//------------------------------// // Chapter Seven - Be Grateful If You Want // Story: Neither Created Nor Destroyed // by Sage Runner //------------------------------// "Good morning, Collie!" Fluttershy said as she entered the clinic. "Hello, Fluttershy!" her canine mentor replied with a smile, as she gripped the leg of a sniffling pup who's broken shin she had just set. "What's on the agenda for today?" Fluttershy stopped at Collie's side and took a look at the leg herself. "Another slow day, thankfully," Collie said. She sighed deeply. "A few reckless pups with broken bones are queued in the emergency room, so I'm glad you're here." She began to construct the cast around the young boy's leg. "No major accidents, and no security breaches. You picked a good time to start working here." The young pup frowned at his leg. "This isn't major?!" "Don't you worry," Fluttershy cooed, patting the child gently on the head. "It only isn't major because Collie is such a good doctor, but you're still one tough puppy, staying so calm!" The kid blushed and looked off to the side, a small smile forming on his face. Collie chucked. "Well I don't know about best. On our busier days, there are far more doctors on call. Today it's just you, me, and Doctor Bernard. For that matter, you're such a fast learner, you just might surpass me. Ready to get started on the rest of our cases?" "I never enjoy setting bones." Fluttershy frowned, but gave an emphatic nod. "But somepony's got to do it, so let's get to it!" *** "Mornin', Miss Rarity," the foreman said as Rarity entered the small office building just outside the mine shaft designated "C3-405". "Good morning, Mister Russel!" Rarity smiled. She approached her desk and surveyed the map layed out across it, taking a sip of the coffee her boss had prepared for her. "I see that our boys are working in sub-tunnel fifteen today." "Yep, we found traces of a massive coal deposit down that way, so that's the immediate priority. Raylan and Boyd are leading a small team in there while the rest of our crew handles the other four active tunnels." The foreman leaned over Rarity's desk and pointing out the corresponding locations on the map. "Excellent!" Rarity levitated a hard hat onto her head and walked back toward the exit. "I'll be sure to mark the absolute best spots for them to dig!" The foreman gave her a thumbs-up. "You haven't let us down yet, Ma'am. Be careful!" "Always!" Rarity smiled before closing the door behind her. Russel returned to his own station, when a small device on the corner of his desk, from which a small antennae protruded and touched against a rock wall on the other side of an open window, began to emit a beeping sound. "Oh no..." The foreman dashed to a telegraph machine in the corner and began rhythmically clicking away. *** Rarity marveled at the mine carts the diamond dogs used to traverse their ever-lengthening mineshafts. No tracks were necessary, as the carts were each powered by some sort of battery (as were the small vehicles the citizens used to get around the city) and rolled on treads that allowed them to handle uneven terrain. The ride could get a bit bumpy at times, but she still arrived at sub-tunnel fifteen relatively quickly. "'Mornin', Miss Rarity!" one of the workers said as she caught up with them in the narrow passageway. "Hello, gentlemen," Rarity said. Hher horn flickered to life and she scanned the length of the long, dimly lit tunnel for minerals within the wall. She was proficient at what she did, so it didn't take her long to pinpoint the locations of all the surrounding veins. She marked them with adhesive strips of varying colors. The gold strips always denoted whatever mineral they had prioritized each day, so she used that color to mark the coal deposits. *** "Doctor Terrier?" Collie said, turning away from another patient as the doctor entered the building. "You weren't scheduled to come in today." "Emergency," Doctor Terrier said. Fluttershy turned away from a patient with a broken arm to look at him. "The rest of the staff will be here shortly. We just received word that vibrations and sound patterns matching those of tunneling lycanthropes registered in the vicinity of C-three-four-oh-five." Fluttershy gasped. "That's where Rarity is! Are you saying those monsters can dig through rock?!" Terrier nodded. "'I'm afraid so. They've got the claws and the upper body strength for it. That's why we monitor the sound vibrations in the mines, because there's always a risk of them coming in if they think they'll find prey." "How can we help?" Fluttershy asked. "Wolf class fighters have already been dispatched to the area," Terrier said. "If the lycanthropes penetrate the mineshaft, the Wolves will handle them. In the meantime, we need to organize ourselves and prepare to treat any wounded that come in. There are always at least a few." Fluttershy frowned. "So I'm just supposed to wait here and hope for the best? My friend is out there!" "I know you're new here." Terrier raised his paw. "But trust me, staying here is the best thing we can do. We'll be most effective here, as opposed to going there and putting ourselves in harm's way. That just creates more work for the Wolves, and we can't help anyone at all if we get ourselves killed." "I'm sorry, I truly am." Fluttershy shook her head. "But I have to go and find Rarity, and help out anyone who gets hurt over there." She fastened a pouch around her waist and tucked a large first aid