//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: The Manticore's Chore // Story: Ten Months Later // by Z-A-C //------------------------------// "I'm sorry but no." I sighed. "And that's your final answer, huh?" "It was my final answer ten minutes ago!" We were still under the effects of the Mind & Soul Link spell and in that time, I explained to Charles what the mission requires. He said I would do well to avoid Sunny Town. The way he described it was....interesting to say the least. It made Gloomy town seem like a nicer town than it really is. He told me that in the day time it looks like any normal town. But during the night it turned into something born from nightmares. "Ugh, fine. You think you can do something else?" He raised an eyebrow. "I may. Do I have to go any where near the accursed place?" "As long as we're talking about Sunny Town then, no. I need you to go into Ponyville and get my weapons. They should be in the library. It's a tree that's been made into building. Oh!" I snapped my fingers. "I also need my clothes, they should be in Fluttershy's house. They're olive green, You'll know them when you see them." "Do you think that's a good idea?" I thought and looked up at the 'ceiling'. "No. Not really, but I can't take on a town without the proper tools." "I shall do this for you. In return you free me." I chuckled and it turned into a laugh and the I abruptly stopped myself. "I was going to free you anyway, but thank you." "No, no I meant from this spell." "Oh certainly! We're clear on what you need to do?" "Yes." "Cool." With a snap I broke the connection. Back in the real world I stared blankly at Charles and shook my head to snap out of it. "I should still be able to understand you. Here," I went over to the gate and opened it. "There you go, Sir Charles." I bowed. "Thank you, I remember the way to Ponyville I will return with your things shortly." He said leaving the cage. "Much appreciated." I said walking with him. When outside he stretched and started to walk toward the direction of Ponyville (I assumed) and turned toward me. I just waved and start towards The Mare's house. He nodded and took off in a run in that direction. About half way to her house I heard The Mare yelling. "Get back! You dare defy your leader!!" "We are so hungry." The multitude of voices said. "You cannot deny us food! We need to eat!" "You cannot touch her!! She is the New-Blood's!" "But we are so hungry! We need to eat!!" By now I was running, sprinting even toward the direction of the yelling. I turned a corner to see both Applejack and The Mare backing up onto the small stage that I had been sitting on just an hour or so before. I was almost there when I saw one of them jump up behind Applejack and bit down on her left hind leg. "AHHH! Git 'em off of me!! I was close enough by now to see the pony bite down harder causing blood to run down her leg. She called out in a shriek of pain. Something caused me to stop and just watch for what seemed like forever as another pony sneaked up to her and bit down and then another. After a few seconds I finally broke the spell and felt the rage as I have felt during the fight with the hydra, when I thought it had eaten Fluttershy. I did the only thing I could think of. "Applejack!!!" I yelled as I ran up and jumped on the stage, my presence startling all of the ponies on it. The ponies got off Applejack and ran away only to be caught by hooked chains bursting out of the ground, constricting them in a way that if they tightened or if the ponies tried to move they would rip them to shreds. The other ponies backed off the stage and just watched. The Mare stayed and cautiously moved closer. She looked at Applejack for only a second before turning to the rest of the town. "You should all be ashamed of yourselves!! Acting like such foals!! As punishment you will not eat for a week!!" She looked at the ponies wrapped up in chains and smiled wickedly. "And hopefully this will get the message through!" She turned to me and said. "Do it." She said coldly and then the chains tightened up by themselves. Ripping the captured ponies to ribbons, sending blood and pieces of guts flying in all directions splattering nearby building and even me, Applejack and The Mare. Applejack was still conscious but not doing well. There was blood slowly moving from the bite marks on her legs and neck. The Mare came over and shook her head. "It's a damn shame. She was nice." She looked at me, seeing my rage showing through as I making no attempt to calm myself. "Calm yourself friend. She'll be fine, we just need to get her back to my house." I said nothing, picked up Applejack and followed he Mare to her house. I was brought to her basement and told to put her down on the table in the middle of the room. It looked either like an operating room or a morgue, or maybe even a weird mixture of the two. I carefully sat her down and moved out of The Mare way. She reminded me of Fluttershy when she was operating on Match. The Mare grabbed some sort of sterilizing liquid and poured it on Applejack's wounds, causing her to yell in pain. The liquid seemed to bubble and fizz until it was wiped away by a cloth. Once the wound was sterilized, The Mare sewed the wounds shut, poured some more of the liquid on the wound and wrapped it up. "There you go Applejack. I think I got it before the virus could spread, you should be fine now. You should rest now." Applejack nodded and laid her head down on the table. I had things to so I patted her on the shoulder and left the basement. ---------------- "Ah yes here is the trail I was looking for." Charles said as he followed the path that passed by the carved out tree-hut thing. He had been walking for about 45 minutes before reaching this point. He saw the resident zebra walking back to the hut from Ponyville. She saw him as well and froze, not wanting to bring further attention to herself. Charles paused as well and stared at the un-moving zebra. This lasted awhile before Charles got bored and backed away. Once in the bushes he could see the zebra wipe the nervous sweat off of her forehead, and continue to walk to her home. Charles stayed in the bushes just in case there were anymore ponies walking the trail. He found