"So…" Rainbow Dash said as she hovered in place in the library. "Does anypony know why Twilight called us all here?" She, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Applejack were all told by Spike to come to the library immediately for something important. What was so important, they didn't know, but Twilight usually had a good reason for something like this.

"Beats me," Applejack replied to Rainbow's question. "Ah was kinda hopin' one o' ya'll knew what was goin' on."

"I hope nothing's wrong," Fluttershy spoke up. "She was really stressed out earlier today. I think she might be getting sick."

"She has been awfully antsy lately," Rarity chimed in.

"And she's been getting really angry really easily, too!" Pinkie suddenly exclaimed, bouncing in place. "Just the other day, I told her some really good jokes, the kind that would knock your knocks off, but she just yelled at me to stop. When I told her one more, she just growled at me and left."

Rainbow physically cringed at a thought. "You don't think this is another incident like that 'enchanted doll' fiasco, is it?"

Rarity shuddered. "Heaven forbid." Despite being months in the past, that whole event was still fresh in everypony's minds. It wasn't exactly a shining moment for their friend.

Just then, Twilight entered the room, looking distraught and led in by Spike. She looked up at her friends and gave a weak smile, which quickly faded. She looked away briefly and sighed. "I guess everypony's wondering why I called you all here," she said. She took a deep breath. "I just found out something from Zecora. It's not good news." She explained the situation to them, from the moment that the mad stallion in the Everfree bit her, to her blatant symptoms, all the way to Zecora's revelation about the existence of wereponies. She left nothing out, not even the detail about how to cure her from the beast's curse.

"W-w-w-we have to…" Fluttershy gulped, not wanting to finish her own sentence.

"S-surely there must be another way," Rarity said hopefully. "Perhaps he could lift the curse himself?"

Twilight only shook her head. "Zecora was adamant about this. The only way to break the curse is to…" She took a deep breath again. "… is to kill the one who bit me. Otherwise, I'll become a monster like him and run amok. And considering what this werepony could do as just an earth pony… I'm afraid to think of the damage I could do as an alicorn."

"That would be a real doozy," Pinkie Pie admitted.

"I know," the young alicorn confessed. "And I can't do this on my own. I need all of your help to find the werepony. We'll also need a lot of silver." She turned to Rarity. "I don't suppose you would happen to have anything, would you?"

The white unicorn thought on that for a moment. "I may have something. I'll have to check the boutique. I might have some old jewelry I could spare for this."

Twilight nodded gratefully, then her eyes widened at a late realization. "There's one last thing I forgot to mention. We… we have to find the werepony by tomorrow night, or… the change will be permanent."

"What!?" all shouted in horror. Rainbow zipped over to Twilight, a pleading look in her eyes. "Come on, Twilight! Tell me you're just kidding about that!" The young alicorn was silent, her only response being to hang her head shamefully. Rainbow gave a nervous gulp. "Come on, Twi…"

"I'm afraid it's true," Twilight stated, turning her attention to a window nearby, her eyes on the sky. It took a few moments for it to sink in: if they didn't find the werepony in two days' time, the Twilight they all know and love would be gone forever, replaced by a monster. That wasn't good. A dark silence fell over the room as all of this information sank in.

"Well," Applejack said, the silence eventually having gotten to her, "let's get movin'. That werepony ain't gonna find himself for us." The others nodded in agreement as Twilight levitated a map of Ponyville onto the table in the middle of the room.

They quickly went over their strategy, the young alicorn pointing to various locations around town and saying who would search where. For safety's sake, they would split into groups of two; Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie would search in Ponyville's northwest district, Rarity and Rainbow Dash would search around the northeast, and Applejack and Twilight would look around the southern third of town, which was dominated mostly by Sweet Apple Acres. If one team found the werepony, one of them would hurry out to inform the others as fast as possible.

"Hold on a second," Rainbow spoke up just before Twilight could conclude the discussion. "How will know when we found the werepony?"

"Zecora was pretty clear on that, too," the princess answered. "He should show sensitivity to strong odors, he looks a bit bigger and brawnier than most other ponies, and would be prone to anger. Try to keep your distance, girls. He'll still be dangerous, even as a pony."

"Right!" the five ponies said with affirmative nods. Each duo went off their separate ways, leaving Twilight, Applejack, and Spike in the library.

"Spike, you keep watch over the town with the telescope on the balcony," Twilight instructed. "Send me a letter if you spot anything strange." The young dragon gave her a salute and hurried up the stairs to his assigned position. "Let's go, AJ. I'd rather find the werepony before sunset. I don't want to take any chances."

