> Chupacabra > by LightningThunda > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1. Myself > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================================================================== -Chupacabra- ===================================================================== By LightningThunda ====== -Myself- ====== The soft wind carrying the sound of nearby water calmed me, serenading my painful headache. The lovely smell of fresh pines lingered in my mind as I lay in the soft grass. ‘Wait grass… What’?!. I bolt up looking around and got a feel for the world around me; the area I'm in consisted of a simple but beautiful clearing in the middle of a giant pine forest, the trees towering hundreds of feet above me breaking the light into uniform shadows. Lining the flora and fauna around me with dark shadows. The water I'm hearing is now clearer, sounding as if it is coming from my left, my eyes wide open taking in every aspect of this new place. ‘Where the fuck am I?’ The thought finally crossed my mind. One minute I was reading in bed the next I was here in the forest. ‘Must have fallen asleep whilst reading?’, “But how the hell did I get here”! I asked again this time out loud hoping someone would answer me. No reply came… ‘Well shit… now what?’. It was at this point that I started taking full stock of the situation ‘no wait scratch that predicament’, I was in. Before I noticed something… something that DEFINITELY should not be there; instead of seeing nothing obscuring my view in front of my ‘dare I say beautiful face’ I saw a snout… ‘wha-...’, ‘I think my brain just broke’, ‘No shit sherlock!’ I argued with myself as I promptly screamed, a very manly scream -the world shall know my shame for that scream- and fell back into the thicker parts of the clearing. My breathing intensified as I tried reaching forward to feel the snout and see if it wasn’t just a stupid prank by one of my friends. But then something happened, something that also shouldn't be there either: instead of a normal human hand coming into my peripheral; a very large and furry paw came into view. ‘Oh shit… Well... That just took the cake...’ I thought to myself. ‘Ok, get ahold of yourself all we need to do is see what you are..’ I slowly get up not used to standing on four legs (yes I said four I am apparently a quadrupled now) and walk over to my right remembering and hearing the stream of water that is nearby. As I walked I started to look around more to look at the beauty -and also try ignore the fact that a MASSIVE biological impossibility just occurred- The forest had a very weird unnatural glow to it that made it look like a bad photo filter on my IPhone 6… ‘Wait my IPhone… hmmm no, wait I don't have any pockets, or even clothes for that matter for my IPhone to be in.. shit I miss it already’. ‘Wait a sec’ I thought as I walked up to one of the nearby plants. The flower/mossy thing in question was unlike anything I've ever seen or heard of before, the… Thing looked like your average moss but instead of all of it growing near the ground the mossy stuff seemed to have sprung upwards during growth into a very deep red flower with a texture similar to the moss itself. But I wasn’t looking at that, I was looking at the mystic glow it held within its petals, the glow seeming to be coming from the plant itself but when I looked closer it looked to be only in certain area of the flower, testing a new theory I had, I closed my eyes. ‘Well, that is very interesting...’ The glow didn't show through my eyelids even though it was definitely bright enough to shine through; this brought up two conclusions: either my eyelids are very good at blocking out light or the light I'm seeing is specifically being viewed through my new eyes… Testing this I looked directly up where I could just see the sunlight filtering through the great pines, closing my eyes I saw the sunlight -red through my eyelids- glowing softly in my eyes, ‘well that proves it, the light is some sort of colour I'm seeing with my eyes only, maybe heat..’ I thought, ‘well that's pretty cool, I wonder what other things this new body can do?’. I kept moving forward, now very eager to see who or even what I had become, rather surprised at how well I was taking it all. Moving towards the ever present sound of trickling water. After about 10 minutes of walking, I finally came to a wall of bushes about two times my size blocking off the river that I could glimpse behind them. Backing up as to have enough speed to burst through the fauna I reared back and charged. ‘Not my best move’... I thought two seconds later wherein I managed to catch myself from falling into the rushing water, apparently I have much more strength than I originally thought. Peering over the waters edge I came to face to face with something I have only seen in pictures and photoshopped images: the mythological Chupacabra. ‘Well ain't that a bitch...’, ‘Damn that is cool though’ apparently I had been transported to this place -beautiful as it was- and turned into this creature. My face was that of a wolf, but there was something off about it, the fur was a pitch black colour -and I don't mean black like night or a dark room I mean so black my fur seemed to eat at the light around it- also a noticeable feature: I was MASSIVE, like the size of a minicar from Britain. ‘Wow.’ I thought ‘I am a BEAST’. My ‘teeth’ if even you can call them that were row after row of long sharp spherical daggers that just shouted “MONSTER”. My eyes -the last noticeable thing about my face where a very deep blue that almost seemed like a formation of galaxies and stars, me being a massive science geek and nerd thought of it as CuSO4 or copper sulphate crystal in a liquid form- seeming to hypnotize me with their beauty. Swirling over and over in an endless cycle of color and passion.... ‘Wha-What just.. what?’. I shook my head to shake away the wavy feeling in my still present headache. ‘Hmm, eyes that hypnotize, could be useful, must be wise.’ I thought to myself in my geeky yoda lingo. The rest of body still awaited my approval, continuing on from my face I took note of the very prominent dark, black spines going from the bridge of my nose or the point in between my eyes to the very back of my rear, splitting out and down to form my pitch black wolf-like tail, some of the spines split from junctions on my shoulders and hips to run down my legs. Testing a little thing I just thought of I tried raising them to look more threatening, only managing to move them very slightly upwards I stopped trying and moved on with my body. The rest of it wasn’t to special just more pitch black fur which scary enough seems to mold me into the shadows behind and around me making me almost entirely invisible even though I was leaning right out over the water, taking a step back after admiring myself I sat down and began to think about the situation I was in. ‘Well I have almost unnatural abilities to blend into the shadows, I have the ability to see other heat..? Maybe more than just heat, no idea. I have super strength- or I think I do, need to test that-, I have awesome looking spins all over my body and lastly, I have hypnotic eyes… well that is fucking awesome’, ‘You know you are taking this almost too well’, ‘Well yeah, this is a pretty cool experience, and besides I never had a very good life before this anyways.’ I argued with myself. ‘Ok, Im getting way too caught up in this, why aren't I freaking out..’, ‘Because this is epic,I don't need to listen to you, you're me’! ‘Wait...’ ‘I'm arguing with myself...’ ‘Ok I need to go over the last few hours so I know i'm not going insane, my name is James, I have never had much of a life, my family died when I was very young so I was raised in an orphanage and because of the low lifestyle I never really got a good education and because of that I never really got a good job; I was stuck in some small game developers office that just started out: programming the life outta me. Cause programming was one of the only things I did really well, just last night I had my 25th birthday… alone again; having no family does usually means that you have solitary birthdays, although I could have invited one of my five friends…’ ‘Anyways, I started reading on my IPhone around 10 o’clock last night, then, nothing... Now I have been transported here and hell, I like it.’ ‘Ok so I haven't gone insane… I think’. Slowly standing up due to the pins and needles now in my limbs I started off, following the setting sun west through the thick underbrush I turn towards a mountain at what looks like about ten kilometers ahead of me, smoke billowing out of the side. ‘Hmm, that might be dangerous, I wonder if it’s volcanic or just a bushfire on the other side?’. Starting out towards it I started slowly walking forward keeping my eyes trained upon the mountain in case I lost sight of it in the pine trees. My walk slowly turning into a quick walk, then a run, then I started sprinting towards it keeping my whole body and head in a perfect horizontal line with the ground. My leaps and bounds soon becoming a blur throwing me forward at ridiculous speeds that I couldn’t even comprehend. The wind pushing into my face so hard I would have thought my body would be slowing down but no, my head made a sharp conical point that sliced through the air like butter, propelling me forward and pushing the air out of the way. Suddenly everything went very quiet as I picked up an incredible amount of speed, I didn’t even feel any resistance anymore. The rushing of the wind and thump of my paws against the ground dissipating to barely audible, making me immediately slow my sprint, the normal noises of the forest returning to me as I slowed to a stop. Looking behind me there was a rather large lack of trees most of which where, instead of standing up obscuring my vision of the sky; broken up and lying across the forest floor behind me as if... ‘Wait did I just break the sound barrier… running… holy shit that is fast’. Turning around I took off again, this time not slowing. My body now cutting through the air and surrounding bush with a speed that I was scared to even consider, my powerful legs seeming not to strain at all, propelling me faster and faster. After about ten minutes, I hit the edge of the mountain… -And I don't mean gently slowed down to a stop at the edge, I mean I literally hit the fucking mountain traveling at Mach 1.5-... ‘OHHH FUCK’ was the only thing that went through my mind as I impacted the hard rock, ‘how am I not dead?’. My whole body ached but when I looked down at the chest where most of the damage should have been I found I didn't even have a single scare. ‘Wow, so my body is super resistant and I can travel super fast? that is really cool, and a little terrifying’ I thought as I shook the dust out of my fur. Looking up I was able to just glimpse the top edge of the mountain, the smoke still heavily pouring out of a cave in the side. ‘Maybe it’s a campfire gone wrong?’ I considered before beginning my mighty trek upwards towards the mouth of the cave. One hour later: I had to stop, not for the lack of energy for my new body seemed to hold an infinite amount of it but I instead because I was dizzy. I have never been an avid fan of heights and now was one of those moments where you think to yourself: ‘don't look down, don't look down’. And well… I looked down. Not my proudest moment cause I jumped up and back out of fear, trying my hardest to melt into the wall behind me to escape my phobia. Although now that I think about it: my body may be actually able to withstand the fall, but considering I was scared shitless of just looking over the edge I doubt I would ever even consider trying to test that theory. Turning around I found a little concave sphere, dug out into the mountain with a little outcropping overhead. Slowly walking in as to steady my beating heart I sat down, my front legs and paws automatically curling under my barrel, my tail curling around my body in a comforting way. I lay there slowly mulling over the day that has past in the recess of my mind thinking about my new powers beginning to feel the toll of the day, while my body still felt full of limitless energy, my mind was beginning to slow from the bombard of questions that have been flowing through it since I appeared in this strange world. ‘What if i'm all alone in this, wherever I am?’ ‘I mean I'm really excited with this whole new body even though I should totally be freaking out right now’ before I could finish my thoughts, I saw the little red blotch of what I assumed was the Sun setting through my eyelids, before disappearing entirely. ‘Hmmm I wonder if my eyes hold any more power?’ and with that random thought coursing through my mind I fell into a dreamless sleep. -3rd person POV Ponyville in the morning after previous events- “Hmm-mm… no Celestia I past, no.. n-no.” Twilight mumbled “Twilight wake up!” Spike yelled in twilights ear. “no-no..” “TWILIGHT!” “what, whooz zat?” Twilight replied groggily. “Twilight, great you're awake, the girls need your help, the mountain near the village is smoking!” Spike said sounding somewhat on edge. “Wait what” Twilight said bolting upright “are you sure Spike, mountains don’t just smoke for no reason...” “I'm serious just look outside your window!”, “Wha- ugh, fine ok I'll look” Twilight groaned slowly getting out from under her covers and moving over to the window yawning loudly. Before stepping up to the window and flinging the curtain open letting the light assault her eyes in a harsh display of science. Twilight then proceeded to look towards the east mountain closest to Canterlot castle mountain she could just make out in the distance. “Oh my gosh… SPIKE GET MY QUILL AND SOME PAPER” Twilight yelled, forgetting that spike was in the room with her. Her eyes were painfully wide awake now looking straight out the window at the horrifying sight that was present on the mountain. The great hill of stone was spewing a gigantic plume of black smog straight up and out of the mountain, that was beginning to drift towards Ponyville. “Jezz Twilight no need to yell, and also the princess has already sent a letter to us explaining our new mission”, “Mission, spike?” Twilight asked with a slight glare. “Yea the princess has asked you and me and the rest of the girls to go up to the mountain to see what is going on!”, “Oh ok well let me quickly get some breakfast and I'll be right with them”, “Sure, I already took the liberty of setting the table with some breakfast for you so you don’t have to worry”. “Oh, thanks, Spike” Twilight replied nonchalantly as she walked out of the door heading downstairs. After her refreshing breakfast, Twilight told Spike to go grab the elements after he cleaned up as she read the letter from Celestia: “Dear Twilight- We have a terrible problem; a dragon has moved into the mountain north of Canterlot -you should be able to see the smoke- and has also moved his horde there suggesting he is not planning to leave for some time. Dragons, when sleeping unfortunately tend to sleep for up to three thousand years or more, and unfortunately for us here in Canterlot and more specifically you in Ponyville: his smoke that he snores out of his mouth is traveling directly over to you, meaning Ponyville will be blocked from the sun for a VERY long time. It is imperative that you get to that mountain quickly before the dragon goes too deeply into sleep and forces Ponyville itself to move. You are going to need to somehow move the dragon somewhere else, preferably in a more isolated place farther away. I know you will do your best. Sincerely -Celestia.” After reading Celestia’s letter, Twilight became extremely agitated or as Spike would say; twitchy… Spike having only seen Twilight in her truly twitchy mood when she received a mission or exam from Celestia implying that said mission was a test from the princess herself, decided very quickly to vacate the area and go find the elements. Twilight, hearing spike leave decided to head over to Fluttershy’s place as it was where she had organised with spike to meet the girls. Twilight rounded a bend in the road and began crossing the bridge to Fluttershy’s cottage. The shy pegasus had revamped the place since Twilight had last seen it so there was now new flowers growing in their respective beds, the windows were sparkling clean and the door no longer creaked as it moved in the wind. Twilight quickly made her way to the front door, knocked and waited before the door peeked open a timid pegasus sticking her head out of the door. “H-Hello?” she asked before noticing who was standing on her doorstep, “oh it’s you Twilight”. “Hi Fluttershy I'm here to share some news with the girls and you!” Twilight said making sure not to yell too loudly as to not scare the young mare. “Oh, right come in…”, "if you want?..” she spoke in a soft voice that just screamed to the world: INNOCENT. “Yea I would love to but we still need to wait a bit for the others”, “Oh ok, would you like some tea?” Fluttershy asked. “Yea that would be great” replied Twilight before walking across the hearth, Fluttershy beginning making some tea in the background. After about ten minutes of waiting; Twilight and Fluttershy began hearing the voices of their friends as the one by one let themselves into the house. “Hi y'all” Applejack shouted as she entered the open door. “Hey guys, whatsup” Rainbow dash shouted bursting through the door in her usual heroic style. The rest of the girls were more casual and slow when they walked into the room: Pinkie Pie bouncing into the room; her springy hair bouncing along with her, with Rarity right behind her and Spike taking the tail, eyes glued to Rarity as if she were a god. “Hi guys,” said Twilight in return, “I'm here to explain something that the princess herself has asked us to do, that has to do with the massive cloud of ash coming in toward Ponyville”, “What is it?” asked Applejack. “It’s the cloud itself: as you know” continued Twilight in her explaining tone: “A mountain doesn’t just start smoking without the actual volcano exploding and the mountain to the west is not even a volcano, so I can gather that you all are wondering why it’s smoking?”