Wolf In Pony's Clothing

by Ardashir

Epilogue: Stalliongrad

Epilogue: Stalliongrad

In the forests around Stalliongrad between the Crystal Empire and the Griffin Lands, far enough north that the snow lay on the ground for eight months of the year and Celestia’s sun and Luna’s moon sometimes stayed in the sky for days or weeks rather than hours, a large pack of wolves faced a returned outcast and a stranger. The scarred pack Alpha stood before the rest, who looked on with tongue-lolling lupine grins of amusement as they listened to the young white wolf tell them of what he had seen and done in Equestria.

Or an edited version, anyway.

“And so after meeting the pony princesses, I returned here,” Ardi said, keeping his eyes firmly on his alpha, his stare skirting the edges of lupine good manners. The large grey wolf lowered his ears and bristled at him. Ardi almost dropped back, but stopped when the white she-wolf who accompanied him stepped up beside him. Ardi said, “They told me to return and tell my pack, all the packs, that ponies and wolves are no longer enemies,” he raised his voice to be heard over the contemptuous growls from the other wolves, “And that we can go openly among ponies without fearing being hunted or slain. I swear of its truth, O Adelwulf, Alpha of all the Packs.”

“How did you go unnoticed among them so long?” One old wolf of Broken Fangs Pack called out. He made his way forward slowly, limping and scarred. “It has been since before my mother’s father’s time that wolves lived so far south in Equestria. Why did they not kill you, if you lived among them as you say?”

“Oh, that!” Ardi grinned weakly. He looked to the side for support. The she-wolf just smiled politely, no fangs visible. “I, ah, had some help from the pony who aided me before.”

“This lie again?” Another wolf cried out, the Alpha of Long Lake Pack. “Next he will tell us that he used pony magic to hide himself!” Lupine yips of laughter rose to the cold sky above, warmed only slightly by the spring winds.

Ardi grinned, fighting against his worry. He stiffened as Adelwulf walked up to him, sniffing and nuzzling him roughly. This was no sign of affection. Ardi knew his Alpha doubted his words, but he had no idea just how badly he doubted them until with a growl the pack leader seized him by the loose fur of his neck and shook him mercilessly.

“Do you expect me to believe this?” The Alpha snarled, before flinging him to the dirt and snow below. The she-wolf with him started up, her eyes going wide with concern. Ardi yipped at her to stay still. The Alpha noticed and growled at her. “Listen to this lying fool, bitch, whoever you are.” He then snapped at Ardi, “You brought these lies to me, Adelwulf, your pack Alpha to whom you owe honesty and respect, once before. You said that when you wandered south to Discord’s Demesne that you were poisoned by a pony, but that another one saved your life.” He spat the last words out as though the mere sound of them in his mouth was sickening. Ardi tried to rise, but Adelwulf slammed him back into the snow-slush with one paw. “Ponies do not save wolves! They kill us whenever they find us! The earth ponies and,” he gulped and a shiver ran down his pale gray form, “and fliers and spear-heads slay us out of envy for the gifts Father Fenris gave us so long ago!” He gave Ardi one last growl and shake of his ruff before he stepped away. Looking down at him as he rose, Adelwulf said in a voice filled with cold threat, “This is what has always been. This is what will always be. Your words are lies. You cannot be trusted to be honest with your Pack,” he looked around at the other wolves, who growled their agreement, “And so you have no place among the Packs. I take your name and name you Gangrel. Go from us forever.” He added with a contemptuous snap, “Live with your pony friends, and see how well they treat you.” He turned to leave as did the other wolves, only to stop when the she-wolf with Ardi spoke.

“What would he need to convince you, Adelwulf, Alpha of all Packs of the Forest around the pony city?”

Adelwulf turned with a snort. He took her scent as he looked at her. Part of him wished he was not already mated when he did. He glanced at his mate nearby, scarred and fierce; the Alpha Bitch noticed it and flattened her ears at him in warning. He flashed a reassuring grin at her he hoped she believed and sniffed at Ardi’s companion again.

She smelled clean and strong, so much so that Adelwulf wondered what she smelled in that fool Ardi, barely more than a pup. She was leanly built, long-legged, with a snowy coat that almost shined and eyes even bluer than Ardi’s. Odd streaks of color shimmered through her pelt, like the clouds at dawn or the auroras of the night. Light on her feet, she padded past Ardi to stand before Adelwulf, eyeing him without fear as if she were an Alpha herself. He bristled, wondering if he should force submission from her for her insolence, but something about her warned against it.

“I ask again,” she said, her voice firm, “What would it take for you to believe that Ardi has indeed met Princess Celestia, The Burning Queen, and bears her words to you?” She stood still, looking unconcerned as he walked up to and around her, sniffing at her thoroughly. Not too much, though. His mate watched very closely.

“Why do you swear to the words of this Gangrel, this kinless outcast?” Adelwulf asked her, speaking low. He saw Ardi flinch as he said more, but that mattered not. The idiot deserved to know how his lies were despised. The white bitch said nothing, so Adelwulf continued “He will be driven away with his ears and tail shredded so no honorable Pack will ever allow him in again. We should have done that before. If you persist, we will do this to you as well. Is that mangy half-pup and his nonsense about trusting The Burning Queen worth a lifetime’s exile?”

