Those who took the swordby werewolf435ChaptersLost soulsA glimpse of eternityThe lessons we learnLost soulsI slowly looked around the alley. Everything was getting fuzzy... Probably blood loss. I looked at my right hand, which was stained a deep crimson then put it back over the wound. Wonder if Micky’s okay... I thought to myself. We had been ambushed by the reds. Worst frakkin gang in the whole world, and I had the distinct embarrassment of getting offed by one of them. I started thinking of how I had gotten here, not like I had anything else to do while I waited for the inevitable after all. ~oOo~ I walked up to our apartment as I did every day after school, unlocked the door and walked inside and looked around. Small place with a combination living/dining room and a small kitchen. Next to the kitchen was a hallway with one door on each side, and a door at the end. Home sweet home. Then I heard it. There was the sound of crying coming from mom’s room. I rushed down the hallway and looked inside. Sure enough, mom was crying and holding a piece of paper. I walked over and picked it up, then began to read it. “Dear Ms. Summers We regret to inform you that your bills are past due. You have until the 30th to pack your things and arrange for new living arrangements. Sincerely Mr. Dotters” 30th... that was 30 days. How ironic I looked at her. She was obviously in no state to offer any answers, so I just gave her a hug and waited. I knew that ever since dad died we had been having trouble paying all our bills, but I didn’t know it had gotten this bad. And since we had no other family to turn to... Well, I was actually pretty curious as to what we were going to do next. I wasn’t actually worried about anything. I never had been, because if things ever get as bad as they possibly can, you have nowhere to go but up. My words of wisdom for you. Anyways, When she finally calmed down, she looked at me with determination in her eyes. “Hunter... We’re going to have to move.” “I know,” I replied. It had been rather obvious to me. But sometimes you just need to acknowledge the elephant in the room before you shove him out. 3 weeks later we had sold most of our stuff, and bought a gun and a new house in the ghetto. I walked up to our new apartment and put the key in the lock. “Hey, whitey... your new around here aintcha?” I stopped dead, then looked behind me. There was some moronic thug just standing there like he expected me to drop to my knees and worship him or something. “whaaa? How could you possibly not recognize me?” I asked in the most sincere voice I could manage. He jerked his head back in surprise.”What’cho talkin bout foo? I know you’re new here.” He declared. By all the gods. If everyone here is half as stupid as this one I’m never leaving this apartment without a good reason. I thought to myself Ah, well... Time to screw with a thug. “I can’t believe you don’t remember your oldest, and best friend.” I said as I walked up to him, giving him the most disappointed face I could dredge up. “Wha?... Is that you Tristen?!” He practically shouted it in my ear “You got another oldest and best friend I don’t know about?” I asked bs’ing my way through the craziest high five I could make up. He is going to be absolutely pissed when he finds out.I chuckled at the thought. Well, it took him 3 hours to realize I had no idea who the hell “Tristen” was. And when he did he was, as expected, absolutely furious. Fortunately the head of his gang, Mickey had an excellent sense of humor. He told me if I joined his gang I could help pay off my mom’s bills with all the extra cash I’de be making. And He wouldn’t have to kill me. Well, it was good enough for me. So, I began my life in “Those who took the sword” one of the most ruthless gangs on the block. And I’m almost proud to say I definitely contributed a bit to that reputation. It may seem horrible, but I was the gangs hitman. If someone was giving Mickey problems, he’d point them out and I’d visit them one dark night and “take care” of them. It bothered me at first, and mom tried to ask questions about where the money was coming from. But, I just told her and myself “morals don’t pay bills,” and that was pretty much the end of it. ~oOo~ And so, life had been pretty good up until today. The “reds” as they called themselves had decided that offing Mickey was a good idea. And since I was his guard for today, I took on six guys so he could escape. And here I was. 4 corpses and me, laying in a dark alley about to become the fifth. “I’m sure Mickey can handle 2 of these losers” I whispered to myself. Despite pretty much forcing me to join with that death threat of his, Mickey looked out for everyone in his gang. And he was actually my friend. *Clack, clack, clack, clack* Sounded like someone wearing a suit of armor was walking up. All clanky, like in an anime or something. I looked up to see who was there and how they would respond. Maybe this wasn’t it for me after all. A girl, probably 18 though I never was a good judge of such things. She was walking up to me wearing a full suit of armor. It was surprising, but after how I had found the “blues” leader... Well it was so horrible and shocking, I never really could bring myself to object to any lesser strangeness after that. I could also never quite bring myself to talk about it either *shudder* She was beautiful, long dark hair, gold trimmed armor. And a look on her face that told me she would not be calling anyone to help me. “Buck my life in 27 different flavors,” I whispered. After I became a brony I stopped using the f-word, as well as most other curse words. It always sounded so much better to me anyways and left the door open for more creativity. She finally reached me and began to laugh. “just what in the name of all the elder gods is funny about this?” I growled. It hurt my throat a bit, but it was worth it. “You use some of the most unique obscenities... It’s one of the reasons I like you,” She replied, with a rather happy look on her face. Well, if the armor left any doubt, that last statement proved she was crazy. “So... what? you’ve been stalking me or something? No, nevermind that’s not important right now. Could you please call an ambulance, or at least do something to stop this bleeding?” I asked. I was sure she’d say no, but it couldn’t hurt. “Well. I won’t call anyone, and I most certainly can’t save this body. But~...” She happily chirped, as if seeing someone bleeding to death was something to be happy about. I didn’t want to, but seeing as how I had no real choice, I took the bait. “but?” “I could send you to Equestria where you can have a whole new body just for you. And a new life, all yours to create.” I sighed. Why did she like showing off her insanity so much? “That’s not very nice you know. I’m not crazy after all.” “Yes I’m sure my manners are very important right no... Wait a minute. did you just respond to my thoughts?” I rasped out. “Mhmm” raise your right hand and swear to the sixty three armed bear goddess that you won’t pull any tricks when you send me to Equestria I thought. “Hah, try