Snatched

"Oh come on, Clair, you look absolutely darling in it!" Clarity says over her shoulder, closing the door behind her as she leaves the house.

"Look what? I can barely hear you over this foil," Clair replies from his perch on Clarity's back, using a hoof to hold the foil hat he's wearing on his head. He's wearing a matching cape on his back, giving him the overall effect of being shiny when in the shade, blinding when out in the bright sunshine of the day.

Clarity, not looking back at him, is not bothered in the slightest. "Don't worry, it'll be worth it. Those mares will fawn over you all day at the park. I just know Meadowlark will adore it~" Clarity waves and winks at a passing stallion, who squints back and, after they pass him, walks into a nearby tree

Clair shrugs, not getting all of that in the slightest. He'll just try not to talk too much. The foil is a bit uncomfortable and very distracting, but the less he talks probably the faster they'll get to the park.

As they walk, leaving a trail of ponies tripping over fences, dropping their sport balls, and generally becoming a sprawled out commercial for sunglasses, a commotion starts behind them. It starts with a few concerned voices, then grows into louder shouting and panic when those who can still see do see what the fuss is about. Due to the loud crinkling of the foil, however, the two park-goers remain largely unable to hear and those ahead of them looking in the direction of the disturbance are swiftly rendered no longer looking by the great shiny blight upon their retinas that is Clair's outfit.

Thus it is that they're caught almost completely by surprise, Clarity just barely managing to hear something and turn around in time to see a massive pair of talons reaching out at her. She has no time to even shout her surprise as they rake across her back, leaving furrows and sending her rolling across the ground and into a fence post.

Dizzily, she tries to stand. "CLARI-" she hears, cut off. Odd, that sounded like...
She shakes off the fogginess and leaps to her hooves. Clair was on her back! Where is he!? She whips her head around, looking for him. She sees a colossal bird in the sky above them, flying in the direction of the Everfree Forest. And in its talons...

"CLAIR!!!!" she screeches. In the bird's talons is a shiny, almost blinding bundle of foil with a small grey stallion wearing it. She tears off after them like a bullet...or tries to. All she manages to do is fall over again, writhing in pain and powerless to pursue the avian brigand carrying her brother off.

Under a tree by the bridge over the river, a thestral lay dozing in the shade provided by the branches from the tree; the thestral had a messy, bedraggled looking mane that seemed as though she never made any effort to tame it and a short scar under her right eye that left a white patch in her grey fur in the shape of it. A few feet away from her was sat a stallion wearing a midnight blue three piece suit and a wide brimmed hat, reading a book propped up against a stone on the ground and writing a letter with a feather quill, apparently taking notes from the book and summarising them.

"Bleh?! Broadside!" Razor Back mumbled groggily as she sat up straight, her bat ears stood on end to listen out for the screams and yells coming from nearby. Both she and Tea Leaf turned to the source of the commotion. "What the fu-?!"

"Wonder later, rescue now!" Tea Leaf said, abandoning his book and taking off at a canter towards Clarity while the thestral shook the sleep from her eyes and peeled off from the floor, wings extended and quickly pursuing the huge bird.

"Miss, are you okay?" Tea Leaf called, skidding to a halt beside Clarity and offering a hoof to help her up, watching in the sky as Razor beat her wings hard against the air, pushing herself to pursue the massive bird.

Meanwhile, a unicorn stallion was also having a nap before being forced to perk up in the direction of the screams and screeches. His vision and hearing was blurry, barely registering what was going on as a massive shadow passed overhead. The stallion looked up to see, only to be blinded by a bright flash of light reflected from Claire's suite, and while rubbing his eyes and blinking to shake off the dazzling sensations, a clump of dirt fell on his face as well which worsened his sight further. Now, cranky, confused, and filthy, the stallion tried to find where the calls for help where coming from.

There was a sound of heavy hoofbeats through the park, the sound of rattling equipment, all tied to a massive unicorn mare wearing armor, two swords, a small shield, saddlebag, and a strange amount of jewelry, going at a full gallop. She had been trying to track that bird for the last week, and it sure as hell wasn't going to get away from her now. She leaped over the distressed mare, then created a platform of hardened light, jumping off of that, then very suddenly jumping again in the air.

