Chapter one: A howl in the night
It was a warm afternoon in ponyville, the sun was high in the sky signaling high-noon as the sounds of birds chirping and the noises of small woodland animals could be heard. Suddenly the sound of a school bell chimed singling in the end of school as a collection of young colts and fillies walked out of the brightly colored school house. At the back of the students walked out two ponies. One a filly with a blonde mane and tail with red highlights, purplish pink hair blue eyes, and a reddish ribbon tied to the back of her hair and had a picture of a pencil and paintbrush on her left flank. The other pony was a young colt with light brown hair, a brown mane and tail, and green eyes. “So um Kat are you do you have anything planned for today?” The young colt asked the filly as they walked down the dirt road back into town. “Not really I just planned to go home why is there something you wanted to do today Fang?” Kat asked looking at her friend. “Well you see I’ve been saving money from my time working at the animal hospital, and well I wondering if you would like to get an afterschool snack with me at sugar-cube corner” Fang said rubbing his hoof against the ground shyly looking down.” Kat looked at Fang, a smirk coming across her face “Alright then Fang I’ll take you up on that offer… Race ya” Kat said as she bolted away from Fang in the direction to sugar cube corner.” “Hey that’s no fair!” Fang yelled as he bolted off after her.
After the race to Sugar Cube Corner, the two ponies found themselves sitting on two soft purple pillows at a table inside the store waiting for their order. “So Fang have you had any luck finding your cutie mark?” Kat asked. “No not really I thought that working at the animal hospital would help me find it but it hasn’t really worked out that well. I mean I love the job don’t get me wrong, however it seems that the only animals that don’t hate me there are the dogs.” Fang responded looking down at the floor. Kat smiled kindly at Fang and patted his head with her hoof. “It’s ok Fang I’m sure that you will find out what your special talent is”. Fang sighed “I hope your right”. At that moment a pink pony with pink poufy hair and three bright colored balloons on her flank bounced to their table with two ice cold bottles of apple juice and plate full of rainbow colored cupcakes. Fang took out a satchel of gold and gave it to the pink pony who smiled “Thank you very much!” The pink pony said in an excitable voice as she took the gold and bounced back into the store. “…Who was that?” Fang asked his eyes wide with confusion still looking at the store.” Kat took a cupcake and sip out of the apple juice “Oh her she moved here a little while ago her name is pinkie pie I believe, she has this thing for parties usually invites every pony in town. I’m kind of surprised you haven’t heard of her.” Kat said taking a bite out of the rainbow frosted cupcake. “Oh come on Kat you know that I don’t go to a lot of parties.” Fang said taking a bite out his cupcake. “Say do these taste better than usual?” Kat asked as she examined the cupcake. “Yeah, must’ve added a new ingredient or something, but they do taste pretty good!” Fang said taking another bite. “Kat seriously though I need some advice what should I do, I really want to get my mark, how did you do it?” Fang asked. “I already told you Fang it just happened; I mean you know I’ve always loved drawing so I just kept doing it till Bonbon gave me money to draw a picture for her. I drew the picture and now it’s hanging up in her room framed, and once I saw her reaction of how much she loved it, my cutie mark appeared.” Kat said proudly showing her mark. “Well at least I have an idea of what to look for” Fang shrugged as he began to munch down another cupcake. “Well it’s a good place to start” Kat said with a smile.
