//------------------------------// // Ambush // Story: From Savage to Civil // by Discorded SheepcityUSA //------------------------------// The Everfree Forest had been known for being very unforgivable to anypony that entered. Most ponies were deathly afraid to enter due to the population of extremely dangerous and hostile predators that dwelled within. Timber was not most ponies. He may not have known what the Everfree Forest itself was like, but he already DID know what fighting incredibly dangerous beasts with your bare hooves to survive every day of your young life was like. Anything the Everfree Forest could have to throw at him, Timber will most likely have dealt with it in the Windless Woods on more than a few occasions before. Of course, this didn’t seem to deter the crusaders from chasing after him. “FER CELESTIA’S SAKE TIMBER WILL YA SLOW DOWN?!?!” Apple Bloom yelled at him, panting and starting to run out of breath. “BETTER YET, JUST STOP BEING DUMB AND LET’S GET OUT OF HERE, THIS PLACE IS DANGEROUS!” Scootaloo also yelled out to him, herself also starting to breathe heavily. Sweetie Belle probably would have said something too if she wasn’t the worst off in the group in terms of exhaustion. If it weren’t for her quick and squeaky breathes and lack of air, she probably would have screamed at Timber to stop running too. It’d been close to five minutes of nothing but yelling and sprinting before Timber finally jumped into a bush off to the side of the path, no part of him being visible from it. Luckily, the fillies had already seen where he had gone and followed him into said bush. “TIMBER WHAT WERE YOU THI-“ Apple Bloom’s mouth was quickly covered by Timber’s hoof, Timber himself only looking straight ahead and seeming not to pay Apple Bloom any mind. Sweetie had finally managed to catch her breath once they had stopped running, and had her own questions to ask about the matter. “T-Timber why the heck would you just go running off after that noise? You don’t even know what’s in he-“ “AAAAAGH!” It was that scream again. Still just as loud and flamboyant; only it was much, much closer now than it was before. The girls all shivered a little at the sound of the unknown scream, fearing the absolute worse, given the place that they were in. Timber seemed to be the only one not very deterred by the entire situation. Timber quickly took his hoof off of Apple Bloom’s mouth and pointed straight ahead to where he was staring. The filly’s gaze followed that of his hoof and they were starting to see just why he wanted them to be quiet. A few hundred feet or so ahead of where Timber was pointing was a long stretch of river, whose current appeared to be incredibly rough and out of control. This was because inside it was some kind of serpent-like reptile with an orange mane and mustache of that same color, was flailing in distress and screaming in pain. Surrounding the river and the creature was about a dozen or so unicorn stallions and mares, all wearing some form of camouflage, and lighting up their horns. One of them opened fire on the creature with a blast of magic, striking it square in the cheek. Of course, the creature howled in pain. “OWWW! FOR GOODNESS’ SAKE JUST LEAVE ME ALONE! WHAT DID I EVER DO TO YOU?!?” It yelled, thrashing even more violently. It tried to swing its tail at the crowd of unicorns, but they were much too fast for him and they jumped and ducked out of harm’s way. “Shit! She didn’t tell us this thing wasn’t feral!” one of the stallions yelled. “Who cares?! Just hurry up and help us kill it, or the boss will have your head on a pike!” one of the unicorn mares yelled back at him. On that note, the unicorn tried firing magic at the serpent, followed by a few more unicorns doing the same. Several of the magical blasts hit him in the chest and lower abdominal area, starting to knock the wind out of him. “R-Rgh…D-Dear Celestia, p-please, stop…” The serpent pleaded, appearing to get visibly weaker. From the looks of the damage already inflicted on the serpent’s body, this had been going on for a couple of hours and it didn’t look like he could take much more. “O-Oh no, this is bad, this is REALLY bad!” Scootaloo exclaimed. “W-What’re we gonna do? We can’t just go in there n’ attack em, there’s too many!” Apple Bloom pointed out at the unicorns. The other foals surveyed the scene; the odds were definitely against them on this one. There were only four of them and about 12 or so unicorns. “A-Alright, one of us just needs to go back into Ponyville and bring back he-“ “Uhhhh Sweetie?” Apple Bloom interrupted. “….Timber’s already gone.” She said, pointing to where he was standing not even a moment ago. She looked at the spot and quickly noticed the absence of a certain ginger-maned Pegasus colt that was supposed to be with them. “W-What?! Where’d he go?!” Sweetie squeaked in distress. “Uhhh…call it a hunch but….I think he might be up there.” Scootaloo said, pointing to one of the trees looming over the crowd of unicorns. The other two fillies looked up, and sure enough Timber was holding onto one of the branches with his left wing, glaring down at the group of ponies and baring his teeth. “Grrrrarg….” Timber made a low and deep growling noise through his mouth. It sounded very similar to that of a Timberwolf’s, and was definitely loud enough for one of the ponies to hear. “Woah woah, hold your fire.” One of the unicorns said, holding up a hoof. This prompted the others to stop firing on the serpent and look up at him in confusion. “…I heard something.” He mumbled, shifting his gaze around the group looking for any signs of a predator. All he was able to