There's A Little Problem

by Agaris

Misfire

Somewhere in Equestria...
12:00 A.M.

It was a damp, gloomy night.

A chill had settled over the quiet rural town in Equestria's country. A few dark-coated pegasi darted around overhead, preparing for an evening drizzle, but other than that, Ponyville was as silent as the grave.

A certain lavender unicorn stood huddled near a candle with a strange piece of paper, preparing herself for what could be the most difficult task she'd ever attempted - and that was saying a lot. Along with her friends, the bearers of the five other Elements of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle had beaten back some of history's evilest villains, actually reforming the rage-filled Nightmare Moon and the embodiment of chaos, Discord. But right now, her most dangerous - and perhaps her stupidest - experiment was coming to fruition. Under the command of her teacher and ruler, Princess Celestia, Twilight was now going to try to perform an unknown, untested spell that had been found in the Canterlot Catacombs.

"Twilight," her Number-One Assistant spoke up. He nervously ran a hand along the green spines jutting out of the purple scales on his head. "You do know that the Princess doesn't really expect this to do much, if anything, right?"

"I know, Spike," Twilight replied, a little miffed. "I was there when she gave it to me."

The official story was that the Elements of Harmony were in Canterlot to see how Discord was dealing with reformation, and while that was true for the most part, the real purpose for the mandatory visit, as Princess Celestia revealed, was slightly more sinister. "Twilight," she began, pacing the castle's Grand Hall. She seemed unnerved about something; her movements were quick and unsure, and even her many-hued mane, which normally rippled majestically in the intangible solar winds, was as limp as a piece of wet celery. "Something has happened. One of our guards found this in the library reserves beneath the castle." The Princess magically lifted a strip of paper, surrounding it in a pink aura, and showed it to Twilight, The paper itself looked burnt around the edges, and the writing was large and spiky and written in a dark red ink, much like blood.

"Where the wind blows, where the stars shine, where the world turns, there... will be here?" Twilight read aloud, very perplexed. "What does it mean? And what's that business about the world turning?"

"That's just it: we don't know." Celestia grimaced. It obviously irked her that she couldn't discern the spell's intent. A pained look flashed across her face. "However," she continued, "I feel that you are the only pony who can safely find out the purpose of this spell - if there is one." Celestia looked at her student with pride...

"Still, Celestia is counting on me, so I have to try my hardest!" Twilight affirmed. After reading over the spell a few more times to cement it in her memory, Twilight closed her eyes and began to concentrate. She channeled the magic into her horn, and a purplish-pink aura surrounded it. To her astonishment, after only a few seconds, the aura sparked and fizzled.

"What? I was sure it was going to do something!" Twilight scratched her chin absentmindedly. "I just have to try again!" she declared. She screwed her eyes up in concentration, but the magic still didn't go anywhere, and nothing happened. "Did I read the spell right?" she asked herself in frustration as the scrap of parchment levitated in front of her.

"OK, I'm sure I've got it now." She tried again, but to no avail. "NO! I HAVE to be doing something wrong..."

"Huh. I guess it just doesn't do anything," Twilight admitted after trying twenty more times. "Spike, take a letter: Dear Princess Celestia-" She was interrupted by a tremendous snore coming from her young assistant. She smiled, lifted him on her back and took him up the circular staircase carved in the interior of the massive tree. As she put him in his bed, she noticed out the window that the sun was beginning to rise - she'd been trying to get that spell right all night! When Twilight saw the dawn, she realized just how tired she really was. Well, there was nothing to do but try to make it through the day.

Meanwhile, on Earth...

Zeke exploded in profanity as his computer screen turned red. The words "GAME OVER" appeared in big letters, then faded away. He sighed and closed his eyes. "Dammit, I was so close, too." He rubbed his temples. "It kills me that this is what I do for fun - play a video game with little to no purpose other than 'shoot zombies or get verbally abused by 12 year-old's'. I hate my life."

The tall, gangly teen stood up and stretched. He needed a break anyway. Aimlessly, Zeke wandered to the kitchen. The house was empty, as his parents and little sister were at some cheerleading event. Spying the remainder of the cheese pizza from earlier in the night, he snagged a piece and started to munch on it. "Man, is it hot in here?" he wondered. Although the thermostat said 68 degrees, just like always, Zeke felt a tightness in his chest and a hot tingling feeling in his forehead and shoulders. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Yeah, that was better. He was going to be fine in a minute.

His eyes snapped open when he began to feel weightless. "What the hell?" he exclaimed. Everything he saw was tinted purple, and HE WAS FLOATING THREE FEET ABOVE THE FLOOR. WHAT. THE. FUCK.

Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his right side, then in his left leg, then in his neck. The pain continued to migrate around his body, stabbing and retreating like some diabolical sewing machine, each prick seeming to take a part of Zeke with it. Finally, the pain ended. Zeke was relieved, and expected his life to go back to normal any second. But of course, things don't exactly work like that. His arms and legs inadvertently flung themselves out and began to stretch in opposite directions. It felt to Zeke as if he were being drawn and quartered like in the olden days. Just shows how weird you are, thinking of ancient Greek punishments when you're dying, he thought inanely. His skin began to glow, and his body filled with an intense heat. He screamed, but it was lost in the roar and crackle of fire that engulfed the young man's entire being. His last thought before he ceased to exist on Earth was, I guess my boring life is over, now.

