The Moon's Lullaby (32)
The Moon's Lullaby
Say what you will of the changelings. They are efficient in their work. Hardly a week had passed before we received reports on the wayward pack that had been running amok across Equestria. We had a location, we had an approximate time frame that they'd be staying there, and we had a plan. It was one that involved Cloudkicker.
"There's something I need to ask of you Cloud. Something I think you won't like very much."
"Lark, please stop beating around the bush."
"As you wish. We found the ones that attacked you. The ones that killed your sister. We plan to apprehend all of them, but the plan involves you."
"You're right, I don't like it, but I'll still hear you out."
"You and I will head in to their den first as distractions, while the guard surrounds them and cuts off their escape. Our role in distracting them is pivotal. Their senses are highly attuned. If they detect the guard while they're getting into position, they might escape. I believe that one reason they left you alive is in the hopes that you'd turn and become one of them. That you'd join their pack. If you appear before them, you may very well convince them that is the case. Ask them questions, talk about joining them. Distract them while we get into position. If anything goes wrong, I'll be waiting to assist. Turn, and get yourself out of there, let me handle the bloody stuff."
"Okay. I trust you."
Three days later, outside a cave on the outskirts of Manehatten, a massive regiment of the royal guard sheltered themselves from the rain. Earth ponies and unicorns in the bushes, pegasi in the clouds making a gentle rain to mask the scent and sound of our approach.
"Everybody ready?" All the guards carried silver weapons, and had silver lining on their armor to protect them. The bushes just barely blocked out the gleaming reflection of the moonlight, hanging in the sky.
"Cloudkicker, are you prepared?"
"Yes, Lark."
"Now, remember, do not be nervous. They'll sense your agitation. Enter as if you belong there. Keep them talking. Turn and let out howl if you need help. I'll be right outside."
The two of us moved quietly across the small clearing towards the rocky outcrop that the changelings had confirmed would be home to our quarry. I pressed my back up against one of the stones while she walked right in the front. I strained to hear what was going on and found that our caution was wholly unnecessary. This pack was what ponies consider to be party animals. They were playing music, dancing, drinking, fornicating, and acting as wild as could be. I risked a peek around the corner. There were a number of prisoners tied up in the corner, huddled to themselves. No corpses. Good. Standing atop a rock at the side of the room was a scraggly old pony with a wild look in his eyes. Despite his greying hair, he had an unnatural vitality to him. An intense strength exuded from his entire body. Clearly the leader.
"Everyone! A moment please! I hate to bring the night's festivities to a close, but we have a visitor." All eyes turned to Cloudkicker.
"Oh hey! I remember that one. Weren't there a pair?"
"We ate the other one, stupid." The first one growled and pounced on the second. The old one rolled his eyes and spoke to their visitor.
"We left you for dead, and yet you survived. Stronger, faster, better than you were before. I see you've regrown your hoof. That is proof of what you've become. The only question that remains, why have you come here?"
Now just tell him you've come to join the pack. Keep him talking.
Cloudkicker clenched her teeth and snarled.
"You..... animals..... you killed her....." She was barely able to make out amidst her growling as her transformation began. "I'll FUCKING KILL YOU." Confronted by the ones who caused her so much pain and fear, the ones who took her precious sister from her, and with her now present beastial rage, she couldn't hold back anymore.
"Yes! Wonderful!" The old one clapped his hooves together. "Such strength, such fury! And to track us down after so much time, once the trail had gone cold! Everyone? Why don't we welcome her to the pack?" Three dozen pairs of eyes turned golden, howls rang out as they began their own transformations. "Don't worry, they won't be too rough. You'll come to accept us sooner or later." Once they finished changing, they charged, intending to pounce on her.
Aaaaand that's my cue. I rushed in, not even bothering to shapeshift, ran up the the nearest one and buried my fist in his skull. I pushed father and farther, driving it as far as I could, until the feral mare flew across the room, skidding on the floor before finally crashing into the wall.
"If I may interject, she can't join your pack, she's already a member of mine."
Cloudkicker herself had a the back of a second one's neck in her mouth as she shook wildly, a hoof pressed on the throat of a third that she had pinned to the floor. She looked at me with adorable puppy eyes as she released her victims, who scrambled across the room.
"Heel." The grey pony commanded his pack. Taking a look at his cutie mark, it was a wolf howling to a crescent moon. If his special talent is being a werewolf, he must have been bitten at a very young age. The rabble he commanded obeyed, backing off with their tails between their legs. "Princess Luna's pet. Lark. We finally meet."