guessing what I thought that time!” I was dying sure. And playing with a crazy lady when your dying is not exactly a smart thing to do. But, well she wasn’t going to get me help and I had never been accused of being overly intelligent. To my surprise she raised her right hand, and said “m’kay, I swear.” I blinked at her. Well buck me in a freezer, she actually can read minds. “now wai...” The world went black before I could ask her anything more. oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo “Everybodys screamin, I try to make a sound but no one hears me~” When did I set my alarm clock? I asked myself as I reached over to my nightsand “I’m slippin off the edge, I’m hangin by a thread. I wanna start this over again” I throw my hand down to press snooze. Only I smack the ground instead. “So I try to hold, on to a time when nothing mattered and I can’t explain what happened” buck it... I like this song Suddenly the song stopped playing. “Aww, you’re no fun.” said a girl from somewhere I open my eyes to see her still wearing her armor and giving me a pout. “well excuse me,” I said... Or tried to at least. What came out sounded more something like “Mmmrrwooorrooaaar,” I blinked and put my hand up to my face. gah! Not only was my hand not a hand, it seemed I had a snout. “Aww, why the long face?” She asked, interrupting my rather impressive cursing strek. I sent her my most impressive glare. “sheesh, the pun wasn’t that bad was it?” She asked, giving me a concerned look. Meh... But I was on a role that time, and you threw me off! I thought towards her. If speaking wasn’t working, at least I knew she could read minds. “Oh... well, sorry about that. I needed us to get on topic though.” She said, with an apologetic gleam in her eye. I shrugged. Only when I did I felt something that hadn’t been there before move with the shrug. I blinked and looked at my back. Where shoulder blades should have been was an impressive set of leathery wings. They were tan on the outside and matched the rest of my fur, but the inside was an almost crimson red. And beyond that... Scorpion tail. I looked back at the probably-not-actually-crazy lady in her shiny suit of armor. Sooo... I’m a manticore? She smiled encouragingly. “mhmm, and that means?” I’m in equestria? “Bingo!” She shouted was his name-o! I couldn’t help but add, she giggled a little at my stupid pun. It made me feel happy that she enjoyed a good pun. So, what happens now? I mean... I can’t go help Mickey, or continue to help pay the bills now can I? And what happened to my old body? Her gaze turned thoughtful as we looked at each other. “Well, I’ll tell you honestly. Your old body is dead. So you’re stuck here, as a manticore. That means you no longer get to affect earth directly.” Hmm... No more going back to earth. Mom would probably have a lot less trouble with her bills now that she didn’t have to pay for 2, but then again I had been a significant source of income for her. She didn’t actually think of me that way, but I prefer to think as a realist and that’s how it was. “Tell you what” The girl startled me out of my line of thought. “If you promise to be my piece, I’ll make all your mom’s bills disappear, and send a few of the boys Mickey’s way to make sure he is all right.” I stared at her for several seconds. I don’t get it. What do you mean by “your piece”? I asked. I didn’t know what she was on about, but she had just offered to solve my problems. So if I could do whatever this was, it was a sure thing. “My piece in the game silly,” She said, giving me a very pointed look. The game? As I watched she facepalmed. “Of course, you’re a human. You wouldn’t know about The game. Well, I can’t tell you too much but~...” I continued to stare at her. She got me that once, but I was low on time. Here it seemed, I had all the time in the world so I wasn’t going to rise to the bait a second time. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Several seconds later my curiosity overcame my need to not answer. “But?” “Huzzah! That’s twice I’ve gotten you to say it!” She yelled, throwing her fist into the air. Then she looked at me and saw my glare. “Oh fine, spoil sport.” She grumbled. “Basically an old friend of mine sent out a bunch of invitations to play a game. The only thing you need to participate in the game is a “piece,” A human willing to be your proxy in Equestria. And the rules of the game prevent me from explaining anymore than that.” Ok... So how do I win this “game” for you? I was still a bit suspicious, because of the whole “crapton of what appear to be gods and goddesses screwing around with mortal lives” thing, but it actually sounded pretty interesting. “Oooh! So you’ll play?” She asked, clapping her hands together and giving me what appeared to be her best puppy dog eyes. I was annoyed that she ignored my question. How do I win?I repeated, after all I may have already decided to help, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to get as much info out of this as I could. Her smile faded into a pout, and she turned up the puppy stare. “I can’t tell you. But I really, really want to play. So pleeeaaaaaase?” She begged. I sighed. Fine, fine. I’ll play as your piece. Just remember your promise though. She cheered and jumped off of the stump she had been sitting on and ran over to me. “Alright, so you can telepathically communicate with other humans, no matter what they have been turned into, but other than that you can’t speak to anything else. Just humans, understand?” Got it. I thought. She looked at me for a moment longer, then nodded and disappeared in a flash of light. A glimpse of eternityAuthors Note: When I "speak" it's in italics due to the fact that he is actually just thinking everything he sais (since he's a manticore and can't talk) I blinked away the dark spots left by the bright flash and looked around. I was laying in the middle of a clearing surrounded by a very thick forest. A silvery light bathed the trees of the forest, obscuring their true colors. The clearing was carpeted with a thick patch of short grass, and the stump she had used to sit on was at its very center. I looked up to see if the moon could tell me what time it was, and gasped. The night sky spread out before me like an endless sea. There were nebula swirling around in the vast expanse of the never ending abyss that was deep space. They swirled and stretched giving the impression of waves so vast you could live longer than Luna herself, and still never fully cross one. In between the nebula were the stars. If you’ve ever seen the milky way on a clear night, then picture that. Now imagine strings of isolated stars leading to more Galaxies, and then more strings until you get a veritable spiders web of stars spanning the night sky between the many different nebula.And finally there was the moon. The moon was a disk of the purest silver, with a perfect picture of a unicorn head made of darkened circles, hanging just above the treeline. either relatively early, or very late I thought to myself, finally pulling my gaze from the sky. “We