Lone Wolf of Equestria: Back to the Pack

by JNKing

Chapter 16: Logan's Lost Love

I knew we were in trouble the moment we got into the mountains. Getting out of the arena was easy enough; the idea of freedom agreed with Mongo, and any guards we came across, he either knocked aside with devastating head butts, or I blasted them aside with my howl.

But we could only run down corridors for so long, and we eventually came out into a giant mountainous region. Luckily, it seemed to be set in a remote area; there were very few minotaurs, and most of them were centered on a mountain path that seemed to lead downward. I’m sure there was a town or something; maybe a few minotaurs that actually weren’t that bad…

#

“You’re not entirely wrong,” Rarity admitted.

“Yeah, the minotaur we met never put us into gladiatorial combat,” Pinkie Pie added. “He only gave Fluttershy these lessons in asserting herself that made her really-really mean.”

Logan glanced over at Fluttershy, who looked away in shame. However, Logan softly nuzzled her; a silent indication that he didn't judge her. The soft look they shared didn't last, though.

“That’s like comparing a knife cut to a mosquito bite,” Logan noted to Pinkie and Rarity.

“Perhaps,” Rarity admitted. “But some of those minotaurs can at least give the appearance of civility.”

#

Well, whether they could be civil or not, I had a truck load of them roaring after my tail. Well, and Mongo’s tail as well, but he hadn’t hung their alpha by the neck and then blasted the lot of them into a wall.

Thankfully, Mongo wasn’t interested in minotaur hospitality. He soared across the craggy rocks and stones like he was made for climbing – which he was, kind of. I quickly found myself grabbing onto his shaggy fur just to keep from falling off the side.

But no matter how many turns we took; how high we climbed, we couldn’t out run that damn bull bellowing.

Then I noticed something; a hillside with craggy rocks blocking the view. As cover went, it was looking pretty good.

I slipped away from Mongo, and headed for the crag. He made it a few feet before realizing I was leaving him.

“What is Lone Wolf doing?” he demanded.

“Those minotaurs are still on our tails,” I replied, making it between the crags. “You move ahead. I’ll hold off as many as I can, and find my own way from there.”

“Wolf can’t take on minotaur army!” Mongo insisted. “Yak tried! Yak failed! Wolf will fail too.”

“Only if I charge in like a numb nut,” I replied with a grin, taking my spot at the top of the crag covered hill. “I’m the one that killed their alpha; I’m the one they want,” I added in a more serious tone. I gave him a nod. “Get out of here. Get back to where you belong.”

Mongo shifted, looking very uncomfortable with leaving me.

“Yak didn’t ask for help…” he mumbled.

“AND WOLF DIDN’T OFFER HELP!” I barked at him. The fur in front of his eyes flew apart, and he stared at me with big blue eyes, wide with shock.

I did feel a little bad barking at him like that. But the bellows were growing closer, and it didn’t feel right for me to have saved this guy, only for him to die because he was stubborn. I was the only suicidal stubborn creature around here, thank you very much.

Thankfully, it worked. With another glance back at the approaching minotaurs, Mongo raced off down his mountain path.

“Fight to live, Lone Wolf of Equestria,” Mongo called as he left. “Yak hope to meet Wolf again someday.”

“Count on it,” I called back to him. Then he disappeared over the ridge, and I turned back with a glare at the approaching minotaurs.

The first ones to appear had crossbows. Thankfully, I had chosen my perch well, and their arrows clanged uselessly off the crags. Murmuring in anger, they drew axes and advanced.

The first one shoved himself through. I hurled a stone at his head, dazing him, and shoved him right back into the crowd. A second one came up for me, but I caught his axe by the wooden handle and stabbed him in his nose.

Unfortunately, as the crowd converged, their crossbowmen got smarter. They figured out they had a better shot at me between the crags. They adjusted their position, and I soon found myself backing up as arrows slammed into the ground, their metal points seeking my flesh.

I was backed up from the crag, quickly losing both the high ground and the ability to bottle them in. I was stubborn, but not stupid, and I quickly fell back as they overcame my hill.

It was tougher to run away from them this time; I didn’t have Mongo and his cloven hooves. I had to scramble over the boulders, while the minotaurs easily leaped over them. One got too close, and I had to engage him. He was thankfully smaller than Steel Fist, and when I managed to shove my remaining blade into the same spot I had gone for on Steel, this smaller minotaur easily went down.

