On the Hunt

A lot of ponies around Ponyville are afraid of going into the Everfree Forest. Can't say that I blame them. Timberwolves, manticores, and all sorts of magical flora would scare any normal pony. But with what I've seen and with what I've been through, this place doesn't scare me. I've seen far worse.

It doesn't seem to scare Lyra either, because she plows along head-first into the forest, which shows she's far more focused on seeing whether or not her device was right about there being a human here. I'm skeptical. Not about the human appearing in the forest--this place is weird enough for that--but why would a human show up now? I decide to put that question forward to my best friend.

"How am I supposed to know?" Lyra shoots back at me with a roll of her eyes. I sigh in response while ducking under a branch, wanting to tell her that we should just go back home. But I know her and she won't leave until we know for certain whether or not that human is here. I also keep my mouth shut so I can listen. Just because I've fought far more dangerous creatures doesn't mean that I'll let my guard down in this forest.

"I really hope that the human's friendly! I don't want my first meeting with a human ending with us getting into a fight," Lyra calls back, adding unnecessary noise to the area. "From what I've read about their mythology though, humans can be pretty violent creatures. I hope that we can get along."

"You said that already," I remind her. My head is on a constant swivel, ears alert, taking in every sound around us. I hear the sounds of birds chirping, of creatures scampering through the underbrush, and of the howl of the wind through the trees. But nothing that sounds like danger.

"We're going to want to take a left up here!" Lyra calls out. I nod to show that I heard before taking a look behind us to make sure that we aren't being followed. "You're being awfully quiet. Something on your mind?"

"I'm just trying to make sure that something doesn't try to turn us into its lunch," I mutter in reply. "There's a lot of dangerous creatures in these woods, and you would do well to keep an ear out for them as well."

"Please, if Twilight and her friends have shown me anything it's that these woods aren't as bad as we made them out to be." Lyra's a dear to be around, but sometimes I hate how ignorant or dismissive she can be of danger around her. The glare I was giving her was apparently ignored as well, as she continued on down a dirt path with her eyes glued to her little machine.

I glanced up to see that the trees were beginning to block out the sun, meaning that we had entered far deeper into the forest than I had ever been. That put me immediately on guard. I hate going into a situation without any intel. I don't tend to trust in luck. I trust in preparation and skill.

"We should be able to see them any minute now!" Lyra said. Her words snapped me out of my thoughts, followed by an annoying beeping that was coming from her machine. A massive smile crossed my friend's face as she raced ahead into a small clearing, forcing me to chase after her. She bolted into the small clearing in the trees without bothering the look around her.

"Lyra, stop running ahead! You have no idea what might be in there!" I call out, trying to be the voice of reason.

"I know what's in there! A human!" she yells back without any caution in her voice. I snarl to myself as I force myself to go faster, catching up to my cerulean friend rapidly. I slammed myself into her side and used my bulk to bring her down. I'm actually far stronger than most would assume, making it easy to bring other ponies down. Lyra let out a yelp as I pinned her to the ground, using one of my forehooves to hold her down while using the other to scoop up the machine.

"Hey, what are you doing?" she asked while struggling to escape my grip.

"Lyra, you are being reckless and foolish in a place where we can't afford to be. Now I'm not going to let you up until you promise me that you will be careful."

"Alright, alright. I promise." Not good enough.

"Pinkie promise." That got her attention. Lyra may be a reckless, but even she knows better than to go back on a Pinkie promise. We all do.

"Alright, I Pinkie promise. Now let me up." I do just that and a moment later Lyra is back on her hooves while stretching her shoulder. "Ow. Alright, give me back my human tracker and let's see if we haven't scared the human off with all of our yelling." I give her a look as I hoof the machine back to her, but I don't know whether she saw it or not. All she did was take back the machine and glance down at it with wide eyes.

"What's the matter? Did it take off?"

"No...in fact...it should be right behind that tree there," she whispers in a tone filled to the brim with excitement. She then points to the tree that stood alone in the center of the small clearing. I nod to her as we both walk around different sides of the tree. Lyra was probably preparing questions to ask it. I was preparing to break a few of its limbs if it showed hostility.

"On three," I whisper to her. "One. Two. Three!"

The both of us leapt around the tree at the same time, neither knowing what to expect. But even with what Lyra had told me about humans and all of her knowledge on the subject, I don't think either of us were expecting what we'd see on the other side.

Lying on the roots of the large tree was a small creature. It had a long, golden mane that extended all the way down to its shoulders. Its bangs covered its eyes for the most part. A large coat covered its upper half and pants with penguin patterns on them covered its legs, but I could still see the pinkish skin upon its face and hands and also its feet. It had no shoes, which was odd considering Lyra told me humans wore shoes. But there was no doubt that this creature was pretty much exactly what we had both read about in the books. It was a human. And it was far smaller than I thought they were supposed to be.

"So Lyra? Is it everything that you wanted it to be?" I ask her, expecting her to start bragging. Instead, Lyra walked forward and gently placed a hoof on the human's forehead to brush away the bangs. She stared at the small human's face for a moment before glancing back up at me.

"It's a human alright, but it's not an adult. It's a child," she informed me. "And judging by its height and its choice of attire, I'd place it no younger than four and no older than six. I'm also thinking it's a girl, but until it wakes up I'm not certain."

"So what are you waiting for? Wake it up and ask it your questions," I tell her. But Lyra instead turned around to look at me with a mischievous look upon her face. One that I did not like.

