My story begins with the night and ends with the dawn. Three days. Three nights. Enough time for a story and enough time for me to explain the event that changed my life; and the pony that saved me from it.
This story starts on the eve of the full moon. I have always walked through the forest at night; its silence...calms me. I am by no means a danger pony - I leave that to Rainbow Dash. I merely seek that which no-pony can offer me in this crazy town.
Peace.
The forest offers no inane sounds, only an eerie silence which I have grown to love. Every pony in this town is too loud; I need somepony who is content to be quiet. But I digress.
That night, I forgot the one rule of the forest. Stay on the paths.
The town was in full party swing; A silly celebration, a new pony or something? Who cares? Too much noise for me.
I wandered the paths of the forest to my hidden grove. Not much by size standards, but enough for me. The trees surround me and block all forms of sound, save the quiet whisperings of the wind. Perfect.
But not tonight. The sounds of the town still reached my ears through the trees, becoming desperate I decided to take my chances. I picked the largest gap between the trees on the far side of the grove and forced my way through. Branches began to scratch my flank and face as I forced my way through the trees, but by that time I didn't care - I needed my silence.
I burst through to another clearing and stopped to sigh, I could hear no sounds of the town from here. I could relax and enjoy the night.
The sudden exertion took its toll on me and I flopped down to the grass, panting as I sought to regain my breath. The scratches and cuts began to sting in the night air and I could taste the iron in the air. But I didn't care. The night was young and I had all night to enjoy the stars and the moon above.
The moon was beautiful tonight, it had formed a perfect sphere and was lighting the whole grove with its soft cold light. I relaxed, lulled by its soft lunar serenade into a peaceful rest.
I know not how long I slept in that grove but I do remember the waking. Oh how I remember.
The creatures of the forest are controlled by the lunar cycles; they react to it and are influenced by its presence. And on the night of the full moon, once it reaches its peak. They appear.
I was woken by a gentle nudge at my side and I snapped out of my slumber, angry at the fact that something had decided to disturb the only amount of peace I had managed to snatch away that night.
I turned around; ready to give whatever had woken me a piece of my mind. And what was in front of me broke my spirit to my very core.
Lunar wolves.
Ponies that had become entranced by the moon and thus, become lost in its madness. Little more than animals, they undergo a shift in appearance every night to become the fearsome beasts that I saw in front of me. Their minds corrupt with the power of the lunar influence, and they go mad, often fleeing to hidden areas in forests or mountains.
The stories of them had often glorified their appearance; but what I saw that night was the true form of the lunar wolves; savages. Their bodies were covered in scars, trophies from their feral fights with other woodland creatures. Their eyes all bore the same iridescent white hue of the moon and their flanks all carried different variations of a similar theme - the changing cycles of the moon.
For that was the indication of one becoming a Lunar Wolf. It began with fits of restless sleep and a paranoia that would become unshakeable. Until the very thing that distinguishes ponies from one another, our cutie marks, became corrupted itself, changing form to suit it's wearer's madness.
These beasts had surrounded me and my first thought was to run. But what was the point? They had circled me from all sides. Nowhere to run and now I had no chance of survival. I would become the food for these creatures.
I stood shivering as the obvious leader of the group leaned forward and began a slow rumbling growl that caused every hair on my body to tingle. I was by no means a mind reader but I could see the hunger in her eyes.
And yet they had not attacked me so far, why? I stood no chance of beating so many, and I had nowhere left to run. But my train of thought was broken when she began to howl, a low quiet howl that began to intensify as each and every member of the pack began to join in.
The sound caused my mind to become blank as the clearing began to lighten. The moon's light began to intensify with their combined howling as a shaft of lunar power broke away and began to shine on the lead wolf. She stopped her howling and lowered her head to face me. Her eyes no longer bore the hunger of the past few moments, it was as though the moon had sated her appetite and she began to step forward.
Her hooves broke the ground with her strength as she trotted forward to come nose to nose with me. Her curiosity radiated outwards as she smelt my face, sniffing with particular interest the places where the blood has congealed on my face from the scratches earlier. She worked down my side to my flank, and I was still frozen in place as the sniffing intensified at one of the open wounds from a particularly big cut.
I turned following her as her eyes met mine. She snorted and turned back to my flank and began to lick the wounds. The sudden touch of her warm wet tongue startled me and I reared back. She turned to look at me and began to growl again. The same fear I felt before paralysed me once again and she trotted forward and began to lick up towards my face.
She finished by planting a huge slobbery lick on the end of my nose and sitting back on her haunches, a goofy grin beginning to form on her face. I moved my forehoof up to my face to wipe the slobber off and I felt the skin underneath. The fur was still missing from the cuts, but the skin beneath by hoof was clear and unblemished. The cuts and scratches from earlier had disappeared and had been replaced by pure unbroken skin.
