//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Wolf Life 
// Story: Survival of the Wolves 
// by JNKing 
//------------------------------//

Star quickly discovered that wolf life was very different from pony life. 
As she slumbered, her book still clutched tightly in her hooves like a teddy bear, she was roused by Shiva’s wet nose nuzzling her, the feeling and soft exhales tickling her slightly and causing her to giggle as she awoke. 
“Mph… mama?”  Star mumbled, opening bleary eyes. 
“In a way,” Shiva replied with a grin. 
For a moment, Star yelped, forgetting where she was. However, as the green forest returned to her, and she saw Kodo and Celine already up, the memory of the last two nights returned to her. 
“Right,” she yawned. “Wolf life.” 
“Yep.” Shiva said. “Come along.” 
She turned away, only to grin as Star took two steps and fell flat on her face again, soft snores emanating from her once more. Kodo sidled up to his mother with a grin.
“May I?” he asked cheekily. 
Celine grimaced. “Are you sure you have to?” she asked. “She’s still a kid after all.”
“Sorry, Celine,” Shiva said. “But she has to understand how things work around here.” She nodded at Kodo. “Go on.”
Grinning ominously, Kodo positioned himself behind Star. 
“WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!” he boomed. “Get on your hooves, you LAZY brood! What? Come on, partner; the day ain’t gonna complete itself, you gotta get your tail up!”
Star yelped, leaping into the air and flying after Shiva. But Kodo kept it up, barking after her with a booming voice that roused the whole pack. 
“You remind me of my lazy uncle; don’t you be coming out with that ‘reading all night’ excuse again. I AIN’T HAVING IT! That goes for the rest of you; GET ON YOUR PAWS, before I pull my bow and arrow, and get you lot up myself! Whether you be live or dead it don’t make much difference to me.
“Kodo…” Shiva started to say.
“Y’all so FAUST-CURSED LAZY! THE HECK’S WRONG WITH YOU!”   
“KODO!” Shiva barked, snapping Kodo out of his funk. “They’re up.” 
Kodo deflated. “Had too much fun with it again, didn’t I?” he mused. 
“Aw, look on the bright side,” Celine replied with a grin. “Tomorrow, I get to do it to you.” 
“In your dreams,” Kodo laughed back.
“Won’t be having any,” Celine replied. “I’ll stay up all night if it means catching you…”
“Children-Children!” Shiva chastised. “We have work to do.” She turned to the others. “Now, everyone; we’ve done okay making the Ever-Free forest our home, but this isn’t just about surviving. This is about prospering. If the ponies show up, thinking they’ll finish what they started, do you really want them coming across a bunch of malnourished pups barely able to keep alive?”
“Heck no!” the wolves boomed back. 
“Exactly,” Shiva said. “So, get with your packs and start your assignments. The Ever-Free Forest is known for being an independent force of nature. But that’s gonna change when we make it ours!” 
The wolves howled in glee, racing off. Star started to follow along, before a thought occurred to her. 
“Um… Alpha Shiva?” she noted, turning back to the Lupa-wolf. “Where do I go?”
Shiva hummed. “Good question,” she replied, taking Star by the nape and directing her back towards the den. For a moment, the Lupa wolf just frowned at her for a while. 
Star shuffled in place, before posing dramatically. Shiva blinked in confusion at her pose.
“Well, what did you want me to do?” Star asked. “Do flips or something? You’re staring anyway; I might as well give a show!”
“I’m trying to figure out what you can do,” Shiva replied. “In the wolf pack, contribution is everything. You’re still young, but you’re also an alicorn; that means you’ve got a wide range of abilities that can help us. Unicorn magic, pegasus abilities, even earth pony strength; they’re all yours to choose from.” Shiva adjusted her stance. “But what is it that ‘you’ want to do? What is it that ‘you’re’ good at?”
Star flinched. “Well, I wanted to be a hero,” she admitted. “But…”
“Don’t focus on the past,” Shiva chastised. “Focus on the future.” She drew closer. “What do you mean by ‘being a hero?’ You want to save people from danger?”
“Yes, exactly,” Star said, perking her ears up. “Like my mother did against Discord, or how my father did against dragons and griffons.” She glanced away. “Just… you know, with more glory behind it.”
Shiva’s grin faded. She made Star look at her. “Star Wing, listen to me,” she said firmly. “In a wolf pack, it’s not about your personal glory. It’s about the success of the team. If you want to defend others, I may have some ideas for you. But you need to promise me that you won’t put your own personal glory above your team. You work ‘with’ your pack; not ‘for’ them.” Her eyes narrowed. “The ponies would tell you to go and die for them so they can sit up in their big mansions without a care.” Her eyes softened. “The other wolves and I are going to ask that you help us survive, so we can all live together. Understand?”
