> Pony's Best Friend
>  by Brass Polish
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1 Marewolf
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	“Ow, my tail!” cried Spike. “I think I crushed it!”
Twilight jumped out of bed and looked around in a daze. Spike was curled up in his basket holding his tail and wincing in pain.
“Did you fall asleep on your tail?” asked Twilight.
“Yeah,” Spike groaned. “I bent it the wrong way.”
Twilight flinched a bit. “Ooh, lying on it like that for three hours? That must really hurt.”
“You got that right. Got any potions I could take?”
Twilight hurried off downstairs to grab an anti-inflammatory draught.
“I hope it’ll be strong enough,” she said when she came back and Spike took a few spoonfuls. “It’s meant for ponies. Dragon muscles are a lot tougher to sooth.”
Sure enough, Spike was still in agony hours later. Neither he nor Twilight could sleep as a result.

In the end, they decided that even though it was very late, they would go to the Everfree Forest and visit Zecora.
“Worry not for waking me,” Zecora said as she produced a bottle of a yellowy sort of liquid. “Of service, I am glad to be.”
“Thank you, Zecora,” said Twilight, paying the herbalist five bits. “Spike really needs to be able to sleep. We’ve been working hard on a project for the mayor all day.”
“Curiosity compels me to ask,” said Zecora. “Please tell me about this task.”
“Well, Ponyville’s got a bit of a stray dog problem,” Twilight explained. “They’re a bit out of control. And Fluttershy can’t accommodate all of them. So I’m…”

Bash!

“Oh, no! I forgot to close the door!” cried Twilight.
Zecora had once told Twilight and her friends about a marewolf that wanders around the house when there was a full moon out, but it never left the Everfree Forest. At this moment, as the marewolf advanced on them with its teeth bared and claws raised, Twilight wished she’d put dealing with the marewolf higher on her to-do list.
“Take my hoof!” Twilight shouted to Zecora as Spike climbed onto her back.
Before the marewolf could reach them, Twilight had flown them up to the ceiling. They had just flown out of the door when Twilight suddenly felt herself getting heavier. She was seeing a greenish fog everywhere she looked. Then she realised that it was magic forcing her, Zecora and Spike back down to the ground.
“It’s got a horn on its head!” Spike pointed at the marewolf as it came out of Zecora’s house. “It was a unicorn when it got bitten!”
“This is bad!” said Twilight. “Unicorn marewolves have an almost unbreakable magic ability!”

The marewolf stomped towards them with an open, hungry mouth, while Twilight tried in vain to teleport them all away from it. Spike stood up on Twilight’s back, took a deep breath, and belched a huge flurry of green fire at the marewolf. It backed off for a moment, and when it took another step towards them, Spike shot flames at it again.
“Careful, Spike! Don’t hurt yourself even more!” Twilight warned.
But Spike carried on firing at the marewolf every time it tried to get them. His throat started to go, but he didn’t give up until the marewolf finally backed away, lifted the entrapment spell off the trio, and left them alone completely.
“Ah, the monster has taken a hike,” Zecora smiled, letting go of Twilight. “Very well done to you, Spike.”
“No, problem.”
Spike jumped. His voice had almost gone out. He went a bit red when Twilight and Zecora chuckled at his odd squeak.
“Sorry, Spike,” said Twilight. “Um, could we trouble you again, Zecora?”
“Please Princess Twilight, hold onto your money,” insisted the zebra. “By midday, Spike’s voice should not sound funny.”
“Well, if you’re sure,” said Twilight, “We better get outta here.”
And so, Zecora ran into her house and shut the door, and, with much wobbling, Twilight flew Spike up into the air and over the Everfree Forest far away from any marewolves.

Zecora’s medicine worked well on Spike’s tail, so he and Twilight slept the rest of the night away after they’d returned to the Library. But in in the morning, the baby dragon’s tail was still a little sore, and his voice was still squeaky. Twilight felt bad about giggling, but Spike understood.

