Twilight sighed dejectedly as from her position on the elevated hill, she watched Celestia's sun slowly sink beneath the horizon. Based on the positioning of the sun and its rustic orange hue, a far cry from its standard yellow, there were at least thirty minutes left until the sun completely vanishes, suspending the day and making way for Luna's night.
It would also mean a suspension of the day's search efforts.
Directing her attention away from the celestial bodies, she turned towards her friends, or rather most of them, bar a particular pink one. Their normally jubilant selves were instead replaced with ragged manes and gaunt looks. Notable examples include Rainbow's vibrant rainbow (ironic much?) colored mane coated in a fine layer of mud, dirt, and grime. Or Rarity's usually immaculate mane reduced to a frizzled mess, not unlike that of Pinkie Pie's.
They all huddled around a small campfire started by Applejack, every single one of their exhaustions indicative on their faces.
But none of them were nowhere as exhausted as Twilight was.
To say that her week has been bad would be the understatement of the century. It was a complete and absolute NIGHTMARE!!
It all started with the princesses announcing their retirement and plans to hand control of the entire Kingdom to Twilight and her friends. While that had been shocking at the moment, it took a failed invasion from a recently resurrected King Sombra to nail home the daunting responsibility of running a kingdom.
The paperwork.
Oh how she loathed the paperwork, and this is coming from a pony who usually likes that sort of thing. Within a few hours of the stuff, even Twilight couldn't hide her disdain as papers after papers of complaints flooded the office of her school. Ranging from nobles to the common folk, these complaint files all related to the latest debacle that Equestria had to face. Most were complaints about the destruction of property and simple requests for monetary insurance. Others tackled more extreme problems that highlighted some points; such as how the Crystal Empire and Canterlot had been so easily taken, or how the 'esteemed' Royal Guard wasn't even able to repel a SINGLE crystal-obsessed maniac and his army of brainwashed Equestrians.
Now those brainwashed Equestrians were mainly civilians, so that could explain the guard's hesitation to fire upon the crowd. But that doesn't excuse the fact that a sizeable portion of the city and the main castle LITERALLY fell without so much as a single shot fired.
Some called for an investigation into the practices of the Royal Guard and how they spent the budget.
Some called for the replacement of the guards with a more militarized force.
Others even called for the princesses to take control of the armies.
Twilight just slammed her face into the table with a migraine at the back of her head.
Twilight tore out her mane as she signed and stamped papers, having to explain and make up excuses for the conduct of the military, the princesses, and the state of the Kingdom's security. She wasn't the only one, as Celestia and Cadance were also being bombarded with complaints from their dissatisfied citizens. Even Luna had to be taken off night duty to assist her sisters in filing the reports.
To make matters worse, assessment season was in full swing at the School of Friendship. So in addition to the large influx of paperwork being given to her, she had several student friendship projects to mark and provide feedback for. She would have buckled under all the stress, had it not been for her faithful assistant Spike.
Speaking of Spike, she really should do something back for him that shows her appreciation for everything he'd ever done for her. Maybe she should request a double-layered sapphire cake for him from Pinkie. Or maybe give him an extended holiday.
In one of her occasional bouts of insanity, dubbed the "Twilinanas Moments" by Spike, he had to quite literally slap her across the face to knock some sense into her. He then shoved her into her bedroom with her favorite book, a large mug of hot chocolate, and a platter of her favorite fruits; before locking the door behind him and telling her not to worry about a single thing.
Sure she spent quite a while clawing at the door and attempting to break free, strangely enough, the castle seemed quite adamant in keeping her in her room, but after a while, she eventually calmed down and made do with what Spike had given her.
Overall, it was a much-needed break. And it would have been perfect too, had it not been for the situation that Spike brought to her attention as she was about to retire for the night.
In summary, two Griffin tourist staying in Ponyville had come to her saying their friend had been abducted by a bipedal alien somewhere near the Ghastly Gorges. Apparently, they were training, or something along that line, though for all her logic Twilight couldn't understand why they would purposefully put themselves in an area known for its large population of dangerous Eels.
