The Nightmare Begins
"Why do I even bother running", Daylight asked himself over the howling in his nightmare. "You can't hurt me here." The rustling in the distance came closer, but wasn't aimed toward him. He figured that his stalker was going to circle him a few times before attacking. That was, until it ran past through the bushes. He frowned in confusion. "Where are you going?"
He decided to follow it, wondering just what it could be doing in the first nightmare that didn't frighten him. Kicking up his speed, Day dashed through the woods. What he was chasing was way faster than he was, so he lost it almost as soon as he went after it. "Tough chase. Charcoal where did you go?"
"Day?"
He whipped around to see Fluttershy looking up at him. He saw that she was picking flowers, which was odd since the little patch she sat in was the only thing around that wasn't black thorns and rocks. "Fluttershy…this is bad…" Day got low in a defensive stance. He folded his ears back for intimidation, knowing that it wouldn't work. "Even in a dream, I won't let that thing get near you", he growled.
"Daylight, what's—" Fluttershy was interrupted by a low growl coming from the thorny bushes ahead of them.
"Stay behind me, Fluttershy", Day instructed, "And when I say fly, get out of here."
In the real world, Day mumbled in his sleep. Rime heard him from the window frame and almost panicked. Fluttershy was still awake, and if Day was having the nightmare again, it could spell trouble for both of them. He looked around, but saw nothing that could help keep the sleeping pony quiet as he endured the night terrors. The more time he wasted, the more anxious Day became. The colt was now running on his side and making crazy facial expressions.
Back in the dream, a horribly injured Day tried his best to defend Fluttershy, who refused to leave him there. "I forgot I can actually feel pain in my dreams…" he gasped. He kept his guard up, proving to their attacker that he wasn't going to show any weakness. "Fluttershy, you have to go now. I promise I'll run too."
She merely whimpered, too paralyzed with fear to move even an inch. The nightmare took a turn for the worse when Day turned to face the giant predator and was met with a hard paw to his side. He was sent reeling away from Fluttershy, who seemed to be its target. It lunged at her. Day watched helplessly as its outstretched arms finally got to her.
"MMMMMMMMMMMM!" Day flailed around as he was jerked out of his sleep to find that his mouth was tightly bound with a scarf.
"Hey, calm down, partner", Rime said gently.
Day looked to his right to find that half of Rime had turned into the scarf and was keeping his screams at minimum volumes. He stopped, then with a sigh, relaxed into his pillows. His breathing was still heavy, but he wasn't trying to let Ponyville know he was having a nightmare anymore, so Rime reverted his back legs into their normal shape. "Figured it would be best if you didn't let Fluttershy know you scream like a girl in your sleep…"
"Thanks", Day gasped. He attempted to get his breathing under control, and succeeded in a matter of moments.
"The usual nightmare?"
Day shook his head. "Worse. Fluttershy was in it this time", he replied.
"I see. I hate to give you even more bad news…but you need to get going to wherever it is you plan to hide. The moon rose thirty minutes ago…"
Day scrambled off the bed and on his hooves. "Why didn't you wake me up?! Never mind, if Fluttershy comes in, tell her I'm off for a walk. I'll see you in the morning."
"Later, Day. Good luck…" Rime called after Day's tail as it disappeared out of the window.
Day hit the ground with a roll, and used the momentum of his landing to spring into a sprint for Everfree Forest. He traced his scent trail through the trees, occasionally jumping over bushes and boulders. The woods around him looked just like they did when he first memorized the layout of the path he took the previous night. The only problem was that he had less than ten minutes before everything went haywire. His hooves refused to go faster than what he was pushing for, which put him even further behind time.
He slid to a stop. "Argh! I'll hafta hold it here!" He took a deep breath and focused his energy into remaining as perfectly still as possible. He looked up to check on the moon. The white crescent shape had drifted from the top of the horizon to the highest point in the sky. He shook his head in frustration. "I hate this time of year…"
As the last word left his mouth, he felt the all-too familiar tingle in the tip of his tail. He fought to keep it from spreading to the rest of his body and ruining his concentration. If he was going to defend Ponyville, he had to keep his head on for as long as he could. From far off in the forest, Day heard something roar. The tingly feeling spiked from his tail to his flank and hind legs. He slowed his breathing to a meditation-like rate. At this point he couldn't stop the feeling from moving up his body, but he did manage to slow it to a sluggish crawl.
Whatever had roared sounded closer the second time and not long after the echo died did Day hear trees falling. Birds, rabbits, foxes, and practically every other living thing ran past him as they hurried to get away from what was hunting them down. Day stood his ground. Moving would only speed up the process of the progressing feeling within him. Now it was at his shoulders. All fell quiet for a few minutes before he could hear a prowling predator growling in the forest ahead of him. He narrowed his eyes. "Bring it on." He stopped fighting and the sensation over took over his body. Day's conscience was shoved into the deepest reaches of his mind as he lost control of his body.
