Chapter 14: Spike At Your Service (if Applejack was also a Werewolf)
It was a rare moment of rest for Applejack. No trees needed to be bucked, no gutters to be fixed, no nothing. But idleness was something Applejack wasn’t too fond of, especially now that she was still coming to grips with her lycanthropy. Idleness tended to lead to wandering thoughts.
It had been almost a month now since she had first undergone the transformation, had fully become a werewolf. At first it had seemed like something she could find advantageous, but over time she began to learn the flaws and was questioning the trade-off she’d been forced to make. Originally it had just been a problem of meat, but after having to confide in Lyra and Sandalwood that had become somewhat less of a problem as those two had figured out how to get in some fish for her. It wasn’t as good as a juicy hamburger or a chicken, but seafood meat was better than nothing, even if it did screw up her normal meals as she couldn’t be seen eating fish in public.
Then there was the problem of her altered biology. While at this point she could go back into town easily enough without all the dogs chasing her, it still remained unclear on whether or not she’d have to wear more Chattelle No. 50 the next time her “monthly visitor” came to pass. Coupled onto the worry of what was happening to her body was that her ears seemed slightly different. While nopony had noticed yet, Applejack had detected something was off. The edges appeared to have become a tiny bit straighter, not enough to look significantly different but obvious enough if compared to a normal pony ear.
But the scare about her faded cutie mark still was fresh in her mind. She’d washed her flanks especially hard that night after they were discovered, but while some luster was brought back to the trio of apples, they still remained just that tiny bit faded that bothered her to no end. Twilight had come by the next morning, informing Applejack that what she had was some kind of “cutie mark dandruff” issue, apparently an extremely rare genetic condition she’d heard from a visiting crystal pony who’d talked to her last night. Applejack was relieved to hear the dulling of her identity was only temporary and it should come back. And come back it did, as at that moment her cutie mark appeared like nothing had changed.
But it was the nature of this “dandruff” that Twilight had spoken about that kept Applejack worried. She said it was some kinda rare, genetic thing, thought AJ, but if that’s the case then why has the rest of the Apple Family not even said a word about such a thing? Ah’d expect somepony who’s a relative of mine to have had this happen. Also, what about Big Mac and Apple Bloom? What if they have this problem comin’ their way as well? Big Mac probably won’t make a big issue of it, but Apple Bloom would freak if her cutie mark, whatever it is when she finally gets it, starts to fade away. Maybe it’s somethin’ from Mom’s side of the family? Ah dunno…
Before that line of thinking could be pursued further, something on the edge of her vision drew AJ’s attention elsewhere. A hot air balloon, similar to the model Twilight sometimes used, was somehow drifting away from the center of town and towards the Everfree Forest. This warranted investigation, so Applejack quickly took her things back to the barn before heading off in the direction of the wild woods. Once she was sufficiently surrounded by the trees, however, the mare looked around to ensure the coast was clear before willing herself to change forms. Within a minute, gone was the farmer and in her place was the hunter, who took off like a rocket to track down that balloon. It wasn’t hard at this point, the rope that had been dangling from it must have snared on a branch in a thicket somewhere and anchored the vessel. Simple enough, thought Applejack, just grab the balloon’s rope and walk it back to town.
Or at least that had been the plan had she not heard a distinctly young male voice that could have only come from one particular pony. Or rather, one particular dragon. Almost instinctively, Applejack changed from wolf hybrid back to regular pony while she was still running, subconsciously not wanting him to know her secret. But from what she could tell, Spike was actually yelling in terror, and her heightened sense of smell indicated…
“Timberwolves…“ Applejack snarled. Normally she should have been more concerned about the danger represented by the decidedly foul breath scent in the air, the presence of rotten eggs meaning the walking piles of lumber were nearby, but AJ was no longer a normal pony. She was a werewolf, and right now there were wolves of another sort threatening a member of her “pack”, so-to-speak.
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Spike was sweating up a storm as he found himself backed up against a rock ledge. In front of him was a trio of timberwolves, canids somehow magically constructed out of the cast-off pieces of trees and grasses that lived in the Everfree Forest. As he was sure that death was certain, he didn’t know if it was worse that he was going to get eaten alive, or that he was going to get eaten alive while subjected to the stench of rotten eggs.
