Scootaloo groaned as she collapsed to the ground, the vine tied around her midriff digging painfully into her sides. Tossing Spike on a makeshift cart so they wouldn't have to carry him had seemed like such a good idea at the time, but now she was willing to swear the stupid thing was a Tartarus-spawned demon bent on taking revenge for some imagined slight. Hauling a comatose baby dragon over the uneven terrain for hours had soured her mood, and she was just about ready to bite somepony’s head off. Her mood was soured further when she realized that she had just landed in a large clump of mushrooms that had been hidden beneath the long grass, which protested being squashed by throwing a blinding cloud of spores into the air.
“Wow,” Apple Bloom said, quick-stepping away from the spreading cloud. The cloud quickly faded, leaving behind one grumpy-looking pegasus foal. “You alright, Scootaloo? Yer lookin’ kinda… yellow.”
Scootaloo’s muzzle twitched, immediately followed by an explosive sneeze which propelled a large quantity of spores out her nose. “Yellow,” she grunted, looking down at her legs. Like Apple Bloom had said, the spores had completely covered her, leaving her orange coat and purple mane streaked with a bright, sickly yellow. In the distance, a mournful hawk’s cry pierced the quiet forest air. Scootaloo frowned down at herself one last time before giving Apple Bloom a meaningful look. “Well, at least I’m not the only one.”
Apple Bloom glanced down at her yellow coat, a puzzled look on her face. She wasn’t covered in spores… Oh. “Har har,” she said, her expression as flat as her tone. “Yer a riot n’ a half.”
“Too tired to riot,” Scootaloo mumbled, rolling on her back. More spores flew into the air as more mushrooms were thoughtlessly crushed by her body, but she didn’t care anymore.
“Feels like we’ve been walking forever.” Sweetie Belle complained. Standing on Apple Bloom’s other side, the little unicorn checked the ground by her hooves for mushrooms. Finding none, she flopped down in the cool dirt. “Does anypony know how long we’ve been walking?”
“I think it’s been about three hours,” Pipsqueak said, also collapsing in the dirt. Like the other non-farmponies, his sides were lathered in sweat and heaved as he gulped air down. Honestly, he had no idea how he knew what time it was, but something inside him said it was about that long. He could feel the same thing tugging at him, constantly pulling him in a single direction. He knew Princess Luna awaited him in that direction, even if he had no idea how far away she was.
“Ugh! It’s only been that long? Alright, that does it.” Climbing to her hooves, Scootaloo struggled over to the makeshift cart that they had been dragging behind them. Her hoofsteps struck a low and hollow tone as she climbed up on it, walking over to the baby dragon slumbering upon it. “Wake...” Rearing back on her hind hooves, she held her forehooves above her head for an instant before slamming them down on the tip of Spike’s spaded tail. “UP!”
“Scootaloo!” Apple Bloom scolded a moment too late, seeing what the pegasus had just done. “We was going to wait until he woke up!”
“He’s awake now,” Scootaloo said with a smug look on her face as Spike sat bolt upright, holding his claws protectively in front of his face.
“AUGH!” he yelled. “I’m sorry, Twilight! I didn’t mean to send those books under your bed to the Princess! I was just… wait.” His green reptilian eyes blinked owlishly as he saw a forest of green foliage instead of the interior of the library that he had been expecting. Gazing around with a befuddled expression on his face, his cat-like slit pupils took in the unremarkable surrounding foliage. “Where am I?”
“We’re in the forest!” Sweetie Belle said cheerfully – if completely unhelpfully. Reaching over, she used her teeth to help Apple Bloom untie the vine around her barrel. If Spike was awake, they didn’t need to drag him around anymore.
“Uh, yeah, great,” Spike grunted as he took a closer look at the trees surrounding them. Well, he thought warily, at least it’s not the Everfree. The trees didn’t look like they had recently climbed out of his worst nightmare, so he was sure he wasn’t in that scary forest. “So what forest is this?”
