> MLP meets the Pleistocene
>  by Nighthawk alpha bravo
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Intro and arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.
> A new friend
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

in the city of Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, within the castle, Princess Celestia, the alicorn Goddess, co-ruler of Equestria Raiser of the sun, big sister to Princess Luna, teacher and mentor to Twilight Sparkle, Cake connoisseur, and aunt to Princess Cadence and Prince Blueblood, was just lowering the sun.

Satisfied with her work, she watched in awe as her Sister rose the moon, bathing the landscape in her art which was the night. Stars lit up the sky as well as the moon, Celestia smiled at this and took a deep sigh.

“This never gets old.”

After a few minutes, she left her chambers to meet up with her sister in the throne room. After a slight walk, saying hello to the various maids and guests around the castle who bowed to their Princess, she arrived at two large double doors. Two guards guarding them. Saluting their Princess, Celestia nodding in acknowledgment, they opened the doors for her and she was met by her sister Luna, along with her secretary and head of staff, Raven Inkwell, a unicorn mare with white fur, a brown mane curled into a bun, light brown eyes, wearing black glasses and a red ascot.

“Hello sister, wonderful night isn’t it, I was wondering if you would like to take a stroll around the castle with me, you know, to clear our heads a bit.”

Celestia smiled and nodded once more.

“That would be great, the last few day court sessions have been rather taxing on me, I’d like to get that tension out of my system and I think a nighttime stroll would be perfect for that.”

Celestia soon turned to Raven who was waiting on her word on what to do next.

“Raven, I’m sure you’ve had a long day, you're free to head home and get a good night's rest.”

“Thank you, your highness.” 

But before any pony could go anywhere, a scroll appeared in front of the three in a puff of smoke. Due to the method and style of transportation, both Princesses knew it had come from Twilight. Celestia looked very confused, Twilight almost never sent a letter at this hour, usually Celestia always thought on the positive side but she feared the worst as this wasn’t normal for Twilight to do. Getting rid of the bands that bounded the scroll together, she unwrapped it and looked over its contents.

Luna and Raven looked at each other, unsure what to think. Celestia was a little worried but not to the extent that she thought she’d be.

Apparently Twilight’s friend Applejack, the Element of Honesty and her sister Apple Bloom, had an odd encounter with a large canine on their farm. Celestia was going to say it was a Timberwolf that had wandered towards the Apple Family’s farm, but what threw that idea out the window was not only was it not Zap Apple season, which caused Timberwolves to exit their domain which was the Everfree forest, but the description of this creature.

It did not match up with any Timberwolf she had ever seen or heard of. It had fur like a domestic dog, a long muzzle, one you’d see on a Timber wolf, and all in all it looked like a husky or coyote on steroids. 

Celestia’s second thought was coyote but their range was for the most part limited to Appaloosa and as far as the badlands. But what really caught her attention was the size and speed of this animal. That and it had gone into the house of the Apple Family and eaten some eggs. Due to that nature, her third thought was a Hyena, possibly imported from the zebra lands, but that was a very far stretch, and Twilight was certainly smart enough to tell between species, she was taught her first hoof after all.

The creature was the size of Applejack, which would have to be the biggest dog in Equestria, if it was even a dog.

“Celestia, what’s going on?” Asked Luna, not liking that she was being kept in the dark. Celestia looked up to her, preparing herself for what she was about to say.

“Well… Twilight had told me the Element of Honesty and her sister had a close encounter with some sort of dog-like creature. What has me worried is that it went into their house, most wild animals, except bears, won’t do that.”

“What else?”

“This canine creature is as tall as Raven here and can run faster than your ordinary dog.”

Luna and Raven were taken by surprise, thinking this was some ordinary dog, but they had to rethink a bit.

“Now, it could be a regular dog or coyote of just enormous size and intense speed, or it could be something more, what I am afraid of is this creature will enter ponyville and could possibly pose a threat to the residents, as it is used to being around ponies.”

“Raven, before you head home for the night, I need you to send individual letters to some of the most well renowned canine and animal experts, I seek an audience with them in the throne room tomorrow.”

“Yes, Princess, of course.”

As Raven left, Luna looked at Celestia.

“Are you still up for that stroll or…”

Celestia chuckled. “Yes I’m still up for it, I’ll inform Twilight about this Tomorrow, as for now, I need to find a way to prevent the animal from entering Ponyville.”

Celestia pointed to a night guard on his night shift. There was a clear difference between the Night Guard and the Lunar guard. Night guards were regular ponies who specialized in working in the night and served under Celestia as a special operations force.

In short it was the night shift equivalent of the Solar Guard or day guard but was technically the same thing. The Lunar guard was a singular special forces and operations branch that served under Princess Luna and was fiercely loyal to her since they were formed. What set them apart from Celestia’s guards, Aside from their fighting style and tactics, was they were a race of bat-like ponies called thestrals or simply bat ponies.

“You, guard, I need you to give word to Captain Shining Armor and have him dispatch a small squad of guards to Ponyville for only the entire night.”

“Yes, your highness, right away!”

The guard left and it was just the two sisters.

“Well, now that that’s out of the way, let’s take that walk shall we.”

Luna nodded with a smile and left, but had an uneasy feeling about this whole situation.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Within the guard barracks which was under the castle, yet not as far down as the dungeons, many royal guards sat around at the mess hall, eating, chatting, or drinking, to those who were off duty.

Many of the conversations were regarding the recent changeling invasion, most were relatively unhappy about it, while some just let it slide, such as a Stallion by the name of Spear Head, a Pegasus guard.

He had light brown fur, tan irises, and a hidden white patch on his muzzle which was concealed by the helmet.

He sat alone, thinking things over.

“Hey, Spear, you okay?”

He turned to the voice and saw a mare in the same blackish armor with a white plume on the top of her helmet.

She had bluish silver fur, orange irises, and was a unicorn mare.

“Hey, Solar Spark, I’m just thinking about the invasion, I mean how could something like this just happen?”

She sighed and gave him an unknowingly look.

“Well they can shape shift so they were literally off our radar until the beginning of the wedding of our Captain, shame he’s only going to be captain for a few more weeks, first lieutenant Stone Hoof will be promoted to Captain when that happens.”

“Well, aside from all that, you were pretty great out there, I’ve never seen you fight that bravely before, I like that in a mare.”

Solar Spark blushed heavily, diverting her attention elsewhere.

“Uh, thanks, you were pretty good yourself…”

As she left, another guard came over, an old friend of Spear Head.