raised the moon about two hours ago,” said a voice behind me. Well, that answers that quest... I cut off mid thought, jumping to my paws and spinning around to see who had snuck up on me. Standing directly in a stream of moonlight was the princess of the night herself. She was a lot smaller than I thought she would be, but she was still Luna. “Be at ease. We landed nearby to hide from our steward, so as to avoid the endless paperwork that mare is always attempting to foist on us, when we noticed you staring at our sky. So we wished to ask if you enjoyed it.” Much as I would love to say I had some smooth comeback, those have never been my forte, so what I really wound up doing was standing there and staring at her with my jaw on the floor like some kind of brain dead moron. She huffed and stamped her hoof. “Are even manticores scared that we shall become Nightmare Moon again?” She asked, glaring at me. buck me to the 7th circle of hell... All I need for this to be perfect is for you to be able to read minds. I thought Her look changed from a glare to confusion as she sat down. “What is this “hell?” I jumped slamming my jaw shut, as my eyes grow so large they felt like they were ready to fall out. umm... How far are we from Canterlot?I asked.No way was I telling her what hell was. For that matter it didn’t seem like it would be such a great idea to reveal that I was a human either. She blinked at the sudden change in topic. “we have flown roughly seven nights. Why do you ask?” You’re kind of far away from home aren’t you? I asked. getting her to answer questions seemed like a safe way to steer the conversation away from anything that would reveal myself to her. Her look changed from curiosity to suspicion. “And why does our business concern you?” she asked as she narrowed her eyes. In retrospect upsetting an alicorn isn’t very bright. Ahhh... Because you’re Luna? And if anything were to suddenly happen to you then you wouldn’t be able to make such beautiful skies. I thought, making it up as fast as I was able. Don’t get me wrong, the night sky was beautiful even when Celestia brought it. But ever since you returned, it has been the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen. What do you know? I can be smooth. She blushed a little at the compliment and pawed the ground. “We are happy that you enjoy our work,” She said, slightly relaxing her posture. “But we can more than take care of ourselves.” “Princess..” A distant voice called out. Luna immediately shot up to her hooves, her ears swiveling in the direction the voice had come from. Your steward? I asked her. “Indeed, that is her voice,” she muttered grimly. If you like, I can scare her away I offered. Her head whipped in my direction, and she gave me a hard stare. “You don’t have visions of mischief dancing in that carnivorous brain of yours, do you?” I cocked my head to the side. Just how dumb do I look? I know you would not rest until I was dead if I were to harm one of your ponies. I merely enjoy your company, and was offering to do you a good turn. However, if you really think so little of me... I got to my paws and began walking into the trees “wait!” I stopped and looked back, waiting for her to continue. “We would greatly appreciate it if you scared her away from us. The stack of paperwork she wished for us to do tonight is truly gigantic” She said, cringing at the thought of so much work. I nodded satisfied, and was about to take off and scare the pony, when a sudden realization caused me to stop and look at her.I have one request afterwards I told her. She sighed. “We thought you were doing this because you enjoyed our company. But very well, If your request is within reason we shall grant it.” I turned to face her, ignoring her comment and sitting back down. Will you teach me how to fly? She stared at me for a little while, before she busted out laughing and rolling on the the ground. When she had finally managed to stop she sighed, wiped a tear from her eye and said “you have a wonderful sense of humor” I’m glad somebody finds my inability to fly amusing. I thought, glaring at her. Even though I hadn’t been a manticore for long enough to be expected to know how to fly, the fact still embarrassed me. And the fact that my favorite pony was making fun of me didn’t help matters either. “Princess I know you’re out here somewhere! Come out so we can get to work... Please!.” Her smile disappeared as she looked at me. “you truly cannot fly?” she asked, a look of pity and curiosity quickly finding its way onto her face I looked down and pawed at the ground. I hated pity... Pity was what you gave to people who couldn’t take care of themselves. My mother never had the chance to teach me I told her. It was a technical truth which is, in my opinion, the best kind of truth. “Very well. If you scare our steward without causing her any actual harm, we shall teach you how to fly. But be warned” She said. “Our steward is actually an elite unicorn guard, trained in... Very effective combat magic. I looked up trying to judge whether she was being honest or not. She was still looking at me, but the pity had changed to a mischievous twinkle. I didn’t like that look very much either. But, if I ever wanted to learn how to fly this was going to be my best opportunity. After all, I doubt any random pegasi would fancy stopping long enough to figure out a particular manticore doesn’t know how to fly. Much less offer to teach him afterwards. So despite the fact that every alarm I had ever had was now going off like a government bunker that had just gotten its front doors blasted off, I got up and began walking towards the treeline in the last direction I had heard the steward’s voice coming from. The lessons we learnA/N: Fate ( the main character of this little fic) is a telepath. Any time it goes into italics, he's either communicating telepathically or thinking. It will specify which is happening afterwards. Just figured I'd remind you guys so you don't forget hr] I crept through the moonlit forest careful to avoid placing my paws on twigs and thick piles of leaves and squeeze through the narrow spaces created by trees only twice as tall as myself. Who knew “The rangers apprentice” could be so useful? I asked myself as I practically glided through the shadows towards the flustered, and apparently dangerous, unicorn I was about to attempt to scare. She was a dark green with dark blue mane and tail with a scroll with an inkblot on it. Hmmm Doesn’t look very threatening, but Luna did say... I thought to myself. As I slunk ever closer. “Ugh, stupid princess always disappearing and getting me in trouble,” She mumbled to herself. “Princess, please come out! We have so much to get done!” She called out. I got just to the edge of the road and hid in a convenient bush. Alright. One, two, three! I jumped out and roared as loud as I could right in her face then looked at her. She didn’t even flinch, just stood there with an annoyed expression on her face. Oh, buck me I thought I was expecting all kinds of hell after that. But I did not expect what