The Bounty Catching, Freedom Dreaming, Winged Wolf Phenomenon

by Cloud_Surfer

Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks

The Bounty Catching, Freedom Dreaming, Winged Wolf Phenomenon

Chapter 4

~{WWP}~

I woke up the next morning after spending the night in front of the door. I wanted to make sure no one tried anything during the night. It’s not like I don’t trust the Diamond Dogs, it’s just that- no, I trusted the D-Dogs about as much as a mouse was expected trust a hungry cat. So quite obviously a large amount.

Stretching out my limbs, I proceeded with my daily morning ritual of cracking as many joints as I could think of. After a particularly loud pop emanating from my lower neck, I noticed Vinyl looking over her shades at me with an eyebrow raised, a hoof curled protectively around Maria whom was still soundly sleeping next to her, snuggled adorably into the white unicorn’s side. I attempted to ignore her, but to no avail. Just as I was about to suggest she take a picture to frame in her bedroom as snarkily as possible, Vinyl finally spoke up.

“Why?” The words were deadpanned, but the meaning held all the emotion necessary. Any more would have sullied the point.

I understood what she meant. That one word held more weight behind it than anything else she could’ve said or done. By asking that, I’d have to tell Vinyl what I had only previously told to only a single soul in my entire life before. Or at least most of it, considering after that soul left the world, my views changed yet again.

“The only reason I’m telling you this is because you deserve to hear it after last night. We’re going on the deck though, I don’t want Maria to hear what I have to say.” I sighed, rubbing the last of the errant sleep out of my eye with a sluggish paw. Lifting my body up, I trudged over towards the door by the deck and let myself outside by giving the unlocked shutter doors a nuzzle. Vinyl managed to get out of bed without waking Maria and she was next to me on the deck rather quickly for how silent she was.

I could tell she was looking at me from the side, but for the moment I just sat there and took in the morning before me. The golden sun rising in the distance, shining defiantly through the rebellious clouds scattered amongst the skies. The smells of dew and the pleasant hint of ozone on all the plants outside, and the chirping of birds mixed into it all. Everything just seemed so peaceful. A shame nothing this calming could last.

Turning towards the mare, I let out yet another heavy sigh, the end trailing off into a resentful growl. “Ok, where to begin. Where I come from is a lot different than here. One of the biggest things my land is proud of is our so called ‘National Dream’ of if you work hard, you’ll be able to achieve greatness regardless of circumstance.” I started, sitting back onto my haunches and setting my muzzle on the railing’s edge, my wings quivering slightly as if to keep my balance subconsciously. Interesting. Should investigate further. She nodded briskly, waiting for me to continue. Pausing for a moment to think about what I was going to say carefully, I returned the nod.

“Well, that’s a huge lie. Now though... you are sort of stuck wherever people with money, therefore power, want you to be. Our schools don’t teach us to learn, but to memorize things. We’re trained to be slaves.” I growled out the last line, baring my fangs at a passing bird as Vinyl herself seemed to be unimpressed, merely snorting in recognition. She didn’t care. Why would she? I just sent off her friend and quite possibly lover down into a Diamond Dog slave mine.

“I spent 18 out of the 20 years of my life being forced into those hell holes that are the excuse for our school buildings, slowly feeling myself by whittled down and shaped. They forced the concept that the only way to be happy was to work hard and get money. My friends followed with their thinking but I didn’t agree. That made me an outsider and something those in charge hated. What they called a ‘Romantic.’” I chuckle at the word, for a moment calling back on the memory when the old fat hardcore catholic bitch of a teacher explained how they were the leach on society. She seems to be getting it, her deadpanned expression slowly turning into that of realization, flicking between wrath and sympathy.

“Nothing is worse than being told you are free to do what you want when in actuality, you aren’t. That’s what those in charge would try and tell us; ‘hard work will get you far.’ I wasn’t one to care too much about it when I was younger. I didn’t like them, but I tolerated it since that’s how the world worked. That was, until those with money decided to fuck me sideways and take the only thing that mattered in my life away. After that, I tried following the system of laws we had in place to at least get some recompense from the offenders. Well they didn’t take too kindly to that and turned the tables on me. I’m pretty sure they then bribed the judge, winning them the case and forcing me out of almost everything I owned, not that any of it mattered after what they took.” I was beginning to shake with a mixture of anger and pain of the memories I’ve been trying to repress with alcohol. Looks like you never really can outrun your past.

