Hunters of the forest.

by Sylif Daring Doo

Observations and unfortunate complications.

______*Equestria, Ponyville, three days later, 12:00 PM.*______

Twilight Sparkle, the town librarian and personal student of Princess Celestia sat in her room at the library, writing in a thick brown book, the room was dimly lit by a single candle as she wrote in silence, covered by a warm blanket.

Personal log of Twilight Sparkle, entry one, strange visitors.

Ponyville is normally a very quiet country town, its citizens are wary of outsiders and other species which is a shame because I know a few satyrs which are very nice, but back to the subject at hoof.

A while ago we were lucky enough to have a meteor shower overhead, it was incredible to witness, but one of the meteors almost crashed right on top of my friend Fluttershy and myself, but some unknown force made it veer off and crash in the Everfree Forest.

Now the forest is a fascinating place, it's ecosystem thrives in many mysterious ways and its creatures are both wondrous and dangerous, magic does not work properly there due to its natural properties, but that's a subject for another time.

Unfortunately, the meteor crashed on my friend Fluttershy's daughter Scootaloo and severely wounded her, we did not know this at the time and headed to gather our other friends to search for her, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo's friends were the ones who told us that Scootaloo was missing.

We gathered our friends and entered the forest without the fillies, we explored for a long time until we eventually came across a mysterious hut in the forest, and not the hut that belongs to Zecora, a zebra shaman that lives near the safe paths.

To our shock, we were unable to search the hut when a bipedal creature fired a warning shot with its bow at us, it told us to leave, revealing itself to be female judging by its voice, we asked her if she had seen a little Pegasus filly and the creature denied it, but a scan from my magic proved otherwise, the creature fired an arrow at my horn and missed......no, not missed, she intentionally missed to frighten us.

Then another creature appeared, a male creature that stood on two legs, had two tusks and wore battle armor, it sent the first creature inside and then sent us away before going inside the hut.

The second creature put my friend Rainbow Dash into shock and it took her a few days to recover, and then a few days later Scootaloo walked into town with the first creature, which was promptly knocked unconscious when Rainbow Dash crashed into her.

I later learned the truth along with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, the creatures name is Shanda, a Night Elf that lived with her father in the forest, she had warded us off from the hut in order to protect a now healed Scootaloo, she revealed that her father was the second creature to Scootaloo who later told us, his name is Jod'ka, or at least that is what he said it was, he is a Troll.

Now I do not know much about Trolls, but I know even less about the Trolls from their home world, and I am not sure I wish to know, but I do know that he also brews potions like Zecora, other than that I have little information about him.

Shanda revealed with reluctance to us and Princess Celestia, who came to visit that day, that she was searching for something called the 'core' which would return them to their home world.

Ever since I have been keeping tabs on things, learning what I can about Shanda and Jod'ka, yesterday was quite interesting though.

The Night Elf Shanda seems to spark strange reactions from Rainbow Dash and mixed feelings from Fluttershy, and when she visited yesterday I learned a bit about her.

Shanda for the most part is a kind person, mischievous and unruly but not hostile, dangerous? probably, evil? no, I don't believe so, she spent most of the day yesterday talking to us, seeking to ease our minds apparently, Fluttershy barely talked, only saying anything when it concerned herself or Scootaloo, otherwise she was silent and seemed to view Shanda with ire, which she never does.

Rainbow Dash for once was asking very intelligent questions, like what her home was like, what kind of creatures there were and also what kind of creatures could fly.

Shanda didn't seem to mind the questions and told us about the various creatures of her world. (See side notes for descriptions of creatures.)

She also told us about her home, Durotar she called it, the land was named by the Orc Warchief Thrall, after his father, she told us a little about a city called Orgrimmar, and a village called Sen'Jin, the latter of which was named so in memory of the Troll leaders father.

Another thing I realized was that the people of Shanda's world respect their dead greatly, which is admirable, I have also learned a little about Shanda's kind, the Night Elves.

