Those who took the sword

Authors 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.