The Howlite Howler

by JNKing

Chapter 4: How We Got Here

Twilight Sparkle and Luna left with the dragon in tow, but Shiva didn’t need Luna looking through her memories to remember the little purple dragon.

It would be rather hard to forget the one that gave her the chance for escape.

#

When Spike had shown up, two weeks had passed, and Shiva and her grand plans of escape had been all but broken.

Nothing Shiva had done could get through the unicorn's barrier, and it was always met with brutal punishment. While, on the other paw, giving in and giving them a show allowed her to test her powers. It allowed her to drain the strength from her foes to give herself power. And when they collapsed, exhausted and unconsious, food and water awaited her in her cage. Though it was coupled with the shame of seeing Breaker smiling and knowing she was making his life better.

Shiva hated that stallion like she had never hated before. She could feel rage and anger burning in her gut every time she saw him. She wanted to carve the smug looks from his face - from all of these ponies' faces. But there was no way she could try. Even if she had access to whatever magic was inside her, there were too many for her to take on. The others wouldn’t help her; even Luke, the one who had been the nicest to her, could only help her with piteous looks. She had no one she could ask for help, no one to talk to, and she was at the mercy of a bunch of complete sociopaths determined to break the wills of others.

But then the day came when she was shoved out into the arena... and Spike was shoved out in response.

He looked so fresh and innocent compared to everyone she had seen. There was no way he was one of the old crowd. He was new.

"W-Wait..." Spike stammered, holding his hands up. "This is a huge mistake. I swear, Twilight's gonna come get me!"

"The Princess' personal student would never bother with a dragon," Breaker mocked.

"Besides, even if you were her dragon," the whip pony on the other side added. "You'd be in Ponyville, doing her work like you're supposed to."

"But..." Spike tried to protest, but the rest of the ponies drowned him out.

"No talk! Fight like the monsters you are."

The ponies whipped at them, but Shiva felt the old fury burning in her gut. Fighting Luke or the others was one thing; they were resigned to it. But Spike? He couldn't have been any more than a baby. This was beyond cruel, even for Breaker. And so, even as Breaker whipped at her, Shiva did little more than circle the dragon as he cowered before her.

"Okay, wait!" Spike pleaded. "I know... you probably have a job to do..."

Shiva flared out with her magic, and the crowd held their breath in anticipation. But as Shiva seized Spike with a tendril, she let her thoughts whisper to him.

"Relax," she assured him. "I'm not going to hurt you."

Spike's eyes opened, as he gripped the tendril. "Y-You will?"

Shiva concentrated, and his memories cropped up: six ponies, led by a lavender mare. A mare who sometimes hefted a lot of responsiblity on him, but other times cared for him like he was her son.

"She's coming?" Shiva asked.

Spike focused on the memory and nodded. "Yeah. She'll come for me. She has to!"

Shiva glanced up at the grumbling crowd with a grin. "Then all we need to do," she replied. "Is stall for time."

Spike's eyes widened in hope, before he nodded with a grin. Taking her chance, Shiva spun him and threw him against the magical barrier, careful to try and shield him with a barrier of her own.

Jumping off the unicorn's barrier, Spike lunged at her with a battle cry. Though his strikes wouldn't have harmed her even if they had hit, Shiva dodged them all the same.

"Come on, dirt dog!" Breaker bellowed. "Take this thing down!"

Shiva tried to ignore him. She and Spike jumped and dodged around each other, waiting and hoping that Spike wasn't wrong. That Twilight was going to come for him.

But at first, there was no sign of her. Spike began to falter, looking up time and time again at the crowd, like a child missing his mother. The unicorns began to lose patience. Their whips snapped at both of them, carving deep cuts into their flesh.

"Where is she?!" Shiva growled, struggling not to scream.

"I..." Spike stammered, despair starting to take over. But right before he could sink to his knees in defeat...

"SPIKE!"

The unicorns spun. The lavender mare from Spike's thoughts was standing at the top of the stands, her eyes wide in horror.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO HIM!?" she shrieked, racing at the unicorn that had been whipping the dragon.

"N-Now wait a moment, uh... Twilight Sparkle?" the unicorn stammered.

But Twilight's eyes had narrowed to pinpricks. Her horn flared up. And with a howl equal to that of a mother wolf, she blasted the unicorn clean through the arena. He hit the ground and bounced into Beast Breaker, knocking them both into the stands.

Immediately, Shiva took advantage. Seizing Spike with her tendrils, she threw him towards the stands.

He sunk through! Twilight raced up and caught him, holding him to her chest as tears of releief streamed from her eyes.

"Spike, I'm so sorry..." she stammered as he hugged him.

