Frigid

by Yuri Petrovitch

Chapter VII: The Trail Ahead

It hadn't taken Damian too much effort before he was ready to set out on his journey. Securing the Aurora's cargo was relatively simple since the orange metal containers had survived the impact into the mountainside. With a few scraps from the wreckage lying about, Damian had sealed up most of the entrances to the Twin Otter just in case some wildlife decided to set up its den inside the metal hull.

From the remains of the bush plane Damian had scavenged for anything that could help him out in the winter wilderness. Currently packed into his rucksack was the following; four days worth of preserved food (including some for the mythical creatures that had decided to tag along for the ride), one itchy gray woolen blanket, a carton of matches and a stick of flint, several water purification tablets and a canteen, the medical kit, and strapped to the side was an emergence fire axe.

Other than the small red axe the only other weapon Damian had in his possession was his hunting knife that never left the sheath on his belt. The seven inch long blade with a black rubber grip was once a gift from Damian's uncle, and although he hadn't used it other than for camping or as a tool it was perhaps the most deadly thing he currently owned.

Satisfied with his handy work at barricading the Aurora Damian sat back down at the fire pit. The flames had dimmed down into red embers with no one around to stoke it or add more logs, yet it still gave off more heat than anything around.

Damian let out a tired sigh as he looked up from the littered clearing and up at the sky. The position of the sun in the clear blue sky meant that it was high noon at the moment, which meant that there were only a few more precious hours until the valley was pitch black once again. Traveling at night had many dangers; brutal freezing temperatures, dangerous animals stalking the shadows, and utter darkness were to name a few. If those ponies don't get back here soon I'll be forced to leave without them, whether they like it or not.

Just as the Human was about to get up and leave with his belongings a pair of miniature horses burst through a bush, tumbling along in the snow until they reached the lone figure in the snow. Damian raised an eyebrow as he looked down the tangle of limbs before him. Speak of the devil and he shall appear.

"Ow ow ow!" Celestia said as she lifted herself up and then her sister, "Luna, I told you not to run so fast!"

"But I was worried that the Human had already left!" The filly whined as she dusted the snow from her coat, "And I wouldn't have run if you hadn't taken so long to pack!"

"Says the foal that started running off in the opposite direction and I had to gallop after you to get your attention!" Celestia retorted, the two began bickering away as Damian knelt down to take a closer look at their belongings.

Wrapped up in an old cloth was an old book written in some sort of weird hieroglyphics, a wooden comb, and what looked like a small stone pendant tied to a string of hemp. The small necklace's grey stone was warn and dulled, yet it still held its original markings of some sort of Celtic spiral rune. When there was a pause in the verbal battle Celestia noticed that there was a Human rifling through their stuff.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" The pink maned mare shouted as she enveloped her belongings in a carnation pink aurora and whisked them towards her. The way the pony puffed out cheeks in annoyance along with her frown made her look positively adorable and Damian found it hard to take Celestia seriously like that.

The whole 'Magic is a real thing' still confused and surprised Damian, but next to ghosts and talking unicorns with wings he had to suspend his disbelief in order to make it through the day; otherwise he'd constantly be driven insane by it's improbability.

"Oh, sorry about that, I was just checking out what you're bringing along," the apology managed to deflate Celestia somewhat.

"Fine, just ask next time before you start poking around in our stuff," Within the magical field the objects began wrapping themselves back into a neat little parcel.

Picking up his bag and placing it firmly on the square of his back, Damian walked over to his company, "So, now that we're all here, I think it's high time we hit the trail. You girls know the way, so I'll follow your lead."

"Agreed. It should only take two days at most traveling to get to Pine village, and we know of a few good spots to set up shelter for the night." Mimicking the Human's action Celestia placed her own parcel on her back and started trotting towards the forest's edge.

"Yay, we're going on an adventure!" Luna cheered as she bounced after her sister and strange new friend.

As the three set off down a trail to the valley bottom a pair of glowing green eyes watched them vacate the safety of the clearing. The eyes followed their progress until the creatures had left from view, by then it had decided that the ponies and the bipedal creature were excellent prey; the creature hadn't tasted pony flesh in quite some time and the smell of the young equines made it's jaw water with thick, gooey tendrils of spit. The two legged animal was new, but that only meant a new meat was on the menu. In a flash the predatory eyes ran off through the forest to gather its comrades for the hunt.

