//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2(Pre-Edit) 
// Story: Eternal Harmony 
// by Morrin 
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Chapter 2



The three little fillies scream again, all holding each other tightly in the crook of a tree, whimpering in fright as the beast stalked towards them, growling deep within it’s throat. The three fillies, having just been making their way out of a striped friends abode, had the unfortunate chance of running into a manticore. 
Inside the crook of the tree, the spunky light orange pegasus filly, attempts to glare back at the manticore through the bangs of her magneta mane. “Go away! I-I’m not s-scare of you!” She stutters out.
The white unicorn with a light pink and dusty lavender mane whines out in response to the first one. “B-but I am Scoots!”
The manticore haunches down, preparing to pounce the fillies, licking it’s lips hungrily. “Ah guess this is, we’re gonna die blank flanks!” The yellow earth pony with a red mane and a bright pink bow, says sadly, trembling, hugging the other two tightly as the manticore, with roar, begins it’s leap towards the filly trio. 
“Not today!” A voice shouts out moments before a gold coated pegasus leaps out from the forest, landing in between the beast and the young ponies, wings flared out. The manticore stops, looking a bit puzzled as this stallion gets in his way, before giving a bestial grin, a larger meal arriving, and flexes it’s claws, digging into the earth beneath them as it gets ready to charge. 
But before it gets a chance to, the stallion makes the first move, leaping towards it, and slamming it’s front left hoof right onto it’s snout, surprising the manticore again, causing it to pause before it swung it’s claws at the pony. Said pause gave the pegasus time to beat it’s wings, dodging the claw swipe, darting a few feet into the, kicking the beast snout again, causing it to yelp. “Get! Make it easier on both of us!” The stallions yells out, landing back on the ground again, out of claw reach.
The three fillies blink at the sudden rescue from the unknown stallion, still huddling together, watching the fight between said stallion and the manticore. “W-who’s that?” asks the white one.
“Dunno who he is, but he’s cool taking on that beast!” The orange one said, eyes wide in awe.
The pegasus male watches the manticore, waiting for it’s next move. When it comes, it was expected, with a loud roar and a pounce towards him, and the stallion dives forward hard, twisting to end up on his back, dodging the leap, and giving him the perfect position to buck his hind legs up, hard, right in between the manticores hind legs. The roar the beast was giving suddenly turns into a loud yelp, crashing into the ground, twitching in pain.
The stallion, grunting as he lands on his back, wincing just a little before rolling to his feet, giving a grin. “See, I told you you should of--Ow!” With the twitching, the manticore’s tail spasms and lashes out uncontrollably, ending up slashing along the pegasus stallions right foreleg, drawing blood. “That’s smarts!” He winces, watching the beast whimper in pain, before it darts off into the woods, deciding on an easier meal.
With the beast gone, with a wince the stallion turns around, looking at the three fillies, who’re watching him now with wide eyes. “You three alright there?” He asks with a smile.	
The three fillies trot towards him, looking up to him. “Gosh mister, thank you for saving us there! Here ah thought we were gonna get our cutie marks in Manticore vittle!” The yellow one says, a wide smile upon her muzzle.
“Yeah! That was awesome! Not as awesome as Rainbow Dash, but you gave that Manticore the ole one two!” the small orange pegasus filly said enthusiastically, rearing up on her hind legs, punching her forelegs out in mock boxing.
The little white unicorn looks up at him with a shy smile. “Thank you mister.” She says, then looking at the bleeding wound on his leg. “You’re hurt!” she says with a gasp.
The stallion smiles down at the trio with a smile. “I’ll be ok, it’s just a small cut. I’ve had wo--” He blinks, suddenly feeling woozy. “C-Come on, let’s get you s-somewhe..” With a quiet groan, and to the cries of the fillies, he passes out.











At the edge of the forest all this is happening, stands two more ponies, mares. “Gosh darn it Rainbow, where are they. It doesn’t take this long to get to Zecoras’ and back!” A light orange earth pony, with a beatup cowboy hat covering up her long blond mane, which is tied into a thick ponytail, gripes to her friend beside her.
