New Friends and Old Enemies

They circled closer, their hot breath blowing across the back of my neck. I was trying to see if there was any way out of the mess I had landed in, but there was no apparent mean of escape. I got to my hooves, still very wobbly because of the age I was, and stood my ground against the circling creatures. I bared my teeth in the fiercest look I could muster and growled lowly in my throat. Luckily, I could make these noises with no problem because they didn't even need my vocal chords to be matured. Speaking would come later. My growling had caused the group circling me to back off slightly, but they were still there watching me cautiously.

I realized now that these creatures were wolves, and not the timber kind. They were flesh and blood wolves, and they were out hunting for food. And I was food to them most likely. I kept baring my teeth at them as I slowly made my way forward, shakily putting one hoof after the other. A wolf that seemed older than the rest slowly made its way towards me, but I felt as if it had no intention of harming me. I stopped growling and bearing my teeth, but I was still as tense as a young foal who can't even walk correctly can be.

It stood before me and sniffed the air. Its hackles raised as it let out a loud howl that the other wolves responded to. I flinched and tried to back away, but the fur of my neck was caught by one of the wolves that were circling me and I was carried at a fast rate from the clearing. I learned why we had made such a hasty retreat from the clearing; even the wolves were being hunted. As we raced through the forest, I could make out the cracking of twigs behind us and I could make out the glowing green eyes of timber wolves. We heard a yelp from behind, and I caught a glimpse of one of the pack being taken down by two timber wolves. The rest of the timber wolves converged on that one and began to eat.

We escaped, but it was at the cost of one of their family members. I was carried back to their den, a cave in the hills somewhere in the Everfree. The rest of the pack consisted of three females, all which were attending to eight young, and two older wolves that could barely move. I was put down next to one of the nursing females and was nudged closer to her. I got the feeling that they had adopted me into their pack, and they were telling me to feed. I was hungry, so I took them up on their offer. I pushed my way into the mass of pups and began to suckle on one of the teats that was unoccupied. The warm milk tasted good, and I drank my fill of it before I backed away from the mother wolf.

The group that had retrieved me was sitting on the far side of the cave next to the entrance. I unsteadily made my way towards them, and what I heard surprised me. They were speaking in hushed tones, and looking over at one of the older wolves in the corner I got close enough to hear them properly before they noticed me. The older wolf came over to me and picked me up. It set me down next to the wolf the others were talking about.

"Young one, you should stay here and let Moon-Moon watch over you. A member of the pack sacrificed her life so that you could live. I hope that you will not disappoint us or let her sacrifice be in vain." He walked off back to where the others were sitting. I liked how he spoke to me, he talked to me as if he knew I was able to understand exactly what he was saying, which I was. One of the other wolves from the group went over to a pile of dead animals and brought each female an animal. They fed and rested, which was what they needed to do to remain healthy and strong for their pups, and for me.

The next few years passed in a blur, me quickly progressing from drinking milk to eating animals. At first, my body rejected any sort of meat, but as time went on it grew used to meat. At first I could only eat cooked meat, but by the fifth moon I could eat it raw. My teeth had become like that of an omnivore, canines that were sharp enough to shred through flesh along with molars to grind food in the back. I was able to save food for the pack by eating plants, but they tasted horrible compared to the juicy meat of a fresh rabbit.

My first hunting trip with the pack ended up as a disaster. By that time, my body had grown sleek and powerful, with rippling muscles under a shiny coat of black fur. It must have been the protein from the animals that I had been eating that gave me stronger muscles. I had wrestled with Sharpclaw to see if I was able to join them on the hunt. It had been the quickest match witnessed in the den; I beat him in less than ten seconds.

But onto the hunt. When I was stalking a rabbit, its ears had twitched and it turned around. As soon as it spotted my mane and tail, it bolted like there was no tomorrow. I gave chase to it, but all the bushes and thorns it went through did well to slow me down, and it jumped down into its den before I could sink my teeth into its haunch. I couldn't fit my hoof into the den because my hoof was too big and inflexible. If I was a wolf, that rabbit would have been mine. I met back up with the rest of the group, all of whom had gotten at least one kill. They seemed disappointed that I hadn't gotten a single catch, what with me having beaten one of the best hunters in the pack.