---

For the most of the trek through the snow covered woods the trio had kept to themselves; a few short-lived conversations had happened between Celestia and Damian, but otherwise it was a quiet hike. The forest was still, and other than the occasional bird chirp the only sound was that of a knife being stabbed into the bark of a passing pine tree. After the twentieth time Damian had hacked at a fir, Celestia had to ask what the heck it was doing.

"Umm, Mr. Walker, is there any reason why you're cutting up those trees?" Celestia tentatively asked, watching nervously as the long blade of the knife sunk into the wood of another tree trunk.

"Hmm? Oh those marks you mean? I'm cutting arrows into the trees so that we'll have a clear trail to follow if we want to get back to the Aurora," Damian explained as he wiped away some sap that had covered the blade.

"That's... actually a pretty smart idea. Have you done this before?" With a conversation started Celestia hoped that she could get some more info out of her mysterious companion.

"I guess so, back where I came from I did a bit of camping and hiking, but I never did it more than a few times a year... When I was young I used to do it all the time with my Uncle," With a grunt Damian carved another arrow into a passing tree.

Celestia gave an interested hum at the mention of some of Damian's family, "Do you still go hiking with your Uncle?"

There was a pause before Damian answered the question, and when he finally spoke Celestia almost wished she didn't bring the subject up, "I can't really, Ol' Ben's been six feet under for a few years now."

"I-I'm so sorry to hear that, if I brought up any-" The mare was cut off as a loud *thunk* resonated in the quite woods, another mark had been made.

With a shake of his head Damian carried on walking through the knee deep snow, "You don't have to worry about it, Ben was a great Uncle, but his time had to come eventually, just like everyone else."

"Oh," was all Celestia could come up with to say in the sudden awkward silence, it was obvious that Damian's deceased uncle was a sensitive topic, and in her attempt at trying to get her new friend to open up she had just reminded him of that wound on his heart. Ah, pony feathers!

Not too far up ahead Luna was busy trail blazing, leaping through the meter deep powder like it was nothing. The soft sounds of humming from the filly probably meant that she was oblivious to the traded words behind her.

Out of the corner of his right eye Damian saw that the pony beside him had turned a tad bit too depressed for his liking, so he decided to alter that with a change in topics. "So this hoodoo-voodoo magic thing, how does it work? I mean, you practically brought me back from the dead with it, so you got me interested."

Celestia perked up slightly and smiled back at the Human, thankful that she could get past that awkwardness a minute ago. "It's actually quite simple; 'magic' exists everywhere and in everything. With the right knowledge and abilities a pony such as myself can control that energy and make it do what I want. That healing spell only accelerated you own body's power to heal itself."

With a grunt of amusement Damian stopped in his tracks and shook his head from side to side, "Freaking Midichlorians."

"What?" Celestia asked, confused at the new word.

"Never mind, it's just that it's similar to something straight out of Star Wars," the Human's laughter only further confused the equine.

What's so funny about stars going to war?! Celestia thought to herself, If Luna hears about her precious stars fighting against each other then I think her heart would break!

"So do all the critters here use magic, or is it just you guys?"

"Well, yes and no. Everything has some degree of magical power, but it depends on each individual's race for what they can do with it." Luna could hear a lecture brewing behind her and increased her pace in an attempt to flee the avalanche of knowledge her sister was going to unleash.

"A Unicorn for example has the purest form of magic among the three tribes, as they can channel raw energy though their horns. With horns like mine and Luna's we're able to manipulate our surroundings. While on the other hoof a Pegasus can use it's magic to help it fly and walk on clouds. Earth Ponies however don't have wings or horns; instead they have a deeper connection with the environment, allowing them to become effective farmers or botanists."

Damian was beginning to regret his curiosity as more and more exposition was thrown his way, sure he had asked for it but that didn't mean he wanted an encyclopedia read to him; though with some new tidbits of information a few questions had sprung up in the man's own mind. "Wait, you keep saying three Pony races, but from what I can tell you two don't fit into any of them, why is that?"