. Twilight paused for dramatic effect then continued in a slightly hushed tone: “It’s a dragon!” She explain much to the horror of everyone in the room. “The dragon has taken up residency in the mountain and it’s our task to rid of it before it becomes too deeply engrossed by its sleep to move at all”. “I do-don't really like dragons” Fluttershy muttered while hiding behind her mane. “Well don't worry it’s not that bad” ensured Twilight. “Are you saying we have to go into the suuuuuper scary Everfree then climb a suuuuuper tall mountain to fight a suuuuuuper duper evil dragon?” asked Pinkie Pie in her sing-song voice. “Well…” Twilight muttered, “that's technically what we are doing... But it not that bad” Twilight quickly said in the end hoping to not scare Fluttershy which proved to futile. “Ok, so everypony go home and grab some necessities that we will be needing for the trip. And remember only pack light” she said looking meaningfully at Rarity. “Hehe yes, of course darling” Rarity mumbled before quickly shooting out the door at break-neck pace no doubt to go pack five suitcases of clothes. The rest of the gang leaving one by one out the door and towards their respective homes. Twilight, being the last one out quickly turned around and spoke to Fluttershy: “Don't worry Fluttershy, nothing bad will happen: you should be fine around dragons, Spikes a dragon”, “Yea-b-but he's just a baby dragon” she mumbled so quietly that Twilight barely heard her. “Oh don't worry Fluttershy I'm sure it’ll be fine as long as we’re with you”. Twilight said turning before making her way out of the door, stopping as a spontaneous Pinkie jumped out and over Twilight, landing lightly on her hooves just outside the cottage. “WHERE GOING ON AN ADVENTURE!!!” she screamed at the top of her lungs before pulling a party hat out of nowhere, putting it on, and promptly disappearing. Twilight slowly shook her head as she herself began the walk home to pack her things. > Chapter 2. Staring into the maw of death > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================== -Staring into the maw of death- ===================== -1st Person POV James, Everfree forest- The sun broke through the little cracks in the granite cave that surrounded me filtering through in strips, one such strip landing right between my eyes. ‘Ahhh’ I yawned, aggravated that I had to wake up. ‘Two more minutes...’ The light slowly shifted as I moved and twitched still way too tired to get up, the soft smell of the pines filling my nostrils from the forest below, and the heat of the early morning light warming my slightly cold body. My teeth shifted across my tongue as I twitched in my half asleep state, my ears raised picking up the smallest of sounds miles away; I could hear the shifting of the individual leaves, the running water from a creek off in the far distance and I could hear the smallest sliver of soft voices too far away to understand what they were saying. ‘Wait, voices’... Jolting up out of my daze I sit up, the voices fading away back into the background noise of everything around me. Closing my eyes and focusing on my hearing alone I filter everything out, and there, far off in the distance I could hear them again… ‘Voices, why would I hear voices, are they from some sort of a nearby city.’ ‘Hmm, I'm in a giant forest in the middle of nowhere with a volcano in the middle of it with a possible nearby city… maybe some country like New Zealand?’ I thought to myself, while stretching my aching muscles in the sunlight now flooding in through the cave; sleeping on a rock floor wasn't uncomfortable but was definitely not preferable. Now thoroughly confused at the voices I was hearing, I jump up walking to the mouth of the cave, still weary of the very large height difference between the ground and my new resting place. Excited about the possibility of not being completely alone wherever I was, and having nothing better to do other than to continue trying to climb the mountain (which I was beginning to think was a bad idea in the first place) I decided to head towards the voices. Walking out of the cave and sticking to the edges of the mountain I begin making my way only to be stopped a massive wall of rubble and stone blocking my path, taking a risk I slowly lean over the edge of the path around the stone and found that the path had disappeared after this point. ‘Hmmm so the path stops at this wall of stone’ I thought, ‘strange...’ looking away from the path and out over the rather beautiful valley I could see the mountain range come to a stop a few hundred miles south at a final great white mountain, squinting with my increased eyesight on the edge of said mountain I could just make out… ‘A castle?’ I kid you not there was a giant almost pure white castle looking to be made out of marble carved into the mountain -or at least that was what it looked like from here- ‘How in th- wha- why would someone even...’ was all that went through my mind as I considered the structural integrity of having a castle hanging over what was essentially a cliface, several scenarios going through my head of someone dropping a pin and the entire thing literally just collapsing. The area immediately in front of the mountain I was on, in between me and the white castle held a magnificent valley exhibiting a beautiful forest consisting of giant pine trees further in but as the forest came to an end the trees became black and rotting looking almost as if to just be there to torment. Looking to the far edge of the forest due east I took note of some odd looking mounds differently coloured to the land around it, looking closer I saw them to be some sort of village though a bit rudimentary with thatched roofs. Focusing in on the village with my hearing in an attempt to try figure out exactly where I was I came across those voices again concluding that they must be just slightly outside the village, as if I tried to listen any further I just heard a ringing sound before feeling slightly queasy destroying my concentration. ‘Holy shit that is far for me to be able to hear anything’, the village was easily so far away it started to fade a bit into background fog as my eyes struggled to make out anything, thinking back to my time as a human I realized that this was WAY too far to be able to see let alone be able to make out voices, maybe I was imagining it… Maybe I really had just gone insane. Deciding my new destination should be towards the voices I was hearing, real or not I started taking the long route that I had seen going around the back of the mountain and down to the forest below. ‘This is going to be a long trip’. -3rd Person POV Fluttershy’s cottage outside Everfree forest- “Girls I'm here!” Rarity yelled out rounding the bend to come over the bridge, a giant pile of suitcases and bags looking to be floating behind her as Spike carried the enormous amount of luggage for her hidden under the literal mountain of bags. “Rarity I told you to pack light” Twilight said exasperatedly, “that means you pack one or two small things: an apple and a few items of clothing”, “But darling, that forest is absolutely horrid and you do know a lady must look her part if she is to save the world” Rarity said with her snout held high. “Ok, Rarity you can bring them… if you can carry them, I am going to use Spike this time to carry my research and notes” Twilight replied with a smug expression. “Oh hehe” Rarity replied now not so sure about her need for her luggage “I suppose I could part with a few things”... Spike promptly dropping all of the things he was carrying and hastily heading over to Twilight, “Sorry Rarity, Twilight always comes first” Spike as he picked up Twilight’s things from the ground where they lay. After Rarity had finished fitting all her luggage into Fluttershy's cottage, the group headed off towards the mountain. After about an hour of walking through the forest a few of the group had begun to complain about the situation they were in, a few being Rarity. “Ugh, can we take a break, all this walking is exhausting!” Rarity dramatically exclaimed. ‘ “Shh Rarity don't y'all worry, well stop soon for a small food break” Applejack replied slightly annoyingly, seeing as this was the fifthteenth time she had said it after listening to Rarity complain about everything for the last two to three hours. “But it’s so fun to walk, you see so many things” said Pinkie as she somehow bounced horizontally from tree to tree. The air hot and humid making the everyone except Spike sweat profoundly. “Ohhhh it’s so hot” Dash moaned hovering slightly above the ground, beating her wings slowly trying ever so desperately to cool down. “And that's saying something, I'm a weather pony so I’m used to the heat” Dash continued. “We should be out of this part of the everfree soon, just a bit more” Twilight panted as the group made their way through the thick underbrush towards the smoking mountain. “Hey, Dashi ,do you think the dragon will be big bright green one or a small brown one? oh, oh what about a medium, large, averagely sized giant red one!” Pinkie excitedly asked somehow still bouncing around with full energy without even breaking a sweat. Applejack looking over to see dash just trying not to pass out from the heat decided to answer for her. “I don't know Pinkie, but I hope we can just get it away without anything getting messy”, at that moment a very loud distorted, evil sounding wolf howl was heard coming from the mountain. “Eep” Fluttershy’s attempt at speech muffled as she hid behind her mane at the sound. “Oh I'm sure it wa-” Twilight began only to be cut off by pinkie exclaiming “It’s the big bad wolf coming to eat us all up!” Which after hearing, Fluttershy promptly dashed behind a giant boulder trying her best to hide from said “bad wolf”. “Ma-ay-aybe it’s just a-a hurt animal” she tried. “Come on Pinkie try to be nice, we need Fluttershy in case she can try to calm the dragon and convince him to leave otherwise we’ll never get it move” Dash huffed out of irritation momentarily distracted from the raging heat due to her friends distress. “Wait I-I have to t-t-tell th-that dragon to move” Fluttershy stuttered somehow making herself even smaller behind the bolder, “but I don't like dragons” she mumbled barely above a whisper behind the rock, causing Spike to snort. And Fluttershy to jump out from behind the boulder and reassure him that she didn't mean to hurt his feelings. ‘Oh, here we go again’ Twilight muttered, at this rate its going to be hell to get anywhere let alone up the mountain. -1st Person POV half way up the mountain- The wind flowed across my fur like water on oil, my temperature not even changing from the harsh wind, the smell of stone and clay lingering as I stealthily made my way around the edge of the narrow path taking my time and being careful not to look down. Turning a corner I came to a giant boulder blocking my path although this time there was no alternate route. ‘Shit now what’ I thought to myself as I looked around, the air around me looking very weird; little squiggles and lines running around and away from me in a chaotic manner ‘Wait what’. The lines and squiggles that I noted a second ago were now becoming clearer, more vivid allowing me to see them in higher detail: the lines and squiggles in the air now showing as two prominent dots interconnected with a single line running from points in the air and around me to higher up and further back all overlapping each other, making me think of a connect the dots gone horribly wrong. ‘What the hell is this?’ I asked myself, one line I noticed went from what I could see, just in front of me straight up all the way to the mouth of the cave I saw awhile ago from the forest. Testing something I put my paw up to the dot only to paw at the air as it went straight through as if it weren't even there, physically at least. Turning my head around again to look at all the other dots and lines I tried to think of what they were and why they were so clear in the air around me, in turning my head my eyes instinctively blinked, and, for the microsecond they were closed I felt a huge pull and push of gravity as my body felt like it was being squeezed through a pipe half the size of my body. Finishing the blink my eyes reopened to find I had moved to the mouth of the cave, seeing the dot at the end of the one I was looking at before. ‘What--’ my brain froze for a few seconds, as I tried my hardest to figure out what just happened. Looking down the mountain I spotted the area I had just been at and the giant boulder I had been stuck behind. ‘I teleported… holy shit that is amazing!’ still shaking off the feeling of being incredibly compressed and tight. ‘Shit well I’m here now, might aswell go in and find whats causing all this smoke’. Walking into the cave I stick to the edges and melt into the shadows, following for some reason the smell of strawberries that apparently encompassed the cave. A few seconds later the cave opened up into a giant cavern, looking around I realised that the potent smell of strawberries was wafting from a giant pile of altering gems; from giant sapphires the size of a head to emeralds the size of a bike, they were everywhere. Giant piles to my left and right ending slightly away from my hidden form, looking up from the pile I saw something that terrified the living shit out of me. A dragon, yes thats right a FUCKING DRAGON! Which was just casually snoozing on said giant pile of treasure and gems. The super large behemoth of a creature was a brilliant red with a shining golden belly. Giant bat like wings of red and gold were spread out across the gold and gems beneath it. Well of course it had to be a fucking dragon, cause thats totally orginal, shit, why couldn’t it have just been a giant fluffy bunny instead?!’. Almost as if it could hear my thoughts it lifted its head, turning it to face me it opened one glittering red-gold eye and looked right at me. “Who dares cometh to thine in this time of slumber?” The dragons voice rang out in a deep guttural booming sound that shook my frame. “Uh, Not me”... Deciding it was about time I got the fuck out of here and as far away from the dragon as possible I ran for the cave entrance only to be blocked by a massive blast of fire, singing my fur and nearly making me piss myself. “Why doth thou come before thee?” the dragon questioned, “Doth thou wish to challenge thee?” He growled, chuckling “Because if thou try thou shalt DIE!” The dragon roaring out the last part as it launched itself from its horde, scattering jewels and gold everywhere. ‘Shit’ Another blast of fire burned past me., ‘sssssshit, shit shit shit’ I thought running and hiding behind the mounds of gold and gems before realising ‘I’m a fucking wolf with godly powers, I don't need to run’! Emerging from my cover I finally properly presented myself. The dragon taking a step back, either out of shock that something such as myself would challenge it or the fact it did not know what I was. Leaping forward I jumped at his prone form while he was distracted, splaying out my paw in an offensive manner to slash at his underbelly. My claws quickly sliding out of my paw and raking across the dragon removing some scales and ripping through the flesh underneath. Blood starting to drip down from the wound as he jumped back and looked down at me. “Thou dare strike me! A being more powerful than you could conceive, you shall pay for thine mistake Creten!” The dragon roared, no screamed in fury before lunging forward at an incredible speed for its size slamming his claw down towards me, but I was already gone. Using my speed and newfound teleportation, I avoided most of his attacks and swipes managing to only get a few scrapes than the full force of his brute strength. Lunging forward I torpedoed into the dragon's side viciously using my claws to dig a pit into the dragon's flesh. Blood spurting up showering the room behind me in a large puddle while covering my face and fur with the red liquid. I screamed my head off while the dragon spun around trying his hardest to free me from his body the blood and spinning motion disorienting me, before finding a floating dot in front of my eyes, blinking over to the other side of the room to stop my head from spinning. Without warning his tail came slamming down on my side, painfully pinning me to the ground and smashing my back paw against the stone causing it to bend in an awkward manner. Yelping I quickly blinked over to the other side of the room my leg fixing itself at an incredible speed, the pain disappearing almost immediately and the horrid crack of the bone realigning making me shudder. As my paw snapped back into place it was like a switch had been flipped in my head, a massive burst of energy flowing through my veins, every hair of my fur standing on end sparking with huge amounts of electricity. Instinctively I turned my head towards the dragon and locked eyes with it. The very air around me starting to crackle a mist forming as my body temperature lowered dramatically swirling as the massive current of electricity built up. The dragon began backing away as my whole body started glowing a blinding white, electricity arcing off me. Still looking the dragon directly in the eyes I let go of the masses of energy I was carrying and watched with awe as an endless torrent of electricity unleashed itself from my body onto the dragon in a blinding white laser, somewhere in the back of my mind a little voice shouting ‘I’ma firin ma lazar!’