Angel of Justice: Blood Moon

The moon climbed high into the sky outside of the peaceful town of Ponyville. In the distance, the chirping of crickets carried over the soft winds that rustled through the trees of the Everfree forest.

The shadows shifting along the trunks from the branches swaying to and fro were an eerie sight to behold, and usually enough to keep any wandering pony away. Everyone in town and beyond knew of the forest and the creatures that lived within it. Entire legends had been spun around the overgrown woods, each with their own terrifying grain of truth.

Despite the peaceful silence of the land, the crunching of grass could be heard as a group of figures marched toward the daunting entrance to the forest. The group paused before the muddy path that led further in, taking a moment to listen to the sounds of the wind whistling through the forest as if to lull them into its dark reaches.

No pony in their right mind would enter the forest at night, not after the monsters and evil of former legend were made a very real fact of life. And yet, the group marched onward, for this was no ordinary group of ponies.

With their flashlights cutting into the dark, and their equipment jostling against their tactical vests, the members of Equestria’s very own team of monster hunters fearlessly walked into the depths of the forest, along with their human companion.

The team, consisting of a unicorn, a pegasus, and two earth ponies, were still fresh-faced in the world of fighting monsters, but they had overcome all of the many hardships that they had faced in their short careers.

Combined with the supernatural abilities and knowledge on monsters that their human and slayer friend Tom had, the supernatural and paranormal investigation, reconnaissance, and intervention team (Or Team Spirit, as they were affectionately called by a certain pink friend of theirs) were rapidly starting to spread in fame and rapport across all of Equestria for their heroic deeds.

Glimmer Shine, a yellow stallion with brown eyes, short brown mane, and a heart-shaped ruby mark, paused abruptly as a noise and vibration came from his vest.

While his teammates stopped behind him, the earth stallion reached to a pull-cord and pulled a small vial with a glass casing and brass caps up to his face. A liquid was inside of the vial, the top portion of which was glowing bright yellow as Glimmer pointed the charm straight ahead.

“Getting something?” Glitterball asked from behind the yellow pony, causing him to look up from his vial and break out of his thoughts. She had white fur, blue eyes, and rainbow polka-dotted hair tied up into a ponytail, with a shimmering blue and red star made of glitter serving as her mark.

Glimmer Shine nodded to the unicorn and the others around her before turning back to his vial and waving it around slowly. “Definitely looks like a solid reading. Looks like those reports of an animal sighting weren’t accurate.”

“Too bad these things don’t tell us much about what they’re detecting.” An orange pegasus stated with a sigh. This was Sunspot, clad in a modified and maskless black Wonderbolt’s suit that had various pockets and pouches sewn onto the front to hold her gear.

She had a set of flight goggles over her yellow eyes, strapped to her messy orange and yellow striped mane, which seemed out of place in the forest setting around them. At least her suit covered her fluorescent fur and made her somewhat stealthy, though it did conceal her comet cutie mark.

The pegasus turned to the human off to the side curiously, briefly watching him as he scanned the dark trees around them. “Got anything for us, Tom?”

“Didn’t the princess want you guys to learn as you worked through these small cases?” Tom raised an eyebrow as he looked back at the pegasus.

The boy was in his early teens, yet he was still the expert of the group due to his bizarre powers and knowledge granted to him as a slayer. He wore a blue tracksuit and generic white sneakers, which clashed heavily with his friends and their professional-looking outfits. He had blue eyes and messy blond hair.

“Umm…” Sparkplug chimed in from the back of the group. The gray and white mare seemed a bit uncomfortable with sitting out in the middle of the forest and chatting casually. “Well, I for one don’t want my face eaten off by some monster on my third job as a hunter, so any help would be appreciated.” She said, blue eyes glancing back behind her in a paranoid fashion. She could practically picture some monstrosity sneaking up on her and taking a bite out of her flank, marring the meshing gear cutie mark she sported.

Glimmer Shine patted the gray mare on the back reassuringly. “Don’t sell yourself short, Sparkplug. You did just fine with that imp infestation back in Hoofington.”

“Thanks… I think?” Sparkplug narrowed her eyes hesitantly, struggling to think of what she did on that job that could have been classified as ‘fine’.

