III - Slayed the Beast... But Scolded For Saving the Fair Maiden
III - Defeated the Beast... But Scolded For Saving the Fair Maiden
"Oh, come ON!" Praxis yelled at the manticore from up in his monolithic yew tree. "You're freaking kidding me, right?!"
His rhetorical question was answered with another roar and a swipe of the scorpion tail from the manticore. It got on its hind paws and slammed its forelegs on the tree. It shook horrendously, like the land was caught in a bone-jarring tremor. The satyr was stunned from the vibration of the wood and nearly fell out of the tree and into the manticore's watering maw. Luckily, he regained his bearings before he made his next move.
'This is going to be the stupidest goddamn thing I will ever do,' he thought before he secured his messenger bag of tools and jumped off of the branch towards a nearby oak tree.
Time seemed to slow down during Praxis's descent towards the oak tree as adrenaline pumped through his veins in generous amounts, fueling him with new found energy and tremendous speed and strength. Fear of injury and death was null and void as he soared through the air, his hearing and eyesight heightening drastically. He could hear his own heart pounding frantically against his rib cage like a blacksmith's hammer upon molten ingot.
Thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump, thump-thump....
*RAAAAAAAWWWWWRRRRR!*
He heard the manticore's rage when it realized its dinner was getting away. He continued jumping and swinging off of tree branches at every opportunity, the bat-winged and poison-tailed lion chasing him with malice.
"Goddamn, fuzzball! For a fat ass, you're pretty quick!" He shouted behind him to the beast. It wasn't happy that it got insulted, and in retaliation, it jabbed its tail at Praxis. He saw this coming and backflipped after swinging off of another branch, moving forward while somersaulting in the reverse fashion. He landed on the next tree branch elegantly and climbed to the very top of his temporary safe place, pondering his next move and how to execute it.
'Thank God all thoses months of practicing parkour paid off, otherwise my head would have cracked like an egg by now,' he mused gratefully. He gave a chuckle at his luck. 'That tail, though.... I wonder... could I get that manticore to stab himself with it...?
'Only one way to find out.' He jumped off of the tree and landed on the ground behind the monster.
"Hey, ugly!" he shouted. The manticore whipped around at the insult and bared its teeth, long and sharp like the blades of steak knifes. "You want dinner, big boy? You gotta catch it first!" He pulled down his left lower eyelid and stuck out his tongue, one of his favorite way of taunting someone, before he charged at the manticore, giving off an anxious gulp as he went.
He really hoped that his plan would work.
He veered to the left when he reached the beast and began running circles around the manticore as fast as he could.
But his fastest... proved to be much faster than he thought.
Praxis looked down at his hooves and went wide-eyed in shock: his hooves were a massive blur and he was picking up much more acceleration than he thought he could muster. The wind roared in his ears and the environment was also an immense blur.
"W...WHAT?!" He blurted out. While his intentions were to get the manticore as dizzy as possible, he never expected such results. After assuming this sudden change of speed was also from Lyra's magic, Praxis risked a glance at the creature. Sure enough, the beast's eyes started swirling in its head as it sat down on his haunches.
'Phase one complete,' he thought. 'Let Phase two begin... Now!' He stopped running in circles just long enough to hop onto the manticore's head. It saw him through its wonky eyes, raising its scorpion tail as it prepared to strike.
'3....'
The tail was coming down at frightening speeds....
'2....'
It was getting much closer....
'...1!'
Praxis kicked off of the manticore's head at the last millisecond before the tail skewered him like a wild boar. The tail had pierced through the beast's thick skull, causing blood and an ominous-looking green liquid to torrent from the impaled area. The manticore screeched in agony, the sound of his screech echoing through the Everfree Forest and beyond it, the vocal force of it nearly blasting the satyr off of his hooves and into a tree. The beast slumped to the floor, dead for the poison that had rapidly reached his heart. Praxis could feel the adrenaline rush fading from him.
"That's right, bitches!" He boasted to nopony in particular, pointing at the slain manticore with a cocky grin on his face. "THAT'S how it's done!"
As a memento - and as a form of celebration - to his victory over a murderous mythological creature, Praxis walked over to the manticore's carcass with caution: he wanted to make sure it was really dead first, and that this wasn't a mere act. He put two of his fingers onto the beast's throat, where the jugular vein rested. Sure enough, there was no pulse: the damn thing had kicked the bucket. Glad that this death wasn't feigned, he grabbed a small yet sturdy stick next to him and opened the manticore's mouth. He almost retched from the scent that came from the beast's open maw.