I took a deep breath and continued “ Since then, I have an extreme loathing for anyone like those people, and Octavia acted just like them, privileged, demanding, stuck up and rude without fail. All of the things I hated in people back home. I couldn’t do anything there because I didn’t have influence, position or money, and I got screwed by those that did. But here? Here I can finally get payback on those kinds of people, even if it’s not the group that fucked me. I’d apologize for sending Octavia to be a slave, but I’m not really sorry and I’d do it again.” I stated coldly, turning back again to see how Vinyl would feel about everything I just dumped on her. She wouldn't care right?

She just stared into my eyes with her magenta ones, glasses discarded onto the railing. Tears were slowly sliding down the sides of her muzzle as she seemed to struggle with words to send back in retort. I turned away from her. Part of me didn’t like the fact that I had upset her, but the other half of me still regretted nothing that I had done. Besides, Vinyl wanted to know why, so I told her. What I wasn’t expecting though was a pair hooves that wrapped around my neck in a hug from DJ PON-3.

“I’m sorry you had to remember bad times. As for Tavi, the two of us have been friends since we were fillies, and she always did have that sorta air of entitlement and stuck up. Not that it’s any excuse to do what you did. Anyway I understand why you did it, but I won’t forgive or forget what you did either...” She trailed off, wrapping herself around me tighter even during that little threat at the end of her statement.

Holy shit!Vinyl really just forgave me for getting her friend locked up in a mine by Diamond dogs. Was not expecting that at all. Though, I can’t forget that little threat she tagged onto the end of that answer, but eh what’s the worst she can do? Oh, and they aren’t a couple apparently (sorry to the shippers!)

“But that still leaves the question as to why you rescued Maria,” Vinyl prodded as she broke off the hug coldy. This was the part of the story I didn’t want to tell involving those high class people. The pain was still pretty fresh from the event and I knew I wouldn’t be able to hold back tears. So I did the only thing a normal person would do in that situation.

I lied through my teeth and gave the lamest excuse I have ever thought of..

“She’s a young kid, and hasn’t done anything to deserve that kind of treatment yet. I may not be the nicest guy, but I at least don’t punish anyone without, in my mind at least, just cause,” I muttered out. Not exactly the greatest answer, but hopefully Vinyl will accept it. She just nodded at me before turning back to go inside, apparently accepting it.

That was a load off my boat. There was only one pony that I intended to tell that story if I ever ran into her, but that would also be if all the fanfics about her were true as well. I really hoped that they weren’t true, in the deepest parts of my heart, but only time will tell me that one.

Then I realized there was something I wanted to know, so before she went back inside I stopped her. “Why didn’t you try and stop me last night anyway? Or try and save her now?”

Vinyl just gave me one of those ‘you’re joking right’ kind of looks before shaking her head. “In case you didn’t really notice, you sorta scare the crap out of everypony. That and I’m not exactly a fighter, so I wouldn’t have been much good. Better to go and talk to the guards in Tailton. I wouldn’t do Tavi much good if I got caught.” She then turned and left me alone on the deck.

The rest of the morning went off without another incursion. Maria, Vinyl and I went downstairs after a fair amount of consoling to see that all the blood had been cleaned up from last night, and that the ‘Boss’ set out three plates with breakfast on them with a note next to the meal. We ate pretty quickly and got the hell out of that tavern, with Vinyl taking the name of the place down on a notepad. Turning down the road, we rebooted our trek to Tailton with a shy, bashful griffin instead of snobby grey earth pony bitch.

It was nice to actually have a moment to think to myself for a bit. Maria was too shy to start any conversation and Vinyl was just merrily bobbing her head to some beat she was thinking, so I finally could think some of my situation over a bit more; at least more so than I did last night.

One thing I was just now realizing was how the hell was everything so natural to me? I never did stop and think about how I could move with enough grace to have avoided getting my brains bashed open by the grace of ‘Mr.Wrecking Ball’ after just getting out of a crate in a new body. Literally out of the box one could say. I was even a better fighter than I ever was in my old body. I was always the kind of guy to end things quickly, but the ease with how I took down those Diamond Dogs last night startled me slightly.

Really, the only thing about this body that confused me still without end was the wings. I guess it could be since humans have no experience with creatures with six appendages or my lack of experience with wings. Working with dogs and on the rare occasion, a wolf, has given me intimate knowledge on how they move around, so that could explain how I knew to use my legs already. Wings though, I’ve never worked with anything that had wings, so I had no idea how to take flight.

Flapping like an idiot probably wouldn't work under the best of circumstances.

