Apple Bloom hummed to herself as she walked through the house she and her family lived in. Applejack and Big Macintosh were both out working the orchards, and Granny Smith was off in town buying something or other. That left Apple Bloom in the house, all alone.
Normally, Apple Bloom would be up to some hilarious hijinks with her friends Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, but today Scootaloo was bogged down after school for not doing her homework, and Sweetie Belle was helping Rarity with getting a big order of clothes for the Carousel Boutique done. The little filly was only packaging the dresses and other items, but it still would take up most of the afternoon.
Which left Apple Bloom here. Alone.
The little filly sat on the couch in the sitting room, chewing the bit of the apple she had just taken. It had been freshly bucked not two hours ago from the trees in the orchard closest to the house, and it tasted delicious. Smiling slightly, Apple Bloom pondered what she was going to do with herself this afternoon.
“Well, Ah could always draw something,” she muttered aloud. “Ah never thought you could get this bored!” This was a common sentiment she spoke every time she couldn’t be with her friends.
Apple Bloom was just about to leave the room to grab some art supplies when she heard a knock on the door. Stopping in her tracks for a moment, she turned to look at the door. “Uh... hello?”
“Ah, good! Someone’s in there! Someone’s home!” The voice was deep, but not as deep as her brother’s voice. It sounded odd though, as if the pony speaking was choking on a thick piece of bread.
“W-who...” Apple Bloom swallowed dryly. “Um, who’s there?”
“Oh... just a friend,” the voice said somewhat pleasantly.
“A friend?” Apple Bloom’s ears perked up, and she smiled. Remembering basic safety first, she cleared her throat and asked, “Do Ah know you?”
“Not yet, you don’t,” it said somewhat ominously. Apple Bloom felt the cold shiver of fear run down her back.
“A-ah think may-maybe you should leave,” Applebloom told the voice at the door with a frightened trembling in her speech.
“Hey now!” The voice was much brighter than before. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just meant that since we hadn’t met before, there was no way we could have been friends!”
“Well, Ah guess that makes sense...” Apple Bloom mused. “But Ah’m still not too sure about all this...”
“I don’t blame you for being skeptical,” the voice said in an understanding tone. “Just... open the door, I’ll just wait out here, and we can talk some more. See if I seem like the kind of guy you want to be around.”
Apple Bloom trotted cautiously to the door and opened it just a crack. To her amazement, surprise, and utter horror, the voice belonged to a rather large timberwolf.
The filly slammed the door shut as fast as she could, her back pressed against it, hoping that her frail form would be enough to hold back the monster that lurked out there, just beyond her door, on the front porch.
“Ah,” said the timberwolf sadly. “I was afraid that would happen...”
“Y-you’re a timberwolf!” Apple Bloom said in terror, her voice cracking slightly.
“Yes, I am,” the timberwolf admitted. “But I’m not like any other timberwolf you’ve ever met!”
Apple Bloom’s heart was still racing, but she took those words into consideration nonetheless. “Well, Ah have never heard of a timberwolf talkin’ before...”
“See? I’m not like them! They’re heartless monsters, but I’m not. I assure you that I’m different!”
Apple Bloom slowly turned to the door, and opened it a tad. She took a look at the timberwolf. He didn’t seem too bad... he looked rather sad, really. His eyes were not filled with the wrathful cunning of a normal timberwolf, but rather something closer to empathy.
“Well...” Apple Bloom opened the door a bit wider. “You don’t look like you’re that bad...”
The timberwolf’s splintery mouth broke into a grin. “See?”
Apple Bloom was still a bit cautious on her side, however. “How come you came here? Why’d you leave the forest, or wherever you lived?”
The timberwolf looked saddened by these words. “Well, as you can tell, I’m smarter than most timberwolves. I can talk, and I can feel. Naturally, I was conflicted about killing and eating animals and sometimes even...” the timberwolf lowered his voice. “...ponies.”
Apple Bloom shuddered. “But you didn’t hurt anypony, right?”
The timberwolf glanced to the side, then back at Apple Bloom. “Point is, I left my clan. I couldn’t be around with them anymore; they were far too dangerous. So I wandered the forest, so very lonely, eating logs to stay alive. Because we’re made of wood, us timberwolves can survive on wood alone, but we do need to eat meat sometimes to give us energy.”
“How’d you learn to speak, then?” Apple Bloom asked curiously.
