It was a large room. Large and rectangular. Centered and in the middle was a square desk, crushed under the weight of hundreds of papers. An abnormally lean wolf rested leisurely on it, hind-legs propped against the desk, and fore-legs crossed behind its head. It didn’t look like a comfortable position at all.
As we neared him there was a sharp inhalation followed by a deep exhalation. The wolf opened its eyes to look at us. “What’s up, Star? As you can see, I’m quite busy.” He had not appeared to be busy.
Star didn’t roll his eyes or snicker, as one would expect. He just ignored the false statement. “I believe you know why I’m here.” There was a brief pause. “Or at least you should.”
The wolf groaned and swiveled in his chair so that his paws were firmly on the ground. “Fine. Let’s get this over with then.” His position still did not appear entirely comfortable.
He descended from the chair in one fluid motion that implied a very dexterous physique. He stretched in front of us, letting his bones crack and snap as they popped into place. His coat was blood orange, not particularly bright, not particularly dark. His legs bore blackened fur from the paw to the knee. There was a tuft of fur on the nape of his neck that was also black.
His slender body and elongated legs made him appear tall, graceful, and intimidating. The tip of his tail was a grizzled white. The ears ended in rounded tips standing away from his head. His snout was narrow, fading from persimmon to black upon reaching the nose. Out of his mouth several incisors and canines were visible. They were keen, no doubt capable of inflicting wicked injury upon a mark. His eyes were a shade of deep brown.
While he wasn’t an astonishing sight he did arouse curiosity. I didn’t recall having heard of a creature fitting his description. He was a wolf, that much was clear, but he was extremely slender and well-groomed. Wolves I had heard of (and seen) had been described as having matted fur, and thick bodies. I was incapable of leaving a question unanswered. “What are you?”
He snickered at the question. “You don’t know? Not surprising considering how rare my kind are nowadays. I am a rare breed of lupus, known by most as the Tall-Maned Wolf. I am a rare subspecies of the rare Maned Wolf.” He allowed the information to sink in before continuing. “Now it’s my turn to ask you a question.” He paused again, allowing silence to settle.
No noise was permitted to permeate the air for an exorbitant amount of time. Finally, Star snapped. “Well? Aren’t you going to ask her a question?” He sounded annoyed. Me- I was just nervous.
The wolf just frowned at Star. “Yes, but I’m building some suspense before-hand. That way the question sounds important.”
“The question is already important! It decides her fate for Celestia’s sake! Is it really necessary to add more suspense to something so monumental as that?” I had to concur with the shade; it seemed rather operatic and wholly unnecessary.
“Yes, yes it is. Just because you don’t have any sense of drama doesn’t mean the rest of us have to fumble around aimlessly.” The wolf had his head turned upwards, eyes cast away from Star. Pride was a rarity in my life. I hadn’t seen many show it, and I certainly hadn’t been privileged enough to experience it.
“There is a difference between drama and stupidity.” Star looked quite peeved.
“Is there a really a difference, though? Is there a difference between anything in the world? Is everything the same in the end? Isn’t everything just one big blob?” The wolf’s head was now tilted to the left and his eyes looked skyward as if he was lost in the recesses of his mind.
Star just stared stupidly at him. His expression just emitted the question, are you serious? “Will you do me a favor?” I doubted that the favor was of a pleasant nature.
“Since favors are just one big blob, yes I will.” The wolf turned his head back towards my shade and smiled an enormous, toothy grin.
“Do not ever, ever, speak again. Please. You are, essentially, a thief. You have taken all of the stupidity out of the air and confined it to several incredibly idiotic statements. And I, fearing contamination, am tempted to warn others to wear hazmat suits around you.” Star actually had a pleading look about him. “I implore you to consider my words carefully.” He stated the final line with a hidden undertone of aggression. Or perhaps it was an overtone. I never could tell the difference between the two.
The wolf just nodded along with his brow arched. “Have you ever noticed-”
“Celestia save us...” Sighed Star.
“-how life is sort of like salt water taffy?” He finished. His contemplative stare remained.
“...” It would not do justice to Star to say he was frowning. The way his face contorted was so foreign and strange that I doubt any adjective could describe the annoyance he so obviously felt.
“Do you know why life is like salt water taffy?” The wolf turned his gaze back on Star.
Star, for his part stared back, intently. “No. How...? How, in the name of Tartarus, is life like salt water taffy?”
“You’re no help at all, are you? Do you respond to every question with another? I honestly cannot fathom a more annoying habit. If you don’t know the answer just say so. I’ll ask someone else.” The wolf took on an expression of mock annoyance.
Star just looked more dumbfounded. This creature had quite an aptitude for annoying him. “Are you saying that you don’t know the answer?”
“Yes. And I must say that it is unbelievably ridiculous that I have tell you that. Why else would I have asked the question to begin with?”
“...” Hopefully Star’s silence would not prove to be negative. Maybe he was in a happy place thinking happy thoughts.
