Prologue
Celestia's journal, entry... Oh why do I even bother to keep track of this? No pony's even going to read it but me... And if they are reading it, just know that I will be very cross at this invasion of privacy.
I shouldn't be. I've got at least a hundred of these things dumped in a vault in the basement. And if in twelve years what I think will happen happens like I think it will happen, it will be nice to know that something of mine will remain, until she finds the vault and likely destroys them.
Any way, usual routine, lowered moon, raised sun, breakfast, listened to nobles brag about how important they are, lunch, giant dragon and explosions in the student hall, late court, lower the sun, raise the moon, reminisce for an hour or two, dinner, some me time and diary entry, then bed.
Normal day.
I have no idea why I am trying to be smarmy here, I am the only one that’s going to read this.
Yes, the dragon. One of several things today that are both wondrous and absolutely terrifying.
The new students were taking their placement tests for my school today. The big test is to try and hatch a Dragon egg. At the time there was a bit of conflict between Equestria and the Dragons, mostly me and a few Dragons. I was working on a couple of things, don't judge, when i aquired it. At the time, I thought having a Dragon egg would make a nice conversation piece, so I brought it back to Canterlot with me.
I don't recall exactly when the school started using it as a test. Probably about the time I realized it was a lousy paperweight as it kept rolling off my desk and crushing my wastebasket, or my hooves... sucker’s heavy. I do recall giving it to the school maybe as a history thing or curiosity. I wasn't worried about it. It's a dragon egg after all. The mothers gorge on diamonds for months before laying their eggs. I could have probably dropped the moon on it and the moon would have cracked.
Turns out the dean and his little council decided to set it as a test to see if the new students could 'hatch it'. It was less to see if they could and more to see how clever the students’ attempts were. Rather ingenious of them really, I do recall raising the funding after that was explained.
Of course by this point they'd seen everything from a pegasus filly sitting on it and trying to hatch it like a chicken egg.[ She wasn't accepted, as that was too silly] to an Earth Pony building a steam powered incubator from scraps he brought with him, and an old water fountain.[ He was accepted and most of Equestria's modern advancements are owed to Nickeroli Tesla. ]
The short of it is that no one ever considered the egg as anything more than a pretty rock for the hundred or so years they had it. So when a small Unicorn filly had a magical surge as a result of some sort of rainbow phenomenon near Cloudsdale,[I have ponies investigating that as I write this.], and hatched the egg, lets say everyone was surprised. Particularly when this five year old foal not only hatched the dragon egg, but she turned it to an adult, and then turned her parents into cactuses, cactusi? Cacti, that's it. Seriously, no one was ready for it.
Of course with that sort of disturbance I went to investigate. I wasn't worried about the randomly surging magic, since my shield spell could handle that. Nor was I worried about the Dragon. He was sitting there confused with a dopey look on his face, having no idea what was going on, and even if he was aggressive, I’ve kicked the tail of dragons twice his size without breaking a sweat.
No, what worried me was the other thing in the room.
The thing in question at first looked like a Diamond Dog pup. Granted, only somepony who had never seen one of what it really was would confuse the two. And since I was the only pony left alive who had seen one of them, I knew what I was dealing with.
The creature’s fur was a darkish blue. It was on all fours like a normal dog, though its front limbs were built differently with longer, retractable claws on the ends of fingers for manipulation and attacking. Digging was not the strong suit of this species. It's head was more cat-like than canine, with a longer muzzle, and much longer ears that were currently plastered to it's head. It had amber eyes that were slitted like a cat’s, both wide with panic. Its tail whipped wildly behind it, The tail being whip like, rather than the club tails Diamond Dogs had. It had a rougher mane of hair that ran down its head from between its ears, along the back of its neck, and between its shoulders like a short mane.
The most prominent thing about it, aside from the growling mass of sharp teeth in its maw, was at the end of its whip like tail, as well as the points of each long ear, there sat a small free floating globe of light. The light it shed was dim and barely perceivable in the well-lit chamber. Particularly with the strobing blasts of the little unicorn’s magical surge. The little light orbs tended to wax and wane along with the moon, though since I had never bothered to learn how to do that, the moon was always full, thus so were the little lights.
It was called a Witch Wolf.
Judging by its size, the sheer fluff of its fur, and oversized paws, it was a puppy, but still.
Witch Wolves, or as they were called by the Lunar Republic, Moon Dogs, were a offshoot of the Diamond Dog race. One cultivated and guided by her for thousands of years, much like she had done with the Nox-cal. And I had done with the Zebra's and, to a lesser extent, horses. [ Look I’m older than most dirt. Way back when, it was sorta’ trendy to selectively breed your own race by picking genetic quirks you liked and pairing them with creatures who revered you as a god... peer pressure... shut up.] Like the Thestrals, when she turned to darkness they followed. However unlike the Nox-cal, Witch Wolves, were not just Ponies with odd eating habits and dragon-like traits...
