An American Werewolf in Equestria
Chapter 17 – Love, Honor, and Loyalty
(Crystal Empire – battle ground)
In less than an hour much of the northern side of the Crystal Empire had fell into a massive battle. The numbers Sombra had in his army was far more than the reports the scouts had brought back. What had fell on the Empire was nothing short of a massive army composed of hundreds of soldiers. Their core seemed to be the were-timberwolves and changelings. Still, the guards that had been infected were out there, fighting the horde, keeping them back.
“Comeon Fillies! Do you want to live forever?!” Gild shouted as he faced off against two weres.
One of the weres seemed to be lifted up into the air, and then slammed hard into a building. He turned to see several guards, and Princess Luna.
“We promised thou that we would not let thou or thy people fight alone again,” she said.
“My Princess, it is an honor,” he said before releasing a battle cry and heading into the fight.
Not far from them Celestia was helping fend off attackers from attempting to spread into the western and southern sides of the empire. Near her some of the Crystal Empire guards were attempting to help, and for the most part they were doing an admirable job. Shining Armor looked down at the changelings he was facing. They had each took new forms, but it was no longer ponies he knew, but instead they had taken on forms of large monsters. One of them swiped at him and he responded with a blast of magic knocking far back away from him. Still, at the back of the group King Sombra was laughing.
“Tear them down! Destroy their spirit, and then crush them!” he shouted.
The battle began to swell, the smell of blood, gore, and death began to build around, and for both Luna and Celestia this was a reminder of the wars that erupted across ancient Equestria. The sound of cries of pain echoed through the battle. Shining Armor began to see his guards and army taking massive hits and being forced back.
“Special guards Wolf bane!” he shouted.
Without question around twenty guards dug something out of their armor and ate it. Those same guards began screaming in pain, but the pain soon finished flooding over them. Once their cries of pain had finished the twenty multicolored demonic looking wolves growled at the oncoming army. They charged the oncoming army, taking down the Minotaurs first. The giant beasts fell before the wolves, and soon the other weres found themselves facing the ferocious wolves.
Like the special guard the Were-Timberwolves began transforming. Each normal wolf seemed to be outnumbered four to one. The groups ran forward, but an explosion erupted in front of the Were-Timberwolves. They stopped and on top of a building, armed with a modified Party Cannon, was Jack.
“Like I said, Gunpowder!” he yelled as he fired again.
Another cannon erupted and he looked toward Applejack and Pinkie Pie who was firing Pinkie’s spare party cannon. Instead of being filled with confetti and glitter the cannons were instead filled with crystal shards. The shards tore into the Were-Timberwolves. It didn’t kill them, but it slowed them down, causing the battlefield to be evened.
David hadn’t turned yet, but instead was helping make sure the eastern side was safe with Twilight beside him. He looked to see a were jumping for her. He slammed into its side knocking it back. She turned in time to see him grappling with the creature. His hand found its jaw and pulled hard.
“You aren’t going to hurt my wife!” he yelled.
A snapping sound erupted from the creature and its jaw hung limply. He had broken it causing the creature to retreat. He stood, reached into his pocket and felt the wolf’s bane. It was his only real choice at this moment. He took it out, bit into it and felt the transformation happening. He was going to protect her, protect everyone, and make sure that this never happened again. Within seconds he was completely transformed, but he wasn’t chasing the weres. Instead he was standing in front of Twilight, keeping the oncoming danger away as best he could.
Away from him, things were evening some, but it appeared that Sombra had grown tired of staying out of the fight. His horn began to glow a brilliant red and a powerful bit of magic shot toward Jack. Jack ducked as the magic neared him. It exploded over him dropping dozens of huge dark crystals around him. He jumped off of the roof and landed near Gild with the Party Cannon. It went off again blasting two changelings that had tried to sneak up on the griffin.
“It seems you’ve finally made your way back up to being a Jack,” Gild said.
“Great, so let’s show them what happens when you try to step on a jack,” he replied.
