Feral

Author's Note: Well, this chapter is much shorter this time around, due to the fact of me kind of being in a rut since the funeral. I decided to scrap all dialogue with Marius and everypony else that way it would increase the content of the next chapter, maybe making it its normal 8-9k. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy what I did manage to come up with.

"Worry is interest paid on trouble before it becomes due."
-William Ralph Inge

SLAM!

The sound of the pony hitting carpeted stone with his head was cringe-inducing. He slowly brought his head up and shook himself from the daze received, right before letting a long strand of his own blood and drool slide off his lip and onto the floor.

"It's not our fault!" the magenta unicorn screamed in a shrill voice. "We didn't know their defenses would be so strong! We scouted that castle for months and we never ran into any trouble before!" he screamed to the two earth ponies who had so brutally beaten him before dragging him in his injured state. In the huge, underground room was a long silver rug that led to very intricate bronze throne. Sitting in the throne was an old, dark grey unicorn with his hoof on his chin. Underneath the bangs of his short and lustrous silver mane, his olive green eyes were narrowed and he gave the pathetic magenta unicorn a death glare.

"We asked you to do one simple task," drawled out the old pony sitting on his very plain throne, decorated in dozens of timberwolf skulls. He cleared his throat lightly before continuing.

"We appoint you, our most trusted minion..." he trailed off, before tapping his hoof to the side of his head in curiosity.

"What was your name again?" the old pony asked the beaten and broken stallion that lie on the floor.

"It's...It's Night Shade..." the magenta unicorn spoke, slightly whistling through his broken teeth.

"Riiiight..." the unicorn spoke. The old pony then looked one of the earth ponies who drug Night Shade in his throne room in their eye, before nodding silently. At the old pony's signal, the huge Lycan earth pony slammed his hoof into Night Shade's mouth, causing him to make contact with the floor and cough up a large spurt of blood as he lightly chipped the tip of his horn on the stone floor.

"Ugghh...I'm so sorry sire," Night Shade spoke weakly.

"Silence, you miserable fool. We appoint you, our most trusted minion to go and finally dispatch of the false rulers. Those twin whores from the stars who take their place in control of this land. Their defenses are weak, and compared to our raw strength and viciousness, they...are weak. We have hidden from them in fear of their strong magic for all these years, and killed silently without them realizing, yet you...you," seethed the old pony under his breath. "...alerted them of our presence, after all of our ancestors went unnoticed, and hid in broad daylight!" yelled the furious grey unicorn, who now sat tensing his hooves in anger.

"What do you have to say for yourself?!" he screamed, accenting his sentence with three slams of his hoof into the bronze hoof rest of his throne, bending it slightly with each slam. In the corridor, a tan unicorn stood watching his father become furious, waiting to see what he was going to have done to the failed assassin.

"I just wanted the Lycan blood, I swear! I wanted to be strong!" screamed Night Shade.

The old unicorn raised his eyebrow at Night Shade's statement.

"I understand this, but fools like you do not belong in the master race of the Lycans. You are not as proud and noble as we. You are conniving and pathetic, and nothing but mere food," the old unicorn spoke coldly.

Night Shade began to cry, and sob softly, for he knew then his fate.

"Father," a smooth voice came from the hallway. The old unicorn looked back to see his son, standing in the doorway of the throne room and softly trotting inside.

"Perhaps, even if you do plan on killing him, we should learn about the threat they faced, yes? After all, I have scouted the false ruler's Castle many times, yet I saw no impending threat that would have stopped them. We already killed the other three ponies we sent, so what could it hurt to hear him before you deal out his punishment?" Phoenix asked his father.

The old, grey unicorn thought it over for a minute.

"You are correct, boy," the King spoke. "We are the first tribe to attempt to kill the false rulers, so we should hear our first assassin out."

Phoenix scoffed.

'My father, King Canis...an incredible leader, but far too hot headed and old-fashioned.' The tan unicorn thought to himself, as his lips curled up into a slow smile.