I was a bit a nervous. Star looked as if he wanted to hurl something at the wolf. And seeing as how I was already in his grip, I was a bit hopeful the situation would resolve itself. “Excuse me.”
For the first time the wolf acknowledged my presence. He turned his focus towards me, dark brown eyes digging into me. Star emulated the action. The wolf was the first to speak, however. “What?”
I coughed and licked my lips. What could I say? I didn’t have a bluff for this situation, nor did I have any leverage. There was really only one thing I could do to change the subject at that point. “Weren’t you going to ask me some questions?”
A wide grin broke out across the wolf’s muzzle. “Why yes I was.” His ear flicked once. He looked at my shade. “You didn’t mention that she was brave as well as smart.” He once again turned his attention to me. After a brief pause he added, “Nor did you say she was blue. I like blue. Blue is cool.”
The wolf sat on his haunches, inhaling in preparation to speak. “Star, you can just drop her here and leave. I’ll handle this one alone.”
Star raised one eyebrow, looking perplexed. From the impressions I have gotten of him he did not seem the type to become confused. This must be...abnormal. Extremely so. “Are you sure about that? It’s been quite a while since you did one of these interviews alone. I’m not even sure you know the questions anymore.” I saw a smirk on his face.
“Just go, I think Brightwing was searching for you anyways.”
Star nodded and quickly looked to me. “I hope we get to talk again Trixie. You’ll make an excellent addition.” Too bad he didn’t he didn’t say to what. He turned and walked away while slowly lowering me to the floor.
The wolf was silent as Star made his exit. His eyes followed him as he graced over the floor. As soon as the doors shut behind him, however, he began to speak. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions.” He remained silent, as if waiting for me to respond.
“And...?”
The wolf’s brow formed into an arch. “And, what? They’re questions. I ask them and you answer them. Surely they have questions in the slums of Baltimare?”
“It’s just...you were silent for quite a while.”
“I was adding drama and suspense.”
“To what, exactly?”
“To my question.”
“Which is?”
“What I’m going to ask you.”
“...” Interesting how he had the questions, yet I was the confused one.
“What’s your name?” Odd question considering he already knew that.
“You already know my name.” What exactly was he playing at?
He sighed. “No. That’s just a mess of words on your birth certificate. Which you technically don’t have...anyways, it doesn’t mean anything. I’m posing a different question. Who are you? What’s your name?”
Who was I? I didn’t quite know how to respond besides the obvious answer. “I’m Trixie.”
His eyes were sad. Incredibly sad. “But who is Trixie?”
“...”
He lifted a paw and examined it absentmindedly. He wasn’t fooling me, though. I could see the dejected look in his eye, the sympathy. Or perhaps empathy. “Trixie is just some foal on the streets of Baltimare. She is a foal without a home, without friends, without family, without drive, without...purpose. She lives to survive.” His paw slammed to the ground and his eyes darted towards me again. “Is that who you are?”
My lips were dry and cracked. I bit the inside of them until I tasted blood. The warm metallic flow failed to comfort me. When I finally did find the courage to speak out, my voice was meek and feeble. “Yes...”
“And you’re satisfied with that?”
“...”
“It doesn’t have be like that, you know.”
...How dare he...
I looked at him hard. “And I guess you’re going to offer me a way out, huh? You’re going to rescue me from my life of despair and misery. You intend to be my savior. Because that’s just how it works, right? Yeah, sure.” Something in me just snapped. This creature had no place here. He knew nothing of me! How dare he try to trick me, how dare he try to insult me, how dare he to try and give me hope.
I wasn’t done. “You don’t get it, do you? What gives you the right to claim you’re different? How are you supposed to be unique? I’m suffered my life long enough to know that it’s inescapable. I’ve watched others get killed in my world. Yet you’re just going to stroll into the thick of it and give me a reason, a new perspective? You’re gonna be some sort of savior? Just who do you think you are, exactly?”
He looked upon me cooly, not moving an inch. He appeared to be absorbing my words. He wasn’t smiling anymore. My breath was heavy as I finished, coming out in long gasps as my lungs filled with air. He leaned over to me, letting his snout draw close to my ear. “You ask who I am?” His voice was hoarse and rough.
His voice was scratchy and dejected. It was...pained. He continued. “Me? I am a name. A real name.” His breath was ragged and irregular. “I am what a name could mean. I’m what you could mean.”
“But...what are you?” What could he possibly mean?
He leaned back. He was smiling again. Though it was smaller and much more content than the broad grin he had boasted earlier. “Something interesting.” He had a dreamy look about him that did not agree with his sad tone. He inhaled deeply and sighed a long, worn-out sigh. “So, tell me, what do you want the name Trixie to mean?”
“...” It wasn’t a question I had ever been asked before. No being had ever truly cared enough to ask me such a question. No one gave the time of day to a street urchin like me. I mean, why would they?
“Are you content with it being synonymous with the word whelp? Are you satisfied with that?” His hazel eyes were hard to look away from. Something about them just drew me inwards.
