Ch.22: Red Paw
Chapter 22 “Red Paw”
Twilight appeared in a puff of magic smoke outside the one lit barn on the farm.
Inside the barn, the rest of the impromptu “Werewolf Rescue Squad” were operating as if they were a pit stop team going for the world record of making car modifications. On one side of the barn, Lyra and Sandalwood were busy tuning their car to what they thought would be the best settings for off-roading, as the trail to Winsome Falls wasn’t as nice as those in Ponyville proper.
On the other side, it was like a complete overhaul project was being done in five minutes. While Iron Will acted as a jack, holding up one end of the car, Big Mac and Rainbow Dash were removing the broken axle and putting in an improvised new one. Rarity was off to the side, trying to make what appeared to be a cramped passenger area be a bit more comfortable. Pinkie, Fluttershy, Spike, Granny, and Apple Bloom were against one wall, ready to help with either project when needed but otherwise trying to stay out of the way.
“Did ya find the book you were lookin’ fer?” asked Granny.
“Yeah” replied the unicorn, “I can’t believe I forgot I had this book!” In her telekinesis was the copy of Magical and Maniacal Monsters of Malicious Mayhem which she’d received around the time Applejack had started exhibiting the signs of her coming lycanthropy, but it had been put aside and only now would its contents possibly provide insight into the situation at hand.
“That’s great, darling,” said Rarity, now standing atop the somewhat fixed car with its new axle, “but do you think you could lend me a hoof and use some of your transfiguration magic to spruce this thing up a bit?”
“How, Rarity? I’m not a mechanic.”
“Oh, I don’t know, do that spell you used on that apple for the carriage we used to go to the Grand Galloping Gala I guess.”
“Worth a shot, I suppose.”
“Wait, the Grand whatsit wha?” asked Iron Will, confused. As the upper class were more or less already pretentious assholes who threw money around when they needed to be assertive, they didn’t pay much attention to the minotaur who went around teaching the lower classes to be that way. Thus, Iron Will’s status among the elite ponies was non-existent and he knew nothing of their greatest gatherings.
“Don’t worry about it,” replied Twilight, levitating an apple from a nearby collection barrel and placing it on the ramshackle car. Everypony backed away as Twilight charged her magic and released it at the apple. The result was…unexpected. Generally, what everypony had expected was just a carriage top made in the shape of an apple but mounted on top of the old cart chassis. Instead, an entirely new vehicle stood where the old one had. It was similar to the other car in styling, namely headlights and presumable location of the engine, but that’s where the similarities stopped. Whereas the car Lyra and Sandalwood had built had its cabin open to the air, this new vehicle had a frame around its cabin in the shape of an apple, with space inside for three ponies. In the back was an open-air bed, with room for maybe three more ponies, or one pony and one minotaur.
“Wow!” exclaimed Apple Bloom excitedly, “that looks so much better than what Ah built with Scoots and Sweetie!”
“What is it?” asked Big Mac. The last time he’d seen anything like the machine before him, the other car in the barn notwithstanding, was the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, but whereas that machine had looked somewhat threatening, this new contraption did not.
“It’s a truck!” shouted Lyra, almost in awe of it. Everypony else agreed to not ask Lyra why she decided to dub it a “truck” as it probably involved humans.
“Well, I guess you get to drive the car, Lyra, because I’m going to have to take that truck out for a spin,” grinned Sandalwood.
“Okay, we don’t have much time!” interrupted Twilight, leaping into the back of the truck. “Lyra, you’ll drive the car and take Pinkie, Apple Bloom, Granny Smith, and Fluttershy. Sandalwood, you’ll take the truck with Rarity, Big Mac, and Iron Will you’ll ride in the back with me since you can’t fit in the cabin. Rainbow Dash, you’ll fly from above since you’re the fastest flyer.”
“What about me?” asked Spike, everypony else going to their assigned vehicles. His answer was him suddenly lifting off the ground and being deposited in the truck bed next to Twilight.
“Okay, we ready to go?” shouted Lyra, putting on her driving goggles and revving the engine. Sandalwood did the same. Everypony was in consensus that it was now or never. “Alright, then, let’s go save Applejack!”