The grey pony who easily looked the age of sixty, but was more buff and stout than any Royal Guard member, looked down at the eyes of the broken and bloody Night Shade. He had now stopped his sobbing and sat quietly, ready to accept his fate.

"Now, who was it that stopped you from completing your mission?"

Night Shade looked across the large room to the throne of King Canis, who hovered above him ominously.

"I don't know what he was, but..." the unsuccessful assassin spoke. "He was really big."

The King quirked an eyebrow.

"You didn't recognize his species?" Prince Phoenix asked.

Night Shade shook his head, eliciting a low moan in the process brought on by the sharp pains he had in his skull, most likely due to his lightly chipped horn.

"No, I've never seen anything like him. He offered us a chance to leave, but we didn't take it."

"Wait a minute, he offered to let you leave?" the King asked, skeptical to believe that anyone in the Castle would just let his pawns go, and return to him.

"Yes," the profusely bleeding pony spoke. "He said that if we let the crystal Princess go, he would let us leave."

King Canis glared.

"You incompetent fool. Your orders were to take the life of the false rulers, not to take another Princess hostage."

"But the others failed!" yelled Night Shade in his defense. "I thought that-"

"Exactly," the sound of Phoenix's voice cut him off, as Night Shade glanced over to him. "You thought. By taking the one known as Cadance hostage and bringing her back to our palace here, far beneath the oldest caves of the Everfree, you would have compromised as all. They have never once known about our kind, because we've stayed hidden. We've stayed secretive and clever, carrying out our goals with patience. If you would have brought Princess Cadance back as your hostage, they would have discovered us, and that would have elicited a fight unlike any these underground walls have seen before. So, in the future, if my father does plan on letting you live, never think again," Phoenix explained to the unicorn he found to be utterly foolish in every sense of the word.

"I could not have said it better myself," King Canis spoke to his son with a smile, before turning a scornful gaze back onto the broken pony that lay on the ground.

"What else?" Canis asked in a menacing tone towards Night Shade.

Night Shade wracked his brain, trying to find the memories of what happened a week ago.

"We tried to kill it, or him, whatever he was. All three of the ones you sent with me, they jumped at him and shoved their daggers into his chest."

Phoenix looked confused at Night Shade.

"Are you saying you killed it?" the Prince asked.

Night Shade shook his head.

"No, he...he pulled every blade out of his chest like it didn't faze him whatsoever. We watched them pierce into his flesh, yet he treated them as if they were common mosquito bites."

Phoenix looked to his father, who shared his look of curiosity.

"Another Lycan?" Phoenix asked.

Canis shook his head.

"No, Phoenix. If it was a Lycan, I guarantee that we would know about him. Also, you know for yourself that we don't heal so easily. It takes weeks for us to even heal a lost limb," Canis spoke. He looked down at Night Shade, still being hovered over by two of his best warriors.

"What happened next?"

Night Shade attempted to blink his swollen eyes before speaking,

"He said two words, 'Reaver, come'. We thought he was just speaking to himself, until we heard something approaching."

"What was it?" Phoenix asked.

Night Shade shook his head.

"We thought that it was safe, but we were so wrong." Night Shade said softly before looking into Phoenix's stoic and cold eyes. "He was calling his weapon."

"A weapon that came to him?" the King spoke while he looked to his son with a raised eyebrow. "Was it enchanted?" King Canis asked.

"I'm not sure," the pony being interrogated responded to him. "I do know that we heard several loud booms, that kept getting louder and louder as we waited, until eventually, this...this...massive sword smashed through the stone walls of the false ruler's castle, like they were made of plastic. He lifted the blade up to his face and started speaking to it, and I swear..." he trailed off as a lower form of denial started to weave itself in his mind. "I swear we all heard it growling, as if it was a beast that was ready to eat a fresh supper."

