My Little Pony: The Silvermane

The Crusader's clubhouse was silence for once, the three fillies and their dragon friend, Spike, were sat around the small table in the middle of the room, each looking up at Paul as he paced back and forth, stroking his chin as he seemed to be in deep thought.

"Um... You gonna start or...?" Spike began, tilting his head as he glanced at the man, but stopped when Paul suddenly stopped and spun on his heels to face the table.

"The tale of the White Death, after being passed down in my family for generations, is the tale of a beast so terrifying and savage, that it took three werewolf clans, my own family included, four wizards and a group of trained hunters just to slow it down enough to lock it away..." He ran his gaze over the four other occupants of the room slowly, his face serious, "Are you all sure you wanna hear this? Because honestly, I feel like just having a nap and-"

He was met with a loud, and slightly irritated shout of 'Yes!' from the three ponies and the dragon. Paul sighed and ran a hand down his face as he sat down, legs crossed, at the table with them.

"Fine... Don't blame me if you have nightmares later..." He turned his face away from them, "Or tell your sister's on me, Jesus, that is the last thing I need." He mumbled under his breath.

Ignoring the impatient teen's glaring at him from around the small table, Paul glanced up at the ceiling of the clubhouse and closed his eyes, "A long time ago..."

'Don't you dare make a star wars reference!' Mr Happy echoed in the back of his mind, making Paul have to rethink what he was going to say.

"A long time ago, long before I was born, the world was quite a bit darker then it is now. Beasts that humans thought were nothing but myths and legends haunted the land, killing and menacing the various isolated villages across the land... But one which caused the most trouble, the one that forced a great number of mortal enemies to band together... The White Death, nearly spelled the end for a great number of innocents..."

"Now, to begin with, no one really noticed anything out of the ordinary... Some people going missing, a few animals being slaughtered, the sort of things people of the time put down to random beasts or bandits." He sighed rubbing his eyes, trying his best to recall all of what he was told about the story when he was younger, his four younger charges each listening closely to his every word.

"That was, until a small group of hunters, humans trained and geared towards fighting beasts and monsters, arrived to investigate the incidents that had befallen this nameless village... They were four in number when they entered the forest near the village, but only one came out of those woods, and even he died a short while afterwards from his wounds. He described a beast, easily ten feet tall, covered from head to foot in pure white fur, fangs and claws sharp enough to tear a man in two... There was no doubt from that description that it was some kind of werewolf-"

"Like you, Mr Paul?" Sweetie Belle asked, raising a hand to interrupt his story, a nervous look on her face as she spoke, one which seemed shared with the others around the club house table.

"Well... We think so? It was never discovered what the beast was exactly, but it did seem like a were-beast if word of mouth was to be believed." The man answered, leaning back slightly as he thought on his next words.

"In just a few days after that event though, more hunters arrived, each equipped with weapons of silver, hoping it would be enough to bring down the creature. They were not alone though, for you see, my ancestor Martimus Silvermane, leader of our family line, had heard rumours of the White Death as well, and had moved to gain support from others like ourselves, hoping to show the humans we could be protectors and not just wild beasts."

"Awesome! So your ancestor rallied an army of guys like you and helped the humans, right?" Spike asked excitably, leaning forward on the table as he looked to Paul for an answer, the smile on his face falling though when the adult laughed heartily, covering his face with his hand to try and stifle the laughing.

"Like hell! This isn't a fairy tale or comic book Scales... Most of the clans just ignored him, some liked being feared, while many just wanted to see how things played out..." He noticed the downcast looks of the girls and Spike and sighed, "Two clans did answer the call though, the Laslo clan and the Bettelsworth clan,  two old allies of my family who joined Martimus without another word, and with that they set off to join the hunters on their assault on the beast."

Applebloom and Scootaloo both fought to fight back giggles as they heard the names, but Scootaloo did manage to ask a question, "Ok ok... So, what happened when  the two groups met? Did they like, argue or something?"

Paul frowned at the girls, knowing what had happened next, but held his tongue as he shook his head, "Arguing is putting it lightly... There were twenty hunters and thirty of my clan and our allies, it nearly turned into a fight right then and there if the wizards hadn't arrived-"

"Ok, stop... Ah can't listen to anymore of this!" Applebloom pointed a finger at Paul, a grin on her lips, "Your makin' this all up! Wizards? Ah thought you said there was no magic or such were you came from?"

He took a deep breath, Mr Happy in the back of his head telling him to be patient, that they were just kids being kids, "I said there was 'little' magic where I am from, with only a few who could use it... And four such people arrived just as a fight was set to break out, the heavily cloaked and hooded men instructing both hunter and werewolf to focus on the enemy before us, not on each other."