There was a silence after that; Celestia's face was unreadable surprisingly. The pair's foot falls made the only sounds as snow crinkled and was crushed beneath their respective strides. Celestia knew that it was rude to ignore the Human's question, but on the other hoof she didn't want to answer it ether. She was about to apologize to Damian that she couldn't give him an answer when she noticed that the man was standing as still as a statue all of a sudden.

Slightly curious as to why her new friend had just become petrified she reversed her course and trotted over to him, the crimson scarf was tightly wrapped around his face and in one of his hands he held his axe, "Um, Mr. Walker, why are you-"

The mare was cut off as a gloved finger was lifted to the Human's mouth as Damian hushed the pony. "Remain very still and listen," the soft whisper put Celestia on edge, something had defiantly spooked the Human.

All around the two stood a dense grove of snow covered pines; their dark brown frosted bark was the only contrast with the blinding white of the winter wonderland. Up ahead Luna's humming could be heard, the filly hadn't noticed that her traveling companions had halted their tracks. It was then that Celestia caught onto what the Human had been so worried about; nothing was making a sound. Earlier the song of birds and the pecking sound of a wood pecker had filled the forest, but now it was completely dead silent. Only one thing could have ceased the woodland racket, and that was the threat of danger.

Crouching down on his knees Damian moved closer to the pony's head so they could whisper more effectively. "So, what do you think is out there? A bear, or maybe wolves perhaps?"

The inside Celestia's gut felt it had been hollowed out, and she could feel her legs trembling in the snow. She was terrified, and she almost didn't respond to the Human in fear that it would trigger the predator's assault. "It must be Timberwolves, they normally hunt further north, but I'm sure it must be them."

"That's just fan-flipping-tastic, wolves. That's all I need right now," the causality of Damian's statement caused Celestia's jaw to drop slightly in shock. How can he act so calm?! We're talking about a pack of murderous wolves here!

Little did Celestia know that at that moment Damian was shitting himself in horror at the hidden predator, (not literally of course, because that would just be gross.) The calm in his voice and pose was just an attempt at keeping the equine next to him from panicking. The only way she could have noticed the fear in the human would have been a slight trembling in his legs, but that could have just been written off due to the cold.

A thought suddenly popped into the young mare's mind, Oh gods! I need to find Luna right now, she's in danger!

Without a second of haste Celestia bolted forwards in the direction Luna had gone, leaving the slightly bewildered human in the dust. The filly's tracks were clearly laid out in the snow for anyone, friendly or otherwise, to follow.

"Damn it! That stupid horse ran off, and now those wolves will defiantly attack." Rule number one when dealing with being stalked by a predator: never make any sudden movements, otherwise the animal's instincts will make it chase after you. Unfortunately for Damian shouting worked just as well for grabbing the unwanted attention of a pack of carnivorous hunters.

As soon as Celestia had left his view a deep growling sound came from behind Damian, it reminded him of his neighbour's pitbull. The sight that greeted the man when he turned to look over his shoulder wasn't like anything he had seen before outside of a Hollywood movie.

Coming from around a tree was, from the looks of it, another tree, except this one was shaped like a wolf. The creature was roughly a meter and a half tall, and twice that in length. From what Damian could tell it was made entirely of branches and leaves, but that didn't mean that it was in any way fragile; its forelegs had claws that looked shape enough to shred steel. From inside its sap drooling maw sat rows of razor sharp fangs. In each of the wolf's eye sockets shone two bright-green orbs.

All it took was three seconds for Damian to pass his judgment upon the flesh hungry creature. The most primal part of the young man's brain was screaming that if he fought that thing he'd die a horrifyingly painful and gory death.

Okay, add mutant twigs to my personal list of nightmare fuel, Damian's hairs stood on end as the beast emitted a low guttural growl; whatever the heck that thing was, it certainly terrified the man to his bones.

The monster began to slowly creep forwards, its head low to the ground and locked onto the Human only mere meters away from it.

Drops of sweat rolled down the exposed portion of Damian's face as he tightened his grip on his fire axe, the blade looking way smaller than what he remembered it to be.

Shit, I don't know if I can take this thing head on, but I maybe I can take it out with some effort and-

Damian's plan of overcoming the creature with any hope of living another day was smashed to pieces when the Timberwolf lifted its head and pointed its muzzle towards the tree branches above it. The wooden wolf began to bark... If the bad puns didn't kill the stranded young man, then the two new companions for the original Timberwolf would.

