Over the Edge and Through the Wood

by JarOfHearts

Tooth, Timber and Ax

Princess Celestia woke early as her routine dictated; one thousand years of rule and one tended to find comfort in repetition. Get up, raise the sun, have breakfast and a bath in the calm eves of the morning. This was what had kept her going for all these years, the simple pleasures of routine that would get her through both dreadfully droll and hectic days alike.

As she returned to her chambers after the aforementioned routine and noticed a letter sitting patiently on her nightstand.

Eying the scroll with curiosity the princess lifted it with a bit of magic. It had undoubtedly been sent last night. What could have her pupil been up to at such an hour? Several possibilities popped into her head, each one tugging at her smile a little more. Although, the last one hiked her eyebrow in curiosity. Twilight was by no means a yearling anymore and she was beginning to approach that age.

With a flourish, she unwrapped the letter and began to read, and almost immediately her smile evaporated.

As the princess scanned the stationery her demeanor became increasingly grim. When she had finished reading the sovereign of the day quickly made her way to the balcony. She reared back and placed her hooves on the railing and carefully prepared to cast one of her more sophisticated spells, one only the likes of an Alicorn could use. She released a cascading wave of energy, feeling the presence of all the ponies and animals in Canterlot and beyond as it washed over her cherished homeland.

She directed her spell to the Everfree forest, as the magical tide washed over the woods she felt pinpricks, signifying the presence of the smaller creatures of squires, rabbits, and other woodland creatures. She then felt a melody of different sensations, each signifying their own speck of life, such as snakes, manticores, and other such things. Then she felt six unique presences, three were where she remembered Zecora's home to be, feeling out the zebra and the other two, which she recognized as Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. The other three she knew as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. The monarch let a relieved sigh pass her lips. They were in the castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, the previous capital of Equestria so many years ago. There they would be safe, the stones and mortar had been blessed by both her and Luna, even now holding their essence. No creature that would do harm to her little ponies would dare approach the castle.

The princess hastily scrawled a quick note and with a flash of her horn sent it on its way. She set out for the main hall, a ghost of a smile returning as Philomena whistled a merry tune from her perch as she left. While part of her remained concerned about the safety of the little ones, they were being rescued by the very same ponies that had saved her country from eternal darkness, couldn't exactly go wrong there.

Twilight groggily rose to greet the day, her mentor's namesake gently pulling her consciousness into the waking world. She had barely gotten any sleep due to worry eating at the fringes of her mind. Then she realized she was also hungry and made the executive decision to raid the leftover hay fries in the fridge.

As she munched on the day-old hay, Spike entered the kitchen mumbling and grumbling. He blindly pawed at the counter until his claw grasped a mug of Blaze‐Pep brand tea, flavored with four kinds of chili peppers and had one heck of a kick. After taking a long drink the purple dragon began to regain higher cognitive function.

"Ahh, much better. So Twi, the princess hasn't sent her reply yet, what are we gonna do whi‐BURRRP"

A green tongue of flame erupted from the tiny dragon and morphed into a scroll. Which the purple mare snatched up and read with due haste. Once she had concluded her speed reading she turned to her assistant.

"We're going to go grab the gang and head back to Zecora's cottage. I know where the girls are."

They were out the door and already on the way to the Carousel Boutique.

"Where are they?"

"The Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters."

"The place you fought Nightmare Moon!? Isn't that, like, really deep in the forest?"

"I know Spike, but the princess said they were fine in her letter."

The lavender librarian gave a knock on the door as they arrived at their destination.

"Besides the castle has special enchantments from both Luna and Celestia themselves, there isn't a safer place for them to be."

"I hope your ri‐GAAAH!"

At that moment the door swung open to reveal a rather disheveled unicorn. Rarity's mane was tangled and unkempt and the bags under her eyes portrayed a lack of sleep. The seamstress let out an uncharacteristically unladylike yawn and smiled at the two friends in front of her. "One-moment dears."

SLAM!

