The Mare and the Wolf

Fatigue

Winter's breath was becoming louder and louder. He could feel the exhaustion coursing through his entire body, from the bottom of his now red chest to the tips of his numb paws.

"If I ever see those two bastards again…" the wolf murmured tiresomely to himself, not even able to finish the angry sentence. His weariness was not limiting itself to affect his body alone, and began to weaken his mind as well.

Winter started to become disoriented and unbalanced. Only a few reference points and a good memory kept him in the general direction of Fluttershy's cottage.

He didn't even realize the terror he was causing with his passing, ponies desperately dodged out of his way, running inside whatever house was closer, a few parents grabbing their curious fillies and colts away from the creature before them.

A scrape to a wagon, which was abandoned with utmost urgency, was all it took for Winter to lose his already diminished balance and fall to the ground. He chose to consider this an opportunity to regain some of his strength, instead of wasting more on an angry outburst.

"You're embarrassing yourself, you know."

Winter looked around, nopony was around. Then it came to him, the mental exhaustion had brought down the psychological barriers he had created long ago to keep the voice from interacting with him outside of his dreams.

"I'm really not in the mood to deal with you right now." He replied coldly, with a thought.

"I must say, your ability to keep me at bay is impressive. It's cruel, but impressive, nonetheless. Then again, I like to see you being cruel." The voice ignored his attempt to send it away.

"I'm glad you like it, because you're going to get much more of it." And with this, Winter closed his eyes and began the hard task of bringing the barriers back up, which exausted him further.

"Just make sure to not get yourse…" the voice faded away as the wolf's thoughts became the only ones he could hear. However, when he opened his eyes again, he saw a pair of hooves coming down on him. It was for a split second that he was able to jump to the side, dodging the violent stomp. His attacker was a red stallion, significantly bigger than the rest of the ponies in town.

"Git outta 'ere ya bastard!" he shouted, to Winter's surprise.

"Happy to oblige!" He quickly answered, turning around and resuming his running, before the stallion could have a second try at smashing his face to the ground. This time, he took the precaution of moving at a slightly slower pace, in order to avoid another unwanted argument. He turned his head and verified that the stallion did not chase him for long.

A few minutes later he reached a hill overlooking a grassy plain where, luckily for him, was the yellow pegasus he had been looking for.

The mare was sitting in the grass looking up to the sky, Winter didn't even bother to see what it was she was watching, and ran towards her.

When he came close her eyes shifted between him and the sky, and waved her front hooves to try to make him stop.

Fortunately, it was enough to make him slow down quickly, and the seven colored blur missed him by a hair, barely scrapping the tip of his nose. The ground shook with the impact, and the cyan pegasus got up on her hooves quickly and took advantage of the wolf's distraction to give him a heavy tackle, which, to Winter's surprise, was very affective, despite the pony's size.

He landed on his side, and the pony began to charge for another attack, but was stopped by Fluttershy, who jumped in front of her and let out a surprisingly loud shout "STOOOP!"

The pegasus dug her hooves in the ground, making an effort to not barge into the yellow mare "Fluttershy, get away from that thing!" she warned.

"No Rainbow Dash, he's a friend."

Rainbow Dash shifted her eyes between the yellow pegasus and Winter while stammering "W-Whaaaa…?" and let her jaw hanging, both with the shock of her timid friend having a potential predator for a friend, and the realization that she had just attacked said friend, who was already injured.

"Fluttershy…" he managed to say, after a heavy breath "Applejack's hurt."

Both ponies immediately turned their gaze to him.

"What!?" they said in synchronicity, though Rainbow Dash's voice made Fluttershy's almost inaudible.

"She's at the hospital." The wolf said, starting to feel dizzy.

The mares were anxiously waiting for more information, but the wolf was losing his conscience. Not because of his injuries, but because his adrenaline had run out, and both the exhaustion and the recent impact were too much for him to stay awake.

"You have such marvelous friends." He murmured to Fluttershy before closing his eyes.