Flashfire Wolf

by Flashfire Wolf

Rating: everyone
Tags: Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Original Character, Comedy, Self Insert, Adventure
Length: 11613

Would you accept a supposed monster's friendship?

Rainbow Dash and her friends have been experiencing strange visions of memories that they have experienced before. But something is different about these memories: they are accompanied by a strange canine-like creature, hidden in shadows. At the most random moments their minds will suddenly be sucked back to just such a memory, and they are unable to control how or when this occurs. But when this being that has plagued their memories suddenly pops into their lives, with some sort of prophecy she needs to fulfill and some sort of voice plaguing her own mind, how will the Mane Six react? Will they turn the newcomer away, or will they help her? Will they find out why this creature shies away and keeps herself at a distance? Why she doesn't accept help? And why she keeps hiding what is really going on within herself? This is the beginning of a wonderful friendship between the Mane Six and Flashfire. In other words, this... is my story.

Disclaimer: The cover art does not belong to me.

Published 2017-12-27 23:30:11 UTC
Last updated 2018-05-08 21:49:31 UTC

The Mare Who Cried Wolf

Rainbow Dash sighed in boredom and reached for another book. Ever since defeating Tirek and earning the Castle of Friendship, along with the title “Princess of Friendship”, Twilight Sparkle had practically begged each of her friends to come and help her get acquainted with her new home. Once translated, the blue pegasus found out that her friend wanted to move all of the books that she had managed to salvage from The Golden Oaks library into the new one in her kingdom. Although the girls each got a well earned break every now and then, the large task at hoof almost made the Wonderbolt reservist want to start hating books again. Rainbow shook her head and silently scolded herself, even though the frustrating assignment was beginning to really dig deep into the blue mare’s skin. She represented the Element of Loyalty, and she would stay true to that title no matter the difficulties she and her friends faced.

“Didja hear me, Sugarcube?” Applejack shouted to the airborne pegasus. Rainbow looked down and glided to the ground with a scowl on her face, earning a restrained giggle out of the orange mare. The blue flier rolled her eyes and moaned in annoyance.

“What is it, AJ?” she murmured halfheartedly. “Did Rarity get trapped behind a spider web again? You know how annoyingly difficult those things are to get out of feathers!”

The farmer shook her head and patted her friend’s shoulder comfortingly. Even though the cow girl’s eyes were filled to the brim with joy, Rainbow Dash still found herself incredibly irked by the strong earth pony’s happiness. The orange mare blew a stray strand of her mane out of her face and whooped, “Y’all look like you’ve been up all night!”

“That’s because I have,” the pegasus groaned again, turning away from the farmer with her ears pinned against her head. “Now if there’s nothing important going on that I need to hear about…”

"Hold yer ponies, Ah ain't done yet." Applejack grabbed her friend's tail with her teeth and pulled back, keeping the mare from flying away. Rainbow rolled her eyes and glared down at the orange mare, who was still abnormally ecstatic over what she had yet to reveal.

What do you want then?" she asked grumpily. The earth mare smiled again and waved her hoof as she trotted away, a little bounce in her step.

"Twilight mighta found somethin' that can help us figure out what the hay is goin' on with our minds!" AJ explained happily, her freckled face still pulled upward in a goofy grin. "See, there's this book that Princess Cadance sent her, along with a box of strange crystals, but that's besides the point. Apparently one of the ponies of the Crystal Empire had jus' seen it lyin' around, so they brought it to Shinin' Armor and asked if he knew who it belonged to. After findin' out that nopony had claimed it as their own, Shinin' sent it to Twilight ta see if'n she could figure out where it came from."

"Uhuh," the pegasus muttered half-heartedly as she hovered alongside the overeager mare. "Twilight got a new book. Okay. How is it supposed to help us find out what's happening with our heads?"

"She didn't say, jus' asked me ta come git ya," the farmer explained while bouncing up and down. "Since whatever's goin' on is affectin' you most of all, she said it's important that you hear what the book has to say. She did tell me that the book said somethin' about a prophecy, though."

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes again and simply continued flying. She let out a sigh of relief when she realized the farmer had stopped talking. She had never really known the earth pony to be such a blabbermouth, but then again she had experienced stranger things. As she continued to move forward through the air, she noticed how quiet it had gotten. She couldn't even hear the fall of her friend's hooves anymore. She looked over to her right and was shocked to see, not the farm girl, but somepony she had only seen in faux memories. Her wings carried her over to the figure and lowered her in front of them, folding up at her side once she landed. She never could explain who it was, or why she was seeing them. Her body was enveloped in shadow, and only the tip of her fire-red mane and pretty eyes were truly visible. The figure tilted her head to the side and glanced at the pegasus, her sky-blue eyes sparkling with curiosity. The mysterious pony stood up and looked over to the side, guiding Rainbow's attention to something in the distance. She followed the outstretched hoof of the stranger and turned to see none other than Discord and... Fluttershy?

The yellow pegasus was smiling up at the draconequus, and he was smiling back. The two were holding hooves -- well, Discord was holding Fluttershy's hoof and she was holding his lion paw -- and walking up to Princess Celestia. This was the day when Fluttershy had announced to the princess that the Spirit of Chaos really had transformed, and went with her new friend to prove it. Rainbow still saw the blush of embarrassment on both of their faces, but this time she heard chuckling that didn't come from her. The stranger was laughing along with her, but when she smiled the pegasus noticed something off about her mouth that she hadn't seen before. The stranger's jaws were longer than usual for a pony, and her nose was... shiny?

Before she could try and figure out what was going on, Rainbow Dash felt something large and powerful plow into her side, knocking her to the floor. She shook her head and opened her eyes again, no longer seeing the stranger or Fluttershy or Discord. Instead she saw Applejack standing next to her, holding her hoof and glancing down at her curiously. She helped her friend off of the floor and asked, "It happened to ya again, didn't it?"

The Wonderbolt-reservist nodded her head wearily and rubbed her skull with a moan of annoyance. She sighed and softly admitted, "I didn't think it would happen again, not so fast anyway."

The farmer looked at her friend in confusion again. She joined the flyer's side as they once again started heading down to meet Twilight. She shook her head and stated sadly, "It happened to ya in the library before Ah came in, am Ah right?"

"How'd you know?" the pegasus sarcastically questioned, her eyes focused on the ground as she walked. The cow girl didn't say another word, whether out of ideas on how to respond or just worried about her friend, Rainbow didn't know. All she did know was that she wanted these strange reenactments of past memories to stop so she could get back to doing her own thing without worrying about passing out in the middle of the sky.

Up ahead was a door leading to the room Twilight must've been in. Rainbow Dash quickened her pace and turned to head inside. Once there, she saw Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and the princess gathered around a table, waiting for the last two members of the group to arrive. Rainbow walked over to the alicorn and sat down without a word, only looking around for any signs of the book AJ had mentioned. When she couldn't find it anywhere, she impatiently turned toward her violet friend and rested her elbow on the table, letting her chin fall into her hoof. She huffed and instantly questioned the royal pony, "So, where's this book, Twi? Can it really help me get rid of these weird vision thingies?"

