At The Precipice

by Teh dr3am3r

Chapter 3 : A Plea for Help

Chapter 2 : A Plea for Help

Darkness slid over the world and the moon peeked over the horizon as the night set in. A pattern of stars in the shape of a wolf’s snapping maw could be perceived along the edge of the moon and the star-wolf seemed to be about to devour the pearly orb. Far below the watchful shafts of moonlight an eerie call echoed across a dark forest. The long call spread over the forest and far beyond, ringing over the cobblestones that lined the streets of the nearby town and shaking the rafters of all the buildings. Inside the buildings forms shivered in terror, knowing of the beast that howled endlessly throughout the night. Families huddled close together, babes wailed their discomfort, colts and fillies huddled with their parents for some kind of safety from the horrible sound. And finally, at the night’s end, the howls ceased though no pony felt safe. Instead pure terror flooded their hearts, fear that the monster would enter town and prey on them.

At the towns center, a beige pony with a wavy gray mane called for a town meeting, a meeting to decide what was to be done with the monster.

“Alright, alright. Settle down everypony.”

“We don’t wanna settle down Mayor Mare, that wolf is nothing to settle down about.” called a mare from the midst of the crowd.

“Wolf? I heard that it was a black monster from the Everfree.” called another.

“Yeah, a shadow beast, made of ghosts and smoke.”

“Silence everypony, we must have order if we are to decide anything. To those of you who have heard about some smoke monster, there is no such thing. we have several witnesses that saw it and say it was just a wolf.”

“No wolf can take down Big Macintosh!” somepony yelled. The crowd broke out in a frenzy, yelling absurdities over each other about demons and dragons and all other kinds of monsters.

“EVERYPONY SHUT THE BUCK UP!!” Screamed a familiar voice from the back. Every pony in the room instantly silenced themselves and looked to the source where a seething pegasus stood panting. “Oh! if that’s, um, ok with you... please?”

Giving Fluttershy a thankful glace, Mayor Mare resumed speaking, “Now, as I was saying, it is a wolf that attacked the stallions, but it is a very large wolf. Several stallions tried to hunt it down, but they said that it attacked them in the forest. Mr. Blue Skies is in the hospital with a shattered wing and many witnesses said that the beast paralyzed them with a glance when they tried to help. It is clear that we don’t have anypony qualified to defeat the monster, but we can’t-”

A violent howl shattered her speech like glass and tore through the air with a volume that humbled a volcano. Everypony fell the the floor with their hooves over their ears as the sound battered at them and threatened to crush their skulls. Mayor Mare could feel the wooden floor tremble under her like an earthquake as she curled into a fetal position. After an eternity the howl ended and the mayor slowly returned to her podium. As the others in the room regained their bearings she retrieved several papers that had fallen to the floor.

When everypony was situated, albeit some who remained motionless on the floor, she resumed where she had left off, but with a bit more conviction. “We cannot allow this monster to remain. We must ask for help from the princess.”

“We could get the librarian to send it!” a stallion from the crowd yelled.

“Very well, I will go to the library and send a letter to the princess. Everypony should go home, there isn’t much else we can do but wait.” With that stallions and mares alike nervously left the building as the mayor gathered some parchment and quills from her office. After she was ready, she left and headed for the library.

A small bell tinkled above the door as the beige mare entered the large tree-library tentatively. Half an instant later, a rough adolescent voice called, “Be right down!” from the stairs across the room. The mare walked up to the service desk and sat down her things and began to write her letter.

After a few moments, the stairs groaned in protest as a gangly dragon with two small wings sprouting from his back descended the wooden steps.

“Can I help you Mayor?” asked the teenage dragon.

“Yes Spike, I need you to send a letter to the princess. It’s about the wolf that has been terrorizing Ponyville.”

“Boy you sound a lot like Twi, always sending letters off to the princess. But now that seems to have switched around a bit.” He chuckled at his own joke and the pony offered the letter to the librarian, but he pushed the rolled parchment away.

“You don’t have to bother her with that. You have a genuine dragon right here, I can take on any wolf, a breath of fire will send him scurrying.”

“Not this one I’m afraid, it almost killed Big Macintosh and hurt a pegasus really bad. You heard those howls right?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s the wolf I’m talking about. I don’t think normal wolves can howl like that.”

