Wulf the vigilante

by Fluffywolf

Arrival in Ponyville

The night was still dark, the only source of light were the nightly watchers guarding the peaceful night for all the sleeping creatures.
But for our green mare, there was no sleeping tonight. Her time to leave her home in the mystical Everfree forest has come, and the darkness of the night seemed most appropriate, as well as nostalgic. None of her family had ever told her how she came to be, but still she found out. One of the many gifts the skull had given her, when it changed her life completely.

She looked back at the forest, thinking about the days she spent there, training, learning and most of all surviving. She caught a glimpse of her flank when looking back and smiled. It was not blank, but instead had a burning skull on it. Not something a pony gets as a cutie mark, but she didn't care, neither did she even know what was normal for her kind. She never met any in the years she spent in the forest, and that was also the reason for her departure. She had learned everything from the forest and her family she was able to, and now the world would be her new mentor.
A new start.

She started walking, at first with no other goal than to get moving, but soon she had spotted her new destination. A small town, not even that far from the forest, lay right in her way. She smiled. She didn't think she would be able to find something this fast, but she still had one problem. There was no way for her to enter the town at night. What would the inhabitants think if they woke up and an unknown pony would be walking the streets ? No, that would have been bad. The only option was to wait until morning. She got closer to the town, trying to find a place where she could wait unnoticed, only to see an orchard not far away from the town.

The place was incredibly big and filled apple trees, bursting with apples almost ready for picking. Not losing a moment, she picked a few and started eating, and her face was completely amazed. Never before has she eaten something this tasty, and there were just so many. She didn't take many though, she was no thief and even in a place as big as this one was, she didn't feel comfortable with how many she already took. Hunger was hunger though and maybe one day she would be able to repay the debt she had made. Once she was feeling full, she wanted to stash the other ones she had plucked, only to realize she had nowhere to put them. The only thing she had with her was a cape, and it had no pockets. Not wanting the apples to go to waste, she decided to put them somewhere they would be found and taken.
And so she headed to the house that was near the orchard.

She carefully crept up to the house, not wanting to get noticed or be heard. Success. She approached the house completely unnoticed and placed all the apples near the door.
“There. safe and sound.” she said and turned around to go lay down for a bit, only to notice that the moon was no longer ruling the sky, but was instead getting replaced by the rising sun. She watched the moon set, and at the same time the sun rise, switching from to the other. In the forest, there was not a single spot where this could be seen. The sky was almost always covered with trees, or clouds moving about.
She didn't even realize, that she didn't move from the house, and that morning was already here. What woke her up were the sounds coming from the house. The residents in it were waking up already, getting ready for a day of work at the orchard.
She quickly darted away from the house, hiding in between the trees. She just managed to hide when the doors opened and two ponies came out. The first two ponies she had ever seen.
One a orange mare with a funny looking hat, the other one a big red stallion. Both were talking, even though the stallion seemed awfully quiet, only saying a word here and there.

“Today's going to be the market.” the orange one said
“Eyup.” the stallion replied
“Want to come with us ? I don't think the girls will mind.” the mare asked him
“Nope.” he replied once again
“Mac you're no fun at all, you know that ?”
“There's too much work Applejack. The applebuck season is around the corner and the preparations have to be complete.” he said, which made the mare snicker a bit. She didn't expect him to say a sentence, this long even less so.
The rest of the conversation she did not hear. the two ponies entered a barn before continuing on talking and she was now too far.
But she got some info she didn't expect. A market ? She only knew partially what that was, but it sounded like something she could use as cover.

Leaving the orchard before getting noticed, the green mare now headed to the town. The sun was now ruling the sky and the townsfolk were waking up.Already from afar, she could see that the town was alive. Ponies were building their stalls or decorating the town, bakeries and other stores were alive with workers who tried to finish as much as they were able to. She was amazed. So many of her kind in one place, her eyes restless while looking from one to another. The whole town was simply amazing to her. Everyone seemed happy, and even though some seemed to be tired from all the work, they still smiled.
She slowly walked into the town, only a few minutes before everything started. Stalls started opening one after another so fast that the mare couldn't even notice when the streets got crowded.

Mingling in between the different colored ponies, she walked the street looking here and there, not really watching the various stalls and shops, but the ponies instead. They seemed more interesting to her than anything else in there. She even managed to see the orange mare with her friends walk by. The mare caught a glimpse of her but didn't seem to know her, which made her happy that she went unseen. No One even stopped her once, making it possible for her to enjoy herself for the first time in ages. But still, even with all the things she saw, she felt uncomfortable being here.

She didn't come here with only the purpose of discovering others of her kind, no that would have been too simple, and with her little secret pointless at that. No this town was just too pure to be her goal. Everyone here seemed happy, without any troubles or problems, and even there were some conflicts here and there, they were always resolved with a smile on the face and more to the point, without any incidents. What she was looking for was something more lively, someplace she could actually help and most importantly, use her gift.

Deciding to stay till the end proved to be a good choice. Not only was she able to see so many different ponies, but she started getting an interest in the stuff they were selling as well. The craftsmanship of the pony folk amazed her, surprised her and made her wonder how such things can even be made, for she didn't get this knowledge from her people. She even managed to see the orange mare and her friends a couple more times on the market buying various things, even talking to a weird looking pony, who she had a bad feeling about. She knew something was wrong with him, but she just couldn't figure out what, not did she want to cause any trouble by finding out the hard way.

But the day was at an end now and most of the stall have been packed up and the streets were slowly getting empty. What now, she thought. Staying here was not really an option. That's when she noticed a group of ponies not only packing their things, but also their stalls and tables and leaving together in one direction. A traveling pack, just like the wolves were maybe ?
She decided to follow them.
Once again, good choice on her part. The group has led her to the train station, where a train has already been waiting for departure.
She just had to get onto that train, no matter where it went, but she had no ticket, nor did she have money to buy one. And since she already had a debt for the apples in this town, she didn't want to steal anything either. That's when she noticed that the ponies were loading all their things into the last wagon, and just as she hoped, the last pony to leave forgot to close it properly.

Stealthily entering the last wagon and closing it behind herself, she sat down in between the things inside and closed her eyes. She was happy with what she discovered and saw, and just hoped that wherever she got next would be even more exciting as this town was.

__________________________

She woke up just as the train has been stopping. Hew new destination has been reached.
Quickly she opened up the wagons door to peer outside. Not a single soul close by so she jumped out and closed the wagon behind herself.
“Don't want anyone to steal anything now do we.”
She then turned around to see where she ended up at, and to her surprise, the town in front of her was something completely different. Huge building were squeezed next to one another, factories were scattered all around the city, with their chimneys smoking high up into the sky and the streets were filled with ponies hurrying to who know where or why.
And right in front of her a big shiny sign saying
“Welcome to Manehattan”