“So, you two have been at it for quite some time now, you two a couple yet?”

Spear Head slightly chuckled but shook his head.

“Not yet, Dynasty, I’m gonna ask her out though, not sure when or how.”

“The other guard took a swig of some apple cider. You better get to it before somepony else gets to her before you do.”

Before Spear could say more, the door opened swiftly to reveal Captain Shining Armor.

“Ten hut!”

All the mares and Stallions in the room stood at attention.

I have been given word by the Princesses that they want a small group of guards to patrol ponyville for the entire night, I will be selecting guards now.

“Dynasty, Spear Head, Solar Spark, please head to my office immediately!”

Spear Head along with his fellow guards and love interest were shocked to hear that the Captain had selected them out of all the other guards who had far more experience than they did, they weren’t newbies but they weren’t veterans either.

They walked down the many halls of the castle, all remaining silent until they reached Captain Armor’s office.

Spear knocked on the door and got a swift response.

“Enter.”

They did so and saw their Captain awaiting their arrival.

“You are probably wondering why I selected you and what you will be doing down in Ponyville.”

“Yes sir.”

Well to put it simply, there is a mysterious canine-type creature lurking around the Everfree forest and has entered one of the Elements of Harmony’s house.

“Would this just be a regular stray dog sir? With all due respect, I don’t see how this warrants a guard patrol within Ponyville’s borders,” Solar Spark asked.

“The Princesses, my little sister, and the Element of Honesty don’t believe this is a dog as it is the size of your lot and can run faster than most canines out there.”

“In short, if this thing gets aggressive, it could inflict some serious harm to any pony it attacks.”

“You are to keep this creature out of Ponyville until morning, in the morning you will be replaced by a few animal experts and the Elements.”

“Yes sir!”

“Perfect, the chariots are ready for your departure, good luck and stay safe.”

The team left Shining Armor’s office and headed down the halls with interested looks.

“What kinda creature are we dealing with, a wolf?”

“No wolves are made out of wood, rocks, and leaves, this thing has fur, it’s got to be some type of enormous dog.”

“Maybe it is a hybridization of both?”

Everypony turned to Solar Spark.

“What? It’s just a thought.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Back to me.


It was finally night and I had reached the edge of the field, and the worst part was, I was still hungry. Granted, I wasn’t about to eat these horses, if they were anything like humans, kill one, the rest won’t stop till they have hunted you down. So yeah… horses are off the menu. I wasn’t going to stoop to such low levels as to eat pets, that’s just as bad. 

“Maybe I cou…”

I noticed movement near a moss covered shack, or whatever it was.

Deciding I had time to check out whatever this was, I moved closer to the odd house.

This house had perfect and newly washed windows so someone obviously lived here.

“Talk about a fixer upper”

I looked inside the house and saw something that made my hunger reach an all time high! Countless delicious looking forest critters slept peacefully in beds.

”Well… they are forest animals and prone to predation so I suppose it wouldn’t be wrong to eat them as it is just nature.”

I saw a lake nearby and decided to finally take a look in the mirror. The two things that confused me though were the shorter ears, more robust body, and shorter fur than most gray wolves had. That and the fur color was incredible odd, I had to think about this more.

I walked up to a door and used my human brain that I somehow retained in this canine body and pawed at the door handle multiple times but I couldn’t open the damn thing. “So much for my human brain, this was an absolute waste of ti-.”

I saw multiple doggy doors, each of different sizes. One was the perfect size for me, and I slapped my face with my paw.

“Boy, from intellectual to acting like a complete dunce, oh well, it doesn’t matter now, I’m hungry, my ribs are showing, my deepest condolences to whoever’s animals I'm about to slaughter.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Fluttershy was sleeping in her room, snug and cozy in her bed. She dreamt about being on a picnic with her friends and enjoying the crisp air blowing against her face.

Her eyes opened in milliseconds, her pupils as small as pinpricks.

She shot up from the warm covers to hear the sounds of her animals shrieking in fear and pain.

Not even being able to imagine what could be causing this, she quickly made her way downstairs. Usually Fluttershy would be hesitant on even going down there, but her animals were in danger and that was the main drive for her.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she was met by a grizzly sight. Animals lay dead, their insides torn open, blood and entrails strung out everywhere.

Her animals had just been completely mutilated.

The few that had survived were cowering in corners and hiding places.

In the middle of all this was what Applejack and Apple Bloom had encountered.

A large, hairy, robust canine was eating the last of the killed animals, and Fluttershy noticed this was Angel bunny.

It was the same creature without a doubt.

Fluttershy was stuck in fear as the creature looked up at her as if it were a foal who had been caught stealing from the cookie jar.

Right behind her came Mr. Bear, a large grizzly bear. He stood up at his full height which towered over the canine and let out a ferocious roar. This, as Fluttershy expected, made the creature turn tail and run out the door.

Fluttershy didn’t know what to do, but there was one thing she knew she had to do, and it was to inform Twilight immediately.

She knew it was in a wolf’s nature, as she had no choice but to identify it as a wolf for the moment, to hunt and kill its prey, but it was not in their nature to enter pony settlements and houses and eat the animals they lived with.

She knew if this continued, a pony casualty would not be far away, especially a foal.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Back to Izaac’s POV.


“Holy crap, those animals could talk, I could literally understand them, more so than those wooden wolf things!”

I ran away from the mossy house as I got my fill. I tried to erase the idea of those animals’ ability to speak English and communicate with me, but I was a wild animal as well so I guess it makes sense.

I made my way into the town and by god was this place colorful, even at night.

I mean this was like the damn Swiss alps, these houses were made of wood and straw for the most part, some stone foundations here and there.

But there it was, the most bizarre house in this town, a house that literally looked like it was made out of candy.

Better stay outta there, that place could be my Kryptonite if dogs are anything to go by, I’m not taking chances, but maybe a gummy or two.

I kept hearing the sound of flapping wings, I looked up to see… nothing. I felt like someone was following me but as long as they didn’t follow me back to that castle I’d be fine, I don’t need this entire town after me.

I found a… well… I wasn’t sure what the heck it was, it looked like a tree but it had windows, a door, a balcony, and a freaking giant telescope on it.

“That’s some hobbit style shit right there.”

I took this into consideration that these horse creatures were not only intelligent enough to build houses and a civilization, but could understand constellations or something of that sort.

What I didn’t like doing was underestimating potential opponents. I didn’t see these creatures as an imminent threat to me yet, as I would defend myself if absolutely necessary, but I couldn’t be naive either.