Then, right as the center lead timberwolf was about to attack, some gray shot from the sky and hit him square in the face. Reeling from the attack, the leader looked up to the source of the offending rock, his two cronies following suit. They found on top of the rock ledge a strange, hat-wearing orange pony tossing a rock up and down with her hoof.
“Come and get me, ya big goons!” taunted Applejack as she tossed up the rock before bucking back right into the face of the same wolf and yelling “RUN!” to Spike, before dashing off herself. Spike did as he was told and ran off in a different direction as the timberwolves chased after their new antagonist.
Now, had Applejack been able to safely morph into her wolf form, she could have easily outrun the timberwolves, but since Spike was still around she couldn’t risk it. Instead, as the wolves easily kept pace with her, she noticed a low hanging branch hanging in front of her. Some quick thinking later and one of the wolves went to pieces when said branch smacked him in the face, but the other two wolves continued to bear down on the pony. That number was quickly reduced to one when applejack found some more small rocks and bucked them right into the legs of one of her pursuers, causing the unlucky doppelganger to crash into the ground and break up under his own momentum.
The last wolf, however, was almost on top of Applejack due to her pausing to kick rocks, so time was running out for her. At least, until she saw a tree straight ahead that had a circular gap in the middle of it. Deciding to risk it, the farm pony called forth all of her rodeo skills and jumped through the hole, the timberwolf following close behind. Applejack made it, but took the landing a bit too hard and ended up rolling a bit, managing to stand up only to see two disembodied forelegs with sharp twig claws rocketing right at her. They landed just short before clenching and crumbling into its individual pieces.
She barely had enough time to take a sigh of relief before Spike came around and exclaimed “Wow, Applejack! That was amazing! I mean, you rocketed those boulders at them like they were…rockets! Pow, pow, pow-pow-pow! You saved my life!” before then saying in a much softer tone, “You…saved…my life…”
Just happy Spike was safe, Applejack simply replied “Aw, don’t mention it, Spike. C’mon, we should be headin’ on back, now.”
“Man, am I lucky you were out here! Uh...why were you out here?”
“Saw the balloon floatin’ by with nopony in it, came out here to investigate. Guess you did too, huh?
“Uh, yeah…I was investigating the runaway hot air balloon, too! So, uh, now that the mystery’s been solved, let’s get outta here, huh?”
Applejack didn’t reply, but simply untied the balloon’s rope from the twig (which she noted looked a little too nice of a knot to have happened naturally…) and started walking alongside Spike and out of the forest. Neither of them noticed the timberwolf pieces behind them reforming in a menacing way.
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Later, Applejack and Spike were standing in front of a gate just outside Sweet Apple Acres. Cherry Berry had come to recollect the balloon, none too happy about having to walk all the way out to the farm to collect it.
“Thanks fer walkin’ me home, Spike, that was mighty kind of you. But now Ah have chores that need tendin’ to, so see you later.”
To her surprise, Spike immediately responded “What chores? I’ll do them!”
“That’s sweet, but you don’t have-“
“It’s the least I can do! You saved my life! I need to repay the favor.”
Now getting slightly concerned about Spike suddenly being a little too eager to do her duties, Applejack continued to try and turn him off of the idea; “Shoot, Spike, that’s what friends do for each other. You don’t need to repay the favor.”
“Yes, I do!”
“Sugar, its okay, it’s not necessary.”
“Applejack, you don’t understand! This is something I really need to do!”
Realizing she wasn’t going to convince the dragon otherwise, Applejack conceded to the idea of letting the young dragon help and pointed him in the direction of Apple Bloom, who was cleaning one of the farm’s prized pigs. Spike eagerly dashed off to go assist. Little did Applejack understand how the rest of the day was going to devolve into one massive headache after another simply because she’d saved him from a grisly fate.
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Meanwhile, in the archives of Castle Canterlot…
“Celly, where are those medical texts I was going to read? I know I put them somewhere around here…”
“Oh, sorry Luna, I didn’t know you’d set them aside. They’re actually with Twilight at the moment.”
Luna appeared from behind a bookshelf, surprised at her sister’s actions. “Twilight?! What in Equestria were you thinking sending such complex books to her?”
