• Published 17th Aug 2019
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Lone Wolf of Equestria: Back to the Pack - JNKing



Logan's gonna get back. Back to the Pack. Even if he ain't got Jack

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Chapter 5: Cruel Tutelage

Author's Note:

I got a busy week, but I hope to have the next chapter out by Friday.

Also, this is mostly just training, so sorry if not a lot happens. But, like Logan said; this helped him become a real badass.

Thanks again for reading, and I'll see you guys on Friday. :twilightsmile:

I wasn’t woken that morning; I was hurled from dreamland. Imagine having a dream where you’re falling, and you hit the ground, only to wake up and find yourself bouncing off your bed, because some jackass picked you up and dropped you.

That was how the unicorn woke me on my first day. His magic conjured up a stick that smacked the sleep from me, and I was left stumbling down the hillside to a mountain path that he stood at.

“Since you belong to me now,” he said, “I want you strong.” He barked at Sparks, who jumped to her feet.

“Follow me,” she cheered, spinning away and taking off at a light jog. I followed after her, but even then, she wasn’t satisfied. She pointed at the spot next to her.

“Here,” she ordered. “Here, dog, here!”

I gritted my teeth and poured on the speed, managing to make it to her side. And for a time after that, we just ran onward, Sparks not even using her wings. It wasn’t that bad, if I only knew where we were going.

“By the way,” I asked as we ran. “How’d you pull off that… becoming an adult thing?”

Sparks chuckled. “Oh, I’m not an adult,” she said. “Master just found a way for me to control my Inner Greed.”

“Inner what now?”

“Inner Greed,” Sparks explained. “Every dragons’ got an Inner Greed, where if we start hoarding treasure, it can turn us into monsters. With Master’s help, I managed to channel the Inner Greed so that, instead of hoarding something for selfish gain, I protect what I have. And, it lets me access the monster form, but in a more controlled state.”

#

Rarity and Twilight looked at each other.
“We had an… incident like that once,” Twilight admitted. “Where Spike turned into a giant monster because he got too greedy. Are you saying there’s a way to control that?”

“I guess,” Logan admitted. “Though she mentioned it took years of training. And despite that… I didn’t get very long to hear about it.”

#

Don’t get me wrong; I was doing my best. But when an hour went by and we just continued to run, I started to get winded. She started to pull ahead. Her cheery demeanor faded, and the drill sergeant voice returned.

“Here,” she snapped, pointing at her side again. “Here, dog, here!”

I pressed onward. This girl and her master may have gotten the better of me before, but I wasn’t going to let them think I was always like that. Despite the early waking, the throb from my fight with the dragon was gone. Give the unicorn credit where it’s due; he knew his medical spells. But that meant I had to show how strong I could really be. I was done letting other species – especially unicorns (get over it, Sparkle) – treat me like I was less than them. I was done being tossed around and only getting by on pity. I was…

By the end of the third hour, I was panting raggedly. Sparks just pulled further ahead. She was barely even winded!

“Here,” she bellowed, jutting at her spot.

“Where the heck are we even going?!” I gasped back.

“Where I say,” she shot back. “Now here!”

That dragon ran me for the entire day. When I collapsed, she paused. The unicorn appeared out of nowhere. I’m still convinced he was some sort of ghost, because he was at his nicest here. He floated water into my mouth, got me hydrated… and promptly kicked me back to my paws, driving me forward and after his dragon apprentice. And the second I was running at my own pace again, the chant came back.

“Here, dog, here!”

I wasn’t even given the dignity of a private training session; the mountain was teaming with life. Squirrels, deer, birds, even other dragons ranging from tiny babies to giants – kinda like Ocetorm, but thankfully smaller. And I had to endure them laughing and pointing at the supposed Diamond Dog running through their territory, with a crazed, hate-filled unicorn beating my tail every time the thought of giving up even knocked at my brain’s door.

You just wait, you sons of bitches, I thought darkly. I’m gonna get you all before this is over.

