*Munch*
Rainbow Dash had just finished the last of her sandwich, and a few crumbs on her plate was all that was left. Licking the edges of her lips, she pushed her plate aside and raised her hoof to call a waiter so that she could proceed with paying the bill. Apparently, Rainbow Dash had received a letter informing that Fluttershy was having some animal problems and was requesting for Rainbow Dash's help. Why she was asking her for help, Rainbow Dash still didn't understand. After all, her experience with animals wasn't exactly the best.
A waiter arrived at Rainbow's table and brought her the bill. The meal was a total of three bits, which was unsurprising considering the only thing she had ordered was a daffodil sandwich. Paying for her food, she took-off, heading towards Fluttershy's. The fact that she had chosen Rainbow Dash still confused the cyan blue mare. She could have easily asked Twilight with her extensive knowledge of animals, or perhaps Applejack with her wrangling skills.
It didn't take long for Rainbow Dash to arrive at her friend's humble home. She slowly landed on the pathway that led to Fluttershy's. At the gate stood the yellow pegasus herself. She began walking towards Rainbow Dash as soon as she had landed.
"Oh, hi there, Rainbow Dash, thank goodness you're here." Fluttershy said, running up to her multicolored friend.
"No problem. So, what's up?" Rainbow Dash asked
"I kinda need your help with something." Fluttershy said, her head slowly lowering to point at the ground.
"What do you need help with?"
"There's a wolf stuck and I need you to get it out."
Rainbow Dash blinked and twitched her ears, not believing what she had just heard.
"I'm sorry what was that?" Rainbow Dash asked
"I think there's a wolf stuck and I need your help getting it out." Fluttershy answered
"Why didn't you get Applejack or Twilight?" Rainbow Dash asked, a slight bit of annoyance on her face.
"Well, the wolf is on the other side of a bunch of Poison Jokes and they can't get there. And I don't think I have enough strength to lift him out." Fluttershy said
"Twilight. Magic. Levitation. I was supposed to be taking a nap by now y’know."
"I didn't want to interrupt her studying."
"She could actually use the sunlight."
"Please, Rainbow Dash, you're here already. And I think it's eaten a Poison Joke or two."
"Huh, did you notice somethin' funny? The student of the Sun Goddess doesn't really see that much sunlight. Ironic."
"Rainbow Dash, please."
"You do know that wolves eat flesh right?"
"And berries. And flowers."
"Fine."
Fluttershy let out a small squee out of joy and led Rainbow Dash towards the Everfree Forest. Although Rainbow Dash had been here numerous times before, it was still rather unnerving to stare at the dark dense forest, which was made only worse with the fact that she was about to save an animal that could potentially injure or hurt her. And if the wolf were to somewhat attempt to attack her mid flight, the possibility of her losing control and crashing into the mass of Poison Jokes AND getting mauled by the wolf was actually quite high.
Fluttershy had abruptly stopped. Rainbow Dash followed heed and stopped just as well. Fluttershy pointed her hoof across a mass of Poison Joke at what looked to be single black wolf, its back facing them, though it was hard to tell since there was only a circle of sunlight that broke through the dense amount of trees, the creature sat just out of the sunlight, it seemed to be laying on its belly. The shadows obscured it completely, but the two mares could make out it's silhouette. Rainbow Dash still wasn't sure as to how she was going to avoid getting bit by the animal, or how to even pick it up.
Upon closer inspection, Rainbow Dash had noticed that the supposed "wolf" was much larger than it should have been. It was definitely longer, maybe around the size of an average pony, she still didn't know exactly how large it was. She could roughly make out it's length, but she was clueless as to how large it was height wise. After all, it was laying down. It still showed no signs of movement or hostility. Not even a twitch of the ears or a yawn.
"Alright, so, I'm just going to go in grab it and dash back out." Rainbow Dash said.
"Well, if that's how you want to do it, I guess I'm okay with it." Fluttershy timidly mumbled.
Rainbow Dash spread her wings and prepared to take flight. It was going to be a quick in and out; the issue Rainbow Dash was having was, of course, speed. She couldn't go too fast out of fear that she couldn't stop in time, and, by doing so, would alert the creature. However, she couldn't go too slow either or it might hear her wings flapping. Rainbow Dash lowered her stance, stretched her wings and popped her spine. Quicker than Fluttershy could blink, Rainbow Dash had launched, kicking a fair amount of dust in the process. Fluttershy shielded her eyes as the dust cloud cleared.
