Act II: Whose Bite is Worse than his Bark
My body was aching. It felt as though it was burning and freezing all at once, though I couldn’t remember why. All I knew was that every time I tried to move, a new pain surged through me. My hand twitched, and I could feel earth being raked around my fingers.
Hunter, wake up.
My left eye fluttered open, though my right seemed to struggle. I was surrounded by dark trees, softly illuminated by the moonlight. My memories slowly began trickling back, albeit blurred.
“What happened?” I croaked.
What do you remember?
I coughed, a new pain added to the quickly growing list, and raised myself to my hands and knees. My entire left arm felt as though it was on fire, and I felt something warm running down my wrist and shoulder.
“I… Shit…” I shook my head, still trying to make sense of everything. “The festival… We were helping the haunted hayride, and then…” I glanced behind me to confirm my memories. Sure enough, two twisted corpses of timberwolves laid still in the dirt path, my hatchet sprouting out of one of their heads. I coughed again and shook my head. “Things get a little smudgy after dealing with the second one,” I admitted. “Did… Did something happen?”
You lost a bit of blood, the voice offered. It’s possible you just succumbed to your wounds. You’re lucky to have recovered so quickly.
“I… Yeah, I guess so,” I mumbled. I winced as I rose to my feet. My left shoulder was stiff, and a pain shot from my right calf whenever I put my full weight upon it. I needed to get help. Ponyville felt so far away, though. My eyes turned to my hatchet lodged in the timberwolf’s head, and I hobbled over to it.
I had been in a situation like this before, I told myself. Loosely speaking, at least. The hunt for me had begun anew, or maybe it never stopped and the alpha wolf had just been biding his time. They had caught me off guard once already, and I was worse for wear from it, but I was keen on not allowing it to happen again.
I reached down for my hatchet and pried it out of the head of the timberwolf. Its edge was dulled with hardened sap, and I had no way to clean it just yet, especially not in this condition. It gave me a small comfort though; even if I knew deep down I was still defenseless with it.
Staying on the path would have been suicide. Though it would have been easier to travel on with my limp, it would have left me exposed, too. Traveling through the brush just off the beaten path may have taken longer to navigate, but the cover provided me with comfort. As I made my march to Ponyville, though, I felt something stir in the back of my head.
“You’re not a fan of this decision, are you?” I whispered.
No, We’re not, it admitted.
“Well, what better idea would you have?”
What’s the point? it asked in an uncharacteristically defeated tone. You will refuse to listen, as you always do. Arguing only seems to lead to… complications, for both of us. Better to save Our breath and let you learn from your own mistakes.
I frowned. Something definitely didn’t feel right, but the more I tried to dwell on it, the more blank thoughts seemed to cloud my head. A sigh escaped me; though it was hard to tell if it was from defeat or exhaustion. All I needed to worry about at this moment was making it back to my friends.
I paused next to a tree as more memories began to trickle in, and I began inspecting the base. “There… There was a guard here, right?” He wasn’t anywhere to be found, nor was his body. I thought I was going crazy until a glint of metal caught my eye.
An armored horseshoe, with not a soul nearby to claim it.
A chill washed over me. I wasn’t crazy. The guard was here, so was the wolf around his neck.
Perhaps he managed to return to his princess, the voice in my head offered, an obviously hollow attempt to calm my nerves.
“He wasn’t in any condition to move,” I breathed. A ringing filled my ears as I strained to listen for anything other than crickets and owls. That wolf could have still been on the loose.
If you truly are adamant about going to Ponyville, you would do best to not wait here for an answer to your questions.
It was right, though I was reluctant to admit it. I pushed the mystery to the back of my mind and continued on. Regardless of the guard’s wellbeing, I couldn’t remember if the wolf around his neck was one of the two that attacked me. I didn’t want to risk getting caught, especially like this.
A lone howl pierced the night. It was distant, which should have brought some slight peace of mind with it, but as it dragged and I listened more closely, I couldn’t help but realize a terrible truth: it was coming from the very direction I was heading.