kit into it before running for the door. "Miss Fluttershy!" Terrier tried to grab her. Fluttershy flew over him and took off in the direction of the mine as the city-wide alarms that warned of attack began to sound. Collie grabbed a kit of her own. "I'm going with her!" "Doctor!" he said. "We need them alive!" she shouted. She ran out the door before Doctor Terrier could protest any further. *** "Does that alarm mean what I think it does?" Rarity said. She was wide-eyed as the sound reverberated through the tunnel. "Yeah, we need to get going, now!" a miner said. Rarity and the dogs turned and ran back toward the exit. As they neared the opening into the larger mineshaft, Rarity could hear the faint sounds of snarling and scraping behind them. "Move!" the miner shouted. "Run towards the mineshaft as fast as you can and do not look back!" Rarity nodded as they turned the corner into the large hallway and began to run for the city. The snarls and scrapes multiplied, and Rarity surmised that they must have been coming from multiple tunnels. In spite of the warning she had just received, Rarity looked over her shoulder and saw countless lumbering, shadowy figures closing in on them. One lunged forward, pouncing on a nearby miner and pinning him to the ground. Two more went down. Rarity was about to turn around to face them when a symphony of barks came at them from the other direction. A pair of miners cheered. "The Wolves!" Rarity saw the approaching diamond dogs. All of them were rather large and imposing. They were clad in a more refined version of the armor that the diamond dogs in Ponyville had worn. They charged in on all fours, leaping over the helpless miners, swords clamped between their bared teeth. As the Wolves closed in on the lycanthropes, they stood on their hind legs and grasped their swords, engaging the monsters in battle. Rarity heard the foreman call out her name. She turned to see him motioning for her to run when she was suddenly thrown to the ground and pinned. That was when she got her first good look at the monsters that the diamond dogs feared. The beast was massive, twice the size of the Wolf class warriors, with jet black fur caked in filth, jagged yellow teeth, glazed eyes, and the foul stench of decay. It sniffed at her before it spoke. "Not dog!" It hissed in a guttural growl. "Smells tasty, though!" It raised its claw above its head for the killing strike. Rarity wanted to scream, but the creature's other paw was clasped around her throat. Suddenly, a blurred figure appeared above her, ramming into the werewolf's gut and sending it stumbling backward. Rarity gasped for air. "Greyjaw!" She shouted as she beheld her rescuer, who wore the same faded brown vest he had worn on the day they met. "Greyjaw the Marked!" The lycanthrope snarled, regained its balance and charged at its challenger. Greyjaw snarled as well. It swung its massive arm down at the dog, who simply ducked, grabbed the arm with his two paws, and flipped over the beast's head, planting his feet firmly on its shoulders and jabbing the side of its neck with his claws. The lycanthrope fell, and it's body evaporated until there was nothing left. Rarity shouted. "Look out!" Two more werewolves closed in. Greyjaw dove to the ground, sliding between one of the monsters' legs. Standing up behind it, he struck its back, hitting a kidney. The monster yelped as its comrade turned to help. The beast slashed at him, and Greyjaw sidestepped. The lycanthrope he had just attacked, however, turned and lashed out as well. This time, the attack connected, and it was Greyjaw's turn to yelp. He leapt back, giving himself roughly a yard of space, and began to growl. "Rarity, is that you?" Fluttershy landed at her friend's side. "Fluttershy, you shouldn't be here!" Rarity struggled to sit up as Fluttershy tended to her wounds. "He hurt!" one of the monsters said. They laughed as Greyjaw grasped his arm. "He finally get eaten!" "You talk too much." Greyjaw removed his vest and tied it around his wounded arm before positioning himself on all fours. The werewolves ran at him again, but this time Greyjaw leapt into the air, kicking the adjacent wall, before planting his feet on the ceiling. As the lycanthropes moved beneath him, he dove down at them, striking both of their necks, felling them just as he had the first. Once again, the bodies evaporated. As more Wolf class warriors arrived, the werewolves retreated, two of them dragging screaming miners with them. "Follow them!" one of the soldiers barked. "Do not let them escape with those hostages!" A fraction of the soldiers complied and took off after them. "The rest of you, begin transporting the wounded to the infirmary. Civilians first, then our comrades!" "I see a few bruises, but other than that, you're fine." Fluttershy sighed with relief as she finished examining Rarity. "Thank goodness." "I think our friend, there, needs your help more than I do." Rarity gestured toward Greyjaw, who was now slumped against the wall and rubbing his vested injury. Fluttershy nodded and trotted over to him. "Let me take a look at your arm, please." Greyjaw averted his gaze. "I'm fine." "Show. Me. Your injury." Fluttershy shot Greyjaw her infamous stare. The dog recoiled at this, his eyes wide. He regained his composure and looked away again. "Whatever." He held his arm out for her. She carefully untied the vest and examined the wound. "Oh dear," she said softly, opening her first aid kit. Greyjaw