himself hungry about half way to the opening of the Everfree. So he decided to hunt for a little bit. He heard a rustling coming from his left. He stalked the sound and pounced when he felt the opportunity was there. He caught a rabbit, and it looked so tasty. It also looked like a baby rabbit. He sighed and let it go and continued towards Ponyville. He'd surely find something there, right? He reached the opening of the Everfree that faced toward Ponyville. He went to step out of the Everfree but hesitated. He also tried to remember who Fluttershy was. "The yellow mare that lives.....in that house over there." He thought. He cautiously started walking toward the house, looking around almost constantly to see if he would be noticed. He reached the house and noticed all the little critters scatter. He licked his lips but stayed on task, and searched the house. It wasn't on first floor so he figured he'd check the second floor before searching elsewhere. He found the clothes and was now headed out towards the library in Ponyville (not before stopping by Fluttershy's kitchen though). He arrived at the towns entrance and stopped. "Should I really go in there?" He thought. He looked up at the sky. "It is almost dark. I'll wait until I can safely move around." And so he found a bush he could hide in and hid. He waited for about an hour before it was dark enough to move through the town. He got a nap in as well. He walked passed the entrance and toward the center of town, looking for the tree that was the library. The town hall was in front of him now, but he had yet to find the library. He flew up onto the town hall's roof and looked for the weird tree building. He found out that it was to his left. He flew down to the ground and started walking in that direction. After a few minutes he came up on the library and walked up to the door and opened it. There were some lights on but nopony seemed to notice him enter, or to even be home. He began to look for the weapons but was barely having any luck. He saw stairs that lead down and decided to search the lower level. He opened the door to the basement, and peered inside. On a table the were strange looking objects that were made of metal and wood. "Those must be his weapons." He walked over to them and noticed there were straps on them. "That will make it a lot easier." He said, as he started to strap the weapons on. He also noticed the strange pointed things next to the weapons. He assumed they went together and dropped the pants and jacket and began to stuff the pockets full of the pointed things. He stopped went he saw what looked like holders for the pointed things and began to try and load the holders. He managed to fill most of them and put them into the larger pockets on the pants. After that he started to continue to stuff the pockets again. He saw that there were holes in the strap of the longer weapon made of wood and metal. He took one of the larger pointed things and slid it through. He found that it fit and started to fill the holes in the strap. He then saw strange cylinder like objects and decided to fill the remaining room of the pockets with them. He started to go up stairs when he noticed something familiar. Laying on top of a belt was the weapon that was used against him a year or two ago. He decided not to take it but the sheathed knife he would. He slid the weapon and it's carrier off of the belt and took the belt and knife with him. He was headed toward the stairs when he heard something, no somepony. "H-hello? Anypony down there?" The voice was young with an odd buzzing to it. He frantically started to look for somewhere to hide but no where was big enough to hide him with all of this extra stuff. "Nopony's down there Match it's late and I'm tired." Complained an even younger voice. A voice that of a filly's. "I guess you could be right. I still want to check." Said the buzzing voice. "It's probably Spike. Come on its bedtime!" Whined the filly's voice. "Hmm...ok Nyx." The buzzing voice said and hoofsteps were heard leaving the top of the stairs. He waited a few more minutes before walking up the stairs. He looked around and everypony has gone to sleep. He exited the door and started toward the Everfree forest. -------------- I nodded off about ten times by now. It's been about 2 or 3 hours since I sent Charles to Ponyville. I looked at The Mare. "Where is that damn manticore?" "I don't know, maybe he got caught?" I face palmed. "Aw shit...I didn't even thing of that..." "Remind me: Why did I chose you for this task?" "What do you mean?" "You don't seem....well....very smart." "Excuse me?" "I mean no offense, but you lacking to take the possibility of him getting caught into account tells me-" I cut her off. "I'm not a good strategist?" "Yes." "That is different from not being smart." "I suppose you're right." "Trust me. When it counts, I make a good plan." "I hope so." "Uh guys?" "Why hello my sweet. We are in the living room." Applejack walked into the room and sat down. "So A.J., you feeling better?" "Yeah well Ah mean," She paused. "I'm not entirely sure." "It's just the effects of the medicine sweetie. Don't worry, you'll be fine." "Ah hope yer right. So Ezekiel-" "Seth." I corrected. "Ok...uh..Seth what are you doing here?" "Let me answer that with a question: What areyou doing here?" "Well um....Lu-" She stopped when she saw me shaking my head and The Mare's eye sockets glowing red. "U-um....Ah was told to look fer ya. And Ah was taken to the last place y'all were seen. That's when I found this place and was captured while looking around." "I see." "Yeah sorry about that, but I couldn't have anypony interrupting the ceremony." She said with an odd cheerfulness to her voice "What ceremony?" "Making me a citizen. That's why she called me New Blood." "You want to live here!?!? What's wrong with Ponyville!?" "Nothing's wrong with it." I paused to think. "Let's just say I may not be welcome in Ponyville anymore." "Whatdja do?" she asked flatly. "I'm very sorry A.J. but I have to do this." "Do what?" She said nervously and looked at The Mare. "What's going on?!" I whistled and caught her attention. When she turned her head she got caught in the Stare. I really hoped I didn't have to do this so soon.