One way ticket

Time: 14.45

Location: Outer park rode, close to the Everfree forest.

Currant local date: Unknown

The likely, unlikely duo of you and Lyra were making your way to a small cottage on the very boundary between town and the forest. Lyra was getting increasingly uneasy, she hid it well but something about her posture and the way she had started to moved, told you she wasn't all that happy about something, most likely about her proximity to the forest.

After a short time of walking you saw the small cottage through a few well cared for trees heavily populated by birds nests and feeding stations. It seem like the whole place was teeming with life but there was something odd. As you got closer, the garden was indeed teeming with life but something was just off, you couldn’t put you finger on it, but if you had to put a word to it, it would be: competitive.

As you approached the house you had a distinct feeling of walking in to trouble. Your ''impending doom'' feeling was slowly creeping up your spine, causing your muscles to tighten up and your senses sharpened.

Lyra knocked on the door, no answer. You were concerned approaching the house now you just knew there was something wrong.

“Maybe she hasn't come home jet.”You paid Lyra's comment no attention, you put your backpack down by the door and started to walk around the house to the backside. “Hey where are you going? Come back!” Lyra ran up to you and stayed behind you a little unsure of what to do.

As you approached the corner you heard a voice talking, it sounded like it was trying to calm something down. You rounded the corner, and saw Fluttershy slowly approaching some kind of animal like she often does. You let your guard down a little, Fluttershy and animals can't go wrong, at least it won't jet.

When you got closer you saw what kind of animal she was approaching, it was a dog. You were not all to sure what species it was, but what caught your eye was the big gaps in it's fur that reviled gushing sores and scrapes, one of its forelegs was lifted of the ground as if it was in pain. All its injuries seem relatively resent, only a few hours or so, and something else you thought was strange was that it didn't growl, blot its teeth, bark, or do anything for that matter. Any animal injured to this extent would try to protect itself from anything, even from little ol' Fluttershy.

Fluttershy must have heard you as you got closer, not that Lyra's shouting ''hey there she is'' helped a lot. She turned away from the animal to face you, and waved, but you didn't look at Fluttershy. Without her knowing the dog had started running towards her at an incredible speed, ignoring its injuries. In realizing what was going to happen next, you went in to a mad sprint, though it reminded more of a primal dash than a human sprint.

Even at full speed you were to slow. The dog closed its jaw over Fluttershy's leg and tore her down to the ground and stood over her menacingly. Fluttershy jelled out in both confusion and pain, and at that moment you were no longer human.

With both hands knotted in to one big fist you sent the mutt flying quite some distance. Animals were panicking and scurrying away as you stood over Fluttershy bunkered down, shielding her from further harm.

The dog recovered quickly from the blow, and was up in no time. The two of you were staring at each other for some time, growling and flaring your teeth, with this look in your eyes that reminded of pure animalistic rage, and instinct, as I said no longer human.

Then the dog lunged, and you did the same, trying your best to take the fight away from poor Fluttershy. Though you had the dominant size, the mad dog had the advantage in being able to pick up momentum much quicker, in the very short distance you had to run you didn't get up to speed, and the following result was the dog tackling you and pinning you to the ground trying madly to get at your throat.

Struggling to keep the dog at bay you tried desperately to get a vantage that could help to get the dog off. You tried to get your feet under the dog and kick it off, but you feet were too log to get a proper position. Your arms weren’t strong enough to push the dog off or hold it back much longer. You were holding the dog by the mouth and the throat, trying your best to endured, as the dog pushed closer, its teeth buried them self in your palm, and blood started to drip down on your face. As the jaws inched closer and you were starting to doubt that you'd make it.

''Heh, Dying on my first day in Equestria, after surviving a Manitcore attack, running a small marathon with a shot horse on my back, dodging a rainbow kamikaze, being set on fire, and getting assaulted by a library, and what gets me is a rabid dog... how embarrassing.'' You thought as you could feel the breath of the dog on your face.

