The dying day’s final light sifted through the wavering, twisted limbs of a solemn assortment of ancient trees. The elderly constructs of wood and leaves stood with quiet austerity around the clearing, mute sentinels gazing with timeless judgment upon the deathly quiet that permeated their open charge—a forest meadow that lay in defiance of the thick bramble of vegetation that all but defined the Everfree Forest. Settling dust gave the piercing twilight’s last rays the illusion of physical form as they alit upon the clearing’s shattered detritus, gently running their luminescent fingers across the myriad piles of broken wood and shredded leaves that littered the ground.

His chest still heaving with exhaustion as he lied on the moist soil, Nix twisted his head slowly towards the collapsed unicorn next to him. She stared back at him. Her emerald eyes shimmered with self-conscious embarrassment.

“Dancie?” the human gasped out in between rattling wheezes. The lime-green mare’s mouth moved, but only incoherent air escaped from between her lips as her eyelids began to droop. Nix placed one hand gently on her shoulder and shook her when her eyelids threatened to close entirely, startling her enough that she avoided passing out. He moved his face closer to her, staring harshly into her eyes. She could have been killed. “You’re a bucking idiot,” he seethed. She met his stare, and he thought he could see a flicker of anger dance behind her deep green eyes before it faded, replaced by nervousness.

“I-I’m sorry. I just wanted to...I just wanted...” The mare sniffled.

“It’s alright,” Nix muttered quietly, lying back down but catching her with a sideways glance. “We’ll have to work on your aim, though.” The mare turned her head to look at the human, her features contorted quizzically. Nix smiled into the fiery evening sky. “You didn’t manage to hit me in the face with even one piece of marble that time.”

“But I- I-” Ridge Dancer’s mouth gaped before it morphed into a weak grin. “Your face is a much smaller target,” she finished with a rush of breath.

Nix’s subdued, hitching coughs could almost have been confused for chuckles were it not for his fatigue. The mare, similarly vanquished, had no such issues. She chuckled breathily, the locks of her sienna mane bobbing slightly. In between her gasps of exhaustion, her snorts transformed into open giggles. Before long, loud peals of laughter blared from the gleeful unicorn, reverberating with melodious revery throughout the clearing. The deeper timbre of Nix’s own uncontrolled laughing fit echoed alongside hers.

As his guardpony’s mirth finally began to die down, he pushed himself slowly off the ground. Most of his wounds had healed, but he was still exhausted, and attempts to reach for his lifeforce came up empty. He couldn’t even detect the barest few drops from the soul essence with which he was bonded. He rose slowly to his feet, stumbling to either side before finding his balance. He lurched the few meters over to Ridge Dancer, carefully bending over and wrapping his arm around her trunk as he helped her to her hooves. He then collapsed atop her, sending both of them to back to the dusty embrace of the clearing’s dark soil.

“If you say ‘performance issues’, I’m leaving your ass here, Dancie,” the human grumbled as he rolled off the mare and stuttered to his feet again.

“I’m just so...so tired...” Her eyes began to close.

Nix snapped his fingers in her ear to keep her conscious. The unicorn’s eyes shot open as the sound echoed through the clearing,

“N-no! You can’t...” She paused to catch her breath. “You can’t use that here!”

The human stared at her, dumbfounded. “Use what?” he asked innocently. He turned to see a wavering green glow flare up across the meadow, enveloping the largest piles of scattered dead wood with increasing luminescence. “I’m...gonna assume that’s not good.” She responded with a terrified glance. He didn’t need further convincing.

He wrapped his arm around her once again and tried to pull her to her hooves. They both collapsed to the ground. Nix shot a glance at the clearing, and at the various piles of wood gathering together again. Over twenty animated bundles of twigs were basked in the sickening green glow he recognized all too well from the timber wolves’ eyes.

“We have to get out of here.” The human was a master at stating the obvious.

“I...I-I’m just so tired,” the mare responded, her eyelids flickering as she fought the human’s grasp so she could lie down. He tightened his grip on her bright green body and began stumbling towards the edge of the clearing, ignoring the trail her hooves left as they dragged across the ground. “J-just go on without me.”

Nix faltered, his face reintroducing itself with the fertile soil of the vile forest around them. He tried as best he could to ignore the rustling clacks of wood impacting wood—a headsman’s percussion to the whine of the vile magic that subsumed the clearing—before he clutched the mare tighter to his side.

