Fourth Howl
There was a feeling of nervousness in the air as the large white wolf entered the town flanked by two well-known ponies. It seemed to be the norm that whenever something went wrong in Ponyville, it was almost always something of either world-shaking proportions or something that would 'merely' ravage the town. With that in mind, it was no wonder why most of the citizens had their 'fight or flight' response permanently locked on 'flight'.
However, one of the two ponies with the wolf was Fluttershy, who was easily the best animal caretaker in the entire town. If she was with the wolf, then it was probably safe. As a result, most ponies only felt a mild twinge of nervousness upon looking at the trio as opposed to the full-blown panic they would have experienced had the wolf entered town alone.
Twilight didn't notice the feeling permeating the air, so focused was she on returning to the library. If anything, it made it easier for her as the citizens of the town moved out of their way to let them pass, even going so far as to move to the other side of the road or duck into nearby buildings to avoid being near the large wolf.
Thanks to a combination of the crowds moving out of the way to let them pass and Twilight's own unending drive, they reached the front door of the Golden Oaks Library within minutes. Twilight raised a hoof to push the door open, but stopped and craned her head around to look at the white wolf. The wolf stared back at her as Twilight shifted her raised hoof so it was pointed directly at the wolf's nose.
"You better be housebroken," Twilight warned. The wolf barked at that, sounding like she was offended at the insinuation that she wasn't. Twilight stared into the wolf's eyes for several tense seconds, until the unicorn mare was the one to break eye contact and look away. "Fine," Twilight conceded, pushing the wooden door open. "But if you aren't or, worse, if you chew on one of my books, I'll... Well, I don't know what I'll do, but it'll be bad."
As the white wolf stared after the unicorn mare as she disappeared into the library with a bemused expression on its face, Fluttershy leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Oh, don't be mad at her," Fluttershy softly requested. "She doesn't mean it, she's just a little-"
"GET IN HERE!" Twilight's shouted voice came out at them through the opened doorway.
Fluttershy smiled sheepishly. "-Stressed," she finished lamely.
The wolf opened its mouth wide and an odd coughing noise emitted from it, which Fluttershy recognized as a wolfish laugh. The wolf entered the library with a flick of its black-tipped tail, Fluttershy following close behind.
The instant they entered the small building, the wolf immediately walked over to one of the windows -- in particular, one with a good angle of the sun -- and laid down in a bright pool of sunlight. It didn't even bother to look at the other ponies who had assembled before its eyes slid shut and it looked all the world like it was fast asleep.
Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity had all frozen up at the sudden and unexpected appearance of the white carnivore. That fear had only shifted into confusion as the wolf had appeared completely uninterested in them.
"Huh," Applejack intoned. "Well, that happened." Seeing Fluttershy standing behind the wolf, Applejack lit up with a bright smile. "Well, howdy, Fluttershy. Friend o' yours?"
"Oh, yes," Fluttershy nodded as she gently shut the door behind her with a soft click. "She wanted to come with us. I think she was curious about the town."
Applejack cocked an eyebrow at the snoozing wolf. "Izzat so? Sure doesn't look curious ta me."
"Maybe she's just tired?" Fluttershy suggested with an uncertain shrug.
There was a sound of protest and a rainbow suddenly flashed across the room before coming to a stop directly above the white wolf. Rainbow Dash hovered just above the wolf before reaching down with a hoof to flick at one of the wolf's pointed ears. The ear twitched at the contact, but there was no other response. "How can she be tired?" the colourful pegasus protested. "It's still the middle of the day! I mean, I guess it's also evening, but it's also mid-afternoon... AUGH! Twilight, explain this to me!"
"Yes, Twilight, please explain," Rarity added, her refined voice interjecting itself into the conversation. "We did some talking while you went to fetch dear Fluttershy, and we all saw what had happened with the sun. Is that what we're here for?"
"Forget THAT!" Pinkie abruptly shouted, zipping over to where the white wolf was sleeping and grabbing its head. "What's with the cool doggie? Oh, you're such a wonderful looking doggie, aren't you? I bet you'd be a great friend for Gummy. OH! You know what you should do? You should come to one of our pet gatherings! I bet you'd be able to make so many wonderful friends with other animals just like you!"
The wolf whined in confusion at both the unexpected marehandling and the steady deluge of words before Fluttershy hastened to intervene. "Um, actually, Pinkie, that's a wolf. Not a dog. Sorry."