The purple pony reeled as the door to the boutique closed abruptly, landing on her rump. She only had a moment to exchange a confused look with Spike before the door opened again. The fashion pony pranced out looking completely normal to the untrained eye. Twilight was barely able to catch the few stray hairs sticking out from her friend's mane that kept it shy of perfect. Under normal circumstances, this would have driven her appearance-obsessed friend up the wall (or more likely to the spa.)

"Sorry for my lackluster appearance dears, I didn't get as much rest as I would have liked. So Twilight darling, have you gotten word from the princess?" the sleep-deprived pony let out another yawn.

"Yes actually," Rarity froze mid-yawn as Twilight continued, "they're at‐"

"No time to tarry then, Oh, I'll go over and fetch Fluttershy and meet you at Zecora's den, and don't forget to wake Applejack as well!

The unicorn managed to rattle out the sentence at a pace a certain pink pony could appreciate without sacrificing an ounce of sophistication. All Twilight could do was sputter for a moment before her friend took off in the direction of the Fluttershy's cottage.

After a short impromptu intermission, the resident librarian shook herself from her stupor.

"OK then, uh, see you there," she said to nopony in particular. "Come on Spike, I'll drop you at the library on the way to Sweet Apple Acres."

"But, Twi‐"

"Hey, you're still being punished, mister. " She paused as the dragon slumped where he sat on her back. After a moment she added, "And I don't want you to get hurt out in the forest, you remember the last time you went into the Everfree and found that other dragon?"

The dragonling stiffened at the mention of the encounter, stifling a shiver as he shook his head.

"No thanks, I think any punishment is better than meeting up with that guy again. At least I'll live through my chores." The little dragon gave his caretaker a worried look, "Just make sure everyone gets back safe alright? That means you too."

Twilight smiled as the two neared the library, "Of course Spike."

Sometime later...

The four mares stood just outside of Zecora's hovel, with the morning sun filtering brilliantly through the tree boughs. Pinkie Pie was the first to bounce out the door, holding on to the tail of a still slumbering Rainbow Dash, dragging the sleeping speedster behind her in a rather unceremonious fashion. With the owner of the hut following behind with a look that was a mixture of amusement and mild worry.

"It's odd, your friend we will not awaken, but a remedy for this can be easily taken." The mystic lifted her hoof, revealing a fine blue powder, and with a light puff, she blew the powder into the cyan pony's face. An instant after the powder had hit her face Rainbow's eyes flew opened and bolted upright.

"I'm awake!" the newly conscious pegasus shouted. She blinked, almost as surprised by her sudden alertness as her friends were. Dash wrinkled her nose and sneezed out a small cumulus cloud, earning several odd looks.

"The hay?" the winged one muttered on spying the miniature oddity.

Twilight turned to Zecora, but the question died in her mouth as she watched the zebra take a stiff swig from a familiar flask. The circumstances of three puny ponies quickly came to the forefront of the unicorn's mind.

"Focus girls, those three fillies need our help." The resident scientist‐mage‐librarian turned to the potion master turned forest guide. "The girls are at the castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. The path we took to get there last time took a few hours, do you think you could get us there faster?"

Zecora raised a hoof to her chin in silent contemplation before answering, "The path you took twists, turns, and winds, but the quickest way is a straight line. I have a faster way, one that avoids the predators that stalk the road by day."

Twilight gave a small nod and the medicine mare began her series of ear twitches and other rituals that would guide her past anything that would do her harm. After she was finished, she set off at a steady trot into the shrubbery, followed quickly by six mares with Applejack leading the pack.

Please Apple Bloom, be safe was her only thought.

Elsewhere...

How do Ah keep gettin' myself into these kinds of situations? was the only thought of a familiar farm filly as she clung with all her might to the tree branch she was currently hanging upside down from.

Her friends were in similar predicaments, though Sweetie Belle was clinging to the top of her branch, and Scootaloo was neatly perched on top of hers, though being a pegasus, that wasn't much of a surprise.

She watched the mayhem below her unfolded in grisly detail, the filly never imagined in her wildest dreams something like this could happen. It had started off so well...

Rewind<<<

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play >

Apple Bloom slowly walked through the forest flanked by her friends and what had to be the strangest creature she had ever laid eyes on. And it was escorting them through the brush back to Ponyville, none of the other school fillies were going to believe this. She hardly believed it herself.

