"No!" Aldon yelled out as his last sliver of guidance, the mighty sun, vanished from vision. "Damn whatever god is up there. That was not funny." It was pitch dark now, no where for him to go, but continuing on his instincts, as yet the same roar sounded off, and it was significantly closer. Aldon still lacked any of his strength, with his own will keeping him moving, but he could still voice his complaints. "Into a new world, out with everything else I suppose. Must be no magic here or something?" Aldon pondered on that thought, but to be honest, his profession wasn't magical knowledge, but combat prowess. "Only if Escelva was here," he internally commented. "That thing is getting awfully close, and it's night time again. Or maybe it is. This forest is much more natural than any I've seen before, of course except for the haunted forests, but those are uh, well haunted."
Actually, to Aldon, it felt significantly warmer than before. So, going with his next best judgement, night wasn't there, but tree tops and sun-blockers were. Still, they easily created artificial night. The hunter seemed to enjoy it too, as while Aldon was continuing his limp, the roar was even closer, but three distinct yelps and screams sounded out afterwords. To Aldon, they were pretty close, but the locals sounded a little young, perhaps their voices are naturally more adolescent? Or maybe more childish? Either way, Aldon could tell intelligent hollers for help, but from what was his question.
Over the bushes, perhaps a few more feet past that: that's how close to sounded, and so against natural instinct, Aldon approached the conflict. "Not the best idea, considering my state, but maybe I can do something." Aldon knew it, he wouldn't be able to stop the beast in a fight, especially if the roar indicated anything, but he was hopeful. Of course, the next thing totally stumped him. The locals left transportation behind, and ran way on foot he supposed. Rather small and dinky for transportation, but he had to admit, they were cute little things. Dawws would erupt from his mouth, if not for the simple fact of what approached the small horses.
"The play on words can be very real sometimes, but this may be a little over the top," Aldon commented to himself as he eyed the predators. Literal timber wolves. Wood was their skin, amber and sap were their blood, and a magical essence was their heart. Aldon suspected they were summoned from a source, but from who, nothing here had any indication of it. He could see the fear in the three little horses however. All huddled up against the side of a tree, with an orange tinted one bravely trying to push the predators back, but it appeared to lack any sufficient progress.
In terms of size, the horses, were smaller than his waist, and so the first thought came up to be children. However, that also had complications, as how would baby horses be useful to carry anything, let alone have enough stamina to keep up pace with anything heavy to carry. He was vexed to say the least, but he retrained his eyes on the approaching predators, only to hear that roar again. What happened next put him on the ropes of sanity, and questioned his own existence. The small horses smiled as a lion, with a scorpion tail and large, bat-style wings emerged from the brush. It got even more insane as the creature took a position between the timber wolves and horses. Perhaps the strangest though, was the rivalry the Alpha timber wolf had and this new creature. They stared each other down with itnense fury.
With a shriek from the horses, which Aldon couldn't contemplate, a timber wolf launched itself at one of the horses. It wickedly smiled as he bared his teeth, but before his prey was within biting distance, The mutated lion clawed the timber wolf to a nearby tree, where it was utterly destroyed with bark and leaves as traces of it's previous existence.
What came next put Aldon further into shock, the small white-colored-with-purple-mane horse thanked the mutated lion. She then proceeded to call it by such a demeaning name, "Snuggles!" The other two clamored with the previously attacked horse. The lion, instead of feeling anger, gave a smile, which was a scary though: a lion giving a smile. The alpha timber wolf, however had had enough from the mutated lion as, with even greater strength, and with his larger size, clawed the mutated lion. Then, when it fell down for the count, barraged it with further claws and wooden teeth. Plant-fangs dug deep, and bark cut deeper as the mutated lion cried out in pain, while the ponies cried for the alpha to stop.
Eventually, after the mutated lion had passed out, the timber wolves began to surround the small horses. Aldon finally decided that he should just accept reality for now and contemplate what to do. Saving the horses could help him get good with the locals, whatever they are, but he could potentially die fighting against so many predators. However, seeing the defenseless horses being surrounded, with nothing to stop them from dying made Aldon angry. He clenched his fist in anger. He would die if he helped, and would be helpless if he did nothing. It made him angry that the first choice he got would make him a coward or dead. But the faces the small horses made: fear, was driving Aldon to the brink of rage. He had experienced first hand being helpless in a fight, and now he had to watch on as these creatures experienced the same thing. Their friend had been defeated, maybe even killed, but yet it did nothing. They would still die. That other creature perished for nothing: truly died in vain.
