Gilda and I were reaching the edge of the forest, I could tell by how the trees were thinning and the amount of light coming through the canopy. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little tired, after all being caked in mud and wearing soaking clothes only added to my fatigue. Gilda wasn’t faring much better than I was; she too was cake in a thick layer of mud.
“I think we should rest a minute,” She said. She was trying to hide how tired she was.
“Rest sounds good,” I reply.
We reach a nearby clearing that had the remnants of a campsite. A couple of logs were lying around a fire pit in a half circle. The Clearing was brighter than the rest of the forest on account of the significant gap in the canopy. The sky however was dark from the storm clouds that had gathered over the course of the day.
“So, Max, how did you get to this corner of the world,” Gilda asked.
I proceed to tell her of the event before I had run into her.
=Ponyville=
Twilight had been making good time towards the forest, from her library the edge of Everfree was roughly fifteen minutes away. She had decided to stop by a friend’s house. This friend in particular was Named Fluttershy, and her name was well earned. She was a timid young woman, fair skin, long pink hair that covered her face and acted as a barrier to the world, she had blue eyes, she also had a delicate build, the feature that stood out the most however, were her wings, and they were as petit and delicate as their owner. She almost always wore a yellow sundress and white shoes. Like was said before Fluttershy is timid and unless she is pushed downright cowardly, however when you get her into a situation where her friends are in danger, you’ll see a whole other side of her, behind that timid façade beats the heart of a lion, she adores life in all its forms especially animals, her house is always open to any woodland creature that is in need of shelter, she is an incredibly kind and caring person.
Twilight walked up to the fence of the side of Fluttershy’s house. Her friend was busily tending to the many animals currently under her care. Twilight had always been impressed by her friend’s ability to handle animals, special talent or not.
“Ahem,” Twilight coughed.
Fluttershy jumped and turned around sharply, she noticed Twilight standing at the edge of the fence.
“Oh, good morning Twilight,” She said in her characteristically quiet voice.
“Good morning Fluttershy, how are you,” Twilight replied kindly.
“Oh, I’m fine this morning, Twilight. What about you?” Fluttershy asked.
“I’m fine as well, I was just on my way too meet an acquaintance of the princesses, he’s do to arrive any time, oh, speak of the time I better get going, I’ll talk to you later, bye,” Twilight said quickly. With that Twilight headed off quickly towards the forest.
=The Forest=
Gilda and I were relaxing after the trek through the forest when suddenly a low and ominous growl came out of nowhere.
“Um, Gilda?” I asked rather nervously.
“Y-yeah Max,” Gilda replied equally nervous.
“You heard that right?” I asked.
“Y-yeah,” Gilda replied.
“Great,” I sighed.
A branch snapped from behind me causing me to turn sharply reaching for my pistol, which I had conveniently remembered lay broken in pieces in the forest. Instead I drew my knife, all eight inches of it.
Of course, even having my knife drawn gave me no comfort when I saw what approached from the tree line. Towering before me stood a massive shape cloaked in shadow. Standing roughly two feet higher than myself loomed a beast with the body and head of a lion, next to that head was the head of a goat, at the rear of the beast was its tail only it wasn’t a tail it was a massive poisonous snake, on its back was a pair of large bat like wings, it was coved in a coat of thick black fur and its eyes, all six of them, glowed with an eerie red light.
I reached lowly to my waist, towards where I kept a second eight inch knife and drew it from its sheath. I slowed my breathing and focused on the beast in front of me. Then the weirdest thing happened, I smiled, no seriously, I smiled, I have no idea why and to this day I still don’t. It could have been the fact that I was staring down a mythical chimera, but who’s to say. Then it happened, as quick as lightning, it raked me across the chest with its claws, the sheer force of the blow sent me flying across the clearing like a skipping stone. I must have bounced at least three times. Luckily It was me and no one else or they would have been killed. I forgot to say this earlier but I’m incredibly robust for a human take into account that I was wearing a padded armored vest under my coat, which absorbed and dispersed the kinetic energy from that blow enough for me to escape severe bodily harm; it still hurt like hell though.
The front of my coat was now shredded, and my armored vest had four huge gashes in the fabric that revealed the steel plating beneath it and the dense ceramic plating behind it. I struggled to my feet breathing raggedly; the wing had been knocked clear out of me and it was a struggle to stand upright.
Then out of all the stupid things Gilda could have done, she attacked the thing. She must not have been thinking clearly, I mean she saw what happened to me, right? Her blind attack didn’t last long, out of nowhere the chimera struck her with its paw, like swatting an annoying fly. The next sound I heard I don’t think I’ll ever un-hear, the sound of breaking bones and a loud scream of pain from Gilda.
The Chimera tuned its attention towards Gilda stalking ever closer to her unmoving body with a look of predatory hunger written on its face. Without thinking I rushed it vaulting onto its back and sinking a knife into its shoulder. The Chimera howled in pain and started thrashing around, luckily I had a good hold on my knife or I would have been thrown off. I sunk my other knife into its back, which made it thrash around even more. All of a sudden the thing pitched over onto its side and began to roll on its back with me still clinging to it. It was now thrashing around in the dirt. My knives came loose and I was left lying on my back in the dirt. As the chimera got to its feet I rolled under it. I was now crouched beneath a two ton monster that was looking for me. I was just below its neck when I quickly brought my knives up in a fluid motion sinking both blades into its neck, no doubt severing the artery that was located within. I rolled to the side and got away from the beast.
I got as much distance between me and the chimera as possible; I was now a good twenty yards away. The beast turned towards me. It took one lumbering step towards me, then another, then another, all the while its own blood spilled on the ground. Soon it stood within reach of me, it brought a claw up, and brought it down, however there was no strength behind it, its claws harmlessly scraped against my armored chest, then it fell over, it was dead.
I ran over to Gilda who was lying almost lifelessly on the ground. I checked her vitals, she was still breathing and her pulse was moderately strong, so she would live. However she had multiple fractures and she was severely bruised. I picked her up in my arms and carried her like a child towards Ponyville.
=The Edge of Everfree Forest=
Twilight had been waiting for an hour more than what the princess told her to wait for. She was starting to get frustrated. Apparently punctuality wasn’t in this guy’s vocabulary. However just as she was about to head home the noticed a figure headed in her direction. As it got closer she noticed a young man covered in mud and, was that Blood!? A thousand thoughts raced through her head. What happened to him? However as the man grew closer she notice that he held another person in his arms, also covered in mud, it was a familiar looking young woman, it was Gilda, an old friend of Rainbow Dash, She was extremely injured. What the heck had happened to put them in this state. The man approached her.
“Excuse me, is there a hospital close by,” He asked.
Twilight took notice of his voice, he was definitely young, maybe around her age, he had light brown hair and blue eyes, he wore what appeared to be a tattered black trench coat and blue jeans, and under his coat she caught sight of two large knives, one at his waist and another inverted on his chest, he had an armored vest with four large gashes across it and under that he wore what was once a white t-shirt.
“Yes, there is,” Twilight answered. “Come with me,” she said.
“What’s your name,” the young man asked.
“Twilight Sparkle,” she answered. “And you?”
“Max Porter,”