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follow the white rabbit.1,594 words
welcome to wonderland!2,049 words
Following the yellow brick road2,202 words
meeting little miss winona2,414 words
progress with ponies!1,968 words
Stealth and walkies!2,088 words
hunting, and other fine hobbies2,713 words
A mahogany stalker2,356 words
Pondering the past2,545 words
Other plans.2,153 words
homecoming.1,883 words
The evil whistle of evil.3,256 words
The hunter becomes... the hunter.5,842 words

welcome to wonderland!

Ooooh cripes, my head! Sweet merciful gods that hurts. Did I eat a Cockatrice or something? I promised myself I'd lay off those! Ugh, last time I scoffed one of them I woke up in the middle of a manticore threesome. And to think some youths actually get addicted to the stuff. For shame. Still tasted pretty good though, and it turns out manticores really know how to please a wolf... Just saying.

Well, I doubt moaning over my sozzled brain is going to solve anything, I suppose I should get up now. Opening my eyes, I'm greeted with a plain, grassy field. The sun peeks over the rolling hills in the distance, painting everything in a charming champagne pink glow. The tree line of what I think is Everfree forest stands to my left, the black patches of shadow beneath the pine trees a dark and foreboding contrast to the bright, sun soaked field I found myself in. Hmm, well, I've woken up in stranger places, and I must say, this is a welcome change in scenery. Alright, I guess I should get back to Everfree now, those adorable little animals won't kill themselves.

*Cluck*

Huh?

*Cluck cluck*

What the-

*COCK-A-DOODLE-DOO!*

HOLY SHIT!

I almost jump out of my carapace as what I can only assume is a rooster deafens me with an ear splitting squawk. Right, you're paying for that one you loudmouthed little turd, I am going to chomp down on your feathery arse SO hard! Where are you? I look to my right, and find perhaps one of the most eye wateringly beautiful sights of my life. Animals. Animals everywhere.

Dozens of chickens scurried around a wooden coup, surrounded by nothing but a tiny fence which I could easily leap over. Rabbits, mice, rats, and things that I can't even name wait for me in cages, all fat and pampered and appetising. Oh lord, they even have birds! Do you know how hard they are to catch? Sweet merciful Drathgurg, they're even tied down, just waiting for me. There all so colourful, so exotic, so tasty. It's an all you can eat buffet, and I'm the only customer! Ha, there are even ponies!

Wait a sec... Ponies?

The memories come crashing through my mind like a freight train. The rabbit... The pony... The pain. No, it couldn't be. That didn't happen, it just didn't, it didn't! Reluctantly, I tear my eyes away from the living banquet of wildlife and look down to my right foreleg. It did. There was nothing there, nothing but a bandaged stump. My leg was just... gone. Was this some kind of sick, twisted nightmare? No, this was real, I just sure as hell wish it wasn't. I could still feel it there, though, still feel the wooden slabs of flesh grinding gently against each other, still feel the blood pumping through the arteries and veins. Oh god... I think... I think I'm going to be sick.

I vomit onto the ground, yesterday's breakfast piling up in front of me.

"Eeeeeeww"

"Ugh, that's simply disgusting!"

"Bwahahahaha!"

Dear god, I'm a tripod! A fucking tripod!

Fluttershy bit into her bottom lip in an unsuccessful attempt to hold back tears. To actually lose something as close to you as a leg must have been horrible for the poor thing, but to be laughed at for it as well? Twilight had been kind enough to help her take the timber wolf back to her cottage where she had applied bandages and disinfectant over his wound. It had been messy, sure. But when something's life was in danger, she wasn't afraid to get her hooves dirty. She'd moved the wolf outside and, although it broke her heart, chained it to a pole. As much as she wanted to, she couldn't just let a potential pony-killer wander off. Her friends had all insisted upon seeing it up close (apart from Twilight, who told her that she 'needed some time alone'), which was understandable. Few ponies got the chance to see a timber wolf up close and live to tell the tale. Even she never had the chance, and she'd catalogued literally thousands of species. But after giving her closest friends this once in a lifetime opportunity, this is how they repaid her?

Rarity was shielding her eyes in disgust because the poor baby had gotten a little bit too flustered and been sick, whilst Rainbow and Pinkie Pie were rolling on the ground in hysterics. The only pony that seemed to react in any way decently was Applejack, who had supressed her distaste to a mild cringe. How could her friends be so insensitive?

She stomped her hoof to the ground, she had to put a stop to this.

"Girls!" she hollered sternly "Stop laughing at him, can't you see he's in pain?" the wolf whimpered weakly as if to confirm her point. As much as she hated raising her voice, she simply couldn't let her friends mock a handicapped animal, it was like laughing at a pony in a wheelchair, it just wasn't right. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie quickly got to their hooves, their smiles gone and their eyes fixated on the ground. Rarity lowered her foreleg from her face, which was now stricken with guilt. Applejack had rid herself of her small cringe, and was now smiling at Fluttershy proudly. Rude or not, Iron Will had certainly taught her a thing or two.

"Well, ah reckon this 'ere fella has all the right ta be a little bit queasy, we're mighty sorry, partner." said Applejack to the still whimpering wolf, who was now examining the five ponies nervously.

"I suppose I may have overreacted slightly" apologised Rarity, who still hadn't taken her eyes off of the ground.

"A little?" asked Rainbow Dash sarcasticly.