Either way, this was a problem that required her immediate attention and response. Telling Spike that he and Starlight were in charge of the school and castle until she was done, she had raced out immediately and into the dead of night to gather up her friends. Not before informing the two terrified Griffins that they were allowed to stay in the castle as long as they like until their friend had been found.
That was four days ago.
"Yah alright sugarcube?" Twilight nodded towards Applejack who poked the slowly burning fire with a large stick. Applejack had been one of the first that Twilight picked up, having nearly gone to bed after a long day of apple-buckin, yet still pulled herself up to help her.
"Yeah, I'm okay" replied Twilight as she plopped herself next to Rarity and Fluttershy. The ragged unicorn smiled slightly as she scooted over to make room for Twilight, before directing her attention back to her pocket mirror as she tried to fix her mane. Rarity had been one of the harder ones to convince, as she had already been deep in her beauty sleep and wasn't quite happy with being woken to go on another adventure. Despite being convinced by both Applejack and Twilight, she still spent a considerable amount of time packing supplies, some of which seemed rather unnecessary at the moment, but now were godsent essentials as they didn't anticipate the length of time they would spend in the woods.
"Twilight, dear, you need more sleep," said Rarity simply as she reached over and touched the areas underneath Twilight's eyes, exposing the bags that she had underneath, "It is seriously affecting your health if you continue like this"
"Thanks for your concern Rarity" Twilight smiled while she pointed a hoof over to Rainbow Dash, "Shouldn't you be more concerned about Rainbow? I'm pretty sure she worst off than me"
"Don't worry about me! I'm fine" called out Rainbow Dash on the other side of the fire. Despite her words, the exhaustion was just as evident on her face as it was for the rest of them. However, unlike the rest of them, she had her back to the fire and instead watched the forest with a watchful eye.
Out of all of them, Rainbow Dash was the most dedicated to the task they currently had, having jumped at the moment she heard the news, slept the least out of all of them when they got here by train and covered the most ground due to her natural flying ability. Most of the gang believed her extra conviction was due to the Loyalty element that she embodied, but Twilight understood that it was because Rainbow Dash knew the Griffin currently in trouble. Something to do with the Equestria Games and being fellow competitors or something along that line.
Speaking of the missing Griffin, her friends had testified that her name was Natalya. Thirty-two years olds, hails from Griffinstone and works at a fruit stand in the day before being an athlete at night. Last known location was on the fringes of a pine forest on the edge of the Ghastly Gorge. She had been injured and was saved from a Quarry Eel Matriarch by the alien, before being abducted by said alien herself. Alien is described as a tall bipedal with a body that composes of both flesh, metal, and some unknown brown material. When asked what was the most striking part of the alien's features, both had given different two interesting points that raised some eyebrows.
The male Griffin, Gaston, had said that the alien was accompanied by two other creatures, both made of metal that acted semi-autonomously on the commands of the alien. One was described as a floating eye that shot a red bolt of magic from a tube underneath it. The other was a creature that held some form of magic shooting device in its arms, in addition to an ironically small head to accompany its hulking frame.
Terrifying? Sure. But nowhere as ominous as the second Griffin's account.
"Its eyes," said Giselle when she had been interrogated by Twilight, "I'll never get the sight of its eyes out of my head. Red as a manticore's mane, but broken like a porcelain vase"
"Broken? How so?" asked Twilight as she wrote everything Giselle said on a notepad.
"Its eyes are unnatural. They don't blink like normal and they glow, even in daylight. Also, one of its eyes is broken, as if something ruptured them and left cracks in it"
"Mr. Bushel, you should really get back to your family. It is getting late and I'm sure that they are extremely worried. Still; thank you for sharing that information with us" Fluttershy lowered the squirrel down onto the forest floor and let him scamper off.
