The Wolves of Equestria

by FenrisianBrony

Apex

My heart raced as I crouched behind yet another rock, feeling like I had done the same thing a hundred times in the last ten minutes alone. Two Lunar Knights walked past, chatting idly amongst themselves about their home, passing by my hiding place unopposed. Darting out, I hurried into the camp itself, the last main obstacle cleared as I approached the scores of tents before me.

From the markings on the tents, I could tell that I was already in the Arctic Wolves section of our above ground operations, and as long as it was set out according to code, I would be able to find my way around. That did not make it any easier though. Before, there had been every chance that the Lunar Knights did not know my face, which gave me a few seconds advantage if I had been confronted. Now, everypony and their mothers knew who I was, especially after I had personally addressed the company after formally taking command. It was a decision I was currently regretting.

Meter by tense meter I advanced further into the camp, heading towards the centre, darting into shadows at the merest sound, waiting for hoofsteps to pass. In many ways it was embarrassing that I managed to get through the security as easily as I did, and when I got back to my command, I would do everything I could to change that. That was still a long way off though, the first thing I had to do was get in contact with ponies I could trust.

Finally though, I saw the tent I was looking for and smiled. The tavern was always packed with ponies, but they usually weren’t looking for anything out of the ordinary, more concerned with getting their drinks and walking out again. What’s more, members of other Legions very rarely came to the Wolves drinking den, most finding it embarrassing how little they could hold when it came to drinking compared to the Wolves.

I waited in the shadows behind the tavern for almost half an hour, the sun dipping lower and lower over the horizon, casting long shadows across the ground, before I finally caught caught sight of one of the two ponies I had been looking for. My heart sighed slightly as I saw Summit, not Gale, but my plan had counted for both of them, and in many ways, Summit had been my preferred option tactically. Emotionally though, I had hoped for Gale.

Pushing the thought from my head, I stooped down and picked up a small rock from beside me, pausing for a second to make sure I lined up my throw properly, before tossing it forward, the rock hitting the back of his head, before pinging off his armour. As I had predicted, he instantly whirled around, glaring into the shadows, trying to pierce the darkness that hid me.

“Who’s there? Is this some sort of joke? If this is a blood Hoof trick I swear I will make you march all the way from here to the Crystal Empire, naked.”

When I didn’t reply, he predictably began to walk towards the darkness until he was almost next to me. Like a coiled spring, I sprang forward, grabbing hold of Summit’s chest and spinning him around, pushing his back into a rock and covering his mouth with a hoof.

“Please…Summit, don’t cry out,” I hissed. “Nod if you’ll at least here me out.”

Summit glared at me for a second, before reluctantly nodding. Sighing, I slowly removed my hoof, Summit spluttering slightly, before grimacing at me.

“How long has it been since you washed that?”

“Glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humour,” I replied dryly.

“Sense of humour?” Summit hissed incredulously. “They said you tried to kill the Warmistress!”

“It’s a lie,” I shook my head, releasing Summit and placing a hoof against my head. “Well, no, it’s true, I did attack her, I tried to kill her, but she’s a lie, she’s not who she says she is.”

“What are you talking about?” Summit growled.

“It’s…gah, it’s too difficult to explain,” I groaned, my mind whirling. “Do you trust me, Summit?”

“Hoarfrost, I…” Summit began.

“Do you trust me?” I asked again, forcing my voice to stay at a loud whisper.

“I…I don’t know, Hoarfrost, you just admitted to trying to kill the Warmistress, the right hoof of the Empress,” Summit shook his head. “But I know you, so I’m going to go out on a limb and say that there is still part of me that trusts you.”

“Good, that’s good, that’s all I need, I can work with that,” I nodded frantically. “I need you to get a word to the Wolf Lord, talk to my father, and to Gale, I can’t meet them here, it’s too risky, but just…get them to meet me here,” I grabbed Summit’s leg and shoved a scrap of paper into it. “It’s directions, to somewhere that should be safe. Just, pass it on, please. And tell them…tell them to come alone.”

“I can talk to Gale for you, Hoarfrost, but I can’t guarantee that I can talk to your father, I don’t even know if he’s back in good shape again,” Summit shook his head, looking at the note. “But, I’ll try. I just hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Yeah, yeah so do I,” I nodded, before turning and running off into the early night, leaving Summit on his own once more.

“I could get into so much trouble for this,” Summit groaned, before trotting off to find Gale and Umbrage.

“Well, what do you know, you were right,” Raptus whispered as he watched Summit run off.