Star considered it, and ultimately nodded. “I think so.”
Shiva chuckled. “You say now, but experience will show us.” She stood. “Come on.”
Eagerly, Star followed behind Shiva as she led the young alicorn over to a group of pups. The warrior Diana stood before them, her ears perking as Shiva returned.
“Alpha Shiva,” she whispered, before turning to the pups. “Pups.”
The pups quickly spun, bowing in respect to their Alpha. 
“At ease, my children,” Shiva said with a grin. Her focus turned to Diana. “Little Star Wing wants to be a defender of the pack.”
Diana peered at the dark alicorn. “You sure she’s up to it?” she asked. “We’re not gonna be soft like ponies.”
Star laughed. “You’ll do worse than throwing me into a cell for crying?” 
The pups blinked at each other, and even Diana was silent for a moment. Slowly, she shook her head. 
Star stretched. “Then I’m pretty sure I can take it,” she replied. “Just tell me what to do.” 
Snapping out of her shock, Diana indicated the pups. “Just join in formation over there,” she said, pointing between a pterolycus and a warg. As Star took her spot, Diana turned back to Shiva. “Those nobles need to pay.”
“They will,” Shiva replied, nodding at Star. “And Star will be leading the charge when the time comes.”
Diana glanced at the filly as she grinned at the two wolves beside her. Her eyes softened at the look of happiness in Star’s eyes when the pups reciprocated her grin. “Let’s hope so.” 
Shiva turned back into the forest, as Diana addressed the pups.
“Alright, young uns,” she declared. “You’re with me because you want to focus on defending the wolves. Some might focus on building homes, others might focus on hunting or clearing away forests. But us? We’re going to be guarding anyone who needs us.”
Star grinned giddily. This was it. This was where she truly became a hero. 

#

Of course, it didn’t all come at once. Before Diana let them anywhere near weapons or combat training, she put them on sprints through the forests. Utilizing sticks and branches in games of fetch, Diana had the wolf pups running day in and day out. Star’s legs quickly grew tired of the constant games of fetch, but when she tried to use her wings… Diana caught her wings with her teeth.
“First, you’re learning to run,” Diana barked. “What happens if you break one of your wings, eh? You gonna find some way to fly with only one of em? Keep running!”
Remembering the drill sergeants from both her books and the guards, Star rolled with it. Or tried to; her legs grew so sore and tired that when the order finally came for the pups to rest, Star straight up collapsed. Luckily, one of the pups caught her, and helped ease her to the ground. 
“Better get used to this,” he warned Star. “You won’t be able to help a lot of folks like this.” 
His words sticking with her, Star threw herself into her training. Eventually, the day came where she could run for eight straight hours and not collapse from exhaustion. And on that blessed day, Diana had her and any pterolycus pups start using their wings. 
It wasn’t quite the same as Star envisioned flying; Diana constantly had them stay under the tree canopy, forcing them to dive and duck through the leaves and branches. Any time Star tried to climb higher, Diana would snag her with her teeth and drag her back down.
“You want the enemy to spot us in the air?” she’d demand. “Stick to the tree canopy!” 
Yet again, as time went on, and Star grew used to the winding maze of leaves. She even started to get cocky with it, incorporating flips, spins and corkscrews into her flying style.
Of course, the corkscrews and stunts quickly proved to be ineffective for perching in trees and keeping watch through the leaves. But even then, as Star Wing got used to her new environment and adapted, she was able to still utilize her tricks and techniques. 
Yet, even as she adapted to the skills Diana taught her, Star had to deal with another problem: growth. As the years went on, Star began to increase in size. Where once, she could zip through tiny gaps between branches and leaves like a hummingbird, attempting the same maneuvers years later only destroyed the branches with loud POPPING noises, and led to her pack mates yapping at her for giving away their position. 
Not one to be deterred, Star adapted again; she cut back on her eating; not enough to starve herself, but enough to ensure that she grew up thin, better able to slide through the gaps of branches and leaves like a serpent. 
Her focus on flight changed her mane and tail into an almost permanently ruffled style; in order to avoid it snagging on branches, she purposely had them trimmed short. Her body grew, still thin but with muscles behind it from leaping through the trees and aiding in fights. 
And there were plenty of fights to be had. Whether it was with timber wolves, manticores, star spiders or worse, Star and her pack were there to keep any dangerous predators from hurting their gatherers and hunters. 
Intriguingly, the list of predators never included ponies. Though Star and her pack always saw the ponies on the edge of the forest, ever so often leaving flowers or tears, or sometimes studying the plants, they never ventured any further into the Ever-Free; preferring to stay at a distance, and building a small town for themselves. 
