Chapter 2
Quiet Storm, Dead Bass, and Shard all returned safely to their respective lodgings. Quiet Storm returned to his teacher, Spell Buff’s house, and Dead Bass returned to his parent’s house. Shard found a comfortable branch on a tree on the outskirts of the village, and went to sleep.
Once Quiet entered his house, he was greeted by his teacher, Spell Buff. Spell Buff was a unicorn stallion with a tan coat, and a brown mane and tail. His mane was long,and split at his average sized horn, falling down either side of his head. His tail was also long and hovered just above the ground. He had a slim frame, the result of spending his youth on his studies, as opposed to physical activity. His cutie Mark appeared to be a constellation of a pony. Spell Buff’s talent was casting spells that had some form of effect on another pony’s body, and understanding how such spells worked.
Quiet opened the front door into the living room. The room wasn't too large, around average sized. In the center was a couch, and in front of the couch was a very large bookshelf. On the couch then was Spell Buff, who lifted his nose from a book to look at Quiet with sage green eyes. He had a few wrinkles on his forehead, just coming out of the prime of his youth. “You're here rather late.” Spell observed, before returning his gaze to his book.
Quiet sighed. “Yes, I know. I had a bit of a misadventure in the forest.” Spell Buff didn’t appear to notice the large bruise on Quiet’s head, that or he just didn’t care. Before Quiet headed upstairs to his room, he walked over to the bookshelf and removed a single book.
Spell Buff gave a quick glance to see what book Quiet picked out. “What do you need that book for?” He asked.
“I’m just curious about something.” Quiet responded simply.
Spell Buff was still idly reading his book. “Bump into something nasty out there?” Quiet didn’t respond, instead he just headed upstairs. Spell Buff chuckled. “That would be a yes.”
Quiet hated it whenever Spell Buff knew something before Quiet cared to tell him, though, it was probably obvious by the book he took out. Quiet had selected an Equestrian bestiary from the shelf. He didn’t know anything about Timber wolves, so now seemed like a good time to study up on them. Though he’d have to head to bed right after, he was dead tired. With no dinner either...
***
Dead Bass stepped up to his house. The two story house was constructed mostly of a dark grey wood. The garden had several particularly thorny rose bushes, and the windows were blocked in the inside by black curtains. Home sweet home. Dead Bass opened the door and stepped in to be greeted by... nopony. His parents were often in their own room, his mom working on a painting, or his dad writing poetry, they’d often receive inspiration directly from each other. Dead Bass just sighed and trotted to his room. In his own room, his bass was in the corner, he thought about practicing, but decided he was exhausted from today and fell face first into his bed.
***
Shard woke up early the next day, gliding to the ground from off of her tree branch and stretching. The sun poked out so that a good section of the sky was still red, it was a good time to work with the other pegasi and set up today’s weather for some bits. She wouldn’t get done until about noon, so she would have to get a late breakfast.
***
After waking up and eating breakfast, Dead Bass walked out of his house, and began a brief fly over to Quiet Storm’s house. He hadn’t seen his parents so they were either still asleep or just busy. Maybe they got up and went somewhere before Dead Bass woke up. Once he reached Spell Buff’s house, he began to knock on the door with his hoof, he got three knocks in before Spell Buff answered, and quickly stopped the fourth knock from reaching Spell Buff’s head. That was a mistake he didn’t want to make twice.
Spell Buff greeted Dead Bass grumpily. “I assume you’re looking for Quiet Storm?”
Dead Bass nodded in reply “Is he here?” It was still early, and Dead Bass didn’t know any other reason for Quiet to leave the house, other than to go to the library.
Spell Buff nodded. “Mhmm, he’s either reading a book, or he slept in. Either way in his room.”
“Thank You kindly.” Spell Buff merely grunted and returned to his sofa to read his book. Dead Bass always found it difficult if not impossible to determine what Spell Buff was thinking, and normally Dead Bass was good at that. Much like Quiet Storm, Buff always has that bored expression on his face, but at least he’s seen Quiet smile and laugh. Dead Bass trotted up stairs and opened the door to Quiet’s room, inside he saw Quiet with his head on his reading desk, snoring quite loudly.
Walking over to Quiet, Dead Bass tried to nudge him awake. When that didn’t work he tried something else.
“HEY QUIET WAKE UP!”
Quiet’s head shot up and he looked around the room frantically, “WHO- WHAT- Oh...” This was by far the most frantic Dead Bass has ever seen Quiet. When Quiet’s eyes landed on Dead Bass, his eyes narrowed at him. “Dead Bass, what are you doing in my room?”