“Dancie,” he grunted, pushing himself off the ground even as he began dragging her closer to the trees that lined the meadow. “You’re a fucking dumbass.”

“P-please,” she begged. Phantom growls began twisting through the early evening’s air as wood whirred to life behind the pair. “I’m...not worth...the effort...” He frowned as he felt her breathe out these last few words before going slack in his arms. He heard the faint patter of paws on the soft ground behind him.

“I’ll abandon your worthless ass tomorrow, then,” he replied grimly. “Today, though...” The thudding of sharpened, wooden paws on earth grew louder. He looked over his shoulder. Twenty of them. Twenty timber wolves had reanimated, and were converging with sickening speed on him and Ridge Dancer. He searched for some lifeforce, for something, for anything, he could use to protect her. He found nothing, and in despair his free hand dug into the ground, clawing at its depths for purchase that he might drag the fading mare to safety. But he moved so slowly, and they so quickly. They had closed the distance so effortlessly, and they would fall upon him, upon Ridge Dancer, in seconds. Nix crawled along uselessly, stumbling and wheezing out prayers to all the gods he had slain. ’Fate, please.’

The malodorous stench of the wolves’ fell breath filled his nostrils. The thrumming drumbeat of the beasts’ paws dimmed slightly as one creature left the ground and leapt through the air, its glistening jaws bared hungrily as it sailed towards its target. Nix dropped Dancie—no, Ridge Dancer—and turned to face the beast head on. His hands clenched into fists and he coiled one arm-

-and immediately shielded his face with it as a booming spear of lightning hammered into the clearing, subsuming the leaping timber wolf in bright blue light and temporarily blinding him. As the human lowered his arm and the spots cleared from his vision, he saw the pack of wolves low to the ground in a semicircle surrounding the blackened crater where the bolt struck.

The bark of their snouts rippled back in threatening snarls as they glared at the light blue pegasus stallion, standing nonchalantly in the smoking hole where their packmate had once been and clad in a beaten leather brigandine. He seemed to regard the rapier that impaled the blackened earth with almost philosophical ponderance as small crackles of electricity sparked along the length of its blade. As the glowing embers that littered the ground around him flickered and died, releasing one final puff of acrid smoke, the pegasus raised a pair of bored amber eyes to the human.

“Hmm. A wolf may not fear the bark of a dog,” he said in monotone, lazily withdrawing the sword from the ground and running one hoof along its edge, “but does the wolf’s bark fear a dog’s bite?” His half-lidded eyes regarded the human dully, but Nix could have sworn he saw a mischievous glimmer flit through them briefly.

The stallion stared in silence at the human as a wolf at his side burst forth, its rows of sharpened teeth leveled at the blue pegasus. The pony flicked his rapier at it, and the wolf was impaled through its gaping jaws. A flicker of electricity shot down the blade, and the beast’s head exploded in a shower of splinters. The pegasus’s eyes never left the human’s.

“Swordspony, I could almost hug you if you weren’t a walking smartass of a defibrillator.”

Glancing Shock’s mouth twitched subtly before he turned towards the wolves with a lazy grace. “Answer enough, I suppose. While I do wonder how simple mongrels laid low a vaunted ‘Godslayer’, I imagine I can ask after I’m done weed-eating the garden.” He slothfully drew his gladius and slid his fencing sword back into its sheath. He floated a few inches off the ground, short sword in hand and sky-blue wings flapping slowly. His head lolled as he examined the snarling timber wolves, the deep blue tips of his wild, mostly white mane wafting slightly with the motion.

“Well, then.”

With a violent burst of air that smelled strongly of ozone, the pegasus hurtled towards the outer edge of the wolves. With sickening speed, he seemed to float straight through the farthest wolf, trailing lightning and twisting back towards the rest of the pack even as the beast fell apart, cloven in half perfectly through its center. The wolves fell on the whirring blue ball of energy and steel, already tasting blood as they outnumbered their opponent. The foolish pups were met by a dancing dervish of blades, his sword glinting a blood-red color in the evening sun as he flashed it in wide, sweeping arcs all while dodging every ineffectual lunge meant to end him.

