The Pandoran

The Pandoran

Chapter 5: Indestructible

Twilight stirred from her slumber and wiped a strand of drool from her mouth as Celestia’s sun rose from behind the mountains. She smacked her lips a bit, and, still half-asleep, she began to walk downstairs. Spike was already up and about, and had left breakfast on the table for her. She began to nibble on it slowly, smiling at the flavor of dandelions. As she ate, she went over the events of the past few days. First and foremost, the monster by the name of Evets had appeared and wounded her friend Fluttershy.

Secondly, she had begun research on how to deal with the creature, peacefully and, if necessary, in combat. She shuddered at the thought of fighting Evets, wondering briefly if it was even possible to best him in combat. She took another bite, now slightly more awake and calm. The book about diplomacy had helped her come up with several plans for convincing the human to change his ways, or at the very least get him to leave peacefully.

A loud belch from the main room of the library snapped Twilight fully awake, and she turned to see Spike walking into the room, holding a sealed letter bearing a seal she wasn’t familiar with. She grasped it with her magic, opening it and setting it on the table next to her. Her eyes scanned the contents as she took a sip from a glass of apple juice.

Twilight Sparkle, time is short, and Ponyville is no type of fort. A great beast comes from the trees, a monster born within the Everfree. He’s out for blood and nothing more, beware the advances of the evil Manticore! I must flee now, or my life will end,

Signed Zecora, a worried friend.

Twilight stared at the letter for a moment, her eyes wide in panic. A manticore was coming to Ponyville. They were dangerous creatures, and in most cases could not be reasoned with. She downed the rest of her breakfast in seconds and dashed out the door. There was only one pony she knew who could deal with an angry manticore. Her only worry was the homicidally deranged guard dog that had taken to following her.

******

Fluttershy looked around her cottage, trying to make sense of her situation. She distinctly remembered Gilda appearing, and recalled the griffon kneeing her in the face. She guessed that she had been knocked unconscious, but as she looked around she saw no signs of a struggle, let alone of a griffon attacking her animals. The cottage looked as neat and tidy as always, possibly even cleaner.

She pulled herself off of the cot she had been laying on, taking note of the bandages applied to her head as she trotted over to the kitchen. Angel bunny was sitting on his usual stool, mixing up a beautiful looking salad with a focused look on his face. Fluttershy gently cleared her throat, the noise as soft as a mouse’s whisper. Despite that, Angel caught the noise and spun around, looking directly at the yellow mare.

“Um, hello Angel. I was wondering if maybe you knew what happened to Gilda. Um, I mean,” She paused, looking at her feet for a moment, “I know she hurt me a bit, but I’m still a bit worried about her.” She looked up at the white rabbit, who made a flapping motion with his arms.

“Oh, so she flew away?” She looked carefully at Angel. He nodded. “That’s a little strange. Did she do anything before she left?” Angel shook his head. Fluttershy let out a soft sigh. She knew Gilda had been rude, and had potentially left her with a concussion, but Fluttershy just couldn’t let any creature just leave when it may be hungry or hurt; be they big or small, kind or violent, she just couldn’t let them face the world alone.

She took a bowl of salad with her to the living room of her cottage, thanked Angel for making it and sat down to eat. Before she could, however, she spotted a crack in the floorboards. It was a sizable mark, and she briefly wondered how she had missed it before crossing over to examine it closer.

The board had splintered near the middle, and had several red blotches on the wood. She ran a hoof over it, wondering what had happened. Her memories of last evening became clearer, and she turned to rush outside. Evets had come in just as she fell unconscious. What if he had gotten into a fight with Gilda? What if he was hurt, or she was hurt, or they both were hurt? What if one of them had killed the other? What would she do?

Fluttershy flung the door open, wings spread and ready to fly, and came face to face with a panicked Twilight Sparkle. The two ponies stared at each other for a moment, completely silent. Just outside the cottage, a single leaf fell from the tree.

Dead silence.

And then they both began to talk. At the same time.

“Fluttershy! Zecora sent me a letter warning me about a manticore heading towards town and I know you’ve talked down a manticore before so I came here to warn you and get you to help!”

“Twilight! Oh dear, it’s simply awful! Gilda broke into my house yesterday, and I sort of wound up unconscious, and now Evets seems to be missing and I need to find him because I’m worried that they might have fought and gotten hurt!”