Now Fluttershy had been the hardest to convince. When they first arrived at her place and told her of what was happening they were quickly met with a door to the face. Forcing their way through her home, they found her hiding underneath her bed and had to quite literally drag her all the way to the train station. So far her animal-speaking skill has proven to be an invaluable asset, having helped them the most when trying to make through the dense pine forest.
"So what did he say Flutters?," asked Applejack.
"Same thing all the animals in the forest said. A few nights ago they all felt and heard distant rumblings deeper in the forest. Others that were closer swore they saw a large green monster fall out of the sky, though they don't know exactly where it landed as every time they try to go towards it, there are always large monsters attacking them" replied Fluttershy.
"Did they say they were made up of metal?" asked Twilight curiously,
"Yeah...they did actually" frowned Fluttershy, "Why do you ask Twilight?"
"Just confirming what we are going up against. Giselle and Gaston said they saw other creatures besides the alien. Two creatures made up of metal"
"Well...most of the animals I've talked to said there are three different creatures that attacked them"
"Anything different about the description?"
"Apart from the one that looks like a buckball and the one big as a bear, there is also another one that looks like a dog"
"A...dog?"
"Weird isn't it" Fluttershy agreed, "Do you think the aliens have dogs on their planet?"
"Anythin possible at this point, Flutters" injected Applejack, "If worst comes to worst, we can always use the Elements against it"
"That's the thing though, Applejack. We don't know if the Elements will work against this alien. All our previous enemies were known to be evil, so the Elements could easily take them out" said Twilight
"Yah sayin abuducting that Griffin doesn't make it evil?" asked Applejack incredulously.
"I'm saying that the whole picture isn't entirely clear-cut" replied Twilight calmly, "The alien is probably just as confused as we are, and only abducted the Griffin because it was curious. I think when we meet the alien, we should attempt to befriend it and talk it into giving Natalya back"
"And what if by the time we find it, it has already done something to Natalya?" asked Rainbow Dash from the other side.
"As long as it hasn't killed her, I'm sure we could work something out. Imagine all of the things we could learn from it!" Nearly everyone around the campfire rolled their eyes at Twilight's nerdiness.
"Personally darling, I think don't think we should waste any more time talking to this...alien," said Rarity as she snapped her pocket mirror shut and placed it inside her dainty decorated handbag, "I think we should just recover the Griffin and get out of this atrocious forest as quick as we can"
"I'll second that" pointed out Rainbow Dash as she stomped her hooves together threateningly, "But if it does turn violent, then you can bet I'll be right in the thick of it"
Before Twilight could reprimand Rainbow Dash for her rather unexpected brashness, Fluttershy gave out the loudest shriek of fear that any of them have heard yet. Turning to where the timid pegasus was screaming, they were all greeted with a demented black and white face peeking at them from the dark confines of a nearby bush.
"RAWAHHHHH!!!"
"ARRRRRGGHHH!!!!"
What happened next happened in a hailstorm of feathers as Rainbow Dash launched herself at the masked figure in the bush. A resounding crack echoed throughout the campsite as two figures came tumbling out of the bushels of leaves, the obvious body of Rainbow Dash on the top and a rather familiar pink one underneath.
"What? Pinkie?!" yelled Rainbow Dash out in shock.
"Umm...bad time for a surprise?" The pink mare underneath gave a wary smile towards her best friend, something that wasn't exactly returned.
"You think?" asked Rainbow Dash unamused as she reached down and pulled her friend back, "What in Celestia was that for?!"
"Oh come on Dashie. I was only having a little fun!" Pinkie waved off her friend's annoyance with a dismissive hoof and threw the black and white mask she got from Zecora back into her bag, "You all looked so uptight and depressed! You guys needed a laugh!"
