The Night of Unusual Frights

Chapter 5, ….

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and the Cutiemark Crusaders just stood there in complete confusion. Twilight had to sit down to get her head straight and think about it, and Applejack had the most worried look among her face. Spike dropped the letter he was writing, and stared in disbelief, while the Crusaders sat down and did not even say a word for about a minute.

Suddenly, the silence was broken bye Spike, “Umm, so do you want me to finish this letter?”

With that, Twilight's thoughts started pouring out, “Yes, we should go to the Princess immediately! But what if she locks Fluttershy up! How long has Fluttershy been like this!? Maybe it can be cured! Were do we start!?”

Suddenly, Applebloom jumped in, “FLUTTERSHY WAS THE MONSTER!? But!? W-We saw her just before, what just happened!?”

SweetieBelle frantically said “What do we do with her!? Who should we go to about this!?”

Scootaloo added “Are we in a horror story??? Is she a Marewolf or something!?”

Applebloom turned to Scootaloo “Marewolves are just a myth, my sister told me so!”

Pinkie then jumped into their conversation with high speed jabber “Marewolves are real, but they are Super-Duper rare! And that did not resemble one, or at least what I thought they looked like. But it would ad up, but on the other end it does not because it wasn't a full moon, it was a half moon.”

Twilight then added “There is some writing on them, but only on accounts of those bitten, and they usually are able to be cured since many years ago, so the race was thought to have died out.”

Applejack then asked “So Fluttershy somehow got bitten by one of those things?”

“No, well, I don't know, she did not resemble one much though, she was much larger, and the patterns in her fur were very unusual, not to mention her wings and the night of this happening.”

“But what do we do? Should we untie her? Or is it to dangerous?” asked Rarity.

Right then, Angel threw a pebble at them to get there attention.

“Angel?” Twilight started, “did you know about this?”

The bunny nodded, and Owlowiscious landed next to him, and hooted.

“Wait, you both knew?” Twilight asked, “Umm, is is safe to untie her?”

Angel and Owlowiscious nodded on both accounts, and Twilight turned to the others, “I think they might be able to tell us about what is going on here.”

Applejack then replied “Sounds good, let's get to the bottom of this quickly, so we can explain to the mayor what happened to town.”

Rarity added “Yeah, maybe we should not tell them it was Fluttershy till we find out more.”

Rainbow Dash then said, “I would like an explanation, very much as to how Fluttershy can nearly outfly me, then she tries to beat me into the ground!”

“Calm down Rainbow, I'm sure if she knew about this she would warn us.” reassured Twilight.

Owlowiscious hooted and flew above them, gesturing for them to follow.

Applejack then turned to the three filly's “You all stay her and watch Fluttershy, if anything happens come get us.”

The girls looked at each other, then agreed.

Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow, Rarity, and Applejack followed Owlowiscious and Angel toward Fluttershy's house. Pinkie noticed Angel still limping, so she lifted him off the ground and let him ride on her head the rest of the way. They stopped next to the cottage, and saw nothing around, but a bush in front of them.

“I don't see how this explains anything.” said Rainbow Dash.

Suddenly, multiple of the critters Fluttershy cares for stirred around them, and a few other birds flew over the bush, and lifted it with ease, revealing a trapdoor of sorts. Angel then hopped down, and opened it, revealing a set of stairs, looking to go down to an old weather shelter.

“Ug, that place looks most unkept.” said Rarity as she gazed down the stairs.

“I think they want us to see something down there.” said Twilight.

“Well, let's go, you first.” Said Applejack.

The group went down one by one, and stopped at the bottom due to the pitch black darkness.

“I can't see a thing!” said Twilight trying to look around.

Suddenly, Owlowiscious turned on a lamp, and lite up the room. Before them, lay what looked to be a sort of storage space, there were all sorts of old types of equipment, and bookshelf of mostly mythology stories and history. There were also multiple boxes of items, and a specific box stuck out. At the end of the underground room, was a jail style cell, with what seamed multiple strong chains, capable of holding the beast they had just fought.

“This place is quite dusty!” said Rarity observing all the items gathering dust.

Rainbow added “Yea, other than that cell, how long have these critter known about this?”

“It seams a long while..” replied Twilight.

“This stuff looks real neat!” said Pinkie, “it reminds me a bit of your lab Twilight!”

“It does contain some similar instruments,” replied Twilight, “But most of these are old, and don't seam to have been used in a long time.”

“Well, Maybe something here will explain why Fluttershy turned into that monster.” said Applejack.

Angel hopped over to a smaller box that stuck out from the book case, and pulled out a large journal. He then hoped back to Twilight and gave it to her. On the front, it read The study's of Prof. Pines.

“Hmm,” said Twilight as she opened to the first page.

