My better life

"Why the fuck aren't we still running?!" I shouted at Stormy.

"You can't outrun a manticore you idiot! If we had been still running he would've caught us at a disadvantage!"

"Wait...You want me to fight that thing!?" This thing was a beast! It was at least twice the size of the one in the series, so it TOWERED over me, or at least it will when it gets here.

"Unless you want to be his steak, YES!" I turned to analyze the combat situation like I did on Earth.

Ok, he's big. That should make him easier to throw off balance. I thought to myself. He's got wings, that means he can fly, so he must be a lot lighter than he looks. I'll wager I've got about 30 pounds on him. Let's see, at the rate he's going there's no way he can stop moving, he's trying to ram us and knock us to the ground. I waited till he was right on top of us, then dropped to the ground and let his front right foreleg hit my shoulder. He did tumble over on his side, but I was knocked clean off my feet too. Dammit, I forgot I've been taking in pegasus magic! My body's much lighter now! Guess I can't rely on a weight advantage.

"Whoa! How did you do that!?" Stormy yelled as he ran over to the manticore and bucked it in the face.

"Skill!" I shouted back to him. "Look out!" The manticore raised his front left paw and swiped Stormy away. He flew a good 5 feet before landing on his face. The manticore jumped back to his feet and I did the same. He charged at the downed Stormy, hoping for a quick kill, but I interrupted his charge by bashing into his right shoulder. He went down and I stumbled, but stayed upright. He swung at me with his tail on his way down, and gave me a huge gash on my left arm. I could feel the poison enter my bloodstream. It burned like hot coals in my veins. I gritted my teeth and let out a few silent tears. The pain held me immobile. The manticore stood back up and walked over to me. I could swear the bastard was grinning. He was right next to me, and he raised his paw for the killing blow, but out of nowhere Stormy slammed into his side and knocked him away from me. The manticore let out a howl and turned his head to bite Stormy. Stormy saw the incoming blow, but couldn't get out of the way fast enough. The manticore's jaws clamped around Stormy's middle, and he bit down. I could hear Stormy's ribs start to break. "NO!" I yelled. My own pain temporarily forgotten, I charged the manticore once more. I socked him right in his left eye. He howled in pain and dropped Stormy. Stormy twitched a few times, but I knew he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. I had to beat this guy fast, or we're both gonna die just standing here. The manticore had taken a few steps back and was now circling me and Stormy. His eye was swelling, his face was bruised where Stormy had bucked it, he was limping a lot, and his right shoulder looked out of place. It didn't change the fact that he could still easily kick my ass unless I thought of something. I charged him again right as he ran at me. Right before we connected, I slid on my back and passed under him. I'm not proud of what I did next. As I slid under him I pulled my right arm back, and slammed my fist into his exposed coin purse. He HOWLED. Boy if he was pissed before, he was ENRAGED now. Luckily, his pain threw his judgement off. He tried to stab me with his tail by stabbing downward, but I side stepped and his tail buried itself in the dirt. I ran up to his buried tail and slammed my right elbow into one of the spaces inbetween the segments that made up his tail. It broke off, and I was sprayed with fluid. He was in so much pain, he didn't notice what I did next. I jumped up on his back, reached around his mane and started pulling out the hair from his mane around his throat. He howled some more, but he was obviously getting weaker. When enough of his hair was gone, I reached my arms around his throat, and squeezed for all I was worth. He started bucking and rolling on his back to try and get me off, but I remained unshaken. As I held on to him, I started mimicking his magic, and my shirt ripped off as I gained muscle mass. My pant legs ripped too, but thankfully stayed on. I continued to squeeze, and after about 5 minutes, he finally stopped. He fell over on his side. I lifted him a little so I could remove my arm. Because I had started to mimic his magic the poison was effecting me less, but I knew it wasn't enough. I searched around for a second, and found a sharp-looking rock. I then placed it on the manticore's exposed throat, and kicked it in. I had to make sure it was dead. I then walked over to Stormy, and picked him up. He was covered in blood.

"S-sharky?"

"Yeah buddy?"

"Did we get it?"

"Yeah...couldn't have done it without you bud."

"Thanks..." With that, he blacked out. He wasn't dead, I could still feel him breathing. I didn't know how long either of us was going to survive though, I could already feel the manticore's magic starting to fade. I took off in the direction of Ponyville at a sprint. About 5 minutes away from the city, my body gave out on me. The manticore's magic had faded and I was fading fast.

"I'm so sorry Stormy..." I mumbled as I blacked out.

"Guys, guys, he's waking up!!" I blinked my eyes to try and clear the fuzziness in my vision. I was to disorientated to figure out who was talking. I just laid where I was and tried to clear my pounding head.

"I-I'm al-al-alive?" I stuttered. My mouth felt like it was full of cotton. I looked around and saw the blurred forms of the mane six.

"Oh thank Celestia!" Twilight yelled. She thudded her head down on my chest and started crying. I wheezed, but tried not to move as she cried it out. Rarity and Fluttershy did the same.. Rainbow Dash teared up and ran out of sight.