Rainbow Dash slowed to a halt before the animal, it was in the midst of standing up when she had completely stopped. The pegasus dove for the "wolf", as she had planned on flying it out as soon as she got a hold on it. Rainbow Dash felt her hooves make contact with what seemed to be a coat of fur, she wrapped her forelegs around the creature and immediately tried to fly out.
She didn't move.
The animal was much heavier than she thought. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings as fast and hard as she could; however, her attempts were in vain. The worst part? The creature raised a paw, turned around, and pushed Rainbow Dash off. The pegasus crashed into the ground; the amount of force the creature used was ludicrous for it’s size. The animal was easily just as, if not the same height as Rainbow Dash. She slowly crawled back from the creature. Rainbow Dash could have easily just flown out, but fear made that seemingly impossible. The sunlight shone on the tip of the animal's forelegs, revealing claws on what looked like paws. Rainbow Dash backed up against a tree as two light purple eyes shone in the darkness.
Faster than Rainbow Dash could raise her hooves in defense, the creature lunged at speeds unimaginable. Rainbow Dash could only catch a blur of grey and black, and then pain shot through her left foreleg. The pegasus yelped in pain, but before Dash could attack, the creature sped off into the woods. Rainbow Dash was still confused and disoriented, only vaguely remembering what had just happened.
Rainbow Dash picked herself up and brushed off the dust, she was still quite shaken up. Remembering that Fluttershy was probably outside watching, Rainbow Dash hovered out of the woods and back to Fluttershy who stood there, looking at Rainbow Dash worriedly.
"Where's the wolf?" Fluttershy asked Rainbow Dash.
"First, that was no wolf. Secondly, it's gone." Rainbow Dash grumbled.
"What happened?" Fluttershy asked.
"It bit me and ran off, in ten seconds flat!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"I'm actually starting to get tired of that joke." Fluttershy sighed.
"Just look at this!" Rainbow Dash said, sticking her hoof out for Fluttershy to see.
Fluttershy promptly shielded her eyes and whimpered. Rainbow Dash had momentarily forgotten about Fluttershy's timidness and fear for violence of any sort. She rolled her eyes and retracted her foreleg back. The wound was still bleeding, but it was just a mere trickle, nothing serious. She could probably wrap it up and let it heal.
"I think you should go to a doctor. I mean, if you want to..." Fluttershy said
"Pft, doctors are for wimps. C'mon, I've been through worse." Rainbow Dash said
"Well, okay I guess."
Fluttershy thanked Rainbow Dash as she prepared to take off once again. The whole incident couldn't have been longer than half an hour. The wound had stopped bleeding completely, though the bite mark was still there. Rainbow Dash was going to have to wrap it up. The pain had subsided rather quickly for the size of the wound. The pegasus was unfazed however. A simple wound was NOT going to put a dent in her plans.
The rest of the day went out as planned for Rainbow Dash, that is, until she took her afternoon nap. That’s where things started to go downhill for her.
She had slept from morning 'till night, when the stars shone bright against the dark night sky. When Rainbow Dash had woken up, the first thing that she immediately noticed was the throbbing pain in her eyes. It was as if she had been staring at a screen much longer than she should have. Rainbow Dash shook her head and rubbed her eyes, the pain showed no signs of slowing down. Aside from that, her eyesight was now enhanced, her hearing was sharper than usual, and her sense of smell was much more sensitive than usual.
Among her newly enhanced abilities, Rainbow Dash had a sudden liking for the ground. It wasn't because she was scared, but rather because she liked the ground more for whatever reason. Her sudden change in preferences was starting to worry Rainbow Dash. She would usually spend most of her time airborne, but now, all she wanted was to feel the solid ground underneath her hooves. The cloud she had slept on had drifted towards the outskirts of Ponyville, which meant that she was going to have to do quite a bit of walking before she could reach town.
