The walk to Twilight's wasn't that long, and we got their in time to get supper. She wasn't to happy about it, until I told her that I needed her help with filling out the citizen papers. After that, she didn't seem to mind, and invited us in. As we sat at the table, I pulled out the papers for her to get a look at before we started to fill them out.

It took us till the middle of the night to finally finish the papers, as there was a lot of things that I had needed to fix, leave blank, fill in, and all the other fun stuff that you have to do when filling out citizen forms in other dimensions. All in all, it took less time than Twilight had originally thought. Pinkie had gone home earlier, as she had to do some things for some orders she was getting prepared to deliver the next day.

She offered me the couch to sleep on for the night, but I declined and headed to the best room I could find. The laundry room. Luckily for me, their happened to be a fairly large pile of clean sheets that Spike had pulled out. I thanked him, then proceeded to take them, walk to the corner of the room, place the pile on the floor (after I had swept it a little) and proceeded to lay down on the warm pile of soft sheets that came up to Twilight's knees.

"Cameron?"

"Yes?"

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you take all the clean sheets? I still need to make my bed, and my sheet is in the pile."

"Oh. Sorry, let me help you find it and put it on. It's the least I can do. Also, tomorrow, I will tell you the Dude Story. You'll like it." I say, finally pulling out her sheet. She just grabs it from me, and then tells me not to stay up late. She then walks away. I start to follow when Spike just tells me to stay here.

"It's not that she is angry, she just is a little frustrated at things she doesn't understand. You should have seen her when she tried to figure out how Pinkie sense worked. She about had a mental breakdown over how she couldn't get Pinkie Pie's sense to read out in a understandable, scientific way. She really is pretty good once you get to know her better."

"Fine. Welp, I might as well get started on finding a house I like. You know of the houses that are open? Seen them when in town or anything? Know who owned them before? Anything to help me out with the picking would be nice." I ask Spike, as I am genuinely curious about what I might be buying into. I show him the houses, and he picks through them.

"Well, this one the owner was an old stallion who was a war vet, but he was a little bit of a cigar smoker. And I am being generous by saying that. This house had a small family of 5, the youngest though was a little pyro, so it has some burn marks. This was owned by a family of 3, and the mom and dad fought a lot. Like, in front of their foal and everything. They got into some serious fights, and one of them got thrown through a wall. They also punched holes in walls during fights. The child eventually reported his parents, and they are in jail, and the child is doing good last I heard. Has a job that he likes, successful. But yeah, lots of property damage to fix up.

Huh, never seen this house before though. This ones new." He says, handing me the paper that has the details for the house on it. I look at it and it looks fairly nice. Its a single story house with a large basement that has been set up as a workshop of some sorts by the last owner, though what its for isn't well known, other than that it's for repairing things. The upstairs has an open floor plan, with lots of natural lighting, and a great view of the forest. That being said, it also happened to be mostly in the forest. The Everfree forest, to be exact. About a half mile into the forest is where this house is supposed to be set. The paper mentions that their is a well used path to this property, and that Timberwolves seem to steer clear of it.

I look at the paper closer, and see something that catches my eye. The picture that shows the front of the house has a few trees in the background. Looking closely, you can barely see it, but on one of the trees is three words. Remember to Laugh. I blink, and look again, and the words are still there.

"Hey Spike, take a look at this picture for a sec. Do you see anything on this tree right here?" I point to the tree that has the carvings on it.

"No. Why?" He answers. I say that its nothing, just that it must have been a shadow. He buys it, and I look at the picture again. It still shows the three words on the tree. I don't think this is a coincidence. There has to be something behind this. Maybe this house was put here by the Shaman. That might make a bit of sense. OK, then I will take it.

The next day, I walked though town to the mayors office once more. Now that I knew where it was, it wasn't hard to find. especially since it was the tallest building in town. I entered the building with the credentials and my redesigned wallet, done now to hold bits, thanks to a spell done by Twilight. As I enter, Scroll Kick looks up and sees me.

"She is in with someone right now. They just started to. If you want though, she is free this afternoon, sometime after 2 o'clock. She can help you then. in the meantime, you can probably head around town and try to find a place to hire you."

I check the time and see that it's about 10:30 in the morning, so I take her up on the offer and go outside. When I get out their, I look around, seeing nothing that would strike my fancy. So I decide to go for a walk around the outskirts of Ponyville. After a few minutes, I decided to just head to the house that I had decided to buy. So with that in mind, I started to walk to the path that the house was said to be on. I needed to get a little giggly though, so with a thought and an invitation, Discord appeared.

