Underworld: Equestria

Chapter 1: Meet The Lycan…

Lucian felt himself pulled back to a conscience state by the ramble of voices that filled his ears, followed by what sounded to be by the click of a lock a moment later, a sound he'd grown uncomfortably familiar with over the years, and then finally the light clop of horse hooves on stone.

His back, as he quickly came to realize and grumble at, felt like it had been whipped multiple times with a silver bladed cat-of-ninetails. The worst possible pain imaginable, as every lycan knew.

Gingerly, and somewhat painfully, he forced his blue eyes open to his surroundings.

His vision revealed that was sitting against a wall in a metal barred cell, not unlike the one he had grown up in during his years of slavery, with a black blanket draped over him, and the only source of light coming from a flaming torch that sat, apparently bolted, to the stone wall opposite his cage. The door to his cell was also open, but protected by two burly armoured pony guards with lowered spears, both looking down at the lycan sternly with expressions of what seemed to be disdain.

Neither, he noted, had any horn to speak of, were an unusual dark blue-ish colour, and wore equally dark armour that was unnervingly similar to those once worn by vampire death-dealers.

Between the two of them stood another pony that was also watching him, but this one was quite different from the other two; it was much taller, slimmer in it's overall proportions, and had a dark coat and eerily dancing mane, unlike the two guards. This one also possessed large feathered wings, and wore a small dark crown or tiara atop its head.

For a moment, Lucian could do nothing but blink and stare blankly at the taller equine, and in return the pony slowly approached him, his curiosity returned in equal.

“So you are awake it seems?” Said the pony as it stepped closer, locking its dark eyes with Lucian’s own. The tone of its voice confirmed to Lucian that she was female, and the sound itself reminding him they had met before. “This pleases me, although you are... different now, why is this so?”

“I’m glad to hear that you are pleased… and if you insist on asking, I’m a lycan, which means I shift between two forms,” Lucian said with a dull groan as he sat up and rubbed his face, his back burning in sudden protest at the action. “Now then, would you mind telling me what exactly it is that I’m doing... here... and perhaps why I’m in so much damn pain while you're at it?”

Lucian saw a pained expression cross the pony's face as she bit her lip, and simultaneously looked at her front hooves. The two guards behind her gave what sounded like an amused snort, though they were, however, quickly silenced by the mare with a simple glare, and an added growl from Lucian for good measure.

He had never truly liked violence, but tearing off heads was something he did rather well.

“You were unfortunate enough to disturb the wedding reception of captain Shining Armour… and I fear he did not exactly take kindly to such action given recent events, and saw fit to... subdue you... with magic…” The pony sighed as she shook her head and returned her eyes to the lycan, sounding to Lucian almost ashamed. “And then have you sent to the dungeons, I am… sorry… I did not know he would act so harshly.”

“I’ll get over it, besides, I happen to heal rapidly anyway,” Lucian said with a fickle laugh, slowly using the cold stone wall as a support to get to his feet, returning his eyes to the female pony after regaining his balance. "And magic? Truly?"

The pony regarded him oddly. "You are confused by the subject?"

"I'll probably need time to think it over later." He reassured. Logic be damned, he should've been dead. “I remember you… you are the kind one who approached me earlier, yes?”

“I am,” The pony replied with renewed happiness, a warm smile, or what Lucian guessed was a smile, spreading across her muzzle. “I am Princess Luna of Equestria, ruler of the night, and you are?”

“Lucian, first of the breed and leader of the lycans.”

The Princess's face took on a look of utter surprise... or what Lucian guessed was surprise, anyway. Equines with facial expressions was something he still found confusing. "A Leader? Truly? By Faust, please, allow me to offer my sincerest apologizes for the actions of our subjects... though where may I ask do your kind hail from? I have never heard of the race of lycans in any book or text."

"Firstly, don't worry about it, and secondly, that's... something of a long story." Lucian chuckled somewhat darkly.

The two exchanged a quick nod of acknowledgment with each other, though before anything else could be said, one of the guards cleared his throat loudly. The interruption could be said to have rudely shattered the moment, with Luna turning to him in an instant with an almost annoyed expression.

