//------------------------------// // First Saturday // Story: The Wolf of Equestria // by MrAquino //------------------------------// The sun hit my eyes, making me wake up. I felt groggy waking up. Looking around, I was back in my room, but I was on the floor. My back felt a bit bad, but I mustered the strength to get up. Looking outside, I was met with the familiar grey, dopey eyed pegasus, making me jump back in surprise. "Package for Mr. Legosi!" She said, holding a small package to me.  "Uh… thanks." I replied, accepting the package. My ears twitched as I could hear a ruckus happening on the outside of my dorm room. The door opened and Sandbar entered, pushing the door shut with some cameras flashing. "Dude!" He yelled. "You're the most popular creature in Ponyville right now! What you did yesterday…!" He jumped in cheer, giving me a hug. "Sweet Celestia, I'm best friends with the coolest guy ever!" I gently pushed Sandbar away.  "Heh, calm down, man. I just did the right thing without thinking." I looked back at the package Derpy gave me. With a simple cut from my claw, I pulled out some white headphones. Huh… weird. But inside was a note. A treat for a good boy. -F Huh… guess she saw everything. But how did it work? I was a bit skeptical, but I carefully placed the headphones over my ears. Guess I shouldn't have been so surprised, but like magic, in a magical world, it turned on, with some catchy, yet relaxing music. I knew what I should just do today. No need to change at all as I just opened out of the door and walked out. The music was able to mute out the world for me, as various ponies tried to get my attention, very likely asking me why I did those actions, and if I knew who burnt down the Coconut Grill. But I wasn't alone as Sandbar tagged along, getting the attention of the news ponies, unintentionally becoming my distraction.  Out of the school zone, I jammed out to the music much more, everyone on the streets was surprised to see me walking and not paying attention. Well… I was paying attention, but heading to the hospital. If anything, I'd like to see Soaring Virtue, and see if she was alright. And I will say, walking to areas while jamming to music probably made me move faster, as I entered the hospital doors, seeing Nurse Redheart, the white unicorn with a pink mane in a bun. It made sense for me to take off my headphones. "Um, hi." I began. "I'm Legosi, and I'm actually here to see Soaring Virtue." "Hello, Mr. Legosi," Redheart greeted. "I'm sorry, but only family members and close associates can see her." Ah… should've figured that. "Well he's with us." Beach Bro spoke, having entered the front office, alongside his wife and their baby daughter. "We're here to, like, see if Virtue is okay." "Puppy!" The foal announced, reaching for me.  "Ah, well, as long as Legosi stays with you, it should be alright." Redheart replied. The doors opened as Sandbar rushed in, practically chased by the paparazzi as well. "... Hi guys." He said with a sheepish smile. I rolled my eyes. Seems I'm gonna have to be interviewed by these ponies.  "Please, if you follow me." Redheart spoke, leading the way. Our group followed. "So…" I began, trying to talk to Beach bro. "About what happened on Monday…" "Relax, man." He replied. "What happened, happened. But what happened yesterday, that's all that matters, y'know?" "I… guess so…" "But you did go a little wild after what my wife told you."  "... I did?" "Were you never called a good boy before?" Sandbar's mom asked. Wait… I remember… weird… on Monday, it was a blur, but now I remember it as clear as day. "... Oh! That! I'm sorry, it was… a lot. I just saved two lives and… well… I was full of adrenaline, ma'am."  "Huh… that was weird of you. But now little Coal Currents can't get enough of you." As she said that, I felt a tug at my legs. Looking down, the foal was pulling at my pants. "Puppy! Puppy play!" She announced. I couldn't help but pick her up. "Later." I simply replied. "Just not now." She let out a little pout.  We entered a room to see Soaring Virtue on a bed, breathing through an Oxygen mask. She was very surprised to see me, but didn't move… maybe paralyzed out of fear, or told not to. Everything was fairly quiet but the beeping of her Oxygen, and the various ponies walking by with their chats. Redheart walked ahead, checking her notes. "We're actually very surprised to see her making a fast recovery." Redheart explained before looking at me. "Had you not saved them, then she could be here much longer. Or worse." Soaring looked confused. I awkwardly waved at her with Coal Currents in my left arm. Sandbar approached her. "Hey, Soarin," he began, speaking with some swagger in his tone. "Perhaps when you fully recover, we can go see a movie." She rolled her eyes. Yeah, smooth, Sandbar. There was a bit of a ruckus as we heard someone moving out of the way. "Outta my way!" The gruff voice of a stallion yelled.  "Sir! Please!" A staff member replied. "You need to wait before-" the door swung wide open as a large stallion entered, having Soaring Virtue's coat and mane colors, albeit, a bit darker, and was an earth pony. He gave a cold death stare at everyone in the room, but mainly to me.  "Sup, Large Bouncer." Beach Bro greeted.  "Don't you dare greet me like that!" The other stallion hissed. "Where's my daughter!?"  "Um… there, sir." I pointed. Coal Currents began to whimper from this guy's hostility. He looked to his daughter, then to me, standing on his hind legs and cornering me against the wall.  "I don't care if you saved my daughter's life or not, if you go anywhere near her again, I'm gonna skin you and wear your fur like a coat, y'here?" Coal Currents began to tear up a bit. I could understand wanting to protect your daughter, but this is a bit too far… What an asshole. "Understood." I growled a little bit. We stared down a little bit. He backed off. "Good. Now get out. All of you!" I took a deep breath as I walked out, bouncing Coal Currents in my arm. "Mean." She simply said. "Yes, he's certainly mean." I replied, turning to Sandbar. "What's his problem?" "Him?" Sandbar asked. "Other than being an overprotective dad? He owns another restaurant across town." "Another restaurant?" "Well… more like a bar."  "Ah… booze…" I was never a heavy drinker. Very rarely did I drink, typically only on my birthday or a very special occasion. My attention was met with a small crowd of journalists, all taking pictures of me, next to Sandbar, holding his little sister, and his parents walking in from the background. This was gonna be annoying as I handed Sandbar his little sister. "Here's your sister." "Wha- hey! You need a right hoof stallion!" Sandbar turned to his mother, handing Coal Currents to her. "Sorry, mom, duty calls." He followed me as I exited the hospital, getting photos taken from almost every angle. It really did felt like a movie scene where someone is getting many pictures taken on the spot, and just like them, I was temporarily blinded, hearing all of the questions. "Mr. Wolf! What did Large Bouncer say to you?" "Mr. Wolf, why are you so tall?" "Mr. Wolf, do you have rabies?" Guess they didn't know my name and asked me by this title of 'Mr. Wolf'. Can't lie, being called Mr. Wolf does sound a bit cool, though, I should probably answer some questions. Clearing my throat, I gently pushed back a microphone in my face and spoke. "Uh, hi, my actual name is Legosi, with a 'see' or 'she' at the end doesn't matter." Sandbar jumped ahead. "And I'm Sandbar, Legosi's best friend!"  "Uh huh. Well, to answer some quick questions, what happened a week ago was me on my worst behavior, and I heavily apologize for it. I'm doing everything I can to make myself better and more well behaved. As for what I did yesterday, I only did what I believed was the right thing to do, and got a bit excited because I wasn't complimented before." "But what did Large Bouncer say to you?" One of the interviewers asked. "That is between us, and only us." The crowd got closer with more pictures as I strolled through, asking more questions about that chat. "Large Bouncer is inside, meeting his daughter. Ask him when he comes out." I put my headphones on and walked away, listening to the music, muting the outside world. I can only guess that Sandbar took over and started talking about how awesome I am. But for what I should do… Other than get away from the crowd, I should head to a more quiet place. But where? Time flew as I found myself near Sweet Apple Acres. Apple trees were everywhere, and each had a bundle of sweet looking apples to boot. My stomach growled a bit. Never realized how hungry I was. Maybe Applejack wouldn't mind if one of the students took an apple?  I positioned myself in front of one of the trees, seeing a particularly large apple. I was never good at climbing in my old body, but maybe I can now? With a sprint, I ran to the tree's trunk and grabbed onto the branch. Ha! That was easy!  Crack! Or not. The branch and I fell to the ground. "... ouch." I simply muttered to myself. The sound of a dog barking was heard. "What was that, Winona?" The voice of a particular filly asked. Walking around the corner was the yellow coated, red mane,  and pink bow wearing filly, Applebloom. Next to her was the brown and white collie, Winona. Least to say, Applebloom looked rather surprised at my sight.  "... Hi." I greeted. Her dog growled at me.  "Winona! No!" Applebloom shouted, getting the dog to stop. She approached me. "What the hay are you doing here?" "Needed a quiet place… and I got hungry." "You got hungry?" "I didn't eat anything all day." She looked at me then to the branch, and then the tree. "And you climbed a tree to get an apple?"  "Pretty much." She giggled. "If yer so hungry, why don't you just buck one?" "... I'm not a quadruped." She looked confused. "I'm bipedal." Same confused look. "I only stand on two legs." "... Are y'all sure? Cause everyone said they saw you on all fours when you were-" I quickly got up and placed a finger over her mouth.  "Please, don't remind me. I don't remember everything that happened, and I'm trying to fix it." She looked at my finger, then to me before nodding. I turned to the branch and plucked the apple on it, before taking a bite out of it. Very crunchy, also juicy, but more importantly, filling. "Oh! Where are my manners? I'm Applebloom." She reached a hoof out to me. I returned the gesture, reaching out and shaking her hoof back. "Legosi." "Are ya doing anything tomorrow?"  "... Probably not. Why?" "Well, ya see, my big sis needs help around the barn, but because of her teaching at that school of Friendship, she's been a bit behind in her chores." "Yeah, I can see why. But where are you going?" "Applejack wants willing students to help work on the barn. Any who help will get extra credit in their classes." I couldn't help but think aloud "Hmm… I'm not doing a bad job at school… probably… but extra credit is always good… aight, I'll check in tomorrow." "Sweet! Hope you don't mind getting dirty." "Oh I won't." She ran away, Winona following her. "Come on! Let's tell AJ about this!" I finished my apple in peace as I looked to the sky, seeing the sky darken as the sun began to sey. I felt off… like… maybe I should stay. Today is Saturday, and if what happened yesterday was true… I better get ready. I sat on a hill, looking over the Everfree forest. The sun was nearly gone, and my heart began to beat rather rapidly. I wasn't sure if it was because or my fear, instincts kicking in, or both. Either way, I was sweating past my fur. The sun set, and the moon rose. My vision went blurry, but also red. This was it… it's time for my hunt.  If you ever saw the movie Get Out, imagine the Sunken Place from that. I could see what was going on, but I had no control of myself. Watching past the blurry red vision, my instincts kicked in as I ran into the forest, now on all fours, becoming more of a wolf than a sentient creature. I ran through the forest, snarling loudly and hungry. Guess the apple wasn't filling… or my instincts only tolerated it just for something fresh and living.  It didn't take long for me to see a rabbit, unaware of me looking through a bush. I wanted to look away, but something made sure that I watched what my instincts and body did. I screamed for it to run, but nothing came out of my voice. And even if I did make a sound, my voice wouldn't be heard by anything outside. My body jumped out of the woods, scaring the rabbit and making it hop away, starting a chase. My mute screaming wanted the rabbit to run faster, but my body caught up and… I wish I could look away, but I was forced to watch. My body snagged the rabbit in it's mouth and shook violently, snarling wildly as the rabbit made an awful scream for its life. And I could only watch as my body bit into the rabbit's stomach, ripping some flesh out with it's mouth, and started to eat. The rabbit's eyes went lifeless, but me? I… I was just eating it, no care in the world, just hungry. But as I ate, I felt myself getting closer to my vision, with the red blurry vision going away.  I snapped back into reality and saw the corpse of a half eaten rabbit. I screamed as I fell to my back, crawling away from what I just killed and ate. Looking at my claws, a mix of blood and dirt was on them, and my stomach… Oh God … I felt sick. I got up and quickly hurled over, puking on a nearby tree. What are you doing!? That's food!!! "W-who's there!?" I quickly asked. We made a deal! Let us eat the flesh of those weaker than us! "... Oh my god… that was real…" I still felt sick and hurled again, keeling over and crawling away. WEAK!!! We're the Apex predator! We should be happy to kill and eat whatever we wish!!! I stopped at a lake. The moon lit overhead, letting me see my reflection. My face was covered in the blood of the rabbit. This is our true self! The thrill of the hunt made us feel alive! Don't tell me you're gonna back out now. "...N-no… I… I'm sorry… it's… I've never done this before… not that I remember much from before." Hmph! Fine. Consider this a warning. Next time, when we eat something, don't go weak and puke out our meal. I reached into the lake and washed my face off. "And we're not hunting anyone outside, are we?" [color=#3c26af… Never.] "Huh… glad to see you're still around… um… Protecting instincts?"  I rolled onto my back and looked to the moon overhead. Everything felt off with what just happened… but if this is the only way to keep control of myself… what choice do I have? With that, I got up and walked out, heading right out of the forest, tracing my steps from before. Walking out of the forest, I saw Sweet Apple Acres nearby. My eyes felt heavy after all that activity. I bumbled up the hill I sat on and fell onto my chest, falling asleep almost immediately. God, this experience was so tiring.