//-------------------------------------------------------// The Night of Unusual Frights -by SecretPerson- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prolouge //-------------------------------------------------------// Prolouge So let's begin... Prologue: “Sweetie Belle! Are you ready!” Shouted Applebloom. Scootaloo stood next to her outside of Rarity's house, tonight was going to be the first night they went out camping alone. “I'll be ready as soon as my sister is!” shouted Sweetie Belle. Rarity was making sure things were just right for her sister and her friends to be out alone. Although she was a bit worried, she was also a bit relieved they may be able to start taking care of themselves more often, they just needed to prove it tonight. “Now Remember to set up the tent close to the river, but not too close, you might fall in, or it could flood!” Said Rarity as She triple checked her sister. Sweetie Belle pushed her sister back, and said, “We will be fine, And I am 120% sure I have everything we need for any emergency. Rarity quickly said back “Even the..” “Emergency whistle.” Said Sweetie Belle, interrupting Rarity. “Applejack and Big mac aren't going to be too far off, if we need help, we will call them.” (Little did she know that Applejack more or less planned to spy on them to make sure they could handle themselves.) Rarity sighed, and said “Alright, just be careful, alright, Mom and Dad would be so upset if you came back in pieces.” Suddenly, Scootaloo shouted “LET'S GOOO! I will leave without you if I have too!” And with that, Sweetie Belle said a quick goodbye, and ran Down to her Friends... -----About an hour later-- “Did you the tent up yet?” asked Sweetie Belle “Almost done here.” Replied Applebloom “Now how is this going to help is get our Cutie Marks?” Said Scootaloo. Applebloom replied- “I may not directly, but if we can prove we can handle ourselves alone for a night, we can get more time alone to search for our Special talents!” Sweetie Belle then said- “Yes, and Time is what matter! Heck! We can use this time right now! There is plenty of space.” “But what can we do here? In the night time?” Said Scootaloo Applebloom replied- “Many things! Like using the least to build the most! We could use the wilderness to supply supplies for some project!” “Maybe a canoe! Or a party style pontoon!” Said Sweetie Belle “Well alright! Sounds like a plan!” Replied Scootaloo. --Meanwhile-- “Always like big mac to show up, say 'eeyup' and leave me here alone to watch over my sisters, well, not too accurately I recon.” thought applejack and she set up a small camp in the trees next to were the Cutiemark Crusaders were. “Well, I can do this on my own, Just need to stay up until they fall asleep, and make sure nothing bad happens.” She continued to think. Suddenly, Big mac came running, and then Applejack said “Let me guess, the Timber wolves are acting oddly violent and terrorizing the edge of the farm, and you need my help?” Big mac, panting, said “Eeyup!” Applejack, surprised at being right, jumped up, and said “Well let's go! Wait! I better get someone to watch my sister tonight instead! I still worry they might get into trouble again! Applebloom said Fluttershy has done a good job asking care of her, maybe she will watch them.” ---Meanwhile elsewhere--- It was getting late, and Fluttershy was finishing getting her animals all to bed, tonight they were very cooperative. “Angel! Finished with your dinner yet?” said Fluttershy. And she was pleasantly surprised he did finish in a timely manner tonight. “Oh, good boy Angel, It's time for bed then!” She said. To her slight surprise, Angel grabbed her hoof, and led her to the kitchen, were multiple of the critters and him made a simple stew of sorts. They have been doing this about once a month, and she never refused to try it again, despite the almost horrid taste. “Oh, a, thanks Angel! How nice of you all to do this! [Might as well amuse him for being so good today].” Suddenly, before Fluttershy took her sip, someone knocked on the door really hard and repeatedly. This caused her to jump and spill the soup. “EEK! Oh my, sorry Angel, I better get that.” said Fluttershy as she headed to the door, while Angel slightly panicked. Fluttershy then open the door a bit, then noticed it was Applejack. “Hey Applejack Why are you here right now? Is something wrong?” asked Fluttershy. Applejack replied “A little emergency came up, and I was wondering if you could go watch over my sister and her friends tonight.” Fluttershy then said “Oh, well, sure, I still have some energy from the day, were are they?” Applejack replied “Oh, they are out Camping at the edge of town bye the river, I have a small area set up there to keep an eye on them incase anything goes wrong.” Fluttershy said “Well, I guess, I was worried they would be in the Everfree forest again. Just let me get some things and I will go out quickly.” Suddenly, Angel Jumped on her head, and acted like he really wanted her to stay. Fluttershy then said to angel, “It's alright, I have you bed all set up for you. I will be back right away in the morning.” Despite this, Angel still frantically tried to convince her to stay bye shaking his head. “Angel, I have to do this for my friend, it's and emergency.” Applejack then said, “Alrighty then, Thanks for Helping, I have to go, but I will be at the farm if you need me!” Fluttershy then got some things and put them in a bag, and headed for the Door, but Angel and multiple other critters hop'd in the way and tried to get her to stay with a 'road block' of sorts. “Oh don't worry so much,” she said, “I promise I will be right back as soon as I get home, just go to bed and don't break anything.” She then went to the door, and Open'd it, and fought a bit through Angel try to push it shut, and went out. “Sorry Angel, I have to go now, just try to calm down, I will be back soon.” As Fluttershy shut the door, and turned around, a big chill ran down her Spin. She then looked around the night, and was a little frightened, but new it was going to be fine. Although, due to the chill, she got a little nervous something may happen. But non the less, she headed out into the Half-moonlight... ______________________________________________________________________________________________ Intro note: Well, To be exact, I have had the idea for this theme of fan-fiction for awhile now. I don't usually write much, and I am not sure I will do a sequel to this, but I had to get it out of my head the best I could. I will admit I am likely not the best writer, and you may likely find multiple spelling errors, [I had to fix spelling about thirty times for this note] But I do hope you will like this short story of mine. And I also tried my best to fit the actually characters into this, and how I thought they would react, I am sure that you may find objections to how some react to scenes in this. And my goal here is not much, I would like some people to read, and I am testing to see if I have the ability to set an environment, development, references, and meaning behind a story. Though this has been in my head awhile, I have been coming up with ever so improving details as I read things like “My sister Fluttershy”, which is my favorite fan-fiction of this show. I also got the idea for the setting from the idea of how the group would fare in a horror-type situation, without it seaming like too harsh of a horror to the reader. I was pushed to do this though, mostly to prove you can put a new setting, while keeping it true to the original show. This Short story will mainly serve to see if I can nail down the Main characters designs in different events, and correctly enough give them proper reactions. I may write one[or both] of two crossover fanfictions I have been thinking of, which would be longer. If this does get popular, I MIGHT write a sequel story to this, but I highly doubt my skills are good enough to get it as popular as My little Dashie. One thing though, I hope the setting and story are different from other scenarios done by others, but I have not read many fanfics, so I would not know. And please do send me feedback on improvements or suggestions for characters designs in this, as it is still in “Alpha” (I will decide based on my satisfaction on when it will go from Alpha[Still being written], to Beta[finally done with draft], to Gamma[first official released], and Omega[never need to edit again].) Another thing, as this may hint to some big plot thing, the episode “Putting your hoof down” helped give me the first idea for this. It likely has to do with how I thought numerous times, how she seamed to be “venting” more than just having bad advice. A few other episodes that caught my early thoughts for this were “the stare master”, and “The best night ever”. I will say this, “The world put's a burden on you sometimes, but your attitude and reaction to these burdens is what counts.” PS: I would like to thank Fernin for some helpful advice on edits and improvements to be made! [this part will likely be changed more before it is set in stone]. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1, Paranoia //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 1, Paranoia Chapter 1- Paranoia Fluttershy Walked down the road toward Town, the River were the Crusaders were camping was along the edge of town, so it should not take that long to get there. [Why did Angel seam so worried?] Thought Fluttershy, [He is not usually so worried about  things, oh, what if he was having a nightmare! Wait, you can't have nightmares awake, can you?] Despite this, she went across the bridge, and was about to walk off onto a trial next to the small river, went she heard something. “**o f**h* m*...” Said the almost quite voice. “What? Wh-who was that???” Said Fluttershy, “Were are you??” She stopped right there, and froze for a bit, looking around, but heard nothing else. She took a step forward, and Jumped at the wind blowing. “Calm down Fluttershy, It's Okay, just go on, it was nothing.” She then walked down into the path a bit, but was much more scared. As she crept forward, she kept a close eye on everything, and it seamed that there were no other animals around. She would have liked it if there some animal friends around, but she knew the Crusaders were somewhere nearby. “Oh my! What if it was something?! I have to check on the Crusaders quickly!” She quickly starting going faster, and felt there was something racing her. She looked to her side, but saw nothing, and her Heart started beating at an uncontrollable rate. Fluttershy continued faster, and then to a run, and she went faster and faster, as a fearful excitement filled her Body. "Girls?  