Celestia didn’t look up from the ancient tome she was reading when she replied “You forget, dear sister, I made Twilight Sparkle my personal pupil for a reason. Her magic power being almost as great as yours, mine, or Cadance’s aside, she’s extremely adept at understanding complex texts and picking things out of their hiding places in context.” Celestia then smiled as she recalled a memory of her loyal student when she was in the middle of her studies under royalty, “This was before your return, Luna, back when Twilight was in her teenage years, but she’d gone through the entire library’s inventory of advanced magic spells and was demanding for Head Archivist Leatherback to let her access the restricted portion of the Star Swirl shelves.”
Luna’s expression went from surprise to horror at the mere thought of a filly as powerful as Twilight Sparkle getting her hooves onto things like time travel spells without any mature sensibility or respect for the fragility of time. “I presume Leatherback denied that request?”
“Oh, she went much further than that. Every restricted item from the Star Swirl shelves were immediately removed and stored in a royal vault by her command, simply to ensure little Twilight didn’t access them.” Celestia laughed. “I never said this to Twilight, but when she was that age she was just adorable to see pout, and oh how she pouted when she discovered the guards weren’t going to let her go into the vaults. How she found out they were in the vaults I don’t know, but for almost a year she kept on bugging me to let her read even just one of the books, for ‘light reading’ I think. She finally stopped when I agreed to teach her how to reverse gravity.”
“You taught a filly WHAT!?” Luna exclaimed, forgetting that this was a library she was in.
Celestia just laughed again before continuing “Don’t worry, Luna, her power was still too weak at that age to sufficiently accomplish the spell without my help, so she always was under my supervision. In the end I’m glad I taught her that spell, as she told me it came in handy when trying to locate the Crystal Heart.”
Luna just rolled her eyes, “Yes, yes, although I’d say it was just luck she remembered the spell in the first place. You also have failed to answer the question as to why you sent Twilight those manuscripts.”
“Oh, right, I probably should have told you earlier. It seems Twilight has learned that a condition where a pony’s cutie mark fades does in fact exist. It’s called ‘Cutie Mark Mange’, I think. She wanted some of the texts you’d set out, so I sent them along to her, saying I wanted her to read all twelve by the end of the weekend. Cruel, I know, but her record is actually thirteen books in a day so it shouldn’t be an issue for her.”
Luna immediately heard the bells ringing in her head, “Did you just say ‘Cutie Mark Mange’?”
“I did. Why, is there something about it you know that I don’t? Because I must be honest in saying I’ve never heard of it before.”
Luna walked over to take a seat next to her sister, answering with “Well, it was shortly before my, erm…’tantrum’ I had against you, but I do recall hearing a story about one stallion doctors had created that term for, because his cutie mark was somehow fading in and out.”
Celestia had to raise an eyebrow. Either this was an extreme coincidence, or Twilight had inadvertently stumbled onto something much older than Celestia even knew about, despite seemingly having been around the time “Cutie Mark Mange” had been coined.
“Luna, do you remember anything else about this that you may have heard?”
Luna set her front legs on the table, resting her head on her hooves and concentrating, trying to recall the old fragment of history in her head. “Umm…okay, this pony was…was apparently an ex royal guardsman, earth pony, name was Bronze Shield, I think. Everything else is blurry.”
Celestia knew that name from somewhere. Even after over a thousand years, she specifically knew of the name Bronze Shield somehow. But from where? And why?
Getting up from her chair, Celestia laid out her plan; “Well, if he was a royal guardspony, his name should be in the records. And if this Cutie Mark Mange existed even before your ‘tantrum’ then there should be records of all known cases.”
“I take it you want me to look for something, sister?” asked Luna.
“Yes. Try to find any more information you can on this mange this library may have. I’m going to get the archivists and go over those old recruit rosters from the early days of our reign. I know there’s a connection here that I’m just not seeing, but we’re going to find it one way or another.”
Nodding her agreement, Luna took off on her research assignment. Celestia did the same, but towards where the archivists lived in the castle. In her gut, she had a dreadful feeling that whatever the connection was, it was not good.
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What in the hay am Ah supposed to do now? wondered Applejack as Spike eagerly awaited orders to do something else. It was bad enough that Apple Bloom had taken off after announcing the CMC’s plans to get fitted for water skis in another harebrained attempt at getting cutie marks, Applejack was going to be worrying about her all day. But the more immediate problem was that Spike had decided Applejack was the new Twilight Sparkle. For some reason or another, Spike had declared himself forever under Applejack’s servitude for saving his life as stated by some “Dragon Code” he had, complete with a childish looking business card implying as such. As much as Applejack didn’t mind having another set of hooves (or rather, claws in his case) to help around the farm, Spike was as bad as the CMC when it came to “helping others” with just about anything if it wasn’t organization based.