The princess rolled her eyes and placed the novel, face down, on the table in front of herself before she replied, "Keep in mind that you're not the only one here who's been having these dreams, Rainbow Dash. It's been affecting all of us. But to answer your question, yes. This should help us figure out what is the cause of the dreams and maybe even help us get rid of them."

"Have you found anything thus far, Darling?" Rarity asked gently as she ran her pink comb through her hair once more, a mirror held in front of her face so she could watch where it was she was guiding the beauty tool. Once satisfied she placed both items down next to her and added, "I swear, these dreams are driving me up the wall. I had one just this morning while I was doing my makeup. When I finally snapped out of it, my mascara was all over the place! It took me hours to erase that awful mistake and redo it entirely!"

The blue pegasus giggled under her breath. In a way, the prissy unicorn was just like herself. She wanted to make herself the best her she could be. Even if their motives were different, they still aimed to be better and better with each day. Though it was hardly possible that Rarity would ever willingly play an actual sport or that Rainbow would ever wear makeup.

"Actually," Twilight smiled happily as she levitated the book into the air, still keeping the cover a secret to all but herself. She moved it to the center of the table and replied, "I have found something that may interest all of you. Especially you, Fluttershy."

"Does that mean this has something to do with animals?" Pinkie squealed in excitement. Confetti randomly exploded from her mane when the alicorn nodded her head and flipped the book over to reveal the cover. When the book turned out to actually be a journal, the excitement in the room intensified dramatically. But what excited Rainbow was the name of the writer.

"Jackson Lakefall wrote this?!" she chirped, suddenly the most ecstatic pony in the room. Her eyes were focused on the cover, scanning the name over and over again. When she looked over at Twilight and saw how clueless she appeared, she couldn't help but laugh. She pointed her hoof at the royal and teased, "You haven't heard of him before, have you? Oh this is rich!"

"Why is it so exciting, Rainbow?" Fluttershy asked softly, her head tilted in confusion. The rainbow maned pegasus laughed again and pointed at the book as she quickly explained, "He's one of the main characters in the new Daring Do novel! I haven't even read it yet, and even I know more about it than Twilight! Priceless!"

Twilight didn't seem very amused. She rolled her eyes again and opened the novel to the first page, where a date and short description of a location were written down. She tapped the page and held it up for her friends to see, letting them get a good look before she explained what it was about.

"This is Jackson's journal of his adventures past Equestria," the alicorn explained. "Most of the book, however, is focused around one certain location and one certain topic. I think that this section of the journal may be able to help us. I read a little part of this already, and what he has written down is incredible! Listen to this!"

The princess cleared her throat and held the book in front of her nose so she could read. She quietly inhaled and began effortlessly. "Day one of my exploration. I've finally made it past the mountains of the Crystal Empire and am now exploring the far stretches of the arctic north. I believe the area I am currently heading to is called Tundravania, but I am not certain if any creatures are inhabiting that land. I will have to wait and see what awaits me."

Dash quickly lost interest in what her friend was reading. She looked down and saw a ball by her hooves, one that Spike had received at some point. She picked it up and started bouncing it against the floor, thinking to herself how now would've been a good time to be swallowed up into a false memory. Easily growing bored with the simple task she had given herself, she tossed the ball over her shoulder and let out a sigh. She rested her chin on the table and let her mind wander, waiting for something to happen other than what was already. Just as her eyelids started to fall, however, she heard a soft shriek of surprise come from her fellow pegasus. Her head shot up with worry, but Fluttershy quickly turned to Twilight as she shakily giggled, "Wow! I didn't know you could do fire magic! That's impressive, Twilight!"

Rainbow strained her neck to see what her friend had meant by "fire magic." A small ball of fire was floating next to the yellow pegasus, simply hovering there like it had nothing better to do except hover there. She rolled her eyes and turned to exit the room when she heard the alicorn suspiciously reply, "Uh, what are you talking about? I'm not doing anything."

"But then... how..." Fluttershy's eyes dilated and she leapt into the air with a scream, instantly shooting out the open door and into the hallway. Her sudden outburst was quickly repeated by Rarity and even Pinkie Pie, all three mares finding somewhere other than that room to hide in. The blue pegasus stood up and flew over to where her friend had been sitting, only to find that the fire had grown much larger and was still gaining size.

"Twilight!" she called over her shoulder sternly. "Applejack, you too!"

"What is going on?" the princess asked worriedly as she made her way over the scattered chairs. Rainbow waved them over frantically and pointed at the burning flame with her wing, instantly regretting it when one of her feathers caught on fire. She yelped and shook her wing to extinguish the flame, inching backward when she felt Twilight's beam of magic shoot by. She turned to go check on her friends when Twilight was suddenly flung forward and into the table, breaking it in half and sending both pieces sliding across the crystal floor. Something was on top of the princess. Something large. And alive. The creature moaned and shakily stood up, glaring down at its prey. The beast drew back its lips in a snarl, revealing two sets of razor-sharp pearl-white teeth attached to its powerful looking jaw, opening up and falling closer and closer to Twilight's neck.

Rainbow Dash felt something snap inside of her. She let out an enraged scream and charged headfirst at the monster, ramming into its side and shoving it to the floor. She leapt over her friend and drove her forehoof into her opponent's ribs, earning a satisfying "CRACK" once completing the motion. The creature gasped in pain and fell to the ground, its feet scrambling for something to steady itself. Rainbow wasn't going to give it that chance. She leapt into the air and swung her hind leg up and over so that it came crashing down onto her opponent's head. As her hoof came in contact, however, she noticed something that seemed off. Her enemy had a fiery red mane and white-gray fur, with a shimmering black nose at the end of its blocky snout. She shook her head as she landed back on all fours, her stance already a fighting position and ready to pounce. She sprung forward and rammed her opponent out the door, sending it flying a little ways down the hallway. She raced after it to follow up with another attack when it suddenly turned to face her and opened its eyes.

Its eyes were a stunning sky-blue, sparkling in the light of the castle. They were blurred and full of fear, obviously because of what it had just been through. It shook its head and snarled, the fur on the back of its neck rising as a show of force. The monster bared its fangs and spat, obviously preparing to fight against its opponent. It had no idea what it was up against.

Rainbow Dash smirked and pawed at the crystal floor, her wings erect and ready for take off. She inhaled calmly and exhaled just the same, her bones and muscles filled with confidence. She lowered her front and pushed off the ground with her hind legs, shooting herself forward and directly into her opponent. The creature let out a confused yelp and weakly scratched at the pegasus, not even breaking her pure blue skin. Rainbow thrust her hoof into the beast's neck and flew it into the wall, keeping its head pressed against the crystal background as she raced forward. Her opponent was losing strength fast, she could feel its resisting strength fading. She grinned in delight and pulled the animal away from the wall, beginning to swing it around in a circle, picking up speed the more she spun. She let go and laughed as it crashed into a pile of stacked boxes near the entrance of the kingdom, quickly demolishing it. The creature didn't move.