Girls?  Gir--!"  Fluttershy's frantic calls cut off with a squeak of pain as she slammed into the tree.  She tumbled backward for a moment, stars sparkling in her eyes as she struggled to right herself.  The terrified pegasus realized she was completely off the path. [Ouch! Ow! My head! Ow!] thought Fluttershy, as the pain in her head slowly got worse. She then realized she was still shaking, and a bit dizzy, despite her best efforts to calm down. Her vision was going blurry and back, and she heard another voice... “**o W**l **t Th** *o*!” “EEK!” she yelled as she hid, “What is that?? it sounded close, Too close!” Her Shivering only got worse, and she wiped some sweet off her head as she tried to come to her senses. “Wer-Were is the path? I have to get back! I can't believe I ran so far off it. I must be getting para-AHH!” She jumped back as something swooped down and grabbed her. There was a loud ruckus as many violent sounds could be heard... ---------------At Twilight's house--------------- “Pinkie, how long are you planning on keeping me up?” asked twilight with a yawn. Pinkie quickly replied “As long as it takes for you to agree to ask Princess Celestia to make National Talk like a Pirate day official in Equestria! ARRRG!” Twilight sighed, and said “I am her top student, but that does not make me a lobbyist!” Pinkie then replied “I don't want you to Lobby! That is a horrible dance! I just want you to get down of all hooves and beg for her to make Talk Like a Pirate day official!” Twilight was beginning to regret letting Pinkie 'Manage' her two mare slumber party. Somehow the spastic earth pony had used her position to turn the entire so-called party into a 'Talk Like a Pirate Day' advocacy seminar. Where had Pinkie even come up with the idea like-- no wait, Twilight knew the answer to that one. The answer was 'Pinkie Pie,' and exploring beyond that explanation would be like staring into a pink-maned, blue-eyed abyss. Suddenly, Spike came down stares yawning. “Oh, did we wake you up?” asked Twilight. “No, *yawn* Owlowiscious was making noise upstairs with some other birds.” said Spike “What? I did not know he had friends.” replied Twilight “Maybe I should check it out.” Twilight then went up stairs, but as she got there, Her nighttime assistant flew out the window with some other owls and eagles of sorts. “Well that is weird.” said Twilight, “I better go after him!” Pinkie then said “Ooh! Can I come! Can I Co-” She was cut off bye her sudden dousy of a shutter, which she recognized from when Twilight was trying to figure out about her abilities. “What was that?” asked Twilight. Pinkie looked around, and replied, “I don't know, I usually don't get twitches at ni-” She was cut off again by a fast short shutter. Pinkie than said, “Yup, that's a dousy alright! Second one ever! Maybe we should...” Twilight cut her off and asked, “Do you know were this 'Dousy', is going to happen? Does it have something to do with Owlowiscious?” Pinkie Replied, “Umm, I think near the river at the edge of town, not too far from the Everfree, but I can't tell much mo-” She shutter a again, and little harder this time. Twilight then said, “We should probably check this out, Spike...” She stopped as she noticed Spike was already asleep again, How birds fluttering around woke him, but he slept soundly through ponies chatter seamed odd. Besides this, she let him be, and grabbed a bag of quick emergency tools and the 'Unicorns guide to Emergencies and wounds'. With that, she and Pinkie pie headed out toward the small river at the edge of town. --------------The Crusaders camp-------------- “I have got the frame set! Sweetie Belle, were is the twine you said you had?” said Applebloom. SweetieBelle replied “Not necessarily twine, but this fancy rope of my sisters should work well!” Scootaloo then said, “I have got the poster done! And I have our torches almost ready!” Then the girls started tying the frame of their makeshift pontoon together, while setting up the decorations and roof. After some time, it began to look a bit respectable, unlike what they had made before with Fluttershy's table. The one thing though, that was holding them back now, was what to call it. “It should be the Conqueror of the Crusaders!” Argued Scootaloo. Applebloom replied “The SS Cutie Mark would be much better!” argued Applebloom. SweetieBelle then butted in “Maybe we should call it the Talent Drifter!” Scootaloo replied “What kind of name is that? My idea is way cooler!” Applebloom then said “Mine is about 20% cooler than yours!” Scootaloo replied in a harsh tone “No it is NOT!” And the bickering continued, until they heard a distant but loud ruckus. “What was that?” asked SweetieBelle. “Sounded like some pony is in trouble!” replied Scootaloo. “We should help!” Said Applebloom. “What about the pontoon?” asked SweetieBelle. “it should be fine” Replied Scootaloo, “No one else knows were it is.” “Come on! Maybe this is a sign for our special talents!” said Applebloom “LET'S GO!” yelled the three, and they grabbed their capes and bags and ran into the woods. ----------------Fluttershy----------- The Ruckus seamed to last a few seconds to her, as she barely knew what was happening. She started feeling angry, and could only make out a bit of the excitement. Suddenly, she felt pain in her head again, and her vision slightly reformed, and she began to realize she had Two of her Eagles under her hoofs. She had to force herself to blink, and then she got a bit of surprise out of what just happened, and realized she was about to hurt her eagle friends. “Oh! OH MY! I am so sorry! Ugg, Wha, what is going on!” said Fluttershy, recollecting her thoughts. The two Birds started getting over a bit of shock and hopped up onto their feet, and looked at each other and back at Fluttershy. “Wait? Why did you try to grab me? What are you all doing, you should be back in bed.” Fluttershy knew she should feel relived to be around some of her animal friends, but she could not help but to feel anger. With this, she started shaking again, and sat down due to lightheaded ness. Then, the two Eagles started flying, and seamed to be urging her back to her cottage. She than said, “I wish I could come back, but, what was I doing? Oh! I need to find the girls! I think there is a monster out of the Everfree, I need to make sure they are okay!” The eagles just flew closure to her and she knew they were trying to reassure her they would be fine, but for some reason they really beckoned her to follow them. But right then, her focus went to behind them, as she saw a shadow of sorts, look back at her, and head in the direction of the river! “Oh no! I have to help them!” She said as she followed the direction it went. The Eagles than looked at each other a bit confused, and Followed her over the trees... ______________Authors Note__________________ Again, thank Fernin for some good story writing advice and edits. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2, The Beast of Fear and Anger //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 2, The Beast of Fear and Anger Chapter 2, the Beast of Fear and Anger. Fluttershy ran through the thick of trees, not paying attention to the eagles following above the trees. Her Running was frantic and she breathed heavily, all the while filled with confusion. She then reached near the edge, by another part of the river, and across it was the Everfree forest. Fluttershy stopped, and slowly looked around the area. Fluttershy held her head for a second as pain still shot through it, and she was variously twitching. She then looked into the river water, and her vision blurred for a second, but she saw something, reflected out of it, something familiar and absolutely horrifying in memory. She froze as it quickly dissipated, but she realized, it directly resembled a beast of which she has had many nightmares of before. “No! NO! It can't be real!” she squealed holding her head, “No! I have to get out of here, I have to warn the Girls!” She got ready to start running again, but her two eagles swooped down toward her, and painstakingly tried to get her to leave right then. “NO!” she yelled in a unusually deep tone, “Go AWAY!” she yelled even louder. Shocked, the Eagles panicked, and flew towards town at high speed. Fluttershy then realized what she just did, and instantly regretted it. “Wait, no! Don't go! Why would I be like that?” Fluttershy then shook her head, still shaking a bit, and was about to head off toward the direction she thought the crusaders were camping. Suddenly, the trio ran into her direction, and Applebloom said, “Fluttershy! Was that you making that noise?” Scootaloo quickly retorted “Fluttershy would not be making such a ruckus on her own!” But before they could continue, Fluttershy ran to then, and hugged them tightly. “Oh thank goodness you all are alright!” The trio could instantly tell she was in a state of panic, and noticed her uncontrollable shaking, and frightened look among her face. She had her hair partly untangled, her tail was twitching and slightly mangled, and she had a bruise on her head. Applebloom replied, “Of course we are alright, what happened to you? SweetieBelle added “Your acting a bit unusual Fluttershy, what happened?” Scootaloo implied “Did something attack you?” Fluttershy became temporally lightheaded again, and shook her head, only to make it hurt worse. She then stepped back a bit, and said “Girls! There is a monster loose! It has been following me, I know it! We have to get back to town!” SweetieBelle noticed a, sudden, change in Fluttershy's eyes, that lasted less then a second, but she was unsure of what it was. Right then Fluttershy was making them hustle toward town by the edge of the river. “Fluttershy, can you tell us what the 'monster' looked like?” asked Scootaloo. She thought a second, “I would rather not, it is..” A sudden big flash of pain hit her head, and she dropped to the ground. “Fluttershy!!!” yelled the trio. She looked up, holding her head said, “Get to town! I will be right behind you!” Fluttershy was shaking drastically, and looked to be in allot of pain. The three of them