The beast was released from Rainbow Dash’s prison. It lay on the wooden floor, breathing heavily. “Twilight, what do we do?” Rarity asked.
“Well I hope she stays down, the transformation seems to have taken a toll on Rainbow Dash.”
“Poor Rainbow, whatever happened to you?” Fluttershy questioned with sadness in her voice.
All the taking made Rainbow Dash’s ear twitch. Even in the minor slumber, she could hear the ponies talk. Her eyes opened, the unnatural yellow glow filled her eyes. Everypony else went quiet and backed away from her. As the creature rose to its paws, the same question was on everyone’s tongues. “Rainbow Dash, can you hear us?”
She surveyed the area around her, still quivering from the metamorphosis. She began to growl at them and looked as if she was ready to pounce them. The feeling were mixed in the room, sadness, anger, but mostly frightened. Rainbow tried to move her paw and noticed that it was pinned down by a chain.
“It seems like Rainbow Dash is confused.” Twilight mentions as she moves in for closer investigation.
“No Twilight, you might get hurt.” Her friends said in protest.
She ignored them and moved ever so closer to Rainbow Dash.
Moving in closer she asked “Rainbow, can you hear us?”
Rainbow Dash replied with only a stare, growling as she approached. “I’m not going to hurt you, were here to help you Dash.”
Rainbow Dash didn’t feel acceptance in her heart, all she felt was the hunger, the strange force which filled her with anger and anguish. Suddenly lashing out at Twilight, nearly biting her forced the unicorn back.
“Twilight!” her friends yelled.
She got up from the floor and looked at her “friend”. She was thrashing around in the air trying to escape. Her legs pulled with great strength at the chains. “What are we gonna do?” Applejack asked still horrified with the turn of events.
Twilight looked at the creature, its blood curdling roar chilled everypony. “Even if Rainbow Dash has become a monster.” She turned and looked at her friends. “We are still her friends and we will help her through this!”
All her friends agreed, if they did something together, they could do anything. Twilight turned back to Rainbow, a sad frown fell across her face once again. “Don’t worry Dashie; Pinkie will be here soon with the wolfsbane.”
The creature looked at twilight, the string rose colour of Rainbows eyes were there. The creature had an innocent look about it; it was if Rainbow broke the hold of the creature. From her eyes they could see that she was scared. That moment only lasted for a few moments when beast reignited the hatred in Rainbow. Her eyes succumbed to the bright yellow again and she growled aggressively at them. With a quick and strong movement of her legs, she broke the chains from the floor. “Everypony, upstairs now!” Twilight yelled across the room.
The ponies and the baby dragon sprinted for the door away from the aggressive creature. Rainbow leaped into the air, roaring as she did so. She had set her hunter eyes on one of the ponies, the yellow pegasus. She shook the ground as she landed on the ground, breaking a few of the wooden floor boards. Everypony was nearly out before Rainbow Dash could do anything, but she lashed out with her jaws, catching the pale pink tail and pulling it in towards herself. Fluttershy screamed as she was pulled towards the creature. As her eyes met her hunter, she thought that it was another misunderstood creature which only needed love and care.
“It’s ok Rainbow Dash, it’s me Flut-“
She stopped when the creature’s teeth sunk into her leg. Screaming in pain and fear, she squirmed to try and escape the grip.
Rainbows senses felt more active and alive when the warm taste of blood filled her mouth. The strange hunger seemed to be satisfied, but it still pulsed the hatred throughout her. “You let her go!” Applejack demanded as she charged Rainbow. With a massive kick from her two hind legs, she impacted the beasts head with a massive thwack. Rainbow yelped in pain which released Fluttershy’s leg from her jaws.
Applejack looked at her, she laid paralysed in shock. Her eyes were wide and her pupils were shrunken. The orange pony lifted her friend onto her back and rushed upstairs. As they did, Rainbow regained her concentration and charged them.
In the few moments that Applejack passed through the door, Twilight closed it and locked it with her magic as quick as she could. With a solid thud from Rainbow hitting the door, they sat there shocked at what just happened.
All eyes were on Applejack. As the earth pony lowered her precious cargo onto the floor, the rest gathered around Fluttershy. Her blood poured from the wound, creating a small pool under it. “Get me some cloth now!” Rarity instructed.
Twilight turned her head and levitated some cloth from the table as Rarity rushed to her friend’s side. Applejack also tried to comfort her pegasus friend as Rarity instructed Twilight. “Ok, rip the cloth into strips, were going to make a tourniquet!”
Twilight ripped the sheet into four strips with her magic, she knew what her friend was doing but was surprised by her knowledge of first aid.
“Applejack, apply pressure to the wound and Twilight, pass me a strip.”
“How do you know these things Rarity?” questioned Twilight as she levitated the strips to her.
As Rarity used her magic to tie the tourniquet around the leg just above the wound, she answered. “Fluttershy taught me many things on first aid, I thought I would never need them honestly, maybe to treat a minor cut or something but not this.”
The blood stopped flowing from the wound finally but Fluttershy still laid in shock. She was breathing intensely; her breaths were short and quick. Rarity proceeded to use the rest of the strips for bandages to wrap the wound up in. “Now what, what do we do now?” Applejack said with a worried tone.
