Twilight Gets a Puppy
Season 3
By TDR
Season 3 Interlude,
'Moon Lit Wings'
[ Journal entry one, translated to modern Equestrian by Twilight Sparkle]
I don't know why I'm bothering to write this. I suppose it's in some vain hope that some day she might read this and know that I was thinking about her in the end.
My last hope is here. It could be for nothing, that Lunar servant could have been lying, but in truth he's still dead and I have no other options.
I suppose I should explain this to any one else reading this. I'm not foolish enough to think my wife would be the first to find it, I only hope that she receives it if I fail.
My name is Terry Cairn, I am... was, an earth pony captain in the Solar Guard. One of the elite units tasked with hunting down the last of the Nightmare's forces. Particularly the monstrosities known as Witch Wolves. My last endeavor was a joint operation with a flock of griffons against a small pack that had sprung up in a little hamlet called Hollow Shades. There were three of the creatures. A male, a female, and a young one.
I had been part of teams that had killed a great number of these monsters. We were mostly earth ponies and pegasi, given their magic eating the only unicorns we had were medics who remained away from the actual fighting. Princess Celestia and a number of other gods were also hunting down the threats given the nature of what they could do a whole team of ponies might not be able to beat them, but like most things the gods were far more than enough to deal with them. My team had a total of six kills, the highest of any unit and we were cocky as Tartarus about that.
The brains back at HQ thought the whole situation was odd, they were trying to figure out where all of these witch wolves came from. If the Nightmare had this many, why would she not use them all on us at once. Our forces were hard pressed to deal with two or three of these beasts at a time. An orderly force of the hundreds we have been overpowering and would have wiped out everything that stood against her.
I found out why personally.
We encountered the beasts in Hollow Shades. We fought them and we killed them. There were injuries of course. I for one took a nasty bite on the shoulder, I was likely going to be one of the casualties of the conflict if I hadn't been saved by a griffon hen who took the beasts attack on me as an opportunity to drive a spear through it's eye. I got to watch the life fade from it before it's jaw was removed from my shoulder.
While I didn't like being thought of as bait to these damn cat birds, I did recall to thank her for the save.
My wound was treated and I was given leave to recover.
So of course I went home.
Cinnamon Teal was waiting for me.
My wife is a farmer in a bit of a niche market. Equestria has a export with poultry farmers to the griffon empire. It's rather disturbing to think they eat meat, but the bits are good and they are sent some where else still alive to be shipped so we don't have to think about it much.
I spent several weeks in that mares loving embrace before the first problems happened. At first it was only a few of our magical devices failing around us. Nothing drastic. Soon I started becoming sick constantly. I couldn't hold anything down. The medical scans the towns doctors preformed did nothing and only made me feel worse.
Then one morning I awoke to find myself in the duck pen with dozens of half eaten corpses of the foul around me, and the taste of blood on my lips.
Cinnamon Teal had seen what happened and watched me change.
I left immediately, not wanting to put her in any sort of danger. She begged me not to go, to stay and seek help, but I refused to risk it.
My travels after that were mostly uninteresting. I changed a few more times drew the attention of the guard here and there, I tracked down a number of members of the Lunar Republic, including a mage who told me where their goddess had found the first moon dogs as they called them.
And so here I was. The dark continent, New Holland. Before it was discovered there was a indigenous people here, prisoners used to be dumped off to try and survive. Given nearly everything in this place from the sea life to the smaller creatures was able to, or at least tried to, kill ponies, not to mention the larger wild life, no one ever expected the prisoners to live very long. In most cases they were right, but enough survived that there was now a native population of ponies who lived there. A shipping route was run from Equestria to the port city of Saxton Hale as the place was a gold mine of resources and there was always a noble or two looking to capitalize on that.
None of that really matters in truth. I knew I was being followed. I managed to jump an earlier ship before she caught up with me but Cinnamon Teal was tracking me down.... as was a contingent of Guards. Some pony must have put together that I was cursed and informed the Guard.
I hear the drums echoing tonight. The heavy beat of the waves against the hull as we approach the shore thudding almost in time, drowning out the whispers of quiet conversation going on around me from others looking to disembark.
Given that it was guard business the next ship was likely right behind this one. She would be coming in around twelve thirty. Maybe sooner, the Princess Bride was a faster ship than the old steamer I had rode on.
I needed to be elsewhere when they got here, both to protect Cinni and to avoid the guards coming after me.
[ Journal entry six, translated to modern by Twilight Sparkle, editors note most of the journal has been damaged and a great number of the entries are simply the writer stating that there was no change or that he was still searching, or more personal messages to his wife, and have thus been left untranslated as irrelevant.]