But his friends were catching up, and no sooner had I gotten one down than two more took his spot. I briefly deflected their attacks, my ears flat and my eyes darting for a hiding spot.

Almost like a gift from the spirits of my dead, I saw a small opening; a cavern. Without much left to go on, I ducked under my two foe’s swings, dodged another arrow and hurled myself into the cave.

The sun had been shining bright outside. Not here, though; here the cave was cold and clammy. My fur kept me warm just fine – enough had grown back from my shave job in the desert – but I could feel the cold pressing against my fur like the shadow of death, longing to chill me to the bone.

The minotaur’s bellows still rang in my ear, and I ignored the cold, forcing myself in further and further. Had I not been out of my mind with panic and adrenaline, I might have wondered how the cave was capable of going on for that long. Or how smooth the rocks were, as if something had gone through and dug their way in before me.

As I went deeper and deeper, I was forced to rely on scent, the darkness pressing on my eyes, and the roar of the minotaurs ringing in my ears. Yet, as I managed to avoid smashing into the wall, the minotaurs’ voices… changed.

They increased in pitch. They sounded less angry, and more… afraid. I heard some odd zapping noises, along with the smashing sound of steel hitting stone. But bit by bit, the minotaur’s cries died out, and soon, I was left with only silence.

Something was in here. Something that had gotten the minotaurs. And might get me too. Part of me wanted to light up my fur; give me some form of illumination to find my way out of. But my throbbing heart and gut begged me not to; the minotaurs were an easy target. They had charged into this territory, stamping and shouting. I may have led them, but I was smaller, and – dare you believe it – quieter. There was a chance the minotaurs had drowned me out.

Yet I couldn’t bring myself to fully believe it. As I tried to find my way through the darkness, I felt… a presence. It was like something was watching me. Waiting.

Then I heard the clattering of stones. I froze where I stood, my ears waving in every direction. Ever since the Sirens, I had never been more grateful for the use of my ears.

A scent came to me; sweat and blood. From the arena. The clatter drew closer; it sounded like it was right ahead. I let my fur glow, and found myself staring at a female minotaur. Her eyes were dilated in fear, and the minute they locked on me, she let out a cry and charged me.

I prepared to defend myself, but I never got the chance. There was a blinding flash of light, a scream, and suddenly… the minotaur was gone.

I should have darkened my fur. Looking back, I know I should have. But right as I tried, I saw a flicker of purple. A very familiar purple. My tail flicked up, and I increased my fur’s glow.

I was looking at Twilight Sparkle.

#

The others looked at Twilight, as Logan locked eyes with her.

“But… that’s impossible!” Twilight exclaimed. “I’ve never…”

“I know it wasn’t you,” Logan countered. “It was a changeling. They made that very clear in a few seconds.”

#

As my fur brightened to reveal her, the fake Sparkle gasped, as if she was the real Sparkle. I’ll give them this; they knew how to act.

“Logan?” she asked me, a small smile forming on her face as she tried to approach me. “I-I can’t believe it; I finally found you.” She raised a hoof, but I backed away. “Do you know how long we were searching for you?”

“Back off,” I growled. It wasn’t her; she had the same stink as that changeling on the train.

Though, the changeling really managed to nail Sparkle’s look of hurt; she even lifted her foreleg like a shield. Like Pinkie Pie had done that one time.

“Please, Logan,” she insisted. “We were friends. We looked after you…”

“We were not friends,” I snapped. For once, I didn’t feel the surge of conflict in my gut that usually came around when I said that.

#

“Aw,” Pinkie Pie cooed. “You do care.”

“Shut up,” Logan dismissed. He paused. "I'm still telling the story," he added.

Pinkie and Fluttershy shared a knowing grin.

#

Sparkle, however, just got a curious look in her eye.

“Not friends, eh?” she asked curiously. Her tone became more… coy. Playful. I had never heard Sparkle with that kind of tone. “So… does that mean I have to use… IT?"

My ears flattened and my eyes narrowed.

“The heck is IT?” I demanded. I thought I saw some sort of green flash in the shadows behind her, and my fangs bared.

She chuckled, moving backward into the shadows.

“Sparkle?” I demanded, moving after her.

My jaw dropped.

