Timberwolf Season 1by Dragonfire2lmChaptersBoogeymanApex PredatorProject AlphaBoogeymanScootaloo's grandfather gently nudged her towards the entrance of a bright, colourful building with a smiling group of animals on the sign. The six year old looked up at it in wonder as her burly red haired grandfather smiled down at her and led her inside. The colours of pictures and toys made her eyes bug out in surprise as the young child watched other children play on the plush blue carpet while the grown ups watched on. Scootaloo looked up at her grandfather for reassurance and upon receiving a nod, raced off into the fray. She almost seemed to bound from one activity to the next as movement or light captured her attention and soon she had roped a few other kids in a game of tag. She saw her grandfather talking with a young woman with white skin and orange hair that was tied up in a what her grandmother called a ponytail. The woman adjusted the name tag pinned to her long, blue coat and smiled as she talked. Dreamer Prose listened politely to heavily muscled man with dusty brown skin, dark red hair and matching beard as he looked over at the small, purple haired girl he brought in with kind green eyes before turning his attention back to the daycare worker. "Are you sure Scootaloo will be... Alright?" he asked. "It has been many years since we let one of our own spend time outside the community." "I know, not since I worked with your daughter," Dreamer replied. "Star Fire handled it well and she was a lot older than Scootaloo and from the looks of it, the kid is definitely her mothers daughter." "That is what worries me," the man grunted. "My Little Star would always find a way to get into trouble." "I promise the kid will be fine Redwood, I'll keep an eye on her myself. I have experience with this, trust me." Dreamer stated. Some children dashed between the two adults, laughing and squealing with Scootaloo right behind them. Dreamer gave Redwood a sheepish smile and quickly walked over to calm the group down before one of them tripped and hurt themselves. "She started it." One of the boys said and pointed at Scootaloo. Dreamer sighed and guided the children over to other, less dangerous activities. She was about to tend to some the other parents that still lingered round near the entrance when she felt a tug on her coat. She looked down to see the young girl Redwood had brought in staring up at her in a mix of sadness and fear. "I'm sorry." Scootaloo whimpered and Dreamer swore she saw little brown, fluffy wolf ears splayed down over the child's purple hair. "Hey it's ok," Dreamer replied comfortingly and scooped the sniffing girl into her arms. "You're new and didn't know the rules, c'mon I'll show you the big, shiny poster we keep all the rules on and then we can play catch or something alright?" "Ok." Scootaloo replied and managed a weak smile. She's adorable Dreamer cooed inwardly. The day ended and Dreamer trudged into her barely furnished apartment, flicked on the light and dumped her satchel and coat on the blue, three seater couch and made her way over to the small kitchen. She quickly prepared frozen meal for dinner, as she ate her gaze drifted to the tack board hung up next a nearby window and her eyes focused on a laminated news article. Five Dead In Gang Shooting Five familiar fave looked back at her from their pictures in the news paper clipping, she sighed and threw her half eaten meal in the bin and flopped onto the couch. She picked up a tablet that sat on a small coffee table by the couch and switched it on. Idly she flickered through the displays of various security camera footage of the underground base she was supposed to be in, upon noticing no changes and a quick check to make sure her pet was fed, Dreamer checked her emails. Spam, Junk, ad, click bait and- Oh HQ has a job for me...Weird energy readings near a pizza place? eh not my problem, I'll check it out in a week or two if it turns out to be something serious. She sent a reply back, switched off the tablet and lounged around for the rest of the night. After that first day of introductions, Scootaloo was glued to Dreamer's side and the daycare worker was more than happy to have a small, playful shadow running around after her during work hours. They wiled away the day by drawing, playing and when nap time came around, reading. Fight's, another issue Scootaloo's grandfather was worried about, were never an issue as his granddaughter had fun mimicking Dreamer's casual, yet stern approach to less than friendly children. The weekend before the new school year came sooner than expected and as a treat, the daycare had planned a field trip to a local family friendly pizzeria. The sign above the entrance was decorated the same smiling quartet of animals as the daycare, the inside a loud, bustling place full of noisy children, costumed workers and slightly tired parents chatting away while their offspring ran to one of the many entertainment areas the place had to offer. Dreamer and Scootaloo were drawn to a small play area in a room to the left of the entrance, a massive wooden pirate ship atop a sea of foam blocks greeted them and near the center of the back wall was a stage are concealed by a purple, star patterned curtain. Scootaloo's eyes lit up and she made a dive towards the foam blocks while Dreamer hovered near the stage. "Miss Prose, come play with me!" Scootaloo called out as she rolled around on a pile of foam. "Sorry Scoots, grownups aren't allowed in there." Dreamer replied as she walked over towards the ship. "Aye lass, the foamy waters be no place fer a land lover." a voice stated as a cartoonish looking fox head poked out from behind the stage curtain. "Oi who are you calling a land lover?" Dreamer countered and after a moment, face palmed. "I'm talking to a robot...." "Ye not be talking to any old automaton lass, I be Foxy The Pirate!" the animatronic fox replied and swept back the stage curtain. "The most advanced artificial intelligence this side of the seven seas" "Uh huh" Dreamer deadpanned. "Cool, a real pirate!" Scootaloo said excitedly and bounded over to the stage. "Have you stolen any treasure?" 'Well I have me fair share of buried doubloons little lass, I much prefer sailing the seas and fighting nature herself!" Foxy crowed. "Why don't ye take a seat and ol' Foxy can tell ye a tale or two?" With Scootaloo occupied for the moment, Dreamer headed out into other parts of the restaurant to help the rest of the day care workers look after the other children. She broke up an argument in the arcade ("You all know the rules, take turns or no one plays it."), rescued a lost doll belonging to one of the older kids from the ball pit ("Alright, who threw Miss Smarty Pants into the ball pit? Starlight, go apologize.") and prevented a near accident over at the main stage. {Get off the stage Trixie! It's dangerous up there!"). Lunch didn't come soon enough for Dreamer. Once the kids had been rounded up and Scootaloo had said goodbye to Foxy, everyone was seated at a large table with several different kinds of pizza and fizzy, sugary drinks set out for the group. The children watched excitedly as three animatronics onstage were switched out with a yellow furred bear that sang folk songs and told stories while they ate. Dreamer tuned it out and munched on her fourth slice of pizza. A scream ripped out across the room, Dreamer looked up to see a small group of older children holding a toddler towards the jaws of the singing gold bear onstage. She and many others rushed to stop them as the crying child's head was held in the metal mouth of the robot, which attempted to close but the young boy's head was in the way. The older model, lacking any safeguards, didn't stop and kept applying pressure until- Staff rushed in as parents and daycare staff hurried to calm the hysteria that gripped the pizzeria. So focused on helping the frightened children under her care that Dreamer didn't notice an employee in a golden rabbit costume herd six children into a room past the stage. Once the children were calmed down and Dreamer did a headcount and noticed that Scootaloo wasn't present. She excused herself and notified her fellow workers that she'd meet up with everyone later. Dreamer had searched the entire restaurant multiple times, the staff had done their best to help, but Scootloo and five others were still missing. Closing time was fast approaching and as Dreamer was doing one last round of the place, she heard a noise coming an area near the back of the main stage. She looked around to find the staff were busy elsewhere in the establishment and casually wandered past the stage towards an off limits area of the pizzeria. She prodded walls and looked for any concealed areas until she heard the noise again, it sounded like something whimpering. The sound came from an old, boarded up section at the end of a corridor beyond the main area. The boards hadn't been tampered with but more sounds echoed from beyond the door. Dreamer checked more to see if anyone was nearby and reached into the inside of her coat and pulled out a small energy detector of some kind. She flicked it on and pointed it at the boarded up area, the meter beeped and went up as it sensed something. Another whimper, followed by whine came from behind the boarded up door. Dreamer stowed the detector back in her coat walked back a few steps. "I really hope I don't get in trouble for this..." she grumbled and charged forward, a closed fist glowing with golden energy. She punched the door, the impact smashing through the wooden boards and sent the door itself crashing to the ground with an obvious dent from the point of impact. A purple humanoid thing stood in the middle of the room with its back facing her, scattered around the room were five blood soaked corpses of the other missing children, and cowering beneath a dusty table was a small light brown wolf cub with purple eyes. The humanoid creature whirled round and snarled at Dreamer, who recoiled at the sight of it's empty eye sockets and the black, teeth filled void that was the creature's mouth. It rushed forward and swiped at her with long, clawed hands.She sidestepped it's attack and danced round it to put herself between the wolf cub and the beast hunting it. "So, we got ourselves a Boogeyman, huh?" Dreamer commented and reached into a pocket on her pants to pull out a silver, pistol covered in blue, glowing runes. She aimed the gun and fired before the boogeyman could attack again, a white glowing ball of magic exited from the barrel and expanded into a curved wall of energy that pinned the beast to the wall behind it with a metallic 'clang'. It snarled and thrashed, trying to escape. Dreamer watched it warily s it suddenly bagn to shift and morph into a tall, bulky yellow rabbit animatronic, it's new mass shattering its bonds. It lunged again and Dreamer got a metal fist to the side of her face, she rolled side and staggered to her feet. With a flick of her left hand a two handed clay more with a blue hilt and a glowing white blade etched with runes materialized before her. she grasped the hilt with her left hand and lifted the sword with ease to parry another swipe from the boogeyman. Deftly, she stepped behind it and thrust the blade it the torso of the creature, it phased through, a rune circle appearing around the blade and Dreamer twisted the sword as if it were a key. The Boogeyman let out a terrifying screech and attempted to shift forms once more, only for it to snap back into the shape of the robotic rabbit. Dreamer pulled her weapon out and aimed her gun at the creature's head. "I would say a one liner, but you don't have the intelligence to appreciate it." She stated and fired. The boogeyman vanished and the gun's projectile smacked harmlessly into the wall. "And of course it can teleport, because why the hell not..." Dreamer grumbled and sent her weapons back into the ether. "At lest it'll be easy to track down." She turned her attention to the wolf pup string wide eyed at her from underneath the table. "hey it's ok, the big bad boogeyman's gone now." she cooed and the pup rushed out bolted into her arms. it whined and before her very eyes, the young wolf shifted into a crying, terrified Scootaloo. "Shh, you're safe. Let's get you home now kid, your pack must be worried sick...And you start school next week, can't have you missing that can we?" Dreamer said warmly and carried the girl outside. By the time Dreamer had hiked her way into the depths of the Everfree Woods outside town, night had fallen. Scootaloo was sound asleep in her arms while her carrier kept an ear out for any strange noises. A howl pierced the silence of the night, followed by dozens more as a pack of wolves descended upon Dreamer. Scootaloo woke up, wriggled her way out of the young woman's grasp and shifted into a wolf to yip and nuzzle the gathered canines. A large, reddish brown wolf approached Dreamer and motioned for her to follow as the pack headed into the woods. They led to small village with log houses and carefully maintained dirt paths that led to a large pond in the middle of a forest clearing. From here, the wolves separated and walked off, some shifting into human form before doing so. Scootaloo ran up to a white wolf, whose fur glowed in the moonlight, the young pup shifted back into human form to hug the animal before rushing back over to Dreamer and dragging the girl towards the wolf. "Alpha look, Miss prose saved me from a monster!" the girl babbled excitedly. "it was so cool!" "Did she now?" the white wolf replied. "Why don't you go find your grandfather, little one, I'm sure he'd love to hear all about while I talk to your new friend." "Come, I make us some tea." The wolf said to Dreamer and led her into one of the houses while Scootaloo rushed off to find her grandfather. "Do make yourself at home, I'll only be just a moment." the white wolf said as Dreamer took a seat on one of the cushions placed around a low table in the Japanese-style log house. The wolf shifted into a middle aged woman with long white hair and dressed in a simple white robe. "It's been quite some time since you graced the pack with your presence, Lady Prose." the woman commented as she poured water into a teapot. "Yeah, well I've been kind busy Amy, sorry about that." Dreamer replied sheepishly. "By busy, you mean throwing yourself into every reckless situation the world can throw at you?" Amy countered as she set out tea cups. "Just because you don't visit any more doesn't mean the pack won't stop looking out for you." "I stopped doing that two years ago, I'm fine now, no more suicide missions, I swear." Dreamer stated. "Hm, yes, you only did so after your superiors beat you over the head enough times to get you to stop." "Amy..." Dreamer grumbled. Amy smiled, "That's not what I wanted to talk about though," the white haired woman poured the tea and added a plentiful amount of sugar to Dreamer's serve. "I've been meaning to contact you about Scootaloo, her parents requested that she'd be integrated into human society, much like her mother before her, to better relations between Humans and Lycans and since both of her parents have passed on..." "No, I'll keep an eye out for the kid, but I'm not adopting her, she needs to at least learn from her own kind-" Dreamer began. "She will," Amy interrupted and took a sip of tea. "She can spend some days here with the pack, and some days with you. She needs a mother figure and as an honorary member of this clan, it is your duty to help us when we ask." "Rrright," Dreamer drawled. "The answer's still no, and don't interrupt me, you know I don't like that." "How is this any different than when you took in Star Fire?" Amy asked. "Star was a teenager and you lot had just moved here from the other side of the world, it's my job to make sure things between magical entities and humans run smoothly," Dreamer stated. "And now you're asking me to raise a child? Nope, no way." "You've adopted young ones before," Amy stated calmly. "How is this any different?" "Well-I-just, look," Dreamer said seriously. "Immortals like me see things differently. Six years isn't enough to get over...what happened to my team, to Star Fire. Plus my job is dangerous, at least my old group were trained and stuff." "You could train Scootaloo, she shows promise even at this age." Amy countered. "And if people find out I have a kid...look since you're not going to let up, how about this? She stays with me for a bit, like you suggested, and legally I adopt her. But to Scootaloo, I'm just a friend of the family, maybe in a few years, I'll tell her about my work and start training her, for now though? That kid deserves a chance to be a kid." Dreamer said. "I find that agreeable, I'll see you tomorrow to fill out the paperwork." Amy stated. "You've been planning this for a while haven't you?" Dreamer deadpanned. "It wasn't my idea, I assure you. Star Fire's husband came up with it the moment the two found out they were having a child." Amy replied. Three years later... Scootaloo, now nine years old, looked around the pizzaria as local children and their parents walked in for the same reason she did. A large banner that read Happy Birthday Diamond Tiara hung over one of larger tables in the dinning area near the stage and the birthday girl in question was overseeing the seating arrangements while she barked orders at the family servant that had undoubtedly been paid to attend. Scootaloo decided to wander around the