The second installation in the AOS series, about a wolf named Shasta. If you have not read Adventures of Shasta, I would encourage you to do so. Rated teen for some descriptions, but it should be okay for everypony if they want to read it!
When you are the only wolf in a world full of colorful ponies, you can get into a lot of interesting situations. Can Shasta learn to fit in? Or will Taka or Rainbow Dash get to him first? (Dramatic dun dun dun) Thanks to my friend, Pinkiepieprincess on D.A. for making the cover art for this.
The sweet smell of apples hit my nose as we slowly made our way towards the farmhouse in the middle of the large orchard. Apple Jack gave me a sideways glance and asked: "So, whaddya think?" "I think that you have a lot of apples" I replied like the idiot I was. Thankfully she didn't seem to care how stupid my comment was. We walked through the rows and rows of apple trees and she told me the names of each of the types of apples. I nodded understandingly, but in reality I knew I would never know their names. They would always be apples to me. It actually bothered me, and without trying to I voiced my opinion. "So why do all the apples get different names? I mean like sentient beings, sure. But apples?" We stopped walking for a while as she thought of how to respond to that. "Ah'm not entirely sure ah know what ya mean." she said. "Like why don't all the blades of grass have names?" I asked her. She opened her mouth to say something but before she could, I decided to add in, "By the way you're stepping on Benjamin, George, Bob, Daniel, and Billy." She looked at me and gave a small chuckle. "Well then, Ah do apologize for any inconveniences, my friends." she said as we resumed making our way towards the center of the apple fields. A thought crossed my mind and being the impulsive fool I am, I just blurted it out. "Why exactly do we have to go to the farmhouse? Wouldn't any of these apples work?" "Well as Granny Smith always says, If ya want to make an impression, at least make it good. Besides, these apples aren't ripe yet. It will take about three more months until they're ready. Here we are! Lemme go get some apples. What kind do ya want, sugarcube?" "Uh..." I should have payed more attention. I didn't know there was going to be a quiz! "the kind that is an apple..." Brilliance. Pure brilliance. "Uh Ah'll just go get some Cortlands." Once she was inside, I face-pawed so hard. I couldn't believe how stupid I was around these ponies. Was I always like this? Taka had always said that I was the smartest of the pack. I find that hard to believe. Maybe I was dropped on my head as a pup...
I didn't have time to finish that thought before I was knocked on the ground by a powerful hoof to my right thigh. I immediately thought rainbow dash, but when I looked, it was not the cyan pegasus, but a large, golden maned stallion. He raised his back hooves to buck me, but I ran before he could land his attack. But my attacker was not satisfied. He gave chase, as I darted through rows and rows of trees, hoping he would not have the swiftness to maneuver around the trees. The adrenaline was rushing through me, and I looked back just to be smacked with the trunk of an apple tree. I was dazed, and he was not going to give up. I was starting to slip into unconsciousness. I tried to stay awake, but the darkness was so sweet, so welcoming. It seemed so much better than the alternative which was facing a giant angry stallion.
As I slipped into the sweet embrace of the darkness, I was suddenly brought back to reality when some apples fell on me. I snapped into action, realizing that he had bucked at me and hit the tree. I ducked to the left and sprinted. I decided against trying my best at weaving between rows and just ran alongside one. I turned, and saw my attacker falling behind. My spirits started lifting. I was going to live another day! But something was wrong. The look on the stallion's face was not one of anger anymore, but of fear and concern. He was shouting something... something about fillies?
