//------------------------------// // Encounter // Story: Lycanthropy // by Schaechterle25 //------------------------------// This was bad, oh so very bad. Archie had spent two whole hours trying to find Twilight, but to no avail, couldn’t find her anywhere. He checked the library three times and went to the alley twice, checked back at the castle to see if she was in her room, but just couldn’t find her. If he didn’t find her here soon, then the Princess would have his coat on her wall for sure. He didn’t know were else to look. He was all out of ideas and was sweating heavily. He was going to lose the only important thing to him because of some girl, it was funny how the world worked some times. He tried to think of what she last said when they saw each other. He drew a picture of Twilight telling him what to do, he had to remember. “Spend some more time trying to find some things in the alley,” she had told him, but he knew she had told him where she was going to go. He started to dig deeper into his mind to find what she had told him. “I’ll be going to the Princesses to tell them everything we discovered so far and ask them if they need anything else to be done.” So had she gone to Celestia? She didn’t seem like the type to lie, she was the Princess's’ personal student, so she wouldn’t do anything like that...he hoped. He had to think about this logically, the Princess had said when her and Twilight talked is when she thought there was something wrong with her, so she could’ve actually gone to the Princess and told her everything, but didn’t say where she was going after that. Archie was tempted to go ask the Princess if she had told her where she was going, but quickly thought twice about it, for he was afraid he’d end up getting Celestia angry at him for losing her. He didn’t want to lose his job. Now it was almost time for the stars and the moon to come out. Then an idea had entered his head. What if Twilight had gone to the Princess of the Night, Luna, to speak with her and figure out why she couldn’t control the night anymore. It was a chance that he could take, but it was possible for the same thing to happen to him if he went to Celestia. Scratching the back of his head he decided on trying it, since it was the only option left without major consequences, so he started heading over to the castle. What was the worst that could happen? A pony opened a thick wooden door and walked into the room where his Queen slept. It was dark as always, she loved the dark and tried to never enter the bright scorching light of the sun. “My Queen,” the dark shadowy pony said. “I’ve followed your orders and the target has been placed where you wanted her.” He bowed to the tall dark figure that was instantly towering over him. “Do not call her a “target”, the Queen corrected him. Her voice had a hint of impatience in it. “You will soon start calling her Princess Sparkle, so start addressing her as so.” “Sorry my lady,” the pony quickly apologized. “What will you have me do now?” He was ready for his next assignment. The Queen slowly walked over to a cabinet and started rummaging through it. She took out a bottle of Hard Cider with her levitation magic and popped the cap, which she then proceeded to then drink it straight from the bottle. “Monitor her for now,” she finally ordered after taking a couple swigs from the bottle. “Be sure she doesn’t go anywhere else then where I want her to go. If you have to do it by force, then so be it,” she turned her head to the pony and glared at him, “You will not cause any physical harm to her at all. We need her as healthy as possible when she arrives. Failure to do any of these things will result in your mutilation, understood?” The pony in the shadows nodded his head in reply. He could feel his stomach become heavier and felt sweat forming on his brow. “It will be done. You have not a need to be doubtful.” “Good. Now go,” the dark Queen pointed towards the door then looked out the skylight that was above them. “Night will fall upon us in a few hours.” The minion pony bowed his head and quickly left through the door, which was followed by two other dark figures. The Queen licked her lips, enjoying the sweet taste of alcohol. It would taste even better if had blood to go along with it. She was going to enjoy Twilight meeting her for the first time. Her reaction would be priceless and she would remember it for ages. Once she rules all of Equestria with Twilight by her side, her revenge will be finally completed. She couldn’t help but grin at that fact. She took one last sip of her drink and started to giggle while staring at the wall while it started to sway. Tonight is going to be fun. Twilight tried to force open her eyes, but was immediately greeted by pain. She was only able to keep them halfway open. From what she could see, she was in some brick tunnel with a cement floor, she could see the only light she was receiving was from candles mounted on sconces. The bricks seemed to be soaked with water and were covered in mold and other grimes. A purple aura enveloped Twilight’s horn as she used up what little energy she had left to cast a healing spell on herself. It was going to take a couple of minutes for her to regain all of her stamina back, but she would soon be fresh as a daisy. She started to examine herself. She didn’t have any injuries as far as she could tell, only that her coat looked horrid. She was going to need another bath