POV: Santiago Alvarez

A ferocious blizzard roared through the many spruce trees that littered the flat, snowy landscape, save for a few mountains here and there. Thankfully, my fur was able to protect me from the frigid temperatures. The wind grew unpredictable and the dense snow didn’t make it any easier. Walking through the dense snow produced crunch-like sounds, though barely audible through the roaring winds

“How long shall it take to look for this beast?” I sighed.

A musky scent mixed with a faint metallic smell had suddenly arose in my nostrils. Looking down, I noticed a tuft of bloodied fur on the ice. I crouched down and picked it up, having it held on the middle of my palm. Taking a few small sniffs told me that this was the beast’s scent. Once I got what I needed, a small energy rose up from my chest and grew in my maw.

“This will no longer be needed.” I spoke, with a ball of orange energy exited out from my lips as I gently blew it towards the fur. The energy engulfed the fur and then dispersed, revealing nothing on the palm of my hand. Dropping my right arm to my side, I lowered my nose to the ground, inhaling.

The scent was faint, but it held the same musky scent. It also helped as blood was barely visible on the snow leading northwest.

I had began walking, minutes going by quickly as the blizzard got worse. During certain points on my trip, I could see bits of tree and ground freezing block solid. Not wanting to freeze up, I jogged lightly so my body could produce heat, just enough to not ice in the sub zero temperature.

With the little amount of time that passed, not only had the odor of blood grown with each passing minute, but the snowstorm had dragged on, even becoming more unpredictable. The snow had now reached just over my paws, which had previously just covered the pads under my paws.

“I must be close.” I whispered out, muffled by the snowstorm. Coincidence or not, a beast’s roar echoed through the storm. My ears picking up rapid footsteps crunching the snow approaching me. Sensing the approaching danger, I knew the storm would be a problem but I only needed the blizzard to locate the creature as its mere presence created snow storms.

”Tempestas ruptor!” I bellowed, a shockwave erupting around me. The blizzard had died down temporarily, exposing the animal’s form.

The monster was the same height as me, having a most of its body covered in bloodied, white shaggy fur with the exception of its head having all flesh missing, showing off a deer’s skull with long antlers, its limbs being slender and long, lanky fingers adorning pitch black claws, and had large, black hooves.

“Thank the makers I’ve finally found you, weird looking windigo.” I said, annoyed by the fact I had to go through the blizzard AND other creatures. No one should wake up to getting thrashed around like a rag doll by several yeti.

The creature opened its jaws, letting out an ear piercing shrill. With speed seemingly impossible for its size, it rushed at me with open claws and took a strong swipe at me. I simply dodged to my left, and threw a right hook, hitting the right side of his jaw. He stumbled back several meters before coming to a stop, his fingers running over where my fist landed. Letting out a scream, the Windigo began another sprint towards me. It had just made a huge mistake without it even noticing.

Examining the creature, I took note of how its body was leaning forwards. Using this to my advantage, I quickly gripped both of its forearms, and yanked it towards me. Its already existing momentum added to my pull had caused the windigo to start tumbling towards me. I narrowly dodged the weight to my left, hearing the sound of wood being pierced. Turning around, I saw the windigo’s antlers stuck in a nearby spruce tree. With ease, it tore its antlers out of the wood and once again tried to rush me.

I ran at the beast, claws ready to tear. As I ran, the winds began to whistle through the trees and snow was starting to fall. My reserves didn’t have enough magic to preform another weather disruptor spell added to the fact that this windigo was persistent as Tartarus.

“I won’t make the mistake of letting you live!” Once within a two meter range,
I shifted my body weight on all fours. My change in running managed to catch the windigo off guard, making it stop for a moment before it stormed towards me again.

when only a few feet apart, the creature dived at me.

“Predictable as always, Windy!” I called out, opting to call it by my newly created nickname instead of calling it a creature.

I increased my speed till I was nearly under the now airborne windigo. I leapt under Windy and sprang my legs off the ground, bashing my head into the windigo’s gut. Windy became breathless, gasping desperately for air. The force of my strike had sent him several feet up.

Looking up, I saw Windy suspended in the air for only a moment before plummeting down. Rolling out of the way, Windy’s body hit the dense snow hard with his belly, knocking out the little amount of oxygen he regained while airborne.