saw her in a state of pain, as she was shaking and her head was really hurting now. “Do you need help?” asked Applebloom “No!” she replied in a slightly deeper tone, “Just get going! NOW!!!” This sent the girls frantically heading toward town without question. ---------------------at the edge of town--------------------- Twilight and Pinkie Pie bye not got to the path out of town near the river. Pinkie was able to lead them in the general direction of were this 'dousy' was going to happen. “Well,” said Twilight, “at least it is not the Everfree..” Pinkie replied, “I wonder if this dousy is a big surprise for us! That would be fun." Twilight replied back, “As long as it is not a huge emergency, but, that is why we are checking this out.” Before they went on, Applejack came toward them, looking a bit ticked off. “What are you doing out here?” asked Twilight. “Well, I asked Fluttershy to watch my sister and her friends, because big mack said there was an emergency. But, it was just some prank...” Rainbow dash then landed next to her, “Don't take it to hard! I have got everypony 6 or more times already, and you have to admit it was funny.” “Yea,” chuckled Applejack, “Hey, what are you and pinkie doing her Twi?” Twilight was about to reply, but the Pinkie Pie shuttered very noticeably. “oh, pinkie sense.” Applejack answered to herself. Pinkie replied, “Yea, we are heading out this way, there is something BIG that's going to happen!” Applejack then realized she was pointing in the direction her sister was camping. “Wait! Oh no! Applebloom and her friends are camping out that way!” said Applejack. Rainbow Dash then butted in, “Well then, let's go stop this 'thing' from happening, been awhile since something really exciting has happened.” Twilight winced at that remark, minding that excitement seams to plague her and her friends. Right then Applejack quickly went off running down the small path, Rainbow dash followed above, and Twilight and pinkie ran after them. In about a minute of running, The group ran right into the frightened Cutie Mark Crusaders. “Applejack!” said Applebloom as she ran into her sister. “Girls! Your all alright!” said Applejack, “what happened? Why are you running?!” “Fluttershy warned about a, beast, She told us to get to town as fast as possible!” replied Applebloom “Yea!” said Sweetie Belle, “Wait, were did she go! She said she would be right behind us!” “She never followed us after she stopped!” said Scootaloo. Applejack was Double checking her sister before she heard what they were saying. “Wait? Fluttershy is in trouble?” asked Rainbow Dash “I think so!” replied Scootaloo. "She said she would be right behind us, but she vanished!" This hit Rainbow Dash with a bit of shock, and she suddenly seamed more on task about the situation, “We have to go help her!” Twilight stopped Rainbow Dash before she zoomed away, and said, “We better think about this, what all do we have?” Applejack replied, “I got my rope.” Pinkie Answered “umm, I got nothing but my Pinkie Sen-” And she was cut off bye another, even more drastic shutter. Suddenly, another voice came into the conversation, “I have got my fashionable first aid bag.” “Rarity!” yelled SweetieBelle, “What are you doing here?” Rarity replied “Twilights owl would not let me be to sleep, so generally, I chased after him here.” Right then, Owlowiscious landed in a tree next to them, with the same two eagles that were bye Fluttershy before. “Owlowiscious? What are you doing here?” asked Twilight. Owlowiscious Woo'd in reply, and dropped a small piece of writing next to her. Twilight Picked it up, and it read: The beast of fear and anger, little to nothing has been recorded of it, until now. I have come into contact with one, and studied it up close. But most importantly, follow these tips of knowledge. It will only show up on nights of a half moon, it will feel only anger onto things, and it will direct anger at the ones who fear the most for it... The page was cut off from that point, and it was very old. Twilight quickly said, “I think Owlowiscious knows something, this paper talks of something I have not heard of before! And it seams like that creature could cause allot of mayhem, I will need to study this more to find out...” Suddenly, Rainbow Dash interrupted her, and said, “Oh no! We need to find Fluttershy!” Twilight only then noticed Rainbow had read it over her shoulder, as now she was zooming in the Direction the Crusaders came from. "I better keep this safe, everyone get going!" said Twilight as she put away the piece of manuscript, and ran after Rainbow Dash. Applejack turned to the trio of filly's, “You girls get back to Rarity's place and lock the door behind you!” Applebloom replied, “But what about..” “We will be fine, We need to make sure Fluttershy is alright. So go, and don't risk following us, this may get intense...” //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3, The search for a lost friend //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 3, The search for a lost friend Chapter 3, The search for a lost friend. Rainbow Dash Speed over the trees, calling out Fluttershy's name. She could see some things in the light of the half-moon, but it was still very dark. Behind her, Twilight light up the path, as she, Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack followed. “Fluttershy!” yelled Applejack, “Fluttershy! Come on out so we can get you home!” Rarity chirped in, “Come on out Darling, that is, if your okay.” “Fluttershy! Fluttershy!” yelled Twilight, as she muttered, “please come out okay.” Twilight suggested “Let's split up, but stay withing yelling distance!” “Alright,” said Rarity, “I will try bye the river.” “I've got the deeper woods” said Applejack. “I will take the Pat-” said Pinkie before she shuttered again. “I think Rainbow has the air, let's go!” finished Twilight. The group quickly split a little ways, to form a small line of sorts to search across the area. Rarity went bye the river for about a minute yelling for Fluttershy.“At least by the river my hair wont get caught in twigs...” She looked around, and noticed something odd in the distance between the trees and river. She quickly ran up to it an inspected. “Why it seams something big just smashed right through here! OH MY!” She yelped as she saw Fluttershy's saddlebag torn up by the wreckage. Twilight Sparkle quickly teleported to here when she heard the scream, “Rarity! What is it?” Rarity just pointed to the wreckage, and Fluttershy's torn up handbag. “I-I found it just as I walked along here, S-something is out on the loose.” Twilight Gasped as she saw the sight, and she grabbed Fluttershy's saddlebag to investigate further. As she picked it up, some birdseed fell out, along with a torn up picture of her and her friends. On the broken trees and the it was all sorts mangled dark fur, and anything else that would have been in the bag lay in ruins on the ground. Rainbow Dash quickly showed up to investigate the screaming, and saw the sight. “Wha-what could have done this?” She then noticed Fluttershy's saddlebag, “FLUTTERSHY!” she yelped. Quickly thoughts of what looked to have happened to her came to Rainbow Dash's head, as she was forced to hold back some tears. Applejack and Pinkie Pie showed up then, and awed at the evidence that lay before them. "What? No, No! this is not a good sign!" Said Applejack Pinkie Pie just stood there, trying not to think about possibilities, and the idea she may have to do one of those parties. “Rainbow,” said Twilight, “We have to find what did this, and make sure it cannot hurt anyone else... Fluttershy may still be alive, but, we have to find the monster that did this.” Rainbow Dash perked up, and gave a serious look, “Alright, this 'thing', is going to pay for whatever I find out it did to Fluttershy!!!” -----------------The Cutie Mark Crusaders--------------- The door rushed open as the three filly's ran in with worried looks among there faces. SweetieBelle shut the door and locked it as Applejack instructed. Applebloom tried to catch her breath, and Scootaloo looked out the window. The boutique was silent for a bit, until Applebloom spoke up. “What do you reckon will happen?” “I dunno” Replied Scootaloo. SweetieBelle just sat there in a chain of thought of what recently happened. Opal broke some of the silence bye Meowing in an irritated fashion. “We ought to help them!” said Applebloom. “But, what about what they said,” replied SweetieBelle “We had this night to prove we can take care of ourselves, and we can still prove it.” Said Scootaloo. “Besides, what if they were all just being paranoid, I mean, we did not see anything.” Said Applebloom. “Yes we did.” replied SweetieBelle in a serious tone, “Remember how urgently Fluttershy was trying to get us out of there? That must have meant something serious!” Scootaloo added “Speaking of that, What do you suppose happened to her? I mean, she was not necessarily 'healthy' when we saw her.” Applebloom started watching out the window towards the Direction they came from, when She noticed something heading into that direction. “hey guys? Is that, Angel?” The other two joined her at the window, as they saw Angel, and multiple other critters quickly heading to the river area. They noticed he was holding something in a vile, yet he and the critters quickly vanished through some bushes. “Alright, something weird is going on there, I vote we follow!” Said SweetieBelle “Yes!” replied Scootaloo “Well, okay, but let's hang back,” said Applebloom, “Applejack would be upset if she found out we left the Boutique.” And with that, the trio once again headed back into an unknown adventure. -----------------With the mane 6, er, 5---------------- “Okay now, we ought to stick together now.” said Applejack. “I agree,” replied Rarity. “Alright,” said Twilight, “Now we should follow this path it made, carefully.” She then received a hoot from Owlowiscious, whom seamed to be ready to scout ahead. “Well alright then, just be careful.” said Twilight in reply to her nighttime assistant, whom then flew into the trees. “Okay, What do we do if we find this, thing?” Said Rarity. “We make it pay for whatever it did to Fluttershy!” replied Rainbow Dash quickly. “Now hold on!” said Applejack, “This thing may be real dangerous, we just need to subdue it.” “Right!” replied Twilight, “We just need to make sure it does not hurt anyone, nor heads into town.” “Well