I began to squint as a bright light began to approach my path. Avoiding detection, I ran behind the treehouse thingy and took a peek at what had rounded the corner.

It was another horse, but this one was different.

Not only was this one more bulky than the female ones I’ve seen earlier, not saying the orange one was muscular in some way as she was, but this one wore a suit of blackish silver armor.

It didn’t take a genius to figure this out.

“Oh crud they have a damn military, that could be a major thorn in my side if they decide to use it against me, I’m one dead man- I mean wolf.”

As I had to be more careful than usual, in order not to be mounted on a wall, I went off to explore the rest of the town.

It was mostly the same stuff over and over again, I found some sort of merry go round house thingy and a wooden structure in the middle of town. I soon reached the outskirts, not near the forest and that little grass covered hippie house, but the opposite end of town.

It was fairly empty up here, but I noticed one house I didn't see at first. I wonder why such a house would be secluded from town. It was a nice house I’ll say that.

 Interestingly enough it had a two toned style to it. One side of the house which was nearest to me was a vintage wooden design, most of it was just bricks, I couldn’t tell what color due to the night and all.

The other side was a light color that looked a little more excitable, not like I really cared.

I was going to turn back until I heard the most beautiful noise, I instantly knew what noise could produce something of that class and that was a cello.

I was secretly a fan of the cello, although I never really got around to take lessons, I made my way to the window. I was interested that someone was awake at this hour.

I looked into the window and saw not a human but a rather elegant mare with gray fur, a charcoal black mane and tail, and a treble clef tattoo on the side of  her butt, physically playing the cello.

Yeah, I forgot to mention these things have tattoos on their buttocks, I mean like what the heck! But that wasn’t important at the moment.

I was just astounded that this creature could play a cello without any hands and could do such a beautiful job, yeah I was a sucker for these kinds of things, but hey, sue me!

As she opened her eyes, she unfortunately saw me at the window watching her. But she didn’t shriek or cower like I thought she would, she instead showed a little bit of interest as she put her cello away and slowly walked over to the window.

We made eye contact, I looked into her very pretty purple orbs which happen to be her eyes.

“Are you what all the fuss is about?”

I didn’t want to nod my head as that would make me seem too intelligent and would most likely raise alarms that I was no normal wolf, more so than usual.

“Huh, well you can’t be here, not with the guard patrolling, I don’t want to get in trouble for harboring you.”

I gave the best puppy dog eyes I could, hoping I could at least make some sort of Ally who could defend me if possible, can’t just make enemies constantly.

The mare tried to avert her gaze but I guess it was just too much as she went to the door with a groan of frustration.

“I’m going to regret this,” she grumbled.

Opening the door, she noticed just how big I was. She was taken by surprise but soon shook off her shock.

I oddly didn’t really notice the pink bow tie and neck piece until now.

“You can’t stay here, but I can get you something to eat, i assume your just going to keep coming back if I feed you so please for Luna’s sake come back at night, my roommate will most likely be available due to her night raves, she’ll let you in and what not.”

I let out a soft bark in acknowledgment, at least there was one gesture I could do.

“I’ll take that as a yes.”

She walked over to the kitchen and prepared some food. I assumed she had no dogs, seeing these horses actually had pets, so she wouldn’t have dog food. 

I wanted to call them something other than horses as they really didn’t resemble them too much.

I couldn’t call them donkeys as that would just be degrading and wouldn’t be accurate as they looked nothing like donkeys.

Mules wouldn’t work either.

“I got it! I would call them ponies from now on. It fit, they were small, had smaller muzzles, well, more cartoonish muzzles than anything else.

Of course there were parts of their body that were out of proportion like their giant eyes, I mean I’m not sure how their brains fit in there but okay.

She brought over a bowl of food, which was not really a dog bowl but a regular bowl.

I sniffed it to make sure there was nothing dangerous that could hurt me such as poison, you can never be too sure.

Not smelling anything that could give me a hint of poisoning, I slowly began to eat. After I was done, I had to say I was full for once.

“Well, get to wherever you live.”

I left the house and looked back at her, silently thanking her for being the first pony to not run me off or attack me.

I made my way down the hill and into town once again, in case I had missed anything. Not seeing much nor anything new, I was about to leave until a blinding light engulfed my vision.

“Son of a-!”

“Hey, Guys, there it is!”

I looked to the side of me and saw more of these armored horses and they did not look happy to see me.

“Damn it, I better get the heck outta here!”

Running for my life, I darted through the town, trying to escape my pursuers. I noticed these odd lighting strikes on the ground, as I had no idea where they came from.

“What the devil?”

I made it to the edge of town and rushed as far as I could into the forest. They didn’t seem to be following me so I slowed my running.

But there it was again, that strange smell. This time I really felt like I wasn’t alone, more so since I entered this freak show of a world.

I felt like there was a huge presence in the vicinity. Hearing heavy snorting, my ears fell and I slowly turned my head to see two glowing eyes connected to what appeared to be a huge creature that stood somewhere in the neighborhood of 13 to 14 feet tall.

This thing was monstrous and I did not wait around for this thing to make me its meal.

I dashed off as hard as I could go but realized this thing was not following me.

“Regardless, I was at the castle once more. Honestly, with all the predators out here, I’d like to be nice and cozy in the pony’s house with free meals and belly rubs-.”

“Whoa whoa whoa, Izaac, you’re a human, not a dog, or at least in the inside, you can’t give into such temptations!”

Forgetting all that, I layed down on the bed I found in the castle, it wasn’t comfortable but it would have to do.

It soon began to rain and there was holes in the ceiling.

“Damn it!”
> Unbearable fury
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------


Another gore heads up for this chapter, it gets a little…….. grizzly 

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I began waking up to heavy footsteps and low growling sounds. Stirring from my slumber, it was the crack of dawn, I got up and stretched. My fur was drenched so I shook it off, awkwardly at that, before I began my investigation. I snuck around the castle to see what was causing all that noise. Not wanting to fight whatever possible threat was out there head on, I decided to get to a vantage point, the high ground if you will, to better observe what was entering my domain.

As I got situated on a balcony that overlooked the throne room, or what appeared to be a throne room. My eyes widened in both astonishment and pure fear as what I could only describe as the biggest damn bear I’ve ever seen entered the room, for the most part it was sniffing around.

“Oh great more grizzlies,” I muttered softly to myself.

