Humani Victoria

Chapter 4- Combat will be had

"This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning"

                         -Winston Churchill

The Everfree Forest, Equestria, Tuesday, 2nd of April, 2:36 pm, 2205 AC.

  Despite the thick foliage, Jason was able to find a decent path that looked like it was only used by the animal inhabitants of the forest.

  Jason maintained a light jog down the trail his heavy boots giving him good traction on the ruff ground. He could maintain this pace for hours before tiring, he hoped that his stamina would carry him to the town.

  The relatively uneventful trip allowed the Human to assess the situation further, how did he get here? Was this a dream? What had that light been? These questions whirled around in Jason's mind before he shut them out and concentrated on getting to his destination.

  After a few minutes of running Jason decided to stop and rehydrate himself. Taking the canteen out of his day bag the he began taking small sips to replenish his bodily fluids.

  Jason took in his surroundings the trees grew close to one another. Creating a dense wall of leafs the leafs themselves were a dark green, the sort of colour that told you that no one had dared to tamper with the natural growth of the forest.

The the leafs began rustling.

  Normally this wouldn't phase the experienced hunter that was Jason, but this wasn't a normal situation, it also didn't help that there was no breeze and the rustling of the leafs was complemented by the sound of branches snapping under a great weight.

  About thirty meters in front of Jason, the thick foliage parted to admit what was most probably the most terrifying thing this Human had seen.

Besides that one time he walked in on his dad about to enter the shower.

At first glance the creature was a large lion however apon further scrutiny it was revealed that the beast to have leathery bat wings folded to its back and also possessed a scorpion tail in place of a lion one.

'Manticore' the name came to surface in Jason's memories, he remembered the name from Greek mythology.

  The Manticore had begun sniffing the air and suddenly turned its head towards the Human, their eyes locked and Jason stood rock solid as the beasts lips pulled back in a growl.

  Most of you probably already know this, but when a member of the Human race finds themselves in a situation of extreme danger-such as the one Jason found himself in now-the brain immediately activates what is called the 'Fight or flight' effect.

In essence what this did was boil the available options down to two things: Run for your life or fight to the death.

So naturally Jason decided on the latter.

  What you may not know is that when the fight option is chosen, the brain then channels all available frustration, anger, and adrenaline into one and this is vented through a single action before combat is started, for some this action takes the form of screaming, others some sort of catchphrase, for Jason it was a single word:

"COMBAT!" The Human roared, drawing his knife and sprinting towards the monster.

                                                                      ~~*~~

  The group of ponies slowly trotted down the main path that ran through the Everfree Forest. Their trip so far had been uneventful and the group stayed in relative silence, even Pinkie Pie limited herself to merely prancing in her usual way and not adding the usual stream of words that accompanied it.

  Twilight stayed near the Princess ever since they had seen the light the white Alicorn had remained deep in thought, not really paying attention to anything else. This behaviour was unusual and worried Twilight, it was clear that something was bothering the Princess however every time Twilight had approached her about it, the Alicorn should assure her student that everything was fine and that she need not worry herself with such thoughts.

  Twilight decided that for now she would heed her mentors advice and she began feeling excitement, she was on an expedition with the Princess! After something that could have come from an alternate reality! And to make it better, it was now confirmed that it was a living thing!

  These thoughts brought a smile to Twilight's face and she continued trotting forward in excitement before she was interrupted by a thundering roar that was long and drawn out and it came from only about a mile or so in front of them

"Fluttershy" Rarity said slowly when the sound had receded "Did you happen to recognize that sound?" The yellow Pegasus responded immediately

"Of course, it was a Manticore, but it sounded odd… almost as if…" Fluttershy's eyes widened "Almost as if it was in pain" Rarity noticed the look and tried to stop Fluttershy

"Wait dear, don't…" but it was too late, Fluttershy was already sprinting towards the source of the noise, ready to help any animal in need. The rest of the party followed her in haste, calling her name with no avail.

                                                                   ~~*~~

  Jason held tightly onto the manticore's thick lion mane as the creature bucked and twisted as it tried to dislodge the annoying Human off its back. Using the momentum of the beasts movements to his advantage Jason drove his knife into the back of the beast, aiming for the nerves that connected the brain. Unfortunately the thick mane and violent movements made Jason miss his mark and chance for an instant kill.

  Never the less the monster definitely felt it, the manticore roared in pain and finally managed to knock off Jason. However Jason managed to keep a hold of his knife and pulled it with him, the serrated edge ripped the flesh it was imbedded in and brought another roar of pain from the manticore.

  Jason landed on his back knocking the wind out of him, the bloody knife still clutched in his hands and he was momentarily phased.

  The Manticore saw this as his chance, he was readying to pounce before a sweet, stern, and worried voice spoke from behind him

"Sebastian!" The manticore turned around and saw his friend Fluttershy standing there, slightly out of breath, she gasped in horror when she saw the state he was in.

  "What happened?" Fluttershy ran over and held the manticore's face in her hooves, Sebastian's face was covered in bleeding cuts from where Jason had slashed him, even now he wobbled from how weak he was feeling from his most recent wound, Fluttershy immediately noticed this

  "Lie down, let me take care of you" As the manticore did so as the rest of the pony group arrived and focused on the manticore, besides Celestia of course, she immediately locked her eyes on the Human not ten feet away.

  The others began taking notice as well, soon the entire party was staring at the strange creature, even Sebastian was, and Fluttershy paused in her healthcare to look too.

  It took only a moment for Jason to groan and sit up cursing to himself. It took only yet another moment for the Human to notice the technicolor ponies standing around the beast that he had been battling only seconds ago, he stared at each of them in turn.

  Princess Celestia's breath- which had been becoming progressively more ragged as the Human began to move- caught in her throat as it locked eyes with her, staring intently.

"It's official" Jason stated, still looking at Celestia "I must be fucking dreaming" that's all he said before falling back down and passing out.