Zeke awoke hours later to a rancid odor like rotting meat drifting under his nostrils. Groaning, he sat up, yet almost immediately laid back down due to an overpowering headache. "Umm... didn't I die?" he muttered as he lay surrounded by tall grass. Actually, wasn't this grass a little bit TOO tall? It brushed Zeke's ears and further up as he lay on his back. "Must be some different kind," he said to himself. Then he noticed something else: the grass was brushing more than his ears. "Oh what the hell?!? Where are my clothes?!" That's when he heard the growling. That got rid of his headache real quick. He bolted to his feet. What the hell kind of thing makes that loud of a noise? he wondered frantically. A lion or something?

The awful stench grew stronger, and now Zeke could hear the rustling of leaves and snapping branches beneath the ferocious growls. Spinning this way and that in terror, he somehow managed to look in the exact right direction to see his assailant. It was a giant wolf, at least two feet taller than Zeke himself. Its eyes glowed a sickening green, nearly as nauseating as the putrid smell emanating from its mouth, and it was... made entirely... out of wood. Zeke would have been dumbfounded, if he'd had the time. But in the next second, he found himself flat on his back yet again that day, although in particularly less accommodating straits. Zeke screamed. The wooden monstrosity slashed open the boy's chest with its massive claws, raking across his throat in the process. Zeke tried to call for help with his last bit of consciousness, but all that emerged from his mouth was blood. The beast closed its jaws around Zeke's torso, and he felt himself being lifted into the air. Sharp points dug into his back and chest, and the pain finally overcame him. Just before he passed out yet again, he heard a feminine voice scream, full of rage, "YOU GET AWAY FROM THAT POOR LITTLE ANIMAL!"

And then the world was black.

Fluttershy didn't normally make a point of going anywhere in the Everfree Forest - it was an unnatural place, with all kinds of scary monsters in it. This morning though, Angel had been particularly stubborn about his salad having a special kind of herb in it that could only be found deep in the forest. The light yellow pegasus accepted it in the end; after all, EVERYONE knew what had happened the last time she'd tried to say no.

"Oh!" Fluttershy spotted the plant's telltale purple-striped spiky leaves. As she tiptoed over to get it, she heard a piercing shriek that didn't sound like it could have come from anypony she knew. Still, it sounded like whoever it was was in trouble. Fluttershy looked around, but she was the only pony out there, so...

She steeled herself, mustered up all of the courage that she could, and took to the air - albeit not entirely quickly - to search for the source of the scream. There! Growling was echoing off of the trees in a small clearing about 30 feet away, and Fluttershy would know that smell anywhere. She began to balk at the prospect of fighting a timberwolf - nasty creatures, all of them, and none of them could be influenced by anything Fluttershy did, nor could she understand their speaking - but then she saw that the beast wasn't attacking a pony at all. Instead, it was clawing and biting a poor... defenseless... animal...

The pegasus had seen enough. Nothing was going to happen to defenseless creatures on her watch. Wings flapping furiously, she dove toward the ground at a velocity she never knew she could reach before. Blinded by rage, she shrilled, almost incomprehensibly, "YOU GET AWAY FROM THAT POOR LITTLE ANIMAL!" Fluttershy hit the ground hard, but stayed on her hooves, sending a spray of dirt into the wolf's eyes. Lashing out with her back hooves like she'd seen Applejack and Rainbow Dash do so often before, she sent the timberwolf sprawling in the dirt. Even though there was much less force in her kick than in those of her friends, the beast was stunned for a few moments.

In that time, Fluttershy turned to look at the wolf's would-be prey. When she saw the damage that had been done, tears began welling up in her eyes. She'd never seen such awful wounds on something before. She also hadn't seen an animal that looked like this before, but that took a backseat to her concern. I might not be able to save it, she thought. No, she chided herself, If I think like that, I won't save it. Almost as soon as Fluttershy had this thought, she heard her erstwhile foe snarl as it pulled itself up to its feet. Almost in a panic, she scooped the unconscious critter into her forelegs and took off at speeds that rivaled her earlier dive. The wolf howled as it pounced where the usually timid pegasus had been just moments before.

Hesitating only moment to look back at the enraged animal, she sped off toward her simple cottage at the edge of the forest. She looked down at the ravaged animal she held. "Don't worry, little guy. I'm going to make you all better."

Author's Note:

Hello everypony. This is my first ever fanfic, of any kind, so please forgive me if it isn't that great. Any feedback would be helpful, and I look forward to getting to know you all better!

Comments

[Xaerouzle]

Here is a great tip: If you have word, copy all text you have written and paste it in word. Now you can edit all grammatic errors

[ShutUpandDance]

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