happened. *AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH* She screeched a horrifying warcry that nearly burst my eardrums. *RRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH* I yelled back, covering my ears in pain and screwing my eyes shut. I felt my face smack the cobblestone as I waited for the inevitable blast of whatever painful magick she was planning to strike me down with. After a while of nothing I cracked my eye open, and saw... Nothing? I opened my eyes the rest of the way. There was a moonlit cobblestone road surrounded by trees and tall grass. But no angry unicorn waiting to hand me my rear. I pulled my paws off my ears. “AAHAAHAHAHAAHAAAA, Oh that was rich!” Luna’s voice came from behind me. I got up and turned to see her rolling on the ground nearly asphyxiated from laughter. “Thou should have seen it! Our steward wet herself!” she managed before sinking into more bouts of laughter. I sniffed the air, and sure enough there was a faint smell of urine being blown away by the breeze. ugh, that’s just nasty I thought to myself as I wrinkled my nose and moved towards Luna. Alright, you’ve had your fun. Now teach me how to fly I thought at her. “Oh, very well. We did promise after all.” She said rolling to her hooves and pushing up. She walked over to me her hooves clip-clopping over the cobblestone. When she was only a few feet away she stopped. “The first and simplest thing you must know about flying is how to move your wings.” She spread her right wing, and motioned to it. “Watch, and do what we do with both of your wings.” She said. With that she slowly brought her wing straight down “Only bring your wings straight down on the first flap to get you in the air.” I spread both my wings and brought them both straight down *whomp* The leathery membrane of my wings snapped taught pushing down air and I let out a strangled “aack” as the ground suddenly got a lot smaller. That was all well and good, but after that it was getting bigger a lot faster than I would have liked. I panicked and started wildly flapping my wings and motoring my legs *whompwhompwhompwhompwho-thud* Luna giggled, then tsked. “Do not put so much power into your downstrokes just yet” she chastised. I pulled my face from the silver-grey road and shook it to drive away the little birds taunting me with their perfect flight formation, which happened to be centered around my head. When they finally went away I looked back at Luna and nodded and spread my wings again waiting for her to continue. “Alright my little manticore, the next thing is to move your wings forward and up,” she said moving her wings as she did. I started my wings up high and slowly brought them down, then pushed forward and up. “Good,” she murmured. “The next thing is you must decide whether you wish to hover in place or move forward. If you wish to hover then continue bringing your wings straight down. But if you wish to move forward bring them down and back,” she said demonstrating each motion as she said it. I moved my wings exactly as she did and we repeated both “forward” and “hover” cycles a few times each. After a while of this she nodded, satisfied. “Alright, now remember what we said and try to hover,” she said. I nodded, then moved my wings up and pulled them down as hard as I could. As I flew up into the air I started to feel that panic rising up again, but I clamped down on it and started trying to “swim” in the air, the moment my wings pushed down and back I shot forward. I’m doing it! I’m really flyi..- *thu-crack* Aaagh, why? I thought to myself as I held my nose and shook my head. After the pain subsided a bit I cracked my eyes open to see just how badly my nose was broken. The bad news? My face had an unscheduled boxing match with a tree. The good news? My face won. My nose was scraped, but fortunately not broken. The tree was a small thing, covered in grayish bark. But the most interesting thing about it? It was snapped in half. Huh... Guess being hard headed doeshave it’s advantages I chuckled as I pushed myself up to my paws. When I was sure I wouldn’t be falling over I turned around to try and find Luna. She was trotting towards me, her face scrunched up in concern. “Are you well?” She asked when she had gotten close enough to see the scratches left by the bark. Just fine I replied. Her features relaxed and changed to something more playful. “We are glad to hear it. Though next time you feel the need to chop wood, perhaps an ax would better serve the purpose,” she said with a wry chuckle. But my face does it so much faster I said, as I stopped prodding the scratches on my muzzle. Anyways, I’ve got to try something. Might need some patching up afterwards if you don’t mind? “You haven’t even learned to fly properly, and you’re already going to try stunt flying? Perhaps you hit your head harder than we had thought.” she mumbled doubtfully, moving too check my head. You don’t learn to run without trying. Besides, this will definitely come in handy. I told her preparing to take flight again. “At least try to fly in a direction that doesn’t take you through every tree in the forest.” She said as I lined up with the nearest tree. And what fun would that be? I asked before taking off. The tree got closer and closer at an alarming rate, but this time I was prepared for it. I tensed up, and jerked sideways throwing my paws forward to catch the trunk. My front claws sunk into the rough bark and I pulled myself to the side of it and jumping off, tensing up once again in preparation for the next “roll” as I kept my eyes straight ahead. It was hard to focus with all the branches I was having to smash my way through, but I was actually doing it. “flying” through the forest by jumping from tree to tree. One, two, three *THUD* “Well that was... Interesting” Luna said, trotting up beside me. “But we can’t see you trying out for the Wonder Bolts, so why in Equiis would you want to know how to do this?” I’ve got to be honest. At this point I have no idea what I would ever need this for. But as my mama always said “Little girls are the devil!” “Erm... We do not wish to offend you, but what do little girls, or this “devil” have to do with you using you using your face to attack trees?” Elementary my dear Watson. Fluttershy helped the chicken cross the road, therefore Pinkie Pie needed to find He-man so he could save the universe by the power of Greyskull. I said, doing my best to keep a straight face. After all, when would I ever get the chance to troll a goddess again? When I finished she had the most lost expression I had ever seen. “But... We... What?” I couldn’t help myself. Stabbed and killed, then brought to a completely new world in a completely new body, then spending the last couple of hours in the presence of a creature that shouldn’t even exist. All of that in one da-... Night. And I still couldn’t keep myself from being a troll. So, I did the only sensible thing. I laughed like a mad-man...ticore... Moving on. When I finally managed to stop I looked up at Luna. She was gone.Huh? Hey it wasn’t thatbad, was it? I asked the empty night. All I got back was the chirping of crickets.