It irked several wolves to see the land that had once been theirs turned into pony territory, similar to the land they had lost before the attack. But whenever they went to Shiva, she would ask the same thing. 
“Are they trespassing into our territory?” she’d demand. “Are they giving us a reason to attack?” 
The answer was always a reluctant no. And, to be honest, compared to the more aggressive animals already inhabiting the Ever-Free, the ponies seemed to be nothing more than a minor curiosity. Of course, everyone kept an eye on them. But they proved to be far less of a danger than the predators the wolves already had to deal with. 
At first, Star always tried to take initiative; she was the first one into the fray, and more often than not, she’d try to be the one that struck the last blow on their predators. But, once again, her pack mates were there for her. 
When the day came when a manticore managed to hit her and shredded a wing, Star almost thought that was it for her. However, two other wolves – one the very same wolf that had caught her all those years ago – seized the manticore by its scorpion tail, giving Star the time she needed to recover and bring the beast down with a bite to the neck. 
Slowly, Star understood what Shiva had been talking about; how the pack was there for each other. But with this revelation came another problem to adapt around; the passage of time. 
Star had heard about how alicorns lived long lives. She thought she understood when Diana - her teacher - was taken by time. But it didn’t exactly occur to her how it worked until the day when Darius – the wolf that had been by her side for all that time and the very first friend she ever made – stood wrinkled and aged, while Star still looked like a young adult. 
Star thought she was prepared for the passing of her pack mates after Diana was lost to age and time. But when Darius eventually passed, Star was left in a state of turmoil. Shiva found her, staring down at her reflection in a small clear pond, clutching the lock of Darius’ fur that Nix - Don’s nephew and the one who took over after his death - had bequeathed her as part of their burial ceremonies.
“I don’t understand it,” Star admitted to Shiva. “We… I thought I was the same age as him.” She looked back. “Why did he… get like that?”
Shiva sighed. “It’s a curse, being long-lived,” Shiva admitted to Star. “I can’t tell you how many brothers, sisters, and even children that I’ve had to watch grow old and die around me, while I still remain young.” She nuzzled next to Star, wrapping Darius’ fur around her metal and fixing it with a charm resembling Darius’ bow and arrow, next to a second one; a bone that had been curved into the shape of a Pony helmet and painted grey with a red plume, a reminder of her uncle Flash Magnus. “Best thing I can tell you? Don’t focus on the inevitable end. Instead, take solace and joy in the time that you have with them. Treat every day like the present it is, and then use the past to remember the good times you had.”
Shiva looked at the water as she thought back to when her father was alive.
“Reminds me of something my father once told me.” She looked back at Star, who looked back with a curious face. “My Dad once said: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why they call it the present.””
Star chuckled. “Ha… present. Like… ‘gift’ present, and not just… ‘now’ present.” 
“Exactly.” Shiva laid a wing over Star’s back. “I know how close you and Darius were, Star. From what I know, he was the very first friend you ever made. Just remember: he may no longer be here in body, but he’ll always be with you in spirit. As long as you remember that, then you’ll never be truly alone.”
The advice was sound, and yet Star found herself less willing to interact with Darius’ child, and the next generation of packs. Oh, she still worked with them; laughed with them, even mentored them as Diana had long before her. Yet, Star still found herself growing closer to Celine, Kodo and Shiva; the ones who remained young; whom Star hoped would never become as horribly wrinkled and aged as Darius had. 
And even then, they could only relate to Star so much; as much as they tried to treat her like family, Star knew, deep in her heart, that she was different. She was an alicorn – an equine – and they were canine. And though the difference meant little to them, Star still felt a desire to see the lights from her old life. Flash Magnus, who seemingly vanished off the face of the earth. Her mother, sadly only visible from her imprint in the moon. 
Until one fateful night. The night where, as Star and her newest pack returned, escorting a group of hunters with a fresh batch of meat. Star took a look back up at the moon… and paused. 
“What is it?” Logan, one of the newer pack mates asked. 
Star pointed a shaky hoof up. The moon was blank; her mother’s image was gone.
“W-Where’s my mother?” she whispered. “Where’s the Mare in the Moon?”
At that moment, they heard a series of screams from the direction of the pony town. Her heart seized with a fearful passion, Star took flight, taking care to stay below the tree line. 
On the edge of the forest, Shiva caught up to Star, holding her back with tendrils of light. Yet, even as the Alpha held her back, Star still caught sight of the town. 
Faintly, in what looked like the town square, an older black alicorn was addressing the masses. 
A very familiar black alicorn. 
“Mother…” Star whispered.