establishment and headed to the arcade. With the pockets of her shorts filled with coins, she made a beeline for a fighting game and began her quest to beat her current high score. As she deftly defeated the game's final boss for the third time, Scootaloo's immersion was suddenly broken. "That was so cool!" a high pitched voice squeaked. "Yeah, I've never seen anyone that good!" an equally excited southern accented voice added. Scootaloo turned around to find two girls around her age watching her play. "Thanks, I've never had an audience before. I'm Scootaloo." "I'm Sweetie Belle." The white skinned, green eyed girl with curly pink and purple hair replied. "It was a real treat watching you play, I'm Apple Bloom," The yellow skinned, amber eyed girl with a large pink bow tied into her curly red hair. "Did your family drag you here too?" "My babysitter works here, so usually I'm here because she gives me a ton of coins for the arcade but I'm here because her boss called her in and there wasn't time to find someone else to watch me," Scootaloo explained. "On the plus side we get free food." The other two agreed that it was a plus to the whole ordeal and the trio began to pass the time taking turns trying to beat each other at the various multiplayer arcade games. Sometime later, after cake, pizza and the tedious endeavor of listening to Diamond Tiara prattle on about how great she was, Scootaloo Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat on cushions in one of the quieter areas in Pirate's Cove. They in their fourth game of rock-paper-scissors when a shadow descended upon. "Well what do we have here?" Diamond Tiara sneered and adjusted her paper crown as started to slide down over her face. "What are you three losers doing here, you should be paying attention to me, I am the birthday girl." "I'm just here for the food," Scootaloo said simply and everyone gawked at her. "What? My babysitter brought me here 'cause she has to work today, It's not her fault this place didn't have enough people working to get that big party all set up, happy birthday by the way." "What-you-you're just here for the food!" Diamond spluttered. "Yeah, pretty much." Scootaloo replied and Apple Bloom face palmed. "Hmph, you're just a loser anyway," Diamond retorted. "I bet you couldn't last a night in here when the place is closed, The three of you will just get eaten by the monster." "You don't believe in that old legend do you?" Apple Bloom asked. "If there was a monster locked up in the back room it would be on the news right" Sweetie Belle added. "Then why don't you prove it," Diamond said with a smirk. "I dare you to sneak in tonight, stay until opening tomorrow and if you come back alive, then there's no monster." "This doesn't seem like a good idea..." Sweetie Belle stated as the three of them tiptoed around the dark and empty dinning area with a torch that appeared to only offer a small beam of light instead of how it should have eorked almost as soon the trio snuck into the pizzaria. The girls jumped at every shadow and trick of the light as they made their way backstage past the deactivated animatronics. "Ok on the count of three," Scootaloo said as she reached up to open the door. "One, two, three-" A roar belted out from behind the door, it swung open and tattered, faded yellow rabbit animatronic shambled out towards them. At the sight of the creature, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle fainted. Scootaloo scrambled to drag her friends as far away from the monster as possible and when she tried to open the front doors she found them locked. Scootaloo trembled in fear and tried her not to cry as she looked at the monster and back at her friends. With a shaky breath and all the courage she could muster she ran past the golden bunny and shouted "H-hey ugly, you stink!" That caught the beasts attention and Scootaloo bolted towards the security office as fast as her legs could carry her while lumbering steps of the monster rang in her ears as if to sound her doom. The door to the security office slid and much to Scootaloo's surprise she was yanked inside and shoved under the desk. The glint of a greatsword's blade caught her eye as the night guard stepped forward to face the monster. "Just wait here Scoots, it'll all be ok." the familiar voice of Dreamer Prose said. "Why are you here?" Scootaloo blurted out and she couldn't see Dreamer's face, Scootaloo got the impression that her family friend and babysitter was smiling. "I'm the night guard, duh." The monster was quickly taken down with little flair and fanfare, a quick slash of a blade and the beast crumpled to the ground with a heavy thud s a final roar of protest shook the room. With the danger gone, Scootaloo crept out from under the desk and watched as Dreamer glowed with a golden aura and hauled the beast out of the room and into the main area. "You were pretty brave tonight," Dreamer said as she went over to check on Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle/ "It was a stupid idea to come here, but you did the right thing in defending your friends." "Are they going to be ok?" Scootaloo asked. "They just fainted, I'll scout the area to make sure there are no other surprises tonight, call me when they wake up kay?' When Scootaloo's friends awoke, the trio were told that they had accidentally activated a malfunctioning animatronic and were quickly dropped off to their worried families. Scootaloo didn't see Dreamer until a few days later, conversing with the pack Alpha and going over some form of paperwork. The week passed in a blur and the young lycan found herself growing ever closer to her new friends, she was especially proud of how the three of them told the tale of their adventure in the pizzaria to a excited group of fellow classmates and one irritated Diamond Tiara. On Friday Scootaloo found Dreamer waiting for at the end of the day and the pair talked as they walked down the street. "I uh, wanted to thank you for saving us back at the pizza place..." Scootaloo said. "You know you could've just asked me about the rumors about that place, I would've told you what was really going on." Dreamer replied. "I know but that monster...It wasn't a robot was it?" the child asked. "What gave it away?" "It smelled like rotting blood...And I've been having nightmares and stuff..." "Well you're right it's not a robot but I'll tell you when we get to my apartment, there's something I've been meaning to show you." Dreamer explained. When they reached her apartment, Dreamer fiddled with the keypad by the door for a few seconds before the door slid up to reveal a long tunnel. "Fun fact; I own this entire apartment building and I'm the only person living in it," Dreamer stated as she led Scootaloo down the tunnel. "Right now where underneath the complex in a kind of really big bunker that can't be detected by any form of technology or magic, it's air tight to prevent flooding, resistant to nuclear explosions and radiation and here's the fun it, it's all part of a secret organisation designed to ensure coexistence between humans and non-humans." "What? That can't be true." Scootaloo replied. "Just take a look for yourself." Dreamer said with a grin, opened a giant metal door and stepped aside to let the young lycan enter first. Scootaloo's jaw dropped at the sight before her; the massive room was divided into several sections all organised around a giant glass tube filled with a strange glowing liquid that went from the floor to the impossibly high ceiling. over to the right was a leisure area with a large flat screen TV top a cabinet that displayed DVD's, video tapes and a large variety of gaming consoles. a few plush chairs, cushions and beanbags were scattered in front of the television and the floor around that area was covered in soft blue carpet as opposed to the white tiles that made up the floor everywhere else. Off to the left of the leisure area was a large spiraling staircase that led to a second floor and behind the stairs was a tunnel that led to another part of the base. Another tunnel off to the left side of the room was situated just behind a large office like are with computer desks, chairs and state of the art technology as well as a series of computers and a couple of printers. There was small kitchen area t the back of the room that seemed optimized to be as efficient with the space provided without skipping out on any kind of device one could need to prepare a meal. Finally, attached the glass tube t the center of the room, facing the entrance was something Scootaloo could only describe as 'A giant, cartoon like super computer.' that seemed to come straight out of one of those sci-fi action shows she watched on weekends. Scootaloo's nose tickled and with the awe and wonder winding down, she noticed that, save for the kitchen and the super computer, everything else was covered in a fine layer of dust and she saw several areas with personal effects that also looked like they hadn't been touched in a long time, photos still sat at desk, coffee mugs left unused on the kitchen self and other small details that suggested other people should e here, but they weren't. "Where is everyone?" she asked and Dreamer hesitated before she sat down on a chair in front of the large computer and sighed. "Some time ago I had a team working with me, including your parents, nowadays, it's...just me.." Dreamer explained quietly. "I just haven't really bothered recruiting anyone else and until your little stunt at Fazbear's, I wasn't planning to." "What happened?" Scootaloo asked. "I'll tell you some other time alright?" Dreamer replied. "I uh, don't think I can right now..." Dreamer gestured to the area and calmly said "This is Timberwolf, beyond the government, above the police. cross the country are bases like this run by groups of people from all walks of life, some magical, others not. Out job is to monitor rifts in space time that appear across the country and ensure a safe and prosperous environment for the various entities that fall through as well work towards a world where humans and other intelligent life can coexist peacefully." The adult in the room struggled to find the right words for a second and quietly added. "I was wondering if you wanted to join as a junior member..." "What will I do?" Scootaloo asked. "Your parents left some stuff behind in case you wanted to join, training programs and some simulations and stuff over in the training area, you'd go through those and learn to be an effective support for me while I'm in the field, monitoring stuff on the net, learning how to spot people who aren't really human, diplomacy and a lot of technical know-how," Dreamer explained. "When you get older you'll learn how to fight without causing serious harm or killing and maybe I'll teach you some magic here and there if you have the aptitude, you free to say no at any time and just walk out, I just wanted to let you know I'll help you find other options when you turn eighteen and stuff if you're not interested." "Can I think about it?" Scootaloo asked "...And you're not going to wipe my memory or anything if I say no are you?" "Why would I? Unless you're going to turn into a super villain, yes those are real by the way, then no, I'm not going to erase your memory," Dreamer stated. "Come on, let's get you home, you can talk it out with your family if you're not entirely sure, try asking for some stories about the stuff your parents would get up to." Next Time on Timberwolf... "That was another lycan right?" Scootaloo asked as she and Dreamer bolted through the woods. "No, it's a werewolf, it's full moon out now and that guy was more humanoid than wolf, looks like my hunch was right." Dreamer replied and they leapt over a fallen log as howls pierced the night air. "We have to warn the pack!" Scootaloo exclaimed. There was a crash as several trees fell and blocked their path just a multitude of werewolves and unfamiliar lycanthropes stalked out into the moonlight led by a young woman with orange skin, dark purple, almost black hair, matching dark purple eyes and wearing a black one piece outfit. "Long time no see Prose, how's my little sister's pup doing?" the woman asked with a sly grin. Author's Note This episode was inspired by the Five Night's At Freddy's franchise And that concludes the pilot episode of Timberwolf! if you spot any missing words, letters 'A' or 'h' or other typos, please let me know as the A key and possibly the H key are sticky on my computer keyboard and sometimes don't work properly. I'd also like to note that updates after this chapter may not be up to the same length of this one due to the fact that I can't use the computer as much as I like and most will most likely be written in chunks on my PS4 and edited into single chapter by a friend of mine, similar to how I've written Hot Times at Canterlot High- Extra Credit. Comment down below and stay tuned for more episodes of Timberwolf Season 1 Apex Predator"Ugh, I'm still grounded!" Sweetie Belle complained to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo as they walked to school. "And it's been two weeks already!" "At least you ain't grounded until the school holidays!" Apple Bloom grumbled. "I'm stuck cleaning the family shrine for another three weeks." Scootaloo stated. "Shrine?" Apple Bloom and Sweetie asked. "Oh right, I never told you guys," Scootaloo realized and lunched into an explanation. "My family worships our ancestors and we have this huge shrine dedicated to our founder that everyone usually takes turns cleaning but I got stuck with doi8ng everyone's shift as a punishment, it takes hours." As they walked they soon came upon an re of the street blocked off by police tape with something covered by a piece of tarp. The three children stopped to take a look but quickly moved on when they saw splotches of blood on the pavement. By the time they reached the middle school section of Canterlot high the halls were buzzing with rumors and theories about the crime scene and many were jolted out of their musing by Principal Celestia calling a school assembly. Scootaloo and company took their seats as the school hall quieted down to allow the principal to speak. "As I'm sure many of you know, a body was discovered early this morning on a commonly used path to school," the principal stated. "The police have issued a statement advising all students to avoid the area until further notice and I, along with the rest of the faculty staff wish to remind you that despite these turn of events, you are all still on school grounds and to work hard and prevent as little disruption to your teachers and fellow students as possible." "With that out of the way, I would like to welcome a new member of staff to our school," Celestia stated cheerfully. "With Mr.Turner's recent departure, the English staff have been stretched thin to cover his classes. Today I would like to introduce his replacement, everyone give a warm welcome to Miss Prose." Scootaloo's jaw dropped at the sight of her friend walking up onto the stage and grabbing the microphone. "Um, hey everyone I'm Miss Prose, wow that makes me feel old," Dreamer Prose joked. "Anyway I may be new but I won't tolerate any disrespect or bullying and what have you. I'd also like to announce a new after school club starting up next week, you'll find more information posted on the notice boards around the campus. Hopefully I do a good job right?" Her last comment elected a few chuckles out most of those present and she finished a bow and handed the microphone back to the Principal. "Thank you for your interesting introduction. Now a reminder for our high school students to sign up for a sports activity before the week is out or you will be placed in whatever sport has vacancies..." Scootaloo tuned out the rest of the assembly as her mind wandered back to a conversation she had with Dreamer shortly after the revelation of the existence of Timberwolf. "So what was that monster that attacked us back at that pizza place?" Scootaloo asked as Dreamer walked her home. "it was a boogeyman," Dreamer stated. "They feed off of the pain and suffering of children, it's like a drug to them, they just...keep hurting the kids until they die. Boogeymen aren't intelligent enough to know when to stop so it was a good thing I saved you when I did..." "That's sounds scary, are there other monster like that around here?" the young lycan asked. "A few, usually I deal with them pretty quickly though, so there's no need to worry," Prose replied calmly. "If you think you see anything suspicious though, come find me alright? The police can only do so much." "Ok." After school, Scootaloo waited for Miss prose to leave and caught up with her. "So you work here now?" she asked the new teacher. "I got fired from Fazbear's for no reason, so I figured I'd try something I haven't done in a while," Prose replied. "I was wanting to talk to you anyway, you walked by that crime scene right, notice anything?" "It...it smelled like blood and wet wolf but It wasn't from anyone I knew...is there something weird going on?" Scootaloo asked. "You'll find out when we reach your place, I need to inform the rest of the pack anyway." Dreamer stated. "It's just a hunch but better be safe than sorry." As they entered the village, Scootaloo noticed many of her kin were on edge, many were stationed as guards at key locations and the rest were voicing their concerns to Alpha Amy, who stood on the large wooden platform at the center of town. Dreamer approached