But Shiva didn't have time for their reunion. The unicorns were rapidly getting over their shock. It wouldn't be long before they re-made the barrier.

Shiva lunged onto the stands herself. Thankfully, they weren't too far up. She made it onto the stands and raced for the top, where she could leap out of the arena and head for the exit.

“STOP HER!” the boss unicorn wailed. “TAKE HER DOWN!”

Spells shot for her, but Shiva reformed her shield. And as the spells clashed against her white bubble, she felt strength flooding into her. Up until now, the unicorns had managed to contain her. Suppress her. Abuse her. But now the band was off. The shield was down. And as the magical energy crashed into her shield, Shiva felt a pull in her gut; almost like a magical magnet was asking the energy to come to her.

She experimentally sucked in a breath, and felt her power increase, like she had eaten a full meal or gotten a shot of adrenaline. A pegasus lunged at her with a kick, but Shiva matched it with a beam of light. The beam hit the pegasus’ hoof, snapping it with an utterly delightful CRACK, and the pegasus wailed with agony as Shiva blasted her into the roof.

Shiva stared around the ponies as they backed up, horror etched across their faces.

“N-No…” one whimpered. “Not again!”

“This isn’t fair!” another screamed. “They’re not supposed to do that!”

Shiva locked on Beast Breaker, who was trembling on the other side of the arena. But logic forced her to turn her back on him. She couldn't hold out against these ponies forever. She needed to leave.

She hopped over the barrier... and found herself gazing at Luke. At the changeling. The griffon. The dragon. All those poor souls that had been imprisoned and broken.

A dark part of Shiva pleaded with her to just leave. To turn her back on them and run for the exit. But as Luke stared at her, shock and awe written across his face, her heart refused to leave him there.

“Don’t be scared,” Shiva assured him. “I’m going to get you out of here.” She ripped open his door before looking to the others. Guards tried to stop her, but Shiva caught them with her magic, draining them of their strength. With their strength flooding into her body, the idea of leaving these poor animals felt beyond cruel and unjust.

“I’m getting you all out of here!” Shiva declared, more to herself than anyone else. And she lashed out. Twin talons of light carved through the air, carving through the cage doors like a hot knife through butter. As the stands threatened to collapse, Shiva altered her threads, yanking the group away as the unicorn's arena collapsed into dust and rubble.

As the non-ponies watched their prison fall, their sad and fearful expressions changing to confused wonder. More soft threads of light spread out like a spider web, binding them together in Shiva’s pearly threads.

“Come on!” Shiva screamed, racing for the exit. “Go!”

The griffon was the first to overcome his shock. Spreading his wings, he shot into the air. In seconds, he was gone, the silvery thread shredding as he took off ahead of Shiva. Following his example, the changeling’s wings buzzed to life, and they too vanished into the air. The dragon was slower, likely due to his scales, but he lumbered out of the cave and took flight. The minotaur caught hold of the dragon’s talon and rode him to freedom. Luke, however, stayed by Shiva’s side as she made it to the exit, regret and wonder battling on his face.

“I…” Luke stammered, shaking his head like a confused dog.

Shiva just wagged his tail at him before glancing at the inside. Ponies were struggling to their hooves. More than one were pointing their way. Twilight was staggering out, Spike covered in a protective shield.

They don’t know when to give up, Shiva thought bitterly. She turned to Luke.

“Let’s go!” she said. “We can talk more when we’re away.”

Luke nodded, and dove into the dirt. Shiva paused in shock as he parted the earth like water, and in her moment of hesitation, he was gone.

Shiva made to follow after him, when something wrapped around her and pulled her towards the cave. Shiva reeled on her feet, but caught the whip and turned. Beast Breaker was coming out from the ruined arena, blood dripping down his head and his coat torn, the handle of his whip between his teeth. Glaring at her in fury, he stomped his fore hooves to wind up the length of the whip, reeling her in.

Not this time! Shiva thought in fury. His whip had wound around her upper arms, but they hadn’t caught her snout. She grabbed the whip with her teeth and tugged. Whatever magic had possessed her; it had empowered her with more than enough strength, and the stallion was thrown forward, the whip handle flying from his mouth as his fury changed to shock.

“Not this time!” Shiva snarled out loud, as she spun, lashing the whip hard.

The handle smashed into the side of his head with a dull THUNK, and he hit the ground, his eyes wide and dazed. Before he could struggle to his feet, Shiva ripped herself free and lunged forward.

“NOT THIS TIME!” She screamed, her claws sinking into his underbelly.

He shrieked before her other claw closed over his face. Shiva’s claws tightened around his horn. The faint golden spark went dim.