The blue mare hovered over to the site of destruction and peered over the edge of one of the destroyed boxes. The strange animal was laying there, belly up, staring at the wall as it started to succumb to unconsciousness. It must've heard the flyer moving around, causing it to look over at Rainbow. A chill ran up her spine once those eyes met hers. Something about this animal was... off somehow. The beast took a shaky breath, as if in surprise, upon realizing who it was that had tackled it. It squinted its eyes as if unsure of something before its lips curved up in a tiny smile and it whispered ever so softly a few words.

"Rainbow... Dash... it is... you..." The creature's head fell back against the shattered crate, the last of its energy finally spent. As the rising and falling of its chest began to slow, it managed to mutter to itself, "I made it... guys." To say that Rainbow was surprised would've been an understatement. She examined the unconscious animal's face closely, trying to find something that could prove her wrong. But everything matched.

"No... way," she whispered to herself in disbelief. She slowly stepped away from the wreckage, repeatedly muttering those two words over and over again. "No way no way no way... That can't be her. It just... can't!"

"Rainbow Dash!" Twilight frantically shouted, her voice filled with worry. The violet alicorn galloped over to her friend and skidded to a halt nearby, instantly noticing the pegasus's shaken posture. She followed the path of where her eyes still stared and gasped when she saw the wrecked boxes, one of the beast's paws hanging over the edge of the top of the broken pile. She backed away from it and joined her friend's side. She briefly glanced over at the flyer and asked softly, "Did you... did you kill it?"

"No," Rainbow muttered in response, still shaken by what had just happened. She couldn't believe what her eyes were seeing. She sat down and let out a stressed sigh, her ears pinned back in disbelief and weariness. She shook her head and asked in return, "Twilight, what have you seen in your dreams?"

The alicorn answered without hesitation, her focus still on the unmoving creature. "I saw multiple things. But there was always somepony hidden by shadows that was right next to us. Now that I think about it, she was usually beside you. She was bigger than any of us, but still roughly the same size. Why do you ask now?"

Rainbow Dash walked over to the stack and flew above the wreckage. She waved her friend over and pointed at the conquered beast's head, quietly asking the royal alicorn, "She had a mane like this and eyes as blue as the sky, right? I think... I think this might be the pony from our dreams."

Twilight stared for a moment, observing the features on the pony from dreams. She gasped and reached behind her back, pulling out the book from before. She flipped through the pages until she landed on the one she wanted, and anxiously she held it up for Dash to see.

"That's no pony, Rainbow Dash," the princess shivered. Rainbow scanned the page and arrived at the bottom, where a roughly but detailed image was drawn. A creature with a silver coat and eyes of yellow was etched onto the page, with a short paragraph written beneath. Twilight continued wearily, her eyes filled with bewilderment. "This... is far from a pony."

The blue mare inhaled sharply when she finished reading the message below the image. She shook her head and slowly read aloud, "Never has an Equestrian pony met with these beautiful mammals. I am the first one to see them. With jaws that can crush bone and powerful muscles that can carry them for miles at a time without stopping, I have to say that you would be wise not to get on their bad side! It is no wonder the few legends of these magnificent creatures picture them as monsters, they could easily be misjudged. But there is something else I've found out. Their name. These creatures are known by one name and one name alone, and I think it is wonderfully beautiful. Canis Lupus or, in simpler terms, the Gray Wolf of the North."

Author's Note

(Believe it or not, I was actually listening to Siames: The Wolf as I finished this up #FunAndUselessFactOfTheDay :facehoof: Oh, and also this was the prologue :pinkiegasp:, so... :twilightsheepish:)

Please don't kill me down in the comments (or anywhere) if you feel that my story is terrible. (By the way, this is the very first story I am submitting to the internet so please go easy with your harsh judgement) Trust me, I get enough of that out of my little brother who absolutely hates MLP. (Or so he says :trollestia:) Anyway, if you have any ideas on how I can improve this, please let me know in a kind way. Or not a kind way. Whatever levitates your spellbook. And before you start whinnying about how Rainbow Dash and the others are gay, let me assure you THEY. ARE. NOT. Ship whoever you want, I may or may not agree with it. If you insist on declaring my stories as gay because I show a relationship forming between, say, Applejack and Rarity, that's just them strengthening their friendship. FRIENDship. Please do not picture me as a mean pony, I truly try not to be, and if I come of as just that I apologize. Before you mention it, no I don't have an editor. I would be honored if you would help me with my crap you possibly just read. Enjoy the rest of the story, I can't wait for your feedback! (That was not meant as sarcasm, I really need feedback so my stuff isn't crap.) If you have any questions just ask away and I'll do my best to answer them! (Though honestly, since ponies are gonna be jerks and just give this thing a dislike once it's out, why bother? Just go and find someone else's work to read, I'm sure it's much better. Like, for example, Calm Wind! His work's fantastic *unless you hate swearing but then it's still good just prepare yourself* so go check him out instead of this junk!)
:rainbowhuh: "Will you just shut up and get working on the rest of the story already?"
"Sorry, I had to get this all out of the way first."

P.S. this will also be found on Deviantart soon enough, plus a comic version drawn by me (once I get my dang art program to work :ajbemused:) and I'm sorry for the long post, and I don't have any potatoes to make up for it either. :fluttercry:

P.P.S. yes I liked my own story, it makes me feel better :pinkiehappy: #DontTakePityIAmMessingAroundALot
:rainbowhuh: #EnoughWithTheHashtags #YouNotFunny

Dreams That Don't Exist

do… not… tell… them… you… know… what… will… happen… do… not… tell… them… you… know… what… will… happen… do… not… tell… them… you… know… what… will… happen… do… not… tell… them… you… know… what… will happen… do… not tell… them… you… know… what… will… happen… do… not tell… them… you… know what… will… happen… do not… tell… them you… know what will… happen… do not… tell them… you know… what… will happen… dO NoT tEll ThEm YOu kNOw whAT wILL hApPeN Do nOt TeLL tHeM yoU KnoW WHat Will HaPpEn dO NoT tEll ThEm YOu kNOw whAT wILL hApPeN Do nOt TeLL tHeM yoU KnoW WHat Will HaPpEn dO NoT tEll ThEm YOu kNOw whAT wILL hApPeN Do nOt TeLL tHeM yoU KnoW WHat Will HaPpEn dO NoT tEll ThEm YOu kNOw whAT wILL hApPeN Do nOt TeLL tHeM yoU KnoW WHat Will HaPpEn DO NOT TELL THEM YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN DO NOT TELL THEM YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN DO NOT TELL THEM YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN DO NOT TELL THEM YOU KNOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN DO NOT TELL THEM DO NOT TELL THEM DO NOT TELL THEM DO NOT TELL THEM DONOTTELLTHEM DONOTTELLTHEM DONOTTELLTHEM DONOTTELLTHEMDONOTTELL THE--

Do not tell them. You know what will happen.

