Twilight grumbled to herself as she walked around the edge of the Everfree Forest. She had been working all day, and the newest addition to her jobs was taking away greatly-needed sleep.

At least the sky was pretty.The stars twinkled like Rairity's gemstones, and moon was round and unmarked over the Forest.

"I hate this job." She muttered. She closed her eyes and screamed into the sky. "I HATE THIS FOREST!"

Almost as if it was answering, something in the Everfree roared, the noise of trees crashing to the ground echoing around the cold, night air.

Terrified out of her wits, Twilight rapidly decided that Everfree had enough patrolling for the night and took off for Ponyville.

Once she was in the town limits, the regular feeling of peaceful warmth rushed over her coat. She sighed, looking back towards the forest, confused.

"HI TWILIGHT!" The unicorn nearly jumped out of her skin as Rainbow Dash came to a fluttery landing beside her. "I was doing some late-night flying, you know, because all the thermals are gone and..."

Twilight pretended to pay attention as Rainbow ranted on about velocity and aerodynamics. Something was tugging at the back of her mind, like magic, but different... like someone she knew was in trouble...

"And then I saw this giant thing and-"

Twilight snapped back to attention. "What? You saw something?"

"How did you miss it?! As big as a building, and creeeeepppppyyyyyy..." Rainbow reared up and did a zompony walk around Twilight, front hooves in the air and droning "Braaaaiiinnnssss and cutttiiieeee markkk dressessssss..." over and over again.

"Rainbow! Pay attention! What did you notice about the... thing?"

"I just told you, Twilight. That's all I know. But maybe one of the others has seen it. Not like many of them stay up much..." Rainbow muttered to herself again.

When she looked up, Twilight had already swung open the door of the library and was cantering inside.

"Hmph." Rainbow pouted, flying back into the air. "Rude to leave in mid-sentence."

The nest morning, Twilight was handing out pamplets she had made the night before. Spike was sleeping on her back. He groaned, massaging one paw in his sleep.

"Thanks for writing these for me." Twilight said, still handing out pamplets. "It would have taken me forever to do on my own."

"No problem." Spike yawned, opening his eyes. "But I'm hungry. I'll be over at Sweet Apple Acres if you need me!" He jogged away, still cradling his throbbing claw.

Twilight swished her tail in greeting as a yellow pony jogged up. "You don't look like you had much sleep, Fluttershy." Twilight commented.

Fluttershy pushed back her knotted mane with one hoof. "I didn't. That big scary monster kept me awake all night. I thought it was going to hurt the animals!" For once in her life, Fluttershy was talking in complete sentences in a fully audible voice.

'She must be terrified.' Twilight thought. "You saw it too? What did it look like?"

"I don't know!" Fluttershy whimpered, hiding behind one wing from Twilights' stare. "But it felt bad when I saw it. Like something weird was going to happen."

Twilight Sparkle handed another pamplet to a young colt. "You realize that, because it's happening to us, and in the Everfree, it's always something weird."

Somewhere in the Everfree, a massive creature dragged itself over to an old ruin, covered in moss and vines. Moving under an overhang, the creature curled up, glared at the sun, and fell asleep.