“NOT THIS TIME!”Shiva roared, as she stabbed him again. Her duty to protect had mixed with fiery hate. One claw sunk into his chest, the other claw gripped his horn, preventing it from lightning up. His scream was drowned out by the wolf’s howl of fury, punctuating each furious stab.

“NOT! THIS! TIME!”

Shiva didn’t notice his eyes go dull and roll up in his head. She didn’t care when his hooves stopped moving and hung limply at his side. All she cared about was making sure he never hurt anyone again. That Spike would never have to live in fear of him. That she would never have to live in fear of his lash again.

Then something knocked her away from him. Something with magic.

Absorbing some of the energy from the blast, Shiva spun back to her feet, her eyes black and angry; her vision red. Twilight’s horn was glowing, but her eyes were wide with fear. She backed up, but Shiva was faster. She crashed into Twilight, rolling her on her back. Something that sounded like Spike screamed, but it was drowned out by the deafness of her own fury. These ponies were evil! They needed to be stopped! She raised her claws, ready to ram them into those wide, purple eyes.

“NO!”

Shiva’s claws halted mere centimeters from Twilight’s eyes. Another one of the ponies appeared at the exit; a yellow pegasus mare, wings spread and cyan eyes wide.

But there was something… terrifying about her eyes. Something that locked every limb Shiva had in place and left her staring at the yellow pegasus with a mixture of awe and terror. There was a determination in this mare’s gaze; an authority that rang more powerful than Master. More powerful than Breaker. Shiva hated it. She wanted to move; to run; to fight; to do anything. But her body refused to obey her. It now obeyed this angry yellow pegasus.

“Get. Off her,” the pegasus ordered.

Shiva’s muscles trembled. Her eyes twitched. She stepped off the purple mare, her claws opening in a show of harmlessness.

But I’m not harmless, Shiva thought. What she had done to Breaker shot through her mind. I… killed him.

Suddenly, Shiva felt very afraid of what this mare could do to her. She had killed one of them; probably more. She remembered seeing ponies crying over limp companions. If this mare knew about them… what would she be willing to do to punish Shiva?

Spike dragged the purple mare behind the yellow one, who stepped forward.

“Good,” the yellow mare said. The satisfaction in her voice made Shiva nauseous. “Sit.”

Shiva twitched her head back and forth, trying to break eye contact. Pants for breath hissed back and forth between her clenched teeth. The yellow mare stepped closer, her eyes nearly doubling in size.

“I said, SIT!” she ordered.

She couldn’t resist. Her haunches folded, and she fell back, pinning her tucked tail under her rump. Her head ducked, but she couldn’t break eye contact. Her whole body shivered as the mare bore down on her.

The pegasus grinned again.

“Good girl,” she praised with a smile.

Shiva felt fury fighting against terror. Once again, these ponies had control of her. They were taking the place of Master. But where Master had only needed love, these ponies seemed adamant on magic and whips and other torture devices.

Dark thoughts invaded her mind; demands that she lunge onto this smug little witch and carve the arrogant smile from her face like she had Breaker.

But that would only get me in more trouble, Shiva thought.

But without any prompting, without even a fake lunge forward, Shiva saw a flash of blue flying past the yellow mare towards her.

Pain exploded along Shiva’s temple. Darkness overtook her.

#

And when Shiva awoke, it was in this cell. Waiting for Twilight and Luna to force her to relive it all again.

The fight had gone out of her at that point. She had struggled; she had fought. And yet, it had gotten her nowhere. She was still in a cell, and these ponies still had her. And worst: now they had a reason to treat her like the monster they all thought she was.
Or perhaps, Shiva thought, her elation at Breaker’s death replaced with shame. The monster I am.

Author's Note:

And that's how we got to Shiva's cell. And how Shiva knew Twilight and Spike.

Shout out to The Rogue Wolf; Beast Breaker is heavily inspired by Big Top from Misunderstandings, and I thank you for the inspiration. But Shiva is going in a far more different direction than Peter. And despite Shiva's intentions, the ponies have been given a very good reason to hate her.

Edit: Revised on September 13th, 2020 and December 11th, 2020. I felt like Twilight being there gave a little more drama to Shiva's escape and her rivalry with the purple mare. Let me know if it worked or not.

Thank you again for reading, and stay tuned for the next chapters.

Comments

[karnazom]

I read the story while listening to hardbass. Have to say it was very entertaining.

Also can't wait of how Shiva will act the next chapter

[GlitchyFox]

with a backstory like that its unlikly she will ever fully place her trust in luna, twilight and their afilliates

[Silverstone28001]

Time to bring in Celestia. She will show Luna that even Their little ponies can be the monsters we fear at night.

[HB_DS2013]

Shiva shouldn’t be ashamed that she killed Beast Breaker. I mean, that sick bastard deserved that death.