My Life as a Hybrid

by ChaosDoomscythe

Chapter 8: Manticores and Bullsh*t Manticores

“Bwahahahahahahah! Oh! My! Gosh! I can’t believe what I’m seeing! Hahahahahahahahahaha!”

“HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I-I know! HAHAHAHAHAHA! I’m- Haha- sorry Shadow, but- Hahaha- It’s just too funny! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Oh, my sides! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!”

“Hahahahahahahaha! I’m not sorry at all! Hahahahaha! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!”

That, ladies and gentlecolts, is Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Bones rolling on the ground laughing. What are they laughing at you may ask?

*Hurk…HURK! GROOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!*

That is the sound of Mantle puking. Mantle happens to like eating things. He likes to eat living creatures more. Surprisingly, he likes to eat dead things even more than that.

Then again, that’s the difference between a regular manticore and this complete bullshit of a manticore that hails from Tartarus itself.

I digress.

Mantle likes to eat dead things. I’m okay with this. Have been since I first saw him dig out the bones of a buried griffon and start chewing on it. He seems to have an incredibly sensitive nose when it comes to dead things. So, my guess is, that when Bones was retrieved from the bowels of the dungeon cells, I’m guessing Mantle picked up on his smell and came back to the castle looking for a quick meal. I guess eating my hide wasn’t enough for him.

So, when I saw him charge in the room directly towards Bones (and Fluttershy jumping behind me in terror) initially, I was worried for Bones safety.

I mean, really, how often can you claim you’re friends with the living dead? Awesome.

However, to my great surprise and unending delight, as soon as Mantle’s jaw clamped down on Bones left hindleg, I’m guessing the same thing happened to him that happened to me. Namely licking bones leg. I watched in sadistic joy (yes, I’m still pretty sadistic, despite basically being a pony for the last 21 years) as Mantle sharply recoiled, dropping Bones leg, and scurrying away from him and towards me and Fluttershy. Then I watched his stomach clench, and smiled as I realized what was about to happen to him.

Serves you right for taking a chunk out of me, you dick.

Of course, the universe decided this would be a perfect ‘Fuck you, Shadow’ opportunity.

It took the shot and scored a perfect.

Mantle’s stomach clenched once. Twice. Thrice…

And then he turned directly towards me.

My glee and elation immediately died and were quickly replaced with shock and horror at what was about to happen to me. I had barely enough time to quickly turn and shove Fluttershy away from me and turn off my sense of smell before-

*HUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!*

-I was absolutely flooded by such disgusting fluids I shuddered the moment they touched me. Large, slimy and wet chunks of meat, dead carcasses, skeleton chips and pieces of other unmentionables were upchucked from Mantle’s gullet and right onto me. This kept going for a good six minutes straight; every few seconds he would stop, his stomach would clench again, and he would puke over me some more.

Of course, despite the fact that there was a giant manticore in the room, Rainbow, Pinks, and Bones found my getting upchucked on to be absolutely hilarious. Luna was even covering her mouth in order to keep herself from laughing too hard.

At one point, I’m pretty sure I saw a few solid black chunks and pieces which I realized were probably a part of me at one point.
I couldn’t stop another shudder.

Eventually, Mantle stopped, and just started breathing heavily while his eyes were shut in pain and discomfort. I just sat there, covered in so much shit, much more than could have possibly fit in his entire being. Fluttershy saw Mantle was hurt, and her protective, motherly nature kicked in, and she hurried over to him, asking if he was alright and rubbing his back to try to soothe him.

I then made the mistake of opening my mouth.

“S-s-so…Mantle…. You’re-“

*HUUUUUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH*

Oh god! It got in my mouth!

Shortly after, I somehow had more stomach fluids of my own to add to the mess.

Luna couldn’t contain herself after that.

So, after a good fifteen minutes of Mantle somehow puking up enough to nearly flood the entirety of the floor, he collapsed on his side, falling with a heavy splat, sending this crap all over everything nearby. Luckily, Fluttershy was hovering in the air, so she didn’t get hit. All of the other ponies in the room had moved into a corner, where his fluids hadn’t reached them. Luna had to levitate Dash, Pinkie and Bones over there lest they end up covered in it in their mirth.

Me? I just sat there as Shy fretted over Mantle, the three stooges finally calmed down, and the rest of the ponies looking on in either slight amusement, complete disgust, or absolute horror. (That last one was Rarity.)

