//------------------------------// // CHRISTMAS SPECIAL!!! // Story: Vile beast // by ZheTwidashLover //------------------------------// “Not again!” He yelled as he ran from a herd of ponies hell bent on stopping him. He ran out of the glamorous city of Canterlot and was headed for Ponyville. Hopefully the ponies there hadn´t heard of it yet. When he ran out of the snow covered city the entire squad posted at the city edge joined the rest of the ponies in chasing him down. He ran. The ponies galloped. He wasn´t tired, being in excellent shape and all that, but he was a bit frightened of the dozens, maybe even hundreds, of ponies chasing him. He was running down the mountain with the herd behind him when a pegasus flew up beside him. The pegasus tried to get him but he ducked and rose up as the pegasus flew over him, driving his shoulder into the pegasus´ gut. He then pushed his arms up and flipped the pegasus to make sure he wouldn´t get close again. He was losing the herd, he thought, when a number of earth ponies and a unicorn galloped out of a cave right in front of him and turned to gallop at him. He stopped himself as quickly as he could, falling on his rear as he did so. He looked back to where he came from. He could see the other ponies closing in on him. He looked to his sides; on one side was a steep cliff that would let the pegasi catch him. On his left was another steep cliff, but this one might let him slide to safety. He ran to the edge, and BingoTM. The snow covered side of a mountain. He jumped. The snow was hard, almost like ice, allowing him to slide on his feet and get away from his former captors. The hard snow turned into softer snow as he neared the same path as before, just a bit further down, and he slowly came to a stop before standing up, dusting himself off, and then started running again. He heard a noise behind him and he turned his head for a moment. Behind him was an earth pony, the one who led the charge out of the cave, and he was gaining speed. He looked to where he had slid down himself and what do you know, the earth pony actually followed him. He turned his attention back to what was in front of him and shifted into fourth gear. He could keep that up as long, but he didn´t really need to run for days, hopefully, so it was enough. He chanced a glance behind him but didn´t see the earth pony so he slowed down and shifted into second gear for a relaxing jog. He didn´t see or hear anything so- OH, never mind, right there in front of him as he turned a corner on the path was a group of pegasi, they probably flew here and waited for him, damn cheaters. They all turned towards him as he tried to stop himself but it was no use. The pegasi leapt at him and knocked him down. Four of them took a limb each and the fifth opted to stand on top of him. “HAH. We got him, that wasn´t so hard,” the one on top of him said. He was going to eat these words. He grabbed the pony trying to hold down his right arm and lifted him off the ground and slammed him into the one on top of him. The pony one on top of him fell and landed on the one holding his left arm, causing her to lose the little grip she had with those hooves. He used both his hands to remove the one now lying on top of him and some quick kicks got his feet lose. He then rolled and used the momentum to get into standing position faster. Three of the pegasi where a bit disorientated and the other two didn´t even try to stop him, so he got away without any more trouble. He ran down the path in third gear now, gravity making it a bit easier as the path was now more of slope. It came to a point where he had to slide down and that´s when the earth pony appeared again. It was the same one from earlier, the one from the cave, and he wondered briefly how the pony had gotten ahead of him since the pegasi didn´t take much time to deal with. The earth pony wasn´t gaining as mush ground as he was since he was heavier than most earth ponies, the heaviest of the pony races if you ignore the occasional rich unicorn. The slope came to an end at the edge of a small section of trees that had been planted there some time in the past. He sprinted into the foliage and kept going. The pony soon lost him since he was much more agile than any pony thanks to his upright stance. Combined with his speed and special reaction to magic, no pony, griffin, minotaur, goat or teenage dragon could catch him in a forest environment. He arrived at the edge of the forest, leapt over a branch in his way and rolled forward as he hit the ground. He got up and ran towards the quaint little town in the distance, crunching snow beneath his feet. He had longer feet then the ponies so that would probably help if the snow got any deeper, right now it only reached his ankles. He peaked behind himself, he looked to the sides and peered at the road in front of him. Not a single pony in sight, good, that was good, it meant there were no ponies in sight and no ponies in sight meant that no pony could catch him. He slowed down until he was