//------------------------------// // Trials - Hungry Beast // Story: Nightmare Moon's Tiny Adversary // by CommanderX5 //------------------------------// Nightmare Moon's Tiny Adversary - Chapter 4 Part 1 “G-g-good kitty… good k-kitty,” Twilight said as she walked backward, her hooves still trembling slightly under the shadow of giant beast. For every ten steps the little mare took, the manticore took one, apparently content to scare her for the time being as it kept pace. “Y-you d-d-don’t want to eat me, Mr. Manticore. I’m ummm… stringy! And my bones are umm… hard and bony?” Twilight stammered out, sweat dripping down her brow. “I’m not tasty at all! Not to mention small. Yes, I’ll hardly be a snack for you. Not worth the effort at—are you even listening to me?” “Gr aar wwwwwwwwww!!!” Twilight tumbled away under the strength of manticore’s roar, bouncing onto her belly a short distance back. Her ears were buzzing, and she shook her head to clear up her disorientation, only to notice the giant muscled paw of the manticore raised above her, ready to snatch the tiny mare up. Despite her shock and horror, she rolled instinctively to the side, and the paw slammed down mere millimeters to her left, shaking the earth under her. The beast towered directly above Twilight, and the mare could feel the sticky breath coming from its mouth. She immediately darted away from the paw beside her, only for the other paw to come down in front of her, blocking her way to escape. Twilight let out a shriek as she switched directions, charging off as quickly as she could. The manticore continued its attacks, each time cutting off the path of the tiny unicorn before she made it too far, but never directly at her. With growing desperation, Twilight covered herself up with a barrier, cowering under the small wall of magenta magic that separated her from her demise. It didn’t take long before Twilight’s horn flared up in pain as a giant manticore paw slammed down on her barrier. With another few hits, the shield shattered, and Twilight was left shrieking, looking up with a horrified expression at the hungry predator. The tiny mare let loose with a wild barrage of beam spells, hoping to at least make the manticore think twice about devouring her. At such close range and with such a large target, it wasn’t difficult to land her bolts, but despite the magical power she had, her attacks were simply annoyances, splashing off harmlessly rather than impacting with any force. Twilight looked around desperately, her mane in disarray and her breathing short and panicked. She was rapidly running out of plans, and the manticore’s incessant pawing at her was not helping her think. The tiny unicorn shut her eyes, drawing as much energy into her horn as she could and teleporting away. Twilight opened her eyes, and the hopes she had of getting away safely were immediately dashed when she realized she had appeared directly behind the manticore. It took a step back, obviously having noticed the flash of light in the dark forest, and before Twilight could think clearly about what to do, her horn had gathered up another charge and she disappeared again. The tiny mare reappeared in the air, falling onto her rear hooves before tumbling to the ground, just in time for the manticore to whirl around in her direction. The monster licked its lips before it pounced, though it only got a pawful of dust when Twilight rolled to the side and bolted. She hadn’t gotten far when the stinger tail of the beast plunged into the ground in her path, causing her to jump and turn the other direction, but she slammed to a halt again when the manticore sprang forward and bat its paw down right in front of her face. She took a deep breath and turned towards the monster again. It was taking its time toying with her, but that meant that she would have a bit of time to find a way out until it bored of her. Come on, Twilight, think! My attacks are too weak, my teleportation spell is nowhere near what it should be in this forest, and there’s no way I’ll have time to move this monstrous beast with levitation… Maybe I don’t have to levitate it to get away from it. Twilight lit her horn and began to run again. This time when the paw came down to stop her, she wrapped her levitation field around herself, kicking off from the ground to fly over the paw and rise higher and higher into the air. However, she wasn’t nearly fast enough to outpace the manticore before it caught up to her and swatted her down, disrupting her magic and slamming her into the ground. She scrambled up and looked towards her stalker through blurry eyes, her heart beating as if it was about to escape her chest. Twilight lit her horn again, desperately trying to dispel the shrinking spell, but before she had even grown a centimeter, she was knocked to the side, losing what progress she made. The tiny mare tumbled a short distance before coming to a stop, lying motionless on the forest ground, this time not moving a single muscle. The manticore approached the body with a confused expression. It made a few tentative paws at the body, rolling it around like