Wolfsing

Thornpaw groaned as he awoke, his head pounding and his body bruised from the fall. He struggled to his feet, and looked around, trying to figure out where he was. There were hardly any scents besides the musky dampness. There was nothing descript about his surrounding so he began walking though he limped terribly and, though he would never admit it, he was terribly afraid. He knew there must be water somewhere, but it wouldn’t matter if he starved to death in this cave. Wolves were not meant to be underground with a solid ceiling of rock over their head and no way out.

A speck of light caught his attention and he turned toward it before pursuing it eagerly though he couldn’t move very fast with his sprained leg. He was certain that it was the way out. Excitement at the thought of being free gave way to panic, however, as he saw what the light was. Entrapped in a crystal that glowed with energy, was his sister, Sparrowsun. She was suspended in the center and her eyes were closed. He couldn’t tell if she was breathing, but that didn’t matter. He was certain she couldn’t possibly alive. Still, in his panic he didn’t care whether or not that was true. He threw himself at the crystal, hoping to break it, but he merely bounced off and fell. He was in great pain, but he tried to get up again nonetheless, knowing that to give up was to accept that she was dead.

He struggled to his paws, but the one that was giving him trouble gave out and he fell again. He tried to get his breath before he tried again, but his body would not heed him. It was the first time in his young life that he was unable to act.

“I would stop if I were you,” a mocking voice said. He knew what it was. She had a strong pony accent and didn’t bother to speak in wolf if she even knew how. It didn’t matter. Both languages were capable of understanding the other though wolves were better at making their voices harder to understand when they wanted other species to not know what they were saying.

He merely growled at her, laying still.

“That’s no way to treat the one who saved you. You would have probably died by now if it wasn’t for me,” she continued.

More growling. She was the one who set the trap to begin with, he thought.

“You don’t want to leave her, do you? I can help you, but you have to help me first,” She said. No growling. She was encouraged. “I know magic, but among my own kind I lack certain abilities that would allow me to move up. There’s few you can trust with schemes such as mine, but I need a partner. Who better to overturn a monarchy than a wolf?”

“I want you to free my sister first,” he growled. “Then we talk.”

“But then you’ll have no reason to stay by my side. I heard loyalty is strong among wolves, but I can never be sure,” she said. He could hear pleasure in her voice. “You do what I want from you and I will free her. She’s not dead, just frozen. Once this is all over she’ll be just how she was before she was frozen.”

“How do I know you’re not lying?” He replied, growling loudly. “Your kind are known for it, I’ve heard.”

“You want proof?” She asked.

He started to answer, but she was already working. The crystal disappeared suddenly and he saw his sister lying there on the stone where she was previously suspended. She jolted awake suddenly, getting to her paws. She saw Thornpaw and she looked stricken, seeing him on the ground like that, and started to walk towards him. “Thornpaw, are you okay,” she asked, but at that moment she was frozen again, now in the same position she was in when she started to tentatively walk towards him.

He darted to his paws, trying not to fall again as he snarled at her. “What did you do?”

“The same thing that I did before,” she answered, smiling at him as she admired his green eyes. “She’s still fine and she’ll be fine until you finish what I asked of you. It’s only fair that you should pay back my debt for saving your life.”

His snarl didn’t lessen as he watched her with burning hatred. She was a grey unicorn with a sharp horn and dark purple eyes. She looked like a demon to him, and for a moment he wondered if he should risk being impaled to kill her rather than take her demands. Still, as he thought about his sister suspended behind him, he knew he couldn’t risk killing this pony or getting himself killed for her sake. He finally swallowed his pride and bowed his head, no longer snarling.

“Good. So you accept my proposition?” She asked him.

“You swear you’ll let my sister and I return to the forest after I do this for you? We won’t be pursued and you won’t go back on your word?” He growled.

“I can’t promise that you’ll come out unscathed, but if you do this for me I will let your sister go. If you happen to die for me I will do the same as if you completed the task,” she answered. She thought for a moment that this might be a bad thing to promise in case he decided to die to get out of his contract with her, but she pushed that away. She could tell by the way his eyes watched her that he was too proud to take the easy way out.

“What do I call you?” He growled.

“I hope you don’t expect something like Master,” she replied. “Simply call me by my name, Selena, and I shall call you by yours. If you’d like, you can call me Lady Selena, but nothing as stiff as Master or Mistress.”

“My name is Thornpaw,” he answered bitterly.

“That won’t work. I’ll give you a proper name. From now on, I will call you Solomen,” she said and added like an afterthought, “I love your green eyes.”

