Prior Note: Just a heads up, this is the last building/non-gore chapter for a while. Yay!
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Chapter 17: Crafty Lycan, Angry Dragon

Pre-read/Edited by: Edragon

“Do we know if everypony is present?” Celestia asked, taking a moment to glance down at the guard walking along beside her.

The white stallion just shrugged his shoulders unknowingly. “I know vice-captain Iron Lance is present, your majesty. However, I cannot say anything in regards to the other commanders or regents,” the royal guard replied, his face not revealing a hint of emotion. “With all due respect, princess, this meeting has been called rather abruptly.”

“Given what we have just learned, sergeant, it is necessary,” Luna said as she joined her sister.

Celestia sighed as the sound of voices greeted her from down the hallway, the alicorn momentarily closing her eyes in an effort to control her growing headache.

“Are you alright Tia?” Luna asked, noticing the scowl that crossed her older siblings face.

The solar ruler couldn’t help but groan and flick her ears back. “I have the threat of a changeling attack to deal with, a country I now need to prepare for possible war, the issue of an apparent re-emergence of the diamond dogs, and on top of it all I have to deal with you know who,” she grumbled coarsely, a shoed hoof loudly meeting the floor as she showed her annoyance. “Ugh, sometimes Luna... I truly envy your ability to simply not get out of bed in the morning.”

Her remark earned Celestia a silent glare from her younger sister.

“You could always give me the sun for a while, I promise I’d give it back,” Luna retorted with a grin after a moment, causing Celestia to chuckle slightly as they continued down the hall.

Within a few more moments they had reached their destination; said destination being the arched doorway leading to a small chamber built into one of the walls, tucked away deep within the winding marble corridors of the palace as far away from prying eyes as possible. This particular chamber, as Celestia knew all too well, was constantly presided over by two unicorn guards, and always locked for good measure. Surprisingly, if her memory served her right, it hadn’t actually been used since the last border scuffle with the Griffin Kingdoms, and that had been nearly a hundred and thirty years ago.

Still, Celestia felt a hundred and thirty years wasn’t nearly long enough.

This particular chamber was commonly referred to as the ‘War Room’, as it was where every royal decision, in regards to military operations during times of conflict, had been made since the construction of Canterlot as Equestria’s capital.

Within the room lay a wide variety of things that had been stored away across the centuries, all of them solely related to the matter of conflict including: signed peace treaties, records of battles from past wars, defensive layouts of Equestria’s major cities, and even emergency decree’s for the raising of taxes during times of hostility; hence the need for the royal guards’ constant presence.

It was the room's very purpose that caused Celestia to grind her teeth at as she neared it; she truly and utterly loathed the room’s very existence. For her, it brought back nothing but vile and haunting memories; memories of the various times of brutal bloodshed that had come about through the ages since Equestria’s birth, and yet, like so many things, it was a necessary evil, and a place she regrettably found herself forced to return to every other century.

“But I’m going to miss my grooming!” a stallion’s voice whined from up ahead, the obnoxious noise breaking Princess Celestia’s silent reminiscence. “Just look at the state of my coat! It’s despicable!”

“Ugh! Just stop complaining you arrogant foal; do you actually want everypony else's ears to start bleeding?” snorted an older stallion’s voice loudly in return. “The only thing that’s despicable around here is your Tartarus damned attitude!”

“Why you!...”

The princess of the sun couldn’t help but groan at the two voices. “This is not going to be a very pleasant morning,” she thought bitterly.

Gathered just outside the doorway as she saw, along with the two constant pair of door guards, were six other ponies; each of them bearing high rank and status in the Equestrian Court, as well as representing a faction of either the Equestrian population or the royal guard.

The first four were all members of the royal guard, one standing in for each individual wing, while the other two ponies represented the nobility and civilian populations respectively.

The first pony was the stallion Iron Lance, the middle-aged first lieutenant of the Canterlot royal guard, and the commander of the unicorn detachment in Shining Armor’s temporary absence. Beside him stood the heavily built earth pony Gate Breaker, a renowned guard veteran who’s back leg strength made his name more akin to a title of reputation. Nearby, a younger royal guard named Storm Flash, the recently appointed commander of the pegasus air battalion, was conversing with Star Chaser, the cocky bat-winged pegasus pony who oversaw Luna’s night guard detachment.