The unicorn drew the long blade from her back, the blade splitting into ten shards and careening towards the bird at extreme speeds. But then she cacophony of light assaulting her eyes shifted slightly, and she saw a pony wearing tinfoil. No. It's got a hostage! I'll hit them if I try to attack like this. She withdrew her blade, making it whole again as she fell back to the ground with a thud, yet no worse for wear despite the height of the fall.

"NO I'm not oKAY it's TAKING HIM it's TAKING CLAIR-" Clarity half-shouts, half-screeches for all the world to hear. After another failed attempt to stand that brings another gout of blood from the gashes in her back, she swats away the hoof Tea Leaf offers and grabs him by the shoulders, shaking him. "-WHAT will I DO WHAT can I DO..." she continues nonstop until her breath runs out, her shaking of him slowing down too. Then she takes a deep breath. And starts up again, back up to full volume and force shaking him. "I'VE GOT to STOP THAT BIRD, get OUT OF MY WAY OR HELP-" and so on, while still trying and failing to get up.

For the bird's part, it doesn't let on whether or not it hears the loud and surprisingly non-vulgar tirade cursing it, its family lineage, and the foxodiles that should have eaten it when it was still an egg. It just keeps right on flying in a straight line, toward the Everfree. Nor does it really seem to react to its possible demise, stalled by the presence of its shiny burden.

As it crosses the line between the Forest and not-the-Forest, a swarm of small birds break from the treetops and flies towards it. The larger bird pays them no mind either, the wind from its massive wingbeats scattering them before they can touch it. They regroup, swarming aggressively above the trees on the lookout for more prey. The thestral obliges them in her pursuit of the larger one. As she approaches, she can hear the hum of their wings, almost like a buzz, and they dive at her, nipping at her aggressively, swarming, trying to bring her down.

"Miss! Please, calm down!" Tea Leaf shouted back, quickly wrapping a foreleg around Clarity to support her and try and stand her up. "Miss please, you're hurt and I need you to stay calm and keep still for me in case it makes it worse." He said, turning her to look him in the eyes and trying to keep himself calm as much as her. "Please trust me; my friend is in pursuit, we won't let anything bad happen to him? Okay?"

Tea Leaf turned around to see Sugary Market arriving on the scene, obviously looking around for the source of commotion. "Right sight for sore eyes you are." Tea Leaf called, waving his free foreleg to Sugary to direct him to where Clarity and he were stood. "You don't have any bandages or healing potions on hand by chance?"

Razor Back looked back as she saw the blades coming toward them. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING YOU FUCKING IDIOT?!" She shouted, but she hadn't even finished her shout before whoever it was had obviously come to the same conclusion that any attack from afar on the bird had too much chance of hitting the foal.

Turning her attention back to the huge creature, Razor beat her wings harder and harder against the air, forcing every muscle in her wings to work at their fullest just to keep up with the huge creature. "Oh Tartarus...." She growled as she saw the rise of the bird swarm from the Everfree, anything that came from those trees was almost certainly unfriendly.

She was soon proven right as the smaller birds decided to focus on the smaller target. "OW! GET OFF ME YOU UGLY FEATHERY BASTARDS!!" Razor shouted loud enough to be heard on the ground, kicking and punching at the birds pecking numerous scratches into her fur, some of them drawing blood. With far too many of them to deal with Razor tried to push on, holding her forelegs up to protect her eyes and trying to push herself further but the giant bird was pulling away with the distraction of the smaller swarm.

"....fuck!" Razor swore more at herself than anything more quietly as she descended and turned around, heading back for where Clarity was, forced to concede defeat as she retreated; she couldn't keep up with the giant bird with the swarm on her and trying seemed most likely to end with her being blinded than anything. "We're coming for you little guy, promise." She muttered to herself as she cleared the treeline of the Everfree Forest, circling above Clarity and Tea Leaf and wiping blood from her cuts.