It's been days and I'm no closer to anything. There's tribes deeper inland that might know something. But still I know I'm being followed.
Still I saw a sign.
A shadow hawk.
These dark birds are rare, the reverse of a phoenix, birds composed out of mostly shadow looking like little more than small pieces of the night sky. During the war they were considered a bad omen and were killed on sight and hunted. No pony had seen one for years, but here..
It might still be a bad sign, it might be a blessing.
The creatures moonlit wings reflected the stars that might guide me towards salvation.
My hope blossomed again.
If one of those birds was here, surely the Nightmare had been here as well and there may be a cure to this curse.
[ Journal entry eight, translated to modern by Twilight Sparkle]
I stopped an old mare along the way.
The dark furred unicorn clearly had seen better years. One milky white eye stared at me, the other as far as I could tell was no longer in it's socket. The discussion was rather one sided at first though after she got a look at me she was quite talkative.
I had changed after that first transformation, though I had hardly noticed until much later. I had fangs, my ears had lengthened and my fur had become a great deal shaggier, not hard to keep hidden save for the fact that there were two glowing orbs of light resembling the moon that floated above my longer ears.
I had taken to wearing large hats and hoods to try an hide, but unless my ears remained flat to my head the lights would show up over the hat or hood.
I had been only hoping to find some old forgotten words or ancient melodies about the source of the 'moon dogs'. What I found was a mare who had been to the place where they all vanished.
I had a location now, a few days travel away, there had to be something there. She told me of a shaman that lived in the area that might be able to help. A zebra that had fled the destruction of her homeland years ago when the Nightmare and her forces rolled over their homeland. While many Zebra fled to Equestria and had settled down in an area near Cape Cod, this one had come out here.
Looking to the old mare no further words were exchanged, she turned to me as if to say, 'hurry colt it's waiting there for you,'
And with that I set off again.
[ Journal entry 10, translated to modern by Twilight Sparkle]
I had been here a week and a half.
I hope you will be reading this Cinni.
It had taken a lot to drag me away from you.
If not for the idea I might hurt you, there's nothing that a million stallions or more could ever do.
But here I am trooping through mire and desert and savanna trying to find a cure so we can be together finally.
It seems on top of all that I showed up here in the rainy season.
I had stopped by a small village the locals called Africa
I bless the rains down in Africa. They were natural and untouched by pegasi magic, thus keeping me from changing into that monster.
When this is all over.... when this is all over, and I'm cured, we're gonna take the time to do the things we never have..... maybe... maybe one or two foals wouldn't be bad... not with you....
I love you Cinni. ..
[ Journal entry 13, translated to modern by Twilight Sparkle]
I was woken by howling.
The wild dogs crying out in the night, likely they grew restless longing for some solitary company.
The worst part about this was that I could understand them. I knew what they wanted. The calls of a hunt the calls of the ones in heat, the cries of the pack finding prey.
It hurt.
I could hear them and understand them and part of me wanted to join them. To go with the pack, to hunt and live. The creature inside of me wasn't a loner. Being alone meant it was sick or injured and had been abandoned. The feelings of seeking out this pack to join it were immense.
I kept myself from joining barely.
I know I must do whats right, sure as the Canterhorn rises like the sun over the Unicorn Range.
The beast seemed displeased by this. It was getting harder to keep it calm, simply walking this place had allowed me to draw in the magic of the land. A magic that was feeding it's next release.
I had to continue I had to hurry.
I seek to cure what's deep inside, I'm frightened by this thing I have become.
[ Journal entry 16, translated to modern by Twilight Sparkle]
She's dead.
The shamaness I came out here to find. She's dead.
Her body lay in her home, dried from the heat and the long dead fire in the center of the hut. The bugs had not even made it to her due to the charms and protections I had destroyed coming in here. The excess magic however was enough. I could feel the beast clawing at the inside of me struggling to get free. My last hope was gone. The zebra mare had no books, no notes, nothing I could find that might have anything to do with the old ruined village on the hill.
That place was stripped bare, looking nothing more than a town that all the inhabitants decided to pack up and move out of. Only the size of the doors and the buildings gave me a clue that this might have been the moon dogs first home
And now I was writing my last. I say this because the guards are here.
But it's worse.
Princess Celestia is here as well.
The magic flowing around her is far to much I can.. I can't stop the change.... they're going to destroy me and I was this close, I found the source …. but for nothing.....