This startled and amazed me. I was sure that she had meant me harm and yet. By some strange power she had provided me healing. I stood there as she stood up once again and began to raise a hoof to my face. I looked around the clearing but the others had vanished into the night. I returned my gaze once again to the wolf in front of me. She was swatting at my face with her hoof, her body was crouched and her hindquarters were shaking side to side. A massive smile lit her face as her amber eyes glowed with happiness.
"D-do you want to...play?" 5 little words were all I said. And I think I made her entire night with those words. She leapt forward and bowled me over. I slipped out from under her and bolted to the other side of the grove. She chased me and leapt forward as I dodged and ran across to the other side, avoiding her playful swipes and lunges. She never stopped smiling the whole time and it became infectious.
The boundaries between our two species became broken as the two of us began to laugh and play. Madness and fear was forgotten as we danced and leapt around the grove. I no longer cared about peace or silence.
In the end both of us collapsed exhausted in the centre of the clearing. Huge grins on both our faces and she had decided to collapse over my back, effectively pinning me to the ground. She was happy and that made me feel great, I don't know why but making her happy had brought gladness to my heart that I had not felt in a long time.
We had not needed words or long speeches to get our point across. I patted her head and shifted her off me as I rose. I stood yawning as I turned my nose back through the forest towards the town and my home. She followed my nose and looked towards the town and began to whine.
I looked at her and I knew that if I didn't return to the town that others would become worried. But I could see the sadness that was in her eyes. I looked at the sky, torn between causing sadness for this poor mare or doing the right thing and returning to my kind. But was it really the right thing to do?
I mean sure I helped lots of ponies in my job as a craftspony. But she was obviously lonely and unhappy. And I had enjoyed causing such happiness in her. Her eyes bore straight into my soul and her sadness jumped across the link, dampening the flames of my heart and leaving me feeling cold and soulless.
But she was a feral, a Lunar wolf. They would know immediately she was not one of us when they saw her corrupted cutie mark...
I turned to look once again at the moon and I saw how low it was in the sky. We had danced the night away and the sun would soon break in the sky to the east as Celestia raised it from its nightly rest. She followed my gaze and stared fixated at the moon as it lowered towards the horizon in the west. As it sank down towards the hills I put my hoof around her and sighed. I could at least wait until morning. Nopony ever needed my store to be open on a Sunday anyway.
I took one last look at her form as the moon disappeared and the sun rose in the sky. The light enveloped us and she began to shy away from its brightness. She yelped in pain as her form began to shrink and the fur receded, her teeth shrunk back to a normal ponies and her fur began to lighten from the dark blue of a Lunar Wolf to a grey tone. Two strong wings burst forth from her shoulders and went limp at her side. Her mane swept backwards as her head arched back and a pitiful howl escaped her lips that dwindled to a yawn as she collapsed against me.
I shook my head, awed by the power of the moons influence. I pitied her as she lay in my hooves, sound asleep. And I knew that I should have just left her there in the woods, but I could not. There was something about this mare that had entranced me and won my heart.
I cast a glance at her flank to see the corruption of her cutie mark and my eyes grew wide. For on her flank was no sign of any corruption. Her cutie mark bore no sign of the moon and her eyes had no indications of sleeplessness or madness. She was still pure.
My mind race as I sought to process this information. Then it dawned on me. I had recognised this mare. She was often seen around the town but was known to be a little...odd. She worked hard and supported her family and yet nopony knew a thing about her or her past.
I smiled; she looked so peaceful in my hooves that I just lay there with her, enjoying the morning sun. The sound of the wind raced through the trees as it blew into the grove. Teasing our manes it blew across her snout and tickled her awake.
She roused herself gently, her eyes fluttering open as she woke from her sleep. I saw her trademark mismatched eyes and I knew that this was the mare I had thought she was. I smiled as she turned her head to look at me.
A blush settled across her face as she smiled and pushed herself up from my hooves. She turned to look at me and her mouth formed that lopsided grin that everypony knew her for. I began to blush as well as she moved towards me and kissed me on the muzzle - a thank you for the previous night. We both smiled as we walked back to the town side by side. Neither one of us said a word, because neither of us needed to.
We were both happy.
Wait a minute, I am sure several of you are wondering; “Why did you need saving? Didn't you just save her? Why is this so happy? It's got a SAD tag for foal sake!”
Well there is something everypony needs to realise. Darkness is an interesting thing; it needs only a speck of darkness in someponies heart to blossom. And not every story has a happy ending. After all, the Moon is a very patient entity. She can wait a day or two.
And so ended the first night - but what came for the second two? That's for another chapter in this story.