The two new predators on the scene had been hidden behind tree trunks to either side of their friend, their rough bark hides' provided them with the perfect camouflage. Soon enough all three wolves slowly began to flank Damian on each side.

From inside the head of the terrified Human came the mysterious voice once again. "From the looks of it I'd say that you're boned, well it was nice knowing you!"

Taking a deep breath and letting it out helped calm Damian down a notch enough to get out of his semi-paralyzed state. He knew what he had to do in order to survive, "Fuck this noise!" And with that Damian ran with all his might away from the wolves.

The three Timberwolves looked at each other, slightly confused at the sudden bout of screaming that came from their strange two legged pry.

Their leader growled and let out an ear piercing howl, the chase was on.

---

Luna was inspecting an odd ice formation that looked like a squirrel holding a nut when she heard the Timberwolves's howling from far behind her. The filly froze at the sound, instant fear plaguing her tiny body and rooted her to the spot.

What came next surprised the filly as her blue body was enveloped in a pink mist and thrown abruptly into the air. With a startled yelp Luna found herself hurtling towards Celestia, who was at the same time charging towards her. There wasn't much time to process what had just happened before she landed on her sister's back.

"W-what gives Tia?!" Luna shook her head to get rid of her dizziness and then fixed Celestia with a worried frown, "And was that a Timberwolf I just heard?!"

Without a moment's hesitation Celestia began running though the snow once more at full tilt, "Sorry about that Lulu, be we need to get out of here NOW! We're being hunted!"

Luna had to swallow a lump of terror that was threatening to strangle her, but she managed to focus on something else as she repeatedly ducked her head to miss a low lying branch. "What happened to Mr. Walker?"

There was a silence as Celestia remained focused on the trail ahead and not on the questioning eyes that were boring into the back of her skull. Luckily she didn't have a chance to answer her sister about the Human that she had just abandoned because a steadily increasing yell grabbed both of the pony's attention.

From several hundred strides behind them Damian was kicking up a snowstorm in his wake. The man was screaming profanities at the top of his lungs as he steadily closed the gap between them. It was a curious sight to see, the man was holding a hand to his red woolen hat to prevent it from flying off while his other arm was pumping back and forth while holding onto his hatchet. His scarf was trailing like a ribbon in the wind from around his neck. It would have been a funny sight, had it not been for the three pony eating wooden monsters nipping at his heels.

"Ahhh haa haa! Somebody, for the love of god help me! I'm going to be eaten alive!" Damian wailed as he tried to catch up with Celestia and Luna.

Celestia took one glance at the snapping jaws of the wolves and instantly doubled her pace, leaving Damian behind once more with the wolves. "Keep those things away from us!" Celestia bellowed behind her at her less than fortunate friend.

"You heartless bitch!" Damian cursed at the ponies as they left him in their dust, "What good are you if you can't just magic these things away?! How can you just leave me behind like this?!"

Damian noticed that Celestia had turned her head back to face him, probably to say sorry for sacrificing him like this. As fate would have it that wasn't the best time to have taken her rose coloured eyes from the path ahead, in the span of micro seconds the ground beneath Celestia's white hooves vanished and gave way to a steep slope off of a cliff.

Time came to a standstill as both pony and human locked terrified eyes, equally surprised by the sudden turn of events. And then they were gone, disappearing below the cliff edge.

Taking a look behind him Damian saw that the wooden wolves were still in hot pursuit on his rump, and if he didn't do something soon they'd catch him and eat the flesh off his bones. "Oh damn this all to hell! I'd rather die quick and painless then being eaten!" And with that Damian ran straight off the cliff in the pony's hoofsteps.

A familiar laughter in the back of his head caught the young man's attention before gravity took hold of him, "Do a flip!"

---

Pain radiated from every corner of Celestia's body, but from a few tests she found that nothing was seriously injured or badly mangled. The next thing that popped into her head was her sister. "Luna!? Are you alright?!" Snapping up out of a hole in the snow Celestia found a similarly shaped smaller hole next to her.

"I'm okay!" Luna happily shouted from deep in the pony imprint. Celestia blew out a sigh of relief at her little sister's survival.