“You sure?”

“Very.”

The dragon sighed and thought for a moment, tapping a claw against his chin. “Okay, I’ll send the letter but I will take care of the thing right now. After I kill it or run it off or whatever, we will send a second letter to let her know that I took care of it, deal?”

“Okay.”

Taking the roll of parchment up in his claw, he bathed the letter in fire and watched it turn to smoke and vanish out the window. Turning on his heel, he squeezed through the doorway and vanished into the night. The mare inside the library spotted a stack of books laying atop the desk and picked up the one resting on the top. “Might as well get comfortable.” she mumbled to herself as she opened the book.

A loud knock startled the dozing mayor awake and she accidentally knocked the book she had been reading onto the floor. Shaking her drowsy head, the mare retrieved and replaced the book on the desk.

The door shook in its frame as whoever banged on it once again with more force. Mayor Mare hurriedly opened the door and the dragon tumbled in looking like he had jumped into a giant shredder. Long gashes lined his scales and rivers of red flooded across the dragon’s back. With a startled cry the mayor attempted to get him to a chair. His heavy body slumped to the floor with a dull thud, issuing a moan from Spike.

“What in Celestia’s name happened?”

“Mmmpf.” was all he said as he struggled to his feet. After stumbling over to the counter where the books rested, he sat down with a heavy thunk. “Get... get me some water.” he mumbled with a wheeze.

The mayor dashed into the kitchen and retrieved an oversized glass from the cupboards. She brought the near-gallon of water to the injured dragon and he downed it in a single gulp.

“I..I’ve never even heard of-”

The library exploded with light and sound, throwing the mare onto the floor in shock. However the dragon remained unfazed as if this was a normal occurrence. The mayor picked herself off the floor and took a bow when she saw Twilight, or at least, what used to be Twilight. The purple mare stood much taller than most ponies and violet wings arced over her body. Her mane flowed in an otherworldly wind, framing the bronze crown that rested before her horn. Her horn was enveloped in a soft magenta aura and the cuts and gashes over Spikes body closed and knitted themselves together with nary a scar.

“Rise Mayor Mare, you don’t have to bow to me.” she said to the kneeling mare before her. She complied as Princess Twilight walked forward and brought Spike into an affectionate hug. “You silly dragon, you didn’t try to defeat the wolf yourself did you?” She shook her head and broke the hug before continuing without waiting for an answer.

“I feared this day, I just hoped it would never come. By Celestia’s mane, is Big Mac all right Mayor? You only said he was hurt and I didn’t know how bad it was.”

“It wasn’t too bad, although Blue Skies had his wing shattered. It is unlikely he will ever fly again.”

“Did you see it?”

“The wolf?”

“Yes.”

“No, I didn’t.”

She nodded her head thoughtfully but didn’t say anything else. After a few awkward minutes of silence, Spike asked innocently, “Hi Twilight. How’s things going in Canterlot?”

A ghost of a smile graced the princess’ lips and she chuckled halfheartedly. “Well enough. Celestia and Luna left too suddenly, the government is in chaos right now.”

“What exactly happened? We haven’t had much news.”

She shook her head again, “Never mind that for now, we have to deal with Fenrir.”

“Who?” piped the mayor.

“The wolf.” the princess stated simply. “I will go into the forest and put this matter to rest. You go home Mayor and Spike, get some rest. You need sleep even though I healed you.”

“But your majesty-”

“Just call me Twilight. I’m still not used to that yet.”

“I-I don’t want to be rude or anything, but that wolf is really dangerous. You know Big Mac, and though he put up a fight, he was still beat up pretty badly.”

The princess smiled again and gave the mayor a kind look. “Thank you for your concern Mayor, but I believe a different tactic is in order to put down this particular menace. The situation is more dire than you might know.” Her horn lit up and before the mayor could say anything, she vanished with a loud pop and a bright flash of light.

Spike hopped to his feet and began ascending the stairs. “Better get on home mayor. We just gotta trust Twilight, it’s almost always the best thing to do. Night, er rather, good morning.” The dragon’s bedroom door shut with an innate sense of finality for the mare below. With a sigh, she shuffled across the room and slowly left the library, resigned to her fate.