My image was soon restored. One night later, a timber wolf sauntered up to our den. I had been placed outside on guard duty, when I heard it shuffle in the darkness. I turned around and saw it approach the den even further. None of my den mates would know what hit them because they were all asleep. I made my way up the incline to get an advantage against the timber wolf. I pounced down on it from above and had a brief scuffle with it. I reached in with my muzzle and ripped out the glowing vines in its chest that acted as its heart.

The others, having heard what was going on outside, came to see what had happened. They saw me standing in the pile of bark that was once a fierce timber wolf. They came up to me and congratulated me on my kill. They had a smart idea to help me when they saw me standing in that pile. They had to cut off my tail, but they said I would be able to keep my mane. I still asked them to give me a little cut because it was becoming unruly. They fashioned me armor from the bark of the defeated timber wolf. It completely covered my mane and I was still able to see clearly out of the holes in the helmet. The reason why they had to cut my tail off is because it wouldn't have fit in the armor correctly.

The next hunting trip couldn't have gone any better. I had found a rock that was tough enough to grind my hooves down into claw shapes, giving me another way to capture prey. The armor I had fit tightly and did not make any sounds as I moved through the grass and bushes. In fact, it made any sound I made seem muffled to anything around me. I had caught eight pieces of prey before the pack leader gave the signal to return to the den. I walked in carrying all of by kills on straps tied to my armor. I had gotten the most kills out of the entire hunting party. The first piece was given directly to the mother that had nursed me when I was younger and the rest went into the hunt pile.

The following hunting trips were even more prosperous for me. I quickly became the hunt leader, and protector of the den. As the years went on, more and more timber wolves found our den. The armor I had let me fool them into thinking I was one of them just long enough for me to take them out without any of my den mates suffering any injuries. The wolves kept on getting bigger, which was exactly what I needed because I was getting bigger as well. Each time a wolf was defeated, its bark would be added to my armor.

When I had reached the age of fifteen years, I gained my name in the pack. Midnight Spectrum. When I went into battle, it seemed as if the night itself had sent a barrage of colors to attack the packs enemy. There was much rejoicing that night, and the entire pack celebrated my new name. We sat in the middle of the den and conversed with each other. When it was midnight, they finally began the real part of the pack ritual. I took off my helmet and kneeled before the pack leader, but I was till larger than him by a staggering amount. In the years that had passed, I had grown to be a stallion that was larger than even Big Mac.

"In the name of Luna and our ancestors, will you, Midnight Spectrum, swear to protect your den mates and forever hold the name of the pack in highest regards?"

"I will." I spoke in a completely dead set tone. This was no joking matter for the pack.

"Then, we formerly welcome you into the pack. You may even be the leader one day, but do not count on it being any time soon." He gave me a wink and gave a howl to the moon. The others joined in as I put my helmet back on. I howled to the moon as well, reveling in being a full member of the pack.

When the ceremony was over, the others began their own ritual of sorts. They sat around me, eating the prey they had just taken from the hunt pile. They were laughing and telling stories. I piped up, "So you guys are the only ones left of your kind right?" They quieted down, and the elder came over to me and placed his paw on my head.

"Yes, we are the last of our kind. The timber wolves have hunted us down to extinction, and we are the only survivors of their attacks. Soon we will die off because we cannot repopulate just by ourselves. That is why we adopted you, so you can carry on the legacy and become the Leader."

"But what about…" I trailed off, because I knew he was speaking the truth. Even our entire pack was sure to die off at some point, even if it wasn't directly caused by the timber wolves. I quietly went over to the hunt pile and ate my fill. Then I went over to a corner of the den and went to sleep. I didn't have night duty because of the fact that I had just truly become a member of the pack and it was like I had a holiday.

It turns out that I really should have been on duty that night. As I slept, Sharpclaw, the one posted in my place, had come under attack by a large mass of timber wolves. I carried on sleeping, oblivious to the battle going on. The timber wolves made their way into the den and began to slaughter any of the wolves that were in there, which was the entire pack because nobody had been sent out to collect food alone that night.

