//------------------------------// // Manticore // Story: Brony in Equestria: The Tacoing // by Omega Dracomancer //------------------------------// Days of doing nothing of much importance later, I finally found out what to do with nothing to do. "Training" I said. "What was that?" asked Twilight. "I wanna train my fighting skills, can you help me do this?" I asked. "Why do you want to train your fighting skills?" she asked nervously. "Don't worry, if I wanted to hurt anypony, I would've done it long ago. Now, can you help me or not?" "Well, I can try, I recall some spells for just such an occasion in some books." "How long's it gonna take to find them?" "I don't know, I haven't seen them in a while." "Ima be in the Everfree forest, punching trees. Come get me when you found the book." "Punching trees?" she asked. I ignored her and walked outside, the sun shining. "Onwards to the place I mentioned!" I shouted, running into the forest. "Time to find a tree that's not very jagged." I said to myself. Once I found a good flat-ish tree, I took a swing at it, and hurt my hand in the process. "Good, this tree will do just fine." I said, getting into a fighting stance. After a few hours of that, my hands and the tree were both covered in blood and I was on the ground, panting. "That was excruciating, stupid, and downright exhausting." "Phil! What happened to you?" asked my favorite cyan colored pony. "Don't worry Rainbow, I'm fine." I said, getting up. This hurt my hands, and I let out a gasp of pain. "How did this happen to you?" she asked. "See that tree?" I pointed to the tree with my bloody knuckles. "What the hell? What were you doing?" she asked, worried. "I punched that tree! All day. It was incredibly painful. Now that I think about it, it was a really, really, really bad idea." "Why would you do that to yourself?" "Training. Someone told me that the more I punch something, the harder my knuckles become. I don't know or care if he was right, it's very fun to punch stuff." "Who told you that?" "Dirty hobo." "Hobo?" "Nah, it was my dad. Sure do miss him. But if I never go back, that's fine too. My life wasn't very eventful." Then I let out a tear without knowing it. This was the first time that I thought of my parents. "I miss my parents, Dash." I noticed the tear, "Wow, this is the first time that I've cried since…" "Since what?" she asked. "I wanna be alone for a bit. Go away." I said. "No, I'm staying right here until you tell me what's up!" she said, sitting down. "Then stay." I said, getting up. Then I went back to face the tree. "Phil, what are you…" she started. I ran towards the tree and kicked it with all that I could muster. The tree split in half where I had been punching it, and the top fell down. I ran under the tree as it fell, and tried my best to get away from Dash in the confusion. She just sat there in silence, then noticed that I had ran off. "Get back here!" she yelled, flying after me. I couldn't outrun her, I knew that, but I was definitely smarter than her. I took note of all of my surroundings. I saw a cave up ahead, and was going to hide in it, but really underestimated Rainbow Dash's speed. Before I could get close to it, she tackled me to the ground, knocking the wind out of me. "Get off of me, Dash." I said. "Not until you tell me what you're dealing with!" she said. I wasn't going to get out of this without somepony getting hurt, and I wasn't about to go around beating up ponies, so I kicked her off and stood up, feigning dizziness. "You want a piece of me?" I taunted. Then there was a loud roar. I snapped back to full attention, or as much attention as I could muster in my weakened state. Behind Dash was a full grown manticore, looking at her while licking his lips. "Dash, run, manticore." I managed to say. She immediately understood and leapt up into the air just before the manticore lunged at her. It missed her by mere inches. I ran forward and punched it in the face before it could realize that it's prey ran off. I screamed in pain and the manticore was thrown back a few feet. It roared again and this time dived for me. I ducked and got a powerful uppercut in, hurting my hand again. The manticore was thrown off of me, and before it could recover, I pounded it until there was no way that I could handle the pain anymore. I saw a small hole that I could hide from the manticore in so I ran towards it, clutching my hands. I dived in the hole just as the manticore tried to swing at me. "Fuck!" I yelled. Then manticore had got my leg, but I got in the hole before he could do anything else. "Phil!" yelled Dash, diving at the manticore. "STOP!" I yelled, "Go back to town. Get Fluttershy, Twilight, anybody that can help. Both of us know that we can't take this thing." "But Phil!" she protested. "Please go. I'll be fine. I promise you. Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." I said, reciting the Pinkie promise. "Alright, I'll hurry back!" she yelled, flying towards town at an incredible rate. "Thanks Rainbow." I said, slipping in and out of consciousness, the manticore ripping at the area surrounding the hole I was in. "So this is it, huh? Bleeding out while a hungry monster tries to eat me. This sucks." I bound my leg with my shirt and awaited help. Rainbow's POV "Twilight!" I yelled, flying as fast as I could to the town. I saw the library, and wasted no time barging in. "Twilight!" "What's going on?" she asked. "Phil's in trouble, in the woods. A manticore's got him pinned down!" I yelled. "What?" she yelled. "I need to get Fluttershy, and a nurse. Go help Phil! He needs you, he's in the woods." I said. "Alright, I'll go help him." she said, teleporting away. "Fluttershy next." I said, flying to Fluttershy's. When I got there, I burst through the door and told her the same thing that I told Twilight. "That big meanie!" she yelled, racing out the door, faster than even me, with an angry look on her face. I raced to the hospital and told them what was happening. They prepared a transport system for him, and left in a hurry. "Back to Phil, I just hope it's not too late." I said, flying back to Phil. Seconds later, I saw Pinkie running at full speed in the same direction. Then she jumped into the air, almost hitting me. "Pinkie?" She grabbed me and the next thing that I knew, We were in the middle of the Everfree forest, right by the clearing that the manticore was in, slashing at where Phil was with his claws. "Get away from him!" I yelled. My POV "Get away from him!" I heard someone yell. "Winning." I said weakly. I got up and tried to get out of my hiding space, trying to get back to town. Then my leg shot up in a pain that was almost as bad as stepping on a Lego. I couldn't move. "Damn." Twilight began charging a spell to stop the manticore before it could hurt anypony else. She stopped a few feet away from it and fired her spell at him. The purple light engulfed him and then threw him back against a tree. Then Fluttershy came out of the sky at almost inconceivable speeds and kicked it in the stomach, knocking it out. "Over here." I said in a weak voice. "Phil!" they all said, running over to me. "Yup, it's me. I gotta go to the hospital, or stuff'll happen. "Don't worry, Phil. The Ponymedics are coming." said Rainbow. I laughed at that, and they all looked at me like I was crazy, of course I am, but that's besides the point. "Ponymedics is funny." I said, blacking out. I shot up from the bed that I was laying in and realized that I was in the hospital again. "Phil! You're up!" said Fluttershy. "Hey Fluttershy." I said. Then I winced as my hands started hurting a bit. "Try not to move too much." "Yeah, I got that. What happened?" "After you passed out, your gash stopped bleeding, literally, it just stopped." "You not telling me something?" "Well…" she said, trying to hide in her mane. I looked at my hands, expecting to see bandages, but instead, saw hooves. "I'm a pony aren't I?" "Um…" "This is probably the best thing that has ever happened to me." I said. "What?" "Ever since I watched the show, I've wanted to be a pony." I said, kicking off the blankets. I examined my leg and saw that there wasn't even a scar. "Cool." "Huh?" asked Fluttershy, still confused. Confused Fluttershy, confluttershy. "Don't worry about it." Then I looked back, "Sweet! Got wings!" I reached up, "Guess I'm an alicorn now. Magic, magic, magic. Now in relevant form. "It would seem so." she said. I got up and tried to walk away, and after a minute I got it. I tried to stand on my hind legs like a human, but failed miserably. "I'm gonna stand like a human." I said Then I walked out of the house. "Eventually." I saw Dash flying above in the clouds, and decided to go thank her. "Hold up a minute, can't fly. I was a human before, so I am going to fly upside down. Yeah." I said. Then I opened my wings, they were so cool. I flapped my wings a few times, and before I knew it, I was in the air right in front of Dash. I tried to move, but couldn't maneuver in the air correctly, so I just flapped some more, shooting way above her. "What was that?" asked Dash angrily, flying up to me. "Sup Dash!" I said, controlling my wing flaps. "Phil?" she asked. "Indeed." I said. "What happened to you?" "Who cares, I'm a goddamn pony. Best day ever." I said. "What's new?" "I just came up here to thank you. It took a lot to get our friends, I know. Thanks Dash." I said. "Yeah, you're welcome." she said. Just then my wings stopped working, and just before I fell, I said, "Shit." Then I started to fall at high speeds. At first I was scared, but then I serious'd up and spread my legs and arms to slow my descent. "Phil!" she yelled, diving after me. I hadn't moved from my pose, and she was able to catch me before I hit the ground. "Thanks for that." I said when we got to the ground. "What happened?" "No clue, looks like no flying for awhile." I said. Then my left wing moved forward, and I noticed it. "How soft are these?" I asked myself silently, reaching for it. It took some effort, but when I touched it, it felt incredibly soft. I couldn't hold it for long, so I said, "Maybe they don't bend that way." I said. "Huh?" asked Rainbow, moving closer. 'Wait a minute, she has wings.' I thought, leaning on her side. "What are you doing?" she asked, backing off. "Wings are soft, but it was hard to hold on to my own wing, so I felt yours. Soft." I said with a smile. "Huh?" she asked. "Soft wings." I said, moving my wing closer to her, "Feel, soft." She hesitated, then reached her hoof up and touched the wing. "Soft." she said. Then I laughed. "Soft." "That was soft." she said. "Enough of that." I said, "Can you teach me how to fly?" "Sure Phil." she said. "Sweet!"