let's get going then!” said Pinkie Pie. "I don't want it ruining anymore fun nights!" With that, the group headed through the wreckage of trees. Beyond them, was a path of noticeable damage to trees and bushes seemingly smashed by something big. The woods through here were mostly silent of animal life, except for when Pinkie Pie's sense caused her to shutter. Each of them had there eyes peeled, and were ready to see anything. During this, Twilight was reading through a small manual on different creatures to watch out for, to find out what they may be up against. “It does not make sense, this fur does not match anything in this book, nor the piece of manuscript Owlowiscious gave me.” Said Twilight. Rarity replied, “If this thing is new to Equestria, I am personally going to give it a Deportation for this!” Applejack looked at the path ahead, “Maybe we should not follow directly, I mean, it may be better if we came around it.” “But then what would we do? We haven't the slightest clue what this monstrosity is.” Implied Rarity. Rainbow butted in, “We will make it pay for whatever happened to Fluttershy, and if we can't find her, or she is,” Rainbow dash could not bring herself to say the word, “I will rip it limb from limb!” “Calm down Dashie! I am sure we will find her,” reassured Pinkie Pie, before muttering, “I am sure...” There conversation was cut off bye a hoot, and Owlowiscious Flying above them. He beckoned them to the side of the trees. Twilight gave a quick response,“I think he wants us to hide!” Suddenly, they all heard a noise coming toward them from a distance. Each of them jumped behind some trees, except Pinkie, as she was shuttering very drastically. Rainbow Dash quickly grabbed Pinkie and brought her behind a tree with Twilight. As they waited, the noise seamed to vanish. “What do y’all suppose that was?” said Applejack. Rarity Shushed her, “It may still be...” Rarity's sentence was cut off bye a large creature landing the path they were just running along. The Monster was very large, yet slightly resembled some horse-like features. It's fur was all sprawled out, and had a Strip of dark purple fur on it's back, with almost pure black on the side, and Grey on it's belly. It had wings, that looked demonic if you would see them. The wings were not much like a pegasus's at the base and a ways out, but they had large extended Feather like thing off the ends, One side colored Purple, one side Red. It's tail was dark purplish red, and was fairly large on it, while the beasts main had the same color. It also had large Canine's, and It's hoove like features were large and sharp. But the most deafening feature was the eyes, they were variously colored in black, red, and yellow, and had a fury-filled look in them. Pinkie and Rarity gasped, and stopped each other from screaming, while Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow dash looked in awe at the large beast. The creature looked around the area, giving a deafening look of fury at it's surroundings. It then started walking down around the area a bit, and kicked dow a whole tree as it passed it. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash shot into the air above it, and yelled at it. “I'm gonna do three times worse than whatever you did to Fluttershy! No matter what you are!” she yelled. “RAINBOW! Watch out!” yelled Applejack as she twirled her rope. Before anyone else could react, the creature looked up at Rainbow Dash, and gave a Furious stare before Flying at high speeds above her. It Spreed it wings with the moon, the Purple side on the dark end, and the Red side on the light end, which gave out a bright light from both sides of it's wings. Rainbow Dash narrowly got out of the way before it smashed into the ground, knocking everypony off their feet. “Applejack, Rarity, NOW!” yelled Twilight. On Que, Applejack Lassoed her Rope around it, and Rarity tried tying it more with her ropes and magic. “hold onto it!” Said Twilight as she helped Applejack Hold the rope on the beast. Rainbow Dash speed back, and tried to hold it's head down. Despite the groups efforts, the creature Stood up, and used it's strength to fly them into the air. “AHHH! HOLD ON! Hold On!” Yelled Applejack as she panicked a bit, while Rarity ad Pinkie held on the other rope. The Beast then knocked Rainbow Dash off itself, and she flew into a nearby tree. It then grabbed hold of the ropes tied around it, and flew the group toward the Everfree forest at high speeds through the trees. They all start hitting trees, and trying to hold it back, but with no prevail. Quickly they were over the river, and Twilight yelled, “Everypony let go now!” Pinkie, Rarity, Twilight, and Applejack let go of the ropes, and plopped into the river. Applejack splashed out of the water, gasping for breath. They all quickly swam for the riverbed, and climbed out exhausted. “ouch.” Said Twilight. “That thing, is, so strong, few thing can beat me when I rope them, especially with help.” Said Applejack while trying to catch her breath. Rarity replied, “It has done far too much! Just look at my hair! I'm a mess!” Rainbow Dash Flew to them, and landed with a flop, “Okay, this thing is really going to get it!” Pinkie Pie Shuttered even harder than before, which slightly puzzled Twilight, “Wait, isn't that the Dousy, should your sense already be gone now?” Pinkie Pie looked around, and Shuttered again, “Hmm, I think that may not be the whole of it, something else is going to happen with this.” Twilight winced at the thought of what worse could happen, and shook her head at the though. “We have to do something about this thing!” She then heard a hoot, and looked up to see Owlowiscious flying over, with multiple birds and eagles. Rarity started speaking, “Alright now, that thing just went back into the Everfree forest, maybe we don't need to...” She was cut off Bye the noise of the Beast flying over their heads again, and giving off a loud roar. The Five ponies Jumped back, and got ready for a second round. “Alright everypony, try to wear it out, we obviously can't out muscle it!” said Twilight. With that, Rainbow Dash Started flying around it, “Hey! Ugly! You think you can just come around her and beat us up!?” The beast quickly followed her, the two speed through multiple ways of flying, and it nearly caught rainbow Dash a few times. “Okay, your good, but your still just s thickheaded monster! What did you do to Fluttershy!” With that, the monster gave a furious look, and tried to smash Rainbow into the ground, narrowly missing her. Right before it went back after her, Owlowiscious flew around it's path, with multiple birds and bats, it started swinging at them furiously, before spinning around and falling into the River. Twilight Prepared her magic, Applejack got her rope ready again, and Rarity readied for more, while Pinkie stood back a ways still Shuttering uncontrollably. Right then, the beast Splashed out of the water again, and looked around. Twilight quickly grabbed it's wings with her magic, and held them shut so Applejack could wing her rope around them, and Rarity wrapped another around it. It then fell to the ground next to the water, and furiously tried to break free. All of the Ponies then grabbed different ropes and held it down, while twilight started a spell to try and paralyze it temporarily. “Ugg, hurry up!, this thing is allot stronger than it looks!” Said Rainbow Dash holding her end of the rope. Twilight was then about to use the spell, when Angel jumped in front of her. “WAH!” she yelled shooting the spell into the air, missing Angel and the Beast. “Angel, what are you doing here!?” The bunny lifted a small vile of an orange potion, and directed it toward the beast. As soon as the beast saw angel and what Angel had, it went furious, and tried desperately to get loose. It then smashed down on Angels leg with it's hoof. The bunny threw the vile in pain, and quickly crawled away. Twilight caught the vile with her magic right before it it the ground. “What is this?” she asked. “I think he, ARG, want you to make the monster drink that!” said Applejack trying Desperately to hold on, “Hurry up and try it!” Twilight nodded, and was about to open the vile, right before the Monster Ripped the rope around it's wings, and took to the air, breaking free from the ponies. “NO!” Yelled Rainbow Dash as she flew back. Suddenly, a familiar voice was heard, “WHAT IS THAT!?” Twilight turned to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders looking over some bushes at the monster, but before she could say anything, it lunged right at them. “NO!” yelled Applejack as she tried to run after her sister and her friends. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4, the dousy //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 4, the dousy Chapter 4, The Dousy The Beast Leaped Straight at the Cutiemark Crusaders, with fangs showing, it was about to crush them on the spot. Suddenly, Twilight blasted the Beast with a spell, knocking it back and making it narrowly miss the Trio. “Girls! Get away from that thing!” yelled Rarity. Right then, as they began to run, the Beast got up, and snapped at Applebloom, bitting her foreleg. “GAH!!! OUCH!” yelled Applebloom as she yanked her foreleg from the beasts mouth. Applejack quickly kicked the monster back, as Rainbow Dash followed knocking it back further. The three filly's then ran toward the rest of the group, while Applebloom limped on the way. “What are you girls doing out here!” said Rarity in a worried tone, “Applejack said to go straight to my house!” “This is not Rarity's house silly's!” added Pinkie Pie SweetieBelle replied, “W-we wanted to see if you all had it taken care of..” She was cut off by a loud roar from the monster as it chased after Rainbow Dash in the air again. “You Girls need to get back home now! It is really dangerous here!” Said Rarity in a harsh tone. “If you want to help, go get Spike, I think he can help us, as if we can't subdue this thing ourselves, we will need to send an urgent message to Canterlot.” Added Twilight. “Someone hurry and help me out here!” yelled Rainbow dash as she tried to wear out the Beast chasing her. Applejack turned to the girls, “get going you hear! NOW!” She started attempting to rope the beast, but just missed. Rainbow Dash then speed straight into the sky trying to get away from it. The Crusaders quickly followed the orders given to them, and