and walked up onto the platform and motioned to take the stage. Amy stepped aside and called for silence. "I'm sure many of you are worried about the recent murder but I can confirm it's not anyone local, however the cause of death is something to be wary of," Dreamer began. "From what I was able to see when the police arrived at the scene, the victim was mauled and I have reason to believe both the victim and the attacker were werewolves if not lycans from a rival pack." She paused and pulled out a zip lock plastic bag with a piece of bloody cloth inside. "I'm going to pas this around, don't touch the cloth, just open the bag and let me know if the smell is from anyone you recognize, if we can pin down the pack encroaching on our territory, then we can hopefully convince them join us or force them to leave." The bag was quickly passed around as pack members muttered to themselves and compared the mix of scents to what they knew, most confirmed it was from an unknown lycan but it wasn't from any of the packs they had recently tangled with. When it was the Alpha's turn she sniffed and for a moment a look of righteous fury crossed her features. She ordered the pack to stay on guard and led Dreamer to her house to discuss the issue. Scootaloo wandered around aimlessly, her mind a turmoil of worry and a sense of helplessness as she watched most of the pack working to protect their home. She was snapped out of wallowing by her grandfather who guided her to the family archives. "What are we doing here?" she asked as she looked around the large oval room covered in shelves stacked with books and scrolls that went from floor to ceiling. "You want to help? Then why not look up the names of rival packs," her grandfather suggested. "Maybe it might be one we have forgotten about, you could make a nice big list for Alpha to look over." "Alright, thanks Grandpa!" "You want to pull your weight, that's good for the future of the pack, remember that won't you?" the older lycan stated. "Yep!" After hours of searching a scroll sealed with the mark of the Alpha caught Scootaloo's attention. She opened it to find a report containing a clash between Amy and a now exiled member of the pack. Scootaloo skimmed over it and added the key details to the long list she had already written. She stretched and decided she had a decent amount of information to show Alpha Amy and walked out of the archive and towards the white wolf's house. She walked in to find both the Alpha and Dreamer going through a small stack of folders. "Um Alpha? I have some stuff for you." the young lycan said nd showed Amy the list. the pack leader looked it over before offering Scootaloo a seat beside her. "This is very well done pup," Amy said. "We can compare these to these recent reports of rival activity over the last few years to pinpoint possible assailants, would you like to help?" "Maybe later, I'm getting kind of hungry." Scootaloo replied. "Why don't we take a break, grab some food and continue afterwards?" Dreamer suggested. After a warm meal the trio went back to work and with some precise instructions from both Amy and Dreamer, Scootaloo found no trouble keeping up with the steadfast studious nature of the two women as they looked over and compared notes. For a time, a name and a string of events kept coming to forefront of the child's mind as she kept finding more and more evidence to support it, more so when comparing the nation wide data that Dreamer had snagged off the Timberwolf database. "Who's Black Fire?" Scootaloo eventually asked and Dreamer was the one to answer. "Your power hungry aunt that's hellbent on ruling the world." Scootaloo just looked at her and said. "I don't know if you're being serious or not..." "I am, she's tried to kill me a few times, attempted to take control of the pack, framed your mother for something she didn't do and whole bunch of other stuff," Dreamer explained. "I've been keeping tabs on her for a few years and her recent movement patterns have been odd." "Like she's been going around the same areas for a long time until moving to the next one?" Scootaloo suggested and pulled up her own notes on the matter. "It looks like she's been drifting from pack to pack..." "My hunch is that she's recruiting," Dreamer stated. "If she can get the numbers to challenge us, everyone here would be forced to fight...It could draw attention from the public and cause a panic and it wouldn't surprise me if Black Fire uses that as an opportunity to take over the city." "What do we do?" Scootaloo asked. "Judging from these charts we have a week until she's close enough to pose a threat." Amy stated. "That murder was most likely a warning or a diversion to keep us guessing until she comes in for the kill." "I could call in a few favors, warn the other magi folk and set up an alarm system then try to catch her off guard?" Dreamer offered. "Would that be possible in the time frame we have?" Amy asked. "Not without causing some measure of panic for the magical portion of the population..." Dreamer admitted. "What if we had bait to bring her out of hiding?" Scootaloo suggested. "Like tricking her or something?" "You got an idea Scoots?" Dreamer asked. "I know you're smart for your age but make sure to think it through." "I did!" the young lycan protested. "I saw some of Black Fire's old crimes and stuff, so I was thinking..." One week later they were ready. Night had fallen by the time they had put their plan into action. Dreamer and Scootaloo trudged through the moonlit forest aimlessly as the pair listened for any noise that was out of place. They could eyes watching them in the darkness yet they paid it no mind, they were ready for whatever the environment threw at them, be it friend or foe. A howl rang through the night and the thumps of heavy footfalls grew ever closer. Dreamer pulled Scootaloo behind her as a bipedal wolf like beast thundered towards them. "For Queen Black Fire!" the werewolf roared and swiped at the duo. Dreamer sidestepped with the young pup in her care following her movements. As one the two of them bolted into the forest with their pursuer on their trail. "That was another lycan right?" Scootaloo asked as she and Dreamer ran for their lives. "No, a werewolf, it's full moon out now and that guy was more humanoid than wolf, looks like my hunch was right." Dreamer replied and they leapt over a fallen log as howls pierced the night air. "We have to warn the pack!" Scootaloo exclaimed. There was a crash as several trees fell and blocked their path just a multitude of werewolves and unfamiliar lycanthropes stalked out into the moonlight led by a young woman with orange skin, dark purple-almost black hair, matching dark purple eyes and wearing a black one piece outfit. "Long time no see Prose, how's my little sister's pup doing?" the woman asked with a sly grin. "Hi Aunt Black Fire," Scootaloo said cheerfully. "You fell into our trap!" "Trap?" the older lycan echoed. "You are surrounded by my army with no way to warn your family, once I kill Dreamer and capture you, young pup, Amy will be forced to surrender and this city, all of humanity will bow before me." The two seemed shared a look before they both said "Uh-huh" with the best flat expression they could muster. Black Fire glared at them. "You think this is some kind of joke?" she asked. "I have killed for less!" "Sure you have," Dreamer drawled. "You're still doomed by the way." "Dooooommed!" Scootaloo added dramatically. "How dare you..." Black Fire seethed as a few of her followers snickered behind her. "Very well, if you two aren't going to take this seriously, then both your lives are forfeit. Attack!" "Yeah, no. Dreamer said and with a flick of her left hand, she summoned her sword and pointed it at the army before her. the blade glowed green and she swung it in a wide arc over the group just as every last wolf was about to charge. Green sparks danced around Black Fire's lackey's as they tried to move but found themselves frozen in place. Barks and growls of protest rose from the pack as their leader whirled around to stare at her forces that were now useless. "You're green now," Dreamer stated cheerfully. "You can't escape." With a cry of outrage Black Fire shifted into a black wolf and charged the two with jaws outstretched. Dreamer and Scootaloo moved to the side and in blind fury, Black Fire turned to lunge at Dreamer only to get a face full of metal as the Timberwolf operative slammed the flat side of her blade into her attacker's face. Dreamer called forth her pistol as she pushed the sharp edge of her blade up against Black Fire's throat. "Your freedom or your life, Pick one." Dreamer stated coldly to a dazed Black Fire. With their leader imprisoned, Black Fire's pack surrendered and most were accepted into Scootaloo's Pack as a precautionary measure so they could be watched over as well given a better chance at life. With the threat over, Alpha Amy worked with pack members old and new to hold a celebration the following day. "Good thing it's the weekend huh?" Dreamer said as Scootaloo helped her pluck the feathers off of some wild birds that would be cooked for the feast to come. "I wouldn't want you to miss out on the party because you had school." "Isn't school supposed to be more important?" Scootaloo asked s she tugged at a particularly stubborn feather. Dreamer reached over and felt where the feather in question was attached to bird and twisted the end to pull it free. "This is a celebration of unity for your family and chance for your aunt's followers to become respected and loved members of the pack, a way to bring everyone closer together for the peace and prosperity of your family's territory, if not the whole city." Dreamer explained. "Still something's been bugging me..." the young lycan admitted as she picked up another bird. "That fight seemed easy, too easy, you planned out everything, what we say, where to run, everything and it all happened the exact way you planned it!" "If I tell you, you'll have to become a part of Timberwolf, like it or not, it's sort of a secret," Dreamer stated and fell into a short sneezing fit as a small stray feather floated along a light breeze and tickled her nose. "ugh, I hate it when that happens." "After seeing what happened, I think... I want to join as a junior member, if only to help, to do something you know?" Scootaloo replied. "What made you decide?" Dreamer asked. "It's going to be dangerous." "When everyone was preparing to defend our home it sort of hit me that, I wanted to help but everyone could already do more than me because I'm just a kid, I want to help out more and even if I'm stuck doing boring computer stuff and ugh homework just to get a chance to help, then I'll do whatever it takes!" Scootaloo replied and in the back of her mind, she remembered the boogeyman, how it killed five other kids and she could nothing but watch, how it came close to killing her friends, if she hadn't acted her friends would've been dead and it would've been all her fault... Dreamer looked thoughtful as the pair lapsed into silence and it wasn't broken until the last bird had been plucked. "Alright Scoots, you wanna join Timberwolf?" Dreamer asked. "Yeah." "I'll talk to Amy tonight after the party and tomorrow you'll have to pass a test to see if you're worthy alright?" Dreamer stated. "Wait, a test!?" Scootaloo echoed in surprise. Next Time on Timberwolf... "So what's my test going to be?" Scootaloo asked and sat down on one the desk chairs in the office portion of the Timberwolf base. Dreamer was skimming through a large stack of files at an adjacent desk. "Dunno-" Dreamer began to reply when the light flickered for a monent before the power went out. "Dreamer?" "Yeah Scoots?" "That's not part of the test is it?" "Nope." "What do we do?" "Go find somewhere to hide Scootaloo, whoever this is won't be targeting you but better stay out of sigfht just in case>" Dreamer stated. "How do you know that?" Scootaloo asked. "A hunch." The ground rumbled beneath their feet as something exploded down below. Author's Note Pardon me while I go rage about my sticky A key and backspace key. It makes typing SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!! Next chapter will have some world building and stuff. Anyway if you spot any typos I missed, let me know, it might take a while to fix them though. Project AlphaIt was early on Monday morning and Dreamer was going over the morning paper when an article caught her attention. It detailed a string of murders that happened over the weekend and much to Dreamers amusement, the victims were people she knew. So those bastards got what they deserved huh? She thought. About time. Dreamer's mind drifted back to when she knew the scientists and researchers that were dead and gone and she grimaced at the memory. They had blackmailed her, threatened her and she gave in. She now sat chained to the ground in a cold concrete cell, her only scrap of clothing was a white robe stained with her own blood. her arms and legs were bound and her back ached in four different places. White feathers littered the floor and her back twitched at the sight of them, as if it trying to move muscles that weren't their. It only bought on more pain. She was tired, sore and the screams of the test subjects could still be heard and she no longer cared if the cries of pain were real or in her head. It was all her fault... Back in the present, Dreamer sighed and rubbed the top of her head, she could feel the scars and two small bumps that remained of the events all those years. With a stretch and a wince at the phantom pain in her back she got ready for a day of teaching. Scootaloo couldn't stay focused as she sat in class. With the packs celebration lasting for the whole weekend, she had been told that her test to join Timberwolf would be postponed until after school. She couldn't help but wonder what she would be tested about or if was even a test in the traditional sense of the word. She perked up when the teacher announced the start of history class. At least it's more challenging than Math... She thought and paid attention. "Alright class today we will be learning about the rise and fall of the Discordant Monarchy and the civil war that followed," the teacher began. "If you've been doing your homework, you would know that Discord the First began a campaign to take the different kingdoms and territories that ruled the country at the time of his rise to power. In 1550 he succeeded when he defeated the Dreemurr kingdom." "Wasn't that kingdom made up of monsters?" A classmate asked. "That is something that is still up to debate," the teacher clarified. "While Discord did unify the kingdoms, many accounts speak of the insanity present in many of his decisions as a ruler..." "Now can anyone tell me how the monarchy fell?" The teacher asked. "Yes Sweetie belle?" "Queen Eris the fourth was overthrown by her advisers Lord Solaris and Lady Nightshade at the start of the 19th century," Sweetie recited. "When the two nobles failed to agree on who should take the throne, they decided to gain the support of the people and over the course of their lifetime, started a war between their two factions the Solar Legion and the Lunar Rebellion." "Very good Sweetie Belle," the teacher praised. "The war last for 130 years and finally ended here in Canterlot City when the descendants of both nobles married in a show of peace. Now I want you all to pull out your textbooks and turn to page..." "So what's my test going to be?" Scootaloo asked and sat down on one the desk chairs in the office portion of the Timberwolf base. Dreamer was skimming through a large stack of files at an adjacent desk. "Dunno-" Dreamer began to reply when the light flickered for a moment before the power went out. "Dreamer?" "Yeah Scoots?" "That's not part of the test is it?" "Nope." "What do we do?" "Go find somewhere to hide Scootaloo, whoever this is won't be targeting you but better stay out of sight just in case." Dreamer stated. "How do you know that?" Scootaloo asked. "A hunch." The ground rumbled beneath their feet as something exploded down below. "That's not supposed to happen," Dreamer muttered as she stood up. "Scoots, go hide, I'll handle this." Just as Dreamer was about to move, she heard Scootaloo shout out in panic. She looked around only to be blindsided by a human shaped figure that tackled her to the ground. The figure was cold, heavy and when Dreamer listened close enough, she could hear the hum of electronics coming from her attacker. Before she could make a move, she heard footsteps coming from behind her and a swift blow to the head knocked her unconscious. When she awoke she found she was bound to a chair. Across from her a still unconscious Scootaloo was also tied to a chair with two humanoid robots guarding her. "You didn't have to drag the kid into this you know." Dreamer called out to her kidnapper. "Still if you wanted my attention that badly, you have it. So what the hell do you want?" "I needed your cooperation," a man replied from behind. "And from I've read, threatening your life just won't do." Dreamer chose to stay silent as ideas rapidly formed in mind's eye. "I take it you understand your situation then?" The man asked as he walked by, still hidden in the shadows. "Assist me and your friend goes free. Refuse and..." She heard him snap his fingers and one of the robots pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Scootaloo's head. "It's quite an easy choice to make Miss Prose, So