Dead Bass had a dumb smile on his face. “Waking you up, apparently.” Dead Bass then broke out into laughter.
Quiet just smiled. “What time is it now?”
Dead Bass stopped laughing to answer. “Well, it’s still pretty early, so Shard’s probably busy. What do you wanna do?”
“Well we are NOT going into the forest again.”
“Agreed, how about we just take a trot first?”
Quiet looked blankly at Dead Bass but just sighed. “Alright, let’s go.”
With that, the two friends left Spell Buff’s house and trotted into town. Unfortunately there wasn’t much to do, Quiet suggested going to the library, but Dead Bass protested, arguing that Quiet always went there. Dead Bass suggested a game of ponyhunt, but Quiet said he was too large to hide, and didn't feel like galloping. The two just ended up having a conversation on a bench in the picnic area. Somehow, the conversation came to be about geese.
“I don’t understand how you can be raised off of horror stories and be afraid of Geese!” Quiet exclaimed.
“I told you, I’m not really afraid, just reasonably apprehensive. You know that they attack ponies sometimes.” Dead Bass argued back.
Quiet face-hoofed “Geese only ever attack other creatures to protect their nest or something. They don’t even so much as honk at ponies unless they get too close.”
“It’s their eyes man, THEIR EYES!” Dead Bass gestured to his own eyes, trying to emphasize his point. “Their eyes bore through your body, and glare at your soul!”
A third voice interrupted their conversation. “And I thought you said you weren’t poetic like your father.” Quiet Storm and Dead Bass were so into their argument, they hadn’t noticed Shard standing there and watching.
“Wha- how long have you been there!?” Dead Bass asked, surprised at himself that he hadn’t noticed her sooner.
“Long enough, is this really all you two do when I’m not with you?”
“No, we tried to pass the time with a number of other things...” Quiet clarified. “But, none of them worked for too long.”
Shard smiled slightly, it was nice to know that she was missed. In truth, it wasn't just Shard that made everything interesting. If the three weren't all together at once, it's likely that she herself may enter the same situation of boredom, if it was just her and Dead Bass or Quiet Storm. They say three is a crowd, but when they were separated, they weren't the same. “So, what were you doing all day?”
Quiet Storm and Dead Bass both shared their experiences up to that point in time. Shard herself had helped to clear the skies earlier that day with the weather team.
“So, all together... none of us did much.” Quiet declared.
“Oh, I forgot to ask.” Dead Bass chimed. “But, why’d you fall asleep on your desk last night?” he asked Quiet.
Shard cut in before Quiet could answer. “You fell asleep on your desk?”
Dead Bass snickered. “Yeah! He was drooling into his book.”
Shard held back a chuckle. “Wow, does Spell Buff know, Quiet?”
Now with a slight grimace brought on by annoyance, Quiet answered. “Yes, I did fall asleep on my desk, but I wasn’t drooling! After our little misadventure that day, I decided to look up a bit more about Timber wolves... but fell asleep while reading.”
“Well, I’m sure whatever you learned there would’ve been useful.” Shard commented. “What’d you get out of it?”
Quiet put his hoof to his chin as he often did, and tried to recall. “Well... I read that they live in forests all over Equestria... there often hostile... and... there was something else, but I can’t seem to remember-” Just then Quiet was cut off by a loud noise.
*HOOOOOOOOOOOWWLLLLL*
Several ponies could be seen running past the three in a panic. Before another one passed them, Dead Bass flew in front of him. “Dude, why is everyone freaking out!?”
“There’s a timber wolf in the town square- RUN!!” The pony shoved past Dead Bass and kept galloping.
For a moment, the three ponies stood in an awkward silence until Quiet broke it. “Hey guys, I remember that last detail now,” With wide eyes and shrunk pupils Quiet recited what he had read last night. “Timber wolves can reconstruct their bodies into larger single structure, and when they come into contact with any kind of threat...”
“...Go on.” Shard prodded.
Quiet swallowed and finished the excerpt. “...They’ve been known to hunt it down until either the wolf, or it’s prey, goes down.”
***
Dead Bass started panicking “Whatdowedowhatdowedowhatdowedo!!??” *Slap*
“OW!” Shard slapped him, so he’d calm down.
“Maybe we can get it to leave, we handled three last time.” Quiet offered.
That was true, maybe if they hurried, they could minimize any damage it could do. Quiet galloped to the village square, while Shard and Dead Bass flew above him.
“Alright, where is it? I’m sure the three of us can handle it quickly.” Said Quiet.
