Dreams: Humanity

8: Cutie Mark Crusaders Animal Bait

"'The world is my garden, these people the weeds.' he said." The man smiled, nodding to the children seated in front of  him, twenty or so. "And so he set fire to the Earth, his wrath destroying everything it touched. When the fires were quelled, the survivors gazed upon the destruction in fear, but more so in curiosity. The creatures that emerged from the ruins were known as the Ashborn, the sons of Veraxus, god of nightmare.

One of the children raised their hands, a young boy with short brown hair. The light breeze that ran through the plains swept through his hair as he smiled. "Is that why you fall apart so easily?" The wind picked up as the children stood, one by one, blowing away like ash in the wind. The green grass of the plains wilted, dying before the man's eyes. The blue sky turned grey, dark grey clouds forming to cover it.

The man fell to his knees, his fantasy gone, and sighed. "Yes, Tommy. That's why I can't tell you that myself."

There was a thud behind him as a winged beast larger than a house hit the ground.

"Feeling sorry for yourself again?" It asked in a deep voice. The man turned, staring the creature dead in the eyes. It laughed, "If you want a garden, that should be easy enough to make, nephew." Nephilus, the most famous Ashborn general that was ascended to godhood after his successes in battle. "But there is no reason to feel sorry for the loss of a life, or a few of them. If they were weak enough to die--"

The man roared, slamming his fists into the ground. He was suddenly swept up in a grey cloud, before emerging as a drake half the size of Nephilus. "You did not fail them! You have never failed! What would you have me do, now that I have failed?!"

Nephilus grinned, nodding. "Make your garden, then. Save the lives of some bushes or something." Then he frowned, glaring at the man. "Or you could just cry over the teacher some more." The dragon roared, launching himself into the air. The drake could do nothing as the dragon disappeared on the horizon except roar and growl.

*--^--*

Vaelyn

Pumping my legs, I rushed through bushes, over roots, around trees. I tracked the unknown scents, a single thing clear about them: The fear. Only a child could feel such fear, and while I wanted to find Cian for back up, I couldn't risk their fear being warranted on the basis of their age.

And for the most part, their scents were fairly close together most of the way, until they split apart. The trio continued moving towards the clearing, but the pair veering to the left, as though to go around.

I moved forward, breaking into the clearing, but I was stopped dead in my tracks.

The clearing was littered with branches of all sizes, many of them broken. Leaves were blown about by strong winds, almost concealing the large tan animal that held a timberwolf pinned to the ground. The animal's body represented mostly a lion, the red tail coiled around the neck of another wolf, the scorpion's stinger embedded firmly in its chest. The creature's bat-like wings were spread wide, the wingspan larger than that of my drake's form, and as I watched the muscles which rippled beneath it's lithe form, I knew nothing that I could muster would be enough to face it in a fair fight.

So I played dirty. I pulled Grace from her home in my coat holster, aiming at the base of its tail. "How you fight with such... Grace." I laughed, distracting the beast long enough for it to release the timberwolf underneath its paw. I pulled the trigger, launching a single blue bullet into the red carapace of the creature's tail. From the entry wound flowed water, coating every millimeter of the surface of the tail before freezing into a thin layer of ice, hindering the movement of the creature. In surprise, it released the other timberwolf, who fell to the forest floor limply.

The remainder of the timberwolves rallied behind me, growling at the manticore as it shook its tail free of the ice, roaring. To my right I saw three fillies staring wide eyed with various expressions on their faces, though all of them had traces of fear in them. Protect them better than your own. I shouted at myself silently, willing myself forward as I charged the beast, rolling forward. In an explosion of grey smoke, I was obscured to the eyes of everyone around me. The manticore watched attentively, licking its lips as it waited for its would be meal to appear.

What emerged was a creature with scales black as night, wings rippling as they spread to their full length. The serpentine slits that were the beasts' eyes focused on the aggressor, which faltered in taking the first hit. I lunged at the manticore, grabbing the stinger that arced towards me and I pulled, tossing the creature into the air.

The manticore had never been bested in a fight, especially not by a creature it had never encountered. The thought of death terrified it, and it realized it had to run. Its eyes locked onto the orange pup and it grinned, deciding its meal would be to go.

I leaped into the air, intending to finish off the poor beast before it suffered, when a stinger met my throat, knocking me backwards to the ground. Within seconds I felt the manticore's poison flowing into my veins, searing pain following quickly. I lost the concentration required to hold the form and felt my human shape returning, the pain fading. Gonna have to deal with that later. One misconception of shapeshifting was that all forms felt the same pain and you could always use them. The truth of it was that each form was essentially a different body, and it was always constant. The poison wouldn't go away, it would start to take effect the moment I returned to the drake form.

Just one of those things I figure I should be mentioning.

I flipped onto my feet, quickly turning to charge the beast that would land at any moment when I heard a scream coming from the opposite direction.

I drew my sword, changing my spin to face that direction, when something small hit me, and I heard a scream.

"Sweetie Belle!" The voice cried in a young southern accent, then almost immediately after, "Scootaloo--oof!" I heard a thud, before I hit the ground, fluffy white projectile cradled in my arms. It was a filly with a purple and pink mane and a soft white coat. Her eyes were clenched shut and her teeth were gritted in pain, and she was holding a spot just above her left hind leg. I brushed her hooves aside and bit back a scream of frustration.

The reddish mark of a puncture wound obviously caused by the stinger glared at me.

"Mister!" I heard the voice again, "The manticore got ma friend, he's getting away! He's... getting... away..." She trailed off as she saw the mark on her friend. I laid her on the ground, ignoring her friend's pleas. "What's wrong with her? She's gonna be okay, right?"

