It had been a little over a week since their visit to the Crystal Empire and Pixel still couldn’t stop replaying the memories in her head. By far her favorite memory was seeing the city from above as she flew over it towards the castle. The crystalline city was just so beautiful! She almost wished that they lived there instead of Ponyville. She loved Ponyville, of course. After all, it was her home! But it just didn’t look nearly as nice as the Crystal Empire.

Currently it looked the best that she had ever seen it! It was the beginning of fall so all of the leaves on the trees were starting to change to beautiful shades of red, yellow, and brown. It looked especially nice during the sunset! Though even then it didn’t compare to the sheer beauty of the Empire in her opinion. The fact that she was curious if the entire city could be enchanted like one massive crystal in a machine was completely besides the point!

Regardless today she was helping Miss Twilight build a pair of big portal devices. Apparently Miss Twilight had been doing a lot of experimenting with what technomancy she had learned from Pixel’s father. She already had a bunch of little golems rolling or floating around her library cleaning or sorting things for her. However this was by far the largest project either Pixel or Twilight had ever attempted at this point.

Twilight had originally wanted to build a teleportation device but Pixel didn’t understand how teleportation worked. Twilight had spent a few days trying to teach her teleportation but had ultimately failed. The ponies’ spells just made no sense to Pixel no matter how hard she tried to understand them. The odd system and poems that they used just seemed like pure nonsense to her. It was all just so vague and metaphorical. It wasn’t nearly obvious and purely mathematical like all the magic she knew. As such it seemed that she was completely incapable of learning any of the spells that the ponies used. Miss Twilight said this was likely a consequence of Pixel having learned everything she knew about magic from Gerhardt instead of learning the way ponies use magic.

Whatever the case may be because Pixel was incapable of understanding any of the ponies’ spells whatsoever, they had no choice but to use magic that she was familiar with. Thus the reason they had to use portals as she was very familiar with the science behind how portals worked and was fully capable of adapting that so as to incorporate it into machines she built. If they hadn’t compromised like this then Pixel simply would have been incapable of assisting in Twilight’s project in the first place and Twilight would have had to do it all entirely on her own.

Pixel was currently making the last few adjustments to one of the gold portal arches. Pixel had tried to convince Miss Twilight that it would be better to use silver instead of gold for the exterior since silver was a much better conductor of arcane energy, but Twilight had insisted on using gold for some reason. It wasn’t that gold was a bad conductor of arcane energy, in fact it was the third best conductor amongst natural metals, but it was just that copper was a better conductor than gold and silver was even better than copper. Either way it would only have a relatively minor impact on the overall performance and efficiency of the device.

As soon as Pixel finished making the final adjustments on the portal arch that she was working on, she bolted the final panel on and looked over at Twilight who was working on the other arch. “I finished this arch, Miss Twilight.” Pixel informed her.

“Oh alright. I’m just about finished too. Just one last adjustment and… there!” Twilight said before bolting the final panel onto the portal arch she was working on. “Alright, I think that’s good. Now let’s test them. Pixel, could you please activate your portal arch?”

“Okay!” Pixel said before turning and pressing the activation button. As she did, Twilight activated her arch as well. As soon as the arches were active, gray circles formed in the middle of them, otherwise nothing else happened.

Twilight groaned in frustration. “Darn it, not again! I really thought we had it figured out this time! I just don’t get it. How the buck did Gerhardt make a pair of linked portal machines that are smaller than this to send letters to and from Celestia when we can’t even make a pair that are as large as this?! Ugh… At least they didn’t explode this time…”

Pixel shrugged. “I dunno. Daddy’s just really smart and knows way more about technomancy than us. I mean, he teaches me more about it every day and I still don’t understand a few of the things I’ve seen him build. Maybe a portal machine is just a bit too advanced for either of us right now? We can always show daddy what we’re working on and ask him what we’re doing wrong. I’m sure he wouldn’t mind helping us if we asked.”