"Wait, wait...his sword was growling? As in it was actually growling?" Phoenix asked, almost unwilling to believe something that sounded so far-fetched. Night Shade nodded his head slowly.

"Why didn't he kill you?" Canis asked, almost unwilling to believe such nonsense as well.

"He tried to! Well, kind of..." Night Shade told him as everypony listened intently. "He did some type of odd magic and electrocuted the others, and he shoved his sword through my stomach and hung me on a wall. Then-"

"I've had enough of your lies!" yelled the King, who didn't believe for a minute that he stabbed the pony and nodded in the direction of one of his subordinates, who was standing by Night Shade.

With that, the brown earth pony's eyes flashed a lustrous silver and his front teeth elongated into large canines. In seconds, the sickening sound of the pony's bones breaking and reforming into a new structure was echoing throughout the throne room, followed by a low growl as his snout became longer and longer. His hooves seemed to shifting violently and began to take a sharper, more pointed shape. His hooves now resembled something of what a paw would look like, and five curled toes began to stretch themselves out of the pony's skin. His irises grew completely silver and fur enveloped more of his body as his back snapped outward and became rigid and more muscular. Quicker than a flash and through the sounds of pure agony and pleasure as his primal form was released, the pony now stood as a Lycanthrope, keeping his pony shape but becoming something much more terrifying and monstrous. His now black and wet nose sniffed towards the pony on the ground once before he raised his huge paw up to tear open Night Shade like he did with the rest of his prey.

"No wait! Please stop! He asked me to relay a message!" Night Shade screamed

"Wait!" King Canis yelled as the Lycan was bring his paw down to viciously kill Night Shade. AT his word, the Lycan stopped his paw and cradled it once more, trotting back a few paces while remaining low to the ground, like a wolf preparing for the inevitable while keeping his eyes locked upon his prey. The other Lycan who had beaten Night Shade still remained by the pitiful pony's side, choosing to remain in his pony form, cutie mark still blotted out by inked fur.

"What message did he want you to send?" the King asked the pony who was trying to stall for his life.

Night shade stared back with pure fear in his eyes, as his body made failed attempts to escape from the Lycan about to kill him.

"After he told me he couldn't kill any of us because of a promise to his master, he told...told me to tell you that, if we invaded the castle and attempted to take the life of the false rulers, he would find us and kill us, along with everyone we've ever cared about, He spoke of slaughtering us all without hesitation."

King Canis' eyes narrowed before levitating a wine glass up to his lips, faintly sipping the vintage wine that was inside his favorite glass that they had their scouts collect from the surface.

"He speaks of slaughtering an entire tribe of Lycans?" Phoenix spoke with a smile.

The Prince held his hoof up to his mouth to try and hold his laughter, but to no avail. He busted out into a roaring laughter that nearly resembled the primal roar of his transformed state. The King cracked a smile at his son's cockiness and lightly shook his head.

'Ahh...to be a young pup again.' he thought, recalling his days as a fierce warrior like his son had grown to be.

"So, does this foolish creature have a name?" Phoenix asked through his snickering.

Night Shade let out a nervous laughter, thinking to himself that he was foolish to think that this monster would ever pose a threat to the Lycan race.

"Hehe. He said, if I recall correctly, his name was Marius the Vampire King. He said," he spoke as his nervous laughter began to develop into a hard to chuckle. "He said that it will be the name that will lead to all of our deaths if we attempt to hurt those he cares care about!" Night Shade spoke, now laughing hardily along with the Prince and both Lycan warriors.

"Hahaha!" Prince Phoenix roared at the silliness of them being frightened at first when only one of their squads had been threatened, when they weren't of Lycan blood yet. "Father, how funny do you find it that-"

Pssshhhh

The sound of the King's wine glass hitting the floor and shattering broke them of their laughter. Phoenix now looked at his father, and quickly his expression changed to one of utter shock, as did everypony else in the room.

