//------------------------------// // Jägerin // Story: The Weeping of the World // by 2006midnight //------------------------------// Twilight Sparkle opened her eyes and looked at what was surrounding her. She appeared to be in some sort of hospital, although she did not know how she had gotten there. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in her castle back in Ponyville. And she most certainly wasn’t in Ponyville anymore; this hospital room, if that was even what it was, appeared to be much more lavishly furnished than any room in the Ponyville Hospital. A young mare lay on the bed that was in the room, teetering on the brink of death. Standing beside her, pity shining in their eyes were her parents. As their daughter’s eyelids fluttered weakly, her mother said, “How much longer do you think she has?” The unicorn stallion beside her sighed, “Probably not much more than an hour.” A choking sob escaped the elder mare. “Why did this have to happen to our daughter? How could the world be so cruel?” Before the father could respond, their daughter spoke softly, “Mom, Dad, please don’t cry.” “But sweetheart, you’re…” her mother’s voice broke at the end. “Could you maybe, take me outside? Please?” She was hesitant, yet firm in her request. It was her father who answered, “I don’t think that would be wise. You need these machines to keep you alive…” She snorted, “And what is that kind of life even worth? I don’t want to die, lying here in this bed and staring at these same four walls. I’m not asking for much; all I want is to see the moon one last time.” Both of her parents were silent, unsure of what they should do. Not yet ready to give up on her wish, the young mare added one last, desperate plea. “Please. If you really love me, then you’ll at least let me die happily, won’t you?” Unable to continue resisting her only daughter, the mother said tentatively, “Couldn’t we do this for her? The bed and the machinery both have wheels. We aren’t far from the back entrance, and it wouldn’t take too much time.” With a heavy sigh, the stallion replied, “As much as I’m afraid of the risk involved, I think we have to do this. For her.” The mother nodded in resigned agreement, and each went to grab either the bed or the machinery. As her father began to wheel her bed towards the door, the young mare raised her head, smiled, and said, “Thank you.” Her father smiled back as he gently pushed the bed out of the room and down the hallway. Twilight followed them, pondering what she had heard in silent astonishment. These two ponies seemed to be quite stupid if they were willing to give in to such a request so easily. At least it none of them could see her. She didn’t know why, but the young alicorn was thankful for this fact. Upon reaching the back entrance the elder mare held open the door while her husband wheeled both the bed and machinery through the open doorway. As soon as they had reached the middle of the moderately sized, open grassy space that was behind the building, their daughter turned her head to look at something within the trees. Once the bed came to a stop she turned her gaze upwards. As she flung away the bedcovers and swung her feet over the edge of the bed, her mother asked in a panicky tone, “What are you doing? You need to stay in bed!” The young mare shot a disgusted look at her mother as she replied, “You’re being silly Mom. When you have less than a day left to live, you’ll understand why I have to do this.” Without even waiting for her mother to respond, she got completely off of the bed and stood looking up at the moon. Weakly, with slow, tentative steps she began to walk forward, dragging the machinery keeping her alive alongside her. As she did so, her father called after her, “Be careful! You don’t know what could happen if you strain yourself too much!” The young mare stopped walking, but didn’t say a word either. She continued to stare at the moon for a few moments before shifting her gaze to the trees once more. As time dragged on, she began to laugh in a voice that was not her own. “Sweetheart?” Her father’s voice was no longer steady. “Are you alright?” The laughing stopped. “Am I alright? Even if I was actually your fatally ill daughter that question would be idiotic. As things stand, well, I haven’t been alright for years. In fact, I haven’t been alright since I started inhabiting this body.” Both of her parents exchanged a confused glance with each other and the stallion asked, “How can you not be our daughter? If you aren’t our daughter, then who are you?” “Who am I?” The voice chuckled darkly. “I am the first and the last. I am life, death, and everything in between. I am, the shadows, the moon, the stars. I am darkness incarnate.” As soon as the voice fell silent, a black smoky substance began to pour out of the young mare’s body and take shape beside her. “What’s happening?” the elder mare asked in a quavering voice. Rather than reply with words the stallion merely pulled his wife into a tight hug. While they did so, the black substance condensed into the shape of an all-black wolf with wings, long claws, and sharp teeth. The young mare, whose body this new being had come out of, swayed slightly but managed to remain upright. The father gasped and shouted, “Who the hell are you?” The surreal looking wolf chuckled in the same ominous tone of voice before answering. “I am Jägerin. I have been inhabiting your daughter’s body since she was six. By now, her spirit is long gone, dead, if you don’t take my meaning. The only reason her body is still functioning at this point is because I am holding a tiny part of myself within her heart which is keeping it beating.” The stallion gave a shout of pure rage, and used his magic to form a sword. “How dare you do this to us! What gave you the right to take our daughter from us?” He pulled his sword into a position so that he would be ready to strike at the wolf’s heart. Rather than be alarmed at such an action, the wolf merely laughed. “You think you’re going to kill me with that little toy of yours? What would that give you? Your daughter would still be dead.” His magical grip tightening on the sword, the stallion said though gritted teeth, “Revenge. It would give me the satisfaction of knowing that I was the one who put an end to the life of such a monster.” “Is that really what you want?” The wolf taunted him. “Revenge might feel sweet in the beginning, but what happens when that feeling wears off? You’ll want nothing more than just to have your daughter back. The feeling of revenge will be long gone and you’ll drown in grief.” The stallion took a step back, his grip on the sword shaking viciously as the wolf