Chapter 1: Prologue

The ice covered castle crumbed and creaked as the winds of the massive storm renewed in strength. The blood leading into the heavy stone building froze instantly upon the ground. The honor guards lasted mere seconds against the single figure that stepped through the shattered door he had just pulverized with the latest honor guard's dead body. The last of the honor guard stood with his spear leveled at the new threat. He lunged at his foe as was his duty, but a hand with three fingers extended firmly slipped past the spear as a powerful arm waited for the shaft of the weapon to enter within range before it closed around the weapon at an awkward angle crushing the wood and snapping the spear like a twig. The three clawed fingertips punched through the fur, skin, and muscle, forcefully tearing out the fourth cervical vertebra from the wolf's neck. The last of the Honor guard fell to the ground limp as a wet rag, dead as the others. The invader looked up at the twelve foot tall hulking mass of fur claws fangs and muscles waiting calmly with predator eyes cast down from the lofty throne.

"You certainly have come at an opportune time for your goals no doubt, but never the less you came only to die..." The massive wolf rose from his throne carved from bones and decorated with the hides of those who had defied him as the seven foot tall invader looked up at him with no discernible fear, only regret and sorrow.

The wolf looked up at the massive overlord of the north. "Fennir.... you have sinned. You have thrown this world out of balance. You could not rule in our world and you have done nothing but fail to rule this world...Now the Susi will be stuck here fixing YOUR mess... the damage you have done with your great hunt is irreversible... all for your petty desire to rule..."

Fennir bellowed in a deep throated roar as he leaped off of his throne cracking the stone beneath his paws as he stood tall. Bringing his club to bare. Carved from the bones of the elder Elementals he hefted the hundred pound weapon with a single hand. Growling and grunting in anger he looked at the much smaller foe before finally speaking. "What right have you to challenge me? I am power itself... the physical  manifestation of power, it is my blood right to rule... I a-"

Fennir's voice was cut off as his mouth filled with blood and he lurched back from the impact. He could feel the clawed fingers wrapping around his heart from the open hand that had just plunged into his chest. "Your birthright is death. Power is not the sole requirement for leadership. All your mindless actions have done is cost this land of its true rulers and damned the lives of every soul within... The Kaar are loose, the Elementals cannot control the weather leaving the entire nation to a frozen doom, the Caribou were driven out , and I am never to return to my home. It was decided that your actions will be my responsibility to repair, even though the infinite damage you caused cannot be repaired. It still falls to me to do the impossible and to undo what you have done at least until balance has been restored."

Blood oozed steadily in a stream out of Fennir's chest and mouth as his massive hands tried to pry the smaller wolf away from his heart. "You... can't....w...what... who are you?"

"Not who, but what.... I am now Susien Kuningas.... I am the king of wolves....ruler of the North, and you... are a mistake of the past..." His grip over Fennir's heart tightened and with one swift motion he tore out the giant wolf's heart letting the once powerful mass of muscle and fur fall to the ground. Staring at the heart in the palm of his hand the now lone wolf breathed deeply looking in sorrow at the body before him just past the organ in his hand. "Fennir... Fennir the tyrant, Fennir the heretic, Fennir  the world eater.... you are no more... and this world is lesser for your mere existence..."

The King of wolves looked up at the crumbling castle as he held Fennir's heart high. Opening his mouth he closed his eyes and dropped the heart within his gaping maw and swallowed it whole.

"This land bleeds, I have much to do..." His eyes glared out the door he had just came in through before turning about and heading to the dungeons.

3000 years later

"And so this wolf king guy just fixed everything?" The cyan blue pegasus gave a skeptical look at Twilight.

"Of course not, according to this book he did his best to undo the damage done by Fennir's great hunt." She smiled eagerly plunging back into the ancient book that Cadence had just sent her the day before.

"So the great hunt was when Fennir killed all the Elementals who controlled all the weather?...why couldn't they just get a few pegasi to do it for them?" Rainbow smirked imagining the fun of leading a weather team plowing through an uncontrolled storm to save the kingdom of the north and getting some illustrious metal for the heroic deed. Her fantasy was interrupted by Twilight's voice, which at this point she was very used to.