"We can laugh after we save the Griffin from the alien," said Rarity with a disappointed frown, "Honesty Pinkie, that joke was just distasteful, even for you"
"Yeah, sorry Pinkie but I'ma with Raras on this" added Applejack
"Not very funny this time, sorry Pinkie" agreed Rainbow Dash
"Unnecessary Pinkie," said Twilight disappointedly
"It was...rather mean" mumbled Fluttershy
"Oh...sorry" Pinkie's mane deflated slightly and everyone in the camp felt a little bad for being too hard on the fun-loving pony. Her mane quickly poofed up however as she smashed clapped her hooves together, "Oh yeah! Speaking of aliens, I got something to show yooou~!"
Pinkie reached out into her mane and pulled out a large object too big to even possibly fit in her already large bundle of hair and chucked it onto the forest floor. Craning over to look, the other mares of the group looked uncertainly at the large circular object thrown at their hooves. Quite big, the main circular component wasn't that different from the same object they'd seen on a train's wheel. Yet, on each of the circle's side, two small metal bars extended from it and connected over the wheel, from which another small metal bar extended from their point of contact. Snaked along the body of the forked metal were several wires and tubes, now separated from whatever they were originally connected to, but still visible on the body of the metal bar.
"Is that...a wheel?" asked Applejack with raised eyebrows.
"I...think it is" Twilight spoke up as she poked the object cautiously, "It's got the shape and the rubber component down. But...I have no idea what is the purpose of all these wires and tubes"
Twilight's eyes darted to Pinkie who was smiling at all of them innocently, "Where did you find this?" she asked warily.
"And how did you fit it into your mane?" added Rarity.
"IfounditjustoutthereandthereasonthatI'mabletofitintomymaneisbecauseofasecretPiefamily-" Pinkie started in a flurry of gibberish before a hoof was quickly shoved into her mouth.
"Stop. Just stop. You overloaded my brain in seconds with that!" moaned Rainbow as she rubbed her ears.
"Also, nevermind about how Pinkie got this thing in her mane, Do you still remember where you got it specifically?" asked Twilight.
"Yep indeedilly!" Pinkie gave off a mock salute in response, "I found it right next to the path of destruction wrought by the alien's flying plane when it fell out of the sky"
"A...what now, Pinkie?"
"A plane. You know, a flying machine with two engines and large wings. The alien probably crashed it when it went through the warp hole and ended up in our world"
"Pinkie, please," said Applejack firmly, "Ya not makin' ah licka sense right now. What is this 'bout warp holes and planes?"
"You don't know it?" Pinkie's eyes expanded to the size of dinner plates as she stared rather unnaturally at Applejack, "It's one of the most cliche things fanfiction writers do when making crossover stories. I know cause I read a few of them myself!"
"Pinkie. Just...take us there" said Twilight slowly as she rubbed her head from the migraine forming, something all too common whenever she engaged in typical 'Pinkie' Business.
"Awwwwh...but I wanted to keep criticizing the fandom" Pinkie tossed away a peculiar hat she wore that had a Rainbow Dash plushie sown to the rim of the cap into a nearby bush, "Oki Doki Loki though Twilight, follow me, everyone!"
The rest of the gang just watched with slight wariness as Pinkie Pie bounced off into the foliage, humming the tune of 'Winter Wrap' as she went along. Most of them turned to the campsite that they will probably be leaving with heavy hearts, especially Rarity who sighed sadly at the prospect of missing out on extra sleep. They did, however, notice Twilight doing some complex spell on the object still left on the floor, shrinking it to the size of a button.
"Umm...what are you doing Twilight?" asked Fluttershy curiously.
"Just keeping this with me for now. You know, for research purposes" Twilight's slight giddiness in her tone wasn't lost on anyone as they all trotted after their pink friend.
Nightfall soon was upon the group as they followed Pinkie who just bounced along happily in front of them. Twilight's watched with curiosity as the happy mare continued to lead them further into the depths of the forest, surprised at how far Pinkie had strayed from the main camp.
Pinkie had been the most...compliant when the group had come to Sugarcube Corner to pick her up. Surprisingly enough, a sleep-deprived Mr. Cake had opened the door for them and led them directly to her room, saying Pinkie had been acting strange all day; well...stranger than Pinkie strange.
