Underworld: Equestria

Prior Note: This chapter was written quickly and in the middle of my exam period, so there is a chance I will be editing the content at a later date.

Pre-read by Edragon

Chapter 15: First of the Breed

The diamond dog’s ears instantly flicked back in suspicion at the words, a none too pleasant feeling immediately sprouting in his gut as he looked between the two silent lycans. Diamond dogs like himself were always weary of making deals, usually because most dogs were sour and underpawed when it came to making them, and he wasn’t exactly sure if he trusted Lucian yet either.

“What kind of proposition are we talking about?” he asked sharply as he stepped back a little, golden eyes running over Lucian as he grasped his spear and mildly bared his fangs.

The lycan chewed his lip for a moment, a lone hand pulling at his short beard as he traded looks with the dog. “One that is not to be taken lightly. Silver-Fang, we have established that the changelings have inherited the vampire virus, and as you now know all the traits that come with it. Vampires, as I have told you, fear very little other than sunlight, after all they are extremely strong, fast, and immortal… but the one other thing they do fear, and quite a lot at that… are us, lycans.”

There was silence in the room for a moment as the words hung stagnantly in the air, every pony and dragon present looking between each other for answers to the pale skinned lycan’s riddle-like statement, but finding none whatsoever.

Twilight though, being the ever thinking and analysing mare she was, quickly put the pieces together and understood what he was implying, and once again dropped her pad and quill as her mouth fell and hung agape.

“Lucian… you… you wouldn’t do such a thing?!” she virtually gagged as she took a nervous look between them, the very thought of what he was proposing making her feel physically sick. “That’s just… evil.”

Applejack, being nearest to Lucian and Raze, turned to her friend with an arched eyebrow first, and was quickly joined by the equally confused Princess Luna, Spike, and the other present mares and dragons.

“What’s he sayin' that’s so evil now?” she asked from beneath the brim of her hat, looking between her friend, then Silver-Fang, and finally the two lycans in front of her. “I’m lost here Twi, and I think everypony else is too for that matter.”

The unicorn gulped once before answering. “He wants... t-to turn Silver-Fang into a l-lycan,” she shuddered, barely managing to speak the words.

In an instant, everypony, including Applejack, was looking directly at the lycan in utter horror, their faces set in expressions of what he took to be absolute disgust, while, presumably, images of the diamond dog becoming warped into a beast-like crazed animal filled their minds.

Despite their sizes, and apparent lack of fear of most things smaller than them, the three dragons also looked downright uneasy at Lucian’s unusual proposal, their sword sized fangs half bared to show their uncertainty at the prospect being presented to them.

Fluttershy, though her words came out in barely audible whimpers, was the first to break the silence and speak her opinion. “Y-you wouldn’t d-do such a t-thing, would you Lucian?”

“And Lucian, with all due respect,” Rarity added through her look of terror and the hoof across her lips, glancing sideways at Silver fang like he was half the reason for her distress. “Even the very thought of such a thing… such a creature… is simply revolting on so many levels.”

“I must agree with Fluttershy and Rarity on this, Lucian… you cannot seriously th…” Titan started in a slightly aggressive tone, only to be cut off by the very source of the current issue.

“I accept,” Silver-Fang said suddenly as he stepped forward from his wall, the red dragon’s maw suddenly falling slack, as he and everypony else looked at the diamond dog, who stood with an odd air of honour and certainty about him as he approached the seated lycan. “If what you say is true Lucian, and that such a thing will give me the strength I need to defend my pack from these demons, then I will gladly accept your offer.”

To say the ponies in the room, even Princess Luna, were stunned would have been a total and utter understatement.

They all understood from Lucian’s tales, to varying extents, the extents of the costs that came with being a lycan. As such they just couldn’t wrap their heads around how the dog was taking the choice before him so lightly. It was after all, as Raze had so well stated, virtually a curse.

If Lucian had offered it to any of them, Twilight was sure each and every one of her friends would have declined without a second thought.