Gild nodded and helped him set the Party Cannon up on its wheels again. They loaded it and fired again. “Remove thyself from our presence!” Luna said in her royal Canterlot voice.
Gild turned to see Queen Chrysalis attempting to battle Princess Luna. He rushed toward the changeling queen and jumped onto her back. She bucked wildly, trying to dislodge him as he dug his claws into her back.
“You do not try to touch the matriarch of Marehoof you bucking bug!” Gild yelled.
Chrysalis slammed her back against a wall causing the Griffin to lose his grip. She turned around before he could regain his composure and rammed her horn into his chest.
“How dare you place your filthy misshapen claws upon my royal body! You are a filthy, disgusting, horrid little creature the world shall never miss, and it shall rejoice that you have fallen!” she yelled.
Before she could continue her monologue a powerful blast of magic rammed into her. She went tumbling into the line of fire of one of the cannons. Luna caught Gild as he fell. His old withered face looked up toward her.
“It has been a pleasure, and an honor, to serve the princess of the night,” he said in several gasps.
“Thou shalt be made a royal guard Gild Ironclaw. Thou shalt be given a place of honor among our royal guards and kept at the Canterlot Castle. There shalt be nothing thy need that shalt not be given to thou,” she whispered.
“That would have been a great honor…”he replied in a strained whisper before his head fell forward.
Luna pulled him forward into a hug. She held him for several seconds before lowering him to the ground. Her eyes filled with righteous rage as she looked toward Sombra.
“Foul Fiend! We shalt deliver thyself unto the netherworld!” she yelled.
He laughed and formed another blast of magic. A blast from a cannon caused his spell to deflate and he growled at the two ponies firing from the rooftop still. He looked toward them in time to get a kick to the face from a cyan Pegasus.
Dash had thought that the kick would have felt like kicking something solid, but instead her leg went through his head. She flew through him and landed on the ground. He reformed into the semisolid form he was then looked at her in anger.
“So, the little mare wants to play hero?” he asked.
Several tendrils came off of him. They shot toward her and wrapped around her legs lifting her into the air before him. He stepped toward her and forced her to look at him.
“I am going keep you alive through this wench. I want you to watch the fall of your princesses, the fall of this pathetic army, and the fall of your friends. I want you to watch it all, and then you will become my personal toy. When I have finally finished with you, and you’ve begged me for death a thousand times over, I will graciously give it to you,” he spat at her.
She felt her wings being spread out against her will. She tried to pull them back in only to feel a sharp pain near her tail. She screamed as the pain intensified a thousand times.
“There is a massive nerve center on the descendant of those Pegasi spawned from Fevered Speech’s desire to breed out the Earth Pony race. It’s been said that the amount of pain it causes is so great the one baring it begs to be killed. Tell me, is that what you want?” he asked.
“Buck you!” she yelled.
He slammed her hard onto the ground. She felt her teeth rattle as she hit. He flipped her over on her belly and she felt a massive hoof stepping between her hips.
“Scream for me,” he said before he pressed down.
Before she could get a word out there was a massive crack. Dash screamed as she felt her hips separate. He lifted her back up and slammed her into his throne. Chains wrapped around her tying her to the spot.
“As I promised, you will remain alive through this,” he said.
She felt herself slipping into the darkness.
Sombra moved forward into the fight. Although it appeared that he was immune to the fighting going on the truth was far from it. His body was taking a massive amount of damage from the strain of staying semisolid. It was causing him to focus his magic into a single point, and such concentration was hard to accomplish even in the best of climates. He neared David and Twilight. Before the now bleeding, but still standing werewolf, and its chosen mate, the self-proclaimed king of the Crystal Empire began to laugh.
“I offered you a place at my right side David. A place reserved for you, but you refused me. Do you remember what I told you before? If you will not join me I will end your harlot’s life,” Sombra said. A large knife floated from the ground. David growled at the unicorn as he hurled the knife toward Twilight.
Twilight formed a barrier around herself, but she didn’t even feel the knife hit that. Instead she heard a pain filled yelp. She dropped the barrier to see David with the knife sticking out between his ribs. Her eyes widened in fear as she looked at him. Rushing toward him and caught him as he fell on his side.