“...” I couldn’t speak. All that came from me was a throaty squeak.
He leaned over, pressing his face close to mine. “I didn’t catch that.” He knew very well I had not spoken. “What?”
“...no...” The word stuck to the back of my throat, remaining obstinate in its attempts to remain unspoken.
“Then what should it mean? Tell me what you want it to mean. What you want. Tell me what you want from me.”
I managed a nod. A slight, almost unobserved, nod. “Could- could you provide me a purpose?”
“No, I cannot. But I can tag along while you find out. Maybe even help a little” He broke out into that wide, toothy grin again. “So how about it?”
I was about to agree, but then a thought occurred to me. “You still haven’t told me what your offer is.”
He frowned and arched his eyebrows. “Really? Well that won’t do, now will it?” He jumped in place, practically falling over. “Oh! I had almost forgotten!”
“What?” There was more?
“I have yet to ask you the question. Star would destroy me if he found out. Ahem.”
There was a long, rather uncomfortable silence. “Are you building up suspense?”
“No, actually. I was trying to remember the question.”
“...”
“Ah! Now I have it.”
The wolf leaned over, knees practically scraping the ground as he drew closer to me once again. He was not smiling. His nostrils flared as his warm breath pushed the hair on the nape of my neck. His deep hazel eyes looked into my own, scanning my mind. They were not the eyes of a fool. They were intelligent and experienced eyes, eyes that had seen much.
His voice was hardly a wisp, reaching only my ears. “Do you regret it?”
“What?”
“Do you regret it?” He repeated the question in a slightly louder tone.
“I don’t understa-”
“Her. Do you regret her?” His tone was void of any emotion. Strange how he could change his attitude on the spot.
“Who?”
“The filly. The filly you killed at the orphanage. Do you regret her?” No emotion was present on his features. None at all.
“...” I didn’t really know how to answer that. Did I regret it?
“Think carefully about this.” The serious air about him was...frightening. His eyes warned me against lying.
I had not given much thought to the subject. I had been too busy ensuring my own life would continue to fret over another lost one. It seemed I was being forced to make time to reflect upon it now, though. So...
I had ended another pony’s life. All they could’ve been, all they would’ve been, stolen in one fleeting moment. An act so incorrigible and horrendous that normal, well-off ponies could not fathom it. But did I regret it?
“No.”
He continued to stare at me, eyes boring into me. It felt as if he was searching out a lie, trying to corner me. Had that not been the right answer? Did he think me to be a monster? Was he just thinking up a way to dispose of a psychopath now?
Finally he opened his maw, revealing those sharp, angular teeth. “You’ll fit right in with our lot, then.”
He stood up quickly, appreciating his surroundings and rolling his shoulders again. “Do you remember the way back to your room?” I nodded.
There was a tense moment of silence as I just laid on the stone floor below the wolf. He looked at me with a slight hint of confusion. “Is there something you wanted to ask me?”
I shook my head to indicate I did not.
“Then you’re free to go back to your room.” He stared at me as I laid motionless. “That means leave.”
“...I can’t. My legs have been...” What was the right word?
“Ah. That does make this problematic.” He bit his lower lip. Then he opened his maw to speak, before closing it again. With his eyes downcast he mumbled. “I suppose I could carry you.” He glanced up at me. “Are you sure they won’t move?”
“They’re my legs.”
“Of course, of course...you would know. But just to be safe, did you try moving them?” He looked at me inquiringly.
He did have a capacity to annoy. That was one sure thing. I saw that now. “...”
“Have you tried scaring them? Just to see if they were faking?”
“...” I just stared blankly at him.
“Sorry.” He walked over to me, taking light steps that did not make any sound upon contact with the ground. His movements were graceful to match his lithe body.
He grabbed me with his jaw, sharp fangs threatening to pierce the scruff of my neck. I could not help but let out a yelp at the feeling. He dropped me immediately. “What’s wrong?”
“Your fangs be sharp.” Not the most intelligent statement I’ve ever uttered.
“Yes, I’ve noticed that. Sorry. I’ll try not to bite down so hard next time.” He paused for a moment. “You tasted good. What kind of of conditioner do you use?”
“That joke was just in bad taste.” And so overused.
“Well no, actually, it wasn’t. The exact opposite is true.” He looked at me, perplexed.
“Funny.” Strange how this wolf’s demeanor and personality could change in a single instant.
He wrinkled his nose at me. “You have a rather sick sense of humor, then.”
He bit down on the scruff of my neck again, lifting me into the air. He gently placed me on his back and began to walk. It was then that I realized something. I looked to the wolf I was riding. Hah. I was riding a wolf. How fun. “It has come to my attention that you have failed to tell me who you are. Or who we are I guess.”
He laughed. “I’ll tell you once we reach your room. Which may take a while considering I have no idea where it is.” He smiled that large toothy grin has he walked to the doors.
“Oh, and I have one last question, Trixie.” His voice trailed on.
“Yes?” What could be left to be asked?
“How do you feel about salt water taffy?” Oh.