I couldn’t have been far from the forest’s edge, with Ponyville just slightly further of a walk. I remembered being told that the wolves never strayed from the forest, though. If that howl came from where I thought it did…
I hurried my pace, trying to ignore the pain that shot up my leg with each step that I took. A new fear began to take command. I hoped that it was wrong, but as I drew nearer to the edge of the forest, the faint howling that rose to answer it up ahead only confirmed it. I burst through the tree line and stumbled to the nearest tree for support. My head was spinning from fatigue. I strained my eyes to focus on the moonlit village, and my heart quickly dropped.
The wolves had invaded Ponyville.
Two warm glows burned brightly deeper into the town. The silhouettes that danced in the light were far too savage to be ponies. The attractions in the park that once hosted the creatures of the night had been long abandoned to make way for the true monsters. Over the chorus of howls, a solitary scream pierced the night sky.
“This… this can’t be happening.” I retreated behind the tree I leaned against, hoping to hide myself before any sickly eyes turned my way. “I-I don’t… When did…”
Just turn away, the voice urged in the back of my head. There’s nothing you can do here; surely you can see that now. It’s safer in the forest, safer in our castle. Just turn away.
I rolled across the trunk so that Ponyville was to my back, wincing as my shoulder grazed against the bark. The Everfree Forest stared me down. I felt like I was pinned. “I won’t last any longer in that forest than I would in there,” I pointed out. My eyes fell down to my left arm, hanging limply next to my side. The blood had long dried, staining my hand and matting my sleeve against my wrist. An uncomfortable sense of numbness was spreading down my palm, broken only by the pain brought with each experimental twitch of my fingers. I tried to tell myself that my body was just ignoring the pain. “I need to get these wounds treated, or find some help.”
I stole another glance around the tree, forcing both eyes to open and focus on the sieged village. Surely, there had to be some way in that wouldn’t get me killed.
You’re blinding yourself from your options. Think, Hunter. What a wonderful window of opportunity this presents. I screwed my eyes shut, just for a second, trying to think of anything other than that tempting voice. The enemy wastes their time looking for you in a place you’re not. Who knows how long this will last? Slip back into the forest they have abandoned; find home.
“There,” I grunted. A faint trail of smoke almost glowed in the moonlight over the horizon. It was far from the town. In fact, it almost looked like it was on the edge of the Everfree forest. Could it have been from a chimney? Who could have been crazy enough to live so close to the forest? My eyes were pinned on its source, obscured by low hills and trees. It was far away, but it was much closer than the old castle and much safer than limping into the town.
What assurance do you have that it is a home? The question rattled in my head as I pushed myself off the tree and back into the forest. What if it is just another fire on its last few embers? Why gamble your safety for merely the chance to have hope?
I moved slowly along the treeline, hiding myself away in the thick underbrush from the village. My right eye swelled back shut, but my left was pinned on the smoke. “I can’t run away from this,” I breathed. “The timberwolves are here because of me. It has to be help. I can’t fix this on my own.”
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After what felt like an hour of shambling, salvation came in the shape of a small cottage near the outskirts of the forest.
The thick foliage that covered the roof nearly camouflaged it from sight. There were no signs of life in any of its many darkened windows, but a thin trail of silvery smoke escaped from the chimney. Surely, the smoke must have meant someone was there to tend the fire, right?
Something buzzed in the back of my head, probably my little interloper. Whatever words it said bounced incoherently in my vacant mind. The creeping numbness had spread through my arm, my body, my face. Between the growing nausea in my throat and the ever-tilting earth beneath my feet, it was all I could do to focus on the cottage as I limped out of the Everfree Forest.
The closer I drew, the more details I began to notice around the cozy-looking home, namely the small fence I knew I would have to hop. On the other side, a slew of vacant pens and silent chicken coops dotted the yard. This mystery pony must have tended to animals, similar to the Apples, yet the only signs of animal life were the distant howls of timber wolves and the soft chirps of insects by the stream that divided the cottage from the town.