Pinkie gasped at the revelation, leaping away from the even more bewildered wolf. "That's even BETTER!" Pinkie proclaimed as she rushed back at the wolf, which stumbled over its own legs in a futile attempt to escape the clearly crazy mare. "What's your name? Is it Wolfie? Can I call you Wolfie? Okay, Wolfie, it's so great to meet you!"
Pinkie was suddenly held in a shimmering magic glow, which lifted her up into the air and floated her away from the wolf. "No, Pinkie," Twilight said, dropping the excitable pink mare on the ground next to her. "We're not here about the wolf. You, go back to sleep." This last was shot at the wolf in question, which did as she asked, though not without one last uncertain look in Pinkie Pie's direction. Seeing the white wolf lay her head back down on her paws, Twilight pulled a roll of parchment off of one of the nearby bookshelves.
"After the sun appeared to jump back to mid-day," Twilight said, unrolling the parchment on the floor where everypony could see it, "I sent a letter to Princess Celestia asking about what had happened. This is what she said."
The five other ponies crowded around the piece of paper, curious as to what could be written there. It didn't take them long to read it, though what they read raised only more questions than answers.
In Princess Celestia's immaculate horn-writing, there was only a single, short phrase: Investigating the situation. Will get back to you when I know more.
"Well," Applejack said eventually, breaking the confused silence that had formed in the library. "That's certainly... short."
"Sweetie Belle would probably call it succinct," Rarity added with one last look at the letter. "But Applejack has a point. I don't think I've even seen Princess Celestia write such a short letter to you before."
"She hasn't!" Twilight shouted. Her horn lit up and a large wooden chest floated in to the library from one of the neighboring rooms. The chest landed on the floor with a heavy thud and popped open to reveal that it was filled to the brim with letters. Letters from Princess Celestia to Twilight. "Look at this!" Twilight shouted, picking up a letter at random and opening it. "She's always written a minimum of two hundred words! Normally she averages three hundred and seventy-five!"
"The fact that you know that off the top of your head scares me," Rainbow Dash said drolly before playfully winking at Twilight. "Egghead," she added, taking any of the sting off her previous words.
"Alright, so Princess Celestia doesn't know what did this," Applejack said, looking up at the sun. "You don't think it was Discord, do you?"
At Dash's words, there was an explosion of pink smoke beginning from the center of the room. Bright and cheerful music filled the room for several seconds before the smoke cleared away, leaving behind the draconequus in question. He wore a garish red sombrero on his head and held a pair of maracas in each hand, one of which sounded like a ukulele while the other sounded like a bagpipe when he shook it. "You rang?"
"Dang it, Applejack," Rainbow grumbled with a glance over at the shamed-faced farmpony.
"Sorry," Applejack replied, pulling her hat down low over her face.
"Oh, there's no need for such hostility," Discord said with a cheerful grin on his face, tossing his maracas over his shoulders. The maracas turned into a flock of doves the instant before they hit the ground and vanished out a nearby open with a flurry of feathers. "Not when I've gone through so much effort to bring you a message from your precious Princess."
"You have a message from Princess Celestia?" Twilight asked sceptically. "Then why didn't she just send a message through Spike?"
"Maybe I was talking about Princess Luna?" Discord suggested with a grin that was just a touch too large to be considered friendly. "Ooh, but what is this?" he added, spotting the white wolf lying alone in a corner of the room. "Did you make a new friend without me?" He reached out his taloned hand to touch the wolf's head. "That seems a little- HEY!" His talon pulled back just in time to avoid a set of sharp fangs snapping closed where his hand had been less than a second before. A low growl emanated from the white wolf, her hackles starting to raise as she stared up at Discord without standing up.
"That wolf has good taste," Rainbow Dash said approvingly to Applejack in a stage whisper that could clearly be heard by everyone in the room while Fluttershy hastened to the wolf's side in order to prevent further violence.
"I don't know about that, but it sure looked to me like she was tryin' to get a good taste," Applejack commented back at equal volume.
"You two are hilarious," Discord grumbled as he rubbed at his talon while Fluttershy attempted to sooth and calm the growling wolf. Losing interest in the violent carnivore, Discord turned to the others before he shrugged and took a seat in mid-air, pulling up his feet so they were resting on his knees. "I've got a message from both the Princesses, actually. We decided it was better to be safe. Without knowing what could have taken control of the sun away from Celestia, we're not going to take any chances. Celestia would have come herself if she was able."