"You know my name, but I do not know yours." I replied.
"It will remain that way. You don't need to know who I am, since you're about to die. Such a shame about her though." He motioned to Cloudkicker. "I thought for sure she was one of ours."
In that instant, she howled, I grabbed her and threw ourselves to the floor as a wave of silver arrows and spell fire poured in through the small entrance.
"Grrr." She nipped my arm as she struggled in my grasp.
"Stay down!" I gripped her tighter.
After a few moments, the horrific noise of burning flesh, howls of pain and growls of rage died down, and the sound of hoofcuffs clicking shut was took it's place. I stood, keeping a hand on Cloudkicker to keep her calm, letting her stand up slowly. The guard had done their job. Everyone was in custody.
Standing outside a prison cell, one who's interior I had become extremely familiar with, I spoke with Luna and Cloudkicker.
"I'm sorry Lark." The pegasus began. "When I saw them, and when I thought about what they had done, I couldn't control myself."
"It's alright. We were successful anyways."
"Yeah." She sighed. "Though it could have gone more smoothly."
"So, M'lady." I turned to Luna. "Who's this?"
"I can hardly believe it myself..... a thousand years.... Grey Fang, is that you?" The old looking pony grit his teeth and faced away. "Talk to me Grey Fang."
"Grr... You have no right to command me, not after what you did."
"Then what about me?" I asked. "And her?" I motioned to the only other member of my own pack. "Don't we deserve an explanation?"
"You want to know what she did? Hehe... There were twenty of us. We were Luna's hounds. She was our master, our goddess. We ruled the night, roaming the land, keeping the ponies safe as they slept. We guarded their bodies, while she guarded their dreams. Over time, they grew to fear the mare than haunted their dreams, and her guard dogs that prowled the streets. They saw us as monsters, but that was okay. As long as we had each other. That wasn't good enough. She became jealous. She wanted to be loved by those creatures of the day. She felt alone and hated. What about us? What about the songs we sang every night? The smell of cool grass, wet with dew, the forest, the trees, the leaves. Howling at the moon, counting the stars. What we had was special, sacred. And it was NOTHING to her. She wanted more. And then she vanished for a thousand years."
Grey Fang stopped talking to me, and directed the discussion towards Luna instead. "You abandoned us. Do you have any idea what it was like? We were yours. Heart and soul. You were our everything. To be so tame, so reliant on someone for orders, for their approval, and then you vanish? We were lost, alone, not trusted by the other ponies. We had no idea what to do, who to turn to. You becoming Nightmare Moon had made them all the more suspicious of us, your followers. We tried to stay together. Our children, and our children's children, they were unwelcome. They left and eventually became the diamond dogs, but we, those original twenty, we stayed. We prayed to the moon every night. We howled, we sang, we wept." He paused.
"We couldn't take it any more."
"Swift Paw took it the worst. After a hundred years, she lost faith. She decided you were never coming back, and that life wasn't worth living. Strong Paw couldn't handle the loss of his sister and followed in her hoofsteps. The twins, Pieces and Gemini, who you named as foals, went to live their lives in the woods. They lasted a couple hundred years until some self righteous pony got it in his head to hunt a couple of werewolves and rid their village of the menace. After that, one by one, they started going feral. I didn't forget my duty. They became a danger to the ponies who you once had us swear to protect. One by one, they lost their minds, and one by one, I put them down. Including my own wife. You remember Sandy, don't you? HHa... hahaha...... hehhahhhhhhhaaaaaeeeeeeeeeee." He started bawling his eyes out at this point. "She was so sweet, even as a wolf. She'd frolic in the fields, snapping at bees and getting stung in the mouth. Hahehehe....." His visage snapped from one of misery at a fond memory, never to be regained, and shifted to one of rage.
"I spent five HUNDRED years alone. I couldn't take it anymore. So, three hundred years ago, I got it in my head to make my own pack. I was careful, meticulous, went one at a time. Made sure your sister would think it was her new, subterranean neighbours. It was all going well, but this new generation. They were so enthusiastic. They started bringing in more and more members, of their own accord. They took to lunacy like it was meant for them. I must confess that I'm not so good at reigning them in as you were. You can see the result. Several times I thought of putting them down once they got out of control, but after Sandy, I couldn't bring myself to do it again. So, I had them roam with me. Going where we pleased. Doing what we wished. Having no master to reign us in, no leash. And here we are, once again brought to heel, this time by your new pet."
