Protecting the Wilds
We are the Ents. We live in the shadows of history, never letting the world know we exist. There are rumors of us but nothing else. We are beings of living wood, able to change our form. We do not do this instantaneously but with enough time we grow into different forms. Some of us take the form of the ponies that inhabit this land, while others choose to become creatures of the forest. We protect and serve the wilds, awakening only to destroy a threat to our homes. As with all things, there are those that embrace evil and death. Those Ents become the Forsaken. They lose their power to change their form at will and through a painful transformation they become the dreaded Timberwolves. These poor creatures have lost all reason, and only seek to destroy those that protect life. They will not die unless they are burnt to ashes. This happens very rarely, but when it does we grieve for those that have turned their back on our sacred oath to the Creator.
We of the Everfree have awoken this day to the presence of an evil of which we have never encountered. It changes the laws of nature on a whim and destroys the wilds. We of the Everfree have sensed that this being is too powerful for us to destroy on our own. We send messengers, the hawks of the Everfree, to find our brethren in the vibrant rainforests in the South. Hopefully we can gather enough forces to purge the land of this evil that defies nature. We may take time to ready ourselves, but once unleashed, we are a force to be reckoned with. We will teach this evil to fear the wild.
It has been a month, but a response from our brethren in the South Region have replied. They will come to aid us, as this evil has tainted even their lands. They say the reach of this monster is long and wide. It reaches across this planet. We have underestimated the power of this godlike being. We send more messengers to all of our brethren from across the globe. We hope that our plea reaches them on swift wings.
Another month, the last of the Regions have agreed to aid our cause. They are the Regions of the harsh East, the ferocious West, and the cunning North. The South has agreed to use their long forbidden magics in light of recent discoveries. These magics control the flow of time in a localized area. Only the Ents of the South are able to channel such magic, and we hope to negate the Creature’s own temporal magics with those of the South.
Those Regions from the West are ferocious in battle, many of them taking the forms of the giant long-toothed cats of old and the cunning wolverines of the frozen north. Some take the form of their native Fire Lizards. These creatures are things of grace, combining the elements of air and fire. The Region of the West is a force to be feared when awoken and awoken they are.
The North will awaken their wisest Ents in the upcoming battle. These Ents are the oldest of our kind, some having lived millenia. They will not like it but they will understand the danger we face and the reason we have awoken them. They will aid us through their wisdom and long experience.
The East, the most corrupted of our kind. We fear that they will succumb to the Creature’s evil taint but we must take a gamble with them. They have the power to hasten a transformation but only because they themselves have been lax in maintaining our oath with the Creator. They are a harsh and brutal Region. Only the strongest may survive, which is somewhat loyal to the Oath. They only help the strong and forsake the weak. This goes against our oath, but still stays within its bounds. They have yet to become Forsaken but are very close to losing their sanity. They will aid us, if only barely.
Finally, those of the Everfree. We have a power of our own. Though we protect those of the wilds they obey our command. That is the only reason that we were able to send for our brethren with the Hawks of the Everfree. Even the forest itself will obey us, making our home an easily defended place. Where ever we fight, if there is plentiful flora and fauna, we will win this Conflict. But we will only do so when we have no other option, for we have sworn to protect the wilds from the evils that roam the land.
Each Region has yet to awaken all the Ents of their homelands. It will take some time to find those that have hidden themselves within the wildest of places. Even we of the Everfree have yet to find all of our own. We look for our oldest brother, Garlock of the Whispering Winds, for he is the wisest of us and will offer us council in the upcoming Conflict. He has hidden himself well. We can only hope we find him in time for the Conflict. While we find our own the others continue their tasks. It will take a decade or more for all the Regions arrive at the Everfree.
It has been a decade and a half, but all of our brethren have come. All except the East. We have not received any messages from them in over five years, we fear the worst. We must continue without them, and hope that they have been killed. We ready ourselves for the upcoming Conflict. It will be a long war, as the Creature has amassed a large force of some type of pony that seems to shift forms. We have no fear that they have infiltrated our camp, for we all share a common bond with the land that is easy to detect. It does not stop them from taking the form of the ponies we have come to associate with the protection of the wild though. It will be hard to tell which ones are the Shifters, and which ones are the Ponies.
He has also ensorcelled some of our fallen brethren, we do not know how he has done it, but he has gotten many of the Forsaken to join his ranks. This will be very problematic for us, for the Forsaken have powers of their own. This power is unknown to us, since they did not have any power until the Creature granted it to them. We will be cautious when we battle them, finding out what their powers are. Now, we march towards his army. The Conflict is now here, and we are ready.
For the first weeks of the battle, the Creatures forces held their ground, not giving quarter. We found out that our Forsaken brethren have the powers of the Creature, if at a smaller scale. He bestowed upon them an animalistic intelligence, letting them plan ahead somewhat and the ability to use their reason once again. They are able to call upon their memories once more and they use this to their advantage. We suffered many losses but so did they, for we knew how to destroy the Forsaken. The Shifters had been the easiest foes we have ever faced. All we need do was crush them like the insects that they are. They have a carapace and insectoid wings. They communicate with the chittering of their mandibles and the buzz of their wings. They first gave us pause by taking the form of the ponies, but we passed that problem upon learning that there were no real ponies within the Creatures army.
We won that battle though it took several weeks. We lost some of our finest warriors in that assault though it cost the enemy dearly. We were careful not to celebrate, for that would invite disaster. Instead, we planned our next move.