While she glared, Lucian quickly picked up the blanket and wrapped it around himself; he was a lycan, and hence was used to being seen naked by others, but in the presence of royalty he decided it better to be decent.

“Princess, your sister, captain Shining Armor, and the element bearers await you in the grand hall… do you think idle chat could wait a little while?”

“Of course, Steel Hoof,” Luna replied with a slight tone of embarrassment, turning back to the waiting lycan a moment later with her cheeks a dull red. “Please follow me, Lucian, my sister has wishes to meet you.”

"Sister?"

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….......

“Princess, are you sure this is such a good idea?” Twilight asked from her chair, her hooves, that were resting on the table, twitching nervously. “This creature… I’ve never heard of anything like it before in my studies, it could really be dangerous.”

“I understand your concern, Twilight,” Her royal mentor replied with one of her gentle smiles. “But do not fear my faithful student, if my sister believes it can be trusted, then so do I.”

A loud snort filled the grand hall as Princess Celestia finished. Turning to the source, everypony saw, and as Twilight had expected, her older brother was the culprit.

In response Princess Celestia face hoofed herself, and muttered under her breath, perhaps Twilight guessed wondering why she had picked Shining Armour of all stallions to be present; the day's events had no doubt left him more wound up then the loading mechanism in a griffin's crossbow.

To say the least, everypony else was a little tired and agitated as well; first a changeling attack, a wedding, a reception, and now a meeting with a strange creature that had terrorized half of the Canterlot nobility. Twilight admittedly found herself a little more enthused then everypony else at the prospect of meeting a new race, but there was still a touch of fear in her about the strange creature that they had encountered.

She had, after all, looked into its eyes, and seen what could be described best as only void and darkness, and now she was wondering whether or not introducing it to everypony was Princess Luna’s best idea, given how on edge everypony still was.

“Princess, with all due respect, you don’t really believe this thing is intelligent do you?” Shining Armoured muttered from his own seat, shaking his head to show his distaste at the situation. "We tried to detain him peacefully,peacefully, and instead he goes and nearly shatters three of Private Striker's ribs..."

“I would advise you not to make such unfounded assumptions,” a male voice suddenly interjected into the ongoing conversation, the tone of it so cold Twilight swore her blood chilled at the very sound. “Doing so may well see you on my bad side, and unless you want your throat torn out and your insides spilt like spare meat, that is not a place you want to be.”

The entire hall went dead silent in a heartbeat as everypony turned, and watched the creature that had terrorized the royal reception enter the room; Princess Luna, strangely by the looks of the things, was more than happy to walk beside it and act as its escort, along with the two heavily armoured royal guards of course.

The creature Twilight's eyes encountered looked nothing like it had only a few hours ago; the night black fur had somehow been replaced by soft tanned skin, it’s former razor-like claws now resembled something like those of Spike, and its eyes were no longer deathly black, but rather an unnaturally shimmering sky blue.

There was still a lot of black fur on it she admitted, but it was concentrated on the top of its head, around its face and on its chest, she also noted it had wrapped a blanket or something similar around its legs to conceal itself.

A monster with decency?

The creature stopped at the far end of the long dining table, and then silently ran its eyes slowly over each pony individually as Luna took her seat, as if waiting for a response or reaction to his statement.

In reply to it's wandering gaze, as it met each of them, Fluttershy gave a fearful squeak and jumped under the table, Rarity, as Twilight half expected, gasped a few times before fainting and falling from her chair with a crash, and Pinkie burst out laughing hysterically and joined the white unicorn on the floor a moment later. Rainbow Dash simply crossed her front hooves and returned the creatures glare with utter dislike, Applejack sat motionless other than raising an eyebrow in curiosity, and Shining Armor did nothing more than snort in reply.

As the creature's eyes fell on Twilight, however, she felt herself literally unable to look away, like the creature’s eerie piercing blue eyes held her in place as they looked into the deepest depths of her young mind; whatever this creature was, she was sure it wasn’t like anything else she'd find in Equestria or her books.