She chanced a look at the towering creature to her right. The thing was at least twice as big as her if not more. His head was constantly swiveling to and fro, scanning the forest for danger. As he did so Apple Bloom couldn't help but take notice of his ears in stark detail. She had noted earlier that they're in a weird place, but now that she could look at them clearly they mystified her. They curved exotically, some parts had odd ridges where there was no call for them and while it was definitely alien, it also looked...

Hmmmn

The farm filly struggled for a moment to properly describe the look, then settled on 'Artful' as the proper descriptor. The curves were like the stroke of a painter's brush, deliberate and graceful arcs encircling one another, with a sense of rhyme and reason that seemed to stay just out of reach to avoid her understanding. She wondered if the curvature was unique to this particular monster or if all of his kind had it, or maybe it changed from individual to individual as an identifying mark, like a natural name‐tag.

The group approached a clearing with a large tree to the side with a small wall of shale rock that jutted out of the ground behind it. The creature took a moment to examine the tree, apparently looking for something as its stare darted across the bark. Sweetie Belle moved to say something to her newest companions when a low ominous collection growls filled the air.

The four whipped around to discover a multitude of yellowish-green eyes staring from the shadows. The five pairs of peepers slowly approached revealing limbs of twisted timber and teeth shaped like thorns borrowed from the most malicious bramble patch in existence.

The ponies looked on in terror as the timberwolves advanced, while the creature was wearing a mixture of confusion and concern on his face. While the gnarled looking monstrosities advanced the biped's head was swiveling between the wolves, the fillies, and the scenery, looking for an escape.

Troy was panicking like crazy, what the fuck was he looking at!? He desperately looked for an open path or opportunity for him to slip away.

Really...

What!?

You're just going to ditch these little guys just like that?

...I don't know... I mean, if we can all get away‐

Do you honestly think you can lose those abominations in the woods, THEIR woods?

Then the bridge‐

And you think these things are going to wait while you carry your little buddies across that chasm one by one? Are you an idiot!?

Hey, this isn't a joke, I could get my ass killed out here! Troy was losing patience with his own psyche when he noticed the wolves had advanced much further into the clearing, forcing the fillies to cower behind him.

Pfff... You risked your life to return a freaking mirror, duck past a man-eating monster plucked from ancient myth and you honestly expect me to believe that it was any less dangerous than THIS?!

Those were calculated risks! Totally not the same thing, I don't want 'em to die. But what good does it do me if I get MY ass killed instead!

Troy continued his mental debate, unsure if he should fight or flee, or how to even fight one of these rabid wood carvings, much less five. While his concentration was elsewhere one of the more ambitious of the pack bolted around the side to get at the tasty treats he was hoarding. The tiny animals let out a soul-rending scream at the top of their tiny lungs, ripping Troy from his trance and obliterating any indecision in the process.

The screams were disturbingly similar to that of a group of young girls.

Several things happened at once, Troy stepped to intercept the beast before him while drawing out his ax and swinging it at his foe in a rage-fueled assault with a wide horizontal swing, at the same time the timber wolf sensed the movement and changed course to deal with whatever had dared to impede its hunt for food. Finally, a second timber wolf broke off from the pack to flank the human.

But Troy was not concerned with any of this at the moment, the screams the fillies had belted out had kicked his paternal instincts into overdrive, and with them came the buckets of adrenaline surging through his blood.

As the young man swung desperately at the creature's head, the only thought that rang out in the chaos of his mind was one that cannot be properly expressed in words.

The only thing that comes close is the sentence:

It was not meant to intimidate or inspire, to reassure himself or anyone else. It was a simple statement. A statement of fact, for there was no room for any kind of doubt in the human's mind, he was certain that these freaks of nature would die by his hands as he was sure that grass was green.

He expected to take out the creature's eye or at least wound the creature's face in some way, but that was not what happened.