"Eh, I guess I'll just crash at Twilight's. Hope she doesn't mind." Rainbow Dash said
The cyan blue mare leaped off her cloud, slowly fluttered down to the ground beneath her, and started walking. By now, almost all of Ponyville's residents were most probably asleep. There was a small chance that Twilight was still awake though. As Rainbow Dash continued walking, she felt tension in the air, it was as if the world was holding it's breath, just waiting for something to go wrong. Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks.
She stood in silence for a while, and then it hit her. Rainbow Dash doubled over in pain, clutching her stomach with both of her forelegs. She could feel her innards shifting and moving all about. She could feel her ears sharpen, and her fur was growing out, Rainbow Dash could feel the tip of her muzzle grow a small black canine nose.
She grunted as she struggled to hold in the screams of agony and took a good look at her hooves as it slowly transformed, Rainbow Dash could see the digits slowly sprout. It hurt like nothing she'd ever felt. She could feel the pads slowly emerge from under her hoof as it was undergoing it's transformation, claws broke through her skin and emerged from the newly grown digits. Inside her mouth, Rainbow Dash could feel her teeth sharpening, her fangs gradually growing in length as they stuck out of her mouth.
Finally, it was done; the transformation was complete. Rainbow Dash's whole body was in agony. Save for her wings which were still intact and in mint condition.
"Ow." Rainbow Dash squeaked.
Dark spots danced around as Rainbow Dash struggled to recover. She got up and dusted herself off. Her breathing was heavy as she tried to collect her thoughts, as she was still in panic; she didn't even know what she looked like. Spotting a puddle of water, Rainbow Dash ran over and gazed into it. She had changed rather drastically.
Two fangs barely protruded from her mouth, her fur was messy and rather long. On the end of her muzzle was a wet, black nose, the kind that wolves would have. Instead of having her usual saucer-panned eyes with the large pupils, she had smaller black pupils in the middle of her magenta irises. Raising her foreleg to eye level, Rainbow Dash noticed that her hoof had turned into a full fledged paw with pads and claws.
Her shoulders slumped as she tried to process all of this. She had just transformed into a pony/wolf hybrid, it was midnight, she didn't really want to fly so she couldn't hide in her house, and she was still in shock. For a brief few minutes, silence filled the air. Until Rainbow Dash broke that silence.
"Why do I feel the sudden urge to pee on everything I love?" Rainbow Dash asked herself.
Rainbow Dash had to take a moment to calm herself down. Her transformation from pony to part wolf part pony still baffled her. She was going to take quite a while to get accustomed to her newly acquired claws, sharp teeth and every single morphed body part in general. She was absolutely clueless as to what she should do, she really didn't want to fly for whatever reason, and she couldn't just barge to the hospital, the guards would probably think that she was some sort of dangerous animal and kick her into rainbow colored jelly.
Definitely something she was going to want to avoid.
With medical attention and any sort of public service out of the question, she turned to the five mares she trusted the most, her friends. They would surely agree to help her, the question was, which friend should she choose?
The first mare that came to her mind was Twilight Sparkle, she could do magic and most probably help Rainbow Dash revert to her old self again, she was about to set foot to the library, until she got paranoid and thought of Spike waking up first and frying her before she had a chance to explain, that and the possibility of Twilight using her for one of her experiments. Although Spike pissing himself first was much more likely to happen, the very thought was enough to steer her away from the library.
With Twilight eliminated from the list of possible candidates, the next mare that came across her mind was Fluttershy, her fellow pegasus. She liked animals and would definitely know what was going on and might even find a cure for her. But then again, she wasn't exactly sure if her new characteristics would also affect her diet. Fluttershy probably wouldn't like it if he friend started devouring innocent little woodland critters.
Twilight and Fluttershy were now out of the running as possible host for her. She thought of Pinkie Pie, she was fun and would probably welcome her newly transformed part pony part wolf friend. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were going to be a problem though, especially with the foals in the home. They probably wouldn't think twice about giving Rainbow Dash a good whacking or two on sight.
Moving on, Rarity was next on the list. She bore the Element of Generosity, surely she would have no problem letting her friend crash for a night or two. She would definitely be willing to drop her work for a day or two to help her get back on her hooves. But, there was a high chance of Rarity just fainting upon sighting her friend in this condition. The possibility of her shedding definitely would not help unless Rarity was thinking of making fur coats anytime soon.