As I crept through the yard searching for the front door, I couldn’t help but feel so vulnerable. My spinning head was having difficulty discerning shapes in the moonlight, and my body felt as though it was all but fully drained of strength. When I found my prize, I paused and leaned against the doorway, closing my eyes to ease the nausea and praying that by some miracle whoever lived here could help. I took in a heavy breath and dared to look back at Ponyville, and as the details slowly sharpened, my blood quickly froze.
Seconds of dead silence ticked by. For a moment, I thought it didn’t see me. Across the stream and along the path back into the town, shadows began to shift beneath a distant tree. The timberwolf stepped out of its shade and into the moonlight. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. Was something glinting on its head and back?
It didn’t move any closer to me, although a small part of me wished that it did. Instead, it raised its head and released a piercing, broken howl. The cry echoed in the night sky, and the distant howling in the village quickly died down.
I swore under my breath.
My knuckles rapped against the front door of the cottage. I winced as raw skin scraped against its wooden frame, and no sooner than when I pulled my hand away did I receive my response.
“Go away! No candy here! Visitors not welcome on Nightmare Night!”
I jumped, not necessarily from the sudden shouting, but rather the voice. That couldn’t have been who I thought it was. What was she doing here?
I raised my fist and banged it against the door again. “Fluttershy? Was that you?”
A tense second of silence passed. The door creaked open slowly, and a yellow head poked out into the night. “Hunter?” Fluttershy asked. “What are you doing here? I thought you were helping Big Macintosh with— Oh my goodness, what happened to you?” Her teal eyes widened in shock as she took her first good look at me. They lingered on my face for only a moment before glancing past me. “What happened to Ponyville?” she cried.
Another broken howl called out. Fluttershy was frozen in the doorway. We were wasting precious seconds.
I stammered out an apology as I pushed myself through the door and dragged her in with me. The room was quickly plunged into darkness as I slammed the door shut with my shoulder. My hatchet slipped through my fingers and fell with a heavy clack against the wooden floor. The only source of light was the silver moonlight that peeked through the windows and the dying embers in the fireplace. My breathing quickened as I slowly slid down the frame; the lightheadedness was setting in again.
“ I— Hold on, let me get the lights.”
“Please tell me you’re not the only one here,” I begged. I couldn’t rope her into trouble again.
“N-No, my animal friends are here, too.” I could tell my tone wasn’t too soothing. “Why? What’s going on?”
“It’s a long story… I think.”
There was a soft click, and the living room was flooded in artificial light. It took a few blinks for my eyes to adjust, and once they did, I froze.
There was a bear in the living room.
More than just it, I realized, after the movement around the room caught my eyes. Fluttershy had a rodent problem, not just rats, but squirrels and chipmunks and rabbits, too. Birds of different feathers had taken residence in the many birdhouses that lined Fluttershy’s walls. They all looked at me like a deer caught in the headlights. I imagined I didn’t look too different, either.
“Hunter!” Fluttershy’s gasp pulled my attention to her. She was floating by a lamp next to a couch in the corner of the room, eyes wide in shock. “Are you— I mean… How— What—” She was stammering for the right words. Did I really look as bad as I felt? “Harry, help me get him to the couch.”
The bear jumped in surprise. Its eyes flicked from Fluttershy to me, and mine quickly did the same as it began lumbering to me on all-fours. I kicked myself further into the door, ignoring the throbbing pain in my shoulder and back. I could have sworn I saw stars glinting in its coat, red suns burning in its eyes.
“Hunter, please; Harry’s not going to hurt you,” Fluttershy said softly. I felt my body relax, though I wasn’t sure why. The bear slipped its front paws beneath my legs and behind my back and lifted me up, teetering awkwardly on its hindlegs to the couch next to Fluttershy. If it wasn’t for more pressing concerns at the moment, I would have been panicking for a different reason.
She was in an argument with a rabbit that seemed adamant about staying on the couch. It wasn’t until the bear began to lay me down that the rabbit scurried out of the way. It made its new nest in the chair next to the couch, and I could have sworn its beady eyes were glaring at me.