Where teeth snapped, he had already rolled away with a lurching, drunken agility; the heads behind the teeth thumped to the ground as his blade lashed out. The timber wolves were a seething locus of chaotic violence as they scrambled over each other to get to the swordspony. He merely waltzed between their surging wooden masses, his sword spinning with mathematical calculation and seeming to strike multiple opponents with every sudden sweep.

It was over in seconds. Looking at the chunks of wood at his feet, Glancing Shock released a derisive snort before sheathing his gladius. He ambled up to Nix and Ridge Dancer, his odd grace fluidly shifting between razor precision and a rolling dance at random.

“Would you kindly tell me why you allowed my guard to be hurt, alien?” the pegasus asked blandly, though Nix detected the hint of a threat behind the melodious drone of his voice.

“I-I’m not hurt, Guard-Captain-” Dancie started.

“I’m not ‘Guard-Captain’ anymore,” he interrupted, no trace of bitterness in his voice as he eyed the green unicorn blankly. “Just Glancing Shock.”

“Y-yes, Gua- uh, Glancing Shock.” The name felt wierd coming from the guardpony’s lips. “I’m just a little tired.” She glanced at the rocks littering the clearing. “I...I did it with three boulders this time instead of just the one.”

The swordspony’s eyebrows raised half a millimeter in shock. “Well, that’s quite an interesting feat...either way, the sun’s almost set, and I could sorely use a cup of tea. Hopefully without some brash rainbow pegasus interrupting it with crazed shouting about ‘sons-of-birches’ and shadow gods and some such.” He paused, turning towards the frontier of the empty expanse nestled in the forest. “It’s been so long since I’ve had time to catch up with Shining Armor’s little sister, after all.”

A whining hum filled the clearing as it was subsumed by the sickening green glow of magic. Glancing Shock released a slightly heavier breath, poorly mimicking a sigh. “I forgot what annoying pests these timber wolves could be,” he said, exasperation almost penetrating his bored tone as he drew his short sword and turned back towards the clearing.

The numerous bits of bark, leaves, and sticks levitated off the ground for a few seconds before flying to the center of the clearing, whirling high in the air in a tempestuous cyclone of wood. The whirring gyre increased in speed before every errant piece shot inwards, coalescing with grisly efficiency into a single, massive form. As the green glow died down, a gargantuan wooden claw slammed down onto the earth and the ground shuddered. Swirling green eyes the size of dinner plates glared furiously at the trio as the towering monstrosity inhaled deeply—a violent gust ripped at the three. A deathly quiet fell upon the clearing as the wind settled before a skull-rattling roar shattered the precarious peace. The colossal timber wolf raised itself to its full height—at least three stories tall—and took a thunderous step forward.

Glancing Shock gazed ponderously at his diminutive blade, then at the approaching monster. With uncharacteristic quickness, he drew his rapier. His eyes flicked between the two swords, then back at the gigantic timber wolf. He pursed his lips and blew out a puff of air. “I’ll make it work,” he muttered to himself. His wing muscles tensed briefly before he shot through the air towards the lumbering beast, wings flared and swords held wide. He abandoned all pretense of control, and his mouth sneered with maniacal glee even as lightning trailed off his wings. He rocketed forward, bringing his swords to bear in front of him and becoming a living spear aimed squarely at the monster’s head.

The uberwolf’s paw moved faster, colliding with the light blue pegasus and smacking him aside. He tumbled through the air, slamming into a tree and sending cracks along its trunk under the force of his impact before crumpling to the ground. His limbs spasmed as he dropped his swords, his head lolling to the earth and his paroxysms dying as he blacked out.

“Big goddamned hero moment, my ass,” Nix grumbled to himself, reaching for Ridge Dancer so they could both escape. His hands grasped at empty air as he found the spot unoccupied. His eyes swept his surroundings quickly. He saw her light green mass stumbling towards the wooden leviathan. He lurched after her, cursing under his breath and fighting off his fatigue as he saw her horn begin to sputter dull green sparks.

The timber wolf’s every step thundered as it approached Glancing Shock. It leered down hungrily at his broken form, viscous globules of sap dripping off its massive fangs. It stooped to claim its prey before a large rock slammed into its head, bouncing off harmlessly alongside a few flecks of bark. Its green eyes narrowed to luminescent slits as its head whipped around. Ridge Dancer stood before it, legs wavering like jelly as she forced herself to stand. A few more tiny rocks glanced uselessly off the beast’s side. It unleashed a chilling roar and turned on the unicorn.