You could practically feel its sharp teeth on your throat, your arms were starting to give away and your eyes were closing. There was a rush of air and the weight of the dog disappeared, first you though the dog had got you but everything felt a bit to solid.

You shot your eyes up and looked around. Rainbow Dash had dive bombed the dog from a cloud and knocked it right of you.

Seeing your not dead you sprang in to action, you leap over Rainbow who were standing in front of you and Fluttershy flaring her wings. You pinned the dog to the ground before it could recover from Rainbow Dashe's blow, makes you wonder how hard she hit it. You put your boot on its neck and pushed down, you were determined to brake its neck and end this for good, but you stooped. You were pushing so hard on you could feel the individual vertebrates in its neck through your boot.

You looked back at the ponies in your company, they did not need to say anything but you knew what they were thinking. Rainbow Dash had a tough guy, ready to fight expression on her face, but behind that a genuine concern for her friends, ready to protect them.

Fluttershy's face held a lot fear and confusion, you could clearly see that she did bot fear not for herself or her friends, but for the life at stake. There was a shimmer in her eyes that hurt you more than the dog ever could.

And then there was Lyra, she stood a fair way back utterly shell shocked. You could see the wheels turning in her mind, and an all to human expression crept on to her face.

“Rainbow dash get Fluttershy inside, and patch her up, I will be there shortly. Lyra get my bag.” You said not looking at them.

“Come on! Just do it already, End it!” Lyra shouted. Both Fluttershy and Rainbow looked at her in utter disbelief, and then shifted there gaze to you afraid of what you were going to do next.

You turned to look at the mare, with an undefinable look in your eyes.

“I am not digging more graves that I have to.” You said just loud enough for them to here you.

“Oh come on!” She jelled, shouting more encouragements at you.

“STOP!” Everything went silent even the dog stopped squirming. “You stupid stupid equine, stop being so... human! You have seen a human at its worst, and now you have seen at its best. We are nothing to admire or aspire to be like, now do as I say!”

Rainbow helped Fluttershy to her feet and took her inside, while Lyra just stood there looking at you for a moment, and you swear you saw a sniffle, before she did as she was told.

You rummaged through your backpack and pulled out your first aid kit and some rope. You tied the rope around the dogs mouth before you stated to examine it's wounds.

“If you try to bite me I won't be gentle, get it?” All the response you got was a slow blink.

After completely surveying the injuries, you started to clean fur and bits of nature off her, or at least you think its a she, you didn't really dare to investigate all to much. She squirmed a bit when you brought out the disinfectant.

Lyra stood besides you, silent, thinking, a slow tear forming in her eye.

After a short while you finished cleaning her and making sure more fur wouldn't get in the wounds, you were no surgeon but this would do.

You leant down and grabbed a hold of the rope holding her mouth shut, and looked her straight in the eyes.

“Don't make me regret this.” And with that you remover the rope and stood clear. She didn't miss a beat off the went in to the forest.

You cleaned up the small area you had been playing doctor on and started repacking your pack.

“I... I'm sorry,” She said with her head hanging low, a few tears dropping to the ground. “I'm so sorry, I just wanted to learn all I could about humans. I thought if I could think like a human I would learn more about you.” You let out a mournful sigh.

“Lyra, you have no reason to be sorry, let me tell you something about humans, we are cruel, ignorant, dangerous, unpredictable and stupid, but a single human can do infinite amounts of good, more than a hundred can do combined. We are grate as individuals, but put us together and you can watch how we rip everything apart over time” There was a short pause, the wind just calmly rolled between you. “Study, learn about us, but never learn from us, never be like us, it will only hurt you. Got it?”

She gave a small nod, you brushed a tear from her eye and gave her a warm smile, in return she embraced you in a big hug.

“How can such a warm being come from such a cold lineage?” She cooed softly.

“Sometimes being warm makes you feel the cold even better, and sometimes it inspires us to burn warmer and brighter... sometimes,” You murmurer the last part, as your eyes trailed away. “Now lets check up on Shy, see if she need any help.” You chipped before you lost your self in the thought.