do I have your attention?" "Yeah, fine. What do you need out from me?" Dreamer sighed and with another snap, the gun was withdrawn. "Why don't we start at the beginning." stated her kidnapper as he stepped into view. He was tall with his muscular build enhanced by the black, form fitting body suit that appeared to be made high grade material. Attached to the outfit on his arms and legs were pieces of plated metal that offered protection and his joins free to move and similar pieces of metal covered the top of his boots. Metal wrist guards matched his grey gloves and the man's neck and shoulders were shielded by a large piece of metal that encompassed those areas. "My name is Slade," he said as Dreamer looked up at his visually striking headpiece. It covered his entire head with his face hidden by a metal mask that was black on the right side and orange on the other. There four thin slots near the bottom to allow the occupant to breathe and only his left dark grey eyes was visible through the mask itself as the black half was void of all features. "I believe your already familiar with my work." "Those former Timberwolf scientists, that was your handy work?" Dreamer asked. "They were quite talkative too," Slade elaborated. "It's astounding what people will say when their lives were on the line. Those fools were more than happy to provide me with your information if it would continue their existence." "You still killed them." Dreamer pointed out calmly. "Once I had what I needed I decided to end their suffering, I didn't need to keep them alive," Slade replied. "You on the other hand? I have need of your abilities, your magic if I am to fix what they did to me." Slade picked up a folder of papers and placed on the desk. "Tell me Miss Prose, does the term Project Alpha mean anything to you?" he asked and moved to swivel her chair to face the folder. Dreamer looked up from the papers laid before her back to Slade, horror dawned on her face and the room began to spin as the realization hit. "You do remember. Good," Slade purred. "Your expertise will prove useful in negating the side effects." "Side effects-What?" Dreamer spluttered. "Y-you're a survivor? But they were all-" "Killed?" Slade cut in and Dreamer flinched. "I'm sorry, would you prefer the term euthanized?" "W-what side effects?" Dreamer asked as she struggled to pull herself together. "Visions, fragments of false memories and hallucinations," Slade explained."It feels as if I'm reliving the war over and over and I want it fixed." Dreamer stared at him for several seconds before her mind kicked into high gear. "Ok...Ok I'll explain as best I can," Dreamer replied shakily. "Project Alpha used soldiers recruited during the war as test subjects, t-they drained me of my magic in order to inject it into humans to create an artificial god and from the sounds of it, you are the only successful case." Dreamer paused to gather her thoughts. "I'm sorry, no one deserved to go through that," she said and took a breath. "Anyway you survived because my magic affects the soul, it makes it a physical, tangible object and further strengthens the body to protect it. You must have had the inner strength necessary for the procedure to go smoothly." "I have a soul," Slade deadpanned. "That's doesn't explain the visions." "I'm getting to that," Dreamer replied. "With your new powers comes a fail safe, should you die, time is...Rewound back to a point before you died. Since it's a copy of my fail safe, if I die, you are dragged back in time with me and with all your memories intact." "At least that's how it's supposed to work," Dreamer stated. "It looks like whatever happened to you didn't result in a perfect copy..." "Interesting, I assume if you fixed it, The fail safe would work as intended?" Slade asked. "You'd have to untie me, but yeah," Dreamer replied. "Though to make it work properly, we'd both end up going back in time anyway so your soul can stabilize." Slade made a gesture to elaborate and with an eye roll, Dreamer complied. "By living through those extra years you'll have the full experience of a 'timeline', the sequence of events that happens over the course of your life. You need to keep in mind that you can only travel back to a time period you were alive in, not before you were born and not after you permanent death," she explained. "The procedure involves summoning your soul, and observing the flow of magic within it as well how it's structured itself within your soul and body. From there I can alter the flow and composition of the magic to be what it should be when it comes to the fail safe, I'll be able to set a specific point in your timeline that acts the earliest point you can travel back to, from that point onward you will have all your memories and skills from previous timelines." "Going through a timeline in the correct way will lock the changes to the fail safe in place and your soul will stabilize," Dreamer concluded. "If you'll be so kind as to untie me, we can get to work." Dreamer stood in front of Slade as he sat on the exam table in the medical wing. She quickly glanced over at Scootaloo, who had been released and was now passed out on the couch. Dreamer took a deep breath and concentrated. She held her right hand over Slade's chest and as her hand glowed with white magic and white and orange mass of energy slowly began to rise out of her patient's chest. "Wow, talk about a hack job," Dreamer muttered. "Those scientists had no idea what they were doing." Dreamer twisted her right hand and several rings of silver magic covered in blue glowing runes appeared around the deformed mass that was Slade's soul. "These rings are the building blocks to how magic functions, similar to computer coding or DNA splicing," Dreamer explained as she observed the rings. "Ok it looks like the adjustments made to your body in order to protect your soul turned out fine, super strength, heightened reflexes, regenerative healing, increased pain tolerance and boosted IQ. It seems my theory of the fail safe being damaged was correct, it'll be easy enough to fix it once we extblish wht chnges i should mke to your personal timeline." "What changes?" Slade asked. "Well do you want to be test subject again?" Dreamer asked. "i can't prevent the war but according to your file you were a captain in the Solar Legion, since their philosophy revoled around the worship of magical entities for knowledge or power it would be simple enough to just tweak things so that you end up at my temple while you served the legion and got your powers directly from me, granted such a change wouldn't do jack shit in the long run but it would spare you from those experiments." "No keep it the same," he stated. " I survived it once, i can do so again." "If you're sure. when you do want the earliest point in your timeline to be? Dreamer asked. "How far back do you want to go?" Scootaloo woke up to find she was lying on the couch in the leisure section of the base. She sat up and looked around, everything appeared perfectly normal, the lights were on and nothing was out of place. Dreamer was no where to be found. The nine year old hopped off the couch and wandered around in search of her friend, she soon found a note that been left for her. Hey Scoots, I got the power sorted, turns out a couple of training robots went haywire after the blackout and jumped us. It's all sorted out but a job came up so I had to leave you behind, it's not pretty. You'll find a case file labelled "Project Alpha" a, for your test I want to read it and tell me what you think of it all when I get back. I've made sure most of the nasty stuff has been omitted. See you soon, Dreamer Prose. Scootaloo sighed and rummaged around in a nearby desk until she found the requested folders. She picked up the Project Alpha folder and opened it up, much of it's content was blacked out but few entries were still visible. Ready to face anything, Scootaloo began to read. Project Alpha- The source. An extensive study on the Angel of Guidance Entry 1 Reports throughout the last seven hundred years reference a divine entity that calls itself a guardian angel. Our studies have recently proven this creature not only real, but alive and well in the small state of Harmonia. Harmonia itself currently stands as the largest neutral faction during this war and has been so since the beginning. It is the organizations hope that our angel will cooperate with us, if the tales are to be believed, legends of omnipotence, powerful spells and the capacity to heal the most grievous of wounds, this Dreamer Prose will be the key to the projects success. Entry 3 It appears taking the angel's child away from her has born fruit, we have her in a cell ready to begin testing. Our initial scans show promise, the angel has a vast amount of magical energy stored in her wings, horns and tail. All we need to do is extract it for further testing. Entry 5 We've recruited soldiers from both sides of the war front claiming to be testing a countermeasure to the other's magical techniques. We've already harvested what magic we can from the angel's scales and feathers, though with the number of applicants we may need more. Entry 6 The interns we sent to harvest the angel's wings came back successful but their minds are damaged. They have been reduced to broken shells of their former selves and claim to have stared into the face of death. Many are praying for forgiveness from something called "Likrel Drofmeas" and our attempts to get a straight answer have yielded nothing. It seems if you want something done around here, you must do it yourself. Entry 7 ForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueen Entry 10 Something is attacking the base and killing the failed test subjects. whatever it is, it has produced a reaction out of the angel after years of dormancy. It would be best to cut our loses and leave while we can. Scootaloo put the Project Alpha folder aside and stared at a blank computer screen as she contemplated what she had just read, pieces began to fall into place and the lycan wondered what else Dreamer was hiding from her. Deep down Scootaloo hoped she could do something to make things if not better, then happier for her long time family friend by joining Timberwolf. With her mind in full gear, the nine year old found a piece of paper, a pen and began making notes. "Hey Scoots, I'm back!" Scootaloo heard Dreamer call out an hour later. "I got us pizza for dinner." Scootaloo whirled around on her computer chair to watch her friend as she unloaded several boxes of pizza, some sides and a few bottles of soda onto the kitchen bench. The base fell into a comfortable silence as Dreamer plated up their meals and the pair ate in silence, both thankful for the quiet moment. "Sorry about today.." Dreamer said as they cleaned up. "You uh, probably have a whole bunch of questions and stuff right?" "Yeah," Scootaloo admitted. "Timberwolf did some pretty bad stuff during the war right/" "Yup..." Dreamer replied sadly. "One thing the history books don't cover is that Timberwolf leaked knowledge of magic to both sides and the whole thing devolved into deity worship and demon summoning, at the time the organization believed they could exploit the conflict to further their research." "But why?" "Because Scoots, they still had a mindset that humans were the dominant species and all others should serve the human race," Dreamer stated. "They found out about me and what I really am and some moron thought 'hey gods are real, let's capture one.' Last time I checked I wasn't a Pokemon." The joke elected a brief chuckle from the two. Scootaloo hesitated before she asked the next question. "What...What are you?' "A magic angel dragon from space." Dreamer said with a straight face. "Dreamer, I was being serious!" Scootaloo grumbled and the woman ruffled her hair in good humor. "I know, I just like introducing myself in the funniest way possible, comedy helps with these kinds of conversations, keeps the mood lighthearted enough for everyone to walk away on the best terms possible at the end of it," Dreamer explained with a grin. "As for what I am, if you're up for a history lesson, I can show you." "Wait really?" Scootaloo asked surprised. "Behold, the seraph of guidance, protection and redemption!" Dreamer announced comically, pulled out a photo and handed it to Scootaloo. The picture showed an anthropomorphic, white scaled dragon with four feathered wings, deer like antlers, silver clawed hands and wolf like paws instead of feet. the dragon wore a flowing blue dress decorated with the beauty of deep space, a gold crown decorated with purple jewels and a matching necklace. Her serpentine tail curled up into an 'S' shape behind her as she stood off to the side looking at the camera. Scootaloo noted that her pointed canine like ears had tufts of fur on the end and her orange mane resembled feather like fur. "Where's your left eye?" Scootaloo asked as she noticed the empty left socket. "You have both eyes.' "I don't actually," Dreamer admitted. "I just have a spell on my glasses that makes it look like I do, it's all part of blending in." "Wait so if you..." "Yup, nothing but an empty socket without my glasses," Dreamer confirmed. "Anyway that's what I used to look like before Timberwolf drained me off most of my magic, it's why I look human nowadays, no magic means no magic angel dragon." "They cut off your wings to, that must have hurt." Scootaloo added. "That's all in the past kid, don't worry about," Dreamer said. " Anyway back on track, my species are a race of shape shifting beings that re manifestations of forces of nature, forces of magic and societal concepts. We travel to other worlds and watch over them taking on roles that best fit what we are. When mortals worshiped us regardless of what we did or said, we took that religious aspect into our culture and now we call ourselves Seraphim." "So what do you represent?" Scootaloo asked. "I represent the concept of a guide or guardian angel, pun entirely intended," Dreamer replied. "I work with people from all walks of life in order to ensure that things turn out better than they would have without my interference. I wtch and see how things play out, then I travel back in time and start doing what I can to help. Even if it means i need to take a more active role as their ruler or just do what I'm doing now and keeping to the sidelines." "You can time travel!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "That's how you bet Black Fire right?" "Yeah, because for me, this has happened before. I have to admit this is the first time I've told you all this though," Dreamer replied. "Usually I just step in when I need to and bow out when it's all over with everyone none the wiser." "What's different this time?" "Every time I've gone back in time I've failed to prevent the deaths of my old team mates, including your parents and in a couple of years the apocalypse is going to hit and I haven't been able to stop it by myself, so I thought, I mean I know it sounds dumb but..." "You need help?" Scootaloo asked. "I do, here let me explain,"Dreamer began and pulled out a sheet of paper and drew a bunch of circles on it. "imagines this is reality and all those circles are a different dimension." She then colored in two circles separated by several other. "This one is our dimension and the other is a world similar to ours but not entirely connected. A thousand years ago a wizard from that other world connected our world to his and it sort of looks like this." Dreamer explained and folded the paper until the two colored circles were touching. "This has caused a lot of strain on the other realities as well as ours. that causes those rifts in space time I told about yesterday. they're all over the counrty and have been leaking magic and other forms of energy into this world for centuries, to the point where the borders of every state is defined by where the different kinds of magic intersect each other." "That's why a lot of things are different depending on where you live right?" Scootaloo concluded. "because the magic from the rifts is affecting everyone." "Sometimes magical creatures fall through as well and the rift here in Canterlot is only getting more and more active, there's only so much I can do on my own even with foreknowledge and I'd rather not call in help from the friends i have around ere, they deserve to live their own lives." Dreamer said. "I thought I'd ask you to help because of what you've already seen." "So I can learn things to help others and not just my family." Scootaloo stated "Yeah are you, ok with that?" Dreamer asked. "I haven't told you everything but I will, just thought I'd take baby steps." "I'll join on one condition," Scootaloo replied seriously before she broke out into a grin. "You've gotta tell me about your old team, who were they? what were my parent's like? Did you go on awesome adventures?" Dreamer stared at her completely caught off guard. Slowly, she relaxed and chuckled. "Timberwolf operatives work in groups called divisions, there's usually one group per state, but sometimes there's more if the need arises. My old team was called the Titan Division..." Dreamer explained. Author's Note Next chapter will be more focused on Scootloo. There is no Next Time on Timeberwolf because I'm not sure which episode I'll be doing next, I only have about 12 episodes planned and vague idea on where they all fit. If you spot any typo's let me know. This chapter has ideas and characters adapted from the Teen Titans cartoon to fit the universe.