Though, once she had assessed that they hadn't died or been critically injured the young mare found herself and her sister in a clearing beneath a decent sized cliff. Looking up however caused her heart to nearly stop, as not only had Damian fallowed them off the edge but so had the Timberwolves as well.

Before Celestia had a chance to scream all four figures crashed in a semi-circle around the two ponies.

As the snow started to settle all around the impact sites signs of life in each of the craters began to make themselves noticeable; for instance, from inside Damian's hole a multitude of curses and swears could be heard, while in each of the wolf shaped snow indents there were growls and low whining from a Timberwolf that didn't make the fall without some damage.

"...Luna, get on my back, we're going to run for it," Celestia quietly instructed her sister.

But, before Luna could hop in between her sister's wings another noise drew their attention. A tempo of thunderous earthquakes began to approach the cliff face. From across the clearing the trees began to shake and quiver as something huge moved among them, clouds of snow were shaken from the branches of ever tree that was passed. With every crash from inside the woods a wave of panic rose inside Celestia's stomach; whatever was out there was gigantic, and it was coming straight for them!

Then all of a sudden the booming foot falls halted without warning, as if whatever had been making them had simply vanished into thin air. A tense silence fell on the six holes below the cliff, Celestia noticed that not only had Damian ceased his fountain of verbal swears to sit statue still, but so had the Timberwolves. Obviously something was out there that even the most vicious predators in the woods feared.

"Okay, what the hell was that?" Damian was now standing and moving towards Celestia, "I mean that sounded like some sort of behemoth just walked by!"

"I..I don't know. I'm just glad it didn't find us," Celestia let out some tension as she heaved a sigh of relief. Damian on the other hand stopped in his tracks to stare with wide eyed horror at the pink maned pony; Murphy's Law had just been activated.

And just like that, the trees parted and snapped as a mountainous form of a Timberwolf smashed into the clearing. The monster's height reached halfway up the stone cliff and it easily towered over the tiny terrified creatures below it. Its breath was rank with the stench of death, and each time it breathed a small gust of wind bathed over everyone.

The eyes that glared down at Damian were a molted yellow with a tinge of red around the edges. Inside the gigantic Timberwolf's gaping maw sat rows of teeth the size of tombstones. Only one word though fully could describe the beast before Damian: Death.

The other smaller versions of the monstrosity were the first to react, the two that were uninjured quickly dashed off into the woods and out of sight, leaving their crippled comrade to his fate. The fall had apparently broken one of the Timberwolf's rear legs, and it desperately tried to follow its friends into the safety of the tree line. With only a lunge and snap of its mighty jaws the Alpha Timberwolves ate its unlucky cousin whole.

"Well, I think I've said this way too many times by now, but I'll say it anyways; it was nice knowing you. At least you'll be eaten whole," The voice in the back of Damian's head said with a small amount of pity.

As the giant turned its attention towards the remaining three morsels Damian could only think of one thing, and that was to buy his strange new four legged friends enough time to escape.

"I can see what you're thinking, and all I have to say is that you're a stupid son of a bitch if you think you even have a hope of killing that thing."

I don't need to kill it; I just need to by us some time. Now shut up, I need to fight this ungodly bastard if it's the last thing I do. Picking up his fire axe from the snow Damian moved in between the ponies and wolf.

"It will be the last thing you do," The voice said darkly.

"Damian, what the heck are you doing?! Run!" Luna cried from beside Celestia, already a stream of tears in her eyes.

Shoving off his backpack Damian then took his axe in both his hands, he turned his head a fraction and gave a weak smile. "I could say the same thing to you too."

In a flash the lone, stranded, and half crazed young Human charged at the beast of nightmares. In his brief moment he thought about how he had never wanted any of this, that all he wanted to be in his home sipping a cheap beer and watching some sports with his friend. He thought about the craziness of his situation, of being stranded in a magical frozen land when he was attacked by ghosts off all things, of his crash and the ponies that had saved his life.

He wished those two the best of luck as he ran face first at his target, roaring with all his might as he lifted his axe into the sky to strike at his enemy. It would have been quite the epic scene had not a mouth filled with razor like teeth snatched him up from the side without warning.