"'If she was able?'" Rarity repeated curiously. "What do you mean by that? Was there something preventing her from coming?"
"Sort of," Discord replied with a unsuitably cheery smirk. "Canterlot is Celestia's Place of Power, so she's working on recreating her bond with the sun."
Twilight made an "Ah" of understanding but, seeing that her friends all wore confused expression on their faces, she quickly explained. "All magic users of Archmage rank or higher are able to develop connections to the land in certain areas. These areas are known as their Places of Power and the magic user's magic is exponentially amplified simply by being near it."
"Bingo," Discord replied, pointing his finger directly at her. "And Celestia is drawing from her own Place of Power in order to amplify her of magic abilities. Right now, she's probably about fifteen times stronger than usual. Still not up to my level, of course, but we're not going to hold that little flaw against her."
"Fiftee-" Twilight started before shaking her head in disbelief. Princess Celestia's magical ability completely eclipsed her even on a good day. The idea of her going even farther than that... It was frankly, scary. "Does that mean she's planning something?"
"Plan?" Discord choked out a bitter laugh and his ever-present grin shifted into something sour. "We don't have a plan. Even I've never heard of something capable of this before."
"That can't be right," Applejack protested with a frown, pushing her hat back so she could look Discord in the eyes. "Didn't you yerself move the sun and the moon for a while there?"
"That's different." Discord held his hands out before him, palms up, before jerking one up like he was throwing a ball. At the same time, the sun suddenly rose at a speedy pace before falling again. Discord's other hand came up, and suddenly the moon flew across the sky. His hands started to move in an intricate dance as if he was juggling something while, outside, the sun and the moon matched his movements. "Even I can't simply force the sun and moon to appear and disappear at will. I can move them, sure, but making it simply jump to a point in the sky? That's a little harder."
"Alright!" Twilight suddenly shouted, her mane starting to fray at the edges as she stared at the sun and moon dancing across the sky. She imagined what sort of panic must be spreading across Equestria at Discord's little display of power and she felt the icy cold fangs of panic start to bite into her. "We get it! It wasn't you! Just stop it, please!"
As Twilight's desperate plea faded from hearing, the sun suddenly froze in its place in the sky. The moon also disappeared and did not make a reappearance. Seeing that everything was back to normal, Twilight took several deep breathes, going through the breathing exercises her old foalsitter Cadance had taught her. "Thank you," Twilight said with a small smile at Discord. After quickly combing her frazzled mane back into order, she turned to look at the other mares. "Alright, girls, we-"
"It wasn't me."
Twilight stumbled at the unexpected words that came from Discord's mouth. "What?" she asked, looking up at him. Everypony else also turned their heads to look up at the draconequus among them, confused by what he could possibly mean
"It wasn't me," Discord reiterated as he stared out the open window with an uncharacteristically serious expression on his face. He flexed his taloned claw in the direction of the sun, but absolutely nothing happened. He tried it again, his arm shaking from the force exerted on it, but once again, nothing changed. "Don't you get it?" he asked, turning to look at the ponies who were still staring at him with their questions clear on their faces. "Something stole the sun from me. Whatever did this is strong enough to be more than a match for even my own chaos powers. I need to tell Celestia. Now." And with that, he disappeared.
The mares were so dismayed at the news that whatever had stolen control of the sun away from Celestia had even been able to overpower Discord without any trouble at all that they completely failed to notice as a black-tipped tail beat itself against the floor several times in a self-satisfied manner, the owner of said tail lying in a pool of sunlight that had been disturbed by Discord's little juggling act.
Stats
Page generated in 0.04 seconds
Total duration
965 users online
113,498 hits today, 2,314,256 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
*fourth howl* I like the story so far. Keep it up.
Two things: One, 'fourth' is spelled with a 'u' in it. Two, Ammy is officially stronger than Discord. Given she's the head of a pantheon, not surprised.
Oh man, that ending was amazing. Everyone's freaking out and Ammy's just sitting there sunbathing.
Awesome update
6362724
And thus any delusions about my competence fade away like smoke in the wind.
She is supposed to be the goddess of nature...Doesn't she know it is extremely dangerous to mess up the day and night cycle like that?
