The misadventures of some random person turned Manticore

by Cloverleaf

Princesses and patrols

Another bolt of energy lashes out over my shoulder. Like I needed more encouragement to run. I quickly shoot off down the next turn I find. The corridor in front of me was empty, but the pounding of hoofsteps behind me told me it might not be that way for long. My eyes dart back and forth looking for an exit, which comes in the form of a large door up ahead. A quick grasp with both paws and a tug, the door came open relatively easily.

I slip in and shut the door as quick as possible. This was unfortunately delayed a few seconds from my tail getting caught in it. Biting through the pain, it's also pulled in, and the door shut. I keep an ear to it, hoping to catch them passing by so I can slip behind them and away.

"Where did he go?" "Keep going, he must be past the next bend." "Keep on him, don't lose him!" This continues on for about a minute, but sure enough, the hallway gets a bit quieter.

Sighing slightly as the noise of their hoofsteps and voices fades away, I take a moment to rest, and my curiosity makes me turn around to look in the room. It seems to be a small dining room. There was cake, a salad, a large white coated horse with wings and a horn- wait what?

Our eyes lock onto each other, and nothing is said. All that seems to happen is a piece of cake floats by her head, and there's a small smear of frosting on her cheek. Something about this horse screams to me that I should not do a damn thing, but the cake next to her looks delicious. Well, if she hasn't called the guards yet, maybe she wouldn't mind me having a slice. Inching my way forward slowly, I keep my gaze on her, as she does me.

The moment I reach for the cake, a transluscent blue barrier pops into existence around it. Considering her horn is glowing blue, and the slice of cake next to her has a blue glow around it, I can only guess she's doing it. I can only ask how. Still, she gives me a smile, and the look in her eyes changes ever so slightly. It was the kind of face that was kind, caring, and saying, 'touch it, you die.'

Before I'm able to contemplate how far I want to push my luck, the door bursts open. The guards were back. The one at the head of the pack looks at the situation, and growls. I look back to the large horse, and can't help but notice in the span of a second she had wiped the frosting smear from her face. The loud voice of the head guard snaps my attention back to him.

"Step away from Princess Celestia now." Wait, I was in the presence of royalty? Oh gees I had just tried to pilfer a princess's dessert. Well, I'm boned. I look around the room real quick as the guards advance, all their horns beginning to glow. My eyes settle on a stain glassed window. It seemed to depict some kind of scene, to note a major event in this place's history. I don't have time to contemplate what that event was as I barrel towards it. One smash later I'm falling through the air and snap my wings open. I catch an updraft and soon rise up again.

A few more bolts of energy shoot near me, and I turn sharply. Course, given my lack of experience at this, I forgot one major detail. I have two speeds only. Falling slowly, and really really fast! A park comes up to greet me as I try to catch another draft. I'm saved a fatal crash with the ground, and instead only suffer a smash into a tree. I could seriously hear the line right before I barreled into it coming from somebody nearby. As my head injury makes me wobble, I look over to see a lime green horse, with a darker green mane. Just like the blue one back at the cell, this one looks just like the pink pony that disappeared on me in the carriage. She reaches into a nook in the tree, and pulls out some kind of potion, and gives it to me.

"I always keep healing potions stashed around Equestria, for George of the Jungle reference emergencies." With that she steps on the other side of the tree. I don't even need to look to see she's gone. Though the fact she knew about that.....Honestly, she seems helpful, if not completely insane, so I don't question it. The potion is drank, and its effects are near instantaneous. Curiosity gets the better of me once again, and I move to the other side of the tree. She's sitting there, fiddling with something I can't see. Her tongue is stuck out in concentration, and she seems to be ignoring that I'm here.

"Darn it, this one always gets stuck." With that, some small hole is ripped open, and what feels like a gale force winds sucks her inside. It catches me as well. I keep my eyes on her for maybe ten seconds before flecks of lime green paint smack into my face. It was her! I manage to somehow get the gunk off me, but by then she disappeared again. I have no clue where I'm going here, and tunnels flow off here and there. Suddenly things get bright again, and I look around to see a spa. looking down, I'm in a bowl of sponges. Before anyone notices me, I put a paw down, and tap an unseen button. Back through the tunnels!

This time, I poke out of a bookshelf. Books go scattering everywhere. I look around, and some small purple lizard is staring at me. I grin lightly, and hit another button in error. Back in, though I can hear the lizard running off, yelling "Twilight! Pinkie taught a manticore her secret!"

A trip through once more, and I pop out of a cart, full of apples. Two of them get speared on my lower fangs. An orange horse wearing a hat looks at me, a glare on her face. She points to the apples. "That'll be four bits."

"Uhh, I don't have any?" I reach up to pull them off, but I get sucked back in. Ah well, a snack's a snack! I munch on one as I'm hurtling through this pile of tunnels. Sweetest apple I've ever had, almost sickly so. Finally, after what seemed like forever, I pop out of them once more. This time completely so, and next to a donut shop. I look around, seeing if I'm being followed still, or if the pink one is around to cause more chaos. Seeing I'm in the mountain city again, I wobbly get up. The second apple becomes lunch, and I meander my way into town.

Course, I forgot I'm some big predatory animal and none of these horses can see I'm just confused and lost. Panic ensues, and sure enough, the guard is back again. Well, the chase continues! I dive into the donut shop, scaring some big burly horse. Must be the owner, cause he had a tattoo of a donut on the top part of his back leg. Thinking on it, didn't all the other horses have something like that? Was this a time to be thinking on it? Probably not. Anyway, barreling through I find my way out the back entrance, and heading back up the mountain. A way out and to freedom had to be somewhere.