Slowly, a smile spread across his face, and he removed his eyes from her, flicking them for a moment around the well-lit grand hall, before settling them on the two awaiting Princesses.

“I guess I should start then,” He said with what could be seen as a grin, his thickly built forelegs resting gently behind his back. “Greetings to you all, I am Lucian, first of the breed and leader of the lycans.”

If you couldn't hear a pin drop before, you could now.

Twilight swore her brother actually choked on a breath of air, and a second later went into a coughing fit, causing everypony, including Lucian, to look at him as he began to sweat quite profusely.

A wide smile spread across Lucian’s face as he raised his head and laughed, his deep voice rebounding around the hall like the howl of a timberwolf.

“Be calm, captain,” He chuckled as he pulled his long locks of black hair from his face. “It was your wedding reception after all, and I hear you had some trouble earlier on… so you may sleep easy, I have no intention of sending an army to rip you limb from limb, if that is what you're afraid of.”

Did he take some kind of sadistic pleasure in scaring ponies?

Shining Armour just nodded rapidly in reply and took a few deep breaths, his normally stoic face, along with those of most of the other guards in the room, now a slight shade of pale green.

Lucian then returned his attention to the two Princesses, who were both still watching him from their respective seats, expressions showing them to be both wary and unsure of the situation as a whole; his eyes first running over Luna for a moment and then resting on Celestia.

“I believe you are Luna’s older sister, Celestia, yes?” He asked with a grin, slowly inclining his head to the princess of the sun to show his respect. “Luna has told me much about you.”

“I am... indeed,” Celestia replied somewhat cautiously, rising from her cushioned seat and navigating her way around the table to Lucian, her eyes wandering over the lycan’s unusual frame. “You are a most... unusual creature, Lucian; you seem to possess the politeness of pony, and yet the apparent bloodlust of a griffin at the same time, a most unusual combination…"

"I am, for the most part, a wolf, princess," The lycan replied. "And as the leader of my kind I am expected to be both a diplomat and a warrior; for me, there is no difference between sitting down to make an agreement, and dealing with my enemies as I face them."

"Eesh, you talk like a diamond dog when you say that," Shining Armour muttered, giving Lucian a once over. "And while I'm at it, you sure as hay smell like one."

Lucian blinked at him. "Diamond dog?" he asked, noting the various shudders in the room.

"Bipedal canines that inhabit the mountainous regions of Equestria, usually living in underground pack-cities." Celestia answered shrewdly, the note of distaste not escaping the lycan. "And might I add that you basically just put part of their cultural into words... are you're races related by chance?"

"I fear I have never set foot in your country until today, so I'm quite sure we aren't."

"Hmm... I guess that makes sense." Celestia replied, albeit a little tensely. "Tell me then, Lucian, if you are royalty from outside Equestria, where is you kingdom, may I ask? I have lived a very long time, and seen nearly all of the known world in those years, and yet I have never heard of the lycan throne nor it's nation until today.”

Lucian sighed, and rubbed his forehead, as Celestia continued pacing in circles around him; to her surprise, Twilight noticed Luna seemed almost agitated at her sister’s actions, like Celestia was trying to take something the princess of the night had already laid claim to.

“If I am to speak my mind... I would guess that I'm from a world unlike this one in many ways..."

"You mean a country far across the sea?" Celestia interjected curiously.

"Well... uh, no, I fear a different world all together from what I have seen and been told, or so it seems anyway to me... have either of you ever heard of the race of humans?"

Both princesses simultaneously shook their heads, prompting Lucian to groan and rub his temples.

"I thought not," Lucian said flatly, his eyes drifting towards the ceiling. "Look, exactly why I'm here is unknown to me as much as it is to you, Princess Celestia... I have something of an idea as to how I got here, but I'd rather not discus it openly for the sake of keeping my own sanity."

The knowledge of being dead, Lucian silently figured, probably wouldn't go down so well.

"What is your world like then, if I may pry." The marble princess asked. "The knowledge may allow me to understand what your saying a bit better."