“Oh I’m sure they’re fine Applejack, they’ve traveled the trail quite a few times, and Zecora has said she’s made sure the trail was safe for anyone who needs to get to her place.” The cyan coated pegasus, with a wild mane that’s got all the colors of the rainbow through it. “Watch, we’ll head in and probably soon meet them on their way out.” She says with a chuckle.
Applejack rolls her eyes. “Even so, Ah rather be safe then sorry, so let’s go Dash.” She says as she begins making her way into the forest, following the trail, with Dash following beside her, flapping her wings, hovering above the ground.
“Fine fine.” Dash says grumpily. “I could be napping on a nice soft cloud right abo--See! I told you!” the pegasus mare states as she points forward as two fillies approach.
“Applejack! Rainbow Dash!” The yellow filly hollers out, rushing up to the grown up ponies along with the orange pegasus filly.
“Applebloom! Scootaloo! What took you two so long...Wait, where’s Sweetie Belle? Rarity isn’t gonna be happy if ya'll left her behind.”
“Yeah, Scoots, what’s up?” Asks Dash, looking down at the two panting fillies.
“We were attacked by a manticore!” States Scootaloo, making the two mares gasp.
“Did it get Sweetie?” Applejack asks, worried.
“No it didn’t. A stallion we’ve never seen appeared and scared it off before it could eat us” Both mares give a sigh of relief hearing this. “But he got cut by it’s tail. He passed out and not waking up!” Applebloom says, tears in her eyes.
Both mares look aghast, looking at each other, knowing manticore’s tail is poisonous, and even for full grown stallions, can kill within minutes and need immediate medical attention.
“Come on Dash, we need to get to him and get him to the hospital quickly!” Applejack says as she begins galloping down the trail. “You two get back to the farm!” She calls back to the two fillies.
Dash nods. “I’ll meet you there Applejack, I can get there faster!” She states, before bolting through down the path in the air, her wings pumping. She threads through the tree’s, keeping an eye out for Sweetie and this stallion stranger.
A few minutes later she comes into a small clearing, and immediately see’s Sweetie Belle, watching over the unconscious form of a pegasus stallion, her eyes dripping tears in worry and fear for the stallion she’s watching over.
“Rainbow Dash! You’re here! He’s still breathing, but he won’t wake up.” Sweetie whimpers as Dash lands beside them. Dash looks over the stallion, frowning. “Don’t worry, we’ll get him back to the hospital, but we need to hurry.” She says, as she reaches with her hoofs, grunting when she hefts the heavier pony up and over her back. “Lets go Sweetie.” She blinks though when the stallion murmurs out a groan. “He seems to be in better condition one would think, for a manticore sting…” the mare thinks, before she begins galloping down the trail she came flying down, with the white filly not far behind.
It doesn’t take long for the two to meet back up with Applejack, who’s galloping towards them. “So ya found the fellow I see, how is he?” She asks, making a quick twist, moving beside Rainbow, running next to her as she glances at the stallion. “And do ya need some help with that?”
Dash snorts, still running full speed. “One, he’s still alive, and two, of course I don’t need any help. I can run like this all day with two stallions on my back!” She says, then blinks seeing the smirk forming on Applejacks muzzle. “What?”
“Noooothing Dash.” She snickers. “Let’s just get the poor guy to the Ponyville hospital.” They nods to each other as they keep running. They soon make it out of the forest, galloping down the road towards the village called Ponyville.











A slight itchiness on his foreleg, one that won’t go away, is what wakes Ailan up. The process is slow, his consciousness slowly poking his senses to alertness. Softness is the second thing that he feels other than the itchiness, the softness of a bed. Next sense is smell, the sterile scent he immediately associates with a hospital, or a laboratory. “Uhhg….Where am I?” Ailan asks himself as he groans out loud, finally opening his eyes and takes a look around. “Yup, a hospital.” He thinks as he takes in his surrounding. A sterile white room, in a white bed, crinkling underneath him from the stiff mattress and sheets. 
His ears perk as he hears the beeping of the heart monitor next to the bed as well, but soon after he hears something outside the closed door on the other side of the room, voices.