He snorted. “Fine.” He wouldn’t admit it to her, but he was glad to not be called Thorn ‘paw’. It was his father’s way of reminding him how much he was hated. Paw! It was the name of a pup to be shed, but he doubted, as long as he was with his father, he would ever lose it and it would be lasting now that he was an adult with that name. Now it was just gone.

“Come, Solomen,” she said, turning. He never would have turned so blatantly on a wolf he didn’t really know and he felt insulted before he realized that with her horn she could freeze him like his sister, or worse, and so she had nothing to fear from him. He paused and turned back to him as she heard his back paw scraping on the ground. “Here. This will make things go smoother.” A bit of white light appeared around his injured paw and then it was gone.

He snorted, wondering what the purpose of it was, but as he went to follow her again she realized that his paw was no longer strained. It felt as good as new, in fact. She led him down a series of tunnels again and he started to feel agitated once more. Were these tunnels ever going to end? Finally she stopped and he walked up beside her as she stood before a case.

“Look in,” she instructed. He did as he was told and struggled to comprehend what he saw. It was a horn, a long sharp horn that looked as if it was made of hard ebony.

“This is my first gift to you, Solomen.”

***

Croll scowled at the two of them. This wasn’t the first time he had caught his Wolfsing out with this strange unicorn.

“What did you say your name again?” He asked, narrowing his eyes. He looked as if he had never groomed himself in his life. His dark blue mane was tangled and sprawled low on his shoulder. Croll grew up in a time when stallions kept their manes short and neat and anypony that didn’t agree was wrong.

“Raisong,” he answered. He didn’t look Croll in the eyes, not wanting to appear disrespectful to Wolfsing’s guardian, but it only made him look like he was avoiding looking at him and this made Croll more annoyed. Wolfsing and Raisong had agreed that among ponies, he should have a different name. He remembered it like a hazy memory. It was the name his mother had given him and so he didn’t feel as if he were being treated like less than a pony.

“He’s really shy,” Wolfsing explained to Croll as she noticed how he looked on the verge of exploding. She had spoken to Celestia the day before and she was perfectly fine with her going with Raisong. She would be less okay with it if Croll exploded all over the place.

“Where did you say you met him again?” Now speaking to Wolfsing, fed up with trying to communicate with Raisong who didn’t want to talk to him anyway.

“We met in the park. I know I wasn’t supposed to be out, but I asked Celestia. She must have forgot to tell you. She’s really busy, taking care of an entire nation all by herself, you know,” Wolfsing answered innocently.

“You’re old enough to go places yourself on your own,” he answered guardedly and Wolfsing tried not to laugh aloud. She knew he thought the exact opposite. “You don’t need permission to go to the park every once in a while.”

“Really?” She said excitedly, “Then you won’t mind if we go down to the diner? Thanks, Croll!”

“Wait! You can’t just leave. You have work to do and I think you should send your friend home for the day,” Croll answered crossly.

“I have the day off,” she answered, “Celestia says.”

“For sompony that has a lot of work to do running a nation, she sure has been telling you a lot of things,” he answered strictly.

“I know. I guess I’m her favorite,” Wolfsing answered. Croll didn’t even notice as Raisong snuck away and Wolfsing was able to fly off before he could get the next word in.

“Fillies,” he muttered under his breath.

“Hey, old pony, who was that stallion with Wolfsing?” Cakern asked as he landed beside him. “Was he a unicorn?”

“I suppose he was. She met him while she was sneaking out,” he replied irritably, glad to have someone to rant to now that she was gone. “Doesn’t she know it’s dangerous for a noble to spend time with commoners?”

He turned to regard him, but he was already gone. “Foals,” he hissed under his breath.

***

“What’s a diner?” Raisong asked, looking nervously around. She knew that she didn’t like spending time in public with other ponies about, especially when he was noticeably taller than most ponies. She thought that maybe he would feel more comfortably in a smaller place like the Ponyville frontiers, but he stood out here where most of the ponies were snooty high bloods.

“It’s a place where ponies go to hang out and eat, or something, but we’re not actually doing that. I just had to tell Croll something that he couldn’t argue with. We can go back to the forest if you want,” Wolfsing answered.

He nodded and they stopped abruptly and turned about, but they nearly ran into Cakern.

“Who’s he?” He demanded, glaring at Raisong. “I’ve never seen him around here before. I think I would, seeing as he’s such a big unicorn.”

“Shut up, Cake. It’s none of your business,” Wolfsing hissed back.

“Your safety is my business,” he replied before adding irritably, “And don’t call me that! My name is Cakern. Don’t you have any loyalty anyway?”

“What does this have to do with loyalty? The only reason why you’re bothering us is because you’re jealous that I didn’t want to date you and I’m now out here with a stallion,” Wolfsing retorted angrily. “So get out of my face. Go practice flying or something.”

