Tales of Valor: A New Pony in Ponyville

by NobleValor

Chapter 6

Noble walked through the marketplace, surrounded on all sides by stalls, stands, and towns ponies. So far nopony had noticed him so far, which was an accomplishment in and of itself. It was just as well, he was never one for socializing at by any stretch of the imagination.

As though on cue, a scream pierced the air. Noble turned his heads to find a mother pony scream as a baby carriage started to roll downhill towards a cliff's edge. He saw her run after it, but even at a glance, he could tell she wouldn't make it. Without thinking twice, Noble dashed to cut it off before it reached the cliffs edge.

Noble ran through the marketplace, his legs pumping as the ground sped past him. He moved in leaps and bounds, veering from his course only to dodge Obstacles in his path.

He approached the carriage inch by inch as it careened its way towards the cliff. Even at top speed, he didn't think he would catch the carriage before it plummeted to the ground below. He had one chance to catch it and, by Celestia's mane, he was going to take it.

Noble leapt, his hooves rocketing forward him at a speed to make Rainbow Dash envious. The carriage drew near, coming within grasp of his mouth. Noble clutched the handle between his teeth and lowered his hooves to stop.

Noble felt the pebbles and dirt scrape and pull at his hooves. He dug his muscles in against the force of the carriage, pushing for all he was worth. When he felt the carriage come to a grinding halt, Noble heaved a sigh of relief through the handle.

He heard a squeal of delight from the carriage. He turned his eyes, seeing a baby earth pony making happy noises. "I'm glad to see you're having fun, little one," Noble replied, placing a foreleg on the handlebar to catch his breath. Upon hearing a set of galloping hooves approach, he turned his head to see the mother of the infant approach.

She heaved several heavy breaths before speaking, her voice thick with worry. "Is he..."

"Having the time of his little life," Noble replied, lifting his free hoof to the carriage to placate her fears.

She lifted the infant from the carriage and hugged him close to her chest, her look of worry replaced by one of pure joy. Tears spilled from her eyes as she embraced her child.

Noble smiled at the scene, but his smile had a twinge of sadness. Without a word, he turned and walked away leaving mother and child to their happy reunion.

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Noble stopped walking once he felt he was far enough outside of the Ponyville town limits. A peaceful quiet filled the air, with only the sound of woodland animals to fill his ears. He removed his satchel and laid on the grass with his face towards the sky and his limbs stretched out on the ground around him. Even though the bed in the library were comfortable, it felt good to be outside in the open air again.

He then put his thoughts to the matter on hoof: his stay in Ponyville. He had to admit, in spite of manner of his arrival, he liked it. From the ponies he had met and what he had seen, it seemed a nice little town. A place a pony would be lucky to call home. But...

Absent-mindedly, Noble reached into the satchel and pulled out a dagger. He ran his eye over the simple design, taking in its every detail as he had done countless times before. It was a simple design the whole of it slightly longer than his hoof. It was steel from tip to tip, weighing around six ounces. It curved only once, separating the blade from the handle. Even though it was plain work, nopony in Equestria could deny it was a fine dagger.

Looking at it reminded Noble of days long since past, both of joy and of sorrow. It filled him with an aching longing, one that he knew with certainty would never be filled. He found himself wondering what Lightning would have made of Ponyville. He probably would've placed it under the 'Nice To Visit, but Not To Live There' category. He smiled briefly, but felt a stab of guilt hit him.

He pushed those thoughts from his mind, focusing on the topic that had plagued his thoughts since the attack. He put his mind back to the events of the Everfree Forest. There was something off about those timberwolves, something that he couldn't put a hoof to. He knew their eyes were red while usually they were green, but that didn't necessarily mean anything.

While most of the research done on wildlife was pretty accurate, Noble also knew that it was unreliable on some subjects of study. He recalled the failure at finding any relevant information on dragons that wasn't common knowledge. Maybe timberwolves fell into the category of being "too scary to study." Given his recent dealings with timberwolves, he couldn't say he blamed anypony for thinking that.

'Oh well,' he thought. 'it doesn't really matter. It was probably a freak occurrence brought about by the Crusaders when they went to pick berries. Fortunately, nopony or dragon was hurt.'

Looking up he noticed it was getting late. He had left around lunchtime and the sun was halfway down. He sighed heavily, moving to get up. He lifted the flap of the satchel to replace the dagger he had removed. Stopping halfway, he eyed a tree in the distance. At a glance, he measured it to be about twenty yards away give or take. He raised his eyebrow in a silent question and positioned himself. With a wave of his foreleg, he released the dagger at the tree.

It hit the tree with an audible thud. That was the only positive review he could give of the throw. He missed the spot he was aiming for and hit the tree handle first. "I never could get the hang of those silly things," he complained, moving to collect the thrown weapon.

As Noble collected the dagger, he heard the brush behind him rustle. With the unconscious motion of practice, he moved behind the tree his back flush against the trunk. He moved his head enough to glance beyond the tree into the grove around him.

He didn't notice anything at first, but that soon changed. He noticed a massive leonine-like figure, but it also had a scorpion's tail with dragon-like wings sprouting from his back. Even though this was his first time seeing one, he recognized this creature to be a manticore.

Noble watched the creature a while, noting its movements. He noticed something was off about it. He couldn't place his hoof on it, but something about this animal seemed unnatural.

The manticore stalked towards him, seemingly oblivious to his presence. It had a look in its eye that could only be described as murderous. Noble followed the manticore's line of sight, tracing it towards the creature's only possible destination: Ponyville.