Another moment of silence. In the kitchen, Angel had started to wash the dishes with the help of an eagle.

“Wait, what happened?” The two of them both spoke at the same time, ending with yet another uncomfortable silence.

******

Big. Really big. Hairy too.

Evets stared at the creature as it helped itself to the meat resting nearby the ashes of the night’s fire. It ate quickly, devouring the meat in large gulps. The pile disappeared in seconds, and then the pile of bones, and then the pile of feathers and flesh. It turned to him. Its eyes were dark, staring at him. His eyes were hidden; his mask stared the creature down.

He felt the rage, the bloodlust growing. Felt it gnawing deep inside. Something different this time though. He felt something strange with the bloodlust; a type of focus that had been missing before.

It growled and stepped forward. He saw the tail, like a scorpion. Definitely dangerous. No weapons this time, just his hands, his feet. Nothing but his fists and nails. He stared at the creature. He was steady and silent, a side effect of this strange rage.

Behind him came a soft yawn. He felt his blood chill as Pinkie slowly rose as yawned. The beast growled, stretched its claws out wide, ready to attack the sleepy prey. Evets decided not to wait any longer.

He charged, lunging towards the creature with open arms. It leapt forward, hoping to pin him. The two charged forward in what seemed like an eminent collision. He heard Pinkie scream as he crashed into a creature just as tall and twice as wide as he was.

He had faced worse odds before.

******

Fluttershy flew through the woods as fast as she could. She heard Pinkie’s scream and pushed on even harder, straining her wings as she hit speeds she normally would be to afraid to reach. Behind her ran Twilight, but the distance between the two grew wider with each second. The Pegasus crashed through a clearing, and gasped at the sight that awaited her.

A manticore, larger than the one she had met before, was clawing and biting at Evets, who was circling, dodging the creature’s every blow as he lashed out with his fists and nails. He was covered in fresh wounds, but as far as Fluttershy could tell he hadn’t been injured by the manticore. Not yet anyways.

There were no signs of Gilda, but Pinkie Pie was there, now trying to laugh the manticore away. That, or she had been spending too much time with Evets and she had finally snapped irreversibly. Fluttershy flew over to Pinkie, spotting tears in the pink mare’s eyes as she approached. She cast a glance over to Evets, who seemed to be holding up well against the manticore, keeping out of its range and throwing punch after punch at it.

“Pinkie! Are you alright?” Fluttershy said.

Pinkie grabbed onto Fluttershy’s shoulders and began to babble incoherently, but Fluttershy was able to make out the words, “Help,” “danger,” “manticore,” and “acidophilus,” the last one seeming completely random but the first three seeming to insist that Fluttershy intervene in the fight.

She turned towards the battle in progress and advanced slowly. She felt her knees quaking at the sight of these monstrous titans clashing, and she let out a nervous gulp as the manticore roared from another punch to the ribs. She held her ground several yards from the fight, and shut her eyes tight. She was worried, more worried than usual. As far as she could tell, there was no reason for the manticore to be so grumpy and mean, so it seemed unlikely that a peaceful solution could be found.

The only option left was The Stare, but she when she had used it on Evets it had frozen both of them in place until the stare had broken. She could use it on the Manticore, but there was no guarantee it would work, especially since it was completely enraged.

She stood silent for a moment, and then she furrowed her brow and opened her eyes, unleashing the full power of the stare towards the beast. It stopped and turned to face her, and once more Fluttershy’s eyes met with those of a violent animal’s. She held it and felt the creatures resolve begin to wane slightly. Evets stopped with the creature, looking at her and then back to the monster. He recognized The Stare, and didn’t seem willing to get locked into a battle with it now.

The manticore was beginning to tremble, its resolve nearly broken when a scream pierced the air and broke Fluttershy’s concentration. Twilight was staring wide-eyed at Evets, covered head to toe in wounds, and the giant manticore. It let out a roar, it’s fury fully returned, and charged towards Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus could only tremble at the sight of the gnashing violent teeth approaching her. She shut her eyes and braced herself as the manticore leapt.

******

It was charging. She didn’t succeed. Twilight had accidentally doomed everyone. No time to save Fluttershy, or Twilight, or even Pinkie. No chance of fighting it off, at least not without a weapon.

