Underworld: Equestria

Chapter 8: Suspicions, Slight Seductions, and Strange Events

“And what, by the blood of William Corvinus, are you doing here?” Lucian chuckled as they embraced each other like old times, everypony watching the strange re-meeting of old friends with a mixture of interest and amusement.

“I was going to ask you the same question, old friend,” Raze replied as they let go of each other, giving Lucian a fond firm punch in the shoulder for good times sake. “I must say though, if not for you I’d believe myself crazy… talking ponies of all things, what is this strange place?”

The last words he spoke while he looked over at the five colourful ponies, who were currently watching them, and making the lycan feel slightly uncomfortable. He wasn't exactly thrilled about being gawked at by strange creatures.

“They are the main residents of this world called Equestria, Raze, and are generally a very caring and peaceful race… and also may I personally say, seem to be quite accepting of creatures such as ourselves. Other than them you have a few other races in these lands such as dragons… on which note, may I introduce you to my friends, Ash and Applejack.”

Raze slowly removed his eyes from Lucian and refocused them on the other two who had accompanied him, or specifically on the hulking black dragon, who was at that moment towering over everyone else, and actually blocking out the sunlight.

There were very few moments in a lycan’s life when they could say they actually felt a little scared, or small; this truly was one of those moments for Raze.

“You are… big,” the lycan said as his eyes ran over the mighty creature, causing a toothy smirk to spread across the dragon’s maw as their eyes met.

“As are you, it seems,” Ash chuckled in return, his colossal night black wings spreading out to show his true size to the lycan. “A pleasure to meet your Raze.”

“Likewise,” the black lycan grinned with an incline of his head.

Raze then turned to the stunned amber mare who was standing beside Lucian, raising an eye brow as he saw her mane and tail were tied back, and a western style hat was sitting atop her head.

Unlike Rarity, she had no horn to speak of, and yet, judging by body and muscle proportions, was presumably much stronger than the white unicorn. What he also noticed was that she had her jaw hanging open and her rather bright green eyes running over him fiercely, resulting in an amused grin spreading across his dark face.

“And you are the one known as Applejack then? I must say you look to be an admirably strong creature, I have seen many equines in my life, but few with the amount of muscle you possess.”

It was hard to tell because of the colour of her coat, and the fact she was standing in Ash’s shadow, but Raze got the impression she blushed at his complement of her figure, sheepishly hiding her face beneath the brim of her hat.

In truth she was blushing, and wildly at that; not only was she being complemented on her body, but by a lycan who looked like he had the equivalent of all of her big brother’s muscle stored in one mighty bicep, and her brother was one of the biggest ponies around.

“Well… thank ya kindly,” she replied at last as she somewhat regained her composure, raising her hat from her face but still seeming a little embarrassed. “It ain’t often I get words like that coming my way, and yes I’m Applejack… pleasure to be meeting your acquaintance.”

Raze once again inclined his head before first looking at the various piles of scrap wooden, and then uneasily looked back at an awaiting Lucian, who for his part did pretty much the same thing in the same order.

“What were those things my friend?” Raze asked bluntly, looking between his friend and the others present around him. “They were wolves… but made of pieces of living and breathing wood, unlike anything I have ever encountered before.”

He looked on as Lucian did the only thing he could, shrug his shoulders; It seemed to Raze that his old friend and leader was still learning the strange ways of this world, just as he was, and in truth probably only knew a little more about its inhabitants then he did.

“Ironically they are known as Timberwolves, Raze,” Ash put in to fill the silence, and to answer Raze’s question, drawing curious gazes from both lycan’s as he lowered his head and motioned with his snout. “They are said to be the results of stray magic left over from a battle between two powerful ponies over a millennia ago.”

The last words Ash said as he cast his eyes momentarily down at Lucian; Applejack, Rarity and the three fillies all looked between each other in search of what he meant, none finding an answer.

“There is… magic… in this world?” Raze muttered sheepishly.

A broad grin spread across Lucian’s face as he nodded in affirmation to the other lycan.

Raze simply groaned as his already overloaded mind processed the facts. "Again, old friend... what is this place?"

“And yet…” the dragon went on like he was thinking aloud, with a thud sitting back on his hind legs as he looked over the battleground and the nearby trees, everyone else looking up at him. “This is strange. Timberwolves, from memory, are very territorial by nature, and hence never venture beyond the borders of the Everfree forest… unless something stronger than them encroaches on their territory.”

