The Mare and the Wolf

Flower

The waiting room had become practically deserted after the panic caused by Winter's appearance, with the exception of a nurse sitting behind the counter, who seemed to be halfway to sleep, a pink party mare, a silent red stallion and another cyan pony, whose mouth was now getting dry from the time her jaw had been left hanging, as they listened to Pinkie's story.

"And then he left to warn Fluttershy. He should have been back now, I wonder what happened…"

Rainbow Dash snapped out of her trance with a shake of her head and a light blush appeared on her face as she recalled her first meeting with the wolf.

"Well…I might have given him a tiny push and knocked him out." She finally explained, more embarrassed now that she knew what the wolf had done for her friend.

"What? Why would you d…" Pinkie replied, an exaggerated look of shock on her face.

"H-He was running towards Fluttershy, I-I thought he was gonna kill her. I mean, he was covered in blood." The pegasus interrupted, trying to justify herself.

Having noticed the stallion's silence, both mares turned to the red earthpony. During the whole conversation, Big Mac didn't make a sound, lowering his head as the story progressed, and keeping his thoughts to himself.

It wasn't so hard for him to consider the possibility that Winter was actually a kind hearted creature. Unlike his sister, he had managed to hold back an unconditional hatred for all wolves, or so he thought.

When he saw a wolf drenched in blood running around his home town once more, the memories from that night flew back to his mind and he tried to do what he had done to the murderer two years ago.

Nopony dared to judge him, They all knew Granny Smith too well to blame him for his actions, because they knew they would have done the same, had they the necessary courage, it was now a relief to him that he had failed to repeat the act.

"Helloooo…" Pinkie called him, waving a hoof in front of his face.

"Oh, sorry." He said as he snapped back into reality. The stallion got on his hooves with a hop and started to walk towards the exit.

"Where are you going?" Rainbow Dash asked as she landed between the red pony and the doors leading outside.

"Ah'm goin' outside." He answered like it had been the most obvious question in the world, and started to circle around her, only to be stopped once more by the cyan pegasus.

"What about Applejack? Don't you ca…"

"Of course ah care 'bout her! And ah ain't leavin' her!" Big Mac answered, almost shouting, frustrated at the interrupted question "But the doctors told Pinkie she was goin' to be all right, and Applejack wasn't raised a weak pony, so she can go without her big brother for just a little while."

He circled around the mare once again, this time there was no new obstacle in front of him

"Besides, there's something ah need ta take care of." He continued, before the automatic doors closed behind him, allowing the two mares only a distorted view of the stallion through the glass.

"Now, Rainbow Dash was comin' from over there…" he murmured to himself as he started to trot towards the direction the pegasus was coming from, before crashing into him "Ah need ta have a talk with him."

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"Seriously, you're just pathetic, passing out because of a little push."

"Is it really so hard for you to leave me alone for just a few hours?" Winter replied, annoyed at yet another conversation with the voice inside his mind. The dead plains seemed to become more and more filled with grey sadness.

"What? And leave my good old buddy Winter all alone. That would be terrible!"

You seem to not understand two things, Fenrir. One, you and I aren't even close to being friends, and two, you are nothing more than an annoying parasite that can't find another host, which makes you about ten times more pathetic than me."

"Ahahahah… Oh I'm pathetic, am I? Well, better to be a parasite than a murderer. At least I didn't kill my ow…" Fenrir started to mock him, but was quickly interrupted.

"Don't even go there! You're the killer and you know it!" Winter grunted, knowing where the conversation was going.

The voice snickered, delighted of the wolf's frustration "Oh am I, now? Tell me, whose rage was it that gave me control? Admit it, if you knew how to control yourself, you'd still be living a sweet merry life with the rest of the pack."

"Sh…Shut up!" the gray wolf stammered, lowering his head, and trying to shake away the idea of the voice being right "It was your fault, you should have left when I told you so!"

"Which time? There are too many to remember." Fenrir snickered once again "I still remember when you killed your first animal, you cried like a little pup. Then again, you were a pup. Oh, the look on your face when you saw the disfigured body. It. Was. Priceless."

In a split second, the dark plains were replaced by a white and brown scenery, in the middle of the woods, the white snow on the ground was painted crimson with the blood of a small creature, which laid in pieces on it. Next to it was a small ball of gray fur. The young pup was curled up in the snow, sobbing, blood was still dripping from his snout, becoming mixed with the current of tears. The pup's eyes were in an ice blue state of shock.

"Winter!" a mature female voice called in the distance "Winter where are you?"

The pup barely lifted his ears, the trauma had him frozen in place.

From behind the trees appeared a group a four wolfs, accompanied by a pure white coated female pup. Their eyes widened in shock, no ordinary nine month old pup could have done this.

"Winter!" two of the wolves shouted, running towards their child "What happened here, son?" the father asked, worried, while he shifted his gaze from the scared pup to the ripped corpse.

The young Winter could do nothing but stammer at a tone that was inaudible even to the light gray she-wolf nuzzling the pup's face with her snout.

"Winter…" a new voice called him, this one being a soft, young voice of his snow colored friend, Winter raised his gaze to the worried eyes of a very young she-wolf. Her presence brought a smidge of comfort to his troubled soul, and he was able to raise his volume slightly.

"I-I-I didn't mean to…w-w-we were j-just playing…and t-then… then it was d-de…de…" the child could not finish and closed his eyes tight, hoping it was all just a nightmare.

He felt a soft touch around his neck, and when he opened his eyes, the young pup was being embraced in the small female's hug.

"Don't cry. It makes me sad" she said softly, as she gently stroked the back of his head.

The pup's parents quickly joined them, while the other two wolves hid the corpse beneath the snow.

"I'm sorry…"

"Why are you showing me this?" the grown Winter asked, tears were beginning to form in his eyes, but he managed to hold them back, in order to preserve his pride. Fenrir had brought back a memory he had tried hard to erase, like many others.

"To remember you of what we can accomplish together." The voice answered, as the trees dissolved back into nothing, and they returned to a hill covered in dead grass "No other pup would have been able to do that. Sure, it was just a squirrel, but even so, you killed it flawlessly. That kind of power came from your rage, from me, and you know it."

Winter turned away from the inviting voice "If what you give me is power, then I would rather be a weakling for the rest of my life!"

"Oh, don't be like th…"

"Winter! Oh Winter please wake up." A soft familiar voice interrupted Fenrir's reply.

"Fluttershy?" the wolf called back. He then felt his paw being weakly pushed from the ground. Winter raised it and stared intrigued at the sight before him, a small, yet beautiful yellow flower, it bloomed almost instantly, and a pink butterfly, appearing from nowhere, landed gently on its petals.

"What is this, this shouldn't be here!" Fenrir's voice shouted, annoyed at the plant that defied his dead plain.

"Please wake up." Fluttershy's voice pled once more, and a small light began to shine in the distance.

"Shut up, you bitch! You have n…" the voice went silent, as Winter began to wake up.