“What a day.”
The sound of rustling leaves, the occasional broken twig, and his own rambling signalled Salem’s presence as he went through the Everfree at a canter, each step causing a little puff of dust to come off of his coat. “Hopefully this’ll just come off on its own. I hate trying to get vampire dust off leather.” He remarked to himself as book and a quill floated beside him, an account of this latest exploit soon to be his latest contribution to the literary world, no doubt. Hopefully, he thought, it would end with a well earned ba—

“What was that?” Salem’s ear twitched at a sudden, but still somewhat cacophony of yells, screams, and wing beats, HEAVY wing beats. It was nowhere near enough to tell what it was but enough for Salem to break into a gallop, hastily stuffing the book and quill into a saddlebag as he ducked under branches, hopped over roots, and leapt over a particularly large set of brambles blocking his path.

As Ponyville came into sight through the trees so too did the source of the ever loudening beating of wings. The giant bird and it’s dazzling foil-clad captive left Salem wincing and glancing away to avoid blindly running into a tree (and causing him to miss the two mares already pursuing it). Who dresses like that in this weather?! Regardless, Salem’s horn began to glow, wrapping him in his own aura in preparation for the ‘plan’ he’d already formed in his head. All that was left was to draw his trusty crossbow and hope for the best.

Bursting out of the tree line Salem threw himself to the ground, rolling onto his back as he levelled his crossbow up at bird. The gusts of air from its wings threw his hat off but not his aim, just one perk of the spell he’d cast upon himself, after all he desperately needed the steadiest aim possible to not accidentally hit the pony in this beast’s talons. “Don’t lead too much... don’t aim too low, and...” With a light ‘thunk’ Salem let loose his shot as the bird crossed the tree line, the bolt hurtling straight a meaty looking shoulder. Not enough to harm such a creature in a meaningful way but enough to leave a trail raining down for him to follow (and far enough from Clair that it was a safe enough shot to take)... so long as nothing got in the way.

Unfortunately for Salem the chances of his being able to tell if his shot had flown true quickly plummeted as he registered Razor’s presence and a set of peculiar flying blades as the sound of dozens of tiny wings heralded the arrival of a flock of particularly angry looking birds  launched themselves at the thestral, both seeing her off and obscuring Salem’s line of sight. Cursing under his breath he turned back to head in the direction the thestral was flying, presumably where this commotion all started, just in time to also catch sight of the source of the flying blades. An armoured, white unicorn mare  that, Salem noted, was actually a little taller than him. Slinging the crossbow over his back, Salem gestured to where that thestral was now circling overhead. “As much as I’d love to ask about what you just did there, I think perhaps seeing that commotion over there and saving the greeting, and heroics, for a little later.” He said, his accent coming through pretty thick as the dusty, muddy stallion spoke.

Tracking the ‘bird’ could come later, now was the time to see what damage it had already done.

The noise, it was awful. After several days of next to no sleep during a scouting mission, Sugary had finally managed to doze off for a time only to be interrupted in his rest, blinded by light, and pelted with dirt. Everything seemed to hurt for the stallion even more when the cries for help and chasing of the creature made things worse for his focus... But he very clumsily made his way to Clarity and Tea nonetheless, tired but determined to help in the hopes of catching some shut-eye again soon. "Huh...? Tea? And is that... Clarity?" His bloodshot and dirty eyes squinted, and soon he gasped as he somewhat saw the severity of the wounds upon a friend, realizing he had just let Clair fly over him and had done nothing to help the siblings yet with what she had been freeting over.

He held his arms forward, horn shining a soft white, and spoke urgently with Tea. "Forget potions, just help me come closer and tend to her wounds before she loses any more blood...!" He was shaky once he was able to begin the healing spell, warm yet cooling upon the skin, speaking softly to Clarity. "I'm so sorry we have to meet again like this... But you must stay still and recover. You'll hurt yourself more if you don't." He could only assume the rest of the noises were others chasing after the giant bird, hoping they were following its tracks at least.