The problems had made themselves perfectly clear when Applejack had sent Spike to go help Granny Smith make some pies. Within a matter of minutes, Spike’s attempt to grab eggs on a high ledge despite some eggs already being on the kitchen counter had quickly turned into a culinary war zone where biological warfare had been introduced. When Applejack tried taking over the situation simply to get Spike out of the place, that was when this whole Dragon Code nonsense got brought into the forefront and Spike’s servitude to her declared for life. Granny pointing out that Spike belonged with Twilight Sparkle had at first seemed to get them out of their hair…until he came back acting like Twilight was somehow okay with her number one assistant pledging himself into what was rapidly becoming foal slavery from AJ’s point of view.
On top of all that, her werewolf instinct were beginning to kick in, inciting anger within her for having to deal with the increasingly troublesome and annoying dragon. She had to wonder if it was blind devotion to this Dragon Code that kept Spike from seeing how hard she was trying to not blow up in his face or show him some “tough love” by going full-out werewolf and making it clear in a physical sense how she was done with his crap. But she wasn’t at that point. Yet.
“What do you need me to do next?” eagerly inquired the reptilian, his voice suspiciously close to sounding a bit like he was desperate for something to keep him busy.
“Ah, well…” Applejack began, she herself desperately trying to hide both her anger and the stench of the mutant pie Spike had baked and set on the windowsill to cool a few minutes ago. She quickly began looking around the immediate area trying to figure out something Spike could do that wasn’t going to end horribly. Field Plowing? No. Fence Whitewashing? No. Firewood chopping? Celestia above, no! Running out of options, and tolerance for that horrible pie she could still smell (amplified by her being a werewolf), she resorted to having to involve one of her friends.
“Er, I want you to…uh…” Applejack began, zipping over to the window and back to fetch the foul thing that was allegedly a pie, “…help me take some of the pie you made to-“
“Rarity?” asked Spike, his pupils noticeably dilating in size at the mention of the target of his affections.
“Uh…sure, why not.” Applejack said, regretfully, as she and the dragon went off to go give Rarity something that should have never existed.
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Applejack was amazed at the quick recovery Rarity had made even after having to just taste that abomination resembling a pie. She’d gone from looking as sick as could be do squealing all over the place upon Applejack mentioning Spike submitting himself to indentured servitude, almost as if the fashionista was the one this headache was supposed to be for and not incidentally the werewolf who had her own share of problems.
“Oh, what I wouldn’t give to have somepony forever in my debt!” said Rarity, still squealing about something that never happened, “I’d get them to organize my clothes, and give me pedicures, and help me with my sewing, and-“
“Okay, Ah get it! Havin’ somepony to do things for you would be a dream come true. But Ah don’t feel right havin’ Spike thinkin’ he owes me somethin’. You tasted that pie. Sometimes his help isn’t that helpful.”
As if to prove her point, the sound of something crashing could be heard, followed by Spike leading a growing mountain of soap bubbles…which he evidently intended to clean up with a broom before the bubbling smooze swallowed him up. Applejack had to wonder just what it was Twilight was teaching him if he thought a broom was the tool for a job. Not to mention he usually did the dishes at Golden Oaks anyway, from what Twilight had said some time ago, so the idea he’d somehow become inept at everything under the sun seemed extremely odd.
Then Rainbow Dash happened to show up. “AJ, Rarity, what’s happening?”
“Oh, nothing much” replied the unicorn, somehow completely ignoring the bubbles continuing to grow in the hallway and probably already having ruined an imported rug or three, “just that Applejack saved Spike’s life and now he’s declared he will serve her forever.”
“Sweet! What are you having him do? Wash your laundry? Clean your room? Help you with your unfinished novel? Mine’s about this awesome pegasus who’s the best flyer ever and ends up being the captain of the Wonderbolts!”
Rarity threw a sarcastic comment on how horribly cliché it all sounded, which Rainbow naturally didn’t pick up on.
Applejack, meanwhile, was still concerned about the dragon trying to help her in ways she didn’t need. “Thing is, I don’t really want him to serve me forever, but I don’t know how to get him to stop.” In truth she did have one way, but it involved sharp claws, razor teeth, and possible psychological trauma, so it wasn’t really a viable option.