Raisong stood stiffly, glaring at the strange pegasus. He didn’t know what this was about, but he didn’t like it, and he began to show his teeth.

“What? Are you making faces at me?” Cakern growled, pushing past Wolfsing to stand squarely with Raisong. “Do you have a problem?”

“Don’t mess with me,” Raisong warned, glaring down his nose at him. “Wolfsing told you to leave her alone, and I think you should do what she says.”

“Or what? You lay one hoof on me and I’ll be sure that all of the Scythe Ponies come down on you. You’ll be lucky to get out alive, let alone see Wolfsing again,” Cakern spat.

“Are you threatening him?” Wolfsing hissed, turning about as Cakern passed her.

“What if I—“

Cakern growled, turning back to her, but before he could finish his sentence she slammed her hoof into his face, hard, and he went down.

“What do you suppose we should do with him?” Raisong asked pragmatically. “He won’t send anyone after us now, will he?”

“Leave him here,” she replied. “I doubt he’ll actually do what he said, and even if he does I doubt that they will actually listen to him. Let’s get out of here before someone notices though. If someone finds me here like this I bet Croll will try to keep me on castle grounds again.”

Raisong nodded and they continued on their way. They didn’t notice the dark shadows that waited to swoop in on Cakern.

***

A tall, sleek, dark unicorn stallion with strange, green wolf eyes accompanied Selena up the steps to the building of magical knowledge where she worked. He seemed uncomfortable and every so often he could be seen shaking his head a bit as if something was wrong. No onlooker would have realized that this stallion was a wolf in disguise and no smart pony would question it. Selena wasn’t the kind of mare to be messed with, after all.

“Where are we?” Solomen whispered nervously. “I’ve never seen so many ponies in my life.”

“We’re in a Magic Studies library,” she answered simply. “This particular one is directly controlled by Princess Celestia though she leaves us to our own works. I would be head of it, but Celestia thought it better to place a soft-hearted buffoon in charge.” Her voice took on a hard edge and Solomen realized that this was probably a bad subject with her so he didn’t question her on it.

She led him through a bustling main hall where unicorns of all sizes and colors rushed about or else huddled in a quiet corner to study. None of them seemed to take note of Selena’s return and Solomen considered this a good thing. The less ponies questioning him the better. Selena had already told him to say as little as possible if anypony spoke to him.

The farther they went the more desolate the halls became until they arrived in a dark and quiet place, a dorm of sorts, where Selena had her own personal chambers. It was rather bare and all that she kept there was a writing desk and a bed. There were a few books and a few empty glass flasks, but that was it. Solomen didn’t know at the time, but this was considered empty compared to those others who studied there. Selena kept most of her experiments underground in her secret base, so that the other ponies would not find out what she was doing.

“We shall be staying here from now on until your job is done. I suppose I will return to my true laboratory a time or two but here on out I have everything I need,” Selena told him with a confident smile and he nodded, saying nothing at all.

“Excuse me?” This was from outside and Selena narrowed her eyes as she rushed to the door.

“What do you want?” She hissed, throwing the door open angrily. It crashed loudly against the wall and the young filly standing there cowered away.

“I’m sorry, Swallowdeath,” she whimpered. “I’m just here to bring the research papers you wanted before you left last time.” She held them out to her and Selena took them with an irritable tug using her magic and placed them on her desk before slamming the door in the filly’s face.

“Swallowdeath?” Solomen couldn’t help but ask.

“It’s nothing,” Selena replied snappishly. “It’s a name my mentor gave me. He thought he was clever. I was very frail and sickly as a filly and everypony thought I was going to die, but I didn’t. Nopony knew my name back then since I was an orphan, but my mentor thought he was being clever when he gave me that horrible name. It’s supposed to be hopeful, but I knew better. It was a brand, a warning to everypony that I was less than trustworthy. It was cruel name!”

“You have a mentor?” He dared to ask. “An older pony that taught you what you know? Is that what that means?”

“Correction. I had a mentor. He’s dead now, thank goodness. He was always smiling as if he didn’t give me a cursed name. You’re correct, that’s what that means. I taught myself most of what I know however. All he wanted me to know about was friendship and playing nice. Where did that get him?” She huffed and collapsed on the bed.

“Where am I to sleep?” He asked her, looking around the room slowly.

“Lay with me,” She said. “There’s only one bed for a reason. Lay beside me, wolf, Solomen.”

He watched her curiously for a second. There was something odd about the way she said it that he didn’t like. “I think I’ll sleep on the floor. I’m more used to hard ground anyway.”