Later, Twilight and Spike were visited by Applejack and Winona.
“Howdy, Twilight. I heard you had some kinda dog project going on,” said Applejack. “Wanted to know if we could help ya out.”
Winona wagged her tail enthusiastically.
“Thanks Applejack, but my project is for stray, out of control dogs,” Twilight told her. “And Winona here is the best behaved dog I know.”
“That’s not how I remember it,” said Spike, recalling his pet-sitting misadventure.
Applejack suddenly exploded with laughter.
“Wha- what’s up with…” she could hardly even speak.
Twilight tried to tell her about Spike saving her and Zecora from the marewolf, but Applejack didn’t hear a thing over her own manic laughter.
“Say… say something else!” Applejack started crying.
Spike frowned and turned back toward the Library.
“Come on! Just one more time!”
“Please, Applejack. Spike’s had a rough night,” said Twilight.

“Hey Winona, there’s Spike! Go on! Go play with Spike!” shouted Applejack.
“What?! No!” shouted Spike in his squeaky voice.
Winona loved to pester Spike whenever she got the chance, and this was the first time Applejack allowed her to do it. She began chasing Spike around the Library and every time he squeaked at her to leave him alone, Applejack let out another jet of laughter.
“Jeez! At least Pinkie Pie knows where to draw the line!” Spike squealed provoking more laughter from Applejack.
At last, Twilight got her attention. “Applejack, as princess of Ponyville, I order you to stop laughing!”
Applejack did her best, and soon she’d stopped laughing completely even though Spike was still squeaking at Winona to go away.
“What’d ya have to pull rank for, Twi?” Applejack asked.

By this point, Spike was furious. Winona wouldn’t stop running all around him pawing at him and barking happily. He hadn’t realised that Applejack had stopped laughing because his angry eyes had spotted Twilight’s beaker of fresh behaviour modification potion.
“Thirsty, Winona?” he growled squeakily.

“That’s why his voice is messed up,” Twilight finished her story about the events of the previous night.
“A marewolf?” Applejack blanched. “Sorry, I had no idea.”
“Don’t apologise to me,” said Twilight.
“Right.” Applejack looked into the Library. “Winona, come…”
Winona was still barking and running around, but not just around Spike. The two ponies were surprised to see her knocking furniture over and shredding books.
“Whoa there, girl! Don’t go bananas!” cried Applejack.
Twilight groaned. “Spike, tell me you didn’t…”
Spike, a look of lividity on his face, was tossing the empty beaker up and down. Winona quickly snatched it in her mouth and ran around the room with it.
Twilight considered. “I can’t say I blame you, Spike.”
“What did he do?” asked a very concerned Applejack.
“That potion was supposed to give mischievous dogs self-control,” explained Twilight, “But if you use it on a dog that is already well behaved…”
Winona had abandoned the empty beaker. She jumped up, grabbed Applejack’s hat and ran away from the Library so fast, she was practically a blur.

Applejack gave chase and by the looks of it, Winona was running back to Sweet Apple Acres.
“Hope she doesn’t bug Big McIntosh while he’s working,” panted Applejack.
The first thing she saw when she reached the front gate was upset trash cans. Then she heard a commotion from the orchard. Big McIntosh had been applebucking, but Winona got in the way and he’d accidentally knocked over his basket. When Applejack caught up, bruised red galas were all over the ground.
“Who pulled Winona’s ears?” asked Big McIntosh.
Applejack went as red as the spilt galas. “Let’s just say I paid the price for laughing at someone with a funny voice.”
Big McIntosh raised an eyebrow. “Me?”
“No, not you big brother.”