started running back to town, while helping Applebloom as she limped. They got to Scootaloo's Scooter, and started speeding away. “Wh-what is that thing???” asked Applebloom as she hopped on with her good foreleg. “I don't know, but we have to hurry and get Spike,” said SweetieBelle, “It is keeping up with Rainbow, so it is definitely dangerous.” added Scootaloo “Ow, That thing got me good.” Said Applebloom as she inspected her Foreleg. Back were the Beast was chasing Rainbow Dash, she started reaching heights were she was having trouble keeping speed straight up. She looked behind herself to see it still keeping most of it's speed, if only she could keep this up longer than it. Her wings started to feel cramped as she continued up higher, and she was starting to slow down. “keep, going, just a little higher.” she grunted as she kept flying up. Another Glance behind her showed the beast was actually letting up a bit, and was glaring at her, seemingly angry she was still going so high up. “Just a little higher.” muttered Rainbow Dash. From the ground the other ponies could hardly see what was going on. “Come on Rainbow.” Said Applejack as she still held her rope ready. Rainbow Dash looked behind herself again, and decided the Beast was enough distance away to give her time. She then stopped were she was, and darting as fast as she could toward it. The monster eyes widened, as it reached out to hit Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus turned swiftly and kept toward the ground. The Monster then darted after her, heading down to the ground right behind her, as Rainbow dash's speed kept getting faster and faster. The two began to get close to the ground, and it seamed they may crash. “She's gonna crash!” yelled Applejack. “Hang on, I think she can pull this off.” reassured Twilight. “Come on Rainbow Dash! Who hoo!” shouted pinkie trying to cheer her on, before shuttering again. Rainbow Dash looked straight at the ground, and gave no thought to the beast behind her. She then Opened her wings wide, and about ten feet above the ground, turned straight forward, narrowly avoiding a devastating crash. Yet, to her Plan, the Beast was not prepared for this, and swerved only a bit before crashing it's wings into a tree, and it started flipping through the trees, causing much damage. The Beast left a trial of wreckage with it's crash, and laid were it stopped, seemingly knocked out. “Alright! She did it!” said Applejack with a sigh of relief. “Good show Rainbow!” shouted Rarity. “I Knew You Could Do It Rainbo-” Shouted Pinkie before shuttering again. Rainbow Dash slowed down, and landed next to her friends, as she started to feel a bit worn out herself. “Come on everypony! We have to get that thing tied up before it comes to!” Said Twilight. Rainbow Dash, looked up, and held her head up high, “I would say I did a pretty good job! I knew my skills were still better than it's!” The group was heading with swiftness down the path of destruction left by the Monster's crash. “Alright, there it is!” said Twilight. Applejack was about to throw her rope around it, when it opened it's eyes, and shot up. “EEK!” yelled Pinkie as she flew backwards, while the others jumped back in panic. The Monster glared at them, and tried to spreed it's wings, only to find it's right wing was very wounded. It then closed it's wings, and glared at the group with a high intensity. Twilight, looked at the Monster, and was held bye a paralyzing fear, it's glare felt unnatural. The five ponies just stood there, with fear growing more as they were under it's glare. The Monster then looked away from them, and toward were town was, and showed a small grin. It then Turned around and charged away at high speeds. “Wait! Stop that thing!” yelled Twilight, “It is heading straight for town!” “No Way ah am letting that thing hurt anypony else!” said Applejack “That thing, it is far to fast, and strong for us! We need help!” said Rarity “Just give me another go!” replied Rainbow in a brash tone, “I can take it down!” “Rainbow, with all due respect, we need to try something else.” replied Twilight. “Let's talk about it on the way!-” Said Pinkie before she shuttered again, “I need to warn the cakes!” The whole group then replied, “Right!” Owlowiscious hooted, and flew toward the town, along with Angel bunny still limbing behind them. Twilight turned and noticed Angel was still following them, “Oh Angel! What are you still doing here?!” The Bunny just made multiple hand gestures, pointing toward were the Beast went, and the Bottle of liquid the Twilight got from him earlier. “So we should get that thing to, drink this?” she replied. Angel nodded, and hopped on her head, and pointed onward to the town. “Ah have never seen that bunny so active, especially with and injury!” said Applejack. “Maybe he is worried about Fluttershy.” replied Rarity “Well, we all are, I think if we stop that beast, I can use a spell to find out what happened to her, and were she is.” Said Twilight, trying to be optimistic. Rainbow Dash replied in a slightly angry tone, “We'd better not have to find out, y'now, something like that, otherwise that things is getting all I got!” “It's okay Rainbow-” Said Pinkie, as she Shuttered drastically again, and muttered “I don't want to organize that kind of party anyhow.” The group continued toward town as fast as they could, while following the path the Large creature left as it ran along the ground. Eventually, they came to and opening, were the bridge near Fluttershy's cottage and Ponyville was. It was not long before they heard a scream coming from town, and the five ponies quickly ran to investigate. They got to were the main road went downtown, and saw a smashed garden, and a frightened Lyra. “LYRA! What did you see?!” Asked Twilight frantically She just muttered for a bit, then said, “I-I-I, it had, big teeth, huge monster, tons of fur, and, and, such horrifying eyes! I swear I could feel all it's pent up rage as it looked at me! Oh dear!, It went straight for downtown!” Twilight perked up, as she quickly heard a loud roaring sound coming from down the road, and more ponies being stirred bye the noise. “Okay everypony! We have not time to loose! We have to try and subdue it long enough to get it to swallow this potion!” The group nodded, and Applejack turned to Lyra, “Yah might want to go inside, just incase.” Lyra just nodded, and backed into her door, and slammed it shut. Rainbow Dash soared through the air, and saw the monster smashing up parts of the marketplace, luckily no pony was there at this time of night, but it was causing allot of damage. “HEY! YOU! I was not done with you yet!!!” she yelled The Monster looked up, and flexed it''s wings a bit, before, kneeling in pain of it's right wing, and just glared back at her being unable to fly. “What? Can't fly? You'd better find another way to get me?” she taunted back at the Beast, whom presumed to properly grab a fruit cart, and chuck it striaght at Rainbow, whom narrowly dodged it. “Cheep-shot!” she yelled as she got ready to dodge more items being thrown. On the Ground, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, and Angel all looked around the corner. “How should we try this time?” asked Applejack “We need to warn the other towns ponies to stay indoors! Or at least get it out of town as soon as possible.” said Twilight as she noticed Ponies lazing waking from their homes and looking out their doors and windows. Pinkie quickly replied, “ON IT!” and she ran off. “Were is she? never mind” said Twilight, “Applejack, Rarity, get ready to try and tie it up tight as possible, down the road toward Fluttershy's house! Me and Rainbow will lour it towards you!” “Alright!” Replied Applejack, as she and Rarity went off. Twilight was just getting worried bout the crowd starting to get in the path outside, when suddenly, she heard Pinkie's voice, on a megaphone. “ALRIGHT EVERYPONY! DO NOT BE” She Stopped as she Shuttered, and continued, “ALARMED! THERE IS A DANGEROUS CREATURE IN THE TOWN, SO PLEASE” she shuttered again, “RETURN TO YOUR HOMES AND LOCK THE DOORS! WE HAVE A UBER PERFECT PLAN TO TAKE CARE OF IT!” Twilight looked up to see Pinkie in a flying contraption of sorts, with a megaphone. How Pinkie did this, she was not certain, but Twilight knew there were bigger issues on hand to worry about. Right then, the Crowd slightly panicked, as some saw the Monster, whom glared back at them, and they all ran back to their homes and hid. Suddenly, the monster lunged another merchant cart toward some of the frantic ponies, but Twilight used her magic to stop it in mid air, and drop it safely. It then turned it's attention to Pinkie Pie, and grabbed a piece of a fence, and hurled it at her. The debris hit the propeller on her flying machine, and sent her falling toward the ground. “PINKIE!” yelled Twilight and Rainbow Dash at the same time. Rainbow acted fast, and flew through, and grabbed pinkie before her machine hit the roof of a house, knocking off some shingles. Rainbow then Landed her next to Twilight. “Are you alright,” asked Twilight frantically. “Mostly, my awesome flying machine is broken though...” she replied in a slightly downed mood. The three Ponies then looked Up to she the Monster charging at them, and Twilight Quickly put up a magic shield, bouncing it back once. “Go toward Fluttershy's cottage! Applejack and Rarity will take care of it there!” yelled twilight. “Okie dokie lokey!” Said Pinkie, as She shuttered, and Rainbow moved her out of the way of some more Debris. The Pegasus then reared up, ignoring how worn out she was getting, and spat at the Monster. “HEY! Try to get me! I'm low enough!” she taunted. The Beast took the bait, and swiped at her, missing. It then charged after her as she speed toward the bridge. The Monster ran after her, keeping up speed, and Rainbow, went faster toward the bridge. As she passed over, the monster leapt over the bridge. Her Rainbow signaled to Applejack and Rarity, Who quickly threw and wrapped their Ropes around the unsuspecting Monster, causing it to drag them along with it's stride, and curve right into a tree. This knocked it into a confused state for a little bit. “QUICK! Tie it down!” Yelled Applejack, as she and rarity quickly tied it's limbs together while it was recovering from the hit on the head. They then got it all triple securly tied to the tree, and multiple fence posts. “This better