Lost soulsI slowly looked around the alley. Everything was getting fuzzy... Probably blood loss. I looked at my right hand, which was stained a deep crimson then put it back over the wound. Wonder if Micky’s okay... I thought to myself. We had been ambushed by the reds. Worst frakkin gang in the whole world, and I had the distinct embarrassment of getting offed by one of them. I started thinking of how I had gotten here, not like I had anything else to do while I waited for the inevitable after all. ~oOo~ I walked up to our apartment as I did every day after school, unlocked the door and walked inside and looked around. Small place with a combination living/dining room and a small kitchen. Next to the kitchen was a hallway with one door on each side, and a door at the end. Home sweet home. Then I heard it. There was the sound of crying coming from mom’s room. I rushed down the hallway and looked inside. Sure enough, mom was crying and holding a piece of paper. I walked over and picked it up, then began to read it. “Dear Ms. Summers We regret to inform you that your bills are past due. You have until the 30th to pack your things and arrange for new living arrangements. Sincerely Mr. Dotters” 30th... that was 30 days. How ironic I looked at her. She was obviously in no state to offer any answers, so I just gave her a hug and waited. I knew that ever since dad died we had been having trouble paying all our bills, but I didn’t know it had gotten this bad. And since we had no other family to turn to... Well, I was actually pretty curious as to what we were going to do next. I wasn’t actually worried about anything. I never had been, because if things ever get as bad as they possibly can, you have nowhere to go but up. My words of wisdom for you. Anyways, When she finally calmed down, she looked at me with determination in her eyes. “Hunter... We’re going to have to move.” “I know,” I replied. It had been rather obvious to me. But sometimes you just need to acknowledge the elephant in the room before you shove him out. 3 weeks later we had sold most of our stuff, and bought a gun and a new house in the ghetto. I walked up to our new apartment and put the key in the lock. “Hey, whitey... your new around here aintcha?” I stopped dead, then looked behind me. There was some moronic thug just standing there like he expected me to drop to my knees and worship him or something. “whaaa? How could you possibly not recognize me?” I asked in the most sincere voice I could manage. He jerked his head back in surprise.”What’cho talkin bout foo? I know you’re new here.” He declared. By all the gods. If everyone here is half as stupid as this one I’m never leaving this apartment without a good reason. I thought to myself Ah, well... Time to screw with a thug. “I can’t believe you don’t remember your oldest, and best friend.” I said as I walked up to him, giving him the most disappointed face I could dredge up. “Wha?... Is that you Tristen?!” He practically shouted it in my ear “You got another oldest and best friend I don’t know about?” I asked bs’ing my way through the craziest high five I could make up. He is going to be absolutely pissed when he finds out.I chuckled at the thought. Well, it took him 3 hours to realize I had no idea who the hell “Tristen” was. And when he did he was, as expected, absolutely furious. Fortunately the head of his gang, Mickey had an excellent sense of humor. He told me if I joined his gang I could help pay off my mom’s bills with all the extra cash I’de be making. And He wouldn’t have to kill me. Well, it was good enough for me. So, I began my life in “Those who took the sword” one of the most ruthless gangs on the block. And I’m almost proud to say I definitely contributed a bit to that reputation. It may seem horrible, but I was the gangs hitman. If someone was giving Mickey problems, he’d point them out and I’d visit them one dark night and “take care” of them. It bothered me at first, and mom tried to ask questions about where the money was coming from. But, I just told her and myself “morals don’t pay bills,” and that was pretty much the end of it. ~oOo~ And so, life had been pretty good up until today. The “reds” as they called themselves had decided that offing Mickey was a good idea. And since I was his guard for today, I took on six guys so he could escape. And here I was. 4 corpses and me, laying in a dark alley about to become the fifth. “I’m sure Mickey can handle 2 of these losers” I whispered to myself. Despite pretty much forcing me to join with that death threat of his, Mickey looked out for everyone in his gang. And he was actually my friend. *Clack, clack, clack, clack* Sounded like someone wearing a suit of armor was walking up. All clanky, like in an anime or something. I looked up to see who was there and how they would respond. Maybe this wasn’t it for me after all. A girl, probably 18 though I never was a good judge of such things. She was walking up to me wearing a full suit of armor. It was surprising, but after how I had found the “blues” leader... Well it was so horrible and shocking, I never really could bring myself to object to any lesser strangeness after that. I could also never quite bring myself to talk about it either *shudder* She was beautiful, long dark hair, gold trimmed armor. And a look on her face that told me she would not be calling anyone to help me. “Buck my life in 27 different flavors,” I whispered. After I became a brony I stopped using the f-word, as well as most other curse words. It always sounded so much better to me anyways and left the door open for more creativity. She finally reached me and began to laugh. “just what in the name of all the elder gods is funny about this?” I growled. It hurt my throat a bit, but it was worth it. “You use some of the most unique obscenities... It’s one of the reasons I like you,” She replied, with a rather happy look on her face. Well, if the armor left any doubt, that last statement proved she was crazy. “So... what? you’ve been stalking me or something? No, nevermind that’s not important right now. Could you please call an ambulance, or at least do something to stop this bleeding?” I asked. I was sure she’d say no, but it couldn’t hurt. “Well. I won’t call anyone, and I most certainly can’t save this body. But~...” She happily chirped, as if seeing someone bleeding to death was something to be happy about. I didn’t want to, but seeing as how I had no real choice, I took the bait. “but?” “I could send you to Equestria where you can have a whole new body just for you. And a new life, all yours to create.” I sighed. Why did she like showing off her insanity so much? “That’s not very nice you know. I’m not crazy after all.” “Yes I’m sure my manners are very important right no... Wait a minute. did you just respond to my thoughts?” I rasped out. “Mhmm” raise your right hand and swear to the sixty three armed bear goddess that you won’t pull any tricks when you send me to Equestria I thought. “Hah, try guessing what I thought that time!” I