They couldn't dig well, which was an odd trait for a canine of any kind. They did have a sense of smell that was unrivaled by any other creature. It was said that they could track a single pony feather in a blizzard at the bottom of the ocean. Which makes little sense really, because wouldn't they drown trying to sniff underwater?
They were also naturally super tough. Not as tough as Dragons mind you, or my last cook’s key lime pie, but tough. Which made them perfect shock troops for Her. Of course there were a few of them made into dark generals as well. While the race reveled in violence, they were not mindless brutes.
Witch Wolves were also meat-eaters. Diamond Dogs nowadays still have the occasional hunting packs, but they live off a number of different things, not just meat. A Witch Wolve’s primary diet was meat. The only other thing they ate was what made them dangerous.
Witch Wolves ate magic.
They couldn't cast any spells, though eating enough magic seemed to bolster their own natural abilities with some sort of enhancement effect. Just the basic strength, speed, endurance, variety, but if they ate enough of it they became true terrors. And really as dangerous as they were before powering up, this bit sucked when you fought them.
Which was why when She was defeated, I had them all hunted down and destroyed.
The Nox-cal surrendered when their leader was defeated. The Witch Wolves just fought harder.
The aftermath of the Lunar Rebellion was bloodier and more violent than the lead up to it. It seemed that she had been keeping them in check with her very presence, and now that she was gone, they didn't hold back.
Entire cities were wiped out by packs no bigger than ten or twenty. It took nearly fifty years, and the loss of thousands, but the last one was cornered on the border between the Griffon Empire and Equestria and finally put down after inflicting greater casualties than either the Griffons or the Ponies could afford to their militaries.
That conflict brokered a long lasting peace between the two nations and a massive Equss-wide hunt for any more Witch Wolves. That hunt lasted another twenty years without finding another.
And yet here in front of me, positioned between the surging filly and me, was a Witch Wolf pup.
It was almost cute given it was slightly smaller than the filly and was still fluffier than anything else. Still, its teeth were sharp and it was glaring at me quiet angrily as it growled. As i moved to go around it to get to the filly, it shifted position. I blinked as it moved between me and the panicking unicorn. I went the other way and so did it.
Interesting.
It was keeping me from getting to the filly? Was it guarding her? I shifted to where the Dragon was and watched as it practically bounced over to position itself between the Dragon and me as well. I backed up and the growling died down a bit, though its amber eyes continued to glare. It refused to allow me to approach the dragon or the filly.
While curious, I had to stop the purple unicorn. Ripping free a curtain with my magic, I scooped the pup up in the thick cloth getting a panicked yelp and the sound of flailing. I did my best to keep it away from anything magical it could eat as I needed to deal with the filly and the dragon first before I could deal with the Witch Wolf.
I was not fond of having to exterminate the race in the past. Genocide, no matter how violent the species, is not acceptable. I had been left no choice if I wanted to protect my little ponies however.
The filly seemed to notice my approach and the surges slowly petered out as I touched her shoulder. It took little effort to reverse most of the wild magic that had happened in the area. There were a few things I could not figure out how to fix however. Like the pink and yellow polka dots that were put on the wall. Even now, they still bleed though every bit of paint put on that wall. We tore it down at one point and the blasted pattern showed up on another wall in the building until the first was rebuilt.
There was also the Witch Wolf. Once the filly had calmed down, after an adorable bout of bouncing around me like a rabbit upon hearing she had been accepted, things got a bit out of hoof.
Thankfully she had missed my returning her parents back from cacti, or she might have been even more upset.
She had been in awe of the little baby Dragon she had hatched and spent some time focused on him as he sucked on his own tail.
By that point however, the Witch Wolf had torn its way out of the curtain and landed with a thud and a whimper on the ground, drawing the filly’s attention. She looked at the pup, the pup looked at her, and before I could do anything she had pounced on the pup and was hugging the fluffy little thing like a stuffed toy.
I expected a number of things to happen; for it to bite her, to worm away, or struggle and claw at her. Instead, it seemed to give up almost immediately, resigning itself to the cuddles with a light whimper. It was not only unusual, but it was simply weird. Witch Wolves were not known to be calm or deal well with foals.
Looking them both over, I noticed there was a connection between the pup and the unicorn. One usually seen only in certain higher level spells.
Evil spells that were all but forgotten and the few records that remained locked away. Spells that pulled a creature into this world and bound it to another as a summoned slave. Spells that left a dark mark on anyone’s soul using it. Victim and caster.
There was no trace of darkness in this link. I had seen summon spells before, but this only shared the energy link, not the slave command. Given this was a creature that wasn't supposed to exist any more, I about washed my hooves of it and went to take a nap.
Still, with this much happening and this much power shown, I could not let her alone. Particularly not with two dangerous creatures, both of which she was now responsible for.
And thus I accepted my new student................ students?
Twilight Sparkle
Spike the Dragon
and Rahs the Witch Wolf.......or should I call him a Moon Dog?
TDR presents
A story NOT in stone
Twilight Gets a Puppy.