"Hoo! Fuzzball, you've got some SERIOUS Dragon Breath goin' on there," he said in disgust as he placed the stick inside the beast's mouth to hold it open. Its breath smelled of rotten meat and centuries of not brushing and flossing. "Let's see if this will work," he hummed. He placed his hands around two of the longest fangs out of the bunch and pulled as hard as he could, his hooves on the monster's face for extra support. Large beads of sweat rolled down his face as the fangs started turning loose from their sockets. He relaxed his muscles and took in a deep breath before yanking at the fangs again, veins jutting out of his muscles as he gritted his teeth and pulled harder. At long last, they were ripped out of their gums, a little bit of blood trickling from them. He wiped his newly acquired fangs on his enemy's fur and placed them into the zipper pocket of his messenger bag. He was going to go back to his tree and play his flute more until he took notice of a dirt path that looked like it led to Zecora's hut.
"Hmm... maybe she can fashion these fangs into earrings for me...?" he pondered aloud. With that, he walked down the road as quickly as he could: Princess Celestia's radiant Sun was almost at the horizon, and in this forest, the danger will be doubled. His stomach growled again, signaling that it wants to be fed. "Heheh... and maybe I'll forage for some berries on the way there and back."
"Come on, Fluttershy! You promised me that you'd help me with the weather tonight!" Rainbow called to her yellow Pegasus friend.
"O-okay, Rainbow Dash," Fluttershy said timidly, fluttering over to her cyan companion who was several hundred feet in the air.
"Good. Now, here's the plan: we gotta assemble these clouds over Ponyville because there's to be rain scheduled tonight."
"A-alright." Fluttershy slowly ascended into the sky towards Rainbow.
'I'm having really bad thoughts about this already,' Fluttershy thought to herself. 'But... Rainbow is my friend... and I did promise her I would help her.'
The two Pegasi were gathering up clouds as fast as their wings and hooves would allow them; by that, Fluttershy was taking her time girding the clouds over the town, while Rainbow Dash was blazing through her work at destructive speeds.
'Hmm... this isn't so bad,' Fluttershy thought to herself as she rounded up one of the last clouds. 'Everything seems to have gone perfectly swell.'
It would've... if Rainbow hadn't decided to pull a little prank on her friend.
*BOOOOM*
She grabbed one of the storm clouds and sneaked up behind Fluttershy, giving it a little stomp and causing it to shoot out a lightning bolt. Fluttershy jumped in fear from the lightning and thunder. Her wings snapped shut at the sound, her heart hammering wildly in her chest as she began plummeting towards the pond beneath them. Rainbow was on her back, guffawing so loud and heartily that she neither heard nor saw her friend shrieking as she free-fell to the ground. The ringing in the rainbow-maned athlete's ears from the thunder didn't help her in hearing one bit.
"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!" screamed Fluttershy, flapping her forelegs in an attempt to regain flight, but with no positive results.
"Thank the Lord for anesthetics, or else I'd've been blubbering like a baby back there!" Praxis said as he rubbed his face and his pointy ears, the latter bearing a manticore fang that dangled on each lobe. Zecora was deeply impressed that he had defeated an extremely dangerous monster on his first day in a new universe. To reward him - and in exchange of the many berries he had foraged on his way to her, she forced the tip of the fangs inside small silver bands that were connected to chains with a clasp at the end. The inside of the bands were lined with a really powerful adhesive she had made herself, so there was no way that the fangs would ever come out. She eventually wanted to tattoo his face with some of the black ink she had, but he decided against it... at first.
"Another time, Zecora," he had told her. His mind was set on that idea... until she pulled out a little blueprint of what she was going to create on his face: A single spike curving inwards towards the corners of his lips, the base of the spikes coming out from the outer corners of each eye. That caught his attention and made him change his mind. After many minutes of the torture known as facial modification, and lots of anesthetics, the tattooing was complete. He thanked her with more berries and some medicinal herbs, which she gladly accepted.
Now (pain)fully pimped out with his new earrings and tattoos, Praxis had reached his tree and hopped effortlessly to the top of the 100-foot yew; while outrunning that manticore had made him sore, it threw some muscle onto his legs and arms, making him more powerful than he previously was. He hung his messenger bag at the end of the supple branch above him and laid back on his own tree limb. Soaking in the orange light of Celestia's sinking sun and the light drizzle of today's forecast, Praxis tossed some blackberries into his mouth. After swallowing, he put his flute to his lips and played simple, yet random, notes. The spontaneous notes soon became the beginning of a new song.
Or so he would like to believe.
His euphoria for his instrument came to a screeching halt when he was interrupted by a boom of thunder and a soft scream ion the distance that followed it, all of this being picked up by his finely tuned sense of hearing. He looked for the disturbance and swallowed hard. His pupils shrunk to the size of peas as his heart sunk into his stomach again, much like the yellow Pegasus that was plummeting towards the very pond he emerged from this very morning.
