For Sauron it was the most stupid decision ever done, how could someone even consider and do something like this when it’s destined to fail. Even his Orcs didn’t to so stupid things, and he expected more from his ‘companion’ then to just throw herself in his way, to rescue the manticore because apparently she thought he is going to kill the manticore. And she was right he was going to…

But now he had a little pink object right in front of him standing there with a frown and a little angry-scared face. The manticore was just looking at her from the back and growling at her and him, if not his appearance the manticore would strike immediately and kill the alicorn. Of course Sauron couldn’t allow such a tragedy to happen, and there were more than enough reasons for it.

Flurry Heart knew he will do something very bad to the manticore, and she did promise herself that as long as her eyes see any creature, pony, changeling, buffalo or any other being in need of help, from the dark and cold embrace of death. She is going to risk her life, so that the eyes of its family won’t see it die.

“I-I wo-won’t let y-you killi-it.” She said to him in a shaky voice filled with fear because she knew she was risking her life.

Sauron just looked at her and smiled behind his helmet, it was very funny for him to see a child with such a courage and spirit. If she was a Nazgûl she would be one of the most powerful one and maybe she would be close to match the Witch-King in his loyalty and ambition to serve. If only he could take her with him to Middle-Earth and corrupt her, she would be the best soldier girl ever–and probably first–in whole Mordor.

He had some ideas already how to use this young mind to his will, or just maybe to toy around for his own amusement here as long until he gets back to Mordor...

‘If I even get back ‘He thought to himself again thinking about how he actually even got here? All the Valars hated him, and Morgoth couldn’t save him because of his presence in the void.

But the thinking away for now he had other things in mind, and one of them was to find out what was the weakness of the manticore and how to avoid probably getting a fireball in the face, when she will try to defend the manticore from him. If this was a bandit or someone intelligent, then he would just use his ability to scare him.

But using his “Burning Eye” ability wouldn’t work for all the beast or creatures like this one and wasting it now would be terrific, because the Alicorn will flee in terror and with tears in her eyes and have a trauma for the rest of her life. The locals would also probably hunt him, and he would have to use force and brutality to get away from them.

‘Enough of the games’ He thought and was now approaching her and the manticore that immediately launched an attack on the Alicorn.

For Flurry Heart it was the most terrifying thing in her life since hearing Sauron speaking, she could hear a roar behind her and she turned to see the manticore flapping its wings, and with its paws stretched forward launches itself at her with all the force that it had in its legs.

The only thought that came to her mind was to cast a shield spell on her and just wait for something to happen. So she her horn begin to glow with energy and she concentrated to cast the shield on herself, and wait until the manticore will slam its body into it and hopefully not break the shield.

She closed her eyes and waited for the impact to throw her in her magic shield ball into the trees… But all she could feel was a clunk sound as if something, just hit metal and then a crack sound as if this thing broke, and it followed by a very loud roar of pain and pure agony.

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRHHH!

The impact never came, and with a slow hope that she won’t see blood or any other fluid on the ground, or maybe even on her shield bubble. She slowly opened her yes and her gaze met with one of the most unexpected and awesome, but at the same time very scary image. That could be painted over and over again and it would be a wonderful but very unrealistic sight.

Sauron was using his hand in a defense manner and the manticore tried to bite his hand off but his armor was very special, he himself designed it and no blade was supposed to cut it or damage his armor, and not force of a fist would do a mark on it. But there was just one sword that managed to cut his armor…

Thinking about how Isildur cut off his ring and then stole it from him quickly after it he got killed to lose it and Sauron had to waste so much time looking for it, it made him very angry and he had to release this anger by doing something. His subjects or one of many Mouths of Sauron used to use slave girls to release their bad emotions. Maybe he should do the same one time?

The manticore in its agony tried to use its claws and weight to somehow shook or push Sauron away, and to deal with its lost teeth and pain that was coming from the loss. However its tries ware pointless and had no impact on his posture or position.

‘If you want pain you will get it ’He said in thoughts and grabbed the incoming again paw of the manticore that had a simple quest to just hit him and somehow deliver pain or something other, but Sauron grabbed its paw in its way to hit him and the manticore of course tried to resist by flapping its wing and try to fly away somehow in hope the creature in blackest armor in whole of Equestria would let of her (and he didn’t know it’s a her) go.

But the resistance was nothing for Sauron he had far too much strength compared to this creature, if in middle earth he could take three to four cave trolls by just using his physical strength, then one manticore that has probably the strength of two maybe two and a half was not enough for it to take him down. But there was of course the dragon incident where he just picked him up while actually not knowing it, he wanted to throw him but didn’t take any action to pick this dragon up with his shadows.

He pulled the manticore towards himself, and the only thing he found out was that he had pulled so much strength into it that he slammed the manticore accidently into the ground. Not only making an insane shockwave and making and impressive mini earthquake, but also he almost killed the manticore that still for his biggest surprise, was still alive somehow!