The Night Elves are a reclusive people, wary of outsiders and fiercely protective of their forests, their culture seems to be completely tied to nature and a goddess named Elune, delving deeper I learned that many Night Elves become Druids, guardians of nature that can use Druidic magic to transform themselves into creatures of the forest like a bear or a large feline to defend or attack.

The more I learn about Shanda's world, the more fascinated and terrified I become, especially as I learn about the dangerous creatures that she has had to fight and defeat, like the relentless centaur and even the angry spirits of dead Night Elves.

When Rainbow Dash and I questioned Shanda on how she would fight the dead, she claimed she could wield magic, we were skeptical, for she had no means with which to focus magic, but to prove it, she conjured magical fire in her hand as though it were nothing, she said that she used to wield offensive arcane and nature magic because she had some training as a Druid, but she could no longer wield her old combat spells.

When asked why, Shanda refused to answer, instead she left with a somber expression on her face, saying that she had to get back to her search for the core, I was hoping to ask more questions but I didn't want to anger her.

Next time I see Shanda I will ask more questions about her world and the core, hopefully I will get answers then.'

______*Ponyville outskirts, just outside the Everfree Forest.*______

Going inside the Everfree Forest is dangerous, especially due to the dangerous creatures inside like the Timberwolves and Manticores, but Fluttershy went in often to patch up an injured animal or to gather specific herbs for some of her remedies.

The ponies of Ponyville viewed her with some wariness because of where she lived and where she often went, but she paid it no mind, she cared too much about the wellbeing of animals just to stop helping them.

And that was once again the case today, Fluttershy had been told by some of her raccoon friends that there was a wounded raccoon mother, she quickly gathered her things and followed her friends to the wounded animal.

Barry the bear followed her this time, the bear was usually nervous in the forest but seemed to be putting on a brave face for her, Fluttershy silently appreciated the gesture and they made good progress towards the wounded raccoon.

Funny thing about Equestrian raccoons, they may be tricksters, but they never lied when it came to one of their wounded or sick, it was just a matter of figuring that out.

Fluttershy stepped over an overgrown root and looked around once the raccoons said they were close, she saw a bunch of trees with overgrown roots and recognized this as the Overgrowth, the part of the Everfree Forest where plants grew spontaneously and rapidly, she also felt her wings tingle and her hairs stood on end, because the forest was just too quiet for her liking.

Upon the raccoons insistence, Fluttershy continued following her friends, they scampered through the trees quickly but made sure she knew what direction they were going first, eventually they reached a particularly large tree and the raccoons pointed at its base.

Fluttershy looked at the tree and her eyes widened in fear, kneeling down over a wounded raccoon mother and three babies was the ever intimidating blue skinned troll, he did not wear battle armor now and was clothed in thick pants and a vest of some kind, both were brown and dark green in color, he had a large looking knife hanging from a belt on his right side, he had what looked like a hatchet handle on the other side of his belt, but she couldn't tell what exactly it was, he also had a large black wooden bow on his back along with a quiver filled with arrows.

The troll seemed to be speaking in a hushed tone as he held his rather large hand over the mother raccoons unconscious body, golden yellowish Magic seemed to flow from his hand to the raccoon, the raccoons by Fluttershy chattered rapidly and Barry stepped forward with a loud thud, he roared at the troll in an effort to intimidate it.

To both Fluttershy and Barry's horror, the troll instantly drew his bow and had an arrow ready to fire in but a moment, he paused upon seeing who it was and grunted, he said nothing and returned to what he was doing.

Seeing this as an opportunity to at least learn what was going on, Fluttershy stepped forward slowly after telling Barry not to do anything just yet. "W-w-what are you doing?" She asked nervously.

"Healing a mother of three." The troll replied calmly yet without emotion, clearly his focus was entirely on his magic now.

Fluttershy took another step forward. "Are you Shanda's father?" She asked curiously.

The troll did not answer at first, instead he waited for a minute before stopping his magic to look at the Pegasus, his fierce orange eyes did intimidate her a little. "I am, call me Jod'ka, you must be Scootaloo's mother." He then returned to his work.