The lamplight was shining directly in my eyes, and Fluttershy hovered over me, her forelegs held nervously against her barrel. A steady mantra of “oh dear” and “oh my” whispered through her lips as she inspected my face. Her hoof guided my left hand up, and in the light, I could better see just how far the stain had spread on my already dark jacket.
“This… This is a lot of blood,” Fluttershy finally said. She looked up to the animals still watching me with wide eyes. “Can you help me, please? I need water and some towels.”
It was like someone hit a switch. In a flurry of motion, the animals in her house scattered to every corner. It wasn’t long before a large bowl of clean water and a few white rags were brought to the coffee table next to me. She gingerly picked one of the rags up and dipped it into the water. “I’m really sorry, but this is might hurt,” she explained. “There’s a lot of dirt in your…” She swallowed a lump in her throat. “... in your face. We need to keep it clean.” As she lowered the damp towel just over my eye, she paused. “You might want to grab that pillow.”
My hand reached for the spare cushion and grabbed it in a vice, and I nodded my head. As the towel pressed against raw skin, I hissed in a breath and shakily let it out. Fluttershy was trying her best to be gentle; she apologized for nearly every wince I made.
As she worked, her questions from before came back up. I offered the best explanation I could with everything I could remember about my history with the wolves. I told her of the strange alpha wolf and its stranger vendetta against me. She looked concerned when I spoke of it. Perhaps talking animals were less common around here than I had thought.
“And then I woke up,” I explained, wrapping up my story of the hayride. “I don’t know how long I was out for. Zecora and Macintosh should have made it into town before all this happened, though.”
“What about Pinkie Pie?” Fluttershy asked worriedly. “Or Rainbow Dash? Are they safe, too?”
I blinked. They hadn’t even crossed my mind when this all started. “I… I don’t know,” I admitted.
A heavy silence fell over us as Fluttershy pulled the rag away one last time. There was something behind her eyes, but she kept it firmly under wraps. “I cleaned it as best as I could. I really think you need to see the hospital, though.”
Her voice had more control than I expected. “I don’t think I have a choice, even if I wanted to. There’s no telling how many wolves are between here and there.” I paused, thinking back to the one I saw earlier. “Listen, I… I think one of them saw me come here.” My eyes had a hard time meeting hers. A voice whispered in the back of my mind, and a defeated sigh slipped out. If it was anyone else that lived here, I might have had a chance.
“It’s probably not safe here anymore. I don’t know how much time we have, but we probably can’t stay too long. There’s this... I know a place in the Everfree; it’s safe, secure. We can wait this out until the Princess straightens everything out.”
She gasped, “Hunter! I can’t just abandon my friends!”
“Look, I don’t want to leave mine, either,” I quickly said. “But there’s nothing we can do! I’m too beat to risk running into them again, and you…”
My words hung in the air, long enough to dwell. I wished for nothing more than to take them back.
Fluttershy crossed her forelegs across her barrel and floated further away from me. “What about me?” she pressed. There was a hit of hurt in her voice, in her eyes. It only caused the pit in my gut to grow deeper.
“I… I don’t want to get you hurt again.”
”What?” She blinked. The hurt never left her eyes, but she looked to me with a new softness. “Hunter, is that why you’ve always been so… Did you really think that—”
A broken howl cut her off. It was close. Too close. Just outside of the walls close. A chorus of howls answered it all around us, drowning the air in blood-curdling surround sound.
Three heavy knocks rang from the door, and a voice like crunching gravel spoke, one I hoped I would never hear again.
“My dear, little pony, I ask you come outside,” it growled in an almost singsong tone. The inside of the cottage was still. Not even the animals dared to move and make a sound. “I’ve no quarrel with you, but the vermin you hide.”
“Everypony upstairs, now!”