But then I noticed some odd features of this bear. It had some abnormally long legs, particularly in the front, its muzzle was relatively short. Its fur color was more of a black and not the classic grizzly brown. And to top it off as I had mentioned, this thing was giant, and it wasn’t even standing up. But that really wasn’t my biggest concern as this thing seemed to be on the scent of something, most likely me.

“Wait a minute, that ain’t no grizzly, what the hell is that?”

“…hold on, short muzzle, upward posture with long legs in the front…”

My mind had a brain fart right then and there, there was no way this creature could be real, they went extinct. If these ponies thought I was a threat, I was honestly the least of their problems now, I mean what the hell do they think they are going to do to an Arctodus? We're talking about a bear with a bite force of over 2,000 psi, 7 to 8 inch claws, and a paw that could take your head off in one swipe! I had no clue this thing was looking at me, but as soon as I noticed, my heart fell to the darkest area of my soul.

Making my way into a room, which led outside, going down a few stairs, I made my way to the outside entrance but I was met by the bear standing right in front of me. Can this thing teleport as well?! The bear tried to take a swing at me, but thankfully I was much faster and more agile than it and dodged the attack. I took off in another direction, trying to lose the bear which was now running behind me, but it was closing the distance with ease.

“For god’s sake just leave me alone!”

The bear came screeching to a halt, this made me do the same, although I was unsure what kind of trickery this was.

“Say that again,” said the bear in a very familiar voice.

“Uh… for god's sake, leave me alone?”

“Hold on a moment, there’s only one person I know with… Izaac? It can’t be.”

“Hold the phone, Kenny, your here too!?”

“Yeah I guess, want to explain to me how this is happening.”

“Don’t look at me, I’m just as confused as you.”

Kenny nodded, as well as a bear on steroids could.

“We’ll, what now?”

“Well, if you showed up, maybe there are more people like us here in this fucked up wonderland.”

“Maybe, Kenny, maybe.”

“So, question, what am I?”

“Well, you're an Arctodus simus.”

“English, Izaac.”

“Okay fine, you are also known as a short-faced bear, which is the largest terrestrial mammalian land carnivore that has ever set foot in North America… that we know of.”

“Oh, so this means no one will try to fuck with me?”

“Essentially yes, unless we run into the military of this world.”

“That and I can show you what downsides and upsides your new form has.”

“Um… okay? So humans are going to be after us?”

“… not exactly, the inhabitants aren’t human per say, they are… how do I say this without you having a heart attack, crayola colored ponies.”

Kenny went silent, being a bear, it was hard to read his facial expressions, but I knew deep within his heart, a titan was rising. Kenny was a guy who liked heavy metal and disturbed, and basically hated everything cotton candy-like. Barney and Elmo were always on his shit list, there was more darkness than light in him, but this didn’t mean he was evil, a bit of a temper maybe.

“Crayola.”

“Colored.”

“Ponies.”

I looked multiple ways, unsure how to describe their features and attributes.

“Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaah, they have wings and horns, some can shoot these odd objects.”

“Izaac, you might want to cover your ears.”

“Why?”

Kenny stood up on his hind legs, he absolutely towered over me, he was almost the size of the damn trees, maybe 12 to 14 feet off the ground, the son of a bitch was huge, he’d make a pony look like an ant. He let out the most ear piercing, blood curdling roar out of any animal I had ever heard, it was as loud as an oncoming train. The roar was followed by a shower of profanities, a downpour of sarcasm, and basically telling all the animals within the woods to fuck all the way off. But little did we know, there was only a tiny percentage of creatures that would even dare fuck with a bear of this size and power.

I heard footsteps behind me and turned to see a lion-like creature, it had bat wings, goat horns on its head, and a scorpion tail.

“What in god’s name is that!?”

Kenny didn’t answer, so I thought maybe if I could speak with other animals, maybe I could do the same with this guy, possibly persuade him not to attack.

“Excuse me, Mr. Lion thing, I don’t think this is a fight you are going to win-.”

*ROAR!!!*

“Oh shit!” Yelled Kenny.

“Okay, maybe he doesn’t want to talk today.”

The beast drew closer, but Kenny had had enough of this and stood at his full height. This startled the cat-like creature and made it hesitant on continuing its attack.

It had fought bears before but not bears of this size.

Nevertheless, it wanted me for the most part and as it had been eyeing me for a while and knew it had to get through Kenny first.

Both legendary beasts ran at each other, preparing to clash.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Somewhere nearby.


“So why are we out here again Scootaloo, if we get caught, we’ll be grounded or worse?”

“What’s worse than being grounded?” Said an orange Pegasus filly with a scruffy magenta colored mane and tail muttered brashly, carrying herself with confidence.

The two other fillies, a yellow furred filly with a red mane and tail wearing a bright pink bow, and a marshmallow white filly with a light lavender and pink two toned mane, looked on in worry, scanning their surroundings.

“Well, getting eaten is a good start, said Sweetie Belle.”

“Come on, don’t you want a Cutie Mark and prove Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon wrong?”

“Well… yeah, but do we really have to do it like this?”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes.

“It’s the only way we can silence those bullies, even if they don’t have the nerve to go into the Everfree forest.”

“But that’s beside the point, if we can stand in front of the biggest, scariest monster in this forest, we will be seen as legends and could get our cutie marks.”

Both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom looked at Scootaloo as if she were insane.

But soon they heard what could only be described as an extremely angry beast, it sounded like a bear, but at the same time, it sounded like a big cat.

“What was that?”

After a little while, they heard the sound of a manticore.

“It’s a battle! Come on, girls, we got to see this”

Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo looked at each other once more but decided to just follow along.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

A few hours before the conflict.


A group of ponies in lab coats and fancy outfits stood in front of Celestia, Luna was asleep at the moment, she had an important job to do once night hit.

“Thank you everypony for being here on such short notice, I believe you know why I summoned you.”

One of the scientists stepped up, trying her best to contain her excitement.

“We received your letter about a new species of canine was it? I am a well renowned canine expert and am honored to be working with the Elements of Harmony in this quest to study the creature.”

A light blue earth pony stallion stepped fourth.

“As you continue, your highness, what should we know about this creature?”

“Well, what I am most concerned about is this creature has already been known to sneak into civilization and kill pets, that’s why I notified Ponyville to lock there pets in at night.”

“It is not afraid of guards, as far as we know, as I had sent a small group of guards down to deter the canine from entering Ponyville last night.”

“It has eaten half the animals in the Element of Kindness’s house, I don’t want this to be a regular occurrence to the point where it starts hunting my ponies.”