The lycan huffed. "Well... In my world there are three main races, much like there are... earth ponies, unicorns, and pegasi here, as Luna has explained to me. I am a lycan, but there are also humans and vampires, who for your knowledge look fairly much like what I do at the present moment. Humans are the most numbered race in our world, and have a lifespan of around ninety years, give or take ten; vampires and lycans however are immortal…”

For a moment Lucian stopped talking as his eyes fell on Twilight, who, as everypony quickly noticed, was busy taking down everything the lycan said on a small notepad that had somehow materialized in front of her from Celestia-knows-where. Once she realized all eyes were on her, the pad and writing quill quickly disappeared, and the unicorn’s cheeks went blazing red; Pinkie burst into a new fit of laughter, while Dash face-hoofed to show everypony else’s embarrassment.

“Twi, please, tell me you weren’t just taking notes?” Dash said flatly as she shook her head.

“Well…I…um…” Twilight murmured as she played with her hooves. “Maybe.”

“You are SUCH an egghead.”

“Anyway…” Lucian went on as he ignored the two ponies, folding his thick arms over his chest as his eyes left Twilight. “As I said, lycans and vampires are immortal… but we both have our own individual poisons, so to speak.”

“Out of curiosity, what makes you immortal?” Twilight asked hurriedly, ignoring the new wave of awkward looks from everypony. “Is it magic?”

“Umm… no… I fear we do not have ‘magic’ in my world,” Lucian said gently, once more inclining his head to the curious unicorn, who's mouth was now hanging open at the thought of 'no magic'. “Our immortality is caused by a virus in our blood, which is transferred by either normal reproductive means, or a simple bite. There are, for your knowledge, three known virus types… those being lycan, vampire, and a rare pure strain which can result in a hybrid of the races… a creature similar to an... alicorn, I believe Luna referred to herself as being, in your world's regards,”

Ignoring Rainbow Dash’s prior insult, Twilight hastily took down the lycan’s words with her quill and pad, ideas of tests and experiments concerning immortality already whizzing through her head.

“And… how old are you may I ask?” Luna asked abruptly, causing everypony to now look between the princess of the night, and Lucian, with curious expressions.

“Seven hundred and ninety five.”

Lucian swore even the two princesses gasped at the statement; it was however understandable when, in comparison, he could have been mistaken for a thirty year old human. What Lucian noticed next was the somewhat frightening grin that spread across Luna’s face, a grin that surprisingly unnerved the world’s most battle-hardened lycan.

“This is… Interesting,” Celestia said with a small laugh as she broke the silence, a moment later lifting her head and yawning at the ceiling before continuing. “The concept of parallel worlds is known to us, but we have never known for anypony to cross from one to another..."

"Perhaps I am just lucky then." The lycan smirked, mentally trying to accept what he was being told while keeping a straight face.

Celestia giggled behind a hoof. "So it seems... but I fear everypony it is late, and I really need some sleep after all that has transpired, so perhaps we may continue this conversation another time… you and your friends may stay here in the castle for tonight if you wish, Twilight. As for you Shining Armor, I’m guessing Cadence, and your honeymoon, now await in the courtyard with your carriage… and Luna, if you would be so kind to find Lucian some cloths and a spare chamber, he seems to me to be lacking the warmth of a fur coat at the moment, and I do not believe it fair to make him sleep in the dungeons.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

“So who will be royal guard captain while Shining Armor is away?” Lucian asked, trying to break the silence that had reigned since the two of them had begun climbing the tower stairs.

“Iron Lance, his second in command, will take the rank for the time being,” Luna replied from behind him a little nervously, the clopping of her hooves on the stone stairs the only sound in Lucian’s ears. “Although he should only be gone a month, or so I am told to believe.”

The conversation came to an end after that, and was replaced by what was best described as an 'awkward' silence, the two of them instead climbing the eastern tower’s countless stairs without so much as a word to each other. Lucian had no dislike of Luna, in fact he felt quite the opposite about her, but he couldn’t help but feel unnerved by the way she looked at him, especially with those big glistening eyes of hers; exactly why these ponies had such unnaturally large eyes was beyond him.