"Please, somepony help." The yellow coat clamored out, while the three shook in fear and whimpered. The alpha wolf smiled, and Aldon could picture the words coming out of his mouth: I'm going to enjoy this.
"Please!" The orange one said in a southern accent. "Somepony! Anypony HELP!"
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Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie stood against death. It stared them in the eyes, and they wished it wouldn't, more than anything. On top of that, their friend, the manticore they had befriended was down and most likely mortally wounded, especially if they couldn't get it help.
"Well girls, ah don't think anypony is coming. Shall we make final wishes?"
"I wish I could've been more help to Rarity. I was always just her little sister, who couldn't help but just watch her do all the work and provide for so much."
"I wish I had listened to Rainbow Dash. She always told me how cool I was, and that my cutie mark would display that, but yet again I had to go looking for one. She always told me to stop the shenanigans, but I wouldn't listen."
"I forgot ta' buck an apple tree yesterday. Applejack is gonna' kill me." The other two turned and quizzically looked at their friend. Applebloom gave them a "what?" expression, to which they simply shook their head and resumed their scared hysteria.
However, just as they were about to pounce, the wolves heard something rustle in the bushes. The girls noticed this and turned their attention to the noise. That's when a bizarre sight emerged. A hairless ape, with endless scars, muscle and a huge imposing figure daunted out. It held a neutral expression as it eyed the wolves, with the predators looking at the strange creature in return. A wolf turned his gaze away and tried to lunge at Sweetie Belle once more, until the creature had come to her rescue, slamming his fist into the timber wolf. Sweetie had gotten a better look at him by then. Hairless, wearing battle-style pants, a black mane, an imposing figure. He stood much taller than Celestia, including her horn, and to top it off he looked like the strongest creature she had ever seen. She said a 'he' due to his grunting and rather imposing figure and masculine features.
He grunted rather heavily and vomited more blood as he saw the timber wolf slam against the tree and break up. The alpha found this action aggressive and lunged at the man. The girls shrieked at both the blood and lunging. However, the creature screamed in rage as the wolf lunged and they felt amazed as the wolf was stopped dead in it's tracks. Instead of scoring a hit, the wolf had gotten kneed in the chin and sent sprawling back. However more blood leaked from the creature, while cuts were formed from the wolfs claws. On top of this, the creature took a knee and panted in exhaustion, but that was until he turned around to look directly at the small horses: blue eyes and anger are what they saw. He saw their whimpering and understood completely, but this only seemed to make the creature angrier. The three could tell it was angry, but it seemed they had something to do with provoking it further. A rage is what they saw next, as he stood up and attacked the nearest wolf with barred fists and popped veins. The veins had indeed popped out and showed red hot blood coursing through them. The blood leaking to the ground indeed sizzled when it landed. But the creature simply roared in anger again and attacked.
The girls, while regretting doing it, fled with the fight continuing. They had left behind the wounded snuggles, but they knew that if they didn't run they would die. Either from the wolves or that creature. They ran as fast as they could, crying along the way for their loss of Snuggles, but they knew he would want them to escape. One last roar from the creature was heard. And a loud sickening crack of bark echoed through the woods.
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Aldon had not realized it ,but the rage had completely taken him over, and he was indeed punching destroyed bark over and over again. He lied down to rest, only to find that his rage-induced state was what kept the pain away. Bark and leaves surrounded him for what looked like most of his vision, until he saw the mutated lion. He knew now, that the locals, or at least intelligent life were those small horses. They talked and even showed care and sympathy for the fallen lion. They had known it, perhaps a pet. Or maybe just a befriended creature. Either way, he couldn't let it just lie there, it was indeed dying, but he knew nothing about it's anatomy and how to help it, so he did the next best thing. Or at least would, as he slowly limped over to it and eyed it down. He slowly hoisted it over his back, only to find his weight at least doubled, and his legs shaking from weakness, exhaustion and the previous battle. Blood leaked down him, but Aldon had to get moving or the tracks of the horses would fade. He followed them until the sun peaked over the trees more clearly. Frantic crying was heard as he could see the three hysterically talking to another small horse, slightly larger than them, but with fully developed wings.