My next stop on this crazy train is, well, a train. I push through a door near the front, and rush through, barreling by any of the passengers still on their way to their seats. Several briefcases burst open in my panicked run, flinging several articles of clothing in my face. Why do these horses even care about wearing clothes? Guess the more important factor is a tuxedo has gotten hung up on my fangs, and won't shake off.

I reach the final compartment, and for a moment wonder if they still call it a caboose. Shooting through the door, the tuxedo catches on a piece of wood, throwing my momentum off. A quick spiral in the air, and I land on the tracks, just in time for one of those guards to shoot overhead. He looks down at me with a wide eyed expression, possibly trying to figure out how he missed. One thud later, and I'm back on my paws, shooting off again, leaving the guard twitching slightly at the bottom of a support beam. Least my fall got the tux dislodged.

The chase enters a more residential district. A whole bunch of snooty looking unicorns are walking along the road, only to stop and turn to watch the proceedings. Must look lovely. A rogue manticore being chased by a bunch of castle guards. One in particular caught my eye. Blue hair...er mane and tail, a small moustache, and a monocle. The air around him simply screamed fancy. He had what I could simply put as the most sincere smile I ever thought possible. Course this made me slow down, for some reason I just felt rude passing him by, and a couple guards tackled me.

Didn't expect to get away. ah well. It was a good try.....Ah who am I kidding? I tossed them off of me, finding the two guards really light despite the armor. Getting up again, I continued running.

Residential lead to industrial, and it was the cleanest industrial area I've ever seen. Course, that was given since I wasn't seeing any smokestacks or the like. Again this takes a backseat to the guards chasing me. The road becomes a fast moving maze of pipes, metal beams, packs of styrofoam, and...clouds? Normally, considering I'm on a mountain, this wouldn't be odd. What made it odd was one of the pegasi actually pulling a cloud along. Seems some kind of roadblock. I smirk, thinking the cloud cover might give me a chance to lose my pursuers.

One thud later, I learned a valuable lesson about running into clouds.....It hurts like crap man! Shaking my head, I race around it. They were gaining on me, and my breath was getting labored. So I may have a muscular body right now, still doesn't change the fact I'm a couch potato.

Several guards block my path up causing me to turn a sharp right and head deeper into industrial. The roads clear out quick as more guards pour in looking for a way to corner me. A quick leap over a few of them, and I find myself at an entrance to a cave underneath an outcropping. Looking back, nobody in sight, so I duck in.

Well, considering my luck so far, the cave system is probably going to have another hydra or something worse in it. Still, pressing on. The darkness in here seems so foreboding, menacing, and- oh a lamp. Oil powered, and had a spark switch. It came to life easily enough. Surprising something like this would just be lying about, but don't look a gift horse in the-

Ok, maybe not the best analogy to use in this situation. Holding it in my mouth is a bit awkward, but I figured walking on three paws would be more so. The cave, now lit, seems a bit more inviting. I can tell looking ahead it seems to open up to a much wider area fairly quick. I reach a ledge, and look down. What lies before me is a veritable hall of crystal mirrors, except also the ceiling and floor. Well, that tore it. I was going to die lost in this cave cause I can never find the exit. Screw it, I'm gonna die trying. With that, I take my first step forward.

Did I mention I reached a ledge earlier? Yeah, My mind is still reeling a bit from before apparently, cause I forget that fact. I lose the lamp, and fall into a box. Who leaves a box in a dark cave? I sit up rubbing my head, and the sight ahead of me, somewhat surprising that I can see it, is train tracks. A little squeek, and something snapping, and the box begins moving. Well, maybe it'd be better to describe it as a mine cart.

I quickly look about in the cart for anything I can use, a pole, an emergency brake, all mine carts have one of those right? I find a box instead. I can just hear the yo dawg at this point. I look around. Nope, no multicolored pony that looks like a cookie cutter of the pink one. I look back to the box, hoping it has something to help me, and pull it open. I find inside, not a compass, brakes, or anything of the sort. What I find is a fedora.

***

Ten minutes later, and my resulting crash, somehow that fedora stuck with me the whole way, and best of all, nothing broken.....other than half the mine tracks, the cart itself, and a mysterious number of other mine carts and several floating barrels that somehow could propel me. I can feel a permanent eye twitch forming at this point. This world ain't right.

If anything, it lands me near an exit. I look out and can tell I'm much closer to ground level than where I entered, I can make out individual trees below. What does catch my eye is a set of building far off in the distance. They look kinda like skyscrapers. Yeah, heading there. I pull my hat down to half cover my eyes and smirk. Big city, here I come!

.....

"ECHO... echo.... echo.... echo...." Ok, seriously, why didn't I do that when I first got in here?

Author's Note:

Well, took longer than I thought. I know this point, I gotta keep pushing past. It's where I've stopped before. Again, please let me know any pointers you'd give to help me out to improve my writing. I'm really still a novice.

Comments

[Fucks Ungiven]

Nice Indiana jones reference there the only problem is the POV you have it in it makes it a bit harder to give details (just don't change POV in the middle of the story ,Like now)

[kazoie1]

The potion is drank,

please tell me that is the wright spelling and things, i just love that line

[Kain]

so thats how pinkie pie moves around so fast i Always wondered about that but decided to just go with the flow