once she was able to stand and find out just exactly where she was. Most of the pain felt like it was inside of her body anyway, she hoped that she didn’t have any broken bones, of course she would’ve probably realized it already if she had any. Now it was time to think about what had happened. She had no idea what caused her to faint, but whatever had done it made her feel like she hadn’t slept for a week and made her head throb like crazy. Was it what she ate at the restaurant that had something to do with it? She didn’t think that she would have an allergic reaction to a sandwich, unless...it wasn’t an allergic reaction and it was poisoned. No, that couldn’t be. She wouldn’t have woken up if she was poisoned. She was really starting to get confused at all the things that were going on, which only made her head hurt more. The lack of sleep probably finally caught up with her and she just collapsed due to exhaustion. She was just going to go with that for now. Did she fall asleep though? If she did then she didn’t remember even having a dream, or a nightmare. She stopped thinking about it and focused on herself recovering. She could now open her eyes completely without feeling any pain or resistance, so she felt a little happier. She felt a little happier that her healing spell was working as fast as it was with how much energy she had left. She stood up and started to observe the rest of her surroundings. There wasn’t much to look at, her eyes must not have been as messed up as she thought. It was just a cylindrical, brick tunnel. There were lit candles on sconces every few yards down the tunnel on both sides of her, which led her into even more confusion. She was just in the middle of this tunnel. She couldn’t see a room on either ends of the long tunnel. It looked as if to go on forever. Somepony had to be here before though, otherwise the candles wouldn’t have been lit and there was no spell on them to keep them lit. Twilight stepped up closer to the wall, now not feeling any pain at all now, and observed it. There was a grimy dirt like substance all over it that stuck to her hoof when she touched it. She looked a little her left and seen a dark green moss growing out of cracks and seams of the bricks. This place was definitely not very well kept for living. Twilight thought about how Rarity would most likely be throwing a fit over how dirty it was. Was she even in Canterlot anymore? She didn’t understand how she ended up here or how she was going to find a way out. She hoped that she could just find an exit. She had to get out and find the Princess right away. She was finally fed up with her nightmares and all the crap that had been messing with her. Hopefully Celestia and Luna could help her out. A magical aura surged from the lavender unicorn’s horn and enveloped one of the sconces and unhooked it off the wall. She would use it to search the dark spots in the seemingly never ending hall. She stopped and looked around. There was a scratching sound that seemed to be in the walls. Twilight trotted over to the noise and pressed her ear up against the dirty bricks. … The sound had seemed to disappear. Twilight pulled her head away and shone the light on the bricks. There wasn’t a bug or anything so she had no clue what she had heard. Judging from the quality the bricks were in now, it was no question that parts of the tunnel were probably structurally unsound and just waiting to collapse. That was more than enough for a reason to get out of there as fast possible. The healing spell had certainly done its job. She felt her stamina returning to her and she felt like she could use more of her magic abilities now. In a bit she would have enough stamina to sustain a light spell and she would be able to get rid of the candle. She heard the scratching once again. Twilight turned back toward the wall and began inspecting it again. The sound didn’t go away this time and seemed to be behind her. She looked down the tunnel in the direction she came and stared into the darkness. It sounded more like somepony was walking toward her now, but it wasn’t a pony. The floor was made of cement and her hooves made a loud clunking sound with every step. Was something following her? ‘Wait,’ Twilight thought. ‘Why is it dark behind me?’ There was no longer any light resonating from the once lit candles. Twilight’s breath started to quicken as she started to take steps backward. Twilight’s horn glowed purple and a small light ball shot forward from it and slowly floated into the darkness. The noise stopped, Twilight just stared as the ball of white light continued to float down the tunnel. Her breath started to slow as she began to calm down. ‘I’m just hearing things,’ she thought. Two dark, yellow, glowing eyes appeared not to far from the light ball. Twilight had to blink to make sure she wasn’t seeing things. The eyes were staring right at her as far as she could tell, they didn’t seem to have any pupils. They blinked as the orb of light reached whatever it was, revealing the creature’s head. It was the head of a wolf, but about twice as big. Twilight started to breathe heavily again and tried to run, but couldn’t find the will to be able to do so. The creature showed its teeth and began to growl. Taking a step forward, it moved into the light and showed its whole body. It was covered in black fur and had claws on its front paws sharper than anything she had ever seen. It had canines that