The group of four had managed to reach the south of the Acres. Upon arrival, a group of roughly 8 Timberwolves greeted them. Bayek looked upon them and gave a slight chuckled as he drew his Spear of Tutankhamun. “I didn’t expect Timberwolves to be literal timber in the shape of wolves,” He commented to John.

“Honestly, you should have expected that would be the case… what did you think they would look like?” John asked back.

“Wolves covered in timber, not timber in wolf form,” Bayek said. “But let’s ignore the semantics for now. We’ve got some lives to save.” He then pulled out his shield and held it and his spear as one in a Phalanx would.

“I suppose we might as well, not like standing here talking is going to help, and I was just starting to feel like I was off duty,” John responded his hand against the sword at his waist.

“Eeyup!” Applejack and Mac said simultaneously. Applejack took a tense yet relaxed stance, her right hand holding the hatchet, and her left holding her lasso. Mac took a more crouched down stance, his body tense like a spring. Both of his hands held the fire axe, ready to swing it at whatever came his way.

“So, you couldn’t tell us why these things would venture out here could you?” John asked Applejack curiously.

“Later on that,” she snapped. “Fight now, explanation later!”

“Ladies first,” John responded as he drew his sword from his side quickly flicking it to his side before leaving it out so if faced towards the Timberwolves.

The opposing sides faced each other, not moving. A scream from the foursome’s objective worked as a cue for the fight to begin. Applejack was the one to strike first, rushing forward and slamming the hatchet into its head, collapsing it, then while the timberwolf was still in one piece, kicking another. She freed her hatchet from the downed timberwolf and ran a short distance away from the main group of them, drawing the two of the angered timberwolves away from them.

It was then John looked to Big Mac and Bayek before he calmly said reaching under his cloak, “If you can handle these I’ll get to where those screams came from,” as he pulled out his pistol before firing three times at the Timberwolves ahead of him the rounds blowing their bodies apart.

“Eeyup!/Fair enough!” They then charged into the now divided timberwolf pack, giving John a path for him to continue as he charged forwards towards the broken bodies of the Timberwolves he shot as they had begun to slowly reform as he passed them.

One of the Timberwolves went to intercept him, but Bayek intercepted it, causing it to accidentally impale itself on his spear. He pulled the spear out, and was about to charge back into the fray, but paused when it ended up dissolving into sand and ashes. Forming an idea, he shouted out to the Apple siblings. “Draw them towards me, and funnel them into fighting me one at a time!” He shouted, switching his spear for his Mace of Rameses II.

They heard him and ran towards Bayek, “lightly” hitting the Timberwolves as they passed them, as well as yelling. They then stopped in front of him and began fighting them. Every so often, Bayek would get one’s attention and manage to redirect it’s charge, disorienting it, and crushing it’s head with his mace. A short while of doing this, and there was only one left. The timberwolf fled, leaving the three fighters tired.

“Let’s rest as much as we can and then join John,” Bayek said. “Hopefully, he’ll have managed to get to the fillies.”

The group did such for a bit before continuing towards the fillies, at a slightly slower pace. Just as they had gotten to a decent jog, a whistling sound was heard before John landed in a heap from the sky, accidentally shooting Bayek in the process.

“NEK!! Keep your gun’s safety on when you’re not using it!” He shouted while trying to plug the bullet hole in his chest.

“What happened over there, John?” Applejack asked.

“Wish I could tell you. I reached the clubhouse then was attacked by a Timberwolf that was larger than the others of which I couldn’t even harm.”

“An Alpha,” Mac said. “While normally an Alpha means to run away, we just can’t. We’d be leaving those girls to the wolves, pretty much literally.”

“Then what will the game plan be?” Bayek asked. “Judging by John’s injuries and your words, we can’t fight, but neither can we flee. What can be……..” Bayek seemed to freeze as if he saw something that shocked him.

“Uh, Bayek? You okay?” Applejack asked. A howl was heard close by, stirring him from his frozen moment.

Bayek stepped forward just as the Alpha came into sight. Applejack and Mac carefully dragged John away to the base of one of the trees as the Medjay and Alpha approached each other. “Patriarch of Honesty, Remnant of Change, show your true form and face me,” Bayek said. The Alpha’s wooden body started to restructure itself into a pony form just barely taller than Big Mac. It then reached into it’s chest and pulled out a hatchet the design of which looked like the Imprint of an eagle’s skull and a standard greataxe (the second of which was handled as easily as the hatchet).

“I Bring You REST!” Bayek shouted, drawing his Khopesh of Akhenaten. The general area around the Medjay and the Timberpony was surrounded by a golden, transparent shield with an Eye of Horus appearing a disappearing every so often on it’s surface.

“That pony looks familiar, but I can’t put my finger on who it is,” Mac commented.

“Me neither,” Applejack agreed. She shuffled a bit, accidentally snapping a twig in the process.

The snapped twig triggered the two combatants to charge each other. Bayek swept his khopesh at the Timberpony, but the axes blocked and pushed the blade away. The Timberpony went to counter-attack, but Bayek quickly flipped his blade around and used it as a hook to pull it closer, leading to him headbutting it with his golden mask. As it was dazed, Bayek began hacking at it. The Timberpony recovered quickly and tripped him before the hacking got too far. It then went to chop his head off, but he rolled over, avoiding the axe and allowing him to recover. He then charged shield first, knocking it to the ground. He then calmly walked to it as it shakily stood up, and when it was standing tall, he sliced at its legs, forcing it to its knees.

