An American Werewolf in Equestria
Chapter 13 – Darkness
(Crystal Empire – Train Station)
The train stopped and all of the riders slowly exited. Jack watched as a few of the folks from other cars walked out, and right off of the bat he noticed a rough looking Griffin. It wore a patch over one eye, one of its front legs had long since been crippled. It looked around with its one good eye and made its way off of the platform. Jack watched the creature for a few moments before he felt his tail being pulled.
“What?” he asked.
Applejack looked at him and raised an eyebrow.
“We’re heading to the castle, and ah figured that ya would want to join us,” she said.
He nodded and followed her. As they walked he couldn’t help but let his eyes wonder to her flank. She was the reason he had a job, and now was engaged to be married. There had been a whole hell of a lot happened since chasing after Debbie Kline. He thought of the girl he had chased after and chalked one up to David. His friend was right. There wasn’t much substance to Debbie. She was pretty, but so vain and two dimensional.
“What in tarnation was that?!” Applejack called out.
Jack looked up to see a stallion running for all he was worth. Right behind him was a Mare. She had a crazed look in her eye and without a second thought she jumped the stallion knocking him to the ground. They rolled for a moment before coming to a stop. David got ready to help separate the two, but instead of fighting the mare simply nuzzled into the stallion’s chest.
“Okay, what did I miss?” Jack asked.
“Ah don’t know… Ah mean I’ve never seen any mare act like that. Not even when we’re in heat,” Applejack replied.
The stallion wasn’t panicked, but rather he looked a little annoyed. He pet the mare’s mane and rolled his eyes. They walked past them to see this happening a few more times. Sometimes it was a mare, sometimes it was a stallion that was doing the chasing. The group moved past the strange public displays and soon found themselves in the castle.
“Candace, this was the only way I could think of to protect…” Shining started to say before Candace turned and glared at him.
“Shining, I love you, I love you deeply, and without question, but you have done something that has the potential of causing a bigger threat than we already face. Didn’t you stop to think about what you are doing? These ponies are going to be suffering because of your decision. Their loves will suffer because of what you have done,” she said before her voice softened and she touched his muzzle, “I don’t want to see any of them suffer because of this.”
“Suffer because of what?” Jack asked.
The others looked at him as he trotted up toward them. Shining watched as this unknown stallion neared them. Everything about this stallion seemed natural and off at the same time. Shining studied his off yellow coat, unkempt brown mane, and green vest seemed normal enough, but there was the way he was carrying himself. It wasn’t military, or royalty, but instead there seemed to be a sense of equality.
“That is a question that has no baring for or against you,” Shining said.
“Really? Does it have to deal with my friend David? Because if it does I can give you all kinds of insight into what’s going on,” Jack stated.
Shining stared at him, but Candace gently smiled and motioned for all of them to come forward.
“Who are you?” she asked.
“Jack Goodman, or that was my name before Celestia,” he stopped when he felt an elbow in his ribs from Applejack, “Princess Celestia allowed me to live again. I’m David’s friend, the one that was mauled and killed by the werewolf,” he answered.
Shining walked down to him and circled around him.
“What do you know about the werebeasts?” he asked.
“Werebeasts, not much, werewolves, I know a great deal, and from what I saw outside it reminded me of them quite a bit,” he said.
“Shining believed that infecting some of our guards would allow us to protect…”Candace began before Jack’s eyes widened.
“WHAT?!!! Are you out of your fucking mind?!” Jack exclaimed.
Shining glared at him. Before the bigger stallion could say a word Jack was pacing back and forth.
“Tell me David didn’t want to go through with this. Tell me that you forced him to do it!” he shouted.
“He didn’t want to at first, but after receiving a vision from King Sombra he decided that this may be the only way to protect everyone,” Shining said.
“This is bad, no, this is worse than bad… Do you really have any idea of what you’ve done? There is no cure for werewolfism. Well, none except for eating the heart of the werewolf that turned you. This is a huge fuckup. It’s a fuckup of epic proportions… Do you even know what’s going to happen to anyone they kill?” Jack asked.
“Jack, ya need to calm down,” Applejack said.
“AJ, I… I can’t. I can’t calm down because I know what happens on the other side of the fence. I know what it’s like not be able to interact with anyone except for the other undead, or the werewolf that killed you, and it gets worse,” he replied.
She looked at him and then at Shining Armor.
“We had no choice. Sombra is planning on invading, and to be honest the crystal heart won’t have any effect on the forces he is going to be using. He’s going to be using werebeasts. He made the first attack,” Shining said.
“Every war starts that way. Someone else punches someone and then it erupts into a fight. One guy draws a knife and then the other guy brings out a bigger knife,” Jack said.
“What would you have us do? Would you have me sacrifice the lives of all of the ponies I am sworn to protect? Would you have me sacrifice the mare standing next to you, or any of the others that came with you?” Shining asked.
“Did you even ask what kind of weapons David could have helped you make? We went to college, we had to study chemistry, and we both know how to make gunpowder,” Jack replied.
“Gun what?” Shining asked.
“It’s an explosive powder that ignites quickly. When it’s dumped together in a pile or contained inside of a sack it explodes. If you put shards of pottery, glass, crystals, or anything else in the sack with it they act like projectiles,” Jack replied.
Shining looked at him in surprise.
“He’s not even thinking right is he?” Jack asked, “David! David get out here! Damn it man I need to see you!”
A few minutes later David walked out toward them. Twilight was near him. She noticed her friends and ran toward them. David looked at Jack who shook his head.
“It’s that season for you isn’t it?” Jack asked.
David studied him, and finally he nodded.
“Shit… This is going to go really well,” Jack said as he rolled his eyes.
“Please, calm down and let us go and talk about this,” Candace said as she stood up.
Jack watched her, felt several eyes on him and looked at the group behind him. He could see someone whispering something to Twilight who’s face began to lose its smile and instead she shook her head.
“None of you can really be all right with this right?” Jack asked.
“Jack, it’s just we ain’t really used to someone speaking out against somepony who is in the royal guard,” Applejack said.
“Look, AJ is trying to be nice about it, but what the buck is your problem?!” Rainbow Dash asked.
“None of you realize what’s going to happen do you? The werewolves are going to have children. Those children are going to carry the curse. This is going to spread all over Equestria. I won’t be fifteen or twenty werewolves in a few dozen years. It’s going to be hundreds or thousands, and it will never stop. Most of them won’t be able to help themselves, and you can only imagine what’s going to happen,” he said.
“Maybe, maybe it won’t be so bad,” Fluttershy said.
“Maybe it won’t, but I wouldn’t bet on it,” Jack said as he turned.
Applejack noticed how he carried himself. He looked tired. He looked as if he had been out in a strange field all day doing the work of a dozen stallions, and then was told that he wouldn’t be paid for it. She walked near him and gently nuzzled his neck.
“It’ll be alright Jack,” she said.
“I hope so. I really do,” he replied.