The unicorn stood up and dusted herself off from her impromptu landing. She looked over at the dirty unicorn that approached her and spoke, she responded with a slight eyeroll as she sheathed the extremely shiny sword. "I've been chasing that thing for past three days. That was the best shot I've had at felling it, but wonderfoal up there had to just had to dress in enough tinfoil to outshine the sun." Her voice was like sandpaper, as if she hadn't spoken in an extended period of time. "It looks like that other unicorn has it under control. We need to continue the pursuit. We've lost at least half of our guaranteed rescue window by that thing flying over the Everfree." She pulled the shorter blade from its sheath, heading towards the Everfree to continue her pursuit.

“Hmph straight to business, eh?” He looked over to the group of ponies gathered around the park, squinted, and shrugged, “You make a good point. Still, let me even the odds...” With no warning whatsoever, Salem’s horn lights up, firing a bright green flare of light into the air. Before the light even fades the sound of trundling wheels and heavy hoof falls herald the arrival of a loaded cart that comes barrelling out from behind a nearby building, throwing up mud and grass as the earth pony pulling it turns hard and makes a beeping for the pair, eventually coming to a stop barely more than a couple feet from hitting Salem.

The pony pulling the cart is scruffy, old, and worn out looking, his size the only thing explaining how he could have left those deep gouges in the ground behind him. He wears a ratty old gambeson and an equally beaten up skullcap, all of it stinking of ale as he groggily stands to attention.
“You hic sent for me your... highnesh?” He slurred out, He was clearly very drunk which just made his response time and how well kept the cart was even more inexplicable.
“Yes, Burlap, a new issue has arisen. I require access to my tomes and, unfortunately, it’ll have to be done on the move so...” He climbed up onto the cart, which was full of barrels, sacks, and chests, before pointing at the Everfree, “Into the Everfree... again. Just follow that mare and you’ll be fine.” Burlap slurred something incomprehensible in response before setting off at a canter, the extra load of Salem not inconveniencing him in any appreciable way as he started following Diamond.

As the cart caught up to the mare Salem leant over the side to look down at her, kick open a chest with a hind leg before floating out a couple of musty looking tomes regarding various Equestrian beasts. “You know, though I’m going to assume you’re a competent tracker based on what you just said I’m just going to tell you to keep an eye out for blood on the leaves. If I managed to wing that avian it should be leaving a nice trail for us to follow,” he briefly paused and shook one of the books in the air, “and on that subject, since you’ve presumably got a better look at it than I have, describe it to me. Physical appearance, wingspan, habits, etcetera. If it’s anything worth noting then it’s in here and with it... probably the best way to shoot, stab, or blow it up if you’re feeling particularly fanciful.” He finished, his voice not betraying the slight bitterness he felt at how this day had turned out. He’d wanted a bath, a lunch, and a nice place to sleep. Instead he’d just gotten one hint straight after another... and in all that he’d forgotten to even fit in the greetings where he could. “Oh, and it’s Salem, by the way. Salem Sunrise.”

Clarity fights back against Tea and Market, her oddly clean imprecations fading in and out with her breath, until the healing spell starts taking. She sits eerily still for the first part of it, seemingly calmed down. The bird, meanwhile, keeps flying over the forest. The bolt fired at it by the dirty unicorn seems to have disappeared somewhere in its mass, though it's anyone's guess as to whether it succeeded in doing any damage.

Until near the part where it feels like her wounds are nearly closed, when she dashes off with a flying leap and a loud, "I'M COMING, CLAIR!!" leaving behind a puff of confetti where she'd been sitting. She makes about two bounds before the stress of running reopens the wounds and sends her into a tumble. She comes to a stop not even a furlong from where she'd started, curled into a sobbing, bleeding, low-energy heap. Strewn about her path is left a mess of confetti, mirrors, cards, bits both real and fake, dice, and an absolutely un-Celestia-ly amount of knives. Seriously, that's a lot of knives.



