A few hours had passed after Luna and Celestia passed out. When they awoke, they saw that the church they were in was in ruins, but all the ponies inside were perfectly ok, as if nothing had ever happened…
“What happened in here?” Celestia asked.
“I don’t know. I think we’re still in the church,” Luna replied.
“Wait, where’s mom and dad?” She screamed.
“Your parents are gone,” Stan said as he walked up to Celestia.
“What do you mean?” Luna asked.
“They sacrificed themselves to save you and everypony here. They used every bit of magic they had in them, going as far as to use their own life energy to fuel their magic even further to make sure the windigos around here are gone with them. They did this so I can take you to the location of the map. We must hurry before it’s too late.”
“I don’t understand. Why would they do this?” Luna asked.
“Your parents understood that in order to ensure prosperity came to this world of ours, sacrifices had to be made. Even if it meant giving up their own lives, they were willing to do it. We can’t delay this anymore; I’ll answer any other questions you have as we go back to the house.”
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Present Time
“So what did y’all do?” Applejack asked.
“Luna and I did as he said. We followed him back to our house to find the magic safe our parents told us about. He told us everything we needed to know. He told us that though our parents were gone, it wasn’t the last time we would see them. At that time we didn’t understand what he meant, but we would learn in three days’ time…” Celestia replied.
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Past Time
The three ponies walked through the cold and frozen land that used to be their home. Everywhere they looked; homes and markets were destroyed by what the windigos left. As they continued walking, Stan told Celestia and Luna everything he could. He told them that Princess Platinum had went out to look for a new place for all the unicorns to live, but as that was going on, the two sisters had to find the safe in case that didn’t work out. With the windigos from the other parts of the world realizing that some of their brethren had perished, the ponies only had very little time before they returned to ensure that the entire world would be covered in ice. Stan explained that unicorn guards that went up to check on the windigos had reported and estimated they only had three days before would have a huge crisis on their hooves.
The rest of the walk was quite. None of the three spoke a word to each other as each of them were paying to the sacrifice Horntail and Valentine gave. As they entered the house and went up to where the safe was, they started to hear a magical hum emitting from their parent’s closet.
“Here it is you two. The safe your parents were talking about. As you must know, I’m unable to unlock it. Only the power of one of your family members will be able to unlock it.” Stan said.
As Celestia walked up to the safe, the magical hum started to become louder. The closer she got the more dangerous and powerful the protection spelled seemed to become.
“How am I supposed to unlock this? If this really is protected by magic, how am I supposed to know the single spell to unlock it without destroying the safe?” She thought to herself.
“Wait sister, I got it, I know the spell,” Luna said.
“It’s as simple as it gets. It’s the disrupter spell. That’ll take away the magic protector around the safe. Then all you need is to use pick the lock with your magic and unlock the lock.”
“Ok, I’ll give it a try,” Celestia replied.
Celestia knew this spell like the back of her hoof. She would always use this spell to unlock her parent’s cabinet so she could get her hooves on the toys they took from her when she was grounded. All it took was for her to create a wave to disrupt the flow of magic on the safe so it became unstable and disappeared. With the spell dispensing the shield, it would allow her to pick the lock. After, she performed her spell and the shield disappeared, Celestia simply used her magic to pick the lock. After a while she heard a click as the safe opened and revealed a small map inside. As Celestia pulled out and opened the map, Stan and Luna went over and took a peek.
“Well this is interesting,” Stan said.
“It seems like you two are in a small situation. From this house, it only takes two and a half days to reach the book. Unfortunately this means that we’re going to be spending five days or more to reach the book and come back. This means we’re going to lose everything we have here. The other bad news is that even though it’s not as far as I believed, I fear that you two will have to face many dangers throughout your adventure. Pack up your bags and bring anything you need. Only bring food, water and a couple of stuff you cherish and leave everything else. We’ll the go to mount chilli to take out the windigos at their source.”
“What are we going to do then?” Celestia asked.
“Yeah, what’s the point in getting the book if we can’t even make it back on time,” Luna added.
“Hmmmmm. I got it,” Stan said.
“I can get some unicorn guards to set a barricade around our area and hopefully one around the windigo lair. With that, it just might buy us some time. At most, it can only last a couple of days, but if we set up a defence back here, we can maybe defend ourselves long enough for us to come back. It’s a stretch but it just might work.”
“Sounds like a plan. You ok with that Luna. Luna?” Celestia said.
Luna nodded.
“Then let’s head out,” Celestia said.
“Hey you two, I can only help you two so much. After we reach the entrance to the place where the book lies, only two people can enter. Anymore and it will disappear to a new area, possibly out of our entire region,” Stan said.