was dying sure. And playing with a crazy lady when your dying is not exactly a smart thing to do. But, well she wasn’t going to get me help and I had never been accused of being overly intelligent. To my surprise she raised her right hand, and said “m’kay, I swear.” I blinked at her. Well buck me in a freezer, she actually can read minds. “now wai...” The world went black before I could ask her anything more. oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo “Everybodys screamin, I try to make a sound but no one hears me~” When did I set my alarm clock? I asked myself as I reached over to my nightsand “I’m slippin off the edge, I’m hangin by a thread. I wanna start this over again” I throw my hand down to press snooze. Only I smack the ground instead. “So I try to hold, on to a time when nothing mattered and I can’t explain what happened” buck it... I like this song Suddenly the song stopped playing. “Aww, you’re no fun.” said a girl from somewhere I open my eyes to see her still wearing her armor and giving me a pout. “well excuse me,” I said... Or tried to at least. What came out sounded more something like “Mmmrrwooorrooaaar,” I blinked and put my hand up to my face. gah! Not only was my hand not a hand, it seemed I had a snout. “Aww, why the long face?” She asked, interrupting my rather impressive cursing strek. I sent her my most impressive glare. “sheesh, the pun wasn’t that bad was it?” She asked, giving me a concerned look. Meh... But I was on a role that time, and you threw me off! I thought towards her. If speaking wasn’t working, at least I knew she could read minds. “Oh... well, sorry about that. I needed us to get on topic though.” She said, with an apologetic gleam in her eye. I shrugged. Only when I did I felt something that hadn’t been there before move with the shrug. I blinked and looked at my back. Where shoulder blades should have been was an impressive set of leathery wings. They were tan on the outside and matched the rest of my fur, but the inside was an almost crimson red. And beyond that... Scorpion tail. I looked back at the probably-not-actually-crazy lady in her shiny suit of armor. Sooo... I’m a manticore? She smiled encouragingly. “mhmm, and that means?” I’m in equestria? “Bingo!” She shouted was his name-o! I couldn’t help but add, she giggled a little at my stupid pun. It made me feel happy that she enjoyed a good pun. So, what happens now? I mean... I can’t go help Mickey, or continue to help pay the bills now can I? And what happened to my old body? Her gaze turned thoughtful as we looked at each other. “Well, I’ll tell you honestly. Your old body is dead. So you’re stuck here, as a manticore. That means you no longer get to affect earth directly.” Hmm... No more going back to earth. Mom would probably have a lot less trouble with her bills now that she didn’t have to pay for 2, but then again I had been a significant source of income for her. She didn’t actually think of me that way, but I prefer to think as a realist and that’s how it was. “Tell you what” The girl startled me out of my line of thought. “If you promise to be my piece, I’ll make all your mom’s bills disappear, and send a few of the boys Mickey’s way to make sure he is all right.” I stared at her for several seconds. I don’t get it. What do you mean by “your piece”? I asked. I didn’t know what she was on about, but she had just offered to solve my problems. So if I could do whatever this was, it was a sure thing. “My piece in the game silly,” She said, giving me a very pointed look. The game? As I watched she facepalmed. “Of course, you’re a human. You wouldn’t know about The game. Well, I can’t tell you too much but~...” I continued to stare at her. She got me that once, but I was low on time. Here it seemed, I had all the time in the world so I wasn’t going to rise to the bait a second time. Or at least that’s what I told myself. Several seconds later my curiosity overcame my need to not answer. “But?” “Huzzah! That’s twice I’ve gotten you to say it!” She yelled, throwing her fist into the air. Then she looked at me and saw my glare. “Oh fine, spoil sport.” She grumbled. “Basically an old friend of mine sent out a bunch of invitations to play a game. The only thing you need to participate in the game is a “piece,” A human willing to be your proxy in Equestria. And the rules of the game prevent me from explaining anymore than that.” Ok... So how do I win this “game” for you? I was still a bit suspicious, because of the whole “crapton of what appear to be gods and goddesses screwing around with mortal lives” thing, but it actually sounded pretty interesting. “Oooh! So you’ll play?” She asked, clapping her hands together and giving me what appeared to be her best puppy dog eyes. I was annoyed that she ignored my question. How do I win?I repeated, after all I may have already decided to help, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to get as much info out of this as I could. Her smile faded into a pout, and she turned up the puppy stare. “I can’t tell you. But I really, really want to play. So pleeeaaaaaase?” She begged. I sighed. Fine, fine. I’ll play as your piece. Just remember your promise though. She cheered and jumped off of the stump she had been sitting on and ran over to me. “Alright, so you can telepathically communicate with other humans, no matter what they have been turned into, but other than that you can’t speak to anything else. Just humans, understand?” Got it. I thought. She looked at me for a moment longer, then nodded and disappeared in a flash of light.
A glimpse of eternityAuthors Note: When I "speak" it's in italics due to the fact that he is actually just thinking everything he sais (since he's a manticore and can't talk) I blinked away the dark spots left by the bright flash and looked around. I was laying in the middle of a clearing surrounded by a very thick forest. A silvery light bathed the trees of the forest, obscuring their true colors. The clearing was carpeted with a thick patch of short grass, and the stump she had used to sit on was at its very center. I looked up to see if the moon could tell me what time it was, and gasped. The night sky spread out before me like an endless sea. There were nebula swirling around in the vast expanse of the never ending abyss that was deep space. They swirled and stretched giving the impression of waves so vast you could live longer than Luna herself, and still never fully cross one. In between the nebula were the stars. If you’ve ever seen the milky way on a clear night, then picture that. Now imagine strings of isolated stars leading to more Galaxies, and then more strings until you get a veritable spiders web of stars spanning the night sky between the many different nebula.And finally there was the moon. The moon was a disk of the purest silver, with a perfect picture of a unicorn head made of darkened circles, hanging just above the treeline. either relatively early, or very late I thought to myself, finally pulling my gaze from the sky. “We raised the moon about two hours ago,” said a voice behind