He almost regretted what he said, her eyes glowing with outrage that he should deny her, but she was distracted the next moment by a strange sound—it was more like a pulsing in both their minds—and she got up, seeming to forget her outrage. She moved over to the darker part of the room and tore a cloth away to reveal a medium-sized crystal ball.

“We’re not allowed to have these, not individually. If anyone wants to scry somepony they need to get permission and do it in the big main room where the heads gather—I’m considered a member of those heads actually—but I kept this one for myself,” she said conversationally as she worked to bring the image to the surface. “Not that it’s anything special. All the heads are hiding one from Celestia one way or another.”

“What is it?” He asked, encouraged by her change of feelings.

“A crystal ball for spying on others and seeing far away things. How do you suppose I got there to save you in time? I wasn’t going to lounge around there all day,” she answered simply. She glanced over her shoulder and noticed how irritated he seemed now. “I love to see you when you’re mad.”

Solomen grunted and turned away from her. She was secretly relieved. She didn’t like when other ponies watched her using her crystal ball, even her new pet. The surface swirled and twisted until the image of Wolfsing walking away with Raisong appeared.

“What? What importance is this to me? Am I supposed to care about the daughter of—“

The words caught in her throat. The Wolf Slayer! Why hadn’t she considered that? She was hardly her father, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t become dangerous to Selena’s operation. And who was the unicorn she had with her? Something else caught her attention. It was Cakern, on the ground. It was obvious that he was unconscious, but what really caught Selena’s attention was the look of outrage on his face. What was that about?

“He could be useful to me,” she mused.

“What?” Solomen asked. She didn’t realize how long she had been standing there, contemplating Cakern and at least an hour had passed since she had last spoke.

“It’s nothing for you to worry about,” she replied. “Just come over here, and quickly!”

She covered the crystal ball again hastily and turned around, her horn glowing. Solomen, seeing the magic being performed, became nervous and backed away but it far too late for him to escape before she enacted the spell. The next second they were standing outside of the castle grounds.

“A spell of teleportation. Luckily we were in my room. The Magic Library has wards and glyphs to warn of when someone is teleporting in or out of the building, but before I left I managed to figure out a way to rip a hole in the spell so that my room isn’t affected,” she said, sounding almost as if she were bragging.

He didn’t say anything, feeling dazed and confused as he looked around to find that he was no longer in a dark room, but practically in the open. It took him a moment to realize that Selena was no longer beside him, but moving towards the colt that was unconscious nearby. He moved quickly to follow.

Selena shook her head, and sighed. “Probably just another headstrong foal. Scythe Ponies are hardly good for anything other than war. It’s far past time we had another one.”

Her horn glowed as he called Cakern from his state of unconsciousness. He groaned audibly and trembled before pushing himself up. He tensed when he saw the black pony, as if preparing to attack, until he finally recognized her. “Swallowdeath, right? Thanks.”

“Who was that unicorn, the one with the Wolfsing filly?” Selena hissed, trying to ignore the name she despised so much.

He looked at her strangely for a moment, still a bit groggy, but then realization hit him. That unicorn! That—He took her from me! He came out of nowhere and took Wolfsing right out from under me! He isn’t even from here. He’s some stranger, an intruder, and yet no one sees it.”

“What?” Selena said, a plan already stirring in her head. “Is that so? Maybe he’s dangerous. Maybe he’s an outsider, trying to trick our dear Wolfsing in order to get closer to Celestia. Something should be done about that, shouldn’t it?”

“I know! I’ll go and fight him. If I win he’ll have to leave. We’ll make a deal,” Cakern stuttered. “That will assure that he won’t be able to get to Wolfsing!”

“If he’s an outsider then how do you know he has such honor? Perhaps he’ll kill you instead, when your back is turned. You should kill him first just to be sure,” Selena suggested, her horn glowing ever so slightly as she tried to influence him.

“What?” Cakern said, his face screwed up in confusion. “You want me to kill him?”

“Did I say that? Oh no,” she said, trying to twist her words around, using her magic to influence him further. That was your idea. What I think you should do is take it to Celestia. Make it personal so she’ll have to see him. He’s bad news, right? There’s no way that she won’t banish him, and then Wolfsing will be all yours.”

“Right!” Cakern answered, though he sounded groggy and nearly fell as he walked back towards the castle.

“Here,” Selena cooed. “Let me help you. He hurt you, didn’t he? When you weren’t looking of course. Head to head I’m sure you would have won.”

He nodded, accepting her help. His pride wouldn’t let him believe what actually happened, that a filly had laid him out flat, that Wolfsing was stronger than him. He hardly saw Solomen or noticed how Selena was smiling.