Our forced run went into the night. I collapsed a few more times, and each time, the unicorn hydrated and brought me back to my paws, only to kick me back into high gear. He said I’d know him as Master, but he was wrong. I knew him by many names. Names I don’t think I should repeat in front of foals (Yeah, I see you there, Blue. Don’t think I don’t.)

When I was certain I had lost all feeling in my legs, Sparks finally stopped. When I collapsed to the ground, she smiled at my progress. She shifted to her larger form, lifted me up, and carried me…

Back to the shack. After all that running, we had just come back to the shack?! The unicorn was sitting there, stirring a bowl of stew.

“Where… were… we… going…?” I got out.

“Stupid Dog,” he muttered, even as he slid a bowl of water and some sort of cold mush to me. “You went the entire perimeter of the mountain.”

“I run this course in an hour on a bad day,” Sparks said cheerfully.

I wanted to protest, but it was kinda hard to do when every gasp for air was a labor.

“If you’re in a fight to the death, and you’re running on fumes,” the unicorn lectured. “Do you give up before you absolutely have to, or do you keep fighting in the hope that you can somehow pull a victory off before your time runs out?”

“I… keep fighting,” I said.

He huffed. “You say one thing,” he grumbled. “But you do another.” He stood and brushed off his hooves. “Tomorrow, you will run it again.”

“And we’ll do even better,” Sparks said.

My eyes widened briefly, but I tried to stamp down my fear. Too bad the unicorn saw it anyway.

“I’d say ‘don’t disappoint me,’ but let’s be honest…” he chuckled as he turned away. “You disappointed me the moment that phoenix brought you here.”

#

“So,” Apple Bloom asked, “He just made you… run around every day? Didn’t he actually teach ya anything?”

Logan nodded. “You don’t become an expert in something overnight. You work hard. And I worked real hard.”

#

You guys mentioned I was gone for two years. Well, I’d say probably a third or even half of that time was spent with that unicorn. And at least a third of that time was spent running his stupid mountain.

“Here, dog, here!”

“Here, dog, here!”

Sparks’ words ran on a damn chant through my head. Sometimes I still hear her, months after leaving her and her awful master. Yet, after a few days, I could actually keep up without dropping like ripe fruit. And almost every day from then on, I was able to actually keep by Sparks’ side, and needed shorter, less frequent breaks.

I’m not sure exactly how long it took, but Sparks and her master kept me going through everything.

And finally, the day came when I got through an entire day without having to hear a single, ‘Here, dog, here!’ When we returned to the shack, I sat down in front of the unicorn with the smuggest grin I think I ever had. Sparks sat beside her master, grinning like a loon.

The unicorn, however, looked up at me for a long, hard moment. I returned his glare; for this one moment, I felt I had something over him. We ate the next meal in silence, before he glanced over at Sparks.

“Alright, Sparks,” he said.

Sparks gave me an evil grin, and fire burned around her until she looked like she had just come out of her egg. She hopped into my arms, batting her blue eyes at me.

Then I heard it.

“Here, dog, here!”

I looked up in horror; the unicorn was already heading down the mountain track, and his horn was jolting to his side.

Oh, and hold onto your hat, Applejack, cuz it got worse!

Ten minutes later, I tripped, and Sparks squirted out of my claws.

The unicorn glared back at me, then flared his horn. And I found myself right back at the shack; Baby Sparks back in my claws.

“Here, dog, here!” he called, once again in front of me.

I want to say I howled there, but howl isn’t a good enough term. I screamed.

#

It took at least a month before I could even get halfway around the mountain after that. Beforehand, I could just run on all fours. But here? I had to keep to my hind legs just to have a slightly better prayer of Sparks not falling. And let me tell you right now; a wolf running on his hind legs is not something that Myst intended. She had it very carefully planned out; two legs for fighting, four legs for running.

Time after time again I found myself back at that damn shack. At one point, I almost punted Sparks into the next dimension, but she promptly turned into her warrior dragon form and kicked my tail another five ways to Friday. I didn’t try kicking her in any form after that.

