This isn't how the story began, but this is where it is going to start.
The bugs and the birds of the Everfree forest were making their usual sounds this early Saturday afternoon. The grasshoppers were chirping as they always do, and the birds sang their songs. All things considered, today was a beautiful day.
"Come on, Sweetie Belle, our cutie marks aren't gonna get themselves!" said Apple Bloom, hopping over a fallen tree trunk.
Sweetie Belle, out of breath, was walking at a slower pace. Tired from a long walk through the trees and grass of the Everfree. "I'm coming," she said, "I still don't know exactly why we decided to come all the way out here."
Scootaloo, the third pony of the trio, spoke up at this. "Actually, yeah, why did we come out here? I know it's obvious we're trying to get our marks again, but you still haven't told us what we were going to try and do."
Apple Bloom stopped walking, blushing. "Aw, right. I was so excited I forgot to tell ya'll," she said apologetically. Turning to face them, she explained, "I overheard some rumors at school that somepony saw a colt running around in the Everfree all alone and never came out. So I thought we should go try to find him, just in case he was lost." Apple Bloom smiled excitedly, rearing up on her hind legs, "We could get our cutie marks for heroism!"
"Really?! A colt out here all alone? He must be terrified." Sweetie Belle said worriedly.
"I mean we're fine; there are three of us and we can take care of ourselves, but a single colt by himself in this forest is crazy," said Scootaloo, "We have to save him!"
"Then it's settled, girls. We're gonna find this colt and bring him back safe!" Apple Bloom said, stomping her hoof in finality.
The trio of fillies jumped into the air and smacked their hooves together. "Cutie Mark Crusaders Heroes, Yay!"
"Aw, crap. Not again." The grey colt said in exasperation, "That's the third time in a row now."
He was looking down at his last animal trap of many he set up around the woods. It was empty.
It is true that herbivores can't properly digest large amounts of meat, but that doesn't mean they can't eat it at all. In fact, due to the amount of protein and iron one can get from small prey, some larger herbivores will occasionally eat a smaller animal if they have the chance to. They are sometimes referred to as 'opportunistic hunters.'
Being surrounded by plants, one would imagine he wouldn't need to search for food. You would be wrong. This is the Everfree forest. Finding plants that are not poisonous or won't give you diarrhea is quite rare. That's probably why no one has settled a town in the Everfree, to begin with. So, because of this rarity, you should understand why the lack of small game in these traps for three days straight would be discouraging.
With a sigh, he started heading back to his shelter. "I guess it's dried berry and nut salad again tonight. Might have to try fishing again tomorrow."
"Um, Apple Bloom, I think we're lost." Sweetie Belle said warily, "It's past noon too. Shouldn't we try getting back home now?"
Scootaloo, although braver than Sweetie Belle, had to agree, "Yeah, we probably should head back. We haven't had lunch either, so I'm kinda hungry too."
"We have to keep searching,'' Apple Bloom said, "He could still be out here!"
"But we still haven't found anything that says there is a colt out here, besides if he-" Sweetie Belle suddenly stopped talking before whispering, "Wait, do you girls hear anything?"
The three stopped talking, listening intently. They didn't hear anything.
The trio's eyes collectively started widening. The bugs and the birds of the Everfree and the sounds they made. They couldn't hear them. They couldn't hear any of them.
A low growl started growing from behind the shrubbery.
The grey colt was walking calmly through the forest while carrying his hatchet in his magic. It was one of the few items from his home that he had brought with him. It was quite lucky that he was holding it when he came to this place, wherever it is. Now though, it was a well-worn tool that he couldn't have survived without.
It was somewhat heavy even in his magical aura, but the colt could still swing it around with ease. It did have a hollow fiberglass handle after all. Still, it was only slightly less heavy than his maximum magical strength, although he had been practicing for quite a while.
His admiration of the tool was cut short by an ear-splitting shriek of terror coming from deep in the woods.
The colt stared wide-eyed in terror at the direction the offending sound had come from, not daring to move from his awkward half step position. Only when the screaming continued did he realize that someone was screaming for help.
He looked in his shelters direction than back toward the screams direction. "Whatever's over there is probably big enough to eat me." he said to himself, "It's probably big enough to eat whoever is screaming too..."
He didn't want to die, but If someone out there died because he was too scared... He didn't know how he would be able to sleep at night.
Not willing to have this decision on his conscience, he did what he always did when it came to these hard choices. He pulled out a coin and flipped it.
Heads, he runs back to his shelter.
Tails, he runs out into the forest to try and stop a supposedly large carnivore, that for all intensive purposes might kill him if he even looks at it funny, from eating a complete stranger that he has no relation to.
Slowly opening his eyes to see what side of the coin faced up, His face screwed up in a painful expression.
"Aw, Frag it!" The grey colt put his coin away then ran full sprint toward the screaming. He landed tails.
"Run, Sweetie, run!" Apple Bloom screamed.
Apple Bloom's earth pony strength and endurance let her run faster than the other two. Scootaloo's Light bones and pegasus endurance let her take up second place behind Apple Bloom. But Sweetie bell being already tired from walking and also being a unicorn, she started lagging behind closer and closer to the timberwolf chasing them.
The three ran past trees and through the brush, disregarding the cuts and bruises from the branches they crashed through.
They ran until they ran through some bushes, meeting a wall of dirt and stone. Scootaloo looked up the cliff face, "We're trapped!"
Turning, they saw the timberwolf stalk out from the bushes. It growled as Glowing green sap fell from its maw, sizzling on the ground.
"This is it, girls," Apple Bloom said, crying, "I'm sorry I got us in this mess."
The three bawled as the wolf stepped closer. It opened its mouth full of sharpened sticks and acidic drool, ready to bite down on their necks.
The wolf slammed face first into the ground as the left half of its face burst and shattered. A hatchet embedded in the rotted wood that equated a timberwolf's skull.
The trio watched in terror and shock as the small ax was ripped from the wolf's head and floated toward a grey-furred colt with two curved horns spiraling out of his temples toward the sky. The colt's orange eyes glaring at the wolf as it patched it's now missing left eye with small unbroken twigs. The wolf's bared teeth were returned in kind by the colt baring his own, his four canines on full display. The colt let out what could only be described by the girls as a hiss.
The colt barely contained his terror as he grit his teeth and hissed trying not to scream.
He just smashed his hatchet into one of those wood wolves' faces, and now it was going to try and eat him! It was times like these he questioned trusting a coin to choose what he should do in life. It was too late to change the past now though. He had to save these ponies or die trying.
'Heaven or Hell, here I go!' He thought before swinging his ax once more.
Swinging the hatchet side to side in a figure eight pattern like he practiced, the wood wolf backed up farther and farther until it had enough and pounced at the colt.
The colt dodged to the left and swung his ax across while screaming, cleaving off the wolf's right front leg.
The wolf, too damaged to fight, hobbled away as fast as it could whimpering. The colt, tired from the fight and from fear, dropped his hatchet and fell to his haunches in an adrenalin crash.
Gasping for breath, he said, "I did it." and fell unconscious in exhaustion.
The three girls huddled together, sitting unknowing what to do. They had just watched a two-horned colt with an ax cut apart a timberwolf in a one on one duel before their very eyes.
Scootaloo, mustering up enough bravery, slowly got up and approached the colt. He had an ashy grey coat and a two-toned firey mane. she remembered his bright orange eyes and four pointed teeth, but the one thing that she cared about was those two curved spiraling horns.
Looking to the other two crusaders, she said, "Girls, I don't think this is just some lost colt.