"So began a fight that we nearly lost... Hell, even my grandfather didn't go into too many details about how it went, but needless to say, when it was all over the hunters had died to the last man distracting the beast, while both the Laslo and Bettelsworth clan memebers who had joined my ancestor that day had been devastated along with our own..."

"Hey, but you werewolves are really tough right? Why didn't you all just heal up?" Spike asked, a skeptical look on his features as he sat with his arms folded across his chest.

"We can heal most things, but hit us with silver or devastating amounts of damage like, say... Being ripped in half or having our heads pushed down into our chest cavities and you have us as dead as anyone else..."

The three ponies and the young dragon each shuddered at the mental image he had just painted for them, not really wanting to hear any more details, they sat in silence as Paul continued.

"So, at a great cost of life, the four magic users managed to throw the beast into a strange, black rift in the air, banishing the White Death to some unknown fate."

"Wait... Why not just blow it up? What about those silver weapons you mentioned? Why didn't they use them?" Scootaloo asked, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"They did... Whatever that thing was, it was unlike anything that had been encountered before. It healed in seconds, not minutes, and silver, magic and claws did bugger all but piss it off to the point of going into a frenzy..." Paul clapped his hands together, making everyone around the table jump slightly. "Right, end of story, I have watched you guys for the day, so I am free to go right?" He asked happily, but his lips soon curled from a smile into a frown when Spike pointed to the small clock above the door in the clubhouse, which showed only an hour had passed.

"Aw come on!"

By the time Spike deemed it best to call it a day, it was coming up to five in the evening. Paul and Spike both bid the girls farewell, the cutie mark crusaders heading off together towards the main farm house while the two males set off through the trees towards the main path up towards Fluttershy's cottage.

"Paul... You didn't tell your story very well..." Spike said as the pair walked along the path, the young dragon looking up at Paul while tilting his head slightly, "You left out a lot of things and details, or at least, it sounded like it to me..."

"Listen, Spike..." He began in reply, causing Spike to glance up at him, noticing the rare use of his real name and not the nickname that he had been called before, "I only told what I could remember, and to be honest, I didn't pay much attention when I was being told the story myself. I got a good whack from a walking stick for it, but I just didn't take much stock in those sorts of stories, so, sorry..."

"Its fine, I guess... Still, you seemed a bit calmer then the other times I have seen you, did you have fun?"

"Pfft, please, Scales, I was just as bored as you probably were... But us guys have to stick together, or those girls will walk all over us." Paul grinned and glanced down at Spike, who was still watching him, the pair locking eyes, "We could hang out sometime I guess, when I am not under punishment of stoning or whatever, it will be better then hanging around with murderous animals or all alone all day..."

Spike's lips curled up into a happy smile, his eyes lighting up at the other males words, "Really? You wanna hang around with me? Just us guys?" He looked back ahead, tapping his chin, "We could read comic books... Clean the library... Ooo! We could-"

Paul frowned and shook his head, "Ok, no, we will get some snacks, maybe go fishing and I will teach you a bit about being a real man..."

'So... The exact opposite of you? Please, sure, teach the kid to fish or something, but don't fill his head with crap.' The snarky voice of Mr Happy filled Paul's head again, making him grit his teeth ever so slightly.

"Really? That sounds like fun! I will have to ask Twilight though..." Spike said as they arrived outside of Fluttershy's cottage, the lights inside shining through the windows, showing that Fluttershy was home.

"Sure, be safe on your way home..." Paul began to make his way to the door, but stopped when he heard the young drake start to walk away, "Hey... Spike..."

The purple dragon stopped and turned his head slightly to look at Paul over his shoulder, an eyebrow raised.

"Thanks... I, well, I did kinda have fun today, some of the stories you all told were even kinda... Funny?"

Spike didn't say anything, but instead just smiled softly and waved to Paul, before making his way off back into Ponyville, leaving Paul to turn and slowly open the door to the cottage, poking his head inside.

"Fluttershy? I'm back..."

Unknown to the residents of Ponyville, even as they all settled down to sleep as Luna's night blanketed the sky, something stirred within the Everfree forest... Long, black and thorny vines began to creep their way out from the boundaries of the forest, and slithered silently towards the unsuspecting town...

A short way from where the vines were beginning to grow from the forest, a rather mismatched figure stood, looking to be made of parts of a pony, goat, lion and drake, stroking his beard as a wicked smile crept across his lips, a snaggle tooth poking out from his lips as he chuckled, "Ooo what fun this little event will bring... I simply cannot wait..."

To Be Continued...