bared his teeth and hissed as she disinfected the area, but made no other sound as she bandaged it. "There, just change those bandages once every few hours and you'll be good as new!" She smiled up at him. He returned her smile with a scowl. "Next time, stay at the hospital like you're supposed to." He stood up and walked away, draping the bloody vest over his shoulder. "Hold on a moment," Rarity said, returning to her feet and approaching Greyjaw. "Fluttershy just treated your injuries, and while I am grateful that you saved my life, I simply cannot allow you to leave without thanking her!" "Did I save you?" Greyjaw tilted his head. "My job is to fight werewolves, so I picked the one closest to me. Didn't do anything for you. Be grateful if you want, but keep it to yourself." He kept walking, passing by Collie. Neither made eye-contact with the other. "Collie!" Fluttershy smiled. "Did you follow me here?" Her friend nodded. "I wanted to make sure you were safe." "I appreciate the thought." Fluttershy said. "I don't understand," Rarity said. Her eyes were fixated on Greyjaw. "Why would he accept such a dangerous job if he didn't care about saving lives?" "Greyjaw's motives are very different from most others who take up the Mantle of the Wolf," Collie replied, giving Rarity a once-over. "But now's not the time to talk about that." Rarity lowered her head. "Well then, I won't pry." "The important thing is that you're safe." Fluttershy nuzzled her friend. "Absolutely!" Collie nodded vigorously and clasped her hands together. "Come on, Fluttershy. They're going to need us at the hospital." "Right behind you!" The three of them departed. "Do these types of attacks happen often?" Rarity asked. "Yes." Collie nodded slowly. "But they aren't usually this mild. We were lucky this time." Rarity gulped as the word "mild" sank in. *** Later that night, Collie joined Rarity and Fluttershy at their apartment for tea. "Thanks again for all of your help today, Fluttershy," she said. "Of course," Fluttershy said, giving her friend a smile. "I'm just glad no one was seriously injured." "Always a plus," Rarity said, joining them at the table and distributing the tea cups. "I'm just fortunate that I have the opportunity to enjoy this tea with you both, thanks to Greyjaw." Collie took a sip. "It's good that you don't take his attitude personally." Rarity sighed. "Well, it is rather off-putting, but I'm sure he isn't the way he is for no reason." "Plus, he's not as mean as he seems." Fluttershy leaned forward. "When I was treating his wound, his eyes thanked me, even if his mouth didn't." "Really?" Collie raised her brow. "You've seen a side of him that nobody else has, then." Fluttershy raised the cup to her lips. "Hmm?" "I'm sure you noticed that he's the only member of our security force that refuses to wear armor. Says it slows him down," Collie took a sip. Rarity shrugged. "Seeing the way he fought, I could understand that." "Right." Collie nodded. "But as a result, he suffers more injuries than his comrades. My point is that he's found himself in our care more times than I can remember, but no matter how severe his injuries are, no matter how close of a call he has, he's never once expressed any form of gratitude after he's been saved." "Why do you think that is?" Fluttershy asked. "Indeed," Rarity said, "I find myself repeating my earlier question: why would he take a job like this if he doesn't care about others." Collie sighed. Placing her elbows on the table, she leaned in. "Well, since it's just the three of us, I'll tell you a little bit about him, so long as you promise not to spread it around." Fluttershy nodded. "We promise!" "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!" Rarity said as Fluttershy giggled. "What does that mean?" Collie tilted her head. "Inside joke," Rarity replied quickly, gesturing with her hoof for Collie to proceed. "Please continue." "Well," Collie began, "the hospital staff is aware of most of this, some of the information being readily available in Greyjaw's medical records. I have a more... first-hand experience with it. I went to the same school as Greyjaw when we were kids." "When what happened?" Fluttershy asked, her ears twitching. "As a child, Greyjaw was a promising athlete. He was a fast, strong, and energetic puppy. He knew it, too. He was really cocky, and totally full of himself." Collie smiled and shook her head. "And every once in a while, he'd turn into a bit of a bully. The people around him always overlooked that because of his talents." Rarity frowned. "He doesn't sound all that different from the way he is now." "He was a child," Collie explained. "And he was capable of being nice." "A fair point," Rarity said, "although your argument suffers from the fact that Greyjaw doesn't seem to have changed." "He had a lot of friends. Well..." Collie paused for a moment. "He had a lot of dogs in his life who acted like they were his friends. They used to play baseball after school, in a small clearing on the outskirts of the Capital City. Us girls used to go watch them play. It was during one of those games that I witnessed my first werewolf attack." "Good heavens!" Rarity said, straightening in her chair. "Was anypony hurt?" Fluttershy asked, covering her mouth with her hooves. "We saw them coming out of the walls above us and warned the players. Everyone cleared out fast. We still had our early warning systems back then, so the Wolves were at the scene fairly quickly. Greyjaw always insisted on playing the outfield." Collie shook her head. "And as quick as he was, he still got pinned. The werewolves all converged on him. The rest of us watched, we were too scared to do anything else, and the Wolves hadn't quite gotten there yet." She shuddered. "I thought for sure the lycanthropes were going to run off with him, because they do take dogs alive sometimes, but Greyjaw kicked one of them square in the eye. The monster just laughed at him. I can still hear its dreadful voice. 