*Cynder POV*
'I hate my life sometimes' I thought as I ran from the weird, infested-like creature chasing me. The thing was a lot like a infested charger in terms of its build, and like the chargers it was extremely agile for its size.
My ship had crashed in this huge forest, leaving most of the equipment, except for my incubation unit, mangled. My kubrow, a huras which I named Omega, had somehow slept and survived through the entire chaotic event.
I'd climbed out of my liset and started off in a random direction, and while cutting away some foliage that kept smacking me in the head, I had hit this thing by accident. Now this thing just wouldn't stop chasing me and roaring.
I glanced back at the beast, watching as it smashed through the trees behind me with ease, barely slowing down at all.
"Gotta slow him down somehow," I mumbled, "Glaive don't fail me now"
With several months of experience backing me up, I threw my ranged melee weapon at the beast. When the disk came within inches of the creature, i channeled my energy to it, causing it to explode.
The beast let off a confused roar and staggered back as my glaive returned to my hand.
"Gotta keep moving" I said to myself over and over.
I didnt want to kill on this planet unless absolutely necessary, and right now it wasn't necessary. If it caught me it would be necessary.
Behind me there was another roar, and the steady crashing of trees as the creature got right back on my trail.
It's times like this when I wish I was a Loki or an Ash warframe, at least then I could try and get away easier. It would also make stealth a lot easier, on missions where I didn't want to be heard or seen.
Plus I could use my abilities without burning down an entire forest.
"Yeah that'd be really nice" I said to myself.
Then there was a flicker of light in the distance.
"There's the edge!" I said as I ran as fast as I could towards the end of the canopy's shadows.
I burst into the open light, and found myself colliding with a small wooden structure. The impact didn't hurt nor did the following tumble, but there were small, white, winged creatures squawking at me. I took a quick look around to familiarize myself with where I was. I spotted a cottage in front of me, and past that I could see some sort of village.
What caught my attention the most, however was all the animals staring at me.
"Uh---" I began before being cut off by a heavy hit to the back of my head. Thankful that I was wearing a armored helmet and had shields, I rose and whirled around to find the beast that had been pursuing me.
It was even weirder looking, now that I could see it's features in the light. Its body was covered in golden fur, It had slim pointed ears on the top of its head, and a pair of sharp fangs poked out of the lower corners of its maw. A large ring of red puffy fur around its neck. It had a set of scale-covered wings that were attached to its abdomen, and its tail looked like it was from some other creature entirely. The tail, the fangs, and it's claws were really the only things I could see that had a true offensive use.
"You wanna fight," I growled, "then I'll make it a fair one"
I concentrated and an instant later my glaive appeared in my hand with a dim gold flash.
The beast roared and charged, and I responded the same way, raising my bladed disc to slash or throw. And I would have, if a voice hadn't caught our attention.
"U-um, e-excuse me?"
The beast stopped, and looked over to the speaker. Once it had given the indication it wouldn't try and attack, I lowered my glaive and turned to see who had spoken.
The speaker in question was a four-legged animal, no claws, no fangs, no weapons or tools for combat. Its legs ended in flat pads, and a pair of feathered wings were folded down at it's sides. Its fur was a bright yellow, with its tail and long hair colored a contrasting light pink. I looked into its large eyes and saw many different emotions; shock, surprise, curiosity, confusion, and a hint of anger. But fear was the most clear emotion I saw in her, which made sense seeing as I was probably very much this world's definition of an alien.
"P-please don't fight each other, you're scaring the animals," she said in the same quiet tone before quickly adding, "I-If that's alright with you?"
I just stared and wondered if I should bother responding. I didn't even know if her speech was being translated through my helmet's systems or if we indeed spoke the same language.
So, I decided to find out.
"Can. You. Und-er-stand. Me?" I enunciated slowly, emphasizing every word. The little yellow creature let off a small squeak of surprise, but she seemed to recover quickly.
"Y-You can talk?" She asked, curiosity overcoming fear in her voice.
"Yeah I can," I said matter-of-factly, "sorry about the structure I ran through. Running from this beast, it isn't easy to focus on where you're going."
"I-It's fine i'll get one of my friends to repair it," she said still very quiet, "wait, beast?"
I pointed to the creature who had been chasing me only a minute ago.
"Oh, but he isn't a beast," She said looking back to me, "he's only a young manticore, and they usually aren't very dangerous or aggressive"
"A young manticore, not dangerous or aggressive," I repeated sarcastically, "could have fooled me"
By the time I finished my sarcasm the yellow and pink creature had moved to be in front of the manticore.
"Now, why were you chasing this..." She paused and looked at me before continuing, "girl?"
I nodded, answering her question of my gender.
In response to her question the manticore raised it's right paw, revealing the scar I had left on it earlier. In all fairness it wasn't that bad. it was hardly even a bruise. still the yellow one looked at me with a hint of fear returning.
"Yes I suppose that was my fault," I said before she asked the obvious question, "but I wasn't trying to hurt him, he happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time!".
"Even so you should be careful, any closer and you could've killed the poor thing!" she said, eyeing the glaive in my hand with fear.
I sighed and retracted the disk back onto it's place on my forearm. What she did next however surprised me, she turned to the manticore, which despite apparently being a young one was a good two or three times her size, and scolded him too.
"But don't think that you're not in trouble as well," she said sharply almost motherly, "scaring and chasing her isn't a nice thing to do, especially if she only hurt you by accident!"
The manticore whimpered much to my surprise, and looked at its paws.
"Now both of you apologize to each other," she said calmly, when we hesitated she added, "now!"
"I-I'm sorry" I muttered feeling awkward apologizing to an animal.
The manticore slowly moved over to me and gave the side of my helmet a big, wet lick.
"Now, no more fighting between the both of you?" the pink-haired creature asked.
"Yeah, okay" I said.
The manticore nodded, and extended its wings before flying away into the forest.
I watched it until it disappeared from view.
"Now will you answer some questions of mine?" I asked the yellow creature.
"Okay" she said before looking up at me.
I knelt so she wouldn't strain her neck, at least then we were at eye-level.
"Who and what are you, and where am I?" I asked.
"You're in Equestria, and my name is Fluttershy a pegasus pony" she happily replied.
"Okay, now which way do I go to get to civilization," I questioned, "it would be nice to get to know beings who don't shoot at me on sight"
In response Fluttershy pointed down a dirt road to the town I had seen earlier, I'd forgotten about it during the whole apology session.
"The nearest town is Ponyville, where my friends live," she said while smiling, "it's not too far off as you can see from here"
I was about to ask another question when fatigue smashed into me like an angry rhino warframe.
"Oh my, you must be tired from running so long," Fluttershy said as I fell onto my rear and applied pressure to my forehead, "you can rest here in my cottage, and tomorrow we can go into Ponyville"
Normally I'd reject hospitality, but the idea of entering town with two firearms and a glaive, without someone local to reassure others i wasn't going to murder them all with said weapons, kinda made me think otherwise.
"Fine I'll stay the night, as long as it doesn't trouble you too much" I said before getting up.
"It's no trouble at all," she said reassuringly, "kindness is my element after all"
I was too tired to ask anymore questions, as soon as we entered the cottage I asked where I could rest and laid down on a couch she motioned to. Sleep quickly overcame me and I slipped into darkness.