In the meantime, Diamond and Burlap (towing Salem for a bumpy ride for sure), make their way into the forest, which always strangely seems much more hospitable than its reputation would lead ponies to believe, the dark shade making for a spooky backdrop but not overmuch concerned with delivering threats beyond once in a blue moon.

Almost as soon as they cross the treeline, though, the drunk pony pulling the cart steps on a fallen branch that seems to echo a bit more than it should as it snaps. After a second it rustles along with a series of other branches and twigs, which rise and coalesce, snarling, into a pack of timber wolves that advance on the trio.

Except the one whose leg is the branch that got stepped on. That one attempts to step forward with the rest but instead nearly falls down, whimpering and favoring that leg.

Diamond Mind rolled her eyes when she heard Burlap step on an out of place twig. "Of course we're setting off Timberwolves. Why not. They're just everywhere and fetch nothing unless you can nab 50 of them." The platinum blade leaped from its sheath at the mere prompting of her magic, splitting the blade into nine shards and sending them out to swiftly cut down the Timberwolves while she used the one shard and her blade to continue removing any debris in her path as she kept forward, making sure that none of the timberwolves even got close to Salem's cart.

Demons rise, demons fall, sic semper.
They say that the weather runs wild in the Everfree forest. And they are absolutely correct in this assessment.
It was like a lightning strike, really. One moment the noblemare's blade was swinging at timberwolves, the next two of them had been compressed into one and then smashed into a tree with all the dignity of a man who'd figured out the newest way to sell oil made out of snakeskin. A moment after there was a white mare with scarlet eyes in front of Diamond and Burlap, a trail of absolutely destroyed soil leading up to her feet. She would have been the epitome of waifish if she didn't look absolutely livid and wasn't built more like a tiny amazon. On her sides were a couple of light, thin saddlebags, tied snug to her barrel, laid atop a rugged woolen tailcoat, the cloth thickly pleated with the clear intent of reducing the threat of minor impacts and cuts to the wearer. Across her back a long, distinctly pole-shaped cloth bag was laid, buttoned closed on both ends and held in place with a strap diagonally across her torso.
"Goddamn bird" the mare shouted, shaking a hoof at the air and trying to intimidate a bird that wasn't close enough to hear or see the threat. And then the mare turned to the two ponies and the cart. Her eyes narrowed at the two of them, "And who do you think you are?"

Sugary was left perplexed at the sudden departure only to hear even more noise and one mare who was in too much of a rush for her own good. He sighed sharply, turned around, and grumpily approached Clarity once more, intent on continuing the spell... Though not before somewhat tripping and stepping on some of her belongings, including the knives, due to his disheveled state. "Ack! Ow! Yikes, where do you even keep this many tools hidden...!?" As soon as he was close enough, he would put yet another hoof on her back, this time purposely very lightly prodding a bit of her wounds to make a point. "Do you feel that, Miss Clarity? Is this any way for you to make your brother worry? Please, stay still, or I'll be forced to take you to a hospital at this rate... I think I saw a thestral I know give chase, she can be trusted. I also saw what looked like hunters heed your call. Give them a chance, please."

"Yeah trusted to get pecked into swiss cheese!" Razor snapped, sounding rather annoyed as she touched down next to Clarity and Sugary, several ugly looking gashes pecked into her coat by the swarm of birds that had attacked her above the treeline, one of the long cuts dangerously close to her eye in fact. "You can fix these up while you're at it, get me back in there proper before that thing gets too far ahead of us or whoever the dipshit with a sword was runs the colt through."

"Razor, reassurance, please." Tea Leaf hissed, nodding at Clarity. "Razor, stay here and get patched up, don't argue. Miss Clarity? He may have his.... quirks but Sugary Market can be trusted with the life of anyone from Celestia on down and I assure you that I am no less than a stallion of my word." He said, sweeping his hat off his head and holding it to his front proudly. "So please believe me when I say, we shall not let anything befall Clair. No matter what it takes. Now if you'll excuse me..."

