//------------------------------// // The Wolf's Prisons // Story: Blood Moon // by Electric thunder //------------------------------// ALICE… The young girl was walking with ginger steps, taking her time as she walked further and further in to the limbo that surrounded her. The ground she walked across, that felt similar to smoothed stone, burned the soles of her feet from how cold it was. Besides what she could feel the details about the room she walked in eluded her. Eventually Alice came to stop and turned to see her progress, and to her dismay, it was not very far, she could still see the wolf creature in moderate detail standing still in the torch light. With another slow swallow, she turned around and continued her march, but it would not last. In just a few small strides Alice came to a stop when she drove her foot into an outcropping in the ground. She yelped in pain and bent down to grasp her now throbbing toes. As she did, there was a very sudden ‘fwooshing’ sound that came from in front of her, and immediately the darkness around her was thirsted back by flickering orange light and when she looked before herself she noticed a dark colored flight of stairs that led to a large throne with two iron braziers on both sides of it. The throne was a similar color to the stair way beneath it, for it sat elevated on a smaller set of stairs; the stone it was made from was dull, cracked, and scared from time. The braziers were old and rusted from years of poor treatment and usage. Alice did not spend anytime actually taking in the scenery, for the strange creature who occupied the throne had taken her attention. From what she could see, it was quadruped sitting on its hind legs looking down at her not with a face but what was easily compared to a wolfs skull. The creature was dressed in a long battered black robe and hood. The skull mask was unlike anything Alice had seen before. The color was tainted and the left eye socket did not concave, but was nearly a flat surface with a swirling symbol that looked burned into the bone, and the right eye was casted in shadow, but a red glowing eye of sorts took its place. “Well, look who finally came through” The voice it emitted was soft, but was followed with a deep echo, it was like she was speaking to a god. “I…am sorry to be so ominous with you, I just prefer the shadows” it told her. “Who or what are you?” Alice was standing once more, her stomach twisting as she looked up to the creature. “I do not know the answer to the ladder of the two, but as for my name, you may refer to me as Laminate if you wish” Laminate lowered his head slightly. “Enough about me, can you tell me about you?” “I…My name is Alice and…” She paused for a moment “That’s all I can remember” “Oh, what a shame…I sadly do not know a thing about you as well, besides the fact we had found you in the woods bleeding horribly from a massive bite wound in your shoulder” Laminate told her “The nameless one had found you out there, but it seems there is a another” “What do you mean, by another?” “Another one like you, male, young to…maybe you knew him?” Alice was silent for some time trying to think up anything, anything at all, but she came up blank “Maybe I did, I don’t know” “Well in due time my child the answers my come to you, but there are a few others I wish for you to meet, the nameless one will take you to them” As Alice tuned around she saw the wolf-man was now a mere four feet behind her still looking down at her with his slum look. “Farewell, Alice” Laminate nodded his head, stood, and walked behind the throne, and vanished. The wolf-man placed a claw on the girls shoulder and let her turn around before leading her from the throne room, and back to the safety of the stone halls. ---<=>--- JOEL… The 19-year-old sat stiff, pressed on the walls of his cell with his legs sprawled out, he drew with his finger in the sandy dust that covered the floor waiting…waiting for something to happen. When Joel woke this morning he had found that his sickness was cleaned and replaced with a tray of food, a bundle of clothes, and a small note. The food was a slab of cooked meat, bread, and a small jug of water, the clothes were thick, itchy and rubbed his skin raw in some places but fit and covered him better that what he had on before. The note on the other hand, was the more interesting item. It was no larger than the palm of his hand and written on it was simply put ‘Will come at sunset’ the thing was he had no way of telling time in his cell he could have missed it for all he knew. Joel guessed it would be the same interrogator from when he first awoke in this place and was not sure to be afraid of what it would do, or glad to actually talk to something. Joel spent most of the passing time pondering on what he would or could say when she returned, if she even does, and that scared him. Joel did not want to upset his captor, but could not piece together what had transpired after he attacked the four…ponies…even the word now made joel feel unsettled about everything, from the mauled cow, to the demon creature, to this point in time. The world was losing its meaning to him. That was all he could come up with, the cow, the wolf, the ponies, then now and that’s what he agreed to himself what he would tell her, the pony unicorn thing. Unable to find anything to add to his story Joel rolled onto the makeshift bed and rested for a while and dosed off into his isolation. ---<=>--- “Wake up” Joel woke suddenly to the demand. “The princess has come to talk with you” The voice beckoned Joel to roll over and look up to yet another pony, this one in polished gold and white plate armor with no other extra appendages. Joel stood and walked to the cell door and looked at the pony, who looked back at him with a fierce look in his eye. “Guard Blackwater, stand down” A very familiar voice echoed from farther on down the hall. The guard turned to his right, and bowed before pivoting to 180 degrees and marched off in a standard military manner. Joel took a few steps away from the barred door and sat down, and immediately after the princess came to view. “Pardon my sisters guard, they do not understand respect in thy enemy, but alas he is the warden of the prison you stay in now” The princess neither looked nor acted differently than before, just talked with a more light hearted tone. “…So, I deal with them with the threads of my patience” She chuckled. The pony’s good mood put Joel at ease, but the tension and fear in his blood still remained strong flowing