Beyond

by Jay David

First Contact

The group had been walking along the shoreline for a few minutes now, and Pound, ever the cautious one, kept looking over his shoulder to make sure the Silver Oak was still there, rather than drifting away. Pumpkin, far less concerned about their situation, smiled to him and bumped into him on purpose, coaxing at least a small moment of sibling enjoyment from her brother. Flurry, for her part, was deep in thought over this whole matter, then looked over to her uncle. "Did you send word home?"

Spike nodded. "Yep. Laid it all out in the letter. The new continent, our plans to resupply, then poof, sent it back to Equestria."

Pumpkin looked over her shoulder to the older dragon. "I will never get used to the fact that you just have an in-built message feature, Spike. I've known a few other dragons before, and I'm pretty sure none of them could do it."

Spike shrugged. "Yeah, it was a pretty big surprise for me when I first learned about it too. But, Twilight used to speculate that it was a consequence of how I was hatched. You know, coming out from a big burst of unicorn magic and all that? I was always gonna be different from other dragons because of it."

Pumpkin chuckled. "Magical, message-sending fire. Yep, that's definitely one for the history books." But, barely a minute had passed after she'd said that before the quiet of the moment was interrupted by the very distinct sound of her stomach rumbling. After a brief bout of embarrassment, the young mare looked to her friends. "So...I know we've got water covered, but what about food?"

"We'll need to look around more before we know what's around to eat," Pound explained.

Taking that in, Pumpkin looked to the side, to the nearest tree. "What about them? Think there's any fruit or the like in those branches?"

Flurry shook her head. "Unlikely. I'm no plant expert, but I'm pretty sure conifers aren't really known for an abundance of fruit."

Pumpkin smiled to her, then stopped and stared at the aforementioned tree. "Well, we'll never know unless we try."

So, the group watched, seeing her, unsurprisingly, head towards that very tree, stopping at its base before looking straight up to the towering heights it reached to. Pound, knowing his sister better than any, frowned to her. "Pumpkin, don't. You're going to hurt yourself."

"Not if I'm careful," Pumpkin assured him.

Pound, in response, facehoofed. "Which you probably won't be."

Flurry, looking to him, smiled. "Don't worry, Pound. If anything happens, all three of us can fly. So we'll catch her."

Pound was not entirely convinced, but allowed his sister to keep going all the same. The unicorn smiled widely as she kept looking up that massive tree, then glanced to its base to try and see a suitable spot to grab hold onto. As she did so, Spike scratched the side of his head. "Wait, why aren't we trying to go up there ourselves if we can fly?"

Flurry shrugged. "You know pumpkin. She was always going to want to be the first to try this."

And try she did, as she took hold of whatever gaps in the bark she could, testing their sturdiness before hoisting herself up. All three of her friends watched closely as she inched herself higher and higher, her expression one of eagerness to see what, if anything, was up there. Unfortunately, her adventurous moment was brought to a screeching halt when, out of the darkness of the woods, something charged out. So fast was it that it just looked like a dark-grey blur, but Pumpkin saw it head for her just in time, and so let go to avoid being struck by it. All o them were stunned, no more so than Pound, who stretched out his wings and flew straight to his sister. "PUMPKIN!!!"

She was falling fast, but thankfully her brother was faster, catching her before she hit the ground, after which he swooped around and brought her safely back to the group. As for Flurry and Spike, they already knew that the siblings would be fine, and as such had kept their focus entirely on the attacker, who had since landed upon the stones of the beach close by to them. Instantly, they recognised it as a wolf, though one far larger than any they had seen in Equestria. In terms of height, it was about a head taller than Spike, with a powerful build, bearing its teeth aggressively as it growled to them. Piecing eyes locked onto them, and the two stood closed together, ready for the beast's next move. "Well, we wanted to meet new people," Spike remarked. "Now we have."

"Not exactly the meeting I'd have hoped for, Uncle," Flurry returned dryly.

With the snarling creature just a short distance away, Spike elected to be as cautious as possible, raising his claws and stepping forward slowly, trying his best not to look threatening. No easy task for a dragon, granted, but he attempted it all the same. "Easy there, boy. We're not gonna hurt you."

The wolf, in response, narrowed his eyes. "That makes things easy then."

Both Spike and Flurry stood there, stunned. "He talks?!" Flurry exclaimed.

"Apparently!" Spike replied.

Again, the beast lunged, this time heading straight for Flurry. Lucky, despite her royal upbringing, the alicorn was fast enough in her reflexes to be able to dodge the oncoming attack. As for the wolf himself, no sooner had he landed upon the stones where she'd been standing when Spike, now choosing to take a more active role in this encounter, gave a lunge of his own, colliding with their assailant in the side and forcing him back somewhat. When the wolf retaliated with an attempted bite, Spike quickly stretched his wings out and flew high above him, beyond what he hoped would be his range. While this had been happening, Pound had landed again, setting his sister down, and Pumpkin, having quickly recovered from the shock of the wolf's arrival, soon glared angrily at the animal. "You! Oh, you'd better believe you're in hot water now, buddy!"