“Hoarfrost is running, the only place he can run to is his friends, watch them, and he will come,” Scorpan nodded with a smile. “It’s one of the benefits of knowing your target really well.”

“Remind me again why we’re watching Summit rather than Hoarfrost though?” Raptus asked. “Our target is Hoarfrost, and he will be far easier to put down on his own than with his wife and father present.”

“Yes, true, but if we kill him on his own and the Wolves hear of it, they won’t trust any story that we give, and that will make everything else that we have planned harder,” Scorpan shook his head. “No, they need to be there, to watch him fail.”

“And if he tells them the truth?”

“He attacked the Warmistress, he’s killed fellow Legionnaires, his word holds little weight anymore.”

“So we follow Summit?” Raptus asked.

“For now,” Scorpan nodded. “Once he convinces Gale and Umbrage to meet Hoarfrost, we can follow them. We just need to stay out of their direct line of sight.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Raptus smiled savagely.

“No, it shouldn’t,” Scorpan smiled back. “Our plans, despite the rabid pups best intentions, remain the same.”

“You’re sure that was all he said?” Umbrage asked, shifting uncomfortably as he tightened the straps on his armour, the metal plates pulling against the scar tissue from his wound. “I need you to think, Grey Hunter. A single word in the wrong place of your report could change its meaning, and I wish to know all the facts about this before I make a decision.”

“It is like I said, my lord,” Summit bowed deeply. “He did not deny attacking Warmistress Luna, rather he admitted to it, but he seemed to think he was somehow in the right while doing so. He wants to meet both you and Long Fang Gale at the place on his note as soon as possible.”

“Did you read it?” Umbrage asked, looking down at the piece of paper.

“No, my lord, I did not feel it was my place,” Summit shook his head.

“Read it now then, the rest of my retinue have read it, and I want all of my Wolf guard to know exactly where this meeting is to take place. Congratulations on your promotion,” Umbrage didn’t look like he actually meant what he said, his brow was furrowed, and his eyes betrayed the storm that was brewing beneath them.

“You honour me, Wolf Lord,” Summit bowed again.

“Leave me, I wish to speak to Gale. Alone.”

Summit nodded, following the other Wolf Guard out of the tent, leaving Umbrage standing alone with Gale. The Wolf Lord waited for almost a full minute after Summit left, before grunting and stumbling towards his bunk. Gale immediately rushed to his side, only to be waved away.

“Don’t, I need to stand under my own power. You and I need to talk about my son. You know him better than I do to my shame.”

“I would hope so, he’s my husband,” Gale sighed.

“Do you really think he’s capable of doing all this?” Umbrage asked.

“Summit said he admitted it, I know Summit well enough to know when he’s lying, he wasn’t,” she sniffed. “But I know Hoarfrost better. He loves Equestria, he wouldn’t betray it, not for anything. Something must have happened, he’s sick, he’s been hit with a new kind of weapon, but…this isn’t him.”

“Don’t cry, Gale Fargaze,” Umbrage placed a hoof under her chin. “You wouldn’t want to make your commanding officer and your father in law watch that now, would you?”

“No, sir,” she shook her head. “But what are we going to do? Hoarfrost is clearly on the run, and if he’s fleeing the Warmistress how do we know that we can find him before she does?”

“My son is not stupid, I believe he will have taken more than adequate precautions before reaching out to us,” Umbrage shook his head. “If we are going to get to the bottom of this, we must meet him. The note talks of a cave, we will go there together, my Wolf Guard will wait away from the entrance, I do not wish to startle or scare off Hoarfrost by coming with guards, but I also do not wish them to be too far away. If we must, and I hope it doesn’t come to this, you will be tasked with fetching them. Do anything to add or any objections?”

“My only objection is that we aren’t there with him now,” Gale sniffed again, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I should have been with him, and I can’t change that, but I can make up for it now.”

“Then let’s move,” Umbrage nodded, walking awkwardly out of the tent. Gale and the Wolf Guard followed after Umbrage as they walked through the camp, reaching the edge and heading towards the location Hoarfrost had asked them to go to.

Very few ponies paid attention to them, those that did were quickly cowed by the sight of Umbrage, once again walking tall, his armour and weapons glinting in the starlight.

“I told you,” Scorpan whispered to Raptus, watching the group head into the darkness. “Prepare the men.”

“They stand ready,” Raptus smiled, glancing back at the twenty ponies.

They were the elite of their respective companies, ten Black Ravens, and ten Night Lords. All of them knew the truth behind everything that had happened thus far, and their part to play in what was to come. None of them would hesitate, which was exactly what Scorpan needed.