were the size of her horn and it had extremely large muscles that obviously made up most of its body mass. It then stood up on its hind legs and let out a howl that echoed down the entire tunnel that sent a chill down her spine. It returned back to standing on all fours and began growling at her again. Twilight’s mind was screaming at her to run away, but she knew that if she tried it would chase after her, and it definitely looked like it could run faster than her. It took a step forward and reached its paw out to the orb of light and grasped it. Then looking at Twilight, it let out a deafening roar as it crushed the light and the whole tunnel became dark. Even the candles that she hadn’t walked by yet were now out. Twilight decided on the idea to turn and run. In the Princess Luna’s private quarters, Archie was consulting with the Princess of the night. Luna’s mane flowed in air without even without a breeze, it was dark blue like the night sky and seemed to hold its own star systems. “Can thou run that by us a second time Corporal?” she asked with a bit of annoyance in her voice. ‘Uh oh,’ Archie thought, some sweat started to break over his brow. ‘I knew this was a bad idea. I’m in for it now.’ He didn’t want to explain the whole thing again so he just got to the point. “Twilight Sparkle has seemed to...disappear.” Luna’s eyes widened and she replied, “We thought ye said as much.” ‘There just went my job,’ the stallion thought. “We must refrain from letting our sister catching wind of this grave news,” Luna said. Archie was surprised. Keeping secrets from one of the royal sisters. That was sure to end up going down the drain. He asked her, “Why must Princess Celestia not know...,” he was quickly cut off by Luna grabbing him and covering his mouth with his hoof. “Shhhhh. Dost thou want somepony to hear thee?” Archie shook his head no, hoping that she would release him so he could breathe. “If our sister hears us, then she shall take possession of both our heads. Are you positive that thou checked everywhere?” Archie let out a gasp for air as Luna removed her hand from his mouth. “Yes...I’m sure...Princess,” he said between breaths. I...checked everywhere in the castle, the Canterlot library, the alley where the crime happened, and everywhere in the streets.” Luna looked out her window at her sister’s beautiful sun starting to set. Right now she would be lifting her moon in the sky, but it wasn’t her moon anymore, she had lost control of it for reasons unknown. “Have thee checked checked our royal garden?” the Princess asked curiously Archie hadn’t thought about the gardens, why would she go there? “No ma’am, I haven't.” “Then you haven’t checked everywhere, have thee?” Archie was pretty sure she wasn’t going to be there, but just in case, and because Luna suggested it, he was going to check. “Should I...uh...go now?” Archie asked confused. Luna stared at him like he was an idiot. “Yes, quick, you need to locate Twilight before the sun rises and our sister finds out something is going on and takes us both in for questioning, and trust me, she won’t go lightly on anyone who lost her favorite student.” Archie quickly saluted and headed out the door. ‘I’m so going to lose my job,’ he thought. When Archie got to the garden he was hoping that he would find Twilight, but to his dismay, she wasn’t there. He sat down on the ground and sighed. “I’m so screwed.” Dark clouds were starting to roll in and it was sure to storm again. Archie was most certainly going to get yelled at have to go back out on his own. His parents didn’t like him and now the whole royal family were sure to dislike him. He had let Princess Celestia down. He took the badge that Celestia gave him and threw it on the ground. He didn’t want to wear it anymore since he wasn’t going to be working for the Princess anymore. Where had he gone wrong? He seen a flash followed by thunder and his coat was soon drenched with the pouring rain that followed. The rain made a loud sound when it hit his metal armor. Nopony knew what the clouds were even doing anymore, the Pegasi sure weren’t commanding them anymore. He wondered if they were like this elsewhere, he was already making plans to go to Manehatten or Fillydelphia. He didn’t know why he was this upset actually, he knew after he lost his job he would have almost nowhere to go, but it seemed like something else was on his mind. The fact that another pony’s life could possibly be at stake pulled at his heart too. Not to mention that it was a mare, an okay looking mare at that. ‘What,’ he thought to himself, ‘Listen to myself, it sounds like I got a crush on her or something.’ He chuckled to himself and shook his head. ‘Mine as well enjoy all the weird jokes and odd ideas before I’m banished,’ he thought. A flash of lightning struck the ground next to him and made him jump. He could hear the sizzle of the bolt before the thunder deafened him. Jumping up made him notice something though. Somewhere in the palace labyrinth, somepony shot a purple laser up into the sky. Twilight quickly created a light with her horn so she could see where she was running, while also leaving orbs of light behind her so she could see behind her as well, even though she didn’t want to see if it was chasing her. She took a quick glance behind her and didn’t see anything, good, but for how long. She turned her head back around to see a turn ahead of her and stopped just in time to avoid slamming her face into the wall. She looked down both ways and couldn’t decide which way to go. ‘This is no time to ponder Twilight,’ she told herself. She looked down the left path and noticed a light at the end of it that clearly shown that it was a dead end. ‘Nope,’ she thought. It was clear to her that this was some sort of labyrinth and that it was possible for her to get stuck at a dead end. If she did get stuck, then she was obviously not going to make it out. She shook her head, ‘Don’t think like that Twilight.’ Looking down the right side of the tunnel, the only thing she seen was just complete darkness. Hearing something behind her, she turned and looked. The monster was running on all fours and was only a few paces behind Twilight. Opening its mouth and letting out a roar, it lunged at Twilight, ready to slam its whole body into her. Twilight reacted quickly and dove toward the tunnel without any light in it. The wolf creature slammed into the wall and let out a shriek of pain, it shook its head and looked at the wall. It had a few cracks in it now and the bricks looked loose enough to just pull out of the wall. Twilight scrambled to her feet and started running into the darkness. Diving out of the way had broken her concentration on her light spell, so she had to slow down a bit to recast it. Recreating the purple light she looked behind her and seen that the creature had regained its stance and had started running back after her, its eyes blazing with anger. Twilight kept only running, hoping that she could outrun it, even though that sounded impossible, or find another wall to trick it to slamming itself into. She felt like something was wrong though, she couldn’t hear it running after her anymore. Then she figured out why. This was a dead end as well. “NO,” Twilight screamed. “This can’t be possible. No, no, no no no no.” She started frantically hitting the wall with her hoof. “There has to be a secret door here or something, there has to be. There’s always one in the books.” Unable to find a button to open a secret door, she turned around and her eyes became watery. She could see the beast coming towards her, not running, but just slowly taking its time getting to her. Brandishing its teeth it stood up on its hind legs and continued to walk forward. ‘I’m not going to die a coward,’ Twilight thought. ‘Even if I am to die here, then I shall go down fighting.’ The beast got back down all fours when it was in striking position of Twilight and just stood there, staring at her with its yellow eyes. A trickle of blood slid down the wolf’s face and dripped onto the floor. The head was cracked open from it slamming into the wall so hard. ‘So they can atleast get hurt,’ she thought. ‘Maybe I’m not doomed after all.’ She was going to have to be quick though. She started to analyze every possible way to avoid dying, there were only two options, and both didn’t utterly guarantee her survival. She could wait for it to pounce and then quickly dive to the side and start running, but it would surely catch her for sure. The other choice was staying and using every spell she knew to wound it so she could escape. Of course neither of her plans guaranteed her survival, she was going to have to get real lucky. The wolf creature slowly bent backward and readied itself to pounce. Twilight’s horn began to glow as she readied herself as well. Twilight didn’t know much about fighting magic, but enough to defend herself. It all happened so quickly, the wolf lunged and Twilight dived to the right as she shot a laser from her horn. It connected with the wolf’s chest which was replied with a sizzling pop. The beast let out a shriek and started to thrash around in Twilight’s direction. Twilight didn’t have any time to get out of the way as the creature’s claws met with her side and left two giant gashes all the way down her side and down her left hind leg. She gasped for air as she hit the floor and blood spurt all over the wall and and the rest of her coat. She hardly felt any pain as the beast picked her up and threw her down the tunnel like a wadded up paper ball. She bounced down the tunnel and continued to roll until eventually coming to a complete stop. She lied on the spot she landed and could hardly get enough air to sustain the pain. Her left side was soaked in blood as the pool of dark red blood reached her head and connected with her tongue. The taste was enough to make her lift her head so she didn’t have to taste it. She tried to stand, but was quickly greeted with pain in her left leg. Not only was the flesh torn from the bone, but the bone itself was fractured. For some reason, she couldn’t get herself to cry. She seen the creature was running down the tunnel again. It sure wasn’t going to toy with her this time, it was going to kill her as quickly as possible. She quickly stood up, ignoring the pain that erupted from her leg and blood began to spray onto the ground beside her. She looked over and noticed the now broken down wall that the creature had run into before. The creature was closing in and would be on her in less than a couple of seconds. She summoned as much magical power as she could and shot another laser above the cracked wall. The bricks that were hit directly exploded on contact and made the rest of the area collapse. The ceiling of the tunnel fell on top of the wolf beast and rendered it unconscious. Twilight began to limp and stumble away from the falling