Fluttershy was falling at terminal velocity, flapping her forelegs in that same helpless-chicken demostration he did. He stood up, stretching his legs and arms. If he wanted to save her, he had to time it just right, or it will all be for naught, and she'll have already taken the plunge. He got into a starting position and watched her like a hawk.
"Come on..." he muttered. She was at 350 feet.
"Almooost...." 230 feet.
"NOW!" He bellowed this word, right when Fluttershy was 150 feet from the pond. He started towards the edge of the branch and jumped onto the very tip of it. It sprung back like an extremely flexible diving board. He kicked off of it right when it sprung back and he rocketed across the sky towards his target. He turned in mid-air, his back to the ground as the tiny raindrops dotted his face, torso, and fleeced legs. He bent his right leg and outstretched his arms, catching Fluttershy and holding her securely to his chest with both arms and one right upper knee
"Gotcha!" he said ecstatically. Fluttershy removed her muzzle from the patch of hair that rested upon the fleshy and furless torso and looked up into the eyes of her savior, her own widening in fear. This strange creature... who was rumored to be a monster... had saved her? No way: the horns, the pointy ears adorned with the fanged earrings, the tats, the overall appearance was just simply too much for her.
This all made her curl into a ball and hide behind her rosy locks of hair.
'HNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG!' Praxis thought, trying his best not to squeeze the adorable pony ion top of him. As he began his descent to the moist earth, he backflipped and touched down spectacularly, using his hooves and one of his hands as a braking system to stop him from skidding backwards across the damp grass. Once he had stopped set her down upon the ground and got down on one leg, hand resting on the other.
"Are you alright?" he asked the timid Pegasus, who was still hiding behind her pink mane. She gave a short nod and got back up on her four hooves.
"T-thank you," she said quietly.
"Um... forgive me for asking, but what's your name?" He already knew what it was, but again, he didn't want to appear like an all-knowing monstrosity.
"Um... I'm... Fluttershy," she answered. She had spoken her name so quietly that it would've been like she had never said it at all, but Praxis caught her name with his extreme sense of hearing.
"Nice to meet you, Fluttershy." He stuck out his hand. She flinched, yet emerged from her pink mane to inspect the hand and its phalanges more. "I'm Praxis, the satyr."
"H-hi, Praxis," she said meekly, finally daring to stick out her hoof and placed it into his palm. He grasped it softly and gave it a shake. "Um... Praxis? What's a satyr? That is... if you don't mind me asking...." She hid behind her rosy curls once more.
He would've happily given her the answer... if Rainbow hadn't screwed it up again. The speed demon had seen the scene, rage filling her again at the sight of the creature.
'What's that monster doing with Fluttershy?!' she thought furiously. 'I'd better stop it before it hurts her!' With that, she beat her wings and charged at Praxis. She collided with him and tackled him to the ground. The both of them rolled and tumbled down the small hill behind him until they came to a stop. Praxis tried to get up and push away the thing that had charged at him, only to be whipped with a rainbow-hued tail and be forced to sneeze away from it. He tried getting up again and his eyes widened in surprise when he faced forward: Rainbow's powder blue flank was mere millimeters from his nose. Rainbow wasn't so lucky either, as her muzzle was just in between his legs as well.
'While this IS really tempting and all... no,' he thought as he pushed her off of him and got up, dusting off his legs and back. Rainbow's cyan cheeks were tinged with an embarrassing pink as she arose.
"Geez, honey, we could've at LEAST gone for some dinner and dancing first," he said suavely, clicking his tongue at Dash and giving her the double-eyebrow-raise trick. Rainbow blushed so much that her face was nothing but bright red.
'Holy fuck, I am smooth,' he mused.
"Sh-shut up! What do you think you're doing with Fluttershy, demon!?" she roared at the creature, all the pink from her face fading away as her words progressed.
"Well, after I saved your friend here from becoming food for the fishes, I merely introduced myself to her. I WAS gonna tell her what I was and where I came from... until you showed up," he stated nonchalantly as he examined his nails, though inside him, wrath was bubbling like a pot of water above a blazing fire.
"You weren't gonna save her! You looked like you were gonna eat her!" Fluttershy cringed at those last words.
"Eat her? That's harsh. I don't think you realize that I'm part goat: I can only eat plant life."
"Then how does that explain those freak earrings of yours, huh? Those don't look like a veggie eater's!"