. Cutting through the air the bolts hit the dragon; carving through his scales and searing his flesh to then burn a black mark across the wall behind him. For 10 whole seconds, I unleashed hell upon the beast in front of me, ripping him apart leaving nothing but molten clumps of flesh. Finally feeling the burden of my attack I collapsed the electricity dying down bringing with it the sounds of the world back to me and the feeling of having stood in a freezer for the past few hours. Lying on the ground and shuddering from my bodies now freezing temperature I looked past the remains of the dragon. The ground covered in molten gold and the lingering smell of burnt flesh. Lifting my head, I let out a howl of the excitement and pleasure of winning as I padded over to my new horde. About two hours later I began to hear some quiet chattering followed by the distinct clopping sound of hooves against stone outside my new den, getting louder and louder. Standing up I walked out of the cave mouth to see what was going on on. About two-thirds of the way up the mountain, only about ten minutes away there was a group heading towards me. The, from what I could see where ponies, were heading towards my cave, they had bright coloured, pastel coats and, after looking closer there appeared to be another small dragon alongside them which I took was a baby. The weirdest thing of all this was that they where not only unaccompanied by anyone but also chatting amongst themselves... ‘What the fuck’ I thought, filtering out the other noises to hear what they were saying. “I wonder where the dragon smoke is, isn’t it meant to be pouring outta that cave over there?” The orange one of the group asked. Growling slightly I backed up a little bit further into the cave melting into the shadows completely, preparing to protect my new den from these intruders. -3rd Person POV a few feet from the dragon's den- “Why isn’t the dragon coming out to play?” Pinkie asked, “shouldn’t he be coming out to be a big meanie?”. “Im not sure Pinkie, maybe he’s just sleeping” Twilight sighed, sceptically. After a few hours of walking and a giant avalanche they had finally made it to the mouth of the cave ready to face whatever came at them, and she was exhausted. “Alright everypony, I’ll head in and scope out the situation to see where the dragon is, STAY HERE” Twilight said looking specifically at Dash who promptly rolled her eyes. Lowering herself to the ground she crept into the cave, trying to stay hidden. Little did she know she was being watched. Further in the cave opened up into a giant cavern piled high with gems and… setting molten gold. ‘What happened here’ Twilight thought; her eyes scanning the room for the missing dragon, eyes landing on several large pools of congealing blood spread across the floor and massive burn marks running up against the walls and floor. Directly in front of her there was what little remained of the once mighty dragon, Twilight caught herself before she puked trying her hardest, not to envision the slaughtering. ‘What could have killed a fully grown dragon in such a way’ She asked herself as she quickly ran out of the hell hole thankful she hadn't smelled the flesh. Hurriedly leaving the cave she quickly went over to her waiting friends, looking slightly green, Rarity walking up to her asking what was wrong. Twilight didn't even have the time to reply before she puked all over Rarity, who promptly fainted in a stinking puddle of vomit, Twilight then went over to a small boulder and sat down shuddering every so often. “Twi? Whatcha see in there?” Applejack ventured edging towards her friend. Twilights ear flicked towards the comforting voice before turning around “*Sniff*- It was so horrible, the walls and floor were covered in blood and some of the gold was straight up melted, and..and there was guts and flesh everywhere” Twilight finally managed before breaking down in tears. Not knowing, flying over, Dash sat down to comfort Twilight before looking over to the others “How could something just up and kill a dragon, I mean the things are basically indestructible, take Spike for example, hes still a kid and he swims in lava!” Rainbow Dash quietly. The others slowly sitting next to the two, Fluttershy began walking towards the cave, spike trailing behind her. “Hey, Twilight I'm going to go into the cave with Spike to see if I can find anything.. that is if you don’t mind..?” Fluttershy stuttered. “I really wouldn’t recommend it Fluttershy, you have no idea how horrific it is in there, I don't think it would be good to let spike, or anypony for that matter see something like that” Her request only being heard by her friends sitting next to her, as Spike and Fluttershy had already wandered in... Water slowly trickled down the cave walls and the sound of still-burning flames echoed through the tunnel as Fluttershy and Spike made their way in. “What do you think could have done this Fluttershy?” Spike asked nervously, gulping as he looked around the cave as they advanced. “Im not sure Spike in fact I didn’t even know that dragon scales could be cut, I thought dragons could only be killed by extreme magic or well, thats it really.” Fluttershy said worryingly. Continuing on they reached the cavern that the dragon once slept in. Upon seeing the full extend of what was left of the dragon Fluttershy turned a threw up before looking turning to Spike to tell him not to look only to see him staring, not at the blood but at the mass of gold currently inhibiting the cave. Then the smell hit her and she turned to puke again. Spike, ignoring Fluttershy turned his attention from the hoard to the mass of leftover guts and pools of congealed blood that littered the floor and splattered the walls and ceiling, turning away quickly before he could witness any more, only to find Fluttershy behind him puking. “W-what happened here” Fluttershy finally asked Spike hoping he would have the answer but spike just stayed quiet, slightly shaking in fear and partly from puking. Instead of a reply from Spike, a large clanging sound was heard as one of the great diamonds rolled down a solidified part of the now set melted gold, hitting the floor. “I think we should leave, I have a bad feeling that whatever killed the dragon is still in this cave” Spike stuttered trying to look tough but failing miserably. “I agree” Fluttershy quickly replied before grabbing Spike as more jewels and gold fell down. Causing her to jump and sprint at breakneck speed towards the cave exit, in the background nearby the two could hear the distinct sound of soft padding as something in the dark raced them to the cave entrance. Making it to the end of the tunnel the two burst out quickly turning their head to see something stirring in the depths of the darkness as it raced from within the cave. “Get back, somethings coming” Spike yelled backing up himself, trying his hardest to make his body bigger to cover all of his friends. -1st Person POV mere feet away from the main six- I ran hard -not my hardest mind you- to stay with the creature running to try get away from me. For some reason finding it quite amusing that they thought they could outrun me as I easily kept up with them. To be honest I wasn't actually chasing after them, I was running out of the cavern due to the fact that said cavern happened to currently be caving in, There goes my new den... When the first few gold pieces and jewels had started to fall and I noticed a change in the air as it began to flow out the entrance, the cavern further in already collapsing. Reaching the end of the cave I saw that the creature had reached the end of the cave and was backing up from me, before realising that they were probably scared of me and not actually aware that the cave was crumbling. Looking behind me I saw the remainder of the cavern collapsing in on the mass of gold, before turning and blinking behind the group turning to see the spot I was just standing in covered in rubble, the cave completely sealed off. Snorting from a the plume of dust the collapsing tunnel had shot out I attracted the attention of the ponies I had seen before. A respective gasp coming from the group before I turned and took my chances jumping off the cliff face down to the path below, running off and quickly gaining speed. Looking behind me I noticed that the blue pony of the group had begun to fly after me, ‘Wait, fly’ looking at its back I noticed a pair of wings that should not have been capable of supporting its body weight, deciding to have a mental breakdown over the laws of physics being brutally broken in front of me later I put my mind towards getting away from the pegasi who was currently chasing me. Leading the pegasi further down the mountain and then into my clear line of broken trees that I had created earlier. “Get back here you!” She gasped straining to catch me “I'm the fastest flyer equestria has you can't outrun me!” She yelled increasing her speed. I smirked slightly at that comment, knowing full well that I could easily outrun her. Picking up speed and still running along the split in the trees I had created, I soon reached and surpassed terminal velocity pushing my body to a ridiculous speed before finally breaking the sound barrier everything going dead silent, the only noise I could hear the thundering of my heartbeat. The pegasus now disappearing into the far distance. Speeding up even more I reached the end of my line through the forest and started enlarging it, traveling at near Mach 4 and heading directly for the castle I had seen in the distance earlier that day. -3rd Person POV Dash- ‘Obviously not fast enough’ Rainbow thought glumly and she speed back to her friends. The creature she had been chasing had somehow flied much, much faster than her traveling at a ground speed, and that absolutely baffled her. Finally nearing her friends she slowed to a stop and flew down to meet them. “Hi Rainbow did you catch it?” Applejack asked hopeful. Her look turning to one of confusion when Rainbow replied with a no. “How is that even possible, you're the fastest flier there is Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed irritably. “And how did it move from in front of us to behind us! Last time I checked only unicorns could pull off that fancy magic stuff” Pinkie said. “I think the question is not how it accomplished these acts but of what it is” Rarity started, making all of them stop and turn to look at her. “I mean what is this creature and where did it come from?” None of them had an answer, but twilight knew somepony who would. The sun shone down brightly on Ponyville as the residents went about their day, enjoying the sunlight. Suddenly six mares raced through the town streets heading for the library in the center of the small town. “We need to contact the princess and tell her what happened” Twilight said as they came to a stop at the front door to the library. Spike jumping off twilights back and racing over to the door, fidgeting for a moment, he flung it open and rushed in the girls following. “Quick Spike grab some parchment and a quill we need to write a letter immediately” Twilight said as she raced over to her desk, pulling out an inkpot. Spike came bounding down the stairs and ran over to Twilight holding the requested items. “Here” he huffed as he went over to sit down beside the girls tired from the days trek, sitting on one of the steps watching Twilight anxiously as she hurriedly wrote a letter to the princess. Satisfied with her letter Twilight read over it one more time to make sure she had gotten all the details down ‘Dear Celestia, when we arrived at the cave where the dragon was supposed to be, we found something quite disturbing; it was dead. It had been torn apart by something extremely powerful and we fear that it may still be out there. The creature in question was a giant black wolf with sharp quills running down his spine, the scary thing was that it was able to out-run Rainbow Dash and you know how fast she is, it also appears it was able to teleport although this I am unsure of. The creature was seen by all of us, to be heading towards Canterlot. Please reply with what to do Twilight Sparkle”. “Great now send it of, I need to get home and get some sleep” Dash replied. Twilight passed the scroll over to Spike, who then proceeded to roll it up and send it off in a burst of dragonfire. All of the residents of the room sat waiting anxiously, before finally, Spike burped up a reply; Twilight quickly grabbed it with her magic and began reading it, before lifting her head and tell the group what her mentor had said; “The princess said we need to come to Canterlot immediately, the creature we saw is apparently an extremely ancient being with immense power and strength called a Chupacabra. She said that these ancient and beautiful creatures died out over twenty thousand years ago, becoming little but a myth, even when she was young they had been gone for a long time. She said that after so long since the last sighting, this might bode bad.’ The girls stood holding their breath as Twilight finished recounting the letter. “Don’t worry Twilight we’ll talk some business into it with our elements” Rainbow Dash said smirking. “Thats just the thing, Rainbow, these creatures lived over six thousand years before the elements were even created, and where in fact one of the few ancient races that were hypothesized to be able to withstand the full blast of the elements and get away without too much damage, the only other being a several billion-year-old lord of chaos who is now gone from this world. The thing about the elements is that they only affect beings who are causing disharmony since the elements are pure harmony, but this creature was said to be passively harmonic, unless we attack, or hurt it, it won't hurt us.” Twilight finished. “Anyways the princess has sent down one of her chariots to pick us up and take us to Canterlot”, as she said that the sound of guards ponies galloping to a stop outside and the scraping noise of something heavy settling down indicated that said chariot had arrived. There was a knock at the door and a voice floated into the room. “Its the Royal Guard, we’re here to take the elements to Canterlot in order to talk to the princess immediately, please open the door” Somepony spoke in a stiff tone. “Coming” Twilight yelled as she trotted forward to open the door, heaving it open, she was greeted by two guards dressed in gold armour. “Hello Twilight, the princess has requested you and your friends to come to Canterlot immediately, she wishes to have an audience with you and the rest of the elements.” “Sure, come on girls we’re going to Canterlot” Twilight shouted back into the home, “Spike stay and watch over the house while we're gone”. Spike nodded and saluted. “Sure thing Twilight” he said. The rest of the girls walked out the door, heading towards the chariot awaiting them. “Oh, I can't believe we're going to Canterlot, that city makes dreams come true, and I get to meet the princess herself” Rarity exclaimed loudly. Getting to the chariot and stepped onto it, the six of them just fitting into the small room. The guards then hooked their armour to the chariot and begun running forward, taking off quickly. “We should be arriving in Canterlot in about twenty minutes” Twilight yelled over the rising noise of the wind as they took off. She then sat back as she and the rest of the girls headed towards Canterlot. Nearly thirty minutes later, the chariot set down upon the white flagstone that made up the streets of Canterlot castle, a guard rushing forward to help the girls to the ground. “I’m glad you made it, Princess Celestia is waiting for you in the throne room and Princess Luna should accompany you soon.” By now the sky was pitch black and the girls only light source was the street lights lining the road, quickly making their way forward they entered the castle and began the walk towards the main throne room. “Ah welcome Twilight, Rainbow, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie, and Applejack”, Celestia said as the girls made their way through the open throne room doors, lead by the guard that had met them at the chariot landing platform. “Thank you” Celestia said, head nodding at the guard, the guard bowing made his way back out of the room. The girls all quickly got to their fetlocks and bowed. “I’m sorry we didn’t make it sooner, there was a huge buildup of air pressure and it slowed us down, please don’t punish me” Twilight said, still kneeling. “Nonsense Twilight, it is fine, in fact it gave me more time to get some thinking done; this creature, if it really is the legendary Chupacabra, is probably the last one ever. The important thing is that you’re all safe.” Celestia said, smiling, “I have sent for Luna to see if we can figure this out and find out if the creature that killed the dragon is indeed the Chupacabra, if it is, we must treat it with utmost respect, it is an extremely intelligent beast and can possibly be tamed if we really try to work with it. We do not want to accidentally attack it or scare it” Celestia and the elements then took a seat at the banquet table while they waited for Luna to arrive. While waiting they ordered a meal for themselves and fell into conversation about the past few days. After waiting for quite some time, Luna finally emerged, walking into the hall and took a seat in the chair next to Celestia’s. “So what have you called us for sister” Luna said turning to face Celestia, as a servant came out of the darkness and took Luna’s order. “We are troubled tonight Luna, a creature previously thought to be very long extinct may have returned”. Celestia said to Luna, “Im sure you're familiar with the myth of The great Chupacabra!” Causing Luna to bark a laugh. “The Chupacabra was a mare's tale that was told to young fillies and colts when we were but younglings in our home, it was said to be last sighted over sixteen thousand