Before I could figure out what that meant on my own, I was confronted with the answer. I collided head first into a group of three fillies wearing some sort of capes and we all fell to the ground. As I got up, one of the fillies jumped on me saying something to the effect of "Don't worry brother, Ill get it!" Oh great. Now I had to play rodeo with a little filly, who I really did not want to hurt. That would not look good on my part, and besides, who really does want to hurt little fillies? My thoughts were clouded, however, with the adrenaline pumping through my veins. I kept on running, with the yellow filly on my back. As I ran, she was hitting me. It didn't hurt much, as she wasn't very big, but it was annoying. I couldn't stop running, or He would get me. I couldn't run off with her, and hurting her was not an option. Actually, apparently I could run off with her, because that's just what the numbskull known as myself did. I ran off with the filly. I got to the edge of the fields, the filly still holding on to me. I jumped over the wooden fence, and kept running. I didn't look back, for fear of running into something and hurting her. I just kept on running. Eventually I got to the edge of the Everfree forest, and just went right in. I kept going until I caught myself right before running off a cliff leading down into a river about fifty feet below. I was about to congratulate myself on saving the filly and I from falling off a cliff, until I saw a yellow figure launch in what seemed to be slow motion off my back and towards the ravine. I had no idea what to do. I couldn't grab the filly with my teeth without tearing her leg off or something, until I remembered she was wearing a cape. She might get choked a bit, but it was probably a better option than letting her die. I planted my paws firmly into the ground and grabbed the cape. I jerked my head to the left, and swung the filly back onto land. She fell on her side as I stood there panting. The world reached normal speeds, but nothing was really happening, so it may as well have stayed the way it was. After what seemed like an eternity, she looked up at me and said in disbelief, "Y-You saved m-my life." I responded brilliantly, "Yeah I did."
After the little incident by the ravine, I was forced to play Q and A with the little filly. She would not let up with the questions like "how come you can talk?" or "Why did you save me" or even, my favorite, "So do you have a cutie mark?". You save someone's life, and no thank you. Only questions. The worst part was she didn't let me do the 'A' part of Q and A. That filly could talk. A lot. After about five minutes of being bombarded with questions that would never be answered, I snapped. "ENOUGH!" I yelled, a lot louder than I meant to. It worked, as she instantly shut up and got teary eyed. Great. Everyone's afraid of the big bad wolf. "I-I'm sorry... I didn't mean to yell" I Explained, but she just sat there staring at me. I felt terrible. I tried to calm her down but she just kept sitting there staring at me! Or... she was staring at something behin-
My thought was cut off by a gravelly voice. "Well, what do we have here?" I whirled around and came face to face with two piercing amber eyes staring into my soul. I felt my heart sink like a stone, yet at the same time, I felt it beating rapidly in my chest. I placed my back left paw behind me and got ready to spring into action. Seeing this, my surprise visitor and mentor rebuked me saying, "Oh there's no need for that. As you can see I have come alone. And in peace." I highly doubted both of these. I backed up defensively in front of the yellow filly that I had brought into the forest like an idiot would. "What do you want, Taka?" I asked trying to sound tough, although in reality I was terrified. Not for my own life but for the life of the trembling figure behind me. "I merely would like a chat with my little brother." He said, putting emphasis on the last word. He was trying to get to me... It was working. Now the filly associated me with this homicidal freak! "I am NOT your brother." I said through clenched teeth. "Whatever could you mean?" he replied with feigned astonishment. "I mean, you know I left the pack. Now if you will excuse us.." I said, backing away from him to get ready to grab the filly and run. "Ah yes, the filly. Hand it over." he said. I knew what he was doing. He was making it seem like I was part of his plan. He wanted the filly to feel abandoned, to run away from me and into the grasp of the pack. I had to do something. "I thought you said you had come in peace," I replied. "I do. I come to tear you to PIECES!" He sprung into action, flying through the air at speeds rainbow dash would envy. We collided, and tumbled on the ground.