Twilight shook her head. “No. I would prefer if we figured it out on our own. I really don’t want to ask him for help if we can avoid it.” A purple aura enveloped her horn as she teleported the blueprints of the portal device to herself, along with some of her notes and calculations. Skimming through all of them she groaned in frustration. “I just don’t get it. Everything seems perfect on paper. Why won’t it work?!”

Pixel went over all the blueprints, notes, and calculations in her head having seen them all before and even having helped write them. “There has to be an issue in how they’re linked, everything else is perfect, but I can’t find anything wrong with the enchantments or devices that link them together… I know neither of us forgot to install any parts… Some sort of interference maybe?”

“Interference? I guess that’s a possibility… Hm… We’ve already triple checked all the calibrations so I know they’re both tuned properly… I can’t think of anything that would be causing interference like this.” Twilight stated.

Pixel frowned in thought. As she was thinking, she decided she may as well shut down the two portal devices since there was no point in keeping them on until they could figure out what the issue was. Pressing the power button on the side of her arch, the solid grey circle in the middle vanished. Microseconds later the grey circle was replaced with a full fledged portal, much to the surprise of both Twilight and Pixel.

Pixel took a few microseconds to process what just happened before coming to a realization. With an excited gasp she said, “I know what’s wrong! Miss Twilight, I know why it wasn’t working a moment ago! The two portal machines themselves were what was causing the interference! When they are both activated they are both trying to create portals to the other end of the system simultaneously and these portals interfere with each other meaning neither can work as long as both sides are active at the same time!”

Twilight blinked in surprise and looked at the two machines. “Huh… I really thought they would both have to be active at the same time… Oh well, this is still absolutely perfect! We did it, Pixel! We finally managed to figure it out! This is going to absolutely revolutionize transportation! Ooh, I can’t wait to show this off to Princess Celestia! She’s going to be so impressed!”

“Yay! I can’t wait for Daddy to see! He’s going to be so proud!” Pixel squealed in delight. She then gasped as she had what she thought was a brilliant idea. “Miss Twilight, we should make it a surprise and show them both at the same time along with all of your friends!”

“Agreed! I’ll work on planning and scheduling everything for the big reveal. In the meantime how about the two of us go celebrate our success with a few treats from Sugar Cube Corner?” Twilight offered.

“Alright! I have 150 bits on me since Daddy just gave me my weekly allowance today, so I’ll pay for everything!” Pixel stated happily.

Twilight looked at Pixel in surprise. “150 bits?! That’s your weekly allowance?!” She was genuinely shocked by this information. Most fillies only got between 10 and 20 bits as a weekly allowance yet Pixel got 150? Either Gerhardt was way worse with money than she had initially thought or his business in selling augmentations and authoring some of the most groundbreaking books since Starswirl the Bearded was even more lucrative than she had expected! Or maybe it was some mixture of the two?

Pixel gave Twilight a confused look. “Yes? Why? Is that strange?”

“Uh… Well… Let’s just say that is a huge allowance. It sort of caught me off guard. Anyways, regardless, you don’t need to do that. It’s on me.” Twilight said with a smile.

“Miss Twilight, other than what I’m trying to save up to have Miss Rarity make a new dress for me, I would just use my allowance to buy treats at Sugar Cube Corner anyways, so I insist on paying for everything! Generosity is a core part of my personality, as are all the Elements of Harmony. So please, it would make me really happy to be the one to pay! I have more than enough bits to spare.”

Twilight sighed. “Alright, if you insist… But I’m paying next time!”

“Deal!” Pixel said with a large smile on her face.

The two of them left and headed off for Sugar Cube Corner discussing what their next project should be along the way. Eventually they decided to build a quantum supercomputer as their next collaborative project.