The alicorn felt another yawn bubbling in her throat. She let it escape and heard two others just like it flee from the mouths of her friends at the same time. She couldn’t blame them for feeling tired, after all, digging through demolished wood and trying to find the body of a foreigner before they died was very stressful and took lots of energy. Especially if one had already been working through the night before and had received no sleep since then. Twilight stretched out her back and relished the sense of relief the motion brought with it. Quickly making her way around the growing pile of broken wood stacked up in a pile a few feet away to her friends, the sight of a blue pegasus laying on the floor was the first thing to catch her eye. The slow rise and fall of Rainbow’s chest, along with the occasional snort or twitch, told the royal that the Wonderbolt reservist would not be working anymore that night.

Applejack noticed her friend coming her way and stood up, despite being very drained herself. The farm pony yawned again as she stretched out her sore limbs. She shook each of her hind legs individually as she waited for what the princess was obviously about to say.

“You should join the others and get some sleep, Applejack,” Twilight sighed, levitating Dash’s limp body onto her back. The pegasus grumpily snorted in response, obviously not too pleased with being moved around, before returning to her earlier snoring session.

The earth pony nodded and began making her way to the room where everypony else was sleeping. She let out about six yawns as she headed back. When Twilight caught herself counting she covered her face in shame and groaned.

“I guess I’m even more tired than I thought,” she muttered. She looked over at the shattered boxes and then down at the pony sleeping on her back. She could just carry the pegasus back to the guest room and then come back to work on digging out the wolf, but she needed sleep too. Her eyes were drawn to Rainbow’s hooves, and suddenly her mind came up with another solution that she thought was much better. Besides, she didn’t want blood to be the first thing her friend saw when she awoke. With a slight new spring in her step she trotted down to the bathroom and prodded open the door, pushing it all the way open once she relit the miniature chandeleurs lining the ceiling. The blue light the candles emitted was soothing and brought a sort of relaxation to the user of the bathroom. Of course, that is all it was. A room for a bath. All it was was this beautiful pool-like pit that could fill up enough to completely dunk Celestia up to her belly. She didn’t need that much water, only enough to rinse off her friends hooves. The slivers weren’t too big or too deep, and the blood from the scrapes and from digging out the canine should wash off easily. As she turned on the water, a thought occurred to her. Well, more like a memory. When Rarity and the others were gathered at the spa, and one of them had tried to convince Rainbow Dash to try at least a simple hoof massage.

“It’s that good, huh?” the pegasus had asked. She hesitantly floated down to one of the beds and laid down, outstretching her hoof very very reluctantly, as she murmured, “Well maybe just one little hoof.”

The spa pony had grabbed a file and started toward the blue mare’s arm. Rainbow gulped anxiously and shut her eyes, quickly opening one to watch over her unguarded hoof. The spa pony leaned forward with the file to get started when the pegasus instinctively flinched away. The two continued to replay this action for a few minutes before the flyer shrieked and bolted into the air, quickly calling out, “Forget it, I don’t like ponies touching my hooves.”

Twilight’s face paled as she stopped the water flow. She glanced down at her slumbering friend warily, eyeing her expression nervously. So far the pegasus hadn’t faltered. Then again, her hooves hadn’t been tampered with yet. The thought of what Rainbow would do should she wake up while her friend was washing off her hooves frightened the princess. She shook her head and carefully reached out to grab her friends arm, telling herself she would just have to borrow the sleeping mare’s motto: get it done in ten seconds flat.

…Ten seconds later and the blue pony’s hooves were still freckled with dried blood. A small amount had washed off during the dunk and rinse process the royal had used, but not enough. She sighed and brought the bar of soap toward Rainbow’s hoof, cringing when the pegasus mumbled something inaudible that sounded like a retort to what she was doing. Twilight carefully scrubbed away the flakey substance, trying not to use too much pressure. As she washed the dried liquid away, her mind was once again brought back to the memory of Rainbow Dash refusing to accept a hooficure. But something seemed different. She found herself subconsciously washing her friends hooves as her mind focused on the altered memory.

“Forget it, I don’t like ponies touching my hooves.” Rainbow Dash lifted into the air and aimed herself toward the exit. But right before she dashed away a voice, strangely familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time, interrupted her by laughing merrily. The pegasus turned to face the laughing pony and frowned in confusion.

“Come on, Rainbow,” the stranger chuckled again, concealed by shadows that only seemed to block out her and nothing else. The hidden pony headed over to the bed that the pegasus had previously been on and patted it welcomingly. “It’s not gonna bite ya.”

Twilight watched the pegasus float to the ground and blow a raspberry at the stranger, cracking a smile once her tongue retreated back into her mouth. “I know that. Like I said, I don’t like ponies touching my hooves.”

The stranger teasingly wilted and pawed at the ground in false disappointment. In a whiny voice she muttered, “But… but hoof-bumps…!”

Rainbow let out a quick laugh and shook her head. “Are you naturally this annoying or did you need practice, _-__--?” For some reason, the name she called out had been unclear, as if she were speaking underwater. But the name obviously belonged to the stranger, as was evident when she fired back with her own taunting remark.

“Laugh it up all you want, doesn’t mean I don’t have a point.”

The blue mare stopped laughing and faced the stranger again. “So what if you do? I’m not letting some stranger touch my hooves! You don’t like getting wet or swimming, and we don’t force you to do either of those.”

“Sounds like somepony’s chicken,” the stranger quipped. She rubbed her chin in thought for a moment before smiling and once again approaching Rainbow, resting a hoof on her shoulder. “But that does give me an idea.”

Rainbow perked up at that phrase, smirking in anticipation. “Go on.”

The stranger nervously breathed in and out, let out a chuckle, and sat down next to the spa bed, her ears bent backward in reluctance. “I’ll make you a deal. Every minute you let one of these nice spa ponies massage your hooves, you can throw me into the lake that many times. As far in as you’d like. You just have to pull me back out before I drown. Deal?”

The pegasus eyed the bed warily before looking back up at the stranger. She smiled warmly and held out her hoof for the athlete to bump. Dash smiled in turn and spat into her hoof, earning a hearty laugh out of the stranger.

“Oh, now we’re getting serious!” She spat into her own hoof and slapped it against Rainbow’s, sealing the deal. The stranger helped the pegasus onto the spa bed, sitting down beside her on the one directly next to hers. Rainbow Dash glanced over as the spa ponies approached her and the stranger and teased, “The deal wasn’t for you to get a massage too, you know.”

“Believe me, I know,” the stranger nervously replied as she eased into the reclining seat, her smile gone. She closed her eyes and laid back as she finished, “I’m not backing out of the deal either. Just trying to prepare myself for the inevitable.”

Rainbow Dash nodded her head and closed her eyes as well, leaning back in turn. Just as the first spa pony began to rub her hoof, she winced and muttered, “Don’t worry, Furball. I won’t chuck you in too far.” The second pony placed the tool on Rainbow’s other hoof and began painting away, earning a surprised whimper from the blue mare. She growled and finished her threat by saying, “Just enough to make you suffer for this.”