"You're quite right, my friend. These belong to a manticore." That got the two Pegasi's attentions: Rainbow was flabbergasted, Fluttershy was deathly afraid. "With enough cunning and proper timing, I made it kill itself with its own tail."
"W-what!?" The both of them blurted.
"You k-killed o-one?" Fluttershy asked nervously. Praxis nodded, confirming the timid pony's fears and making her shrink in a ball again.
"It's true," said the satyr before turning to Dash.
"What a load of horsefeathers!"
"Now why is it that you hate me again?" His tone was harsh and cold when the question escaped his lips.
"Because you're a -!" She was cut off by Praxis's sudden burst of molten rage.
"Lemme guess: A monster?! A demon?! A FREAK?!" Rainbow Dash was caught off guard by this spontaneous display of anger. She backed away from him as she gazed into his eyes. Their usual brown hue that displayed kindness and altruism had been reduced to black slits, reflecting nothing but fury and hatred. "Well, let me tell you this, you egotistical prick! I am NO such thing! I'm sick and tired of all of you all running away from me, calling me names, and THROWING THINGS AT ME!" He had raised his voice to an earsplitting bellow, his volume almost matching that of the Royal Canterlot Voice. "YOU'VE BEEN MAKING THIS NEW LIFE OF MINE A LIVING HELL SINCE I GOT HERE! I CAN'T EVEN SET ONE GODDAMN FUCKING FOOT - I MEAN, HOOF - INTO TOWN WITHOUT EVERYPONY EVACUATING LIKE A BOMB WAS ABOUT TO GO OFF!" Dash looked like she was going to cry, biting her hoof to prevent that from happening. Fluttershy was already past that point: tears were shooting out of her eyes like waterfalls as she sobbed quietly.
"You wanna know something, you brash and pathetic little shit?! I used to think you were cool... that you were the most badass Pegasus in Equestria. I used to want be LIKE you a while ago. But now? Well, If anypony EVER suggested that we should be friends, I would rather rip off my earrings and plunge the fangs into my neck before that would happen! Why?! Not only because I'll never EVER acknowledge as a friend, but also because you're FUCKING DEAD TO ME!" With that, he stomped away towards the Everfree forest, turning his back on the bawling Fluttershy and the angry yet emotionally scarred Rainbow Dash. "And unless you're going to apologize or you have a death wish, then don't even bother trying to look for me!" he roared back at her as he jumped up into the yew tree and grabbed his messenger bag from the top branch, disappearing into the thick foliage afterwards and into an entirely different, yet equally tall tree, this one an unknown type.
'Good riddance,' he thought angrily as he sat there, flicking off a tear that had escaped from its ducts.
"Yeah, well, FINE, you jerk!" Rainbow had shouted at the satyr in retaliation. She had stopped herself from getting all sappy, but she was still hurt by the creature's words. She turned towards Fluttershy, who was still weeping, the tears mixing with the raindrops as they fell to the soil below. "C'mon, Fluttershy. Let's go."
But the yellow Pegasus wouldn't budge.
"Come on!" Rainbow commanded. She got close to Fluttershy and gave her a nudge with her foreleg.
*SMACK!*
It wasn't that it hurt her physically; Fluttershy was too much of a softy to leave any damage. But still, Dash felt like a worthless mound of dung the second that Fluttershy's hoof had come in contact with her muzzle. She couldn't believe that the feud with Praxis could've driven her friend into slapping her across the face, tears still leaking in the craven Pegasus's eyes.
"How c-could you?!" she interrogated, choking back the evidence of the melancholy that still cascaded down her cheeks. "Why couldn't y-you unders-stand what he was g-going through?!"
"What do you mean?"
"I s-saw it in his eyes! He may h-have a smile on his f-face, but his eyes tell it all: that s-satyr suffered from the other p-ponies who always m-mocked him, always r-ridiculed for w-what he was!"
"But I-"
"No 'b-buts'! That was very r-rude of you! He s-saved me from drowning, all b-because you were c-crazy enough to pull such a h-horrible p-prank on me!"
"What?" Dash put her forehoof to her mouth, stunned by the epiphany that was brought forth to her at the speed of a raging locomotive.
"Y-yeah!" Fluttershy continued in her angry and upset tone of voice. "B-but you insisted on t-treated him like he was some weird freak! You HAVE to apologize!"
"What?! No way in Tartarus!"
"...Then you leave me no choice." She wiped her eyes and walked away from Dash, heading towards her cottage. "And by the way? YOU'RE the jerk, Rainbow Dash!" she hollered behind her as she disappeared behind the hill
Rainbow sighed deeply, her head low as she fell to her haunches onto the mud and sobbed quietly into her hooves. Fluttershy would never do that in a million years. Why she chose to do it now was an utter enigma. But she was right. She had done nothing but insult, hurt, and despise that poor creature, when he had done nothing wrong. Now she had paid the price: the one animate being here that wasn't a pony had stopped idolizing her and her best friend from fillyhood didn't want to talk to her until she made up for her prejudiced actions.