Applejack nodded and led the way out of the library and into town, towards the southern section. The whole time, Twilight could feel something in her bubbling up. Some kind of urge, one that she was immediately terrified of. She looked up to the sky, eyes narrowing at the glare of the sun. It was noon. They around six hours before sunset. She made a silent prayer that she would find the werepony before she ran out of time.

-o-

Two hours into the search, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie had already searched out half of their third of the town, asking around if anypony had seen any strange ponies lately. More often than not, they were met with disappointment. Nopony had seen anyone who fit the description that Twilight had given them. This was starting to look like just a wild goose chase.

"What if he's not even in Ponyville?" Fluttershy eventually suggested, admittedly rather pessimistically. "What if he's still out in the Everfree Forest?"

"Don't talk like that!" Pinkie replied cheerfully. "We'll find him!"

"And what if we do find him?"

"Then we tell the others, silly!"

Fluttershy sighed depressingly. "And then we'll have to…" She trailed off. However, Pinkie didn't need her to finish. The pink earth pony had been skipping along the path as the two of them walked, but she slowed into an uncomfortable trot at Fluttershy's words.

"Yeah," she replied simply. She sighed sadly. "I wish there was another way." The two were silent for a while after that. Then, suddenly, Pinkie gasped, a wide grin on her face. "I just got an idea! We could call Discord for help! All he'd have to do is snap his claws and POOF! Twilight's cured!"

Fluttershy, who had jumped with a small "eep" at Pinkie's sudden enthusiasm, said, "If only it were that simple. He's been going off around the world helping to solve issues in other nations. Hunger and the like. I'm sure he'd be able to help us, but he's already incredibly busy as it is."

"Oh," Pinkie responded, her mane beginning to deflate slightly. "Well, there goes that plan. I don't suppose you have any other ideas?" Fluttershy shook her head, nothing coming to mind. This was a serious conundrum they were in. To sacrifice a pony who probably didn't know about his curse in order to save their friend – she had no doubts that that would only feel like a hollow victory. She cared about Twilight, of course – she was one of her best friends – but to kill another pony…

She shook her head. It would be best not to think of such things. For now, she had to focus on the search.

-o-

"'How hard could it possibly be to find one pony'?" Rainbow quoted mockingly, clearly irritated that this was taking longer than she'd have liked. "You completely jinxed us with that one, Rarity."

"Well, excuse me for being optimistic in a time where optimism seems to be lacking," was the fashionista's agitated reply. She looked around the area of town they were in, keeping an eye out for anypony strange. "I could practically feel all that negativity in the library. Even Pinkie Pie looked to be somewhat depressed. Somepony needs to keep things at least a little cheerful, don't you agree?"

Rainbow wanted to argue, but she couldn't. What Rarity had said made sense. No matter the situation, the group of friends had always managed to stay positive somehow. They were always able to overcome any obstacle because of that. But right now…

"Right now, I don't know," the cyan mare admitted. "I just can't find much to be positive about. We'll have to kill this pony to save Twilight." She sighed and shook her head dejectedly. "I never thought I'd feel so conflicted about saving a friend."

Rarity opened her mouth to say something, but she closed it quickly. She was going to assure Rainbow that all would be well, that everything was going to work out in the end. She was certain it would… for them, at least. Certainly not so well for the werepony. And that was the clincher. She doubted she'd be able to say anything that could make anypony feel better about that.

Suddenly, the unicorn bumped into somepony, staggering her back about a foot. She gave an apologetic look to the large stallion she had collided with. "Oh, terribly sorry! I didn't mean to-" She stopped midsentence as she looked the stallion over. He was an earth pony as big as Big Macintosh, and seemed equally well-built. He had a dark, grayish coat with a wild red mane, and had golden eyes that seemed to burn with some sort of wild pride that didn't seem quite natural. His cutie mark was an image of an arrow piercing an animal's skull.

"Watch where you're going," he said in a calm voice that was deep and gruff. Despite his composure, he still seemed rather annoyed. He didn't wait for either mare to respond, instead trotting off down the road, ignoring them completely.

Rarity eyed the stallion curiously. She didn't recognize him from anywhere. "Rainbow, do you know who that stallion is?"

"No," the pegasus replied. "He must be new in town." She gasped in sudden realization. "He might be the werepony!"

"He does fit Twilight's description rather accurately," Rarity agreed. "You go find the others. I'll follow him and see if he displays any other similarities." Rainbow nodded and darted off. Rarity hurried to catch up with the stallion, keeping a relatively safe distance from him, staying out of his line of sight. She would have to be careful about how she went about doing this.