The stranger chuckled lightly, the blue mare’s comment bringing back her toothy smile. Twilight noticed the shadows surrounding her start to fade away, bringing the beginnings of the stranger’s face into the light. The tip of her mane was revealed, showing off its fiery red color. She had opened her eyes and was glancing up at the ceiling, and the fading darkness allowed the shimmering blue coloring to be seen. As her smile again faded away, Twilight saw the shape and texture of the stranger’s mouth. Sharp white fangs were slowly concealed by the stranger’s closing lips as her black nose twitched slightly. Her eyes turned to look at the purple pony. She gasped in surprise and froze, entranced by the strange faint glow that surrounded the blue eyes. Then the sight of Rainbow Dash’s sleeping form once again took hold of her vision, and she was brought back from the strange dream-like reality.

She shook her head and looked around for the stranger, but found nothing. She sighed again and looked down to find she had finished cleaning Rainbow’s hooves. Twilight quickly levitated her away from the tub and brought a towel to dry her feet, tossing it to the ground carelessly once finished. Once again slinging the limp pegasus over her back, the princess made her way to the door and turned to dampen the lights. The second the last light was extinguished, however, a hazy view of a slumbering wolf lingered, as if the image had been burned into the royal’s eyes. She suppressed another gasp and blinked to try and rid herself of the view. Once it was gone she hurriedly slammed the door and made her way to the room where the others were gathered.

After making several wrong turns she finally found the sleeping area they had arranged. Curse this stupid unfamiliar terrain. Carefully making her way around the slumbering forms of her other four friends, five including Spike, she located an empty spot on the ground and gently lowered the unconscious pegasus after placing down a sleeping bag for her to use. Twilight pulled a blanket up over Rainbow Dash’s shoulders and tucked in the corners to keep her warm. The pegasus mumbled something once again before turning on her side... removing the carefully placed blanket from her body. Twilight rolled her eyes and giggled softly, once again tucking her friend in. Usually she only ever tucked in Spike, so doing the same with one of the Elements of Harmony seemed a little strange to her. Nevertheless, she quickly finished and got up to exit the room.

Twilight felt something beneath her hoof. She looked down and saw a broken piece of crystal that had rolled away from the stack of boxes her sister-in-law had sent her for examination. She looked up and realized she had subconsciously trotted all the way to the site of destruction her blue friend had caused. She heard a noise coming from behind the wall she had yet to take down to get to the trapped wolf inside.

As she once again began slowly taking away pieces of wood that could potentially be stuck in the victim’s side, placing them down beside her once making sure they weren’t, she thought about what Rainbow had told her once defeating the animal.

“I think... I think this might be the pony from our dreams.” Was what she said true? It couldn’t be. But what if it was? They had no way of knowing, since every time they snapped out of it they couldn’t remember what the stranger looked like. She shook her head and continued to dig out the canine. Twilight kept a close eye on the wolf’s face, making sure what she did didn’t lead to her scowling in pain. But as she shifted part of one of the boxes to the side, the beast’s eyes shot open and she howled in agony. Without realizing what she was doing, Twilight leapt forward and clamped her arms around the wolf’s mouth, silencing her ear-splitting screech. The alicorn slowly let go of the animal’s muzzle and backed away nervously. She had seen the teeth of this creature, and she didn’t want to convince her to use them. But the wolf didn’t even growl, let alone bare her fangs. Instead she whimpered and gripped the wood beneath her with her claws, carving deep gashes into the planks. Her breathing increased dramatically and her hind legs lashed out wildly.

Twilight nervously stood there, unsure of what to do. She felt sweat trickling down her neck as she looked around for what had hurt the animal when she heard it try and say something. “H-help… me…” the beast choked out, her voice tightly strained. Its eyes were scrunched tightly as tears gathered at the edges. She again cried out for assistance, urging the princess to go faster. The purple mare threw the remaining slabs of wood to the side, carefully levitated the creature’s body away from the wood pile and laid her on the ground. She teleported to the nearest supply closet she knew she had and grabbed as many bandages as she could hold before teleporting back.

She worked quickly to get the new wound in the wolf’s side wrapped up so the bleeding wouldn’t be as severe. She slowly turned her onto her side and found herself jamming her mouth closed with her hoof at what she saw. Twilight swallowed the bile that threatened to come into the world and placed her hoof on the animal’s side as gently as she could. It looked up at her fearfully and tried to edge away, instantly regretting it. The wolf bit her lip to prevent another scream and shut her eyes tight as pain stormed through her body.

Twilight sighed and took hold of one of the jagged pieces of wood sticking out of the beast’s back with her magic. But before she tried to remove it, she softly whispered the words, “brace yourself,” and felt the injured animal freeze up. She counted to three and ripped the slab free from the poor creature, wincing as she whimpered in agony and feebly scratched at the crystal floor. She quickly applied a large piece of gauze to the wound, stopping the water flow of blood that erupted from her backside. Twilight lowered the wooden slab to the ground and grabbed onto another one. This piece felt different somehow. She glanced down hesitantly and realized it wasn’t wood at all, but one of the crystals that had been inside the boxes. Not only was the beast’s back riddled with wooden shards, but ones made of crystal too. A soft groan emitted from her throat.

It took roughly another hour for her to finish cleaning up. Once she carefully added the last bandage to the stranger's body, she wiped her brow and let out a relieved sigh. She rested one hoof on the wolf's shoulder and ignited her horn, instantly transporting the two into the bedroom.

Twilight rested the animal against the windowsill, hoping the cold night air would do her some good. The mare sighed again and returned to her own bed, ignoring the voice in her head that screamed at her to turn around and keep an eye on the creature. She laid down and drew the blankets over herself, knowing she was in for yet another night of mysterious memories-turned-dreams, as that had been the case for the past month or so. The dreams had been getting more and more frequent as time went on. Maybe, if she had a dream where she actually knew where she really was, she could count how many distorted memories were thrown back at her that night and try to piece them together in the morning. She adjusted the blankets over her body and began to drift to sleep.

She heard a shuffling.

Her conscious begged her to open up her eyes and see what was making the noise, but the rest of her was wailing out a sound “NO”. The shuffling stopped. Then she heard a sort of clacking. She heard a pained grunt that was uncomfortably close. Suddenly she felt a hot steamy breath blow across her cheek. Now even her conscious was screaming at her to ignore what it had just suggested and maybe even stop breathing. The thing hovering above her continued sniffing the air around her, occasionally letting out a pained sound. She felt something touch her neck, something sharp connected to something smooth and… furry? The thing backed off slowly, taking its ominous presence away with it. It let out a satisfied sigh, then the clicking from before started up again. It echoed across the floor, getting farther and farther away from the princess.

After a good five minutes of waiting for something to leap out of the shadows and tear out her throat, with nothing other than the hushed snores of her friends interrupting the peaceful quiet of the night, Twilight let out a moan. "Sweet Celestia, I've been up too late."