jogging and smiled, feeling pretty good about having outrun a herd of horses, even if they were mini horses. He chanced another look around but this time he did spot something, way of in the distance. After only a short time he was able to guess what it was. The friendship express, the only ’’modern’’ way of transport in this underdeveloped utopia of peace. He almost gagged on the word modern, it was so far from the truth. The railroad was directly ahead and if things progressed the same as right now, he was fucked. The train was going faster than him and he took a wild guess that it was full of ponies, wall to wall and floor to ceiling, and they all wanted a piece of him. He sped up, sprinting full speed ahead to try and beat the train. He focused on his legs. He focused on his hip and feet, ankles, toes and his knees, willing all of them to go faster, to beat the train and escape the ponies. Just as he willed them to, they pushed themselves harder, better, faster and stronger. The train no longer seemed like a threat, moving so slowly. After passing the rails and getting a few hundred meter head start he slowed down to just a sprint and kept going in the general direction of Ponyville. The edge of the Everfree forest loomed in front of him. He wouldn´t have to go deep, just deep enough. If he wanted to get to Ponyville in the shortest time possible he had to go through it, which was fine by him. He had been to the Everfree forest before, and it wasn´t that scary, just dark and full of predators. He wasn´t afraid of the dark and he had long since established that he was on top of the food chain, so it was safe for him, not the ponies, and they knew it. He was about half way through the forest when he spotted a manticore almost directly in front of him. He kept going and hoped the manticore wasn´t up for a fight. The manticore hissed and raised its tail, a regular attack stance. He kept going but tensed up a bit. The manticore hissed once more but jumped away after that. He let out a breath of relieve and kept going. The forest´s edge was quickly coming into view, the sun shining through the foliage more and more until he burst out of the forest as fast as he could. The constant sprinting was taking its toll on him but it was nothing he couldn´t handle. Just a few kilometers, maybe not even that much, and he would be safe, probably. He ran past Fluttershy´s cottage, the shy pegasus too shy to participate even if news had gotten here before him. He jumped over the small stream running past her house and leapt over a fence in his way. He had just entered town when the horde -which was now more fitting than herd with the number of ponies involved- galloped over the hill to the east, he had entered from the north. He gave a boost of speed, determined to reach safety from these ruthless herbivores. He was just about to start congratulating himself when he spotted it, an earth pony, the one from the cave, slope and forest. He just wouldn´t give up, and for good reason. The four legged horror was almost inside the Ponyville Town Hall, his ticket to safety for a whole another year. He willed his legs to go faster and they did. The pony wasn´t a threat anymore, going as slow as he was. When he got inside he saw two things that stood out from everything else. A large, red button that was attached to some mechanical doohickey and a large, golden bell attached to the ceiling. He walked up to the bell and rung it, alerting everyone of his victory. The earth pony walked into the Town Hall with a sour look in his face. He exhaled once before transforming into Celestia. She had the same sour look still. “Well, this wasn´t as much fun as last year.” She said. His right eye twitched as he heard that. “You call that fun? Really? Cause that´s not how I remember it. I remember running nonstop for a week and almost dying! Eight times! The eighth time being starvation! That wasn´t fun, it was torture!” Celestia smiled her most benevolent smile, the one that she saved for when she needed it the most, her winning smile. “Oh but it was lots of fun, and very informing. The way your body starts eating itself when no food is available is marvelous. You are just full of surprises,” she closed her eyes and sighed, “even after all these years.” She opened her eyes again and smiled at him. He held her gaze, his hair a silver white that matched his age. His forehead was wrinkled and a large number of spots adorned his body. He closed his eyes as he lowered his head and laid his face in his palm. “I´m getting to old for this shit.” Celestia smirked at that. “Sixty on out of sixty one says otherwise.” “Yeah? Well fuck you Sunbutt.” Celestia´s smirk turned into a full on grin.”Ohh, I beat you´d like that wouldn´t you?” She turned around and shook her plot in front of him while looking over her shoulder to gauge his reaction. He deadpanned and opened his mouth to say something before closing it again. He shrugged. “Sure, why not.” He walked over to her and she teleported them to her bedroom in the castle.