Rainbow Dash, however, seemed to be of a different opinion; “That’s easy! Just make him help you with something really, really hard!”
“Ah dunno, Ah don’t want him to get hurt, Ah just want him to stop.”
But Rainbow assured her friend that she was confident her plan would work. The “plan” as it turned out, was to convince Spike to build a giant tower of heavy rocks for Rainbow to knock over, with the idea being he’d stop due to the seemingly impossible workload of the task. At the same time, Rarity was horrified to see Spike’s “solution” to the bubble problem was to remove what looked like a key part of her kitchen plumbing. It was at that point she was re-evaluating whether or not Spike was of good indentured slave material.
“There has to be something here, I know it” said Celestia to herself as she poured over some ancient rosters of the guard from the early days of her reign. Nearby, almost the entire archivist staff was doing the same, all effort devoted to trying to find that one name: Bronze Shield. Even though much of Castle Everfree had been destroyed, along with most of its contents, in the battle between Celestia and Nightmare Moon, the archives had somehow escaped destruction and were largely intact. As a result, they had been one of the first things to be moved to the then-still unfinished Castle Canterlot, the new capital of Equestria. But Celestia was losing hope fast of finding this mysterious name, wondering if one or two roster scrolls had not escaped destruction or were lost in the move.
“Your majesty!” called out one of the archivists, “I’ve found it!”
Half running, half flying, Celestia hurried over to where the archivist gestured. Around the table the other archivists gathered as well.
“Show me, Ebony Ink,” said Celestia.
Ebony gestured with a hoof to a specific name was written. Sure enough, clear as day it read “Bronze Shield”.
“When was this made?” demanded the sun princess, the sinking feeling in her stomach only growing.
“The date places this roster about a few years into your reign, your highness.” Replied Ebony, “Hmm…there seems to be some kind of notation mark here on the name, something about him being part of the 34th centurion of the Guard at the time. If you don’t mind me asking, Princess, why is this name so-“
“How and why I know of Bronze Shield’s name is of any importance is something that is a private crown matter for the moment, Ebony. The fact he’s part of the 34th doesn’t surprise me, but I don’t know why.”
“I do, the 34th is the only Royal Guard centuria in history that went AWOL as traitors, at least until your sister tried to overthrow you and the subsequent reorganization of the Guard to make all basic groups into regiments.”
Celestia would have snapped at Ebony for the unintentional insult to the younger princess had that been the only detail. But if the 34th was the only rebel regiment of that entire time frame, that meant…
“Who was in charge of the 34th?” asked Celestia, not even bothering to try to hide the worry in her voice.
Another archivist spoke up: “I do believe it was Coronet Sable Loam, your highness, I remember reading about some kind of obsession with wolves that made him so…unique.”
At that moment, all the archivists hid their shock at what could only be Celestia’s face growing visibly pale. Celestia herself couldn’t believe what this information meant.
Sable Loam took his entire centurion up to Sombra, so that means every member of that wolf-loving cult was turned into a werewolf, thought Celestia, the pieces finally falling into place. It’s certain that the majority of the werewolves got out of the Crystal Empire before Sombra made it vanish for a thousand years, so it’s reasonable to assume this Bronze Shield fellow made it back to Equestria proper. But if Luna’s story is true, that the first known case of a fading cutie mark was on a pony who was a werewolf, then…then what?
Celestia realized that she was getting worked up over nothing. It was all coincidence, the fact Twilight was asking something purely out of theoretical speculation that happened to be possibly related to werewolves. Additionally, Celestia realized where she'd heard the name Bronze Shield from; he'd been Sable's right hand pony, which only reinforced the connection as Bronze had been the first of the few werewolves who had sought her forgiveness after Luna's banishment. The big scare with Applejack having been theorized to be one by Big Mac probably didn’t help matters, either. But as long as Twilight wasn’t saying she knew a pony whose cutie mark was fading, then there was no real issue at hoof.
“Your majesty, are you alright?” asked a concerned Ebony Ink.
Celestia snapped back to reality, color returning to her white face “Huh? What? Oh, sorry. I thought something was terribly wrong, but it was just me making connections where there were none to be made. Thank you, all of you, I no longer require your assistance at this present time. However, I would like this specific roster to be kept at the ready should I need to view it again soon.”
“As you wish, Princess.”