The purple unicorn was obviously panicking, one of her friends was a blood thirsty monster, one was missing and one had been mortally wounded. The bangs from Rainbows persistent charges at the door were sudden scary moments which made everypony jump. “We just have to wait for Pinkie; hopefully she will have the wolfsbane.”
More aggressive growls emanated from the basement door. Rainbow Dash was trying very hard to break the magic lock on the door. The constant scratching and loud crashes were unnerving.
Spike stoop up from his seat, “Twilight, don’t you remember marewolf 101?”
She turned to him thinking back to the book. ‘If somepony survived a bite from the creature were doomed to become one.’
“If your bitten by are marewolf, you will become one!” she realised.
“What!?” everypony yelled.
Fluttershy was now also infected with the curse. “No not dear Fluttershy as well.” Rarity wept.”
“How long does she have?” Applejack questioned as she hugged the yellow pegasus.
“I don’t know how this magic works; my guess would be where the wound was inflicted.”
“How so?”
“I guess the magic flows through the blood of a marewolf to make the transformation. So the magic infects on blood to blood contact.”
“So it depends on where the blood flows?” Rarity questioned.
“Yes, if the wound was inflicted on a main artery, then the change would happen much quicker.”
They all stared at Fluttershy again; she was already starting to show signs of change. Her eye colour changed from the nice teal to the unnatural bright yellow, just like Rainbow Dashes. Her cutie mark was also experiencing changes as well. The butterflies on her rump were all black and seem to be going through their own metamorphosis. “I don’t think she has long, the magic seem to be more aggressive now.”
She looked to the windows with the moon in full view. “We have to get her away from the moonlight.”
Applejack pulled her into the centre of the library while the rest covered the windows with anything they could. “Would you look at that!” Applejack said astonishingly.
Walking over to the earth pony they could see that Fluttershy’s wound had almost completely healed. “Either your first aid ability is great or marewolves have a fast healing ability.”
Twilight added that to her mental list on marewolves. ‘Fast healing ability.’
Fluttershy finally woke from her shocked state. “What happened?” she asked everyone.
Everypony was happy she was alright but knew that she wasn’t. “Fluttershy, are you alright?”
“Well I feel great actually, a bit hungry though...”
“Don’t you remember what just happened?” Applejack asked curiously.
“Well I remember coming here and-“
She closed her eyes sharply and tensed her teeth. Clenching her hooves on her head she screamed, “No, make it stop!”
Twilight picked her up, “Fluttershy, were here don’t worry.”
She opened her eyes slowly, “It was horrible, it was a scene of chaos.”
“What was?”
“That sudden dream.”
Twilight was intrigued with her answer, ‘It, must be the same dream as Rainbow Dash’s.’ She thought to herself.
Fluttershy felt very strange, she had this feeling inside her. Everything started to go silent and her vision blurred. She felt like something strange was pulsing though her body, some sort of anger. She heard a faint voice inside her head, “Fluttershy, can you hear me?”
She snapped awake as Twilight stared at her face. “Are you alright?”
“What is happening to me?” She said faintly.
Twilight looked to her friends; they nodded with a frown saying that she needs to know, even though it would be hard to comprehend. “Fluttershy, you have been cursed, just like Rainbow Dash.”
Fluttershy stammered “I-I’m cursed, HOW!?”
“Rainbow Dash bit you on the leg, the curse she has is now passed onto you.”
She looked at her leg, a bandage was there. She looked at her cutie mark and saw the wolf symbol, the symbol of the curse.
“Oh no-no, thi-this can’t be real.”
“I’m sorry Fluttershy, it’s happened and we have to push through this.”
*CRASH*
Everyponny turned to the front door, it was Pinkie Pie. She looked incredibly worn-out, breathing in deeply and slouching in her posture. She carried a saddlebag with Zecora’s cutie mark on it. “I have the herb.” She muttered before she collapsed on the floor. Fluttershy wasn’t looking at Pinkie; she stared at the void of the moon directly behind her. She proceeded to collapse as well but was having violent movements. She began to scream as well as her body begun changing. “Fluttershy!” Twilight yelled.
As her friend began shaking uncontrollably, she opened the saddle bag and pulled out the purple herb and rushed to her friend. Applejack knew to close the door as quick as she could, as she did so Twilight crushed the herb and force fed it to Fluttershy. As her movements slowly died down and her breathing returned, they all sighed in relief. She was out again, they had to keep her away from any source of moonlight or risk a transformation. “Do we give it to Rainbow Dash now?” Rarity asked.
The silence filled the room again as she approached the door. “How are we going to give it to her?” Applejack asked as well.
Twilight stopped as she shushed everyone, “Can you hear that?” she questioned.
Everyone sat and listened intently, no sound caught their ears attention. “No, I don’t hear anything.”
“That’s right, why isn’t Rainbow Dash attacking the door?”
Everyponies heart skipped a beat, what is Rainbow doing? As twilight opened the door to the basement, she looked inside to see the window smashed and the room empty.
“She’s gone!”