As the sunlight made its way into the cave entrance, I opened my eyes slightly. What I saw was horrible. There were chunks of uneaten wolves strewn about the cave. It seemed as if the timber wolves had eaten their fill, but they still killed every last wolf that was alive. I had probably been spared because it seemed as if I wasn't there or because I looked like one of them. The leader was the only one left alive, but he had been gravely injured.

I ran over to him after I had gotten up. He had gotten a chunk of his side ripped out and it was bleeding profusely. I tried to do my best to patch him up, but it was to no avail. He slipped out of consciousness, and his last words will stay with me the rest of my mortal life.

"It seems that you became the leader much sooner than any of us expected. But, you are the leader of your one wolf pack." He laughed, coughed up some blood, and went limp. The light went from his eyes and left dull orbs sitting in the sockets.

I cried. I howled at the sun, at the moon, at anything that would hear my cry. I was alone. I had lost all of those that had taken care of me in my fifteen years of living on this planet, all to some wolves made out of wood that knew not what feelings were. They only strove to eat and hunt, not to love and be caring. They didn't even mourn over the loss of their comrades. It was at that moment that I knew what I had to do. I had to move on and be the leader of my pack. My one wolf pack.

I took a few days to properly bury my pack. I gathered up what was left of them on top of a pile of bark from the timber wolves I defeated and did not add to my armor. I set the pile on fire and moved a rock in front of the cave entrance. I spent a few more days carving words into the rock I placed in front of their grave.

"Here lie the ones who saved me, who gave me food, shelter, and warmth. They were killed by beasts that deserve not to exist. But, there is only one left who remembers them. I shall carry on in their memory, and tell of their kindness and compassion." As I finished the carving, I bit the soft flesh of my hoof and left a mark next to the words I had carved. It looked like a half hoof and half paw mark, and I walked away. This was when I gained my cutie mark, but I didn't realize this until later. It was a moon that had a rainbow ring around it, and on the surface was a single paw mark that was the color of the rainbow.

I went on the next few days wandering aimlessly through the forest, eating only when absolutely necessary and drinking whenever I came upon a river or pond. I destroyed any timber wolves that got into my sense range. Living with the wolves had given me new skills, which I used continuously on my journey to nowhere. On the fourth day, I ran into something I didn't plan on running into.

I had been bathing myself in a river that came from the mountains, its cold waters waking me up completely and giving me shivers. I had taken off my armor to bathe, but I heard a rustle in the bushes off to my left. I leaped out of the water, shook myself off, and put on my armor in less than ten seconds. I jumped into a nearby bush and waited for the unknown creature to present itself. Finally, it emerged from the bushes.

It was a Pegasus mare that was butter colored. She has long white hair that flowed down her back and almost touched the ground. She went over to the river and drank from it. It looked like she was the only pony around, because no other ponies joined her. She drank her fill and got a pitcher from one of her saddle bags and filled it with the river water. She walked back in the direction she had come from and I left the cover of the bushes I had been hiding in.

It gave me joy to see that ponies were still here on this planet, and that they were sentient beings that used what they had used when I had last been here. For some reason, the pony that I had just seen looked really familiar. I put it off and jumped over to the other side of the river and followed the scent trail the pony had left behind. I moved silently through the bushes as I followed her, making sure that I didn't alert her to my presence. I didn't want her to bolt because I wanted to know where she had come from.

I heard a scream from up ahead and I burst through any bushes or vines that were in my way. I ran into a clearing where the mare was surrounded by a pack of timber wolves. She saw me and screamed again, which caused the timber wolves to growl angrily and close even further on her. I jumped on the one closest to me and ripped out the heart. The other wolves, sensing the fall of their comrade, turned around and saw me standing a pile of bark. The snarled at me and leapt at me all at once. I slipped out from under their attack, which caused them all to hit each other and shatter.

They weren't out yet though. The broken pieces formed together to make a massive timber wolf. This had only happened one other time to me, and that was when I didn't bother to rip out their hearts when I defeated them. I came out from the fight with large portions of fur missing, which had grown back by now, and large bruises all over my body. I knew exactly how to fight these ones since I had learned of their weak spots from the last fight.