Prince Phoenix had seen his father ride through the roughest conditions and face the most fearsome creature's in Equestria and in all of Equis period, with nothing but a smug smirk plastered upon his face. He could not be shaken. He was one of the ten tribe Kings of the Lycan race, and the most high ranking and well respected among them. He was utterly fearless, so when Phoenix looked into the eyes of his father and saw his eyes wide and his whole body shaking from pure terror...

It was a bit off-putting to the Prince.

"Father, what's-"

"Say...that name...again," King Canis spoke near inaudibly. His shaky voice the matched the last leaf upon a dying tree. Frail, and scared of things to come.

"M-Marius the Vampire King," Night Shade spoke once more, only much softer.

King Canis put his head in between his front hooves as he sat, looking down at the ground with his bug-eyed expression not wanting to believe the horrifying reality of what he just discovered.

"No..." Canis said quietly. "No, no, no....It's just a legend. It can't be true, can it?" the King began talking to himself. He started to slowly shake his head between his hooves.

"No. Not like this...," Canis said, throwing his son into all-out worry for his father. "It can't be true. No, it can't be...him."

"Father, do you recognize that name?" Phoenix asked, reluctant of what the answer might be.

King Canis didn't answer his son. Instead he jumped out of his throne and screamed,

"Are you lying, you useless worm?!" the immensely loud voice of the old unicorn roared throughout the throne room.

"NO! I swear to you my King, I'm telling the truth! Please believe me!" screamed the unicorn; now being pinned to the ground by the already transformed Lycan who was making sure he didn't run away.

Phoenix's father stared at the ground blankly.

"So it is true then. All the legends that were told to me as a pup...all those horrible things that monster did," the King spoke to himself, before looking up and burning a hole into Night Shade with the pure furry of his glare. "And you made him aware of our existence." seethed the King. Phoenix watch as his father showed more anger than he though would have ever been possible, directly towards the botched assassin.

"Kill him!" screamed the King. "I want you to tear him apart and make him suffer for the foolish act he has committed!"

Night Shade's eyes widened.

"No, I'm begging you sire! PLEA-"

Pop went the unicorn's throat in mid-sentence, as the large Lycan's jaws clamped down on it, obeying the wishes of their King. The other Earth pony quickly transformed in several seconds, each sickening crack of bone louder than the last, and joined in tearing Night Shade apart limb from limb, drenching their dark brown fur in the blood of the pony and lapping at each oversized wound with their tongues like rabid beasts.

Phoenix watched as they slowly began to devour the unicorn, even after all life had faded from his eyes and he was just a fresh corpse.

"Phoenix, I want you to come with me to my personal archives," his father spoke seriously to him while walking towards the doorway of the large, stone throne room.

"Father...who is this Marius?" Phoenix asked, wondering what he should be scared of if it terrified his father so much. King Canis only returned his son's question with a scowl.

"I said, follow. Now." the King spoke in his deep, elderly tone that was borderline scolding as he walked out the doorway. Phoenix stared for a second at his father, confused, before quickly following him out the door

The King reached the large library that was adjacent to his room, after walking down the long and empty stone corridors that led to his personal chambers. Walking inside the library, the King spoke to his son,

"Go sit by the table."

Phoenix slowly walked toward the large and fanciful oaken table, before sitting softly and placing his hooves on the tabletop. His father seemed to disappear behind one of the rather tall, five-layer bookshelves, leaving Phoenix to contemplate to himself.

'What in the name of our Ancestors is father so scared of?!' the Prince thought, a small patch of anger rising from inside of his body. He looked to the ruffled fur on his hoof, before lightly slamming it into the table with contained anger and a subtle hint of his own fear.

'This enemy surely does not pose a threat to us. We are proud Lycans, and the worst enemy we have ever faced in keeping our secrecy from those two self-proclaimed Princesses is the nefarious Plot Twist.' Phoenix thought to himself. The Prince's lips curled up into a sinister smile.