BoogeymanScootaloo's grandfather gently nudged her towards the entrance of a bright, colourful building with a smiling group of animals on the sign. The six year old looked up at it in wonder as her burly red haired grandfather smiled down at her and led her inside. The colours of pictures and toys made her eyes bug out in surprise as the young child watched other children play on the plush blue carpet while the grown ups watched on. Scootaloo looked up at her grandfather for reassurance and upon receiving a nod, raced off into the fray. She almost seemed to bound from one activity to the next as movement or light captured her attention and soon she had roped a few other kids in a game of tag. She saw her grandfather talking with a young woman with white skin and orange hair that was tied up in a what her grandmother called a ponytail. The woman adjusted the name tag pinned to her long, blue coat and smiled as she talked. Dreamer Prose listened politely to heavily muscled man with dusty brown skin, dark red hair and matching beard as he looked over at the small, purple haired girl he brought in with kind green eyes before turning his attention back to the daycare worker. "Are you sure Scootaloo will be... Alright?" he asked. "It has been many years since we let one of our own spend time outside the community." "I know, not since I worked with your daughter," Dreamer replied. "Star Fire handled it well and she was a lot older than Scootaloo and from the looks of it, the kid is definitely her mothers daughter." "That is what worries me," the man grunted. "My Little Star would always find a way to get into trouble." "I promise the kid will be fine Redwood, I'll keep an eye on her myself. I have experience with this, trust me." Dreamer stated. Some children dashed between the two adults, laughing and squealing with Scootaloo right behind them. Dreamer gave Redwood a sheepish smile and quickly walked over to calm the group down before one of them tripped and hurt themselves. "She started it." One of the boys said and pointed at Scootaloo. Dreamer sighed and guided the children over to other, less dangerous activities. She was about to tend to some the other parents that still lingered round near the entrance when she felt a tug on her coat. She looked down to see the young girl Redwood had brought in staring up at her in a mix of sadness and fear. "I'm sorry." Scootaloo whimpered and Dreamer swore she saw little brown, fluffy wolf ears splayed down over the child's purple hair. "Hey it's ok," Dreamer replied comfortingly and scooped the sniffing girl into her arms. "You're new and didn't know the rules, c'mon I'll show you the big, shiny poster we keep all the rules on and then we can play catch or something alright?" "Ok." Scootaloo replied and managed a weak smile. She's adorable Dreamer cooed inwardly. The day ended and Dreamer trudged into her barely furnished apartment, flicked on the light and dumped her satchel and coat on the blue, three seater couch and made her way over to the small kitchen. She quickly prepared frozen meal for dinner, as she ate her gaze drifted to the tack board hung up next a nearby window and her eyes focused on a laminated news article. Five Dead In Gang Shooting Five familiar fave looked back at her from their pictures in the news paper clipping, she sighed and threw her half eaten meal in the bin and flopped onto the couch. She picked up a tablet that sat on a small coffee table by the couch and switched it on. Idly she flickered through the displays of various security camera footage of the underground base she was supposed to be in, upon noticing no changes and a quick check to make sure her pet was fed, Dreamer checked her emails. Spam, Junk, ad, click bait and- Oh HQ has a job for me...Weird energy readings near a pizza place? eh not my problem, I'll check it out in a week or two if it turns out to be something serious. She sent a reply back, switched off the tablet and lounged around for the rest of the night. After that first day of introductions, Scootaloo was glued to Dreamer's side and the daycare worker was more than happy to have a small, playful shadow running around after her during work hours. They wiled away the day by drawing, playing and when nap time came around, reading. Fight's, another issue Scootaloo's grandfather was worried about, were never an issue as his granddaughter had fun mimicking Dreamer's casual, yet stern approach to less than friendly children. The weekend before the new school year came sooner than expected and as a treat, the daycare had planned a field trip to a local family friendly pizzeria. The sign above the entrance was decorated the same smiling quartet of animals as the daycare, the inside a loud, bustling place full of noisy children, costumed workers and slightly tired parents chatting away while their offspring ran to one of the many entertainment areas the place had to offer. Dreamer and Scootaloo were drawn to a small play area in a room to the left of the entrance, a massive wooden pirate ship atop a sea of foam blocks greeted them and near the center of the back wall was a stage are concealed by a purple, star patterned curtain. Scootaloo's eyes lit up and she made a dive towards the foam blocks while Dreamer hovered near the stage. "Miss Prose, come play with me!" Scootaloo called out as she rolled around on a pile of foam. "Sorry Scoots, grownups aren't allowed in there." Dreamer replied as she walked over towards the ship. "Aye lass, the foamy waters be no place fer a land lover." a voice stated as a cartoonish looking fox head poked out from behind the stage curtain. "Oi who are you calling a land lover?" Dreamer countered and after a moment, face palmed. "I'm talking to a robot...." "Ye not be talking to any old automaton lass, I be Foxy The Pirate!" the animatronic fox replied and swept back the stage curtain. "The most advanced artificial intelligence this side of the seven seas" "Uh huh" Dreamer deadpanned. "Cool, a real pirate!" Scootaloo said excitedly and bounded over to the stage. "Have you stolen any treasure?" 'Well I have me fair share of buried doubloons little lass, I much prefer sailing the seas and fighting nature herself!" Foxy crowed. "Why don't ye take a seat and ol' Foxy can tell ye a tale or two?" With Scootaloo occupied for the moment, Dreamer headed out into other parts of the restaurant to help the rest of the day care workers look after the other children. She broke up an argument in the arcade ("You all know the rules, take turns or no one plays it."), rescued a lost doll belonging to one of the older kids from the ball pit ("Alright, who threw Miss Smarty Pants into the ball pit? Starlight, go apologize.") and prevented a near accident over at the main stage. {Get off the stage Trixie! It's dangerous up there!"). Lunch didn't come soon enough for Dreamer. Once the kids had been rounded up and Scootaloo had said goodbye to Foxy, everyone was seated at a large table with several different kinds of pizza and fizzy, sugary drinks set out for the group. The children watched excitedly as three animatronics onstage were switched out with a yellow furred bear that sang folk songs and told stories while they ate. Dreamer tuned it out and munched on her fourth slice of pizza. A scream ripped out across the room, Dreamer looked up to see a small group of older children holding a toddler towards the jaws of the singing gold bear onstage. She and many others rushed to stop them as the crying child's head was held in the metal mouth of the robot, which attempted to close but the young boy's head was in the way. The older model, lacking any safeguards, didn't stop and kept applying pressure until- Staff rushed in as parents and daycare staff hurried to calm the hysteria that gripped the pizzeria. So focused on helping the frightened children under her care that Dreamer didn't notice an employee in a golden rabbit costume herd six children into a room past the stage. Once the children were calmed down and Dreamer did a headcount and noticed that Scootaloo wasn't present. She excused herself and notified her fellow workers that she'd meet up with everyone later. Dreamer had searched the entire restaurant multiple times, the staff had done their best to help, but Scootloo and five others were still missing. Closing time was fast approaching and as Dreamer was doing one last round of the place, she heard a noise coming an area near the back of the main stage. She looked around to find the staff were busy elsewhere in the establishment and casually wandered past the stage towards an off limits area of the pizzeria. She prodded walls and looked for any concealed areas until she heard the noise again, it sounded like something whimpering. The sound came from an old, boarded up section at the end of a corridor beyond the main area. The boards hadn't been tampered with but more sounds echoed from beyond the door. Dreamer checked more to see if anyone was nearby and reached into the inside of her coat and pulled out a small energy detector of some kind. She flicked it on and pointed it at the boarded up area, the meter beeped and went up as it sensed something. Another whimper, followed by whine came from behind the boarded up door. Dreamer stowed the detector back in her coat walked back a few steps. "I really hope I don't get in trouble for this..." she grumbled and charged forward, a closed fist glowing with golden energy. She punched the door, the impact smashing through the wooden boards and sent the door itself crashing to the ground with an obvious dent from the point of impact. A purple humanoid thing stood in the middle of the room with its back facing her, scattered around the room were five blood soaked corpses of the other missing children, and cowering beneath a dusty table was a small light brown wolf cub with purple eyes. The humanoid creature whirled round and snarled at Dreamer, who recoiled at the sight of it's empty eye sockets and the black, teeth filled void that was the creature's mouth. It rushed forward and swiped at her with long, clawed hands.She sidestepped it's attack and danced round it to put herself between the wolf cub and the beast hunting it. "So, we got ourselves a Boogeyman, huh?" Dreamer commented and reached into a pocket on her pants to pull out a silver, pistol covered in blue, glowing runes. She aimed the gun and fired before the boogeyman could attack again, a white glowing ball of magic exited from the barrel and expanded into a curved wall of energy that pinned the beast to the wall behind it with a metallic 'clang'. It snarled and thrashed, trying to escape. Dreamer watched it warily s it suddenly bagn to shift and morph into a tall, bulky yellow rabbit animatronic, it's new mass shattering its bonds. It lunged again and Dreamer got a metal fist to the side of her face, she rolled side and staggered to her feet. With a flick of her left hand a two handed clay more with a blue hilt and a glowing white blade etched with runes materialized before her. she grasped the hilt with her left hand and lifted the sword with ease to parry another swipe from the boogeyman. Deftly, she stepped behind it and thrust the blade it the torso of the creature, it phased through, a rune circle appearing around the blade and Dreamer twisted the sword as if it were a key. The Boogeyman let out a terrifying screech and attempted to shift forms once more, only for it to snap back into the shape of the robotic rabbit. Dreamer pulled her weapon out and aimed her gun at the creature's head. "I would say a one liner, but you don't have the intelligence to appreciate it." She stated and fired. The boogeyman vanished and the gun's projectile smacked harmlessly into the wall. "And of course it can teleport, because why the hell not..." Dreamer grumbled and sent her weapons back into the ether. "At lest it'll be easy to track down." She turned her attention to the wolf pup string wide eyed at her from underneath the table. "hey it's ok, the big bad boogeyman's gone now." she cooed and the pup rushed out bolted into her arms. it whined and before her very eyes, the young wolf shifted into a crying, terrified Scootaloo. "Shh, you're safe. Let's get you home now kid, your pack must be worried sick...And you start school next week, can't have you missing that can we?" Dreamer said warmly and carried the girl outside. By the time Dreamer had hiked her way into the depths of the Everfree Woods outside town, night had fallen. Scootaloo was sound asleep in her arms while her carrier kept an ear out for any strange noises. A howl pierced the silence of the night, followed by dozens more as a pack of wolves descended upon Dreamer. Scootaloo woke up, wriggled her way out of the young woman's grasp and shifted into a wolf to yip and nuzzle the gathered canines. A large, reddish brown wolf approached Dreamer and motioned for her to follow as the pack headed into the woods. They led to small village with log houses and carefully maintained dirt paths that led to a large pond in the middle of a forest clearing. From here, the wolves separated and walked off, some shifting into human form before doing so. Scootaloo ran up to a white wolf, whose fur glowed in the moonlight, the young pup shifted back into human form to hug the animal before rushing back over to Dreamer and dragging the girl towards the wolf. "Alpha look, Miss prose saved me from a monster!" the girl babbled excitedly. "it was so cool!" "Did she now?" the white wolf replied. "Why don't you go find your grandfather, little one, I'm sure he'd love to hear all about while I talk to your new friend." "Come, I make us some tea." The wolf said to Dreamer and led her into one of the houses while Scootaloo rushed off to find her grandfather. "Do make yourself at home, I'll only be just a moment." the white wolf said as Dreamer took a seat on one of the cushions placed around a low table in the Japanese-style log house. The wolf shifted into a middle aged woman with long white hair and dressed in a simple white robe. "It's been quite some time since you graced the pack with your presence, Lady Prose." the woman commented as she poured water into a teapot. "Yeah, well I've been kind busy Amy, sorry about that." Dreamer replied sheepishly. "By busy, you mean throwing yourself into every reckless situation the world can throw at you?" Amy countered as she set out tea cups. "Just because you don't visit any more doesn't mean the pack won't stop looking out for you." "I stopped doing that two years ago, I'm fine now, no more suicide missions, I swear." Dreamer stated. "Hm, yes, you only did so after your superiors beat you over the head enough times to get you to stop." "Amy..." Dreamer grumbled. Amy smiled, "That's not what I wanted to talk about though," the white haired woman poured the tea and added a plentiful amount of sugar to Dreamer's serve. "I've been meaning to contact you about Scootaloo, her parents requested that she'd be integrated into human society, much like her mother before her, to better relations between Humans and Lycans and since both of her parents have passed on..." "No, I'll keep an eye out for the kid, but I'm not adopting her, she needs to at least learn from her own kind-" Dreamer began. "She will," Amy interrupted and took a sip of tea. "She can spend some days here with the pack, and some days with you. She needs a mother figure and as an honorary member of this clan, it is your duty to help us when we ask." "Rrright," Dreamer drawled. "The answer's still no, and don't interrupt me, you know I don't like that." "How is this any different than when you took in Star Fire?" Amy asked. "Star was a teenager and you lot had just moved here from the other side of the world, it's my job to make sure things between magical entities and humans run smoothly," Dreamer stated. "And now you're asking me to raise a child? Nope, no way." "You've adopted young ones before," Amy stated calmly. "How is this any different?" "Well-I-just, look," Dreamer said seriously. "Immortals like me see things differently. Six years isn't enough to get over...what happened to my team, to Star Fire. Plus my job is dangerous, at least my old group were trained and stuff." "You could train Scootaloo, she shows promise even at this age." Amy countered. "And if people find out I have a kid...look since you're not going to let up, how about this? She stays with me for a bit, like you suggested, and legally I adopt her. But to Scootaloo, I'm just a friend of the family, maybe in a few years, I'll tell her about my work and start training her, for now though? That kid deserves a chance to be a kid." Dreamer said. "I find that agreeable, I'll see you tomorrow to fill out the paperwork." Amy stated. "You've been planning this for a while haven't you?" Dreamer deadpanned. "It wasn't my idea, I assure you. Star Fire's husband came up with it the moment the two found out they were having a child." Amy replied. Three years later... Scootaloo, now nine years old, looked around the pizzaria as local children and their parents walked in for the same reason she did. A large banner that read Happy Birthday Diamond Tiara hung over one of larger tables in the dinning area near the stage and the birthday girl in question was overseeing the seating arrangements while she barked orders at the family servant that had undoubtedly been paid to attend. Scootaloo decided to wander around the establishment and headed