“Dunno.” Scootaloo mumbled next to him, her flat herbivorous teeth trying unsuccessfully to tear through the vine around her torso. She overbalanced when she twisted a little too far, stumbling before she collapsed onto the logs.
Spike didn’t notice her trials, being too busy rubbing at his temples with his palms. It’s going to be one of these conversations. He had been awake for less than a minute and he could already feel a headache coming on. “And why are in the mystery forest?” he asked them instead. “Last thing I remember is trying to escape from the changelings on the train. I’m guessing we managed that.”
Giving up on her vine, Scootaloo turned to look at him as she stood up. “Oh, yeah, that was so cool what you did!” she exclaimed excitedly. “What with the fire and the flames and the fwoosh! Since when have you been able to do that?” Spotting the pointed little claws on his hands, she turned to expose the vine to him. “And could you give me a little help?”
Grumbling, Spike reached up and easily sliced through the vine, his sharp claws easily shearing through the fibrous plant. “I’ve been practicing,” he said with a shrug. “One day, I’m going to be a big strong dragon. I need to be ready.” Flexing his arms, he showed off his unimpressive biceps.
“Oh yeah,” Sweetie Belle spoke up. She and Apple Bloom had both managed to untie themselves, and they were moving over to help Pipsqueak. “I think you look taller, too.”
“Really?” Spike bounded to his feet in excitement before measuring himself against Scootaloo. His expression fell as he realized that he was still the same height as before. “That was mean,” he grumbled as the fillies giggled at him.
“Sorry, Spike,” Sweetie Belle said with a teasing smile.
Spike waved off Sweetie Belle’s apology. “Whatever. Back to what we were talking about, why are we in this forest?”
“We’re gonna be heroes!” Apple Bloom squealed in excitement as she hopped on the wheelless cart alongside Spike and Scootaloo.
“Yeah, this isn’t going to work.” Knowing he wasn’t in the mood to try and pick through the Crusader’s no-doubt convoluted explanation, he instead turned to look at Pipsqueak. “You’re a guy. Please make sense of this for me.”
“Okay!” Pipsqueak said as he hopped onto the logs with the others, his youthful exuberance getting the better of him. “It started when I got a dream from Princess Luna. She was caught by those changelings, and needs my help. I snuck onto the train, but the changelings found me pretty quickly. After we escaped, I asked the Crusaders for help.”
“And we said yes,” Sweetie Belle said as she climbed beside Spike. A quavering smile appeared on her face as Spike turned a disbelieving expression towards her.
“Yeah, then nopony’ll be able say anything bad about us.” Scootaloo grinned fiercely, a burning fire alighting in her eyes. “Apple Bloom, little help?” she nodded at the scooter lying next to Spike.
Spike continued rubbing at his temples as Apple Bloom helped lash the scooter onto Scootaloo’s back. That explanation hadn’t helped at all. Yeah, we're done here. “Right,” he said aloud, “we’re going back home.” As the fillies made synchronized sounds of disappointment, he glared back at them. “Don’t give me that. Do you girls have any idea how much trouble you’re in?”
“But… but…” the three Crusaders gave Spike the most adorable doe-eyed look they could manage. The looks were the result of long hours of practice, completed with watering eyes and quavering lips. Even a charging manticore would have hesitated.
Spike, however, was made of sterner stuff when he was in a bad mood, and quickly cut them off. “No way. We’re all in enough trouble as it is, and I am going to get you lot home before I get in any more.” Ignoring the pleading looks being thrown at him, he instead turned his attention to the forest around them. Staring out at the rustling leaves and waving branches, Spike felt his heart fall into the pit of his stomach as something occurred to him. “Which way’s Ponyville?”
Scootaloo rolled her eyes. Honestly, he was going to try to give them orders when he didn’t even know where they were? “Ponyville’s that way,” she said, pointing her hoof in the direction she thought Ponyville lay. Did my voice just echo?
“Uh-oh.”
Looking over at Pipsqueak, Scootaloo saw what he had seen. Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle stared back at her, each of their hooves pointed in a completely different direction from her own and each other’s. The standoff continued until Scootaloo pointed again, this time with more force.