"Bonbon, are you serious? Wake up a child in the middle of the Everfree Forest? Where it might attract Timberwolves, maticores or all sorts of dangerous creatures?" she asked me with the huge smile still spread across her face. "I promised to be careful and I don't break my promises. It would be far safer-"

"Don't you say it," I warn her. But it was too late.

"It would be far safer if we took it home with us and talked to it there," Lyra finished as she used her magic to lift the child onto her back. "Because staying here would be dangerous and would break my promise. And we don't want to break a Pinkie promise, do we?" I seethed in place while Lyra adjusted the child to make sure it wouldn't fall off of her back. She then smiled at me before trotting off.

"How can a pony be so dumb yet so clever at the same time?" I ask myself as I follow after her, just knowing that trouble would be sure to follow.

||X||

Had to admit, as much as I hated the idea of being stuck in a world that looked something out of a little girl's cartoon, at least the night was pretty. Billions of stars all soft-glimmered overhead while the moon commanded the main stage of the night sky, beaming down enough light that I would be able to navigate the rocky area even if I didn't have my super senses.

The temperature had fallen with the sun, but the costume that Beast had made for me kept me pretty toasty. Have to remember to thank him when I get back. But right now my main focus was finding the source of water that was somewhere in this rocky area. I could smell it and also hear the sounds of it crashing onto rocks. Meant a waterfall was somewhere nearby.

A large cliff face stood between me and the sound of water. Some things are hard for me to deal with: Idiots; government officials; and Summers are all things I have issues with. A cliff? Too easy. I start to scale the rocks with ease, not needing my claws since there was enough jutting out of the side to grab onto.

Five minutes of climbing went by fairly quickly and the reward of seeing a river flowing beneath the cliff I sat atop was more than reward enough for the small climb. I wanted to head right to the water, but then I recalled why I was here in the first place and instead lifted my head and gazed around. The cliff was pretty high up, higher than the trees around me. Perfect.

I inhaled deeply through my nose and was immediately assaulted with thousands of different smells. The smell of the trees, the smells of the animals and creatures within those trees. The smell of pony, the smell of blood upon my hands and the smell of some things I didn't recognize. But I didn't smell the girl.

"Must have gotten separated farther than I thought when she teleported us here," I mutter aloud as I leap off of the cliff face, gritting my teeth while the rocky ground below shot up to greet me. Pain lanced through my legs as I crashed into the rocky ground at the base of the cliff. A snarl of pain escaped my lips as I forced myself to remain standing. But the pain that would have floored a normal person vanished in a matter of moments as my healing factor kicked in, taking care of that pesky pain.

"Sometimes I forget how nice it is to have an adamantium skeleton...and then I remember the rest." Water was my first concern and then I would get back to trying to find the girl. I knelt down next to the river and cupped my gloved hands, dipping them into the cold rush to gather as much water as I could. After bringing my hands to my face, I gulp down cold water with a small sigh. Been a long time since I tasted water that was completely free of any pollutants. One point to this world.

My eyes catch movement in the rapids. Seems that numerous fish had gathered around to see what the hell was drinking their water. Guess that I'm also going to get dinner tonight as well.

SNIKT.

I impale three of the little fishies on my right claws faster than they can react. Their little friends swim off after seeing what I could do. Wasn't hard to find enough branches from nearby trees to start a fire either, and after a few minutes of preparation I was able to enjoy the fish I had caught. Just like with the water, my enhanced senses told me that these fish were completely devoid of any pollutants that I would find back on my Earth. They just had a good bit of mercury in them. Ah well, no meal is perfect.

After finishing my meal, I toss the bones back into the rapids before sitting back down in front of the fire to gather my thoughts. I was in a new world, that was easy to see. I've been everywhere on Earth and never once did I come across talking, colorful ponies like these. And given the information Chuck gave me about the girl, ending up in a different reality is no surprise.

Which made my job a lot harder than it was before. I was supposed to grab the girl and bring her back to the school before either Magneto or those damned tin cans got their hands on her. But then I had her scent. And I knew where I needed to take her. But in this new world, I've got nothing. Nearly every scent is foreign; I have no idea where anything is and worst of all I'm sharing this place with those ponies.

"Ah shit," I mutter when I realize what that meant I had to do. If I was to find the girl, I would have to interact with those ponies. Get directions from them or have them help me figure out where the girl was. "Heh, who knows, maybe they're not all bad. Perhaps we'll become good friends, talk about our feelings and then they can show me what it means to be nice...ugh, nearly made myself throw up."

As much as I hated the thought of getting anywhere close to those things, the girl was far more important. If both Magneto and the government wanted her, then I knew for damn sure that I needed to get to her before they did. I didn't have time to rest.

I rose to my feet so I could kick out the fire before scaling the cliff face once again, taking in another deep breath. Now that I knew what to look for, I could smell what smelled like a whole bunch of those ponies at the edge of the forest. Probably a town. And where there's a town, there's maps.

"Alright Logan, let's see how a town filled with these things reacts to you," I mutter with a thin smile on my face as I scale down the cliff once more. "Ten to one they see me as a monster and try to kill me. If they do that, then they're smarter than I gave them credit for."

From how far away the smell was, I assumed that it would take me the rest of the night to reach the town. So I headed back into the forest, keeping my senses on alert just in case something decided to try something cute. Kept the claws out though. I've been surprised too many times in my life to keep my guard down. Even with ugly ponies.