When humans are under a great amount of stress and find themselves in situations where they need to protect their own, they are capable of incredible feats. This do-or-die strength birthed stories of mothers lifting upturned cars and trees off of their children. With a small boon from an unknown source, the moment Troy's ax connected with the wolf's head, it had all the force of a Volkswagen beetle behind it. To the surprise of all present, the wolf's head was completely annihilated, splattering the scenery with an oily green substance as the lifeless husk of his foe spun in the air a single time and landed with a sickening thud.

Time was slowed to a snail's pace as falling leaves slowly floated toward the ground and the world around the wayward hiker was brought into sharp relief. The wind was like a gentle ocean current swirling around him, with the sound of his heart beating a rhythmic thumping in his ears.

But there was another sound, like a steady drumbeat.

Acting only on instinct the young man wrenched his hatchet around and brought it over his head in a mighty arc, burrowing the weapon in the leaping form of the second timberwolf. Blasting into the neck of the creature and extinguishing the beasts glowing eyes as something important snapped under the axe blade. The wolf's momentum carried it forward as it bowled Troy over onto his back. Cursing he rolled the corpse of the coniferous carnivore off his body and readied himself for the next charge.

The largest of the wooden wolves seemed to be looking him over, weighing the options. The Alpha took slow deliberate steps, circling out of the mid‐morning sun and into the shade of the surrounding tree line, one wolf followed the Alpha and the other circled around in the other direction.

Troy's mind raced, they were going to charge then he would have to deal with two attacks from the front, occupying his hands and be wide open for an attack from behind. A picture of an attack dog going after a cop in a giant cloth suit sprung unbidden into his mind. Electric sauce poured over his brain as he formed a plan and shrugged off his empty hiking backpack and wrapped it around his arm, securing it in place with a buckle. Now he had a shield, one-time-use but better than nothing.

Constantly flipping his attention from the solitary wolf moving left to the pair circling right, Troy slowly pressed his back up against the giant tree, protecting his vitals and denying a certain angle of attack.

The charge was simultaneous, two from the right, one from the left. The smaller of the first two was definitely faster and received a boot in the face as the prize for its speed. The lone wolf found its mark, but also found it couldn't bite through the tightly wound fabric of the backpack as it thrashed violently, trying to shred the appendage it was attached to. Finally, the Alpha leaped over the fallen form of his comrade and prepared to sink its teeth into the human's neck. Troy intercepted it with his hatchet, catching it on the side of the head, the strike narrowly pushing it off target and sending it sprawling face first in the soil at the man's feet. The Alpha rose and charged again as Troy brought his left arm around. Canine met canine as the struggling timberwolf crashed into its leader, getting ripped off Troy's arm and taking the cloth shield with it as the two werehedges were thrown into the dirt.

The wolf that had been kicked let out a snarl as it charged a second time, only for Troy to stomp on its neck and swing his ax, the hatchet taking out one of its eyes. It whimpered pitifully as the hiker rained blows from his hatchet until its head was a splintered green pulpy mass.

Troy locked his sights on the remaining timberwolves, the Alpha looking right back while the other was occupying itself with savaging the remains of his bag. Taking the offensive, the young man charged the two.

The Alpha took a defensive stance, bending low and ready to attack. The last remaining subordinate wheeled away from the carcass of his backpack sprung forward in an attempt to intercept the hiker but the young man jumped over the charge and continued forward without slowing.

The Alpha lunged for one of the man's legs but instead found its head used as a stepladder as Troy ran up the lumbering lumber's massive head and jumped straight up. Twisting his body around like a cat as he reached the apex of his jump Troy brought down the ax with all his might, driving it into the massive creature's neck.

However the bark was too thick to cut through, so he started to hack pieces off the creature's neck, pleased to find that they came away with relative ease. Roaring with pain the beast began trying to buck the human pest off when the smaller of the two surged towards the young adventurer. Troy reeled away and slid to the side as the mutt latched onto his belt, where the young man's kidney had been a moment ago. Its claws tore through the khakis and cut soft flesh as it pulled him down. The hiker screamed in pain as he slipped from his position on the Alpha and landed on the smaller wolf that had been clawing at his legs with a loud snap.