me. Well, that answers that quest... I cut off mid thought, jumping to my paws and spinning around to see who had snuck up on me. Standing directly in a stream of moonlight was the princess of the night herself. She was a lot smaller than I thought she would be, but she was still Luna. “Be at ease. We landed nearby to hide from our steward, so as to avoid the endless paperwork that mare is always attempting to foist on us, when we noticed you staring at our sky. So we wished to ask if you enjoyed it.” Much as I would love to say I had some smooth comeback, those have never been my forte, so what I really wound up doing was standing there and staring at her with my jaw on the floor like some kind of brain dead moron. She huffed and stamped her hoof. “Are even manticores scared that we shall become Nightmare Moon again?” She asked, glaring at me. buck me to the 7th circle of hell... All I need for this to be perfect is for you to be able to read minds. I thought Her look changed from a glare to confusion as she sat down. “What is this “hell?” I jumped slamming my jaw shut, as my eyes grow so large they felt like they were ready to fall out. umm... How far are we from Canterlot?I asked.No way was I telling her what hell was. For that matter it didn’t seem like it would be such a great idea to reveal that I was a human either. She blinked at the sudden change in topic. “we have flown roughly seven nights. Why do you ask?” You’re kind of far away from home aren’t you? I asked. getting her to answer questions seemed like a safe way to steer the conversation away from anything that would reveal myself to her. Her look changed from curiosity to suspicion. “And why does our business concern you?” she asked as she narrowed her eyes. In retrospect upsetting an alicorn isn’t very bright. Ahhh... Because you’re Luna? And if anything were to suddenly happen to you then you wouldn’t be able to make such beautiful skies. I thought, making it up as fast as I was able. Don’t get me wrong, the night sky was beautiful even when Celestia brought it. But ever since you returned, it has been the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen. What do you know? I can be smooth. She blushed a little at the compliment and pawed the ground. “We are happy that you enjoy our work,” She said, slightly relaxing her posture. “But we can more than take care of ourselves.” “Princess..” A distant voice called out. Luna immediately shot up to her hooves, her ears swiveling in the direction the voice had come from. Your steward? I asked her. “Indeed, that is her voice,” she muttered grimly. If you like, I can scare her away I offered. Her head whipped in my direction, and she gave me a hard stare. “You don’t have visions of mischief dancing in that carnivorous brain of yours, do you?” I cocked my head to the side. Just how dumb do I look? I know you would not rest until I was dead if I were to harm one of your ponies. I merely enjoy your company, and was offering to do you a good turn. However, if you really think so little of me... I got to my paws and began walking into the trees “wait!” I stopped and looked back, waiting for her to continue. “We would greatly appreciate it if you scared her away from us. The stack of paperwork she wished for us to do tonight is truly gigantic” She said, cringing at the thought of so much work. I nodded satisfied, and was about to take off and scare the pony, when a sudden realization caused me to stop and look at her.I have one request afterwards I told her. She sighed. “We thought you were doing this because you enjoyed our company. But very well, If your request is within reason we shall grant it.” I turned to face her, ignoring her comment and sitting back down. Will you teach me how to fly? She stared at me for a little while, before she busted out laughing and rolling on the the ground. When she had finally managed to stop she sighed, wiped a tear from her eye and said “you have a wonderful sense of humor” I’m glad somebody finds my inability to fly amusing. I thought, glaring at her. Even though I hadn’t been a manticore for long enough to be expected to know how to fly, the fact still embarrassed me. And the fact that my favorite pony was making fun of me didn’t help matters either. “Princess I know you’re out here somewhere! Come out so we can get to work... Please!.” Her smile disappeared as she looked at me. “you truly cannot fly?” she asked, a look of pity and curiosity quickly finding its way onto her face I looked down and pawed at the ground. I hated pity... Pity was what you gave to people who couldn’t take care of themselves. My mother never had the chance to teach me I told her. It was a technical truth which is, in my opinion, the best kind of truth. “Very well. If you scare our steward without causing her any actual harm, we shall teach you how to fly. But be warned” She said. “Our steward is actually an elite unicorn guard, trained in... Very effective combat magic. I looked up trying to judge whether she was being honest or not. She was still looking at me, but the pity had changed to a mischievous twinkle. I didn’t like that look very much either. But, if I ever wanted to learn how to fly this was going to be my best opportunity. After all, I doubt any random pegasi would fancy stopping long enough to figure out a particular manticore doesn’t know how to fly. Much less offer to teach him afterwards. So despite the fact that every alarm I had ever had was now going off like a government bunker that had just gotten its front doors blasted off, I got up and began walking towards the treeline in the last direction I had heard the steward’s voice coming from.
The lessons we learnA/N: Fate ( the main character of this little fic) is a telepath. Any time it goes into italics, he's either communicating telepathically or thinking. It will specify which is happening afterwards. Just figured I'd remind you guys so you don't forget hr] I crept through the moonlit forest careful to avoid placing my paws on twigs and thick piles of leaves and squeeze through the narrow spaces created by trees only twice as tall as myself. Who knew “The rangers apprentice” could be so useful? I asked myself as I practically glided through the shadows towards the flustered, and apparently dangerous, unicorn I was about to attempt to scare. She was a dark green with dark blue mane and tail with a scroll with an inkblot on it. Hmmm Doesn’t look very threatening, but Luna did say... I thought to myself. As I slunk ever closer. “Ugh, stupid princess always disappearing and getting me in trouble,” She mumbled to herself. “Princess, please come out! We have so much to get done!” She called out. I got just to the edge of the road and hid in a convenient bush. Alright. One, two, three! I jumped out and roared as loud as I could right in her face then looked at her. She didn’t even flinch, just stood there with an annoyed expression on her face. Oh, buck me I thought I was expecting all kinds of hell after that. But I did not expect what happened. *AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH* She