He could run into town and warn the town of the manticore, but doing so would probably lure it into town all the faster. Images of destroyed buildings and injured ponies flooded his vision. He calmed his mind, willing images of what kind of damage a creature of that size could do to Ponyville and its inhabitants from his mind. 'It won't come to that,' he thought resolutely, 'I won't allow it to happen.' The only question remaining was 'how'.

He eyed the dagger in his hoof, quizzically raising an eyebrow in thought. After a seconds deliberation, he placed it into the satchel. Even if he had the skill to use it effectively, he had no desire to do so. Even though he could kill the manticore very easily, killing was simply not in his nature. Not when another option was present. He looked about the wooded landscape, an idea dawning upon him. Placing his satchel on the ground, he ran from behind the tree and bucked the manticore in the shin.

Upon getting hit, the manticore let out a roar that could have easily shattered all the windows in Ponyville. Once the pain subsided, the manticore glared at Noble, staring daggers at him. For a second, Noble thought he spotted a red sheen in the manticore's eyes. Not that it mattered at any rate. He accomplished his goal: Getting the manticore's attention. Now came the next goal: Getting said manticore away from POnyville. He only knew of one way to accomplish that goal: He ran away from the manticore.

Noble began to run at a good loping pace; fast, but not tiringly so. As soon as he was away, he heard the manticore give chase. Noble spared a glance behind to see how the manticore was keeping up. Upon looking he noticed a certain fact: While the book Twilight had given him was full of fascinating information, it had failed to mention how fast manticores were able to run. The enraged manticore was gaining ground. With new determination, Noble picked up more speed running as fast as he was able.

'Okay,' Noble thought, 'I managed to get the manticore's attention and lead it away from Ponyville. Now all I have to do is to get away from the manticore myself.'

Noble had been more concerned about getting the manticore away from Ponyville than he was escaping himself. However it didn't matter in the slightest. A Knight of Equestria was to ensure the safety of others before himself and make do with whatever he has on hoof.

Unfortunately, the only things Noble had on hoof was a vague idea of the terrain and a really mad manticore. He had no weapons, no armor, no preparation time, and no help. However, he did have two tools he could use: his legs and his wits.

His legs weren't much use as they were. Noble was no slouch when it came to running. When he was running for speed, he could outclass several earth ponies, and probably even a few pegasi. However, this manticore was managing to keep up stride for stride and had been for the past several minutes. Noble would have been impressed if the manticore wasn't trying to kill him.

However, Noble had been holding back. While it was true he was running at full speed, he hadn't been trying to escape. It was time to change that. 'Let's see how well the manticore can maneuver,' Noble thought with a smirk.

Noble veered left and right through the forest, dodging trees as he ran. He plowed through bushes, brambles, branches, any obstacle he could find, hoping any one of them would buy him enough distance to outthink the manticore. He heard the manticore falling behind and looked behind him to check. The manticore was still managing to follow Noble's trail, but was having difficulty getting through the foliage. Noble turned back and felt his hopes of escape slip from his grasp.

Noble stopped, barely able to keep from hitting a giant stone wall that rose before him. He glanced up, seeing a mountain rise above him and cutting off his escape. He heard of not seeing the forest through the trees, but this bordered on the ridiculous. Not having the time to mentally berate himself, be faced about and began taking in his terrain.

The wall behind him was too steep to climb, the walls around him rose effectively blocking him in, and running out wasn't an option because by the time he got to the opening, the manticore would be there waiting for him. The gears in his head started to work allowing him two options. Both were risky, but what choice did he have at that point. All he could do now was wait for the manticore to show up.

When the manticore appeared at the mouth of the small canyon, he looked dirty and annoyed. Noble took a final breath to steady his nerves and spoke aloud.

"Manticore, I have no idea if you can understand me, but this need go no further. I have no desire to harm you anymore than I have. We can end this now; you go your way, I go mine. What say you?"

The manticore simply smirked, swiping a paw off to the side. His eyes gleamed red once more before he broke into a charge. 'Why does it always have to come to the hard way?' Noble thought sadly, 'Oh, well. I tried.'

The manticore charged forward, bellowing out a great roar. Noble knew that in a fair fight, he stood no chance of fighting a manticore. However, he had no intention of fighting fair. As soon as the manticore reached the point of no return, he made his move.

He began running towards the manticore, gaining speed with every step he took. When he got within five yards of the manticore, he put every ounce of strength he had in his legs and leapt into the air.

He felt himself being lifted into the air, watching as the world fell away from him. He rose ten feet into the air, sailing over the charging manticore. He watched as the manticore, unable to stop, charged straight into the wall Noble had been in front of moments before. As the manticore fell motionlessly to the ground, Noble landed quickly rising to his hooves.

He heaved several heavy breaths, finnaly glad it was over. Even though he was exhausted, he had to admit it felt good being active again. After taking a moment to savor the sensation and catch his breath, he went to check on his fallen foe.

After a quick examination, Noble discovered that aside from a nasty bump on his head, the manticore was fine. With any luck, he would sleep peacefully for several hours, forgetting everything that had happened today. However, there was still one thought that plagued him.

Feeling confidant that the manticore wouldn't be regaining consciousness for the next several minutes, Noble lifted the eyelid up to quell his curiosity. The eye of the manticore, although a bit dazed from the blow, was otherwise normal. Noble released the eyelid, allowing it to close on its own.

"I don't envy you the headache you will have when you awake," he replied, his voice barely over a whisper, "but, in the meantime, rest well. For all it's worth, I'm sorry it had to come to this."

Noble rose, turning to walk away. 'First timberwolves,' Noble thought, 'Now a manticore. Perhaps it might be prudent to prolong my stay a bit and do some research.'

Author's Note:

Sorry about the delay on this one, had some problems working out the kinks.

Comments

[Radaint Dawn2477]

Awesome story