So are you … Why did you come Cinni.... I told you to stay home.... that I got to see you a last time.... even from the broken window of this old hut.....
[ several torn pages follow filled with unintelligible scribbles follow before the last words. ]
Cinni... I'm sorry....
[The last page of the journal is scribbled with a note, one in different hoof writing than the earlier parts.]
She killed him.
The beast he was stepped out of the hut, it didn't even attack it just stood there and rather than allowing it a chance or listening to me at all she killed him.
The damn bitches horn lit up and the bucking sun it self vaporized him.
He wasn't attacking her, he wasn't hurting any pony. She wouldn't listen to me, none of the damn fools would. And now... Terry's dead.
She tired to say something after the murdered him, some stupid comfort or placating words or some bullshit about the greater good.
Buck that.
I nearly had a guard skewer me when I spat in her face and told her exactly what I thought of her.
They left after that. She offered me passage back but I'm not going back. I found his journal.... his last words to me.... I know why he came here what he was trying to do.
I'm sending this to the that fat sun sucking whore. So she can see, so SHE CAN SEE, she killed an innocent! One that wasn't a threat, one who was trying to save himself.
Buck Equestria and that stupid sun bitch.
I HOPE SHE READS THIS... and knows how much one of her precious little ponies hates her.
I'm going back up to the port. I'll mail this journal to Whinnysor. Then I'm going to find a spot and join Terry... there's nothing but spite left for me here any way.
Cinnamon Teal
Love the chapter but damn theres overkill then there is not even paying attention to detail out of fear overkill he was non hostile by all accounts she could have kept a non lethal beam aimed at him so if he did become hostile he would be immediately dealt with
Yeah, about right for tia. if it ain't a sun pony it MUST and WILL be cleansed.
Ohhh, Toto...
>Saxton Hale
Mann Co. is everywhere.
You, sir, are an amazing person.
9892654
9892656
the whole damn point of this chapter was THAT. I heard the idea that the song was about a man seeking to rid himself of a curse a long while back and i just had to use that.
Considering how often Celestia has messed up, and more importantly how epic said screw ups have been, Twilight might just take up Godhood when offered so that she’d be in a better position to deal with the 1,000 year fallout.
And to possibly replace her mentor.
Especially if Celestia goes all “Fire and Brimstone” on one of her best friends. These next few chapters are going to be fun.
I pitied the unfortunate couple that there wasn't a pony back there who firmly believe there is no such thing as curse - like Twilight does.
9892667
The line that tiped me off. Re-reading it I have some earlier clues. It was fairly well done thought some felt quite forced.
Ah looks like they aren't in Kansas anymore
9892707
it gets worse. Google Terry Carin
Ok, Googles Terry Cairn
...
Motherfucker
Because no one else did.
Btw, Terry Cairn...... I both hate and Love you so much right now. Keeping this pace while remaining brilliant.
9892740
how is teen accused of omiha murders relavent at all to the story? (or did I miss something )
9892820
huh you did . Google searches for Terry Cairn should have this as the first Link
*googles Terry Cairn*
.........motherfucker
9892740
![:facehoof:](https://static.fimfiction.net/images/emoticons/facehoof.png)
This is going to give some anti-Celestia fuel to Rahs and Twilight and whoever read it
Hmm...so Forthe imbued the giant timberwolf with this curse that was likely of his doing in the first place to further negatively impact Luna. I doubt NMM or Solomon would have imbued the original witch wolves with a spreading curse.
I wonder if the first outbreaks after NMM's defeat that Terry mentioned were also due to bites from timberwolves that Forthe had similarly 'blessed'.
Also...it always irritated me that Twilight makes use of enchanted items but insisted there was no such thing as a curse. A curse is simply a hostile enchantment.
I guess that explains Zecora's bayston accent, lol
I feel like I should want to complain about all the song lyrics thrown in there, but honestly, I love that song, and you definitely made it work!
9892833
that ended up being the 7th link, the 5 of them were links to people on facebook :/ google is acting strange today
9893133
Forthe didn't do it. He wouldn't have done anything that would make more of what was killing him.
Can it be permanent and controllable? Please .
Yeah. This is definitely looking more and more like Solomon,
She's coming in twelve-thirty flight,
The moonlit wings reflect the stars that lead me toward salvation.
I stopped an old man along the way,
Hoping to find some long forgotten words, or ancient melodies.
He turned to me as if to say,
Hurry boy, it's waiting there for you!
One of my favourite songs (I prefer Rosanna myself- Jeff Porcaro's half-time shuffle is nothing short of genius) from my most favourite band ever. Seriously, I have this song completely memorized. I knew what you were doing already by the title alone, and I salute you, author.