As Troy warily rose he was happy to see that he had snapped the things foreleg in the fall, rather than his own. The injured timberwolf limped back, trying to get free of the fray. Troy didn't care at this point and returned his attention to the Alpha as it turned to him and began to charge. Troy kicked it in the face, its neck creaking as the wooden hide strained under the pressure of the blow. The Alpha fell backward and tried to right itself but Troy was NOT in the mood for any more bullshit and marched up and began stomping on the beast's neck.

The sound of breaking wood and snapping twigs filled the grove as Troy stomped on the Alpha, shattering the weakened wood. He continued until the head simply fell away, not caring in the least. The unhinged hiker continued his assault on the corpse until all the legs and tail were broken and splintered. The man wailed on the body of his fallen foe, as the young man's adrenalin rush wore off he let out a scream of pain, frustration, and triumph.

Exhausted he slumped to a sitting position and scanned the grove for the last wolf, only to find a trail of oily green liquid leading out of the clearing.

He let out a heavy sigh as the forest was quiet once more.

A loud shriek tore through the wood, shattering any sense of peace he had regained.

Rousing himself, the hiker turned monster hunter glanced around in direction of the unfamiliar sound and tried to keep his panic under control, he wasn't fit for another fight.

The group had heard the distant scream of the Cutie Mark Crusaders and quickly changed direction. Applejack's mind filled with morbid images that could await them when they arrived. She willed them away in an instant.

In the distance, they could hear barks from timberwolves and cries from an unknown source, one that sent a chill down everyone's spines.

As they approached the area that harbored the sound the sounds of battle finally ceased.

"Come on! They're so close!" Rainbow shouted, and shot up through the canopy for a moment before coming back through again.

"There's a clearing over there, let's go!" the cyan pony weaved through the trees toward their target.

Applejack wasted no time in catching up, "Apple Bloom!" She called out hoping for some sign of anything.

"Applejack!" a familiar filly's voice called out.

Oh thank Celestia.

All the dark thoughts and doubts that had hung in the back of the mare's mind instantly evaporated. She charged forward, overtaking Rainbow as she weaved through the brush and burst into the clearing.

The scene before the cowpony rendered her speechless. Never before had she seen so much death.

Before her lay the corpses of four timberwolves, and each death seemed more horrific than the last.

One had its head splintered into pieces, while another had it split down the middle, oozing a sickly green sap onto the forest floor.

And it only got worse, one was cut to ribbons and all that remained was a tangled mess of fibers. But the last one took the cake. It was clearly an Alpha, but it was probably the one that had suffered the most, each one of its legs was broken and sticking out at sickening angles while its head had been 'removed'. The entire surface of its body was caved in like it had been run over by a stampede.

The orange mare felt like she was going to vomit.

"Applejack!"

The farm pony started and swung around to face her companions, while she had been standing dumbstruck they had caught up.

"Applejack, what..." Twilight's question trailed off as the carnage in the clearing came into view.

The group was rendered speechless, Applejack was the first to venture into the clearing followed closely by twilight and Rainbow Dash.

"What in tarnation..." was all the mare could say as she glanced at each of the bodies, she slowly approached the one that had been chopped to bits.

"APPLEJACK!"

Everyone jumped at the sudden exclamation.

The elder apple sister whirled around looking for the source of the voice, "Apple Bloom is that you, where are ya?"

"Up here."

Applejack looked up and sure enough in the group of fillies were all nestled in the boughs of the tree she was standing under.

"How did... never mind, Rainbow can you get 'em down?"

"On it!"

The cyan pegasus began airlifting the CMC down one by one. The second that the girls were on the ground they were immediately snatched up into enormous rib-crushing hugs.

"Ah was so worried about you, ya silly filly, yer in so much trouble." Applejack chastised the younger Apple, with tears in her eyes.

"Sweetie Belle, don't you ever do anything like this ever again, do you understand?" Rarity's cheeks were wet with tears as she nuzzled the smaller unicorn.

"Shorty, you're in for a world of hurt when you get home, I can't have my number one fan running off and getting herself eaten now, can I? I plan on having a talk with your parents about this." Rainbow Dash smiled as she held Scootaloo in a headlock and ruffled her mane.