Once they got to Sugar Cube Corner Twilight ordered a couple doughnuts while Pixel ordered a large slice of cake. Pixel paid for it all with a bit of her allowance and the two of them sat down at one of the tables and began eating their treats. They made a bit of casual conversation while they ate.

Finally they finished and left the store. “Well, that was fun, Miss Twilight! Be sure to let me know when we’re going to be showing the final product to everyone once you figure out the schedule!” Pixel said with a large smile on her face.

“Of course! I’ll be sure to let you know as soon as possible! It was fun hanging out with you, Pixel. I’ll see you la—” Twilight was about to say goodbye when she was cut off by a loud vicious roar that startled both of them.

Suddenly Pixel’s sensors detected a very strange magical energy signature approaching them at very high speeds. She was about to raise a shield to protect the two of them, however she reacted much too late. A large manticore whose eyes were emitting leaf green arcane energy pounced on her from atop the roof of Sugar Cube Corner and began trying to maul her. Its claws slashed through her robes and even made deep scratches into her exterior. If she were made of flesh and bone she would likely already be dead since the force required to put such deep scratches into her exterior would have completely shredded an organic being in an instant. She tried to ward off its attacks with her arms, however it bit her forearm and completely ripped it off with a violent jerk of its head before tossing it off to the side.

Pixel screamed as agony coursed through her from having one of her arms torn off. Her father had been putting her through combat training so she would know how to defend herself, however her mind was too engulfed by pain and terror for her to react as she should in this situation. She couldn’t even think to shut off her pain receptors forcing her to suffer through the agony of having her arm ripped off and the deep scratches in her exterior.

Twilight stared in horror as this happened before casting a spell that knocked the Manticore off of Pixel and temporarily stunned it. She then teleported herself and Pixel, along with Pixel’s now missing arm, away from the area.

Twilight knew she had to do something about the manticore but Pixel was hurt and she really needed help at the moment so she decided to get Pixel to someone who could help her before going back to deal with the manticore. Unfortunately Gerhardt was out of town at the moment and she had no way of contacting him. She would also need Fluttershy’s help in dealing with the manticore so she couldn’t bring her there to have Fluttershy take care of her otherwise the Manticore would be left to rampage through Ponyville while they did their best to tend to Pixel. As such she ended up teleporting them to Applejack’s farm.

Applejack was repairing their old wooden cart since it’s wheel had ended up breaking when Twilight and Pixel appeared. Pixel was still screaming in fear and agony when they appeared, so Applejack ended up being quite startled and accidentally chipped the new wheel. She didn’t break it and the chip was mostly superficial so the wheel was still usable but still. Whirling around, Applejack saw Pixel laying on the ground screaming with one of her arms missing, her robe in tatters, and very visible and very deep scratches in her exterior. She also saw Twilight standing next to her with a horrified look on her face.

Applejack’s eyes immediately widened at the sight before she rushed over to them. “Twilight?! What happened?!”

“Applejack! There’s a manticore rampaging through Ponyville and it attacked Pixel! I need you to take care of her while I go get Fluttershy and go try to deal with the manticore before it can hurt anyone else!” Twilight exclaimed.

“What?! Sweet Celestia! Then get goin’! I’ll try my best to take care of her!” Applejack exclaimed before sliding to a stop next to Pixel.

Twilight gave her a grateful smile and said, “Thanks Applejack!” She then immediately teleported away.

Applejack quickly looked over Pixel’s injuries and winced. They were awful. Applejack knew that if she were organic she would have needed to be rushed to the hospital immediately otherwise she would be bleeding to death. Fortunately she wasn’t organic so that really wasn’t an issue. Unfortunately since Pixel wasn’t organic Applejack had no idea what to do to help her. So she just sat down next to Pixel and wrapped her in a hug. “Shh… Shh… It’s alright… I know it hurts but that manticore isn’t here. You’re safe now…”

It took a few moments to calm Pixel down enough that she finally realized she could just shut down her pain receptors. At that point she shut them off and relief flooded through her as she was no longer in any pain. However she wrapped her one good arm around Applejack and started crying. This was partially from the distress of having lost her arm and partially from the fear and stress of having just been attacked by a very large and dangerous animal.

