//------------------------------// // Keep Calm and Frigoris On, Part 2 // Story: Twilight Gets a Puppy, Season 3 // by TDR //------------------------------// Twilight Gets a Puppy Season 3 By TDR Keep Calm and Frigoris On, Part 2 [ 2 days later] A great deal can happen in two days. Oddly the quarantine was hardly an issue in Ponyville. The long time residents upon hearing about it checked their day planners and discovered that, yes, Tuesday had come a day early. Upon realizing this most residents went home and back to bed. The Flower trio did not retreat to their bunker and instead simply put on full hazmat suits and covered themselves with wolfs bane, and silver jewelry. Afterwards they simply went about their business of tending flowers as usual. But that was the strangest thing to happen in town. Outside of Ponyville however was a different story. Lockheed caught wind of what happened and locked down the border to the Griffon lands, no one in or out, sea ports closed, and everything. Kaz did much the same though he offered his own aid if it was needed.. Rhino was visited by an irate pair of pink princesses, one of whom was fake, and found himself parting with some books he would rather not have, though he valued his reproductive organs far more than a few medical books. Bleu while normally one to ignore politics gathered a score of fire dragons who took up positions around Ponyville startling most of the guards, though again the residents largely ignored them. Save Dinky, who thought they were cool. The Crystal Empire went on a level three lock down with Shining Armor finding and putting any one who had contact with any of the Element Bearers, in a higher lock down in a secure building at the edge of the city, just in case. They were all housed in a large structure that was to be one of the new high end hotels and kept under close surveillance. There was mild talk of making their interactions into a crystal theater series as some of it was hilarious. Canterlot was in a full blow riot, one that made the Changeling invasion look like a class field trip. Applejack had just been up there with Twilight and the city was tearing itself apart trying to figure out everything from who she might have had contact with to what bathrooms she might have used. And this was all without any of them even knowing what a witch wolf was. Princess Luna was less than thrilled at what she missed after she decided to take a quick nap. When her sister started explaining it, there were a large number of pauses in the story. All of said pauses were preceded by an immense flare of magic and a rather impressive blast of power. There was then a bit of silence until Princess Celestia reformed to continue the story, until she said something else Princess Luna didn't like. Rebuilding the east wing would need to be put into the following years budget. Finding out that she was the last to know, Princess Luna sent a strongly worded letter to Spike for not waking her, only to have a hastily drawn missive return from the small drake that was not spoken of in polite company, though it revealed that he had evidently finally just gotten to bed. Celestia was sent to bed without any cake and Princess Luna and the Guard set out to stop stupid ponies from burning the city down around themselves. [Sweet Apple Acres.] A large barn had been constructed at the edge of the west field with a speed that would have surprised anyone who hadn't lived in Ponyville more than a week. The building was a two story, reinforced, self contained structure with no windows and only one door leading into an observation area and lab. That looked down into a room that didn't have a ceiling, but had a large thick glass window reinforced by science rather than magic. It was the same sort of glass Twilight had replaced all the windows at the library with. Rainbow had bounced off them a few times and stated the tree trunk was softer. Inside the main part of the building was a very depressed orange pony. The place was set up and furnished with everything from her own room, but a cage was still a cage. Though at least she had another hat. “Good morning Applejack.” Twilight stated walking in with Rahs, Spike, and a worried looking Applebloom. The filly was followed by Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Rarity. The group of them were on the other side of the glass ceiling standing on a walk way that surrounded it. Applejack felt like she was in a fish bowl. “Howdy.” the farm mare sighed. “Did you sleep well?”Fluttershy asked. “Not in the slightest.” Applejack frowned. “Well Princess Luna says your dreams were normal last night. Do you recall anything else about what happened in the forest. Rahs is rather... unhelpful on what went on in there.” Twilight glared at her brother who seemed to think the roof was looking lovely today “Like ah said, just bits and pieces. I remember fighting off tha timber wolves and every time ah got a good hit on um, they collapsed, ah remember being angry and looking to take out more of um after tha first fell. After I ran into that woods and got tha second one... Ah don't recall much after that.” Applejack offered a small glance directed at Rahs before she turned a bit red. “Alright I do have good news.” Twilight smiled clearly missing the interaction. “Twi...I'm locked in a box, cursed with something, far to damn fuzzy, and worst of all, ah can't taste anything but water when ah eat one of mah apples. This better be damn good news.” Applejack snapped. “Hmm? Oh that. I've already figured that part out I think, here.” Twilight placed an apple in the rooms supply slot, sliding it