The page was slightly newer than the rest, and seamed added after the journal was started, and it read...

If you are reading this, than, you have come into contact with the Beast of Fear and Anger, or know the one cursed with it.

First off, this journal includes entries started when I began my research into the creatures of Equestria's history. I had a special interest in a few, but had only evidence previously found, or pooled together information to make it more available. But, one morning, I gained contact with a specimen by chance. It was out at Cloudsdale, while researching the Everfree forest not to far from below, when I came into contact with two worried pegasi. Actually, I came in contact with their young, but at the time being, very violent daughter. I had quickly knocked her out with some blow darts I had prepared, thinking she was a rapid, crazy, owl-thing. I quickly found she was actually the daughter of two Pegasi, whom found that just that night, she turned into that beast. I stayed at their home till morning, when sure enough, she turned back to normal. I quickly thought of her being a marewolf, but the parents had no bloodline of it, nor was it even a full moon, but in-fact, a half moon.

After some quick talk with the parents, and some research, I found their daughter may be cursed with one unique curse, and we agreed, that every half moon, they would make sure she was asleep, and then bring her to my lab in Cloudsdale. After some time of research, I found nothing, absolutely nothing, until I looked into a story I thought did not apply. I decided to look into a book of mythology I recently got as a break from studying, and found that in native culture, they theorized that some creatures had a single Alpha, or 'first' one of that creature. In the reading, it continued to say, that after one passes, it's life goes on in another, and, they usually have different traits than the more common creatures of it's type. And, it hit me, this young Pegasus Fluttershy was an Alpha marewolf, a young one at that, but an Alpha.

You would not believe my unnecessary excitement when I reached this breakthrough, and study of the beast brought backing evidence. But, I must end this short explanation here. Long story short, Something happened after the Pegasus's flight camp, and my study's were shut down. But, I set up with some of my colleagues a plan to keep this kind pegasus from hurting others, but allowing her to live life. We found from talking to the pegasus about her cutiemark, that she befriended some animals, and planned on living on the ground. So we found a cottage outside the Everfree forest, and next to Ponyville, that was the best spot. We gave it to her as a gift, and my colleagues Young but intelligent Owl was set in charge of making sure that she was subdued on half-moon nights.

But, assuming you're reading this, something inevitably went wrong, and you found this. You must know, you can be of help. If you know the pegasus well, you may have the choice to tell her about this curse, but we have not due to her parent's request. But, if you can now make sure she is unable to hurt others, I will be in your favor if I ever again come toward that town.

Signed, Professor Pines, Creature history research

Twilight put down the Journal after finishing the first entry, she read enough to understand the predicament, and would continue through the journal later.

“Well,” she said after they all had a chance to read it, “Do you think we should tell her?”

Pinkie Pie replied “I dunno, that secret of Fluttershy's has been kept a long time, but from herself, I never heard of a secret like that!”

“Maybe, but, not right away,” Applejack replied, “I think we should try to find out if she knows anything about this herself first.”

Rarity then replied, “I agree with Applejack, we should let this settle in with ourselves before we possibly ruin Fluttershy's self esteem. I mean, remember how horrible she felt after her assertiveness lessons from Iron Will?”

Rainbow dash Finally replied “sounds right, she is easily shaken, I don't think she would take this news to easily. I am still wrapping my head around it!”

“Alright, let's go check on Fluttershy now, we’d better make sure she is still okay after what happened.” replied Twilight

When the group went back the surface, the critters covered the trapdoor with the bush again, and Angel was sitting on Twilight’s back. His foot was getting a bit more swollen, as this activity was not helping it.

“Alright girls, get ready to go home.” said Rarity as they approached the Crusaders and Fluttershy.

“But what about Fluttershy!?” said SweetieBelle “Is she gonna be alright?”

“Yes,” Said Applejack, “but you have to Pinkie Promise that you will tell NOPONY about this, at least until we get things straight.”

“Aww” said the Girls in Unison, as they did the ritual pinkie Promise, and got their things ready.

Upon inspecting Fluttershy further while untying her, Twilight noticed her wing was still very much hurt from the crash she was in as a beast.

“We might have to take her to the doctor about that wing.” Said Twilight.

“Okay, it does look really hurt,” Rainbow said looking at it, “If I had know it was her, I would have gone easier on her.”

“It's okay” replied Twilight, “If she had known she had this curse, she likely wouldn't have risked hurting us.”

They got Fluttershy untied, then took her into her cottage, were they laid her onto her couch. Rarity then patched up her Wing with some first aid bandages, and it looked like it might be okay. Fluttershy was still breathing heavy, so they laid a blanket on her, while Pinkie went to the town to get a treat for her when she woke up.

Spike then asked “Twilight, should we say something to the princess?”

Twilight replied, “Yeah, that may be the right thing to do, I trust she would have good advice on the matter.”