Then, out of the blue, a soft song rose into the air, sweet-sounding and peaceful. Kind of threatening after just having a mysterious unknown creature literally breathing down your neck. But Twilight found herself nestling into her pillow once again, this time significantly less stressed than the first time she tried to do so. The song in the air grew louder, but still stayed soft. It was like a melody written for the stars. She couldn’t think straight, but maybe… that wasn’t such a bad thing. Her mind was only able to focus on that song.

The song told a story. It told whoever was listening that everything would be okay, that they would be safe. It filled the air with peace, and told everyone that it was time for sleep, that a guardian would watch over them through the night. Twilight’s eyes were closed, yet she could see the stars that filled the sky. One star, a bright blue one, began moving about freely, tracing something in the blanket of dark beauty. It continued tracing that same path, going faster and faster each round. Its outline started to become clearer and clearer with each round, and soon enough a recognizable shape was visible. Other stars traveled over to the shape, some placing themselves neatly along the outline and others creating their own paths that ran through the first one, helping to distinguish the glittering image.

A giant wolf was howling to the remaining stars. Its head shifted down and its eyes looked straight at Twilight, filled to the brim with calmness and joy. The wolf turned its body and began padding toward the alicorn, its starry tail wagging slowly side to side and its fiery mane bouncing with each step. The wolf arrived at the royal’s side and happily bounded about in circles in front of her, laying down once satisfied with its position. Even more stars raced forward and began creating new images, ones that started to look like Twilight’s friends. Once the outline of each pony was finished, the complete star pony would happily trot over to the wolf’s side and curl up with it, laying their heads down as they succumbed to sleep. The wolf, however, stayed upright, and continued looking at Twilight. She knew what it wanted.

Twilight hesitantly stepped forward and watched as her hoof became transparent, with little purple stars instantly racing over and outlining where her leg would have been. The same happened for the rest of her body, and soon she herself was nothing but a colorful starry outline of herself. She smiled at the wolf and made her way over, a feeling of peace washing over her. The wolf gave her a smile of its own as she laid down next to the animal and allowed her head to fall against its powerful shoulder. She let her starry eyes close and smiled as the wolf reared up its head once again and continued to sing along to the beautiful lullaby from before. For once ever since the dreams had begun, Twilight truly felt like she had no need to worry about anything. She was safe, protected by the bringer of the wonderful harmonic tune and the guardian of her and her friends that night.

WhAT diD yOU shoW THEm?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

LiES! tEll mE WHaT YOu SHOwED ThEM!

Nothing. Nothing at all.

WhAT haS gOttEN iNTo yOU?! yOU kNOw whAT will HaPPEn iF yOu dO thIS aGaIN!

At least you're finally getting over that speech impediment of yours.

…NEveRmINd, yOu are StILl vERy MuCh yOU.

Well, while I can't say the same for you, I haven't changed a bit.

YeS yOU DiD! iF yOU REalLY hADn’T chANgED yOu wOUldN’T be PutTinG YouRSElf in DAngEr lIKe tHIs! DiDN’t YoU LEARn ANYtHing from WHaT HappEnED BeFOre?

I came here to start a new life. Just like we wanted to do. I never planned to come to this place that’s chock full of ponies, I wanted to go and take my place as Beta of her old Wolfpack. But things happen. They aren’t always expected, but that doesn’t mean they happen for no reason. I am surrounded by ponies. If I truly am stuck here for longer than I originally wanted, then so be it. I am not going to parade around being a big flaming jerk just because Rainbow Dash attacked me. She was protecting her friends… just like you protected me. I am not going to stay here any longer than I have to. I remember how bad it was for us when we tried to make friends, I swear it. I won’t put myself through that again. But I thought you trusted me to do the right thing. I thought you were still willing to listen and not just talk. I thought you would understand.

…Looks like I was wrong.

Twilight awoke to the sound of excited and cheerful chatter. Although it was hushed, it still wasn’t enough to not wake her up. She easily sat up and stretched out, feeling re-energized and ready for the day to through its worst at her. Quite a difference from the previous night. She threw her blanket to the side and hopped off of the bed, quickly re-adjusting the covering before heading toward the door. She reached out to open it but stopped as she remembered something. She turned around and found the wolf still asleep by the windowsill, but in a different position than her last one. Her ear flicked quickly then remained motionless. Twilight looked around and was relieved to find that nothing in the room had been obliterated during the night. Maybe what she heard really had just been her imagination. She smiled and opened the door to find each of her friends gathered around outside, looking just as bright and chipper as Pinkie Pie. Even Rainbow Dash seemed to be ready to race circles around anything and everything again.

“Hey there, Sleeping Beauty!” the pegasus quipped. “Enjoy your beauty rest?”

“Good to see you’re back to your normal, annoying self.”

“‘Annoying?!’” Rainbow gasped in mockery. She patted herself in pity and whimpered, “Aw, Egghead, I’m hurt.”

Twilight rolled her eyes with a smile and turned to the rest of her friends, noticing out of the corner of her eye Fluttershy turning her attention to an un-preened feather awkwardly sticking out of her wing. In hopes that she could spare this peaceful moment, she decided not to bring up the events from the previous day.

Rainbow didn’t mind doing so one bit.

“So Twilight, what happened with it last night after I conked?” the pegasus blatantly asked. “Did it do something awesome, or was it just a lame egghead like you?”

“I’m going to ignore that comment for the moment,” the alicorn snorted in disapproval, glaring at her friend grumpily. “But to answer your question, she didn’t really do anything. She was too exhausted from quarreling with you to do much else except sleep. Speaking of which, how did everypony do last night? Any more dreams?”

Surprisingly, she got a head-shake “no” from each of the ponies. None of them looked even the slightest bit tired.

“I did wake up once,” Rarity began with a flip of her mane, “but immediately after I heard the sweetest voice singing a beautiful lullaby to Princess Luna’s equally radiant night. Why, a few seconds of that melody put me right back to sleep. Although, I did seem to experience something a bit… strange as I drifted off.”

“Oh, oh, me too!” Pinkie excitedly joined in. She began bouncing up and down as she explained, “So I woke up too and then I heard a song too and then the song said that we would be okay even though that was pretty obvious I mean why wouldn’t we we have a mysterious guardian protecting us and anyway I closed my eyes and saw Princess Luna’s pretty stars and one of the blue stars started racing up and down and drew a pretty picture in the sky which the other stars outline so it was one big connect-the-dots and then the stars drew a wolf and the wolf turned toward me and started padding toward me and at first I was like ‘Oh cool, the star wolf wants to play let’s play!’ but then the wolf stopped and started going around in circles and I thought that was its way of playing so I started doing it too and I started getting dizzy so I stopped and turned to see what the wolf was doing and boy was I surprised to see it laying down I mean it was only a short walk why would it be that tired and that’s besides the point because the wolf was made out of stars and shouldn’t have been tired in the first place and so I opened my mouth to ask it why it was so tired when it smiled gently and watched as even more stars started flying around it and drew pictures of all of you and I was like ‘What’s going on, I’m confused, but this is kinda cool!’ and then the stars drew a picture of Twilight and then Applejack and then Fluttershy and then Rarity and Spike and then Dashie and then everystar cuddled up with the wolf and everystar looked at me and I thought ‘OOOH it’s my turn already?’ and leapt over and took my place next to the wolf and then the wolf lowered its head and rested it against the ground and closed its eyes and then every other star did the same and so I did the same and--” the pink mare paused and inhaled noisily, earning a giggle out of Rainbow Dash and Rarity. “And I don’t remember anything else!”