through for the mare. “You won't be able to taste any apples you grew yourself due to putting your own magic into it and therefore it's like tasting your own saliva. It can sustain you, but well... you get the idea.” Applejack frowned picking up the apple as the dumbwaiter brought it down. She wasn't sure what was used to sanitize it but it smelled bad and was usually damp. Thankfully that only happened on the way up so the apple was untouched. She picked it up wiped it a bit on her fur and took a bite. She chewed a moment before she relaxed a little. ”Tastes a little odd but ah ken tell it's an apple..... a golden delicious from Appleloosa ain't it?” “Sis knows her apples.” Applebloom grinned. “Of course she does.”Rarity rolled her eyes. “Any way onto the good news. The six sixty sixth have captured a wild timber wolf for me so I can study it. Zecora is doing her own research into this. I've also got Iinii and Maohk coming. She's the only other one I know of who was attacked and wounded by a witch wolf directly who hasn't turned. I'm curious if it's due to her being a buffalo or if it's something else. I've also got a number of ponies who've been attacked by timber wolves being brought here for study as well.“ Twilight listed. “Also Asce..... Asce....” Rahs put his hand on his sisters head as she twitched. “Woof.” “What's the snake lady got to do with it?” Applejack questioned. Applebloom blinked looking between Rahs and Applejack. “Yah understood him?” “What? Course ah did he 's speaking pony...... he ain't speaking pony is he?” Applejack sighed. “Eeenope “ Applebloom offered as Rarity and Rainbow Dash shook their heads. “Ehh, that makes seven who can understand him now. Me, Twilight, Shining, Princess Luna, Pinkie, and Fluttershy.” Spike shrugged. “No big deal.” “Ruff.” Rahs retorted. “He thinks it's a big deal.” Applejack stated pointing a hoof at him. Spike rolled his eyes “Of course he does the more ponies who understand him the less he....” “ASCEPIUS!” Twilight shouted pushing over the fear the snake woman's very name brought. “She's got a medical scan of every one in the Empire when she was vaccinating ponies and that includes all of us. So I have a base line of what you should be coming, and a current baseline. Alright... I am also going to need another base line, and you're not going to like it.” “What?” “Rahs explained that when you were a witch wolf there was a great deal of magic that he ate out of you before you turned back...”Twilight glanced at Pinkie and Rainbow Dash who were sniggering, though no one was sure why. “With that bit of information, I can only assume that if you absorb or eat enough magic you'll revert to the Witch Wolf form. From there I can get a base line on that form.” Applejack winced. “Do we have to do that?” Applejack frowned. “If I want to cure you I need to check out everything. Including the cursed form itself. “ Twilight explained. “Rahs managed to revert you back once and he says he can do it again so he's going to be in there with you to pull you back once I have everything I need.” “Bark.” Rahs offered. “Great ah can't taste apples, but ah taste like apples.” Not likely relevant to the research, but I made a note of that any way.” Twilight stated jotting something down in a book. “Might I suggest darling that you start with a set amount of magic and time it so we can tell exactly how much it will take to trigger the change.” Rarity offered. “Ooh, good idea.” Twilight stated jotting down more notes. “Does every one have to be in here fer this?” Applejack grumbled. “You know why Rahs and I are here. Spike is here in case I need to send a message and lets face it he's the reason Ponyville isn't a smoking crater and Equestria isn't in another war with itself. Rarity just proved she was valuable with her eye for details. Fluttershy might be able to talk to you in the other form. Rahs said you didn't speak, and Pinkie and Rainbow Dash are here to add their own unique views on what happens. I want as many eyes on this as I can Applejack. It might be uncomfortable, but the more data I gather the closer I can get to fixing this.” “And Applebloom?” “Would you rather her try to break in here with the other Crusaders to see what's going on?” Pinkie Pie snorted. “Any way the sooner we get you fixed the sooner we can have a 'You're cured' party.” “Seriously?” Rainbow Dash stared at the party mare. “I like parties.” Pinkie giggled. “Fine.” Applejack grumbled as Rahs took off his coat and headed into the 'airlock' Twilight had set up. Rahs had done more in this situation that Twilight had expected given he was the only one who likely couldn't be affected by this. But to have him willingly go out of his way to help said quite a bit. Seems he had gotten just as protective of the other girls as he had of his family. "Alright every one pay attention. Applejack stand in the middle of the room with your left side to us. I'm going to start directing some spells to you, let me know how you feel as we progress. Every one else point out anything of note you see Spike and I will take notes.” “I'll write my own darling. You might be hard pressed to hear everyone if they all notice something.” Rarity offered. “Okay, I'll talk to Spike, Pinkie you tell Twi what you see, Rarity can you get Shy and Bloom will let Spike know too. “ Rainbow Dash offered. “Alright let me turn on the recording crystals as well I don't want to miss anything.” Twilight stated, her horn glowing as she set up a few things. Alright are we all set up here.” Rahs set what looked like a colander covered in wires and lights on Applejack's head , though he didn't strap it in