She just looked at him. She glanced back at Ardi, who stood with his tail tucked. Adelwulf hoped she smelled reason in his words. It would be a shame to chase away not just what might have once been a halfway worthwhile wolf, but a magnificent bitch like this as well. And the thought of her, an exile, possibly ending up bearing Ardi’s pups? He shivered at the thought.

“One last time, what evidence would you need to believe he spoke truth?”

Adelwulf’s temper snapped. “Let the Burning Queen come here herself and repeat his words to my face, and I will believe he speaks truth!”

The white she-wolf just looked at him, tilting her head. Then she smiled, eliciting a growl from Adelwulf. The impertinent wench! She looked past him to the Alphas of the other Packs, gathered at Ardi’s insistence on the importance of his words. Their anger growled along with his, a low rumble filling the clearing. She just smiled even wider and said one word.

“Done.”

The sun dropped down from the sky to hang before Adelwulf’s eyes. He cowered back with a yelp. More frightened whines and howls rose behind him, so many he feared they would be heard by the Stalliongrad ponies, and then what?

And then the sunlight cleared and the spots dancing before his eyes faded, and Adelwulf no longer cared what the Stalliongrad ponies might hear.

A white pony twice the size of any Wolf stood before him, wings spread, horn shining as if the sun itself, pastel mane streaming in a wind that wasn’t there, lit by full daylight while standing in the trees’ shadow.

He froze in horror as The Burning Queen lowered her head to look him right in the eyes and say, “As Princess of the Sun, Co-Ruler of Equestria, and with the hopes for future peace between ponies and wolves, I greet you, Adelwulf of the Great Northern Forests packs. I think you know who I am. And yes, Ardi did speak the utter truth about meeting me and living in Equestria among my little ponies for a week.” She looked down at him, still smiling. Her coat seemed almost to glow and the warmth coming from her was like the summer sun as she said, “Some of the stories you have told yourselves are not true, and more have become twisted in the telling. There was indeed a Fenris once," she waited a response, and when she got nothing but silence said, "But know this. He was not betrayed by me or my sister. But this is true: I want nothing but peace between pony and wolf.” Adelwulf flicked an ear at the sounds of sudden hopeful whispering behind him. The Burning Queen must have heard it too, for she nodded and said, “Ardi told me your folk no longer feed on ponies as you did once before my sister was banished. If you can obey Equestria’s laws, you are free to live anywhere in it that you wish.”

“But his words cannot be true,” Adelwulf said, giving Ardi a stern look. Ardi suddenly looked worried as he growled, “Ponies still hunt wolves…”

“They do so no longer,” Celestia told him. “I issued a proclamation before I left Canterlot with Ardi and had it read through the land. The hunting and slaying of wolves or any creature that poses no threat to ponies is forbidden.” She fell silent as Adelwulf shook his head with a growl.

“Maybe not now, but when he went among them, they still hunted wolves. How did he stay hidden?”

Ardi hurriedly opened his mouth to explain, but didn’t get to say anything before Celestia said in an amused tone, “Oh, he looked like this.”

Her horn glowed and light surrounded the young wolf. Ardi yelped – no, whinnied – in a suddenly feminine voice and when the light cleared, a white spear-head mare with two long amethyst ribbons of a tail and mane stood there. The wolves stared for a moment before they broke out in yipping laughter. Adelwulf barked a short, sharp laugh of his own as Ardi’s ears flushed crimson.

“It was an – illusion. Yes, he did hide behind pony magic,” Celestia said, dispelling it. Ardi sighed to see himself a wolf again. “But do you accept his words and mine, now?”

Adelwulf looked from Celestia to Ardi and back again before he said, “I do, and I will tell the other Pack Alphas so they may speak with you. If we can have peace it will be good.”

“I agree,” Celestia said. She and Ardi watched as Adelwulf went back among his own and began speaking with them in low growls. The young wolf relaxed with a sigh.

“It’s really happening,” Ardi said, his voice wondering. He looked at the Sun Princess. “We wolves don’t have to be afraid of ponies any more. Thank you, Princess Celestia.” On a sudden impulse, he leaned in close and nuzzled her muzzle. Only to pull back, the thin skin of his ears flushing an even brighter crimson than before.

“See?” Celestia told him, smiling. “I told you it would work. You might even end up back in Canterlot after all this.” At his curious look, she said, “This is a start but not a finish. We’ll need to settle lots of things like lupine hunting grounds, what animals you can and can’t eat – you can’t go devouring your fellow citizens, after all – how and where your packs will live…” She sighed and closed her eyes as though already seeing the work involved. “It won’t be easy, but with lupine help it can be done. And I think it would be a great help to have a wolf who was brave enough to enter Equestria, confront dragons and even the Burning Queen to help his pony friends, as one of those wolf emissaries. If you’re interested, that is.”

“I’d love to, highness!” Ardi almost yipped for joy. “Maybe I can see your city or even Ponyville again? Er, as a wolf and not a spear-head mare this time?” He thought and frowned. At her questioning look he added, “What about those Changelings, or the real Rarity? Are they in any trouble because of what I did?”

“Vespid’s Changelings are already being helped,” Celestia said, listening to the more and more eager and joyous yelps from the assembled wolves.

“And something tells me that Fluttershy, Rarity, and the rest will be doing just fine.”

Comments

[ramseymac]

First! I like that you can wrap up a story really well.

[Nightmare Wolf]

Good and realistic portrayal of wolf customs. Brutal, but necessary. Good job!

[ThePrinceOfTheNorth]

Really good ending. Make a good point to begin a sequel.