The Story of Great Wolf Sif

???

Time.  If ever such a thing could be considered in such a place, how would one describe to what amount has passed?  It had felt like many centuries since his arrival here, and decades since he had first awoken to such a startling sight of darkness and emptiness all around.  Sif remembered his defeat at the hands of that undead knight and his two phantoms that ventured in his master's gravesite...  But what of the Alvina and her forest hunters?  Could she have not halted their progress?

Alas, such a thing no longer mattered anymore...  What was done was done.  The knight now had access to his master's secret, and he could no longer do anything to impede the knight from getting it.  His result of trying to defend the secret ended up in his own death.

He had once repelled invaders as strong as that knight, but what made him any different that those before him?

Now, Sif was adrift in a endless sea of darkness, aimless and without direction, nor the slightest bit of guidance.  Was this what happened to beings that were killed by others?

There was time to ponder such questions, even for an uncommon creature such as Sif.  But to why he was here was something that addled his developed canine mind, even if he now was more of a ghostly form with a white mist making up his body.  Even if he was something rather wisp-like, he could still see, hear, and smell, but could not see anything, hear anything, or smell anything.

Sif knew that there was name to describe such a place that he was in, but Artorias never spoke of such a place.  He had heard one of the knights talk of place similar to this, a place between life and death where you're neither truly alive, nor dead, but a fragment of what you once were.   And so it seemed he was in this place, neither alive or dead, but stuck somewhere in between the fabric of life.  But how long would he be here for?

Sif continued to remain adrift in the darkness, gliding endlessly across the vast expanse of nothingness before him.  For years he drifted, and for years, possibly decades, he traveled without finding anything.  There was absolutely nothing here.  Nothing to provide comfort, nothing to provide the slightest bit of hope or guidance for him...

With nothing to provide the slightest glimmer of hope for him, Sif ceased his drifting and curled into himself with his ghostly tail and paws tucked against his body with his muzzle resting atop his paws.  A few faint whines escaped him as he remained in the darkness...  Was this the fate he was destined to live with until the end of time?

Atop her balcony high above Canterlot, Princess Luna let out a resigned sigh as broke away from her telescope.  For the past few nights now the lupus constellation had been conquering the sights of the night sky, flickering brightly for the first little while since she found this out two weeks, but it was gradually becoming weaker each night..  Each and every night for the past two weeks, Princess Luna had been studying the phenomenon with the help of Celestia's pupil who studied the stars alongside her.

After Luna came to her sister regarding the mysterious happenings, she wrote to her pupil and requested that she help Luna with figuring to why she had minimal control over that one particular group of stars.  This resulted in Twilight coming to Canterlot to help with the matter, leaving Spike behind in Ponyville so that Twilight could communicate with her friends through Celestia when she felt the need to.  But that was over five days ago when she first arrived, and the fruits of their labor had yet to produce suitable results and reasoning...  Even after several nights of studying and digging through the archives and the Starswirl The Bearded wing, they had yet to find anything.

"Twilight Sparkle," Luna said aloud as she turned away from her telescope and towards her open balcony door, focusing on the lavender colored mare who was rather entranced on a rather enormous blue book that almost as big as her. It was one they fished out of the Canterlot archives.

To her avail, she continued to remain focused on the book, her eyes skimming through every bit of what would be considered important information.  Princess Luna rolled her eyes at the sight and strode up to the mare, clearing her throat right beside her, hoping to catch her attention.

Princess Luna patiently awaited a response from her in depth reading.   After a few moments of no response, she opted to try a different, more direct approach to getting her attention.

Clearing her throat once more, she began, "TWILIGHT SPARKLE!"

In the process of her using the Royal Canterlot Voice, she managed to toss a few books across the room that were beside Twilight, who then yelped and shot several hooves into the air, maintaining a few seconds of hang time before falling back to the floor.   Her eyes darted frantically across the room before they settled on Luna who had a look of impatience about her.

"Well?"  Luna began, awaiting a response.

"'Well' what?"  Twilight said in between breaths irritably, trying to bring herself down to a more calm state.

"Have you found anything out?"

Twilight took a deep breath, letting it settle for a moment before letting it escape her.  She needed an extra moment to calm herself...

"I think, I'm not quite sure..."  Twilight spared a glance at the book sprawled out before her, remembering some key points of info from the text, "the book did say that when often stars do act of their own accord it could be some other magical presence controlling the stars, possibly something of equal or higher power in comparison to you and Princess Celestia.  The text is a couple centuries old though and it was written by Celestia's scholars long before you were freed, so I'm not sure if we can base such a theory on something so old..."

Twilight thoughtfully tapped her hoof against her chin, pondering the thought. "It is possible though, so we can't entirely rule out the idea.  What do you think Princess Luna?" She finished as she averted her gaze towards Luna.

Princess Luna nodded her head at the new information, it being rather plausible, but not entirely.  "It couldn't possibly be Discord.  And there is no other pony that's as powerful as my sister and I throughout Equestria, nor a being that can rival our current power."  That being half true, as the brief incident regarding the wedding between Shining Armor and Princess Cadance was something that wasn't so easily forgotten.