The suited stallion turned on his hooves and cantered off into the treeline, following behind the cart that had preceded him into the forest. As soon as they were high enough he took to the trees, springing across the high branches to catch up to the cart and to keep himself off the forest floor; Razor had provided a firsthand demonstration that the treetops may not have been what one could call safe but the floor of the forest posed far more immediate dangers when you lacked wings to simply evade them at will. The path of the cart was fairly easy to follow with how untouched a lot of the Everfree was and soon enough he received a much clearer direction as a flash and a loud crash emanated from slightly to the left.

Tea Leaf flipped gracefully from the branches and landed to several feet to the side of where the cart had stopped and the destructive mare stood, holding up a forehoof as he did to show he meant no harm. "Far be it from me to pretend to be a hunter, but could we perhaps not alarm the beast while it has a colt in those very sharp talons?" He suggested to the mysterious mare.

When the timberwolves appeared Burlap immediately reacted with solid drunken headbutt for the one he’d stepped on before hastily moving on while Salem merely let out a bored sigh, more than confident in the abilities of this mystery mare and Burlap to deal with this rabble.
“Don’t mind me. Just let me know if for some reason they prove to be too...” His ears twitched as he heard something aproaching fast, “... much.”

Salem barely has time to look at the crossbow he’d set aside before Momus made his entrance, practically making two of the timberwolves explode against a tree. It only took a momentary glance from Salem for him to realise who he was looking at. “O-oh, Salem Sunrise, and you’re—“ Salem cut himself off as his ears twitched once again and this time he was more than able to level the crossbow at Tea Leaf by the time he landed only to immediately lower it and let out an annoyed grunt. “You know, maybe if ponies, famous or otherwise, stopped coming out of the woodwork before anyone can get a word in someone would be making progress. As it is I might have gotten off a lucky shot with a crossbow and would just love it if someone explained this beasts characteristics so I can work out what in Tartarus we’re chasing into the woods. Does that sound good to everyone? Yes? If not, then deal with it because it’s happening anyway.” He said with a huff.

Clarity whimpers at Market's prodding, too drained from the attack, the wounding, the loss of blood, her attempt to give chase, and the rest of her hysteria to give a louder response. "I just...I just wanted...want to save Clair," she gasps out, quietly, exhausted. By now the populace has rallied and medical personnel can be seen approaching the scene.



At this point the cart has started reaching a point where the trees and undergrowth are thick enough to make continued progress with it impractical at best, impossible at worst. The cart would need to be left behind or a less direct route to follow would be needed for continued progress. Even for ponies, those of larger sizes would start having trouble with some of the spacing, and with plants in the undergrowth that seem to claw at them, reach for them, try to hold them back...Also a snake drops into the cart at some point, I wonder if anyone noticed?

As the first wave of timber wolves is cut down, smashed, and otherwise destroyed six ways from Sunday, a second wave starts forming, not of the same branches those ones were made of. Those ones are likely demolished in a similarly quick manner but those barely have time to fall before the next batch starts forming. In mid-construction, however, they seem to stop at a distant rumbling, off to a near-perpendicular left to the path the cart was taking to follow the bird. It stops for a moment then comes again, seemingly closer. The timber wolves stop forming and their limbs rejoin those of the ones on the ground, as though they had never intended to combine together in a malevolent being bent on the death of the intruders into the forest.

Gradually but steadily, Clarity's wounds finally close up and heal as Sugary then strokes over the newly restored skin and fur with his hoof tenderly. "I know, I know... Just trust us to take care of it, alright? Your brother needs you to be there and be well when he's brought back." As the crowd eased up and medics approached from a distance, he would conjure a napkin and wipe off a little bit of blood off her while he could, staring at her eyes and face with a concerned hum. "You really should've waited. You're looking pale, Miss Clarity, and not just from worry." He'd stay with her for the time being until the medics took over. She was going to need more care than he could give at the moment.

Diamond was more than a little put off during what would normally be a routine Timberwolf slaughter at the sudden presence of an incredibly fast, hard to see, third party that proceeded to mash one timberwolf into another so hard they both hit a tree and exploded. She had just barely recalled Nothung in time for whatever the 3rd party was to not get hurt, and re-sheathed it as the dust settled. Carved out ground? Her eyes wandered over the mare in front of her, and her breathing became just slightly more labored. Momus Fillias?! Here?