“Uhh, you sure about that bro?” Dead Bass pointed to the timberwolf everypony was running from, now they could see why.
While the timberwolves Shard, Dead Bass, and Quiet Storm encountered were roughly the size of fully grown bears, the wolf they were looking at was the size of a fully grown house.
“Where did this thing come from!?” Shard shouted, clearly irate.
“Like I said, they can reconstruct themselves into larger structures, that wolf is most likely the three we saw in the forest.”
As the three spoke, the wolf heard them, and turned it’s head toward the three. It's eyes narrowed as it recognized them, then It let out a piercing howl, and bounded for them.
“Scatter!” Following Dead Bass’ plan, Shard and Dead Bass flew in opposite directions, leaving Quiet as a sitting duck.
“OH, COME ON!” Quiet galloped as fast as he could away from the wolf, unfortunately while Quiet had to gallop around obstructions like fruit stands, or benches, the timberwolf just stepped over, or barreled through them. The wolf didn’t chase Quiet too long, as an apple made it’s way to the wolf’s face. It turned to see the cause of the intrusion, and saw Dead Bass with another apple in his hoof.
“Alright doggy, heel!” Dead Bass lobs another apple at the wolf’s head, which simply bounced off, only managing to pester it. “Uhmm, stay?” Dead Bass’ only real plan was to get it’s attention away from Quiet Storm. With that done, he tried to fly higher, away from the giant wolf. When he tried however, the wolf jumped up and caught Dead Bass’ tail, as it returned to earth, so did Dead Bass, who was slammed into the ground. “Oh sweet Luna, NOT AGAIN!”
Now Shard’s turn to distract the wooden beast, she flew over to the wolf and bucked it right in the snout. The wolf merely regarded her for but a moment, before opening it’s maw, and snapping it down on Shard, catching her in it’s mouth. At first, Dead Bass and Quiet Storm could only stare with expressions of sheer horror, before they heard a knocking sound from inside the wolf’s mouth. One of the wooden teeth was knocked out of the wolf’s mouth, and Shard escaped through the gap.
Nopony had time to celebrate, however, as the wolf swiped at her with it’s paw, and knocked her out of the air. As Shard was knocked straight into a fruit stand, (this one filled with pears) Quiet and Dead Bass rushed over to her.
“We should leave,now!” Quiet urged them.
Shard got up, and tried to fly. “Alright, just let me- GAH!” When she unfurled her wings to take off, her left one wouldn’t extend all the way. “My wing, I think it’s-”
*ROOOOAAAARRRRR*
Right now, the condition of Shard’s wing seemed rather unimportant while the three were cornered by the giant, wooden, pony-eating wolf. The wolf had the three cornered, it’s head neared them, and it opened it’s jaws with the intent of eating them in one bite. As the foul stench of the wolf’s breath practically smothered the three, it seemed as though it was over.
That was until a rock flew over Quiet Storm, Dead Bass, and Shard, and into the beast’s mouth. When it did, the wolf sat on it’s haunches, and started coughing, unable to breathe. The coughs got more violent, until one cough caused the whole wolf to break apart, all of it’s wooden limbs and bones hitting the ground.
The three gawked at the fallen beast in amazement and sat there without saying a word, until Dead Bass broke the silence. "Was that in you're book!?" He shouted out Quiet Storm.
Quiet shook his head, now recovered from that ordeal. "If it was, I don't recall"
"It was!" Another voice shouted. Approaching the three was Spell Buff, his horn glowing from having just casted a spell.
Shard addressed Spell Buff first. "Spell Buff? What are you-"
"It's pretty difficult to miss a giant timber wolf rampaging in the town square, that and Quiet left his book on the page about them when he left. I read a little further, and saw that they could be asphyxiated."
Quiet cut in at this point "What!? But how can a wooden construct suffocate when they probably don't even need to breathe, that doesn't make any sense!"
Spell Buff answered before Quiet could continue. "Timberwolves are creatures of magic, it's best not to dwell on it. Anyway, Quiet, I need you to come back to the house, you received a letter."
Quiet looked slightly surprised. "A letter, from whom?"
"You'll have to come home to check, and I would hurry. I can't imagine any of you would want to be the only ones found in this mess."
Upon hearing his comment, the three looked at their surroundings. The town square had been totaled, stand we're completely crushed, benches sent flying, and the ground itself had the massive prints of the wolf everywhere, leading straight to where Quiet Storm, Dead Bass, and Shard were now. The three only had to look at each other for a moment, before reaching a silent agreement to follow Spell Buff to his house, before anypony else came across them.