The blizzard was at full strength again. Wasting no time, I jumped onto his shoulders.

CRACK

My weight having been to much on Windy’s shoulder blades caused them to crack and break, didn’t help that my claws were slowly digging into his flesh. He writhed about in pain, flailing his body to knock me off but to no avail. Without any other options, Windy began to throw his head back.

His antlers coming back at me, I managed to grab both of them at the middle. With slight strain, I started to pull the horns at opposing directs. Windy struggled harder and harder, but was unable to do anything.

“Ragh!” Letting out a strained grunt, my arms pulled and snapped the antlers in half. With the sharp ends of the antlers, I stabbed them into Windy’s arms. This elicited a painful shriek from the windigo.

My hands quickly wrapped around Windy’s head. It was not easy as Windy began to thrash harder, seemingly knowing what I was doing by the sounds of his howls.

“You . . .” Struggling to get a good grasp on Wendy’s bottom jaw, “will not . . .” finally getting grip with my left hand, “cause more . . .” my tight grasp keeping his head still, “Damage!” I yelled, quickly twisting his head diagonally, producing a loud-

CRUNCH

My eyes snapped opened, being blinded by sunlight. My ears stood up at attention, my eyes assaulted with bright light. I hissed in pain with the unbearable and unexpected change in lighting. My eyes slowly became used to the sun after the initial assault. I jumped onto my paws and transitioned into a low defensive stance. A new smell entered my nostrils.

“What the fuck is that smell!” I snarled out as my snout wrinkled in disgust. Gagging at the horrid smell, multiple bushes near me began to rustle.

My senses now going overdrive, I twisted my body and my head repeatedly towards the rustling. My whole body tensed as I stared at a specific bush, glowing green eyes staring back at me. Without warning, a weight descended onto my back, what painfully felt like claws digging into my skin. I turned my head in a pained frenzy, seeing a set of jaws coming down behind my neck.

I let out blood curdling howl. A blur exited the bush I was examining moments before, another set of jaws wrapping around my throat. I lifted my hands at the jaws and yanked both of them off my neck, though this caused chunks of flesh and fur to be torn off.

I threw the creatures in front of me, showing off the bizarre body of said being. Its body was shaped similarly to that of a wolf’s but that wasn’t the bizarre part. Its entire body composed of thick wooden twigs, small logs of wood, and leaves. Even after my life was flipped for the worse, I was still in disbelief at the wolves.

Both of the wolves jumped back onto their wooden paws, revealing the massive size they had. Their wooden heads reached just above my waistline. I lifted my right hand up, feeling my now healed throat. My ears flicked to my right, picking up multiple snarls in the distance northeast from me. The two wolves in front of me let out ear-piercing howls.

The distant wolves responded with their own howling, my ears picking up at least four more different howls afar. I began getting goosebumps, causing fur on my arms and neck to rise, as I heard the barks of the incoming pack. Panic raced through my mind as I thought of the damage a pack could do to me. Sure, I may have amazing healing abilities but I did not want to be ripped apart.

I quickly turned around, bolted out of the clearing. I heard the snap of wooden jaws where my ankles were moments ago. I began to run at speeds I couldn’t even dream of reaching throughout my life back home. The trees becoming blurred as I sprinted.

After what felt like minutes of running without fatigue, the putrid scent of the wolves vanished. Just before I could slow down, the ground below me gave out. I yelped out in surprise, flailing my limbs around for anything to stop my fall..

The dark abyss blanketed my vision, the only source of light coming from a large hole from where I fell. My backside smacked down hard into water which left a stinging pain on my back. Water had now entered through my nose and into my lungs. Now fully in control of my body, I propelled myself with my limbs to the surface of the water.

Breaking through the surface of the water, I opened my eyes wide open and coughed out water, frantically waving my limbs under water to keep afloat. After gaining several breaths, my eyes skimmed the entire area. My body floated in a large body of water in a cave.

Thankfully, I spotted a rocky surface. Swimming onto it, I crawled out of the water. I slowly got more oxygen in my lungs.

“Soy estúpido.” I said, slowly getting up onto my paws. My eyes got use to the darkness, showing off the stalactites and stalagmites. Its floor being rugged, and covered in dry blood splotches of blood.