Glancing over at Maria, I noticed that she kept fidgeting with her wings, as if she were itching to take flight. I couldn’t blame her though, cause I was the same way. I just didn’t know how. Maybe if I saw…

IDEA!!

“Hey Maria, wanna do me a favor?” I casually asked the young griffin, a soft smirk playing forcefully over the edge of my mouth that faced Maria. You don’t need to feel the emotion, just pretend like you do and you’ll get anything with words.

She jumped up, panic setting in as she flapped her wings hard, startled by the sudden noise before floating down softly, blushing like the wall behind a poorly performing magician.

“Um…I guess I can help if you need it, but I’m not exactly good at stuff,” Maria whispered her response, trying her hardest to look in every possible direction but mine. She was just such a cute little griffin kid. Like a Fluttershy that was actually useful in times of stress.

“Well, I just need to get a look at how you take off. I don’t really know how to work these things.” I explained, fluttering my avian appendages out for emphasis. I stood for a moment, suddenly realizing that I had no back up story to tell people that didn’t know about me.

LIE, LIE FOR ALL YOUR FURRY-FEATHERED ASS IS WORTH!

“I was an orphan back home, and no one ever bothered to teach me.” Vinyl was giving me a quizzical look at that one, but didn’t say anything. Thankfully her bullshit meter wasn’t that great, or it’d have spontaneously combusted the second I opened my muzzle.

Maria just looked embarrassed at the request. She was blushing and fidgeting her front claws on the ground. I just barely managed to hear her say ‘Sure... I mean if you want me to, I’m not a good flyer...’ even with my massively augmented hearing. Well that answer is good enough for me. Counts as ‘yes’, right?

“Awesome, take off whenever you want. I’ll be watching. I may ask you to land and do it again until I get it right though,” I told her with a nice broad grin. She blushed even harder So. Adorable... before just nodding and spreading her wings and launching into the air.

[HAD TO STOP HERE, SORRY. PM ME TOMORROW ~MuzzledElk]

It took me a couple times watching her take off before I figured out just how I was messing up. Every time Maria took off, she started with a powerful flap to get off the ground, but she then moved her wings like a swimmer doing freestyle. She lifted the wings up bringing them close to the body before rotating them over and spreading them back out with the down stroke.

I face pawed at how stupid I was. Every time I tried to fly I just moved my wings up and down like an idiot. I always got into the air but quickly made friends with the ground soon after.

‘Well, time to see if this old dog can learn some new tricks,’ I thought to myself. I managed to pull it off the first time, and let me just say I was sorta scared shitless of crashing. Being a couple hundred feet off the ground without anything to catch you but yourself can be a little intimidating. The moment I realized I wasn’t going to plummeting back into the ground below in a horrific crash I did the only reasonable thing a competitive person like me could think of. I started to push myself to see how fast and high I could go.

It didn’t take long to realize that I was a natural at flight. Even though Maria is a much more experienced flier than I am, I was flying circles around her in a few hours. I guess my wing muscles are just more developed than a griffin’s since she told us she wasn’t going to get much bigger. But now I have to wonder if I’m faster than griffins, will I be faster than pegasi; More specifically, a certain rainbow maned mare? I’ll have to put together a little competition in Tailton to find out how fast I was.

Maria landed after about a couple hours of flying in the sky, saying how she was getting tired. I on the other hand just started to feel like I was warmed up. This high up, I noticed my eyes sorta had a telescopic mode that let me see over a mile away. Thankfully I figured out how to control it quick enough, or I’d crash into everything and get massive migraines on the ground. After seeing how far up I could go, I started testing out speeds and some different maneuvers I’ve seen jet pilots do. Nothing fancy like Rainbow Dash does, just some basic flips and rolls. Nothing I’ve ever done before in my life felt as right as did flying that day. By the time my wings became too tired to carry me, the moon was beginning to rise in the east.

I dove back down towards Vinyl and Maria. Our group managed to find a nice place to camp in some trees lining the road. I didn’t want to have any more timber wolves to show up or any uninvited guests for that matter. Getting Vinyl up into the tree wasn’t that hard for Maria and me to pull off. I probably could’ve gotten the DJ into the branches myself if my wings weren’t exhausted from flying all over the place today.

“Good night you two, sweet dreams,” I called over towards them before succumbing to sleep. My dream was plagued by strange visions, all more realistic than any dream I’ve had. Standing behind Princess Luna on a wall, talking to a white coated pink maned unicorn, flying around dragons of different sizes and colors, chasing after a rainbow trail in the sky, shaking hoof and paw with Prince Blueblood, approaching a tree house in an orchard, and finally looking through prison bars were just a few of them.