“It’s this way!” she said.
“Nu-uh. It’s definitely this way!” Sweetie Belle protested.
“You’re both wrong!" Apple Bloom proclaimed. "It’s this way!"
Spike groaned and faceclawed as the argument quickly devolved into yelling. How did I not see this coming? Deciding to ignore the bickering trio, he considered the matter at hand. If he had a better view of the area, he should be able to see Canterlot, way up in the mountains. That would give him someplace to work with. As he prepared to climb a nearby tree, he saw Pipsqueak’s ear twitch and the young colt glanced uneasily at the forest around them. “What’s up?” Spike asked the tiny earth pony colt.
“It’s nothing,” Pipsqueak replied. After a slight hesitation, he spoke up again. “Well, actually, do you hear that?”
“I can’t hear anything over them,” Spike grumbled, gesturing at the shouting fillies.
“That’s just it,” Pipsqueak said, looking around them again. “Doesn’t it seem a bit too quiet?”
Spike frowned as he considered what Pipsqueak said. Now that he thought about it, it did seem really quiet. He had only been in a forest a couple times in his life, but one of the things he remembered clearly was the constant animal noises. Now, only the rustling of the leaves reached his ears. “Maybe the girls scared everything away?” he asked hopefully. Turning back to the tree, his nose twitched sharply as the smell of freshly cut bark suddenly flooded the tiny clearing. The smell was strong and overpowering, and Spike sneezed as the unexpected scent assaulted his nostrils.
As for the Crusaders, their argument had suddenly come to a screeching halt as soon as the smell wafted past them. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at Apple Bloom in concern while the young farmpony stared around the area in a panic, her wide eyes rapidly scanning the surrounding trees. “Oh no,” she mumbled. “Oh no no no no nononono.”
“Hey Apple Bloom,” Scootaloo said giving the yellow filly a concerned nudge. “You doing alright?”
Apple Bloom whipped her head around to stare at Scootaloo. For a split second, it was like she didn’t see Scootaloo at all. That moment passed quickly, and she grabbed Scootaloo by her shoulders. “We have to go,” she said, her gaze skipping around at the surrounding area. “Right now.” Her breath was quick and shallow, and Scootaloo felt Apple Bloom’s pulse fluttering wildly.
“Whoa, hold on,” Scootaloo tried to pacify her, grabbing one of Apple Bloom’s forelegs. “What’s wrong?” Scootaloo nearly recoiled as Apple Bloom turned back to look at her. The sheer amount of panic she could see in Apple Bloom’s eyes… It was amazing that the little earth pony hadn’t already bolted.
“Timberwolves!” Apple Bloom screamed.
As if summoned by Apple Bloom’s cry, a nearby tree tumbled to the ground at that moment with a resounding crash, sending a rippling tremor shuddering through the forest floor. The youngsters turned their wide eyes to the fallen tree, afraid of the sight that they knew awaited their youthful eyes. As they feared, a mighty timberwolf stood above the fallen tree, its twinkling yellow eyes staring down at them. Normally standing at three times a pony’s height, the vegetative predators were one of the deadliest creatures in the Everfree. Composed of wood and bark, they were only afraid of fire and the sound of metal banging against metal. Virtually indestructible, they were even capable of pulling themselves back together if they were somehow torn apart.
The timberwolf that stared down at them was far, far larger than any the ponies had seen or even heard of before. Its inscrutable yellow eyes gazed down at them from a height that was almost four times taller than any timberwolf from the Everfree. Its open, slavering mouth was large enough to swallow even the largest of ponies in a single bite. The monster inhaled and exhaled slowly, its warm breath wafting sap and the scent of cut bark over the youthful group.
“What’re you waiting for, Spike?” Sweetie Belle asked timidly, trying to hide herself behind the tiny dragon. “Burn it!”
“I can’t,” Spike whispered harshly back, slowly backing away from the giant timberwolf. “I used up all my flame! It’ll take me at least a full day before I can do that again!”