Last but not least, was Applejack. She had a barn where she could hide out in, the dense woods would also make for a great place for her to get some exercise as opposed to being cooped up in some building. The main problem was having to confront Applejack. If she couldn't inform her friend fast enough, the farm mare could easily break a leg or two. And that's WITHOUT Big Macintosh.
Taking some time to re-evaluate her choices, Rainbow Dash sat on the ground and pondered. Comparing the pros and cons of all her choices. Twilight really did seem like the best choice, but being stuck in the library was not going to be an option, sure she could catch up on her reading, but she absolutely needed her exercise. Even if she didn't want to fly.
Fluttershy seemed like the next best thing, she probably wouldn't try and shoo her away on sight. She also had the cottage secluded near the woods so she could get plenty of space to stretch her legs once in a while, even if the woods were supposedly filled with tentacle rape monsters. Plus, Rainbow Dash was confident that she could restrain herself from mauling the woodland critters that inhabited Fluttershy's humble abode.
And then her stomach growled.
"Well, better safe than sorry. Guess I'm crashin' at AJ's." She said to herself.
She began walking towards the town, hoping that her assumptions were right and that the residents of Ponyville had gone to bed, allowing the newly transformed Lycan to travel to Sweet Apple Acres without attracting too much attention to herself. The last thing she needed was for Ponyville to spiral into chaos. After all, that was Discord's job.
The moon illuminated the way, however, Rainbow Dash's newly acquired eyes made seeing in the dark a cakewalk. As she continued walking, only silence filled the air, her paws elicited absolutely no sound, save for the occasional tap tap of her claws tapping against the cold stone path that led to the dark, silent town of Ponyville.
As she only continued to cover ground, she breathed a sigh of relief upon sighting that the town was barren of any form of activity whatsoever. True, she could have just flown over the town with her wings should there be signs of life, but she's a wuss now, so, flying definitely was not an option at the moment.
As she walked through the eery streets of Ponyville, Rainbow Dash was definitely curious, exactly how else had she changed? Her senses felt sharper, but other than that, she didn't feel too different from her normal self. There was nothing to balance out the fact that she wouldn't be flying much now, maybe the claws could come in handy, but they had their fair share of pros and cons.
She growled in frustration and promptly pounded the floor. The floor in response, shattered. For a few seconds, the lycan froze up, unsure of what to do.
And then she ran, faster than any normal pony, stallion or mare, ever could.
...
Applejack woke up, she tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes as she took a quick glance outside the window, the seemingly endless field of apple trees greeted her eyes once more. But for whatever reason, she felt, insecure, uneasy, she knew in her heart that something was wrong. Very wrong.
Shoving her blanket aside, Applejack leaped out of bed and cautiously walked towards the window, gazing out at the infinite maze of apple trees that inhabited Sweet Apple Acres. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, for her at least. The farm pony still felt on edge however.
"Hiya AJ!" Rainbow Dash said as she popped out from nowhere and into Applejack's face.
"GAH!" Applejack yelled out as she stumbled backwards and onto her back.
"Keep it down! Your gonna wake the whole house up."
"I oughta be tellin' ya' that! Not tah' other way 'round!" Applejack hissed
Rainbow Dash climbed into the room and sat before the earth pony.
As Applejack tried to glare at Rainbow Dash, she noticed that there were significant changes to her pegasus friend. She still kept her rainbow mane and her cyan blue coat of fur, but her canines just barely stuck out of her mouth into plain view, her ears looked much more wolf-like, and she had a new black, wet canine nose on the tip of her muzzle, her now messy and unkept coat of fur accompanied by her newly acquired paws and claws. Her eyes looked almost the same save for the fact that her pupil was now much smaller than it normally was.
"Rainbow... wut in tarnation happened tah' ya'...? Y'all look like ah' pony crossbred with one o' 'dem wolves." Applejack said
"I dunno. I got bitten by some animal and I go to take nap and I end up like this." Rainbow Dash said, gesturing at her body.
“And how are y’all so calm about dis’ ere’ mess?”
“I dunno.”
"Whut do ya' expect me tah' do 'bout it?"
"Hide me in your barn until I can get things sorted out?"
"Why mah' barn?"
"It's large...?"
"Taht' tain't no reason fer' yah to just barge into mah' room in the middle o' the night! And how'd ya' even climb up 'dem walls anyways?"