"Oh thank Celestia! More help! I'm Hexer. Listen, Momus wo-" Hexer was very rudely interrupted by the sudden appearance of some random Earth Pony in a suit and Salem suddenly piping up to talk behind her. "HEY. We have no time for bickering! That bird has a foal hostage and they need to be rescued as soon as possible. Suitpony! It literally didn't react when I was mere moments away from stabbing it. I've been tracking it for three days. It doesn't care or can't hear us. Crossbowpony, it's a giant fucking bird, probably a corvid or a kite. If we're really unlucky it's a Roc." The sound of a loud rumbling prevented her from continuing as she re-drew Nothung. "Oh for fuck's sake we don't have time for this!"

"It has a colt? The bird has a colt?" Momus questioned, incredulous at both Tea's and 'Hexer's' statements, only noting now the ongoing chicanery of this ragtag team of, if not misfits, certainly improperly paired deuteragonists. 'Hexer' seemed shocked at his arrival, though she foolishly sheathed her blade in this horrid location. That one clearly wasn't accustomed to the forest. The suited pony was a tricksy one, brachiation was not a skill he'd seen in a pony before, but it also wasn't the most applicable one in most situations. And he openly admitted to lacking experience, so that boded poorly. And the stallion in the cart was clearly deranged and stuck in panic mode, so yet another newbie, though that name rang a bit of a bell. 'Salem Sunrise'. Maybe just the alliteration.

"Here's my advice, little ponies. You're in the Everfree. Big, nasty place. Does not play nice. So keep your blades drawn, don't do anything involving fire, keep your eyes and ears open, and you, Salem Sunrise, find the trail, it doesn't matter what kind of bird it is." he directed at the party of 4, that last part said with a burningly icy tone. Apparently the earth pony took great offense to the idea of a foal in danger, and only one of the ponies here claimed to have some way of tracking him. So that pony had damn well start doing that.

Salem almost protested... almost , but the thought died before he’d even formed the words in his head. It so wasn’t worth it in this situation. “Of course, just one suggestion,” He inclined his head in the direction of the rumbling, “While I doubt that’s a real threat to most present it would be a terrible distraction if that started tearing up the place. Keep it off me while I look for a trail.”

Still flicking through the pages of the book, Salem nonchalantly floated the falling snake into the safety of some nearby brush without even sparing a glance in its direction. The only thing he was looking for was a trail be it blood, feathers, droppings, a bloody bolt, even just broken branches under its flight path. Still, he had time to briefly... well, glare in “Hexer”’s direction.

“Oh, and... Hexer,” ’Pffffft yeah, I believe that. You get that alias at the bit store?’ “You have heard my name three times now. Basic manners suggest you use it. Anyway, stay ready for any other annoyances, I don’t need any interruptions while I do my thing.” He finished as Burlap once again began pulling the cart along, not need any kind of command to work out what Salem obviously would want.

"It may not care when we're attacking it but if we do damage to it that causes it to get violent we should want the colt far away from it first." Tea Leaf responded calmly to Hexer, tilting his head curiously as he took in the rather motley crew he would evidently have to be working with; he would've much preferred Razor around to have a harder head for this sort of thing but at least they all seemed to be on the same page for now.

Deciding to let the one who seemed to be an experienced tracker do the work, Tea Leaf leapt gracefully onto the cart and produced a large flintlock pistol from the inside of his suit pocket, keeping it pointed towards the surrounding trees in case anymore Timber Wolves decided their group would make a nice new set of chew toys. "Momus, was it? Anything in this area of the woods we should particularly be aware of? Timberwolves, Manticores, Cockatrices, that much I know of calling this place home but I won't lie and say I know the wildlife inside and out, so anything we should make a priority to watch for signs of would be appreciated."

Clarity doesn't answer, seeming to have dozed off sobbing. A set of medics arrives and carefully lifts her onto a stretcher before carrying her off in the direction of the horspital with a small detachment, while the rest of the ponies who arrived on the scene tend to the others who had the misfortune to be caught in Clarity's knives.



