//------------------------------// // It's Not You, It's Me // Story: The Bounty Catching, Freedom Dreaming, Winged Wolf Phenomenon // by Cloud_Surfer //------------------------------// The Bounty Catching, Freedom Dreaming, Winged Wolf Phenomenon Chapter 5 ~{WWP}~ “Get up already you lazy flea bag!” I shot up off of the branch I was sleeping on at the shout of one angry DJ. Unfortunately for me, another branch of solid oak was right above me when I jumped and decided it wanted to be best friends with the top of my skull. CRACK, THUMP “Well at least the ground is softer this morning…” I grumbled as laid on the ground having fallen out of the tree again. Rolling over, I stretch out and pop as many joints as I can, per daily morning ritual, until an acorn hit my still sore head. “Glad to see you’ve finally gotten up, I’ve been trying to wake you for over an hour! Can you get me out of this tree?!” Vinyl yelled down to me. Great, a pissed off mare in the morning that I didn’t even sleep with; just what I needed. I was really tempted to tell her to shove it and go back to sleep, until I glanced up and noticed the two dozen acorns floating in her blue telekinetic aura waiting to get thrown. Not wanting to feel like I’m being attacked by an army of squirrels again (day drinking can get you in some strange spots), I unfurl my wings fly up and get her down to the ground. Maria had gotten up shortly after Vinyl’s yelling, and glided down gracefully landing next to us. “So breakfast and then we hit the road?” Vinyl asked us. It was more of an order though, because she was already reaching into her saddle bag to get some apples. “Here you guys go, apples straight from Sweet Apple Acres, best fruit in Equestria,” the DJ added, tossing out a ripe apple to Maria and me. I was drooling when I caught the apple in my paw. I couldn’t believe I got to try Sweet Apple Acres fruit already. I could overhear Maria and Vinyl munching on their apples already, but I wanted to take a moment and remember it all; the glossy red coating, reflecting the morning’s sun off the surface, the perfect apple shape that only cartoons could create, and finally the crisp scent that was teasing my nose. It was all interrupted by a rather obnoxious snort. Glancing over, I saw Vinyl trying to contain her laughter at my reaction to the fruit in my paw. “You are drooling worse than Spike does over a ruby there Zeta. First time you’ve seen an apple?” she got out in between giggles. She had already eaten her entire apple and was tossing the core deeper into the words by now. “Hurry up and eat so we can get a move on.” She and Maria had already started towards the road, not even bothering to wait for me. I just shook my head at them. It must be a guy thing to appreciate amazing food before gorging yourself on it. Tossing the ripe apple into my mouth I took the first juicy bite and chewed, letting my taste buds take in the flavor. *Loading* *Loading* *Loading* *Loading* *Loading* *Loading* *Error 404: Good taste not found* Never in my life had I ever been so disappointed in the taste of food then just now. Ok, that’s sort of a lie. There was that one time where I tried to make a bacon, jelly, and banana sandwich. But this was definitely a close second. How could such a tasty looking apple taste so horrid? I spat out as much of the apple from my mouth as I could. The taste was still persistent, so I started running my paw over my tongue to purge it. ‘Zeus almighty, the next time I’m offered an apple, I’m just going to tell them to stuff it up their rear. Or I’ll take it and sell it to someone else. Yea, I like the latter, I free money that way.’ Throwing the rest of the apple into the woods, I turned to go catch up with my travelling buddies but then I heard a stick break in the vicinity that I tossed my apple away. My ears twisted towards the sound, and I started picking the scent up of a rabbit. Instantly, I went full predator mode. Crouching low to the ground, I slowly moved closer to the scent of the rabbit. Gliding my way through the underbrush, I soon found the clearing where two rabbits sat gnawing on the apple I had just tossed over and Vinyl’s apple core. It didn’t take long for three more rabbits to show up. At this point, my mouth was watering again. I had no idea why, but those rabbits just looked delicious. I slowly prepared myself to lounge when I noticed my preys’ ears swiveling. ‘Could they hear my drool? That’d be pretty damn impressive’ I thought until I glanced down and noticed a nice sized puddle of saliva beneath my muzzle. ‘Or not… It’s like the Niagara Falls of drool. Shit’ in the course it took to think, the rabbits started preparing their escape. Two of them had already ran into the woods. Now or never I leapt out from behind the bush after my prey. They took off the moment I appeared, but the rabbits’ fates were sealed. I pinned down the two rabbits who were trying to carry the apples away with my paws, and lounged my neck and gaping maul forward catching the final rabbit by its back right leg. The blood seeped from the wound into my mouth and instantly overrode the nasty taste the apple left. Everything made sense now, I was a predator. Fruits and vegetables aren’t suited for my palate. I had always joked with my friends back home that I was a meatetarian, now I can officially say that. Sweet! And now I want a baconator… I gobbled up the rabbit that I had caught in my mouth, pretending it was covered in greasy bacon, and knocked the other two out. I grabbed a nearby vine from a tree and proceeded to bound and gag them before promptly shoving their unconscious forms into the saddle bags I stole from Octavia. ‘Guess I won’t be friends with Fluttershy. I wonder how Equestrians deal with predatory creatures.’ I glumly thought, taking to the skies to find my travel companies. They were perhaps a mile up the road from where I sat in the sky. Spreading my wings I soared over towards them at a very leisurely pace, letting them know I was going to fly above them. I loved flying too much to just walk. Wings are the best thing ever. Just felt I needed to reiterate that. About three hours later, I noticed a bridge that allowed us to cross the Baltimare River. According to the map, it made a big ‘C’ shape in the middle of Equestria starting in Baltimare, a port city in the north, and ending down here in Tailton. Glancing down at the bridge again, I noticed a shady looking shack built next to it with a pony, I wasn’t sure of the type, sitting next to it. ‘Vinyl didn’t say anything about a toll bridge. And no way is that an official looking building. Can I get in trouble for robbing a thief? Only one way to find out’ I thought as I dove down to let Vinyl know what was up ahead. “They may have just put up a new toll to help pay for the extra guards needed since Discord got out” Vinyl stated while shrugging her shoulders. The DJ just kept on trotting towards the bridge. Did nothing get this pony riled up? I dumped one of her oldest friends into a slave ring, made her sleep in a tree, and now she is going to get ripped off by the fake toll booth. Well fuck if I get ripped off, I'm robbing that bastard, guard or not. “Maria, here are some bits to pay the toll. I’m going to stay a little farther back though. I don’t want you to get in trouble for anything I do. Just stick with Vinyl k?” It was really an order more than a question, but I said it in as kind of a voice I could muster. Maria just nodded as I tossed her the coins. Did I mention how adorable she was? I nudged her with my nose to get her to hurry up and catch up towards Vinyl. Maria started to jog to catch up, but gave me a concerned look as she went. Yep, it has just been decided that whatever asshole corrupts Maria is going to have a very angry wolf to deal with. After they got out of view, I dug one of the rabbits out of my bag and proceeded to have a little snack. Rabbit wasn’t that bad actually, tasted better than muskrat did. Yes, I have eaten muskrat before I came to Equestria. My school has a game dinner, what can I say. The rabbit squealed a little bit before I bit off its head, but Maria and Vinyl were far enough away not to hear it. Definitely no way Fluttershy is going to like me, but maybe if I ate Angel bunny… Strangely, since I’ve been in Equestria, I’ve killed more creatures than I did back home. That sort of took me off guard. I was going in college doing a pre-vet major, so I knew how labs worked. I’ve learned how to put down some animals quite humanely. I’ve killed my fair share of mice and rats, occasionally putting a larger animal I see get hit by a car out of its misery, but never so many. My kill count is five timberwolves, two Diamond Dogs, and two rabbits, soon to three. The scariest part about all of it though, was that I didn’t care. Back home I always felt a small amount of empathy at least as I killed something. Here I do it without batting an eyelash. Was it something to do with the fact I was now a top predator? But humans were top predators too, except we never acted on our predatory urges like I am now. That was the only reasoning I could think of that made any sense to me. With my snack now finished, my muzzle clean of blood (don’t want to scare anyone more than I already do) and my thoughts answered, I hopped up and took to the road in my best sober drunken stagger. Thankfully I have been drunk enough to know exactly how a drunken stagger should go, just doing it with four limbs was slightly trickier than I had thought, but by the time the toll booth came into view I was a pretty convincing drunk. “Stop right there!” the unicorn stallion shouted. He did have the armor of a royal guard, so maybe Vinyl was right about this whole thing. “To help alleviate the cost of the extra guard Tailton required during this time of unrest, Princess Celestia has ordered this toll to put in.” Taking a quick look, I noticed his saddle bag was full of bits that he was collecting. “Yes, of course. How much do I owe ya?” I asked in an over exaggerated slur, purposely leaning a little too much to one side. The best way to act is to be as real about it as possible; it’s when you try that you fuck up. Luckily, I know exactly how to be drunk. “The cost of the toll is 5 bits,” the guard stated in a stiff voice. He looked at me with disgust as I reached into my saddle bag to grab the required bits, probably because I was acting intoxicated when it was like, three in the afternoon. Do they not have day drinking here? If not, I’d have to rectify that. I toss him the bits where he quickly catches and puts them away in his saddle bag. “Thank you kindly sir, you are free to move along.” I simply