The scientists looked at each other but nodded.

“I’ve been studying canines, both wild and domestic for years and I’ve never heard of anything like this in my entire career,” said the same mare.

“Now, I don’t want it hurt, I just want it caged and sent to Canterlot for study. As you said, you will be working with the Elements of Harmony, exclusively with my student Twilight Sparkle and the Element of Kindness, Fluttershy.”

“Yes, your highness, we shall be on our way to Ponyville immediately.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Twilight was staring at the mangled corpses of Fluttershy’s animals that had been maliciously slaughtered.

The smell was bad and she felt sick to her stomach.

Rarity had fainted at the sight, Fluttershy was in a bad mental state at losing her animals in such a way.

The whole town had been on alert, most ponies couldn’t even go on a midnight stroll without the guard scolding them.

“This is getting pretty bad.”

“This is not right, dogs don’t do this.”

Twilight looked at one of the mare scientists, a pony by the name of Whistle, giving her a quizzical look.

Twilight knew a lot about the various animal species of Equestria, but not to the extent of Fluttershy's knowledge. She was more than willing to learn more, and at this point she had no choice.

“Wait, what?”

“Dogs don’t do this, especially various canine species, the only species I’ve heard of killing animals in such numbers are Timberwolves, but even they won’t exit the forest and enter houses.”

“Is it possible we are dealing with a new species of wolf?”

“It’s not out of the realm of possibilities, Ms. Sparkle.”

“Please, Ms. Sparkle is my mother, just call me Twilight.”

Twilight rounded her friends and the scientists up and told them what was going to transpire.

“Okay everypony, our goal is to set some cages out in the areas where this creature has been most active.”

“I’ll make sure it doesn’t hurt Fluttershy’s animals again, that’s for sure!” Exclaimed Rainbow Dash, doing some tricks and jabbing the air.

Twilight frowned and shook her head.

“I’m sorry Rainbow but that’s not how we are going to approach this creature, the Princesses don’t want it hurt. Once we catch it, we are to bring it to Canterlot and study it.”

“Anything Else Sugar Cube?”

“That’s all the Princesses told me, Applejack, I’m sure they’ll explain the rest of their plan later, aside from that, does anyone have any questions?”

Pinkie pie raised her hoof in the air, bouncing around as usual, forgetting the mass slaughter in Fluttershy’s home.

“Yes, Pinkie?”

“What if this creature was once a technologically advanced being but got reincarnated into another being from thousands of years ago when everything was going through dramatic climate changes?!” Pinkie said at a fast rate.

“Um… what?” 

“Just a hunch.”

“Well, whatever you just said Pinkie, I’m pretty sure that didn’t happen.”

“Aside from all that, Princess Celestia brought a local hunter from the Griffon Kingdom, Thorn here will be checking what he calls game trails, pathways animals make or use.”

A male griffon with brown feathers, an orange beak, with plenty of scars came up to Twilight and nodded.

“I know every species in the Everfree forest, and I can assure you a new species will have the potential to make certain tracks and trails.”

“And in other words?” Asked Rainbow Dash, not fully trusting this Griffon they barely knew as he looked very shady.

“In other words, it will be easier than finding a needle in a haystack.”

“Okay, it looks like we’ve got everything settled, everypony, let’s move out.”
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

My POV.


The lion hybrid and Kenny circled each other, growling and roaring, waiting to see who would make the first blow.

I circled as well, not only to keep my distance but to help my friend in case things got out of hand.

Short faced bears were thought to have competed and fought against American lions and Saber toothed cats, but what was unknown was who truly won most of those fights as animals are unpredictable and that they don’t exist anymore.

This kitty was a little bigger than an American lion or Smilodon (Saber tooth species). This would mean it could apply more damage and would be considered stronger.

The mass in the creatures arms and head showed it was not a cat to be taken lightly.

The cat lunged at the bear before me and grappled onto him.

Kenny was a born fighter though and could easily outsmart this cat as he slammed the cat onto the ground.

The cat lion hybrid got up and quickly recovered. I could tell it had not seen a creature smart enough to pull this move, it clearly was surprised.

Getting back to its original plan, it began to do mock charges, thinking Kenny would open himself up. All that cat wanted was to get to the belly of the beast, it was either that or the windpipe. 

Kenny was tempted but never loosened up, keeping his eyes on the prize.

This angered the ferocious feline, it had to find another way.

It soon licked its lips and ran at Kenny. The cat showed no signs of stopping and thinking Kenny would think it was another mock attack, it lept at him.

*BAM!!!*

The only thing that fat cat remotely touched was the ground as Kenny scored a direct hit to the lion’s cranium.

However, he got up quickly, mildly dazed by the attack, claw marks across its head.

This only angered the cat as it ran at Kenny once more but this time Kenny wasn’t ready as the hybrid's fast recovery stunned him.

He got knocked over and I knew I had to intervene. I just remembered something as well, it had a scorpion tail, this had to be a manticore.

As made up as it sounded, it was right there before my eyes, using my friend as a goddamn scratching post.

I jumped on the manticore’s back as I bit into his hide, shaking and tearing, causing the bastard to roar out in pain, although I wasn’t doing too much damage, but that pain soon turned to fury.

Throwing me back, I fell to the ground, a little dazed but not by much.

But another thing came to mind, if Kenny was an ice age Giant short faced bear, was I something like that, maybe a Dire wolf? Although the Dire wolf was not technically a wolf but more related to jackals, but hell, who knows at this point.

The giant cat came over to me, ready to take a chunk out of me but was too ignorant to see the slightly battered bear charging for it!

Kenny clamped his jaws down on the manticore’s tail, seeing it as the main source of its powers rather than its jaws.

It yowled in pain and tried to turn and attack but its scorpion tail was soon severed from its body.

And to end it all, Kenny raised up and bit down on the manticore’s spine and ripped it out, the bone being strung together by muscles and tendons.

“Kenny made a gash near its ribs and all the blood and entrails came out, the cat was already dead once his spine was ripped out and crushed within Kenny’s fortress-like jaws.”

“I was a little shocked, but hey, this was my friend, he’s dark as all heck with little morals, he’d protect me no matter the cost, I’d do the same for him.”

Kenny did another roar, letting all the animals know it had killed a manticore.

“Uh, Kenny, we should get you somewhere safe to get healed up, you took some damage.”

Kenny nodded, drowsy from the blood loss.

I soon picked up the smell of ponies, someone was watching us, but who.