a ragdoll, but still, it refused to react. Let it work. Oh please, please, please, please, please let it work. Playing dead wasn’t the most dignifying idea she had thought of, but she didn't have much of a choice now that running or enlarging herself were out of the question. Twilight was rolled a few more times before the manticore stopped, but still she refused to open her eyes, to even breathe anything more than painfully slow, shallow breaths. The moment of silence seemed to last hours before she felt a wind run through her fur. It was sniffing her. And it wasn’t long before the manticore began nuzzling her supposedly dead body with its nose. The beast’s fur was pricking at her sensitive nose, and it was giving the tiny mare a terrible, terrible compulsion to sneeze. “Ah still can’t believe that Twi’ would do somethin’ so foolish. Ya’d think that, for bein’ a student of the princess, that lil’ pony would be sensible enough to know better than to run into a forest full of predators alone,” Applejack said as she ran ahead of the group with Overwatch, Rainbow Dash flying right above them. “Really?” Overwatch said, panting a bit trying to keep up with the more athletic ponies. “Because if you ask any other pony whether sacrificing yourself to the angry moon goddess is a ‘sensible’ idea or not, I guarantee you that the answer would be a resounding no. Don’t get me wrong, I still think that Twilight’s heart was in the right place when she made that decision, but in my experience, she hasn’t really been one to act like normal ponies.” “I can agree with that,” Rainbow Dash replied. “Imagine my surprise when Twilight hitched a ride on me while I was zipping around clearing the clouds, and then claimed that she did it all the time with the Wonderbolts! She’s daring, I’ll give her that, but she’s far too reckless for her own good.” Applejack raised an eyebrow up at her, and the pegasus looked back at the farm mare in confusion. “Why are you looking at me like that, AJ?” Applejack chuckled before she answered, “Oh, nothin’. It’s just that she reminds me a bit of you. A more polite and less lazy version of ya.” Rainbow Dash frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean? I'm not lazy and reckless—well, maybe a little, but I know my limits and I know when to back down.” “Sure ya do, sugarcube, sure ya do,” Applejack replied with a smug grin, much to Dash’s annoyance. “Could you girls cut it out? This isn’t the time for teasing each other!” Steel Blade snapped, a stern expression on his face as he flew over the group with Spike on his back. Overwatch let out a gasp. “Steelie, I can’t believe you! You’ve been around me for how long and you’ve only chosen now to say that you don’t like teasing?” she said with a teary pout. The pegasus guard let out a slight stammer. “T-Twilight’s life could be in grave danger—” “Again.” “Damnit Overwatch, I’m trying to be indignant here. Anyways, we’re here to look for Twilight, so could you girls please act like a search party if you’re not going back to Ponyville? The last thing the guard needs to be worried about is a bunch of civilians wandering a potential battleground,” he finished lamely. Rainbow Dash let out a huff. “Yeah, like we need your permission to be here. We’re coming along for our own reasons.” “Well, you kinda do need our permission, actually,” Overwatch said. “Yeah! If it weren’t for her and Steelie, you wouldn’t even be here,” Spike said. “As far as the Royal Guards know, you girls are our guides in the Everfree Forest. Otherwise, they’d never let any civilian come with us.” The group fell silent as they whizzed past a wandering patrol, who simply traded brief salutations with Steel Blade before they were left in the dust. “Besides,” Spike grumbled, “it’s not like you and the rest of the group would have known where to look if Overwatch and Steel Blade hadn’t read all those books with Twilight at the library.” Dash opened her mouth to say something, but was quickly hushed by Overwatch, whose ears perked up into alertness. “Left. Now,” she ordered, and the entire group turned sharply at her words. They had galloped for a few seconds more before Rainbow Dash heard something: a sneeze, followed by a sharp shriek of terror. With a confident grin, the blue pegasus dashed towards the source of the voice, bursting out of the treeline to see a manticore ready to attack the tiny purple unicorn. Without a second thought, Rainbow flew towards the beast and began spiralling around it in a tight circle, kicking up a tornado in her wake. However, whatever distraction it provided was quickly cut short when the manticore’s tail intercepted her mid-flight, punching into her gut and throwing her back where she flew from. The pegasus crashed to the ground and skid on her back a few meters before she came to a stop. “Well, he’s all yours, AJ. Show ‘im who’s boss.” Applejack gave her a curt nod, pawing at the ground briefly before she galloped full speed at the manticore. With one powerful jump, she avoided a slash and landed squarely on the beast’s back, grabbing its mane with a fierce cry, “Yeeeeehaaaww!” Seeing