The timberwolf threw back its head and howled; a long mournful cry that cut through the still air. As the howl slowly tapered off, it was repeated from directly behind the young group. As they wheeled around to look at this new threat, Pipsqueak accidently tripped over his own young, gangly legs. Tumbling into Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, he knocked them into Sweetie Belle and Spike. Thrown to the ground in a painful pile of twisted limbs and hooves, they could only watch as a single drop of drool slowly fell from the massive beast’s maw. Screams tore from five young throats as the beast moved, its giant jaws closing heavily around them.
“So, where d’ya think it’s taking us?”
Sweetie Belle hung limply in the timberwolf’s mouth, her hindquarters dangling uselessly out in the open air. Her voice was slightly scratchy from screaming herself hoarse, and her mane was plastered against her face by the timberwolf’s drool-like sap. Teeth-like thorns dug into her stomach and back; not deep enough to be painful, but deep enough to let her know that struggling would be a bad idea.
“Dunno,” Apple Bloom replied, her voice just as rough as Sweetie Belle’s. All five of the youngsters lay crammed together in the timberwolf’s mouth, with the sole exception of Sweetie Belle’s rear and tail, which swung back and forth in the open air with every loping stride the timberwolf took.
A full hour had already passed since the timberwolf had grabbed them, and fear was already giving way to boredom. They had screamed themselves hoarse at first, but when it became clear the wolf wasn’t going to eat them, they had settled in and tried to get comfortable. A small snore from the corner where Spike lay with his back to them caused the ponies to look at him in disbelief.
After a moment of silence, Pipsqueak turned his head to look at the three fillies. Stuck on his back with his hooves up against the roof of the timberwolf’s mouth, he was forced to crane his neck just so he could see them. “Is he always like this?” he asked, gesturing at the slumbering dragon.
“Yeah, pretty much,” Scootaloo sighed and rolled her eyes. One of her wings had snagged in the thorns that lined the sides of the creature’s mouth, and she struggled to wiggle it free. Through the small opening that offered fresh air and light, she could see a flash of brown as another timberwolf appeared in her field of vision. “Hang on guys, I think something’s happening.”
Barks, growls, and whines could be heard from outside, though the ponies were unable to make any sense of it. From the sounds, there were far more timberwolves than just the one carrying them. The timberwolf Scootaloo could see suddenly turned and bounded away, quickly vanishing into the vegetation.
“What’s going on out there?” Sweetie Belle asked as her hindlegs kicked weakly. She shifted slightly, trying as she tried to climb further inside the timberwolf’s mouth. She was starting to feel somewhat exposed with her rear hanging out around all these predators.
“Got me,” Scootaloo said with a shrug, finally managing to get her wing free. “It looked like they were talking to each other.”
“What? Timberwolves don’t talk!” Apple Bloom protested from where she was pressed up against Pipsqueak’s side. Her farm bordered the Everfree Forest, and she saw timberwolves around the farm from time to time.
“Hey, that’s just what I saw,” Scootaloo shot back, glaring at Apple Bloom. “Don’t blame me.”
“Both of you should just calm down,” Pipsqueak interrupted, trying to make his voice as soothing as possible despite the terseness in his tone. “We shouldn’t be at each other’s throats now.”
Apple Bloom sighed, nodding her head in a weak agreement. “Yeah, I guess yer right. Sorry Scoots, I guess I’m just a little bit tense.”
“Don’t worry about it. Hold on, I can see something again.” From what little Scootaloo could see through the thorns, it looked like they had just entered a large clearing. Before any of the foals could react, the mouth suddenly heaved as the jaws opened wide, throwing them out into the clearing in a wet, slobbery pile.
“Owowow…” Scootaloo complained, rubbing her head as she sat up. “So where did big ugly drop us…” The question died in her throat as she got a look at the surrounding area, her jaw slowly dropping until her mouth hung agape.
