To Hunt a Beast

by Blackdrag-rose

3: Wolfpack

Arriving in the desert that surrounded Appleloosa relatively unharmed was always a good sign, especially after being in the dimensional currents for three hours. At least, that was the amount of time the group had been told they would have spent in the area, but not even Copper and her abilities could change the time. Sure she had spent three years perfecting the parts of her train and making more additions to her own body, some of which she still had not shared with the others. Additions that she hoped would be helpful in taming or hunting any of the creatures they were after.

The desert was supposed to be warm, the air missing the embrace of water, and the sky was the be bare without any sort of clouds at all. The desert was warm and the air had no liquid, but the sky was darker then it was supposed to be and there was a gathering of smoke over their destination. Either there was some big event going on or Appleloosa was burning from an attack.

"I bet Oblivion set some of his dragons to sack Appleloosa," Wisdom commented, his wings flaring as he looked over to Peachy and her vampires, "He said that he wanted the powers of Eclipse in order to usher in a new era, but if he can't get his claws on Eclipse then he would have to resort to other means. By that I mean he would have to capture Tick and Peachy, both of who have two fragments of Eclipse's unusual form attuned to them."

"A werepyre," Copper gasped, only now realizing the true form of Eclipse, "the terrible combination of werewolves and vampires in a single form."

"Prepare the shock cannons and fire on anything that's attacking the town," Wisdom commanded, leaping into the air as the fifteen vampires followed suit, "We'll deal with whatever else is left and make sure the citizens are safe."

Copper looked over at Dynamo and sighed, the two of them getting to work making sure the cannons were primed and ready for when they arrived in the Appleloosa train station. But as they neared Copper caught a glimpse of what they had to deal with to secure the town; two packs of werewolves were attacking each other and were using the town as their battlefield. How she knew there were two packs was by the fact that she noticed that some of the werewolves were wearing red leg bands and the others were wearing blue leg bands.

It hardly mattered seeing how there were twenty werewolves fighting it out in the streets of the town, making her wonder where the citizens ran off to.

When the train landed Copper and Dynamo let loose with the shock cannons, trying to target what werewolves they could keep track of. The beasts had a strong sense of speed and had the strength to bash whatever was in their way out of their way, but their speed couldn't help them. The vampires had the speed to out maneuver both packs of wolves, but they did not have the brute strength to fight them off with their bare hooves. That was why they had weapons to hurt the wolves, but whatever they were doing didn't seem to be helping them very much.

Peachy, in all her dark glory, was one of the two that seemed to hold her own as she made two of the wolves cower in fear by just using her shadow magic. Those that fought her soon came to know what the true meaning of fear was, but some could actually conquer their fear and fight tooth and claw against her. Wisdom, on the other hoof, was using his unpredictable Pinkie sense to determine where his enemies would be at what time and bashed their heads with his wooden staff. He was unpredictable, but he was on their side, or more like they were on his side, and he controlled where they would ultimately end up.

Copper sighed and jumped out of the train, her metallic limp crackling as electricity surged through the leg, which opened up to reveal the metal dragon claws. One of the werewolves noticed her and ran right up to her, his claws racking the air as he swung them at her, finding her metallic leg right in his gut. While being punched by metal would have hurt any normal being a werewolf, on the other hoof, had some protection against such attacks. But as he began to crack a laugh he failed to account for the energy around the leg.

"Crackle," Copper growled, the electricity releasing and blasting the werewolf right into the side of one of the buildings.

Who needed magic when you had the power to knock the snot out of a fully powered werewolf?

"I see that the three of you have reunited," said a new voice as a werewolf, one who wore a red band and had a metallic guitar strung against his back, appeared in the center of the town, "Wisdom, Peachy, and Copper, it is good to see you all again."

The soundwave that erupted form the guitar, which he had brought out and into his front claws in one fluid motion, knocked several ponies off their hooves in one instant. Copper held her ground thanks to her metallic leg and ran right at the werewolf, intending to use her 'crackle' attack on him. Her enemy made no intention of moving, seeming to welcome the metallic leg right into his gut and the vast amount of electricity that came with it.

"What in the world?" Copper asked, surprised that the werewolf was still standing after the attack, "There's no way that... you..could have..."

Copper realized something in that moment and quickly teleported out of the immediate area, which was soon engulfed in a wind gale for a brief instant. She knew something about the way her enemy fought, mostly because she had been told countless stories about the prowess the pony had. She knew now, that without a doubt, that the pony she was dealing with was Tick Tock, General of the Crystal Empire under Princess Cadence's rule, and the wielder of some powerful sound magic.

And that now included being the alpha of one of the two werewolf packs.

"Nice shot my dear," Tick laughed, a small barrier shimmering before disappearing, "but not powerful enough to put a dent in my sound barrier. I had been hoping that we could have finished our war game, but your untimely arrival has put an end to the whole thing."

"Ah come on man," one of the werewolves said, "Are you sure that we can't just finish up here and let them watch?"

"No Lyra, we wont be finishing the war game anytime soon," Tick said, shrinking until a light brown coated stallion with a black tail and shorter black mane remained, "Whenever Wisdom and Peachy are mixed up in something it is best to drop what your doing and help them out, otherwise they'll come hunting for you. The only thing that could bring them running to me, after three years of being apart, is that they have another wild adventure planned and they want me in on it. That leaves me with a couple of questions, but I'll ask the one question I've wanted answered for the last three years.

Where has the King run off to this time?"

Comments

[Blackdrag-rose]

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Now that I think about it, if Surprise (the yellow pegasus pinkie) were around then there would be four pinkie's...Equestria wouldn't be able to handle four completely random ponies like that.