Meanwhile, Sunspot shuddered uncomfortably as she thought back to their previous case. “Beugghh! Don’t remind me of those little freaks. I still don’t think I’ve gotten all the gum out of my mane from all those ‘pranks’...” She ran a hoof through her hair suspiciously.

“Imps and their fascination with Sunspot’s hair aside,” Glitterball spoke, shifting the conversation back on track. “I think we should all at least know what we’re dealing with. Right, Tom?” She looked to the human pleadingly.

Tom sighed while averting his eyes from the sad look he was receiving from the unicorn. “Alright, fair enough… I guess I’ll give you guys this one.” He paused and turned to the forest in front of the group, taking in a deep breath.

The ponies watched silently as the human used his slayer senses. A puff of blue mist came from his mouth as he exhaled purposefully, accompanied by a faint hiss. Although they were mostly accustomed to seeing their companion using his powers, the ponies were still a little anxious about them.

As Tom inhaled and exhaled a few times, sending out bursts of mist and taking in the myriad of feelings and energy signatures in the area, he adopted a confused expression momentarily. “What the..?” He muttered to himself while pausing for a moment.

“Something wrong?” Glimmer Shine asked, a hint of unease in his voice.

Sunspot cringed as a feeling of dread welled up inside her. “Please tell me it isn’t something bad.” She pleaded, more than a hint of unease present in her voice and face. The others couldn’t blame her for worrying. Whenever the human was stunned or unnerved by something paranormal, it usually wasn’t a good sign for them.

What the hell…? Tom thought to himself while using his senses again. There’s something out there… but I can’t feel it vividly enough to tell what it is. He silently put more effort into his power, resulting in slightly more labored breathing. Are my senses out of whack or something?

Perhaps noticing the uneasy expressions his companions were giving him, Tom raced to come up with something for them. “Uh... might have detected something,” He explained in what he hoped would be a confident tone. “I’m trying to figure out what it is.”

“Oh, great... that’s comforting,” Sunspot muttered nervously before grunting as she was elbowed by Glitterball.

Glitter glared at her insensitive friend before turning to the human with a more understanding expression. “Is it something you haven’t seen before?” She asked curiously, speculating a guess as to why the boy’s senses wouldn’t determine the identity of their mystery monster.

“Not sure…” Tom said before abruptly correcting himself. “It’s hard to say, but if I had to wager an educated guess… I would say ‘ghoul’?” He ventured, straining to make sense of what meager information his senses were giving him.

“Yikes…” Sunspot said somberly, her eyebrows raised and any immaturity having left her.

“A ghoul huh?” Glimmer Shine looked around at the trees, scanning over them with new scrutiny. “That would definitely explain all the dead animals turning up.”

While the others seemed ready, if a little uneasy, to keep going and deal with the problem, Glitterball seemed hesitant. “Guys, what are we going to do if it is a ghoul? Any physical creature without any weakness to positive energy would make our strobes useless.” She said, glancing down to the aforementioned strobe on her vest. The small brass-capped vials that the team normally used as weapons were effective against a wide variety of creatures, but they did have their limitations.

“You’ve got knives on those vests, right?” Tom asked curiously.

Glimmer Shine patted a pocket on his vest, reaffirming that he knew the location of his blade. “Yeah, we do.”

Tom hovered a hand over his own sword and unsheathed it partially, revealing the soft blue glow of the katana blade. “While non-silver weapons might not normally do much against a ghoul, they can’t survive losing their heads, no matter what was used to do it.” He explained before pushing his sword back down into its sheath. “We should keep within earshot of each other. You guys can split into two groups and start searching, and I’ll search on my own… see if I can narrow down its location. Hopefully, I can find it before you. Fighting it with my spirit weapons will be a lot easier than trying to decapitate it.”

Glimmer Shine nodded, followed by the others. “Alright, everypony keep close to your buddy, and stay in touch over the communication spell. If you find anything, or if anything finds you, scream really loud, and we’ll all come running.” He said, looking over each of his companions with a serious expression. “And remember, aim for the neck.” He drew a foreleg across his neck pointedly. The others got the general idea without the gruesome implications getting under their skin.

And so, with their goal laid out ahead of them, the group split off into three smaller parts and went out into the trees. Glitterball and Sunspot had opted to go with each other, leaving Sparkplug and Glimmer Shine to fill out the other group of two. Tom, in all his confidence in his abilities and somewhat indestructible nature, went on his own.