screeched a horrifying warcry that nearly burst my eardrums. *RRRRAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHH* I yelled back, covering my ears in pain and screwing my eyes shut. I felt my face smack the cobblestone as I waited for the inevitable blast of whatever painful magick she was planning to strike me down with. After a while of nothing I cracked my eye open, and saw... Nothing? I opened my eyes the rest of the way. There was a moonlit cobblestone road surrounded by trees and tall grass. But no angry unicorn waiting to hand me my rear. I pulled my paws off my ears. “AAHAAHAHAHAAHAAAA, Oh that was rich!” Luna’s voice came from behind me. I got up and turned to see her rolling on the ground nearly asphyxiated from laughter. “Thou should have seen it! Our steward wet herself!” she managed before sinking into more bouts of laughter. I sniffed the air, and sure enough there was a faint smell of urine being blown away by the breeze. ugh, that’s just nasty I thought to myself as I wrinkled my nose and moved towards Luna. Alright, you’ve had your fun. Now teach me how to fly I thought at her. “Oh, very well. We did promise after all.” She said rolling to her hooves and pushing up. She walked over to me her hooves clip-clopping over the cobblestone. When she was only a few feet away she stopped. “The first and simplest thing you must know about flying is how to move your wings.” She spread her right wing, and motioned to it. “Watch, and do what we do with both of your wings.” She said. With that she slowly brought her wing straight down “Only bring your wings straight down on the first flap to get you in the air.” I spread both my wings and brought them both straight down *whomp* The leathery membrane of my wings snapped taught pushing down air and I let out a strangled “aack” as the ground suddenly got a lot smaller. That was all well and good, but after that it was getting bigger a lot faster than I would have liked. I panicked and started wildly flapping my wings and motoring my legs *whompwhompwhompwhompwho-thud* Luna giggled, then tsked. “Do not put so much power into your downstrokes just yet” she chastised. I pulled my face from the silver-grey road and shook it to drive away the little birds taunting me with their perfect flight formation, which happened to be centered around my head. When they finally went away I looked back at Luna and nodded and spread my wings again waiting for her to continue. “Alright my little manticore, the next thing is to move your wings forward and up,” she said moving her wings as she did. I started my wings up high and slowly brought them down, then pushed forward and up. “Good,” she murmured. “The next thing is you must decide whether you wish to hover in place or move forward. If you wish to hover then continue bringing your wings straight down. But if you wish to move forward bring them down and back,” she said demonstrating each motion as she said it. I moved my wings exactly as she did and we repeated both “forward” and “hover” cycles a few times each. After a while of this she nodded, satisfied. “Alright, now remember what we said and try to hover,” she said. I nodded, then moved my wings up and pulled them down as hard as I could. As I flew up into the air I started to feel that panic rising up again, but I clamped down on it and started trying to “swim” in the air, the moment my wings pushed down and back I shot forward. I’m doing it! I’m really flyi..- *thu-crack* Aaagh, why? I thought to myself as I held my nose and shook my head. After the pain subsided a bit I cracked my eyes open to see just how badly my nose was broken. The bad news? My face had an unscheduled boxing match with a tree. The good news? My face won. My nose was scraped, but fortunately not broken. The tree was a small thing, covered in grayish bark. But the most interesting thing about it? It was snapped in half. Huh... Guess being hard headed doeshave it’s advantages I chuckled as I pushed myself up to my paws. When I was sure I wouldn’t be falling over I turned around to try and find Luna. She was trotting towards me, her face scrunched up in concern. “Are you well?” She asked when she had gotten close enough to see the scratches left by the bark. Just fine I replied. Her features relaxed and changed to something more playful. “We are glad to hear it. Though next time you feel the need to chop wood, perhaps an ax would better serve the purpose,” she said with a wry chuckle. But my face does it so much faster I said, as I stopped prodding the scratches on my muzzle. Anyways, I’ve got to try something. Might need some patching up afterwards if you don’t mind? “You haven’t even learned to fly properly, and you’re already going to try stunt flying? Perhaps you hit your head harder than we had thought.” she mumbled doubtfully, moving too check my head. You don’t learn to run without trying. Besides, this will definitely come in handy. I told her preparing to take flight again. “At least try to fly in a direction that doesn’t take you through every tree in the forest.” She said as I lined up with the nearest tree. And what fun would that be? I asked before taking off. The tree got closer and closer at an alarming rate, but this time I was prepared for it. I tensed up, and jerked sideways throwing my paws forward to catch the trunk. My front claws sunk into the rough bark and I pulled myself to the side of it and jumping off, tensing up once again in preparation for the next “roll” as I kept my eyes straight ahead. It was hard to focus with all the branches I was having to smash my way through, but I was actually doing it. “flying” through the forest by jumping from tree to tree. One, two, three *THUD* “Well that was... Interesting” Luna said, trotting up beside me. “But we can’t see you trying out for the Wonder Bolts, so why in Equiis would you want to know how to do this?” I’ve got to be honest. At this point I have no idea what I would ever need this for. But as my mama always said “Little girls are the devil!” “Erm... We do not wish to offend you, but what do little girls, or this “devil” have to do with you using you using your face to attack trees?” Elementary my dear Watson. Fluttershy helped the chicken cross the road, therefore Pinkie Pie needed to find He-man so he could save the universe by the power of Greyskull. I said, doing my best to keep a straight face. After all, when would I ever get the chance to troll a goddess again? When I finished she had the most lost expression I had ever seen. “But... We... What?” I couldn’t help myself. Stabbed and killed, then brought to a completely new world in a completely new body, then spending the last couple of hours in the presence of a creature that shouldn’t even exist. All of that in one da-... Night. And I still couldn’t keep myself from being a troll. So, I did the only sensible thing. I laughed like a mad-man...ticore... Moving on. When I finally managed to stop I looked up at Luna. She was gone.Huh? Hey it wasn’t thatbad, was it? I asked the empty night. All I got back was the chirping of crickets.