Fluttershy relaxed a little bit without dropping her guard, if what Scootaloo said was true, Jod'ka wasn't hostile. "I am, how did you find them?" She asked, stepping a little closer to see the injuries.

"I was looking around and saw an injured creature, I recognized the bite mark as a Timberwolves." He said before stopping what he was doing. "She will live, but you may wish to take her to your home and heal her yourself, I heard you are good at it." A slight breeze passed through the air and the troll slowly reached for his bow. "They're here." He warned quietly before grabbing his bow again and aiming it at a nearby bush, the arrow glowed an icy blue before he released it.

Startled at the sudden action, Fluttershy stepped back in shock and the bush soon exploded with ice, some thuds were heard and a Timberwolf head fell out of it, confirming what Jod'ka said to be true.

Three more Timberwolves jumped out into the open and growled, they stalked slowly and deliberately, as if planning for their attack on the small group.

Fluttershy quickly convinced the raccoons to get on her back and picked up the mother, she flew up to a thick branch and set the mother raccoon on it gently, the other critters climbed on the tree and Fluttershy looked at Barry and Jod'ka, who had grabbed another arrow, she breathed shakily and landed on the ground. "Timberwolves can't be destroyed, the best thing to do is try to make an opening to run." Fluttershy said.

Jod'ka grunted. "I've been living in this forest long enough to know that you can't destroy them by conventional means." He said before aiming an arrow, just as he did the first Timberwolf stepped out of the bush, it's head reconnected strangely but it still reformed. "Who said I'm being conventional here?" He added before the arrow glowed pale blue again and he fired.

The arrow moved swiftly but the Timberwolves were fast, as one they charged the three.....well, two and a flying Pegasus who flew high enough due to survival instincts.

Jod'ka did not seemed bothered and took in a deep breath, he looked around and saw that one more Timberwolf was trying to flank him from his side, and the other one attacked in a forward lunge, he saw an opportunity in their attack pattern and charged straight at the first Timberwolf, he slid forward, avoiding the attack altogether by sliding, he also released his breath as he slid, breathing out a frozen blast of air, freezing the front half of the wolf.

The troll got up quickly and immediately froze the other half of the wolf with his frost breath, he saw the other Timberwolf start to charge around the side to stop him from doing anything, he looked over his shoulder when he heard a twig snap and saw another wolf start to go for him, he stood still like a statue, not moving an inch.

Fluttershy could not believe her eyes, she watched as Jod'ka looked forward and then down at the ground in silence, she looked at Barry and saw that he was easily holding his own against just one wolf, but she worried, she looked around for more and sure enough, there was a fifth wolf prowling out of the brush and sneaking up on the troll, it then slowly rose itself off the ground slowly as it slowly moved, until it was just behind him.

Unable to stand by and do nothing, Fluttershy shouted. "Behind you!" She snapped.

______*Jod'ka's point of view.*_______

He was certain of his plan, he had two wolves where he wanted them and he knew all about the 'hidden' fifth one, he stood still and acted like he was accepting defeat so that it would draw the fifth out of hiding, so he could then take the three of them out in one go.

It was foolproof, he had even gone the extra mile and displayed his powerful magic so that the wolves would prioritize him over the bear, but there was of course one thing that ruined his plan.

"Behind you!" The Pegasus shouting had distracted him, he looked over his shoulder to see if the wolves went for the bear but instead saw that the fifth wolf was charging at him already, he tried to use his magic quickly but a lunging slash to his left shoulder from one of the other wolves put a stop to that, he did not even have time to react as another slash hit him in his right shoulder.

He stood upright regardless of the assault and he growled in anger, he swiftly turned to face the other wolf who had just lunged, and with a quickly thrown punch, his fist impacted and the wolf soon froze over, he then threw a second punch and broke it straight through its front left leg to its front right leg.

He looked at the other frozen wolf, it was still frozen but it's two buddies kept on attacking, they circled a little bit before charging the wounded troll.