Glitterball walked alongside her pegasus companion while scanning her eyes around the area. The dark trees seemed to swallow up anything within a certain distance of them, potentially hiding any number of terrible creatures. She clutched the knife in her magical grip and kept it close by, ready to defend herself if anything decided to leap out at her.

“So… what are your plans once we get back to Canterlot tomorrow?” Sunspot asked casually from beside the unicorn while looking around as well. It was like she wasn’t even aware that she was in a dark forest hunting a monstrous beast.

Glitter looked over to her friend in stunned shock. “Are you seriously trying to have small talk right now?”

“What?” Sunspot shrugged. “I just want to know if you’ll be free to hang out. We’re only going to be in town for a few days, and I want to at least have some fun while we’re there.”

“And I suppose getting to see our friends and celebrating Nightmare Night isn’t fun enough for you?” Glitterball asked with a raised eyebrow, receiving an eye roll from the pegasus.

“You know what I mean.” Sunspot sighed. “It’s just… almost every night is Nightmare Night for us. Can’t we have one night where we can relax?”

Suddenly, another voice emanated softly in their ears that they recognized to be their human friend. “Guys, remember to keep an eye above you. Ghouls don’t usually hunt the living, but when they do, they like to ambush.” Tom suggested.

Glitterball held a hoof up to her ear. As she did, a blue magical aura identical to her own appeared around her ear and the tip of her hoof as the communication spell kicked in. “Got it.” She replied before dropping her foreleg and looking back at her teammate. “Let’s keep moving.”

Sunspot briefly watched the unicorn as she walked off to the right. Judging from the expression on her face, Glitter was not in the mood for any more idle chatter. “C’mon, Glitter. You’re way too tense! You should loosen up.”
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Elsewhere in the Everfree, Glimmer Shine and Sparkplug were searching the darkness, using their detection charms to look for any sign of the beast they were hunting, preferably before it started hunting them.

While Glimmer Shine was sweeping the vial in his hoof around and slowly scanning his eyes from side to side in a relative state of calmness, his gray companion was far more on edge despite how silent she was being.

“You know,” Sparkplug said in a hushed voice. “When I quit my job to come and hunt ghosts with you guys, this is not what I had in mind.”

Glimmer Shine smirked slightly as he glanced back to the nervous mare. “Ah, come on… it ain’t so bad.” He insisted, being careful to keep quiet as well.

Sparkplug narrowed her eyes in disbelief. “Glimmer… don’t take this the wrong way, but if you think walking around a dark forest far away from civilization and hunting after Celestia knows what kind of horrible pony-eating monster isn’t that bad, then you might be a little messed up in the head.”

“Hey, you volunteered to join the team. Isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black?” Glimmer asked.

Sparkplug merely shrugged her shoulders. “Well, you got me there...” She drew her eyes back down to her detector vial, growing uneasy as she failed to get any solid readings. “Still, I’d rather know where this thing is before it jumps out and eats my face off.”

“You’re really adamant about the whole face eating thing, aren’t you?” Glimmer Shine raised an eyebrow while looking back to the gray mare.

“I like my face right where it is… don’t you?”

Glimmer tilted his head. “Alright, point taken. I’ll call up Tom and see if he’s got a better read on its location.” He suggested, putting a hoof up to his ear.
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...
Somewhere else out in the forest, Tom stalked through the trees, feverishly looking out into the distance in the hopes of finding the creature before his friends did. His hand hovered near the sword on his back whenever he heard a stray noise.

Suddenly, a voice pierced the otherwise peaceful ambiance around him. “Hey Tom, are your senses picking up anything on our freaky friend?” Glimmer Shine asked curiously.

“Preferably where it is?” Sparkplug chimed in.

Tom stopped walking and sighed as he looked around him. “That is a good question...” He muttered to himself before taking in a breath and exhaling out a puff of mist.

Just like before, the energy around him seemed dulled somehow, and although he could feel the presence of an evil creature, he could scarcely tell where it was or what it was beyond his earlier guess. Finally, he sighed in defeat before putting a pair of fingers up to his ear and triggering the communication spell.

“Sorry guys, but that’s a no-go. I must be having an off day or something.”