Eventually, everything went silent, as everyone stared at me (or however much of me they could see...) as they waited for some kind of response from me.

Oh-ho-ho! Did I have a response.

Shaking my head to get as much muck off my face as possible, and spitting for good measure, I opened my mouth, the incredible amount of anger and irritation not even hidden in my words.

“Three things. One: Rainbow Dash, Pinkamena Diane Pie, and Bones the Undead. I cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” I performed the motions of doing so despite how absolutely disgusting moving at all even felt. “I Pinkie Promise that all three of you will suffer greatly at my hooves for laughing at me during all of this. I swear it!

“Two: Mantle… I know you’re from Tartarus and all, so obviously, you have certain aspects and abilities that are far from the norm for manticores… so it’s pretty obvious that you can consume more and more and never be full, if my experiences with you have told me anything. But for galaxies sakes, man! WHY DID YOU TURN TOWARDS ME?! MY LIFE IS MISERABLE ENOUGH WITHOUT HAVING YOU PUKE UP WHAT AMOUNTS TO ROUGHLY SEVENTY GALLONS OF BULLSHIT ALL OVER ME!”

“…..Actually it was seventy-eight point six-“

“SPARKS! MOUTH! SHUT IT!”

“EEP!”

“And finally… number three…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All over Canterlot, ponies were going about their daily routines. Down in the lower levels of the city, ponies were in the markets shopping for groceries, browsing wares, and purchasing small trinkets for family or friends. In the noble district, ponies haughtily spoke about the hottest trends or most current in season fashions as they flaunted about their bits as if they owned the place. All of them with their snobbish noses as high in the air as they can get it.

Down by the Canterlot School for Gifted Unicorns, students and faculty alike were taking their breaking periods to eat their lunches, play in the playgrounds, or talk with friends and family having a good time. Despite the terror of a massive manticore suddenly appearing out of nowhere mere minutes ago, things calmed down relatively fast. The ponies went about their day, accepting the fact that something was bound to happen considering the pranks the princesses like to pull sometimes.

A few weeks ago, a giant Hydra appeared in the center of the city, sending all of the ponies running about in a frenzy. They only stopped when they realized the hydra was gone and they heard raucous laughter from on top of one of the nearby roofs. They looked up only to see a bright blue flash before everything went silent. Only a few hours later when they received word from the guard did they realize they had been pranked by their very own princess of the night in an effort to liven things up.

Knowing this, they figured they had simply been pranked again, and went about their day. The ponies were happy, the sun was shining high in the sky, the birds were singing. All in all, it was looking to be a great day.

ROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

Every head in Canterlot turned towards the castle upon hearing the massive roar of what sounded like an angry dragon. Those who were close enough could see black, green and red flames suddenly bursting out of every window, and even a few of the doors, from the guard barracks mess hall. Seconds later, even more flames began shooting out of a hatch in the roof; the tower of flames reaching high into the sky.

Realizing that that was no illusion or prank, the ponies began panicking, running, scurrying, flying and teleporting away as fast as they could into their homes and shelters in order to escape the raging beast that would soon be rampaging through Canterlot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so, two things.

First off… Well, I obviously blew my lid.

Again.

I basically ended up setting everything in the immediate vicinity ablaze, with the exception of living creatures (and undead creatures in Bones’ case). Everything burned into ash. Tables, chairs, overhanging fans, plates, trays, utensils, trash cans. Even the armor the guards were wearing and the royal adornments of Luna and Cadence weren’t spared in my brief spout of anger. Hell, even my recently acquired magical restraints turned to ashes. Everyone was completely covered in ash and soot, to the point where everyone began coughing, which incidentally, spread it all around the room, causing more coughs.

Everypony with wings began flapping them to help clear the air, and with a quick flash of Luna’s and Twilight’s horns, whatever was left was simply moved somewhere else. Hopefully to a trashcan.

Or Mantle’s stomach.

……Eh, who am I kidding, he’s probably be happy to have something in his gut.

Lastly, on the bright side, all of the puke was gone. And I was the only clean pony now. Everyone else would have to go get clean.

Serves them right.

Wait….

I’m out of magic.

Again.

Shit.

For the umpteenth time, darkness began clouding my vision.

“Know what… Howz’about we… finnish thiz tomorrowz? Whoo! I’m zleepy….”