D
"La la la la laaaa", sang a mint pony as she passed through the Everfree Forest. "I sure hope my Midnight Lilies are in bloom. It's a shame that they only grow in the Everfree Forest." She kept trotting farther into the trees until a large patch of dark violet flowers came into view through the many trees. She kept her eyes and ears peeled for any signs of danger before leaving the cover of the brush for the largely exposed field of flowers. She quietly set her gardening equipment down to get a better look at the results of her weeks of hard work. "Ah, they are in bloom!"
She emptied her basket of supplies to pick the nearly black plants from the soil. She made haste in picking as many flowers as her basket would hold. The less time she spent in the open the better. "Twenty-four, twenty-five, and twe—"
"Aaarrrroooooooooooooooo!"
The howl caused fear to freeze the mare's very blood. Adrenaline pumped into her system, but she didn't know what to do with it except to remain as motionless as she could. The spine chilling sound echoed all over the forest. She backed away from the flower patch with as little movement as possible. The second she saw a shadow move beyond her garden was the second found herself sprinting for her life through the forest.
The sudden movement caught the attention of the predator. It bounded after. In seconds it was only inches from her tail. She dared to look back and caught a horrifying glimpse of its red eyes. She scooped up a hooffull of dirt and flung it into its face. The blast of sediments slowed the beast down long enough for her to get a short distance ahead, but she mainly just made it angry. The second time she looked back it was too late for another countermeasure.
"IIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEE!"
D
Fluttershy awoke with a start when morning came around. Something about the dream she had left her feeling uneasy, but she couldn't remember the majority of it, so she simply yawned a greeting to the rays of sunshine coming through her bedroom windows. She hopped up happily and left for her kitchen. She liked making breakfast for Day and Rime the previous morning and really hoped they wouldn't mind her doing it again. With a breakfast salad in mind, she opened her refrigerator and found all of the ingredients except for two. It wouldn't have been a problem if she didn't need those two the most.
"I can't make a salad without lettuce and morning glory", Fluttershy said to herself. "Day will probably want to sleep in after yesterday. I should be able to get some before he wakes up." She returned the items she pulled from the fridge then left for Ponyville's marketplace, where she would be first in line to buy the things she needed.
The day outside was much cooler than the day before, which was a sure sign that the work later wouldn't be hard. The birds were out and about, accompanying her to her destination with a bright song for the morning. "Thank you, my friends. Are you enjoying the morning too?"
Two of the blue jays replied with excited chirps, then left her and the robins to go do whatever it was blue jays do on a Thursday morning. She giggled and continued on with the singing robins. Ponyville was as quiet as it always was at seven a.m., except it was a little more crowded than usual. She thought nothing of it until she saw more and more ponies converging into a large crowd. She did her best to ignore it but soon drifted closer in an attempt to hear what was going on without having to become one of the gathering ponies herself.
It didn't take much longer before she was flying over the crowd. It looked like some kind of accident. Paramedics were pushing their way through the curious ponies. On the stretcher in between them lay a badly hurt Lyra. Fluttershy immediately flew down to see what happened to her friend.
"Miss, I'm afraid you'll have to stay back", said the lead medic.
"N-no, she n-needs to stay", Lyra coughed.
"What happened?"
"Wolf", Lyra whispered. She pulled Fluttershy uncomfortably close. "Huge wolf…"
"What kind of wolf", asked one of the medics. "Timbers?"
Lyra took a deep, pain-filled breath. "Two legs…silver fur…found hunting grounds…it'll be back, Fluttershy…save Ponyville!"
Lyra fell silent as the last of her energy faded. The strain on her body was way too much for her to handle, leaving the mare unconscious on the stretcher. Fluttershy's body became stiff. Everything was so sudden. The warning, the attack, nothing made any sense!
One thing did stick out though: Lyra's warning suggested her attack was more than a mauling out of crossing a hungry predator, but couldn't figure out what with the little evidence she just heard. She shook her head of the horrible thoughts her paranoia generated. Instead of dwelling on what she thought was going to happen to everypony that lived in Ponyville, she took flight and headed for the library. Maybe Twilight could make better sense of it all.
D
The librarian had only just gotten out of bed when Fluttershy burst through the library door. "Twilight! Twilight!"
The unicorn took immediate notice of the distressed Pegasus downstairs. She jumped to the first floor. "Fluttershy, what's wrong!?"
"Lyra was attacked by a wolf!"
"Oh, my gosh, is she okay!?"
"She was very hurt, but it looked like she will make a full recover."
"I should go pay her a visit", Twilight suggested. "One of Dream's healing potions will fix her right up."
Fluttershy blocked the doorway. "Wait Twilight."
The look in Fluttershy's eyes stopped the exiting mare cold. She waited for Fluttershy to go on. Something didn't seem right. There was something more going on with the current situation that what shone on the surface.
Fluttershy swallowed the lump that settled in her throat. "She said a few things I think you should hear." The recollection was short, but from what she told Twilight, the Element of Magic knew they had a huge problem on their hooves.
She quickly wrote two letters as quickly as she could. She gave one of them to Fluttershy. "Give this to Mayor Mare. This is serious business, Fluttershy. We don't have much time before the next attack."
Fluttershy looked at the scroll of parchment, then back to her friend. "Twilight, what does all of this mean?"
"I don't know how", she replied, sending her letter off with a transportation spell, "But there's a werewolf in Ponyville."