Luna, who was still the only pony standing along with the diamond dog, cast him an inquiring glance. “Silver-Fang, although I respect your need to protect your kind… are you sure you want this?”

“I am commander of the Steel Guard princess, if I am not willing to make sacrifices to protect my kind, then I ask who shall?” The diamond dog replied somewhat proudly, and matter-of-factly. “Besides, anything that will help me crush my enemies, the putrid blood-sucking vermin that they are, is worth any cost in my opinion.”

“So you basically want to be turned into a creature of war, just so you can march into the forest, go about killing changelings, and become even more of an uncivilised brute then you already are,” Rarity scoffed, the tension between her and the diamond dog suddenly returning at both his choice of words, and her still seething feelings of disdain.

“Rarity!” Twilight gaped.

It was however far too late, Silver-Fang had already heard the marble white unicorn’s words, and that particular outburst, for the diamond dog, was the last possible straw.

“UNCIVILISED BRUTE?! Why you pathetic little waste of equine hide!” Silver-Fang snapped as he stalked towards her, his burning eyes now affixed straight on Rarity as she nervously, and rapidly, began to back up. “This ‘uncivilised brute’, for your knowledge little pony, is what stands between those changelings and your races total and utter slaughter! So before you start insulting my kind and I, ONCE AGAIN, try and get this into your rock hard skull! My kind are warriors, and have been since the first alphas. We have fought each other, we have fought dragons, we have even fought your kind in the past, and now we are going to fight Changelings! The difference now, you annoying little girly pony, is that we are not fighting for land, or gems, or treasures, we are fighting to protect both our kind and yours from an enemy unlike anything your pathetically peaceful land, and its useless ‘royal guard’, have ever seen! And this is the best, and probably only chance we have at winning that fight! So before you decide to open that annoying little mouth of yours again, little pony, perhaps you should think about why I am doing this!”

Rarity, despite her usual firmness in the face of most dangers and dangerous situations, including those that featured diamond dogs, found herself quivering like a filly under Silver-Fang’s enraged golden glare.

Eventually, after calming down a bit, he snorted and stalked away from her, leaving a group of utterly flabbergasted ponies and dragons in his wake.

After everything did simmer down to a, mostly, calm state, Lucian gingerly got to his feet and faced the diamond dog, standing, as a human, virtually eye to eye with the grey coated canine. “Silver-Fang, this is not just some simple everyday choice, alright… should you accept you will bear lycan immortality, and all the pain that comes with it,” the lycan growled in a dead serious voice, crystal blue eyes meeting the dogs gold ones. “You must be absolutely certain of this, for there is no cure to this virus… and even I am not sure of what will happen to you.”

The diamond dog simply snorted and shook his head. “I am a warrior and protector of my pack, Lucian. Whatever price it takes to defend it, I am willing to pay, and I will repay myself when I bath in the blood of these putrid scum that hunt my race,” he snarled through clenched teeth, the pure amount of venom in his voice strangely sending an uneasy shiver down Lucian’s spine. “Now, what must I do?”

If they weren’t already looking ill from the lycan’s idea, the diamond dog’s words turned just about every cheek in the room a pale shade of green, all of the gathered ponies now getting to their hooves and backing up nervously.

Lucian stood there and looked over the diamond dog for a few moments, his mind trying to clarify the certainty that, despite the consequences that followed, this was a good idea; admittedly it was the best way to counter the changeling threat that now loomed over Equestria, and the diamond dog race in particular, but the creation of a totally new race was not something to be taken lightly, for whatever happened from then on would forever onward fall squarely on his shoulders.

But Silver-Fang had now willingly agreed to his offer, and hence there was no going back.

Lucian took an uneasy glance at Raze and nodded for him to approach; the black lycan in reply quickly standing up, and with a chorus of sickly cracks, growls and snarls shifted into the hulking shape of his lycan form, his steps pounding on the floor as he stalked towards the diamond dog, growls echoing from his throat.

