Scootaloo screamed as she felt the huge claws of the manticore rip through her side, watching in an almost dazed trance as she saw blood splatter onto Applebloom and Sweetie Belle’s faces.
’Oh wait...that’s....that’s my blood.’ the thought echoed in her head as she slowly fell towards the ground, body numb. Her vision slowly went black as she laid on the forest floor, blood gradually pooling beneath her still form.
The manticore, sure that one of its prey was down, turned to the other two defenceless and frozen fillies. Mouth agape, it lunged forwards, aiming to snap the neck of the one with the red bow atop its head, however it was unable to reach it, with a confused glace it tilted its head to peer behind it, where the lionlike creature saw a slim, red fox with a large bushel of tails holding it back by its stinger with its front paws that looked like diamond dog hands. With a sharp grin, the fox gave a humongous tug and pulled the manticore from the ground, its claws creating huge trenches in the dirt and held it in the air in an impressive stunt of strength, then the manticore’s back slammed into the ground with a large crash.
With a fang-filled snarl Kurama stared down his opponent, body becoming battle ready.
’It’s about time I kill something worthwhile’
“TWI, WHY ARE WE RUNNING?” Applejack shouted, her more athletic body allowing her to easily keep up with Twilight as the rest of the Elements of Harmony followed behind.
“THE CMC, THEY’RE MISSING, AND I’VE GOT A REALLY BAD FEELING WITH PINKIE’S DOOZY, SO WE HAVE TO FIND THEM FAST AND RAINBOW ISN’T ALLOWED TO FLY THAT FAST” Twilight shouted back, eyes frantically jumping around as she sprinted down the main road of Ponyville.
“TWILIGHT DARLING STOP AND TALK TO US!” Rarity shouted, sweat pouring down her face as slowly Twilight stopped, turning to face them with a wild look in her eyes.
“What! We can’t waste time here we need to find them at all costs!”
“Twilight instead of rushing into things use your egghead brain!” Rainbow Dash was, surprisingly, the voice of reason again, “You’re much smarter than all of us so find a use for us instead of just follow you!”
Slowly, the wild look in Twilight’s eyes left as she panted heavily.
“You’re...you’re right Rainbow...today hasn’t been a good day...Okay, a plan, plan plan plan...” Suddenly, an idea popped into Twilights head, one that could work, “Rainbow! You can’t fly fast but you can still be our eyes in the sky, get as many pegasi as possible to look for them and report back to us if you find them.”
“Gotcha!” With a salute, Rainbow Dash flew off, not as fast as she could but still enough to be a blur as she moved.
“Fluttershy, see if you can get your animal friends to tell if they’ve seen them nearby.”
“O-Okay Twilight, I hope they’re alright...” With that said, the yellow pegasus flew off at a hurried pace.
“Applejack, go back to your farm and see if you can get Winona to help find them and Big Mac in case there’s something heavy we need to push or break, I’m sure you remember when he pulled that house along”
“Ahm not sure he could redo that sugar cube but as soon as he hears Applebloom’s in danger he’ll become unstoppable” With that said, Applejack turned to the directions of Sweet Apple Acres and sprinted off.
“Rarity, stay with me and you can teach me that gem finding spell and we can see if we can adjust it to find Sweetie Belle”
“Right Darling, by why only Sweetie?” Rarity asked with a slight breathlessness, still recovering from the sprint.
“Because you and her have the same DNA so it’s easier to configure it to her” Twilight explained before turning to the last pony still there,” Pinkie...” The still deflated mare looked up, eyes blank.
“Yes Twilight?” The tone was dead.
“I know you’re not in the best state of mind, but with Rainbow injured, you’re currently the fast one we have, so I need you to go around Ponyvillie gathering anypony you know, but more importantly those with tracking skills, please Pinkie...I need you....The Crusaders need you as well...” The pink mare stared at Twilight, face becoming harder with determination as a slight fire lit up in her eyes.
“You’re right Twilight, I can’t let them down” With that said, the pink mare became a pink line as she zoomed off, quickly becoming a missile seeking help.
’If only Kurama was here...he could have helped look for them...’ Twilight quickly shook her head free of such thoughts.
“Come on Rarity, lets head to the library, there’s books that can help us plus Spike can see if the Princesses can come down to help as well” With that said, Twilight and Rarity turned towards the direction of the library.
'What am I thinking, Kurama wouldn't help just because somepony was in danger...'