“Scootaloo, yer perfume!”

Hearing that little voice, I walked over to a bush and parted it to see three little baby ponies looking at us in fear, most likely traumatized.

“Oh they are scarred,” said Kenny, of course they couldn’t understand him or me.

“Um, hey little-.”

They screamed at the top of their lungs and I’m pretty sure the whole forest heard it. They stood stock still, I still wanted to get out of here so we did so.

Me and Kenny walked back to the crumbled castle but once we arrived after quite a walk, standing before the castle was a group of ponies.

“Uh oh.”
> Hunter or the hunted
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight’s POV.


We had been walking for a while, we were getting quite deep into the forest as I followed a tracker spell I was using, the arrow pointing the way. The spell would track whatever creatures were not documented species of the forest as I thought this was my best bet to find the creature responsible for entering pony civilization. Before we left I added some hair I found from the canine and added it to the spell.

The Royal Sisters wanted this creature brought back unharmed, but I had to keep Rainbow Dash in check as to not harm the canine, despite its rampage on Fluttershy’s animals.

“Come on Twilight, when do we find that thing!?”

I sighed at Rainbow’s zero patience.

“We get there when we get there, Rainbow, and remember what I said, the Princesses want it unharmed.”

A lot of the other scientists were a little annoyed at Rainbow Dash’s need for vengeance and a desire to hit something.

the tracker began to alert me we were in the presence of the creature, but what was odd was I was getting something else, it clearly was here, and it clearly wasn’t alone. It was alerting me that there were several creatures in the vicinity. I didn’t account for this to happen as my spell was pointing in all directions. To ease my mind, we would only be focusing on one target, but we would be wary of anything strange to be on the safe side.

“Okay everypony, we’re going to have to do this manually.”

I soon took notice of where we were, as scientists went to set cages for the creature, our extra griffon guide Thorn, and Fluttershy, helped point out likely trails. We were in front of the Castle of the Two Sisters, but why in all places would it go here? But then my previous investigation reminded me that this creature most likely was raised within a house, so it would most likely seek refuge in structures. I was unsure how smart this creature was, if this was its home, setting a trap within its domain would make it never return and we could lose the opportunity to research this specimen.

I told everypony to avoid placing traps within the castle. Marking down locations on my note pad, the other scientists doing the same.

“Okay, let’s pull out of here, we’ll camp out in the forest and wait for it to set off the traps, Thorn will keep watch over us for the night.”

Several screams rang out in the distance, although not too far from here.

“That can’t be,” Rarity muttered.

“It’s Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo!”

*Intense music of your choice begins*

We all ran as fast as we could to their location, soon we entered a clearing to see them standing in one place, shaking as if they witnessed the scariest nightmare imaginable.

“Girls, are you okay?”

“They looked so traumatized, but what could have done-.”

I smelled something, something dead, it wasn’t bad yet but I knew it was going to be. What confused me was it was in the direction the frightened fillies were looking at. We all turned to where they were looking and our eyes went wide, many of us wanted to puke. 

It was a dead manticore, whatever killed it slaughtered it ruthlessly, it looked like a battle for dominance.

Fluttershy fainted on the spot, rarity did her very best not to throw up.

Applejack and Rainbow Dash were in pure shock, maybe a little bit of fear. The scientists were dumbfounded, Pinkie’s mane had deflated and her vibrant pink fur faded.

“What on earth could have done this, asked one of the scientists.”

“I’ve never ever seen something kill a manticore in this fashion,” said another.

“Twi, what do you suppose did this?”

I remained silent, my heart beating a thousand miles per hour. We were in a lot more danger than we could even dream of. Most Predators usually killed their prey quickly, this creature just straight up massacred its feline assailant. Predators within respect each other’s presence and only fight when absolutely necessary, not what I’ve seen here.

I could only give one answer.

“An apex predator.”

*Dramatic music intensifies*
______________________________________________

My POV.


It was nearing dusk, I was out testing my hunting skills as I chased a doe. The most frightening thing on my mind was the doe was able to talk like most animals, as it could communicate with me as if it were speaking English.

“It was clearly frightened, but the cool thing was my consciousness was cloudy, my predator instincts ignoring the poor scared deer, it allowed me to focus on the hunt and the prey, it was just the circle of life.”

Regardless, I wasn’t the one who was going to kill the deer. Out of the blue, the deer was bulldozed by an immense amount of force, it didn’t even see the 2,500 pound god bear coming at it, orchestrating a strategic ambush, our efforts were successful. We began eating the insides of the deer, but being a bear of his size, Kenny still wanted more. Seeing he needed to eat more than me, I let him have most of the deer’s meat while I just cleaned off the legs and minor areas.

Probably wondering how we are tolerating eating raw meat. Honestly I’d prefer what my pony friend made last night, but hey, adapt or die. Another trick was just to eat the more appetizing parts of the animal.

After the death of the manticore, most of the predators became aware of Kenny’s presence and minded their own business or face his wrath. Didn’t know he’d become the talk of the woods. I had to do a number 2, being still human inside, I wanted my privacy so I went into the bushes.

As I did my business, a little ways from the kill site, I heard something. Out of the surrounding bushes came a group of ponies and some odd bird thing. This had to have been the science brainiacs who wanted to catch me. I noticed some were the ones I did know, such as the orange pony. I gave a warning growl, to make them back up, but this didn’t deter them, it only seemed to make them more defensive as they held shields.

Seeing this was not going to work, and I didn’t want to be put down by whatever authorities lived in this land, I backed up and began to run. They gave chase, although they could barely keep up, although I noticed a flying rainbow colored one that was able to match my speed. It began trying to hit me as I dodged most of its blows. She looked really pissed off.

“Get back here you mutt, I’ll teach you not to kill my friend’s animals!”

“But… they were woodland animals, not pets, you things are crazy!”

I felt a hard blow on my head as my vision was a bit hazy.

Hearing the sound of a sliding door closing, I turned around to see more ponies, including a purple one looking at me with a sparkle in its eye.

Man they really can come in all colors of the damn rainbow.

Me being placed in a fucking cage pissed me off as both the purple pony and the yellow pony put their noses up to my cage and looked me over with astonishment. I let out a snarl and snapped at them, causing them to reel back in fright and surprise. 

“Let me out of here right now, I do not consent to this!”

“Easy Ms. Twilight and Fluttershy, we mustn’t approach it like that, it needs space and time to cool off, we should send it off to Canterlot with haste,” said a female scientist.