The dust the wind and the force was enough for Flurry to put more strength into her shield, but it was pointless because the ground under her begin to crumble. And again she had to jump into the air and not accidently fall down one of the creator his might and strength had just done.

Flurry was terrified by the amount of strength he has pulled into his attack and what was worse the manticore… what happened to the manticore? Was it alive? Did she fail herself and her own promise? Did her duty that she is going to fulfill as the defender of everything that lives was lost? All the questions and different answers and that can be sad or terrifying and to you my reader surprise even positive.

Sauron took a few steps back from the manticore while looking at his hand as if just saw something very surprising or even impossible even for the Maiar to do. He looked at his hand for some time but then he decided to look around to find Flurry Heart, however he only saw a good amount of terrain and dirt in unnatural position. Cracks and trees with leafs and piles of broken branches ware laying around, he then reminded himself of something very important. Thanks to the cracks in the ground that wear the consequence of his very high physical strength.

The lair…

Probably because of his strength and power he killed the little manticores by burying them alive, or if this didn’t kill them then the amount of dirt and falling stones did crush their bones and organs. Which then only was followed by pain and internal bleeding. It’s not like he did regret his decision, but it wasn’t right what he was feeling.

Flurry Heart was however on the opposite of Sauron actually standing next to the manticore's lair, Flurry Heart managed to get undamaged by the shockwave and managed to softly land on the now much destroyed part of the “young” part of the forest.

She saw how Sauron looked at his hand and she didn’t know if he was just thinking that he overpowered and killed the manticore, or that he actually was terrified him by the “attack” he has just done. Trees and dirt were everywhere and the most scary thing of it all was that the manticore that attacked her because, Sauron did a wrong decision and decided to move, was now lying on the ground not moving or even breathing… or at least this is what she saw from the distance.

*Sniff* *Growl like sound*

She looked where the sound was coming from and it was coming from a hole in the ground, that was apparently the lair of the manticore. She wanted to look inside of it and see of the little manticores ware alright but then, a terrifying thought hit her. With ideas and images appearing in her head with very dead, and very unpleasant looked smashed under the rocks manticores.

She didn’t want to look but if the manticores there needed help or medical attention, or something even greater? She had to look there and make sure everything is alright. She had to check if Sauron didn’t… kill them.

The worst possible scenario she could imagine that death awaited her if she will look there, but she has promised herself that she will help and she will do it. But she feared that he will in a quick moment appear behind her and do something to her, and not to tell anyone what she just saw.

“N-No that’s just y-your imagi-nation Flurr’s he isn’t going to do something like this to you” she said with a shaky voice.

But she had funded the courage to look inside the lair and she approached it with all her hope, that nothing there is injured in a very bad way. And thank the sun nothing bad was actually in the lair, other than that smell of something like vomit but other than that everything was alright.

She let out a sigh when she saw the little manticores uninjured and sleeping still somehow even when the carnage around them should have woke them up. One of the manticores seemed to have nightmares or something bothering it in its sleep. The other two were cuddled together and left their brother in the cold dirt, but at the same time their brother was bigger than them so maybe he was big enough to not catch a cold or some other disease.

‘Do they ever catch a cold… I should have listened on aunt twilights lessons about th-‘her thoughts were cut off by a very similar to someone shadow, now blocking the sun to shine into the lair

She quickly turned around and saw that Sauron was standing right in front of her towering over her and looking into the lair, she had a terrified look on her face and she tried to stand up and somehow get him away from the lair. But she was too scared for some reason.

Maybe it was from the power he had shown during the 2 encounters? Maybe that he looked scary and evil as if he was some kind of Dark Lord from a book? Maybe because he had done so good and positive things for her while doing carnage and now… murdering a manticore?

RRRaaRhr

She looked where the sound was coming from and she couldn’t believe what she just saw, not even Celestia could do something like this or prevent a tragedy from happening while the subject would be in such a bad position. And Luna not even in the full moon in midnight couldn’t have enough force to save some pony and here a beast like this?

“Impossible…” she muttered to and she soon followed with a shaky tone "How?” she asked.

Sauron looked at her and for him something like this was no deal to do; especially when a soul is ready to go away into the blessed lands, he has the power to prevent it if it’s not too advanced. All he had to do was concentrate and use some magic to prevent the manticore to die .In this case this beast didn’t have a souls surprisingly to him, so his power instead of keeping and forcing the soul in the body had healed the body of the manticore.

He didn’t like that because in Arda all creatures had souls or something similar a spark of life or even a spirit that possessed or had given them life to exist but, here this creature had none of it other than pure biology. This was very troubling for Sauron because with every minute and second he was more and more sure that this isn’t a different continent he never heard about…

‘This maybe isn’t Arda’He thought and that made him angry

But the simplest answer to her question would be one of his titles; Sauron is called ‘The Necromancer’ for a reason. His skills combined with the sorcery of Mordor or Morgul magic are doing its job in keeping the order how he wants it.

