A car drove into a parking lot which belonged to an apartment complex.

Getting out was a very lean black man in his early 30s. He had a goatee and a mustache, but a lot of that was hard to see at night, which was the current time.

“Thanks for the ride man, get home safe,” he told the Uber driver as he rolled out of the parking lot.

He was in deep thought about what his mom had said previously. “I’m gonna need a car at some point, I can’t keep doing this, especially when prices rise.”

“Well, that’s a lot of paperwork and nonsense I’ll get to later, but for now I gotta enjoy my night of Buffalo wings… again.”

Getting into the apartment, he put some stuff down. The man’s name was Izaac, and he had been at the local movie theater. He was a local Michigan resident, in all honesty he’d move to warmer weather like Florida once he got the chance later on in the years. He was somewhat independent, and hated nothing more than unnecessary help, that and Detroits cold December weather.

“Alrighty, let’s get that air fryer rolling!”

After some time of waiting, watching a show on a small flatscreen Tv, the spicy smell of wings and the beeping of the air fryer caught his attention. Walking over to the fryer, Izaac opened it up and retrieved the contents. Putting it on a plate, he began to eat his meal in front of the Tv.

He also took a swig of a glass of cold refrigerated water, you know, to ease the spice.

Everything was perfect in his life, well, almost perfect. He missed his dog he left at his mom and step-dad's house, ever since he moved out to live on his own, it had been kinda gloomy.

His closest friend had exclusively offered him to stay at his house. He didn’t really want to be a burden to him or any other members of his family, so he stuck to being on his own.

His friend, a guy named Kenny, was probably the most loyal friend you could ever find, aside from his dog. They had been through hell and back as kids and never left each other’s sides. The only thing different about Kenny was he had the most satanic and mentally unstable sense of humor of any human being Izaac had ever seen. Kenny meant well…. usually.

After eating, Izaac did the nightly routine of shit shave and shower, as his step-dad called it, and hopped into bed without a second thought.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Izaac’s POV.

I was waking up, it must have been a new day. As I took an intake of air, my nose went haywire! I smelled smells I had never smelled before. It was almost like I was outside, but why would I be, I was sleeping cozy in my bed.

I would usually sleep for a longer time but the freaking Death Star was in my face, blinding me like floodlights. Either way I was mostly confused.

I rose up onto my feet but soon fell back down as my body was sleeping at an uncomfortable angle.

What the heck!?

I looked to the ground but my heart soon stopped (not really). I looked down to see paws! I saw no hands, so I assumed these paws belonged to me.

In front of my field of view was a long protruding stump.

It was a jet black color, same as my paws and lower legs. But I noticed it would crinkle up at some times, almost like this thing was alive.

But I soon put the pieces together.

“Was I a canine, an animal of some kind!?”

Anxiety began rushing throughout my body, this couldn’t be happening. I was well known for having a ton of anxiety, but honestly with me living alone, not seeing my family, that I could get behind. But not seeing my dog, friend, and brother, that is what had me worried.

Maybe this was all a dream. Yeah, that makes sense. This is a dream, nothing but a dream.

I had two ideas I wanted to test, and I knew for a fact that they had always worked with me.

“Testing, testing, is this thing on?”

Ah Ha! So this is a dream, because last thing I remember, dogs don’t have the inner dialogue or monologue us humans do, so this had to be a dream.

But to be sure, I raised my right front paw and gave it a slight bite.

“Ouch!”

I expected to wake up but nothing happened.

“Crud.”

This was real!

I had to find something, anything, that could help me figure this out and why I was this way.

I looked around and saw a field with various apple trees ahead of me, a fence dividing the field I was in to the apple trees. Makes me wonder who put the fence there.

“Apples huh?”

My stomach began to growl, I was obviously hungry.

“Perfect, two things I need to worry about.”

If I were some sort of dog, not even sure how that is possible (oh wait, it isn’t!),I would be able to eat meat and stuff, but I had the nose to sniff out food.

I took a few sniffs, each scent filled my nose. I could smell food not too far from here, it was cooking too. If people were here, I could sneak some food from these folks.

After stumbling for a few seconds, I finally got the hang of things… sort of. I snuck around these apple trees, following the scent of the delicious meal, I approached a farmhouse, a pretty old looking one too.

Another thing was… wait, couldn’t dogs see different colors than humans………. You know what, never mind.

I snuck around the house, looking for a way inside, as that is where the smell was coming from.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Apple Bloom’s POV.