Rather regrettably, one of the remaining two ponies was Prince Blueblood of all individuals, who was, as Celestia knew all too well, standing in for the members of the Equestrian nobility, a responsibility he often bore rather poorly in Celestia’s personal opinion.

The last pony was Fancy Pants, a white coated unicorn who, despite being the wealthiest and most well-known stallion in all of Canterlot, had always admitted to having a soft spot for the common pony, and had as such been picked as a fitting representative for the civilian populous some years prior... If only Celestia could say the same for her nephew. They would, after all, be the ones feeding Equestria's war machine with their bits, and hence deserved at least some say.

“Please stay and guard the doors, sergeant,” the marble alicorn said tensely, pausing for a moment as the two already present guard’s bowed to her, and she inclined her head in return.

The stallion nodded once before silently moving aside, and taking his rightful place beside his two lower ranking comrades, all of them wearing the same blank expression as their trained eyes began scanning the desolate hallway for activity. All the while, the other ponies had turned their attention to the two rulers, some blank faced, some smiling coyly, and some, or rather Blueblood alone, looking annoyed at having been forced to be present.

“Greetings to you all,” Celestia said as she smiled, her muzzle, despite the severity of the situation, wearing its renowned motherly smile. “Firstly, please forgive me for calling you all on such short notice, and to a place such as this as well.”

“It’s always a pleasure to be in both your presences, majesties,” Fancy Pants said bashfully, inclining his head in a show of respect. “Though I must admit, I am personally quite surprised to find a place of such an… unusual name… exists in your palace; I take it that this particular chamber is rarely spoken of?”

“Damn right Fancy, long time since this place has been spoken of, even longer since it’s been used, ain’t that right Celestia?” Gate Breaker remarked gruffly, the heavily built stallion smirking as he ran his eyes over the door’s woodwork. “My guess is that if you’re calling us here on such short notice, then things have gone downhill somewhat then huh?”

“How dare you talk to my aunt in such a way!” Blueblood snapped as he stamped his hoof. “First myself and now my aunt, we are your rulers and you are but a common soldier, and hence you should address us as such! Do you somehow lack the ability to absorb that fact?”

Celestia tried to resist the urge to face-hoof as she watched her nephew’s ego, once again, erupt into a public display; she managed, but only just.

“Calm yourself, Blueblood, now is neither the time nor the place for this,” Celestia sighed through her clenched muzzle. “Besides, what Gate Breaker says is true.”

All eyes quickly shifted from the self-obsessed prince to her.

“It is?” Gate Breaker asked.

“H-he is?!” Blueblood choked out.

“That… is unfortunately the case, the changeling situation has indeed escalated... drastically,” Luna answered for her sister, her words earning her what seemed to be a nod and an amused snort from the armored earth pony.

“Heh, for four generation’s my family’s been in the guard, and I end up being the only unlucky bastard to get dragged into a war then eh?” Gate Breaker laughed, his remark drawing chuckles and face-hoofs from his fellow royal guards, and raised eyebrows from the two regal unicorns beside them.

“You don’t sound too disappointed, Gate,” Storm Flash sighed as his left hoof met his forehead.

“Me? Na, I ain’t disappointed Flash, personally, I’d like to do nothing better than to squash a few of those bugs under my hooves; made us all look like a herd of idiots last time, they did.”

Although she let the laughter before her carry on for a few moments, Celestia felt she shouldn’t have, especially given the circumstances they were all being faced with; here were the leaders of the royal guards carrying on like a group of school colts in a state of ignorant bliss; bliss both gladly and regrettably caused by both Equestria’s lack of war experience in the last century, as well as their own inexperience in the field of combat. They had never truly seen open war before, never witnessed grassy fields awash with red mud where the blood and earth had become one, never laid eyes on a plain covered in hundreds of dead warriors from both sides, but those were the things that accompanied true war.

As her horn glowed, and she released the century old locking spell that bound the war-room’s heavy door, Celestia silently assumed one thing which pained her deeply; of everypony living in Equestria in this modern age and time, only she, Luna, Lucian, and perhaps Raze knew what truly awaited them, everypony else would be near completely unprepared.