"I'm ok too, thanks for asking." Said a sarcastic voice from across the room.

"Stormy!" I said with a smile. He looked at me and smiled back.

"That was a great way to spend our first morning as friends huh?" He said, still laying the sarcasm on thick.

"The best." I said with a grin. Rarity interrupted us.

"What were you doing anyway?" She asked through her sobs. I frowned.

"We...we got into a fight with a manticore..." They all gasped, then Rainbow appeared out of nowhere.

"You fought a MANTICORE?!" She gasped. "SWEET! That is so bad-flank!" She squealed. I blushed.

"No it's not, I only did it 'cause I couldn't outrun him. Even then I almost died...Speaking of which, not that I'm complaining, but why am I alive?"

"Well when you didn't show up for work I went looking for because you didn't seem like the kind of pony to miss work. So I bounced around town looking for you and somepony said they saw you heading down the path to Fluttershy's house so I went that way and I found you and Stormy unconcious on the ground so I dragged you to the hospital and here we are!" Pinkie Pie gushed. My disorientated brain couldn't handle the sudden rush of Pinkie speech, so I only caught the part where she dragged me back.

"Well thanks Pinkie Pie!" I shouted and opened my arms to offer the party pony a hug. She reached over the three mares on my chest and embraced me.

"You know half of the manticore fighting team is over here still!" Stormy interrupted.

"Oh right! Are you hurt bad Stormy?" I asked with concern in my voice.

"Well I got three gashes on my side from where he slashed me and teeth marks and broken ribs to spare, but other than that I'm fine." I gasped.

"Are you alright? You're gonna be fine right?!" He laughed.

"You're talking to the pegasus that takes lightning bolts to the head; I'll be just fine." He assured me. I let out a sigh of relief. Twilight stopped cying and looked at Stormy.

"You helped him fight the manticore right?" She asked Stormy.

"Eeyup he did!" I said proudly. "He saved my life in that fight!" Twilight trotted over to Stormy and gave him a big hug. Which made me a little mad for some reason...

"Thankyouthankyouthankyou!!!" She squealed while she embraced him. Stormy cleared his throat.

"Ehm...Not that I don't appreciate the attention...but PAIN!!!" He wheezed. Twilight released him.

"Oh...sorry." She trotted back over to me and Rarity finished sobbing. Rarity then slapped me with her hoof.

"How dare you make us worry like that!" She yelled at me. The slap didn't really hurt, Rarity isn't too strong, but I pretended it did for her benefit. I rubbed my jaw. (Damn, these ponies hit me more than I thought.)

"Oh because I was galavanting about the forest looking for a fight with a giant manticore. I'm sorry he charged out of the forest and attacked me in the open." I retorted sarcastically. Fluttershy spoke up.

"Oh...I'm sorry Sharky. This is my fault...." She murmered. I gave her a confused look.

"How in Equestria is a manticore attack your fault?"

"He problably could smell the steak I made for you..." She mumbled.

Oh crap... I thought to myself as every head in the room turned towards me.

"Did Fluttershy just say you ate meat?" Twilight asked.

"Well she didn't say that...but yes. I do.... I'm sorry..." They all gave me looks of disgust except for Fluttershy and Stormy. Thats when Fluttershy spoke up again.

"Now wait just a second! If you don't mind... Sharky is nice, and would never hurt anypony! Just because he eats meat, doesn't make him mean! You shouldn't treat him differently now because you know he isn't a vegetarian!" I was shocked, then I was really happy. The rest of the mane 6 looked ashamed.

"Thanks Fluttershy..." I whispered to her. She hugged me.

"She's right, we shoudn't judge ya' on what cha' eat. I'm mighty sorry Sharky..." Applejack apologized.

"Yeah, actually now that I think about it, it's cool we have a meat-eater on out side!" Rainbow Dash added. Stormy smiled.

"I agree, it was quite rude of me to change my opinion of you so quickly Sharky. I apologize." Rarity said.

"Yeah, I knew you were a nice pony, so I shouldn't have changed my mind because you ate meat. That would be like hating Spike because he eats gems, or hating me because I eat cake all the time, or even--" Pinkie Pie was cut short by a lavender hoof.

"They're right Sharky. Me of all ponies should know that you wouldn't do anything to hurt us." Twilight said bashfully. I put on a huge smile.

"Don't worry about it girls!" I reassured them. "I understand completely, I'm just happy you all could get over it so quickly."

"No problem, Sharky!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed. "Now, could you tell me how you beat the manticore?" I thought for a moment.

"Sure, on two conditions. One Fluttershy has to leave, I don't want her to hear this. Two, tell me why I'm not still poisoned."

"Oh, thats easy, I just cast an antidote spell on you." Twilight answered. Wow, I didn't think it worked that way. I asked Fluttershy to leave the room. She gave me a sad look, but left without a fight. Then Stormy and I reaccounted our fight with the manticore to the 5 girls left.