an opportunity while the manticore was distracted in its attempts to shake Applejack off, Steel Blade lunged forward to grab Twilight and take her into the safety of the group. “Twilight, this was crazy, even for you! You just had to find yourself a manticore, didn’t you? You’re in big trouble, little missy,” he said, embracing Twilight briefly, but tightly. “Yeah, enough playing hero for you today. Leave some for the rest of us, alright?” Spike said from Steel Blade’s back, unsuccessfully masking his worries with a weak grin. “Just sit this one out Twilight. We’ll take care of him.” He jabbed a thumb back towards the angered beast, who had just thrown Applejack from its back. The manticore began to advance on the fallen mare, licking its lips, but it hadn’t gotten very far before Rarity leapt between it and the farm mare and bucked it in the nose. “Stay back, you ruffian!” Rarity shouted as she remained crouched in a defensive stance, levitating up a few rocks around her and giving Applejack time to stand. “By the way, if you guards are done back there, we could use some help,” Rainbow Dash called out as she got to her hooves painfully and stretched out her back. Steel Blade was confused at the sight of the usually enthusiastically aggressive Overwatch being frozen in shock at the sight of the manticore, her eyes glazed over and unseeing. “Overwatch! Snap out of it!” The unicorn guard blinked uncertainly, stammering out a few unintelligible words before shaking her head, closing her eyes, and taking a deep breath. She opened her eyes with renewed determination, narrowing them at the beast as she began to charge up her horn. Even though she didn’t bother spending the time for a full charge, it still caused the manticore to roar in pain when the magical bolt struck its paw, leaving a burn mark where it hit. Twilight watched the scene in horror from her guard’s hooves. Unlike the Wonderbolts, who were experienced with dealing with dangerous situations or monsters, the sight of a hoof-full of random mares facing such a humongous beast was unimaginable. “Let me go!” she yelled as she struggled against Steel Blade’s hooves, punching at his metal horseshoes. “Those ponies are going to die against that thing! We have to help them!” “Twilight, calm down!” Spike pled, climbing up further on Steel Blade as the pegasus tried to restrain the writhing unicorn in his hooves. Twilight soon stopped her struggle against her guard and instead used her telekinesis to pull Applejack and Rarity away from the raging beast. “Twilight, what was that for?” Applejack asked as she turned her head towards the tiny mare. “I’m saving your flanks!” Twilight shouted before she teleported in front of the manticore, leaving Steel Blade empty-hooved. “Get out of here! Steel Blade, get them to safety! Overwatch, help me distract it!” "Twilight! We came to protect you, not the other way around!" shouted Rarity, but Twilight had already begun to charge the manticore. Overwatch immediately squelched her next spell, wrapping her telekinesis around the tiny unicorn to stop her from doing anything suicidal. However, with a flash, Twilight was once again out of her grasp. The female guard turned to watch with panicked eyes as her charge teleported randomly from place to place around the manticore, sending tiny projectiles against it ineffectually, before she furiously began to charge her own spell. Steel Blade flew towards the little mare to grab her again, but the monster’s swinging poisonous tail kept him at bay. “Steel Blade, what are you doing? That wasn’t part of the plan!” Twilight yelled, firing off a few more bolts before glaring at the other mares. “What are you waiting for? Run! I told you to get those ponies to saf—” Her sentence was violently interrupted when a lion paw slapped against her body, throwing her into a nearby tree. Twilight’s back arched as she slammed against the wood, the bark cracking off from the impact. She slumped to the ground, letting out a yelp as she landed. The manticore immediately rushed towards her new location, completely disregarding the group of mares now running desperately to stop it. Overwatch threw her bolt out frantically at the charging beast. The missile split apart midair into three spinning balls of magic at the ends of an interconnected rope, wrapping itself neatly around the manticore’s wounded foreleg and causing it to tumble forward into the ground. However, her bola arrived too late, and the manticore reached out and trapped Twilight underneath its paw, disrupting whatever spell the tiny unicorn was trying to cast as it scooped her up and threw her into its mouth. Everypony stopped dead in their tracks as the horrible scene played out in front of their eyes, staring on in stunned silence as the manticore began chewing their friend like bubblegum. Steel Blade and Spike looked on with devastated expressions, and Overwatch in particular appeared absolutely crushed by the turn of events. However, none of them expected the yellow pegasus to swoop straight up to the manticore, her expression fearless and more than a little peeved.