Nix stumbled between the monster and the mare, searching desperately for his power, for any power. A single smoky tendril extended from his coat towards the lumbering creature and dissipated on impact with its hardwood skin. It squinted one eye quizzically at the human before a lazy sweep of its paw sent him tumbling across the earth.

With quivering arms, Nix pushed himself off the ground and turned in time to see one enormous paw come down onto Ridge Dancer’s lower half, pinning her to the ground. She shrieked in pain, her shrill cry piercing the clearing. As the wolf’s massive jaws loomed over the sobbing unicorn, Nix began to panic. He did the only thing he could; he snapped his fingers at the behemoth.

Its jaws immediately slapped shut, entangled with a couple black cords of cloth that appeared from thin air. It drew its head back in confusion, shaking it violently and pawing at its nose to tear off the restraints. Small pieces of metal glinted dully in the orange light of the evening before it managed to free itself of the knotted bands. They sailed through the air before thudding to the ground at Nix’s feet. The human glanced at them, and his eyes widened.

The hulking mass of wood and leaves refocused its gaping maw on Dancie, setting its jaws to snap shut on her shivering form as her eyes glazed over in fear. She blubbered and spasmed underneath the crushing weight of the massive paw, looking up in terror at rows upon rows of sharpened wood bearing down upon her.

A shower of splinters and chunks of wood exploded from the side of the beast’s head and it recoiled, roaring in surprised pain. It turned slowly, towards the source of its torment, one lip raising in a guttural growl that thundered through the clearing. Its enraged eyes fell upon the strange biped, standing cocksure and holding a small chunk of black metal that emitted a small tendril of smoke from its tip.

“Do you wanna know the best part about weaponry that uses one’s fuckin’ soul as a power source?” Nix asked nonchalantly, reaching inside his duster’s breast pocket even as he kept his black pistol, Umbra, leveled at the face of the ugly fucking wood monster. He pulled a cigarette from the pocket and placed it between his lips. He tried summoning a fireball, but still found no lifeforce. With a shrug, he aimed his gun at the tip of his smoke and fired. The tip of the cigarette frayed, but a few orange embers burned at the half that remained. He pointed his gun back towards the behemoth timber wolf and drew deeply on the butt. His sapphire eyes regarded the monster coldly as he exhaled a cloud of smoke.

It roared and charged, every lope towards him sending dull quakes through the earth. Nix stared dully at its approach, drawing his silver pistol, Lux, and letting both arms fall to his sides. As it closed on him, the beast lowered its massive jaws and twisted its head to bite him in half. The human twisted and dropped onto his back as the sharp wooden pikes snapped harmlessly around empty air. The gigantic timber wolf’s four thick legs crashed around him as he slid underneath it. His twin guns flashed upwards and he fired off a quicksilver barrage of shots at the beast’s limbs. The air around him was a deluge of splinters, searing embers, and the cracking booms of his weapons as he fired away with inhuman ferocity.

The uberwolf’s legs evaporated in less than a second, and it heaved forward. Its head and body slammed down with a deafening crash. Its handicapped torso slid across the ground for a ways, digging a massive furrow through the dark, fertile soil and kicking up a cloud of dust. As the air began to clear, it began thrashing and snapping its head about, its considerable mass stirring desperately in spite of the loss of its legs.

Nix walked calmly around the fallen leviathan, his legs stuttering every few steps. He raised his twin guns at the gnashing face of the beast before him, glaring down on its broken form with imperious fury. His lips curled back into a feral snarl.

“Rechargeable batteries, you overgrown bitch.”

He emptied the batteries of his guns into the shrieking monster’s face until there was nothing but a smouldering pile of ash and smoke where it once lay. He awkwardly forced his weapons into the black bands of the holsters that once again criss-crossed his chest. One hand numbly grasped at the cigarette between his lips but only managed to dislodge it. It twisted dully through the air, its ashes joining unceremoniously with the rest of the blackened, smoking mass that crunched beneath Nix’s feet. He ignored it and stumbled dully towards the lime green mass that whimpered on the ground.

He dropped to his knees before Ridge Dancer and gently placed his hands on her. She looked up at him with shimmering eyes.