The room erupted into motion as the animals scurried up the stairs on the far side of the room. The tiny rabbit on the chair bolted to the front door and leaped up to move the single sliding lock shut on the way. It was a small comfort, but I doubted it would offer much protection if the timberwolves really wanted inside. Fluttershy helped me up to my feet, and as I hobbled to the door and retrieved my hatchet, my eyes glanced to a nearby window. Hungry pairs of sickly eyes stared back.
“Do you know the creature you hide from me?” the alpha wolf called as I scrambled up the steps. “No; how could you? My pack normally does so well keeping them within the confines of the forest. Such a shame this one had to slip free and cause this mess.”
A soft light beckoned at the top of the stairs, a false comfort to chase away the rabid darkness that surrounded us outside. The end of the stairs opened into a cramped bedroom. In the far corner, a lamp illuminated the room from a bookshelf. The bed next to it was made into a nest for the rodents, all chattering anxiously. Fluttershy did her best to soothe them, but even the bear looked as though it was shaking in the corner as it looked out the window. If whatever was outside was enough to make a grizzly tremble, I worried about our chances.
I rested my shoulder against the chimney stack that rose through the room. This was it. There was nowhere to run. Fluttershy looked up from her futile work, and my stomach dropped as her eyes shared the same look of dread.
“It is not of your world. Like oil in water, it never belonged here to begin with. Surrender it unto me, and you can return to your simple life.”
Fluttershy shot to the window, much faster than I anticipated, and threw it open. “Just leave us alone! What did Hunter ever do to you?”
There was a pause. Just as I was becoming impressed with her sudden, fiery courage, she let out a timid squeak and retreated slightly from the window.
“It invaded my world and slipped from my watch,” the wolf growled clearly from beyond the window. “It meddled with our affairs, and now I have an entire town to cleanse. You are still so young, child, but I shall hesitate no more.” Its voice slowed, making each word deliberate. “Deliver the beast to me.”
Fluttershy’s wings had failed not long after the wolf began speaking. She stood with her forelegs resting on the window sill, and I could see her form shaking like a leaf. “N-N-No, I won’t,” she stammered with finality. “He’s my friend, and I won’t let you hurt him!”
I didn’t hear her response, but as mad barking filled the air and heavy crashes rang downstairs, I knew our fates were sealed. My fist had a white-knuckle grip on my hatchet as I turned and stared deep into the darkness down the stairway, waiting for a pair of glowing eyes to race up at any moment. Glass shattered somewhere downstairs, and I found myself praying that the wolves wouldn’t find a way to squeeze through any of the tiny windows.
“Enough!”
A voice like thunder boomed in the sky. In the window to my back, something flashed brightly, and the earth shook as something heavy landed just outside. Inside, the animals broke into a frenzy, but Fluttershy made no attempt to calm them. Her focus was pinned to whatever was going on outside.
“This treachery ends now! Vile fiends, We know not what powers led you here, but you have ruined a most special night. Return to your forest now, lest you suffer Our wrath.”
The voice was all too familiar. I shot Fluttershy a look. “Was that—?”
“Princess Luna!” she called out the window, hope burning brightly in her voice. “You have to help! Hunter’s up here, and he’s hurt really bad! I think the timberwolves are—”
She cut herself off with a squeak and ducked beneath the window. As she turned around, I saw that the hope had disappeared from her eyes. She looked to me, almost in shock. “Oh my goodness. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her that mad before.”
Curiosity had gotten the better of me. I hobbled over to the window with Fluttershy, and we both looked down at the scene unfolding in her backyard.
The earth beneath Princess Luna’s hooves had upturned from her impactful entrance. Though her back was to us, her neck was craned back to watch us reappear in the window. In the moonlight, her furious eyes looked almost as if they were glowing. Her attention hung on me for just a moment before turning back to the wolves before her.
She was surrounded, back to a wall with well over a dozen wolves on all sides, within and beyond the small fence and pens. More still were slowly filling in from the other side of the cottage. Nevertheless, the Princess stood her ground; she didn’t so much as falter. Her wings were spread wide, making her appear much larger than I remembered.