see though was the darkness of the Everfree and several trees blocking out any moonlight. “…I’m not hearing anything; are you just bullshitting us?” one of the unicorn mares asked him with an annoyed expression. The stallion shook his head. “I’m not bullshitting anypony at all. You know what this place is like don’t you? There’s animals in here that’d tear you to shreds when you least expect i-AAAAAGH!” The stallion didn’t even get the chance to continue as he felt something jump onto his back, kick him in the back of the neck, and start trying to claw at his face. The other unicorns flinched at his screaming and slightly turned their heads to see what was wrong, only to find Timber violently trying to claw at the stallion’s face, occasionally digging his hooves into the stallion’s eye sockets and seeming to attempt to gouge out his eyes. The stallion screamed louder in agony and started to run around the forest clearing at this. “DON’T JUST SIT THERE AND STARE, SHOOT IT!” He screamed to his comrades. The unicorns quickly made an attempt to get Timber off of him by opening fire with magic. Lucky for Timber, he was much too small a target for the unicorns to get a proper shot in on him. This resulted in the stallion getting hit much more than Timber did; and when he did occasionally get hit with said magic, Timber would cringe in pain but bared it the best he could. The pain of being struck by magic was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. The closest thing he could think of was being severely burned in a fire, but even that didn’t compare. And he’d only been hit by one or two blasts. He couldn’t imagine what more than that would feel like. The stallion screamed even louder than before at being hit in the crossfire of magic. “AIM YOU BONEHEADS, AIM!” He yelled. Timber looked up at his victim, and then looked at the unicorns trying to hurt him. Whatever this was that they were shooting at him that was causing so much pain was coming from their horns, the same thing Rarity used to make things float in mid-air and also strike the manticore with. If that was the source of this then maybe… Timber didn’t have time to even consider what was going to happen when he did what he did. He looked up at the stallion he was attacking’s horn, climbed up a little higher onto his head, and bit down on it as hard as he possibly could. Seeing as a horn tends to be very sensitive for a unicorn, this looked especially painful to the other unicorns of the group. Unsurprisingly, the stallion that this was all happening to was having the absolute worst time with this, screaming to the point where his throat was beginning to hurt. “AAAAGH! SOMEPONY PLEASE GET HIM OFF ME!” he yelled. The stallion did the only thing he could think to try and do in a situation like this and lit up his horn with magic. The horn began to heat up to a near scalding level and felt like it was going to burn Timber’s mouth if he didn’t do something about this soon. SNAP! The unicorns all flinched in a mix of horror and disgust when they heard that sound accompanying the circumstances. The stallion had stopped running and screaming altogether and just stood in the middle of the clearing, completely motionless. Timber hopped off of his back and turned around to the other unicorns, growling… With the stallion’s dismembered horn held tight in his teeth. The crusaders who were still watching from the bush were all in shock at this, their mouths hanging open in disbelief and trying but failing to grasp for words. Sweetie Belle seemed to be in the worst shape from seeing this, due to her being a unicorn herself, considered this a pretty grizzly sight to look at. The stallion then simply fell over, seeming to pass out from the pain, not even letting out an “Oomph” sound or anything other than the thud of him landing on his side. The other unicorns were in a similar state as the crusaders as they had just seen their comrades’ horn being violently ripped from his head, and they all of a sudden felt very uncomfortable and nauseous from it. “….NOPE SCREW YOU GUYS, I DON’T CARE WHAT THE BOSS DOES TO ME, I’M NOT STAYING HERE!” One of them yelled, quickly running out of the forest in fear. The other unicorns quickly followed that one’s example and ran with him, some of them screaming, and one of them using their own magic to pick up the incapacitated, hornless unicorn and haul him off with them. Timber started to bark loudly in their direction, dropping the horn on the ground and preparing to chase after them. He was stopped though by Apple Bloom quickly running out of the bush and grabbing onto his tail with her mouth, holding him in place. “R-Rgr, No ya don’t! Yer not runnin’ off aga-“ Apple Bloom stopped midsentence and gagged a little bit. “O-Oh dear Celestia that smell.” She said, still gagging a little bit from her muzzle getting much too close to Timber’s tail. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo followed their friend out of the bush and looked at Timber. “Dude just….you ripped that guy’s horn off…I….dude.” Scootaloo said, still in shock over what had just happened. Sweetie Belle meanwhile, though still very nauseated over what she just witnessed, was more concerned with Timber’s condition. “O-Oh my gosh Timber, you look hurt, a-are you alright?” Sweetie asked. Timber only cringed a little at the pain of the burn marks he’d acquired during the struggle but said nothing otherwise. Instead he pointed to the serpent in the nearby river that the unicorn’s had been attacking. The serpent, also cringing slightly in pain, looked up at the group of foals, Timber specifically. “…Did you get those degenerates out of my hair?” He asked. “Yeah, don’t worry about em. After seeing what Timber just did to that guy, I really don’t think they’ll be coming after you anymore….um” Scootaloo looked at the serpent with a tilted head, not knowing his name. “Oh yes, how rude of me.” The serpent said, clearing his throat. “I’m Steven Magnet. I tell you, I can’t thank you enough for getting those ponies away from me. I can’t imagine what they’d want me dead for.” He said. Steven’s eyes then quickly shifted to his mustache, hoping to Celestia they hadn’t damaged it. Unfortunately, half of it had been burned off by the magic that was being hurled at him. Steven let out an annoyed sigh. “Why is it that I can never seem to keep this mustache intact?” he asked nopony in particular. “Uhhh….shouldn’t ya just be a LITTLE more concerned that there were a bunch o’ ponies tryin’ to kill ya?” Apple Bloom asked, Timber having calmed down enough for her to let his tail go from her mouth. Not to mention the fact that Timber’s tail was probably the worst tasting thing she’d ever had in her mouth so she wasn’t sure how much longer she could last. “Oh I am! I don’t know what those ponies could want with me but they DID keep going on about some kind of “Boss” that would do them in if they didn’t kill me.” He said. The three fillies quickly looked at each other, then at Steven, and then at Timber’s usual confused and unaware face. They were probably going to get in a lot of trouble for going into the Everfree Forest unsupervised, but this was serious. “….We have to tell Rarity.” Sweetie said with a little bit of a grim look on her face. “Jeez ponies in horror movies are pure geniuses. Yes, clearly hiding somewhere you can easily get cornered and later on slaughtered by a guy in a hockey mask is the best way to go.” Critter said sarcastically to himself, sitting on Rarity’s couch next to her, the light of the television being the only thing illuminating the dark room. Rarity meanwhile was wearing an extremely smug smile at her prowess over the situation. For this to work, she would need to keep Critter interested and awake. Given that Critter didn’t seem like the type for a romantic drama, that probably would have put him to sleep within the first few minutes, which would simply not do. So she weighed her options and had decided on a film of the horror genre It was too perfect. Not only was Critter actually a fan of these movies, but it would also give her the excuse of quickly clinging to him whenever a jumpscare happened. Though she had to admit, the blood and gore was a little excessive. She felt legitimately sorry for whoever had to clean up the set when filming was completed. Just as she was thinking this, the killer of the movie smashed through a nearby window and grabbed one of the mares that was in the cabin and drug her outside, kicking and screaming. Rarity had seen that coming a mile away since this was a horror movie, but the suddenness of what had just happened would allow her to continue putting her plot in motion. “EEP!” Rarity squealed a little and quickly clung to Critter, pretending to shiver a little and act as scared as possible. Critter of course, took this as expected. Blushing deep and looking nervous as all heck. “U-Umm Rarity, this is like, the fifteenth time you’ve done this tonight. You THAT scared of this?” he asked. Rarity stuck out her bottom lip and nodded, still pretending to be terrified. “It’s…quite unnerving. Though I do feel a little better when I’m doing this…” she said, slightly nuzzling his foreleg. This wasn’t making the blush on Critter’s face go away anytime soon. “U-Um, well if this scares you that much, we can just stop watching anytime ya know.” He said, more and more red coming onto his cheeks. Rarity shook her head and looked directly into Critter’s eyes, hoping to get even more of a reaction out of him. “No I’m…quite alright.” She said quietly. For a few moments, the two ponies simply looked at each other, not seeming to care much about the movie though it was the only source of light in the room right now. The only thing they did seem to care about was staring at the other, tinges of red and pink creeping onto their respective faces as they looked each other over. Neither pony really knew what was happening anymore as they started to very slowly lean toward each other, eyes closing just as slowly as they did so. They didn’t see anything, but only felt it when their lips finally touched. The ponies now felt like they were in complete bliss as their lips stayed together for quite a long time. Critter wrapped his forelegs around Rarity’s curvaceous body and embracing the mare as he got into the kiss a little more and Rarity was enjoying every second of it. But this would not last very long, as the front door of the boutique was slammed open and the sound of Sweetie Belle’s incredibly squeaky and loud voice rang in Rarity’s ears. “RARITTYYYYYY!” She yelled at the near top of her tiny lungs as she ran into the room, followed by Timber, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. Rarity, now caught completely off guard, quickly broke the kiss, pulled away from Critter, and covered her muzzle with a nearby blanket to hide her blush. “S-Sweetie Belle, I am in the middle of something right now, what is it?!” Rarity stuttered a little nervously, hoping that Sweetie didn’t actually catch her doing this. Critter meanwhile, was trying to recover from his mind going completely blank over what just transpired, only blinking occasionally. And he also was trying to piece together why he had the distinct taste of marshmallows lingering on his tongue now.