to the arcade. With the pockets of her shorts filled with coins, she made a beeline for a fighting game and began her quest to beat her current high score. As she deftly defeated the game's final boss for the third time, Scootaloo's immersion was suddenly broken. "That was so cool!" a high pitched voice squeaked. "Yeah, I've never seen anyone that good!" an equally excited southern accented voice added. Scootaloo turned around to find two girls around her age watching her play. "Thanks, I've never had an audience before. I'm Scootaloo." "I'm Sweetie Belle." The white skinned, green eyed girl with curly pink and purple hair replied. "It was a real treat watching you play, I'm Apple Bloom," The yellow skinned, amber eyed girl with a large pink bow tied into her curly red hair. "Did your family drag you here too?" "My babysitter works here, so usually I'm here because she gives me a ton of coins for the arcade but I'm here because her boss called her in and there wasn't time to find someone else to watch me," Scootaloo explained. "On the plus side we get free food." The other two agreed that it was a plus to the whole ordeal and the trio began to pass the time taking turns trying to beat each other at the various multiplayer arcade games. Sometime later, after cake, pizza and the tedious endeavor of listening to Diamond Tiara prattle on about how great she was, Scootaloo Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle sat on cushions in one of the quieter areas in Pirate's Cove. They in their fourth game of rock-paper-scissors when a shadow descended upon. "Well what do we have here?" Diamond Tiara sneered and adjusted her paper crown as started to slide down over her face. "What are you three losers doing here, you should be paying attention to me, I am the birthday girl." "I'm just here for the food," Scootaloo said simply and everyone gawked at her. "What? My babysitter brought me here 'cause she has to work today, It's not her fault this place didn't have enough people working to get that big party all set up, happy birthday by the way." "What-you-you're just here for the food!" Diamond spluttered. "Yeah, pretty much." Scootaloo replied and Apple Bloom face palmed. "Hmph, you're just a loser anyway," Diamond retorted. "I bet you couldn't last a night in here when the place is closed, The three of you will just get eaten by the monster." "You don't believe in that old legend do you?" Apple Bloom asked. "If there was a monster locked up in the back room it would be on the news right" Sweetie Belle added. "Then why don't you prove it," Diamond said with a smirk. "I dare you to sneak in tonight, stay until opening tomorrow and if you come back alive, then there's no monster." "This doesn't seem like a good idea..." Sweetie Belle stated as the three of them tiptoed around the dark and empty dinning area with a torch that appeared to only offer a small beam of light instead of how it should have eorked almost as soon the trio snuck into the pizzaria. The girls jumped at every shadow and trick of the light as they made their way backstage past the deactivated animatronics. "Ok on the count of three," Scootaloo said as she reached up to open the door. "One, two, three-" A roar belted out from behind the door, it swung open and tattered, faded yellow rabbit animatronic shambled out towards them. At the sight of the creature, Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle fainted. Scootaloo scrambled to drag her friends as far away from the monster as possible and when she tried to open the front doors she found them locked. Scootaloo trembled in fear and tried her not to cry as she looked at the monster and back at her friends. With a shaky breath and all the courage she could muster she ran past the golden bunny and shouted "H-hey ugly, you stink!" That caught the beasts attention and Scootaloo bolted towards the security office as fast as her legs could carry her while lumbering steps of the monster rang in her ears as if to sound her doom. The door to the security office slid and much to Scootaloo's surprise she was yanked inside and shoved under the desk. The glint of a greatsword's blade caught her eye as the night guard stepped forward to face the monster. "Just wait here Scoots, it'll all be ok." the familiar voice of Dreamer Prose said. "Why are you here?" Scootaloo blurted out and she couldn't see Dreamer's face, Scootaloo got the impression that her family friend and babysitter was smiling. "I'm the night guard, duh." The monster was quickly taken down with little flair and fanfare, a quick slash of a blade and the beast crumpled to the ground with a heavy thud s a final roar of protest shook the room. With the danger gone, Scootaloo crept out from under the desk and watched as Dreamer glowed with a golden aura and hauled the beast out of the room and into the main area. "You were pretty brave tonight," Dreamer said as she went over to check on Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle/ "It was a stupid idea to come here, but you did the right thing in defending your friends." "Are they going to be ok?" Scootaloo asked. "They just fainted, I'll scout the area to make sure there are no other surprises tonight, call me when they wake up kay?' When Scootaloo's friends awoke, the trio were told that they had accidentally activated a malfunctioning animatronic and were quickly dropped off to their worried families. Scootaloo didn't see Dreamer until a few days later, conversing with the pack Alpha and going over some form of paperwork. The week passed in a blur and the young lycan found herself growing ever closer to her new friends, she was especially proud of how the three of them told the tale of their adventure in the pizzaria to a excited group of fellow classmates and one irritated Diamond Tiara. On Friday Scootaloo found Dreamer waiting for at the end of the day and the pair talked as they walked down the street. "I uh, wanted to thank you for saving us back at the pizza place..." Scootaloo said. "You know you could've just asked me about the rumors about that place, I would've told you what was really going on." Dreamer replied. "I know but that monster...It wasn't a robot was it?" the child asked. "What gave it away?" "It smelled like rotting blood...And I've been having nightmares and stuff..." "Well you're right it's not a robot but I'll tell you when we get to my apartment, there's something I've been meaning to show you." Dreamer explained. When they reached her apartment, Dreamer fiddled with the keypad by the door for a few seconds before the door slid up to reveal a long tunnel. "Fun fact; I own this entire apartment building and I'm the only person living in it," Dreamer stated as she led Scootaloo down the tunnel. "Right now where underneath the complex in a kind of really big bunker that can't be detected by any form of technology or magic, it's air tight to prevent flooding, resistant to nuclear explosions and radiation and here's the fun it, it's all part of a secret organisation designed to ensure coexistence between humans and non-humans." "What? That can't be true." Scootaloo replied. "Just take a look for yourself." Dreamer said with a grin, opened a giant metal door and stepped aside to let the young lycan enter first. Scootaloo's jaw dropped at the sight before her; the massive room was divided into several sections all organised around a giant glass tube filled with a strange glowing liquid that went from the floor to the impossibly high ceiling. over to the right was a leisure area with a large flat screen TV top a cabinet that displayed DVD's, video tapes and a large variety of gaming consoles. a few plush chairs, cushions and beanbags were scattered in front of the television and the floor around that area was covered in soft blue carpet as opposed to the white tiles that made up the floor everywhere else. Off to the left of the leisure area was a large spiraling staircase that led to a second floor and behind the stairs was a tunnel that led to another part of the base. Another tunnel off to the left side of the room was situated just behind a large office like are with computer desks, chairs and state of the art technology as well as a series of computers and a couple of printers. There was small kitchen area t the back of the room that seemed optimized to be as efficient with the space provided without skipping out on any kind of device one could need to prepare a meal. Finally, attached the glass tube t the center of the room, facing the entrance was something Scootaloo could only describe as 'A giant, cartoon like super computer.' that seemed to come straight out of one of those sci-fi action shows she watched on weekends. Scootaloo's nose tickled and with the awe and wonder winding down, she noticed that, save for the kitchen and the super computer, everything else was covered in a fine layer of dust and she saw several areas with personal effects that also looked like they hadn't been touched in a long time, photos still sat at desk, coffee mugs left unused on the kitchen self and other small details that suggested other people should e here, but they weren't. "Where is everyone?" she asked and Dreamer hesitated before she sat down on a chair in front of the large computer and sighed. "Some time ago I had a team working with me, including your parents, nowadays, it's...just me.." Dreamer explained quietly. "I just haven't really bothered recruiting anyone else and until your little stunt at Fazbear's, I wasn't planning to." "What happened?" Scootaloo asked. "I'll tell you some other time alright?" Dreamer replied. "I uh, don't think I can right now..." Dreamer gestured to the area and calmly said "This is Timberwolf, beyond the government, above the police. cross the country are bases like this run by groups of people from all walks of life, some magical, others not. Out job is to monitor rifts in space time that appear across the country and ensure a safe and prosperous environment for the various entities that fall through as well work towards a world where humans and other intelligent life can coexist peacefully." The adult in the room struggled to find the right words for a second and quietly added. "I was wondering if you wanted to join as a junior member..." "What will I do?" Scootaloo asked. "Your parents left some stuff behind in case you wanted to join, training programs and some simulations and stuff over in the training area, you'd go through those and learn to be an effective support for me while I'm in the field, monitoring stuff on the net, learning how to spot people who aren't really human, diplomacy and a lot of technical know-how," Dreamer explained. "When you get older you'll learn how to fight without causing serious harm or killing and maybe I'll teach you some magic here and there if you have the aptitude, you free to say no at any time and just walk out, I just wanted to let you know I'll help you find other options when you turn eighteen and stuff if you're not interested." "Can I think about it?" Scootaloo asked "...And you're not going to wipe my memory or anything if I say no are you?" "Why would I? Unless you're going to turn into a super villain, yes those are real by the way, then no, I'm not going to erase your memory," Dreamer stated. "Come on, let's get you home, you can talk it out with your family if you're not entirely sure, try asking for some stories about the stuff your parents would get up to." Next Time on Timberwolf... "That was another lycan right?" Scootaloo asked as she and Dreamer bolted through the woods. "No, it's a werewolf, it's full moon out now and that guy was more humanoid than wolf, looks like my hunch was right." Dreamer replied and they leapt over a fallen log as howls pierced the night air. "We have to warn the pack!" Scootaloo exclaimed. There was a crash as several trees fell and blocked their path just a multitude of werewolves and unfamiliar lycanthropes stalked out into the moonlight led by a young woman with orange skin, dark purple, almost black hair, matching dark purple eyes and wearing a black one piece outfit. "Long time no see Prose, how's my little sister's pup doing?" the woman asked with a sly grin. Author's Note This episode was inspired by the Five Night's At Freddy's franchise And that concludes the pilot episode of Timberwolf! if you spot any missing words, letters 'A' or 'h' or other typos, please let me know as the A key and possibly the H key are sticky on my computer keyboard and sometimes don't work properly. I'd also like to note that updates after this chapter may not be up to the same length of this one due to the fact that I can't use the computer as much as I like and most will most likely be written in chunks on my PS4 and edited into single chapter by a friend of mine, similar to how I've written Hot Times at Canterlot High- Extra Credit. Comment down below and stay tuned for more episodes of Timberwolf Season 1
Apex Predator"Ugh, I'm still grounded!" Sweetie Belle complained to Apple Bloom and Scootaloo as they walked to school. "And it's been two weeks already!" "At least you ain't grounded until the school holidays!" Apple Bloom grumbled. "I'm stuck cleaning the family shrine for another three weeks." Scootaloo stated. "Shrine?" Apple Bloom and Sweetie asked. "Oh right, I never told you guys," Scootaloo realized and lunched into an explanation. "My family worships our ancestors and we have this huge shrine dedicated to our founder that everyone usually takes turns cleaning but I got stuck with doi8ng everyone's shift as a punishment, it takes hours." As they walked they soon came upon an re of the street blocked off by police tape with something covered by a piece of tarp. The three children stopped to take a look but quickly moved on when they saw splotches of blood on the pavement. By the time they reached the middle school section of Canterlot high the halls were buzzing with rumors and theories about the crime scene and many were jolted out of their musing by Principal Celestia calling a school assembly. Scootaloo and company took their seats as the school hall quieted down to allow the principal to speak. "As I'm sure many of you know, a body was discovered early this morning on a commonly used path to school," the principal stated. "The police have issued a statement advising all students to avoid the area until further notice and I, along with the rest of the faculty staff wish to remind you that despite these turn of events, you are all still on school grounds and to work hard and prevent as little disruption to your teachers and fellow students as possible." "With that out of the way, I would like to welcome a new member of staff to our school," Celestia stated cheerfully. "With Mr.Turner's recent departure, the English staff have been stretched thin to cover his classes. Today I would like to introduce his replacement, everyone give a warm welcome to Miss Prose." Scootaloo's jaw dropped at the sight of her friend walking up onto the stage and grabbing the microphone. "Um, hey everyone I'm Miss Prose, wow that makes me feel old," Dreamer Prose joked. "Anyway I may be new but I won't tolerate any disrespect or bullying and what have you. I'd also like to announce a new after school club starting up next week, you'll find more information posted on the notice boards around the campus. Hopefully I do a good job right?" Her last comment elected a few chuckles out most of those present and she finished a bow and handed the microphone back to the Principal. "Thank you for your interesting introduction. Now a reminder for our high school students to sign up for a sports activity before the week is out or you will be placed in whatever sport has vacancies..." Scootaloo tuned out the rest of the assembly as her mind wandered back to a conversation she had with Dreamer shortly after the revelation of the existence of Timberwolf. "So what was that monster that attacked us back at that pizza place?" Scootaloo asked as Dreamer walked her home. "it was a boogeyman," Dreamer stated. "They feed off of the pain and suffering of children, it's like a drug to them, they just...keep hurting the kids until they die. Boogeymen aren't intelligent enough to know when to stop so it was a good thing I saved you when I did..." "That's sounds scary, are there other monster like that around here?" the young lycan asked. "A few, usually I deal with them pretty quickly though, so there's no need to worry," Prose replied calmly. "If you think you see anything suspicious though, come find me alright? The police can only do so much." "Ok." After school, Scootaloo waited for Miss prose to leave and caught up with her. "So you work here now?" she asked the new teacher. "I got fired from Fazbear's for no reason, so I figured I'd try something I haven't done in a while," Prose replied. "I was wanting to talk to you anyway, you walked by that crime scene right, notice anything?" "It...it smelled like blood and wet wolf but It wasn't from anyone I knew...is there something weird going on?" Scootaloo asked. "You'll find out when we reach your place, I need to inform the rest of the pack anyway." Dreamer stated. "It's just a hunch but better be safe than sorry." As they entered the village, Scootaloo noticed many of her kin were on edge, many were stationed as guards at key locations and the rest were voicing their concerns to Alpha Amy, who stood on the large wooden platform at the center of town. Dreamer approached and walked up onto the platform and