He grabbed his hatchet and readied himself for a fight.

______*Meanwhile.*_____

Fluttershy flew above Barry, trying to see if there was a way she could help, but she didn't happen to spot one, she looked over and saw a thick looking stick, an idea came to mind and she grabbed the stick.

Barry roared and tackled the wolf he was fighting, the wooden creature creaked due to the impact but it quickly recovered, it lunged at Barry and managed to claw him up a little before the bear surprised it by rolling over on the ground and getting back up.

The wolf quickly reassembled the few parts it lost before returning to the apparent stalemate, it was about to attack again when it felt a hard thud on its back, it flipped around and saw Fluttershy nervously flying and backing away, it quickly looked back at the bear but it's head was immediately slammed to the ground by the bear and then knocked away.

Fluttershy believed that Barry now had the wolf handled and looked at Jod'ka, he was doing alright and had managed to break a leg off one of the wolves, she looked over and saw that the other wolf was still frozen, an idea came to mind when she remembered that he had shattered a good part of the previous wolves legs, she braced herself mentally and flew to the frozen wolf, when she got close she heard Jod'ka speak. "Don't do that!" He shouted as one of the wolves he was facing split off and charged at her.

Fluttershy's eyes widened In fear and she felt her wings lock in place, she tried to move her legs but was unable, she could only watch in horror as the wolf charged at her with murderous intent.

______*Jod'ka's point of view.*______

Another complication with what was supposed to be a simple fight, Fluttershy had managed to catch sudden combat paralysis at the worst possible time, he quickly froze the Timberwolf he was fighting and ran as fast as he could.

The Timberwolf lunged at the mare, she seemed to regain enough control to fall to the ground to avoid the attack if just barely, it then rounded back for another attempt.

When the Timberwolf neared the Pegasus, he quickly struck, he grabbed his bow and fired a swift arrow at it, the arrow struck the wooden creature in its mouth and it promptly froze from ice magic.

He looked over at the wolf that the bear was fighting and saw that it had reformed itself, but it quickly ran away, he then knelt down to Fluttershy. "Let's get you all to safety." He said, he picked up the Pegasus with one arm, she didn't even try to fight him or even speak. 'She is suffering from shock.' He noticed easily.

The troll looked at the bear as he walked over, the bear was wary of him and watched him closely. "We will take them all out of the forest to somewhere safe." He told the animal, he reached out with one arm and allowed the raccoons down, he then let the babies nestle in with Fluttershy while he carried the mother raccoon out of the forest.

The walk out of the forest was silent for a long time, that was of course until Fluttershy seemed to regain control of herself. "What's going on?" She asked, looking up at him.

_____*back to normal*_____

Fluttershy was having such a good day earlier, it had been relaxed and calm, nothing was happening that was urgent or stressful, but then the raccoons showed up to tell her about an injured mother.

She thought it would be like the other times, just go in, if necessary bring the wounded animal back to her home, heal them and help them recover, then they would go back to their lives.

But no, her life wasn't that nice today it would seem, and to top it all off she was in the arms of a creature that terrified her and was easily taller than Princess Celestia, the only thing that kept her from freaking out were the adorable the little baby raccoons sleeping on her, she then did a mental double take on her current situation. "What's going on?" She asked the troll.

"The wolves won't be bothering us now, I am taking you to safety so that you can get to doing what you do best." Jod'ka replied simply.

Fluttershy looked down and instantly saw a huge problem, his chest wounds were severe and cut deep. "Wait, your wounds! you need healed!" She said in a panic.

"I don't need healed." Jod'ka said without concern.

Fluttershy narrowed her eyes at him. "Now look, you saved not just the life of those raccoons, you also saved Barry and myself, I can't just let that go." She stated calmly.

Jod'ka glanced at her for a second. "I am certain it will heal quickly on its own, but if you insist, I will humor you."

Author's Note:

Part 3 of the revival trilogy as promised.

Not sure what else to say about this chapter, except that it was pretty damn interesting writing an observation style segment.