I jumped onto its back and began to tear apart the bark that covered its heart. It shook me off and tried to snap at me, but I leapt out of its reach before it could get its jaws around me. The bark that was torn off was completely apart of the wolf, and it had to take some bark from its sides and chest to cover up the hole I had made. These wolves could use other parts of their body to regenerate their wounds, but they couldn't use any of the wood that was torn off of them to heal. This meant that I could slowly weaken it by slowly tearing it apart.

My main goal was to keep its attention off of the mare, which was paralyzed with fear. I leapt on its back again and began to tear it apart. I got even more torn off this time before I was shaken off. I landed somewhat awkwardly and almost injured myself. I only had to do the same thing two more times before its chest was exposed, and I would be able to rip out its heart. It didn't even know what I was trying to do, it just kept trying to attack me. I did the same routine twice more, and forced it to open its chest area. I leapt at it and tore apart the cage that protected its heart. I grabbed it in my jaw and ripped it out.

I fell to the ground and was showered with debris, getting more injuries from the debris then I had received from the fight. I was hit over the head with a large chunk of wood that made me black out. The last thing I saw was the mare standing over me and trying to see if I was alright. I blacked out knowing she was safe.

When I came to, I was sleeping on a comfortable couch and covered in a yellow blanket. I looked around and winced when I felt some of my smaller wounds open up. Luckily, all of my wounds were covered in gauze so no blood seeped onto the couch. I was in a small room of a building that seemed really natural. There were small holes in the walls and there were rods sticking out of the walls that I guess were bird perches. This place looked really familiar, but I still couldn't place my hoof on where I was. I heard a quiet gasp from the doorway behind me and I turned around and saw that the mare I had saved was standing there in front of a whole group of small animals.

I totally realized who this mare reminded me of right then. She looked like Fluttershy, but she was younger and different colors. I was obviously in the cottage just outside of Ponyville. I got up quickly, but I wobbled dizzily and fell back down on the couch. The mare rushed over to my side and chided me for getting up so quickly, I still had to recover from my injuries. Apparently she had put my armor back on me after she had bandaged me up, luckily. I would feel as if I had lost a part of myself if I lost my armor.

"You should know better than to move after having received all those injuries. You still have to take the time to heal up." She got a sponge and dipped it in a bucket of water she had carried with her. She leaned around the armor and bits of gauze, cleaning up any blood that had seeped out.

"How long have I been out?" I asked as I looked around more, making sure that I didn't open any wounds.

"You've been out for a few hours. I have never seen anypony else with this natural ability to heal. Your wounds started to close even before I had gotten you here to patch you up. If you keep up this rate of healing, you should be fine by the end of the day." She put away the sponge and bucket in a nearby closet. The animals still seemed uncomfortable around me, but they still had moved into the room where I was. I guess being a predator, I seemed like I would attack them at any second.

"So who do I owe my life to? I would like to at least know your name."

She stuttered and hid behind her mane. "I… I'm Sun Burst."

I sighed and leaned back into the pillows. "Well that seems like a great cheery name. It even fits your colors."

She looked surprised. "You heard what I said? Usually, everypony has to keep asking me the same question before they hear what I say." She looked over to me from where she was sitting. "So, who should I thank for saving my life?"

I fidgeted around so that I was facing her while I was on my side so that I was more comfortable while talking to her. "My name is Midnight Spectrum."

She leaned her head to one side. "Can I ask you a question?"

"That was a question, but sure, shoot."

She walked up to me. "Are you a guard? I've never seen anypony fight like that before."

I shook my head. "No, I am not a guard. All my moves I created by myself, or I learned from my family."

"Are you from the Apple family then? You seem to be even larger than Big Mac used to be before he broke his back and had to start using that walker to get around."

"No, I am not from the Apple family either. I got this large from my unusual diet that I adopted from a young age." I realized that I covered up the entirety of the couch and the blanket didn't cover my entire form. "I have lived my entire life in the Everfree forest with my pack."

She looked at me as if I had something crazy. "Did you say pack? As in, pack of timber wolves?"

"No, meant pack of real wolves. They brought me in when I was just a foal, not even a year old."

"But that's impossible. Dusty told me that they went extinct over forty years ago."