*Thud*

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, some things happened yesterday while I was out. First thing was Luna had gone to check on her sister to see how she was doing, and to inform her of everything she’s learned about me so far. Second thing was Bones and I had been relocated to one of the castle’s the infirmary/research wards. Thankfully, one different than the one good ol’ Sunbutt was in. Apparently, the unicorns and doctors here wanted to study the first known living hybrid creature that isn’t a draconnequus. I woke up with doctor’s constantly trying to put needles in me to draw some of my blood. I quickly incinerated all of them.

The needles, not the doctors.

They also tried to experiment on Bones to see how he ticks, but the dude has seriously powerful magic, and placed a shield around himself to keep everypony away from him. Nopony has managed to break through it yet, but they’ve decided, for now, to simply study his magic since it was in use.

Third, I was charged with destruction of royal property. I am now forced to serve one hundred and sixty-eight hours of community service (that’s one week) in order to pay for the damages. I called BS on that.

Which brings me to number four. Seeing as how I’ve gone through two sets of magical restraints now, Luna has decided that I apparently don’t require them anymore, and I am free to wander the castle so long as I have no less than ten guards with me at all times.

I’ve opted to stay in the infirmary.

Fourth, Mantle had been moved to the royal gardens and given a good sized area to himself. He had been instructed by Fluttershy to not eat or harm any of the nearby animals, and that food would be brought to him if he got hungry. I’m also told he met Philomena.

With my and Mantle’s experiences with phoenixes, I can only pray he doesn’t decide to try to eat her.

And finally, with the combined efforts or Rarity, Twilight, Luna, Cadence, Shining, and at least seven other high level unicorns, they made me a very snazzy looking vest.

Obviously, with that many ponies working on the damn thing it has to have some other function than making me look stunningly stylish and equally as fabulous, as Rarity said.

The vest was pure white, with blue lining all around it. On the back of the vest right between the slots for my wings was a small royal blue star with a golden outline on it. I had a single pocket on the left side of it. I actually liked the thing. They told me they would’ve put my cutie mark on it if I had one, but left a space open for it on the right side for whenever I got the thing. If I ever got the thing. Of course, after I was told what it did, I’ve opted to never take the thing off unless I’m showering.

Like the small rings my father made for mebefore, the vest had been enchanted to restrain and hold back most all of my negative emotions, most specifically, rage, anger, and sadness and loss. It was also enchanted so that if my anger and rage somehow grew out of control and rose to a certain level, it would seal my magic completely, preventing me from using my fire, or any of the spells I knew. It also negated my changeling ability to turn anger into physical strength, which meant if I did lose it, they’d still be able to take me down, far easier than last time.

Twilight, having realized that I have a heavy resistance to magic and magical things, knew it would take more than just her, Rarity and Luna enchanting the thing to make it functional for me, so they got several more unicorns to pour as much magic into the thing as they possibly could. The moment I put the vest on I could feel the magic in it, and its power immediately suppressing my negative emotions.

After the little episode from yesterday, Rarity also enchanted it to put a form fitting barrier around me in the event that I’d ever have to traverse across or through something rather disgusting, and it’s also enchanted to never get dirty.

Friggin' boss!

I actually thanked them all and hugged everypony who helped in it. I even hugged Pinkie just for the hell of it.

I now have another bruised rib. Worth it.

So now, everypony was sitting around my bed in a circle, except Bones who was one bed over, waiting for me to start talking.

Before I could however…

“So come on! I wanna hear how you met Mantle already! And so do they!” Pinkie pointed up towards the ceiling. We all looked up at where she was pointing to see nothing there. Then we looked back to Pinkie. “You’ve had them waiting a whole month to hear this! Start talking!”

I looked at the mare like she was crazy, which, I consider her to be. “Who are you talking about, Pinks? It’s been only a few hours since I fell asleep yesterday, not a month.”

She responded with a smile. “The readers, silly! I know you know what I’m talking about!”

Readers? What readers-

…….

…No.

No no no.

Hell no!

My life is not entertainment for anypony! The hell is reading about me?!

Your fans silly!

Pinkie?! Are you in my head?!

Yepperooni!

Get out of my head! And take your imaginary readers with you!

Okie Dokie Loki! But I’m just saying, your heads kinda empty. You could probably use some-

GET OUT OF HERE!

*Giggle*

Everypony was looking at me and Pinkie the entire time this was going on. They saw my eye twitch, and figured somepony should say something before I somehow lost it again. Glad I’m wearing this vest.

Luna was the one to speak up. She coughed into her hoof to grab my attention. “While we are supposed to be getting to the bottom of why you attempted to assassinate my sister, I must admit to being very curious about your… ‘pet’ manticore. Would you care to enlighten us?”