“Now, I know you said he got cut by a manticore stinger, but he’s perfectly fine other then a cut on his foreleg, and not waking up, which looks to be him just recovering from whatever he actually went through. There’s no damage to the surrounding area of the cut that would indicate poisoning, no swelling either.” Said s deep male voice, Ailan assumed could be a doctor.
“But Dr. Heartmend, I swear I saw him get stung!” Followed a high pitch voice.
“Ah saw it too! It was the stinger, not the claw!” squeals a young female voice with a thick accent
“Now Sweetie, I don’t fault you or your friend for probably thinking he got stung, but most likely it’s just a cut from the vile beasts claws! Nothing more if he’s not even reacting to any type of poison.” An older female speaks out, with that tone of nobility it seems.
“Ah have to agree Applebloom, ah don’t think you’re lying, but it was most likely what Rarity said, it’s probably just the claw that hit him. You may have thought it was the stinger in the heat of the moment” A second older female says, with the same accent as the younger one.
So he got stung and probably poisoned, for he does remember it being the stinger hitting him. He’s sits there in the bed, glad of his high regeneration and resistance, but he felt bad for those girls being thought of liers. But not wanting to cause an issue with him being able to survive such a poisoning, he’ll take what the claw bit. He does make a note to make it up somehow to the little fillies. He decides it’s time to let them know he’s awake, so he coughs, stretching out in the bed, wincing a little at some stiffness.
“Ah, someone is awake.” The male, Dr. Heartmend speaks. “I’ll let you all go in, but please make it short.” With that, the door opens, allowing a small group of ponies walking in.
“It’s going to take me awhile to get use to this all. Ponies! Of all things” Ailan thinks as he glances over the group. The three fillies he rescued, and three adult ponies, all mares to be exact. 
One was a pure white unicorn, with a magnificent purple mane and purple, styled in a way Ailen has no idea how it was done up. “Unicorn, magic, duh.” She walks in, head held slightly upturn. “This one must be nobility.”
The other, orange with a blonde mane and tail, both tied up in a ponytail. “Wonder if they call it that here.” This one had no horns or wings, and was very built, not weight lifter, but truly no stranger to working. 
The last one was another pegasus like him, cyan blue and with an odd colored mane, all the colors of the rainbow, all wild and windblown. A very sleek toned form this mare has, not quite as much muscle as the orange mare, but built for flying, and like the white one, with some arrogance.
“Oh daaarling, you’re finally awake. Glad to see you’re all well.” The white one immediately begins before any of the other can speak. “I think the rest of my friends here can agree. I’m Rarity, and I want to thank you so much for saving my little sister Sweetie Belle, I don’t know what I’d do with myself if anything happened to her.”
The orange mare pipes in. “The same goes for saving mah sister here, Applebloom. I’m Applejack, proprietor of Sweet Apple Acres, home of the best Apples in Equestria!” She says with pride. “My family is in your debt for saving her.”
Ailan looks at the both of them, then shrugs. “I don’t think I need anything in repayment for rescuing the little ones. Not like I was just going to let them be eaten.”
“Still mister, me and mah friends thank you very much for saving us!” Said the little one as she hops her forelegs onto the bed, smiling, quickly being joined by the other two fillies.
“Yeah, you beating up that stupid manticore was awesome!” The small little pegasus said. “You sure showed it who’s boss! Right Rainbow Dash?” She says, looking back at the so far quiet Pegasus mare. 
“Yeah yeah squirt, I agree.” She chuckles, looking at Ailan. “Good job saving them. I could of done it better if I was there though, without getting hit and knocked out.” She says with a cocky grin. 
“Oh goody, a blowhard.” Ailan thinks, rolling his eyes.
“Now Rainbow Dash, that’s no way of treating the poor stallion who risked his life to say our little sisters, and your surrogate sister!” States Rarity. “Oh my, we don’t even have your name sir, could you provide it to us?”
Ailan chuckles, smiling at the mares in his hospital room, realizing that the very first day of his new life on this new world, he, unlike his previous lives, he was a hero. A small hero, but a hero nonetheless. “Ailan, Ailan Sempar.”