Winona still had Applejack’s hat in her mouth as she was running around the trees.
Applejack whistled at her. “Come, Winona!”
Winona ran up to her wagging her tail profusely.
“Put my hat down, now.”
She did, but as soon as Applejack tried to take it back, she grabbed it and ran off again.
“Hey! Get back here!”
Applejack lost sight of Winona as she made her way towards the barn, but eventually she found her hat lying on the ground beneath some trees.
“Where’s that crazy dog, now?” groaned Applejack.
The next time Applejack saw Winona was minutes later running around with Apple Bloom’s bow in her mouth. Applejack looked around and saw her little sister further away running in the wrong direction.
“She over here, Apple Bloom!” Applejack called.
Apple Bloom turned around and ran towards Applejack and the wild Winona.
“What’s got into Winona?” she panted as she passed.
“Could ya just keep her busy for a bit?” asked Applejack, putting her bite-marked hat back on. “I’ve got work to do.”

Applejack and Big McIntosh were trying to finish bucking the red gala trees, but Apple Bloom couldn’t keep Winona in check and so they were constantly being interrupted by loud barking, upturned baskets and brownish blurs getting between their hind legs and the trees. Finally, Applejack decided to give up and get Apple Bloom and Granny Smith to finish her work while she tried to get Winona under control.
“I’d love to go applebucking!” Apple Bloom said enthusiastically. “I’m sure Granny Smith will be happy to give it a go too as soon as she gets her teeth back from Winona.”
> 2 Applejack Snaps
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

	Applejack had to hold Winona down to get her to stay still, but she couldn’t say anything because Winona wouldn’t stop licking her face. Then the gamesome dog saw movement towards the fence and broke from Applejack’s grip to see who was coming.
“Oh!” Fluttershy got jumped. “You really are frisky today aren’t you?”
“And unless we brew another potion, she’ll be this frisky forever,” Twilight told her.
Spike walked up to Applejack looking apologetic, but Applejack cut him off before he could get a word in.
“I shouldn’t have provoked you. It’s my own fault. It serves me right I guess.”
“But still,” Spike’s voice was back to normal now, “I really feel bad about making such a fine dog so bad.”
“Bad?” Fluttershy looked as if she’d been insulted.
“You saw what she did to the Library,” Twilight told her.
“I didn’t see it all,” said Applejack. “How torn up is the place?”
“Well here’s the worst part,” said Twilight. “A book shelf fell off the wall and knocked over the glass case with our Elements of Harmony. Two of them, yours and Rarity’s, are lost in a pile of books.”
“We’re gonna fish them out so we can deal with the marewolf in the Everfree Forrest,” said Spike. “Then we’ll mix up another behaviour potion and give it to Winona.”

“In the meantime,” Fluttershy put in. “I thought I’d see if there was anything I could do to help.”
“Could you give her the Stare?” asked Applejack.
Fluttershy faltered. “Is that really necessary?”
“She’s gone totally loco,” said Applejack. “Your Stare might be the only way to get her to do what I want her to.”
“But what do you want her to do? You’re not herding sheep or anything today,” objected Fluttershy. “She’ll only be like this until we deal with the… the…”
“Marewolf.”
Fluttershy shivered. “Yeah.”
“What are you worried about, Fluttershy?” asked Spike. “Zecora told us it never leaves the forest.”
“How does she know?” asked Fluttershy. “She doesn’t leave the forest much.”
“She first told us about it months ago,” said Twilight. “If it ever left during that time, somepony would have known.”
“Well, we better get going if we’re gonna clean up that mess by tonight,” Spike began to walk away. “You’re sure you’re not mad at me, Applejack?”
Winona ran up to Spike knocking him over.
“Sure as sugar,” smirked Applejack.

Sadly, that was the only time that day Applejack was happy with Winona’s bad behaviour. Because Fluttershy didn’t want to use the Stare on her, Applejack sent her off and tried to retrain Winona by herself. She didn’t dare get a bag of treats because she knew Winona would never leave it alone. In any case, Winona was chewing on anything she saw. Once or twice, she gave Applejack a nip. She didn’t mean any harm by it, but she’d never done it before and Applejack really hated it. To her, a dog that bites needs some serious training. But she didn’t want to yell at Winona because she knew she couldn’t help what the potion did to her.