Just what the hell happened here? My eyesight slowly adjusted to the dark setting, my nose sniffing the area out, and my ears swiveling around to catch any sound.

A distorted voice groaned, seemingly echoing from every direction around me. I sprung up in surprise, nearly stabbing my head with the stalactites.

Landing on my paws, I continued to look over the cavern. “Who’s there?!”

”I’m . . . alive? The elements failed? WHAT A JOYUS REVELATION! Ahahahahaha!” I kept on swiveling my ears in different directions, hoping to find the source of the mad laughter.

Saying that I was scared shitless was the understatement of my life, especially with my current predicament. Well actually second, my worst fear was when my mom had a chancla in hand. “Shut the fuck up psycho! Where are you!” I barked out, demanding for the mad laughter to end. It worked, being replaced by an eerie silence.

”You don’t remember me? Quite disappointing, seeing as you did take away my psychical facade.” Letting out a depressed sigh, it resumed its talk. ”Hmph! After going through your memories, You aren’t the Fenrir that killed me it seems.” If I hadn’t gone batshit crazy before, I was now.

“Holy shit . . . I’m insane. Didn’t think I’d turn out like Grandma Sofía.” I said nonchalantly, accepting my now unstable mind.

This provoked a response from the voice. ”You idiot. I am as real as it gets!”

My right arm rose to my face, to which I had no control over at this point, and punched my snout before it fell to my side. It was enough damage for blood to start gushing out. “Chinga tu madre!” I cursed out while putting pressure where it stung with my hands.

”Do you believe me now, foal?” The voice questioned. I answered through clenched teeth. “Asshole! I fuckin’ believe you now, but just how did you do that!?”

Waiting in irritation, I removed my hands off my now bloodied muzzle and opened my mouth to ask again, but was interrupted by a delayed answer.

”I’m in your mind, and you by no means are mentally strong. In basic terms, I have control over EVERYTHING you do. You’re only moving on your own because I have no reason to take control.” The voice said mockingly. First he injures me, now he’s saying I have a weak mind. The hell is a voice in my head to tell me that I’m mentally weak. Especially with what was going on back home and right now.

“Tough talk for a dead man!” He only chuckled at my response. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I ushered a question. “Hey, couldn’t you have informed me any other way without me getting hurt?”

”It’s funny to mess with confused beings.” I rolled my eyes, frustration slowly building up in me. “What ever, anyhow I’ve lost any reason to logic and got several questions for what the hell is happening to me, right now!”

”Ask away.”

Staring at nothing in particular, I began to formulate some questions in my mind.

“Just who the hell are you?”

”I’ve been called many things. A monster, a god, but my true name is Boreas.” A god? A monster? Just WHAT is Boreas.

“What are you?”

”I’ll will answer that in due time.” This was said in a firm tone through his distorted voice. Letting out a vexed groan at his reply, I followed up with a similar question.

“What am I?”

”You are a lycan of this world, not be confused with your worlds fictional werewolf or lycan.” He confirmed my suspicions of me being on another planet by the use of your world. ”A lycan on this world is similar to a werewolf on yours, with the exception of being human in the first place. Lycans on this planet have near perfect regenerative skills, as you already found that out the hard way, and are immortal when it comes to aging.” My jaw dropped open in shock. “IMMORTAL?!” I screamed out.

As if my chances of going back home and living normally didn’t seem nonexistent yesterday, they surely were now. Mierda. Next question.

“How exactly do you know of Earth?”

”I reside in your subconscious, which acts as a gate to your memories. If one were to pass that gate, like I have, they’d gain instant knowledge of where you lived and who you are, or were.”

“That’s. . . unnerving. Getting back on topic, earlier you said I wasn’t the same Fenrir that killed you. Who is this ’Fenrir’, how are you in my mind if your physically dead like you say, and what do you mean when you said You aren’t the Fenrir that killed me it seems earlier?”

”This may take a while, so I’d suggest that you make yourself comfortable.” I reluctantly sat on my hindquarters with my legs crossed and hunched forward as in deep listening.