He turned to me. "You replaced us, but it'll only be a matter of time before you've outlived your use, then she'll be rid of you, too." With that, he turned to face the wall and proceeded to ignore us.
"So, what will you do with him?"
"Only thing I can do. Give him to Rothak. The accord is very clear. They're his now. Hopefully he'll be able to take care of them."
"Any word on that griffin adolescent?"
"Lord Rigamarole has our condolences. His son is dead. I can't but help feel somewhat responsible."
"M'lady, you did not do this. This may have happened because of the past, but you did not intend, or even know that this could occur. You are not to blame for this."
"Thank you Lark."
"What about the prisoners?"
"They were all bitten. Most of them have become lycans already. They were tied up because they didn't want to join them. Apparently he was keeping them around till they changed their minds."
"Parties with food, drink, and sex are generally something you'd want to be a part of. The beast inside would want to join in, and eventually they'd yield to their desires." I mused. "If they've already had their first transformations, wolfsbane won't help. We should try and use the elements of harmony to cure them."
"What of you two? Lark? Cloudkicker? If given the option, would you want to be cured as well?"
The two of us looked to each other and nodded in silent agreement. I looked back to Luna.
"If you had asked me when we first me, I would have agreed immediately. Now? It has become a part of my life. Something I have accepted, and come to own. With your help, I have purged my demons. They no longer have hold of me. My curse has become a blessing, one that I wouldn't throw away."
"I feel the same." Cloudkicker added. "I've only been this way a short while, and already Lark has shown me such wondrous things. I still mourn the loss of my sister, but I am NOT one of the monsters who killed her. I want to control this, so I don't lose my cool like I did back at the cave, and with Lark to help me, I think I can achieve that."
"Speaking of the cave, and what Grey Fang said. Are you not worried that one day I'll disown you?"
"If you do, then be it a hundred years, a thousand, or ten thousand, when you come back, you'll find us waiting for you. We'll be rather cross, but I think we'll just be happy to see you again, though there may be more of us."
"Surely you don't mean you'll follow in Grey Fang's path."
"I was thinking more along the lines of children. I may be the most obstinate abstinent, but Cloud Kicker is a mare in her prime, who will remain in her prime for all of eternity, given that we don't age. Don't expect her not to find someone. Besides, she has my version of lycanthropy. The odds of her descendants being diamond dogs is slim to none." She blushed as we casually spoke about her mating potential.
"We've all had a long night. I think we'll watch the sunrise and go to bed."
Cloudkicker and I sat on the Canterlot wall, watching the sun come up, as Luna stood behind us, lowering the moon.
"You know, I don't think I'll ever get tired of seeing the horizon. Infinite possibilities, waiting just beyond. And, since I'm not getting any older, I have all the time in the world to explore it." Cloudkicker began.
"Which makes me curious, why did Grey Fang look so old? Judging from his mark, he must have become a lycan at a young age."
"He did not." Luna replied. "He used to be my master of hounds. Of that ancient pack of wolves, he was the leader. Before he was bitten, he had already spent most of his life researching them. They were his passion. While he may not have gotten any older, the years took a different toll. He became tired, it seems. I think part of why he had so much trouble controlling the young wolves was they were much more rambunctious, something I remember him being in his youth. His aging was not of the body, but of the mind. Time was unkind to him in that regard."
"Do you think that will ever happen to me?"
"Oh Lark, you play one of the most finicky instruments to ever exist, your idea of a good time is a quiet night at home with a cup of tea, your sex drive is zero and you dress like the butler. You're not even thirty and you're already ancient."
We all had a good laugh at my expense as the sun finally breached the horizon.
"Well, that's it then, I'm headed to bed." Cloudkicker excused herself as she flew down into the city below.
"As am I." Luna looked back to me, and gave a devious smirk. "Care to join me?"
"I'll pass. Me and my non-existent libido are going to sit here a little while longer."
"You're going to make me pay for that one, aren't you?" She pouted.
"Absolutely."
"Suit yourself." With that, she flew back into the city as well.
Once I was sure we was out of earshot, I began to sing.
"Goodnight sweet starlight, huddle away, under the warm blanket of day. The moon's watch is over, the sun's up above, the princesses sharing their motherly love. So wake up dear ponies, the day starts anew, with places to be and much work to do. And when the day's over, you'll lay down to count sheep, and Lark on the wall top will sing you to sleep."
END
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IT LIVES!!!
....WAIT WHAT
7207134
Aaaaand, It's finished.
Thank you for finally finishing this. Yay!
IT LIIIIIIVES!!!