The timberwolf began to smile again. “Ah, that is rather interesting. Ponies sometimes wander into the forest, and I learned to speak from them. I am a very fast learner, you see.”
Apple Bloom nodded slowly. “Why’d you come here, though? Why to Sweet Apple Acres?”
The timberwolf’s smile faded. “It’s very lonely wandering the forest. I often peaked at at your town through the edge of the trees in the forest. I always seem to come back to your farm, though.” His grin returned. “Timberwolves live very long, so I have been observing your family since your parents were very young. I must say, out of all the Apples, I liked you the best.”
“M-me?” Apple Bloom asked, slightly bamboozled, yet flattered all the same. “Why me?”
“You’ve got this sort of carefree spirit that the others lack. All of your family are good, hardworking ponies, but they are very reserved. You seem to have a spark to you that makes you... so much more than they are.”
Apple Bloom smiled. “You aren’t bad for a timberwolf at all, you know that? What’s your name?”
The timberwolf looked confused. “Name?”
“Yeah! What do you call yourself?”
The timberwolf shrugged. “I guess I do not have a name then. Timberwolves do not have names for each other, and I’ve never had long enough contact with a pony to have a name for myself, I suppose.”
“Then name yourself!”
The timberwolf cocked his head. “Well, I suppose I could...” He pondered this for a moment, thinking over what to call himself. After a few moments, he reached a decision.
“I think I want to be named Twig.”
“Twig?” Apple Bloom asked. “You ain’t twig-like at all! You’re big and... the opposite.”
“Well, I like it,” The timberwolf said. “So that’s good enough for me.”
“Ah can’t argue with that,” Apple Bloom admitted.
“Shall we go for a walk? I tire of standing, cramped, on the porch,” Twig told Apple Bloom. Apple Bloom thought for a moment, then nodded her head. The timberwolf smiled, and the two set off down onto Sweet Apple Acres.
“So, what’s it like being a timberwolf?” Apple Bloom asked, at a weak attempt to make conversation.
“Well, as I’ve said,” Twig told the little pony. “It’s very lonely. The forest is dark, and my brethren are not as intelligent as me.”
“You’ve told me that already,” Apple Bloom said, her tone carrying a twang of annoyance. “Is there anythin’ else you can tell me?”
“No,” Twig said simply. “I avoid thinking about the horrible forest. It’s why I come to Ponyville, to see innocent foals like you. It reminds me that there is still good here, a much greater good outside the crippling dark of the woods.”
“Y-you’ve been out here before?” Apple Bloom asked.
“Why, yes,” he said. “I’m afraid I wasn’t completely honest before; while I have been observing your family for quite some time, I’ve been doing other things about Ponyville. Now that we’re friends, I suppose I can tell you this.”
Apple Bloom was beginning to feel that sinking feeling set in again. She wasn’t very comfortably around Twig, even though he seemed nice; now with this new, foreboding information, she was just a step away from panic.
“What have you been doin’ when you were out the other times?” she asked carefully.
“That is not important,” the timberwolf said, although Apple Bloom suspected that it was very important. “What’s important is that I’ve finally got a new friend.” The timberwolf took a step closer to Apple Bloom, who took a small step back.
“Ah’m flattered that you call me a friend,” Apple Bloom said. “But Ah’d really like to know more about you before I can really be your friend.”
Something happened to Twig. His glowing eyes, eyes that on any other timberwolf would instill terror into the heart of a pony, dimmed a bit. He seized up slightly, and gave about an air to himself that showed he was nearing panic. Something that both the beings here exhibited.
“No,” he whispered, breaking the icy silence that had rested over the couple. “No, no. No, I just found you, you can’t go away, I finally found another—”
“Ah won’t go,” Apple Bloom said, raised voice quivering slightly from the sheer fear that was beginning to accompany the uncomfortable feeling that had set in, “If you just tell me what you were doin’ in Ponyville the other times.”
The timberwolf shook his head, his eyes closed, as if trying to dislodge some sort of horrible creature which had nested upon his head branches. “No, if you know you won’t want me around anymore; you’ll go and get the others and I’ll be gone...”
Apple Bloom tried to speak, but her voice failed her. What had happened to the smooth, calm Twig who had stood on her front porch not but twenty minutes ago? What had suddenly changed? Even as she thought this question, she knew its answer. “Ah—” she began, but Twig cut her off.
