//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Nightmares 
// Story: The Lone Wolf of Equestria 
// by JNKing 
//------------------------------//

In Logan’s dream, he was back in that square field, the human who believed himself his master over him.
“Observe,” he cried, “And see how the North will fall!”
His whip descended, and with it, a rush of memories:
His father’s bleeding body. His mother howling to the stars. A car bearing down on him.
As he tried to recover from the rush, he saw the human raising the whip again. As it descended, Logan felt something strike him in the chest, sending him to his back.
His lungs screaming and his throat closed off, he pulled himself up to find his tormentor had changed. 
Logan paused, his mind blown. His tormentor was a horse, almost like Celestia, with the same horn and wings. But this one was shorter. Her mane was ethereal, but was dark blue and speckled with white, like stars in a night sky. Her fur was a darker shade of blue as well, and she was adorned with midnight black armor as opposed to her larger counterparts white and golden. The look in her dark blue eyes was pure malice, and as Logan stared up in shock, she forewent the whip of the master, and spun around and bucked. Her hooves hit him in the head and chest, sending another round of almost real pain through his head. The pain was barely masked as a flurry of evil human grins flashed across his mind. 
He tumbled across the square field, looking up in confusion and fear as the alicorn bore down on him, her eyes that of a hunter that had found her prey. 
“Know thy place and tremble in fear, vermin,” the alicorn declared with the voice of a medieval royal, “We are Princess Luna, Ruler of Night and Princess of the Moon. And We are here to be thy reckoning for the vicious cruelties thou hast done!"
“S-Sister?” Logan whimpered, “What are you... what the…?” Briefly, the memory of biting a white alicorn came to him, before she slammed a hoof on his tail. Pain shot up his backside, along with a flash of a memory of a wolf on fire, and he howled as she dragged him closer. 
“My sister is too kind and soft for her own good,” Luna continued, “She would parlay with thee, let assault and battery go unpunished. I have no such compunctions.”
Logan tried to cry out again, but she hit his face with her foreleg, throwing him to his back. That same flaming wolf appeared before him before vanishing just as quickly. She pressed her second hoof onto his chest.
“Thou dared to sink thy weapons into the holy flesh of a God,”Luna growled, pressing her hoof down harder, “And now shall feel… her… wrath?”
Her gaze turned curious, and her eyes glowed brighter. Before Logan could stop her, the square field broke. Memories, in the form of frothing, boiling water, shot around him, and the field disappeared into a churning sea.
Unable to move Luna, Logan was dunked under the surface. And under the sea of memories... he saw his father again. He stood, proud and tall as he always did. But something was wrong; his eyes had a glassy edge to them, as if he was seeing the full moon through a window.
“There are evil beings, my son,” he warned grimly, “Those that will see you bend before them. Those that would see you turned against me.” His eyes glowed, staring down at Logan like spotlights. “I will not let them hurt you. But I need you to help me stop them!”
The memory changed; a man in a dark cloak, his face a shroud of shadows. Before him, a struggling wolf was yanked before him. 
Luna gasped in horror as the man of shadows reached out a hand, gripping the wolf by his head. The wolf gave an agonized howl, before going still. 
The hand released him, but when the wolf turned around, he was… different. His eyes no longer shined with intelligence or free will. They were glassy. 
Indoctrinated.
“NO!” Logan barked, struggling in Luna’s grip, “G-Get away!”
Luna glared down at him, her anger returning, and she pressed her hoof down on his chest again.
“Bite thy tongue, whelp,” she snarled, “I am not finished!”
With him still struggling and gagging in her grip, she forced the sea of memories to rise. Logan howled out in fear as memory after memory was forced to his mind.
His father knocking him into trees, beating him down. 
“Fight, my son!” his father warned, “Show no fear, and show no pain!” 
Before Logan could even think of fighting back, another memory hit him from behind, a leash suddenly forming around his neck, and dragging him closer to a trio of humans. 
“We got us a beauty, boys,” their leader said, with teeth white as diamonds, “Bet he’ll fetch us a pretty penny.” 
“Stop,” Logan almost pleaded, “I don’t… I can’t…”
The leash tore from his neck. He saw a battle in the distance. A wolf with one eye, narrowed in hatred, fighting against his father. 