“Sure. Sure. But here’s a quick rundown of what happened before we met. This happened a few months ago. It was right before I first showed up in Ponyville and had my freak-out at Shy’s place. Actually, this is what led up to it.”

“Wait, your freak-out? What are you-” I cut Twilight of by holding up my hoof, then shared a knowing look with Rainbow and Flutters, still not meeting Shy’s eyes when I did. We all nodded.

“Later Twilight. I’ll have to tell you about it, but it’ll have to come later. That’s actually an important event you’ll need to know about.
Anyway, I started off after just having made the decision to kill Sun-But-“ I stopped myself at Luna and Twilight's glares, which promised me pain if I finished that. “…To kill Celes-“ I stopped myself again when Luna glared harder. “….Fine. Princess Celestia. I was about to leave my hometown in the middle of the night, when I ran into a unicorn who was practicing for a magic show. Turned out to be Trixie.” That got a couple of gasps. Figured it would. “How she found the place, I’m just gonna be chalking it up to a stroke of luck. The town itself is actually well hidden and doesn’t even show up on most maps, but that’s to ensure a peaceful existence for its many different inhabitants.

“Despite my rather foul mood and my on setting depression, I still stopped and asked if she needed any help. She’s changed a lot since you all last met. Anyway, after a small discussion, she said she needed help with a disappearing act. She needed to end up teleporting a volunteer.

“As luck would have it, I decided to help her, giving her fair warning that it may not work with me because I’m, you know, resistant to magic. Turns out, she had plenty at her disposal. So, when she built up enough, she let her spell fly. And I teleported. Where, you may ask? Well…”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*sigh*… Of course, something goes wrong. Something always goes wrong. Trix, I don’t particularly blame you for this, but that’s the last time I offer a unicorn help.

I, of course, managed to land right in the middle of a pack of manticores. Said manticores who all woke up after the popping sound of my sudden appearance, and were now all looking at me with predatory grins.

“So, uh... I’m probably gonna regret saying this, but… Who’s hungry?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!

I was running wildly through what I would later come to realize was the Everfree Forest, being chased by no less than eight different manticores. I would have flown, but the trees were far to close, and I couldn’t spread my wings wide enough to even try flapping. I still used them to help propel me a little faster, but the manticores didn’t even slow down. Big bastards were bursting right through the twisted looking trees. I swear I heard them laughing mockingly at me.

The trees, not the manticores. They were too busy trying to eat me to bother laughing at me.

I also had a little help from my magic, giving me a further boost. Black and green flames spread around each of my hooves, boosting me forward slightly at the cost of a little of my agility. It was entirely worth it though, as it helped me keep ahead of the beasts. Of course, running wildly through this stupid forest all but ensures you’ll more than likely be running through circles. Bad for me because I was slowly but surely running out of stamina. Combine that with the fact I hadn’t eaten anything at all in days, I was running out of fuel even quicker.

Eventually, I started slowing. I ended up slowing down enough for a manticore to take a swipe at me. It hit me dead on and sent me crashing into a tree. I slumped down, slightly dazed, but quickly shook it off. I’d taken enough hits to my head from crashes to have another one barely affect me anymore. Luckily for me, I had dropped my pony form for my hybrid one. In my pony form, I didn’t have as many scales or as much chitin covering me to protect me from much damage so i had transformed to rectify that little problem. I quickly climbed back to my hooves just in time to dodge a manticores charge by jumping on its head and vaulting over it.

That was when I realized I had been led around I one huge circle back to the clearing we started in. And I was surrounded.

“Well, hay. Not like I wanted to get out of here ANYWAY!”

The manticore to the left of me took that as its cue to pounce. I turned and dashed towards it. It swung its claws at me, but I had ducked and rolled under it. As it was about to come down on top of me, I kicked both my hind legs up, and struck it as hard as I could in its stomach, my hooves still on fire. It had the effect of burning the manticore, and simultaneously using my thrust the launch the thing at the manticore that was coming up behind it. They crashed into each other, one growling in pain, the other in anger.

I had no time to worry about that though. I rolled to the right just as two stingers crashed down right where I was at. I got to my hooves and quickly dashed towards them, ripping one of the stingers out of the ground and impaling the other stinger with it. One of the two manticores howled in agony, as the other one ripped his stinger out, pulling gore and poison out with it, and tried to stab me with it again. I dodged to my left just in time to catch a claw to my face. He knocked me sideways as another stinger came down and struck true. I got really lucky there because it had almost pierced right through my chitin.