I jumped awake from that dream, and promptly fell twenty feet to the ground. “Well if have the shit I just saw happens, this trip could be pretty damn interesting,” I mumbled as I got back onto the branch below Maria and Vinyl, slowly drifting into a much more peaceful slumber.

~{WWP}~

Comments

[Troutking]

This is very interesting
I'll be sure to keep an eye on this

[Deathpony]

good chapter cant wait for the next chapter

[Krinsy]

you should submit your story to Unique transformation group, it fits right in.
Anyway this story sounds good, will continue to read.

[devas]

After reading it, I have to have say: it really, really seems to me that Zeta is a senmurv. Are there plans for his exact species to be revealed? because otherwise I'm just going to have it as my headcanon

[Knighthawker]

........ Wait.... this is the same universe as Griffin the Griffin and Ballad of Echo the Diamond Dog right? Why isnt it in that group they made? You know the one.

[Corona Blaze]

702725 You mean 'Chess Game of the Gods'?

[Liqwidice]

AWWWW! He didn't howl at the moon.

[AegisoftheDawn]

So essentially his defense is: "I didn't like being a slave to circumstance so I willingly send people like Octavia to be slaves and I would do it again."

Seems legit. . .

[Thardoc]

it could be argued that he did send a child to enslavement with octavia, she was obviously still as innocent as a child to how the world works outside equestria.

[Captain_Savage]

Had to stop here I really like your story and you are a great writer but I cant read a story where I hate the protagonist.

[Admari]

So... his justification for sending Octavia to be enslaved is that she's a proxy for everything he hates on Earth?

That's a bit of a stretch.

[Plotbuster]

So, his reasoning is that she reminds him of people he doesn't like, so he condemns her to a brutal and most likely short life of slavery? Totally makes sense now that I've come to the realization that your OC is a sociopath. And vinyl being basically fine with the situation, to the point that she's happily headbobbing the next morning? I can totally see that, yup. Maybe you're setting her up as a very naive pony? No, you'd have to be characterizing her as a brutally stupid pony for her to not see the possible outcomes of Octavia being in the hands of slaver diamond dogs for even a few days. Not to mention the high likelihood of all the slaves being moved or sold off before the town guard even gets there. It's cool though, letting her childhood friend be brutalized and possibly raped by diamond dogs for an indeteriminate period of time will be character building.

Meteors...

Plural.

[AwesomeAlan555]

is best pony

[Mondays Dawn]

932144 Damn strait. though luna is a close second.

[DerpedRainbow]

Your editor needs some work if he forgets to remove his little messages.

[monkeyXtypewriter]

*sigh* sadly I cannot continue reading that slavery crap just doesn't sit we'll with me, especially if her life long friend is just gonna forget about it like straight away. But I like your writing style so imma check out your other stories silver lining I guess.

[LorD ChaOS]

what an complete bastard! you don't like someone, so you condemn them to a life of brutal slavery! just ... what the fuck?! what the actual fuck!?

[Fancy Fox]

2535084
It might just be my fucked up moral compass but I felt his actions were justified? Idk maybe it's just me

[PetitPoney]

[HAD TO STOP HERE, SORRY. PM ME TOMORROW ~MuzzledElk]

Come on. This kind of messages shouldn't be there.
I say, this story NEEDS an editor.
denver.mylittlefacewhen.com/media/f/rsz/mlfw1898_small.png
That editor is me, of course.

[Soldragonis]

2564130 Accutaly, it is short-time slavery. I belive the guards will get her out, but she won't be stuck up anymore

[Bread Shot]

I stood for a moment, suddenly realizing that I had no back up story to tell people that didn’t know about me.
LIE, LIE FOR ALL YOUR FURRY-FEATHERED ASS IS WORTH!

Laughed so loud and hard...

[Valchio]

3755058 Your profile pick shows that.

[salmoncolor]

3408314 I think Muzz IS the editer

[Sad Doge]

I'm gonna have to read the rest when I have time.

[StandbyForTitanfall]

3408314 You're the editor this story needs, but not the one it deserves....

[Ephedianroyalty]

[HAD TO STOP HERE, SORRY. PM ME TOMORROW ~MuzzledElk]

Yeah... take that out

[Black--Soul]

Wow... Future Visions? That interesting. I know Octavias fate if this Story is connected to Mary Stu story of the chessverse... harsh...