6362769 Amaterasu is a creator level deity they have control over all aspect of the world
It's funny
The second chapter's title is misspelled. Abilities not "Abilitues"
This story is great! There are two main types of conflict that a story can have. Violence based (fighting) and conversation based (not fighting). Since Ammy's got the violence based conflict dealt with no problem, the only conflict that could be used at this point in the story to prevent Ammy from becoming a Mary Sue is the conversation based conflict. Which is very well done thus far!
6362646 Thanks!
No matter what anyone says this story is brilliant!
seems like Ammy or Celestia could use a telepathy spell of something of that sort for communication or luna could enter her dreams maybe.
6362806 And this is proof that I shouldn't do hasty patch fixes when I'm tired.
Or that I shouldn't be allowed out of the house. One of the two.
Doesn't she have slight control over the moon as well?
Love This
6362819 again...mary sue being thrown around...
It is only a mary sue when the character can do everything better than anyone else for no god damn very good reason...that and the opposite sex and sometimes the same sex keep throwing themselves at the character for no good reason....even those with totally no chemistry whatsoever between them.
at best, she is overpowered, not sue
oh, i also forgot...having tragic back story that make no sense whatsoever to what they are currently is also another point.
I check one ever hour for an update... is that a bit much?
6362724 Well if he meant "forth" as in "the howl that brings forth the sun" then it would be correct.
No...? I'll just go in the corner now...
6362948 True about that. I mean she's only had, waht? Like a million plus years of basking inside the sun to grow her powers before being sent down to the planet? Also this is her real body and not the replacement used in the game so being at full strength makes some sense.
6362959 Nah, it is perfectly understandable
Wait....wasn't this supposed to be only the 2nd day after Luna's return?
If she's worried about who stole the sun from her, it makes no sense that Celestia would release Discord, which canon hadn't reformed until mid-Season 3. That would be like trying to use a flame thrower to clean up a gasoline spill--lots of light, maybe some sound, but with results a little less than optimal
Might ought to throw in the Alternate Universe tag if the timeline is this FUBAR'd.
Story itself seems intriguing, so will continue to follow.
Loved the Update and I highly look forward to more, and the moment when Twilight and friends learn about a certain wolfs powers.
6362986 Think about it like this: She (Celestia) doesn't know who did this, so she assumes Discord. This doesn't work out, so now, not only do you have a being stronger than Celestia, and stronger than Discord, but they have just asserted themselves. Basically, a giant "Fuck (spoilers for the kiddies) you" to Celestia, and Discord. So whoever it is, they have to go together, or they are dead.
The power of Ammy compels you!
6362986
We know that it is some day after Luna's return, and that the event that freed Nightmare Moon is that same that freed Sammy. We do not, however, know how long after this is; it was never stated how long it took her corporeal body to reform.
Also, keep in mind that per cannon, all the events from Season 1 to the start of Season 4 took place within one year. Keep Calm and Flutter On was near the end of Season 3, but we also have no idea how much time passes between each episode. It's entirely possible that we've gotten to this point without breaking canon.
In any case, the Crossover tag implies AU.
Well, this is looking very good so far. The setup is strong even with the usual "displaced" hiccups (and makes more sense than trying to shove a loosely defined extra god in like you mentioned earlier), your writing is excellent, and you have already done a number of interesting things like the diamond dog and making your OC a homosexual woman so I am definitely looking forwards to seeing where you go with this.
The only real complaint I have is that the info dump could have been deleted, moved to a blog post, or replaced with a link to an external reference because we do not need that kind of mechanical detail to enjoy the story. Even in its own chapter it still adds some unnecessary bulk and disruption to the story which is totally unnecessary even for readers who are not familiar with the series. All you really need to do is show what happens when she actually uses her abilities which you already did beautifully when she used Sunrise the first time and all the exposition will be taken care of organically as it becomes relevant. This also takes care of the issue of the unimportant junk abilities that she cannot use here and any other game mechanics stuff, although you would still need a short scene to deal with the bones and an author's note to say that she has everything except the beads. Sure some readers unfamiliar with the series might wonder where something she did came from, but they can look that up on their own if it really bothers them. Remember, we don't need to know about game mechanics, you just need to show us what she can actually do and everything will work out fine.