It pulled it out, thinking it had done its job, but caught a surprise when I launched myself at it and punched it square in its face as hard as I could.

The thing dropped like a rock, clutching its face.

I took a quick look around to see what I still had to deal with.

One manticore down from kick to the gut. One nursing its horribly bleeding tail and retreating. One on the ground cradling its broken nose and mouth. Three down, three to go. I crouched low, preparing to attack the remaining three that were circling me.

Imagine my surprise when every manticore suddenly raised their head, ignored whatever injuries they had and scrambled to get as far away from this area as possible. As I watched, I couldn’t help but raising my hoof angrily and shouting “Yeah, You better run. Stupid manticores don’t know who your better is! WELL NOW YOU DO, DON’T YOU?!”

And then I felt this deep, deep exhale of breath cover the entire back of my head.

Well, buck me. Knew I should’ve run when I had the chance.

Slowly. Very, very slowly. I turned my head around was greeted by the largest manticore I had ever seen in my life. This thing was twice the size of the manticores I just got done fighting, and looked three times as deadly. Its wings were actually large enough to look like they fit on its body, its claws were razor sharp, it had two massive stingers instead of one, and it had this enormous shit eating grin on its face.

We just stared at each other for several seconds before I said the first thing that came to mind.

“EEEENOPE!”

And then I took off running screaming like a maniac. I got about six feet before I got hit, sent tumbling through the air, crashed through one tree and slammed into another one. I fell down flat on my back, and didn’t move for several moments. That one had knocked me for a loop, and I was incredibly dazed, more than what I could shake off.

Two sudden, sharp points of pain in my gut followed by what felt like acid pouting into me woke me right the fuck up as I started screaming. The manticore pulled out both of its stingers and the pain all but vanished, but I knew the poison was in me, and would start affecting me soon. I had to get out of there, fast. I was not about to become manticore chow, not before I had my revenge!

Ignoring the two good sized holes in my gut, I was about to start climbing to my hooves when I felt a searing pain in my right foreleg. I opened my eyes and screamed again as I saw it digging it razor sharp claws right through my chitin and scales and spearing right through the bone. It hurt so much I couldn’t stop the tears from flying out of my eyes if I tried. I had never felt a pain like that before, and it was all I could do to stop myself from breaking down and sobbing like a newborn foal.

It soon ripped the claws out of my foreleg, wrenching another pained cry from me, as I brought it in and cradled it, trying my hardest to fight off the pain. That’s when I felt it. My heartbeat. As far as adrenaline, fear, desperation and pain were driving it, it was thundering in my chest a million miles a second. But it suddenly started slowing down. Gradually at first, but it was slowing quicker and quicker. I realized why. The heart as trying to pump as much blood through my body as it could to replace what had just been lost, and at the same time, it was causing the poison to spread through my system that much faster. I had to get out of there, now.
Ignoring the pain and favoring my left hoof, I managed to slowly climb to my hooves, I looked up to see the manticore looking down at me. He knew his job was done. All he had to do now was wait for my strength to run out, and I’d become his next meal.

What he didn’t know was that this hybrid could shoot magical fire. He found out really quickly though.

I took a deep breath and blasted him point blank with as much fire as I could muster in that breath with the thoughts ‘burn to ash you massive mother bucker!’ flowing through my mind and influencing my magic. Immediately the manticore recoiled as its entire body was caught aflame and he rolled all over the ground howling in complete agony. As it thrashed, I turned and started quickly making my way away from it. I had to get out of the forest before the poison set in, and getting hit with two powerful doses at the same time just reduced the time I had to get help.

Before I managed to get out of the clearing though, I heard the thrashing stop, followed by a few massive footsteps. That made me stop and turn back. What I saw made my jaw drop.

The manticore was on its feet. Not a pile of ash like it should be. And it was looking right at me. Then it exhaled. And then it inhaled all of my flames. As in, it opened its mouth and sucked them all right off of it and into its gut. Once they were gone, he closed his mouth, swallowed, and let out this huge belch with some accompanying smog from the remains of the fire. It patted its belly, licked its lips, and then looked me right in the eye giving off another shit eating grin.

I only had one thing to say to that. Well, several things but they all amounted to the same thing.

“BULLSHIT! THAT’S BULLSHIT! I CALL BULLSHIT! YOU’RE BULLSHIT! FUCKING HELL!”