"Well, now they truly are extinct. The pack that brought me in was killed by a pack of timber wolves about two weeks ago. I'm the only one left because the timber wolves spared me. I made a grave, burned them, and have been wandering the Everfree for four days. That's when I saw you, and since you and I are the same species I thought that I would follow you. Who is this Dusty pony by the way, is he some sort of information broker?"

It took her a few minutes to realize exactly what I had said, and then she began to cry. She sobbed hysterically. "I… I didn't know. I'm so sorry!" She wrapped me in a really tight hug, cutting of my airflow. I had to tap her a few times to tell her to stop hugging me so tightly. "I'm sorry; it's just that you lost all of your family in one day and that must have been really hard on you."

"It was and it still is, but I have to move on with my life. Besides, you didn't answer my question. Who is Dusty?"

"Oh, Dusty is the librarian of Ponyville. She is the grandchild of the princess Twilight Sparkle. Twilight stopped living here when her duties came to be too much of a problem if she lived here, but Dusty chose to stay here and run the library." She got up and went over to the kitchen. "Since it seems that you are completely capable of feeding yourself now, I'll make you something to eat. What would you like?"

I was about to ask for a nice juicy rabbit, but then I remembered that ponies didn't eat meat like I did. "I'll have a fruit salad please." I would have to tell her sooner or later that I also ate meat. It would probably be hard to be friends with her when she knew, but I wouldn't be able to keep it a secret for that long.

"Ok, one fruit salad coming right up" She went into the kitchen and started to rummage around for the ingredients. The animals slowly inched their way towards me. I sat still as I could so that I didn't scare them. But as soon as a rabbit got right up next to me, it smelled the blood of my last meal on my fur. It skittered off into one of the holes in the wall, and the rest of the critters followed its example. I 'tched' and then Sun walked into the room carrying a bowl in her mouth.

She set it down on the small table in between us, and sat down in the chair across from me. "I'm surprised that you knew what a fruit salad was. Did you have any while you stayed with the wolves?" She watched me as I picked at the fruit, and shrank back behind her hair again. "Oh… did I ask you something I shouldn't have. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. And no, I didn't have any fruit salads when I was living with the wolves because there aren't many edible fruits in the Everfree around where I lived. They simply talked about how much I would have probably liked them over what we normally ate." I ate the rest of the salad. There was an awkward silence that hung in the air.

"Um, if I may ask, what did you normally eat?" She looked at me expectantly, probably hoping that I wouldn't say ponies or small animals.

"Are you sure you really want to know. You probably will really hate me if you do." She just nodded and I sighed. "Well as you know, I don't eat ponies." She breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing that. "But take a look at my teeth." I bared my teeth so that she could get a good look at them. "My canines are sharp, but I also have molars in the back of my mouth for vegetables and fruit. My usual diet is…"

She leaned in closer to hear what I was saying, because I had gotten more and more quiet as I went on.

"…rabbits and other small animals." I whispered, waiting for her to cry out in fear or to scream at the top of her lungs. When that didn't happen, I looked up and was face to face with her. She looked slightly taken aback by what I had said, but she didn't seem overly scared. "Are you not going to run away or scream, telling your friends that you met a monster pony today or something? Then when they come with torches and pitchforks, you show them exactly where I go to?"

She looked aghast at the idea. "No, of course I wouldn't do that. Of course, living with wolves for your entire life would alter your diet. I even take care of some animals that need to eat meat to stay healthy. I can say that it isn't pleasant, but it's what they need so I get it for them. If you stick around, I can get you some meat, just stay her for a moment." She got up from her seat and went into the kitchen again.

I was shocked that she was so calm about this. If I was a pony that took care of animals of any size, especially the smaller ones, I would have been freaked out about what had just been said. But Sun Burst had just taken this information in stride and had offered to get me some meat. I sat there with a blank look on my face, wondering how much had changed in the world I had apparently once known. She came back out carrying a large bird on a plate.

"This is the most I can give you, because I have to save the rest for Bearsty. She gets really angry when she doesn't have enough food."