-o-

Twilight and Applejack wandered wordlessly through their section of Ponyville, keeping an eye out for anything out of the ordinary, but found nothing. Now, they were going through Sweet Apple Acres, just to be thorough in case the werepony was hiding out somewhere on the farm. Applejack had expressed an extreme, disconcerting worry about such a thing. Apple Bloom had already been terrified of going out by herself ever since the initial encounter. The last thing the little filly needed was a reminder of that night.

So far, all was quiet and peaceful. The only things that they spotted were the occasional squirrel and one or two vampire fruit bats, which AJ eagerly chased away. Very little was going on, it seemed. The whole time, Twilight kept glancing up at the darkening sky, something that didn't go unnoticed by Applejack.

"Don't worry, Twi," she said. "We'll find 'im soon enough."

The young alicorn sighed loudly and nervously. She looked up at the sky again. A few stars had begun appearing in the sky. The moon, thankfully, was nowhere to be seen. Not yet, at least. "I know," she said unconvincingly. She didn't say anything else.

Applejack looked up to the sky as well. "Ya know, Ah just thought o' somethin'; why don't ya just write a letter to Princess Luna and tell 'er not to make a full moon until you're cured? And if she can't do that, then she could at least not raise the moon until then."

Twilight shook her head. "It doesn't work like that, AJ. The sun and moon are both forces of different form of magic. However, the moon's magic is unstable, so the light that it emits needs to fluctuate with the magic. If there's no full moon in two days' time, the resulting surge of arcane energy would cause a devastating discharge of magic that could cause tidal waves on shores, earthquakes, even cause unicorns and the princesses to suffer from the overload of magic that the moon would emit."

"Wait, how would a magical discharge affect unicorns and alicorns?"

"All that magic would have to go somewhere, and, unfortunately, magic-wielding creatures are prime candidates to unwittingly absorb the excess. We would suffer from magical overload, which is an extremely dangerous medical condition that could potentially kill us."

"Oh." Applejack cleared her throat nervously. All of that information completely destroyed her idea. Without really thinking about it, she, too, looked up at the sky anxiously, then gave Twilight a slightly nervous look that, thankfully, the violet mare didn't seem to notice. AJ silently chastised herself for that. Twilight would manage to keep herself under control. She was one of the more levelheaded ponies in Ponyville (albeit, she could go crazy at times).

The two mares kept walking and searching for a few more minutes. Still, they saw nothing out of the ordinary for Ponyville. Crickets started chirping, and they saw fewer animals around. Applejack kept her eyes peeled, but she was gradually growing more and more tired. Part of her was screaming at her to go to bed, but another part of her warned her not to. She needed to help Twilight through this. Still…

"It's gettin' awfully late," she pointed out with a short, quiet yawn. "It might be too dangerous to keep lookin' after dark. We should find the others and head back to the library, just to be safe." She patiently waited for Twilight to respond. A full thirty seconds passed before Applejack stopped walking to face Twilight, only to see that the alicorn had stopped walking several feet back. "Twi?"

Twilight gave no response. She was staring up at the sky, eyes wide and mouth agape, as if she was mystified by something. It took a minute for a grave realization to hit Applejack; she looked up to where Twilight was staring: the moon hovered in the heavens, spreading its pale silver glow over the land. It wasn't full yet, of course, but it still shone bright as the sun.

"T-Twilight?" Applejack called nervously, taking a few tentative steps towards her friend. "Are you all right?"

"Y-yeah…" Twilight stammered out. "I just… I… I…" She trailed off. Applejack was about to suggest that they hurry back to the library, or at least to her house, so that Twilight could get out of the range of the moon's light. Before she could, however, Twilight dropped to her knees, grunting like she was exerting more energy than she naturally should. "Twi!" The farm pony galloped to her friend's side, but stopped immediately when she saw what was happening.

Twilight's body was gradually growing in size, with muscle visibly rippling under her coat, which was slowly darkening. Her horn grew longer as well, with a far sharper tip. Her wings stretched out, growing in length, and expanding their span. The mare's teeth became like razor blades in her mouth, and her mane grew out into a rat's nest. Not even her cutie mark was spared; it grew darker in its hue, with the little white twinkles around it dulling out into a cold gray. Twilight didn't stop growing until she was at least twice her original size – she could easily tower over Big Macintosh if he were here.

Applejack took several steps back. Twilight was breathing heavily, panting like an exhausted hound. AJ gulped nervously. "Uh… T-Twilight?"

The transformed mare's lengthened ears perked up, and she slowly turned to Applejack. Her eyes had turned a ferocious shade of yellow, like that of a wolf. She bared her new fangs and began snarling like a beast. Before Applejack could do or say anything, Twilight pounced.