“Wait, you saw the wolf in the stars too?” Twilight asked, turning to Rarity after getting a vicious head nod from Pinkie Pie. “Both of you?”

“Ah saw that too!” Applejack put in. “But, uh, Ah actually joined the group last, and the pattern Ah saw went Twilight, then Pinkie Pie, then Fluttershy, then Rarity and Spike, and Rainbow Dash went right b’fore Ah did.”

“When I saw the star wolf,” Fluttershy began, “Twilight was the first to approach it, then Pinkie, then Applejack, followed by Rarity and Spike, and then Rainbow went up before I did. Turning into stars feels weird.”

“How odd,” Rarity mentioned. “That’s not how it occurred when it happened to me. I was the one to go last! Although, Spike was still at my side when it happened. I’m not entirely sure why.”

Twilight turned to get Rainbow’s experience next. The pegasus had kept quiet while the others had voiced their own adventures of what happened last night. When the blue mare finally noticed all of her friends staring at her, she chuckled and shrugged.

“Sorry guys, I don’t know what you want from me,” she explained carefreely. “I didn’t see anything last night.”

Of course she wouldn’t have experienced anything. She went to sleep only an hour or two after getting to work on digging out the wolf from yesterday. Everypony else had said that they had woken up in the middle of the night, right before the song began. She hadn’t been awake since five in the afternoon.

“So, all of us except Rainbow saw the wolf made out of stars, and fell asleep thanks to that beautiful song. But does anypony know who was singing it?”

Again her answer was made up of mostly shrugs. She looked around and noticed that a certain scaly assistant wasn’t present. He was probably still asleep. Whether or not he had experienced the same things that most everypony else did was still unknown. Twilight turned to go and find the little drake when she suddenly heard two earsplitting screams explode from the room at the same time, one coming from Spike himself.

“WHY IS THERE A DOG SLEEPING ON MY MAT?!”

“WHY IS THERE A DRAGON SLEEPING ON MY PAW?!”

Twilight and her friends rushed in just as Spike clawed viciously at the injured wolf, earning a wince and a yelp of protest. The dragon backed up and bared his sharp little fangs menacingly, flexing his claws as a show of extra defence. The canine, on the other hoof, simply backed herself up against a wall, covering her now red snout as she held back another cry of pain. Her hackles were raised despite her best efforts to keep them down.

“Spike, don’t hurt her!” the alicorn shouted, rushing over to her baby dragon and wrapping a comforting hoof around him. She sat him down and glanced over at the animal, worried that she had accidentally hurt her back while trying to avoid the fierce reptile. But other than her bloody, scratched up nose and paw, she seemed fine. The wolf lowered her paw and carefully licked the blood away from her muzzle, wincing at the discomfort.

“Are you okay?” Twilight asked softly, leaving her assistant’s side and heading over to comfort the canine. She didn’t get an answer from the wolf, however.

“Twilight get away from that thing!” Rainbow Dash bellowed furiously, galloping over to her friend’s side with her wings extended angrily. She stood in front of the alicorn and snarled at the cowering canine, earning a terrified whimper out of her opponent. Dash whipped her head around and snapped, “Stay away from that thing! Did you already forget about what happened yesterday?! Dang it! How did it escape the cellar?”

“Why would I need to lock her up when she never attacked us in the first place, Dash?” Twilight shouldered past the pegasus fiercely and tried to reach the wolf’s side, worried she had injured herself further. But the blue mare simply shouldered her way in front of her again.

“I’m trying to keep you safe, Egghead! What in the ever-loving-hay happened to the mare who calculated every step she friggin' took before doing anything risky in even the slightest way?! I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we need that mare back now! I'd rather not have to pull you away from it at every tur--”

Twilight huffed and angrily teleported her friend away. Far away. Manehattan should be a long enough distance from Ponyville that they wouldn't have to see the raging ball of feathers again until at least the end of the day. When the princess turned to check on the frightened animal, she immediately deduced what injuries had been added.

She was holding her bloodied paw off the ground so it wouldn’t stain the floor, the alicorn noted, and her tail was acting as a towel to catch any of the metallic liquid that did drip off as she washed her nose. But the second the violet mare got close enough to the poor animal, she startled and anxiously scooted away, her hackles even farther into the air.

“Di-did I hurt him?” the wolf stammered, unable to tend to her bleeding face now that she was using her tongue to speak. “C-crap, I did hurt him, I-I knew it. I-I s-swear I didn’t mean to, h-he c-caught me off guard, I-I thought he w-was--”

“No no no, you didn’t hurt him,” Twilight quickly consoled, sitting down where she was to show she wasn’t trying to harm her. “But it looks like he got you pretty badly,” she said as she pointed the tip of her primary at the wolf’s face. “Why don't you give me a minute? I can go and get some stuff to finish cleaning up your wounds.”

"W-what?! NO!" she barked fearfully, edging backwards quickly. One of the bandages on her body chafed against her fur and made her wince, but her hackles stayed raised instinctively. The alicorn tried to edge forward to help, but she only spooked her further and made her bark out another fearful warning to stay back.

"Back down, pardner," Applejack warned softly, her tone low and threatening. The wolf quickly shut herself up and stared at the Apple in fear. "Best not ta git on my bad side so soon after gettin' yerself patched up, ya hear? Ah'll do ya in worse than Dash did."

"Don't make me kick you out of here too, AJ," Twilight scorned, placing herself between the farmer and the quivering canine. The poor thing was shaking so badly that her claws were clicking on the floor as fast as if she were running for her life; her eyes were the size of pin-pricks. "I sent Rainbow Dash all the way to Manehattan. If you take a step further I'll send you to Las Pegasus."

That quieted the group down faster than Rainbow's Sonic Rainboom. Twilight let out a sigh and shook her head. "Honestly girls, where did all of this hostility come from? First Dash, now Applejack? I understand that you two are the most protective of all of us, but even so, this isn't like you!"

The farmpony's eyes softened as her ears pinned against her skull. She softly muttered out half-baked words and nonsense, her mouth trying to form an excuse but always coming up empty. Rarity stopped where she was but refused to let go of her sour expression. Spike and Fluttershy merely glanced up at Twilight and waited for her to make the next move. The royal slowly turned away from her friends and faced the wolf again, a gentle smile placed on her lips. The creature let her lips curl up into a threatening snarl but didn't dare let out a growl of any volume. Twilight softly lit up her horn and winked into existence a bottle of cool water before gently pushing it toward the poor animal. The wolf lifted a paw in readiness to slap it away, but she hesitated when she saw what was inside the container. Her expression became confused as she glanced up at the princess with a look in her eyes that asked for an explanation. The alicorn simply backed away and turned back to the group of awaiting ponies.