Everyone watching started to get misty-eyed, except for Pinkie Pie was outright bawling her eyes out. Twilight stepped forward after wiping a tear from her eye.

"It's really good to see you three are alright. But what were you thinking coming into the forest alone?"

The group hung their heads.

"We were gonna get our potion-making cutie marks, but we got lost. We were gonna tell Rainbow, but..." Apple Bloom looked like she was about to cry, but Scootaloo quickly picked up the story.

"But those jerks called us babies and we had to prove them wrong!" the little purple maned pegasus stomped her hoof for emphasis.

Twilight shook her head, "You girls can't give in to peer pressure like that, see how much trouble you got into?"

Scootaloo tipped her head to the side, "What's peer pressure?" Though this time Sweetie Belle was the one to interject.

"Peer pressure is when somepony tries to get somepony else to do something they don't want to, adopt a certain viewpoint or conform to their group in some way, usually by saying it's 'cool' or trying to make it so they can't back out."

Twilight smiled brightly, "I think I know a few someponies who have a letter to write the princess when we get back."

The lavender librarian lowered her head to get eye level with the fillies and shot them a serious look. "Did you see what did this?"

"Uhhh"

The filly made to answer, shifting her eyes around, and eventually, they fell on a certain yellow pegasus, or previously yellow.

"Fluttershy, ya all right?"

All eyes were on the poor pony, she was deathly white and still as a statue. She was holding her gaze straight forward, and every time it started to drift she would shudder and she would stare at some distant point. Twilight gave the petrified pony a confused look.

"Fluttershy, what..." the lavender librarian suddenly became aware of her surroundings.

It only took a second for the realization to sink in. The most kind, caring and easily scared pony in Equestria was standing in a pile of corpses that had obviously died gruesome and violent deaths. The fact she was still conscious was a miracle in and of itself.

"Fluttershy! Oh, I'm so, uh, Pinkie can you‐"

"On it." The aptly named pony said with unusual seriousness. She slowly turned her friend around and away from the carnage and led her back towards the brush, when the pegasus began to make gagging sounds.

"Uh oh" was all the pink pony could say before her charge relieved herself of her stomach contents.

"Oh, dear."

Troy watched a pegasus, one that was quite arguably the cutest being in all of existence, repeatedly vomit all over the forest floor.

I have now officially seen everything. Though honestly, I was expecting it to hark up rainbows, that's weapons-grade adorable right there.

He thought as he clung to the upper reaches of his perch.

Back when he had heard the commotion those ponies had raised he made the snap decision to hide. He hadn't known what they were at the time, but he was intensely satisfied with his choice.

Seriously, there's a reason you don't get between Mama bear and Baby bear. And that reason is a called 'a mauling'.

The little ones were definitely the children of some of the adults in the group.

The one with the bow was obviously the child of the one with the hat, even from his tree in the distance, he could see the family resemblance. Same with the white and purple unicorn and the tyke. The way they were talking, at least the way it looked like they were talking, was the same way a parent scolded a child. The pegasus was less obvious, it was definitely possible those two were related. Though the coloration in no way helped give any indication.

Ok, for real, that thing looks like... no. Fuck that, I not touching that with a nine and a half foot pole. I don't know what circumstance conceived that thing and I don't wanna know.

Troy looked over each of the ponies one by one, as he did he noticed several things. First, he noticed one looked distinctly like a zebra. The creature had neck hoops he had seen worn in national geographic along with large hoop earrings. The second thing he noticed was the markings on the rumps of all the older ponies. Each had a symbol or other mark, each depicting something as obvious as a star, or as bizarre as a bunch of balloons. Even the zebra's stripes coalesced into a distinct marking.

More importantly, while the older ones had the marks the younger ones definitely did not. Troy could only wonder at their significance for a moment. OK these things can think, so are those tribal markings? Maybe clan insignias? Each show which settlement they hail from or maybe a coming of age thing. Before long the group slowly began file out of the clearing back the way they came.