motioned to take the stage. Amy stepped aside and called for silence. "I'm sure many of you are worried about the recent murder but I can confirm it's not anyone local, however the cause of death is something to be wary of," Dreamer began. "From what I was able to see when the police arrived at the scene, the victim was mauled and I have reason to believe both the victim and the attacker were werewolves if not lycans from a rival pack." She paused and pulled out a zip lock plastic bag with a piece of bloody cloth inside. "I'm going to pas this around, don't touch the cloth, just open the bag and let me know if the smell is from anyone you recognize, if we can pin down the pack encroaching on our territory, then we can hopefully convince them join us or force them to leave." The bag was quickly passed around as pack members muttered to themselves and compared the mix of scents to what they knew, most confirmed it was from an unknown lycan but it wasn't from any of the packs they had recently tangled with. When it was the Alpha's turn she sniffed and for a moment a look of righteous fury crossed her features. She ordered the pack to stay on guard and led Dreamer to her house to discuss the issue. Scootaloo wandered around aimlessly, her mind a turmoil of worry and a sense of helplessness as she watched most of the pack working to protect their home. She was snapped out of wallowing by her grandfather who guided her to the family archives. "What are we doing here?" she asked as she looked around the large oval room covered in shelves stacked with books and scrolls that went from floor to ceiling. "You want to help? Then why not look up the names of rival packs," her grandfather suggested. "Maybe it might be one we have forgotten about, you could make a nice big list for Alpha to look over." "Alright, thanks Grandpa!" "You want to pull your weight, that's good for the future of the pack, remember that won't you?" the older lycan stated. "Yep!" After hours of searching a scroll sealed with the mark of the Alpha caught Scootaloo's attention. She opened it to find a report containing a clash between Amy and a now exiled member of the pack. Scootaloo skimmed over it and added the key details to the long list she had already written. She stretched and decided she had a decent amount of information to show Alpha Amy and walked out of the archive and towards the white wolf's house. She walked in to find both the Alpha and Dreamer going through a small stack of folders. "Um Alpha? I have some stuff for you." the young lycan said nd showed Amy the list. the pack leader looked it over before offering Scootaloo a seat beside her. "This is very well done pup," Amy said. "We can compare these to these recent reports of rival activity over the last few years to pinpoint possible assailants, would you like to help?" "Maybe later, I'm getting kind of hungry." Scootaloo replied. "Why don't we take a break, grab some food and continue afterwards?" Dreamer suggested. After a warm meal the trio went back to work and with some precise instructions from both Amy and Dreamer, Scootaloo found no trouble keeping up with the steadfast studious nature of the two women as they looked over and compared notes. For a time, a name and a string of events kept coming to forefront of the child's mind as she kept finding more and more evidence to support it, more so when comparing the nation wide data that Dreamer had snagged off the Timberwolf database. "Who's Black Fire?" Scootaloo eventually asked and Dreamer was the one to answer. "Your power hungry aunt that's hellbent on ruling the world." Scootaloo just looked at her and said. "I don't know if you're being serious or not..." "I am, she's tried to kill me a few times, attempted to take control of the pack, framed your mother for something she didn't do and whole bunch of other stuff," Dreamer explained. "I've been keeping tabs on her for a few years and her recent movement patterns have been odd." "Like she's been going around the same areas for a long time until moving to the next one?" Scootaloo suggested and pulled up her own notes on the matter. "It looks like she's been drifting from pack to pack..." "My hunch is that she's recruiting," Dreamer stated. "If she can get the numbers to challenge us, everyone here would be forced to fight...It could draw attention from the public and cause a panic and it wouldn't surprise me if Black Fire uses that as an opportunity to take over the city." "What do we do?" Scootaloo asked. "Judging from these charts we have a week until she's close enough to pose a threat." Amy stated. "That murder was most likely a warning or a diversion to keep us guessing until she comes in for the kill." "I could call in a few favors, warn the other magi folk and set up an alarm system then try to catch her off guard?" Dreamer offered. "Would that be possible in the time frame we have?" Amy asked. "Not without causing some measure of panic for the magical portion of the population..." Dreamer admitted. "What if we had bait to bring her out of hiding?" Scootaloo suggested. "Like tricking her or something?" "You got an idea Scoots?" Dreamer asked. "I know you're smart for your age but make sure to think it through." "I did!" the young lycan protested. "I saw some of Black Fire's old crimes and stuff, so I was thinking..." One week later they were ready. Night had fallen by the time they had put their plan into action. Dreamer and Scootaloo trudged through the moonlit forest aimlessly as the pair listened for any noise that was out of place. They could eyes watching them in the darkness yet they paid it no mind, they were ready for whatever the environment threw at them, be it friend or foe. A howl rang through the night and the thumps of heavy footfalls grew ever closer. Dreamer pulled Scootaloo behind her as a bipedal wolf like beast thundered towards them. "For Queen Black Fire!" the werewolf roared and swiped at the duo. Dreamer sidestepped with the young pup in her care following her movements. As one the two of them bolted into the forest with their pursuer on their trail. "That was another lycan right?" Scootaloo asked as she and Dreamer ran for their lives. "No, a werewolf, it's full moon out now and that guy was more humanoid than wolf, looks like my hunch was right." Dreamer replied and they leapt over a fallen log as howls pierced the night air. "We have to warn the pack!" Scootaloo exclaimed. There was a crash as several trees fell and blocked their path just a multitude of werewolves and unfamiliar lycanthropes stalked out into the moonlight led by a young woman with orange skin, dark purple-almost black hair, matching dark purple eyes and wearing a black one piece outfit. "Long time no see Prose, how's my little sister's pup doing?" the woman asked with a sly grin. "Hi Aunt Black Fire," Scootaloo said cheerfully. "You fell into our trap!" "Trap?" the older lycan echoed. "You are surrounded by my army with no way to warn your family, once I kill Dreamer and capture you, young pup, Amy will be forced to surrender and this city, all of humanity will bow before me." The two seemed shared a look before they both said "Uh-huh" with the best flat expression they could muster. Black Fire glared at them. "You think this is some kind of joke?" she asked. "I have killed for less!" "Sure you have," Dreamer drawled. "You're still doomed by the way." "Dooooommed!" Scootaloo added dramatically. "How dare you..." Black Fire seethed as a few of her followers snickered behind her. "Very well, if you two aren't going to take this seriously, then both your lives are forfeit. Attack!" "Yeah, no. Dreamer said and with a flick of her left hand, she summoned her sword and pointed it at the army before her. the blade glowed green and she swung it in a wide arc over the group just as every last wolf was about to charge. Green sparks danced around Black Fire's lackey's as they tried to move but found themselves frozen in place. Barks and growls of protest rose from the pack as their leader whirled around to stare at her forces that were now useless. "You're green now," Dreamer stated cheerfully. "You can't escape." With a cry of outrage Black Fire shifted into a black wolf and charged the two with jaws outstretched. Dreamer and Scootaloo moved to the side and in blind fury, Black Fire turned to lunge at Dreamer only to get a face full of metal as the Timberwolf operative slammed the flat side of her blade into her attacker's face. Dreamer called forth her pistol as she pushed the sharp edge of her blade up against Black Fire's throat. "Your freedom or your life, Pick one." Dreamer stated coldly to a dazed Black Fire. With their leader imprisoned, Black Fire's pack surrendered and most were accepted into Scootaloo's Pack as a precautionary measure so they could be watched over as well given a better chance at life. With the threat over, Alpha Amy worked with pack members old and new to hold a celebration the following day. "Good thing it's the weekend huh?" Dreamer said as Scootaloo helped her pluck the feathers off of some wild birds that would be cooked for the feast to come. "I wouldn't want you to miss out on the party because you had school." "Isn't school supposed to be more important?" Scootaloo asked s she tugged at a particularly stubborn feather. Dreamer reached over and felt where the feather in question was attached to bird and twisted the end to pull it free. "This is a celebration of unity for your family and chance for your aunt's followers to become respected and loved members of the pack, a way to bring everyone closer together for the peace and prosperity of your family's territory, if not the whole city." Dreamer explained. "Still something's been bugging me..." the young lycan admitted as she picked up another bird. "That fight seemed easy, too easy, you planned out everything, what we say, where to run, everything and it all happened the exact way you planned it!" "If I tell you, you'll have to become a part of Timberwolf, like it or not, it's sort of a secret," Dreamer stated and fell into a short sneezing fit as a small stray feather floated along a light breeze and tickled her nose. "ugh, I hate it when that happens." "After seeing what happened, I think... I want to join as a junior member, if only to help, to do something you know?" Scootaloo replied. "What made you decide?" Dreamer asked. "It's going to be dangerous." "When everyone was preparing to defend our home it sort of hit me that, I wanted to help but everyone could already do more than me because I'm just a kid, I want to help out more and even if I'm stuck doing boring computer stuff and ugh homework just to get a chance to help, then I'll do whatever it takes!" Scootaloo replied and in the back of her mind, she remembered the boogeyman, how it killed five other kids and she could nothing but watch, how it came close to killing her friends, if she hadn't acted her friends would've been dead and it would've been all her fault... Dreamer looked thoughtful as the pair lapsed into silence and it wasn't broken until the last bird had been plucked. "Alright Scoots, you wanna join Timberwolf?" Dreamer asked. "Yeah." "I'll talk to Amy tonight after the party and tomorrow you'll have to pass a test to see if you're worthy alright?" Dreamer stated. "Wait, a test!?" Scootaloo echoed in surprise. Next Time on Timberwolf... "So what's my test going to be?" Scootaloo asked and sat down on one the desk chairs in the office portion of the Timberwolf base. Dreamer was skimming through a large stack of files at an adjacent desk. "Dunno-" Dreamer began to reply when the light flickered for a monent before the power went out. "Dreamer?" "Yeah Scoots?" "That's not part of the test is it?" "Nope." "What do we do?" "Go find somewhere to hide Scootaloo, whoever this is won't be targeting you but better stay out of sigfht just in case>" Dreamer stated. "How do you know that?" Scootaloo asked. "A hunch." The ground rumbled beneath their feet as something exploded down below. Author's Note Pardon me while I go rage about my sticky A key and backspace key. It makes typing SO FRUSTRATING!!!!!! Next chapter will have some world building and stuff. Anyway if you spot any typos I missed, let me know, it might take a while to fix them though.
Project AlphaIt was early on Monday morning and Dreamer was going over the morning paper when an article caught her attention. It detailed a string of murders that happened over the weekend and much to Dreamers amusement, the victims were people she knew. So those bastards got what they deserved huh? She thought. About time. Dreamer's mind drifted back to when she knew the scientists and researchers that were dead and gone and she grimaced at the memory. They had blackmailed her, threatened her and she gave in. She now sat chained to the ground in a cold concrete cell, her only scrap of clothing was a white robe stained with her own blood. her arms and legs were bound and her back ached in four different places. White feathers littered the floor and her back twitched at the sight of them, as if it trying to move muscles that weren't their. It only bought on more pain. She was tired, sore and the screams of the test subjects could still be heard and she no longer cared if the cries of pain were real or in her head. It was all her fault... Back in the present, Dreamer sighed and rubbed the top of her head, she could feel the scars and two small bumps that remained of the events all those years. With a stretch and a wince at the phantom pain in her back she got ready for a day of teaching. Scootaloo couldn't stay focused as she sat in class. With the packs celebration lasting for the whole weekend, she had been told that her test to join Timberwolf would be postponed until after school. She couldn't help but wonder what she would be tested about or if was even a test in the traditional sense of the word. She perked up when the teacher announced the start of history class. At least it's more challenging than Math... She thought and paid attention. "Alright class today we will be learning about the rise and fall of the Discordant Monarchy and the civil war that followed," the teacher began. "If you've been doing your homework, you would know that Discord the First began a campaign to take the different kingdoms and territories that ruled the country at the time of his rise to power. In 1550 he succeeded when he defeated the Dreemurr kingdom." "Wasn't that kingdom made up of monsters?" A classmate asked. "That is something that is still up to debate," the teacher clarified. "While Discord did unify the kingdoms, many accounts speak of the insanity present in many of his decisions as a ruler..." "Now can anyone tell me how the monarchy fell?" The teacher asked. "Yes Sweetie belle?" "Queen Eris the fourth was overthrown by her advisers Lord Solaris and Lady Nightshade at the start of the 19th century," Sweetie recited. "When the two nobles failed to agree on who should take the throne, they decided to gain the support of the people and over the course of their lifetime, started a war between their two factions the Solar Legion and the Lunar Rebellion." "Very good Sweetie Belle," the teacher praised. "The war last for 130 years and finally ended here in Canterlot City when the descendants of both nobles married in a show of peace. Now I want you all to pull out your textbooks and turn to page..." "So what's my test going to be?" Scootaloo asked and sat down on one the desk chairs in the office portion of the Timberwolf base. Dreamer was skimming through a large stack of files at an adjacent desk. "Dunno-" Dreamer began to reply when the light flickered for a moment before the power went out. "Dreamer?" "Yeah Scoots?" "That's not part of the test is it?" "Nope." "What do we do?" "Go find somewhere to hide Scootaloo, whoever this is won't be targeting you but better stay out of sight just in case." Dreamer stated. "How do you know that?" Scootaloo asked. "A hunch." The ground rumbled beneath their feet as something exploded down below. "That's not supposed to happen," Dreamer muttered as she stood up. "Scoots, go hide, I'll handle this." Just as Dreamer was about to move, she heard Scootaloo shout out in panic. She looked around only to be blindsided by a human shaped figure that tackled her to the ground. The figure was cold, heavy and when Dreamer listened close enough, she could hear the hum of electronics coming from her attacker. Before she could make a move, she heard footsteps coming from behind her and a swift blow to the head knocked her unconscious. When she awoke she found she was bound to a chair. Across from her a still unconscious Scootaloo was also tied to a chair with two humanoid robots guarding her. "You didn't have to drag the kid into this you know." Dreamer called out to her kidnapper. "Still if you wanted my attention that badly, you have it. So what the hell do you want?" "I needed your cooperation," a man replied from behind. "And from I've read, threatening your life just won't do." Dreamer chose to stay silent as ideas rapidly formed in mind's eye. "I take it you understand your situation then?" The man asked as he walked by, still hidden in the shadows. "Assist me and your friend goes free. Refuse and..." She heard him snap his fingers and one of the robots pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Scootaloo's head. "It's quite an easy choice to make Miss Prose, So do I have your attention?" "Yeah, fine. What do you need out from me?" Dreamer