“I suggest you be ready,” Lucian said firmly, momentarily looking over at Luna. “The lycan virus has only ever been passed on to humans, so I’m not sure how a diamond dog’s body will react to it, for all I know he could either shift when night falls like human… or right away like a werewolf.”

Instinctively, Luna nodded, flared her blue wings, moved in front of everypony else in a protective manner like a mother guarding her foal, and lowered her glowing horn towards the three bipeds.

Almost immediately, Twilight in return quickly came to stand beside her princess, her own horn glowing and her magic ready, the lavender unicorn’s face locked in an expression somewhere between total and utter fear and curiosity.

“Silver-Fang, if everything goes as I expect, no matter when it happens, this will not be a pleasant nor easy undertaking,” Lucian continued in a stone cold tone, looking straight at the canine warrior along with Raze, who’s menacing fangs were bared and his maw letting out heavy snarling breaths. “The first shift will be perhaps the most agonizing experience of your entire life, and for a few moments you will probably feel a near uncontrollable urge to tear every living thing around you apart and feed on it. So, unless you want Raze and I to forcefully restrain you, I suggest you listen closely now; focus on something, whether it is something you see or a memory it doesn’t matter, but you need to keep your focus on that one thing, no matter how much pain you’re in. It’s your best chance of not losing control of yourself. Now… are you ready to go through with this?”

“Do what you must,” was the dog’s simple reply, leaning his spear against the wall before removing his twin shoulder plates, the two pieces of armour hitting the floor with metallic clangs. “I am ready.”

Lucian nodded, took a sharp breath in, and allowed his own lycan side to emerge, his bones breaking and reforming in a chorus of sickly snaps and cracks as they enlarged, while his muscles tore apart before rapidly growing back together. It was a feeling he had grown used to over the many years he had lived, and hence the process for him rarely hurt anymore, but he, like every other lycan, had gone through the first shift once upon a time, and he knew exactly how excruciating the pain that awaited Silver-Fang was.

Everypony and dragon else watched on with their breaths held, eyes set purely on the three burly canines as Lucian’s paw reached down and grasped Silver-Fangs wrist, each and every one of them tensing up as he did so.

Gingerly, the snarling lycan pulled it up to his eye level and held it before him, empty black eyes running along the length of the appendage as if he were judging it, all the while Silver-Fang just stood there looking forward like nothing was happening, his rhythm of deep breaths serving to calm his nerves as he stared directly at the door.

And then, without any sign or prior warning, Lucian’s jaw snapped open, and the lycan swiftly sank his pearly white fangs into the dog’s flesh.

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To Silver, the initial bite barely hurt enough to make him flinch, the amount of pain that ran up his furry foreleg the rough equivalent of being sharply pocked with a spear. His only response was to tense up and growl as he felt Lucian’s sharp fangs dig into him like a set of small blades, and feel a near overpowering urge to clench his other paw and slam it into the side of the lycan’s face. Much like he would have done if the situation was a training brawl, and was Lucian a diamond dog.

As quickly as it had started though it was over, the lycan withdrawing his slightly bloody fangs and stepping away, leaving Silver, and all else present, to look between the bite mark and its source in mild confusion.

“Is… that all there i-grrrrGHAAARRAA!!”

That was when he felt it begin to take over, just as Lucian had said it would be mere moments earlier, a surge of pain unlike anything he had ever felt before that ripped through his entire body, like superheated molten steel had been poured inside him, and was now running freely through each and every one of his veins. It felt like every piece of body, every fibre, muscle, and tendon was being forcefully torn and ripped away from itself, while his bones were being snapped in dozens of places at once, and his joints agonizingly wrenched from their rightful limbs and sockets.

