//------------------------------// // Getting Friendly // Story: Like no other. // by Saint-Mercy //------------------------------// The rest of the trip, thankfully, was in complete silence. I continued on, until finally I saw a sign that read. Ponyville Half a mile. "I have heard a lot about this place." Said the girl following me. "I already don't like it." "Why? What could be so bad? You haven't even seen it yet." The girl caught up and walked a bit too close beside me. She seemed rather eager to get to the town. "It's called Ponyville." I said flatly. "So?" She said arrogantly. "It's like..naming a town from where I come from...Humanville. It just sounds stupid." A bit racist too. The girl shrugged. "I don't really see it." Of course she didn't understand. I sighed. "We're here, it doesn't look bad at all!" Sure enough, when I looked up my eyes were greeted by a town of sunshine and hugs. Too bright and colorful. "We're-" I caught myself. "I am skipping this town." I heard a whimper, but no argument. Really? She wasn't going to beg for me to stay? No asking why? I kept walking on through town, all of the villagers eyes were set upon me. Some bolded and straight forward, others crocked and out of the corner. I was used to getting attention where ever I went, of course I would have rather avoided it, but this was inevitable. "Hiya!" I heard a higher pitch voice say into my ear, I flinched back and turned to look at whomever spoke, but no one was there. "The fu-" once again I was cut off. "I haven't seen you in town! Oh, I haven't even seen anything like you before!" At this point the speaker made herself visible. A pink girl stood in front of me. "Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! All my friends call me Pinkie! So feel free to call me whatever because your gonna be my newest friend! Right after I throw you a party! Hey what's your name?!" She spoke so fast, all the while she blurred around me. I quickly became sick of this, literally and mentally. I tried my best to ignore her as I past the entire town. I looked towards the woods. Dark, creepy, and scary. Perfect. I headed towards the woods but stopped when I heard an extra pair of footsteps. I turned and saw the mage following me like normal, but now a the pink one named Pinkie Pie followed us. "Ooh, don't go to the forest! It isn't safe! It's filled with monsters and spooky things!" I blew her off and headed into the forest. As I broke past the tree line and into a small clearing, the third pair of footsteps stopped. Alone, well sort of. I began work, my normal systematic set up went into play. I pulled the back pack of my back and set it down, I untied the sleeping bag and unzipped the knapsack. I pulled out the tent and unhooked the poles from the sides of my bag. I began to pitch the tent only to be stopped by the girl. "Watch this." She said to me, her eyes began to glow gold, I took and uneasy step away from her. Magic wasn't something I was entirely comfortable with, the idea of her being able to pick up something and slam it into me from afar frightened me reasonably so. I felt the poles vanish from my hands followed by a bright flash. I rubbed my eyes and looked to where my tent was now set up. "Thanks." I flatly said, now admittedly, I was impressed..only just a little bit but, I wasn't going to let her see that. I heard her huff out a breath and mutter something that sounded like, 'whatever.' I unzipped the opening from my tent and pulled in my sleeping bag, I then unrolled it and stepped back outside the tent. I looked around the small clearing. A good amount of dead tree bark was laying around. I'm not at that step yet, first I needed a fireplace. I gathered some rocks and laid them out into a circle. I then proceeded to gather firewood. I threw the firewood into the circle of rocks. Now here came the worst part. Creating the fire itself. I grabbed two sticks. I head a snicker. "You silly human." The mint green girl said. I looked up at her, she had a smug grin across her face. "What?" I asked. Her eyes glowed for a split second and the firewood sparked and began to burn. "Oh...yeah." I awkwardly said, maybe having a mage as a travel partner wouldn't be so bad. I threw the two sticks into the fire. An idea suddenly struck me, oh and how it struck me hard. My face lit up. Now that I had an anthro companion, maybe I could use her to get me whatever supplies were necessary for me. Especially now that I have a forest that is actually terrifying and would keep people away, perfect. "What's with the face?" The girl sat beside me, rather too close, but I was in a good mood so I didn't mind. "I think we just found our home." The girl beside me gave her best 'wut' face. "No, seriously think about it." She still had a puzzled look on her face. "I only leave places because someone finds me right? Well why am I usually found?" She opened her mouth but I didn't give her a chance. "Rhetorical question, it's because I have to go and get something!" "Where are you going with this?" I said it once before, she isn't exactly the smartest person. "Now I have you! I can have you go out while I do what I need to do here!" I said. "If your just