The two vehicles roared to life, shooting out of the barn with Rainbow Dash taking point, leading the odd convoy onto the path that led to winsome falls. Twilight bucked down in the back and cracked open her book, now was the time to do research that, if the fates were willing, would yield Applejack’s salvation.
Sable laughed. “Oh, please, I’ve been around for centuries, this isn’t, to put it in your terms, ‘my first rodeo,’ so to speak.”
“No…Ah didn’t think so, you’ve probably tortured many innocent ponies ‘cause of reasons that only make sense inside your head, includin’ both of mah parents and mahself!” accused Applejack.
“Your parents? Oh, those two. In all honesty I had nothing to do with them becoming werewolves, not directly anyway, but it is because of those two that I’ve acted the way that I have for the past decade.”
“What, turnin’ me into the same kinda monster as you just to get revenge on a pair of well-meanin’ ponies who never did you harm?”
“I hadn’t actually thought about it that way, though I suppose it could be considered revenge against them. After all, they never were proper werewolves to begin with despite being converted. But no, really I only decided to pass my gifts on to you at the last second. Frankly, you should be more thankful that somepony such as I saw fit to save you from the drudgery of civilization.”
“But if Ah wasn’t meant to be the one you made into a monster, then why did you do it to me? And who were you originally going to put this curse upon?”
Sable sighed. “If you’re going to be so insistent, you might as well know I originally planned to convert that stupid unicorn friend of yours, that boorish Twilight Sparkle.”
Applejack gasped, “B-but why her? What did she do to you to make you want to harm her such as you’ve done to me?”
“Nothing, really, at least nothing she’s directly done. However, she unfortunately happens to be the favored student of that intolerable Princess Celestia you ponies worship like a goddess. She never had the right to take the throne, or to split it with her worthless sister, so she deserves having her favored pupil taken from her. But, after what she took from me ten years ago…taking her pupil is only the start of what I intend to do in revenge against that bitch.”
Ten years ago? Thought Applejack, that’s when Celestia said she killed this…pony…with her magic, even to the point of vaporizing him. But how can he be standing here, unless she didn’t kill him?
Oblivious to the confusion on Applejack’s face, Sable continued. “I’m sure I’ll inform you about the actual reasoning later, but right now you just need to know that with your status as a fellow werewolf, you make the start of the next great age of Equestria.” He evilly smiled as he said that.
“And how exactly am Ah gonna do that?” suspiciously asked applejack, getting ready to make her choice of fight or flight namely out of fear of what he was going to say.
“Why? Because of the reason I turned you into a werewolf instead of Sparkle. You’re by far the best canidate out of the six Elements with your strength and endurance, which will surely be tested sooner or later, and will make a far better mate for me and the next generation of werewolves!”
The horror spread across AJ’s face like wildfire. She’d expected him to just say something like “the first minion of my new army” or something. She wasn’t expecting him to have done this to her simply so she’d be the one giving birth to his new army. “No…NO!” she screamed, turning tail and dashing back the way she came as fast as she could. She wasn’t going to let that old monster take her for his own, away from her family, her friends, everything that mattered to her. Simply being a werewolf was bad enough, but to be the enslaved concubine to that…thing…was beyond unacceptable.
A smirk came to Sable’s face as he watched his future mate run off. He gave her a few seconds before taking off to give chase himself. It was always more entertaining when his prey ran, and he’d never had to hunt another werewolf, so he expected this to be especially fun as it was something unique even to a thousand-year old individual such as himself.
“Ah! Slow down! These turns are slamming me all over the place and ruining my mane!” whined Rarity.
In normal circumstances, the Element of Generosity would have (and had) gone to extreme lengths to protect her friends, and this was no exception as Applejack’s life was potentially on the line. That being said, she would have preferred a much more comfortable ride to the whole “life-saving” part of the journey at hand. Currently, she was the unfortunate one who got the middle seat in the truck cabin, crammed in-between Big Mac and Sandalwood. Stuck between the big, red immoveable object of a stallion, and the naturally tough earth pony mare, Rarity was wedged into a spot she really shouldn’t have been able to fit in. Worse, the trail was full of twists and turns she didn’t remember “hiking” (if getting pushed by Sweetie Belle in a cart counted as that) that Sandalwood kept taking at high speed to keep up with Lyra’s car, the momentum pushing Rarity into either one of the two earth ponies next to her.
