//------------------------------//
// Chapter XI: Cat Tease 
// Story: A Soiled Universe 
// by Odlaw 
//------------------------------//





Twilight Sparkle nibbled at the ends of her fingernails anxiously. Spike was missing, and neither she nor any of the others could figure out where he had gone. Surprisingly, even Rainbow Dash appeared to be eager to find him, though that could easily be chalked up her trying to make Fluttershy feel better. Other than Twilight herself, Fluttershy seemed to be the most upset about his disappearance.

'He was right behind us before the rockslide! Where in Equestria could he be?!' 

The only clue any of them had been able to find was discovered by Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus had been the first to fly back up the hill in search of the dragon. When she came back down she carried the torn and charred remains of what looked to be Spike's clothes. She just stared at them, the beginnings of tears in her eyes, and likely feared that some monster had gotten him. Apparently, the scraps had just been lying on the ground, just before the point where the rockslide had occurred.

Twilight decided to inspect what was remaining of Spike's clothes for any clues as to what could have happened. Both his shorts and his shirt had been heavily damaged and yet, rather than rips or tears, most of the fabric appeared to have been burned away.

'Did he cause it himself?'

Then Twilight began to notice telltale patterns in the burn marks that she recognized. Twilight could remember seeing very similar burn patterns on some of her own clothes when she was first learning to teleport.

Whenever casting spells, the magic used tended to focus primarily on the caster themselves, rather than anything they happened to be wearing or holding at the time. Often, spells had to be very carefully practiced or even modified in order to expand their effects so that they could accommodate a user's possessions. It was amongst the many reasons Twilight really preferred practicing new spells at home. Twilight's cheeks flushed as she was suddenly reminded of one particular incident about a year ago.

It was the first time she had ever tried casting the teleportation spell. She had been about to complete it when a book fell from a shelf, it hit her on the head at a crucial time and completely threw off her concentration. The spell was cast wrong and while it did work, it didn't exactly take her the five feet she intended. She ended up teleporting right in the middle of the princess's bedroom...and her clothes were gone. To make matters even worse, the princess then chose that exact moment to emerge from her personal bathroom...wearing nothing but a simple white towel around her hair.

Even now Twilight could feel the immense embarrassment burning in her cheeks. At the time Twilight had feared that the princess was sure to banish her from Equestria or possibly even outright incinerate her on the spot. Amongst her rapid flustered apologies, she had found it strange how the princess seemed far more amused than surprised or violated. She hadn't even moved to cover herself in any way.

Deciding to quickly push the memory away before her face actually caught on fire, Twilight got back to the task at hand. If it was actually a spell of some kind, then who cast it, or better yet, what kind of spell had it been?! Twilight was positive that she hadn't accidentally fired off a spell in the panic and she highly doubted that Rarity was at fault.

Spike's Dragonfire, while fully capable of sending small objects to the princess, was far from capable of magic at this level. In the end, it came down to one possibility. Somepony or something else, other than their group, must have done it. But who?

They had already been searching the immediate area for what felt to Twilight like hours, though at this point she was having trouble keeping track. The moon was still in the center of the sky so it made it pretty difficult and none of them had a watch. She wanted to them to keep looking, but at the same time, they needed to find the elements soon. If they didn't, they could be too late to save the princess an the rest of Equestria. Twilight just hoped she would be able to use them properly...

"Alright, let's keep moving everypony, we still have to find the elements and stop Nightmare Moon," Twilight announces.

"B-but what about finding Spike?" Fluttershy says.

"If can find the elements, we should hopefully be able to use them to find out where he is or whatever happened to him," Twilight explains.

'I hope...'

"I'm going to have to agree with Twilight this time, darling. As much as I would like for us to be once again reunited with Spike, I am positive that a strong gentledrake like him will be perfectly alright." Rarity adds. "As it is, I'm feeling just a bit... vulnerable standing around in this forest clearing,"

Rarity glanced nervously around the valley clearing they were in, looking fairly uncomfortable about how exposed she was from the damage done to her own clothes.

"B-but....okay..." Fluttershy gives in, still hugging a piece of Spike's shirt in her arms.

Twilight felt horrible about potentially leaving Spike behind, but right now the entirety of Equestria was at stake. She would have to find some way to make it up to him later. With luck, he wouldn't be in any serious danger...






Fluttershy squirmed nervously as she followed behind the others as they traveled down what appeared to have once been a stone path through the forest. Applejack had managed to spot it as she was searching for Spike, and thankfully, they hadn't run into anything dangerous yet.