”Fenrir was a lycan, such as yourself. However, he was also a warrior. He led his people into battle against the toughest of foes and remained undefeated for quite sometime. Then Discord happened. Discord, the chaotic god, ruled over a powerful nation called Equestria, causing unhappiness and unrest. Being the embodiment of chaos on disharmony, he grew bored of ruling Equestria. So he began to search, and found Fenrir with his comrades.” Boreas let out a small chuckle before continuing. ”They fought hard, but not hard enough. Angered by their unwillingness to let him do what he pleased and the threat they presented to him, he eradicated nearly all the lycans. Nearly, that is. He spared Fenrir and let him live. In reality, it was less of a mercy than it was a punishment. Forced to roam this world, knowing that he failed his people, he prepared himself to avenge them.” I only sat in silence, listening to each word. Losing family is hard, after all, I’ve lost both of my parents in ways I wished I didn’t, but to have your entire species wiped off the face of the planet? That’s something I couldn’t imagine myself recovering from.

”Several years had passed, and throughout all that time, Fenrir had been training his body for a rematch against Discord. Whether it was conditioning physically, mental, or magical, he was always improving himself. The day came, when he was ready to take on Discord. Clad in enchanted, iron armor with an enchanted sword, shield, and more equipment, Fenrir traveled to Equestria. Instead of seeing the lands for what they were, he saw Discord reality-manipulating powers being clearly used here. As far as he was concerned, Discord didn’t cause chaos on this scale. The ponies of the land were runnin-“ Ponies?

“Did you just say ponies?” I interrupted.

”Yes, ruled by ponies, hence why it’s called Equestria.” A land rules by ponies? If they rule over a land, it must show that they have at least low level sentience, right?

“These ponies have sentience right? If so, how comparable are they to humans?”

”Yes, the Equestrians are sentient. They are equal to human level intelligence from Earth.” A hopeful look crossed my face. This could possibly be good. I could possible communicate with the equines, and maybe live a somewhat normal life. It’s comforting know I’m not the only intelligent thing on this planet. I was afraid to be with this voice for the rest of my life.

”I wouldn’t count too much on meeting the ponies. From past experience, they don’t take exotic visitors all that well. Well, from as far as I can remember” Boreas stated, the words past experience echoing with a slightly bitter tone.

“When you’ve got individuals like Discord, I guess you have to be weary just in case.”

”Getting back on topic, Fenrir saw ponies galloping across the warped fields. Far off, two sister alicorn princesses, Celestia and Luna, fought against Discord. An alicorn being a combination of an earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn. Alicorns were much more than a combination of the three pony races, being evident enough as they had their own magic. This magic was naturally much more powerful than the magic a skilled unicorn possessed. If the alicorn magic was honed enough, it could move celestial bodies with ease; while it would take a group of powerful unicorns to move them with significant strain. Even if these two were the absolute best of the best when it came to magical prowess, they couldn’t hold a candle to Discord’s trickery and reality warping abilities.” Magic, reality warping, sentient ponies, and gods?! I’m at a lost for words, literally.

“Discord believed that he had already won the battle, little did he know that the sisters had something in store for him. Using the stones known as the Elements of Harmony, they imprisoned him in the form of a stone statue. After witnessing all this, Fenrir was still intent on obliterating Discord’s very soul. Fenrir lunged with a sword ready to come down onto the stone head of Discord, Princess Celestia barely managed to stop Fenrir in time and informed him of the consequences that destroying Discords statue would bring. Fenrir reluctantly gave up on destroying the vulnerable Discord. Princess Luna stopped Fenrir to ask several questions. These questions eventually led up to the reason why the lycans suddenly disappeared.”

"Out of pity, the two rulers offered Fenrir to live in Equestria. Fenrir, after having his species mopped out of existence, wanted to find a purpose. So he accepted their offer. The only catch was that he had to certain quests for them. The fighter in him was by no means angered by this. It offered a way to replace what was once gone. To none of the princesses surprise, he did these missions with high success, whether it was in combination with a certain branch of Equesria's military, or alone. While his last mission was successful in achieving its intended goal, it also created another problem. The mission was simple, all Fenrir had to do was locate, what was thought to be, a Windigo, that was causing trouble at a nearby village. Windigos are evil spirits that feed off hate and produce massive snowstorms. Celestia believed that he could easily locate, and if it got to the point, kill it. Luna though, believed that Fenrir should’ve been accompanied by at least one high level mage due to windigos being rather dangerous and mysterious creatures, and in case Fenrir was overwhelmed. Unknown to the two, their bickering fed the upcoming threat. Tired of their arguement, he walked to that village with only a small amount of magic contained within him. Fenrir arrived at the village, seeing snow blanket most of the small settlement. He informed the residents of his assistance, the ponies then directed him towards a disturbance nearby forest. Unfortunately, when entering the forest, a harsh blizzard started to form throughout it.” Sounds familiar, eerily comparable to what I dreamt about last night.