“Perhaps I may have frightened them a bit,” Lucian grinned with a tilt of his head and a shake of his black locks, Raze cracking a smirk at his old friend’s statement, while everypony else looked on clueless. “Whatever the reason, what is done is done and they have been dealt with…”

Lucian glanced up at Raze before continuing, a firm hand rising, before coming to rest on the dark lycan’s shoulder, and the grin on Lucian’s face only widening.

“…And now I find myself having you at my side again, Raze, to say the least I doubt I could be happier with this strange turn of events… all we need to do now is get you used to living here in Equestria, and amongst ponykind, which although I look forward too, regrettably, will probably be a minor culture shock for you old friend.”

“I will survive,” Raze said with a humours shake of his own head, looking between his lycan leader, Ash and the small group of ponies he guessed he could now call ‘friends’. “Although, with respect, and if it’s not too much hassle... I would much prefer to have a roof over my head then trees, that forest is not the sort of place I’d like to sleep in again… do you have a place within this town Lucian?”

“Like you, I am for the moment slightly displaced Raze,” Lucian sighed, removing his hand and scratching his bearded chin. “And I fear the library I am staying at only has one spare room…”

“He can stay with me!” Applejack said the moment Lucian had finished, causing everypony, dragon and lycan to jump and look at her with expressions of surprise, resulting in the amber pony’s cheeks once again going as red as ripe apples. “Uh… sorry bout that… what I mean to say, is that we do have a spare bed over at the farm if you’re interested, after all, you did save my little sister Applebloom, so it’s only fair I try and repay ya for that.”

Raze gave a hearty chuckle; he admitted these ponies were a rather odd race compared to his own, or even humans for that matter... but if they were all as kind hearted as the ones he had met so far, he guessed he could get used to them.

“I will gladly accept your offer, Applejack,” He replied happily.

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“I simply do not understand these lycans, Applejack,” Rarity said dryly as she trotted through Ponyville, alabaster white hooves kicking up small clouds of dust behind her just like her amber comrade. “Personally, I cannot decide if they are somewhat sophisticated, or just animalistic.”

“They don’t seem so bad to me Rares, Lucian’s a nice guy, and Raze seems pretty easy going,” Applejack chuckled as she trotted beside her friend, gaining the reward of a pair of daggers being glared at her. “What?”

“I am sorry, Applejack, but I do not see how you not only trust Raze, but willingly invite him into your home of all places… if like me you had seen what happened back there, if you saw what Raze did to those Timberwolves…”

“All of which he did to save our sisters lives, and your tight flank Rarity, so how about you cut him some slack on that rope,” Applejack snorted with a surprising amount of anger in her voice, the sudden flare of fire causing the unicorn to uneasily widen the space between them. "And just cause it's your element, doesn't mean the rest of us can't be generous now and then."

For the next few minutes, the two said nothing to each other as they navigated the busy midday roads of Ponyville, seeking out their destination of Twilight’s library in complete and utter silence, while they avoided everypony else they came across; they both had the same goal and would not deviate from it.

Beneath the brim of her hat, however, Applejack was finding herself somewhat lost in an odd chain of thought, trying to figure out why she had abruptly snapped at one of her oldest friends, for simply voicing her opinion of all things. The earth pony guessed it was simply because her opinion was quite the opposite, and perhaps more accurate than her friend’s, she had after all actually sat down and talked to a lycan, while Rarity had only ever had a few passing words with one or seen their dark side.

And yet there was something else pulling at her tail, something not related to lycans, but strangely to Raze directly. When she had invited him to stay at the farm, earlier she had done so without a second thought, like something other than her brain had been speaking for her at the time; plus she had willingly and trustingly allowed Applebloom and her friends to show him around Ponyville in lycan form, with Lucian and Ash of course.

“Oh get out of my head,” she hissed mentally as she pushed the thoughts from her mind, she had done the right thing by him and that was all that mattered now.

Although his small compliment of her body continued to rebound inside her skull.

Being a small town, they found themselves standing before the library fairly soon, Rarity taking a quick glance over her shoulder at her farmer counterpart, before loudly knocking on the door, both wondering and hoping that Twilight would be home to hear the rather interesting news.

“It’s open!”

“Answers that question,” Applejack smirked to herself as she followed Rarity inside. “Does she ever leave this place?”