Fluttershy was used to caring for the multitude of different animal species that lived in and around her cottage, but the ones that inhabited this forest were a different matter altogether. Most of them were very territorial predators, fully capable of eating an entire pony whole. Fluttershy just wished she could be back home, snuggling up with Angel Bunny or maybe one of the stray cats around town.

"ROOAARR!" What sounded like huge a lion roaring almost made Fluttershy jump out of her skin.

*Thump!*

"A manticore!" Twilight exclaims as the hybrid creature leaps out from the nearby brush, landing in front of them.

Fluttershy looked up just in time to see the beast rearing up, baring its sharp claws at them menacingly. As it lets out another bellowing roar a shimmer of moonlight beneath its paw catches Fluttershy's eye. The large creature suddenly lept forwards taking a wide swipe at Twilight, which she just barely had been able to dodge. To everypony's surprise Rarity lept forward, and with a swift strike, punches the manticore directly in the center of his nose.

"Ha! Take that, you ruffian!" She exclaims, seeming somewhat surprised at the effectiveness of her blow.

Reached up with a paw, the manticore rubbed its nose, like an annoying itch. It roared again, directly at Rarity's face, sending globs of spit and saliva into her mane and face. Appearing more distressed about her hair than the manticore, she screams in horror, darting away while desperately trying to wipe the manticore's saliva from her mane.

"Wait!" Fluttershy tries to shout as Applejack prepares to attack, only for it to come out as more of a whisper.

With a strong leap, Applejack jumps up and onto the back of the angry manticore, who begins bucking and growling in an effort to shake the rodeo mare off.

"Yee Haww!" Applejack yells, holding her hat in one hand as she holds onto the mane of the manticore, the red shirt tied around her chest nearly coming loose from the violent rocking.

"Yea, yea! Go applejack Wooo!" Pinkie cheers from the sidelines, suddenly carrying a full bag of popcorn.

However, with one sudden flap of its wings, the manticore launches itself from the ground, doing a flip in the air and sending Applejack flying back to the ground. Rainbow Dash races up, catching Applejack and setting her down, and then racing up to face the beast.

"Wait!" Fluttershy cries again, though, through the commotion, none of them are able to hear her quiet voice.

Flying up to meet it in the air, Rainbow Dash begins rotating in quick circles around the manticore in an effort to confuse the creature. It seems to work as the winged lion lands back on the ground. Fluttershy notices the manticore's tail begin to rise, clearly preparing for a strike.

"Watch out!" Fluttershy shouts, just loud enough for Rainbow Dash to hear her.

"Huh?" 

Seeing an opportunity, the manticore swings down its tail, slamming it into the pegasus. The poisonous tip of its stinger just barely misses impaling her, piercing through the air just inches away. The blow sends Rainbow Dash tumbling to the ground before colliding with Applejack, leaving them both in a rather suggestive position on top of each other.

Twilight had just begun charging up some kind of spell to attack the manticore when Fluttershy finally has enough. As the manticore barrels towards Twilight leans her head down, her horn sparking and pulsating. Suddenly, Fluttershy leaps in between them at the last moment, forcing Twilight to turn her head as a beam of magical energy fires out of her horn, leaving singed a hole clean through a nearby tree. 

"Fluttershy?! What are you doing?! Get away from that thing!" She shouts.

Ignoring Twilight's warning, Fluttershy turns around, coming face to face with a very confused manticore. One paw was still raised off the ground, with sharp claws seemingly ready to strike.

"Show me your paw," Fluttershy commands.

Before her friend could get sliced, Rainbow Dash jumps back up, wings spread, as she prepares to dash in and grab Fluttershy before it was too late. But, to her and everypony else's amazement, the manticore seems to immediately calm down as it overturns it's front right paw, revealing a large thorn that was lodged inside. The manticore seemed to be scared of it, even coming to tears at the sight of it.

"Now, now, it's alright." Fluttershy consoles. "Now, this is going to hurt for a moment, but I promise you will feel so much better after!" Fluttershy assures through the manticore doesn't look very confident.

With a surprising burst of speed, the yellow pegasus yanks the thorn from its paw, the manticore howling in pain, raising its paws high into the air. But just as it appeared it was about to strike at Fluttershy in anger, instead of the manticore swept the pink mare off her feet and giving her a warm hug that could even rival Barry's. With a happy smile, it snuggles Fluttershy up against its chest, happily licking her mane in gratitude. Fluttershy giggles from the feeling as the others looked on with utterly dumbfounded expressions.