bricks and rocks to avoid getting crushed. Then, it was silent. The tunnel was filled with dust and dirt that it made it impossible to see anything and caused Twilight to cough. Once the dust cleared, it was obvious that she was safe for now. The whole tunnel had collapsed and made it impossible to get to the other side or anything to get to her side, which was more important. Limping over to the light source, she was thrilled to see that it was a grate that led out onto the surface. Water was pouring through it and she could hear the sound of thunder in the distance. The cold rain water felt relaxing when it touched her body. It calmed her down some and soothed her muscles. It might have only rain water, but in her situation, anything would help. She wasn’t sure that she could get it open though with what little energy she had. She focused her reserve magic into firing another magic blast that blew the grate right off its hinges and into the air, she could see purple blast still flying into the air. The easy part was now over, now it was just getting up there that was the question. She had to think fast, because the rain water had started filling up what was left of the tunnel. It was already up to her knees, the water becoming stained with red. Her vision started to blur as she tried to think of a way to get out. She was losing too much blood to just be standing around doing nothing. So she started levitating rocks from the now ruined tunnel over to her and set them down like stairs. Putting her front hooves on the boulders she pulled herself up, feeling a sharp pain every time she did so. Once she was high enough to reach the opening, she put her hooves out and tried pulling herself up. It took some time, but she was eventually able to pull herself up and out of the tunnel. The rain and fresh air never felt so much better. She looked around to see if she could figure out where she was, and she quickly figured it out. She was in the Castle Grounds Labyrinth. The same place where she and her friends tried to solve Discord’s riddle. ‘This isn’t good,’ she thought. If she was in yet another maze, then she would easily get lost once again. She wasn’t out of the fray just yet. She started to limp as she began to try to find her way out, but there was just no way she could. She already had too much blood loss and her vision was starting to fade. She fell down on the wet muddy ground, which caused even more pain to stab at her leg, letting the rain cover her face as her vision started to blur and go out. She could see something though, hard to make out, but it had to be another pony, and they seemed to be running toward her. She would’ve gotten up, but she couldn’t even move anymore. Whoever it was, they were right by her now. She could hear him talking, the voice of a stallion, the voice was muffled, but she could still make out what he was saying. “Twilight, Twilight, oh no,” he was saying. She couldn’t make out who it was, everything was too blurry and it felt like she had something stuck in her ear. “Come on, I have to get you out of here.” She blacked out for a couple of seconds as she was lifted into the air and set on top of something. Her vision returned and she seen nothing but the moving ground beneath her. Then she completely lost consciousness. “You failed me,” the Queen said. “I am sorry your majesty, I had every intention to...,” the pony tried to say, but his face was quickly met with a hoof strike across his face. He flew a couple feet across the room and hit the ground. He raised his hoof to his nose and felt that it was broken. “Do not even speak, you have proven yourself to be no more than a mistake.” She paced over to him and stood glaring at him. “I said specifically to lead her here and if having to frighten her then so be it, but I clarified on the fact that I didn’t want a scratch on her.” “But she fought me your majesty,” the pony tried to turn the odds in his favor. “I had to fight back somehow.” The Queen didn’t like what she was hearing...at all. “If you can’t follow simple orders, then you will start a domino effect as everypony else thinks that they can get away with things as well. Well that’s not going to happen. To prevent something like that from happening I must terminate the source.” Her dark blue aura enveloped around a horn. “No, please, I can make it up to you, just give me another chance,” the pony begged. “Too late for that now isn’t?” she scolded him with a hint of laughter in her voice. The pony’s head glowed and he started to scream. He started shaking while a dark red fluid poured from his nose and mouth. He tried to scream again, but couldn’t for some reason. With a loud crack, his brain hemorrhaged and his eyes popped. The limp body was levitated into the air and inspected by the Queen. “Seems like the rest of you get an early feast,” she laughed as she threw the body in the corner and within seconds, four other wolf creatures were fighting over it, tearing it to shreds. The Queen just watched and laughed, “Play nice now, wouldn’t anypony else getting hurt now.” She knew that she was in a dangerous predicament now. It was all just a game and she was now losing. If they were discovered at this time, then everything would be ruined and she couldn’t fight Celestia just yet. If she had to do everything herself, then so be it. Hope everyone enjoys the read. Leave questions and comments in the section below, don't be afraid, I reply.