“I c-can’t feel my legs, Phoenix,” she sobbed. She coughed up a large chunk of phlegm and flesh, her twisted chest heaving under the effort. “Why can’t I...can’t I feel my legs?”

“Shh-shh-shh, Ridge Dancer,” Nix cooed as gently as he could. “It’ll be alright.” He looked down calmly at the mare—as calmly as he could with her rattling, labored breaths drilling through his mind. Her lower half was crushed, a misshapen tangle of bones underneath torn flesh.

’No.’

“I know it hurts, but I can heal you. Remember?” She looked up at him, her eyes wavering. “Just like when I broke your leg,” he forced out hoarsely. He tried to draw from his lifeforce, his efforts coming up empty. He stared into the mare’s jade eyes. He tried harder, but every attempt to access his lifeforce glanced off a smooth, uncaring barrier.

Ridge Dancer sniffled and she forced a small smile. “Y-you...remembered...” She coughed up more blood. More viscera. Nix’s psyche scratched uselessly against the barrier between him and his healing magic. Hammered at it.

’No.’

“Performance...issues...?” she wheezed softly.

“I...I c-can’t find- my power, it’s-”

Dancie’s lime green hoof twitched and wavered as it fought to rise off the ground. She stroked the human’s cheek softly.

“Shh...I finally...made...a friend.” She stared happily into his dull blue eyes. A warm smile graced her lips. “B-but I’m tired...so tired...” Her eyelids began to close.

’No.’

Nix rejected this. He rejected Ridge Dancer’s injuries. He hammered on the barrier. He rejected this happy world of singing ponies and levity. He struck harder. He rejected that this world could see his guardpony—his guardpony—suffer such a fate. The barrier warped. Nix struck at it viciously. Her beautiful jade eyes were almost completely hidden by the downward march of her eyelids. Nix rejected this.

He rejected this entire reality.

Fiery claws tore at the barrier that separated him and this mare’s life. The barrier wavered, but Nix dove deep and buried his mind’s talons into its shimmering, perfect surface. Fueled by a thousand years of failure, his burning limbs flared brightly, and he rent the harmonious barrier in two, in four. He slashed and hammered and eviscerated the wall between him and Dancie’s salvation, ripping it to shreds. The cosmic lifeforce of the universe, his universe, his home, glowed warmly beyond its bounds. He reached for it, and drank deeply of its power, unconstrained at last.

As the barrier broke, a blinding pillar of light burst from the ground of the tiny clearing in the Everfree. It shot upwards, piercing the heavens. The dusk’s orange sun, hovering precipitously on the horizon, dropped from the sky. The blinding pillar of light replaced its glow, flaring brightly as the human at its base breathed in its power hungrily. As Nix’s hands were subsumed by the delirious flurries of white fire that danced across Ridge Dancer’s fading body, eggshell cracks began to form across the newly darkened sky, spilling white light along the fractures as reality began to crumble.

’I reject.’

A white sphere consumed the small clearing, swelling slightly before imploding with a cataclysmic explosion, sending off a shower of glowing sparks to the surrounding forest.

The gleaming pillar of power wavered and dissolved. The cracks in the night sky healed. The sun gingerly peeked out over the horizon. Reality refocused, returning to its natural state. As the barrier separating him from his lifeforce slammed home once more, the human stared down at the unicorn mare. He felt nothing of his lifeforce, but it didn't matter. Her injuries were gone. She was alive. She blinked up at him, confused.

“Did we...did we make it to our new home?”

Ridge Dancer’s eyes widened as the human collapsed on top of her, unconscious. He felt so warm. The limbs of the ancient trees surrounding the clearing crackled as yellow flames began to consume them. Burning, they continued their watch over the small meadow, steadfast in their charge even as fire ravaged them. If they screamed, their cries were silent. Their trunks had only just began to blacken as the mare heaved the human onto her back. A light blue pegasus limped along beside her as the three headed away from the flames and towards the edge of the Everfree Forest. The clearing melted behind them in a torrent of flame and ash.

Author's Notes:

This was simultaneously one of the most fun chapters to write, and one of the most depressing. I...don't know what to say about that, honestly.

What I can say is that a coupla alicorn princesses are gonna be pissed that Nix almost broke, erm, everything. Wonder what Discord'll think?