place. He gave a thumbs up to his sister above him before backing away to the other side of the room. “Good. Applejack, I'm going to begin.” Twilight offered. “I'm going to utilize a basic runners buff spell. I'm familiar enough with it to know exactly how much MP I'm using with it even with Rahs present.” "I predict 1.21 jiggawatts!" Pinkie Pie chimed in. Twilight droned on further with something else and Applejack easily tuned out her sciencey stuff, the glass muffled their voices enough that she could easily do that. Applejack's attention was on Rahs. In particular the new mass of wounds covering his body, wounds she had inflicted. She let out a small sigh frowning. “Sorry bout all that Rahs.” she gestured to the wounds on his bare chest and limbs. Rahs glanced down at his bandaged form and shrugged slightly. “Woof.” “It sure as heck ain't nothing..... Yah, should get outta here, ah dun wanna hurt you again.” Applejack sighed. Rahs smirked and shook his head. About that point Applejack winced as she could feel the magic start. [ Diamond Dog Warrens.] Jynx was not happy. Not only had Princess Luna and Cadence asked her to give Rahs time to figure things out, now the entire town of Ponyville was quarantined and Rahs was inside it. Not that she had the time to go see him anyway. Which was really too bad after that packet of notes about his likes and dislikes and numerous other tidbits she had gotten from Cadence. There were a few things in that information dump she wanted to try out. Of course she had other problems. Things had gotten insane in the Jade Wolf pack. For starters the pack size had grown massively. A multitude of diamond dogs had shown up upon hearing the rumors coming out of the Crystal Empire of a witch wolf. Many had sought to go to the empire to find this fabled ancestor of their kind, only to be told that it had been killed. They were also told it was killed by a moon dog named Rahs Sparkle. Many saw the statue, and nearly all of them then flocked to Ponyville. The calmer of the newcomers settled in, trying for their own niche in the area, either joining the Jade Wolves, or finding a spot to set up their own home in the large swaths of countryside and rolling hills near the town. Others had decided that they wanted the land for their own pack and had challenged her for it thinking they were better than some female to lead. Six other packs had been absorbed into the Jade Wolves and she had to ensure that they knew their place under her rule. Their former leaders were all being watched closely. Well the two who hadn't straight out challenged her for possession with a fight to the death anyway. The two survivors had wanted her as their bitch, not dead. She expected trouble and it was there, only it wasn't what she had expected. Her own training with Rahs had made her better as he got better, but she didn't realize that her pack guards had taken it upon themselves to learn from what she was showing Rahs. And because of this, they got better. The ones who truly believed her to be their Alpha saw she was studying ponies and did so as well picking up a host of new skills and abilities. They were still a bunch of dumb asses, but the number of pure idiots was growing fewer. Then some mutt found out she was courting the moon dog. Mutts that were causing her issues stopped being problems, some dogs left in a hurry, yet far more showed up seeking to join her pack. The warrens population had at best been about fifty dogs. Now it was rivaling the size of Ponyville in sheer numbers. There were some who were starting to consider her the Alpha of Alphas. Her pack had grown massively and although it took most of her efforts to keep everything smooth, it was working. Jynx was not sure she was ready to deal with this many dogs following her like this. [?] They won't listen to me. None of them will. Forthe fumed. That damned bitch and that vile monster of a dog were causing far more problems for him now. There was not a single dog that would even acknowledge him as their god any more. Even Peabody who had listened to him before was not only ignoring him, but actively looking to settle down with something of another species just to spite him. This would not do. Particularly since there was now supposedly a witch wolf in Ponyville with those damn Sparkles. And the Sun bitch hadn't blasted them like she did before. That had been a glorious time, he hadn't needed to do anything, the pony sun bitch had gotten so panicked over the cursed children of the night that she went out hunting them herself and wiped them out. He had nearly a thousand years to get his race on track again and then the abomination had shown up. That abomination and its summoner were ruining everything. Now he just needed to find another way to destroy them, and he had an idea of how to do just that. It would take time, but he had that if nothing else. [Sweet Apple Acres] “Alright.” Twilight frowned. “Observations please?” “They are absolutely adorable!” Rarity squeed. “Wonder what they got up to being in those woods so long if she's like this now.” Rainbow Dash grinned wiggling her eyebrows. “Oh My.”Fluttershy added. “Well shoot. I owe Lyra a plate of cupcakes.” Pinkie Pie pouted. “This is gonna add a new wrinkle in the betting pool.” Spike frowned. “Is she purring?” Applebloom asked. On the other side of the glass, pinned under a large orange witch wolf was Rahs. Witch-jack was stretched out on his chest purring loudly as she rubbed her head against him. The moon dog was clearly confused as to what to do and nearly blushing through his fur. “Relevant observations please?” Twilight sighed.