The loud rumbling returns off and on, coming closer each time, but doesn't seem in a hurry to actually reach the group. As slow as it seems to be moving, though, the nearby fauna seems to be less than eager to stay in the open, most opting to flee though some choose to hide in burrows or branches, most of the ambient noise of the forest coming to dead silence. The snake tries once more to enter the cover of the wagon, attempting to slither in from one of the taller pieces of underbrush.

After some flipping through his book, Salem finds a couple of entries that seem promising, one more so for the coloration. The most likely entry is the Gilded Kite. A (usually) small bird that prefers to live in a domed structure, whether natural or artificial, with enough space for them to fly in. They're largely solitary after leaving the nest until they mate, which is usually for life. They're mostly carnivorous with some herbivorous tendencies, and they form a symbiotic relationship with the Marrow Spiders that set up their webs under the kites' nests. The nests are usually made from dark wood but decorated with all manner of shiny baubles. Glass, metal, rings, coins, if it shines they want it for their homes, and they have no problems thieving anything unattended, from ponies, other animals, or each other. They use the shine from their gilded feathers to communicate and attempt to blind their predators and prey alike. Their metallic feathers are nearly impossible to cut through, but like most birds their bones have a hard time standing up to blunt force, and a well-angled thrust can slip under the feathers and reach their softer flesh.

Most of this information is on the smaller variant, though there is a colossal variant as well, which would appear to match the one the group is currently pursuing. Most of the information on the smaller remains true of the larger, though specimens are rare enough that thorough research on them has not had enough opportunity to be had on them. Their diet remains carnivorous, with their available prey being larger animals sizing up to roughly a deer. No reports have been made of them hunting ponies, though they aren't shy about grabbing anything overly shiny from pony settlements. Their size can make finding a nest of suitable dimensions difficult, but their beaks are strong enough that they can actually carve a smaller cave into a suitable dome shape. There is at least one believed to nest in one of the few Great Dome Trees of the Everfree.

Though Sugary was already struggling to keep any amount of cheer for Clarity's sake due to how tired he was, it really sunk his heart immensely to see her look and act the way she was. "Can't blame her. She just parted forcibly with her brother... Might as well have torn her heart in half."

He then yawned, rubbed his eyes, and cleared away the field of Clarity's belongings by pulling them all into his own Inventory instead for safekeeping, possibly to make use of in a pinch if he had to, and headed to the nearest coffee serving Kiosk among several grumblings. He bought a small barrel of it, galloped through the field as fast as he could go, and leapt into the air... A magical cloud conjured below him took him higher and higher above the field and Everfree treetops.

However, even as he sipped coffee now and again, his flying was a little haphazard and his focus was off as he wobbled to and fro in the general direction the bird and others had gone to. "Uuugh... I'm far from top form, but I could never live with myself if I took another nap over helping to save Clair..." He then began to yell at the top of his lungs to pep himself up while enhancing his flight speed with a mix of wind and fire elements upon the back of his magic cloud to burst through the air. "Come on! Come on!! Come on!!!" He took a close look at flying creatures in the distance and dented treetops as well as any possible dust being kicked up to try and follow where the others had gone to try and catch up.

"In the Everfree? Ursas, hydras, that sort of stuff, but to be quite honest I wouldn't depend on that. Forest doesn't like it when you act like you're in charge and know what you're doing. Thinks you're not giving it respect." Momus met the gentlestallion's question, keeping his eyes towards the direction the sound was coming from.
It was getting closer, the timberwolves were playing dead so it probably didn't breathe fire, they would have run for that...but it was big, nasty, and hostile to everything. And it was coming far too fast. Big timberwolf, perhaps, aware of its omegas getting blasted to bits? Or just something that woke up from its nap at the sound of fighting? "Sunrise, I told you to find the trail because whatever is coming is almost certainly going to destroy any existing trail here. We need a start and direction to go for for after it destroys any hint of where we need to go."