This is a tale of life, love, morality, and friendship.
Come little Children....
A tale of fascism, racism, communism, and betrayal.
I’ll take thee away
A tale of survival and Rebellion.
Into a Land of Enchantment...
And most important of all, a tale of family.
Long, long ago, in the magical land of Equestria, Princess Celestia created the ponies, who lived in her sunlight, and slept under the light of Luna`s moon. At first, the earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns had no defence from the creatures of the night, and many were lost in the dark forests. But after one fateful night, the vanishings and attacks from the monsters ceased. Very few ponies knew what happened that night, and what stopped the monsters from simply gobbling up every pony in sight.
On that fateful night, Luna created a race of wolves.
Luna happened to be feeling very lonely that night, feeling jealous that the ponies rejoiced and celebrated her sister and the sunlight, but seemed to give no praise to Luna, or the moonlight she cast, lighting up the night. So, in secret she created the wolves using the power of the stars themselves, along with a lock of her own mane. Modeling them after the timber wolves, she spent half of that night creating them, making sure they could be told apart. At first it was fur colour, ranging from a dark brown, to a raven- themed black, to stark white. All with sharp teeth and claws, four powerful legs, and other traits of a dog. As instructed by Luna herself, the quickly became the guardians of the night, guiding ponies back to their homes, instructing them through the shadows, silently and viscously taking on any monster that dared attack. Despite the wolves living in peace with the ponies, Celestia still scolded her sister, and warned her ponies to be wary of the wolves, and to try and stay away from them.
And that was the status quo, so to say. The ponies had their society and traditions, and the wolves had their own. Instead of cutie marks, at a certain age, the young wolves are tested to become one of four things. The pups would become warriors, those who protected the ponies and fought the monsters of the night, Gatherers, tasked with hunting down food or game and bring it back to their villages deep in the forests, and finally the healers and shamans, mostly taken by the wolves that showed magical ability. There were either trained to heal the wounds, or use the herbs to try to tell the future, and tell where the animals would be moving to each season. And so life went on for the wolves, sticking to the shadows, hunting and gathering, and generally enjoying life and worshipping Luna.
But then Nightmare Moon rose. And the Wolven Rebellion Rose with Her
But that tale will be for another time. This story is focused on a particular wolf, living in Stable 200, in the Far north of the equestrian wasteland. His life is about to change, and he will have to navigate...
The Long Winter.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
My life, no matter how long it has been, or will be, has sucked. Break something? Get a stern talking to from the Overmare. Same goes for being suspected of breaking something, not doing your assigned job for the day, or hell, even just looking at a pony the wrong way. But I’m getting off topic, my name is Shadow, an my sister, my grandmother and I live in Stable 200, protected from the radioactive snow and megaspell-ravaged that was once Equestria, with about 150 ponies, including the Overmare, and about 50 other wolves, all apparently part of my “pack”. Quite frankly, I think my grandfather is the only wolf left alive who knows the ways of our ancestors, which involves picking one profession for the rest of my life. That might have been all fine and dandy in the past, but we’re in a stable, there’s nothing to hunt, or to predict. In this Stable, you just whatever job is assigned to you, and you get fed, thought jobs change daily in order to keep everyone trained to maintain this place. I awoke to the sound of a hoof rapping at my door and instantly stood, shook my head a couple times, most of my body, covered in black fur save for my paws, which were white, following suit. It was probably my turn for patrol, which was mind numbing. I checked the clock, (it was half past eleven an “night”, which meant dimmed lights) and then looked over at the much smaller wolf sleeping on the bed above me. The wolf happened to be my little sister, Star. She’s been blind since she was born, and has pure white fur, which contrasts any in my family. Good, still asleep. The banging came again, this time with gunfire sounding down the hall.