years before even we were born, over seven thousand years before the creation of Equestria, BEFORE the fall of the great Alicorn race, and you’re telling me that one has been sighted here, today?” Luna said, somewhat exasperatedly, “You need to come up with better jests sister” Luna asked looking down on Celestia with a smirk. Celestia continuing to look at her sister replied “Im serious Luna” causing luna to huff in slight annoyance “Well you will have to give more proof than an unconfirmed sighting to convince me” “I can do that, I can cast an a searching spell, specifically looking for the Chupacabra species even if its all the way out in saddle arabia it will pick it up” She said. Holding her head up, her horn began to glow a brilliant golden white colour swirling around her horn then a loud crack was heard as the a golden sphere of magic expanded outwards, spreading throughout the room and beyond into the world. After a few seconds, Celestia stopped focusing her magic and opened her eyes, shocked. “I think I found it, apparently its here”... As she said that, the bang of doors being slammed open caught everyones attention as they turned to see the remainder of a black tail disappearing out. “I-It was in this room, and we didn’t even notice…” Stuttered Twilight, “We didn’t even notice… how…” She looked to her teachers face and only saw shock as well. “That was a very rare breed of the wolf, one that has the passive ability to, for better intensive purposes ‘melt’ into the shadows, one such breed which hasn’t been seen in a VERY long time” Celestia sighed unsure of how to deal with the situation. “I underestimated this race, they are very powerful, I hope we haven't angered it in any way. We need to try to speak with it; Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie, I want you to try find it and talk to it, WITHOUT using force, Fluttershy, I would like you to try translate if necessary, you will be Equestria’s Ambassador for the race of Chupacabra.” ‘I need to talk to it myself’ Celestia thought. -1st Person POV Near Canterlot castle, earlier that night- The moon crept up along the mountain ridge, creating a silhouette of my pitch black form. My eyes traveled across the vast valley, keeping an eye on everything that moved. sticking low to the mountain edge I slowly made my way to the front gates of the magnificent white marble castle carved into the mountain. As I neared the gates I began to hear the voices and whispers of the guards watching the gate. Sneaking around the corner and making sure to keep my body molded with the shadows I caught a glimpse at what I was to deal with if I wanted to get in the castle; The guards were the same quadrupeds creatures that I run into earlier only these ones were dressed in what looked like either brass or solid gold armour, but I seriously doubted that the guards were stupid enough to wear gold armour. They held great spears made from some sort of dark wood, tapered with a sharp brass point. I slowly made way closer and closer listening in on their conversation: “I hope that dragon down near Ponyville was moved, the smoke it was putting out was horrible” One said. “Yeah me too, you can actually just see over at the mountain that the smoke has stopped coming from the actual mountain itself, so they must have stopped it somehow.” The guards then became quiet once more as they stared lifelessly into world in front of them. Too bad they didn’t notice the massive black form moving through the shadows behind them. Moving stealthily through the shadows like a phantom I kept to the building edges invisible to all. The reason I have come to this city was not to hurt or attack the people, but to get a better understanding of where I am. Passing yet another set of guards who didn’t glance my way I came to a bend in the road. Up ahead, about five blocks from my position I could see the castle that lay within the city walls, but directly in front of me was a large group of guards watching over some sort of jewelry store that looked as if it had been broken in lately. Moving closer I confirmed my theory as I saw that the entire front window of the building had been completely smashed inwards and almost all of the glittering jewelry inside was missing. Slowly moving away as to not alert the guards I turned and continued on my way towards the castle ahead. After about five minutes of walking, I came to the end of the road I was on as the street split up; circling the castle and joining up with multiple other roads. ‘So there is a bunch of open roads for me to escape down if ever needed, good to know’ I thought as I continued onwards to the front gate. Great wide steps lead up from the street level too two gigantic dark oak doors decorated with golden insignias and other golden bits and pieces. Two guards in shiny brass armour stood stock still right in front of the gates, but, of course, that didn’t bother me, walking forward, still completely hidden in the shadows. I stepped up to one of the little teleportation nodes as I had decided to call them and blinked towards them to land in one of the small hedges right by the door. Turning around a bit so as to not make a single sound I saw that I had teleported a few meters behind the guards, who were standing on a little platform, halfway up the flight of stairs. Quietly I moved to the door and tried pushing on it to make it open. ‘Shit, it’s not opening’ I thought. I tried putting my full weight against the door and found that I still couldn’t push it open. ‘Must be something as strong as fuck to stop me opening them, fucking castles, why do they have to be so hard to break into’. Looking around I saw that there was a small flight of stairs that went from a stone walkway and up, curving around one of the battlements before bridging across to the one of the main towers. Blinking over to it I saw that there was only one guard holding up in the battlement, and there was no one else that was anywhere near except the door guards. I passed the guard with ease and began making my way across the bridge towards one of the many rooms in this castle. After about an hour of sneaking along the halls and sticking to the shadows I came to what must have been one of the food halls; there was a long table with over 20 seats set around it. The plates and cutlery were not there so I assumed that it was late or at least after dinner because I hadn’t seen anyone else besides the guards and maids walking the halls. ‘Im going to have to be quick if I want to make it out before midnight’ I thought as I looked out of the window up at the moon. ‘Should be about nine o’clock judging by the moon unless this place has a different time system, which at this point wouldn't surprise me’. Quickly making my way down a grander looking hallway I soon came to a door engraved with the words; ‘Luna, Princess of the night’. ‘Hmmm a princess eh… I wonder what she knows’ Sneaking up to the door and pushing it fully inwards I crept into the black room, my eyes quickly adjusting to the low light level. The room was a dark midnight blue colour with stars and galaxies painfully handcrafted into the ceiling and walls, around the walls in a semi-circle ending at the head of the bed was a beautiful hand crafted circular desk, covering it was old fashioned looking scrolls and quills, books and a whole bunch of other stuff. The bed itself was a huge four poster bed that would even be able to fit my massive form easily with space left over. In taking my time, I didn’t realise that someone was entering the room. ‘Shit, Fuck… Now what?’ I thought, sweating nervously as a large midnight blue creature crossed the room and sat down at one of the desks. ‘Maybe it’s the princess’s caretaker… Or it’s the princess herself, in which case the Princess looks quite old to still be a princess.’ I pondered all this while the creature started to read one of the manuscripts on the desks, mumbling as she read. ‘I hope she doesn't read all night, I don’t exactly want to spend all night standing here.’ She continued to read from her manuscript for about an hour much to my annoyment before a guard knocked and let himself into the room. ‘Your highness, Princess Celestia has requested an audience with you, will you follow me please?’ he said. ‘Yes, we would however like for thou to wait for us, we would like to finish this chapter.’ ‘Of course your highness’ he replied. Stepping back out of the room ‘Oh come on, I’ve been standing here for a hour, hurry up and leave already!’ I thought tired of not being able to leave incase I was noticed. After about ten minutes of reading, she finally put down the text and stood up, walking over to the door, she held it open as she spoke to the guard, while I was finally able to creep through the shadows and blink out into the hallway behind the guard. “Please lead the way to the hall.” The guard bowed then proceeded to lead her and, unknowingly, me to the great food hall I had seen earlier. The guard then opened the door and let us into the hall. Sneaking into the shadows over on the far side of the room, I proceeded to listen to them converse about, as I found out: good old fucking me, as they ate. About halfway through their conversation it started getting interesting: “I can do that, I can cast an a searching spell, specifically looking for the Chupacabra species even if its all the way out in saddle arabia it will pick it up” The white “Alicorn” said. Holding her head up, her horn began to... glow a brilliant gold colour, swirls of beautiful golds and whites swimming around her horn. ‘What the fuck…?’ I thought Suddenly there was a loud crack as a golden sphere of magic expanded outwards, spreading throughout the room and straight through me. I quickly closed my, expecting to be incinerated but after a few seconds, the golden creature stopped the spell and I became horribly aware that I had been noticed by her hovering eyes, latching onto me. ‘Shit’ I thought, ‘that spell must have located me’ I quickly blinked over to the door and slammed it open, not caring if they heard me at the moment, making way out while still listening to the creatures in the hall stay silent, I could feel their eyes trained on me as I melted back into the shadows right in front of the shocked guards standing in front of the doors to the hall. Listening hard from where I was, I managed to hear that the older looking princess was ordering the smaller creatures around, to search and find me. I started running, molding and changing with the shadows and consistently blinking across hallways and up stairs ‘Shit I did not want to be noticed now’ I thought as I made way through the winding halls, avoiding guards. > Chapter 3. The Hunter and the Hunted > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -The Hunter and the Hunted- -1st Person POV, Canterlot castle- The halls flew by at phenomenal speeds as I raced down them, the intent of escape set in my mind. ‘Fuck where do I go, where do I go’ I thought as I sprinted around a corner, my heart pounding in my chest. Up Ahead through a stained glass window I could see the moon, shining still high in the sky. ‘At least I have plenty of time to get outta here’ I thought. I could hear, not too far behind me, the sounds of hooves racing the halls with me. “GET BACK HERE YOU PUNK” the technicolour one I now knew as Rainbow Dash, yelled. ‘Shhhhhhhhiiit’ I thought as I ran faster, I was pretty confident that I could outrun them in a wide open area. But In these enclosed, tight hallways, well that was a whole other ballpark. My heart continued to pound, paws racing across the gleaming floor, my reflection shining back up at me. Spying a nearby open door leading to a stairwell, I veered right, jumping through the door and kicking it closed behind me. Turning around I realised the stairs only went up from this floor. ‘Shit, well better than nothing’, I took the stairs two at a time, daring not to look behind me. Halfway up the flight of stairs I finally heard the creatures burst through the door, “Get back here we just want to ask you some things” One of them yelled, sounding a lot like the first creature who came, alone into my cave. I growled a response and thought for a second: ‘Wait what if they really do want to help me’ stopping for a second, listening to them racing up the stairs. The sound of galloping hooves and huge wing beats very nearby, broke me out of my thoughts. Deciding that I would be better off to run rather than take the chance of being captured, if they really wanted to talk, I could try contact them later on my own terms. Lifting my frame up, I cursed myself, knowing that I had wasted valuable time waiting. Bounding my way up the stairs much faster than before, I finally made it to the top of the castle battlements. ‘Shit, shit, shit’ I thought, looking around. The air was cold whipping harshly against my fur, looking around I found I was roughly two thousand feet up high on one of the highest part of the castle. ‘Fuck… Why did it have to be hights’ my legs shaking a bit, I looked to my right seeing a few lower towers and an observatory, to my left another two taller towers; one colored yellow, little-painted suns dotting the outside, a small balcony also connected to it. The second tower was much the same as the one before but it was coloured blue and painted with little moons. ‘Hmmm’ Looking around I saw that there were no nearby blink nodes but there was a single, giant node on the sun coloured tower leading to the observatory lower down. After some quick calculations I backed up, tensing my muscles before running towards the edge of the tower and launching myself off the edge, the creatures chasing me finally bursting through the door as I jumped across the gap. “STOP” the purple equine yelled, ‘Twilight’ I believe her name was having heard it from the conversation in the hall. Smirking I finished my jump over to the tower, blowing a raspberry in the general direction of the Twilight. “UGHHHHHH” I heard her yell. I quickly made my way over to the edge of the balcony to where the large node was. As I jumped towards the node, I began to feel a small force trying to pull me back, looking behind me I could see Twilight, a look of intense concentration on her face as she channeled some kind of spell towards me. A purple aura appearing around me only to slip off me like oil on water, I tried my best to ignore it and kept moving. Reaching the giant node, I blinked down to the observatory, landing awkwardly on my side on top the glass dome. Webs of cracks began to splinter across the dome starting to fall behind me as I jumped up and began to run down the down glass beginning to fall behind me. Running I kept my vision straight to avoid any other incidents, I didn't need another blackout to slow me further… Jumping off the dome and down to a small platform, hanging from the observatory, I turned to see the entire dome start to cave in. ‘Shit...’ I kept going though, ignoring the falling glass, dancing my way across the observatory room, massive shards of glass falling around me. ‘Fucking hell that was close...’ I thought fearfully as I made it to the stairwell at the center of the room and dove in. The light still making its way into the stairwell, but it was barely enough to see by, the only light further down being the little luminance a blink node here and there would put off. ‘What are these things anyways?’ I thought as I passed another one, ‘perhaps these ponies might be able to explain it later on, assuming they're not just going to try kill me’. The stairwell came to a sudden stop on one of the lower levels of the castle, the bottom stair molding into the wall. I slowly peeked my head out of the doorway in front of the the stairwell, looking left and right. ‘Dobby is freeee’ I thought as I opened the door a little bit more. A full platoon of guards rushing past my position, not noticing my hiding form behind the door, at the same time I began to hear hooves rushing down the stairwell way up above me at the top of the tower. Having nowhere else to go I quickly dove behind the stairs and watched as dozens of brass clad hooves rushed down the stairs above my face and then another three, owned by three of the eight ponies that had been in the main hall. ‘Holy sh-’ my thoughts cut off as one of them turned to look back up the stairs, eyes running across the darkness and luckily passing me. “Where the hay did it go now”? Dash said as she slowly made her way back down the stairs, still keeping an eye on the staircase. “Hey Twilight, you think you can cast that spell thingy to see where the it is”? she asked. “I can try, but I think the Princess was using a different one than the normal creature search spell”. Twilight's horn began glowing with a purple colour. ‘Figures, they can use magic’! Shit what if she finds me. After a few seconds, her horn stopped glowing. “I can’t seem to find it, I don’t think he’s here”. Thank god, she can’t find me. Twilight and Dash walked out of the stairwell. After about five minutes of waiting I exited the stairwell and started walking down the hallway, heading right, from the stairwell. I ran, jumping from shadow to shadow and occasionally blinking, soon enough, I came to a T-junction in the hallways, a whole platoon of guards pouring down the right hallway opposite the one I came from, almost as if I the universe said ‘Fuck You’ to me, one noticed me alerting the others. “There it is, Get it” one of them ordered. ‘Fuck’ I tried turning to go down the middle hallway and instead saw the two large creatures with both wings and a horn, I think they said they were ‘Alicorns’? ‘Shiiiiit’ I looked behind me, the way I came and I saw the three ponies from before standing behind me. “Stay there, it’s alright, we aren't here to hurt ya,” the orange one, Applejack said, her hoof snaking behind her back to grab a large loop of old fashioned rope. The golden alicorns horn starting glow. “It’s alright, we mean you no harm” she said. I looked up, hoping for some way out. ‘Just my luck’ I couldn’t believe it, there was a blink node, directly above me but it didn’t lead anywhere. I looked back over at the golden one and saw a smaller pony creep up behind her, she was a tainted yellow colour with pink hair that covered half of her face, she was looking at me with a sad expression almost as if she was begging me to stop running. I looked her right in the eye. Her eyes slowly beginning to unfocus, hypnotised by mine. ‘And.. now… I have you’ I thought as stepped forward staring directly into my eyes. I thought about how hypnotism worked and tried thinking of a word: ‘Hello’ I thought, kind of feeling stupid about this. “Hello” the yellow pony said. Holy shit, It worked, I can’t believe it, I just hypnotised her. “What did you say, Fluttershy?” the golden one was now looking down at my work with a slightly confused stare. She looked down to the yellow ponies eyes, who I now knew as Fluttershy, she saw that they were wide and staring at nothing, blue galaxies and colours flowing in and out of existence, she then looked over at me and saw my eyes the same, staring right into the yellow ponies eyes. “What did you do, wretch,” the blue alicorn said. I still didn’t know her name. Speaking through the yellow ponies mouth I replied: “I don’t know what you want, but I’m not take the risk of finding out” the voice came from the yellow ponies mouth but the sound was heavily distorted, sounding if from multiple mouths. The alicorns stare darkened, her horn beginning to glow more intensely and I began to see a small blinking node flicker to life right on the tip of her horn. ‘What the fuck-’ I couldn’t understand why a node was being appearing, ‘Maybe an occurrence of magic being used’ Deciding to think about it later, I took the opportunity jumping up, breaking my eye contact with the yellow pony. I reached the node above me now connected to the one in front of the alicorn and blinked forward. ‘Shit’ I thought as I slammed into her back, causing her to topple onto the blue alicorn and making them all cry out in shock. I leaped off the golden one and started bounding down the hallway heading for the door at the end. “Princess, are you alright?” I heard Twilight say behind me. Running straight through the door, I threw myself out into an outdoor garden on ground level. The garden coloured by thousands upon thousands of plants and flowers I had never seen before. ‘What the hell is this place’. The reality of me being in a new world finally beginning to hit me. I started running faster and faster, scared as the reality of the world around me began to finally set in. ‘What happened to me’ I had been turned into a myth, I had powers I still didn’t fully understand or even believe at the moment. My animal instincts taking over as I recessed into my head, guiding me, crashing right through the hedge and stone wall surrounding the garden. The wind started picking up as my speed increased, the world starting to melt away as I retreated further into my head away from the harsh reality that was finally setting in. A few seconds later the sound of the outside world disappeared and the wind and resistance vanished as I hit the sound barrier. I didn’t even notice it. ‘How did I get here, what am I, why do I have these powers and this body, what is this place, why am I even here’? Questions swarming my mind faster and faster blocking out everything else as I ran down the mountain and into the forest I first found myself in. I ran and ran, deep into the heart of the forest. Somehow finding myself in an abandoned castle, the walls caving in, and the tapestries moth ridden and ripped, plant life slowly claiming the place. ‘Why me...’? I thought again as I sat myself down in one of the corners by what was left of the right throne, the shadows bending around me to completely hide my body as I shudder slowly beginning to cry, reality crushing down upon me. ‘Why me…’? “Twilight, it’s alright, I’m fine,” Celestia said as she sat down at the head of the dining hall table, half an hour after the event with the wolf. “But we need to find out how the Chupacabra managed to hypnotise Fluttershy” she said, “She was a bit… frightened at the prospect, but I reassured her that it was nothing to worry about.” “It’s fine, princess” said Fluttershy. “Hey, speaking of the Wolf, how did he do the teleport thingy, I thought he was trapped, he even looked like he knew it himself?” Rainbow said. “I think it’s an aura node, they are magical nodes created when any unicorn, alicorn, pegasus or earth pony performs any spell such as rainbow’s sonic-rainboom, I was told about them in passing by a old friend of mine a long time ago…” “So is there any way we can destroy these node things so that the wolf guy can’t teleport”? Rainbow Dash asked “Unfortunately no, they are directly tied to time itself, destroying even one could have massive repercussions”, ‘Like wiping out an entire race...’ she thought angrily. “Well, in any case we need to capture this creature, or at least get it to talk to us,” Twilight said. “Do we really need to ‘capture’ it, I mean, it hadn’t done anything that bad?” Fluttershy said. “That bad, that bad?! You do know he destroyed the entire observatory dome himself, not to mention, he killed that dragon and you call that ‘not being bad,” Twilight said, staring angrily at Fluttershy. “well…” she whimpered. *Sigh “Sorry Fluttershy, I didn’t mean to be so angry at you, it’s just this is all too much, too fast.” “I agree, I think that for the moment, you girls should head home for some well-needed rest,” the princess said. The sun poked through the cracks in the rock making up the ancient castle, the sound of little critters running back and forth across the floor in front of my nose and nice cool feeling of the gentle wind blowing across my muzzle waking me. ‘Ahhhh’ I yawned, waking up slowly. My eyes slithered open, the light assaulting them. “Oh, you're awake, well that's great, I have a gift for you…” I heard a voice coming from something seeming to be slightly above me, Looking up I saw... ‘What-’ My brain just froze not willing to deal with anything this early in the morning “Oh I see we’re staring, I’ll join you to, let me just-” The amalgamation of many different creatures, floating in front of me, reached up to his head with his eagle claw and lion claw and pulled his head off, he then proceeded to turn it around and look at his own body. “Hmm yes, I do think I’m sexy, I have to agree with you there little wolf.” By now my eyes were popping right of my head. “What the fuck,” I said outloud…. wait what? “I can talk now? Oh my, fucking god yess” I yelled happy to have my inability to speach revoked. “Why yes wolf from another world, of course you can talk, I give the ability of speech to anything that has the pleasure of being near me”. “Wait how the hell do you know I’m from another world, and who the fuck are you and most importantly: Where the is the gift you said you had”. “Oh, getting pushy aren't we now, hmmm?”, “well ok let's see… I know you’re from another world because I put you here…BUT I can’t tell you much more.. it’s for a nice little plan of mine” “Wait, back the fuck up… You’re the fucking bastard that brought me here” thousands of questions firing off in my head now. “Yes I was the one, but again, can’t tell you much. The only thing I can tell you about the why is that I am planning something big… very big… involving a lot of people, unfortunately, thats all I will be telling you… “Ok… well.. alright sure, I guess I’ll have to believe you for now.” “That's the spirit.” “But you still haven't answered my other questions yet,” I asked angrily. “Well, ok since you asked so nicely let me give you a few answers.” Sitting down onto a nice gold decorated, red silk throne that I’m sure wasn't there a second ago, he pulled out a glass of chocolate milk and reached over to grab his tail, opening it… what the fuck is with this guy, god fucking- He then pulled out a scroll made from -I kid you not- silly string. He then closed his tale with a click- like it literally made an audible clicking sound. “Alright," he said as he sat back down. Taking a sip of the milk only to drink the glass and leave the milk. ‘Fuck my life right now’ I thought as I simply sat there, my brain committing suicide one cell at a time. He had unwound the scroll and it unwound all the way across the floor and up the wall opposite the throne on the other side of the room before rolling off into the distance across the ceiling. Throwing the chocolate milk over his head I watched as it hit the ground only to explode in what looked like a mini nuke just went off. “Where to start” he moved across the scroll, eyes gleaming with mischief “Ok well, the first question, my name is Freddy Cougar”... “Fuck you…” I replied refusing to believe that was his actual name. “Ok sorry, sorry, I just couldn’t” He cried rolling across the floor laughing at his terrible joke. “Ok, seriously, can’t you just be normal for one second,” I said “No not really, for my name- real this time, is Discord, Spirit, lord and god of chaos, Nice to meet you” “Oh well, I suppose that explains the shit jokes and stupid magic.” “Well if you're going to be like that…” he promptly poped his eyes out and set them in a swinging weight measure counterbalance thing before, taking his head off only put it back on upside down, pulling his heart out apparently made of cotton candy which had an arrow through it, chocolate milk dripping from it. “You really flipped me sir, you really struck a heart cord there and made me cry my eyes out.” His eyes stared at me from their current position making me shudder. “Ok sorry, I didn’t mean to say that shit, just get on with it, ok?” “Good” he replied, instantly reassembling with a snap of his fing- no talons. “Ok, last question you had, you have it… I already gave it to you.” “What my gift?” He nodded, smirking, “Ok so where is it?” I asked, perplexed looking around. “Oh, you’ll see, in time, I'm sure it will come to you and be of great use…”. “Anyways I have to go now, so tata” he smirked as he rolled up his scroll before disappearing in a flash of… cookies. “You still have a shit taste in jokes” I yelled to thin air. ‘Ouch’ I cringed as a cookie fell from the sky hitting me right on the head, I grabbed it turning it over; on the bottom there was a note engraved saying ‘This is Cookie’. ‘What the fuck’ I said only for no sound to come out, great back to being mute. I turned and left the castle, munching on the cookie. ‘Must have been for one of discords friends’. -One hour walking later- The wind had died down -thank the almighty flying fuck- and I was now beginning to hear the sounds of the animals of the forest as I head towards the small village I had seen the other day from the mountain. ‘Still think this place is so fucking weird’ I though as I passed yet another jackalope, keeping my eyes trained on it. ‘I mean why the fuck would evolution do that to a poor bunny, Seriously’, the bunny looking like it was stuck it the tree branches trying to run away from good old, hungry me… ‘And thank you very much’ I thought as I dug into the surprisingly, very good raw meat of the bunny apparently having no problem over the fact I was ripping a living creature apart, what can I say that cookie wasn't exactly a full course meal. Mmm speaking of meals. ‘Die bunny!’ The day was glorious and the sun was high in the sky… A perfect day to go spy on the ponies. Hearing a snap behind me and a small dog-like whine. I turned my giant head around and saw another impossibility, my mind beginning to get used to it just walked off locking itself in an imaginary closet, before softly sobbing. Shaking myself I took another look, the… thing I was looking at was a small wolf-like creature made of wood and sticks. ‘What the hell-’? My mouth was open, the partly chewed meat inside beginning to drip out. The little wolf, (although, in retrospect, it probably was quite big compared to a normal size human and even bigger to the ponies but to me it was tiny) was looking at me and then back to the food I had just caught. “Sorry boy, can’t have any” I said out loud, somehow in the presence of this creature the words being translated in whines and growls. “That's fine creature of old, my pack and I was just wondering that after all this time, where have you been?” the wolf replied in the same barks and whines. “You can talk?” ‘Well, of course they can talk, cause that's just a normal thing for a wooden wolf, not to mention the wooden part’ I thought envisioning the lone closet my mind was currently locked in. ‘I disagree I think its completely normal for a wolf to talk’, ‘Oh god please no don't start arguing with myself again...’, ‘Why, me, not arguing, preposterous!’ Looking over at the wolf I decided I should talk to him, least my mind came out of the closet to join in on the conversation I was having with myself. I growled towards him. “While you have been gone, only a few of us can even still access the hidden art of speech”. “Yep sounds good, so what did your pack want, besides y'know wanting to know where I have been n stuff, cause all I’ve been recently is here, right in this forest” “I was just going to ask if you would be kind enough to allow us passage, we really need to go past you along out hunting path”. “Oh, sure sorry, you uh, have passage?” I lifted myself up and licked my paws, getting rid of the feeling of blood along my claws. “Thank You, now we’ll be on our way” the wolf, which I now gathered was the alpha, ran past me, his pack of about six others, following him. I kept on walking after that, moving through the shaded areas of the forest. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a golden doubloon looking coin, fell from the sky and hit the ground with a soft pat. ‘Ok, what now’ I honestly was expecting something even crazier than a single coin to fall from the sky with how weird things had been recently. Looking down at the coin, I saw an image, depicting a smiling, slightly crazy looking man dressed in robes. ‘Well, at least it’s something, maybe from hom-’ my thoughts were cut out as I touched the coin a voice suddenly speaking in my head. “Hello I am the Apprentice second in charge of godly chaos, and a good friend of Discord, my Discord that is, and I am leaving a message for anyone that needs my leadership and all round awesomeness to make their day all better, I do kisses, hugs and… butchering of entire families and children, and I have once had to fetch a river of children tears for one of my good buddies, experiments. Anyways, if you have a need for my expertise then simply flip the coin or cover it completely any liquid you have on you, anything… And I will come to you... no not in that way, fuck man, get you head out of the gutter. Anon over and out.” ‘-ome’ nope, definitely not from home’. Deciding to keep the coin on me I picked it up. Hearing a loud shout, coming from my right. ‘Great, now what’ I asked myself. Listening carefully, I heard it someone crying out for help. Grabbing the coin in my mouth I accidentally swallowed it, before running towards the screaming stopping as a very uncomfortable feeling made itself present in my stomach, a sploph-ing sound being heard from inside as my belly increased in size a good deal. “I see you are busy, I shall come back later then, turra.” I heard another slurping sound from inside my stomach followed by a fading “To narnia….” as my belly returned to its normal size, realising that in swallowing the coin I had summoned the Apprentice, and shuddering at the thought that somehow he was inside me. Not wanting to even consider how that was possible I just decided ‘Because Magic’ before hearing the scream from the forest again. ‘Maybe It’s one of those pony creatures.’ The wind started picking up again as I sped toward the screaming, my ears could hear far off in the distance. Luckily I was pretty fast, quickly coming to a stop near the sound, I peeked my head out of the bushes into a clearing. ‘Fuck me..’ I giant lion creature with tiny bat wings and a scorpion, stinging tale, lifting over it’s head, stood in front of three little ponies. “AHHHHH” they screamed in unison. The lion thing getting closer to the little ponies. ‘Just what in the sam hill is wrong with this fucking forests animals and for that matter, this whole fucking world’ I thought as I noticed a blink node over to the right side of the fillies, I also saw a node floating above the lion thing leading to it. Remembering the awesome fight I had had with the dragon I decided ‘Fuck It’ charging forward ramming myself into the lion. ‘LEEROOOOOY JENKINSSSS’ I yelled in a wolfy howl as my frame slammed into the creature at an insane speed, my claws digging up flesh easily and tearing right through to the creature's stomach, spilling previous eaten food and guts. ‘Guess there was no need for blinking this time’ I thought as my claws raked, hard against its flesh, ripping out huge chunks of gore and guts, blood shooting out of the veins and wounds. Within seconds it was dead, quickly jumping back as the corpse of the creature fell forward and burst open, spilling gallons of blood and guts towards the fillies, who were just standing there in shock. ‘Well, that was quite a show you displayed… to those children over yonder there.’ ‘Fuck, I almost forgot’. I ran over to them and looked them over, they were, for the most part, OK. They were covered in flesh and blood and looked like they had just seen a ghost, but otherwise no problem. “That. was-” I prepared for the worst. “AWESOME”. ‘Well… that kid is now properly fucked in the head’. ‘Yep’ I thought to myself. The orange pony with purple coloured hair was standing straight up and holding her hooves up. ‘How the hell does said pony, stand up on two legs like that’. Her legs were straight and her fore-hooves were held up, above her. ‘She must be really flexible or something’ My mind deciding to just forgo the logical explanation and just go with the or something. The other two filly’s, were still stock still, although they seem to be starting to come out of it. I quickly picked them up and put them on my back, and began to jog back to the village, the way I had been going. ‘I hope the ponies aren’t too upset that their young ones are covered in blood’ I thought as my speed began to pick up. A few minutes later I began to slow down as I came to the edge of the forest and into the village, grassland surrounding area. ‘Alright, here we go’ I walked out of the forest and came upon a large field of apple trees and a barn directly ahead of me, and a stone path leading away, towards the village from before. ‘Wow this place is surreal’ I thought. The apple trees were perfectly aligned and there was a prominent smell of pure, fresh apples in the air. “Cool we made it girls” the orange one with purple hair said. Still don’t know their names. “Yea, he’s alright for a big bad wolf”. I felt a light tapping gesture on my back and I took it for one of the fillies pating me. ‘Ahh so cute’. I just couldn’t help it, my inner child was exploding with joy. They are so fucking cute I repeated. I walked the fillies out of the forest and into the lines of apple trees and began to go down the middle of one row, still melting into the shadows, taking the fillies with me, following the scent of one the six ponies I had met yesterday. After a few seconds of walking the apple tree farm came to a stop and I emerged out onto the open barn front. ‘Hmmm’, looking around, I didn’t immediately see anyone or any… pony? Anywhere near the barn or on the farm for that matter, at all. ‘Guess they're all working further out. I really don’t want to have to go out looking, but I really want to clean these fillies’. Deciding to skip the barn and head, instead into the village I started walking along the stone/dirt road, keeping to shadows as per usual. ‘I see you're portraying very animalistic traits there’ I didn’t answer deciding to try ignore my internal dialogue in an attempt to stop it from starting up an argument again. ‘Is being a wolf really changing me this much?’ I began to feel slightly angry at that creature, Discord, for why was I here, These questions swam around my head as I walked through the town now, heading for what looked like…. A treehouse? Making it to the door of the tree house, no house tree, no not right either, y’know what fuck it, I let myself in, the door opening easily. I then saw what the building was, and I nearly doubled over laughing at the irony. ‘A fucking library’ I thought, really?... I looked around and saw that the sun was beginning to set, I could hear, off in the distance, a train heading towards the small village,I guessed it was about five or six hours from reaching the town. ‘Better get some sleep’ I thought, I made my way to the stairs which looked like the way to the living quarters. Looking around, I quickly found the bathroom and made my way in. I then went over to the bathtub and twisted the faucet on, with my mouth. ‘Uhh so fucking annoying with my fingers now’. After 25 billion attempts I finally got the facet to turn on. Let me just say one thing about the human anatomy: we don’t pay enough attention to how awesome and useful fingers are... “I don’t want to have a bath,” the orange one with red hair said, guessing my plans. ‘Well, too fucking bad kid, you getting a fucking bath whether you like it or not’. They were smothered in blood and gore and now my saliva. “Quiet, please Scootaloo, he’s a giant wolf” said the white pony. “Oh please Sweetiebelle, we could take him CMC style” ahh so her name is Sweetiebelle, gotta remember that. “I just hope this big guy doesn't go haywire on us” said the last, orange fillie. “Oh stop your worrying Applebloom” and there's the last name: Scootaloo, Sweetiebelle and Applebloom. “I just don’t think Rarity would approve…” Sweetiebelle said. ‘Yea thats right, I do not want to be the one to take the fall when your parents come for you, if you’re covered in blood and guts’ For about an hour I thoroughly washed them, making sure to reset the water every so often but keeping it warm, I scrubbed and cleaned everything off of their bodies and then made sure the sink didn’t stink of blood. All in all, a job well done. “Thank you Mr Wolf” they all chorused after I was done. I then went back down stairs and over to the couch lying on one side of the circular room and lay down, quickly curling up, my tail curling around the fillies protectively. Dreamless sleep quickly consuming me and the fillies, dropping all of us into the realm of unconscious. > Chapter 4. Once upon a time there was a bad day > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Once upon a time there was a bad day- I woke up with a start, trying to remember where I was. ‘Shit still in the library’ I was still lying, protecting the fillies from a couple of hours ago, on the couch inside the library. Listening closely and looking up through the window; I found it was about midnight and the noise of the small but lively town was gone. Looking down I saw that all three fillies were cuddled up against my fur like little kittens. ‘SO FUCKING CUTE’, their giant eyes were shifting around occasionally and their little legs were griping to my coat, trying their best to hold on as I shifted. ‘I have to say it again… SO FUCKING ADORABLE’. I looked around the library, seeing if the owner had come back or if there was any sign of life in the old tree at all. I suddenly picked up my ears, listening to the outside world. I heard the train from a few hours ago, finally pull into the station and an untold amount of ponies get off. I wasn’t paying attention to the number of ponies though, I was listening to six, in particular, that felt familiar to me. ‘Oh shit’ I suddenly realised that the footsteps or.. hoof steps, belonged to the six ponies who I had met in the castle on the top of the mountain, they were now very close, only ten minutes away from the tree house, library. Getting up very slowly, as to not wake the fillies I got up off the couch and slithered over to the shadows of the library. ‘Fuck there might be lights’ The pony creatures didn’t seem to be that advanced in technology, which I found strange because they had the perfect chance for it, but they might still have some form of lighting. I looked at the ceiling and saw no lighting fixtures, but looking around the room, I saw candles and hanging lamps coming off the walls. Carefully judging the light and where it would land from the positions of the lights, I moved over to another wall where I would be able to stay hidden and possibly escape if the residents came in and lit up the room. I really wanted to see who the owners of this library where, and to make sure that the fillies got back to their families, so I would wait here and then hopefully leave… notice the word hopefully… After an excruciating ten minutes of waiting to see what was coming and to see whether the fillies were alright, the six ponies that had chased me in the castle arrived and came into the library. “SPIKE” Twilight yelled. “YEA, UP HERE,” another boyish sounding voice said. ‘Holy. Shit. Someone was here all this time, I am sooo lucky’ I thought. “We’re home”, “Ok, got any news?” “Yea, come down here and we’ll explain”. I then heard some pitter-patter sounds as a young looking creature came down the stairs, which I now knew as Spike. He was a young dragon. ‘Wait isn’t that the young dragon who came up the mountain before?’ I thought, ‘yes it is’ “So what's up?” Spike said. “Hold On let me get the lights”. Twilight quickly went over to the lamps and candles and lit them, bathing the inside of the library in a warm glow. They still hadn’t noticed the fillies though… “So what happened?” Spike asked. My form was still completely hidden in the blackness of the shadows and my eyes where the only thing you could even vaguely see about me. “Well, the Princess told us that the creature that we all saw is called a Chupacabra, which is an ancient type of wolf, long since thought dead.” Spike's eyes lit up at that and he stood up a little straighter, now interested. “That's so cool, so did you plan a trap or something for when he next shows up? I bet it’ll be easy to get him” Spike swung his claw as he said that. “Well… we definitely tried… When the Princess first met us in the food hall and talked about this creature, she cast a search spell which unfortunately only works once every week, according to her, and specifically locates voids of magic. Since the Chupacabra blocks almost all magic, it's like its void of magic. The results were very surprising, they showed that the creature was in the same room with us and we didn’t even notice!” ‘Hah, ya fuckers can’t see me, can you?!’ I thought smugly. “Anyways, the Princess set us a task of capturing it-” “And you did right?” cut in Spike. “I’m getting to that. Anyways, we chased it around the castle and through all the halls and eventually we managed to corner it in a T-junction, but it still managed to get away by teleporting” Spikes jaw dropped at that word. “It can teleport now?” he asked gob-smacked. I felt even smugger than before and managed to pull my smirk into an even more arrogant one. Muhahahah, all shall bow before the great wolf. “Yes, unfortunately, it can. As I said we had it and it teleported away, right on top of the princess’s head at that’. Spike's jaw dropped even more at that. It was around this time when Rarity, the snob of the group started looking around the library. “Has someone been-” she was cut off with a small snort and a yawn as Sweetiebelle woke up, her tiny head looking up and her jaw working its way downwards. -I think my heart just exploded for a second time that day. “Where, what, where is…” she looked around, obviously for me. “Sweetie, why are you here in the library, you were meant to be home or at Applejacks farm”. “Yea, Applebloom, why are you here?” Applejack asked with a slightly cool tone of voice. “Ahh well that’s actually a really cool story,” Scootaloo said, now up and awake. Looking around slowly, she tried finding me. “Well? Out with it Sweetie!” Rarity said. Scootaloo quickly turned to the other two fillies and told them that she would handle it. “Ok well, as you know, we like to crusade in the most amazing ways anypony, anywhere could imagine. ‘Oh here we go’ Rainbow Dash muttered, but Scootaloo didn’t pay attention. “So we all decided that we should go see if we could help Zecora out with her potion making..” All of the adults gasped at this. “Applebloom I told you to never enter the forest without either me or granny,” Applejack said. “ANYWAYS” Scootaloo cut in, “That's not the coolest thing. So what happened was when we were halfway there to Zecoras place, a manticore cut us off and chased into the forest, it then cornered us by a the edge of a cliff” ahh so that was what that creature was, I thought it looked familiar. All of the adults almost screamed their heads off when they gasped and Rarity just straight up jumped upon Sweetiebelle and held her. “Oh Sweetie are you alright, please tell me that dratted creature didn’t hurt you.” “Yea and for that matter, how are none of you really dirty”. Spike cut in. At that all the older ponies looked down to the CMC, waiting. “Well, thats just the thing” continued Scootaloo. “Another creature saved us”. The adults now looked down confused. “Another creature”? Fluttershy asked, “Oh, I hope it wasn’t hurt by the manticore”. “No that’s just the thing, the new creature killed the manticore with only a few swipes from it’s massive claws”. “Wow, I wonder what creature can take down an entire-”... Twilight suddenly stopped and turned pale white, “Sweetie, what did the creature look like”? “Umm,” Sweetie was looking at Twilight, seeing that she had gone very quiet and stiff. “It was a giant black wolf, almost the size of the manticore itself” at that all the older ponies turned pale white and stiffened. “Sweetie, w-what did it do”? Rarity asked. “What do you mean, it saved us from the manticore, it killed it.” “Yea and then what”? “Um well, we were kinda covered in blood and guts, but the creature was really nice, it grabbed us up, then it carried us back to the library and cleaned us in the tub upstairs”. The six then relaxed a bit, but some still looked a little pensive. “Wait, how the hay did a giant wolf clean you”? “I don’t think that is our problem. Wait hold on, if it carried them back here just a little time ago… where is it”? Everyone except the CMC froze because they still didn’t understand what was going on. “Sis, what’s going on,” Applebloom asked. “Quiet”... Well, I better get going, I lifted myself up and out of the shadows, revealing myself slightly in the higher light levels. I stood up over ten feet above the ponies below me and was still mostly invisible. Spike was the first to notice my pitch black form and screamed. ‘Well shit,’ I quickly jumped over to the far wall where I had seen a window before. ‘Fuck’ It was way too small to fit my frame. All the ponies were now starting to notice me finally, even though I had been running and jumping around obviously, looking down I saw that I was starting to crush an oak desk and floating just under my belly was a blink node. “Wait, get back here punk” Yelled Rainbow Dash, I was about to blink away when I felt a tiny pressure beginning to poke and prod at my tail. holding me back from teleporting. ‘What the fuck’? I thought, looking back I saw that Twilight’s horn was lit up with a magenta glow and my tail was surrounded by the same light. I growled lightly in confusion and flashed electricity very quickly across my body, the flash of light and sizzle of burning fur would be the last thing the ponies smelt and saw before I disappeared in an instant through the blink node. I landed outside near some bushes that cushioned my fall. ‘How did Twilight grab my tail”? I thought as I raced through the village. ‘Fucking magic’ “GET BACK HERE”! Yelled Rainbow again, racing behind me, trying her hardest to catch and stop me. Fuck now what, I turned right and ran along the darkness, following a cobble clad road down an alleyway and out onto the plains outside the village, lining the forest. I could hear Rainbow Dash gaining speed behind me and the rush of air through my fur and across my body kept me going, the speed began to build up and adrenaline pumped through my legs. I could see the air in front of my face, beginning to create a cone, the sounds of the world around me slowly quitened. “AHHH” I heard Rainbow yell, now far behind me, my speed was nearing Mach 3 and I was nearing the edge of the forest. ‘Fuck it’ I thought as I increased my speed exponentially bringing me up to a deathly silent mach 9. ‘Holy fuck’ I was tearing across the landscape and within a tiny ten seconds, I reached the abandoned castle that I had slept at before. Coming to a halt on the dime right in front of the castle, I turned around and saw that the trees were mostly intact but there was a relatively prominent line cutting through the forest. ‘Shit, they’re going to find me’. I could see, way in the distance, a small smoke plume rising above the trees. ‘Must have burnt more than intended’. I turned back to the castle and entered. It was nearing two o’clock pm. “Twilight” Rainbow Dash yelled out, flying back to the house-library. “Yeah”? “I missed the wolf, but I saw him heading for that old castle thing we went through when we took down nightmare moon, he literally tore a line through the forest with how fast he was running!” “Ok we need to call the princesses, we need to organise a search party, we still have no idea what this thing is properly and it could potentially be a threat. “Ok, you go grab some parchment, I’ll go inside and check on Scoots” Rainbow Dash then went inside the Library to find all three fillies of the great CMC sitting with their respective sisters. Scootaloo was sitting over on the couch that she had woken up on that night with a star-struck expression. “Scoots, you’ll alright”? “Yeah…”, “I just can’t believe that the wolf was sitting right there in the corner all that time.” “Yeah, it is pretty scary, but-” “No it’ not scary, it’s awesome, I want to see him again” Scootaloo butted in. “How do you know it’s a ‘him’” replied Rainbow Dash, curling around Scootaloo in a protective manner. “I just know”. Uhhhh, mornings, the one thing that will be hated across all races, across all of time and across all the multiverse. Why must they be so fucking early and so damn bright? The glaring white light pouring from the sun struck me right to my soul. ‘FUCK’, ‘I do not want to get up now sun, why can’t you fucking leave me alone’!? I thought. I groggily got up and the day started playing out from there. After my early morning duties which included going for a shit and eating a rabbit or two, I then headed outside to start my training. I thought hard last night about what I was to do with my life now that it was completely fucked and I came up with the idea that I should practise with my powers so I could confront the ponies more easily. Looking around, I saw the perfect place where I could practise; through a narrow pathway cut through the grand castle walls, a great big courtyard lay, open and ready for my fighting and awesome lightning. I went over to one of the far walls and turned around. ‘Alright, here we go’. I decided to practise my lightning bolts first since I had already basically mastered blinking. I began charging up my body, electricity crackling across my fur in a bright display of fire and lightning. The ground started sparking, arcs of lightning jumping up from the ground. ‘And… release’ the air shone