hold, I will need an expensive visit to the salon as it is already.” said Raity as she looked at her mane. It was not long before Twilight and Pinkie got there, along with Angel bunny still hanging on to her mane. The Beast started struggling, it frantically tried to break loose, and violently tossed around grunting and roaring. “Okay, I don't know what this potion will do, but her it goes!” said Twilight he she used her magic to hold the beast mouth open. She pulled the cap off the top, and it gave off an acrid smell. She then forced the monster to swallow the whole thing, and it coughed right after it swallowed the potion. “That thing is mighty fierce.” Said Applejack as she panted and investigated her wounds. “I never had such trouble outrunning anything before!” added Rainbow, lying down on the ground from exhaustion. Pinkie, shuttered a whole lot than said, “I have never seen the town so messed up before, except when the Parasprites happened, and that other time when...” She was quickly cut off by another shutter. “I never let myself be part of such behavior so unhealthy for my Mane!” said Rarity as she tried to straighten her hair out with a brush she brought along in her bag. “Do y'all suppose the princess would want to know about this?” asked Applejack Twilight replied “I think we ought to write a letter, there might be more than one of these things.” The Group noticed that the beast was getting increasingly more worn out, and started to give up on breaking free. That potion was looking like it was a high strength sleep potion. Sure enough, after about a minute, it closed it's eyes and started to snore. “Jeez, that thing is actually making me Jealous right now.” said Applejack with a yawn. “I could definitly use some rest” replied Rarity. “I can't sleep!” quickly replied Rainbow, “Not until we find Fluttershy!” “She's right,” said Twilight, “We ought to find her, but we should organize a search party, and maybe we will have to go into the Everfree.” “Can I lead the search PARTY!?” asked Pinkie in an excited tone. “Sure” replied Twilight, “especially since you seam to have energy for it.” The Night was beginning to let up, it was actually starting to be morning, as the Half moon went down behind the mountains, and a glimmer of the sun showed up on the horizon. “It seams we have been at this since midnight! I have not gotten any sleep all night!” said Twilight looking at the horizon as she was writing notes on the creature while it was out. She noticed Angel inspecting the beast closely with a worried look on his face, as he looked between her and it. “You might not want to be so close Angel.” she suggested, but the bunny just ignored her, seemingly trying to think of something. Owlowiscious landed next to him, and also inspected the monster. Suddenly, they heard familiar voices closing in. The group turned to see the cutie mark Crusaders coming along, with Spike lazily following. Applejack noticed Applebloom had a bit of bandage on her left foreleg, as she limped toward them. “There you guys are!” Said Scootaloo “We got Spike!” added SweetieBelle “WOA!” Said Applebloom looking at the knocked out Beast. “Did you guys do that?!” But their answers would have to wait as Applejack inspected Appleblooms injury, and Rarity check her sister for any collateral damage. “How Bad did that thing get you!? Did you sterilize the bit? Are you hurt anywhere else???” asked Applejack frantically. “It's fine!” replied Applebloom, “Spike got some bandages on from a first aid kit.” “Well alright, but were going to have the doctor double check it!” replied Applejack “Fine, but I can walk just fi-OW!” she said, as she felt her foreleg, “But a doctor visit would not hurt.” “Spike, what did the girls tell you?” asked Twilight. He replied, “To be exact, I woke up with them hopping on my tail, yelling three different story's about some Fluttershy and monster and danger. But I can see you seam to have it taken care of.” “Mostly” replied twilight, “but Fluttershy is missing, and we found her saddlebag, well, in pieces, we found this thing not to far from there...” Spike thought about that for a bit, and looked at the beast. “So,” Twilight continued, “I need you to take a letter, I am going to alert the princes about this thing, and request a search party for Fluttershy.” “ON IT!” Said Spike as he got a feather and paper ready. The sun was starting to ever so slightly show on the horizon now, and Angel bunny seamed to be panicking a bit, while Owlowiscious turned to him, and gave a nod. With that, Angel nodded back, with a more serious look, and hooped toward Twilight. “Be sure to mark this Urgent Spike. Dear Princes Celestia.” started Twilight. But before she continued, angel tugged on her tail. “Hang on a second Spike, Angel, are you trying to say something.” The bunny nodded, and pointed at the horizon, then to the beast, then back to the horizon, and to Fluttershy's house. “Umm, I don't see were your going with this.” Said Twilight trying to interpret his message. Yet, pinkie was watching him closely, as he repeated the gestures, then pointed at the Beast, and Fluttershy's cottage, and back to the beast. Pinkie then muttered, “No, that can't be the dousy,” And she shuttered really drastically, “Maybe, I think, no, that just does not make sense!” Twilight asked pinkie, “What doesn't make sense?” “Watch the monster here.” She replied, inspecting it closure, and sure enough, it was shaking, and was starting to pant . “Wait! But, no! That just Doesn't make sense! That isn't a marewolf! And it was a half-moon!” said Pinkie in a baffled tone. The beast started shaking more, and the first bit of sunlight shot over the horizon. The other ponies turned toward it as is uncontrollably shook around. “Pinkie, what are you talking about marewolves?! They are pretty much extinct!” said Twilight in a confused tone. Pinkie replied, “I know, but, it ad's up, but does not ad up!” she started shuttering a whole lot, then stopped and held her head steady for a second. Suddenly, the Beast groaned, and started changing shape. It's wings shrunk, and the ends pretty much vanished, it's massive teeth shrunk away a bit, and it's fur started dissipating. The Beasts size then started shrinking, and it's fur colors changed, and it's mane shrunk a bit. Then it's Mane started turning pink, and it's fur yellow, along with it legs becoming distinguished hooves. It wings then formed to pegasus size, and turned yellow, while it's face started to look like, Fluttershy. After about a minute, the ponies stood in awe, and gasped when they saw their friend Fluttershy, held loosely in the ropes in front of them. “THAT'S THE DOUSY!” Yelled Pinkie in utter surprise. ________________________________AUTHORS NOTE_____________________________________ THIS IS NOT THE END OF THE STORY, mmmkay. I do plan on having 2, maybe 3 more chapters for sure, based on well, explanations and such. And don't worry, I already have a completely ridiculous but sense making to the characters explanation thought up already. [Notice how I did not do this on a ful moon considering many episodes took place on nights of a ful moon]. But es, that wil have an explanation, and I even plan on having the last or second to last chapter as a journal that explains allot of this. I have already put thought into that too, but it is not written up yet. PS: I did proofread this part, but it was late at night, so I will proofread again tomorrow so it is easy enough to read and understand. PPS: Oh god, this is the worst grammer and spelling in a authors note I've ever read, wait, I made it... too lazy to fix... //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5, Nightmares and Recovery //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 5, Nightmares and Recovery 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. //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6, Finally //-------------------------------------------------------// Chapter 6, Finally Quick note: This is my least favorite chapter, I find it sloppily put together, and really rushed towards the end. Sorry about it being kind of crapy. I will redo multiple parts of this at some point to fill in more holes, and make it not read so sloppy and rushed. Chapter 6 “Oh Angel, what were you doing that you got your foot so hurt!?” asked Fluttershy as she got out some bandages she uses for when she finds a hurt animal. “It is very swollen, whatever you did, never do that again, okay?” Angel was already getting quite irritated with this smothering, and pushed her away while she investigated his foot. “Come one Angel, I need to get that patched up, you don't want it to fall of, do you?” With that, Angel, looked at his foot, and then thought of life with out it. With a jitter, he let the worried pegasus bandage up his foot. After a minute or so, hi foot was all well bandaged up, and she even got out some small sticks he could use as crutches. Though, he rather denied them, and did his best to make the injury look like it did not hurt that bad. “Alright Angel, I guess that will do, just stay off that foot as much as possible until it heals.” said Fluttershy as she walked back to her friends. When she entered the room, Rarity looked over, and said “Fluttershy! Oh, how are you feeling, since last ni-err, your wing injury?” “Well, it is fine, I just can fly for a little while I guess, oh, did I wake you?” replied Fluttershy “No, not at all, just, as long as your alright, I better get back home and attend to some errands I forgot about, it will take me weeks to get back into my normal sleeping pattern!” Rarity replied, as she gather some of her things. Rainbow Dash then spoke up, “So, yea, I better check in with the weather team, I think I may have slept in already.” she then yawned due to lack of sleep. “Oh, i'm sorry if you were up all night, I didn't me-” started Fluttershy before being cut off by Rainbow. “No! It's fine, I know you did not mean to att-” Rainbow Dash's sentece was cut off by Pinkie putting her hoof in her mouth, which caused Fluttershy to raise an eyebrow. Rainbow Dash quickly spit out Pinkie's hoof, and corrected herself, “I mean, get hurt by that monster! Yea, I am sure you would have done the same for me.” Fluttershy did become slightly suspicious that her friend might be hiding something, but shrugged it off for the time being. “Well, thank you for saving me then, I better get to feeding