“’ It'll be simple’, they said. ‘It’ll be a quick job’ they said. Yeah right.”

To say that I wasn’t happy would be an understatement and a very big one at that.

Before we go further I feel an introduction is in order. My name is Fendral Merika and I am a Mandalorian of the bounty hunters guild.
And as to why I wasn’t in a good mood was that my current bounty, a necrotised Manticore, was being particularly stubborn.

Roughly two weeks ago a Unicorn had come across an old tome in a castle ruin near the centre of the Everfree forest and had begun to dabble with its contents, with necromancy, unfortunately, being rather prominent among them. Bringing to life all sorts of creatures, ranging from a simple domesticated house cat to the before-mentioned wild Manticore.

Said unicorn was thankfully caught shortly after by the local guard. The damage, however, had already been done and with the guards trying to protect the locals, the Guild was called in. And bounties were put on the animal's heads, all that was left was the Manticore. But because they were animals, the traditional method of tracking would have to be changed to older methods. These were poster on the wall bounties.

I had picked this one up because several had picked it up before me and had either returned empty-handed or not at all, so I thought with my particular skills when it comes to tracking, it would be easy money. That and it had quite a high price too. That was four days ago.
So here I sit, among the foliage, shrubbery and other plant life, my supplies ran dry, following the uneven tracks of this Manticore, but it always seemed to be one step ahead of me every time I thought I was close to it. And as I said before, due to the fact this wasn't a person I was hunting but a wild beast and a dead one at that, the tracking fob was useless and I was losing patience.

"Why can't it ever be easy? Why? Just one easy and simple job is all I ask for."

I slowly get up from my prone position and into a crouch. I lift my head and take in the scents of the forest. The smell of pine, wet moss and other flora hitting my nose. A smile worked its way across my face. I had always enjoyed forests, the tranquillity calming my nerve, no matter what I was feeling at the moment. But there was another smell, one that erased my smile as quickly as it appeared. One that did not belong.

The smell of Death.

Snapping my head in the direction of the smell, I jumped up from my crouched position and made my way to the stench, making sure not to make my presence overtly obvious. Soon enough I came across an opening in the tree line and past it was a cave. Seems even though it was dead, its instincts were somehow still intact.

I stopped just before the tree line ended and took my time to evaluate the situation. The cave seemed vacant, other than the occasional bone or patch of fur. But something didn't feel right, this seemed almost too easy. The damn thing has been evading me for four days, why is it making itself known now? Something was wrong.
Before I could finish my thoughts, I felt a presence behind me. Slowly turning around, taking out my rifle, I came near face to face with my bounty.

Its necrotic flesh barely clinging to its skull, its once golden-yellow fur was now a dark grey, fallen in places to reveal a sickly green coloured skin beneath. Its breath smelling of the scent I had smelt moments ago, now becoming a near blinding stench even with my helmet.
The look in its one remaining necrotic eye told me everything I needed to know. This is exactly where it wanted me.

"You've gotta be fucking kidd-."

before I could finish my statement, It made its move. Pouncing with surprisingly powerful hind legs, it jumped towards me, baring its claws and teeth. Giving out a mighty war cry, it Rammed into my chest, knocking my rifle out my hands and towards the cave, sending me tumbling backwards.
Falling onto my back, I groaned as I got up as quickly as possible, only to be met with the same fate as before. It spared me no moment of respite, as I saw it mear moments before its mighty paw hammered into my side, flinging me back farther.

As I tried to get back up, I expected to be bombarded again, but nothing. I looked up and saw the Manticore circling me. It was challenging me.

I made my way to my feet as quickly as possible, the beast now stopping in front of me. Staring down the beast, I unsheathed my hunting knife from my back and issued my own challenge. Giving my own cry, I charged. To most, this would be suicidal, but I at least had a plan.

The beast saw my challenge and accepted and barrelled forwards, again baring teeth and claw. When within range it took a swipe from the right, I anticipated this thankfully, sliding underneath it, I held up my knife out and cut into its belly. It gave out a pained cry as its guts spilt onto the floors in a steaming mess.
Coming to a stop behind it, I was surprised to see it wasn't going down that easily. Pretty sure I just pissed it off more than it already was. Turning around to me, it gave a powerful roar and charged again. I dodged out of the way of a Herculean bite, I realized I'm going to need a new game plan. If there one thing I'm good at and that's thinking on my feet.

This thing is undead and the traditional way of taking down an undead was either: go for the head or burn it.

A stare down started yet again as I thought it would be better to be safe rather than sorry. I knew what had to be done.
The undead beast charged again, this time I stood my ground and when it was close enough, I threw my arm out and a burst of flame erupted forth making the Manticore cry out, trying to shield its face with its paw. It was a futile attempt.

I kept the stream of fire going as I slowly walked forwards, knife in hand until I was about ten feet away, I switched my flame thrower off and ran as fast as I could, plunging my blade into the cranium of the beast that had given me so much trouble.

It simply stood there, not moving an inch. A few seconds later, it went limp. Falling on its side with a thud, I waited for it to move. Even a little.