Sauron had to answer the question so he had to gesture again what happened using his hands and only hands. So he kneeled down, of course Flurry took a step back and again had a surprised look. But Sauron just wanted to get to the city he could feel the barrier is near, and the only thing he needs now is to again defend this poor little alicorn from the monstrosity of this woods.

He pointed on his hand and from his hand he released some green like mist in a form of fire with sparks or lighting in it. Flurry Heart had a very shocked face and looked so cringy to look at her when he did it, if she was a lemon a LEMON in this moment she would have the most sorrow juice in the history of lemons. But Sauron took a thought arrow in the knee and he was reminded by something very uncomfortable.

‘She blushes when she sees me… the humans called a story a lemon when it ha-WHAT is wrong with me!’He thought when he was disgusted by the thought he had in his head

Because of his anger the clouds begin to turn a little grey and more of them formed in the sky .Of course Flurry Heart didn’t notice it but, even if she did she would have thought that it was nature playing with the skies while the pegasi didn’t get the clouds away.

Sauron however wanted to get to the city and he placed his hand again on the ground, while Flurry Heart looked at him and then again at the manticore that was now slowly standing on her legs. She couldn’t believe that he did actually save the manticore from dying, when he delivered so much pain into her that was unnatural and maybe Sauron wasn’t evil and didn’t mean this on purpose.

So she sat on his hand and Sauron slowly as before placed her on his helmet around his spikes indicating a crown of his. And he now was standing and waiting for Flurry Heart to tell in which direction he should go. He heard how she was moving because of her hooves hitting the metal on his helmet.

But at once she stopped and looked into the horizon looking for some light or a flicker indicating the barrier that the Crystal Heart created. But finally a pink light was found and she hit the helmet with all the force that he could hear where to turn. Sauron didn’t know for starters why did she do that, but he quickly oriented himself what this meant and he turned in this direction and when he turned she yelled

”OK YOU CAN GO!” She yelled with all of her force that she had in her lungs.

So Sauron begin to walk and leave this destroyed place alone, he had to meet with the parents of her tell them what stupid decision she did make, and then tell them he saved her two times and get as much help and support from this country as much as he can. Even if this means that the citizens of this country will starve .He needs to get home ,and if he has to he will again be annatar the gift bringer for them and deceive them and bind them to his will.

Flurry Heart on his head was now debating why did she so willingly and with no rebellious behavior said ‘no’ when he wanted to take her and place on his head when she saw what cold blooded person he is to deliver so much stress to her and so much pain to the manticore.

‘Why!?’She asked herself looking for answers and now with fear to what will happen to the guards that will be in his way.

She hoped that he did all this unwillingly and didn’t actually know that the manticore will be in such pain because, if he wanted to kill the manticore why did he save its alive anyway? What was the purpose of that, or did he just do it to earn her trust and to use her as a disguise to hide his true self? This was some ridiculous thinking but one question still was in Flurry Hearts head…

‘Why?’ she thought but the slowly more and more energy that the Crystal Heart emitted was now for her to be felled

---

Sauron could feel the barrier, this energy was very very near and the forest now was too young for his height so he had to sometimes crouch or even shrink ,and he didn’t want to do that he was uncomfortable with being small and also it took from him some stamina and mana. His reflex and speed also suffered because of it and he didn’t like the aftermath of it, he always had a little pain in the back or a headache when he did for a long time used his powers to be smaller.

While he was crouching or shrinking, and even jumping over some stupid fallen trees, Flurry Heart had to hug one of the spikes indicating a crown not to fall off and fall on her back, or even worse one of her sides not onlyto brake another wing but also not worsen the condition of the other one.

But what was worse than that, was that the forest was near its end and Sauron in a few moments will see the Capital and the farmers and traveling ponies.That will probably run for their lives and report that a monster is running around while having her as a captive, and he will probably want treasure among treasure.

For her the ponies especially the-non-crystal ones-ware overreacting sometimes, and when a no pony was crossing a town everyone was turning racist and called immediately this someNOTpony a monster just because it wasn’t a pony.

‘I wish I could teach th-‘She was cut off when Sauron in a rather surprise because Sauron begin to run.

Sauron was running and not because he ran for his life or to avoid another encounter, he was running because he saw the end of the forest he literally was seeing the trees end in a close distance and he really badly wanted to get out of this forest.

He didn’t care if he will destroy someone’s house or farm by running or jumping even out of the forest. All he cared about is to get out and find the Valardamn city, and have some time to rest. Maybe even fightsomeone because he had to let our some stress and not, in the way the husbands did in Middle-Earth while being drunk after a hard day of work.

And when he finally got out of the forest with a speed close to the water falling down the waterfalls… a city full made out of crystal met with his gaze, and with last breaths and open wide eyes he was sure like never before that if he had to choose between Minas-Tirith and this city made of crystal. Then he would choose this one. Cause once he wanted the ring and all his treasure, and power… now he wanted the city… he wanted this land…

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