When they entered her room, (Mr. Cake quicly shut the door behind them) they were met with a crudely made fort, consisting of mainly her bed, cardboard boxes, several party cannons mounted on a badly drawn fake castle wall, and Gummy dressed in a soldier's costume perched as a sentry; all of which were held up haphazardly with ropes.
"Halt!" A voice called from within the monstrous structure, "Who comes there?"
"Pinkie, it's us, you're friends," Rainbow Dash said calmly while she tried to fly over her constructed fort. She promptly squawked when a large stick with a flat metal circle poked her out of the sky, causing her to crash at everyone else's hooves in shock.
"Friends? Hah! Don't you lie to me, I armed to the teeth here!" Pinkie poked her head over the ramparts, dressed in some sort of camo, the same they wore when watching the dragon migration together. In her hooves was a strange device with a massive tube and a small blue gas canister connected to it. They watched as Pinkie shoved a cupcake into a chamber above the tube and aimed the contraption at them. "Speak fast 'fore I blast you right out of here"
"Pinkie...what are you doing?" Twilight said slowly while she trotted slowly to the edges of the fort.
"What does it look it?!" she replied in an exasperated tone, "I'm preparing for the end!"
"By building...a crude fort?"
"You may call it 'crude', but we'll see who's laughing when I'm the last one alive" Pinkie yelled back, just as one of the ramparts collapsed right next to her, complete with comedic dust clouds.
"Pinkie, Yah not makin' a licka sense right now," Applejack said.
"That's what I said!" Pinkie sighed as she raised her rump for all of them to see. To all their great fear, her bushy pink tail was twitching and swaying back and forth erratically. Most of them dived under anything that provided a remote sense of cover, be it a table or even section of her fort, their eyes focused up as they awaited the eventual coming of a falling object.
"Umm...what are you guys doing?" asked Pinkie with a raised eyebrow as she stared down at Rarity and Twilight underneath the table.
"What do you expect? Waiting for the falling object to pass" said Rarity as she closed her eyes and covered her head.
"Wait...where is it?" Twilight peeked her head from underneath the table, as did everyone else, "How is this possible?! Your Pinkie Sense's never been wrong before!"
"Exactly!!" cried out Pinkie as she once again raised her rump, "And my tail won't stop shaking! It's been shaking all day and I can't get it to stop!"
"What does that mean?" asked Rainbow Dash cautiously
"I have no idea!" yelled Pinkie as she leaped from her place on the fort to land in front of the group, "But I'm prepared. Whatever happens, will be in for a nasty surprise when it does eventually find me!"
To further accentuate her point, she kicked a nearby box next to the entrance of her fort, spilling its contents of rockets and party cannon canisters all over the floor. Most of the girls widened as she took in the armory she had stashed away.
"Look...I don't know what you constantly twitching tail means, but we need your help at once" said Twilight, "A Griffonian tourist has been abducted by an alien and-"
"What did you say?!"
"Waah?" Twilight yelled out as Pinkie grabbed her by the shoulders and began shaking her back and forth. "Pinkie?! What are you-"
"What are we doing here then?!" Pinkie stripped the suit she wore off and grabbed a conveniently full backpack out of one of the cases in her fort, "Let's go immediately! We don't have any time to be playing around!"
She quickly zoomed straight out of the room, leaving several rightly confused mares behind. Most just choked on the dust cloud she left behind, but one particular red-faced Twilight yelled out in anguish.
"THAT'S MY LINE!!"
"HERE! THIS WAS WHERE I FOUND IT!!"
The gang rushed over to where Pinkie was standing, smiling like a hound-dog that just retrieved a stick for its master. She pointed to a slightly crumpled bush, not unlike the many bushes that currently surrounded them.
"That's it?" asked Rainbow Dash unimpressed.
"Well, duhhhh...you expected more Dashie?"
"Yes?"