"Sorry to interrupt, but that sounded similar to a dream I had earlier." This made me think. Before I transformed, an ominous voice called out to me, naming me a fallen king. Coincidence or not, Fenrir was a king that lost his people. A fallen king.

"Based off your thoughts, you're smarter than I took you for." Ignoring his comment, I contemplated to who I was. It couldn't be possible. I can't be Fenrir yet, everything points to that. Didn't help that I'm a Lycan or that it felt very real, almost like reliving a memory.

"Maybe if you'd let me finish, I'd be able to shed some light on your current predicament." I lifted my head up towards the cavern's ceiling and released a sigh.

"Continue."

"The search was a long one, the only indication of where the windigo's whereabouts being based off the intensity of blizzard. After the many hours, he had found the creature. However, it was not a windigo, it was something far more powerful and ancient. The wendigo. The wendigo was a mere beast, yet had created the windigos. The creature had made the windigos through ponies that ventured too deep into its territory, infecting them with a cursed bite. The bite caused ponies to live on as evil spirits. Luckily for Fenrir, the wendigo was severely weakened, for it also fed primarily on hatred and no amount of animals could power the beast’s to its full power. Of course, Fenrir was oblivious not only to the existence of this creature but as well to the consequences that came with killing a wendigo. Not only would the Wendigo's body produce a massive explosion, its spirit would possess a nearby organic life form. Fenrir survived the explosion with just a minor scratch , after all, he's fought opponents many times, sometimes armies, and won. The wendigo's spirit successfully entered Fenrir's mind, but something phenomenal occurred. While wendigos are much stronger than most species, they don't have the same level of intelligence as the ponies do, only being as smart as the average dog. I bring this up in conjunction with Fenrir's possession simply because it created a new being, mentally."

"That's fascinating but what exactly are you trying to get at?"

"It was my rebirth." Jumping up in fear, the realization that an evil spirit was in me struck my well-being.

"Don't fret Santiago, I wish not to harm you, yet. Now calm down." My vision turned red, anger overwhelming my senses.

"You don't wish to harm me?! You already did earlier! I won’t fall for your lies, damn Duende, get out of my body, NOW!" Proceeding to scratch at my head, my seething anger began growing.

"I've lost it! How many more times will I break down! WHY! Why must life throw me here! Was Earth all a dream and my mind is just faltering?! ¡Maldita sea al infierno!" My muscles tensed up tightly, joints locking up, and my vision fading from red to black.

"No! I won't let you control me! This body is the last thing I have!" My limbs began shaking, painfully so.

"Sleep." My eyelids became cumbersome, darkness quickly enveloping my sight.

POV: Third Person

Santiago's body dropped onto the floor, laying unconscious. It remained still for several seconds before it starting to convulse violently. A white glob shot out of the Lycan's maw, landing a few meters ahead of Santiago. Said glob vibrated into the shape of a wolfs skull before hardening into bone. The lifeless head laid there for several moments. Suddenly, black mist formed under the skull which started elevating it into the air. The mist spread, forming a transparent body, identical to Santiago's Lycan body. The mist started to form a skeletal structure, followed by blue organs, blue muscles, tar black skin, and pitch black fur. The skull remained without flesh, eye sockets had now emitted small, icy blue eyes.

The creature stood still before letting out a yawn, stretching out its body. Bones popped into place, evoking a pleased groan.

"It is such a pleasure to have a physical form again." The voice of Boreas bouncing off the walls. Finished stretching, Boreas held his right hand open in front of his face, concentrating on his palm. The air around Boreas grew frigid, a small rigid ball of ice slowly formed at his palm. Releasing a distorted chuckle, he crushed the cold ice ball. “I’ve seemed to inherit from Fenrir’s body. Not only that, but I can feel my body producing the magic that’s necessary to sustain my abilities.” Examining his new fluffy, black coat, he reopened his right hand. He focused on the same previous point but instead of creating an ice ball, he crafted a flat sheet of ice. It acted as a mirror to which Boreas tried to view a reflection, but the cave was far too dark.