One snap from the wolf's jaws in her direction was enough to make her think twice about her threat, and she backed off, if only by a single step. Pound, in readiness for having to defend his sister again, spread out his wings in an attempt to intimidate. Unfortunately, the wolf was unimpressed, and began to charge towards the young pegasus. This time though, he was halted not by any actions of the twins, but by Spike, who had grabbed hold of his tail and pulled him back just before his teeth could get to the Cakes. He might have not been a fully fledged adult dragon, but Spike's strength was still enough to be able to keep the creature at bay. He certainly put up enough interference that the wolf decided to target him once again, turning swiftly before attempting to make another run forward. Here, it was Flurry's turn to get involved in the fight, as she had levitated one of the nearby larger stones of the beach with her magic, sending it flying towards the wolf's head. After seeing the rock collide, and thus causing the enemy to become at least a little disoriented, Flurry stood her ground and spoke aloud. "Look! We don't known who you are, but we want no trouble here!"

With teeth still bared, the wolf responded. "You trespassed! You will be driven back!"

Spike frowned to him. "I don't know what crime you think we've committed, but we didn't intend any offense. And besides..." He gestured to the entirety of the group. "You're outnumbered and surrounded. This fight isn't going to end well for you."

For the first time, the beast smiled. But it was in that way that showed that they knew something the group didn't. "Count again." With that, he let out a loud howl, one which echoed all over. This had an immediate response, as about a dozen other quick blurs shot out from the tree-line. Before the Equestrians could react, they now found themselves as the ones with a disadvantage, as they looked around to see an entire pack of wolves having now encircled them. None of them were as big as the original, but they were still of a worrying size. Among them though, Flurry noted one in the pack that seemed quite out of place. They were clearly the smallest of the group, with a lighter brown, borderline blonde fur. The absence of any of the scars or scuffs that the others had suggested that this one had been in fewer scraps, but they eyed them warily just the same. The first wolf, still smiling, spoke aloud. "Brothers! Sisters! Show these outsiders that we are not to be trifled with!"

Spike, knowing they needed to act fast, leapt into the air with wings outstretched. But this was not to fly away, but to give him enough distance from his own to let loose his fire. A torrent of flames burst from his mouth as he swept around the three ponies, shielding them from the wolves with a ring of bright green. The wolves, stunned at this, backed away, save for the first, who had still been in the middle of the Equestrians when this had happened. There was confusion among the pack, even fear at what this would lead to, but Flurry, looking to the obvious leader, called to him again. "I said it before and I'll say it here. We mean no harm to you! Whatever your grievance, we can talk about it!"

The original wolf seemed frustrated and enraged at the situation, and for a moment it appeared as though he might lunge again out of pure defiance. However, before he could do so, a voice called out from among the rest of the pack. "Brother!" All within the circle of flame turned to see that it was the smallest of the wolves who had spoken, stepping forward and looking to his apparent sibling with concern. "If these outsiders truly mean us no harm, we should not risk the safety of the pack by fighting them! Just look at what they can do!" he pleased, gesturing to the flames with his paw.

The elder wolf's eyes darted all around, taking in the situation. For almost a solid minute, it was completely up in the air as to where things would go, but eventually, the animal let out a deep sigh. His body language calmed, and he gave a single nod to both Spike and Flurry. The message was received loud and clear, and Spike nodded back. He flew up into the air again and, with many flaps of his wings, went around his ring of fire to blow it out. After landing back down, he saw Flurry begin to approach the wolf, but he barred her path, silently shaking his head to her. Instead, he took on the approach himself, watching cautiously at their now-inactive attacker. "My name is Spike. This is my niece, Flurry Heart, and our friends, Pound and Pumpkin. We come from a land called Equestria. And I speak the truth when I say that we did not journey all this way to cause problems for you."

The leader of the wolves eyed him carefully, taking a single step forward. He sniffed the air briefly, then narrowed his eyes. "Are you...Others?"

Spike was uncertain how to respond at first, leaving the floor open for Flurry to answer. "We do not know of whom you speak, but I assure you, none from our homeland has ever been here before, at least as best we know. So whoever you're thinking of, I'm certain we are not them."

The wolf stared at them intently, looking from one Equestrian to the other, even the twins standing behind him. After a time, and after looking to his younger sibling, the latter of which giving him a quiet nod, the beast again looked to Spike and Flurry. "So you claim. You will come with us."

Spike wasn't confident about just going along with the ones who'd attacked them, but Flurry, after placing her hoof on her uncle's side as reassurance, looked to the wolf leader and answered. "We will cooperate."

A snort from the creature. "We shall see."

Comments

[Yoshifan30]

Okay it looks like they finally found somebody who lives here but not too friendly so it looks like Spike and the others traveling through the forest and things looks like it's normal until they were attacked by wolves and apparently they live here and they're very hostile to Outsiders Spike and flurry heart try to reason with them they are not a threat and come in peace but it looks like they had to prove it first I wonder how this will go guess we'll find out next time