//------------------------------// // The one and only // Story: Not just another day // by Th3 Torx //------------------------------// Fear is a complicated feeling, sometimes it causes you to freeze, sometimes it makes you cry, and sometimes, just sometimes it’s the best feeling in the world. And to Kyle this was one of those times, he felt the adrenalin rushing through his body as he readjusted the grip on his pistol. He took a deep breath while he evaluated his situation, he had his back to a tree and 100 meters further away were three hostiles armed with fully automatic assault rifles. And to make matters worse he was completely alone, no backup and no friendlies anywhere close. He took a quick peek around the tree and saw them coming closer, there is no way he could escape. That leaves only one option, well two, but he wasn't about to give up, not without a fight. He readied himself and dashed around the tree and ran as fast as he could towards his pursuers, before they could react Kyle had fired three shots towards one of them, two hits and one miss, not bad. The second met the same fate, however this time he fired four shots, one hit and three misses, at this rate he won't even hit the third. But before he could aim toward him one a barrage of bullets came flying, he tried to get out of the way but to no avail. Half a dozen bullets hit him and he fell to the forest floor. After a while he started laughing, the shooter looked a bit confused at first but soon joined in. After a while the laughter died down and Kyle took the opportunity to speak “That. Was. Awesome!” “Yeah it was” the shooter said still snickering a bit “But we still won.” Pointing towards the two others, who had stood up and were now brushing of twigs and leaves. “Whatever John, it was three against one and I only had a pistol.” Kyle replied waving dismissively. “It was three vs three in the beginning, your teammates just suck.” John said as he started snickering again. “So are you guys up for another match?” Kyle said as he stood up and started brushing off. “Nah, I have to get home, it’s kinda late.” John said “Besides your teammates already left.” “Aww man, they didn't even say goodbye.” Kyle said while exaggerating the sadness in his voice and the pout on his face. John started laughing and with some effort managed to say “That's because they know that they can’t say no when you do that.” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Kyle said this time with the mother of all frowns on his face. John started laughing even harder and tried to say something but nothing other than his laughter came out. Kyle shook his head and started to crack up a bit too, “I guess I will see you in school tomorrow?” John just nodded while trying to manage his laughter. “Alright, bye John” Kyle said and raised his voice a little to shout goodbye to the other guys, he picked up his backpack and left. Kyle walked home at the side of the road with music blasting in his ears and eyes closed, until something changed, the payment that had been under his feet was exchanged for gravel. He opened his eyes to see what was going on, fully expecting some sort of road work or perhaps just a couple of stones on the road. But he did not expect to be on a small path in the middle of a very dark forest. He took out his ear-buds and looked around, he had a bad feeling about these woods and worse yet he had no idea where he were. “Hello! Anybody there?” Kyle shouted while slowly taking out his gun, even if it was just an air-soft it looked real and he could be intimidating. After a while he hears voices and something sounding as footsteps coming a bit further down the path. Seeing as he didn't know where he was or who was coming he did the first thing that came to his mind and hid. When the voices came closer he could tell that it was two perhaps three female voices, but the footsteps told him something else, it sounded more like six persons. His thoughts were interrupted by one of the voices shouting “Hello anypony there?” Kyle's mind stepped into overdrive ‘Anypony? What the hell?’ His curiosity took hold and he peaked out from his hiding place and he couldn't believe what he saw. not 20 meters away stood three brightly colored horses, no not horses they were too small, ponies maybe? He was quickly snapped out of his shock as one of them, a blue pony with a multicolored mane pointed towards him and shouted “Over there!” Kyle duck behind his cover again and he heard the coming closer. The movement stopped and and a soft voice called out to him. “You can come out, we won’t hurt you.” He looked out again and the yellow pony with a pink mane added in an even softer voice “Please come out, this forest is dangerous. If you don’t mind that is...” Hesitantly Kyle stepped out still gripping his gun tightly. The ponies gasped as they saw what Kyle looked like and the yellow pony very quietly said “Oh my, he’s a big one...” “He?” the purple pony with a darker purple mane asked “How do you know it is a he Fluttershy?” “Oh um... I kinda don’t but he looks masculine Twilight.” the pony now identified as Fluttershy said. “Mascuwhat?” The blue one asked. “Masculine, manly or stallionlike if you will, it can be determined by the body and facial feat...” Twilight didn't get to finish her sentence as the blue pony cut her off. “Yeah, yeah, spare me the lecture, what is it?” “I don’t know Rainbow, it’s biped like diamond dogs but it doesn't have as much fur and some of the body build is different.” Twilight answered. “So what you are saying is that you don’t know?” Rainbow asked with slightly puzzled expression. “No what I said is that I have some idea about what it is and what we can expect from it.” “Girls!” Fluttershy shouted, and and it became apparent that she had tried to get their attention for a while. “I don’t know anymore than you do but we can always ask him.” As she finished all three turned around to face Kyle again but he almost didn't notice, he had so much on his mind. Where is he? How did he get here? How come these ponies can talk? Even weirder, how can they talk English? And most interesting, Is that a horn and are those wings? The unicorn took a few steps forward and Kyle raised his gun in response. “D-don’t come any closer!” Twilight stopped and looked back at her friends, they both shrugged and came closer, Fluttershy hiding slightly behind Rainbow. “Stop, stop.” Kyle cried out, but they weren't discouraged. Kyle squeezed the trigger and with a loud bang some of the gravel in front of the ponies sprayed in their faces, they froze in mid step and their eyes turned int pinpricks. Twilight was the first to say something even if her fear caused her to stammer a bit “H-h-how? W-w-what is that thing?” “This is a gun, it fires a metal slug at 300 meters per second. It’s capable of ending a life with one squeeze of the trigger.” Kyle said now brimming with confidence as he was in control. Small high pitched sound came from Fluttershy as she lay on the ground with her hooves in front of her eyes. Rainbow had moved to stand between Kyle and Fluttershy, her expression a mix of pure hatred and utter terror. Twilight had a nervous smile on her face as she very calmly backed away while saying “Calm down, we don’t want to hurt you and I’m pretty sure you don't want to hurt us.” After a few agonizing seconds Kyle lowered the gun and Twilight let out a deep breath. “Let’s start over shall we? I’m Twilight Sparkle and this is Rainbow Dash” Twilight said while pointing towards the mare in question who only let out a low grow. “And she is Fluttershy” Fluttershy had peaked out when she heard Twilight say her name but squeaked and hid behind Rainbow once more when Kyle saw her. Kyle was about to respond but a load roar came from behind, Kyle slowly turned his head only to see a huge lion with a scorpion tail and dragon like wings. “A manticore!” Twilight exclaimed. “Shoot it!” Rainbow screamed. Kyle backed away from the creature while saying “Umm about that... this isn't a real gun, it’s just a toy...” “What?” Rainbow shouted. “But we saw you use it!” Twilight said with her voice slightly raised. “It just shoots a small plastic ball, all it would do is piss this thing off!” Kyle and all three ponies looked at each other and screamed “Run!” The manticore were hot on their tails, in three of the cases quite literally. In desperation Kyle shot off a few shots over his shoulder and he seemed to hit his goal as a loud pain filled roar came from behind. Kyle looked back that they had gained a few meters but it was closing the distance fast. He repeated the process a few times until he ran out of ammo, just great there is no way they will escape now, not all of them anyway. Kyle saw an opening in the woods to his left and ran that way instead, ‘that thing can’t chase all of us’ Kyle thought and he was right, it was now chasing him ‘well shit’. Twilight and her friends arrived in Ponyville a few minutes later and realized that the creature they had been talking to as well as the manticore was gone. Fluttershy started crying and Rainbow tried to soothe her. Twilight however ran to her library and wrote a letter to princess Celestia explaining what happened. Within hours as small battalion of royal guards were in Ponyville and searched the Everfree forest, but the only traces they could find was an odd piece of metal and a bag full of books and various other items. Both Kyle and the manticore was gone, even after after a few weeks of searching they found nothing, they were simply gone.