“Where ever you are Chrysalis, damn you for making me do this,” Celestia sighed under her breath once more and approached the door.

The white alicorn then gingerly reached forward, pushed the heavy door open, and together with Luna and everypony else, walked inside the ancient chamber to prepare for a war.

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“Ow! AJ!” Thane growled as his massive head swung back. “Kindly do me a favour and stop trying to pull my scales out!” he snapped as twin smoke trails floated from his flaring nostrils.

“Well then do yourself a favour and just hold still, ya’ oversized scaly varmint,” the amber pony snorted in return, her muzzle half full of the rope she was pulling on. “Sweet Celestia, and here I was thinking that tying Applebloom’s darn bow was a mighty big pain in the flank.”

Her remark drew a distasteful growl from Thane as he turned away, as well as a few amused snorts from Lucian and Silver-Fang, the two presiding lycans patiently standing back a few meters away, and watching as the scene unfolded.

Silver-Fang sniggered with an arched eyebrow. “Well, Lucian my friend, this plan of yours… I’m not entirely sure I can call it good...” he grinned, a blood matted grey paw gingerly scratching at his pointed chin. “...But I can definitely call it out there.”

Lucian, in return, just chuckled and shrugged his broad shoulders. “Even I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a good plan,” he said in amusement, his blue eyes following the golden-eyed gaze of the diamond dog beside him. “Rather… the only plan that has a chance of not ending in disaster, I suppose.”

His statement caused Silver-Fang to momentarily give him a sort of ‘are you joking?’ kind of look, while the metallic grey dog’s eyebrow simultaneously managed to rise further up his face, and Thane gave off what sounded to be yet another sarcastic snort.

The numerous dense groves of apple trees which covered Sweet Apple Acres, as Lucian had found out first hand on his initial visit to the farm, were strangely comfortable to lean against whilst conversing, though currently he wished he could say the same for the present situation itself. After sensing their presences as they returned from their hunting lesson, Lucian and Twilight had summoned everyone out to the southern apple orchard, to both meet up with Silver-Fang and Raze, and finalize the plan, though the group now lacked Pinkie Pie due to work commitments, as well as Ash and Spike.

Personally, Lucian didn’t completely mind Pinkie’s absence too much; he’d seen a lot of strange things in his long lifetime, but she, somewhat ironically, took the cake for being the strangest.

Lucian had chosen the desolate location for two reasons, firstly because having the two lycans come back into Ponyville, in the middle of the day and most likely covered in the dried blood of their prior meals seemed a rather poor idea... lest of course he wished to see everypony screaming and running away as fast as their hooves allowed. As it had turned out, both of them had emerged from the Everfree’s darkness exactly as predicted, in that they literally looked like they'd fallen into a tub of red paint.

Secondly, Applejack’s farm carried the most plentiful supply of rope in all of Ponyville, as Thane had quickly found out to his detriment upon Lucian revealing the final part of his plan.

“It’s sounding more disastrous by the second, Lucian, if you ask me,” the green dragon growled from where he was standing. “And might I just add I’m not exactly looking forward to having my hide filled with spear points.”

Thane’s words only served to amuse the two lycans further, while his apparent frustration triggered a few smirks and laughs from the various ponies seated on the ground around him, and a chorus of hearty laughter from Titan; the green dragon quickly found his jaw clenching tightly as his head dropped in further humiliation.

“Well, like it or not Thane, you’ve definitely gotten yourself roped into this, haven’t you?” Titan said between his thunderous chuckles.

His humour died a little though when both Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy turned around and glared disapprovingly at him.

Thane ground his fangs and swung his tail in further annoyance. “I swear Titan, if I hear one more pathetic one-liner out of you…” he growled angrily at his old friend, the apple green dragon grating his ivory claws across the earth to show he wasn’t particularly enjoying being laughed at. “Grrr! You know what Lucian, if you weren’t cosy with Princess Luna, I’d eat you for this.”

“If you’re hung up about the reigns Thane, trust me when I say they’re really not that big a deal,” Rainbow Dash smiled, flying up to his face in an effort to calm him down. “I mean, just think about it, we all wear saddles during winter, and Big Mac’s always wearing that draft collar of his...”