If I have to give that mouth breathing, rooster horned scum-squatter one thing, it’s that what he was doing was working. I got fit. I gained muscle, to the point where Sparks got easier to carry. I’m also not sure, but I’m pretty sure she had fun nestling next to my chest. Sure, I had to stay on my hind legs to keep her from bopping too close to the ground, but that just allowed me to know what it was like for humans to run. I got just as fast as if I was running on all fours. And by the time I finally managed to stay with that unicorn for the entire course with Sparks safely nestled in my arms, I felt strong enough to wrestle against one of my world’s dragons.

#

“Not Ocetorm though,” Logan said with a bark, “I’m telling you right now, the freaking SECOND I see a dragon his size, I’m walking away.”

“As you probably should,” Rarity said with a nod.

#

Even with my goal achieved, the unicorn had me run his course every day with Baby Sparks. It got to the point where I could run it in an hour, like Sparks boasted. I got winded, but never spent. Sparks cheered me, while her master just gave a slight nod; the most respect I think I ever gleaned from him.

The day I managed to run the course without losing my breath, he took me further into the forest. I saw Sparks with a few other baby dragons, all of them with wings.

“I got as many as I could, master,” Sparks said happily.

“Excellent,” he said, before turning to me. “Now, then… it may be too much to ask, but do you know how to hunt?”

I crossed my arms. “I hunted before coming here, yeah,” I said.

“Good,” the unicorn said, before motioning to Sparks. She spread her wings and flew into the trees. “Catch her. Let’s see how good you are at hunting dragons.”

I raised an eyebrow. During my time in the Ever-Free, I had to survive on plenty of prey animals (Sorry, Fluttershy – please don’t cry).

“That it?” I asked.

Master nodded. “Bring her to me when you’re done,” he said, striding away with her friends behind him.

I grinned up at Sparks, but she grinned right back. And then she gave me the hardest hunt of my life, I’ll tell you right now. For starters, she stayed right up in those trees. Normally, I hunted along the ground, waiting for squirrels to leave the safety of their trees. But this time… I was forced to climb.

I swear, Sparks was lucky I didn’t kill her. She was always step ahead of me, flying from tree branch to tree branch while I was forced to climb the trunks and constantly fall splat upon the ground.

But after failure after brutal failure, I finally managed to catch her. I brought her to her master, my tail wagging in triumph. My first sign that something was off should have been him having his back to me.

“Told you,” I managed to mumble. “Piece of…”

Then I heard Sparks giggle. Then I saw her master smiling. Then I saw what he was looking at.

The other baby dragons were all grinning at me. At least a dozen in total. Their wings spread as one.

“Get them all,” he said.

And the dragons laughed before flapping up into the trees. A couple even clung to the tree branches, their eyes peeking mischievously down at me.

“…mud-breathed,” I mumbled, Sparks dropping from my jaws. “Limp-horned, scum-sucking, mamma tit, LOIN MOUTHED…!”

“Language!” Sparks chastised. “Some of these guys are still really young.”

I nearly whirled on her, before the appearance of her warrior form had me going after her friends. They spread far and wide among the trees, but they made sure to taunt and tease me all the way.

“What’s wrong with his ears? He looks funny! He needs wings like we do. Too bad!”

I almost preferred it when they just laughed; it didn’t make me see red as badly. Every time I thought I had got them all, another would poke his or her head out from the canopy, and it’d be back up the tree I went.

Part of me knew that these dragons were only doing what the unicorn said, and he wasn’t exactly being unfair. He was trying to bring me to my physical peak. But that didn’t make having to catch those baby dragons any more tolerable. Branches constantly broke, and I was hitting the ground again and again and again.

Eventually, however, I got better at this. And while they could fly, I had claws and I could become bipedal. Plus, they weren’t smart enough to outmaneuver me when I got a hold of climbing and jumping around like a monkey. Was I a bit rough with them when I caught them? Maybe. But they could take the punishment, and damn if I didn’t relish every victory I got over those dragons. They were my prey! I was the predator!