<>

The small pup was gently set down in the grass and Skoll quietly crouched down beside him. Fenrir made for the entrance of the cave where they lived but Skoll held him by his tail with a paw. The pup let out a startled yelp, to which his older brother yanked him closer and covered him. “Be silent.” he hissed under his breath. The pup nodded obediently and shrunk down lower to the ground, his ears alert.

Skoll watched the den entrance silently for several minutes, occasionally testing the air with a sniff, or flicking his ears about. He left out a soft “Uuf” and lowered his head beneath the weeds. On cue, a tall and lanky wolf with a coat that gleamed like silver strode from the darkness and scanned the area, ears erect.

“Hati, over here.” Skoll whispered. The silver wolf’s head whipped about and faced the hiding duo. His ears twitched and he gave the slightest nod before returning his gaze to the clearing. He tasted the wind with his nose and very carefully crept to where the duo was hiding.

“Mother is dead.” he stated matter of factly.

Skoll’s hackles shot up and he sprang to his feet. “What?! How!?” He growled.

Hati shook his head sadly, “I do not know brother, I returned with a ram and she would not awaken. She smells cold, lifeless like the rocks. There is no blood or wound. I do not know.”

“Was that your howl?”

“Nay, It came from very nearby. That is why I was so careful to come out, I fear another pack has come to take our den.”

“I smell nothing.”

“Exactly, I find this too strange for my taste.”

The little pup lay with his chin rested upon his paws. His young mind had no idea what his older brothers were talking about and he lay in a perpetual state of confusion. What was Dead? His little nose could smell blood and something stinky, but he couldn’t smell Mother. Smells cold? What did that mean? So many questions, and his brothers made no motion to explain them to him. He decided to go find Mother and wake her up, then they could eat dinner together like always.

He shuffled to his paws as quietly as he could and made sure his brothers hadn’t noticed him. When they continued to talk about packs and other things he didn’t understand, he slowly crept away to their den and trotted in. Near the back of the cave Mother lay next to a smelly goat carcass. He didn’t understand why she didn’t get up to eat it, she had the best nose of all of them, surely she could smell the kill?

The pup trotted up to his mother’s motionless muzzle and pushed on it with his small paws. “Wake up Mommy, Hati brought dinner.” She remained motionless and little Fenrir set his nose to work. He could smell her, kind of. He could smell her fur, smell the grass she liked to roll in after her baths. But he didn’t smell her breath and she smelled... wrong. She smelled slightly dull, like a bone left in the sun too long. He nuzzled her again and pushed on her neck with a growing sense of urgency.

“Come on Mommy, wake up. I’m hungry.” Still she refused to move and the pup sat down with a pout. He looked over at the ram Hati had brought in and then looked at his mother. With a growing sense of curiosity, he sniffed at the fur of the goat, then his mother’s fur. They smelled very different, goats aren’t clean like wolves, but they both had that same dull tang to the scent. Gears wound and clicked in the little pups mind. He looked again from the goat to his mother and his eye began to sting as a small knot welled up in his throat.

“Oh no. Oh no no. Mommy!” He jumped to his feet and pushed hard into his mother’s body. He lowered his head and tried to snuggle into her fur. His nose buried itself under the fur and touched her skin. With a yelp, he jumped away, now he understood. Hati had said she smelled cold, and her skin was... cold, not warm like it always was.

Dead, was cold. Dead was not-life, like the goat. A tear pushed its way from his eye and soaked into the fur on his face. Suddenly overcome with a wave of an awful new emotion, he snuggled close to his dead mother and cried into her cold fur.

Growling, Fenrir slammed the floodgate of memories shut. Neck deep in a cool river, he thrust his snout into the water to try and wash away the daydream, but they stuck to his mind like parasites. He quickly left the flowing waters and shook himself more forcefully than he meant to, but his anger and hatred drained from him as the morning sunlight soaked warmth into his soggy fur. Giving himself another shake, the wolf found a clump of nice-smelling grass and plopped himself down. Rolling back and forth upon his back, he “perfumed” the stink of dragon blood from himself until he gave an almighty sneeze.

Shuffling back to his paws, he took several deep breaths of the air to get a picture of his surroundings. He could smell a few of the tree-wolves nearby, but they had learned their lesson and let him be. Several prey animals dashed to and fro through the woods and he could smell something else, something he hadn’t smelled in very long time. Erect ears captured the distant sound of a distinct popping noise along with the scent on the wind.