Out of all the pain he had suffered through thus far being impaled by a dozen wooden teeth and a jaw powerful enough to crush stone to dust was by far the worst thing ever. Damian could feel each blade that dissected his chest and limbs; the red hot searing pain from each puncture was torturous and unbearable. With his lungs crushed Damian couldn't even scream out in agony about the pain that was killing him.

As his vision and mind began to fade the last thing he could see was the frightened and horrified shapes of both Celestia and Luna. Why...didn't y-you run?

*Crunch*

---

It was an odd thing being dead; normally most people picture ether a fire and lava filled subterranean hell, or the white and puffy golden glowing palace of heaven up in the clouds. This wasn't ether of those, instead it was just a pitch black foggy void with nothing in it other than two red leather lounge chairs, a coffee table, and what appeared to be two steaming cups of tea housed in a matching porcelain china tea set.

Damian was currently sitting in one of the red cushy chairs, still wearing all the same clothing he had on only seconds ago, complete with snow still clinging to him. Looking down at his chest he found that he didn't have the latest additions of bloody holes or mangled limbs, it was as if he was never eaten to begin with.

With his little survey out of the way the twenty seven year old reached out and grabbed a cup from the table, Though I guess that's going to be my age forever now, right? With a shrug Damian took a sip of the warm drink. And heck, this may not be the best afterlife, but at least it beats being boiled alive and tortured for all of eternity.

"Now who told you that this little place of mine was the afterlife, huh? I quite frankly take offense to that!" It was The Voice once again, but this time it was much more crisp and clear; before it had been like hearing someone from behind a door, but now it felt as if it was right beside him.

"That's because I am right beside you," The Voice retorted, apparently offended for some reason.

The sudden entrance of the mysterious voice didn't shock Damian, but it did sour his mood a bit. With a quick glance from where he had though he heard The Voice come from he saw that there was nothing out there beside the inky blackness that seemed to shift and swirl constantly.

Though, when Damian returned to his drink he nearly spat out his tea in shock; the other blood-red seat was now occupied by an exact clone of himself. His doppelganger was wearing the same snow covered gear he was and was holding the other cup to his lips.

Damian#2 gave a disapproving frown at his company's rude behavior, but that didn't stop him from enjoying his aromatic leaf-juice. With a satisfied burp the copy cat placed the cup back down onto the table in between them. "Don't give me that look; it's hardly the most shocking thing you've seen today."

The cogs began to churn inside the original Damian Walker's mind, "So you just took on my form so I could talk to you, is that it?"

"More or less."

"Then who are you really? Are you a god or demon or something else?" Damian took another sip from his drink. "Mmm, this is some damn fine tea."

"Thank you, I only drink the best. As for your question, I can't really answer that; at least not at the moment... perhaps later," The illusion waved away the question, "Though I do have something you might want to listen to."

Damian cocked an eyebrow and took another sip, "Go on?"

The mysterious figure leaned forwards and steepled his fingers together which he then rested his chin on, "What if I were to give you another shot at life? You'd still be stuck in that world though, I'm afraid can't do too much for you in that regards."

Now came the part that was recited with pretty much every depiction of a devil, the catch. "So, what's the price? My soul, eternal servitude, or maybe even have me go out and collect other people's souls for you?"

"Oh no, nothing like that," the clone shook his head from side to side while laughing softly, "Those things are so overrated; no, I'd just like you to stick close to those two magical ponies."

"Why?"

"Let's just say that they're fun to watch, and that I have some plans in store for them. So, do we have a deal, or not?" The other Damian reached out with his right hand towards his mirror image, there was something off about the grin he had on his lips that Damian didn't feel right about, but on the other hand he was being offered a get out of jail card with the only catch being that he had to monitor those two ponies.

"Alright, I agree," Damian set his cup down and lifted his hand out, but the second before the second Damian could grasp it the hand was pulled back out of range, "But I have one last question: What's your name?"

At first the demon/god/ghost-wizard didn't know how to react to the sudden action; he looked down at his cup, then said with a soft chuckle, "You may call me Chai." The way Chai grinned still unnerved Damian, the way the eyes kept on analyzing him along with the wide creepy smile made Chai look like the Cheshire Cat. With that they shook hands, and the deal was made.