“Hmph! I can’t view my new form in such dark conditions. I swear to Grogar that there’s an exit nearby.” Boreas looked back, noticing the hole that Santiago fell through. Boreas let out another yawn, revealing a long and broad azure colored tongue.

“Such a shame, my every presence had begun to corrupt Santiago. An even bigger shame that he didn’t learn the rest of his past.” Looking back at Santiago’s body, Boreas stared his anatomy for a while.

“He’ll find out eventually, assuming the princesses are still alive. Besides, I doubt that Fenrir’s soul was erased. If the elements didn’t erase mine, he’s definitely still alive. I reckon once he regains a physical form, he’ll look for me.” Boreas turnt his body around and began walking towards the pool of water. His blue eyes briefly flashed. Thick ice quickly begun to engulf the surface of the water. Boreas retained a balanced walk over the slippery ice, his weight not putting any stress on the surface of the ice.

Once he reached the wall, Boreas quickly scaled up the rocky wall and onto to the grassy surface of the forest. The sky glowed a ghastly orange, to which Boreas quickly noticed this. “Odd.” Boreas muttered, pulling out the ice mirror and took a long look at his new figure. Satisfied with the results, he threw away the pseudo mirror.

Movement shuffled around the terrain around Boreas. Thick, thorny vines grew towards his ankles, Boreas barely noticed this and summoned an ice axe from his left hand, cutting the vines in half. More vines rapidly grew towards Boreas. Summoning another axe with his right, he chopped a tree trunk thick vine with ease.

“Impossible, the Everfree is out of control. The tree that the pillars planted kept it at bay, unless . . . it was destroyed.” Boreas sighed in annoyance. “What idiotic fool destroyed it, assuming it was destroyed by another sentient life form. The lands will soon be overrun if no one’s keeping it in check. I highly doubt that the Pillars of Equestria are still around, as they must still be limbo.” Boreas slashed down another vine. “Something in the air feels wrong. I’m able to sense a dark magic at the place called . . . Canterlot I believe. Yet, I sense another presence that’s much more malicious, almost terrifying.”

A long vine lunged from behind Boreas. He didn’t have enough time to react to the throned plant as it pierced through his torso. Boreas didn’t let out a pained sound, instead the entirety of the vine froze rock-solid. Putting his hand over the frozen vine, he pulled it out from in front. The frozen plant broke off, leaving a hole in the torso of Boreas. Instead of spewing warm red blood, the wound dripped a blue liquid, droplets falling to the ground and causing the grass it touched to freeze. The wound sealed itself up quickly.

“Amazing, not only has this body recognized the need for magic and has started producing it, I’ve also inherited the regeneration ability that a lycan possesses. If I still can transfer hatred into raw physical strength and magic, I’d be quite the powerhouse. Maybe even able to overthrow the princesses, or perhaps Discord.” A chilly breeze surrounded Boreas, a shockwave soon erupting from his chest. The burst of energy had only traveled a small area around him but froze nearby organ life into ice.

“No, I don’t have a reason to do that yet.” He then glanced at the hole from where he crawled out from. His eyes focused on the edge of the hole, ice forming at the rim of the sinkhole and slowly closing into the center. “Every since I’ve gained sentience, I’m much more sympathetic towards those I cause harm towards, or at least not as harsh. It was also the very least I could do. After all, without Santiago or Fenrir, I wouldn’t be standing right now.” To say that Boreas appreciated the Lycan was an understatement. To Boreas, Fenrir was like a creator. The same appreciation couldn’t be spoken for Fenrir or Santiago, since both were corrupted in some form.

Not thinking of the subject any further, Boreas took off sprinting while hacking off the vines that attempted to grab him. “That Magic feels all too wrong.” Letting out laughter, he increased his speed.

“Off to Canterlot it is!” The Wendigo yelled, ice quickly forming where Boreas paws once were.

Author's Note

Had to repost this chapter, I was experiencing a glitch since I had accidentally posted this chapter earlier. Anyhow, constructive criticism is much appreciated.