Plot Twist. The name alone sounded foolish, but the stallion himself was twisted beyond all recognition. He fancied himself a monster hunter and was raised as such, swearing an unending Vengeance upon every Lycan he ever met. Phoenix had met the individual a few times himself, but never before had he been able to best him in battle. Between the Prince's superior strength and cunning, yet Plot Twist's skill and brutality towards the Lycans was unmatched. They called him Plot Twist because of his cutie mark, which resembled two white theater masks, one of sorrow and one of despair.

Phoenix scoffed.

'Luckily, he always leaves us his little trademark to help us locate him the next time.' he thought.

Indeed it was true. Plot Twist would take a silver fillet knife and carve the faces off of the strongest Lycans he fought, before tanning and stretching them out. He then nailed them onto a tree with the face in either a smile or a frown. If he considered it a challenge, it was a smile. If it was an unpleasant and unsatisfying kill, he would have carved a frown into the face instead, that way they knew. It was his grotesque calling card.

'One day...one day I'm going to kill that insane pony, and as my claws through his flesh,' the Lycan Prince thought to himself as his teeth slowly extended and his eyes flashed from green to a brilliant silver for a few seconds. 'I'll wear the largest smile I have ever worn in my life.'

Thud

The sound of the book hitting the table jarred the Prince from his thoughts and he looked up to see his father, glaring down at him.

"Phoenix...now is not the time to daydream, you incompetent fool! If you're going to act like your brothers, then I might as well reserve my throne for them!" yelled the old and angry unicorn to his son. "Now, runt of my litter; if you are done daydreaming, perhaps you would like to take a look at that book and know what kind of impending doom that we face?!"

Phoenix could tell his father was shaken up, but even still, the comment about giving the throne to one of his older brothers, Ashen and Helios. The three brothers had been at war with each other for years over their father's throne, and the underground society of the Lycans did not do their brotherly relationship any favors, as well. They all loathed each other. Phoenix looked away from his father and down to the book at the table.

He gasped.

"What is this?" Phoenix asked his father.

"That, is an ancient book said to be over twelve thousand years old. It was handed down in every Generation of our family, and out of all of the tribes of our human ancestors, we were the ones entrusted with it; The Etlu Ina', considered to be the most powerful Lycan tribe of their time," the King answered his son.

The book itself was very large and seemed to be incredibly sturdy, as it was made of a thick, leather like substance that had a light tan color to it.

"What is it?" Phoenix asked while picking the huge book up in his hooves to begin examining it.

"It is called, The Grimoire of Walpurgis. It was passed to my protection whenever I came about ruling upon the throne." King Canis answered.

"I see," spoke Phoenix. He looked at the binding on the back and it seemed to have a large diagonal stitching pattern that snaked through the book's material. The material itself actually felt...squishy? "What, in the name of Gods, did they make this book from?" Phoenix asked.

His father closed his eyes before responding.

"It is bound in human flesh and inked in human blood."

Phoenix through back on the table in disgust, appalled that such a book could exist. The King levitated the book back to his soon and propped it in front of him. Phoenix finally turned his gaze upon the dark red lettering on the front, made elegantly by long dead blood, etched permanently into human skin. The words on the front stuck out to Phoenix like a sore thumb.

A cold chill run up Phoenix's spine, as he sat in the dimly lit library with his father.

"Read," his father spoke sternly to him. Phoenix cleared his throat and recomposed himself, before gently opening the thick, abomination of a book. His view fell upon the first fleshy page.

His eyes fell widely upon an image that he would not have expected to see. Drawn on the flesh was a painting of sorts, displaying a man with a long black coat on a massive, jagged throne. He looked relaxed, almost to the point of utter boredom as he sat and leaned back in his throne with two fingers and a thumb lightly gracing his face. His expression was one without emotion. Complete and total nothingness, only it seemed that his eyes were entirely shaded in. Phoenix guessed it must have meant that his eyes were glowing at the time. His other hand held a massive sword that was pierced into the ground before him, matching the description that the others gave of this, Reaver perfectly. What was most disturbing was what Phoenix saw in front of the throne.