Twilight was, as they both expected, lying stomach-down on the wooden floor, and buried in a rather large book, a floating quill beside her to take down notes on the as of yet unknown subject as she read through the numerous pages. She immediately looked up when she saw her two friends enter looking a little uneasy, a rather annoyed expression crossing her face that was presumably caused by their own nervous ones.

“Ok, what did Lucian do now?”

Applejack and Rarity both grimaced and looked between each other before returning their eyes to Twilight, who subsequently and rather quickly got to her hooves, and took a few steps towards them, looking like she was actually on the brink of kicking the nearest somepony’s flank.

“Well, actually, it isn’t Lucian who’s the matter on our minds, darling,” Rarity started somewhat timidly as she took a step back, causing the lavender mare to stop her advance, and then arch one of her eye brows. “Please do try and stay calm, but we believe that you, and hence Princess Celestia, need to know that… we now have another lycan in Ponyville.”

Twilight’s bottom jaw dropped open like a block of lead had suddenly been shoved into her mouth, her maw moving a few times, but only a single word managing to be heard and understood by the other two mares in the room.

“H… how?”

Two things happened in the space of around four seconds after the single word was spoken; the first being Twilight’s eyebrow twitched menacingly a few more times, as she made sense of what had just been said to her, and the second being the echoing of loud thud as the purple unicorn fainted, and hit the floor in front of her two friends a moment later.

“Well that didn’t exactly go our way,” Applejack said bluntly as she stared down at the unconscious mare, Rarity huffing and nodding in silent agreement. “Sheesh… and I thought you were a drama queen Rares.”

The quick moment of silent agreement was over quickly.

“We will debate those extremities later, Applejack,” Rarity snorted at the insult, flicking her tail in annoyance as she walked past and headed for the stairs. “SPIIIIKE! Are you up there darling?”

“I… uh-hu-wa… Rarity?” was the half still-asleep reply.

A few moments later, Spike grudgingly emerged from the upstairs bedroom, and descended the stairs, rubbing his eyes a few times to clear away the last remnants of his rather extended sleep as he made his way down to the main room. He stopped for only a moment to look curiously between the two standing mares, and the unconscious form of his sister-figure Twilight, who was at that moment beginning to drool over the pages of her book.

“Do I even want to know?”

“We had news she didn’t exactly take well darling,” Rarity replied with a face-hoof. “News concerning the amount of lycans in Ponyville… increasing.”

“Increasing huh? Well, makes sense then I guess, as much a love her and all, I’d say she has a fear of them,” Spike grinned as he folded his claws, causing both mares to look at him with expressions of shock. “It’s a long story involving what Lucian had for dinner.”

Whatever by Celestia that meant, neither mare really wanted to know, and hence to avoid the subject Rarity raised her horn, and using her magic plucked a blank scroll from the shelf on her left side, levitating it across the room and into the space directly in front of Spike’s claws. The young dragon instantly got the message and pulled out a trusty quill, holding it at the ready as Rarity began pacing while Applejack stood perfectly still and watched.

“Ok Spike, this is important, I want you to write down exactly what I say,” the unicorn began, her pacing growing into the form of large circles. “Dear Princess Celestia, we are writing to you to inform both yourself, and Princess Luna, of an unexpected arrival here in the town of Ponyville, that being of a second lycan named Raze, an old friend of Lucian’s.”

“Raze huh? Doesn’t sound that scary,” Spike smirked as he rapidly wrote down the words.

“I wouldn’t go saying that till you meet him,” Applejack snickered, giving the young dragon a firm pat on the head. “He makes my big brother look like a foal in size comparison,”

Spike paled a little at the thought of such a creature, which in his mind was a combination of Lucian mixed with an Ursa Minor.

“Anyway, back to topic…although we have only known him a short time, we have deduced from both him and Lucian he is not a threat to anypony’s wellbeing, and have hence welcomed him into pony society. Raze is at the present being accommodated by the Apple family, while we and Lucian introduce him to the pony way of life, which, despite some initial confusion, he seems to be taking to quite well… get all of that Spike?”

“So far,” was the dragon’s reply, the scribbling sounds dying away as he finished the last line she had said.

“Ok, last thing Spike” Rarity said skittishly, his eyes watching as a shudder ran though her entire body. “However, the matter of his arrival has also raised some indirect, but rather important questions. Earlier today, a group of six Timberwolves left the Everfree forest, and travelled as far as the school-house, which is located on the outer eastern edge of Ponyville; presumably due to a predatory pack-style attack this action was in search of prey, in the form of ourselves.”