I was eating some eggs at the table, it was a weekend so I could just hang with my friends. It was early in the morning so I had to do some form of work, not the work my big sister and big brother do, but chores like feeding them animals. Although that didn’t mean I had to do some homework later tonight.

I was finishing up my food until I heard something getting knocked over outside. Thinking this was our dog Winona, I thought nothing of it and continued to take my plate to the sink. As I got up, I briefly looked out the window and what I saw not only made my jaw drop but made my heart race. Looking straight at me was what I could only describe as some kind of enormous dog. It had a somewhat short coat of fur which was a rusty red color, but its snout, the back of its ears, lower legs, and its tail, were black.

It almost looked like the coyotes from the wilds of Appaloosa, just twice as big, and with a strange fur color. Its nose was longer than most dogs I’ve seen, even dogs with long noses like Winona. Its muzzle and jaw were also quite broad. But what really got me was its eyes, I’ll never forget the eyes. They were a blood red to a near brownish color, but I didn’t see the white of the eyes that you’d see on most dogs.

“Is this some kinda abnormally large collie?”

I saw no collar so it had to be a stray. And I just thought of something.

“Cutie Mark dog catchers!”

That would be a great way to get a Cutie Mark, I can’t wait to tell the girls! But to my surprise, the dog headed for the door to the house. I really didn’t do anything so I just let him in. The dog looked at me, his head tilted. He began barking, but at random moments, almost like he was trying to communicate with me, but that’s crazy right? It’s a dog. The barks were strange to say the least, it was more of a whine and a bark mixed together as one with a little bit of Chirping, I’ve never heard of any canine that sounded like that.

“Uh, hello, ya must be hungry huh? Well, I suppose no pony is really gonna eat the rest of them eggs, so might as well just give them to a stray dog in need.”

I noticed this dog wasn’t really skinny or anything, in fact, he dwarfed me, he darn may have been almost the size of Big Mac himself, maybe a little smaller, but he definitely was the same height as Applejack. This made me feel a little uneasy at the way he was staring at me. He passed me, as if he had no interest in me, propped up on his hind legs, making him a lot bigger, and began to eat the food off the counter.

I wasn’t going to stop him, considering stray dogs will get territorial if ponies get between them and their food.

“Apple Bloom, what in tarnation!?”

I turned around to see my sister Applejack looking at me and the dog.

“What the hay is that thing?!”

“It’s a dog.”

“Ain’t no dog I’ve ever seen.”

Applejack’s sudden intrusion caused the canine to jump up in fright, making a mess of the whole kitchen. Applejack got into a fighting stance as the dog ran towards her. I got out of the way, but before they clashed, the dog jumped over Applejack, much to her surprise, and landed with a heavy thud. It bolted out the door where both it and Applejack came from.

“Apple Bloom, get Twilight and Fluttershy, I don’t think this is a regular old dog, I think it’s somethin else!”

I hesitantly nodded and ran out the door while Applejack continued to chase the creature down.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Izaac’s POV.

As I ran through the Apple farm, or whatever they are called, I could barely even see the horse thingy or whatever that was, as I had put a considerable distance between her and me.

By voice I guess I could classify her as female, or what did they call them? Mares was it?

Either way I really didn’t care at this point as all I wanted to do was to get the heck outta this place.

I saw a forest coming up and pushed myself to go faster. It was incredible how fast I could run.

Most would have trouble running like this in my situation, but being around dogs all my life and studying them. it was a little easier for me to pick up, said studying included the locomotion of the legs.

I wasn’t going to mention other bizarre childhood incidents that helped me in this situation, but screw those times, this is everything I ever wanted to be, I never really wanted to be human in the first place, that’s another reason why I was so excepting of this new reality.

But in the end I still wanted answers, but who was I gonna ask, god? I don’t think so.

I made it into the forest and hid in a few shrubs. Not sure how well this creature could see me, but I just hope this thing didn’t pull a Superman on me.

After a minute, the orange, yes it had orange fur, blonde haired horse came up to the fence bordering the farm.

A small brown and white dog, which looked like one of those border collies, which I’ve only seen a handful in my life, stood by the horse.

“Wait, these things have pets!? But their freaking horses!”

I decided to get more answers later. How? By snooping around of course, the farm dog is gonna make it difficult though.