I wasted no time in approaching the writhing filly. Nodding to her redheaded friend, I commanded, "Hold her down. This will hurt, but much less than letting the poison kill her." The farm filly nodded back, letting her hair fall over her eyes as she spread her friend's legs (Oh Christ this sounds wrong) for me. I found the wound and put my mouth to it, trying very hard to ignore her screams as I sucked the poison from the wound, to ignore my own urges to scream as the poison began to burn the insides of my mouth, the metallic taste of blood as it coated my tongue in its liquid ruby embrace.

I pulled away, spitting the fluids out of my mouth and jumping to my feet. The filly had stopped writhing, the poison gone from her body. I smirked and looked up at the forest, in the direction of the manticore. It had left a clear path, and even without that path, it made one mistake.

It was running from me and it had something I wanted.

Eden

I stepped outside, shielding my face as sunlight passed unfiltered into my waiting eyes. I heard a giggle from behind me as I stumbled, bracing myself on Twilight's back. I laughed as pain lanced through my shoulder, hoping to avoid an interrogation on account of my shoulder.

Persuasion failed. "Are you alright?" Twilight asked, looking up at me with concern. I nodded, giving her a weak smile. We started to move away from the safety of the tree slowly, I continued to hold Twilight, and I could tell we were getting looks from other ponies.

I was, specifically. Many of the looks were accusatory, obviously from ponies who knew what I was and what I had done against the two other humans that they knew. Well, knew more than me anyways. To my relief, many of the looks seemed more sympathetic or curious than anything else. Hope quelled in my heart like a campfire for a survivalist, and I was hoping to talk to some of the ponies and make it known that I was anything but hostile towards them.

That was when the cerise pony came running up to us, worry clear in her face. Her gaze drifted to me for a moment before her eyes rested on Twilight. "Twilight! Have you seen the girls? I heard them talking about the Everfree Forest and something about a building, and then I saw one of those 'humans' running into the forest near Fluttershy's cottage. Oh I hope they didn't go in there looking for something."

From Twilight's sigh, I felt this was a recurring matter. I smirked, looking over the mare. She had a pink and lighter pink colored mane and tail and grayish harlequin eyes that looked wiser than her years should show. The mark on her flank was three smiling sunflowers, implying that she was most likely a teacher from her worry over children and her intelligent aura. "If they went into the woods after either of those guys," I rolled my eyes, sighing, "then they're fine. Whatever those guys did to me, I can tell they aren't dicks. They won't let anything happen to a bunch of kids."

Well, if they notice. Neither of them are all that perceptive when it comes to people being nearby. I nodded. "Are you their teacher?"

She nodded, "Yes, my name is Cheerilee. I... I let them out for recess, and they must have slipped away. I can't imagine what could happen to those fillies if... oh sweet Celestia I hope they're okay." I wanted to tell her it would be okay, but their odds of survival if they weren't noticed by either of the humans were 23.66% repeating, from what I had heard lived in the cursed forest. So I stared in silence as the teacher began to cry, obviously not hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

That's when I heard the roar of a creature from somewhere in the woods. Well, getting peop-- ponies, I mean, to like me will have to wait.

Vaelyn

I tracked the manticore heading towards Ponyville with its quarry, for what purpose I couldn't determine other than to throw me off its trail. But it must have known I would be able to track it, animals just know that. It knew it was going to die unless it escaped me. I held in another scream as the poison burned in my throat, causing pain beyond what I had felt for a long time. It wouldn't kill me thanks to my superior shapeshifter immune system, but it would hurt pretty bad.

I found the beast not too far from Fluttershy's cottage with the orange pegasus filly (Scootaloo) in its mouth. It was shaking the poor pony around like a rag doll, eventually tossing her clear across the forest path into the open. She laid there, dazed as the lion headed monster approached her, salivating at the thought of her tender flesh in its maw.

It lunged, prepared to taste the sweet metallic taste of blood on its tongue. A metallic taste did find its way into its mouth, and it did begin to taste blood, but when it opened its eyes, they rested upon me, my sword holding the creature back as the sharpened steel sliced through its tongue and the sides of its mouth. It started to whine and attempt to pull away, but I was fast, and my revolver was pushed against its kneecap.

"Beg for Mercy." I growled to the wide eyed creature as my rough speech in its language hit it, and it almost got away. I fired a round from my red revolver, the flaming bullet lodging itself into the manticore's leg beginning to burn away the flesh and fur around the entry wound, slowly searing every trace of the manticore. It jumped away, tripping as its leg fell away from its body. It roared, the sound shifting into a whine as the thought of death set in.

I nodded to the filly staring in horror at us and growled, "these pups are under my protection, as is any pony from this town. Should you return, I will lay waste to your pack. I swear it on my blood and my blade." I made the ages old oath and nodded to the manticore. The message got across, and it retrieved the fallen leg before limping away.

I turned to tend to the filly who in turn leaped into my arms, sobbing silently into my coat. Unprepared, I could only stammer, "Y'okay?" She nodded, burrowing deeper into my coat. I stroked her purple mane as I slowly started walking away from the bloody scene.

When we were approaching the town and the approaching ponies and human, I heard Scootaloo murmur into my coat.

"What?"

"Don't tell my friends I cried. They'll think I'm a chicken." I laughed at the ridiculous statement, irritating her. "Hey! I'm serious. You're cool, you won't tell them, right?"

I stared into the filly's wide grayish purple eyes and smiled. "Fine, I promise. Don't do it again, though."

Then I looked back and saw Cian leaving the forest carrying Sweetie Belle, followed by the redhead and Fluttershy and swore. "Shit, I forgot about them."

"What does 'shit' mean?" Scootaloo asked curiously.

"It's what I'm gonna be in, probably."

"Oh. Okay."

We walked the rest of the way in silence, but never once did she let me go and never once did I stop smiling once I held her.