“NO!” he screamed, lunging at her. Apple Bloom shrieked, and a huge claw scooped her up before she could even react. Fear had glued her to her spot, allowing for her capture to be flawless on the part of the timberwolf.
“YOU MUSTN’T KNOW!” he screamed again. Apple Bloom was now sobbing. What was going on? What had he done?
He was moving. He was moving fast, very fast. He had to run on all fours, so each time the front paw hit the ground, pain shot through Apple Bloom as the branches and splinters along with the crushing grip of Twig pressed into her.
“TWIG!” she screamed through the pain and tears. The beast ignored her, breaking out into a run. How had the situation changed so quickly? She swiveled her head, her face being smashed into the dirt as another painful claw struck the ground, and she saw where they were headed: towards the gloomy Everfree Forest.
“Twig,” she called out one last time, but this wasn’t a scream. This was a soft sob, a small sigh, knowing that he wouldn’t hear her as he thundered through the creeping woods.
With each bound, she could feel the pain increasing. About halfway through, she shouted in pain as she felt a snap, which could have easily just have been her foreleg bone as one of her ribs; countless cuts, scrapes, gashes, and other lesions had formed from the subbing branches and splinters of wood. The deadly advance continued, with the constricting grip making it harder to breathe, and the blazing pain making it harder for her to stay lucid.
After what seemed like an eternity of agony, they began to slow. Twig was still muttering “no,” and various other words, all unidentifiable, as they were now in a slow walk. Apple Bloom, almost numb to the pain, looked around groggily. Blood loss had made it harder for her to stay awake, but with each step the timberwolf made, the pain kept her all too awake.
“We’re here,” Twig suddenly announced. “A place where we can stay, friends, forever.”
They were in a very dark part of the forest. The trees were thick together, and the sun had most likely set in the time it took to get here. Large fireflies sent beams of light around, but that only seemed to serve to make the place all the more terrifying, with shadows they cast being warped by Apple Bloom’s fading mind into horrible, horrible things.
Twig set her down on a bed of leaves. Apple Bloom couldn’t move three of her limbs, including both of her forelegs, which were bent into odd angles. She sobbed once more as pain shot up her battered spine from being set down.
“You’re hurt,” Twig whispered. His eyes were not shining maliciously; they were not full of anger or evil intent, or glee, or pride; they were filled with genuine concern, and behind that, panic. This made it all the more frightened to Apple Bloom, however. Her breath came in short gasps as the timberwolf stood over her.
“G-get...” she moaned, her mouth filling with blood and a bit of bile. She spat out the horrible mixture, and blinked lazily, everything swimming in and out of focus. “Get help...”
Twig closed his eyes, making a noise that could only be the timberwolf version of crying. “I can’t! I can’t, Apple Bloom; why can’t you see that? If I try and get help, they will think me a monster and chase me away, and by then it will be too late...”
“Bring me back,” she choked. “Bring me back, please... get my sis... sister...”
Twig shook his head sadly. “I’ll treat you myself, I’ve got some plants around here that you could chew on to numb the pain...”
Twig ambled away, leaving Apple Bloom to take in her surroundings. She seemed to be enclosed in a space that was ringed with fallen trees. There were strange dark mounds around her leaf bed. Trying to sit up, she cried out in pain as her spine protested any movement she might try to make. She fell back down, letting loose another cough that spewed bodily fluid onto her damp chest.
A passing firefly illuminated her surroundings better, and she gasped in horror. The dark mounds were skeletons; the clearing was full of about six or seven of them, and they were laying in various positions of contortion and agony; many of them had crushed bones around the chest and legs; one’s skull had even caved in.
“The missin’ foals...” It was all too clear to Apple Bloom now. She knew why it was impossible for the timberwolf to go get help. She now knew why it was impossible for him to tell her what he was doing in Ponyville the other times. She now knew why the conversation had suddenly taken a turn for the worst, and why she was now suffering, alone in the forest.
As the world swam again, she looked over at Twig, who was rushing over, screaming something she could not hear. The blood loss was too heavy, and the pain was no longer able to keep her awake. As she drifted into an inky black voice, blood and vomit gurgling in the back of her throat, and Twig desperately trying to fix the mess he had created for the eighth time, she just wished she knew why.
Yet as the lights finally faded for good, Apple Bloom knew exactly why, as Twig was able to frantically shout one word to her before her hearing finally went.
“Friend!”