“You’re not getting sick, are you?” Glitterball asked with a concerned tone of voice.

“I didn’t think he could get sick,” Sunspot added.

Tom groaned silently before activating the spell again. “Sorry, guys… I wish I could be more helpful.”

“It’s alright, Tom, don’t sweat it. Take a breather.” Glimmer Shine said. “We’ll just have to find this thing the old-fashioned way.”

Sparkplug audibly sighed nervously through the spell. “Yeah, I just wish the old-fashioned way didn’t involve-”

Tom paused as he noticed the mare trailing off. Before he could speak up to ask what had happened, another sound drew his attention away, only this time it wasn’t coming through the communication spell.

“AHHHHH!!”

A blood-curdling scream pierced the night air, causing a few nocturnal birds to leap out of the trees and take flight. The human quickly recognized the owner of the scream to be the gray pony; however, there was also another yell that sounded much more primal and vicious.

“Guys!” Tom stared off in the direction of the sounds in a shocked state. He snapped himself out of his thoughts and took off running toward his friends.

As he ducked around trees, nearly knocking into them in his frantic race to reach his companions, Tom could hear what sounded like a struggle up ahead. Panicked yelps and shouts came from Sparkplug and Glimmer Shine, along with some deep growls and snarls from whatever had attacked them.

Finally, the human could see flashlights up ahead. As he took in the scene before him, his shock swiftly turned to dreadful panic as he saw a foreign shape wrestling on the ground with a yellow stallion. Sparkplug was standing nearby, trying her hardest to think of some way to assist her partner, while Glimmer Shine was fighting for his life against the creature on top of him.

The pale beast was roughly pony-sized, with a bulky upper body and a stubby spiked tail. It had clawed hands with four fingers, along with talon-like nails extending from its feet. Its teeth were gnarled and misshapen, but they looked like they could crack bone or rend flesh with ease. And as it snarled and snapped at the pony trapped beneath it, struggling to keep it at bay, its green, soulless eyes glared down at its would-be prey with no remorse or emotion aside from rage.

There was no doubt about it now. The feral monster was a ghoul.

“Gah!” Glimmer Shine yelped as the creature raked its claws across his face, leaving three shallow cuts. All he could do was use his forelegs to keep it back and try to kick it off of him with his hind legs, but it was resisting every escape attempt he made with vicious ferocity.

“Glimmer Shine!” Sparkplug yelled fearfully while watching the stallion’s struggles. She looked down to her vest, racing to think of a piece of equipment that could be of use.

Finally, she threw caution to the wind and rushed up to the two. Turning around and planting her forehooves firmly into the ground, she reared up and cringed hesitantly as she delivered the best kick she could manage at the moment.

The ghoul let out a pained yell as it was sent rolling off of the stallion by a nasty impact to its side. It wasted no time in getting on all fours, growling at the gray mare as she helped her friend to his hooves. With teeth gnashing and claws at the ready, it leaped forward again like a crazed monkey on steroids ready to satisfy its bloodlust.

The two ponies could scarcely do anything but cover their faces as the beast sailed toward them at breakneck speeds. Before it could pounce on its prey, however, the ghoul stopped mid-air as something yanked hard on its leg.

Tom jerked the gray creature back to the dirt and shoved a foot into its back, pinning it to the ground. In one swift motion, he whipped his katana out of its sheath and held it at the ready, fully prepared to swing the luminescent blue blade down and chop the offending monster’s head clean off.

Then, before he could take a swing, his other leg got kicked out from under him as the ghoul used its incredible leg strength to its advantage.

“Woah!” Tom wobbled forward, barely managing to keep his balance. In his unstable state, he could hardly do anything as the creature underneath him bucked upwards and sent him falling to a rough landing on his back.

As he was recovering from the abrupt trip to the ground, Tom reached around for his sword, only to find that it had landed separately from him just out of his reach. Before he could scoot towards his weapon, the ghoul stalked up to him and snarled at him, sending more than a few particles of vile spit flying everywhere.

Tom glared at the creature and spread out his fingers in one hand. A flash of fire appeared and washed over his fingertips, leaving behind cold metal in the form of bladed claws. These were his spirit weapons, granted to him when he became a slayer. They served as his most powerful and reliable tool in his monster-hunting career, and they could make short work of many evil beasts.