"Well, I didn't exactly state that there was going to be anything else. You just told me to take you to the place I found the wheel thingie, so here we are"
Most of the gang grumbled as they all realized that they left the comforts of their camps all for nothing. As they began to slowly lumber back to the camp, however, is when Applejack noticed something rather peculiar lying nearby.
"Now hang on yah'" she said slowly. The others watched in curiosity as Applejack went over to where the thing was and brushed aside the large tree branch covering most of its body and rendering it elusive to the eye.
"What is is that?" asked Rarity, taking particular note of the rusty orange hues on the surface of the object.
"Ah don't know" Applejack slowly lifted it off the forest floor and turned it over in her hooves, "Looks like some kinda' metal, rather rusted piece ah metal to be precise"
"Can I see that?" Applejack hoofed it over to Twilight, who began rotating it in the air with her magic.
"Seems complicated" muttered Twilight while turning it back and forth, "For a piece of rusted metal that is. There are all these holes drilled into it, some of it in places that wouldn't make sense from a practical point of view"
"Maybe this fell off the alien's ship" suggested Pinkie Pie helpfully, in an effort to cheer her friends up and make up for annoying them before.
Could be...thanks Pinkie thought Twilight as she pulled out a small cloth pouch she brought along, the miniaturized wheel stored safely within.
Twilight replicated the spell she did on the wheel-like object before, once again shrinking the slab of metal into the size of a button and placing it into the bag with the wheel. "Spread out and see if you can find any more of these objects, maybe it can make a path directly to the alien's machine"
Soon the gang had split off into different directions, not too far from one another as to ensure safety, but far enough that they were able to conduct their private matters. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash mostly flew around, scanning the tops of trees, pulling any pieces of metal down from the leaves and returning to Twilight to dump them off. Applejack bucked trees whenever she saw a glint of metal in the foliage, else she would go around and pick up the pieces from the forest floor by hoof. Rarity made the greatest use of her favorite spell and used it to find mostly metal-based objects, levitating them over to Twilight. Pinkie was the most random, finding objects in the weirdest places; such as a pit of leaves, lodged into tree branches, and perhaps the weirdest of all, a half-filled bottle of brown liquid elevated on a small shrine most likely made by the woodland critters.
All in all, by the end of it there was a neat pile of different objects lying at their hooves. Some of them were normal things that ponies themselves seen before, such as nails, screws, cutlery, and glass. Other things were much more complex, such as a small fan blade that had way too many fins to even be considered useable by normal standards.
Twilight wasn't sure to what some of the things were, but she began shrinking them and pilling them into the cloth pouch she brought nonetheless.
"Quite a haul we got here," said Applejack as she poked around the pile like everyone else and open a strange canister in some unknown language. A quick whiff of the cloudy liquid inside sent her reeling as the fumes of petrol flooded her head, "Wooaah, nelly. These are some fancy trinkets"
"Agreed. Though I must admit some of this cutlery is in real need of a good polishing" Rarity inspected a spoon with a critical eye, gagging slightly when she took a whiff of it. "That's icky!"
"What do you have there Pinkie?" Twilight eyes widened when she saw the pink mare open the bottle in her hooves and began taking big gulps of the brown liquid inside, "PINKIE!! SPIT THAT OUT RIGHT NOW!!"
Using her magic, she ripped the bottle out of the mare's mouth and threw it to the side, unaware that she accidentally dumped the entirety of the contents on Fluttershy's head as the bottle flew over her head, drenching the mare's coat in sticky brown liquids.
"HEY! What was that for?!" yelled Pinkie indignantly.
"Sorry, but that could have been poisonous for all we know. What were you thinking, drinking that stuff without any thought for your safety?" reprimanded Twilight with a disappointed frown
"Umm...actually, it rather nice" a quiet voice mumbled behind them. Turning around, Twilight stared in disbelief at the yellow and pink mare, dripping in brown liquid and licking the stuff off her forelimbs with her tongue.
Rainbow Dash got close to Fluttershy and took a sniff of her fur.
