The Story of Great Wolf Sif

It would be hours before morning would soon arrive across the land of Equestria; the moon was getting nearer to the western horizon, almost ready to move on past it and let the sun take a rightful spot on warming this side of the planet.  Some particular events happened during this night however, as there was no longer a strange spectacle to admire in the night sky.  The lupus constellation no longer flickered noticeably among the darkened sky, for a prisoner that was contained within was released not too long ago.  This particular prisoner, one being a Great Grey Wolf by the name of Sif, was free.

It was strange that upon his release, his physical body formed at the statue of Nightmare Moon...  But his release gave him a little more than he would've expected; his features had become more slim, almost bony; his fur became a deep shade of grey at certain areas and had fallen off at some sections, leaving an almost sickly brown color mixed with pink underneath.

This was a common affliction to those that were undead, but he was different as opposed to them, he was not human.  Some of these afflictions were ones that weren't shared with the undead from Lordran.  They were his own...

He would be the very first of his kind to experience such afflictions as a wolf, and perhaps the only one to experience such as a phenomenon like this would likely be astronomically impossible by any standards stemming from Lordran.  But here he was in a far off land, possibly in a different world altogether, given a second chance at life after being stuck in limbo for many lifetimes, now undead but alive...

Sif began to stir beneath the statue, and for the first time since his death, he could smell.  There was a certain mustiness about the area which he caught along with tonnes of unfamiliar scents trailing originating from the surrounding area.  It was definite that he was no longer in Darkroot Garden, but somewhere else altogether.

Slowly, he peeled his eyes open, and beneath him he bore witness to a familiar sight of the soft dirt beneath him.  His sense of smell picked up tonnes of unknown scents and odors stemming from this dirt, all of which were hard to distinguish from whether they were animal scents or plants.  The large amount of conflicting odors left him confused as to where he could be; none of the them had the faintest familiarity about them...

Lifting his head from the top of his paws, Sif slowly shifted his head from left to right trying to scan the area.  Throughout such, he noticed how sluggish his movements had become, and overall, how weak he felt altogether.

His surroundings held the unfamiliar sight of trees that neared his enormous height, some twisting in questionable directions, but were otherwise densely pack together.  Another thing was the darkness that filled the area, it was extremely overbearing and he was only able to see a few meters beyond the tree line, rendering him unable to spot any unwanted observers.  The one sight he noticed last was the statue he was lying under some time ago but currently towered over by at least a meter, the one of a unknown horse like being staring maliciously at what would be beneath it.

The statue of this being had a large horn protruding from the top of what appeared to be its head and had wings spanning several feet out from its body.  What puzzled him the most about this horse like being was what appeared to be either armor, or regalia of some sort that adorned its body, most notably at the hooves, chest, and head.  If this were some sort of deity of the land, it was certainly a questionable one, noteably different than Gwyn and his two daughters.

Diverting his attention away from the statue, Sif poured his strength into pushing himself up onto all fours.  Throughout the ordeal, Sif felt himself struggling at times to maintain his balance and to keep himself upright as he felt a slight lack of control in his overall balance whenever he tried to stand on his paws for more than a few seconds.  It felt to him as though some of his strength had been taken away.

Being curious about his overall strength deteriorating, Sif turned his head to get a good look at his form, and to his horror, he spotted the overall cause of his loss of strength.

He was unbelievably skinny, and his fur had become a darker shade of grey with some parts that looked like they came off in clumps, leaving his sickly looking skin open underneath.  He realized what had happened to him now, for he had faced off against many humans that were like this, often mindless and openly hostile.  He was undead.

Sif's eyes widened at the revelation, leaving him feeling rather frightened at what would eventually become of him.  Artorias himself had eventually became undead after losing to Manus, immediately becoming under his control after being defeated...  Thankfully Manus was gone though, saving him from a fate worse than what he was now.

But he was still himself; he could still think rationally and he had complete control over his actions, there were no blind spots in his thoughts and he wasn't mindless.  There was something though.  Something amiss...  He couldn't place a paw on what was off about him, but he felt like there was a certain wholeness missing about him.  Even if he was physically whole and there, the feeling would not subside, much like a gaping wound in one's side.

His thoughts were soon interrupted as the faint sound of brush rustling in the nearby trees met his ears.  Sif turned to meet the sound along his left and stared into the darkness, awaiting for signs as to what may be there.

Three sets of green eyes emerged from the darkness of the trees, and they stared towards Sif.  He could feel their glares piercing his own, neither one of them backing down from one another.  The eyes soon glowed brighter as they neared the edge of the treeline, and as they came closer, an odd but familiar smell came across to him: Tree sap.   It was a scent he was all to familiar with during his time in Darkroot Garden due to the amount of trees that made up the area, but strangely enough, the scent was coming from these sets of eyes.

