf? A STUPID TIMBERWOLF?”
“Well, but I . . ."
“You haven’t changed a bit, Diamond Tiara. You don’t think of anypony but yourself.”
Batmare removed her mask. “You're right. Everypony is right. I’m a just filly . . . a filly playing with dangerous toys.”
“She lives,” said Marevel, hearing Sweetie’s heart. “But she needs help. Now. And Ponyville General is out of the question.”
Diamond Tiara nodded. “And she can’t survive a trip on your sister's back. I could take her to Canterlot General in my machine, but that's too slow.”
“What are you suggesting?” asked Marevel.
Diamond Tiara activated her transmitter. “Doctor! Doctor!”
“Kid! I heard the battle above. Are you all right?”
“Doctor, I have a dying friend in here, and the cave is closer than Canterlot General. Please, I need you to find a way to save her!”
“What?! I'm a scientist, not a medical doctor!”
“Randolph will assist you, I know by experience he’s an excellent nurse. Come on, Doctor, I know you can find a way to save her!”
A heavy sigh came over the transmitter. “All right, I’ll think of something.”
Diamond Tiara nodded and then turned to Marevel. “Help me to carry her to the transport. I promise you, the Doctor and Randolph will save her. I’ll use every resource I have to make her whole.”
“You better.”
Marevel immobilized Sweetie Belle on the backboard. Together, she and Diamond Tiara move their friend as fast as they could safely manage. This was going to be a long night.
Everfree Forest:
Green Lantern followed the vines back to their source, going deeper into the forest with each passing second.
“I have a horrible feeling of deja vu.”
The vines ended at the stem of what looked like a tulip plant the size of a fully-grown oak. There was a pony-sized cocoon made of vines in front of the stem.
Gingerly, Lantern fed claws of green energy from his ring through the cocoon. He probed until the constructs were flush against the inner wall. He pulled outward, ripping apart the bundled vines. A sleeping zebra tumbled out.
“Zecora!” he gasped.
Carefully, Lantern took Zecora inside a green force field, and held her away from the plant. As vines sought to grapple them, he countered with his own hold. Energy from his ring formed into plunder vines, entwining the plant until it was covered completely. With a roar, he ripped the entire thing from the ground. The flower screamed as he squeezed, reducing it to mush. Gathering the mess in a ball, he incinerated it. He gave a sigh of relief as ash fluttered down.
“I did it!”
The sound of heavy steps approaching made him turn.
It was another pack of timberwolves, at least two times bigger than the one that had attacked Ponyville. Behind them was their alpha. From what Spike could see, it looked like a vine monster.
At first glance, it appeared to be a mass of leafy vines in a somewhat equine shape. A closer inspection revealed an ethereal mane and beard. Once he could make out the face, Lantern realized this was a pony dressed in tunic and cape formed from vines.
Lantern gulped. “The Forest Thing, I presume.”
“Did we know each other?” asked Forest Thing yawning. “I never forget a dragon; they're foul, destructive creatures, just like you. You murdered that poor plant."
Lantern aimed his ring to the alicorn. “Don’t play games with me! I was saving Ponyville!”
The Forest Thing smiled faintly. “I know kid, I know. But, business is business, and I can't let you get in the way of my vacation. It's nothing personal, but I really needed to keep this distraction up for a while longer."
The timberwolves surrounded their alpha and Lantern. Then, they howled as one.
Green Lantern stayed between Zecora and the Forest Thing, ready.
The entire forest trembled in anticipation.
Underground:
Anxiously, the orange pegasus filly paced. Her anger had long ago burnt out, and she now concentrated on comforting her broken friend. She still could not understand why the white filly fought off the sedative just to console Diamond Tiara. Scootaloo tried not to wince as the object of her ire spoke.
“How bad it is?” asked Diamond Tiara.
Randolph shook his head slowly. “It’s going to be really difficult.”
“That bad?”
The doctor sighed. “There’s something I can do, but it’s a little extreme.”
“What?!” demanded Diamond.
“I can, you know, replace the damaged organs with some of my inventions. I can graft mechanical parts onto organic.”
Sweetie Belle opened her eyes slightly.
Groggily, she mumbled, “So, I’ll become something like a robot? A Sweetie Bot?”
The doctor shook his head. “I would say more like a Cyborg.”
The damaged filly smiled lightly. “Okay then. Sweetie Borg.”