"No, there were no pegasi within a thousand miles. And at the time the only pegasi there were in existence, was the pegasi tribe and they were not really on speaking terms with anypony. Plus controlling the weather was not the ONLY thing that the Elementals did. They kept the peace, those Kaar things I mentioned are vegetarian dragons. They eat the iron trees to keep the iron forest from invading and overrunning the rest of the north. The Kaar, despite being vegetarians are non sentient, very violently territorial, and breed like rabbits... they sound terrible."

"Soooo.... these Elementals kept them from fighting and over breeding and stuff?" Rainbow Dash then proceeded to imagine a fight against an army of dragons. This process was not too uncommon for her. Twilight was her friend but sometimes she was boring as all Tartarus. It did them both good to half listen and enjoy what could be enjoyed, even if Twilight caught Rainbow lost in her own imagination from time to time.

"Yes. The Elementals kept EVERYTHING in order, from the weather to public relations to even the crops. In fact there are hints in this book that suggest that they even had some part in moving the sun and moon or perhaps even more back in the ancient times. But the point here is that when the Tyrant Fennir came in he was jealous of the position of power and enslaved the Susi clans to hunt down the Elementals then he forced the Susi to eat the dead Elementals so that they would gain their power and hence make stronger soldiers before he moved to take over other nations." Twilight squee'd with glee as she flipped a few  more pages and showed Rainbow Dash the picture of a wolf holding chains that lead to the necks of other wolves then another picture of a smaller but still pretty big wolf standing atop those same chains now broken and each group of wolves that were once chained now had some sort of glow about them, not to mention very happy faces. "I mean he was not exactly a good guy what with some of the stuff he did AFTER that... but he still freed the Susi from enslavement and did all he could to undo what that evil Fennir did."

"So king wolf guy saves the day and then what?..."

"Susien Kuningas was his name... or.. um.. title I think... and yeah he saved the Kingdom of the North, or as the book says 'The Kingdom of the Great North'. Then he took all the tribes who ate the Elementals and taught them how to use the magic they gained from eating the immortal Elementals. This turned them all into druids, shamans, and oracles. They created a whole new types of magic which they used and even still to this day use to control the weather, keep the peace, and foresee future incidents. There was even one in here about them foreseeing an age of darkness and they had to try and warn someone named... um... Aurinko Pylly... I have no idea who or what that is... but basically it didn't work whoever he was, Aurinko Pylly misunderstood or just didn't trust the wolves and there was some sort of war that lead into an age of darkness. But all in all this is just fascinating. I had no idea that such an amazing culture and history was beyond the frozen north.... hay, its hundreds and hundreds of miles beyond even Yakyakistan , beyond the great northern sea even! Its just amazing..."

"Um... Twilight?... exactly why did all this come up? you just starting going on and on and on about how amazing it all was... where did you get the book and why exactly did all this come about?" Rainbow hovered in her spot with the odd silence with only the sound of Rainbow's softly flapping wings to note as Twilight stopped in thought.

"Oh.. yeah... um...I totally forgot about that... Cadence and Shining just got a message from Kingdom of the Wolves asking for an alliance and trade. Cadence quickly went into the depths of the libraries in the Crystal Empire and found this book. She found two copies actually and figured that if their nation can be friends with the Crystal Empire then why not let the Princess of Friendship try and make new friends for all of Equestria?"

"Whoa?... so we could see one of these legendary wolf things someday soon? will it be this... um.. susun kunugs?"

"Susien Kuningas!... and no.. most likely not, he was just a Susi, its what they call their race, he was a bipedal wolf... a VERY powerful wolf but not many beings live that long, not even Princess Celestia is that old. Its probably his great great great great great great great great.... um.. you get it. One of his descendants, but still expect them to be very proud of their warrior heritage. Even before Fennir came along all they did was wage war among their own clans. Fennir just made them wage war against the Elementals, and Susien Kuningas makes them fight the Kaar so they can both regulate their population and... um...." She paused to look closer at the book eyes going wide. "Um... feed his people with the flesh of the Kaar....they eat dragons?"

"Whoa... hard core Twilight... I'm not sure whether to be happy sad or frightened... Do you really think ponies can be friends with... um... meat eaters?"