Another battle erupted. This time our brethren from the East came back. They had all turned into Forsaken. It is the worst thing we feared, and it was a costly battle for us. We were taken by surprise, thinking them dead, hoping they were dead. The Creature had managed to turn them on their own kind and made them break their oath to the Creator.
The battle lasted several months. They were our brethren, our own brothers and sisters, and we were forced to kill them. It will be the saddest, most grief stricken time in our history, for an entire Region to turn to the Creature. The thought was unthinkable until now. Many of us hadn’t the heart to kill our brethren, but did so with the help of others. We had to act quickly, for with their new powers the Creature had given them they were able to regenerate very quickly. We had to call upon our primal magics of fire, a thing only used sparingly for we could burn ourselves as well as the enemy. Several of us were caught in the blasts that rang out to kill the Forsaken, leaving many friends and allies dead by their own comrades.
Eventually the battle ended with us as the victor once again. We had suffered so much during the battle, losing one of our Ancients. Grimbold the Wise had been alive for two millennia. He had seen the rise and fall of many civilizations. He will be sorely missed by those of his Region. We can hope that his death will not be in vain.
We now march towards the Creature himself. He has thrown the most monsterous things at us, all in vain. The Region of the West had taken much of the brunt throughout the Conflict. They tell us that it is not a matter of sharing the brunt of the fighting. It is a matter of glory and honor for them. The North has been one of our most valuable in the Conflict. Their stratagems have been the reason we have been winning this war. The South had been crucial to the protection of our brethren, casting spells to prevent harm to those that have yet to grow the thick armor of wood that is needed and to those whose armor has been shattered. They have not been needed to cast their temporal magics, for which we are grateful. Though the magic is easy for them to cast it takes a massive toll on their spell casters, leaving them exhausted for weeks. We fear that the Creature will find this out and force the South to use their spells. We of the Everfree are glad we have not had to use our power over the wilds. To cause such pain to the creatures we have sworn to protect would have been a terrifying thing to do.
Before we reach the Creature we come across two ponies.. At first we feared they were changelings and prepared to attack them should they attack us. One is white, with the mark of the sun on her flanks. The other is a deep blue, like that of a sapphire. She has the mark of the moon on her flanks. The white one calls herself Celestia, the sapphire one is Luna. They are sisters seeking to destroy the Creature for crimes against their kind. We gladly accept their help.
They tell us of their adventures to find the Elements of Harmony. These artifacts intrigue us, for we have never heard of them before. They feel like something of nature, but not. They tell us the Creature, know to them as Discord, had hidden them and taken away their powers while they were forced to search for the Elements. In return we tell them of our war with the Creature’s armies. They are surprised at this, saying that no such army had attacked their lands. We are surprised at their own revelation. We tell them this, with them replying that Discord enjoys sowing disharmony in the land and feeding off that disharmony to fuel his own powers. We form a hypothesis that the Conflict had probably supplied enough disharmony for him to be satisfied. The sisters agree to this. We now near Discord’s realm of Chaos.
It is a difficult journey, with Discord’s army trying to stop our every move. The sisters are reluctant to take part in the battles, only coming in to help an Ent. Their reluctance is understandable, taking into consideration what they have told us of their peaceful land. We do not shun them for such behavior as it is natural to want peace when you are used to such a thing.
We have finally arrived at Discord’s place of power. Oddly, he stands alone. He beckons us to come forward. We hesitate, fearing treachery. It would not have been the first time he has lied to us. The two pony sisters walk forward with no fear in their eyes, only cold determination. Celestia speaks to him, telling him of the atrocities he has caused both to her ponies and to the Ents. Luna only speaks when she is needed to. Discord only laughs at their words. He attempts to kill them with his magic, barely succeeding before the South stops him with temporal magic. Discord is confused, his face a mask of surprise. He again attempts to kill the sisters, only for the South to stop him once more. He has seen the Ents that are stopping him. He snaps his fingers and they snap in half. The entire South Region is now nothing but halves. Some are still alive, screaming in pain. We can only stare in disbelief and shock at what has just happened.
The sisters do not dwell on what has just happened. They activate the Elements of Harmony and blast Discord with them. Discord only has enough time to snap his fingers once more. The sisters, once so full of vibrancy and life, now lay dead where they had once stood. We are again still, shocked by this turn of events. We will grieve for the two valiant ponies but not now. We need to put the necessary enchantments on his stone body so that he will not rise again. With the South not able to do magic we must wait for them to heal. Only a handful of them remain. It will take time for them to regrow their missing halves but the ones who did not die will live on. No other Region has the magical knowledge to cast the enchantments.
It has been three months since the defeat of Discord. We are still in shock at what happened during that final confrontation. We must take actions to help the ponies of the now leaderless Equestria. We come up with the idea of impersonating the two sisters. It will take time but I, Windrow the Wise, will grow the necessary appendages to look like Celestia. It will take longer for my sister, Wind Raw the Graceful, to grow the appendages to look like Luna, but for that we have a plan. For now, we must wait until we have fixed the damage caused by Discord to the wilds of this once again peaceful planet. Until then, my sister and I must start our changes to look like the two sisters. We hope to keep our brethren a secret so we come up with a tale that will satisfy the ponies of Equestria.
Now, we must go. Keep this history safe. May the Creator guide your steps and bring you to peace during your life.