Survival of the Wolves

by JNKing


Chapter 8: Nightmare Moon

Shiva was the only reason Star didn’t rush out and try to reunite with her mother. 
“Star, stop!” Shiva barked, restraining the alicorn.
“But… Mother…” she whispered, nodding desperately at the town square. 
“Does my crown no longer count now that I have been imprisoned for a thousand years?” the dark alicorn was snarling. “Did you not recall the legend? Did you not see the signs?”
“I did!” a young unicorn mare shot back defiantly. “And I know who you are! You’re the Mare in the Moon – Nightmare Moon!”
Star balked. “But… that’s not right! That’s my Mom! That’s Princess Luna!”
“Be silent!” Shiva hissed, pulling Star back as Luna – or Nightmare Moon – lifted into the air with an evil laugh.
“Remember this day, little ponies, for it will be your last. From this moment forward, the night will last FOREVER!” 
“Seize her!” another, older mare cried. “Only she knows where the Princess is!” 
“Stand back, you foals!” the dark alicorn snarled, bursting into a patch of star-colored clouds and escaping the panicking ponies. 
Heading right for the forest. 
Having focused on keeping Star from trespassing on pony territory, Shiva was unprepared for Star lunging back into the forest. With the poor Lupa wolf left spinning and disoriented, Star Wing pursued the star-colored cloud with all the rampancy of a starving animal. 
“Mom!” she called. “Mother! Please, it’s me!”
The star colored cloud whirled on Star, nearly knocking her out of the air. However, cyan blue eyes opened in the mist, locking on Star with a familiarity that the younger alicorn longed for. 
“Star?” The elder alicorn shimmered back into existence. “My beloved Star?” 
“Yes,” Star whispered, tears poking at the corners of her eyes. She glanced down at her grown body. “I… know I’m a lot more beautiful than I was before,” she noted with a chuckle. “But it’s me, I promise.” 
Indeed Star Wing’s time in the forest had done nothing to diminish her beauty; her coat was a shimmering night black, speckled with spots like the splash of freckles across her face, which Flash Magnus had always said made her look adorable. Her body was toned and fit from the years she had lived with the Wolves. Her electric green eyes shined with spirit, her white mane and tail tousled from the years of flying and her Cutie Mark - a small midnight blue circle sparkling with stars - sat proudly on her flanks.
Around her neck was the High Royal Order medal that once belonged to her father, clearly well taken care of from its shine, even the ribbon still looked new and decorating it were multiple charms of different shapes with tiny tufts of fur on all but one, reminders of the wolves Star had befriended and been part of her pack over the years she had lived with them.
Luna chuckled insanely. “A thousand years…” she mused. “A thousand years I was trapped on the moon. Believing you to be dead. Believing my sister forsook me.” 
Star’s smile turned into a glower. “Celestia forsook us both,” she growled. 
“Indeed,” Luna agreed. Her smile turned mad as she returned her gaze to her daughter. “But you. You have a sun-hating face, yes? You would not disobey your loving mother?” 
Warning bells rang in Star’s head, but they were overwhelmed by her relief that her mother was back. 
“I am your daughter,” she said. “Your flesh and blood.” She held her hooves out. “I never want to leave you again.”
Luna – or Nightmare – smiled, but there was something off about her smile. A cunning manipulation that made Star’s heart flutter in her chest. Yet, the alicorn still embraced her daughter. And Star shivered as she felt Luna’s fur twine with hers. 
“Your loyalty is admirable, my beloved daughter,” Luna whispered in Star’s ear. “However, the ponies are not the same.” She lifted Star to forelegs’ length. “If we are truly to remain together… there is something you must do for me.” 
Star’s heart tangoed again, but she narrowed her eyes in determination. “Name it.” 