"You made friends with Gilda and then even now Pony/Griffin relations are just fine... they eat meat from time to time... it should be no different.... I think." She poked her nose back into the book trying to find more. "I am excited none the less, this is amazing and I cant wait to see what kind of friends these Susi tribes of the North will be..."

The landing craft rocked in the rough frozen seas as the wolves sat in grave silence checking and rechecking their weapons. Axes, spears, swords, and finally the standard issue single shot trap door infantry rifle. Each soldier carefully guarded the leather pouch at their waist filled with two dozen rounds. Every last wolf within the landing craft had already loaded the first round into the weapon and waited patiently for the Druid in command to address them. The veterans sat up front and the newer recruits tried their best to sit in the far back. shivering and whimpering at the sounds of the battle on the shores of lake Seppa just outside the iron forest.

"Sons of the cursed blood... wake up and ready up...you young pups who are new... stick close to the veterans... remember to shoot for the eyes and stay out of the way of the Shamans and Druids...if you are injured stay put... When the beasties think you are dead they will move on..." The Druid overseer looked over the grim faces of the Susi about to engage in the battle. The vessel bumped against the shore cracking the ice and triggering the Druid's reaction. "and.... GO!"

The front of the landing craft gave way and out poured the veterans followed hesitantly by the new troops who instantly grew cold in shock at the sight of the Susi who took their place within the landing craft. Scarred brutalized injured even souless looking empty eyes staring back at them. The only two uninjured Veterans pulled the ramp back up and the Druid on board flared his magic forcing the waters to surge and pull the vessel back out to the waters to return to the capital. The Citadel could still be seen in the far distance as if taunting those who wished to escape the frozen battlefield.

One such young pup stared back at the Citadel whimpering before he looked back just in time to see the pale sickly white skin stretched over a powerful skull and powerful thick muscles, six beady eyes leveling on him. A cold panic shot up inside of him as the fumbled with his rifle trying to bring it to bear  at the massive Kaar that stood up ten meters out of the snow it had tunneled in from. Its mouth opened releasing its signature guttural roar and massive claws rose to crush down on the lone youth. However, fate favored the pup as bolts of fire and lightning struck the side of the Kaar's head and a Shaman leapt up its body. Plunging her axes into the dragon's head she flooded the Kaar's body with torrents of lightning. The massive beast fell, stunned long enough for the Shaman step in and to slash open its throat allowing it to bleed to death, she stepped down glaring at the wolf pup.

"You are one of the cursed blood yes?... what are you doing away from your company?"

"Y...Yes ma'am...I... I just  I just...g.." She swatted him upside the head interrupting his fearful stammering.

"Centurion!... find this pup's company and tell them not to expect him back..." A heavier wolf he did not notice nodded and took off as the young wolf shivered staring up at the Shaman.

"W...wait! I... I.. Ill do better!" He noticeably cowered and rose his hands shielding his face.

She swatted him again. "Shut up... my personal aid got stepped on last Tuesday. You are obviously not one for fighting so shut up... you are coming with me as my new aid..."

"But... I'm of cursed blood? do you really want me?"

Again she swatted him over the head. "Don't question me... out here in the iron forest no one cares if you are descended from the Tyrant... I have to write a report for the King's Shaman and YOU are going to deliver it, then return...now come on little pup... we have a report to write... let the butchers and your brothers take care of the Kaar..." She started in one directly only to pause and look back at the young wolf. "pup!...what is your name?"

He stopped and looked back very grateful that he managed to be pulled from battle but still very frightened at the possibility of his heritage coming back to bite him in the furry tush. It was very common for the descendants of Fennir's two hundred sons to be treated ill, even when the old king had ordered them to be treated the same as everyone else so long as they hunted the Kaar with the military when they became of age.

"I am Jalm...Jalm of house kynnen"

"Hrmm... ok then pup..." She grinned taking note of his name despite her intention to never use it until he stopped cowering at everything that moved.

Her stride slowed as she looked up. "I wonder if the Shaman is right... do the Equines actually want a treaty after all this time?" She stared up at the Citadel from the great distance with a smirk before walking off to file her report Jalm reluctantly and fearfully in tow.