The human tried to take a swipe at the vicious monster’s neck. His strike met stiff resistance, and before he knew what was happening, his arm erupted into pain as the ghoul’s clawed fingers dug into his skin and held him at bay.

“AGHH!”

“Tom!” Sparkplug widened her eyes as she watched the gray beast sinking its claws further into her friend’s arm, sending blood pouring out of it. Tom tried to push his attacker off with his free arm, but the ghoul simply grabbed the appendage before he could do anything meaningful.

Tom tried to reel back away from the gnashing mouth full of teeth that were inching ever closer to him, but his position on the ground and the ghoul’s hold over him made it rather difficult. Suddenly, the ghoul jerked forward and opened its jaw to take a large chunk out of the human’s neck.

Just as the human was preparing for an eruption of pain, an eruption of a different variety happened as a magical zap came from ahead of him. A shower of colorful sparks flew off of the ghoul’s back as several orbs of rainbow-tinted light crashed into it and exploded.

The ghoul was seemingly unharmed by the colorful display. As the barrage of projectiles kept coming, it growled in annoyance and turned around, only to see Glimmer Shine and Sparkplug firing their strobes at it desperately.

Sparkplug took a step back as the creature glared at her and her yellow companion, all the while continuing to fire at it. “So, what’s the plan now?!” She asked frantically.

“I think the plan went out the window a while back,” Glimmer Shine replied, staring at the monstrous creature with more than a little unease.

Deciding to shift its focus to the two ponies, the ghoul used its immense strength and tossed Tom to the side. The human yelled fearfully while flying through the air. He cleared several feet before smacking into a tree and falling to the ground with a bone-crushing impact.

Tom’s head felt like it might explode, and his back might as well have been a twig that was snapped in two. “Gah…” He let his claws vanish in a puff of flame and clutched his aching skull as he slowly got off of the ground. He looked up to find the thing that had just sent him flying, only to pale as he saw the creature standing in front of his two friends.

With the creature staring into him with its blood-red eyes and growing angrier by the minute, Glimmer Shine rushed to put away his strobe and pull out his knife. “Stay behind me, Sparkplug!” He instructed to his companion before turning back to the ghoul. He flinched as he saw the creature much closer than he remembered.

The ghoul let loose an agitated roar and lunged at the stallion. Glimmer Shine scarcely had time to react before a pair of misshapen hands grabbed him and shoved him to the side. The yellow pony screamed and flailed for a moment before slamming into the ground and rolling. While his flight was shorter and gentler than the human’s, it still looked like it was painful.

With nothing left to distract it, the monster turned its full attention to the gray mare. Sparkplug felt her heart skip a beat as she processed what was about to happen. She jerked back as the ghoul snapped toward her, falling back onto her haunches.

“S-stay away from me, you freak!!” She yelled. Seeing no signs that the beast was stopping, she desperately groped her tactical vest in search of the blade that would save her. Before her panicked mind could find the knife, the ghoul jumped at her, claws first.

“AHH!”

“Sparkplug!” Tom reached out toward the trapped pony. With how far away he was, and how injured he was, there wasn’t anything he could do to help her in time.

The human and the stallion watched as the creature slammed their friend to the ground. It gnashed its teeth at her as she tried to push it off. Finally, it raised a clawed hand, ready to rip into her neck.

A wet squelch filled the air and everything swiftly fell silent as blood sprayed out onto the forest floor. Tom and Glimmer Shine stared ahead, eyes wide in shock.

Floating in the air just behind the ghoul was Tom’s misplaced sword. The blade was softly levitating in a blue aura of magic, and it was partially stained red in blood. The cause of the blood was clear to the pair as they saw the creature’s head settling into place off to the side.

Hoofbeats crunching against the grass sounded out as two figures stepped out from behind the trees. Sunspot and Glitterball stared ahead at the scene around them. The unicorn had her horn lit up, explaining the floating sword and the now-dead ghoul.

“Sorry we’re late to the party, guys.” Sunspot said.

Glitterball looked around at her companions with a concerned expression. “Is everyone ok?”

“I think so,” Glimmer Shine said in a strained voice. He groaned while pushing his aching body to get up to his hooves. “Other than some bruising, I’d say we’re doing alright.”