“You killed my father!” the wolf howled, lunging as his father fell, “Prepare to die!” 
Luna watched in awe as his father valiantly fought the wolf off. Logan squirmed, trying to get out from Luna and run to his father’s side, but the dreamscape only widened the distance, while Luna kept Logan firmly trapped under her hoof. It left Logan helpless as a human rose from behind, a gun clicking and pressing to the back of his father’s head. 
Luna gasped, and let him up, but it was far too late. Her face contorted into guilt as he tried to embrace his father, who was too battered to even return his gesture. 
“My son…” his father whispered.
“No… Father… please…” Logan whispered.
Luna briefly raised a hoof, unsure whether it could be for comfort or for anger, but she didn’t get the chance. As Logan’s father closed his eyes for the final time, the young wolf howled his agony to the entire dream scape. 
“Logan?” a voice asked. 
“LET ME GO!” Logan screamed, “LEAVE ME ALONE!”
“Logan, wake up!”
“Huh?”
“Logan?”
Luna looked around, her eyes wide in panic.
“Logan, you need to wake up now! LOGAN!”

#

Logan shot up, pulled from his dreams and memories, and back into the realm of the living. For a moment, he thought he was still there. Something was grabbing onto him. He lashed out, giving a strangled cry. 
“Stop, wait, it’s me!” someone screeched.
Some pony familiar!  
Logan stopped, his eyes finally focusing on Fluttershy, who was trembling underneath him. His teeth had been mere inches from her throat.
“Fluttershy!” he exclaimed, stumbling back. His ears flattened and his tail tucked. “I…” 
“It’s okay,” she said, going up after him, “It's okay." She wisely didn't approach, but his trembling diminished at the sound of her voice. "It sounded like you were having a nightmare.” 
Logan turned away, shivering. Even now, he could still see that demonic dark alicorn. He could still hear… he shuddered again and tried to force the thoughts from his head. 
“Do you… want to talk about it?”
Logan jumped, briefly forgetting that Fluttershy was there. He opted for a shake of his head, which also allowed him to clear his head. 
That wasn’t real, he thought to himself. That ‘Luna’ thing didn’t exist. It’s a figment of your imagination. It had to be.
He hoped it was; he swore he could still hear Luna’s roar of rage.
Fluttershy was silent at first.
“Listen,” Fluttershy said, “I… don’t mean to add more to your plate, but…”
“What?” Logan asked.
Fluttershy then showed him a clock. It took a minute for him to focus on… 
TEN THIRTEEN!
Logan stared at the clock with slowly mounting horror.
“I was supposed to…”
“Mm-hm,” Fluttershy whimpered.
“And it’s not…”
“Mm-hm!” Fluttershy repeated. 
Logan yanked himself up, trying to throw his jacket over himself, but then they heard it. 
“LOGAN!” 
“Oh, no…” Fluttershy squeaked. Logan almost squeaked along with her.
The voice was worse than Luna’s voice could have ever been. Then she appeared; a bright red ball of fluff storming through the forest. The minute her eyes locked on Logan, she paused. And in that moment, Logan got a chance to gape in shock as her normally crystal blue eyes were now a dark gold.
“YOU PINKIE PROMISED!” Demon Pinkie roared, steam hissing from her ears.
“You have to run,” Fluttershy hissed, trying to pull him away, “It’s the only way you’ll…”
“No,” Logan said, even as his entire body trembled like a leaf, “I will not submit to fear! Not here.” He strode forward. Reluctance in every step, but conviction in his eyes. “Show no fear, and show no pain.”  
“Logan, what are you talking about?” Fluttershy pleaded, as Pinkie charged towards the wolf, who didn’t break his stride, nor his mantra.
“Show no fear, and show no pain,” he continued to recite as she bore down on him, his entire body trembling, and his tail and ears almost tucking into his skin, “Show no fear and show no pain – show no fear and show no pain…” 
“You Pinkie Promised you would be at Sugarcube Corner at nine in the morning, and you DIDN’T SHOW! UP!” 
The demon mare nearly ran right into his face, and despite the tremble in his system, Logan kept his eyes locked on hers as she attempted to drill a hole into his soul with glares alone.