“That’s ok Stan, we can take care of ourselves,” Celestia replied.
“Ok, let’s go then. We need to first head to the forest at the edge of the border between the land of the pegasi, earth ponies, and unicorns.” Stan said.
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Present Time
“I’m sure you ponies know what forest we were headed to,” Celestia said.
It’s none other than the Everfree Forest. Back then, the forest covered most of Equestria. Any land that could be found back then was used to further that tribe’s power. Of course because the forest was bigger back then, it was also more dangerous. Every tribe knew going into those woods was suicide. When we went in, we had to face many trials in there, making sure we didn’t disturb anything that could kill us.”
“Too bad it was actually much harder and longer than we anticipated,” she thought to herself.
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Past Time
“Ok, here we are. The border of the three tribes. We just gotta endure all the forest can throw at us and make it to the entrance to the book,” Stan said.
Luna sighed. “If only it was as easy as you make it sound. Celestia and I still have to endure whatever challenges the journey to the book will throw at us…”
“And here I thought my little sister was excited to go on a little adventure,” Celestia said playfully.
“Then again, you aren’t as brave and magically powerful as me,” she teased.
“Stop that. It’s not that I’m scared! It’s just, the fact that no pony will ever enter these forests. That and the fact that anypony who was brave enough to enter, never came out the same, or didn’t come out at all.”
“Well, we gotta do it anyways Luna. Think of all the sacrifices ponies made for us just so everypony else could live in a world where all ponies will treat each other fairly. Think of our parents. They gave us a chance to make that dream come true. Their dream come true,” Celestia said.
“Listen Luna. I’m as heartbroken as you are right now. But we need to do this before it’s too late. Otherwise, everypony’s sacrifice will be in vain.”
“Your sister is right Luna,” Stan suddenly said.
“As hard of a crisis we have right now, all the ponies who believe in a world of peace, whether it’s pegasi, earth ponies or unicorns are working together to ensure that dream comes true, and we are a part of that team.”
Luna nodded. “Ok then, let’s go in.”
It was only a few hours after the three ponies entered the forest. But something didn’t seem right. It was too quiet for way too long without something happening, and if there were something those ponies knew, it was anything as dangerous or scary as this wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.
*snap*
“What was that?” Celestia asked.
“I don’t know, but keep your eyes open. Anything is possible in here,” Stan said.
The sound of howling filled the pony’s ears all around them. The retched green breath of a creature surrounded them, and the look of horror on Stan’s face was a signal to run.”
“Hey you two. When I say split up, we go in three different directions. Use a fire spell when they are far, and a dismantle spell when they get close. We’ll use the telepathy spell to communicate our location, and how many we are dealing with,” Stan whispered to the sisters.
“What are they?” Celestia asked in a hushed voice as a pair of eyes locked onto her.
“They’re timberwolves. They attack in large packs, using their toxic fangs to poison their pray and kill them from the inside out. They can also shoot poison from their mouths which will paralyze you and eat away at your body. And if you’re thinking of using fire to burn them at once, don’t. They’re bodies are enchanted so it doesn’t spread the fire if they die. Don’t let them bite you,” Stan replied.
As Stan finished speaking the first timberwolves pounced towards Stan. Unfortunately for the wolf, it was burned into ashes as Stan fired his fire spell at it.
“Split up NOW!!!” He yelled.
The three ponies split up, going their separate directions, as the pack of at least a hundred timberwolves divided to hunt their pray.
“Alright ladies, let’s hold our ground and take out as many as we can. If too many start to attack start running and use a protection spell. Lay down an ensnare spell to trap and hopefully immobilize them. Just don’t die.”
“Gotcha,” the sisters said.
After splitting up, the three ponies started to engage in the battle with their enemies.
Luna dodged and rolled whenever a timberwolf attempted to pounce. Whenever she successfully dodged out of the way, she would use the dismantle spell on them.
“Come on you ugly wolves, I’d have an easier time beating up a tree.”
“Of wait, these things are made up from trees…” she thought to herself.
One after another Luna burned and dismantled the wolves. Unfortunately, there was one big issue preventing her from taking them out as fast.
“Hey Stan, I’m they’re too many. My magic is going to drain really quickly if I don’t get rid of these things,” Luna said.
“It’s ok Luna. I’ll come over as soon as I can, but whatever you do, don’t use anymore magic if you’re drained. If you do, you’ll be tapping into your own life force to support your magic. The magic you use will be enchanted with incredible strength, but with each successful us, you risk killing yourself. Don’t do it unless you need to understand?” Stan said.