"I didn't climb, I ran up the wall."
"You... ran up the wall?"
"Yeah..." Rainbow Dash answered as she stared distantly at her warped hooves.
"Apparently I'm stronger like this... can't fly though... Oh! And I may or may not have accidentally broken part of Ponyville's road." finished the blue pony-wolf hybrid.
"*Sigh*. Of all tah' thang's ya' coulda' dun' with taht' yer' might, you chose tah' broke a piece of Ponyville's roads? And whattya mean y'all can't fly? Ya' got 'yer wings don't ya'?"
"It was an accident! And I dunno, I just really don't wanna fly for some reason."
"So, now not only are ya' strong, but yer' a wimp too?"
"Do you wanna help out a friend or make fun?"
"Make fun."
"*Growl*"
"Fine. I s'pose I could give tah' Apple family a lil' heads up first."
"Thanks, I owe ya' one."
"Don't mention it."
"So, do I go now or...?"
"Nah, too much noise, might wake up tah' house. I s'pose ya' could bunk with me for tonight."
"I'm okay with that."
As Applejack climbed into bed, Rainbow Dash hopped onto it, she walked in a small circle like any dog would before curling up and immediately falling asleep. She still felt rather uneasy knowing that her friend now had super strength and unimaginable speed, not to mention the addition of claws and a set of sharp teeth.
But regardless, she fell asleep all the same.
...
Applejack woke up, as any pony would after sleeping for an indefinite period of time. She looked around the room and immediately locked onto the cyan blue canine-like pony that was curled up on her bed. She had almost forgotten about Rainbow Dash, now she was going to have to figure out how to smuggle her out of the house. She leaned forward and lightly shook her friend in an attempt to wake her up.
The lycan responded with an ear twitch, a yawn that exposed her sharp teeth, and a inaudible mumble.
"Ah'm gonna be outside, when ya' hear me holler, just leap out the window, alright?"
"Blargspoar." Was Rainbow Dash's muffled response.
"Ah'mma rekon that's a yes."
Applejack leaped out of bed and into the shower to wash up, after that would follow breakfast with the family. Rainbow's drowsiness concerned Applejack, she wasn't even sure if her friend even heard her.
Twenty minutes later...
Applejack stood outside her bedroom window. She had made sure that Big Mac was all the way on the other side of the fields so that he was out of earshot, Applebloom had most presumably gone to school, Granny Smith would presumably be in the barn where she would most probably be unable to hear Applejack.
"RAINBOW!" Applejack yelled
She heard a thud and a thump before seeing her friend stumble out of her window and fall onto the ground, landing on her back as a cloud of dust puffed up. Applejack stifled a laugh upon seeing her friend make impact with the ground.
"Ow." Rainbow Dash said
"So you plannin’ on being one o’ dem’ Wonderbolts huh?"
"Wonderbolts usually don't get startled out of their sleep." Rainbow Dash grumbled.
The lycan got up and brushed herself off, seemingly shaking off the pain that came with falling off a second story building and onto her back.
"So, what do I do now?" she asked
"Granny Smith’s in tah’ barn, so ah’ suggest runnin’ ‘round for a bit ‘till I holler, but for now, some rules if yer' gonna stay 'ere. One, no markin' your teratory on ma' trees."
"Sounds easy enough."
"No scarin Applebloom or the other crusader's fer' that matter."
"Is that all?"
"Don't ya' worry, there's more."
As Applejack continued to ramble off the rest of the rules, most of which covered marking territory and mauling creatures of anysort, she was completely unaware that Rainbow Dash had strayed her attention away from her and instead, had been walking towards the nearby apple trees.
"Last but not least, no startlin' the cattle or the- Rainbow! What 'ah just tell y'ah about marking on ma' trees!!!!"
Author's Note
Ugh, finally, it's done.
Did anyone catch the SFTW reference? No? Okay. The GTA 4 one? No? Alright then.
Anyways, speaking of which, thanks to my two new pre-readers, TempesttheDragnix and ManlyDerp for making sure that the pacing wasn't as fast as an indy car this time around. (Sorry to Tempest if I published this before you had a chance to proofread, and to Moldy, kinda forgot about you)
Next chapter won't be out so soon, I'm sick :P