my animals.” She looked at the clock and Gasped, “Oh dear! I have never been this late for their breakfast, they must be starving!” Twilight then spoke up, “So, do you need help with anything?” she then accidentally yawned. “No, I'm fine, I can take care of my animals just fine, you all seam much more worn out than me anyway.” she replied. “Well, if yah need any help, just give us a holler, but I better get back to the farm and check up on things.” Said Applejack. “Yes” added Twilight, “I will check on you later too, just to make sure, um, that your wing is healing.” Fluttershy replied “Thanks, just make sure you all get well rested.” And with that, The friends gave quick goodbye's and headed off to their homes. Fluttershy trotted out to her shed, and gather the food she needed for her outdoor animals, of which were being over dramatic already. On the way to the library, Spike ran up beside Twilight, and asked, “So, when are you going to tell her what really happened? I mean, from what that journal said, she might turn into that thing again.” “Well, I will first read through this journal, and find out more about what this means. Maybe the Princess will know the best thing to do.” she replied Spike then asked, “Okay, but, do you suppose we can cure it?” “I am not sure,” said Twilight as she though, “But if not, we can make sure that she doesn't hurt anypony else.” They walked a few more paces, then Spike let out a gasp “WAIT!!! That thing said she was and Alpha Marewolf, like, the first ones, so, if she bites somepony, does that mean they become a normal Marewolf?” Twilight then stopped, and replied “Well, yes, that seams about right.” He then let out another bigger gasp, “She bit Applebloom last night! I remember specifically that wound being a bite!” Twilight immediately dropped the book she was holding with magic, “WHAT!? Oh no! We have to fine Applejack! Maybe this journal has something dealing with this sort of thing!” -----------------------------------At the Apple Family farm------------------------------------------ Big mac was out on the farm already checking on crops and the Apple trees. Luckily, at this time, there wasn't a harvest or planting yet, so the only work needed done was maintaining the crops. This came lucky for Applejack as she was still tired from the activity of the night before. Applebloom was in her bed asleep at the time, and Applejack was almost asleep in the chair she was sitting in. The only sounds around now were Granny Smith's snoring, and the birds and some light breezes outside. Applejack was just dozing off, when suddenly someone was knocking at the door. Slightly startled, Applejack jumped up, “Wha, Who is it?” “it's me! Twilight!” Said Twilight through the door. [Well now what, ah am glad to help out and all, but I am way to tired right now.] thought Applejack, [ah well, ah can still handle it, ah got some energy left, I think] She walked up and opened the door, to see a worried Twilight, and Spike readily reading through that journal. “Twilight, y'all alright? Does this have something to do with Fluttershy?” She asked observing her guests. “Well, Sort of, were is Applebloom?” replied Twilight. Applejack thought for a second through her lack of energy, “uhh, she's in her bedroom sleeping pretty hard, maybe ah should do the same.” “She was bit last night, right?” asked Twilight quickly. “Well, yea, that wound was a bite, Ah assume Fluttershy did not mean to hurt my sister, so i'm not mad at her, but I will buck anyone if I find out they are behind this!” “Well, it is not just that she is hurt,” started Twilight, “I am pretty sure, that if this journal says Fluttershy is an Alpha Marewolf, then she may have turned Applebloom, into a marewolf.” Applejack, looked at Twilight at first in surprise, and with a sudden wave of realization said, “What!? Oh, Ah think your right, I get her right away! How are we going to cure that?” “I know that there was a cure for the ponies whom recently contracted the curse, it came around a hundred or so years ago.” Said Twilight trying to calm Applejack, “I bet Zecorah would still have a recipe for it, she seams to have allot of old recipe's along those lines.” “Well alright, should we go now then?” asked Applejack. Twilight Replied, “We should get Applebloom, and take her to Zecora's, then she can tell us whether the bite is an issue, and if she can cure Marewolves.” Applejack nodded, and went upstairs to get Applebloom. Applebloom had found she was more worn out than she thought when she had got home, and passed out almost immediately. She was tightly curled up in the blanket, and sleeping heavily. As Applejack entered the room, she noticed her sister was shivering ever so slightly, and put her hoof on Applebloom's forehead to check her temperature. This woke her up with a yawn, and she slowly looked up. Surely enough, she was running a fever, and Applejack said, “Hey, how is your leg?” Applebloom slowly sat up, and inspected her foreleg, “I think it is fine, is a bit itchy though.” Applejack Inspected it, and moved some of the bandages to get a better look. To a bit of her surprise it was healed over mostly, and remained as allot of patchy scabs. “Hmm” said Applejack “Say, you know how Fluttershy was, you know?” “Yea, but you haven't told me much, what did y'all find out?” Asked Applebloom “Well, it turns out she is a type of Marewolf,” she replied, “She is fine now, but we are trying to figure out more, but...” she looked at Applebloom's foreleg again. Applebloom thought for a second, then remember her old scary children's books about the creatures. This brought upon the realization, “Wait!? If she's a marewolf, and they are real, than, a-am I one because of this?!” Applejack quickly Replied, “Well, that is what were worried about, but were heading to Zecorah's straight away to try and straighten this out. Twilight says their is a cure for this type of thing.” Applebloom quickly hopped out of her bed, and leaned on her foreleg only for a second before limping back up. “it still hurts like hay.” “Well that's to be expected, do you need to be carried, because we ain't got any crutches.” replied Applejack “No, I am mostly fine, might be a bit slow, but, let's just get going.” The Sisters went to the parlor where Twilight and Spike were waiting. "You all ready?" asked Twilight. "Yep" replied Applejack and Applebloom simultaneously. "Well, let's get going, I want to get this taken care of as soon as possible!" said Spike, "Today;s checklist is long, and I am being delayed!" And with that the four headed out to Zecora's with hast. After about a half hour, Twilight, Spike, Applejack, and Applebloom reached Zecorah's hut. Oh god, writing Zecorah is gonna kill me, OH CRAP! I just broke the fourth wall, uhh, *Cough Cough.* “So, how's your leg feeling?” asked Applejack as they walked toward the hut. “Fine” replied Applebloom, “It is not hurting as bad as it did earlier.” Twilight walked up to the door and knocked. Zecora quickly opened it, and greeted, “Oh hello my dear Twilight...” But before she could continue, Twilight interrupted Zecora, “We have a big problem, this will be hard to explain, but bear with me.” ---------------------- At Fluttershy's cottage------------------------- Fluttershy had been working hard to take care of her daily chores since sleeping in. She had gotten most of her animals feed, and also successfully counted all of them up. One thing was her bad wing was making it harder to get around to her birds to feed them. She had not known how hard it was to get to places without flight since she was a filly. She was sitting on the ground with a small bag of birdseed pondering how she was going to get up to the trees, when she noticed Twilight's pet, Owlowiscious, sitting on the fence next to her. “Oh! What are you doing here?” she asked. The owl replied with the trademark “Whoo”, and Fluttershy smirked a bit. “You keeping an eye on me for Twilight? Thank's,” she then looked up to the birds making a ruckus up in the trees for food, and asked, “Would you mind getting some of this birdseed up their for me? I mean, if it's not too much to ask.” Owlowiscious hooted, and grabbed the small bag. It took a bit of time, but he successfully pulled it to the trees, and got it into the bird feeders. Fluttershy watched in amazement as the nocturnal bird completed the task, and successfully feeding each birds nest as she would have herself. “Wow! Thanks allot, I did not know you could be so precise. Well, actually, I guess that would be why you are so helpful to Twilight.” Owlowiscious hooted as if saying your welcome, and followed Fluttershy back into her house. With her chores done, and Angel being a little extra cooperative today, she lied down on the couch with a sigh. As Angel finished his salad, he noticed Fluttershy's saddened look, and hopped over to here. Fluttershy lied there, and said mostly to herself, “i can help but feel my friends are hiding something about last night...” She the thought for a minute, and continued, “Maybe they are just worried I would be upset if I knew the whole truth.” She looked out the window, as off in the distance, Lyria seamed to be telling a sort of report to the Mayor. Fluttershy decided to get her stuff ready, and investigate the town. She only now realized that something seamed off about the activity of the ponies out there. On the way, she would be able to get some more supplies for the animals. As she looked for her saddlebag, Angel hopped over to her, and gave her a piece of it's shredded remains. A bit confused, Fluttershy asked, “Wait, when did this get torn up? I better get a new one from the market, be back in a bit.” Angel considered stopping her, but decided it would not hurt for her to go into town. Though it may peek at her curiosity as to what had happened, maybe it was getting to the time to let her know what really happened all during all of those nightmares... As she trotted toward town, she noticed a small tree near he house was damaged, and missing a few limbs on the side facing town. She stopped and looked at it, thought she was puzzled, she moved onward into town. Heading further toward town, she saw marks along the ground, not usually made bye pony-folk traveling the roads. Along with that, the ponies seamed a bit busy cleaning something up. In town, she saw that the roof of a nearby shop was stripped of it's shingles, and a smashed flying machine of