'This one is small,' it said, leering down at him, 'we let you live, grey jaw, enjoy every meal like it your last, get big and fat, and we come back for you'. They marked him with their scent and took off." "They knew his name?" Fluttershy cocked her brow. "No," Collie replied. "No one had ever called him 'Greyjaw' before they did. He took it as his name after that incident." "So as a child, Greyjaw lived in fear of the lycanthropes and their promise to return?" Rarity asked, taking another sip of tea. "It was worse than that." Collie shook her head. "The other kids, even many of the adults, began to avoid him because he was 'marked'. His own parents began to neglect him, keeping him at a distance. Everyone was afraid of the monsters that haunted his steps." "That's... horrible," Rarity said, staring down at her mug. Fluttershy frowned. "I can't even imagine how frightened he must have been." "All of the friends, all of the love Greyjaw had become accustomed to, it all went away in the blink of an eye, replaced by the knowledge that he was living on borrowed time," Collie said. "But his will was strong, and the injustice thrust upon him made it stronger. He resented all of us, to be sure, for our failure to be there for him. But more than anything, he hated the lycanthropes for imposing this isolation on him. He hated them for making him a victim." "What happened next?" Rarity asked. "I can only guess what was going through his head." Collie ran a paw through her hair. "But I think he just wanted to take back the control over his own life that he felt he had lost. He began picking fights with other kids, constantly. At first I thought he was just lashing out, everyone did. As time went on, I came to realize the truth: he was learning." "He was gaining fighting experience from each opponent, and all the while he was working to strengthen his body. When he wasn't fighting or exercising, he was reading." Collie took another sip. "Our own literature, books that were imported from other countries, anything he could get his hands on. Books on strategy, anatomy, weaponry, and martial arts. In his teenage years, he was fighting larger dogs, and he beat every single one. Eventually, his skills surpassed everyone, including many in the Wolf class soldiers who had sought him out because of his reputation." "And did the werewolves that marked him ever come back?" Fluttershy asked. "They did." Collie gave a small nod as her eye contact shifted between Fluttershy and Rarity. "They identified themselves the moment they appeared before him. They had actually taken advantage of a much larger attack in a different part of the city to slip in under the radar." "What did Greyjaw do?" Rarity was staring at Collie in rapt attention. "He took them down, one by one." A small smile to crept onto her face. "As he laid out the final one, before finishing it off, it actually begged him for mercy. Greyjaw just laughed at the thing." "I see." Rarity shuddered. "Doesn't seem like vengeance appeased him, though." "It wasn't about revenge," Collie shook her head. "At least, I don't think it was. Instead of resigning himself to his fate, he chose to fight. And for the time being, he's winning." "The time being?" Fluttershy said. "His mark will be with him for the rest of his life," Collie explained. "The lycanthropes that have attacked us in the days since that time have identified Greyjaw when they see him." "They all seem to know who he is, or at least that one of their brethren deemed him a high-priority target. I don't think a day will ever come when he's truly safe, unless we find a way to escape the lycanthropes once and for all." She looked back and forth between Rarity and Fluttershy again. "I see." Rarity sighed. She stared down at her reflection in what remained of her tea. "And escape is the only option, I take it." "A victory seems impossible," Collie replied. "You saw it yourself, the way their bodies turn to nothingness when they're killed? They're constructs. They have all the properties of an organic life form until they're killed, at which point, who knows? We don't even really know what they are, or where they come from." "I suppose that would make it quite the uphill battle," Rarity replied. "I hope we've given Mahugpin the leverage he needs to receive aid from our princess." Collie placed a paw on Rarity's shoulder. "I'm glad you understand." Fluttershy nodded. "I can't very well ignore the things I saw today," Rarity replied. "Don't get me wrong, I want to go home, I want to see my little sister..." She inhaled sharply. "I want to see my parents, and my friends again... but I want to help your people as well." "And Mahugpin will see to it that you accomplish all of those things," Collie replied. "It's getting late, and we all need to be up bright and early tomorrow. Thank you both for the tea, and goodnight!" Rarity and Fluttershy saw her to the door, then retired to their bedrooms for an uneasy sleep.