The Dare

A Night in the Everfree Forest with Only Each Other

"You what?! Midnight...tonight's a full moon...look...I take everything back about what I said about messing with AJ...you could hurt her! I'll go tell her you can't because-" Rainbow was interrupted by her cousin yanking her tail back, causing her to almost fall off the cloud.

"No!" Midnight yelled as she gripped her cousin's tail in her mouth as she tried to take off.

"She got real mad when I boasted and she might think I'm too chicken if I don't do it...I have to do it..."

"But Midnight you'll-"

"I'm going Rainbow Dash and that's final! I'm not a filly anymore...okay?!"

And her cousin lashed away, flicking her brown and golden tail.

"She's crazy...." Rainbow muttered as she flew back home; letting Midnight make up her mind. "It was all MY fault..." she groaned.

At Sweet Apple Acres....

"Got you're saddlebag, boaster?" Applejack smirked as Midnight gave her a glare.

"Yeah, I do, Apple Smack!" She growled back, stomping in front of the mare.

"Let's hit the road then!"

On the trip AJ constantly bumped into Midnight, knocking her over a few times.

"Watch it, Apple Smack!" she shouted as she slapped her hoof across her face, leaving a read imprint.

Midnight snickered and received a slight buck in the face.

AJ gave Midnight a dirty look and brushed past branches, and let go of the one she was holding, whipping Midnight in her face.

The mare now annoyed, growled angrily, and flapped after the country mare. After that, they quit messing around.

It was sundown by the time they reached a perfectly spooky spot, as AJ called it.

"Why don't we light a fire and tell stories?" Midnight chuckled.

"Sounds mighty fine to me. Mind gatherin the firewood?"

The fire crackled as Midnight cleared her throat, but then the sun was noticeably getting lower fast, so she pointed to AJ. One amber landed on her muzzle. She quickly brushed it off.

"Uh...wanna go first?"

"The story's called, The Pony of Shadows!" The mare's voice boomed.

"This'll be mighty easy...she hasn't heard this one..." AJ thought as she told her tale.

"Oh...is the moon rising already? Heh...time flies when you're uh...telling stories...uh goodnight...." Midnight pretended to snore, but nothing would get her out of this.

"Ya too chicken to stay up now? Ha! I wuz right! You're afraid...aren't ya?" chuckled the orange mare, poking Midnight through her blanket.

"N-no...I'm just uh...real tired from all my flying...ow!" Midnight squeaked.

Applejack took the blanket off Midnight and raised an eyebrow as the mare blitzed up frantically, hidden by the shadows.

"Tired huh?"

"Uh...I gotta go..." Midnight dashed as fast as she could, but she couldn't outrun the pain. Trees were brown blurs as she hit a branch hard and crashed.

Her heart raced as she grew more dizzy. "Why did you listen to Rainbow?!" she screamed in her mind as the pain blazed in her body. "Why didn't Rainbow t-tell AJ?" she slowly stuttered.

A sudden shout was heard. Midnight's ears twitched as she tried to stand up. "AJ?" she murmured, trying to drag her body there. She fell again, and groaned, the pain feeling paralyzing in her wings.

"Uh...n-nice Timberwolves...uh..s-sit...d-down er.. boy..." Applejack was cornered and had no defense.

"M-midnight I need help!"

"Owhoooooo!" A wolf howl rang through the woods.

The Timberwolves flipping around to see a yellow eyed wold standing there with grey fur and a slight mane covered in grey fur.

They snarled at each other, and the grey wolf lept at them. They scratched, bit, and growled at each other as some bumped into trees and bushes.

Applejack saw how the wolf fought them all off, smashing their wooden parts so they wouldn't rebuild again, and her agility was quite surprising. The wolf got scratched by one of the wolves, and yelped, crashing into the ground.

"Jeez, are ya alright?" Applejack murmured as the wolf got up and finished off the last Timberwolf.