"Well if my memory serves me correctly you were the one laughing at him!"

"Heh... oh yeah, uuum sorry about that, I guess"

Pinkie Pie looked as if she was on the verge of tears "Ohhhh I'm so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so so sorry. I promise I'll make it up to you Wolfie! Oh! I know! I'll throw you a party! I've never thrown a party for a timber wolf before, it'll be so amazingly-super-fantasticallicaly-mega-fun!"

And with that, Pinkie was back to her old, ecstatic self.

Pleased with her apologies, Fluttershy turned back to the wolf, chances were he was starting to calm down now.

Go to a happy place! Go to a happy place! Go to a happy place!

Oh god, what the hell do I do now? My leg is fricking gone! Rule number one in the nonexistent rulebook of the wild, nature doesn't wait up for handicaps! I'm royally screwed! My pack will never take me back, a damaged hunter was a useless hunter. I can't go back home like this, Everfree is like the ghetto of Equestria! I'll be dead in a week! Oh, for the love of Drathgurg, I'm pretty much a walking corpse.

The ponies are talking again, not that I'm really listening. Chances are they're trying to figure out the best way to put me down. It's probably for the better, anyways. Frankly, I'd rather die here and get a burial or at least a cremation than die out there where my corpse will probably become the main course for some peckish predator... Hmm, wonder how I'd taste...

Well, whatever happens, I think it's safe to say my life is effectively over now. I mean c'mon, where's the fun in living if you can't kill and eat stuff, am I right? Yeah, I'm right.

It was an extraordinary stroke of luck that Fluttershy's friends were so eager to meet her new guest, for it saved her the trouble of asking them over herself. Alas, she had a problem that she needed solving, and she desperately hoped that one of her friends could provide an answer. As much as it shamed her, she just plain wasn't equipped to deal with the likes of a timber wolf. Currently, she housed thirty seven birds (Which included hawks, owls, pigeons, great bustards, eagles, sparrows and an ostrich. Yeah, an actual ostrich) , six ferrets, nine hares, eleven rabbits, nineteen chickens, twelve snakes, fourteen squirrels, five bats, an entire colony of ants, two foxes, thirteen goldfish, fifteen frogs, three deer and a toad. Her cottage simply couldn't accommodate a timber wolf, besides, her meagre budget was stretched thin as it was. So, she was left with two options. One: she release the wolf back into the wild where it would almost definitely starve to death, which was something she absolutely refused to do. And then there was option two: beg one of her friends to take care of him.

Which may be a problem, seeing as most ponies were absolutely petrified of timber wolves.

She took a couple of deep breaths. She could do this, she just had to be strong, just had to be stern, just like she was a minute ago. She could do that, besides, it's not like her friends would let her down...

Right?

"Girls?" whimpered Fluttershy from behind her milkshake-pink mane. Everypony halted their bickering and turned towards her. Oh sweet Celestia why did they have to look at her. "Umm, I'm... well, I... I don't really have enough time to take care of him and all, and I was wondering if, well... If-"

"If one of us could go ahead an adopt the lil' fella?" finished Applejack. Fluttershy gave a small nod of confirmation.

"I'm out!" Squealed Rainbow Dash, taking to the air as she did so "Uh, sorry Flutters, but I DO kinda live in a cloud house and all."

"Oh, well, that's okay, I guess."

"Yes, and I'm afraid won't be of much use either, a boutique is hardly a fitting home for such an... *ahem* exotic creature." Exclaimed Rarity half-heartedly.

"I, I guess not."

"I'm super-duper-looper sorry Fluttershy but I have to look after the cakes on Wednesdays and fridays and I can't leave Wolfie all alone because he might break something or hurt somepony or break and hurt somepony or run away or *gasp* he could eat gummy and then I'd have to put my hooves down his mouth and-"

"We get it, Pinkie, you're out." deadpanned Rainbow Dash.

At once, all heads turned to Applejack expectantly.

...

"...Y'all are gonna make me take 'im in, aren't ya?"

"Well, if it's not too much trouble..." whispered Fluttershy.

"*Sigh* Fine! Ah guess ah could take 'im off ya hooves."

Okay, from what I've gathered, that yellow pony is... auctioning me off? Meh, something like that. Well, I am chained to a pole... maybe it's some kind of enslavement thing, but why the hell should I care? I mean it's not like it's going to any difference in the end is it? My leg is gone, I'm broken, and therefore, useless. Like I said earlier, my pack would never take me back. They were my family, my brothers and sisters. What would you do in my position? I've lost everything. My friends, my pride, my home, everything.

One of the ponies breaks away from the crowd and starts making her way towards me. Orange coat, Blonde and braided mane, freckles... A stetson? Alright, Im calling it, she's a hick.

"Welp, c'mon over here, partner, looks like y'all are with me."

Nailed it. Wow, listen to that accent, I wonder how many generations of inbreeding it took to make this girl. I bet she tasted like apples and pig shit. I've sampled both, if you're wondering.

She untangles my chain from the pole and starts leading me away from the cottage and towards a large pony settlement up ahead in the distance. I've seen it a couple of times before from the forest, but I never managed to get the chance to see it up close. Why would I want to? As far as I could tell the place didn't have any edible wildlife (apart from ponies, which, after nibbling on a corpse I found in the woods, I can confirm is only 'okay').

Well, bristling with wildlife or not, this was bound to get interesting.

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