He gulped.

Bodies. A massive, unending pile of mutilated bodies stood at his throne. He turned the page, and began to read the elegant blood-text that had been etched into skin.

Let all who know this name cower in despair; Marius. It is the name of the worst disaster to ever befall mankind. Marius was the first, of the race known as the Nosferatu. The Vampire race. We, the Vampires, are cold and dead. Our heart is unmoving and we sustain ourselves with the blood of living creatures. We are abominations...but we can die. We are given the good grace of final death, and even with our souls gone and no afterlife, we can still be at peace. The father of Vampirism, however, cannot.

Phoenix quirked an eyebrow as he read those words, mouth wide open.

"How odd. No souls?" he asked himself as his father didn't respond. The King merely sat next to his son at the table and nodded his head, motioning for him to continue reading. Phoenix did as his father wished, and drew his eyes back to the page.

Marius, our creator and the man considered to be the father of Unlife, is not fortunate enough to know the finality of death. He is not kill-able, along with utterly and completely indestructible. The humans have their little nicknames for him, such as 'Eater of Gods and Ender of Worlds' or 'The One Who Walks Beyond the Veil'. Even as my old and feeble hands use this quill to etch these words, our master has been the walking this world for generations. The darkness in his heart is unlike any others, yet he remains kind to those who deserve kindness. The one fact remains, Marius, our King is the most monstrous being that has ever been birthed into this existence. Our Lord may put on a facade to disguise himself with no emotion, but these ears have listened for many a century. I can hear the cries of our King. He is in agony, wanting the comforting grip of death to finally embrace him. That is the constant. Whereas others, we, the Lesser Vampires will fade with time, along with the humans; he will remain, unending. Such is the cruel nature of the pact that our leader has made to obtain Unlife. I have never asked who, or what gave our King his power, and I imagine I would never want to know the answer to my own curiosity. This book, shall be his grimoire, sating the curiosity of all who wish to know the history of us, of him, and our City of the Dead, Walpurgis.

The words ended there. Phoenix stood, staring in shock at the sudden knowledge of Vampires. He turned the page with his magic, only to find a table of contents for the huge book and a massive timeline with thousands of ancient historical events listed on it.

"Father," Phoenix whispered. "Is this true? Does this...Vampire, really exist?"

King Canis opened his eyes finally and stared at his son.

"I did not want to believe it, but it is true. The words of that fool Night Shade are too similar to just be dismissed. One of the many, many things in that book it describes is how he was the one who created the Lycan gene," Canis explained to Phoenix. Phoenix's eyes widened.

"So, that would make him our creator as well?" he asked.

The King responded with a nod of his head. Phoenix narrowed his eyes.

"Let me kill him, father. This book i-"

SMACK

The King's right hoof slammed across the face of his son, tearing a large gash in his cheek and knocking him to the floor. The King bellowed at the Prince furiously,

"ARE YOU REALLY THAT FOOLISH, YOU STUPID, VAIN CHILD?! YOU THINK THAT WE CAN KILL HIM WITH SUCH SIMPLE TACTICS?!"

Phoenix rubbed his nearly broken jaw with his hoof as his father roared at him.

"Then what do you wish us to do?! Continue to hide underground like filthy dogs?! We are above that! There must be a way he can die. There has to be!" screamed the Prince in return.

"There isn't one that we know of! That's the point!" yelled the King who left his son writhing in pain on the floor, blood running down his face and onto the floor. King Canis thought to himself as he walked down the long stone hallway,

'I don't know why you are here, but I promise you demon, I won't let you stop my progress of taking this land for my own. I will use my fear as a conduit to spawn hatred. Hatred which I will combat you with, and eventually kill you with...somehow.'

Little did the King know, just what horrors were still to come for him and his people.