Apple Bloom and Granny Smith weren’t having too much trouble applebucking with Big McIntosh. What they did was take a side of a tree each, which worked for every one accept for a few when Granny Smith forgot to set up baskets.
“We doing OK, Big Mc?” asked Apple Bloom.
“Eeeyup.”
Winona had gotten away from Applejack and had just toppled Big McIntosh’s loaded buckets.
“But I sure ain’t,” he sighed.
Applejack rocketed into view streaking past her family and after the runaway dog.
“She didn’t bite none of you, did she?!”
They told her she hadn’t, but her reaction was still an angry one.
“I’d sure like to bite her back!”
“You’re just lucky she didn’t still have my teeth!” called Granny Smith as Applejack darted off after Winona.

At the end of the day, there was no improvement. Big McIntosh, Apple Bloom and Granny Smith didn’t get disrupted again and they met their quota for the day, but Applejack had lost patience with Winona.
“Stop biting!”
Winona hadn’t given up on giving Applejack little love-nips.
“Stop it!”
Applejack was trying to shut Winona up in a shed for the night. Granny Smith had left a food bowl and water dish in there.
“Knock it off!”
Winona, completely unaware of where she was going to spend the night, was still having fun with Applejack. For Applejack, that last bite was one too many.
“Stop biting right now! That’s a bad dog! That’s a very bad dog!”
And in a fit of rage, she shoved Winona into the shed and slammed the door.
“You’re not coming outta there until that potion’s ready!” she yelled. “I’m sick and tired of trying to get you to behave!”
Still fuming, she stomped away barely a minute before the battered door fell off its hinges.

“Alright!” Applejack said huffily to herself. “Did I clean up all the mess she made? Let’s see, I got all the apples she bruised in the composter, I got that other thing she did in the composter… oh, dang! I forgot to clean up the garbage.”
So off she went to the front gate to deal with the trash cans that have been lying on the ground all day. As she made her way, she began to feel regretful.
“How’s she gonna feel after Twilight turns her back to normal? Will she still be mad at me?”
When she got to the front and saw the trash cans, she was concerned to see a faint orange glow amongst the spilt garbage.
“It ain’t on fire, is it?” she said with a hint of alarm.
All of a sudden, her hint of alarm turned into absolute fright. She heard a loud growl and when she looked up, there was a marewolf.
“Holy jumping jonagolds!” she cried as she turned to run.
It was definitely the same marewolf Spike had scared off with his fire. It used its magic to stop Applejack in her tracks. It licked its lips as it walked hungrily towards her. Applejack hoped that the fire in the garbage would get bigger and scare the marewolf off, but there was no flame coming from there at all.

Then, before Applejack could call for help, Winona shot past her and stood in front of the marewolf growling threateningly. The monster growled back at Winona and its horn glowed again, but Winona darted away before it could magic her in place. Applejack watched as Winona dived into the pile of garbage and was surprised when she saw her emerge with, of all things to have in her mouth from a heap of trash, her Element of Harmony, which was glowing faintly.
“What- did you take that from the…?”
The marewolf turned towards Winona, who zoomed away from the garbage cans and stopped in front of Applejack, dropping her element at her hooves. At last, the marewolf froze Winona’s legs and advanced on the two of them brandishing its finger-like claws.
“OK, I’m going for it!”
Applejack grabbed the Element of Honesty and put it around her neck. Would it work without the other elements?