swung her piercing gold gaze towards him. She advanced a few steps, all the while playing with his mind. “That grief will crush you, consume your soul until there is nothing left. You will be forced to watch as your very identity is stripped away. All of your hopes and dreams will crumble before your eyes. You will be nothing but a miserable failure.” Those final words were enough to shatter what little resolve he had left. He let out a choking sob and fell to the ground. Shakily, with the wolf’s eyes locked on him as he did so, the stallion turned the sword to rest just above his heart. His wife came out of her state of shock at that moment and screamed, “No, please! Don’t do this to yourself!” His eyes filled with sorrow as he looked at his wife, the stallion’s voice caught in his throat. “I have to. There is nothing left for me here.” She fell to her knees, sobbing hysterically and begging to no avail. Her eyes wet pools of sorrow she chokes out, “Am I…am I nothing then?” Unseen by both ponies, the wolf’s eyes glow with fire as she pulls the last part of herself out of the girl’s body. Seconds later a blue arrow flies out from the woods and strikes the stallion in the heart, killing him and forcing him to drop the sword. With the mother’s mortified gaze on her, the wolf’s eyes glow even brighter as she uses her own magic to pull out the machinery that had been attached to the younger mare just as her body crumples to the ground which ensures that she is well and truly dead. Twilight had watched all of this incredulously. This has to be a dream. Winged wolves don’t exist. I haven’t ever seen them mentioned in any of the books that I’ve read. At that moment, hooves running at a swift pace can be heard close by, so the wolf rushes into the trees at the same time as a fairly young pegasus mare with a blue mane and tail steps out into the open space. A minute or so later, twelve guards burst into the clearing. Seeing the pegasus mare standing there and looking much calmer than the elder mare, one of the stallions steps up to her and asks, “What’s your name?” “Syndra,” she replies stiffly. “Would you mind explaining what’s happened here?” He gestures to the two dead bodies and the sobbing mare as he speaks. “I was taking a walk through the woods and just as I pass by here, I watch that woman pull out some sort of medical machinery that was attached to that young mare, then place a sword next to the stallion. He was already dead when I got here. Moments before you all arrived, she got into that position. It’s fake.” Before the stallion can further question Syndra, the mother shouts, “Don’t listen to her! She’s lying! It was the black monster! She killed them all! She took my baby! My baby! She-” The mother’s ramblings are cut short as another blue arrow flies out from the trees and pierces her heart. Confused, the guards look wildly around as the wolf emerges from the trees, many other unicorns, both mares and stallions, at her side. One of the mares is holding a bow of the same color blue as the arrows that are sticking out of both the mother’s and the father’s hearts. One of the guards notices this and shouts, “The old mare was telling the truth! These are our killers!” All twelve of the guards pull out their spears and throw them at the large group of ponies surrounding the wolf. Before any of the spears reach them, they turn to dust and fall harmlessly to the ground. The guards stare blankly as the wolf uses her magic to pull all of their swords out of their sheathes and melts them, leaving the guards with no other weapons. After doing so, she gestures with a wing and says, “Alea? Eloen? Leona?” Three mares step out of the group, each holding a sword. They converge upon the guards and moments later twelve headless bodies lie on the ground. All three mares wipe their blood covered blades on various bodies to clean them. Once they have done so, the wolf nods approvingly, “Good work.” Behind the group a shout comes from within the trees, “Who are you? How could you do such a thing?” “Oh?” The wolf turns and saunters toward the source of the shout, a young colt. “Why did we do all of that? Well, I suppose, the best way to put it is that, for us, killing is fun.” His mouth drops open, “But why them? They hadn’t done anything to you.” Snarling, the wolf replies, “They stood in my way. As do you.” The colt’s mouth dropped even further open as he processed what the wolf had said. Chuckling darkly, the wolf leaped forward and fastened her jaws around his neck until she heard a satisfying snap. Twilight extended a wing to cover her eyes so that she wouldn’t have to look at that poor colt. Even if this was just a dream, although, nightmare would be a much more apt name for it, she couldn’t bear to see something so cruel, so evil. Dropping the lifeless body and turning to smile triumphantly at her entourage, the wolf’s eyes shone brightly with black magic. As she fires a column of raw power into the sky, the entire group shouts, “Pro umbrae! Nos pro umbrae pugnabimus!” Before she could see anymore, Twilight felt herself being pulled away and saw her surroundings fading from that clearing into the streets of Ponyville. As she turned slightly to her left, the lavender alicorn saw a dark blue alicorn with a cutie mark of the moon approaching her. “Princess Luna! Was all of that really just a dream? Please tell me that it was. It was absolutely awful!” The other alicorn shook her head, “I’m sorry Twilight. Everything you just saw really did happen. It was a vision. I sent it to you so that you could see what is coming to take over Equestria.” Twilight shuddered, “Winged wolves are real? How can they not have ever been written about? How can they use magic? Why-” Luna raised a wing to halt Twilight’s onslaught of questions. A forlorn look in her eyes, she said, “I don’t know anything about how she could use magic. All I know is that she is the only winged wolf in existence. That is also why there are no books that mention winged wolves because nopony except for Celestia, me, and now you know about her. Celestia and I need you and your friends ready to face her when she comes to Canterlot. Can you be ready to gather your friends and get on a train there as soon as you wake?” The younger alicorn nodded, “Yes, I will make sure that we get to Canterlot as soon as possible.” Her horn beginning to glow, Luna replied, “Then go Twilight Sparkle. Awaken, for this storm that is coming may well be the end of Equestria. If that is so, then the world will weep tears of blood and life. Our blood and our lives, not that of the enemy. Remember this, and move as if Jägerin and her followers are already at our gates.”