sighed and with another snap, the gun was withdrawn. "Why don't we start at the beginning." stated her kidnapper as he stepped into view. He was tall with his muscular build enhanced by the black, form fitting body suit that appeared to be made high grade material. Attached to the outfit on his arms and legs were pieces of plated metal that offered protection and his joins free to move and similar pieces of metal covered the top of his boots. Metal wrist guards matched his grey gloves and the man's neck and shoulders were shielded by a large piece of metal that encompassed those areas. "My name is Slade," he said as Dreamer looked up at his visually striking headpiece. It covered his entire head with his face hidden by a metal mask that was black on the right side and orange on the other. There four thin slots near the bottom to allow the occupant to breathe and only his left dark grey eyes was visible through the mask itself as the black half was void of all features. "I believe your already familiar with my work." "Those former Timberwolf scientists, that was your handy work?" Dreamer asked. "They were quite talkative too," Slade elaborated. "It's astounding what people will say when their lives were on the line. Those fools were more than happy to provide me with your information if it would continue their existence." "You still killed them." Dreamer pointed out calmly. "Once I had what I needed I decided to end their suffering, I didn't need to keep them alive," Slade replied. "You on the other hand? I have need of your abilities, your magic if I am to fix what they did to me." Slade picked up a folder of papers and placed on the desk. "Tell me Miss Prose, does the term Project Alpha mean anything to you?" he asked and moved to swivel her chair to face the folder. Dreamer looked up from the papers laid before her back to Slade, horror dawned on her face and the room began to spin as the realization hit. "You do remember. Good," Slade purred. "Your expertise will prove useful in negating the side effects." "Side effects-What?" Dreamer spluttered. "Y-you're a survivor? But they were all-" "Killed?" Slade cut in and Dreamer flinched. "I'm sorry, would you prefer the term euthanized?" "W-what side effects?" Dreamer asked as she struggled to pull herself together. "Visions, fragments of false memories and hallucinations," Slade explained."It feels as if I'm reliving the war over and over and I want it fixed." Dreamer stared at him for several seconds before her mind kicked into high gear. "Ok...Ok I'll explain as best I can," Dreamer replied shakily. "Project Alpha used soldiers recruited during the war as test subjects, t-they drained me of my magic in order to inject it into humans to create an artificial god and from the sounds of it, you are the only successful case." Dreamer paused to gather her thoughts. "I'm sorry, no one deserved to go through that," she said and took a breath. "Anyway you survived because my magic affects the soul, it makes it a physical, tangible object and further strengthens the body to protect it. You must have had the inner strength necessary for the procedure to go smoothly." "I have a soul," Slade deadpanned. "That's doesn't explain the visions." "I'm getting to that," Dreamer replied. "With your new powers comes a fail safe, should you die, time is...Rewound back to a point before you died. Since it's a copy of my fail safe, if I die, you are dragged back in time with me and with all your memories intact." "At least that's how it's supposed to work," Dreamer stated. "It looks like whatever happened to you didn't result in a perfect copy..." "Interesting, I assume if you fixed it, The fail safe would work as intended?" Slade asked. "You'd have to untie me, but yeah," Dreamer replied. "Though to make it work properly, we'd both end up going back in time anyway so your soul can stabilize." Slade made a gesture to elaborate and with an eye roll, Dreamer complied. "By living through those extra years you'll have the full experience of a 'timeline', the sequence of events that happens over the course of your life. You need to keep in mind that you can only travel back to a time period you were alive in, not before you were born and not after you permanent death," she explained. "The procedure involves summoning your soul, and observing the flow of magic within it as well how it's structured itself within your soul and body. From there I can alter the flow and composition of the magic to be what it should be when it comes to the fail safe, I'll be able to set a specific point in your timeline that acts the earliest point you can travel back to, from that point onward you will have all your memories and skills from previous timelines." "Going through a timeline in the correct way will lock the changes to the fail safe in place and your soul will stabilize," Dreamer concluded. "If you'll be so kind as to untie me, we can get to work." Dreamer stood in front of Slade as he sat on the exam table in the medical wing. She quickly glanced over at Scootaloo, who had been released and was now passed out on the couch. Dreamer took a deep breath and concentrated. She held her right hand over Slade's chest and as her hand glowed with white magic and white and orange mass of energy slowly began to rise out of her patient's chest. "Wow, talk about a hack job," Dreamer muttered. "Those scientists had no idea what they were doing." Dreamer twisted her right hand and several rings of silver magic covered in blue glowing runes appeared around the deformed mass that was Slade's soul. "These rings are the building blocks to how magic functions, similar to computer coding or DNA splicing," Dreamer explained as she observed the rings. "Ok it looks like the adjustments made to your body in order to protect your soul turned out fine, super strength, heightened reflexes, regenerative healing, increased pain tolerance and boosted IQ. It seems my theory of the fail safe being damaged was correct, it'll be easy enough to fix it once we extblish wht chnges i should mke to your personal timeline." "What changes?" Slade asked. "Well do you want to be test subject again?" Dreamer asked. "i can't prevent the war but according to your file you were a captain in the Solar Legion, since their philosophy revoled around the worship of magical entities for knowledge or power it would be simple enough to just tweak things so that you end up at my temple while you served the legion and got your powers directly from me, granted such a change wouldn't do jack shit in the long run but it would spare you from those experiments." "No keep it the same," he stated. " I survived it once, i can do so again." "If you're sure. when you do want the earliest point in your timeline to be? Dreamer asked. "How far back do you want to go?" Scootaloo woke up to find she was lying on the couch in the leisure section of the base. She sat up and looked around, everything appeared perfectly normal, the lights were on and nothing was out of place. Dreamer was no where to be found. The nine year old hopped off the couch and wandered around in search of her friend, she soon found a note that been left for her. Hey Scoots, I got the power sorted, turns out a couple of training robots went haywire after the blackout and jumped us. It's all sorted out but a job came up so I had to leave you behind, it's not pretty. You'll find a case file labelled "Project Alpha" a, for your test I want to read it and tell me what you think of it all when I get back. I've made sure most of the nasty stuff has been omitted. See you soon, Dreamer Prose. Scootaloo sighed and rummaged around in a nearby desk until she found the requested folders. She picked up the Project Alpha folder and opened it up, much of it's content was blacked out but few entries were still visible. Ready to face anything, Scootaloo began to read. Project Alpha- The source. An extensive study on the Angel of Guidance Entry 1 Reports throughout the last seven hundred years reference a divine entity that calls itself a guardian angel. Our studies have recently proven this creature not only real, but alive and well in the small state of Harmonia. Harmonia itself currently stands as the largest neutral faction during this war and has been so since the beginning. It is the organizations hope that our angel will cooperate with us, if the tales are to be believed, legends of omnipotence, powerful spells and the capacity to heal the most grievous of wounds, this Dreamer Prose will be the key to the projects success. Entry 3 It appears taking the angel's child away from her has born fruit, we have her in a cell ready to begin testing. Our initial scans show promise, the angel has a vast amount of magical energy stored in her wings, horns and tail. All we need to do is extract it for further testing. Entry 5 We've recruited soldiers from both sides of the war front claiming to be testing a countermeasure to the other's magical techniques. We've already harvested what magic we can from the angel's scales and feathers, though with the number of applicants we may need more. Entry 6 The interns we sent to harvest the angel's wings came back successful but their minds are damaged. They have been reduced to broken shells of their former selves and claim to have stared into the face of death. Many are praying for forgiveness from something called "Likrel Drofmeas" and our attempts to get a straight answer have yielded nothing. It seems if you want something done around here, you must do it yourself. Entry 7 ForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueenForgiveMeMyQueen Entry 10 Something is attacking the base and killing the failed test subjects. whatever it is, it has produced a reaction out of the angel after years of dormancy. It would be best to cut our loses and leave while we can. Scootaloo put the Project Alpha folder aside and stared at a blank computer screen as she contemplated what she had just read, pieces began to fall into place and the lycan wondered what else Dreamer was hiding from her. Deep down Scootaloo hoped she could do something to make things if not better, then happier for her long time family friend by joining Timberwolf. With her mind in full gear, the nine year old found a piece of paper, a pen and began making notes. "Hey Scoots, I'm back!" Scootaloo heard Dreamer call out an hour later. "I got us pizza for dinner." Scootaloo whirled around on her computer chair to watch her friend as she unloaded several boxes of pizza, some sides and a few bottles of soda onto the kitchen bench. The base fell into a comfortable silence as Dreamer plated up their meals and the pair ate in silence, both thankful for the quiet moment. "Sorry about today.." Dreamer said as they cleaned up. "You uh, probably have a whole bunch of questions and stuff right?" "Yeah," Scootaloo admitted. "Timberwolf did some pretty bad stuff during the war right/" "Yup..." Dreamer replied sadly. "One thing the history books don't cover is that Timberwolf leaked knowledge of magic to both sides and the whole thing devolved into deity worship and demon summoning, at the time the organization believed they could exploit the conflict to further their research." "But why?" "Because Scoots, they still had a mindset that humans were the dominant species and all others should serve the human race," Dreamer stated. "They found out about me and what I really am and some moron thought 'hey gods are real, let's capture one.' Last time I checked I wasn't a Pokemon." The joke elected a brief chuckle from the two. Scootaloo hesitated before she asked the next question. "What...What are you?' "A magic angel dragon from space." Dreamer said with a straight face. "Dreamer, I was being serious!" Scootaloo grumbled and the woman ruffled her hair in good humor. "I know, I just like introducing myself in the funniest way possible, comedy helps with these kinds of conversations, keeps the mood lighthearted enough for everyone to walk away on the best terms possible at the end of it," Dreamer explained with a grin. "As for what I am, if you're up for a history lesson, I can show you." "Wait really?" Scootaloo asked surprised. "Behold, the seraph of guidance, protection and redemption!" Dreamer announced comically, pulled out a photo and handed it to Scootaloo. The picture showed an anthropomorphic, white scaled dragon with four feathered wings, deer like antlers, silver clawed hands and wolf like paws instead of feet. the dragon wore a flowing blue dress decorated with the beauty of deep space, a gold crown decorated with purple jewels and a matching necklace. Her serpentine tail curled up into an 'S' shape behind her as she stood off to the side looking at the camera. Scootaloo noted that her pointed canine like ears had tufts of fur on the end and her orange mane resembled feather like fur. "Where's your left eye?" Scootaloo asked as she noticed the empty left socket. "You have both eyes.' "I don't actually," Dreamer admitted. "I just have a spell on my glasses that makes it look like I do, it's all part of blending in." "Wait so if you..." "Yup, nothing but an empty socket without my glasses," Dreamer confirmed. "Anyway that's what I used to look like before Timberwolf drained me off most of my magic, it's why I look human nowadays, no magic means no magic angel dragon." "They cut off your wings to, that must have hurt." Scootaloo added. "That's all in the past kid, don't worry about," Dreamer said. " Anyway back on track, my species are a race of shape shifting beings that re manifestations of forces of nature, forces of magic and societal concepts. We travel to other worlds and watch over them taking on roles that best fit what we are. When mortals worshiped us regardless of what we did or said, we took that religious aspect into our culture and now we call ourselves Seraphim." "So what do you represent?" Scootaloo asked. "I represent the concept of a guide or guardian angel, pun entirely intended," Dreamer replied. "I work with people from all walks of life in order to ensure that things turn out better than they would have without my interference. I wtch and see how things play out, then I travel back in time and start doing what I can to help. Even if it means i need to take a more active role as their ruler or just do what I'm doing now and keeping to the sidelines." "You can time travel!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "That's how you bet Black Fire right?" "Yeah, because for me, this has happened before. I have to admit this is the first time I've told you all this though," Dreamer replied. "Usually I just step in when I need to and bow out when it's all over with everyone none the wiser." "What's different this time?" "Every time I've gone back in time I've failed to prevent the deaths of my old team mates, including your parents and in a couple of years the apocalypse is going to hit and I haven't been able to stop it by myself, so I thought, I mean I know it sounds dumb but..." "You need help?" Scootaloo asked. "I do, here let me explain,"Dreamer began and pulled out a sheet of paper and drew a bunch of circles on it. "imagines this is reality and all those circles are a different dimension." She then colored in two circles separated by several other. "This one is our dimension and the other is a world similar to ours but not entirely connected. A thousand years ago a wizard from that other world connected our world to his and it sort of looks like this." Dreamer explained and folded the paper until the two colored circles were touching. "This has caused a lot of strain on the other realities as well as ours. that causes those rifts in space time I told about yesterday. they're all over the counrty and have been leaking magic and other forms of energy into this world for centuries, to the point where the borders of every state is defined by where the different kinds of magic intersect each other." "That's why a lot of things are different depending on where you live right?" Scootaloo concluded. "because the magic from the rifts is affecting everyone." "Sometimes magical creatures fall through as well and the rift here in Canterlot is only getting more and more active, there's only so much I can do on my own even with foreknowledge and I'd rather not call in help from the friends i have around ere, they deserve to live their own lives." Dreamer said. "I thought I'd ask you to help because of what you've already seen." "So I can learn things to help others and not just my family." Scootaloo stated "Yeah are you, ok with that?" Dreamer asked. "I haven't told you everything but I will, just thought I'd take baby steps." "I'll join on one condition," Scootaloo replied seriously before she broke out into a grin. "You've gotta tell me about your old team, who were they? what were my parent's like? Did you go on awesome adventures?" Dreamer stared at her completely caught off guard. Slowly, she relaxed and chuckled. "Timberwolf operatives work in groups called divisions, there's usually one group per state, but sometimes there's more if the need arises. My old team was called the Titan Division..." Dreamer explained. Author's Note Next chapter will be more focused on Scootloo. There is no Next Time on Timeberwolf because I'm not sure which episode I'll be doing next, I only have about 12 episodes planned and vague idea on where they all fit. If you spot any typo's let me know. This chapter has ideas and characters adapted from the Teen Titans cartoon to fit the universe.