After Fang and Kat went their separate ways Fang headed home. As he walked to his house near everfree forest Fang saw pegasai placing dark clouds all over ponville thus darkening the sky. “Oh yeah I forgot we were scheduled for a storm today.” Fang thought as he trotted home a little faster. By the time Fang got into the house the sound of thunder rumbled the ground that the house was sitting on and a flash of lighting lit up the outside. “Mom, Dad are you guys home?” Fang called out as he entered the house. No one answered the house remained quiet. Fang sighed as the rain began to hit the window slowly and suddenly began to pour onto the house and roof. “Well looks like it’s going to be a somewhat quiet evening, Mom’s most likely going to be stuck in Canterlot all night because of the storm, and dads down in Appleloosa doing business. “ Might as well catch up on my reading I guess.” Fang thought to himself as he took a lantern upstairs to his room and placed it on his desk and opened the book on his desk. Fang looked through the book that catalogued all the animals of Equestria. “Hmmm parasprites… Sound like dangerous little things.” Fang thought to himself as he read the description of them. Just as he was about to turn the page a clash of thunder shook the two story house and threw Fang off his chair. Just as the shaking stop Fang got up and put the chair back up fortunately the lantern hadn’t fallen over. After the sound of the thunder stopped, Fang heard the sound of a howl coming from everfree forest. Fang took a look out his window and the howl came again, it sounded weak almost as if the animal sounded like it was in serious pain. Fang looked out widow and saw that it was still pouring rain and lightning lit up the sky in white. “Don’t worry Fang the animals of Everfree are known for taking care of themselves …which still sounds very strange to even think about.” He thought as he headed back to his desk.
A couple minutes later Fang found himself with a raincoat on and the lantern in his mouth dashing through everfree forest following the sound. Everfree forest was already difficult to see through because of the tall trees blocking out the sun, however since it was raining heavily and the sky was black it made it almost impossible to see anything. Still he dashed through the forest still being careful of his footing trying to make sure that he didn’t fall over anything. He ran as fast as he could through the forest trying to find the source of the noise As Fang began to get closer to the animal whatever it was, his hoof got caught on a root and went face planting into the ground and then ended up sliding down a mud hill and slamming his head against a rock. Fang cried out in pain as he felt a warm liquid start to run down his head and the world began to spin around him. He shook his head his body covered in mud and his cuts burning as the mud seeped into them. Even as he shook his head the world was still spinning and all was dark, he began looking for the lantern. He walked blindly through the surrounding area his head still throbbing and blood rushing down his head looking desperately for the lantern, a moment later he heard a crunch and felt a sharp pain in his leg as he looked down he found the lantern.
Fang closed his eyes and fell into a sitting position wiping the blood away from his head. As he finished trying to wipe the blood away from his head he heard the howling again it was close now very close. Fang opened his eyes and began to follow it to the source. Fang ran to it after a hundred feet he found what was making the noise. Fang didn’t know what he was looking at the darkness combined with the rain made it hard to figure out what it was. As he got a closer look he noticed that it looked like a dog no older than a pup. Fang tried to get closer to the pup but it growled at him, he took a step back on his bad hoof and ended up aching in pain which also caused his head which was still bleeding to throb. Fang took a good look at the pup and noticed that its foot was twisted and it couldn’t stand, from what he could tell the pup had sprained its leg most likely tripping over something in the storm. “Puppy listen please all I want to do is help you, I ran through this storm to find you now please let me help you.” Fang told the pup with sincerity in his eyes. The pup whimpered and stopped growling and put its head back down to the ground. Fang then went closer to pup and it just stared at him whimpering its eyes struggling in pain.
Fang looked at the pup but still couldn’t get any kind of definite detail about it or what breed it was due to the darkness, but at the moment that could wait the pup needed help and Fang couldn’t do anything for it here. He picked the pup up by the scruff of its neck by his teeth and placed the pup on his back, Fang wobbled a bit as his bad leg and his head started to throb again. Fang took a look around and squinted his eyes trying to figure out the direction that he came from. Suddenly he realized that the rain had stopped and so had the lightning in fact a wind was blowing the clouds away revealing the starry night sky and a beautiful full moon in the sky. While the forest still covered a lot of the light enough shined through so that Fang could see where he was going. Before they left the forest he picked up the broken lantern and began to limp home on his good leg the pup still whimpering. Fang smiled and limped home as the full moon and the stars guided him and the pup home his head still throbbing and his leg still in pain.