A few yards before her, the grass began to shift. The alpha wolf slowly rose back to its feet. A twisted sound of something between a bark and a short laugh escaped from its maw. “‘Vile fiends’? You wound me with such words, young Luna.”
As it reached its full height, I realized just how large it was compared to her. It was only a head shorter than Princess Luna, but its malnourished form seemed to stretch longer than her. The Princess’s wings fell ever so slightly with her defenses. Why didn’t she just blast it where it stood?
“Thorn? Is that... By the stars, is that you?” Princess Luna retreated back a step, her focus pinned on the alpha wolf as it lazily drifted to her right. The hostility in her voice had melted away, but I could still see the intent dripping from the wolf’s glowing eyes as it glanced up to me in the window. Its ears bent back, and it snarled a sound like creaking timber. The Princess put herself between us again. “What happened to you, Thorn? What is the meaning of this?”
The wolf paused as our line of sight broke, and it barked out that unsettling laugh again. “I am touched that you remembered me, young princess. It has been so long, I wondered if all had forgotten and left the forest to consume me.” The wolf shuddered and began pacing to her left. She followed, trying to keep herself between us. “But I survived, through death and rot and time; e’er vigilant to right our mortal crime.”
“And this is you making ‘right’ for what happened?” Princess Luna challenged, unfazed by its sudden singsong tone.
“The end justifies the means,” it countered. “Better one village than the entire kingdom.”
“You overstep your boundaries, Thorn. That is not your decision to make. Call off this attack now, and my sister and I will show leniency.”
Thorn finally paused, and for the first time, he pulled his full attention to the Princess. “You forget; I do not fall under your jurisdiction, young Luna,” he reminded her with a growl. “I serve to safeguard this kingdom, for if it falls, so too will others. I shall not neglect the final duty I have been given, the final curse I must suffer.”
Inside the room, the animals were growing restless. Their chattering was making it difficult to hear the conversation below. I leaned deeper into the window, straining my ears to listen.
“Your isolation has impaired your judgement. You are not thinking clearly,” Princess Luna reasoned, shaking her head. “We will solve this problem together, remove whatever this curse is that ails you.”
“Oh, what sweet irony, preaching to me of the dangers of isolation.” Across the yard, the pack snarled like a sinister choir, and their morbid song rattled the air. “Do not impose the experience of your banishment upon my chosen solitude,” Thorn growled. The pacing began again. This time, the Princess didn’t follow. “Your vanity once cost you your throne, and upon your return, you proved you learned naught but pride and malice. I learned patience. I learned duty. I learned sacrifice.” He came to a halt, his claws digging into the earth, and his eyes shot to me. A wicked grin split his moss-covered face. “And I have my goal within my grasp.”
The animals in the room were in an uproar, and beneath their frenzied calls, a low, broken growl sounded behind me. Fluttershy gasped, and as I turned, the timberwolf pounced from the stairs.
It collided into me, and we tumbled out through the window. As shadows shifted and moonlight covered us in our descent, I recognized this wolf as the one that spotted me outside the cottage, and I realized with horror that my eyes weren’t playing tricks on me earlier.
My back collided against the earth. My shoulder throbbed, but all I could focus on was the wolf’s twisted face. Vines and branches tried vainly to wrap around a dark helmet embedded in its skull. A dented, purple fin ran across its top. A hazy yellow film covered its eyes, but I could still see the guard’s irises staring hungrily into mine. It opened its maw, a mangled mess of teeth and thorns, saliva and sap, and lunged for my throat.
I closed my eyes and prayed it wouldn’t hurt as much as I feared.
There was a scorching heat above me, there for an instant before flashing away with the weight of the timberwolf. As the ringing in my ears began to fade, I could hear a string of curses slipping through my mouth. I dared to peek open an eye and found the timberwolf gone, with only a splatter of sap, cinders, and warped metal on the cottage wall as the only reminder it was there to begin with.
“Hunter!” Fluttershy leaped from her window, and her wings let her glide quickly down to me. Her hooves slid across the grass, and her head stopped upside down just above mine.