---

It had all happened in a blink of an eye, but Damian had just been eaten right before Celestia's eyes. The gruesome image of the bloody lifeless corpse wedged between the Mother of all Timberwolf's jaw was still stuck in her mind, even with her eyes tightly shut she could still see the horror of her friend's death.

Hot tears rained from Celestia's eyes as she and Luna mourned their friend's passing, huddled together and too afraid to move. Even if they could get moving the speed of the enlarged wolf would have mowed them down the instant they moved.

It was hopeless, and Damian had died for nothing.

There was a sickening crunch and both sisters' shuddered at the wet noise, hugging each other harder as they listened to the wolf devour its meal, too horrified to watch. Luna began to silently scream as they heard the sound of the wolf moving closer. There was nothing Celestia could do, and the sheer helplessness she felt crushed her more than anything.

The wolf was now above them now, its heavy breathing beating down on them. There was a sick noise as it opened its mouth to bite down on the two-for-one deal snack, the wet slopping sounds of the monster's gullet reached Celestia's ears and she had to force them down to prevent her from retching.

This is the end, goodbye Luna...

...

Then came nothing, by now Celestia had thought that they'd have been halfway to the beast's bowels but surprisingly nothing had happened.

As curiosity began to outweigh terror Celestia cracked open a tear crusted eye and peered upwards. Sure enough the sight of the gaping innards of the Timberwolf's mouth greeted her, complete with slobber and blood stains. It appeared as if the creature had frozen right above them for some strange reason.

Not even thinking twice about what she was doing Celestia instantly grabbed a still weeping Luna and together with her in Celestia's forelegs she jumped to the side and away from the deadly rows of fangs that were poised to chomp down on them. They landed in the snow barely out of the reach of any snapping motions.

As soon as Celestia was out from under the beast she heard something that was impossible: she heard the Timberwolf laugh.

At first it was a faint giggle from inside it's throat, but eventually it grew into a roaring cackle; oddly enough the wooden creature hadn't moved a single muscle when it laughed, it was as if it was paralyzed by something. Looking into the stale yellow eyes of the wolf Celestia found that it too was bewildered by the turn of events, its eyes darting back and forth looking for a reason for its frozen state.

What the heck is going on?! The mare yelled out in her head, not only was she scared out of her wits at the moment, but she was also confused and had no idea of what to do or what was going on.

She shivered and trembled in the snow, too afraid to run and too afraid to hide. The last of Celestia's courage and strength went when she had jumped away from the Wolf, now she was helpless once more and all she could do was stare at her and her sisters cruel doom.

Something even more unexpected than the wolf halting its attack and laughing happened; it began to hum a song. At first it was barely audible, but then it slowly grew in volume until it could be heard all across the forest.

It was a disturbing sight to watch; a gigantic Timberwolf paralyzed in mid attack was once motionlessly laughing its twisted heart out, and now appeared to be singing!

Then what came next was even more unexpected, though of a different kind; this time it was of a relief, shock, and awe. From inside the maw of the Timberwolf something was beginning to claw its way out, at first all Celestia's tear blinded eyes could see was a hand gripping onto a tooth, but then came an arm, then a head, and then a body as it pulled itself from the monster's belly.

With a wet slopping noise Damian fell to the snow below, covered from head to toe in the Timberwolf's thick gooey spittle. It was then that the source of the laughter and humming had been found, the Human continued his cheery humming as he stood up to dust some goop and snow from his clothes.

"Damian! You're alive!?" Celestia couldn't believe what she was seeing before her, the last time she had seen the Human he'd been torn to pieces when he'd charged at the Timberwolf. Astonishingly though he seemed to be alive and in once piece, with the only change being that he was covered in the clear green sap of his supposed killer.

The Human seemed to ignore the pony and her question on his continued existence. Joy gradually turned into confusion and worry as she noticed that there was something off about Damian; his eyes had started to glow yellow, that and the smile he had on his features creeped her out just a bit.

Calmly Damian bent down and picked up his axe once more, still humming; though it seemed that the tune had picked up in pace and was now even louder than before, there was even some lyrics thrown in there, but what they were escaped Celestia.

Without even a glance at his friends Damian raised his left arm out and pointed it inside the wolf's still gaping mouth. What happened next baffled the pony as she watched what could only be described as magic formed in Damian's hand; the sparks that gathered from the air around the man's palm were purple, but tinged with an inky darkness.