with a bright light as three hundred thousand volts of pure electricity poured forth, ripping through the plants and vines covering the wall on the other side of the clearing and melting through the stone of the wall and searing through the undergrowth on the other side. ‘Holy shit’ the hole through the stone wall was edged with molten obsidian and fires were beginning to sprout up in and around the undergrowth. “A beautiful show there my good friend” clapping could now be heard to my right. ‘No, not this fucker’, “Why hello, Discord, my new friend” speaking now, as easily as I had the day I left earth. “What do you want now”? “Oh nothing much, just came to watch how fast you can catch up with my little experiment” “Fuck you for bringing me here, everyone is scared the fuck out of me and the whole country seems to be on fucking code red or somthing”. “Yeah, well the ponies are a little finicky, they don’t like to be disturbed from their perfect little worlds” “Shit, you think I can’t tell? Why are you telling me, do you know them”? “Oh yes, they are some of my very old experiments, but don’t worry, I haven’t been around in a very long time, so don’t expect me to know everything about the ponies. Your children just grow up so fast don’t they” I had no idea how to respond that so I simply turned around and continued with my training while Discord sat down on a throne made of flowing lava and pulled out a box of multicoloured, candy frogs that actually hopped around and ribbited. “Twilight, have you began the procedure”? “Yes Princess, we have begun coupling together a search party, we managed to gather around twenty ponies from around ponyville to act as volunteer helpers”. “Good, by the way, your brother, Shining Armour will be leading the search. He has just been promoted to captain of the royal guard”. “Shining is here”? Twilight said with a small smile. “Why yes, I am” came a voice to her far right. “Shining”! “Hello sis, how’s it going”? The two embraced, after not seeing each other since Twilight had come to Ponyville, Shining Armour was beginning to miss Twilight. The two turned back to see Princess Celestia smiling. “It’s good to see that you two have met on good terms, but I’m afraid we will have to save the pleasantries for latter, we need to begin the search party”. She then turned and lead the two siblings down an alleyway, past the Ponyville town library and towards a giant tent camp, set up just outside the village. They walked for about ten minutes, Twilight and Shining Armour talking all the way about what the other was doing at the moment. Coming to slow walk just inside the camp boundaries they made their way over to the tent laying at the center of the small camp site. Royal guards and royal servants were running this way and that to get to one another. “Here we are” the Princess came to a stop inside the giant, center tent. Inside, waiting patiently were the other elements of harmony. “Why hello there ya’ll,” Applejack said, bowing along with the other five ponies and Spike. “Hello there, my little ponies, today we are organising a search and hopefully first contact mission with the Chupacabra which I will be referring to as shadow runner, which is the name of the species of the wolf-like creature.” “If it doesn't come, can we just leave it, I’m sure it wasn’t hurting anyone. If it was alive all this time and not doing anything, then surely it ‘s not doing anything bad”. Rainbow Dash suddenly jumped up from her standing position. “Don’t worry Princess we’ll get em”! “Rainbow Dash, please calm down” Rainbow stopped flapping her wings and lowered herself to the ground. “And Fluttershy, don’t worry, we aren’t going to hurt it or even imprison or capture it, all we need to do is make sure it isn’t doing anything that could put Equestria at risk, these animals are very peaceful creatures. However, if angered, they become very angry and territorial”. The Princess then turned back to the other six elements and a small conjugation of guards, including Shining Armor, standing outside the main tent. “Alright, my little ponies, you all heard what I said: we are NOT to hurt, injure or maim this creature, it is to be treated as if an ambassador for another race. We are here to make proper first contact with it. Shining, call your guards and tell them to roll out”. “Yes Princess” ‘We shall see what this creature wants’ The Princess then turned back around the elements and told them to get ready for the search party. Heading first to the castle of the two sisters. “AHHHHH” The sounds of a very strong current of electricity running ramped could be heard throughout the forest. “Shit, that was fucking awesome!” I yelled. The ground in front of me was completely charred and the stone wall in front of that was smoldering, liquid stone rolling down the edges and pooling onto the ground to my right. “I have to agree there James, quite spectacular, spontaneous, extravagant!” shouted Discord, “Why, look at the mess you made James, tch, tch, You should clean that up before the ponies get here” “Wait what, they're coming here? Why?” I looked around, turning my head towards the town I was in before. Smoke was still slowly wafting out, over the forest. Peering closer and lifting my ears.through the trees I could only just hear what sounded like an entire army of ponies crashing their way through the forest towards me. “SHIT”, “How long have I been messing around with my lightning” I asked, looking around, I thought it must have been quite a while judging by the extensive damage done to the whole castel. “Oh only about… 3 hours” “Shit, I need to get out of here” I quickly removed myself from my training area, passing by giant, still melting holes in the walls and ground. Discord lifted himself off of his chocolate throne and threw his never ending bucket of popcorn over his shoulder. “I will be seeing you later James. Expect me soon” Fucking cunt, didn’t tell me they’re coming now! I kept on running, keeping my speed low as to not create a path way. I made my way out of the castle and into the surrounding bush. “Where is that creature, I can’t see it anywhere?” I heard one the of the ponies say, a hoof appearing out of the forest to my far right, heading for the swinging rope bridge I had spotted just now. The pony that talked was a large white one with only a horn so I recognized it as a unicorn, on its rear end, I spotted a mark that slightly resembled a shield. ‘What the fuck?’ I thought, why did that pony have a mark on its rear. Looking around, I soon spotted some other ponies coming out of the forest to my right. ‘Good, they’re not coming from behind me’ Looking back at the pony that had the mark on its rear, I saw Twilight follow it out. “I don’t know Shining, maybe its hiding in the castle?” Looking down at Twilights rear I saw she too had a mark, this one resembling a cluster of stars. ‘How the fuck did I miss that before?’ looking around more I saw that every single one the pony creatures had a mark on their rear, each one resembling something different to the other. ‘Maybe it's a birth mark...’ I left that thought for later and proceed with waiting for the ponies to pass. “Search the castle, it must be here somewhere,” said the white pony, who I hear been called Shining. I slinked around the edge of the forest, keeping hidden in the dark lighting, my pitch black form providing a natural camouflage. Over the next few minutes, over 40 ponies dressed in gold or brass amour came pouring out the forest. Leading it was Shining, Twilight and the other five female ponies that had seen me in the castel back a few nights ago. Coming in at the rear was the two princesses, the dark one backing the very rear of the small army walking into my relatively new home. “Princess, we can’t seem to find it using the heat detection spell, he doesn't show up” “How far are you casting it,” the white princess said, looking a little more than worried. “The captain cast it to search all the way to canterlot and back, all that showed up was the royal guards and the forest creatures” ‘So either I’m freezing cold or my body is blocking the spell’ I thought, ‘Interesting to know’. Looking on with my slightly zoomed vision I could see all of the guards now coming to a stop in their search, obviously not finding anything. “Princess Celestia, we couldn’t find it on the castle grounds, but we did find something else that you might want to see,” said Twilight. Ahh so thats her name. Celestia then nodded and started following Twilight along with the other, darker Princess in toe towards what I assumed was my lightning damage. ‘Where the fuck is the princesses parents? Why are these two sister princesses running the search when a queen or even a king would be better fit, I began following the ponies and Twilight, still keeping to the edge of the forest and only daring to exit to jump through the shadows and avoid a few guarding ponies. “Here Princess” Twilight turned and lifted her head to point at the carnage that lay before them. The walls were still in a solidifying process so the stone was still red hot, the foliage was burnt to a crisp and the air was still crackling, alive with electricity and last but not least, there lay a great puddle of chocolate in one corner of the courtyard. “What happened here”? Celestia continued to stare at the mess before her while the guards and the six main, female ponies spread out and began inspecting all of the molten stone and burnt green. “Hmmm, chocolate”! Pinkie Pie shouted, licking huge globs of the liquid chocolate off of the ground. “Pinkie, don’t eat that, you have no idea where it could have been”! Twilight shouted. “Oh don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure it’s ok, I mean it’s only chocolate”! “How the heck is that even possible, for a giant puddle of liquid chocolate to be here in the middle of the forest”? Rainbow Dash asked “Guys, I don’t think that is our problem, the problem is how the hay did this creature melt solid stone walls and turn them into liquid”!? Shining asked. “Princess, I have found something” a guard yelled out whilst running across the courtyard. “There are some strange prints leading away from the castle”. “Where are they, I might be able to tell you what they are. If that’s alright with you, that is”? Fluttershy Asked as she came around a bend in the castle paths. “That would be great” “Well alright lead the way, I’ll come with you,” Twilight said. The three, followed by the Princess herself made their way over to the tracks they were walking about. ‘What the fuck? Did Discord leave tracks?’ I thought about it a bit but decided it wasn’t worth it and began tracing my way back towards the village and more specifically, the apple farm. After about half and hour of walking, I came to a break in the trees. Up ahead I could see the apple orchard but directly in front of me and before the apple trees started, I could see a small house perched in a large tree. ‘What the fuck, a tree house’? I thought more about it as I walked forward and then realized how stupid all the houses, doors and almost everything about this world was. ‘How the hell are the ponies ment to use anything, they don't even have fingers’? The stupidity of this whole world was really getting to me now; the ponies were powerful creatures with magic bullshit and they can fly... ‘Fuck’. They can use that magic to actually cast useful spells and their world doesn't fit with their species… ‘Where the fuck have I been brought to’? That question and more rolled through my head as I came closer and closer to the small ‘tree house’ “Do you think that wolf thing was actually trying to help or do you think he was just acting as if a daddy”? “Why would it act as a father?” “Well, it was cleaning us and protecting us and it didn't hurt us, so…” “What happens if it comes back”? “Well… I think we should get to know it and see if we can then introduce it to Twilight and the Princess” “Yeah, we could be… Cutie mark Crusaders Ambassador ponies!” “YAY, CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS AMBASSADOR PONIES!” ‘What the fuck was all that’. I has just listened to all three of the small fillies I had rescued the other night, yelling and shouting about being ambassadors… for me? I crept closer and lifted myself up so I could peek through the window to see what the three fillies where up to. They were all sitting in a small circle, talking to each other and eating and drinking from what looked like a little girls tea set. ‘So now children of this world act almost the same as children of my world? what the fuck has this world come to”?! Finally able to give them a proper look over I realized that these fillies didn’t have the birthmark, things that all of the other ponies had. ‘Maybe they’re mutated… No that wouldn’t make sense, they are the only three ponies I have seen out of all the other ones I have seen that don’t have them. Maybe they are marks that come with puberty”? yeah that sounded about right. Walking around the tree house, I came to a small walkway that lead up to the front door of the house. Walking up it and standing in front of the door, I thought about how I was going to announce myself. I decided I would just walk right on in pretending I owned the place. Stepping forward, I entered the doorway, pushing the door open and stepping in. The fillies still had their backs to me so they didn’t instantly see me. Clearing my throat a bit, one of them, if I recall sweetiebelle, turned to face. “Ummm…. guys” “And then we could get him to help us-” “GUYS” “Yeah” replied scootaloo, “What”? “Look behind us”... “What is- oh”... I looked down on them, standing ten to fifteen feet above them, towering the tiny forms. ‘Well, this is interesting’ I thought. I only just fit into the small tree house, but only the first half of my body could fit as the tree house was way too small to fit my full frame. “Um.. hello..”? Sweetiebelle came closer and poked her hoof out from beneath her body. “Why hello, there, little ones,” I said in my wolf speak, which by the expressions on their faces, the couldn’t understand. “What did he say?” “I think we should ask Fluttershy about this” “Yeah, good idea, but do you think we should bring him to Twilight first, then she can see what he is” “And even if he is he”! All three of the fillies then got up from their positions on the floor of the small house and started walking over to me. ‘Ok, well then let’s go’. The fillies then tried pushing and shoving me out of the doorway to get past and lead me to Twilight. ‘I hope this goes down well.’ I turned and let them carry me, acting as if I was a dog that could be lead around, but in reality I was simply walking the way the cute little fillies were going, letting them think they could control me. After some time, we reached the small town I had left only a day ago; turning left in a bend the road we came across the giant tree house with the library tucked inside. Looking to my far left, I could see a small campsite set up just outside town. “I wonder where everypony is”? Sweetiebelle said. I was thinking the same thing, the town seemed more empty than usual then I realized that everyone was was out looking for me. Looking back over to the camp site set up near the forest, I saw a few stray guards and a small armoury. ‘So that’s where all of the guards came from’ I thought that the guards must have come from the city on the mountain since that’s where the princesses live but it didn’t really explain why almost all of the town was empty. ‘Maybe this world has a lot more volunteers than my world’? ‘Most probable’. A few seconds later we arrived at the front door to the library and we entered. The house carved out of the tree was the same as I had seen before except there seemed to be a lot more papers and writing materials lying about. “Hello”? A voice carried out of the room next to the one I was in, probably the kitchen. “Hi Spike, It’s us, Sweetie, Applebloom and I” “Oh it’s you, hold on I’ll be right out, just cleaning the kitchen” “Cool, we brought a friend by the way” “A friend… who is it” “More like what is it, we were hoping either Fluttershy or Twilight could help us, we decided to come to Twilight first” “Hmm, ok what is it-” Just then Spike walked into the room and saw me. I looked down at him from my supreme height and smirked a little. Looking him over as he stared with wide, scared eyes, I saw that he was in fact a he he also was what looked like a lizard but something was off about him. “Girls…” Spike gulped noisily. “Why, how, where did it come from”? “He came to us, we were just talking about him when he came into our tree house”. Spike still looked a bit shocked and pensive but approached me some more and looked me over. “It is really cool” “See I told ya, Spike, he’s just a giant dog, thats all”. “Hehe, yeah”. Spike was able to now come closer to me without shitting his ass. Walking up to my face, head an equal height to my nose, he patted me. “See, he’s not too bad now is he,” Sweetie Belle said, pouting her face in the (emphasis on this) FUCKING CUTEST FACE EVER. I gently sat down, careful not to crush any of the children swarming my extremely smooth, wind resistant pitch black fur. “Spike”! It was about an hour later. After the petting, I had simply sat down with the small fillies while Spike went back to his cooking or whatever the fuck he had been doing when we first came through the door. “We’re back”!, “We didn’t find anything so the Princesses went back to Canterlot.” “Ok”... “Hey guess what Twilight” The door knob to the door started to twist but I kept my head down low and pretended to look as passive as possible. As the door started to open Twilight replied: “What is it Spike-” She cut herself off as she came through the door and instantly spotted my huge black form, lying prone on her floor. Twilights scream of frustration could be heard all across