“Uh, Rainbow dear,” Rarity chimed in tentatively. “I should remind you that neither saddles nor collars carry the... innuendo... that reigns do.”

Her sudden lack of words, coupled with the crimson blush that spread across her face, only earned Rainbow Dash a curious look from the young male she called her partner.

“... Yeeeaaah, I’m gonna stop talking now.”

Although he didn’t dare voice his thoughts, Thane knew what she was talking about, and was now wishing more than ever he’d lied back at the library, and told Lucian that Titan was the faster flyer.

The reason being, as he guessed he should have foreseen when Lucian had asked him earlier, was that he was now being expected to put his wings where his mouth was. In other words, basically fly up to the front gates of the diamond dog tunnels, something no sane dragon would ever even think of doing, and then twiddle his claws as the two lycans did their thing with the dog’s alpha.

He wasn’t exactly looking forward to that experience, but that wasn’t the only source of his bad mood.

Titan’s massive tail, despite Thane being utterly annoyed at him, continued to flick from side to side in amusement, the source of said amusement being the make-shift rope harness that now encompassed Thane’s upper half, which the now giggling pair of Applejack and Twilight were securing around his front legs and shoulders; all the while Thane was constantly twisting, shaking, and fidgeting in an effort to get comfortable in it, though to no avail other than either annoying or amusing the two mares.

“If I ever have to do something like this again, Celestia forbid that day, I’m getting something proper made,” he sighed in defeat as he ran his green eyes over the rough apparatus. “This thing is about as comfortable to wear as sulphur is to breath.”

The harness was, to give a rather blunt description, nothing more than long lengths of Applejack’s brown farm rope tied together to give Lucian and Silver-Fang something to hold on to. The main loop, which formed the harness’s centrepiece, encircled the base of Thane’s neck. From there, two untethered lines ran straight back to form crude neck reins for the lycans to hold, while two larger ropes ran down over the dragon’s chest, looped around each of his shoulders, and then finally circled his girth just behind his front legs, hence stopping any major rotation of the neck loop in the event of one of them falling off.

Finally, a layer of tough green fabric, courtesy of the ever generous Rarity, had been cut to size, laid across Thane’s back, and secured underneath the girth line, thus separating the dragon’s hard apple green scales and the two soon-to-be-rider’s soft skin.

As he leaned on his now returned spear, and admired the strange sight before him, Silver-Fang had to admit these ponies could be both efficient, and rather creative, when they put their minds to it.

“It is not hard to see why their race is so advanced, eh?” the diamond dog yawned lazily to his counterpart. “They are very smart for such small creatures, kind of makes me realize why they would call us dogs uncivilised.”

“You’re telling me,” Lucian grinned in agreement. “Twilight just about tore my original plan apart when I talked it over with her.”

“Uh-huh... you know Lucian, this idea of yours... well, it seems fairly sound in my opinion, at least under normal circumstances,” Silver-Fang said, the bloody paw still pulling at his chin as he admired and inspected Twilight and Applejack’s hoofwork closely. “Though I am far from sure Stone-Paw will see you eye-to-eye on the matter; I didn’t discuss this with you earlier, for I had no reason to mention it, but Stone-Paw is somewhat... uh, Twilight Sparkle, what is that strange pony word for one who always thinks they’re under attack?”

The unicorn stopped what she was doing, and momentarily glanced over her shoulder at him. “Um… paranoid?” she answered.

“Paranoid… hmm, yes, I think you could call him that.”

“Twilight and I discussed that as his presumable reaction earlier,” Lucian stated, the lycan’s own hand pulling at one of his stray black locks. “But I believed that in light of both of our situations, he’d at least be able to see where we’re coming from; you think otherwise?”

Silver-Fang sighed and shrugged, his two metal shoulder guards giving off small chinks with the action. “As I said, under normal circumstances that would be the case, but Stone-Paw... well, hmmf, how can I put this? In my experience with him... he often sees threats where there are none to be seen,” he explained as every pony, lycan, and dragon all fixed their eyes on him in curiosity.

The tone in his rough voice sounded surprisingly cold.