There was a slight familiarity about these eyes glaring at him, reminding him of the smaller counterparts of his species, but there was a noticeable difference about them.  For one, he knew their eyes normally never glowed by themselves.  Another thing was the scent that came from them, the distinct odor of tree sap.  Just what kind of place has a strange variant of his species?

The eyes emerged from the shadows, and with it came the large wooden bodies.  They looked remarkably like wolves, but they were almost treelike in appearance and were nearly a quarter of his size.  Strangely enough, they even had leaves for brows and had their teeth were wood too.  But so it seemed they deemed him as prey, not a predator.

Sif knew it was likely that they would've been observing him for the last little while, watching him struggle to get up onto his paws and noticing overall how weak he looked.  He was no longer in his familiar territory of Darkroot Garden, but in an entirely different forest altogether and was at the mercy of these three literal spins to a nickname of his species.

The three wolves held themselves low to the ground and began circling around Sif, forming a common attack plan that he once saw his smaller counterparts use more than once.

Even if he was in a different place altogether he would make these wolves regret trying to consider him as prey instead of predator.  After all, he wasn't called the Great Grey Wolf for no reason.  They would have to work rather hard to make him experience death once more.

Sif brought his frame low to the ground and began growling deeply at the three timberwolves, keeping a careful eye on the ones he could see, and keeping his ears open in case one decided to hit him from behind.  He flared his teeth at the wolves, hoping to intimidate the wolves into backing down, but unfortunately they did not and took it as a challenge, as they too did the same.  Sif knew it was only a matter of time until they decided to attack, and he wouldn't let his guard up for a second against these wolves, not letting them exploit a common advantage he'd done to other creatures long ago.

He felt his fur standing on end as he waited for them to make the first move.  It was a tense situation as they expected him to begin running at a moment's notice, but he did not want to give them the satisfaction of a true hunt.

Sif's ears perked as he heard one of the wolves slightly rickety frame launch towards him from behind.  Immediately, he turned to meet the airborne wolf and quickly swiped his right paw widely in the air towards the wolf mid flight with astonishing agility.  The timber wolf's flight path was immediately cut off and was instantaneously knocked out of the air, slamming into one of the nearby trees and shattered into bits of wood upon impact.

This counter did not deter the other two wolves and they immediately took advantage of the slight recovery from the Great Wolf turning their back to them, and they too sprung from their wooden paws and launched towards him.  Sif immediately turned to face the remaining two wolves, immediately expecting to counter the two with one big swipe from his paws.  This however, did not go as planned; Sif turned around slightly slower than he would've expected and he immediately felt two immense weights latch onto his body, pulling him down to the ground with him.  The wolves were surprisingly heavier than Sif would've expected, and it was even more surprising that their teeth and claws were actually lethal enough to draw blood.

Sif toppled onto the ground as the two wolves latched onto his body with their claws.  And immediately upon taking him onto the ground with them, the two wolves immediately set into digging their claws and teeth into as much of the wolf as possible, hoping to take as much as they can out of him before he can attempt to get back up.

Sif struggled beneath the weight of the two wolves, fighting through the vicious pain of their claws and biting while trying to knock them off his body.  After one shake that Sif threw all of his strength into, he managed to knock the wolves off his now battered form.  The two wolves hopped off Sif, leaving him with the overall appearance of him looking like he just escaped a vicious mauling as he struggled to get back up onto his paws once more.

They hoped they had done enough damage to the unusually large wolf, waiting and hoping for him to pass out due to the wounds that littered his body.  To their surprise, he did not.

Sif defiantly stood before the two wolves, using what remained of his strength to keep him up on his paws and display what aggression he had left towards them.  But he could not fight them any more, not like this, not while his strength was almost gone.  His body had more limits than it did before, and he only had one option that he didn't want to resort to: he had to retreat.

Sif flared his teeth once more, but it was more of a feeble attempt to force them to back down.  But they did not, and they began strafing around Sif once more.

Right now, he had to be rid of another one of them to properly retreat.  Having two of these wooden creatures chasing after him would only lead to more trouble, and having only one chasing him would give him ample time to escape.

Sif went for the first blow at one of the wolves this time, quickly surprising the timber wolf at his immense speed.  The timber wolf was quickly overtaken due to Sif's speed, as within seconds, his head was clenched within the jaws of Sif, and its wooden head was creaking from the amount of pressure it was experiencing. The third timber wolf, realizing that Sif was distracted quickly sprung into action and lunged at Sif once more.

Sif felt the wood groaning beneath his teeth as he clenched his jaw harder and harder on the wooden canine's head.  Throughout the whole ordeal, Sif heard a few pained whines coming from the wolf in his mouth, though the sound came off distorted and highly unusual.  Within a few seconds, Sif felt the wood crack within his Jaw, leaving him with a distinct taste of Tree Sap in his mouth along with the bland taste of wood.

