Tugging at my Undead Heartstrings II - The Belle, it tolls for thee

Chapter 0 – Prologue

Thump…thump…thump.

The lupine creature ran hard, making for the closest tree line it could find. A large cut along its flank stung as blood dripped down its leg. Behind it, it could hear the flapping of a pair of wings. The cursed pegasi commander was close and getting closer with every flap. Normally, taking down one pegasus, even one as skilled as this commander was would be more sport than a challenge. The pony had gotten lucky however, and a quick swipe with a silver tipped blade had lanced into his body, searing him from the inside and crippling his leg.

With no other choice, the wolf had turned and fled. His masters had to know about the information that he had discovered, no matter what happened to him. Reaching the tree line, he vanished into the edge of the Everfree. The dense foliage would mean that the pegasus would have to land and track him on hoof. Even hurt and bleeding, the wolf would have a massive advantage in a ground engagement. He turned to look back and saw the pegasus pause at the edge of the forest, not entering. It was curious, but the wolf didn’t stop to wonder about it. Every moment that he wasn’t being chased, was a moment he could use to put more space between him and his pursuers.

CLINK.

The sound of metal striking stone drew the wolf’s attention back to his front. Before him, a small gleaming metal ball bounced once off of a rock and began to roll down along the ground towards where he was standing. Small bumps covered every inch of its surface. The wolf paused to look at it, examining it and taking a few healthy sniffs. All at once, he caught the scent of silver. With a yelp, he backed up from the sphere, but it was too late. With a quiet hiss, the grenade went off.

Unlike most other explosive weapons, this one had been specifically designed for use on the myriad of supernatural creatures that roamed around the dark spaces of Equestria’s underbelly. Rather than launch some kind of fragmentation charge or concussive wave, this grenade contained a liquid core. Small nozzles dotted its surface. When it was activated, it would spray its liquid payload in every direction and cover anything within a 10 meter radius with whatever was stored within. In this case, the grenade contained colloidal silver. The mixture had been specifically designed to be devastating to supers while leaving normal ponies unharmed. It had quickly become one of the favoured, if expensive weapons used by the Monks of the Silver Sun, the organisation that had been hunting the wolf for several hours now.

The silver mixture splashed over the wolf, and he fell to the ground, howling in pain as the silver burned his fur. The smell of searing flesh filled his nostrils and he could feel his body contort in pain. The agony lasted for nearly a minute, but it eventually passed, leaving the wolf with a dull aching sensation. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to walk any more; one of his forelegs had twisted and split open. He could make out what looked like one of his own bones under his blacked fur.

Without warning, a grey hoof slammed down on his injured leg, pinning the limb to the ground. Roaring through the pain, the wolf looked up and saw a grey earth pony standing above him. A short silver blade was fastened to her other hoof and she levelled it towards his head. He snapped his jaws at her, trying to dislodge her, or even just to get a bite in. She expected that and slammed her hoof into his mouth, stunning him for a second. It was all she needed. Leaning down she touched the silver blade to just below the wolf’s throat where it began to sizzle lightly. She grinned with sadistic satisfaction at his discomfort. “Try that again, monster and I may just have to forget my orders to try and keep you alive.” She had a cultured accent; educated and refined. She was clearly a mare of high standing. Her accent didn’t match with her blood thirsty expression of pure hate.

The wolf’s eyes narrowed. Clearly this mare knew that he was carrying important information and she had orders to extract it. He instead began to chuckle; a deep rasping noise from deep down in his throat. “Do your worst, servant of the sun. I will not talk,” he said in a voice that sounded like cracking ice. ”I have been trained to resist all tortures and my loyalty to my master is absolute. You may as well just kill me now. I guarantee that if you don’t, then I will kill you all. Your bones shall make my dinner.”

The mare just shrugged once. “As you wish,” she said before swinging her hoof down. The last thing the wolf saw was the blade rushing towards his head. A moment of blinding pain and then nothing. His last thought was ‘Forgive me master, I have failed you.’

Octavia Philharmonica wiped her blade on a patch of grass. Under her hooves, a hulking shaggy creature lay on the ground. A large gaping wound marred its neck, along with many smaller scorch marks and cuts. She kicked it twice to make sure that it was dead; satisfied that it was finished when it didn’t make any kind of movement. Behind her, her commander and nominal leader of the Monk’s field operations, the pegasus that had been chasing the wolf earlier walked up along side her. Slinglock was a no nonsense pony and he took his job almost as seriously as Octavia herself did. He also double checked the dead body before him before turning to look at Octavia. Some supernatural creatures had a nasty habit of refusing to stay dead.

“Our orders were to take him alive, you know,” he said reproachfully.

Octavia snorted. “Our orders were to secure the information he carried. That information died with him. Mission accomplished. Plus we had to field test Blast’s new and improved compound.”

Slinglock sighed once. Octavia was right, preventing the information from reaching hostile hands had been their top priority. He just would have liked to bring the wolf back to Canterlot so that they could see exactly what it had planned for the information it had stolen.

Movement below them drew their attention. Both ponies turned to look at the dead wolf. Slowly, the wolf began to twist and turn. Fur began to retract from its body, paws started to revert into hooves. The entire process took about thirty seconds, but eventually all that remained of the wolf that they had been chasing was a dead pony, its body scarred and twisted with wounds. Aside from the injuries, he now looked exactly like any other earth pony that they would pass on the street. Even his cutie mark was a generic pair of horseshoes. Nothing to suggest that he had been a shaggy werewolf less than a minute ago. The only thing that even hinted of his unnatural nature was a slight glow around his eyes, but that was hardly unusual enough to be conclusive.

“This is why I hate hunting down Weres. They really make you see it afterwards.”

Octavia gave her leader a hard look. “They are monsters and do not deserve our pity. Given the chance, it would have willingly eaten you for dinner, or even tried to turn you if the opportunity presented itself. Save your pity for those who deserve it.”

Slinglock shrugged, his posture one of resignation. He knew that he would never convince Octavia that sometimes they deserved mercy or remorse. To her, vamponies and werewolves were nothing but monsters to be exterminated in both the most efficient, and preferably painful way possible. “Alright, just dispose of the body, then get back to Canterlot. I’m going to go and make sure that he wasn’t working with a partner.”

Octavia nodded once and began to collect small twigs for use as kindling. Fire was almost always the best solution as it would leave nothing but ash. Slinglock paused to look at her for a moment. He knew that she could see it too; Werewolf sightings and attacks were becoming more common, and far more public. Something big was going to happen and he just hoped that he and the rest of the monks would be ready for it...

Author's Note

And here we go for a full on sequel. It's taken me a while, but I said I was going to do it.

Thanks to SandstormAeon for letting me cannibalise the opening chapter of his defunct semi sequel to the original story.

Chapter updates will occur probably every fortnight, as writing time and other pressures allow.