Wait, what do you mean by 'END'
...So you're telling me... ...that after making us wait all this time...
THIS IS THE LAST CHAPTER!?
7207134 IT DIES well it completes it's life and is now completed but still.
On one hand, it's a perfect end point. On the other, it feels to good to end, ever. Minor problem of you being too good for obviously several of us. Gratzè on a well written work, and luck to your future work
I hate to see any good story end... but a good ending brings hope for new beginnings :) I enjoyed the story, and if a sequel decides to mosey along, we will enjoy that as well :)
Thx for the fun story :)
A shame to see Lark's tale end just as it returned, but alas, no story is truly never-ending.
Personally just glad I can remove this from my non movers list and onto my favourites, was too good to leave unfinished.
I can uderstand the intro of an essay being tough, but the conclusion? Just summarase all the shite you wrote about in your body paragraphs! Kinda like the intro in reverse. It's what I did all through high school!
Great story :)
Soooooo, basically this was all Luna's fault.
Worst Princess indeed!
While I did enjoy this story, I would have much preferred if Lark at least truly embraced his relationship with Luna or even took her out on a date
When I first saw this in my notifications: "IT LIVES?!
"
"
"
When I saw it was complete: "it was a good run
When I finished the chapter: "OK time to imagine a sequel
I won't ask for a sequel, but...
...
...
...
EPILOGUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Preferably with some half-lycan half-alicorn babies.
7207134 Only to be put to rest.
7209596
And that ladies and gentlemen, was how the centar-wolves were created!
At long last! It can finally rest in peace. It is done.
Now that it is finally finished, I have to read it all over again just to fully enjoy it!
This story has a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and even when it didn't look like it, the characters were all true to form.
Im not sure how I feel about this story. Some points i like or love, but some i dislike or hate. I right down the middle with this one. I feel it could be paced oit more and by that I mean. One chapter hes getting his first training and the next its like half way through training and a year later. So yeah basically im not sure.
im going to kill myself
° ͜ʖ °
7345286
Please respond to this comment to confirm that was a joke.
7567170 Yeah, It gets better again after. You can tell at this point of the story, I really didn't know where I was going with it, but it vastly improves in later chapters. I just got Luna all wrong. She's a character who, at the time, I had no experience writing, and I'll admit I screwed it up royally.
7974298 I know
I look back on that comment and am quite ashamed at how rude I was over picking at someone's story in their comment box over something at trivial as some random history fact I only knew because I searched it not long before.
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img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire2/9fc5956ed9db4f3759655190d695a4341227405881_full.jpg
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Outran High School Host Club. I think.
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I am not afraid of God I am afraid of Man.
9333589
Huh. That character actually looks like Grundelhouse Code from the anime Log Horizon. He would probably react similarly too something.
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Eeeeeeeh, I am afraid of what God would do to me if I piss 'im off. Man can be killed easily. A silver bullet or sword and armor for a werewolf for instance. Or slip nightsbane into something. Man, while dangerous and scary af, can be killed. I mean, look at us now. We can destroy ourselves in minutes to hours. We could even stretch the suffering of the last few dredges of humanity after a nuclear war. Destroy the planet and all life on it. Use the same nukes they use in fallout. Those don't behave in the same way a standard nuke does. It is also a possible design. And if multiple(hundreds) are fired all across the world, kiss your ass goodbye. Meanwhile, God can just snap a finger or say a word, and we can all disappear without so much as a peep.
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THAT'S WHY I FEAR HIM! We can escape the nukes but not God!
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But you said the opposite........
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Man is less predictable than god though.
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Well, sure. But they are escapable.
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Anywhere you can go man can go.
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Sure, but anywhere you can go, God is already there.
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Ok this has gone on for long enough god can and would most likely kill you instantly whereas humans could make you suffer the rest of your life. So I CONCEDE DEFEAT!
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yay! I win! 
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YOU DID THAT ON PURPOSE DIDN'T YOU!
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Meeeeeeeeeyyyyyyyyyybeeeeeeeeeeee?
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CURSE YOU PERRY THE PLATYPUS!
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*rapid clicking*
9338197
We have added 17 comments to this story in ONE discussion alone.
9338363
Heh. At least we weren't spewing hate at each other. Unlike most.
9338542
Yep. 19.
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18 in a month.
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21 comments
9339202
Oh. Make that 22.
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Ah........hmmmmmm...........*shifts uncomfortably* interesting..................
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A comic called off-white.
Here's the link.
Please tell me there's a sequel on the way or at least being thought of. This is an amazing story and I want more.