#

Shiva and Celine found Star waiting on an old pathway. Her eyes were narrowed and her posture like she was on the hunt. 
“Star,” Shiva warned. “Whatever that alicorn asked you to do, I fear it will carry grave consequences for us all.”
“We’ve spent a thousand years preparing for this, did we not, Alpha?” Star asked. “A thousand years, we have recovered and prospered in the Ever-Free. Now, my mother has returned, and the ponies would seek to return her to the moon.” She turned her eyes back to the path. “I cannot allow that to happen again.”
“But how do we know the ponies will even try anything?” Celine demanded. “They’ve stayed outside the Ever-Free for centuries. Why would they suddenly come in now?”
Right on cue, Kodo burst forward. 
“Alpha,” he cried. “Sister… Wing!” He paused, breathing as if he had run a mile. “Six mares have ventured into the Ever-Free. They managed to survive a rockslide and a rampaging manticore. They’re heading this way.”
Star’s horn glowed. “And we’ll be taking care of them,” she growled, donning a mask made from timber wolf bark. With it on, Star managed to look just like a timber wolf.
Shiva winced. “I really don’t like this…” she said.
“They’re trespassing on our territory,” Star insisted. “And they’re going to try and hurt my mother. Isn’t this what we trained for?”
Shiva and Celine still looked uncertain, but Kodo’s eyes narrowed with determination. 
“It is,” he agreed, donning his own timber wolf mask. “Come on, then, Wing; let’s show these ponies why they were wise to stay out of the Ever-Free.” 
Shiva stopped both of them, her face a mask of frustration. She eventually sighed. 
“Just be careful,” she said. “We’ve managed to survive for thousands of years. I won’t be able to stand it if you get each other killed over six foals.” 
Star and Kodo exchanged a look before Star grinned. 
“It’ll be hard for them to hurt us,” she noted, her horn lighting up and draining the illumination from the forest. “When they can’t see us coming.” 
Sure enough, as the forest faded away into shadow, they heard gasps just up ahead.
“When I said my eyes could use a rest,” a prim and noble-like voice cried. “I didn’t mean literally.” 
“That ancient ruin could be right in front of our faces and we wouldn’t even know it,” another voice complained – Star recognized it as the one that had called Luna ‘Nightmare Moon.’
The mere thought filled Star with rage. It wasn’t enough to banish her? Her thoughts snarled darkly. Now you had to reforge her image into some kind of monster? 
“Wing,” Kodo whispered. “This dark thing is working too well. I can’t see.” 
“Hang on,” Star replied, her horn charging again. 
A ball of light formed in front of his and her faces. And as they turned forward, they found themselves facing the six mares. 
Screams emanated from five of the mares. A white one scrambled backward, cowering at the sight of Star and Kodo’s masked faces. Grinning ominously, Star began to bear down on the mares… until she realized one of them wasn’t screaming. 
She blinked; a bright pink mare with a mane fluffier than cotton candy, was cackling at Star’s face like it was the funniest thing she had seen in the world. 
“Bleh! OOOO!” the mare blurted out, forming her own face back. As she exploded into another batch of laughter, Star almost found herself giggling as well, before a glare from Kodo caused her to stop. 
“Pinkie!” the purple mare with the familiar voice screamed. “What are you doing? Run!” 
“Oh girls,” the pink mare – Pinkie? – chastised. “Don’t you see?” Her voice took on a musical tone as she bounded around Star. 

When I was a little filly, and the sun was going down…

“Tell me she’s not…” Kodo and the purple mare whispered in sync. 

The darkness and the shadows, they would always make me frown…

“She is,” the white mare deadpanned.
But Star didn’t even notice the frustration of the others. Her ears slowly perked as she listened to Pinkie’s song. 

I’d hide under my pillow

From what I thought I saw

But Granny Pie said that wasn’t the way

To deal with fears at all.

“Then what is?” a cyan blue pegasus asked. 
“She said…” Pinkie started to say, before Star whispered in sync.
“You… gotta stand up tall,” she said. “Learn to face your fears. You’ll see that they can’t hurt you. Just laugh to make them disappear!” 
Indeed, that had been how Star had survived her time with the nobles. Even in the forests, when predators had seemed scary and Star began to long for life back home, she always told herself… ‘find something to laugh at, and the world wouldn’t be as scary.’          
And with that in mind, before Star knew it, she and Pinkie were singing side by side. 

So giggle at the ghosties

Guffaw at the grossly

Crack up at the creepy

Whoop it up at the weepy

Chortle at the kooky.

Snortle at the spooky.

“And tell that big dumb scary face to take a hike and leave you alone and if he thinks he can scare you then he’s got another thing coming and the very idea…”
Pinkie went into a long ramble, allowing Star to snap out of her glee and realize Kodo was staring at her in dumbfounded shock. Using Pinkie’s ramble as an out, Star scrambled away, taking Kodo with her, and leaving Pinkie to finish her song with some very confused mares watching her. 
Hiding in the few shadows left from her spell, Star was left to watch on in awe as the six mares continued on their way.
“Say,” the purple mare noted. “Did anyone think those creatures looked kind of… familiar?”
“Might-a been timber wolves,” an orange mare dismissed. “We saw them all the time during Zap Apple Season.” 
“Maybe…” the purple mare admitted. “But… I can’t help but feel there was more to them than that.”
Despite her words, the mares didn’t look back, and continued their path forward. Kodo glanced over at Star, who was watching them with intrigue. 
“So… what happened to making them pay for their crimes?” he asked. 
“I…” Star shook her head. “I didn’t know others used that.”
“Used what?” Kodo demanded. 
“Giggling at the ghosties,” Star tried to explain. “Being able to laugh at the world’s cruelty. It was how I got through life with the nobles, but…” 
She turned, walking after the mares. Conflict tearing her heart to pieces. Luna had said these mares wanted to stop her. They were going to hurt her, so they had to be the bad guys. 
So, why did that feel so wrong? Like Star was on the wrong side of something bigger than she knew. 