“Show no fear,” he whispered, audible only to himself, “Show no pain.” 
For a split second, Pinkie fumed in front of him, her body redder than an apple. Then, the demonic look faded – her coat returned to its normal pink, and her eyes, while still angry looking, returned to their normal blue. 
“Apologize,” she said. 
Logan’s glare didn’t falter. “What?” he asked.
“Apologize!” she insisted, her mane starting to turn red.
Logan’s eyes darted to the side for a second.
“How?” he asked, “Chop off a paw? Commit ritual suicide?”
Pinkie stepped back, a dumfounded look on her slowly paling face. 
“I don’t know how you apologize in your world,” she said, “But here, we say ‘I’m sorry.’” 
Logan tilted his head at her, his glare searching as if analyzing her. But as her eyes started to turn gold again, his fur spiked, and he spoke. “I’m sorry.” 
Her face came dangerously close to his. “Do you mean that?” she asked quietly.
Logan's ears widened before flattening again, while his eyes narrowed in anger.
Then he stood up like an angry bear. Pinkie and Fluttershy stepped back in shock; as he moved to two legs, his front paws shifted, gaining a more human like quality. In seconds, he looked like an actual diamond dog, but one that wasn’t hunched over. One of his paws extended into a humanoid claw, and he presented his still healing arm to her. He moved the leather of his jacket away from the arm. With only a faint grimace, he proceeded to start carving, ‘I MEAN IT’ into his own arm. 
Fluttershy squeaked as his claw formed the I, and Pinkie herself flinched as he carved the M.
“Okay-okay!” Pink yelped as he finished ‘mean,’ “I get it.” She chuckled nervously, her grin returning. “Apology accepted.”
Logan lowered back to all fours. His eyes didn’t leave Pinkie’s.
“That’s it?” he asked.
“Yeah, it’s fine, silly,” she said, a bit too cheerily, “You apologized. And if a pony is really truly sorry, then you’re supposed to forgive them!”
“I’m not a pony,” Logan noted.
“Any creature then,” Pinkie corrected without missing a beat. “Well, that’s enough of that! We have fun to get to.” With that, she turned and started bouncing down the road.
“Um… Pinkie?” Fluttershy asked, “If it’s not too much trouble, can I at least bandage Logan’s arm before we join you?”
Pinkie pouted, but as she noticed his blood started to drip onto the ground, she sighed.
“Yeah,” she agreed, “Get him patched up quick, then meet me at Sugarcube Corner. We’re going to have so much fun!” She cheered before bouncing off again. 
Fluttershy raced back to her cottage, and came back with a med kit. Logan hadn’t moved from his spot, his eyes still locked on where Pinkie had been standing.
“Logan?” Fluttershy asked, poking at him. He rocked like a stone statue, his entire body locked in place.
“Logan!” Fluttershy whimpered, starting to panic. 
Logan finally gasped out for air, and flopped to the ground. For a moment, he sat there, trembling and keening in absolute fear. Fluttershy pulled him close again.
“There-there, it’s okay,” she said, “It’s over now.”
“I’m… fine-I’m fine!” Logan griped, pulling away. He took a massive breath, and looked at Fluttershy with softer eyes. “I’m fine.” 
Still watching him nervously, Fluttershy took his front paw and started applying the bandage to his arm. 
“So…” Logan finally asked, “Do you mind telling me just what the heck that was?” 
Fluttershy didn’t respond for a moment. 
“It’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie,” she said in a resigned tone.
“That… answers none of my questions,” Logan noted. 
“Well…” Fluttershy cut the bandage from the roll and clasped it with some pins, “We should get you to Sugarcube Corner. After what happened, we shouldn’t keep her waiting too long. This may not be over.”
Logan stared at her dumbfounded. “How can it not be over?” he demanded, “I apologized.” He indicated his arm. “I…”
“I know,” Fluttershy said quickly, “But no pony dares to outright break a Pinkie Promise. Not since Applejack accidentally did so.” 
“With the way she reacts, I wonder why,” Logan replied sarcastically.
Fluttershy could only offer a faint shrug, and as they finished tying off the bandage, they stood and headed for town, Logan quelling the tremble in his step.