Nothing. It was over. It was finally over.

Pulling my knife from its skull, I collected a few teeth and a patch of fur as evidence of a job well done, wiping it on what remained of its fur to clean the Blade of the blood and the grey brain matter and looked around for my rifle, eventually finding it near where the bout had started.
Taking a moment to sit on the stump of a tree, I went over my equipment to be sure nothing was broken or on its way to be. Everything was in tip-top shape.

I took out a metallic syringe and gently poked the needle into my side. I let out a pained groan as the small, concentrated amount of bacta worked its way into my system. Slowly, I felt the ribs that were once broken, fall back into their original position.
Collecting all the remains of the now-deceased manticore, putting them in a pile, I burned anything that remained. You can never be too safe. Not in this line of work. Now all that was left, was ash.

Once all that was done, I walked away from the clearing and to the dirt path I needed. Looking to the sky, the sun appeared to be coming from the east, telling me I needed to go south-west, down the left of the path back to Ponyville.

It was a slow trek back, but eventually, I made it back, greeted with the sight of a quaint, bustling rural country town.
Making my way further down the path, and past the reinforced fence, I walked towards the centre of the town.

As I walk past the townspeople, I was greeted with the usual "hi" or simple nod, both of which I simply nod in acknowledgement. And finally, I arrive at my destination, the bucking bronco, the local bar and main Guild hub of Ponyville.

Opening the double doors, a few of the patrons stopped what they were doing and stared at me. I continue in without pause and walked up to one particular stall near the middle. Situated at the table was the mare I was looking for. The one who handled most of the Guild work here in Ponyville. Hard Strike.
The mare in question was the one who essentially ran the Ponyville branch of the Guild: thing’s like collecting and distributing bounties and handing out payments. Of course, that wasn’t all she did but its all anybody needed to know and that was fine by me.

"Ah, if it isn't my favourite bounty hunter! What took you so long? Come! bring a seat, have a drink." She exclaimed with a Hayland accent.

I stopped in front of the table she was sitting at, unclipping a pouch from my hip, I dropped said pouch onto the table. A loud clunk made itself known as she looked at me quizzically. I indicated my head towards the pouch. She raised an eyebrow and opened the pouch. Almost as soon as she opened it, her head whipped back in disgust. The Stench of necrotic flesh briefly taking over her senses. Clamping her nose shut, she lightly pushed the pouch to the side, trying to mitigate its smell.

"What took me so long, was that the damn beast was more intelligent than I gave it credit for. Always seemed to be one step ahead of me." I said, taking my rifle off my back and putting it on my lap as I sat down.

"That would explain a lot." she took a glance at my pouch, swiftly looking back at me. "But you obviously took care of it, so here’s your payment."

She put a small back on the table and instinctually I reached out to grab it, but as I did, the bag felt to light for the amount that was on the Manticores head and quickly let go.

"This isn’t the price that was agreed." I said calmly.

The mare gave me an unsympathetic look, which annoyed me. I didn’t spend four fucking days in the Everfree, running my supplies dry and tracking a Manticore that went past its expiry date, just to get underpaid.

"Unfortunately, your timing couldn’t have been worse." That made me raise an eyebrow,

"Why?"

"They bumped down the prices. Their now only giving out a down payment."

“By how much?”

She gave out a heavy sigh. “Sixty per cent.”

“When did they do that?” I asked, now getting rather irate, though not letting it show. This had happened to me before sure, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be peeved about it.

“This morning.”

“Do you know why?”

She simply looked over to the pair of guards who were stationed just outside the bar and looked disdain.

“They simply got impatient. Said it was taking to long. Insensitive pricks. We lost a lot of good stallions to that fucking Manticore.”

I let out a hum of agreement. The guards had always looked down at us like we’re somehow inferior to them. I’d like to see them do the things we do. Maybe then they’ll start to respect us.

“So that’s all you can give?”

“Hmm. Tell you what. Since your the best we have and you always bring in results, I'll give you a deal. I can give you some Griffon credits I've had for a while.”

As I was about to accept her offer, she held up her hand to silence me.

“But I can only give you half of what I have and it isn't much. Griffons only use their own currency after all. And I have to keep some for myself. ”

I gave out a long and winded sigh. I never liked getting down paid, though to be fair, nobody does. But at least Strike was willing to compensate and give me a payment closer to the original price. Even if it was in a different currency.

“Fine.”

I grabbed the bag as Strike put down another, slightly smaller in size than the last. Taking the credits, I looked up to her.
“Have you got any other bounties?”

“Nope. None. Gave out the last one’s I had to the black talon company. Come back tomorrow and I might have something then.”

And with that, I got up and with a nod, I left. Putting my rifle back on my back and putting this whole fiasco behind me.

Author's Note

There, the first chapter of my first story
If you by some random chance found and liked this, constructive critisism is massivly appreciated
hope you enjoyed
Edit: just a few grammatical corrections and a couple additions to make the chapter a better read (hopefully)