All the while wile thoughts began to forcefully drive themselves into the front of his mind, thoughts of ripping and tearing those around him apart and hungrily devouring them, especially the annoying white unicorn who had insulted him; it was as if his mind craved the idea of ripping into a piece of meat, and lusted for the feeling of having hot blood run down his throat, like perhaps the pain would go away if he ate something or somepony.

“Concentrate!” a small part of his mind roared through the storm of pain and agony. “Do not let this consume you!”

He balled his paws and snarled as the virus took over, a series of agonizing guttural screams soon beginning to escape from his throat and fill the small town’s library, no doubt scaring anypony passing by outside. The pure amount of pain was now threatening to break his will and his control, which came from a deadlock concentration on the wooden door before him.

All the while, his limbs, with a series of sickening cracks that chilled the blood of everypony who hadn’t yet either vomited or fainted, began to grow and enlarge at a rapid rate. Looking down at himself, through the burning red agony that tinged his vision, the diamond dog saw his paws no longer resembled basic dexterous appendages to grasp his spear, but rather massive furred fists measuring at least the size of large axe heads, with deadly black claws that could rip apart flesh like it was soft earth.

Before the eyes of Lucian and everypony still standing, the diamond dog suddenly kneeled over on all fours, and a massive furry paw slammed into the floor as he landed, the immense force creating a patchwork of cracks across the surface; they all watched as his shoulder blades cracked, snapped, and widened as they healed, his prior screams now coming out as beast-like feral roars and snarls. Ash instinctively curled his head around Twilight and Spike, and along with Thane and Titan opened his jaws in case his fire was needed.

Eventually, much to the gathered ponies’ slight relief, Silver-Fang’s roars and violent struggles stopped, and were replaced instead by heavy growled breathing as the process of the dog’s first shift finally finished.

The terror of the creature before them though stayed as strong as ever, and perhaps even heightened, as he slowly rose up again, and allowed everypony to see what the first lycan-diamond dog looked like.

Before the ponies, four dragons, and two other lycan’s in the room, was what Lucian guessed was a creature out of the standard pony’s worst possible nightmare or even Tartarus, the Equestrian underworld.

The diamond dog before him was roughly twice as tall as he had started as, and now towered over even Princess Luna; his formerly steel coloured coat now a mixture of black, white and greys, and his muscle mass looking rather close to even that of Raze. His once fairly harmless looking paws were now ended with blade-like black claws, and razor sharp white fangs stuck out from his maw.

What was most prominent though was his eyes, which were no longer a topaz gold, but a deep and seemingly endless black.

“Grrraaa?” he growled incoherently, looking over his new body curiously as he growled aloud to himself, the sudden deep throated sounds causing everypony to yelp slightly. “Grrrr?”

After a tense moment the initial fright passed, and, slowly at first, Princess Luna and Twilight together took a nervous step forward towards him. Everypony else opted to stay put as far from him as possible, other than Rarity and Fluttershy, who had both apparently fainted from shock halfway through the grotesque ordeal.

Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash we’re still somehow standing, though judging from their rather tense facial expressions, it looked like they’d probably be having nightmares for quite a while.

“Silver-Fang?” Luna said a little uneasily, the diamond dog immediately looking up as she came closer, and watching her still flared wings and still glowing horn intently. “Are you… alright now? Can I approach?”

“Grrrra,” was the former dog’s reply with a short nod, his thick shoulders relaxing so he stood calmly as Luna and Twilight looked him over.

It took a few moments, but soon enough, most of the prior and remaining unease melted away into the back of everypony’s minds, allowing the princess and Twilight to creep forward and examine the dog, Lucian and Raze returning to human form and stepping back a little. The unicorn was truly amazed at both what she had just witnessed, and what at she was now seeing before her. Silver-Fang’s muscle mass must have doubled at the very least; his shoulders, hind legs, and forelegs now presented far stockier in comparison to the rest of him, and his jaw line was no longer as flat and bulky as other diamond dogs, but somewhat pointed like that of a timberwolf.