I froze momentarily, then grabbed my sword.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Pardon me taking away from the story, but I’m gonna tell you about my sword, because it is one of my prized possessions. The handle of this blade has been worn down by teeth over the past couple years, making familiar grooves so I can handle it better. And yes, I have to use my mouth to wield my blade, but that’s how it’s always been for wolves. This long thick, blade is a stark white, easy to find and bite down on any time, and is made from the ores of a failed mine. It’s a fairly light blade, but nigh unbreakable, even bulletproof. Though that was found out through a security pony on a triple shift, but that’s another story. Now then, back to gunfire.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
With sword in mouth, I poked the head out of the door to my room, to see a dead pony lying on the ground. I never personally knew this stallion, but it seemed he had just been jarred from sleep as well. A burst of gunfire screamed down the half and I ducked back into my room, shutting and locking it behind me. Silently praising Luna for locks and I looked around the room for anything else I could use to distract the gunpony with....or at least, I assumed it was a gunpony. Dresser drawers...bowling ball....little sister.....wait, LITTLE SISTER?! “Brother....what’s happening?” She spoke in her naturally soft voice, although it showed signs of sleepiness, along with her pure white eyes.. I nuzzled her snout, then gently pushed her toward the open closet. “I don’t really know....but I’m going to check it out. I need to hide in here, okay?” I replied, speaking in a low voice. She opened her mouth to protest, but closed and nuzzled into a corner of the small closet with a whimper that nearly broke my heart. I quickly shook it off and grabbed her blanket off her bunk and covered her in it, leaving the closet open a crack. I then opened my dresser drawer and got out one of the only things I’ve ever worn. It’s a thin, light brown harness that fits around my upper chest and back, and acts and a sheath for my sword. I managed to slip into fairly quickly as the gunfire kept sounding, accompanied with faint screams from ponies faraway. I simply ignored them and grabbed the bowling ball with my teeth. I slipped the door open a crack and, ignoring the dead pony, tossed that sucker as hard as I could, while getting a good look at the pony floating an assault rifle down the hall. It bounced along the far wall, hitting the floor a few meters later and hitting the pony in the front hooves. I instantly praised Luna once more, as it dumbfounded the pony long enough for me to move out of my room , turning my head up and to the right to grab the hilt of my blade and draw it, managing to slice his, (or at least I think it was a he) neck, causing him to fall to the floor, choking on his own blood. I then moved down the hall silently, towards the sounds of gunfire
What I found minutes later actually made me feel fear. On one side of the main atrium were the ponies, and wolves of my stable hiding behind any cover they could get, and failing. And on the other side was the largest and weirdest grouping of earth ponies, pegasi, and griffins (some with miniguns) I have ever seen...and they were kicking ass. The unicorns and those with Pipbucks were managing to get lucky shots in using S.A.T.S. I swore quite loudly, as mine was getting repaired, and all I had was a blade. I was jarred from my thoughts as an apple rolled up to me. But it was a pretty odd apple, as it was silver, and seemed to be beeping. The breath was suddenly taken out of my lungs as somepony tackled me and rolled the two of us down the hall. The apple then exploded, causing rubble to fall down and block the hall away. I looked up at my saviour, and realized it was my grandmother, Ahiga*. Same black fur with white paws, same dark blue eyes and same snarl as any mother where her pups were put in danger. “Shadow....where is your sister?” She asked in a surprisingly calm voice as she got off of me, a slight limp showing the signs of her age. “Hiding” I replied simply as I got up, looking at my shoulder to check that my blade was still there...and thankfully, it was. “Good. Now then, go down to engineering and get your Pipbuck. Then visit armoury and get yourself any gun that’s left. We can hold them in the atrium, but we need every gun we can get at the moment” I nodded and started down the hall, but almost instantly turn back around, my mouth opening to ask something, but she interrupted me. “Don’t fret my Ahote*, I will check on your sister. Now go!” She practically scolded me as I closed my mouth and ran down the hall and past my room, my grandmother following behind, and I lost her as she went into my room.
I shrugged it off and found the nearest stairwell and went down three flights of stairs, the gunfire growing more and more silent. And lo and behold, my Pipbuck was sitting on the first desk, with extra padding on the strap to stop chafing. I grabbed it in my mouth, then put it on, the strap automatically wrapping itself around the ankle of my front foreleg. The communicator instantly kicked in, filled with the sounds of screaming, and someone barking orders. On my way back up the stairs I heard my grandmother address me. “Shadow, I need you to come to kitchen. We have a problem.” Problem? I’d taken all of five minutes to go down and get my Pipbuck, and suddenly there was a problem in the kitchens? I sighed, thankful that the armoury was a floor below the kitchen and climbed five sets of stairs until I reached the armoury floor. I nearly walked right into a fence topped with bayonets as I opened the door. Thankfully the wolf behind the fence, who I knew little besides his name, which was Sirius, was happy to let me through into the armoury. Most of the guns had been raided, leaving behind a pump action shotgun that was bent like an L, a few bows and arrow, and finally and a couple pistols in decent condition. I chose the semi- automatic over the revolver, as it had more ammo, and I nearly lost an eye due to the kick of the revolver. In that time Sirius had managed to grab a pair of saddlebags modified for wolves, and helped fill it with ammo. We both said nothing the whole time, only nodding at one another in thanks before I set out once more up one floor to the massive floor that was the kitchens. I found my grandmother, bleeding from a wound on her side, leaning against a rather large oven. She turned to face me with the same warm smile she had given me during my sword training with my grandfather. “Good. You’re ready” She spoke casually ,and despite the wound, managed to push the oven aside, revealing a large door with the number 200 on it.....or it had been on it. It was blasted apart, and there were signs ponies had been through. “Shadow....within the few minutes of you leaving your room and my return...somepony kidnapped your sister.” The words hit me like a ton of bricks, and I felt all the blood drain from my face. I didn’t even have time to think before my grandmother slapped me with a bread roll, and I shook my head a couple times. “....Why her.....I need to go after them grandmother. Since Mom and Dad died, she’s the closest to me” I spoke slowly, taking a few steps toward the outside, a burst of cold air running through my fur. I shivered, and froze as I heard hoofsteps. “Go now. Find your sister. Return her to us my Ahote. And if you can, go to Stalliongrad, find your grandfather. ” The oven began moving back over the hole, and the last I saw of my grandmother was her turning toward the door, as if preparing to scold the ponies for the mess they would make in her kitchen. Then I realized something
I was outside
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
For those of you wondering,
Ahiga is Navajo for “he fights”
Ahote is a Hope name for “restless one”
So.....what do you think of the first chapter?
This was a bastard to write, so I better get a little love for this.