They were crying for 'Snuggles,' as they told of the story. The third pink-maned horse, or more like pegasus seemed to grow immensely sad and began to cry as well. Aldon could see that perhaps, like the cottage suggested, it was a close friend like most of the animals surrounding it, so with good intentions Aldon continued on until he had crossed the bridge and approached behind the crying group. Their tears had echoed to the ground, until they heard a faint noise. Aldon had quickly laid the mutated lion down, then clamored for relative cover, to see what would happen. He had been alive long enough to know peace is something that rarely exists, and so a kind deed may be repaid with a stab in the back.
It wouldn't surprise it if colorful horses, and pegasi would do just that. So instead he ventured to watch and observe, but he failed to realize the trail of blood he left and intense breathing and exhaustion he had. So as he watched them cheer and continue crying tears of joy, he noticed the blood and realized he would be found out. Well unless they were stupid, but he knew they were intelligent.
"What happened? He was just in the forest. How did he---" Sweetie Belle realized that there was a trail of blood following behind Snuggles.
Aldon eased his eyes around the tree he was hiding behind to see the pegasus trying to wake up the mutated lion, while the smaller horses seemed to gaze upon the trail. Unfortunately they soon found Aldon's gaze and freaked out. Luckily however, Aldon managed to scrape his way off the tree and go into a brisk jog, before they found his last location. The three horses gave out gasps at the puddle he had left, but instead of following gave up and returned to their injured friend.
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Sweetie Belle, Applebloom, and Scootaloo looked upon a puddle of blood and the continued light trail of blood going back into the forest and while they wanted to the creature again, they advised against it due to the latest string of events.
They returned to Fluttershy as she was asking her critters to bring her medical supplies in the form of a first aid kit. The CMC knew Fluttershy loved Snuggles, just as much as they did, especially due the fact she found it and originally helped the manticore when it was barely alive. Since then, she named him snuggles and allowed for him to visit her whenever he would like, and explicitly instructed him to be careful and not injure anypony. He followed the latter to the T, but unfortunately a predator could always get hurt due to it's prey being sneaky.
"Sweetie, do you see any wounds on his tail?" Fluttershy asked in calm tone as her critters gathered around.
"No, it looks fine, but his side right here is seriously hurting for him." As she moved her hoof to touch it, the hairs around the wound on his side exasperated in pain and snuggles squealed out in tune. "I'm so sorry."
"Ya should really let im' be Sweetie."
"It's alright, he says, everyone makes mistakes." Fluttershy seemingly translated, the rough translation.
Eventually after some time, Fluttershy asked for the full story, and after explaining their whole events, of trying to get marks in forest exploration, they told her of their near fate encounter, Snuggles intervention and the creatures reveal. Fluttershy was then shown the trail of blood, from which she shrieked from. "I hope it's alright. The thing must be scared straight. I don't think it's ever lost this much blood."
"Uh Fluttershy, the thing seemed to not be scared at all. In fact, he seemed ta' be angry. Veray' angry to be exact." Applebloom's accent mimicked Applejack pretty well at that moment.
"Yeah, he was an odd thing to say the least, he wore pants that Rarity would berate, so he might've been a tamed animal. He also seemed to have, a lot of scars." Sweetie seemed to seriously skive out after she said it, with intense shivers.
Everyone seemed to pause for a second until Fluttershy emerged in an angered state, "How could anyone abuse an animal!"
"Yeah, there was a lot of em.' I think that's why it's always so angry. He must've just escaped his owner and got injured, cause he was vomiting blood before he brought Snuggles here."
"He must be angry, if he was abused as much as you say." Fluttershy pondered on something after this. "We should organize a search for it tomorrow. A hairless ape you said?"
The CMC all nodded in unison. "Yeah, with a dark-black mane on it's head," Scootaloo added.
"I can take care of Snuggles for now, you better get home." Fluttershy had a neutral expression, "Ill make that owner pay, that pony won't know what hit him when I'm done with him."
All three of the crusaders didn't know what to say, Fluttershy usually was very passive, but this side of her said the opposite. They knew she loved animals, and injustice to them was a crime above murder to her, but still it was rare they ever saw her more aggressive side. After they had left Fluttershy's and said good bye to Snuggles, they went back to ponyville to rest, recuperate and discuss what to do with the new hairless ape.
Slowly Fluttershy could hear out on the distance, "We can get our marks in 'New Creature Exploration!'" Fluttershy sighed, and continued to watch over snuggles, as he was brought into her cottage, with all of the critters' help.