The unicorn had me do that day after day, but with the strength and stamina of his course on my side, focusing on agility was a lot easier. And it wasn’t more than a few days before I could catch any dragon he brought for me in under an hour. Once again, I was graced with that approving nod of respect.

The day after I managed to catch a dozen dragons in under twenty minutes, the unicorn and I returned to the shack after our run through his course. When he looked back on me, a half grin was stretched across his face; the happiest I had seen him since he kicked my tail. And for a moment, he just stood there, beaming his weird half grin at me.

I got a drink of water, and glanced at him. “Now what?” I asked after a long silence.

“Now?” he asked. “Now, we put those blades of yours to use.”

#

It’s not a good idea to run and exercise in leather or fur. As a result, my father’s jacket and my mother’s scarf sat nestled in the shack that I had come to call home. Packed among them were the blades I had fashioned from my mother’s rib cage. The unicorn had me take them before leading me out to a cliff side. The thing was almost like a beach, with a shoreline of grass and flowers leading to a rocky equivalent to waves then finally to the edge of the mountain. I could faintly see the path I had to run, and the sweet scent of a dew-covered morning mist kissed the tip of my nostrils.

The unicorn directed me to stand before him, right where the meadow turned to rock.

“Now,” he said, “Diamond Dogs can’t normally do magic.”

“I’m not a Diamond Dog,” I clarified.

“Then you’re a stupid Diamond Dog,” he replied. Before I could even get mad, he continued. “Out here, if someone sees you shooting lightning bolts and creating storms, they’ll either think they’ve gone mad, or they’ll capture you and dissect you.”

“Just like humans,” I deadpanned.

“Exactly like humans,” he clarified. “If you’re going to use your magic, you’re going to use it smart. Subtly.”

As he spoke, he rose to his own hind legs. And I saw a small shimmer go through his body. His horn was shining with magic, but the rest of him seemed to get covered in some sort of small barrier.

“Wear your magic like armor,” he said. “Just like you should wear the title of Diamond Dog. And just as your magic will protect you, so will the title of Dog.”

I tried to copy him. I envisioned a sort of bubble all around me. Skin tight, like his was. Lightning crackled around me, but the main sign that it was working was my fur gaining a golden glow to it. Sparks – the electric kind, not the dragon - flew along the tips of my fur, but other than that, I mostly just looked like the sun was shining down on me.

The unicorn nodded. “Sparks,” he deadpanned. She skipped to my side, followed by her friends, several of which held large sticks and boards.

“Break these boards,” Sparks told me, indicating the boards her friends had. “But only the boards in front of you. And be sure to keep your magic up.”

“Let it flow into your strikes, but do not let it extend past your body,” her master clarified. “Let others believe it is your own brute strength.”

Seemed easy enough. I adjusted my stance and gripped my mother’s blades between my claws, like a wolverine. “Ready.” I growled.

Sparks held up the first log; simple looking enough. Kind of the stereotypical log you’d see in a human lumber mill.

“Go,” she ordered.

I swung… and my blade bounced right off the log. Only a chunk of bark was missing. At the same time, a second stick swung out and whapped me in the side. I hadn’t remembered my barrier, and yelped as the thing caught my leg and sent me to my back.

“Keep your shield up,” the unicorn barked. “Up. Again.”

I focused more on my magic. It crackled up around me, and I swung. I cut the log… along with one behind it. The dragon holding the shards of the second log promptly threw it into my head. My barrier deflected the blow, but it had a harder time deflecting a log to the back of my head.

“After a hit like that,” he lectured. “You’d wake up strapped to a dissection table. If you woke up at all.” I forced myself up. “Again.”

Another log. Focus, wind up… WHAP! The stick crashed against my side again.

“Too much wind-up,” Sparks explained. “Don’t leave openings.”

My next one cut through the log and only the one log. They promptly showed me another log. I paused, and they hit me again. WHAP!

“Don’t stop,” Sparks said. “You’re leaving openings!”