time and space even all the way to the human world and this could be proven when two men working a plow suddenly looked up at the small piercing sound coming from the very air. “What do ya think that is Jonny”? “No idea Bob” “Meh, let’s get back to work” “SPIKE” “Yes, what” “What the hay is IT doing here”?! Twilight's face was boiling red and I could literally see flames starting to lick at her hair. ‘Wut’? Her eyes were slightly glowing and she looked like she could bowl over a mountain. ‘Anger much”? “Well… hehe, the thing is.” “He came to us”! The fillies lying right in front of my belly, soaking up my heat, cut in, saving Spikes neak. “What do you mean it came to you? And stop using personal pronouns to describe it, it is not a he”! Twilight was starting to simmer down but still looked a little angry. “Well, how do you know, he might just be a he”! “UHGG. Just get on with it”! “Well he came to us when we were in our clubhouse, and we decided to bring him to you.” “Why did he come to you, he’s meant to come to the Princess, she cast a spell that was meant to call him to her”! Twilight was almost completely cooled off but still looked angry. “Twilight, not everyone obeys the Princess,” Spike said in a matter of fact tone. ‘You know, these ponies are overly protective of two princesses, shouldn’t they be worried about the king and queen’? I hmmed at that and looked back at Twilight. She was using some sort of anger managment technique to cool herself and not get to angry. “Anyways, since you don’t know what he is, or even if you did, you obviously don’t want to listen to him; we decided to take him to Fluttershy's so that she can translate him” “Hmmm, that’s actually a good idea Sweetie, I guess you can go and bring him to Fluttershy but I want you back STRAIGHT after that, I need to study this creature. Anyways I need to cool off. After that huge search party that went on for hours, all of us need a rest. I will write to the Princess and see if she can make a quick stop back here to talk to this creature.” “Ok, common big guy”. I got up off of the floor and started following him out. “Why is it listening to you and not me”!? Yelled Twilight walking up to me and trying to look tough but failing miserably. “I think you just have to show him some respect” “Uggh, Spike go with them to make sure they don’t get into anymore trouble”! Spike saluted then followed my massive frame outside. As soon as we got outside and the door closed, the three fillies broke down into small giggles. “Did you see how angry Twilight was when she saw him, I bet shes angry that we found him first and not her. “Guys, seriously don’t laugh at Twilight when shes like that, it’s actually very scary. That wasn’t her full angy mode but it was still very bad”. ‘Wow, Twilights pet is scared of her, she must have some serious anger issues’. The walls raced past, the cold stiff air washing over me, slowing me down. The haunted whispers of the future past tickled my ear. “Come to me my dear”. We kept walking towards Fluttershys abode for about ten minutes, the three fillies talking Spikes ear off non stop while I slowly plodded along so as to allow them to walk at an equal pace to me. When we finally came to what I assumed was Fluttershys house, I was very surprised to see that it was situated like a giant cottage, thatched roof and all. ‘What the fuck’? Looking around, I saw that the area was surrounded by little creatures, birds and other animals. They scurried back and forth with urgency as if they knew where they were going. One of the small animals, a rabbit, came bouncing up to us and more specifically me. He looked at me with a small cute glare, trying his hardest to frighten me. Tilting my head down in a smug manner and making me eyes appear squinted. He looked a little pensive now at my look but continued to try out glare me. ‘I’m having none of this shit’. Looking straight at him, I turned my lips up in a small snarle. I felt my whole face tighten and I suddenly saw what seemed like liquid darkness, pouring from my eyes and out of my mouth. ‘What… That’s fucking awesome’ A new trick added to the book: ‘can make face into demon’. The rabbit took a large step back from me, now looking incredibly scared. I stopped glaring and almost immediately the liquid darkness stopped pouring from my mouth and eyes. The ponies that were with me at the time looked at me with slight confusion and fear. “What just happened,” Spike asked. “Angel! Where are you”!? I heard Fluttershy yell out from inside the cottage. The small white rabbit who I now associated with Angel, bounced off, back towards the cottage where he had come from. “Fluttershy”!? Spike yelled out, now standing just outside the door, hoping to catch her before she went to deeply, back into her house. “He-hello”? She asked back, poking her head out of the door. As soon as she saw Spike she started calming down, but as she looked up from him and back towards the fillies and me she suddenly shrunk back and squeaked. “I-I-Is tha-t the wolf fr-rom before”? Stuttering like mad, she slowly crept out of the door, trying her best to look comforting and helpful. Which, I must say, she was doing a damn good job with her cute puppy dog eyes. “Yes, he first came to Sweetie, Scoots and Applebloom over there but they brought them to the Library and to me before Twilight came home.” “Does Twilight know about him”? “Yes, she came home before we left to come to you and she said that it would be a good idea to bring him to you so you could see what he is and even if he is a he. Twilight also said that one of the most important thing to do with him is to see if you can understand him when he speaks.” “Ok, I guess I can do that”. She stood up straighter and looked at me. Lifting her hoof in a ‘come hither’ manner, she slowly stepped back and allowed my massive form to enter the small cottage, only barely fitting. “Well this is nice,” I said out loud, talking in my guttural wolf speak, hoping that one of the animals would understand me or that maybe Fluttershy could understand. “Oh, my” I heard Fluttershy say behind me. Turning around I saw that Fluttershy, Spike and the three fillies that had been following me around all day, slowly coming into the house. “What is it Fluttershy”? Spike asked “I think he just tried to say something, his speaking patterns are a lot like a bear or maybe a bat, but it’s so hard to understand. I have to get used to it before I understand it fully”. “Do you have any idea what he just said”. “I think, maybe, he was complimenting my home”? “Well that’s good” “Yeah, doesn't that show intelligence or something,” said Scootaloo. “Little fillie, you have no fucking idea how intelligent I really am,” I said quite smugly. Fluttershy looked at me a bit weirdly but turned away and began setting up an area where I assumed we were going to talk. “Ok so are we all ready”? After a few minutes of fussing about, feeding her other animals and then setting up an area where we could rest and talk and for me to simply lie in the corner. “Yep, I think so”. All of the ponies and one dragon in the room turned to me. I looked up from my position, a bit bored with the proceedings. “So let’s start from scratch: My name-” “Is Fluttershy, yes I know that. And you are Sweetiebelle, Scootaloo, Applebloom and Spike the lizard”. I cut of Fluttershy while she tried answering for herself. She looked at me with some worry but mostly pride. “Wow, so you know us” “What did he say, what did he say”? Scootaloo interrupted. “He cut me off by listing all of our names, I think… His speech is still very hard to decipher, but I’m getting the hang of it.” “Cool”. She then went quiet after that and turned back to me along with Fluttershy. “So, do you mind introducing yourself then”? I thought for a moment about what I was going to say, I thought about giving away my real name and what really had happened but I didn’t really trust anyone here yet, so I decided to just give them the false, safe story that I had told the wooden wolf in the forest a day or two ago. Just need to add a name... “My name is Beowulf and I am a male Chupacabra.” I thought that was quite smart seeing as that translated in Anglo-Saxon to intelligent wolf. “And I have lived in the forest nearby to this small, quaint town for about three years now.” All of the ponies and one lizard in the room looked at me intently, waiting for a translation while Fluttershy sat there and mulled over the information. “He said that he is actually a male and that he has been living in the everfree forest for three years now. He told me his name, but I cant understand it fully, it’s almost as if it’s in another language of his wolf speech” “Well, that sure is interesting. What did his name sound like then” Applebloom asked. “Hmm,... like ‘Bay-a-wilf’” she tried pronounciong it but failed terribly. “It’s Beowulf,” I said, a little peeved that no one would get that reference or even be able to say it properly. “Bayawilf, yes that could be it. Anyways, until I can understand him properly him name will be that or any nickname you girls decide to give him.” “Cool”. Fluttershy turned back to me and started talking again. “Ok Bayawilf, I need to ask you something that I’m sure Twilight or the Princess would want to ask you, if thats ok with you”? I nodded “Are you here to harm anyone”? I looked at her with shock but on the inside, I felt smugness.. ‘They’re so scared that they thought I was here to hurt them’. “Fluttershy, I’m not here to hurt anyone I promise, I’m simply here to find out why I was brought to this forest,” I said that as if It was a choice that brought me to the forest, I still didn’t trust them enough for the truth. “Oh, ok good”. We suddenly heard knocking on the front door and a few seconds later Rainbow Dash burst through. “Fluttershy, Twilight’s told me everything, she also asked that you come with the Chupacabra-” “It’s Bayawilf.. at least, I think” “You’re naming it now”? “No, he told me his name”. Rainbow Dash shook her head and carried on. “Whatever, Twilight needs you back, Princess Celestia is coming back, Princess Luna said she'd meet it later.” “Stop calling him an it, he is a male” “Ok, ok, jezz”. “Alright, let's go. Bayawilf, comon boy.” “Don’t EVER call me boy, adress me as Beowulf, and it’s spelt B-E-O-W-U-L-F”. Fluttershy squeaked and nodded. “Ok, Beowulf. Girls, you need to head home now, I’m sorry.” The three fillies awed but obeyed her and started walking away, back towards their tree house. Spike stood up and began following me and Fluttershy out of the door. “Alright, I’ll fly ahead and tell Twilight to calm her jets”! Rainbow Dash then streamed ahead to tell Twilight that I was coming. ‘And now off to see that angry bitch, Twilight’. “Princess”! Twilight yelled as the golden chariot set down in front of her. “Hello my faithful student, how are you”? “I’m fine, the chupacabra will be arriving soon”. “That’s great, Twilight”. The two ponies then turned and entered the library set in a tree, behind them, finding Spike the dragon and Rainbow Dash, waiting inside. “Hello there Rainbow Dash and Spike”. The two people in question bowed to the Princess as she entered. The Princess then sat down and got ready to meet the wolf that had been avoiding them for the past week. “So tell me, how have you all been”. A discussion about what they two ponies and one dragon had been up to lately, began. We were now a few blocks away from the library that I knew was in front of me. “So, Beowulf, why did you suddenly, now of all times come to the Everfree forest”? I turned to her and lowered my head. Standing over teen feet above the ponies does have it’s disadvantages. “I’m not sure yet” Keeping my answer vague so as to make it seem as if I had chosen to come to forest. “But I’m here now, and I’m going to find out why.” I finished with my answer and turned back the way we were walking. I did know what brought me here: Discord. But I still didn’t know why, nor did I know what he gave me. I turned back the way we were walking and found that we were standing right in front of the door to the library. Fluttershy walked up beside me and knocked on the door. “Hello”? “It’s me, Fluttershy”. I still didn’t know why she talked in such a small quiet voice, but it made me calm. “And us” I heard a voice behind us. Turning around I saw that all four of the other ponies that I had first come into contact with, where there waiting for me and Fluttershy. “Coming”. I heard some footsteps inside the library; the door opened and Twilight stepped up into the frame. “Hello, come on in, please”. She said this with a straight face, but I could tell she was struggling to not get angry with me. We entered the building quickly and quietly as to not annoy the neighbouring houses. “Hello, my little ponies”. Celestia said from the center of the room, waiting for them. “Hello,” the all coursed as they bowed. I didn’t bow, I was too prideful for that. “What’s up, Celestia”? I said in a very smug manner. I stood just over seven feet above her. Looking around I saw that she was definitely the biggest pony out of every other one I had seen. “Oh my”... Fluttershy squeaked. “Can you understand him, Fluttershy, dear”? “Yes, only a little though, his speech is unlike any other animal I take care of” “Well, what did he say”? “Well, his exact words were: ‘What’s up, Celestia’” Everyone in the room looked at me with either confusion or anger, Twilight just strode up to me and glared at my face. ‘Bad idea, woman’ “Who do you think you are to call the Princess by her name”? “Twilight it’s-” Celestia was cut off by what I did next. I looked down at Twilight and glared back… With liquid darkness pouring out of my eyes and mouth. “I am not ruled by Sunbutt over there,” I said with anger. I will not be talked down by some sort of noble or somthing. “Oh my, please don’t say that, it might hurt Celestia and Twilights feelings” “What did he say Fluttershy,” Twilight said. She was starting to calm down after her sudden fright of my demonic stare and Celestia's assurance that it was ok. “I’m not sure if you would like it…” “Fine, just get on with it,” Twilight said, a little peeved that she got stared down. “Ok, well, let’s start this again shall we? My name is Princess Celestia, what’s yours”? “His name is Beowulf” Fluttershy answered for me as I went over to Spikes side on the other side of the room and sat down. Lighting my fur lightly in electricity as to provide my fucking awesome glow. ‘Hehe’. The ponies in the room looked at Spike with a worried glance but calmed down when they saw he was fine. “Yes, my name is Beowulf, and I’m not here to hurt you as Fluttershy originally thought”. “Bayawilf… nice name” Fuck you. “No Princess it’s Beowulf, spelt B-E-O-W-U-L-F, he gets angry when it’s pronounced wrong”. “Oh, ok” She looked back up at me, sitting there with my fuir slightly singing the wooden floor from the small amount of heat released from it. “So, why are you here Beowulf”? “I’m not sure, I came here for reasons that I still don’t fully understand, there must be something here for me.” Fluttershy translated. Celestia looked at me with a sad expression but didn’t comment. “So what do you want with me now”. She slowly stood up and stretched. “Now, I go back to Canterlot, you go back to finding the answer of why you’re here, but I want you to report back your findings and or what you’re doing to one the elements here”. I looked at her, perplexed. She sighed and continued on. “One of the six girls here. They can explain later why they’re called the elements. In a few weeks time I will return and you will come with me to Canterlot to meet my sister and then during the week you’ll be staying in Canterlot, you will meet some other nobles and rulers of this world. Our world has changed a lot since your race disappeared. Where were you by the way, if you don’t mind me asking”? I looked at her and contemplated where I told her I had been. I took a stab in the dark and said the first most likely place to be real in this world. “The badlands”. She looked at me with a worried expression. “Ok, I have no idea how you have survived in that dreadful place for so long”. Oh my fucking god, that was close. I still didn’t trust them. Maybe when Celestia came back for me in a few weeks, I would be trusting. She turned back to the door and began walking out. “I will return”. She then strode out of the door, leaving me, Spike and the six other female ponies. “Well, she was nice,” I said out loud. Fluttershy looked at me for a second but turned back to Twilight. “Yes, she is…”. “So what happens now, where do ya think he’ll stay,” Applejack said. Rainbow Dash was hovering slowly, a very bored expression painted painfully onto her face. Pinkie Pie was bouncing in her sitting position, which looking at hurt my eyes so I turned away. Fluttershy was sitting calmly before me looking at the other five ponies. Rarity was just sitting quietly, mulling over the information while somehow keeping her head lifted up to the full extent. Twilight was sitting over by the couch where Celestia was before she left. “Well the Princess said that he should go about his life at the moment, he needs to find out why he is here, but he must keep up updated,” Twilight wrote all of this down as she spoke to remind herself later of the changed. “Ok, well I’ll be going now,” I said. Fluttershy looked at me and nodded. “Ok, that’s fine, just make sure to check back with us every so often” “I think that he should report back to you Flutters. He is much more confident around you and you do live right next to the forest” Twilight said “Good idea, anyways, bye”! As I said this as I jumped up and used a blink node hovering above Twilight , at the same height to Rainbow Dashs hovering, to blink away. After landing outside, I started off, back into the forest to find out what happened to me and why Discord brought me here.