"So what could it possibly be then..?"  Twilight thoughtfully tapped the bottom of her chin once more.

"I'm not entirely sure, but we're grasping at mere straws at the moment hoping for an answer.  Right now, any bit of information regarding this strange occurrence is helpful."

The thought of having another being as powerful as her taking control of her stars was something that struck a chord with her.  The night was her own, and she would see to it that nothing controls her night sky.

"I shall put this theory to the test Twilight.  For now, continue finding new information regarding this," Princess Luna finished as she trotted out onto her balcony once more, focusing her attention on the flickering constellation.

Princess Luna took a deep breath and closed her eyes.  Her horn lit up in a cerulean glow as she directed her magic and focus towards the group of stars, scouring every bit of them over for any trace of unknown magic controlling them...  Nothing seemed off for a time as she thoroughly examined them over, but there was a slight anomaly with the group in general.

The anomaly was no magic it seemed, but a life force being contained within it; the life itself was weak, and it was gradually diminishing as time went by.  The presence felt...distressed; it felt like it was a prisoner trapped within, condemned to a fate that was unjustified.

Curious, Luna tried to find means of communicating with the presence.  Within seconds, Luna's horn glowed brighter as she poured more of her magic to talk with this anomaly...  If it were capable of such.

Sif raised his head from his paws as he felt an ethereal wind brush against his left ear, causing a slight twitch from it at the odd sensation.  A bit confused and curious at the first sign of anything here, Sif glanced around the expanse of darkness around him, trying to pinpoint the source of such a such a brief gust of wind.

The breeze came once more as Sif tried to pinpoint its source, but this time it wasn't so small and brief,  It quickly evolved from a slight breeze as it started, to a minor gust of wind that pushed his ghostly form along which blew off tiny fragments of his being.  Now cautious and alert at the force of the wind, Sif stood himself up onto all fours and focused all of his attention into his senses.  He hoped he could pick up anything that could help him pinpoint the source, a scent, a noise...anything.

A voice then billowed from the darkness.

"What matter of being is taking refuge amongst my stars?" The voice seemed to be coming from everywhere at once, but from nowhere at all.  Judging by its tone, Sif could tell that the voice was largely annoyed.

Sif felt a pair of eyes set themselves upon him as the voice finished.  He could sense that he was being watched now, but from where?  He twisted and turned in a wide variety of directions as he sought to see where these eyes came from.  To his avail there was nothing, only darkness.

"A wolf..." The voice diminished a few levels as it now recognized the prisoner of the constellation.  "Not any ordinary wolf it seems," the voice then became thoughtful.

Sif continued to search every manner of direction that could be considered in the darkness.  Every predatory instinct he had was working against him, as this time they were working to try and protect him from an unknown entity, as opposed to helping him with food.  Sif emitted a deep growl as he stood rather defiantly in the darkness, showing that he won't succumb to whatever manner of being that found him.

Sif felt his very being poked and prodded at as he stood there, he could feel fragments of his ghostly form being scoured for bits and pieces of information regarding him.

"Sif.  Your name's Sif..."  The voice trailed off.

Sif felt his being become untouched once more.

"Hailing from the land of 'Lordran'," the voice began.  "You're a rare breed of your species.  And you were a companion to one named 'Knight Artorias' who was defeated at the...hands?  Of a powerful being named Manus."  The voice remained silent for a time.  "Your master's last action before he was defeated was to protect you from corruption that was stemming from this being, and using his shield, which he then enchanted, used it to create a barrier to protect you from Manus' power.

"You ultimately escaped in due time, eventually guarding your master's secret of 'abyss walking' centuries later, protecting it from greedy looters and...undead?" The voice became rather aghast at the term, eventually remaining quiet for a unknown amount of time.

"You're a prisoner amongst my stars 'Sif'.  And it seems that you were condemned to a fate that was unfair and cruel; I will release you from your containment."

Sif reduced his aggression at the information reaching him.  He was being released?  And from the stars too?  It hurt his canine mind to think about it for more than an instant, and instead, saw such information at a chance of being alive once more, and possibly continuing to remain at Artorias' gravesite.  There was nothing he could really do once he was alive however, but perhaps remaining in solitude and tranquility there would be best for him.

A light then opened up from a far corner of the darkness.  The light quickly overcame the darkness, filling the once empty void with a blinding white light, one Sif had to close his eyes for.

Within the Everfree, a place of mystery and ominous atmosphere, often hiding the most peculiar of creatures and plants such as the Manticore and Poison Joke, a new being was amongst the forest.  Going near the edge within the forest, near the quiet town of Ponyville, an unusually large wolf lie against the soft dirt, curled up against itself as it lie calmly asleep beneath the statue of Nightmare Moon.

The wolf itself was worse for wear as opposed to his once ghostly form within his former prison.  Now it seemed, his once enormous and bulky figure was slim and skinny, almost down to the bone.  Portions of his fur had fallen off at some sections of his body, leaving small patches of pinkish skin lying open beneath the fur.  The Great Grey Wolf had met a fate similar to all who died within the realm of Lordran as a human it seemed, a fate many were condemned with until the very end of time; he was undead.