“Speak for yourself...” Sparkplug spoke up. The others looked over to see the gray mare with her eyes clenched shut, a spray of red on her face from the headless ghoul settling on her. “Could one of you be a pal… AND GET THIS THING OFF ME?!”

Hearing the agitation in their friend’s voice, Glimmer and the two mares rushed over to Sparkplug and hoisted the hefty corpse off of her before helping her up from the ground.

Sunspot cringed a little as she watched the gray pony sputtering and frantically cleaning the blood off of her face. The pegasus felt a bit of a humorous smirk coming on that she had to hide for fear of inciting Sparkplug’s wrath.

“Ulgh… this is the worst.” Sparkplug frowned as she rubbed her muzzle in a desperate attempt to wipe off the excess blood.

“Hey, at least you didn’t get your face eaten off.” Glimmer Shine jested. “That’s a plus, right?”

Sparkplug glared at the stallion, completely unamused.

While her friends were sharing a quick laugh at the gray mare’s expense, Glitterball noticed the absence of a certain blue-suited human. She looked around before spotting the boy standing over by his original position that the ghoul tossed him to.

“Tom... are you ok?” Glitter asked uneasily.

Everyone turned to see Tom staring ahead blankly, still a little pale looking from the tense fight. He had a certain distraught look in his eyes, and his breathing was shaky.

Once he saw his companions looking to him with concerned expressions, Tom shook himself out of his thoughts and stood up. Still, he couldn’t seem to calm down as much as he wanted to. “Yeah, I’m… I-I’m good.” He stated before turning to the gray pony in the group. “Are you sure you’re ok, Sparkplug?”

Sparkplug lowered her expression. “Could have been worse. You sure you’re alright?” She asked softly.

Tom ran a hand through his hair and cleared his throat. “Of course, yeah… I was just a little dazed from hitting my head on that tree.” He walked over to the group, returning a confident air to himself.

“Here,” Glitterball said, floating the human’s sword over to him. “I think this belongs to you.”

Tom grabbed the katana out of the air and placed it back in its sheath. “Thanks.”

“It’s a good thing we showed up when we did.” Sunspot said, glancing over to the ghoul on the ground uneasily. “That was a close one.”

Tom frowned slightly while looking at Sparkplug. He silently winced in pain and brought up his injured arm, briefly examining the bloody wounds. “Yeah, a little too close.”

“Alright, let’s head back to Ponyville.” Glimmer Shine suggested, walking toward what he could loosely identify as the right direction. “I think we’ve earned some RnR.”

Everyone nodded in agreement with their yellow leader. With help from Sunspot’s ability to fly up and get a bird’s eye view, the group made their way out of the Everfree Forest.

After a few minutes of walking, the team left the deep shadows and countless trees of the forest behind. Everyone was tired from how late it was, and three of them were even more exhausted from their brief battle with the monstrous creature.

The ponies all puttered out to a stop and took a moment to take in the fresh air and wide-open space around them.

Glimmer Shine turned to his teammates and exhaled drowsily. He raised an eyebrow as he noticed that Tom’s arm was seemingly still bleeding. “Uh… Tom, aren’t you going to heal that?” He asked with a confused and mildly concerned expression.

Tom looked down at his wound and kicked himself mentally. “Umm... y-yeah, I’m just resting a bit before doing it. That thing really knocked the wind out of me when it turned me into an involuntary treehugger.” He explained lightheartedly. Without even giving the others a chance to process his response, he stretched and groaned tiredly. “Man, I am beat. I think I’ll head back to the library now.” He walked away from the ponies slightly, cueing his departure.

“Okay. Goodnight, Tom.” Glimmer Shine said.

“Yeah, goodnight. We’ll see you tomorrow.” Glitterball added with a wave.

“Bye guys. Have a safe trip back to the hotel,” Tom called behind him while walking away at a quickened pace. The others watched the human leaving for a moment before deciding to head on their own path.

After walking for a while, Tom looked behind him and sighed in relief as he saw that the ponies were nowhere in sight. He stopped for a moment and looked down at his arm. As he concentrated on activating his healing powers, an orange glow flickered to life at the edges of the claw marks. However, the healing embers and flames that would normally be sealing up the injury weren’t spreading, no matter how hard he tried to force them.