And before I knew it, I was back to the same old rhythm. They showed me thrusts, parries and slashes, but they showed me the hard way. I thought my sides were going to be stained a permanent black and blue.

“Keep your guard up,” Sparks would say after one of her friends sticks found my ribcage again.

WHAP! “Don’t stop!” WHAP! “Lunge!” WHAP! “Now back!” WHAP!

That first night, I was battered, bruised and panting raggedly (if I was human, I might have also been drenched in sweat). Merely falling onto the bed made my sides scream in pain. But, the next day came, and with it and the following days, I started to improve.

Bit by bit, the dragons showed me forms; methods of fighting that could be combined with my magic to make me a street fighting beast. The motions became a blur, an instinct that was finally given the chance to shine – as natural as breathing. Even then, they found ways to make it difficult; they strapped logs to my arms and legs, making every strike a chore. One of Sparks friends ended up breaking one of my ribs while I was trying to get used to the new weight. Thankfully, the unicorn’s magic healed the rib so I could keep going.

But with the motions and the weight came control of the magic. As the motions became more and more natural to me, so did the technique of containing my wild lightning. Where lightning would crackle and spark around me, now my fur subtly shimmered with the magic field. And where lightning would constantly fly from my claw tips, now it burned at the points of my blades, ripping the wooden logs into ash. And even when I had to focus on my barrier, the weighted stones made my strikes faster and harder. When they removed the stones from me one day, I felt like I was flying through their courses. Gravity just didn’t have the same effect.

One day, I was practicing the form, my blades glowing like sabers of light that humans used to gush about back on my world… when one of the dragons jumped me. His stick whacked at me from behind without warning. My barrier took the blow, but I was alerted by the sudden attack: I had done nothing wrong, so why was he attacking?
My body didn’t care, though; it acted even as I was thinking. With a single slash, my lightning infused blades struck at him. The dragon spun away before blasting fire at me.

I brought my arms up, my shield taking the blow. Instead of being blasted off my paws, I merely slid a few feet back. I ducked to all fours, his fire passing over my head, and shot along the ground, lunging up for his chest.

The dragon back-flipped, his tail coming to smack my chin. I yanked my head back, and his passed my chin by inches. The backward motion exposed my gut to his horn, but I back-flipped, avoiding his second round of fire spit and landing back on all fours, ready to fight and…

He was gone. My ears flicked, and I spun in a circle, wondering if he was going to pop back up. He didn’t, though I still swore I could feel his eyes on me.

“What are you waiting for, a play date?” Sparks asked, standing innocently with her log. “Let’s go.”

I spun at her. “He just came out of nowhere and attacked me,” I snarled.

“And you’re still on your paws,” she countered, pulling her log up again. “Now come on, let’s keep going.”

Another dragon attacked again the next day. And the day after that. Each time, it was at a different time, with a different dragon. And each time, I either fended them off, or I got beaten down. Either from putting my shield down without realizing it, to getting swarmed by dragons for letting my lightning leak out beyond my strikes. But I didn’t give up. I spat out any blood that got in my mouth, and I kept training. I learned to keep my ears and nose open; to sense when the dragons were coming, and more importantly, to keep myself under control when they showed.

Yet, even as I managed to fend off a dragon without a single injury to my person, I still felt that the unicorn was holding something back. I’d see him watching me during the run, the hunt and then the sparring sections. I could tell he was thinking about something. Some final test for me to pass. Well, whatever he was gonna throw at me next, I intended to destroy it.

So, I threw myself into my training. I ran his course every morning; I hunted every afternoon; I trained and endured his dragon’s ambushes every evening. I only stopped to eat or to sleep. And I waited. Waited for whatever final test he had in store for me. Some final proof that I was ready to survive in a world beyond Celestia’s touch.

#

Logan rolled his eyes.

“Of course, it was by a cranky old unicorn that I hated,” he said. “When he finally revealed his final test, I wanted to snap him in two.” His head lowered. “But, I never got the chance.”