“This is your one chance David! Join with me and I will save you!” Sombra yelled.
Twilight felt David’s labored breathing. His head turned toward her and she saw not the wolf’s eyes, but David’s. They were soft, caring, and understanding. She hugged him tightly before she looked at Sombra.
Her eyes glowed a brilliant white, and the same brilliant white spread over her body. A massive amount of energy shot out toward Sombra and struck him. Once it was gone he was still standing there, but his body was no longer composed of smoke. He was instead whole. He laughed, readied himself to fire an attack back at her, but nothing happened. He tried again only for it to fail again. He touched his head only to realize that his horn was gone. He was nothing more than a plain Earth Pony.
“You worthless harlot! I shall split you open and make you view your insides!” he shouted.
Behind him the sounds of the battle began to slow. He turned to see his army, the army he had been so sure of, losing to the group. Twilight held David as he whimpered, but Sombra grabbed a dropped sword and lifted it. The sound of someone approaching from behind him gained his attention and he turned swiping the sword into Shining Armor. The Captain of the Guard tripped over himself as the sword bit into him, wounding him. David turned toward the fallen unicorn and could smell the blood. He pulled himself to Shining and before Shining could say a word he bit him on his leg. It wasn’t a hard bite, not something that was meant to do a lot of damage, but instead something that was meant to help him.
Shining looked toward him, and then fell back. Sombra prepared to take his vengeance out on them when a magical force grabbed him, slammed him hard into the ground, and then slammed him into the wall. He groaned as the force revealed itself. Luna looked into the ancient tyrant’s eyes and glared at him.
“Thou hast hurt our subjects, thou hast defiled the law of this land, and thou shalt pay. As much as we wish to be the ones to choose how thou shalt pay it is not our place. Twilight, thou hast more right than us,” Luna said.
“The dungeons, cast him into those and let him rot,” she seethed as she held David. He had grown quiet, his form transformed from that of a wolf into a man.
Luna could see his breathing being very shallow.
“Don’t leave me,” Twilight said.
“I don’t want to… I want to be here for you… for them…” he whispered.
She felt his body go limp and she wept into his shoulder.
(Crystal Empire – Infirmary – two weeks later)
Candace sat next to a recovering Shining Armor. Various cuts and bruises adorned him, but it was the bite mark, a final gift from David, that worried her. She touched his head and felt a fever which was slowly disappearing. His wounds were healing faster than they should, but what bothered her was knowing the price he, Twilight, David, and all of the weres paid for the safety of the Empire.
“I love you,” she said softly as she kissed her husband.
She felt him stir and finally his eyes opened. He looked toward her and then moved his hoof toward her own.
“I love you too,” he said in a whisper.
“Shining… Shining,” she said as she hugged him.
Outside the empire was repairing itself. The discovery that the Were-Timberwolves were only fighting along with Sombra because they had been promised a place to live in peace had caused Princess Celestia pause. She herself had once thought that the beasts in these ponies were unholy, but instead they simply wanted what any normal pony wanted. They wanted to live a life of peace with their special somepony and raise their foals.
She took this chance to work with the pack leaders of the Were-Timberwolves and helped them realize that they could do that very thing among other ponies. They would not be judged, and they would in fact get to live in peace. In exchange for that they agreed to be help defend Equestria from tyrants such as Sombra.
The Werewolves returned to their guard duty, but not all of them were fully capable of dealing directly with citizens. It seemed that being so new to the experience of being a were, unlike the Were-Timberwolves, or being an omnivore like David, they weren’t prepared for the effects of having a predator instinct inside of themselves. Instead these guards were given posts, with their special somepony, if that special somepony chose to do so, outside of the Empire. They were assigned to ensure all travelers were met and kept safe traveling into and out of the Empire.
Inside Shining Armor listed as Candace told him what Celestia had done. He listened as she explained what had happened, and then he finally looked at her.
“What about Twily?” he asked.