Around this point Big Macintosh came running from elsewhere in the farm. “Applejack?! What’s goin’ on?! I heard somepony screaming!”

Applejack turned her head to look at her brother and said, “A manticore’s rampagin’ through Ponyville and it attacked Pixel. She ended up getting hurt really bad so Twilight brought her here before goin’ off to get Fluttershy to help her deal with the Manticore.”

Big Mac noticed the severed arm laying on the ground next to them and winced. “I see… Then it’s a good thing neither Applebloom or Granny Smith went into town today… Anything I can do to help?”

Applejack shook her head. “Nope…Just go take care of Applebloom and make sure she doesn’t leave the orchard today. I don’t want to risk her goin’ into Ponyville and gettin’ herself hurt.”

Big Mac nodded before turning and walking away with an uneasy look on his face.

[Meanwhile Ponyville]

Obviously, the Manticore hadn’t just remained where Twilight had left it so she and Fluttershy had to search for it a bit. Fortunately it wasn’t very hard to find due to the roaring and the screaming. Once the two of them managed to find it again they were horrified to find several ponies having been ripped to pieces. It didn’t even seem like the manticore was trying to hunt for food since it just left the corpses behind without trying to eat them, it was just killing indiscriminately for no apparent reason. It also seemed to be heading south west for some reason, much to Twilight’s surprise.

Fluttershy was absolutely terrified by the horrific scene before her. It was far worse than the time Gerhardt had shot the limbs off those changelings back in Canterlot. They weren’t just missing limbs. Not at all. Their organs were spilling out, their bones were shattered and were sticking out of their flesh, limbs and heads were missing, and blood was absolutely everywhere. The smell of blood and death filled the air to the point it was almost suffocating. It was like a scene straight out of a nightmare. And the manticore itself looked like the monster from those nightmares. Its eyes were emitting leaf green arcane energy, its mouth, claws, and tail were all dripping with blood, and it was snarling as if it were completely rabid.

Before either Twilight or Fluttershy could do anything the manticore jumped and flapped its wings as it launched itself up on top of a nearby roof before continuing to bound off towards the south west.

“T-twilight… I… I… I don’t think I can do this… T-t-there’s something very wrong with that manticore… I don’t think he would listen to me…” Fluttershy stuttered.

Twilight gave Fluttershy a sympathetic look and said, “Fluttershy, I know it’s scary but we can’t let it hurt anyone else… If it won’t listen to you can you at least try to use your stare on it?”

“I… I…” Fluttershy took a deep breath to try to calm down before saying, “I can try…” She then turned and flew off in the direction the Manticore went trying her best not to look at any of the corpses as she went.

Twilight ran after her, having to follow the road since she couldn’t fly. When she got around to the otherside of the buildings she saw Fluttershy confronting the manticore.

“H-how dare you?! How dare you hurt those po—” Fluttershy was cut off as the manticore roared at her and reared up to pounce on her. Fluttershy’s eyes widened in sheer terror.

Seeing what was about to happen to her friend, Twilight cast the same spell she used to knock the manticore off of Pixel the first time. A beam of purple energy slammed into the manticore before it could hurt Fluttershy, knocking it away from her. Twilight then teleported Fluttershy back over to her. “I-I’m so sorry, Fluttershy! Given your past experiences with large and dangerous animals I really didn’t think it would try to hurt you! If I had, I never would have gotten you involved in the first place.” Twilight apologized to Fluttershy.

“It… It’s alright Twilight… I don’t blame you… Th-thank you for… for saving me…” Fluttershy stuttered, still in shock from what just happened.