Without a word, the twenty two ponies headed after Umbrage and his entourage, blending into the shadows almost effortlessly as they walked silently forward.

I paced nervously in the cave, glancing in the direction of the entrance every now and again, before resuming my nervous patrolling. The cave was large and long, and I was easily out of sight from anypony standing at the entrance, but I was still nervous. My head was pounding as a bout of headaches hit me, coming in waves, sometimes threatening to drive me from consciousness altogether, and if I had miscalculated, if Gale ad Umbrage couldn’t be trusted…

I slapped myself hard across the face at the thought. Gale and Umbrage were family, one by blood, one by bond. The idea that either one of them would be in on such a betrayal was beyond belief.

Scorpan was.

The nagging little voice in my head had been speaking to me for a while now, taking on the voice of ponies I knew, playing on my doubts. This time it sounded like Scorpan himself.

We were friends, weren’t we? The best of friends, and look what happened.

“Shut, up,” I growled.

Why? Is it because you feel like the failure everypony always…

“I said shut up!” I roared, slamming a hoof into a nearby rock face, panting hard.

“Hoarfrost? Is…is that you?”

I instantly threw my back against a large boulder as I heard Gale’s voice, two steps of ponies hoofsteps approaching me.

“Hoarfrost, that was you boy,” my father called.

“Thank, you,” I called back, “Thank you for coming. Are you alone?”

“You asked us to be, we are,” Umbrage replied, the two hoof steps stopping short of my position.

There was a reason I had chosen this cave. It was large enough that the sound bounced around inside it a lot, making it almost impossible to pinpoint where a loud sound came from, which was why I had been intentionally loud when addressing them. Their hoofsteps weren’t that loud, so I could pinpoint where they were both standing quite easily, and that there was nopony else with them.

“Put down your weapons, both of you,” I ordered. “And kick them out of range of your headsets.”

“I do not like being told what to do by my son and my Wolf Guard,” Umbrage growled back.

“We’re not giving up our weapons Hoarfrost,” Gale agreed.

“Do it!” I roared, before calming myself down, panting slightly. “Please, I’m unarmed, you’re not. I don’t want anypony to get hurt, so please put them down.”

After a moment of silence, I heard Umbrage sigh, and the sound of weapons being drawn from their scabbards and placed in the dirt. A moment later I heard them being kicked away from them, and I breathed a small sigh of relief.

“Ok, Hoarfrost,” Gale called. “We put our weapons down, now please, let me see you.”

Taking a deep breath, I stepped out from behind the rock, looking across at Gale and Umbrage, quickly scanning the rest of the room for any other ponies, and finding it empty.

“Thank you both, so much,” I looked between the pair. “I need to talk to you.”

“Then talk,” Umbrage began, taking a step forward.

“Don’t move,” I took a few hasty steps backwards as I held up a rope for them to see. “I’m so sorry, but I can’t risk you moving yet, not before you’ve heard what I have to say. If I pull this rope, the ceiling comes down. I…I just need you to listen to me. Please.”

Umbrages eyes shot up, as did Gale’s, both of them scanning the ceiling, seeing that there was some truth in my words. Both of them returned their gazes to me, their expressions now far harder than before.

“I do not believe we have any choice but to listen to you now,” Umbrage fixed me with a glare that was somewhere between anger, disappointment and concern. “You would threaten your own father and wife? And for what?”

“You don’t know the whole story, you’ve only heard lies and half-truths,” I shook my head, pressing a hoof to the side of my head and grimacing, the voices becoming louder as my thoughts began to cloud again. “You’ve got to believe me, because I know the truth…the truth about a plot bigger than all of us, a heresy against the Empress.”

“By who?” Gale asked, eyeing me warily.

“It’s heresy,” I groaned again, struggling to get my words out properly and clutching my head with my free hoof as it pounded harder and harder. “It goes right to the top…it…the Legions.”

“Just calm down, Hoarfrost,” Umbrage spoke softly. “We can get you help, we can review your evidence. You do have evidence, do you not?”

“The evidence…it’s…it’s in the den,” I muttered, thinking back to what had happened after I left. “The tunnels above it collapsed, I destroyed it. Right at the bottom, below the lowest floor we thought existed. There were tunnels, body, a ritual.”

“You’re not giving me much to go on here, son,” Umbrage sighed.

“You don’t believe me!” I roared, taking a step forward, the rope stretching taut for a second, not quite triggering my trap, but getting close. “Why don’t you believe me?!”