He was now though, admittedly, a little more comfortable with being around them... even with his brief incarceration.

Thinking about it, not only did they seem kind to him, even after learning of what he was, but had gone out of their way to make sure he was comfortable, perhaps in a small way to try and make amends; Celestia had invited him to stay in her palace, sought some of her royal seamstresses to make him some cloths, and Luna, in the meantime, had gladly found him a brown robe to wear, an attire leant to minotaur ambassadors when they paid visits he'd been told; it wasn't a perfect fit, but fairly close. In truth it was perhaps the best treatment he had ever received from anyone, although he was still a little suspicious of Luna’s intentions... was this some kind of test?

He sighed at the thought. It had always been the harsh reality for lycans and vampires alike, the knowledge that they would never truly be accepted by mortal man; the stories passed down through human generations had seen to that. There had always been some truth in those stories, what with the likes of William, and Viktor's throughts on the race of man, but when the vast majority of lycans didn't want to harm humans, and instead just wanted to be seen as equal beings... it was more then a little disheartening.

Would these ponies just turn out the same? If they knew the truth nature of the lycans?

“I should not think of such things,” He whispered to himself, shaking his head to rid himself of his thoughts.

At last the two of them reached the towers top, and the side-by-side sleeping chambers that adorned it, Luna quickly turning on the lights with a flick of her glowing horn, before beckoning the lycan into one of them.

He couldn’t help but gasp at the glorious splendour of the room; elegant pony-done paintings hung from every wall, soft carpet and marble tiles covered the floor, a wooden desk and wardrobe sat beside a balcony door, a mighty fireplace sat on the far side of the chamber, and a huge bed was laid out to accommodate the occupant. Lucian felt his jaw slacken as he walked around the room, stroking his beard and examining it thoroughly; an action judging by Luna’s sudden burst of giggles amused the princess of the night.

“I take it you approve then? Rarity, as my sister has told me, reacted in the same way when she stayed here.”

“I… I have never seen such a lavish chamber in all my life princess,” Lucian replied at last, regaining himself before returning his eyes to the awaiting alicorn. “I do not know how to thank you.”

“My sister wishes for you to be comfortable Lucian, as do I, so please you need not thank us for this,” Luna smiled, taking a few steps forward until virtually no gap remained between the lycan and the princess of the night, her eyes looking over him intently. “Although… I am most curious about you I will admit… one does not simply live eight hundred years, and not have an interesting story to tell.”

Lucian raised a curious eyebrow and sat on the end of the bed before replying.

“I will say my life has taken many interesting turns for sure, but I fear most are rather depressing and... war-filled, princess... not the types of tales you’d wish to hear.”

"You think me a filly, Lucian?" The dark alicorn teased.

Lucian chuckled. "No, I simply do not wish to make see me... differently... because of events outside of my control."

“I spent a thousand years trapped in the moon with nopony to talk with,” Luna murmured softly, her eyes closing as she spoke in a sad tone. “And even now I spend my time awake alone… drifting across the night sky with only myself as company while everypony sleeps, and I get so lonely some times. Whatever your story, I would very much like to hear it, for despite my long life I have heard so very few Lucian… and had very little close company in all my years.”

“So you… do not sleep then princess?”

“I sleep very little,” Luna replied with a shrug of her graceful shoulders, sounding a touch defeated. “I do not need it… but if you must sleep then I understa…”

“No,” Lucian jumped in hurriedly, placing a gentle hand on the alicorn princess, her smile returning. “In truth I do not sleep much either… I simply said nothing as I did not wish to insult your sister’s hospitality.”

The two shared a smile as Luna’s eyes opened again, sparkling and shimmering just like Lucian’s own blue ones. For a moment they just stood there as her moonlight flooded in through the window...

...And then, almost like an excited child about to get a new toy, Luna joined Lucian on the bed, the princess of the night laying her head down across his thigh as she got comfortable.

"I am very glad to hear that Lucian,” Luna said, smiling and looking up at the lycan. “Now please… tell me your life’s tale.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Note:

Just to clarify…no this chapter is not meant to lead to sex, rather it is kind of the beginning of the romance.