Chapter 3
Applejack strode into Ponyville General Hospital, where her Unicorn and Pegasi friends were waiting for her. Twilight was nervously clapping her hooves together as she sat, Rainbow Dash was pacing a lazy circle near the ceiling, Fluttershy was sitting quietly, and Rarity was perusing a fashion magazine, but careful inspection saw her eyes weren’t moving.
“How’s Pinkie?” Applejack questioned.
“She’ll be alright” Fluttershy said “The doctor says she’ll have to stay the night and spend the next few days taking it easy, but there’s no permanent damage”
“Good thing too,” Rarity said, putting her magazine down, “We were quite lucky; that could have gone a LOT worse.”
“That wasn’t luck!” Rainbow Dash said, “That was all awesomeness! Thanks to us, this town’s got three less Timberwolves to worry about!”
“But why did we have ta worry about those Timberwolves in the first place?” Applejack questioned “What were they doin’ chargin’ through town like a jackrabbit on barbecue day?”
“Applejack!”
“Beg pardon, Fluttershy, I didn’t mean no offense... Anyway, I challenged’em right ta their face in the market and they ignored me! They went flyin’ right over my head!”
“Maybe they were just sick,” Rainbow Dash dismissed offhand, “Like rabid or something…”
“Or maybe they were driven out of their homes,” Fluttershy added, “By a bigger animal, like a hydra or a d-d-dragon…”
“What do you think, Twilight?” Rarity asked, suddenly noticing Twilight’s silence since they had arrived at the hospital.
“I think it was after something.”
There was a pause as her friends stared at her.
“What do you mean, Darling?” Rarity said, “You don’t think that Timberwolf was after you do you?”
“What other explanation is there?” Twilight asked, turning a little grim, “It went past all of you, didn’t stop until it got to the library, and then it focused its attack on me. It didn’t attack you guys when you were restraining it, it just kept trying to come after me.”
Another pause as the friends thought over this. They all knew it was true, was the only thing that made sense, but they didn’t want to believe it.
“But that doesn’t make any sense!” Fluttershy interjected, “Timberwolves don’t hold grudges or wanna murder anypony! That’s not how Timberwolves act!”
“You’re right, Fluttershy,” Twilight admitted, “It’s not how they act. Not how normal Timberwolves act at all. But I don’t think those were normal Timberwolves.”
“What the hay does that mean?” Rainbow Dash asked incredulously.
“There was something wrong with the one that attacked me,” the purple unicorn explained, “I could see it in its eyes. Something… Evil.”
The word hung in the air, like smoke.
“So… What do we do?” Fluttershy squeaked.
“There’s nothing we can do for now,” Twilight admitted, walking towards the door, “I’m going to head back to the library, clean things up, and do some research. I’ll see your guys later.”
As she exited through the sliding doors, the other Elements of Harmony turned to each other.
“That wolf really shook her up,” Applejack observed.
“Maybe we should go after her?” Fluttershy put forth.
“No girls,” Rarity said “I understand how she feels. That wolf came very close to killing her. Just like the one in front of my boutique nearly had me. We should just give her a little space. If you’re still worried, we shall see her tomorrow, but for now we should give her time.”
The other three nodded solemnly.
***
When Twilight got home to the library, she found Spike doing his best to pick up the mess left over by the battle earlier.
“Twilight!” The baby dragon exclaimed when he saw her, “Where have you been? What happened here!? I went out for a quick trip for some amethyst and when I get back it looks like Applejack lassoed another tree branch in her! And then blew it up!”
“We were attacked by a Timberwolf, Spike. It came crashing through that hole and tried to eat me.”
“Holy Guacamole!” Spike exclaimed, his annoyance turning into concern, “Are you OK? Did you get hurt?”
“I’m fine, but Pinkie Pie got a head injury protecting me from the wolf.”
“Oh, poor Pinkie Pie!”
“She’ll be OK. Look, you clean up the mess and I’ll try to patch that hole in the wall.”
***
Using her magic, she managed to reassemble a part of the wall and put a magic shield over the rest of it. As night descended, she had Owlowiscious carry a letter to a local construction company, asking them to come fix the wall the next morning.
As Spike picked up the rest of the detritus littering the library floor, Twilight went into full on research mode. She poured over books on Timberwolves; their origins, environments, and habits.
The more she researched, the less the attack made sense. Timberwolves were territorial creatures; they wouldn’t leave that territory undefended, unless it was to hunt prey in extreme circumstances. And they avoided towns and cities, preferring to use their natural camouflage and powerful build to ambush prey in dense forests. But all this proved was that the attack was outside the norm for Timberwolves; it didn’t give her any ideas about what might have caused it, or what that look in the Timberwolf’s eyes might have meant.
As the night wore on, Twilight continued looking through her books, but with no direction; no clue where to go with her research. Even after Spike cleaned the library floor and went to bed, she spent hours stabbing aimlessly at any kind of lead, from migration patterns, to the effects of the phases of the moon on them, to myths that they were created centuries ago by a powerful Unicorn who was a spiritual link to the forests of Equestria.
By the time the young mare crawled into her bed, she had even more questions than before. It disquieted her for her research to fail so severely. Twilight knew somehow that this wasn’t the last of it. There was an itch in her mind that told her troubles were far from over. And she had no idea what was coming, or how to stop it.
She was truly lost in the darkness.