“Are you okay?! Oh my goodness, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even know it was there. Did it hurt you? Is it still—” She cut herself off with a gulp as her eyes trailed past me and found the new stain on her wall.
“Fluttershy, Hunter.” Our attention was pulled to the Princess as she galloped towards us. Behind her, the wolves clawed at a dim blue barrier. “What a relief it is to find you both. My apologies for not coming sooner.” She winced and shook her head. “We mustn’t delay. My guards are holding town hall safely, and holding the barrier both there and here is proving rather strenuous to me. Hunter, rumors tell me you do not do well with magic. Are they true?”
“You could say that,” I grunted as I sat up. The urgency in her eyes told me she needed more than a simple joke for an answer. “No, I don’t mix well with it,” I quickly added. “Or at all, for that matter. Apparently every time someone’s tried to use it on me… well, I don’t know. It doesn’t work on me or something.”
Princess Luna sighed, but it was hard to pin whether or not it was from disappointment or exhaustion. “Very well. In that case, Fluttershy, we will meet you at town hall. Tell my guards to prepare for my visit.”
The pegasus blinked. “What? No, I can’t just leave Hunter like—”
And with a soft pop and a shower of sparks, she blinked out of existence.
The Princess helped me up to my feet and exposed her side to me, extending her wing downward. She made a motion with her head. “Quickly now. The sooner we leave, the sooner you can rest.”
I hesitated. “Are you… You want me to climb on your back?”
“I would let you walk if you so prefer,” Luna replied with an unamused tone. I didn’t need any more encouragement.
I hobbled to her and awkwardly swung my leg across her back. She lowered herself slightly to help but otherwise showed no strain as I put my weight above her. My legs straddled against her sides just behind the wings, and I leaned forward, pressing my hands just above her shoulders. It just occurred to me that my only experience with this was the manticore. I hoped I was doing this right.
“Luna!”
The Princess craned her neck back and looked past me. There was a softness in her eyes, and she hesitated. Behind us, Thorn paced back and forth beyond the barrier as his pack continued to claw and growl. His glare burrowed into me.
“You know not the forces you meddle with,” he warned. “I have devoted my life safeguarding Equestria from his kind. Deliver him to me, and this wretched night can end.”
She took in a breath and slowly released it. Her eyes flicked up to me, hardened with new determination. “Stay low and hold tight, Hunter,” she said, looking forward. “I would so hate for you to fall off.” Her wings snapped open, and she crouched low. I pressed my chest against her back, and my arms quickly wrapped around her neck for support. Not a second later, we took flight.
My stomach lurched as we took off. I buried my face into the back of her neck and closed my eyes for dear life. Her mane swallowed my head whole, and I could feel the wind billowing against it as the mane brushed against my ears. I could feel my heart skipping beats with her wings, and with every tilt and bank, I feared I would fall off.
The Princess eventually steadied herself, and I could feel us slowly descending. I dared to peek open an eye and found myself lost in a galaxy of stars. As I pushed myself off of her neck, her mane peeled away like a curtain, and I found Ponyville sprawled out beneath us.
We were just barely above the roofs of most of the buildings. The streets beneath were abandoned, not a pony or wolf in sight. From here I could see the stage from earlier in the night, set ablaze but slowly dying down. It didn’t look like it was going to spread, and I couldn’t even find the other fire I saw from the Everfree. My gut twisted at the thought. The timberwolves were doing all this to get to me.
The town hall was just ahead. A large, transparent, blue dome engulfed it, and just inside I could see Fluttershy waiting with a couple of guards. A stray howl split the night, but as I looked around, I couldn’t find any sign of the wolves. My heart was racing, and as we descended, I couldn’t help but feel more and more vulnerable.
We dropped beneath the rooftops and glided just over the ground. As we reached the small bridge just before town hall, Princess Luna’s legs connected to it, and she broke into a gallop. The transition was jarring, and I kept myself low against her to keep my balance. A hole opened up inside the barrier wall, and with a leap, the Princess sailed through it and came to a sliding halt.