sort next to the building. Nearby, Mayor Mare was giving orders to the weather team whom seamed to be doing a different job today. Fluttershy simply looked at all of this mess, and considered asking sompony what happened, [Oh, I better not bother them, they seam so busy.] Fluttershy then reached the market, and awed at the site. The road was closed with police tape, and within the market, lay debris of carts, some of which looked to fall from the sky onto each other, while others had been smashed, and a few looked to have bite marks. “What happened here?” asked Fluttershy out loud in worry. She stood there for a few minutes inspecting the destruction and cleanup efforts. She looked around, but no-pony payed much attention to her. Some were very much stressed by the cleaning of town, and most the shops were closed on account of the mess. After some thought, she decided that maybe Rarity had a saddlebag she could get. Upon arrival at the Carousel Boutique, Fluttershy found herself stopped in her tracks by SweetieBelle and Scootaloo. “Fluttershy! We were wondering if you would show up in town today!” Said Sweetie in an overexcited tone. “What's it like to get to destroy everything!?” Asked in Scootaloo in a fast speech pattern. Fluttershy, rather confused, replied, “Umm, I don't know what...” She was cut off bye SweetieBelle, “Scootaloo! Rarity said not to say anything about that!” “I was just wondering, besides, why can't we say anything? She was there.” replied Scootaloo. “Scootaloo!!! I don't think that was her!” replied SweetieBelle angirly Fluttershy stood there, rather confused about there conversation, and asked “What are you two talking about?” Scootaloo turned to her, and made a suspicious face, “Uhh, doggy dentures!!!” “Wah?!” said Fluttershy out loud. “Just, umm, we gotta go!” said SweetieBelle, before grabbing Scootaloo, and running off behind a bush. Fluttershy stood there, puzzled as to the filly's frantic babbling. [Why do they sound like they need to keep a secret from me? Oh, i'm probably just paraniod, my friends would not keep a secret from me, I hope.] Fluttershy eventually shrugged off the event, and continued into Rarity's boutique. At the opening of the door, the common doorbell ringing, and meowing of Opal singled a guest coming in. But, unusually so, Rarity did not show up immediately. After a few seconds, Fluttershy said quietly, “Rarity? Are you here?” [Oh, maybe she's out on something, or hard at work and cannot come, I better go.] thought Fluttershy, [Everypony is acting really weird today, I need to find out what happened last night that they are acting like this.] Suddenly, before she turned around, Rarity stumbled down the stairs. “Fluttershy! What are you doing here? Do you need something?” Fluttershy looked at Rarity, noticing her hair was not very well kept , and some bags under her eyes. “Oh, I just was wondering if, well, you look busy, should I come back later?” Rarity quickly replied, “Oh, not at all darling, I have just been having trouble taking a nap since something has been bugging me. A sort of, 'influence' for designs I saw last night has kept me up trying to figure out how to use the, um, color and shape pattern. But it is probably best that I work on something else to give my mind a rest.” Fluttershy processed that, and asked, “Well, if it's not too much, I need a new saddlebag. Mine was all torn up, I don't really know how or when...” “Oh yes! Of course! I can help with that!” replied Rarity. “I have multiple spares over here, you can take one free of charge.” Fluttershy looked at the rack of Saddlebags rarity pointed to, “Oh, thanks allot, are you sure I should not pay? I have the bits for it.” “Oh no darling, were friends, and on account of how helpful you have been for Opal, that is payment enough.” Fluttershy looked over the bags, and quickly picked one that resembled her old one a bit, but with more design. “Thanks allot Rarity! But, before I go, can I ask you something?” Rarity thought for a few seconds, and asked a bit cautiously, “About what?” Fluttershy stuttered a bit before starting, “W-Well, is there something you all have not told me yet about last night? I mean, everypony is acting so weird today, and the town seams to be a mess, not to be offensive!” Rarity looked away for a bit, and twirled her hoof on the ground “Um, not really... Well, I guess there is something...” Fluttershy quickly asked “What is that something?” Rarity thought for a bit, “How should I put this... You, last night, no...” she looked out the window, and changed her mind, “No, I can't, you will thank me for this at some point, but you have to go now.” Fluttershy was upset Rarity could not tell her what that 'something' was, but sighed, and left toward her cottage anyway. -------------------------At Zecora's hut----------------------- “My my, Your young Applebloom has the curse of the Marewolf. My people have a cure for this, but it needs much time before it will cure a Marewolf.” said Zecora as she inspected Applebloom's bite. “So, you can cure it?” asked Applejack. “Yes,” replied Zecora, “But I do not have a potion ready, I can brew now, but it is slow to brew, and requires patience if your steady.” “How long will it take?” asked Applebloom Zecora replied quickly, “30 days it must age, before it can cure you curse of old age.” Twilight then said “Wait, won't another half moon come around by the time it is ready?” “Applebloom will not change on a half moon like Fluttershy, but on a full moon, during that time she definitely won't be shy.” Replied Zecora as she looked through some old recipe books. “What?!” said Applebloom frantically, “I am going to turn into a monster?” “Only once,” replied Twilight, “after that you will be cured. But we will have to make sure you are restrained that night.” “But the next full moon is on Nightmare night! I will miss all of the events and candy!” replied the panicking filly. “Calm down Applebloom” said Applejack, “I will make sure to get enough treats for you.” “But can't you brew the potion faster?” asked Applebloom in Zecora's direction. “Sorry.” replied Zecora. “Well, thanks allot Zecora, do you need any help getting the potion going?” asked Twilight “Your welcome, and no, I have all the ingredients for use, so you can return in thirty days when it is ready for use. “Well” said Applejack, “We better let her get to work, and I still need to catch up on some rest.” The ponies gave their goodbye's to the Zebra, and headed back to town. Applebloom was very displeased by what the news they had recieved, not much as to being a marewolf, but more about missing this years Nightmare Night. "I can't miss Nightmare night!" said Applebloom, "My friends and I were planning all sorts of things." "You can always go next year." replied applejack as they trotted through the forest. "But how many more years do i have left till ah can't trick or treat no more?" Said Applebloom. "Gee Applebloom, ah am really sorry, really, but there just is not a way around it." replied Applejack "Maybe there is!" Said Applebloom trying to think of something. "Now don't go messing with things! You don;t want to end up hurting somepony, nor messing with Zecora's Potions, we all remember how dangerous they can be!" After that, Applebloom pouted, and walked slowly back to town with her head down. Twilight noticed the filly was upset, and said "Hey, Applebloom, maybe if you come by the library, you can help me to try and find a spell that could help." "Really?!" asked Applebloom "Sure, maybe there is something that will allow you to participate on Nightmare night." "Thank you! I will be right over there!" Applejack then reminded her sister, "You still have some household chores to do, but if you can get them done, you can head to Twilight's house." This brought some joy back into Applebloom, and the group heading back into town. ---------------------At Fluttershy's cottage, a few hours later---------------------- Fluttershy had gotten all of the beds and things ready for the night for her animals. At this time, it was getting dark, and most of her pet's were already getting ready for sleep. The wounded Pegasus walked into her kitchen, and prepared herself some soup. She was getting very hungry at the time, and had spent most of her day thinking. As it warmed up, she heard a familiar stomping on the ground. “Oh Angel, what am I going to do with you?” she said as she gave him an extra carrot for being more cooperative today. He ate it there, and stayed near Fluttershy. She did not mind this much, it was comforting for any sort of friend to be near her when she was having doubts. “I don't know, my friends are hiding something, but, maybe it is to protect me.” She thought outloud as she brought her soup into her main room. Fluttershy sat there and ate Slowly, while watching the sun set the rest of the way, and the moon come up. It was waxing a bit, and the bright side was slightly larger. As she sat there, a slight tingle went through her spine, but she did not mind it much. “I guess it would be best to move on from last night. I mean, nopony was hurt badly, so why not let it go for now.” She said out loud again. As the Pegasus finished her soup, and turned of the lanterns, Angel pulled on her tail a bit, she looked back at him, and said, “You want to sleep in my room tonight? I won't let those nightmares get you tonight then.” She picked up the bunny, and carried him up to her room, being his leg was still wounded. As she got in bed, the Bunny sat at the end, watching her with a bit of a curios look. It did not take long for her to fall to sleep, and the bunny was dousing off being wrapped in her tail. How such a caring pony could be forced to do such horrible things, just bye lunar positions, confused the rabbit’s more simple mind. But for now, things were normal, though he felt soon, she would come to a realization she and he would dread. ___________________________________________________________________ AUTHORS NOTE Well, this is the end of the story FOR NOW. I actually left it open for continuation because I plan on either making a sequel or continuation later on. Although I will not do that right away as I have other plans for Fanfics. The Only way I would continue this sooner is if multiple people ask me too for some reason. Also, I will still be going through and making edits to improve presentation, and correct errors, so it is not set in stone.