Without a second of hesitation he bolted off in the direction of the scent, the smell of Divine magic, the smell of the One. Now, he would have his vengeance.

<>

An explosion of sound and light announced the arrival of the princess. Looking upon the Everfree forest for the first time in years, she felt a chill run up her spine. Shuffling her new wings, Twilight trotted forward under the canopy. The air felt dark and oppressive and she felt unwelcome under the shadowy boughs.

“This place still feels the same,” she muttered under her breath. “But where are the... animals?” Looking around she could neither see nor hear any nearby creatures. No squirrels scampered about for acorns, no birds sang their songs. She wasn’t deep enough to have entered the magical part of the forest, and the gates to Tartarus were on the other side of the vast wood.

Her wings fluttered nervously at her shoulders and she silently cursed the dramatic appendages. Never once had she seen Celestia’s wings give away any hint of emotion like they did to Twilight.

“Oh Celestia, you left too soon.” the alicorn lamented aloud. “I don’t know if I can handle this.” She had been on the throne for almost a year now and still she missed the wise presence of her erstwhile teacher. Very often she had sat at delegation tables and wished for her old life back whilst ambassadors and emissaries argued back and forth about pointless subjects. Especially here and now she worried over her chances at success.

A breaking twig brought Twilight back into the real world. Charging up her horn, she immediately cast a revealing spell that Princess Celestia had taught her. A magenta orb of light slowly expanded around her and enveloped the area. A nearby bush disintegrated and left a massive wolf exposed. He stood nearly as tall as Twilight at the shoulders, lip curled upward in a bone-shaking growl revealing teeth the size of kitchen knives.

“Your time has come Odin, no form you take will hide you from me.” came a deep guttural voice making Twilight leap back in shock. Her wings flapped hard at her distress and sent her off balance, making her keel over her hind legs and fall firmly on her rump.

The wolf took advantage of the opportunity and pounced at his prey, razor sharp claws at the ready. With a burst of adrenaline and magic, Twilight threw the beast away from her with an explosion spell. His black body sailed clean through an oak tree and slammed against the next, but somehow, the beast managed to land on his feet. He quickly leaped onto the falling tree and pushed it in Twilight’s direction. The alicorn teleported out of the way before the wolf slammed into her and landed atop of her. He placed a paw on her horn and held her firm, cutting off her magic as he leaned close to her ear.

“You thought you could just bury me?” he growled. “You tricked me and bound me, but I have broken the ribbons and now I will kill you.” Twilight struggled under his paw, but she might as well tried to pick up a mountain. He pushed down harder on her horn, forcing a scream from the pinned alicorn.

“Please,” At her voice the pressure vanished and the wolf jumped off of her. Fighting back tears of pain that threatened to spill forth like a flood, she slowly crawled to her hooves. Her horn had almost shattered and rivers of almost unbearable pain poured down the sensitive bone.

“Who are you? Is this some trickery of yours, old vulture?”

“What... what are y-you talking about?” she stammered through the pain. She felt like some pony had poured molten metal over her horn. He growled, but said nothing in response. After the pain faded to a bearable level she fought to open her eyes that seemed glued shut. The huge wolf was sitting down, facing away from her as he gazed listlessly through the dark trees. “Who... who is Odin?”

He barked a gravelly laugh and muttered something under his breath. “You stink of the Divine Ones, the gods, but you do not know any? You are not a god yet you look as they do.”

“What, an alicorn?”

He nodded, “Horns and wings, though Odin had eight legs, not four.”

What in Equestria was he talking about? A pony with eight legs? “I know Celestia and Luna, they made me like this and then left.”

“I do not know either of whom you speak.”

Didn’t they have different names when they were younger? “Umm, Selene and Helia, I think?”

He gave a different sound, something like humming and his head turned just so she could see one of his eyes peeking out of peripheral. “The Valkyries, I remember them.”

“Yeah, they left.”

“Do you know where?”

“They only told me it was their time. Then they just flew straight up into the sky and vanished.”

“They have gone to Valhalla.”

“Where?”

He mumbled something else under his breath, but Twilight couldn’t quite make out what he said. He rose again and turned to her with a frightening gleam in his eye. “You will just have to do, perhaps Odin will come down from his throne after I have slain you.”