I turned back into the forest which seemed a little foreboding, but I tried not to let that scare me. Maybe I could find some other wolves, let’s hope they don’t rip me to shreds first, as wolves do not tolerate other wolves that are not of their own pack in their territory.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight's POV.

Me and Fluttershy were approaching Applejack’s farm. As we reached the entrance, we saw Applejack waiting for us, but it looked as if she had tried to race a cheetah.

“Applejack, we are here, Apple Bloom told us you had a strange stray dog on your farm?”

“Well girls, Apple Bloom thinks it was a dog, but I’ll tell ya this, this their thing ain’t no dog, or at least not one that I’ve ever seen.”

As we walked together towards where the incident took place, I tried to get as much information as I could from her.

“So, what did it look like?”

“Well, it was a red color for the most part but had some black fur on its muzzle, lower legs, tail, and ears.”

I began taking notes with my notepad for later use.

Two animals came to mind, but they were not indigenous to these areas.

“Fluttershy, could this be a coyote or hyena?”

“I don’t think so Twilight, I’ve never heard a coyote howl within the Everfree, no coyotes have ever been documented being this far out from Appaloosa and the badlands.”

“And how about an abnormal hyena?”

“Well, that’s a tricky one because Zacora had only mentioned their range is stationed where zebras were mostly found.”

“That and they don’t come in the color you’ve described, Applejack.”

“I’m with flutters here, I know coyotes, hangin around Appaloosa since I was a foal, and what I saw ain’t no coyote.”

“As for the other features, It had pointy ears, and looked more like a husky, shape wise, just with a more broader muzzle. But the unnerving part about it was not just its golden eyes, but it was as tall as myself.”

Me and Fluttershy went wide eyed at this, there was no dog in Equestria that was that big.

“Not only that, this thing was pretty stocky, it definitely had some muscle to it.”

“Does anything you’ve seen in the forest match that description Fluttershy?”

“No Twilight, I’ve never heard of any canine like that, and no creature in general. It’s definitely used to being around ponies though as it went onto the Apple Family’s farm and into their house.”

I nodded.

“If this is the case, either ponies had been feeding it or it was raised by or around ponies, that’s why it was so calm and walked straight up to Apple Bloom.

“Ya girls think it poses some sort of danger to the town?”

“I don’t know Applejack, this clearly isn’t a regular dog, I need to see that footprint.”

We walked for a little bit until we reached the edge of the farm.

“Take a look at these paws girls.”

Me and Fluttershy’s eyes went wide at the remarkable sight.

I knelt down on one leg and got a closer look.

Putting my hoof next to the enormous paw.

The paw was as big as my hoof, and how far deep into the mud the print was, indicated that this was a large creature, bigger than any dog possibly even studied.

“Would it help to mention that during the chase I was running at my top speed around 20 mph, while this thing was almost doing 40.”

“Twilight?”

“Yes Fluttershy?”

“I’m starting to think this is not a dog, what are the odds of this being some kind of other canid, maybe like a wolf?”

This indeed got me thinking, I had thought about this theory that we could be dealing with not a dog but an apex predator such as a new species of wolf.

“This is so exciting, We may have just found a new species!!!”

“Uh… sugar cube? I’d call this a little far from exciting.”

“If ya remember, wolves eat and attack ponies when given the chance, and if this thing is coming into civilization and staring ponies straight in the eye, I’m afraid it is only a matter of time before somepony gets hurt or worse.”

I nodded somberly, understanding the situation.

“Well, what should we do?” Fluttershy asked me.

Usually I would alert the Princesses in only the worst situations, but even Timberwolves have never traveled into ponyville before. Maybe they can give me some advice.

“Well, as long as it keeps this here beast off mah property, I’m fine with it.”

“Thanks for showing this to us AJ, we’ll alert the mayor of this news so Ponyville can be notified.”

“Not a problem girls, y’all take care now.”

As we left the farm, I couldn’t help but think about the creature. Was it indigenous to the Everfree Forest, or was it from another part of Equestria?

But the biggest question of all was bouncing around in my head. ”Did somepony own and raise this canine, and if so, who?”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Izaac’s POV.

I was surrounded by wolves made entirely out of wood and leaves.

I expected to understand them, being a canine and all, but I couldn’t make out much of what they were saying.

They were circling me, not trying to eat me per se, but either sizing me up or trying to figure out what I was as they had clearly not seen something like me before.

I had to admit, I had some strange attributes for a dog, I was certainly bigger than most dogs back home. I couldn’t really measure myself so I didn’t even bother.

