CMMK (Cutie Mark Monster Killers)

The full moon approached it's zenith as it bathed the two combatants in pearlescent light, the smell of fresh blood and warm bowels pervading through the air as any proper battlefield should. Fueled to the brim with rage and adrenaline, the gore covered Apple Bloom tore through the ranks of the warg pack as the sounds of yelps and agonized howls of pain echoed through the night air.

Scootaloo was much more humane than her respective comrade. Her deadly aim was accurate enough to instantly put down her targets before they had even realized they'd been shot. Sweetie Belle simply sat and watched over them from the outside boarders of the forest, providing them with wards, buffs, healing, and guidance when ever it was necessary.

"Out of bolts!" Scootaloo announced from the sky.

It's currently midnight and there are ten more targets left. Be careful, these ones are different from the others. Sweetie Belle advised.

"In what way?" Apple Bloom asked, pausing to inspect the last of the pack that emerged from the forest. They threw back their heads and howled wildly as the bristled fur on their coats grew in length and their bodies became larger. They took on the likness of the alpha male that Apple Bloom had slain. The sixth one from the line seemed to go through the most dramatic change of them all, his body twisting, popping, and contorting as it  changed into an anthropomorphic form.

"I thought wargs and lycans were two different creatures!" Said scootaloo, her eyes round and wide with surprise.

They are, informed Sweetie Belle. These ones may have been biding their time and letting the weaker ones distract you as they waited for midnight to approach. There is a good chance that the alpha male that Savage killed may have been merely a petty officer within their ranks, and this one may be the actual leader.

"Do you realize what you have done?" The creature spoke in a strangely civilized tone that contradicted it's bestial form. "You have killed the army that I had been amassing for months. Every warg you killed was once a pony like you. Did you know that?"

"We're well aware," Scootaloo answered as she gracefully landed next to Apple Bloom. "And the guilt trip shit isn't going to work, so you might as well stop while you're ahead."

"Death is the only cure for beasts like you," Apple Bloom added calmly as she directed her axe toward the two legged wolf. "If Ah were given lycanthropy, Ah'd want the same to be done for me!" She growled as as she waved her axe in the direction of piles of dead and eviscerated wargs that lay behind her.

"Your resolve is admirable, little one," The lycan stated.

"Why were you amassing an army, anyway?" Scootaloo demanded.

"An army is power, young one," The wolf stated as he scratched his chin. "I figured that if I spent a few decades building one, I'd have enough strength to overthrow Celestia herself. Alas, I have to start all over again... Pity..."

"Original," Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo both stated facetiously.

"Yes, yes," The lycan lord waved his claw dismissively. "As if a pair of fillies could even understand the definition of the word of ambition."

"That is a tricky word," Scootaloo responded with a sly smile. "Perhaps I'll need a dictionary?"

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both responded with sarcastic laughter as they rolled their eyes.

"What to do?." The lycan interrupted their banter. "To spend an eternity under my paw in servitude would indeed be a boorish existence. To never know freedom. To traverse the world as a beast that is shunned by society. I could just rip your throats out, but I think you two would serve me better as concubines in my harem. I have no doubt that your beauty would be extraordinary in warg form."

"I'll bet he likes it doggy style," Scootaloo jested with her hoof over her mouth. The corner of Apple Blooms mouth cracked into an almost smile while Sweetie Belle face-hoofed.

"You must be the funny one," The wolf sneered in Scootaloo's direction.

"Nope, I'm just a chicken!" Scootaloo quipped as she threw an aerodynamic looking knife at one of the large wargs in the lycan's company, accurately hitting it between the eyes and killing him instantly without even having enough time to yelp in pain or surprise. "With knives," she added.

"You bitch!" The lycan exclaimed while looking down at it's dead offspring. "These alpha's are my children. Do you know how long it takes to breed a proper warg?! These smaller ones that lay scattered behind you are merely coffin fodder. Ponies and other sentient creatures that I have bitten and transformed, but these Alpha's are the fruit of my loins!"

"The less I know about your loins, the better, pal. It looks like I'm going to have to neuter you." Scootaloo unsheathed her daggers and began sharpening them on each other. Sparks flew and the sound of metal on metal scraping assaulted the wargs ears as they began to howl to drown out the noise.

So, wargs are sentient creatures who have been cursed with lycanthropy, Alpha Wargs are the direct descendants of a lycan, and lycans control them... I'm going to have to add these finding to my bestiary, Sweetie Belle projected as she quickly took notes of her findings.

We already knew that first part, Apple Bloom replied.

I know, but this information could prove valuable for future strategies against them. Do you think you can ask him where Lycans come from?

I can answer that for you, Scootaloo announced. When a boy and girl werewolf love each other very much—

Thank you, Shadow Dancer! Sweetie Belle interjected.

The lycan's eyes narrowed into a dangerous glare as he tapped his clawed foot on the ground, ignorant of Sweetie Belle's involvement in their group, his curiosity peeking as the three mares conversed telepathically.

"Right, then," He said impatiently. "Have at you!" was the first and only warning he gave before letting out a deafening howl and charging furiously, his brood following closely behind as they attacked in formation.

"Scootaloo disengaged them, jumping back with her wings spread and throwing her two daggers plus another ballistic knife in rapid succession. Each one hit their marks, felling three more of the charging beasts.

Apple Bloom charged in and swung her axe at the lycan's midsection. He jumped back and evaded the weapon by a fraction of an inch. Speculating that Apple Blooms swing had momentarily taken her off balance, a warg lunged at her from it's formation. Apple Bloom utilized the momentum of her swing to quickly execute a three hundred and sixty degree spin to surprise the attacking warg and embedded the head of her axe deep into the side of it's neck, killing it instantly.