“It’s over,” Bayek said. He then shoved the blade into its gut, causing it to light up brightly in a golden flash. When the flash died down, the golden shield was gone and the Timberpony’s barky exterior started crumbling off, revealing a yellow earth pony stallion with a red mane and tail in semi-armoured farming clothing.

The earth pony was breathing hard, showing his exhaustion. Through his breathing, he said, “Applejack, Big Macintosh...I’m sorry.” The voice of the earth pony seemed to spark a greater sense of familiarity within the Apple siblings, Big Mac more so than his sister.

“Pa? Is that you?” He moved from where he was and walked slowly towards the labored stallion. When he got close, he kneeled down and carefully looked him over before hugging him. Applejack followed shortly thereafter, but with slight hesitation until she better saw his face. The three kept in their hug, with the stallion whispering words of encouragement to them. As that was going on, Bayek started checking on John.

“Hey, you okay? You seemed to have taken a hard hit from that guy before I calmed him down,” he said.

“Yeah, I’m fine, I just fell from the clubhouse and had my ribs broken…. Wait how am I okay?”

“Maybe it’s the shroud that Isu Idiot gave you,” Bayek answered. “It seems logical for that to work like how I’m now undead...or your gun having ammo despite having no ammo when you came here?”

“Huh… wait I did have an empty magazine in the gun… how the hell did that even work, pretty sure I didn’t buy anything for my gun from the guy,” John admitted as he removed the magazine from the gun looking inside to find it was half full of unused rounds.

“Anyway, I think I found out who the fourth person who I felt would need rescuing,” Bayek said somewhat happily.

“Well, I’m happy for you,” John responded calmly as he sat up a faint golden glow fading from around his form as he said, “At least you had better luck than I did.”

“However, the form that he currently has will only last so long,” Bayek said. “Eventually, he needs to return to the Duat, the Realm of Osiris. So, if you have any questions for the guy, then you’ll need to take advantage of it.”

It was then John walked towards the figures weapons as he saw the hatchet he had been using before looking over the symbol before he said, “I have a feeling it’s a bad idea for me to ask this. But is this the same symbol as I think it is?”

The stallion broke away from his children and looked at John. “Yes, the mark of the Assassins,” he answered, slightly shocking the two Apple siblings. “When young Macintosh was born, I wanted him and any future siblings of his to grow up outside of the Assassin Brotherhood. A mistake on many parts.”

“What do you mean?” Applejack asked, tears in her eyes.

“For one thing, if Buttercup or I were to die on an assignment, you wouldn’t know how either of us died. That, and not having you trained as an Assassin, you would be an easier target for the Order of Ancients. They no doubt will have lied about my death, saying I was killed by Timberwolves. And they would have completely lied about Buttercup being dead to begin with. She was on assignment with me when I was killed. As my life ended up fading, I saw her getting dragged away. She is alive, no doubt about it.”

“Where is she?” Big Mac asked.

“Of that, I have no answer,” he sorrowfully. He then gave a light cough. “As much as I would love to catch up with all of you, my time is limited. My greataxe is yours, Macintosh, and the hatchet is yours, Applejack.” He turned to John and pulled out an amulet with an eagle skull. “When you next see Applebloom, give her this from me. I’m at peace.”

At this John nodded his head as the amulet was placed in his hand before he looked back to the figure in front of him before calmly saying, “I will make you a promise of my own. I will find your wife and bring her back to her children.”

The stallion nodded in thanks. Bayek then approached him with an eagle feather in hand. “May the Lord of the Duat bring you peace as I brought you rest, Bright Macintosh.” He then brushed the feather down his face and the stallion dissolved into golden sand before reforming into a mummified corpse in an open sarcophagus style grave. The lid of the sarcophagus had an apple tree engraving decorating it. Bayek then placed the feather in it and pushed the lid into place.

“What was all that?” Applejack asked. “Don’t get me wrong, giving him a good grave like that was nice, but I’m still confused.”

“With my connection to the Duat, or the Afterlife, and my probable servant status to Amun, I’d say that what I did could be considered much like how you ponies and cutie marks work,” Bayek said. “And the task my ‘mark’ gives me is to bring those forced from the grave, as your father was, rest. From there, Osiris does the rest.”

“Once again, I don’t think they even know who those gods are,” John pointed out shaking his head at Bayek.

“Sounds like some sort of god of death or something,” Mac said. Everyone suddenly stared at him in confusion. “What?! I’m not some dumb farmer with dog impulse issues, unlike Applejack,” he said back, whispering the last bit. He suddenly began sniffing furiously.

“Umm, is something a matter?” John asked Big Mac curiously.

“Something isn’t right,” he said simply. He then strapped his new axe to his back and took off on all fours towards where the screaming originally came from. The rest of the group followed as best as they could. Mac led them to a tree house in an apple tree, with him charging up the ladder and into the building. John was the first up and in after Mac. Looking around, he saw Mac looking over two fillies, checking for injuries. John then noticed something that was wrong.

“Where is Applebloom?”

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