“W-what!?” she spluttered. He gave some wolf-like imitation of a grin and slowly crept nearer.

“Fear not, I will make it quick for you.”

“W-wait!” she stammered as he lowered himself to pounce. He hesitated and perked his ears. “Why-why do you howl?” His predatory gaze dropped like a rock and only a hurt demeanor remained. His shoulders slumped and he sank to the ground, producing a thump that jarred the ground. Clearly, she had hit a soft spot in his violent swagger.

What the buck am I doing? “I mean, I know why you howl.” He looked at her with curious eyes, seemingly pleading for her to keep on, so she did. “You’re lonely aren’t you?” The look of surprise in his eyes confirmed her wild shot in the dark. Of course, wolves are pack animals, one alone would be very lonely, and deep down she understood.

“I used to be like you, I didn’t have any friends. All I had was my books and somehow I convinced myself that that was all I needed. But I found out how lonely I really was when I found my friends. I used to gaze up at the moon and ask myself why no pony liked me. That’s why you howl.”

If a wolf could cry, he certainly was, Twilight could swear she saw a trickle of fluid along his eyelid. “Why do they fear me?”

“Who?”

“The ponies, why are they afraid of me? I tried to be kind, even one youngling liked me, but they ran me off.”

Caught off guard by the question, she had to think for a moment. She suddenly envied how Celestia always had an answer to her questions at a moments notice. “You attacked them didn’t you?”

“Only after they attacked me.”

“Well, most ponies don’t understand wolves. One of my friends, Fluttershy, does and she actually takes care of a few. But most ponies are frightened of wolves in general, they don’t need a reason really.”

“But I wasn’t stalking or crouched, I was being kind to the youngling. He even placed his hoof on my forehead.”

“They just don’t understand you. The youngling might have been familiar with wolves.”

“Can you fix their fear? I am alone, Skoll and Hati won’t come until they finish hunting.”

Twilight had no idea who Skoll or Hati was, but an idea began to blossom in her mind. Already she was sorting through spells and magical words inside her head. “I can’t “fix” their fear per se, but I can make it so they will have no reason to fear you.”

His ears perked and he sat at attention, much like a Winona when AJ would play with her. Finding the right incantation in her memory, she began to recite it in her mind and poured her magical reserves into her horn. At first, it shot back arcs of pain that made her wince, but she fought through and eventually became numb to the protests. She closed her eyes in concentration and when she had finished the rites, she pushed her magic out and it crept forward like mist. It quickly enveloped the wolf, and as she opened her eyes, the fruits of her spell proved near perfect.

Before her sat a rather large earth pony with a bit more fur than normal. He had retained his original size, but sat ignorant of the changes his body had taken. The princess made a mental note to do some experimentation on this when her duties would allow it.

Pushing a simple sizing spell at the former wolf, she reduced him to the size of a normal stallion, just slightly shorter than Big Mac. Only then did he notice the change as the alicorn before him seemed to grow in size. He looked down at his new hooves and gave a cry of surprise at his new body. He quickly stood and tried to scratch at the black fur on his belly, only to tip over like a bowling pin.

Suppressing a laugh as his awkwardness, She explained to him the differences in his spine. He seemed rather displeased to find that he was much less agile and had difficulty walking in the new gait. After he had practiced for a few minutes, Twilight gave a word of warning, “This is only a disguise, similar to changelings. I don’t know if it will stay after you talking or anything so try to avoid conversation.” He gave her an incredulous look and rose to all fours.

“What’s a changeling?” he asked. As if on cue, the apparition flickered and he changed somewhat, his fur lengthened and his hooves half transformed back into paws before shifting back to normal.

“Just as I thought. Don’t talk, I can see through the disguise and so will other ponies whenever you speak. Return at nightfall, it should last till then. Changelings change their appearance to impersonate other ponies and feed off their emotions. We have had some serious problems with them in the past.” He nodded and looked off in the direction of Ponyville. His nostrils flared a bit and Twilight could tell that his senses still worked perfectly.

“Thank you.” he said earnestly, with a bit of fluctuation in the disguise. He couldn’t help the smile that spread over his lips as he began walking towards the pony town in the distance. Behind him the smell of divine magic spread through the air and a loud pop sounded, shifting his shaggy mane into his face. Brushing back the gray locks, he began trotting toward the village.