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// New World 
// Story: Beast of Equestria 
// by Mr Wool 
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I don't know exactly what happened that night, call it a divine act if you will. I awoke to completely new surroundings. I was no longer in the woodland where I had fallen asleep the night before, I was in some sort of a forest. That wasn't the biggest change however, when I got up something felt weird, I felt as if I was standing on four legs. I looked down and to my shock I was standing on four legs. Instantly I made my way over to a river that was close by. I looked at my reflection and to my horror I saw that I was turned into a pony, a dark green pony with a brown mane.

This definitely wasn't a dream, I came to that realisation after I tried several times to wake myself up.After that I decided to do what any other person would do, look for help and find out where I am. I walked deeper into the forest. One thing that suprised me was how easily I became used to being a pony, everything just seemed to come naturally, like I was one my whole life. Also everything was more colorful than where I just came from, the sun was shining in the sky. It was a nice day, something I wasn't used to. Back home it was mostly rain, if it wasn't raining it would be just a dull, cold day, there was very little sun, even in the summer. I enjoyed it.

I continued my journey into the forest, after walking for about half an hour it became clear to me that I had no idea where I was going. Everything looked the same to me, I became convinced that I was going in circles. Then I noticed something on the ground, it was a pawprint, the pawprint of a cat and a very big one at that I might add. Then I heard a growl. I didn't know where it was coming from. I heard another one and it was closer. Then it jumped in front of me. At first I thought it was a lion, but as I soon as I got a better view of it I realised it was something else entirely. It had the basic body of a lion but it was much bigger, it also sprouted two  bat-like wings on its back and a scorpion like tail. I recognised it as a manticore and it did not look happy. Its eyes were set on me. It was going to attack.

It charged at me and swiped at me with its paw. I managed to avoid it. I didn't want to have to fight it but it left me with no other choice, it wouldn't let me escape, so I knew I hadn't disturbed its territory, it wanted to make a meal out of me. So without any hesitation i changed into my other form. The transformation was quick and just as I had changed from a human to a pony my second form was also changed. It was more pony like, reptilian and muscular in appearance, my eyes turned from blue into a very dark shade of red, I had four sharp claws at the end of each of my leg, three in the front and one at the back, I also had a tail that was longer than my body and it ended with a large knife like blade and to top it off I had grown almost three times in size, making me almost level with the manticore.

I stared into its eyes and it stared back into mine. It roared as loud as it could at me, I countered it with an even louder one. It charged at me once more, this time I jumped up and slammed its head into the ground with my two front legs. Instantly it tried to stab at me with its tail. I jumped back before it even got close to me. It got back up on its feet only to be knocked back to the ground by a head butt from me. It then grabbed me by my leg and pulled me to the ground as it got up. It tried to claw at my face but I managed to put the blade at the end of my tail through its paw. It howled in pain as I pulled it out. I then stabbed it multiple times in its stomach before finally it gave up and flew away. I assumed it went to look for something else or the other more likely idea, it went off to die in peace. With that I gave a roar of triumph, never before had I felt so powerful, so invigorated, it felt amazing. Then I realised that I had felt this way before, the night I killed the three bullies. I changed back into a pony immediately realising that perhaps I was too powerful, with that I made a promise to myself that I would never change into this creature again, for my own good and for the good of everybody around me.

Now that the manticore was out of the way I could continue looking for someone to help me ou. As I began walking I asked myself what kind of place I had come to, after all I just fought a manticore, a creature thats supposed to exist in mythology, I also asked myself what other creatures were out there, only time would tell.