The group had been dropped in the middle of a clearing, lined with large trees that covered and hid the surrounding landscape in enveloping shadows. Dozens upon dozens of timberwolves sat staring at the foals from within the clearing itself, and glittering yellow spots in the shadows gave hint to the presence of even more of the fearsome predators. They varied in size; from massive beasts that were slightly larger than the one that had carried them, to tiny cubs as small as the foals themselves.
One timberwolf in particular truly stood out. Despite lying down on its haunches, it dominated the clearing with its sheer size. It was absolutely enormous, and Scootaloo was ready to swear that it would be at least as tall as Ponyville City Hall when it stood up. Its wooden exterior was riddled with old scars and wounds, but its yellow eyes were as clear and piercing as a hawk’s.
Yet, despite the fact that she was standing before a creature almost half the size of a full-grown dragon, Scootaloo felt no fear. Maybe she had just gone into shock, but her mind felt strangely calm. It was like she had been dipped into a pond of cool, serene water, soothing her and washing all her worries away. Above her head, the timberwolf that had brought them barked a few times, and the giant timberwolf slowly brought its head close to the young ponies and still-snoozing baby dragon, as if it didn’t want to scare them. The giant timberwolf sniffed at them as the second timberwolf backed away, leaving the group alone in the center of the clearing, watched from all sides by a multitude of twinkling eyes.
The giant timberwolf coughed once, a harsh wheeze, before recoiling away from the foals. Its mouth cracked open, and it began to speak in a voice like falling lumber. “I can smell it. I can smell her. The scent of the Lost. Is strong on you. The taint.” Its sentences were short and choppy, as if it had no real experience with the language.
“Impossible,” Apple Bloom muttered, falling back on her haunches. “Timberwolves can’t speak.”
“Who are you?” Scootaloo asked, wonder filling her voice. “I’ve never seen a timberwolf as big as you are. This is so cool!”
The timberwolf sat back, rising to a sitting position. As it did, for an instant Scootaloo saw something glittering just underneath its chin, though she lost sight of it before she could make out what it was. “The Hooved Ones have changed. In the past thousand years,” the timberwolf said, sounding amused. “My predecessor always said. That the Hooved were afraid of us. Without exception.”
“Predeserssor?” Scootaloo asked, tilting her head in confusion at the word she didn’t know. Behind her back, Sweetie Belle and the others were giving her strange looks.
The timberwolf smirked, its cold yellow eyes glittering in the evening light. “I am Fenrir. The alpha of this pack. I am the successor to Fenrir. Who inherited this pack from Fenrir.”
“Oh, nice to meet ya,” Scootaloo greeted with a friendly smile. “My name’s Scootaloo. These here are Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, Spike, and Pipsqueak.” She gestured at each of her friends in turn before turning back to the massive timberwolf. “How come you’re all called Fenrir? Couldn’t you think of any other names?”
“What is with this conversation?” Pipsqueak quietly whispered to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle beside him. The fillies only shrugged, equally confused at the sheer casualness of the conversation between the tiny filly and the building-sized carnivore.
The giant carnivore in question barked out a hollow, wooden laugh. “Youth! Such a curious pup.”
“Hey!” Scootaloo said indignantly. “I ain’t no pup! I’m a filly!”
Fenrir laughed indulgently, his chuckle like the rumbling of the earth. “My mistake. To answer. Your question. Fenrir is the name passed down. By the pack leaders. So our Goddess decreed.”
“Goddess?” Scootaloo asked, cocking her head to the side. “What’s a Goddess?”
Fenrir’s eyes hardened, and he tore at the ground with claws the size of small trees. “The Traitor. The Consumer. The Lost. She who took everything we were. And warped it for her own gain.” Lifting his enormous head, he exposed the hollow of his throat to them, allowing Scootaloo to get a good look at the sparkling object she had noticed before.
It was a shimmering diadem, similar to the one Scootaloo had seen Princess Celestia wear on the few occasions she had seen the shepherd of the sun. Unlike the golden glow that had rested upon Celestia’s noble brow, this one shimmered with the darkest blackness imaginable. An enveloping, consuming darkness writhed across it, one that would smother everything that existed, all while giving nothing back. At its core sat a pure white crescent moon, its light somehow providing a perfect counterpart for the surrounding darkness without either being overwhelmed in the slightest.