"Huh, smells sweet," said Rainbow Dash simply while the mare continued to lick the stuff off herself, "Taste good?"
"It does actually. Reminds me of all the fruits I've fed the animals before, just blended"
"Watcha say they'd be?" asked Applejack as she too took a sniff of Fluttershy's fur. Both Twilight and Pinkie also joined with Applejack and Rainbow Dash to take a sniff of the mysterious liquid that coated the shy mare. Only Rarity stayed back as she was too distracted by something moving in the bushes.
"I'm not sure actually" frowned Pinkie as she took another sniff of Fluttershy's fur and followed up on Applejack's question, "There's no smell that specifies a particular fruit"
"Umm...girls?" stammered Fluttershy, red in the face
"It is a rather unique smell, to be honest," Twilight took a deep sniff, rather creepily now that everyone thought about it, "I don't know about you guys but it's rather...intoxicating"
"Girls?" Fluttershy repeated, this time squealing when four of her friends began piling around her to get a sniff of her fur, "Please stop...you're scaring me"
"Ain't nuttin to scare of Flutters" crooned Applejack while taking a deep whiff of her ears, "Ain't nuttin at all"
"Yeahhhh...you might want to retract that statement Applejack" called out Rarity from the sidelines.
"Why's that?" as Applejack and the girls retracted from a relieved looking Fluttershy, their eyes widened as they saw what Rarity was pointing at. Every one of them recognized the familiar body structure, the brown and green color scheme, and the glowing green eyes that made them feel as if the creature was staring directly into their soul.
It was a Timberwolf. A Timberwolf King to be precise if the larger body and the crown on its head was any indicator of what it was.
Yet...there was something completely wrong with this particular Timberwolf. Instead of attacking them straight away, it instead just stared at them- and they at it- without any of the usual bloodlusts in its eyes. In addition to that, there was a hobble in its steps, made all the more clear by the lack of one of its hindlegs.
As it moved closer and closer to the group of mares, it whined piteously, as if it was screaming out for help from the group of shocked mares. For all its ferocity and reputation, the group of mares couldn't help but feel pity for it-especially a particular yellow mare.
"Awww...are you hurt?" Fluttershy said in a motherly tone as she slowly edged towards the wounded creature.
"Umm...are you sure about that Fluttershy?" asked Rainbow Dash warily, whilst watching her hold one of the Timberwolf's paws in her hooves.
"Of course, he won't hurt anyone" hummed Fluttershy softly while stroking its paws, "Will you-"
"GET BACK!!"
With of all the skill of a gymnast, Applejack flung a coil of rope around a confused Fluttershy's waist and tugged her back, away from the equally confused Timberwolf King.
"Uwahh?! What was that-" Before she could finish, a resounding boom diverted all their attention to back to the TImberwolf King.
A large creature had fallen directly on top of the Timberwolf, snapping its woody spine and effectively severing it in half from the waist up. Two large metal hands then clenched over the pitful creatures skull, before compressing together and crushing its head entirely. Bits of wood and leaves scattered all across the forest floor, and upon the still shocked group of mares.
Applejack and Rainbow Dash stood in combat stance, ready to pounce upon the latest threat, should it do anything suspicious.
Rarity and Pinkie Pie surrounded Fluttershy protectively, who in turn was stammering away in shock at how quickly the fierce predator had been brutally murdered.
Twilight stood where she was, shock and fear coursing through her veins as she took in everything that happened in the blink of an eye. Yet as she looked at the creature, she took particular note of its exceptionally large body, the two rims near its shoulders that gave it the distinction of an insect's carapace, and the quadruple orange eyes on its small head.
To all the girls shock the latest creature just ignored them. It turned its back to them and proceeded to walk deeper into the forest as if nothing was wrong.
"Twi? What should we do?" asked Applejack carefully whilst staring at the creature's large back. Twilight gulped as she put two and two together, finally realizing what they are going to have to do if they want to follow up on this latest lead.
"We follow it"