The timber wolf's corpse immediately fell limp to the ground, immediately disassembling into a pile of wood as it hit.  Realizing a new threat, Sif felt the other wolf biting into his side once more and set to shake himself feverishly to shake the wolf off.  The wolf's grip wasn't strong and was quickly flung off onto the dirt, dazed and at the mercy of Sif.  With one big swipe, Sif knocked the wolf across the ground, quickly breaking it small bits of wood as it bounced across the dirt.

Perhaps he didn't really need to retreat after all...

As Sif turned to try and began limping off in a random direction, he noticed something strange about the former bodies of the timber wolves.  The pieces that made up the timber wolves became enveloped in a green aura, each and every piece hovering off the ground bit by bit, all of which made their way in front of the nearby statue.  There, they began reassembling themselves into a larger timber wolf from the bottom up.

Sif immediately realized what was at play, that being magic, and it seemed that the pieces were reassembling together into one larger wolf.  Retreating suddenly seemed like the best idea to him as he could not fare against something that was possibly bigger than him, or roughly the same size.

Sif immediately turned tail away from the area and began running as fast his paws could take him, immediately diving into the treeline; he didn't want to know how big the wolf behind him actually was.   He weaved through the branches and trees, and with careful footing, dodged conveniently placed tree roots as he ran through the forest, making sure to keep a quick pace as to not let the wolf behind him catch up, but he could feel it getting closer.  He could feel the thundering of its large wooden paws beating against the earth, and it was getting closer every few seconds.

Sif knew he could only keep running for so long as he already expended most of his strength protecting himself from the those wolves.  He could only hope he could find someone or something that could buy him time to get away, or to actually save him from the wolf.

As his hope of escaping was slowly becoming dimmer, he eventually emerged from the forest into an entirely new area.  And upon his exit, his pursuer's thundering ceased to be.  For the first time he was the actual prey escaping from a predator, one more menacing than him.

Sif quickly halted his running and slowed down to a pained limp, now realizing the extent of pain he was actually in.  He had been viciously mauled by a unusual species of wolf, one that had left its mark in the form of many wounds littering his very form.

Many lacerations and bite marks were evident where more skin was showing than fur, but the cuts were mostly evident along his fur as it became stained with the distinct color of crimson as the blood dripped out.  It was likely he had sustained more wounds than he could handle, and he had already pushed himself to the very brink of what remained of his strength.

As Sif made slow progress away from the forest, he spotted a rather unique sight of a small cottage a few hundred meters away. The lights were on still so someone, or something was bound to be home.  The uniqueness that Sif noticed about this cottage was the amount of birds nests littering the area and small holes that were beneath the home, just beyond all that were a few pens just on the other side of the small home.

As Sif slowly approached the home, he spotted what appeared to be a white rabbit looking rather frightful at his approach and quickly ran inside the home, slamming the door behind him.  Sif knew the rabbit was conveying the message that he was not wanted here.  He could reason with that, he was battered, bloody, and most importantly he was undead.

But what he had just witnessed was something that was highly questionable...  Why in Lord Gwyn's name did that rabbit portray the characteristics of something human?

Curious about the matter, Sif slowed his approach to the small home, but his approach was halted as he felt his body immediately begin burning from the inside out, most notably from his wounds, as those felt like someone was sticking a blade in it and constantly twisting it, all the while with a pine resin affect going on with the blade.  Sif collapsed onto the dirt a couple hundred meters away from the home, emitting a pained whine as he felt his body burning intensely...  It was just too painful for him to move now.

Sif sealed his eyes shut as he felt the pain begin to intensity.  So it seemed that the tree sap was for more than just their blood and what held them together, it was also a poison.

Angel's thoughts were running at a mile a minute and he swore his tiny heart had skipped a beat more than once throughout the whole ordeal.  Just under a minute ago he had just seen the most terrifying creature he had ever laid his tiny eyes on. The thing...  It was much larger than Princess Celestia and it looked almost like a timberwolf minus the wood, but its eyes... Oh the eyes...

Where its eyes looked like they were supposed to be, there was nothing...  There was only darkness and an endless abyss of what looked like nightmares.   The thing was covered in blood from top to bottom and was almost dragging itself along...

He had first spotted the creature when he went outside to get himself an early morning carrot snack, but before he could even get himself close to the garden, he noticed the large creature's approach.  It took a while, but underneath the light of the moon, he was soon able to get a better look at the thing as it came closer, and oh Celestia was it absolutely terrifying...

He just had to get away from it.  He just didn't want to look at it any longer so he just ran inside and slammed the door quickly behind him, which he was now quivering up against...