The next few minutes were intense. He bit, clawed and kicked. For the better part of the fight, I was doing alright. I got too confident and was greeted with a swipe of his vicious claws straight to my face. I yelped in agony, and turned away. In that split second, I saw the filly watching in awe. At least she wasn't running. Perhaps she was smart enough to figure out his plan on her own. I looked back at Taka, and was greeted with a kick to the stomach. I rolled in pain and he took advantage of this. He jumped back on me clawing at my sides. I kicked him off, and lunged. I bit him in the neck, but the strike wasn't placed well enough to kill him. I wasn't actually sure I wanted to kill him... A sharp pain in my right thigh as he swiped me with his claws made up my mind. If his goal was to kill me, I had to do what I had to do. I scratched him in the chest, drawing blood. He yelped and threw me off of him. I landed on my paws, and sprung right back at him. I got onto him, rolling around and trying to bite him in the throat. He overpowered me, and we rolled around. I clawed him in the face, and he jerked us to the right... and off the cliff. I was falling and approaching the river at high speeds. I looked for Taka, only to find him falling next to me, a look of pure hate in his eyes. I saw no regret. As long as he killed me, he was happy. I screwed my eyes shut and waited for the impact of the water to bring me to my final rest. WHAM
When I finally came to, I felt the cold river water lapping at my hind paws. I opened my eyes to find a yellow filly curled up next to me, asleep. How had she gotten down here? I looked around and found my answer. A good bit down stream, the ravine ended and met up with solid ground. I suddenly remembered Taka and looked around for him, but he was no where to be found. I got up shakily, and tried to wake the filly. "Hey. Uh filly... Yellow thing... Wake up.." A terrible thought crossed my mind. What if she were dead!? I leaned in and was relieved to hear her heart beating. I heard a faint howling off in the distance and decided that we had to get out of the forest quick. I shook the filly vigorously, but to no avail. I went to the edge of the river, and splashed some water at her. She woke up and looked around, eyes wide. "Oh its you. glad you're awake." she said with her heavy southern accent. "The same can be said for you. Are you okay? What happened to Taka?" I asked anxiously. "Oh Ah'm fine! And was Taco that other wolf? He floated down the stream. He seemed unconscious." she replied. I gave a small sigh of relief and said, "We need to get out of here quickly. It won't be long before the rest of the pack comes and finds us." We walked downstream and got to the crossing. "So how long was I out?" I asked. "About two hours, but then Ah fell asleep, so ah dunno." She told me sweetly. "What's your name?" I asked her, " Ah'm Applebloom. What's your name?" She replied. "My name is Shasta." I said ashamedly. "Well nice to meet ya, Shasta." She said cheerily. As soon as we were out of the forest, I was able to breathe a little easier. That was a dangerous place, especially when you have a filly to take care of. "Well we should probably get you home, Applebloom." I told her, "But if you want, we are really close to my friend, Fluttershy's cottage. It's pretty late, maybe you could spend the night there?" "Oh ah know Fluttershy. She's mah sister's friend. Why not?" With that, we made our way towards the cottage in the dead of the night. We got to it, and I knocked on the door. We waited a few moments, and then the door opened slowly, and Fluttershy poked her head out cautiously. She looked as if she had been crying, and when she saw me, she gave a small 'eep' and slammed the door shut! What had happened? "Fluttershy, you okay?" I asked confusedly. She replied, "G-g-go away!" Now I was really confused. I looked to Applebloom for an answer but she just shrugged. I knocked on the door again, and all I heard was sobbing from inside. I pushed the door open, and went inside slowly. She was sitting on the couch crying her eyes out. "Fluttershy, what happened? You can tell me anything, come on." She continued sobbing. I waited for an answer, and eventually she said in her meek voice, "How could you, Shasta? I-I thought-" before bursting into tears again. "What did I do? I-" she looked up at me and snapped, "HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH THINGS TO A POOR LITTLE FILLY!? JUST TAKE HER OFF AND KILL HER? I THOUGHT YOU WERE NICE!" I was now very confused. Is that what everypony said I did? "Now hold up there, I didn't do that. I-" I was cut off by Applebloom asking from outside, "Shasta, did she say I could come in?" Fluttershy's head jolted up and she flew over to the door, flung it open and stared at the filly before her. "Hiya Fluttershy. Shasta said ah could spend the ni-" She was cut off by a huge hug from fluttershy. "I told you I didn't do anything. Why would I do that?" She just sat there hugging Applebloom. "Good to see ya too, Fluttershy?" she said confusedly. The yellow pegasus then looked at me and said "I-Im sorry... its just that... everypony said you-" Tears were welling up in her eyes and I said "shhh.... its okay.... everything is okay...." She looked up at me with those big eyes and pulled me into the hug. "Umm Fluttershy? Can you let go now?" Applebloom asked. Fluttershy released us and apologized, like she always did. At that moment I felt like I actually had a family.