through him slowly. “As of last night, you seemed in a poor condition and I should have let you rest longer than I did, so let us try again…” The princess smirked. “What is your name, what are you, and…what do you remember?” “…My name is Joel, Joel Merit …and I’m a young man from the United States” Joel stated rather confidently maybe with a little sense of pride mixed in as well. “Well, I am Princess Luna, I am an alicorn and ruler of Equestria alongside my dear sister Celestia” Luna told the bow with a light smile. “I’ll tell ya right now, ma’am, I never heard of anything like that before!” “Nor have I of the place you call home as well” Luna looked down the hall to her left and her social mood dispersed. “…But I did not come down here for idle chit-chat and small talk” The light from the torches casted an eerie shadow over the alicorns muzzle. The small recreation going on in Joel’s mind collapsed. “I need to know why you attacked one of our villages, endangered it townsfolk and nearly responsible for the death of countless lives?” The shadows casted by the pony seamed to lurk farther away from her and closer to him. “I-I-I…don’t really know…” Joel muttered. “Is that so?” She leaned closer to the cell door. “Then what do you know?” “Well…It…I-I..It…”Joel started to drown in his words. “I don’t exactly have an unlimited time to spare, so I would recommend trying now because apparently, my sister thinks I am to…lenient with you, and if you waste my time, My sister would be the one coming down here and…you would not want that” She looked down at the human, straight through is eyes. Joel closed his eyes and let out a quick inhale/exhale before daring to reopen them to look upon the princess. She made him feel weak, like an cornered, wounded animal would. “There was a demon, a…black, red eyed demon…” Joel quivered slightly. “…What did this demon do?” Luna pressed. “It killed one of my pa’s cattle, so we went to the woods think’in it was some wolf running around, so we went hunting that…that night…it killed him…killed me…” Joel put a hand over the shoulder where he was bitten. “I can assure you, you’re very much alive, or we would not be having this conversation” The alicorn spoke in quietly. “If I wasn’t dead, I would be home” Luna pulled herself back “I can understand you are not in the healthiest condition, mentally” Luna muttered. “What does that supposed to mean?!” Joel snapped. “You look a little bit tired” Luna left with that down the hall. Joel pushed himself of the floor and ran up to the cell door and watched the princess walk a little further down the hall and turn down another, and she never looked back. --<=>--- LUNA… As the heavy wood door to the dungeon slammed closed, Luna loosened her posture and took a deep breath. The young princess did not know what to make of the situation, nor hide or tail. Luna was a little remorseful for the being, but still knew little to nothing about it, she believed it told the truth, but the how and why was still out of reach. “Captain, I believe we should go and visit sister one last time before I return to my duties” She told the lunar stallions standing guard by the doorway. “If so, we must hurry before her majesty retires” “Even ye’ol sunbutt s’gotta sleep” The other commented, and the three chuckled. Luna did not mind her guard’s side comments out her sister or her guards, she knows very well they do the same and vice versa. Immediately after, they set down to traverse the twisting maze that is Canterlot Castle. As they walked Luna enjoyed looking the old paintings, statues, sculptures, chandeliers, even the stone that made up the old walls of her, their castle giving her a sense of pride and boosted ego, not even the griffins have anything so majestic and powerful. Later on, Luna found her sisters study which was marked with the Equestrian flag, and carved from the wood of a gold bark, glossed over in thin clear wax with gold hinges, rims, bolts and handles. It was similar to her own; the only major difference was that of the wood being from a withering willow. “Guards, your are dismissed, I do not know how long this may be” They both nodded, but only the younger left. “Captian?” “I am dismissed once you have reached your chambers my princess, no sooner, it’s what I signed up for and swore under oath as well” “Captian, I as your princess and oath giver, I dismiss you” “Yes, but it’s under a separate contract, that I signed” He smiled, just slightly. “Or you just like the view” Luna giggled and it would be funnier if it had any effect on her captain, but he was bound to another mare, and was deadly loyal to both. Luna knocked twice on the door and opened it slightly so she could look inside to see Celestia sipping on her tea looking into a small fire. “Tia?” Celestia looked to the door with a smile. “Ah, sister come in, I would imagine we have things to discuss” She set down her tea and poured another cup as Luna walked in and took a seat next to her sister. “So, how did your interrogation go, anything knew come up?” Celestia levitated her cup and took a quite sip. “Yes, but I distress not much came from…him, he said that his name was Joel Merit, and that his parents were attacked by a black wolf like creature, but his mental state is extremely fragile, in fear of causing major harm, I left him to rest” Luna explained to the tea cup that she rimmed with the tip of her hoof. “I understand, what to you make of what we know so far then?” “I believe him on that he did not understand nor remember what he did that night, but the memory is there, it’s the creature inside him that has it though” Luna pondered. “Or something does not want him to remember, there were three of them there…” “The female, Joel, and…the Val’var” Luna finished. “Correct, and obviously something brought them here, and has control over them” “What are you implying that…‘Joel’… has no control over himself?” “No, just what’s inside of him at least, he is a threat until then” “We don’t know yet, I was able to control the Nightmare…” “That was different…” “Was it? You were wrong then, you could be wrong now” “Luna…I guess it’s too late to make these assumptions, so until we have a full picture we will leave the theories behind” “I agree, but I must return to the hall, and you to bed dear sister” Luna took her last sip of tea and took her leave. “Oh and sister, tomorrow, I am going to speak with…Joel” Luna paused at the door and looked to her sister, who stared deeply into the fire pit, before making a dreading leave… End Prologue….