“B-but isn’t that, um, natural?” Fluttershy asked, the butter yellow pegasus quickly stepping back towards Titan when Silver-Fang looked her way. “I-I mean, aren’t alpha males supposed to look out for the rest of their pack?”

“Yes, he is wary in regards to the pack as a whole, as one would expect, but more so himself, and to a fair extent more as it were, probably far more so than any of the alphas before him. If I’m to be honest with you all, and you especially Lucian… and again, I’m only going on my own experiences here, but he’d likely think you’d have a hidden motive of some kind... that’s basically what he thinks about most dogs that approach him with proposals.”

Almost every pony and dragon present let out a small ‘Huh?’ at the dogs words, and quickly found themselves looking between each other for guidance; trust between two ponies was one of the quintessential aspects of Equestrian society, while a dragon’s pride in turn would never allow them to be deceitful to another dragon, and the respective leaders of both races were supposed to be seen as examples of such ideals.

How exactly an entire race could function when its leader, of all individuals, didn’t trust his own subjects, was beyond any of them.

“Ok, let me get this straight; you’re basically saying that he’d think Lucian was trying to… stab him in the back... or something like that?” Rainbow Dash asked, the formerly aerial pegasus perching herself between Thane’s massive shoulders. “Even though he’s pretty much the one who sent you to come ask us for help in the first place?”

“In short, yes.”

Raze, though quietly so no-one else would hear, couldn’t help but let out an unsavoury snort, and dig his fingers into the bark of the apple tree he was leaning against; the giant lycan remembered all too well a certain black haired vampire regent whom he and Lucian once similarly trusted, although his motives had resulted in both their downfalls.

“Wow,” Dash went on, the cyan mare frowning, and sounding vastly unimpressed. “No offense, but I think paranoid is a pretty big understatement when it comes to this guy.”

Lucian himself sighed and rubbed his temples as he contemplated his companion’s words. “You really think he’d react like that?”

“To be honest with you, knowing Stone-Paw as I do, I am quite certain he would think like that,” the diamond dog commander growled, his right paw tightening on the shaft of his spear. “The fact that you’re asking for control of the entire Steel Guard, in the name of a pony princess no less, not to mention we’d be flying in on a damn dragon... well, uh, that kind of thing would make any diamond dog suspicious of your intentions, let alone an alpha like Stone-Paw.”

Lucian and Raze glanced at each other, shared a puzzled shrug, and then both turned back Silver-Fang. “Surely he has some sense of reason?” Raze asked, stepping out from the shade of his tree, and taking his place beside Lucian. “We are all being faced with a war, after all.”

“Reason? Bah! He is so… paranoid, as these ponies say… that there is a saying about him that is whispered amongst the Steel Guard members as a joke, though I would think it far too offensive for these female ponies to hear.”

The diamond dog’s off-hand statement, coupled with his sudden bad mood, caused two lycan eyebrows to raise, two dragon maws to curl up and snarl in mild distaste, and more than a few sets of pony ears to flatten back in insult.

“Ya’ know, for somepony you’re apparently supposed to see as your top dog.” Applejack said at last, the amber farm pony speaking as she removed her hat, and shook her face free of a few drops of sweat. “You don’t seem to think of him as a very ripe apple.”

“Indeed,” Rarity added, the alabaster unicorn poshly pointing her nose in the air. “We’d never even think of either Princess Celestia or Luna in such a degrading way, much less voice such opinions.”

Silver-Fang, to everypony’s utter surprise, suddenly snarled loudly and balled his paws into tight fists when Rarity finished talking, the thick muscles in his back, arms, and shoulders rippling with strength underneath his bloodied grey coat, all thanks to his recent transformation.

This growl though, even to the untrained ear, was obviously not one of mere dislike or annoyance, no, this was one of pure and utter hatred.

In quick response to their fellow lycan’s sudden mood swing, both Lucian and Raze immediately tensed up, and readied to shift and subdue the diamond dog if need be; all the while everypony else simply shut their mouths, and hastily scooted backwards behind the protective cover of the two other lycans, each and every one of them silently fearing Silver-Fang would snap and shift at any given second, and then quickly turn each of them into dog treats.

