//------------------------------// // Manticore // Story: Maul-verse // by AntiBronyBenSwolo //------------------------------// The eternal night continued as Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity comforted Twilight, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash due to their injuries, while all 6 of the friends decided to get their rest. As the ponies slept, Maul watched on, schemes and plots brewing in his head. As he stalked his prey, Nightmare Moon checked up on her new master. "Any ideas for how to stop them?" Nightmare Moon asked Maul, as he stood there pondering. "Not really. What were your ideas?" Maul asked Nightmare Moon. "Well, my ideas were to have them fall down a cliff..." Nightmare Moon started off with. Maul remembered well what he did with the cliff, but never realized Nightmare Moon caused the cliff incident. "Go on," Maul continued. There was no need to change that plan, seeing as it already happened. "...Then I was gonna put a thorn in a baby manticore and have it attack them," Nightmare Moon explained. Maul looked at her with a disappointed look, as if she answered a question incredibly wrong. Maul just sighed and had her continue. "...Then I was gonna have trees with scary faces," Nightmare Moon stuttered. It was clear she wasn't impressing Maul with her plans. "...Then I steal a sea serpent's mustache..." The mare continued, stuttering and shaking more and more as Maul disapproved of her plans. "...And then I tempt one of them with a new position?" Nightmare Moon finished. At this point, Maul has had enough of his new minion's trickery. "You really think that would stop them?" Maul asked. He then directed Nightmare Moon to the cliff she had them fall off of. "Had I not intervened, your enemies would have landed safely. It's clear you don't know who you're messing with. If you want to beat them, you have to know your enemy," Maul said, putting his staff up against Nightmare Moon's neck. "Now, let's work on your plan and improve on them. I think I might have a few ideas of my own," Maul said, growing a small smirk on this face. Nightmare Moon smirked back devilishly. Maybe he's onto something. "Wakey Wakey eggs and bakey!" Pinkie Pie said, being the first to wake from the camp. The other mares slowly woke up, groggy and tired. It's possible they could have been oversleeping. They couldn't tell because it was still the middle of the night. No matter, they got ready to continue their quest for the Elements of Harmony. As they continued to venture through the Everfree Forest, Maul and Nightmare Moon followed close by. "May I start it up now?" Nightmare Moon asked, concerning their new plan. Maul smirked and nodded at Nightmare, who then turned into a cloud of smoke, and summoned a nearby manticore to attack them. Roars filled the quiet forest and alarmed the nearby ponies. The manticore came closer and closer to the ponies, as it alarmed the six friends. All the ponies, with the exception of Fluttershy, prepared for an epic fight against the beast. Applejack leaped onto it's back like a rodeo bull, Rainbow Dash swooped in on sturdy vines time and again to distract it, but to no avail as the manticore's opponents were knocked over with relative ease, and the manticore prepared what appeared to be a fatal charge against the ponies. "WAIT!" Fluttershy shouted, which caused the Manticore the halt in its tracks. Fluttershy walked calmly towards the manticore, who revealed to have a thorn in it's left paw. "Oh, you poor thing. My friends and I are injured too, just so you know," Fluttershy said, comforting the manticore, much to the disbelief of her friends. "THAT THING is a Baby?" Rainbow Dash asked in outrage. Fluttershy simply giggled and nodded. Flutershy turned her attention to the baby Manticore once more. "This might sting a little," Fluttershy said to the manticore, as she pulled out the thorn, causing the manticore the roar into the night. Her fellow ponies were shocked, but the manticore did not retaliate in cold blood but thanked her with loving licks. "If that thing's a baby, I'd hate to see what the parents look like," Rainbow Dash commented, and by commenting, accidentally tempted fate. "Oh, you will," Maul said, miles away from the ponies position and in front of a giant cave. Maul, with his continuous use of the Dark Side, gestured his front hoof in front of the cave, causing a pair of glowing red eyes to emerge from the cave and let out a massive roar, bigger than the baby manticore's roar. "What was that?" Applejack asked, as the 6 ponies felt rumbling, as it got bigger and bigger. Suddenly, a bigger manticore showed up and shielded the baby, threatening the six friends. The giant manticore let out a giant roar, blowing all six of them into a giant tree. "We have to try to reason with it," Fluttershy explained. Rainbow Dash was halfway to recovering. "Yeah, tell it that it needs to brush its teeth," Rainbow Dash said, dazed by the beast's foul breath, holding her nose to shield herself. Fluttershy got closer and closer and tried to talk to the parent. "I'm afraid there's been a misunderstanding. Your child was hurt, and I decided to help it," Fluttershy told the adult manticore. The parent calmed down and listened at first, but felt as if its brain was being pulled at, causing a mighty roar of pain. "It's not listening!" Fluttershy panicked. The beast went wild and knocked down a couple of trees. "Well, we'll just have to make him listen." Applejack said and hopped onto the hairy back of the Manticore. She struggled to fight a good seat to tame the beast, but as she got closer and closer, her throat was suspended in midair. There, she could see the black and red silhouette of Maul already controlling the beast. What scared her the most was that he was an Earth Pony, although he telekinetic lifted her as if he was a unicorn. Maul rocketed Applejack into a boulder using the Force, knocking her unconscious, and using the Manticore, scared of the rest of the mane six, albeit in the same direction the Mane Six were headed before. Maul knew this was only the beginning.