Sparkle was still there, and yet… it wasn’t her. For starters?

She was a wolf.

She still had her purple fur, and the top of her head had the same color as her mane. But she had a canine snout, a big bushy tail, paws… she was Sparkle as a wolf. Perfect in almost every way… and yet so wrong in the same vein?

“The heck…?” I stammered.

Wolf Twilight chuckled. “Oh, Logan,” she purred. “Do you really think you’re strong enough to resist me now?”

My jaw slowly shut, my ears flicking and my nostrils flaring. Did this thing think that… Sparkle and I…?

#

Logan stopped with a shudder. Twilight herself had taken several steps back, while the others were shooting her looks of surprise.

“Ya know,” Rainbow Dash noted playfully. “Twilight was always the most curious in him.”

“Stop it, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight said. “I was never interested in Logan that way.”

“I dunno,” Applejack added teasingly. “You were always so eager to know what he was up to... if we're being honest.”

“So, insistent on him being in town,” Rainbow Dash added.

“He was a child!” Twilight exclaimed. “I was concerned about his safety!”

“You guys are really horrible,” Logan said. His comment wiped the smirks from Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s faces. Before Twilight could shoot him a grateful look, he pointed his paw at her. “Don’t even think about it.”

Twilight raised her hooves and backed further away. “I assure you,” she promised him. “The thought is well removed.”

Logan still gave her a hard glare before he continued.

#

“Be honest with yourself,” Wolf Sparkle continued, her bushy tail flicking. “You’re the only one of your kind here. It must be so… frustrating to not have a single one of your own here. No one who understands you. Respects your most basic of… needs.”

I did not like the way she phrased ‘needs.’ Nor did I like how close she was getting. I hated backing away, but she wasn’t giving me much choice.

“And, I’ll be honest,” she said, trying to sidle up next to me. “I’ve been crazy about you too.” She giggled. “Of course, as a unicorn, it would be – mm – remiss, of me to be with you.” She wagged her tail with another laugh. “But as you can see, that’s not a problem anymore, now is it?”

My back hit the cave wall. I briefly glanced back at it, before she was in my face. My claws came up, trying to shove her back, but her own claws caught mine, entwining in a very disturbing way.

“How about,” she continued. “You come back with me. And on the way…” She leaned closer, revealing perfect canine teeth. “I show you everything I learned.”

I kept my head back, avoiding her teeth. “How’d you shapeshift?” I asked, my voice level despite my heart pounding in my chest. “Only Changelings can shapeshift.”

“Mm…” she moaned huskily, not even listening as she ground her thighs against me. “Perhaps…”

“PERHAPS?”

That snapped her out of it. By the time her eyes widened, I spun her and had her pinned against the wall. The seductive light shot from her face like a light switch, and was replaced with desperate stammering.

“Wait-I-didn’t-mean-I-meant-perhaps-as-in-of-course-not,” ‘Sparkle’ stammered, as I glowered down at her, “I-wouldn’t-I-mean-I-would-never…”

But I pressed my paw right on her horn, and with a flare of fire, I had a changeling staring guiltily up at me.

“Mm-hm,” I hummed in satisfaction.

The changeling gave a sheepish giggle. “I… guess that didn’t work, huh?” she mumbled.

Damnit, she was still using Sparkle’s voice!

I raised my claw, not really sure what I was going to do, when I heard the buzz of wings. I glanced up, and found the eyes of over a dozen changelings glaring at me from the darkness.

I briefly held up Ms. Thinks-Sparkle-and-me-were-a-thing and held her in front of me like a shield, only to see more of those eyes glittering to the side as well. In the little light my fur was providing, I could see dozens. No… hundreds of them.

The last thing I remembered after that was throwing my hostage at one of them, and then swiping at another, in vague hope that I could take a few with me. Then, my world briefly became black, writhing insects. Then my entire body numbed, and I thought no more.

Author's Note:

So... I'm not sure if it's too early for this, but... did anyone 'ship' Logan and Twilight, or was that particular changeling just crazy?

Comments

[Teraunce]

I briefly held up Ms. Thinks-Sparkle-and-me-were-a-thing and held her in front of me like a shield, only to see more of those eyes glittering to the side as well. In the little light my fur was providing, I could see dozens. No… hundreds of them.

I could vaguely see it happening if Twilight was willing to stand against Celestia.