The glowing grew brighter, and brighter, and brighter. Then a streak of light stormed from the Element of Honesty and showered the marewolf in orange. Winona barked excitedly, her tail wagging copiously. They could hear the marewolf howl for a few seconds, and then the howling turned into screaming.
“Can it be?!” exclaimed Applejack. “Did I turn that marewolf back into a pony?”
The screaming eventually stopped and the light began to fade. Applejack couldn’t believe it. The marewolf was gone. In its place was a very disoriented unicorn.
“Good gravy!” Applejack knew who it was. “Lyra?!”
Lyra gave her head a little shake, peered around, then looked at her hooves.
“Aw!” she seemed disappointed that she didn’t have finger-like claws anymore.

The magic lock on Applejack’s hooves and Winona’s paws vanished. Winona was about to pounce joyfully on Applejack, but Applejack got her first.
“That’s a good girl, Winona! You’re the best dog ever! Yes, you are!”
Lyra watched with a smile as Applejack and Winona wrestled playfully on the ground. Applejack was so pleased, she didn’t mind the love-nips. In fact, she grew happier with every bite she got.

Their happy moment was interrupted by Twilight, who bustled up looking fretful.
“There’s a problem, Applejack! We can’t find your…”
“My Element of Harmony?” interrupted Applejack. “Might this be what you’re looking for?”
“When did you get that?” asked Twilight when she saw what Applejack was wearing.
“Apparently, Winona snatched it and brought it here this morning,” Applejack explained. “I guess she thought I might need it,” she added with a chuckle.
“I doubt that,” Twilight chuckled too. “Even if she did think you’d need it, you can’t use just one Element of Harmony.”
“Well she just did.”
Twilight jumped. She hadn’t noticed Lyra standing by the gate.
“What are you doing here, Lyra? It’s a bit late to be buying apples.”
“I think she had a taste for flesh instead,” snickered Applejack. “That marewolf you and Spike saw last night. That was her.”
Lyra gave an embarrassed nod. Twilight’s eyes bulged.

“I got bitten almost a year ago,” said Lyra. “I always made sure I was in the Everfree Forest when I knew there was a full moon coming. But I went out tonight because… well, now I don’t even remember what made me do it.”
“Are you OK?” asked Twilight.
“I think so,” replied Lyra. “I don’t feel like eating anypony anymore.”
“That’s good,” said Applejack.
“So Applejack, are you saying that you used your Element of Honesty to change Lyra back?” asked Twilight. “I thought it was impossible to use one element without the others.”
Applejack had a pretty good idea what made her element work the way it did.
“I kinda snapped at Winona after a whole day of her getting on my nerves. I sure did give her a telling off. And when I found my element in the trash, it was glowing.”
Twilight was quite interested. “I always knew the elements only work if the ponies who control them act upon what they represent, but now you’re telling me that those actions can make one work on its own? I gotta write to Princess Celestia about this.”

“Oh, and here’s another thing,” Twilight went on. “Now that the marewolf problem is solved, we can get to work on that behaviour modification potion.”
But Applejack said “Don’t bother, Twilight.”
“What?”
“Winona’s the one who grabbed my Element of Harmony when I really needed it,” said Applejack.
Twilight watched as Winona gave Applejack a bite. “But she’s still behaving badly.”
“That’s not behaving badly,” retorted Applejack. “That just means she loves me. She hasn’t completely changed. She still wants to be my friend. I think I can retrain her. It may take a while, but I know she wants to make me happy. So you can save your next batch for the strays.”
Winona now jumped on Twilight.
“Well, let me know if you change your mind,” she said as she was splattered with dog drool.

Applejack did not change her mind. It did take a long time like she thought it would, but as the days passed, the time she and Winona spent together became less like training and more like bonding. It wasn’t long before Applejack was able to return to her applebucking chores. Winona had learned to stay out of hers and Big McIntosh’s way while they were working. What made Applejack really happy was Winona started cutting back on the biting. Strangely though, she began to miss it by the next full moon.
“I wouldn’t mind a love-nip every now and again,” she said to Winona one evening after retraining her to herd sheep.
She stood still for a second looking around at the still night air.
“Uh, if there are any marewolves around, I don’t mean from you.”