Kurama and the manticore charged at one another, the manticore lashing out with a paw but Kurama easily batting it away with one tail before lunging forwards at the wing of the manticore but missing as the manticore swirled around and smacking him away with the thick scorpion stinger.
'That stinger is annoying, suppose it would be best if I were to sort that out'
The manticore's stinger trembled slightly, revealing deep scratches in the chitin from where it came into contact with Kurama's fur, with a grin Kurama shot towards the weak point, twirling his slim body around the manticores slow hits and leaping upon the back, nestling himself between the wings, wrapping his tails around them as well as the neck of the manticore, while facing towards the tail.
With a loud growl, Kurama rammed his claws into the segment closest to the main body of the manticore, causing it to roar in pain as it tried to buck him off, jumping around frantically as Kurama slowly pried the tail off, thick gloopy blood squirting outwards, splattering onto Kurama's face. With a great heave, the tail came free and along with it a horrifying scream of pain escaped from the manticore's jaw.
With a twirl, Kurama swung himself around the manticore, latching onto its left forearm with his razor-sharp teeth as his fur carved great trenches into the flesh of the beast, a brutal snap echoing through the forest as the wings were twisted way past their breaking point and were yanked off as well, making small fountains of blood erupt from the back of the manticore.
The Biju used his tails that were still wrapped around the neck of the lion beast to heave it to the ground, ripping the forearm still in his mouth out the elbow and crunching through the bones easily, snapping it in twine. The manticore once again let out a roar of agony before Kurama leaped onto its chest, claws slashing around the muzzle and eyes of the beast before he grinned a vile smirk. Still pinning the manticore down, he grabbed the jaws of the beast and started to slowly pry them open.
Applebloom and Sweetie Belle stared in horror as monsters battled it out in front of them, the Red Furred One instantly having the upper hand and now it stood upon the manticore, ignoring all of its attempts to throw it off, the Red being having surprisingly a huge amount of strength despite its thin frame.
As they stared, the Red One has forced open the mouth of the manticore, its own mouth slowly widening as a deep and primordial voice rang out.
"Open Wide"
With that said, flames erupted from the maw of the Red Being, quickly engulfing the upper face of the manticore. Immediately, the smell of burning hair and flesh hit the noses of the two fillies and they were quick to start puking at the horrid smell, still watching the quickening movements of the manticore, both the uninjured and the stump of an paw beating at the Red Things side, having no effect as the Being continued to breath flames.
The manticore didn't know where it went wrong, it went out to hunt as it usually does, crippling one of its prey just as it was taught by its parents and just as it was teaching its cubs, so while it was pinned by the monster that had simply played with it and having its face slowly cooked it thought about what it could have done different.
'Maybe I shouldn't have attacked those ponies' Was the last thought that ran through its head as its eyeballs popped and the blood inside the brain boiled and burst.
Flames stopped exiting Kurama's mouth as he pulled away and looked at his handiwork, staring at the disfigured and melted face beneath him as the hair and fur continued to burn away. The lower jaw, surprisingly still intact, was pulled from the burnt face it was still attached to and thrown to the side as Kurama saunter off his kill towards the fillies, his form losing sharpness it had while fighting, where the overwhelming smell of stomach contents and blood was emitting from.
"S-stay back or Ah'll....Ah'll hurtcha" The trembling yellow filly shouted at him, standing surprisingly strong for a pony with vomit coating its mouth.
"If you wish for your friend to live, I would suggest you to move, I've saved your lives...I have no reason to save hers" That said, the yellow and white fillies turned to look at their orange, scratch that, their red furred friend.
"SCOOTALOO!" They both ran over to her, ignored the blood that pooled at their hooves as they reached to roll her over.
"Don't move her fools, otherwise you'll lose any chance for her to survive" Kurama walked over to the three, red eyes roaming around the fallen pony, looking to see the true extent of the injuries, "hmph, if we move fast she might live, might" with that said, one of Kurama's tails reached out to wrap around the originally orange pony, completely engulfing her in its warm fur, "How fast can you two move? Never mind", two more tails quickly wrapped around the two non-injured fillies, leaving only their heads unwrapped and held them close to his body.
"Try not to puke on me or else I'm dropping you" Kurama was then off, tearing into the forest towards Ponyville, simply barrelling through trees underneath the darkening sky.
Twilight stood at the head of a large crowed, Spike upon her back and the rest of the Elements of Harmony split on either side of her, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie to her left, Rainbow Dash and Applejack to her right.