“So that’s what purple’s name was, Twilight, well good work, Twinkie, you just signed your death warrant.”
______________________________________________


As Twilight supervised the science team as they loaded the dog into a carriage, one of the mare scientists, Whistle, came up to her.

“Ms. Twilight, I haven’t seen my partner, Whirling Creek, it’s been at least an hour and I am getting worried, we’ve been partners for a long time.”

Twilight became more concerned.

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“It was when we were setting traps, that’s when I lost contact with him.”

“Which way did he go?”

The mare pointed the way and Twilight walked towards the trail he took. The trail led her to an opening in the trees.

“Whirling Creek?”

“Whirling Creek, you there?”

“Whirling Creek!”

Twilight squinted as she saw something running towards her position from a distance, her eyes grew unimaginably large, true fear was etched onto her face. The fear she felt was nothing compared to the changeling invasion, this was a different kind of fear, raw primal instinct fear! She bolted back for the carriage, running as fast as her little pony legs could go as the oncoming beast  behind her, pursuing her at the speed of Mach Jesus.

It let out a deep ear splitting roar that rattled her very being to its core, the roar alone instilled more fear into her bloodstream as she pushed herself to run even harder.

“Everyone, in the Carriage now!”

Usually, having her friends with her and being one of the most powerful unicorns in Equestria would make her turn and fight this aggressor, but this creature, this animal, was pants-shittingly terrifying to her. This creature made her animal instincts resurface like nothing else ever had. Nearly on top of her, she got into the carriage and closed the door as what they all could describe as the scariest and most nightmare-inducing bear they’ve ever seen slammed its face against the window, blood smearing against it, foreshadowing the fate of the missing scientist.

“Oh Whirling Creek… I’m… I’m so sorry, the mare scientist mumbled.”

The bear’s paw broke through the carriage as it nearly hit one of the ponies. Unfortunately they were hanging off a ledge and soon the wagon fell, the wolf, the ponies, and the griffon inside.

The bear stood on the top of the cliff and stood on its hind legs and let out a roar of rage.
______________________________________________


“Ms. Sparkle!”

“Ms. Sparkle!’

“Twilight, can you hear me?!”

The sound of her brother Shining Armor was enough to wake her. Opening her eyes, she saw the concerned face of her brother and another guard, a medic. Shining Armor sighed in relief. Getting to her feet, wincing at the various areas where she was hurt.

“I literally thought I lost you.”

Twilight smiled but soon that smile faded.

“Where’s my friends!?”

“Are they and the scientists okay?!”

“Don’t worry, they are alive Ms. Sparkle, we sent them to Canterlot to get treated, they only suffered minor injuries,” said the medic

“We can’t say the same for the dead body of the stallion we found, he didn’t make it.”

Twilight looked down in shame, knowing his family would be upset by this. The medic checked her out and told her she might want to take it easy for a few days.

“Twilight, I know this sounds like a lot after such a stressful day, but the princesses are waiting for you to report back.”

She nodded to Armor but before leaving she looked at the back of the carriage to where the wolf was held. She was in shock that it had escaped its cage as the front was busted open upon impact.

“No no no no no.”

“What is it, Twilight?”

“The creature they wanted captured has escaped once again.”

One of the guards looked at a blood trail.

“He’s injured but he survived, sir.”

“I’ll alert the town, let’s get you to Canterlot, little sis, mom and dad are not going to be pleased with me.”

Twilight, Shining Armor, and the guards that were present, got into a chariot and took off to Canterlot.
______________________________________________

Celestia’s POV


I was worried, although worried would be an understatement, I was literally pacing back and forth, something I’d rarely do. I had received the news that the trapping of the wolf, dog, canine, whatever it was, did not go as planned.

As far as I know, they got attacked by something else in the forest, but the Elements were still a little traumatized by the incident, more so the fall than anything else it seemed. Luna was next to me, just as concerned, I had told her the dilemma. What we did know was that the sisters of Applejack, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash (surrogate sister) had found a dead Manticore that had been killed in a way I’ve never seen a predator do.

I knew each predator of that forest had some semblance of respect towards each other and stayed out of each other’s way, but I’ve never heard of something like this. The sisters were okay, but still quite traumatized, more so than the Element bearers. I still had no clue what was going on, but I know Twilight could explain this.

“Princess, I’m here, I have a lot of things to warn you about.”

Looking behind me I saw my brightest student. 

I rushed over and hugged her, breaking my Royal demeanor.

“I’m so glad you're safe, now, what did you want to warn us about?”

“Twilight cleared her throat and prepared to explain what had transpired hours ago. During the capture of the wolf, which we are now calling it, we had caught it.”

Celestia had no doubt she would succeed, Twilight was the most remarkable and smartest student she had ever had the pleasure of teaching.

“But as we were heading back, one of the scientists you had sent to work with us lost track of her partner.”

“I went out to look for him but there was no sign of him. I saw something running at me and I just lost all control of my will to defend myself.”

“I ran from what I could only describe was the biggest, the scariest, and most bizarre bear I’ve ever encountered, of course that wasn’t an Ersa Minor or Major.”

“And Fluttershy didn’t calm the creature?” Luna asked.

We didn’t have the time and I wasn't going to take chances, this was undoubtedly the fastest bear I’ve ever heard of.

“It was at least nearing 40 miles per hour or more, give or take.”

Me and Luna looked at each other. We knew bears and had seen them run down prey, but this was a little faster than a brown bear, especially for a bear of this scale.

“And did you say, bizarre?” 

“Yes, it’s body was raised off the ground, more so than a brown or polar bear, its posture was kind of tilted upward due to its overly long front legs.”

“It also had a short muzzle, we could tell that when it rammed into the glass window of the carriage.”

‘It was ungodly strong as it only took one good swipe to rip a hole in the carriage, it wasn’t acting predatory.”

“When I visited Fluttershy in the hospital, the one thing she said was it was acting more out of unbridled fury.”

“She said bears don’t display this kind of behavior, especially the bears she had taken care of.”

“W-what color was it?” I stuttered.

“It was a black color with a brownish muzzle, kind of like a black bear.”

“When it smashed into the window, blood was smeared onto the window, this proves that this creature will hunt and kill ponies when given the opportunity.”

I nodded, worried for my little ponies, this creature had to be tracked down and captured immediately, it and the wolf.

“Twilight, please follow us to night court, the nobles will have to hear about this, this way we can decide on what to do.”

