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// Chapter Two: just choppin' up some firewood 
// Story: Equestria's Brightest Time-Travelling Zombie! 
// by Scintillance 
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	I remembered how horribly I smelled, and just popped straight into the water, splashing about, cleansing myself of the foul smell. I watched the river flow downstream, and felt a very serious grief… “… Whatever poor, poor soul winds up drinking from these cursed waters, please forgive me…” but my thoughts were then interrupted by a bloodcurdling scream, deep within the forest…





CHAPTER TWO: PROTECT

‘Run… RUN!’ I made for a mad dash through the forest, and my lovely little orb’o’light floated by me. It’s funny; most would rather run away from a scary scream… but not me. Danger was the very place I wanted to be, especially when it wasn't my own life in question. 
The woods seemed to take an eerie approach to them… the trees almost bent out of shape like monstrous eyes, their owl-holes almost bore fangs, and the branches almost creeped towards me like a predator’s claws… it was a very different nature, at night. Admittedly, I was scared. Scared out of my mind, but I kept running. I think it was my being afraid that made me run towards the dangers. I wasn't brave.
The scream got louder as I made my way and then I was certain that the trees were alive; I was suddenly toppled over by what felt to be a large block of wood, and then it stood over me. Two glowing yellow eyes in the dark, my orb too lost in concentration to shine a light over it. The strong scent of oak was eminent, and I was again, freaking out. Thankfully, I tend to swing my hooves about when I freak out, so it was all good, I gave it a couple hoof-slaps and it leaped away, barking angrily at me. I quickly got to my hooves and finally dragged my orb closer in a telekinetic grip, and it shone over the dark being.
It was another four legged creature, small, and made of wood… its eyes glowed yellow, hovering just barely over a long snout, armed with teeth of sharp-looking thorns. It wasn't alone. It snarled at me, and its threatening voice was joined by five others. Normally, I would’ve said something then, but I was paralyzed with fear. 
And then I heard the scream again. It filled me with a new strength. I was ready. This was a fight or flight, and it was high time I chose. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH” So I chose flight. Ran faster than a headless chicken on speed.
I ran through branches, I ran through, thorns, and dangit, I ran right through a pile of doggy doo doo. “OH COME ON! I only just took a bath! Oh… wait a minute, am I smelling… oak?” fun fact; timber wolf poop could totally make a great perfume. Well, if you like smelling like trees. Eww. Eww, no, I’m… never going to suggest that again.
I kept my gallop going through into an open clearing, and then realized it was a cliffs’ edge, and skidded to a stop, yelling (chanting) “OHSNAPOHSNAPOHSNAPOHSNAPOHSNAP” for the two seconds that I slid to a stop. And for the five seconds that I kept my eyes closed after stopping and just sitting there. Opening then, I immediately backed away from the cliff, and turned towards the barking beings of bark. “So this is the end… and to think I Just came back from the grave…” the creatures snarled and growled, barked and howled, stalked their way closer, and closer… but then the scream was audible once more.
It was a feminine’ voice. And ridicioulously close. In fact… I turned my head and looked over the cliff’s edge. Actually, it wasn't that far a jump, maybe about seven meters height. But right bellow me was another being, reminiscent to what I looked like in the water, and in a situation much like my own; where I was backed against a cliffs’ drop, she was backed towards a cliffside-wall. It was hard to tell in the dark, but she seemed to have a bright blue coat… reminiscent of a minty sea green, but too azure to be called the color of an olive. So, yeah, it was hard to tell.
“Heeeeeeey! What’s uuuup!” I called down to her, and she looked up at me like I as insane. 
“What!? um… well, not much, just kinda scared for my life is all. You?” not sure how, but it was like we both just suddenly calmed down for a bit.
“Nah, same thing, really. So, uh, what are you-*BARK!* one creature came too close behind me and pulled my attention away. “Oy! We’re trying to have a conversation here!” one good buck through the snout from my hind hooves, and off it went, shattered to pieces of twigs, leaves and wood. “now where were we…” looking back down, it looked like the female was back in the moment, remembering that she was kind of surrounded by a pack of five timber wolves. “Oh… right…” And what I did next was, well, I jumped. I don’t think I bothered to give it a second thought; see, I already looked before I leaped, so it’s all good. ‘s aaaall good.

I need… to protect.

Time slowed, however, as I came falling down. My eyes were set on the wolf closest to the bright blue entity, and then I closed them. Mentally, I had a short vision of myself with a black being the like the one bellow, and an arrow was fired at her. Actually, the black being looked a lot like the one from my first vision, from before I awoke. I leaped between her and the arrow, and a flash of light shone from my forehead, and before me was a wall of light which the arrow had lodged itself within.
Back in the moment, the vision ended, and I came crashing right on top of the wolf I focused on before, but with something a little new. Where its neck used to be lay the bottom end of a large shield of light, its edges sharp, its flat sides strong, its brilliant light shining true, and it bore right through the creatures’ wooden build, and planted itself in the ground bellow. I pulled it out, with a little effort, and admired my new piece of work.
“Oh cool!” The wolves were definitely surprised, and backed away slightly, but other than that, they showed no signs of running. “Bring it on, bronies! I’m cold, and I’m sure y’all would make a decent campfire! …'Bronies?' 'y’all?' The heck did these come from?” I looked to the mare behind me, and all she was mid-face-hoofed before her eyes suddenly went wide, and she pointed at me shouting “LOOK O-“ and then there was a wolf on me. Again. 
But this time, I have the “SHIELD OF JUSTICE!” and swatted it aside with a good ol’ slam of a telekinetically held shield. Of justice. The poor sod rammed into a tree, and shattered. “HECK YEAH!” back on my hooves, there were three more wolves, so I threw the shield at one of them. It… um… it landed between two of them and they kinda stared at it for a moment of confusion.
“Oh… ok, so I was never any good at Frisbee. I’ll keep that in mind next time…” the wolves turned their unhappy faces back on, and turned towards me, snarling all the way. “…if there is a next time…”
The mare who was behind me stepped up from my side, and I could see her slightly better now. Her muzzle was much smaller than my own, and much rounder. Actually, her entire body was smaller than me. I thought I must have looked like a giant to her. The color of her coat was still confusing me, but at least her mane made more sense; a combination of two colors, the first being snow-white , and the other color in her mane was a unique gray with a tint of blue. “Hold on, I got this one,” she said.  I then realized that she had a horn on her forehead, and it suddenly gained an auricle glow, similar to the yellow glow surrounding my shield, except hers was a pale glow of bright turquoise. And then her Glow did cover my shield, phasing alongside my own, and it flew back towards us, ramming right on through one wolf and smashing it to bits before I caught it in my hooves.
I nodded to her, giving my “Thanks!” and walking ahead towards the two remaining wolves. All I did was, with a newfound confidence, say “…Bark.” And the two ran away, whining and yelping with their twiggy tails between their legs!
…OK, so that’s not what happened. But the second one did do that after I just jumped up and forced my two front hooves down on the first, before he had the chance to react. My shield then gave off one last radiant blast, and disappeared, leaving a strange, yellow ring in its wake. I picked it up, noting that I should question how my hooves could do that later, and frowned over it. it seemed large enough to fit over my hoof…
The minty mare then trotted up closer to me. Waaaay too close, “That… was… AWESOME!”