I looked at the bird on the plate, and sized it up to the meals I had been used to eating. This one bird could have counted for about three meals. I decided to give it a taste to see if I would like it. It was amazing; the meat seemed to tear apart with the smallest flick of my tongue. "This is amazing! I forgot how great cooked meat could be, especially if it is seasoned correctly." I polished off the plate in a short amount of time, leaving only the bones. I licked the plate clean and let out a small belch. "Oops, 'scuse me."

She giggled and picked up the plate. "Well, since you're the first one that is actually able to tell me of what the dish was like, I'm glad that it was to your liking. Do you normally eat in small portions or large portions?"

"I normally eat my fill, but that is relatively small to what some of the others would eat. I also only hunt in moderation, as I was taught. Any other way of hunting is irresponsible and can lead to irreversible changes, at least in the short run." I grimaced, remembering what the leader had told me. "That was what happened with the timber wolves, if you didn't know. They simply hunted the wolves for the challenge rather for sustenance. They also hunted without any care for how many they wiped out. But enough of my sad tales, would it be possible for me to meet your friends, they seem like interesting ponies."

"Of course you can meet them! This is wonderful, I'm pretty sure that Dusty would love to meet you. As soon as you've healed up I'll bring them over. And by the rate you're healing, that will be tomorrow. Seriously, you have a ridiculously fast rate of healing. You must have some sort of magic in you that lets you do that. But you'll have to lose the armor before you meet them."

"I am not getting rid of this armor. It is a part of me now, as it has been the first day I got it. I only take it off when I wash myself. I would rather be set on fire than part with it." I said this dead set on what I was saying, making sure that she knew that there was no way of convincing me to get rid of it.

"Oh, if that is the way you feel I won't make you get rid of it. Can I at least see what you look like without it? I will tell my friends that you aren't a timber wolf before I bring them to meet you." She pouted, giving me the puppy dog eyes.

"Fine, I will at least show you what I look like." I took off everything but my helmet and the tail piece. I had to hide my mane and what remained of my tail that I had recently cut again. It grew really quickly, so much that it would be able to reach full length in just a few days when I didn't cut it. "How did you even bandage me up with my armor on? It looks like you would have had to take it off to do the job properly." My question was answered when the gauze fell off of my body. It was just being held there with my armor.

"The way I did it was that I just shoved the bandages and stuff under the cracks in your armor. It looked like pressure would have been applied by the armor if I just left the gauze under it, and I was right. Wow, you have such a lovely dark coat. What do you do to keep it so smooth and shiny? And how did you get to be so big?"

"I'm guessing that it had to do with my diet and the exercise I went through every day. The only problem with my fur is that sometimes it gets really oily and sweat makes dirt stick to it easily. Why did you ask if I was a guard? Do you know any personally?"

"Of course I do. My father, Steel Wing, is the commander of the Pegasus Royal Guard. I made friends with some of the recruits from the squadrons, and I speak with them periodically. Your coat reminds me of something, I just can't place my hoof on it." She was slowly circling me, looking at me carefully to remember what I looked like.

"Are you almost done, this is making me feel uncomfortable." And it was awkward for me, I was standing there fidgeting. I never really liked being the center of attention. I usually let other people take the spotlight while I did things in the shadows.

"Almost done, just a bit longer." Her eyes finally settled on my cutie mark and she moved closer to me. She put her hoof on it and cried a single tear. We simply stood there in silence for the next few minutes, not moving. The small animal that had hidden came out to comfort Sun. The animals didn't seem uncomfortable around me anymore once they knew more about me.

After the minutes had passed, Sun wished me good night and I wished her the same. I sat down on the couch as I put my armor back on, quietly looking around the cottage. If what I had heard from Sun Burst was true, I was in a time of about sixty to seventy years after the time I had been here last. The cottage hadn't changed all that much in the time that had gone by. Hopefully Ponyville wouldn't have changed that much either. I closed my eyes and went to sleep, falling into a black void that represented my feelings. I saw a small light that was growing in the darkness, and I knew that I would find a way to show true happiness again. I would make new friends and move on with my life, maybe even settle down with a nice mare and have some foals and fillies.

I didn't see at that moment that there were some more dark spots within that light. More hardships would fall upon me, some that would leave me broken, needing to be fixed with a loving hoof.