“Are you going to finish that Journal at the library?” he asked.

“Yes, I may come back to find more stuff, I want to get to the whole bottom of this, and see how we can help Fluttershy, but I will need to get some sleep soon.” she then glanced to Applejack and Rarity passed out on another couch, and Rainbow doing her best to stay awake.

Pinkie burst in the for with a box of cupcakes, and set them on the table. “I did not eat a single one on the way!”

After about 20 minutes, Fluttershy started to stir. Angel Quickly hoped up to her, and she slowly opened her eyes.

“ugg, wh-what happened? My head, ow!” she said as she sat up.

“FLUTTERSHY!” said Pinkie all excited like, “Your awake! I brought cupcakes!”

“Oh my! Well, thanks Pinkie, umm, don't mind me asking, but, what's going on?” she replied.

Twilight pushed Pinkie aside, and said, “Well, last night...”

Suddenly, Fluttershy remembered a bit of her urgency from the night before, “Oh! The Girls! Are they okay?! Did that thing get them!?”

Twilight replied, “They are fine. But, we did have an encounter with the 'thing'. What did you see of it?”

Fluttershy stopped and thought for a second, and replied, “I can, I can hardly remember much, I just remember, feeling something following me, and I saw, it.”

“What is it?” asked Twilight.

“Oh, well, I used to have nightmares, well, still do, of this monster, a horrible thing!” she replied.

Pinkie butted in, “I used to have nightmares, until I laughed them away.”

Fluttershy quickly continued, “I, it is just so scary, I first had a nightmare of it when I was young, luckily I don't have that

nightmare much anymore though. Except, for, just last night.” She whimpered a bit thinking about it.

Twilight thought for a second, then asked “What about this nightmare? What happened?”

Fluttershy looked at her, and at the floor, “I, Don't want to talk about it.”

Twilight replied “Fluttershy, I know it might be scary, but this is Important,” she thought of a reason for a second, and then continued, “That thing may be on the loose.”

Fluttershy gasped, and said, “What happened?! Nopony is hurt, are they?”

Twilight replied, “We got worn out from chasing it, but not much, if we had no shown up you might have-” Twilight's sentence was cut off bye Pinkie covering her mouth, and reminding her not to mention that yet.

“I might have what?” asked Fluttershy in a worried tone.

“Well, umm, been hurt badly!” replied Twilight, “We found you just in time.”

Fluttershy now looked at her bandaged wing, and over to Applejack and Rarity passed out on her other furniture, along with Rainbow sleeping on the floor.

“They are just tired, and were worried about you sow we all stayed.” reassured Twilight.

“I Brought you Cupcakes!” Said Pinkie in an Excited tone.

“Oh, thank you guys, and thanks for the treats Pinkie,” said Fluttershy, as she sighed, “I suppose I better tell you about my nightmares then.”

Twilight nodded, and Fluttershy continued, “Well, I first started having this nightmare when I was a filly, before flight school even. But, it was a horrifying monster! It, it, came into my room, and, just stared at me, and, I could feel it's pent up rage.”

Twilight was listening intently, but refraining from taking notes.

Fluttershy continued, “Oh, but, it was really scary later, because it, it targeted my family, anyone I cared about.” She stopped and looked away for a second, “It acted like it did horrible things to them, to make me feel bad. But, eventually, I would wake up, and everything would be fine, well, most the time.”

“What do you mean most of the time?” asked Twilight.

“Well,” Fluttershy started, “sometimes, like when I was young, I would wake up, to find an accident happened overnight, the house was a wreck, and dad had a hurt leg. I don't know how I slept through whatever happened, but they said they only cared that I was alright.”

Bye now, the story she was telling was starting to take an emotional toll on her, and Pinkie noticed this. She then promptly got the best cupcake from the box, and gave it to Fluttershy.

“It's okay Fluttershy,” said Pinkie, “I am sure that monster is gone now.”

Twilight then added, “I think that's all I need to hear.”

Fluttershy took a small bite of the cupcake, and then said, "thanks Pinkie, this tastes real good, oh, were Angel, I better get started on taking care of the animals."

"Do you need any help?" asked Twilight, "I mean, your wing is hurt."

Fluttershy replied, "that would be great, thanks."

She found Angel, then noticed his leg.

"Oh Angel! What happened to your foot!? I better get that bandaged up right away!" She said smothering him, and taking him to the next room for first aid.

Twilight then woke up Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, and explained what she told Fluttershy...

_____________Authors note_________________

This is not the complete end, I am having ONE more chapter, likely it will be the Journal.

Anyway, as usual, I proofread it once, and will come back to this and possibly fix or improve some things to make it more understandable.

PS: Constructive criticism is still VERY welcome, I want to learn the best ways to right the characters.