You made your way inside, it wasn't as difficult as usual, seeing how the house was home to a range of animals, big and small and, was accommodated as such, but you sill had to crawl.

When you got inside you saw Fluttershy with a bandage on her leg, with tiny red dots blended with the white. You did a quick double check on the bandage, not that you tough you could do any better than Fluttershy, she probably had a million times more medical experience than you seeing how she often have to take care of sick or injured animals, but it made you feel better.

You turn to Rainbow Dash and looked her in the eyes and gave her a thankful smile.

“Thanks for the help back there”

“Well, I was aiming for you know,” She said as she poked you in the side and chuckled a bit.

“Bwahahaha! You got to work on your aim Dash, I'm not exactly a small target now am I,” You laugh as you tap yourself on the gut a few times to many before you realize you were injured, again. This must be a new personal record you should just wear a helmet at all times.

“Oh my goodness, let me see that.” Fluttershy was surprisingly quick over to you, and before you could pull your hand away from the unexpected touch, she had already started cleaning and bandaging your hand. You were just amazed at how agile hoofs can be, sure the show always portrait them as adequately dexterous but still, you hardly felt her touching you at all. Tough some of that might come from blood loss and tissue damage, but nevertheless you were more than impressed. As she finished you looked over the bandages in awe, you mover your wrist around a bit,  you couldn’t feel the bandages hindering movement in any way.

“Wow, thank you Fluttershy,” You gawked at the bandages a bit more. “I swear, you've done a better job than I or any doctor for that matter, could have done.” Fluttershy hid behind her mane and mumbled a humble thank you. Something struck you, you straightened out your back the best you could stretched out a hand, and clear your throat. “No, I wish to formally thank you Fluttershy, for you medical assistance and expertise in this instance, I believe I would not have received treatment of higher quality anywhere else in Equestria or on earth for that matter.” She very carefully accepted your hand/hoof shake.

“You are very welcome Richard.” She responded as she peeked out from behind her mane, a bit confused.

“Now, I regret to inform you lady’s, that I will have to take my leave, I have a grave to dig. I assume the shovel we discussed earlier is in the tool shed in the back.” Fluttershy gave a small nod, and you made your way towards the door, you turned to the rest of the room “Have a pleasant day, all of you.” And with that you picked up your backpack and fetched the massively undersized shovel. You hadn't made it even halfway down the rode before the mint mare that had been practically glued to your hip all day showed up.

“Um... so what just happened?” She asked a bit unsure of how to go about her question.

“Well, I think that pony is a bit to shy for her own good, so I practically forced her to acknowledge the compliant by turning on a dime and changing the way I both speak and formulate sentences. Making it a much more memorable experience, making her think a bit more about it hopefully reflecting on the compliment and taking it to heart.”

There was a rather long pause.

“wot?”

“Urgh, never mind just go home and archive your notes or something, I need to dig a hole. And before you say something no your not coming, I'd rather do this alone.”

“Oh no you're not going anywhere without me.” As you though.

“I'm going in the forest you know, and running through forest with something nasty in tow isn't to helpful to your memory, plus I don't think Bon Bon would approve of that, and I think you don't want to see the mess I made in there.” Lyra looked in to the forest then to you and over to the town, and bit her lip.

“umm, okay I see your point... just be careful, I want to see you in the same concision I left you in.” She said in a strict voice.

“I can't promise anything.” And with that that two of you parted ways.

It took you a fair bit of time to find the clearing, but with the instructions you got from Milly you weren’t lost for long. As you entered the early afternoon sun, the cool forest air cleared your lungs and mind, and then you saw the bits and pieces from your camp, a broken axe handle, dried blood spewed over the grass, and the huge figure from last night.

A big mournful sigh escaped you as your eyes inspected the still figure a bit more, before you continued over to a far corner of the clearing just by the tree line, and started dinging, a hole you never thought you had to dig.