"What have I done?" she said quietly, weeping into her hooves more.
'Funny...' she thought sorrowfully. 'The rain feel heavier than before... just like my heart.'
Stats
Page generated in 0.024 seconds
Total duration
910 users online
521,976 hits today, 2,561,572 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
Wow...Rainbow Dash you done messed up.
Also, why the earrings and tattoos? Does he want to look scary to the ponies that he is trying to win favor with?
Good chapter all in all.
This... Is... AMAZING !
I'm speechless. One thing to say : BRAVO.
I kinda fear that this is falling into what I think common tracks for many HiE, like Praxis being super agile/strong and being able to kill a manticore with ease and so on.
Can't really describe what i'm thinking at the moment so I hope you understand that you shouldn't let this become too chliché, since the general idea is new for me and I'd like to see you make a good story out of it.
437443
The character wanted the fangs as a nice little memento, to show that he had almost lost his life.
As for the tats... Zecora is one persuasive zebra. Besides, I'm pretty sure Praxis wanted to appear like a badass in the eyes of the others.
437454
thank you kindly, good sir.
437465
While I do see where you're going with this comment, please note that Praxis had to try and tire out the manticore, which wasn't an easy feat. Defeating it took a bit of cleverness and strategy: since he didn't have any weapons, the only thing he could use to kill the monster was the monster itself.
And have you EVER had an adrenaline rush while diagnosed with ADHD? It's kinda like replacing the water in your coffee pot with Red Bull. That's how he became pretty fast and agile. The strength was something he's been working on for a couple of years of hard work and parkour training.
wut
What is this
what
seriously
How does this even
I don't
AMAZING!!!!!!
If anyone is thinking Praxis is OP, remember that Satyrs are BUCKING FAST. Ever hear of 'Bitey of Brackenwood'? No? Go look it up.
438088
Yes! Somepony remembers that legitimate bad-ass!
I've got to say, you had me with this story until this chapter. Something about it, beyond what I'm going to point out, feels off in comparison to the rest.
The pacing: the story went from fairly slow (for a fanfiction) and good pace to something that just seemed to jump forward very quickly and with very little description beyond basic story telling.
Praxis: very illogical, and not acting like he has in the previous chapters, in my opinion at least. He seemed to be shifting very wildly in a direction that I can only really describe as bad. Another major issue is that he seems to just have a complete grasp of his new body within barely 24 hours, something that to me just doesn't click. Especially the pipes, even though satyrs are gifted with the ability to play them, he would still be limited to those capabilities that he already had mentally, before he became a satyr.
Rainbow Dash: yes she is cocky, yes she is over protective of her friends, and yes she can be rude and be slow to admit her mistakes, but she would not be that insulting or rude, especially after she had been set straight by Fluttershy, even more so after many of the lessons that she has learned with the other Mane 6.
And the biggest issue I have? That explosion at the ending. It was unwarranted and unnecessary, not to mention strangely out of place considering the extremely minimal relations with ponies that Praxis has had up to this point. If he had spent more time working on trying to speak to other ponies than the ones that had seen him upon his entry to Equestria, then I could see it as more rational and a good place to put it, but as it stands? It doesn't feel right there at all.
Those are just my thoughts on the matters, thought I would let you know.
438625
First thing that came to my head when he said "YOU'VE BEEN MAKING THIS NEW LIFE OF MINE A LIVING HELL SINCE DAY ONE!" was, "Isn't it still day one?"
Getting emotion right, and even doing it with fluttershy... wow!
I must say this is now one of my favourite chapters now
*applauds*
Yeah!
That's how it's done!
Great chapter, good sir
I would give you another thumb up if I could.
you deserve my worship after putting rainbow in her place like that!
YOU ARE NOW GREATER THAN GOD!
WHEN THE PRIEST SAYS THANK THE LORD I THINK OF YOU!
1001047 LET US PRAY TO SHADOWWEAVE, HAIL HIM.
438204 bout time someone put that prick in her place, btw read building blocks.
Holy crap, I Just noticed most of my favorite authors Commented on this... back in 2012... Shit... i'm late to the party aren't I?
8220147
Who is your favorite author?
Rainbow pranking Fluttershy like this seems a bit out of character. If I recall correctly, they grew up living together, and are quite close friends. I'm sure Rainbow Dash would be considerate enough to her friend to not do something like that.