“I gotcha,” Luna said.
Back with Celestia, she was fairing quite nicely against her pack of wolves. At least for the moment…
“Come on you mangy mutts, I have a harder time beating up on a rock.”
Just like Luna, Celestia was doing her best to take out the wolves, yet they seemed to be coming out of nowhere. Whenever one died, another would take its place.
“Ughhh, I can’t take these guys forever, my magic is being drained too quickly. If I don’t be careful, I could kill myself,” she thought.
“Stan, how are you doing on your end? I can’t go much longer. Last thing I need is to go into my magic reserves,” Celestia said.
“Just hang tight. I’m trying to think of a plan to take these things all out at once,” Stan replied.
“Please make it quick. I’m too young to die!!!” Luna said.
“I got it. Meet back in the center. All I need is for all of them to be decently together,” Stan said.
“Gotcha,” the sisters said.
Back in the middle, Celestia, Luna and Stan lured the wolves together into a bunch. The sun had set and the three unicorns knew they only had a few minutes before they were completed shrouded in darkness.
“Ok what’s the plan?” Luna asked.
“We’re going to launch their toxic poison back at them. It’s true that if it hits us, it will paralyze and kill us. If we use a deflection shield spell however, the poison will reflect back at the wolves. The only problem is we’re going to have to get them scrunched up together for the poison to spread. If we don’t, we’re going to die,” Stan said as he was fighting back any wolves that tried to attack.
“Is there any other plan?” Luna asked as she burned a wolf down.
“One, preferably without a chance of death,” she added.
“This is our best opportunity. The wolves will combine if we take them all out at once without completely destroying them. We’re going to be dealing with something beyond what we can take. The poison will paralyze the wolves and slowly kill them, but because they have no body parts, the poison is going to burn through their bodies, leaving them completely destroyed and unable to regenerate,” Stan said.
“It’s ok Luna. We’re going to be casting a deflection spell and shielding spell. Let’s just make sure we put enough strength into it so the poison doesn’t penetrate it. We only get one chance to leave this area,” Celestia said as she burned a pack of wolves herself.
“Let’s do it then,” Luna said.
________________________________________________________________________________________
Present Time
“So what happened then? Them timberwolves are mighty strong and dangerous. It ain’t easy taking them down,” Applejack said.
“Yeah Stan seemed like a very intelligent pony. He must have known a lot about everything back then,” Twilight said.
“Yes. Stan was a smart pony. One of the smartest I’ve ever known. He was a very close friend to our family and he was always there for us. Luna and I trusted him completely. In fact, he was one of the ponies you could trust in our town. Most of the other unicorns didn’t really care for each other. Star Swirl, Stan and our parents were the best know ponies in town. It’s too bad it wasn’t like that for long, but I’ll explain that later. Now where was I?”
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Past Time
“You two ready?” Stan asked.
The two sisters nodded and prepared as the onslaught of attacks continued. They baited their time until a wolf would try and shoot poison at them. Until then, they were facing any wolf that was trying to scratch them or pounce on them.
“This isn’t working. It’s taking too long,” Luna said.
“Just wait for a good moment. It only takes one wolf to start the chain reaction,” Stan said.
“DO IT NOW!!!!” Celestia yelled as a wolf shot a deadly gunk of poison at the trio.
As quick as lightning, the three ponies casted their spells as the poison neared the deflection shield. As the poison hit the shield, the poisonous shot bounced right back the timberwolf that shot it, starting the chain reaction.
“Perfect. Now we wait until they’re completely killed. Let’s just hope our magic stays so we don’t get exposed to the poisonous gas the wolves release when they are completely dismantled and stay down,” Stan said.
One by one the wolves were slowly leaking out poison as wolf’s poison continued to spread to the other wolves around them. As the chains continued, the three ponies slowly backed up before their magic was completely depleted. Soon, the wolves they faced were all killed and stayed down. And as Stan said, the wolves did not regenerate into a bigger problem. With a sigh of relief, the three ponies got set for the night.
“Good work today you two. Let’s get some sleep and continue tomorrow. We’ll leave just before noon and we should reach here as our next camp sight,” Stan said as he pointed to the spot on the map where they would end up tomorrow.
“Finally. I need a good night sleep to get my magic back. I was on the verge of completely running out. Isn’t that right Luna? Luna?” Celestia said as she looked around for Luna before noticing she was already asleep.
As Celestia gave herself a little chuckle and added more wood to keep their campfire going for the night, she herself soon found herself closing her eyes, until she drifted into a very deep slumber.