“So Twilight, do you find him scarier than me?” Lucian teased almost casually, causing the diamond dog to growl curiously, and the mare to glare at him and flatten her ears.

“This is… truly unusual,” the princess stated as she walked in slow circles around him, her dark eyes admiring the stature of the newly-created creature before her. “Such changes are beyond anything I’ve ever seen or heard of, even when changelings disguise themselves they stay roughly the same size… though Lucian, I must ask; do you think he can change back as you do?”

“That… is a question only he can answer,” the lycan shrugged unknowingly, drawing odd looks from both mares and the new lycan. “If he’s reacted like a werewolf would, then no, but if he’s like Raze and I, I don’t see why not to be honest… all he should need to do is let go of any aggressive thoughts and feelings, and the change should happen on its own.”

“That’s it… he just needs to… relax?” Twilight asked sceptically with another flick of her pointed ears, prompting a collective rolling of eyes from everypony else.

Lucian glanced momentarily over at Raze, and then shrugged again along with his old friend. “A lycan’s shift is brought on through their emotions, when we become angry or defensive of someone, we turn into wolves, and when we relax again the opposite occurs, that’s the best explanation I can personally give you… for all I know it could be related to anything from our heart rates to the amount of adrenaline released… I’m only a lycan Twilight.”

Twilight stomped and pouted, her need for knowledge getting the better of her. “Hmmf, there’s got to be some explanation…”

“I think that can wait for now, little pony Twilight.”

The unicorn, along with her normally stoic faced ruler, friend, and princess, just about jumped out of their fur coats as they heard Silver-Fang’s voice. Together they instantly spun around and faced the former-dog-now-lycan, only to find he was no longer the towering lycan menace he had been moments prior, but rather had returned to his original size and stature; his forelegs folded across his chest, and an annoying smirk displayed proudly across his face.

“You… but… I didn’t hear anything!”

“A shift from lycan to human, or in his case lycan to diamond dog, is usually much quieter and less painful then it’s prior,” Raze laughed somewhat awkwardly, sounding a little amused at the colorful equines fright. “How are you feeling?”

“To be honest, I am… not entirely sure,” Silver-Fang growled, scratching the top of his head with a paw. “That blasted pain is mostly gone, thank my ancestors, but I feel as if there is this foreign urge in my mind, like something other than me is saying I want to eat something… something meaty.”

Everypony present and awake gasped and hurriedly stepped away from the diamond dog, while the three present adult dragons each let out menacing growls and showed their large fangs. Lucian though just shook his head.

“Those are the normal and natural urges that accompany being a lycan Silver-Fang, they will regrettably never truly be gone, but they aren’t very hard to control either. I suggest though that you should hunt at least once a week, otherwise your healing rate will suffer, and you yourself risk attacking an innocent.”

Gingerly stepping closer he ran his eyes over the newest addition to the lycan race, who despite the immense amount of pain he had gone through, also seemed pleased with the results of their agreement and Lucian’s ‘gift’.

The world’s oldest lycan admitted the results were more than he had hoped for, and would’ve been lying if he said he wasn’t glad to have another member of his race around, but Silver-Fang’s change had raised a new thought in his mind, one which related directly to the very threat that had brought about the need for his transformation from diamond dog to lycan.

“So it can be done it seems… and now what?” he murmured to himself.

The issue currently plaguing his mind, as he looked over Silver-Fang, was the very fact he had created a lycan, and in doing so had to the purest and truest extent brought the ancient and bloody war to an otherwise peaceful land, a land of harmony ruled by the one he now loved dearly.

There was, however, another side to his present thought about the new lycan.

Silver-Fang was a start and a good one at that, but the vampires, whoever they were, had done the same as he had on a much larger scale, and were apparently far more concerned with using the changelings to bring Equestria to its knees then bringing about peace, and now a threat loomed over the land that could only be stopped in one way.

Three lycans would not be enough to either stop the changelings or protect Luna’s, and his in a way as her lover's, little ponies, for that he needed an army.

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