"Angel bunny is that you?" Angel heard her caretaker's voice say from the top of the stairs, followed by the clopping of hooves against hard wood.

It wasn't in his exact intention to wake up Fluttershy from her rest, but right now he had to warn her of the horrifying monster outside, and they just had to get out of here.

Angel gazed up the stairs and nervously waited for her to appear, and as she did, he immediately set himself on trying to catch her attention, which he tried to get by flailing his arms wildly in the air.

"What's bothering you dear?" Fluttershy said as she slowly descended down the stairs, looking rather worse for wear considering she had just woke up.

He realized he had caught her attention with his wild arm flailing, but had tuckered himself out in the process.  He immediately gestured a "one moment" and mimicked a exhausted expression.  Upon his recovery, he waved his arms in the arm rapidly and pointed towards the window and pulled the sides of his mouth back as if to show teeth, and held his little paws menacingly in the air as to say "monster."  She immediately got the message.

"M-monster..? Where?" Fluttershy quickly darted across the room and opted to hide behind her sofa, with just her frazzled mane and her now wide open eyes peering over the top.

Angel smacked his right paw against his face, unable to vocalize his own exasperation at his caretaker's lack of courage.  He took a brief moment to calm himself and quickly put on a brave face for Fluttershy.  He deftly hopped towards the stairs and hopped from each of the small animals' homes to get onto the nearby windowsill, and upon his arrival to his destination, his bravery began to falter.  Angel gulped and shakily pointed a paw at the window, wanting her to see for herself.

He turned to meet his so called "point" and was surprised at what he saw.  A fair distance away from the cottage, the supposed monster he had tried to warn Fluttershy about was on the ground, and it looked like it was in pain...?

Angel heard the slow clopping of his caretaker's hooves as she nervously approached the window.  And to his further surprise, she immediately snapped out of her frightened state and into caretaker mode immediately.

Angel turned to meet Fluttershy, and he could see she was visibly gasping, shocked, terrified, and absolutely distraught at the sight of the large creature just outside.

"Oh my goodness!" Angel heard her cry before she immediately bolted out the door...  Only to come back inside moments later to rummage around in the kitchen, taking a first aid kit with her in her mouth and proceeded to bolt out the door once again.  Angel swore he could have seen her visibly tearing up at the sight of it...

If it was one thing he didn't understand about his caretaker, it was the often sudden change in attitude that tended to happen.  One moment she'd be shy, then the next she'd be in full caretaker mode at the sight of an injured animal.

Angel voiced a silent sigh, knowing all to well what was about to happen.  He hopped from his vantage point from the windowsill and followed Fluttershy out the door, slowing his approach as he neared the supposed monster.  As he neared the creature, he realized how enormous the thing was, making Fluttershy look like an ant in comparison to it.

"Oh you poor thing...  Fluttershy will make you feel better, just please stay with me..."  There was a slight bit of panic trailing in her voice as she tried to comfort the severely injured creature, but it looked like the thing's breathing was becoming more spaced apart with each moment that passed.

Fluttershy immediately noticed Angel's presence and a visible light bulb went off in her head.

"Angel deary, do you think you get can Applejack and Rarity for me please..?  I-I can't help this creature all on my own, and if he doesn't get any more help he's going to die..."  Fluttershy was practically begg-no, pleading for his help right now with this strange creature.  But he just didn't know what if he wanted to do it.

"Please?  For me..?"  Her eyes were nearing the point of tearing up as she was now on the ground before angel, looking him in the eyes.

That look was one he had never gotten before, and she had even said the creature would die if she couldn't get enough help.

Angel took a deep breath and closed his eyes.  This was a plea from Fluttershy, and if he let her down, she wouldn't let this slip for a very long time...  He just had to do this, not just because his fur was also on the line, but because it was for her.  He couldn't, and wouldn't ever let her down, ever.

Angel opened his eyes and gave a salute, knowing that he just had to do it for her.

Fluttershy's eyes looked more watery than they were before, and he immediately felt himself become scooped up in her motherly grasp and was clutched tightly against her chest.

"Oh thank you, thank you!"  She placed Angel back on the ground who immediately gestured a gacking motion with his little paws.  "Now, I need you to go get Applejack and Rarity and bring them here as soon as possible... I don't know how long I can keep the poor thing alive."

Angel gave another salute to his caretaker and immediately set off away from the cottage, making his way to his first destination to Carousel Boutique, going for the one who was more of a lighter sleeper in comparison to Applejack.  Just as he was leaving, Angel heard a faint pained whine coming from Fluttershy and the creature, who then upon looking back, noticed Fluttershy begin cooing softly at the creature, hoping to keep its spirits up in an attempt to keep it alive.

Tonight was definitely going to be a long night.