“Of course… You get somewhere safe, I’ll try to deal with this myself!” With that Twilight turned to look back at the manticore and was surprised to see it was already running off again. “Oh buck!” She cursed before trying her best to run after it. Unfortunately it proved to be significantly faster than her and the fact it was able to go over buildings instead of around them gave it a significant advantage and made it very difficult for her to keep up.

Eventually the two of them reached the edge of town and Twilight realized the manticore was heading straight for Applejack’s farm where she had left Pixel. Then she remembered how when it first appeared it had completely ignored her and instead went straight for Pixel. Was it targeting her? If so, how did it even know where she was?!

Whatever the case, she had to go warn Applejack and Pixel. As such she immediately teleported back to where she had left the two of them. Once she arrived she saw that Pixel was no longer screaming but she was crying. “Applejack, I’ve come back to warn you that the manticore is coming this way!”

“What?! Why would it be comin’ here?!” Applejack exclaimed.

“T-the monster is coming here?!” Pixel squealed in terror.

“It’s alright Pixel, I’m going to go back and cut it off before it gets here. I promise I won’t let it hurt you or anypony else! I just had to come here to warn you both just in case…” Twilight said a bit nervously. She wasn’t looking forward to having to fight this manticore since it already killed at least seven ponies, but she wasn’t just going to let it continue its rampage.

“Thanks for the warning, Twi. If you need help dealing with it, just let me know.” Applejack stated in a grim tone.

“Thank you, Applejack, but I would rather not let anypony get that close to it.” She walked over to Applejack and whispered in her ear. “I don’t want Pixel to hear this, but it’s already killed at least seven ponies in Ponyville… Remember that time Gerhardt shot the limbs off those changelings? It was worse than that. A lot worse. And it also tried to attack Fluttershy. Even her stare didn’t work on it.”

A shocked and horrified look crossed Applejack’s face. “Alright… Well, in that case, you had best stay safe. If it’s really that dangerous I don’t want you doin’ anything reckless and gettin’ yourself hurt.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. I’ll be back to let you know everything is safe again after I deal with it.” Twilight stated before teleporting to a point in the path to Applejack’s farm that she was certain was ahead of the manticore. Moments later she saw it charging towards her like a monster from one of the horror stories she had read in her library. Twilight stood her ground defiantly with a determined expression on her face and a purple aura enveloped her horn as she prepared to cast a spell.

[Ten Minutes Later]

Pixel was huddled inside Applejack’s barn, looking out through a small crack in the door. Applejack had seemed very confident that Twilight could deal with the manticore, however she let Pixel hide in the barn until Twilight returned just in an attempt to help her feel better. Applejack herself was standing just outside.

Eventually a loud roar echoed through the orchard and Pixel saw the manticore come into view and saw it covered in blood. She squeaked in a mixture of horror and terror. Then she noticed the patch of bloody purple fur stuck in its teeth and the bloody purple fur covered flesh stuck to its claws and she couldn’t help but fear the worst. The monster had killed Twilight!

Applejack’s jaw dropped in surprise as she also saw the flesh and fur that were stuck to the monstrous looking manticore. She had honestly been expecting Twilight to be able to deal with the manticore. Buck, she knew she shouldn’t have let Twilight go fight this thing on her own! She should have insisted on going with her! Regardless, that didn’t matter now. What’s done is done. All she could do about it now was to ensure it wouldn’t be able to hurt Pixel, Applebloom, Granny Smith, or Big Mac.

“Alright, yah big varmint! That’s it! I ain't going to let you hurt anypony else! Come on, bring it!” Applejack growled before picking up a nearby lasso with her mouth.

The manticore roared furiously and charged at her. Applejack charged it right back, spinning the lasso before throwing it at the manticore. The rope successfully landed around the manticore’s throat and Applejack yanked it taught. Unfortunately this failed to do much as the manticore immediately slashed the rope apart with its claws before continuing its charge. Cursing, Applejack dropped the rope and prepared to have to fight it up close and personal, which she had wanted to avoid.