Apple Bloom looked down at the dead warg for a moment. "Ah must be losing mah touch. Ah tried to decapitate him."

"An Alpha Warg's bones and muscles are thicker and denser than the lesser wargs that you slaughtered!" The lycan responded before swiping at her.

Apple Bloom parried the first swing, ducked under the second swing, then blocked the third swing with the shaft of her axe. "I'll keep that in mind when Ah'm sawing through your neck," Apple Bloom responded, her constant taunts and heavy attacks proving an adequate distraction for the silent and stealthy Scootaloo to pick off the Alpha Wargs.

The wolf-beasts who stayed in formation and waited for their time to attack were systematically ambushed from behind one at a time by scootaloo as the Lycan lord busied himself trading and parrying blows with Apple Bloom. She silently took her daggers that were embedded in the heads of the wargs she had killed, the scraping of bone and sloshing of brain matter sounding off as she liberated them from their skulls.

Sneaking up behind the warg that was farthest down the line of the formation, she silently hovered over him. She then dropped on top of him, wrapped her foreleg tightly around it's throat, and dug her knife deep into it's belly, slicing it's organs as she jerked her blade and dragged it deep across it's midsection. It made one meager attempt to yelp as it's organs slipped through the slit, but scotalloo's foreleg tightly barred over it's throat insured that it would not be able to.

She quickly and methodically killed three more in the same manner before one turned around and noticed her. It alerted the other surviving one with a strange yipping sound who turned to face her as well. Just as they charged, Scootaloo unsheathed her other dagger and danced her deadly dance that spelled doom for them the moment they were within her reach.

Apple Bloom stood with her axe deeply embedded into the belly of the lycan lord, just as the lycan had it's claws dug into hers. They jerked their weapons, each attempting to disembowel the other before the other could do the same.

"This is your opportunity, my children!" The beast snarled triumphantly. "Attack!"

The lycan waited for his monstrous entourage of alpha wargs to hurdle over him and tear the mare to pieces, but there was nothing but silence.

Apple Bloom gave the monster a knowing smile as she held the lycan's claws in place to keep him from tearing her abdomen open.

"Attack!" He bellowed.

"Your children are dead," Scootaloo's voice rang out from behind the creature.

"What?!" The lycan yelled before looking over his shoulder to see a gore spattered Scootaloo beaming at him.

"And so'r you!" Apple Bloom said before she jerked her axe hard across the distracted monsters belly, slitting him deep and wide and spilling his organs on the ground.

The creature fell to his knees howling in anguish as he attempted pathetically to scoop his organs up and put them back in his newly formed cavity.

"Your teeth, sugarcube," Apple Bloom set the head of her axe gently under the monsters chin and lifted it up so they could make eye contact. "Will look so nice on a string around mah neck."

She drew her axe back.

"Please, wait!" the creature pleaded before it's head was sent flying and spinning through the air, flecks of green blood flying from it's socket in every direction as the severed extremity flew.

Good work, girls. All enemies within the vicinity have been slain. Projected Sweetie Belle.

I'm still kinda amped up Scootaloo complained.

Me too, Apple Bloom added as she was already in the process of prying the teeth from the severed lycan's head.

Is the Wyvern still open? Sweetie Belle asked.

Apple Bloom pried the last tooth from the wolf skull before she threw it in the air and struck it with the flat end of her axe, sending it flying into the night sky with a dull, metallic ping and landing into a random unknown location into the Everfree forest where it's flesh and brain would be consumed by the wild life. She then looked back at Scootaloo who smiled the moment her favorite pub was mentioned.

Ah could go for some mead about now, Apple Bloom announced.

Dark Ale for me! Scootaloo added, throwing her hooves up in excitement.

Hot cider... Pints upon pints of it... Sweetie Belle nearly salivated as she projected her thoughts.

The Wargs Of Everfree: Epilogue

The trio returned to their hidden dwelling that was once their club house where they had spent their youth, now an elaborate compound that Apple Bloom had been adding to over the years as her constructive talents bloomed and flourished. An outside training ground, an indoor hotspring of which it's waters were eternally heated by the magic never- dying fire of a legendary dragon they had slain on a previous adventure, and a library complete with a meditation pool and a study for Sweetie Belle were all included in their abode.

Scootaloo dumped her gear off in Apple Bloom's armory so that she could repair and sharpen them later. Apple Bloom took a quick bath to wash the grime and gore from her coat and mane, and Sweetie Belle wasted no time adding her findings to her Bestiary: a large brown book that was bound in the leather Apple Bloom had carved from the back of a werebear she had slain. It glowed with magical enchantments that Sweetie Belle cast on it so it's pages would never run out, so the book would forever suit her needs, followed by the generation of monster hunters that would eventually take their place, and so on, and so on. The ever-cold and black blood of a mist-witch inked her quill to make the scripts eternal and unfading as she marked the pages with her beautifully elaborate writing.

The trio set off to the Wild Wyvern of which they were constant patrons. The tavern keep made his usual joke to them about how they three alone were putting his kids through college. The friendly and familiar bar tender set three tankards on the bar in front of them before they even had the chance to order: A pint of mead, a pint of dark ale, and a pint of heated cider.

The three drank their fill as they relaxed and listened to the bards play their loots and sing of ancient wars and epic romances. Scootaloo shared a quick joke with Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle about how the bards would surely have a song to sing if they had seen the kind battle they had just fought.

They emptied many tankards that night before stumbling and singing all the way back to their home for a much needed rest, for the next morning they would be back on the hunt. They did not yet know the next beast that would fall before them and they didn't care. For now, they would rest.