For a moment Spike actually thought he was going to throw up all over message, luckily his stomach just managed to hold his horror in, and his breakfast down.

“This attack was followed by a confrontation between Raze and the Timberwolves, after which no threat to anypony remained, however, it has, as stated, raised some disturbing questions. Ash, our close friend, and one of Ponyville’s three resident adult dragons, voiced a knowledge that Timberwolves are very territorial by nature, and would not leave the Everfree forest unless forcefully displaced. Although we understand we may be jumping to conclusions, given the light of recent events, we believe there may possibly be an as of yet unknown threat within the borders of the Everfree. We will await your response and subsequent action if you see fit… your loyal subjects, Rarity and Applejack.”

Rarity stopped pacing and watched as Spike finished the last few words, dotted the parchment with a loud clack and rolled it up in his claws, holding the sealed letter before the two mares like he was asking for their approval.

“Ya might as send it now Spike,” Applejack nodded, glancing down at the still silent form of her friend Twilight. “I don’t think she’s gonna have anything to say about this anytime soon.”

“I know this is going to come back and bite me somehow,” Spike muttered under his breath as he opened his maw and engulfed the letter in a burst of green flames. “And now…we wait.”

Said waiting was luckily only about seven minutes in length, by which time Twilight had managed to regain consciousness, and shakily get back to her hooves. Despite everyponies best efforts of calming her, however, she was still a little freaked out about the prospect of having two lycan’s around, why though she would not reveal to either Applejack or Rarity, despite their barrage of questions.

What did get her attention, however, was Rarity’s description of the Timberwolf attack; it seemed the lavender unicorn knew more than a bit about the creatures that roamed the Everfree from her studies, and agreed with Ash’s statement of their behaviour when Applejack repeated it.

“If the local Timberwolves are acting it up, it definitely means something is impeding on their territory,” she said as she pulled another book from the shelf, and began to flick through the pages with her magic, the others in the room watching and listening intently. “But it could be anything really… anything from just another but larger pack of Timberwolves, to an Ursa Major… or then again perhaps it’s just Lucian or this Raze guy.”

“Lucian did say he might of frightened them a bit,” Applejack frowned from where she was sitting against a bookcase, her hat sitting beside her front hooves. “You know what that means Twi?”

“Ah… sorry AJ, hehe no clue,” Twilight replied hurriedly as she tried to hide her face behind her purple mane, drawing a look from the amber mare that basically said ‘you know, you’re a terrible liar Twilight... and I mean terrible’

Luckily, before the conversation could go on any further, Spike belched and his mouth involuntarily let out a tongue of bright green flame, which before three mare’s, and one dragon’s eyes, danced and materialized into a rolled up royal-emblem sealed scroll, which Spike hastily plucked from the air, and unrolled while the mares leant him their eyes and ears.

“My loyal subjects Rarity and Applejack,” he began reading aloud, either end of the scroll grasped in his claws. “I am most surprised, but very happy to welcome the lycan Raze to Equestria, and I hope to meet him in the near future, formerly introduce myself, and thank him for his heroic actions in protecting my subjects. As for the matter of the Timberwolves, I will be speaking with my sister and the Equestrian Court about the issue, and should it be deemed necessary I will arrange a guard party to search the Everfree Forest around Ponyville for any signs of a potential threat, or cause for their strange behaviour. Finally, and since I doubt I’ll have another free moment today, could you please advise, and perhaps warn Lucian that Luna intends to come and visit him sometime tonight, her royal highness Princess Celest…wait, what?”

Her stomach churned and two small words unwillingly left Twilights mouth as all eyes in the room rebounded from Spike to her, her cheeks burning like embers as both Applejack and Rarity stared with an obvious hunger for answers to the letters confusing statement; a moment later they both read her facial reaction, and both their jaws dropped as the facts of what had been said sank in like water hitting sand.

“Oh buck,” Twilight hissed as she face-hoofed.

Being the ‘say-it-how-it-looks’ type of country pony, Applejack basically summed up everyponies else’s thoughts in a statement that was half question and half fact; although no doubt already knowing of such things, she disguised the words so Spike’s young mind didn’t become tainted will disturbing images, but it still burned readily in Twilight’s ears as did the thought of Lucian’s reaction when he found out they knew.

“So…Lucian’s…porkin Princess Luna then huh?”

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Notes:

Alright so I decided to throw in some Aussie slang, I’m pretty sure you can get what it means anyway.