Fluttershy and the guards rushed us with a stream of questions. I swung my legs off the Princess and collapsed onto the frigid earth, face down and exhausted beyond comprehension. My body was quickly becoming drenched in sweat, and the throbbing ache was returning, but at the moment it didn't matter anymore. A small smile crept onto my mouth, followed by a quiet chuckle.
We made it. I was safe.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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I'd say you're safe to chuck the AU tag onto the story. If you're making stuff different from canon, then AU should apply.
Deviation from the canon post season 2 is perfectly fine with me.
oh hunter, you need to learn that your never safe until you've dealt with the timberwolves and an alpha wolf that wants you dead.
Looking on the bright side, it doesn't seem to want to harm any ponies, so that's a plus.
Canon or AU, it's all good. They key is consistency. Pick a lore and stick with it. Do that and the overall story will do just fine.
as if the story by its very existence isn't already not canon? all the stories on this site are non canon man. otherwise there would just be an archive of episode scripts from the show runners and nothing more. go with what you had planned and don't try to hammer your plot into their framework just because.
Even though the uploads are slow, they are very much worth it!
Glad to see this is back, FimFiction has too many classic fics that died.
Write the story as you want, it doesint have to be canon. Xd
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Heh, it's almost like fanfictions are fan-made fictions
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Alright, wise guys, you know what I meant
I appreciate the feedback, though. It was comforting to find out I was the only one freaking out about this
I think that needs a question mark.
its
So Luna shows up to rescue him? Kinda funny when she pretty much ordered him into the forest against his will. That, combined with Celestia making Hunter stay in Ponyville with the people who traumatized him, filled with ponies who still think him a monster makes the two of them just look like a couple of cunts. Saving him from Twilight may have generated good will, but I think they've run through that by now.
And why are we only NOW seeing this Thorn character when Hunter has been in the forest for so long? Shouldn't he have shown up and murdered him long before this point?
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Thorn has shown up twice before; his name just hasn't been said until now. He's the same wolf that spoke to Hunter during the field trip and when he tried to bring the foals back. Unless you're referring to why he hasn't shown up before even that, in which case... well, I guess it's complicated
I know that's not an answer, but there isn't one I can really give yet until the next handful of chapters are posted.
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Fixed. Appreciate it
Shit went from zero to one hundred real fuckin’ quick!
I've been in the same situation. I even have one story that I haven't started publishing yet that I conceptualized back during Season 2 and has been sort of percolating ever since. And you know, I don't feel any compulsion to change that story and try to make it conform. I've found it more helpful to my peace of mind to ignore everything that came later. I don't think of it as an AU either. I just think of it as an old-school FiM fic. FiM Classic.
it becomes AU the moment it divertes fron the show cannon and make it it's own world.
So I would say this one already classifies.
I’m curious about what happened to Luna’s guard?
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Tell that to Sweetie Belle.
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and that one timberwolf who was clearly the guard
I just wanted to post this I love the story by the way I think it's awesome and cute and a little bit of adorable Ness
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.
Looks like Trollestia did it again
So about the extra guards? But in all seriousness Celestia and Luna are idiots they keep sending unguarded fillies into the everfree forest you think after hunter risked his life multiple times protecting them that they would take his risks in vain. As cold as this sounds I find it to be true you played a stupid game and one a stupid prize let’s keep sending fillies and few guards into a forest filled with billions of ways to easily kill. Celestia is off hiding and not trying to fix her mistake it’s funny if anyone wants to keep characters close to there cannon personality’s start with Celestia crank apathy to 100 and responsibility to 0 at least Luna went out to actually do something. As always great chapter can’t wait to learn more about thorn this chapter made him the most interesting character so far I’m hyped to learn his backstory. Also the fact that humans have been in equestria before is giving me flashbacks to a fanfiction worse then my immortal
I just thought of something why dose hunter never question the voice in his head? Or try to ask it questions
Another thought in one of the recent chapters hunter is teased for using the word horse however in chapter 4 the cmc use the word