6363009 Or they could just show up and let her lick them into submission because nothing bad is going to happen, but we do admittedly have a bit more information than they do on this.
Wait, Discord can't see Ammy's true form? He's a spirit right?
ermyguuuud!!!, i'm gonna have to read this again just to satisfy my cravings for more!
)
neh....neeedd mmoorree,....critical failure, frustration reaching critical levels...
stream1.gifsoup.com/view8/4707166/wtf-boom-o.gif
thank you DevoidofCreativity for being so awesome
(seriously dude, your first fic and you got me wanting more good job on being epic levels of awesome
6363102
Well only specific beings tied with destiny can see Celestial being
like Susanoo, or the Camilla sisters
... Why do I think that Ammy is going to have a heck of a laugh at the whole thing when she starts throwing around sunrises and moon rises casually? Probably in front of Discord, Celestia, and Luna all at once. Just to screw with them. Literally just trolling them, laying down and going to sleep as she casually advances days and weeks.
Gah! I want to get to the sun tug of war between Tia and Sam/Ammy.
6363102
6363179
Or he just didn't bother to mention it because it's much more fun to let everyone freak out. It sounds like something he'd do.
Twilight: "Why didn't you tell us Fluttershy's new friend was a goddess?"
Discord: "You never asked."
Ok i don't get it. She is a human as the character Ammy from Okami, that i get, but why is she so carefree as Ammy? Should she be acting more like a human stuck in another form? Or is the character of Ammy affecting the human?
6363314 Well she has been the sun god for a lot longer than she was a human. So I'm inclined to believe she is acting more how she believes a sun god would act.
I thought that each chapter named "-insert number- howl" would include an actual howl.
6363102
or maybe discord did notice but didn't know the difference
6363090
This could be a logical outcome of getting freed from the sun. Although, one of the previous comments above had a reply that she missed NightMare Night by being in the Diamond Dog's cave, implying the following day was the day or so after S1E01.
This, however, cannot. Sorry. But when one counts the cycles of Summers/Falls/Winters/Springs per the show, there's roughly at least one year every 13 episodes or so.
S1E01 obviously starts Year 1 off with the Summer Solstice, and S1E04 has us in the Fall with Applebuck Season, while S1E11 has us back to Spring with Winter Wrapup. However, we're back to Fall with S1E13! So, Season 1 has to have at least 2 years going on there.
A Similar pattern can be seen in Season 2: E11 is Hearthswarming Eve (analogous to our Xmas holidays), but ZapApple harvest is the very next episode with the following 2-3 episodes fall-related, which implies an entire spring/summer was skipped between E11 & E12. After those, it's Hearts&Hoofs Day (analogous to our Valentine's Day).
So, from that pattern, Season 1 would cover Years 1 & 2, Season 2 Years 3 & 4, Season 3 Year 5. And that would make the beginning of Season 4 the start of Year 6.
I'm loving this story so far, keep it up
I can't wait to read more. You have my interest to a very high degree.
more! please! i beg of thee! bringuth more of thy chapters!
Ammy tail-slapped Discord. Eyeep.
6362972 That would have been great. Why am I at my most clever when its unintentional?
6362986 The story is placed in the timeline between Keep Calm and Flutter on and MMM. The story's reason for this is take it took some time for Ammy's body to be made. The writer's reason for the first is that I wanted to be able to have Discord as a character, since he's the only one really capable of matching Ammy, but Princess Twilight would have completely changed a large chunk of the story and made everything a whole lot harder to write.
6363102 *whistles innocently* Nothing to see here. Move along.
6363481 I tried. I really, really did.
I'm faving this. I want to see where it goes!
6363562
At the start of Season 4, it's stated to be the first Summer Sun Celebration since Luna's return. We also know the Summer Sun Celebration is an annual event. The writers have stated as much.
So, one year.
6362948 I was saying how Ammy WASN'T a Mary Sue...
6363562 Celestia and Luna quite literally control the sun and the moon. Ponies control the seasons. What makes you think it is anything like earth? It's already canon that the Summer Sun celebration is annual, as is the GGG. But is a year the same? Not necessarily, it could be 1000 days, or 500 days, or whatever. Based on when the equinox is (chosen by Celestia), or when 10-20 months pass. It's inherently different, so they measure time differently.
The trolling is real. roundstable.com/forums/images/smilies/dreamworks.png