Finally the two of them got within range of each other. As the manticore tried to pounce on her, she turned and bucked it hard in the chest. There was a sickening crunch as some of the manticore’s bones broke from the impact and it was sent flying backwards. As it hit the ground it rolled to a stop quite a ways away. Pushing itself up off the ground it coughed up some blood. Whether the blood belonged to it or one of the ponies it had mauled, it was impossible to tell. It gave Applejack a menacing glare and this time instead of charging straight for her it slowly circled around her in a more contemplative manner, clearly trying to think of how best to go about attacking her.

Applejack stood her ground and returned its glare. “Come on yah varmint! I ain't got all day! Yah got two choices here. Either run off to wherever in the Everfree you came from or get bucked again!”

The manticore growled at her before turning and running around her towards the barn where Pixel was currently located. Applejack’s eyes widened as she realized what it was trying to do. She assumed it must smell Pixel hiding in the barn. “Oh no you don’t!” She growled before running to cut it off. Once she was close enough to it she turned to buck it again, however apparently it had been anticipating this and stabbed Applejack in the back with its stinger. It then proceeded to lift her up off the ground with its stinger and threw her into a nearby tree.

As soon as she hit the ground Applejack tried her best to stand up but the manticore got to her before she could. It put a claw on her back and forced her back to the ground before raising its other claw in preparation to finish her off.

Pixel had been watching the entire fight in terror through the crack in the barn door. Seeing the Manticore on top of Applejack about to kill her, Pixel threw the barn door open, grabbed the manticore with a telekinetic spell, and yanked it off of Applejack. She was terrified… So, so terrified… However she couldn’t just sit back and watch as the manticore killed somepony. Still, she really didn’t want to hurt it either so she was trying her best to avoid having to use any of the combat spells that her father had taught her.

The manticore turned to look at her and roared in fury before rushing towards her. A silver aura enveloped Pixel’s hand as she created a bubble of arcane energy in an attempt to contain the manticore. However, much to her surprise, the same leaf green arcane energy being emitted from the manticore’s eyes enveloped its claws and it slashed at the shield shredding through it like wet tissue paper, causing the entire spell to collapse. It then immediately continued charging towards her once again.

Now both confused and terrified beyond belief Pixel stumbled backwards and nearly tripped on her own feet. However she managed to stay upright and tried casting a spell to bind it in place. Chains of silver arcane energy wrapped themselves around the manticore before embedding themselves in the ground trapping the manticore in place. Suddenly there was a leaf green flash of light and the chains were forced to dissipate. She tried grabbing it with telekinesis again and holding it up in the air, however the same thing as with the chains happened again and her telekinetic spell was forcibly broken.

At this point Pixel began to panic. What was going on?! Why weren’t any of her spells working on it?! What should she do?!

The manticore was only a few feet from her and pounced to attack her. However another rope joined the remnants of the first that was still around its neck. Then it was yanked off to the side.

Pixel looked and saw Big Macintosh with another lasso. Apparently he had heard the roars of the manticore and had come to help deal with it.

The manticore growled in frustration before shredding this lasso as well. It then turned back to Pixel and once again reared back to attack her again.

Reacting in a blind panic, Pixel screamed in terror, raised her hand towards the Manticore, and cast a random spell in an attempt to get it away from her. A beam of arcane energy fired from her hand and hit the manticore in the face and caused its head to explode in a shower of blood and gore. The manticore’s body was blown backwards and fell limply to the ground.

