The Three's Redemption

by Melody Song

Tensions and Terrors

"We're lost, aren't we?" Flash Magnus asked

"For the hundreth time, stop asking that!" Shining Armor snapped, lifting up the map.

"I'm hungry, where's the food?" Tender Taps asked, and Thunderlane looked around

"Hey, yeah, I'm sure I packed some of the stuff I made earlier." Thunderlane said, and Rockhoof looked sheepish.

"Was that fer all of us?" he asked

"You ate all of it?" Shining Armor asked in exasperation

"I figured I needed to keep me strength up." Rockhoof replied

"But now we don't have anything to keep us from starving!" Lightning Streak exclaimed

"I must say Prince, for a pony who works in the army, you are quite bad at keeping your knights' moral up." Discord said slyly

"Only three of them are knights and moral won't matter if we can't find Grogar's lair." Shining replied

"Just because we're not knights, doesn't mean we don't want to save the girls." Spike said. "I would do anything to get Applejack back, and I don't have to have some fancy uniform to do that." his outburst encouraged the others.

"You also seem to have forgotten that the Wonderbolts are a form of military." Soarin began, but was cut off.

"Yeah, we save the day more often than the Royal Guard does, but they always give us a bad reputation. So maybe you should be the one taking lessons from us." Rapidfire said

"Never mind that, Pinkie Pie's in trouble, and we need to save her!" Cheese declared

"And Apple Bloom!"

"And Sweetie Belle!"

"Yeah, Scootaloo needs us!"

Shining was now getting very, very frustrated. Twilight wasn't the only one in the family who could have outbursts.

"ENOUGH!" he bellowed, making all the stallions freeze in their tracks.

"You think I don't feel the exact same way?! My wife, my sister, and my daughter are at the hooves of a tyrant who will stop at nothing to rule the world! If you think about, I actually have it worse than all of you! So I should be the one complaining! But no, I'm standing here, trying to figure out where to go, and listening to you all yell in my ear about what you think! Yes, we are lost! Are you happy Flash Magnus?! And Discord, how am I supposed to keep moral up if I can't even keep myself from falling apart?!" Shining Armor screamed, then took a deep breathe, trying to calm down.

"Easy Shining, just calm down." Soarin said, resting a hoof gently on Shining Armor's shoulder.

"We didn't mean to put so much pressure on you." Button Mash said

"Alright, I think we've all had enough travel for now. Let's take a rest while Sunburst and I help Shining Armor figure out where to go." Starswirl decided, his calm voice and soothing manner keeping the Prince from lashing out about not needing help.

"Sorry guys, I'm just a little frustrated. While we do this, could the rest of you look for food?" Shining Armor asked, and they nodded, their hunger stopping them from fighting his sudden leadership.

The group headed out into the woods, and began to search. After a while, they heard a shout of exclamation.

"Everyone, come look what I've found!" Fashion Plate cried.

Almost all of them raced over-Discord couldn't be bothered to-and gasped. They were standing in front of an apple tree. But the apples were striped in all the colors of the rainbow, square, and had strange looking stems.

"What be these colorful fruits?" Rockhoof asked

"Oh, right, you haven't seen them yet Rockhoof, they're not in season back in Ponyville. These are Zap Apples, special apples that only come out once a year. They only stick around for a day back on the Apple's farm, but these guys look like they've been here a while." Spike said, taking off and flying up to one. Spike plucked it off the branch and took a big bite, smiling and giving them a thumbs up. "They're plenty ripe guys, these'll be perfect for us to eat!" he called down

The pegasi all took off and began to pick them, while Fashion Plate used his magic and Rockhoof his shovel. Cheese Sandwhich, Button Mash, and Tender Taps climbed up the tree and picked from there. After a few minutes they had a lot of apples and dropped them down on the ground to count them.

"58, 59, and 60." Button called out, and Spike nodded.

"That should be more than enough." Soarin commented. Suddenly, Rumble covered his nose.

"Anyone else smell that?" he asked, and they all realized they smelled it too.

"Pretty sure that's Thunderlane, he hasn't showered for a week." Sky Stinger said

"Just because you want to smell nice for your girlfriend doesn't mean we all have to shower, and that's not me." Thunderlane retorted

"Wait a minute, I recognize that smell." Spike said, stepping forward. "It's a-Timberwolf!" He yelled, as the creature came bounding out of the undergrowth.