“Rarity, I love you as a friend, but for Celestia’s sake can you stop whining?” said Sandalwood, pushing back against Rarity as to have enough room to merely steer the wheel. Big Mac found the situation made worse by Rarity’s whining as well, but as usual he just stuck with it wordlessly.
In the back, Twilight and Spike (who were being held in comfortably by one of Iron Will’s beefy arms while he used the other to keep a steady grip on the truck cabin) were furiously paging through Magical and Maniacal Monsters of Malicious Mayhem to try and find anything of worth inside it. Unfortunately for Twilight, the book was everything she’d hoped for; a database loaded to bear with information about all kinds of creatures. Changelings, Hydras, Jestas, Zakus, every creature imaginable…except werewolves. It was extremely hard for Twilight to resist stopping just to read a paragraph or two.
“C’mon Twi, we gotta keep going!” insisted Spike.
“I’m trying, Spike, but there’s so much interesting stuff here that-“
“LOOK OUT!” cried out Pinkie, suddenly. Reacting fast, both Lyra and Sandalwood immediately slammed the brakes on the vehicles and slid to a stop. However, they did it in opposite directions such that the headlights now illuminated a fifty foot stretch of the path.
No sooner had they stopped then two figures shot out of the dark forest and into the light, time seemingly coming to a dead stop the moment both were in the glow of electric light. The first one was Applejack in her altered beast form, her face etched with horror and fear. The second, chasing figure was more distorted, looking far more like a hairy wolf but still enough like a pony for it to be identified as a werewolf. Its face screamed of almost feral pleasure and lust, as if it was enjoying the chase to levels no sane individual could. But the most telling element of the second figure was the remnants of what could only have been a cutie mark. Highlighted by the headlights, the red splotches on both of the figure’s flanks were seen by the occupants of the two vehicles on either side, forming the vague shape of a red pawprint. There was no question that the second figure was not only a werewolf, but it was none other than the infamous Sable Loam himself, his presence striking fear into the souls of all those assembled.
Then, just as time seemed to stop, it resumed, and both Applejack and Sable had shot off into the night, possibly not even having noticed the two vehicles flanking them.
“Who was that?!” asked Iron Will, confused at the presence of a second werewolf nopony seemed to have ever mentioned in his presence before.
“That…that was Sable Loam!” whimpered Fluttershy, recovering from seeing what could happen to Applejack if she gave into her bestial urges of mindless violence as a werewolf.
“Hey, wait a sec…” started Rainbow Dash, “was it just me, or did Sable look suspiciously exactly like-“
“-The creature that bit Applejack!” finished everypony else, the answer to that eternal question finally answered.
“Will somepony please tell Iron Will who this Sable Loam is?!” demanded Iron Will, getting a little impatient.
Rainbow swooped in front of the minotaur. “Okay, short version: he’s a traitor to the Equestrian crown, had King Sombra turn him and a bunch of his buddies into werewolves except he’s also immortal, he’s probably the one who turned Applejack into a werewolf, and now we have to go stop him before he does whatever he’s going to do to our friend. Got it?”
“Uh…I think…?” answered IW.
“Good! Now, let’s go, there’s no telling where they’re headed now!”
Applejack ran. She ran harder than she ever had run before. Her instincts were going haywire, as they were wired for her being a werewolf predator, not the werewolf prey. She couldn’t even think clear thoughts, the most coherent one being don’t go into town! Indeed, with all the noise coming from behind her, she still couldn’t let the town know about her lycanthropy. She’d be shunned for the rest of her life and Sable would win then.