When the everypony got to Spell Buff's house, they noticed that Spell Buff mailbox was leaning over, as if it had been crashed into. "How did that happen? I don't remember the wolf getting t his far." Shard commented.
"It didn't" Spell answered in an irritated voice. "The mailmare somehow managed to crash into my mailbox when she flew in."
Dead Bass chuckled, but other than that, nopony made any other comments about it. Once inside, the four of them all sat around the kitchen table. The kitchen was rather space even with the table, and there was a side door leading outside. Spell buff levitated a letter over to Quiet, the enveloped was incased in a dark green aura, which disappeared when it fell in front of Quiet. Quiet opened the letter, his grey eyes darted left and right as he read it. When he was finished, he put the letter down.
"It's... It's from my father!" Dead Bass and Shard looked surprised, while Spell Buff kept his calm expression. The only ponies in Equestria that weren't related to Quiet, who knew about his relationship with his father, were in that room. Quiet's father was the chief of a nomadic Buffalo tribe, that always swung by Dodge City. While Quiet's father, Chief Tempest of the Howling Gale tribe, hadn't abandoned Quiet and his brothers by any means, he had responsibilities as a chief, and since their tribe was nomadic, he was constantly away from home. The tribe always came by Dodge City every year for a week, sometimes longer, but they always moved on eventually. Quiet, because of his appearance, was always the closest to his father out of all his brothers. As such, he was the most knowledgeable about Buffalo culture. His brothers, on the other hoof, had their uncle Red Stone (Who acted as Sheriff and Mayor for Dodge City) to look up to as a father figure.
"We'll..." Shard began. "What does it say?"
Quiet responded with a smile. "It says that The Howling Gales are swinging by Dodge City again, and my father wants to have me go through a trial of manhood! Doing so would make me an official Howling Gale!"
Dead Bass scratched his head. "The Howling Gales? Is that a band?" Dead Bass knew it wasn't, but couldn't resist asking anyways.
"It's the name of my father's tribe," Quiet was to excited to berate Dead Bass for asking such an obvious question. "This is wonderful! I'm going to be a man in my father's eyes!"
Dead Bass and Shard gave each other a slightly worried look. They both had known Quiet to not really care what other ponies thought of him, even them to an extent. Though, it seemed like he really wanted his father's approval.
Spell Buff looked at the clock. It was about two thirty. "Well, if you're going, you better hurry, the next train is in thirty minutes." Everypony gave Spell Buff a confused look. "But, it's early in the afternoon." Quiet pointed out. "We won't reach Dodge City by train until late in the evenimust
"That's true..." Said Spell Buff. "But, you have precisely that long until I'm able to tell the mayor about the incident with the wolf, and you three's involvement in it." Quiet Storm, Shard and Dead Bass froze. Spell Buff continued. "I can't rightly leave this whole thing a mystery, now can I? Better get packed." As soon as he finished talking, the three teenagers all bolted, Quiet to his room, Dead Bass out of an open window to his house, and Shard to retrieve her belongings. The mayor of Hollow Shades did her job well, but she was not a mare you wanted angry at you.
Quiet galloped to his room, and retrieved his saddle bag, and started throwing things in it. "Let's see... Pencil, journal, bit bag, oh, and this!" Quiet stuffed his bestiary into the bag, it being one of the few books in the house he hadn't finished. "And, what else? Food!" He rushed back downstairs to pack a lunch.
From behind him, Spell Buff tossed a another bit bag. "Ticket money, you'll need it." Spell Buff returned to the living, presumably to read a book.
***
Dead Bass flew as fast as he could to his house, he practically slammed open the door, and looked for his parents. "Mom!" Spotting his mother, Thorn Brush, a tall mare with a mane and tail that were green like dark grass, her mane tied into a ponytail and her tail cropped to a short length. Her coat was a dark ebony grey, and a cutie mark of a paint brush adorned her flank. She looked at Dead Bass with light brown eyes, unsurprised by her son's frantic behavior.
"Yes, what is it Dead Bass." It may seem like she didn't care, but she made a point to remain calm, as doing so often calmed the heat of any situation
Dead Bass took a deep breath. "Alright, so Quiet Shard and I were out in the woods yesterday and we bumped into these timberwolves and we got into this whole fight scene and we each managed to beat them which is why I came home late yesterday but you weren't awake so I thought you wouldn't mind and now a huge timberwolf followed us and wrecked the town square and Spell Buff is sending Quiet to Dodge City to see his dad and Spell is about to tell the mayor so I was wondering if I could join Quiet to go to Dodge City, pretty please?" Dead bass finished his explanation, with a wide, innocent smile.