“Hoarfrost, stand still,” Umbrage snapped, not raising his voice, but still sounding more deadly than I could ever hope to be. It had the instant effect of calming me down, and even in my current state, I bowed my head ever so slightly.

“Hoarfrost, we are listening to you,” Gale spoke softly. “I would always listen to you, all we want to do is help you.”

“How do I know you’re not tricking me?” I asked, allowing the rope to go loose again. “How do I know you’re not going to lead me into a trap? The Warmistress wants me dead!”

“You attacked her,” Umbrage snapped. “If she wants you dead I would say that is reason enough, but I am here now, and I will not pass judgement before I see the evidence myself. The Warmistress will not rend judgement before you have told everypony your side of the story, you have my word, both as your father and your Wolf Lord.”

“The Warmistress is in on it!” I shook my head. “I don’t know how much, or, or to what extent, but she knows about it, the sword…Grafter, they told me. And her eyes, her eyes changed. She’s not like us.”

“She is an alicorn, of course she is not,” Umbrage pointed out.

“And Grafter is long dead,” Gale added. “He has been for years.”

“No, he wasn’t, he, he, he came back,” I stammered as I tried to clear my thoughts. “He said he served chaos, that soon all of Equestria would know their tyranny. There are others, so many others. Traitors, heretics, they want to see Equestria fall.”

“Who? If there are traitors in our ranks then I want names, Hoarfrost,” Umbrage took another step forward.

“There’s captain…” I began.

“Stand down, Hoarfrost!” Scorpan roared, his crossbow at the ready.

I turned to see the traitorous captain moving towards me, flanked by twenty one other ponies, Kyroptera Raptus amongst them, all of their weapons were pointed directly at me.

“You betrayed me! You’re working with them!” I roared, glaring at Umbrage and Gale, who looked just as shocked as I did, before my gaze fell on their weapons.

“We didn’t, Hoarfrost!” Umbrage roared in desperation, seeing where I was looking. “Don’t do it!”

“Get away from me!” I roared, diving forward to grab my father’s axe and crossbow, dropping the rope harmlessly behind me.

Grabbing the weapons, I turned and prepared to charge at Scorpan, before I felt something slam into my chest. Taking a ragged breath, I looked down to see a crossbow bolt sticking out of my shattered breastplate. I looked back up at Scorpan, shuddering as I forced myself to take an uneasy step forward, before two more crossbow bolts were fired into my chest.

I could feel the metal digging deep into my flesh, one of them piercing the leather strip that still covered the scar from my very first injury in battle. I tried to take a breath in and move forward once more, but all I managed to do was take a small gasp, before collapsing to the floor, the weapons falling beside me.

Scorpan began to advance towards me, before a dark shape leapt over me, my father rearing in front of the captain and letting out a roar.

“Do not approach my son!”

“Hoarfrost?!” Gale knelt down beside me as Umbrage turned back to face me, still keeping a wary eye on Scorpan and the others, their weapons still raised. “Hoarfrost, just lie still, we’ll get help.”

“Call for help, now! We need a medic!” Umbrage bellowed, Scorpan turning and nodding to a few of his Legionnaires who both took off and headed towards the entrance.

“Gale…Gale…is that…you?” I asked, grabbing hold of Gale’s hoof and pulling her into sight.

“It’s me, Hoarfrost, just lie still,” Gale nodded, tears filling her eyes.

“This…this is bigger than me…bigger than anything any of us could have imagined,” I groaned. “I’m so…sorry I didn’t want this to happen…not to any of us.”

“Hoarfrost, just stay with me,” Gale sobbed as my head rolled back slightly, my eyes beginning to close.

“There’s…a storm…coming, Gale,” I managed through gritted teeth, before looking at my father. “Permission…to carry on?”

“Permission granted, Hoarfrost,” Umbrage nodded, a tear of his own slipped down his cheek.

“Gale,” I rasped, my voice barely even a whisper anymore. “I…love...”

I could still see Gale’s mouth moving as the edges of my vision started to go black, but all sound had drained from around me now. She began to shake me harder, her face contorting into more and more desperate visages. I could hear my heart beating in my ears now, the soft thump, thump getting softer and more spread apart with each passing second.

I could have fought it, should have fought it. I should have held on as long as I could as she shook my body and silently screamed my name, but I was so tired. It had been a long week, but had seen her again. All it took was for me to let go.

I relaxed.

Comments

[iowaforever]

Very clever of Chaos... All the Wolves are going to be mightily embarrassed once the truth is revealed

[FleetlordAvatar]

Now things go very very wrong.