//------------------------------// // A new world, hope rekindled // Story: The Tale of Solarin // by Huntermjiolnir //------------------------------// Chapter 1: a new world, hope rekindled. It was a beautiful afternoon in Ponyville, the birds were chirping, the sky was clear, and everything felt right. Fluttershy was enjoying the beautiful day with Rainbow Dash, they were wandering in the Everfree forest to search for some wild carrots that Fluttershy wanted, reluctant to go alone, the timid butter-yellow Pegasus had asked her rainbow-maned friend to join her. Little did the duo know they were going to encounter a strange being. Somewhere deep in Everfree forest Solarin awoke to find himself in a forest, standing himself up, Solarin brushed his jeans free of dirt, and looking around decided he was hungry, and started to wander south, searching for food. Little did Solarin know, he was being watched by a hungry manticore, that had seen him arrive, the creature was curious, but the hunger of the beast overpowered the curiosity. As Solarin walked through the forest, he kept looking around, racking his mind for any clue as to where he was, as he was walking he noticed something had changed in his mind, somehow, the portal had given him the knowledge of the language of the place he was now in,shrugging it off he continued walking, spotting a wild carrot patch, Solarin grinned and ran over to it, practically shoveling the carrots into his maw. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash kept heading north, following a path to where Fluttershy knew lay a patch of wild carrots, they stopped as they heard a crunching sound coming from the desired carrots, hiding in the bushed, they spied a strange creature, it stood on two legs, and was grabbing carrots with what looked like hands similar to Spike's but less sharp. The pair watched as the creature kept eating the carrots, when finally Rainbow asked Fluttershy a Question. “What in the name of Celestia's mane in that?!” The timid Pegasus replied in a voice barely above a whisper. “I don't know, i've never seen anything like it.” The pair continued watching the strange being. Solarin, had stopped eating and was getting ready to leave when he heard a loud snap behind him, turning around slowly, the human spotted what made the sound as it leaped out of the bushes at him. Solarin's eyes bulged as he ducked a razor-sharp claw swipe, and he recognized the beast. “A MANTICORE?! Oh dear lord, what kind of world did I land in.” Solarin thought as he backed away from the obviously hungry animal. Roaring with rage and hunger the manticore swiped at the human, catching him on the chest, and creating a series of three parallel gouges in the young man's torso, the power of the blow throwing him against a nearby tree. Leaping at the fallen human, the manticore prepared to bite down, when the human threw up his left arm right into the beast's mouth, the ponies in the bushes gasped as the manticore bite down hard breaking the humans arm, and the human opened his mouth in a silent scream of pain. Rearing back, then forward, the manticore let go of the arm as the human slammed into the tree trunk, knocking him unconscious, slowly relishing an easy kill, the manticore raised its right paw, sharp blood-stained claws preparing to strike the finishing blow. In the bushes Rainbow had seen enough. “We have to help him!” she yelled as she blasted out of the bushes aiming a kick that would make Applejack proud right into the manticore's jaw. Fluttershy whimpered in fear and watched her friend fearlessly kick the manticore, as it roared, trying to swat the annoying pony. Then Rainbow Dash started to fly in a circle around the beast, creating a rainbow colored vortex. Enraged, the manticore back-handed the Pegasus, to Fluttershy's horror, right into the tree with the human, Rainbow slumped as the impact knocked her unconscious, making a growling laugh, the creature raised its right paw again slowly, pleased with two kills instead of one. As Fluttershy watched in horror, something within her snapped, and a look of anger replaced the look of fear, as the animal lover rushed in front of the beast, giving it her infamous stare. “HOW DARE YOU! HURTING MY FRIEND, TRYING TO KILL AN INOCENT CREATURE! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!” The manticore recoiled as Fluttershy's stare bore into it's very soul. “YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST GO AROUND HURTING CREATURES! I DON'T THINK SO! Now you go back into the forest, and don't EVER let me catch you doing this again! YOU GOT THAT?!” The manticore, entranced and afraid from Fluttershy's stare meekly nodded, then dashed off, scorpion tail between it's legs. Sighing, Fluttershy walked over to her cyan Pegasus friend, and poked her. Groaning, Rainbow Dash got up. Looking around, Rainbow noticed the manticore was gone. “Did you give that thing the stare?!” The timid animal lover merely nodded, as she inspected the human's wounds. “We need to get this creature to my cottage, it's badly hurt. Please help me carry it, I mean, if that's okay with you.” “Yeah, we have to help this thing” Using