So. That's what Rahs wound up reading.
By the way, which chapter did Rahs find the journal again?
9894395
Castle mania
Wow so witch wolves are this world's version of Lycans come to think of it this should have been seen as a possibility as were wolves transform under the full moon though witch wolves are a variant that transform through magic though I have to wonder (seeing as witch wolves themselves are intelligent its just put to a more vicious use) if an intelligent creature is born from the body of a cursed peaceful intelligent creature would the thing such as the witch wolf be affected by their other half becoming less violent like how the pony side had wolf instincts shoved into his head shown by him reacting to the howls of the dingoes, would the witch wolf side become tamer and less inclined to attack others
At first I was thinking this was an uncharacteristically serious chapter. Then he stopped an old mare along the way.
I’m willing to give celestia the benefit of the doubt celestia was a much different mind of mare a 1000 years ago then how she is recently and learned from the mistakes from her past to be the more loved better mare she is today:
9892579
I can see it from both sides and don't forget the current times. This isn't the "golden years" of Twilight bringing sunshine and rainbows, this was decades, possibly centuries before Twilight. The time where Celestia was alone having fairly recently (to an immortal) banished her sister, won a war, and was rebuilding after so many were slaughtered on both sides.
If this was Applejack in modern times, I'd expect a much less lethal response. And if they figure it out that it is Applejack, they would do everything possible to help her.
9895035
Nah, she can roast in her precious sun. Too bad the only way to kill her for good would be to kill all ponies. There needs to be some serious repercussions that she faces once the journal goes public. And not just a few harsh words or "everyone hugs and everything is forgiven" crap either.
Alright, try to get caught up a bit more..... so Rather then Timberjack, we somehow got Witchjack, nice fake out story. And, well.. she's very interested in Rahs, but just how....
Oh, starting with the mysterious journal they found, alright.
Hmmm, alright, a Guard in the post NMM days trying to take down the last of her forces, guessing this will tie into what happened to AJ somehow given the location.
Until Twilight came around and she ended up just being massively more OP then all of them.
And drawing attention to they are coming from somewhere... so yeah, something that turns ponies into them?
.... are they werewolves? Well, Ponwolves? After all the Timberjack idea mocking.... this would be a twist. Granted makes more sense then turning to half plant monsters on top of the wolf bits.
Like AJ, so yeah..... well then... so this was why the Timberwolves were focusing on AJ? They could sense this happening to her? Though, when did it happen? she didn't fight the Wolf back in the empire....
mhm.....
Really? That name? Given what the place is... that is an odd one. But yay, getting some backstory set up here. And given how many things there are that try to kill ponies as is, and the general danger level of Equestrian flora and fauna as is.... how bad must Pony Australia really be?
Nice.... though that means so many more things for Ponies....
Roll credits! Though, why kill them? That seems.... hard to parse given there is nothing about them actually being a threat
So, AJ going to look different too then?
Hmmmm, so a factor of having to absorb a certain mount of magic to change form? Keep it up until you run out of magic to hold the form then? Getting The Bridge flashes from that.... though not quite as epic given Kaiju trumps Werewolf.
Well, crap.
aaaaand yeah.... the story's constant need to make Celestia a bitch is getting old. The story might have been sadder and hit harder if the ending wasn't so blatantly trying so hard to play into Celestia fucking up all the time and not being Celestia.
Good bit overall and makes clear what is going on, ending.... see above.
I saw the TF2 reference
9918774
I am trying not to make celestia hateable. Shesjust had a lot of shit happen
It’s chapters like this that make me wish i could up vote again
Look, I love Africa as much as the next guy... but come on man. If you were gonna use a song, Down Under would have made way more sense.
Moonlit stars that guide me towards salvation... I can‘t remember song what that’s from. Damnit.
Second noted edit ever: oh, this is a Toto reference. A very elaborate Toto reference. Ich bin ein Dumkopf.
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Africa
SCP journals style?
Celestia is far from a saint ¯\_(-_-)_/¯
10001814
A lot of creatures had a lot of shit happen in this story, as I can see from where I began at Season 1 to this current point in Season 3, doesn't justify murder/Straight up Solar Vaporization though.
This is why I'm suspicious when someone or something is called a monster
Genocide is one of Celestias crimes. To bad she didn't even try...
With the amount of hatred in her, could we maybe be seeing her later in some form of revenant or windigo form?
Celestia probably never read and even if she did, probably dismissed it.