"Listen," she softly instructed. "I don't think we need to fear her. She's ten times more scared of us than we are of her. Plus, I don't think she came here on purpose. Even if she did, she doesn't exactly seem to know where here is."

"What's yer point, Twilight?" Applejack queered. As the princess glared in response she quickly lifted both her hooves in the air and cried, "Ah'm only askin', yeesh!"

Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. She pointed a hoof over her shoulder at the wolf lapping water quickly from the canteen and, without looking back, asked, "Does she look like she's in any condition to get wherever she was trying to go in the first place anymore?"

Each pony, and dragon, shook their head. "No, she doesn't. Since it's our fault she's hurt in the first place, why don't we try and help her?"

Applejack immediately opened her mouth to challenge that, but Fluttershy quickly saved the situation by quietly putting in her two bits by saying, "O-oh, that would be wonderful! We can show her the magic of friendship while we help her recover, too!"

The alicorn nodded excitedly and smiled brightly at the pegasus. "Exactly! I was thinking we would each have her over for two nights at each of our houses, if needed we can repeat that once everypony's had a turn, and then see if we can help her find where she was trying to go!"

"Well, that's all fine and dandy, Twilight, and I'm not saying I'm not willing to give it a try, but aren't you getting ahead of yourself?" Rarity asked softly. She quickly glanced back at the wolf, who was now trying to lick out the last remaining water droplets from the bottom of the bottle, and pointed out, "I mean, we don't even know her na--"

"YYYAAAAHH!!" a shrieking cry rang out behind the group. They all quickly whipped around to find Pinkie Pie standing directly in front of the canine, hardly a centimeter in between their noses, with the largest, and quite possibly freakiest, smile they had ever seen plastered across the pink mare's face. She let out a squee and joyfully exclaimed, "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! And I just booped your nose! HONK!"

Immediately after being booped, the victim proceeded to completely fall over onto her back and stare up at the ceiling soundlessly, her expression the equivalent of somepony trying to comprehend what in Celestia's name had just come to pass while figuring out how to breath again. Meanwhile, Pinkie was carelessly bouncing around in circles around the wolf while cheerfully announcing, "We're gonna have so much fun together and we're gonna make pies and cakes and cupcakes and cookies but first of all I need to get your name because I know for a fact I haven't met you before and I certainly don't have any idea what your name is so now that you know my name will you tell me yours?"

When the animal didn't respond, Pinkie stopped bouncing (for little more than a second) and reached over to un-boop her new friend and free her from... whatever it was that was trapping her to begin with. The split-second that the wolf scrambled to her paws and got back up into a sitting position, the party pony resumed her barrage of questions and commands.

"Oh, I need to introduce you to your new friends first! Ha, silly me! Okay, the purple one with wings and a horn on her head is Princess Twilight Sparkle, the one that growled as loud as you in your face and has a weird southern drawl and who doesn't have wings or a horn (just like me) is Applejack, the pretty fancy-pants unicorn who isn't really Fancy Pants is Rarity, the little baby dragon is Spike, the shy pony with wings that reminds you of butterflies whenever she so much as breathes is Fluttershy, and the really fast and super awesome pegasus that attacked you earlier is Rainbow Dash! Okay, now that you do know all of us, what's your name?"

"I-I... uh..." the canine stammered, earning a squeal of delight out of the pink earth pony.

"OOH! You're gonna let us guess! I love guessing games, I'm really good at them too! Hmm, let's see. Is it Snow? Snowflake? Snowfrost? Frosty? Glace? Glacier? Tundra? North? Torchwood? Torch? Firepaw? Fireheart? Firestar? Wolfy? Sammy? Max? White? Fang? White Fang? Ice? Storm? Thunder? S--"

"IT'S FLASHFIRE!" the wolf cried out loudly, her paws clamped against her ears which were, in turn, pinned to her skull. She shook in place, her fur puffed up everywhere, as she whimpered a little softer this time, "I-it's Flashfire, okay?"

"Really? Aw, shoot! You should have let me keep going! 'Flashfire' was gonna be my 5,748th guess! Hey! Do you wanna hear the other names I was thinking of? Well of course you do! Okay, so my first few thoughts were Shaggy, Guardian, Spirit, Firepelt, Stormfur, Mistylake, Hawkfrost..."

Rainbow Dash looked around, jaw clenched angrily, as she tried to navigate her way around the crowd of annoyingly busy ponies swarming left and right. She looked up in the sky, hoping to escape to her favorite way of travel, only to find pegasi crowding that area too. Suddenly an angry stallion butted into her and snorted in her face.

"Get a MOVE on, lady!" he snapped, briskly trotting past with a whinny of disapproval the second she scooted to the side. She watched his rear end disappear into the mob and growled under her breath.

"I'm gonna kill that wolf the second I get back, Twilight, no matter how many times you teleport me away." She glanced back over at the retreating stallion and grimaced. "Or how many times I have to see a full moon that isn't even in the sky."

Author's Note

Before you say anything (or nothing since no one seems to like commenting on my story :fluttercry:) Yes, this needs some desperate editing. I wanted to get it out to the public, though, so that I'm not one of those guys who doesn't post anything for, like, a year.

:ajbemused: "Sugarcube, that is you right now."

...Oops.

You know what? Yeah. She's right, and this was me as I was trying to finish this chapter.

:ajbemused: "Pretty much."

You know what IT'S CALLED WRITER'S BLOCK GIMME A BREAK!

:ajbemused: "How's five months?"

... ...The chapter's out, hope you all enjoy, don't forget to comment (PLEASE COMMENT!!!), let me know what you want me to adjust, and if you'll excuse me...

I gotta go teach a certain pony how to keep her mouth sh--*gets bucked right in the jaw and faints*

EDIT: ...*bitterly gives fifty bits over to Applejack*

:ajsmug: "Told'ja it'd be five months."

Shut up, you've already won the bet. Ahem, anyway, I wanted to apologize yet again for taking forever. I had promised you when I first released this that I would be updating every week or so. I'm sorry I haven't been keeping that promise. I will try and post more often, I can at least promise to do that. I've edited this chapter so that now it's, like, 5,000 words shorter. If you feel like re-reading it, that would be awesome :pinkiesmile: Each night that Flashfire spends with each of the girls will be split up into two chapters each (bleh, never used the word "each" so many friggin times) so hopefully that will be an easier read. I will also be finishing and releasing "You've Heard Of Green Eggs And Ham, But What About..." sometime within the next week. I have all of next week off from work, so that should be pretty helpful. Again, I apologize for the inconvenience (#StudioCIsLife) and I will be better. Thanks for reading this annoyingly long author's note, sorry I don't have a potato to make up for it.

(P.S. I wrote this before finding out the word "auricle" has something to do with ears, lol)