"Hello Cameron. How are you? You need something from me?" He asks, pretending that he doesn't know. He does know though.

"Yes, I need to get my giggle on, but nothing around here is funny enough. Wanna help?"

And with that he gets a top hat, monocle, and cane, plus fake mustache, and proceeded to twirl the cane around his finger. "Why, of course. All you have to do is ask. And a one, two, a one two three." And proceeded to do the dumbest jazz routine I have ever seen. I couldn't stop my self from busting my gut. It was funny. And with that, I transformed into a Howler. Laughing, I ran up and licked him, before running of down the path in the forest, towards the little cottage.

I smelt something in the air as I finally started to see it up ahead. The cottage came into view just as something swung in from my right to bat me out of the air. I slammed into a tree, and through a wave of pain and dizziness, caused by blunt force trauma with said tree, I saw something to my right exit the forest onto the path.

It was a Manticore. And judging by the scar on its tail and side, it was the one I had fought a few days ago. It roared at me, then jabbed at me with its stinger, I dodged, but barely, as I was still dizzy from the tree. I backed up out of the stingers range before it could attack again. I laughed a little, at the fact that it thought that it could take me in this form. I was feeling better, so I decided to attack.

I lunge forward and bite the manticore on the nape of its neck, trying to get through its fur. It barely worked as it tried to buck me off, but I held on. I lifted it up and threw it away from me down the path. It slid for a few feet before stopping and standing, charging at me and biting me on the leg, making me yelp in pain as I felt its large fangs sink in to my leg. I bite it again, and tried to get it off me,but it then stabbed me with it's stinger.

It stabbed me three times with its stinger. Each time I could feel the manticore's venom pump into my veins. I can't die like this. Not yet, not yet. I still have a job to do. The Shaman, gave me a job. I have to live. The venom coursing through me felt like fire. My entire body felt like it was burning, my head throbbed with pain as the tree and venom both worked against me. I wasn't going to die though. I wouldn't have been chosen by the Shaman if I would just let my self die.

I started to laugh. The howler in me started to laugh. My beastly howler form started to laugh. The trees that where surrounding the cottage, started to laugh, the leaves rustling in a way that could only be taken as laughter. The manticore is still biting my leg as I lay on the ground, burning up from its venom in me. I laugh in its face. I see its eyes, and they start to shrink into pinpricks. It lets go of my leg as it starts to back away, low to the ground in a submissive manner. I get up.

The manticore has backed up to a tree by this point. It is cowering on the ground, trying vainly to get farther away without taking its eyes of me. I get up. I look at the manticore. I see that it cowering before me, and I laugh. I see it mewling as if it was a kitten, and I laugh. It looks at me in fear, having been sure moments ago that its pray was going to die. I LAUGHED.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

The trees. The manticore. The birds. Everything. It just suddenly goes silent.

My laughter still rings forth.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

I look at the manticore. I can feel my legs start to quiver as the venom pulses through my body, my head still swimming in pain. I look at the manticore. I start to slowly walk over to it. When I get close enough for it to curl up into a ball, trying to get away, I stop moving.

I then transform back to my regular human body. As I do, I almost collapse. The pain intensifies tenfold, and I scream in pain, falling to the ground. The manticore looks at me as I do so, and its eyes look scared. I slowly drag my way to it. I reach out, trying to feel it. I find it. The manticore is trembling, wondering what is going on. I slowly, slowly, pull myself onto its back. Making my way to where I can see it's ear in my vision of 1 inch from my face, I whisper.

"If you get me to Ponyville, alive, you will not die by my friends hands."

The manticore understands. It stands up, making sure I have time to adjust myself into a position I can hold on while it runs. When I am ready, it takes off down the path, running as if it was being chased by the devil. We make it to Ponyville in ten minutes. As the manticore bursts from the path in the forest, I give it more instructions, my vision and consciousness fading rapidly.

"Fluttershy's....cottage....that way." I point. It takes off again, roaring as it goes. A minute later, I can barely make out Fluttershy's cottage. The manticore runs up to it, roaring for Fluttershy to come out. The timid mare can hear the cries of the manticore, and she comes to see why the creature has come to her. The manticore dips down, presenting me to Fluttershy.

"Oh god! Cameron! What happened, whats wrong, can you talk to me!?" She rambles on, asking more questions. I reach out to her and take her arm, pulling her closer with what little strength I have left, and say.

"Anti....venom....manticore." before passing out.

Author's Note

Hey guys, been a little bit. How are you? I finally found the time to complete this chapter, and am now giving it to you. Hope you enjoy.

Have a Jivin day!