The stallions grabbed up the apples-which were their only source of food-and ran. Rockhoof tossed a rock back at the Timberwolf with his shovel, and it bust into pieces. The others stopped, thinking they were safe. But the twigs and branches glowed with an eerie green light, and began to rebuild the Timberwolf. The stallions tore through the woods again, running as fast as they could-flying for the pegasi. Soarin saw that the Timberwolf was going to catch the earth ponies and unicorn if they kept running, and knew he couldn't let them get hurt.

"Wonderbolts! Attack plan Spiral Escape!" Soarin yelled, and they nodded.

The stallions split into two groups. One group flew down to the non-flying ponies and picked them up. They let Rockhoof keep running, since he was clearly too big to be carried, and the Timberwolf wouldn't try to pick a fight with him anyway. The second group flew at the Timberwolf and created a distraction. Soarin led that one. He flew low and drew the wolf's attention, then swung around and let Rapidfire pass him, so the Timberwolf followed him instead. From Rapidfire it went to Wave Chill, who yelled at it to get it to follow him, then Silver Zoom-who got it to chase him by hitting it. Then it went back to Soarin.

"Are they crazy?!" Button Mash yelled

"No, they're drawing it's attention, quick, before it loses interest!" Dark Shooter said, he and the two Flashes grabbing Rockhoof.

However, before they could keep going, they came face to face with a huge rock wall, which was the side of a cliff. It was blocking their way out. The Timberwolf grew confused as to who it was chasing and just swatted at the pegasi, knocking them to the ground. They scrambled backwards, hitting the rocks. The pegasi above landed and prepared to fight, but before they could, they heard a voice that, although annoying, was a relief.

"Now now little wolfie, you can't have these guys for lunch, they're my friends, and they're currently on a mission to save Equestria, so if you don't mind."

Discord appeared in front of the stallions and made a shooing motion with his hand.

"Go on, go." He said, but the Timberwolf only growled. "Well alright, I tried to be nice, but since you insist..."

Discord snapped his fingers and the Timberwolf shrank to the size of a chihuahua.

"Have fun running around through the forest as a puppy." he said, and the Timberwolf ran away, yapping.

Discord turned to glare at them.

"I leave you alone for twenty minutes and you get yourselves attacked by a Timberwolf. Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?" Discord asked

"Thank you Discord, you saved us." Spike said

"Yeah, we would have been goners if it wasn't for you." Cheese said, the others all murmuring agreement.

As they walked back, it turned out that sharing a near-death experience brings ponies together. They began to talk among each other.

"That attack strategy was pretty impressive, how'd you come up with that?" Flash Magnus asked Soarin.

"Oh, that was Captain Spitfire Flare's idea. Spitfire, Rainbow, and Fleetfoot are always coming up with new moves for formation flying or attacking and evasion strategies." Soarin explained

"Soarin's being modest, he helps too, he invented a defense tactic named the Storm Shocker. He can make lightning bolts with his bare hooves if he can channel enough energy, so he made this great move where he shocks our enemy while we sneak up from behind. It's really cool." Fire Streak said

"It used to be that pegasi were able to do that, in the time I came from. We could surprise our enemy with shocks that had enough voltage to knock them out for hours." Flash Magnus commented

"I can only make shocks big enough to temporarily stun some pony, and the affect only lasts about a second, but I'm the best one in my team at doing it." Soarin explained bashfully, as they reached the place where they'd left the three unicorns.

"There you are. What did you do that took you so long?" Starswirl asked

Rumble, Button Mash, and Tender Taps immediately began telling Starswirl, Sunburst, and Shining Armor all about the Timberwolf attack. The three ponies listened in rapt attention, and when the foals were finished, Starswirl sat back on his haunches.

"It seems that you are now better at working together, correct?" he asked, and they nodded.

"That's good, because we think we know where Grogar's fortress is." Sunburst said

Comments

[titanhades70]

Well....they are all doomed..

[Nightflight406]

"That's good, because we think we know where Grogar's fortress is." Sunburst said

Couldn't you have thought to find it BEFORE you went out in the wild.

[DockingWater17]

"Just because we're not knights, doesn't mean we don't want to save the girls." Spike said, "I would do anything to get Applejack back, and i don't have to have some fancy uniform to do that." his outburst encouraged the others

Why Apple Jack? I feel Spike would more likely want to get Rarity, because of his crush on her, back, and if not her, Twilight, because of the close, family-like bond between them.

[Melody Song]

9818722
but Twi and Shining said in Twilight's Seven that they see him as a little brother. and Rarity doesn't seem to like Spike that way, she just-and i hate to say this about her, but it's true-manipulates him a little with her charm, like she does all stallions. Except Fashion Plate, because they share similar likes. I feel like they'd match better. Also, how cute does the ship name AppleSpike sound?