Shit, they're leaving... OK. Options:

1. Follow them? Bad idea if not impossible, they have better hearing and this loose brush renders all stealth capabilities moot.

2. Reveal self and join up? Horrible idea, they have children with them so they will be on edge, plus covered in weird plant blood/goop. I will be seen as a threat and attacked on sight.

3. Return to base and continue survival operations and investigate the 'Ponies' at a different time.

Troy mulled over the options only for a moment. Option three was the only one that didn't present any complications. Besides, while sentient freakishly colored ponies were intriguing, he had work to do.

Satisfied the group had wandered a safe distance away, the young man dismounted his branch and landed on all fours, only to slump to the side as pain shot up his leg. Shit. This is going to get really bad really quick. He eyed the claw marks and the tears in his jeans.

Cursing he started limping in the general direction of his camp, at least he hoped it was the right direction.

Seriously though, getting back is going to be a bitch and a half, there was no real trail that we followed so getting back will...

Troy's train of thought derailed as he spotted tracks leading into the clearing, small circular ones side by side with long oblong ovals. Troy shrugged, at least the tracks were clear‐

Cue the flood of Electric syrup smattering the young man's brain.

Massive downpour, soft ground, hard hooves...

The misplaced hiker smiled a toothy grin; he quickly turned to a nearby tree next to the tracks and quickly carved an arrow pointing to the clearing with four swipes of his knife. He looked at his torn-up jeans, shrugged, and with a few careful cuts had a freshly made pair of shorts. Using the leftover scraps he made a quick bandage, careful to keep the particularly dirty parts of the bandage away from the wound.

<=

Slowly he began to pace himself as he walked back towards his camp. Pain was forgotten and gave way to excitement.

<=

As he left a trail of markings leading to the clearing.

<=

Making sure all the while that he could clearly see the next mark.

<=

Soon Troy was back at the ravine and marked the beginning of his trail with a large X on the first tree with an arrow wrapping around the tree pointing to the trail.

Troy crossed the bridge and returned to the camp, gathering up his various items and placing them on shelves made from broken cobblestone and loose rocks, only placing his most valuable possessions into the arms of the altar in the room's center. Namely his MP3 player, his playing cards, and his lighter.

He gave pause at the lighter, it was black with only a small fire hazard symbol on it with the words 'troubled childhood in progress' printed on the sides. His was an interesting one, to say the least. It was an old-fashioned wick lighter, none of that butane crap.

He left it on the altar, determined to get it later after he had changed. Troy took the first aid kit and hobbled out into the courtyard and to the well. He slowly undid his makeshift bandage, removing his bloodstained boot and sock and using the sock to wipe the blood off the said boot. Slowly he began to wash the wounds out with the water, wincing as he pulled the cuts open to flush out any dirt or grit lodged inside. The gashes weren't deep enough to be too dangerous, but enough to cause problems. After that was done he removed a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide from the first aid kit and began to douse the slashes. Oh, how it burned.

After the pained yelps and cursing had passed he closed the wound with some band-aids and wrapped his leg with gauze to help stop the bleeding.

Troy carefully began to strip his stained clothing and took a bath for the second time that day. Only this time using well water and taking care not to wet his bandaged leg. He scrubbed the dried greenish oil/blood off his skin and out of his hair. After he toweled off with one of his remaining clean shirts, he moved back into the castle and dressed. Soon he wore a large pair of cargo pants, a brown T‐shirt, and a green hoodie with a thick liner for a little more warmth. He lay back and raised his leg, keeping it higher than his heart as directed by his first aid training.

If wounded on an extremity, keep the wound above the heart, so the blood had to make an uphill climb, and can't settle in the limb and bleed out.

Troy gazed out the window. Judging by the sky he wouldn't have to worry about the time or the weather. If he just let the wound close up and used a good walking stick for a while he would be able to move in an hour or two.

Troy was a man with a plan. He would leave when the sun had fallen into the final fourth of its journey across the sky. Those ponies had been kind enough to leave him a trail in the muddy earth softened by last night's storm. And he was not so unkind as to let it go to waste.

Troy is fucking awesome.
~CosmicAfro, the editor guy.