going to use me, why can't I just make my own living in the town and ditch you?" She said. I flinched internally. I only responded with silence. I sighed and looked down. She was right, why would she stay only to be used? When the hell did I become so dependent on another person? "Cause I trust you." She answered her own question. It was my turn to sport the 'wut' face. "Why-" "-because you could have killed me, twice, but you didn't." She stood up and offered her hand to me. I took it and pulled myself up. I didn't have anything to say to her. The mint green girl looked at me and gave me a toothy grin. I found myself smiling back at her. I should trust her, if she trusts me. Right? "I don't know if you have any money...but I wont really need much. Just something when I can't get what I need from the forest." She nodded. "Go into town and get friendly with the townsfolk, but don't mention me to anyone okay?" She nodded again. "Good." She left without another word. I began to pace around the clearing. One minute passed. I can do this. Five minutes passed, I'm doing great. I twiddled my thumbs as I paced. Ten minutes, getting bored, I cant do this. I was briskly pacing around the fire. Twelve minutes, I grabbed a stick and started to stir the fire. It looked a little dim, so I left the campsite to find some more firewood. I hated being idle. I heard the tree tops bristle as birds flew out from them as I passed. Okay a bit spooky. Nothing to worry about. I came across a tree that looked rather dead, I'm sure it wouldn't mind if I took a few of it's branches. I walked up to the tree and yanked onto a branch. I loud snap was heard throughout the forest as a I broke the branch from the tree. A roar, followed by a quick motion. I leapt back just in time to avoid a massive paw from striking me. I fell onto my back and into the dirt. The dead tree that was beside me exploded as the giant paw met it. Dead and rotted wood flew everywhere along with some bugs and things. I looked at what the paw belonged to. Some weird lion slash scorpion looking thing. It roared at me and raised it's paw once again. I scrambled back as fast as I could manage. The paw slammed down in front of me, giving me enough time and space to stand up and run. As I ran towards the campsite I saw and felt trees behind me explode and being torn out from the ground by its roots. This beast had such unimaginable strength, it was all too terrifying. I quickly searched for anything I could use while I ran. Nothing but branches and wood. Wood. Oh I am so brilliant. I reached out as I ran past a tree and tore off a branch. The tip broke off into a sharp end, perfect. I turned around, knelt and held out the sharp branch. The beast quickly jumped for me, I rolled put of the way just in time to avoid being crushed. I heard a yelp as the beast landed. I looked at the creature as it looked back at it's slayer. The branch was driven into it's stomach, within a few minutes it would bleed out and die. A few minutes...was all it had left. And like any other arrogant animal, it intended to spend those last few minutes fighting whatever was it's cause of death. It stumbled towards me, far too spread out for me to dodge, but not near as efficient enough to do any real damage. I tried to side step it's swing but the damn animal's claws tore through my shoulder. I yelled out in pain, I turned and ran away. There was no point of fighting something that was already dead. I stumbled into the campsite, drowsy and weak. I didn't understand, the gash on my arm wasn't so bad, yet it was bleeding quite heavily. I felt tired. So tired. I decided I was going to take a nap. I headed towards my tent only to fall face first into the dirt. My breaths became shallow and ragged. I weakly coughed out, darkness crept into the corners of my eyes. Soon I fell asleep, but not before I heard a scream. . . . Weightless. That was the only way I could describe how I felt. It was as if every single burden in my life was finally lifted off of me. It felt...nice. . . . I woke up and coughed violently, I hacked up a yellow ball of phlegm. Ew. I looked around, I was inside of my tent. A mint green girl was leaning over me, her eyes were slightly red and puffy, as if she had been crying. "A Manticore." She said. It took me a few minutes to process it. "The thing that hit me?" I looked over to see the damage done to my shoulder, only to be surprised nothing was there, just a dull ache and an itching sensation. "It's poison thins out it's prey's blood causing them to bleed out if they escaped the manticore alive." That explains the blood loss I guess. "Thanks, I owe you one." She shook her head at me. "You don't owe me a thing." She said, of course I owed her something, she just saved my life. I had to at least give her something in return. I already knew there was only one thing that could repay this. I could only give her one thing, something that I haven't gave another living creature for the longest time. "I'm Alex." I had to give her my trust. "Nice to meet you, I'm Lyra Heartstrings." Lyra looked at me with her gold eyes. I smiled and gave her my full trust. She did just save my life after all.