their mouths they placed the human across their backs, using their wings to steady him, and walked and fast as they could towards Fluttershy's cottage. Minutes later, the pair arrived and Fluttershy paused as she gently opened her door, as the two walked in a white rabbit greeted them, then spotting the human, stared suspiciously at him. “Now, now angel bunny, this creature's hurt.” Sighing with relent, the bunny nodded, still glaring at the human. Walking over to the couch, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash gently rolled the human onto the couch. “What do we do?” Asked Rainbow. “Well, I'm going to start treating these wounds, why don't you get Twilight to see if she has a book that tells us what this creature is, I mean you're faster than me by far.” The timid Pegasus replies as she starts to take the creatures shirt off, and grab some dry cloth to patch the wounds. Rainbow nods. “I'll be back here in a flash! You can count on me!” Rainbow Dash blew out the front door, a faint rainbow trail follow after her. Twilight Sparkle was enjoying her day, having nothing t do, she had decided to read some more of the books in the library where she lived. Smiling, she closed the book she had just finished reading and had barely replaced it with her unicorn magic when there came a loud banging at her door. With a sigh, the lavender unicorn trotted downstairs and open her door only to see a frantic Rainbow. “Rainbow, why are you here?!” Twilight asked. “Fluttershy where in the forest, when we saw this strange creature get attacked by a manticore! It's hurt and at Fluttershy's house!” “Strange creature?” The unicorn asked with a somewhat skeptical tone. “YEAH! Fluttershy said to bring a book so we can identify it, and I think it might need a healing spell!” Twilight considered, then sighed and grabbed her saddle bags, using her magic she grabbed two books, one said Creatures of Everfree and the second, Healing magic and you. “Spike! You're coming with us!” The baby dragon poked his head out of the room above and saluted. “You got it Twi!” The baby dragon the leaped on the unicorn's back. “Lets go rainbow!” Twilight said as she ran after her cyan-colored Pegasus friend. Fluttershy was gently wrapping the human's left arm in cloth, having already reset the broken bone, she was making sure the human wouldn't use its arm for a while. About a minute after she had finished tying the last knot, there came a knock at her door, and she opened it to see her book-filly friend, and her dare devil Pegasus friend. “Where is this 'creature'?” Twilight asked, disbelief evident in her voice. Fluttershy moved aside, to show the injured human on her couch. Twilight’s jaw dropped. “Oh Sweet Celestia's mane! You weren't kidding!” “What is that thing?” Spike asked as he got a good look at the human. “I plan to find out!” moving further inside the cottage, she reached into her bag with magic and pulled out both books, and started searching. After hours of fruitless searching Twilight sparkle threw up her hooves in frustration. “UGH! There is no mention of this creature ANYWHERE in this book!” With a frustrated grunt, the unicorn shoved the offending book roughly into her bag. “Uhm, Twilight, could you use a healing spell on it, I mean, if you don't mind that is.” Asked Fluttershy. Sighing Twilight replied. “No I don't mind' She opened the book to a page with healing spells. ' I just hope this spell works on a different species, it might back-fire. But I'm willing to risk it in order to get some answers!” Standing up, the unicorn glanced at the healing spell on the page then started concentrating, a violet aura surrounding her horn. Grunting, she released more magical power into the spell, the two Pegasi and the dragon watched eagerly as the human was covered in the same violet aura. Slowly the healing magic took hold, then suddenly it sped up faster, and faster. Opening her eyes to gasps of astonishment, she watched the gashes on the human's chest heal in a matter of minutes, than winced as the bones in the creatures arm reset them selves in minutes instead of weeks. Grinning in satisfaction, Twilight tried to stop the spell only to find she couldn't. “Get down! It's going to misfire!” Indeed, the spell grew blindingly bright a the nearby windows started rattling, suddenly with an explosion of magic the spell misfired, causing a flash of violet light to beam into every corner of the room, spilling out the windows in a tidal wave of light. As suddenly as it came, it went, and the magic halted. Rubbing their eyes, the four friends gasped at what they saw. “Oh no! Princess Celestia's gonna banish me to the moon for this!” The rest of the friends just stared at the couch, jaws open, eyes wide as they took in the sight of the creature. On the couch, fully healed, where once a human lay, now lay a unicorn. His coat was a deep forest green, his mane a beautiful gold, and on his forehead a small, but magnificent horn. The unicorn even had a cutie mark, it was an open book, pages blowing in an invisible wind. Twilight gulped. “Spike, take a letter.” The dragon nodded, and started writing everything Twilight was saying.