And yet Evets found himself charging as well. He leapt at the same moment as the monster, crashing into his boss and knocking both of them out of the beast’s lethal path. He spun about, coming face to face with it. He attacked once again, his hand open and raking across the beast’s eyes. It responded with a large paw to his ribs, sending him flying. His chest impacted a tree, and something left a gash along his side on the way down. Evets looked up to see the broken head of his axe, still embedded in the tree trunk. He grasped at it, the edge digging into his hand as the creature roared behind him. With a final pull, it came out, and turned around to face his enemy.

It had cornered Twilight, and Pinkie was shouting, either to distract it or simply out of panic and fear; He wasn’t quite sure, but he could see Fluttershy, launching kick after kick into the beast. It ignored the pain, advancing towards the purple unicorn who lashed out wildly with her magic, thought the effects were lost on the beast.

Evets ran, his legs carrying him quickly. The rage was pounding throughout his body, pushing his muscles harder than ever before. He swung the blade at the creature, gouging a chunk from the base of its tail. It roared, this time in pain as Evets continued to strike, each blow spilling blood and sending chunks of the carapace flying. It spun, bringing its claws around in a haymaker that Evets ducked under.

He brought the wedge into the creatures gut, tearing it across and ramming a fist into the open wound. Warm crimson wetness splashed upon him, and he ripped out an armful of guts as he jumped away from another strike. The creature was on all fours now, its tail useless and it’s stomach opened. Evets stood above his conquered foe, his mind blank save for thoughts of brutal violence. The creature stared up at him, as if expecting the final blow.

A final blow that never came. The world returned around the man; the ground covered in blood, the trees of the forest, and the trio that stood behind the monster. They were trembling in fear, fear of the brutal violence they had witnessed, and fear of what the psycho would do next. He looked into their eyes, and that strange feeling within him returned. That feeling that had risen with the rage and had seemingly vanished in the heat of battle had returned.

That focus; he realized it wasn’t on the enemy. It was on them. Pinkie at first, and when the stare failed it had been all three of them. He had been protecting them. He looked down at the creature, spotted it growling and crawling away. He watched it for a moment as it left a trail of blood on the grass behind it.

Evets turned away from it once again, his hand still gripping the blood-stained chunk of metal in his hand. Twilight was still trembling, and there was a thin streak of blood across her face, but Fluttershy and Pinkie seemed to have completely calmed down. The trotted over slowly towards Evets with sympathy in their eyes, and Pinkie even had a slight grin.

He went down to his knees and let the axe head fall to the ground. Fluttershy started to pat him on the back gently, whispering “Thank you for letting it go.” Pinkie simply hugged the man, her forelegs warm and fuzzy against his skin. Twilight slowly approached, still nervous and apprehensive.

“I’d like to thank you,” she said, “For helping to deal with the manticore, and I’m sorry that I endangered everyone. I must say that I am a little surprised you just let it go.” She stopped, and a panicked look crossed her face. “In a good way! I was surprised in a good way!”

Evets stayed dead silent. He wasn’t sure what was happening to him, or how or why, but at the very least he was dead certain of a few facts.

Fluttershy gave a damn good pat on the back, and Pinkie gave great hugs.

******

Deep within a cave in the Everfree forest, the beast sat. The cave she called home was still and quiet, save for the gentle stirrings of her child sleeping on the stone floor. She stared out the entrance to the cave, looking out into the sun, fighting off sleep. She had smelled it three moons ago, the scent of roasting meat on the wind. It reminded her of when she was young, long before she had grown to tower over all in her domain.

She had peeked out of her cave, and saw the smoke in the distance. In her mind, she had gone over the creatures she had seen that were capable of making fires and cooking meat, but of all the creatures she knew, none of them were known to live so close to her den.

The next night was quiet, peaceful, but the scent lingered. And then, in the moonlight of the next day, it had come again, the scent of burnt meat. She could smell that it was a different animal this time, a griffon as opposed to the unicorn that had been roasted before. It came from the woods, so close to her home.

Now she stood awake, staring into the sunlight, waiting for a sign of the predator moving. As she sat, a smell hit her nostrils. Fresh blood, with a very pungent odor. Something had killed a Manticore, or at least mortally wounded it. And it was close.

The creature within the cave let out a growl and lay on her belly, eyes locked on the solitary entrance to the cave. She would wait until nightfall. If this new foe came to her cave, she would end it then and there. If not, then she would depart with the moonlight, the first hunt in a long while.

Despite everything, the corners of her fanged mouth curled up in a wicked looking smile. She simply couldn’t wait for sundown.