Pixel took a few seconds to process what just happened, which was a testament to how shocked she was as normally it only took her a few microseconds to process pretty much anything. Then she collapsed to her knees and began sobbing. She had just killed something… It had been in the defense of her own life but she had just killed something… She had never so much as hurt a fly before and she had just killed something… She had never wanted to hurt it, she had just been trying to get it away from her… Gods above, she felt horrible… She couldn’t believe she had just killed something…

Seeing what just happened, Applejack tried her best to force herself to stand up. She then stumbled her way over to Pixel and sat down next to her again. “Hey… It’s alright… I know this isn’t what you wanted, but I’m not sure it would have stopped if you hadn’t, uh… Done what you did… Somethin’ was definitely wrong with it and I ain’t sure there was anything we could have done to fix whatever it was… Shoot, I wish your father were here… I’m really not sure how to deal with this kinda thing since nopony here has ever ki—, er… I mean… been in this sort of situation before…”

“I… I didn’t mean to! I was just so scared and…” Pixel sobbed.

“I know, I know… Nopony is goin’ to blame you for this… I mean, even Fluttershy couldn’t get it to stop and that’s sayin’ somethin’! And Twilight… uh…” Applejack said before trailing off. She couldn’t believe this thing actually managed to kill Twilight… Tears began welling up in Applejack's eyes as she realized she had just lost one of her best friends to this monster.

Big Mac walked over to them and said, “Applejack, I’m goin’ to drag this thing out of here and back into the Everfree where it belongs. I don’t want Applebloom to see this…”

Applejack tried to hold back her tears and said, “A-alright, Big Mac…”

Big Mac looked at her and noticed the stab wound in her back from where the manticore stung her. “I see it got you with its stinger… You should get yourself to Ponyville Hospital and fast. Manticore venom is no joke.”

“Y-yeah, I’ll do that… Uh, Pixel… I know you’re upset but I’d appreciate it if you’d come with me. I’m sure there’s at least one or two doctors there that will be able to talk to you and help you go through this better than I can.” Applejack stated, standing back up.

Pixel said nothing but stood up and opened a portal to the local hospital, still sobbing. The two of them stepped through the portal and walked inside the hospital.

As they walked inside the two of them almost ran into Rainbow Dash who was walking out of the hospital. “Applejack? Pixel? What are you two doing here?” Rainbow Dash inquired. Then she noticed one of Pixel’s arms was missing and the fact that her exterior was covered in horrible scratches. Rainbow Dash winced at the sight. “Oh… Uh… That makes sense… But, uh… I don’t think the doctors here know how to fix machines… Anyway, I gotta tell you both something!”

“Hey, Rainbow Dash. Actually, I got stung by a manticore back on the farm a couple minutes ago. Pixel, uh… She ended up having to… Well… You remember that thing back in Canterlot with the changelings? She did something like that to its head… It was about to hurt her and she was really scared… Before that though, Twilight said she was goin’ to go try to fight it but… but… uh… Shoot… The manticore had patches of her fur stuck in its teeth and on its claws… We… We can’t say for certain but… um… We don’t think she made it…” Applejack explained, still trying to hold back tears. “A-anyway, what is it you wanna tell us?”

Rainbow Dash grimaced a bit. “Oh… Well, considering the circumstances I really don’t blame her. Anyways, Fluttershy told me about the manticore rampaging through Ponyville and told me Twilight ran off to fight it so I went to go help her. Then I found her laying on the path to your farm, she was really messed up, and I mean really messed up, but I saw her breathing so I grabbed her and rushed her here as fast as I could without risking hurting her any worse… The doctors gave her a 65% chance of surviving. They said it would have been lower had I gotten her here any later. But… h-hey at least she’s a-alive! Er… I was just about to go break the news to spike… Somepony has to… Sweet Celestia, this is going to be hard… Her family is going to be devastated…”

“Twilight’s alive?! Oh thank Celestia, I was so worried! Uh… Wait, did you just say 65%?” Applejack inquired her happiness from learning her friend had survived slowly draining away as Rainbow Dash’s words finally registered. Twilight only had a 65% chance of survival…

Rainbow Dash nodded with tears in her eyes. “Y-yeah… That’s what the doctors told me. Applejack, the state she was in… It was, uh… hard to look at… to say the least… If you’d seen it, you’d understand that her having even that high of a chance is a bucking miracle! I… When I first saw her lying there I… I actually thought she was dead… So much blood…” Rainbow Dash appeared nauseous for a second before regaining as much of her composure as she could. “If I hadn’t noticed she was breathing then… Then she may have…”

“It’s alright, Rainbow, I get the picture… You just go tell Spike what happened. Maybe go get Rarity and Pinkie Pie too. They’re gonna to need to know too and it might be best to have them there to help comfort Spike once you tell him what happened... The poor little fella is gonna be worried sick…” Applejack stated.