Scootaloo felt herself taking a step back, overwhelmed by the pressure given off by the deceptively tiny trinket. Her legs shuddered uncontrollably, and looking at the crown filled her with a bone-chilling fear unlike anything she had ever felt before. Just looking at the thing made her mouth dry out and her throat seize. Her stomach heaved, and she felt the sour taste of bile upon her tongue. Whatever that thing was, it was pure evil.
Images crowded into her mind, appearing and disappearing so quickly she couldn’t make them out. They grabbed at her psyche, tickling it like hundreds of tiny ghostly fingers whispering across her brain. Within a second, she saw her parents die, her friends leave her, her idol Rainbow Dash brought low, and Ponyville disappear in a heaving sea of flames. She was cast out from the town, her wings were torn off, her tongue was cut off, and her eyes were gouged out. Rainbow Dash said she never wanted to see her again, her parents abandoned her, she never got a cutie mark, and died forgotten in a lonely cave.
The line between reality and nightmare blurred together, quickly fading out entirely. Faintly, at the edge of her hearing, she could hear what sounded like a high-pitched scream as her consciousness fell into a never-ending whirlpool of insanity. Empty eyes stared at her from faces that didn’t exist, swirling around her until they…
Fenrir dropped his head, cutting off her line of sight with the glittering trinket. Broken from its spell, she found herself lying on her side, clutching her head in her hooves. Her throat was torn and raw, and she realized that the blood-curdling scream that she had been hearing was coming from her own mouth. Cutting her shriek off with a hacking cough, she weakly turned her head to look up at the giant timberwolf. “Mister,” she said, her voice raw and harsh, “what was that thing?”
With a sad sigh, Fenrir averted his gaze away from her. “The last thing we have. From the war, it was. Passed down generation after generation. I did not think. It still had so much power.” Lifting a paw, he reached up for his throat where the crown lay hidden. “Perhaps that is just. Proof that she is. Active once again. Our Lady, who we swore to serve for eternity.” His voice lowered to a growl and his lips curled back, exposing his thorny teeth. “Our Lady, who betrayed and abandoned us! We, who were her soldiers when. She fought her own sister!”
Scootaloo hacked out another violent cough, her body shuddering in agony. “…Who?” she whispered out feebly.
Fenrir’s hackles rose as he started to snarl. From all around her, Scootaloo could hear the sounds of the other timberwolves surrounding the clearing adding their voices to his, until the forest seemed to reverberate from the very force of it. “Her scent fills my nose. I can smell her. The same disgusting scent. From this trinket. It fills the very air around you!” Gesturing with his paw, Fenrir pointed at a spot directly behind Scootaloo.
Turning her head to look, Scootaloo was surprised at what she saw. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom had both reacted the same way as she had, and were both lying on the ground. Apple Bloom in particular looked like she was foaming from her mouth. But above them both, his youthful eyes glaring daggers up at the massive beast before them, Pipsqueak still stood tall. Despite the massive paw being pointed directly at him, he refused to waver.
“I can smell her!” Fenrir proclaimed, throwing up his head and howling towards the sky. The surrounding timberwolves joined in the howl, their cry reaching to the very heavens. “Our former Mistress! Queen of the Night! The Weaver of Dreams! The Fallen Goddess, The Mare in the Moon, Nightmare Moon! You know where she is! Tell us! Now!”
“And… and if I tell you where she is?” Pipsqueak stuttered, backing away from the frothing beast. Scootaloo could tell that he wanted to cover his ears to protect them from the surrounding cacophony, but he chose to stand as strong as he could. “What’ll you do?”
Fenrir looked down at Pipsqueak, his howl cutting off. All the surrounding timberwolves cut off their howls at the same time, immediately throwing the area into an absolute, haunting silence. “We will see. With our own eyes. And if she has. Fallen once again.” Lifting one paw, he quickly slashed it across it own throat. “Then. We will do our duty. We will end her.”