"Okay everypony! Fluttershy's animal friends have confirmed that Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo went into the Everfree Forest and have not yet returned, so we are all going to go in and rescue them, remember, there is safety in numbers as well as all me teaching all the unicorns here a flare spell, so stick with at least one unicorn and remember, if you get lost its yellow flares, if you get attacked its red and if you find them its green, so remember those colours!" Twilight turned away from the crowd of determined ponies as Spike leapt to the ground, "Let's go everypony!"
"YEAH!"
"SAVE THE FILLIES
"LET'S DO THIS YEAHHHHH"
Everypony turned to look at the white pegasus with small wings.
"Uhm...sorry..." Twilight shook her head and looked into the forest.
'Don't worry you three, help is on...the....way?' In the middle of her thoughts the ground began to shake and trees in the distance fell to some unseen creature, quickly making its way to the large group of ponies. Quickly, red flares were shot up into the sky as unicorns panicked and pegasi took to the air, hoping to get a look at what it was.
All of a sudden, Kurama, now easily the size of the average house of Ponyville, broke through the tree line, red eyes widening slightly at the panicking crowd before they zeroed in on Twilight.
"TWILIGHT, WHERE'S THE HOSPITAL, ARGH NEVER MIND" Instead of stopping, Kurama leaped over the crowd, flinging one of his tails at Twilight and wrapping it around her. Twilight stared blankly at the fur coiled around her barrel, before looking towards her friends, then she was pulled into the sky after the huge fox.
"WAAAAAAAH"
Off into the distance Kurama ran to Ponyville, one more passenger screaming instructions into his ears.
Kurama and the Elements of Harmony minus three stared into a hospital room through a visitation window, showing three unconscious fillies hooked up to many different machines and their respective sisters or sister figures.
"Kurama...I-I want to-" Twilight tried to begin.
"Twilight shut up. Nothing you say to me has any worth, thanking me for saving them? I was simply in a good mood after a fresh kill, if it had been me to see them first I can assure you, I wouldn't be standing here and they would not be laid there, luckily there was something much more worthwhile than children," Kurama glanced to Twilight's paling face, red eyes glaring deep into her soul as the meaning behind his words hit, "And if you apologise you would be killing them, for if your hypocritical ways hadn't appeared, I would have continued to think there was a chance here and not entered that forest, meaning I would have never killed that creature and it would have continued as it pleased" with that said, Kurama turned away and started to walk away.
"I don't care" That made Kurama stop and turn back towards the purple mare, brow raised.
"It doesn't matter if you hate me, you still could have just left after killing the manticore, leaving Applebloom, Sweetie belle and S-Scootaloo in the forest and we would of never known, but you made the choice to take them back to Ponyville and even put aside your hatred of me enough to ask me for directions to the hospital so you could save them" Twilight then bowed low to the ground, "So I thank you, not for saving them but for making the choice, I won't beg for forgiveness or a second chance as I know I don't deserve one, so in the morning I'll send a letter to Princess Celestia so she can select a new guide for you."
Kurama stared at the bowing mare, red eyes glowing slightly.
"The only things I hate is a woman named Kaguya and a man named Madara, as well as the accursed Sharingan, you are not worth hating, so don't bother messaging the white mare, there’s no point in me getting a new guide, besides" Kurama grinned, showing off sharp teeth, "there isn't a guarantee I will be able to scare the next one so easily as you"
Twilight looked back up, a slight grin on her face and tears of happiness appearing before the situation once again hit her and the grin and happiness disappeared, becoming tears of sadness quickly as she stared back into the room along with her two other friends.
Kurama turned back, making his way outside the hospital, ignoring the way he was stared at and growled at anyone who came close to call him a hero. When he was outside he laid on the cobblestone paved on the ground, ignoring the way small stones stabbed into his stomach as he stared into the night sky and watched the stars.
'Did I do the best thing...Naruto, Father?
Rainbow Dash stared with blank eyes, watching Scootaloo sleep under the medically induced slumber, listening to the high-pitched beeping of the life support, there just in case something was to happen during the night.
Pink eyes roamed the small fragile body of the pegasus filly, drifting along the bandaged side.
'I....I wanted to see you become the fastest...faster than even me...'
Tears slowly leaked from the corners of her eyes and she finally allowed herself to break down on the side of Scootaloo's hospital bed.
A stump where a wing once was sat innocently unaware of the agony it has and will cause.