“What the hell?” He muttered to himself, barely able to catch his breath. He looked around in a paranoid fashion before pulling the sleeve of his shirt down and picking up his pace to a brisk jog.

The run back to town took a bit longer than usual. For some reason, Tom felt like he was out of breath much sooner than he normally did when running. His inability to heal his wound weighed heavily on his mind, along with the way his senses were acting before. He only hoped that he could figure out what was going on once he reached the library.

Eventually, the human made it through the empty streets of Ponyville and up to the Golden Oak Library. Standing in front of the building, he could see that the lights were off in the windows all throughout the great tree that Twilight and Spike used as their home. Considering how late it was, the unicorn and dragon were most likely asleep and had been for some time.

Tom panted softly and walked up to the front door. He used a key the purple mare had provided him and unlocked the door before stepping inside and closing it back. The vast and dark main room of the library stretched out before him, silent and still.

Taking a stealthy walk up the stairs to the second floor, the human lingered at the landing at the top and looked to the door on the right. No lights were coming from the seam at the bottom of the door, and a quick listen revealed no sounds.

“Of course… there was no way they would stay up this late.” Tom muttered to himself quietly. The only reason he was even up was due to the hunt for the monster out in the forest.

A harsh sting came from his arm, drawing his attention downwards. Tom glanced between the bedroom door and his wounded limb before sighing. He didn’t want to trouble the unicorn with something so unimportant. After all, it was just a little scrape. He had healed far more severe injuries with ease plenty of times before.

Making pains to not disturb the pair sleeping in the next room, Tom opened the bathroom door and stumbled inside. After letting the door close behind him, he flipped on the light and let his hands fall on the sink. He looked at himself in the mirror, narrowing his expression as he saw how exhausted he looked.

“Hhhookay… let’s do this.” He exhaled and shook his head while rolling his sleeve back up. The wounds were mostly circular with rough edges, and they were still bleeding to some degree.

Tom stood up and centered himself, closing his eyes and focusing. He cringed slightly as he felt the familiar burn of his powers kicking in. Despite the stinging pain coming from his injury, he didn’t seem to be able to produce anything more than a dim flicker of light.

“Ahh, come on… come on, come on!” He repeated impatiently, fighting through the uncomfortable feeling to try and kickstart the healing process.

No matter what he did, the wound remained steadfast in the face of the human’s attempts at healing. The longer he tried, the more frustrated he got.

“Grrr, come on and heal, you stupid…” Tom grit his teeth angrily. “It’s just a little cut… how the hell am I supposed to help anyone if I can’t even heal one stupid cut?!” He exclaimed before turning around and checking to see if his outburst was loud enough to carry into the other room.

Hearing no signs of Twilight or Spike stirring outside, he groaned and turned back to his injury. Now, he couldn’t even get the orange glow to appear at the edge of the wound.

“Damn it!” He clenched his fist and smacked it onto the sink as hard as he could without making noise.

Tom lowered his head and ran his hands through his hair, letting them linger as he tried to stem the tide of thoughts swimming around in his mind. If his powers refused to work, then what would he do the next time he fought a monster? What if Twilight or one of the others was in danger, and they needed his help? People had already died when he was there to help, and that was when his powers were working just fine. The longer he thought, the more exasperated he became.

Finally, Tom looked up at his reflection and sighed. He reached forward and popped open the medicine cabinet. After grabbing some bandages and setting them down on the sink, he reached up to close the mirror back up before pausing. He stared at a bottle of disinfectant and shook his head before grabbing the bottle and placing it beside the bandages.

Cringing slightly, Tom rinsed out his wound with water before pouring some of the stinging fluid over it to disinfect it. He checked behind him once more, making sure that nobody was watching or listening. Finally, he picked up the roll of gauze and started wrapping his arm.

Once he was finished, the human had a nice and clean bandage wrapped tightly around his wound. He replaced the items in the medicine cabinet before giving himself one last look in the mirror. He frowned slightly as he saw himself bandaged up. Finally, he tugged his shirt sleeve over the bandage, concealing it from sight and leaving it to heal normally.

As he flipped off the light and exited the room, he only hoped that tomorrow he would be able to get a better handle over his powers. Tom walked downstairs, deciding to not disturb his friends by creeping into the bedroom so late. Tomorrow was a big day for the unicorn and her friends, and they needed all the rest they could get.