And then I turned and used whatever magic I could to light myself aflame and launch myself in a random direction. I spread my wings out as wide and as straight as they could go clutching my right foreleg close to my chest. I was done with this forest. I used my wings to cut right through the trees as I boosted through this wretched place, trying to get out as far as I could and to some kind of civilization. I had to get away.

Then I heard crashing that was distinctly not being made by trees falling to the ground, but something bursting through them. I turned back to see the manticore charging through them, but that wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was the fact that it was once again on fire. This time around, though, the flames were a deep wine red in color.

That thing absorbed my magic and is using it as its own! Dammit!

And then I noticed manticore was getting closer by the second. That was when I noticed it was flying right after me.

Stubborn bastard! Leave me alone!

I immediately made a sharp ninety degree turn straight up, and flew as high and as fast as I could finally breaching the forest’s canopy and for the first time seeing the moons beautiful glow. I heard a crash and a roar. Obviously it was still after me. I kept going, not slowing down for anything. I felt my heartbeat getting slower and slower, and my entire leg had blood spilling off of it and below me. I wouldn’t be able to last much longer at this rate. I looked around as fast as I could. I saw a small village to the east of me. Then I looked down, and quickly brought my hind legs up to avoid a swipe from the flaming manticore. If that thing was using my own magic against me, then I wasn’t taking any chances.

I decided to do something risky, and stopped flapping my wings. The manticore shot past me, but not before realizing what I must have had planned, because one of its tail stingers jerked and scraped right up my left wing, causing a deep laceration. I managed to muffle the scream of pain. I had no time. I quickly angled myself towards the village, and shot straight down at it, picking up high amounts of speed as I was going. I’m pretty sure if I was higher, I may have been able to break the sound barrier, but at the time I wasn’t thinking about that. I was trying to survive. My wings and lungs were burning. I should have been out of energy long ago, but adrenaline and fear were the only things keeping me going.

That’s when things went from bad to worse. A fireball struck my right wing, setting it on fire and actually causing me pain. On instinct I drew my wing in from the pain and that sent me spiraling out of control. I tumbled through the sky falling towards the ground. I could only hope that the impact didn’t kill me. If it didn’t I could hobble to safety.

I got lucky.

The crash was beyond painful, made so much worse by the fact that I bounced across the ground several times, each one jostling my already rather severe injuries. I kept bouncing, grunting and yelping in pain, tumbling across the dirt uncontrollably, until I landed and skid to a stop making a trench in the ground. I cringed, and panted heavily. The pain was debilitating. I could barely move. I could hardly breathe. My heart was burning at this point. But I knew if I stopped I was done.

I slowly opened my eyes, and noted my wing was no longer on fire. I managed to lift my head, my vision had gone blurry. I saw some sort of a building with lights coming on inside. I started to crawl towards it. I tried calling out for help, but all that came out was a sickeningly nasty cough, as well as this horrible yellow fluid. I shut up and kept struggling towards the building until I felt a heavy thud behind me.

I turned my head to see this massive figure of orange and red slowly stalking towards me.

“*cough* ….no…..” I turned back and kept trying to crawl towards the building. “*gasp* Somepony….help…*cough cough*”

I saw this small white blur suddenly dart inside of what looked like a hole near the door. I kept trying to get to it, but I began to feel light headed. My heart beating so slowly, and I was bleeding out too much. My wounds were starting to get to me. My adrenaline having run out, I had nothing to help distract me from the pain. Tears began flooding out of my draconian eyes again. The pain became too much. I collapsed.

My senses were beginning to fade, and my body was beginning to go numb. I suddenly felt a powerful presence standing directly above me. The manticore. I coughed again, before weakly whispering “No…. please….. any…. pony….”

I felt his breath on my back. He licked the spot right between my injured wings, causing me to shiver in fear. I thought to myself that this couldn’t be how it ended. Being killed and taken from one family, thrown into the open hooves of another, and then having them taken from me, only to die before I could claim my vengeance. This was no way to die!

But I couldn’t do anything about it. I could only lay there and accept my fate. I closed my eyes and clenched them shut, preparing myself for the inevitable.

That was when I heard a door open, followed by a gasp. I felt one of my wings taken in the beasts jaw, causing me to weakly cry out in pain from it being moved. I cracked an eye open to see a blur of yellow and pink rocketing towards me.

I felt my heart stop.

I lost consciousness.