So she instead changed course and went to the Everfree, back to the routes she used to run when being a werewolf was still a good thing to her. She was certain that at some point she’d gone through the light of headlights, both from that car thing Lyra and Sandalwood and built, but also possibly the resurrected form of Apple Bloom’s car, the accursed machine that had started this whole ordeal. Whether or not the rest of her family and friends had been in those vehicles, she hadn’t noticed, but she hoped they would come to her rescue soon as she could still hear Sable behind her.
Into the Everfree she went, down the old running paths but also improvising and going in-between them at random. The only thing she really looked out for was Poison Joke patches, getting contaminated by that practical jokester of a plant would not be pleasant in this situation. Eventually, after running non-stop for almost forty five minutes, she couldn’t hear her pursuer anymore. She knew better, however, and while she slowed down to catch her breath, she kept an ear open to try and detect him coming towards her.
As she slowed to a slight walk, she noted she was in a part of the forest she’d never been in before. It was noticeably younger than the rest of the forest, the trees in this area were mostly less than ten years old. Having transplanted trees all her life, Applejack knew the young, natural trees and the giant ones that had to have been transplanted from elsewhere in the Everfree.
But why would there be such an odd mix of trees in this area? wondered Applejack, before she realized she was dead-center in a valley, circular to the point that it was like an upside down hill, or there had been a massive explosion here.
Then she saw it. Next to a tree, the tallest tree around (probably placed as to disguise the odd terraforming from a Pegasus flying above the Everfree for some reason), was a single tombstone. She approached it, noting that it looked like it was in poor condition, as if it was just left here to be worn away.
Upon closer inspection, the tombstone appeared to be made of limestone, probably bought cheaply as it looked like one good impact would destroy it. But an even closer inspection revealed a name had once been inscribed upon the face, but years of weather had worn it away to an indecipherable series of scratches.
“Her name was Fair Vista,” said Sable, coming up from behind Applejack. The orange werewolf immediately spun around, but both werewolves knew she wasn’t going to run. She was still breathing heavily from the exertion of having to run, an amazing thing considering her normal athletic ability and the boost from being a werewolf. Sable, on the other hand, looked like he hadn’t broken a sweat.
“Who, the last pony you turned into a werewolf? Did she die of natural causes, or because she eventually devolved into a full wolf, somethin’ Ah’m probably gonna end up becomin’?”
“No, when I turned her, and unlike you she was thankful for what I gave her, she too became immortal and the years we spent together were the happiest of my life.”
“Let me guess, she was your mate? What does that make me, your sad attempt at replacing her?”
“You should be honored that I even consider you worthy of being as good a candidate for filling her role, and you’ll do just fine as part of my revenge plan, since you are the Element of Honesty are you not?”
“Okay, just what in the hay did Celestia do that has you so pissed off?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Celestia murdered the only pony I ever cared about, right here on this spot, and by hell or highwater, I will avenge Fair Vista!”
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Hmmm, villain character development is always good, that bastard still needs to die though
2856750
Agreed my friend.
2856750 Am I a bad person now because I root for the bad guy?
2858706Yes
2858706
Yes. Yes you are.
2856750
Agreed. Who's up for some korean barbeque?
2861711I'm more in the mood for a nice tender rack of wolf ribs
Let's get ready to rumble! Ok, I had to comment on this here as this shows what happens when you read through a book twice. Things change and you take a second viewpoint. At first, I was a little confused and worried about AJ's actions here, worried that you took AJ who had been shown to be strong and tough, and turned into the DID to be saved by some big strong male (Not the total case as the other ladies are here to help). That was on the first read.
Second read though, I had a changed perspective. As I see it that she know that this guy just more or less said -I AM GOING TO RAPE YOU LIKE AN ANIME GAL IN A BAD HENTAI!! (Loam: Please, I prefer the idea of taking, not rape. Rape is such...a pony term.). Add this onto the fact that he just proved that he could mind control her into thinking that she was having the time of her life and yeah. I be scared too. So yeah, a secon read through helped to improve this moment.
I unwittingly wish for Fair Vista to come back in some form just to screw Sable over and end his convoluted, generic bad guy plan. Oh well. Let's see what you actually do with him. *clicks next page*
Yes. It would be very bad. For both you and Loam. So...why not use it as a weapon?