Rainbow Dash nodded and said, “Yeah, alright… That’s a good idea… I’ll go get them before heading to the library… I’ll talk to you later, Applejack.” Then she proceeded to walk past Applejack and Pixel and out the door.

[In the Everfree Forest]

“Ugh! I told you to be patient and wait until we fully broke your bindings before trying to attack them!” Silvanus growled at the nature spirit.

“The little metal one was alone! It was the perfect time to destroy it while the large metal one wasn’t there to help it!” The nature spirit retorted.

“That sort of impulsiveness is going to ruin our plans! If that bastard figures out that you were the one that did this, he’s going to start taking steps to combat you before you are even free to unleash your wrath upon him and the Equines! If we’re lucky, he will simply assume it was your universe’s version of changelings that did this, if we’re not then our plans are as good as doomed!” Silvanus shouted at her.

“Hmph… He’s just one mortal. Once I’m free, I could destroy him in an instant.” The spirit stated confidently.

“That’s only if you even got the chance to do so in the first place! If he learns that you are an active threat he will not give you that chance to begin with! You know that barrier he made to block your constructs from entering those farmers’ orchard? Think of that but five hundred feet tall at least and about a million times more powerful, with all that power concentrated on that one little town! Even you wouldn’t be able to get through that barrier without completely destroying your entire forest in the process! Do you want that?! Do you want to destroy that much nature just to kill one man?!”

“No…” The spirit muttered reluctantly.

“Then don’t do that again until you are actually free! I know you are regaining more and more of your power as the bindings weaken and you are eager to use it, but limit your use to your own forest and don’t do anything that would let him know you are gaining power or are a serious threat!”

Author's Note

Edit: Well it's not a particularly major rewrite, but it's something. I hope I did the hospital scene at least a bit more justice. I know I'm not very good at writing that sort of thing though so I won't blame you guys if you still think it's bad. I'll leave a link to the original version for the sake of comparison.
Link to the original version

Sorry for the long wait! Also sorry I updated the other version of the story first when my main focus is on this one. I just happened to finish chapter three for that before I finished this chapter since I wanted this chapter to focus more on Pixel rather than Gerhardt and it was a bit tricky trying to figure out what to have her do. Well, in the end I think I did alright with this chapter. At least, I hope I did.

Fun Fact: The nature spirit effectively possessed that manticore which was the reason she was able to channel her magic through it like she was. That's also the reason why the manticore was able to resist Fluttershy’s stare, because the Spirit just didn't give a fuck about it whatsoever.

Fun Fact #2: In the middle of high stress situations like this, it's very common to forget some things. At least, I imagine it would be. Thus there were quite a few things Pixel could have done very differently that just completely slipped her mind because of everything that was happening at the time. After all, she had just been mauled by a manticore and had one of her arms ripped off.

Fun Fact #3: This is the less dark version of the story! And I mean a lot less dark. Had people voted for the Spirit to get free sooner rather than later in a previous poll, I guarantee that it would have been a lot worse than this. I don't know if it would have gotten as bad as I plan on the alternate version of this story will get, but it still would have been really bad.

Anyways, as always, constructive criticism is more than welcome. Please, tell me what you guys thought of this chapter and how you think I could improve if at all. I hope you all enjoyed reading this chapter as much if not more than I enjoyed writing it!

Stay safe out there everyone!