"Aww, you are just a big kitty cat aren't you? Yes, you are, yes you are!" Fluttershy coos.

"How did you...?" She hears Twilight trail off.

"Sometimes all you need is to show a little kindness," Fluttershy says, doing her best to try and return the manticore's hug. "You girls go on ahead, I'll catch up after I make sure this big kitty is alright."





Come on now!

Spike strained against his invisible bonds, but so far, he failed to make any meaningful progress. The magic Nightmare Moon cast over him felt like a series of cold chains had been wrapped tightly around his body and the more he struggled the tighter they got.

Suddenly he had an idea. It probably wouldn't work, but at this point, he was willing to try almost anything. Doing his best to angle his head down, he took as deep a breath as he could, filling his lungs with air. He could feel a familiar heat building up inside of him and then, all at once, he let out a large plume of green flames all across his body. The flames licking at his scales only felt a bit warm to him but it still felt weird practically setting himself on fire.

While at first, it appeared to have no effect, to his surprise, he began to feel the magical bonds around his body start to loosen. It felt as though they were melting right off of him. It was only a few moments before he was able to get up from the throne.

'Huh, didn't expect that to work nearly as well as it did.'

After making sure he was completely free, he decided to figure out exactly where he was now. Walking over to one of the many empty windows, he looked outside. He was, just as Spike had thought, inside the castle where they had been traveling to. The deteriorated structure stood behind a long curving ravine, with a broken rope bridge has been the only easy way across.

Along with the tower, they spotted from the hill, most of the castle was in ruin. Large holes had been punched at various points in the walls and various forms of plant life appeared to have long since overrun a majority of the structure. Unfortunately, if Nightmare Moon did know about the elements apparently hidden within it, there was a chance they were already too late.

Without being able to fly there didn't appear to be any actual way of leaving the castle grounds either. The ravine itself was also far too wide to try and jump across, and while he couldn't see to the bottom from here, it probably went pretty far down.

'Well, I guess I'm not getting out of here anytime soon...I suppose I should try looking for the elements. If she hasn't destroyed them, they could still be hidden somewhere within the castle.'

At the very least he didn't want to be around here in case Nightmare Moon returned. He had a feeling she wouldn't be too pleased if she came back to find him unrestrained...





"I know you really want me to stay for a little longer, but I really need to catch up with my friends, they might need my help," Fluttershy explains to the manticore, who looked very sad to have to let her go, his ears and wings drooping down.

The look sent daggers through Fluttershy's heart.

"I know you want to come with us but It's just too dangerous. You really need to give that wound some time to heal." She says.

Fluttershy had no idea manticores could be this affectionate. She regretted previously seeming them as just another monster of the everfree...she had an idea.

'Well...I suppose I could...'

Fluttershy bit her lip, taking a quick look over her shoulder to make sure the others weren't watching. They were now a pretty good distance up the path, though she did occasionally notice Rainbow Dash glancing back to make sure the manticore wasn't trying to eat her or something.

"Well...I suppose if you want to really t-thank me...you could maybe come visit my cottage sometime?" She suggests, pressing her hand up against the manticore's muscular chest.

The manticore seems to perk up at this idea and finally puts her back down on the ground, allowing Fluttershy to be able to straighten out her hair.

"T-thank you. Like I said, I really hope to see you again real soon..." Fluttershy says, waving to him before turning to catch up to the others.

As she walks away Fluttershy hears the manticore sigh sadly behind her, giving her an idea. Reaching down she takes hold of the hem of her hoodie which normally hung all the way down to her lower thighs. Fluttershy looks up one last time to make sure none of the others were watching, all the while making sure she had the manticore's attention. She slowly begins lifting her hoodie until she revealed her smooth round ass, butterfly cutie marks, and the thin, thong-like, panties she was wearing. Letting go of the hoodie, she raises her tail which holds up the back of her hoodie so that only the Manticore would have a glimpse of her little sneak peak. Glancing back, she sees the manticore's wings twitching, along with another appendage stirring beneath him, making her blush hotly.

'H-he's even b-bigger than Barry...'





Twilight looked back just in time to see Fluttershy finally catching up with the group. She seemed to be blushing but it was probably just due to her taking so long. Hopefully, she had convinced the manticore to leave them alone. Still, Twilight couldn't help but be impressed, she was the last mare Twilight had expected to confront a manticore.

And now, thanks to the trail Applejack found earlier, they were almost to the castle. She had just seen the top of one of the castle's towers just over some of the trees, however, it would appear they needed to pass through one of the densest and darkest parts of the forest...not to mention a river that ran right through it...