Twilight began to get worried for both sides, knowing this conversation was going to take an unexpected turn.
______________________________________________


Within a very fancy upper class house In a dimly lit room, a chair was thrown at a wall as it shattered upon impact. The cause of this was a middle aged mare that wore a fluffy coat and other expensive accessories.

Half of the living room was destroyed after a violent meltdown.

If she were a dragon, smoke would literally be coming out of her mouth at this point. Her eyes were dilated, all she saw was red, but that red soon faded as a tear went down her face, as she looked up at a picture of her and the scientist who had died.

“Mommy is so sorry my dear Whirling Creek…”

“How could this happen, who or what could have done this?”

A knock on her door was heard and she glared at the door.

“Storming over, the upper crust pony opened the door forcefully, ready to give whoever a piece of her mind, but instead she looked over another noble she knew.”

“Deep pockets?!”

“Indeed it is I, Ms. Orchid.”

Deep pockets was a silver furred stallion with a black mane that was combed upward at the front and back.

“There is a rallying of nobles in Canterlot’s courtroom, I think you’d like to hear what the Princess has to say.”

A small devilish smirk grew on Orchid’s face, but it was more of a mischievous one.

“I’m eager to find out what the Princesses have to say.”

“Afterwards meet me in one of the castle’s private rooms, my boss wishes to discuss some things.”

Since the shadows of the house no longer engulfed her, the mare was now more noticeable by her stunning snow white coat and blonde mane, Her eyes were ice blue to match such elegant fur. They headed down the streets of Canterlot and to the castle.
______________________________________________ 


All the nobles and the Main 6 had arrived in the courtroom. Celestia and Luna had recently been seated, Raven standing next to them, holding various papers.

“Luna, I must ask, can you enter the dreams of animals?”

“I suppose so, I’ve never really actively tried it, but with such a situation on our hooves, I may not have a choice.”

“What do you think you’ll find?”

“Well, I’m not entirely sure, maybe what the animals are thinking about, food, water, what it’s favorite thing is to do, simple things like that.”

Celestia nodded and both turned to the courtroom.

Seeing this was Luna’s time, her thestral guards at her side, she gave Luna the floor as Luna raised her hoof into the air, silencing the nobles.

“Thank you everypony for being here, me and my sister here have urgent news to discuss.”

Luna gave a nod to Celestia who understood her nod.

“Recently a wolf-like creature has been terrorizing the residents of Ponyville. I had sent a crew of scientists and the Elements of Harmony to capture it and bring it back to Canterlot for further study.”

Some nobles, most that didn’t like wild animals and ponyville bickered in disgust.

The creature was caught, but unfortunately it didn’t stay that way.

“To our shock, the largest bear ever recorded, aside from the Ursa Major, attacked the Elements and killed a scientist. For the family of the scientist, you have our deepest and most sincere condolences.”

The nobles went into an uproar.

“These creatures must be put down!”

“Absolutely atrocious!”

“What is to be done about it?”

“Order order!” Yelled Raven.

Celestia picked that one over the other screaming nobles who now silenced themselves.

“I have talked to my sister, she will enter their minds and see what she can find. This will also help us track the creatures.”

“As for my plan, Twilight, please step forth.”

Twilight nodded and awaited her mentor’s response.

“Yes, Princess?”

“I know you have had a rough day, I suggest you take a rest before the coming night.”

“I will be sending you and your friends to capture the creatures and bring them back to Canterlot, I will have a large group of Royal guards seeing we are dealing with a very aggressive and large bear.”

“Why can’t we just make friends with them, your highness?” Said Fluttershy, surprisingly loud enough for everypony to hear.

All the nobles yelled at Fluttershy and her idea, Fluttershy hid behind her mane and whimpered while the five Mares glared at the crowd.

Celestia didn’t take the nobles’ responses too kindly either.

“Enough!!!” Celestia shouted in the Royal Canterlot voice, something she would rarely do.

The courtroom went silent.

“Thank you, as for what you said, Fluttershy, I’m afraid the bear will have to be put to sleep and subdued by any means necessary.”

“Oh my….. I-i see, if you so wish Princess.”

“However, Fluttershy, I will put you in charge of helping calm and feed the creatures and get them accustomed to my ponies to avoid any unwanted accidents.”

“Oh, that would be perfectly fine, your highness, I’d be honored.”

“Twilight, you will be the head of the research on these creatures.”

Twilight beamed with excitement, excited to study the animals.

“Whistle, you had something to say.”

A slightly depressed looking Whistle, the scientist from earlier, stepped forth, trying her best to seem professional.

“Yes, your highness, I had come to ask if I could place these animals in a sanctuary I am building within the Everfree forest. I have several animals already, all are raised by ponies.”

“Well, until we learn more about them, I think having them in a secure environment that doesn’t lead to civilization or have any impact on wildlife would be the best way to go, so I will approve of this Ms. Whistle as long as they are separated.”

Luna decided to end the conversation.

“Now that me and my sister have a plan, this meeting has come to an end, you may turn in for the night.”
______________________________________________


As the nobles left, a furious Orchid left the room with Deep Pockets.

“I can’t believe a filthy animal was responsible for my son’s horrible death.”

“My deepest sympathy, Ms. Orchid, but my boss wishes to talk about that matter.”

In reality, Deep Pockets didn’t really care about Orchid’s son’s death, Orchid merely rolled her eyes as they continued to walk down various hallways until they arrived at a door. Knocking, the door opened to reveal a security guard.

“Come on in, the boss is waiting for you two.”

Nodding, they entered the room to see a larger pony, his back turned to them.

“Welcome, so sorry about Whirling Creek, he was like a son to me.”

“Thank you, your highness.”

The pony turned around to reveal Prince Blueblood, nephew (distant nephew) of Princess Celestia and Luna.

“We have some things to talk about, but first, I think we all know this poaching business is a little… illegal, but we do sell the best furs and scales, and frankly, we operate in the shadows.”

“Yes, I know, I too joined the industry and began my own fashion business, now I make a fortune, illegal as it may be, but no bit will ever replace my beloved son, I want to hunt the killer of my son, and I wish for your help, your highness.”

“Gladly, Ms. Orchid, I too wish to have the furs of these rare creatures, but I will let you mount the bear’s head on your wall, consider it a gift for your son’s demise.”

Orchid gave the same devilish smirk and chuckled.

“Oh I’m going to enjoy this.”

“In honor of Whirling Creek, I will host an event, honoring his work that would have benefited all the nobles in Canterlot.”