But the question in my mind was not even how equines with unnatural fur colors that could speak English, but how these wooden wolves could even exist, this is literally impossible!

One thing was for sure, they clearly wanted me out of their territory.

They didn’t see me as food apparently, they just saw me as another predator that was invading their land. This made me question if I was even a dog at all.

“Okay, okay, I’m going.”

I left, looking behind me every once in a while, in case they tried to attack me, but they didn’t. This was weird as turning your back on predators like them would signal a predatory response.

Clearly they saw me as another predator, not just some random dog.

I had been walking for a while, the sun was going down, so I tried to find a home of my own that wasn’t occupied.

To my shock, I saw a castle that had crumbled to the ground, only a few things remained intact. This looked to be built in the Middle Ages or medieval period. I know I wasn't in Scotland or Ireland, as none of these places have what I have been seeing.

There was a good chance I had died in my sleep and had been sent to another world entirely, but that was an extreme possibility and highly unlikely.

But then again, how else was I supposed to explain this?

I entered the old castle by going over a bridge. I felt like something was watching me as my hair began to stand up.

I took a sniff around me and I smelled something, but I was unsure what it was. Ignoring this possible oversight, I made my way inside the castle.

It was relatively clean, a few cobwebs here and there, but I felt at home here, I wasn’t going to live in a damn den with god knows what lurking out there. Now that I found a place to sleep, it was time for a little reconnaissance around the area near the farm.

There has to be more of these things, so I was going to find out before they get any crazy ideas.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight made her way inside her house, which was a literal treehouse, and no I don’t mean a treehouse treehouse, I mean an actual tree that was carved out from the inside to be made into a little home, basically hobbit style crap.

As she entered, she was met by a purple and green creature with green scales that resembled a very bad mohawk. This was her number one assistant, Barn-I mean Spike the dragon.

Unlike the rest of his kind, he had no wings, and had barely developed into a teenager. Essentially he was a little purple midget.

“Oh, hey, Twilight, your back. What made you head to Sweet Apple acres?”

“Oh, well, Spike, that’s why I need you to take a letter to the Princesses.”

“For?”

“There was an odd creature Applejack saw today, she described it as some kind of canine, bigger and faster than any dog we know of.”

“A dog? That’s what you want to bother the princesses with, don't they have important princess stuff they need to do?”

“Well, Apple Bloom may think it’s a dog, but I think this is some other species of canine we have no knowledge of.”

“I still don’t see the point of informing the Princesses about such a trivial matter, remember the last time you did that?”

“I swear it was Big Hoof Spike, but that’s not my point, it actually went inside the Apple Family’s house.”

Spike’s quizzical look vanished into one of surprise.

“Whoa, that is pretty important, alright, go for it Twilight.”

“Dear Princess Celestia, I hate to bother you over such a trivial matter, but I need your advice on a recent situation that occurred in Ponyville on Sweet Apple acres today.”

“Applejack and Apple Bloom had a run in with a strange canine they couldn’t identify. Usually this wouldn’t be enough to warrant a response from me, but what the canine did is making me very unsure for the safety of Ponyville.”

“The dog, as we call it, walked into their farm house and looked Apple Bloom dead in the eye but thankfully no harm had come to her.”

“Applejack chased the dog off her farm but could barely keep up as the dog was reported to be reaching high speeds as to which most dogs could not simply reach.”

“It disappeared into the Everfree forest, which I assume is where it calls home. I am worried that this thing will enter Ponyville and might possibly attack somepony, as I think this is no domestic dog.”

“If you seek this dog out, the way you can identify it is that it is at least as tall as an average full grown mare.”

“I await to hear your response, from your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“That's a pretty big dog, or whatever it is,” Spike said with a slight shutter.

Twilight nodded.

Setting the parchment ablaze, the ashes floating out of the house and towards the Princesses, Twilight headed to bed to wait for the Princesses reply.

Author's Note

Feels great to be back, now I haven’t written on this site for a while so I might be a little rusty at writing or editing stuff on here, but I’m sure I’ll figure things out as a go. FYI, I’m in no way a paleontologist or anything like that, so my knowledge may not be exact, but hey, this is fictional so I can change a few minor things.

Also if you ever heard of an asiatic wild dog or Dhole, just imagine a scaled up version with a more powerful appearance, that’s what the dire may have looked like, they weren’t actually closely related to wolves, but more towards jackals.