nodded, stumbled forward a bit spreading my wings and jumped in the air to fly off. I quickly crashed back on top of the guard, wing covering his saddle bags. Another reason why wings are the greatest thing ever, they make excellent cover when robbing someone blind. Working quickly, I sliced the bottom of the bag open with one of my claws and collected as many bits as I could while the guard was cursing at me for being a “drunken buffoon that can’t even fly” not realizing the missing bits weight with me leaning on him. “Sorry about that had a little too much to drink this morning” I slurred out, stashing the nice new pile of bits I just pilfered into my bags. “Betcha I get it first time now.” With another great leap, I take off and fly quickly away from the guard. Just as I’m out of range for any magical repercussions, I hear the guard cursing up a storm behind me. Grinning to myself, and let off a mighty howl of victory before heading off towards the road, to catch up with Maria and Vinyl. I caught up to the pair of them just on the outskirts of Tailton. It was just about dinner time and I was really hoping to rip open the last rabbit I had, but first I wanted to clarify some things with my companions. Mainly, we weren’t companions anymore. “Vinyl, I got you to Tailton safe and sound just like I promised. I’m keeping the bags, map, and bits from Octavia since she isn’t around. I’ll see you around,” I briskly explained to the mare as I extended my paw. Vinyl took it in her hoof (seriously? How do those things work?) and added “Sounds fair. Nice meeting you. I doubt this will be last time we run into each other, so take care of yourself until then. I’m sure Tavi will love to see you again.” With that DJ PON-3 cantered off, leaving me and Maria standing there. “I think she meant that last part as a threat” Maria mumbled. I just turned and gave her one of those ‘no shit Sherlock’ looks. She just blushed and hid her face from me. My heart almost exploded with the ‘D’AWWW’ which made the next thing I needed to say all the worse. “Maria, we are going to have to part ways now too,” I started out. I didn’t bother to look at her, but I could smell salt water from her tears and hear her sniffling from saying this, trying to hold back her tears. Apollo almighty I hate myself sometimes. “I’m doing it so you stay safe. I’m going to be getting into a lot of trouble soon, and I don’t want you to get hurt cause of that.” Maria started openly crying now. She sputtered stuff out like not wanting to be alone again, how everyone she knows gets hurt or caught, and how she didn’t want me to get hurt. I just pulled her in for a tight hug and let her cry for a bit. I really didn’t want to let her off on her own, but being the only winged wolf sort of makes it easy for the guard I just robbed to track me down. I’m actually shocked the town guards aren’t already trying to arrest me. “Listen Maria, I need you to be brave ok” I said as I let her out of my arms. Taking out the map, I pointed at a farm not even a day’s trek from here by the edge of the Great Southern Forest. “This here is Briarhoof Mill. If anything bad happens in the city, just run to there. And if anything bad happens there, just run into the forest ok? You should be safe around there,” I instructed. It was probably for the best that she left town right away, but I wanted to give her the option to stay in Tailton if she wanted to. She jumped in and hugged me tight again, her tears dry now, and simply said “Thank you” before breaking the contact. She didn’t know I slipped her about sixty bits into her bag when I returned that hug, but I’m sure it’ll be a happy surprise for her. I nudged her one more time with my muzzle as I did earlier that day to have her get a move on. Watching her run off into Tailton just as Celestia’s golden orb started to take a dip beyond the horizon, the only thought going through my head was the hope to see her again. I took a moment to eat my last rabbit before heading off into town. Once I got to the gates though, I knew there was going to be a little trouble getting inside. Especially since the first thing the guards stationed there yelled at me was “STOP RIGHT THERE CRIMINAL SCUM!” I just face-pawed and muttered “So much for getting a drink…” ~{WWP}~ A/N: I didn't run this chapter past my Beta Reader (Sorry Muzzled!) because I wanted to get this out by Wednesday and was running a little late. So if you guys see any glaring errors, just let me know so I can fix them. Also, yes I had to throw the "Loading" joke in there, since every single story in this universe seems to have used that joke at least once now. Speaking of which, there are two more stories in this universe that you guys should go read. Bringing the total up to 6. From Nobody to Knightmare by JJ Malcolm has the changeling perspective covered, in a singing comedic way that is. Go check it out if you haven't yet. Through Feline Eyes by Fordregha covers the Cat People that have appeared so far in Griffin the Griffin, and is a good take on their people. Plus a great story. Read that one too! Also, I finally figured out what species Zeta is, and will name it along with the back story behind it next chapter. I'm still going to use the winged wolf moniker though, cause it flows better. But don't worry, the species will have importance later on.