Thorn Brush, bewildered by her sons large explanation simply looked wide eyed for a few moments, before sighing. "Go pack a lunch, I'll go get some bits for the ticket." Dead Bass quickly hugged his mother, and thanked her before rushing to the kitchen to pack a lunch. Thorn Brush sighed again, this was going to be one hay of an explanation when she told Envy...
***
As Shard galloped out of Spell Buff's house, she extended her wings to fly, her left wing however wouldn't extend, and pain shot through her back when she tried to move it. "Great..." Now she had to rush everywhere on hoof! She galloped as fast as she could to the outskirts of Hollow Shades. She approached a bush, and shot her hoof in, retrieving a bag full of bits. First she'd have to go to a general store, then she'd have to buy lunch. Shard yelped at another jolt of pain came from her wing... She'd also need to see the clinic.
Shard rushed into the general store, it was far off from the town square, so it had bee left untouched by the timberwolf. Bit bag in her mouth, Shard rushed into the store, practically slamming the door open. The clerk greeted her."Shard! How can I help you tod-"
Shard slammed eight bits on the table. "One Saddlebag please."
"A saddle bag? Finally moving on, huh?" Shard always talked about moving on from Hollow Shades eventually, and since she did odd jobs for so many ponies, almost everyone knew.
She shook her head. "Not really, going to Dodge City."
The clerk mare chuckled. "What for? Wanna be a cowgirl?"
Shard shook her head. "No, just following Quiet. Can we hurry this along?"
"Ooh, I always knew that you had it out for one of those boys." The clerk said as she went to receive a saddlebag. Like many mares in the village, the clerk was an avid gossip, which is pretty common in small villages.
"What!?" Shard exclaimed, blushing. "No! He's like two years younger than me!"
The clerk placed the bag on the counter. "Those years will mean less as you get older." She looked away for a moment to think of something else to tell her. "If you want my advice-" Now the clerk was talking to an empty space, the front door left open. She chuckled. "Guess she's on her own."
Shard wasn't done yet, but she was out of time. She decided to just rush to the train station, she was sure her friends would be their on time as well.
Dead Bass made it to the platform first, it was a short trot down a trail just outside of Hollow Shades. He didn't have too wait long for Quiet to get there. "Dead Bass, you're coming too?"
Dead Bass looked almost offended, but grinned. "Are you kidding? I'm not gonna let my best bud become a man without my support!" Dead Bass wrapped a friendly wing around Quiet. "Besides, I don't want to be there when the mayor explodes." They both chuckled nervously, they knew she would.
As they talked, Shard finally arrived as well. "You too Shard?" Quiet remarked.
"Did you expect any less?" She said
"ALL ABOARD!" The train conductor shouted.
"Come on, we should hurry before-"
"GAAHAAAAAAHHH!!!" ... That sounded like the mayor...
"Let's move!" Quiet exclaimed as they all payed the conductor for the tickets, and rushed onto the train.
***
Spell Buff trotted into the mayor's office and sat in the chair in front of her desk. The mayor turned her chair around to face him. She was a middle-aged unicorn, with a navy blue coat, and bright white mane and tail. Her mane was fashioned into bouncy curls that fell down either side of her face, her tail was fashioned in a similar way. A scroll adorned her flank, and she looked at Spell Buff with bright yellow eyes. "Ah, Spell Buff, glad to see you. Now, I here that you can shed some light on the incident in the town square today?"
Spell Buff nods. "Yes, Mayor Constel, the timberwolf was following three children from thw forest. Quiet Storm-"
"Dead Bass, and Shard..." She finished. The three were well known for being an inseparable group of friends, so the minute Spell Buff mentioned his student's name, she knew the others were involved. "I see." They weren't known for getting in trouble, though idle time was time to get in trouble, and these kids had nothing but idle time...
"Yes, from what I can tell, they had a run in with some timberwolves, they must've been able to break the wolves apart, but they later reformed and followed them here."
The mayor sighed, and put her hooves to either side of her head, as if she had a headache. "And where are these kids now?"
"There on a train bound for Dodge City."
"What!?" At this point, the mayor's eyes were pinpricks, and shaking with anger.
Spell Buff remained calm, despite being face with a seething mare. "Yes, Quiet had family business, and Dead Bass, and Shard tagged along."
Mayor Constel's eye began to twitch, and her horn started smoking.
"TH- BU- GrrrGAAHAAAAAAHHH!!!"