“Not that long ago... I’ll admit I looked up to Stone-Paw with nothing but respect,” Silver-Fang spat as he turned around and faced the cluster of ponies directly, the dog’s topaz golden eyes now burning brightly with barely suppressed anger, and his deep canine voice barely making it through his clenched jaws . “But the way he has handled this situation thus far, sticking his head in the sand as we lost dog after dog, night after night, ignoring just about every damn word I said...”

As quickly and drastically as it had come, however, the fire in his golden canine eyes seemed to suddenly die down to mere embers, everypony watching somewhat curiously as the diamond dog’s prior rage followed suit as his body relaxed, and his breathing returned to normal.

“No, I cannot bring myself to do that anymore, that time has passed.” He sighed bitterly, a grey paw rising up and rubbing his forehead. “Uh, forgive me, everypony, for that outburst, but you sort of hit a personal grievance of mine just then… not to mention I still don’t like that obnoxious girly one.”

“Well, that’s all kinds of great to hear, Equestria’s survival now happens to be hinging on a psychotic canine with personality issues,” Thane yawned. “Oh, and Stone-Paw’s decision as well.”

“Thane, for once in your life, just keep your scaled-brained comments to yourself!” Titan snarled, his vicious tone crushing any minor amount of remaining humour.

Everypony present, most of whom still being on edge thanks to Silver-Fang, ducked as Titan snapped out of his stupor and snarled loudly, the red dragon baring his deadly ivory fangs, and, along with both Raze and Rainbow Dash, glaring in annoyance at his slender green counterpart once again.

To everypony around him, Titan appeared to be giving Thane a look that apparently threatened, should Thane’s present attitude not quickly improve, to wrap his red scaled tail around one of Applejack’s trees, tear it from the ground, and then repeatedly try to beat some sense into Thane with it.

“Unfortunately, despite how… distasteful… his words are, the dragon does indeed speak some truth. With any past alpha this plan would stand a decent chance, but with Stone-Paw…” Silver-Fang forced out through clenched teeth before trailing off.

Despite both Thane’s snarky input and Titan’s response, Silver-Fang’s words continued to hang heavily in the air like the scent of something foul, and caused Lucian to groan inwardly; he could almost feel the mood already dropping a few notches in terms of optimism for his plan, if the looks on each of the ponies faces was anything to go by, and that he knew was the last thing anyone needed to happen.

As any good leader knew, poor morale had a habit of being contagious, and could cripple an army before the fighting even started; if not for his own ferocity and resolve, it probably would’ve cost him his army during the taking of Viktor’s stronghold all those centuries back.

The lycan also knew it didn’t take a scholar like Twilight, rather perhaps just a bit of everyday common sense, to know that if Stone-Paw wasn’t willing to listen to what they were proposing, or worse, believed they were somehow plotting against him behind his back, than things were indeed going to get very complicated, very quickly, for both the diamond dogs and Equestria.

“You sure ya’ll wanna go flying with these two?” Applejack asked from beside him, her thick accent shattering his prior chain of thought. “They’re probably gonna end up throttling each other before ya even get half way towards those mountains.”

Upon looking down, he saw the mare facing him with a doubtful expression, and her front hoof pointing between the now quarrelling pair of Thane and Silver-Fang, who, thanks to Thane’s sharp dragon tongue, had erupted into an argument.

“If we don’t get going soon, they’ll do that before we get off the ground.” Lucian groaned in reply, his words causing Applejack to snicker, and Raze to let out a deep baritone chuckle. “Perhaps Rainbow Dash can convince Thane to play nice for the trip. I’ll try to keep Silver-Fang in check… as best I can anyway.”

Raze and Applejack both looked between the quarrelling pair and Lucian as he spoke, the ancient lycan apparently already questioning his own decision.

“I have a feeling this is going to be a very long day.”

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Author's Note

Notes:

Freelancer: So, yeah, as my last blog post said, I was put out of action for a while thanks to one of my horse's back legs, so sorry about the wait.

Edragon: I get the feeling Gate Breaker was somewhat inspired from said event. Anyway, all lame jokes in this chapter, courtesy of me; all good ones courtesy of Freelancer. (well maybe I got one good one.)

Freelancer: Edragon… stop reading my damn mind! .