As Celestia watched her jaw dropped even further as the sparks were collected into a miniature purple orb. As soon as the last spark had entered the sphere Damian shoved his fist along with the magical ball directly into the Timberwolf's mouth. A purple cloud of flames erupted from inside the gigantic wolf and it was set hurtling across the snow field and into a tree.

By now Luna had wiped away her tears to get a look at what was going on, at first she didn't know what she was looking at because it was utterly impossible, yet her large blue eyes witnessed everything that happened and they told her that what she was looking at was real. She unconsciously decided to join her sister in slack jawed bewilderment.

After the Timberwolf had smashed into the forest and toppled over a few fir trees it seemed to have regained its senses, as well as its control over its body. With a fierce growl it locked onto its assailant with rage filled eyes, no longer were they the colour of mustard yellow but instead a crimson bloodshot red.

The beast roared and jumped at the tiny two legged singing creature.

The axe was gripped in both of Damian's hands as he braced himself for his attacker. As the wolf and his wooden limbs came crashing within a few meters Damian lifted the axe above his head in preparation to strike.

In an instant before the wolf was upon him Damian jumped up into the air, reaching twice his height into the sky, and swung the axe down upon the giant Timberwolf's cranium.

With a sickening crunch the axe was embedded deep into the beast's forehead of bark, the wet squelching noise that met everyone's ears as the axe blade was removed meant that the improvised fire axe weapon had met the soft tissue of beneath the armoured bark hide. And with that, Damian had finished his humming. His body went limp a second later and his body silently fell to the snow below.

Author's Note:

Welp, here you go guys, another chapter down! I hoped you liked it, and please feel free to comment, I always want to know if there's anything I can improve on. I'm sorry if I confused anyone when I bumped up the rating to Mature and then reset it back down to Teen, I'm just not sure what to rate this since the rating system isn't exactly clear on what's considered 'Mature'. As you can see this bit of confusion only really happened with this chapter, due in large part to Damian's "Death". Hopefully this doesn't put anyone off, and I'm going to avoid anything gruesome as much as possible. If any of you can give me a hand with the rating system that'd be great!

Take these two as apology:

Once again thank you Nihatclodra for helping me edit and supporting me with this!

Comments

[Yuri Petrovitch]

After some consideration I've decided to put the rating back down to teen; mainly because I'm still not sure what to rate this story, (The lines between what's Teen and Mature are kinda vague after all.) I'm going to keep the Gore tag, mainly because there will be a smidgen of it here and there, but since I've decided that it won't be too Graphic or commonly used it shouldn't effect the rating too much. Sorry for the confusion.

[WolfeofChaos]

Damien=Discord

[Yuri Petrovitch]

4183361
x2.fjcdn.com/comments/And+you+re+point+in+saying+this+is...+I+ve+seen+far+_06178cff631c13f6846e7b3c2bb8e17f.png
Are you sure about that?

[lady Phoenix]

I like it so far, buts it's good not great. For me personally anyway. To take it to the next level in my eyes, well. Either Darmian has to learn Equish the hard way or English and Equish are the same. At least in spoken language.

I just don't like "oh a new creature that is intelligent and from another world/universe/etc. And it speaks a language totally unknown to our kind. Oh I just happen to know a spell to fix that." Just seems to...... Coincidental. Like batman's belt. And that you couldn't decide between the two options so went in the middle, to sit on the fence.

The next point would be to slow it down a little more, he got over it too quickly. Unless he's gunna have a overdue panic attack once all chaos stops.

But good points; I like the idea of the sisters not being popular before they become royalty. And no I don't actually like the idea of a kid regardless of race going through that. It's just a story, so put the phone down, no need to call the police or who ever.

I like that it's set before the main 6 but at same time don't. Not that many stories do that, at least ones I come across. And before the two sisters are royalty.

A mixed point is the windigo's, why did they do that? Just seems to me they're jerky mc jerk pants to me.

Anyone else notice Lina is kinda like pinkie as a child, in this story anyway? Makes it all the more depressing that she will be become or be turned into nightmare later. Which me personally don't think she's evil. She just a wants affection, sure going about it the wrong way, but still.

And I'm going off topic, just swell. Anyway looking forward to more :)