#

Sticking to her shadows, with Kodo following curiously along, Star followed the mares as they made their way past a sea serpent and into a series of ruins. As they made their way up, a starry cloud shifted around Star. 
You failed me, ‘daughter,’” the voice whispered. So full of disappointment and anger it was, that Star froze where she stood. 
“But Mother…” Star stammered. “These mares are different. They aren’t like the nobles who hurt us. M-Maybe…”
“All ponies hurt us!” Luna hissed, reforming into her dark persona. “How can you have sympathy for their sun-loving faces?” 
The venom in her voice caused Star to step back. Kodo jumped forward to defend her.
“Hey, leave her alone!” he snapped. “She was doing what you wanted.” 
Luna huffed. “A wolf of Equestria,” she mused, glaring down at Kodo. “The ponies destroyed your race, thinking that I would use you to overthrow Celestia.” She chuckled darkly. “How fitting would it be to have you destroy the one chance they have at stopping me?” 
“Mother, stop!” Star insisted, putting herself between the alicorn and Kodo. “Remember what I told you? We would never get anywhere by hurting those around us. We had to rise up and show them we were better.”
“We ARE better than them,” Luna snarled at Star. “They should be on their knees, thanking me for allowing them to live.” Her eyes narrowed in disgust. “Time may have aged your body, but you are still nothing but a foal if you can’t see that.”  
Star backed up, the hurtful words stabbing into her like daggers. Kodo’s fur bristled, and he growled threateningly at the alicorn. 
But just as Nightmare began to paw the ground in preparation for a fight, a glow in the ruins tower drew her gaze.
“The Elements…” she hissed, before casting another hateful look at Star. “If you truly love your mother, you won’t interfere!” 
The nightmarish alicorn then flared her wings and launched into the air, turning back into starry clouds and flying towards the source of the glow. 
“What the heck is she doing?” Kodo growled, stepping forward before noticing Star had not moved. “Wing!” 
“She…” Star shivered, almost looking and sounding like a filly again. “She never spoke to me like that. Something’s wrong with her. Something’s really-really wrong with her.”
“And what are you going to do about it?” Kodo demanded. “Are you gonna stand there and cry? Or are you going to find something funny about the whole thing?”
Star bristled. “There’s nothing funny about this!” she snapped, before pausing. “Though crying won’t accomplish anything either.”
“Which leaves option three,” Kodo growled. “Doing something about it.” 
Star looked down at her hooves, regret and conflict shining on her features. But after a deep breath, she looked up in determination. 
“I pick option three,” she replied.
Nodding, Kodo flared his wings, same as her. And together, the wolf and the alicorn shot towards the tower, just as a beam of light burst from the roof. 
The duo halted in the air, watching in shock as a rainbow beam arced through the air and back down into the tower. The elder alicorn’s scream sounded, long and loud.
“Mom?” Star whispered. “MOTHER!” 
But as she tried to race into the tower, a shockwave knocked her and Kodo out of the sky, and it took everything they had to glide back down to the ground, blobs of light blinding them as magic burned in the air. 
When their senses returned to them, Star and Kodo looked back to find the six mares slowly struggling to their hooves. Strange jewels were fitted around five of their necks, and a sixth was perched on top of the purple mare’s head, enclosed in some kind of tiara.
But Star didn’t have time for them. Her focus was on the dark alicorn, who wasn’t that dark anymore. Lying in a fetal position among the shattered remains of her armor, a Luna much closer to the mother Star recognized shivered and sobbed. Her mane was lighter than before, and her mane had solidified into a bright blue. But when her eyes opened, they were no longer the cyan, slit pupiled orbs that had terrified Star’s instincts. They were the warm deep blue that she remembered; the eyes that would glisten at her and give her a bright side to yearn for. 
Slowly, as if in a dream, Star tried to make her way back up the tower. Back to her mother. 
But just before she could come into Luna’s sights… a flash of light blinded them again. 
From the rising sun, a familiar white alicorn drifted down to the ground. 
Celestia. 
Star’s heart hammered. Her eyes widened in fear, her pupils turning to slits. 
Celestia. The one that had thrown her in a cell for crying too loudly. Who had taken Luna from her before. Who the Nobles could always count on to make Star’s life as miserable as possible. 
It tore Star’s heart to leave Luna. But with Celestia standing tall over her, there was nothing Star could bring herself to do. 
And when Kodo grabbed her and motioned back towards home, Star obeyed with a bowed head. 
Yet, as Star and Kodo retreated back into the forest, Star spared the castle one final look. 
I’ll come back for you, Mother, she promised. I’ll free you from Celestia. 
And I’ll bet anything those mares will be the key to doing it.